Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deciphering the Contribution of Human Meningothelial Cells to the Inflammatory and Antimicrobial Response at the Meninges

ABSTRACT We have investigated the response of primary human meningothelial cells to Neisseria meningitidis. Through a transcriptome analysis, we provide a comprehensive examination of the response of meningothelial cells to bacterial infection. A wide range of chemokines are elicited which act to attract and activate the main players of innate and adaptive immunity. We showed that meningothelial cells expressed a high level of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), and, using a gene silencing strategy, we demonstrated the contribution of this pathogen recognition receptor in meningothelial cell activation. Secretion of interleukin-6 (IL-6), CXCL10, and CCL5 was almost exclusively TLR4 dependent and relied on MyD88 and TRIF adaptor cooperation. In contrast, IL-8 induction was independent of the presence of TLR4, MyD88, and TRIF. Transcription factors NF-κB p65, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK1), IRF3, and IRF7 were activated after contact with bacteria. Interestingly, the protein kinase IRAK4 was found to play a minor role in the meningothelial cell response to Neisseria infection. Our work highlights the role of meningothelial cells in the development of an immune response and inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS) in response to meningococcal infection. It also sheds light on the complexity of intracellular signaling after TLR triggering.
Agricultural Biotechnology: Its Recent Evolution and Implications for Agrofood Political Economy

This paper provides an overview of the recent development of the agricultural biotechnology sector and suggests what are likely to be some of the major issues in agrofood biotechnology in the future. I argue that while biotechnology has become increasingly entrenched as an approach to agrofood research and development, there are enormous public and especially corporate resources committed to biotechnology, and the growth of GMO market share in U.S. soybean, corn, and cotton production has been impressive, there has recently been growth of social resistance to biotechnology that casts the technology's and industry's future in some doubt. In addition to discussing the extent and limits of social resistance to biotechnology, I explore several other facets of agrofood biotechnology–global consolidation of the biotechnology industry, trade in GMO-produced food products, and the new corporate focus on “value-enhanced crops”–that will have a critical bearing on its future. I conclude by suggesting that while social resistance to agrofood biotechnology is very unlikely to derail the industry, public opposition will shape corporate strategy and could possibly shape research priorities in public biotechnology research.
Product involvement and the evaluation of wine quality

Purpose – The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between wine drinkers' product involvement and their engagement with wine quality. It examined particularly how they conceptualise quality, how they evaluate it, and the dimensions of quality they focus on.Design/methodology/approach – The study used focus groups (including wine tasting as a stimulus) and individual interviews to elicit data. Wine drinkers across Australia were informants for the study.Findings – There appears to be a relationship between involvement level and how wine quality is perceived. Higher‐involvement drinkers seemed more inclined to conceptualise wine quality as objective whereas lower‐involvement consumers tended to see it as subjective. Lower‐involvement informants often focused more on sensory dimensions of wine quality (like flavour or smoothness), while high‐involvement drinkers used more cognitive dimensions such as interest or complexity. Further, there appears to be evidence for a group of medium‐involvem.
Inductive Fault Current Limiters: Kinetics of Quenching and Recovery

We report experimental results from a shielded inductive type superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) demonstrator incorporating YBCO coated conductor together with results from an analytic study of a large 13 MVA SFCL. Important parameters such as the superconductor temperature rise, re-cooling time and voltage characteristics following a short-circuit quench are discussed. These results are compared with the measured and predictive performance of a resistive type SFCL incorporating a similar volume of YBCO CC and providing the same level of current limiting.
The Gonality Sequence of Complete Graphs

The gonality sequence $(\gamma_r)_{r\geq1}$ of a finite graph / metric graph / algebraic curve comprises the minimal degrees $\gamma_r$ of linear systems of rank $r$. For the complete graph $K_d$, we show that $\gamma_r = kd - h$ if $r<g=\frac{(d-1)(d-2)}{2}$, where $k$ and $h$ are the uniquely determined integers such that $r = \frac{k(k+3)}{2} - h$ with $1\leq k\leq d-3$ and $0 \leq h \leq k $. This shows that the graph $K_d$ has the gonality sequence of a smooth plane curve of degree $d$. The same result holds for the corresponding metric graphs.
High Abilities at Fluid Analogizing: A Cognitive Neuroscience Construct of Giftedness

Gifted intelligence is underpinned by those aspects of neural function that enable an enhanced facility to engage in fluid analogizing: a cognitive-level construct that describes intermodule information articulation within the brain. Evidence for this claim comes from a program of neuroimaging investigations of the neural underpinnings and IQ correlates of fluid analogizing coupled with theoretical modeling of high creative intelligence that contextualizes fluid analogizing within related executive neural functions. In particular, a gifted person's high ability at fluid analogizing as a cognitive process enables his or her more efficacious working memory, the most critical consequence of high-level prefrontal cortical functioning.
Time to initiation of fluconazole therapy impacts mortality in patients with candidemia: a multi-institutional study.

