Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The SH3 domain‐binding surface and an acidic motif in HIV‐1 Nef regulate trafficking of class I MHC complexes

Nef, a regulatory protein of human and simian immunodeficiency viruses, downregulates cell surface expression of both class I MHC and CD4 molecules in T cells by accelerating their endocytosis. Fibroblasts were used to study alterations in the traffic of class I MHC complexes induced by Nef. We found that Nef downregulates class I MHC complexes by a novel mechanism involving the accumulation of endocytosed class I MHC in the trans‐Golgi, where it colocalizes with the adaptor protein‐1 complex (AP‐1). This effect of Nef on class I MHC traffic requires the SH3 domain‐binding surface and a cluster of acidic amino acid residues in Nef, both of which are also required for Nef to downregulate class I MHC surface expression and to alter signal transduction in T cells. Downregulation of class I MHC complexes from the surface of T cells also requires a tyrosine residue in the cytoplasmic domain of the class I MHC heavy chain molecule. The requirement of the same surfaces of the Nef molecule for downregulation of surface class I MHC complexes in T cells and for their accumulation in the trans‐Golgi of fibroblasts indicates that the two effects of Nef involve similar interactions with the host cell machinery and involve a molecular mechanism regulating class I MHC traffic that is common for both of these cell types. Interestingly, the downregulation of class I MHC does not require the ability of Nef to colocalize with the adaptor protein‐2 complex (AP‐2). We showed previously that the ability of Nef to colocalize with AP‐2 correlates with the ability of Nef to downregulate CD4 expression. Our observations indicate that Nef downregulates class I MHC and CD4 surface expression via different interactions with the protein sorting machinery, and link the sorting and signal transduction machineries in the regulation of class I MHC surface expression by Nef.
Piecewise Quadratic stability analysis for local model networks

This paper deals with the problem of stability analysis of dynamic local model networks. Established methods in this context are mainly based on Lyapunov stability theory and are targeted to be as little conservative as possible. In previous works the so called Piecewise Quadratic Lyapunov approach was developed. For discrete time systems the state space is partitioned into local subspaces, which are defined by the validity functions of the local models. Because of the overlapping validity functions, so-called uncertainty terms exist which describe the influence of the dynamics of other local models. In this respect, it is necessary to pay attention to the determination of these uncertainty terms. This paper presents and discusses a method to determine the upper bounds for the uncertainty terms of the local models. The method is based on quadratic optimization to achieve a stability criterion where the conservatism is not additionally increased. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by a simulation example in connection with the Piecewise Quadratic Lyapunov approach as a stability criterion.
WHAT IS MONEY? AN ALTERNATIVE TO SEARLE'S INSTITUTIONAL FACTS

In The Construction of Social Reality (1995), John Searle develops a theory of institutional facts and objects, of which money, borders and property are presented as prime examples. These objects are the result of us collectively intending certain natural objects to have a certain status, i.e. to ‘count as’ being certain social objects. This view renders such objects irreducible to natural objects. In this paper we propose a radically different approach that is more compatible with standard economic theory. We claim that such institutional objects can be fully understood in terms of actions and incentives, and hence the Searlean apparatus solves a non-existent problem.
A quest for truth or solidarity? A third way ahead for psychoanalysis

Abstract Today, there are two ways of conceiving psychoanalysis, a classical one focused on the search for truth within the internal world of the patient, and a contemporary one perceiving the patient–therapist relationship as the axis of exploration. Rorty's criterion, which divides disciplines into either truth-based or solidarity-based, may be applied to this dichotomy. These conflicting positions come from two different historical periods: the Enlightenment and the contemporary world. They inhabit a sterile environment without theoretical discussion or comparison. The Renaissance relocated man at the centre of creation and urged him to seek encounters with others as well as with the truth concealed in nature. Possibly, these elements of truth and solidarity, initially designed as complementary, integrative, and nonconflicting, can be found in the work of some psychoanalysts, specifically in Otto Kernberg's proposals. Kernberg makes a creative integration of object relations theory, especially in its Kleinian approach, and ego psychology. In addition, Kernberg's consideration of affects as key elements of the human's internal world reflects a third psychoanalytical “way,” exposing the centrality of relational experiences from the earliest stages of life, alongside constitutional drive forces that link us to our biological make-up and determine much of our inner world and behaviour.
Developing preschoolers' social skills through cross-cultural physical education intervention

