Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional characterization of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 nef genes in patients with divergent rates of disease progression

We have studied the sequence and function of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) nef genes from nine patients with highly divergent rates of disease progression enrolled in a longitudinal study of HIV disease. Over an average of 7.8 years of follow-up, three patients had net positive changes in CD4+ T-cell counts, three patients had net negative changes in CD4+ T cells but did not develop AIDS, and three patients progressed to AIDS. The nef gene from each of these patients was amplified and cloned, and the sequence of 8 to 10 clones was determined. Only 2 of 88 (2.3%) nef genes recovered from these nine patients were grossly defective. Moreover, there was no relationship between the phylogeny of nef sequences and the corresponding rates of disease progression from these patients. Representative nef genes from all nine patients were tested for their abilities to downregulate cell surface CD4 in a transient-transfection assay. There was no correlation found between the functions of the nef genes from these patients and their corresponding rates of disease progression. We conclude that the nef gene is not a common mediator of the rate of HIV disease progression in natural infection.
Demarchy: a flexible deliberative process for contemporary democracies

ABSTRACT As global issues grow more complex, electoral democracies become more and more ineffective as mechanisms for decision-making and representation. There are alternative democratic processes that can be used without the use of elections, and there have been several notable successes in the use of random selection in politics. In this article I discuss a model of deliberative democracy – demarchy – and how it can be used to improve public deliberation, representation and legitimacy in decision-making.
Behavioral experiments on supply chain contracting

Each firm within a supply chain aims to maximize its own profit and unless the incentives of these firms are aligned through an efficient contract, individual profit maximization results in suboptimal performance for the supply chain. Researchers have developed a large number contracting models in order to coordinate the decisions of supply chain members through an appropriate allocation of profit and risk. The shortcoming of these models is that they presume decision makers are rational and self-interested profit maximizers. An extensive literature of experimental studies with human subjects reveal that decision makers do not conform to such standard theoretical expectations. In this dissertation, we conduct and report the findings of decision-making experiments with human subjects in a supply chain setting. We investigate the effects of contract type, power of commitment and fairness priming on contracting decisions in a one-manufacturer-one-retailer scenario, where individual decision biases as well as strategic interaction affect subject behavior. We find significant deviations in subject decisions from theoretical predictions. We develop analytical models to incorporate the behavioral factors that cause these deviations. In another experimental work, we study gender differences in newsvendor decisions. Finally, we investigate the relation between contracting decisions and various personality traits.
Histone deacetylase 1 is required for exocrine pancreatic epithelial proliferation in development and cancer

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) play important roles in the epigenetic control of development, and aberrant expression of HDACs has been implicated in human diseases including cancer. Among the mammalian HDACs, HDAC1 has been extensively studied, but its role in exocrine pancreatic morphogenesis and cancer is still poorly understood. The goal of this study is to determine the functional role of HDAC1 in normal development of exocrine pancreas using zebrafish as the model organism as well as in human pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The zebrafish germline loss-of-function mutation hdac1hi1618 caused impaired cell cycle progression in pancreatic epithelia, resulting in growth arrest and dysmorphogenesis of exocrine pancreas. In human pancreatic adenocarcinoma tissues and cell lines, HDAC1 was expressed at variably elevated levels. RNA interference-induced silencing of HDAC1 diminished proliferation of the cancer cells and cell cycle progression. The proliferative arrest in the developing exocrine pancreas and pancreatic cancer cells was associated with up-regulated expression of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors and the sonic hedgehog signaling components. This study indicates that HDAC1 is required for pancreatic epithelial proliferation in development and cancer. We hypothesize that aberrant expression of HDAC1 modulates the developmental and signaling pathways in exocrine pancreatic epithelia and consequently the genes required for cellular proliferation during development and progression of pancreatic neoplasia.
Characterization of Chlamydia trachomatis omp1 Genotypes Detected in Eye Swab Samples from Remote Australian Communities

ABSTRACT Chlamydia trachomatis conjunctival samples collected over a 6-month period from individuals with clinical signs of trachoma and located in remote communities in the Australian Northern Territory were differentially characterized according to serovar and variants. The rationale was to gain an understanding of the epidemiology of an apparent increased prevalence of acute trachoma in areas thought to be less conducive to this disease. Characterization was performed through sequencing of a region of the omp1 gene spanning the four variable domains and encoding the major outer membrane protein. Nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences were genotyped by using a BLAST similarity search and were examined by phylogenetic analyses to illustrate evolutionary relationships between the clinical and GenBank reference strains. The predominant genotype identified corresponded to that of serovar C (87.1%), followed by the genotype corresponding to serovar Ba (12.9%). All nucleotide and amino acid sequences exhibited minor levels of variation with respect to GenBank reference sequences. The omp1 nucleotide sequences of the clinical samples best aligned with those of the conjunctival C. trachomatis reference strains C/TW-3/OT and Ba/Apache-2. All clinical samples (of serovar C) exhibited four or five nucleotide changes compared with C/TW-3/OT, while all serovar Ba samples had one or two nucleotide differences from Ba/Apache-2. Phylogenetic analyses revealed close relationships between these Northern Territory chlamydial samples and the respective reference strains, although the high proportion of sequence variants suggests an evolutionarily distinct C. trachomatis population causing eye infections in Australia. Given that such genotypic information has gone unreported, these findings provide knowledge and a foundation for trachoma-associated C. trachomatis variants circulating in the Northern Territory.
Cry Wolf Effect? Evaluating the Impact of False Alarms on Public Responses to Tornado Alerts in the Southeastern United States

