Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental Exposure to a Commercial PBDE Mixture: Effects on Protein Networks in the Cerebellum and Hippocampus of Rats

Background: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are structurally similar to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and have both central (learning and memory deficits) and peripheral (motor dysfunction) neurotoxic effects at concentrations/doses similar to those of PCBs. The cellular and molecular mechanisms for these neurotoxic effects are not fully understood; however, several studies have shown that PBDEs affect thyroid hormones, cause oxidative stress, and disrupt Ca2+-mediated signal transduction. Changes in these signal transduction pathways can lead to differential gene regulation with subsequent changes in protein expression, which can affect the development and function of the nervous system. Objective: In this study, we examined the protein expression profiles in the rat cerebellum and hippocampus following developmental exposure to a commercial PBDE mixture, DE-71. Methods: Pregnant Long-Evans rats were dosed perinatally with 0 or 30.6 mg/kg/day of DE-71 from gestation day 6 through sampling on postnatal day 14. Proteins from the cerebellum and hippocampus were extracted, expression differences were detected by two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis, and proteins were identified by tandem mass spectrometry. Protein network interaction analysis was performed using Ingenuity® Pathway Analysis, and the proteins of interest were validated by Western blotting. Results: Four proteins were significantly differentially expressed in the cerebellum following DE-71 exposure, whereas 70 proteins were significantly differentially expressed in the hippocampus. Of these proteins, 4 from the cerebellum and 47 from the hippocampus, identifiable by mass spectrometry, were found to have roles in mitochondrial energy metabolism, oxidative stress, apoptosis, calcium signaling, and growth of the nervous system. Conclusions: Results suggest that changes in energy metabolism and processes related to neuroplasticity and growth may be involved in the developmental neurotoxicity of PBDEs. Citation: Kodavanti PR, Royland JE, Osorio C, Winnik WM, Ortiz P, Lei L, Ramabhadran R, Alzate O. 2015. Developmental exposure to a commercial PBDE mixture: effects on protein networks in the cerebellum and hippocampus of rats. Environ Health Perspect 123:428–436; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1408504
A Resource-Based Theory of Strategic Alliances

The resource-based view of the firm has not been systematically applied to strategic alliances. By examining the role of firm resources in strategic alliances, we attempt, in this paper, to put forward a general resource-based theory of strategic alliances, synthesizing the various findings in the literature on alliances from a resource-based view. The proposed theory covers four major aspects of strategic alliances: rationale, formation, structural preferences, and performance. The resource-based view suggests that the rationale for alliances is the value-creation potential of firm resources that are pooled together. We note that certain resource characteristics, such as imperfect mobility, imitability, and substitutability, promise accentuated value-creation, and thus facilitate alliance formation. We discuss how the resource profiles of partner firms would determine their structural preferences in terms of four major categories of alliances: equity joint ventures, minority equity alliances, bilateral contract-based alliances, and unilateral contract-based alliances. As part of the theory, we propose a typology of inter-partner resource alignment based on the two dimensions of resource similarity and resource utilization, yielding four types of alignment: supplementary, surplus, complementary, and wasteful. We also discuss how partner resource alignment directly affects collective strengths and inter-firm conflicts in alliances, which in turn contribute to alliance performance. Finally, we develop a number of propositions to facilitate empirical testing of the theoretical framework, suggest ways to carry out this testing, indicate future research directions, and list some of the more significant managerial implications of the framework.
The Evaluation of Institutional Goals for Freshman Seminar at Mount Vernon Nazarene College.

This study evaluated the stated and real goals of the freshman seminar course at Mount Vernon Nazarene College in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The stated goals for the course, as presented to parents and prospective students, were the enhancement of study skills, strategies for improving grades, and students' overall survival of the college experience, while the real institutional goals were to increase students' grade point averages (GPAs) and improve the retention rate. Information on GPAs and retention were collected on 254 first time freshmen enrolled in the 1990 fall semester, including 122 students who successfully completed the freshman seminar and 132 who did not enroll in or who did not complete the seminar course. It was found that there were no significant differences in the firstthrough fourth-semester GPAs of the students who completed or who did not complete the freshman seminar. Nor were there significant differences in the retention rates between the two groups. The results of the study raise questions as to the necessity or usefulness of the freshman seminar at Mount Vernon Nazarene College. (Contains 40 references.) (MDM) ******************************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * ********************************************************************************
Design of a vibrotactile display via a rigid surface

