Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum‐regulated transcription by serum response factor (SRF): a novel role for the DNA binding domain.

The transcription factors Serum Response Factor (SRF) and Ternary Complex Factor (TCF) form a ternary complex at the c‐fos Serum Response Element (SRE). We show that in NIH3T3 cells TCF binding is required for regulated transcription in response to stimulation by phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), but not by whole serum. We constructed a novel transcriptionally inactive SRE variant whose serum‐regulated activity can be partially restored by overexpression of SRF in the absence of bound TCF. Activation by SRF does not require the SRF N‐terminal phosphorylation sites, but is potentiated 2‐ to 3‐fold by the SRF C‐terminal activation domain. Mutations in the SRF DNA binding domain, which do not affect the ability of SRF to bind DNA, abolish its ability to mediate TCF‐independent serum‐regulated activation and reduce activation by the SRF/TCF(Elk‐1) ternary complex. Efficient activation requires that SRF be targeted to DNA via its own DNA binding domain.
Linkages between human health and ocean health: a participatory climate change vulnerability assessment for marine mammal harvesters

Background Indigenous residents of Alaska's Bering Strait Region depend, both culturally and nutritionally, on ice seal and walrus harvests. Currently, climate change and resultant increases in marine industrial development threaten these species and the cultures that depend on them. Objective To document: (a) local descriptions of the importance of marine mammal hunting; (b) traditional methods for determining if harvested marine mammals are safe to consume; and (c) marine mammal outcomes that would have adverse effects on community health, the perceived causes of these outcomes, strategies for preventing these outcomes and community adaptations to outcomes that cannot be mitigated. Design Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with 82 indigenous hunters and elders from the Bering Strait region. Standard qualitative analysis was conducted on interview transcripts, which were coded for both inductive and deductive codes. Responses describing marine mammal food safety and importance are presented using inductively generated categories. Responses describing negative marine mammal outcomes are presented in a vulnerability framework, which links human health outcomes to marine conditions. Results Project participants perceived that shipping noise and pollution, as well as marine mammal food source depletion by industrial fishing, posed the greatest threats to marine mammal hunting traditions. Proposed adaptations primarily fell into 2 categories: (a) greater tribal influence over marine policy; and (b) documentation of traditional knowledge for local use. This paper presents 1 example of documenting traditional knowledge as an adaptation strategy: traditional methods for determining if marine mammal food is safe to eat. Conclusions Participant recommendations indicate that 1 strategy to promote rural Alaskan adaptation to climate change is to better incorporate local knowledge and values into decision-making processes. Participant interest in documenting traditional knowledge for local use also indicates that funding agencies could support climate change adaptation by awarding more grants for tribal research that advances local, rather than academic, use of traditional knowledge.
Exploring Latent Semantic Factors to Find Useful Product Reviews

Online reviews provided by consumers are a valuable asset for e-Commerce platforms, influencing potential consumers in making purchasing decisions. However, these reviews are of varying quality, with the useful ones buried deep within a heap of non-informative reviews. In this work, we attempt to automatically identify review quality in terms of its helpfulness to the end consumers. In contrast to previous works in this domain exploiting a variety of syntactic and community-level features, we delve deep into the semantics of reviews as to what makes them useful, providing interpretable explanation for the same. We identify a set of consistency and semantic factors, all from the text, ratings, and timestamps of user-generated reviews, making our approach generalizable across all communities and domains. We explore review semantics in terms of several latent factors like the expertise of its author, his judgment about the fine-grained facets of the underlying product, and his writing style. These are cast into a Hidden Markov Model -- Latent Dirichlet Allocation (HMM-LDA) based model to jointly infer: (i) reviewer expertise, (ii) item facets, and (iii) review helpfulness. Large-scale experiments on five real-world datasets from Amazon show significant improvement over state-of-the-art baselines in predicting and ranking useful reviews.
Molecular Phylogeny of the Sacoglossa, With a Discussion of Gain and Loss of Kleptoplasty in the Evolution of the Group

