Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preexposure chemoprophylaxis for HIV prevention in men who have sex with men.

BACKGROUND Antiretroviral chemoprophylaxis before exposure is a promising approach for the prevention of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquisition. METHODS We randomly assigned 2499 HIV-seronegative men or transgender women who have sex with men to receive a combination of two oral antiretroviral drugs, emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (FTC-TDF), or placebo once daily. All subjects received HIV testing, risk-reduction counseling, condoms, and management of sexually transmitted infections. RESULTS The study subjects were followed for 3324 person-years (median, 1.2 years; maximum, 2.8 years). Of these subjects, 10 were found to have been infected with HIV at enrollment, and 100 became infected during follow-up (36 in the FTC-TDF group and 64 in the placebo group), indicating a 44% reduction in the incidence of HIV (95% confidence interval, 15 to 63; P=0.005). In the FTC-TDF group, the study drug was detected in 22 of 43 of seronegative subjects (51%) and in 3 of 34 HIV-infected subjects (9%) (P<0.001). Nausea was reported more frequently during the first 4 weeks in the FTC-TDF group than in the placebo group (P<0.001). The two groups had similar rates of serious adverse events (P=0.57). CONCLUSIONS Oral FTC-TDF provided protection against the acquisition of HIV infection among the subjects. Detectable blood levels strongly correlated with the prophylactic effect. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00458393.).
Parent and child perspectives on mothering and fathering: the influence of ecocultural niches

This mixed-methods study examined differences in parent involvement, perceptions, practices, and context by parent gender, nationality, and education level. Mothers, fathers, and their school-age children participated at two sites: the Midwestern USA (n = 99) and urban Central Taiwan (n = 100). Parents completed questionnaires regarding their parenting context, perceptions, and involvement practices. Children completed a parenting dimensions measure and a qualitative semi-structured interview. Findings revealed differences in mothering and fathering across nearly all beliefs and involvement activities, as well as differences in parenting stress and use of social support. There were broad differences by nationality in parent beliefs and involvement. Differences by parent education level suggest that parents with a low level of education are less involved and have lower levels of motivation for involvement. Responses from child interviews clarified some of these differences and identified children's unique perspectives regarding parent involvement. These findings suggest that fathers and mothers support children's development in unique and complementary ways, but that parenting is embedded within ecocultural niches which are impacted by the cultural and socioeconomic context.
SPARC, a matricellular protein that functions in cellular differentiation and tissue response to injury.

Expressed during many stages of development in a variety of organisms, the matricellular protein SPARC (secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine, also known as osteonectin or BM-40) is restricted in adult vertebrates primarily to tissues that undergo consistent turnover or to sites of injury and disease (1). The capacity of SPARC to bind to several resident proteins of the ECM, to modulate growth factor efficacy, to affect the expression of matrix metalloproteinases, and to alter cell shape as a counteradhesive factor, supports the idea that SPARC acts to regulate cell interaction with the extracellular milieu during development and in response to injury (Figure ​(Figure1;1; see also ref. 1). SPARC is a member of a gene family whose members share structural similarities in one or more protein domains (1). In addition to the numerous studies in cultured cells, the function of SPARC in vivo has been examined primarily in three evolutionarily diverse organisms — Caenorhabditis elegans, Xenopus laevis, and mice. These systems have been used to study the effects of increased or inappropriate SPARC expression, as well as diminished activity resulting from the inactivation of SPARC mRNA, the blocking of protein activity, or mutation of the SPARC gene (Table ​(Table1). 1). This Perspective will integrate results from studies in vitro with findings in vivo in an attempt to clarify the current information and to propose functions for SPARC in living tissues.
[Dexmedetomidine for neurocognitive testing in awake craniotomy: case report.].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Tumor resections in the speech areas of the brain are more safely done using cognitive tests to determine their exact location. Patients must be awake, comfortable, and cooperative for the precise identification of the areas to be preserved. The objective of this report is to present a surgical procedure done with the patient awake, without endotracheal intubation, using sevofluorane initially, followed by dexmedetomidine. This technique allowed the realization of motor and speech evaluation tests. CASE REPORT Twenty-seven years old male patient, physical status ASA I, with a brain tumor. In the operating room, without pre-anesthetic medication, midazolam (1 mg) was administered, and general anesthesia was induced with propofol (80 mg). Maintenance was done with O2, N2O, and sevofluorane, with a mask, for catheterization of the right radial artery, introduction of a vesical catheter, and infiltration of the surgical site. This phase lasted around 20 minutes, and the infusion of dexmedetomidine was initiated in the last 10 minutes to maintain a level of sedation Ramsay score 2. Cortical mapping followed (75 minutes). Afterwards, tumor resection was done while the patient remained sedated with higher doses of dexmedetomidine. Hemodynamic and respiratory parameters remained stable, and the procedure was performed without complications, lasting a total of five hours. After the surgical procedure the patient was transferred to the ICU. He did not develop any neurological changes, being discharged to a regular ward the following day. CONCLUSIONS Awake craniotomy with the proper mapping of speech and motor cortical areas was successfully done with the continuous infusion of dexmedetomidine. Both the patient and the surgical team were pleased with the technique.
Statistical learning control of delay systems: theory and algorithms

