Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Amniotic fluid fibronectin. Characterization and synthesis by cells in culture

A glycoprotein immunologically related to plasma cold-insoluble globulin (CIG) and fetal skin fibroblast fibronectin has been purified from second-trimester human amniotic fluid. This protein (amniotic fluid fibronectin) migrated more slowly than CIG on sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis and showed greater polydispersity which could result, at least in part, from heterogeneity in glycosylation. Cloned human amniotic fluid epithelioid and fibroblastic cells synthesized and secreted a protein with similar properties into the culture medium. Fibronectin was shown to be associated with the pericellular and extracellular matrix of cultured amniotic fluid cells by immunofluorescence, lactoperoxidase-catalyzed iodination, and labeling with ferritin-conjugated antibodies. The kinetics of secretion of the protein were consistent with its role as a matrix protein. We anticipate that amniotic fluid fibronectin will prove to be the same protein which elsewhere in the body is incorporated into connective tissues and basement membranes. Amniotic fluid could, therefore, serve as a convenient source of in vivo synthesized fibronectin for biological and structural studies.
Early antipsychotic treatment in childhood/adolescent period has long-term effects on depressive-like, anxiety-like and locomotor behaviours in adult rats

Childhood/adolescent antipsychotic drug (APD) use is exponentially increasing worldwide, despite limited knowledge of the long-term effects of early APD treatment. Whilst investigations have found that early treatment has resulted in some alterations to dopamine and serotonin neurotransmission systems (essential to APD efficacy), there have only been limited studies into potential long-term behavioural changes. This study, using an animal model for childhood/adolescent APD treatment, investigated the long-term effects of aripiprazole, olanzapine and risperidone on adult behaviours of male and female rats. Open-field/holeboard, elevated plus maze (EPM), social interaction and forced swim (FS) tests were then conducted in adult rats. Our results indicated that in the male cohort, early risperidone and olanzapine treatment elicited long-term hyper-locomotor effects (open-field/holeboard and FS tests), whilst a decrease in depressive-like behaviour (in FS test) was observed in response to olanzapine treatment. Furthermore, anxiolytic-like behaviours were found following testing in the open-field/holeboard and EPM in response to all three drug treatments. Effects in the female cohort, however, were to a far lesser extent, with behavioural attributes indicative of an increased depressive-like behaviour and hypo-locomotor activity exhibited in the FS test following early risperidone and olanzapine treatment. These results suggest that various APDs have different long-term effects on the behaviours of adult rats.
ASEAN‐5 Bond Market Development: Where Does it Stand? Where is it Going?

Since the Asian crisis, ASEAN5 countries have expended considerable effort in trying to develop their domestic bond markets. Yet today these markets are not much larger, relative to GDP, than they were a decade before. How can we explain this? And does this mean that domestic markets have not, in fact, developed? The paper argues that bond market growth has been held back by a sharp fall in investment rates, which has left firms with little need for bond borrowing. Even so, markets have developed in other ways, to such an extent that substantial amounts of foreign portfolio investment have begun to flow into ASEAN5 bonds. These developments have important ramifications. With the investor base growing and infrastructure investment likely to rise, ASEAN5 bond markets could expand rapidly over the next decade, holding out the prospect that the region could finally achieve "twin engine" financial systems.
Leadership and Teamwork: The Effects of Leadership and Job Satisfaction on Team Citizenship

This study examined how leadership related to citizenship behavior within teams. Leadership was hypothesized to influence team organizational citizenship behavior (TOCB) either directly or indirectly through job satisfaction. Longitudinal data were collected in three waves. Leader behaviors were measured at time 1, follower job satisfaction at time 2, and TOCB at time 3. Results indicate that both empowering and transformational leadership related positively to TOCB through job satisfaction. Aversive leadership was related negatively to TOCB. Also, leadership was mediated by job satisfaction in negatively relating to team anticitizenship behavior. The implications and directions for future research are discussed.
The Predicates for the Exact Voronoi Diagram of Ellipses under the Euclidiean Metric

This article examines the computation of the Delaunay graph and its dual Voronoi diagram of a set of ellipses in the Euclidean plane. We propose the first complete methods, under the exact computation paradigm, for the predicates of an incremental algorithm: κ1 decides which one of two given ellipses is closest to a given exterior point; κ2 decides the position of a query ellipse relative to an external bitangent line of two given ellipses; κ3 decides the position of a query ellipse relative to a Voronoi circle of three given ellipses; κ4 determines the type of conflict between a Voronoi edge, defined by four given ellipses, and a query ellipse. The article is restricted to non-intersecting ellipses, but the extension to arbitrary ones is possible. The ellipses are input in parametric representation, i.e., constructively in terms of their axes, center and rotation. For κ1 and κ2 we derive algebraic conditions optimal in terms of the degree of the algebraic numbers involved, and provide efficient implementations in C++. For κ3 we compute a tight bound on the number of complex tritangent circles and design an exact symbolic-numeric algorithm, which is implemented in MAPLE. This essentially answers κ4 as well. We conclude with further work on lifting the condition of non-intersecting ellipses.
Information-Theoretic Viewpoints on Optimal Causal Coding-Decoding Problems

