Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Molecular cloning and expression of a pituitary somatostatin receptor with preferential affinity for somatostatin: 28.

Using the polymerase chain reaction technique with degenerative primers, we obtained from a rat pituitary cDNA library a cDNA fragment, rAP236, that exhibited considerable homology to known receptors that belong to the guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein)-coupled receptor superfamily. Oligonucleotides to this fragment were used as probes to obtain a full-length cDNA from the rat pituitary cDNA library. This clone, rAP6-26, encoded a 383-amino acid protein with seven putative transmembrane domains that are characteristic of G protein-coupled receptors. The predicted amino acid sequence of the rAP6-26 cDNA exhibits 56-66% homology to recently cloned somatostatin (SRIF) receptors. Membranes prepared from COS-7 cells transfected with the rAP6-26 cDNA showed specific binding of 125I-Tyr11-SRIF, thus identifying the cDNA clone as a novel SRIF receptor. Radioligand binding competition analysis using somatostatin-28 (SRIF-28) and a number of cyclic SRIF analogs revealed that SRIF-28 was the most potent competitor of 125I-Tyr11-SRIF binding, with a approximately 30-fold greater affinity for the receptor than that of SRIF. In addition, binding of 125I-Tyr11-SRIF was markedly reduced in the presence of Na+ ions and GTP, indicating coupling of rAP6-26 receptors to inhibitory G proteins in COS-7 membranes. In adenylyl cyclase assays, forskolin-induced cAMP accumulation was inhibited by SRIF and SRIF-28, thus confirming that the rAP6-26 cDNA encodes a functional receptor protein. By Northern blot analysis, a approximately 2.6 kilobase mRNA encoding the receptor was present in the pituitary but not in the liver, small intestine, kidney, pancreas, cerebellum, or cortex. Lack of receptor mRNA expression in the brain was confirmed by in situ hybridization histochemical studies. Thus, we report the cloning of a novel rat pituitary SRIF receptor, termed SSTR4, that has marked preferential affinity for SRIF-28 and is linked to inhibition of adenylyl cyclase.
A simple diagnostic index comprising epithelial membrane antigen and fibronectin for hepatocellular carcinoma.

UNLABELLED Background and rationale for the study. Continuing search for suitable tumor-markers is of clinical value in managing patients with various malignancies. These markers may be presented as intracellular substances in tissues or may be released into the circulation and appear in serum. Therefore, this work is concerned with identification and quantitative determination of epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and fibronectin and estimating their performances as surrogate markers for identifying hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). RESULTS A total of 627 individuals constituted this study [fibrosis (F1-F3) = 217; cirrhosis = 191; HCC = 219]. Western-blot was used for identifying EMA and fibronectin in sera. As a result, a single immunoreactive band was shown at 130-kDa and 90-kDa corresponding to EMA and fibronectin, respectively. They were quantified using ELISA providing values in HCC higher than fibrosis or cirrhosis with a significant difference (P < 0.0001). For identifying HCC, EMA showed 0.82 area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC) with sensitivity = 70% and specificity = 78% while fibronectin yielded AUC = 0.70 with sensitivity = 67% and specificity = 82%. FEBA-Test comprising fibronectin and EMA together with total-bilirubin and AFP was constructed yielding AUC = 0.92 for identifying HCC from cirrhosis with sensitivity = 89% and specificity = 85%. FEBA-Test was then tested for differentiating HCC from fibrosis showing AUC = 0.97 with sensitivity = 90% and specificity = 89%. FEBA-Test enabled the correct identification of HCC patients with CLIP 0-1 and size ≤ 3 cm with AUC = 0.80 and AUC = 0.84, respectively, indicating its ability in identifying early HCC. CONCLUSIONS A four-marker index may improve the early detection of HCC with a high degree of accuracy.
Detecting Large Reshare Cascades in Social Networks

Detecting large reshare cascades is an important problem in online social networks. There are a variety of attempts to model this problem, from using time series analysis methods to stochastic processes. Most of these approaches heavily depend on the underlying network features and use network information to detect the virality of cascades. In most cases, however, getting such detailed network information can be hard or even impossible. In contrast, in this paper, we propose SANSNET, a network-agnostic approach instead. Our method can be used to answer two important questions: (1) Will a cascade go viral? and (2) How early can we predict it? We use techniques from survival analysis to build a supervised classifier in the space of survival probabilities and show that the optimal decision boundary is a survival function. A notable feature of our approach is that it does not use any network-based features for the prediction tasks, making it very cheap to implement. Finally, we evaluate our approach on several real-life data sets, including popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter, on metrics like recall, F-measure and breakout coverage. We find that network agnostic SANSNET classifier outperforms several non-trivial competitors and baselines which utilize network information.
Fundamental plasmid strings and black rings

