Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell-free nucleic acids as noninvasive biomarkers for colorectal cancer detection

Cell-free nucleic acids (CFNA) have been reported by several authors in blood, stool, and urine of patients with colorectal cancer (CRC). These genetic biomarkers can be an indication of neoplastic colorectal epithelial cells, and can thus potentially be used as noninvasive tests for the detection of the disease in CRC patients and monitor their staging, without the need to use heavier and invasive tools. In a number of test-trials, these genetic tests have shown the advantage of non-invasiveness, making them well accepted by most of the patients, without major side effects. They have also shown a promising sensitivity and specificity in the detection of malignant and premalignant neoplasms. Moreover, costs for performing such tests are very low. Several studies reported and confirmed the proof of the principle for these genetic tests for screening, diagnosis, and prognosis; the main challenge of translating this approach from research to clinical laboratory is the validation from large and long-term randomized trials to prove sustainable high sensitivity and specificity. In this paper, we present a review on the noninvasive genetics biomarkers for CRC detection described in the literature and the challenges that can be encountered for validation processes.
Sulphur abundances from the S near-infrared triplet at 1045 nm ?

Context. Unlike silicon and calcium, sulphur is an α-element which does not form dust. Some of the available observations of the evolution of sulphur with metallicity indicate an increased scatter of sulphur to iron ratios at low metallicities or even a bimodal distribution, with some stars showing constant S/Fe at all metallicities and others showing an increasing S/Fe ratio with decreasing metallicity. In metal-poor stars S  lines of Multiplet 1 at 920 nm are not yet too weak to permit to measure the sulfur abundance A(S), however in ground-based observations they are severely affected by telluric lines. Aims. We investigate the possibility to measure sulphur abundances from S  Mult. 3 at 1045 nm lines, which lie in the near infra-red. These are slightly weaker than those of Mult. 1, but lie in a range not affected by telluric lines. Methods. We investigate the lines of Mult. 3 in the Sun (G2V), Procyon (F5V), HD 33256 (F5V), HD 25069 (G9V) and Eri (HD 22049, K2V). For the Sun and Procyon the analysis has been performed with COBOLD 3D hydrodynamical model atmospheres, for the other three stars, for which hydrodynamical simulations are not available, the analysis has been performed using 1D model atmospheres. Results. For our sample of stars we find a global agreement of A(S) from lines of different multiplets. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the infrared lines of Mult. 3 are a viable indicator of the sulphur abundance which, because of the intrinsic strength of this multiplet, should be suitable to study the trend of [S/Fe] at low metallicities.
ESL Parents and Teachers: Towards Dialogue?

Conflict and miscommunication between English as a Second Language (ESL) parents and teachers has had a major impact on educational policy, but few empirical studies examine it as discourse. This study examines communication between ESL parents and high school ESL teachers in a ‘Parents’ Night' (PN) event organised to increase understanding of the ESL programme. It examines an intercultural communication view and a ‘dialogue across differences’ view, using a more comprehensive systemic functional linguistics view to describe the discourse of the event and locate it in its contexts. It explores explanations for a conflict that occurred, draws implications about the role of each view and considers prospects for the future development of ESL parent–teacher communication.
Transformational Leadership, Innovative Behavior, and Task Performance: Test of Mediation and Moderation Processes

We use the self-concept based theory of leadership and social exchange theory to hypothesize processes linking transformational leadership to follower performance outcomes. Specifically, we hypothesize that (a) transformational leadership relates to followers' work engagement both directly and indirectly through their psychological states, (b) work engagement relates to innovative behavior, (c) innovative behavior relates to task performance, and (d) the work engagement–innovative behavior relationship is moderated by leader–member exchange. Results from a test of these relationships in a sample of employees of a large telecommunication company in China largely support our hypothesized model.
Multifaceted Personality Predictors of Workplace Safety Performance: More Than Conscientiousness

