Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Overexpression of bcl-2 protects prostate cancer cells from apoptosis in vitro and confers resistance to androgen depletion in vivo.

Normal (nonneoplastic) human prostatic secretory epithelial cells do not express the bcl-2 protein. However, a recent immunohistochemical survey of neoplastic human prostate tissues showed that a fraction of primary untreated prostate adenocarcinoma cells expressed this apoptosis-suppressing oncoprotein at significant levels (Colombel et al., Am. J. Pathol., 143: 390-400, 1993). Additionally, a number of hormone-refractory prostatic adenocarcinomas obtained from hormonally-treated patients (subsequent to surgical or drug castration therapy) were examined and were found to be uniform in their elevated expression of bcl-2 oncoprotein. The results of this preliminary survey imply that bcl-2 expression distinguishes a subgroup of primary human prostate cancers and that the expression of this protein might be a factor enabling prostate cancer cells to survive in an androgen-deprived environment. The current study was undertaken to determine the degree to which overexpression of bcl-2 can protect human prostate cancer cells from apoptotic stimuli in vitro and in vivo. Human prostate cancer cells (LNCaP) were transfected with a neomycin-selectable eucaryotic expression vector containing cDNA encoding human bcl-2. Transfected clonal variants that express bcl-2 protein (LNCaP/bcl-2) were unaltered with regard to their basal growth rate in 10% serum-containing medium, or with regard to their expression of the differentiated human prostate cell gene products prostate-specific antigen or androgen receptor protein. The bcl-2-transfected clones were altered, however, with regard to their growth rate in charcoal-stripped serum lacking dihydrotestosterone. Additionally, in contrast to the parental or control-transfected cell lines, LNCaP/bcl-2 cells were highly resistant to a variety of apoptotic stimuli in vitro including serum starvation and 10 nM phorbol ester (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate) supplementation of the medium. Lastly, the overexpression of bcl-2 by these prostate cancer cells altered their tumorigenic potential in a nude mouse assay. s.c. injections of 10(6) LNCaP/bcl-2 cells into male nude mice resulted in earlier and larger tumor formation compared to an equivalent injection of parental or control-transfected LNCaP cells. When these variant cell lines were injected into castrated male nude mice, only the LNCaP/bcl-2-transformed cells gave rise to tumors. Moreover, LNCaP/bcl-2 tumors grown in intact male nude mice were refractory to the growth-inhibiting effects of castration demonstrated by parental LNCaP cells. Data obtained in this study demonstrate that the bcl-2 oncoprotein can protect prostate cancer cells from apoptotic stimuli in vitro and suggest that such protection correlates with the ability to form hormone-refractory prostate tumors in vivo.
Bayesian Exploration: Incentivizing Exploration in Bayesian Games

We consider a ubiquitous scenario in the Internet economy when individual decision-makers (henceforth, agents) both produce and consume information as they make strategic choices in an uncertain environment. This creates a three-way trade-off between exploration (trying out insufficiently explored alternatives to help others in the future), exploitation (making optimal decisions given the information discovered by other agents), and incentives of the agents (who are myopically interested in exploitation, while preferring the others to explore). We posit a principal who controls the flow of information from agents that came before to the ones that arrive later, and strives to coordinate the agents towards a socially optimal balance between exploration and exploitation, not using any monetary transfers. The goal is to design a recommendation policy for the principal which respects agents' incentives and minimizes a suitable notion of regret. We extend prior work in this direction to allow the agents to interact with one another in a shared environment: at each time step, multiple agents arrive to play a Bayesian game, receive recommendations, choose their actions, receive their payoffs, and then leave the game forever. The agents now face two sources of uncertainty: the actions of the other agents and the parameters of the uncertain game environment. Our main contribution is to show that the principal can achieve constant regret when the utilities are deterministic (where the constant depends on the prior distribution, but not on the time horizon), and logarithmic regret when the utilities are stochastic. As a key technical tool, we introduce the concept of explorable actions, the actions which some incentive-compatible policy can recommend with non-zero probability. We show how the principal can identify (and explore) all explorable actions, and use the revealed information to perform optimally. In particular, our results significantly improve over the prior work on the special case of a single agent per round, which relies on assumptions to guarantee that all actions are explorable. Interestingly, we do not require the principal's utility to be aligned with the cumulative utility of the agents; instead, the principal can optimize an arbitrary notion of per-round reward.
International Conference on Information Systems ( ICIS ) 2010 3-D VIRTUAL WORLD EDUCATION : AN EMPIRICAL COMPARISON WITH FACE-TO-FACE CLASSROOM

