Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When a Threat to the Brand Is a Threat to the Self

This research examines how people respond when a commercial brand they identify with is threatened. Across four studies, the authors found that among participants who identified with a brand, a threat to the brand elicited the same responses as a threat to the self. Specifically, participants with low implicit self-esteem defended the brand when the self was activated, unlike their high implicit self-esteem counterparts. In addition, brand defense was reduced when individuals had the opportunity to affirm a valued aspect of their self-concept. These findings suggest that when a brand that people identify with is threatened, they may defend the brand to preserve the integrity of the self. More broadly, these findings are consistent with the notion that brands may be included into the extended self-concept, which supports William James’s original ideas concerning the breadth and heterogeneity of the self.
Does Female Representation in Top Management Improve Firm Performance? A Panel Data Investigation

We argue that female representation in top management brings informational and social diversity benefits to the top management team, enriches the behaviors exhibited by managers throughout the firm, and motivates women in middle management. The result should be improved managerial task performance and thus better firm performance. We test our theory using 15 years of panel data on the top management teams of the S&P 1,500 firms. We find that female representation in top management improves firm performance but only to the extent that a firm's strategy is focused on innovation, in which context the informational and social benefits of gender diversity and the behaviors associated with women in management are likely to be especially important for managerial task performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An Economic and Cultural Commentary

Commentary Thanks to Sean Corfield and later Gavin Halliday for many interesting discussions on C90 implementation. Also Clive Feather, the UK C panel, and the members of WG14 were the source of many insights. Clive Feather reviewed most of the material in this book. Fred Tydeman reviewed the floating-point material in all subsections. Frank Griswold provided a detailed review of over half of the C ++ material. Stephen Parker review an very early draft of some of the coding guidelines. Most of the work on the scripts and style sheets/macros use for the layout was done by Vic Kirk. Thanks to the authors of TeXlive, grap, pic, graphviz, and a variety of 'nix based tools. Marilyn Rash (rrocean@shore.net) copyedited 75% of the material. Thanks to the librarians of Reading, Surrey, and Warwick Universities for providing access to their collections of Journals. Thanks to all those people who made their papers available online (found via Altavista and later Google). Conventions 0 This is a sentence from the C99 standard, the number on the inside margin (it would be in a bound book) is information defined here the sentence number and this wording has been deletedadded by the response to a DR. Commentary This is some insightful commentary on the above sentence. We might also say something relating to this issue in another sentence (see sentence number and reference heading in the outside marginwould be in a [] another sentence bound book). The term blah is delimited with single-quotes to highlight the fact that it is defined as a term. Rationale This is a quote from the Rationale document produced by the C Committee to put a thoughtful spin on the wording in the standard. C90 This section deals with the C90 version of the standard. Specifically, how it differs from the C99 version of the above sentence. These sections only appear if there is a semantic difference (in some cases the words may have changed slightly, leaving the meaning unchanged). This is the text of a DR (defect report) submitted to the ISO C Standard committee. Response The committees response to this DR is that this question is worth repeating at this point in the book. This is where we point out what the difference, is any (note the change bar), and what the developer might do, if anything, about it. This is a sentence from the C++ standard specifying behavior …
NECAP1 loss of function leads to a severe infantile epileptic encephalopathy

Background Epileptic encephalopathy is a broad clinical category that is highly heterogeneous genetically. Objective To describe a multiplex extended consanguineous family that defines a molecularly novel subtype of early infantile epileptic encephalopathy. Methods Autozygosity mapping and exome sequencing for the identification of the causal mutation. This was followed by expression analysis of the candidate gene. Results In an extended multigenerational family with six affected individuals, a single novel disease locus was identified on chromosome 12p13.31-p13.2. Within that locus, the only deleterious novel exomic variant was a homozygous truncating mutation in NECAP1, encoding a clathrin-accessory protein. The mutation was confirmed to trigger nonsense-mediated decay. Consistent with previous reports, we show that NECAP1 is highly enriched in the central nervous system. Conclusions NECAP1 is known to regulate clathrin-mediated endocytosis in synapses. The mutation we report here links for the first time this trafficking pathway in early infantile epileptic encephalopathy.
Measurement of cardiac natriuretic hormones (atrial natriuretic peptide, brain natriuretic peptide, and related peptides) in clinical practice: the need for a new generation of immunoassay methods.

