Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intersecting Identities: Mentoring Contributions and Challenges for Black Faculty Mentoring Black Undergraduates

This article employs an intersectional analysis of the experiences of Black faculty at an elite US university who have mentored Black undergraduates, and focuses on faculty’s meaning making of their connection to their mentees, and challenges they face in these relationships. Findings reveal that faculty found their shared cultural background enhanced mentoring, and they worked hard to establish trust with their mentees, absent at times in mentees’ relationships with White faculty. Participants shared barriers to engaging in mentoring relationships, with gender and age intersecting with race for unique challenges and benefits for the subjects. Policy recommendations are made to support junior faculty mentors in the tenure granting process, and produce incentives for all faculty to share the responsibility of mentoring.
Toppling hierarchies? Media and information literacies, ethnicity, and performative media practices

This article suggests how we should study media and information literacies (MIL) and do so at a time, when young people nurture these literacies through multiple media practices and across spaces of learning. Our basic argument is this: in order to gain a robust knowledge base for the development of MIL we need to study literacy practices beyond print literacy and numeracy, and we need to study these practices beyond formal spaces of learning. The argument is unfolded with particular focus on ethnic minority youth since this group routinely figures as under-achieving in studies of school literacy, such as Programme for International Student Assessment. Based on a brief overview of literacy studies in view of digitization and a critical examination of recent studies of youthful media practices and ethnicity, the argument is illustrated through an empirical analysis that draws on results from a nationally representative survey of media uses among Danes aged 13–23 years. The analysis demonstrates that ethnic minority youth offer the most serious challenge to existing literacy hierarchies found in formal education. We discuss the implications of these results for educational policy-making and for future research on MIL, advocating inclusive approaches in terms of media for learning and spaces of learning.
Pain Catastrophising Affects Cortical Responses to Viewing Pain in Others

Pain catastrophising is an exaggerated cognitive attitude implemented during pain or when thinking about pain. Catastrophising was previously associated with increased pain severity, emotional distress and disability in chronic pain patients, and is also a contributing factor in the development of neuropathic pain. To investigate the neural basis of how pain catastrophising affects pain observed in others, we acquired EEG data in groups of participants with high (High-Cat) or low (Low-Cat) pain catastrophising scores during viewing of pain scenes and graphically matched pictures not depicting imminent pain. The High-Cat group attributed greater pain to both pain and non-pain pictures. Source dipole analysis of event-related potentials during picture viewing revealed activations in the left (PHGL) and right (PHGR) paraphippocampal gyri, rostral anterior (rACC) and posterior cingulate (PCC) cortices. The late source activity (600–1100 ms) in PHGL and PCC was augmented in High-Cat, relative to Low-Cat, participants. Conversely, greater source activity was observed in the Low-Cat group during the mid-latency window (280–450 ms) in the rACC and PCC. Low-Cat subjects demonstrated a significantly stronger correlation between source activity in PCC and pain and arousal ratings in the long latency window, relative to high pain catastrophisers. Results suggest augmented activation of limbic cortex and higher order pain processing cortical regions during the late processing period in high pain catastrophisers viewing both types of pictures. This pattern of cortical activations is consistent with the distorted and magnified cognitive appraisal of pain threats in high pain catastrophisers. In contrast, high pain catastrophising individuals exhibit a diminished response during the mid-latency period when attentional and top-down resources are ascribed to observed pain.
Comparison of osteogenic potentials of human rat BMP4 and BMP6 gene therapy using [E1-] and [E1-,E2b-] adenoviral vectors

Osteogenic potentials of some recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) first-generation adenoviral vectors (ADhBMPs) are significantly limited in immunocompetent animals. It is unclear what role expression of viral proteins and foreign proteins transduced by adenoviral vectors play in the host immune response and in ectopic bone formation. In this study two sets of experiments were designed and performed. First, rat BMP6 cDNA were amplified, sequenced, and recombined in first-generation adenoviral vector (ADrBMP6). A comparison of human and rat BMP6 adenoviral vectors demonstrated identical osteogenic activities in both immunodeficient and immunocompetent rats. Second, the activities of recombinant human BMP6 in E1- (ADhBMP6) and [E1-,E2b-] ( [E1-,E2b-]ADGFP&hBMP6, and [E1-,E2b-]ADhBMP6) adenoviral vectors were compared in both in vitro and in vivo models. Similar activities of these two generations of BMP adenoviral vectors were found in all models. These results indicate that the amount of viral gene expression and the source of the BMP cDNA are not major factors in the interruption of osteogenic potentials of recombinant BMP6 adenoviral vectors in immunocompetent animals.
Performance Optimization of GA Based Planar Mechanism Synthesis

