Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
R-α-Lipoic Acid Action on Cell Redox Status, the Insulin Receptor, and Glucose Uptake in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes

The insulin signaling pathway has been reported to mediate R-a-lipoic acid- (R-LA-)-stimulated glucose up- take into 3T3-L1 adipocytes and L6 myotubes. We inves- tigated the role of the thiol antioxidant dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA) and intracellular glutathione (GSH) in R- LA-stimulated glucose transport and explored the hy- pothesis that R-LA could increase glucose uptake into 3T3-L1 adipocytes in an oxidant-mimetic manner. R-LA pretreatment of 3T3-L1 cells stimulated glucose trans- port at early time points (30 min-6 h), whereas it inhib- ited glucose uptake at later time points. Analysis of the oxidized and reduced content of LA in cells and medium showed that >90% of lipoic acid present was in its oxi- dized form. Furthermore, all oxidized forms of LA (S-, R-, and racemic LA) stimulated glucose uptake, whereas the reduced form, dihydrolipoic acid, was ineffective. Intra- cellular GSH levels were not changed at the early time points (before 12 h), while longer preincubation (24-48 h) of cells with R-LA significantly increased intracellular GSH. Pretreatment of adipocytes with R-LA increased intracellular peroxide levels at early time points (30 min-6 h), after which it was decreased (12-48 h). R-LA also increased tyrosine phosphorylation of immunopre- cipitated insulin receptors from 3T3-L1 adipocytes. These results indicate that (i) 3T3-L1 adipocytes have a low capacity to reduce R-LA and the oxidized form of lipoic acid is responsible for stimulating glucose up- take, (ii) R-LA modulates glucose uptake by changing the intracellular redox status, and (iii) the insulin re- ceptor is a potential cellular target for R-LA action.
The phosphotyrosine-independent interaction of DLC-1 and the SH2 domain of cten regulates focal adhesion localization and growth suppression activity of DLC-1

The tensin family member cten (C-terminal tensin like) is an Src homology 2 (SH2) and phosphotyrosine binding domain–containing focal adhesion molecule that may function as a tumor suppressor. However, the mechanism has not been well established. We report that cten binds to another tumor suppressor, deleted in liver cancer 1 (DLC-1), and the SH2 domain of cten is responsible for the interaction. Unexpectedly, the interaction between DLC-1 and the cten SH2 domain is independent of tyrosine phosphorylation of DLC-1. By site-directed mutagenesis, we have identified several amino acid residues on cten and DLC-1 that are essential for this interaction. Mutations on DLC-1 perturb the interaction with cten and disrupt the focal adhesion localization of DLC-1. Furthermore, these DLC-1 mutants have lost their tumor suppression activities. When these DLC-1 mutants were fused to a focal adhesion targeting sequence, their tumor suppression activities were significantly restored. These results provide a novel mechanism whereby the SH2 domain of cten-mediated focal adhesion localization of DLC-1 plays an essential role in its tumor suppression activity.
A Model for Sustainable Student Retention: A Holistic Perspective on the Student Dropout Problem with Special Attention to e-Learning

13:5 A Model for Sustainable Student Retention: A Holistic Perspective on the Student Dropout Problem with Special Attention to e-Learning Editorial Increasingly, the focus in higher education is on outcomes, rather than structures. “Student success” has become one of the primary factors in discussions of higher education quality, especially the quality of online programs. Although student success has been defined in a variety of ways, most definitions include the idea of persistence to the completion of the student’s program. Thus, increased retention becomes the goal of many of an institution’s quality assessment and improvement efforts. In this month’s article Drs. Berge and Haung propose a customizable model of student retention that takes into account personal, circumstantial, and institutional factors, as well as the interconnectedness of these factors. The authors suggest that the model can provide useful guidance for institutional—and to some extent students’ personal—decision making.
Psychological validation of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) in South Africa: Method effects and dimensionality in black African and white university students

