Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unexpected Structural Requirements for GTPase Activity of the Interferon-induced MxA Protein(*)

MxA is an interferon-induced 76-kDa GTPase that inhibits the multiplication of several RNA viruses. Deleting seven amino acids from the COOH terminus reduced the GTPase activity of purified MxA to 1.4%. MxA mutants with COOH-terminal deletions of 63 or more amino acids lost all ability to hydrolyze GTP and failed to bind guanine nucleotides. By contrast, an MxA deletion mutant consisting of 301 amino acids from the NH2 terminus and 87 amino acids from the COOH terminus retained about 9% of wild-type GTPase activity, underscoring the pivotal role of COOH-terminal sequences. Limited proteolysis of wild-type MxA with proteinase K resulted in two resistant polypeptides of 60 and 10 kDa, respectively, which copurified as a stable complex. The p60-p10 complex exhibited high GTPase activity, suggesting that it included all MxA domains required for this biochemical activity. Sequencing revealed that the NH2 terminus of the 60-kDa polypeptide mapped to leucine 41 and the NH2 terminus of the 10-kDa polypeptide to glutamine 564 of the MxA sequence. Based on these results we propose a model that suggests that the GTP-binding consensus element located in the NH2-terminal half of MxA is held in an active conformation by strong physical interactions with amino acids from the COOH-terminal region.
Are we talking about the same child? Parent–teacher ratings of preschoolers’ social–emotional behaviors.

The parent-teacher agreement has become an important issue of children's psychological assessment. However, the amount of research available for preschool children is small and mainly based on one index of agreement with samples of modest size/representativeness. This study examined parent-teacher agreement (correlations) and discrepancies (t tests) on preschoolers' social skills and problem behaviors for the normative Portuguese sample (N = 1,000) of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales – 2nd Edition (PKBS-2). Analyses were replicated according to the child's gender and mothers' educational level. Correlational analyses suggest weak to moderate informant agreement (mean correlation = .32). Parents' and teachers' ratings are significantly different for all PKBS-2 scores, with parents assigning higher scores both on social skills and problem behaviors. Results highlight the importance of both parents' and teachers' perspectives to achieve a more comprehensive picture of preschoolers' social-emotional behaviors, and reinforce the evidence of reliability of the PKBS-2 Portuguese version.
Monitoring of melting refreezing cycles of snow with microwave radiometers: the Microwave Alpine Snow Melting Experiment (MASMEx 2002-2003)

A study of the melting cycle of snow was carried out by using ground-based microwave radiometers, which operated continuously 24 h/day from late March to mid-May in 2002 and from mid-February to early May in 2003. The experiment took place on the eastern Italian Alps and included micrometeorological and conventional snow measurements as well. The measurements confirmed the high sensitivity of microwave emission at 19 and 37 GHz to the melting-refreezing cycles of snow. Moreover, micrometeorological data made it possible to simulate snow density, temperature, and liquid water content through a hydrological snowpack model and provided additional insight into these processes. Simulations obtained with a two-layer electromagnetic model based on the strong fluctuation theory and driven by the output of the hydrological snowpack model were consistent with experimental data and allowed interpretation of both variation in microwave emission during the melting and refreezing phases and in discerning the contributions of the upper and lower layers of snow as well as of the underlying ground surface.
Developing a predictive model of subjective organisational culture

The objective of this theory development study was to propose a predictive model of subjectively perceived organisational culture with biographic variables, job satisfaction and personality variables as predictors. A countrywide sample of convenience drawn from a population of nurses (N = 3456) of a private healthcare service provider in South Africa yielded 713 completed questionnaires (response rate = 21%) that were obtained in multiple sessions. Goal directedness, a dimension of organisational culture, was significantly positively related to all three measures of satisfaction (imposed personal demands, extrinsic satisfaction and intrinsic satisfaction), while internal climate was significantly negatively related to the three satisfaction dimensions. Other significant findings are reported on.
The effects of single dose anxiolytic medication on the CO2 models of anxiety: differentiation of subjective and objective measures

