Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Breast Cancer and Obesity: In Vitro Interferences between Adipokines and Proangiogenic Features and/or Antitumor Therapies?

Obesity is now considered as a risk factor for breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Adipokine levels are modulated in obesity, and may play a role in carcinogenesis. Moreover, obesity increases risk of cancer mortality. Here, we hypothesized that this increase could be due to a modification in angiogenesis, capital event in the development of metastases, and/or in effectiveness of cancer treatments. To test these assumptions, following a same experimental design and simultaneously the effects of leptin and adiponectin on angiogenesis were investigated, and the impact of hyperleptinemia on anticancer drug effectiveness was measured in physiological and obesity situations. Focusing on angiogenesis, the proliferation of endothelial cells (HUVEC), which expressed leptin and adiponectin receptors, was stimulated by leptin and inhibited by adiponectin. Both adipokines globally reduced apoptosis and caspase activity. Leptin increased migration whereas adiponectin decreased migration, and leptin enhanced the area of the tubes formed by HUVEC cells while adiponectin inhibited their formation. MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells treated with leptin secreted more VEGF than untreated cells, whereas adiponectin treatment inhibited VEGF secretion. Finally, MCF7 cells pre-treated with leptin were more invasive than untreated cells. This effect was not reproduced in MDA-MB-231 cells. In the MCF7 breast cancer cell line, leptin could induce cell proliferation and reduced the efficacy of all breast cancer therapies (tamoxifen, 5-fluorouracil, taxol and vinblastin). These results suggest that, in obesity situation, leptin– in contrast to adiponectin – may promote tumor invasion and angiogenesis, leading to metastases ‘apparition, and reduce treatment efficacy, which could explain the increased risk of cancer mortality in cases of overweight. The evidence suggests adipokines influence breast cancer issue and could play a significant role, especially in obese patients for which hyperleptinemia, hypoadiponectinemia and increased metastatic potential are described.
Electoral Rules and Political Selection: Theory and Evidence from a Field Experiment in Afghanistan

Voters commonly face a choice between competent candidates and those with policy preferences similar to their own. This paper explores how electoral rules, such as district magnitude, mediate this trade-off and affect the composition of representative bodies and policy outcomes. The paper shows formally that anticipation of bargaining over policy causes voters in elections with multiple single-member districts to prefer candidates with polarized policy positions over more competent candidates. Results from a unique field experiment in Afghanistan are consistent with these predictions. Specifically, representatives elected in elections with a single multi-member district are better educated and exhibit less extreme policy preferences.
Path Analysis Associations Between Perceived Social Support, Stressful Life Events and Other Psychosocial Risk Factors During Pregnancy and Preterm Delivery

Background Although several socio-medical risk factors have been identified for preterm labor, there is a gap in understanding the underlying etiology of preterm labor. Objectives The current study aimed to analyze the relationship pathway of perceived social support, stressful life events, and other psychosocial risk factors during pregnancy with incidence of preterm labor. Materials and Methods In a prospective cohort study in four hospitals in Tehran, 500 pregnant women in their 24th to 28th gestational weeks were studied. They filled out a self-report questionnaire on perceived social support, depression, anxiety, stress and stressful life events. Sociodemographic characteristics were also assessed. The participants were followed up until labor, and the data about mother and the newborn were collected after labor. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16 and Lisrel 8.8 software programs using pathway analysis. Results The final path model fit well (CFI = 0.96; RMSEA = .064). The results showed that depression, anxiety, and stress (β = -0.18) directly, and stressful life events indirectly (β= -0.0396) had the most predict on gestational age at labor. Perceived social support, directly through socioeconomic status (β=0.25), and indirectly through stress, depression and anxiety (β= -0.26) affected the gestational age at birth (β= 0.0468). Conclusions The current study showed that supporting pregnant mother moderates psychological problems such as stress, anxiety, and depression, and hence reduces preterm labor.
Function and Factor Interactions of a Locus Control Region Element in the Mouse T Cell Receptor-α/Dad1 Gene Locus1

