Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of a Novel Oligodendrocyte Cell Adhesion Protein Using Gene Expression Profiling

Oligodendrocytes undergo extensive changes as they differentiate from progenitors into myelinating cells. To better understand the molecular mechanisms underlying this transformation, we performed a comparative analysis using gene expression profiling of A2B5+ oligodendrocyte progenitors and O4+ oligodendrocytes. Cells were sort-purified ex vivo from postnatal rat brain using flow cytometry. Using Affymetrix microarrays, 1707 transcripts were identified with a more than twofold increase in expression in O4+ oligodendrocytes. Many genes required for oligodendrocyte differentiation were upregulated in O4+ oligodendrocytes, including numerous genes encoding myelin proteins. Transcriptional changes included genes required for cell adhesion, actin cytoskeleton regulation, and fatty acid and cholesterol biosynthesis. At the O4+ stage, there was an increase in expression of a novel proline-rich transmembrane protein (Prmp). Localized to the plasma membrane, Prmp displays adhesive properties that may be important for linking the extracellular matrix to the actin cytoskeleton. Together, our results highlight the usefulness of this discovery-driven experimental strategy to identify genes relevant to oligodendrocyte differentiation and myelination.
Massive Necrosis of the Brain in Rabies

Abstract: A young man developed virologically proved hydrophobic rabies three months after being scratched on the cheek by a bat in Northern Alberta. He became comatose after 8 days and died 5 weeks after vigorous therapy with immune globulin, interferon and Vidarabine, and excellent maintenance of oxygenation. Electroencephalographic deterioration was gradual. At postmortem examination, the brain showed widespread loss of nerve cells, mild diffuse inflammatory changes and no Negri bodies. The lesions of massive laminar necrosis of the cerebral cortex, total loss of Purkinje cells with preservation of the granule cell layer, and severe softening of the amygdala are attributed to direct viral action rather than to anoxia or brain swelling with respirator brain.
Attaining Meaningful Learning of Concepts in Genetics and Ecology: An Examination of the Potency of the Concept-Mapping Technique.

Studies have shown that in their study of biology, students perceive genetics and ecology to be difficult areas to learn. This has translated into rote learning of genetics and ecological concepts and reflected in poor performance in tests involving these concepts. Considering the importance of genetics and ecology to man's understanding of himself and his environment, there is a need to inquire into ways of ensuring that students attain meaningful learning of genetics and ecology rather than learning by rote. The efficacy of the concept-mapping strategy was tried out in this study with 138 predegree biology students. The results showed that the 63 students in the experimental group who employed the concept-mapping technique performed significantly better on the test of meaningful learning in genetics, t(136) = 16.01. p < 0.001, and ecology, t(136) = 12.27, p < 0.001, than their control group counterparts (N = 75). The implications of these results for teacher education in biology are addressed in the article.
Children's overestimation of the knowledge to be gained from seeing

In three investigations children aged 4-9 years were given a sequence of trials on each of which they experienced pairs of objects which looked the same but felt different (such as full and empty cereal packets) or felt the same and looked different (such as chocolate bars with different coloured wrappers). On each trial the experimenter chose one of the items from a pair and children predicted whether they themselves, or another person or doll, would know which one it was just by seeing it. In two of the three investigations, even the youngest children showed clear evidence of discriminating in their knowledge judgments between the two types of pairs, but nevertheless children frequently overestimated the knowledge to be gained from seeing. Errors of overestimation when the visual input was ambiguous as to feel were correlated with those made when the visual input was ambiguous as to size, suggesting the children's problem was not specific to understanding about the modality-specific aspect of knowledge. Furthermore, making it easier for children to isolate the visual input from an object from the non-visual was ineffective in reducing errors of overestimation. These results provide no evidence that children had difficulty imagining or isolating the visual aspect of the chosen object, but suggest that they may fail to realize when the input is ambiguous.
Narrative Integration, Fragmented Selves, and Autonomy

