Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
School-based Programs: Lessons Learned from CATCH, Planet Health, and Not-On-Tobacco

Establishing healthy habits in youth can help prevent many chronic health problems later in life that are attributable to unhealthy eating, sedentary lifestyle, and overweight. For this reason, many public health professionals are interested in working with school systems to reach children in school settings. However, a lack of familiarity with how schools operate can be a substantial impediment to developing effective partnerships with schools. We describe lessons learned from three successful school health promotion programs that were developed and disseminated through collaborations between public health professionals, academic institutions, and school personnel. The programs include two focused on physical activity and good nutrition for elementary and middle school children — Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) and Planet Health — and one focused on smoking cessation among adolescents — Not-On-Tobacco (N-O-T). Important features of these school health programs include 1) identification of staff and resources required for program implementation and dissemination; 2) involvement of stakeholders (e.g., teachers, students, other school personnel, parents, nonprofit organizations, professional organizations) during all phases of program development and dissemination; 3) planning for dissemination of programs early in the development and testing process; and 4) rigorous evaluation of interventions to determine their effectiveness. The authors provide advice based on lessons learned from these programs to those who wish to work with young people in schools.
Codeine induces human mast cell chemokine and cytokine production: involvement of G‐protein activation

Background: Activation of mast cells and the systemic release of histamine are common side effects of opiates such as codeine and morphine. In some individuals, codeine not only elicits a sizable early response due to mast cell degranulation, but can also lead to late cutaneous allergic inflammation possibly through the production of chemokines. However, individuals who exhibit a late phase reaction to codeine often do not react to its synthetic analog, meperidine. The goal of this study was to test whether codeine and meperidine induce secretion of inflammatory mediators in human mast cells.
Differential Changes in Postsynaptic Density Proteins in Postmortem Huntington's Disease and Parkinson's Disease Human Brains

NMDA and AMPA-type glutamate receptors and their bound membrane-associated guanylate kinases (MAGUKs) are critical for synapse development and plasticity. We hypothesised that these proteins may play a role in the changes in synapse function that occur in Huntington's disease (HD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). We performed immunohistochemical analysis of human postmortem brain tissue to examine changes in the expression of SAP97, PSD-95, GluA2 and GluN1 in human control, and HD- and PD-affected hippocampus and striatum. Significant increases in SAP97 and PSD-95 were observed in the HD and PD hippocampus, and PSD95 was downregulated in HD striatum. We observed a significant increase in GluN1 in the HD hippocampus and a decrease in GluA2 in HD and PD striatum. Parallel immunohistochemistry experiments in the YAC128 mouse model of HD showed no change in the expression levels of these synaptic proteins. Our human data show that major but different changes occur in glutamatergic proteins in HD versus PD human brains. Moreover, the changes in human HD brains differ from those occurring in the YAC128 HD mouse model, suggesting that unique changes occur at a subcellular level in the HD human hippocampus.
Association between human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA and micronuclei in normal cervical cytology

The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between HPV-DNA and micronucleus (MN) frequency in women with normal cervical cytology. A total of 158 normal cervical smears were analyzed cytologically. The HPV genome was amplified using the GP5+/bioGP6+ consensus primers. HPV-DNA of high-risk types 16, 18, 31, 33, 39, 45 and 59 were also investigated. Of the 158 samples, 20 (12.7%) and 47 (29.7%) were positive for HPV-DNA and MN, respectively. Evidence for MN was found in 11 out of 20 (55%) HPV-DNA positive samples and in 36 out of 138 (26.1%) HPV-DNA negative ones. MN presence was significantly higher in HPV-DNA positive samples (p = 0.016). On the other hand, the absence of MN observed in a considerable number of HPV-DNA negative samples (102) may be of great value in predicting the absence of HPV. The mean age of HPV-DNA positive women (34.2 ± 12.6) was significantly lower than the mean age of HPV-DNA negative women (43.9 ± 13.7) (p = 0.003). Infection by one or multiple HPV types was found in 11 out of 20 (55.0%) and 9 out of 20 (45.0%) samples, respectively. The evaluation of MN using cervical smears collected for cytology tests could, thus, be used as additional information to monitor a population’s exposure to HPV.
Synthesis of sparse planar arrays with matrix pencil method

