Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cloning, expression, and characterization of a membrane progestin receptor and evidence it is an intermediary in meiotic maturation of fish oocytes

The structures of membrane receptors mediating rapid, nongenomic actions of steroids have not been identified. We describe the cloning of a cDNA from spotted seatrout ovaries encoding a protein that satisfies the following seven criteria for its designation as a steroid membrane receptor: plausible structure, tissue specificity, cellular distribution, steroid binding, signal transduction, hormonal regulation, and biological relevance. For plausible structure, computer modeling predicts that the protein has seven transmembrane domains, typical of G protein-coupled receptors. The mRNA (4.0 kb) is only detected in the brain and reproductive tissues on Northern blots. Antisera only detect the protein (40 kDa) in plasma membranes of reproductive tissues. The recombinant protein produced in an Escherichia coli expression system has a high affinity (Kd = 30 nM), saturable, displaceable, single binding site specific for progestins. Progestins alter signal transduction pathways, activating mitogen-activated protein kinase and inhibiting adenylyl cyclase, in a transfected mammalian cell line. Inhibition of adenylyl cyclase is pertussis toxin sensitive, suggesting the receptor may be coupled to an inhibitory G protein. Progestins and gonadotropin up-regulate both mRNA and protein levels in seatrout ovaries. Changes in receptor abundance in response to hormones and at various stages of oocyte development, its probable coupling to an inhibitory G protein and inhibition of progestin induction of oocyte maturation upon microinjection of antisense oligonucleotides are consistent with the identity of the receptor as an intermediary in oocyte maturation. These characteristics suggest the fish protein is a membrane progestin receptor mediating a “nonclassical” action of progestins to induce oocyte maturation in fish.
Benefits of laparoscopic-assisted colectomy for colon polyps: a case-matched series.

OBJECTIVE To clarify the true benefits of laparoscopic-assisted colectomy by comparing clinical outcomes from a series of laparoscopic right colectomies with matched open colectomies, all performed for the singular indication of polyp not amenable to colonoscopic removal. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective case-matched study was performed of consecutive patients undergoing laparoscopic-assisted right hemicolectomy for polyps between January 1992 and July 1997. Each case was matched to a control undergoing the equivalent open procedure for the same indication during the same time period. RESULTS Thirty-eight patients undergoing laparoscopic-assisted right hemicolectomy for polyps were identified, and matches were found. The conversion rate was 18.4% (7/38), 21.4% early in the series and 10% in later experience. Operative times were longer for laparoscopic-associated colectomy (median, 208 minutes vs 150 minutes, P < .001). Laparoscopic-assisted colectomy resulted in shorter postoperative ileus (time to flatus, 3.0 vs 4.0 days, P < .001; time to bowel movement, 3.5 vs 5.0 days, P < .001) and in earlier tolerance of regular diet (3.5 vs 6.0 days, P < .001). Fewer days of narcotic administration were required by the laparoscopic group (3.0 vs 4.5 days, P < .001). This resulted in a significantly shorter length of hospital stay (4.0 vs 7.0 days, P < .001). There was no significant difference in the incidence of postoperative complications. CONCLUSIONS Laparoscopic right hemicolectomy has significant patient benefits. These benefits are apparent when procedures of equal complexity and equivalent indications are compared. Laparoscopic-assisted resection has become our preferred approach for polyps not amenable to colonoscopic polypectomy.
Fathering and Child Maltreatment: A Grounded Theory Study