In this paper we consider an interacting two-agent sequential decision-making problem consisting of a Markov source process, a causal encoder with feedback, and a causal decoder. Motivated by a desire to foster links between control and information theory, we augment the standard formulation by considering general alphabets and a cost function operating on current and previous symbols. Using dynamic programming, we provide a structural result whereby an optimal scheme exists that operates on appropriate sufficient statistics. We emphasize an example where the decoder alphabet lies in a space of beliefs on the source alphabet, and the additive cost function is a log likelihood ratio pertaining to sequential information gain. We also consider the inverse optimal control problem, where a fixed encoder/decoder pair satisfying statistical conditions is shown to be optimal for some cost function, using probabilistic matching. We provide examples of the applicability of this framework to communication with feedback, hidden Markov models and the nonlinear filter, decentralized control, brain-machine interfaces, and queuing theory.
Self-Managed Learning in the Context of Higher Education System Sustainable Development in Kazakhstan

The Republic of Kazakhstan has inherited from the USSR a hierarchical and strictly regulated higher education system. In the past two decades there has been significant reform intended to meet the needs of a modern competitive economy and offer degrees which are comparable with those offered within the Anglo-American systems. In 2010 the Republic of Kazakhstan became a signatory to the Bologna Process. In the present paper the progress of the Kazakh higher education system in modernizing has been reviewed. The principal contention of this paper is that progress in structural reform has been significant which must now be matched by changes in the learning experience to ensure sustainability. These changes require a change in the higher education content.
Formal and Informal Institutional Change: The Experience of Postsocialist Transformation

Diversity of trajectories of post-socialist transforming economies is a stylized fact of this experience of system change. The paper explores the relations between change in formal and informal rules in historical perspective, discussing new institutional views about rationality of formal institutions and detrimental inertia of informal institutions. It submits that an open and complex approach of the centrality of formal/informal rules interaction may give a better explanation to the multiplicity of national post-socialist pathways.
XP Team Psychology - An Inside View

Extreme Programming (XP) as a methodology for software development is now widely known. There are numerous case studies and reports of it’s successful application in real world projects as well as in the academic sector. But it is equally important to experience and report things that went wrong. This paper is about problems and pitfalls that can occur when introducing XP. They are explained in detail, analyzed, and possible solutions are suggested.
Forebrain connectivity of the prefrontal cortex in the marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus): An anterograde and retrograde tract‐tracing study

The cortical and subcortical forebrain connections of the marmoset prefrontal cortex (PFC) were examined by injecting the retrograde tracer, choleratoxin, and the anterograde tracer, biotin dextran amine, into four sites within the PFC. Two of the sites, the lateral and orbital regions, had previously been shown to provide functionally dissociable contributions to distinct forms of behavioral flexibility, attentional set‐shifting and discrimination reversal learning, respectively. The dysgranular and agranular regions lying on the orbital and medial surfaces of the frontal lobes were most closely connected with limbic structures including cingulate cortex, amygdala, parahippocampal cortex, subiculum, hippocampus, hypothalamus, medial caudate nucleus, and nucleus accumbens as well as the magnocellular division of the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus and midline thalamic nuclei, consistent with findings in the rhesus monkey. In contrast, the granular region on the dorsal surface closely resembled area 8Ad in macaques and had connections restricted to posterior parietal cortex primarily associated with visuospatial functions. However, it also had connections with limbic cortex, including retrosplenial and caudal cingulate cortex as well as auditory processing regions in the superior temporal cortex. The granular region on the lateral convexity had the most extensive connections. Based on its architectonics and functionality, it resembled areas 12/45 in macaques. It had connections with high‐order visual processing regions in the inferotemporal cortex and posterior parietal cortex, higher‐order auditory and polymodal processing regions in the superior temporal cortex. In addition it had extensive connections with limbic regions including the amygdala, parahippocampal cortex, cingulate, and retrosplenial cortex. J. Comp. Neurol. 502:86–112, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Failure of CD25+ T Cells from Lupus-Prone Mice to Suppress Lupus Glomerulonephritis and Sialoadenitis1

