Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Wlds Mutation Delays Robust Loss of Motor and Sensory Axons in a Genetic Model for Myelin-Related Axonopathy

Mice deficient in the peripheral myelin component P0 mimic severe forms of inherited peripheral neuropathies in humans, with defective myelin formation and consequent axonal loss. We cross-bred these mice with the spontaneous mutant C57BL/Wldstypically showing protection from Wallerian degeneration because of fusion of the ubiquitination factor E4B (Ube4b) and nicotinamide mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (Nmnat) genes. We found that in the double mutants, the robust myelin-related axonal loss is reduced at 6 weeks and 3 months of age. Moreover, retrograde labeling from plantar nerves revealed an increased survival of motor axons. These motor axons appeared functionally active because both the amplitude of compound muscle action potentials and muscle strength were less reduced in the double mutants. At 6 months of age, reduction of axonal loss was no longer detectable in the double mutants when compared with littermates carrying the P0 null mutation only, although the Wlds gene was not reduced in its expression at this age. We conclude that myelin-related axonal loss is a process having some features in common with Wallerian degeneration. Introducing the Wldsgene would be a promising approach to delaying detrimental axonal loss in myelin disorders.
The Relevance of the Primary Prevention Criteria for Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Implantation in Korean Symptomatic Severe Heart Failure Patients

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy is recommended as the primary tool for prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in symptomatic patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction. There is a paucity of information on whether this recommendation is appropriate for the Korean population with severe heart failure. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The study group consisted of 275 consecutive patients (mean age 65 years, 71% male) who met the ICD implantation criteria for primary prevention (left ventricular ejection fraction ≤30% and New York Heart Association functional class II or III). We analyzed the clinical characteristics and outcomes of an ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICMP) group (n=131) and a non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (NICMP) group (n=144). The outcomes of these 2 groups were compared with the Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II (MADIT-II) conventional and Defibrillators in the Non-ischemic Cardiomyopathy Treatment Evaluation (DEFINITE) standard therapy groups, respectively. RESULTS Eighty patients (29%) died during a follow-up period of 40±17 months. The NICMP group had better all-cause mortality rates than the ICMP group (19% vs. 40%, p<0.001), however both groups had a similar incidence of SCD (7% vs. 10%, p=0.272). The 2-year all-cause mortality and SCD for the ICMP group were similar to those of the MADIT-II conventional therapy group (20% vs. 20%, 7% vs. 10%, respectively, all p>0.05). All-cause mortality and the incidence of SCD in the NICMP group were comparable to those of the DEFINITE standard therapy group (13% vs. 17%, 6% vs. 6%, respectively, all p>0.05). CONCLUSION Korean patients with severe heart failure in both the ICMP and NICMP groups had all-caused mortality and risk of SCD comparable to patients in the MADIT-II and DEFINITE standard therapy groups. Therefore, the primary prevention criteria for ICD implantation would be appropriate in both Korean ICMP and NICMP patients.
Disciplinary Turf War: Philosophical Counseling in an Era of Psychological Hegemony

This paper deals with philosophical counselling, a relatively new field of applied philosophy. Concerns regarding its definition, viability, and proper positioning vis-a-vis psychiatry and conventional psychotherapy are raised in the context of psychology’s hegemony in the treatment of troubled minds. The position is taken that philosophical counselling is indeed a legitimate enterprise, which can serve as an adjunct or therapeutic alternative in the treatment of non-pathological psychological disturbances pertaining to existential, normative, and spiritual or noetic concerns. A hypothetical case study example is used illustrate how some existential and spiritual problems are best treated by philosophical counsellors with a background in metaphysical psychology, not by systems of conventional psychotherapy like William Glasser’s Reality Therapy and Albert Ellis’s Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy.
Doing the Right Thing: Determinism, Moral Responsibility, and Agency

The relations among free will—determinism, moral responsibility, and agency are considered. A deterministic perspective is defined here as an individual’s having only one possible outcome, rather than multiple outcomes, of a decision-making situation; in other words, the person could not have done otherwise. This perspective does not negate moral responsibility or the phenomenological experience of choosing. Even though only one outcome is possible in a decision-making situation, from the perspective of the individual choosing, this ultimate outcome is unknown during the deliberative process. Recent psychological research related to free will, determinism, moral responsibility, and agency is reviewed and critiqued. Free will assessments have been confounded with items assessing moral responsibility and self-control; similarly manipulations to decrease free will also may have decreased agency. Disentangling determinism, moral responsibility, and agency in psychological research would help clarify relations among these concepts in future research.
An architecture of a web recommender system using social network user profiles for e-commerce