This paper present the analysis of the manipulation of some parameters to improve the performance of genetic algorithm based planar mechanism synthesis, such as the mutation and crossover probability and the population size, applied to a specific case of dimensional optimization, to obtain the best results for a group of design variables that achieve the best performance in the design of planar mechanisms, whose evaluation is expressed by means of an objective function that has to meet certain restrictions or requirements to minimize the error between the desired and generated trajectory of the coupler link, since the objective of path generation is to find the mechanism that properly describes the desired curve in shape, size, orientation and position. Two examples are given for illustration, for which the mentioned parameters are manipulated to see the effects of these on the final result for the minimization of the error and the value of variables involved in the dimensions of the links and the motion angles.
Major Conformational Changes Occur during the Transition from an Initiation Complex to an Elongation Complex by T7 RNA Polymerase*

To examine changes that occur during the transition from an initiation complex (IC) to an elongation complex (EC) in T7 RNA polymerase (RNAP), we used nucleic acid-protein cross-linking methods to probe interactions of the RNAP with RNA and DNA in a halted EC. As the RNA is displaced from the RNA-DNA hybrid ∼9 bp upstream from the active site (at −9) it interacts with a region within the specificity loop (residues 744–750) and is directed toward a positively charged surface that surrounds residues Lys-302 and Lys-303. Surprisingly, the template and non-template strands of the DNA at the upstream edge of the hybrid (near the site where the RNA is displaced) interact with a region in the N-terminal domain of the RNAP (residues 172–191) that is far away from the specificity loop before isomerization (in the IC). To bring these two regions of the RNAP into proximity, major conformational changes must occur during the transition from an IC to an EC. The observed nucleic acid-protein interactions help to explain the behavior of a number of mutant RNAPs that are affected at various stages in the initiation process and in termination.
Automatic Music Mood Classification Based on Timbre and Modulation Features

In recent years, many short-term timbre and long-term modulation features have been developed for content-based music classification. However, two operations in modulation analysis are likely to smooth out useful modulation information, which may degrade classification performance. To deal with this problem, this paper proposes the use of a two-dimensional representation of acoustic frequency and modulation frequency to extract joint acoustic frequency and modulation frequency features. Long-term joint frequency features, such as acoustic-modulation spectral contrast/valley (AMSC/AMSV), acoustic-modulation spectral flatness measure (AMSFM), and acoustic-modulation spectral crest measure (AMSCM), are then computed from the spectra of each joint frequency subband. By combining the proposed features, together with the modulation spectral analysis of MFCC and statistical descriptors of short-term timbre features, this new feature set outperforms previous approaches with statistical significance.
Comparison of the Drug-Drug Interactions Potential of Erlotinib and Gefitinib via Inhibition of UDP-Glucuronosyltransferases

We aimed to investigate and compare the effects of erlotinib and gefitinib on UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT) activities and to quantitatively evaluate their drug-drug interaction (DDI) potential due to UGT inhibition. The inhibitory effects of erlotinib and gefitinib on UGTs were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography by measuring the formation rates for 4-methylumbelliferone (4-MU) glucuronide, imipramine N-glucuronide, and bilirubin glucuronides using recombinant human UGT isoforms and human liver microsomes (HLMs) in the absence or presence of erlotinib and gefitinib. Inhibition kinetic studies were conducted. Area under the curve (AUC) ratios were used to predict the risk of potential DDI in vivo. Erlotinib exhibited selective potent competitive inhibition against 4-MU glucuronidation by UGT1A1, and gefitinib demonstrated a wide range of inhibition against UGT-mediated 4-MU glucuronidation, particularly against UGT1A1, UGT1A7, UGT1A9, and UGT2B7. Erlotinib also exerted potent mixed inhibition against bilirubin glucuronidation in HLMs. We estimated that coadministration of erlotinib at 100 mg/day or higher doses may result in at least a 30% increase in the AUC of drugs predominantly cleared by UGT1A1. Thus, the coadministration of erlotinib with drugs primarily cleared by UGT1A1 may result in potential DDI. In contrast, gefitinib is unlikely to cause a clinically significant DDI through inhibition of glucuronidation.
Secretion in Dendritic Cells Proinflammatory Cytokine and IFN-CD45 Regulates TLR-Induced

