Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Permanent central synaptic disconnection of proprioceptors after nerve injury and regeneration. I. Loss of VGLUT1/IA synapses on motoneurons.

Motor and sensory proprioceptive axons reinnervate muscles after peripheral nerve transections followed by microsurgical reattachment; nevertheless, motor coordination remains abnormal and stretch reflexes absent. We analyzed the possibility that permanent losses of central IA afferent synapses, as a consequence of peripheral nerve injury, are responsible for this deficit. VGLUT1 was used as a marker of proprioceptive synapses on rat motoneurons. After nerve injuries synapses are stripped from motoneurons, but while other excitatory and inhibitory inputs eventually recover, VGLUT1 synapses are permanently lost on the cell body (75-95% synaptic losses) and on the proximal 100 μm of dendrite (50% loss). Lost VGLUT1 synapses did not recover, even many months after muscle reinnervation. Interestingly, VGLUT1 density in more distal dendrites did not change. To investigate whether losses are due to VGLUT1 downregulation in injured IA afferents or to complete synaptic disassembly and regression of IA ventral projections, we studied the central trajectories and synaptic varicosities of axon collaterals from control and regenerated afferents with IA-like responses to stretch that were intracellularly filled with neurobiotin. VGLUT1 was present in all synaptic varicosities, identified with the synaptic marker SV2, of control and regenerated afferents. However, regenerated afferents lacked axon collaterals and synapses in lamina IX. In conjunction with the companion electrophysiological study [Bullinger KL, Nardelli P, Pinter MJ, Alvarez FJ, Cope TC. J Neurophysiol (August 10, 2011). doi:10.1152/jn.01097. 2010], we conclude that peripheral nerve injuries cause a permanent retraction of IA afferent synaptic varicosities from lamina IX and disconnection with motoneurons that is not recovered after peripheral regeneration and reinnervation of muscle by sensory and motor axons.
A Pro-Cathepsin L Mutant Is a Luminal Substrate for Endoplasmic-Reticulum-Associated Degradation in C. elegans

Endoplasmic-reticulum associated degradation (ERAD) is a major cellular misfolded protein disposal pathway that is well conserved from yeast to mammals. In yeast, a mutant of carboxypeptidase Y (CPY*) was found to be a luminal ER substrate and has served as a useful marker to help identify modifiers of the ERAD pathway. Due to its ease of genetic manipulation and the ability to conduct a genome wide screen for modifiers of molecular pathways, C. elegans has become one of the preferred metazoans for studying cell biological processes, such as ERAD. However, a marker of ERAD activity comparable to CPY* has not been developed for this model system. We describe a mutant of pro-cathepsin L fused to YFP that no longer targets to the lysosome, but is efficiently eliminated by the ERAD pathway. Using this mutant pro-cathepsin L, we found that components of the mammalian ERAD system that participate in the degradation of ER luminal substrates were conserved in C. elegans. This transgenic line will facilitate high-throughput genetic or pharmacological screens for ERAD modifiers using widefield epifluorescence microscopy.
Apple-Polishers, Ass-Kissers and Suck-Ups: Towards a Sociology of Ingratiation