Locus control regions (LCRs) refer to cis-acting elements composed of several DNase I hypersensitive sites, which synergize to protect transgenes from integration-site dependent effects in a tissue-specific manner. LCRs have been identified in many immunologically important gene loci, including one between the TCRδ/TCRα gene segments and the ubiquitously expressed Dad1 gene. Expression of a transgene under the control of all the LCR elements is T cell specific. However, a subfragment of this LCR is functional in a wide variety of tissues. How a ubiquitously active element can participate in tissue-restricted LCR activity is not clear. In this study, we localize the ubiquitously active sequences of the TCR-α LCR to an 800-bp region containing a prominent DNase hypersensitive site. In isolation, the activity in this region suppresses position effect transgene silencing in many tissues. A combination of in vivo footprint examination of this element in widely active transgene and EMSAs revealed tissue-unrestricted factor occupancy patterns and binding of several ubiquitously expressed transcription factors. In contrast, tissue-specific, differential protein occupancies at this element were observed in the endogenous locus or full-length LCR transgene. We identified tissue-restricted AML-1 and Elf-1 as proteins that potentially act via this element. These data demonstrate that a widely active LCR module can synergize with other LCR components to produce tissue-specific LCR activity through differential protein occupancy and function and provide evidence to support a role for this LCR module in the regulation of both TCR and Dad1 genes.
Binding and Internalization of 1261-~ 2-Macroglobulin by Cultured Fibroblasts *

The binding and internalization of ''61-labeled a'macroglobulin ("'I-azM) was studied in cultured fibroblasts. Two classes of binding sites were detected on cell surfaces. One class corresponds to the previously described, high affinity and low capacity sites. The other class of binding sites may mediate uptake of high physiological blood levels of '251-a~M and has not been described previously. At 0 "C, this lower affinity class saturates at approximately 1,000 pg/ml and has a capacity of approximately 600,000 sites/cell. The lower affinity class accounts for the vast majority of cellular receptors for aZM. An assay employing pepsin at pH 4 was developed to distinguish between surface-bound and internalized "SI-azM. Cellular uptake of '2SI-a2M at 37 "C has a component which saturates between 200 and 1,000 pg/ml and the rate of internalization of this component was approximately 1,700,000 molecules/ cell/h. One rn Caz+ was required for cell uptake of "% atM at 37 "C. Ca" was also required for binding at O "C to both low and high affinity classes of binding sites for '261-azM. The transglutaminase inhibitors bacitracin, monodansylcadaverine, and N-benzyloxycarboxyl5-diazo-4-oxonorvaline paranitrophenyl ester all inhibited cellular internalization of "61-azM at 37 "C. Each of these three compounds selectively reduced 'zeI-azM binding to the high affinity, low capacity component at 0 "C. Based on the current binding studies and previous studies using electron microscopy which showed that bacitracin and other transglutaminase inhibitors block clustering of azM-receptor complexes in coated pits, we suggest that the inhibitors block the accumulation of occupied lower affinity azM receptors in coated pits where they acquire a higher apparent affinity.
Is Teacher Professional Development an Effective Way to Mitigate Teachers’ Gender Differences in Technology? Result from a Statewide Teacher Professional Development Program

This study analyzed data from a statewide professional development (PD) program to investigate whether gender difference towards technology usage was mitigated after participation in the program. Teachers responded to pre- and post-questionnaires regarding their perceptions and use of technology before and after participating in PD courses. Findings showed (a) male teachers held more positive attitudes and confidence in using technology than did females; however, this difference became insignificant after the PD; (b) female teachers exhibited an enhanced level of integrating technology in the classroom after participation in PD courses, while males did not; and (c) no significant gender differences were found regarding lower-level use of technology (e.g., access to website, bookmarking). Results support previous findings (Zhou & Xu, 2007; Yildirim, 2000) that (a) technology experience is gender-based; (b) PD training can remedy gender differences in technology use in the classroom; and (c) differing needs of teachers, by gender, should be considered for future PD programs.
Long-term regulation of calcium channels in clonal pituitary cells by epidermal growth factor, insulin, and glucocorticoids

