Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mercury-Pollution Induction of Intracellular Lipid Accumulation and Lysosomal Compartment Amplification in the Benthic Foraminifer Ammonia parkinsoniana

Heavy metals such as mercury (Hg) pose a significant health hazard through bioaccumulation and biomagnification. By penetrating cell membranes, heavy metal ions may lead to pathological conditions. Here we examined the responses of Ammonia parkinsoniana, a benthic foraminiferan, to different concentrations of Hg in the artificial sea water. Confocal images of untreated and treated specimens using fluorescent probes (Nile Red and Acridine Orange) provided an opportunity for visualizing the intracellular lipid accumulation and acidic compartment regulation. With increased Hg over time, we observed an increased number of lipid droplets, which may have acted as a detoxifying organelle where Hg is sequestered and biologically inactivated. Further, Hg seems to promote the proliferation of lysosomes both in terms of number and dimension that, at the highest level of Hg, resulted in cell death. We report, for the first time, the presence of Hg within the foraminiferal cell: at the basal part of pores, in the organic linings of the foramen/septa, and as cytoplasmic accumulations.
Bayesian Antisparse Coding

Sparse representations have proven their efficiency in solving a wide class of inverse problems encountered in signal and image processing. Conversely, enforcing the information to be spread uniformly over representation coefficients exhibits relevant properties in various applications such as robust encoding in digital communications. Antisparse regularization can be naturally expressed through an $\ell _{\infty }$-norm penalty. This paper derives a probabilistic formulation of such representations. A new probability distribution, referred to as the democratic prior, is first introduced. Its main properties as well as three random variate generators for this distribution are derived. Then this probability distribution is used as a prior to promote antisparsity in a Gaussian linear model, yielding a fully Bayesian formulation of antisparse coding. Two Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms are proposed to generate samples according to the posterior distribution. The first one is a standard Gibbs sampler. The second one uses Metropolis–Hastings moves that exploit the proximity mapping of the log-posterior distribution. These samples are used to approximate maximum a posteriori and minimum mean square error estimators of both parameters and hyperparameters. Simulations on synthetic data illustrate the performances of the two proposed samplers, for both complete and over-complete dictionaries. All results are compared to the recent deterministic variational FITRA algorithm.
Clinical impact of CD200 expression in patients with acute myeloid leukemia and correlation with other molecular prognostic factors

CD200, a protein belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily, has been associated with a poor prognosis in lymphoproliferative disorders and in acute leukemia. We studied the expression of CD200 in a series of 244 patients with diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), to evaluate its impact on outcome and its possible association with other known prognostic factors. CD200 was found in 136/244 (56%) patients, in 41 of whom (30%) with high intensity of expression (MFI ≥ 11). CD200 was more frequent in secondary compared to de novo leukemia (p = 0.0006), in CD34 positive cases (p = 0.00001), in Bcl2 overexpressing cases (p = 0.01), in those wild-type Flt3 (p = 0.004) and with favorable or unfavorable compared to intermediate karyotype (p = 0.0003). CD200+ patients have a two-fold lower probability to attain complete remission, both in univariate (p = 0.006) and multivariate (p = 0.04) analysis. The negative impact of CD200 was found also in overall survival (p = 0.02) and was correlated with the intensity of expression of the molecule (p = 0.024). CD200 has an additive negative impact on survival in patients with unfavorable cytogenetic (p = 0.046) and in secondary leukemia (p = 0.05), and is associate with a worsening of outcome in patients with favorable biological markers, such as mutated NPM (p = 0.02), wild-type Flt3 (p = 0.034), negativity of CD34 (p = 0.03) and of CD56 (p = 0.03). In conclusion, CD200 is emerging as both a prognostic factor and a potential target of novel therapeutic approaches for AML, aiming to reverse the “do not eat me” signal of CD200 or to manipulate the suppressive immune microenvironment induced by CD200 binding to its receptor.
Human Neuroscience

