Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genome-Wide and Cell-Specific Epigenetic Analysis Challenges the Role of Polycomb in Drosophila Spermatogenesis

The Drosophila spermatogenesis cell differentiation pathway involves the activation of a large set of genes in primary spermatocytes. Most of these genes are activated by testis-specific TATA-binding protein associated factors (tTAFs). In the current model for the activation mechanism, Polycomb plays a key role silencing these genes in the germline precursors, and tTAF-dependent activation in primary spermatocytes involves the displacement of Polycomb from gene promoters. We investigated the genome-wide binding of Polycomb in wild type and tTAF mutant testes. According to the model we expected to see a clear enhancement in Polycomb binding at tTAF-dependent spermatogenesis genes in tTAF mutant testes. However, we find little evidence for such an enhancement in tTAF mutant testes compared to wild type. To avoid problems arising from cellular heterogeneity in whole testis analysis, we further tested the model by analysing Polycomb binding in purified germline precursors, representing cells before tTAF-dependent gene activation. Although we find Polycomb associated with its canonical targets, we find little or no evidence of Polycomb at spermatogenesis genes. The lack of Polycomb at tTAF-dependent spermatogenesis genes in precursor cells argues against a model where Polycomb displacement is the mechanism of spermatogenesis gene activation.
A Web-Based Delphi Study for Eliciting Helpful Criteria in the Positive Diagnosis of Hemophagocytic Syndrome in Adult Patients

The diagnosis of the reactive form of hemophagocytic syndrome in adults remains particularly difficult since none of the clinical or laboratory manifestations are specific. We undertook a study in order to elicit which features constitute helpful criteria for a positive diagnosis. In this Delphi study, the features investigated in the questionnaire and the experts invited to participate in the survey were issued from a bibliographic search. The questionnaire was iteratively proposed to experts via a web-based application with a feedback of the results observed at the preceding Delphi round. Experts were asked to label each investigated criterion in one of the following categories: absolutely required, important, of minor interest, or not assessable in the routine practice environment. A positive consensus was a priori defined as at least 75% answers observed in the categories absolutely required and important. The questionnaire investigated 26 criteria and 24 experts originating from 13 countries participated in the second and final Delphi round. A positive consensus was reached for the nine following criteria: unilineage cytopenia, bicytopenia, pancytopenia, presence of hemophagocytosis pictures on a bone marrow aspirate or on a tissue biopsy, high ferritin level, fever, organomegaly, presence of a predisposing underlying disease, and high level of lactate dehydrogenase. A negative consensus was reached for 13 criteria, and an absence of consensus was observed for 4 criteria. The study constitutes the first initiative to date for defining international guidelines devoted to the positive diagnosis of the reactive form of hemophagocytic syndrome.
Strategies for Resisting Eating Disorders Over the Life Course—A Mother-Daughter Case Analysis

This mother-daughter instrumental case study was selected from a data set of in-depth mother-daughter interviews conducted among Jewish American women for the insights it reveals. Thematic analysis was used to identify major family themes and strategies. Both mother and daughter reported on the historical and cultural setting, the efficacy of methods of treatment, the cross-generational transmission of eating disorders (ED), disordered eating behaviors and body dissatisfaction, genetics, family environment and non-shared personal experiences, and the strategies they developed to resist eating disorders and body dissatisfaction in their parenting of their own daughters. The life stories described by both mother (aged 67) and the daughter (aged 41) span over four generations. Six themes were identified in the mother's narrative and four in the daughter's, highlighting strategies for resisting ED and body dissatisfaction.
Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity

We describe the development and validation of a new instrument, KEYS: Assessing the Climate for Creativity, designed to assess perceived stimulants and obstacles to creativity in organizational work environments. The KEYS scales have acceptable factor structures, internal consistencies, test-retest reliabilities, and preliminary convergent and discriminant validity. A construct validity study shows that perceived work environments, as assessed by the KEYS scales, discriminate between high-creativity projects and low-creativity projects; certain scales discriminate more strongly and consistently than others. We discuss the utility of this tool for research and practice.
Design of Platform Business Model in Public Sector: Role & Responsibility for Governance

Platform business models as AppStore, SNS (social network service) and online marketplace are creating new markets and providing opportunities to dominate. And they are considered as a blueprint for future business. Trying to create or enter a new business area, the more interested companies and consumers can be induced to minimize the risk. Platform could maximize the profitability of private companies, as well as provide various improved citizen services with minimum cost in public sector. Platform's ability to link multiple public agencies are capable of keystone. Therefore, designing the platform service model in public sector, setting an R&R (role and responsibility) of each related agency for platform governance to be considered in the perspective of national innovation system (NIS, National Innovation System).
Differentiation of Mesenchymal Stem Cells Transplanted to a Rabbit Degenerative Disc Model: Potential and Limitations for Stem Cell Therapy in Disc Regeneration

