Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Come together: human–avatar on-line interactions boost joint-action performance in apraxic patients

Abstract Limb apraxia (LA) is a high-order motor disorder linked to left-hemisphere damage. It is characterized by defective execution of purposeful actions upon delayed imitation, or verbal command when the actions are performed in isolated, non-naturalistic, conditions. Whether interpersonal interactions provide social affordances that activate neural resources different from those requested by individual action execution, which may improve LA performance, is unknown. To fill this gap, we measured interaction performance, behavioral and kinematic indexes of left-brain damaged patients with/without LA in a social reach-to-grasp task involving two different degrees of spatio-temporal interactivity with an avatar. We found that LA patients’ impairment in coordinating with the virtual partner was abolished in highly interactive conditions (where patients selected their actions on-line based on the behavior of the virtual partner) with respect to low interactive conditions (where actions were selected beforehand based on abstract instructions). Voxel-based-Lesion-Symptom-Mapping indicated that impairments in low-interactive conditions were underpinned by lesions of premotor, motor and insular areas, and of the basal ganglia. Our approach expands current understanding of the behavioral and neural correlates of interactive motor performance by highlighting the important role of social affordances, and provides novel, potentially important, views on rehabilitation of higher-order motor cognition disorders.
Seed dormancy and germination—emerging mechanisms and new hypotheses

Seed dormancy has played a significant role in adaptation and evolution of seed plants. While its biological significance is clear, molecular mechanisms underlying seed dormancy induction, maintenance and alleviation still remain elusive. Intensive efforts have been made to investigate gibberellin and abscisic acid metabolism in seeds, which greatly contributed to the current understanding of seed dormancy mechanisms. Other mechanisms, which might be independent of hormones, or specific to the seed dormancy pathway, are also emerging from genetic analysis of “seed dormancy mutants. ” These studies suggest that chromatin remodeling through histone ubiquitination, methylation and acetylation, which could lead to transcription elongation or gene silencing, may play a significant role in seed dormancy regulation. Small interfering RNA and/or long non-coding RNA might be a trigger of epigenetic changes at the seed dormancy or germination loci, such as DELAY OF GERMINATION1. While new mechanisms are emerging from genetic studies of seed dormancy, novel hypotheses are also generated from seed germination studies with high throughput gene expression analysis. Recent studies on tissue-specific gene expression in tomato and Arabidopsis seeds, which suggested possible “mechanosensing” in the regulatory mechanisms, advanced our understanding of embryo-endosperm interaction and have potential to re-draw the traditional hypotheses or integrate them into a comprehensive scheme. The progress in basic seed science will enable knowledge translation, another frontier of research to be expanded for food and fuel production.
Heat shock factor 1 promotes TERRA transcription and telomere protection upon heat stress

Abstract In response to metabolic or environmental stress, cells activate powerful defense mechanisms to prevent the formation and accumulation of toxic protein aggregates. The main orchestrator of this cellular response is HSF1 (heat shock factor 1), a transcription factor involved in the up-regulation of protein-coding genes with protective roles. It has become very clear that HSF1 has a broader function than initially expected. Indeed, our previous work demonstrated that, upon stress, HSF1 activates the transcription of a non-coding RNA, named Satellite III, at pericentromeric heterochromatin. Here, we observe that the function of HSF1 extends to telomeres and identify subtelomeric DNA as a new genomic target of HSF1. We show that the binding of HSF1 to subtelomeric regions plays an essential role in the upregulation of non-coding TElomeric Repeat containing RNA (TERRA) transcription upon heat shock. Importantly, our data show that telomere integrity is impacted by heat shock and that telomeric DNA damages are markedly enhanced in HSF1 deficient cells. Altogether, our findings reveal a new direct and essential function of HSF1 in the transcriptional activation of TERRA and in telomere protection upon stress.
The relational self: Closeness to ingroups depends on who they are, culture, and the type of closeness

