Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mitochondrial functions of RECQL4 are required for the prevention of aerobic glycolysis-dependent cell invasion

ABSTRACT Germline mutations in RECQL4 helicase are associated with Rothmund-Thomson syndrome, which is characterized by a predisposition to cancer. RECQL4 localizes to the mitochondria, where it acts as an accessory factor during mitochondrial DNA replication. To understand the specific mitochondrial functions of RECQL4, we created isogenic cell lines, in which the mitochondrial localization of the helicase was either retained or abolished. The mitochondrial integrity was affected due to the absence of RECQL4 in mitochondria, leading to a decrease in F1F0-ATP synthase activity. In cells where RECQL4 does not localize to mitochondria, the membrane potential was decreased, whereas ROS levels increased due to the presence of high levels of catalytically inactive SOD2. Inactive SOD2 accumulated owing to diminished SIRT3 activity. Lack of the mitochondrial functions of RECQL4 led to aerobic glycolysis that, in turn, led to an increased invasive capability within these cells. Together, this study demonstrates for the first time that, owing to its mitochondrial functions, the accessory mitochondrial replication helicase RECQL4 prevents the invasive step in the neoplastic transformation process. Highlighted Article: Localization of RECQL4 to the mitochondria is required to maintain mitochondrial functions, prevent aerobic glycolysis and cellular invasion.
Experiences of Students with Learning Disabilities in Ontario Universities: A Case Study.

This qualitative study examines the university experiences of four students with learning disabilities (LDs) in Ontario. The research focuses on individual and institutional barriers and facilitators, as well as social supports. Using a case study design, a series of three in-depth interviews were conducted with the participants. The findings showed that although the students’ LDs could compromise their academic performance in university, they made use of the accommodations and services available to them and did well. In contrast to other research, these participants did not encounter any institutional barriers (i.e., professors’ negative attitudes towards granting accommodations). Though they had all developed individual capacities that were important to their success, the students revealed that without a facilitating environment, they would not have achieved high grades. In this study, social supports were less important facilitators than individual capacities and institutional support. It is recommended that postsecondary institutions manage exam accommodations, thereby guaranteeing the opportunity for students with LDs to realize their academic potential.
Female Self-Employment and Children: The Case of Sweden

Previous studies, mostly from Anglo-Saxon countries, find a positive correlation between the presence of young children in the household and self-employment probabilities among women. This has been seen as an indication of women with young children choosing self-employment as a way of balancing work and family commitments. This paper studies the relationship between children and female self-employment in a country with family friendly policies and a generous welfare system: Sweden. The initial hypothesis is that we will not find evidence of a positive effect of children on self-employment among Swedish women since there are other institutions in place aiming at facilitating the combination of work and family. Using Swedish register data for the period 2004-2008 we do, however, find that the presence of young children increases the probability of choosing self-employment also among Swedish women. The effect is strongest for women with very young children, 0-3 years of age. These results also hold in a panel data model that takes individual unobserved heterogeneity into account. We also analyze time-use data and find, contrary to what has been found in many other countries, that self-employed women spend more, or as much, time on market work than wage-earning women. This raises doubts about whether women in Sweden chose self-employment as a way of balancing work and family commitments. We suggest an alternative interpretation which is that women who chose self-employment while the children are young in fact are women with strong preferences for market work.
US-guided therapy of calcific tendinopathy: clinical and radiological outcome assessment in shoulder and non-shoulder tendons.

PURPOSE To analyze the effectiveness and complication rate of ultrasound (US)-guided perforation and lavage using a two-needle technique with 16 - 18 G needles in the treatment of patients with calcific tendinopathy in the shoulder, elbow, hip, and knee by radiological and clinical follow-up. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective chart review was performed and 40 patients (13 male, 27 female; mean age, 53.5 years; range 24 -74 years) were identified as having received US-guided perforation and lavage due to symptomatic calcific tendinopathy of the rotator cuff tendons, triceps, extensor and flexor tendons at the elbow, rectus femoris tendon and patellar tendons. The radiographic outcome was assessed by comparison of the size and quality of the calcification before and 6 weeks after the procedure. On US images, the quality of the acoustic shadow was assessed, together with other alterations of the tendon and surrounding tissue. Patients were interviewed by telephone to assess the clinical outcome regarding pre-treatment and post-treatment pain and tendon function. RESULTS 34 shoulder tendons and 6 non-shoulder tendons were identified. The mean calcium reduction was 39.9 mm(2) (range, 0 - 215; p < 0.001), while 80 % of patient showed a resolution of more than 60 % resulting in good clinical improvement. A very low complication rate was found (1 partial tear). CONCLUSION The US-guided perforation and lavage technique is an effective and safe treatment for rotator cuff calcifications as well as for other body tendons. Although the two-needle technique and large needles were used in this study, a very low complication rate was detected.
Homogenization of stochastic Hamilton-Jacobi equations : brief review of methods and applications

