Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of the Octarepeat Region in Neuroprotective Function of the Cellular Prion Protein

Structural alterations of the cellular prion protein (PrPC) seem to be the core of the pathogenesis of prion diseases. However, the physiological function of PrPC remains an enigma. Cell culture experiments have indicated that PrPC and in particular its N‐terminal octarepeat region together with the phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathways have a fundamental involvement in neuroprotection and oxidative stress reactions. We used wild‐type mice, PrP knockout (Prnp−/−) animals and transgenic mice that lack the octarepeat region (C4/−) and subjected them to controlled ischemia. We identified an increased cleavage and synthesis of PrPC in ischemic brain areas of wild‐type mice compared with sham controls. The infarct size in Prnp−/− animals was increased threefold when compared with wild‐type mice. The infarct size in C4/− animals was identical to Prnp−/− mice, that is, around three times larger than in wild‐type mice. We showed that the PrP in C4/− mice does not functionally rescue the Prnp−/− phenotype; furthermore it is unable to undergo β cleavage, although an increased amount of C1 fragments was found in ischemic brain areas compared with sham controls. We demonstrated that the N‐terminal octarepeat region has a lead function in PrPC physiology and neuroprotection against oxidative stress in vivo.
Block of mouse Slo1 and Slo3 K+ channels by CTX, IbTX, TEA, 4-AP and quinidine

pH-regulated Slo3 channels, perhaps exclusively expressed in mammalian sperm, may play a role in alkalization-mediated K+ fluxes associated with sperm capacitation. The Slo3 channel shares extensive homology with Ca2+- and voltage-regulated BK-type Slo1 K+ channels. Here, using heterologous expression in oocytes, we define distinctive differences in pharmacological properties of Slo3 and Slo1 currents, examine blockade in terms of distinct blocking models, and, for some blockers, use mutated constructs to evaluate determinants of block. Slo3 is resistant to block by the standard Slo1 blockers, iberiotoxin, charybdotoxin and extracellular TEA. Slo3 is relatively insensitive to extracellular 4-AP up to 100 mM, while Slo1 is blocked in a voltage-dependent fashion consistent with block on the extracellular side of the channel. Block of both Slo1 and Slo3 by cytosolic 4-AP can be described by open channel block, with Slo3 being ~10–15-fold more sensitive, but exhibiting weaker voltage-dependence of block. The cytosolic concentrations of 4-AP required to block Slo3 make it unlikely that the effects of 4-AP on volume regulation in mammalian sperm is mediated by Slo3. Quinidine was more effective in blocking Slo3 than Slo1. For Slo1, quinidine block was favored by depolarization, irrespective of the side of application. For Slo3, quinidine block was relieved by depolarization, irrespective of the side of application, with strong block by less than 10 μM quinidine at potentials near 0 mV. The unusual voltage-dependence of block of Slo3 by quinidine may result from preferential binding of quinidine to closed Slo3 channels. The quinidine concentrations effective in blocking Slo3 suggest, that in experiments that have examined quinidine effects on sperm, any Slo3 currents would be almost completely inhibited.
The Effect of Trade on the Demand for Skill: Evidence from the Interstate Highway System

The advent of the U.S. Interstate Highway System provides an interesting experiment, which I use to identify the labor market effects of reduced trade barriers. This highway network was designed to connect cities and border crossings and to serve national defense, and as an unintended consequence it crossed many rural counties. I find that these counties experienced an increase in trade-related activities, such as trucking and retail sales. By increasing trade, the highways raised the relative demand for skilled manufacturing workers in skill-abundant counties and reduced it elsewhere, consistent with the predictions of the Heckscher-Ohlin model.
The Relationships between the Antecedents of Innovativeness and Business Performance

The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationships among innovativeness, learning orientation, market orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, organizational structure, and business performance. The study designed a structural equation model to test the relationships. In order to test the model, covariance structural analyses were conducted for the data collected from 333 venture companies including innovation companies in Taiwan. The results indicated several significant findings. The most notable finding is that learning orientation plays a full mediating role in the relationships between market orientation and innovativeness. In addition to this finding, two types of organizational structure such as decentralization and formalization play a moderating role in the relationships among the antecedents of innovativeness and business performances. Further discussion, implications, limitation of this study and future direction were suggested.
Dapsone therapy for refractory immune thrombocytopenia patients: a case series

