Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell surface changes associated with in vitro capacitation and acrosome reaction of goat epididymal sperm by a marine bio-active compound from the snail Telescopium telescopium.

A protein factor, spermatheca fraction fi fty, isolated from the spermatheca/ovotestis gland of a marine mollusc Telescopium telescopium by 50% ammonium sulphate precipitation was capable of inducing a capacitation and acrosome reaction of washed goat cauda epididymal spermatozoa in vitro. The effect of this isolated bio-active compound on goat sperm cells was comparable to heparin and concanavalinA. The number of acrosome reacted spermatozoa treated with heparin, concanavalinA and spermatheca fraction fi fty increased steadily and signifi cantly (P<0.001) over the extended period of incubation. Observation concluded that spermatheca fraction fi fty could be used for the evaluation of sperm plasmamembrane integrity and/or acrosomal integrity in vitro.
Motor Asymmetry Attenuation in Older Adults during Imagined Arm Movements

Laterality is an important feature of motor behavior. Several studies have shown that lateralization in right-handed young adults (i.e., right versus left arm superiority) emerges also during imagined actions, that is when an action is internally simulated without any motor output. Such information, however, is lacking for elderly people and it could be valuable to further comprehend the evolution of mental states of action in normal aging. Here, we evaluated the influence of age on motor laterality during mental actions. Twenty-four young (mean age: 24.7 ± 4.4 years) and 24 elderly (mean age: 72.4 ± 3.6 years) participants mentally simulated and actually executed pointing movements with either their dominant-right or non-dominant-left arm in the horizontal plane. We recorded and analyzed the time of actual and mental movements and looked for differences between groups and arms. In addition, electromyographic activity from arm muscle was recorded to quantify any enhancement in muscle activation during mental actions. Our findings indicated that both groups mentally simulated arm movements without activating the muscles of the right or the left arm above the baseline level. This finding suggests that young and, notably, elderly adults are able to generate covert actions without any motor output. We found that manual asymmetries (i.e., faster movements with the right arm) were preserved in young adults for both actual and mental movements. In elderly adults, manual asymmetries were observed for actual but not for mental movements (i.e., equal movement times for both arms). These findings clearly indicate an age-related reduction of motor laterality during mental actions.
Fecal Microbiota and Metabolome of Children with Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified

This study aimed at investigating the fecal microbiota and metabolome of children with Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) and autism (AD) in comparison to healthy children (HC). Bacterial tag-encoded FLX-titanium amplicon pyrosequencing (bTEFAP) of the 16S rDNA and 16S rRNA analyses were carried out to determine total bacteria (16S rDNA) and metabolically active bacteria (16S rRNA), respectively. The main bacterial phyla (Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Fusobacteria and Verrucomicrobia) significantly (P<0.05) changed among the three groups of children. As estimated by rarefaction, Chao and Shannon diversity index, the highest microbial diversity was found in AD children. Based on 16S-rRNA and culture-dependent data, Faecalibacterium and Ruminococcus were present at the highest level in fecal samples of PDD-NOS and HC children. Caloramator, Sarcina and Clostridium genera were the highest in AD children. Compared to HC, the composition of Lachnospiraceae family also differed in PDD-NOS and, especially, AD children. Except for Eubacterium siraeum, the lowest level of Eubacteriaceae was found on fecal samples of AD children. The level of Bacteroidetes genera and some Alistipes and Akkermansia species were almost the highest in PDD-NOS or AD children as well as almost all the identified Sutterellaceae and Enterobacteriaceae were the highest in AD. Compared to HC children, Bifidobacterium species decreased in AD. As shown by Canonical Discriminant Analysis of Principal Coordinates, the levels of free amino acids and volatile organic compounds of fecal samples were markedly affected in PDD-NOS and, especially, AD children. If the gut microbiota differences among AD and PDD-NOS and HC children are one of the concomitant causes or the consequence of autism, they may have implications regarding specific diagnostic test, and/or for treatment and prevention.
Opposing Same-Sex Marriage, by supporting Civil Partnerships: Resistances to LGBT Equalities

Whilst many speak of battles being won around Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) equalities, the debates regarding same-sex marriage and the implementation of equalities legislation suggests that there continues to be strong resistances to sexual and gendered rights. Scholarship on the political and social activism of the Christian Right, as well as on the conservative right more broadly, has detailed the depth and breadth of the ongoing resistance to LGBT equalities. Much of this research is focused on the USA, documenting how the oppositional approaches taken by US organisations have shifted over the last decade or so (Herman, 1997) and has demonstrated the geographical specificity of various resistances (Nash and Browne, 2014, Browne and Nash, forthcoming). 1
How do Medical Students Learn

