Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of antimicrobial activities of naphthoquinones from Impatiens balsamina

Lawsone (1), lawsone methyl ether (2), and methylene-3,3′-bilawsone (3) are the main naphthoquinones in the leaf extracts of Impatiens balsamina L. (Balsaminaceae). Antimicrobial activities of these three naphthoquinones against dermatophyte fungi, yeast, aerobic bacteria and facultative anaerobic and anaerobic bacteria were evaluated by determination of minimal inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimal bactericidal or fungicidal concentrations (MBCs or MFCs) using a modified agar dilution method. Compound 2 showed the highest antimicrobial activity. It showed antifungal activity against dermatophyte fungi and Candida albicans with the MICs and MFCs in the ranges of 3.9–23.4 and 7.8–23.4 µg mL–1, respectively, and also had some antibacterial activity against aerobic, facultative anaerobic and anaerobic bacteria with MICs in the range of 23.4–93.8, 31.2–62.5 and 125 µg mL–1, respectively. Compound 1 showed only moderate antimicrobial activity against dermatophytes (MICs and MFCs in the ranges of 62.5–250 and 125–250 µg mL–1, respectively), but had low potency against aerobic bacteria, and was not active against C. albicans and facultative anaerobic bacteria. In contrast, 3 showed significant antimicrobial activity only against Staphylococus epidermidis and Bacillus subtilis (MIC and MBC of 46.9 and 93.8 µg mL–1, respectively).
A Human-Aware Manipulation Planner

With recent advances in safe and compliant hardware and control, robots are close to finding their places in our homes. As the safety barrier between humans and robots is beginning to fade, the necessity to design pertinent robot behavior in human environments is becoming a crucial step. In order to obtain a safe, comfortable, and socially acceptable interaction, the robot should be engineered from top to bottom by considering the presence of the human. In this paper, we present a manipulation planning framework and its implementation human-aware manipulation planner. This planner generates paths not only safe but comfortable and “socially acceptable” as well by reasoning explicitly on human's kinematics, vision field, posture, and preferences. The planner, which is applied into “robot handing over an object” scenarios, breaks the human centric interaction that depends mostly on human effort and allows the robot to take initiative by computing automatically where the interaction takes place, thus decreasing the cognitive weight of interaction on human side.
Transformative Education

The human condition has changed radically in the past 100 years. Educational institutions, formal and informal, have not kept pace with technological innovations, the lengthening life span, or the need for ongoing reeducation to reinvigorate lives. The authors distinguish between learning and education and, more significantly, between transformative learning and transformative education. They then introduce the path of transformative education following a Navaho healing ritual that illuminates the mega-myth of death and rebirth as a model on which to organize ideas of adult transformative education across an extended life span. The purpose is to highlight the need for a fourth level of education suitable to 21st-century society, and to engage a global, cross-disciplinary dialogue to inform transformative educational practice across its personal, productive, instrumental, emancipatory, and holistic goals.
A Gene Expression Signature of Acquired Chemoresistance to Cisplatin and Fluorouracil Combination Chemotherapy in Gastric Cancer Patients

Background We initiated a prospective trial to identify transcriptional alterations associated with acquired chemotherapy resistance from pre- and post-biopsy samples from the same patient and uncover potential molecular pathways involved in treatment failure to help guide therapeutic alternatives. Methodology/Principal Findings A prospective, high-throughput transcriptional profiling study was performed using endoscopic biopsy samples from 123 metastatic gastric cancer patients prior to cisplatin and fluorouracil (CF) combination chemotherapy. 22 patients who initially responded to CF were re-biopsied after they developed resistance to CF. An acquired chemotherapy resistance signature was identified by analyzing the gene expression profiles from the matched pre- and post-CF treated samples. The acquired resistance signature was able to segregate a separate cohort of 101 newly-diagnosed gastric cancer patients according to the time to progression after CF. Hierarchical clustering using a 633-gene acquired resistance signature (feature selection at P<0.01) separated the 101 pretreatment patient samples into two groups with significantly different times to progression (2.5 vs. 4.7 months). This 633-gene signature included the upregulation of AKT1, EIF4B, and RPS6 (mTOR pathway), DNA repair and drug metabolism genes, and was enriched for genes overexpressed in embryonic stem cell signatures. A 72-gene acquired resistance signature (a subset of the 633 gene signature also identified in ES cell-related gene sets) was an independent predictor for time to progression (adjusted P = 0.011) and survival (adjusted P = 0.034) of these 101 patients. Conclusion/Significance This signature may offer new insights into identifying new targets and therapies required to overcome the acquired resistance of gastric cancer to CF.
Differential Expression of Phospholipase D Isozymes in the Hippocampus Following Kainic Acid‐Induced Seizures

