Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Prospero software program: an alternative tool for the study of social representations

This article is in keeping with a reflection on the language and the numerous computer tools available for its analysis in social psychology. The article stresses the necessity to avoid the trap that consists in blindly using the results of computer textual analyses. The researcher should actually wonder about the epistemological presuppositions of the software programs he uses and must check if those programs do fit with his own theoretical frame. Thus, for the study of social representations, software programs based on the standard method of content analysis are presented as the most relevant. Results from empirical research studies, carried out with a software of this kind (Prospero), provide illustrations on the possibility and the benefits of creating dynamic and flexible networks of categorizations under three different qualitative forms: Synonymy, analogy and taxonomy. In accordance with the theory, these categorizations allow to grasp the processes of objectification and anchorage, which are constituent of social representations, within their context of linguistic communication.
Regulatory Circuitry of the CsrA/CsrB and BarA/UvrY Systems of Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT The global regulator CsrA (carbon storage regulator) is an RNA binding protein that coordinates central carbon metabolism, activates flagellum biosynthesis and motility, and represses biofilm formation in Escherichia coli. CsrA activity is antagonized by the untranslated RNA CsrB, to which it binds and forms a globular ribonucleoprotein complex. CsrA indirectly activates csrB transcription, in an apparent autoregulatory mechanism. In the present study, we elucidate the intermediate regulatory circuitry of this system. Mutations affecting the BarA/UvrY two-component signal transduction system decreased csrB transcription but did not affect csrA′-′lacZ expression. The uvrY defect was severalfold more severe than that of barA. Both csrA and uvrY were required for optimal barA expression. The latter observation suggests an autoregulatory loop for UvrY. Ectopic expression of uvrY suppressed the csrB-lacZ expression defects caused by uvrY, csrA, or barA mutations; csrA suppressed csrA or barA defects; and barA complemented only the barA mutation. Purified UvrY protein stimulated csrB-lacZ expression approximately sixfold in S-30 transcription-translation reactions, revealing a direct effect of UvrY on csrB transcription. Disruption of sdiA, which encodes a LuxR homologue, decreased the expression of uvrY′-′lacZ and csrB-lacZ fusions but did not affect csrA′-′lacZ. The BarA/UvrY system activated biofilm formation. Ectopic expression of uvrY stimulated biofilm formation by a csrB-null mutant, indicative of a CsrB-independent role for UvrY in biofilm development. Collectively, these results demonstrate that uvrY resides downstream from csrA in a signaling pathway for csrB and that CsrA stimulates UvrY-dependent activation of csrB expression by BarA-dependent and -independent mechanisms.
MAGI3 negatively regulates Wnt/β-catenin signaling and suppresses malignant phenotypes of glioma cells

Gliomas are the most common primary brain malignancies and are associated with a poor prognosis. Here, we showed that the PDZ domain-containing protein membrane-associated guanylate kinase inverted 3 (MAGI3) was downregulated at the both mRNA and protein levels in human glioma samples. MAGI3 inhibited proliferation, migration, and cell cycle progression of glioma cells in its overexpression and knockdown studies. By using GST pull-down and co-immunoprecipitation assays, we found that MAGI3 bound to β-catenin through its PDZ domains and the PDZ-binding motif of β-catenin. MAGI3 overexpression inhibited β-catenin transcriptional activity via its interaction with β-catenin. Consistently, MAGI3 overexpression in glioma cells C6 suppressed expression of β-catenin target genes including Cyclin D1 and Axin2, whereas MAGI3 knockdown in glioma cells U373 and LN229 enhanced their expression. MAGI3 overexpression decreased growth of C6 subcutaneous tumors in mice, and inhibited expression of β-catenin target genes in xenograft tumors. Furthermore, analysis based on the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) glioma dataset showed association of MAGI3 expression with overall survival and tumor grade. Finally, we demonstrated negative correlation between MAGI3 expression and activity of Wnt/β-catenin signaling through GSEA of three public glioma datasets and immunohistochemical staining of clinical glioma samples. Taken together, these results identify MAGI3 as a novel tumor suppressor and provide insight into the pathogenesis of glioma.
A meta‐analysis of the neuropsychological sequelae of chemotherapy‐only treatment for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Mixed findings on the neuropsychological sequelae of chemotherapy‐only treatment for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), without radiation, indicate the need for a comprehensive meta‐analytic review. The purpose of the current study was to conduct a meta‐analysis assessing neuropsychological and academic functioning differences between children with ALL treated solely with chemotherapy and comparison groups.
Caring Theory as an Ethical Guide to Administrative and Clinical Practices