BACKGROUND Cardiac natriuretic hormones (CNHs) are a family of related peptides, including atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and other peptides derived from the N-terminal portion of the proANP and proBNP peptide chains. Assays for cardiac natriuretic peptides have been proposed to help assess clinical conditions associated with expanded fluid volume. In particular, the assays can be useful for distinguishing healthy subjects from patients in different stages of heart failure. Measurements of these hormones have also been considered for prognostic indicators of long-term survival in patients with heart failure and/or after acute myocardial infarction. The different CNHs differ in their production/secretion patterns and have different clearance rates. Furthermore, there are numerous proposed assay configurations for each of these hormones, and it is not clear which assay provides the best pathophysiological and/or clinical information. APPROACH Here we review recent studies concerning the competitive (such as RIA, enzyme immunoassay, or luminescence immunoassay) and noncompetitive immunoassays (such as two-site IRMA, ELISA, or immunoluminometric assay) for the different cardiac natriuretic peptides to compare the analytical characteristics and clinical relevance of assays for the different CNHs and the different assay formats. CONTENT Developing sensitive, precise, and accurate immunoassays for cardiac natriuretic peptides has been difficult because of their low concentrations (on average, approximately 3-6 pmol/L) in healthy subjects and because of their structural, metabolic, and physiological characteristics. Competitive assays have historically suffered from lack of sensitivity and specificity for the biologically active peptides. These usually require tedious extraction procedures prior to analysis. Recently, immunometric assays have been developed that have improved sensitivity and specificity; it appears these will be the methods of choice. SUMMARY To date, there is no consensus on the best assay procedure of cardiac natriuretic peptides. To facilitate widespread propagation of determination of these hormones in routine clinical practice, it will be necessary to study the new generation of noncompetitive immunometric methods that are less time-consuming and more sensitive and specific. Although several studies suggest that BNP exhibits better clinical utility than the other CNHs, more studies examining multiple CNHs in the same cohorts of patients will be necessary.
Low-dose anisomycin sensitizes glucocorticoid-resistant T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia CEM-C1 cells to dexamethasone-induced apoptosis through activation of glucocorticoid receptor and p38-MAPK/JNK

Abstract Glucocorticoid (GC) resistance in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) usually resulted in the failure of treatment. Exploring new agents to overcome GC resistance is important. Here we reported for the first time that low-dose anisomycin has the potential to sensitize GC-resistant T-ALL CEM-C1 cells to dexamethasone (DEX). Compared with the use of DEX or low-dose anisomycin alone, co-treatment with them resulted in a significant increase of growth inhibition, apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in CEM-C1 cells through induction of activated caspase-3 and up-regulation of Bim, p21and p27, and down-regulation of Mcl-1, Bcl-2, c-myc, cyclin A and cyclin D1. Furthermore, co-treatment remarkably activated glucocorticoid receptor (GR), p38-MAPK and JNK, and all of them were canceled only by the GR inhibitor RU486, indicating GR might be an at the upstream of GR–p38-MAPK/JNK pathway. We conclude that low-dose anisomycin sensitizes GC-resistant CEM-C1 cells to DEX and this effect is mediated, at least in part, by activation of the GR–p38-MAPK/JNK signaling pathway.
EF-hand protein Ca2+ buffers regulate Ca2+ influx and exocytosis in sensory hair cells

