Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assembly of a perivascular astrocyte protein scaffold at the mammalian blood–brain barrier is dependent on α‐syntrophin

α‐Syntrophin, a member of the dystrophin‐associated protein complex, is required for proper localization of the water channel aquaporin‐4 at the blood–brain barrier. Mice lacking α‐syntrophin have reduced levels of aquaporin‐4 in perivascular astroglial endfeet. Consequently, they exhibit reduced edema and infarct volume in brain trauma models and reduced K+ clearance from the neuropil, leading to increased seizure susceptibility. We have used the α‐syntrophin null mice to investigate whether α‐syntrophin is required for proper localization of other components of the dystrophin complex at the blood–brain barrier. We find that α‐syntrophin is required for the full recruitment of γ2‐syntrophin and α‐dystrobrevin‐2 to glial endfeet in adult cerebellum. In contrast, the localization of β1‐ and β2‐syntrophin and α‐dystrobrevin‐1 at the blood–brain barrier is not dependent on the presence of α‐syntrophin. The localization patterns of α‐dystrobrevin‐1 and ‐2 in wild type cerebellum are strikingly different; while α‐dystrobrevin‐1 is present in glial endfeet throughout the cerebellum, α‐dystrobrevin‐2 is restricted to glial endfeet in the granular layer alone. Finally, we show that the enrichment of dystrophin in glial endfeet depends on the presence of α‐syntrophin. This finding is the first demonstration that dystrophin localization is dependent on syntrophin. Since the localization of γ2‐syntrophin, α‐dystrobrevin‐2, and dystrophin is contingent on α‐syntrophin, we conclude that α‐syntrophin is a central organizer of the astrocyte dystrophin complex, an important molecular scaffold for localization of aquaporin‐4 at the blood–brain barrier. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Distributed island-model genetic algorithms using heterogeneous parameter settings

Achieving good performance with a parallel genetic algorithm requires properly configuring control parameters such as mutation rate, crossover rate, and population size. We consider the problem of setting control parameter values in a standard, island-model distributed genetic algorithm. As an alternative to tuning parameters by hand or using a self-adaptive approach, we propose a very simple strategy which statically assigns random control parameter values to each processor. Experiments on benchmark problems show that this simple approach can yield results which are competitive with homogeneous distributed genetic algorithm using parameters tuned specifically for each of the benchmarks.
Optimum configurations for static and rotating phased arrays

We introduce a method for comparing the system surveillance characteristics of static and rotating phased array radars that also includes subregions of a given total surveillance area. The search function is obtained for different hemispherical regions based on the number of active/nonactive array faces. We derive the surveillance occupancy functions for a typical scenario consisting of 4 search sectors under various constraints and consider the number of radiating elements required for surveillance purposes. We derive an expression for the accurate determination of the surveillance volume and average beam dwell times for different scan angles based on the theory of manifolds and consider the impact of various window functions on the broadside dwell times.
Intracapsular clear cell renal carcinoma: ploidy status improves the prognostic value of the 2002 TNM classification.

PURPOSES The TNM classification has been revised for the 2002 edition of the UICC publication to better stratify patients with intracapsular renal cell carcinoma (RCC) but few studies have been published to date to validate this new classification. Moreover, additional prognostic factors seem to be necessary to improve the prediction of intracapsular tumor aggressiveness and the definition of patient subgroups at high risk for metastases. We report the long-term results of the new TNM scheme. We evaluated the impact of DNA content, S-phase and MIB-1 (Dako, Glostrup, Denmark) score. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 136 patients with intracapsular clear cell RCC and a mean followup of 74 months were reclassified. Tumor specific survival (TSS) was compared with nuclear grade (NG), DNA content and proliferative status (S-phase fraction and MIB-1 score). RESULTS TSS was 92%, 81.1% and 40.1% for pT1a, pT1b and pT2, respectively (p <0.05). TSS according to DNA ploidy status (diploid vs aneuploid) was pT1a-95.2% vs 68.6% (p <0.05), pT1b-90% vs 46.7% (p <0.05) and pT2-49.2% vs 25% (p not significant). DNA ploidy was also significantly associated with survival when adjusted for NG. There was no significant association between TSS and MIB-1 score or tumor S-phase fraction. CONCLUSIONS The 2002 TNM classification is a useful prognostic factor for evaluating organ confined RCC of the clear cell subtype. Evaluation of the DNA content in clear cell RCC appears to significantly improve the predictive value of the TNM staging system, especially in the pT1a and pT1b categories. Fuhrman NG alone or combined should be routinely used in such patients.
Factors Affecting Composite Graft Survival in Digital Tip Amputations

