Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification of a ras-activated enhancer in the mouse osteopontin promoter and its interaction with a putative ETS-related transcription factor whose activity correlates with the metastatic potential of the cell

The role of RAS in transducing signals from an activated receptor into altered gene expression is becoming clear, though some links in the chain are still missing. Cells possessing activated RAS express higher levels of osteopontin (OPN), an alpha v beta 3 integrin-binding secreted phosphoprotein implicated in a number of developmental, physiological, and pathological processes. We report that in T24 H-ras-transformed NIH 3T3 cells enhanced transcription contributes to the increased expression of OPN. Transient transfection studies, DNA-protein binding assays, and methylation protection experiments have identified a novel ras-activated enhancer, distinct from known ras response elements, that appears responsible for part of the increase in OPN transcription in cells with an activated RAS. In electrophoretic mobility shift assays, the protein-binding motif GGAGGCAGG was found to be essential for the formation of several complexes, one of which (complex A) was generated at elevated levels by cell lines that are metastatic. Southwestern blotting and UV light cross-linking studies indicated the presence of several proteins able to interact with this sequence. The proteins that form these complexes have molecular masses estimated at approximately 16, 28, 32, 45, 80, and 100 kDa. Because the approximately 16-kDa protein was responsible for complex A formation, we have designated it MATF for metastasis-associated transcription factor. The GGANNNAGG motif is also found in some other promoters, suggesting that they may be similarly controlled by MATF.
Sequential 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea (NSC 79037) and 5-fluorouracil (NSC 19893) therapy of gastrointestinal cancer.

Thirty-six patients with advanced gastrointestinal carcinoma were treated sequentially with full therapeutic doses of 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea followed by 5-fluorouracil. 5-Fluorouracil could be safely administered at 6 weeks although patients still demonstrated peripheral hematological depression secondary to the earlier 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea therapy. Of the 36 patients, 8.3% showed an objective response to 1-(2-chloroethyl)-3-cyclohexyl-1-nitrosourea therapy. Of the 21 patients who were able to receive sequential 5-fluorouracil, 19% showed objective response. Only 8.3% of all patients entered into this trial showed objective response after completion of the sequential therapy, and this program must be judged as ineffective treatment for gastrointestinal cancer.
Platelet-derived Growth Factor Receptor-induced Feed-forward Inhibition of Excitatory Transmission between Hippocampal Pyramidal Neurons*

Growth factor receptors provide a major mechanism for the activation of the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase c-Src, and this kinase in turn up-regulates the activity ofN-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in CA1 hippocampal neurons (1). Unexpectedly, applications of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-BB to cultured and isolated CA1 hippocampal neurons depressed NMDA-evoked currents. The PDGF-induced depression was blocked by a PDGF-selective tyrosine kinase inhibitor, by a selective inhibitor of phospholipase C-γ, and by blocking the intracellular release of Ca2+. Inhibitors of cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) also eliminated the PDGF-induced depression, whereas a phosphodiesterase inhibitor enhanced it. The NMDA receptor-mediated component of excitatory synaptic currents was also inhibited by PDGF, and this inhibition was prevented by co-application of a PKA inhibitor. Src inhibitors also prevented this depression. In recordings from inside-out patches, the catalytic fragment of PKA did not itself alter NMDA single channel activity, but it blocked the up-regulation of these channels by a Src activator peptide. Thus, PDGF receptors depress NMDA channels through a Ca2+- and PKA-dependent inhibition of their modulation by c-Src.
Effects of Gas Generation and Precipitates on Performance of Fe° PRBs

