Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The microbiota–gut–brain axis in gastrointestinal disorders: stressed bugs, stressed brain or both?

The gut–brain axis is the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain, which occurs through multiple pathways that include hormonal, neural and immune mediators. The signals along this axis can originate in the gut, the brain or both, with the objective of maintaining normal gut function and appropriate behaviour. In recent years, the study of gut microbiota has become one of the most important areas in biomedical research. Attention has focused on the role of gut microbiota in determining normal gut physiology and immunity and, more recently, on its role as modulator of host behaviour (‘microbiota–gut–brain axis’). We therefore review the literature on the role of gut microbiota in gut homeostasis and link it with mechanisms that could influence behaviour. We discuss the association of dysbiosis with disease, with particular focus on functional bowel disorders and their relationship to psychological stress. This is of particular interest because exposure to stressors has long been known to increase susceptibility to and severity of gastrointestinal diseases.
KINETICS OF THROMBIN INACTIVATION AS INFLUENCED BY PHYSICAL CONDITIONS, TRYPSIN, AND SERUM

1. A new technique for studying the progressive inactivation of thrombin is described. 2. Thrombin inactivation follows the kinetics of a first order reaction. 3. The rate constant of the inactivation reaction increases with temperature and pH (5.0 → 10.0), and also with the presence of crystalline trypsin, or serum. The rate varies for different thrombin preparations, even under the same experimental conditions. 4. The temperature characteristics of the reaction indicate that thrombin is associated with protein. 5. Thrombin preparations are most stable at pH 4 to 5, even when trypsin or serum is added. 6. The progressive inactivation is believed to be due to two mechanisms: (1) a major effect, thought to be the action of a "serum-tryptase," which is usually present in the thrombin preparations, and (2) a minor effect, probably attributable to denaturation of thrombin-protein. 7. Sources of the thrombinolytic factor (serum-tryptase) and its implications in the general theory and practical problems of blood coagulation and antithrombic action are briefly discussed.
Fifteen Years of Dissociation in Maltreated Children: Where do We Go from Here?

Controversies have centered on the prevalence of dissociative symptoms and disorders in children and adolescents, recommended treatment approaches, and the potential effects of suggestive interpersonal influences. Convergence among diverse practitioners describing dissociative children and adolescents with similar symptoms and maltreatment histories supports the occurrence of these symptom patterns. Although prevalence information has not been well studied, dissociative symptoms may be found in children from a variety of settings across a continuum of severity. There is not yet agreement on exact treatment protocols, but successful treatment outcomes have been reported. A challenge for future research is to develop assessment protocols that are derived from multiple sources of data, and to incorporate the latest developmental research findings into theory development that addresses psychobiological, family, and cultural factors. The study of dissociation in children and adolescents has the potential to clarify some puzzling child and adolescent presentations and to identify a process by which some children respond and adapt to traumatic environments.
Who, What, and When: Supporting Interpersonal Communication over Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging, or IM, has been growing in popularity for personal and work-related communication. The limited awareness provided by current IM systems combined with the asynchronous nature of IM result in messages often arriving at inconvenient or disruptive times. The goal of my research is to alleviate some of the shortcomings of IM through the understanding and modeling of IM interaction in the context in which it takes place. This work uses three complementary steps: Predictions of responsiveness to IM (when), observations and predictions of interpersonal relationships (who), and use of properties of human dialogue to support balancing of responsiveness and performance (what).
Schemas, tags and inhibition

The commentators raise many important issues and suggest fruitful lines of development. I thank all of them for their efforts. My paper focused on how bilingual speakers control the lexico-semantic system rather than on the nature of that system. It glossed over the processes of word recognition (Carr, Dijkstra) and considered only cursorily issues such as the mapping of thought into language (Schreuder & Hermans), the role of conceptual activation in lemma selection (Kroll & Michael) and the range and nature of the semantic relationships between words (Schreuder & Hermans, Treffers-Daller, Li). I will comment on these matters as I address three concerns about the proposed control processes: (1) the nature of schemas and their role in control (Carr, de Groot, Dijkstra); (2) the notion of a tag: its psychological reality (Li, Treffers-Daller), its relationship to a language node (Dijkstra) and its role in selection (Carr); and (3) the question of inhibition as the general means of lemma selection (Carr, de Groot, Roelofs).
Systematic substrate identification indicates a central role for the metalloprotease ADAM10 in axon targeting and synapse function