On average, 75% of tornado warnings in the United States are false alarms. Although forecasters have been concerned that false alarms may generate a complacent public, only a few research studies have examined how the public responds to tornado false alarms. Through four surveys (N = 4162), this study examines how residents in the southeastern United States understand, process, and respond to tornado false alarms. The study then compares social science research findings on perceptions of false alarms to actual county false alarm ratios and the number of tornado warnings issued by counties. Contrary to prior research, findings indicate that concerns about false alarm ratios generating a complacent public may be overblown. Results show that southeastern U.S. residents estimate tornado warnings to be more accurate than they are. Participants’ perceived false alarm ratios are not correlated with actual county false alarm ratios. Counterintuitively, the higher individuals perceive false alarm ratios and tornado alert accuracy to be, the more likely they are to take protective behavior such as sheltering in place in response to tornado warnings. Actual country false alarm ratios and the number of tornado warnings issued did not predict taking protective action.
Kv4 potassium channel subunits control action potential repolarization and frequency‐dependent broadening in rat hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurones

A‐type potassium channels regulate neuronal firing frequency and the back‐propagation of action potentials (APs) into dendrites of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurones. Recent molecular cloning studies have found several families of voltage‐gated K+ channel genes expressed in the mammalian brain. At present, information regarding the relationship between the protein products of these genes and the various neuronal functions performed by voltage‐gated K+ channels is lacking. Here we used a combination of molecular, electrophysiological and imaging techniques to show that one such gene, Kv4.2, controls AP half‐width, frequency‐dependent AP broadening and dendritic action potential propagation. Using a modified Sindbis virus, we expressed either the enhanced green fluorescence protein (EGFP)‐tagged Kv4.2 or an EGFP‐tagged dominant negative mutant of Kv4.2 (Kv4.2gW362F) in CA1 pyramidal neurones of organotypic slice cultures. Neurones expressing Kv4.2gW362F displayed broader action potentials with an increase in frequency‐dependent AP broadening during a train compared with control neurones. In addition, Ca2+ imaging of Kv4.2gW362F expressing dendrites revealed enhanced AP back‐propagation compared to control neurones. Conversely, neurones expressing an increased A‐type current through overexpression of Kv4.2 displayed narrower APs with less frequency dependent broadening and decreased dendritic propagation. These results point to Kv4.2 as the major contributor to the A‐current in hippocampal CA1 neurones and suggest a prominent role for Kv4.2 in regulating AP shape and dendritic signalling. As Ca2+ influx occurs primarily during AP repolarization, Kv4.2 activity can regulate cellular processes involving Ca2+‐dependent second messenger cascades such as gene expression and synaptic plasticity.
RNA Synthesis by the Brome Mosaic Virus RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase in Human Cells Reveals Requirements for De Novo Initiation and Protein-Protein Interaction

ABSTRACT Brome mosaic virus (BMV) is a model positive-strand RNA virus whose replication has been studied in a number of surrogate hosts. In transiently transfected human cells, the BMV polymerase 2a activated signaling by the innate immune receptor RIG-I, which recognizes de novo-initiated non-self-RNAs. Active-site mutations in 2a abolished RIG-I activation, and coexpression of the BMV 1a protein stimulated 2a activity. Mutations previously shown to abolish 1a and 2a interaction prevented the 1a-dependent enhancement of 2a activity. New insights into 1a-2a interaction include the findings that helicase active site of 1a is required to enhance 2a polymerase activity and that negatively charged amino acid residues between positions 110 and 120 of 2a contribute to interaction with the 1a helicase-like domain but not to the intrinsic polymerase activity. Confocal fluorescence microscopy revealed that the BMV 1a and 2a colocalized to perinuclear region in human cells. However, no perinuclear spherule-like structures were detected in human cells by immunoelectron microscopy. Sequencing of the RNAs coimmunoprecipitated with RIG-I revealed that the 2a-synthesized short RNAs are derived from the message used to translate 2a. That is, 2a exhibits a strong cis preference for BMV RNA2. Strikingly, the 2a RNA products had initiation sequences (5′-GUAAA-3′) identical to those from the 5′ sequence of the BMV genomic RNA2 and RNA3. These results show that the BMV 2a polymerase does not require other BMV proteins to initiate RNA synthesis but that the 1a helicase domain, and likely helicase activity, can affect RNA synthesis by 2a.
Continuous Intention on Accommodation Apps: Integrated Value-Based Adoption and Expectation–Confirmation Model Analysis

