Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Genetic Vaccines and Therapy

Background: Nucleofection is an emerging technology for delivery of nucleic acids into both the cytoplasm and nucleus of eukaryotic cells with high efficiency. This makes it an ideal technology for gene delivery and siRNA applications. A 96-well format has recently been made available for highthroughput nucleofection, however conditions must be optimized for delivery into each specific cell type. Screening each 96-well plate can be expensive, and descriptions of methods and outcomes to determine the best conditions are lacking in the literature. Here we employ simple methods, including cell counting, microscopy, viability and cytotoxicity assays to describe the minimal experimental methods required to optimize nucleofection conditions for a given cell line. Methods: We comprehensively measured and analyzed the outcomes of the 96-well nucleofection of pmaxGFP plasmids encoding green fluorescent protein (GFP) into the A-549 human lung epithelial cell line. Fluorescent microscopy and a plate reader were used to respectively observe and quantify green fluorescence in both whole and lysed cells. Cell viability was determined by direct counting/permeability assays, and by both absorbance and fluorescence-based plate reader cytotoxicity assays. Finally, an optimal nucleofection condition was used to deliver siRNA and gene specific knock-down was demonstrated. Results: GFP fluorescence among conditions ranged from non-existent to bright, based upon the fluorescent microscopy and plate reader results. Correlation between direct counting of cells and plate-based cytotoxicity assays were from R = . 81 to R = . 88, depending on the assay. Correlation between the GFP fluorescence of lysed and unlysed cells was high, ranging from R = . 91 to R = . 97. Finally, delivery of a pooled sample of siRNAs targeting the gene relA using an optimized nucleofection condition resulted in a 70–95% knock down of the gene over 48 h with 90–97% cell viability. Conclusion: Our results show the optimal 96-well nucleofection conditions for the widely-used human cell line, A-549. We describe simple, effective methods for determining optimal conditions with high confidence, providing a useful road map for other laboratories planning optimization of specific cell lines or primary cells. Our analysis of outcomes suggests the need to only measure unlysed, whole-cell fluorescence and cell metabolic activity using a plate reader cytotoxicity assay to determine the best conditions for 96-well nucleofection. Published: 11 May 2009 Genetic Vaccines and Therapy 2009, 7:6 doi:10.1186/1479-0556-7-6 Received: 16 January 2009 Accepted: 11 May 2009 This article is available from: http://www.gvt-journal.com/content/7/1/6 © 2009 Bradburne et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Did First-Mover Advantage Survive the Dot-Com Crash?*

Widespread expectations of first-mover advantages contributed to the rush of market entry during the early growth phase of the Internet sector. After the shakeout, however, such beliefs came into question. This study assesses the magnitude and sources of firstmover advantages in 46 Internet markets, based on data for more than 200 publicly traded entrants. The findings show a large premium in stock market capitalization and revenue for early entrants in markets with network effects, and for pioneers with patented innovations. Absent these factors, first-mover advantages appear minimal. First-movers had higher propensity to patent, and their patents were far more likely to be cited. This suggests that early entrants played a disproportionate role in promoting new technology, even though many innovative pioneers failed to survive. In general, the findings imply that first-mover advantages arose within the Internet sector but were contingent upon market and firm characteristics.
The social construction of feminine sexualities in women's popular periodicals: 1920-1996

Some of the most significant changes in women's statuses and roles have occurred over the last eight decades. These changes in women's lives have been precipitated by social, economic, political, and cultural arrangements and technological developments. In varying degrees, some of the most significant of these events have had the effect of transforming women's lives in this century. Since these events have also led to shifts in perceptions of feminine status, roles, and sexuality that mirror and reinforce women's changing reality, we might anticipate a parallel transformation in cultural representations of feminine sexuality. This study relies on two popular women's periodicals for uncovering cultural messages about feminine sexuality--Ladies Home Journal and Mademoiselle. A total of 55 issues were included in the sample. The analysis focuses on 598 "special" and "regular" feature articles from this sample. While certainly theme shifts in how to look and be occur over several decades, these are embedded within two overarching meanings or paradigms of feminine sexuality--a modern, or "self actualizing" paradigm, and a traditional, or "other" focused paradigm. Thus, what has changed is the package (i.e., how to look and be), not the meaning of the feminine sexual ideal. The feminine sexual ideal that permeates all eight decades is presented as either sexually available, but deferent, or sexually chaste; her demeanor toward a romantic partner is "sweet," receptive, and supportive; to look at she is "pretty," "graceful," "decorative," and "soft. ". While women since the 1970's have been presented with "new" choices in how to look and be it cannot be said that the cultural messages of feminine sexuality reflect the "increased choice" that is assumed to characterize women's lives over the last century. After all, there is no real choice in how to look and be when the very meaning of those prescriptions do not change. Considering the very significant transformations in women's social status and roles over the last eight decades, the finding that one of these paradigms of feminine sexuality permeates all eight decades is nothing less than striking. In my attempts to understand this perplexity, I have relied on contextualizing these messages with considerations of social, economic, political, and cultural organization, and developments in reproductive technology and law. I have argued that, while the emergence of the modern meaning of feminine sexuality might be explained by shifts in gender ideology that were the consequence of a number of events, the persistent presence of the traditional paradigm might best be interpreted as a response to rapid social change or to tensions resulting from those very transformations that have occurred in women's roles.
Toward global and grid computing for large scale linear algebra problems

