Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developing a Training Program on Issues in Aging for Correctional Workers

Abstract Older adults who are incarcerated and living in prisons represent an increasing, yet invisible, group among the aging population. Two factors in particular have contributed to this growth: the aging of the general population and the escalating number of prisoners serving long sentences. Working effectively with older inmates poses a challenge for correctional workers who are accustomed to dealing with a much younger clientele. In many states, correctional employees are required to obtain annual training, and educational institutions can play a major role in providing the expertise necessary in the development of quality training materials on issues related to aging. While continuing education programs to address the needs of workers in community-based and long-term care settings have grown rapidly, they have made negligible progress in more obscure settings such as prisons. This paper discusses the development of a 6-hour training program entitled “Issues in Aging for Correctional Workers. ” The training was developed through the interdisciplinary collaborative efforts of two faculty members who teach in the criminal justice and sociology/social work departments at a medium-sized liberal arts university in the upper Midwest.
THE PHYSIOLOGIC EFFECT OF INCRETIN HORMONES —

Incretin hormones, originally identified in the 1930s, were not fully appreciated for their potential role in the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus until their insulinotropic properties were recognized in the 1960s. Incretins are hormones produced by the gastrointestinal tract and released upon nutrient entry into the gut. Once released, incretins stimulate insulin secretion. The concept of this incretin action was based upon studies noting that the insulin response to oral glucose exceeded that for equivalent amounts of intravenous glucose. The predominant incretin hormone is glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). In addition to stimulating insulin secretion, GLP-1 suppresses glucagon release, slows gastric emptying, improves insulin sensitivity, and reduces food intake. In rodent and cell model systems, GLP-1 has been shown to promote β-cell regeneration and mass in addition to stimulating reduced apoptosis. Targeting GLP-1 receptor stimulation and action is central to investigational therapeutic strategies for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and involves chronic infusion of GLP-1, oral dipeptidyl peptidase-IV inhibitors, and incretin mimetics, including the recently approved natural GLP-1–like peptide, exendin-4. (Adv Stud Med. 2006;6(7A):S581-S585) T he concept of incretin was initially hypothesized from studies reporting a greater insulin response to oral glucose versus an equivalent concentration of intravenous glucose. It was postulated that gut-derived substances, released upon oral nutrient intake, were potential insulin secretagogues that augmented insulin release. In 1986, Nauck et al studied this incretin effect (insulin response to oral vs intravenous glucose) by administering 25, 50, and 100 g of glucose either orally or intravenously to study subjects and measuring connecting peptide (C-peptide) levels, which are used as a marker of endogenous insulin production. They found that the degree of incretin secretion was dependent upon the amount of glucose ingested, and that incretins were responsible for approximately 75% of the insulin response after ingestion of 50 g of glucose. The 2 major incretin hormones are gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP), also known as glucosedependent insulin tropic polypeptide, and glucagonlike peptide-1 (GLP-1). Knowledge of their secretion and actions has led to the development of incretinbased therapies for type 2 diabetes.
Affinities among Melanesians, Micronesians, and Polynesians: A Neutral, Biparental Genetic Perspective

