Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modifications of Glucocorticoid Receptors mRNA Expression in the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis in Response to Early-life Stress in Female Japanese Quail

Stress exposure during early‐life development can programme individual brain and physiology. The hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis is one of the primary targets of this programming, which is generally associated with a hyperactive HPA axis, indicative of a reduced negative‐feedback. This reduced feedback efficiency usually results from a reduced level of the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and/or the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) within the HPA axis. However, a few studies have shown that early‐life stress exposure results in an attenuated physiological stress response, suggesting an enhance feedback efficiency. In the present study, we aimed to determine whether early‐life stress had long‐term consequences on GR and MR levels in quail and whether the effects on the physiological response to acute stress observed in prenatally stressed individuals were underpinned by changes in GR and/or MR levels in one or more HPA axis components. We determined GR and MR mRNA expression in the hippocampus, hypothalamus and pituitary gland in quail exposed to elevated corticosterone during prenatal development, postnatal development, or both, and in control individuals exposed to none of the stressors. We showed that prenatal stress increased the GR:MR ratio in the hippocampus, GR and MR expression in the hypothalamus and GR expression in the pituitary gland. Postnatal stress resulted in a reduced MR expression in the hippocampus. Both early‐life treatments permanently affected the expression of both receptor types in HPA axis regions. The effects of prenatal stress are in accordance with a more efficient negative‐feedback within the HPA axis and thus can explain the attenuated stress response observed in these birds. Therefore, these changes in receptor density or number as a consequence of early‐life stress exposure might be the mechanism that allows an adaptive response to later‐life stressful conditions.
Social dominance orientation, anti-egalitarianism and the political psychology of gender: An extension and cross-cultural replication.

This study explored differences in levels of anti-egalitarianism and social dominance orientation among groups with different social status, and examined the degree to which these differences in anti-egalitarianism varied across a number of situational and contextual factors. Consistent with both the cultural deterministic (CD) and social dominance (SD) paradigms, when defining social status as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, or ‘race’, differences in anti-egalitarianism between members of high- and low-status groups were found to be contingent upon a range of contextual and situational factors, such as the degree to which the two groups varied in social status. However, consistent with the SD perspective and the invariance hypothesis, the data also showed that males were more anti-egalitarian than females, and that this male/female difference in social and group dominance orientation tended to be largely invariant across cultural, situational, and contextual boundaries. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Laser Beam Welding of Austenitic Stainless Steels – Similar Butt and Dissimilar Lap Joints

Because of its inherent corrosion resistance, austenitic stainless steels, known as 300 series, have become cost-effective, staple materials for long-term applications in many industrial sectors including gas, petroleum, petrochemicals, fertilizers, food processing, and pulp industries as well as power generating plants. They have found also widespread use for manufacturing of chemical installations including stationary pressure tanks and tanks for transport of liquid and compressed gases, pipelines of high diameter in water power plants, for manufacturing of ships for transport of chemicals and installations of drilling rigs, etc. Thick-section stainless steels are widely used in the components and structures for nuclear power plants.
FEATHERWEIGHT AGENT LANGUAGE - A Core Calculus for Agents and Artifacts

The widespread diffusion and availability of multicore architectures is going to make more and more aspects of concurrency and distribution to be part of mainstream programming and software engineering. The SIMPA framework is a recently proposed library-based extension of JAVA that introduces on top of the OO layer a new abstraction layer based on agent-oriented concepts. A SIMPA program is organized in terms of dynamic set of autonomous pro-active task-oriented entities – the agents – that cooperate by exploiting some artifacts, that represents resources and tools that are dynamically constructed, shared and co-used by agents. In this paper we promote the applicability of the agent and artifact metamodel in OO programming a step further. Namely, we propose a core calculus that integrates techniques coming from concurrency theory and from OO programming languages to provide a first basic formal framework for designing agent-oriented languages and studying properties of agent-oriented programs.
Products as Self-Evaluation Standards: When Owned and Unowned Products Have Opposite Effects on Self-Judgment

Consumers frequently evaluate their own traits before making consumption decisions (e.g., “Am I thin enough for skinny jeans? ”). The outcome of these self-evaluations depends on the standard consumers use and on whether they evaluate “self” in assimilation or contrast to that standard. Previous self-judgment research has focused on self-standards that arise from social aspects of the environment including people and groups. We propose that self-judgment is sometimes made relative to other standards that originate from different aspects of the environment, namely material objects, including products and goods. Two experiments demonstrate that consumers classify products they own as “self” and products they do not own as “not-self. ” Consequently, consumers judge their own physical and personal traits (e.g., height, sincerity) in assimilation to traits of products they own, but in contrast to traits of products they do not own, even following imposed ownership, when a person acquires an object they may not have chosen themselves. Extending this paradigm, experiment 3 shows that simply wearing products can evoke ephemeral felt ownership, leading to consumers taking on product traits. We discuss implications for modern consumers, who often acquire objects inadvertently through gifts and are frequently exposed to products they do not own through advertisements.
Where’s the Honor? Attitudes Toward the “Fighting Sioux” Nickname and Logo

