Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological patterns of the collateral sulcus in the human brain

The collateral sulcal complex is an important landmark on the medial surface of the temporal lobe. Anteriorly, it delineates the limbic regions of the parahippocampal gyrus from the visual‐processing areas of the fusiform gyrus. Posteriorly, it continues into the occipital lobe, bearing no relationship to the memory‐related limbic regions. Given the considerable extent of the sulcus and functional heterogeneity of the surrounding cortex, an investigation of the morphology of this sulcus was carried out to examine whether it is continuous or a series of sulcal parts, i.e. independent sulci classified together under the name collateral sulcus. We investigated the collateral sulcal complex using magnetic resonance images taking into account the three‐dimensional nature of the brain. Our examination demonstrated three separate sulcal segments: (i) an anterior segment, the rhinal sulcus, delineating the uncus from the adjacent temporal neocortex, (ii) a middle segment, the collateral sulcus proper, forming the lateral border of the posterior parahippocampal cortex, and (iii) a caudal segment, the occipital extent of the collateral sulcus, within the occipital lobe. Three relationships exist between the rhinal sulcus and collateral sulcus proper, only one being clearly identifiable from the surface. Posteriorly, the collateral sulcus proper and the occipital collateral sulcus, although appearing continuous on the brain surface, can be separated in the depth of the sulcus in all cases. These results provide quantification of the location and variability within standard stereotaxic space for the three collateral sulcus segments that could be used to aid accurate identification of functional activation peaks derived from neuroimaging studies.
Analyses of the National Institute on Aging Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease Family Study: implication of additional loci.

OBJECTIVE To identify putative genetic loci related to the risk of late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD). DESIGN Linkage analysis and family-based and case-control association analyses from a genomewide scan using approximately 6000 single-nucleotide polymorphic markers at an average intermarker distance of 0.65 cM. SETTING The National Institute on Aging Genetics Initiative for Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease (NIA-LOAD) was created to expand the resources for studies to identify additional genes contributing to the risk for LOAD. PARTICIPANTS We investigated 1902 individuals from 328 families with LOAD and 236 unrelated control subjects. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Clinical diagnosis of LOAD. RESULTS The strongest overall finding was at chromosome 19q13.32, confirming the effect of the apolipoprotein E gene on LOAD risk in the family-based and case-control analyses. However, single-nucleotide polymorphisms at the following loci were also statistically significant in 1 or more of the analyses performed: 7p22.2, 7p21.3, and 16q21 in the linkage analyses; 17q21.31 and 22q11.21 in the family-based association analysis; and 7q31.1 and 22q12.3 in the case-control analysis. Positive associations at 7q31.1 and 20q13.33 were also significant in the meta-analysis results in a publicly available database. CONCLUSIONS Several additional loci may harbor genetic variants associated with LOAD. This data set provides a wealth of phenotypic and genotypic information for use as a resource in discovery and confirmatory research.
Webcam delivery of the Camperdown Program for adolescents who stutter: a phase II trial.

PURPOSE This Phase II clinical trial examined stuttering adolescents' responsiveness to the Webcam-delivered Camperdown Program. METHOD Sixteen adolescents were treated by Webcam with no clinic attendance. Primary outcome was percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS). Secondary outcomes were number of sessions, weeks and hours to maintenance, self-reported stuttering severity, speech satisfaction, speech naturalness, self-reported anxiety, self-reported situation avoidance, self-reported impact of stuttering, and satisfaction with Webcam treatment delivery. Data were collected before treatment and up to 12 months after entry into maintenance. RESULTS Fourteen participants completed the treatment. Group mean stuttering frequency was 6.1 %SS (range, 0.7-14.7) pretreatment and 2.8 %SS (range, 0-12.2) 12 months after entry into maintenance, with half the participants stuttering at 1.2 %SS or lower at this time. Treatment was completed in a mean of 25 sessions (15.5 hr). Self-reported stuttering severity ratings, self-reported stuttering impact, and speech satisfaction scores supported %SS outcomes. Minimal anxiety was evident either pre- or post-treatment. Individual responsiveness to the treatment varied, with half the participants showing little reduction in avoidance of speech situations. CONCLUSIONS The Webcam service delivery model was appealing to participants, although it was efficacious and efficient for only half. Suggestions for future stuttering treatment development for adolescents are discussed.
Governance and Ethics in Temporary Organizations: The Mediating Role of Corporate Governance

