Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of AMP-activated Protein Kinase α (AMPKα) by Doxorubicin Accentuates Genotoxic Stress and Cell Death in Mouse Embryonic Fibroblasts and Cardiomyocytes

Background: Doxorubicin produces genotoxic stress and p53 activation in both carcinoma and non-carcinoma cells. Results: AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibition by doxorubicin causes p53 accumulation and SIRT1 dysfunction. Conclusion: AMPK regulates p53. Significance: Pharmacological activation of AMPK might alleviate the side effects of doxorubicin. Doxorubicin, an anthracycline antibiotic, is widely used in cancer treatment. Doxorubicin produces genotoxic stress and p53 activation in both carcinoma and non-carcinoma cells. Although its side effects in non-carcinoma cells, especially in heart tissue, are well known, the molecular targets of doxorubicin are poorly characterized. Here, we report that doxorubicin inhibits AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) resulting in SIRT1 dysfunction and p53 accumulation. Spontaneously immortalized mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) or H9C2 cardiomyocyte were exposed to doxorubicin at different doses and durations. Cell death and p53, SIRT1, and AMPK levels were examined by Western blot. In MEFs, doxorubicin inhibited AMPK activation, increased cell death, and induced robust p53 accumulation. Genetic deletion of AMPKα1 reduced NAD+ levels and SIRT1 activity and significantly increased the levels of p53 and cell death. Pre-activation of AMPK by 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside or transfection with an adenovirus encoding a constitutively active AMPK (AMPK-CA) markedly reduced the effects of doxorubicin in MEFs from Ampkα1 knock-out mice. Conversely, pre-inhibition of Ampk further sensitized MEFs to doxorubicin-induced cell death. Genetic knockdown of p53 protected both wild-type and Ampkα1−/− MEFs from doxorubicin-induced cell death. p53 accumulation in Ampkα1−/− MEFs was reversed by SIRT1 activation by resveratrol. Taken together, these data suggest that AMPK inhibition by doxorubicin causes p53 accumulation and SIRT1 dysfunction in MEFs and further suggest that pharmacological activation of AMPK might alleviate the side effects of doxorubicin.
Post‐ischaemic treatment with the cyclooxygenase‐2 inhibitor nimesulide reduces blood–brain barrier disruption and leukocyte infiltration following transient focal cerebral ischaemia in rats

Several studies suggest that cyclooxygenase (COX)‐2 plays a pivotal role in the progression of ischaemic brain damage. In the present study, we investigated the effects of selective inhibition of COX‐2 with nimesulide (12 mg/kg) and selective inhibition of COX‐1 with valeryl salicylate (VAS, 12–120 mg/kg) on prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels, myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity, Evans blue (EB) extravasation and infarct volume in a standardized model of transient focal cerebral ischaemia in the rat. Post‐ischaemic treatment with nimesulide markedly reduced the increase in PGE2 levels in the ischaemic cerebral cortex 24 h after stroke and diminished infarct size by 48% with respect to vehicle‐treated animals after 3 days of reperfusion. Furthermore, nimesulide significantly attenuated the blood–brain barrier (BBB) damage and leukocyte infiltration (as measured by EB leakage and MPO activity, respectively) seen at 48 h after the initial ischaemic episode. These studies provide the first experimental evidence that COX‐2 inhibition with nimesulide is able to limit BBB disruption and leukocyte infiltration following transient focal cerebral ischaemia. Neuroprotection afforded by nimesulide is observed even when the treatment is delayed until 6 h after the onset of ischaemia, confirming a wide therapeutic window of COX‐2 inhibitors in experimental stroke. On the contrary, selective inhibition of COX‐1 with VAS had no significant effect on the evaluated parameters. These data suggest that COX‐2 activity, but not COX‐1 activity, contributes to the progression of focal ischaemic brain injury, and that the beneficial effects observed with non‐selective COX inhibitors are probably associated to COX‐2 rather than to COX‐1 inhibition.
Does Gender Matter for Academic Promotion? Evidence from a Randomized Natural Experiment

