Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ceruloplasmin (2-D PAGE) Pattern and Copper Content in Serum and Brain of Alzheimer Disease Patients

A dysfunction in copper homeostasis seems to occur in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We previously evidenced that an excess of non-ceruloplasmin-copper (NCC) correlated with the main functional, anatomical as well as cerebrospinal markers of the disease. Aim of our study was to investigate ceruloplasmin isoforms as potential actors in this AD copper dysfunction. Our data show that AD patients have ceruloplasmin fragments of low molecular weight (<50 kDa) both in their serum and brain, contrary to healthy controls. Ceruloplasmin isoforms of higher molecular weight (115 and 135 kDa in serum and 135 kDa in brain), as well as copper levels in the brain, instead, do not seem to mark a difference between AD and healthy subjects. These data suggest a ceruloplasmin fragmentation in the serum of AD patients. Some clues in this direction have been found also in the AD brain.
Relationship of aging and nutritional status to innate immunity in tube-fed bedridden patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Aging and malnutrition are known to influence immune functions. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship of aging and malnutrition to innate immune functions in tube-fed bedridden patients. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional survey was performed in 71 tube-fed bedridden patients aged 50-95 years (mean age±SD, 80.2±8.5 years) with serum albumin concentrations between 2.5 and 3.5 g/dL. We evaluated associations of age and nutritional variables with natural-killer cell activity, neutrophilphagocytic activity, and neutrophil-sterilizing activity. Nutritional variables included body mass index, weightadjusted energy intake, total lymphocyte count, and serum concentrations of albumin, transferrin, prealbumin, total cholesterol, C-reactive protein, and zinc. RESULTS Natural-killer cell activity, neutrophil-phagocytic activity, and neutrophil-sterilizing activity were normal or increased in 67 (94%), 63 (89%), and 69 (97%) patients, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis with a backward elimination method showed that natural-killer cell activity correlated negatively with aging and lymphocyte counts (p<0.01 for both) but positively with body mass index and transferrin (p<0.01 for both). Neutrophil-phagocytic and neutrophil-sterilizing activities were not associated with any variables. CONCLUSIONS In tube-fed bedridden patients with hypo-albuminemia, natural-killer cell activity may be associated with aging, body mass index, transferrin, and lymphocyte counts.
Changes in Gait Symmetry After Training on a Treadmill with Biofeedback in Chronic Stroke Patients: A 6-Month Follow-Up from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background One of the most significant challenges for patients who survive a stroke is relearning basic motor tasks such as walking. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether training on a treadmill with visual biofeedback improves gait symmetry, as well as spatiotemporal and kinematic gait parameters, in stroke patients. Material/Methods Thirty patients in the chronic phase after a stroke were randomly allocated into groups with a rehabilitation program of treadmill training with or without visual biofeedback. The training program lasted 10 days. Spatiotemporal and kinematic gait parameters were evaluated. For all parameters analyzed, a symmetrical index was calculated. Follow-up studies were performed 6 months after completion of the program. Results The symmetrical index had significantly normalized in terms of the step length (p=0.006), stance phase time, and inter-limb ratio in the intervention group. After 6 months, the improvement in the symmetry of the step length had been maintained. In the control group, no statistically significant change was observed in any of the parameters tested. There was no significant difference between the intervention group and the control group on completion of the program or at 6 months following the completion of the program. Conclusions Training on a treadmill has a significant effect on the improvement of spatiotemporal parameters and symmetry of gait in patients with chronic stroke. In the group with the treadmill training using visual biofeedback, no significantly greater improvement was observed.
Individual Financial Donations to Charities in The Netherlands: Why, How and How Much?

ABSTRACT Financial giving behavior of individuals to charities is analyzed, using demographic, personality and behavioral variables for explanation. Both the probability of a donation and the amount of the donation are analyzed, using data of 500 Dutch households. Donors give because they appreciate the good work of the organization, because it gives them a good feeling, or because they feel personally involved. Empathy with the final receivers influences the decision to give, but not the amount that is donated. When donations become a part of the donor's “mental accounting” system, the average amount given is greater than for ad hoc donations.
Linguistic Mechanisms Cause Rapid Behavior Change Part Two: How Linguistic Frames Affect Motivation

Written and spoken language contains inherent mechanisms driving motivation. Accessing and modifying psycholinguistic mechanisms, links language frames to changes in behavior within the context of motivational profiling. For example, holding an object like an imported apple feels safe until one is informed it was grown in a toxic waste dump. Instantly linguistic processing changes the apple’s meaning to dangerous. Qualitative data change from static into dynamic measures of motivational changes. Linguistic cause-effect mechanisms dramatically enhance the results and meaning of qualitative research methods, resulting new applications for behavioral engineering, including opinion polling, persuasive marketing campaigns, individual psychotherapy and executive performance coaching. Motivational mechanisms, especially linguistic frames, engineer deliberate and predictable improvements in
E-recruitment: Towards an Ubiquitous Recruitment Process and Candidate Relationship Management

