Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LocSigDB: a database of protein localization signals

LocSigDB (http://genome.unmc.edu/LocSigDB/) is a manually curated database of experimental protein localization signals for eight distinct subcellular locations; primarily in a eukaryotic cell with brief coverage of bacterial proteins. Proteins must be localized at their appropriate subcellular compartment to perform their desired function. Mislocalization of proteins to unintended locations is a causative factor for many human diseases; therefore, collection of known sorting signals will help support many important areas of biomedical research. By performing an extensive literature study, we compiled a collection of 533 experimentally determined localization signals, along with the proteins that harbor such signals. Each signal in the LocSigDB is annotated with its localization, source, PubMed references and is linked to the proteins in UniProt database along with the organism information that contain the same amino acid pattern as the given signal. From LocSigDB webserver, users can download the whole database or browse/search for data using an intuitive query interface. To date, LocSigDB is the most comprehensive compendium of protein localization signals for eight distinct subcellular locations. Database URL: http://genome.unmc. edu/LocSigDB/
Endings and Continuity of Social Relationships: Maximizing Intrinsic Benefits within Personal Networks when Feeling Near to Death

Changes within an individual's personal network may reflect either non-deliberate endings, such as loss, or active choice of social partners. This research explores to what extent perceptions of limited future time are associated with deliberate endings of social relationships and active maximization of intrinsic benefits in one's personal network. In a longitudinal follow-up study, the personal networks of 206 older adults aged between 70 and 103 years were assessed twice within a 4-year time interval. Change of personal networks and change within social relationships were explored in association with age cohort, subjective health, cognitive functioning, neuroticism, extraversion, and subjective nearness to death. Most changes within personal networks occurred in less close relationships, while close emotional relationships proved stable. More than half of discontinued relationships were ended for deliberate reasons. Within ongoing social relationships, emotional closeness after 4 years was improved when social partners were family members and emotional supporters (e.g. confidants). When older adults felt near to death, emotional closeness with others decreased, except within relationships with family members and with social companions. The findings suggest that individuals actively shape the compositions of their personal networks in order to maximize the availability of intrinsic and extrinsic benefits from others.
An International Financial Transmission Model * by

The paper analyses the degree of financial integration between money markets, bond markets, equity markets and exchange rates within and between the United States and the euro area. We find that asset prices react strongest to other domestic asset price shocks, but also present some significant differences in the financial transmission mechanisms within the two economies. For the international transmission of financial shocks, we find significant cross-market spillovers. Overall, the results underline the importance of US markets in global financial markets: US financial markets explain, on average, more than 25% of movements in euro area financial markets, whereas euro area markets account only for about 8% of US asset price changes. The international propagation of shocks is strengthened in times of recession, and has most likely changed in recent years: prior to EMU, the paper finds smaller international spillovers. JEL classification number: E44, F3, C5
Towards Privacy-Aware Web Services Compositions

Privacy is an important issue that has raised particular concerns among many research areas. This issue dramatically increases with the proliferation of the Web services composition paradigm. This is mainly due to the high dynamism and untrustworthiness characteristics of the services to be composed, which impose high levels of risk on the interacting parties. Existing technologies for managing and applying data privacy policies fail to deal with this kind of applications as they involve autonomous entities and continuously exchange huge amount of information of different natures. In this context, this paper tackles the problem of modeling, managing and preserving privacy in Web service composition processes. It aims to design and develop an integrated framework to enhance Web service compositions with privacy protection capabilities taking into account user privacy preferences and privacy policies and requirements of service providers.
International workshop on neuropathology in leprosy--consensus report.

WIM H. VAN BRAKEL*, PAUL SAUNDERSON**,VANAJA SHETTY***, J. WIM BRANDSMA****,ERIK POST*****, REMKE JELLEMA****** &JASON MCKNIGHT********Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Leprosy Unit, Amsterdam,Netherlands**American Leprosy Missions, A˚lesund, Norway***The Foundation for Medical Research, Mumbai, India****ALERT, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia*****German Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Association,Wu¨rzburg, Germany******Netherlands Leprosy Relief, Amsterdam, Netherlands*******London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine,London, UKAccepted for publication 20 November 2007
Increasing Recreational Initiations for Children Who Have ASD Using Video Self Modeling