The human colonization of Remote Oceania, the vast Pacific region including Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia beyond the northern Solomon Islands, ranks as one of the greatest achievements of prehistory. Many aspects of human diversity have been examined in an effort to reconstruct this late Holocene expansion. Archaeolinguistic analyses describe a rapid expansion of Austronesian-speaking "Lapita people" from Taiwan out into the Pacific. Analyses of biological markers, however, indicate genetic contributions from Pleistocene-settled Near Oceania into Micronesia and Polynesia, and genetic continuity across Melanesia. Thus, conflicts between archaeolinguistic and biological patterns suggest either linguistic diffusion or gene flow across linguistic barriers throughout Melanesia. To evaluate these hypotheses and the general utility of linguistic patterns for conceptualizing Pacific prehistory, we analyzed 14 neutral, biparental genetic (short tandem repeat) loci from 965 individuals representing 27 island Southeast Asian, Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian populations. Population bottlenecks during the colonization of Remote Oceania are indicated by a statistically significant regression of loss of heterozygosity on migration distance from island Southeast Asia (r = 0.78, p < 0.001). Genetic and geographic distances were consistently correlated (r > 0.35, p < 0.006), indicating extensive gene flow primarily focused among neighboring populations. Significant correlations between linguistic and geographic patterns and between genetic and linguistic patterns depended upon the inclusion of Papuan speakers in the analyses. These results are consistent with an expansion of Austronesian-speaking populations out of island Southeast Asia and into Remote Oceania, followed by substantial gene flow from Near Oceanic populations. Although linguistic and genetic distinctions correspond at times, particularly between Western and Central-Eastern Micronesia, gene flow has reduced the utility of linguistic data within Melanesia. Overall, geographic proximity is a better predictor of biparental genetic relationships than linguistic affinities.
Roles of the C. elegans cyclophilin-like protein MOG-6 in MEP-1 binding and germline fates

The switch from spermatogenesis to oogenesis in the Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite requires mog-6, which post-transcriptionally represses the fem-3 RNA. In this study, we show that mog-6 codes for a divergent nuclear cyclophilin, in that a conserved domain is not required for its function in the sperm-oocyte switch. MOG-6 binds to the nuclear zinc finger protein MEP-1 through two separate domains that are essential for the role of MOG-6 in the sperm-oocyte switch. We propose that MOG-6 has a function distinct from that of prevailing cyclophilins and that its binding to MEP-1 is essential for germline sex determination. Finally, we found that gld-3 mog-6 mutants develop germline tumors, suggesting that mog-6 might function in the decision between mitosis and meiosis.
Distinct Neuroblastoma-associated Alterations of PHOX2B Impair Sympathetic Neuronal Differentiation in Zebrafish Models

Heterozygous germline mutations and deletions in PHOX2B, a key regulator of autonomic neuron development, predispose to neuroblastoma, a tumor of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system. To gain insight into the oncogenic mechanisms engaged by these changes, we used zebrafish models to study the functional consequences of aberrant PHOX2B expression in the cells of the developing sympathetic nervous system. Allelic deficiency, modeled by phox2b morpholino knockdown, led to a decrease in the terminal differentiation markers th and dbh in sympathetic ganglion cells. The same effect was seen on overexpression of two distinct neuroblastoma-associated frameshift mutations, 676delG and K155X - but not the R100L missense mutation - in the presence of endogenous Phox2b, pointing to their dominant-negative effects. We demonstrate that Phox2b is capable of regulating itself as well as ascl1, and that phox2b deficiency uncouples this autoregulatory mechanism, leading to inhibition of sympathetic neuron differentiation. This effect on terminal differentiation is associated with an increased number of phox2b+, ascl1+, elavl3− cells that respond poorly to retinoic acid. These findings suggest that a reduced dosage of PHOX2B during development, through either a heterozygous deletion or dominant-negative mutation, imposes a block in the differentiation of sympathetic neuronal precursors, resulting in a cell population that is likely to be susceptible to secondary transforming events.
The advection–condensation model and water‐vapour probability density functions

The statistically steady humidity distribution resulting from an interaction of advection, modelled as an uncorrelated random walk of moist parcels on an isentropic surface, and a vapour sink, modelled as immediate condensation whenever the specific humidity exceeds a specified saturation humidity, is explored with theory and simulation. A source supplies moisture at the deep‐tropical southern boundary of the domain and the saturation humidity is specified as a monotonically decreasing function of distance from the boundary. The boundary source balances the interior condensation sink, so that a stationary spatially inhomogeneous humidity distribution emerges. An exact solution of the Fokker–Planck equation delivers a simple expression for the resulting probability density function (PDF) of the water‐vapour field and also the relative humidity. This solution agrees completely with a numerical simulation of the process, and the humidity PDF exhibits several features of interest, such as bimodality close to the source and unimodality further from the source. The PDFs of specific and relative humidity are broad and non‐Gaussian. The domain‐averaged relative humidity PDF is bimodal with distinct moist and dry peaks, a feature which we show agrees with middleworld isentropic PDFs derived from the ERA interim dataset. Copyright © 2011 Royal Meteorological Society
PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT AND MODEL DEVELOPMENT OF A VARIABLE–RATE, SPINNER–DISC FERTILIZER APPLICATOR