as possible, thus measuring the strength of associations between two categories. Widely used in social psychology (De Houwer et al., 2009), the IAT is implicit because participants are not asked about the associations per se. Rather, their reaction times to these associations are recorded. Extensive research has demonstrated the usefulness of the IAT in the assessment of social bias by considering social categories (e.g., pictures of Black and White people) and valence categories (i.e., ranging from positive to negative). As well, IATs are valuable in determining whether experimental blocks that require " compatible " associations (e.g., in prejudice: White person/positive or Black person/negative) show increased or decreased reaction times relative to " incompatible " associations (e.g., White person/negative or Black person/positive). Note that the IAT effect is triggered by the contextual association between faces and words. For example, a block of IAT trials considered to be " compatible " with prejudice implies a white participant responding to pleasant words and white faces with one key, and to unpleasant words and black faces with another key, in order to assess delays in response times. In " incompatible " blocks of trials, response pairings are inverted (i.e., black–positive, white–negative). It is argued that prejudiced participants have strong " compatible " associations, and that " incompatible " associations would be weaker, as revealed by the response latency differences that may exist between these two possible scenarios. In this sense, the IAT is meant as a measure of
Disease Activity and Bone Mineral Density of MCP Joints in Patients with Rheumatoid and Psoriatic Arthritis: Is There a Correlation?—A Study in Patients Treated with Methotrexate and an Anti-TNFα Agent

Background. Bone damage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) includes an accelerated bone mineral density (BMD) reduction. The objective was to evaluate BMD variations of the metacarpophalangeal joints (MCPs) in patients starting treatment with methotrexate (MTX) or etanercept. Methods. Patients affected by RA or PsA with hand joints involvement and with moderate or high disease activity, were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent clinical examination, laboratory exams, and a DXA scan of the most affected hand, as assessed with an ultrasound examination at the baseline, at the time of enrolment and after 1, 3, 6, and 12 months. Patients non-responders to MTX received combination therapy, while patients with no previous treatment initiated MTX. Results. 22 patients were enrolled. In both RA and PsA groups, BMD increased independently of the treatment. However, in the patients affected by RA, a slight BMD decrease was observed at the last checkup. Globally, the BMD variations of the MCPs were strongly correlated with the disease activity. At the reduction of DAS28, the scores corresponded an increase of BMD. Conclusions. MCPs BMD is inversely correlated to disease activity. BMD increase seems to be correlated with the response to treatment and not with the drug itself.
The Different Environmental Dependencies of Star Formation for Giant and Dwarf Galaxies

We examine the origins of the bimodality observed in the global properties of galaxies around a stellar mass of 3 × 1010 M☉ by comparing the environmental dependencies of star formation for the giant and dwarf galaxy populations. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR4 spectroscopic data set is used to produce a sample of galaxies in the vicinity of the supercluster centered on the cluster A2199 at z = 0.03 that is ≳90% complete to M + 3.3. From this we measure global trends with environment for both giant (Mr < -20 mag) and dwarf (-19 < Mr < -17.8 mag) subsamples using the luminosity-weighted mean stellar age and Hα emission as independent measures of star formation history. The fraction of giant galaxies classified as old (t > 7 Gyr) or passive (EW [Hα] ≤ 4 Å) falls gradually from ≳80% in the cluster cores to ~40% in field regions beyond 3-4Rvir, as found in previous studies. In contrast, we find that the dwarf galaxy population shows a sharp transition at ~1Rvir, from being predominantly old/passive within the cluster, to outside where virtually all galaxies are forming stars and old/passive galaxies are only found as satellites to more massive galaxies. These results imply fundamental differences in the evolution of giant and dwarf galaxies: whereas the star formation histories of giant galaxies are determined primarily by their merger history, star formation in dwarf galaxies is much more resilient to the effects of major mergers. Instead, dwarf galaxies become passive only once they become satellites within a more massive halo either by losing their halo gas reservoir to the host halo or through other environment-related processes such as galaxy harassment and ram pressure stripping.
A new signature verification technique based on a two-stage neural network classifier

