Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization Gender Differences in Competitiveness and Risk Taking: Comparing Children in Colombia and Sweden

We explore gender differences in preferences for competition and risk among children aged 9–12 in Colombia and Sweden, two countries differing in gender equality according to macro indices. We include four types of tasks that vary in gender stereotyping when looking at competitiveness: running, skipping rope, math and word search. We find that boys and girls are equally competitive in all tasks and all measures in Colombia. Unlike the consistent results in Colombia, the results in Sweden are mixed, with some indication of girls being more competitive than boys in some tasks in terms of performance change, whereas boys are more likely to choose to compete in general. Boys in both countries are more risk taking than girls, with a smaller gender gap in Sweden.
Abnormal Ca2+ Dynamics in Transgenic Mice with Neuron-Specific Mitochondrial DNA Defects

Maintenance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) depends on nuclear-encoded proteins such as mtDNA polymerase (POLG), whose mutations are involved in the diseases caused by mtDNA defects including mutation and deletion. The defects in mtDNA and in intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) homeostasis have been reported in bipolar disorder (BD). To understand the relevance of the mtDNA defects to BD, we studied transgenic (Tg) mice in which mutant POLG (mutPOLG) was expressed specifically in neurons. mtDNA defects were accumulated in the brains of mutPOLG Tg mice in an age-dependent manner and the mutant mice showed BD-like behavior. However, the molecular and cellular basis for the abnormalities has not been clarified. In this study, we investigated Ca2+ regulation by isolated mitochondria and [Ca2+]i dynamics in the neurons of mutPOLG Tg mice. Mitochondria from the mutant mice sequestered Ca2+ more rapidly, whereas Ca2+ retention capacity and membrane potential, a driving force of Ca2+ uptake, of mitochondria were unaffected. To elucidate the molecular mechanism of the altered Ca2+ uptake, we performed DNA microarray analysis and found that the expression of cyclophilin D (CyP-D), a component of the permeability transition pore, was downregulated in the brains of mutPOLG Tg mice. Cyclosporin A, an inhibitor of CyP-D, mimicked the enhanced Ca2+ uptake in mutant mice. Furthermore, G-protein-coupled receptor-mediated [Ca2+]i increase was attenuated in hippocampal neurons of the mutant mice. These findings suggest that mtDNA defects lead to enhancement of Ca2+ uptake rate via CyP-D downregulation and alter [Ca2+]i dynamics, which may be involved in the pathogenesis of BD.
Support vector machine approach for protein subcellular localization prediction

MOTIVATION Subcellular localization is a key functional characteristic of proteins. A fully automatic and reliable prediction system for protein subcellular localization is needed, especially for the analysis of large-scale genome sequences. RESULTS In this paper, Support Vector Machine has been introduced to predict the subcellular localization of proteins from their amino acid compositions. The total prediction accuracies reach 91.4% for three subcellular locations in prokaryotic organisms and 79.4% for four locations in eukaryotic organisms. Predictions by our approach are robust to errors in the protein N-terminal sequences. This new approach provides superior prediction performance compared with existing algorithms based on amino acid composition and can be a complementary method to other existing methods based on sorting signals. AVAILABILITY A web server implementing the prediction method is available at http://www.bioinfo. tsinghua.edu. cn/SubLoc/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary material is available at http://www.bioinfo. tsinghua.edu. cn/SubLoc/.
Transmission of HCV in HIV-positive populations.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW The epidemiology of hepatitis C virus (HCV) in HIV has changed significantly over the past decade. This review will outline the current epidemiology of HCV in HIV infection, focusing on the recent changes and factors which have been related to the increase in HCV transmission in HIV-infected men who have sex with men (MSM). RECENT FINDINGS Since 2000 there has been recognition in the postindustrialized world that there has been a dramatic rise in the incidence of HCV in HIV-infected MSM. Whereas sexual transmission of HCV remains controversial in the general population, there is increasing evidence that permucosal (sexual and mucosally administered drugs) rather than parenteral risks have become key factors in HCV transmission in HIV-infected MSM. At the most basic level, transmission depends on disruption of a barrier and exposure to infected fluids, usually blood. Whereas transmission factors are often closely entwined, they can be characterized as behavioural and biological factors. SUMMARY With an improved understanding of the epidemiology of HCV in this population, interventions by relevant health authorities could be better focused.
A new evolutionary optimization method for osteoporotic bone augmentation

Bone augmentation is a preventative osteoporosis intervention, comprising the injection of bone cement into an osteoporotic bone. As injection of excessive amounts of bone cement may result into thermal necrosis of bone tissue or even embolism, the minimum cement volume required to achieve a predefined level of augmentation must be sought. To this end, the present paper introduces a new evolutionary optimization method, applicable to any osteoporotic bone. The method was numerically evaluated through a typical case of femoral augmentation and compared to another powerful optimization method. The results demonstrate the efficiency and low computational cost of the proposed method.
A Framework for Effective Big Data Analytics for Decision Support Systems

