Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selecting Change Agents: Exploring Traits and Skills in a Simulated Environment

Abstract In the new organizational environment, when business and even political leaders declare their dedication to change, it is a very important need for organizations to recruit and select people capable not only to bring or initiate but, also, handle change effectively. However, only a few attempts have been made to identify the personality profile of a person, able to fulfill the requirements of this position. The current study tries to shed light on this issue by examining if dispositional characteristics and competencies are related to attitudes to change, adopting an experimental business game scenario simulating a real business change context. Participants completed self-report questionnaires assessing their dispositional traits whereas their performance and change management skills were assessed by independent observers. Results displayed that resilient employees consider themselves as more ready to accept and apply change, as opposed to change-related skills which seemed to predict only task performance and not acceptance of change. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings, managerial implications and possible limitations.
PSGL‐1 function in immunity and steady state homeostasis

Summary: The substantial importance of P‐selectin glycoprotein ligand 1 (PSGL‐1) in leukocyte trafficking has continued to emerge beyond its initial identification as a selectin ligand. PSGL‐1 seemed to be a relatively simple molecule with an extracellular mucin domain extended as a flexible rod, teleologically consistent with its primary role in tethering leukocytes to endothelial selectins. The rolling interaction between leukocyte and endothelium mediated by this selectin‐PSGL‐1 interaction requires branched O‐glycan extensions on specific PSGL‐1 amino acid residues. In some cells, such as neutrophils, the glycosyltransferases involved in formation of the O‐glycans are constitutively expressed, while in other cells, such as T cells, they are expressed only after appropriate activation. Thus, PSGL‐1 supports leukocyte recruitment in both innate and adaptive arms of the immune response. A complex array of amino acids within the selectins engage multiple sugar residues of the branched O‐glycans on PSGL‐1 and provide the molecular interactions responsible for the velcro‐like catch bonds that support leukocyte rolling. Such binding of PSGL‐1 can also induce signaling events that influence cell phenotype and function. Scrutiny of PSGL‐1 has revealed a better understanding of how it performs as a selectin ligand and yielded unexpected insights that extend its scope from supporting leukocyte rolling in inflammatory settings to homeostasis including stem cell homing to the thymus and mature T‐cell homing to secondary lymphoid organs. PSGL‐1 has been found to bind homeostatic chemokines CCL19 and CCL21 and to support the chemotactic response to these chemokines. Surprisingly, the O‐glycan modifications of PSGL‐1 that support rolling mediated by selectins in inflammatory conditions interfere with PSGL‐1 binding to homeostatic chemokines and thereby limit responsiveness to the chemotactic cues used in steady state T‐cell traffic. The multi‐level influence of PSGL‐1 on cell traffic in both inflammatory and steady state settings is therefore substantially determined by the orchestrated addition of O‐glycans. However, central as specific O‐glycosylation is to PSGL‐1 function, in vivo regulation of PSGL‐1 glycosylation in T cells remains poorly understood. It is our purpose herein to review what is known, and not known, of PSGL‐1 glycosylation and to update understanding of PSGL‐1 functional scope.
Validity of radiographic assessment of the knee joint space using automatic image analysis

Abstract Objectives: The present study investigated whether there were differences between automatic and manual measurements of the minimum joint space width (mJSW) on knee radiographs. Methods: Knee radiographs of 324 participants in a systematic health screening were analyzed using the following three methods: manual measurement of film-based radiographs (Manual), manual measurement of digitized radiographs (Digital), and automatic measurement of digitized radiographs (Auto). The mean mJSWs on the medial and lateral sides of the knees were determined using each method, and measurement reliability was evaluated using intra-class correlation coefficients. Measurement errors were compared between normal knees and knees with radiographic osteoarthritis. Results: All three methods demonstrated good reliability, although the reliability was slightly lower with the Manual method than with the other methods. On the medial and lateral sides of the knees, the mJSWs were the largest in the Manual method and the smallest in the Auto method. The measurement errors of each method were significantly larger for normal knees than for radiographic osteoarthritis knees. Conclusions: The mJSW measurements are more accurate and reliable with the Auto method than with the Manual or Digital method, especially for normal knees. Therefore, the Auto method is ideal for the assessment of the knee joint space.
Functional health status, chronic medical conditions and disorders of mood

Background Understanding of the impact of depressive and anxiety disorders on functional health status in the context of chronic medical illness has been gained almost exclusively from the study of patient populations. Aims To compare the impact of major depressive and generalised anxiety disorder with that of chronic medical conditions on functional health in a UK resident population. Method The functional health of 20 921 study participants was assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 36 questionnaire. Depressive and anxiety disorder episode histories and chronic medical conditions were assessed using independent self-completed questionnaires. Results The degree of physical functional impairment associated with mood disorders was of equivalent magnitude to that associated with the presence of chronic medical conditions or with being some 12 years older. Conclusions Depressive and anxiety disorders have a profound impact on functional health that is independent of chronic medical illness. Chronic anxiety is associated with physical health limitations in excess of those associated with chronic depression or any of the physical health conditions considered, except for stroke.
A genome-wide screening in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for genes that confer resistance to the anticancer agent cisplatin.