We construct excited states of fundamental strings that admit a semiclassical description as rotating circular loops of string. We identify them with the supergravity solutions for rotating dipole rings. The identification involves a precise match of the mass, radius and angular momentum of the two systems. Moreover, the degeneracy of the string state reproduces the parametric dependence of the entropy in the supergravity description. When the solutions possess two macroscopic angular momenta, they are better described as toroidal configurations (tubular loops) instead of loops of string. We argue that the decay of the string state can be interpreted as superradiant emission of quanta from the ergoregion of the rotating ring.
The future of gross anatomy teaching

A survey of U. S. departments of anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry shows that 39% of the respondent anatomy departments reported declines in the numbers of graduate students taking the human gross anatomy course. Similarly, 42% of the departments reported decreases in the numbers of graduate students teaching human gross anatomy. These decreases were greater in anatomy than in physiology and in biochemistry. The percentages of departments reporting increases in students taking or teaching their courses was 6% for human gross anatomy and 0% to 19% for physiology and biochemistry courses. To reverse this trend the establishment of specific programs for the training of gross anatomy teachers is advocated. These new teachers will be available as the need for them is increasingly recognized in the future. © 1995 WiIey‐Liss, Inc.
Surgical portosystemic shunts and the Rex bypass in children: a single-centre experience.

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to illustrate the indications for, and types and outcomes of surgical portosystemic shunt (PSS) and/or Rex bypass in a single centre. METHODS Data were collected from children with a PSS and/or Rex bypass between 1992 and 2006 at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. RESULTS Median age at surgery was 10.7 years (range 0.3-22.0 years). Indications included: (i) refractory gastrointestinal bleeding in portal hypertension associated with (a) compensated cirrhosis (n= 12), (b) portal vein thrombosis (n= 10), (c) hepatoportal sclerosis (n= 3); (ii) refractory ascites secondary to Budd-Chiari syndrome (n= 3), and (iii) familial hypercholesterolaemia (n= 4). There were 20 distal splenorenal, four portacaval, three Rex bypass, two mesocaval, two mesoatrial and one proximal splenorenal shunts. At the last follow-up (median 2.9 years, range 0.1-14.1 years), one shunt (Rex bypass) was thrombosed. Two patients had died and two had required a liver transplant. These had a patent shunt at last imaging prior to death or transplant. CONCLUSIONS Portosystemic shunts and Rex bypass have been used to manage portal hypertension with excellent outcomes. In selected children with compensated liver disease, PSS may act as a bridge to liver transplantation or represent an attractive alternative.
The role of reading comprehension in large-scale subject-matter assessments

Title of Document: THE ROLE OF READING COMPREHENSION IN LARGE-SCALE SUBJECT-MATTER ASSESSMENTS Ting Zhang, Ph.D, 2013 Directed By: Professor, Judith Torney-Purta, Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology Professor Emeritus, Robert J. Mislevy, Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology This study was designed with the overall goal of understanding how difficulties in reading comprehension are associated with early adolescents’ performance in large-scale assessments in subject domains including science and civic-related social studies. The current study extended previous research by taking a cognition-centered approach based on the Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) framework and by using U.S. data from four large-scale subject-matter assessments: the IEA TIMSS Science Study of 1999, IEA CIVED Civic Education Study of 1999, and the 1970s IEA Six Subject surveys in Science, and in Civic Education. Using multiple-choice items from the TIMSS science and CIVED tests, the study identified a list of linguistic features that contribute to item difficulty of subject-matter assessments through the Coh-Metrix software, human rating, and multiple regression analysis. These linguistic features include word length, word frequency, word abstractness, intentional verbs, negative expressions, and logical connectives. They pertain to different levels of Kintsch’s reading comprehension model: surface level, textbase level, and situation model. Integrating this item-level information into multiple regression analysis and Multidimensional IRT modeling, the study provided feasible methods (1) to estimate reading demand of test items in each subject-matter assessment, and (2) to partial out variance related to high level of reading demand of some test items and independent of the domain proficiencies that the subject-matter assessment was intended to measure. Overall, results suggested that reading demands of all test items in TIMSS Science and CIVED tests were within the reading capabilities of almost all of the students, and these two tests were not saturated with high reading demand. In addition, multiple regression results from the earlier Six Subject Surveys showed that an independent measure of students’ general vocabulary was highly correlated with their achievement in the domains of science and civic-related social studies. On average, boys outperformed girls in both subject domains, and students from home with ample literacy resources outperformed students from homes of few literacy resources. In the science assessment, interactions were found between gender and word knowledge, home literacy resources and word knowledge, meaning the correlation between vocabulary and science performances differed by gender and home background. THE ROLE OF READING COMPREHENSION IN LARGE-SCALE SUBJECTMATTER ASSESSMENTS
Growth performance and carcass characteristics of Arsi-Bale goats castrated at different ages