Study Design. An in vivo study to assess the differentiation status of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) transplanted to the nucleus pulposus of degenerative discs in a rabbit model. Objectives. To evaluate the fate of MSCs transplanted to the nucleus pulposus of degenerative discs in a rabbit and to determine whether they are a suitable alternative for cell transplantation therapy for disc degeneration. Summary of Background Data. Although MSCs have been proposed as candidate donor cells for transplantation to treat intervertebral disc degeneration, their differentiation after transplantation has not been adequately investigated. Methods. Autologous MSCs, labeled with green fluorescent protein, were transplanted into mature rabbits. Consecutive counts of transplanted MSCs in the nucleus area were performed for 48 weeks after transplantation. Differentiation of transplanted cells was determined by immunohistochemical analysis. The proteoglycan content of discs was measured quantitatively using a dimethylmethylene blue assay, and mRNA expression of Type I and II collagen, aggrecan and versican was measured semi-quantitatively using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Results. Many cells that were positive for green fluorescent protein were observed in the nucleus pulposus of cell-transplanted rabbit discs 2 weeks after transplantation. Their number increased significantly by 48 weeks. Some GFP-positive cells were positive for cell-associated matrix molecules, such as Type II collagen, keratan sulfate, chondroitin sulfate, aggrecan, and the nucleus pulposus phenotypic markers, hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha, glutamine transporter 1, and matrix metalloproteinase 2. MSCs did not show significant expression of these molecules before transplantation. Biochemical and gene expression analyses showed significant restoration of total proteoglycan content and matrix-related genes compared with nontransplanted discs. Conclusions. MSCs transplanted to degenerative discs in rabbits proliferated and differentiated into cells expressing some of the major phenotypic characteristics of nucleus pulposus cells, suggesting that these MSCs may have undergone site-dependent differentiation. Further studies are needed to evaluate their functional role.
Whistle While You Work

Life satisfaction is a key indicator of subjective well-being. This article is a review of the multidisciplinary literature on the relationship between life satisfaction and the work domain. A discussion of top-down and bottom-up theories of life satisfaction is included, and the literatures on work-related antecedents of life satisfaction, the proximal mediators (quality of work life, quality of nonwork life, and feelings of self-worth), and consequences of life satisfaction were reviewed. A meta-analysis of life satisfaction with respect to career satisfaction, job performance, turnover intentions, and organizational commitment was performed. Each major section of the article concludes with a future opportunities subsection where gaps in the research are discussed.
Prevalence and Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Patientwith Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) in Black Lion Specialized Hospital andSaint PauloÃ¢ÂÂs Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:Cross Sectional Study

Background: Depression is the second most debilitating and economically costly illness worldwide. It is the most common psychiatric illness in patients with chronic kidney. Untreated depression in this patient affects treatment and lead to poor prognosis of Chronic Kidney Disease. Cross sectional study was conducted to assess magnitude and factors associated depression among patients with chronic Kidney disease in Black Lion Specialized Hospital and St. Paulo’s Hospital Millennium Medical College, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on May – June, 2015. A total of 479 patients who had follow up at renal unit in both institutions were recruited to assess depression and its associated correlates. Depression was assessed through face to face interviews by trained psychiatry nurses using the nine item patient health questionnaires (PHQ9). Correlates for depression were assessed using a structured questionnaire and Oslo social support scale. Results: The magnitude of depression among patients with chronic renal disease was 29.4% (95% CI: 25.1, 33.8). When we adjusted for the effect of potential confounding variables, being female [AOR=2.79, 95% CI: 1.78, 4.37)], age ≥ 60 years [AOR=4.17, (95% CI: 2.03, 8.57)], being unmarried [AOR=1.79, (95% CI: 1.12, 2.85)], having no formal education [AOR=2.75, (95% CI: 1.54, 4.89)], Living alone [AOR=1.85, (95% CI: 1.16, 2.94)], co-morbid hypertension [AOR=2.49, (95% CI: 1.48, 4.20)], co-morbid diabetes mellitus (AOR=4.07, (95% CI: 2.45, 6.74)] and poor social support (AOR=1.81, (95% CI: 1.02, 3.19)] were more likely to have depression as compared to their counter parts. Conclusion: Magnitude of depression among CKD patients was high. Being female, age ≥ 60 years, co-morbid chronic illness (hypertension, diabetics), living alone and poor social support were significantly associated with depression. Developing guidelines and training of health workers who are working in renal unit is beneficial to screen and treat depression among patients with chronic renal diseases.
A value‐based paradigm for creating truly healthy organizations