Homogenization problems for stochastic partial differential equations recently received a lot of attention. This paper gives a short review of two homogenization methods for Hamilton-Jacobi type equations in stationary ergodic random media. It also discusses the connection between the homogenization for a viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equation with a quadratic in momenta Hamiltonian and large deviations of diffusions in a random potential.
Effect of Stem Cell Activation, Culture Media of Manipulated Embryos, and Site of Embryo Transfer in the Production of F0 Embryonic Stem Cell Mice1

Abstract Recently, F0 embryonic stem (ES) cell mice have been produced by injection of ES cells into eight-cell embryos using either laser- or piezo-assisted injection systems. To simplify the injection procedure, we have optimized the conventional blastocyst injection method, free of laser- or piezo-assisted micromanipulation systems, to produce F0 ES cell pups. To increase the efficiency of producing mice from ES cell injection into eight-cell and blastocyst stage embryos, we have tested: 1) the effect of activating ES cell before injection, 2) the effect of in vitro culture in medium optimized for the survival of both ES cells and embryos, and 3) the effect of transferring the micromanipulated embryos into the oviduct versus into the uterus of CD1 foster mice. Two B6D2 hybrid ES cell lines were used for injection in a multifactorial analysis to evaluate the efficiency of producing live chimeric and F0 ES cell mice. Our results demonstrate that the activation of ES cells and the appropriate culture conditions are crucial parameters influencing the generation of F0 ES cell offspring. Transfer of blastocysts injected with ES cells into the oviduct of 0.5-day postcoitum pseudopregnant females increased the number of live animals with higher chimera proportion. Under these conditions, injections into eight-cell embryos produce a high number of F0 ES mice, and the conventional blastocyst injection method produces a lower number of F0 ES cell pups; however, the efficiency of production of chimeric mice with germline transmission was high. We have developed an economical and efficient technique for producing fully ES cell-derived F0 mice with full germline transmission that can be applied in many laboratories without the use of piezo or laser instruments.
Malnutrition at age 3 years and externalizing behavior problems at ages 8, 11, and 17 years.

OBJECTIVE Poor nutrition is thought to predispose to externalizing behavior problems, but to date there appear to have been no prospective longitudinal studies testing this hypothesis. This study assessed whether 1) poor nutrition at age 3 years predisposes to antisocial behavior at ages 8, 11, and 17 years, 2) such relationships are independent of psychosocial adversity, and 3) IQ mediates the relationship between nutrition and externalizing behavior problems. METHOD The participants were drawn from a birth cohort (N=1,795) in whom signs of malnutrition were assessed at age 3 years, cognitive measures were assessed at ages 3 and 11 years, and antisocial, aggressive, and hyperactive behavior was assessed at ages 8, 11, and 17 years. RESULTS In relation to comparison subjects (N=1,206), the children with malnutrition signs at age 3 years (N=353) were more aggressive or hyperactive at age 8 years, had more externalizing problems at age 11, and had greater conduct disorder and excessive motor activity at age 17. The results were independent of psychosocial adversity and were not moderated by gender. There was a dose-response relationship between degree of malnutrition and degree of externalizing behavior at ages 8 and 17. Low IQ mediated the link between malnutrition and externalizing behavior at ages 8 and 11. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that malnutrition predisposes to neurocognitive deficits, which in turn predispose to persistent externalizing behavior problems throughout childhood and adolescence. The findings suggest that reducing early malnutrition may help reduce later antisocial and aggressive behavior.
Rural Communities Communicating: The Emergence of Two-Way Interactive Video in Southwestern, Rural, Small Schools.

