Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early Activation of c-Jun N-terminal Kinase and p38 Kinase Regulate Cell Survival in Response to Tumor Necrosis Factor α*

Fas ligand and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF) bind to members of the TNF receptor superfamily. Stimulation by Fas ligand results in apoptosis, whereas TNF induces multiple effects including proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. Activation of the c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 kinase pathways is common to Fas and TNF signaling; however, their role in apoptosis is controversial. Fas receptor cross-linking induces apoptosis in the absence of actinomycin D and activates JNK in a caspase-dependent manner. In contrast, TNF requires actinomycin D for apoptosis and activates JNK and p38 kinase with biphasic kinetics. The first phase is transient, precedes apoptosis, and is caspase-independent, whereas the second phase is coincident with apoptosis and is caspase-dependent. Inhibition of early TNF-induced JNK and p38 kinases using MKK4/MKK6 mutants or the p38 inhibitor SB203580 increases TNF-induced apoptosis, whereas expression of wild type MKK4/MKK6 enhances survival. In contrast, the Mek inhibitor PD098059 has no effect on survival. These results demonstrate that early activation of p38 kinase (but not Mek) are necessary to protect cells from TNF-mediated cytotoxicity. Thus, early stress kinase activation initiated by TNF plays a key role in regulating apoptosis.
Evolution of vertebrate opioid receptors

The opioid peptides and receptors have prominent roles in pain transmission and reward mechanisms in mammals. The evolution of the opioid receptors has so far been little studied, with only a few reports on species other than tetrapods. We have investigated species representing a broader range of vertebrates and found that the four opioid receptor types (delta, kappa, mu, and NOP) are present in most of the species. The gene relationships were deduced by using both phylogenetic analyses and chromosomal location relative to 20 neighboring gene families in databases of assembled genomes. The combined results show that the vertebrate opioid receptor gene family arose by quadruplication of a large chromosomal block containing at least 14 other gene families. The quadruplication seems to coincide with, and, therefore, probably resulted from, the two proposed genome duplications in early vertebrate evolution. We conclude that the quartet of opioid receptors was already present at the origin of jawed vertebrates ≈450 million years ago. A few additional opioid receptor gene duplications have occurred in bony fishes. Interestingly, the ancestral receptor gene duplications coincide with the origin of the four opioid peptide precursor genes. Thus, the complete vertebrate opioid system was already established in the first jawed vertebrates.
Effect of Malaria and Fever on Energy Metabolism in Gambian Children

The aim of the present study was to measure the changes in resting energy expenditure (REE) induced by malaria and to assess to what extent they are related to fever and nutritional status. The REE of 19 Gambian children (mean age ± SEM, 9 ± 1 y; weight, 24 ± 2 kg; expected weight for height 86 ± 1%) were measured with a hood system at repeated intervals at the onset of malaria crisis (test A), 3 to 4 d after therapy (test B), and 14 to 21 d later (test C). Axillary temperature averaged 39.2 ± 0.1, 36.6 ± 0.1, and 36.7 ± 0.1±C in the tests A, B, and C, respectively. REE in test A was significantly higher than REE in test B (223 ± 10 versus 174 ± 8 kJ/kg±d, p < 0.0001), but in test C (169 ± 8 kJ/kg±d), it did not differ from that observed in test B. The percentage of increase in REE was significantly correlated with the difference in axillary temperature (r = 0.46, p < 0.05); the slope of the regression line indicated an increase of 6.9% in REE/±C of fever. Furthermore, the individual increase in REE/±C was correlated to the percentage of weight for height of the children (r = 0.54, p < 0.05), indicating that the child's nutritional status influences the magnitude of the hypermetabolism due to fever. We concluded that Gambian children suffering from an acute episode of malaria have an increase in REE averaging 30%; however, REE promptly returns to baseline value a few days after the beginning of therapy.
Ground terminal antenna for Ka-band satellite communications

