Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Emergence of “Us and Them” in 80 Lines of Code

Psychological explanations of group genesis often require population heterogeneity in identity or other characteristics, whether deep (e.g., religion) or superficial (e.g., eye color). We used agent-based models to explore group genesis in homogeneous populations and found robust group formation with just two basic principles: reciprocity and transitivity. These emergent groups demonstrated in-group cooperation and out-group defection, even though agents lacked common identity. Group formation increased individual payoffs, and group number and size were robust to varying levels of reciprocity and transitivity. Increasing population size increased group size more than group number, and manipulating baseline trust in a population had predictable effects on group genesis. An interactive demonstration of the parameter space and source code for implementing the model are available online.
Ehancement and hyperacute rejection of skin grafts in the mousefailure to separate cytotoxic and enhancing antibodies from alloantiserum with physicochemical methods.

B6AF1 anti-B10.D2 ascites fluid was fractionated by molecular sieving and cation exchange chromatography in an attempt to separate cytoxic and enhancing antibodies. Five fractions were obtained which showed no overlap on analysis with isoelectric focusing. Despite this complete physicochemial separation all fractions contained detectable amounts of 7S IgG1 and 7S IgG2. Furthermore, exhancement of B10.D2 skin grafts in B6AF1 recipients could be induced with all the fractions. Cytotoxic activity was also present in the fractions. This was not only shown in vitro by the cytolysis of B10.02 lymphoid cells in the presence of rabbit complement, but also by the ability of the different fractions to induce hyperacute destruction of B10.02 skin grafted onto B6AF1 mice after i.v. injection together with rabbit complement. Thus, we were unable to separate the alloantiserum in cytotoxic and enhancing fractions by physicochemical means.
Pattern of antenatal care provided at a public sector hospital Hyderabad Sindh.

BACKGROUND To assess the pattern of antenatal care provided to the pregnant women and to determine their level of satisfaction for provision of services. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted at a public sector hospital of Hyderabad Sindh, the data was collected in the month of October 2004. The data was collected by using a pre-tested semi-structured Questionnaire, during the month of October 2004. A total of 161 women consecutively attending antenatal care clinic were included in the study. The variables included were socio-demographic like age, education, occupation and income, maternal and child health variables and level of satisfaction about antenatal care provided. The data was analyzed by using statistical package SPSS version 11. RESULTS The mean age of women was 29.08 +/- 3.95 years, majority were housewife, 43.5% women were illiterate, 47.2% had primary education and 9.3% had secondary level of education. About 66% were from low-income group, i.e., earning less than 3000 rupees. About 71% were multi gravida, 67% had live births and 32% had history of abortions. Four had history of Intra uterine deaths. Only 22.4% reported that they use contraceptive for spacing. About 50% of the women were dissatisfied with the services available. The reasons identified for dissatisfaction were long waiting time, inadequate medicine supply and incomplete tetanus vaccination were also reported. CONCLUSION This study concluded that antenatal care provided needs improvement and require attention to improve the quality of services provided.
An Analysis of Factors that Affecting the Number of Car Sales in Malaysia

This study investigates the relationship between macroeconomic variables and number of car sales in Malaysia. The main objective is to determine the factors that affecting the number of car sales in Malaysia. This research covers the time period from 1985 to 2014. The analysis methods that have been applied in this study include descriptive statistics, multiple regression statistics and correlation analysis. The findings shows that gross domestic product has positive relationship with the number of car sales in Malaysia, while interest rate, unemployment rate and inflation rate have negative relationship with the number of car sales in Malaysia. The findings were consistent with the previous findings done by other researcher
Plasmodium falciparum: membrane feeding assays and competition ELISAs for the measurement of transmission reduction in sera from Cameroon.