This study aims to analyze the antecedent factors affecting continuous intention to use online to offline (O2O) accommodation app services and empirically verify them by applying an integrated model comprised of the value-based adoption model (VAM) and the expectation-confirmation model (ECM). For empirical analysis, a sample of 410 participants with experience reserving rooms using an accommodation app was used. The results showed that privacy risk had the biggest influence on perceived value, followed by technicality and usefulness. Moreover, confirmation and usefulness turned out to have a significant effect on satisfaction, and enjoyment had a negative effect on perceived value and satisfaction. As a result, the influence of perceived risk, technicality, usefulness, and confirmation on perceived value and satisfaction proved to be important in inducing continuous intention to use accommodation apps. These results are academically significant because they expand the scope of O2O business research in the fields of hotels and tourism. We outline several practical implications based on the study results.
Accuracy of Self-Reports of Alcohol Offenders in a Rural Midwestern County

Self-reports of drinking are of doubtful accuracy as heavy drinkers tend to underreport consistently amounts drunk as well as other alcohol-related data. A sample of 60 people cited for DWI in a rural midwestern county in southeast Nebraska during routine alcohol-dependency evaluations indicated that 10% underreported their Breath Alcohol Content at the time of arrest and 38% their previous number of DWI citations. Subjects were grouped by age (over and under 30) and by accuracy (accurate and inaccurate reporters). A 2 × 2 analysis of variance of later DWI arrests was significant as younger subjects showed greater risk. Those who underreported number of past DWI citations were significantly lower on their self-reported BAC at the time of arrest than accurate reporters. Age and underreporting alcohol-related data are as important for practitioners to attend to as scores on the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test or SCID measuring alcoholic tendencies.
A controlled study of diet in patients with gout.

To determine whether patients with gout have a diet which is distinctive in quality or quantity a careful dietary questionnaire was posed over 7 days to 61 men with gout and 52 control subjects. The average daily intake of most nutrients, including total purine nitrogen, was similar except that the patients with gout drank significantly more alcohol. Beer was the most popular beverage, and 25 (41%) of those with gout consumed more than 60 g alcohol daily (equivalent to 2 . 5 litres of beer). The heavy drinkers had a significantly higher intake of purine nitrogen, half of which was derived from beer. Though the effect of ingested purine on the blood uric acid is difficult to estimate, it probably was sufficient to have a clinical effect, augmenting the hyperuricaemic effect of alcohol itself.
Epidemiology and correlates of weight worry in the multinational Diabetes Attitudes, Wishes and Needs study*

ABSTRACT Objective: This study examined the epidemiology of worry about weight among adults with diabetes and whether this weight worry was associated with worse quality of life and diabetes self-management. Research design and methods: Participants were 5088 adults with type 1 or type 2 diabetes from the multi-national DAWN study. Random samples of approximately 500 were obtained from each of 11 countries/regions in Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America. All measures were self-reported data obtained during structured interviews. High weight worry was represented by the highest level of agreement with the statement ‘I feel very anxious about my weight. ’ Results: One-quarter (25.1%) of respondents reported high weight worry. Using multivariate logistic regression to assess independent relationships, high weight worry was significantly (p < 0.05) more common among respondents who were women, less educated, had type 2 diabetes and more comorbidities, were diagnosed more recently and reported weight gain with diabetes. Using multivariate logistic regression to control for confounding factors, high weight worry was significantly (p < 0.05) associated with most of the adverse outcomes examined, including lower self-rated health, poorer reported regimen adherence and diabetes control, more diabetes-related distress, poorer psychological well-being, and more psychological treatment. Limitations: The cross-sectional, correlational analysis could not assess causal relationships among patient reported outcomes, and the study did not include objective outcome measures. Conclusions: High weight worry was common among adults with diabetes and associated with several adverse outcomes, including multiple indicators of diabetes-related distress, poor physical and psychological well-being, and regimen non-adherence. These findings suggest that healthcare providers should assess and address weight worry among their patients with diabetes.
Domestic Credit and Export Diversification: Africa from a Global Perspective

