Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Contribution of calpain Lp82-induced proteolysis to experimental cataractogenesis in mice.

PURPOSE The purpose of the present experiments was to provide a biochemical mechanism for the involvement of lens-specific calpain Lp82 in experimental cataractogenesis in mice. METHODS Nuclear cataracts were produced by culturing lenses from 4-week-old mice and rats in calcium ionophore A23187 or by injection of buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) into 7-day-old mice. Casein zymography, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, immunoblot analysis, calcium determinations, in vitro precipitation, and cleavage site analysis by mass spectrometry were performed on lens samples. RESULTS Amino acid sequences for Lp82 were found to be highly conserved in lenses from mouse to cow, and expressed Lp82 proteolytic activity was high in the mouse and rat. Lenses from mice were more susceptible to A23187-induced cataract and BSO cataracts than rats. Both types of cataracts showed rapid elevation of calcium, activation of Lp82 and m-calpain, and proteolysis of crystallins. Lp82 caused in vitro precipitation of crystallins; and in contrast to m-calpain, Lp82 truncated only the first five amino acids from the C-terminus of alphaA-crystallin. CONCLUSIONS Under pathologic conditions of massive elevation of lens calcium found in young rodent lenses, overactivation of Lp82 and m-calpain leads to rapid truncation of crystallins at both common and unique cleavage sites, precipitation of truncated crystallins, and cataract.
Plasma Phosphatidylcholine/Free Cholesterol Ratio as an Indicator for Atherosclerosis

Plasma lipid profiles were determined in two inbred strains of mice, C57BR/cdJ and CBA/J, fed either a normal chow or an atherogenic diet for a 15-week period, starting at 10 weeks of age. On the chow diet, the C57BR/cdJ had significantly higher mean free cholesterol, esterified cholesterol, and total lipid values, and a significantly lower mean phosphatidylcholine/free cholesterol ratio than the CBA/J mice. On the atherogenic diet, the C57BR/cdJ had significantly higher mean levels for all lipid classes, except triacylglycerols, than the CBA/J mice. The mean plasma free cholesterol and esterified cholesterol levels of the C57BR/cdJ were four times greater than those of the CBA/J strain on the atherogenic diet. The mean plasma phosphatidylcholine/free cholesterol ratio of the C57BR/cdJ mice on the high cholesterol diet was 0.87 compared to 1.91 for CBA/J mice. These plasma lipid changes were associated with a marked development of atheromatous deposits in the wall of the aortic sinus of the C57BR/cdJ compared to the CBA/J animals. The phosphatidylcholine/free cholesterol ratios of the liver lipids of both strains decreased from 2.5-2.7 on the chow diet to 1.0-1.1 on the high cholesterol diet. It is suggested that a plasma phosphatidylcholine/free cholesterol ratio less than 1 represents a supersaturation of the vascular system and the vessel wall with cholesterol, which leads to a destabilization of the plasma membranes of the endothelial and smooth muscle cells, and an infiltration of the vessel wall by the plasma lipids.
Achievement Motivation and Scientific Attainment

A three component (Work orientation, Mastery needs, and Competitiveness) measure of achievement motivation was applied to a criterion from the Science Citation Index for a sample of 103 Ph.D. scientists, and engineers. Significant interactions between Work and Mastery and Work and Competitiveness were found. The relationship between this model of achievement motivation and scientific attainment is discussed.
Psychometric properties of a new family life satisfaction scale.

Summary: A scale of bipolar adjectives, the Family Satisfaction by Adjectives Scale (F.S.A.S.), is presented, consisting of 27 items designed to measure family satisfaction, mainly related to the affective connotation derived from family interaction. After applying the scale to a sample of 274 subjects and 16 patients in family therapy, we obtained (a) acceptable indicators of internal consistency (α = .976) and temporal stability (rxx = 0.758), (b) clear evidence of unidimensionality, (c) significant linear correlations with other measures of family satisfaction (Family Satisfaction, Olson & Wilson, 1982; Family Satisfaction Scale, Carver, & Jones, 1992), and (d) significant differences between a normal sample and a clinical one.
The dynamics of market-oriented change: An empirical exploration

The paper examines the role of time in the relationship between market orientation and economic performance. Several authors have suggested potential delayed effects of market orientation due to its intangible nature; none has empirically assessed such a phenomenon. Based on a French sample of food companies, this study brings new insights for understanding the temporal nature of market-oriented change. The results show that absolute time spent on being market oriented is not as important as the manner with which market-oriented change has been implemented. Coordinating the adoption of market-oriented values and market-oriented behaviours appears to be pivotal for the success of change.
Psychosocial predictors of antiracist bystander action toward indigenous Australians.