This article concerns individual differences in workplace safety behavior. We identify six performance dimensions related to overall safety performance, which in turn, leads to occupational accidents and injuries. We define these dimensions and develop personality-based safety scales to predict them by combining facets of Five-Factor Model scales. Next, we validate these safety scales by aggregating results from independent criterion-related studies and show that a composite safety scale is more predictive of overall safety performance than individual Five-Factor Model scales. Also, results show that safety scales predict accidents and injuries, but this relationship is mediated by safety performance. We consider implications of using individual differences to study links between personality, safety performance, and accidents and injuries in selection, training, and organizational safety culture.
COMPARATIVE TESTS OF EVOLUTIONARY TRADE‐OFFS IN A PALINURID LOBSTER ACOUSTIC SYSTEM

Abstract Communication structures vary greatly in size and can be structurally and behaviorally integrated with other systems. In structurally integrated systems, dramatic changes in size may impose trade‐offs with the size of neighboring structures. In spiny lobsters (Palinuridae), there is a fivefold difference in size of the antennular plate, on which sound producing apparatus is located, such that the antennular plate reaches 38% carapace length in some sound producers (Stridentes) compared to only 4% carapace length in non‐sound producing spiny lobsters (Silentes). We examined whether this major variation in antennular plate size imposes trade‐offs with the adjoining antennae, specifically in the context that the signal producing structures and antennae are both used in predator defense. We recorded and analyzed lobster sounds in order to test whether size increases in the acoustic morphology were correlated with production of particular signal features. Antennal and antennular plate structures were measured across the family, including both Stridentes and Silentes. Phylogenetic comparative methods were used to test for correlated evolutionary change among the structures and signal features. We analyzed the phylogenetic relationships of the Palinuridae based on morphological characters and ribosomal DNA evidence (16S, 18S and 28S nuclear and mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene regions). We found that the number of sound pulses was positively correlated with length of the sound producing apparatus. Opposite to the predicted trade‐offs, we found that the size of the antennular plate was positively correlated with size of the surrounding antennae within Stridentes. Nevertheless, when Stridentes were compared to Silentes, the latter had relatively larger antennae for a given antennular plate size than did the sound producing taxa. These results suggest that body size does not limit size increases in acoustic structures within Stridentes, however the presence and associated constructional costs of a sound producing apparatus may impose a trade‐off when taxa with and without the apparatus are compared. Alternatively, since both systems are used in predator defense, this pattern may indicate greater selection for antennal force production in Silentes, which lack the additional acoustic mode of predator defense.
FlexiFingers: Multi-finger interaction in VR combining passive haptics and pseudo-haptics

3D interaction in virtual reality often requires to manipulate and feel virtual objects with our fingers. Although existing haptic interfaces can be used for this purpose (e.g. force-feedback exoskeleton gloves), they are still bulky and expensive. In this paper, we introduce a novel multi-finger device called “FlexiFingers” that constrains each digit individually and produces elastic force-feedback. FlexiFingers leverages passive haptics in order to offer a lightweight, modular, and affordable alternative to active devices. Moreover, we combine Flexifingers with a pseudo-haptic approach that simulates different levels of stiffness when interacting with virtual objects. We illustrate how this combination of passive haptics and pseudo-haptics can benefit multi-finger interaction through several use cases related to music learning and medical training. Those examples suggest that our approach could find applications in various domains that require an accessible and portable way of providing haptic feedback to the fingers.
User Involvement in Dementia Product Development

This article is in two parts. The first part describes the design of new assistive technology for people with dementia developed within the ENABLE project, with designs coming from both personal and professional carers as well as design engineers. The second part looks at traditional user-led design methodologies for assistive technology to see what lessons have been learnt from the ENABLE project to adapt these methodologies to make them more appropriate for people with dementia. The article concludes with a series of recommendations for designers to assist the generation of effective new devices for people with dementia.
Contribution of T‐type VDCC to TEA‐induced long‐term synaptic modification in hippocampal CA1 and dentate gyrus

