Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ZFP 36 L 1 negatively regulates plasmacytoid differentiation of BCL 1 cells by targeting BLIMP 1 mRNA

The ZFP36/Tis11 family of zinc-finger proteins regulate cellular processes by binding to adenine uridine rich elements in the 39 untranslated regions of various mRNAs and promoting their degradation. We show here that ZFP36L1 expression is largely extinguished during the transition from B cells to plasma cells, in a reciprocal pattern to that of ZFP36 and the plasma cell transcription factor, BLIMP1. Enforced expression of ZFP36L1 in the mouse BCL1 cell line blocked cytokineinduced differentiation while shRNA-mediated knock-down enhanced differentiation. Reconstruction of regulatory networks from microarray gene expression data using the ARACNe algorithm identified candidate mRNA targets for ZFP36L1 including BLIMP1. Genes that displayed down-regulation in plasma cells were significantly over-represented (P = ,0.0001) in a set of previously validated ZFP36 targets suggesting that ZFP36L1 and ZFP36 target distinct sets of mRNAs during plasmacytoid differentiation. ShRNA-mediated knock-down of ZFP36L1 in BCL1 cells led to an increase in levels of BLIMP1 mRNA and protein, but not for mRNAs of other transcription factors that regulate plasmacytoid differentiation (xbp1, irf4, bcl6). Finally, ZFP36L1 significantly reduced the activity of a BLIMP1 39 untranslated region-driven luciferase reporter. Taken together, these findings suggest that ZFP36L1 negatively regulates plasmacytoid differentiation, at least in part, by targeting the expression of BLIMP1. Citation: Nasir A, Norton JD, Baou M, Zekavati A, Bijlmakers M-J, et al. (2012) ZFP36L1 Negatively Regulates Plasmacytoid Differentiation of BCL1 Cells by Targeting BLIMP1 mRNA. PLoS ONE 7(12): e52187. doi:10.1371/journal.pone. 0052187 Editor: Peiwen Fei, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, United States of America Received September 7, 2012; Accepted November 9, 2012; Published December 20, 2012 Copyright: 2012 Nasir et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: The work was supported by a government of Pakistan PhD. Scholarship awarded to AN. This work was supported in part by Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research United Kingdom. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. * E-mail: j.murphy@westminster.ac. uk
Optimum Design of a Five-phase PMSM for Underwater Vehicles by use of PSO

Permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSMs) are efficient motors which have widespread applications in electric industry due to their noticeable features. One of the interesting applications of such motors is in underwater vehicles. In these cases, reaching to minimum volume and high torque of the motor are the major concern. Design optimization can enhance their merits considerably, thus reduce volume and improve performance of motors. In this paper, a new method for optimum design of a five- phase surface-mounted PMSM is presented to achieve minimum loss and magnet volume with an increased torque. A multi-objective optimization is performed in search for optimum dimensions of the motor and its permanent magnets using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The design optimization results in a motor with great improvement regarding the original motor. Finally, finite element analysis is utilized to validate the accuracy of the design.
Bezel-Tap gestures: quick activation of commands from sleep mode on tablets

We present Bezel-Tap Gestures, a novel family of interaction techniques for immediate interaction on handheld tablets regardless of whether the device is alive or in sleep mode. The technique rests on the close succession of two input events: first a bezel tap, whose detection by accelerometers will awake an idle tablet almost instantly, then a screen contact. Field studies confirmed that the probability of this input sequence occurring by chance is very low, excluding the accidental activation concern. One experiment examined the optimal size of the vocabulary of commands for all four regions of the bezel (top, bottom, left, right). Another experiment evaluated two variants of the technique which both allow two-level selection in a hierarchy of commands, the initial bezel tap being followed by either two screen taps or a screen slide. The data suggests that Bezel-Tap Gestures may serve to design large vocabularies of micro-interactions with a sleeping tablet.
Commitment in exchange relations : test of a theory of relational cohesion

Les AA. proposent un modele d'evaluation de la theorie de la cohesion relationnelle. Celle-ci permet de predire comment et quand les individus dans le cadre des echanges se sentent engages dans le jeu relationnel. Celle-ci met en avant une conception dyadique de ce type de relation sociale et affirme qu'une situation percue de plus grande egalite de pouvoir stimule des echanges concus positivement et induit une perception de la relation concue comme une unite coherente
The Reintegration of Sex Offenders: Barriers and Opportunities for Employment