Significance Ca2+ ions serve as a key cellular signal and are tightly controlled. One mechanism to limit free Ca2+ ions is buffering by Ca2+-binding proteins, which are strongly expressed in sensory hair cells of the ear. Here we studied how genetic disruption of the Ca2+-binding proteins parvalbumin-α, calbindin-D28k, and calretinin affects exocytosis and sound encoding at the synapses of mouse inner hair cells (IHCs) and spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs). Mutant IHCs showed increased exocytosis, but the sound-evoked spiking activity in SGNs was unaltered. Together with mathematical modeling, this finding indicates that a large fraction of exocytosis in mutant IHCs occurred outside synapses. We conclude that Ca2+-binding proteins shape presynaptic Ca2+ signals to restrict exocytosis to active zones, thus enabling metabolically efficient sound encoding. EF-hand Ca2+-binding proteins are thought to shape the spatiotemporal properties of cellular Ca2+ signaling and are prominently expressed in sensory hair cells in the ear. Here, we combined genetic disruption of parvalbumin-α, calbindin-D28k, and calretinin in mice with patch-clamp recording, in vivo physiology, and mathematical modeling to study their role in Ca2+ signaling, exocytosis, and sound encoding at the synapses of inner hair cells (IHCs). IHCs lacking all three proteins showed excessive exocytosis during prolonged depolarizations, despite enhanced Ca2+-dependent inactivation of their Ca2+ current. Exocytosis of readily releasable vesicles remained unchanged, in accordance with the estimated tight spatial coupling of Ca2+ channels and release sites (effective “coupling distance” of 17 nm). Substitution experiments with synthetic Ca2+ chelators indicated the presence of endogenous Ca2+ buffers equivalent to 1 mM synthetic Ca2+-binding sites, approximately half of them with kinetics as fast as 1,2-Bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-N,N,N′,N′-tetraacetic acid (BAPTA). Synaptic sound encoding was largely unaltered, suggesting that excess exocytosis occurs extrasynaptically. We conclude that EF-hand Ca2+ buffers regulate presynaptic IHC function for metabolically efficient sound coding.
A Preliminary Report on the Clinical Experience with AlloDerm in Breast Reconstruction and its Radiologic Appearance

Human acellular tissue matrix (AlloDerm) use in breast reconstruction has become popular. Traditionally used for prosthesis coverage, it is also used in our practice as a filler for lumpectomy defects and a contouring device. However, no report presently exists that describes its appearance on oncologic surveillance studies. We performed a retrospective review of all charts of patients having undergone cancer-related breast reconstruction using AlloDerm as a filler at a single institution between 2005 and 2009. Postoperative mammograms and dynamic contrast enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging were reviewed with a dedicated breast imager. Sixteen women underwent surgery involving placement of an AlloDerm roll in the breast. Postoperative films were unavailable for two of them. Of the remaining 14 patients, nine had postoperative mammograms only, three had postoperative dynamic contrast enhanced breast magnetic resonance imaging only, and two patients had both. In all cases, evaluation of the postoperative images was not affected by the presence of AlloDerm. In our short-term, retrospective experience, we find that a thorough radiographic evaluation of the breast tissue remains possible when AlloDerm rolls are used in reconstruction.
Recent advances in the medical therapy of Crohn's disease in childhood

Crohn's disease (CrD) is characterised by an ongoing inflammatory response in the gut, in the absence of an obvious trigger. The treatment of CrD in children, during relapse and remission, requires special consideration of growth and development. This review addresses the use of present medical management strategies, including enteral nutrition, corticosteroids, immunosuppression and anti-TNF-α therapies. Anti-inflammatory IL-11 and leukocyte adhesion inhibitors have shown only moderate clinical efficacy in adults. Emerging treatments directed against the inflammatory cascade under investigation include inhibitors of IL-6 and -12, IFN-γ and MAPKs. Probiotics and colony stimulating factors aim to stimulate the innate immune system. Research data from clinical trials are reviewed and summarised in respect of their potential within paediatric practice.
Comportamento e parâmetros fisiológicos de porcas em lactação na transição Cerrado-Amazônia

Objetivou-se realizar diagnostico termico e avaliar seus efeitos sobre o comportamento e parâmetros fisiologicos de porcas em lactacao na regiao de transicao Cerrado-Amazonia. As avaliacoes foram realizadas a 2,47; 9,47; 15,29 e 21,47 dias de lactacao. Foram registrados os dados de temperatura ambiente, umidade relativa do ar e indice de temperatura e umidade (ITU) do ambiente e temperatura retal (TR) e a frequencia respiratoria (FR) dos animais. O comportamento dos animais foi caracterizado pela posicao e atividade em cada observacao. As temperaturas ambientais oscilaram de 24,3 a 32oC apresentando-se acima da zona de conforto. Os valores medios de temperatura ambiental, umidade do ar e ITU foram 26,97o C, 78,86% e 77,54, respectivamente. A FR apresentou-se menor no primeiro estagio de lactacao (39,44 mov/min) em comparacao ao ultimo (48,06 mov/min). A TR das porcas foi mais elevada as 15 e 21:00hs mas dentro da variacao normal. Frequencia respiratoria e temperatura retal apresentaram-se mais elevadas no periodo vespertino devido as elevadas temperaturas registradas entre 12 e 15:00hs. Porcas em lactacao criadas na transicao Cerrado-Amazonia apresentam maior frequencia de observacao da posicao de decubito lateral e das atividades amamentando e dormindo.
CAN SELECTION BY AN ECTOPARASITE DRIVE A POPULATION OF RED CROSSBILLS FROM ITS ADAPTIVE PEAK?