ABSTRACT This article explores the conventional relationship between caring, economics, and administrative practices that no longer serve patients, practitioners, or systems. A shift toward human caring values and an ethic of authentic healing relationships is required as systems now have to value human resources and life purposes, inner meanings, and processes for workers and patients alike, not just economics alone. This shift requires a professional ethos with renewed attention to practice that is ethics/values-based and theory-guided, alongside evidence and economics. Emergent professional, caring-theory-guided practice options are presented, which are grounded on this deeper ethical moral and theoretical foundation for transforming the practitioners and the system.
Surface-Potential-Based Analytic DC $I$ –$V$ Model With Effective Electron Density for $a$-IGZO TFTs Considering the Parasitic Resistance

A surface-potential-based analytic direct-current <i>I</i> -<i>V</i> model for amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide thin-film transistors is proposed by adopting an effective electron density (<i>n</i><sub>eff</sub>) model for inclusion of both free carriers and localized charges in the channel. The proposed <i>n</i><sub>eff</sub> is efficient in reducing the error caused by neglecting the localized electron density <i>n</i><sub>loc</sub> and allows a closed form of the analytic <i>I</i>-<i>V</i> model. The potential drop across the parasitic resistance R<sub>P</sub> in the source and drain regions is also fully considered in the model. Finally, we confirmed good agreement of the proposed model with measured <i>I</i><sub>DS</sub>-<i>V</i><sub>DS</sub> characteristics over a wide range of <i>V</i><sub>GS</sub> and <i>V</i><sub>DS</sub>.
Functionality of fondaparinux (pentasaccharide) depends on clinical antithrombin levels

Fondaparinux (Arixtra) is an antithrombin (AT)-dependent synthetic inhibitor of factor Xa (FXa). We undertook a study to determine the ramifications of varying levels of circulating AT on the pharmacologic activity of fondaparinux. AT-deficient human plasma supplemented with 0.125–2.0 U/ml purified human AT and plasmas from liver disease patients (n = 20; 0.3 U/ml AT) were supplemented with fondaparinux (0.125–12.5 μg/ml) then assayed by an amidolytic anti-FXa assay and the clot-based Heptest. A decrease in fondaparinux activity was observed with AT levels of 0.5 U/ml that became more pronounced with decreasing AT levels. For 0.2–1.5 μg/ml fondaparinux (plasma concentrations achieved with dosages for prophylaxis and treatment of venous thromboembolism) and AT levels of 0.5 U/ml there was 20% loss of activity and with 0.25 U/ml AT there was a 45% loss of activity compared to 1 U/ml AT. Increasing AT levels to over 0.5 U/ml or increasing fondaparinux concentrations for AT levels between 0.5 and 1 U/ml achieved fondaparinux activity comparable to that obtained with 1 U/ml AT. With AT levels above 1.0 U/ml a greater inhibitory activity was achieved. The observed potency of fondaparinux in terms of anti-FXa activity was reduced approximately three-fold in patients with liver disease. These in-vitro findings were confirmed in a rabbit model of stasis thrombosis. With AT levels below 30% of normal induced by anti-AT antibodies, there was a 60% in-vivo reduction in the antithrombotic activity of fondaparinux (ED50 75 vs. 240 μg/kg). In summary, the AT level is a rate-limiting factor for the antithrombotic activity of fondaparinux.
Oestrogen-receptor-positive breast cancer: towards bridging histopathological and molecular classifications

