Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When Interrogative Self‐talk Improves Task Performance: The Role of Answers to Self‐posed Questions

Summary Nearly all the self-talk cues studied so far have been self-statements. However, the findings of Senay, Albarracin, and Noguchi suggest that interrogative self-talk produces better task performance than declarative one. Two of the experiments reported here were meant to replicate that study, but the expected differences were not confirmed. Experiment 3 showed that if a self-posed question about future behavior was answered positively, task performance was better than in groups exposed either to the self-statement ‘I will do it’ or to a negative answer following the question. However, these differences occurred only in those who self-reported the awareness of the impact of self-talk on their thought processes. This effect and the possible reasons why between-group differences were not found in Experiments 1 and 2 are discussed. An alternative explanation for the results of Experiment 3 is also proposed beside that stressing the impact of internal answer. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Microdecompressive Laminatomy With a 5-year Follow-up Period for Severe Lumbar Spinal Stenosis

Study Design The 2 groups of patients with severe lumbar spinal stenosis were prospectively compared as a case control study. Objectives This prospective case control study sought to evaluate bilateral microdecompressive laminatomy (MDL) for treatment of severe lumbar spinal stenosis. Summary of Background Data Total laminectomy is a general consensus on the therapy of severe spinal stenosis. The authors tried to investigate a new minimal invasive approach. Methods Patients were randomly divided into 2 groups. In first group, 34 patients underwent total laminectomy (TL) for severe lumbar spinal stenosis. In the second group, 37 patients with the same diagnosis underwent bilateral MDL. The groups were compared for disability, walking distance, degree of postoperative back and leg pain, perioperative complications, and postoperative instability. Radiographic analyses were performed at regular intervals to demonstrate satisfactory decompression. Results Mean follow-up was 5 years. Postoperative computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated adequate decompressions in both groups. The walking distance, pain control, and disability scores were slightly higher among patients in the MDL group, although these results did not achieve statistical significance. Perioperative complications and postoperative instability were significantly higher in the TL group (P<0.05). Conclusions Compared with classic approaches, bilateral MDL provides adequate and safe decompression in lumbar spinal stenosis. It significantly reduces clinical symptoms and disability. However, TL shows higher perioperative complications and postoperative instability. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to define a bilateral MDL approach to treat the stenotic lumbar spine without a herniated disc.
Cytoplasmic structures of epiphyseal plate chondrocytes. Quantitative evaluation using electron micrographs of rat costochondral junctions with special reference to the fate of hypertrophic cells.

The cytoplasmic components of chondrocytes in the various zones of the costochondral junction of male Sprague-Dawley rats were quantitated from electron micrographs using the point-counting method. A progressive increase in the content of endoplasmic reticulum, mitochondria, lysosomes, and Golgi complexes from the zone of small-size cartilage cells through the zone of hypertrophic cells was observed, while the content of lipid bodies, vacuoles, and multivesicular bodies decreased progressively through these zones. From these studies it was concluded that the hypertrophic cells are metabolically very active. The last chondrocyte at the base of each cell column, in the zone of provisional calcification, shows fragmentation of the cell membrane and of the nuclear envelope with loss of all cytoplasmic components except mitochondria and a few scattered remnants of endoplasmic reticulum, clear evidence that the ultimate fate of the epiphyseal chondrocyte is death.
The Lack of a Right to Housing and Its Implications in Australia

The right to housing implies that all households have the right to affordable and adequate housing and firm security of tenure, the absence of which is seen among many Australian households. The serious implications of the lack of a right to housing which is evident from inadequate housing policy in Australia and how it has adversely affected the health of many households diminishing their possibility of living a reasonable life is highlighted.
Biological and clinical significance of p75NTR expression in laryngeal squamous epithelia and laryngocarcinoma

