Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cervical Cancer Neoantigen Landscape and Immune Activity is Associated with Human Papillomavirus Master Regulators

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) play a major role in development of cervical cancer, and HPV oncoproteins are being targeted by immunotherapies. Although these treatments show promising results in the clinic, many patients do not benefit or the durability is limited. In addition to HPV antigens, neoantigens derived from somatic mutations may also generate an effective immune response and represent an additional and distinct immunotherapy strategy against this and other HPV-associated cancers. To explore the landscape of neoantigens in cervix cancer, we predicted all possible mutated neopeptides in two large sequencing data sets and analyzed whether mutation and neoantigen load correlate with antigen presentation, infiltrating immune cell types, and a HPV-induced master regulator gene expression signature. We found that targetable neoantigens are detected in most tumors, and there are recurrent mutated peptides from known oncogenic driver genes (KRAS, MAPK1, PIK3CA, ERBB2, and ERBB3) that are predicted to be potentially immunogenic. Our studies show that HPV-induced master regulators are not only associated with HPV load but may also play crucial roles in relation to mutation and neoantigen load, and also the immune microenvironment of the tumor. A subset of these HPV-induced master regulators positively correlated with expression of immune-suppressor molecules such as PD-L1, TGFB1, and IL-10 suggesting that they may be involved in abrogating antitumor response induced by the presence of mutations and neoantigens. Based on these results, we predict that HPV master regulators identified in our study might be potentially effective targets in cervical cancer.
Responding to negative social identity: a taxonomy of identity management strategies

Taken from literature on social identity theory and social comparison theory, 12 strategies of identity management were identified as possible responses to negative social identity. A taxonomy with two orthogonal axes is proposed as theoretical organization of these diverse strategies. While the first axis considers responses as being either individual or collective, the second axis refers to the distinction between behaviours and cognitions. It is assumed that the German unification process implied a lower status position of East Germans relative to West Germans on relevant comparison dimensions, and that East Germans have to deal with this threat to their identity. Hence, data of an East German sample are used to empirically systematize identity management strategies, and, thus, to test the proposed taxonomy. Results support the expected four-factor solution only for those strategies taken from social identity theory, while the responses derived from social comparison research build a fifth factor. In addition, the empirical assignments of strategies to cells of the taxonomy are only partly in line with the expected pattern. The empirical findings suggest some clarification and modifications of the proposed response taxonomy. The most important refers to a re-interpretation of the taxonomy's first axis, which now differentiates between responses according to the specific changes of the comparison parameters they imply. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Viscosity of high crystal content melts: Dependence on solid fraction

The rheological properties of suspensions containing high solid fractions are investigated. Attention is focused on viscosity of silicate and magmatic melt systems. A general empirical equation which describes the relative viscosity of suspensions as a function of suspended solid fraction is proposed. In the limit of very dilute solid concentrations it reduces to the Einstein equation. The proposed relationship is satisfactorily applied to reproduce available experimental data relative to silicate melts. Moreover, the extrapolation of the model to very high concentrations is compared with experimental observations on partially‐melted granite.
An improved control chart structure for process location parameter

The article proposes a Shewhart‐type control chart, namely Mt chart, for an improved monitoring of the mean level of a quality characteristic of interest, say Y, in a process. The proposed control chart uses the information on a single auxiliary characteristic, say X, of the process and is based on product–difference‐type estimator, say Mt (in fact the spirit is to pool different styles of using information on auxiliary variable(s)). Assuming bivariate normality of the characteristic of interest Y and the auxiliary characteristic X, design structure of the proposed Mt chart is developed and its comparisons are made with those of some existing control charts used for the same purposes. The comparisons reveal an improved performance of the proposed Mt chart relative to its existing counterparts due to suggested merger of different approaches. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Title Patterns of health-related quality of life and associated factors inChinese patients undergoing haemodialysis

