Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Maturation of dense core granules in wild type and mutant Tetrahymena thermophila.

Tetrahymena thermophila, a ciliated protozoan, has a well‐developed pathway of regulated secretion from dense core granules called mucocysts. Since exocytosis‐defective mutants are available, steps in the biogenesis of dense core granules and their fusion with the plasma membrane may be resolved genetically. To describe the steps in biochemical terms, we have generated antisera against mucocyst content proteins. One antiserum is directed against a calcium binding protein, p40, that is released on stimulation of exocytosis. p40 is shown to associate with an insoluble matrix in mature mucocysts. In addition, the antiserum recognizes a larger protein, p60, that is soluble, is not found in mature mucocysts and is not released on stimulation. Pulse‐chase experiments support a precursor‐product relationship between p60 and p40. Using these proteins as markers, two mutant Tetrahymena strains defective in exocytosis have been shown to accumulate the putative precursor p60 in organelles that can be distinguished from one another and from wild type mucocysts on the basis of density. The kinetics of appearance of insoluble p40 and the mutant phenotypes suggest a model of mucocyst maturation in which sorting precedes matrix condensation.
Quantitative Biomechanical Analysis of Wrist Motion in Bone-Trimming Jobs in the Red-Meat Packing Industry

This study was motivated by the serious impact that cumulative trauma disorders (CTDs) of the upper extremities have on industrial workers and on industry itself. To date, no quantitative data has been gathered on the kinematics of hand and wrist motion required in bone-trimming jobs in the red-meat packing industry. No information is known about what type and how much wrist motion is currently being used in bone-trimming jobs in the red-meat packing industry, or how much these motions increase the risk of occupational CTDs. The research conducted addressed this current research void and established a preliminary database of wrist and hand kinematics for a bone-trimming job in the red-meat packing industry. This kinematic database could augment the red-meat industry's efforts to reduce the severity and cost of CTDs. Ergonomics practitioners in the red-meat industry could use the kinematic methods employed in this research to assess the CTD risk of current and redesigned jobs that require repetitious, hand-intensive work. The study examined the wrist motions used by nine red-meat packing workers who performed bone-trimming jobs. These jobs are highly repetitive and hand-intensive. Quantitative measures of the kinematic parameters of wrist motions performed on the bone-trimming line were measured using goniometry. The wrist motion measures consisted of the following statistics in the radial/ulnar, flexion/extension, and pronation/supination planes: 1). mean, minimum, and maximum of wrist angle position, 2). mean, minimum, and maximum of angular velocity, and 3). mean, minimum, and maximum of angular acceleration. The kinematic data were compared to manufacturing industry's preliminary wrist motion benchmarks. These benchmarks were the means and variances of nine dependent variables of position, velocity, and acceleration from industrial workers who performed hand-intensive, repetitive work in jobs that were of low and high risk of hand/wrist CTDS (Marras and Schoenmarklin, 1993). Results of this comparison show that numerous wrist motion variables in both the left and right hands of bone-trimming workers are in the high-risk category. This quantitative analysis provides biomechanical support for the high incidence of CTDs in the bone-trimming line of the plant that was investigated.
Perception is Relative : Sequential Contrasts in the Field