The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes in children's social skills after their participation in a physical education programme named ESPEC (‘Early Steps’ Physical Education Curriculum). The evaluators of the children's social skills were the trained educators who implemented the curriculum as well as parents of the participating children. This study was conducted in three European countries and was part of a European transnational project. The participants were 286 preschoolers from Cyprus, Greece and Italy. Twelve educators and 286 parents completed the ‘Social Behaviour Instrument’ (SBI) before and after the implementation of the ESPEC. This four months’ physical education curriculum was designed for preschool-aged children and it included 24 lesson units. The results showed an improvement in children's social skills after ESPEC implementation in all three countries. It can be concluded that the implementation of physical education activities for preschool-aged children can be a way to improve preschoolers' social skills.
Equation-oriented specification of neural models for simulations

Simulating biological neuronal networks is a core method of research in computational neuroscience. A full specification of such a network model includes a description of the dynamics and state changes of neurons and synapses, as well as the synaptic connectivity patterns and the initial values of all parameters. A standard approach in neuronal modeling software is to build network models based on a library of pre-defined components and mechanisms; if a model component does not yet exist, it has to be defined in a special-purpose or general low-level language and potentially be compiled and linked with the simulator. Here we propose an alternative approach that allows flexible definition of models by writing textual descriptions based on mathematical notation. We demonstrate that this approach allows the definition of a wide range of models with minimal syntax. Furthermore, such explicit model descriptions allow the generation of executable code for various target languages and devices, since the description is not tied to an implementation. Finally, this approach also has advantages for readability and reproducibility, because the model description is fully explicit, and because it can be automatically parsed and transformed into formatted descriptions. The presented approach has been implemented in the Brian2 simulator.
Wide-field 1-2 GHz research on galaxy evolution - synenergies with multi-wavelenght surveys

In these proceedings I discuss various extragalactic surveys which will be undertaken over the next few years and which will be complementary to any HI and/or continuum surveys with the SKA-precursor telescopes. I concentrate on the near-infrared public surveys which will be undertaken with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telscope for Astronomy (VISTA), and in particular the VISTA Deep Extragalactic Observations (VIDEO) survey which will provide the ideal data set to combine with any deep SKA-precursor observations of the extragalactic sky. After highlighting the links that the SKA precursors have with the various VISTA surveys, I briefly describe two forthcoming Herschel surveys, Herschel-ATLAS survey and HerMES which have a large scientific overlap with the SKA-precursor telescopes. Finally, I present a case study in combining multi-wavelength data sets with radio-frequency surveys to find the highest redshift radio sources with the aim of probing the epoch of reionization.
Dynamic Partial Self-Reconfiguration on Spartan-III FPGAs via a Parallel Configuration Access Port ( PCAP )

This paper presents an alternative approach for dynamic partial self-reconfiguration that enables a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to reconfigure itself dynamically and partially through a parallel configuration access port (PCAP) under the control of the stand alone PCAP core within the FPGA instead of using an embedded processor. The reconfiguration process is accomplished without an internal configuration access port(ICAP), which should be used either with MicroBlaze soft core or with PowerPC hard core using HWICAP core for the OnChip Peripheral Bus (OPB)[6]. However, the stand alone PCAP core needs neither HWICAP core nor the OPB bus interface. The PCAP core needs only 324 slices, which is approximately 16% of a Spartan3S200 FPGA. The dynamic partial self-reconfiguration via PCAP core works up to 50Mbyte/s. This approach has been implemented on a pure Spartan-3 FPGA from Xilinx, but it can also be used for any other FPGA architectures, such as Virtex-II(Pro), Virtex-4, Virtex-5, etc.
Judgment Biases in a Simulated Classroom--A Cognitive-Environmental Approach

Biases in judgments and decision making that are commonly explained in terms of the judge's prior expectancies can originate in unbiased environmental learning. Applying a recently developed sampling approach to decision making to the assessment of student achievement in a simulated classroom, we investigate systematic biases in teacher's judgment of student achievement. What might appear to reflect teacher expectancies based on students' overall ability level, gender stereotypes, or naive behavioral theories can be explained by ordinary learning rules underlying decision making, such as increasing accuracy with increasing sample size of observations in a probabilistic environment. Ability (% correct answers) and motivation levels (% raising hands) of 16 students in eight subject matters were manipulated. In Experiment 1 the judged difference between smart and poor students increased with sample size, due to participation rate or unequal teacher attention. In Experiment 2, verification biases in hypothesis testing about the relative assets of boys and girls in language and science were shown to be independent of gender stereotypes, but mediated instead by differential size of stimulus samples. Experiment 3 showed that judges' sensitivity to environmental base rates can mimic expectancy biases resulting from scripted knowledge.
Capacity and downlink transmission algorithms for a multi-user MIMO channel