Metzincin metalloproteases have major roles in intercellular communication by modulating the function of membrane proteins. One of the proteases is the a-disintegrin-and-metalloprotease 10 (ADAM10) which acts as alpha-secretase of the Alzheimer's disease amyloid precursor protein. ADAM10 is also required for neuronal network functions in murine brain, but neuronal ADAM10 substrates are only partly known. With a proteomic analysis of Adam10-deficient neurons we identified 91, mostly novel ADAM10 substrate candidates, making ADAM10 a major protease for membrane proteins in the nervous system. Several novel substrates, including the neuronal cell adhesion protein NrCAM, are involved in brain development. Indeed, we detected mistargeted axons in the olfactory bulb of conditional ADAM10-/- mice, which correlate with reduced cleavage of NrCAM, NCAM and other ADAM10 substrates. In summary, the novel ADAM10 substrates provide a molecular basis for neuronal network dysfunctions in conditional ADAM10-/- mice and demonstrate a fundamental function of ADAM10 in the brain. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.12748. 001
Visual–perceptual and cognitive differences between expert, intermediate, and novice snooker players

The performance of seven expert, seven intermediate, and 15 novice snooker players was compared on a range of general visual tests and sport-specific perceptual and cognitive tests in an attempt to determine the locus of the expert advantage. No significant expert-novice differences were apparent on standard optometric tests of acuity, ocular muscle balance, colour vision, and depth perception, nor on the relative frequency of unilateral and cros-lateral eye-hand dominances. Experts, however, were found to be superior in their ability to both recall and recognize rapidly-presented slides depicting normal game situations, but were no better than novices in recalling information from slides in which the balls were arranged randomly on the table. The expert group's superiority on the perceptual recall and recognition tasks was consistent with a deeper level of encoding for structured (meaningful) material. Experts were also shown, through the use of thinking-aloud and evaluation paradigms, to use a greater depth of forward planning in choosing appropriate shot options and to evaluate existing situations with greater accuracy, discriminability, and prospective planing than did novices. The cognitive advantage is shown to be a potential contributor but not a total explanation of the superior performance of the experts on the perceptual tasks. The findings of this study are consistent with existing works on expertise in board games and ‘open’ skill sports in indicating that the expert's advantage is not a general but a specific one, arising not from physical capacities but from acquired processing strategies.
The aging brain

A recent interest in aging of the nervous system is related to the remarkable increase in the numbers of elderly persons throughout the world. As a reflection of the added years, pathologies in the older person have also increased. Primary among those which affect the activities and behavior of these people are the dementias, especially Alzheimer's Disease. To focus on such problems, however, requires an understanding of the changes which take place in the normal aging nervous system. This paper reviews some of the accepted criteria for these changes as well as the possible attempts by the nervous system to alter its structure in response to these changes.
Rethinking the Concept of Racial or Ethnic Conflict in Schools: A leadership perspective

Racial or ethnic conflict is often conceptualized as overt hostility such as fighting or name calling between groups defined as black, white, Asian, etc. In a study of school leaders who worked proactively to improve race/ethnic relations, the authors found that leaders' understandings of racial/ethnic conflict were far more complex, including an awareness of root causes or precursors of overt conflict as well as recognition of the many dimensions of student identity. Leaders who viewed conflict in these complex ways were able to develop proactive, rather than only reactive, approaches to addressing conflict and building positive interethnic relations.
Activity of Ca2+ -activated Cl- channels contributes to regulating receptor- and store-operated Ca2+ entry in human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells

Intracellular Ca2+ plays a fundamental role in regulating cell functions in pulmonary arterial smooth muscle cells (PASMCs). A rise in cytosolic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]cyt) triggers pulmonary vasoconstriction and stimulates PASMC proliferation. [Ca2+]cyt is increased mainly by Ca2+ release from intracellular stores and Ca2+ influx through plasmalemmal Ca2+-permeable channels. Given the high concentration of intracellular Cl− in PASMCs, Ca2+-activated Cl− (ClCa) channels play an important role in regulating membrane potential and cell excitability of PASMCs. In this study, we examined whether activity of ClCa channels was involved in regulating [Ca2+]cyt in human PASMCs via regulating receptor- (ROCE) and store- (SOCE) operated Ca2+ entry. The data demonstrated that an angiotensin II (100 nM)-mediated increase in [Ca2+]cyt via ROCE was markedly attenuated by the ClCa channel inhibitors, niflumic acid (100 µM), flufenamic acid (100 µM), and 4,4′-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2,2′-disulfonic acid (100 µM). The inhibition of ClCa channels by niflumic acid and flufenamic acid significantly reduced both transient and plateau phases of SOCE that was induced by passive depletion of Ca2+ from the sarcoplasmic reticulum by 10 µM cyclopiazonic acid. In addition, ROCE and SOCE were abolished by SKF-96365 (50 µM) and 2-aminoethyl diphenylborinate (100 µM), and were slightly decreased in the presence of diltiazem (10 µM). The electrophysiological and immunocytochemical data indicate that ClCa currents were present and TMEM16A was functionally expressed in human PASMCs. The results from this study suggest that the function of ClCa channels, potentially formed by TMEM16A proteins, contributes to regulating [Ca2+]cyt by affecting ROCE and SOCE in human PASMCs.
The Auditory Analysis Test

