Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A STUDY ON INFORMATION SEARCH AND COMMITMENT STRATEGIES ON WEB ENVIRONMENT AND INTERNET USAGE SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS'

This study addresses university students’ information search and commitment strategies on web environment and internet usage self-efficacy beliefs in terms of such variables as gender, department, grade level and frequency of internet use; and whether there is a significant relation between these beliefs. Descriptive method was used in the study. Study group is composed of students attending the first and fourth degrees in several departments at Kocaeli University. Data collected regarding university students’ information search and commitment strategies on web environment and internet usage self-efficacy beliefs were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t test and pearson correlation coefficient. The research results indicate that students' scores on “elaboration” strategy in the Web environment and scores of self-efficacy regarding Internet use were at the intermediate level. Students’ educational Internet use self-efficacy beliefs are moderate according to the highest and lowest points of the survey. The analyses found that there was a relation between Internet use self-efficacy beliefs and information search and commitments strategies within the Web environment. A positive, although low-level, relationship was found between the “elaboration” factor, which is one of the one sub-factors of search and commitment among the information strategies in a Web environment, and self-efficacy with respect to Internet use.
Physical And Psychiatric Correlates Of Gender Discrimination: An Application of the Schedule of Sexist Events

We tested the model that sexist discrimination, measured by the Schedule of Sexist Events (SSE), would account for additional variance in women's physical and psychiatric symptoms, above and beyond that accounted for by generic stressors. A series of hierarchical regression analyses, predicting symptoms on 10 different symptom outcome measures from generic stress and sexist stress (discrimination) were conducted, with the generic stressors entered on the first step and sexist discrimination on the second. Results revealed that sexist discrimination contributed significantly to the variance in women's symptoms, accounting for additional variance in those symptoms. Furthermore, sexist discrimination accounted for more of the variance than did generic stressors in premenstrual, depressive, obsessive-compulsive, somatic, and total psychiatric and physical symptoms. These findings varied with the age and ethnicity of the women and with the symptom measure used, but nonetheless suggest that sexist discrimination plays a significant role in women's most prevalent symptoms.
Sleep deprivation and activation of morning levels of cellular and genomic markers of inflammation.

BACKGROUND Inflammation is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disorders, arthritis, diabetes mellitus, and mortality. The effects of sleep loss on the cellular and genomic mechanisms that contribute to inflammatory cytokine activity are not known. METHODS In 30 healthy adults, monocyte intracellular proinflammatory cytokine production was repeatedly assessed during the day across 3 baseline periods and after partial sleep deprivation (awake from 11 pm to 3 am). We analyzed the impact of sleep loss on transcription of proinflammatory cytokine genes and used DNA microarray analyses to characterize candidate transcription-control pathways that might mediate the effects of sleep loss on leukocyte gene expression. RESULTS In the morning after a night of sleep loss, monocyte production of interleukin 6 and tumor necrosis factor alpha was significantly greater compared with morning levels following uninterrupted sleep. In addition, sleep loss induced a more than 3-fold increase in transcription of interleukin 6 messenger RNA and a 2-fold increase in tumor necrosis factor alpha messenger RNA. Bioinformatics analyses suggested that the inflammatory response was mediated by the nuclear factor kappaB inflammatory signaling system as well as through classic hormone and growth factor response pathways. CONCLUSIONS Sleep loss induces a functional alteration of the monocyte proinflammatory cytokine response. A modest amount of sleep loss also alters molecular processes that drive cellular immune activation and induce inflammatory cytokines; mapping the dynamics of sleep loss on molecular signaling pathways has implications for understanding the role of sleep in altering immune cell physiologic characteristics. Interventions that target sleep might constitute new strategies to constrain inflammation with effects on inflammatory disease risk.
Prostacyclin (PGI2) Elicits Reflex Bradycardia in Dogs: Evidence for Vagal Mediation