The popularity of spinner spreaders for application of granular fertilizers and agricultural lime, along with increased interests in variable–rate technology (VRT), has raised concern about application accuracy and distribution of these spreaders. This investigation was undertaken to assess the application distribution of a VRT spinner fertilizer spreader. Application distribution was assessed using a matrix of collection pans and following test procedures outlined in ASAE Standard S341.2. Uniform and variable–rate tests were performed to characterize the application variability of the spreader and to test the effect of rate changes via GPS control. Uniform and variable–rate application models were developed from the collected data. A sigmoidal function was used to describe increasing application rate changes, while a linear function described decreasing rate changes. Average transverse distribution patterns were used to model both high and low application rates. The resulting models were then compared to the actual distributions. The model was found to do a good job of characterizing uniform and variable–rate application patterns and therefore may be suitable for simulating variable–rate application errors.
Carbon–water flux coupling under progressive drought

Abstract. Water-use efficiency (WUE), defined as the ratio of carbon assimilation over evapotranspiration (ET), is a key metric to assess ecosystem functioning in response to environmental conditions. It remains unclear which factors control this ratio during periods of extended water limitation. Here, we used dry-down events occurring at eddy-covariance flux tower sites in the FLUXNET database as natural experiments to assess if and how decreasing soil-water availability modifies WUE at ecosystem scale. WUE models were evaluated by their performance to predict ET from both the gross primary productivity (GPP), which characterizes carbon assimilation at ecosystem scale, and environmental variables. We first compared two water-use efficiency models: the first was based on the concept of a constant underlying water-use efficiency, and the second augmented the first with a previously detected direct influence of radiation on transpiration. Both models predicting ET strictly from atmospheric covariates failed to reproduce observed ET dynamics for these periods, as they did not explicitly account for the effect of soil-water limitation. We demonstrate that an ET-attenuating soil-water-availability factor in junction with the additional radiation term was necessary to accurately predict ET flux magnitudes and dry-down lengths of these water-limited periods. In an analysis of the attenuation of ET for the 31 included FLUXNET sites, up to 50 % of the observed decline in ET was due to the soil-water-availability effect we identified in this study. We conclude by noting that the rates of ET decline differ significantly between sites with different vegetation and climate types and discuss the dependency of this rate on the variability of seasonal dryness.
Per-Flow Queueing by Dynamic Queue Sharing

Per-flow queuing is believed to be able to guarantee advanced Quality of Service (QoS) for each flow. With the dramatic increase of link speed and number of traffic flows, per-flow queuing faces a great challenge since millions of queues need to be maintained for implementation in a traditional sense. In this paper, by setting only a small number of physical queues, we propose a Dynamic Queue Sharing (DQS) mechanism to achieve an equal performance to the pure per-flow queuing with a lower cost. The proposed mechanism is based on an interesting fact that the number of simultaneous active flows in the router buffer is far less than that of in-progress flows. In DQS, a physical queue is dynamically created on-demand when a new flow comes and then dynamically released when the flow temporarily pauses. Hashing and binary sorting tree (or linked list) are combined to manage the mapping between flows and queues, so as to isolate flows in different queues. Theoretical analysis and traces experiments are conducted to evaluate DQS. The results demonstrate that when the parameters are well set, the operation delay is less than two time cycles in average with an extra memory of 16k bits.
Proteomic identification of aldo-keto reductase AKR1B10 induction after treatment of colorectal cancer cells with the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib

Targeting the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway with the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib has emerged as a promising approach for the treatment of several malignancies. The cellular and molecular effects of this agent on colorectal cancer cells are poorly characterized. This study investigated the antiproliferative effect of bortezomib on colorectal cancer cell lines (Caco-2 and HRT-18). In order to define the proteins potentially involved in the mechanisms of action, proteome profiling was applied to detect the proteins altered by bortezomib. The in vitro efficacy of bortezomib as a single agent in colorectal cancer cell lines was confirmed. Proteome profiling with two-dimensional PAGE followed by mass spectrometry revealed the up-regulation of the major inducible isoform of heat shock protein 70 (hsp72) and lactate dehydrogenase B in both cell lines, as well as the induction of aldo-keto reductase family 1 member B10 (AKR1B10) in HRT-18 cells. Both AKR1B10 and hsp72 exert cell-protective functions. This study shows for the first time a bortezomib-induced up-regulation of AKR1B10. Small interfering RNA–mediated inhibition of this enzyme with known intracellular detoxification function sensitized HRT-18 cells to therapy with the proteasome inhibitor. To further characterize the relevance of AKR1B10 for colorectal tumors, immunohistochemical expression was shown in 23.2% of 125 tumor specimens. These findings indicate that AKR1B10 might be a target for combination therapy with bortezomib. [Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(7):1995–2006]
DELirium Prediction Based on Hospital Information (Delphi) in General Surgery Patients

AbstractTo develop a simple and accurate delirium prediction score that would allow identification of individuals with a high probability of postoperative delirium on the basis of preoperative and immediate postoperative data.Postoperative delirium, although transient, is associated with adverse outcomes after surgery. However, there has been no appropriate tool to predict postoperative delirium.This was a prospective observational single-center study, which consisted of the development of the DELirium Prediction based on Hospital Information (Delphi) score (n = 561) and its validation (n = 533). We collected potential risk factors for postoperative delirium, which were identified by conducting a comprehensive review of the literatures.Age, low physical activity, hearing impairment, heavy alcoholism, history of prior delirium, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, emergency surgery, open surgery, and increased preoperative C-reactive protein were identified as independent predictors of postoperative delirium. The Delphi score was generated using logistic regression coefficients. The maximum Delphi score was 15 and the optimal cut-off point identified with the Youden index was 6.5. Generated area under the (AUC) of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.911 (95% CI: 0.88–0.94). In the validation study, the calculated AUC of the ROC curve based on the Delphi score was 0.938 (95% Cl: 0.91–0.97). We divided the validation cohort into the low-risk group (Delphi score 0–6) and high-risk group (7–15). Sensitivity of Delphi score was 80.8% and specificity 92.5%. Our proposed Delphi score could help health-care provider to predict the development of delirium and make possible targeted intervention to prevent delirium in high-risk surgery patients.
Vector tracking loop design for degraded signal environment

This paper presents vector tracking algorithm for tracking the pseudorandom code of satellite navigation signals, which is suitable for degraded signal environment. The benefits of the vector tracking in comparison of scalar tracking are also explained. This vector tracking algorithm is based on the discriminator function. Conventional GPS receivers use scalar tracking methods and signals from each channel are processed independently. On the contrary, vector tracking loops process the signals in aggregate and can provide better tracking in degraded signal environment, since the channels are closely correlated in vector mode. In vector tracking approach the tracking control input is generated by the navigation filter. The vector tracking loops can operate in weak signal conditions and can rapidly reacquire the weak or attenuated signals. In this paper the ability of vector tracking loop to reacquire the signals is explored and is compared with conventional scalar tracking method.
THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP, ETHICAL CLIMATE, JOB SATISFACTION AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN COMPANIES

