Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stimulatory tests of growth hormone secretion in prepubertal major depression: depressed versus normal children.

OBJECTIVE Blunted stimulation of growth hormone (GH) secretion after pharmacological stimuli has been linked to depressive and anxiety disorders throughout the life span. This study sought to better characterize this dysregulation in prepubertal depression. METHOD GH regulation was compared in 38 medically healthy prepubertal children with current major depressive disorder and 19 control children who were medically and psychiatrically healthy. The study evaluated GH stimulatory responses to three pharmacological challenge agents: (1) insulin-induced hypoglycemia, using 0.1 IU/kg intravenous regular insulin; (2) 1.3 micrograms/kg intravenous clonidine; and (3) 1.0 microgram/kg intravenous human growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH). RESULTS The results provide replication and extension of earlier findings. GH responses to insulin-induced hypoglycemia and to GHRH stimulation were blunted in depressed children compared to the normal controls. Clonidine stimulation results yielded a similar picture but did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS Overall these results further strengthen the evidence showing GH dysregulation in childhood depression. However, the blunted GH response seen with GHRH (which reflects pituitary hyporesponsivity) was in contrast to our original hypothesis and has implications regarding the site (or sites) of dysregulation.
Anxiety and Differences in Physiological Responding to Ambiguous Situational Vignettes in Adolescents

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MENOPAUSE-INDUCED CHANGES IN LIPID FRACTIONS AND TOTAL FATTY ACIDS IN PLASMA

The purpose of the present work was to evaluate the changes induced by the menopause in plasma lipids and total fatty acids. Methods: 35 post-menopausal and 25 non-postmenopausal women were included in the study. Plasma triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and HDL-C concentrations were determined enzymatically. Plasma fatty acids were determined by capillary gas chromatography. Results: Total cholesterol was higher (p < 0.05) in the post-menopausal women (6.18 ± 0.77 mmol/l vs. 5.21 ± 0.85 mmol/l). No significant changes were observed, however, in TG, HDL-C or LDL-C. The study of plasma fatty acids showed the post-menopausal women to have raised levels (p < 0.05) of stearic acid (C18:0), oleic acid (C18:1), and decrease of arachidonic acid (C20:4). Also noteworthy was the significant decrease (p < 0.001) of the desaturation index D5 (3.82 ± 1.75) in the post-menopausal women. The SHBG level was lower (p < 0.001) in the post-menopausal women (55.98 ± 20 nmol/l) than in the non-menopausal women (68.36 ± 30 nmol/l). Multivariate analysis revealed correlation between menopause and SHBG (r = −0.3904, p < 0.05), D5 (r = −0.500, p < 0.001), TC (r = 0.3137, p < 0.05), stearic acid (r = 03564, p < 0.05) and oleic acid (r = 0.2954, p < 0.05). Conclusion: In post-menopausal women, as well as higher total cholesterol, the alterations in plasma fatty acids may constitute an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.
From Continuous Improvement to Continuous Innovation

In this paper Cole explores many concepts, including continuous improvement, continuous innovation, discontinuous innovation, incrementalism, exploitation, and exploration. He reviews the many benefits of continuous improvement, as it is defined in traditional quality programs. Cole discusses many organizational challenges arising from hypercompetition, working at an accelerated pace, uncertainty, the infusion of new technology, and the impact of software and information technology. Above all, he focuses on alternative ways to creatively build quality improvement through continuous innovation into the development process. His chosen vehicle is the probe-and-learn process and bow it can lead to higher quality and shorter product development cycles. Three commentators further explore Cole's theses. Finster examines how continuous innovation is related to the creative process. Melton discusses the role of learning in continuous improvement and continuous innovation. And Weston explains how both continuous improvement and continuous innovation are necessary for business survival.
On Testing for Full Insurance using Consumer Expenditure Survey Data