Distal fingertip amputations present the hand surgeon with a myriad of treatment options. Composite tissue replantation offers the patient the possibility of maintaining digital length and function. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of this treatment modality and to support its use. During a 2.5-year period, 53 patients with 57 digital tip amputations distal to the distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint underwent composite tissue grafting of the tip with minimal defatting. All patients were evaluated in a prospective manner. Specific information regarding the patient and the injury were recorded. The survival rates for amputations distal to the eponychium and between the DIP joint and eponychium were 58% and 43%, respectively. Smoking was the only significant factor that had a strong, independent association with graft loss. Age older than 18 years and alcohol use appeared only initially to have an effect on graft survival because they were so closely linked with smoking. Diabetes mellitus and crush-type injuries may potentially predispose a graft to fail, but a larger sample size is needed to prove this with significance. There were no infections or serious complications, even in those grafts that failed. After reviewing the data, the authors recommend using composite tissue replantation for fingertip amputations distal to the DIP joint in nonsmokers.
Analysis of the ribosomal DNA sequences of the microsporidia Thelohania and Vairimorpha of fire ants.

Sequences of the 16SrRNA gene of three microsporidia pathogenic to imported fire ants, Solenopsis invicta and Solenopsis richteri, were determined and compared to each other and 15 other species of microsporidia. The sequences of 2 Thelohania species are nearly identical (99.2% identity), supporting light-microscopic and ultrastructural evidence that Thelohania solenopsae and Thelohania sp. are closely related but probably not conspecific. Sequence comparisons further revealed that Vairimorpha sp. has a sequence identity of about 73% with the two Thelohania species and Vairimorpha necatrix, the type species of the genus Vairimorpha. This, together with information on spore morphology, suggests that Vairimorpha sp. represents a genus distinct from that of the fire ant Thelohania. Its placement in the genus Vairimorpha must also be reevaluated. Two new sister taxa, one containing T. solenopsae and Thelohania sp. and one containing Vairimorpha sp. , were found to have diverged early in the microsporidian lineage.
Effects of Emerging Alcohol and Marijuana Use Behaviors on Adolescents' Neuropsychological Functioning Over Four Years.

OBJECTIVE Adolescence is a period of neuromaturation concomitant with increased substance involvement. Most substance use studies of adolescents have focused on categorical classifications (e.g., dependent vs. nondependent), but little is known about the influence of specific substance use behaviors on cognitive functioning in youth. METHOD This study prospectively evaluated the quantitative effects of different substance use behaviors on neuropsychological functioning. A cognitive test battery was administered at baseline (ages 12-14 years), before substance use initiation, and at follow-up (M = 4.0 years, SD = 2.0) to evaluate changes in verbal memory, visuospatial ability, psychomotor speed, processing speed, and working memory. Robust regressions examined substance use behaviors as predictors of neuropsychological functioning (N = 234). RESULTS Several substance use behaviors predicted follow-up neuropsychological functioning above and beyond effects of baseline performance on the same measure (ps < .05). Specifically, more alcohol use days predicted worse verbal memory (β = -.15) and visuospatial ability (β = -.19). More postdrinking effects (β = -.15) and greater drug use (β = -.11) predicted worse psychomotor speed. Processing speed was not predicted by substance involvement (ps > .05). Unexpectedly, more alcohol use predicted better working memory performance (β = .12). CONCLUSIONS The frequency and intensity of adolescent alcohol use may be more intricately linked to neuropsychological outcomes than previously considered. The low prevalence of substance use disorder in the sample suggests that subdiagnostic users may still experience adverse effects to verbal memory, visuospatial functioning, and psychomotor speed after initiating intense or frequent alcohol use.
Spial: analysis of subtype-specific features in multiple sequence alignments of proteins

