Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DNA Microarray Assessment of Putative Borrelia burgdorferi Lipoprotein Genes

ABSTRACT A DNA microarray containing fragments of 137 Borrelia burgdorferi B31 putative lipoprotein genes was used to examine Lyme disease spirochetes. DNA from B. burgdorferi sensu stricto B31, 297, and N40; Borrelia garinii IP90; and Borrelia afzelii P/Gau was fluorescently labeled and hybridized to the microarray, demonstrating the degree to which the individual putative lipoprotein genes were conserved among the genospecies. These data show that a DNA microarray can globally examine the genes encoding B. burgdorferi lipoproteins.
Differences between Australian and Japanese Students in Decisional Self-Esteem, Decisional Stress, and Coping Styles

In this article, the effect of culture on decisional self-esteem, decisional stress, and self-reported decision coping styles is examined. Results of a questionnaire study of 743 Japanese and 309 Australian university students showed that for both cultural groups decisional self-esteem was positively correlated with the "choice" style of decision making, but was negatively correlated with decisional stress and the "complacency," "avoidance," and "hypervigilance" coping styles in personal decision making. Cultural differences were found, with Japanese students lower than Australian students on decisional self-esteem, higher on decisional stress, and higher on complacency, avoidance, and hypervigilance coping styles. These findings are related to cross-cultural differences between Australia (an individualistic culture) and Japan(a collectivistic or group-oriented culture).
Low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene mutations in Canadian subjects with familial hypercholesterolemia, but not of French descent

Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a relatively common autosomal dominant disorder, which is characterized by elevated plasma concentrations of low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and early coronary heart disease. FH results from mutations in the gene encoding the LDL receptor (LDLR). In Canada, there is a founder effect for LDLR mutations in FH among individuals of French descent, most of whom reside in the province of Quebec. However, the spectrum of mutations in other regions, specifically in the populous and predominantly English‐speaking province of Ontario, has not been studied. We sequenced the coding regions, promoter and intron‐exon boundaries of the LDLR gene in 60 Ontario FH subjects from a variety of ethnic backgrounds other than French Canadian. We found 25 LDLR mutations in 34 subjects. Eleven LDLR mutations were novel, including two in‐frame deletions of a single amino acid (one each in exons 2 and 4), two larger deletions that shifted the reading frame (one each in exons 4 and 10), five missense mutations (C42R, A370T, T413M, L561P and E760D) and two splice acceptor mutations (one each in introns 3 and 8). The results indicate that FH is more genetically diverse in Ontario than in Quebec. The results are also consistent with findings from investigations of the LDLR in FH conducted in other countries, in which PCR‐based, exon‐by‐exon sequencing uncovers small mutations in about half of the subjects screened. The gap in molecular diagnosis suggests that lesions not found by this sequencing strategy, such as larger scale LDLR mutations that cannot be amplified, may underlie a substantial number of cases of FH. Alternatively, there might be genetic heterogeneity underlying the FH phenotype, with contributions from other single or multiple genes. Hum Mutat 18:359, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Attribution of Arousal as a Mediator of the Effectiveness of Fear‐Arousing Communications1

Before watching a fear-arousing antismoking movie, male smokers were administered a placebo pill that was said to have either arousing, tranquilizing, or no side effects. Subjects reported less intention to reduce smoking when they could attribute their arousal to the presumably arousing pill, and greater intention to do so when they expected the pill to be tranquilizing, than when they expccted no side effects. The self-reported number of cigarettes smoked during a two-week period following the experiment decreased in both the tranquilizing and no side-effects conditions, but not in the arousing side-effects condition. The data on subjects' i]ntentions are consistent with predictions derived from Kelley's discounting and augmentation principles and demunstrate informational functions of affective states. Several explanations concerning the differences between intentions and behavior are discussed, and implications concerning strategies for behavior change are explored.
Effect of Structured Ice Hockey Training on Scores on Field-Dependence/Independence

The aim of the present study is to test two hypotheses, (1) Witkin and Goodenough's 1982 assumption that participation in a structured physical activity increases field-independence and (2) that subjects characterized by high field-independence would show greater gains than subjects with high field-dependence on ice hockey skills. An adaptation of Oltman, Raskin, and Witkin's Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) was given to measure field-dependency and standardized tests were used to evaluate the players' skill. An experimental group of 26 boys (M = 11.27 yr.) were members of an ice hockey training program; 18 boys of a control group (M = 11.93 yr.) participated in no programmed physical activity. A pretest (field-dependency and skill) was administered 21 weeks prior to the posttest; no significant differences were found for scores on embedded figures between groups; Witkin and Goodenough's hypothesis was not supported, but field-independent subjects tended to learn more.
Intravitreal Injection of Bevacizumab before Vitrectomy for Proliferative Diabetic Retinopathy