Racism toward Indigenous people remains a social problem in Australian culture, and racial abuse is part of that social problem. In this research, we investigated whether internal and external motivations, being open-minded, and having racist attitudes predicted the intention to engage in bystander action in support of Indigenous Australians in situations deemed low- and high-risk to personal safety. A total of 168 non-Indigenous community participants completed an anonymous online survey in Perth, Western Australia. In the low-risk scenario, low levels of racism, high internal motivation, and openness predicted the intention to engage in bystander action. In the high-risk scenario, participants with lower levels of racism and being female were more likely to engage in bystander action in support of Indigenous Australians. Coupled with previous research in the field, our findings suggest that internalized values relating to antiracist sentiments are significant predictors of antiracist bystander action.
Work engagement and burnout: testing the robustness of the Job Demands-Resources model

This study focuses on work engagement and its negative antipode, burnout, as well as their antecedents and consequences. According to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, two different processes have to be distinguished: a motivational process that links job resources with turnover intention through work engagement, and an energetic process that links job demands and health complaints via the mediating role of burnout. The robustness of the JD-R model was tested in a heterogeneous occupational sample (N = 846). Structural equation modeling analyses yielded a slightly modified model with only exhaustion being indicative of burnout and vigor, dedication along with absorption being indicative of engagement. The results provide evidence for the dipartite structure of the JD-R model. Multi-group analyses revealed the model to be invariant across age and gender. Although strengths of path coefficients and factor loadings differed among white- and blue-collar workers, the basic structure of the model was also confirmed among these subgroups. Therefore, the findings underscore the robustness of the JD-R model.
Understanding Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Technology Adoption In SMEs: An Empirical Study In The USA

Customer Relationship Management Systems have been employed by large organisations for a number of years, but with the availability of inexpensive hardware and software and easy access to the Internet, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are now starting to adopt CRM systems. This paper describes a study of the factors influencing CRM adoption in 126 SMEs in the retail, manufacturing and service sectors in Southern California. The factors considered were management characteristics, the firm’s characteristics, employee characteristics, and IT resources. The results indicate that management’s innovativeness affects the firm’s perception of CRM systems, but age, education and gender do not. The decision to implement a CRM system is influenced by management’s perception of CRM, employee involvement, the firm’s size, its perceived market position, but not the industry sector. However, the number and types of CRM features implemented are affected by management’s perception of CRM, employee involvement, the firm’s size, the industry sector, but not its perceived market position.
Ventilation efficiencies of a desk-edge-mounted task ventilation system

In chamber experiments, we investigated the effectiveness of a task ventilation system with an air supply nozzle located underneath the front edge of a desk and directing air toward a heated mannequin seated at the desk. The task ventilation system provided outside air, while another ventilation system provided additional space cooling but no outside air. Test variables included the vertical angle of air supply (-15{sup o} to 45{sup o} from horizontal), and the supply flow rate of (3.5 to 6.5 L s{sup -1}). Using the tracer gas step-up and step-down procedures, the measured air change effectiveness (i.e., exhaust air age divided by age of air at the mannequin's face) ranged from 1.4 to 2.7, which is higher than typically reported for commercially available task ventilation or displacement ventilation systems.
Optimal learning rates for least squares SVMs using Gaussian kernels

We prove a new oracle inequality for support vector machines with Gaussian RBF kernels solving the regularized least squares regression problem. To this end, we apply the modulus of smoothness. With the help of the new oracle inequality we then derive learning rates that can also be achieved by a simple data-dependent parameter selection method. Finally, it turns out that our learning rates are asymptotically optimal for regression functions satisfying certain standard smoothness conditions.
Childhood Sexual Abuse and Construction of Self and Others in People Who have Experienced Psychosis

This study aimed to investigate how childhood sexual abuse (CSA) affects self-construction and construction of other people in people who have experienced psychosis. A sample of 21 such people was divided into 2 groups, according to whether they had experienced CSA or not. They were compared on repertory grids that included the element “self now” and elements that represented other people. The results provided little evidence to support the hypotheses that people who had experienced CSA had lower levels of self-elaboration, saw themselves less like other people, or had greater conflict in their self-concept. The results are discussed with regard to limitations in the study and use of measures of conflict and elaboration in clinical practice.
The Effect of Weight Training Volume on Hormonal Output and Muscular Size and Function