Abstract Conclusion: The apparent features of p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) expression indicated that p75NTR would serve as a potential stem cell marker for normal human laryngeal squamous epithelia. In human laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) p75NTR is differentially expressed. The abnormal expression and distribution of p75NTR may indicate malignant transformation. Objective: To investigate the expression of p75NTR and its possible roles in normal laryngeal squamous epithelia and LSCC. Methods: We used immunohistochemistry methods to examine normal laryngeal epithelia, para-cancer mucosa with dysplasia, laryngeal papilloma, and LSCC specimens for the expression of p75NTR, nerve growth factor (NGF), -tyrosine kinase receptor (TrkA), p63, and Ki67. Immunocytochemistry and flow cytometry were used to examine the expression of p75NTR in Hep-2 cells. Results: The expression of p75NTR was only located in basal cells of normal laryngeal epithelia, consistent with the staining features of epithelial stem cells as evidenced by parallel staining of p63, a putative keratinocyte stem cell marker. p75NTR is differentially expressed in LSCC, although no significant relationship was found with many clinicopathologic factors, this expression and distribution may correlate to malignant transformation and tumor proliferation. Co-expression of p75NTR and CD133 was confirmed, showing the association of p75NTR-positive cells with cancer stem cells in Hep-2 cells.
CREB Binding Protein Interacts with Nucleoporin-Specific FG Repeats That Activate Transcription and Mediate NUP98-HOXA9 Oncogenicity

ABSTRACT Genes encoding the Phe-Gly (FG) repeat-containing nucleoporins NUP98 and CAN/NUP214 are at the breakpoints of several chromosomal translocations associated with human acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but their role in oncogenesis is unclear. Here we demonstrate that the NUP98-HOXA9 fusion gene encodes two nuclear oncoproteins with either 19 or 37 NUP98 FG repeats fused to the DNA binding and PBX heterodimerization domains of the transcription factor HOXA9. Both NUP98-HOXA9 chimeras transformed NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, and this transformation required the HOXA9 domains for DNA binding and PBX interaction. Surprisingly, the FG repeats acted as very potent transactivators of gene transcription. This NUP98-derived activity is essential for transformation and can be replaced by the bona fide transactivation domain of VP16. Interestingly, FG repeat-containing segments derived from the nucleoporins NUP153 and CAN/NUP214 functioned similarly to those from NUP98. We further demonstrate that transactivation by FG repeat-rich segments of NUP98 correlates with their ability to interact functionally and physically with the transcriptional coactivators CREB binding protein (CBP) and p300. This finding shows, for the first time, that a translocation-generated fusion protein appears to recruit CBP/p300 as an important step of its oncogenic mechanism. Together, our results suggest that NUP98-HOXA9 chimeras are aberrant transcription factors that deregulate HOX-responsive genes through the transcriptional activation properties of nucleoporin-specific FG repeats that recruit CBP/p300. Indeed, FG repeat-mediated transactivation may be a shared pathogenic function of nucleoporins implicated human AML.
Clifford algebras and approximating the permanent

(MATH) We study approximation algorithms for the permanent of an n x n (0,1) matrix A based on the following simple idea: obtain a random matrix B by replacing each 1-entry of A independently by ± e, where e is a random basis element of a suitable algebra; then output |det(B)|2. This estimator is always unbiased, but it may have exponentially large variance. In our first main result we show that, if we take the algebra to be a Clifford algebra of dimension polynomial in n, then we get an estimator with small variance. Hence only a constant number of trials suffices to estimate the permanent to good accuracy. The idea of using Clifford algebras is a natural extension of earlier work by Godsil and Gutman, Karmarkar et al., and Barvinok, who used the real numbers, complex numbers and quaternions respectively. (MATH) The above result implies that, in principle, this approach gives a fully-polynomial randomized approximation scheme for the permanent, provided |det(B)|2 can be efficiently computed in the Clifford algebras. Since these algebras are non-commutative it is not clear how to do this. However, our second main result shows how to compute in polynomial time an estimator with the same mean and variance over the 4-dimensional algebra (which is the quaternions, and is non-commutative); in addition to providing some hope that the computations can be performed in higher dimensions, this quaternion algorithm provides an exponential improvement in the variance over that of the 2-dimensional complex version studied by Karmarkar et al.
Ursodeoxycholic acid prevents ventricular conduction slowing and arrhythmia by restoring T-type calcium current in fetuses during cholestasis