The oestrogen receptor (ER) pathway is key for survival and progression in a significant proportion of breast cancers. The ER can be activated by oestrogen or activated due to “crosstalk” with growth factor receptor pathways. Activated ER signals through transcriptional and non-transcriptional mechanisms. Immunohistochemistry (IHC), in spite of the shortcomings, remains the method of choice as it provides for in situ assessment of ER expression within the tumour cells. This capability is lost in tissue grinding methods that assess oestrogen-binding activity or messenger RNAs in tumours. IHC is also not influenced by the presence of non-tumoural cells or low amounts of tumour cells within samples examined. It is clear that ER-positive tumours do not represent a single entity. Irrespective of the terminology used, low-grade ER-positive (also known as luminal A) tumours need to be differentiated from high-grade/highly proliferative ER-positive tumours. This can be done in a variety of ways including but not limited to analysis of FOXA1 and GATA-3 by IHC, and limited molecular profiling by Oncotype DX, MGH2-gene signature, intrinsic gene signature or MapQuant Dx. Several areas of ER biology are still poorly understood; these include: its function in the cytoplasm/plasma membrane, its role in the differentiation to proliferation switch, and pathways associated with resistance to hormonal therapy. A detailed understanding of these areas will permit better classification and a personalised approach to management of ER-positive breast cancers.
Non-negative matrix factorization for images with Laplacian noise

This paper is concerned with the design of a non-negative matrix factorization algorithm for image analysis. This can be used in the context of blind source separation, where each observed image is a linear combination of a few basis functions, and that both the coefficients for the linear combination and the bases are unknown. In addition, the observed images are commonly corrupted by noise. While algorithms have been developed when the noise obeys Gaussian or Poisson statistics, here we take it to be Laplacian, which is more representative for other leptokurtic distributions. It is applicable for cases such as transform coefficient distributions and when there are insufficient noise sources for the central limit theorem to apply. We formulate the problem as an L1 minimization and solve it via linear programming.
An Interaction of Renin-Angiotensin and Kallikrein-Kinin Systems Contributes to Vascular Hypertrophy in Angiotensin II-Induced Hypertension: In Vivo and In Vitro Studies

The kallikrein-kinin and renin-angiotensin systems interact at multiple levels. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the B1 kinin receptor (B1R) contributes to vascular hypertrophy in angiotensin II (ANG II)–induced hypertension, through a mechanism involving reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) activation. Male Wistar rats were infused with vehicle (control rats), 400 ng/Kg/min ANG II (ANG II rats) or 400 ng/Kg/min ANG II plus B1 receptor antagonist, 350 ng/Kg/min des-Arg9-Leu8-bradykinin (ANGII+DAL rats), via osmotic mini-pumps (14 days) or received ANG II plus losartan (10 mg/Kg, 14 days, gavage - ANG II+LOS rats). After 14 days, ANG II rats exhibited increased systolic arterial pressure [(mmHg) 184±5.9 vs 115±2.3], aortic hypertrophy; increased ROS generation [2-hydroxyethidium/dihydroethidium (EOH/DHE): 21.8±2.7 vs 6.0±1.8] and ERK1/2 phosphorylation (% of control: 218.3±29.4 vs 100±0.25]. B1R expression was increased in aortas from ANG II and ANG II+DAL rats than in aortas from the ANG II+LOS and control groups. B1R antagonism reduced aorta hypertrophy, prevented ROS generation (EOH/DHE: 9.17±3.1) and ERK1/2 phosphorylation (137±20.7%) in ANG II rats. Cultured aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) stimulated with low concentrations (0.1 nM) of ANG II plus B1R agonist exhibited increased ROS generation, ERK1/2 phosphorylation, proliferating-cell nuclear antigen expression and [H3]leucine incorporation. At this concentration, neither ANG II nor the B1R agonist produced any effects when tested individually. The ANG II/B1R agonist synergism was inhibited by losartan (AT1 blocker, 10 µM), B1R antagonist (10 µM) and Tiron (superoxide anion scavenger, 10 mM). These data suggest that B1R activation contributes to ANG II-induced aortic hypertrophy. This is associated with activation of redox-regulated ERK1/2 pathway that controls aortic smooth muscle cells growth. Our findings highlight an important cross-talk between the DABK and ANG II in the vascular system and contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in vascular remodeling in hypertension.
Maximum Entropy Modeling in Sparse Semantic Tagging