The study examined the factor structure and cross-cultural validity of the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES) in a sample of South African students (N = 862; black African = 67%, female = 71.5%). Alternative a priori CFA models (unidimensional, bi-dimensional and unidimensional models comprising either latent method factor or correlated residuals) were evaluated. Results indicated that the RSES in black and white South African university students is represented by a unidimensional model with correlated residuals of negatively and positively phrased items. Findings also suggested method effects on black African students to be significantly associated with negatively worded items compared to white students. Method bias effects appear to show for some RSES items and this may have important implications for the cross-cultural utility of the RSES in South Africa.
Suberoylanilide Hydroxamic Acid Induces Hypersensitivity to Radiation Therapy in Acute Myelogenous Leukemia Cells Expressing Constitutively Active FLT3 Mutants

Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDIs) have shown promise as candidate radiosensitizer for many types of cancers. However, the mechanisms of action are not well understood, and whether they could have clinical impact on radiotherapy for leukemia is unclear. In this study, we demonstrate that suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) can increase radiosensitivity of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells through posttranslational modification of Rad51 protein responses and selective inhibition of the homology-directed repair (HDR) pathway. Our data also showed that AML cells with mutant, constitutively active FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3) were more radiation sensitive, caused by compromised non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) repair. Furthermore, SAHA-induced radiosensitization were enhanced in AML cells with expression of these FLT3 mutants. The results of this study suggest that SAHA, a recently approved HDI in clinical trials, may act as a candidate component for novel conditioning regimens to improve efficacy for AML patients undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Testing Intermediate-Age Stellar Evolution Models with VLT Photometry of Large Magellanic Cloud Clusters. II. Analysis with the Yale Models

Using Yale stellar evolution models, we present an analysis of the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of three intermediate-age LMC clusters, namely, NGC 2173, SL 556, and NGC 2155, obtained with the Very Large Telescope. The main goal of our project is to investigate the amount of convective core overshoot necessary to reproduce the CMDs of relatively metal-poor, intermediate-age stellar populations, to check whether the extrapolation that is usually made from solar metallicity is valid. In the process, we obtained values for the binary fraction of each cluster, together with refined age estimates. Our method involved the comparison of the observed CMDs with synthetic CMDs computed using various values of the overshoot parameter and binary fraction. We conclude that a moderate amount of overshoot and some fraction of binary stars are essential for reproducing the observed shapes around the turnoff in the CMDs of all three clusters: unresolved binary stars fill in the expected core contraction gap and make a unique sequence near the gap, which cannot be reproduced by single stars alone, even with a larger amount of overshoot. We utilize ratios of the number of stars in different areas around the core contraction gap to constrain the binary fraction, which is around 10%–20% (for primary-to-secondary mass ratio ≥0.7) in all three clusters. Even if binary stars contaminate the core contraction gap, it is shown that the overshoot parameter can be inferred from the color dispersion of the stars around the contraction gap, regardless of the assumed binary fraction. From our overall analysis such as shape of isochrones, star counts, color distribution, and synthetic CMD comparisons, we conclude that overshoot ∼20% of the local pressure scale height best reproduces the CMD properties of all three clusters. The best age estimates are 1.5, 2.1, and 2.9 Gyr for NGC 2173, SL 556, and NGC 2155, respectively.
Fitness Loss and Library Size Determination in Saturation Mutagenesis

Saturation mutagenesis is a widely used directed evolution technique, in which a large number of protein variants, each having random amino acids in certain predetermined positions, are screened in order to discover high-fitness variants among them. Several metrics for determining the library size (the number of variants screened) have been suggested in the literature, but none of them incorporates the actual fitness of the variants discovered in the experiment. We present the results of an extensive simulation study, which is based on probabilistic models for protein fitness landscape, and which investigates how the result of a saturation mutagenesis experiment – the fitness of the best variant discovered – varies as a function of the library size. In particular, we study the loss of fitness in the experiment: the difference between the fitness of the best variant discovered, and the fitness of the best variant in variant space. Our results are that the existing criteria for determining the library size are conservative, so smaller libraries are often satisfactory. Reducing the library size can save labor, time, and expenses in the laboratory.
Can Microinsurance Help Prevent Child Labor? An Impact Evaluation from Pakistan