Up to now, there has been little research on the impact of e-recruitment on the recruitment process as a whole. The present study fills part of this gap by investigating the effect of e-recruitment on the design of the recruitment process. Three explorative case studies were carried out in three large organisations in Denmark in 2008–2010. The findings indicate that e-recruitment transforms the traditional recruitment process into a time- and space-independent, collaborative hiring process. The most significant changes are recorded in the sequence and increased divisibility of main recruitment tasks and subtasks. For management, the main task is now that of communicating with candidates. In addition, a new on-going task of maintaining a corporate career website has become an integral part of the new recruitment process. The new design is presented in the following, and its implications briefly discussed.
A Meta-Analytic Validation of the Dunn and Dunn Model of Learning-Style Preferences

Abstract Forty-two experimental studies based on the Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model and conducted between 1980–1990 were identified to determine the value of teaching students through their learning-style preferences. The studies were rated according to Lytton and Romney's (1991) Quality Rating Scales. A jury determined that, of the 42 studies, 6 studies evidenced serious threats to validity. The 36 remaining studies provided a database of 3,181 participants. Results were synthesized through meta-analysis. Eight variables coded for each study produced 65 individual effect sizes. The overall, unweighted group effect size value (r) was . 384, and the weighted effect size value was . 353 with a mean difference (d) of 755. Referring to the standard normal curve, this suggests that students whose learning styles are accommodated would be expected to achieve 75% of a standard deviation higher than students who have not had their learning styles accommodated. This finding indicates that matching students' lear.
Microsaccadic Responses Indicate Fast Categorization of Sounds: A Novel Approach to Study Auditory Cognition

The mental chronometry of the human brain's processing of sounds to be categorized as targets has intensively been studied in cognitive neuroscience. According to current theories, a series of successive stages consisting of the registration, identification, and categorization of the sound has to be completed before participants are able to report the sound as a target by button press after ∼300–500 ms. Here we use miniature eye movements as a tool to study the categorization of a sound as a target or nontarget, indicating that an initial categorization is present already after 80–100 ms. During visual fixation, the rate of microsaccades, the fastest components of miniature eye movements, is transiently modulated after auditory stimulation. In two experiments, we measured microsaccade rates in human participants in an auditory three-tone oddball paradigm (including rare nontarget sounds) and observed a difference in the microsaccade rates between targets and nontargets as early as 142 ms after sound onset. This finding was replicated in a third experiment with directed saccades measured in a paradigm in which tones had to be matched to score-like visual symbols. Considering the delays introduced by (motor) signal transmission and data analysis constraints, the brain must have differentiated target from nontarget sounds as fast as 80–100 ms after sound onset in both paradigms. We suggest that predictive information processing for expected input makes higher cognitive attributes, such as a sound's identity and category, available already during early sensory processing. The measurement of eye movements is thus a promising approach to investigate hearing.
SimuLTE - A modular system-level simulator for LTE/LTE-A networks based on OMNeT++

This paper describes SimuLTE, an open-source system-level simulator for LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) networks. SimuLTE is based on OMNeT++, a well-known, widely-used modular simulation framework, which offers a high degree of experiment support. As such, it can be seamlessly integrated with all the networkoriented modules of the OMNeT++ family, such as INET, thus enabling - among other things - credible simulation of end-to-end real-life applications across heterogeneous technologies. We describe the modeling choices and general architecture of the SimuLTE software, with particular emphasis on the MAC and scheduling functions, and show performance evaluation results obtained using the simulator.
Nudging with Information: A Randomized Field Experiment on Reminders and Feedback

Can people be helped to stick to their plans with a little help from information? We provide a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of reminders and feedback on investment activities involving up-front costs and delayed benefits, such as education and healthy behavior. By means of a randomized field experiment, we show that simple weekly reminders induce users of a gym to substantially increase their levels of physical exercise. We show that limited attention helps explain our results, and we find evidence of mental accounting in users' response to the stimulus of reminders. These results show that virtuous behavior, such as following a healthy life style, can be promoted without the need for monetary incentives: providing incentives through information is both effective and cheap.
Pyrene binary probes for unambiguous detection of mRNA using time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy

We report here the design, synthesis and application of pyrene binary oligonucleotide probes for selective detection of cellular mRNA. The detection strategy is based on the formation of a fluorescent excimer when two pyrene groups are brought into close proximity upon hybridization of the probes with the target mRNA. The pyrene excimer has a long fluorescence lifetime (>40 ns) compared with that of cellular extracts (∼7 ns), allowing selective detection of the excimer using time-resolved emission spectra (TRES). Optimized probes were used to target a specific region of sensorin mRNA yielding a strong excimer emission peak at 485 nm in the presence of the target and no excimer emission in the absence of the target in buffer solution. While direct fluorescence measurement of neuronal extracts showed a strong fluorescent background, obscuring the detection of the excimer signal, time-resolved emission measurements indicated that the emission decay of the cellular extracts is ∼8 times faster than that of the pyrene excimer probes. Thus, using TRES of the pyrene probes, we are able to selectively detect mRNA in the presence of cellular extracts, demonstrating the potential for application of pyrene excimer probes for imaging mRNAs in cellular environments that have background fluorescence.
ITGBL1 Predicts a Poor Prognosis and Correlates EMT Phenotype in Gastric Cancer

Integrin, beta-like 1 (ITGBL1), a β-integrin-related extracellular matrix protein, was found more commonly up-regulated in gastric cancer (GC) by screening and analyzing Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and Oncomine databases, reminding us to explore its prognostic significance in GC. In our current study, we observed that ITGBL1 expression was significantly up-regulated in GC compared with normal controls in clinical specimens. In addition, elevated ITGBL1 expression was positively correlated with patients' tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage and distant metastasis. Kaplan-Meier analysis indicated that high ITGBL1 expression was significantly associated with shorter survival times in GC patients. Multivariate Cox regression analysis confirmed ITGBL1 expression as an independent prognostic factor in GC. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) of multiple GEO datasets revealed a close relationship between ITGBL1 expression and the KRAS/epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) signaling pathway. In conclusion, these data provide evidences that ITGBL1 is a potential predictor and may be involved in cancer cell invasion and metastasis via inducing EMT, and the ITGBL1-related pathways may represent a novel therapeutic strategy for treatment of GC.
Asynchronous Online Access as an Accommodation on Students with Learning Disabilities and/or Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders in Postsecondary STEM Courses.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether asynchronous online access of course recordings was beneficial to students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) courses. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews lasting 40 minutes. A total of 11 student participants with LD and/or ADHD were interviewed. Student participants were enrolled in math, biology, and chemistry courses that utilized asynchronous online access of digital recordings. Interview data were individually analyzed and compared through a cross-case analysis. Students reported that the use of asynchronous online access enhanced their learning experiences according to six themes: clarity, organization, asynchronous access, convenience, achievement, and disability coping mechanism.
Solving Planning-Graph by Compiling It into CSP

Although the deep affinity between Graphplan's backward search, and the process of solving constraint satisfaction problems has been noted earlier, these relations have hither-to been primarily used to adapt CSP search techniques into the backward search phase of Graphplan. This paper describes GP-CSP, a system that does planning by automatically converting Graphplan's planning graph into a CSP encoding, and solving the CSP encoding using standard CSP solvers. Our comprehensive empirical evaluation of GP-CSP demonstrates that it is quite competitive with both standard Graphplan and Blackbox system, which compiles planning graphs into SAT encodings. We discuss the many advantages offered by focusing on CSP encodings rather than SAT encodings, including the fact that by exploiting implicit constraint representations, GP-CSP tends to be less susceptible to memory blow-up associated with methods that compile planning problems into SAT encodings. Our work is inspired by the success of van Beek & Chen's CPLAN system. However, in contrast to CPLAN, which expects hand-coded CSP encodings for individual domains and problems, GP-CSP is able to take domain descriptions in STRIPS (PDDL) representation, and automatically generate the CSP encodings.
LACTATE DEHYDROGENASE ISOZYMES IN TILAPIINE FISHES (CICHLIDAE): TISSUE EXPRESSION AND GENETIC VARIABILITY PATTERNS

The tissue specific LDH isozyme pattern is examined in three species of the economically important tilapiine fishes, Oreochromis niloticus, O. aureus and Tilapia zillii, using horizontal starch gel electrophoresis. Like the majority of vertebrates, tilapiine fishes exhibited the usual relative electrophoretic mobility of the A4 and B4-that is, B4 carries a greater net negative charge. Isozyme of A4 homotetramer was predominant in the skeletal muscle, while B4 one was greatly expressed in heart muscle. Heteropolymeric isozymes of A and B composition were recognized. They were expressed in some organs and absent in others. Therefore, the present study indicated that tilapiine species could be considered 3-5 isozyme fishes. The total number of LDH isozymes of A and B composition is under genetic control of two loci, Ldh-A and Ldh-B. The LDH patterns of eye and brain displayed an additional band which was detected anodal to B4. This anodal band is designated as LDH-C4 isozyme. The latter isozyme is encoded in a third Ldh locus designated as Ldh-C. While the brain has heteropolymers of CA, CB and CAB polypeptide composition, the eye was the only organ that expressed the C4 homopolymer. The present investigation showed that C gene was able to function but at lower levels in non-neural tissues. The LDH isozyme patterns of muscle, heart and eye were also compared among the three tilapiine species. The isozymatic LDH patterns in the eye of the examined species were similar except at Ldh-C locus. The genetically controlled restriction of the heterotetramers assembly along with the homology of the three Ldh loci among species was discussed.
TraumaTalk: content-to-speech generation for decision support at point of care