In this paper we use one form of communicative action, “brownnosing”, as a social lens for understanding power relations in both formal, organizational contexts and interpersonal relationships. We investigate this phenomenon by assessing processes of ingratiation at school and work settings. We do so using data collected from over one hundred student respondents to ascertain the meanings, uses, and outcomes of brownnosing. The study finds that members of the “millennial generation” develop skills in both the act of brownnosing and the detection of this form of communication as they participate in a variety of contexts, including family, school, work, and interpersonal relationships. Utilizing powerdependence models for analysis, our data suggest that brownnosing, as an organizational resource, commonly reflects the structural arrangements of both school and the workplace. We draw upon organizational and exchange theories in the interpretation of the data. Keywords: Ingratiation, Organizational Culture, Hierarchy, Power, PowerDependence, Brownnosing, Qualitative Research Among sociologists, the topic of power in the workplace represents a longstanding interest (Blauner, 1964; Braverman, 1975; Gouldner, 1954; Grenier, 1988). However, while studies of both micro-structural relations (Collins, 2004) and organizational culture (Morrill, Zald, & Rao, 2003), have added to our understanding of workplace inequality, studies of power in formal organizations commonly locate it within existing complexes of rules, resources, and relations (Perrow, 1986; Pfeffer, 1981). Much less scholarly attention has been paid to how people, in the course of daily interaction within organizations create, in situ, “idio-cultural” strategies (Fine, 1979) that can be employed in efforts to gain favor. Two such strategies are “bullshitting” and “brownnosing. ” In a previous article (Martin & Wilson, 2011), we examined how “bullshitting” is used in negotiating relationships in interpersonal, social, and work contexts. We now turn our attention to another implement in the “cultural toolkit” (Swidler, 1986)––“brownnosing. ” We assess this phenomenon by using a sample comprised of members of the Millennial Generation (i.e., those born between 1982 and 2000) who were college students at the time we administered our survey to them. Using this data, we interrogate the ways in which students both understand and attempt to shape the structure of power relations in the work place, looking at a specific form of interaction––brownnosing. Research studies carried out by organizational psychologists have identified an array of behaviors through which individuals attempt to increase their attractiveness in the eyes of others as “ingratiation” (Linden & Mitchell, 1988, p. 572). These studies commonly identify ingratiation as a micro-political resource used by subordinates in navigating strictures in the workplace–strictures that reflect the hierarchical arrangement
From query complexity to computational complexity

We consider submodular optimization problems, and provide a general way of translating oracle inapproximability results arising from the symmetry gap technique to computational complexity inapproximability results, where the submodular function is given explicitly (under the assumption that NP ≠ RP). Applications of our technique include an optimal computational hardness of (1/2 + ε)-approximation for maximizing a symmetric nonnegative submodular function, an optimal hardness of (1-(1-1/k)k + ε)-approximation for welfare maximization in combinatorial auctions with k submodular bidders (for constant k), super-constant hardness for maximizing a nonnegative submodular function over matroid bases, and tighter bounds for maximizing a monotone submodular function subject to a cardinality constraint. Unlike the vast majority of computational inapproximability results, our approach does not use the PCP machinery or the Unique Games Conjecture, but relies instead on a direct reduction from Unique-SAT using list-decodable codes.
Soundness Preserving Approximation for TBox Reasoning in R

A process for evenly seating a woodwind instrument tone hole sealing pad in the pad cup, and the pad assembly itself. The process contemplates placing the pad on the tone hole rim, applying a magnetic force to the pad to pull it against the tone hole rim, providing a substance between the pad and the cup for positioning the pad in the cup, and contacting the cup to the pad to position the pad in the cup while the pad is seated against the tone hole rim to provide an even seating cup pad assembly.
[Expression of HIF-1α and correlation with angiogenesis in tissue of breast cancer complicated with diabetes].

OBJECTIVE To explore the expression of hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1α) in tissue of breast cancer complicated with diabetes and examine the correlation with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and microvascular density (MVD). METHODS The clinical data were collected by reviewing the relevant medical records. The difference of clinicopathologic features between breast cancer patients with diabetes (diabetic group) and that of those without diabetes (control group) was analyzed retrospectively. Immunohistochemical Streptavidin-Perosidase (SP) method was used to detect the expressions of HIF-1α and VEGF in breast cancer tissue of two groups.Vascular endothelial cells were tagged with CD31 to calculate MVD. RESULTS The patients of tumor diameter > 2 cm were 68.4% (67/98) and lymphatic metastasis rate was 59.2% (58/98) in diabetes group. And those in control group were 54.2% (58/107) and lymphatic metastasis rate was 43.9% (47/107). The inter-group difference was significant (P < 0.05). HIP-1α was expressed in both groups. The positive rate of HIF-1α was 80.6% (79/98) in diabetes group versus 64.5% (69/107) in control group (P = 0.010). The positive rate of VEGF was 86.7% (85/98) in diabetes group versus 68.2% (73/107) in control group (P = 0.002). MVD value was 113.7 ± 32.0 in diabetes group versus 104.7 ± 29.4 in control group (P = 0.003). The positive rate of VEGF in HIF-1α positive patients of diabetes group was significantly higher than that in negative counterparts (91.1% vs 68.4%, P = 0.009). The values of MVD were 117.1 ± 30.3 and 99.5 ± 35.1 respectively in both groups. And the MVD value of HIF-1α positive group was significantly higher than that of negative group (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION Diabetic complications may play critical roles in the development and metastasis of breast cancer through enhanced angiogenesis of tumor tissue.
Psychopathy Moderates the Relationship between Orbitofrontal and Striatal Alterations and Violence: The Investigation of Individuals Accused of Homicide