Cultural differences in individualism and collectivism (I-C) describe important variations in how the self relates to others, but existing scales may be too broad-band to precisely measure this aspect of I-C. They also do not distinguish among particular ingroups and types of interdependence with them. The Circles of Closeness scale addresses these limitations. Initial results from Euro-American, Asian-American, Dutch, Turkish, and Japanese samples of college students are presented. The scales have high alpha reliability. Different results were obtained for three ingroups – immediate family, relatives, and friends – and six closeness types – emotional, supportive, identity, reputational, similarity, and harmony. These factors significantly interacted with each other, arguing for a more differentiated view of I-C.
Differential effects of IL‐10 on prostaglandin H synthase‐2 expression and prostaglandin E2 biosynthesis between spleen and bone marrow macrophages

Different populations of mononuclear phagocytes (MØ) show considerable diversity of cellular function including prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) biosynthesis. Certain bacterial components enhance PGE2 biosynthesis differentially in selected populations of MØ. Interleukin (IL)‐10 is proposed to inhibit modulation of PGE2 biosynthesis by down‐regulating prostaglandin G/H synthase‐2 (PGHS‐2) expression. To assess whether IL‐10 regulates PGE2 biosynthesis and PGHS‐2 expression, splenic and bone marrow MØ were isolated from IL‐10‐deficient (IL‐10−/−), C57Bl/6 [wild‐type (WT) control], and Balb/c (comparison control) mice and were treated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and/or interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) as a model of bacterial inflammation. LPS‐induced PGHS‐2 expression was similar for splenic MØ isolated from the three strains of mice. However, PGE2 released by LPS‐treated splenic MØ was significantly higher in IL‐10−/− and Balb/c than in WT cells. In the presence of LPS and IFN‐γ, PGHS‐2 expression and PGE2 release by IL‐10−/− and Balb/c splenic MØ were enhanced compared with stimulation with LPS alone or IFN‐γ alone. However, there was no significant increase in PGE2 release from WT splenic MØ treated with LPS plus IFN‐γ despite increased PGHS‐2 expression. In sharp contrast, PGHS‐2 expression and PGE2 release by bone marrow MØ were greatly enhanced in IL‐10−/− cells compared with control cells. Our results indicate that IL‐10 regulation of MØ PGE2 biosynthesis and PGHS‐2 expression is compartment‐dependent and that PGE2 production is not linked directly to PGHS‐2 levels. Furthermore, our findings emphasize strain‐specific differences between C57Bl/6 and Balb/c mice, and Balb/c appears more similar to the IL‐10−/− than to the C57Bl/6 with respect to prostanoid production.
Transnational institution building and the multinational corporation: An emerging field of research

Since the 1980s, the international business and management field has produced a large amount of analysis and research on the multinational corporation (MNC) as an organization. Particularly influential has been the work of Prahalad, Doz and Bartlett (see particularly Doz et al., 1981; Bartlett, 1986; Prahalad & Doz, 1987) who, drawing on contingency theory, developed the integration-responsiveness framework to depict the different environmental forces exerting conflicting demands on MNCs. This literature is concerned, for example, with how organizations respond to task-related demands by centralizing or decentralizing activities. However, the analysis of environmental forces is restricted to the task or technical environment and the effects it has on the structuring of organizations. In contrast to this by and large more strategy-oriented literature, MNCs have not received sustained attention from other organization theorists (see for exceptions, Rosenzweig & Singh, 1991; Morgan et al., 2001, 2005; Westney & Zaheer, 2001; Ghoshal & Westney, 2005). This is surprising; after all, it would seem that MNCs offer great potential for developing and testing organization theories (Evans, 1981) and research on the organizational aspects of MNCs could be enriched by the insights of organization theorists (Ghoshal & Westney, 2005). These arguments apply especially to the different strands of institutional theory which emphasize the relationships between organizations and their institutional environments, namely new institutionalism (Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Powell & DiMaggio, 1991; Scott,
Hyper Questions: Unsupervised Targeting of a Few Experts in Crowdsourcing