In rat pituitary GH3 cells, epidermal growth factor (EGF) and insulin stimulate prolactin production, whereas glucocorticoids exert the opposite effect. In the present study, GH3 cells were subjected to whole-cell patch clamp to assess the chronic actions of such regulatory factors on voltage-dependent calcium currents. Before the electrical recording, cells were grown 5-6 d either under standard conditions or in the presence of 5 nM EGF, 100 nM insulin, 1 microM dexamethasone or 5 microM cortisol. EGF induced a twofold selective increase in high- threshold calcium current density. Insulin and glucocorticoids, on the other hand, specifically regulated low-threshold Ca channels. Current density through these channels increased by 70% in insulin-treated cells, and decreased by 50% in cells exposed to dexamethasone or cortisol. Other Ca channel properties investigated (conductance-voltage curves, deactivation rates, time course and voltage dependence of low- threshold current inactivation) were unaffected by the chemical messengers. The alterations in current density persisted for many hours after removing the regulatory factors from the culture medium. In fact, the stimulatory action of EGF on high-threshold current lasted > 3 d. The results suggest that the control of prolactin production by the factors tested involves regulation of the surface density of functional Ca channels in the plasma membrane.
Automatic Layer Separation using Light Field Imaging

We propose a novel approach that jointly removes reflection or translucent layer from a scene and estimates scene depth. The input data are captured via light field imaging. The problem is couched as minimizing the rank of the transmitted scene layer via Robust Principle Component Analysis (RPCA). We also impose regularization based on piecewise smoothness, gradient sparsity, and layer independence to simultaneously recover 3D geometry of the transmitted layer. Experimental results on synthetic and real data show that our technique is robust and reliable, and can handle a broad range of layer separation problems.
Brief, Computer-Assisted Diabetes Dietary Self-Management Counseling: Effects on Behavior, Physiologic Outcomes, and Quality of Life

Objectives.The objective of this work was to evaluate the reach, effectiveness, adoption, and implementation of a brief behavioral dietary intervention and 2 supplemental components of diabetes self-management support: telephone follow-up calls and community resources enhancement. Design and Subjects.This was a 2 × 2 randomized, controlled trial investigating the incremental effects of telephone follow-up and community resources enhancement with 320 adult type 2 diabetes outpatients. Methods.Key outcomes included behavioral (dietary patterns, fat intake), physiologic (HbA1C, lipids), and quality-of-life/patient satisfaction measures and were collected at baseline and 3- and 6-month follow-up. Results.Despite high reach (76% patient participation), excellent adoption (all 12 primary care practices approached participated), and good implementation, there were few outcome differences among treatment conditions. There was significant improvement across conditions in most outcomes in each category at both follow-ups. Conclusions.A brief, computer-assisted, dietary goal–setting intervention basic treatment condition was moderately successful in producing dietary improvements but less so in producing biologic or quality-of-life outcomes. Additions of follow-up phone calls or a community resources enhancement component did not produce incremental improvements over this basic intervention.
A new spatio-spectral morphological segmentation for multi-spectral remote-sensing images

A general framework of spatio-spectral segmentation for multi-spectral images is introduced in this paper. The method is based on classification-driven stochastic watershed (WS) by Monte Carlo simulations, and it gives more regular and reliable contours than standard WS. The present approach is decomposed into several sequential steps. First, a dimensionality-reduction stage is performed using the factor-correspondence analysis method. In this context, a new way to select the factor axes (eigenvectors) according to their spatial information is introduced. Then, a spectral classification produces a spectral pre-segmentation of the image. Subsequently, a probability density function (pdf) of contours containing spatial and spectral information is estimated by simulation using a stochastic WS approach driven by the spectral classification. The pdf of the contours is finally segmented by a WS controlled by markers from a regularization of the initial classification.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF ‘EXCHANGE‐ORIENTATION’ AND ‘COMMITMENT’ SCALES TO MARRIAGE ADJUSTMENT*

