Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expression of serotonin receptor subtypes in rat brain and astrocyte cell cultures: an ageand tissue-dependent process

Background and Purpose: Serotonin (5-HT) mediates its effects on neuronal and non-neuronal cells in rat brain through thirteen receptor subtypes. To obtain better insight into 5-HT responsive cells, we investigated the expression of all known rat 5-HT receptors in various brain regions, at various animal ages, and in various sample types. Materials and Methods: The presence of all 5-HT receptor mRNAs was studied with the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in eight sample groups. We isolated brain cortex and cerebellum from 3-day-old and adult Wistar rats of both sexes, which were used directly for the experiment and for growing the astrocyte cell cultures. We performed the experiment on the astrocyte cell cultures after 3 weeks of growth in culture. Results and Conclusions: We determined that neonatal brain tissue and astrocyte cultures from neonatal rats express more 5-HT receptor subtypes than their adult counterparts. In all tissue samples we detected the same or a larger number of 5-HT receptor subtypes than in the corresponding astrocyte cultures. The expression pattern of 5-HT receptor subtypes also differed between rat cortex and cerebellum. Only subtypes 5-HT1B and 5-HT2A were found in all the samples studied, and we did not detect the message for subtype 5-HT3 in any of the samples. In conclusion, the expression of 5-HT receptors is age- and brain region-dependent, and astrocyte cultures do not reflect the situation in vivo.
Delay of Feedback and Retention of Correct and Incorrect Responses.

Sixty-seven fifth graders studied a text followed by an immediate test (T1) consisting of inference, factual retention, and guess questions, and either received feedback after thirty minutes, after a day, or no feedback. Retesting of half the T1 items was done after a day, the other half after a week. On retesting, subjects were asked to identify their T1 responses. The three types of T1 questions were similarly affected by feedback, while on the postfeedback tests the one-day delay of feedback gave somewhat better results than the thirty minutes of delay. Identification of T1 responses was generally high and was not found to interfere with learning from feedback. In discussing the results, the adequacy of the interference-perseveration hypothesis was questioned.
Glucose transport in the equine hoof.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Several conditions associated with laminitis in horses are also associated with insulin resistance, which represents the failure of glucose uptake via the insulin-responsive glucose transport proteins in certain tissues. Glucose starvation is a possible mechanism of laminitis, but glucose uptake mechanisms in the hoof are not well understood. OBJECTIVES To determine whether glucose uptake in equine lamellae is dependent on insulin, to characterise the glucose transport mechanism in lamellae from healthy horses and ponies, and to compare this with ponies with laminitis. METHODS Study 1 investigated the effects of insulin (300 µU/ml; acute and 24 h) and various concentrations of glucose up to 24 mmol/l, on 2-deoxy-D-[2,6-(3)H] glucose uptake in hoof lamellar explants in vitro. Study 2 measured the mRNA expression of GLUT1 and GLUT4 transport proteins by PCR analysis in coronary band and lamellar tissue from healthy horses and ponies, ponies with insulin-induced laminitis, and ponies suffering from chronic laminitis as a result of equine Cushing's syndrome. RESULTS Glucose uptake was not affected by insulin. Furthermore, the relationship between glucose concentration and glucose uptake was consistent with an insulin-independent glucose transport system. GLUT1 mRNA expression was strong in brain, coronary band and lamellar tissue, but was weak in skeletal muscle. Expression of GLUT4 mRNA was strong in skeletal muscle, but was either absent or barely detectable in coronary band and lamellar tissue. CONCLUSIONS The results do not support a glucose deprivation model for laminitis, in which glucose uptake in the hoof is impaired by reduced insulin sensitivity. Hoof lamellae rely on a GLUT1-mediated glucose transport system, and it is unlikely that GLUT4 proteins play a substantial role in this tissue. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE Laminitis associated with insulin resistance is unlikely to be due to impaired glucose uptake and subsequent glucose deprivation in lamellae.
The Influence of ‘‘No Child Left Behind’’ Legislation on Drug Prevention in U.S. Schools

