Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mammalian Tribbles Homologs at the Crossroads of Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress and Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Pathways

In 2000, investigators discovered Tribbles, a Drosophila protein that coordinates morphogenesis by inhibiting mitosis. Further work has delineated Xenopus (Xtrb2), Nematode (Nipi-3), and mammalian homologs of Drosophila tribbles, which include TRB1, TRB2, and TRB3. The sequences of tribbles homologs are highly conserved, and despite their protein kinase structure, to date they have not been shown to have kinase activity. TRB family members play a role in the differentiation of macrophages, lymphocytes, muscle cells, adipocytes, and osteoblasts. TRB isoforms also coordinate a number of critical cellular processes including glucose and lipid metabolism, inflammation, cellular stress, survival, apoptosis, and tumorigenesis. TRB family members modulate multiple complex signaling networks including mitogen activated protein kinase cascades, protein kinase B/AKT signaling, mammalian target of rapamycin, and inflammatory pathways. The following review will discuss metazoan homologs of Drosophila tribbles, their structure, expression patterns, and functions. In particular, we will focus on TRB3 function in the kidney in podocytes. This review will also discuss the key signaling pathways with which tribbles proteins interact and provide a rationale for developing novel therapeutics that exploit these interactions to provide better treatment options for both acute and chronic kidney disease.
Denial of Death and the Relationship between Humans and Other Animals

ABSTRACT The focus of this paper is to explore how cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker's claim that human behavior is largely motivated by fear of death may explain important aspects of our relationship with nonhuman animals. Terror management theory (tmt) suggests that when we humans are reminded of our personal mortality, we tend to deny our biological identity or creatureliness and distance ourselves from the other animals, since they remind us of our own mortal nature. In support of this, an abundance of peerreviewed experimental literature shows that reminders of our own mortality create a strong psychological need to proclaim that “I am not an animal. ” We contend that the denial of death is an important factor in driving how and why our relationships with other animals are fundamentally exploitive and harmful. Even though today there are more animal advocacy and protection organizations than ever, the situation for nonhuman animals continues to deteriorate (e.g., more factory farming, mass extinction of wildlife species, and ocean life under severe stress). We also suggest that developing a new and more appropriate relationship with the natural world would be a key factor in resolving the question that Becker was never able to answer: how can we deal with the existential anxiety that is engendered by the awareness of our own mortality?
Comparison of K-ras mutations in lung, colorectal and gastric cancer

K-ras is involved in the EGFR pathway that regulates cell survival, motility and proliferation, as well as angiogenesis and metastasis. It is also essential for carcinogenesis. The K-ras mutation status can be used to predict the therapeutic efficacy of targeted drugs such as cetuximab. The aim of this study was to compare K-ras mutation in different types of cancer. Nested and COLD-PCR were used to detect K-ras mutations. The Chi-squared test was used for statistical analysis. In this study, the total K-ras mutation frequency was found to be 9.09, 18.61 and 6.67% in lung, colorectal and gastric cancer, respectively. Similar K-ras mutation frequencies were detected among sample types and genders for lung and gastric cancer, with the exception of colorectal cancer. However, age had no impact on the K-ras mutation rates.
GABAergic inhibition through synergistic astrocytic neuronal interaction transiently decreases vasopressin neuronal activity during hypoosmotic challenge