Recently, probabilistic methods and statistical learning theory have been shown to provide approximate solutions to "difficult" control problems. Unfortunately, the number of samples required in order to guarantee stringent performance levels may be prohibitively large. In this paper, using recent results by the authors, a more efficient statistical algorithm is presented. Using this algorithm we design static output controllers for a nonlinear plant with uncertain delay.
Accounting for the Differential Attainment of Boys and Girls at School

This article considers a variety of recent research projects attempting to explain the differences in examination outcomes between boys and girls, and describes some of the policies that have been introduced to overcome the 'problem'. When viewed in the light of recent findings that change the accepted picture of what, and where, these gender gaps in attainment actually are, the article discovers that there are, as yet, no totally convincing explanations of the phenomenon, and therefore little hope of an effective strategy to deal with it. This conclusion has important implications for the conduct of research, and for the links between research and evidence-based policy, and therefore for school leaders and managers.
Mutagenesis-Mediated Decrease of Pathogenicity as a Feature of the Mutant Spectrum of a Viral Population

Background RNA virus populations are heterogeneous ensembles of closely related genomes termed quasispecies. This highly complex distribution of variants confers important properties to RNA viruses and influences their pathogenic behavior. It has been hypothesized that increased mutagenesis of viral populations, by treatment with mutagenic agents, can induce alterations in the pathogenic potential of a virus population. In this work we investigate whether mutagenized foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) populations display changes in their virulence in mice. Methodology and Principal Findings FMDV C-S8c1 was passaged in BHK cells in the presence of the mutagenic agent ribavirin. Decline in viral titer and viral RNA progeny was observed in the first passage, fluctuating around a constant value thereafter. Hence, the specific infectivity remained stable during the passages. The viral population harvested from passage 9 (P9 R) showed decreased virulence in mice, with a lethal dose 50 (LD50) >104 PFU, as compared with LD50 of 50 PFU of the parental population FMDV C-S8c1. This decrease in virulence was associated to a 20-fold increase in the mutation frequency of the P9 R population with respect to C-S8c1. Interestingly, individual biological clones isolated from the attenuated population P9 R were as virulent as the parental virus C-S8c1. Furthermore, a mixed population of C-S8c1 and P9 R was inoculated into mice and showed decreased virulence as compared to C-S8c1, suggesting that population P9 R is able to suppress the virulent phenotype of C-S8c1. Conclusion Ribavirin-mediated mutagenesis of an FMDV population resulted in attenuation in vivo, albeit a large proportion of its biological clones displayed a highly virulent phenotype. These results, together with the suppression of C-S8c1 by mutagenized P9 R population, document a suppressive effect of mutagenized viral quasispecies in vivo, and suggest novel approaches to the treatment and prevention of viral diseases.
High-speed matrix pressure sensor for humanoid robot by using thin force sensing resistance rubber sheet