It's a difficult problem to optimize a sparse planar array for narrow main lobe width (MLW) and low peak side lobe level (PSLL) simultaneously. In this paper, the matrix pencil method (MPM) is applied to synthesize a sparse planar array. The sparse planar array is designed to a separable planar array by a product of two orthogonal linear sparse arrays. In order to obtain these two orthogonal sparse linear arrays, firstly two desired radiation patterns are designed according to the demands. Then the two desired patterns are sampled and reconstructed by using the MPM. Due to the advantages of the MPM, the element positions and excitations can be optimized simultaneously. And very low computational cost is needed for this process. A min-max criterion is also proposed for calculating the weights in the MPM. The method for planar array optimization addressed in this paper is easy to be implemented and has low computational cost. Several simulation cases demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.
Cholinergic Neuronal and Axonal Abnormalities Are Present Early in Aging and in Alzheimer Disease

A large body of evidence indicates that basal forebrain cholinergic neurons are selectively vulnerable to degeneration early in Alzheimer disease (AD). Recent studies, however, demonstrate reductions in cortical activity of the cholinergic enzyme choline acetyltransferase only in late stages of AD. To address this apparent contradiction, we compared abnormalities in magnocellular basal forebrain cholinergic neurons and their axons in nondemented young (<65 years; n = 6), nondemented old (>65 years; n = 7), pathologically mild (n = 5), and pathologically severe (n = 5) AD cases. Cholinergic axon abnormalities (i.e. thickened fibers and ballooned terminals) were evident in nondemented middle-aged cases, increased in nondemented old cases, and reduced in density in severe AD. This suggests that loss of cortical cholinergic axons in AD occurs preferentially in fibers with these abnormalities. Paired helical filament 1-immunoreactive pretangles and tangles were observed as early as the third decade prior to their appearance in entorhinal/perirhinal cortex; they were increased in mild and severe AD. These results indicate that basal forebrain cholinergic neuron abnormalities are present very early in aging and in the course of AD. Therefore, despite the morphologic alterations, choline acetyltransferase activity, but not necessarily normal neuron functions, may be preserved.
Diabetes accelerates retinal ganglion cell dysfunction in mice lacking sigma receptor 1