Downlink beamforming in a multi-user MIMO channel can provide significant gain in system throughput by allowing space division multiple access (SDMA). The exact solution for the sum capacity of such channels does not exist in closed form, but requires an expensive iterative algorithm. By imposing certain constraints on the capacity equation, a sub-optimal closed-form solution can be obtained. The paper presents two such solutions. The first, referred to as "block-diagonalization" arises from forcing all inter-user interference to zero. The second - "successive optimization" - is an alternative method of minimizing transmit power for an arbitrary information rate per user, and allows solutions which, under certain circumstances, are superior to the block-diagonalization approach. Both algorithms have sub-optimal performance, but they lead to simpler transmitter and receiver structures, and allow a tradeoff between performance and complexity.
Feasibility and performance of an adaptive contrast-oriented FDG PET/CT quantification technique for global disease assessment of malignant pleural mesothelioma and a brief review of the literature.

OBJECTIVE Treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) remains very challenging. Assessment of response to treatment is necessary for modifying treatment and using new drugs. Global disease assessment (GDA) by implementing image processing methods to extract more information out of positron emission tomography (PET) images may provide reliable information. In this study we show the feasibility of this method of semi-quantification in patients with mesothelioma, and compare it with the conventional methods. We also present a review of the literature about this topic. METHODS Nineteen subjects with histologically proven MPM who had undergone fluoride-18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET/computed tomography ((18)F-FDG PET/CT) before and after treatment were included in this study. An adaptive contrast-oriented thresholding algorithm was used for the image analysis and semi-quantification. Metabolic tumor volume (MTV), maximum and mean standardized uptake volume (SUVmax, SUVmean) and total lesion glycolysis (TLG) were calculated for each region of interest. The global tumor glycolysis (GTG) was obtained by summing up all TLG. Treatment response was assessed by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) criteria and the changes of GTG. Agreement between global disease assessment and conventional method was also determined. RESULTS In patients with progressive disease based on EORTC criteria, GTG showed an increase of 150.7 but in patients with stable or partial response, GTG showed a decrease of 433.1. The SUVmax of patients before treatment was 5.95 (SD: 2.93) and after the treatment it increased to 6.38 (SD: 3.19). Overall concordance of conventional method with GDA method was 57%. Concordance of progression of disease based on conventional method was 44%, stable disease was 85% and partial response was 33%. Discordance was 55%, 14% and 66%. CONCLUSIONS Adaptive contrast-oriented thresholding algorithm is a promising method to quantify the whole tumor glycolysis in patients with mesothelioma. We are able to assess the total metabolic lesion volume, lesion glycolysis, SUVmax, tumor SUVmean and GTG for this particular tumor. Also we were able to demonstrate the potential use of this technique in the monitoring of treatment response. More studies comparing this technique with conventional and other global disease assessment methods are needed in order to clarify its role in the assessment of treatment response and prognosis of these patients.
Tempest in a TC

Corrections officials frequently use private contractors to operate in-prison, therapeutic community (TC) treatment programs. However, the recurrent competitive bidding process inherent in state agencies contracting for services sometimes results in a treatment-provider change. Few studies have focused on whether this change leads to better or worse treatment motivation and engagement for clients and how it might be evaluated. Using data collected during the larger Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies Performance Indicators for Corrections study, quantitative assessments of client functioning were made at two points in time. Changing to new treatment providers in three in-prison TC treatment facilities caused significant disruptions, leading to decreased client—counselor rapport and peer support as well as lower levels of treatment readiness, participation, and satisfaction of clients. Qualitative client and staff interviews provided further insight relevant for correctional administrators and treatment providers who may be considering similar changes. General recommendations for provider transition planning are offered.
Cellular Transcriptional Coactivator RanBP10 and Herpes Simplex Virus 1 ICP0 Interact and Synergistically Promote Viral Gene Expression and Replication