Quality control is one of the major problems in crowdsourcing. One of the primary approaches to rectify this issue is to assign the same task to different workers and then aggregate their answers to obtain a reliable answer. In addition to simple aggregation approaches such as majority voting, various sophisticated probabilistic models have been proposed. However, given that most of the existing methods operate by strengthening the opinions of the majority, these models often fail when the tasks require highly specialized knowledge and the ability of a large majority of the workers is inadequate. In this paper, we focus on an important class of answer aggregation problems in which majority voting fails and propose the concept of hyper questions to devise effective aggregation methods. A hyper question is a set of single questions, and our key idea is that experts are more likely to provide correct answers to all of the single questions included in a hyper question than non-experts. Thus, experts are more likely to reach consensus on the hyper questions than non-experts, which strengthen their influences. We incorporate the concept of hyper questions into existing answer aggregation methods. The results of our experiments conducted using both synthetic datasets and real datasets demonstrate that our simple and easily usable approach works effectively in cases where only a few experts are available.
Characterization of Cortical Microvascularization in Adult Moyamoya Disease

Background and Purpose— Increased cortical microvascularization has been proposed to be a Moyamoya disease (MMD)–specific characteristic. It was the aim of our study to characterize the anatomic pattern and microhemodynamics of cortical microvascularization in MMD. Methods— Intraoperative indocyanine green videoangiography was performed in 16 adult MMD patients, 15 patients with atherosclerotic cerebrovascular disease (ACVD), and 10 control patients. Cortical microvascularization and microvascular hemodynamics were categorized and analyzed according to anatomic and functional indocyanine green angiographic aspects. Anatomic analysis included microvascular density, microvascular diameter, and microvascular surface per analyzed area. Microhemodynamic analysis included microvascular transit time, arterial microvascular transit time, and venous microvascular transit time. Results— Microvascular density and diameter were significantly increased in MMD patients (1.8±0.2 mm/mm2 and 0.24±0.03 mm, respectively) compared with those in ACVD patients (1.5±0.2 mm/mm2 and 0.20±0.02 mm, respectively) and controls (1.5±0.1 mm/mm2 and 0.19±0.03 mm, respectively). This resulted in significantly increased microvascular surface per analyzed area in MMD (67±13%) vs ACVD patients (47±7%) and controls (45±6%). Anatomic changes were paralleled by significantly increased microvascular and arterial microvascular transit times in MMD patients (11.55±3.50 and 6.79±2.96 seconds, respectively) compared with those in ACVD patients (8.13±1.78 and 4.34±1.30 seconds, respectively) and controls (8.04±2.16 and 4.50±1.87 seconds, respectively). Conclusion— Cortical microvascularization in MMD is characterized by significantly increased microvascular density and microvascular diameter, leading to increased microvascular surface. These anatomic alterations are accompanied by prolonged microvascular hemodynamics. These observations might represent an MMD-specific compensation mechanism for impaired cerebral blood flow.
Genome rearrangements and sorting by reversals

Sequence comparison in molecular biology is in the beginning of a major paradigm shift-a shift from gene comparison based on local mutations to chromosome comparison based on global rearrangements. In the simplest form the problem of gene rearrangements corresponds to sorting by reversals, i.e. sorting of an array using reversals of arbitrary fragments. Kececioglu and Sankoff gave the first approximation algorithm for sorting by reversals with guaranteed error bound and identified open problems related to chromosome rearrangements. One of these problems is Gollan's conjecture on the reversal diameter of the symmetric group. We prove this conjecture and further study the problem of expected reversal distance between two random permutations. We demonstrate that the expected reversal distance is very close to the reversal diameter thereby indicating that reversal distance provides a good separation between related and non-related sequences. The gene rearrangement problem forces us to consider reversals of signed permutations, as the genes in DNA are oriented. Our approximation algorithm for signed permutation provides a 'performance guarantee' of 3/2. Finally, we devise an approximation algorithm for sorting by reversals with a performance ratio of 7/4. <<ETX>>
Performing Hypermasculinity