This paper describes a 32 /spl times/ 32 matrix scan type distributed force sensor for humanoid robot foot which is developed for 1 kHz sampling rate. It is an analog version of the key matrix scan like sensor, and there are many efforts to achieve distributed tactile sensing by using this scheme. A thin (0.6 mm) force sensing resistance rubber sheet for this purpose is developed in order to achieve high speed sensing. Each sensing area is 4.2 /spl times/ 7.0 mm and can measure approximately 0.25-20 N. The walking cycle of the humanoid robot as well as the human being is about 0.4-0.8 s and the dual leg phase is about 0.1-0.15 s. The sensor is utilized for biped walk stabilization so that high-speed input is important. A Schottky diode is adopted for each sensing element to prevent the interference effect of other sensing areas. An air-flow based calibration system solves analog differences of the circuit and elements. The sensor system, evaluation results, and experiments using humanoid type robot are described.
The cohesive role of sanskritization and other essays

The work of Professor Srinivas occupies an undisputed place in the development of modern Indian sociology. As the former head of the Department of Sociology at the University of Delhi he did much to stimulate research, specifically that based on fieldwork. The present volume brings together ten essays which cover a wide range of Srinivas' interests. Four of these centre around the institution of the caste system, to which Srinivas has made a lasting contribution. The book takes its title from the third essay. Others focus attention on social problems such as fertility and dowry; the problem of doing fieldwork, and his more recent interest in the position of women in Indian society. The last essay is an autobiographical account of how he became a sociologist.
Distributional Semantics Beyond Words: Supervised Learning of Analogy and Paraphrase

There have been several efforts to extend distributional semantics beyond individual words, to measure the similarity of word pairs, phrases, and sentences (briefly, tuples; ordered sets of words, contiguous or noncontiguous). One way to extend beyond words is to compare two tuples using a function that combines pairwise similarities between the component words in the tuples. A strength of this approach is that it works with both relational similarity (analogy) and compositional similarity (paraphrase). However, past work required hand-coding the combination function for different tasks. The main contribution of this paper is that combination functions are generated by supervised learning. We achieve state-of-the-art results in measuring relational similarity between word pairs (SAT analogies and SemEval 2012 Task 2) and measuring compositional similarity between noun-modifier phrases and unigrams (multiple-choice paraphrase questions).
Two types of steady‐state desensitization of N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor in isolated hippocampal neurones of rat.

1. Whole‐cell voltage‐clamp recordings were made from rat isolated hippocampal neurones. Aspartate (Asp) and/or glycine (Gly) were applied by a method in which the external solution could be changed within 30 ms and thereafter held constant. 2. Asp and Gly applied together at maximal concentrations (5 mM and 10 microM, respectively) evoked an inward current due to activation of N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptors. The current peaked and then declined to a steady state during the application. The time constant of desensitization (tau) was about 1 s when the agonists were applied soon after the onset of whole‐cell recording. The desensitization became more rapid (tau = 0.3 s) and more complete during the first 15 min of recording, and thereafter remained stable; the amplitude of the peak response did not change throughout. In solutions containing 10 microM‐Gly, Asp had an apparent Kd of 51 microM at the peak of response and 20 microM measured at the steady state. The steady‐state current was 14% of the peak current. 3. Asp was applied after a conditioning exposure of the cell of Gly (from 1 to 50 microM), together with the same Gly concentration. The maximum current evoked by the application of Asp was increased while increasing Gly in the conditioning solution, with no change in the apparent Kd for Asp at the peak of Asp‐activated response. 4. Various concentrations of Asp (plus 10 microM‐Gly) were applied after a conditioning exposure to Asp (which alone was without effect). The maximum current induced by Asp applications was only 28% of that observed without conditioning Asp application, but the apparent Kd was unchanged (about 57 microM). 5. Test solution containing maximal concentrations of Asp and Gly was applied after conditioning exposure to both Asp (varying concentrations) and Gly (10 microM). Complete desensitization was caused by 200 microM‐Asp. The apparent Kd for Asp to induce desensitization (8.7 microM) was less than the Kd as an agonist (51 microM). 6. Test solution containing maximal concentrations of Asp and Gly was applied after conditioning exposure to both Gly (varying concentrations) and Asp (5 mM). Complete desensitization was caused by 1 microM‐Gly. The apparent Kd for Gly to induce desensitization (120 nM) was less than the Kd as a co‐agonist (about 1 microM). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
External mandates and instructional leadership: school leaders as mediating agents