A new test for auditory perception, the Auditory Analysis Test, was given to 284 children in kindergarten through grade 6. The instrument, consisting of 40 items, asks the testee to repeat a spoken word, then to repeat it again without certain specified phonemic elements - such as a beginning, ending or medially-positioned consonant sound. Seven categories of item difficulty were proposed. Test results varied, both within and between class groups. Performance tended to improve with age and grade placement. Pearson Product-Moment Correlations of individual AAT scores with Stanford Achievement Test reading scores yielded significant relationships (p<.01) ranging from . 53 (grade 1) to . 84 (grade 3). Analysis of errors supported the validity of test item difficulty and provided direction for the design of a treatment approach to auditory perceptual dysfunction.
Encoding of Marginal Utility across Time in the Human Brain

Marginal utility theory prescribes the relationship between the objective property of the magnitude of rewards and their subjective value. Despite its pervasive influence, however, there is remarkably little direct empirical evidence for such a theory of value, let alone of its neurobiological basis. We show that human preferences in an intertemporal choice task are best described by a model that integrates marginally diminishing utility with temporal discounting. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that activity in the dorsal striatum encodes both the marginal utility of rewards, over and above that which can be described by their magnitude alone, and the discounting associated with increasing time. In addition, our data show that dorsal striatum may be involved in integrating subjective valuation systems inherent to time and magnitude, thereby providing an overall metric of value used to guide choice behavior. Furthermore, during choice, we show that anterior cingulate activity correlates with the degree of difficulty associated with dissonance between value and time. Our data support an integrative architecture for decision making, revealing the neural representation of distinct subcomponents of value that may contribute to impulsivity and decisiveness.
Age and Trust as Moderators in the Relation between Procedural Justice and Turnover: A Large-Scale Longitudinal Study

The current study investigated the moderating roles of age and trust in the relation of procedural justice with turnover. It was expected that the relation between procedural justice and turnover was weaker for older workers and those with high prior trust in their leader. Older workers are better at regulating their emotions, and focus more on positive aspects of their relationships with others, and therefore react less intensely to unfair treatment. Moreover, people with high trust are more likely to attribute unfair treatment to circumstances instead of deliberate intention than people with low trust. Finally, we expected a three-way interaction between age, trust, and procedural justice in relation to turnover, where older workers with high trust would have less strong reactions than younger workers and older workers with low trust. Results from a three-wave longitudinal survey among 1,597 Dutch employees indeed revealed significant interactions between trust and procedural justice in relation to turnover. Furthermore, the three-way interaction was significant, with negative relations for younger workers, but a non-significant relation was found for older workers with low trust. Contrary to expectations, negative relations were found between procedural justice and turnover for older workers with high trust.
A survey on prediction of specificity-determining sites in proteins

Specificity-determining sites (SDS) are the key positions of a protein family that show a specific conservation of amino acids, related to the subfamily members of that family. SDS play crucial role in developing functional variation within the protein family during the course of evolution. Thus, it is important to identify SDS to understand the evolutionary process of diversification of biological functions within a protein family. A wide range of computational tools have been designed to detect such SDS. In this review, we intend to examine the concept of SDS in more details along with the advancements and drawbacks of different computational approaches designed towards successful prediction of SDS. Further, we discussed the algorithms behind the computational approaches developed till date and provide an exhaustive comparison of performance of each method. We also introduce a new ensemble approach, SubSite as another tool to predict SDS through a user-friendly webserver available at www.hpppi. iicb.res.in/subsite.
The effects of isoflurane on desensitized wild-type and alpha 1(S270H) gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptors.

UNLABELLED gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABA(A)-R) mediate synaptic inhibition and meet many pharmacological criteria required of important general anesthetic targets. During synaptic transmission GABA release is sufficient to saturate, maximally activate, and transiently desensitize postsynaptic GABA(A)-Rs. The resulting inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) are prolonged by volatile anesthetics like isoflurane. We investigated the effects of isoflurane on maximally activated and desensitized GABA(A)-R currents expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Wild-type alpha(1)beta(2) and alpha(1)beta(2)gamma(2s) receptors were exposed to 600 microM GABA until currents reached a steady-state desensitized level. At clinical concentrations (0.02-0.3 mM), isoflurane produced a dose-dependent enhancement of steady-state desensitized current in alpha(1)beta(2) receptors, an effect that was less apparent in receptors including a gamma(2s)-subunit. When serine at position 270 is mutated to histidine (alpha(1)(S270H)) in the second transmembrane segment of the alpha(1)-subunit, the currents evoked by sub-saturating concentrations of GABA became less sensitive to isoflurane enhancement. In addition, isoflurane enhancements of desensitized currents were greatly attenuated by this mutation and were undetectable in alpha(1)(S270H)beta(2)gamma(2s) receptors. In conclusion, isoflurane enhancement of GABA(A)-R currents evoked by saturating concentrations of agonist is subunit-dependent. The effects of isoflurane on desensitized receptors may be partly responsible for the prolongation of IPSCs during anesthesia. IMPLICATIONS Isoflurane enhances desensitized gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor (GABA(A)-R) currents, an effect that is subunit-dependent and attenuated by a mutation in an alpha(1)-subunit pore residue of the GABA(A)-R. As GABA release at inhibitory synapses is typically saturating, isoflurane modulation of desensitized receptors may be partly responsible for prolongation of inhibitory postsynaptic currents during anesthesia.
An Investigation of the Job Burnout Syndrome in Personal Selling