A large psychological literature suggests that individuals rely on comparative perception when making sequential decisions or assessments. Such a perceptual bias could inuence behavior in settings from employee hiring and medical diagnosis to investment appraisal and product evaluation. This study presents a theoretical framework which o¤ers predictions to di¤erentiate perceptual errors from rational behavior and provides empirical evidence for such contrast e¤ects.  The empirical focus is an analysis of sequential exam evaluation in a large undergraduate course with supporting evidence for perceptual errors in sentencing decisions by judges in PA courts and in dating decisions by speed daters. There is modest evidence that graders are negatively biased when evaluating exams which follow high and low streaks of extreme exams. Relative to a typical score, this e¤ect is on the order of a 12% increase in leniency following a streak of three low scoring exams, and a 6% grade reduction following three high scoring exams. Ostensibly, learning or quota constraints for high and low grades could rationally account for this nding. However, the fact that these e¤ects: (i) decay fully after a single period, (ii) persist despite grader experience, and (iii) are non-existent for highly transparent (multiple-choice) questions suggests an alternative explanation. Stronger evidence exists for contrast e¤ects in judicial sentencing. Judges are 9% more likely to be lenient in sentencing of summary o¤enses after exposure to a criminal felony. The e¤ects disappear for days with exposure to multiple felonies. In dating, highly attractive or unattractive prior partners produce a 13 to 17% distortion relative to the baseline decision to date. An original survey of real estate agents suggests that these e¤ects may extend to non-random settings such as home purchases. This paper was heavily shaped by numerous discussions with Stefano DellaVigna, Botond Koszegi, and Matt Rabin, and I owe them a special thanks. David Card, Paul Chen, Salar Jahedi, Shachar Kariv, Prasad Krishnamurthy, Ritu Mahajan, Day Manoli, Enrico Moretti, Vikram Pathania, Uri Simohnson, Kevin Stange, Sharad Tandon, Aman Vora and participants of the Psychology & Economics Seminar at UC Berkeley also provided thoughtful comments and feedback. David Moyer, Deb Weber, Leah Woolsey, and anonymous others generously helped secure data for this project.
A Semi-Automatic Data Annotation Tool for Driving Simulator Data Reduction

Manually annotating large video and digital databases of driving behavior is costly and time-consuming. This paper will discuss a data annotation tool that automates the process and reduces the number of man-hours required to annotate data. The laboratory has utilized this tool on a large database of simulated driving data to develop context aware driving systems. The semi-automatic data annotation tool supports our research efforts for driving database creation to enable data-driven approaches in the driving domain such as driving state and maneuver classification. The annotation tool employs Random Forests as bootstrapped classifiers which are then used to predict annotations for new data files. The authors describe an experiment which generated a large database of driving data with our DriveSafety simulator, the process by which annotations are automatically generated, and the results of how using the data annotation tool markedly reduced the amount of time required to annotate the data among three users with varying levels of annotation experience. The major contribution in developing this tool is making parts of the annotation process automatic enabling the user to verify automatically generated annotations, rather than annotating from scratch. This tool has the potential to become a standard data reduction technique.
Stroke and eating difficulties: long-term experiences.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that eating difficulties after stroke are common and often associated with communication problems. These difficulties, however, have mainly been studied from a professional perspective. Although numerous aspects of dysfunction have been identified, little knowledge exists about the experiences of living with eating difficulties. AIM To explore how people affected by stroke experience living with eating difficulties, during a prolonged period. DESIGN Explorative, qualitative case study. METHODS Repeated interviews and participant observations with three persons 1.5-2 years after their last stroke. Data were analysed using qualitative analysis. RESULTS Eating difficulties after stroke were experienced as Striving to live a normal life, with the subthemes Abandoned to learn on one's own, Experiences of losses and Feeling dependent. The process of getting back to a life that resembled life before the stroke was experienced as long-lasting and hard work. The informants felt that they were abandoned to manage eating training on their own. The informants experienced a loss of functional eating ability and the ability to perform activities related to food and meals. Feelings of dependence were experienced in mealtime situations. CONCLUSION Living with eating difficulties after stroke is a complex phenomenon. The informants felt abandoned because of lack of support from the nursing staff. They were left on their own to deal with the difficult process of adjusting to a new way of eating and losses regarding mealtime activities. The combination of repeated interviews and participant observations seemed to be an approach that should be tested in larger studies. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE This case study indicates a need for nurses to develop and use evidence-based guidelines for eating training during the continuum of care. Nurses need to assess patient's habits and desires related to eating, and to adjust environment according to patient preferences.
Effectiveness of fluoxetine therapy in bulimia nervosa regardless of comorbid depression.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate fluoxetine efficacy in the treatment of bulimia nervosa patients with or without comorbid depression. METHOD Two parallel, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled fluoxetine clinical trials were retrospectively analyzed to determine the effect of comorbid depression on bulimia treatment response. Patients were stratified by their 21-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD21) scores at baseline and by the presence or absence of historical or current depression. Change from baseline to endpoint in the number of binge eating and vomiting episodes was used to assess efficacy. RESULTS Fluoxetine 60 mg treatment statistically significantly reduced (p < .05) the median number of binge eating and vomiting episodes. These improvements were independent of baseline HAMD21 score and of historical or current comorbid depression diagnosis. DISCUSSION Fluoxetine 60 mg was effective in treating bulimia nervosa, regardless of the presence or absence of comorbid depression. Fluoxetine's efficacy in treating bulimia nervosa is not simply a secondary effect of its antidepressant properties.
A Connotative Space for Supporting Movie Affective Recommendation