In three southwestern states, grassroots movements of citizens, educators, and local businesses developed and implemented two-way interactive television projects in their schools and communities. A descriptive multiple case study design was used to examine six project sites in New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Research questions were categorized in a framework that may serve as a prototype for project replication; categories included the context of project development, concerns or needs that sparked the project, the shared vision, community and administrative support, planning and resource allocation, monitoring and problem solving, and barriers to implementation and ongoing support. Data sources included extensive interviews, classroom observation during site visits, and documents and records. Findings cover: (1) the specific characteristics of two-way interactive full-motion video that make it attractive and feasible for use with rural at-risk student populations; (2) the electronic classroom model; (3) fiber-optic technology; (4) cost categories; (5) details of the development of the most mature project, the Oklahoma Panhandle Shar-Ed Video Network; and (6) ' additional events unique to the other five projects. Other projects were the New Mexico Eastern Plains Interactive TV Cooperative, the TeleCommUNITY Network, North Texas Educational Network, East Texas Learning Interactive Network Consortium, and the Dell City Initiative. Guidelines are presented for implementation of similar projects. (SV)
Toxic hydrogen sulphide and dark caves: pronounced male life‐history divergence among locally adapted Poecilia mexicana (Poeciliidae)

Chronic environmental stress is known to induce evolutionary change. Here, we assessed male life‐history trait divergence in the neotropical fish Poecilia mexicana from a system that has been described to undergo incipient ecological speciation in adjacent, but reproductively isolated toxic/nontoxic and surface/cave habitats. Examining both field‐caught and common garden–reared specimens, we investigated the extent of differentiation and plasticity of life‐history strategies employed by male P. mexicana. We found strong site‐specific life‐history divergence in traits such as fat content, standard length and gonadosomatic index. The majority of site‐specific life‐history differences were also expressed under common garden–rearing conditions. We propose that apparent conservatism of male life histories is the result of other (genetically based) changes in physiology and behaviour between populations. Together with the results from previous studies, this is strong evidence for local adaptation as a result of ecologically based divergent selection.
Throughput Maximization in Dual-Hop Wireless Powered Communication Networks

In this paper, we study a dual-hop wireless powered communication network, where the communication between a hybrid access point (HAP) and a number of users is assisted by energy-constrained relays, which need to harvest energy from radio-frequency (RF) signals broadcast by the HAP. In order to power the relays for assisting the uplink communication, the HAP broadcasts a dedicated energy signal in the downlink. Each relay harvests energy from this signal and utilizes the harvested energy in forwarding its corresponding user's data to the HAP. In downlink communication, relays exploit a power-splitting strategy and use the information signal broadcast by the HAP for both energy harvesting and information forwarding. Under this setup, we are interested in maximizing the total uplink and downlink throughput. First, we propose an algorithm for solving uplink throughput maximization problem, which optimizes time allocations for energy and information transfer. For downlink throughput maximization, we obtain a near-optimal solution by optimizing time allocations and power splitting ratios iteratively. Finally, we conduct numerical simulations to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms.
A New Method for Heavy Metals and Aluminium Detection Using Biopolymer-Based Optical Biosensor

A biopolymer-based biosensor for heavy metals and aluminium (Al) detection was constructed with naturally occurring β-carotene in palm kernel oil used as the biological reporter. The biosensor was designed with β-carotene entrapped by polyurethane, a polymer formed through prepolymerization of palm kernel oil. The presence of copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), and Al was detected through the emulsification of β-carotene, which caused the change of optical density (OD) at λ = 450 nm. The results showed the OD increased with the presence of heavy metals and Al within 0.1-10 mg/L. The biosensor was constructed without extra steps to immobilize the biological component and it was simple to use with one-step detection. Together with high reproducibility and fast response to heavy metals and Al within 15 min, the biosensor showed good potential to be developed as a method to detect the presence of heavy metals and Al.
Antarctic and Arctic populations of the ciliate Euplotes nobilii show common pheromone-mediated cell-cell signaling and cross-mating

Wild-type strains of the protozoan ciliate Euplotes collected from different locations on the coasts of Antarctica, Tierra del Fuego and the Arctic were taxonomically identified as the morpho-species Euplotes nobilii, based on morphometric and phylogenetic analyses. Subsequent studies of their sexual interactions revealed that mating combinations of Antarctic and Arctic strains form stable pairs of conjugant cells. These conjugant pairs were isolated and shown to complete mutual gene exchange and cross-fertilization. The biological significance of this finding was further substantiated by demonstrating that close homology exists among the three-dimensional structures determined by NMR of the water-borne signaling pheromones that are constitutively secreted into the extracellular space by these interbreeding strains, in which these molecules trigger the switch between the growth stage and the sexual stage of the life cycle. The fact that Antarctic and Arctic E. nobilii populations share the same gene pool and belong to the same biological species provides new support to the biogeographic model of global distribution of eukaryotic microorganisms, which had so far been based exclusively on studies of morphological and phylogenetic taxonomy.
Physical, chemical, and metabolic state sensors expand the synthetic biology toolbox for Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