In this paper we defend the notion of narrative identity against Galen Strawson's recent critique. With reference to Elyn Saks's memoir of her schizophrenia, we question the coherence of Strawson's conception of the Episodic self and show why the capacity for narrative integration is important for a flourishing life. We also argue that Saks's case and reflections on the therapeutic role of “illness narratives” put pressure on narrative theories that specify unduly restrictive constraints on self-constituting narratives, and clarify the need to distinguish identity from autonomy.
Belgian normative data of the temperament and character inventory

The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) is a 226-item self-questionnaire developed to assess the seven dimensions of personality described by Cloninger and his colleagues. Normative data from 322 representative French-speaking subjects from Belgium are presented and the psychometric properties are discussed. Mean scores of temperament dimensions were appreciably different from those published by Cloninger. In our sample, novelty seeking and self-transcendence scores were lower and harm avoidance scores were higher compared to US norms. The other dimensions were almost identical. The factorial analysis showed that the hypothesized factor structure of temperament and character dimensions was almost confirmed. The present study also confirmed that the TCI scales were weakly related among themselves. The relationships were consistent with those reported by previous reports. Gender differences were also found for different dimensions.
Adaptive line placement with the set balancing cache

Efficient memory hierarchy design is critical due to the increasing gap between the speed of the processors and the memory. One of the sources of inefficiency in current caches is the non-uniform distribution of the memory accesses on the cache sets. Its consequence is that while some cache sets may have working sets that are far from fitting in them, other sets may be underutilized because their working set has fewer lines than the set. In this paper we present a technique that aims to balance the pressure on the cache sets by detecting when it may be beneficial to associate sets, displacing lines from stressed sets to underutilized ones. This new technique, called set balancing cache or SBC, achieved an average reduction of 13% in the miss rate often benchmarks from the SPEC CPU2006 suite, resulting in an average IPC improvement of 5%.
Profiling Killers: A Revised Classification Model for Understanding Sexual Murder

Generally, murder classifications have failed to be useful for investigators in identifying perpetrators of murders. Based on the experience of the authors, this article extends the definitions of four previously recognized rape-offender typologies (power-assertive, power- reassurance, anger-retaliatory, and anger-excitation) into classifications for sexually oriented killers. These types of murderers and their crime scenes are described through the dynamics of their behaviors, homicidal patterns, and suspect profiles. Each typology is followed by an actual case example that fits that particular type of killer. By identifying crime scene and behavioral factors of these killers, the homicide investigator will be more equipped to process murder scenes, prioritize leads, and apprehend killers. Unlike earlier efforts at crime scene classification, the present work addresses the behaviors, motivational continuum, and the effects of experiential learning by the perpetrators. The relative frequency of the four types within a population of murderers at the Michigan State Penitentiary is revealed.
Applying a Modified Moral Decision Making Model to Change Habitual Car Use: How Can Commitment be Effective?