The problem of relating media content to users' affective responses is here addressed. Previous work suggests that a direct mapping of audio-visual properties into emotion categories elicited by films is rather difficult, due to the high variability of individual reactions. To reduce the gap between the objective level of video features and the subjective sphere of emotions, we propose to shift the representation towards the connotative properties of movies, in a space inter-subjectively shared among users. Consequently, the connotative space allows to define, relate, and compare affective descriptions of film videos on equal footing. An extensive test involving a significant number of users watching famous movie scenes suggests that the connotative space can be related to affective categories of a single user. We apply this finding to reach high performance in meeting user's emotional preferences.
Sporting a new role? Stadia and the real estate market

There has been a favourable shift in UK urban policy towards the use of sporting infrastructure as a catalyst for rejuvenating declining areas. Despite this recent trend, evidence to support the notion that stadia can underpin regeneration goals is highly variable. This paper uses a case study of the City of Manchester Stadium and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff to examine the impact of stadia construction on the real estate market, an area of economic development that has been significantly under-researched, yet which forms an integral part of the regeneration process. It concludes by arguing that a more comprehensive understanding of the role of stadia in the regeneration process is required if policy makers are to justify future and sustained public investment in sport-related infrastructure, especially given the significant investment that is planned for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Some important issues to do with long-term sea level change

This paper gives an overview of several important issues concerned with the measurement and understanding of long-term sea level change, which is one of the most important topics in sea level science. The issues discussed span science, technology and our ability to fund and operate the national and global observation networks required for a proper understanding of long-term change and its impacts. Many of these topics were explored at a ‘Celebration of UK sea level science’ at the Royal Society on 16–17 February 2004, and are discussed further in a number of papers in this volume.
Effectiveness of an Oral Health Care Training Workshop for School Teachers: A Pilot Study