This study examined the effects of different volumes of resistance training on muscle size and function over a 10-wk period. Low volume = 3 sets per muscle group per week; moderate = 6 sets; high = 12 sets. Twenty-seven men with 1–4 yrs weight training experience were randomly assigned to the different training volumes and trained 4 days a week. A periodized routine was used; exercises, training intensity, and number of training days were the same for each group. The only variation between conditions was the number of sets per exercise. Pre and post measurements assessed muscular size via ultrasound; strength via maximum squat and bench press; and power via vertical jump and bench press throw. Urinary concentrations of test-osterone and cortisol were also analyzed to assess the responses to training conditions. All 3 training volumes significantly (p < 0.05) increased muscle size, strength, and upper body power, with no significant between-group differences. There were no significant changes in hormonal concentrations. The results support the use of low volume training for muscular development over a 10-wk period.
Comparative Psychoanalysis on the Basis of a New Form of Treatment Report

“I get so sick and tired of hearing about the various different schools of psychoanalysis and their great superiority to the other one—whichever it is. The possibility of arguing about their various merits is simply endless—as long as you don't anchor any of it to facts. I don't know of any scientific work that is not based on observation. ” (W. Bion, 3.7.1978, in 2005 b, p. 39) In this article, we argue that it is essential to understand how the analyst applies his knowledge in the analytic situation to investigate the analytic process and develop research models to evaluated clinical hypothesis. We accept the premise that the analyst's theory influences technique and that an examination of an analysis involves an interactive process. We ask, “How do we understand the inseparable bound between therapy and research? ” We argue that the understanding that develops in psychoanalysis is not research. For research to take place, an exploration of causal connections is necessary that includes the analyst's observations and thinking through out the analysis which can be evaluated by independent observers. We describe and demonstrate a research model based on an audio transcription and annotated comments of the analyst to convey his observations and thinking that can be evaluated by independent observers. This article is a revised version of a paper given at the 43rd IPA Congress in New Orleans. Some parts were taken from a paper on the same topic that could be find on the IPA Homepage.
Beyond the resource curse: minerals and global development

Saleem H. Ali International institutions are obliged to consider various development paths for countries that often are dependent on natural resources as the primary source of wealth creation. However, during the past decade, serious doubts have been raised about the role of natural resources in development. Researchers not only have questioned the role of natural resources in development but they also have posited a link between natural resources and violent conflict — thus leading to use of the term “resource curse. ” No doubt there have been justifiable concerns about the use of natural resources in funding wars; the U.N.Security Council itself has convened special panels to investigate this link in the cases of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Liberia. However, the findings of such linkages cannot be used as a blanket indictment of extractive industries as the term “resource curse” may imply.
An invariance principle for semimartingale reflecting Brownian motions in domains with piecewise smooth boundaries.

Semimartingale reflecting Brownian motions (SRBMs) living in the closures of domains with piecewise smooth boundaries are of interest in applied probability because of their role as heavy traffic approximations for some stochastic networks. In this paper, assuming certain conditions on the domains and directions of reflection, a perturbation result, or invariance principle, for SRBMs is proved. This provides sufficient conditions for a process that satisfies the definition of an SRBM, except for small random perturbations in the defining conditions, to be close in distribution to an SRBM. A crucial ingredient in the proof of this result is an oscillation inequality for solutions of a perturbed Skorokhod problem. We use the invariance principle to show weak existence of SRBMs under mild conditions. We also use the invariance principle, in conjunction with known uniqueness results for SRBMs, to give some sufficient conditions for validating approximations involving (i) SRBMs in convex polyhedrons with a constant reflection vector field on each face of the polyhedron, and (ii) SRBMs in bounded domains with piecewise smooth boundaries and possibly nonconstant reflection vector fields on the boundary surfaces.
Explicit contrastive instruction facilitates the acquisition of difficult L2 forms

Proponents of the cognitive information‐processing approach view linguistic input salience as an important factor in promoting SL acquisition. Salient input facilitates explicit learning by assisting the learners to attend to the new L2 forms, as they formulate new rules or restructure old ones. Attending to the input, learners may notice a specific linguistic feature in it. Noticing is defined as detecting the new form and rehearsing it in short‐term memory. Selinker (1992) theorises that learners often make an L1‐L2 equation which may result in erroneous rule formulation. This comparison may be related to rehearsal in short‐term memory. Sharwood Smith (1987) further suggests the promotion of enhanced contrastive input for difficult language items. Our study tested the effect which such input has on the acquisition of difficult grammatical structures in English by speakers of Hebrew. All the subjects were exposed to natural linguistic input while the experimental group was also exposed to contrastive lin.
Violent communities, family choices, and children's chances: An algorithm for improving the odds