Purpose To evaluate the use of preoperative intravitreal bevacizumab (IVB) injection in patients undergoing pars plana vitrectomy for complications of proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR). Methods In this prospective surgeon-masked randomized clinical trial, 40 eyes of 40 diabetic patients who were candidates for vitrectomy were randomly assigned to receive 2.5 mg IVB 3–5 days before operation (injected group) or no injection before operation (noninjected group). A preoperative complexity score (CS) was recorded. Best-corrected visual acuity, number of endodiathermy applications, backflush needle applications, duration of surgery, and postoperative vitreous hemorrhage were recorded. Results Twenty-two patients with a CS of 6±0.95 in the injected group and 18 patients with a CS of 5.7±1.1 in the noninjected group (p=0.3) were studied. Postoperative visual acuities were significantly better than preoperative visual acuities. Preoperative and 3-month postoperative visual acuities were the same for both groups; however, in the last follow-up examinations (mean 7± 3.6 months) the injected group had better visual acuities than the noninjected group (1.1±0.4 and 1.4±0.3 logMAR, respectively, p=0.006). Mean surgical time was 62±57.3 minutes in the injected group vs 95.5±36 minutes in the noninjected group (p=0.03): endodiathermy applications 6.0±4.3 vs 11.0±5.8 (p=0.004), backflush cannula applications 11.0±7.2 vs 18.1±7.8 (p=0.004). In non-silicone-filled eyes, no patient in the injected group developed significant postoperative vitreous hemorrhage obscuring the fundus details, while 7 eyes of noninjected eyes had this complication (p=0.01). Conclusions IVB injection before vitrectomy for PDR facilitates the surgery, and may decrease the rate of postoperative vitreous hemorrhage and improve the visual acuity results of the operation. (Eur J Ophthalmol 2009; 19: 848–52)
Enhancements of Meeting Information Management and Application for Knowledge Access and Learning Activities

Communication processes have become increasingly important in modern working life. Organizations invest a surprisingly high amount of financial resources and employee work time in both face-to-face and virtual meetings, yet this investment often produces poor results. To overcome this problem, research on technology-based support over a meeting's life-cycle has been increasingly conducted in recent decades. As a result of this research, particular interest has emerged in meeting information systems, which may include technology-enhanced meeting rooms as well as tools for multi-modal meeting recording, automatic meeting information extraction and annotation, in-meeting support, meeting information archiving, indexing, retrieval and visualization. Despite this great interest in and research activity on meeting information systems, insufficient focus has been paid into flexible architectures, interchangeability of meeting information as well as the integration into business processes and applications. This situation has motivated our research consortium to direct the research activity within the MISTRAL project towards a flexible and extendable system that can be easily integrated into daily working environments for knowledge access and learning activities. In this paper, we give an overview about electronic meeting systems, introduce related work on meeting information systems, outline the MISTRAL concept and its implementation, and based on that we discuss findings and problems with our research.
More evidence for a one-to-one correlation between Sprites and Early VLF perturbations

[1] Past studies have shown a correlation between sprites and early VLF perturbations, but the reported correlation varies widely from ∼50% to 100%. The present study resolves these large discrepancies by analyzing several case studies of sprite and narrowband VLF observations, in which multiple transmitter-receiver VLF pairs with great circle paths (GCPs) passing near a sprite-producing thunderstorm were available. In this setup, the multiple paths act in a complementary way that makes the detection of early VLF perturbations much more probable compared to a single VLF path that can miss several of them, a fact that was overlooked in past studies. The evidence shows that visible sprite occurrences are accompanied by early VLF perturbations in a one-to-one correspondence. This implies that the sprite generation mechanism may cause also sub-ionospheric conductivity disturbances that produce early VLF events. However, the one-to-one visible sprite to early VLF event correspondence, if viewed conversely, appears not to be always reciprocal. This is because the number of early events detected in some case studies was considerably larger than the number of visible sprites. Since the great majority of the early events not accompanied by visible sprites appeared to be caused by positive cloud to ground (+CG) lightning discharges, it is possible that sprites or sprite halos were concurrently present in these events as well but were missed by the sprite-watch camera detection system. In order for this option to be resolved we need more studies using highly sensitive optical systems capable of detecting weaker sprites, sprite halos and elves.
Beyond common and privileged: Gradient representations of common ground in real-time language use