We have previously reported that exposure to the K+ channel blocker tetraethylammonium (TEA), 25 mM, induces long‐term potentiation (LTP) in CA1, but not in the dentate gyrus (DG), of the rat hippocampal slice. During TEA application, stimulation of excitatory afferents results in a strong depolarizing potential after the fast excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) in CA1, but not in DG. We hypothesized that the differential effect of TEA on long‐term synaptic modification in CA1 and DG results from different levels of TEA‐elicited depolarization in the two cell types. Additional pharmacological studies showed that blockade of T‐type voltage‐dependent calcium channels (VDCCs) decreased both the magnitude of LTP and the late, depolarizing potential in CA1. Blockade of L‐type VDCCs had no such effect. Using computer models of morphologically reconstructed CA1 pyramidal cells and DG granule cells, we tested our hypothesis by simulating the relative intracellular Ca2+ accumulation and membrane potential changes mediated by T‐type and L‐type VDCCs. Simulation results using pyramidal cell models showed that, with decreased maximum conductance of TEA‐sensitive potassium channels, synaptic inputs elicited strong depolarizing potentials similar to those observed with intracellular recording. During this depolarization, VDCCs were opened and resulted in a large intracellular Ca2+ accumulation that presumably caused LTP. When T‐type VDCCs were blocked, the magnitudes of both the Ca2+ accumulation and the late depolarizing potential were decreased substantially. Simulated blockade of L‐type VDCCs had only a minor effect. Together, our modeling and experimental studies indicate that T‐type VDCCs, rather than L‐type VDCCs, are primarily responsible for facilitating the depolarizing potential caused by TEA and for the consequent Ca2+ influx. Thus, our findings strongly suggest that the induction of TEA‐LTP in CA1 depends primarily on T‐type, rather than L‐type, VDCCs. Simulation results using modeled granule cells suggests that the failure of TEA to induce LTP in DG is partly due to a low density of T‐type VDCCs in granule cell membranes. Hippocampus 2002;12:689–697. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
BDVal: reproducible large-scale predictive model development and validation in high-throughput datasets

UNLABELLED High-throughput data can be used in conjunction with clinical information to develop predictive models. Automating the process of developing, evaluating and testing such predictive models on different datasets would minimize operator errors and facilitate the comparison of different modeling approaches on the same dataset. Complete automation would also yield unambiguous documentation of the process followed to develop each model. We present the BDVal suite of programs that fully automate the construction of predictive classification models from high-throughput data and generate detailed reports about the model construction process. We have used BDVal to construct models from microarray and proteomics data, as well as from DNA-methylation datasets. The programs are designed for scalability and support the construction of thousands of alternative models from a given dataset and prediction task. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION The BDVal programs are implemented in Java, provided under the GNU General Public License and freely available at http://bdval.campagnelab. org.
Intracellular Antioxidant Activity of Grape Skin Polyphenolic Extracts in Rat Superficial Colonocytes: In situ Detection by Confocal Fluorescence Microscopy

Colon is exposed to a number of prooxidant conditions and several colon diseases are associated with increased levels of reactive species. Polyphenols are the most abundant antioxidants in the diet, but to date no information is available about their absorption and potential intracellular antioxidant activity on colon epithelial cells. The work was addressed to study the intracellular antioxidant activity of red grape polyphenolic extracts on rat colon epithelium experimentally exposed to prooxidant conditions. The experimental model chosen was represented by freshly isolated colon explants, which closely resemble the functional, and morphological characteristics of the epithelium in vivo. The study was carried out by in situ confocal microscopy observation on CM-H2DCFDA charged explants exposed to H2O2 (5, 10, and 15 min). The qualitative and quantitative polyphenolic composition of the extracts as well as their in vitro oxygen radical absorbing capacity (ORAC) was determined. The incubation of the explants with the polyphenolic extracts for 1 h produced a significant decrease of the H2O2 induced fluorescence. This effect was more pronounced following 15 min H2O2 exposure with respect to 5 min and it was also more evident for extracts obtained from mature grapes, which showed an increased ORAC value and qualitative peculiarities in the polyphenolic composition. The results demonstrated the ability of red grape polyphenols to cross the plasma membrane and exert a direct intracellular antioxidant activity in surface colonocytes, inducing a protection against pro-oxidant conditions. The changes in the polyphenol composition due to ripening process was reflected in a more effective antioxidant protection.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and human rights