In this paper we propose a concept of a web e-com-merce system that collects and uses, in the process of making recommendations, data obtained from social network profiles of its users. This architecture modeling approach was developed within the project of a mashup Web application that integrates with Facebook API. We describe which data could be obtained from Facebook, propose the way to store it and suggest how the information from user profile could improve the effectiveness of a e-commerce recommender system.
SELENIUM ASSOCIATED OXIDATIVE STRESS IN THE MAMMARY GLAND OF PERIPARTURIENT DAIRY COWS

SELENIUM ASSOCIATED OXIDATIVE STRESS IN THE MAMMARY GLAND OF PERIPARTURIENT DAIRY COWS By Stacey Lynn Aitken Dairy cows experience tremendous stressors during the periparturient per od leaving them susceptible to numerous metabolic and infectious diseases. Mastitis continues to be the number one disease afflicting dairy cows during this time period. An inability to compensate for fetal demands and the onset of lactation alters a dairy cow’s nutritional st atus ignificantly around the time of calving. Antioxidant deficiencies as a consequence of low selenium l vels during the periparturient period are associated with increased susceptibili ty to mastitis. The benefit of selenium to mammary gland health may be attributable to its incor poration into selenoproteins, which participate in immune regulation, partly due to their abilit y to control oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is the result of decreased antioxidant pote ial and increased reactive oxygen species production. Increased levels of reactive oxygen speci es contribute to inflammation by causing either direct cellular damage or altering sig naling pathways in immune cells. The ability of selenoproteins to control oxidative stress, such as duri ng the periparturient period, may reduce the incidence and severity of mastitis lessening econo mi burdens to the dairy industry. The goal of this thesis is to examine selenoprotein activit y w thin the mammary gland of periparturient dairy cattle and determine if it may contribute to oxidat ive stress and proinflammatory gene expression during this time period.
Selective-tap adaptive algorithms in the solution of the nonuniqueness problem for stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation

We investigate stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation in which solutions for the system can be nonunique and propose the use of selective-tap adaptive filters to address this problem. The main concept is to employ tap selection to optimize jointly for minimum interchannel coherence and maximum L/sub 2/-norm of the subselected tap-input vectors. The exclusive maximum (XM) tap-selection approach is proposed and applied to normalized least-mean squares (NLMS) and recursive least-squares (RLS) algorithm. We propose an approach for solving the nonuniqueness problem employing XM tap selection in combination with a nonlinear preprocessor. Simulation results show a significant improvement in convergence rate compared with existing techniques.
On the invertibility of the RBF model in a predictive control strategy

This paper describes the importance of the RBF model quality in a model-based predictive control scheme. We show that a good neuronal approximator does not necessarily correctly model the intrinsic behaviour of the identified system. We have used a simulated example to show the harmful effects of a particular type of incorrect behaviour, the non-invertibility of the model relative to the control input. Lastly, we propose a derived RBF model that is slightly more complex, but which is systematically invertible.
Learning to Be Leaders in Higher Education: What Helps or Hinders Women’s Advancement as Leaders in Universities

This article examines 110 reported incidents from an online survey of 26 women from each of the eight universities in New Zealand. They responded to questions asking them to describe times when work and non-work situations have helped or hindered their advancement in university leadership roles. Five key themes, incorporating a range of factors, emerged as making a difference to advancement as leaders. These themes are: work relationships; university environment; invisible rules; proactivity; and personal circumstances. This research is part of the L-SHIP (Leadership- Supporting Higher Intent & Practice) project and has two main aims. First, to identify factors in universities that help and hinder women’s advancement as leaders, as reported by women; second, to provide useful evidence to underpin the development of programmes supporting women’s advancement in university leadership roles. This research is a first step in the development of the L-SHIP Toolkit for good practice in leadership development in higher education.
Análisis de la estrategia discursiva de Hugo Chávez de cara a la creación del PSUV