This was a double blind, placebo-controlled, 4-way cross-over study in 12 healthy volunteer subjects of the acute effects of three drugs each of which are used in the clinic to treat some forms of anxiety: propranolol 40 mg, hydroxyzine 25 mg, flupentixol 0.5 mg and placebo. Each test session consisted of inhalation of air for 20 min, 10-min rest, inhalation of CO2 7.5% for 20 min, 10-min rest, followed by a single vital capacity inhalation of 35% CO2. The CO2 7.5% was administered at peak drug effect. Subjective effects were measured using Visual Analogue Scales (VAS), the Panic Symptom Inventory and the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment inventory. Twelve subjects participated (eight men), with a mean age of 25.9 years. The expected subjective effects of CO2 were seen and these were significantly different from effects of peak air. However, there were no statistically significant differences between the drugs or between drugs and placebo, indeed there was a trend for some VAS anxiety Email: Jayne.Bailey@bristol.ac. uk scores to be higher than placebo in the drug groups. There were some significant differences in cardiovascular responses to CO2, with propranolol significantly decreasing heart rate and flupentixol increasing blood pressure when compared with placebo. The lack of subjective anxiolytic actions of the three drugs contrasts with our previous findings with acute benzodiazepines and chronic selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor administration. It may be that prolonged treatment with these agents would be required to show anxiolytic effects, although it may also be that their efficacy is insufficient to be demonstrated in this model. The lack of anxiolytic actions of propranolol, despite a significant reduction in heart rate, is a further support for a central action of CO2 to produce anxiety.
Pheochromocytomas are diagnosed incidentally and at older age in neurofibromatosis type 1

Guidelines do not currently recommend routine systematic hormonal screening for pheochromocytoma (PHEO) in all/normotensive patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), in contrast to other PHEO‐predisposing genetic syndromes such as Von Hippel–Lindau syndrome and multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2.
Left Ventricular Structure and Diastolic Function in Subjects with Two Hypertensive Parents

Purpose : To examine the influence of (i) strong predisposition to essential hypertension and (ii) insulin sensitivity and plasma levels of cardiomyotrophic hormones on echocardiographic parameters of left ventricular structure and function. Methods : 26 normotensive subjects (age 18–35) with bi-parental hypertension and 26 matched controls with normotensive parents. Families with non-insulin-dependent diabetes or morbid obesity were excluded. (i) Echocardiography; (ii) plasma concentrations of renin, angiotensin-II, aldosterone, epinephrine and norepinephrine; (iii) euglycaemic, hyperinsulinemic clamp study. Results (means - SD): Hypertension-prone subjects vs controls had (i) higher resting systolic (117.0 - 14.0 vs 107.1 - 11.9 mmHg), and 24-h diastolic blood pressure (77.9 - 7.1 vs 72.9 - 7.2 mmHg), (ii) higher relative wall thickness (RWT) (0.39 - 0.09 vs 0.34 - 0.06). They had similar left vetricular mass index, diastolic function parameters, insulin sensitivity and plasma concentrations of cardiomyotrophic hormones. The increased RWT was not attributable to any other factor than the systolic blood pressure. Conclusion : In a carefully selected group of subjects with two hypertensive parents compared to a control group, the only echocardiographic change demonstrated was an increased RWT. This remodelling was attributable to a higher systolic blood pressure in the hypertension-prone subjects, but not to insulin sensitivity or a selection of cardiomyotrophic hormones.
Two-phase cryogenic flow meter