This paper proposes a set of universal values, drawn from the world’s major religions, which are the basis for creating healthy organizations. These values are argued to be essential to enable both economic and spiritual ideals to thrive and to grow in modern organizations. In addition to articulating these values we propose a set of supporting activities which are necessary to foster these values. The paper is intended to shape and to guide the aspirations of organizations, their leaders and their members – to help them to identify and to articulate desirable values and behaviors rather than reflect currently realized organizational norms.
Shades of Joy: Patterns of Appraisal Differentiating Pleasant Emotions

Abstract Pleasant experience appears to be less emotionally differentiated than unpleasant experience. For instance, theories of emotion typically posit the existence of six or seven unpleasant emotions but often posit only one or two pleasant emotions. The present study is an attempt to systematically examine the differentiation of pleasant emotional experience. Subjects were asked to recall pleasant experiences that were associated with particular situational appraisals—appraisals of effort, agency, and certainty were systematically manipulated—and to describe their appraisals and emotions during these experiences. The results indicated that positive emotions, and their associated appraisals, are somewhat less differentiated than negative emotions, but nonetheless provided evidence of considerable differentiation among six pleasantly toned emotions (interest, hope/confidence, challenge, tranquillity, playfulness, and love). Each of these latter emotions was experienced differentially across the appraisa.
Awareness about autism among school teachers in Oman: A cross-sectional study

Children with special needs such as those with autism spectrum disorder have been recorded as ostracized and stigmatized in many parts of the world. Little is known about whether such negative views are present among mainstream teachers in Oman. A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate school teachers’ awareness about autism spectrum disorder in an urban region in Oman. A total of 164 teachers were randomly enrolled from five schools. Misconceptions about autism spectrum disorder were found to be common among mainstream teachers in the country. We posit that such lack of awareness was likely to be rooted with sociocultural patterning as well as conflicting views often “spun” by the scientific community and mass media. Enlightened views toward children with autism spectrum disorder should be presented to Omani teachers to overcome misconceptions and negative attitudes toward children with autism spectrum disorder.
Analyzing the Attitude of Undergraduate Students Toward Poverty and Impoverished Persons: Does Social Work Education Make a Difference?

This study evaluated the impact that undergraduate social work education had on students' attitude toward poverty as pretest and posttest data were collected from 166 university students enrolled in an undergraduate social work course that included a focus on poverty. At both stages of the study participants responded to a 37-item validated instrument designed to measure attitudes toward poverty and impoverished persons. The authors' analyses indicated that the participants demonstrated a significantly more structural attitude toward poverty and impoverished persons at the posttest stage, suggesting that social work education influences students' poverty-related attitudes. The implications for social work practice are discussed.
MCMC for Doubly-intractable Distributions

Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms are routinely used to draw samples from distributions with intractable normalization constants. However, standard MCMC algorithms do not apply to doubly-intractable distributions in which there are additional parameter-dependent normalization terms; for example, the posterior over parameters of an undirected graphical model. An ingenious auxiliary-variable scheme (Moller et al., 2004) offers a solution: exact sampling (Propp and Wilson, 1996) is used to sample from a Metropolis-Hastings proposal for which the acceptance probability is tractable. Unfortunately the acceptance probability of these expensive updates can be low. This paper provides a generalization of M0ller et al. (2004) and a new MCMC algorithm, which obtains better acceptance probabilities for the same amount of exact sampling, and removes the need to estimate model parameters before sampling begins.
Funding Advantage and Market Discipline in the Canadian Banking Sector

We employ a comprehensive data set and a variety of methods to provide evidence on the magnitude of large banks’ funding advantage in Canada in addition to the extent to which market discipline exists across different securities issued by the Canadian banks. The banking sector in Canada provides a unique setting in which to examine market discipline along with the prospects of proposed reforms because Canada has no history of government bailouts, and an implicit government guarantee has been in effect consistently since the 1920s. We find that large banks have a funding advantage over small banks after controlling for bank-specific and market risk factors. Large banks on average pay 80 basis points and 70 basis points less, respectively, on their deposits and subordinated debt. Working with hand-collected market data on debt issues by large banks, we also find that market discipline exists for subordinated debt and not for senior debt.
Leaders who care – the chief executives' view of leadership in social enterprises: natural aptitude versus learning and development

The author examines what factors determine leadership success in UK social enterprises. Despite the attention prompted by the UK government's ‘Big Society’ policies, this remains a relatively unexplored field in the leadership literature. Based on in-depth interviews with successful social enterprise chief executives, carried out between April and December 2010, this article challenges the dominance of competency models, based on purely behaviourist tradition. It examines the impact of personality, values, circumstance and career arc on the way these leaders perform in an attempt to take a fresh look at the interaction of traits, behaviours and situational flexibility in determining successful leadership in this type of organization. A number of key factors are identified and categorized as dimensions of ‘being’, ‘doing’ and ‘style’. Consistent contra-indicators are also identified, providing the basis for an approach to both leadership selection and development in this growing sector of the economy.
Role of spatial inhomogenity in GPCR dimerisation predicted by receptor association–diffusion models