In a recent issue of this Journal, Mace (1991) presented empirical evidence in support of the hypothesis that U.S. households engage in full risk sharing. The data used were taken from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) for the years 1980-84. Full insurance implies that household-level consumption should be perfectly correlated with aggregate consumption but uncorrelated with householdlevel changes in income. Mace's surprising result was that, at least for one functional specification, household-level income changes, whether measured directly by changes in reported income or proxied by employment change dummies, seemed to have no statistically significant effect on consumption. This comment demonstrates that this result was due to measurement error in key variables.
An Extreme Value Theory Framework for Determining the Effectiveness of Monetary Policy in Ensuring Interest Rates and Exchange Rates Stability – A Case for Kenya

Interest rates and exchange rates in Kenya have witnessed significant volatility since liberation in 1991 and 1993, respectively. This raises questions on whether the CBK has been meeting its primary objective of formulating and implementing monetary policy to achieve and maintain price stability. This thesis uses the POT approach to derive a model for extremes in interest rates in the period 1991 to 2006, and exchange rates in Kenya in the period 1993 to 2006. The estimated POT models were used to determine the return period of specific extreme exchange rate returns and changes in interest rates, and trends in excess sizes and inter-arrival times of exceedances of respective thresholds. This information is vital in informing the formulation of long term monetary policy.The analyses revealed three key results for exchange rate returns on the USD, Pound, Yen, and Euro. Exchange rate returns for these currencies are leptokurtic and positively skewed while those exceeding the thresholds 0.5, 1.0, 1.0, and 1.8, respectively, can be modelled by the GPD. The return period for exchange rate returns of 3.12, 2.74, 2.86 and 2.41 on the USD, Pound, Yen and Euro, respectively, is 100 days. Similarly, the return period for exchange rate returns of 7.74, 5.39, 6.18 and 3.73 on the USD, Pound, Yen, and Euro, respectively, is 1000 days. The results also showed a decreasing trend in the excess sizes while the inter-arrival times of the exceedances of the respective thresholds have decreased for returns on the USD and Pound, but increased for the Yen and Euro.Analyses of the interest rates data revealed that interest rate changes exceeding thresholds of 0.6, 0.2 and 0.4 percent for the interbank rate, repo rate and Treasury bill rate, respectively, can be modelled by the GPD. The return period for interest rate changes of2.82, 2.56, and 3.19 percent on the interbank, repo, and Treasury bill rates, respectively, are 100 days. Similarly, the return period for interest rate changes of 7.21, 5.09, and 7.39 percent for the interbank, repo and Treasury bill rates, respectively, is 1000 days. In addition, excess sizes of the changes in the repo and Treasury bill rates have been decreasing while there was no significant trend in excess sizes for changes in the interbank rate. However, the inter-arrival times of the exceedances of the respective thresholds have generally decreased for the repo rate, but remained stable for changes in the interbank and Treasury bill rates.Overall, the results indicate that the volatility in the interest rates and exchange rates as well as occurrences of extreme movements in the data have decreased significantly. Consequently, we conclude that the CBK achieved the objective of ensuring stability in interest rates and exchange rates during the period.
A comparison of AB diblock and ABA triblock copolymers of polystyrene and polyferocenylsilane for nanolithography applications

Block coopolymers(BCP) have become of interest in the pursuit novel methods of nanolithography. Their ability to self-assembly into periodic geometries with nanoscale feature sizes makes them attractive as etching masks and templating materials for microelectronics and nanodevices. BCP provide a scalable and low-cost method that is compatible with existing semiconductor fabrication technologies. Though various studies have looked at several combinations of block copolymers we focus on the use of solvent annealing as a method to tune the morphology of PS-b-PFS and PS-b- PFS-b-PS block copolymers. These polymers have shown promise as precursors to a variety of materials and in particular this combination of block copolymers is attractive because we have at our dispossible etching methods with a high selectivity between these two polymers.
Application of Multi-mode Teaching based on project and case driven in Java programming course

The Multi-mode Teaching based on project and case driven is established on the basis of constructivism theory. This paper discusses the teaching modes for Java programming course. Moreover, it elaborates the teaching philosophy, practical applications and the necessary attentions of the new teaching method. This teaching stimulates students' interest, increases the perceptual knowledge and improves students' analysis, summary and application ability.
Detection of Methanotroph Diversity on Roots of Submerged Rice Plants by Molecular Retrieval ofpmoA, mmoX, mxaF, and 16S rRNA and Ribosomal DNA, Including pmoA-Based Terminal Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Profiling