Several countries have recently introduced gender quotas in hiring and promotion committees at universities. This paper studies whether these policies increase the presence of women in top academic positions. The identification strategy exploits the random assignment mechanism in place between 2002 and 2006 in all academic disciplines in Spain to select the members of promotion committees. We find that a larger proportion of female evaluators increases the chances of success of female applicants to full professor positions. The magnitude of the effect is large: each additional woman on a committee composed of seven members increases the number of women promoted to full professor by 14%. Conversely, when committee members decide on promotions to associate professor positions, we do not observe any significant interaction between the gender of evaluators and the gender of candidates. If anything, in this case a larger share of female evaluators is associated with fewer successful female applicants. The evidence is consistent with the existence of ambivalent sexism.
Lifespan extension and paraquat resistance in a ubiquinone-deficient Escherichia coli mutant depend on transcription factors ArcA and TdcA

We recently reported a genome-wide screen for extended stationary phase survival in Escherichia coli. One of the mutants recovered is deleted for ubiG, which encodes a methyltransferase required for the biosynthesis of ubiquinone. The ubiG mutant exhibits longer lifespan, as well as enhanced resistance to thermal and oxidative stress compared to wt at extracellular pH9. The longevity of the mutant, as well as its resistance to the superoxide-generating agent paraquat, is partially dependent on the hypoxia-inducible transcription factor ArcA. A microarray analysis revealed several genes whose expression is either suppressed or enhanced by ArcA in the ubiG mutant. TdcA is a transcription factor involved in the transport and metabolism of amino acids during anaerobic growth. Its enhanced expression in the ubiG mutant is dependent on ArcA. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that ArcA and TdcA function in the same genetic pathway to increase lifespan and enhance oxidative stress resistance in the ubiG mutant. Our results might be relevant for the elucidation of the mechanism of lifespan extension in mutant mice and worms bearing mutations in ubiquinone biosynthetic genes.
Use of the Harmonic Phase in Speaker Recognition

In this paper a novel set of features with a promising ability to identify speakers is presented. These features are based on the harmonic phase of the speech signal and have been previously used successfully in an ASR task. Using the SI-284 subset of the WSJ database, a GMM has been trained for each of the 283 speakers and several speaker identification experiments have been performed, with a high level of success. The feature extraction method and the performed experiments are described. The results show that the features present excellent identification performance, very close to the performance of the MFCC parameters.
Beginning principals: balancing at the top of the greasy pole

Purpose – This article aims to set the scene for this Special Issue on beginning principals and to inform one's understanding of how new principals manage their work lives to make a difference in their schools.Design/methodology/approach – Based on recent literature on beginning principals, the paper draws together and analyses issues encompassing principals' formal preparation, recruitment, licensure and socialisation.Findings – This article outlines the broader context that frames the lives of beginning principals across societies. It does this through focusing on three fairly general topics: the current expectations of principals and potential principals, which also touches on a shortage of principal candidates in some societies; the life of beginning principals, including strategies suggested by research for “surviving” those hectic first years; and issues related to principals' preparation and learning. These topics encapsulate the focuses of the articles that follow.Originality/value – The paper con.
The Fostering of Religious Pluralism in Public Education: A Case Study

Abstract The Canadian province of Alberta is a jurisdiction where religious pluralism is fostered within the public school system. This article is a case study of that phenomenon that briefly reviews the genesis, denouement, and resurrection of Protestant education in Alberta's public schools. Warranted by Alberta's 1988 “alternative school” legislation, many formerly independent Protestant schools have voluntarily merged with and thus come under the aegis of public school districts, while ostensibly maintaining their religious character and receiving financial benefits. However, this article suggests that there are latent issues regarding such mergers surrounding governance, administrative, and religious matters that may negatively impact the nature of the religious ethos of Protestant education in Alberta's public schools.
ANXIETY AND MOOD-CONGRUENT AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY : A CONCEPTUAL FAILURE TO REPLICATE