This paper presents a new low-cost antenna intended for moving platforms like planes, high-speed trains or buses, allowing communications with Ka-band satellites. Beam scanning capability covers the range from 0° to 65° in elevation and 360° in azimuth. The antenna structure is composed by a horn with a 45° slant aperture and a shaped dielectric lens that tilts and rotates in front of the horn to direct the beam, providing simple mechanical steering. Scan loss in the elevation plane is of the order of 3 dB.
A wheat germ cell‐free system is a novel way to screen protein folding and function

For high‐throughput protein structural analysis, it is indispensable to develop a reliable protein overexpression system. Although many protein overexpression systems, such as that involving Escherichia coli cells, have been developed, the number of overexpressed proteins showing the same biological activities as those of the native proteins is limited. A novel wheat germ cell‐free protein synthesis system was developed recently, and most of the proteins functioning in solution were synthesized as soluble forms. This suggests the applicability of this protein synthesis method to determination of the solution structures of functional proteins. To examine this possibility, we have synthesized two 15N‐labeled proteins and obtained 1H‐15N HSQC spectra for them. The structural analysis of these proteins has already progressed with an E. coli overexpression system, and 1H‐15N HSQC spectra for biologically active proteins have already been obtained. Comparing the spectra, we have shown that proteins synthesized with a wheat germ cell‐free system have the proper protein folding and enough biological activity. This is the first experimental evidence of the applicability of the wheat germ cell‐free protein synthesis system to high‐throughput protein structural analysis.
Childhood antecedents of adolescent personality disorders.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the childhood antecedents of personality disorders that are diagnosed in adolescence. METHOD A randomly selected community sample of 641 youths was assessed initially in childhood and followed longitudinally over 10 years. Childhood behavior ratings were based on maternal report; diagnoses of adolescent personality disorders were based on data obtained from both maternal and youth informants. Four composite measures of childhood behavior problems were used: conduct problems, depressive symptoms, anxiety/fear, and immaturity. Adolescent personality disorders were considered present only if the disorders persisted over a 2-year period. For all analyses, personality disorders were grouped into the three clusters (A, B, and C) of DSM-III-R. RESULTS Logistic regression analyses indicated that all four of the putative childhood antecedents were associated with greater odds of an adolescent personality disorder 10 years later. Childhood conduct problems remained an independent predictor of personality disorders in all three clusters, even when other childhood problems were included in the same regression model. Additionally, depressive symptoms emerged as an independent predictor of cluster A personality disorders in boys, while immaturity was an independent predictor of cluster B personality disorders in girls. No moderating effects of age at time of childhood assessment were found. CONCLUSIONS These results support the view that personality disorders can be traced to childhood emotional and behavioral disturbances and suggest that these problems have both general and specific relationships to adolescent personality functioning.
Do experts' adjustments on model-based SKU-level forecasts improve forecast quality?

Model-based SKU-level forecasts are often adjusted by experts. In this paper we propose a statistical methodology to test whether these expert forecasts improve on model forecasts. Application of the methodology to a very large database concerning experts in 35 countries who adjust SKU-level forecasts for pharmaceutical products in seven distinct categories leads to the general conclusion that expert forecasts are equally good at best, but are more often worse than model-based forecasts. We explore whether this is due to experts putting too much weight on their contribution, and this indeed turns out to be the case. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The rewards of cooperation: the effects of membership in European regulatory networks

Networks famously epitomize the shift from �government� to �governance� as governing structures for exercising control and coordination besides hierarchies and markets. Their distinctive features are their horizontality, the interdependence among member actors and an interactive decision-making style. Networks are expected to increase the problem-solving capacity of political systems in a context of growing social complexity, where political authority is increasingly fragmented across territorial and functional levels. However, very little attention has been given so far to another crucial implication of network governance � that is, the effects of networks on their members. To explore this important question, this article examines the effects of membership in European regulatory networks on two crucial attributes of member agencies, which are in charge of regulating finance, energy, telecommunications and competition: organisational growth and their regulatory powers. Panel analysis applied to data on 118 agencies during a ten-year period and semi-structured interviews provide mixed support regarding the expectation of organisational growth while strongly confirming the positive effect of networks on the increase of the regulatory powers attributed to member agencies.
[Effect of magnesium isoglycyrrhizinate on concanavalin A (Con A)-induced immunological liver injury in mice].