The present research tested the hypothesis that on-line language processing is guided by gradient representations of linguistic common ground that reflect details of how common ground was established, including the discourse context and partner feedback. This hypothesis was contrasted with a simpler hypothesis that interpretation processes are only sensitive to simple binary representations of whether a potential discourse referent is or is not common ground. In order to evaluate these hypotheses, participants engaged in a task-based conversation with an experimenter in which some of the participant's game-pieces were hidden from the experimenter. On critical trials, the participant revealed the identity of the hidden game-pieces. Critical utterances contained referring expressions temporarily ambiguous between a visually shared game-piece, and a hidden game-piece. Analysis of participant eye movements during interpretation of these utterances revealed that participants were more likely to consider the hidden game-piece a potential referent if the experimenter had initially asked about its identity; whether the experimenter provided clear feedback that s/he understood its identity modulated this effect somewhat. These results provide key evidence for the richness of common ground representations, and are discussed in terms of the implications for models of the underlying representations of common ground.
Interleukin-27 Early Impacts Leishmania infantum Infection in Mice and Correlates with Active Visceral Disease in Humans

The complexity of Leishmania–host interactions, one of the main leishmaniasis issues, is yet to be fully understood. We detected elevated IL-27 plasma levels in European patients with active visceral disease caused by Leishmania infantum, which returned to basal levels after successful treatment, suggesting this cytokine as a probable infection mediator. We further addressed this hypothesis recurring to two classical susceptible visceral leishmaniasis mouse models. BALB/c, but not C57BL/6 mice, showed increased IL-27 systemic levels after infection, which was associated with an upregulation of IL-27p28 expression by dendritic cells and higher parasite burdens. Neutralization of IL-27 in acutely infected BALB/c led to decreased parasite burdens and a transient increase in IFN-γ+ splenic T cells, while administration of IL-27 to C57BL/6 promoted a local anti-inflammatory cytokine response at the site of infection and increased parasite loads. Overall, we show that, as in humans, BALB/c IL-27 systemic levels are infection dependently upregulated and may favor parasite installation by controlling inflammation.
Three New Loxophyllum Species (Ciliophora: Pleurostomatida) from China with a Brief Review of the Marine and Brackish Loxophyllum Species

Recent studies indicate that there is a high diversity of pleurostomatid ciliates in the coastal waters of China. Here, three new congeners of Loxophyllum, L. caudatum sp. n. , L. rugosum sp. n. , and L. chinense sp. n. , are described following observations of live cells and protargol‐impregnated specimens. All three species usually have two macronuclear nodules and prominent warts along the dorsal margin formed by clustered extrusomes. In addition, L. caudatum sp. n. is characterized by its long conspicuous tail, dot‐like cortical granules, 4 or 5 left and 9 or 10 right kineties, and a single subterminal contractile vacuole. Loxophyllum rugosum sp. n. is distinguished by possessing three prominent ridges on the left side, 7–11 right and 5–7 left kineties. Loxophyllum chinense sp. n. is characterized by having several contractile vacuoles distributed along the ventral margin, 13–18 right and 6–8 left kineties. The small subunit ribosomal DNA (SSU rDNA) sequence similarities among six congeners range from 96.46% to 99.94%. Phylogenetic trees based on the SSU rDNA sequences indicate that all Loxophyllum spp. form a well‐supported monophyletic group. A brief review of the marine and brackish Loxophyllum species is supplied and one new combination, Litonotus multiplicatus (Kahl 1931) comb. n. (basionym Loxophyllum multiplicatum Kahl 1931), and one new name, Litonotus dragescoi nom. n. (basionym L. fasciolatus Dragesco 1966), are suggested.
Actitudes, percepciones y uso de Internet y las redes sociales entre los adolescentes de la comunidad gallega (España)

Title: Attitudes, perceptions and Internet and social networks use among Galician (Spain) teens. Abstract: Researchers and institutions have shown an increasing concern about how adolescents might misuse the Internet. Its psychological and behavioral impact often translate into the emergence of risk behaviors, school failure and family problems. Given the interest that this issue has generated on an increasingly wider scale, the aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to provide data to determine, from a descriptive point of view, what ex- actly are the attitudes, perceptions and habits of adolescent Internet and social networks use and (2) a deeper understanding of the issue, contrib- uting to the design of prevention and control strategies which will encour- age a more rational and healthy Net use. On the basis of a survey of Com- pulsory Secondary School students from Galicia, which involved a total of 2339 individuals, the results obtained demonstrate the high level of Inter- net use penetration among the studied population and make it possible to gauge the magnitude of the problem with empirical data. Although the ob- tained numbers do not justify an alarmist attitude, they do indicate the need to implement specific action plans immediately.
Structured Surface BRDF Reciprocity: Theory and Counterexamples