3-D virtual worlds are increasing in popularity as a means of pedagogical delivery in higher education. In this research, we assess the relative effectiveness of a 3-D virtual world learning environment, Second Life, and traditional face-to-face learning environment. We also assess the efficacy of instructional strategies in these two learning environments and their effects on interactivity, perceived learning, and satisfaction. Our findings suggest that there is an interaction effect of learning environment and instructional strategy. Pair-wise comparisons indicate that when interactive instructional strategy is used, there is no significant difference for perceived learning and satisfaction between 3-D virtual world and face-to-face learning environment. However, there is a significant difference for those constructs when a direct instructional strategy is used. Further, in interactive instructional sessions, students experienced higher level of classroom interactivity in Second Life than in face-to-face classroom.
Models of Intercultural Communication

The research question addressed in this article is, “To which extent does intercultural communication depend on self-understanding, accumulated during the process of socialization, as well as the feeling of safety? ” This question may have received less attention from researchers. This article draws upon modern and classical theories to explain the concept of self-understanding and the feeling of safety conceived in two meta-analytical models of socialization. The models were applied in a longitudinal study. They will be explained in detail, and the findings of the study will be discussed.
Managing Herpes Gladiatorum Outbreaks in Competitive Wrestling: The 2007 Minnesota Experience

Skin infections in wrestling have escalated in the past 20 yr. Failure to recognize and manage primary or recurrent herpes gladiatorum (HG) puts all wrestlers who come in direct contact with the affected athlete at risk. In 2007, a major outbreak of HG occurred during the Minnesota State High School wrestling season. Rapid response to the outbreak based upon lessons learned from previous episodes in the state prevented an epidemic from developing that would have threatened the state competitions at the end of the season. When a primary outbreak occurred involving multiple teams, an 8-d isolation period with suspended competition contained the outbreak in more than 90% of exposed individuals. Prophylactic treatment with antiviral medications can reduce recurrent infections, the risk of asymptomatic viral shedding, and can be based upon annual herpes simplex virus (HSV) testing to identify seropositive individuals. Those with recurrent HG or who are HSV seropositive should be placed on seasonal prophylaxis with oral antiviral medication to reduce the risk of HG spread to susceptible teammates or opponents. With proper education of athletes, coaches, and health care providers, HG can be recognized, treated, and controlled.
Response Suppression in V1 Agrees with Psychophysics of Surround Masking

When a target stimulus is embedded in a high contrast surround, the target appears reduced in contrast and is harder to detect, and neural responses in visual cortex are suppressed. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and psychophysics to quantitatively compare these physiological and perceptual effects. Observers performed a contrast discrimination task on a contrast-reversing sinusoidal target grating. The target was either presented in isolation or embedded in a high-contrast surround. While observers performed the task, we also measured fMRI responses as a function of target contrast, both with and without a surround. We found that the surround substantially increased the psychophysical thresholds while reducing fMRI responses. The two data sets were compared, on the basis of the assumption that a fixed response difference is required for correct discrimination, and we found that the psychophysics accounted for 96.5% of the variance in the measured V1 responses. The suppression in visual areas V2 and V3 was stronger, too strong to agree with psychophysics. The good quantitative agreement between psychophysical thresholds and V1 responses suggests V1 as a plausible candidate for mediating surround masking.
Circulatory effects of carbon dioxide in experimental endotoxic shock

In seven anaesthetized dogs the central circulatory effects of changes in Paco2 were studied before and after an intravenous injection of E. coli endotoxin 1.0 mg kg‐1. The animals were on controlled ventilation with constant minute volumes, and Paco2 was changed by variations in the inspired gas mixture. Before endotoxin was given, cardiac output, mean aortic pressure, mean pulmonary artery pressure, total peripheral resistance and stroke volume were little affected by the changes in Paco2 from 3.9 0.4 to 7.2 0.4 kPa (mean s. e. mean). Only heart rate decreased significantly (P<0.05). The intravenous endotoxin injection resulted in a decreased cardiac output (P<0.01), a decreased mean aortic pressure (P<0.01) and a decreased stroke volume (P<0.05). Mean pulmonary artery pressure, total peripheral resistance and heart rate showed only minor changes. In endotoxic shock an increase in PaCO2 from 4.4 0.4 to 7.8 0.3 kPa (mean s. e. mean) resulted in a significant increase in cardiac output (P<0.05), stroke volume (P<0.05) and mean pulmonary artery pressure (P<0.05), while the other parameters remained unchanged. It can be concluded that the carbon dioxide tension is of importance for the cardiac performance in experimental endotoxic stock in a manner not seen in control animals. The mechanisms behind these findings need further investigation.
Development of radioimmunoassay for the measurement of human leptin in serum.