异甘草酸镁是第四代甘草酸制剂,其有效成分是一种高纯度单-18-α异构体甘草酸,临床主要用于治疗肝炎. 通过抗炎、保护肝细胞膜及改善肝功能的药理作用,对四氯化碳、D-氨基半乳糖等引起的化学性肝损伤模型发挥保护效应[1-2]. 但目的鲜见对免疫性肝损伤作用的报道,因此,本实验通过建立刀豆蛋白A(ConA)诱导的小鼠免疫性肝损伤模型,进一步探讨异甘草酸镁的疗效及部分作用机制。
The role of goods, money and securities markets in promoting family takaful in Malaysia

In line with the government's policy to promote Malaysia as an international hub for Islamic banking and finance, the dynamic effects of goods, money and securities markets on the development of family takaful (Islamic life insurance) in the country during the period from 1999 : Q1 to 2006 : Q4 are empirically examined. Specifically, it seeks to explore the short- and long-run dynamics and the causalities between takaful performance and the goods market, money market, and securities market. The findings indicate that, the goods market is the most significant market in promoting family takaful in Malaysia. This implies that, the government's effort has been successful, thus far.
Do Infants Consider a Robot as a Social Partner in Collaborative Activity?

Human infants can consider humans as collaborative agents, but little is known about whether they also recognize robots as collaborative agents. This study investigated that how infants understand robot agents while they watched collaborative interactions between a human and a robot. We presented a novel visual habituation paradigm in which a human and a robot performed a collaborative activity to 13-month-old infants. Our findings suggested that 13-month-olds can appreciate robots as collaborative partners. We interpreted infants' expectancy violation responses to actions of the robot as facilitating their understanding about nonhuman agents as social partner.
Loss of p14ARF confers resistance to heat shock‐ and oxidative stress‐mediated cell death by upregulating β‐catenin

The p14ARF is a key tumor suppressor induced mainly by oncogenic stimuli. Although p14ARF does not seem to respond to DNA damage, there are very few data regarding its role in other forms of stress, such as heat shock (HS) and oxidative stress (OS). Here, we report that suppression of p14ARF increased resistance to cell death when cells were treated with H2O2 or subjected to HS. In this setting, protection from cell death was mediated by elevated levels and activity of β‐catenin, as downregulation of β‐catenin alleviated the protective role of p14ARF silencing. Moreover, Hsp70 was shown to regulate β‐catenin protein levels by interacting with p14ARF, suggesting that Hsp70, p14ARF and β‐catenin form a regulatory network. This novel pathway triggers cell death signals when cells are exposed to HS and OS.
Comprehensive evaluation of de novo transcriptome assembly programs and their effects on differential gene expression analysis

Motivation: With the decreased cost of RNA‐Seq, an increasing number of non‐model organisms have been sequenced. Due to the lack of reference genomes, de novo transcriptome assembly is required. However, there is limited systematic research evaluating the quality of de novo transcriptome assemblies and how the assembly quality influences downstream analysis. Results: We used two authentic RNA‐Seq datasets from Arabidopsis thaliana, and produced transcriptome assemblies using eight programs with a series of k‐mer sizes (from 25 to 71), including BinPacker, Bridger, IDBA‐tran, Oases‐Velvet, SOAPdenovo‐Trans, SSP, Trans‐ABySS and Trinity. We measured the assembly quality in terms of reference genome base and gene coverage, transcriptome assembly base coverage, number of chimeras and number of recovered full‐length transcripts. SOAPdenovo‐Trans performed best in base coverage, while Trans‐ABySS performed best in gene coverage and number of recovered full‐length transcripts. In terms of chimeric sequences, BinPacker and Oases‐Velvet were the worst, while IDBA‐tran, SOAPdenovo‐Trans, Trans‐ABySS and Trinity produced fewer chimeras across all single k‐mer assemblies. In differential gene expression analysis, about 70% of the significantly differentially expressed genes (DEG) were the same using reference genome and de novo assemblies. We further identify four reasons for the differences in significant DEG between reference genome and de novo transcriptome assemblies: incomplete annotation, exon level differences, transcript fragmentation and incorrect gene annotation, which we suggest that de novo assembly is beneficial even when a reference genome is available. Availability and Implementation: Software used in this study are publicly available at the authors' websites. Contact: gribskov@purdue.edu Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Institutional Determinants of Macro–Level Entrepreneurship

