Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Both 25-Hydroxyvitamin-D3 and 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin-D3 Reduces Inflammatory Response in Human Periodontal Ligament Cells

Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease leading to the destruction of periodontal tissue. Vitamin D3 is an important hormone involved in the preservation of serum calcium and phosphate levels, regulation of bone metabolism and inflammatory response. Recent studies suggest that vitamin D3 metabolism might play a role in the progression of periodontitis. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of 25(OH)D3, which is stable form of vitamin D3 in blood, and biologically active form 1,25(OH)2D3 on the production of interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-8 (IL-8), and monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) by cells of periodontal ligament. Commercially available human periodontal ligament fibroblasts (hPdLF) and primary human periodontal ligament cells (hPdLC) were used. Cells were stimulated with either Porphyromonas gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or heat-killed P. ginigvalis in the presence or in the absence of 25(OH)D3 or 1,25(OH)2D3 at concentrations of 10–100 nM. Stimulation of cells with either P. gingivalis LPS or heat-killed P. gingivalis resulted in a significant increase of the expression levels of IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 in gene as well as in protein levels, measured by qPCR and ELISA, respectively. The production of these pro-inflammatory mediators in hPdLF was significantly inhibited by both 25(OH)D3 and 1,25(OH)2D3 in a dose-dependent manner. In primary hPdLCs, both 25(OH)D3 and 1,25(OH)2D3 inhibited the production of IL-8 and MCP-1 but have no significant effect on the IL-6 production. The effect of both 25(OH)D3 and 1,25(OH)2D3 was abolished by specific knockdown of vitamin D3 receptor by siRNA. Our data suggest that vitamin D3 might play an important role in the modulation of periodontal inflammation via regulation of cytokine production by cells of periodontal ligament. Further studies are required for better understanding of the extents of this anti-inflammatory effect and its involvement in the progression of periodontal disease.
Corticosterone Induces Rapid Spinogenesis via Synaptic Glucocorticoid Receptors and Kinase Networks in Hippocampus

Background Modulation of dendritic spines under acute stress is attracting much attention. Exposure to acute stress induces corticosterone (CORT) secretion from the adrenal cortex, resulting in rapid increase of CORT levels in plasma and the hippocampus. Methodology/Principal Findings Here we demonstrated the mechanisms of rapid effect (∼1 h) of CORT on the density and morphology of spines by imaging neurons in adult male rat hippocampal slices. The application of CORT at 100–1000 nM induced a rapid increase in the density of spines of CA1 pyramidal neurons. The density of small-head spines (0.2–0.4 µm) was increased even at low CORT levels (100–200 nM). The density of middle-head spines (0.4–0.5 µm) was increased at high CORT levels between 400–1000 nM. The density of large-head spines (0.5–1.0 µm) was increased only at 1000 nM CORT. Co-administration of RU486, an antagonist of glucocorticoid receptor (GR), abolished the effect of CORT. Blocking a single kinase, such as MAPK, PKA, PKC or PI3K, suppressed CORT-induced enhancement of spinogenesis. Blocking NMDA receptors suppressed the CORT effect. Conclusions/Significance These results imply that stress levels of CORT (100–1000 nM) drive the spinogenesis via synaptic GR and multiple kinase pathways.
smartCQ: Answering and evaluating Bounded Continuous Search Queries within the WWW and Sensor Networks

Continuous queries (CQ) can be used to keep track of relevant information in the World Wide Web and sensor networks over a period of time. However, result sets may become unbounded and notifications can be delayed. A special form of CQ are bounded continuous search queries (BCSQ), where results are processed immediately and a bounding condition for the number of user notifications may be defined to limit the result set. Based on a theoretical background for answering BCSQ we present smartCQ, a Web application for processing BCSQ and evaluating the query results. Based on a transparent search engine a user may execute and evaluate new strategies and methods for continuous search queries. Furthermore because of the positive results of BCSQ we encourage its use for querying wireless sensor networks to reduce the communication demand and hence reduce the energy consumption to enhance the lifetime of a sensor network.
Racial and Ethnic Stratification in Educational Achievement and Attainment

▪ Abstract Understanding racial, ethnic, and immigrant variation in educational achievement and attainment is more important than ever as the U.S. population becomes increasingly diverse. The Census Bureau estimates that in 2000, 34% of all youth aged 15–19 were from minority groups; it estimates that by 2025, this will increase to 46% (U.S. Census Bureau 2000). In addition, approximately one in five school-age children reside in an immigrant family (Zhou 1997, Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco 2001). We provide an overview of recent empirical research on racial, ethnic, and immigrant differences in educational achievement and attainment, and we examine some current theories that attempt to explain these differences. We explore group differences in grades, test scores, course taking, and tracking, especially throughout secondary schooling, and then discuss variation in high school completion, transitions to college, and college completion. We also summarize key theoretical explanations used to explain persist.
HSPG synthesis by zebrafish Ext2 and Extl3 is required for Fgf10 signalling during limb development