Communicating information in clinical environments is a crucial concern for medical decision support systems. Some systems can provide this support through text output that can be read by the clinician either from a screen or hard copy. However, speech is often a more appropriate way of conveying information in cases where the decision maker's eyes are already committed to another task or in cases where the telephone is the mode of communication. Some systems synthesize speech directly from text, while others piece together bits of pre-recorded human speech. In either case, producing correct intonation is vital because intonation both aids the listener's comprehension and conveys discourse meaning not necessarily evident in the words alone. Although systems that use text-to-speech or human recorded speech segments sometimes attempt to provide good intonation, they are severely hampered by the fact that intonation spans entire clauses. Systems that connect phonemes, words, or phrases fail to capture this. This paper describes a content-to-speech system that provides spoken decision support for trauma care that is correctly intoned over full clauses.
Invisible Inequality: Social Class and Childrearing in Black Families and White Families

Although family life has an important impact on children's life chances, the mechanisms through which parents transmit advantages are imperfectly understood. An ethnographic data set of white children and black children approximately 10 years old shows the effects of social class on interactions inside the home. Middle-class parents engage in concerted cultivation by attempting to foster children's talents through organized leisure activities and extensive reasoning. Working-class and poor parents engage in the accomplishment of natural growth, providing the conditions under which children can grow but leaving leisure activities to children themselves. These parents also use directives rather than reasoning. Middle-class children, both white and black, gain an emerging sense of entitlement from their family life. Race had much less impact than social class. Also, differences in a cultural logic of childrearing gave parents and their children differential resources to draw on in their interactions with professionals and other adults outside the home. Middle-class children gained individually insignificant but cumulatively important advantages. Working-class and poor children did not display the same sense of entitlement or advantages. Some areas of family life appeared exempt from the effects of social class, however.
Modernising the misinformation effect: the development of a new stimulus set

Researchers studying the misinformation effect tend to present the event in one of two formats: slides or video. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Videos capture much more information than slides, but slides permit easy counterbalancing of event details. We capitalised on digital technology to create a misinformation event that resolves many of the limitations inherent in earlier formats. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Language: en
Apportioning time for aphasia rehabilitation

Background: In the first issue of the first volume of Aphasiology in 1987, Robert Marshall contributed the first Clinical Forum Target Article entitled Reapportioning time for aphasia rehabilitation: A point of view (Marshall, 1987a), where he built an argument for spending more clinical time with aphasic people who would benefit better from treatment, than those less likely to. Aim: This paper aims to revisit Dr. Marshall's 1987 question, but from a different perspective, by asking whether the time that we, as societies apportion to aphasia and aphasic people matches with what we have learnt about the effectiveness of treatment for aphasia in the past 25 years. Method & Procedure: A short, unsystematic, review that examines recent evidence for the effectiveness of treatment for aphasic impairments. Results: While a wide range of evidence exists supporting the view that treatment for aphasic impairments can be effective, and that aphasia has a more devastating effect upon the lives of aphasic people and their families than any other disease or disability, there is still a significant gap between these findings and the amount of time provided by for treatment. Conclusions: Many people with aphasia can benefit significantly from treatment for their impairments, and even people who have been aphasic for many years can make significant gains. What appears to be particularly important is that treatment should be intensive and of sufficient duration to be effective.
Software-defined network support for transport resilience

Existing methods for traffic resilience at the network and transport layers typically work in isolation, often resorting to inference in fault detection and recovery respectively. This both duplicates functionality across layers, eroding efficiency, and leads to protracted recovery cycles, affecting responsiveness. Such misalignment is particularly at odds with the unprecedented concentration of traffic in data-centers, in which network and hosts are managed in unison. This paper advocates instead a cross-layer approach to traffic resilience. The proposed architecture, INFLEX, builds on the abstractions provided by software-defined networking (SDN) to maintain multiple virtual forwarding planes which the network assigns to flows. In case of path failure, transport protocols pro-actively request to switch plane in a manner which is unilaterally deployable by an edge domain, providing scalable end-to-end forwarding path resilience.