G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) association is an emerging paradigm with far reaching implications in the regulation of signalling pathways and therapeutic interventions. Recent super resolution microscopy studies have revealed that receptor dimer steady state exhibits sub-second dynamics. In particular the GPCRs, muscarinic acetylcholine receptor M1 (M1MR) and formyl peptide receptor (FPR), have been demonstrated to exhibit a fast association/dissociation kinetics, independent of ligand binding. In this work, we have developed a spatial kinetic Monte Carlo model to investigate receptor homo-dimerisation at a single receptor resolution. Experimentally measured association/dissociation kinetic parameters and diffusion coefficients were used as inputs to the model. To test the effect of membrane spatial heterogeneity on the simulated steady state, simulations were compared to experimental statistics of dimerisation. In the simplest case the receptors are assumed to be diffusing in a spatially homogeneous environment, while spatial heterogeneity is modelled to result from crowding, membrane micro-domains and cytoskeletal compartmentalisation or ‘corrals’. We show that a simple association–diffusion model is sufficient to reproduce M1MR association statistics, but fails to reproduce FPR statistics despite comparable kinetic constants. A parameter sensitivity analysis is required to reproduce the association statistics of FPR. The model reveals the complex interplay between cytoskeletal components and their influence on receptor association kinetics within the features of the membrane landscape. These results constitute an important step towards understanding the factors modulating GPCR organisation.
Does Short-Term Exposure to Mobile Phone Base Station Signals Increase Symptoms in Individuals Who Report Sensitivity to Electromagnetic Fields? A Double-Blind Randomized Provocation Study

Background Individuals with idiopathic environmental illness with attribution to electromagnetic fields (IEI-EMF) believe they suffer negative health effects when exposed to electromagnetic fields from everyday objects such as mobile phone base stations. Objectives This study used both open provocation and double-blind tests to determine if sensitive and control individuals experience more negative health effects when exposed to base station-like signals compared with sham. Methods Fifty-six self-reported sensitive and 120 control participants were tested in an open provocation test. Of these, 12 sensitive and 6 controls withdrew after the first session. The remainder completed a series of double-blind tests. Subjective measures of well-being and symptoms as well as physiological measures of blood volume pulse, heart rate, and skin conductance were obtained. Results During the open provocation, sensitive individuals reported lower levels of well-being in both the global system for mobile communication (GSM) and universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) compared with sham exposure, whereas controls reported more symptoms during the UMTS exposure. During double-blind tests the GSM signal did not have any effect on either group. Sensitive participants did report elevated levels of arousal during the UMTS condition, whereas the number or severity of symptoms experienced did not increase. Physiological measures did not differ across the three exposure conditions for either group. Conclusions Short-term exposure to a typical GSM base station-like signal did not affect well-being or physiological functions in sensitive or control individuals. Sensitive individuals reported elevated levels of arousal when exposed to a UMTS signal. Further analysis, however, indicated that this difference was likely to be due to the effect of order of exposure rather than the exposure itself.
Lopinavir/ritonavir monotherapy or plus zidovudine and lamivudine in antiretroviral-naive HIV-infected patients

Background:Guidelines for the use of antiretroviral agents for HIV-1 infection recommend combining at least three agents. The toxicity, cost, and complexity of such regimens warrant the search for other options. Methods:MONARK is a prospective, open-label, randomized, 96-week trial comparing the safety and efficacy of lopinavir/ritonavir monotherapy with a standard lopinavir/ritonavir plus zidovudine and lamivudine regimen as an initial treatment regimen in HIV-infected patients with HIV-RNA levels less than 100 000 copies/ml. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with HIV-1-RNA levels below 400 copies/ml at week 24 and below 50 copies/ml at week 48. Results:Eight-three and 53 patients were randomly assigned and exposed in the monotherapy and triple-drug groups, respectively. At week 48, by an intent-to-treat analysis, 53 of 83 patients (64%) in the monotherapy group and 40 of 53 patients (75%) in the triple-drug group achieved the primary endpoint (P = 0.19). The on-treatment analysis indicates that 80 and 95% of patients reached the primary endpoint in the monotherapy and triple-drug groups, respectively (P = 0.02). In the monotherapy arm, protease inhibitor-associated resistance mutations were seen in three of the 21 patients qualifying for genotypic resistance testing, with a modest impact on lopinavir susceptibility. None of the serious reported adverse events were considered to be related to study treatment. Conclusion:Our results suggest that lopinavir/ritonavir monotherapy demonstrates lower rates of virological suppression when compared with lopinavir/ritonavir triple therapy and therefore should not be considered as a preferred treatment option for widespread use in antiretroviral-naive patients.