Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low expression of MRP1/GS‐X pump ATPase in lymphocytes of Walker 256 tumour‐bearing rats is associated with cyclopentenone prostaglandin accumulation and cancer immunodeficiency

Immunosuppression is a life‐threatening complication of late cancer stages. In this regard, overproduction in the host plasma of the anti‐inflammatory cyclopentenone prostaglandins (CP‐PGs), which are strongly antiproliferative at high concentrations, may impair immune function. In fact, lymphoid tissues of tumour‐bearing rats accumulated large amounts of CP‐PGs while the tumour tissue itself did not. Expression of the CP‐PG‐induced 72‐kDa heat shock protein (hsp70) was elevated in lymphocytes from tumour‐bearing animals related to controls. As the capacity for CP‐PG uptake by lymphocytes is the same as tumour cells, we investigated whether the latter could overexpress the multidrug resistance‐associated protein (MRP1/GS‐X pump) which extrudes CP‐PGs towards the extracellular space as glutathione S‐conjugates. Walker 256 tumour cells extruded 15‐fold more S‐conjugates than lymphocytes from the same rats (p < 0.001). This did not appear to be related to deficiency in lymphocyte glutathione (GSH) metabolism, since the major GSH metabolic routes are consistent with CP‐PG conjugation in lymphocytes. This was not the case, however, for the MRP1/GS‐X pump activity in lymphocyte membranes (in pmol/min/mg protein: 3.1 ± 1.7 from normal rats, 0.2 ± 0.2 from tumour‐bearing animals vs 64.3 ± 7.0 in tumour cells) which was confirmed by Western blot analysis for MRP1 protein. Transfection of lymphocytes with MRP1 gene completely abolished CP‐PG (0–40 μM) toxicity. Taken together, these findings suggest that CP‐PG accumulation in lymphocytes may be, at least partially, responsible for cancer immunodeficiency. Clinical approaches for overexpressing MRP1/GS‐X pump in lymphocytes could then play a role as a tool for the management of cancer therapeutics. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Gene therapy of autoimmune diseases with vectors encoding regulatory cytokines or inflammatory cytokine inhibitors

Gene therapy offers advantages for the immunotherapeutic delivery of cytokines or their inhibitors. After gene transfer, these mediators are produced at relatively constant, non‐toxic levels and sometimes in a tissue‐specific manner, obviating limitations of protein administration. Therapy with viral or nonviral vectors is effective in several animal models of autoimmunity including Type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM), experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), colitis, thyroiditis and various forms of arthritis. Genes encoding transforming growth factor β, interleukin‐4 (IL‐4) and IL‐10 are most frequently protective. Autoimmune/inflammatory diseases are associated with excessive production of inflammatory cytokines such as IL‐1, IL‐12, tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) and interferon γ (IFNγ). Vectors encoding inhibitors of these cytokines, such as IL‐1 receptor antagonist, soluble IL‐1 receptors, IL‐12p40, soluble TNFα receptors or IFNγ‐receptor/IgG‐Fc fusion proteins are protective in models of either arthritis, Type 1 DM, SLE or EAE. We use intramuscular injection of naked plasmid DNA for cytokine or anticytokine therapy. Muscle tissue is accessible, expression is usually more persistent than elsewhere, transfection efficiency can be increased by low‐voltage in vivo electroporation, vector administration is simple and the method is inexpensive. Plasmids do not induce neutralizing immunity allowing repeated administration, and are suitable for the treatment of chronic immunological diseases. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Entrepreneurial self-efficacy in a multicultural society: Measures and ethnic differences