Purpose Sigma receptor 1 (σR1) is a non-opioid transmembrane protein that may act as a molecular chaperone at the endoplasmic reticulum–mitochondrial membrane. Ligands for σR1, such as (+)-pentazocine [(+)-PTZ], confer marked retinal neuroprotection in vivo and in vitro. Recently we analyzed the retinal phenotype of mice lacking σR1 (σR1 KO) and observed normal retinal morphology and function in young mice (5–30 weeks) but diminished negative scotopic threshold responses (nSTRs), retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss, and disruption of optic nerve axons consistent with inner retinal dysfunction by 1 year. These data led us to test the hypothesis that σR1 may be critical in forestalling chronic retinal stress; diabetes was used as the model of chronic stress. Methods To determine whether σR1 is required for (+)-PTZ neuroprotective effects, primary RGCs isolated from wild-type (WT) and σR1 KO mice were exposed to xanthine–xanthine oxidase (10 µM:2 mU/ml) to induce oxidative stress in the presence or absence of (+)-PTZ. Cell death was evaluated by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) analysis. To assess effects of chronic stress on RGC function, diabetes was induced in 3-week C57BL/6 (WT) and σR1 KO mice, using streptozotocin to yield four groups: WT nondiabetic (WT non-DB), WT diabetic (WT-DB), σR1 KO non-DB, and σR1 KO-DB. After 12 weeks of diabetes, when mice were 15-weeks old, intraocular pressure (IOP) was recorded, electrophysiologic testing was performed (including detection of nSTRs), and the number of RGCs was counted in retinal histological sections. Results In vitro studies showed that (+)-PTZ could not prevent oxidative stress-induced death of RGCs harvested from σR1 KO mice but afforded robust protection against death of RGCs harvested from WT mice. In the studies of chronic stress induced by diabetes, the IOP measured in the four mouse groups was within the normal range; however, there was a significant increase in the IOP of σR1 KO-DB mice (16±0.5 mmHg) compared to the other groups tested (σR1 KO non-DB, WT non-DB, WT-DB: ~12±0.6 mmHg). Regarding electrophysiologic testing, the nSTRs of σR1 KO non-DB mice were similar to WT non-DB mice at 15 weeks; however, they were significantly lower in σR1 KO-DB mice (5±1 µV) compared to the other groups, including, notably, σR1 KO-nonDB (12±2 µV). As expected, the number of RGCs in σR1 KO non-DB mice was similar to WT non-DB mice at 15 weeks, but under chronic stress of diabetes there were fewer RGCs in retinas of σR1 KO-DB mice. Conclusions This is the first report showing unequivocally that the neuroprotective effects of (+)-PTZ require σR1. σR1 KO mice show normal retinal structure and function at young ages; however, when subjected to the chronic stress of diabetes, there is an acceleration of retinal functional deficits in σR1 KO mice such that ganglion cell dysfunction is observed at a much earlier age than nondiabetic σR1 KO mice. The data support the hypothesis that σR1 plays a key role in modulating retinal stress and may be an important target for retinal disease.
Neuromuscular dysfunction in schizophrenia.

During the last 7 years, there have been a number of investigations of the incidence of various types of neuromuscular dysfunction in patients with schizophrenic and affective illnesses and their first-degree relatives in comparison with appropriate controls, including nonpsychotic psychiatric patients. Before reviewing these studies, it may be of value to discuss why neuromuscular dysfunction might be expected in virtually any disease of the nervous system—a category in which, thanks to recent genetic studies, we may now confidently include schizophrenia and the primary affective illnesses. The evidence for central nervous system involvement in a variety of diseases with apparently primary skeletal muscle involvement will also be presented. There are numerous instances of known disease of the brain in which pathologic changes in lower motor neurons, with consequent effects on skeletal muscle fiber morphology and function, are found. "Central atrophy" is the name given to the atrophy of skeletal muscle fibers, which frequently develops after various chronic brain diseases, particularly tumors of the parietal lobe (Fenichel, Daroff, and Glaser 1964, Koinov and Markov 1971, and Van Crevel 1969). Depth electrode studies in chronic schizophrenics have demonstrated abnormal electrical discharges in various parts of the cerebral cortex, including the parietal lobe (see Mirsky 1969). The mechanism of central atrophy is believed to be loss of the trophic (nutrient) influence of the upper
The Differential Quadrature Solution of Reaction-Diffusion Equation Using Explicit and Implicit Numerical Schemes

In this paper, two different numerical schemes, namely the Runge-Kutta fourth order method and the implicit Euler method with perturbation method of the second degree, are applied to solve the nonlinear thermal wave in one and two dimensions using the differential quadrature method. The aim of this paper is to make comparison between previous numerical schemes and detect which is more efficient and more accurate by comparing the obtained results with the available analytical ones and computing the computational time.
Mentoring student-teachers in schools: views, practices and access to ICT

Abstract There is evidence from a number of publications that use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) varies amongst serving and student-teachers in different subject specialities. Teacher-mentors are an obvious source of support during school experience; the relationship between student-teachers' use of ICT and that of their serving teacher-mentors is not clear. This study was part of a series of projects investigating ICT use during initial teacher training across different subject areas. Questionnaires, returned by 216 teacher-mentors in secondary schools were analysed. The questionnaires investigated use of ICT in teaching, availability of equipment and support, views on using ICT and preparations made for student-teachers to use ICT. In general, teacher-mentors were competent and frequent ICT users and were often active in preparing student-teachers' use. However, using case studies with 13 pairs of student-teachers and their teacher-mentors, it seems that similar preparations made by teacher-mentors did not always result in individual student-teachers using ICT to the same extent as peers. The possible reasons for differences were difficulties with access to computers, lack of active support and role models amongst serving teachers (including teacher-mentors) and competing demands on student-teachers' time. It is suggested that in order to increase the use of ICT in their teaching, student-teachers are likely to need better access to equipment, more active support from serving teachers and encouragement to include time for ICT in their school experience.
Structures and organization of adenovirus cement proteins provide insights into the role of capsid maturation in virus entry and infection