Une intervention basee sur une theorie a ete realisee aupres d’un echantillon de 297 automobilistes pour tenter de lancer de nouvelles habitudes de deplacement (essayer de preferer les transports en commun plutot que la voiture). Un modele de modification d’une decision morale relevant de la theorie de Schwartz et Howard (1981) fut exploite dans la conception d’une intervention associant une technique de decristallisation des comportements anterieurs (remise provisoire d’une carte gratuite) avec une technique focalisee sur une norme (appel a l’implication). L’echantillon etait constitue de 297 citoyens allemands pouvant utiliser facilement leur voiture et vivant dans des quartiers bien desservis par les transports en commun. Les participants ont ete repartis au hasard dans quatre conditions (implication precedee par une carte gratuite, seulement l’implication, seulement la carte gratuite et groupe controle) et durent faire part de leur choix de transport pour un trajet precis et habituel (par exemple aller au travail) sur une duree de huit semaines suivie d’une periode controle de deux semaines. En outre, les variables du modele (la regle personnelle de reduction de l’utilisation de la voiture, les normes sociales, les couts comportementaux ressentis et les habitudes) ont ete enregistrees toutes les deux semaines. Bien que les effets globaux de l’intervention aient ete faibles, les resultats montrent qu’une motivation morale est un predicteur pertinent du choix d’un mode de transport qui peut etre renforce par une intervention portant sur l’implication precedee par un changement temporaire de la situation. A theory-driven intervention was carried out to initiate the try-out of a new travel mode behavior (try out taking public transport instead of car) in a sample of habitual car users (N= 297). A modified moral decision making model based on the theory of Schwartz and Howard (1981) served as background for the design of an intervention combining a habit-defrosting technique (temporary gift of a free ticket) with a norm-focused technique (plea for commitment). The sample consisted of 297 German citizens with good car access and living in areas with a convenient supply of public transportation. Participants were randomly assigned to four groups (commitment preceded by a free ticket, commitment only, free ticket only, and control) and had to report their travel mode choice for a particular, regular trip (e.g. trip to work) for a period of 8 weeks and a 2-week follow-up period. Additionally, model variables (personal norm to reduce car use, social norm, perceived behavioral costs, and habit) were recorded every 2 weeks. Although overall effects of the interventions were small, results indicate that a moral motivation is a relevant predictor for travel mode choices and can be stabilised by a commitment intervention preceded by a temporary change of the situation.
Prevalence of founder BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in unselected French Canadian women with breast cancer

The frequency of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in women with breast cancer varies according to the age at diagnosis, family history of cancer, and ethnicity/country of origin. We set out to estimate the frequency of seven previously described founder mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 in all eligible French Canadian women diagnosed with invasive breast cancer at one Montreal hospital over a 20‐month period. One hundred and ninety‐two patients were eligible and 127 (66.2%) provided blood for genetic testing. We identified 4 women who carried a founder mutation (3.1%, 95% confidence interval 0.9–7.9%) in this population. Interestingly, all the mutations were in BRCA2. The mean age at diagnosis for mutation carriers was 51.2 years (range 49.1–53.5). Two of these 4 cases were lobular invasive carcinomas and 2 were ductal carcinomas, histological grade 1 or 2. Despite a small tumor size (≤20 mm), axillary nodal involvement was present in 3 women. Estrogen receptors were strongly expressed in all cases. Two of the 4 cases reported a strong family history of breast cancer, but a family history of site‐specific breast cancer was a relatively poor indicator of the presence of BRCA2 mutations. The absence of BRCA1 mutations may be a result of chance, but may also reflect different geographical origins of the most common BRCA1 mutations within the French Canadian population.
What constructional profiles reveal about synonymy: A case study of Russian words for sadness and happiness

Abstract We test two hypotheses relevant to the form-meaning relationship and offer a methodological contribution to the empirical study of near-synonymy within the framework of cognitive linguistics. In addition, we challenge implicit assumptions about the nature of the paradigm, which we show is skewed in favor of a few forms that are prototypical for a given lexical item. If one accepts the claim of construction grammar that the construction is the relevant unit of linguistic analysis, then we should expect to find a relationship between the meanings of words and the constructions they are found in. One way to investigate this expectation is by examining the meaning of constructions on the basis of their lexical profile; this line of research is pursued in collostructional analyses. We have taken a different approach, examining the meaning of near-synonyms on the basis of what we call their “constructional profile”. We define a constructional profile as the frequency distribution of the constructions that a word appears in. Constructional profiles for Russian nouns denoting sadness and happiness are presented, based upon corpus data, and analyzed quantitatively (using chi square and hierarchical cluster analysis). The findings are compared to the introspective analyses offered in synonym dictionaries.
Induction and construction: Teetering between worlds

Commentaire de l'opinion de Moscovici sur la psychologie sociale, sa nature, son objet, etc… dans ses rapports avec le positivisme-empirisme classique, le constructivisme et le constructionisme sociaux. Difficulte d'adherer a la fois par certains aspects a l'inductivisme et par d'autres au constructionisme. Illustration de la question du constructionisme dans une perspective feministe
On Nash Equilibria for a Network Creation Game