Long‐term reactivity and permeability are critical factors in the performance of granular iron permeable reactive barriers (PRBs). Thus it is a topic of great practical importance, as well as scientific interest. In this study, four types of source solutions (distilled H2O, 10 mg/L TCE, 300 mg/L CaCO3, and 10 mg/L TCE + 300 mg/L CaCO3) were supplied to four columns containing a commercial granular iron material. In all four columns, gases accumulated to ∼ 10% of the initial porosity and resulted in declines in permeability of ∼ 50% to 80%. In the columns receiving CaCO3, carbonate precipitates accumulated to ∼ 7% of the initial porosity, with no apparent decline in permeability. The data indicate that precipitates formed initially at the influent ends of the columns, reducing the reactivity of the iron in this region. As a consequence of the reduced reactivity, calcium and bicarbonate migrated further into the column, to precipitate in a region where the reactivity remained high. Thus precipitation occurred as a moving front through the columns. The results suggest improved methods for PRB design and rehabilitation, and also suggest improvements that are needed in the mathematical models developed for predicting long‐term performance.
Crowding, Spacing and closed dentition in Primary Dentition and its relationship with BMI among Saudi Children

Obesity in childhood is associated with an increased risk for many adverse physical and psychosocial health outcomes. Due to more sedentary lifestyles and inadequate dietary habits, obesity has become an increasing problem in pediatrics. One of the reliable and accepted means to determine nutritional status is by Body Mass Index. Childhood Body Mass Index significantly changes with age. And it is a known fact that there is a strong correlation between BMI and dental development. This study aims to assess spacing, crowding and closed dentition in Saudi Arabian school children less than six years of age with primary dentition and its co-relation with Body Mass Index. This is a crosssectional study involving 200 school children. This study was conducted to investigate relationship in primary dentition between spacing, crowding and closed dentition with BMI among Saudi Arabian children and to assess their correlation if any. The study included school children below 6 years of age having all deciduous teeth. Of the 200 students screened below the age group of 6 years, spacing was present in 116 (58%). 124(62%) of the 200 children had absence of closed dentition. Crowding was absent in 192 (96%) children of the total 200 children screened. In correlation between spacing and BMI, spacing was absent in 52 (62%) of children with normal BMI and 32 (38%) of the children were in underweight, overweight and obese category. Closed dentition was present in 47 (62%) of children, 29 (32%) of the children were in underweight, overweight and obese category. Crowding was present in 5 (62%) of children and 3 (38%) of the children were in underweight. Practitioners should conduct regular obesity check in children. This would allow the early detection of weight gain and further counselling. The results of this study showed a weak correlation between BMI and spacing, closed and crowded dentition.
Health information technology success and the art of being mindful: Preliminary insights from a comparative case study analysis

Background: Information technologies (ITs) represent an important lever for improving performance in health care systems. In recent years, most industrialized countries have made substantial investments in this area. Nevertheless, the sad truth is that far too many of these IT projects have failed. Purpose: The primary goals of this study were to explore the notion of mindfulness proposed by E. B. Swanson and N. C. Ramiller (2004) and to assess the extent to which, and how, innovating mindfully influences health IT project success. Methodology: Two in-depth case studies were conducted in comparable health care organizations that adopted the same clinical information system. Observation, semistructured interviews, informal discussions, and documentation were the primary data collection methods. Data analyses were performed following recognized guidelines. Results: Throughout the unfolding of the two projects, the actions and decisions of key stakeholders reflected different levels of mindfulness. The cross-case comparison was particularly relevant given that project circumstances led to contrasting outcomes. Practice Implications: Taking action and making decisions in light of the particular context of each particular health IT project, that is, innovating mindfully, favor innovation acceptance and positive outcomes, whereas acting and deciding following fads, fashion, or best practices without paying attention to the specifics of the project context, that is, innovating mindlessly, increase the risk of human resistance and limited added value.
Proteasome inhibition of pathologic shedding of enterocytes to defend barrier function requires X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein and nuclear factor κB.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Although we are beginning to understand where, when, and how intestinal epithelial cells are shed, physiologically, less is understood about alterations in cell fate during minimally invasive epithelial infections. We used a piglet model of Cryptosporidium parvum infection to determine how elimination of infected enterocytes is balanced with the need to maintain barrier function. METHODS We studied the effects of enterocyte shedding by C parvum-infected ileum on barrier function ex vivo with Ussing chambers. The locations and activities of caspase-3, nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), and inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (IAP) were assayed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, immunoblot, and tissue immunoreactivity analyses and using specific pharmacologic inhibitors. The location, specificity, and magnitude of enterocyte shedding were quantified using special stains and light microscopy. RESULTS Infection with C parvum activated apoptotic signaling pathways in enterocytes that resulted in cleavage of caspase-3. Despite caspase-3 cleavage, enterocyte shedding was confined to villus tips, coincident with apoptosis, and observed more frequently in infected cells. Epithelial expression of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP), activation of NF-κB, and proteasome activity were required for control of cell shedding and barrier function. The proteasome blocked activity of caspase-3; this process was mediated by expression of XIAP, which bound to cleaved caspase-3. CONCLUSIONS We have identified a pathway by which villus epithelial cells are maintained during C parvum infection. Loss of barrier function is reduced by active retention of infected enterocytes until they reach the villus tip. These findings might be used to promote clearance of minimally invasive enteropathogens, such as by increasing the rate of migration of epithelial cells from the crypt to the villus tip.
OPTIPRISM: a distributed hierarchical network management system for all-optical networks

