Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CALL FOR PAPERS Translational Research in Acute Lung Injury and Pulmonary Fibrosis Mechanosignaling through YAP and TAZ drives fibroblast activation and fibrosis

Fei Liu, David Lagares, Kyoung Moo Choi, Lauren Stopfer, Aleksandar Marinković, Vladimir Vrbanac, Clemens K. Probst, Samantha E. Hiemer, Thomas H. Sisson, Jeffrey C. Horowitz, Ivan O. Rosas, Laura E. Fredenburgh, Carol Feghali-Bostwick, Xaralabos Varelas, Andrew M. Tager, and Daniel J. Tschumperlin Molecular and Integrative Physiological Sciences, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; Pulmonary and Critical Care Unit and Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts; Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota; Department of Biochemistry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Division of Rheumatology and Immunology, Department of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina
Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator-Mediated Corneal Epithelial Cell Ingestion of Pseudomonas aeruginosaIs a Key Component in the Pathogenesis of Experimental Murine Keratitis

ABSTRACT Previous findings indicate that the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a ligand for Pseudomonas aeruginosa ingestion into respiratory epithelial cells. In experimental murine keratitis, P. aeruginosa enters corneal epithelial cells. We determined the importance of CFTR-mediated uptake of P. aeruginosa by corneal cells in experimental eye infections. Entry of noncytotoxic (exoU) P. aeruginosa into human and rabbit corneal cell cultures was inhibited with monoclonal antibodies and peptides specific to CFTR amino acids 108 to 117. Immunofluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry demonstrated CFTR in the intact murine corneal epithelium, and electron microscopy showed that CFTR binds to P. aeruginosa following corneal cell ingestion. In experimental murine eye infections, multiple additions of 5 nM CFTR peptide 103-117 to inocula of either cytotoxic (exoU+) or noncytotoxic P. aeruginosa resulted in large reductions in bacteria in the eye and markedly lessened eye pathology. Compared with wild-type C57BL/6 mice, heterozygous ΔF508 Cftr mice infected with P. aeruginosa had an approximately 10-fold reduction in bacterial levels in the eye and consequent reductions in eye pathology. Homozygous ΔF508 Cftr mice were nearly completely resistant to P. aeruginosa corneal infection. CFTR-mediated internalization of P. aeruginosa by buried corneal epithelial cells is critical to the pathogenesis of experimental eye infection, while in the lung, P. aeruginosa uptake by surface epithelial cells enhances P. aeruginosa clearance from this tissue.
Deep-diving sea lions exhibit extreme bradycardia in long-duration dives

Heart rate and peripheral blood flow distribution are the primary determinants of the rate and pattern of oxygen store utilisation and ultimately breath-hold duration in marine endotherms. Despite this, little is known about how otariids (sea lions and fur seals) regulate heart rate (fH) while diving. We investigated dive fH in five adult female California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) during foraging trips by instrumenting them with digital electrocardiogram (ECG) loggers and time depth recorders. In all dives, dive fH (number of beats/duration; 50±9 beats min−1) decreased compared with surface rates (113±5 beats min−1), with all dives exhibiting an instantaneous fH below resting (<54 beats min−1) at some point during the dive. Both dive fH and minimum instantaneous fH significantly decreased with increasing dive duration. Typical instantaneous fH profiles of deep dives (>100 m) consisted of: (1) an initial rapid decline in fH resulting in the lowest instantaneous fH of the dive at the end of descent, often below 10 beats min−1 in dives longer than 6 min in duration; (2) a slight increase in fH to ~10–40 beats min−1 during the bottom portion of the dive; and (3) a gradual increase in fH during ascent with a rapid increase prior to surfacing. Thus, fH regulation in deep-diving sea lions is not simply a progressive bradycardia. Extreme bradycardia and the presumed associated reductions in pulmonary and peripheral blood flow during late descent of deep dives should (a) contribute to preservation of the lung oxygen store, (b) increase dependence of muscle on the myoglobin-bound oxygen store, (c) conserve the blood oxygen store and (d) help limit the absorption of nitrogen at depth. This fH profile during deep dives of sea lions may be characteristic of deep-diving marine endotherms that dive on inspiration as similar fH profiles have been recently documented in the emperor penguin, another deep diver that dives on inspiration.
Linguistic Modality as Expressions of Social Power