We study a basic network creation game proposed by Fabrikant et al. [2003]. In this game, each player (vertex) can create links (edges) to other players at a cost of <i>α</i> per edge. The goal of every player is to minimize the sum consisting of (a) the cost of the links he has created and (b) the sum of the distances to all other players. Fabrikant et al. conjectured that there exists a constant <i>A</i> such that, for any <i>α</i> > <i>A</i>, all nontransient Nash equilibria graphs are trees. They showed that if a Nash equilibrium is a tree, the price of anarchy is constant. In this article, we disprove the tree conjecture. More precisely, we show that for any positive integer <i>n</i><sub>0</sub>, there exists a graph built by <i>n</i> ≥ <i>n</i><sub>0</sub> players which contains cycles and forms a nontransient Nash equilibrium, for any <i>α</i> with 1 < <i>α</i> ≤ √<i>n</i>/2. Our construction makes use of some interesting results on finite affine planes. On the other hand, we show that, for <i>α</i> ≥ 12<i>n</i> ⌈log <i>n</i>⌉, every Nash equilibrium forms a tree. Without relying on the tree conjecture, Fabrikant et al. proved an upper bound on the price of anarchy of <i>O</i>(√<i>α</i>), where <i>α</i> ∈ [2, <i>n</i><sup>2</sup>. We improve this bound. Specifically, we derive a constant upper bound for <i>α</i> ∈ <i>O</i>(√<i>n</i>) and for <i>α</i> ≥ 12<i>n</i> ⌈log <i>n</i>⌉. For the intermediate values, we derive an improved bound of <i>O</i>(1 + (min{<i>α</i><sup>2</sup>/<i>n</i>, <i>n</i><sup>2</sup>/<i>α</i>})<sup>1/3</sup>). Additionally, we develop characterizations of Nash equilibria and extend our results to a weighted network creation game as well as to scenarios with cost sharing.
Integration of Euclidean constraints in template based visual tracking of piecewise-planar scenes

This papers deals with the problem of tracking a piecewise-planar scene in a video sequence and, at the same time, with the problem of estimating accurately the 3D displacement of the camera for robotic applications. A new approach to the problem is proposed and two noticeable contributions are given. Firstly, the explicit dependency between the 2D image transformation parameters (a homography for each plane) and the 3D camera displacement parameters is computed. Secondly, a second-order optimization algorithm is proposed. The second-order optimization considerably increases the convergence domain and the convergence rate of standard first-order optimization algorithms while having an almost equivalent computational complexity
NO . 09-32 HOW IMPORTANT IS THE CURRENCY DENOMINATION OF EXPORTS IN OPEN-ECONOMY MODELS ?

We show that standard alternative assumptions about the currency in which firms price export goods are virtually inconsequential for the properties of aggregate variables, other than the terms of trade, in a quantitative open-economy model. This result is in contrast to a large literature that emphasizes the importance of the currency denomination of exports for the properties of open-economy models.
Subdiffusion reflectance spectroscopy to measure tissue ultrastructure and microvasculature: model and inverse algorithm

Abstract. Reflectance measurements acquired from within the subdiffusion regime (i.e., lengthscales smaller than a transport mean free path) retain much of the original information about the shape of the scattering phase function. Given this sensitivity, many models of subdiffusion regime light propagation have focused on parametrizing the optical signal through various optical and empirical parameters. We argue, however, that a more useful and universal way to characterize such measurements is to focus instead on the fundamental physical properties, which give rise to the optical signal. This work presents the methodologies that used to model and extract tissue ultrastructural and microvascular properties from spatially resolved subdiffusion reflectance spectroscopy measurements. We demonstrate this approach using ex-vivo rat tissue samples measured by enhanced backscattering spectroscopy.
Intimate partner violence relationship dissolution among couples with children: The counterintuitive role of 'law and order' neighborhoods