2 CD45 is a leukocyte-speciﬁc protein tyrosine phosphatase and an important regulator of AgR signaling in lymphocytes. However, its function in other leukocytes is not well-understood. In this study, we examine the function of CD45 in dendritic cells (DCs). Analysis of DCs from CD45-positive and CD45-null mice revealed that CD45 is not required for the development of DCs but does inﬂuence DC maturation induced by TLR agonists. CD45 affected the phosphorylation state of Lyn, Hck, and Fyn in bone marrow-derived DCs and dysregulated LPS-induced Lyn activation. CD45 affected TLR4-induced proinﬂammatory cytokine and IFN- (cid:1) secretion and TLR4-activated CD45-null DCs had a reduced ability to activate NK and Th1 cells to produce IFN- (cid:2) . Interestingly, the effect of CD45 on TLR-induced cytokine secretion depended on the TLR activated. Analysis of CD45-negative DCs indicated a negative effect of CD45 on TLR2 and 9, MyD88-dependent cytokine production, and a positive effect on TLR3 and 4, MyD88-independent IFN- (cid:1) secretion. This indicates a new role for CD45 in regulating TLR-induced responses in DCs and implicates CD45 in a wider regulatory role in innate and adaptive immunity. The Journal of Immunology, 2008, 180: 8020–8029.
The impact of vibrotactile biofeedback on the excessive walking sway and the postural control in elderly

Gait and postural control are important aspects of human movement and balance. Normal movement control in human is subject to change with aging when the nervous system, comprising somatosensory, visual senses, spatial orientation senses, and neuromuscular control starts to degrade. As a result, the body movement control such as the lateral sway while walking is affected which has been shown to be a significant cause of falling among the elderly. Biofeedback has been investigated to assist elderly improve their body movement and postural ability, by supplementing the feedback to the nervous system. In this paper, we propose a wearable low-power sensor system capable of characterizing lateral sway and gait parameters. Then, it can provide corrective feedback to reduce excessive sway in real-time via vibratory feedback modules. Real-time and low-power characteristics along with wearability of our proposed system allow long-term continuous subjects' sway monitoring while giving direct feedback to enhance walking sway and prevent falling. It can also be used in the clinics as a tool for evaluating the risks of falls, and training users to better maintain their balance. The effectiveness of the biofeedback system was evaluated on 12 older adults as they performed gait and stance tasks with and without biofeedback. Significant improvement (p-value < 0.1) in sway angle in variance of the sway angle, variance of gait phases, and in postural control while on perturbed surface was detected when the proposed sway error feedback system was used.
Balancing the risks and benefits of drinking water disinfection: disability adjusted life-years on the scale.

To evaluate the applicability of disability adjusted life-years (DALYs) as a measure to compare positive and negative health effects of drinking water disinfection, we conducted a case study involving a hypothetical drinking water supply from surface water. This drinking water supply is typical in The Netherlands. We compared the reduction of the risk of infection with Cryptosporidium parvum by ozonation of water to the concomitant increase in risk of renal cell cancer arising from the production of bromate. We applied clinical, epidemiologic, and toxicologic data on morbidity and mortality to calculate the net health benefit in DALYs. We estimated the median risk of infection with C. parvum as 10(-3)/person-year. Ozonation reduces the median risk in the baseline approximately 7-fold, but bromate is produced in a concentration above current guideline levels. However, the health benefits of preventing gastroenteritis in the general population and premature death in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome outweigh health losses by premature death from renal cell cancer by a factor of > 10. The net benefit is approximately 1 DALY/million person-years. The application of DALYs in principle allows us to more explicitly compare the public health risks and benefits of different management options. In practice, the application of DALYs may be hampered by the substantial degree of uncertainty, as is typical for risk assessment. ImagesFigure 1Figure 2Figure 3Figure 4Figure 5Figure 6Figure 7
[Heme biosynthesis].