The neuropeptide vasopressin is crucial to mammalian osmotic regulation. Local hypoosmotic challenge transiently decreases and then increases vasopressin secretion. To investigate mechanisms underlying this transient response, we examined the effects of hypoosmotic challenge on the electrical activity of rat hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus (SON) vasopressin neurons using patch‐clamp recordings. We found that 5 min exposure of hypothalamic slices to hypoosmotic solution transiently increased inhibitory postsynaptic current (IPSC) frequency and reduced the firing rate of vasopressin neurons. Recovery occurred by 10 min of exposure, even though the osmolality remained low. The γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA)A receptor blocker, gabazine, blocked the IPSCs and the hypoosmotic suppression of firing. The gliotoxin l‐aminoadipic acid blocked the increase in IPSC frequency at 5 min and the recovery of firing at 10 min, indicating astrocytic involvement in hypoosmotic modulation of vasopressin neuronal activity. Moreover, β‐alanine, an osmolyte of astrocytes and GABA transporter (GAT) inhibitor, blocked the increase in IPSC frequency at 5 min of hypoosmotic challenge. Confocal microscopy of immunostained SON sections revealed that astrocytes and magnocellular neurons both showed positive staining of vesicular GATs (VGAT). Hypoosmotic stimulation in vivo reduced the number of VGAT‐expressing neurons, and increased co‐localisation and molecular association of VGAT with glial fibrillary acidic protein that increased significantly by 10 min. By 30 min, neuronal VGAT labelling was partially restored, and astrocytic VGAT was relocated to the ventral portion while it decreased in the somatic zone of the SON. Thus, synergistic astrocytic and neuronal GABAergic inhibition could ensure that vasopressin neuron firing is only transiently suppressed under hypoosmotic conditions.
Nursing Student Perceptions of Digital Textbooks: A Pilot Study

AbstractDigital textbooks are increasing in popularity, often resulting from the perception that students demand the use of technology in academics. However, few studies have been done on student perceptions of digital textbooks. A pilot study was conducted with students enrolled in a nursing research course; 123 nursing students participated. This study found that students overwhelmingly preferred print textbooks over digital textbooks. More research needs to be done before assuming students would prefer digital textbooks over print.
Sexual violence and restorative practices in Belgium, Ireland and Norway: a thematic analysis of country variations

ABSTRACT The article compares and contrasts the provision of some restorative practices in cases of sexual violence in three European countries: Belgium, Ireland and Norway. It begins by briefly outlining efforts to address the ‘justice gap’ experienced by victims of sexual violence within conventional justice systems. The article points to calls for the development of alternative or complementary innovative justice responses to sexual violence. It suggests that restorative justice advocates believe they can deliver a participatory, empowering and flexible form of restorative justice, which can run in tandem with conventional criminal justice processes. However, it is noted that the application of restorative approaches to cases of sexual violence has engendered some controversy. The article points to considerable inter-country divergence in the extent to which restorative justice is accessible to victims of sexual crimes and to the emergence of country-specific patterns in the provision of restorative justice in cases of sexual violence.
Dynamic Scheduling of a Two-Class Queue with Setups

We analyze two scheduling problems for a queueing system with a single server and two customer classes. Each class has its own renewal arrival process, general service time distribution, and holding cost rate. In the first problem, a setup cost is incurred when the server switches from one class to the other, and the objective is to minimize the long-run expected average cost of holding customers and incurring setups. The setup cost is replaced by a setup time in the second problem, where the objective is to minimize the average holding cost. By assuming that a recently derived heavy traffic principle holds not only for the exhaustive policy but for nonexhaustive policies, we approximate (under standard heavy traffic conditions) the dynamic scheduling problems by diffusion control problems. The diffusion control problem for the setup cost problem is solved exactly, and asymptotics are used to analyze the corresponding setup time problem. Computational results show that the proposed scheduling policies are within several percent of optimal over a broad range of problem parameters.
NADPH Oxidase Restrains the Matrix Metalloproteinase Activity of Macrophages*

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) regulate numerous functions in normal and disease processes; thus, irreversibly blocking their activity is a key step in regulating MMP catalysis. We previously showed in vitro that oxidizing intermediates generated by phagocytes inactivate MMPs by modifying specific amino acids. To assess whether this mechanism operates in vivo, we focused on MMP-12, a macrophage-specific MMP known to mediate emphysema in mouse models. We found that mice lacking gp91phox, a phagocyte-specific component of the NADPH oxidase, developed extensive, spontaneous emphysematous destruction of their peripheral air spaces, whereas mice deficient in both NADPH oxidase and MMP-12 were protected from spontaneous emphysema. Although gp91phox-null and wild-type macrophages produced equivalent levels of MMP-12 protein, the oxidant-deficient cells had greater MMP-12 activity than wild-type macrophages. These findings indicate that reactive intermediates provide a physiological mechanism to protect tissues from excessive macrophage-mediated damage during inflammation.
Customer loyalty : A multi-attribute approach