The current study examined the effects of video self modeling (VSM) on social initiations using a multiple baseline across participants experimental design. Three students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) watched videos of themselves engaged in typical, age appropriate social initiations prior to playtime with a triad of peers. A partial interval recording system was used to measure social initiations of students with ASD and typically developing peers. The percentage of intervals during which students with ASD exhibited play initiations increased to levels comparable to typically developing peers for all three participants. Two students with ASD demonstrated elevated levels of initiations during a maintenance probe conducted two weeks post-intervention. The efficiency of using VSM within a social skills curriculum, limitations of the current study, and future directions for VSM are discussed.
Possible lower rate of chronic ITP after IVIG for acute childhood ITP an analysis from registry I of the Intercontinental Cooperative ITP Study Group (ICIS)

In children, one‐third of immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) patients follow a chronic course. The present study investigated whether treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) at the time of diagnosis of ITP is of prognostic significance, using data from 1984 children entered in Registry I of the Intercontinental Cooperative ITP Study Group. A matched pairs analysis compared children with thrombocytopenia (platelet count <150 × 109/l) 6 months following diagnosis with children whose platelet count was normal 6 months after diagnosis. It was found that children initially treated with IVIG were more likely to have a normal platelet count 6 months after diagnosis than children not receiving IVIG (odds ratio 1·81; 95% confidence interval: 1·25–2·64). This result was independent of age, gender, country of origin, platelet count at diagnosis or infection preceding the diagnosis of ITP. In a similar analysis, comparing children with a platelet count <50 × 109/l 6 months after diagnosis with children whose platelet count was ≥50 × 109/l at that time point, the former group was less often treated with IVIG than with steroids (P = 0·02). Prospective studies are required to further explore this potential effect of IVIG.
Protein Cryoprotective Activity of a Cytosolic Small Heat Shock Protein That Accumulates Constitutively in Chestnut Stems and Is Up-Regulated by Low and High Temperatures1

Heat shock, and other stresses that cause protein misfolding and aggregation, trigger the accumulation of heat shock proteins (HSPs) in virtually all organisms. Among the HSPs of higher plants, those belonging to the small HSP (sHSP) family remain the least characterized in functional terms. We analyzed the occurrence of sHSPs in vegetative organs of Castanea sativa (sweet chestnut), a temperate woody species that exhibits remarkable freezing tolerance. A constitutive sHSP subject to seasonal periodic changes of abundance was immunodetected in stems. This protein was identified by matrix-assisted laser-desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry and internal peptide sequencing as CsHSP17.5, a cytosolic class I sHSP previously described in cotyledons. Expression of the corresponding gene in stems was confirmed through cDNA cloning and reverse transcription-PCR. Stem protein and mRNA profiles indicated that CsHSP17.5 is significantly up-regulated in spring and fall, reaching maximal levels in late summer and, especially, in winter. In addition, cold exposure was found to quickly activate shsp gene expression in both stems and roots of chestnut seedlings kept in growth chambers. Our main finding is that purified CsHSP17.5 is very effective in protecting the cold-labile enzyme lactate dehydrogenase from freeze-induced inactivation (on a molar basis, CsHSP17.5 is about 400 times more effective as cryoprotectant than hen egg-white lysozyme). Consistent with these observations, repeated freezing/thawing did not affect appreciably the chaperone activity of diluted CsHSP17.5 nor its ability to form dodecameric complexes in vitro. Taken together, these results substantiate the hypothesis that sHSPs can play relevant roles in the acquisition of freezing tolerance.
Customer Retention : An Affective Events Theory Perspective

Currently, one stream of online customer behaviors research focused on the quality of the systems in determining systems success, whereas another stream of research focused on the effects of online incidents including online waiting interruptions and service failures on consumer behaviors. The study attempts to bridge the two streams of research and to explain e-service customer post-adoption behaviors in a unified model from the perspectives of affective events theory. Findings support the proposed model positing that e-service customer retention behaviors were determined by perceived site quality and cognitive appraisal of incidents handling. Post-adoption behaviors investigated in the study include continuance intention, complaint intention, and recommendation intention. Practical implications were also suggested.
The St. Pauls' riot: An explanation of the limits of crowd action in terms of a social identity model.