The process of reintegration of offenders after release from prison, or during a community sentence, is a key aim of criminal justice policy. This article provides details from recent research that investigated the barriers and opportunities to employment for sex offenders. The authors describe the barriers that are faced by sex offenders and the anxieties that employers experience when employing sex offenders. The authors conclude that the approach taken by the State is less than reintegrative and serves to increase the barriers and reduce the opportunities for employment for sex offenders.
The Role of Telomerase Protein TERT in Alzheimer's Disease and in Tau-Related Pathology In Vitro

The telomerase reverse transcriptase protein TERT has recently been demonstrated to have a variety of functions both in vitro and in vivo, which are distinct from its canonical role in telomere extension. In different cellular systems, TERT protein has been shown to be protective through its interaction with mitochondria. TERT has previously been found in rodent neurons, and we hypothesize that it might have a protective function in adult human brain. Here, we investigated the expression of TERT at different stages of Alzheimer's disease pathology (Braak Stages I-VI) in situ and the ability of TERT to protect against oxidative damage in an in vitro model of tau pathology. Our data reveal that TERT is expressed in vitro in mouse neurons and microglia, and in vivo in the cytoplasm of mature human hippocampal neurons and activated microglia, but is absent from astrocytes. Intriguingly, hippocampal neurons expressing TERT did not contain hyperphosphorylated tau. Vice versa, neurons that expressed high levels of pathological tau did not appear to express TERT protein. TERT protein colocalized with mitochondria in the hippocampus of Alzheimer's disease brains (Braak Stage VI), as well as in cultured neurons under conditions of oxidative stress. Our in vitro data suggest that the absence of TERT increases ROS generation and oxidative damage in neurons induced by pathological tau. Together, our findings suggest that TERT protein persists in neurons of the adult human brain, where it may have a protective role against tau pathology.
Total Test-Score Variable. An Approach to the Validity Issue—A Comment on Russell’s Zero-Sum Hypothesis

Howard Russell’s paper on problems in international studies (This issue) follows an earlier document (Russell, 1982) in which he discouraged the use of a “total test score” based on the number of items correct in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) tests. After reviewing the Second International Mathematics study (SIMS), he suggested that there might be some interaction between “opportunity to learn,” “curriculum validity,” and “item difficulty. ” It was difficult to address issues raised in the paper directly because the line of argument goes like this: “The International Association for Educational Assessment (IEA) tests can’t be valid because the coverage of the curriculum is less than perfect and is uneven across participating countries. ” Russell (2002) has extended the argument to include perceived problems with the TIMSS. This response addresses the arguments that began in 1982 and reemerged a little more than two decades later, and takes each part of both papers and discusses them in the light of item-response modeling that is consistently used in international studies. The discussion centers on the nature of the measures, the influence of background variables, curriculum links, validity and reliability of the scores, and inferences made as a result of both the accepted approach and Russell’s alternative. Russell takes support from Freudenthal’s (1975) criticism of the First International Mathematics Study (FIMS) and the consequential lack of progress in resolving the problem that he raised at that time. The evidence of this rests with the case of the Ontario data set and its analysis. He points out that “one of the suggestions to accommodate the Freudenthal thesis was generated by the researchers involved in the Second International
Experimental evidence of a link between breeding conditions and the decision to breed or to help in a colonial cooperative bird

In many species mature individuals delay independent reproduction and may help others to reproduce. This behaviour is often explained through ecological constraints, although recently attention has also been paid to the variation in habitat quality. If the quality of vacant habitat influences the fitness trade–off between delaying reproduction and breeding independently, individuals should delay reproduction when conditions for breeding are poor. Yet, no study has experimentally manipulated habitat quality or the conditions experienced during the breeding period to test this assertion conclusively. We report results from an experiment conducted on a colonial cooperative bird with no territory constraints on reproduction. We artificially improved breeding conditions in several colonies of sociable weavers, Philetairus socius, through the provision of an easily obtainable and unlimited supply of food. We provide experimental evidence showing that under enhanced conditions some individuals reduce their age at first reproduction, a greater proportion of colony members engage in independent breeding and proportionally fewer birds act as helpers. Hence, these results also provide evidence for a direct influence of reproductive costs on life–history decisions such as age at first reproduction and breeding and helping behaviours.
The business case method: an examination of a 2009 case competition

The purpose of this paper was to compare, contrast and analyze the business case formats of college students involved in a business case competition. The authors observed and documented teams of business students from 6 colleges in Ontario, Canada. The teams had 20 minutes to prepare a solution from a given business case using their own case format. Findings revealed that colleges used different formats, along with various headings, and in some cases in different sections of their presentations. The paper has contributed to management-education by helping business schools as well as case competition organizers be aware the case format is an important aspect to solving business cases. Further study is required to better understand whether a standardized format or a variety of formats is more effective at making management decisions.
Social and environmental reporting and hegemonic discourse

