Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A trade-off between natural and acquired antibody production in a reptile: implications for long-term resistance to disease

Summary Vertebrate immune systems are understood to be complex and dynamic, with trade-offs among different physiological components (e.g., innate and adaptive immunity) within individuals and among taxonomic lineages. Desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) immunised with ovalbumin (OVA) showed a clear trade-off between levels of natural antibodies (NAbs; innate immune function) and the production of acquired antibodies (adaptive immune function). Once initiated, acquired antibody responses included a long-term elevation in antibodies persisting for more than one year. The occurrence of either (a) high levels of NAbs or (b) long-term elevations of acquired antibodies in individual tortoises suggests that long-term humoral resistance to pathogens may be especially important in this species, as well as in other vertebrates with slow metabolic rates, concomitantly slow primary adaptive immune responses, and long life-spans.
C-erbB2/neu Transfection Induces Gap Junctional Communication Incompetence in Glial Cells

Astrocytes form functional networks that participate in active signaling in which external stimuli are generated and amplified in many of the same ways as in neurons. Gap junctions between astrocytes offer the structural avenue by which the electrical and metabolic signals are propagated from one cell to another. Little is known about the trafficking, assembly, and degradation mechanisms of the major astrocytic gap junction protein connexin43. We have studied a glial cell line transfected with the C-erbB2/neu oncogene (neu+), finding severe interruption of gap junctional communication after stable transfection. Evidence from Western blotting and phosphorylation studies showed that the processing of connexin43 to its higher phosphorylated isoforms is disturbed. Confocal laser imaging indicates that the major deficit in theneu+ cells is attributable to a lack in plaque assembly of connexin43. Because theneu+ cells also lack N-CAM proteins and because work from others has indicated a close relationship between communication competence and constitutive CAM expression, our data suggest that expression of C-erbB2/neu oncogene alters cell–cell association via CAM proteins, which thereby affects gap junction plaque assembly and appropriate phosphorylation of connexin43.
Welcome For Market Discipline : The Evidence Across Countries and Industries Chicago , 10 / 2003

This paper applies a simple new test for asset integration to two episodes of crises in financial markets. Our technique is tightly based on a general intertemporal asset-pricing model, and relies on estimating and comparing expected risk-free rates across assets. Expected risk-free rates are allowed to vary freely over time, constrained only by the fact that they are equal across (risk-adjusted) assets. Assets are allowed to have general risk characteristics, and are constrained only by a factor model of covariances over short time periods. The technique is undemanding in terms of both data and estimation. We find that expected risk-free rates vary dramatically over time, unlike short interest rates. The S&P 500 market seems to be generally well integrated, but the level of integration falls temporarily during the LTCM crisis of October 1998. By way of contrast, the Korean stock market remains generally internally integrated through the Asian crisis of 1997. The level of equity integration between Japan and Korea is low and falls further during late 1997. JEL Classification Numbers: G14
Interleukin‐10 and interleukin‐4 inhibit intracellular killing of Leishmania infantum and Leishmania major by human macrophages by decreasing nitric oxide generation

The host response to Leishmania infection is regulated by a specific pattern of local cytokine production. We investigated the effect of interleukin (IL)‐10 and IL‐4 on the leishmanicidal activity of human macrophages (Mϕ). As with L. major, intracellular killing of L. infantum by human Mϕ was obtained following ligation of surface CD23 or cell treatment with Interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ). This leishmanicidal activity required nitric oxide (NO) generation by activated Mϕ, and it was partially mimicked by cell treatment with chemical NO donors. Addition of recombinant human IL‐10 or IL‐4 to CD23 mAb or IFN‐γ decreased L. infantum and L. major killing by infected Mϕ. IL‐10 was more potent than IL‐4 in inhibiting the leishmanicidal activity of human Mϕ. Inhibition of Leishmania killing by IL‐4 and IL‐10 correlated with decreased NO generation from Mϕ, and was reversed when exogenous NO was added to cell cultures. Therefore, IL‐10 and IL‐4 down‐regulate leishmanicidal activity of human Mϕ, in part by inhibiting NO generation by these cells.
A clustering based multiobjective evolutionary algorithm

