Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioinformatics Identification of Modules of Transcription Factor Binding Sites in Alzheimer's Disease-Related Genes by In Silico Promoter Analysis and Microarrays

The molecular mechanisms and genetic risk factors underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis are only partly understood. To identify new factors, which may contribute to AD, different approaches are taken including proteomics, genetics, and functional genomics. Here, we used a bioinformatics approach and found that distinct AD-related genes share modules of transcription factor binding sites, suggesting a transcriptional coregulation. To detect additional coregulated genes, which may potentially contribute to AD, we established a new bioinformatics workflow with known multivariate methods like support vector machines, biclustering, and predicted transcription factor binding site modules by using in silico analysis and over 400 expression arrays from human and mouse. Two significant modules are composed of three transcription factor families: CTCF, SP1F, and EGRF/ZBPF, which are conserved between human and mouse APP promoter sequences. The specific combination of in silico promoter and multivariate analysis can identify regulation mechanisms of genes involved in multifactorial diseases.
Theoretical Borderlands: Using Multiple Theoretical Perspectives to Challenge Inequitable Power Structures in Student Development Theory

This article is an exploration of possibilities and methodological considerations for using multiple theoretical perspectives in research that challenges inequitable power structures in student development theory. Specifically, I explore methodological considerations when partnering queer theory and constructivism in research on lesbian identity development. Considerations include the dilemma of partnering contradictory theoretical perspectives; the politics of representation; and the personal and professional implications for researchers who partner theoretical perspectives.
Median to Radial Nerve Transfer to Restore Wrist and Finger Extension: Technical Nuances

BACKGROUND Traditional methods for restoring finger and wrist extension following radial nerve palsy include interposition nerve grafting or tendon transfers. We have described the utilization of distal nerve transfers for the restoration of radial nerve function in the forearm. OBJECTIVE We review the neuroanatomy of the forearm and outline the steps required for the implementation of this transfer. METHODS AND RESULTS We use a step-by-step procedural outline and detailed photographs, line drawings, and video to describe the procedure. CONCLUSION This approach is technically feasible and is a reconstructive option for patients with this nerve deficit.
Students' Lecture Notes and Their Relation to Test Performance

The empirical relations between quantitative and qualitative aspects of students' lecture notes and test performance are not well known. The present study examined these relations naturdlistically by analyzing the notes taken by college students during a specially constructed, but otherwise typical, classroom lecture. Key findings were as follows: (a) Most students included In their notes less than 25% of the propositions judged worthy of inclusion and only 50% of the targeted main ideas; (b) The amount and kind of information included in the notes was related to test performance; (c) Inclusion of specific information in the notes tuas a sufficient but not a necessary condition for correctly answering a question based on that information. These findings suggest a stronger relation between note-taking and test performance than has previously been revealed.
The Conditional Nature of High Impact/Good Practices on Student Learning Outcomes

Using a multi-institutional sample of undergraduate students, this study found that the relationships between engaging in high impact/good practices and liberal arts outcomes differ based on students' precollege and background characteristics. Findings suggest that high impact/good practices are not a panacea and require a greater degree of critical evaluation by higher education scholars.
Transmission Electron Microscopy Reveals Distinct Macrophage- and Tick Cell-Specific Morphological Stages of Ehrlichia chaffeensis

Background Ehrlichia chaffeensis is an emerging tick-borne rickettsial pathogen responsible for human monocytic ehrlichiosis. Despite the induction of an active host immune response, the pathogen has evolved to persist in its vertebrate and tick hosts. Understanding how the organism progresses in tick and vertebrate host cells is critical in identifying effective strategies to block the pathogen transmission. Our recent molecular and proteomic studies revealed differences in numerous expressed proteins of the organism during its growth in different host environments. Methodology/Principal Findings Transmission electron microscopy analysis was performed to assess morphological changes in the bacterium within macrophages and tick cells. The stages of pathogen progression observed included the attachment of the organism to the host cells, its engulfment and replication within a morulae by binary fission and release of the organisms from infected host cells by complete host cell lysis or by exocytosis. E. chaffeensis grown in tick cells was highly pleomorphic and appears to replicate by both binary fission and filamentous type cell divisions. The presence of Ehrlichia-like inclusions was also observed within the nucleus of both macrophages and tick cells. This observation was confirmed by confocal microscopy and immunoblot analysis. Conclusions/Significance Morphological differences in the pathogen’s progression, replication, and processing within macrophages and tick cells provide further evidence that E. chaffeensis employs unique host-cell specific strategies in support of adaptation to vertebrate and tick cell environments.
Parental age difference and adverse perinatal outcomes in the United States.

