Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of Rho-associated protein kinase increases the ratio of formation of blastocysts from single human blastomeres

Y-27632 is a specific inhibitor of Rho-associated protein kinases (ROCKs), which are downstream effectors of Rho GTPase. The present study aimed to determine the effect of the specific ROCK inhibitor, Y-27632, on fresh human embryos and on single blastomeres obtained from discarded human embryos. A total of 784 poor-quality embryos were included, of which 526 were allocated to blastocyst culture directly and the remaining 258 were allocated to blastomere isolation. Embryos and single blastomeres were cultured either with, or without, Y-27632. Embryonic development was observed and recorded daily from day 5 onwards. Y-27632 did not affect the ratio of blastocyst formation or the quality of the human embryos. The duration of blastocyst formation was compared between the two groups in the embryo culture. On day 5, the blastocyst formation ratio in the experimental group was 11.4% (26/228), which was significantly (P=0.015) lower than the corresponding rate (19.7%; 44/223) in the control group. Survival analysis of the blastocyst formation duration showed that the median formation duration in the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group. The present study also obtained 1,192 blastomeres from 258 discarded day 3 embryos, and sibling blastomeres of similar sizes were equally allocated to experimental and control groups (n=596 in each). Treatment with Y-27632 increased the blastocyst formation ratio of human individual blastomeres, with 82 blastocysts of 596 blastomeres (13.8%), and 51 blastocysts of 596 blastomeres (8.6%) formed in the presence and absence of Y-27632, respectively (P=0.004). Compared with the control group, the mRNA and protein expression levels of E-cadherin in the blastocysts from blastomeres were enhanced by Y-27632 (P=0.022). In conclusion, the present study demonstrated that Y-27632 has different effects on the cleavage-stage of embryos and single blastomeres. Y-27632 increases the ratio of formation of blastocysts from single human blastomeres, but inhibits the direct formation of blastocysts from discarded human embryos.
Immune Cell Activation by Enterotoxin Gene Cluster (egc)-Encoded and Non-egc Superantigens from Staphylococcus aureus1

The species Staphylococcus aureus harbors 19 superantigen gene loci, six of which are located in the enterotoxin gene cluster (egc). Although these egc superantigens are far more prevalent in clinical S. aureus isolates than non-egc superantigens, they are not a prominent cause of toxic shock. Moreover, neutralizing Abs against egc superantigens are very rare, even among carriers of egc-positive S. aureus strains. In search of an explanation, we have tested two non-exclusive hypotheses: 1) egc and non-egc superantigens have unique intrinsic properties and drive the immune system into different directions and 2) egc and non-egc superantigens are released by S. aureus under different conditions, which shape the immune response. A comparison of three egc (SEI, SElM, and SElO) and three non-egc superantigens (SEB, SElQ, and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1) revealed that both induced proliferation of human PBMC with comparable potency and elicited similar Th1/Th2-cytokine signatures. This was supported by gene expression analysis of PBMC stimulated with one representative superantigen from each group (SEI and SEB). They induced very similar transcriptional changes, especially of inflammation-associated gene networks, corresponding to a very strong Th1- and Th17-dominated immune response. In contrast, the regulation of superantigen release differed markedly between both superantigen groups. Egc-encoded proteins were secreted by S. aureus during exponential growth, while non-egc superantigens were released in the stationary phase. We conclude that the distinct biological behavior of egc and non-egc superantigens is not due to their intrinsic properties, which are very similar, but caused by their differential release by S. aureus.
Outcome of conjunctival autograft sutured with polyamide black sutures in pterygium surgery.