Job burnout has been described as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a feeling of reduced personal accomplishment that frequently occurs among individuals who do client-centered work of some kind such as selling. Burnout is a particularly troubling condition as it has been related to a host of organizational problems ranging from increased turnover to decreased job satisfaction and performance. Burnout has been well documented and studied in several client-centered positions such as nursing and teaching, but it has received little attention in the sales literature. This paper builds on previous research by shedding light on the sequential steps in the burnout process in personal selling while empirically testing a model of burnout in the professional selling position.
The Psychology of Child Timing: A Measurement Instrument and a Model1

The timing of children during individuals' lives has many important macro level and micro level effects. This paper presents a theoretical framework for understanding an important psychological sequence that affects the timing of childbearing by individuals. In the first step of this sequence, child-timing attitudes and beliefs affect child-timing desires; in the second step, child-timing desires affect child-timing intentions. The Child-Timing Questionnaire is a data collection instrument designed to measure attitudes and beliefs relevant to child timing. Using this instrument, we constructed four child-timing indices and tested the two-step framework with data from 187 husbands and 188 wives with no children and 182 husbands and 184 wives with one child. The results provide support for the framework and indicate some important sex and parity differences in the psychology of child timing. The Child-Timing Questionnaire appears to be a reliable, valid instrument; it is readily adaptable for use with any population in which the timing of children is an important research or service issue.
Forging into the Wired Wilderness: A Case Study of a Technology-Mediated Distributed Discussion-Based Class

This case study describes the design and implementation of a course that uses technology-mediated distributed small group discussions between two universities, one in the United States and the other in Hungary, as the primary teaching method in a graduate-level management course. Furthermore, it describes how students’learning outcomes in the learning environment were measured using an integrative complexity measure. To create a learner-centered active learning environment, various Internetbased communication tools were used to connect students in the two locations. The authors found that despite various hindrances due to technical breakdowns and geographic separations, students were able to produce complex and comprehensive arguments after three sessions. Several implications for future distance learning and the use of information technology in classrooms are discussed.
UNPOL: UN police as peacekeepers

There have been momentous shifts underway in the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The UN Police Division, long back the ‘poor cousin’ of the military side of the house, has been elevated to a new status. In the new institutional environment, the Division is now embedded within a rule of law and security institutions pillar, with its own Assistant Secretary-General, and which is increasingly recognised as being central to the successful conduct of UN peacekeeping operations. This paper looks at the rise of the Police division within the UN family, and assesses some of the challenges currently facing the UN's unprecedented push to use police to a much greater and deeper extent in very challenging contemporary peace operations.
Spinal cord injury induces widespread chronic changes in cerebral white matter

Traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCIs) lead to axonal damage at the trauma site, as well as disconnections within the central nervous system. While the exact mechanisms of the long‐term pathophysiological consequences of SCIs are not fully understood, it is known that neuronal damage and degeneration are not limited to the direct proximity of the trauma. Instead, the effects can be detected even in the cerebrum. We examined SCI‐induced chronic brain changes with a case‐control design using 32 patients and 70 control subjects. Whole‐brain white matter (WM) tracts were assessed with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). In addition, we analysed associations between DTI metrics and several clinical SCI variables. Whole‐brain analyses were executed by tract‐based spatial statistics (TBSS), with an additional complementary atlas‐based analysis (ABA). We observed widespread, statistically significant (P ≤ 0.01) changes similar to neural degeneration in SCI patients, both in the corticospinal tract (CST) and beyond. In addition, associations between DTI metrics and time since injury were found with TBSS and ABA, implying possible long‐term post‐injury neural regeneration. Using the ABA approach, we observed a correlation between SCI severity and DTI metrics, indicating a decrease in WM integrity along with patient sensory or motor scores. Our results suggest a widespread neurodegenerative effect of SCI within the cerebrum that is not limited to the motor pathways. Furthermore, DTI‐measured WM integrity of chronic SCI patients seemed to improve as time elapsed since injury. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3637–3647, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.