Background: Haemodialysis (HD) is a life-saving but burdensome therapy for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) which can have a detrimental impact on patients’ quality of life and outcomes. There is currently little data on the health related quality of life (HRQOL) of Chinese ESRD patients undergoing HD and this study sought to examine the patterns of HRQOL and its associated factors within this population, as well as in comparison with the general local population. Methods: A cross-sectional study of 244 ESRD patients receiving HD in the hospital and in the community in Hong Kong was conducted using the Short Form-12 Health Survey version 2 (SF-12v2). All study subjects were one-to-one matched with subjects in a Hong Kong general population database by sex and exact age. Independent t-tests were performed to compare the mean SF-12v2 scores between HD patients and the general population, followed by one-way analysis of variance with post hoc Tukey’s HSD tests to compare community-based haemodialysis, hospital-based haemodialysis and the general population. Multiple linear regressions were used to identify the factors (socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and comorbidities) associated with the HRQOL scores of ESRD patients receiving HD. Results: The SF-12v2 Physical Functioning, Role Physical, Bodily Pain, General Health and Physical Component Summary scores of HD patients were significantly lower than the age-sex adjusted general population. However, the SF-12v2 Mental Health and Mental Component Summary scores of HD patients were significantly higher than the corresponding general population. Poorer HRQOL was associated with being female, smoking, unemployment and hospital-based haemodialysis. Conclusions: HD patients had substantially poorer physical HRQOL but better mental HRQOL than the age-sex adjusted general population. Patients receiving HD in the community setting had better HRQOL. Reasons for these observations will need to be further investigated. Those patients who are female, smokers and unemployed may warrant more attention as their poorer HRQOL may be associated with poorer outcomes.
Congestion-Based Lead-Time Quotation for Heterogenous Customers with Convex-Concave Delay Costs: Optimality of a Cost-Balancing Policy Based on Convex Hull Functions

We consider a congestible system serving multiple classes of customers who differ in their delay sensitivity and valuation of service or product. Customers are endowed with convex-concave delay cost functions. A system manager offers a menu of lead times and corresponding prices to arriving customers, who then choose the lead-time--price pair that maximizes their net utility value minus disutility of delay and price. We investigate how such menus should be chosen dynamically depending on the system backlog to maximize welfare. We formulate a novel fluid model of the problem and show that the cost-balancing policy based on the convex hulls of the delay cost functions is socially optimal if the system manager can tell customer types apart. If types are indistinguishable to the system manager, the cost-balancing policy is also incentive compatible under social optimization. Finally, we show through a simulation study that the cost-balancing policy does well in the context of the original stochastic problem by testing it against various natural benchmarks.
Executive functioning skills uniquely predict Chinese word reading

Eighty-five Hong Kong Chinese children were tested across both the 2nd and 3rd years of kindergarten (ages 4-5 years) on tasks of inhibitory control, working memory, vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and word reading. With age, vocabulary knowledge, and metalinguistic skills statistically controlled, the combination of working memory and inhibitory control together independently explained approximately 14%-16% of the variance in word reading at both ages. Furthermore, the executive functioning skills as a block contributed unique variance to word reading at Time 2, even when word recognition at Time 1 was statistically controlled. These findings highlight the unique importance of executive functioning skills, even beyond vocabulary knowledge and metalinguistic awareness, for the development of Chinese word recognition in beginning readers of Chinese.
All Roads Lead to Rome: Developmental Trajectories of Student Teachers' Professional and Personal Identity Development

This article introduces new perspectives to the domain of teacher identity research that help to conceptualize integration of the “personal” and “professional” subsystems of self during processes of learning to teach by students or beginning teachers. Using pedagogical dilemmas, we focus on the dynamics of the professional identity of 26 final-year student teachers in the course of a major pedagogical placement of the studies. We specify how students handle ambivalent situations, and whether they use the professional position, the personal position, or form a coalition between positions to solve the dilemmas. Following, we present seven developmental trajectories of student teachers’ professional identity; differences are noted between pedagogically experienced and inexperienced students.
Normal Variation in Reading Acquisition

Visual, linguistic, reading, and spelling tests were administered to the same 45 children at the end of kindergarten and of first grade. Normal variation, i.e., diversity not related to pathology, was found in the visual and linguistic skills and was shown to be related to reading and spelling achievement for a sample of suburban children of similar socioeconomic status. Individual differences in three visual skills—selective attention to letter information (RT), memory for a component letter (accuracy), and memory for a whole word (accuracy)—and two linguistic skills—phonemic analysis and vocabulary understanding—were reliable over the first year of formal reading instruction and had concurrent validity in that they were correlated with achievement in word decoding/encoding at the end of kindergarten and of first grade. Of these five skills, phonemic analysis accounted for more variance in achievement (52% to 64%, depending upon achievement measure) than any other single skill. Significantly mote variance in achievement was accounted for when both a visual skill (memory for a sequence) and a linguistic skill (phonemic analysis) were considered than when either alone was at end of first grade. The predictive validity of quantitatively defined “disabilities” (at or more than a standard deviation below the mean) was investigated; disabilities in both visual and linguistic skills at the end of kindergarten were associated with low achievement in word decoding/encoding at the end of first grade. Two pairs of identical twin girls (each co-twin taught by a different teacher) were not mote congruent on several achievement measures than two pairs of unrelated girls, taught by the same teacher and matched to each other and a twin pair on verbal ability and age. Normal variation in acquisition of word decoding/encoding probably results from an interaction between genetic individual differences in cognitive skills and the processes of assimilation and accommodation during environmental transactions proposed by Piaget.
Stroop Interference: An Input and an Output Phenomenon