INTRODUCTION Pterygium excision with conjunctival autografting is the most effective way of treating pterygium with the least recurrence rate. The sutures which can be used to suture the conjunctival autograft are absorbable polyglactin 10-0 sutures or nonabsorbable polyamide 10-0 sutures. The polyamide sutures are inert, elicit minimal acute inflammatory reaction, do not support infection and allow easy removal without tissue adherence. They are very cost-effective compared to polyglactin sutures. OBJECTIVE This study was aimed to assess the efficacy of the cost-effective polyamide sutures in terms of patient comfort, graft stability, need for suture removal and recurrence. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this prospective, non-comparative study, 56 eyes of 56 patients with primary pterygium underwent pterygium excision with conjunctival autograft transplantation sutured with 10-0 polyamide black sutures. The patients' comfort, graft stability, need for suture removal and recurrence were assessed within a mean follow- up period of 28.75 months (range 47 - 14 months). RESULTS Mild discomfort was found in 14 (25 %) patients for up to 3 weeks, moderate discomfort in 8 (14.2 %) for up to 1 week, no patients had severe discomfort beyond the first day, and all patients were comfortable at the end of the sixth post-operative week. The graft was stable in all patients. Nine sutures in 5 patients out of 392 sutures in 56 patients, that is, 2.29 % of the sutures, needed to be removed at the end of the sixth post-operative week. Two patients, or 3.57 %, had a recurrence. CONCLUSION In pterygium surgery, suturing the conjunctival autograft with cost-effective polyamide black sutures is efficient and safe.
Multitemperature Blackbody Spectra of Thin Accretion Disks with and without a Zero-Torque Inner Boundary Condition

The standard spectral model for analyzing the soft component of thermal emission from a thin accretion disk around a black hole is the multitemperature blackbody model. The widely used implementation of this model, which is known as diskbb, assumes nonzero torque at the inner edge of the accretion disk. This assumption is contrary to the classic and current literature on thin-disk accretion, which advocates the use of a zero-torque boundary condition. Consequently, we have written code for a zero-torque model, ezdiskbb, which we compare to the nonzero-torque model diskbb by fitting Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer spectra of three well-known black hole binaries: 4U 1543-47, XTE J1550-564, and GRO J1655-40. The chief difference we find is that the zero-torque model gives a value for the inner disk radius that is ≈2.2 times smaller than the value given by diskbb. This result has important implications, especially for the determination of black hole angular momentum and mass accretion rate.
Does size matter?: A study of firm behavior and outcomes in strategic SME networks

Purpose – To develop and empirically test a framework on how firm size can matter for firm behavior and performance in strategic networks of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SME networks). Design/methodology/approach – Empirical study based on statistical analysis of standardized questionnaires and analysis of interview material from face‐to‐face interviews with managers in a population of 54 firms that operates in SME networks.Findings – Firm size can be an important determinant for firm performance, and for networking inside and outside the SME network. Different networking behaviors are found to have different roles for pursuing corporate entrepreneurship and for gaining performance effects in interaction with corporate entrepreneurship.Originality/value – Prior research has suggested larger firms as valuable for holding firms in SME networks together, but has not put much effort in explaining why and how, and what they gain from doing this. This study advances these suggestions by showing how larger.
Patients' views on the causes of their polymyalgia rheumatica: a content analysis of data from the PMR Cohort Study

Objective To explore primary care polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) patient beliefs about the causes of their PMR. Design Qualitative content analysis was conducted on patients' written responses to the question of what they thought had caused their PMR. All data were coded and emergent categories of causal beliefs identified. Setting Community patients receiving primary care at general practitioner (GP) practices across England. Participants Participants were recruited from a primary care PMR inception cohort (n=654). Between June 2012 and June 2014 GPs referred 739 people with a new PMR diagnosis in the past 3 years into the study. Patients were mailed a baseline self-completion questionnaire, which included the question, ‘What do you think caused your PMR? ’. Responses to this question form the data set for the present study. Results 296 (45%) patients gave a possible cause for their PMR, while 276 (42%) respondents wrote ‘no idea’. Common attributions include ageing (45, 18%), medication (18, 5%) and personal stress (53, 14%). 24 respondents (6%) thought their PMR was as a result of another medical condition. Conclusions This is the first study to examine causation beliefs in PMR, identifying a number of possible causes such as ageing, stress and as a complication of other medical problems. Understanding these patient beliefs may impact on treatment adherence and patient outcome.
Contracting with Externalities