This paper describes the analysis, optimized redesign and evaluation of a high fidelity vibrotactile interface integrated in a rigid surface. The main application of the embodiment described here is vibrotactile display of virtual ground surface material properties for immersive environments, although the design principles are general. The device consists of a light, composite plate mounted on an elastic suspension, with integrated force sensors. It is actuated by a single voice coil motor. The structural dynamics of the device were optimized, within constraints imposed by the requirements of user interaction, and corrected via digital inverse filtering, in order to enable accurate simulation of virtual ground materials. Measurements of the resulting display demonstrate that it is capable of accurately reproducing forces of more than 40 N across a usable frequency band from 50 Hz to 750 Hz.
Factors Affecting Savings Behaviour in SEACEN Countries

This paper attempts to identify the factors affecting savings behaviour in the SEACEN countries for the period 1970-1991, using a simple regression model. The time series data have been tested for stationarity using unit roots and cointegration techniques. Results indicate that current income, exports and dependency ratios are important determinants of savings. The response of savings to interest rates is inconclusive. In general, policies to promote economic growth, exports and those aimed at reducing population dependency ratios will help generate higher levels of savings. While further financial liberalisation may be necessary, other policies to achieve macroeconomic stability may lend greater support at realizing higher level of savings in the SEACEN countries.
Association Between Bullying Victimization and Health Risk Behaviors Among High School Students in the United States.

BACKGROUND Childhood exposure to adverse experiences has been associated with adult asthma, smoking, sexually transmitted disease, obesity, substance use, depression, and sleep disturbances. Conceptualizing bullying as an adverse childhood experience, 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data were used to examine the relationship between in-person and electronic bullying victimization among US high school students and health risk behaviors and conditions related to violence, substance use, sexual risk, overweight and physical activity, sleep, and asthma. METHODS Data were from the 2011 national YRBS among students who answered questions about in-person and electronic bullying (N = 13,846). The YRBS is a biennial, nationally representative survey of students in grades 9-12 (overall response rate = 71%). Logistic regression analyses, stratified by sex and controlling for race/ethnicity and grade, examined the association between bullying victimization and health risk behaviors or conditions. RESULTS Rates of victimization varied; 9.4% of students reported being bullied in-person and electronically, 10.8% only bullied in-person, 6.8% only electronically bullied, and 73.0% uninvolved. Bullying was associated with nearly all health risk behaviors and conditions studied. CONCLUSION Assessing the broad functioning and behaviors of victims of bullying could enable educators and health practitioners to intervene early and promote the long-term health of youth.
Learning to make predictions in the cerebellum may explain the anticipatory modulation of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gain with vergence

Changes in the eye vergence modify the gain of the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR). In a previous dynamical model, this modulation was controlled by the cerebellum using vergence angle information (Coenen & Sejnowski; NIPS 96). However, during a vergence eye movement, the change in the VOR gain anticipates the vergence change (Snyder & King; Vision Res. 323. 92). We demonstrate here how our previous dynamical model and a predictive cerebellar model may be combined to explain these findings. In the predictive model, the cerebellum receives inputs from vergence-disparity cells in the cortex to construct a prediction of vergence angle. By replacing the regular vergence input in our previous dynamical model by the vergence prediction, results similar to the experimental anticipatory gain changes are observed. The inferior olive in the predictive cerebellar model is responsible for computing a prediction error and for selecting the Purkinje cells to be recruited for learning a particular prediction. The learning model is based on the least-mean square (LMS) algorithm to construct predictions from previous context information. This model is a special case of a more general predictive function for the cerebellum that may provide a consistent explanation for the apparently ubiquitous task participation of the cerebellum. We discuss briefly how this more general model may explain some experimental results observed in the cerebellum with positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). In conclusion, a predictive cerebellar model receiving vergence+parity cell inputs learns to predict the time course of vergence eye movement and successfully changes ihe VOR gain in anticipation of vergence changes. 3rd Joint Symposium on Neural Computation Proceedings 203 ,
A simple explicit model approximating the relationship between speed and density of vehicular traffic on urban roads

With the increase in simulation of urban environments for the purpose of planning, modelling vehicular traffic has become important. Since empirical evidence on traffic flow is relatively sparse, models are being increasingly used for planning urban roads and environments. In this paper, a simple, explicit model is proposed to approximate the speed versus density of vehicular traffic flow. The model, which uses two parameters derived from simple measurements of real-time traffic data, allows for a prediction of the approximate relationship for congested as well as uncongested vehicular traffic flow. The proposed model is especially useful in conditions where available data is sparse and can be invaluable for the modelling and simulation of urban environments.
Effects of recasts of EFL learners' acquisition of pragmalinguistic conventions of request

