Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of guanine nucleotide-binding protein γ-7 as an epigenetically silenced gene in head and neck cancer by gene expression profiling

Silencing of tumor suppressor genes plays a vital role in head and neck carcinogenesis. Aberrant hypermethylation in the promoter region of some known or putative tumor suppressor genes occurs frequently during the development of various types of cancer including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). In this study we used an expanded mRNA expression profiling approach followed by microarray expression analysis to identify epigenetically inactivated genes in HNSCC. Two HNSCC cell lines were treated with 5-aza-2′-deoxycytidine followed by microarray analysis to identify epigenetically silenced genes in HNSCC. We found 1,960, 614 and 427 genes were upregulated in the HNSCC cell lines JHU-012, JHU-011 and the combination of both cell lines, respectively. HNSCC tumor and normal mucosal samples were used for gene profiling by a 47K mRNA gene expression array and we found 7,140 genes were downregulated in HNSCC tumors compared to normal mucosa, as determined by microarray analysis, and were integrated with cell line data. Integrative analysis defined 126 candidate genes, of which only seven genes showed differential methylation in tumors and no methylation in normal mucosa after bisulfite sequencing. Following validation by QMSP, one gene, guanine nucleotide-binding protein γ-7 (GNG7), was confirmed to be highly methylated in tumors and unmethylated in normal mucosal and salivary rinse samples demonstrating cancer-specific methylation in HNSCC tissues. TXNIP and TUSC2 were partially methylated in tumors and normal salivary rinses but unmethylated in normal mucosa. We concluded that GNG7 is a highly specific promoter methylated gene associated with HNSCC. In addition, TXNIP and TUSC2 are also potential biomarkers for HNSCC.
Text-Based and Knowledge Based Questioning by Children

Three studies investigated the ability of elementary school children to ask and recognize educationally productive questions. Knowledge-based questions formulated in advance of instruction were found to be of a higher order than text-based questions produced after exposure to text materials. Depending on familiarity of the topic, knowledge-based questions varied between basic questions asking for information needed for orientation to a topic and "wonderment" questions often aimed at explanation or at resolving discrepancies in knowledge. Children's questions are seen as a potentially valuable resource in education but one that requires a different kind of classroom community from the several kinds commonly found. The potential of a computer-based medium, computer-supported intentional learning environments, for supporting a knowledge-building community is briefly considered.
AIpom at SemEval-2024 Task 8: Detecting AI-produced Outputs in M4

This paper describes AIpom, a system designed to detect a boundary between human-written and machine-generated text (SemEval-2024 Task 8, Subtask C: Human-Machine Mixed Text Detection). We propose a two-stage pipeline combining predictions from an instruction-tuned decoder-only model and encoder-only sequence taggers. AIpom is ranked second on the leaderboard while achieving a Mean Absolute Error of 15.94. Ablation studies confirm the benefits of pipelining encoder and decoder models, particularly in terms of improved performance.
On defeating death: Group reification and social identification as immortality strategies

This chapter investigates the role of social identification in the management of human beings' existential concerns. We begin by presenting an overview of Terror Management Theory (TMT). This theory addresses the mechanisms that individuals have developed to prevent, or at least lessen, the anxiety deriving from the uniquely human ability to foresee one's death. We then present two perspectives concerning the role of social identities as anxiety-buffer mechanisms. A first one, which falls more squarely within TMT, suggests that social identities are functional in obtaining self-esteem (one of the two anxiety-buffer mechanisms proposed by TMT). A second perspective grants a more independent role to social identities. In this perspective, individuals seek transcendence by becoming a part of reified entities that are larger and longer lasting than the individual self. Findings emerging from these two lines of research are presented, along with an analysis of the relationship between identity, death anxiety, and immortality, from a historical and cross-cultural perspective.
Relating Sentinel-1 Interferometric Coherence to Mowing Events on Grasslands