Summary Administration of the vasode-pressor prostaglandins, PGE1 and PGE2, and of nitroprusside, an agent whose direct vascular activity is similar to prostaglandins, resulted in a reduction in systemic arterial blood pressure accompanied by the expected reflex increase in heart rate. Injection of pros-tacyclin (PGI2) and the prostaglandin precursor, arachidonic acid, into the femoral vein, pulmonary artery, left atrium, and left ventricle of the dog elicited a fall in blood pressure and a concomitant reduction in heart rate in both open- and closed-chest anesthetized dogs. Bilateral vagal section eliminated the bradycardia thus establishing that the PGI2-induced change in heart rate is reflex in origin. Prostacyclin and prostaglandins were provided by Dr. U. Axen and Dr. J. Pike (Upjohn Co.). Dial-urethane was a gift from Ciba-Geigy. We are grateful to Messrs. Arsenio Baez and Maret Panzenbeck for excellent technical assistance.
Dietary Glycemic Index, Dietary Glycemic Load, Blood Lipids, and Coronary Heart Disease

Objective. To examine the associations of dietary glycemic index (GI) and dietary glycemic load (GL) with blood lipid concentrations and coronary heart disease (CHD) in nondiabetic participants in the Health Worker Cohort Study (HWCS). Materials and Methods. A cross-sectional analysis was performed, using data from adults who participated in the HWCS baseline assessment. We collected information on participants' socio-demographic conditions, dietary patterns and physical activity via self-administered questionnaires. Dietary GI and dietary GL were measured using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Anthropometric and clinical measurements were assessed with standardized procedures. CHD risk was estimated according to the sex-specific Framingham prediction algorithms. Results. IIn the 5,830 individuals aged 20 to 70 who were evaluated, dietary GI and GL were significantly associated with HDL-C, LDL-C, LDL-C/HDL-C ratio, and triglycerides serum levels. Subjects with high dietary GI have a relative risk of 1.56 (CI 95%; 1.13–2.14), and those with high dietary GL have a relative risk of 2.64 (CI 95%; 1.15–6.58) of having an elevated CHD risk than those who had low dietary GI and GL. Conclusions. Our results suggest that high dietary GI and dietary GL could have an unfavorable effect on serum lipid levels, which are in turn associated with a higher CHD risk.
Obesity as a predictor of self-rated health.

OBJECTIVE To report on the relationship between self-rated health and obesity. METHODS Computer-assisted telephone survey of 5001 randomly selected individuals aged 18 years and over residing in California and Texas. RESULTS Obese individuals have a 3-fold greater odds of reporting reduced health. After controlling for the effect of demographic factors, health care utilization, chronic disease, and lifestyle behaviors, this relationship persists (OR:2.33; 95% CI: 1.7, 3.2). CONCLUSION Results suggest that obesity is a statistically significant predictor of reduced self-rated health. Directly affecting change in people's self-rating of health would be difficult; however, addressing its correlates, such as obesity, may improve self-rated health status over time.
How Long Can the U.S. Consumers Carry the Economy on Their Shoulders?

The consumer has been on a tightrope since the bursting of the "new economy" bubble, as losses in equity markets have been partly offset by gains in real estate and fiscal support and mortgage refinancing have partly offset increased consumer cautiousness. The consumer will remain on a tightrope in the near future, but if the economy were to stumble, the fragile consumer might contribute to turning the downturn into a deep and protracted recession. There are two risks to the continuation of consumer resilience. The first arises from the fact that this has been a jobless recovery. The second arises from a growing personal sector imbalance that is fueled by the growing property bubble. Hence, the short-term outlook remains uncertain, but the long-term one is bleak.
Classroom management practices and their associations with children’s mathematics skills in two cultural groups

