Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tools for fairness: Increased structure in the selection process reduces discrimination

Employment discrimination causes problems at the labor market, and is hard to combat. Can increasing the degree of structure when selecting applicants increase fairness? Students were asked to perform a computerized selection task and were either provided with tools for systematizing information about the applicants (structured selection) or no such tools (unstructured selection). We hypothesized and found that a structured process, where employing recruitment tools rather than the recruiter’s impressionistic judgment is key, improves the ability to identify job-relevant criteria and hence selecting more qualified applicants, even when in-group favoritism is tempting (e.g. when the outgroup applicants are more competent). Increasing structure helped recruiters select more competent applicants and reduced ethnic discrimination. Increasing the motivation to carefully follow the structured procedure strengthened these effects further. We conclude that structure pays off, and that motivational factors should be taken into account in order for it to have the optimal effect.
P2P‐R expression is genetically coregulated with components of the translation machinery and with PUM2, a translational repressor that associates with the P2P‐R mRNA

P2P‐R is a nuclear protein with potential functional roles in the control of gene expression and mitosis. The P2P‐R protein also interacts with the p53 and Rb1 tumor suppressor proteins. To search for additional functional associations of P2P‐R, we employed the WebQTL database that contains the results of cDNA microarray analysis on forebrain, cerebellum, and hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) specimens of multiple BXD recombinant inbred strains of mice. Using WebQTL, gene products were identified that show genetically based coexpression with P2P‐R. Initial studies identified general groups of mRNAs that share common functional roles and high covariation in expression with P2P‐R. These functional groups involved the regulation of transcription, nucleotide binding, translation control, and ion transport. The findings related to translational mechanisms were further evaluated. In HSCs, expression of P2P‐R mRNA demonstrates an impressive expression correlation with a group of gene products associated with translation; high expression of P2P‐R specifically was associated with decreased expression of 29 ribosomal protein mRNAs. In all three tissues that were screened using the WebQTL database, a strong positive expression covariance between P2P‐R and the Pum2 gene product also was observed. PUM2 is a member of the highly conserved Puf family of RNA binding proteins that often function as gene‐specific translation regulators. The ability of Puf proteins to repress translation is mediated by their binding to specific elements located in the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of their target mRNAs. To assess the functional significance of the strong genetic correlation in expression of P2P‐R and PUM2, the 3′ UTR of the P2P‐R mRNA was analyzed and found to contain one perfect consensus and two near‐perfect consensus PUM2 binding sequences. PUM2 pull‐down methods combined with reverse transcription and RT‐PCR confirmed that PUM2 does indeed bind P2P‐R mRNA. These results suggest that P2P‐R expression may be translationally regulated by PUM2 and that P2P‐R may modulate translation by influencing ribosomal protein gene expression. This study represents the first description of a RNA target for mammalian Puf proteins and the first molecular confirmation of information obtained using the WebQTL database. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Influence of body size and gender on valve movement responses of a freshwater bivalve to uranium

Body size, age, and gender (male or female) are important variables influencing many aspects of the ecology, physiology, and survival of animals. However, no data are available on the influence of these variables on bivalves exposed to sublethal metal concentrations. This study tested whether the valve movement responses (measured in terms of the duration or frequency of valve opening) of the Australian tropical freshwater unionoid bivalve, Velesunio angasi, exposed to sublethal uranium (U) concentrations in a standard synthetic water (pH, 6.0; hardness and alkalinity, 4 mg/L as CaCO3) were influenced by body size (shell length, shell breadth, or dry tissue weight), age, and/or gender. The valve movement responses of V. angasi to U were independent of gender; the sensitivity of males to U was not significantly (p > 0.05) different from that of females. In contrast, the valve movement responses of V. angasi to U were size‐ and age‐dependent; smaller and younger individuals (median shell length = 36.8 mm; median age = 0.7 years) were 22% more sensitive (p ≤ 0.05) than larger and older individuals (median shell length = 61.3 mm; median age = 14 years). By correcting for differences in body size, age, and/or gender among individuals, using multiple linear regression analyses, the mean variability in valve movement responses was reduced by 81%. Consequently, errors (95% confidence limits) associated with valve movement response (EC50) values were substantially reduced (75%). Hence, the ability to demonstrate statistically significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in valve movement responses between U exposure concentrations was enhanced. This, in turn, may permit better estimates of the risk of the effects of U exposures to bivalve populations. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 18: 126–136, 2003
Comparison of Total Antioxidant Capacity of Saliva in Women with Gestational diabetes mellitus and Non-diabetic Pregnant Women