BACKGROUND Leptin is a 16 kDa polypeptide hormone encoded by the obese gene (ob) and secreted by adipose tissue. This hormone plays a major role in energy homeostasis and regulation of food intake and body weight. It also affects the metabolic, neuroendocrine and reproductive systems. MATERIAL AND METHODS Labelling of recombinant human leptin with (125)I was best performed by the Chloramine-T method. New Zealand white rabbits were immunised with recombinant human leptin, cross-reaction of obtained antisera was analyzed with 10 different antigens. The separation of bound and free fractions was performed using the second antibody - PEG method. RESULTS The obtained tracer had specific activities of 2.8-3.3 kBq/ microg and had a stability of 5 weeks. A highly specific polyclonal antibody was obtained without measurable cross-reaction against the analysed antigens. Concentrations of human leptin were measured by a single overnight incubation assay with a sensitivity of 0.5 ng/ml and a measuring range of 0.5-100 ng/ml. The intra-assay and inter-assay coefficient of variation was under 6% and 8%, respectively. Recovery ranged from 88% to 106%. CONCLUSIONS Serum human leptin concentrations can be accurately and precisely measured by this new radioimmunoassay. Preliminary results obtained from the measurement of serum leptin in lean, overweight and obese patients are presented. Serum leptin concentrations correlated with body mass index and were significantly higher in women than in men, except for obese patients.
Composing specifications

A rigorous modular specification method requires a proof rule asserting that if each component behaves correctly in isolation, then it behaves correctly in concert with other components. Such a rule is subtle because a component need behave correctly only when its environment does, and each component is part of the others' environments. We examine the precise distinction between a system and its environment, and provide the requisite proof rule when modules are specified with safety and liveness properties.
Classifying Structured Web Sources using Aggressive Feature Selection

This paper studies the problem of classifying structured data sources on the Web. While prior works use all features, once extracted from search interfaces, we further refine the feature set. In our research, each search interface is treated simply as a bag-of-words. We choose a subset of words, which is suited to classify web sources, by our feature selection methods with new metrics and a novel simple ranking scheme. Using aggressive feature selection approach, together with a Gaussian process classifier, we obtained high classification performance in an evaluation over real web data.
Analyzing Cold Tolerance Mechanism in Transgenic Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Low temperatures may cause severe growth inhibition and mortality in fish. In order to understand the mechanism of cold tolerance, a transgenic zebrafish Tg (smyd1:m3ck) model was established to study the effect of energy homeostasis during cold stress. The muscle-specific promoter Smyd1 was used to express the carp muscle form III of creatine kinase (M3-CK), which maintained enzymatic activity at a relatively low temperature, in zebrafish skeletal muscle. In situ hybridization showed that M3-CK was expressed strongly in the skeletal muscle. When exposed to 13°C, Tg (smyd1:m3ck) fish maintained their swimming behavior, while the wild-type could not. Energy measurements showed that the concentration of ATP increased in Tg (smyd1:m3ck) versus wild-type fish at 28°C. After 2 h at 13°C, ATP concentrations were 2.16-fold higher in Tg (smyd1:m3ck) than in wild-type (P<0.05). At 13°C, the ATP concentration in Tg (smyd1:m3ck) fish and wild-type fish was 63.3% and 20.0%, respectively, of that in wild-type fish at 28°C. Microarray analysis revealed differential expression of 1249 transcripts in Tg (smyd1:m3ck) versus wild-type fish under cold stress. Biological processes that were significantly overrepresented in this group included circadian rhythm, energy metabolism, lipid transport, and metabolism. These results are clues to understanding the mechanisms underlying temperature acclimation in fish.
The Bodily Movements of Liars

We measured the continuous bodily motion of participants as they lied to experimenters. These lies were spontaneous rather than elicited, and occurred for different motivations. In one situation, participants were given the opportunity to lie about their performance on a maths test in order to win money. In another, they witnessed one experimenter accidentally break a laptop. When asked what had happened, participants were motivated to lie and deny any knowledge. Across these situations, participants lied 61% of the time, allowing us to contrast the body movements of liars with truth tellers as they answered neutral and critical questions. Those who lied had significantly reduced bodily motion. In one case this motion appeared before the experimenter had even asked the critical question. We conclude that a person’s bodily dynamics can be indicative of their cognitive and effective states, even when they would rather conceal them.
COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HOLISTIC MULTIDIMENSIONAL TREATMENT MODEL (HMTM) AND APPLIED BEHAVIORAL ANALYSIS APPROACH (ABA) IN TREATMENT OF CHILDREN WITH ASD