The impact of multilevel level governance on the frequency of ethical issues in temporary organizations (TOs) is investigated. A structural equation model, based on a global survey, showed that behavior control, as a governance mechanism at the temporary organization (TO) level, reduces the frequency of ethical issues. This relationship is partly mediated through corporate governance, which controls ethical issues by following good governance principles. Using institutional and agency theory, we identify a substitution effect, where micro level (TO) governance substitutes for ‘holes’ in the macro level (corporate) governance. Situational contingencies for the synchronization of governance efforts across macro and micro levels are discussed.
Crisis discourses in Europe: Media EU-phemisms and alternative narratives

It would be catastrophising to claim that euroscepticism won the European elections earlier this year – but it certainly staked a claim. Two years ago, we predicted the capturing of Europe by populist parties in our study of progressive activists in Europe, The ‘Bubbling Up’ of Subterranean Politics in Europe (Kaldor and Selchow 2012). What that report found was that Europe, as a political space, was invisible to the majority of these activists; at worst, it was considered part of the problem in the current moment of crisis.
C-Terminal Region of STAT-1α Is Not Necessary for Its Ubiquitination and Degradation Caused by Mumps Virus V Protein

ABSTRACT Constitutive levels of production of STAT-1 were reduced by 10 h postinfection (p.i.) and significantly lost by 24 h p.i. in FL cells acutely infected with mumps virus (MuV). This result was consistent with that observed in previous studies and experiments with cells persistently infected with MuV (FLMT cells). There was a marked decrease in the amount of STAT-1 in cells expressing MuV accessory protein V (MuV-V). Furthermore, single amino acid substitutions in the Cys-rich region of V protein (Vc189a, Vc207a, and Vc214a) showed that each cysteine residue plays an important role in the decrease in STAT-1 production, but substitution of a histidine residue at amino acid position 203 had no effect. These events and the resultant suppression of the alpha interferon (IFN-α) response were confirmed by a luciferase reporter gene assay with five tandem repeats of the IFN-α-stimulated response element as an enhancer element of the firely luciferase gene. STAT-1 production was restored and detectable in FLMT cells treated with a proteosome inhibitor, such as MG132 or lactacystin. In the presence of MG132, ubiquitination of STAT-1 and the interaction of MuV-V with STAT-1 were demonstrated in FLMT cells by immunoprecipitation with anti-STAT-1 antibody. The same results for the interaction and ubiquitination were obtained in experiments with an expression vector for a C-terminal deletion mutant of STAT-1. The truncated STAT-1 molecules were degraded in the presence of MuV-V. Therefore, the C-terminal region (transcriptional activation and Src homology 2 domains) of STAT-1 is not necessary for its degradation caused by MuV-V. Our data suggest that MuV-V promotes ubiquitination and degradation of STAT-1.
Hemoglobinopathic erythrocytes affect the intraerythrocytic multiplication of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro.