Motivation: Spial (Specificity in alignments) is a tool for the comparative analysis of two alignments of evolutionarily related sequences that differ in their function, such as two receptor subtypes. It highlights functionally important residues that are either specific to one of the two alignments or conserved across both alignments. It permits visualization of this information in three complementary ways: by colour-coding alignment positions, by sequence logos and optionally by colour-coding the residues of a protein structure provided by the user. This can aid in the detection of residues that are involved in the subtype-specific interaction with a ligand, other proteins or nucleic acids. Spial may also be used to detect residues that may be post-translationally modified in one of the two sets of sequences. Availability: http://www.mrc-lmb.cam. ac.uk/genomes/spial/; supplementary information is available at http://www.mrc-lmb.cam. ac.uk/genomes/spial/help.html Contact: ajv@mrc-lmb.cam. ac.uk
Analysis of the non-stationarity of neural activity during an auditory oddball task in schizophrenia

The aim of this study was to characterize brain dynamics during an auditory oddball task. For this purpose, a measure of the non-stationarity of a given time-frequency representation (TFR) was applied to electroencephalographic (EEG) signals. EEG activity was acquired from 20 schizophrenic (SCH) patients and 20 healthy controls while they underwent a three-stimulus auditory oddball task. The Degree of Stationarity (DS), a measure of the non-stationarity of the TFR, was computed using the continuous wavelet transform. DS was calculated for both the baseline [-300 0] ms and active task [150 550] ms windows of a P300 auditory oddball task. Results showed a statistically significant increase (p<;0.05) in non-stationarity for controls during the cognitive task in the central region, while less widespread statistically significant differences were obtained for SCH patients, especially in the beta-2 and gamma bands. Our findings support the relevance of DS as a means to study cerebral processing in SCH. Furthermore, the lack of statistically significant changes in DS for SCH patients suggests an abnormal reorganization of neural dynamics during an oddball task.
Characterization of Human Mononuclear Cells Using Reduced Pyridine Nucleotide Fluorescence and Flow Cytometry

Peripheral blood monocytes undergo an oxidative burst similar to that seen in neutrophils. The basis for this response appears to be an NAD(P)H oxidase that utilizes reduced NAD(P)H to form superoxide anion. We utilized the unique UV‐stimulated fluorescence property of reduced pyridine nucleotides to analyze NAD(P)H utilization in monocytes. UV‐stimulated fluorescence in mononuclear cell preparations indicated two populations of cells with the highly fluorescent cells having a Coulter volume consistent with that of monocytes. Dual laser analysis with monoclonal antibodies confirmed that these highly fluorescent cells are monocytes by showing them to be OKM1 +, Leu DR +, and anti‐monocyte 0.2 +. Natural killer (NK) cells, as defined by Leu 7, were not found in this highly fluorescent population. Stimulation of mononuclear cells with phorbol myristate acetate caused a fluorescence loss indicative of NAD(P)H oxidation in monocytes but not in lymphocytes. Stimulation with suboptimal concentrations of PMA (1–5 ng/ml) resulted in a dose‐dependent fluorescence loss in monocytes that occurred in an all‐or‐none fashion identical to the pattern observed in neutrophils. Simultaneous measurement of H2O2 production using dichlorofluorescein formation with NAD(P)H fluorescence indicates that oxidant production occurs in a graded manner. This method, then, provides a convenient way to study in single cells the metabolic events involved in depletion and replenishment of NAD(P)H during the oxidative burst and demonstrates an additional means by which to distinguish monocytes from lymphocytes using flow cytometry.
Revealed Mistakes and Revealed Preferences