Background: School teachers play key roles in imparting appropriate and up-to-date knowledge to pupils and students. However, most teachers in developing countries like Nigeria have poor knowledge and motivation about oral health which may be due to inadequate training in the area of oral health. This might be one of the reasons for the poor oral hygiene among them and their students. Objectives : To evaluate the effectiveness of an oral health care training programme organized for teachers in Eruwa, Oyo state, Nigeria. Methods: An intervention study was conducted among 40 school teachers who attended a two day oral health training workshop at Eruwa, headquarters of Ibarapa East Local Government Area. Training methods included lectures and demonstrations on aetiology, clinical features, treatment and prevention of common oral diseases. Pre- and post- evaluation written tests were administered to the participants to assess the effectiveness of the training. The knowledge scores were rated as poor, fair and good knowledge scoring 60.0% respectively. Frequencies, percentages and means of relevant variables were generated. Paired t-test was used to compare means at P<0.05. Result: The mean age of the teachers was 40.13 ±7.24 years. There were 16 (40.0%) males and 24 (60.0%) females. Twenty (50.0%) of the participants had poor pre-training knowledge as compared to 7 (17.5%) after the training. Thirteen (32.5%) had fair pre-training knowledge as compared to 17 (42.5%) post training. Only (2.5%) of the participants had good pre-training knowledge as compared to 18 (45.0%) post training. The mean scores of the pre- and post-evaluation tests were 31.70 ±11.31 and 48.20 ±11.16 respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the pre and post evaluations P<0.05. Conclusions: The training workshop improved the knowledge of school teachers regarding oral health. Keywords : Effectiveness, Oral health training, Teachers.
Out-of-hospital intravenous access: unnecessary procedures and excessive cost.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the concordance with criteria developed by the study investigators and supply costs associated with placement of i.v. lines and saline locks by paramedics in the out-of-hospital setting. METHODS This was a retrospective consecutive case series at an urban base hospital. Patients were treated by paramedics using one base hospital for medical control during December 1995. Base hospital written records and taped patient calls were reviewed to determine actual i.v. access method used by paramedics, chief complaint, and whether fluid administration was ordered. Indicated method of i.v. access was determined for each patient based on predetermined criteria developed by the investigators. i.v. access methods were ranked by cost of supplies as follows: i.v. line (i.v.) > saline lock (SL) > no i.v. line (No i.v.). An assignment of concordant treatment was made when actual = indicated method, discordant-overtreatment when actual > indicated, and discordant-undertreatment when actual < indicated. RESULTS 452 patients were treated via radio by the base hospital during the study period. 380 of 452 (84%) received an i.v. 28 of 380 (7%) received fluid resuscitation in the field. 166 of 452 (37%) received concordant treatment; 253 (56%) discordant-overtreatment; and 33 (7%) discordant-undertreatment. Pediatric patients (< or =14 years of age) were more likely to be undertreated as compared with adults, 33% vs 3% (p < 0.001). Patients who had medical chief complaints were more likely to receive discordant-overtreatment as compared with patients who had trauma chief complaints, 61% vs 32% (p < 0.001). 73% of chest pain patients received discordant-overtreatment. Based on these data, the yearly cost of supplies used in i.v. access discordant-overtreatment was $13,735 for this base hospital and $560,000 for the Los Angeles County emergency medical services (EMS) system. 91% of the excess supply cost is due to patients' receiving an i.v. instead of a SL. CONCLUSION Based on study criteria for utilization of i.v. lines vs SLs in the field, paramedics and base hospital personnel often provide discordant-overtreatment of patients by placement of an i.v. when a SL or No i.v. would suffice, resulting in unnecessary costs for EMS systems.
The effect of the graph topology on the existence of multipeak solutions for nonlinear Schrödinger equations

where V (y) is a smooth bounded function with positive lower bound, e > 0 is a small number, 2 2 and 2 < p <+∞ if N = 2. Many works have been done on problem (1.1) recently (cf. [6, 7, 8, 16, 21, 22, 23]). One of the results in the papers just mentioned is that if x1,x2, . ,xk are k different strictly local minimum points of V (y), then (1.1) has a k-peak solution ue, that is, solution with exactly k local maximum points, such that ue has exactly one local maximum point in a neighborhood of xj , j = 1, . ,k. The same conclusion is also true if x1,x2, . ,xk are k different strictly local maximum points of V (y). Actually, it is proved in [23] that (1.1) has a multipeak solution with all its peaks near an isolated maximum point of V (y). Thus a natural question is what will happen if V (y) attains its local minimum or local maximum on a connected set. Especially, if V (y) attains its local minimum on a connected set which contains infinitely many points, it is interesting to study whether (1.1) has multipeak solution concentrating on this set. Generally, this is not true as shown in Example 1.6. The main results of this paper consist of three parts. First, we study how the topological structure of the local minimum set of the potential V (y) affects the existence of multipeak solutions for (1.1). We show that if the minimum set of V (y) has nontrivial reduced homology, then for each k ≥ 1, (1.1) has at least
Navigational path detection for the visually impaired using fully convolutional networks

