Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Criterion and incremental validity of the emotion regulation questionnaire

Although research on emotion regulation (ER) is developing, little attention has been paid to the predictive power of ER strategies beyond established constructs. The present study examined the incremental validity of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross and John, 2003), which measures cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression, over and above the Big Five personality factors. It also extended the evidence for the measure's criterion validity to yet unexamined criteria. A university student sample (N = 203) completed the ERQ, a measure of the Big Five, and relevant cognitive and emotion-laden criteria. Cognitive reappraisal predicted positive affect beyond personality, as well as experiential flexibility and constructive self-assertion beyond personality and affect. Expressive suppression explained incremental variance in negative affect beyond personality and in experiential flexibility beyond personality and general affect. No incremental effects were found for worry, social anxiety, rumination, reflection, and preventing negative emotions. Implications for the construct validity and utility of the ERQ are discussed.
Faunal Distribution and Seasonal Bio-Ecology of Naturally Infected Sand Flies in a New Endemic Zoonotic Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Focus of Southern Iran

Background: Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a major health problem in Iran in spite of implementation of control program. This infectious disease caused morbidity in less than 27000 people in 2010. This study was set to determine some ecological aspects of sand flies in Fasa district, Fars Province, southern Iran during 2011–2012. Methods: A total of 4792 sand flies were captured by means of sticky paper and CDC miniature light traps in 10 selected villages from the beginning to the end of the active season, from which 1115 specimens were captured for abundance study and 3677 specimens captured for monitoring monthly activities in Fasa. After species identification, extracted DNA was processed for detection of Leishmania parasite infection in sand flies. Results: Twelve species (6 Phlebotomus, 6 Sergentomyia) were identified. The most common sand fly was P. papatasi (82.4%) which represented 86.6% of sand flies from indoors and 82.7% from outdoors. The monthly activity of the species extended from April to the end of November. There were two peaks in the density curve of this species, one in June and the second in September. Natural infection to L. major was detected in P. papatasi (25 out of 130 sand flies, 19.2%). Conclusion: Phlebotomus papatasi is considered as a main vector of zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis in Fasa, Fars Province, south of Iran.
A Mouse Model of Adoptive Immunotherapeutic Targeting of Autoimmune Arthritis Using Allo-Tolerogenic Dendritic Cells

Objective Tolerogenic dendritic cells (tDCs) are immunosuppressive cells with potent tolerogenic ability and are promising immunotherapeutic tools for treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, it is currently unknown whether allogeneic tDCs (allo-tDCs) induce tolerance in RA, and whether the numbers of adoptively transferred allo-tDCs, or the requirement for pulsing with relevant auto-antigens are important. Methods tDCs were derived from bone marrow precursors of C57BL/B6 mice, which were induced in vitro by GM-CSF, IL-10 and TGF-β1. Collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) was modeled in D1 mice by immunization with type II collagen (CII) to test the therapeutic ability of allo-tDCs against CIA. Clinical and histopathologic scores, arthritic incidence, cytokine and anti-CII antibody secretion, and CD4+Th subsets were analyzed. Results tDCs were characterized in vitro by a stable immature phonotype and a potent immunosuppressive ability. Following adoptive transfer of low doses (5×105) of CII-loaded allo-tDCs, a remarkable anti-arthritic activity, improved clinical scores and histological end-points were found. Serological levels of inflammatory cytokines and anti-CII antibodies were also significantly lower in CIA mice treated with CII-pulsed allo-tDCs as compared with allo-tDCs. Moreover, treatment with allo-tDCs altered the proportion of Treg/Th17 cells. Conclusion These findings suggested that allo-tDCs, especially following antigen loading, reduced the severity of CIA in a dose-dependent manner. The dampening of CIA was associated with modulated cytokine secretion, Treg/Th17 polarization and inhibition of anti-CII secretion. This study highlights the potential therapeutic utility of allo-tDCs in autoimmune arthritis and should facilitate the future design of allo-tDC immunotherapeutic strategies against RA.
Experimental evidence that egg color indicates female condition at laying in a songbird

The signaling hypothesis of eggshell coloration in birds is based on the assumption that females of species with blue-green eggs signal their phenotypic quality to their mates through deposition of the antioxidant biliverdin as pigment. Egg pigmentation may be an expression of the condition of females at laying or of genetic linkages between egg color and female performance variables. We have supplemented 16 pied flycatcher, Ficedula hypoleuca, females with mealworms before and during laying and compared the mass and color of their eggs as measured on the day of laying to those of 16 control females with the same nest construction and laying dates and clutch sizes. Supplemented females laid significantly heavier and more intensely blue-green eggs than control females. Egg blue-green chroma was significantly associated with the amount of biliverdin in eggshells. Egg color, and thus biliverdin content, is an expression of female condition at laying. Copyright 2006.
Detection of T790M, the Acquired Resistance EGFR Mutation, by Tumor Biopsy versus Noninvasive Blood-Based Analyses