2 Abstract: The study was conducted on thirty six male Arsi-Bale kids of 10.56±0.39kg initial body weight for 15 months to investigate the effects of age at castration on growth performance and carcass characteristics. The treatments were entire/intact (T1), castration at three month of age (T2), castration at six month of age (T3) and castration at nine month of age (T4). All castrated and entire goats were browsed during day time and supplemented with concentrate at 2.5% of body weight in DM per day which adjusted with changes in their body weight. Five goats from each treatment were randomly selected and slaughtered for carcass evaluation. Age at castration had no significant effect on body weight, total weight gain (TG), overall average daily gain (ADG) and linear body measurements. T1 and T4 had significantly (P<0.05) higher ADG (g/day) (113.73±3.53 and 108.50±5.23, respectively) than T2 (92.16±6.20) and T3 (92.16±5.72) at 9-12 months of age. There were no significant differences among treatments on most carcass or non-carcass measurements except for fat deposition, which were significantly (P<0.05) lower and heavier for entire as compared to castrated groups, respectively. Therefore, castration is important for better fat deposition in carcass than for body weight gain improvement as time of castration did not result in better weight gain in this study. If castration desired, early castration is recommendable as goats castrated at three months of age had better rib eye area and fat thickness than other castrated groups and intact goats.
Search for long-lived particles that decay into final states containing two electrons or two muons in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

A search is performed for long-lived particles that decay into final states that include a pair of electrons or a pair of muons. The experimental signature is a distinctive topology consisting of a pair of charged leptons originating from a displaced secondary vertex. Events corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 ð20. 5Þ fb−1 in the electron (muon) channel were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collisions at ffiffi s p 1⁄4 8 TeV. No significant excess is observed above standard model expectations. Upper limits on the product of the cross section and branching fraction of such a signal are presented as a function of the long-lived particle’s mean proper decay length. The limits are presented in an approximately model-independent way, allowing them to be applied to a wide class of models yielding the above topology. Overmuch of the investigated parameter space, the limits obtained are themost stringent to date. In the specific case of a model in which a Higgs boson in the mass range 125–1000 GeV=c decays into a pair of long-lived neutral bosons in the mass range 20–350 GeV=c, each of which can then decay to dileptons, the upper limits obtained are typically in the range 0.2–10 fb for mean proper decay lengths of the long-lived particles in the range 0.01–100 cm. In the case of the lowest Higgs mass considered (125 GeV=c), the limits are in the range 2–50 fb. These limits are sensitive to Higgs boson branching fractions as low as 10−4.
The genetic architecture of gene expression levels in wild baboons

Gene expression variation is well documented in human populations and its genetic architecture has been extensively explored. However, we still know little about the genetic architecture of gene expression variation in other species, particularly our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates. To address this gap, we performed an RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based study of 63 wild baboons, members of the intensively studied Amboseli baboon population in Kenya. Our study design allowed us to measure gene expression levels and identify genetic variants using the same data set, enabling us to perform complementary mapping of putative cis-acting expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) and measurements of allele-specific expression (ASE) levels. We discovered substantial evidence for genetic effects on gene expression levels in this population. Surprisingly, we found more power to detect individual eQTL in the baboons relative to a HapMap human data set of comparable size, probably as a result of greater genetic variation, enrichment of SNPs with high minor allele frequencies, and longer-range linkage disequilibrium in the baboons. eQTL were most likely to be identified for lineage-specific, rapidly evolving genes. Interestingly, genes with eQTL significantly overlapped between the baboon and human data sets, suggesting that some genes may tolerate more genetic perturbation than others, and that this property may be conserved across species. Finally, we used a Bayesian sparse linear mixed model to partition genetic, demographic, and early environmental contributions to variation in gene expression levels. We found a strong genetic contribution to gene expression levels for almost all genes, while individual demographic and environmental effects tended to be more modest. Together, our results establish the feasibility of eQTL mapping using RNA-seq data alone, and act as an important first step towards understanding the genetic architecture of gene expression variation in nonhuman primates.
New Design Methods for Activist Gaming