This study examines prevention practices and perceptions in U.S. schools since passage of federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, using survey data from state education agencies (SEA) and a population-based sample of school districts. Only one third of U.S. public school districts rely on evidence-based prevention curriculum in middle schools. Funding from other sources and large size were positively associated with using evidence-based curricula. States and districts differed on their perceptions of high-priority activities, and neither supported the federal priority on student drug testing. The findings suggest that there is a disconnect between what NCLB says and what is funded.
The Intersection between Out-of-class Language Learning Strategies and In-class Activities

Studies on out-of-class language learning strategies (OCLLSs) are usually divorced from the activities in class. Thus, this study addresses the connection of the two entities. The participants in this study were nine international postgraduate students who were undergoing their English language proficiency course in an institution in Malaysia. Data were gathered through their weekly online postings on Google + and interview during the course. The data from the students were triangulated with the information found in the pro forma of the modules and interview with the lecturers. Atlas ti was used to manage the data. It was discovered that the type of assessment set by lecturers for the course determined the use of OCLLSs. Findings show that firstly, more OCLLS were used in completing assignments than preparing for quizzes/tests. Thus, from the 3 modules; it was found that students employed more strategies for oral communication and writing rather than for reading. Secondly, the OCLLSs used could form a 'strategy chain or cluster' for the tasks of preparing for oral presentation and completing writing assignments. Lastly, there was evidence of technology dependency on some of the main OCLLSs.
Employer branding: strategy for improving employer attractiveness

Purpose – To examine the organizational attributes that attract final-year management students towards organizations. The paper aims to study the already adopted employer branding strategies and the preferred channel through which organizations should promote employer attractiveness. Based on previous studies and current findings, a conceptual model on employer branding process has been developed and presented. Design/methodology/approach – This article is based on semi-structured interviews, survey results and review of academic employer branding models. Findings – It was found that among the students, most preferred organizational attributes were organizational culture, brand name and compensation. Students rated job portal to be the preferred channel for employer attractiveness. The study showed that there exists a significant and positive correlation between strong brand image and likelihood to apply. Research limitations/implications – The survey sample was limited to private business schools only. P.
More on Metaphor: Why We Cannot Control Tropes in Administrative Science.

Gareth Morgan In the December 1982 issue of ASQ, Pinder and Bourgeois ("Controlling Tropes in Administrative Science") attempted to highlight dangers stemming from the use of metaphor and related tropes in administrative theory and research. Specifically, they argued that the use of tropes may be misleading and impede the development of administrative science and a body of knowledge useful to practitioners. Hence they suggested thatthe use of metaphorand related tropes should be severely constrained, that administrative science should avoid "borrowing" from other fields of inquiry, and that the discipline can best develop by using a "literal" language based on observable organizational characteristics (or characteristics of the individuals and groups within them). They suggested that administrative scientists should focus on the comparison of organizations and organizational phenomena to one another, using analytic taxonomy as a first step and using strategies and techniques suited to the study of organizations, rather than borrowing from elsewhere (1982: 650-651).
Comparable and Yet Context-Sensitive? Improving Evaluation in Violently Divided Societies through Methodology

This article shows that the current stalemate in peacebuilding evaluation is due to disagreements between donor agencies, practitioners and scholar-practitioners about the necessity, appropriate level and purpose of such evaluations. It synthesises these three axes of disagreement in a theoretical framework, which is then applied to the case of evaluating reconciliation processes in violently divided societies. This application provides a clear methodological rationale for pursuing a metrics-driven, locally anchored approach to evaluating reconciliation instead of employing interpretive methods or globally standardised checklists. Realising the potential of this approach requires that donors, practitioners and researchers recast mutual expectations based on methodological rather than normative considerations.
Decrease in Domestic Violence During Pregnancy