ions that capture real mental states and experiences. Our interpretation seems natural, and simplifies many of our discussions and statements. Our framework is designed for situations where mistakes about measurable variables—both exogenous events and one’s own behavior—are possible. The first step is to make minimal assumptions about preferences so that a set of observable choices—essentially, a set of explicit or implicit bets on an event—reveals beliefs about the relevant variable. This often involves little more than assuming in some form that the person strictly prefers more money to less. The second step is to compare the beliefs elicited from behavior to objective probabilities. If the two are different, there are exactly twoways to explain the behavior. One can either abandon even the minimal assumptions on preferences that were used to infer beliefs, or one can accept the logical conclusion that the person has revealed a mistaken belief. Because the former option often leads the researcher into wacky theories, in many situations the latter option will be the more fruitful way to proceed. The third step, therefore, is to write a generally applicable theory of preferences and mistakes that explains the behavior in this as well as the largest possible number of other settings, and that ties welfare to behavior. An important component of such a theory will often be a set of assumptions about circumstances where mistakes do not happen, because these circumstances provide the most direct way to elicit preferences in the face of mistakes. The usefulness of this general approach depends on its workability in specific settings. In the following sections, we demonstrate how the framework can help deliver essentially smoking-gun evidence for mistakes in a few types of settings, and how this understanding can help motivate a theory of preferences and mistakes. Mistaken Beliefs About Exogenous Objective Events . In this section we provide a simple way to elicit what can naturally be interpreted as mistaken beliefs about objective events, and give examples of how a theory of mistakes can be integrated into a coherent theory of preferences and behavior. Our arguments follow the logic of the framework for integrating mistakes into economic models that we have proposed above: (i) make minimal assumptions about preferences so that mistaken beliefs can be detected for any decision maker with preferences in this class; (ii) compare beliefs to objective probabilities; and (iii) if the two are different, write a theory of preferences and mistakes that explains the behavior. A lot of the ideas here for eliciting beliefs have been around in the literature on eliciting subjective beliefs in expected utility theory. Our contribution is only in observing that many of the same ideas work for a much broader
QoS router with both soft and hard guarantee for Network-on-Chip

A GALS Networks-on-Chip (NoC) router with QoS support is presented. It supports multi-levels of QoS including hard guarantees (Hard GT)and statistical guarantees(Soft GT). In hard GT, novel Rate-control schedule is adopted to decouple the relationship between bandwidth and delay. And then, different from other routers whose bandwidth left was absorbed by only BE packets, we also support soft GT to further maximize network performance. In Soft GT, VC is dynamically allocated and performance is improved. Simulation shows that our router supports QoS well with little overhead.
Adolescent perceptions of risk and need for safer sexual behaviors after first human papillomavirus vaccination.

OBJECTIVES To (1) examine perceptions of risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), (2) examine perceived need for safer sexual behaviors, and (3) determine factors associated with less perceived need for safer sexual behaviors, all in the context of receiving the first HPV vaccination. DESIGN Cross-sectional baseline analysis from an ongoing longitudinal cohort study. SETTING An urban hospital-based adolescent primary care clinic. PARTICIPANTS Girls 13 to 21 years (for this article girls are defined as being aged 13 to 21 years) (n = 339) receiving their first HPV vaccination and their mothers (n = 235). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES (1) Girls' perceived risk of HPV after HPV vaccination, (2) girls' perceived risk of other STIs after vaccination, (3) girls' perceived need for continued safer sexual behaviors after vaccination, and (4) factors associated with girls' perception of less need for safer sexual behaviors. RESULTS Mean age of girls was 16.8 years. Most participants (76.4%) were black, and 57.5% were sexually experienced. Girls perceived themselves to be at less risk for HPV than for other STIs after HPV vaccination (P < .001). Although most girls reported continued need for safer sexual behaviors, factors independently associated with perception of less need for safer sexual behaviors included adolescent factors (lower HPV and HPV vaccine knowledge and less concern about HPV) and maternal factors (lower HPV and HPV vaccine knowledge, physician as a source of HPV vaccine information, and lack of maternal communication about the HPV vaccine). CONCLUSIONS Few adolescents perceived less need for safer sexual behaviors after the first HPV vaccination. Education about HPV vaccines and encouraging communication between girls and their mothers may prevent misperceptions among these adolescents.
Rotationally resolved zero-kinetic-energy photoelectron spectrum of nitrogen.

