Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Toxic Effects of Silica Nanoparticles on Zebrafish Embryos and Larvae

Silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) have been widely used in biomedical and biotechnological applications. Environmental exposure to nanomaterials is inevitable as they become part of our daily life. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the possible toxic effects of SiNPs exposure. In this study, zebrafish embryos were treated with SiNPs (25, 50, 100, 200 µg/mL) during 4–96 hours post fertilization (hpf). Mortality, hatching rate, malformation and whole-embryo cellular death were detected. We also measured the larval behavior to analyze whether SiNPs had adverse effects on larvae locomotor activity. The results showed that as the exposure dosages increasing, the hatching rate of zebrafish embryos was decreased while the mortality and cell death were increased. Exposure to SiNPs caused embryonic malformations, including pericardial edema, yolk sac edema, tail and head malformation. The larval behavior testing showed that the total swimming distance was decreased in a dose-dependent manner. The lower dose (25 and 50 µg/mL SiNPs) produced substantial hyperactivity while the higher doses (100 and 200 µg/mL SiNPs) elicited remarkably hypoactivity in dark periods. In summary, our data indicated that SiNPs caused embryonic developmental toxicity, resulted in persistent effects on larval behavior.
Cognitive Psychology and Its Implications. 2nd ed.

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 1985, Vol 30(11), 919. Reviews the book, Cognitive Psychology and its Implications. 2nd ed by John R. Anderson (1985). The second edition of author's highly respected textbook of cognitive psychology maintains the general flavor a
Pronoun processing in Broca’s aphasia: Discourse–syntax effects in ambiguous anaphora resolution

Background: The interpretation of ambiguous subject pronouns in a null subject language, like Greek, requires that one possesses grammatical knowledge of the two subject pronominal forms, i.e., null and overt, and that discourse constraints regulating the distribution of the two pronouns in context are respected. Aims: We investigated whether the topic-shift feature encoded in overt subject pronouns would exert similar interpretive effects in a group of seven participants with Broca’s aphasia and a group of language-unimpaired adults during online processing of null and overt subject pronouns in referentially ambiguous contexts. Method & Procedures: An offline picture–sentence matching task was initially administered to investigate whether the participants with Broca’s aphasia had access to the gender and number features of clitic pronouns. An online self-paced listening picture-verification task was subsequently administered to examine how the aphasic individuals resolve pronoun ambiguities in contexts with either null or overt subject pronouns and how their performance compares to that of language-unimpaired adults. Outcomes & Results: Results demonstrate that the Broca group, along with controls, had intact access to the morphosyntactic features of clitic pronouns. However, the aphasic individuals showed decreased preference for non-salient antecedents in object position during the online resolution of ambiguous overt subject pronouns and preferred to pick the subject antecedent instead. Conclusions: Broca’s aphasic participants’ parsing decisions in the online task reflect their difficulty with establishing topic-shifted interpretations of the ambiguous overt subject pronouns. The presence of a local topic-shift effect in the immediate temporal vicinity of the overt pronoun suggests that sensitivity to the marked informational status of overt pronouns is preserved in the aphasic individuals, yet, it is blocked under conditions of global sentential processing.
Between Theory and Craft: Exploring the Role of Co-operation within Scientific Research Labs

This article explores how researchers in a scientific research lab co-operate with each other and value these co-operations, using a case study of a life sciences lab as an illustrative example. It explores how researchers within the lab co-operate in three main ways: through their ideas, methods and resources. A core contention of this article is that the values researchers attach to these different ways of co-operating can be assessed on two dimensions: goals and ways of understanding. The goals dimension moves from group goals, manifested in the vision of the lab defined by its principal investigator, to the goals of individual researchers within the lab, often achieved through work on individual projects. Individual goals were more highly valued by researchers in this case study. The ways of understanding dimension moves from theory-based and theory-building research activities, to craft-based activities related to the research lab’s experiments. Theoretical ways of understanding are more highly valued by researchers in this case study. Combined, these two dimensions mean that researchers will value co-operations that support individual goals and theoretical ways of understanding more highly. Idea-based collaborations, individualistic and theoretical in nature, were the most highly valued. Collaborations based on resources, communal and craft-centered, were the least valued in this case study.
Is Plagiarism a Forerunner of Other Deviance? Imagined Futures of Academically Dishonest Students

This study explored the relationship of current incidences of academic dishonesty with future norm/rule-violating behavior. Data were collected from 154 college students enrolled in introductory and upper-level psychology students at a large Midwest public university who received credit for participating. The sample included students from many different majors and all years of study. Participants completed a self-report survey that included a measure of Academic Dishonesty (including three subscales: Self-Dishonest, Social Falsifying, and Plagiarism) and an Imagined Futures Scale (five subscales that included Norm/Rule Violating, Physically Threatening, Culturally Diverse, Emotionally Distressing, and Agentic Futures). Correlation analyses indicated a significant positive relationship between all three Academic Dishonesty subscales and an imagined norm/rule-violating future. Further, regression analyses revealed social falsifying as being significantly predictive of a norm/ rule-violating future. Suggestions are made alerting educators to the importance of monitoring and discouraging academic dishonesty as it may lead to rule-violating behavior in the future.
Listeria monocytogenes: Maternal-foetal infections in Denmark 1994–2005