Background & Objectives: In this paper, we try to define learning, to describe how retention of memorized material can be improved and to describe how to help students improve clinical reasoning and problem solving skills. The goal of teaching is to improve learning, but how do we know that students are learning in the proper way? Methods: We depend on our experience in medical and clinical teaching of our undergraduate and postgraduate students during implementation of the curriculum. We interview 1st year (preclinical) and 6th year medical students by certain questionnaires (VARK) in order to know their learning methods and their knowledge about the styles of learning and the techniques of learning. Learning is viewed here as developing a way of thinking and acting that is a characteristic of an expert physician. Such a way of thinking consists of three important elements: We utilize Working Memory in 3 main approaches: First, attention in a way through questions, focus attention and uses of first letter of statement of the word; Second, rule of 7 (Teach < 7 steps); Third, concentration on important relevant materials. We have to keep in our mind that even if we remember something, it doesn't mean we understand it. In addition, the case learning approach & problem solving learning approach are the methods used and we try to be cooperative, active, and experimental and the student must be self directed and the students should be competent in his learning methods, most are confident of their ability. Results: Most of the first year students have poor knowledge in regards to style & learning techniques. For final year students around 30% learn two styles and 20% trimodel, especially more in female students, 10% mention single model in their learning and the remaining learn by Quad modals. In conclusion, learning how to learn must be a standard part of the curriculum in medical school, and student must be aware of that.
Accessibility of Referent Information Influences Sentence Planning: An Eye-Tracking Study

This study investigated the time-course of online sentence formulation (i.e., incrementality in sentence planning) as a function of the preceding discourse context. In two eye-tracking experiments, participants described pictures of transitive events (e.g., a frog catching a fly). The accessibility of the agent (Experiment 1) and patient (Experiment 2) was manipulated in the discourse preceding each picture. In the Literal condition, participants heard a story where the agent or patient was mentioned explicitly (fly, frog). In the Associative condition, the agent or patient was not mentioned but was primed by the story (via semantically or associatively related words such as insect, small, black, wings). In the No Mention condition, the stories did not explicitly mention or prime either character. The target response was expected to have the same structure and content in all conditions (SVO sentences: The frog catches the fly). The results showed that participants generally looked first at the agent, before speech onset, regardless of condition, and then at the patient around and after speech onset. Analyses of eye movements in time window associated with linguistic planning showed that formulation was sensitive mainly to whether the agent was literally mentioned in the context or not and to lesser extent to conceptual accessibility (Experiment 1). Furthermore, accessibility of the patient (be it literal mention of its name or only availability of the concept) showed no effect on the time-course of utterance planning (Experiment 2). Together, these results suggest that linguistic planning before speech onset was influenced only by the accessibility of the first character name in the sentence, providing further evidence for highly incremental planning in sentence production.
A Time-stepping Method for Stii Multibody Dynamics with Contact and Friction ‡

SUMMARY We deÿne a time-stepping procedure to integrate the equations of motion of stii multibody dynamics with contact and friction. The friction and non-interpenetration constraints are modelled by complemen-tarity equations. Stiiness is accommodated by a technique motivated by a linearly implicit Euler method. We show that the main subproblem, a linear complementarity problem, is consistent for a suuciently small time step h. In addition, we prove that for the most common type of stii forces encountered in rigid body dynamics, where a damping or elastic force is applied between two points of the system, the method is well deÿned for any time step h. We show that the method is stable in the stii limit, unconditionally with respect to the damping parameters, near the equilibrium points of the springs. The integration step approaches, in the stii limit, the integration step for a system where the stii forces have been replaced by corresponding joint constraints. Simulations for one-and two-dimensional examples demonstrate the stable behaviour of the method. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Adolescent predictors of female dating violence perpetration

ABSTRACT Teen dating violence is a significant problem impacting the adolescent experience with adolescent females at-risk to perpetrate violence. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) was used to assess perpetration risk behaviors through an examination into adolescent behaviors that shape their dating experiences. This study examined adolescent female perpetration of dating violence and the associations between alcohol use, racial identification, and delinquency using a nationally representative longitudinal sample. It was hypothesized that both models would predict dating violence perpetration based on prior knowledge and research studies that have been conducted among adolescent samples. Although risk behaviors were present among adolescents in this nationally representative sample, threats of violence and physical perpetration of violence were reported at levels lower than hypothesized. The findings of this study identified adolescent female minorities as being at an increased risk to perpetrate physical dating violence. These findings demonstrate the continued need to examine female perpetration of dating violence and incorporate these experiences in prevention and intervention efforts.
Combinatorial on/off Model for Olfactory Coding