Heparan sulphate proteoglycans (HSPGs) are known to be crucial for signalling by the secreted Wnt, Hedgehog, Bmp and Fgf proteins during invertebrate development. However, relatively little is known about their effect on developmental signalling in vertebrates. Here, we report the analysis of daedalus, a novel zebrafish pectoral fin mutant. Positional cloning identified fgf10 as the gene disrupted in daedalus. We find that fgf10 mutants strongly resemble zebrafish ext2 and extl3 mutants, which encode glycosyltransferases required for heparan sulphate biosynthesis. This suggests that HSPGs are crucial for Fgf10 signalling during limb development. Consistent with this proposal, we observe a strong genetic interaction between fgf10 and extl3 mutants. Furthermore, application of Fgf10 protein can rescue target gene activation in fgf10, but not in ext2 or extl3 mutants. By contrast, application of Fgf4 protein can activate target genes in both ext2 and extl3 mutants, indicating that ext2 and extl3 are differentially required for Fgf10, but not Fgf4, signalling during limb development. This reveals an unexpected specificity of HSPGs in regulating distinct vertebrate Fgfs.
Approximating the Number of Acyclic Orientations for a Class of Sparse Graphs

The Tutte polynomial $T(G;x,y)$ of a graph evaluates to many interesting combinatorial quantities at various points in the $(x,y)$ plane, including the number of spanning trees, number of forests, number of acyclic orientations, the reliability polynomial, the partition function of the Q-state Potts model of a graph, and the Jones polynomial of an alternating link. The exact computation of $T(G;x,y)$ has been shown by Vertigan and Welsh [8] to be #P-hard at all but a few special points and on two hyperbolae, even in the restricted class of planar bipartite graphs. Attention has therefore been focused on approximation schemes. To date, positive results have been restricted to the upper half plane $y>1$, and most results have relied on a condition of sufficient denseness in the graph. In this paper we present an approach that yields a fully polynomial randomized approximation scheme for $T(G;x,y)$ for $x>1,\ y=1$, and for $T(G;2,0)$, in a class of sparse graphs. This is the first positive result that includes the important point $(2,0)$.
Replication of the Massachusetts Treatment Center Child Molester Typology in a Canadian Sample

Development of a comprehensive typology for the classification of sexual offenders has important implications for both risk prediction and treatment. To date, the most comprehensive typological system has been developed by Knight and Prentky (1990). These authors have developed typologies for both child molesters and rapists. The system for rapists has been replicated on at least two samples (Barbaree, Seto, Serin, Amos, & Preston, 1994; Brown & Forth, 1997); however, the child molester typology has yet to be fully replicated outside the MTC. In the present study, 109 child molesters who were assessed or treated at the Regional Treatment Centre (Ontario) were classified according to the MTC child molester typology. Interrater reliabilities were obtained for 20 participants and ranged from . 90 to . 40, which are comparable to those obtained in the MTC sample. Groups were compared on a number of meaningful variables, such as number of victims and sexual deviance.
Developmentally Sensitive Forensic Interviewing of Preschool Children: Some Guidelines Drawn From Basic Psychological Research

Interviewing preschool children who are victims or witnesses of crime to ensure accuracy and completeness of their recall is no easy task. Rising up to the challenge, a large number of empirical psychological studies related to interviewing young children have been conducted in the past decades. Most of these studies were applied research, simulating circumstances of real forensic interviews. It is believed, however, that more basic research could also be informative. The present article thus selectively reviews more basic psychological research in the areas of memory development, language development, and conceptual development as they relate to the forensic interviewing of preschool children. Based on characteristics of preschool children’s development in these areas, some useful guidelines are generated for forensic interviewers. Recommendations for future research are also made.
Individual differences in cooperation in a circular public goods game

Research using the public goods game to examine behaviour in the context of social dilemmas has repeatedly shown substantial individual differences in patterns of contributions to the public good. We present here a new method specifically designed to capture this heterogeneity in play and classify participants into broad categories or types. Players in groups of four made initial, simultaneous contributions to the public good. Subsequently, players were sequentially told the current aggregate contribution to the public good and allowed to change their decision based on this information. The game continued, with players updating their contribution decision until the game ended at an unknown point. By looking at the relationship between players' contributions and the aggregate value they observed, we were able to cleanly classify 82% of our players into three types: strong free riders (28%), conditional cooperators of reciprocators (29%), and strong cooperators (25%). We also found that scores on some of the personality dimensions we investigated (self‐monitoring, self‐esteem, neuroticism, and conscientiousness) correlated with player type. Finally, males were found to be more likely to be strong cooperators than females. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Governance Innovation and the Citizen: The Janus Face of Governance-beyond-the-State