Supporting decision makers requires a good understanding of the various elements that affect the outcomes of a decision. Decision Support Systems have provided decision makers with such insights throughout its history of usage with varying degrees of success. The availability of data sources was a main limitation to what decision support systems can do. Therefore, with the advent of improved analytical methods for Big data sources new opportunities have emerged that can possibly enhance how decision makers analyze their problem and arrive at decisions using information systems. This paper analyzed current related works on both Big data and decision support systems to identify clear elements and factors relevant to the subject and identifying possible ways to enhance their joint usage. Finally, the paper proposes a framework that integrates the key components needed to ensure the quality and relevance of data being analyzed by decision support systems while providing the benefits of insights generated over time from past decisions and positive recommendations.
[The results of open and laparoscopic appendectomy in pregnant women with acute appendicitis].

AIM To compare conventional and laparoscopic appendectomy in pregnant women. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study included 86 patients with acute appendicitis who were surgically treated. In group 1 (42 women) laparoscopic approach was used, in group 2 (44 patients) - laparotomy. RESULTS Postoperative complications were observed in 2 (4.8%) and 3 (6.8%) patients in groups 1 and 2 respectively. All complications related to Clavien-Dindo class I-II. There were no premature births and abortions in laparoscopy group. In case of conventional surgery premature births and abortions were observed in 2 (4.5%) and 1 (2.27%) observations respectively. Other women had timely childbirth in terms of 36-41 weeks. CONCLUSION Risk of delay exceeds risk of vain appendectomy. All pregnant women with acute appendicitis should be examined by obstetrician-gynaecologist, surgeon, urologist, anesthesiologist. If acute appendicitis can not be excluded based on clinical data the patient should be operated. Diagnostic laparoscopy and laparoscopic appendectomy are advisable in case of pregnancy up to 24 weeks. Woman should be under observation of obstetrician-gynaecologist in perioperative period to prevent premature birth and abortion.
Pulmonary vascular remodeling distal to pulmonary artery ligation is accompanied by upregulation of endothelin receptors and nitric oxide synthase.

There is increasing evidence that the pathogenesis and progression of many forms of pulmonary vasculopathy are related to abnormalities in endothelial mediators, including endothelin-1 (ET-1) and nitric oxide (NO). Using a rat model of chronic unilateral pulmonary artery ligation, we investigated the role of ET-1 and NO in postobstructive pulmonary vasculopathy (POPV). Eight months after a left thoracotomy with either left main pulmonary artery ligation (ligated group) or no ligation (sham group), rat lungs, including those contralateral to the ligation (hyperperfused group), were fixed and mounted for histologic sectioning. Morphometric measurements were carried out by computer-assisted image analysis and immunohistochemical staining was performed using specific antibodies against ET-1, ETA, and EBB receptors, and endothelial NO synthase (eNOS). Compared to sham lungs, the ligated lungs showed (1) an increase in muscular, adventitial, and intimal thickness of pulmonary artery; (2) increase in external diameter of the bronchial artery (39.8 +/- 2.2 microns vs. 16.8 +/- 0.9 microns in sham group; P < .005) and number of bronchial arteries per bronchiole (3.21 +/- mu 0.26 vs. 1.86 +/- mu 0.21 in sham group; P < .001); and (3) increase in the intensity of eNOS and ETA, B receptor immunoreactivity. No morphometric or immunohistochemical differences were observed between the hyperperfused and sham lungs. These findings suggest that increased synthesis of endothelial NO may serve as a compensatory mediator in ET-1-mediated vascular remodeling.
Fear Appeals and Persuasion: Assumptions and Errors in Advertising Research

Abstract “Mixed” findings from past research of high fear not always being more persuasive than lower fear communications are explained by suggesting that researchers might have been incorrect in assuming that a certain type of message would always engender the greatest degree of fear with all subjects. The oft-repeated “optimal level of fear” for persuasion is not a supported theory that explains such findings but a data artifact, resulting, in part, from unquestioned assumptions. Seeking applications, not questioning past research assumptions and being inspired by misperceptions of psychology data and theories, many advertising researchers have sought the chimera of “best” literal fear communications.
Current understanding of mdig/MINA in human cancers