300--400 mg of heme is synthesized daily in the organism. Heme is the prosthetic groups of hemoglobulin, cytochromes and other hemoproteins. Major sites of heme synthesis are bone marrow and liver. At least 7 enzymes and intermediary products are involved in the sequence of reactions that lead from glycine and succinyl coenzyme A to heme. delta-Aminole-vulinic acid synthetase, the first enzyme in the sequence of reactions, is rate-limiting for heme formation and important regulatory events are directed at this enzyme.
Transfer Function Analysis of Cerebral Hemodynamics in Patients with Carotid Stenosis

This study evaluates the validity of the transfer function analysis of spontaneous fluctuations of arterial blood pressure (ABP) and blood flow velocity of the middle cerebral artery (MCAFV) as a simple, convenient method to assess human cerebral autoregulation in patients with carotid stenosis. Eighty-three consecutive patients with various degrees of carotid stenosis and 37 healthy controls were enrolled. The carotid stenosis was graded based on the diagnostic criteria of duplex ultrasound. Instantaneous bilateral MCAFV and ABP of all participants were assessed noninvasively using transcranial Doppler sonography and the servocontrolled infrared finger plethysmography, respectively. Spectral analyses of ABP and MCAFV were performed by fast Fourier transform. The fluctuations in ABP as well as in MCAFV were diffracted into three components at specific frequency ranges designated as high-frequency (HF; 0.15 to 0.4 Hz), low-frequency (LF; 0.04 to 0.15 Hz), and very low-frequency (VLF; 0.016 to 0.04 Hz). Cross-spectral analysis was applied to quantify the coherence, transfer phase, and magnitude in individual HF, LF, and VLF components. Transcranial Doppler CO2 vasomotor reactivity was measured with 5% CO2 inhalation. The LF phase angle (r = −0.53, P < 0.001); magnitude of VLF (r = −0.29, P = 0.002), LF (r = −0.35, P < 0.001), and HF (r = −0.47, P < 0.001); and CO2 vasomotor reactivity (r = −0.66, P < 0.001) were negatively correlated with the severity of stenosis. Patients with unilateral high-grade (greater than 90% stenosis) carotid stenosis demonstrated significant reduction in LF phase angle (P < 0.001) and HF magnitude (P = 0.018) on the ipsilateral side of the affected vessel compared with their contralateral side. The study also revealed a high sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy using LF phase angle and HF magnitude to detect a high-grade carotid stenosis. A strong correlation existed between the LF phase angle and the CO2 vasomotor reactivity test (r = 0.62, P < 0.001), and the correlation between the HF magnitude and the CO2 vasomotor reactivity (r = 0.44, P < 0.001) was statistically significant as well. We conclude that transfer function analysis of spontaneous fluctuations of MCAFV and ABP could be used to identify hemodynamically significant high-grade carotid stenosis with impaired cerebral autoregulation or vasomotor reserve.
Renforcement de la résilience par un apprentissage post-crise : étude longitudinale sur deux périodes de turbulence

Les recherches sur les crises ont beaucoup etudie la prevention et la gestion des crises qui permettent a l'organisation d'absorber le choc et ainsi de faire preuve de resilience. Des travaux plus recents - et moins nombreux - se sont interesses a la phase suivante que constitue l'apprentissage post-crise. Notre recherche prolonge ces travaux en etudiant les consequences de la gestion de crise et de l'apprentissage post-crise sur l'impact et la gestion de la turbulence suivante. Pour cela, nous avons mene une etude longitudinale retrospective de quatre processus de gestion de crise dans le secteur du tourisme, depuis le declenchement de la crise jusqu'a la gestion de la turbulence suivante. Nos analyses montrent qu'une crise issue d'une turbulence de l'environnement peut renforcer la resilience de l'organisation par deux processus complementaires lies : un apprentissage de renforcement positif au niveau de l'absorption du choc et un apprentissage double boucle incluant des changements strategiques permettant de reduire la vulnerabilite de l'organisation.
Using Factor Analysis to Investigate Accommodations Used by Students with Disabilities on an English-Language Arts Assessment