In this work, we are concerned with a coarse grained semantic analysis over sparse data, which labels all nouns with a set of semantic categories. To get the benefit of unlabeled data, we propose a bootstrapping framework with Maximum Entropy modeling (MaxEnt) as the statistical learning component. During the iterative tagging process, unlabeled data is used not only for better statistical estimation, but also as a medium to integrate non-statistical knowledge into the model training. Two main issues are discussed in this paper. First, Association Rule principles are suggested to guide MaxEnt feature selections. Second, to guarantee the convergence of the boot-strapping process, three adjusting strategies are proposed to soft tag unlabeled data.
Methamphetamine self-administration in rats developmentally exposed to lead

Methamphetamine Self-administration in Rats Developmentally Exposed to Lead. (May 2007) Angelica Rocha, B.A., California State University, San Marcos; M.S., Texas A&M University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Jack R. Nation Dr. Paul Wellman Methamphetamine is gaining mainstream popularity across the United States at the same time that lead exposure remains at elevated levels. Perinatal (gestation/lactation) lead exposure has been found to modify the reward efficacy of various drugs of abuse (e.g., cocaine, opiates) across the phases of initial selection, use, and abuse. Lead-induced changes in sensitivity to methamphetamine have not been examined in animals perinatally exposed to lead. Accordingly, four studies were conducted to examine the effects of perinatal lead exposure on adult self-administration of intravenous (i.v.) methamphetamine across all relevant transition points of drug addiction. Adult female rats were administered a 16-mg lead or a control solution for 30 days prior to breeding with non-exposed males. Exposure continued through pregnancy and lactation and was discontinued at weaning (postnatal day [PND] 21). Animals born to control or lead-exposed dams received indwelling jugular catheters as adults (PND 60 and PND 90) and subsequently were randomly assigned to one of the four studies mentioned above, using only one male rat per litter for each study.
Robust color-to-gray via nonlinear global mapping

This paper presents a fast color-to-gray conversion algorithm which robustly reproduces the visual appearance of a color image in grayscale. The conversion preserves feature discriminability and reasonable color ordering, while respecting the original lightness of colors, by simple optimization of a nonlinear global mapping. Experimental results show that our method produces convincing results for a variety of color images. We further extend the method to temporally coherent color-to-gray video conversion.
Anxiety, Attachment & Attention: The Influence of Adult Attachment Style on Attentional Biases of Anxious Individuals

The vigilance-avoidance model of attention, which proposes that anxious individuals will initially be vigilant towards, and subsequently will avoid, threatening stimuli (Mogg, Bradley, deBono & Painter, 1997) has received inconsistent support (Armstrong & Olatunji, 2012). Given that attention biases have been identified in studies examining adult attachment style (Dewitte & De Houwer, 2008), the aim of this study is to examine whether adult attachment style influences the relationship between anxiety and attention biases. The present study used a passive viewing eye-tracking task to examine the effect of anxiety and attachment style on attention to emotional images on initial presentation and over time. Participants were randomly allocated to receive either an anxiety induction (speech task) or not and viewed pairs of images (an emotional (either happy or angry) and neutral face) presented for 1.5 seconds. The results indicate that those exposed to the speech task who scored high on the avoidant attachment dimension were more likely to avoid attending to the emotional (angry and happy) stimuli initially and maintained this pattern of attention over the stimulus presentation time. While attachment avoidance moderated the relationship between attention and anxiety, an anxious attachment style did not have a significant effect. Thus, adult attachment style is an important individual difference to consider within the context of anxiety and attention biases.
Justice and the paradox of the contented female worker

Studies have shown that women are as satisfied with their jobs as are their male counterparts. This finding is viewed as suggesting a paradox because women's rewards and work conditions are usually less favorable than men's. Phelan (1994) evaluated five explanations for the paradox but could not evaluate the possibility that perceived justice accounts for the paradox. We evaluate the same explanations, but also examine the importance of perceived justice. We find, for a sample of female and male lawyers, that no paradox exists for job satisfaction when the model is specified properly. For pay satisfaction, however, perceived justice is critically important in explaining gender satisfaction differences, but even this does not account entirely for the paradox. The use of same-gender reference groups in evaluating justice may be responsible for the gap that remains, although supplemental data suggest that this is not the case for these lawyers.
Epigenetics and Epigenomics The mitochondrial side of epigenetics