Introduction: Currently, several approaches have been presented for treatment of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of Holistic Multidimensional Treatment Model (HMTM) with Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) in the improvement of clinical symptoms of children with autism spectrum disorder. Method: The present study had a Quasi experimental design. The sample included 20 children who were assigned with convenience sampling and randomly divided to 2 groups of ABA (8 boys and 2 girls) and HMTM (7 boys and 3 girls). The diagnosis was made by a child psychiatrist based on DSM-IV-TR criteria and using Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADIR) and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). Then the children were referred to Noore Hedayat center for the treatment. Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS), Bender Gestalt Test, Draw-A-Man Test Goodenough, Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices Test for children ,Vineland Social Maturity Scale (VSMS) and performance charts of children based on their videotaped behaviors were used. Data analysis was done using ANCOVA test. Results: Findings showed that in spite of more effectiveness of HMTM compared to ABA, the differences of standard tests except Bender Gestalt Test and performance charts were not significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, HMTM at least had the equal effectiveness to ABA in the treatment of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Further researches are needed to compare the effectiveness of these 2 methods without limitations which occurred in this research.
Metacognitive Strategy Used by American Students in Learning Indonesian

This research investigated the metacognitive strategy used by American students in learning Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia). The research objective was to identify certain learning behaviors such as the use of metacognitive strategy. The subjects were students of the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) program at the beginning level who were learning Bahasa Indonesia intensively for 8 weeks in the summer period in the BIPA Program at the Faculty the Letters, State University of Malang, Indonesia. Data were collected through (1) direct observation of the learning activities and (2) student interviews. The results showed that CLS students, as a representative sample of American students at the beginning level, demonstrate seven general types of learning behaviors when they learn Bahasa Indonesia. These are (1) anticipating; (2) planning; (3) controlling; (4) monitoring; (5) self-evaluating; (6) self-managing; and (7) self-reflecting.
Globalization and Business Masculinities

The idea of “transnational business masculinity” is explored in life-history interviews with Australian managers. Their world is male-dominated but has a strong consciousness of change. An intense and stressful labor process creates multiple linkages among managers and subjects them to mutual scrutiny, a force for gender conservatism. In a context of affluence and anxiety, managers tend to treat their life as an enterprise and self-consciously manage bodies and emotions as well as finances. Economic globalization has heightened their insecurity and changed older patterns of business; different modes of participating in transnational business can be identified. Managerial masculinity is still centrally related to power, but changes from older bourgeois masculinity can also be detected: tolerance of diversity and heightened uncertainty about one’s place in the world and gender order. Some support is found for the transnational business masculinity hypothesis, but a spectrum of gender patterns must be recognized in an increasingly complex business environment.
Detection of a vanB Determinant inEnterococcus gallinarum in Australia

We write to report the detection of a vanB determinant in Enterococcus gallinarum in Australia and the second naturally acquired case (5). High-level acquired VanA-mediated glycopeptide resistance has been described for E. gallinarum, E. casseliflavus, and other enterococcal species (4, 6), and the natural acquisition of the VanB-mediated glycopeptide resistance has been commonly described for E. faecalis and E. faecium. However, acquisition of VanB-mediated resistance in two isolates of E. gallinarum has only recently been described in a Swiss hospital (5). The current case occurred in a 20-year-old male patient with chronic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus osteomyelitis which had developed after resection and grafting for a tibial adamantinoma 2 years previously. Prolonged courses of both vancomycin and teicoplanin had been administered sequentially but discontinuously over a period of 18 months. Screening of a rectal swab obtained on readmission of the patient to the infectious diseases unit in February 2000 resulted in the isolation of a nonmotile enterococcus from an Enterococcosel agar (BBL, Cockeysville, Md.) plate containing 6 μg of vancomycin per ml (VRE agar). The isolate was unusual in that it required CO2 for optimal growth but had typical Gram stain morphology and was pyrrolidonyl peptidase positive. The vancomycin MIC of 8 μg/ml and teicoplanin MIC of 0.5 μg/ml (E-test; AB Biodisk, Solna, Sweden) were consistent with a VanC phenotype. Because of its unusual phenotype, the isolate was subjected to multiplex PCR as described preivously for the identification of E. faecalis and E. faecium (3) and detection of van gene determinants (1). Based on biochemical identification (positive results for o-nitrophenyl-β-d-galactopyranoside, arabinose, methyl-2-d-glucopyranoside, raffinose, and xylose and negative results for tellurite, melezitose, and sorbitol), the lack of E. faecalis and E. faecium genetic elements, and the demonstration of a vanC-1 determinant by PCR, the isolate was confirmed as E. gallinarum. However, a 330-bp element indistinguishable from the vanB determinant was also demonstrated. The detection of motile enterococci which have acquired additional vancomycin resistance genes further supports the argument that identification of enterococci to the species level and determination of glycopeptide MICs do not necessarily predict the genotype (2, 5). Infections with E. gallinarum, E. casseliflavus, and E. flavescens are rare, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend infection control initiatives for patients infected or colonized with these species (5, 7). However, the ability of these species to acquire glycopeptide resistance determinants warrants further attention, and we agree with the suggestion of Liassine et al. that resistance genotypes in “motile” enterococci should be closely monitored (5).