This multicountry study empirically explores the institutional determinants of macro–level entrepreneurship. Findings suggest that a society's normative, cultural–cognitive, and regulative institutions are related to entrepreneurial activity. Normative and cultural–cognitive institutions’ descriptive power in explaining entrepreneurial activity is higher than regulative institutions’ or per capita gross domestic product. This suggests that differences in values, beliefs, and abilities may play a greater role than purely economic considerations of opportunity and transaction costs. Specific attention is given to opportunity– and necessity–motivated entrepreneurship due to their relationship to economic development.
The Changing Nature of Public Entrepreneurship

This article proposes a cyclical theory of public entrepreneurship that is rooted in contextual conditions. The authors use material presented to the Institute of Public Administration of Canada for the annual innovation award, as well as an extensive literature review, to illustrate a new model for public entrepreneurship, arguing that today’s public entrepreneurs are teams and their actions are systemic. Public entrepreneurs do not create new artifacts, nor do they design grandiose projects, but they slowly reinvent their organizations and, in so doing, transform the systems that control government effectiveness and efficiency. The authors generalize and contextualize the idea of public entrepreneurship and structure the emergence of entrepreneurs into a cycle theory. The individual entrepreneur dominates when the organization is new or there is a need for novel activities. As the organization matures and the need for efficiency takes over, dominant individual entrepreneurship disappears, and with time, a new systemic entrepreneurship arises to tackle them.
Thalidomide Improves the Intestinal Mucosal Injury and Suppresses Mesenteric Angiogenesis and Vasodilatation by Down-Regulating Inflammasomes-Related Cascades in Cirrhotic Rats

Background and Aims By blocking TNFα-related effects, thalidomide not only inhibits hepatic fibrogenesis but improves peripheral vasodilatation and portal hypertension in cirrhotic rats. Nonetheless, the investigation of thalidomide's effects on splanchnic and collateral microcirculation has been limited. Our study explored the roles of intestinal and mesenteric TNFα along with inflammasome-related pathway in relation to cirrhosis and the splanchnic/collateral microcirculation. Methods Using in vivo and in vitro approaches, mechanisms of the effects of thalidomide on intestinal and mesenteric inflammatory, vasodilatory and angiogenic cascades-related abnormalities were explored in cirrhotic rats that had received 1-month thalidomide (C-T) treatment. Results In cirrhotic rats, high tumor necrosis factor (TNF)α, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and nitric oxide (NO)x levels were associated with the NOD-like receptors protein 3 (NLRP3), IL-1β and caspase-1 inflammasome over-expression in splenorenal shunt and mesenteric tissues. The thalidomide-related inhibition of mesenteric and splenorenal shunt inflammasome expression was accompanied by a significantly decreased intestinal mucosal injury and inflammasome immunohistochemical staining expression. Suppression of various angiogenic cascades, namely VEGF-NOS-NO, was paralleled by a decrease in mesenteric angiogenesis as detected by CD31 immunofluorescence staining and by reduced portosystemic shunting (PSS) in C-T rats. The down-regulation of the mesenteric and collateral vasodilatory VEGF-NOS-NO cascades resulted in a correction of vasoconstrictive hypo-responsiveness and in an attenuation of vasodilatory hyper-responsiveness when analyzed by in situ perfusion of the superior mesenteric arterial (SMA) and portosystemic collaterals. There was also a decrease in SMA blood flow and an increase in SMA resistance in the C-T rats. Additionally, acute incubation with thalidomide abolished TNFα-augmented VEGF-mediated migration of and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells, which was accompanied by corresponding changes in inflammatory and angiogenic substances release. Conclusions The suppression of inflammasome over-expression by chronic thalidomide treatment ameliorates inflammatory, angiogenic and vasodilatory cascades-related pathogenic changes in the splanchnic and collateral microcirculation of cirrhotic rats. Thalidomide seems to be a promising agent that might bring about beneficial changes to the disarrangements of peripheral, hepatic, splanchnic and collateral systems in cirrhosis.
Caves, Cultures and Crowds: Carrying Capacity Meets Consumer Sovereignty