This study examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV) relationship dissolution and neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability, collective efficacy, and legal cynicism. Data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods (PHDCN) longitudinal survey were used to identify 658 cases of IPV in Wave 1. A generalized boosting model (GBM) was used to determine the best proximal predictors of relationship dissolution from the longitudinal data. Controlling for these predictors, logistic regression of neighborhood characteristics from the PHDCN community survey was used to predict IPV relationship dissolution in Wave 2. Counterintuitively, the authors find that neighborhoods high in legal cynicism have a greater likelihood of IPV relationship dissolution, controlling for other variables in the logistic regression model. However, analyses did not find that IPV relationship dissolution was related to neighborhood concentrated disadvantage, ethnic heterogeneity, residential instability, and collective efficacy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)
Structure of the Plasmodium 6-cysteine s48/45 domain

The s48/45 domain was first noted in Plasmodium proteins more than 15 y ago. Previously believed to be unique to Plasmodium, the s48/45 domain is present in other aconoidasidans. In Plasmodium, members of the s48/45 family of proteins are localized on the surface of the parasite in different stages, mostly by glycosylphosphatydylinositol-anchoring. Members such as P52 and P36 seem to play a role in invasion of hepatocytes, and Pfs230 and Pfs48/45 are involved in fertilization in the sexual stages and have been consistently studied as targets of transmission-blocking vaccines for years. In this report, we present the molecular structure for the s48/45 domain corresponding to the C-terminal domain of the blood-stage protein Pf12 from Plasmodium falciparum, obtained by NMR. Our results indicate that this domain is a β-sandwich formed by two sheets with a mixture of parallel and antiparallel strands. Of the six conserved cysteines, two pairs link the β-sheets by two disulfide bonds, and the third pair forms a bond outside the core. The structure of the s48/45 domain conforms well to the previously defined surface antigen 1 (SAG1)-related-sequence (SRS) fold observed in the SAG family of surface antigens found in Toxoplasma gondii. Despite extreme sequence divergence, remarkable spatial conservation of one of the disulfide bonds is observed, supporting the hypothesis that the domains have evolved from a common ancestor. Furthermore, a homologous domain is present in ephrins, raising the possibility that the precursor of the s48/45 and SRS domains emerged from an ancient transfer to Apicomplexa from metazoan hosts.
Coronavirus Genomics and Bioinformatics Analysis

The drastic increase in the number of coronaviruses discovered and coronavirus genomes being sequenced have given us an unprecedented opportunity to perform genomics and bioinformatics analysis on this family of viruses. Coronaviruses possess the largest genomes (26.4 to 31.7 kb) among all known RNA viruses, with G + C contents varying from 32% to 43%. Variable numbers of small ORFs are present between the various conserved genes (ORF1ab, spike, envelope, membrane and nucleocapsid) and downstream to nucleocapsid gene in different coronavirus lineages. Phylogenetically, three genera, Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus and Gammacoronavirus, with Betacoronavirus consisting of subgroups A, B, C and D, exist. A fourth genus, Deltacoronavirus, which includes bulbul coronavirus HKU11, thrush coronavirus HKU12 and munia coronavirus HKU13, is emerging. Molecular clock analysis using various gene loci revealed that the time of most recent common ancestor of human/civet SARS related coronavirus to be 1999–2002, with estimated substitution rate of 4×10−4 to 2×10−2 substitutions per site per year. Recombination in coronaviruses was most notable between different strains of murine hepatitis virus (MHV), between different strains of infectious bronchitis virus, between MHV and bovine coronavirus, between feline coronavirus (FCoV) type I and canine coronavirus generating FCoV type II, and between the three genotypes of human coronavirus HKU1 (HCoV-HKU1). Codon usage bias in coronaviruses were observed, with HCoV-HKU1 showing the most extreme bias, and cytosine deamination and selection of CpG suppressed clones are the two major independent biological forces that shape such codon usage bias in coronaviruses.