The 150th anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant, the 30th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 25th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights were all celebrated in 1978. Also in 1978, both the American Convention on Human Rights (1969) and the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions (1977) entered into force. The concurrence of these various notable events, all relating to human rights, constitutes an appropriate occasion for an analysis of the relationship which exists between international humanitarian law and human rights. These two branches of international law which had been developing separately for a long time began, after the Second World War, gradually to approach each other, and now one largely overlaps the other. Both have the same purpose: the protection of human beings. But they deal with different situations and have evolved differently, and it is this which needs to be stressed first of all.
El paradigma de las competencias hacia la educación superior

The present article works about the competences paradigm of the competences in the superior education, making an exploratory route of the conception and defi nition of the competence term and since different visions, that defi ne a diverse classes of competences and tendencies for the labor and educative fi elds. With it, we are looking an approach to the following questions: ? What is a competence? What is an academic competence? What is a labor competence? , ? Which are the attributes of the competence? Which are the evidences that demonstrate the competences? Which are the comparison indicators of the performance? Which is the competitive advantage with the use of the competences? , among others.
Variable-Number Tandem Repeat Analysis of Meningococcal Isolates Belonging to the Sequence Type 162 Complex

ABSTRACT Thirty-one meningococcal isolates from carriers and disease cases belonging to the sequence type (ST) 162 complex, isolated in Greece in 1999 and 2000, were studied by the use of variable-number tandem repeat analysis. Our study demonstrated that the isolates belonging to the ST-162 clonal complex were a heterogeneous group. Based on this heterogeneity, it is unlikely that the disease-associated isolates represent an outbreak.
Degradation analysis of 830nm laser diodes based on PSpice model

Researches on the degradation mechanisms of Laser diode (LD) widely used in the fields of laser communication, medicine and military affairs remain to be complex and difficult. Distincting from formal degradation analysis methods of complicated mathematical calculations and verifying experiments, an alternative efficient method is required. In this work, a new circuit model integrating the thermal and degraded effects is obtained, which efficiently reflects the characteristics of LD at actual work and overcomes the insufficiency of classic single component simulation model. The two main degradation modes, the active region defects growth and cavity surface oxidation, are quantitatively described in this new circuit model through improving the expression of non-radiative recombination current In and absorptive rate of cavity surface A;. The model is implemented in the circuit simulator PSpice and verified in the LD characteristic test experiment platform, then the key parameters are identified by the method of nonlinear least square fitting of experiment data. Simulation and experiment results show that, the model can effectively illustrate the degradation characteristics of LD and the parameters, threshold Ith and slope k of I-P curves, can be used to identify the active region and the cavity surface degradation.
Learning processes and processing learning: from organizational needs to learning designs

Please, cite this publication as: Naeve, A. & Sicilia, M. A. (2006). Learning: from Organizational Needs to Learning Designs. Proceedings of Adaptive Hypermedia. June, Dublin, Ireland. Retrieved June 30th, 2006, from http://dspace.learningnetworks. org
Crystal structure of phosphoribosylformyl‐glycinamidine synthase II, PurS subunit (TM1244) from Thermotoga maritima at 1.90 Å resolution

