Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PRRT2 mutations and paroxysmal disorders

In the past year, mutations in the PRRT2 gene have been identified in patients with paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia and other paroxysmal disorders. We conducted a review of the literature on PRRT2 mutation‐associated disorders. Our objectives were to describe the wide clinical spectrum associated with PRRT2 mutations, and to present the current hypotheses on the underlying pathophysiology. PRRT2 mutations are associated with a wide range of clinical syndromes: the various paroxysmal dyskinesias, infantile seizures, paroxysmal torticollis, migraine, hemiplegic migraine, episodic ataxia and even intellectual disability in the homozygous state. The PRRT2 protein, through its interaction with SNAP‐25, could play a role in synaptic regulation in the cortex and the basal ganglia. The pathogenesis may be caused by PRRT2 loss of function, which may induce synaptic deregulation and neuronal hyperexcitability. However, this does not explain the phenotypic variability, which is likely modulated by environmental factors, modifier genes or age‐dependent expression. The clinical spectrum of PRRT2 mutations has expanded among paroxysmal disorders and beyond. Unraveling the molecular pathways linking the genetic defect to its clinical expression will be crucial for the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders.
Race, Class, and Gender Differences in Substance Abuse: Evidence of Middle-Class/Underclass Polarization among Black Males

In this study differences in alcohol and illicit drug use were examined in relation to Wilson's theory of class polarization within the black population. With data from a large representative sample of the adult population in New York State, regression analysis showed that the relationship between socioeconomic status and substance abuse is stronger for black males than for any other group. These findings are consistent with Wilson's (1987) theory of the effects of deindustrialization on black males.
Organismic integration as a dynamic process: a systematic review of empirical studies on change in behavioral regulations in exercise in adults

ABSTRACT In facilitating the adoption of exercise behavior, attention should be directed towards the dynamic nature of behavioral regulations. Organismic integration theory presents a suitable framework for investigating fluctuations in behavioral regulations. However, current results pertaining to this issue revealed mixed findings. The aim of this review is to examine the empirical literature on the dynamic nature of organismic integration theory in exercise settings over time in adults. A systematic review of English articles using PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, ScienceDirect, and SPORTDiscus was conducted including keywords of organismic integration theory, longitudinal designs, change in behavioral regulations, and exercise. Findings are summarized through quantitative analysis of the evidence. Regarding autonomous regulations, steady increases in regulations are observable that originate within the first weeks and persist for up to one year. Most studies reported no changes in controlled regulations, although in a few cases changes were observed six weeks after baseline or later. The review adds to the theoretical understanding of how behavioral regulations are internalized. However, whether changes in regulation occur depends on both the type of regulation and on contextual characteristics. Future research of longitudinal design is warranted to identify optimal periods in which individuals seek for increased support during exercise adoption.
Surface Antigens of Smooth Brucellae

Surface antigens of smooth brucellae were extracted by ether-water, phenol-water, trichloroacetic acid, and saline and examined by immunoelectrophoresis and gel diffusion with antisera from infected and immunized rabbits. Ether-water extracts of Brucella melitensis contained a lipopolysaccharide protein component, which was specific for the surface of smooth brucellae and was correlated with the M agglutinogen of Wilson and Miles, a polysaccharide protein component devoid of lipid which was not restricted to the surface of smooth brucellae and was not correlated with the smooth agglutinogen (component 1), and several protein components which were associated with internal antigens of rough and smooth brucellae. Immunoelectrophoretic analysis of ether-water extracts of B. abortus revealed only two components, a lipopolysaccharide protein component, which was correlated with the A agglutinogen, and component 1. Component 1 from B. melitensis and B. abortus showed identity in gel diffusion tests, whereas component M from B. melitensis and component A from B. abortus showed partial identity with unabsorbed antisera and no cross-reactions with monospecific sera. Attempts to prepare monospecific sera directly by immunization of rabbits with cell walls or ether-water extracts were unsuccessful. Absorption of antisera with heavy fraction of ether-water extracts did not always result in monospecific sera. It was concluded (as has been described before) that the A and M antigens are present on a single antigenic complex, in different proportions depending upon the species and biotype, and that this component is a lipopolysaccharide protein complex of high molecular weight that diffuses poorly through agar gel. Components 1, A, and M were also demonstrated in trichloroacetic acid and phenol-water extracts. With all extracts, B. melitensis antigen showed greater diffusibility in agar than B. abortus antigens. After mild acid hydrolysis, B. abortus ether-water extract was able to diffuse more readily.
Indian time for nature? A multi-level approach to American Indian outdoor time in everyday life