Mineral dust-induced gene, mdig has recently been identified and is known to be overexpressed in a majority of human cancers and holds predictive power in the poor prognosis of the disease. Mdig is an environmentally expressed gene that is involved in cell proliferation, neoplastic transformation and immune regulation. With the advancement in deciphering the prognostic role of mdig in human cancers, our understanding on how mdig renders a normal cell to undergo malignant transformation is still very limited. This article reviews the current knowledge of the mdig gene in context to human neoplasias and its relation to the clinico-pathologic factors predicting the outcome of the disease in patients. It also emphasizes on the promising role of mdig that can serve as a potential candidate for biomarker discovery and as a therapeutic target in inflammation and cancers. Considering the recent advances in understanding the underlying mechanisms of tumor formation, more preclinical and clinical research is required to validate the potential of using mdig as a novel biological target of therapeutic and diagnostic value. Summary Expression level of mdig influences the prognosis of several human cancers especially cancers of the breast and lung. Evaluation of mdig in cancers can offer novel biomarker with potential therapeutic interventions for the early assessment of cancer development in patients.
Prevention of Mutation, Cancer, and Other Age-Associated Diseases by Optimizing Micronutrient Intake

I review three of our research efforts which suggest that optimizing micronutrient intake will in turn optimize metabolism, resulting in decreased DNA damage and less cancer as well as other degenerative diseases of aging. (1) Research on delay of the mitochondrial decay of aging, including release of mutagenic oxidants, by supplementing rats with lipoic acid and acetyl carnitine. (2) The triage theory, which posits that modest micronutrient deficiencies (common in much of the population) accelerate molecular aging, including DNA damage, mitochondrial decay, and supportive evidence for the theory, including an in-depth analysis of vitamin K that suggests the importance of achieving optimal micronutrient intake for longevity. (3) The finding that decreased enzyme binding constants (increased Km) for coenzymes (or substrates) can result from protein deformation and loss of function due to an age-related decline in membrane fluidity, or to polymorphisms or mutation. The loss of enzyme function can be compensated by a high dietary intake of any of the B vitamins, which increases the level of the vitamin-derived coenzyme. This dietary remediation illustrates the importance of understanding the effects of age and polymorphisms on optimal micronutrient requirements. Optimizing micronutrient intake could have a major effect on the prevention of cancer and other degenerative diseases of aging.
Sepsis-associated encephalopathy: not just delirium

Sepsis is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in intensive care units. Organ dysfunction is triggered by inflammatory insults and tissue hypoperfusion. The brain plays a pivotal role in sepsis, acting as both a mediator of the immune response and a target for the pathologic process. The measurement of brain dysfunction is difficult because there are no specific biomarkers of neuronal injury, and bedside evaluation of cognitive performance is difficult in an intensive care unit. Although sepsis-associated encephalopathy was described decades ago, it has only recently been subjected to scientific scrutiny and is not yet completely understood. The pathophysiology of sepsis-associated encephalopathy involves direct cellular damage to the brain, mitochondrial and endothelial dysfunction and disturbances in neurotransmission. This review describes the most recent findings in the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and management of sepsis-associated encephalopathy and focuses on its many presentations.
Phonemic not syllabic awareness is linked to literacy in Italian children with Down syndrome

Abstract Children with Down syndrome (DS) are known to have difficulty in learning to read and write. This weak literacy can be attributed to learning disability or to poor phonological awareness, which can also be found in typically developing children with dyslexia. The aim of this study is to verify whether phonological awareness is linked to literacy in children with DS as it is in typically developing ones. In order to show this link the authors investigate the relationship between single word reading ability and several phonological variables. Thirty-two native Italian children with DS were asked to read 50 single words and to perform phonological tests concerning phoneme and syllable segmentation, phoneme and syllable blending, alliteration and non-word repetition. Gender, intelligence quotient, age and years of schooling were also taken into consideration in the statistical analysis. Phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, syllable segmentation, alliteration, non-word repetition were the variables which were seen to be significantly related to reading. However, it was observed that gender, intelligence quotient, chronological age, years of education, syllable blending were not related to single word reading ability. Our study underpins the theory that literacy is linked to phonological awareness in Italian speaking children with DS in the same way that it occurs in typically developing children. Phonemic rather than syllabic awareness is seen to be the basic skill necessary in order to be able to read fluently, at least for single words, as observed in our participants with DS.
Star formation and the environment of nearby field galaxies

We investigate the environmental dependence of galaxies with star formation from a volume-limited sample of 4782 nearby field galaxy spectra extracted from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey final data release. The environment is characterized by the local spatial density of galaxies, estimated from the distance to the fifth nearest neighbour. Extensive simulations have been made to estimate local density correction factors resulting from sample incompleteness. We discriminate the galaxies in distinct spectral classes – passive, star-forming and short starburst galaxies – by the use of the equivalent widths (EWs) of [O ii]λ3727 and Hδ. The frequency of galaxies of different classes is then evaluated as a function of the environment. We show that the fraction of star-forming galaxies decreases with increasing density, whereas passive galaxies present the opposite behaviour. The fraction of short starburst galaxies, which suffered a starburst at ∼200 Myr ago, do not present strong environmental dependence. The fraction of this class of galaxies is also approximately constant with galaxy luminosity, except for the faintest bins in the sample, where their fraction seems to increase. We find that the star formation properties are affected in all ranges of densities present in our sample (which excludes clusters), which supports the idea that star formation in galaxies is affected by the environment everywhere. We suggest that mechanisms like tidal interactions, which act in all environments, do play a relevant role in star formation in galaxies.
An Analytical Method for Analysis of Large-Disturbance Stability of Induction Generators