BACKGROUND Inadequate antimicrobial treatment is an independent determinant of hospital mortality, and fungal bloodstream infections are among the types of infection with the highest rates of inappropriate initial treatment. Because of significant potential for reducing high mortality rates, we sought to assess the impact of delayed treatment across multiple study sites. The goals our analyses were to establish the frequency and duration of delayed antifungal treatment and to evaluate the relationship between treatment delay and mortality. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with candidemia from 4 medical centers who were prescribed fluconazole. Time to initiation of fluconazole therapy was calculated by subtracting the date on which fluconazole therapy was initiated from the culture date of the first blood sample positive for yeast. RESULTS A total of 230 patients (51% male; mean age +/- standard deviation, 56 +/- 17 years) were identified; 192 of these had not been given prior treatment with fluconazole. Patients most commonly had nonsurgical hospital admission (162 patients [70%]) with a central line catheter (193 [84%]), diabetes (68 [30%]), or cancer (54 [24%]). Candida species causing infection included Candida albicans (129 patients [56%]), Candida glabrata (38 [16%]), Candida parapsilosis (25 [11%]), or Candida tropicalis (15 [7%]). The number of days to the initiation of antifungal treatment was 0 (92 patients [40%]), 1 (38 [17%]), 2 (33 [14%]) or > or = 3 (29 [12%]). Mortality rates were lowest for patients who began therapy on day 0 (14 patients [15%]) followed by patients who began on day 1 (9 [24%]), day 2 (12 [37%]), or day > or = 3 (12 [41%]) (P = .0009 for trend). Multivariate logistic regression was used to calculate independent predictors of mortality, which include increased time until fluconazole initiation (odds ratio, 1.42; P < .05) and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score (1-point increments; odds ratio, 1.13; P < .05). CONCLUSION A delay in the initiation of fluconazole therapy in hospitalized patients with candidemia significantly impacted mortality. New methods to avoid delays in appropriate antifungal therapy, such as rapid diagnostic tests or identification of unique risk factors, are needed.
Do Politicians Lead the Tango?

The relationship between journalists and their political sources is often described as symbiotic. Furthermore, political sources are often regarded as more powerful than journalists in this relationship. However, most of the research referred to in the international literature is done in the US or Britain. Therefore, the question regarding the relationship between journalists and their political sources, in terms of power, needs to be asked in other countries. This article examines the relationship between journalists and their political sources in Sweden during the National Election in 2002, and in so doing makes a distinction between the power over the process of news making and the media agenda, and the power over the content and the framing of news stories. The results show the importance of making such a distinction. They also show that, in Sweden, it is the journalists and not their political sources that lead the tango most of the time.
Understanding the nexus between mainstream schooling and private supplementary tutoring: patterns and voices of Hong Kong secondary students

While research is increasingly available on the scale and costs of private supplementary tutoring, less information focuses on its pedagogical dimensions. This paper addresses patterns in Hong Kong. The paper begins with the quantitative picture solicited through questionnaires for students in Grades 9 and 12, and then turns to data from interviews. Among the students, some received tutoring while others did not. Those who received tutoring were asked to compare their teachers and tutors, and to indicate what they sought from the tutors that they did not find in their schooling. The students who did not receive tutoring were also asked about the culture of tutoring, and whether they would have liked to have received tutoring if they had had the necessary financial resources. Especially pertinent were statements about learning gaps and ways in which tutoring was perceived to help. The themes of this paper may resonate widely. The paper shows that students' learning objectives may differ from those of their teachers, and comments on the implications of these patterns for wider processes of government-led reform. The paper helps to explain how well-intentioned top-down innovations may be subverted by conflicting expectations and the divergent agendas of students, teachers and tutors.
Tool support for randomized unit testing

There are several problem areas that must be addressed when applying randomization to unit testing. As yet no general, fully automated solution that works for all units has been proposed. We therefore have developed RUTE-J, a Java package intended to help programmers do randomized unit testing in Java. In this paper, we describe RUTE-J and illustrate how it supports the development of per-unit solutions for the problems of randomized unit testing. We report on an experiment in which we applied RUTE-J to the standard Java TreeMap class, measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the technique. We also illustrate the use of randomized testing in experimentation, by adapting RUTE-J so that it generates randomized minimal covering test suites, and measuring the effectiveness of the test suites generated.
Why Are Judgments Less Consistent in Less Predictable Task Situations