A device adapted to travel up, down or horizontally on the side of vertical walls, having means to adhere to said wall, power means and traction means. In one form of this invention a magnet is employed to cause the device to adhere to a ferrous wall, the magnet being spaced a slight distance from said wall. Rubber tires are provided on the wheels for traction. In another form of this invention rubber coated magnetic wheels are used. In another form rubber coated magnetic treads are used. In another form of the magnetic climbing devices the power means may be omitted and the devices are adapted merely for climbing down on ferrous walls, they being drawn downwardly through the force of gravity. In another form the climbing device uses suction means to enable it to cling to a wall. This device can be used in air or under-water. In this form a pump is used to create a low pressure area between said device and said wall.
Understanding the Interconnectedness between Language Choices, Cultural Identity Construction and School Practices in the Life of a Latina Educator

Este estudio cualitativo se centra en los efectos que causan la eleccion del idioma y las practicas culturales en el desarrollo de la identidad en la educacion de los estudiantes pertenecientes a las minorias en los Estados Unidos. Este articulo pretende mostrar los efectos de las ideologias linguisticas sobre su identidad cultural y el desarrollo de sus habilidades lectoescritoras por medio del analisis de las entrevistas realizadas a una educadora latina, las cuales ejemplifican como la perdida del idioma y la identidad cultural cambian la vida de una persona. Ademas, se evidencia la constante lucha de muchos educadores de grupos minoritarios de estudiantes de ingles como lengua extranjera que han perdido su lengua materna y con el tiempo la han recuperado y ahora son consientes de la importancia de definir y fortalecer su propia identidad cultural. La experiencia de esta educadora latina contribuye a romper el circulo vicioso de privacion cultural y la propagacion de la estructura social que ha puesto a los hablantes de una lengua distinta al ingles en una situacion de desventaja en la vida y en la sociedad. En la edad adulta, Irma continua reconstruyendo su identidad cultural y redefiniendo su rol en el entorno bilingue al que pertenece con el proposito de recobrar su sentido de identidad
Using Orthorhombic Lattice Boltzmann Model to Research the Liquid Transport in Gas Diffusion Layer with Different Micro Porous Layer Coated

Water management in gas diffusion layer (GDL) and micro porous layer (MPL) poses a great impact on performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). And enhancement of the performance of fuel cells requires an appropriate water balance between the conservation of membrane humidity and the discharge of excess water produced in the cell. The Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) can enable more straight simulation of fluid flow with complex solid structures, compared with conventional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method based on Navier-Stokes equations. In this study, the orthorhombic pseudo-potential multiphase lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to investigate liquid water transport in the MPL and GDL of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). And the GDL and MPL structure image are all acquired by the stochastic generation method. We compared the GDL coated by the MPL with different thickness and different porosity. Numerical results confirm that influence of porosity is much greater than the thickness, which can help to improve the GDL and MPL design. AMS subject classifications: (or PACS) To be provided by authors
Collaborating with Students: Building Youth‐Adult Partnerships in Schools

This article examines the process of adults and students collaborating in school‐based learning communities. Drawing on interview data from youth and adults participating in student voice initiatives in the San Francisco Bay Area, this study examines contexts that enable “youth‐adult partnerships” in schools, including (1) fostering trust and respect among group members, (2) creating meaningful (not equal) roles, (3) building the capacity for youth and adults to successfully fulfill their roles, and (4) establishing a group size that is not too small and not too large. The article concludes by examining how youth‐adult partnerships can help improve understanding of school‐based collaborations.
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT IN PUBLICLY SUPPORTED TWO-YEAR COLLEGES

Faculty development activities in 300 publicly supported two-year colleges were investigated in this study. A mailed survey, which obtained a 77% (n = 272) response rate, was used to identify the elements of planning, implementation, funding, and evaluation for development of both full-time and part-time faculty. Statistically significant differences were found among colleges of different sizes and among accreditation regions.
Convergence between DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 Diagnostic Models for Personality Disorder: Evaluation of Strategies for Establishing Diagnostic Thresholds

The Personality and Personality Disorders Work Group for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) recommended substantial revisions to the personality disorders (PDs) section of DSM-IV-TR, proposing a hybrid categorical-dimensional model that represented PDs as combinations of core personality dysfunctions and various configurations of maladaptive personality traits. Although the DSM-5 Task Force endorsed the proposal, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) did not, placing the Work Group’s model in DSM-5 Section III (“Emerging Measures and Models”) with other concepts thought to be in need of additional research. This paper documents the impact of using this alternative model in a national sample of 337 patients as described by clinicians familiar with their cases. In particular, the analyses focus on alternative strategies considered by the Work Group for deriving decision rules, or diagnostic thresholds, with which to assign categorical diagnoses. Results demonstrate that diagnostic rules could be derived that yielded appreciable correspondence between DSM-IV-TR and proposed DSM-5 PD diagnoses—correspondence greater than that observed in the transition between DSM-III and DSM-III-R PDs. The approach also represents the most comprehensive attempt to date to provide conceptual and empirical justification for diagnostic thresholds utilized within the DSM PDs. (Journal of Psychiatric Practice 2013;19:179–193).