The semantics of the linguistic modals is argued to be determined mainly by the power structure of the participants in the interaction. In the deontic uses of the modals, another determining factor is the expectations of the participants' attitudes towards the relevant action. By viewing the evidence as a power in its own right, our analysis can be generalized to the epistemic uses in a coherent way. The epistemic uses are seen as pragmatic strengthenings of the deontic uses, rather than as metaphorical mappings.
A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Brown Locus of Control Scale

Covariance modeling techniques were used to test the assumption of group invariance of the Brown Locus of Control Scale (BLOCS) by comparing results from two different populations; American and Kuwaiti adult women. Results provide support for the hypothesis that the validity of the locus of control construct could be generalized to different cultural groups with some caveats.
Visual authentication: a secure single step authentication for user authorization

User authentication on publicly exposed terminals with established mechanisms, such as typing the credentials on a virtual keyboard, can be insecure e.g. due to shoulder surfing or due to a hacked terminal. In addition, username and password entry can be time-consuming and thus improvable with relation to usability. As security and comfort are often competing with each other, novel authentication and authorization methods especially for public terminals are desirable. In this paper, we present an approach on a distributed authentication and authorization system, where the user can be easily identified and enabled to use a service with his smartphone. The smartphone (as personal and private device the user is always in control of) can provide a highly secure authentication token that is renewed and exchanged in the background without the user's participation. The claimed improvements were supported by a user survey with an implementation of a digital room management system as an example for a public display. The proposed authentication procedure would increase security and yet enable fast authentication within publicly exposed terminals.
Effects of Partner Violence and Psychological Abuse on Women's Mental Health Over Time.

This study examined the distinct effects of partner violence and psychological abuse on women's mental health over time. Latent growth modeling was used to examine stability and change over time, evaluating the course and consequences of each form of abuse. The size of women's social support network was examined as a mediator. The sample consisted of 835 African American, Euro-American, and Mexican American low-income women. Participants who completed Waves 1, 2, 3, and 5 were included in the study (n = 585). In general, partner violence decreased over time for all groups, while psychological abuse decreased over time for only Euro-American women. Whereas initial and prolonged exposure to psychological abuse was related to and directly impacted women's mental health, partner violence was only related to initial levels of mental health. Surprisingly, social support was only related to initial violence and distress and had no impact on the rate of change over time. These results have important implications for researchers and health care professionals. First, differences in the pattern of results were found for each ethnic group, reaffirming the notion that counselors and researchers must be sensitive to multicultural concerns in both assessment and intervention. For example, psychological abuse had a greater impact on the mental health of African American and Mexican American women than it did for Euro-American women, suggesting a shift in focus depending on the ethnicity of the client may be warranted. Second, this longitudinal study highlights the importance of future research to considerer individual differences in treating and studying victimized women. Understanding factors that contribute to individual trajectories will help counselors gain insight into the problem and in devising plans to prevent or reduce the occurrence and negative health impact of partner abuse.
Research Identities: Reflections of a Contract Researcher

This paper examines the institutional identity formation of contract research staff in the context of the Taylorisation of research knowledges. The author has been a contract researcher for many years, after initially training and practising as a Probation Officer. She makes links between her social work training, and her current practice as a qualitative researcher. Drawing on her experience of working on a variety of different projects, at a number of different institutions, and providing illustrative examples from projects in sociology, social policy, health, and education, she reflects on the implications of the current social organization of academic research both for professional research practice and for researcher identity. There is a paradox in the way that contract research staff accrue a wealth of experience of how research is organised and conducted in different contexts, a repertoire of skills, and a vast volume of various kinds of ‘data’, whilst remaining vulnerable and marginalized figures within the academy, with few opportunities for professional development and advancement. She outlines a number of strategies she has employed in the preservation of the ‘research self’, and concludes by suggesting that the academy has much to learn about the effective management of ‘waste’, as embodied by researchers’ selves and their data, consequent upon the Taylorisation of research work.
Fast Convergence of Stochastic Gradient Descent under a Strong Growth Condition

We consider optimizing a function smooth convex function $f$ that is the average of a set of differentiable functions $f_i$, under the assumption considered by Solodov [1998] and Tseng [1998] that the norm of each gradient $f_i'$ is bounded by a linear function of the norm of the average gradient $f'$. We show that under these assumptions the basic stochastic gradient method with a sufficiently-small constant step-size has an $O(1/k)$ convergence rate, and has a linear convergence rate if $g$ is strongly-convex.
At the confluence of organisation development (OD) and organisation identity theory (OIT): Enter identity interventions