The purpose of this research was to explore support for Native American sports nicknames. A survey of students at the University of North Dakota, a school with substantial Native student enrollment, was conducted to determine support or opposition to the school? s ? Fighting Sioux? nickname and logo. A majority of Native American and a minority of White students thought that the nickname conveyed disrespect and argued for change. Although the study was situated within Bonilla-Silva? s theory of ? new racism,? the results indicated that a frame of color-blind racism provided an inadequate explanation of attitudes toward these nicknames. Le but de notre etude etait d? explorer l? attitude a l? egard des surnoms amerindiens en sport. Nous avons fait une enquete aupres d? etudiants a l? universite North Dakota, une institution avec un nombre substantiel d? etudiants amerindiens, pour determiner le soutien ou l? opposition au logo et au surnom de « Fighting Sioux » propres a cette universite. Une majorite d? etudiants amerindiens et une minorite d? etudiants blancs ont dit que le surnom evoquait un manque de respect et ont suggere un changement. Quoique l? etude fut ancree dans la theorie du « nouveau racisme » de Bonilla-Silva, les resultats indiquent que ce cadre theorique (selon lequel le racisme est present sans egard a la couleur des gens) n? apporte pas une explication adequate des attitudes a l? egard de tels surnoms.
Hyperplastic polyposis in the New Zealand population: a condition associated with increased colorectal cancer risk and European ancestry.

AIM The hyperplastic polyposis syndrome (HPS) has been described in a subset of patients with multiple or large hyperplastic polyps. HPS is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). In this report, we review the presentation and management of a series of individuals with HPS. METHODS From 2001, gastroenterologists, surgeons, and histopathologists at Middlemore Hospital were asked to report cases of HPS. Clinical records were retrospectively reviewed to confirm the number and size of polyps and the age at diagnosis, site of involvement in the colon, and nature of surgical procedures performed in cases with CRC. RESULTS HPS was identified in 24 patients: 14 females and 10 males. Though 46% of patients attending our gastroenterology department are non-Europeans, all HPS cases had European ancestry. A family history of CRC was identified in four patients (16.6%). All patients had small polyps (<5mm) however 15 (63%) had at least one polyp > or =10 mm, the largest being 45 mm. There were 21 CRCs in 14 patients with a mean age at diagnosis of 61 years. The tumour site was known in 19 CRC, and 16 of these (84%) occurred in the proximal colon. Synchronous cancers were identified in four patients and metachronous tumours in two patients. Twenty-two surgical procedures were performed in 17 patients. Three patients underwent prophylactic surgery due to polyp burden or dysplasia. CONCLUSION HPS is rarely encountered but is associated with a significant risk of CRC and is found in the European component of the New Zealand population. Identification of this syndrome has implications regarding management and surveillance for both the individual patient and their first-degree relatives.
Different Kinetics in Anti-Cytomegalovirus Immunity Reconstitution Evaluated by Lymphocyte Proliferation and IFN-γ Production in Allogeneic and Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (ALLOBMT) is associated with an increased risk of cytomegalovirus (CMV) morbidity compared to autologous BMT (AUTOBMT). To investigate this, we evaluated AUTOBMT and ALLOBMT patients regarding anti-CMV immune reconstitution at 1 and 4 months after BMT and on the day after first CMV antigenemia detection. Intermittent ganciclovir preemptive therapy was prompted by antigenemia of ≧2 cells. One month after transplant, AUTOBMT recipients already displayed larger CD8+ T cell numbers than ALLOBMT recipients, but comparably small CD4+ T cell numbers. Most AUTOBMT patients had positive CMV antigen (CMV-Ag)-induced lymphoproliferation (86%) and IFN-γ secretion (86%), whereas this was infrequently seen in ALLOBMT patients (20 and 10%, respectively). This early AUTOBMT immune reconstitution was associated with a lower frequency of CMV reactivation up to +4 months in AUTOBMT (21%) than ALLOBMT patients (91%). At +4 months, most ALLOBMT recipients had also recovered CMV-Ag immune responses. At first antigenemia detection, all 3 AUTOBMT recipients already displayed anti-CMV immune functions and 2 cleared the infection without therapy, whereas of the 10 ALLOBMT recipients only 1 had positive lymphoproliferation. In the latter group, none had IFN-γ secretion or cleared the infection without therapy. Thus, differences in anti-CMV immune reconstitution may help to explain the contrasting rates of CMV morbidity between ALLOBMT and AUTOBMT patients.
On the (non)-coincidence of Milnor–Thurston homology theory with singular homology theory