This paper presents an analytical method for analysis of large-disturbance stability of squirrel-cage rotor induction generators. The proposed analytical method is based on the steady-state equivalent circuit of the induction generator and on the concepts of stable and unstable electrical-mechanical equilibrium points, which are calculated in the electrical and mechanical torque versus rotor speed space. This analytical approach sheds light on theoretical issues related to the stability of induction generators. Moreover, this method can be used as a guide to significantly reduce the simulation efforts necessary to assess the large-disturbance stability of induction generators. The method has been validated by comparing the results obtained by the analytical method with those determined by extensive dynamic simulation results through a sensitivity study. In the dynamic simulations, the induction generators are represented by a fourth-order algebraic-differential model. In addition, a simple approach is proposed for assessing the fault ride-through capability of induction generators.
0.84 ps Resolution Clock Skew Measurement via Subsampling

An all-digital on-chip clock skew measurement system via subsampling is presented. The clock nodes are subsampled with a near-frequency asynchronous sampling clock to result in beat signals which are themselves skewed in the same proportion but on a larger time scale. The beat signals are then suitably masked to extract only the skews of the rising edges of the clock signals. We propose a histogram of the arithmetic difference of the beat signals which decouples the relationship of clock jitter to the minimum measurable skew, and allows skews arbitrarily close to zero to be measured with a precision limited largely by measurement time, unlike the conventional XOR based histogram approach. We also analytically show that the proposed approach leads to an unbiased estimate of skew. The measured results from a 65 nm delay measurement front-end indicate that for an input skew range of ±1 fan-out-of-4 (FO4) delay, ±3σ resolution of 0.84 ps can be obtained with an integral error of 0.65 ps. We also experimentally demonstrate that a frequency modulation on a sampling clock maintains precision, indicating the robustness of the technique to jitter. We also show how FM modulation helps in restoring precision in case of rationally related clocks.
Large-scale opening of utrophin’s tandem calponin homology (CH) domains upon actin binding by an induced-fit mechanism

We have used site-directed spin labeling and pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance to resolve a controversy concerning the structure of the utrophin–actin complex, with implications for the pathophysiology of muscular dystrophy. Utrophin is a homolog of dystrophin, the defective protein in Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies, and therapeutic utrophin derivatives are currently being developed. Both proteins have a pair of N-terminal calponin homology (CH) domains that are important for actin binding. Although there is a crystal structure of the utrophin actin-binding domain, electron microscopy of the actin-bound complexes has produced two very different structural models, in which the CH domains are in open or closed conformations. We engineered a pair of labeling sites in the CH domains of utrophin and used dipolar electron–electron resonance to determine the distribution of interdomain distances with high resolution. We found that the two domains are flexibly connected in solution, indicating a dynamic equilibrium between two distinct open structures. Upon actin binding, the two domains become dramatically separated and ordered, indicating a transition to a single open and extended conformation. There is no trace of this open conformation of utrophin in the absence of actin, providing strong support for an induced-fit model of actin binding.
Early Postnatal Development of Spontaneous and Acoustically Evoked Discharge Activity of Principal Cells of the Medial Nucleus of the Trapezoid Body: An In Vivo Study in Mice

The calyx of Held synapse in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body of the auditory brainstem has become an established in vitro model to study the development of fast glutamatergic transmission in the mammalian brain. However, we still lack in vivo data at this synapse on the maturation of spontaneous and sound-evoked discharge activity before and during the early phase of acoustically evoked signal processing (i.e., before and after hearing onset). Here we report in vivo single-unit recordings in mice from postnatal day 8 (P8) to P28 with a specific focus on developmental changes around hearing onset (P12). Data were obtained from two mouse strains commonly used in brain slice recordings: CBA/J and C57BL/6J. Spontaneous discharge rates progressively increased from P8 to P13, initially showing bursting patterns and large coefficients of variation (CVs), which changed to more continuous and random discharge activity accompanied by gradual decrease of CV around hearing onset. From P12 on, sound-evoked activity yielded phasic-tonic discharge patterns with discharge rates increasing up to P28. Response thresholds and shapes of tuning curves were adult-like by P14. A gradual shortening in response latencies was observed up to P18. The three-dimensional tonotopic organization of the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body yielded a high-to-low frequency gradient along the mediolateral and dorsoventral but not in the rostrocaudal axes. These data emphasize that models of signal transmission at the calyx of Held based on in vitro data have to take developmental changes in firing rates and response latencies up to the fourth postnatal week into account.