This study further explored whether highly anxious participants exhibit a mood-congruent autobiographical memory bias, as was found in two previous studies (Burke & Mathews, 1992; Richards & Whittaker, 1990). The 74 high and low trait anxious participants retrieved personal memories to anxiety-related, neutral, and positive cue words, and were then asked to recall the original cue words. The study also explored how expression of emotional versus factual responses might affect a memory bias. On most dependent measures, no differences were found between anxiety groups. However, low anxious participants recalled more memories overall than high anxious participants. In addition, the emotions groups recalled more words at free recall than the facts groups. Findings fail to support previous studies that found an autobiographical memory bias to be associated with high anxiety, and cast more support for the mounting evidence against a mood-congruent memory bias in anxiety.
Ovine paratuberculosis: a confirmed case of Johne’s disease in Libya

Paratuberculosis (Johne's disease) was suspected in a herd of approximately 300 sheep after weight loss and scouring had increased in adult animals despite repeated treatment with anthelmintics, antibiotics, multivitamins and minerals. The herd is located near Tarhouna city. Herd history revealed that a total of 60 ewes showed clinical symptoms and deaths during the last two years. The last case that we attended was submitted to the National Center of Animal Health (NCAH) for a detailed laboratory examination. Gross pathological and histological examination of tissue samples revealed results that were highly comparable with Johne's disease. A definitive diagnosis was made only by histopathological identification of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis in the intestines using Ziehl-Neelsen stain. This is the first documented case of M. paratuberculosis in sheep in Libya.
Entertainment-Education and Strategic Communication: A Case Study of Sesame Workshop's “Talk, Listen, Connect” Initiative for Military Families

The Sesame Street Talk, Listen, Connect (TLC) initiative is a multimedia example of Entertainment-Education that leveraged the popular Sesame Street platform to deliver key information to military families about how to communicate with children about feelings related to deployment and homecomings, and other tough issues related to military life. This paper is organized as an in-depth case study of the TLC initiative, including interviews with key program developers. The research analyzes the TLC initiative as an exemplar of Entertainment-Education, and compares this example of Entertainment-Education to a strategic communication model. Known and accepted models of strategic communication that appear widely in the literature were referenced. To develop an Entertainment-Education model, a review of the relevant literature was conducted and social cognitive theory, elaboration likelihood model and diffusion of innovation theory were employed as foundational theoretical frameworks. Recommendations for future research on Entertainment-Education as a type of strategic communication are included.
The abandoned social goals of public transit in the neoliberal city of the USA

A preface and a bus rider’s story: “two‐tiered” transit system in the making? Imagine a bus stop in a typical working‐class neighbourhood of inner‐city Los Angeles, a city with an extraordinary array of peoples and cultures. The bus pulls up with standing room only, filled with a variety of people: Mexican, Salvadoran, Korean, Filipino and African American; men and women going to jobs, some of them janitors, some street vendors. People on the bus include women clutching children and grocery bags, kids going to school, elderly folks off to the Senior Centre. The ride is like always: hot, noisy and desperately crowded. The riders come from decidedly different backgrounds, yet share the same experience daily—jostled against one another, staring blankly out cracked windows, minding their own business, intent on getting where they need to go. And getting it over with as quickly as possible. In another part of town, people of a different income class are riding in a new train. They come from the suburbs, clacking away at laptops and sipping cappuccino on their way to downtown jobs. These are people taking advantage of what Mike Davis (1995, p. 270) calls “the biggest public works project in fin de siecle America”, an ambitious series of commuter rail lines that were budgeted at $183 billion over 30 years (Sterngold, 1999). These train riders choose to leave their cars at home to avoid the maddening freeway jams of Los Angeles. Some ride the train on principle. Trains are, after all, better for the environment. Back on the inner‐city bus … someone’s handing out leaflets and talking about forming a union—of bus riders? First in English then in Spanish, the organizer tells riders how the train that’s always in the newspapers is costing more than planners expected, and that politicians now propose to take money away from buses to keep building the train lines. Then the organizer talks about racial discrimination. Racial discrimination? What do buses have to do with racial discrimination?
Insulin-like growth factors inhibit dendritic cell-mediated anti-tumor immunity through regulating ERK 1 / 2 phosphorylation and p 38 dephosphorylation

Insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) can promote tumorigenesis via inhibiting the apoptosis of cancer cells. The relationship between IGFs and dendritic cell (DC)-mediated immunity were investigated. Advancedstage ovarian carcinoma patients were first evaluated to show higher IGF-1 and IGF-2 concentrations in their ascites than early-stage patients. IGFs could suppress DCs’ maturation, antigen presenting abilities, and the ability to activate antigen-specific CD8+ T cell. IGF-treated DCs also secreted higher concentrations of IL-10 and TNF-α. IGF-treated DCs showed decreased ERK1/2 phosphorylation and reduced p38 dephosphorylation. The percentages of matured DCs in the ascites were significantly lower in the IGF-1 or IGF-2 highly-expressing WF-3 tumor-bearing mice. The IGF1R inhibitor – NVP-AEW541, could block the effects of IGFs to rescue DCs’ maturation and to restore DC-mediated antigen-specific immunity through enhancing ERK1/2 phosphorylation and p38 dephosphorylation. IGFs can inhibit DCmediated anti-tumor immunity through suppressing maturation and function and the IGF1R inhibitor could restore the DC-mediated anti-tumor immunity. Blockade of IGFs could be a potential strategy for cancer immunotherapy. © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.
MobiCom 2010 Poster : Mobile Data Offloading in Metropolitan Area Networks

Cellular networks, especially 3G networks, are currently overloaded with mobile data traffic. It is thus imperative to develop novel communication architectures and protocols for this problem. In this paper, we propose to exploit the delay-tolerant nature of non-realtime applications to offload mobile data traffic through opportunistic communications and WiFi networks. We argue that it is necessary for cellular network operators, WiFi service providers, and end-users to cooperate to make the offloading more effective. We also present several preliminary experiment results about the work we have been conducting, which show that it is promising to offload mobile data traffic in metropolitan area networks.
Outreach and Support in South London (OASIS). Outcomes of non-attenders to a service for people at high risk of psychosis: the case for a more assertive approach to assessment

Background International agreement dictates that clients must be help-seeking before any assessment or intervention can be implemented by an ‘at-risk service’. Little is known about individuals who decline input. This study aimed to define the size of the unengaged population of an ‘at-risk service’, to compare this group to those who did engage in terms of sociodemographic and clinical features and to assess the clinical outcomes of those who did not engage with the service. Method Groups were compared using data collected routinely as part of the service's clinical protocol. Data on service use and psychopathology since referral to Outreach and Support in South London (OASIS) were collected indirectly from clients' general practitioners (GPs) and by screening electronic patient notes held by the local Mental Health Trust. Results Over one-fifth (n=91, 21.2%) of those referred did not attend or engage with the service. Approximately half of this group subsequently received a diagnosis of mental illness. A diagnosis of psychosis was given to 22.6%. Nearly 70% presented to other mental health services. There were no demographic differences, except that those who engaged with the service were more likely to be employed. Conclusions Over one-fifth of those referred to services for people at high risk of psychosis do not attend or engage. However, many of this group require mental health care, and a substantial proportion has, or will later develop, psychosis. A more assertive approach to assessing individuals who are at high risk of psychosis but fail to engage may be indicated.
The research on agricultural products logistics efficiency in China based on DEA-Malmquist model