Abstract The bill structures of different call types of red crossbills (Loxia curvirostra complex) in western North America usually approximate the predicted optima for foraging on single species of conifers. One clear exception is the call type in the South Hills, Idaho, that is coevolving in an evolutionary arms race with Rocky Mountain lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta ssp. latifolia). Although South Hills crossbills forage only on the cones of these lodgepole pines, their average bill depth is smaller than that predicted to be optimal. Because preliminary data showed that large-billed males were more likely to exhibit symptoms of ectoparasitic mite (Knemidokoptes jamaicensis) infestation, the goal of our study was to further quantify the incidence of mite infestation and determine whether selection by mites may have favored smaller-billed crossbills and thus driven crossbills away from the foraging optimum. We estimated annual survival of both infected and uninfected South Hills crossbills using program MARK, which allows for auxiliary variables such as bill size and sex to be included in survival analyses. Mite infestation depressed crossbill survival and, especially for males, caused directional selection against larger-billed individuals. Such selection may explain why South Hills crossbills have smaller bills than the optimum and why average bill size for males has decreased from 1998 to 2003. This selection may also explain why the degree of sexual size dimorphism has decreased by nearly 50% since 1998.
Light and electron microscope studies of organs and tissues of the New Zealand Black (NZB/BL) strain mice with lymphoid leukemia and autoimmune disease.

Summary Light microscope studies of organs and tissues of 10- to 12-month-old leukemic NZB/BL strain mice revealed changes characteristic of lymphoid leukemia and autoimmune disease. Electron microscope studies of ultrathin sections of lymph nodes, spleen, liver, bone marrow, thymus gland, kidneys, and lungs of the same leukemic mice demonstrated immature and mature murine leukemia virus particles of the so-called Type C. These studies also revealed developmental stages of the leukemia Type C particles in various leukemic and nonleukemic cells and in parenchymatous cells of the liver and kidneys of the leukemic mice. Similar virus particles were also found in organs with changes characteristic of autoimmune disease, such as liver necrosis, lupus erythematosus lesions of the glomeruli, and fibrinoid changes in the blood vessels of the spleen of leukemic mice. The kidneys and liver of the examined mice appeared to contain a large number of virus particles regardless of infiltration by leukemic cells. Similar organs from 1- to 3-month-old apparently normal mice of the NZB/BL strain were also found to contain murine leukemia Type C particles and budding of virus particles from plasma membrane of cells. On histologic examination, changes indicative of autoimmune disease were found in organs of 3-month-old but not in organs of 1-month-old mice.
NuSTAR REVEALS RELATIVISTIC REFLECTION BUT NO ULTRA-FAST OUTFLOW IN THE QUASAR PG 1211+143

We report on four epochs of observations of the quasar PG 1211+143 using NuSTAR. The net exposure time is 300 ks. Prior work on this source found suggestive evidence of an ultra-fast outflow (UFO) in the Fe K band with a velocity of approximately 0.1 c ? > . The putative flow would carry away a high-mass flux and kinetic power, with broad implications for feedback and black hole--galaxy co-evolution. NuSTAR detects PG 1211+143 out to 30 keV, meaning that the continuum is well-defined both through and above the Fe K band. A characteristic relativistic disk reflection spectrum is clearly revealed via a broad Fe K emission line and Compton back-scattering curvature. The data offer only weak constraints on the spin of the black hole. A careful search for UFOs shows no significant absorption feature above 90% confidence. The limits are particularly tight when relativistic reflection is included. We discuss the statistics and the implications of these results in terms of connections between accretion onto quasars, Seyferts, and stellar-mass black holes, and feedback into their host environments.
PTPN 2 , a candidate gene for type 1 diabetes , modulates interferon-gamma-induced pancreatic beta-cell apoptosis