Background Increased maternal serum bile acid concentrations in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) are associated with fetal cardiac arrhythmias. Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has been shown to demonstrate anti-arrhythmic properties via preventing ICP-associated cardiac conduction slowing and development of reentrant arrhythmias, although the cellular mechanism is still being elucidated. Methods High-resolution fluorescent optical mapping of electrical activity and electrocardiogram measurements were used to characterize effects of UDCA on one-day-old neonatal and adult female Langendorff-perfused rat hearts. ICP was modelled by perfusion of taurocholic acid (TC, 400μM). Whole-cell calcium currents were recorded from neonatal rat and human fetal cardiomyocytes. Results TC significantly prolonged the PR interval by 11.0±3.5% (P<0.05) and slowed ventricular conduction velocity (CV) by 38.9±5.1% (P<0.05) exclusively in neonatal and not in maternal hearts. A similar CV decline was observed with the selective T-type calcium current (ICa,T) blocker mibefradil 1μM (23.0±6.2%, P<0.05), but not with the L-type calcium current (ICa,L) blocker nifedipine 1μM (6.9±6.6%, NS). The sodium channel blocker lidocaine (30μM) reduced CV by 60.4±4.5% (P<0.05). UDCA co-treatment was protective against CV slowing induced by TC and mibefradil, but not against lidocaine. UDCA prevented the TC-induced reduction in the ICa,T density in both isolated human fetal (−10.2±1.5 versus −5.5±0.9 pA/pF, P<0.05) and neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (−22.3±1.1 versus −9.6±0.8 pA/pF, P<0.0001), whereas UDCA had limited efficacy on the ICa,L. Conclusion Our findings demonstrate that ICa,T plays a significant role in ICP-associated fetal cardiac conduction slowing and arrhythmogenesis, and is an important component of the fetus-specific anti-arrhythmic activity of UDCA.
Major Developmental Characteristics of Children's Name Writing and Relationships with Fine Motor Skills and Emergent Literacy Skills

This dissertation attempts to contribute to the field of early childhood education by exploring the nature of children’s name writing development. Name writing involves not only emergent literacy skills but also fine motor skills. Three studies are included in the dissertation: Study One focuses on identifying the major characteristics in children’s name writing development. Study Two validated the name writing scale proposed by the analysis in Study One. Using the proposed name writing scale, Study Three explored the relationships among name writing development, emergent literacy skills and fine motor skills. The data examined by the dissertation were drawn from the longitudinal project "Enhanced HS-MAP Intervention: Linking Program Evaluation and Child Outcomes" (Dickstein, Seifer, & Miller, 2002-2006). A total of 641 name writing samples produced by 321 Head Start children as well as their DIAL-3 (Mardell-Czudnowski & Goldenberg, 1998) test scores were included. The major findings of the study suggest: 1). There are several name writing developmental characteristics; however, not all of them appear as distinctive levels in the development of name writing. After qualitative and quantitative analysis, the dissertation identified five major name writing characteristics that can be distinguished using the criteria of frequent appearance and distinctive age of appearance; they are Aimless scribbles, Flat/wavy scribble or None/refusal, Symbols or letter-like units, One or few letters from name, and Conventional or spelling almost correct. 2). A qualitative examination of the longitudinal data suggested that only a few individual children’s showed name writing development that was not a monotonic development. Some children will stay in a level for several months, and some will skip a level or two. 3). Among fine motor skills and literacy skills variables, Letters and sounds has the strongest positive relationship with three-year-olds’ name writing development, but copying skills is the most important factor that influences four-year-olds’ name writing development. Since most five-year-old children could write their names conventionally, there is apparently a ceiling effect for five-year-old children. The cognitive variables that predict level of name writing vary with development.
The Histone Acetylase PCAF Is a Phorbol-Ester-Inducible Coactivator of the IRF Family That Confers Enhanced Interferon Responsiveness