ABSTRACT The diversity of methanotrophic bacteria associated with roots of submerged rice plants was assessed using cultivation-independent techniques. The research focused mainly on the retrieval ofpmoA, which encodes the α subunit of the particulate methane monooxygenase. A novel methanotroph-specific community-profiling method was established using the terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) technique. The T-RFLP profiles clearly revealed a more complex root-associated methanotrophic community than did banding patterns obtained bypmoA-based denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis. The comparison of pmoA-based T-RFLP profiles obtained from rice roots and bulk soil of flooded rice microcosms suggested that there was a substantially higher abundance of type I methanotrophs on rice roots than in the bulk soil. These were affiliated to the generaMethylomonas, Methylobacter,Methylococcus, and to a novel type I methanotroph sublineage. By contrast, type II methanotrophs of theMethylocystis-Methylosinus group could be detected with high relative signal intensity in both soil and root compartments. Phylogenetic treeing analyses and a set of substrate-diagnostic amino acid residues provided evidence that a novelpmoA lineage was detected. This branched distinctly from all currently known methanotrophs. To examine whether the retrieval ofpmoA provided a complete view of root-associated methanotroph diversity, we also assessed the diversity detectable by recovery of genes coding for subunits of soluble methane monooxygenase (mmoX) and methanol dehydrogenase (mxaF). In addition, both 16S rRNA and 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) were retrieved using a PCR primer set specific to type I methanotrophs. The overall methanotroph diversity detected by recovery of mmoX,mxaF, and 16S rRNA and 16S rDNA corresponded well to the diversity detectable by retrieval of pmoA.
Effect of Ramipril, an Inhibitor of Angiotensin Converting Enzyme, on the Response of Rat Thoracic Aorta to Injury with a Balloon Catheter

We have studied the effect of ramipril (10 mg/kg daily by gastric gavage) on the development of neointima 2 and 14 days after injury to rat aorta with a balloon catheter. In treated animals, there was no significant inhibition of the early mitotic reaction after injury (synthesis of DNA. as reflected by aortic thymidine incorporation on the second day): the mean (95% confidence interval) was 3.553 (892) in the control group vs. 2.853 disintegrations/min/μg of DNA (555) in the treated group. 2p > 0.15. However, ramipril decreased the amount of neointima formed 14 days after injury, as characterized by (a) a highly significant decrease of the intima to intima + media areas ratio [21.1 (2.4) vs. 13.7% (2.2), 2p < 10−4]; (b) a significant decrease of intima-media wet weight [35.4 (1.0) vs. 30.9 mg (0.9), 2p < 0.005]; and (c) without any significant effect on intima-media DNA content [96.3 (7.9) vs. 91.7 μg (5.7). 2p > 0.3]. These observations suggest that angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors may not act mainly through an inhibition of smooth muscle cell proliferation. Other effects, such as inhibition of migration, hypertrophy, and matrix synthesis, should also be considered.
Knowledge-based TDNN architectures for features recognition in DNA sequences

We present work on the eflective utilization of ANNs for the recognition and location of specific regulatoly elements in genomic DNA, namely promoters. In particular, we rely on the utilization of knowledge-based NN (kbNN) techniques for the automatic construction of Time Delay NN (TDNN) architectures. The prior-knowledge is based and extracted from position weight-matrices of the DNA-sequence bases. The resulted kPRNN: knowledgeable Promoter Recognition Neural Network is trained, and the knowledge used to initialize the TDNN is refined. Experimental results show a significant improvement in TDNN-based promoter recognition.
Reproducible transformation in two grain legumes--soybean and azuki bean--using different systems.