This is an uncopyedited electronic version of an article accepted for publication in Diabetes. The American Diabetes Association, publisher of Diabetes, is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it by third parties. The definitive publisherauthenticated version will be available in a future issue of Diabetes in print and online at http://diabetes.diabetesjournals. org. Diabetes Publish Ahead of Print, published online March 31, 2009
Cooperative Signals Governing ARF-Mdm2 Interaction and Nucleolar Localization of the Complex

ABSTRACT The ARF tumor suppressor protein stabilizes p53 by antagonizing its negative regulator, Mdm2 (Hdm2 in humans). Both mouse p19 ARF and human p14 ARF bind to the central region of Mdm2 (residues 210 to 304), a segment that does not overlap with its N-terminal p53-binding domain, nuclear import or export signals, or C-terminal RING domain required for Mdm2 E3 ubiquitin ligase activity. The N-terminal 37 amino acids of mouse p19 ARF are necessary and sufficient for binding to Mdm2, localization of Mdm2 to nucleoli, and p53-dependent cell cycle arrest. Although a nucleolar localization signal (NrLS) maps within a different segment (residues 82 to 101) of the human p14 ARF protein, binding to Mdm2 and nucleolar import of ARF-Mdm2 complexes are both required for cell cycle arrest induced by either the mouse or human ARF proteins. Because many codons of mouse ARF mRNA are not recognized by the most abundant bacterial tRNAs, we synthesized ARF minigenes containing preferred bacterial codons. Using bacterially produced ARF polypeptides and chemically synthesized peptides conjugated to Sepharose, residues 1 to 14 and 26 to 37 of mouse p19 ARF were found to interact independently and cooperatively with Mdm2, while residues 15 to 25 were dispensable for binding. Paradoxically, residues 26 to 37 of mouse p19 ARF are also essential for ARF nucleolar localization in the absence of Mdm2. However, the mobilization of the p19 ARF -Mdm2 complex into nucleoli also requires a cryptic NrLS within the Mdm2 C-terminal RING domain. The Mdm2 NrLS is unmasked upon ARF binding, and its deletion prevents import of the ARF-Mdm2 complex into nucleoli. Collectively, the results suggest that ARF binding to Mdm2 induces a conformational change that facilitates nucleolar import of the ARF-Mdm2 complex and p53-dependent cell cycle arrest. Hence, the ARF-Mdm2 interaction can be viewed as bidirectional, with each protein being capable of regulating the subnuclear localization of the other.
AND PSYCHOMETRIC TESTING OF A MULTIDIMENSIONAL INSTRUMENT OF PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE JACKSON HEART STUDY

Mario Sims, PhD; Sharon B. Wyatt, PhD; Mary Lou Gutierrez, PhD; Herman A. Taylor, MD, MPH; David R. Williams, PhD, MPH Objective: Assessing the discrimination-health disparities hypothesis requires psychometrically sound, multidimensional measures of discrimination. Among the available discrimination measures, few are multidimensional and none have adequate psychometric testing in a large, African American sample. We report the development and psychometric testing of the multidimensional Jackson Heart Study Discrimination (JHSDIS) Instrument.
Vector run-length coding of Bi-level images

Run-length coding (RC) is a simple and yet quite effective technique for bi-level image coding. A problem with the conventional RC which describes an image by alternating runs of white and black pixels is that it only exploits the redundancy within the same scan line. The modified relative address run-length coding (MRC) used in Group III facsimile transmission is more efficient by making use of the correlation between adjacent lines. The paper presents a vector run-length coding (VRC) technique which exploits the spatial redundancy more thoroughly by representing images with vector or black patterns and vector run-lengths. Depending on the coding method for the block patterns, various algorithms have been developed, including single run-length VRC (SVRC), double run-length VRC (DVRC), and block VRC (BVRC). The conventional RC is a special case of BVRC with block size of 1*1. The proposed methods have been applied to the CCITT standard test documents and the best result has been obtained with the BVRC method. With a block dimension of 4*4, it has yielded compression gains higher than the MRC with k=4 by 15.5% and 22.7%, when using a single and multiple run-length codebooks, respectively. <<ETX>>