Significance Adenoviruses cause acute respiratory, ocular, and enteric diseases, with significant health concerns for immunocompromised individuals. Replication-deficient adenoviruses are among the most frequently used vectors for human gene therapy. However, the structural details of these large (150-MDa) and complex viral vectors remain obscure. In this study, we determined the crystal structures of all cement proteins in the context of the entire virion and, in the process, revised the existing cement protein structures and their locations. Significantly, our results revealed the structure of protein VI, for the first time to our knowledge, with its cleaved propeptide sequestered within peripentonal hexons. This permits untethering and release of the membrane-lytic segment, thereby providing the molecular basis for maturation cleavage of protein VI in adenovirus-mediated endosome disruption. Adenovirus cement proteins play crucial roles in virion assembly, disassembly, cell entry, and infection. Based on a refined crystal structure of the adenovirus virion at 3.8-Å resolution, we have determined the structures of all of the cement proteins (IIIa, VI, VIII, and IX) and their organization in two distinct layers. We have significantly revised the recent cryoelectron microscopy models for proteins IIIa and IX and show that both are located on the capsid exterior. Together, the cement proteins exclusively stabilize the hexon shell, thus rendering penton vertices the weakest links of the adenovirus capsid. We describe, for the first time to our knowledge, the structure of protein VI, a key membrane-lytic molecule, and unveil its associations with VIII and core protein V, which together glue peripentonal hexons beneath the vertex region and connect them to the rest of the capsid on the interior. Following virion maturation, the cleaved N-terminal propeptide of VI is observed, reaching deep into the peripentonal hexon cavity, detached from the membrane-lytic domain, so that the latter can be released. Our results thus provide the molecular basis for the requirement of maturation cleavage of protein VI. This process is essential for untethering and release of the membrane-lytic region, which is known to mediate endosome rupture and delivery of partially disassembled virions into the host cell cytoplasm.
Real-Time Global Localization of Robotic Cars in Lane Level via Lane Marking Detection and Shape Registration

In this paper, we propose an accurate and real-time positioning method for robotic cars in urban environments. The proposed method uses a robust lane marking detection algorithm, as well as an efficient shape registration algorithm between the detected lane markings and a GPS-based road shape prior, to improve the robustness and accuracy of the global localization of a robotic car. We show that, by formulating the positioning problem in a relative sense, we can estimate the global localization of a car in real time and bound its absolute error in the centimeter level by a cross-validation scheme. The cross-validation scheme integrates the vision-based lane marking detection with the shape registration, and it improves the accuracy and robustness of the overall localization system. The GPS localization can be refined by using lane marking detection when the GPS suffers from frequent satellite signal masking or blockage, whereas lane marking detection is validated and completed by the GPS-based road shape prior when it does not work well in adverse weather conditions or with poor lane signatures. We extensively evaluate the proposed method with a single forward-looking camera mounted on an autonomous vehicle that travels at 60 km/h through several urban street scenes.
Simple, Inexpensive Method for Automating Tissue Microarray Production Provides Enhanced Microarray Reproducibility