Background Pregnancy is considered a stressful event, results in higher levels of oxidative stress and considerable changes in physiological and metabolic functions such as gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). Due to the cumulative effect of antioxidants and considering the controversies in this area, this study was undertaken to investigate the total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of saliva in pregnant women whit gestational diabetes in comparison to non-diabetic pregnant women. Material and Methods In this cross-sectional study (2015-16), a total of 31 women with a diagnosis of GDM and 59 non-diabetic pregnant women were included in the diabetic and control groups, respectively. Salivary samples were collected by spitting method. When all samples were collected, total antioxidant capacity (TAC) was measured with the use of a commercial kit following the manufacturer’s instructions. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney test using SPSS 18. Results Average TAC level in the saliva of women with gestational diabetes was 0.10 ± 0.14, with 0.04 ± 0.11 in non-diabetic pregnant women. Nonparametric Mann-Whitney test showed that this difference was statistically significant (P=0.024). Conclusions Under the limitations of the present study it can be concluded that there is an increase in oxidative stresses during pregnancy, followed by an increase in the total levels of salivary antioxidants to counteract such stresses. Therefore, it is expected that determining the salivary antioxidant levels during pregnancy can be an alternative technique for the early diagnosis of diabetes. Key words:Gestational diabetes mellitus, pregnancy, saliva, total antioxidant capacity.
The geometry of shape space: application to influenza.

Shape space was proposed over 20 years ago as a conceptual formalism in which to represent antibody/antigen binding. It has since played a key role in computational immunology. Antigens and antibodies are considered to be points in an abstract "shape space", where coordinates of points in this space represent generalized physico-chemical properties associated with various (unspecified) physical properties related to binding, such as geometric shape, hydrophobicity, charge, etc. Distances in shape space between points representing antibodies and (the shape complement) of antigens are assumed to be related to their affinity, with small distances corresponding to high affinity. In this paper, we provide algorithms, related to metric and ordinal multidimensional scaling algorithms first developed in the mathematical psychology literature, which construct explicit, quantitative coordinates for points in shape space given experimental data such as hemagglutination inhibition assays, or other general affinity assays. Previously, such coordinates had been conceptual constructs and totally implicit. The dimension of shape space deduced from hemagglutination inhibition assays for influenza is low, approximately five dimensional. The deduction of the explicit geometry of shape space given experimental affinity data provides new ways to quantify the similarity of antibodies to antibodies, antigens to antigens, and the affinity of antigens to antibodies. This has potential utility in, e.g. strain selection decisions for annual influenza vaccines, among other applications. The analysis techniques presented here are not restricted to the analysis of antibody-antigen interactions and are generally applicable to affinity data resulting from binding assays.
Why do women not adhere to advice on maternal referral in rural Tanzania? Narratives of women and their family members

ABSTRACT Background: In most low-income countries, many women with high-risk pregnancies and complications do not reach the referral hospitals despite the provision of referral advice. Objective: To explore how antenatal maternal referral advice is understood and handled in a rural Tanzanian community. Methods: Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with six women who did not go to hospital and 13 people who were involved in the referral advice. Narrative analysis was used to describe and create meanings out of the decision-making process. Results: In all interviews, not following the referral advice was greatly influenced by close family members. Three main traits of how referral advice was understood emerged: convinced referral is not necessary, accepting referral advice but delayed by others, and passive and moving with the wind. The main reasons given for declining the referral advice included discrediting midwives’ advice, citing previous successful deliveries despite referral advice; being afraid of undergoing surgery; lack of support for care of siblings at home; and high costs incurred during referral. Conclusions: Declining maternal referral advice centred around the pregnant women’s position and their dependence on the family members around them, with a decreased ability to show autonomy. If they were socially and economically empowered, women could positively influence decision making during maternal referrals.
Assembly of Bacterial Ribosomes