In this study, the interferometric coherence calculated from 12-day Sentinel-1 image pairs was analysed in relation to mowing events on agricultural grasslands. Results showed that after a mowing event, median VH (vertical transmit, horizontal receive) and VV (vertical transmit, vertical receive) polarisation coherence values were statistically significantly higher than those from before the event. The shorter the time interval after the mowing event and the first interferometric acquisition, the higher the coherence. The coherence tended to stay higher, even 24 to 36 days after a mowing event. Precipitation caused the coherence to decrease, impeding the detection of a mowing event. Given the three analysed acquisition geometries, it was concluded that afternoon acquisitions and steeper incidence angles were more useful in the context of this study. In the case of morning acquisitions, dew might have caused a decrease of coherence for mowed and unmowed grasslands. Additionally, an increase of coherence after a mowing event was not evident during the rapid growth phase, due to the 12-day separation between the interferometric acquisitions. In future studies, six-day pairs utilising Sentinel-1A and 1B acquisitions should be considered.
Deep Brain Stimulation and Postoperative Suicidality Among Treatment Resistant Depression Patients: Should Eligibility Protocols Exclude Patients with a History of Suicide Attempts and Anger/Impulsivity?

Recently, there has been a surge of interest in using deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression (TRD). While DBS has been regarded as an efficient and safe treatment for many conditions over the last 20 years, and although DBS research trials involving TRD patients show encouraging evidence of remission, recent DBS TRD follow-up studies have reported significant rates of postoperative suicidal ideation, as well as suicide attempts and deaths. Given the vulnerable nature of TRD patients with respect to suicide, if the postoperative DBS adjustment process contributes to an increased risk of suicidality among them, then there is a pressing need to investigate this problem. Based on current clinical trial follow-up data, does the suicidality risk-versus-remission benefit ratio favor the use of DBS in TRD patients? The purpose of this article is to examine whether adjusting enrollment criteria, such as excluding TRD patients with a history of suicide attempts or anger/impulsivity, could diminish DBS trial research suicidality, given the absence of uniformity in DBS trial eligibility protocols.
Impact of Food Rations and Supplements on Micronutrient Status by Trimester of Pregnancy: Cross-Sectional Studies in the Maela Refugee Camp in Thailand

Micronutrient fortified flour (MFF), supplementary food rations and micronutrient (MN) supplements may prevent deficiencies among pregnant women. Objectives of cross-sectional surveys in 2004 (n = 533) and 2006 (n = 515) were to assess the impact of new food rations (flour, oil) and supplements on MN status by trimester of pregnancy in the Maela refugee camp. Hemoglobin, iron status, zinc, retinol, β-carotene and tryptophan decreased, while α-/γ-tocopherol and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF) increased from first to third trimester. In 2006, mean zinc and α-tocopherol for each trimester was significantly higher than in 2004. The weeks of supplemented thiamine and folic acid were positively correlated with thiamine diphosphate (TDP) and 5-MTHF, but not for ferrous sulfate as iron deficiency was observed in 38.5% of third-trimester women. Frequent consumption of fish paste and owning a garden or animal were associated with significantly higher iron status, retinol, β-carotene, and 5-MTHF. In conclusion, MFF and supplementary oil were most likely to explain improved zinc and α-tocopherol status, while thiamine and folate supplements ensured high TDP and 5-MTHF in late pregnancy. MN supplements, MN-rich staple food, small gardens, and programs to improve iron compliance are promising strategies to prevent MN deficiencies during pregnancy in vulnerable populations.
Deliberative Dialogue to Expand Civic Engagement: What Kind of Talk Does Democracy Need?

