Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of chloride channel inhibitors on H(2)O(2)-induced renal epithelial cell injury.

Oxidative stress contributes to renal epithelial cell injury in certain settings. Chloride influx has also been proposed as an important component of acute renal epithelial cell injury. The present studies examined the role of Cl(-) in H(2)O(2)-induced injury to LLC-PK(1) renal epithelial cells. Exposure of LLC-PK(1) cells to 1 mM H(2)O(2) resulted in the following: depletion of intracellular ATP content; DNA damage; lipid peroxidation; and a loss of membrane integrity to both small molecules, e.g., trypan blue, and macromolecules, e.g., lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and cell death. Substitution of Cl(-) by isethionate or the inclusion of certain Cl(-) channel blockers, e.g., diphenylamine-2-carboxylate (DPC), 5-nitro-2-(3-phenylpropylamino). benzoate (NPPB), and niflumic acid, prevented the H(2)O(2)-induced loss of membrane integrity to LDH. In addition, the H(2)O(2)-induced loss of membrane integrity was prevented by raising the osmolality of the extracellular solutions, by depletion of cell ATP, and by inhibitors of volume-sensitive Cl(-) channels. However, these maneuvers did not prevent the H(2)O(2)-induced permeability to small molecules or H(2)O(2)-induced ATP depletion, DNA damage, lipid peroxidation, or cell death. These results support the view that volume-sensitive Cl(-) channels play a role in the progressive loss of cell membrane integrity during injury.
A Painter's Eye Movements: A Study of Eye and Hand Movement during Portrait Drawing

The mental processes that al-low an artist to transform visual images-e.g. those of his model-into a picture on the canvas are not easily studied. The authors re-port work measuring the eye and hand movements of a single artist, chosen for his detailed and realis-tic portraits produced from life. His eye fixations when painting or drawing were of twice the duration of those when he was not painting and also quite different from those of novice artists. His eye-hand co-ordination pattern also showed dif-ferences from that of novices, be-ing more temporally consistent. This preliminary work suggests that detailed and quantitative analy-sis of a working artist is feasible and will illuminate the process of artistic creation.
Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy vs Phenelzine Therapy for Social Phobia

Background: This article presents results of the acute treatment phase of a 2-site study comparing cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) and treatment with the monoamine oxidase inhibitor phenelzine sulfate for social phobia. Methods: One hundred thirty-three patients from 2 sites received 12 weeks of CBGT, phenelzine therapy, pill placebo administration, or educational-supportive group therapy (an attention-placebo treatment of equal credibility to CBGT). The “allegiance effect,” ie, the tendency for treatments to seem most efficacious in settings of similar theoretical orientation and less efficacious in theoretically divergent settings, was also examined by comparing responses to the treatment conditions at both sites: 1 known for pharmacological treatment of anxiety disorders and the other for cognitive behavioral treatment. Results: After 12 weeks, phenelzine therapy and CBGT led to superior response rates and greater change on dimensional measures than did either control condition. However, response to phenelzine therapy was more evident after 6 weeks, and phenelzine therapy was also superior to CBGT after 12 weeks on some measures. There were few differences between sites, suggesting that these treatments can be efficacious at facilities with differing theoretical allegiances. Conclusions: After 12 weeks, both phenelzine therapy and CBGT were associated with marked positive response. Although phenelzine therapy was superior to CBGT on some measures, both were more efficacious than the control conditions. More extended cognitive behavioral treatment and the combination of modalities may enhance treatment effect. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998;55:1133-1141
An Outcome Evaluation of a Prison Work Release Program

This study adds to the relatively limited and mostly outdated work release literature by evaluating the effectiveness of a Minnesota prison work release program. A retrospective quasi-experimental design was used to assess the impact of work release on recidivism, employment, and cost avoidance among 3,570 offenders released from Minnesota prisons between 2007 and 2010. Propensity score matching was used to minimize observable selection bias. Work release significantly increased the hazard of returning to prison for a technical violation, although it significantly reduced, albeit modestly, the risk of reoffending with a new crime. It did not have an impact on hourly wage, but it significantly increased the odds that participants found a job, the total hours they worked, and the total wages they earned. Work release produced an estimated cost avoidance benefit of $1.25 million overall, which amounts to nearly $700 per participant.
Smoking, standard of living, and poverty in China

