Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental Stage-dependent Persistent Impact of Propofol Anesthesia on Dendritic Spines in the Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex

Background:Recent observations demonstrate that anesthetics rapidly impair synaptogenesis during neuronal circuitry development. Whether these effects are lasting and depend on the developmental stage at which these drugs are administered remains, however, to be explored. Methods:Wistar rats received propofol anesthesia at defined developmental stages during early postnatal life. The acute and long-term effects of these treatments on neuronal cytoarchitecture were evaluated by Neurolucida and confocal microscopy analysis after iontophoretic injections of Lucifer Yellow into layer 5 pyramidal neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex. Quantitative electron microscopy was applied to investigate synapse density. Results:Layer 5 pyramidal neurons of the medial prefrontal cortex displayed intense dendritic growth and spinogenesis during the first postnatal month. Exposure of rat pups to propofol at postnatal days 5 and 10 significantly decreased dendritic spine density, whereas this drug induced a significant increase in spine density when administered at postnatal days 15, 20, or 30. Quantitative electron microscopy revealed that the propofol-induced increase in spine density was accompanied by a significant increase in the number of synapses. Importantly, the propofol-induced modifications in dendritic spine densities persisted up to postnatal day 90. Conclusion:These new results demonstrate that propofol anesthesia can rapidly induce significant changes in dendritic spine density and that these effects are developmental stage-dependent, persist into adulthood, and are accompanied by alterations in synapse number. These data suggest that anesthesia in the early postnatal period might permanently impair circuit assembly in the developing brain.
The friendly financier : Talking money with the silenced assistant

In many academic fields the researcher often financially remunerates both research assistants and participants. Literature covers the ethics involved in paying informants. Both research design and research methodology literature covers many important aspects of the research process, but neither pays much attention to the issue of research assistants. These relationships can be complicated by the dynamics of an outsider researcher working in a southern context. Drawing upon examples of researcher-research assistant in the field, in Tanzania and South Africa, this paper explores the ethics of financial transactions in researcher-assistant relationships and the ways in which wealth asymmetry can affect the working relationship. We conclude by stating our belief that these issues have not been adequately addressed elsewhere, and that there is an imperative for due consideration in training and planning for these relationships to be considered as integral and visible to the research and writing phases.
Social Support, Social Networks, and Happiness of Individuals With Visual Impairments

The purpose of this study was to examine the structure of active social networks of individuals with visual impairments, the social support they receive from their social networks, and their satisfaction from received support. In addition, we examined these factors as predictors of happiness in people with visual impairments. A total of 96 individuals with visual impairments, who ranged in age from 16 to 50, participated in this study. Three self-constructed questionnaires, which included questions related to demographic data, social networks, social support, and happiness, were used in the study. Participants reported being satisfied with received support, and they also appeared to receive more positive than negative support. Findings also demonstrated the merit of social support for the happiness of individuals with visual impairments.
The nucleolar RNA methyltransferase Misu (NSun2) is required for mitotic spindle stability

Myc-induced SUN domain–containing protein (Misu or NSun2) is a nucleolar RNA methyltransferase important for c-Myc–induced proliferation in skin, but the mechanisms by which Misu contributes to cell cycle progression are unknown. In this study, we demonstrate that Misu translocates from the nucleoli in interphase to the spindle in mitosis as an RNA–protein complex that includes 18S ribosomal RNA. Functionally, depletion of Misu caused multiple mitotic defects, including formation of unstructured spindles, multipolar spindles, and chromosome missegregation, leading to aneuploidy and cell death. The presence of both RNA and Misu is required for correct spindle assembly, and this process is independent of active translation. Misu might mediate its function at the spindle by recruiting nucleolar and spindle-associated protein (NuSAP), an essential microtubule-stabilizing and bundling protein. We further identify NuSAP as a novel direct target gene of c-Myc. Collectively, our results suggest a novel mechanism by which c-Myc promotes proliferation by stabilizing the mitotic spindle in fast-dividing cells via Misu and NuSAP.
Engineering ethics education in the USA: Content, pedagogy and curriculum

Interest in engineering ethics education developed significant momentum in the USA as the 20th century drew to a close. Nevertheless, nearly 80% of engineering graduates are not required to take ethics-related courses. The content of engineering ethics education consists of 'microethical' issues focusing on individual professional responsibility and 'macroethical' issues dealing with the development of technology. The pedagogical framework of engineering ethics education has evolved primarily toward utilization of case studies and codes of ethics, in some instances supplemented by an introduction to moral theory. Substantial progress has been made in the development of case materials, including highprofile cases, everyday cases, quantitative cases and cases highlighting 'good works'. Cases are widely disseminated in textbooks and online. Online resources include interactive case studies and a rich variety of other ethics-related materials. Prominent curriculum models in the USA include a required course in engineering ethics, ethics-across-the-curriculum projects, and integration of engineering ethics and science, technology and society material. Changes in accreditation criteria for US engineering schools will potentially elevate the prominence of instruction in engineering ethics and the societal context of engineering. Many challenges remain, most notably the need for US engineering faculty to accept greater responsibility for engineering ethics education.
R&D and Patenting Activity and the Propensity to Acquire in High Technology Industries