FATHERING AND CHILD MALTREATMENT: A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY By Jennifer Ann Shadik, PhD, MSW A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014 Chair: Humberto Fabelo, PhD Associate Professor School of Social Work Literature related to fathers and child physical abuse and neglect is lacking (Guterman & Lee, 2005; Lee, Bellamy, & Guterman, 2009). The purpose of this study was to better understand several pertinent aspects of fathering related to maltreatment. Three research questions were examined: 1.What are the attitudes, behaviors and contexts of fathers who have abused or neglected a child that relate to maltreatment? 2. What are the resources and capacities of these fathers which could be capitalized on? 3. How does goodness-of-fit or a poor fit between the father and child impact the parenting relationships of these fathers? Fifteen fathers in a parenting program for parents who are at high risk or who have abused or neglected a child participated in the study. In order to answer these questions, a traditional grounded theory methodology was used. Data analysis consisted of thematic analysis and constant comparative analysis. Based on data collected, a substantive theory entitled Fathering in a Context of Challenge and Complexity was developed. Results suggest that these fathers experience many challenges, but also have important strengths. Becoming a father was an important turning point for many of the fathers in this study. Fathers’ relationships with his children’s mothers, the need for social support, and the theme of change were all relevant. Implications for practice, policy, and research are
Young People as Real Citizens: Towards an Inclusionary Understanding of Citizenship

Based on a major qualitative study, this article examines young people's status as citizens. It argues that UK social policy assumes that young people lack citizenship—and so need interventions to develop their citizenship—but that this assumption is not based on concepts of citizenship, but on how youth is (mis)perceived. The research found that the young people prescribed to a number of different interpretations of citizenship, often simultaneously. It found that certain narrow conceptions—such as the employment-oriented model—can serve to exclude young people. Other models—such as that relating to socially constructive participation—better highlight young people's citizenship. The paper concludes by calling for a more conceptually comprehensive and inclusive view of citizenship, so that young people's status as citizens can be better appreciated.
A Fast Lightweight Time-Series Store for IoT Data

With the advent of the Internet-of-Things (IoT), handling large volumes of time-series data has become a growing concern. Data, generated from millions of Internet-connected sensors, will drive new IoT applications and services. A key requirement is the ability to aggregate, preprocess, index, store and analyze data with minimal latency so that time-to-insight can be reduced. In the future, we expect real-time data collection and analysis to be performed both on small devices (e.g., in hubs and appliances) as well in server-based infrastructure. The ability to localize sensitive data to the home, and thus preserve privacy, is a key driver for small-device deployment. In this paper, we present an efficient architecture for time-series data management that provides a high data ingestion rate, while still being sufficiently lightweight that it can be deployed in embedded environments or small virtual machines. Our solution strives to minimize overhead and explores what can be done without complex indexing schemes that typically, for performance reasons, must be held in main memory. We combine a simple in-memory hierarchical index, log-structured store and in-flight sort, with a high-performance data pipeline architecture that is optimized for multicore platforms. We show that our solution is able to handle streaming insertions at over 4 million records per second (on a single x86 server) while still retaining SQL query performance better than or comparable to existing RDBMS.
Serotonin, carbohydrates, and atypical depression.

At least three categories of atypical depression have been described. The hysteroid dysphoria is characterized by repeated episodes of depressed mood in response to feeling rejected, and a craving for sweets and chocolate. Two other issues are characterized by a cyclical occurrence of changes of mood and appetite, i.e., the late luteal phase dysphoric disorder (DSM-III-R, appendix), or "the premenstrual syndrome" (PMS), and the major depression with seasonal pattern (DSM-III-R), or seasonal affective disorder (SAD). The reactive mood changes are frequently accompanied by features as hypersomnia, lethargy and increased appetite, particularly with a preference for carbohydrates. Central serotonin pathways participate in the regulation of mood and behavioural impulsivity, and modulate eating patterns qualitatively and quantitatively. Depressives with PMS og SAD benefit, in general, from treatments with serotonin potentiating drugs, suggesting that brain serotonin plays a role in the pathophysiology. Ingestion of carbohydrates increases the plasma ratio of tryptophan to other large neutral amino acids in man and animal, and the serotonin synthesis in the rat brain. Based on these findings it has been suggested that the excessive carbohydrate intake by patients with PMS and SAD reflects a self-medication that temporarily relieves the vegetative symptoms via an increased central serotonergic activity.
Interactive 3D architectural modeling from unordered photo collections