Deficits in self-beliefs lower entrepreneurial activity in the broader South African context. A brief theoretical analysis preceded establishing the psychometric evaluations of the entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) and general selfefficacy (GSE) measures. Participants representing different major ethnic groups in SA were sampled. Results indicate that the GSE scale remains a single factor solution thereby confirming the unidimensionality and reliability of this measure. The different ESE sub-domains provide a far more fine-grained approach to understanding self-efficacy. ANOVA determined significant differences in self-efficacy scores between the different groups. Apart from introducing the ESE construct to the SA literature, it is the first time that a study has united the general and specific measures of self-efficacy as well as measuring both the magnitude and strength dimensions of self-efficacy beliefs. Opsomming Tekortkominge in selfgeloofwaardigheid doen afbreuk aan entrepreneuriese aktiwiteite in die breer Suid Afrikaanse konteks. ’n Samevattende teoretiese analise het die vasstelling van strukturele ekwivalensie van die entrepreneuriese ESE en GSE skale voorafgegaan. ’n Steekproef van MBA respondente, verteenwoordigend van die hoof etniese groepe binne SA, is vir die studie gebruik. Bevindinge dui daarop dat die GSE skaal ’n enkel faktor oplossing is bevestigend van die enkel dimensionaliteit en betroubaarheid van hierdie maatstaf. ANOVA dui daarop dat merkbare verskille bestaan tussen die ESE tellings van die verskillende groeperinge. Benewens die bekendstelling van die ESE konsep, aan die SA literatuur, verenig hierdie studie vir die eerste keer die bree en spesifieke maatstawwe van selfgeloofwaardigheid, en meet dit ook die grote en sterkte van hierdie verandelikes.
Arbitrary precision arithmetic-SIMD style

Current day general purpose processors have been enhanced with what is called "media instruction set" to achieve performance gains in applications that are media processing intensive. The instruction set that has been added exploits the fact that media applications have small native datatypes and have widths much less than that supported by commercial processors and the plethora of data-parallelism in such applications. Current processors enhanced with the "media instruction set" support arithmetic on sub-datatypes of only 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit precision. In this paper we motivate the need for arbitrary precision packed arithmetic wherein the width of the sub-datatypes are programmable by the user and propose an implementation for arithmetic on such packed datatypes. The proposed scheme has marginal hardware overhead over conventional implementations of arithmetic on processors incorporating a multimedia extended instruction set.
Fourth and Fifth Graders Representing the Argument Structure in Written Texts

This study examines how children represent the global discourse structure of arguments, an important type of exposition. Adults represent a written argument according to its hierarchical global discourse structure. In contrast, previous work has shown children to focus on the sentence level of exposition and represent it as a list. Sixty-five fourth and fifth graders read and recalled 1 of 3 texts with an argument structure. Predictably, some children recalled a list of details with no global structure. However, over two thirds of the children recalled the hierarchical global discourse structure in the argument, although recall accuracy varied from a close text match to 2 types of partial matches. Both grade level and the familiarity and vividness of text content were related to children's accuracy, suggesting developmental changes as children learn to represent exposition and important text features that can affect their performance.
Associations between school bullying and psychosocial factors.

The aim of the study was to determine the relationship of bullying behavior at school with indicators of psychosocial health (self-esteem, happiness, relationships in family and with teachers, smoking and alcohol use) and with social-demographical factors (age, gender, socioeconomic status). Participants were 1,162 pupils from the 6th, 8th, and 11th grades of schools. A total of 56.5% of students were involved in bullying. 12.7% were ascribed as victims and 16.3% as bullies. Using logistic regression, it was established that involvement in bullying is most associated with grade (6th and 8th grades), masculine gender, tobacco smoking, lower self-esteem, and family teasing about appearance. Victimization was most associated with grade, masculine gender, lower self-esteem, unhappiness, and family teasing about appearance. For the bully, masculine gender, grades (6th and 8th), tobacco smoking and family teasing about appearance are typically associated factors. Results are interpreted against the background of other study findings, while emphasizing relevance of family teasing about appearance in bullying behavior.
A New Approach to Online Scheduling