Our aim is to evaluate the prevalence of domestic violence (DV) among pregnant women and find out whether several factors were associated with DV or not. A total of 317 pregnant women applied at Sanliurfa Obstetrics Hospital and Harran University obstetrics and gynecology department outpatient clinic were interviewed using the modified form of Abuse Assessment Screen questionnaire. Several clinical and sociodemographic data were also obtained from the participants. Mean pregnancy number per woman (gravida) was 3.62 ± 0.13. 47.3% of women had experienced DV before pregnancy. However, the rate of DV exposure significantly decreased to 10.3% during pregnancy (p < .001). Participants with positive family history of DV (mother’s exposure) had significantly higher DV rates (p < .001). Those who were exposed to DV, visited their parents less (p = .002). The mean body mass index of DV exposed women was significantly lower (p = .011) than non-DV exposed women. DV exposed women had fewer social interactions and their weight gain may affected by violence. Pregnancy appears to decrease DV in Sanliurfa.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection of Human Brain-Derived Progenitor Cells

ABSTRACT Although cells of monocytic lineage are the primary source of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) in the brain, other cell types in the central nervous system, including astrocytes, can harbor a latent or persistent HIV-1 infection. In the present study, we examined whether immature, multipotential human brain-derived progenitor cells (nestin positive) are also permissive for infection. When exposed to IIIB and NL4-3 strains of HIV-1, progenitor cells and progenitor-derived astrocytes became infected, with peak p24 levels of 100 to 500 pg/ml at 3 to 6 days postinfection. After 10 days, virus production was undetectable but could be stimulated by the addition of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). To bypass limitations to receptor entry, we compared the fate of infection in these cell populations by transfection with the infectious HIV-1 clone, pNL4-3. Again, transfected progenitors and astrocytes produced virus for 7 days but diminished to low levels beyond 8 days posttransfection. During the nonproductive phase, TNF-α stimulated virus production from progenitors as late as 5 weeks posttransfection. Astrocytes produced 5- to 20-fold more infectious virus (27 ng of p24/106 cells) than progenitors at the peak of 3 days posttransfection. Differentiation of infected progenitors toward an astrocyte phenotype increased virus production to levels consistent with infected astrocytes, suggesting a phenotypic difference in viral replication. Using this cell culture system of multipotential human brain-derived progenitor cells, we provide evidence that progenitor cells may be a reservoir for HIV-1 in the brains of AIDS patients.
LanGT2 Catalyzes the First Glycosylation Step during Landomycin A Biosynthesis

The glycosyltransferase LanGT2 is involved in the biosynthesis of the hexasaccharide side chain of the angucyclic antibiotic landomycin A. Its function was elucidated by targeted gene inactivation of lanGT2. The main metabolite of the obtained mutant was identified as tetrangulol (4), the progenitor of the landomycin aglycon (7). The lack of the sugar side chain indicates that LanGT2 catalyzes the priming glycosyl transfer in the hexasaccharide biosynthesis: the attachment of a D‐olivose to O‐8 of the polyketide backbone. Heterologous expression of urdGT2 from S. fradiae Tü2717 in this mutant resulted in the production of a novel C‐glycosylated angucycline (6).
Management of familial Mediterranean fever by colchicine does not normalize the altered profile of microbial long chain fatty acids in the human metabolome

In our previous works we established that in an autoinflammatory condition, familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), the gut microbial diversity is specifically restructured, which also results in the altered profiles of microbial long chain fatty acids (LCFAs) present in the systemic metabolome. The mainstream management of the disease is based on oral administration of colchicine to suppress clinical signs and extend remission periods and our aim was to determine whether this therapy normalizes the microbial LCFA profiles in the metabolome as well. Unexpectedly, the treatment does not normalize these profiles. Moreover, it results in the formation of new distinct microbial LCFA clusters, which are well separated from the corresponding values in healthy controls and FMF patients without the therapy. We hypothesize that the therapy alters the proinflammatory network specific for the disease, with the concomitant changes in gut microbiota and the corresponding microbial LCFAs in the metabolome.
Hydroxycarbamide stimulates the production of proinflammatory cytokines by endothelial cells: relevance to sickle cell disease