The effect of natural malaria transmission-blocking factors in the blood of Plasmodium falciparum gametocyte carriers was assessed in two types of functional bioassays. In the direct membrane feeding assay (DMFA), a comparison is made between the infectivity of gametocytes from a naturally infected gametocyte carrier in the presence of autologous plasma and the infectivity in the presence of replacement plasma from nonimmune donors. In the standard membrane feeder assay (SMFA), cultured NF54 gametocytes are used to measure the capacity of endemic sera to block transmission. In the DMFA, 18 out of 48 sera (37.5%) from Cameroonian gametocyte carriers reduced transmission significantly, while in the SMFA 22 out of 48 sera (45.8%) produced transmission reduction. There was a positive correlation between both assays (r + 0.41, P < 0.05). Antibodies against epitopes of transmission-blocking target antigens Pfs48/45 and Pfs230 were measured in competition ELISAs and compared with the results of DMFA and SMFA. Serological reactivity in competition ELISAs against three epitopes of Pfs48/45 was significantly higher in the group of transmission-reducing sera in both the DMFA and the SMFA, especially for epitope III. No significant difference was found for Pfs230 antibodies (epitope I). Sensitivity of the serological assays was approximately 60%, with a specificity of around 70%. Serological tests cannot replace the functional bioassay in field situations as yet, but can contribute in the selection of sera for SMFA evaluation.
Carbon Cycling in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120. Sucrose Synthesis in the Heterocysts and Possible Role in Nitrogen Fixation1[OA]

Nitrogen (N) available to plants mostly originates from N2 fixation carried out by prokaryotes. Certain cyanobacterial species contribute to this energetically expensive process related to carbon (C) metabolism. Several filamentous strains differentiate heterocysts, specialized N2-fixing cells. To understand how C and N metabolism are regulated in photodiazotrophically grown organisms, we investigated the role of sucrose (Suc) biosynthesis in N2 fixation in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 (also known as Nostoc sp. PCC 7120). The presence of two Suc-phosphate synthases (SPS), SPS-A and SPS-B, directly involved in Suc synthesis with different glucosyl donor specificity, seems to be important in the N2-fixing filament. Measurement of enzyme activity and polypeptide levels plus reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction experiments showed that total SPS expression is greater in cells grown in N2 versus combined N conditions. Only SPS-B, however, was seen to be active in the heterocyst, as confirmed by analysis of green fluorescent protein reporters. SPS-B gene expression is likely controlled at the transcriptional initiation level, probably in relation to a global N regulator. Metabolic control analysis indicated that the metabolism of glycogen and Suc is likely interconnected in N2-fixing filaments. These findings suggest that N2 fixation may be spatially compatible with Suc synthesis and support the role of the disaccharide as an intermediate in the reduced C flux in heterocyst-forming cyanobacteria.
Gene expression signatures, clinicopathological features, and individualized therapy in breast cancer.

CONTEXT Gene expression profiling may be useful for prognostic and therapeutic strategies in breast carcinoma. OBJECTIVES To demonstrate the value in integrating genomic information with clinical and pathological risk factors, to refine prognosis, and to improve therapeutic strategies for early stage breast cancer. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Retrospective study of patients with early stage breast carcinoma who were candidates for adjuvant chemotherapy; 964 clinically annotated breast tumor samples (573 in the initial discovery set and 391 in the validation cohort) with corresponding microarray data were used. All patients were assigned relapse risk scores based on their respective clinicopathological features. Signatures representing oncogenic pathway activation and tumor biology/microenvironment status were applied to these samples to obtain patterns of deregulation that correspond with relapse risk scores to refine prognosis with the clinicopathological prognostic model alone. Predictors of chemotherapeutic response were also applied to further characterize clinically relevant heterogeneity in early stage breast cancer. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Gene expression signatures and clinicopathological variables in early stage breast cancer to determine a refined estimation of relapse-free survival and sensitivity to chemotherapy. RESULTS In the initial data set of 573 patients, prognostically significant clusters representing patterns of oncogenic pathway activation and tumor biology/microenvironment states were identified within the low-risk (log-rank P = .004), intermediate-risk (log-rank P = .01), and high-risk (log-rank P = .003) model cohorts, representing clinically important genomic subphenotypes of breast cancer. As an example, in the low-risk cohort, of 6 prognostically significant clusters, patients in cluster 4 had an inferior relapse-free survival vs patients in cluster 1 (log-rank P = .004) and cluster 5 (log-rank P = .03). Median relapse-free survival for patients in cluster 4 was 16 months less than for patients in cluster 1 (95% CI, 7.5-24.5 months) and 19 months less than for patients in cluster 5 (95% CI, 10.5-27.5 months). Multivariate analyses confirmed the independent prognostic value of the genomic clusters (low risk, P = .05; high risk, P = .02). The reproducibility and validity of these patterns of pathway deregulation in predicting relapse risk was established using related but not identical clusters in the independent validation cohort. The prognostic clinicogenomic clusters also have unique sensitivity patterns to commonly used cytotoxic therapies. CONCLUSIONS These results provide preliminary evidence that incorporation of gene expression signatures into clinical risk stratification can refine prognosis. Prospective studies are needed to determine the value of this approach for individualizing therapeutic strategies.
Deliberative Democracy and Dispute Resolution