We present a model for olfactory coding based on spatial representation of glomerular responses. In this model distinct odorants activate specific subsets of glomeruli, dependent upon the odorant's chemical identity and concentration. The glomerular response specificities are understood statistically, based on experimentally measured distributions of detection thresholds. A simple version of the model, in which glomerular responses are binary (the on/off model), allows us to account quantitatively for the following results of human/rodent olfactory psychophysics: 1) just noticeable differences in the perceived concentration of a single odor (Weber ratios) are dC/C ~ 0.04; 2) the number of simultaneously perceived odors can be as high as 12; 3) extensive lesions of the olfactory bulb do not lead to significant changes in detection or discrimination thresholds. We conclude that a combinatorial code based on a binary glomerular response is sufficient to account for the discrimination capacity of the mammalian olfactory system.
Exploratory analysis of diabetic retinopathy progression through 3 years in a randomized clinical trial that compares intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide with focal/grid photocoagulation.

OBJECTIVE To compare the effect of intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide with focal/grid photocoagulation on the progression of diabetic retinopathy. METHODS We performed an exploratory analysis of participants with diabetic macular edema randomly assigned to receive laser therapy or intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide (1 or 4 mg). Fundus photographs were obtained at baseline and 1, 2, and 3 years. The main outcome measure was progression to proliferative diabetic retinopathy or worsening of 2 or more severity levels on reading-center masked assessment of 7-field fundus photographs, plus additional eyes that received panretinal photocoagulation or had a vitreous hemorrhage. RESULTS From July 15, 2004, through May 5, 2006, 840 eyes from 693 participants were enrolled in the study and randomly assigned to receive laser therapy (n = 330), 1 mg of triamcinolone acetonide (n = 256), or 4 mg of triamcinolone acetonide (n = 254). The cumulative probability of progression of retinopathy at 2 years was 31% (laser group), 29% (1-mg group), and 21% (4-mg group) (P = .64 in the 1-mg group and .005 in the 4-mg group compared with the laser group). These differences appeared to be sustained at 3 years. CONCLUSIONS Intravitreal triamcinolone acetonide (4 mg) appeared to reduce the risk of progression of diabetic retinopathy. Given the exploratory nature of this analysis and because intravitreal triamcinolone adverse effects include cataract formation and glaucoma, use of this treatment merely to reduce the rates of progression of proliferative diabetic retinopathy or worsening of the level of diabetic retinopathy does not seem warranted at this time.
Wages and Human Capital in Finance: International Evidence, 1970-2005

We study the allocation and compensation of human capital in the finance industry in a set of developed economies in 1970-2005. Finance relative skill intensity and skilled wages generally increase but not in all countries, and to varying degrees. Skilled wages in finance account for 36% of increases in overall skill premia, although finance only accounts for 5.4% of skilled private sector employment, on average. Financial deregulation, financial globalization and bank concentration are the most important factors driving wages in finance. Differential investment in information and communication technology does not have causal explanatory power. High finance wages attract skilled international immigration to finance, raising concerns for "brain drain".
Relationship between Body Mass Index Reference and All-Cause Mortality: Evidence from a Large Cohort of Thai Adults

We investigate variation in body mass index (BMI) reference and 5-year all-cause mortality using data from 87151 adult Open University students nationwide. Analyses focused on BMI reference bands: “normal” (≥18.5 to <23), “lower normal” (≥18.5 to <20.75), “upper normal” (≥20.75 to <23), and “narrow Western normal” (≥23 to <25). We report hazard ratios (HR) and 95% Confidence Intervals adjusting for covariates. Compared to lower normal, adults aged 35–65 years who were obese (BMI ≥ 30) were twice as likely to die during the follow-up (HR 2.37; 1.01–5.70). For the same group, when using narrow Western normal as the reference, the results were similar (HR 3.02; 1.26–7.22). However, different combinations of BMI exposure and reference band produce quite different results. Older age persons belonging to Asian overweight BMI category (≥23 to <25) were relatively protected from mortality (HR 0.57; 0.34–0.96 and HR 0.49; 0.28–0.84) when assessed using normal (≥18.5 to <23) and upper normal (≥20.75 to <23) as reference bands. Use of different “normal” reference produced varying mortality relationships in a large cohort of Thai adults. Caution is needed when interpreting BMI-mortality data.
The Effect of Head Orientation on Perceived Gaze Direction: Revisiting Gibson and Pick (1963) and Cline (1967)