Background and objective The clinical hallmarks of sickle cell disease (SCD) are vaso-occlusive crises (VOC) triggered by red blood cells (RBC) stiffening and abnormal adhesion to vascular endothelial cells (VEC) in the context of chronic inflammation, cell activation, and vascular tone abnormalities. Hydroxycarbamide (HC) is the only drug with a proven efficacy in decreasing VOC frequency. HC decreases RBC stiffening, modulates adhesion protein expression by RBC and VEC, and reduces endothelin-1 production by VEC. Our objective was to test whether HC could also affect inflammation through its action on VEC. Methods We used microarrays to study the effect of HC on the transcriptome of transformed human bone marrow endothelial cell, a cell line derived from bone marrow microcirculation (the predilection site of VOC), in basal and proinflammatory conditions. Microarray results were confirmed by real-time quantitative PCR and protein analysis on transformed human bone marrow endothelial cell (TrHBMEC) and on two other VEC types in the primary culture: human pulmonary microcirculation endothelial cell (HPMEC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC a classical model for the macrocirculation). Results HC had a significant effect on the expression of genes of the ‘inflammation pathway’. Strikingly, it stimulates the expression of proinflammatory genes such as IL1A, IL1B, IL6, IL8, CCL2, CCL5, CCL20, and CCL8 in all the tested VEC types. Conclusion Our study confirms that VECs are significant targets of HC in the context of SCD and identifies its earlier unsuspected action on another major component of SCD pathophysiology, that is, the ‘inflammation pathway’.
Dense Disparity Map Estimation Using CUMULANTS

We present a new efficient stereo algorithm addressing robust disparity estimation in the presence of the noises. Originality of this method is a dense disparity map estimation using the dynamic programming constrained by interest points and using Higher Order Statistics (HOS) (Cumulant) criteria for matching noisy images. Hierarchical scheme is used to ameliorate HOS-based correlation method. Experiments with both synthetic and noisy real images have validated our method and have clearly shown the improvement over the existing ones. The dense disparity map obtained is more reliable when compared to the similar Second-Order Statistics (SOS) based dynamic programming and HOS based correlation methods.
Subspace IDentification of MIMO LPV systems: The PBSID approach

In this paper we present a novel algorithm to identify LPV systems with affine parameter dependence operating under open and closed-loop conditions. A factorization is introduced which makes it possible to form predictors which are based on past inputs, outputs, and scheduling data. The predictors contain the LPV equivalent of the Markov parameters. Using the predictors, ideas from Predictor Based Subspace IDentification (PBSID) are developed to estimate the state sequence from which the LPV system matrices can be constructed. A numerically efficient implementation is presented.
R2Time: A Framework to Analyse Open TSDB Time-Series Data in HBase

In recent years, the amount of time series data generated in different domains have grown consistently. Analyzing large time-series datasets coming from sensor networks, power grids, stock exchanges, social networks and cloud monitoring logs at a massive scale is one of the biggest challenges that data scientists are facing. Big data storage and processing frameworks provides an environment to handle the volume, velocity and frequency attributes associated with time-series data. We propose an efficient and distributed computing framework - R2Time for processing such data in the Hadoop environment. It integrates R with a distributed time-series database (Open TSDB) using a MapReduce programming framework (RHIPE). R2Time allows analysts to work on huge datasets from within a popular, well supported, and powerful analysis environment.
Eurofit Test Results in Estonian and Lithuanian 11 to 17‐Year‐Old Children: A Comparative Study