Three theories of Stroop interference are considered: perceptual conflict theory (Hock and Egeth, 1970), response competition theory (Morton, 1969) and conceptual encoding theory (Seymour, 1977). The first two fail to provide a full explanation of the available data, and Seymour's evidence is incomplete. Two experiments are reported. In the first, typical Stroop interference occurs in naming colour patches. In the second, subjects responded to colour patches with learned letter name responses. Both stimulus-related (incongruent colour names) and response-related (incongruent letters) distractors produced interference. These results indicate that any theory which assumes only a single locus for interference is incomplete. Conceptual encoding conflict and a modified form of response competition are suggested as possible dual mechanisms for Stroop interference effects.
Generation Separation in Simple Structured Life Cycles: Models and 48 Years of Field Data on a Tea Tortrix Moth

Population cycles have fascinated ecologists since the early nineteenth century, and the dynamics of insect populations have been central to understanding the intrinsic and extrinsic biological processes responsible for these cycles. We analyzed an extraordinary long-term data set (every 5 days for 48 years) of a tea tortrix moth (Adoxophyes honmai) that exhibits two dominant cycles: an annual cycle with a conspicuous pattern of four or five single-generation cycles superimposed on it. General theory offers several candidate mechanisms for generation cycles. To evaluate these, we construct and parameterize a series of temperature-dependent, stage-structured models that include intraspecific competition, parasitism, mate-finding Allee effects, and adult senescence, all in the context of a seasonal environment. By comparing the observed dynamics with predictions from the models, we find that even weak larval competition in the presence of seasonal temperature forcing predicts the two cycles accurately. None of the other mechanisms predicts the dynamics. Detailed dissection of the results shows that a short reproductive life span and differential winter mortality among stages are the additional life-cycle characteristics that permit the sustained cycles. Our general modeling approach is applicable to a wide range of organisms with temperature-dependent life histories and is likely to prove particularly useful in temperate systems where insect pest outbreaks are both density and temperature dependent.
Association of Insulin Gene VNTR Polymorphism with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Abstract: Variability in the number of tandem repeats of the insulin gene (INS VNTR) is known to influence several phenotypes, including polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), diabetes mellitus type 1, diabetes mellitus type 2, and birth weight. The presence of the class III allele of INS VNTR has been reported to be protective in diabetes mellitus type 1, but in contrary it increases the disease risk of PCOS and diabetes mellitus type 2. PCOS is a very common endocrinopathy in women of reproductive age. The etiology of PCOS is uncertain, but family history of this syndrome suggests a major genetic cause. The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the possible association of INS VNTR polymorphism with PCOS in Czech women. In PCOS, significantly higher WHR, BMI, G0, G180, I30, Cp0, Cp30, Cp60, AUC‐I, AUC‐Cp, and insulinogenic index and significantly lower AUC‐G/AUC‐I were found. No significant differences in INS VNTR genotype, phenotype, or allele frequencies were found between PCOS and controls. In spite of several differences in anthropometric and biochemical parameters (abdominal fat localization, increased β‐cell function, and lower insulin sensitivity in PCOS women), no effect of INS VNTR polymorphism was found on insulin secretion, insulin action, or any other screened parameter.
Do Business Leaders Value Human Resource Certification?

This study addresses the need for more empirical work regarding the value of human resource (HR) certification. The study extends previous research by examining the beliefs of top organizational leaders regarding the benefits of having HR-certified professionals in the organization. In addition, the authors compare and contrast managerial perceptions based on whether the leaders themselves hold certification (i.e., not certified, HR certified, or non-HR certified). The results show that 90% of organizational leaders perceived HR certification for their human resource professionals to be beneficial. Despite this perception, the results show that HR certification has limited influence on managerial decision making for career-related outcomes.
Waning antibody levels and avidity: implications for MMR vaccine-induced protection.