Sacoglossan sea slugs retain the chloroplasts from food algae in their cells (kleptoplasty) and obtain the photosynthetic products, but the capability of kleptoplasty differs among species. One evolutionary hypothesis for kleptoplasty is that the family Volvatellidae is the ancestral sacoglossan lineage in which kleptoplasty arose, but this is based on ambiguous phylogenetic relationships. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed sacoglossan phylogeny for concatenated sequences (approximately 4000 bp) of nuclear (18S rRNA) and mitochondrial (CO1, trnV, and 16S rRNA) genes of 18 sacoglossan species, using neighbor-joining, maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood, and Bayesian methods. The resultant phylogenetic trees clearly revealed monophyly of the order Sacoglossa (including the debatable genus Cylindrobulla), which contained two sister clades: the shelled sacoglossan group (Oxynoacea + Cylindrobulla) and the non-shelled group (Plakobranchacea). The family Volvatellidae was in a derived position within the Oxynoacea. The most parsimonious rearrangement of the character states of kleptoplasty on the phylogenetic tree suggested that (1) kleptoplasty was acquired at the basal position of the Sacoglossa (including Cylindrobulla) as non-functional kleptoplasty, (2) functional kleptoplasty was gained in the Plakobranchacea clade, and (3) non-functional kleptoplasty was lost in the Volvatellidae lineage in the Oxynoacea clade.
The secondary response to high and low dose priming in mice.

Although the level of the antibody response to an antigen is generally considered to be proportional to the antigen dose over a wide dosage range, this is not necessarily true for the secondary response. Sterzl (1) found that neonatal rabbits and piglets primed with a suboptimal dose of sheep red blood cells (SRBC) gave a higher direct and indirect plaque-forming cell (PFC) response to a second antigen injection than did animals that were immunized with a dose optimal for a maximum primary response. Recently, Hanna and Peters (2) reported similar results in adult mice immunized with SRBC. In the primary response, spleens from mice immunized with 2 × 108 SRBC contained approximately twice as many direct PFC and 20 to 30 times as many indirect PFC as mice primed with 2 × 106 SRBC.
Nonrandom filtering effect on birds: species and guilds response to urbanization

Abstract Using bird survey data taken in three cities in Southern Chile, we evaluated the hypothesis that changes in community composition from periurban to urban areas are not random. Furthermore, the consistency of species and guild loss was assessed across cities. A consistent pattern of difference in community and guild structure between urban and periurban habitats was found. In addition, a nonrandom loss of species was found in urban areas compared to periurban areas, and non‐native species dominated urban communities in all cities. The average abundance of omnivores, granivores, and habitat generalists was higher in urban areas, while insectivores and open habitat species were more abundant in periurban areas. These results strongly suggest that urban habitats act as filters offering suitable conditions for only a fraction of the bird species present in a given area, and the lack of suitable conditions may be facilitating local biotic homogenization in the three studied cities. The results of this study not only fill a biogeographical knowledge gap, but the work presented here also aids the general understanding of factors that affect community structure in habitats with varied levels of local and global urbanization.
Physical Exertion and Immediate Mental Performance of Sixth-Grade Children

The intent of this investigation was to examine the potential influence of varying durations of physical exertion at different times of the day on immediate mathematical performance by 120 sixth-grade boys and girls. Subjects were assigned to two control and two treatment groups (Solomon Four-group Design), with treated subjects administered physical exertion (paced walking at controlled moderate intensity) for durations of 20, 30, and 40 min. at three different times of the school day [8:30 a.m., 11:50 a.m. (before lunch), 2:20 p.m. ] over 3 weeks. After each exertion session, subjects were immediately administered a 90-sec. mathematical computation test. Analysis indicated no significant differences in mathematical performance at any duration in the morning, but scores were significantly higher at 11:50 a.m. and 2:20 p.m. at 30- and 40-min. durations in comparison to the 20-min. duration. There were no differences by gender of subject.
Survival in Familial, BRCA1 -associated, and BRCA2- associated Epithelial Ovarian Cancer 1