Abstract Subjects made a series of six forecasts for each of four 58-point time-series. The stimulus series were noisy sinusoids of various frequencies. Individual subjects′ forecasts were regressed on to the time period for which they were made. The residual variance in these regressions was greater when the stimulus series were noisier. This effect cannot have arisen from memory overload because simultaneous presentation of all points in the stimulus series meant that there were no memory demands. It cannot have been a side effect of a learning process because presenting each series just once excluded opportunities for learning. It cannot have been caused by deterministic rule switching consequent on feedback about a noisy process because no feedback was presented. Instead it appears that subjects tried to simulate the noise as well as the pattern in the series when making their forecasts. In support of this, similar results were obtained in a second experiment in which subjects were asked to simulate rather than to forecast the series. Two possible reasons for subjects′ simulation of series noise are discussed.
Comparison of Accelerated and Standard Hepatitis B Vaccination Schedules in High-Risk Healthy Adults: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background Selecting the most efficient vaccination schedule is an important issue. Objective To assess the beneficial and harmful effects of accelerated hepatitis B vaccination schedules in high-risk healthy adults. Methods We searched controlled trial registers of The Cochrane Library as well as MEDLINE, EMBASE, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases for randomized controlled trials published up to December 2013 that compared accelerated hepatitis B vaccine schedules to the standard schedule in adults. The results were presented as relative risk with 95% confidence intervals. Fixed or random effect models were used for analysis. Results We identified 10 randomized trials, all with one or more methodological weaknesses. Compared to the standard schedule, most accelerated schedules resulted in higher proportions of healthy vaccines more rapidly reaching anti-hepatitis B antibody levels >10 IU/L (P<0.05) initially and maintaining similar seroprotection rates after 6 months (P>0.05). Although accelerated schedules produced anti-hepatitis B levels higher than the standard schedule for the first month after the initial vaccine dose, they were significantly lower than the standard schedule after 6 months, except for an accelerated schedule that called for a fourth booster injection 12 months after the initial dose. Subjects administered accelerated vaccine schedules had similar compliance rate as those administered the standard schedule over the first 6 months of vaccination (relative risk = 1.00, 95% confidence interval: 0.84–1.21). Conclusion For rapid seroconversion and almost immediate short-term protection, accelerated vaccination schedules could be useful for at-risk groups. However, additional studies on the long-term protection and effectiveness of the primary doses of accelerated schedules are necessary.
A critical re‐examination and analysis of cognitive ability tests using the Thorndike model of fairness

The literature investigating the bias of cognitive ability tests (CATs) is often conflated with the controversy surrounding which method for determining test bias is superior. The general acceptance of the Cleary (1968) model of test bias in industrial/organizational psychology has served to deter evaluations of tests against other models of test bias because acceptance of the Cleary model as ‘superior’ implies the limited relevance of investigations of tests against other models of bias. Although these other models are not considered to be models of predictive bias in the psychometric sense, they nonetheless have significant implications for workplace diversity. Most notably, the existing literature lacks the precision and depth necessary to extrapolate the actual false-rejection rate in selection decisions that burden visible minority groups when CATs are used. The current study identifies these gaps in the literature in addition to evaluating CATs against the Thorndike (1971) model of test bias. Results indicate that a one standard deviation (SD) difference in Black-White CAT scores is associated with a Black-White difference in job performance of approximately 1/3 SD. The Black-White difference in job performance is reduced to approximately 1/10 SD when objective, rather than subjective, job performance criteria are used. We therefore conclude that CATs are biased against Blacks when evaluated using the Thorndike model. The implications for use of CATs in personnel selection are discussed.
Evolving conceptions of memory storage, selective attention, and their mutual constraints within the human information-processing system.

The purpose of this review is to formulate a revised model of information processing that takes into account recent research on memory storage, selective attention, effortful versus automatic processing, and the mutual constraints that these areas place on one another. One distinctive aspect of the proposed model is the inclusion of two phases of sensory storage in each modality. The first phase extends sensation for several hundred milliseconds, whereas the second phase is a vivid recollection of sensation. The mechanism of at least the longer phase is the activation of features in long-term memory, comparable to the mechanism of non-sensory, short-term storage. Another distinctive aspect of the model is that habituation/dishabituation and central executive processes together are assumed to determine the focus of attention, without the need for either an early or a late attentional filter. Research issues that contribute to a comparison of models are discussed.
Academic Performance of Community College Transfers: Psychological, Sociodemographic, and Educational Correlates

This study focuses on the academic performance of community college transfer students at four-year institutions. It uses a nationally representative sample from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS: 88/2000) and the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS). Results from an Ordinary Least Squares regression model suggest that community college transfers' academic performance can be explained by gender, race/ethnicity, self-concept, GPA at community colleges, remediation in math, college involvement, and simultaneous enrollment. These findings have important implications for policy-makers and practitioners at community colleges and four-year institutions.
A longitudinal study of Q‐sort attachment security and self‐processes at age 5