The proposed model is theoretically grounded in the multi-attribute attitude literature. It is proposed that the antecedents of customer loyalty are be partitioned into three categories. First, supply-side (firm-controllable) customer loyalty antecedents are those satisfaction drivers that comprise total customer experience (TCE). Eight distinct TCE dimensions are identified through preliminary personal interviews. Second, the TCE variables influence customer loyalty through a series of mediating variables including satisfaction, quality, perceived value and trust. Customer loyalty is considered a dual-dimensional construct, comprised of cognitive and affective loyalty. The TCE and its antecedents work along two, independent paths---one calculative (cognitive) and one emotional (affective). Third, a demand-side antecedent variable, Loyalty Orientation (LO), is developed to account for the effect of individual differences on customer loyalty. The LO variable is comprised of price fairness, competitor attractiveness, loyalty proneness, and product involvement. Customer loyalty manifests itself in behavioral consequences, including repurchase behavior, spreading positive word of mouth communication, resistance to counter persuasion and reduced product category search. A measure of Perceived Behavioral Control is integrated into the model to account for purchase occasions where the decision is not entirely volitional (exit costs, monetary restrictions, etc.). Managers in virtually any market can use this robust model as a template to optimize loyalty.
Does ketamine induce an abnormal sense of time in healthy volunteers

to range from 15% to 85% in medical illnesses (Docherty and Fiester, 1986), and it is especially common chronic relapsing disorders. Schizoaffective disorder is a chronic, severe and disabling illness consisting of the concurrent presentation of symptoms of schizophrenia and affective disorders, and it its course and prognosis has been found to be intermediate to those two conditions (Benabarre et al., 2001). To our knowledge, no study has been specifically aimed at evaluating treatment adherence in SAD and to which demographical and it may be associated. Our objective to evaluate treatment adherence in schizoaffective disorder, and to which demographical and clinical variables it may be associated.
Median and Ulnar Nerves Traumatic Injuries Rehabilitation

Peripheral nerves are structures that suffer injuries similar to those seen in other tissues, resulting in important motor and sensory disabilities. It is estimated that the incidence of traumatic lesions is as high as 500.000 cases per year in some countries, where 2,8% of the patients become permanently disabled due to prolonged nerve regeneration time (Noble et al., 1998; Rodrigues et al., 2004)
Morphological diversity of medusan lineages constrained by animal–fluid interactions

SUMMARY Cnidarian medusae, commonly known as jellyfish, represent the earliest known animal taxa to achieve locomotion using muscle power. Propulsion by medusae requires the force of bell contraction to generate forward thrust. However, thrust production is limited in medusae by the primitive structure of their epitheliomuscular cells. This paper demonstrates that constraints in available locomotor muscular force result in a trade-off between high-thrust swimming via jet propulsion and high-efficiency swimming via a combined jet-paddling propulsion. This trade-off is reflected in the morphological diversity of medusae, which exhibit a range of fineness ratios (i.e. the ratio between bell height and diameter) and small body size in the high-thrust regime, and low fineness ratios and large body size in the high-efficiency regime. A quantitative model of the animal–fluid interactions that dictate this trade-off is developed and validated by comparison with morphological data collected from 660 extant medusan species ranging in size from 300 μm to over 2 m. These results demonstrate a biomechanical basis linking fluid dynamics and the evolution of medusan bell morphology. We believe these to be the organising principles for muscle-driven motility in Cnidaria.
Erythrocyte Delta‐aminolaevulinic Acid Dehydratase Activity and changes in Delta‐aminolaevulinic Acid Concentration in Various Forms of Anaemia

Summary. Whole blood delta‐aminolaevulinic acid (ALA) concentrations and crythrocyte ALA dehydratase activity have been measured in patients with iron deficiency anaemia, megaloblastic anaemia and secondary anaemia, and in normal subjects. ALA concentration was found to tbe significantly increased in all types of anaemai compared with normal. Erythrocyte ALA dehydratase activity was significantly increased in iron deficiency and megaloblastic anaemia but not in secondary anaemia.
Predicting Stock Market Returns with Aggregate Discretionary Accruals