In this paper we investigate the incidence of high technology acquisitions using a large international sample of acquisitions by public high technology firms. Controlling for firms’ financial characteristics, we examine the impact of the following innovation- related factors on the propensity to acquire: RD the citation-weighted patent-intensity as a proxy for RD the stock of citation-weighted patents as a proxy for the accumulated stock of knowledge generated by past R&D efforts. The following conclusions can be drawn with respect to the characteristics of acquirers of non-public targets – mainly private firms and former subsidiaries. First, we find support for the view that the propensity to acquire new knowledge-related assets through acquisitions is driven by declining returns from the exploitation of a firm’s existing knowledge base. Second, we find evidence in favour of the make-or-buy theory that acquisitions are a substitute for in-house R&D activity. Third, our results are in accordance with the theoretical argument that a large stock of accumulated knowledge enhances a firm’s ability to absorb external knowledge through acquisitions. These results suggest that smaller acquisitions can be seen as part of an innovation strategy by acquiring firms with relatively low levels of internal R&D which seek to offset low R&D productivity by exploring a range of potential innovation trajectories in new and smaller business units. Interestingly, we find that these interpretations cannot be made for acquirers of the larger public companies.
Subthalamic GAD Gene Therapy in a Parkinson's Disease Rat Model

The motor abnormalities of Parkinson's disease (PD) are caused by alterations in basal ganglia network activity, including disinhibition of the subthalamic nucleus (STN), and excessive activity of the major output nuclei. Using adeno-associated viral vector–mediated somatic cell gene transfer, we expressed glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD), the enzyme that catalyzes synthesis of the neurotransmitter GABA, in excitatory glutamatergic neurons of the STN in rats. The transduced neurons, when driven by electrical stimulation, produced mixed inhibitory responses associated with GABA release. This phenotypic shift resulted in strong neuroprotection of nigral dopamine neurons and rescue of the parkinsonian behavioral phenotype. This strategy suggests that there is plasticity between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission in the mammalian brain that could be exploited for therapeutic benefit.
Análisis Psicométrico de la Escala Autoeficacia en Conductas de Cuidado de la Salud Física en Universitarios de Primer Ingreso

Psychometric properties in the self-efficacy scale on behavior of physical health care were studied. The sample was of 2089 individuals: 902 women and 1187 men, incoming students to the majors offered at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua in Mexico, with an average age of 18.23 years. The analysis of psychometric properties has shown that a trifactorial structure is feasible and adequate according to the psychometric requirements established when the informants are the students. The three factors structure, attending statistic and substantial criteria has shown adequate adjustment factors, reliability (except on physical health and hydration factors) and validity indicators. Besides, factorial analyses taken with sub-samples 1 and 2 fully demonstrate these results.
Democracy in the Shadows: Citizen Mobilization in the Wake of the Accident at Three Mile Island

Democracy, Technology, and Social Movement Theory A History of the Nuclear Power Industry Accident and Evacuation The Return and Preparation for Protest Phase I: Mobilization and Initial Confrontations Phase II: Coalition Formation and the Restart Hearings Phase III: Emergent Target Vulnerabilities Phase IV: Protests and Appeals Theory and Life in the Shadows
Making LRU friendly to weak locality workloads: a novel replacement algorithm to improve buffer cache performance

Although the LRU replacement algorithm has been widely used in buffer cache management, it is well-known for its inability to cope with access patterns with weak locality. Previously proposed algorithms to improve LRU greatly increase complexity and/or cannot provide consistently improved performance. Some of the algorithms only address LRU problems on certain specific and predefined cases. Motivated by the limitations of existing algorithms, we propose a general and efficient replacement algorithm, called Low Inter-reference Recency Set (LIRS). LIRS effectively addresses the limitations of LRU by using recency to evaluate Inter-Reference Recency (IRR) of accessed blocks for making a replacement decision. This is in contrast to what LRU does: directly using recency to predict the next reference time. Meanwhile, LIRS mostly retains the simple assumption adopted by LRU for predicting future block access behaviors. Conducting simulations with a variety of traces of different access patterns and with a wide range of cache sizes, we show that LIRS significantly outperforms LRU and outperforms other existing replacement algorithms in most cases. Furthermore, we show that the additional cost for implementing LIRS is trivial in comparison with that of LRU. We also show that the LIRS algorithm can be extended into a family of replacement algorithms, in which LRU is a special member.
Impact of poverty on serum phosphate concentrations in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