Objectives: To analyse differences in smoking behaviour and smoking expenditures among low and high income households in China and the impact of smoking on standard of living of low income households in China. Methods: About 3400 urban and rural households from 36 townships/districts in southwest China were interviewed in 2002. Cross tabulations and regression analysis were used to examine the differences in major household expenditures, including food, housing, clothing, and education between households with smokers and without smokers. Results: Lower income households with smokers paid less per pack and smoked fewer cigarettes than higher income households with smokers. Poor urban households spent an average of 6.6% of their total expenditures on cigarettes; poor rural households spent 11.3% of their total expenditures on cigarettes. Conclusion: Reducing cigarette expenditures could release household resources to spend on food, housing, and other goods that improve living standards.
QArabPro: A Rule Based Question Answering System for Reading Comprehension Tests in Arabic

Problem statement: Extensive research efforts in the area of Natural L anguage Processing (NLP) were focused on developing reading comprehension Question Answering systems (QA) for Latin based languages such as, English, French and German. Approach: However, little effort was directed towards the development of such systems for bidirec tional languages such as Arabic, Urdu and Farsi. In general, QA systems are more sophisticated and more complex than Search Engines (SE) because they seek a specific and somewhat exact answer to the query. Results: Existing Arabic QA system including the most recent described excluded one or both types of questions (How and Why) from their work because of the difficulty of handling these questions. In this study, we present a new approach and a new questio n- answering system (QArabPro) for reading comprehension texts in Arabic. The overall accuracy of our system is 84%. Conclusion/Recommendations: These results are promising compared to existing systems. Our system handles all types of questions including (How and why).
Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 variants with increased replicative capacity develop during the asymptomatic stage before disease progression

We examined the replicative properties of a series of sequential isolates and biological clones of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) obtained from an individual who progressed from seroconversion to AIDS in approximately 5 years. HIV-1 isolated soon after seroconversion replicated slowly and to low levels in cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells; however, subsequent isolates obtained during asymptomatic infection showed a marked increase in replication kinetics. This was examined in more detail by using a panel of 35 biological clones of HIV-1 generated from sequential patient peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples. Each clone was evaluated for replication in primary macrophages and CD4+ T lymphocytes and for the ability to induce syncytium formation in MT-2 cell cultures. Consistent with earlier observations, we found that all of the clones isolated just after seroconversion were slowly replicating and non-syncytium inducing (NSI). However, NSI variants with increased replication kinetics in macrophages were identified soon thereafter. These variants preceded the appearance of NSI and syncytium-inducing variants, with rapid replication in both macrophages and CD4+ T lymphocytes. To determine whether changes in the rate of replication could be traced to the early stages of the virus life cycle, PCR assays were used to evaluate entry and reverse transcription of selected biological clones in macrophages and CD4+ T lymphocytes. We found there was no inherent block to entry or reverse transcription for the slowly replicating variants; however, this does not preclude the possibility that small differences in the rate of entry may account for larger differences in the replication kinetics over many cycles. Overall, our results demonstrate that rapidly replicating variants of HIV-1 emerge during the asymptomatic period in a patient who subsequently progressed clinically, suggesting that these variants may play an important role in HIV-1 pathogenesis.
Supplementary material for the paper “Brushables: Example-based Edge-aware Directional Texture Painting"

The two alternative approaches to orientation field detection in images [Kyp11, KLC07] differ in their representations of the field, and in the methods used to smooth it. Kyprianidis uses a multi-scale filtering approach, whereas Kang employs a multi-lateral filter of variable support on a vector field. We find that these two approaches actually differ in effect. Using a larger filter suppresses local variance, whereas smoothing on a higher scale suppresses high-frequency detail, even if it is coherent. Because both of these effects may be desirable in different scenarios, we let the user choose which to employ.
Increase in TNFα Transport after SCI Is Specific for Time, Region, and Type of Lesion