We propose a new approach to competitive analysis in online scheduling by introducing the novel concept of competitive-ratio approximation schemes. Such a scheme algorithmically constructs an online algorithm with a competitive ratio arbitrarily close to the best possible competitive ratio for any online algorithm. We study the problem of scheduling jobs online to minimize the weighted sum of completion times on parallel, related, and unrelated machines, and we derive both deterministic and randomized algorithms that are almost best possible among all online algorithms of the respective settings. We also generalize our techniques to arbitrary monomial cost functions and apply them to the makespan objective. Our method relies on an abstract characterization of online algorithms combined with various simplifications and transformations. We also contribute algorithmic means to compute the actual value of the best possible competitive ratio up to an arbitrary accuracy. This strongly contrasts with nearly all previous manually obtained competitiveness results, and, most importantly, it reduces the search for the optimal competitive ratio to a question that a computer can answer. We believe that our concept can also be applied to many other problems and yields a new perspective on online algorithms in general.
Pupil Diameter Variation in Positive and Negative Emotions with Visual Stimulus

The severely disabled people, e.g. ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), cannot move their head and hands and desire to communicate with other people. They often feel discomfort because they cannot indicate their intention. To respond their request, the communication devices for disabled people have been developed. However, a contact-type of the communication device using EEG or EMG is burdensome for disabled people because these devices require to put electrodes on their body. Thus, the simplified non-contact type of the communication device is needed. To develop the communication system for severely disabled people, we focused on the characteristics of the pupil diameter variation due to the emotional change and the degree of attention and interest. In this paper, we investigate the pupil diameter variation by using the visual stimuli with positive or negative affective images. From experimental results, the pupil diameter in the positive affective stimulus is significantly smaller than that in the negative one during 2 to 3 second after the visual stimulus. This experimental result indicates that the time variation of the pupil diameter can estimate the emotional states in the positive and negative affections.
Accumulation of non-outer segment proteins in the outer segment underlies photoreceptor degeneration in Bardet–Biedl syndrome

Significance The photoreceptor outer segment (OS) is a cellular compartment that senses light in the eye. Structural and functional defects in the OS are common causes of inherited blindness. Bardet–Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a human genetic disease associated with defective protein trafficking and blindness. However, it is not well understood why or how photoreceptors die in BBS. In this article, we show that the primary cause of photoreceptor degeneration in BBS is likely aberrant accumulation of non-OS proteins in the OS, which is accompanied by OS disorganization and deficiencies of certain proteins in the cell body, resulting from their sequestration in the OS. Our study provides important clues to the pathogenic mechanisms of BBS and the molecular functions of BBS proteins in vivo. Compartmentalization and polarized protein trafficking are essential for many cellular functions. The photoreceptor outer segment (OS) is a sensory compartment specialized for phototransduction, and it shares many features with primary cilia. As expected, mutations disrupting protein trafficking to cilia often disrupt protein trafficking to the OS and cause photoreceptor degeneration. Bardet–Biedl syndrome (BBS) is one of the ciliopathies associated with defective ciliary trafficking and photoreceptor degeneration. However, precise roles of BBS proteins in photoreceptor cells and the underlying mechanisms of photoreceptor degeneration in BBS are not well understood. Here, we show that accumulation of non-OS proteins in the OS underlies photoreceptor degeneration in BBS. Using a newly developed BBS mouse model [Leucine zipper transcription factor-like 1 (Lztfl1)/Bbs17 mutant], isolated OSs, and quantitative proteomics, we determined 138 proteins that are enriched more than threefold in BBS mutant OS. In contrast, only eight proteins showed a more than threefold reduction. We found striking accumulation of Stx3 and Stxbp1/Munc18-1 and loss of polarized localization of Prom1 within the Lztfl1 and Bbs1 mutant OS. Ultrastructural analysis revealed that large vesicles are formed in the BBS OS, disrupting the lamellar structure of the OS. Our findings suggest that accumulation (and consequent sequestration) of non-OS proteins in the OS is likely the primary cause of photoreceptor degeneration in BBS. Our data also suggest that a major function of BBS proteins in photoreceptors is to transport proteins from the OS to the cell body or to prevent entry of non-OS proteins into the OS.
Who Underreports Smoking on Birth Records: A Monte Carlo Predictive Model with Validation