The paper investigates a homology theory based on the ideas of Milnor and Thurston that by considering measures on the set of all singular simplices one should get alternate possibilities for describing the cycles of classical homology theory. It suggests slight changes to Milnor’s and Thurston’s original definitions (giving differences for wild topological spaces only) which ensure that their homology theory is well-defined on all topological spaces. It further proves that Milnor-Thurston homology theory gives the same homology groups as the singular homology theory with real coefficients for all triangulable spaces. An example showing that the coincidence between these both homology theories does not hold for all topological spaces is also included.
Cardio‐facio‐cutaneous syndrome: Does genotype predict phenotype?

Cardio‐facio‐cutaneous (CFC) syndrome is a sporadic multiple congenital anomalies/mental retardation condition principally caused by mutations in BRAF, MEK1, and MEK2. Mutations in KRAS and SHOC2 lead to a phenotype with overlapping features. In approximately 10–30% of individuals with a clinical diagnosis of CFC, a mutation in one of these causative genes is not found. Cardinal features of CFC include congenital heart defects, a characteristic facial appearance, and ectodermal abnormalities. Additional features include failure to thrive with severe feeding problems, moderate to severe intellectual disability and short stature with relative macrocephaly. First described in 1986, more than 100 affected individuals are reported. Following the discovery of the causative genes, more information has emerged on the breadth of clinical features. Little, however, has been published on genotype–phenotype correlations. This clinical study of 186 children and young adults with mutation‐proven CFC syndrome is the largest reported to date. BRAF mutations are documented in 140 individuals (∼75%), while 46 (∼25%) have a mutation in MEK 1 or MEK 2. The age range is 6 months to 32 years, the oldest individual being a female from the original report [Reynolds et al. (1986); Am J Med Genet 25:413–427]. While some clinical data on 136 are in the literature, 50 are not previously published. We provide new details of the breadth of phenotype and discuss the frequency of particular features in each genotypic group. Pulmonary stenosis is the only anomaly that demonstrates a statistically significant genotype–phenotype correlation, being more common in individuals with a BRAF mutation. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Anomalous Strength Characteristics of Tilt Grain Boundaries in Graphene

Perfect Imperfections Graphene is composed of six-atom rings, but will include a number of five- and seven-atom rings as defects. Using simulations, Grantab et al. (p. 946) show that more defects do not necessarily lead to greater deterioration of mechanical properties. Mismatches caused by differences in the orientation of neighboring crystals are divided into low- and high-angle grain boundaries, and typically it is the lower-angle boundaries that are stronger. In graphene, by contrast, the larger-angle boundaries, which consist of higher-defect densities, are better able to accommodate the strain and prevent failure that originates in the breakup of the seven-member graphene rings. This suggests ways for synthesizing imperfect graphene sheets that will have mechanical properties that are close to those of perfect graphene. Simulations indicate that high-angle boundaries can better accommodate strain and prevent failure in graphene. Graphene in its pristine form is one of the strongest materials tested, but defects influence its strength. Using atomistic calculations, we find that, counter to standard reasoning, graphene sheets with large-angle tilt boundaries that have a high density of defects are as strong as the pristine material and, unexpectedly, are much stronger than those with low-angle boundaries having fewer defects. We show that this trend is not explained by continuum fracture models but can be understood by considering the critical bonds in the strained seven-membered carbon rings that lead to failure; the large-angle boundaries are stronger because they are able to better accommodate these strained rings. Our results provide guidelines for designing growth methods to obtain sheets with strengths close to that of pristine graphene.
[Clinical observation on treatment of 34 advanced gastric carcinoma patients by chemotherapy of DCF regimen combined with Fuzheng Hewei Decoction].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the therapeutic and adverse reactions of integrative Chinese and Western medicine (ICWM) for treatment of advanced gastric carcinoma. METHODS Sixty-six patients with advanced gastric carcinoma were randomized into two groups. Patients in the treatment group (34 patients) received chemotherapy of DCF (docetaxel/cisplatin/5-fluorouracil) regimen combined with Chinese herbal medicine, and patients in the control group (32 patients) were treated with chemotherapy of the same regimen alone. RESULTS No significant difference between the two groups was found in response rate (55.9% versus 50.0%), clinical benefiting rate (85.3% versus 81.3%) and half year survival rate (82.4% versus 65.6%); but the 1-year survival rate in the treatment group was superior to that in the control group (52.9% versus 25.0% , P < 0.05). As for the adverse reactions, significant difference between the two groups was shown in incidence of leucopenia, nausea and vomiting, mucosa reaction and fatigue, these reactions occurred lesser in the treatment group (P< 0.05). CONCLUSION Although treatment of ICWM for advanced gastric carcinoma cannot improve response rate, it could alleviate the adverse reactions of the treatment, improve quality of life and prolong the survival rate in patients.
Robust Signal Recovery With Highly Coherent Measurement Matrices