ABSTRACT Transcription factors of the interferon regulatory factor (IRF) family bind to the type I interferon (IFN)-responsive element (ISRE) and activate transcription from IFN-inducible genes. To identify cofactors that associate with IRF proteins, DNA affinity binding assays were performed with nuclear extracts prepared from tissue culture cells. The results demonstrated that the endogenous IRFs bound to the ISRE are complexed with the histone acetylases, PCAF, GCN5, and p300/CREB binding protein and that histone acetylase activities are accumulated on the IRF-ISRE complexes. By testing recombinant proteins, we show that PCAF directly binds to some but not all members of the IRF family through distinct domains of the two proteins. This interaction was functionally significant, since transfection of PCAF strongly enhanced IRF-1- and IRF-2-dependent promoter activities. Further studies showed that expression of PCAF and other histone acetylases was markedly induced in U937 cells upon phorbol ester treatment, which led to increased recruitment of PCAF to the IRF-ISRE complexes. Coinciding with the induction of histone acetylases, phorbol ester markedly enhanced IFN-α-stimulated gene expression in U937 cells. Supporting the role for PCAF in conferring IFN responsiveness, transfection of PCAF into U937 cells led to a large increase in IFN-α-inducible promoter activity. These results demonstrate that PCAF is a phorbol ester-inducible coactivator of the IRF proteins which contributes to the establishment of type I IFN responsiveness.
Optimal External Debt and Default

This paper analyses whether sovereign default episodes can be seen as contingencies of optimal international lending contracts. The model considers a small open economy with capital accumulation and without commitment to repay debt. Taking first order approximations of Bellman equations, I derive analytical expressions for the equilibrium level of debt and the optimal debt contract. In this environment, debt relief generated by reasonable fluctuations in productivity is an order of magnitude below that generated by shocks to world interest rates. Debt relief prescribed by the model following the interest rate hikes of 1980-81 accounts for a substantial part of the debt forgiveness obtained by the main Latin American countries through the Brady agreements.
First- and second-order optimality conditions for piecewise smooth objective functions

Any piecewise smooth function that is specified by an evaluation procedure involving smooth elemental functions and piecewise linear functions like and can be represented in the so-called abs-normal form. By an extension of algorithmic, or automatic, differentiation, one can then compute certain first- and second-order derivative vectors and matrices that represent a local piecewise linearization and provide additional curvature information. On the basis of these quantities, we characterize local optimality by first- and second-order necessary and sufficient conditions, which generalize the corresponding Kuhn-Tucker-Karush (KKT) theory for smooth problems. The key assumption is the linear independence kink qualification, a generalization of Linear Independence Constraint Qualification (LICQ) familiar from nonlinear optimization. It implies that the objective has locally a so-called decomposition and renders everything tractable in terms of matrix factorizations and other simple linear algebra operations. By yielding descent directions, whenever they are violated the new optimality conditions point the way to a superlinearly convergent generalized Quadratic Program solver, which is currently under development. We exemplify the theory on two nonsmooth examples of Nesterov.
Prevalence and risk factors of chlamydia and gonorrhea among rural Nepali women