I have not mentioned the remarkable progress made mainly by Fellner and his co-workers (86) in the elucidation of the primary structure of rRNA's and by Wittmann and his co-workers (87) in determining the structure of several ribosomal proteins. Such knowledge of primary structures is certainly the basis of complete understanding of the structure of the ribosome. With the current progress in technology, complete elucidation of the primary structure of all the ribosomal components is probably a matter of time. As indicated in this article, a rough approximation of the three-dimensional structure of ribosomes is likely to emerge soon. Although not mentioned in this article, studies of ribosomes from higher organisms are also progressing. We must, therefore, consider what further studies should be conducted and what kinds of questions we would like to solve. Some groups of investigators aim to elucidate the complete three-dimensional structure of ribosomes and to find out how these complex cell organelles function; they hope to determine the conformational changes of many of the component molecules within the ribosome structure in response to external macromolecules and cofactors engaged in protein synthesis. Such knowledge will also be important in enabling us to understand the regulation of translation of genetic messages. Other groups of investigators aim to elucidate the complex series of events which originate in the transcription of the more than 60 genes and culminate in the formation of the specific structure of the organelle. Complete reproduction in vitro of all the assembly events that occur in vivo should not be difficult to achieve in principle. It should then become possible to study in vitro any factor regulating the biogenesis of the organelle. Although we do not know whether such studies would reveal any new fundamental principle that governs the complex circuits of interconnected macromolecular interactions, the achievement of such a complete in vitro system would represent a necessary step in the comprehensive understanding of biogenesis of organelles, and eventually, of the more complex behavior and genesis of cells (89).
Is Current Smoking Still an Important Environmental Factor in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases? Results from a Population-based Incident Cohort

Background:Previous studies suggest that smoking is an important environmental factor in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), with dichotomous effects in ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD). The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between smoking and IBD risk in a population-based database from Veszprem Province, which included incident cases diagnosed between January 1, 1977, and December 31, 2008. Methods:Data from 1420 incident patients were analyzed (UC: 914, age at diagnosis: 38.9 years; CD: 506, age at diagnosis: 31.5 years). Both inpatient and outpatient records were collected and comprehensively reviewed. Overall, smoking frequency in the adult general population was 36.1%. Results:Of patients with CD, 47.2% were current smokers at diagnosis. Smoking was more frequent in male patients (P = 0.002) and was associated with an increased risk of CD (odds ratio, 1.96; 95% confidence interval, 1.63–2.37; P < 0.001). In contrast, current smoking was protective against UC (odds ratio, 0.33; 95% confidence interval, 0.27–0.41). The effect of smoking was linked to gender (in CD, more deleterious in male patients) and age at diagnosis and was most prominent in young adults, with a difference already being seen in 18- to 19-year-olds. In CD, a change in disease behavior (P = 0.02), location from ileal or colonic to ileocolonic (P = 0.003), arthritis/arthropathy (P = 0.002), need for steroids (P = 0.06), or AZA (P = 0.038) was more common in current smokers. Smoking in UC was associated with more extensive disease (P = 0.01) and a tendency for decreased need for colectomy (P = 0.06). Conclusions:Current smoking was associated with the risk of IBD. This effect was linked to gender and age at diagnosis and was most prominent in young adults. No association was observed in pediatric or elderly patients. The deleterious and protective effects of smoking on the course in CD and UC were partially confirmed.
Characterization of human papillomavirus type 11 E1 and E2 proteins expressed in insect cells

The study of human papillomavirus replication has been hampered by the lack of an in vitro system which reliably supports virus replication. Recent results from the bovine papillomavirus (BPV) system indicate that the E1 and E2 proteins are the only viral gene products required for replication. By analogy with simian virus 40 large T antigen, E1 is thought to possess ATPase and helicase activity, which may play a direct role in viral DNA replication. The precise role of E2 is unclear, but it may function in part to help localize E1 to the replication origin. We have initiated a study of replication in the human papillomavirus type 11 system which, by analogy to BPV, has focused on the E1 and E2 proteins of this virus. We have expressed the full-length E1 and E2 proteins in Sf9 insect cells by using a baculovirus expression vector. Both the 80-kDa E1 protein and the 42.5-kDa E2 protein are nuclear phosphoproteins. The E1 and E2 proteins form a heteromeric complex within the insect cells, and both proteins localize to a DNA fragment which contains the viral origin of replication. In addition, we have detected an E1-associated ATPase and GTPase activity, which is likely part of an energy-generating system for the helicase activity which is predicted for this protein. The human papillomavirus type 11 E1 and E2 proteins possess the same replication-associated activities exhibited by the corresponding BPV proteins, suggesting that the replication activities of these viruses are tightly conserved.
Redefining Supervision: A Joint Inquiry Into Preparing School-Based Leaders to Supervise for Equity