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the construction/reproduction of capitalist discourse through social and environmental reporting (SER) and, from this, to consider the implications that this may have for the function that SER serves. Design/methodology/approach - The paper employs the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe to frame SER as a hegemonic practice. Laclau and Mouffe's discourse theory is also used as a lens by which to interpret the findings of an empirical study exploring managerial perceptions of SER motivations and organisational-socio-environmental interactions. Findings - The paper finds that both SER and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are driven by numerous motivations, although these motivations essentially form part of a business case. In turn, the necessity of this business case appears to shape and constrain the ideologies that underpin and are communicated through SER. Research limitations/implications - The debate within the SER literature around which set of motivations best explains the existence of SER is challenged here by the notion that the vast majority of these motivations may be understood as falling into some sort of business case. Moreover, this business case is one that constrains the perceived function of practices such as SER and CSR. One limitation of the study relates to the importance of SER in wider processes of ideology construction and dissemination. SER may be peripheral in this regard. Practical implications - A practical implication of this paper is the recognition of the structural and ideological impediments to fuller accountability that are faced by corporate managers. Originality/value - The paper explores SER combining both critical theory and qualitative fieldwork. It is one of very few papers to interpret SER explicitly through the lens of discourse theory.
Comparison of SIGN Pediatric and Fin Nails in Pediatric Diaphyseal Femur Fractures: Early Clinical Results

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of SIGN Pediatric and Fin nails in treating pediatric diaphyseal femur fractures. Design: Prospective case series. Setting: Level I trauma center from 2010 to 2013. Patient/Participants: Eighteen patients (13 male and 5 female) with pediatric diaphyseal femur fractures who did not achieve skeletal maturity. Intervention: Femoral nailing was done using either SIGN Pediatric or Fin nail with hand-reaming without using bone-grafting or image intensifier. Main Outcome Measurements: Patients were evaluated for infection, radiographic parameters, range of movements, time to weight-bearing (partial and complete), revision surgery (if needed), and complications. Results: The average age of patients was 10.2 (±2.1) (range: 6–13) years and average time between injury and surgery was 13 (1–112) days. Fin nail was used in 13 patients, and Pediatric nail in 5 patients. There were no infections in either group. The average time for full weight-bearing was 7.07 weeks in the Fin nail group, and 8.4 weeks in the Pediatric nail group. No repeat surgeries were performed, and there was no case of avascular necrosis of femur head, limb length discrepancy, or any other complication. Conclusions: SIGN Pediatric and Fin nails are an effective treatment modality for pediatric diaphyseal femur fractures with excellent fracture healing with no major complications. Level of Evidence: Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
Gender differences and predictors of workplace deviance behaviour: the role of job stress, job satisfaction and personality on interpersonal and organisational deviance

This study examined the relationship between job satisfaction, job stress and the big five personality traits on organisational and interpersonal workplace deviance among employees of a construction consultancy organisation in Singapore. Gender differences and organisational tenure differences were also analysed. Results suggest that while job stress directly predicted deviance, job satisfaction did not. Extraversion also had a direct effect on workplace deviance and a significant buffering effect on job stress and interpersonal deviance. Overall, males exhibited higher workplace deviance. Those who have worked for over five years in the company exhibited higher scores on organisational deviance but not interpersonal workplace deviance.
When are Two Numerical Polynomials Relatively Prime?

Let a and b be two polynomials having numerical coefficients. We consider the question: When are a and b relatively prime? Since the coefficients of a and b are approximant, the question is the same as: When are two polynomials relatively prime, even after small perturbations of the coefficients? In this paper we provide a numeric parameter for determining whether two polynomials are prime, even under small perturbations of the coefficients. Our methods rely on an inversion formula for Sylvester matrices to establish an effective criterion for relative primeness. The inversion formula can also be used to approximate the condition number of a Sylvester matrix.
Spatial complexity metrics: an investigation of utility

Software comprehension is one of the largest costs in the software lifecycle. In an attempt to control the cost of comprehension, various complexity metrics have been proposed to characterize the difficulty of understanding a program and, thus, allow accurate estimation of the cost of a change. Such metrics are not always evaluated. This paper evaluates a group of metrics recently proposed to assess the "spatial complexity" of a program (spatial complexity is informally defined as the distance a maintainer must move within source code to build a mental model of that code). The evaluation takes the form of a large-scale empirical study of evolving source code drawn from a commercial organization. The results of this investigation show that most of the spatial complexity metrics evaluated offer no substantially better information about program complexity than the number of lines of code. However, one metric shows more promise and is thus deemed to be a candidate for further use and investigation.
A high-speed multi-GPU implementation of bottom-up attention using CUDA