Imagine the following: a small city of about 30,000 must decide whether to allow construction of a controversial industrial facility. The plant will generate sorely needed jobs and tax revenue, but it might also pose serious environmental and public-health risks. Under normal circumstances, the city council would require the developer to undertake a set of technical studies that city departments would review before a permit could be granted. Then, the city government (including several elected and/or appointed boards) might hold a hearing, and ultimately vote on whether to approve the project. Along the way, there might be a lot of letters to the editor of the local newspaper and even a referendum. Consider this alternative: city council hires a professional neutral—a mediator—to meet privately and confidentially with all relevant stakeholders, both in and outside the city, to learn their concerns about the proposed project. Along with the developer of the proposed facility and appointees from a range of city and regional departments, carefully selected stakeholder representatives are invited to engage in joint fact-finding to see if they can resolve their differences. After a year of highly transparent and mediatorfacilitated problem-solving, the forty (or so) stakeholder representatives sign an agreement. It spells out the circumstances under which they can all support a revised version of the project. It also commits them to making a series of voluntary payments and other contingent commitments from the developer and the city—maybe even the state and federal government, too— that go well beyond what the city has a statutory right to require. They all present the agreement to the city council, which ratifies it. Its details are added as conditions to the various formal permits granted to the developer. The agreement creates a joint monitoring committee whose staff is paid by the project developer. The project goes forward with little or no political opposition.
Using Dynamic Model Averaging in State Space Representation with Dynamic Occam's Window and Applications to the Stock and Gold Market

We combine the Onorante and Raftery (2016) dynamic Occam’s window approach with the Raftery et al. (2010) DMA/DMS estimator in state space representation to create forecasts using a data-rich forecasting environment. Our approach is mainly related to economic and financial time series that are subject to periods of high volatility, which increases the necessity of a time varying parameter framework. In a forecasting exercise for the stock and gold markets, we highlight the economic value-added of our approach by applying a simple trading rule to the return series. By combining both assets, we show that our approach performs better when compared to alternative forecasting models such as machine learning algorithms and standard DMA/DMS. Results for the complexity of the forecasting models highlight the advantages of high dimensional forecasting approaches in times of economic uncertainty, such as the recent financial crisis. The economic performance of the trading rule weakens when we consider transaction costs.
Incidence of childhood-onset bipolar illness in the USA and Europe

Summary The relative incidence of childhood-onset bipolar illness in the USA compared with that in Europe is controversial. We examined this issue in more than 500 out-patients (average age 42 years) with bipolar illness who reported age at onset of first episode, family history, and childhood physical or sexual abuse. Childhood or adolescent onset of bipolar illness was reported by 61% of those in the US cohort but by only 30% of those in The Netherlands or Germany. In the USA there was also twice the incidence of childhood adversity and genetic/familial risk for affective disorder. The findings deserve replication and further exploration.
Knowledge regarding breastfeeding practices among medical students of Ziauddin University Karachi.