Many under‐developed organisms possess important traits that can boost the effectiveness and sustainability of microbial biotechnology. Photoautotrophic cyanobacteria can utilize the energy captured from light to fix carbon dioxide for their metabolic needs while living in environments not suited for growing crops. Various value‐added compounds have been produced by cyanobacteria in the laboratory; yet, the products’ titers and yields are often not industrially relevant and lag behind what have been accomplished in heterotrophic microbes. Genetic tools for biological process control are needed to take advantage of cyanobacteria's beneficial qualities, as tool development also lags behind what has been created in common heterotrophic hosts. To address this problem, we developed a suite of sensors that regulate transcription in the model cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 in response to metabolically relevant signals, including light and the cell's nitrogen status, and a family of sensors that respond to the inexpensive chemical, l‐arabinose. Increasing the number of available tools enables more complex and precise control of gene expression. Expanding the synthetic biology toolbox for this cyanobacterium also improves our ability to utilize this important under‐developed organism in biotechnology. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 1561–1569. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A global measure of digital and ICT literacy skills

This paper was commissioned by the Global Education Monitoring Report as background information to assist in drafting the 2016 report. It has not been edited by the team. The views and opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and should not be attributed to the Global Education Monitoring Report or to UNESCO. The papers can be cited with the following reference: “Paper commissioned for the Global Education Monitoring Report 2016, Education for people and planet: Creating sustainable futures for all”. For further information, please contact gemreport@unesco.org. Background paper prepared for the 2016 Global Education Monitoring Report
IL-7 signaling imparts polyfunctionality and stemness potential to CD4+ T cells

ABSTRACT The functional status of CD4+ T cells is a critical determinant of antitumor immunity. Polyfunctional CD4+ T cells possess the ability to concomitantly produce multiple Th1-type cytokines, exhibiting a functional attribute desirable for cancer immunotherapy. However, the mechanisms by which these cells are induced are neither defined nor it is clear if these cells can be used therapeutically to treat cancer. Here, we report that CD4+ T cells exposed to exogenous IL-7 during antigenic stimulation can acquire a polyfunctional phenotype, characterized by their ability to simultaneously express IFNγ, IL-2, TNFα and granzyme B. This IL-7-driven polyfunctional phenotype was associated with increased histone acetylation in the promoters of the effector genes, indicative of increased chromatin accessibility. Moreover, forced expression of a constitutively active (CA) form of STAT5 recapitulated IL-7 in inducing CD4+ T-cell polyfunctionality. Conversely, the expression of a dominant negative (DN) form of STAT5 abolished the ability of IL-7 to induce polyfunctional CD4+ T cells. These in-vitro-generated polyfunctional CD4+ T cells can traffic to tumor and expand intratumorally in response to immunization. Importantly, adoptive transfer of polyfunctional CD4+ T cells following lymphodepletive chemotherapy was able to eradicate large established tumors. This beneficial outcome was associated with the occurrence of antigen epitope spreading, activation of the endogenous CD8+ T cells and persistence of donor CD4+ T cells exhibiting memory stem cell attributes. These findings indicate that IL-7 signaling can impart polyfunctionality and stemness potential to CD4+ T cells, revealing a previously unknown property of IL-7 that can be exploited in adoptive T-cell immunotherapy.
Evidence of different underlying processes in pattern recall and decision-making

The visual search characteristics of expert and novice basketball players were recorded during pattern recall and decision-making tasks to determine whether the two tasks shared common visual–perceptual processing strategies. The order in which participants entered the pattern elements in the recall task was also analysed to further examine the nature of the visual–perceptual strategies and the relative emphasis placed upon particular pattern features. The experts demonstrated superior performance across the recall and decision-making tasks [see also Gorman, A. D. , Abernethy, B. , & Farrow, D. (2012). Classical pattern recall tests and the prospective nature of expert performance. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65, 1151–1160; Gorman, A. D. , Abernethy, B. , & Farrow, D. (2013a). Is the relationship between pattern recall and decision-making influenced by anticipatory recall? The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 66, 2219–2236)] but a number of significant differences in the visual search data highlighted disparities in the processing strategies, suggesting that recall skill may utilize different underlying visual–perceptual processes than those required for accurate decision-making performance in the natural setting. Performance on the recall task was characterized by a proximal-to-distal order of entry of the pattern elements with participants tending to enter the players located closest to the ball carrier earlier than those located more distal to the ball carrier. The results provide further evidence of the underlying perceptual processes employed by experts when extracting visual information from complex and dynamic patterns.