Brain structural abnormalities in the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and striatum (caudate and putamen) have been observed in violent individuals. However, a uni-modal neuroimaging perspective has been used and prior findings have been mixed. The present study takes the multimodal structural brain imaging approaches to investigate the differential gray matter volumes (GMV) and cortical thickness (CTh) in the OFC and striatum between violent (accused of homicide) and non-violent (not accused of any violent crimes) individuals with different levels of psychopathic traits (interpersonal and unemotional qualities, factor 1 psychopathy and the expressions of antisocial disposition and impulsivity, factor 2 psychopathy). Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging data, psychopathy and demographic information were assessed in sixty seven non-violent or violent adults. The results showed that the relationship between violence and the GMV in the right lateral OFC varied across different levels of the factor 1 psychopathy. At the subcortical level, the psychopathy level (the factor 1 psychopathy) moderated the positive relationship of violence with both left and right putamen GMV as well as left caudate GMV. Although the CTh findings were not significant, overall findings suggested that psychopathic traits moderated the relationship between violence and the brain structural morphology in the OFC and striatum. In conclusion, psychopathy takes upon a significant role in moderating violent behavior which gives insight to design and implement prevention measures targeting violent acts, thereby possibly mitigating their occurrence within the society.
Gradient-threshold edge detection based on perceptually adaptive threshold selection

Despite the prevalence of conventional methods for gradient-threshold edge detection, the underlying global threshold is not adaptive to the image content with respect to the human perception. To address the inherent challenges, local thresholds are adaptively selected in this paper taking into account the activity masking characteristic of the human visual system. The selected local thresholds are then utilized for edge labeling in the gradient image. Extensive experimental results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method for edge detection in perceptual quality.
A measure of centrality based on the spectrum of the Laplacian

We introduce a family of new centralities, the k-spectral centralities. k-spectral centrality is a measurement of importance with respect to the deformation of the graph Laplacian associated with the graph. Due to this connection, k-spectral centralities have various interpretations in terms of spectrally determined information. We explore this centrality in the context of several examples. While for sparse unweighted networks 1-spectral centrality behaves similarly to other standard centralities, for dense weighted networks they show different properties. In summary, the k-spectral centralities provide a novel and useful measurement of relevance (for single network elements as well as whole subnetworks) distinct from other known measures.
Weaving Versus Blending: a quantitative assessment of the information carrying capacities of two alternative methods for conveying multivariate data with color.