Two plasmid vectors were introduced into soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr. ) and azuki bean (Vigna angularis Willd. Ohwi and Ohashi) using different transformation systems. Azuki bean epicotyl explants were prepared from etiolated seedlings and co-cultivated with Agrobacterium tumefaciens for 2 days. Adventitious shoots were developed from the callus of the explants on a regeneration medium containing hygromycin, and the shoots were excised and transferred to a rooting medium containing hygromycin at the same concentration. Rooting shoots were transferred to soil and grown in a glass-house to produce viable seeds. PCR analysis confirmed clearly the presence of the hpt gene in most of the azuki beans regenerated under hygromycin selection. A soybean embryogenic suspension culture was generated from immature cotyledons, and used for the introduction of plasmids by particle bombardment. Hygromycin-resistant embryogenic clones were isolated after 8 weeks of hygromycin selection, and then the green clones were matured on the differentiation medium. After desiccation, the embryos were germinated on the rooting medium, and the plants were transferred to soil in a glass-house. More than 50% of the regenerated soybean plants tolerant to hygromycin yielded the hpt fragment on PCR analysis. The azuki bean transformants were obtained more rapidly and with higher efficiency than the soybean transformants.
Cyclin-dependent Kinase 5 Phosphorylation of Familial Prion Protein Mutants Exacerbates Conversion into Amyloid Structure*

Background: Conversion of prion protein occurs in familial prion diseases, but the exact mechanism is unknown. Results: Phosphorylation at the N-terminal serine 43 causes or exacerbates conversion of familial prion protein mutants. Conclusion: The N terminus and C terminus of prion protein both influence conversion into amyloid. Significance: The flexible N terminus of prion protein plays a role in amyloid conversion and could indicate a novel target to prevent prion conversion. Familial prion protein (PrP) mutants undergo conversion from soluble and protease-sensitive to insoluble and partially protease-resistant proteins. Cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (Cdk5) phosphorylation of wild type PrP (pPrP) at serine 43 induces a conversion of PrP into aggregates and fibrils. Here, we investigated whether familial PrP mutants are predisposed to Cdk5 phosphorylation and whether phosphorylation of familial PrP mutants increases conversion. PrP mutants representing three major familial PrP diseases and different PrP structural domains were studied. We developed a novel in vitro kinase reaction coupled with Thioflavin T binding to amyloid structure assay to monitor phosphorylation-dependent amyloid conversion. Although non-phosphorylated full-length wild type or PrP mutants did not convert into amyloid, Cdk5 phosphorylation rapidly converted these into Thioflavin T-positive structures following first order kinetics. Dephosphorylation partially reversed conversion. Phosphorylation-dependent conversion of PrP from α-helical structures into β-sheet structures was confirmed by circular dichroism. Relative to wild type pPrP, most PrP mutants showed increased rate constants of conversion. In contrast, non-phosphorylated truncated PrP Y145X (where X represents a stop codon) and Q160X mutants converted spontaneously into Thioflavin T-positive fibrils after a lag phase of over 20 h, indicating nucleation-dependent polymerization. Phosphorylation reduced the lag phase by over 50% and thus accelerated the formation of the nucleating event. Consistently, phosphorylated Y145X and phosphorylated Q160X exacerbated conversion in a homologous seeding reaction, whereas WT pPrP could not seed WT PrP. These results demonstrate an influence of both the N terminus and the C terminus of PrP on conversion. We conclude that post-translational modifications of the flexible N terminus of PrP can cause or exacerbate PrP mutant conversion.
Multiple Pathways for Repair of DNA Double-Strand Breaks in Mammalian Chromosomes

ABSTRACT To study repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in mammalian chromosomes, we designed DNA substrates containing a thymidine kinase (TK) gene disrupted by the 18-bp recognition site for yeast endonuclease I-SceI. Some substrates also contained a second defective TK gene sequence to serve as a genetic donor in recombinational repair. A genomic DSB was induced by introducing endonuclease I-SceI into cells containing a stably integrated DNA substrate. DSB repair was monitored by selection for TK-positive segregants. We observed that intrachromosomal DSB repair is accomplished with nearly equal efficiencies in either the presence or absence of a homologous donor sequence. DSB repair is achieved by nonhomologous end-joining or homologous recombination, but rarely by nonconservative single-strand annealing. Repair of a chromosomal DSB by homologous recombination occurs mainly by gene conversion and appears to require a donor sequence greater than a few hundred base pairs in length. Nonhomologous end-joining events typically involve loss of very few nucleotides, and some events are associated with gene amplification at the repaired locus. Additional studies revealed that precise religation of DNA ends with no other concomitant sequence alteration is a viable mode for repair of DSBs in a mammalian genome.
Noncooperative and Cooperative Joining Strategies in Cognitive Radio Networks With Random Access