This study was undertaken to examine the relationship between paternal and maternal age differences and adverse perinatal outcomes in the United States. Data were obtained on singleton pregnancies delivering at >or=20 weeks gestation in the United States in 1995-97 from the National Center for Health Statistics data sets. Adverse perinatal outcomes that were evaluated included fetal death rate (>or=20 weeks), preterm delivery <37 weeks and small-for-gestational-age (SGA) births (birthweight <10th centile for gestational age and corrected for sex). Age difference was defined as paternal minus maternal age. The analysis included 8995274 pregnancies (11.3% blacks, 88.7% whites). An increase in fetal death rate, preterm delivery and SGA births was noted among white women who were older than their male partners. For black mothers older than their partners, there was an increase in fetal death rate when the women were <20 years old, but a decrease in fetal death rate when >35 years old. Neither rates of preterm delivery nor SGA births were increased much for black women with varying parental age differences. This demonstrates that race and maternal age both contribute to the effects of parental age difference on adverse perinatal outcomes.
Maelstrom: Transparent Error Correction for Lambda Networks

The global network of datacenters is emerging as an important distributed systems paradigm--commodity clusters running high-performance applications, connected by high-speed 'lambda' networks across hundreds of milliseconds of network latency. Packet loss on long-haul networks can cripple application performance --a loss rate of 0.1% is sufficient to reduce TCP/IP throughput by an order of magnitude on a 1 Gbps link with 50ms latency. Maelstrom is an edge appliance that masks packet loss transparently and quickly from inter-cluster protocols, aggregating traffic for high-speed encoding and using a new Forward Error Correction scheme to handle bursty loss.
The Violent Gang Problem in Chicago: A Local Community Approach

A pilot project to reduce gang violence in one of Chicago's most violent communities appears to have been modestly successful. The unique characteristics of the Crisis Intervention Services Project (CRISP) were its emphasis on crisis intervention, particularly surveillance and street mediation of gang conflicts, within a community development framework, that is, use of various elements of community: former gang leaders; local conventional groups and organizations, including the police; and graduate students. A combination of strategies was employed: social control, social support, improved communication, and provision of limited opportunities. The project resulted in a curb of serious gang-related Part I crimes, particularly aggravated assault and battery. There was no evidence that crime or delinquency was generally reduced. There was some evidence that a crisis and surveillance approach was more effective than a traditional counseling approach in the reduction of gang-related violence in a subgroup of serious juvenile offenders.
Effect of Daily Hemodialysis on Monocytes Apoptosis

Uremia is associated with a state of immune dysfunction with increased susceptibility to infection and malignancy possibly related to dysregulation of immune system cell apoptosis. Peritoneal dialysis can restore plasma apoptosis activity on monocytes compared to intermittent hemodialysis. Whether the continuous modality or diverse clearance mechanisms involved are responsible is unknown. Apoptosis rates correlate with phagocytic function highlighting the benefit of efficient toxin clearance. The plasma of 16 patients on daily hemodialysis (D-HD) was incubated with U937 monocytes and compared to 18 hemodialysis (HD) patients, 5 chronic renal failure (CRF) subjects and 5 healthy volunteers (controls). Apoptosis was evaluated by immunofluorescence microscopy dyes (Hoechst 33342, propidium iodide) and annexin V cytoflowmetry at 96 h. Plasma-induced U937 apoptosis (mean values) was significantly enhanced in D-HD (18.8 ± 4.1), HD (19.67 ± 5.5) and CRF patients (20.8 ± 4.7) compared to controls (9.6 ± 3.6; p < 0.05 for CRF vs. controls, HD vs. controls and D-HD vs. controls). No significant differences were observed between D-HD, HD and CRF sera on apoptosis rate, caspase-3 activity and phagocytic capacity of U937 monocytes. This study demonstrates that the plasma of various HD schedules was unable to reduce monocyte apoptosis induced by uremia.
Pedagogical use of two languages in a Chinese elementary school

This paper provides a snapshot of the manner in which English as a foreign language is taught in an elementary school in Helan County, China, in the nation's first decade of sweeping nation-wide educational reforms where English was first introduced as an official subject in 2001 and then as a compulsory subject in 2004. To cope with large classes and a challenging and new syllabus, with conflicting directives from the top on how to teach, the elementary school teacher, often poorly trained, has to resort to a number of management strategies, chief of which is the extensive use of the first language. It is argued that, despite assumptions and pronouncements in official policy and claims in the professional literature to the contrary, the use of two languages remains necessary and irreplaceable in the Chinese classroom. It is present in outlining procedures, providing supportive instructions throughout the lesson, motivational and disciplinary interventions, the assignment of homework and in the management of unfamiliar vocabulary. Such a scenario also raises questions about the suitability and practicality of the communicative approach in this context.
High-Stakes Testing and Students: Stopping or Perpetuating a Cycle of Failure?