Background Dapsone has been recommended as a second-line immunosuppressive agent for patients with immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Methods We retrospectively analyzed the efficacy and safety of dapsone therapy in patients with ITP. Results Nine ITP patients were treated with dapsone at a dose of 50–100 mg/day between May 2013 and March 2016. All patients were refractory to multiple previous treatments, with a median of 7 agents (range, 4–8), and 3 patients had undergone a previous splenectomy. The median pre-treatment platelet count was 4×109/L (range, 3–27×109/L). Only 1 patient (11.1%) responded to dapsone therapy. No severe adverse events were observed, except for 1 case of dapsone hypersensitivity syndrome. Conclusion Although dapsone is still useful for some patients, it may be ineffective in heavily pretreated patients with profound thrombocytopenia.
Meta-analysis of Big-five Factor Personality Tests in China

Objective: In this paper,we analyzed and discussed the application of Big-five factor personality tests during the last fifteen years(1996~2010) in China.Methods: 229 studies were selected from published Chinese journals in the China National Knowledge Infrastruct(CNKI). Results: Firstly,whatever in China or in Western countries,coefficient alphas of TDA dimensions were the highest in three represents of Big-five factor personality tests,except the Neuroticism;secondly,when Western Big-five factor personality tests were used.The reliabilities got from Chinese psychologists were lower than Western counterparts;thirdly,coefficient alphas of the self developed Chinese Big-five factor personality scale were higher than the revised Western Big-five factor personality tests applied in China.Conclusion: It is necessary to develop the Chinese Big-five factor personality scale.
Coder Reliability and Misclassification in Comparative Manifesto Project Codings∗

The long time series of estimated party policy positions generated by the Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) is the only such time series available to the profession and has been extensively used in a wide variety of applications. Recent work (e.g. Benoit, Laver, and Mikhaylov 2007; Klingemann et. al. 2006, chs. 4–5) focuses on non-systematic sources of error in these estimates that arise from the text generation process. Our concern here, by contrast, is with error that arises during the text coding process, since nearly all manifestos are coded only once by a single coder. First, we discuss reliability and misclassification in the context of hand-coded content analysis methods. Second, we report results of a coding experiment that used trained human coders to code sample manifestos provided by the CMP, allowing us to estimate the reliability of both coders and coding categories. Third, we compare our test codings to the published CMP “gold standard” codings of the test documents to assess accuracy, and produce empirical estimates of a misclassification matrix for each coding category. Finally, we demonstrate the effect of coding misclassification on the CMP’s most widely used index, its left-right scale, and draw conclusions for future use and design of the CMP data.
Relationships among differential acculturation, family environment, and delinquency in first and second generation immigrant youths.

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG DIFFERENTIAL ACCULTURATION, FAMILY ENVIRONMENT, AND DELINQUENCY IN FIRST AND SECOND GENERATION IMMIGRANT YOUTHS. MAY 2001 SHARLENE T. BECKFORD, B.A., CORNELL UNIVERSITY M.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Margaret Stephenson This study investigates the family environment as a mediator of the effect of differential acculturation on adolescent delinquency. Two hundred and twenty-seven university students who identified as first and second generation immigrants completed questionnaires concerning their acculturation process, perceptions of their parents' acculturation, their family environment, involvement in risk behaviors, and their demographic information. Results showed that participants were differentially acculturated from their parents on both dimensions of acculturation. Participants rated their parents as more immersed in ethnic society than they are, and rated themselves as more immersed in dominant society than their parents. It was also shown that differential acculturation with mothers in dominant society immersion was negatively related with the seriousness of adolescent's substance use. Further, when the two generations were analyzed separately, differential acculturation predicted delinquency for first generation immigrants but not for second-generation immigrants. This study showed that future
Multiquantum filters and order in tissues

In ordered systems, where the molecular motion is anisotropic, quadrupolar and dipolar interactions are not averaged to zero. In such cases, double quantum (DQ) coherences can be formed. This review deals mainly with the effect of anisotropic motion of water molecules and sodium ions in intact biological tissues on 2H, 1H and 23Na NMR spectroscopy and its application to NMR imaging (MRI).
Practising Existential Therapy : The Relational World

Introduction To The Second Edition PRACTISING EXISTENTIAL THERAPY: THEORY Existential Therapy: Three Key Principles Existence Themes And Concerns Worlding And The Worldview Existential Phenomenological Critiques of Therapy Existential Therapy: An Overview PRACTISING EXISTENTIAL THERAPY: A STRUCTURAL MODEL A Structural Model For Practising Existential Therapy: An Introduction Phase One: Co-Creating The Therapy-World Phase Two: Co-Habiting The Therapy-World Phase Three: Closing Down The Therapy-World Addenda: Existential Therapy With Couples Existential Therapy With Groups Time-Limited Existential therapy Existential Supervision Conclusion
Open‐ocean barriers to dispersal: a test case with the Antarctic Polar Front and the ribbon worm Parborlasia corrugatus (Nemertea: Lineidae)