In this paper, we propose a clustering based multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (CLUMOEA) to deal with the multiobjective optimization problems with irregular Pareto front shapes. CLUMOEA uses a k-means clustering method to discover the population structure by partitioning the solutions into several clusters, and it only allows the solutions in the same cluster to do the reproduction. To reduce the computational cost and balance the exploration and exploitation, the clustering process and evolutionary process are integrated together and they are performed simultaneously. In addition to the clustering, CLUMOEA also uses a distance tournament selection to choose the more similar mating solutions to accelerate the convergence. Besides, a cosine nondominated selection method considering the location and distance information of the solutions are further presented to construct the final population with good diversity. The experimental results show that, compared with some state-of-the-art algorithms, CLUMOEA has significant advantages on dealing with the given test problems with irregular Pareto front shapes.
Knowing What to Do in Social Situations The General Factor of Personality and Performance on Situational Judgment Tests

Two studies examined the general factor of personality (GFP) in relationship to performance on video-based situational tests measuring social knowledge and skills. Study 1 (N = 180 candidates of an assessment center) showed that high-GFP individuals were better able to indicate the appropriate social behavior in a situational judgment test. Moreover, in that study, high-GFP participants were also rated higher by others on leadership skills. Study 2 (N = 153 psychology students) showed that the GFP was related to actual display of social behavior in a situational webcam test. In both studies, high-GFP individuals reported more leadership experience in organizations. These findings support the idea of the GFP as a substantive personality factor that may also be relevant for personnel selection.
Development of a Navigation System for Mobile Robots Using Different Patterns of Behavior Based on Fuzzy Logic

The important challenge in mobile robots is the ability to autonomously navigate, by avoiding modeled and unmodeled obstacles especially in crowded and unpredictably changing environment. In a way to structure the navigation task to tackle the problem, a behavior-based navigation is considered. In this article, the use of individual conducts design and action coordination of the behaviors using fuzzy logic is used. A layered approach is employed in this work in which a supervision layer based on the context makes a decision to which behaviors to process, rather than processing all behaviors.
Influence of Lead on Type-I Iodothyronine 5′-Monodeiodinase Activity in Male Mouse

The 5'-monodeiodination of thyroxine (14) to 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3) in the presence of type l'-iodothyronine 5'monodeiodinase (5'D-l) enzyme plays a major role in the regulation of the thyroid-hormone metabolism (1). Although in recent years, few investigations have been made on lead induced thyroid dysfunction in mammals, these studies were based on thyroidal histology only, 1311 uptake (2) and circulating thyroid hormone concentrations (3). Up until today, not a single systematic report is available on lead-induced alterations in 5'D-l activity in mammals. Therefore, the main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of three different doses of lead acetate on 5'D-l activity in the mouse liver. Also, the changes in serum 13 and 14 concentrations were studied to correlate with the altered 5'D-l activity. In addition, lead-induced lipid peroxidation (LPO) and antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) have also been studied to evaluate the toxic effects of lead.
Perceptual learning as a tool for boosting working memory among individuals with reading and learning disability

The majority of individuals with dyslexia and additional learning difficulties (D-LDs) also perform poorly on many simple auditory discrimination tasks. We now trained a group of D-LD teenagers on a series of auditory tasks and assessed their pattern of auditory improvement as well as their generalization to reading related tasks. We found that the performance of most D-LD participants quickly improved and reached the level of the general age matched population. Moreover, their pattern of learning specificity (e.g. no transfer from frequency to duration discriminations) was also similar to that previously observed in the general population. When assessed with a battery of verbal tasks that they initially performed poorly, a pattern of specific transfer was observed. Performance on verbal memory tasks improved to peer level, whereas performance on reading and non-verbal cognitive tasks did not. These findings suggest that D-LDs’ mechanisms of long-term learning are adequate. Moreover, perceptual learning can be used as a tool for improving general working memory skills, whose underlying mechanisms seem to be shared by simple tones and complex speech sounds.
Gaming and Targets in the English NHS