BACKGROUND The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is effective in eliciting a good antibody response. In addition to the amount of antibodies, the avidity of these antibodies might be important in protecting against disease. METHODS The amount of circulating antibodies for measles, mumps, and rubella was measured with enzyme immunoassays, and the avidity of these antibodies was determined by urea dissociation. Three groups of twice-MMR-vaccinated individuals and 1 group of naturally infected individuals were studied. One vaccinated group (n = 71) was studied 6 months and 20 years after a second MMR vaccination. RESULTS The antibody avidity indexes were high for measles and rubella but low for mumps. Twenty years after a second MMR vaccination, antibody levels for all 3 viruses waned. Also, the mean avidity index decreased by 8% for measles, 24% for mumps, and remained unchanged for rubella. Antibody avidity correlated with antibody concentration for measles. There was partial correlation for rubella and no correlation for mumps. CONCLUSIONS Measles and rubella induced high-avidity antibodies and mumps induced low-avidity antibodies after both vaccination and natural infection. Waning of both the concentration as well as the avidity of antibodies might contribute to measles and mumps infections in twice-MMR-vaccinated individuals.
Lack of effort as a result of self‐focused attention: An attributional ambiguity analysis

Attributional ambiguity is a strategy used to avoid having to attribute potentially negative performance on a task to ability. If the outcome of a task is attributable to ability, if no external cause for failure is available, and if a person is aware that the outcome is attributable to the self, ambiquity can be created with regard to the causation of the outcome. Heightened attribution of an outcome to self, as results from self-focused attention, was expected to produce less effort when external causes for potential failure were explicitly removed. In a 2 × 2 experiment, a positive mood was induced that was then either suggested or excluded as a plausible explanation for potential failure on a task said to be indicative of general intellectual ability. Subjects for whom self-awareness was experimentally induced, and for whom an external attribution of failure was explicitly removed, put significantly less effort into the task. Self-focus, however, has also been shown to enhance task performance. An indirect measure showed increased readiness to perform in direct contrast to the obtained lower self-reports of effort. The range of generalizability and application of attribute ambiguity is discussed.
Long-term complications after phacoemulsification for cataract removal in dogs: 172 cases (1995-2002).

OBJECTIVE To determine common postoperative complications and risk factors for development of postoperative glaucoma or failure to preserve vision after phacoemulsification for cataract removal in dogs. Design-Retrospective case series. ANIMALS 172 dogs (290 eyes) that underwent phacoemulsification surgery for cataract removal. PROCEDURE Medical records were reviewed for postoperative complications; prevalence rates for each complication were calculated for follow-up periods of 3 months, > 3 to 6 months, > 6 months to 1 year, > 1 to 2 years, > 2 to 3 years, > 3 to 4 years, and > 4 years. Odds ratios for breed, age, sex, cataract hypermaturity, lens-induced uveitis, and diabetes mellitus were determined with respect to glaucoma and failure (ie, blindness, enucleation, or evisceration). RESULTS The most common complication was mild posterior capsule opacification. Retinal detachment was uncommon (1% to 2%) for all time periods. Prevalence of glaucoma increased with time, although it remained < 10% until after the 1-year follow-up period. Boston Terriers, Cocker Spaniels, Cocker Spaniel-Poodle crosses, and Shih Tzus had increased risk of developing glaucoma. Eyes with hypermature cataracts were more likely to develop glaucoma. Prevalence of failure increased with time, although it remained < 10% until after the 3-year follow-up period. Cocker Spaniel-Poodle cross and Shih Tzus were more likely to have failure. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Evaluation of breed and cataract hypermaturity may aid in the selection of patients. The increasing prevalence of postoperative complications with time indicated that longterm monitoring is warranted.
Female Rape—An Ongoing Concern: Strategies for Improving Reporting and Conviction Levels

This article examines the reasons behind the low rate of reported female rape, the failure of rape cases to progress to trial and the unacceptable low conviction rate. There is a multitude of research in this area and the aim of this article is to consolidate this research rather than provide new research on the issues. Following this, the measures that have been introduced to improve reporting and conviction rates are identified and explained. These range from substantive and evidential changes in the law, through to the implementation of practical policy. The article assesses the impact and effectiveness of these measures on the relevant rates, by drawing on the available Law Commission, Home Office and academic research. Current suggestions and strategies for increasing the relevant rates are then examined. The article concludes with the author's own suggestions for improvement.
Cellular Scaling Rules for Primate Spinal Cords

The spinal cord can be considered a major sensorimotor interface between the body and the brain. How does the spinal cord scale with body and brain mass, and how are its numbers of neurons related to the number of neurons in the brain across species of different body and brain sizes? Here we determine the cellular composition of the spinal cord in eight primate species and find that its number of neurons varies as a linear function of cord length, and accompanies body mass raised to an exponent close to 1/3. This relationship suggests that the extension, mass and number of neurons that compose the spinal cord are related to body length, rather than to body mass or surface. Moreover, we show that although brain mass increases linearly with cord mass, the number of neurons in the brain increases with the number of neurons in the spinal cord raised to the power of 1.7. This faster addition of neurons to the brain than to the spinal cord is consistent with current views on how larger brains add complexity to the processing of environmental and somatic information.