Cisplatin is a potent DNA-damaging agent that has demonstrated anticancer activities against several tumors. However, manifestation of cellular resistance is a major obstacle in anticancer therapy that severely limits the curative potential of cisplatin. Therefore, understanding the molecular basis of cisplatin resistance could significantly improve the clinical efficacy of this anticancer agent. Here, we employed Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model organism to study cisplatin resistance mechanisms and describe a one-step cisplatin selection to identify and characterize novel cisplatin resistance genes. Screening a multicopy yeast genomic library enabled us to isolate several yeast clones for which we could confirm that the cisplatin resistance phenotype was linked to the introduced fragment. In a first attempt, a number of open reading frames could be identified. Among these genes, PDE2 and ZDS2 were repeatedly identified as genes whose overexpression confers cellular resistance to cisplatin. PDE2, encoding cAMP-phosphodiesterase 2, is of particular interest because the overexpression of this yeast gene is known to induce cisplatin resistance in mammalian cells as well, providing proof of the principle of our experimental approach. In addition, the identification of PDE2 shows that our yeast screening system can directly be informative for drug resistance in mammalian cells.
Respiratory Viruses in Adults With Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Background Use of nucleic acid amplification techniques has increased the identification of respiratory viruses (RVs) in adult patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The objectives of the present study were to identify RV in patients with CAP using three different sampling methods and to compare CAP virus proportions and types with two comparison groups. Methods The study population included 183 adult patients with CAP, 450 control subjects, and 201 patients with nonpneumonic lower respiratory tract infection (NPLRTI). Each participant was sampled by oropharyngeal swab, nasopharyngeal swab, and nasopharyngeal washing, and the samples were tested for detection of 12 RVs by multiplex TaqMan Hydrolysis probe-based real-time polymerase chain reaction (Integrated DNA Technology; Coralville, IA). Results At least one RV was identified in 58 patients with CAP (31.7%) compared with 32 (7.1%) in control subjects and 104 (51.7%) in patients with NPLRTI (P < .01 and P < .01, respectively). Coronaviruses were identified in 24 (13.1%) patients with CAP, compared with 17 (3.8%) in control subjects, and 21 (10.4%) patients with NPLRTI. Respiratory syncytial virus was identified in 13 (7.1%), four (0.9%), and seven (3.5%); rhinovirus in nine (4.9%), nine (2.0%), and 15 (7.5%); and influenza virus in eight (4.4%), two (0.4%), and 63 (31.3%) patients with CAP, control subjects, and patients with NPLRTI, respectively. Conclusions The proportion of RV involvement in CAP is higher than previously reported. The proportion of RV identified in healthy subjects is significantly lower than in CAP, but it is not zero and should be weighed when interpreting corresponding proportions among patients.
Electrification of streets of Dhaka city using solar and piezoelectric energy

This research paper carries out a proposal to implement an efficient way to electrify the streets of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, using solar power. Recently, government has launched a project named “Solar Photovoltaic-Powered LED (Light Emitting Diode) Street Lighting” to electrify the streets of Dhaka using only solar panels. Under the prevailing project, 122 LED lights, each of 30W are installed to electrify approximately 2 km streets. But after implementation, it has been found that 60-100W LED light is required for adequately illuminating the streets which will allow the ADB fund to cover only 250-300 km streets. Our proposal is to use the solar panels implemented in this project more efficiently and to carry out a realistic experimental approach to enhance the solar output power to a significant level with the application of solar concentrator and piezoelectric energy harvesting circuit. The method is arranged using `Double Sun Technology'. A remarkable enhancement in the output power is achieved with this method. Rather than using only a solar panel, the output power increases by 12.14% by using a photovoltaic (PV) panel with two flat mirrors as concentrator. To implement the project more efficiently, the concept of piezoelectricity have been introduced. In this paper, piezoelectric-based energy-harvesting technology is applied to generate electricity from roadways. The piezoelectric energy harvesting circuit was designed and simulated in PSPICE. A voltage doubler and a bridge rectifier were wired to the equivalent circuit model of the piezoelectric materials. The vibration present on the roadways from the movement of the vehicles was applied in the form of voltage to the energy harvesting circuit. The goal of this experiment is to investigate whether piezoelectricity would be able to provide sufficient source of voltage to charge the parent battery in case of rainy or cloudy days.
Gender and age differences in normal adult human brain: Voxel‐based morphometric study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the gender and age differences in the normal adult human brain, using voxel‐based morphometry. In this study, 227 right‐handed normal adults (male:female = 111:116) were examined. Three‐dimensional magnetic resonance brain images of each subject were segmented into gray and white matter using statistical parametric mappings. All individual data were transformed to standard brain space and then divided into older and younger age groups before examining the effects of age and gender. There was a significant negative correlation between gray matter concentration and age in each gender group. The differences were more prominent in the older age groups compared with the younger age groups. Gray matter concentrations in the bilateral inferior frontal lobes, anterior cingulate gyrus, medial thalamus, and hypothalamus were more retained in females as they aged, whereas those in the occipital regions were more retained in aging males. Our findings are consistent with biologically and hormonally established gender differences. Hum Brain Mapp, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Reproducibility and complications in gene searches: linkage on chromosome 6, heterogeneity, association, and maternal inheritance in juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.