The paper studies inefficiencies arising in contracting between one principal and N agents when the utility of each agent depends on all agents' trades with the principal. When the principal commits to a set of publicly observable bilateral contract offers, the arising inefficiency is due entirely to the externalities imposed on non-signers. In contrast, when the principal's offers are privately observed, the distortion is due to the externalities given agents' equilibrium trades. Comparison of the two externalities determines the relative efficiency of the two contracting regimes. In both cases, we show that when N is large, each agent can be treated as non-pivotal, provided that appropriate continuity assumptions are satisfied.
Accounting for Social Purpose Alliances: Confronting the HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Africa

Social purpose alliances are an increasingly important organizational form used by governments and supranational institutions to address large-scale social problems. Little is known, however, about how these alliances are organized and directed. This study investigates one such alliance, focusing on how accounting practices are being used to arrange, coordinate, and control a geographically-dispersed and heterogeneous group of actors involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Ghana, Africa. It considers how the World Bank and the Ghana AIDS Commission are using accounting to assemble and coordinate over 3000 NGO and community-based organizations which, in turn, provide HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities throughout the country. The analysis shows not only the centrality of accounting in the alliance-building process but also the tensions that exist between those activities aimed at governing individual actors and on-the-ground health activities. Archival documents along with 57 semi-structured interviews carried out between 2003 and 2006 provide the data for the study.
STRUCTURE AND HISTORY OF DARK MATTER HALOS PROBED WITH GRAVITATIONAL LENSING

We test with gravitational lensing (GL) data the dark matter (DM) halos embedding the luminous baryonic component of galaxy clusters; our benchmark is provided by their two-stage cosmogonical development that we compute with its variance, and by the related “α-profiles” we derive. The latter solve the Jeans equation for the self-gravitating, anisotropic DM equilibria, and yield the radial runs of the density ρ(r) and the velocity dispersion σ2r(r) in terms of the DM “entropy” K ≡ σ2r/ρ2/3 ∝ rα highlighted by recent N-body simulations; the former constrains the slope to the narrow range α ≈ 1.25–1.3. These physically based α-profiles meet the overall requirements from GL observations, being intrinsically flatter at the center and steeper in the outskirts relative to the empirical Navarro, Frenk, & White formula. Specifically, we project them along the line of sight and compare with a recent extensive data set from strong and weak lensing observations in and around the cluster A1689. We find an optimal fit at both small and large scales in terms of a halo constituted by an early body with α ≈ 1.25 and by recent extensive outskirts, that make up an overall mass 1015 M☉ with a concentration parameter c ≈ 10 consistent with the variance we compute in the ΛCDM cosmogony. The resulting structure corresponds to a potential well shallow in the outskirts as that inferred from the X rays radiated from the hot electrons and baryons constituting the intracluster plasma.
Expression of Bama Minipig and Human CYP3A Enzymes: Comparison of the Catalytic Characteristics with Each Other and Their Liver Microsomes

Minipigs represent a good animal model because of the physiologic and anatomic similarities they share with humans. Three cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A isozymes, CYP3A22, CYP3A29, and CYP3A46, have recently been reported to be expressed in Bama minipigs, which have limited data relating to their metabolic characteristics. In the present study, Bama minipig CYP3A22, CYP3A29, and CYP3A46 were recombinantly expressed and their metabolic manners were compared with those of human CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 and also human and Bama minipig liver microsomes. The results indicated Bama minipigs and human CYP3A enzymes showed similar metabolic kinetics and metabolite profiles using testosterone, midazolam, and nifedipine as substrates. However, the differences in amino acid sequences change the elimination velocity and metabolic preference of CYP3A enzymes to their substrates. It was demonstrated that CYP3A29, CYP3A4, and CYP3A5 were the most active enzymes for all reactions, whereas CYP3A46 was the least active enzyme. Substrate-dependent metabolism characteristics between human and Bama minipig CYP3A isoenzymes exist.
Deep Brain Stimulation of Nucleus Accumbens Region in Alcoholism Affects Reward Processing