Slush nitrogen is a two phase combination of solid nitrogen in liquid nitrogen. The measurement of mass flow rate of this mixture can be of interest for various applications due to the greater cooling performance, greater compactness and lighter weight. The development of a prototype of slush nitrogen (two-phase) capacitance type flow meter is presented in this work, together with the technological steps taken toward its fabrication. The flows characteristics of slush nitrogen between the armatures of the obtained flow meter are also numerically investigated using a mathematical model specially build for the tested device.
Friends, lovers, and groups : key relationships in adolescence

(From the cover) Everyone agrees that peers are important in adolescence. Recently, there have been some noteworthy advances in research on adolescent peer relationships and this volume, written by leading experts, presents four key areas of these innovative studies. Firstly, the discovery of a "deviancy training" mechanism of peer influence is examined, in which antisocial pairs have been observed to reward each other with approval for deviant or antisocial talk, and this has been linked to escalations in antisocial behavior. The second area is the study of romantic partners as important peer relationships in adolescence. This is a newly emerging field of research with only a dozen or so studies published to date. The text then looks at the application of behavioral genetic analytical techniques to understand peer selection and influence processes. This line of research will also shed a new light on social environmental influences on adolescent problem behaviors. The final area covers the use of designs that capture both in-school and out-of-school peers in order to understand their relative influence on problem behavior. As the first of the Hot Topics in Developmental Research series, a three-part developmental psychology range, this volume presents the work of highly prestigious chapter authors edited by Rutger Engels, Margaret Kerr and H√•kan Stattin. This research tool is useful reading for researchers, final year undergraduates and postgraduates in developmental and health psychology, and child psychologists.
ACT Against Violence Parents Raising Safe Kids Program: Effects on Maltreatment-Related Parenting Behaviors and Beliefs

The ACT Against Violence Parents Raising Safe Kids program (ACT-PRSK) is an interactive violence prevention program developed by the American Psychological Association for parents of young children. The program teaches and supports parents in the areas of child development, roots and consequences of violence, anger management for adults and children, social problem solving, positive discipline, and the impact of media violence on children. Ninety-two parents/caregivers of young children participated in a study of the effects of the program on parenting behaviors. The first 50 participants were assigned to the intervention group and completed the ACT-PRSK program, and the remaining 42 parents/caregivers served as comparisons. Results indicated reduced spanking and reduced rate of hitting children with objects for the ACT-PRSK participants. Furthermore, the ACT-PRSK group evidenced improved knowledge, behaviors, and beliefs regarding violence prevention and parenting. Results provide support for the efficacy of this brief intervention for preventing child maltreatment.
Three Faces of Identity

We review three traditions in research on identity. The first two traditions, which stress (a) the internalization of social positions and their meanings as part of the self structure and (b) the impact of cultural meanings and social situations on actors' identities, are closely intertwined. The third, the burgeoning literature on collective identity, has developed quite independently of the first two and focuses more on group-level processes. Unlike previous reviews of identity, which have focused on the sources of internalized identity (e.g., role relationship, group membership, or category descriptor), we focus here on the theoretical mechanisms underlying theories of identity. We organize our review by highlighting whether those mechanisms are located in the individual's self-structure, in the situation, or in the larger sociopolitical context. We especially attempt to draw connections between the social psychological literature on identity processes and the distinct, relatively independent literatur.
Pain sensitivity and tactile spatial acuity are altered in healthy musicians as in chronic pain patients