Castegna A, Iacobazzi V, Infantino V. The mitochondrial side of epigenetics. Physiol Genomics 47: 299 –307, 2015. First published June 2, 2015; doi:10.1152/physiolgenomics.00096. 2014. —The bidirectional cross talk between nuclear and mitochondrial DNA is essential for cellular homeostasis and proper functioning. Mitochondria depend on nuclear contribution for much of their functionality, but their activities have been recently recognized to control nuclear gene expression as well as cell function in many different ways. Epigenetic mechanisms, which tune gene expression in response to environmental stimuli, are key regulatory events at the interplay between mitochondrial and nuclear interactions. Emerging findings indicate that epigenetic factors can be targets or instruments of mitochondrial-nuclear cross talk. Additionally, the growing interest into mtDNA epigenetic modifications opens new avenues into the interaction mechanisms between mitochondria and nucleus. In this review we summarize the points of mitochondrial and nuclear reciprocal control involving epigenetic factors, focusing on the role of mitochondrial genome and metabolism in shaping epigenetic modulation of gene expression. The relevance of the new findings on the methylation of mtDNA is also highlighted as a new frontier in the complex scenario of mitochondrial-nuclear communication.
Contact Stimulation of Tgl and Type IV Pili inMyxococcus xanthus

ABSTRACT Myxococcus xanthus tgl mutants lack social motility and type IV pili but can be transiently stimulated to swarm and to make pili by contacting tgl+ cells. The absence of pili in tgl mutants is shown not to be due to the absence of pilin. The rate of pilus elongation after Tgl stimulation is shown to be similar to the rate of pilus elongation in wild-type cells, using a new more rapid assay for stimulation.
Quadratic eigenproblems are no problem

High-dimensional eigenproblems often arise in the solution of scientific problems involving stability or wave modeling. In this article we present results for a quadratic eigenproblem that we encountered in solving an acoustics problem, specifically in modeling the propagation of waves in a room in which one wall was constructed of sound-absorbing material. Efficient algorithms are known for the standard linear eigenproblem, Ax = x where A is a real or complex-valued square matrix of order n. Generalized eigenproblems of the form Ax = Bx, which occur in nite element formulations, are usually reduced to the standard problem, in a form such as B Ax = x. The reduction requires an expensive inversion operation for one of the matrices involved. Higher-order polynomial eigenproblems are also usually transformed into standard eigenproblems. We discuss here the second-degree (i.e., quadratic) eigenproblem 2C2 + C1 + C0 x = 0 in which the matrices Ci are square matrices.
The Impact of Cholesterol, DHA, and Sphingolipids on Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder currently affecting over 35 million people worldwide. Pathological hallmarks of AD are massive amyloidosis, extracellular senile plaques, and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles accompanied by an excessive loss of synapses. Major constituents of senile plaques are 40–42 amino acid long peptides termed β-amyloid (Aβ). Aβ is produced by sequential proteolytic processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). APP processing and Aβ production have been one of the central scopes in AD research in the past. In the last years, lipids and lipid-related issues are more frequently discussed to contribute to the AD pathogenesis. This review summarizes lipid alterations found in AD postmortem brains, AD transgenic mouse models, and the current understanding of how lipids influence the molecular mechanisms leading to AD and Aβ generation, focusing especially on cholesterol, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and sphingolipids/glycosphingolipids.
Towards reduced-order models for online motion planning and control of UAVs in the presence of wind

This paper describes a model reduction strategy for obtaining a computationally efficient prediction of a fixed-wing UAV performing waypoint navigation under steady wind conditions. The strategy relies on the off-line generation of time parametrized trajectory libraries for a set of flight conditions and reduced order basis functions functions for determining intermediate locations. It is assumed that the UAV has independent bounded control over the airspeed and altitude, and consider a 2D slice of the operating environment. We found that the reduced-order model finds intermediate positions within 10% and at speeds of 10x faster than clock-time (even in wind conditions in excess of 50% of the UAV’s forward airspeed) when compared against simulation results using a medium-fidelity flight dynamics model. The potential of this strategy for online planning operations is highlighted.