Maternal-foetal infection by Listeria monocytogenes is a rare complication in pregnancy. In the period 1994–2005, 37 culture-confirmed cases of maternal-foetal Listeria monocytogenes infections were reported in Denmark. We examined 36 patients’ files in order to evaluate risk factors, clinical and laboratory findings, response to therapy, and outcome for maternal-foetal listeriosis. Patient data and bacteriological findings were divided into 2 groups for comparison: 1 group with children born alive (n=24) and another group with abortion or stillbirth (n=12). 23 of the 36 children survived the acute infection, as did all the mothers. The mothers were generally only mildly affected by the infection. In contrast, among the children born alive, 15 were diagnosed with bacteraemia/septicaemia, 3 children with pneumonia, 3 with neonatal meningitis, and 3 were unaffected. Despite the high frequency of illness only 1 of the live-born children died from the infection and none of the surviving children showed signs of permanent damage at the time they were discharged from hospital. Listeriosis during pregnancy is a serious threat to the unborn child. One-third of culture-confirmed cases of maternal-foetal infections resulted in abortion or stillbirth; however, the prognosis for live-born children is good, even in severely ill newborns.
Understanding the weather signal in national crop‐yield variability

Year‐to‐year variations in crop yields can have major impacts on the livelihoods of subsistence farmers and may trigger significant global price fluctuations, with severe consequences for people in developing countries. Fluctuations can be induced by weather conditions, management decisions, weeds, diseases, and pests. Although an explicit quantification and deeper understanding of weather‐induced crop‐yield variability is essential for adaptation strategies, so far it has only been addressed by empirical models. Here, we provide conservative estimates of the fraction of reported national yield variabilities that can be attributed to weather by state‐of‐the‐art, process‐based crop model simulations. We find that observed weather variations can explain more than 50% of the variability in wheat yields in Australia, Canada, Spain, Hungary, and Romania. For maize, weather sensitivities exceed 50% in seven countries, including the United States. The explained variance exceeds 50% for rice in Japan and South Korea and for soy in Argentina. Avoiding water stress by simulating yields assuming full irrigation shows that water limitation is a major driver of the observed variations in most of these countries. Identifying the mechanisms leading to crop‐yield fluctuations is not only fundamental for dampening fluctuations, but is also important in the context of the debate on the attribution of loss and damage to climate change. Since process‐based crop models not only account for weather influences on crop yields, but also provide options to represent human‐management measures, they could become essential tools for differentiating these drivers, and for exploring options to reduce future yield fluctuations.
Subsistencia en la transición del Paleolítico Medio al Paleolítico Superior de la Península Ibérica

In recent years there has been an intense debate on the possible differences between the behaviour of the Neanderthals and the first modern humans. In most of these works, authors have proposed opposing interpretations. This study presents a critical reflection on the state of this debate, with the objective of observing subsistence differences between the two types ofhominids. We analyze the information about the Mousterian and Upper Palaeolithic sites of the Iberian Peninsula as well as zooarchaeology and taphonomic studies. Finally it is concluded that there are no important changes in subsistence at this time.
Distinct Changes in Peptide YY Binding to, and mRNA Levels of, Y1 and Y2 Receptors in the Rat Hippocampus Associated with Kindling Epileptogenesis

Abstract: Electrical kindling of the rat dorsal hippocampus induced significant changes in the binding of 125I‐peptide YY to Y1 and Y2 subtypes of neuropeptide Y receptors and in their mRNA levels in the area dentata as assessed by quantitative receptor autoradiography and in situ hybridization histochemistry. Binding to Y1 receptor sites decreased by 50% (p < 0.05) in the molecular layer of the stimulated dentate gyrus, 2 days after preconvulsive stage 2 and 1 week or 1 month after generalized stage 5 seizures compared with sham‐stimulated rats. Binding to Y2 receptor sites increased bilaterally by 36–87% (p < 0.05) in the hilus at stage 2 and 1 week or 1 month after stage 5. No significant changes were observed after one afterdischarge or in the other hippocampal subfields or in the cortex. Y1 receptor mRNA signal decreased bilaterally by 50–64% (p < 0.01) in the granule cell layer, 6 h but not 24 h after stages 2 and 5. The Y2 receptor mRNA signal was enhanced by 283% (p < 0.01) in the stimulated granule cell layer 24 h after stage 2. At 6 and 24 h after stage 5, mRNA levels were increased both ipsilaterally (283 and 360%, respectively; p < 0.01) and contralaterally (190 and 260%, respectively; p < 0.05). No significant changes in level of either mRNA was found following one afterdischarge. These modifications, and the enhanced neuropeptide Y release previously shown in the hippocampus, suggest that kindling is associated with lasting changes in neuropeptide Y‐mediated neurotransmission.
Athletic Perfection, Performance-Enhancing Drugs, and the Treatment-Enhancement Distinction