Process-driven performance targets were used in the English NHS in the late 1990s and early 2000's to drive improvement. There have been clear successes, and well-documented instances of perverse incentives leading to negative behaviours, such as data manipulation and resource diversion. Recently, policy in England has moved away from targets, focusing more on locally-negotiated metrics. The literature was searched for relevant materials, from a broad social science perspective. Probative work from all disciplines was brought together to give an overview of targets, perverse incentives and the routes to minimising such unintended consequences, and to enable conclusions to be drawn. The consequences of targets are well-documented, but less well understood. Routes are available to mitigate the potential for perverse incentives, within the design and interpretation phases and also in terms of sanctions for gamers. These have largely not been followed, rather the political fashion has moved away from targets altogether. It is hypothesised that this will lead to an increase in waiting times, although this has yet to fully manifest. While targets may swing in and out of fashion, the psychological drivers remain: wherever a measure is imposed that carries with it a consequence, there will be a perverse incentive. Process-driven targets in healthcare have supporters and critics. Their heyday in the English National Health Service was primarily during the New Labour Government of the late 1990s and early 2000s, with the combination of process-heavy targets and high levels of incentive leading to not only high levels of compliance and improvement, but also well-documented instances of gaming behaviour. Proponents of the use of targets point to notable successes in the reduction of waiting times where key targets were introduced (such as ambulance Category A (life-threatening cases) response times). Opponents raise a number of issues around the negative behaviours that targets give rise to, for example the diversion of resource to the measured area and the distortion of clinical priorities. Recently, it would appear that health policy has moved away from targets as a measurement system; in this paper we argue that if it is hoped that this will prevent perverse incentives and gaming arising, then this is unlikely to succeed: wherever performance or quality are measured, then there will be an incentive to manipulate the data or circumstances to give the appearance of compliance. We conclude with a consideration of the strategies available to reduce or mitigate gaming through how measures are designed, interpreted and how gaming is perceived.
Underwater working times in two groups of traditional apnea divers in Asia: the Ama and the Bajau.

INTRODUCTION Traditional apnea diving for sea harvesting for a living continues in some communities in Asia, the outcome being dependent on the total underwater working time. We studied dive and surface interval durations and daily time spent submerged by Japanese Ama and the Phillipine Bajau. METHODS Diving and surface interval durations were timed, and daily in-water working time noted for 14 female Ama (mean age 60 years) during sea-mollusc collection, and five male Bajau divers (mean age 38 years) during spearfishing, using direct observations and depth-time recorders. RESULTS In the Ama, mean (SD) dive duration was 38 (8) s, with mean surface interval duration of 38 (8) s, at depths of 5-12 metres' sea water (msw), and diving constituted 50 (4)% of the total immersed working time, which was limited to 4 h per day by fishing regulations. In the Bajau, mean dive duration was 28 (9) s, with surface intervals of 19 (8) s, at depths of 5-7 msw, and diving was 60 (6)% of the total working time. Diving patterns in Hegura-Ama were similar to those previously reported, with up to 2 h per day spent under water. The Bajau total working time of 2-9 h per day suggests that some divers may spend more than 5 h per day submerged, which is the greatest daily apnea diving time reported in humans. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that natural human diving ability in these two groups of traditional apnea divers allows efficient sea harvesting at shallow depths and that the outcome does not seem to be limited by total daily apnea time.
Rho GTPases and signaling networks.

The Rho GTPases form a subgroup of the Ras superfamily of 20- to 30-kD GTP-binding proteins that have been shown to regulate a wide spectrum of cellular functions. These proteins are ubiquitously expressed across the species, from yeast to man. The mammalian Rho-like GTPases comprise at least 10 distinct proteins: RhoA, B, C, D, and E; Rac1 and 2; RacE; Cdc42Hs, and TC10. A comparison of the amino acid sequences of the Rho proteins from various species has revealed that they are conserved in primary structure and are 50%–55% homologous to each other. Like all members of the Ras superfamily, the Rho GTPases function as molecular switches, cycling between an inactive GDP-bound state and an active GTP-bound state. Until recently, members of the Rho subfamily were believed to be involved primarily in the regulation of cytoskeletal organization in response to extracellular growth factors. However, research from a number of laboratories over the past few years has revealed that the Rho GTPases play crucial roles in diverse cellular events such as membrane trafficking, transcriptional regulation, cell growth control, and development. Consequently, a major challenge has been to unravel the underlying molecular mechanisms by which the Rho GTPases mediate these various activities. Many targets of the Rho GTPases have now been identified and further characterization of some of them has provided major insights toward our understanding of Rho GTPase function at the molecular level. This review aims to summarize the general established principles about the Rho GTPases and some of the more recent exciting findings, hinting at novel, unanticipated functions of the Rho GTPases.
Homologs of Drosophila P transposons were mobile in zebrafish but have been domesticated in a common ancestor of chicken and human.