The identity concept has been around in the form of “corporate identity" for some time, but its appearance as “organisation identity" is more recent. Emerging theory and initial empirical research suggest that an identity approach and “identity interventions" in particular, offer promising avenues to the organisation development practitioner for enhancing organisational focus, building resilience in the face of major change, and improving performance. Identity interventions in and of themselves, but also employed as pre-change interventions, build organisational capacity that would stave off premature organisational “death" and extend the organisation’s life expectancy. Opsomming Die identiteitskonsep is in die vorm van korporatiewe identiteit reeds ’n geruime tyd in omgang, maar die verskyning daarvan as “organisasie-identiteit? is meer onlangs. Ontluikende teorie en aanvanklike empiriese navorsing suggereer dat ’n identiteitsbenadering en "identiteitsintervensies" in die besonder, belowende geleenthede aan die organisasie- ontwikkelingspraktisyn bied om organisasiefokus te verbeter, die organisasie se veerkragtigheid ten aanskoue van omvangryke verandering te bou, en prestasie te verbeter. Identiteitsintervensies op sigself bou organisasiekapasiteit, maar kan ook as voorveranderingsintervensies aangewend word wat premature organisasie "sterftes" sal vermy en die organisasie se lewensverwagting sal verleng.
A Bayes Study on the Feasibility of Shape and Threshold Parameters Based on the Assumption of Exponential and Weibull Models

Exponential and Weibull models are commonly used models with former being the special case of the latter. In their most general forms, the exponential model involves both threshold and scale parameters whereas the Weibull model involves threshold, scale and shape parameters. The article analyzes the two models in a Bayesian framework and examines the feasibility of generality versus particularity in the sense that it tests for the possibility of (not) having a threshold and/or a shape parameter in the data arising from exponential (Weibull) model. The results are illustrated based on both complete and censored datasets from the models.
F-index of graphs based on new operations related to the join of graphs

The forgotten topological index or F-index of a graph is defined as the sum of degree cube of all the vertices of the graph. This index was introduced by Gutman and Trinajestic more than 40 years ago. In this paper, we derive F-index of new operations of subdivision graphs related to the graphs join.
Importance of noninvasively measured respiratory muscle overload among the causes of hospital readmission of COPD patients.

AIM To evaluate the influence of respiratory muscle overload and right cardiac overload among the possible risk factors of hospital readmission in a 1-year follow-up of a cohort of patients with moderate-to-severe COPD. METHODS A total of 112 COPD patients who were admitted consecutively to the hospital for acute exacerbation. At hospital discharge, we evaluated the conventional clinical and functional determinations in addition to the pressure-time index (PTI), which is obtained using the equation PTI = (Pawo/Pimax) x (Ti/Ttot) x 100, where Pawo represents the mean airway pressure measured at the mouth during spontaneous breathing, Pimax is the maximal inspiratory pressure, Ti is the inspiratory time, and Ttot is the total breathing cycle time. A cardiac echo-Doppler examination was carried out when patients were in stable condition and presented clinical signs of right cardiac overload prior to inclusion in the study. RESULTS Multivariate analysis showed that the use of long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) and high PTI (> 0.25) were independently related to the risk of hospital readmission. Patients receiving LTOT had higher Paco(2) (p < 0.05), FEV(1) percent predicted (p < 0.05), FVC percent predicted (p < 0.05), and Pao(2) (p < 0.05), and had higher Paco(2) (p < 0.05). An elevated systolic pulmonary arterial pressure (> 40 mm Hg) was also independently related, but only 28 patients had echo-Doppler data that could be used. CONCLUSIONS At hospital discharge, noninvasively measured respiratory muscle overload as well as the use of LTOT were associated with an increased risk of hospital readmission for exacerbation in patients with moderate-to-severe COPD.
Biochemical Properties of Human Pantothenate Kinase 2 Isoforms and Mutations Linked to Pantothenate Kinase-associated Neurodegeneration*