The paper contains a detailed study of the St. Pauls’ riots of April 1980. Particular attention is paid to the limits of participation in the event and the limits of crowd action. It is argued that these limits show clear social form and cannot be explained in terms of the individualistic theories that dominate crowd psychology. Instead a model of cro wd behaviour based on the social identity model is advanced to account for the observations. It is concluded that crowd behaviour is more sophisticated and creative than hitherto allowed and that the neglect of this jield should be remedied.
Incorporation of DNA into Electrospun Nanofibrous Scaffolds: Fundamental Characterization Studies and Gene Delivery

The ability to successfully deliver exogenous DNA into cells has provided the scientific community with a plethora of opportunities into the realm of basic, clinical, and translational research. It has afforded us the means to study the structure and function of genes and their products (i.e. proteins), correct genetic or acquired disorders, and generate tremendous amounts of data which researchers around the world continuously work to build upon in order to generate the next “magic bullet”. Despite such progress, gene delivery continues to suffer from various limitations, predominantly, low transfection efficiencies when using non-viral approaches (i.e. naked DNA, cationic lipids/liposomes, synthetic and natural polymers, etc.) (Al-Dosari & Gao, 2009) and unacceptable levels of toxicity and immunogenicity when using the more traditional viral vectors. To address these limitations, researchers have focused on a number of innovative alternatives, one of which involves the incorporation of DNA into electrospun nanofibrous, non-woven and biodegradable scaffolds. Electrospinning is a variation of the electrospray process and enables the experimenter to formulate scaffolds with specified mechanical, biological, chemical and kinetic properties, all readily controlled by alterations of polymer solution composition (i.e. polymer molecular weight and concentration, viscosity, salt concentration, conductivity, surface tension) and processing parameters (i.e. temperature, humidity, electric field strength, distance between spinneret and collector, feed rate and flow rate) (Chiu et al., 2005; Bhardwaj & Kundu, 2010). The resulting nanofibrous scaffolds possess desirable attributes such as high surface area to volume ratio and numerous interconnected pores that mimic the topology of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Obviously these features are a requirement for the transport of oxygen, nutrients, and wastes through the scaffold, as well as supporting robust cell adhesion and viability. Further, the flexible nanofibers and their pliability is beneficial for cell migration throughout the 3D scaffold. As such, electrospinning represents a truly rational and versatile approach for the construction of custom-tailored tissue engineering scaffolds, especially those capable of supporting cell/tissue growth, as well as deliver a range of bioactive molecules, including, DNA, proteins, drugs, etc. These “functionalized” or “biomimetic” scaffolds represent a new paradigm in the design and implementation of tissue engineering strategies.
Long-term variations in human T lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-I and HTLV-II proviral loads and association with clinical data.

BACKGROUND The human T lymphotropic virus (HTLV)-I or -II proviral load (VL) may be linked to viral pathogenesis, but prospective data on VL and disease outcomes are lacking. METHODS Using data from a prospective cohort study of HTLV disease outcomes, we examined baseline VLs with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction in 122 HTLV-I- and 319 HTLV-II-infected subjects and serial VLs over the course of 6 visits in a subset of 30 HTLV-I- and 30 HTLV-II-infected subjects. Cox and logistic-regression models were used to test baseline associations, and repeated-measures analysis was used to study variations in VL over time. RESULTS Over the course of a median of 10.4 years, HTLV-I VLs decreased slightly (slope, -0.017 log(10) copies/10(6) peripheral blood mononuclear cells [PBMCs]/year; P=. 042) and HTLV-II VLs did not change (slope, -0.019 log(10) copies/10(6) PBMCs/year; P=. 165). Changes in VL over time were associated positively with alcohol use (P=.07) and negatively with black race (P=.03) for HTLV-I and positively with smoking (P=.08) for HTLV-II. In the larger group, there was no association between baseline VL and disease outcomes. In the smaller group with serial VL data, there was an association between increasing VL and bladder or kidney infections for both HTLV-I (P=.005) and HTLV-II (P=.022). CONCLUSIONS HTLV VLs are stable over time, but alcohol and tobacco intake may affect the progression of VLs. The association between increasing VLs and bladder/kidney infection may be explained by early HTLV-related neuropathologic progression.
Agility and Performance in Elastic Distributed Storage

Elastic storage systems can be expanded or contracted to meet current demand, allowing servers to be turned off or used for other tasks. However, the usefulness of an elastic distributed storage system is limited by its agility: how quickly it can increase or decrease its number of servers. Due to the large amount of data they must migrate during elastic resizing, state of the art designs usually have to make painful trade-offs among performance, elasticity, and agility. This article describes the state of the art in elastic storage and a new system, called SpringFS, that can quickly change its number of active servers, while retaining elasticity and performance goals. SpringFS uses a novel technique, termed bounded write offloading, that restricts the set of servers where writes to overloaded servers are redirected. This technique, combined with the read offloading and passive migration policies used in SpringFS, minimizes the work needed before deactivation or activation of servers. Analysis of real-world traces from Hadoop deployments at Facebook and various Cloudera customers and experiments with the SpringFS prototype confirm SpringFS’s agility, show that it reduces the amount of data migrated for elastic resizing by up to two orders of magnitude, and show that it cuts the percentage of active servers required by 67--82%, outdoing state-of-the-art designs by 6--120%.
Balanced bilingualism and early age of second language acquisition as the underlying mechanisms of a bilingual executive control advantage: why variations in bilingual experiences matter