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how US school leaders make sense of external mandates, and the way in which their understanding of state and district accountability policies affects their work. It is posited that school leaders’ responses to external accountability are likely to reflect a complex interaction between their perception of the accountability policies, the state and district contexts in which those policies are situated and their own leadership beliefs and practices.Design/methodology/approach – The authors use both principal and teacher survey data to explore the question of how perceptions of external policy are associated with instructional leadership behaviors. Cases of seven principals are employed to flesh out the findings from the survey analysis.Findings – It is concluded that external accountability policy may have a positive impact on instructional leadership – where they see those policies as aligned with their own values and preferences, and where they see their d.
Barley Genes as Tools to Confer Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crops

Barley is one of the oldest cultivated crops in the world with a high adaptive capacity. The natural tolerance of barley to stress has led to increasing interest in identification of stress responsive genes through small/large-scale omics studies, comparative genomics, and overexpression of some of these genes by genetic transformation. Two major categories of proteins involved in stress tolerance are transcription factors (TFs) responsible from the re-programming of the metabolism in stress environment, and genes encoding Late Embryogenesis Abundant (LEA) proteins, antioxidant enzymes, osmolytes, and transporters. Constitutive overexpression of several barley TFs, such as C-repeat binding factors (HvCBF4), dehydration-responsive element-binding factors (HvDREB1), and WRKYs (HvWRKY38), in transgenic plants resulted in higher tolerance to drought and salinity, possibly by effectively altering the expression levels of stress tolerance genes due to their higher DNA binding affinity. Na+/H+ antiporters, channel proteins, and lipid transporters can also be the strong candidates for engineering plants for tolerance to salinity and low temperatures.
Soluble FLT-1 expression suppresses carcinomatous ascites in nude mice bearing ovarian cancer.

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a bifunctional protein enhancing vascular permeability and stimulating endothelial growth, is thought to be responsible for fluid accumulation and angiogenesis in ascites tumors. To investigate the effects of stable expression of the soluble form of Flt-1 VEGF receptor (sFlt-1), a known endogenous inhibitor of VEGF, on the malignant ascites tumors, we cotransduced RMG-1 human ovarian cancer cells with adeno-associated virus vectors carrying the sFlt-1 cDNA and Neo gene or Neo gene alone and isolated both the sFlt-1-expressing clone and the Neo-expressing clone. In vitro growth characteristics were essentially the same. As expected, conditioned medium collected from the sFlt-1-expressing cells significantly inhibited the human umbilical vein endothelial cell proliferation in the presence of recombinant VEGF. Expression of sFlt-1 significantly suppressed RMG-1 cell-induced angiogenesis in vivo in the mouse dorsal air sac assay model. We then inoculated sFlt-1- or Neo alone-expressing cells i.p. into female BALB/c nude mice. The average volume of ascites fluid, number of leaked RBCs, and number of cancer cells were significantly lower in mice injected with sFlt-1-expressing cells than in the controls. Survival time was significantly prolonged in mice injected with sFlt-1-expressing cells. These results suggest that inhibition of VEGF activity by sFlt-1 expression may provide a means to control carcinomatous ascites and angiogenesis of malignant ascites tumors.
Local Expectation Gradients for Black Box Variational Inference