To investigate the pathophysiological role of phospholipase D (PLD)-mediated signaling, changes in the expression of the PLD isozymes PLD1 and PLD2 were investigated in the rat kainic acid (KA) model of human temporal lobe epilepsy. Western blot analysis showed a significant increase in the expression of PLD1 and PLD2 in the postictal hippocampus. PLD1 immunoreactivity increased preferentially in the CA3 and CA1 regions, where pyramidal neurons are susceptible to temporal lobe epilepsy. Experiments employing double immunofluorescence revealed that the cells expressing PLD1 were GFAP-expressing reactive astrocytes. By contrast, PLD2 immunoreactivity increased strikingly in infrapyramidal, but not in suprapyramidal granule cells of the postictal dentate gyrus, fitting well with results of the PLD activity assay. Considering that PLD belongs to a key signaling pathway, this result suggests that changes in granule cell activity in the dentate gyrus after seizures occurs specifically between the supra- and infrapyramidal blades. In addition, enhanced immunoreactivity of PLD2 was observed in the reactive astrocytes of the CA1, CA3, and hilar subregions, but its temporal pattern is different from that of PLD1. Taken together, our results suggest that PLD1 and PLD2 exercise their unique pathophysiological functions in the rat hippocampus after KA-induced seizures.
Healthy Eating Index during pregnancy according to pre-gravid and gravid weight status

Abstract Objective To assess differences in the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) during pregnancy with the pre-gravid and gravid weight status of women. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Athens, Greece. Subjects One hundred pregnant women, inhabitants of Athens. Results The mean raw HEI score of the sample was 66·9 (sd 7·6) and the mean HEI adjusted for energy intake was 66·9 (sd 0·6). No difference was recorded between the adjusted HEI and different gravidities, the embryo’s sex, different income categories or education. When HEI was categorised as low, average and adequate, living in an urban residence increased the odds for demonstrating low HEI score (OR = 10·231, 95 % CI 1·300, 80·487). HEI score during pregnancy was significantly higher in participants who were either pre-gravidly underweight or of normal body weight (BW). In relation to the gestational weight status, the highest HEI scores and protein intake were shown in the underweight and of normal BW participants compared with the obese. According to the simple correspondence analysis, adequate HEI was associated with rural residence and being underweight or having normal BW during pregnancy. Low HEI was associated with overweight and obesity during pregnancy, with obesity before pregnancy and living in an urban environment. HEI was negatively correlated to the pre-conceptional and gestational BMI (r = −0·298, P ≤ 0·003 and r = −0·345, P ≤ 0·001) and to the week of gestation (r = −0·285, P ≤ 0·004). Conclusions Overall, the HEI of the sample was mediocre. Women who were underweight or of normal BW exhibited a better diet quality compared with obese women; thus the latter consist a population in greater need for supervised nutrition and dietary counselling during pregnancy.
Young adults’ perspectives on their psychosocial outcomes 16 years following childhood traumatic brain injury