Platforms of global computing and grid computing have been developed in parallel without any link between them. However, they can be considered as complementary tools and it would be interesting to gather their resources. Moreover, we focus on linear algebra which has been seldom fitted to global computing. In particular, we aim the eigen-problem which is often used by the applications of industrial companies and laboratories. In this paper, we unify those two goals. We fit the algorithm of bisection on a platform of global computing, XtremWeb, and on a platform of RPC programming, OmniRPC. Those software are deployed on two different geographic sites at the engineer school of Poly tech 'Lille, France, and at the HPCS laboratory of Tsukuba, Japan. The combination of two different software and two geographic sites allows to do a wide range of tests and, then, to analyze them and compare all configurations
The Stories We Tell: How Merit Narratives Undermine Success for Urban Youth

This article looks at the American Dream as a merit narrative to understand how it supports barriers to educational success for educators working to improve the lives of students in urban schools. Hard work/perseverance and individualism are interrogated as components of merit narratives used to sustain the American Dream. We analyze data from six educators who identify as advocates. We conclude that the stories educators tell reify individuals’ hard work/perseverance, rather than dispel myths of meritocracy, thereby blaming the lack of success on students’ inadequate effort as opposed to schools designed to maintain the status quo.
A distributed multi-formalism simulation to support rail infrastructure control design

In this study we use simulation as a method of inquiry to support rail infrastructure control designers in making more effective decisions during the design process. Limitations encountered in commercial simulation tools when modeling rail system elements, are related to the choice of just one formalism (discrete or continuous) to model the element behavior. When supporting the design of rail system control, rail controllers and rail control designers might be in different locations. Therefore distribution of the simulation model is a required feature which is usually not possible in current simulation environments. In order to more accurately represent rail systems behavior and improve the effectiveness of control design, we propose a simulation library where different formalisms can be integrated in one single model and where simulation components are accessible by users in different locations.
Battery Exhaustion Attack Detection with Small Handheld Mobile Computers

This paper describes a unique battery-sensing intrusion protection system (B-SIPS) for mobile computers, which alerts on power changes detected on small wireless devices, using an innovative Dynamic Threshold Calculation algorithm. B-SIPS enabled hosts are employed as sensors in a wireless network and form the basis of the intrusion detection system (IDS). B-SIPS implementation correlates device power consumption with IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi and 802.15. 1 Bluetooth communication activity. This battery exhaustion, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth attack detection capability is scalable and complementary with existing commercial and open system network IDSs. Irregular and attack activity is detected and reported to an intrusion detection engine for correlation with existing trace signatures in a database and for forensic investigation by a security manager.
System for Automatic Detection of Distorted Scenes in Stereo Video

In this paper we describe our methods for estimating stereo video quality and its suitability for certain displays and projectors. The ﬁrst issue we investigate is that not every 3D video can be viewed comfortably on a given 3D display ow-ing to its particular features, especially parallax. The second issue is the correspondence between left and right views. Because of the complexity of calibrating and synchronizing video capture devices, some mismatch problems and artifacts may appear. These artifacts can affect the 3D viewing experience. Our goal is to detect and, in some cases, suggest how they can be suppressed. We demonstrate our current results and describe directions for further development and improvement of the implemented techniques.
The Paradox of Persistence: Explaining the Black-White Gap in Bachelor’s Degree Completion