A novel implementation of the saliency map model on a multi-GPU platform using CUDA technology is presented. The saliency map model is a well-known computational model for bottom-up attention selection and serves as a basis of many attention control strategies of cognitive vision systems. A real-time implementation is the prerequisite of an application of bottom-up attention on mobile robots and vehicles. Parallel computation on Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) provides an excellent solution for this kind of compute-intensive image processing. Running on 1 to 4 NVIDIA GeForce 8800 (GTX) graphics cards a frame rate of 313 fps at resolution of 640 x 480 is achieved, which is approximately 8.5 times faster than the standard implementations on CPUs. The implementation is also evaluated using a high-speed camera at 200 Hz. Using two GPUs only 2 ms extra computational time for the saliency map generation in addition to the camera capture time is required for images of 640 × 480 pixels.
Estimation of Finger Joint Angles Based on Electromechanical Sensing of Wrist Shape

An approach to finger motion capture that places fewer restrictions on the usage environment and actions of the user is an important research topic in biomechanics and human-computer interaction. We proposed a system that electrically detects finger motion from the associated deformation of the wrist and estimates the finger joint angles using multiple regression models. A wrist-mounted sensing device with 16 electrodes detects deformation of the wrist from changes in electrical contact resistance at the skin. In this study, we experimentally investigated the accuracy of finger joint angle estimation, the adequacy of two multiple regression models, and the resolution of the estimation of total finger joint angles. In experiments, both the finger joint angles and the system output voltage were recorded as subjects performed flexion/extension of the fingers. These data were used for calibration using the least-squares method. The system was found to be capable of estimating the total finger joint angle with a root-mean-square error of 29–34 degrees. A multiple regression model with a second-order polynomial basis function was shown to be suitable for the estimation of all total finger joint angles, but not those of the thumb.
Draft Genome Sequences of Bacillus subtilis Strain DKU_NT_01 Isolated from Traditional Korean Food Containing Soybean (Chung-gook-jang)

ABSTRACT Here, we report the whole-genome sequence of Bacillus subtilis strain DKU_NT_01 isolated from traditional Korean food containing soybean (chung-gook-jang). The de novo genome of Bacillus subtilis strain DKU_NT_01 has one contig and G+C content of 55.4%, is 4,954,264 bp in length, and contains 5,011 coding sequences (CDSs).
The TALP Ngram-based SMT System for IWSLT’05

This paper provides a description of TALP-Ngram, the tuple-based statistical machine translation system developed at the TALP Research Center of the UPC (Univer-sitat Polit`ecnica de Catalunya). Brieﬂy, the system performs a log-linear combination of a translation model and additional feature functions. The translation model is estimated as an N-gram of bilingual units called tuples, and the feature functions include a target language model, a word penalty, and lexical features, depending on the language pair and task. The paper describes the participation of the system in the second international workshop on spoken language translation (IWSLT) held in Pittsburgh, October 2005. Results on Chinese-to-English and Arabic-to-English tracks using supplied data are reported.
Speech recognition performance on a voicemail transcription task

We describe a new testbed for developing speech recognition algorithms-the ARRPA-sponsored voicemail transcription task, analogous to other tasks such as the Switchboard, CallHome and the Hub 4 tasks. The task involves the transcription of voicemail conversations. Voicemail represents a very large volume of real-world speech data, which is however not particularly well represented in existing databases. For instance, the Switchboard and CallHome databases contain telephone conversations between two humans, representing telephone-bandwidth spontaneous speech; the Hub 4 database contains radio broadcasts which represents different kinds of speech data such as spontaneous speech from a well-trained speaker, conversations between two humans possibly over the telephone, etc. The voicemail database on the other hand also represents telephone bandwidth spontaneous speech, however the difference with respect to the Switchboard and CallHome tasks is that the interaction is not between two humans, but rather between a human and a machine-consequently, the speech is expected to be a little more formal in its nature, without the problems of crosstalk, barge-in etc. This eliminates some of the variables and provides more controlled conditions enabling one to concentrate on the aspects of spontaneous speech and effects of the telephone channel. We describe the modality of collection of the speech data, and some algorithmic techniques that were devised based on this data. We also describe the initial results of the transcription performance on this task.