Abstract Believing that “exchange” and “commitment” are basic dimensions associated with marriage adjustment (MA), scales measuring these three dimensions were administered to 40 married couples. Exchange was predicted to be negatively correlated with MA, commitment positively associated with it, and an individuaľs exchange and commitment qualities were predicted to affect his partner's MA. The hypotheses were all supported. Further analyses, however, revealed that husbands' MA was more strongly associated with their own exchange and commitment scores than those of their wives. However, wives' MA was equally associated with their own and their husbands' exchange and commitment scores. The implications of this finding for women's position in marriage are discussed.
Öğretmen Adaylarının Bilgisayar Destekli Eğitime İlişkin Tutum Ve Öz-Yeterlik Algılarının İncelenmesi

Bu calismanin amaci ogretmen adaylarinin bilgisayar destekli egitime (BDE) iliskin tutum ve oz-yeterlikalgilarini farkli degiskenlere gore incelemek ve aralarindaki iliskiyi tespit etmektir. Calisma tarama modeline goreyapilmistir. Calismaya 135 ogretmen adayi katilmistir. Veri toplama araci olarak BDE’ye iliskin tutum ve BDE’ye iliskin ozyeterlik algi olcekleri kullanilmistir. Verilerin analizinde aritmetik ortalama, standart sapma, bagimsiz t-testi, tek yonluvaryans analizi ve pearson korelasyon analizi kullanilmistir. Calismanin sonucunda ogretmen adaylarinin BDE’ye iliskintutumlarinin olumlu ve BDE’ye iliskin oz-yeterlik algilarinin iyi duzeyde oldugu belirlenmistir. Ayrica BDE’ye iliskin tutum;cinsiyete ve bilgisayar kullanim sikligina gore farklilik gosterirken, programa, bilgisayara sahip olma durumuna ve bilgisayarkullanim yilina gore farklilik gostermemektedir. Diger taraftan BDE’ye iliskin oz-yeterlik algilarinin; bilgisayar kullanimsikligina ve bilgisayar kullanim suresine gore farklilik gosterirken, cinsiyete, kayitli olduklari programa ve bilgisayara sahipolma durumuna gore farklilik gostermemektedir. Ogretmen adaylarinin BDE’ye iliskin tutumlari ve BDE’ye iliskin ozyeterlik algilari arasindaki iliski duzeyi . 67 olarak tespit edilmistir
Partners in Crime: The Effects of Diversity on the Longevity of Cartels

Despite the importance of organizational misconduct, we still do not know much about coordinated misconduct between firms. In this study, we get a better understanding of how the profile of the partners involved in cartels affects the longevity of their joint misconduct activities. Drawing upon diversity theory, we leverage a distinction between three types of diversity — i.e., variety of age-based experience, separation in uncertainty avoidance, and power disparity — in collective organizational misconduct between firms and we study their respective influence on the longevity of cartels. Our empirical analysis gives support to our main arguments: the longevity of cartels tends to be increased by the level of variety of age-based experience and power disparity between partners but reduced by their level of separation in uncertainty avoidance. Implications for the literature on organizational misconduct are discussed.
FUZZY PARTIAL CREDIT SCALING: A VALID APPROACH FOR SCORING THE BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORY

In this study a new scaling method was proposed and validated, fuzzy partial credit scaling (FPCS), which combines fuzzy set theory (FST; Zadeh, 1965) with the partial credit model (PCM) for scoring the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996). To achieve this, the Chinese version of the BDI-II (C-BDI-II) was administered to a clinical sample of outpatients suffering depression, and also to a nonclinical sample. Detailed FPCS procedures were illustrated and the raw score and FPCS were compared in terms of reliability and validity. The Cronbach alpha coefficient showed that the reliability of C-BDI-II was higher in FPCS than in raw score. Moreover, the analytical results showed that, via FPCS, the probability of correct classification of clinical and nonclinical was increased from 73.2% to 80.3%. That is, BDI scoring via FPCS achieves more accurate depression predictions than does raw score. Via FPCS, erroneous judgments regarding depression can be eliminated and medical costs associated with depression can be reduced. This study empirically showed that FST can be applied to psychological research as well as engineering. FST characterizes latent traits or human thinking more accurately than does crisp binary logic.
Semantic-aware Query Processing for Activity Trajectories

Nowadays, users of social networks like tweets and weibo have generated massive geo-tagged records, and these records reveal their activities in the physical world together with spatio-temporal dynamics. Existing trajectory data management studies mainly focus on analyzing the spatio-temporal properties of trajectories, while leaving the understanding of their activities largely untouched. In this paper, we incorporate the semantic analysis of the activity information embedded in trajectories into query modelling and processing, with the aim of providing end users more accurate and meaningful trip recommendations. To this end, we propose a novel trajectory query that not only considers the spatio-temporal closeness but also, more importantly, leverages probabilistic topic modelling to capture the semantic relevance of the activities between data and query. To support efficient query processing, we design a novel hybrid index structure, namely ST-tree, to organize the trajectory points hierarchically, which enables us to prune the search space in spatial and topic dimensions simultaneously. The experimental results on real datasets demonstrate the efficiency and scalability of the proposed index structure and search algorithms.
Explicit model identification and control of a micro aerial vehicle

In this work, we provide a nonlinear mathematical model identification methodology of an autonomous micro quadrotor, and the design of its orientation and position controllers. In the model identification, we specifically focus on the brushed D.C. motor dynamics, which further breaks down into three different segments: voltage generation, motor dynamics, and force/torque generation. Test bench experiments and software simulation are conducted to identify the parameters of the model derived from first principles physics model. Upon obtaining a good mathematical model of the micro quadrotor, model based orientation and position controllers are respectively implemented with linear quadratic regulator (LQR) and robust and perfect tracking (RPT) controller. The proposed control structure is designed and realized in a low cost micro quadrotor codenamed KayLion developed by the National University of Singapore.
Conflict detection and resolution in QoS policy based management

In this paper, we present our policy based rule representation for a Diffserv network and show how they are translated and downloaded into the network element. One common problem in specifying rules for policy-based networks is the conflict detection problem, where rules may contradict or duplicate each other. We explore the algorithmic issues related to conflict detection problem and present a conflict detection algorithm. Performance results are also presented. An interactive Java-based policy management tool editor was designed for specifying the rules and detecting the conflicts among rules
Do Literary Translators Have a Style of Their Own? Lessons from C.S.Z. Ntuli's Translation of D.B.Z. Ntuli's Short Story Uthingo lwenkosazana (The Rainbow)

Summary Translators have been preoccupied with translations since Babel. Different texts have been translated from one language into another to enable target readers to access the source text message. Literary translation is not exempt from this. Literary translation is done with the purpose of allowing the reader of the translated literature to be as inspired, moved and aesthetically entertained as the reader of the original text. Since translation has for a very long time been considered a derivative of the original text, translators are said not to have a style of their own on the basis that they reproduce the work of the original writer. However, this assumption is repudiated by scholars such as Baker (2000), who maintains that “it is impossible to produce a stretch of language in a totally impersonal way. It is like handling an object without leaving one's fingerprints on it”. On the basis of this assumption, this article seeks to illustrate that translators can leave their own trademark on a translation and still preserve effects similar to those found in the source text. The paper will focus on C.S. Z. Ntuli's translation (1997) of D.B. Z. Ntuli's short story Uthingo lwenkosazana (1978) (The Rainbow) as illustration. An exposition of style in translation will be carried out with the intention of placing C.S. Z. Ntuli's style of writing in its proper perspective. This article will mirror his manner of using the target language to convey the source text message.