Bachelor’s degree (BA) completion is lower among black students than among white students. In this study, we use data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, together with regression-based analytical techniques, to identify the primary sources of the BA completion gap. We find that black students’ lower academic and socioeconomic resources are the biggest drivers of the gap. However, we also find that black students are more likely to enroll in four-year colleges than are white students, given pre-college resources. We describe this dynamic as “paradoxical persistence” because it challenges Boudon’s well-known assertion that the secondary effect of educational decision-making should reinforce the primary effect of resource discrepancies. Instead, our results indicate that black students’ paradoxical persistence widens the race gap in BA completion while also narrowing the race gap in BA attainment, or the proportion of high school graduates to receive a BA. This narrowing effect on the BA attainment gap is as large or larger than the narrowing effect of black students’ “overmatch” to high-quality colleges, facilitated in part by affirmative action. Paradoxical persistence refocuses attention on black students’ individual agency as an important source of existing educational gains.
Combined Flow Cytometric Analysis of Surface and Intracellular Antigens Reveals Surface Molecule Markers of Human Neuropoiesis

Surface molecule profiles undergo dynamic changes in physiology and pathology, serve as markers of cellular state and phenotype and can be exploited for cell selection strategies and diagnostics. The isolation of well-defined cell subsets is needed for in vivo and in vitro applications in stem cell biology. In this technical report, we present an approach for defining a subset of interest in a mixed cell population by flow cytometric detection of intracellular antigens. We have developed a fully validated protocol that enables the co-detection of cluster of differentiation (CD) surface antigens on fixed, permeabilized neural cell populations defined by intracellular staining. Determining the degree of co-expression of surface marker candidates with intracellular target population markers (nestin, MAP2, doublecortin, TUJ1) on neuroblastoma cell lines (SH-SY5Y, BE(2)-M17) yielded a combinatorial CD49f-/CD200high surface marker panel. Its application in fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) generated enriched neuronal cultures from differentiated cell suspensions derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. Our data underlines the feasibility of using the described co-labeling protocol and co-expression analysis for quantitative assays in mammalian neurobiology and for screening approaches to identify much needed surface markers in stem cell biology.
Cerebral Angiography Induced Prolonged Focal Seizure and Hemiparesis during Carotid Artery Balloon Test Occlusion

The frequency of neurologic complications of cerebral angiography is 0.3%-2.3%, and the frequency of the persistent neurologic deficits that remain over 7-10 days is 0.4%-0.5%. On the other hand, all neurologic complications of balloon test occlusion (BTO) have been reported in 0%-8.3% and especially in 1.6%-1.7% of symptomatic neurologic complications. There are a few reports concerning a seizure related to cerebral angiography and BTO. We report a case of prolonged seizures and left hemiparesis during and after BTO of the right internal carotid artery. The patient showed repeated focal seizures and prolonged left hemiparesis lasting for approximately 2 months. Computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated no abnormal findings. Suspected mechanisms of seizure were a cerebral blood flow change induced by BTO and neurotoxicity of accumulated contrast medium. A combination of prolonged focal seizures and subsequent hemiparesis is a rare complication of BTO, which should be taken into consideration during BTO.
A Multi-Scale Singularity Bounding Volume Hierarchy

A scale space approach is taken for building Bounding Volume Hierarchies (BVHs) for collision detection. A spherical bounding volume is generated at each node of the BVH using estimates of the mass distribution. Traditional top-down methods approximates the surface of an object in a coarse to fine manner, by recursively increasing resolution by some factor, e.g. 2. The method presented in this article analyzes the mass distribution of a solid object using a well founded scale-space based on the Diffusion Equation: the Gaussian Scale-Space. In the Gaussian scale-space, the deep structure of extremal mass points is naturally binary, and the linking process is therefore simple. The main contribution of this article is a novel approach for constructing BVHs using Multi-Scale Singularity Trees (MSSTs) for collision detection. The BVH-building algorithm extends the field with a new method based on volumetric shape rather than statistics of the surface geometry or geometrical constructs such as medial surfaces.
Which group to credit (and blame)? Whites make attributions about White-minority biracials’ successes and failures based on their own (anti-)egalitarianism and ethnic identification