OBJECTIVE To assess knowledge among medical students of a private medical college regarding breast-feeding practices. METHODS A cross sectional survey of medical students from first year to final year at a private medical college was conducted on a pretested self-administered questionnaire. Students were divided into preclinical and clinical years for analysis. RESULTS A total of 344 students participated with 159 (47.6%) from the preclinical group and 185 (53.7%) from the clinical group. The mean age of respondents was 22 +/- 1.5 years. Overall 69% students knew that breastfeeding should be initiated immediately after birth, 42% said that exclusive breastfeeding should be continued for 4-6 months and 33% said that weaning should be started between 4-6 months. Regarding giving colostrum to the newborn, 14% students felt that it should be discarded and 12% from both groups thought that colostrum was harmful. Over two-third (76%) from clinical group and 61% from preclinical group were of the opinion that breastfeeding should be started immediately after birth (p = 0.009). Correct age to start weaning was identified by 71% of the clinical group, whereas, the preclinical group stated it to be 7-9 months of age (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION The knowledge of students regarding breastfeeding was more in the clinical group as compared to the preclinical group, whereas, overall knowledge of the students regarding breastfeeding was low. Medical students being the future physicians will be the first line in dealing with mothers and breastfeeding related problems. The medical curriculum should lay emphasis on counseling regarding maternal and child nutrition.
Oscillation of the human immunodeficiency virus surface receptor is regulated by the state of viral activation in a CD4+ cell model of chronic infection

We have developed a unique physiologic model of chronic human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, OM-10.1, clonally derived from infected HL-60 promyelocytes and harboring a single integrated provirus. Unlike other models of chronic infection, OM-10.1 cultures remain CD4+ under normal culture conditions, during which less than 10% of the cells constitutively express HIV-1 proteins. However, when treated with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), OM-10.1 cultures dramatically increased (greater than 35-fold) HIV-1 expression and rapidly down-modulated surface CD4, as greater than 95% of the cells became HIV-1+. The complete loss of surface CD4 following viral activation was neither associated with apparent cytopathicity nor due to a decline of available CD4 mRNA. There was, however, a temporal association between CD4 down-modulation and the accumulation of intracellular HIV-1 gp 160/120; in addition, intracellular CD4-gp 160 complexes were identifiable in OM-10.1 cell lysates at time points following TNF-alpha induction after surface CD4 was no longer detectable. Surface CD4 expression by OM-10.1 cells returned once viral activation ceased and could be repeatedly oscillated upon HIV-1 reactivation. Furthermore, inhibition of protein kinase activity following maximal TNF-alpha stimulation of OM-10.1 cells quickly returned activated HIV-1 to a state of latency, as evidenced by an accelerated return of surface CD4. These results with the new OM-10.1 cell line demonstrate that CD4 surface expression can be maintained during chronic infection and is critically dependent on the state of viral activation, that CD4-gp 160 intracellular complexing is involved in CD4 down-modulation, and that protein kinase pathways not only function in the primary induction of latent HIV-1 but also are required for maintaining the state of viral activation.
Antimicrobial activity of platelet-rich plasma and other plasma preparations against periodontal pathogens.