The dynamic changes of the blood-brain barrier and blood-spinal cord barrier (BBB) are an important part of the CNS response to injury. This study addresses the permeability of the BBB in the acute phase of spinal cord injury (SCI) to the thoracic region. SCI by compression or by complete transection was generated in mice. BBB disruption was evaluated by spinal cord uptake of radiolabeled albumin. The BBB of the thoracic spinal cord was disrupted immediately after compression injury, lasting for 2 days. This was followed by a delayed permeability increase in the cervical spinal cord beginning 3 days after injury. After transection, BBB disruption was limited to the thoracic spinal cord and was present only immediately postinjury. The entry of TNFalpha not only was increased at the time of BBB disruption, following the same pattern, but also had secondary changes after the BBB permeability to albumin had returned to normal. The increase of TNFalpha entry, best explained by upregulation of the specific transport system for TNFalpha, was pronounced in the lumbar spinal cord as well as the thoracic region, and followed a different time course after the two types of injury. Integrating our results with those of the literature regarding the roles of inflammatory responses and the effects of TNFalpha in spinal cord regeneration, we conclude that the time-, region-, and lesion-specificity of the upregulation of TNFalpha transport is part of the regulatory changes at the BBB in response to SCI.
Ankylosing enthesitis, dactylitis, and onychoperiostitis in male DBA/1 mice: a model of psoriatic arthritis

Objectives: To further characterise spontaneous arthritis in aging male DBA/1 mice as a model of spondyloarthropathy and psoriatic arthritis with particular attention to signs of inflammation and nail involvement. Materials and methods: Aging male DBA/1 mice from different litters were caged together (4–6 mice per cage) at the age of 12 weeks, checked twice a week for signs of arthritis, and killed at different times. Hind paws were dissected and processed for histology. Results: Disease incidence varied between 50% and 100% in four different experiments. Besides clinical signs of arthritis, nail abnormalities were noticed. Pathological examination showed the occurrence of dactylitis characterised by diffuse neutrophil infiltration in 6 of 50 paws examined. Onycho-periostitis with progressive destruction of the nail bed and the underlying distal phalanx was seen in 5 of 50 paws examined. Conclusions: Although dactylitis and onychoperiostitis are rare manifestations of the disease process, these data strongly suggest that spontaneous arthritis in aging male DBA/1 mice shares important features with human psoriatic arthritis. This model may therefore be an important tool to study links between stress, sex, inflammation, and new bone formation with particular relevance to human psoriatic arthritis.
Effects of Infant Attachment to Mother and Father on Quality of Adaptation in Preschool: From Dyadic to Individual Organisation of Self

A total of 39 children, classified in Ainsworth's Strange Situation at 12 and 18 months of age with their mothers and fathers, were observed in play groups and given a cartoon-based social perception test at 5 years of age. Children with anxious attachment histories (primarily avoidant in this sample) differed from those with secure histories on a number of single variables, and behavioural profiles based on combinations of variables showed strong significant differences in quality of play, conflict resolution, and problem behaviours. Measures of play competence, conflict resolution, and behaviour problems were significantly related to infant-mother attachment for girls, but not for boys. Overall competence, however, was significantly related to attachment to the mother for both boys and girls. Children with anxious attachment histories also showed misperceptions of cartoon stimuli, more often perceiving negative intentions than children with secure histories. Between-group differences were notably stronger using classifications with mothers than classifications with fathers. However, effects based on combined attachment information with both mother and father were more powerful for some variables.
Work-related flow and energy at work and at home: A study on the role of daily recovery