We find that the positive relation between aggregate accruals and one‐year‐ahead market returns documented in Hirshleifer, Hou, and Teoh [2009] is driven by discretionary accruals but not normal accruals. The return forecasting power of aggregate discretionary accruals is robust to choices of sample periods, return measurements, estimation methods, business condition and risk premium proxies, and accrual models used to isolate discretionary accruals. Our extensive analysis shows that aggregate discretionary accruals, in sharp contrast to aggregate normal accruals, contain little information about overall business conditions or aggregate cash flows and display little co‐movement with ICAPM‐motivated risk premium proxies. Our findings imply that aggregate discretionary accruals likely reflect aggregate fluctuations in earnings management, thereby favoring the behavioral explanation that managers time aggregate equity markets to report earnings.
Betel Chewing and Arecoline Affects Eotaxin-1, Asthma and Lung Function

Background Betel nut is commonly used in many countries. Despite evidence suggesting an association with asthma, few studies have investigated the connection between betel nut use and asthma; thus, the underlying mechanism for the association with asthma is also unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between betel chewing and asthma as well as the associations of plasma arecoline (a biomarker for exposure) and eotaxin-1 (a potential mediator) with asthma and lung function. Methods We recruited 600 hospital-based asthmatic patients and 1200 age- and gender-matched community controls in southern Taiwan. To clarify the mechanism of action for eotaxin-1 in the association between betel chewing and asthma, we also designed an in vitro experiment to study the functional associations between arecoline exposure and eotaxin-1 levels. Results A significant association was found between asthma and current betel chewing (adjusted odds ratio 2.05, 95% CI = 1.12–3.76), which was independent of potential confounders but was attenuated following adjustment for eotaxin-1. Arecoline and eotaxin-1 levels were positively correlated (Spearman r = 0.303, p = 0.02), while arecoline and arecaidine were negatively correlated with lung function. Functionally, arecoline alone does not induce eotaxin-1 release in vitro from dermal and gingival fibroblasts. However, in the presence of IL-4 and TNF-alpha, arecoline at 100 μg/ml induced more eotaxin-1 release than arecoline at 0 μg/ml (2700±98 pg/ml vs 1850±142 pg/ml, p = 0.01 in dermal fibroblast cells, and 1489±78 pg/ml vs 1044±95 pg/ml, p = 0.03 in gingival fibroblast cells, respectively). Conclusion Betel chewing is associated with asthma in this population, with arecoline induction of eotaxin-1 supported as a plausible causal pathway.
Latent Factor Transition for Dynamic Collaborative Filtering

User preferences change over time and capturing such changes is essential for developing accurate recommender systems. Despite its importance, only a few works in collaborative filtering have addressed this issue. In this paper, we consider evolving preferences and we model user dynamics by introducing and learning a transition matrix for each user’s latent vectors between consecutive time windows. Intuitively, the transition matrix for a user summarizes the time-invariant pattern of the evolution for the user. We first extend the conventional probabilistic matrix factorization and then improve upon this solution through its fully Bayesian model. These solutions take advantage of the model complexity and scalability of conventional Bayesian matrix factorization, yet adapt dynamically to user’s evolving preferences. We evaluate the effectiveness of these solutions through empirical studies on six large-scale real life data sets.
CLASSROOM ASSESSMENT ENVIRONMENT, SELF- EFFICACY, AND MASTERY GOAL ORIENTATION: A CAUSAL MODEL