A cognitive radio (CR) system with retrial possibility and an admission cost for secondary users (SUs) to join the retrial group is investigated in this paper. If the SU finds the primary user (PU) band unavailable, it must decide with a probability estimate to either enter a retrial group or give up its service and leave the system. SUs in the retrial group independently retry after an exponentially distributed random time until they successfully access the spectrum. When the PU arrives, the SU's service on the band is interrupted. This interrupted SU is then assumed to occupy the PU band immediately when the PU completes its service. First, the noncooperative joining behavior of SUs that choose to maximize their benefit in a selfish distributed manner is investigated, and an inefficient Nash equilibrium is derived. Second, from the perspective of the social planner, the socially optimal joining strategy when SUs cooperate with each other is studied, and the corresponding Nash equilibrium is exactly derived. Finally, the result that an individually optimal strategy, in general, does not yield the socially optimal strategy is theoretically verified. Furthermore, to bridge the gap between the individually and socially optimal strategies, a novel strategy of imposing an admission fee on SUs to join the retrial group is proposed and investigated with the derivation of an optimal value for the admission fee. The numerical analysis indicates that the proposed admission fee as an equilibrium strategy and the socially optimal strategy of SUs improve efficiency in the utilization of the CR system.
Hansenula polymorpha Hac1p Is Critical to Protein N-Glycosylation Activity Modulation, as Revealed by Functional and Transcriptomic Analyses

ABSTRACT Aggregation of misfolded protein in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) induces a cellular protective response to ER stress, the unfolded protein response (UPR), which is mediated by a basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factor, Hac1p/Xbp1. In this study, we identified and studied the molecular functions of a HAC1 homolog from the thermotolerant yeast Hansenula polymorpha (HpHAC1). We found that the HpHAC1 mRNA contains a nonconventional intron of 177 bp whose interaction with the 5′ untranslated region is responsible for the translational inhibition of the HpHAC1 mRNA. The H. polymorpha hac1-null (Hphac1Δ) mutant strain grew slowly, even under normal growth conditions, and was less thermotolerant than the wild-type (WT) strain. The mutant strain was also more sensitive to cell wall-perturbing agents and to the UPR-inducing agents dithiothreitol (DTT) and tunicamycin (TM). Using comparative transcriptome analysis of the WT and Hphac1Δ strains treated with DTT and TM, we identified HpHAC1-dependent core UPR targets, which included genes involved in protein secretion and processing, particularly those required for N-linked protein glycosylation. Notably, different glycosylation and processing patterns of the vacuolar glycoprotein carboxypeptidase Y were observed in the WT and Hphac1Δ strains. Moreover, overexpression of active HpHac1p significantly increased the N-linked glycosylation efficiency and TM resistance. Collectively, our results suggest that the function of HpHac1p is important not only for UPR induction but also for efficient glycosylation in H. polymorpha.
Worlds of Production: The Action Frameworks of the Economy

Theorizing Economic Diversity and Economic Action Action and Diversity versus Models of Growth Possible Worlds of Production Firms, Profits, Work, and Innovation Situating Firms in Worlds of Production Worlds of Production in Three Countries Identifying Real Worlds of Production in France, Italy, and the United States France: Innovative Real Worlds of Fashion and High Technology Italy: Interpersonal Action and the Division of Labor California High Technology: The Intellectual World in a Market Context Selection, Stability, and Transformation of Real Worlds of Production Institutions, States, and the Coordination of Real Worlds States and Institutions as Conventions State Intervention: A Critique of the French Case Competitiveness, Sutuated States, and Real Worlds in Three Countries Conventions, Economic Action, and Institutions A Critique of Contemporary Institutialism Towards a Theory of Conventions, Economic Action, and Economic Development Notes References Name Index Subject Index