This paper focuses on the fifth dimension of social innovation-i.e. political governance. Although largely neglected in the mainstream 'innovation' literature, innovative governance arrangements are increasingly recognised as potentially significant terrains for fostering inclusive development processes. International organisations like the EU and the World Bank, as well as leading grass-roots movements, have pioneered new and more participatory governance arrangements as a pathway towards greater inclusiveness. Indeed, over the past two decades or so, a range of new and often innovative institutional arrangements has emerged, at a variety of geographical scales. These new institutional 'fixes' have begun to challenge traditional state-centred forms of policy-making and have generated new forms of governance-beyond-the-state. Drawing on Foucault's notion of governmentality, the paper argues that the emerging innovative horizontal and networked arrangements of governance-beyond-the-state are decidedly Janus-faced. While enabling new forms of participation and articulating the state-civil society relationships in potentially democratising ways, there is also a flip side to the process. To the extent that new governance arrangements rearticulate the state-civil society relationship, they also redefine and reposition the meaning of (political) citizenship and, consequently, the nature of democracy itself. The first part of the paper outlines the contours of governance-beyond-the-state. The second part addresses the thorny issues of the state-civil society relationship in the context of the emergence of the new governmentality associated with governance-beyond-the-state. The third part teases out the contradictory way in which new arrangements of governance have created new institutions and empowered new actors, while disempowering others. It is argued that this shift from 'government' to 'governance' is associated with the consolidation of new technologies of government, on the one hand, and with profound restructuring of the parameters of political democracy on the other, leading to a substantial democratic deficit. The paper concludes by suggesting that socially innovative arrangements of governance-beyond-the-state are fundamentally Janus-faced, particularly under conditions in which the democratic character of the political sphere is increasingly eroded by the encroaching imposition of market forces that set the 'rules of the game'.
An exploratory study of young offenders' self-reported reasons for offending

Youths' self-reported reasons for offending are seldom incorporated into standardized forensic risk-needs assessment tools. The aim of this study was to explore the use of a standardized method for eliciting and recording youths' views about why they offend. Responses to a 22-item checklist of reasons for offending were analyzed for 516 youths in detention, 117 of who underwent a second assessment within a 5-year period, and 281 youths taking part in a community-based restitution program. Results from multivariate and content analyses suggested that six major motivational themes for offending could be discerned: immediate gratification, interpersonal hostility, social conformity, material needs, substance use, and boredom. Empirical support for both convergent and predictive (recidivism) validities is presented. It is suggested that consideration of offenders' views about why they offend should be incorporated into structured assessments and that this can be facilitated by using standardized checklists.
Present Molecular Limitations of ON-Bipolar Cell Targeted Gene Therapy

Recent studies have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of ocular gene therapy based on adeno-associated viral vectors (AAVs). Accordingly, a surge in promising new gene therapies is entering clinical trials, including the first optogenetic therapy for vision restoration. To date, optogenetic therapies for vision restoration target either the retinal ganglion cells (GCs) or presynaptic ON-bipolar cells (OBCs). Initiating light responses at the level of the OBCs has significant advantages over optogenetic activation of GCs. For example, important neural circuitries in the inner retina, which shape the receptive fields of GCs, remain intact when activating the OBCs. Current drawbacks of AAV-mediated gene therapies targeting OBCs include (1) a low transduction efficiency, (2) off-target expression in unwanted cell populations, and (3) a poor performance in human tissue compared to the murine retina. Here, we examined side-by-side the performance of three state-of-the art AAV capsid variants, AAV7m8, AAVBP2, and AAV7m8(Y444F) in combination with the 4xGRM6-SV40 promoter construct in the healthy and degenerated mouse retina and in human post-mortem retinal explants. We find that (1) the 4xGRM6-SV40 promoter is not OBC specific, (2) that all AAV variants possess broad cellular transduction patterns, with differences between the transduction patterns of capsid variants AAVBP2 and AAV7m8 and, most importantly, (3) that all vectors target OBCs in healthy tissue but not in the degenerated rd1 mouse model, potentially limiting the possibilities for an OBC-targeted optogenetic therapy for vision restoration in the blind.
DISTRIBUTION OF ZINC IN BONE TISSUE

High concentrations of zinc have been found by a histochemical method at the sites of calcification. Zinc has been detected in the developing osteons (Haversian systems) of compact bone exactly at the border line between calcified and uncalcified tissue (Fig. 1), in the cartilaginous partitions of hypertrophic cells (Fig. 3), and in the endochondral bone which has just been deposited in the metaphysis (Fig. 4).
Social Capital and Community Resilience