In this diary study, we aimed to examine the moderating effects of the following: (i) recovery efforts at work and (ii) detachment from work on the relationship between work-related flow and energy after work. Specifically, we hypothesized that flow would be beneficial for energy after work when employees failed (versus managed) to recover during work breaks. Additionally, we predicted that when employees experience flow at work, they would be more vigorous (and less exhausted) at the end of the day when they detached from work in the evening compared with days when they failed to detach. The study tracked 83 participants who completed daily surveys over four consecutive days. Results of multilevel analyses indicated that some characteristics of flow, such as absorption and enjoyment, were significantly associated with energy after work. Recovery at work and detachment from work moderated the relationship between flow (specifically the enjoyment component) and after-work energy.
REVIEW: Towards a systems approach for understanding honeybee decline: a stocktaking and synthesis of existing models

Summary The health of managed and wild honeybee colonies appears to have declined substantially in Europe and the United States over the last decade. Sustainability of honeybee colonies is important not only for honey production, but also for pollination of crops and wild plants alongside other insect pollinators. A combination of causal factors, including parasites, pathogens, land use changes and pesticide usage, are cited as responsible for the increased colony mortality. However, despite detailed knowledge of the behaviour of honeybees and their colonies, there are no suitable tools to explore the resilience mechanisms of this complex system under stress. Empirically testing all combinations of stressors in a systematic fashion is not feasible. We therefore suggest a cross‐level systems approach, based on mechanistic modelling, to investigate the impacts of (and interactions between) colony and land management. We review existing honeybee models that are relevant to examining the effects of different stressors on colony growth and survival. Most of these models describe honeybee colony dynamics, foraging behaviour or honeybee – varroa mite – virus interactions. We found that many, but not all, processes within honeybee colonies, epidemiology and foraging are well understood and described in the models, but there is no model that couples in‐hive dynamics and pathology with foraging dynamics in realistic landscapes. Synthesis and applications. We describe how a new integrated model could be built to simulate multifactorial impacts on the honeybee colony system, using building blocks from the reviewed models. The development of such a tool would not only highlight empirical research priorities but also provide an important forecasting tool for policy makers and beekeepers, and we list examples of relevant applications to bee disease and landscape management decisions.
Comparative evaluation of Trichosporon asahii susceptibility using ASTY colorimetric microdilution and CLSI M27‐A2 broth microdilution reference methods

The in vitro activity of AMPH‐B, 5‐FC, FLCZ, MCZ, ITCZ, and VRCZ against 50 isolates of T. asahii was determined using CLSI M27‐A2 microdilution and ASTY colorimetric methods. Observed agreement ranged from 96 to 100% according to the drug. Overall, the agreement between two methods was 97.7%. The ASTY colorimetric method was thus determined to be comparable to the CLSI reference method when testing the susceptibility of T. asahii to a variety of antifungal agents.
Toxicokinetic Modeling of the Combined Exposure to Toluene and n‐Hexane in Rats and Humans

Toxicokinetic Modeling of the Combined Exposure to Toluene and n‐Hexane in Rats and Humans: Nabeel Ali, et al. Département de médecine du travail et d'hygiène du milieu, Faculté de médecine, Université de Montréal—We studied the toxicokinetic fate of toluene (TOL) and n‐hexane (HEX) in rats exposed to mixtures of these solvents by inhalation during 4 hours. We developed and validated a physiologically based toxicokinetic (PBTK) model for this binary mixture in the rat, which after proper scaling, was used to predict the impact of combined exposure to TOL and HEX in humans. Simultaneous exposure to TOL (125‐300 ppm) did not affect the kinetics of HEX (100 or 800 ppm) in blood in rats. Coexposure to HEX, however, increased the concentration of TOL in blood. Coexposure strongly reduced the urinary excretion of 2,5‐hexanedione (HD) (up to 75% reduction for TOL 300 ppm + HEX 100 ppm) whereas the urinary excretion of HA and o‐CR were reduced to a lesser extent (up to 28% reduction for TOL 200 ppm + HEX 100 ppm). Simulations of exposure to various TOL‐HEX mixtures with the human PBTK model suggested that at concentration corresponding to their respective exposure limit values (TOL: 50 ppm; HEX: 50 ppm) coexposure during 7 hours would result in only slight effects on their respective kinetics. This study showed 1) that exposure indicators such as the blood concentration of unchanged TOL and HEX or the amount of their respective urinary metabolite(s) are not equally sensitive to the occurrence of a metabolic interaction and, 2) that such difference of sensitivity can be predicted a priori using a PBTK modeling approach.
Community Integration, Local Media Use, and Democratic Processes