We present an interactive system for generating photorealistic, textured, piecewise-planar 3D models of architectural structures and urban scenes from unordered sets of photographs. To reconstruct 3D geometry in our system, the user draws outlines overlaid on 2D photographs. The 3D structure is then automatically computed by combining the 2D interaction with the multi-view geometric information recovered by performing structure from motion analysis on the input photographs. We utilize vanishing point constraints at multiple stages during the reconstruction, which is particularly useful for architectural scenes where parallel lines are abundant. Our approach enables us to accurately model polygonal faces from 2D interactions in a single image. Our system also supports useful operations such as edge snapping and extrusions. Seamless texture maps are automatically generated by combining multiple input photographs using graph cut optimization and Poisson blending. The user can add brush strokes as hints during the texture generation stage to remove artifacts caused by unmodeled geometric structures. We build models for a variety of architectural scenes from collections of up to about a hundred photographs.
Antineoplastic Activity of Solidago virgaurea on Prostatic Tumor Cells in an SCID Mouse Model

Solidago virgaurea (goldenrod) has traditionally been used as an anti-inflammatory herbal medicine for the treatment of various symptoms, including prostatic diseases. The plant has also been reported to have antibacterial, spasmolytic, and carminative properties. During the course of our screening for antineoplastic activities in various herbal plants, we found that the extract of S. virgaurea exhibits strong cytotoxic activities on various tumor cell lines. The active component mostly resides in the leaves of the plant and is soluble in water. When the extract was fractionated by a Sephadex G-100 column, the active fraction corresponded to a molecular weight of ~40,000. This cytotoxic activity is effective on various tumor cell lines, including human prostate (PC3), breast (MDA435), melanoma (C8161), and small cell lung carcinoma (H520). To examine the effect of the cytotoxic activity on tumor cells in vivo, we used the rat prostate cell line (AT6.1) and an SCID mouse model. AT6.1 cells were injected into the flank of SCID mice, and then the G-100 fraction of S. virgaurea was administered intraperitoneally or subcutaneously every 3 days. The size of the tumor was measured for up to 25 days. The growth of the tumor was significantly suppressed by the G-100 fraction at 5 mg/kg without any apparent side effects. Therefore, S. virgaurea is considered to be promising as an antineoplastic medicine with minimal toxicities.
Coherent ongoing subthreshold state of a cortical neural network regulated by slow- and fast-spiking interneurons

Although details of cortical interneurons in anatomy and physiology have been well understood, little is known about how they contribute to ongoing spontaneous neuronal activity that could have a great impact on subsequent neuronal information processing. Simulating a cortical neural network model of an early sensory area, we investigated whether and how two distinct types of inhibitory interneurons, or fast-spiking interneurons with narrow axonal arbors and slow-spiking interneurons with wide axonal arbors, have a spatiotemporal influence on the ongoing activity of principal cells and subsequent cognitive information processing. In the model, dynamic cell assemblies, or population activation of principal cells, expressed information about specific sensory features. Within cell assemblies, fast-spiking interneurons give a feedback inhibitory effect on principal cells. Between cell assemblies, slow-spiking interneurons give a lateral inhibitory effect on principal cells. Here, we show that these interneurons keep the network at a subthreshold level for action potential generation under the ongoing state, by which the reaction time of principal cells to sensory stimulation could be accelerated. We suggest that the best timing of inhibition mediated by fast-spiking interneurons and slow-spiking interneurons allows the network to remain near threshold for rapid responses to input.
Performance Enhancement of Thin-Film Transistors With Suspended Poly-Si Nanowire Channels by Embedding Silicon Nanocrystals in Gate Nitride