Low efficiency has been the bottleneck that is hindering agricultural products logistics to play the role in improving economic and social development. But relevant research achievements are not many. This paper studies agricultural products logistics efficiency from 2008 to 2011 in China based on DEA and Malmquist index and finds that during later period of study, the total factor productivity of agricultural products logistics industry in the whole nation, east region, central region and west region was in a growing trend, mainly due to technological advance. During later period of study, technical efficiency of national agricultural products logistics was basically at a standstill. Among it, pure technical efficiency did not develop, but scale efficiency kept growing. From the perspective of regions, technical efficiency in east region showed downward trend and the development of pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency kept a standstill. In central region, technical efficiency and scale efficiency both fell, ex cept that pure technical efficiency rebounded during the last period of study. The pure efficiency and scale efficiency in west region both developed, which accelerated the improvement of technical efficiency of this region from 2008 to 2011. Scale efficiency was t he major influencing factor on the increase in logistics technical efficiency.
Efficacy of radical and conservative surgery for hepatic cystic echinococcosis: a meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of radical surgery (RS) and conservative surgery (CS) in the treatment of hepatic cystic echinococcosis (HCE). METHODS We searched PubMed, Embase, MEDLINE, SCI, CNKI, CBM, and WanFang databases, and the Cochrane Library (2013, Issue 3) for references published before December 2013. Both randomized and non-randomized controlled trials of radical and conservative surgery for HCE were collected. After the literature was screened in accordance with inclusion and exclusion criteria, data were extracted and the quality of methodologies of selected references was determined independently by two evaluators. A meta-analysis was performed on eligible studies with RevMan 5.1 statistical software. RESULTS Five non-randomized controlled trials (1267 patients) were included in this study. Patients in the RS group had fewer postoperative complications compared with the CS group [OR = 0.42, 95% CI (0.32, 0.56), P < 0.00001], whereas there was no significant difference in rates of postoperative bile leakage between the two groups [OR = 0.22, 95% CI (0.05, 1.12), P = 0.07]. Postoperative follow-up of patients revealed a significantly lower HCE recurrence rate in the RS versus CS group [OR = 0.17, 95% CI (0.08, 0.38), P < 0.0001]. Additionally, no statistical differences in the number of days of hospitalization [MD = -2.47, 95% CI (-6.42, 1.49), P = 0.22] and perioperative mortality [OR = 0.87, 95% CI (0.27, 2.79), P = 0.82] were identified between groups. CONCLUSION RS, especially total pericystectomy, has obvious advantages over CS: fewer complications, lower postoperative recurrence, and a lower incidence of biliary fistula and infection, making RS the preferred surgical method. This conclusion requires further validation with high-quality RCTs with large sample sizes. Surgical approach should be based upon comprehensive assessment of individual circumstances in HCE patients.
Integration of DICOM images into an electronic medical record using thin viewing clients

Over the past five years the University of Washington has created a clinical data repository. This repository combines in a distributed relational database information from multiple departmental databases (MIND). MINDscape provides a platform independent, web browser view of the MIND dataset that can easily be linked to other information resources on the network.
EyeAssist: A communication aid through gaze tracking for patients with neuro-motor disabilities

The paper presents EyeAssist, a low cost, user friendly communication aid developed specifically for individuals suffering from neuro-motor problems. Existing gaze based typing systems encounter problems of unintentional key presses, extensive calibration process and inbuilt noise of eye trackers. We tried to solve these problems in the EyeAssist system by employing accurate gaze tracking. Fixation information are derived from the acquired gaze data. The systematic and variable noises of the eye tracker are being removed by graph signal processing based filters, Kalman filter and linear transformation. A unique one-time calibration which is subject and session independent has made the system easy to use without compromising its efficacy. The system has provision for setting variable dwell time according to users' preferences. EyeAssist also provides some unique features like text to speech conversion of typed sentences, predictive word and sentence entry etc. Results show that the average typing rate is 11.8 words per minute with an average error rate of 6.6%. Moreover the error rate reduces drastically with some practice. The system is user friendly, easy to use which makes it a perfect choice for patients suffering with neuro-motor disabilities.