In this article, young people’s hypermasculine performances of gender in a Danish institution for young offenders are analyzed. Through the ethnographic method of detailed observations of two situations of young people, one male and one female, entering an institution for young offenders, it is demonstrated that hypermasculinity is created as a collective frame of meaning creating both possibilities and restraints in concrete situations. Hypermasculinity is often discussed in relation to criminality as an intensification of hegemonic understandings of what constitutes a “real man” and thus as part of male offender’s identity formation. In this article, the relational analysis shows that hypermasculinity is not alone to be understood as the expression of the individual young person’s performances but rather as the dominating institutional frame guiding all gender performances. The observed hypermasculine frame comprises notions of a real man based on performances of overt sexuality, the willingness to commit violence, and the limitation of subversive performances.
Selective neutralization of the serpin protease nexin‐1 by a specific monoclonal antibody

Protease nexin-1 [PN-1; also termed serpin peptidase inhibitor, clade E (nexin, plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1), member 2; SERPINE2] is a serpin expressed by many cell types (Bouton et al, 2012). PN-1 is known to inhibit a large spectrum of serine proteases, particularly proteases involved in coagulation and fibrinolysis, such as thrombin and proteases of the plasminergic system, respectively (Scott et al, 1985; Evans et al, 1991). PN-1 is stored in platelets and secreted as an active antiprotease during platelet activation (Boulaftali et al, 2010). Therefore, it plays a crucial role in the regulation of thrombus formation and lysis. Indeed, anticoagulant and antifibrinolytic properties of PN-1 have been demonstrated in vivo using mice models of vascular thrombosis and thrombolysis, respectively (Boulaftali et al, 2010, 2011). These data indicate that PN-1 could be an attractive target to prevent or limit thrombotic disorders. Very few inhibitors of PN-1 have been characterized. Kousted et al (2014) previously described monoclonal antibodies binding human PN-1 and abolishing all protease inhibitory activities of PN-1. However, the dual anticoagulant and antifibrinolytic role of PN-1 hampers the clinical use of a non-selective PN1 inhibitor. For this reason, it is important to determine if inhibitors targeting solely one specific anti-proteolytic activity of PN-1 can be developed. Here we describe the characteristics of a new monoclonal antibody raised toward human PN-1, MA-48H11, produced according to the procedure reported by Galfre and Milstein (1981). MA-48H11 is of the IgG2b kappa isotype and its reactivity with human PN-1 was determined with a standard one-sided enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), using recombinant human PN-1 antigen for capture and a horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated rabbit antimouse polyclonal antibody. The affinity constant for binding between MA-48H11 and human PN-1 was determined by surface plasmon resonance (SPR) analysis. The Ka value was 4 7–4 9 9 10 mol/l (Kd: 2 1–2 2 9 10 10 mol/l). The specificity of MA-48H11 to PN-1 was confirmed by the absence of binding to plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) by ELISA and to antithrombin (AT) by SPR analysis. The ability of MA-48H11 to inactivate the inhibitory activity of PN-1 was tested in chromogenic assays for the two central proteases of coagulation and fibrinolysis, i.e. thrombin and plasmin, respectively. The presence of a 20fold molar excess of MA-48H11 over PN-1 did not prevent the inhibition of plasmin amidolytic activity by PN-1 (Fig 1A). In contrast, MA-48H11 significantly abolished the inhibition of thrombin amidolytic activity by PN-1 (Fig 1B), with 50% inhibitory concentration of 2 2 0 5 nmol/l. A
Genetic and Environmental Sources of Individual Differences in Views on Aging

Views on aging are central psychosocial variables in the aging process, but knowledge about their determinants is still fragmental. Thus, the authors investigated the degree to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to individual differences in various domains of views on aging (wisdom, work, fitness, and family), and whether these variance components vary across ages. They analyzed data from 350 monozygotic and 322 dizygotic twin pairs from the Midlife Development in the U.S. (MIDUS) study, aged 25–74. Individual differences in views on aging were mainly due to individual-specific environmental and genetic effects. However, depending on the domain, genetic and environmental contributions to the variance differed. Furthermore, for some domains, variability was larger for older participants; this was attributable to increases in environmental components. This study extends research on genetic and environmental sources of psychosocial variables and stimulates future studies investigating the etiology of views on aging across the life span.
Functional Somatic Syndromes: Sensitivities and Specificities of Self-Reports of Physician Diagnosis