Purpose: The T790M gatekeeper mutation in the EGFR is acquired by some EGFR-mutant non–small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) as they become resistant to selective tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). As third-generation EGFR TKIs that overcome T790M-associated resistance become available, noninvasive approaches to T790M detection will become critical to guide management. Experimental Design: As part of a multi-institutional Stand-Up-To-Cancer collaboration, we performed an exploratory analysis of 40 patients with EGFR-mutant tumors progressing on EGFR TKI therapy. We compared the T790M genotype from tumor biopsies with analysis of simultaneously collected circulating tumor cells (CTC) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA). Results: T790M genotypes were successfully obtained in 30 (75%) tumor biopsies, 28 (70%) CTC samples, and 32 (80%) ctDNA samples. The resistance-associated mutation was detected in 47% to 50% of patients using each of the genotyping assays, with concordance among them ranging from 57% to 74%. Although CTC- and ctDNA-based genotyping were each unsuccessful in 20% to 30% of cases, the two assays together enabled genotyping in all patients with an available blood sample, and they identified the T790M mutation in 14 (35%) patients in whom the concurrent biopsy was negative or indeterminate. Conclusions: Discordant genotypes between tumor biopsy and blood-based analyses may result from technological differences, as well as sampling different tumor cell populations. The use of complementary approaches may provide the most complete assessment of each patient's cancer, which should be validated in predicting response to T790M-targeted inhibitors. Clin Cancer Res; 22(5); 1103–10. ©2015 AACR.
Investigating the Students' Attitude Toward the use of E-Learning in Girne

The development of technology today has impacted many aspects of life and learning is one of those aspects. Elearning is increasingly being used in universities as a new learning technology that helps meet student-cantered learning paradigms. In addition, many universities in many countries in the world use the E-learning system but many of them still need to understand at the end the user acceptance process to this technology. This study focuses on the factors that would examine the students’ attitude towards E-learning and its effectiveness in successful use. The technology acceptance model (TAM) is used in the analysis as a conceptual research framework of E-learning adoption. This paper intends to investigate factors affecting the student’s attitude towards the use of the E-learning system at Girne American University (GAU) in North Cyprus. The responses of 133 students from more than 15 different departments on the online questionnaire are analyzed, and the result shows that students are interested and satisfied to use the E-learning system, in turn, the result suggests increasing the awareness of faculty members about the necessity of integrating E-learning in the educational process.
False positive Hepatitis B Surface Antigen due to recent vaccination.

OBJECTIVE Hepatitis B is the most common viral hepatitis, potentially life threatening, with long term complications. Currently, vaccine is the most effective tool against hepatitis B infection. It is worthwhile mentioning that due to rampant use of hepatitis B vaccine (HBV), there have been concerns about hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) reactivity. This article aims to report the false positive results of HBsAg due to recent HBV among healthy male adults. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The subjects were selected from a Community Health Center, under the umbrella of a tertiary care hospital, Saudi Arabia. The data was retrieved from electronic medical records maintained at the clinic. RESULTS A total of 130 employees were recruited, only 117 records could be retrieved from the system. The mean age of participants was 31.34 ± 12.73 years. The administration of HBV and HBsAg test was performed simultaneously. The lab reported three cases of HBsAg positivity, a false positive result of 2.56%. Repeat testing after one week for HBsAg was negative for the three cases. CONCLUSION This study confirmed that HBsAg reactivity might be seen in regular screening programs for healthy adults.
Socio-economic inequalities in children's snack consumption and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption: the contribution of home environmental factors

In the present study, we examined the association between maternal education and unhealthy eating behaviour (the consumption of snack and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB)) and explored environmental factors that might mediate this association in 11-year-old children. These environmental factors include home availability of snacks and SSB, parental rules about snack and SSB consumption, parental intake of snacks and SSB, peer sensitivity and children's snack-purchasing behaviour. Data were obtained from the fourth wave of the INPACT (IVO Nutrition and Physical Activity Child cohorT) study (2011), in which 1318 parent–child dyads completed a questionnaire. Data were analysed using multivariate regression models. Children of mothers with an intermediate educational level were found to consume more snacks than those of mothers with a high educational level (B= 1·22, P= 0·02). This association was not mediated by environmental factors. Children of mothers with a low educational level were found to consume more SSB than those of mothers with a high educational level (B= 0·63, P< 0·01). The association between maternal educational level and children's SSB consumption was found to be mediated by parental intake of snacks and SSB and home availability of SSB. The home environment seems to be a promising setting for interventions on reducing socio-economic inequalities in children's SSB consumption.
Genomic aberrations and cellular heterogeneity in SV40-immortalized human corneal epithelial cells.