A substantial fraction of vertebrate and invertebrate genomes is composed of mobile elements and their derivatives. One of the most intensively studied transposon families, the P elements of Drosophila, was thought to exist exclusively in the genomes of dipteran insects. Based on the data provided by the human genome project, in 2001 our group has identified a P element-homologous sequence in the human genome. This P element-homologous human gene, named Phsa, is 19,533 nucleotides long, comprises six exons and five introns, and encodes a protein of still unknown function with a length of 903 amino acid residues. The N-terminal THAP domain of the putative Phsa protein shows similarities to the site-specific DNA-binding domain of the Drosophila P element transposase. In the present study, FISH analysis and the screening of a human lambda genomic library revealed a single copy of Phsa located on the long arm of chromosome 4, upstream of a gene coding for the hypothetical protein DKFZp686L1814. The same gene arrangement was found for the homologous gene Pgga in the genome of chicken, thus, displaying Pgga at orthologous position on the long arm of chromosome 4. The single-copy gene status and the absence of terminal inverted repeats and target-site duplications indicate that Phsa and Pgga constitute domesticated stationary sequences. In contrast, a considerable number of P-homologous sequences with terminal inverted repeats and intact target-site duplications could be identified in zebrafish, strongly indicating that Pdre elements were mobile within the zebrafish genome. Pdre elements are the first P-like transposons identified in a vertebrate species. With respect to Phsa, gene expression studies showed that Phsa is expressed in a broad range of human tissues, suggesting that the putative Phsa protein plays a not yet understood but essential role in a specific metabolic pathway. We demonstrate that P-homologous DNA sequences occur in the genomes of 21 analyzed vertebrates but only as rudiments in the rodents. Finally, the evolutionary history of P element-homologous vertebrate sequences is discussed in the context of the "molecular domestication" hypothesis versus the "source gene hypothesis. "
Doing Research in Prison:

This article reflects on some of the tensions experienced in doing prison research. Both qualitative and quantitative `styles of research'—in so far as they can be characterized as discrete styles—have their dangers and rewards. The `truths' of sociology's concern with humanistic method and its discoveries of the painfulness of prison are valid, and yet need to be reconciled with quantitative findings about the apparent ordinariness of prison for generalized groups of prisoners, about differences between prisoners and individual instances of violence/suicide/disorder, whose origins may have individual-psychological as well as situational-sociological components, and about the distinctions which may be drawn between prisons—some having more legitimate regimes than others. The absence of `pain' from quantitative research accounts of prison life is surprising. The author argues that research in any human environment without subjective feeling is almost impossible—particularly in a prison. These feelings—belonging to staff, prisoners and researchers—can be a significant guide to or even source of valuable data. Recent accounts of the role of emotion in criminology and in research have been helpful in making sense of some of the turbulence discovered and experienced by members of the research team involved in a recent project.
Delta(9)-THC-induced cognitive deficits in mice are reversed by the GABA(A) antagonist bicuculline.

RATIONALE The results of recent in vitro studies have underscored the important role that activation of CB(1) receptors has on GABAergic activity in brain areas associated with memory. OBJECTIVES The primary purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the memory disruptive effects of Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (Delta(9)-THC) in vivo are mediated through GABAergic systems. Conversely, we also evaluated whether blocking CB(1) receptor signaling would alter memory deficits elicited by GABA agonists. METHODS The GABA(A) antagonist bicuculline and GABA(B) antagonist CGP 36742 were evaluated for their ability to ameliorate Delta(9)-THC-induced deficits in a mouse working memory Morris water maze task. Mice were also assessed in a T-maze task, as well as non-cognitive behavioral assays. Additionally, the effects of GABA(A) and GABA(B) agonists were assessed in either CB(1) (-/-) mice or wild type mice treated with the CB(1) antagonist SR 141716. RESULTS Memory deficits resulting from 10 mg/kg Delta(9)-THC in the Morris water maze were completely reversed by bicuculline, though unaffected by CGP 36742. Bicuculline also blocked the disruptive effects of Delta(9)-THC in the T-maze, but failed to alter non-mnemonic effects of Delta(9)-THC. Although CB(1) (-/-) mice exhibited supersensitivity to muscimol-induced water maze deficits compared with wild type control mice, muscimol elicited virtually identical effects in SR 141716-treated and vehicle-treated wild type mice. CONCLUSIONS This is the first demonstration of which we are aware showing that GABA(A) receptors may play a necessary role in Delta(9)-THC-induced memory impairment in whole animals.
The Pricing of Initial Public Offerings: Tests of Adverse-Selection and Signaling Theories

We test the empirical implications of several models of IPO underpricing. Consistent with the winner's-curse hypothesis, we show that in markets where investors know a priori that they do not have to compete with informed investors, IPOs are not underpriced. We also show that IPOs underwritten by reputable investment banks experience significantly less underpricing and perform significantly better in the long run. We do not find empirical support for the signaling models that try to explain why firms underprice. In fact, we find that (1) firms that underprice more return to the reissue market less frequently, and for lesser amounts, than firms that underprice less, and (2) firms that underprice less experience higher earnings and pay higher dividends, contrary to the model's predictions. Article published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Financial Studies in its journal, The Review of Financial Studies.