The idea that performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) should be outlawed because they possess certain morally objectionable features (that they are harmful, coercive, etc.) has little or no currency in critical circles today. The reason why is that there are too many other substances (specialized diets, pain-killing drugs) and athletic practices (marathon training sessions) that the contemporary sports world considers perfectly acceptable despite the fact that they exhibit many of these same supposedly morally troubling features (8: p. 268). Unfortunately, however, that is where the agreement among philosophers of sport ends and the real disagreement begins. That disagreement pits, on the one side, pharmacological libertarians, who steadfastly resist any attempt to limit the freedom of athletes, at least the rationally competent among them, to ingest any substance or do anything they please to push the limits of athletic performance so long as no one else is harmed in the process. On the other side of this issue, are essentialists of varying stripes, who just as steadfastly insist sports should be regulated by athletic ideals that appeal to their intrinsic features and that militate against things like PEDs because they supposedly morally conflict with such ideals. I wish to pursue, following Michael Lavin’s lead, a third, alternative way to think about this vexing issue, which, I hope, offers a way out of the argumentative standoff we presently find ourselves in. That way picks up on Lavin’s suggestion to seek a democratic justificatory route that, when followed, leads to a widely shared athletic ideal that requires the current ban on certain PEDs like steroids and amphetamines be lifted but leaves that ban intact for other PEDs like Human Growth Hormone (hGH) and beta blockers. However, I part ways with Lavin in three important respects. First, what he calls a democratic justification is better understood and interpreted, as I see it, not as something akin to voting, as a procedure for securing a majoritarian take on this issue, but as a way to historicize our athletic ideals so as to make them speak to the social and historical contingencies of our actual athletic practices.1 Second, while Lavin was content to let the athletic ideal he alluded to in his essay remain covert, I want to argue that the athletic ideal best suited to do the normative work needed to make my case here is, in fact, a metaphysically stripped down version of what Simon calls “the mutual quest for
Job design and levels of physical and mental strain among Australian prison officers

Abstract Over the past 15 years much has been made of the moderating influence of job discretion and support in occupations that are perceived to be high in demands. Such an effect seems to be most prevalent when subject populations are large and heterogeneous. One aim of this study was to examine the influence of subjective perceptions of these variables on strain reactions among a group of relatively homogeneous workers such as, in the present study, prison officers (n = 274). A second aim was to extend previous research and examine the joint influence of negative affectivity and perceptions of demands, discretion, and support on mental and physical well-being. It was hypothesized that those high in negative affect would be particularly strained by jobs perceived as being demanding. The hypothesized relationship between job demands, discretion and support were found to be weak and at times inconsistent. Social support, in particular, was found to have both positive and negative consequences for differen.
Present trends in vitamin E research

Nearly after one century of research and thousands of publications, the physiological function(s) of vitamin E remain unclear. Available evidence suggests a role in cell homeostasis that occurs through the modulation of specific signaling pathways and genes involved in proliferative, metabolic, inflammatory, and antioxidant pathways. Vitamin E presence in the human body is under close metabolic control so that only α‐tocopherol and, to a lower extent, γ‐tocopherol are retained and delivered to tissues. Other vitamin E forms that are not retained in the body in significant amounts, exhibit responses in vitro that are different form those of α‐tocopherol and may include tumor cell specific toxicity and apoptosis. These responses provide a therapeutic potential for these minor forms, either as such or metabolically modified, to produce bioactive metabolites. These cellular effects go beyond the properties of lipophilic antioxidant attributed to α‐tocopherol particularly investigated for its alleged protective role in atherosclerosis or other oxidative stress conditions. Understanding signaling and gene expression effects of vitamin E could help assign a physiological role to this vitamin, which will be discussed in this review. Besides vitamin E signaling, attention will be given to tocotrienols as one of the emerging topics in vitamin E research and a critical re‐examination of the most recent clinical trials will be provided together with the potential use of vitamin E in disease prevention and therapy.
in terrorem