ABSTRACT Social scientists have utilized daily time use studies as one method of understanding everyday lives. The bulk of this research, usually quantitative, identifies broad racial, ethnic and gender differences. Yet, certain groups and questions are typically excluded in daily time use research. One such group is American Indians. To address this lacuna, we look at the deeply discussed view that American Indians are closer to nature than other US ethnic groups. We use a nationally representative sample of individual daily time use (American Time Use Survey; n = 136,960) to look at leisure time outdoors. Our results show that American Indians report greater time spent outdoors but that this is only statistically significant for those who identify as exclusively American Indian (not for American Indians that are multi- and bi-racial). This study confirms previous qualitative research that suggests American Indians have a distinct relationship with nature.
Collective action by outsiders to group conflict and inequality

Every day, people around the world struggle and strive as they challenge injustice and inequality through collective action. They petition, they protest, and they call for changes in public policy to secure rights and status for themselves and for the groups to which they belong. From revolutions in the Arab Spring, to reactionary demonstrations by the US Tea Party, to worldwide protests of Russia’s annexing of Crimea, the twenty-first century has seen people on the march. Most existing social psychological research into collective action has focused on understanding the motives for collective action by people who are directly involved in a context of group conflict or inequality (“insiders”). But will external observers (“outsiders”) also take collective action when they encounter an external conflict? Who will they support in that conflict? Do their motives for intervening through collective action differ from those of insiders? In this thesis I aim to answer these questions. Chapter 1 establishes the need to consider outsiders as potential collective actors. I review the existing collective action literature and discuss its historical and current focus on insiders. I then introduce outsiders, hypothesise how they may differ from insiders, and argue for the importance of understanding how outsiders respond when they encounter group conflict. Chapter 2 includes two studies that sought to determine (1) whether outsiders are willing to take collective action on behalf of an external conflict, and (2) whether outsiders and insiders’ motives for action differ. I used the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA; van Zomeren, Postmes, & Spears, 2008) to measure appraisals of income inequality in the United States by residents of both the US (insiders) and India (outsiders). SIMCA is a well-established framework for explaining insider collective action, and specifies that group identification, perceived injustice, and perceived group efficacy are each unique motives for collective action. In both studies, outsiders were willing to take collective action. In addition, both outsiders’ and insiders’ motives for action could be captured using the SIMCA framework. Outsiders perceived the conflict as less self-relevant than insiders, and reported less identification with the disadvantaged group than insiders; a personal connection with the group conflict or inequality is thus necessary for outsiders to take collective action. To understand and predict outsider collective action, I must then investigate how outsiders come to see an instance of group conflict as self-relevant. Chapter 3 explores how ideological orientations shape outsiders’ appraisals of a group conflict, and whether outsiders may also choose to support a relatively advantaged group in conflict. In two studies, I investigated how Social Dominance Orientation (SDO; Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA; Altemeyer, 1996) shape US residents’ appraisals of separate conflicts between disadvantaged citizens and an advantaged
Relationship between Computer-Based Reading Activities and Reading Achievements among Hong Kong and U.S. Students: A Comparative Study Using PIRLS 2011 Data

Reading for personal interest and acquiring and using information using various reading processes are important parts of reading literacy that students need to develop in order to progress successfully through their schooling and fully function in the information society. Computer assisted reading instructional activities are assumed useful in improving the reading literacy of students, especially reading processes. However, students in Hong Kong and the US demonstrated a substantial performance gap in reading proficiency. Using the data from Progress in International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) 2011, this study examines whether and to what extent four computer-based reading instructional activities influence students’ performance in reading processes central to reading for interest and acquiring and using information in Hong Kong and the US. It found that computer-based reading activities are associated with students’ literacy performance in different ways in the two places. In particular, the more often Hong Kong students used the computer to read, the lower the reading achievement in all reading processes measured. However, in the US context, using the computer to write is positively associated with students’ reading scores in all reading processes while using software is negatively related to their reading performance in using all the reading processes.
Benchmarking steganographic and steganalysis techniques