Research on dimensions of community integration has suffered from the lack of clear conceptual and operational definitions. The purposes of this article are to explicate the concept of community integration and its dimensions and to specify the structural and media antecedents and the political consequences of these dimensions. Using 15 indicators drawn from previous integration studies, we test the hypothesis that integration is a multidimensional concept. A factor analysis reveals that community integration has at least five dimensions: psychological attachment, interpersonal discussion networks, city versus group, localism versus cosmopolitanism, and city versus neighborhood. The structural and media use antecedents and the political consequences of these dimensions are examined to provide construct validity for our measurement. We find strong relationships between local media use and the dimensions of community integration, as well as links between local media use and community integration and local political interest, knowledge, and participation.
The Effect of Colour on the Anchoring Heuristic in Consumer Decision Making

The purpose of our research was to investigate the effect of colour on cognitive processing styles in social decision-making situations. The present research investigated the effect of colour on estimating the price of a gift for a social target. Two colours, blue and red, were provided as environmental cues, and the motivation for a decision was manipulated, by varying the target person’s level of attractiveness in a presentation slide during a gift-purchasing simulation. A blue background with low motivation resulted in the anchoring effect, meaning that participants used heuristic processing. However, for a blue background with high motivation and red backgrounds with both high and low motivational levels, participants were not influenced by any anchoring effect. The results indicated that the effect of colour on cognitive style interacted with the motivational level, the attractiveness of the photo target. The theoretical implications, evolutionary explanation, and ideas for further research are also discussed.
Irregular Shadow Maps

Shadows provide important visual cues, increasingthe viewer’s ability to accuratelyinterpretintra-objectandinter-objectspatialrelationshipsin imagesof computer -generatedscenes[8]. Moreover, shadows dramaticallyincreasethe ”realism” of syntheticscenes. We proposea new approachto computingshadows basedon the image-spacetechniqueknown as”shadow mapping”. Ourapproach builds oneshadow mapper light source,composedof onesample (or a small constantnumberof samples)perpixel in the eye view imageplane. Samplesareirregularly spacedthroughoutthe map. Eachsamplecorrespondsexactly to the positionof the respecti ve eye view pixel in world coordinatesat the Z value given by the depthbuffer, from theview of thelight source.Ouralgorithmcombinesthe imagequality andsamplingcharacteristicsof ray traced shadows, with the performanceadvantagesof depth-buffer based hardwarepipelines.Wecomparetheimagequality, memoryutilization, andsamplingcharacteristicsof this approachwith ray traced shadows [6], andtwo existingshadow mappingtechniques[5, 9]. CR
Victim Blaming in Rape: Effects of Victim and Perpetrator Race, Type of Rape, and Participant Racism

Stereotypes about Black sexuality fostered hypotheses that racial factors and racism influence rape victim blaming. Predominantly White and Asian college students (170 men, 162 women) completed the Modern Racism Scale and evaluated a rape vignette varying victim race, perpetrator race, and rape type. As predicted, racial factors determined victim blaming. Compared to intraracial rapes, interracial rapes were less uniformly judged as “definitely rape” and were judged as having more culpable and less credible victims, and less culpable perpetrators. For men, racism scores positively predicted victim blaming in all rapes. For women, racism scores moderated victim blaming in interracial acquaintance rapes. In our conclusions, we emphasize the durability of racial stereotypes about rape and their influence on discriminatory adjudication outcomes.