Extensive training of repetitive and highly skilled movements, as it occurs in professional classical musicians, may lead to changes in tactile sensitivity and corresponding cortical reorganization of somatosensory cortices. It is also known that professional musicians frequently experience musculoskeletal pain and pain-related symptoms during their careers. The present study aimed at understanding the complex interaction between chronic pain and music training with respect to somatosensory processing. For this purpose, tactile thresholds (mechanical detection, grating orientation, two-point discrimination) and subjective ratings to thermal and pressure pain stimuli were assessed in 17 professional musicians with chronic pain, 30 pain-free musicians, 20 non-musicians with chronic pain, and 18 pain-free non-musicians. We found that pain-free musicians displayed greater touch sensitivity (i.e., lower mechanical detection thresholds), lower tactile spatial acuity (i.e., higher grating orientation thresholds) and increased pain sensitivity to pressure and heat compared to pain-free non-musicians. Moreover, we also found that musicians and non-musicians with chronic pain presented lower tactile spatial acuity and increased pain sensitivity to pressure and heat compared to pain-free non-musicians. The significant increment of pain sensitivity together with decreased spatial discrimination in pain-free musicians and the similarity of results found in chronic pain patients, suggests that the extensive training of repetitive and highly skilled movements in classical musicians could be considered as a risk factor for developing chronic pain, probably due to use-dependent plastic changes elicited in somatosensory pathways.
Should Blood Cultures Be Performed for Patients with Acute Prostatitis?

ABSTRACT The diagnostic and prognostic values of blood cultures (BC) for 347 acute prostatitis inpatients were evaluated. BC were positive for 21% of patients and contributed to the microbiological diagnosis for 5%. Fever duration, length of hospitalization, use of an antibiotic combination, duration of antibiotic use, and urine bacterial titers increased when BC were positive.
Inflectional morphological awareness and word reading and reading comprehension in Greek

ABSTRACT The study explored the contribution of two aspects of inflectional morphological awareness, verb inflection and noun–adjective inflection, to word reading and reading comprehension in the Greek language, which is an orthographically transparent language. Participants (120 first graders, 123 second graders, 126 third graders) were given two oral language experimental tasks of inflectional morphological awareness. Furthermore, phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, decoding, and reading comprehension were evaluated. It was revealed that noun–adjective inflectional morphology contributed significantly to decoding only in first grade, while verb inflectional morphology had a significant contribution to reading comprehension in third grade. It is interesting that inflectional morphological awareness did not predict reading skills for second graders. Phonological awareness was a firm predictor of word reading in all grades and made a unique contribution in Grades 2 and 3. Finally, in all grades, receptive vocabulary was a steady predictor of reading comprehension, whereas expressive vocabulary predicted only first-grade reading comprehension. It is suggested that inflectional morphological awareness may be an important predictor of early reading in a language with a shallow orthography and a rich morphology.
searching for the self in Mind and Brain

Psychological theories of the self as a knowledge representation have important implications for finding the neural representation of the self or the brain module(s) that mediate self-referential thought. The view of the self as a concept suggests that we might have many context-specific selves, not just one. Similarly, there may be a number of modality-specific self-images. The autobiographical self is not a mere list of episodic memories, but more likely a narrative structure that includes the temporal and causal relations among remembered events. Although the mental representation of self is by definition unique, it is possible that its neural representation is not distinguishable from that of other persons; and that the brain modules that process information about the self also process information about other people, if not objects in general.
F1 hybrid inviability in Eucalyptus: the case of E. ovata × E. globulus

The impact of inbreeding and hybridization on fitness was compared in the two co-occurring forest tree species, Eucalyptus ovata and E. globulus, aimed at explaining the rarity of their hybrids in nature. The success of selfing, open-pollination and outcrossing of both species and interspecific hybridization was monitored from seed-set to 10-year’s growth in a field trial. There was a unilateral barrier to hybridization with seed-set obtained only with E. ovata females. The F1 hybrids exhibited reduced viability compared to intraspecific cross-types at virtually all stages of the life cycle and are clearly at a selective disadvantage compared with their open-pollinated E. ovata half-sibs with which they would directly compete in nature. Eucalyptus ovata and E. globulus overlap in their flowering time but the F1 hybrids flowered later with virtually no overlap with either species. The asynchronous flowering and reduced reproductive fitness of F1 hybrids would markedly limit the opportunity for advanced generation hybridization. Inbreeding similarly had a deleterious effect on the fitness of both species, and the F1 hybrids were most competitive with the E. ovata selfs. It is argued that changes in inbreeding levels of parental populations may be a key factor affecting the relative fitness of hybrids and their potential to impact on the pure species gene pool. Reduced fitness of the pure species through inbreeding may result in hybridization having its greatest evolutionary impact in small founder or relict populations.
Naturalistic Validation of an On-Road Driving Test of Older Drivers