The natural history of hereditary and BRCA1 - and BRCA2 -associated epithelial ovarian cancer may differ from that of sporadic disease. The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical characteristics of BRCA1 - and BRCA2 -associated hereditary ovarian cancer, hereditary ovarian cancer with no identified BRCA1/2 mutation, and ovarian cancer in population-based controls. BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation testing was carried out on index cases from 119 families with site-specific epithelial ovarian cancer or breast-ovarian cancer. We estimated overall survival in 151 patients from 57 BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation families and compared it with that in 119 patients from 62 families in which a BRCA1/2 mutation was not identified. We compared clinical outcome and data on tumor histopathology, grade, and stage. We also compared survival in familial epithelial ovarian cancer, whether or not a mutation was identified, with that of an age-matched set of population control cases. Overall survival at 5 years was 21% (95% confidence interval, 14–28) in cases from BRCA1 mutation families, 25% (8–42) in BRCA2 mutation families, and 19% (12–26) in families with no identified mutation ( P 5 0.91). Survival in familial ovarian cancer cases as a whole was significantly worse than for population controls ( P 5 0.005). In the familial cases, we found no differences in histopathological type, grade, or stage according to mutation status. Compared to population control cases, mucinous tumors occurred less frequently in the familial cases (2 versus 12%, P < 0.001), and a greater proportion of the familial cases presented with advanced disease (83% stage III/IV versus 56%; P 5 0.001). We have shown that survival in familial ovarian cancer cases is worse than that in sporadic cases, whether or not a BRCA1/2 mutation was identified, perhaps reflecting a difference in biology analogous to that observed in breast cancer. Cancer Research (UKCCCR) Familial Ovarian Cancer Registry. We report our findings regarding the pathological features of ovarian occurring in these families and of the clinical outcome for these patients according to whether an iden-tifiable mutation in or BRCA2 was found in the family. We also compared the survival in familial ovarian cancer cases with or without a BRCA1/2 mutation with a population-based control group matched on age and year of diagnosis.
Cloning and Characterization of AOEB166, a Novel Mammalian Antioxidant Enzyme of the Peroxiredoxin Family*

Using two-dimensional electrophoresis, we have recently identified in human bronchoalveolar lavage fluid a novel protein, termed B166, with a molecular mass of 17 kDa. Here, we report the cloning of human and rat cDNAs encoding B166, which has been renamed AOEB166 for antioxidantenzyme B166. Indeed, the deduced amino acid sequence reveals that AOEB166 represents a new mammalian subfamily of AhpC/TSA peroxiredoxin antioxidant enzymes. Human AOEB166 shares 63% similarity with Escherichia coli AhpC22 alkyl hydroperoxide reductase and 66% similarity with a recently identifiedSaccharomyces cerevisiae alkyl hydroperoxide reductase/thioredoxin peroxidase. Moreover, recombinant AOEB166 expressed in E. coli exhibits a peroxidase activity, and an antioxidant activity comparable with that of catalase was demonstrated with the glutamine synthetase protection assay against dithiothreitol/Fe3+/O2 oxidation. The analysis of AOEB166 mRNA distribution in 30 different human tissues and in 10 cell lines shows that the gene is widely expressed in the body. Of interest, the analysis of N- and C-terminal domains of both human and rat AOEB166 reveals amino acid sequences presenting features of mitochondrial and peroxisomal targeting sequences. Furthermore, human AOEB166 expressed as a fusion protein with GFP in HepG2 cell line is sorted to these organelles. Finally, acute inflammation induced in rat lung by lipopolysaccharide is associated with an increase of AOEB166 mRNA levels in lung, suggesting a protective role for AOEB166 in oxidative and inflammatory processes.
Professional dialogue, reflective practice and teacher research: engaging early childhood pre-service teachers in collegial dialogue about curriculum innovation