In this paper a novel approach for navigational path detection problem for the visually impaired was presented. A deep learning model based on state-of-the-art fully convolution neural networks have been proposed that can accurately semantically segment any navigational areas on pixel-wise level in different scenes without any prior assumptions about the environment of the scene such as textures or specific appearance cues. The proposed approach have been evaluated on two different publicly available dataset and have achieved a pixel accuracy of 91% over the testing images dataset. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed approach have been compared against other commonly used approach for the problem of predicting navigational areas in input RGB images, and the proposed approach outperformed it with more than 14%, 11% and 10% on the mean intersection over union, mean accuracy and pixel accuracy evaluation metrics respectively.
Antigenic and Chemical Characterization of Non‐Immunoglobulin Amyloid Proteins

The results of antigenic and chemical studies on subcomponents of amyloid fibrils secondary to chronic inflammatory diseases are reported. Treatment of amyloid with either guanidine and dithiothreitol or sodium hydroxide followed by gel filtration on Sephadex G‐100 revealed two major protein components, one eluted in the void volume (m. w. >200, 000), the other having an m. w. of 5, 000. Results from amino acid composition and N‐terminal sequences and also antigenic analysis suggest that the components are two different proteins not related to immunoglobulins.
Multi-Center Randomized Phase II Study Comparing Cediranib plus Gefitinib with Cediranib plus Placebo in Subjects with Recurrent/Progressive Glioblastoma

Background Cediranib, an oral pan-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor, failed to show benefit over lomustine in relapsed glioblastoma. One resistance mechanism for cediranib is up-regulation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). This study aimed to determine if dual therapy with cediranib and the oral EGFR inhibitor gefitinib improved outcome in recurrent glioblastoma. Methods and Findings This was a multi-center randomized, two-armed, double-blinded phase II study comparing cediranib plus gefitinib versus cediranib plus placebo in subjects with first relapse/first progression of glioblastoma following surgery and chemoradiotherapy. The primary outcome measure was progression free survival (PFS). Secondary outcome measures included overall survival (OS) and radiologic response rate. Recruitment was terminated early following suspension of the cediranib program. 38 subjects (112 planned) were enrolled with 19 subjects in each treatment arm. Median PFS with cediranib plus gefitinib was 3.6 months compared to 2.8 months for cediranib plus placebo (HR; 0.72, 90% CI; 0.41 to 1.26). Median OS was 7.2 months with cediranib plus gefitinib and 5.5 months with cediranib plus placebo (HR; 0.68, 90% CI; 0.39 to 1.19). Eight subjects (42%) had a partial response in the cediranib plus gefitinib arm versus five patients (26%) in the cediranib plus placebo arm. Conclusions Cediranib and gefitinib in combination is tolerated in patients with glioblastoma. Incomplete recruitment led to the study being underpowered. However, a trend towards improved survival and response rates with the addition of gefitinib to cediranib was observed. Further studies of the combination incorporating EGFR and VEGF inhibition are warranted. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01310855
Study of the Adhesion of Neurodegenerative Proteins on Plasma-Modified and Coated Polypropylene Surfaces

Abstract The inner polymeric surface of an ELISA titration well is plasma-modified and coated with different surfactant molecules. The titration of neurodegenerative proteins markers (prion, Tau and β-synuclein), previously demonstrated as more efficient with such modified tubes, is related to the adhesion behaviour of these proteins and their corresponding capture antibodies. The adhesion process is studied in terms of anchoring and specific mechanisms. The proteins and antibodies binding onto such modified surfaces is related to the substrate hydrophilic character calculated from the angle contact measure, to the polymer surface charge measured through the streaming potential determination at different pH and the inner surface roughness determined from AFM images. Furthermore, the influence of the blocking agent used during the ELISA titration is also studied.