This paper presents a new technique for off-line signature recognition and verification. The proposed system is based on global, grid and texture features. For each one of these feature sets a special two stage Perceptron OCON (one-class-one-network) classification structure has been implemented. In the first stage, the classifier combines the decision results of the neural networks and the Euclidean distance obtained using the three feature sets. The results of the first-stage classifier feed a second-stage radial base function (RBF) neural network structure, which makes the final decision. The entire system was extensively tested and yielded high recognition and verification rates. # 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Factors Affecting Perceived Persuasiveness of a Behavior Change Support System

Despite the popularity of the technology acceptance and adoption studies, adoption of persuasive systems has not been investigated from a theoretical perspective. In the present study, we put forward a novel approach for investigating behavior change support systems (BCSS) through a theoretical model. We constructed and tested (two measurement points; 172 subjects) a model predicting perceived persuasiveness and actual usage of a behavior change support system. Results from a rigorous PLS-SEM analysis support most of our hypotheses about factors affecting persuasiveness and actual usage. The proffered model can be considered as a meta-model, i.e. it may be utilized in a multitude of domains, such as health behaviors (as in the present study), safety and education. The present study extends the extant (rather limited) body of knowledge regarding the factors contributing to engagement with behavior change support systems.
Results of Medium Seventeen Years' Follow-Up after Laparoscopic Choledochotomy for Ductal Stones

Introduction. In a previously published article the authors reported the long-term follow-up results in 138 consecutive patients with gallstones and common bile duct (CBD) stones who underwent laparoscopic transverse choledochotomy (TC) with T-tube biliary drainage and laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). Aim of this study is to evaluate the results at up to 23 years of follow-up in the same series. Methods. One hundred twenty-one patients are the object of the present study. Patients were evaluated by clinical visit, blood assay, and abdominal ultrasound. Symptomatic patients underwent cholangio-MRI, followed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) as required. Results. Out of 121 patients, 61 elderly patients died from unrelated causes. Fourteen patients were lost to follow-up. In the 46 remaining patients, ductal stone recurrence occurred in one case (2,1%) successfully managed by ERCP with endoscopic sphincterotomy. At a mean follow-up of 17.1 years no other patients showed signs of bile stasis and no patient showed any imaging evidence of CBD stricture at the site of choledochotomy. Conclusions. Laparoscopic transverse choledochotomy with routine T-tube biliary drainage during LC has proven to be safe and effective at up to 23 years of follow-up, with no evidence of CBD stricture when the procedure is performed with a correct technique.
Floor Determination Algorithm with Node Failure Consideration for Indoor Positioning Systems

One of challenging problems for indoor wireless multi-floor positioning systems is a presence of Reference Node (RN) failures, which causes the missing of the values of Received Signal Strength (RSS) during the online positioning phase of the fingerprinting technique. This leads to performance degradation in terms of floor accuracy which affects other localization procedures. This paper presents a robust floor determination algorithm called Robust Confidence Interval Sum-RSS (RCIS), which can accurately determine the floor where mobile objects located and can work under either the fault-free scenario or the RN-failure scenarios. The proposed fault tolerance floor algorithm is based on the confidence interval of the summation of the strongest RSS obtained from the IEEE 802.15. 4 Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) during the online phase. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with those of different floor determination algorithms in literature. The experimental results show that the proposed robust floor determination algorithm outperformed the other floor algorithms and can achieve the highest percentage of floor determination accuracy in all tested scenarios. Specifically, the proposed algorithm can achieve 100% correct floor determination under the scenario in which 40% of RNs failed.
Prediction of IUGR and Adverse Perinatal Outcome by Colour Doppler Examination of UA PI and MCA:UA PI Ratio