BACKGROUND In addition to releasing a pool of growth factors during activation, platelets have many features that indicate their role in the anti-infective host defense. The antimicrobial activities of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and related plasma preparations against periodontal disease-associated bacteria were evaluated. METHODS Four distinct plasma fractions were extracted in the formulation used commonly in dentistry and were tested for their antibacterial properties against three periodontal bacteria: Porphyromonas gingivalis, Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans, and Fusobacterium nucleatum. The minimum inhibitory concentration of each plasma preparation was determined, and in vitro time-kill assays were used to detect their abilities to inhibit bacterial growth. Bacterial adhesion interference and the susceptibility of bacterial adherence by these plasma preparations were also conducted. RESULTS All plasma preparations can inhibit bacterial growth, with PRP showing the superior activity. Bacterial growth inhibition by PRP occurred in the first 24 hours after application in the time-kill assay. PRP interfered with P. gingivalis and A. actinomycetemcomitans attachment and enhanced exfoliation of attached P. gingivalis but had no influences on F. nucleatum bacterial adherence. CONCLUSIONS PRP expressed antibacterial properties, which may be attributed to platelets possessing additional antimicrobial molecules. The application of PRP on periodontal surgical sites is advisable because of its regenerative potential and its antibacterial effects.
Impact of informal caregiving on cognitive function and well-being in Canada

ABSTRACT Background: With a rise in the aging population and a consequential rise in persons diagnosed with dementia comes an increase in the number of informal caregivers who are caring for a loved one. The objective of the proposed study was to assess the neurocognitive and psychological effects of caring for a person with dementia or a related neurodegenerative disease in a sample of Canadian informal caregivers. Methods: Fifty-seven informal caregivers of a person with dementia or a related neurodegenerative disease (mean age = 66.26, SD = 7.55) and 97 non-caregivers (mean age = 69.16, SD = 4.84) were recruited. Neuropsychological measures of attention, cognitive flexibility, verbal learning, delayed recall, and verbal fluency were examined, and questionnaires related to perceived stress, quality of life, mood, and self-esteem were administered. Results: Caregivers made more errors on a measure of cognitive flexibility (p = 0.02), generated fewer words on measures of phonemic fluency (p < 0.01) and semantic fluency (p < 0.001), and learned significantly fewer words on a list-learning task (p < 0.01). Caregivers also reported experiencing significantly more perceived stress (p < 0.001), lower quality of life (p < 0.001), and were more likely to meet the cut-off for clinically significant depressive symptoms on a self-report scale (p < 0.001). Conclusion: These data contribute to a growing body of literature that consistently points to the need for immediate action to improve the welfare of caregivers.
Human Resources Development and Performance of Government Provincial Employees: A Study in North Sumatera, Indonesia

This study aims to analyze the factors associated with human resource development that probably influence employee's performance. They include the recruitment process, general and specific training, compensation, career development, job promotion and mutations. The assessment is laid out towards achieving a good government of the North Sumatera Province. Furthermore, it plans to look at the most crucial factors affecting the performance. A total of 119 respondents (officers of government civil servants) were chosen using a purposive random sampling technique. All eight independent variables and one dependent variable are tested using the multiple linear regression model. As both primary and secondary data are collected and examined, it is concluded that elements of human resource development simultaneously influence employee performance. This leads to the suggestion that effort has to be made in fostering the improvement in administration duties as well as the encouragement on human resources development consistently.
Magnetic resonance imaging in the quantitative assessment of gouty tophi

Measurements of tophus size can be important in monitoring the course of gout therapy, as tophus resolution is proposed as one measure of success of treatment. This multicentre study assessed the intra‐ and interreader reproducibility of quantitative tophus volume measurements from magnetic resonance images (MRI) in subjects with palpable gouty tophi. Subjects first underwent radiographic imaging of a selected tophus followed by MRI before and at ≤5, 10 and 20‐min after gadolinium administration. After choosing optimal parameters, subjects underwent pre‐ and postgadolinium‐enhanced MRIs of a selected tophus on two occasions separated by 5–10 days. Unenhanced spin‐echo images provided satisfactory tophi images and were less subject to interfering artefacts than gadolinium‐enhanced gradient‐echo images. Intrareader reproducibility was excellent, with no statistically significant difference in mean tophus volume between visits (mean difference − 0.05 ± 0.97 cm3). A small but statistically significant difference in interreader mean tophus volume was detected (mean difference 0.89 ± 2.05 cm3; p < 0.05). MRI can quantify tophus size in gout and deserves further comparison with other techniques for tophus size monitoring in assessing effects of gout therapy.