The applicability of recasting to the pragmalinguistic level was the mission of this study. With its three research questions, this study investigated the effects of implicit feedback on Chinese learners of English in learning eight pragmalinguistic conventions of request: 1. Are pragmalinguistic recasts effective for teaching pragmatically appropriate requests? 2. Are they effective for teaching pragmatically appropriate and grammatically correct requests? 3. Do they boost learners’ confidence in making requests? Both pragmatic recast and control groups performed role-plays; the former received recasts on their request Head Acts whereas the latter did not. The results of discourse completion tests yielded the effect sizes of the pragmatic recast group: Cohen’s (1988) d = 0.83 for research question 1 and Cohen’s d = 0.87 for research question 2. Both groups also built up confidence in speaking to an interlocutor of higher status, perhaps due to the interaction with the instructor and their peers.
Neural Correlates of Receiving an Apology and Active Forgiveness: An fMRI Study

Interpersonal conflicts are a common element of many social relationships. One possible process in rebuilding social relationships is the act of apologizing. Behavioral studies have shown that apologies promote forgiveness. However, the neural bases of receiving an apology and forgiveness are still unknown. Hence, the aim of the present fMRI study was to investigate brain processes involved in receiving an apology and active forgiveness of an ambiguous offense. We asked one group of participants (player A) to make decisions, which were either positive or negative for another group of participants (player B). The intention of player A was ambiguous to player B. In case of a negative impact, participants in the role of player A could send an apology message to participants in the role of player B. Subsequently players B were asked whether they wanted to forgive player A for making a decision with negative consequences. We found that receiving an apology yielded activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left middle temporal gyrus, and left angular gyrus. In line with previous research we found that forgiving judgments activated the right angular gyrus.
Duffy Negative Antigen Is No Longer a Barrier to Plasmodium vivax – Molecular Evidences from the African West Coast (Angola and Equatorial Guinea)

Background Plasmodium vivax shows a small prevalence in West and Central Africa due to the high prevalence of Duffy negative people. However, Duffy negative individuals infected with P. vivax have been reported in areas of high prevalence of Duffy positive people who may serve as supply of P. vivax strains able to invade Duffy negative erythrocytes. We investigated the presence of P. vivax in two West African countries, using blood samples and mosquitoes collected during two on-going studies. Methodology/Findings Blood samples from a total of 995 individuals were collected in seven villages in Angola and Equatorial Guinea, and 820 Anopheles mosquitoes were collected in Equatorial Guinea. Identification of the Plasmodium species was achieved by nested PCR amplification of the small-subunit rRNA genes; P. vivax was further characterized by csp gene analysis. Positive P. vivax-human isolates were genotyped for the Duffy blood group through the analysis of the DARC gene. Fifteen Duffy-negative individuals, 8 from Equatorial Guinea (out of 97) and 7 from Angola (out of 898), were infected with two different strains of P. vivax (VK210 and VK247). Conclusions In this study we demonstrated that P. vivax infections were found both in humans and mosquitoes, which means that active transmission is occurring. Given the high prevalence of infection in mosquitoes, we may speculate that this hypnozoite-forming species at liver may not be detected by the peripheral blood samples analysis. Also, this is the first report of Duffy negative individuals infected with two different strains of P. vivax (VK247 and classic strains) in Angola and Equatorial Guinea. This finding reinforces the idea that this parasite is able to use receptors other than Duffy to invade erythrocytes, which may have an enormous impact in P. vivax current distribution.
Scheduling Processes with Release Times, Deadlines, Precedence, and Exclusion Relations

An algorithm that finds an optimal schedule on a single processor for a given set of processes is presented. Each process starts executing after its release time and completes its computation before its deadline and a given set of precedence relations and exclusion relations defined on ordered pairs of process segments are satisfied. This algorithm can be applied to the important and previously unsolved problem of automated pre-run-time scheduling of processes with arbitrary precedence and exclusion in hard-real-time systems. >
Using native and syntenically mapped cDNA alignments to improve de novo gene finding