Child labor is a common consequence of economic shocks in developing countries. We show how reducing vulnerability can affect child labor and schooling. We exploit the extension of a health and accident insurance scheme by a Pakistani microfinance institution (MFI) that was set up as a randomized controlled trial and accompanied by household panel surveys. Together with increased coverage the MFI offered assistance with claim procedures in treatment branches. Using Difference-in-difference techniques we find lower incidence of child labor and lower child labor earnings caused by the innovation. Separating the two parts of the innovation package, the effects of claim assistance are mostly insignificant, while increased insurance coverage has large effects on child labor outcomes and days missed at school. Consistent with a theoretical model we develop in this paper, the effect is largely due to an ex-ante feeling of protection as opposed to a shock-mitigation effect.
Introgression of two chromosome regions for leaf photosynthesis from an indica rice into the genetic background of a japonica rice

Increases in rates of individual leaf photosynthesis (P n) are critical for future increases of rice yields. A previous study, using introgression lines derived from a cross between indica cultivar Habataki, with one of the highest recorded values of P n, and the Japanese elite cultivar Koshihikari, identified four QTLs (qCAR4, qCAR5, qCAR8, and qCAR11) that affect P n. The present study examined the combined effect of qCAR4 and qCAR8 on P n in the genetic background of Koshihikari. The pyramided near-isogenic line NIL(qCAR4+qCAR8) showed higher P n than both NIL(qCAR4) and NIL(qCAR8), equivalent to that of Habataki despite being due to only two out of the four QTLs. The high P n of NIL(qCAR4+qCAR8) may be attributable to the high leaf nitrogen content, which may have been inherited from NIL(qCAR4), to the large hydraulic conductance due to the large root surface area from NIL(qCAR4), and to the high hydraulic conductivity from NIL(qCAR8). It might be also attributable to high mesophyll conductance, which may have been inherited from NIL(qCAR4). The induction of mesophyll conductance and the high leaf nitrogen content and high hydraulic conductivity could not be explained in isolation from the Koshihikari background. These results suggest that QTL pyramiding is a useful approach in rice breeding aimed at increasing P n.
The Impact of Dreams of the Deceased on Bereavement

Many recently bereaved persons experience vivid and deeply meaningful dreams featuring the presence of the deceased that may reflect and impact the process of mourning. The present study surveyed 278 bereaved persons regarding their own perspective of the relationship between dreams and the mourning process. Fifty eight percent of respondents reported dreams of their deceased loved ones, with varying levels of frequency. Most participants reported that their dreams were either pleasant or both pleasant and disturbing, and few reported purely disturbing dreams. Prevalent dream themes included pleasant past memories or experiences, the deceased free of illness, memories of the deceased's illness or time of death, the deceased in the afterlife appearing comfortable and at peace, and the deceased communicating a message. These themes overlap significantly with previous models of bereavement dream content. Sixty percent of participants felt that their dreams impacted their bereavement process. Specific effects of the dreams on bereavement processes included increased acceptance of the loved one's death, comfort, spirituality, sadness, and quality of life, among others. These results support the theory that dreams of the deceased are highly prevalent among and often deeply meaningful for the bereaved. While many counselors are uncomfortable working with dreams in psychotherapy, the present study demonstrates their therapeutic relevance to the bereaved population and emphasizes the importance for grief counselors to increase their awareness, knowledge, and skills with regards to working with dreams.
VHDL vs. Bluespec system verilog: a case study on a Java embedded architecture

This paper compares two hardware design flows, based on the classic VHDL on one side and the relatively new Blue-spec System Verilog (BSV) on the other side. The comparison is based on a case study of a Java embedded architecture, comprising a Java native processor and a memory management unit. The processor is a micro-programmed, pipelined, Java-optimized processor (JOP), initially written in VHDL, and its BSV re-designed match BLUEJEP. Its memory management unit implements the bytecodes dealing with memory allocation, along with a mark-compact garbage collector. The two design flows are examined from several points of view, including both quantitative and qualitative measures. Based on this design experience, we conclude that the new high-abstraction level languages, such as BSV, offer in comparison to register-transfer (RT) level classic approaches roughly the same trade-offs that C++ offers vs. assembly language in the software world.
PENENTUAN KONSENTRASI HAMBAT MINIMAL DAN KONSENTRASI BUNUH MINIMAL EKSTRAK ETANOL DAUN SALAM (SYXYGIUM POLYANTHUM) TERHADAP PERTUMBUHAN PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA ISOLAT KLINIS