In this letter, we fabricated and characterized thin-film transistors with a suspended poly-Si nanowire (NW) channel and gate nitride with embedded silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs). The embedded Si NCs increase the surface roughness, thus reducing the adhesive force as the nitride is in contact with the poly-Si NW channel during the operation. Such a feature results in a reduction in pull-in voltage and sharper pull-out behavior. Moreover, this approach also greatly improves the endurance characteristics of the devices.
A Daily Study Of The Sleep-Pain Relationship In Fibromyalgia

A DAILY STUDY OF THE SLEEP-PAIN RELATIONSHIP IN FIBROMYALGIA by MAREN E. HYDE-NOLAN August 2014 Advisor: Dr. Mark A. Lumley Major: Psychology (Clinical) Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Fibromyalgia (FM) impacts millions of individuals around the world and is characterized by widespread chronic pain and tenderness as well as nonrestorative sleep, fatigue, and stiffness (Wolfe et al., 1990; Wolfe et al., 2010). Poor sleep quality is reported by more than 90% of individuals with FM, suggesting that sleep disturbance may be a contributing factor to the pain experience (Moldofsky, 2008). Recent reviews of the literature have established the connection between sleep and pain, although the direction of this relationship remains unclear (Finan et al., 2013; Moldofsky, 2001). This dissertation sought to examine the daily relationship between sleep and pain in a large population of chronic pain patients with fibromyalgia (FM), as well as the factors that may explain individual differences in this relationship. Ninety adults with FM completed baseline self-report measures of depression, negative affect, pain, sleep disturbance, and pain catastrophizing. Participants also wore an actiwatch, an objective measurement of sleep, for two weeks while completing daily diaries about their sleep and pain. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was utilized to examine the intraindividual
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Profile of Neisseria gonorrhoeae Isolated From Patients Attending a STD Facility in Maputo, Mozambique

Objective: To ascertain the effectiveness of kanamycin for the treatment of gonorrhoea in Maputo, Mozambique. Methods & Design: A cross-sectional study design was employed. Urethral and cervical specimens were collected for the isolation of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from patients attending Centro de Saúde do Porto. Antimicrobial susceptibilities were determined for kanamycin, spectinomycin, ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, cefixime, tetracycline and penicillin. Results: Twenty-two (40%) Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates were intermediate and 4(7%) were resistant to kanamycin; 42(77%) displayed high level resistance to tetracycline (MIC ≥ 16 mg/L); 34 (65%) were penicillinase producers, and 52 (95%) had spectinomycin MICs of 64 mg/L. All isolates were susceptible to ciprofloxacin (MIC ≤ 0.06 mg/L), ceftriaxone (MIC ≤ 0.015 mg/L) and cefixime (MIC ≤ 0.015 mg/L). Conclusion: The observations underscore the need for broader susceptibility surveillance studies to elucidate the pattern and extent of drug resistance in Mozambique. A review of the current treatment guidelines for genital discharge syndrome is warranted.
Sell Side School Ties

We study the impact of social networks on agents' ability to gather superior information about firms. Exploiting novel data on the educational backgrounds of sell side equity analysts and senior officers of firms, we test the hypothesis that analysts' school ties to senior officers impart comparative information advantages in the production of analyst research. We find evidence that analysts outperform on their stock recommendations when they have an educational link to the company. A simple portfolio strategy of going long the buy recommendations with school ties and going short buy recommendations without ties earns returns of 5.40% per year. We test whether Regulation FD, targeted at impeding selective disclosure, constrained the use of direct access to senior management. We find a large effect: pre-Reg FD the return premium from school ties was 8.16% per year, while post-Reg FD the return premium is nearly zero and insignificant. In contrast, in an environment that did not change selective disclosure regulation (the UK), the analyst school-tie premium has remained large and significant over the entire sample period.
Cardiac and pulmonary dysfunction in asymptomatic beta-thalassanemia major