The need to expand and deepen civic engagement is a central theme of a loosely defined and growing civic movement. A strong civic life and a flourishing democracy presume the active involvement of many people across society. Civic engagement is thus both a barometer of our public life and a focal point for action when we want to improve it. While regular citizen-to-citizen communication has always been a central part of democracy, public deliberation is just starting to be defined as a field of thought and practice. In this article we focus on face-to-face democratic deliberation as a means of enhancing civic engagement. We bring ideas and insights from our work in communities to answer the question, “What kind of public talk is most likely to expand civic engagement and make it meaningful to all sorts of people? ” This emerging field has a rich and growing set of perspectives and practices; unfortunately, we don’t have the space to catalogue and detail all the promising approaches and what they have taught us. But we can describe what we have been learning in communities where community-wide deliberation for action and change is being used as a process for widespread, meaningful civic engagement. In doing this we make a case for two powerful but unusual marriages that are frequently missing when public talk is used to strengthen civic engagement. The first union is between two strains of public talk—dialogue and deliberation. The process of dialogue, as it is usually understood, can bring many benefits to civic life—an orientation toward constructive communication, the dispelling of stereotypes, honesty in relaying ideas, and the intention to listen to and understand the other.1 A related process, deliberation, brings a different benefit—the use of critical thinking and reasoned argument as a way for citizens to make decisions on public policy. We will describe what we have learned about how the combination of deliberation and dialogue can be used
Phonetic Segmentation of the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive

Research in speech technologies and comparative linguistics depends on access to diverse and accessible speech data. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive is one of the earliest multilingual speech corpora, with long-form audio recordings and phonetic transcriptions for 314 languages (Ladefoged et al., 2009). Recently, 95 of these languages were time-aligned with word-level phonetic transcriptions (Li et al., 2021). Here we present VoxAngeles, a corpus of audited phonetic transcriptions and phone-level alignments of the UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive, which uses the 95-language CMU re-release as our starting point. VoxAngeles also includes word- and phone-level segmentations from the original UCLA corpus, as well as phonetic measurements of word and phone durations, vowel formants, and vowel f0. This corpus enhances the usability of the original data, particularly for quantitative phonetic typology, as demonstrated through a case study of vowel intrinsic f0. We also discuss the utility of the VoxAngeles corpus for general research and pedagogy in crosslinguistic phonetics, as well as for low-resource and multilingual speech technologies. VoxAngeles is free to download and use under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 license.
Development of an operant-based taxonomy and observational index of supervisory behavior.

Le comportement des cadres d'entreprise: une typologie des conduites de supervision et de controle. L'instrument d'etude: Operant Supervisory Taxonomy and Index, est decrit. On a compare les comportements de 7 directeurs de theâtre et de 20 directeurs de banque. La fiabilite de l'instrument est attestee pour une duree d'observation de 20 a 30 minutes
Shifting Forest Value Orientations in the United States, 1980–2001: A Computer Content Analysis

This paper examines three forest value orientations – clusters of interrelated values and basic beliefs about forests – that emerged from an analysis of the public discourse about forest planning, management, and policy in the United States. The value orientations include anthropocentric, biocentric, and moral/spiritual/aesthetic orientations toward forests. Computer coded content analysis was used to identify shifts in the relative importance of these value orientations over the period 1980 through 2001. The share of expressions of anthropocentric forest value orientations declined over this period, while the share of biocentric value expressions increased. Moral/spiritual/aesthetic value expressions remained constant over time. The observed shifts in forest value orientations have implications for identifying appropriate goals for public forest management and policy, developing socially acceptable means for accomplishing those goals, and dealing with inevitable conflict over forest management.
The Properties of 3 Different Plasma Formulations and Their Effects on Tendinopathic Cells