The development of organ-specific autoimmune diseases in mice thymectomized on day 3 of life (d3tx mice) can be prevented by transferring CD4+CD25+ T cells from syngeneic, normal adult mice. Using a d3tx model, we asked whether CD4+CD25+ T cell deficiency contributes to glomerulonephritis (GN) in lupus-prone mice. New Zealand Mixed 2328 (NZM2328) mice spontaneously develop autoantibodies to dsDNA and female-dominant, fatal GN. After d3tx, both male and female NZM2328 mice developed 1) accelerated dsDNA autoantibody response, 2) early onset and severe proliferative GN with massive mesangial immune complexes, and 3) autoimmune disease of the thyroid, lacrimal gland, and salivary gland. The d3tx male mice also developed autoimmune prostatitis. The transfer of CD25+ cells from 6-wk-old asymptomatic NZM2328 donors effectively suppressed dsDNA autoantibody and the development of autoimmune diseases, with the exception of proliferative lupus GN and sialoadenitis. This finding indicates that NZM2328 lupus mice have a selective deficiency in T cells that regulates the development of lupus GN and sialoadenitis. After d3tx, the proliferative GN of female mice progressed to fatal GN, but largely regressed in the male, thereby revealing a checkpoint in lupus GN progression that depends on gender.
A moving objects based real-time defogging method for traffic monitoring videos

In this paper, a moving objects based real-time defogging method for traffic monitoring videos is proposed. Firstly, dark channel prior based image defogging method has been improved. Then, the proposed image defogging method is used for traffic monitoring video defogging. To improve the processing speed, the correlation between the adjacent frames of videos is exploited. The moving objects are detected using adjacent frame difference method. The frame content is divided into moving foreground and background. Afterwards, the foreground and background are processed with different defogging manners to reduce the computational complexity of defogging processing. Experimental results show that the proposed method can generate a good defogging effect which will facilitate the subsequent intelligent traffic analysis. Furthermore, the proposed method is fast enough to process the standard-definition videos at the speed of 26 frames per second on average.
Stoichiometry of Pt Submonolayer Deposition via Surface-Limited Redox Replacement Reaction

The work exploring the stoichiometry of Pt deposition via surface-limited redox replacement of the underpotentially deposited (UPD) Cu monolayer on Au(111) is presented. The Cu UPD monolayer is formed from 10 -3 M Cu 2+ + 0.1 M HClO 4 solution, whereas the Pt deposition via surface-limited redox replacement reaction is carried out in 10- 3 M {PtCl 6 } 2- + 0.1 M HClO 4 solution at open-circuit potential. Our results indicate that the Pt submonolayers have two-dimensional morphology and linear dependence of their coverage on the amount (coverage) of the replaced Cu UPD monolayers. Our analysis shows that the oxidation state of Cu during redox replacement reaction is 1+, suggesting that four Cu UPD adatoms are replaced by each deposited Pt adatom. This work stresses the general importance of the anions, determining the stoichiometry of metal deposition reaction via surface-limited redox replacement of the UPD monolayers.
A breast cancer meta-analysis of two expression measures of chromosomal instability reveals a relationship with younger age at diagnosis and high risk histopathological variables

Breast cancer in younger patients often presents with adverse histopathological features, including increased frequency of estrogen receptor negative and lymph node positive disease status. Chromosomal instability (CIN) is increasingly recognised as an important prognostic variable in solid tumours. In a breast cancer meta-analysis of 2423 patients we examine the relationship between clinicopathological parameters and two distinct chromosomal instability gene expression signatures in order to address whether younger age at diagnosis is associated with increased tumour genome instability. We find that CIN, assessed by the two independently derived CIN expression signatures, is significantly associated with increased tumour size, ER negative or HER2 positive disease, higher tumour grade and younger age at diagnosis in ER negative breast cancer. These data support the hypothesis that chromosomal instability may be a defining feature of breast cancer biology and clinical outcome.
On development of functional brain connectivity in the young brain

Our brain is a complex network of structurally and functionally interconnected regions, shaped to efficiently process and integrate information. The development from a brain equipped with basic functionalities to an efficient network facilitating complex behavior starts during gestation and continues into adulthood. Resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) enables the examination of developmental aspects of functional connectivity (FC) and functional brain networks. This review will discuss changes observed in the developing brain on the level of network FC from a gestational age of 20 weeks onwards. We discuss findings of resting-state fMRI studies showing that functional network development starts during gestation, creating a foundation for each of the resting-state networks (RSNs) to be established. Visual and sensorimotor areas are reported to develop first, with other networks, at different rates, increasing both in network connectivity and size over time. Reaching childhood, marked fine-tuning and specialization takes place in the regions necessary for higher-order cognitive functions.
Input Price Discrimination When Buyers Operate in Multiple Markets