There have been a number of steganography embedding techniques proposed over the past few years. In turn the development of these techniques have led to an increased interest in steganalysis techniques. More specifically Universal steganalysis techniques have become more attractive since they work independently of the embedding technique. In this work, our goal is to compare a number of universal steganalysis techniques proposed in the literature which include techniques based on binary similarity measures, wavelet coefficients' statistics, and DCT based image features. These universal steganalysis techniques are tested against a number of well know embedding techniques, including Outguess, F5, Model based, and perturbed quantization. Our experiments are done using a large dataset of JPEG images, obtained by randomly crawling a set of publicly available websites. The image dataset is categorized with respect to the size and quality. We benchmark embedding rate versus detectability performances of several widely used embedding as well as universal steganalysis techniques. Furthermore, we provide a framework for benchmarking future techniques.
Probabilistic Relational Models for assessment of reliability of active distribution management systems

This paper presents the use of Probabilistic Relational Models (PRM) for reliability analysis of control systems for active distribution grids. The approach is based on two key concepts; first, it addresses both the reliability of primary system components and the supporting secondary, ICT-based systems. Secondly, the use of PRMs enables representation of architecture of the ICT systems, including for instance redundancy of hardware and allocation of software functions to several hardware devices. This later aspect is important, since allocation of software across different hardware platforms is a feature enabled by for instance the IEC 61850 standard. The increasing number of software dependent systems for controlling and supervising the power grid enhances the risk of software-caused failures. Thus, for reliable operation it is of high importance to not only concern primary component, but also the software and hardware of the secondary systems controlling it. A variety of methods exist for reliability analysis of secondary systems, however few address the issue of failing software together with failing primary components. The paper presents the underlying theory for Probabilistic Relational Models, and presents the steps necessary to use the technique. The paper is concluded with an example of application of the approach.
When logical inference helps determining textual entailment ( and when it doesn ’ t )

We compare and combine two methods to approach the second textual entailment challenge (RTE-2): a shallow method based mainly on word-overlap and a method based on logical inference, using first-order theorem proving and model building techniques. We use a machine learning technique to combine features of both methods. We submitted two runs, one using only the shallow features, yielding an accuracy of 61.6%, and one using features of both methods, performing with an accuracy score of 60.6%. These figures suggest that logical inference didn’t help much. Closer inspection of the results revealed that only for some of the subtasks logical inference played a significant role in performance. We try to explain the reason for these results.
Hypothermia Is Not an Inotropic Drug.

e1258 www.ccmjournal. org December 2016 • Volume 44 • Number 12 velocities are tightly linked and determined by properties of the cardiac sarcomere, and will increase and decrease in parallel (7). Hypothermia reduces both velocities in all settings were velocities are measured (6, 7). Despite reductions in contraction and relaxation velocities, cardiac performance is well maintained during mild hypothermia. This is not related to changes in contractility, but to a reduced work load (reduced heart rate and reduced blood pressure), which may be important for the injured or failing heart. Hypothermia may thus have favorable effects on both cardiac and systemic oxygen supply-demand balance and contribute to the good outcome observed in patients with cardiogenic shock after out of hospital cardiac arrest. This work was performed at Rikshospitalet, Oslo University Hospital. Departmental funds from the Intervention Centre and the Department of Anesthesiology, Oslo University Hospital supported the costs. The authors have disclosed that they do not have any potential conflicts of interest.
Survival of Listeria monocytogenes attached to stainless steel surfaces in the presence or absence of Flavobacterium spp.

Contaminated surfaces of food processing equipment are believed to be a significant source of Listeria monocytogenes to foods. However, very little is known about the survival of Listeria in processing environments. In a mixed bacterial biofilm of L. monocytogenes and Flavobacterium spp. , the number of L. monocytogenes cells attaching to stainless steel increased significantly compared to when L. monocytogenes was in a pure culture. The L. monocytogenes cells in the mixed biofilms were also recoverable for significantly longer exposure periods. On colonized coupons held at 15 degrees C and 75% humidity, decimal reduction times were 1.2 and 18.7 days for L. monocytogenes in pure and mixed biofilms, respectively. With increasing exposure time, the proportion of cells that were sublethally injured (defined as an inability to grow on selective agar) increased from 8.1% of the recoverable cell population at day 0 to 91.4% after 40 days' exposure. At 4 and -20 degrees C, decimal reduction times for L. monocytogenes in pure culture were 2.8 and 1.4 days, respectively, and in mixed culture, 10.5 and 14.4 days, respectively. The enhanced colonization and survival of L. monocytogenes on "unclean" surfaces increase the persistence of this pathogen in food processing environments, while the increase in the percentage of sublethally injured cells in the population with time may decrease the ability of enrichment regimes to detect it.
HOW DOES AN AFFECTIVE SELF-REGULATION PROGRAM PROMOTE MATHEMATICAL LITERACY IN YOUNG STUDENTS?