Evidence for genetic influences in epilepsy is strong, but reports identifying specific chromosomal origins of those influences conflict. One early study reported that human leukocyte antigen (HLA) markers were genetically linked to juvenile myoclonic epilepsy (JME); this was confirmed in a later study. Other reports did not find linkage to HLA markers. One found evidence of linkage to markers on chromosome 15, another to markers on chromosome 6, centromeric to HLA. We identified families through a patient with JME and genotyped markers throughout chromosome 6. Linkage analysis assuming equal male-female recombination probabilities showed evidence for linkage (LOD score 2.5), but at a high recombination fraction (theta), suggesting heterogeneity. When linkage analysis was redone to allow independent male-female thetas, the LOD score was significantly higher (4.2) at a male-female theta of.5,. 01. Although the overall pattern of LOD scores with respect to male-female theta could not be explained solely by heterogeneity, the presence of heterogeneity and predominantly maternal inheritance of JME might explain it. By analyzing loci between HLA-DP and HLA-DR and stratifying the families on the basis of evidence for or against linkage, we were able to show evidence of heterogeneity within JME and to propose a marker associated with the linked form. These data also suggest that JME may be predominantly maternally inherited and that the HLA-linked form is more likely to occur in families of European origin.
Multiple Post-translational Modifications Affect Heterologous Protein Synthesis*

Background: Post-translational modifications (PTMs) affect protein folding. Results: Statistically significant correlations are revealed between the yield of heterologous protein expression and the presence of multiple PTM sites bioinformatically predicted in the expressed sequences. Conclusion: Predicting potential PTMs in polypeptide sequences can help optimize heterologous protein synthesis. Significance: Correlations revealed provide insights into the role of specific PTMs in protein stability and solubility. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are required for proper folding of many proteins. The low capacity for PTMs hinders the production of heterologous proteins in the widely used prokaryotic systems of protein synthesis. Until now, a systematic and comprehensive study concerning the specific effects of individual PTMs on heterologous protein synthesis has not been presented. To address this issue, we expressed 1488 human proteins and their domains in a bacterial cell-free system, and we examined the correlation of the expression yields with the presence of multiple PTM sites bioinformatically predicted in these proteins. This approach revealed a number of previously unknown statistically significant correlations. Prediction of some PTMs, such as myristoylation, glycosylation, palmitoylation, and disulfide bond formation, was found to significantly worsen protein amenability to soluble expression. The presence of other PTMs, such as aspartyl hydroxylation, C-terminal amidation, and Tyr sulfation, did not correlate with the yield of heterologous protein expression. Surprisingly, the predicted presence of several PTMs, such as phosphorylation, ubiquitination, SUMOylation, and prenylation, was associated with the increased production of properly folded soluble proteins. The plausible rationales for the existence of the observed correlations are presented. Our findings suggest that identification of potential PTMs in polypeptide sequences can be of practical use for predicting expression success and optimizing heterologous protein synthesis. In sum, this study provides the most compelling evidence so far for the role of multiple PTMs in the stability and solubility of heterologously expressed recombinant proteins.
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and Other Long-term Sequelae