PURPOSE Simian virus (SV)40-immortalized human corneal epithelial (HCE-T) cells have been widely used as an in vitro model of human corneal epithelial cells. The nature of this cell line was assessed for genomic aberrations and cellular heterogeneity. METHODS For the quantitative measurement of genomic aberrations, array-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) analysis was performed. For identification of cellular heterogeneity, cell morphology, growth kinetics, transepithelial electrical resistance, and transfection/transcriptional efficiency were analyzed. Real-time PCR and chromosomal fluorescent in situ hybridization (cFISH) against some gained or lost loci were performed, to assess genomic heterogeneity. Expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for this cell line were collected to assess differences in the gene expression profiles between HCE-T cells and normal corneal epithelial cells. Southern blot analysis and inverse PCR analyses were used to determine the genomic integration site of the SV40 large T antigen gene (LTAG). RESULTS Array CGH analysis demonstrated that the genomic content of HCE-T cells is different from the normal healthy genome. The results from cellular functional assays, real-time PCR, and cFISH strongly indicated that HCE-T cells consist of a significant number of heterogeneous cell populations. The genomic integration site of the SV40 large T antigen was at p22.1 of chromosome 9. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that HCE-T cells have an altered genomic content and that they are composed of heterogeneous cell populations. This should be considered when conducting experiments or interpreting the results of studies that use this cell line.
Patient Safety in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts : Current Status and Opportunities for Improvement

This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law. This representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for noncommercial use only. Unauthorized posting of this publication online is prohibited. Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of its research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge the invaluable time and expertise generously contributed by the expert observers who participated in this study. In addition, the authors gratefully acknowledge the following individuals who provided very thoughtful feedback on an earlier draft of this report: Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction. We are also grateful to Patricia McGarry at RAND for administrative assistance. vi Abbreviations ACO accountable care organization CAUTI catheter-associated urinary tract infection CDS clinical decision support CLABSI central line-associated bloodstream infection CMS Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CPOE computerized provider order entry DPH Department of Public Health DVT deep vein thrombosis EMR electronic medical record FMEA failure mode and effects analysis HAI health care–associated infection Health IT health information technology
JavaParty – transparent remote objects in Java

Java’s threads offer appropriate means either for parallel programming of SMPs or as target constructs when compiling add-on features (e.g. forall constructs, automatic parallelization, etc.) Unfortunately, Java does not provide elegant and straightforward mechanisms for parallel programming on distributed memory machines, like clusters of workstations. JavaParty transparently adds remote objects to Java purely by declaration while avoiding disadvantages of explicit socket communication, the programming overhead of RMI, and many disadvantages of the message-passing approach in general. JavaParty is specifically targeted towards and implemented on clusters of workstations. It hence combines Java-like programming and the concepts of distributed shared memory in heterogeneous networks.
Adaptive Anisotropic Diffusion for Ultrasonic Image Denoising and Edge Enhancement

Utilizing echoic intension and distribution from different organs and local details of human body, ultrasonic image can catch important medical pathological changes, which unfortunately may be affected by ultrasonic speckle noise. A feature preserving ultrasonic image denoising and edge enhancement scheme is put forth, which includes two terms: anisotropic diffusion and edge enhancement, controlled by the optimum smoothing time. In this scheme, the anisotropic diffusion is governed by the local coordinate transformation and the first and the second order normal derivatives of the image, while the edge enhancement is done by the hyperbolic tangent function. Experiments on real ultrasonic images indicate effective preservation of edges, local details and ultrasonic echoic bright strips on denoising by our scheme. Keywords—anisotropic diffusion, coordinate transformation, directional derivatives, edge enhancement, hyperbolic tangent function, image denoising.
The teacher unions : how the NEA and AFT sabotage reform and hold students, parents, teachers, and taxpayers hostage to bureauacracy