The aims of this study were to measure the motor abilities of Estonian and Lithuanian children using EUROFIT tests, and present possible differences between these two countries. In total, 4766 11 to 17‐year‐old children were measured (3165 Estonians and 1601 Lithuanians). Children participated in two compulsory physical education lessons per week. Stature and body mass were measured and the sum of four skinfolds presented (biceps, triceps, subscapular and suprailiac). The following EUROFIT tests were used: 20m shuttle‐run, handgrip strength, standing broad jump, flexed arm hang, sit‐ups, 10 x 5m shuttle‐run, plate tapping, sit‐and‐reach and Flamingo balance. There were only a few significant differences in the anthropometrical parameters between the children of the two countries (Table 1). Twenty metre shuttle‐run test scores were significantly higher (p<0.05–0.01) in Estonian boys and girls compared to Lithuanian children of the same age and sex. Handgrip strength and 10 x 5m shuttle‐run tests results we.
Perceptron-based tagging of query boundaries for Chinese query segmentation

Query boundaries carry useful information for query segmentation, especially when analyzing queries in a language with no space, e.g., Chinese. This paper presents our research on Chinese query segmentation via averaged perceptron to model query boundaries through an L-R tagging scheme on a large amount of unlabeled queries. Experimental results indicate that query boundaries are very informative and they significantly improve supervised Chinese query segmentation when labeled training data is very limited.
Investigation of Factors Impacting Thread-Level Parallelism from Desktop, Multimedia and HPC Applications

Applications of different categories contain varying levels of data, instruction and thread-level parallelism inherently. It's important to explore the potential coarse-grain thread-level parallelism in different applications to guide the computing resources allocation problem in multicore chips. Up to now, lots of depth researches have been mainly concentrated in the desktop applications. In order to fully understand thread level parallel (TLP) technology's applicability, this paper proposes a criterion for selecting the region to be executed in parallel and analyzes applications' performance impacting factors (computation, coverage parallelism, thread size, inter-thread control dependence feature and inter-thread data dependence feature) by our dynamic profiling tool set. It explores the TLP potentials in desktop, multimedia and High Performance Computing (HPC) fields by demonstrating different speedup potentials that can be exploited using different core numbers. The experimental results show that the majority of desktop applications can only make an effective use of 2 cores' computing resources while most multimedia and HPC applications can use 8-16 cores' computing resources efficiently in the coarse-grain thread-level parallelism. Although TLP technology didn't perform well in the desktop applications that have serious data dependence problem, it's suitable for most multimedia and HPC applications that have large calculation, moderate thread size, and fuzzy dependence but easy to resolve.
RNA self-processing towards changed topology and sequence oligomerization

Abstract Reversible chemistry, allowing for chain-forming as well as chain-breaking steps, is important for biological self-organization. In this context, ribozymes, catalyzing both RNA cleavage and ligation, may have significantly contributed to extending the sequence space and length of RNA molecules in early life forms. Here we present an engineered RNA that self-processes by passing through a number of cleavage and ligation steps. Intermolecular reactions compete with intramolecular reactions, resulting in a variety of products. Our results demonstrate that RNA can undergo self-oligomerization, which may have been important for extending the RNA genome size in RNA world scenarios.
Capitalism Hasn’t Failed Us: Star Parker, the Housing Crisis, and Moral Hazard

According to legal scholar Sumi Cho, an important role conservatives of color play in the larger conservative movement is functioning in the role of racial mascots. Racial mascotting is when conservative individuals of color are embraced by their white peers with the purpose of helping to deflect charges of racism from critics. Conservative social activist Star Parker contends that the practice of welfare capitalism, as illustrated by the Community Reinvestment Act’s mandate to banks to provide services to underserved minority and low income communities, was one factor that contributed to the subsequent housing crisis. Parker also asserts that mortgage relief programs, similar to other domestic social programs like welfare, produce a form of moral hazard among its recipients because both programs appear to reward an individual’s poor behavior instead of making them accountable for their actions. I argue that in addition to Parker’s analysis of the housing crisis being empirically flawed, her idealized construction of an American society functioning under the rule of laissez-faire capitalism where racism’s impact on the opportunity chances of African Americans is minimal ultimately allows for the maintenance of an American social structure where ‘whiteness’ and racial inequality reign supreme.