By embedding an <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _{p}$</tex-math></inline-formula>-norm noise constraint for <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$p\geq 2$</tex-math></inline-formula> into the recently emerged <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _{1-2}$</tex-math></inline-formula> method, in this letter, we study theoretically and numerically an <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _{1-2}/\ell _{p}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> method for recovery of general noisy signals from highly coherent measurement matrices. In particular, the obtained theoretical results not only improve the condition deduced in <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1">[1]</xref> for Gaussian noisy signal recovery but also provide a new theoretical guarantee for generally non-Gaussian noisy signal recovery. What is more, to better boost the recovery performance, a partial sum <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\ell _{1-2}/\ell _{p}$</tex-math></inline-formula> method is also proposed latter. This improved method, together with the previous <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX"> $\ell _{1-2}/\ell _{p}$</tex-math></inline-formula> method, becomes more competitive when compared with some of the state-of-the-art methods in recovering noisy signals from highly coherent measurement matrices.
Coupling heterogeneous multiscale FEM with Runge-Kutta methods for parabolic homogenization problems: a fully discrete space-time analysis

Numerical methods for parabolic homogenization problems combining finite element methods (FEMs) in space with Runge-Kutta methods in time are proposed. The space discretization is based on the coupling of macro and micro finite element methods following the framework of the Heterogeneous Multiscale Method (HMM). We present a fully-discrete analysis in both space and time. Our analysis relies on new (optimal) error bounds in the norms $L^2(H^1),$ $C^0(L^2)$, and $C^0(H^1)$ for the fully discrete analysis in space. These bounds can then be used to derive fully discrete space-time error estimates for a variety of Runge-Kutta methods, including implicit methods (e.g., Radau methods) and explicit stabilized method (e.g., Chebyshev methods). Numerical experiments confirm our theoretical convergence rates and illustrate the performance of the methods.
The relationship between critical thinking dispositions and academic achievement in Iranian midwifery students

Background & Aim : Students’ academic achievement is one of the important indicators in the assessment of higher education. Applying critical thinking in education is a significant factor affecting the growth and development of the students. This study was performed in an attempt to determine the relationship between critical thinking dispositions and academic achievement in midwifery students of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in 2014 . Methods & Materials: This correlation study was conducted on 60 midwifery students of Mashhad School of Nursing and Midwifery in 2014. All eligible students were recruited in this study. Data collection instruments included demographic and academic achievement form and the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory. Collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics tests and Pearson correlation coefficient using SPSS software version 16 . Results: The mean and standard deviation (SD) of the total score of critical thinking dispositions were 260.10 ± 38.18. The mean (SD) grade point average of students was 16.31 ± 1.05. The results of Pearson correlation test showed no significant relationship between the total and subscales scores of critical thinking and academic achievement (P > 0.05) . Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that there was no significant relationship between the critical thinking dispositions and its subscales with academic achievement .
Estimation of defect-free IDDQ in submicron circuits using switch level simulation

This paper presents a switch-level simulation-based method for estimating quiescent current values. The simulator identifies transistors that are in the proper state to experience leakage mechanisms. This information is combined with data about both the size of these transistors and various process parameters in order to calculate the actual I/sub DDQ/ value. SPICE simulation results are presented on a variety of circuits to both calibrate the simulator, and to demonstrate state, time and sequence dependencies of circuits. Some preliminary results are also given for an actual production chip.
Representation, Legitimation, and Autoethnography: An Autoethnographic Writing Story

The purpose of this article is to critique representation and legitimation as they relate to the peer review process for an autoethnographic manuscript. Using a conversation derived from seven reviewers' comments pertaining to one autoethnographic manuscript, issues relating to (a) the use of verification strategies in autoethnographic studies; and, (b) the use of self as the only data source are discussed. As such, this paper can be considered as an autoethnographic writing story. The problematic nature of autoethnography, which is located at the boundaries of scientific research, is examined by linking the author's experiences of the review process with dominant research perspectives. Suggestions for investigators wishing to produce autoethnographic accounts are outlined along with a call for the development of appropriate evaluative criteria for such work.