In many applications, it is important to understand the individual values of, and relationships between, multiple related scalar variables defined across a common domain. Several approaches have been proposed for representing data in these situations. In this paper we focus on strategies for the visualization of multivariate data that rely on color mixing. In particular, through a series of controlled observer experiments, we seek to establish a fundamental understanding of the information-carrying capacities of two alternative methods for encoding multivariate information using color: color blending and color weaving. We begin with a baseline experiment in which we assess participants' abilities to accurately read numerical data encoded in six different basic color scales defined in the L*a*b* color space. We then assess participants' abilities to read combinations of 2, 3, 4 and 6 different data values represented in a common region of the domain, encoded using either color blending or color weaving. In color blending a single mixed color is formed via linear combination of the individual values in L*a*b* space, and in color weaving the original individual colors are displayed side-by-side in a high frequency texture that fills the region. A third experiment was conducted to clarify some of the trends regarding the color contrast and its effect on the magnitude of the error that was observed in the second experiment. The results indicate that when the component colors are represented side-by-side in a high frequency texture, most participants' abilities to infer the values of individual components are significantly improved, relative to when the colors are blended. Participants' performance was significantly better with color weaving particularly when more than 2 colors were used, and even when the individual colors subtended only 3 minutes of visual angle in the texture. However, the information-carrying capacity of the color weaving approach has its limits. We found that participants' abilities to accurately interpret each of the individual components in a high frequency color texture typically falls off as the number of components increases from 4 to 6. We found no significant advantages, in either color blending or color weaving, to using color scales based on component hues thatare more widely separated in the L*a*b* color space. Furthermore, we found some indications that extra difficulties may arise when opponent hues are employed.
Isolation of human foetal myoblasts and its application for microencapsulation

Foetal cells secrete more growth factors, generate less immune response, grow and proliferate better than adult cells. These characteristics make them desirable for recombinant modification and use in microencapsulated cellular gene therapeutics. We have established a system in vitro to obtain a pure population of primary human foetal myoblasts under several rounds of selection with non‐collagen coated plates and identified by desmin staining. These primary myoblasts presented good proliferation ability and better differentiation characteristics in monolayer and after microencapsulation compared to murine myoblast C2C12 cells based on creatine phosphokinase (CPK), major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and multi‐nucleated myotubule determination. The lifespan of primary myoblasts was 70 population doublings before entering into senescent state, with a population time of 18–24 hrs. Hence, we have developed a protocol for isolating human foetal primary myoblasts with excellent differentiation potential and robust growth and longevity. They should be useful for cell‐based therapy in human clinical applications with microencapsulation technology.
A scalable ontology reasoner via incremental materialization

Ontology based knowledge management systems have a lot of potential: their applicability ranges from artificial intelligence, e.g., for knowledge representation and natural language processing, to information integration and retrieval systems, requirements analysis, and, most lately, to semantic web applications and workflow management systems. However the huge complexity of reasoning for ontologies with large TBoxes and/or ABoxes is often a barrier to their applicability in real-world settings especially those which are time sensitive. Materialization is a promising solution for scalable reasoning over ontologies with large ABoxes as it derives the implicit knowledge of an ontology and makes it available in a relational database. Although materialization can reduce the query answering time of an ontology, it has limitations in applications which require frequent update to the knowledge base. To overcome this problem, we developed a tool for incremental materialization which identifies the fragment of the ontology that needs to be updated due to the ABox or TBox change, thereby reducing the complexity of the exhaustive forward chaining required.
Prognosis of risk factors and trends in mortality from external causes among middle-aged men in Lithuania

Aims: The aims of this study were to investigate the risk of death and time trends from external causes, and to evaluate the significance of the effects of age, period and birth cohort on suicide mortality among middle-aged men during the period 1971—2000 in Lithuania. Methods: Random samples of men aged 45—59 years from the Kaunas Rotterdam Intervention Study (conducted in 1972—74) and Study of Multifactorial Prevention of CHD (conducted in 1977—80) were examined (n=6,480). The participants of the two surveys were observed until 1 January 2001. Over this time 2,841 men had died, 230 of these from external causes. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the risk of death from external causes. Trends in mortality from external causes and average annual changes were based on logarithmic regression analysis. For assessment of the effects of age, period, and birth cohort the Poisson regression model was applied. Results: The risk of mortality from external causes among men was positively related to smoking habits and arterial hypertension and negatively related to education level and total serum cholesterol concentration but there was no association with consumption of alcohol. The risk of suicide mortality was associated with family status and occupation only. Trends in mortality from all external causes showed no significant changes during the period 1971—2000. After adjusting for age and cohort effects, the period effect was statistically significant. Conclusion: Prognosis of risk factors for mortality from external causes and period effect on suicide mortality rates will form important parts of future research agendas.
Exploring the k-colorable landscape with Iterated Greedy