Introduction: The most common methods used for evaluation of fetuses identified, as SGA are BPP & NST. Neither of these tests are sensitive for predicting poor outcome in IUGR. It is here that the role of colour doppler comes. Doppler parameters S/D ratio, RI & PI of uterine, umbilical and fetal vessels have been in use for long in predicting perinatal outcome. In present study, we are using ratio of MCA:UA PI. The research was planned to study whether the MCA:UA PI ratio is a better predictor of SGA fetuses and adverse perinatal outcome than the MCA PI or the UA PI used alone. Material and methods: Prospective study done in pregnant women (30-40 weeks of Gestational. Age) attending antenatal clinics of NIMS Medical College And Hospital, Jaipur from July 2014 to June 2015 Results: Umbilical Artery PI: Out of 50 pregnancies studied, 13 showed abnormal UA PI, among which 11 were SGA & 10 had adverse perinatal outcome. Among remaining 37 pregnancies with normal PI ratio, 3 showed adverse perinatal outcome out of 13 SGA. Middle Cerebral Artery PI: 2 out of 50 pregnancies showed abnormal MCA PI & both fetus were SGA & had adverse perinatal outcome. Out of remaining 48 pregnancies, 11 showed adverse perinatal outcome out of 23 SGA. MCA:UA PI Ratio: 11 of 50 pregnancies showed an abnormal MCA:UA PI ratio & all were SGA & had adverse perinatal outcome. Among remaining 39 pregnancies, 2 patients showed adverse perinatal outcome out of 14 SGA. After applying statistical analysis, its proved that MCA:UA PI RATIO is better predictor of SGA and perinatal outcome than either the MCA PI or UA PI alone. Conclusion: The MCA:UA PI ratio was a better predictor of adverse perinatal outcome than either the MCA PI or UA PI alone.
A Constructivist Approach to Online Learning: The Community of Inquiry Framework

This chapter presents a theoretical model of online learning, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework, which is grounded in John Dewey’s progressive understanding of education. The CoI framework is a process model of online learning which views the online educational experience as arising from the interaction of three presences – social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence. Each of these three elements in the CoI model are described and related to Dewey’s work, and research findings and issues concerning them reviewed. The development of a common CoI survey measure that promises to address some of these issues is described and discussed. The chapter concludes with emerging findings from new studies which use the CoI survey, directions for future research, and practical uses of the CoI model.
A FINITE DIFFERENCE SCHEME FOR SOLVING THE NONLINEAR POISSON-BOLTZMANN EQUATION MODELING CHARGED SPHERES

In this work, we propose an efficient numerical method for computing the electrostatic interaction between two like-charged spherical particles which is governed by the nonlinear Poisson-Boltzmann equation. The nonlinear problem is solved by a monotone iterative method which leads to a sequence of linearized equations. A modified central finite difference scheme is developed to solve the linearized equations on an exterior irregular domain using a uniform Cartesian grid. With uniform grids, the method is simple, and as a consequence, multigrid solvers can be employed to speed up the convergence. Numerical experiments on cases with two isolated spheres and two spheres confined in a charged cylindrical pore are carried out using the proposed method. Our numerical schemes are found efficient and the numerical results are found in good agreement with the previous published results. Mathematics Subject Classification: 65N06, 65B99.
The Interviewer in the Respondent’s Shoes: What Can We Learn from the Way Interviewers Answer Survey Questions?

Previous research shows that interviewers to some extent fail to expend the effort that is needed to collect high-quality survey data. We extend the idea of interviewer satisficing to a related task, in which the interviewers themselves answer survey questions. We hypothesize that interviewers who self-administer the questionnaire in a careless manner will also not apply themselves fully to the task of administering survey interviews. Based on interviewer and respondent data from the sixth round of the European Social Survey in Belgium, we find support for some of the hypothesized associations between (suboptimal) response characteristics of interviewers in the “task as respondent” and the same (suboptimal) response characteristics recorded for their respondents, specifically with regard to interview speed, multiple response, and item nonresponse to the household income question.
Electromyography Activity of Vastus Lateralis Muscle During Whole‐Body Vibrations of Different Frequencies

The aim of this study was to analyze electromyography (EMG) responses of vastus lateralis muscle to different whole-body vibration frequencies. For this purpose, 16 professional women volleyball players (age, 23.9 ± 3.6 years; height, 182.5 ± 11.1 cm; weight, 78.4 ± 5.6 kg) voluntarily participated in the study. Vibration treatment was administered while standing on a vibrating platform with knees bent at 100° (Nemes Bosco-system, Rome, Italy). EMG root mean square (rms) and was recorded for 60 seconds while standing on the vibrating plate in the following conditions: no vibrations and 30-, 40-, and 50-Hz vibration frequencies in random order. The position was kept for 60 seconds in each treatment condition. EMGrms was collected from the vastus lateralis muscle of the dominant leg. Statistical analysis showed that, in all vibration conditions, average EMGrms activity of vastus lateralis was higher than in the no-vibration condition. The highest EMGrms was found at 30 Hz, suggesting this frequency as the one eliciting the highest reflex response in vastus lateralis muscle during whole-body vibrations in half-squat position. An extension of these studies to a larger population appears worthwhile to further elucidate the responsiveness of the neuromuscular system to whole-body vibrations administered through vibrating platforms and to be able to develop individual treatment protocols.
Schwann Cell Migration Induced by Earthworm Extract via Activation of PAs and MMP2/9 Mediated through ERK1/2 and p38