MOTIVATION Computational annotation of protein coding genes in genomic DNA is a widely used and essential tool for analyzing newly sequenced genomes. However, current methods suffer from inaccuracy and do poorly with certain types of genes. Including additional sources of evidence of the existence and structure of genes can improve the quality of gene predictions. For many eukaryotic genomes, expressed sequence tags (ESTs) are available as evidence for genes. Related genomes that have been sequenced, annotated, and aligned to the target genome provide evidence of existence and structure of genes. RESULTS We incorporate several different evidence sources into the gene finder AUGUSTUS. The sources of evidence are gene and transcript annotations from related species syntenically mapped to the target genome using TransMap, evolutionary conservation of DNA, mRNA and ESTs of the target species, and retroposed genes. The predictions include alternative splice variants where evidence supports it. Using only ESTs we were able to correctly predict at least one splice form exactly correct in 57% of human genes. Also using evidence from other species and human mRNAs, this number rises to 77%. Syntenic mapping is well-suited to annotate genomes closely related to genomes that are already annotated or for which extensive transcript evidence is available. Native cDNA evidence is most helpful when the alignments are used as compound information rather than independent positionwise information. AVAILABILITY AUGUSTUS is open source and available at http://augustus.gobics. de. The gene predictions for human can be browsed and downloaded at the UCSC Genome Browser (http://genome.ucsc.edu).
Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit What's in a Name? Racial Identity and Altruism in Post-apartheid South Africa What's in a Name? Racial Identity and Altruism in Post-apartheid South Africa

This paper reports the results of an economic experiment which was designed to test the e¤ect of racial identity on generosity in a non-strategic setting. A sample of undergraduate University students was recruited to participate in a Dictator game, where surnames of individuals were revealed to convey information about racial identity. Results indicate that compared to a set of control experiments where participant identity was kept anonymous, revealing racial identity has a signi…cant and positive impact on the size of the o¤ers made. However, while Black participants did not vary their o¤ers based on the racial identity of their partners, White participants were more generous towards White partners than Black partners, exhibiting insider favouritism in their o¤ers
A Framework for Analyzing and Improving Content-Based Chunking Algorithms

We present a framework for analyzing contentbased chunking algorithms, as used for example in the Low Bandwidth Networked File System. We use this framework for the evaluation of the basic sliding window algorithm, and its two known variants. We develop a new chunking algorithm that performs signi cantly better than the known algorithms on real, non-random data.
Ethnic Enclaves and the Economic Success of Immigrants - Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Recent immigrants tend to locate in ethnic ”enclaves” within metropolitan areas. The economic consequence of living in such enclaves is still an unresolved issue. We use an immigrant policy initiative in Sweden, when government authorities distributed refugee immigrants across locales in a way that may be considered exogenous. This policy initiative provides a unique natural experiment, which allows us to estimate the causal effect on labor market outcomes of living in enclaves. We find substantive evidence of sorting across locations. When sorting is taken into account, living in enclaves improves labor market outcomes; for instance, the earnings gain associated with a standard deviation increase in ethnic concentration is in the order of four to five percent.
The Implementation of Monetary Policy in Australia

In January 1990, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) began announcing and explaining changes in the target cash rate. This has increased public understanding of monetary policy and, by increasing the attention given to changes in interest rates, has affected the way in which changes in policy are transmitted to the economy. In addition, the discipline of having to announce and explain changes in the target cash rate to the public has led to a clearer focus on the objectives of monetary policy within the RBA and improved the accountability of the Bank. It has also led to a substantial decline in the volatility of short-term interest rates and more rapid pass-through of changes in the target cash rate into deposit and lending rates. In Australia, as in many other countries, interest rates have tended to be adjusted in a series of steps in the same direction. In part, this can be explained in terms of the uncertainty that policy-makers face, and the costs involved in frequently reversing the direction of interest-rate changes.
Downregulation of Mir-31, Mir-155, and Mir-564 in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Cells

Background/Aims MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding regulatory RNAs that control gene expression and play an important role in cancer development and progression. However, little is known about the role of miRNAs in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Our objective is to decipher a miRNA expression signature associated with CML and to determine potential target genes and signaling pathways affected by these signature miRNAs. Results Using miRNA microarrays and miRNA real-time PCR we characterized the miRNAs expression profile of CML cell lines and patients in reference to non-CML cell lines and healthy blood. Of all miRNAs tested, miR-31, miR-155, and miR-564 were down-regulated in CML cells. Down-regulation of these miRNAs was dependent on BCR-ABL activity. We next analyzed predicted targets and affected pathways of the deregulated miRNAs. As expected, in K562 cells, the expression of several of these targets was inverted to that of the miRNA putatively regulating them. Reassuringly, the analysis identified CML as the main disease associated with these miRNAs. MAPK, ErbB, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were the main molecular pathways related with these expression patterns. Utilizing Venn diagrams we found appreciable overlap between the CML-related miRNAs and the signaling pathways-related miRNAs. Conclusions The miRNAs identified in this study might offer a pivotal role in CML. Nevertheless, while these data point to a central disease, the precise molecular pathway/s targeted by these miRNAs is variable implying a high level of complexity of miRNA target selection and regulation. These deregulated miRNAs highlight new candidate gene targets allowing for a better understanding of the molecular mechanism underlying the development of CML, and propose possible new avenues for therapeutic treatment.