This paper draws on research at Waitomo Caves in New Zealand to argue that the re-emergenceofplace as apolitical perspective has some important implicationsforthe concept of consumer sovereignty in tourism. The Waitomo case study identifies that differences in perceptions of crowding between various nationality groups produces a displacement of visitors less tolerant to crowding, in this case domestic tourists. It is argued that a failure to address the issue of domestic visitor displacement in the wider policy arena results in thematerialisation of the issues at the local level. Here, demands for indigenous sovereignty over heritage sites complicates the otherwise uninterrupted flow of consumer sovereignty via the market-driven management model.
Character-Based Text Classification using Top Down Semantic Model for Sentence Representation

Despite the success of deep learning on many fronts especially image and speech, its application in text classification often is still not as good as a simple linear SVM on n-gram TF-IDF representation especially for smaller datasets. Deep learning tends to emphasize on sentence level semantics when learning a representation with models like recurrent neural network or recursive neural network, however from the success of TF-IDF representation, it seems a bag-of-words type of representation has its strength. Taking advantage of both representions, we present a model known as TDSM (Top Down Semantic Model) for extracting a sentence representation that considers both the word-level semantics by linearly combining the words with attention weights and the sentence-level semantics with BiLSTM and use it on text classification. We apply the model on characters and our results show that our model is better than all the other character-based and word-based convolutional neural network models by \cite{zhang15} across seven different datasets with only 1\% of their parameters. We also demonstrate that this model beats traditional linear models on TF-IDF vectors on small and polished datasets like news article in which typically deep learning models surrender.
Complete recanalization via fibrinolytic therapy can reduce the number of ischemic territories that progress to infarction.

PURPOSE To clarify the clinical significance of fibrinolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke. METHODS We analyzed findings in 18 patients with occlusion of a major artery in respect to cerebral blood flow thresholds for infarction. Nine of these patients had shown complete recanalization just after the treatment, between 3.5 and 7.25 hours after symptom onset, and the other nine had shown no change. Cerebral blood flow was measured by single-photon emission CT using 99mTC-labeled hemamethylpropyleneamine oxime and assessed semiquantitatively: multiple regions of interest were placed on the section images and two parameters, the R/CL ratio and the R/CE ratio, were calculated (where R represents a mean count of the region of interest in the affected hemisphere, CL on the opposite side, and CE in the cerebellar hemisphere on the affected ischemic side). RESULTS Reperfusion significantly reduced the development of infarction in the regions of interest with an R/CL ratio between 0.65 and 0.85 or an R/CE ratio between 0.55 and 0.75. No correlation was observed between the development of infarction and the duration of ischemia. The cerebral blood flow threshold in patients without recanalization was higher than that in patients with recanalization. CONCLUSION Reperfusion achieved by fibrinolytic therapy in the acute stage can save ischemic brain within a limited cerebral blood flow value.
Inventory of Sexual Education and Reproductive Health Resources in Upper Delaware

vi 1 INTRODUCTION 1 History of Sexuality Education Policy in the United States 2 Overview of Policies and Sexuality Education in Delaware 7 Learning from Global Society: Successful Sexuality Education Programs in Europe 8 Empirical Studies and Evaluations on Current United States Programs 11 2 METHODS 17 Materials 17 Procedure 18 Participants 19 3 RESULTS 21 Types of Sexuality Education 21 The Use of Non Profits in Schools and Communities 22 Wellness Centers in Public Schools 27 Components of Schools’ Education Programs 28 Sexual Orientation 31 Evidence Based Programs 32 Parental involvement in Schools 35 Parent Education and Child Abuse Prevention 38 Use of the Internet in Sexuality Education 39 Resources Needed and Advice for Other Professionals 41 Educator’s Views on the Most Important Parts of Programs 46 Evaluation of Programs 47 4 DISCUSSION 53 Meeting the Needs of the Population 53 Consistency 55 All of the Information 57 Strengths of Delaware Programs 59