OPTIPRISM is an agent-based network management system (NMS) providing configuration and fault management services for all-optical networks. OPTIPRISM has been developed and tested on the Multi-wavelength Optical Network (MONET) switches of the Advanced Technology Demonstration Network (ATDnet). OPTIPRISM features a scalable architecture consisting of a distributed hierarchy of intelligent, mobile manager agents. These managers have uniform interfaces, which makes it is easy to add managers from the hierarchy in order to extend OPTIPRISM as the network grows. Using agent mobility, OPTIPRISM is able to reorganize its physical deployment so as to improve overall responsiveness. Finally, OPTIPRISM includes an innovative browser agent which incorporates a scalable solution to the problem of end-user interaction with a large distributed NMS.
Use of guanidinated dietary protein to measure losses of endogenous amino acids in poultry

Guanidinated proteins when fed to non-ruminants provide values for both endogenous amino acid losses and amino acid digestibilities, provided that the homoarginine residues in the treated protein are randomly distributed. Earlier studies have established that guanidination has only minor effects on the structure of the protein and, in particular, on its susceptibility to proteolysis. Furthermore, we have confirmed that homoarginine behaves as a typical amino acid in the small intestine. Lysine residues in casein and soya-bean protein, and in the proteins of cotton-seed meal, meat meal, soya-bean meal, maize, sorghum and wheat were converted to homoarginine by guanidination, the extent of conversion ranging from 37–68%. Sequential proteolysis in vitro of these guanidinated materials showed that the ratios of homoarginine to other amino acids remained unchanged for casein and soya-bean protein, indicating random distribution of homoarginine residues, but not for all the amino acids in meals and cereals. The use of guanidinated casein as the sole protein source in diets fed to broiler chickens allowed measurement of endogenous losses of amino acids under normal feeding conditions and calculation of true digestibilities of dietary amino acids at the ileum. Endogenous amino acid losses measured by the use of guanidinated casein (15.3 g/kg dry matter (DM) intake) were significantly higher (P < 0.001) than values obtained by feeding a N-free diet (5.4 g/kg DM intake), or by regression analysis to zero N intake (72 g/kg DM intake)
Tests of the functional coefficients in the varying-coefficient cox proportional hazard model

Cox proportional hazard model is one of the most celebrated models for analyzing lifetime data. There exists one problem when we replace the covariate effects with varying-coefficient functions. That is whether this replacement is reasonable or partially reasonable. In this paper, we propose a hypothesis testing based on the asymptotic distribution of the normalized maximum deviations, for this problem, whether the parametric components are known or unknown. We also conducted simulation studies to evaluate finite-sample properties of our proposed methods.
A comparison of the relative costs of financial distress models: artificial neural networks, logit and multivariate discriminant analysis