Significant work in the gaming and HCI communities has focused on systems that support human values such as privacy, trust, and community. Designers and engineers have become increasingly aware of ways in which the artifacts they create can embody political, social, and ethical values. Yet there has been little work toward producing practical methodologies that systematically incorporate values in the design process. This paper is aimed at introducing systematic methods for the iterative discovery, analysis, and integration of values into the work of game designers and technologists. It is our hope that such work will shed light on the benefits and challenges of employing a values-oriented approach across a variety of design contexts.
High frequency class switching of an IgM+ B lymphoma clone CH12F3 to IgA+ cells.

We have developed an efficient in vitro class switching system using a subclone (CH12F3) of the IgM+ CH12.LX lymphoma cell line. CH12F3 cells switched from surface IgM+ cells to surface IgA+ cells at a high frequency (50%) after 72 h stimulation with IL-4, transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta and CD40L. No other class isotype-producing cells were detected, indicating that the CH12F3 clone is exclusively committed to IgA isotype switching. To understand the molecular basis of the isotype commitment, we studied the methylation profiles of I region promoters and I region transcription of CH12F3 cells. No germline transcripts other than those from the I alpha region were detected and only the I alpha promoter was demethylated in uninduced CH12F3 cells. TGF-beta, CD40L and IL-4 synergistically induced efficient switch recombination in CH12F3 cells, suggesting that the three stimulations up-regulate different steps of switch recombination in isotype-committed B cells such as CH12F3 cells. Stimulation of CH12F3 cells by IL-4 or TGF-beta, but not by CD40L, induced transient but complete methylation of the I alpha region. TGF-beta and CD40L, but not IL-4, increased the amounts of germline alpha transcripts. We found that the extents of methylation and the amounts of germline transcripts do not necessarily correlate with the efficiency of recombination in induced CH12F3 cells. These results led to the proposal that switch recombination can be separated into at least two phases, i.e. commitment and recombination. The roles of IL-4, TGF-beta and CD40L in the two phases are discussed.
Renal complications in acute leukemias.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Renal failure is a known complication of acute leukemias both at diagnosis and following cytostatic treatment. No recent studies give data on the incidence and risk factors of renal complications and their prognostic impact. DESIGN AND METHODS Two hundred and twenty consecutive adult patients with newly diagnosed acute leukemia treated at a major university medical center were evaluated for renal complications before, during, and after treatment; 166 patients were treated by chemotherapy only and 54 patients were treated with chemotherapy and later transplanted with allogeneic or autologous bone marrow. Renal complications were subdivided into 3 entities: acute renal failure, major and minor complications, based on clinical and laboratory parameters. Renal failure occurring as a consequence of terminal multi-organ failure was excluded from the present study. RESULTS Approximately 30% of patients in the chemotherapy group had a renal complication either before or after chemotherapy. Patients undergoing transplantation had a 50% risk of renal complications. Risk factors for complications were male sex, age, previous kidney disease, white cell count, and refractory leukemia (chemotherapy group) and allogeneic versus autologous transplant (transplant group). In the chemotherapy group, early but not delayed renal complications had a poor prognostic impact. In the transplant group renal complications had no impact on prognosis. In all patient groups, acute renal failure was prognostically unfavorable. INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS We conclude from our study that renal complications are frequent in acute leukemias and that the treatment and prevention of renal complications is important for the management of acute leukemias.
Tinnitus Severity Is Reduced with Reduction of Depressive Mood – a Prospective Population Study in Sweden

Tinnitus, the perception of sound without external source, is a highly prevalent public health problem with about 8% of the population having frequently occurring tinnitus, and about 1–2% experiencing significant distress from it. Population studies, as well as studies on self-selected samples, have reported poor psychological well-being in individuals with tinnitus. However, no study has examined the long-term co-variation between mood and tinnitus prevalence or tinnitus severity. In this study, the relationship between depression and tinnitus prevalence and severity over a 2-year period was examined in a representative sample of the general Swedish working population. Results show that a decrease in depression is associated with a decrease in tinnitus prevalence, and even more markedly with tinnitus severity. Hearing loss was a more potent predictor than depression for tinnitus prevalence, but was a weaker predictor than depression for tinnitus severity. In addition, there were sex differences for tinnitus prevalence, but not for tinnitus severity. This study shows a direct and long-term association between tinnitus severity and depression.