ABSTRACT To investigate the molecular mechanism(s) by which herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) regulatory protein ICP0 promotes viral gene expression and replication, we screened cells overexpressing ICP0 for ICP0-binding host cell proteins. Tandem affinity purification of transiently expressed ICP0 coupled with mass spectrometry-based proteomics technology and subsequent analyses showed that ICP0 interacted with cell protein RanBP10, a known transcriptional coactivator, in HSV-1-infected cells. Knockdown of RanBP10 in infected HEp-2 cells resulted in a phenotype similar to that observed with the ICP0-null mutation, including reduction in viral replication and in the accumulation of viral immediate early (ICP27), early (ICP8), and late (VP16) mRNAs and proteins. In addition, RanBP10 knockdown or the ICP0-null mutation increased the level of histone H3 association with the promoters of these viral genes, which is known to repress transcription. These effects observed in wild-type HSV-1-infected HEp-2 RanBP10 knockdown cells or those observed in ICP0-null mutant virus-infected control HEp-2 cells were remarkably increased in ICP0-null mutant virus-infected HEp-2 RanBP10 knockdown cells. Our results suggested that ICP0 and RanBP10 redundantly and synergistically promoted viral gene expression by regulating chromatin remodeling of the HSV-1 genome for efficient viral replication. IMPORTANCE Upon entry of herpesviruses into a cell, viral gene expression is restricted by heterochromatinization of the viral genome. Therefore, HSV-1 has evolved multiple mechanisms to counteract this epigenetic silencing for efficient viral gene expression and replication. HSV-1 ICP0 is one of the viral proteins involved in counteracting epigenetic silencing. Here, we identified RanBP10 as a novel cellular ICP0-binding protein and showed that RanBP10 and ICP0 appeared to act synergistically to promote viral gene expression and replication by modulating viral chromatin remodeling. Our results provide insight into the mechanisms by which HSV-1 regulates viral chromatin remodeling for efficient viral gene expression and replication.
A social work study on relationship between parenting styles and career aspirations as well as psychological well-being

Article history: Received March 12, 2013 Received in revised format 10 June 2013 Accepted 22 June 2013 Available online June 25 2013 We present a social work study on relationship between parenting styles and career aspirations as well as psychological well-being among third year high school female students in city of Khomeinishahr, Iran during the year of 2012. The study selects a sample of 300 students from 1260 female students who were enrolled in third year high school education, randomly. The study uses the Baumrind’s questionnaire on parenting style, which consists of 30 questions which equally measure three parenting styles including authoritarian, indulgent and authoritative in Likert scale. The survey also uses Gottfredson’s questionnaire to examine occupational aspirations. The study examines whether there is any relationship between parenting style from one side and three personal characteristics including gender, career aspiration and wishes type on the other side. Using Chi-Square technique, the survey examines three hypotheses and the results confirm all three hypotheses of the survey. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION IN THE AMERICAN FAMILY: THE EVIDENCE RE-EXAMINED

Most studies in the past have found substantial correspondence between the political beliefs of an "offspring" and a "parental" generation-a fact which has led many writers to locate the primary source of political socialization in the family. R. W. Connell, who is Lecturer in Government at the University of Sydney, re-examines the evidence leading to this conclusion, and finds it less than persuasive.
Emodin Induces Growth Arrest and Death of Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells Through Reactive Oxygen Species and p53

Percutaneous coronary intervention is the main therapy for revascularization of occluded coronary arteries. However, a progressive artery restenosis caused by abnormal proliferation and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) hinders the effective treatment. In this study, we examined the effect of emodin, a natural anthraquinoid compound, on cultured VSMC. Lower doses of emodin suppressed cell proliferation and induced unscheduled DNA synthesis. Higher doses of emodin increased lumpy chromatin condensation and lysosomes in VSMC, suggesting the occurrence of apoptosis and autophagy. Emodin increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which was abolished by an NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenylene iodonium (DPI). DPI could also decrease the number of apoptosis induced by emodin, suggesting the involvement of ROS in emodin-induced apoptosis. Emodin upregulated the protein levels of p53 in a dose-dependent manner. Laser confocal microscope showed most of emodin scattering in the cytoplasms and a little within the nuclei. These findings collectively indicated that emodin induces both growth arrest and death of human VSMCs in 2 independent manners, implying it as a promising therapy for preventing restenosis.
Assessing for Ideators: How to Stop Solving and Start Listening

This project focuses on the challenges Ideators face in developing the skills that make them effective in the Assessing the Situation stage of the Thinking Skills Model of the Creative Problem Solving process. This covers Diagnostic Thinking skills, Mindfulness skills, and the FourSight preferences—Ideation and Clarification, in particular. The finished project includes the first draft of a toolkit which will assist Ideators who wish to become more skilled at Assessing the Situation. _____________________________ _____________________________ Date ASSESSING FOR IDEATORS iv
Orthographic regularity gradually modulates saccade amplitudes in reading

The present research tested the hypothesis that variations in the orthographic regularity of word beginnings influence landing positions and amplitudes of interword saccades in continuous reading. Participants were asked to read sentences including target words of low, medium, and high frequency of initial quadrigrams that were either single‐root nouns or noun‐noun compounds. Saccades landed further into words with more regular beginnings, irrespective of whether the target was a compound word or not. Critically, the orthographic landing site effect was graded, suggesting that orthographic information continuously modulates saccade amplitude before and after the decision to move has been made.