Tissue microarrays are a novel technology with the potential to impact cancer research by reducing the time, materials, and costs related to specimen-based marker validation. The process uses small cores of specimen tissue for molecular studies, maximizing the quantity of specimens that can be analyzed on a single slide and the results that can be obtained from a single antibody study. However, this process can be tedious and requires a significant time commitment for array production, particularly for the hand-produced tissue array blocks. In addition, this process has significant repetitive motions, risking repetitive stress injury for technical personnel. For these reasons, we have sought a simple, inexpensive system for automation of the existing microarray technologies. Using this system, slides containing as many as 400 specimens can be constructed in a simple and reproducible manner. Automation of the tissue microarray apparatus is accomplished by attaching two stepper motors to the micrometers of the apparatus that control array movement, and it has the advantages of standardizing the spacing between each specimen and eliminating repetitive motions by the user. A computer program is used to run the motors, allowing the user to input commands based on the desired moving distance. After assimilation of the motors, motor control boards, and corresponding program, the final product was tested and demonstrated to provide consistent, reproducible operation. Tissue microarrays were generated with specimen tissue diameters of 1.5 mm, 1.0 mm, and 0.6 mm with core densities upwards of 300 samples per slide.
Performance study of hybrid Wireless Mesh Protocol (HWMP) for IEEE 802.11s WLAN mesh networks

Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) have been envisioned as an important solution to the next generation wireless networking which can be used in wireless community networks, wireless enterprise networks, transportation systems, home networking and last-mile wireless internet access. Many proprietary mesh solutions were developed by individual vendor but in order to interoperability; IEEE forms a task group called IEEE 802.11s to develop an integrated mesh networking solution. Hybrid Wireless Mesh protocol (HWMP) and airtime metrics as default routing protocol and routing metrics set by the task group. There is few test bed and many simulation studies have been done to evaluate the performance of the HWMP protocol with the assumption of unique type of flow with fixed packet size and packet rate. However, real networks carry a diverse application (video, voice, FTP, Email etc) with different characteristics (packet size, data rate). In this paper, we are investigated and analyzed the performance of HWMP protocol under such heterogeneous application characteristics.
Gender Diversity on U.S. Corporate Boards: Are We Running In Place?

Despite rhetoric supporting the advancement of women on corporate boards, there is meager evidence of significant progress over the last decade in the U.S. We use archival board data (for more than 3000 U.S. publicly traded firms) from 2002-2011 to show that a female is most likely to be appointed to a corporate board when a woman leaves. There is a similar propensity to reappoint a male when a man leaves, although the effect is smaller than for women. This “gender matching heuristic” can impede progress in attaining gender diversity, regardless of intention, because it emphasizes replacement of existing women rather than changing board composition. We replicate this effect in follow up lab studies, and show that “what works” to increase the representation of women on boards, irrespective of gender matching, is to increase the number of women in the candidate pool.
Surface a -Enolase Promotes Extracellular Matrix Degradation and Tumor Metastasis and Represents a New Therapeutic Target

In previous research, we found a -enolase to be inversely correlated with progression-free and overall survival in lung cancer patients and detected a -enolase on the surface of lung cancer cells. Based on these findings, we hypothesized that surface a -enolase has a significant role in cancer metastasis and tested this hypothesis in the current study. We found that a -enolase was co-immunoprecipitated with urokinase-type plasminogen activator, urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor, and plasminogen in lung cancer cells and interacted with these proteins in a cell-free dot blotting assay, which can be interrupted by a -enolase-specific antibody. a -Enolase in lung cancer cells co-localized with these proteins and was present at the site of pericellular degradation of extracellular matrix components. Treatment with antibody against a -enolase in vitro suppressed cell-associated plasminogen and matrix metalloproteinase activation, collagen and gelatin degradation, and cell invasion. Examination of the effect of treatment with shRNA plasmids revealed that down regulation of a -enolase decreases extracellular matrix degradation by and the invasion capacity of lung cancer cells. Adoptive transfer of a -enolase- specific antibody to mice resulted in accumulation of antibody in subcutaneous tumor and inhibited the formation of tumor metastasis in lung and bone. This study demonstrated that surface a -enolase promotes extracellular matrix degradation and invasion of cancer cells and that targeting surface a -enolase is a promising approach to suppress tumor metastasis.