Background Research has shown that self-reports of smoking during pregnancy may underestimate true prevalence. However, little is known about which populations have higher rates of underreporting. Availability of more accurate measures of smoking during pregnancy could greatly enhance the usefulness of existing studies on the effects of maternal smoking offspring, especially in those populations where underreporting may lead to underestimation of the impact of smoking during pregnancy. Methods and Findings In this paper, we develop a statistical Monte Carlo model to estimate patterns of underreporting of smoking during pregnancy, and apply it to analyze the smoking self-report data from birth certificates in the state of Massachusetts. Our results illustrate non-uniform patterns of underreporting of smoking during pregnancy among different populations. Estimates of likely underreporting of smoking during pregnancy were highest among mothers who were college-educated, married, aged 30 years or older, employed full-time, and planning to breastfeed. The model's findings are validated and compared to an existing underreporting adjustment approach in the Maternal and Infant Smoking Study of East Boston (MISSEB). Conclusions The validation results show that when biological assays are not available, the Monte Carlo method proposed can provide a more accurate estimate of the smoking status during pregnancy than self-reports alone. Such methods hold promise for providing a better assessment of the impact of smoking during pregnancy.
Understanding educational leadership in North‐west China

The purpose of this study was to develop greater depth of understanding regarding educational leadership development in the five north‐western provinces (Shaanxi, Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia) of the People’s Republic of China. The researchers used a mixed method approach of surveys and focus group interviews to gather data regarding the current state of educational leadership training in this under‐developed region of China. Findings indicated that most of the educational leaders included in this study have limited teaching experience and relatively low levels of formal education and few, if any, opportunities for training and professional development. However, the participants expressed great desire for more training to become knowledgeable about and skilled in Western‐oriented leadership approaches that could be used in conjunction with the Confucian‐based approaches that have traditionally defined leadership in China.
A comparison of service evaluation models in the context of sport and fitness centres in Greece

The present study examines three competing models to clarify the relative role of antecedents to behavioural intentions in sport and fitness centres. In other sport and fitness research, there is some variability in respect to the relative influence on loyalty measures of such antecedents as service quality, value and satisfaction. Results of the present study support a satisfaction model with satisfaction as a mediator between both service quality and value and behavioural intentions. The satisfaction model was deemed superior to a value model and a comprehensive model. Recommendations are for future research to examine more comprehensive models in sport and fitness contexts to include a wider range of antecedents to explain the variance in global satisfaction and its influence on a range of loyalty measures additional to behavioural intentions.
Pale cytochrome oxidase stripes in V2 receive the richest projection from macaque striate cortex

Once the visual pathway reaches striate cortex, it fans out to a number of extrastriate areas. The projections to the second visual area (V2) are known to terminate in a patchy manner. V2 contains a system of repeating pale‐thin‐pale‐ thick stripes of cytochrome oxidase (CO) activity. We examined whether the patchy terminal fields arising from primary visual cortex (V1) projections are systematically related to the CO stripes in V2. Large injections of an anterograde tracer, [3H]proline, were made into V1 of both hemispheres in 5 macaques. The resulting V2 label appeared in layers 2–6, with the densest concentration in layer 4. In 21/29 injections, comparison of adjacent flatmount sections processed either for autoradiography or CO activity showed that the heaviest [3H]proline labeling was located in pale CO stripes. In 7/29 injections, there was no clear enrichment of labeling in the CO pale stripes. In 1 injection, the proline label correlated with dark CO stripes. On a fine scale, CO levels vary within V2 stripes, giving them an irregular, mottled appearance. In all stripe types, the density of proline label would often wax and wane in opposing contrast to these local fluctuations in CO density. Our data showed that V1 input is generally anti‐correlated with the intensity of CO staining in V2, with strongest input to pale stripes. It is known that the pulvinar projects preferentially to dark stripes. Therefore, V2 receives interleaved projections from V1 and the pulvinar. Because these projections favor different stripe types, they may target separate populations of neurons. J. Comp. Neurol. 447:18–33, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Polarization-Analyzing CMOS Image Sensor With Monolithically Embedded Polarizer for Microchemistry Systems