The influence of bilateral deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the nucleus nucleus (NAcc) on the processing of reward in a gambling paradigm was investigated using H2[15O]-PET (positron emission tomography) in a 38-year-old man treated for severe alcohol addiction. Behavioral data analysis revealed a less risky, more careful choice behavior under active DBS compared to DBS switched off. PET showed win- and loss-related activations in the paracingulate cortex, temporal poles, precuneus and hippocampus under active DBS, brain areas that have been implicated in action monitoring and behavioral control. Except for the temporal pole these activations were not seen when DBS was deactivated. These findings suggest that DBS of the NAcc may act partially by improving behavioral control.
In Vivo Interactions between Toxin-Antitoxin Proteins Epsilon and Zeta of Streptococcal Plasmid pSM19035 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT The widespread prokaryotic toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems involve conditional interaction between two TA proteins. The interaction between the Epsilon and Zeta proteins, constituting the TA system of plasmid pSM19035 from Streptococcus pyogenes, was detected in vivo using a yeast two-hybrid system. As we showed using Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the Zeta toxin hybrid gene also exerts its toxic effects in a dose-dependent manner in eukaryotic cells. Analysis of mutant proteins in the two-hybrid system demonstrated that the N-terminal part of Zeta and the N-terminal region of Epsilon are involved in the interaction. The N-terminal region of the Zeta protein and its ATP/GTP binding motif were found to be responsible for the toxicity.
Trust and Well-Being

This paper presents new evidence linking trust and subjective well-being, based primarily on data from the Gallup World Poll and cycle 17 of the Canadian General Social Survey (GSS17). Because several of the general explanations for subjective well-being examined here show large and significant linkages to both household income and various measures of trust, it is possible to estimate income-equivalent compensating differentials for different types of trust. Measures of trust studied include general social trust, trust in co-workers, trust in neighbours, and trust in police. In addition, some Canadian surveys and the Gallup World Poll ask respondents to estimate the chances that a lost wallet would be returned to them if found by different individuals, including neighbours, police and strangers. Our results reveal sufficiently strong linkages between trust and well-being to support much more study of how trust can be built and maintained, or repaired where it has been damaged. We therefore use data from the Canadian GSS17 to analyze personal and neighbourhood characteristics, including education, migration history, and mobility, that help explain differences in trust levels among individuals. New experimental data from Canada show that wallets are far more likely to be returned, even by strangers in large cities, than people expect.
Personality disorders in children and adolescents.