This article documents two professors’ inquiry into a lesson on supervising for equity in a supervisor preparation course. Through an iterative process of lesson design, lesson implementation, analysis of student work, and pedagogical discussion, we refine the lesson. Our study sheds light on the potential challenges of preparing supervisors to promote equity, offers pedagogical insights to leadership programs invested in instilling a commitment to social justice, and reflects the promise of collaborative faculty inquiry for curriculum development. The study contains implications for educational leadership faculty and program coordinators as well as facilitators of professional development for school leaders.
Dietary vitamin E intake could reduce the risk of lung cancer: evidence from a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Quantification of the association between the intake of vitamin E and risk of lung cancer is still conflicting. Thus, we conducted a meta-analysis to summarize the evidence from epidemiological studies of vitamin E intake with the risk of lung cancer. METHODS Pertinent studies were identified by a search in PubMed and Web of Knowledge up to October 2014. Random-effect model was used to combine study-specific results. Publication bias was estimated using Egger's regression asymmetry test. RESULTS Ten articles reporting 11 studies (10 prospective studies and 1 case-control studies) involving 4434 lung cancer cases were used in this meta-analysis. The combined relative risk (RR) of lung cancer associated with vitamin E intake was 0.858 (95% CI=0.742-0.991) overall, significant protective associations were also found in America population (RR=0.862, 95% CI=0.715-0.996) and prospective studies (RR=0.913, 95% CI=0.827-0.996). No publication bias was found. CONCLUSIONS Our analysis indicated that vitamin E intake might decrease the risk of lung cancer, especially in America.
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box

In choosing a few typical cases which illustrate the remarkable mental qualities of my friend, Sherlock Holmes, I have endeavoured, as far as possible, to select those which presented the minimum of sensationalism, while offering a fair field for his talents. It is, however, unfortunately impossible entirely to saparate the sensational from the criminal, and a chroniclr is left in the dilemma that he must either sacrifice details which are essential to his statement and so give a false impression of the problem, or he must use matter which chance, and not choice, has provided him with. With this short preface I shall turn to my notes of what proved to be a strange, though a peculiarly terrible, chain of events. It was a blazing hot day in August. BakerStreet was like an oven, and the glare of the sunlight upon the yellow brickwork of the house across the road was painful to the eye. It was hard to believe that these were the same walls which loomed so gloomily through the fogs of winter. Our blinds were half-drawn, and Holmes lay curled upon the sofa, reading and re-reading a letter which he had received by the morning post. For myself, my term of service in India had trained me to stand heat better than cold, and a thermometer at ninety was no hardiship. But the morning paper was uninteresting. Parliament had risen. Everybody was out of town, and I yearned for the glades of the New Forest or the shingle of Southsea. A depleted bank account had caused me too postpone my holiday, and as to my companion, neither the country nor the sea presented the slightest attraction to him. He loved to lie in the very center of five millions of people, with his filaments stretching out and running through them, responsive to every little rumour or suspicion of unsolved crime. Appreciation of nature found no place among his many gifts, and his only change was when he turned his mind from the evil-doer of the town to track down his brother of the country. e e
Childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and alcohol dependence: a 1-year follow-up.

AIMS To investigate the onset and outcome of alcohol dependence in subjects with childhood attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a Turkish sample. METHODS Among patients being treated for alcohol dependence, 15 had a history of childhood ADHD [ADHD (+)] and 45 did not [ADHD (-)]. ADHD history was assessed according to DSM-IV criteria by a child and adolescent psychiatrist who interviewed the subjects and their close relatives. Severity of dependence was measured by the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test. Subjects were followed up for 1 year for the assessment of relapse. RESULTS The age of onset for alcohol drinking, alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence were significantly lower in the ADHD (+) group than in the ADHD (-) group. Comorbid substance use was more prevalent in the ADHD (+) group. The study found no significant difference in the severity of alcohol dependence between ADHD (+) and ADHD (-) groups. During follow-up, 80% of the ADHD (+) subjects relapsed, compared with 55.6% in the ADHD (-) group. Relapse occurred on average 2.74 months earlier in the ADHD (+) group than in the ADHD (-) group. CONCLUSIONS As found in other countries, alcohol dependence in Turkish subjects with childhood ADHD starts early and is relatively resistant to treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment of ADHD might help prevent alcohol- and substance-related disorders.
Improved seizure control by alternating therapy of levetiracetam and valproate in epileptic rats

Purpose: Tolerance to drug treatment is a serious problem in the treatment of epilepsy. We previously showed that tolerance to levetiracetam (LEV) developed within 4 days after the start of the treatment in a rat model for spontaneous seizures after electrically induced status epilepticus. In the current study we tested whether the development of tolerance to LEV could be prevented by alternating between LEV and valproate (VPA) treatment.