This study uses two artificial neural networks (ANNs), categorical learning/instar ANNs and probabilistic (PNN) ANNs, suitable for classification and prediction type issues, and compares them to traditional multivariate discriminant analysis (MDA) and logit to examine financial distress one to three years prior to failure. The results indicate that traditional MDA and logit perform best with the lowest overall error rates. However, when the relative error costs are considered, the ANNs perform better than traditional logit or MDA. Also, as the time period moves farther away from the eventual failure date, ANNs perform more accurately and with lower relative error costs than logit or MDA. This supports the conclusion that for auditors and other evaluators interested in early warning techniques, categorical learning network and probabilistic ANNs would be useful. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Threat of Exclusion and Relational Contracting

Relational contracts have been shown to mitigate moral hazard in labor and credit markets. A central assumption in most theoretical and experimental studies is that, upon misbehaving, agents can be excluded from their current source of income and have to resort to less attractive outside options. This threat of exclusion is unrealistic in many environments, and especially in credit and investment contexts. We examine experimentally the emergence and time structure of relational contracts when the threat of exclusion is weakened. We focus on bilateral credit relationships in which strategic default is possible. We compare a weak exclusion treatment in which defaulting borrowers can reinvest borrowed funds, to a strong exclusion treatment in which defaulting borrowers must liquidate borrowed funds. We find that under weak exclusion more relationships break down in early periods and credit relationships are more likely to “start small”.
Attitude change among college students toward homosexuality.

Abstract Although audio-visual materials are commonly used on college and university campuses, frequently those materials are not evaluated to determine what impact they may have on students' attitudes. The present research compared the effect of three audio-visual programs on attitudes of college students toward homosexuality. The three programs included a film that dealt with prejudice towards numerous groups but not towards homosexuals; a video-tape of a homosexual clergyman who discussed sexual variance with particular emphasis on homosexuality; and two films in which couples were explicitly engaging in homosexual behavior. A control group was used. All groups received a lecture about homosexuality. Using a two-way analysis of covariance, significant differences were found among the groups. Subjects that watched the film on prejudice and the video-tape of a discussion of homosexuality, as well as the control group, were all significantly more tolerant toward homosexuality than subjects who watched the.
In search of clinal variation in the period and clock timing genes in Australian Drosophila melanogaster populations

Clinal variation for repeat number in the Thr‐Gly region of the period circadian timing gene in Drosophila melanogaster was described in Europe and has subsequently been used as evidence of thermal selection on period alleles. To test for clinal variation in this gene along the east coast of Australia, the period polymorphism was scored on flies from multiple samples collected repeatedly over a 5‐year interval, along with variation at another circadian rhythm locus, clock. For period, there was no consistent evidence of clinal variation in the 17 and/or 20 repeat alleles, although when average allele length was examined a weak consistent clinal pattern was detected. For clock there was no evidence of clinal variation in the two most common alleles or in average repeat size. These data are inconsistent with the reported patterns in Europe and suggest that clinal variation in timing genes needs to be re‐examined in this region.
Speech Recognition of English by Japanese Using Lexicon Represented by Multiple Reduced Phoneme Sets

Recognition of second language (L2) speech is still a challenging task even for state-of-the-art automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems, partly because pronunciation by L2 speakers is usually significantly influenced by the mother tongue of the speakers. The authors previously proposed using a reduced phoneme set (RPS) instead of the canonical one of L2 when the mother tongue of speakers is known, and demonstrated that this reduced phoneme set improved the recognition performance through experiments using English utterances spoken by Japanese. However, the proficiency of L2 speakers varies widely, as does the influence of the mother tongue on their pronunciation. As a result, the effect of the reduced phoneme set is different depending on the speakers’ proficiency in L2. In this paper, the authors examine the relation between proficiency of speakers and a reduced phoneme set customized for them. The experimental results are then used as the basis of a novel speech recognition method using a lexicon in which the pronunciation of each lexical item is represented by multiple reduced phoneme sets, and the implementation of a language model most suitable for that lexicon is described. Experimental results demonstrate the high validity of the proposed method. key words: second language (L2) speech recognition, proficiency of L2 speakers, reduced phoneme set (RPS), multiple reduced phoneme sets, proficiency-dependent reduced phoneme set
Medical outcomes of adolescent live kidney donors