BACKGROUND The mechanisms by which α-thalassemia and sickle cell traits confer protection from severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria are not yet fully elucidated. We hypothesized that hemoglobinopathic erythrocytes reduce the intraerythrocytic multiplication of P. falciparum, potentially delaying the development of life-threatening parasite densities until parasite clearing immunity is achieved. METHODS We developed a novel in vitro assay to quantify the number of merozoites released from an individual schizont, termed the "intraerythrocytic multiplication factor" (IMF). RESULTS P. falciparum (3D7 line) schizonts produce variable numbers of merozoites in all erythrocyte types tested, with median IMFs of 27, 27, 29, 23, and 23 in control, HbAS, HbSS, and α- and β-thalassemia trait erythrocytes, respectively. IMF correlated strongly (r(2) = 0.97; P < . 001) with mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and varied significantly with mean corpuscular volume and hemoglobin content. Reduction of IMFs in thalassemia trait erythrocytes was confirmed using clinical parasite isolates with different IMFs. Mathematical modeling of the effect of IMF on malaria progression indicates that the lower IMF in thalassemia trait erythrocytes limits parasite density and anemia severity over the first 2 weeks of parasite replication. CONCLUSIONS P. falciparum IMF, a parasite heritable virulence trait, correlates with erythrocyte indices and is reduced in thalassemia trait erythrocytes. Parasite IMF should be examined in other low-indices erythrocytes.
Yeast Retrotransposon Particles as Antigen Delivery Systems

The development of technologies to produce recombinant proteins for use in the pharmaceutical industry has made substantial advances, in particular in the area of generating antigens containing multiple copies of important immunological regions. One such antigen-carrier system is based on the ability of a protein encoded by the yeast retrotransposon, Ty, to self-assemble into virus-like particles. Ty-fusion proteins retain this ability to form particles, and a range of hybrid VLPs carrying a variety of heterologous antigens have been produced and shown to induce potent immune responses. In particular, hybrid VLPs carrying the core protein p24 of HIV (p24-VLPs) have been shown to induce antibody and T-cell proliferative responses in both experimental animals and human volunteers, and immunization of rabbits with VLPs carrying the principal neutralizing determinant of HIV (V3-VLPs) resulted in the induction of neutralizing antibody responses and T-cell proliferation. Further studies with V3-VLPs have shown that this particulate antigen stimulates enhanced V3-specific lymphoproliferative responses as compared to whole recombinant gp120 or to V3 peptide conjugated to albumin. The V3-VLPs also induce potent CTL responses following immunization of mice in the absence of adjuvant. These responses are MHC class I restricted and are mediated by CD8-positive cells. These observations therefore demonstrate that hybrid Ty-VLPs induce both humoral and cellular immune responses against HIV and suggest that these immunogens may be important in combatting AIDS and other infections.
Antiangiogenic Targeting Liposomes Increase Therapeutic Efficacy for Solid Tumors*

It is known that solid tumors recruit new blood vessels to support tumor growth, but the molecular diversity of receptors in tumor angiogenic vessels might also be used clinically to develop better targeted therapy. In vivo phage display was used to identify peptides that specifically target tumor blood vessels. Several novel peptides were identified as being able to recognize tumor vasculature but not normal blood vessels in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice bearing human tumors. These tumor-homing peptides also bound to blood vessels in surgical specimens of various human cancers. The peptide-linked liposomes containing fluorescent substance were capable of translocating across the plasma membrane through endocytosis. With the conjugation of peptides and liposomal doxorubicin, the targeted drug delivery systems enhanced the therapeutic efficacy of the chemotherapeutic agent against human cancer xenografts by decreasing tumor angiogenesis and increasing cancer cell apoptosis. Furthermore, the peptide-mediated targeting liposomes improved the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of the drug they delivered compared with nontargeting liposomes or free drugs. Our results indicate that the tumor-homing peptides can be used specifically target tumor vasculature and have the potential to improve the systemic treatment of patients with solid tumors.
Talin Concentrates to the Midbody Region During Mammalian Cell Cytokinesis