Abstract Data are presented concerning the early predictors of adaptational success and failure among 72 children attending their 1st years of elementary school in a violent Washington, D.C., neighborhood. Adaptational failures were defined as those children who were doing poorly or failing in school and rated by their parents as suffering clinically significant levels of behavior problems. Adaptational successes were defined as children whose performance as students was rated in the average to excellent range and whose parent-rated levels of behavior problems were within the normal range. Despite the fact that these children were being raised in violent neighborhoods, had been exposed to relatively high levels of violence in the community, and were experiencing associated distress symptoms, community violence exposure levels were not predictive of adaptational failure or success. Instead, adaptational status was systematically related to characteristics of the children's homes. More specifically, the children's chances of adaptational failure rose dramatically as a function of living in unstable and/or unsafe homes. Moreover, it was not the mere accumulation of environmental adversities that gave rise to adaptational failure in these children. Rather, it was only when such adversities contaminated or eroded the stability and/or safety levels of the children's homes that the odds of their adaptational failure increased. We argue that this erosion of the quality of the child's microsystem (i.e., family) by adversities and pressures in the exosystem (i.e., community) is not an inevitable process. Although not yet well understood, it is a process over which families have and must exercise control. The implications of these data for improving children's chances of physical, psychological, and academic survival in violent neighborhoods are considered.
Fluxos migratórios de mulheres para o trabalho reprodutivo: a globalização da assistência

A partir de uma experiencia vivenciada como integrante do grupo que trabalhou a tematica da migracao de mulheres na Internationale Frauen Universitat (IFU) em 2000, apresento neste artigo uma discussao sobre os fluxos migratorios de mulheres que deixam os paises perifericos movendo-se em direcao aos paises de Primeiro Mundo para trabalhar como empregadas domesticas. Ocorre nesse processo uma verdadeira globalizacao da assistencia, formando-se inclusive cadeias entre mulheres de diferentes nacoes, classes e etnias. As principais causas das migracoes estao ligadas a luta pela sobrevivencia, oportunidade de trabalho e estudo e conquista da independencia em relacao a opressao e a violencia. Como proposta final, sugiro que, para conter os fluxos migratorios, sao necessarias politicas publicas que venham ao encontro das necessidades basicas das mulheres em seus paises de origem.
Perceived organizational support.

Deux etudes mettent a l'epreuve plusieurs hypotheses concernant la coherence des croyances des employes dans l'implication de l'organisation a son egard et le role d'un tel soutien organisationnel ainsi que de l'ideologie d'echange sur l'absenteisme
Aeromonas dhakensis, an Increasingly Recognized Human Pathogen

Aeromonas dhakensis was first isolated from children with diarrhea in Dhaka, Bangladesh and described in 2002. In the past decade, increasing evidence indicate this species is widely distributed in the environment and can cause a variety of infections both in human and animals, especially in coastal areas. A. dhakensis is often misidentified as A. hydrophila, A. veronii, or A. caviae by commercial phenotypic tests in the clinical laboratory. Correct identification relies on molecular methods. Increasingly used matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) may be able to identify Aeromonas specie rapidly and accurately. A. dhakensis has shown its potent virulence in different animal models and clinical infections. Although several virulence factors had been reported, no single mechanism is conclusive. Characteristically A. dhakensis is the principal species causing soft tissue infection and bacteremia, especially among patients with liver cirrhosis or malignancy. Of note, A. dhakensis bacteremia is more lethal than bacteremia due to other Aeromonas species. The role of this species in gastroenteritis remains controversial. Third generation cephalosporins and carbapenems should be used cautiously in the treatment of severe A. dhakensis infection due to the presence of AmpC ββ-lactamase and metallo-β-lactamase genes, and optimal regimens may be cefepime or fluoroquinolones. Studies of bacterial virulence factors and associated host responses may provide the chance to understand the heterogeneous virulence between species. The hypothesis A. dhakensis with varied geographic prevalence and enhanced virulence that compared to other Aeromonas species warrants more investigations.
Cyber Disorders: The Mental Health Concern for the New Millennium

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that mental health practitioners' report increased caseloads of clients whose primary complaint involves the Internet. However, little is known about the incidence, associated behaviors, attitudes of practitioners, and interventions involved related to this relatively new phenomenon. Therefore, this study surveyed therapists who have treated clients suffering from cyber-related problems to gather such outcome information. Respondents reported an average caseload of nine clients who they classified as Internet-addicted, with a range between 2 and 50 clients treated within the past year. Five general subtypes of Internet addiction were categorized based on the most problematic types of online applications, and they include addictions to Cybersex, Cyber-relationships, online stock trading or gambling, information surfing, and computer games. Treatment strategies included cognitive-behavioral approaches, sexual offender therapy, marital and family therapy, social skills training, and pharmacological interventions. Based on their client encounters, efforts to initiate support groups and recovery programs specializing in the treatment of Internet addiction were being considered. Finally, based upon the findings, this article examines the impact of cyberdisorders on future research, treatment, and public policy issues for the new millennium.