This paper revisits third-degree price discrimination when input buyers serve multiple product markets. Such circumstances are prevalent since buyers often use the same input to produce different outputs, and even homogenous outputs are routinely sold through different locations. The typical view is that price discrimination stifles efficiency (and welfare) by resulting in price concessions to less efficient firms. When buyers serve multiple markets, price discrimination leads to price breaks for firms in markets with lower demand. When lower demand markets also have less competition, price discrimination can provide welfare gains by shifting output to less competitive markets.
Heterogeneity in HIV Suppression by CD8 T Cells from HIV Controllers: Association with Gag-Specific CD8 T Cell Responses1

“HIV controllers” (HICs) are rare individuals in whom HIV-1 plasma viral load remains undetectable without antiretroviral treatment. This spontaneous viral control in HICs is usually associated to strong functional HIV-specific CD8+ T cell responses. Accordingly, we have recently shown that CD8+ T cells from HICs strongly suppress ex vivo HIV-1 infection of autologous CD4+ T cells, suggesting a crucial role of this response in vivo. Knowledge of the mechanisms underlying the CD8+ T cell antiviral activity might help to develop effective T cell-based vaccines. In the present work, we further characterized the HIV-suppressive capacity of CD8+ T cells in 19 HICs. CD8+ T cells from 14 of the 19 HICs showed strong HIV-suppressive capacity ex vivo. This capacity was stable over time and was partially effective even on other primate lentiviruses. HIV-suppressive capacity of CD8+ T cells correlated strongly with the frequency of HIV-specific CD8+ T cells, and in particular of Gag-specific CD8+ T cells. We also identified five HICs who had weak HIV-suppressive CD8+ T cell capacities and HIV-specific CD8+ T cell responses. Among these five HICs, at least three had highly in vitro replicative viruses, suggesting that the control of viremia in these patients is not due to replication-defective viruses. These results, on the one hand, suggest the importance of Gag responses in the antiviral potency of CD8+ T cells from HICs and, on the other hand, propose that other host mechanisms may contribute to restraining HIV infection in HICs.
The Effects of Individual and Group Training on General Health and Stress of Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Objectives This study compared the effects of individual and group training on general health and stress of parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.Method A sample of 75 parents of children referring to Autistic Children Foundation (including 50 parents in two experimental groups and 25 parents in control group) was taken into account. Sample parents were selected through Accessible Sampling Method.Results In order to diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorders, questionnaires such as GoldbergWilliams (1998), General Health, Abedins (1993) Stress, and Gars (1995) (Gilliam) were used while in order to analyze the gathered data, the correlation method (comparison of pre-test and post-test means), independent t- (comparison of control and experimental groups) and one-way covariance (a survey of effects left by individual and group training methods on parents with emphasis being laid on control and experimental groups) were used.Discussion There was no difference between parents receiving training in group and those receiving training in individual form. With respect to the correlation between general health and stress levels, both group and individual trainings resulted in a raise in general health and stress levels of parents.
Inflammation Following Traumatic Brain Injury in Humans: Insights from Data-Driven and Mechanistic Models into Survival and Death

Inflammation induced by traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex mediator of morbidity and mortality. We have previously demonstrated the utility of both data-driven and mechanistic models in settings of traumatic injury. We hypothesized that differential dynamic inflammation programs characterize TBI survivors vs. non-survivors, and sought to leverage computational modeling to derive novel insights into this life/death bifurcation. Thirteen inflammatory cytokines and chemokines were determined using Luminex™ in serial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from 31 TBI patients over 5 days. In this cohort, 5 were non-survivors (Glasgow Outcome Scale [GOS] score = 1) and 26 were survivors (GOS > 1). A Pearson correlation analysis of initial injury (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS]) vs. GOS suggested that survivors and non-survivors had distinct clinical response trajectories to injury. Statistically significant differences in interleukin (IL)-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, IL-13, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were observed between TBI survivors vs. non-survivors over 5 days. Principal Component Analysis and Dynamic Bayesian Network inference suggested differential roles of chemokines, TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-10, based upon which an ordinary differential equation model of TBI was generated. This model was calibrated separately to the time course data of TBI survivors vs. non-survivors as a function of initial GCS. Analysis of parameter values in ensembles of simulations from these models suggested differences in microglial and damage responses in TBI survivors vs. non-survivors. These studies suggest the utility of combined data-driven and mechanistic models in the context of human TBI.
On the Computation of Optimal Monotone Mean-Variance Portfolios via Truncated Quadratic Utility

We report a surprising link between optimal portfolios generated by a special type of variational preferences called divergence preferences (see Maccheroni et al., 2006) and optimal portfolios generated by classical expected utility. As a special case, we connect optimization of truncated quadratic utility (see Cerný, 2003) to the optimal monotone mean–variance portfolios (see Maccheroni et al., 2009), thus simplifying the computation of the latter.