The aim of the study was to examine the extent to which contextual factors predict children’s mathematics skills in different cognitive domains. The sample consisted of 1734 students from 26 Estonian- and 17 Russian-language schools in Estonia. Mathematics and non-verbal reasoning tests were carried out at the beginning of the third grade. In addition, teachers were asked about their classroom management practices. The results of multilevel modelling showed that applying supportive practices in the classroom contributes to higher achievement in mathematics. Teachers from Estonian- and Russian-language schools were also found to differ with regard to their management practices, and these practices were shown to have different effects on children in Estonian- and Russian-language schools in terms of mathematics achievement.
Quantitative analysis of trace element concentrations in some gem-quality diamonds

The geochemical signature of diamond-forming fluids can be used to unravel diamond-forming processes and is of potential use in the detection of so-called ‘conflict’ diamonds. While fluid-rich fibrous diamonds can be analyzed by a variety of techniques, very few data have been published for fluid-poor, gem-quality diamonds because of their very low impurity levels. Here we present a new ICPMS-based (ICPMS: inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) method for the analysis of trace element concentrations within fluid-poor, gem-quality diamonds. The method employs a closed-system laser ablation cell. Diamonds are ablated and the products trapped for later pre-concentration into solutions that are analyzed by sector-field ICPMS. We show that our limits of quantification for a wide range of elements are at the sub-pg to low pg level. The method is applied to a suite of 10 diamonds from the Cullinan Mine (previously known as Premier), South Africa, along with other diamonds from Siberia (Mir and Udachnaya) and Venezuela. The concentrations of a wide range of elements for all the samples (expressed by weight in the solid) are very low, with rare earth elements along with Y, Nb, Cs ranging from 0.01 to 2 ppb. Large ion lithophile elements (LILE) such as Rb and Ba vary from 1 to 30 ppb. Ti ranges from ppb levels up to 2 ppm. From the combined, currently small data set we observe two kinds of diamond-forming fluids within gem diamonds. One group has enrichments in LILE over Nb, whereas a second group has normalized LILE abundances more similar to those of Nb. These two groups bear some similarity to different groups of fluid-rich diamonds, providing some supporting evidence of a link between the parental fluids for both fluid-inclusion-rich and gem diamonds.
Replacement of Systems and Components in Renewal Decision Problems

The lifetime of some systems is virtually independent of their components. For example, a car's lifetime depends on the general corrosion of the bodywork and its avoidance of a major accident, which are independent of the condition of the battery. We consider the replacement problem when both the system and components can be replaced and the time horizon is infinite. As well as considering which type of components should we use to replace a failed one, we consider whether when a component fails, it is best to replace the whole system.
Bac 32, a Novel Bacteriocin Widely Disseminated among Clinical Isolates of Enterococcus faecium

ABSTRACT A total of 636 vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) isolates that had been obtained between 1994 and 1999 from the Medical School Hospital of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, were tested for bacteriocin production. Two hundred seventy-seven (44%) of the strains were bacteriocinogenic; and 193 of these exhibited activity against Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus hirae, and Enterococcus durans. Strain VRE200 harbors the highly efficient conjugative gentamicin resistance plasmid pG200 (70 kb) and bacteriocin plasmid pTI1 (12.5 kb). The bacteriocin encoded on pTI1 was designated bacteriocin 32 (Bac 32). Bacteriocin 32 was active against E. faecium, E. hirae, and E. durans but showed no activity against Listeria monocytogenes. The Bac 32 genetic locus consists of a bacteriocin gene (bacA) and an immunity gene (bacB). Neither of these genes showed significant homology to any known bacteriocin determinants. The deduced bacA product is 89 amino acids in length, with a putative signal peptide of 19 amino acids at the N terminus. The bacB gene encodes a deduced 55-amino-acid protein without a signal sequence. One hundred eighty-nine strains (97.9%) of the 193 strains with activity against the 3 test enterococcal strains gave rise to the expected specific PCR product with a primer specific for bacA, indicating that there is a high incidence of Bac 32 production among VRE clinical isolates. Data from Southern analyses of plasmid DNA from 189 of the Bac 32-producing strains with a plasmid pTI1-specific probe suggested that 137 (72.5%) of the strains harbored a pTI1-type plasmid. Bac 32 or Bac 32-type bacteriocin activity and the determinant genes were also identified in 22 (39.3%) of a total of 56 vancomycin-sensitive E. faecium clinical isolates, which suggests that this bacteriocin is widely disseminated among E. faecium strains.
Can Visual Neglect Operate in Object-centred Co-ordinates? An Affirmative Single-case Study