Rotationally resolved zero-kinetic-energy (ZEKE) photoelectron spectra of the X $^{2}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathrm{g}}^{+}$(${\mathrm{v}}^{+}$=0,1) \ensuremath{\leftarrow}X $^{1}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}_{\mathit{g}}^{+}$(v=0) bands of nitrogen have been recorded. The spectra show unexpected rotational-line intensities. The intensity distortions are explained by channel interactions. The strong S and U branches [(${\mathit{N}}^{+}$-J'')=+2 and +4, respectively] of the (1-0) band borrow intensity from a nearly degenerate Rydberg state, converging to an electronic excited state of the ion, by a complex resonance mechanism. Field-induced rotational autoionization is shown to enhance the O branch and M branch [(${\mathit{N}}^{+}$-J'')=-2 and -4] intensity of the (0-0) band. Recording ZEKE spectra with extraction fields of 10\char21{}100 V/cm appears to be an attractive and powerful way of obtaining spectroscopic information on Rydberg states with simultaneously high principal quantum number n and high total-angular-momentum quantum number J.
Retrieval of missing data for meta-analysis: A practical example

Objectives: To examine the feasibility of retrieving missing outcome data for summary meta-analyses using an example dealing with the effects of aerobic exercise on lipids and lipoproteins in adults. Methods: Missing lipid and/or lipoprotein data from a currently developed meta-analytic data base were requested by means of electronic mail from 39 of 174 (22.4 percent) eligible studies. Binary logistic regression was used to examine whether year of publication and country were significant predictors for whether data would be provided. Results: Of the thirty-nine studies from which data were requested, usable data were received for thirteen (33.3 percent) of the studies. The addition of these previously missing data decreased the percentage of eligible studies that would have had to be excluded by 33.5 percent (from 22.4 percent to 14.9 percent). Neither year of publication nor country in which the study was conducted (United States versus other) were significant predictors of whether missing data would be provided or not (p>.05). Conclusions: Moderate success was achieved in the acquisition of missing outcome data dealing with the effects of aerobic exercise on lipids and lipoproteins in adults. However, whether this level of response is true in other areas of research needs to be determined by additional research.
New Evidence on National Culture and Bank Capital Structure

We examine the nature of impact of national culture on bank leverage using a broad sample of 1701 banks from 79 countries, over the period 2000–2013, i.e., 18,996 bank-year observations. We find that banks in countries with high individualism culture dimensions hold more leverage while, banks in countries with high uncertainty-avoidance, power distance, and long-term orientation have less leverage. Notably, bank size substantially moderates these cultural effects. Our findings are robust to endogeneity, and alternative proxies for the dependent and core explanatory variables.
Using Intervention Mapping to Promote the Receipt of Clinical Preventive Services Among Women With Physical Disabilities

This article describes the development of Promoting Access to Health Services (PATHS), an intervention to promote regular use of clinical preventive services by women with physical disabilities. The intervention was developed using intervention mapping (IM), a theory-based logical process that incorporates the six steps of assessment of need, preparation of matrices, selection of theoretical methods and strategies, program design, program implementation, and evaluation. The development process used methods and strategies aligned with the social cognitive theory and the health belief model. PATHS was adapted from the workbook Making Preventive Health Care Work for You, developed by a disability advocate, and was informed by participant input at five points: at inception through consultation by the workbook author, in conceptualization through a town hall meeting, in pilot testing with feedback, in revision of the curriculum through an advisory group, and in implementation by trainers with disabilities. The resulting PATHS program is a 90-min participatory small-group workshop, followed by structured telephone support for 6 months.