Despite the ubiquity of disaster and the increasing toll in human lives and financial costs, much research and policy remain focused on physical infrastructure–centered approaches to such events. Governmental organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security, United States Federal Emergency Management Agency, United States Agency for International Development, and United Kingdom’s Department for International Development continue to spend heavily on hardening levees, raising existing homes, and repairing damaged facilities despite evidence that social, not physical, infrastructure drives resilience. This article highlights the critical role of social capital and networks in disaster survival and recovery and lays out recent literature and evidence on the topic. We look at definitions of social capital, measurement and proxies, types of social capital, and mechanisms and application. The article concludes with concrete policy recommendations for disaster managers, government decision makers, and nongovernmental organizations for increasing resilience to catastrophe through strengthening social infrastructure at the community level.
An Ambiguous Commitment: Moving In to a Cohabiting Relationship*

The rise of unmarried cohabitation is a major social trend in western industrial societies but there is little research on how the transition from single to cohabiting life is experienced or understood. This paper is based on an in-depth qualitative study of 15 young Australian heterosexual couples. For the couples in this study, moving in together was an ambiguous commitment rather than a trial marriage; a transition fuelled by pragmatism rather than romance. The cohabiters minimised their agency when they discussed their decision to move in. In stark contrast to marriage, moving in was played down in the public arena and ritual was avoided. It is argued that the ambiguity surrounding moving in reflects the rapidly changing and uncertain context of partnering and marriage at the end of the millennium.
The Effects of a Short Video Intervention on Secondary School Pupils' Involvement in Definitions of and Attitudes towards Bullying

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of a single viewing of an anti-bullying video on secondary school pupils' views of, and involvement in, bullying. Participants (N = 170) were drawn from Years 7, 8, 9 and 10 (aged 11 to 14 years). Each participant completed a self-report questionnaire on two occasions separated by 2 weeks. Items focused on three main issues-pupils' tendencies to bully others, their definitions of bullying and their attitudes towards bullying. Participants in the experimental condition, but not in the control condition, were shown the video midway through the 2-week period. Participants who watched the video did not report less bullying of other pupils than those who did not watch it, nor was there evidence that the video led to more negative attitudes towards bullying in general. However, more of the participants who watched the video than did not watch it extended their definition of bullying to include three specific types of behaviour-'name-calling', 'telling nasty stories about some one' and 'forcing people to do things they don't want to do'. The implication of these results for schools' anti-bullying initatives are discussed.
Effects of Two Shared-Reading Interventions on Emergent Literacy Skills of At-Risk Preschoolers

The effects of 2 preschool-based shared-reading interventions were evaluated with 95 children, ages 2- to 5-years, from low-income families. Language skills of the children were below age-level as measured by standardized tests. Children were pretested and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) no-treatment control, (b) typical shared-reading condition, and (c) dialogic (interactive) shared-reading condition. For both intervention conditions, undergraduate volunteers read to children in small groups. Following the 6-week intervention, children were posttested on measures of oral language, listening comprehension, and phonological sensitivity. Both interventions produced positive effects. Results favoring dialogic reading were found on a measure of descriptive use of language, whereas results favoring typical shared-reading were found on measures of listening comprehension and alliteration detection.
3-D finite element analysis of current distribution in HTS power cable taking account of E-J power law characteristic

A method for analyzing the current distribution in high-T/sub c/ superconducting (HTS) power cable is examined by the aid of the novel use of anisotropic conductivity and three-dimensional finite element method in consideration of the E-J power law characteristic. The detailed current distribution in the cable is illustrated and the shielding effect of HTS shield is also examined.
A Unified Architecture for H.264 Multiple Block-Size DCT with Fast and Low Cost Quantization

AVC/H.264 is the new international standard for video coding jointly developed by ISO-MPEG and ITU-T, which offers a substantial compression gain when compared with H.263 and MPEG-4 simple profile. One of the main characteristics of H.264 is the introduction of a integer version of the discrete cosine transform initially applied to 4times4 pixels blocks, and later extended to 8times8 pixels for high quality video encoding. In this work, a unified architecture is proposed for parallel 8times8 integer DCT and iDCT, also able to process 4times4 DCT, iDCT and Hadamard transform. A very fast quantization/de-quantization scheme is presented based on prediction that allows parallel quantization with a single multiplier. This architecture also implements all-zero detection, eliminating coefficients with high cost as specified in the standard and anticipates entropy encoding. The proposed design has been synthesized in AMS 0.35mu technology and achieves a maximum speed of 67 MHz
Fusion strategies in multimodal biometric verification

The aim of this paper, regarding multimodal biometric verification, is twofold: on one hand, to compare experimentally a selection of them using as monomodal baseline systems as our template-based face, minutiae-based fingerprint and HMM-based on-line signature verification systems on the MCYT multimodal database. A new strategy is proposed and discussed in order to compute a multimodal combined score by means of support vector machine (SVM) classifiers.