In this study we investigated the cellular distribution of talin, a cytoskeletal protein, during mammalian cell cytokinesis. Immunohistochemical experiments on various carcinoma cell lines and mesenchyme-derived cells reveal that talin displays a cell cycle-dependent cellular localization. During metaphase, talin is located in the centromeric region of the chromosome, like the TD-60 protein and intrinsic centromere components detected by a CREST serum. From anaphase to telophase, talin is present in the cleavage furrow. As the cells progress to cytokinesis, when the furrow is complete, talin is concentrated in the midbody structures, as assessed by immunofluorescence and confirmed by Western blot experiments on purified midbodies. Double staining experiments reveal that α-tubulin, TD-60 protein, and talin co-localize in the midbodies. These results suggest that talin, in addition to its implication in focal adhesion organization and signaling, may play a critical role in cytokinesis.
Renibacterium salmoninarum, the causative agent of bacterial kidney disease in salmonid fish, detected by nested reverse transcription-PCR of 16S rRNA sequences

An assay based on reverse transcription and nested PCR amplification of hypervariable regions within the 16S rRNA sequence was used to specifically detect Renibacterium salmoninarum, the slowly growing causative agent of bacterial kidney disease in salmonid fish. This assay detected 1 to 10 bacteria per sample and took 1 to 2 days to perform. The assay was used to detect R. salmoninarum in ovarian fluid obtained from naturally infected fish. The assay was unreliable when it was used to examine kidney tissue.
Factors influencing the implementation of the teachers performance appraisal systems; a case of public secondary schools in Westlands constituency in Kenya

xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION . 1 1.1 Background of the Study . 1 1.1.2 Staff performance appraisal amongst civil servants in Kenya . 3 1.1.3 Teachers Service Commission (TSC) . 4 1.2 Statement of the Problem . 5 1.3 Purpose of the study . 6 1.4 Objectives of the Study . 6 1.5 Research Questions . 6 1.6 Significance of the Study . 6 1.8 Basic assumptions of the Study . 7 1.9 Limitations of the study . 8 1.10 Delimitation of the study . 8 1.11 Definitions of Significant Terms Used in the Study . 8 1.12 Organizational of the study . 9 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW . 11 2.
An Adaptive NN-Based Approach for Fault-Tolerant Control of Nonlinear Time-Varying Delay Systems With Unmodeled Dynamics

This paper presents an adaptive neural network (NN)-based fault-tolerant control approach for the compensation of actuator failures in nonlinear systems with time-varying delay. The novelty of this paper lies in the fact that both the lock in place and loss of effectiveness faults, unmodeled dynamics, and dynamic disturbances are catered for simultaneously. Furthermore, this is achieved by the adaptation of only one parameter, which simplifies the computation of the control effort, and therefore extends its applicability. In the approach, the Razumikhin lemma and a dynamic signal are employed. It is shown that the output of the system converges to a neighborhood of the reference signal and the semiglobal boundedness of all signals is guaranteed. A simulation example is used to illustrate the validity and efficacy of the approach.
Balancing spatially regulated β‐actin translation and dynamin‐mediated endocytosis is required to assemble functional epithelial monolayers

Regulating adherens junction complex assembly/disassembly is critical to maintaining epithelial homeostasis in healthy epithelial tissues. Consequently, adherens junction structure and function is often perturbed in clinically advanced tumors of epithelial origin. Some of the most studied factors driving adherens junction complex perturbation in epithelial cancers are transcriptional and epigenetic down‐regulation of E‐cadherin expression. However, numerous reports demonstrate that post‐translational regulatory mechanisms such as endocytosis also regulate early phases of epithelial‐mesenchymal transition and metastatic progression. In already assembled healthy epithelia, E‐cadherin endocytosis recycles cadherin‐catenin complexes to regulate the number of mature adherens junctions found at cell–cell contact sites. However, following de novo epithelial cell–cell contact, endocytosis negatively regulates adherens junction assembly by removing E‐cadherin from the cell surface. By contrast, following de novo epithelial cell–cell contact, spatially localized β‐actin translation drives cytoskeletal remodeling and consequently E‐cadherin clustering at cell–cell contact sites and therefore positively regulates adherens junction assembly. In this report we demonstrate that dynamin‐mediated endocytosis and β‐actin translation‐dependent cadherin–catenin complex anchoring oppose each other following epithelial cell–cell contact. Consequently, the final extent of adherens junction assembly depends on which of these processes is dominant following epithelial cell–cell contact. We expressed β‐actin transcripts impaired in their ability to properly localize monomer synthesis (Δ3′UTR) in MDCK cells to perturb actin filament remodeling and anchoring, and demonstrate the resulting defect in adherens junction structure and function is rescued by inhibiting dynamin mediated endocytosis. Therefore, we demonstrate balancing spatially regulated β‐actin translation and dynamin‐mediated endocytosis regulates epithelial monolayer structure and barrier function. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
When rotten apples spoil the ballot: The conditional effect of corruption charges on parties’ vote shares