Purpose of Review:Growing public health concern exists over the incidence of chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI) in athletes participating in contact sports. Chronic TBI represents a spectrum of disorders associated with long-term consequences of single or repetitive TBI and includes chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), chronic postconcussion syndrome, and chronic neurocognitive impairment. Neurologists should be familiar with the different types of chronic TBI and their diagnostic criteria. Recent Findings:CTE is the most severe chronic TBI and represents the neurologic consequences of repetitive mild TBI. It is particularly noted among boxers and football players. CTE presents with behavioral, cognitive, and motor symptoms, and can only be definitively diagnosed postmortem. Chronic postconcussion syndrome is defined as postconcussion symptoms that last longer than 1 year and do not appear to resolve; it may develop after a single concussive event. Chronic neurocognitive impairment is an all-encompassing clinical term denoting long-term neurologic sequelae secondary to sports-related trauma and can present either within the postconcussion syndrome or years after a symptom-free interval. Summary:This article discusses the diagnostic evaluation of chronic TBI, including clinical history, neurologic examination, neuropsychological testing, neuroimaging, and laboratory testing, as well as the distinctions between CTE, chronic postconcussion syndrome, and chronic neurocognitive impairment. Neurologic impairment among athletes exposed to repetitive brain injury appears to be a real phenomenon. Because CTE has no established treatment, prevention is of paramount importance for athletes participating in contact sports.
Mitochondrial DNA Depletion in Rat Liver Induced by Fosalvudine Tidoxil, a Novel Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitor Prodrug

ABSTRACT Fosalvudine tidoxil is a prodrug derived from the nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor 3-deoxy-3-fluorothymidine (FLT; alovudine). FLT effectively inhibits resistant human immunodeficiency virus type 1, but its clinical development was stopped due to bone marrow and liver toxicity. In this study, we examined the long-term in vivo effects of fosalvudine tidoxil on the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) contents in rats. Sprague-Dawley rats received fosalvudine tidoxil (15, 40, or 100 mg/kg of body weight/day) by oral gavage during a period of 8 weeks. Didanosine (100 mg/kg/day) was used as a positive control for mitochondrial toxicity. mtDNA levels in liver, gastrocnemius muscle, sciatic nerve, and inguinal fat pad tissues were quantified by real-time PCR. In hepatic mitochondria, fosalvudine tidoxil induced significant mtDNA depletion. At doses of 15, 40, and 100 mg/kg, the mean hepatic mtDNA values were 62, 64, and 47% of control values, respectively. Rats exposed to 100 mg/kg of fosalvudine tidoxil, unlike all other groups, had slightly elevated levels of glutamate pyruvate transaminase in sera. Didanosine induced a loss of mtDNA (to 48% of the control level) similar to that induced by fosalvudine tidoxil. mtDNA levels in skeletal, neural, and adipose tissues in the negative control and treatment groups were similar. Our results suggest that fosalvudine tidoxil induces mitochondrial hepatotoxicity and that this effect warrants scrutiny in clinical trials.
Fractionating negative and positive affectivity in handedness: Insights from the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of personality

ABSTRACT The Annett Hand Preference Questionnaire (AHPQ), as modified by Briggs and Nebes [(1975). Patterns of hand preference in a student population. Cortex, 11(3), 230–238. doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(75)80005-0], was administered to a sample of 177 participants alongside the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality Questionnaire [RST-PQ; Corr, P. J., & Cooper, A. (2016). The Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality Questionnaire (RST-PQ): Development and validation. Psychological Assessment. doi:10.1037/pas000], which measures two factors of defensive negative emotion, motivation and affectivity—the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS) and the Fight–Flight–Freeze System (FFFS)—and one positive-approach dimension related to reward sensitivity, persistence and reactivity—the Behavioural Approach System. We sought to clarify the nature of negative, and positive, affectivity in relation to handedness. ANOVAs and multiple regression analyses converged on the following conclusions: left-handers were higher on the BIS, not the FFFS, than right-handers; in right-handers only, strength of hand preference was positively correlated with the FFFS, not the BIS. The original assessment method proposed by Annett was also used to assess handedness, but associations with RST-PQ factors were not found. These findings help us to clarify existing issues in the literature and raise new ones for future research.
Evidence suggesting the importance of fatty acids and the fatty acid moieties of sperm membrane phospholipids in the acrosome reaction of guinea pig spermatozoa.

When guinea pig spermatozoa were preincubated 1 hr in Ca2+-free medium containing dilysocardiolipin (100--125 micrograms/ml) then exposed to Ca2+, the majority underwent an immediate acrosome reaction. Monolysocardiolipin was much less effective and the native cardiolipin was totally ineffective. Some fatty acids added to the medium could also render the spermatozoa capable of undergoing their acrosome reactions, arachidonic acid in methyl ester form being most potent. It is known that sperm membrane contains phospholipase A which cleaves membrane phospholipids into lysophospholipids and fatty acids. Most lysophospholipids are known to be potent acrosome reaction-promoting agents. As some forms of fatty acids are also potent acrosome reaction-promoting agents, both products of membrane phospholipid hydrolysis by phospholipase A (i.e., both fatty acids and lysophospholipids) may work synergistically to effect the conversion of stable sperm membranes to a fusion competent state capable of engaging in the acrosome reaction.