This study compared the underlying factors measured by a state standards-based grade 4 English-Language Arts (ELA) assessment given to several groups of students. The focus of the research was to gather evidence regarding whether or not the tests measured the same construct or constructs for students without disabilities who took the test under standard conditions, students with learning disabilities who took the test under standard conditions, students with learning disabilities who took the test with accommodations as specified in their Individualized Educational Program (IEP) or 504 plan, and students with learning disabilities who took the test with a read-aloud accommodation/modification. The ELA assessment contained both reading and writing portions. A total of 75 multiple-choice items were analyzed. A series of nested hypotheses were tested to determine if the ELA measured the same factors for students with disabilities who took the assessment with and without accommodations and students without disabilities who took the test without accommodations. The results of these analyses, although not conclusive, indicated that the assessment had a similar factor structure for all groups included in the study.
The Coffee Challenge: A new method for the study of everyday action errors

Errors in everyday activities pose significant consequences for individuals with mild cognitive deficits. However, there are few performance-based methods available to study action in these populations; the Coffee Challenge (CC) was designed for this purpose. Experiment 1 examined CC performance in healthy participants across 10 practice trials. Analyses showed evidence for routinization after 10 trials. In Experiment 2, CC performance was disrupted by dividing attention. Errors increased significantly, but performance was not qualitatively different from baseline. The results shed light on action impairments in patient populations and validate the CC as a promising new tool for future studies.
Update on the rational use of 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan in the treatment of follicular lymphoma

The development of radiolabeled antibodies against CD20 has facilitated targeted treatment of follicular lymphoma (FL). By using 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan (Zevalin®), a radionuclide (yttrium-90, linked by the chelator tiuxetan to the antibody ibritumomab) is brought into the vicinity of lymphoma cells. By the so-called cross-fire effect, this beta emitter has the capacity to destroy not only the lymphoma cells having bound the antibody, but also neighboring lymphoma cells. Currently this antibody is licensed in the European Union for use in relapsed or refractory FL. It is anticipated that this drug will also be approved for use as consolidation therapy after successful first-line treatment. Here we first will review the published literature supporting the use of 90Y-ibritumomab tiuxetan in the aforementioned indications and emerging data showing applicability of ibritumomab tiuxetan as sole first-line therapy for FL, as well as in the transplant setting. Possible strategies of incorporating ibritumomab tiuxetan into the treatment algorithm of FL are discussed.
Relationship of Negative Affect and Outcome of an Opioid Therapy Trial Among Low Back Pain Patients

Objectives: Patients with chronic noncancer pain frequently report symptoms of depression and anxiety (negative affect), which are associated with higher ratings of pain intensity and a greater likelihood of being prescribed chronic opioid therapy. The purpose of this secondary analysis was to test the hypothesis that initial levels of negative affect can predict treatment‐related outcomes in a double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study of extended‐release (ER) hydromorphone among opioid‐tolerant patients with chronic low back pain.
Natural Law and Moral Philosophy: From Grotius to the Scottish Enlightenment

This major contribution to the history of philosophy provides the most comprehensive guide to modern natural law theory available, sets out the full background to liberal ideas of rights and contractarianism, and offers an extensive study of the Scottish Enlightenment. The time span covered is considerable: from the natural law theories of Grotius and Suarez in the early seventeenth century to the American Revolution and the beginnings of utilitarianism. After a detailed survey of modern natural law theory, the book focuses on the Scottish Enlightenment and its European and American connections. Knud Haakonssen explains the relationship between natural law and civic humanist republicanism, and he shows the relevance of these ideas for the understanding of David Hume and Adam Smith. The result is a completely revised background to modern ideas of liberalism and communitarianism.