Irimpan I. Mathews, S. Sri Krishna, Robert Schwarzenbacher, Daniel McMullan, Lukasz Jaroszewski, Mitchell D. Miller, Polat Abdubek, Sanjay Agarwalla, Eileen Ambing, Herbert L. Axelrod, Jaume M. Canaves, Dennis Carlton, Hsiu-Ju Chiu, Thomas Clayton, Michael DiDonato, Lian Duan, Marc-André Elsliger, Slawomir K. Grzechnik, Joanna Hale, Eric Hampton, Justin Haugen, Kevin K. Jin, Heath E. Klock, Eric Koesema, John S. Kovarik, Andreas Kreusch, Peter Kuhn, Inna Levin, Andrew T. Morse, Edward Nigoghossian, Linda Okach, Silvya Oommachen, Jessica Paulsen, Kevin Quijano, Ron Reyes, Christopher L. Rife, Glen Spraggon, Raymond C. Stevens, Henry van den Bedem, Aprilfawn White, Guenter Wolf, Qingping Xu, Keith O. Hodgson, John Wooley, Ashley M. Deacon, Adam Godzik, Scott A. Lesley, and Ian A. Wilson* Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, Stanford University, Menlo Park, California Joint Center for Structural Genomics Burnham Institute for Medical Research, La Jolla, California Center for Research in Biological Systems, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, San Diego, California The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California San Diego Supercomputer Center, La Jolla, California
Impact of Childhood Attachment with Parents on the Change of Relationship with God following Life Events

This article extends previous research on the impacts of life events on individuals’ religiosity and examines whether individuals’ reactions to life events are affected by childhood relationships with parents. Questionnaires were completed by undergraduate students at a state university in Utah. The results of a multivariate analysis, based on data from undergraduate students raised by two Mormon parents, show that those who had a secure relationship with their mothers were more likely to report the occurrence of positive life events that drew them closer to God. Those who had a secure relationship with their fathers were less likely, than their counterparts, to report the occurrence of either positive or negative life events that took them away from God. In contrast, those with an anxious mother or avoidant father during childhood were more likely to report the occurrence of life events, both positive and negative, that took them away from God.
Persistence of Animal and Human Glycopeptide-Resistant Enterococci on Two Norwegian Poultry Farms Formerly Exposed to Avoparcin Is Associated with a Widespread Plasmid-Mediated vanA Element within a Polyclonal Enterococcus faecium Population

ABSTRACT The evolutionary processes responsible for the long-term persistence of glycopeptide-resistant Enterococcus faecium (GREF) in nonselective environments were addressed by genetic analyses of E. faecium populations in animals and humans on two Norwegian poultry farms that were previously exposed to avoparcin. A total of 222 fecal GREF (n = 136) and glycopeptide-susceptible (n = 86) E. faecium (GSEF) isolates were obtained from farmers and poultry on three separate occasions in 1998 and 1999. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and plasmid DNA analyses discerned 22 GREF and 32 GSEF PFGE types within shifting polyclonal animal and human E. faecium populations and indicated the presence of transferable plasmid-mediated vanA resistance, respectively. Examples of dominant, persistent GREF PFGE types supported the notion that environmentally well-adapted GREF types may counteract the reversal of resistance. PFGE analyses, sequencing of the purK housekeeping gene, and partial typing of vanA-containing Tn1546 suggested a common animal and human reservoir of glycopeptide resistance. Inverse PCR amplification and sequence analyses targeting the right end of the Tn1546-plasmid junction fragment strongly indicated the presence of a common single Tn1546-plasmid-mediated element in 20 of 22 GREF PFGE types. This observation was further strengthened by vanY-vanZ hybridization analyses of plasmid DNAs as well as the finding of a physical linkage between Tn1546 and a putative postsegregation killing system for seven GREF PFGE types. In conclusion, our observations suggest that the molecular unit of persistence of glycopeptide resistance is a common mobile plasmid-mediated vanA-containing element within a polyclonal GREF population that changes over time. In addition, we propose that “plasmid addiction systems” may contribute to the persistence of GREF in nonselective environments.