We introduce local expectation gradients which is a general purpose stochastic variational inference algorithm for constructing stochastic gradients by sampling from the variational distribution. This algorithm divides the problem of estimating the stochastic gradients over multiple variational parameters into smaller sub-tasks so that each sub-task explores intelligently the most relevant part of the variational distribution. This is achieved by performing an exact expectation over the single random variable that most correlates with the variational parameter of interest resulting in a Rao-Blackwellized estimate that has low variance. Our method works efficiently for both continuous and discrete random variables. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm has interesting similarities with Gibbs sampling but at the same time, unlike Gibbs sampling, can be trivially parallelized.
A cross-cultural comparison of privacy definitions and functions: a systems approach

As a further step in developing a systems model of privacy, variables involved in the process of achieving a condition of privacy were examined cross-culturally. Subjects were students from Ireland, Senegal and the United States. Striking commonalities were found in the reasons why subjects required privacy, the affect that was associated with a desire for privacy, the definition of privacy as a condition of the person, the duration of the average privacy experience and the change in affect at the completion of the experience which supported the suggestion that privacy has a therapeutic effect. Within culture, variability was associated with age, gender and in the case of Senegal, with income. Between culture, variability was hardly noticeable. The majority of the subjects in each culture believed that not being disturbed was the most important element of privacy and grief, fatigue and need to focus were the main affective sets associated with seeking privacy. It is believed that several universals have been identified which may be used in later research, and that the study supports a systems-based model of privacy.
Inhibition of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 Tat-dependent activation of translation in Xenopus oocytes by the benzodiazepine Ro24-7429 requires trans-activation response element loop sequences

Two benzodiazepine compounds, [7-chloro-5-(2-pyrryl)-3H-1,4 benzodiazapin-2-(H)-one] (Ro5-3335) and [7-chloro-5-(1H-pyrrol-2-yl)-3H-benzo[e] [1,4] diazepin-2-yl]- methylamine (Ro24-7429), inhibit human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) replication via a specific effect on the function of the transactivator protein, Tat. To gain further insight into the mechanism of action of these compounds, we have tested their effects in an alternative assay for Tat activation in Xenopus oocytes. In this system, translation of trans-activation response element (TAR)-containing RNA is activated by Tat. Both compounds specifically blocked activation of translation in a dose-dependent fashion, with Ro24-7429 showing the greater potency. In the Xenopus oocyte system, as in mammalian cells, mutation of the TAR loop sequences abolishes Tat action. However, it is possible to obtain TAR-specific, Tat-dependent activation of a target RNA with a mutation in the loop provided that this target is in large excess. This result has been interpreted as indicating that a negative factor has been titrated (M. Braddock, R. Powell, A.D. Blanchard, A.J. Kingsman, and S.M. Kingsman, FASEB J. 7:214-222, 1993). Interestingly Ro24-7429 was unable to inhibit the TAR-specific but loop sequence-independent mode of translational activation. This finding suggests that a specific loop-binding cellular factor may mediate the effects of this inhibitor of Tat action. Consistent with this notion, we could not detect any effect of Ro24-7429 on the efficiency of specific Tat binding to TAR in vitro.
Adult literacy education and human rights: a view from Afghanistan

In this article, we argue that adult literacy as part of international development is an issue of both human rights and women’s rights. We explore this by presenting a case study of the effects of one innovative adult literacy program in Afghanistan that places men and women, as well as various ethnicities, together in the same classroom as couples, using principles that social psychological research has shown can reduce inter‐group tension and interpersonal discord. We focus on interviews with the married couples taking part in this program. They learn to support each other’s learning, and to treat each other with respect and kindness in spite of differences. These interviews indicated that they felt their newfound literacy skills had changed their daily lives, their view of themselves and their relationships with spouse, family and community, even nation. Since the vast majority of Afghans cannot read or write, the findings stand as a reminder that literacy education can have transformative value and that action and funding remain as needed as ever.