Individuals’ perceptions of biracials can vary based on the motives of the perceiver. Here, we examine how two factors—perceivers’ group-level identification motives and their system-level beliefs about the desirability of hierarchy (i.e., social dominance orientation)—predict the degree to which they attribute a biracial target’s successes or failures to that target’s White versus minority background. Across three studies examining different contexts, more anti-egalitarian White participants and more highly identified White participants rated a half-White, half-minority target as being shaped more by his minority (vs. White) background when he was disreputable (vs. reputable)—patterns broadly consistent with prior theorizing on the motivations to maintain social stratification and protect ingroup standing, respectively. In direct contrast, however, egalitarian White participants and White participants low on ethnic identification credited a target’s outgroup minority background when he was reputable (vs. disreputable), consistent with a desire to promote social equality and forgoing the opportunity to “bask in reflected glory” on behalf of the ingroup. Our results extend extant theorizing by underlining the benefits of jointly considering both group- and system-level motives when analyzing perceptions and attributions of individuals and groups, and by shedding new light on the understudied psychology of social egalitarians.
Adding Attribution to Parenting Programs

Most major parenting programs are based on a few long-established principles. One body of research that may improve the content and delivery of parent education is attribution. Parents' attributions to their children have important effects on child development. Applications of attribution research to parenting programs are discussed, and a five-session program is outlined. Evaluation of the program with 53 parents of adolescents found that adolescent children of treated parents were more likely than were well adolescent children of control parents to view their parents as more nurturing. Implications for parent education are discussed.
A Logit Model of Brand Choice Calibrated on Scanner Data

Авторы используют мультиномиальную логистическую статистическую модель (multinomial logit model) для прогнозирования выбора потребителями конкретного бренда из нескольких брендов, имеющихся в продаже. Модель опробована и откалибрована на данных о покупках различных брендов упаковок молотого кофе в супермаркетах в течении 32 недель. В качестве независимых переменных, объясняющих выбор покупателей, в числе прочих, используются показатели предпочтения какого-то бренда, предпочтения определенного размера упаковки, присутствие/отсутствие специальных рекламных акций в магазине, регулярная розничная цена, размер скидки при распродаже. Авторы установили, что коэффициенты этих переменных статистически значимы.
Overexpression of Snail induces epithelial–mesenchymal transition and a cancer stem cell–like phenotype in human colorectal cancer cells

Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical process providing tumor cells with the ability to migrate and escape from the primary tumor and metastasize to distant sites. Recently, EMT was shown to be associated with the cancer stem cell (CSC) phenotype in breast cancer. Snail is a transcription factor that mediates EMT in a number of tumor types, including colorectal cancer (CRC). Our study was done to determine the role of Snail in mediating EMT and CSC function in CRC. Human CRC specimens were stained for Snail expression, and human CRC cell lines were transduced with a retroviral Snail construct or vector control. Cell proliferation and chemosensitivity to oxaliplatin of the infected cells were determined by the MTT (colorimetric 3‐(4,5‐dimethylthiazol‐2‐yl)‐2,5‐diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. Migration and invasion were determined in vitro using modified Boyden chamber assays. EMT and putative CSC markers were analyzed using Western blotting. Intravenous injection of tumor cells was done to evaluate their metastatic potential in mice. Snail was overexpressed in human CRC surgical specimens. This overexpression induced EMT and a CSC‐like phenotype in human CRC cells and enhanced cell migration and invasion (P < 0.002 vs. control). Snail overexpression also led to an increase in metastasis formation in vivo (P < 0.002 vs. control). Furthermore, the Snail‐overexpressing CRC cells were more chemoresistant to oxaliplatin than control cells. Increased Snail expression induces EMT and the CSC‐like phenotype in CRC cells, which enhance cancer cell invasion and chemoresistance. Thus, Snail is a potential therapeutic target in metastatic CRC.
Histone H1 Phosphorylation in Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. The need for new clinical biomarkers in breast cancer is necessary to further predict prognosis and therapeutic response. In this article, the LC-MS histone H1 phosphorylation profiles were established for three distinct breast cancer cell lines. The results show that the extent of H1 phosphorylation can distinguish between the different cell lines. The histone H1 from the metastatic cell line, MDA-MB-231, was subjected to chemical derivitization and LC-MS/MS analysis. The results suggest that the phosphorylation at threonine 146 is found on both histone H1.2 and histone H1.4. Cell lines were then treated with an extracellular stimulus, estradiol or kinase inhibitor LY294002, to monitor changes in histone H1 phosphorylation. The data show that histone H1 phosphorylation can increase and decrease in response to extracellular stimuli. Finally, primary breast tissues were stained for the histone H1 phosphorylation at threonine 146. Variable staining patterns across tumor grades and subtypes were observed with pT146 labeling correlating with tumor grade. These results establish the potential for histone H1 phosphorylation at threonine 146 as a clinical biomarker in breast cancer.