OBJECTIVE Increased serum phosphate is associated with adverse health outcomes. High intake of inexpensive processed and fast foods is common in impoverished communities, and is linked with excessive dietary phosphorus intake and elevated serum phosphate concentrations in chronic kidney disease patients. We examined the impact of socioeconomic status on dietary phosphorus intake and serum phosphate concentrations in the general population. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. PARTICIPANTS A total of 14,261 adult participants in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. PREDICTORS AND OUTCOMES: Poverty to income ratio (PIR; family income indexed to the federal poverty level) was the primary index of socioeconomic status. Serum phosphate was the primary outcome variable. RESULTS Although estimated phosphorus intake decreased with decreasing quartiles of PIR (P < .001), serum phosphate was inversely associated with PIR (P = .003). The relationship between lower PIR and higher serum phosphate remained significant after adjustment for demographic, laboratory, and dietary intake characteristics (P = .02). Compared with participants in the highest PIR quartile (income >300% of the federal poverty level), participants in the lowest quartile (income < the federal poverty level) had more than twice the odds of hyperphosphatemia (≥ 4.4 mg/dL) in unadjusted and multivariable-adjusted logistic regression analyses (OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.5 to 3.2). CONCLUSIONS Although lower income was associated with decreased estimated phosphorus intake, increasing poverty was independently linked with increased serum phosphate and higher likelihood of hyperphosphatemia. These findings may indicate that conventional dietary instruments underestimate phosphorus intake, especially among impoverished individuals. Further studies are needed to explore these possibilities.
Identification of near‐native structures by clustering protein docking conformations

Most state‐of‐the‐art protein–protein docking algorithms use the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) technique to sample the six‐dimensional translational and rotational space. Scoring functions including shape complementarity, electrostatics, and desolvation are usually exploited in ranking the docking conformations. While these rigid‐body docking methods provide good performance in bound docking, using unbound structures as input frequently leads to a high number of false positive hits. For the purpose of better selecting correct docking conformations, we structurally cluster the docking decoys generated by four widely‐used FFT‐based protein–protein docking methods. In all cases, the selection based on cluster size outperforms the ranking based on the inherent scoring function. If we cluster decoys from different servers together, only marginal improvement is obtained in comparison with clustering decoys from the best individual server. A collection of multiple decoy sets of comparable quality will be the key to improve the clustering result from meta‐docking servers. Proteins 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Staging of benign prostate hyperplasia is helpful in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms suggestive of benign prostate hyperplasia.

INTRODUCTION We prospectively evaluated the staging of benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) to decide transurethral resection of prostate (TURP) therapeutic modality and the final outcomes in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) suggestive of BPH. MATERIALS AND METHODS Male patients above 50 years old presented with LUTS suggestive of BPH were included in this study. The initial assessment included the International Prostatic Symptoms Score (IPSS) and the Quality of Life (QOL) index, digital rectal examination (DRE). Transabdominal ultrasound was done to measure the prostate volume, intravesical prostatic protrusion (IPP) and the post void residual (PVR) urine. BPH was classified according to the degree of IPP using grades 1 to 3. The staging of BPH was performed according to the presence or absence of bothersome symptoms (QOL ≥3) and significant obstruction (PVR >100ml). Patients with stage I BPH with no bothersome symptoms and no significant obstruction were generally observed. Those with stage II BPH, bothersome symptoms but no significant obstruction, received pharmacotherapy in the first instance, and were offered TURP if symptoms persisted or worsened. Patients with significant obstruction, persistent PVR >100ml, irrespective of symptoms would be classified as stage III, and were advised to undergo TURP as an option. Lastly, those with stage IV (complications of BPH) were strongly recommended to undergo TURP. RESULTS A total of 408 patients were recruited in this study and after a mean follow-up of 30 months (range, 6 to 84), 96 (24%) eventually had TURP. Sixteen (13%), 50 (21%), 28 (64%) and 2 (100%) patients who underwent TURP were initially diagnosed as stage I, II, III and IV, respectively. Eighty-seven (91%) of the 96 patients significantly improved to stage I BPH post TURP. CONCLUSIONS These results showed that the staging of BPH can assist in the tailoring of treatment for patients with LUTS suggestive of BPH, with good outcome in 91% post TURP.
Experiences, attitudes and trust: an inquiry into elite athletes’ perception of the whereabouts reporting system