Background: Tendinopathies are attributed to failure of the healing process and inadequate tissue remodeling. Plasma injections can trigger regenerative responses by modifying the molecular microenvironment. Purpose: To examine the differences in the mitotic, chemotactic, anabolic, and inflammatory effects between leukocyte- and platelet-rich plasma (L-PRP), platelet-rich plasma (PRP), and platelet-poor plasma (PPP). Study Design: Controlled laboratory study. Methods: Tendinopathic cells were cultured in 3-dimensional (3D) hydrogels formed using PPP, PRP, and L-PRP. Cell migration was evaluated using a μ-Slide chemotaxis chamber with video microscopy. Proliferation was assessed using XTT assays. Expression of genes associated with matrix turnover, including type 1 collagen (COL1A1), COL3A1, aggrecan, decorin, fibronectin, matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1), MMP-3, A Disintegrin-Like And Metalloprotease With Thrombospondin Type 1 Motif proteins 4 (ADAMTS-4), and ADAMTS-5, was assessed using real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction. Secreted inflammatory proteins, including interleukin (IL)–1β, IL-6, IL-8, monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), and regulated on activation, normal T cell expressed and secreted (RANTES), as well as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), were quantified using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: Tendinopathic cells migrate at a higher velocity along L-PRP and PRP than along PPP gradients. PRP and L-PRP promote hypercellularity. PPP and PRP showed more pronounced anabolic properties, as demonstrated by enhanced COL1A1 and COL3A1 and reduced MMP-1 expression. Decorin, fibronectin, and aggrecan were downregulated in L-PRP compared with PPP and PRP. L-PRP and PRP were shown to be more proinflammatory than PPP in terms of IL-6 secretion, but cells in PPP showed MCP-1high phenotype. CTGF secretion was significantly reduced in L-PRP compared with PPP and PRP. Conclusion: The main advantages of L-PRP and PRP use, compared with PPP, include their stronger chemotactic and proliferative properties. While PPP and PRP stimulate matrix anabolism, L-PRP is more proinflammatory. Emphasis should be placed on the temporal needs and biological characteristics of injured tendons, and plasma formulations need to be tailored accordingly. Clinical Relevance: Versatile systems allowing the preparation of different plasma formulations, such as PPP, PRP, or L-PRP, can help refine clinical applications by taking advantage of their different biological properties.
Modeling the Carbon System

Claims that forest cutting during the last few decades has contributed significantly to the buildup in atmospheric CO2 have cast doubt on the validity of models used to estimate CO2 uptake by the ocean. In this paper we review the existing models and conclude that the box-diffusion model of Oeschger and his co-workers provides an excellent fit to the average distributions of natural and bomb-produced radiocarbon. We also take the first steps toward a more detailed ocean model which takes into account upwelling in the equatorial zone and deep water formation in the polar zone. The model is calibrated using the distribution of bomb-produced and cosmic ray-produced radiocarbon in the ocean. Preliminary calculations indicate that the fossil fuel CO2 uptake by this model will be greater than that by the box-diffusion model of Oeschger and others (1975) but not great enough to accommodate a significant decline in the mass of the terrestrial biosphere over the past two decades.
Insulin Promotes Glycogen Storage and Cell Proliferation in Primary Human Astrocytes

Introduction In the human brain, there are at least as many astrocytes as neurons. Astrocytes are known to modulate neuronal function in several ways. Thus, they may also contribute to cerebral insulin actions. Therefore, we examined whether primary human astrocytes are insulin-responsive and whether their metabolic functions are affected by the hormone. Methods Commercially available Normal Human Astrocytes were grown in the recommended medium. Major players in the insulin signaling pathway were detected by real-time RT-PCR and Western blotting. Phosphorylation events were detected by phospho-specific antibodies. Glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis were assessed using radio-labeled glucose. Glycogen content was assessed by histochemistry. Lactate levels were measured enzymatically. Cell proliferation was assessed by WST-1 assay. Results We detected expression of key proteins for insulin signaling, such as insulin receptor β-subunit, insulin receptor substrat-1, Akt/protein kinase B and glycogen synthase kinase 3, in human astrocytes. Akt was phosphorylated and PI-3 kinase activity increased following insulin stimulation in a dose-dependent manner. Neither increased glucose uptake nor lactate secretion after insulin stimulation could be evidenced in this cell type. However, we found increased insulin-dependent glucose incorporation into glycogen. Furthermore, cell numbers increased dose-dependently upon insulin treatment. Discussion This study demonstrated that human astrocytes are insulin-responsive at the molecular level. We identified glycogen synthesis and cell proliferation as biological responses of insulin signaling in these brain cells. Hence, this cell type may contribute to the effects of insulin in the human brain.
Almost all start but who continue? A longitudinal study of youth participation in Swedish club sports