Attachment theory predicts that a sense of self emerges from early interactive relationships with significant others. In the current study, concurrent and predictive relations of child–mother Q-sort attachment security to self-concept and self-esteem in 5-year-old children is examined. Concurrent attachment security scores are positively related to a puppet interview measure of self-esteem, and children who are able to admit imperfections in themselves have higher attachment security scores at age 5. Attachment security at age 2 is not positively related to self-processes, however, and security at either age does not predict overall self-concept as measured by the Harter Scales. The results suggest that a secure attachment relationship is important for children to feel comfortable in presenting a realistic perspective of themselves.
Immunohistochemical Staining with Melan‐A of Uninvolved Sun‐Damaged Skin Shows Features Characteristic of Lentigo Maligna

BACKGROUND The greater density and unusual patterning of melanocytes in chronically sun‐exposed skin complicates interpretation of intraoperative Melan‐A immunohistochemical stained margins during margin‐controlled surgery for lentigo maligna (LM) and lentigo maligna melanoma (LMM). OBJECTIVE To identify the immunohistochemical similarities and differences in melanocyte distribution between LM and LMM and chronically sun‐exposed skin. METHODS Retrospective review of Melan‐A‐stained original biopsy specimens of LM and LMM and uninvolved sun‐damaged skin (negative controls), from 70 LM and LMM cases from the University of Utah in 2008. RESULTS Histologic features commonly associated with LM were common in negative controls from chronically sun‐exposed skin. Melanocyte confluence (27/70, 39%), stacking (34/70, 49%), theque formation (9/70, 13%), adnexal extension (59/68, 87%), and suprabasilar scatter (23/70, 33%) were observed in the negative controls from sun‐damaged skin. Such features were present nearly uniformly in the LM and LMM specimens. Epidermal melanocyte density in LM and LMM differed significantly from that in negative controls (82.7 ± 29.3 and 25.6 ± 9.3 per × 400 field, respectively; p<.001). CONCLUSION Epidermal melanocytic features often ascribed to LM, such as melanocyte confluence, stacking, theque formation, adnexal extension, and suprabasilar scatter, are frequently observed in chronically sun‐exposed Caucasian skin and may lead to overestimation of surgical margins. The authors have indicated no significant interest with commercial supporters.
Impact of Tumor Cell Cytoskeleton Organization on Invasiveness and Migration: A Microchannel-Based Approach

Cell migration is a fundamental feature of the interaction of cells with their surrounding. The cell's stiffness and ability to deform itself are two major characteristics that rule migration behavior especially in three-dimensional tissue. We simulate this situation making use of a micro-fabricated migration chip to test the active invasive behavior of pancreatic cancer cells (Panc-1) into narrow channels. At a channel width of 7 µm cell migration through the channels was significantly impeded due to size exclusion. A striking increase in cell invasiveness was observed once the cells were treated with the bioactive lipid sphingosylphosphorylcholine (SPC) that leads to a reorganization of the cell's keratin network, an enhancement of the cell's deformability, and also an increase in the cell's migration speed on flat surfaces. The migration speed of the highly deformed cells inside the channels was three times higher than of cells on flat substrates but was not affected upon SPC treatment. Cells inside the channels migrated predominantly by smooth sliding while maintaining constant cell length. In contrast, cells on adhesion mediating narrow lines moved in a stepwise way, characterized by fluctuations in cell length. Taken together, with our migration chip we demonstrate that the dimensionality of the environment strongly affects the migration phenotype and we suggest that the spatial cytoskeletal keratin organization correlates with the tumor cell's invasive potential.
On the constant-depth complexity of k-clique

We prove a lower bound of ω(nk/4) on the size of constant-depth circuits solving the k-clique problem on n-vertex graphs (for every constant k). This improves a lower bound of ω(nk/89d2) due to Beame where d is the circuit depth. Our lower bound has the advantage that it does not depend on the constant d in the exponent of n, thus breaking the mold of the traditional size-depth tradeoff. Our k-clique lower bound derives from a stronger result of independent interest. Suppose fn :0,1n/2 → {0,1} is a sequence of functions computed by constant-depth circuits of size O(nt). Let G be an Erdos-Renyi random graph with vertex set {1,. ,n} and independent edge probabilities n-α where α ≤ 1/2t-1. Let A be a uniform random k-element subset of {1,. ,n} (where k is any constant independent of n) and let KA denote the clique supported on A. We prove that fn(G) = fn(G ∪ KA) asymptotically almost surely. These results resolve a long-standing open question in finite model theory (going back at least to Immerman in 1982). The m-variable fragment of first-order logic, denoted by FOm, consists of the first-order sentences which involve at most m variables. Our results imply that the bounded variable hierarchy FO1 ⊂ FO2 ⊂ . ⊂ FOm ⊂ . is strict in terms of expressive power on finite ordered graphs. It was previously unknown that FO3 is less expressive than full first-order logic on finite ordered graphs.