This paper proposes and demonstrates a polarization-analyzing CMOS sensor based on image sensor architecture. The sensor was designed targeting applications for chiral analysis in a microchemistry system. The sensor features a monolithically embedded polarizer. Embedded polarizers with different angles were implemented to realize a real-time absolute measurement of the incident polarization angle. Although the pixel-level performance was confirmed to be limited, estimation schemes based on the variation of the polarizer angle provided a promising performance for real-time polarization measurements. An estimation scheme using 180 pixels in a 1deg step provided an estimation accuracy of 0.04deg. Polarimetric measurements of chiral solutions were also successfully performed to demonstrate the applicability of the sensor to optical chiral analysis.
The Computational Neuroethology of Weakly Electric Fish: Body Modeling, Motion Analysis, and Sensory Signal Estimation

Animals actively influence the content and quality of sensory information they acquire through the positioning of peripheral sensory surfaces. Investigation of how the body and brain work together for sensory acquisition is hindered by 1) the limited number of techniques for tracking sensory surfaces, few of which provide data on the position of the entire body surface, and by 2) our inability to measure the thousands of sensory afferents stimulated during behavior. I present research on sensory acquisition in weakly electric fish of the genus Apteronotus, where I overcame the first barrier by developing a markerless tracking system and have deployed a computational approach toward overcoming the second barrier. This approach allows estimation of the full sense data stream ( 14,000 afferents) over the course of prey capture trials. Analysis of the tracking data showed how Apteronotus modified the position of its electrosensory array during predatory behavior and demonstrated that the fish use a closed-loop adaptive tracking strategy to intercept prey. In addition, nonvisual detection distance was dependent on water conductivity, implying that detection is dominated by the electrosense and providing the first evidence for the involvement of this sense in prey capture behavior of gymnotids. An analysis of the spatiotemporal profile of the estimated sensory signal and its neural correlates shows that the signal was 0.1% of the steady-state level at the time of detection, corresponding to a change in the total spikecount across all afferents of 0.05%. Due to the regularization of the spikecount over behaviorally relevant time windows, this change may be detectable. Using a simple threshold on the total spikecount, I estimated a neural detection time and found it to be indistinguishable from the behavioral detection time within statistical uncertainty. These results will be useful for understanding the neural and behavioral principles underlying sensory acquisition. (http://soma.npa.uiuc.edu/labs/nelson/public_resources.html).
Faith-based Schools and State Funding: A partial argument

It is frequently asserted that some public services, including the provision of schooling, might with advantage be committed, together with appropriate financial assistance, to voluntary faith-based bodies. There are however serious disadvantages in this particular mingling of 'private' and 'public' provision. The arrangements currently in force in the various parts of Britain are the result of complex historical compromises and any further extension of state aid to faith-based schools is likely to lead to an unwelcome fragmentation of society and a diversion of resources from schools committed to developing a common culture, while respecting a diversity of cultural identities.
Mentoring Revisited: The Black woman's experience

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of the mentor relationship from the perspective of the Black woman. Fourteen professional Black women participated in the study. A qualitative approach was used for the collection and analysis of the data. Participants indicated that mentoring was very important to their career development but also difficult in many of their organizations. This difficulty was attributed by these women to stereotypes and racism that affect Black women. Several of the women in the study indicated that groups they belonged to provide a mentoring function.