Purpose - Childhood traumatic brain injury (CTBI) is one of the most common causes of mortality and disability in children and adolescents that impacts on neuropsychological, social and psychological development. A disruption of development in these areas often results in long-term problems with interpersonal relationships, participation in leisure and social activities, and employment status. These social and psychological problems appear to persist longer in comparison to other functional consequences, although evidence is scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate social and psychological outcomes 15 years post injury. Design/methodology/approach - Thirty-six participants post CTBI (mean age 21.47 years, SD=2.74), 16 males) and 18 healthy controls (mean age 20.94 years, SD=2.21), 12 males) were recruited from a larger sample of a longitudinal study conducted at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Information about social and psychological functioning was collected via questionnaires completed at 15 years post-injury. Findings - Results showed that post CTBI, adolescents and young adults reported elevated risk of developing psychological problems following their transition into adulthood. CTBI survivors reported greatest problems on internalizing symptoms such as depression, anxiety and withdrawal. Originality/value - This is the first perspective longitudinal study investigating the young adults perspective of their long-term psychosocial outcomes following childhood traumatic brain injury.
Authoritarian Parenting, Power Distance, and Bullying Propensity

This study aimed at examining the existing relation among parenting, cultural value orientation, and bullying propensity at school. The participants (N = 231) were early adolescents randomly selected from 11 different schools in urban and rural areas of Cyprus. The results showed that a statistically significant relation exists between parental authoritarianism and child bullying propensity. In contrast, no such relation was found between bullying and the authoritative parenting style. An argument that has been proposed by prior research is that bullying incidents in collectivistic types of cultures can be attributed to the authoritarian parenting style that is widely used and valued in such cultures. However, authoritarian parenting was found to be positively correlated with the vertical dimension of both collectivistic and individualistic value orientation. Further, the results of this study show that children with vertical cultural value orientation are more likely to engage in bullying only when they come from families that use authoritarian parental styles. These findings are discussed in terms of the significance of power distance in the prediction of bullying behavior.
Of Mouths and Men: Non-Native Listeners' Identification and Evaluation of Varieties of English.

Advanced Danish students of English as a foreign language tried to identify the national origin of young men from Ireland, Scotland, England and the USA from their speech and rated the speech for attractiveness. Two male speakers from each country were heard reading lists of words aloud (Experiment 1) and making utterances that could be used to say hello to someone, thank them,swear at them, or say good-bye (Experiment 2). In both studies, listeners succeeded about three-fourths of the time in recognizing a speaker's country of origin. Listeners were more accurate in identifying speakers from England and from the USA, but identi ? ability also varied between speakers from the same country. Listeners rated speech produced by Englishmen as most attractive and the speech of Americans as least so. Rated attractiveness also varied with the speaker and the kind of utterance produced.
The Effects of Supplier Fairness on Vulnerable Resellers

This study examines the role of supplier fairness in developing long-term relationships between relatively smaller, vulnerable resellers and larger, powerful suppliers. The authors conceptualize two components of fairness—distributive fairness, that is, the fairness of outcomes received by the reseller from carrying the supplier's line, and procedural fairness, the fairness of procedures and processes used by the supplier in relation to its resellers. Testing their hypotheses from the perspective of automobile dealers, the authors find strong evidence that vulnerable resellers’ perceptions of both distributive and procedural fairness enhance their relationship quality, although these effects are moderated by the level of outcomes and environmental uncertainty. Furthermore, procedural fairness has relatively stronger effects on relationship quality than distributive fairness, which is a somewhat surprising result from a managerial perspective. The constructs and relationships among the constructs demonstrate cross-national stability across the two countries in the sample, the United States and the Netherlands.
Effect of iodine restriction on thyroid function in subclinical hypothyroid patients in an iodine-replete area: a long period observation in a large-scale cohort.