The earthworm, which has stasis removal and wound-healing functions, is a widely used Chinese herbal medicine in China. Schwann cell migration is critical for the regeneration of injured nerves. Schwann cells provide an essentially supportive activity for neuron regeneration. However, the molecular migration mechanisms induced by earthworms in Schwann cells remain unclear. Here, we investigate the roles of MAPK (ERK1/2, JNK and p38) pathways for earthworm-induced matrix-degrading proteolytic enzyme (PAs and MMP2/9) production in Schwann cells. Moreover, earthworm induced phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and p38, but not JNK, activate the downstream signaling expression of PAs and MMPs in a time-dependent manner. Earthworm-stimulated ERK1/2 and p38 phosphorylation was attenuated by pretreatment with U0126 and SB203580, resulting in migration and uPA-related signal pathway inhibition. The results were confirmed using small interfering ERK1/2 and p38 RNA. These results demonstrated that earthworms can stimulate Schwann cell migration and up-regulate PAs and MMP2/9 expression mediated through the MAPK pathways, ERK1/2 and p38. Taken together, our data suggests the MAPKs (ERK1/2, p38)-, PAs (uPA, tPA)-, MMP (MMP2, MMP9) signaling pathway of Schwann cells regulated by earthworms might play a major role in Schwann cell migration and nerve regeneration.
HUBUNGAN ANTARA EFIKASI DIRI AKADEMIK DENGAN SCHOOL WELL-BEING PADA SISWA SMP HANG TUAH 1 JAKARTA

Kegiatan belajar yang berkualitas sangat tergantung pada guru, siswa, sarana pembelajaran, lingkungan kelas, dan budaya kelas. Siswa yang merasa nyaman, senang, dan berharga akan memiliki penilaian yang positif terhadap sekolah yaitu school well-being. Kesejahteraan siswa salah satunya ditentukan oleh efikasi diri akademik yaitu keyakinan diri individu dalam menyelesaikan tugas-tugas akademik di sekolah. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui hubungan antara efikasi diri akademik dengan school well-being pada siswa SMP Hang Tuah 1 Jakarta. Hipotesis dalam penelitian ini adalah ada hubungan positif antara efikasi diri akademik dengan school well-being pada siswa SMP Hang Tuah 1 Jakarta. Populasi penelitian yaitu seluruh siswa kelas VII, VIII, dan XI SMP Hang Tuah 1 Jakarta dengan total 448 siswa yang terdiri dari 12 kelas, sedangkan sampel yang digunakan dalam penelitian sebanyak 150 siswa yang terdiri dari 4 kelas, yang diperoleh dengan cluster random sampling. Pengumpulan data menggunakan Skala Efikasi Diri Akademik (36 aitem valid, α = .89) dan Skala School Well-Being (30 aitem valid, α = .88). Analisis regresi sederhana menunjukkan adanya hubungan positif yang signifikan antara efikasi diri akademik dan school well-being pada siswa SMP Hang Tuah 1 Jakarta (r = .59; p < .001). Semakin tinggi efikasi diri akademik, maka maka semakin tinggi pula school well-being, begitu juga sebaliknya. Efikasi diri akademik memberikan sumbangan efektif sebesar 35% pada school well-being. Ketika ingin meningkatkan school well-being, siswa harus pula meningkatkan efikasi diri akademiknya, dan untuk meningkatkan school well-being siswa, sekolah dapat memfasilitasi terbentuknya efikasi diri akademik.