Uncovering how classroom assessment influences students' motivational beliefs is important for understanding how to create classroom environments focusing on learning and mastery. Using research on classroom assessment and academic motivation, the current study used path analysis techniques to test a model explaining the impact of classroom assessment environment on students' academic self-efficacy and mastery goal orientation. The study looked at the direct effects of the classroom assessment environment on mastery goals as well as the mediating effect of self-efficacy on mastery goals. Data were collected from 242 undergraduate students enrolled in an educational psychology course in the College of Education at Sultan Qaboos University during the Fall 2008 semester. The literature was consulted for measures of classroom assessment environment (e.g., Alkharusi, 2008; Church et al., 2001; Wang, 2004) and self-efficacy (e.g., Greene et al., 2004; Midgley et al., 2000). Mastery goals were measured using items from Elliot and Murayama's (2007) Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised (AGQ-R). The observed data strongly supported the hypothesized model. It was concluded that students' perceptions of the classroom assessment environment have both direct and indirect effects, which may be positive or negative, on their motivational beliefs. The contribution and relevance of the results to teaching, learning, and research are discussed.
An investigation of the link between spirituality and intelligence

ion components of the Shipley-2 increased, so too did overall cognitive ability scores. A weak, non-significant correlation was observed between standard scores on the abstraction and vocabulary components, indicating that each respective measure is indeed loading onto a unique form of cognition (i.e., fluid and crystallized intelligence, respectively). These correlations are presented in Table 7.
Latent Interest and Topic Mining on User-Item Bipartite Networks

Latent Factor Model (LFM) is extensively used in dealing with user-item bipartite networks in service recommendation systems. To alleviate the limitations of LFM, this papers presents a novel unsupervised learning model, Latent Interest and Topic Mining model (LITM), to automatically mine the latent user interests and item topics from user-item bipartite networks. In particular, we introduce the motivation and objectives of this bipartite network based approach, and detail the model development and optimization process of the proposed LITM. This work not only provides an efficient method for latent user interest and item topic mining, but also highlights a new way to improve the accuracy of service recommendation. Experimental studies are performed and the results validate the LITM's efficiency in model training, and its ability to provide better service recommendation performance based on user-item bipartite networks are demonstrated.
Non-dipping morning blood pressure and isolated systolic hypertension in elderly.

OBJECTIVE Morning hypertension is currently the blind spot in the clinical practice of hypertension, home 24-hour blood pressure measurement has been recommended in patients with a high clinic blood pressure and patients with target organ damage. AIM To assess whether an increased early morning blood pressure surge, established via a single 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, in treated elderly hypertensive's is related to more prominent target organ damage. MATERIAL AND METHODS 310 treated hypertensive patients randomly attended the out-patient clinic of our hypertension centre. The patients were divided in 2 groups: systolic/diastolic blood pressure hypertension (n = 266) and isolated systolic hypertension (n = 44 76 ± 10 yrs). RESULTS Equivalent in both males and females, despite the rise in nondippers with an early morning surge (higher in females). Hyperlipidemia arises equally in dippers and nondippers, 45 % of nondippers had diabetes mellitus; 30 % suffered previous renal insufficiency and about 29 % of patients suffered from an endocrine disorder, mostly thyroid. Metabolic syndrome was only found to be associated with a nondipping pattern (3 %). Left ventricular hypertrophy was present in 100 % of patients, heart failure in 60 % nondippers and 56 % dippers, potential renal insufficiency in 34 % nondippers and 22 % dippers, retinopathy in 31 % non dippers and 11 % dippers, aortic aneurysm was only in nondippers. CONCLUSION Early morning surge is a predictor of hypertensive target organ damage, being a dipper or nondipper patient with isolated systolic hypertension, might not make a difference depending on one's own degree of target organ damage and diurnal variation (Fig. 2, Ref. 30).
Performance analysis for a K-winners-take-all analog neural network: basic theory

In a previous work, the authors proposed an analog Hopfield-type neural network that identified the K largest components of a list of real numbers. In this work, we identify computable restrictions on the parameters, in order that the network can repeatedly process lists, one after the other, at a given rate. A complete mathematical analysis gives analytical bounds for the time required in terms of circuit parameters, the length of the lists, and the relative separation of list elements. This allows practical setting of circuit parameters for required clocking times. The emphasis is on high gain functioning of each neuron. Numerical investigations show the accuracy of the theoretical predictions, and study the influence of various parameters on performance.