The impact of corruption charges on the electoral performance of parties is conditioned by specific institutional factors. This article shows the extent to which the effects of political corruption depend on the control that party leaders exercise over the ballot. It is argued that voters might abstain or support other lists if they cannot select individual candidates to revitalize the reputation of the political party. Employing data on judicial investigations in Italy from 1983 to 2013, we provide evidence of the role of electoral rules and intra-party xcandidate selection in shaping the relationship between corruption and voters’ behaviour. Parties implicated in corruption or related crimes experience a loss of votes when they compete under a closed list formula or when the candidate selection process is strongly centralized.
Effect of Altered Thyroid State on the in situ Mechanical Properties of Adult Cat Soleus

To determine the responsiveness of cat hindlimb muscles to thyroid manipulation, adult female cats were made hypothyroid (thyroidectomy plus tapazole treatment), hyperthyroid (synthroid pellets), or maintained euthyroid. After 4 months, the hypothyroid soleus had slower time-to-peak (TPT, 80%) and half-relaxation (HRT) times, whereas the hyperthyroid soleus had faster TPT (20%) and HRT than euthyroid cats. The tension at low stimulation frequencies (5–15 Hz) was higher in hypothyroid and lower in hyperthyroid cats compared to euthyroid cats. Muscle weight, maximum twitch and tetanic (Po) tensions, and maximum rates of shortening (Vmax) were similar across groups. The soleus of hypothyroid cats was more fatigable than normal. The myosin heavy chain (MHC) composition, based on gel electrophoresis, was unaffected by thyroid hormone manipulation. Based on the reaction of monoclonal antibodies for specific MHCs, some fast fibers in the hypothyroid cats coexpressed developmental MHC. These data indicate that 4 months of an altered thyroid state result in changes in the isometric twitch speed properties of the cat soleus, but not the tension-related or isotonic properties. Further, a chronic decrease in thyroid hormone had a greater impact than a chronic increase in thyroid hormone on the mechanical properties of the adult cat soleus.
Global motion compensated saliency estimation with a hand-held camera for video retiming

This paper proposes a global motion compensated saliency estimation method with a hand-held camera for video retiming. To estimate the saliency score of only the foreground objects in the case of a moving camera, the foreground object mask is estimated by detecting contiguous outliers in the low-rank representation. Motion features of the object are computed based on the optical flow, and then global motion compensated motion features are obtained using the foreground mask. Finally, the global motion compensated saliency scores are estimated using motion-based features, and input video is globally retimed, where the output video is played slowly at frames with high saliency scores. Experimental results show that the proposed method estimates more accurately the saliency scores in the case of a moving camera.
Hierarchic and cooperative binding of the rat liver nuclear protein C/EBP at the hepatitis B virus enhancer

We used the enhancer-binding protein C/EBP as a model to study the nature and the complexity of interaction of an enhancer-binding protein with its target DNA. We found that bacterially expressed C/EBP binds the hepatitis B virus enhancer at multiple sites in a hierarchic and cooperative manner. At low concentrations, only the E element is occupied, but at higher concentrations, additional sites are filled including a site that binds EP, a crucial enhancer-activating protein. This pattern of C/EBP binding may explain the concentration-dependent effect of C/EBP on enhancer activity.