Abstract Clinical evidence from visuospatial neglect suggests that some patients neglect one side of each individual object in a scene, rather than just one side of the scene as a whole. For example, in copying they may produce only the right side of objects from both the right and left of the original drawing. One interpretation of this phenomenon is that neglect may operate in object-centred co-ordinates. We examined this hypothesis in a right-hemisphere damaged patient, PP, who shows severe and intractable left neglect. Her task was to judge whether two elongated nonsense shapes, presented one above the other, were the same or different. When the principal axis of each shape was vertical PP missed differences on the left. When the shapes were both rotated 45° clockwise or anticlockwise, she continued to neglect differences on the left of the objects' axes, even when these differences fell on the right of the sagittal midline. This demonstrates that neglect can be object-centred in the sense of operatin.
Identification of RAS-Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Signaling Pathway Modulators in an ERF1 Redistribution® Screen

The RAS-mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway has a central role in regulating the proliferation and survival of both normal and tumor cells. This pathway has been 1 focus area for the development of anticancer drugs, resulting in several compounds, primarily kinase inhibitors, in clinical testing. The authors have undertaken a cell-based, high-throughput screen using a novel ERF1 Redistribution® assay to identify compounds that modulate the signaling pathway. The hit compounds were subsequently tested for activity in a functional cell proliferation assay designed to selectively detect compounds inhibiting the proliferation of MAPK pathway-dependent cancer cells. The authors report the identification of 2 cell membrane-permeable compounds that exhibit activity in the ERF1 Redistribution® assay and selectively inhibit proliferation of MAPK pathway-dependent malignant melanoma cells at similar potencies (IC50 =< 5 μM). These compounds have drug-like structures and are negative in RAF, MEK, and ERK in vitro kinase assays. Drugs belonging to these compound classes may prove useful for treating cancers caused by excessive MAPK pathway signaling. The results also show that cell-based, high-content Redistribution® screens can detect compounds with different modes of action and reveal novel targets in a pathway known to be disease relevant.
Differential DNA methylation between two wing phenotypes adults of Sogatella furcifera

Sogatella furcifera is a major rice pest with wing dimorphism. DNA methylation is an important epigenetic modification that plays a role in gene regulation and phenotype variation in most organisms. The objective of the current research was to survey the frequencies and variation of cytosine methylation at CCGG sequences in macropterous female adults (MFA) and brachypterous female adults (BFA) of S. furcifera, and to determine the occurrence of methylation changes associated with wing phenotypes by using methylation‐sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP). No differences were found in the average proportions of methylated CCGG sites between MFA and BFA, but there were significant differences for methylation patterns between MFA and BFA. The fully methylated ratio was 5.81% in BFA, much higher than 2.40% in MFA; while the hemi‐methylated ratio was 4.35% in BFA, much lower than 8.35% in MFA. These results provide circumstantial evidence that DNA methylation might be related to wing phenotype variation in S. furcifera. We also cloned and got 14 satisfactory sequences, which displayed variable cytosine methylation patterns between MFA and BFA. All these data will facilitate the researches on the epigenetic mechanisms of insect wing polymorphism. genesis 51:819–826. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Internalization of Sapovirus, a Surrogate for Norovirus, in Romaine Lettuce and the Effect of Lettuce Latex on Virus Infectivity