Children and adolescents differ strikingly in their emerging personalities. Already by childhood, youth vary in their typical positive and negative emotions; capacities for selfcontrol and positive relationships with others; feelings of empathy and warmth versus hostility and alienation; and views of themselves, others, and their life experiences. For some youth, their typical personality patterns may begin to cause them difficulties in life; for example, their problematic personality patterns may lead them to experience high levels of distress or serious impairment in their daily lives, particularly in their relationships or selfdevelopment. These difficulties may become severe enough for some youth to be diagnosed with a personality disorder (PD); for others, the problems may not reach clinical significance, yet may still bear negative consequences. Both the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994) and DSM-5 (APA, 2013) acknowledge that youth may experience PDs warranting treatment. The diagnostic manuals define PDs in terms of problematic cognition, affectivity, interpersonal functioning, and impulse control— all personality differences that vary in children and adolescents and that may become disturbed well before adulthood. The present chapter surveys the existing state of knowledge about PDs in the first two decades of life. Although there is far less research on PDs in childhood and adolescence than on other earlyemerging disorders, the research that does exist has made it clear that personality pathology does occur in childhood and adolescence and poses significant risks for mental health problems and impairment both concurrently and later in life (Cohen, Crawford, Johnson, & Kasen, 2005; De Fruyt & De Clercq, 2012; Freeman & Reinecke, 2007; Hill, 2008; Johnson et al., 2012; Mervielde, De Clercq, De Fruyt, & van Leeuwen, 2005; Shiner, 2007, 2009; Tackett, 2010; Tackett, Balsis, Oltmanns, & Krueger, 2009; Westen & Chang, 2000). This is an exciting time for research on PDs because researchers are finally turning their attention to the early manifestations of personality pathology and to the antecedents of adult PDs (see, e.g., the recent special issues of Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, DeFife & Ritschel, 2013; Development and Psychopathology, Cicchetti & Crick, 2009; Journal of the Canadian Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Biskin & Paris, 2013; Journal of Personality Disorders, Tackett & Sharp, 2014; Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, Tackett, 2010). Borderline PD (BPD) in youth and the childhood antecedents of antisocial PD (ASPD—e.g., conduct disorder and psychopathy) have received considerable attention, but researchers have begun to explore many of the other PDs and broader personality pathology domains in youth as well. Throughout the chapter, we adopt a developmental psychopathology perspective on PD (Cicchetti, 1993, 2013). In particular, we draw on two especially imporC H A P T E R 1 8
Performance Pay Systems and the Gender Wage Gap

We examine the relationship between performance pay systems and wages, paying particular attention to gender differences in outcomes. At the firm level, estimates suggest average wages are unaffected by changes in performance pay practices, but that the within-firm distribution of wages is stretched. This latter result is explained by worker-level regressions, showing that male workers with initially higher expected wages are more likely to benefit from increased use of performance pay in the firm. Given the apparent absence of such an effect on female wages and the concentration of prime-age men in the top quartile of the wage distribution, women, on average, benefit less from the operation of performance pay systems.
A Germany-Brazil Experience Report on Teaching Software Engineering for Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Students

This article describes a successful education technology transfer between Germany and Brazil applied to the teaching of software engineering for undergraduate students of the electrical engineering course at the Federal University of Amazonas - UFAM. The result of this experience was a significant increase on the interest of the students, i.e. the amount of enrolled students increased reaching numbers never met before and the drop out rate was smaller than the average of the other lectures. The main reason for the observed changes was the introduction of a laboratory platform in the lecture. This guided the students during the development of a software system used in a robot race at the end of the term. The robot race itself may also be another reason for the great motivation observed, when the students compete to show which team produced the best software. This experience is one of the results of the Unibral project, a scientific and academic cooperation between UFAM and the Institute of Industrial Automation and Software Engineering of the University of Stuttgart
Is Growth in Bangladesh's Rice Production Sustainable?

The recent growth of food grain (primarily rice) production in Bangladesh has outpaced population growth largely due to the spread of green revolution technology. The transition from a"basket case"in the early 1970s to the virtual elimination of rice imports in the early 1990s is particularly remarkable considering the severe land constraint in Bangladesh. Two decades of concerted government efforts to achieve rice self-sufficiency have created both an atmosphere of optimism and concerns about whether rice self sufficiency is sustainable. The authors find that rice production grew in Bangladesh between 1973 and 1994 because of the conversion of rice-growing areas from local to modern varieties. Simulations suggest that the current level of per capita production can be sustained only through increased yields from modern rice varieties. Other factors that could affect growth in per capita rice production are population control and faster conversion of remaining areas to modern varieties. But population control and faster conversion to modern varieties are only complements for the most important factor: efforts to increase the yields from modern rice varieties. If policies designed to raise the overall rate of economic growth and reduce poverty succeed, it will be even more critical to focus on increasing productivity.