Objective: The objective was to compare a standardized road test to naturalistic driving by older people who may have cognitive impairment to define improvements that could potentially enhance the validity of road testing in this population. Background: Road testing has been widely adapted as a tool to assess driving competence of older people who may be at risk for unsafe driving because of dementia; however, the validity of this approach has not been rigorously evaluated. Method: For 2 weeks, 80 older drivers (38 healthy elders and 42 with cognitive impairment) who passed a standardized road test were video recorded in their own vehicles. Using a standardized rating scale, 4 hr of video was rated by a driving instructor. The authors examine weighting of individual road test items to form global impressions and to compare road test and naturalistic driving using factor analyses of these two assessments. Results: The road test score was unidimensional, reflecting a major factor related to awareness of signage and traffic behavior. Naturalistic driving reflected two factors related to lane keeping as well as traffic behavior. Conclusion: Maintenance of proper lane is an important dimension of driving safety that appears to be relatively underemphasized during the highly supervised procedures of the standardized road test. Application: Road testing in this population could be improved by standardized designs that emphasize lane keeping and that include self-directed driving. Additional information should be sought from observers in the community as well as crash evidence when advising older drivers who may be cognitively impaired.
Does communication training make a difference?: Evidence for the effectiveness of a presentation skills program

Abstract This paper reports an evaluation of presentation skills training for participants from manufacturing, service, production, and research organizations using a repeated‐measures quasi‐experimental comparison‐group design. In addition to posttest assessments of participants’ reactions and learning, participants’ self reports of sixteen behavioral skills were assessed across three time periods. Similar analyses were employed to test for co‐workers’ ratings of program participants’ long‐term improvement. Statistical analyses of participants’ responses (controlling for the number of comparisons) revealed positive reactions to the training, improvement in learning, as well as short‐term behavioral change in eight of the sixteen skills taught. Long‐term change was found in seven of the dependent measures. On‐the‐job change was found in three skills. Taken together, improvement was found in all but two of the skills areas in the training. Analyses of co‐workers’ ratings of participants’ skills also reveal.
Threats and Violence in the Care Sector

Workplace violence is a complex occupational hazard that health care staffs are facing in today’s work environment. This study examines the safety measures recommended by staff in occupational injury reports filed in the wake of violence- and threat-related injuries. The results suggest that measures relating to psychosocial factors and structural factors such as adequate staffing are much more important than surveillance, staff training, and penal sanctions.
Angiotensinogen gene haplotype is associated with the prevalence of Japanese non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis

Aim: Non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients frequently have hypertension, which is considered to be an important predictive factor for the subsequent development of hepatic fibrosis. The renin‐angiotensin system is also known to contribute to the progression of NASH. Various types of functional single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) involved in the development of NASH have been proposed. Angiotensinogen (AGT) gene SNPs related to cardiovascular diseases have been reported. We aimed to evaluate the involvement of the AGT gene haplotype in Japanese NASH patients.
Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity and Place

PART 1 THEORIES OF YOUTH CULTURE AND POPULAR MUSIC. - The Sociology of Youth Culture. - Youth Culture and Popular Music. - The Significance of Locality. - PART 2: LOCAL REPRESENTATIONS: CASE STUDIES. - Dance Music, Local Identity and Urban Space. - Bhangra and Asian Music: The Role of Local Knowledge. - Hip Hop am Main, Rappin' on the Tyne: Hip Hop Culture as a Local Construct in Two European Cities. - The Benwell Floyd: Local Live Music, Sociality and the Politics of Musical Taste. - Conclusion: Youth, Music, Locality and Identity. - Bibliography. - Index.