The duty of elite athletes to report whereabouts is a controversial and debated element of the World Anti-Doping Code. Though the obligation to provide whereabouts information has a real impact on athletes’ daily lives, knowledge about athletes’ perception of and trust in the system after the Code was revised in 2009 is still scarce. This study contributes to the discussion on the legitimacy and institutionalization of the whereabouts system by integrating the points of view of Danish elite athletes (with/without whereabouts obligations). In total, 645 athletes completed a web-based questionnaire about their perceptions of the whereabouts system. The results showed that elite athletes’ perceptions were ambivalent: a majority of athletes seemed to accept the system as a necessity, a duty or a compliment to their sporting level. On the other hand, the system did, to a greater or lesser degree, interfere negatively in everyday life: three quarters of the athletes felt reporting whereabouts was too time-consuming; fear of a warning was a concern for more than half of the athletes; four in ten found their joy of being an elite athlete was reduced; and four in ten experienced the system as surveillance. Athletes’ trust in the system was remarkably low when it came to questions concerning how it operated in other countries and its ability to catch doped athletes. A particular remarkable finding is that distrust seemed to increase once athletes had personal experience of reporting whereabouts. This must be considered a major challenge for future anti-doping policymaking.
Ethnic Classification in Southeastern Puerto Rico: The Cultural Model of "Color"

This article presents a systematic ethnographic study of emic ethnic classification in Puerto Rico, including a replication and extension of Marvin Harris's (1970) seminal study in Brazil. I address three questions: (1) what are the core emic categories of color? (2) what dimensions of semantic structure organize this cultural domain? and (3) is the assumption of a shared cultural model justified? Data are from two sets of ethnographic interviews in southeastern Puerto Rico, including 23 free listing interviews and 42 structured interviews using Harris's standardized facial portraits. Results indicate a small core of salient emic categories with well-defined semantic structure and high interinformant agreement, reflecting shared cultural understandings of color. I discuss how systematic ethnographic methods can contribute to comparative research on ethnic classification.
Dangerous consumptions beyond the grave: Psychic hotline addiction for the lonely hearts and grieving souls

This study examines the relationship between Brown's core criteria for addiction and ringing psychic hotlines. Both quantitative and qualitative data were endorsed to explore Brown's theoretical framework. Fifty-six participants were recruited from the international ‘psychic junkie’ support group website. Most of the participants were female, Caucasian, single, university educated, spiritual and employed. A semi-structure questionnaire along with a psychic hotline questionnaire adapted from Brown's core criteria of addiction was administered. Significant affirmative responses on Brown's addiction criteria included cognitive salience, euphoria, tolerance and relief. The callers were less likely to endorse behavioural salience, relapse or inter-personal conflict as a result of psychic hotline use. Participants spent excessive amounts of money ringing psychic hotlines and many went into debt. The qualitative data as well as Brown's core criteria of addiction supports the supposition that a segment of the population may be addicted to ringing psychic hotlines. ‘The most authentic thing about a cold reading is that false information is becoming part of another person's real life and memories’ (Reed ).
Adquisición de los ataques complejos desde la fonología no lineal en una muestra de niños del dialecto español de Chile entre 1;6 y 2;8 años

En el siguiente trabajo se investigo el desarrollo de la estructura silabica de ataque complejo (CC) en un grupo de sujetos hablantes de la variante chilena de espanol. La muestra estuvo constituida por 9 sujetos (entre 1;6 y 2;8 anos), los cuales fueron entrevistados durante 6 meses en sus hogares (Chile) y en presencia de sus padres o familiares mas cercanos. Se transcribieron un total de 354 palabras que contenian CC de los cuales 147 son /C+l/ y 207 /C+? /. Se consideraron solo las emisiones espontaneas. Se observo sistematicidad en la identificacion de tres estadios de adquisicion: 1a Etapa ? reduccion del CC a un elemento, que suele corresponder al elemento menos sonante; 2a Etapa ? semiconsonantizacion del segundo elemento del CC; y 3a Etapa ? produccion correcta del CC. Entre los principales resultados se destaca el bajo porcentaje de produccion correcta de las silabas con ataques complejos (CCV), manifestandose en la mayoria de los casos la estructura silabica universal (CV). Tambien se observo un alto porcentaje de mantencion del primer elemento en el output de los ataques complejos; sin embargo, en ataques complejos especificos - /dr/ y /gl/ - aparecieron muchos casos de mantenimiento del segundo elemento.
Explosive Yields of Massive Stars from Z = 0 to Z = Z☉

We present a new and homogeneous set of explosive yields for masses 13, 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35 M☉ and metallicities Z = 0, 10-6, 10-4, 10-3, 6 × 10-3, and 2 × 10-2. A wide network extending up to Mo has been used in all computations. We show that at low metallicities (Z ≤ 10-4), the final yields do not depend significantly on the initial chemical composition of the models, so a scaled solar distribution may be safely assumed at all metallicities. Moreover, no elements above Zn are produced by any mass in the grid up to a metallicity ~10-3. These yields are available for any choice of the mass cut on request.