Two biases in perceived gaze direction have been observed when eye and head orientation are not aligned. An overshoot effect indicates that perceived gaze direction is shifted away from head orientation (i.e., a repulsive effect), whereas a towing effect indicates that perceived gaze direction falls in between head and eye orientation (i.e., an attraction effect). In the 60s, three influential papers have been published with respect to the effect of head orientation on perceived gaze direction (Gibson and Pick, 1963; Cline, 1967; Anstis et al., 1969). Throughout the years, the results of two of these (Gibson and Pick, 1963; Cline, 1967) have been interpreted differently by a number of authors. In this paper, we critically discuss potential sources of confusion that have led to differential interpretations of both studies. At first sight, the results of Cline (1967), despite having been a major topic of discussion, unambiguously seem to indicate a towing effect whereas Gibson and Pick’s (1963) results seem to be the most ambiguous, although they have never been questioned in the literature. To shed further light on this apparent inconsistency, we repeated the critical experiments reported in both studies. Our results indicate an overshoot effect in both studies.
Development of food photographs for use with children aged 18 months to 16 years: Comparison against weighed food diaries – The Young Person’s Food Atlas (UK)

Traditional dietary assessment methods, used in the UK, such as weighed food diaries impose a large participant burden, often resulting in difficulty recruiting representative samples and underreporting of energy intakes. One approach to reducing the burden placed on the participant is to use portion size assessment tools to obtain an estimate of the amount of food consumed, removing the need to weigh all foods. An age range specific food atlas was developed for use in assessing children’s dietary intakes. The foods selected and portion sizes depicted were derived from intakes recorded during the UK National Diet and Nutrition Surveys of children aged 1.5 to 16 years. Estimates of food portion sizes using the food atlas were compared against 4-day weighed intakes along with in-school / nursery observations, by the research team. Interviews were conducted with parents the day after completion of the diary, and for children aged 4 to 16 years, also with the child. Mean estimates of portion size consumed were within 7% of the weight of food recorded in the weighed food diary. The limits of agreement were wide indicating high variability of estimates at the individual level but the precision increased with increasing age. For children 11 years and over, agreement with weighed food diaries, was as good as that of their parents in terms of total weight of food consumed and of intake of energy and key nutrients. The age appropriate food photographs offer an alternative to weighed intakes for dietary assessment with children.
Letters to the Editor Isoform-specific Imprinting of the Human Peg1/ Mest Gene Figure 2 Electronic-database Information Involvement of the Hlxb9 Homeobox Gene in Currarino Syndrome Collection of Patients with Anorectal and Sacral Anomalies in This Study

To the Editor: Mouse Peg1/Mest encodes a protein with sequence ho-mology to the alpha/beta-hydrolase (Sado et al. 1993). The gene maps to an imprinted region of mouse chromosome 6 and is expressed monoallelically from the paternal allele (Kaneko-Ishino et al. 1995). When the null allele is paternally transmitted, the offspring exhibit severe intrauterine growth retardation (Lefebvre et al. 1998). Uniparental disomy of mouse chromosome 6 is associated with a similar phenotype, presumably as a result of lack of expression of Peg1/Mest (Ferguson-Smith et al. 1991). The human homologue, PEG1/ MEST, has been mapped to 7q31.3, within a region of conserved synteny corresponding to mouse chromosome 6, and is monoallelically expressed from the paternal allele in a wide variety of tissues during prenatal and postnatal development. Uniparental disomy of chromosome 7 in humans is associated with phenotypic features of Russell-Silver syndrome (MIM 180860), characterized by intrauterine growth retardation with dysmorphic features such as triangular facies. PEG1/ MEST, as the only known imprinted gene on chromosome 7, has been considered a candidate gene for the syndrome (Kobayashi et al. 1997; Lefebvre et al. 1997; Riesewijk et al. 1997). Imprinting of PEG1/MEST is apparently lost in lym-phocytes and transformed lymphoblastoid cell lines. In these tissues, PEG1/MEST is apparently expressed from both the paternal allele and the maternal allele (Riese-wijk et al. 1997). Furthermore, PEG1/MEST is transcribed in lymphoblastoid cell lines from patients with maternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 7, or " upd(7)mat " (Cuisset et al. 1997; Riesewijk et al. 1997). Because upd(7)mat cells lack a paternal allele of PEG1/ MEST, the transcript must derive from the maternal allele. The purpose of this report is to delineate the underlying mechanism of apparent loss of imprinting in lym-phocytes,to better understand the control of imprinting of the human PEG1/MEST gene. In general, loss of imprinting may be accounted for by several mechanisms. First, imprinting can be regulated in a tissue-specific way. Relaxation of imprinting or biallelic expression of imprinted genes is observed in some tissues. Second, imprinting may be controlled in a promoter-specific manner. Such promoter-specific imprinting was first identified in the IGF2 gene (Vu and Hoffman 1994; Ekstroem et al. 1995). In liver and chondrocytes, the IGF2 transcript from the P1 promoter is always derived from both the paternal allele and the maternal allele, whereas transcripts from other promoters (P2–P4) are expressed solely from the paternal allele. This finding demonstrated that both imprinting and …