ABSTRAK Pseudomonas aeruginosa adalah salah satu bakteri Gram negatif yang perkembangan resistensinya sangat pesat terhadap beberapa jenis antibiotik seperti Semisynthetic Penicillinase-Resistant Penicillins (SPRPs), sephalosporin dan golongan aminoglikosida. Daun salam adalah salah satu tumbuhan yang telah diketahui memiliki aktivitas antibakteri. Daun salam mengandung minyak atsiri, alkaloid, flavonoid dan tanin. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui Konsentrasi Hambat Minimal (KHM) dan Konsentrasi Bunuh Minimal (KBM) ekstrak etanol daun salam terhadap pertumbuhan P. aeruginosa isolat klinis. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan di Laboratorium Mikrobiologi RSUD dr. Zainoel Abidin. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian eksperimental laboratorium dengan menggunakan metode Rancangan Acak Lengkap (RAL). Rancangan penelitian menggunakan 4 kelompok perlakuan (terdiri atas ekstrak etanol daun salam dengan konsentrasi 100 mg/ml, 200 mg/ml, 300 mg/ml dan 400 mg/ml) dan kelompok kontrol negatif (terdiri dari suspensi bakteri P. aeruginosa isolat klinis dan ekstrak etanol daun salam). Hasil penelitian ini didapatkan KHM dan KBM ekstrak etanol daun salam terhadap P. aeruginosa adalah 300 mg/ml. Analisis statistik dengan uji ANOVA yang dilanjukan dengan uji Tukey dan Duncan untuk KHM serta uji Kruskal-Wallis untuk KBM didapatkan nilai p < 0,5. Hasil ini menunjukkan bahwa ekstrak etanol daun salam pada konsentrasi 300 mg/ml telah mampu menghambat dan membunuh P. aeruginosa isolat klinis. Kata kunci: daun salam, P. aeruginosa, KHM, KBM
IDENTIFYING FACTORS THAT ENHANCE PRION ACCUMULATION IN CULTURED SHEEP MICROGLIAL CELLS

Sheep scrapie (Sc) is the prototypical transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (prion disease), which has a fundamental pathogenesis involving conversion of normal cellular prion protein (PrP [C superscript stands for cellular]) to disease-associated prion protein (PrP [Sc superscript stands for scrapie]). Sheep microglial cell cultures, derived from a PRNP 136VV/171QQ near-term fetal brain, were developed to study sheep scrapie in the natural host and to investigate potential cofactors in the prion conversion process. Two culture systems, a primary cell culture and a cell line transformed with the large T antigen of SV40, were developed and both were identified as microglial in origin as indicated by expression of several microglial phenotype markers. Following exposure to PrP, sheep microglial cells demonstrated relatively low (transformed cell line) to high (primary cell line) levels of PrP accumulation over time. The accumulated PrP demonstrated protease resistance, an inferred beta-sheet conformation (as determined by commercial ELISA), specific inhibition by anti-PrP antibodies, and was transmissible in a dose-dependent manner. Primary microglia coinfected with a small ruminant lentivirus (caprine arthritis encephalitis virus-Cork strain) and PrP demonstrated an approximate twofold relative increase in PrP accumulation as compared to primary microglia infected with PrP alone. The results demonstrate the in vitro utility of PrP-permissive sheep microglial cells in investigating the biology of natural prion diseases, and show that small ruminant lentiviruses enhance prion conversion in cultured sheep microglia.
Loss synchronization, router buffer sizing and high-speed TCP versions: Adding RED to the mix