Open‐ocean environments provide few obvious barriers to the dispersal of marine organisms. Major currents and/or environmental gradients potentially impede gene flow. One system hypothesized to form an open‐ocean dispersal barrier is the Antarctic Polar Front, an area characterized by marked temperature change, deep water, and the high‐flow Antarctic Circumpolar current. Despite these potential isolating factors, several invertebrate species occur in both regions, including the broadcast‐spawning nemertean worm Parborlasia corrugatus. To empirically test for the presence of an open‐ocean dispersal barrier, we sampled P. corrugatus and other nemerteans from southern South America, Antarctica, and the sub‐Antarctic islands. Diversity was assessed by analyzing mitochondrial 16S rRNA and cytochrome c oxidase subunit I sequence data with Bayesian inference and tcs haplotype network analysis. Appropriate neutrality tests were also employed. Although our results indicate a single well‐mixed lineage in Antarctica and the sub‐Antarctic, no evidence for recent gene flow was detected between this population and South American P. corrugatus. Thus, even though P. corrugatus can disperse over large geographical distances, physical oceanographic barriers (i.e. Antarctic Polar Front and Antarctic Circumpolar Current) between continents have likely restricted dispersal over evolutionary time. Genetic distances and haplotype network analysis between South American and Antarctic/sub‐Antarctic P. corrugatus suggest that these two populations are possibly two cryptic species.
Capital Obsolescence and Agricultural Productivity*

This article argues that accounting for capital-embodied technology greatly increases the importance of capital in explaining cross-country differences in agricultural labor productivity. To do so, we draw on a novel data set of agricultural capital prices. We document that new capital is more expensive in richer countries, both in absolute terms and relative to old capital. A model of endogenous adoption of capital of different quality links these price differences to the path of capital-embodied technology. In particular, our model recovers the level of embodied technology from the price of new capital and the growth rate of embodied technology from the price of new capital relative to old capital. We then measure the stocks of quality-adjusted capital in agriculture for a sample of 16 countries at different stages of development. We find that adjusting for differences in quality almost doubles the importance of capital in accounting for cross-country differences in agricultural labor productivity: from 21% to 37%. In addition, improvements in capital quality have been an important source of agricultural labor productivity growth over the past 25 years, accounting for 21% and 35% of the productivity growth in poor and rich countries, respectively.
Mammalian skeletal muscle fibres promote non-muscle stem cells and non-stem cells to adopt myogenic characteristics

Skeletal muscle fibres are unique cells in large animals, often composed of thousands of post-mitotic nuclei. Following skeletal muscle damage, resident stem cells, called satellite cells, commit to myogenic differentiation and migrate to carry out repair. Satellite stem cells migrate on muscle fibres through amoeboid movement, which relies on dynamic cell membrane extension and retraction (blebbing). It is not known whether blebbing is due to the intrinsic properties of satellite cells, or induced by features of the myofibre surface. Here, we determined the influence of the muscle fibre matrix on two important features of muscle regeneration: the ability to migrate and to differentiate down a myogenic lineage. We show that the muscle fibre is able to induce amoeboid movement in non-muscle stem cells and non-stem cells. Secondly, we show that prolonged co-culture on myofibres caused amniotic fluid stem cells and breast cancer cells to express MyoD, a key myogenic determinant. Finally, we show that amniotic fluid stem cells co-cultured on myofibres are able to fuse and make myotubes that express Myosin Heavy Chain.
Reconsidering the evidence: are Eurozone business cycles converging?

This paper, using 40 years of monthly industrial production data, examines the relationship between the business cycles of the 12 Eurozone countries. Since estimates of the business cycle have been found to be sensitive to how the cycle is measured, a range of alternative measures are considered. We focus on both parametric and nonparametric univariate measures of the ‘classical’ and ‘growth’ cycles. We then investigate whether Eurozone business cycles have converged. This is based on an analysis of the distribution of bivariate correlation coefficients between the 12 countries’ business cycles. This extends previous work that has tested for convergence, in a similar manner by focusing on correlation, but has not considered the entire distribution, instead focusing on the mean correlation coefficient or particular bivariate correlation coefficients. Although empirical inference about individual Eurozone business cycles is found to be sensitive to the measure of the business cycle considered, our measure of convergence between the Eurozone business cycles exhibits common features across the alternative measures of the business cycle. Interestingly, we find that there have been periods of convergence, identified by the distribution tending to unity, and periods of divergence. Although further data are required to corroborate the story, there is evidence to suggest that the Euro-zone has entered a period of convergence after the clear period of divergence in the early 1990s in the aftermath of German unification and at the time of the currency crises in Europe. This is encouraging for the successful operation of a common monetary policy in the Eurozone. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
Ending spam's free ride