Recent studies revealed inconsistent evidences of a bilingual advantage in executive processing. One potential source of explanation is the multifaceted experience of the bilinguals in these studies. This study seeks to test whether bilinguals who engage in language selection more frequently would perform better in executive control tasks than those bilinguals who engage in language selection less frequently. We examined the influence of the degree of bilingualism (i.e., language proficiency, frequency of use of two languages, and age of second language acquisition) on executive functioning in bilingual young adults using a comprehensive battery of executive control tasks. Seventy-two 18- to 25-years-old English–Mandarin bilinguals performed four computerized executive function (EF) tasks (Stroop, Eriksen flanker, number–letter switching, and n-back task) that measure the EF components: inhibition, mental-set shifting, and information updating and monitoring. Results from multiple regression analyses, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping supported the positive association between age of second language acquisition and the interference cost in the Stroop task. Most importantly, we found a significant effect of balanced bilingualism (balanced usage of and balanced proficiency in two languages) on the Stroop and number–letter task (mixing cost only), indicating that a more balanced use and a more balanced level of proficiency in two languages resulted in better executive control skills in the adult bilinguals. We did not find any significant effect of bilingualism on flanker or n-back task. These findings provided important insights to the underlying mechanisms of the bilingual cognitive advantage hypothesis, demonstrating that regular experience with extensive practice in controlling attention to their two language systems results in better performance in related EFs such as inhibiting prepotent responses and global set-shifting.
Moving beyond time and choice: Challenge, motivation and achievement during independent reading in high school

In response to concerns about poor engagement and achievement in reading, some high schools have implemented independent reading programs to give students time to read self-selected texts during school. Some schools are also adopting the Lexile framework as a tool for matching readers with challenging texts in order to improve reading motivation and achievement. While a variety of research has investigated the efficacy of independent reading programs like sustained silent reading (SSR), many researchers contend that there is still insufficient evidence to support the efficacy of such programs. In addition, there has been no peerreviewed research on the effectiveness of using of Lexiles to match readers with challenging texts. This dissertation presents a study that explores how the challenge level of materials read relates to students' intrinsic motivation to read and reading to their reading achievement during independent reading in 9th and 10th grades. Control and treatment groups were established at a high school where sustained silent reading was already in place. The control group consisted of students who were free to choose their own reading materials during SSR. The treatment groups included students who were expected to read within their Lexile ranges. Results revealed that teachers were reluctant to require students to use Lexiles to choose texts. Despite this, 24% of students in the sample reported that Lexiles were helpful in finding texts for SSR. In addition, males were more likely to report that Lexiles were helpful than were females. Multiple least squares regression analyses found that students who tended to read texts that were more challenging and that students who perceived Lexiles to be more helpful tended to show greater increases in intrinsic motivation to read and reading achievement. Nonetheless, a variety of factors limit the generalizability of the results. The data support further research into challenge as an important variable to consider in future studies of independent reading.
The Gendered Division of Labor in Assignments to Political Committees: Discrimination or Self-Selection in Danish Local Politics?

The literature on the descriptive representation of women in parliaments is voluminous, and most studies focus on different levels of women's representation across legislatures (e.g., Krook 2010; Matland 1998; Paxton 1997; Reynolds 1999; Siaroff 2000). The number of women in parliaments is counted across the globe, and explanations as to what facilitates and hinders the election of female politicians are sought. At a macro level, PR systems, high district magnitudes, and, of course, gender quotas are some of the institutional mechanisms that have been identified as advantageous for women's ambitions to conquer seats in legislatures. These aspects of the electoral system have also drawn widespread attention among electoral engineers, since they can be manipulated, far more so than can socioeconomic factors (such as women's educational level or participation in the labor market) or cultural factors (such as dominant religion or the cultural perception of women's societal role), both of which have also been identified as important to women's descriptive representation at the parliamentary level (see, e.g., Christmas-Best and Kjaer 2007).