While embedded in teacher professional standards and assumed aspects of teacher professionalism, willingness and ability to engage in professional dialogue about practice and curriculum initiatives are rarely examined or explicitly taught in teacher education programs. With this in mind, the authors designed an assessment task for pre-service teachers that required them to interview their supervising teachers about the implementation of sustainability as cross-curriculum priority in the Australian national curriculum, and to write a reflective account of the process. Forty-seven early childhood pre-service teachers and their supervising teachers consented to the interview transcripts and reflective accounts being used as research data. Analysis of the reflective accounts highlights what enabled and constrained the dialogue across professional experience settings and the benefits of having pre-service teachers engage in such an assessment task. The authors discuss implications for pre-service teacher education and on-going teacher professional learning.
New Paradigm for Sizing Riparian Buffers to Reduce Risks of Polluted Storm Water: Practical Synthesis

Riparian buffers are commonly promoted to protect stream water quality. A common conceptual assumption is that buffers “intercept” and treat upland runoff. As a shift in paradigm, it is proposed instead that riparian buffers should be recognized as the parts of the landscape that most frequently generate storm runoff. Thus, water quality can be protected from contaminated storm runoff by disassociating riparian buffers from potentially polluting activities. This paper reviews and synthesizes some simple engineering approaches that can be used to delineate riparian buffers for rural watersheds based on risk of generating runoff. Although reference is made to specific future research that may improve the proposed methods for delineating riparian buffers, the approaches described here provide planners and engineers with a set of currently available scientifically defensible tools. It is recommended that planners and engineers use available rainfall and stream discharge data to parameterize the buffer-sizing .
Increased exposure to community-based education and ‘below the line’ social marketing results in increased fruit and vegetable consumption

Abstract Objective To determine if localised programmes that are successful in engaging the community can add value to larger fruit and vegetable mass-media campaigns by evaluating the results of the Eat It To Beat It programme. Design The Eat It To Beat It programme is a multi-strategy intervention that uses community-based education and ‘below the line’ social marketing to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in parents. This programme was evaluated by a controlled before-and-after study with repeat cross-sectional data collected via computer-assisted telephone interviews with 1403 parents before the intervention (2008) and 1401 following intervention delivery (2011). Setting The intervention area was the Hunter region and the control area was the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Subjects Parents of primary school-aged children (Kindergarten to Year 6). Results The programme achieved improvements in knowledge of recommended intakes for fruit and vegetables and some positive changes in knowledge of serving size for vegetables. Exposure to the programme resulted in a net increase of 0·5 servings of fruit and vegetables daily for those who recalled the programme compared with those who did not (P = 0·004). Increased intake of fruit and vegetables was significantly associated with increasing exposure to programme strategies. Conclusions The Eat It To Beat It programme demonstrates that an increase in consumption of fruit and vegetables can be achieved by programmes that build on the successes of larger mass-media and social-marketing campaigns. This suggests that funding for localised, community-based programmes should be increased.
Avaliação da função auditiva receptiva, expressiva e visual em crianças prematuras

TEMA: prematuridade como fator de risco para atraso no desenvolvimento da linguagem. OBJETIVO: verificar o desempenho de criancas prematuras quanto as areas auditiva receptiva, expressiva e visual. METODO: participaram da amostra 40 criancas de idade cronologica entre 12 e 24 meses. O grupo experimental (G1) foi composto por 20 criancas que apresentaram em seu historico de vida os fatores de risco prematuridade e baixo peso ou muito baixo peso. A idade gestacional das criancas variou de 22 a 34, semanas todas com peso abaixo de 2500g; este grupo foi dividido em funcao do peso, ou seja, criancas de baixo peso e de muito baixo peso. O grupo controle (G2) foi composto por 20 criancas nascidas a termo com peso superior a 2500g, sem historico para atraso do desenvolvimento. Os procedimentos constaram de entrevista com os pais e aplicacao da Escala Early Language Milestone Scale (ELM). RESULTADOS: na comparacao entre grupos, os resultados mostraram ser estatisticamente significativos. As criancas do G1 apresentaram prejuizo na area auditiva expressiva, auditiva receptiva e visual, embora algumas criancas tivessem apresentado resultados esperados para sua faixa etaria, em alguma das funcoes avaliadas. A area mais prejudicada foi a area expressiva. CONCLUSAO: as criancas do G1 apresentaram alteracao nas areas auditiva receptiva, auditiva expressiva e visual. As criancas prematuras com muito baixo peso apresentaram maiores prejuizos nas areas avaliadas.
PGRL Is a Major CD81-Associated Protein on Lymphocytes and Distinguishes a New Family of Cell Surface Proteins1