Objective Functional somatic syndromes have no laboratory or pathologic abnormalities and so are diagnosed by symptom-based case definitions. However, many studies, including recent ones, have used self-reports of physician diagnosis rather than the case definitions. Our objective was to determine the sensitivities and specificities of self-report of physician diagnosis for chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), panic disorder, and migraine. Methods Each of 312 female patients with incident interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and matched population-based controls were queried on self-report of physician diagnosis and separately on established case definitions for each of these syndromes. Results Using the symptom-based case definitions as standards, we found that self-report of physician diagnosis did not identify 90% of the controls who had CFS, 77% who had FM, 69% who had IBS, 43% who had panic disorder, and 23% who had migraine. In addition, it missed most individuals with multiple syndromes. Findings in one cohort (controls) were confirmed in another (patients with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome). Conclusions Self-report of physician diagnosis did not identify most of the three most venerable functional somatic syndromes, IBS, FM, and, especially, CFS; nor did it identify substantial minorities of individuals with panic disorder and migraine. Self-report of physician diagnosis was particularly poor in recognizing persons with multiple syndromes. The insensitivity of this diagnostic test has effects on not only prevalence and incidence estimates but also correlates, comorbidities, and case recruitment. To reveal individuals with these syndromes, singly or together, queries of symptoms, not diagnoses, are necessary.
Increased serum concentrations of soluble receptor for advanced glycation endproducts in patients with type 1 diabetes.

To the Editor: The hyperglycemic state occurring in diabetes mellitus is responsible for formation and accumulation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) that participate in the pathogenesis of vascular complications of diabetes mellitus (1). There is considerable interest in the receptors for AGEs (RAGE) found in many cell types, particularly those affected in diabetes. RAGE are members of the immunoglobulin family of cell surface molecules with a diverse repertoire of ligands. Interaction of AGEs with RAGE alters several cell functions through modulation of intracellular signaling, gene expression, and release of proinflammatory molecules and free radicals that contribute to the pathology of diabetic complications (2)(3). A soluble form of RAGE (sRAGE) can be measured in peripheral blood, which could result from the expression of a RAGE splice gene variant that encodes an amino-terminally truncated form of the receptor and/or from the cleavage of the native membranous receptor (4). This form may be released by several cell types, such as endothelial cells and circulating leukocytes. Because sRAGE is presumed to be a decoy for RAGE ligands …
Effect of water logging on selected Morphological Characteristics in Maize

A greenhouse experiment was conducted to determine waterlogging tolerance in acidic soils for maize crop improvement in low lying flood prone regions of Western Kenya where waterlogging is a severe problem. Three replicates of nine cultivars, seven tolerant and two susceptible accessions identified after a preliminary screening were subjected to waterlogging to select traits for tolerance to waterlogging using randomized complete block design. 17 dayold seedlings planted in acidic ferralsol soil were exposed to field capacity flooding for 10 days, drained and growth monitored. Waterlogging caused significant reduction in mean number of leaves, leaf area, root collar diameter, seedling height and grain yield. K8 recovered least from water logging. Kan2 and K27 were least affected with regard to leaf tip death and wilting. K8, Br2, K24 and C8 recorded the most significant reduction in leaf area. K3 and Kan2 recorded the least internode length. Plant height recovery was most significant in K27 and K8. Lowest reduction in yield was recorded in Br2 and K3 while the highest grain yield was K3 and Kan2. Reduction on collar root diameter had a significant influence (F value = 2.7) on total grain yield of maize in the affected accessions (y= 1.0183x – 0.5685). There exists a significant genetic variability among Kenyan maize germplasm in terms of response to waterlogging, which can be exploited for crop improvement.