Everyone wants to reform public education in America. But few realize that the principal obstruction to all reform is a pair of powerful and well-entrenched organizations: the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The NEA and AFT enroll over three million members. Their local, state, and national revenues exceed $1 billion annually, not counting their PACs, foundations, and wholly owned or controlled subsidiaries. In this unprecedented expose, Myron Lieberman shows how they raise and spend vast amounts, how they protect the power and perquisites of more than 6,000 officers and staff, and how they employ more full-time political staff that the Democratic and Republican parties combined. Teachers will be shocked to learn how the unions stifle dissent within their ranks, how union bureaucrats enjoy a standard of living few teachers could hope to achieve, and how union national politicial activities are far removed from most teachers' interests or political preferences.
Phylometabonomic Patterns of Adaptation to High Fat Diet Feeding in Inbred Mice

Insulin resistance plays a central role in type 2 diabetes and obesity, which develop as a consequence of genetic and environmental factors. Dietary changes including high fat diet (HFD) feeding promotes insulin resistance in rodent models which present useful systems for studying interactions between genetic background and environmental influences contributing to disease susceptibility and progression. We applied a combination of classical physiological, biochemical and hormonal studies and plasma 1H NMR spectroscopy-based metabonomics to characterize the phenotypic and metabotypic consequences of HFD (40%) feeding in inbred mouse strains (C57BL/6, 129S6, BALB/c, DBA/2, C3H) frequently used in genetic studies. We showed the wide range of phenotypic and metabonomic adaptations to HFD across the five strains and the increased nutrigenomic predisposition of 129S6 and C57BL/6 to insulin resistance and obesity relative to the other strains. In contrast mice of the BALB/c and DBA/2 strains showed relative resistance to HFD-induced glucose intolerance and obesity. Hierarchical metabonomic clustering derived from 1H NMR spectral data of the strains provided a phylometabonomic classification of strain-specific metabolic features and differential responses to HFD which closely match SNP-based phylogenetic relationships between strains. Our results support the concept of genomic clustering of functionally related genes and provide important information for defining biological markers predicting spontaneous susceptibility to insulin resistance and pathological adaptations to fat feeding.
Predicting Co-Changed Software Entities in the Context of Software Evolution

Tracing software entity dependencies is a difficult and time-consuming task, and the incomplete changes on software systems are prone to induce bugs. Mining frequent itemset is widely used to find co-changed entities, with which incomplete changes can be detected. In this paper, we present an improved method to predict co-changed software entities in the context of software evolution. In order to extract software entity change transactions precisely, a customized extraction algorithm for change transaction and a fuzzy software entity matching strategy are proposed in our approach, and then Apriori algorithm is reduced to mining the frequent change patterns of software entities efficiently. Experimental results show that our approach can increase the precision by 6%~16%, while the recall reaches 64%.
Histone H2A.Z has a conserved function that is distinct from that of the major H2A sequence variants.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae contains three genes that encode members of the histone H2A gene family. The last of these to be discovered, HTZ1 (also known as HTA3), encodes a member of the highly conserved H2A.Z class of histones. Little is known about how its in vivo function compares with that of the better studied genes (HTA1 and HTA2) encoding the two major H2As. We show here that, while the HTZ1 gene encoding H2A.Z is not essential in budding yeast, its disruption results in slow growth and formamide sensitivity. Using plasmid shuffle experiments, we show that the major H2A genes cannot provide the function of HTZ1 and the HTZ1 gene cannot provide the essential function of the genes encoding the major H2As. We also demonstrate for the first time that H2A.Z genes are functionally conserved by showing that the gene encoding the H2A.Z variant of the ciliated protozoan TETRAHYMENA: thermophila is able to rescue the phenotypes associated with disruption of the yeast HTZ1 gene. Thus, the functions of H2A.Z are distinct from those of the major H2As and are highly conserved.
AutomatedFormal Verification of Model Tranformations

As the Model Driven Architecture(MDA) relies on complex and highly automatedmodeltransformationsbetweenarbitrarymodelinglanguages, thequalityof suchtransformationsis of immenseimportanceasit caneasilybecomeabottleneckof amodel-dri vendesignprocess. Automationsurelyincreases thequalityof suchtransformationsaserrorsmanuallyimplantedinto transformation programsduring implementationareeliminated;however, conceptualflaws in transformationdesignstill remainundetected. In thispaper , wepresentametalevel andhighly automatedtechniqueto formally verify by modelcheckingthata modeltransformationfrom anarbitrarywell-formedmodelinstanceof thesource modeling languageinto its target equivalent preserves (languagespecific)dynamicconsistenc y properties.We demonstratethefeasibility of our approachon a complex mathematicalmodel transformationfrom UML statechartsto Petri nets.