ABSTRACT As open economies, African countries need to diversify their exports for economic transformation, sustained growth, and development. Meanwhile, there has been increasing importance of development financing. Following the discussion of theoretical issues on the importance of domestic credit as a potential instrument for overcoming the liquidity constraint of developing countries, as in the case of Africa, this paper empirically explores the determinants of export diversification, with particular attention to domestic credit. The estimation is based on a five-year panel regression analysis for the 1962–2010 period involving 80 countries around the world, of which 62 are developing and 29 African countries, using as covariates variables traditionally viewed as affecting export diversification. System GMM estimates provide robust evidence supporting the importance of domestic credit for African countries, while its role in other countries seems rather marginal. In addition, human capital in the form of schooling, governance as measured by constraint on the chief executive of government, and being land-locked, all exert significant effects, as anticipated, on export diversification among African countries. However, except for governance, appropriately controlling for the interactive effect of domestic credit with ‘Africa’ yields generally insignificant impacts of these variables, together with domestic credit, on export diversification in non-African countries. These results point to the dominant role of domestic credit in Africa vis-à-vis other countries globally.
Mobbing in the workplace by peers and managers: mobbing experienced by nurses working in healthcare facilities in Turkey and its effect on nurses.

AIM This research was conducted as a descriptive and cross-sectional study with the purpose of determining the mobbing experienced by nurses who work in healthcare facilities in Turkey, its emotional, social and physiological effects on the nurses and the actions that the individuals take to escape from the mobbing. BACKGROUND The term 'mobbing', which includes workplace terrorizing, pressure, frightening, belittling and psycho-terror, is defined as the presence of systematic, directed, unethical communication and antagonistic behaviour by one or more individuals. These actions that occur frequently and continue for a long time are the most serious and effective causes of workplace stress. The person who is the target of the mobbing is left without help, without protection and alone in the workplace. Individuals who are exposed to psychological abuse experience physiological, psychological and social problems that are related to high levels of stress and anxiety. DESIGN AND METHOD The research participants were 505 nurses of whom 325 (64%) worked in public and 180 (36%) in private hospitals. All of the participants were female. A questionnaire developed by the researchers in the light of information in the literature was used for data collection and had four sections including the participants' demographic characteristics and questions asking about mobbing behaviours, reaction to mobbing incidents and actions taken to escape from the mobbing. The data were collected between October and December 2005 by giving an envelope to the participants and then collecting the responses in the closed envelope. FINDINGS The overwhelming majority (86.5%) of the nurses participating in the research reported facing mobbing behaviour in the workplace in the last 12 months. The nurses working at private hospitals faced statistically significantly more mobbing behaviours than those at public hospitals (p<or=0.02). It was determined that the nurses who faced mobbing behaviours gave various physiological, emotional and social reactions to these incidents. The most common behaviours exhibited by the participants to escape mobbing was 'to work harder and be more organized' and 'to work more carefully to avoid criticism'. In addition 10% of the participants stated that they 'consider committing suicide sometimes. ' RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Mobbing behaviours in the workplace need to be defined and appropriate policies and procedures need to be developed and shared with all employees to prevent the development of these behaviours. In addition, managers should adopt an open managerial approach to prevent the development of these behaviours.
Brain glucose supply and the syndrome of infantile neuroglycopenia.

OBJECTIVE To describe neuroglycopenia as a specific syndrome caused by insufficient glucose availability during brain development. DESIGN Neurologic examinations, neuropsychologic tests, biochemical methods, and functional imaging. PARTICIPANTS Patients afflicted by genetic mutation of the cerebral glucose transporter type 1 and a patient afflicted by persistent infantile hypoglycemia (hyperinsulinism) matched to her healthy twin. RESULTS The hallmark of the phenotype is the combination of infantile epilepsy and cerebellar and pyramidal tract dysfunction, together with permanent neuropsychologic abnormalities and reduced thalamocortical glucose uptake despite subsequent supply of energetic substrate. CONCLUSIONS When neuroglycopenia-the lack of adequate glucose supply to the nervous system-occurs in the developing brain, thalamic and cortical metabolism mature aberrantly, causing epilepsy associated with other characteristic neurologic and behavioral disturbances, a pattern also reflected in functional images, as if there were a temporal window during which glucose were crucial for brain development. When maturation is complete, glucose merely serves as a fuel, and then, when deficient, it only causes unrelated disturbances.
Association between serum adipocyte factor level and insulin resistance in polycystic ovarian syndrome

The relationship between serum adipocytokines level and insulin resistance (IR) in polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is unclear. Sixty-one patients with PCOS were divided into an IR group (n = 31) and a non-IR group (n = 30) using homeostasis model assessment (HOMA). Serum levels of luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, estradiol, progesterone, total testosterone, insulin, glucose, and adipocytokines were measured by radioimmunoassay or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The serum adiponectin level in women with PCOS and IR was lower than that of non-IR PCOS patients (P < 0.05); however, there were no significant differences between the two groups with regard to resistin, leptin, and leptin receptor levels (P > 0.05). And the levels of adipocytokines and IR are significantly correlated; consequently, adipocytokines may be involved in the development of IR in PCOS patients.