ABSTRACT Noroviruses are the leading cause of food-borne outbreaks, including those that involve lettuce. The culturable porcine sapovirus (SaV) was used as a norovirus surrogate to study the persistence and the potential transfer of the virus from roots to leaves and from outer to inner leaves of lettuce plants. Treatment of lettuce with SaV was done through the roots of young plants, the soil, or the outer leaves of mature plants. Sampling of roots, xylem sap, and inner and outer leaves followed by RNA extraction and SaV-specific real-time reverse transcription (RT)-PCR was performed at 2 h and on postinoculation days (PID) 2, 5, 7, 14, and/or 28. When SaV was inoculated through the roots, viral RNA persisted on the roots and in the leaves until PID 28. When the virus was inoculated through the soil, viral RNA was detected on the roots and in the xylem sap until PID 14; viral RNA was detected in the leaves only until PID 2. No infectious virus was detected inside the leaves for either treatment. When SaV was inoculated through the outer leaves, viral RNA persisted on the leaves until PID 14; however, the virus did not transfer to inner leaves. Infectious viral particles on leaves were detected only at 2 h postinoculation. The milky sap (latex) of leaves, but not the roots' xylem sap, significantly decreased virus infectivity when tested in vitro. Collectively, our results showed the transfer of SaV from roots to leaves through the xylem system and the capacity of the sap of lettuce leaves to decrease virus infectivity in leaves.
Functional Analysis of Protein Kinase CK2 of the Human Malaria Parasite Plasmodium falciparum

ABSTRACT Protein kinase CK2 (casein kinase 2) is a eukaryotic serine/threonine protein kinase with multiple substrates and roles in diverse cellular processes, including differentiation, proliferation, and translation. The mammalian holoenzyme consists of two catalytic alpha or alpha′ subunits and two regulatory beta subunits. We report the identification and characterization of a Plasmodium falciparum CK2α orthologue, PfCK2α, and two PfCK2β orthologues, PfCK2β1 and PfCK2β2. Recombinant PfCK2α possesses protein kinase activity, exhibits similar substrate and cosubstrate preferences to those of CK2α subunits from other organisms, and interacts with both of the PfCK2β subunits in vitro. Gene disruption experiments show that the presence of PfCK2α is crucial to asexual blood stage parasites and thereby validate the enzyme as a possible drug target. PfCK2α is amenable to inhibitor screening, and we report differential susceptibility between the human and P. falciparum CK2α enzymes to a small molecule inhibitor. Taken together, our data identify PfCK2α as a potential target for antimalarial chemotherapeutic intervention.
Teacher Satisfaction Concerning the Implementation of Bilingual Programmes1

This paper analyses teacher satisfaction in the case of lecturers engaged in the so-called ? bilingual programmes? at the University of Oviedo, an institution which offers subjects taught entirely in English in several study plans. The research relies on quantitative and descriptive methodology covering 74 lecturers (almost the entire population being studied) and establishes the strengths and weaknesses of this approach based on their experiences teaching through the medium of English. The conclusions of the study provide lines of optimization and propose improvements for the implementation of bilingual programmes in similar contexts.
Changes in Predicted Muscle Coordination with Subject-Specific Muscle Parameters for Individuals after Stroke

Muscle weakness is commonly seen in individuals after stroke, characterized by lower forces during a maximal volitional contraction. Accurate quantification of muscle weakness is paramount when evaluating individual performance and response to after stroke rehabilitation. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of subject-specific muscle force and activation deficits on predicted muscle coordination when using musculoskeletal models for individuals after stroke. Maximum force generating ability and central activation ratio of the paretic plantar flexors, dorsiflexors, and quadriceps muscle groups were obtained using burst superimposition for four individuals after stroke with a range of walking speeds. Two models were created per subject: one with generic and one with subject-specific activation and maximum isometric force parameters. The inclusion of subject-specific muscle data resulted in changes in the model-predicted muscle forces and activations which agree with previously reported compensation patterns and match more closely the timing of electromyography for the plantar flexor and hamstring muscles. This was the first study to create musculoskeletal simulations of individuals after stroke with subject-specific muscle force and activation data. The results of this study suggest that subject-specific muscle force and activation data enhance the ability of musculoskeletal simulations to accurately predict muscle coordination in individuals after stroke.