Many heuristic algorithms have been proposed for graph coloring. The simplest is perhaps the greedy algorithm. Many variations have been proposed for this algorithm at various levels of sophistication, but it is generally assumed that the coloring will occur in a single attempt. We note that if a new permutation of the vertices is chosen which respects the independent sets of a previous coloring, then applying the greedy algorithm will result in a new coloring in which the number of colors used does not increase, yet may decrease. We introduce several heuristics for generating new permutations that are fast when implemented and eeective in reducing the coloring number. The resulting Iterated Greedy algorithm(IG) can obtain colorings in the range 100 to 103 on graphs in G 1000; 1 2. More interestingly, it can optimally color k-colorable graphs with k up to 60 and n = 1000. We couple this algorithm with several other coloring algorithms, including a modiied TABU search, and one that tries to nd large independent sets using a pruned backtrack. With these combined algorithms we nd 86 and 87 colorings for G 1000; 1 2 , but nd paradoxical results on other classes. Finally, we explore the areas of diiculty in probabilistic graph space under several parameterizations. We check our system on k-colorable graphs in G 300;p;k for 0:05 p 0:95 and 2 k 105. We perform many experiments on G 1000; 1 2 ;k. We nd a narrow ridge where the algorithms fail to nd the speciied coloring, but easy success everywhere else. We test our algorithm on graphs that follow the ridge boundary for p = 1 2 for n up to 10000 vertices.
DNA gyrase gyrA mutations in ciprofloxacin-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus: close similarity with quinolone resistance mutations in Escherichia coli

The gyrA genes isolated from three ciprofloxacin-resistant clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus carried codon 84 (serine----leucine) and/or codon 85 (serine----proline) mutations that were absent in pretreatment susceptible strains. These substitutions occur in a region of the gyrase A protein wherein directly analogous mutations of serine 83----leucine and alanine 84----proline in Escherichia coli confer quinolone resistance. Thus, DNA gyrase A subunit mutations are implicated in resistance to ciprofloxacin in S. aureus.
Superoxide Dismutase and Catalase Do Not Affect the Pulmonary Hypertensive Response to Group B Streptococcus in the Lamb

The purpose of this study was to determine whether treatment with conjugated antioxidant enzymes could attenuate or abolish pulmonary hypertension induced by group B streptococcus (GBS). Lambs, 3–7 d old, were anesthetized and ventilated. Intravascular catheters were placed in the left ventricle, descending aorta, right atrium, and pulmonary artery for continuous monitoring of intravascular pressures. Cardiac output was measured with radiolabeled microspheres. Measurements were obtained at baseline and 15 and 60 min into a 60-min GBS infusion, and 60 min after GBS was stopped. Blood gas values were held constant and Pao2 was maintained >100 mm Hg. The control group received saline vehicle only (n = 6), the GBS group received GBS infusion only (n = 9), the enzymes (ENZ) group received polyethylene glycol-superoxide dismutase (PEG-SOD) and polyethylene glycol-catalase (PEG-CAT) treatment only (n = 6), and the ENZ+GBS group received PEG-SOD and PEG-CAT then GBS (n = 9). Plasma samples were obtained to confirm increased superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in the groups receiving enzymes. Compared with baseline, pulmonary vascular resistance increased by 119% and 101% at 15 min and 87% and 81% at 60 min in the GBS and ENZ+GBS groups, respectively. Sixty minutes after the termination of the GBS infusion, PVR returned to baseline in the GBS group but did not in the ENZ+GBS group. Enzyme infusions resulted in at least a ninefold increase in plasma enzyme activities. As opposed to previously published data from endotoxin models, PEG-CAT and PEG-SOD were ineffective in altering the GBS-induced pulmonary hypertensive response in this model. This suggests that acute administration of antioxidant enzymes may not be effective in ameliorating GBS-induced pulmonary hypertension.