Living kidney donation from donors <18 yr of age is uncommon. The majority of donations from adolescents took place several decades ago providing a unique opportunity to study true long‐term consequences of donation. We compared survival, renal outcomes, and rates of hypertension and diabetes among 42 adolescent donors and matched older controls. Adolescent donors were matched with donors 18–30 yr on the following: gender, relation to the recipient, BMI at donation, eGFR at donation, and year of donation. After a mean follow‐up of 31.8 ± 8.0 yr, 94.9% of adolescent donors were alive vs. 93.8% of controls. There was no significant difference in having eGFR (MDRD) <60 mL/min/1.73 m2 (26.1% vs. 40.9%), hypertension (35.9% vs. 39.4%), diabetes (5.1% vs. 12.5%), or proteinuria (15.4% vs. 14.1%): adolescent donors vs. controls for all comparisons. These data suggest that adolescent donors are not at a higher risk of shortened survival, hypertension, diabetes, or proteinuria. Nevertheless, they probably should donate only when other options are exhausted as they have to live with a single kidney for decades and longer follow‐up is needed.
Plant functional traits mediate reproductive phenology and success in response to experimental warming and snow addition in Tibet

Global climate change is predicted to have large impacts on the phenology and reproduction of alpine plants, which will have important implications for plant demography and community interactions, trophic dynamics, ecosystem energy balance, and human livelihoods. In this article we report results of a 3‐year, fully factorial experimental study exploring how warming, snow addition, and their combination affect reproductive phenology, effort, and success of four alpine plant species belonging to three different life forms in a semiarid, alpine meadow ecosystem on the central Tibetan Plateau. Our results indicate that warming and snow addition change reproductive phenology and success, but responses are not uniform across species. Moreover, traits associated with resource acquisition, such as rooting depth and life history (early vs. late flowering), mediate plant phenology, and reproductive responses to changing climatic conditions. Specifically, we found that warming delayed the reproductive phenology and decreased number of inflorescences of Kobresia pygmaea C. B. Clarke, a shallow‐rooted, early‐flowering plant, which may be mainly constrained by upper‐soil moisture availability. Because K. pygmaea is the dominant species in the alpine meadow ecosystem, these results may have important implications for ecosystem dynamics and for pastoralists and wildlife in the region.
El tratamiento en la prensa del movimiento independentista en Cataluña

En este articulo se analiza el tratamiento que hizo la prensa de referencia, tanto de ambito catalan como de ambito estatal, sobre el movimiento independentista en Cataluna en sus noticias. Se trata de un tema reciente que ha suscitado el debate politico en Espana y, por lo tanto, poco estudiado hasta el momento. Esto justifica el alto grado de novedad de esta investigacion. En este sentido, el objetivo principal es conocer la evolucion del enfoque periodistico otorgado a diversos items considerados de especial relevancia en este tema. Para ello, se ha llevado a cabo un analisis del discurso. Se han estudiado dos periodos temporales de especial relevancia para este proceso, la celebracion de la Diada de 2012 y el anuncio del referendum (2013). La muestra esta integrada por cinco periodicos: el diario Ara , La Vanguardia , El Pais , El Mundo y La Razon . Lo que implico el analisis de 319 noticias. Los resultados obtenidos permiten comprobar como la ideologia no ha sido determinante en la manera de posicionarse de cada periodico respecto al tema de la independencia de Cataluna. Lo que realmente influye en su posicionamiento es el ambito territorial en el que se publica cada medio.