BACKGROUND Excessive iodine intake is related to a higher prevalence of hypothyroidism, including subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH), in iodine-replete areas. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of iodine restriction on thyroid function in SCH patients in an iodine-replete area and analyze the relationship between serum thyrotropin (TSH) levels and iodine intake. METHODS The study consisted of 146 consecutive patients who were diagnosed with SCH at the Samsung Medical Center between 2010 and 2012. Urinary iodine concentration (UIC) was measured in 82 patients. Of these, 20 patients with UIC < 300 μg/L were excluded, and 62 patients with UIC ≥ 300 μg/L were educated about the restriction of iodine-rich foods. Following the first follow-up visit, these patients were divided into two groups based on the UIC level: group A (well-controlled iodine intake, UIC < 300 μg/L, n = 40), and group B (poorly controlled iodine intake, UIC ≥ 300 μg/L, n = 22). The remaining 64 patients did not restrict iodine rich foods (group C). The 82 patients with measured UICs were reevaluated every 3-6 months, and the median follow-up was 13 months (range 3-32 months). Thyroid function and UIC were measured at each visit. The correlation between serum TSH level and UIC was determined for the 82 patients in whom UIC was measured. RESULTS Following 3-6 months of iodine restriction, the serum TSH levels significantly decreased in group A (from 9.0 mU/L to 4.7 mU/L; p < 0.01). In addition, the serum free thyroxine (T4) levels in group A significantly increased (from 1.11 ± 0.23 ng/dL to 1.18 ± 0.17 ng/dL; p < 0.05). However, there were no significant changes in serum TSH or free T4 levels in groups B and C. Serum TSH levels significantly correlated with UIC (r = 0.33, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION Iodine restriction may normalize or, at the very least, decrease serum TSH levels in SCH patients, and serum TSH levels are strongly correlated with UIC. Therefore, restriction of iodine intake could be a primary treatment option in SCH patients in an iodine-replete area.
Using machine learning for decoy discrimination in protein tertiary structure prediction

In this thesis, the novelty of using machine learning to identify the low-RMSD structures in decoy discrimination in protein tertiary structure prediction is investigated. More specifically, neural networks are used to learn to recognize low-RMSD structures, using native protein structures as positive training examples, and simulated decoy structures as negative training examples. Simulated decoy structures are derived by reversing the sequences of native structures in the set of positive training examples, and threading the reversed sequences back to the native structures. Various input features, extracted from these native and simulated decoy structures, are used as inputs to the neural networks. These input features are the identities of residue pairs, the separation between the residues along the sequence, the pairwise distance and the relative solvent accessibilities of the residues. Various neural networks are created depending on the amount of input features used. The neural networks are tested against the in-house pairwise potentials of mean force method, as well as against a K-Nearest Neighbours algorithm. The second novel idea of this thesis is to use evolutionary information in the decoy discrimination process. Evolutionary information, in the form of PSI-BLAST profiles, is used as inputs to the neural networks. Results have shown that the best performing neural network is the one that uses in put information comprising of PSI-BLAST profiles of residue pairs, pairwise distance and the relative solvent accessibilities of the residues. This neural network is the best among all methods tested, including the pairwise potentials method, in discriminating the native structures. Therefore this thesis has demonstrated the feasibility of using machine learning, more specifically neural networks, in the problem of decoy discrimination. More significantly, evolutionary information in the form of PSI-BLAST profiles has been success fully used to further improve decoy discrimination, particularly in the discrimination of native structures.
The Correlation Between Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation: The Moderating Effects of Political and Religious Identity

In a secondary analysis performed on a representative sample of the Italian population (N = 887), we examined the correlation between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO), analyzing the moderating effect exerted on such correlation by political interest and religion importance. RWA and SDO showed a positive, significant correlation (r = .38), moderated by political interest (which heightened it) and religion importance (which lowered it). Limits, implications, and possible developments of the research are discussed.
The effects of hostile sexism on collective action intentions:the roles of emotions and identification