As state-mandated standardized testing becomes an increasingly popular tool by which to make student- level high-stakes decisions such as promotion or graduation from high school, it is critical to look at such applications and their effects on students. Findings in this article suggest that non- White, non-Asian students, as well as students with special needs and English Language Learners, are among the groups most deeply affected by highstakes testing. Test scores give us important information, but they do not give us all the information necessary to make critical decisions. Given their limited nature and the potentially adverse impacts they can have, using state-mandated large-scale testing for student-level high-stakes purposes is unadvisable.
An Examination of Colorado's Teacher Licensure Testing.

Abstract Under the Educator Licensing Act passed by the Colorado General Assembly in 1991, the professional standards that must be acquired by Colorado teachers, administrators, and support personnel were redefined. Accompanying those standards was a change in the assessment process used to certify the educators—from the California Achievement Test (1998) to the PLACE (Program for Licensing Assessments for Colorado Educators; National Evaluation Systems, Inc., 1998) tests. Findings are reported from a validity analysis of 7 iterations of those tests, which occurred 3 times each year (October 1994–October 1996, inclusive), from 5 of the 17 Colorado teacher training institutions that prepare teachers. Results are generally favorable and are reported in terms of policy decisions on a variety of issues.
A Prospective Study of Psychotic Symptoms in Dementia Sufferers: Psychosis in Dementia

Eighty-seven out of a clinical cohort of 124 patients with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd ed., rev.) dementia were followed up at monthly intervals for 1 year. Psychotic symptoms were assessed using the Burns's Symptom Checklist, and cognitive functioning was evaluated with the CAMCOG. The annual incidence rate of psychotic symptoms was 47%, although many of the incident symptoms lasted less than 3 months. Fifty-three percent of patients with psychosis experienced resolution of their symptoms. Patients either experienced brief or persistent psychotic disorders, with few having an intermediary course. Persistent psychosis was significantly associated with a 3-month duration of symptoms at baseline. Neuroleptics did not significantly influence the course of psychotic symptoms.
Genetic Heterogeneity of the Spontaneously Hypertensive Rat

We examined DNA fingerprints of the spontaneously hypertensive rat from Shimane Institute of Health Science, Izumo, Japan, including seven substrains that were separated in the early stages of the establishment of the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat, and compared their fingerprints with those of rats from other sources. Obtained DNA fingerprints revealed that, in both the stroke-resistant spontaneously hypertensive rat and the Wistar-Kyoto rat, there is a substantial genetic difference between the rats from the National Institutes of Health and from Shimane Institute of Health Science. By contrast, only a small genetic difference was observed either between the rats from the National Institutes of Health and Charles River Laboratories or among the substrains of the spontaneously hypertensive rat in the Shimane Institute of Health Science. Further, in the strains from the Shimane Institute of Health Science, there were fingerprinting bands that could distinguish either the Wistar-Kyoto rat from all the substrains of the spontaneously hypertensive rat or the stroke-prone from the stroke-resistant spontaneously hypertensive rat in spite of their close genetic backgrounds. From the observations above, we concluded 1) that there is substantial genetic variance of the spontaneously hypertensive rat between the two major sources in the world, the National Institutes of Health and the Shimane Institute of Health Science and 2) that by DNA fingerprinting analysis, it is possible to identify the restriction fragment length polymorphisms that are specific for the spontaneously hypertensive rat or the stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rat These polymorphisms can be applied in the segregation study of the F2 generation. {Hypertension 1991;18:12-16
‘Where are you?’ Cell phones and environmental self-understanding amongst students

Nowadays, the cell phone is omnipresent in our society, certainly amongst youngsters. Its presence, and the possibility to be in constant touch, have some profound consequences on our experience (of our selves, of others and the world) and self-understanding. It is important for educators and scholars in the field of education to understand such consequences and develop an awareness of how students relate to the world they inhabit. Starting from the observation that people often want to know the position of the party they call, this explorative study reports on an analysis of text messages of 10 participants and tries to couple this and related questions heuristically to an environmental self-understanding, wherein a particular environmental kind of positioning becomes a major need and/or obsession. Results point to a particular potential dealing with the present and the future.
Robots' Auditory Cues are Subject to Anthropomorphism

Research shows that human responses to robots are largely dependent on the robot's physical attributes. The present study investigates whether robots' auditory cues are interpreted differently depending on the degree to which they are anthropomorphic in nature. Participants viewed a robot that responded with human speech, synthesized “robotic speech,” or sounds only. The most commands were given to the robot when its “voice” was synthetic. Humans are sensitive to auditory cues given by robots.
Automatic call section segmentation for contact-center calls