The PANK2 gene encodes the human pantothenate kinase 2 protein isoforms, and PANK2 mutations are linked to pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration. Two PanK2 protein forms are proteolytically processed to form a mitochondrially localized, mature PanK2. Another isoform arose from a proposed initiation at a leucine codon and was not processed further. The fifth isoform was postulated to arise from an alternative splicing event and was found to encode an inactive protein. Fourteen mutant PanK2 proteins with single amino acid substitutions, associated with either early or late onset disease, were evaluated for activity. The PanK2(G521R), the most frequent mutation in pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration, was devoid of activity and did not fold properly. However, nine of the mutant proteins associated with disease possessed catalytic activities that were indistinguishable from wild type, including the frequently encountered PanK2(T528M) missense mutation. PanK2 was extremely sensitive to feedback inhibition by CoA thioesters (IC50 values between 250 and 500 nm), and the regulation of the active PanK2 mutants was comparable with that of the wild-type protein. Coexpression of the PanK2(G521R) and wild-type PanK2 did not interfere with wild-type enzyme activity, arguing against a dominant negative effect of the PanK2(G521R) mutation in heterozygous patients. These data described the unique biochemical features of the PanK2 isoforms and suggested that catalytic defects may not be the sole cause for the neurodegenerative phenotype.
Nondirective Person-centered therapy for social anxiety: a hermeneutic single-case efficacy design study of a good outcome case

Hermeneutic Single-case Efficacy Design (HSCED) was applied to a good-outcome case in which an individual presenting with social anxiety (SA) received 13 sessions of nondirective Person-centered therapy. A Rich Case Record of qualitative and quantitative data gathered over the course of therapy was constructed, and provided the basis for affirmative and skeptic arguments. A panel of three judges returned verdicts on the client’s therapeutic process and its outcome. Judges concluded unanimously that the client changed substantially over the course of therapy and that therapy contributed substantially to client change (80% probability). The judges emphasized the contribution of the therapeutic relationship, especially unconditional positive regard. Judges identified the therapist’s non-directive stance, openness and empathy, and reflection and summarizing in session as additional qualitative mediators of change. Judges identified the client’s own readiness for change, understanding of the therapeutic process and ability to use the research processes to reflect on therapy as moderators of change. We discuss the implications for Person-Centered-Experiential therapies as a credible treatment for SA, and for the further development of HSCED as an approach to evaluating psychotherapy.
Deep neural networks are robust to weight binarization and other non-linear distortions

Recent results show that deep neural networks achieve excellent performance even when, during training, weights are quantized and projected to a binary representation. Here, we show that this is just the tip of the iceberg: these same networks, during testing, also exhibit a remarkable robustness to distortions beyond quantization, including additive and multiplicative noise, and a class of non-linear projections where binarization is just a special case. To quantify this robustness, we show that one such network achieves 11% test error on CIFAR-10 even with 0.68 effective bits per weight. Furthermore, we find that a common training heuristic--namely, projecting quantized weights during backpropagation--can be altered (or even removed) and networks still achieve a base level of robustness during testing. Specifically, training with weight projections other than quantization also works, as does simply clipping the weights, both of which have never been reported before. We confirm our results for CIFAR-10 and ImageNet datasets. Finally, drawing from these ideas, we propose a stochastic projection rule that leads to a new state of the art network with 7.64% test error on CIFAR-10 using no data augmentation.
Good and Healthy: Foodways and Construction of Identity in a Women's Prison

The construction of non‐criminogenic identities is associated with criminal desistance. This article explores the ways in which women use prison foodways to try to construct positive identities and the impact of correctional policy on these efforts. Formerly‐incarcerated women were interviewed about the acquisition, preparation, distribution, and consumption of food in prison. In these narratives, women used their prison food practices in an attempt to construct themselves as ‘good’ and ‘healthy’. Stories showcased their capacity for friendship, empathy, self‐care, and recovery. However, these positive identities were destabilised by prison rules and unhealthy food choices. Prison policies should be reviewed to promote inmates' efforts to construct these positive characteristics.
Exploring More Than 24 Hours a Day: A Preliminary Investigation of Polychronic Time Use

The present exploratory study investigates the concept of polychronic time use through the development and preliminary testing of a proposed scale, the Polychronic Attitude Index (PAI). Polychronic time use is defined and reviewed in relation to role overload and household demographic characteristics. When a sample of consumers in New Jersey was surveyed, both the PAI and role overload were found to be related to different types of polychronic time use. Overall, this research demonstrates that the concept of polychronic time use contributes to our understanding of consumer behavior and raises questions worthy of future research. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.