Many young people in Sweden stop participating in club sports during their teens, but some continue. Drawing on a longitudinal study, the aim of this article is to highlight some of the characteristics of teenagers who continue with club sports and to discuss the relation between club-sport participation and social and cultural conditions, with the help of Bourdieu’s theoretical framework. This is done by studying the characteristics of teenagers who do club sports at 13 and 16 years of age and comparing them with non-participants at the age of 16. In focus are girls and boys (n = 289) who participated in both 2004 and 2007 by answering self-reported questionnaires on sporting activity in their leisure time, their academic success and the social position of their families. The conclusion is that young people who possess specific dispositions and certain assets in terms of a habitus with a taste for sport and a cultural capital remain more often in club sports.
p38 MAPK as an essential regulator of dorsal-ventral axis specification and skeletogenesis during sea urchin development: a re-evaluation

Dorsal-ventral axis formation in the sea urchin embryo relies on the asymmetrical expression of the TGFβ Nodal. The p38-MAPK pathway has been proposed to be essential for dorsal-ventral axis formation by acting upstream of nodal expression. Here, we report that, in contrast to previous studies that used pharmacological inhibitors of p38, manipulating the activity of p38 by genetic means has no obvious impact on morphogenesis. Instead, we discovered that p38 inhibitors strongly disrupt specification of all germ layers by blocking signalling from the Nodal receptor and by interfering with the ERK pathway. Strikingly, while expression of a mutant p38 that is resistant to SB203580 did not rescue dorsal-ventral axis formation or skeletogenesis in embryos treated with this inhibitor, expression of mutant Nodal receptors that are resistant to SB203580 fully restored nodal expression in SB203580-treated embryos. Taken together, these results establish that p38 activity is not required for dorsal-ventral axis formation through nodal expression nor for skeletogenesis. Our results prompt a re-evaluation of the conclusions of several recent studies that linked p38 activity to dorsal-ventral axis formation and to patterning of the skeleton. Summary: A combination of biochemical and functional experiments demonstrate that p38 function is not required for dorsal-ventral axis formation and skeletogenesis, as was previously believed.
Discretion in Bank Loan Loss Allowance, Risk Taking, and Earnings Management

We study whether bank managers’ use their discretion in estimating the allowance for loan losses (ALL) for efficiency or for opportunistic reasons. We do so by examining whether the use of this discretion relates to bank stability and bank risk taking, or whether it relates to earnings management to meet or beat earnings benchmarks. We find that banks that had higher abnormal ALL during the period prior to the 2007-2009 financial crisis engaged in less risk taking during the pre-crisis period and had a lower probability of failure during the crisis period. In tests related to earnings management to meet or beat earnings benchmarks, we find that abnormal ALL is unrelated to next period’s loss avoidance and just meeting or beating the prior year’s earnings. Our results suggest that bank managers use their discretion over ALL for efficiency and not for opportunistic purposes. They inform policy makers and accounting standard setters on banks’ use of accounting discretion as a means to build a cushion against future credit losses as they transition from the incurred loss model to the expected loss model for loan loss accounting.
Analytic solutions for coupled linear perturbations

Analytic solutions for the evolution of cosmological linear density perturbations in the baryonic gas and collisionless dark matter are derived. The solutions are expressed in a closed form in terms of elementary functions, for arbitrary baryonic mass fraction. They are obtained assuming Ω=1 and a time-independent comoving Jeans wavenumber, kJ. By working with a time variable τ≡ln(t2/3), the evolution of the perturbations is described by linear differential equations with constant coefficients. The new equations are then solved by means of Laplace transformation, assuming that the gas and dark matter trace the same density field before a sudden heating epoch. In a dark matter-dominated Universe, the ratio of baryonic to dark matter density perturbation decays with time roughly as exp(−5τ/4)∝t−5/6 to the limiting value 1/[1+(kkJ)2]. For wavenumbers the decay is accompanied by oscillations with a period in τ. In comparison, as τ increases in a baryonic matter-dominated Universe, the ratio approaches 1−(kkJ)2 for k≤kJ, and zero otherwise.