This paper presents a SVM (Support Vector Machine) classification system which divides contact-center call transcripts into "Greeting", "Question", "Refine", "Research", "Resolution", "Closing" and "Out-of-topic" sections. This call section segmentation is useful to improve search and retrieval functions and to provide more detailed statistics on calls. We use an off-the-shelf automatic speech recognition (ASR) system to generate call transcripts from recorded calls between customers and service representatives. We first classify an individual utterance into a call section by applying the SVM classifier and then merge adjacent utterances classified into a same call section. We experiment with the proposed system on 100 automatically transcribed calls. The 10-fold cross validation shows 87.2% classification accuracy. We also compare the proposed algorithm with two other approaches - the most frequent section only method and a maximum entropy-based segmentation. The evaluation shows that our system's accuracy is 12% higher than the first baseline system and 6% higher than the second baseline system respectively.
Characterization of Extended-Spectrum-β-Lactamase-Producing Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a major causative agent of gastroenteritis, particularly in areas with high levels of seafood consumption, and it has recently become pandemic due to the emergence of the O3:K6 serotype ([12][1]). Tdh and Trh have been implicated as major virulence factors in the strains
Acceptance and Efficacy of a Guided Internet Self-Help Treatment Program for Obese Patients with Binge Eating Disorder

Introduction: A significant percentage of obese patients suffer from binge eating disorder (BED), with negative consequences on psychological health, quality of life, weight loss treatment and maintenance. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), delivered in traditional or self-help format, is effective in reducing BED symptoms. To improve dissemination, a self-help treatment program composed of eleven CBT based modules was implemented on the Internet and evaluated in a population of adult obese patients with BED. Method: Forty-two obese BED patients wait-listed for a multi-disciplinary obesity treatment took part in the study. Twenty-two patients completing the six-month online guided self-help treatment program were compared to a control group of twenty patients without intervention. Both groups were evaluated before and after six months of Internet self-help treatment or waiting list. A follow-up evaluation was carried out six months later. Results: Participants in the online self-help treatment program showed higher binge eating abstinence rates, lower EDE-Q shape and weight concerns, and improved TFEQ disinhibition of eating and hunger scores compared to the control group. They also scored better on psychological health and quality of life measures after intervention, and gains were maintained at follow-up. No effect was found regarding BMI. The number of modules completed was correlated with a better quality of life improvement at post evaluation. Participants rated the program as useful and easy to use. Conclusion: The Internet seems to be a valuable tool for disseminating CBT for BED obese patients. Acceptance of new technology was good in this population. Further research is needed with a larger sample to corroborate these results.
Risk factors for pregnancy failure in patients with anti-phospholipid syndrome treated with conventional therapies: a multicentre, case-control study.

OBJECTIVE To identify the risk factors associated with pregnancy failure in patients with APS treated with conventional therapy. METHODS A multicentre, case-control study was conducted to compare APS patients with successful and unsuccessful pregnancy outcomes. We retrospectively considered 410 pregnancies of women diagnosed with primary APS. The study focused on 57 unsuccessful pregnancies (considered the study population) and 57 successful pregnancies (considered the control population) matched for age and therapy. All the patients had been treated with conventional protocol treatments including low-dose aspirin and/or heparin. The clinical and laboratory features of the two groups of women diagnosed with APS were compared. RESULTS The independent risk factors for pregnancy failure were: (i) the presence of SLE or other autoimmune diseases [odds ratio (OR) 6.0; 95% CI 1.7, 20.8; P = 0.01]; (ii) history of both thrombosis and pregnancy morbidity (OR 12.1; 95% CI 1.3, 115.3; P = 0.03); and (iii) triple [Immunoglobulin (Ig) G/IgM aCLs plus IgG/IgM anti-β(2) glycoprotein I antibodies plus LA] aPL positivity (OR 4.1; 95% CI 1.0, 16.7; P = 0.05). APS patients diagnosed on the basis of a single positive test and/or history of pregnancy morbidity alone were generally found to have successful pregnancies. CONCLUSION It would seem from these findings that the risk of pregnancy failure in APS women planning to conceive can be stratified on the basis of some specific clinical and laboratory features.
Regulation of MT1-MMP/MMP-2/TIMP-2 axis in human placenta

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and specific endogenous tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) mediate rupture of the fetal membranes in both physiological and pathological conditions. MMPs and TIMPs are subject to regulation by DNA methylation in human malignancies and pre-eclampsia. To determine if membrane type 1 MMP (MT1-MMP), MMP2, and TIMP2 are regulated by DNA methylation in human placentas, we employed an in vitro model where human placental tissues were collected at term gestation and cultured with methylation inhibiting agent 5-AZA-2′-deoxycytidine (AZA) and lipopolysaccharide. The results suggest that DNA methylation is not directly involved in the regulation of MT1-MMP in placental tissue; however, remodeling of chromatin by a pharmacologic agent such as AZA potentiates an infection-related increase in MT1-MMP. MT1-MMP is a powerful activator of MMP2 and this action, coupled with either no change or a decrease in TIMP2 concentrations, favors a gelatinolytic state leading to extracellular matrix degradation, which could predispose fetal membranes to rupture prematurely during inflammation.