While terrorism has become a major topic of discussion and analysis in the academy and in the policy making of Australian institutions, it rarely affects the everyday life of Australian citizens. Yet for some groups, in terroremis a way of life - particularly for those whose lives are performed under social and political spotlights. At the core of the limitations imposed on certain groups in Australia is the use of language to police the behaviours of these groups, and to create a social environment that makes hiding one’s identity the most effective mechanism to avoid terror. In this article, I analyse the linguistic themes and forms used in hate violence as a way to illustrate the impact of in terrorem on gay men, lesbians and Jews, and suggest alternative means by which to regulate the harm caused by vilification.
Antigenic variation of Anaplasma marginale msp2 occurs by combinatorial gene conversion

The rickettsial pathogen Anaplasma marginale establishes lifelong persistent infection in the mammalian reservoir host, during which time immune escape variants continually arise in part because of variation in the expressed copy of the immunodominant outer membrane protein MSP2. A key question is how the small 1.2 Mb A. marginale genome generates sufficient variants to allow long‐term persistence in an immunocompetent reservoir host. The recombination of whole pseudogenes into the single msp2 expression site has been previously identified as one method of generating variants, but is inadequate to generate the number of variants required for persistent infection. In the present study, we demonstrate that recombination of a whole pseudogene is followed by a second level of variation in which small segments of pseudogenes recombine into the expression site by gene conversion. Evidence for four short sequential changes in the hypervariable region of msp2 coupled with the identification of nine pseudogenes from a single strain of A. marginale provides for a combinatorial number of possible expressed MSP2 variants sufficient for lifelong persistence.
Smoothing the Transition: Retraining Centers in Canada for Immigrant Librarians from Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union

ABSTRACT Despite demonstrated credentials, vast subject expertise, and knowledge of foreign languages and cultures, immigrants educated in schools of library and information science (LIS) in Eastern Europe (EE) and the former Soviet Union (FSU) face numerous challenges when trying to gain work as professional librarians in Canada. We introduce a model for retraining EE-and FSU-educated librarians to expedite their entry into professional librarianship in Canada without their having to undertake the formal requirements of a host-country graduate LIS degree. Taking into account and building upon their existing foreign-earned degrees, this retraining program will result in an ALA-accredited LIS degree that will allow foreign-educated immigrant librarians to compete on a level playing field with domestically educated librarians, thus eliminating discrimination based on what one labor economist calls the 'national origin of an individual's human capital. '
Sustainability as Process: Community Education and Expansive Collaborative Activity

For most of their history, two separate, but related, after-school education programs operated independently, coordinated by separate teams of university and community partners. When the existence of the programs was threatened, a community-university coalition formed in an effort to sustain them. This coincided with the university-community teams’ joint response to a reorientation of the statewide university system’s policies on affirmative action. This article uses Cuban’s framework of sustainability and cultural-historical activity theory to analyze a process of communication, collaboration, creativity, and continuing that resulted in sustaining the two programs as well as the expansion and development of multiple new programs (Cuban, as cited in O’Neil, 2000; Cuban, 2001; Tyack & Cuban, 1995).
Teaching, school management and the ideology of Pragmatism

With reference to Bernstein's theories concerning the pulls and tensions of competing pedagogic identities, this article draws on original research to suggest that a culture of pragmatism may be currently rooting itself in English schools. This culture is understood partly as an instrumental response to rapid and extensive educational reform, and partly as the internalization of a wider discourse of pragmatism in which pragmatism itself is conceived of as a virtue and takes on ideological significance. In addition to identifying a problematic relationship between the instrumental-pragmatic responses of head teachers and those of classroom teachers, the article considers the potential of 'ideological pragmatism' to act as a hidden context within which instrumental pragmatism may lead to the lasting demotion of teachers' and head teachers' core pedagogic values.
Hierarchy in the ability of T cell epitopes to induce peripheral tolerance to antigens from myelin

Nasal administration of peptide antigens has been shown to induce T cell tolerance. We have investigated the potential for peptide therapy of the autoimmune response to myelin antigens in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Three major encephalitogenic epitopes were studied for their ability to induce nasal tolerance to myelin antigens. These included epitopes Ac1 – 9 and 89 – 101 of myelin basic protein (MBP) and 139 – 151 from proteolipid protein (PLP). Peptide Ac1 – 9 from MBP effectively suppressed responses to both MBP epitopes, following immunization with whole myelin (linked suppression). The N‐terminal epitope failed, however, to modify the response to epitope 139 – 151 of PLP. The second MBP epitope (89 – 101) was poorly tolerogenic for the immune response to any naturally processed myelin epitope. By contrast, PLP[139 – 151] was able to induce bystander suppression of T cells responsive to both itself and the two epitopes from MBP. Furthermore, this epitope suppressed EAE induced with peptides derived from MBP and was capable of treating ongoing disease. The mechanism of bystander suppression, mediated by PLP[139 – 151], did not correlate with an overt switch from the T helper 1 to the T helper 2 phenotype. These results demonstrate how a complex autoimmune disease may be controlled by treatment with a single peptide epitope and reveal a hierarchy in the suppressive properties of different myelin antigens.