Spam is now a felony in the state of Virginia, as long as the unsolicited messages contain falsified information about the sender. With the harshest anti-spam law in the United States recently passed, Virginia---home to major ISPs such as America Online---is hoping to prove that legislation is finally providing the tools needed to cap the flow of bulk e-mail advertising. But to skeptics even the strongest anti-spam laws will be hobbled by long processing times and fuzzy jurisdiction. Rather, argues Barry Shein, owner of "The World" (which was America's first public dial-up ISP), effectively ending spam requires an inversion of the economics of e-mail---shift the burden of cost onto the spammers. Until then, argues Shein and other like-minded voices, even the strongest legislation and most advanced technological defenses will only continue to drop the costs of spam on our collective shoulders.
Mobile robotic teleoperation using gesture-based human interfaces

In this work a natural interaction framework for programming a mobile robot with gestures is developed using two low-cost human interface devices available on the market. The use of natural motion has been growing among user interface researches and developers for offering comfortable ways of interacting with the devices around us. Some examples can be seen in how touch screens, accelerometers and image processing have influenced our interactions with cellphones, gaming devices and computers, thus, allowing us to take advantage of our body ergonomics. The objective of this work is to integrate an intuitive tool for teleoperating a mobile robot through gestures as an alternative input for encouraging non-experts to relate with robotics and ease navigation tasks. For accomplishing the objective of this work, the mobile robots programming architecture is studied and integrated with those of the user interfaces for allowing the teleoperation of the robotics device. To check how the implemented framework impacts the user interaction, a navigation scenario with obstacles is used for validating the suitability of the gesture-based navigation.
Microarray-facilitated mechanical characterization of breast tissue pathology samples using contact-mode Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)

Much of the difficulty in rendering consistent evaluation of pathological tissue specimens arises from qualitative impressions of observers. Hence, a quantitative phenotype to automatically characterize the type and stage of cancer based upon an objective measure of its morphology and mechanical properties could provide insight regarding the changes that occur in the tissue environment during the course of disease onset and progression. In this work, we attempt to evaluate the elastic modulus of normal and cancerous human breast tissue using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), which consists of a micro-cantilever that probes the sample at multiple locations to evaluate its local stiffness. We use the Hertz contact model to evaluate the elastic modulus values. Our initial findings show that cancerous specimens exhibit significantly lower elastic modulus than normal breast tissue.
The artificial silicon retina microchip for the treatment of vision loss from retinitis pigmentosa.

OBJECTIVE To determine the safety and efficacy of the artificial silicon retina (ASR) microchip implanted in the subretinal space to treat vision loss from retinitis pigmentosa. METHODS The ASR microchip is a 2-mm-diameter silicon-based device that contains approximately 5000 microelectrode-tipped microphotodiodes and is powered by incident light. The right eyes of 6 patients with retinitis pigmentosa were implanted with the ASR microchip while the left eyes served as controls. Safety and visual function information was collected. RESULTS During follow-up that ranged from 6 to 18 months, all ASRs functioned electrically. No patient showed signs of implant rejection, infection, inflammation, erosion, neovascularization, retinal detachment, or migration. Visual function improvements occurred in all patients and included unexpected improvements in retinal areas distant from the implant. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Subjective improvements included improved perception of brightness, contrast, color, movement, shape, resolution, and visual field size. CONCLUSIONS No significant safety-related adverse effects were observed. The observation of retinal visual improvement in areas far from the implant site suggests a possible generalized neurotrophic-type rescue effect on the damaged retina caused by the presence of the ASR. A larger clinical trial is indicated to further evaluate the safety and efficacy of a subretinally implanted ASR.
Not blogging, drinking: Peer learning, sociality and intercultural learning in study abroad

Research into study abroad students’ intercultural learning has demonstrated a need to provide pedagogical support before, during and after the study abroad experience. This article reports on the authors’ efforts to support the in-country learning of Australian study abroad students through an online guided reflection exercise (blog) with a peer-learning component. Our findings suggest that exposing students to theories of intercultural learning prior to the study abroad experience opens them to the possibility of such learning occurring. However, the unanticipated discovery that the students’ most significant intercultural learning stemmed from the processes of social drinking rather than online interaction emphasizes that participation in an unfamiliar culture is an embodied and social experience, and suggests that concentration of pedagogical efforts in familiar and disembodied online spaces may disconnect students from the very experiences on which we wish them to reflect. We therefore recommend that instructors design opportunities for peer learning through embodied social interactions between outgoing and incoming study abroad students, framed by explicit discussion of concepts in intercultural learning. Such scaffolding is likely to be more sustainable in the current Australian fiscal environment than the intensive in-country instructor intervention that is common in the North American context.