The aim of the research reported in this thesis was to examine the way in which exposure to hostile sexism influences women‟s (competitive) collective action intentions, by investigating the mediating role of emotions and the moderating role of identification in this process. Experiments 1-2 (Chapter 2) examined the effect of hostile sexism on women‟s emotional reactions and readiness to engage in social competition. Results showed that exposure to hostile sexism had a positive indirect effect on social competition intentions through increased anger-frustration, and a negative indirect effect through decreased security-comfort. In an effort to understand why hostile sexism has divergent effects on social competition intentions, Experiment 3 (Chapter 3) tested whether the mediating role of emotion is moderated by identification with different female subtypes. Results showed that high (vs. low) identifiers with traditional women who were exposed to hostile sexism were more likely to experience lower levels of confidence-related emotions, and as a result were less motivated to engage in social competition. Although identification did not moderate the effect of hostile sexism on the experience of anger, increased anger was more likely to lead highly identified traditional women to form increased social competition intentions. Experiments 4-6 (Chapter 4) examined whether the divergent effects of hostile sexism on social competition intentions also apply to women‟s intentions to engage in collective action for parity. Results showed that hostile sexism had a positive indirect effect on collective action for parity intentions through anger, but not a negative indirect effect through confidence-related emotions. Overall, the findings of this thesis reveal important differences in the ways that hostile sexism influences women‟s intentions to compete with men, and highlight the importance of considering the specific content of gender identification, and the significance of identifying the specific goal of collective action when examining women‟s reactions to sexism.
Constitutive and Stimulated Production of Vegf by Human Megakaryoblastic Cell Lines: Effect on Proliferation and Signaling Pathway

Release of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and other candidate angiogenic factors such as basic fibroblast growth factor and transforming growth factor β, may play a role in sustaining neoplastic cell proliferation and tumor growth. We evaluated VEGF expression and synthesis in the two erythro-megakaryocytic cell lines B1647, HEL and one megakaryocyte cell line MO7 expressing erythroid markers. In this study RT-PCR was performed to evaluate VEGF expression and that of its receptor KDR; VEGF production was assayed by Elisa test and western blot analysis; sensitivity to VEGF was tested by thymidine incorporation. VEGF and its receptor KDR were expressed in B1647 and HEL, both as mRNAs and as proteins, while only KDR transcript was found in MO7 cells. Only B1647 and HEL cells showed a strong spontaneous proliferating activity. In fact, measurable amounts of VEGF were present in the unstimulated cell medium, thus suggesting an autocrine production of VEGF by B1647 and HEL cells, but not by MO7, which was inhibited in mRNA-silencing conditions. This production could not be further boosted by other growth factors, whereas it was inhibited by TGF-β1. Finally, analysis of She signal transduction proteins following stimulation with VEGF indicated that only p46 was tyrosine phosphorylated. These data indicate that leukemic cells may be capable of autocrine production of VEGF which, in turn, maintains cell proliferation, possibly mediated by She p46 phosphorylation.
A Stimulation Unit for the Application of Mechanical Strain on Tissue Engineered Anulus Fibrosus Cells: A New System to Induce Extracellular Matrix Synthesis by Anulus Fibrosus Cells Dependent on Cyclic Mechanical Strain

A bioreactor system consisting of a multifunctional stimulation unit and common 6-well culture plate is introduced to activate extracellular matrix synthesis in intervertebral disc cells due to cyclic mechanical strain. The developed stimulation unit is sterilizable and reusable. It is viable for cultivation and mechanical stimulation of cartilage tissue and tissue engineered cell matrix constructs in combination with the common 6-well culture plate. The custom made device allows long-term cultivations in batch- or continuous operation mode. Manual handling and thereby the risk of contamination is reduced. Sampling, changing the medium, and addition of supplements are easily performed from the connected conditioning vessel. This bioreactor system enables stimulation of different samples independently during one run. For the work presented here anulus fibrosus cells from pigs were taken and immobilized in agarose to obtain three-dimensional cell matrix constructs. Over a period of 14 days the constructs were subjected to 10% compression under cyclic mechanical pressure with a frequency of 0.1 Hz. Afterwards the constructs were biochemically examined for hydroxyproline and sulphated glycosaminoglycanes. These proven constituents of extracellular matrix were found to be released depending on the applied compressive strain.