The aim of this study is to survey the relationship between the ethical climate, leadership behavior in terms of charismatic leadership and organizational commitment regarding affective and continuance commitment. It is noted that this examine is based on a survey of 626 people who work in national and multinational companies in Turkey for comparing relationship between the factor analysis, reliability, correlations and regressions. As a consequent, all hypotheses are supported and positively related.
Retinoid receptor‐activating ligands are produced within the mouse thymus during postnatal development

Vitamin A deficiency is known to be accompanied with immune deficiency and susceptibility to a wide range of infectious diseases. Experimental evidence suggests that the active metabolites of vitamin A that mediate its effects on the immune system are the retinoic acids (RA), which are ligands for the nuclear RA receptor (RAR) family. RA were previously shown both to promote proliferation and to regulate apoptosis of thymocytes. In this study we detected the age‐dependent mRNA expression of retinaldehyde dehydrogenases (RALDH1 and 2), cellular RA binding protein‐II and CYP26A, proteins responsible for the synthesis, nuclear transport and degradation of RA in the postnatally developing thymus. RALDH1 was located in thymic epithelial cells. However, the amount of all‐trans RA in thymic homogenates was close to the detection limit, suggesting that in this tissue all‐trans RA is not the main RAR‐regulating product of retinol metabolism. At the same time, by measuring the induction of a RAR‐responsive transgene in two independent transgenic mouse strains, we demonstrated the production of an RAR‐activating ligand, which was age and RALDH dependent. Our data provide evidence for the existence of endogenous retinoid synthesis in the thymus and suggest that retinoids similar to glucocorticoids might indeed be involved in the regulation of thymic proliferation and selection processes by being present in the thymus in functionally effective amounts.
West Nile virus blood transfusion‐related infection despite nucleic acid testing

BACKGROUND: A case of West Nile virus (WNV) encephalitis associated with transfusion of blood that did not react when tested for WNV by minipool (MP) nucleic acid testing (NAT) is described. A Nebraska man developed clinical encephalitis 13 days after surgery and transfusion of 26 blood components. Antibody testing confirmed WNV infection. An investigation was initiated to determine the source of this infection.
Hisian area and right ventricular apical pacing differently affect left atrial function: an intra-patients evaluation.

AIMS Right ventricular apex (RVA) pacing has adverse effects on left atrial (LA) function and may contribute to atrial arrhythmias. The effects of Hisian area (HA) pacing on LA function are still lacking. The objective of this study is to assess the left ventricular (LV) electromechanical activation/relaxation, systolic (S), diastolic (D) phases, and their effects on LA function during pacing from HA and RVA. METHODS AND RESULTS Thirty-seven patients with normal cardiac function underwent permanent HA pacing. In all patients, a RVA backup lead was added. The patients first underwent 3 months of HA pacing, followed by 3 months of RVA pacing. After each 3-month period, we compared by echocardiography: S-D LV electromechanical delay (S-D EMD), S-D intra-LV dyssynchrony, LV S-D phases, and their function evaluated by myocardial performance index (MPI) and mitral annular tissue Doppler early diastolic velocity (E'), pulmonary arterial systolic pressure (PASP), and LA function (LA phasic volumes and their emptying fraction). Right ventricular apex compared with HA pacing increased S-D EMD (P < 0.001) and intra-LV dyssynchrony (P < 0.001). As a consequence, a significant longer LV isovolumetric contraction time (P < 0.001) and LV isovolumetric relaxation time (P = 0.05) were measured during RVA compared with HA pacing, whereas LV ejection time was shorter (P = 0.033). Moreover, HA pacing resulted in significantly better MPI (P = 0.039), higher value of E' (P = 0.049), and lower PASP (P < 0.001). Finally, RVA compared with HA pacing was associated to higher LA volumes pre-atrial contraction (P = 0.001) and minimal volume (P = 0.003) with reduction in passive emptying fraction (P < 0.001) and total emptying fraction (P = 0.005). CONCLUSION Hisian area compared with RVA pacing resulted in a more physiological LV electromechanical activation/relaxation and consequently better LA function.