The study compared two groups of Israeli fifth graders. The research group (n = 54) solved mathematical literacy tasks following an affective self-regulation intervention program preceded by a general introduction to solving authentic problems. The control group (n = 53) only received a general introduction to solving authentic problems. The groups were compared regarding: positive and negative emotions, performance in solving mathematical literacy tasks with different levels and representations, and long-term reflections on the program. Students in the affective self-regulation group performed better on all aspects of the mathematical literacy tasks and showed a greater reduction in negative emotions than the control group. Furthermore, during interviews held three months after the intervention, the research students commented on the importance and effectiveness of the strategy they had experienced. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.
The Novel Association of Circulating Tumor Cells and Circulating Megakaryocytes with Prostate Cancer Prognosis

Purpose: To develop an approach for the investigation of different subtypes of circulating tumor cells (CTC) and other cells to evaluate their potential prognostic value of prostate cancer. Experimental Design: Malignancy of CTCs undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) was confirmed by repeated FISH. Subgroups of CTCs in 81 patients with prostate cancer (43 castration resistant and 38 untreated localized) were correlated to disease aggressiveness parameters. AUC analysis was applied to compare the performance for metastasis prediction between serum PSA level alone and a combined risk score using both PSA and EMTing CTC count. Circulating megakaryocytes and cancer patient survival association was performed using Cox model. Results: The majority of vimentin (VIM)+/CD45− cells were malignant, with genomic alterations in several genomic regions. The number of cytokeratin (CK)−/VIM+/CD45− CTCs correlated with disease burden, tumor aggressiveness, and poorer survival. Meanwhile, CK+/VIM+/CD45− CTCs were associated with metastases better than other subtypes of CTCs in these limited samples. Combination of PSA level and the number of CK+/VIM+/CD45− CTCs enhanced the prediction of cancer metastases [AUC, 0.921; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.858–0.985]. The number of circulating megakaryocytes was potentially associated with good patient survival in advanced prostate cancer (HR, 0.849; 95% CI, 0.628–1.146, per cell increase), and the difference between the number of mesenchymal CTCs and megakaryocytes strongly correlated to poor survival (HR, 10.17; 95% CI, 2.164–47.789, if score ≥2.0). Conclusions: This CTC analysis approach and the potential association of megakaryocytes with cancer prognosis may greatly enhance our ability to investigate the cancer metastasis process and to predict/monitor cancer progression. Clin Cancer Res; 23(17); 5112–22. ©2017 AACR.
Theoretical Perspectives on Listening

Research into listening over the past three decades has, above all, highlighted the fundamental intricacy of the processes involved. In order to make sense of spoken messages, listeners may need to integrate information from a range of sources: phonetic, phonological, prosodic, lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. The fact that we achieve all this in real time as the message unfolds makes listening “complex, dynamic, and fragile” (Celce-Murcia 1995:366). In this review I consider research into four aspects of these complexities: processes (e.g., speech recognition, discourse comprehension, and memory); the role of context; factors influencing listening; and the relationship of listening with other language skills. Finally I suggest likely directions for future research into listening.
Stressful life events and Graves' disease.

The search of an explanation for the onset of any disease state is reflected in all cultures, and the idea that psychic distress may predispose to illness is centuries old. Recently, scientific evidence was provided for an interaction between the central nervous and the immune systems (1). Psychological stimuli may set off patterns of neurotransmitters, hormones and cytokines. which act on receptors within the immune system and alter immune function either directly or through induction of other substances (1, 2). As a consequence, during stressful life events, alterations in the neuroendocrine system may functionally affect the immune system. The cause of Graves' disease is unknown, but there is compelling evidence that its pathogenesis is auto-immune. It is therefore possible that stress-related changes in immune function could precipitate the disease in individuals genetically predisposed to thyroid autoimmunity. Despite this theoretical chain of events and an array of early clinical evidence, the role of stress in the onset of Graves' disease has remained controversial. The occurrence of life stresses before the onset of hyperthyroidism is an old observation, and it remains the impression of many clinicians that emotional stress