Objectives: The epidemiology of sexually transmitted infections (STI) in rural, developing world populations is poorly understood. We estimated the prevalence and risk factors of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Chlamydiatrachomatis in a female population in rural Nepal. Methods: We conducted a cross sectional study in a sample of 1177 postpartum women participating in a micronutrient supplementation trial in Nepal. Urine samples were collected to test for the two infections using the ligase chain reaction (LCR). Results:C trachomatis was detected in 1.0% (95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.4 to 1.5) and N gonorrhoeae in 2.3% (95% CI: 1.2 to 3.4) of women. None of the women tested positive for both. Self report of all three symptoms of lower abdominal pain, pain and burning on urination, and vaginal discharge was associated with the presence of gonorrhoea (odds ratio (OR): 12.1, 95% CI: 1.3 to 115.0). Neonatal eye discharge was associated with maternal gonococcal infection (OR = 5.2, 95% CI: 1.1 to 24.9). Incidence of low birth weight was not related to these maternal infections, but very preterm delivery (<32 weeks) was higher among women positive for gonorrhoea (OR = 4.7, 95% CI: 1.0 to 22.0). In a multivariable analysis, low body mass index (<18.5) and cattle ownership were associated with gonorrhoea (p <0.05), whereas woman’s literacy was associated with chlamydia (p = 0.06). Conclusion: We found the rates of N gonorrhoeae and C trachomatis to be low among women in this rural population of Nepal.
SA-OLSR: Security Aware Optimized Link State Routing for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Currently, mobile ad hoc network (MANET) has drawn great attention for being part of the ubiquitous network. Unlike the conventional network, MANETs have many unique features such as node resource constraint. That is why several efficient routing protocols have been proposed specifically for MANETs. Among these protocols, optimized link state routing (OLSR) is one of the four important routing protocol identified by IETF. The current OLSR protocol assumes that all nodes are trusted. However, in hostile environment, the OLSR is known to be vulnerable to various kinds of malicious attacks. In this paper, we propose a new security aware optimized link state routing (SA-OLSR) which is a secured version of current OLSR. Our approach is based on exchanging acknowledgement between 2-hop neighbors when the control traffic is successfully received. The main advantage of our approach is that it can protect against many sophisticated attacks such as link spoofing, colluding misrelay attack, and wormhole attack without requiring any location information as well as the knowledge of complete network topology. Our simulation results show that the proposed solution can achieve higher packet delivery ratio compared to the network using the standard OLSR in the presence of malicious nodes.
IDENTITAS ORGANISASI: EKSPLORASI TERHADAP DIMENSI DAN MAKNANYA BAGI PERUBAHAN ORGANISASI

Abstract This phenomenological study was aimed to understand and to explore how organization identity emerged when it faces with change and development. Based on this understanding, the dynamics and meaning of the new emerging identity was examined, especially in term of how the organization identity functions in dealing with changing environments. Five organizations that experienced and dealt with changing situations were involved within this study. The organizations involved in this study were ranged from educational institutions that developed new core businesses, mining factories that did rightsizing of their organization structures, and hotel businesses that developed their services quality, from two-star to four-star hotel. In-depth interviews were applied to organizationsâ€™ decision makers who experienced the processs of developing strategies to deal with change of each organization. The results showed that new identity, the mechanism within the self of the organization, that led to new respect and dignity emerged. New themes were reconstructed and they led to new-emerging organization identity: (1) be more discipline with tighter rules and regulations; (2) be integrated and interconnected to all possible resources; (3) be more flexible, learning hard; and (4) self dignity and respect by developing quality assurance. Keywords: phenomenological study, organization identity, organization change and development, in-depth interview Abstrak Penelitian dengan menggunakan perspektif fenomenologis ini ditujukan untuk memahami bagaimana dimensi dan makna identitas organisasi yang sedang mengalami perubahan. Melalui pem berkecimpung di bidang perhotelan yang tengah mengembangkan kualitas layanannya; dari bintang dua menuju ke kualitas layanan hotel bintang empat. In-depth interview digunakan pada para pengambil keputusan dalam organisasi yang mengalami langsung proses pengembangan strateahaman ini digali secara lebih mendalam bagaimana dinamika organisasi dalam memahami dan memaknai perkembangan identitas dirinya dalam konteks perubahan lingkungan. Lima organisasi yang sedang mengalami proses perubahan dilibatkan dalam penelitian ini. Organisasi-organisasi yang diteliti terdiri atas institusi pendidikan yang sedang mengembangkan bisnis atau aktivitas initinya, perusahaan pertambangan yang melakukan proses rightsizing, dan organisasi yanggi organisasi dalam menghadapi perubahan. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa orgnisasi membangun dan mengembangkan identitas baru, yang merupakan mekanisme yang berkembang dalam â€˜diriâ€™ organisasi, yang mengarah pada tema new respect and dignity. Identitas baru ini meliputi: (1) disiplin dengan membangun aturan dan regulasi yang lebih ketat; (2) terintegrasi dan terkoneksi dengan semua sumber daya yang relevan; (3) lebih lentur, dan belajar lebih keras; dan (4) self dignity and respect melalui upaya mengembangkanquality assurance yang efektif. Kata kunci: perspektif fenomenologis, identitas organisasi, perubahan organisasi