CD81 exerts a range of interesting effects on T cells including early thymocyte differentiation, LFA-1 activation, and provision of costimulation. To better understand the mechanisms by which CD81 influences T cell function we evaluated CD81 molecular complexes on T cells. The most prominent CD81-associated cell surface protein on thymocytes as well as a number of T cell and B cell lines has an apparent molecular mass of 75 kDa. The 75-kDa protein was purified and analyzed by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry followed by postsource-decay profiling. p75 is a novel type I transmembrane protein of the Ig superfamily which is most similar to FPRP. We cloned and sequenced both human and mouse PG regulatory-like protein (PGRL) and characterized mouse PGRL expression in both lymphocytes and nonlymphoid tissues. The discovery of PGRL allows for the clustering of a small family of related proteins including PGRL, FPRP, V7/CD101, and IGSF3. Expression constructs containing various domains of PGRL with an epitope tag were coexpressed with CD81 and used to determine that the interaction of CD81 with PGRL requires the membrane distal Ig3–Ig4 domains of PGRL. Although it remains to be determined whether PGRL possesses PG regulatory functions, transwell chamber experiments show that PGs and CD81 coordinately regulate T cell motility.
Effects of Reboxetine on Sleep and Nocturnal Cardiac Autonomic Activity in Patients with Dysthymia

Antidepressants may have sleep and autonomic side-effects. The acute and long-term effect of reboxetine (2 mg b.i.d.) on sleep and cardiac autonomic activity was compared with that of placebo in a single-blind study. Twelve patients affected by dysthymia underwent four polysomnographic studies at baseline (placebo); at night 3 (reboxetine; acute effect); at night 9 (reboxetine; intermediate-term effect); and at night 122 (reboxetine; chronic effect). After the first administration, reboxetine increased time awake after sleep onset, number of awakenings, percentage of stages 1 and 2 non-rapid eye movement (REM), and reduced the amount of stages 3–4 non-REM, but all these effects disappeared by continuing treatment. However, reboxetine caused a persistent suppression of REM sleep, which was accompanied by an increase of REM sleep latency. The spectral analysis of heart ratevariability showed a trend towards an increase in sympathetic activity with both acute and intermediate reboxetine use. Long-term treatment with 4 mg reboxetine does not cause significant changes in cardiac autonomic function.
Measurement of lens density using Scheimpflug imaging system as a screening test in the field of health examination for age-related cataract

Purpose To assess Pentacam (Oculus, Wetzlar, Germany) Scheimpflug quantitative images in evaluating lens density and providing objective measurements to suggest optimal time of cataract surgery in the field of health examination. Methods Two hundred and twenty-nine eyes with age-related cataract were enrolled. Lens density was measured using Pentacam. All Pentacam images were exported to ImageJ (NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA) for quantitative analysis. Average lens density (ALD) and nuclear lens density (NLD) were calculated. Lens density was also evaluated by built-in Pentacam Nucleus Staging (PNS) software. Slit-lamp microscopy was performed for cataract grading according to Lens Opacification Classification System III (LOCS III). The best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was measured. All measurements were compared between the cataract surgery and non-cataract surgery groups. Results The measurements of Pentacam images significantly correlated with LOCS III for nuclear opalescence (NO) and nuclear colour (NC) grading (p<0.01). Pentacam ImageJ showed higher correlation than PNS. The mean NLD was most highly correlated with NO (r=0.8833) and NC (r=0.6815). The maximum ALD was most highly correlated with cortical opacity (r=0.5381). All Pentacam measurements of lens density and BCVA were significantly different between the cataract surgery and non-surgery groups (p<0.01). The optimised cut-off values to perform cataract surgery for mean NLD and maximum ALD were 26 and 74, respectively (p<0.01). Conclusions The Pentacam ImageJ method provided objective measurements to evaluate cataracts needing surgery. The method has the potential to be generally applied in the field of health examination and is effective in screening patients with cataract.