This study assessed cardiac and pulmonary dysfunction in 26 asymptomatic patients with beta-thalassemia major. This investigation was a case-controlled study considering 10–20-year-old patients with beta-thalassemia major and no cardiac or pulmonary symptoms. Healthy individuals matched for age and sex were used as controls. At 48–72 h after blood transfusion, the patients underwent echocardiography and spirometry by a cardiologist and a pulmonologist. The results were compared to those of the control group. The right and left myocardial performance index, preejection period/ejection time ratio, ejection fraction, acceleration time, isovolumic contraction time, and bilateral isovolumic relaxation times in the study group demonstrated significant differences from the data of the controls. Right deceleration time was significantly different between the 2 groups. Myocardial performance index, peak early velocity of the right heart, and peak atrial velocity-to-peak early velocity ratio of the right side by Doppler tissue imaging were also significantly different between the 2 groups. Spirometry showed a significant difference in forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity between groups. Based on spirometry, pulmonary involvement in the patients was 77% restrictive. These findings show that systolic and diastolic dysfunction of the heart and pulmonary disturbances are unavoidable in patients with beta-thalassemia major.
An Investigation into Theoretical State Aggression and the Difficulties Surrounding its Psychometric Quantification

To date, the General Aggression Model has been the most extensive method of measuring aggression, with media violence being used as a strong influence on aggressive behaviour within a western society. However, due to the consistent increase in realism portrayed within the media, a more contemporary method of measurement is required to ensure reliability in relation to current society trends. Due to the extensive range of psychometric scales available to measure trait aggression effectively, the current research aimed to develop a psychometric scale to measure the shifts in state aggression to ultimately coincide with the current trait aggression scales to create an overall extensive psychological measure of aggression. 354 self report questionnaires were developed based on four predominant factors identified from previous literature as influential on state aggression. They were separated into 177 consisting of questionnaire A and 177 consisting of questionnaire B. Using an opportunity based sample, 177 mixed gender (47.5% male and 52.5% female) participants were recruited. Ages ranged from 18 – 72 years (mean = 1.53, SD = 0.5, range= 54, with the average age group being 30 – 39). Factor analysis was employed in the form of principal component analysis (PCA), allowing factors to be extracted to enable the development of a reliable self report scale. However, the proportions of residuals highlighted a lack of reliability (227>0.05) suggesting that a state aggression scale could not be developed efficiently. Consequently, validity of the scale was not tested throughout the development process. The importance of hostility as an influential factor (24.378%) on the measurement of state aggression was highlighted within PCA as a strong element to focus on within future research on state aggression.
Using goal programming method to solve DEA problems with value judgments

Data envelopment analysis (DEA), is a well-known family of mathematical programming tools for assessing the relative efficiency of a set of comparable processing decision making units (DMUs) that was developed without consideration of the decision maker’s preference structures. DEA and multiple objective linear programming (MOLP) are tools that can be used in management control and planning. This paper shows how a DEA problem can be solved by transforming it into MOLP formulation. We will use the goal programming method to reflecting the DM’s preferences in the process of assessing efficiency. A case study will be conducted to illustrate how DEA-oriented efficiency analysis can be conducted using goal programming method.
Sequence analysis of the Spodoptera litura multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus genome.

The complete Spodoptera litura multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (SpltMNPV) genome contained 139,342 bp with a G+C content of 42.7%, and 141 putative open reading frames (ORFs) or genes of 150 nucleotides or greater that showed minimal overlap. Ninety-six ORFs had homologues in Autographa californica multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), 16 had homologues in other baculoviruses, and 29 were unique to SpltMNPV. The homologues of ubiquitin and gp37 are fused in SpltMNPV. The genome lacked a homologue of the major budded virus glycoprotein gene gp64, but it contained a homologue of ORF130 of Lymantria dispar multicapsid nucleopolyhedrovirus (LdMNPV). There were two homologues of AcMNPV ORF2 (bro gene), and a DnaJ protein gene (SpltORF39) in which the N-terminus showed homologies with the J domain of DnaJ family proteins. Seventeen homologous regions (hrs) were identified, each containing 2-29 palindromic repeats, with an average length of 534 bp and base content (G+C%) of 33.0.