Adapting router buffer sizing rules and TCP's congestion control to Gbit/s link speeds has been the subject of many studies and proposals. In a previous work (Hassayoun and Ros, 2008), we found that high-speed versions of TCP may be prone to strong packet-loss synchronization between flows. Given that synchronized losses may lead to oscillatory behavior in router queues, a relatively large amount of buffering may be needed to sustain an adequate TCP performance. In this paper, we are interested in evaluating the potential impact of the Random Early Detection (RED) queue management algorithm, in the context of high-speed TCP versions. In principle, under mild congestion RED should tend to reduce loss synchronization between flows. Hence, we wanted to test in particular whether RED would allow to use moderately-sized buffers, while ensuring good performance. Simulation results are used to assess the effect of RED on goodput, link utilization and fairness among high-speed flows, for a wide range of buffer sizes and several high-speed TCP variants.
The Value of Earnings Comparability

We develop a new metric of earnings comparability and study the capital market consequences of earnings comparability. The importance of comparability is expressed by regulators, teachers, practitioners, and researchers. The literature, however, lacks an empirical measure of financial statement comparability. More importantly, the “value” of comparability to users has not been established. We fill these gaps. We find that analyst following is increasing in earnings comparability, and that earnings comparability is positively associated with forecast accuracy and negatively related to bias in earnings forecasts. Our results suggest earnings comparability enhances a firm’s information environment. ______________________________ We appreciate the helpful comments of Rich Frankel, Wayne Guay, Jeffrey Ng, Ole-Kristian Hope, and workshop participants at MIT and University of Toronto, We thank I/B/E/S Inc. for the analyst data, available through the Institutional Brokers Estimate System. The data have been provided as part of their broad academic program to encourage earnings expectation research. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of MIT and the Rotman School, University of Toronto. Part of the work on this article was completed while Gus De Franco was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Sloan School of Management, MIT.
Institutional Affiliation and the Role of Venture Capital: Evidence from Initial Public Offerings in Japan

Abstract The presence of venture capital in the ownership structure of U.S. firms going public has been associated with both improved long-term performance and superior “certification” at the time of the initial public offerings (IPOs). Many of the major venture capital firms in Japan are subsidiaries of securities firms that may face a conflict of interest when underwriting the venture capital-backed issue. In Japan, we find the long-run performance of venture capital-backed IPOs to be no better than that of other IPOs, with the exception of firms backed by foreign-owned or independent venture capitalists. When venture capital holdings are broken down by their institutional affiliation, we find that firms with venture backing from securities company subsidiaries do not perform significantly worse over a 3-year time horizon than other IPOs. On the other hand, we find that IPOs in which the lead venture capitalist is also the lead underwriter have higher first-day returns than other venture capital-backed IPOs. The latter result suggests that conflicts of interest influence the initial pricing, but not the long-term performance, of IPOs in Japan.
THE HALL EFFECT AND THE DECAY OF MAGNETIC FIELDS

We consider the influence of the Hall effect on the evolution of a strong magnetic eld which can magnetize plasma. The Hall current couples various multipole eld com- ponentsandprovidesapossibilityofanenergyexchangeamong modes. Due to this, the evolution of strong magnetic elds is substantially more complicated than the ohmic decay of weak magnetic elds. Non-linear effects can create a complex mag- netic conguration even from the simplest one corresponding originally to the pure dipole eld outside the star. The energy transfer among eld components leads to a non-monotonic be- haviour of individual modes. Variations of the large scale mag- netic eld are of the same origin as the so called helicoidal oscillation of magnetized plasma. The period of variations is determined by the time scale associated with the Hall effect and may be sufciently short for a strong magnetic eld. The non- linear phenomena may be important for the magnetic evolution of white dwarfs and neutron stars.
Proteolysis of HCF-1 by Ser/Thr glycosylation-incompetent O-GlcNAc transferase:UDP-GlcNAc complexes

In this study, Kapuria et al. investigate the dual glycosyltransferase–protease activity (which occurs in the same active site) of OGT. They show that glycosylation and proteolysis occur through separable mechanisms and present a model for the evolution of HCF-1 proteolysis by OGT.