Este trabajo tiene como proposito analizar las caracteristicas del discurso del Presidente Hugo Chavez de cara a la creacion del Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV. Este adquiere relevancia, debido al momento historico en el cual el Presidente Chavez ha planteado la conformacion de un partido que aglutine a toda la izquierda venezolana, por lo cual gana pertinencia un estudio que analice las caracteristicas del discurso presidencial en el marco de la creacion del PSUV y determine los elementos empleados para encajar en el imaginario politico del venezolano. El trabajo involucra una investigacion de tipo exploratoria y presenta un diseno de investigacion transversal y documental, en el que se implementa la tecnica de analisis del discurso. Tras analizar un discurso especifico, el del 15 de diciembre del ano 2006 (dedicado a la justificacion de la conformacion del nuevo partido politico), los resultados apuntan a pensar que el discurso presidencial actua como una herramienta persuasiva que legitima tanto la politica gubernamental como la posicion del lider presidencial, al tiempo que coloca en minusvalia a los lideres opositores atribuyendoles a estos el supuesto deterioro progresivo del pais.
Discourse in Content and Language Integrated Learning Clil Classrooms

The label CLIL stands for classrooms where a foreign language (English) is used as a medium of instruction in content subjects. This book provides a first in-depth analysis of the kind of communicative abilities which are embodied in such CLIL classrooms. It examines teacher and student talk at secondary school level from different discourse-analytic angles, taking into account the interpersonal pragmatics of classroom discourse and how school subjects are talked into being during lessons. The analysis shows how CLIL classroom interaction is strongly shaped by its institutional context, which in turn conditions the ways in which students experience, use and learn the target language. The research presented here suggests that CLIL programmes require more explicit language learning goals in order to fully exploit their potential for furthering the learners’ appropriation of a foreign language as a medium of learning.
A Conversation with Henry Mintzberg

Henry Mintzberg is both Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and professor of organization at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. His research deals with issues of general management and organizations; his current focus is on the nature and styles of managerial work, as well as forms of organizing and on the strategy formation process. He also heads up a team of people from five universities around the world, a group working to establish what they hope will be “next generation management education”—specifically, a master's program aimed at the “development in context” of practicing managers. His own teaching activities focus on ad hoc seminars for experienced managers and work with doctoral students. Over the years, he has worked with a number of substantial family firms and contributed to a film about a patriarchal Canadian grocery family enterprise, Steinberg's. Mintzberg received his doctorate and master of science degrees from MIT's Sloan School of Management and his mechanical engineering degree from McGill. Mintzberg is the author of the Nature of Managerial Work (1973), The Structuring of Organizations (1983), The Strategy Process (a textbook with James Brian Quinn, now in its third edition), Mintzberg on Management (1989), The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning (1994), and the Canadian Condition: Reflections of a “Pure Cotton” (1995). He has written about a hundred articles, including two Harvard Business Review McKinsey prize winners, “The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact” and “Crafting Strategy. ” FBR talked to Mintzberg about planning, collaboration, boards, governance and his new management program.
3-D scene representation with layered non-uniform global sampling

The representation of a 3-D scene is essential to recent multi-view imaging technologies. In this paper we propose a unified geometry and texture representation based on global resampling of the scene. The 3-D coordinates and the associated texture information of the scene points are represented in the polar coordinate system. A novel layered data map representation with distance-dependent nonuniform sampling strategy is proposed to deal with complex scenes. It is capable of increasing the details of the 3-D structure locally and thus is compact in size. The experimental results on synthetic data sets and real images are presented.
Education and Youth Integration into European Labour Markets

Education is a crucial determinant of people’s life chances, and it particularly affects the integration of youth into labour markets. The article shows how different kinds and levels of education shape the access of young people to jobs of varying advantage and the smoothness of the transition from school to work. It elaborates the common patterns in the relationship between education and early career labour market outcomes and investigates - especially for EU member countries - how varying institutional arrangements in the educational systems and in the regulation of labour markets lead to varying integration outcomes.
Formation and analysis of tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines.

Chemical-analytical studies during the past 4 years led to several new observations on the formation of tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines (TSNA) and their occurrence in smokeless tobacco, mainstream smoke (MS), and sidestream smoke (SS) of American and foreign cigarettes. When snuff was extracted by means of supercritical fluid extraction with carbon dioxide containing 10% methanol, analysis of this material confirmed that the extraction with organic solvents had been partially incomplete. Epidemiological studies in the northern Sudan showed a high risk for oral cancer for users of toombak, a home-made oral snuff. Toombak contains 100-fold higher levels of TSNA than commercial snuff in the U.S. and Sweden. The TSNA content in the saliva of toombak dippers is at least ten times higher than that reported in the saliva of dippers of commercial snuff. Biomarker studies have shown corresponding high levels of hemoglobin adducts with metabolites of NNN and NNK as well as for urinary metabolites of NNK. These data supported the epidemiological findings. The analyses of MS of U.S. and foreign cigarettes smoked under FTC conditions revealed comparable data for the smoke of nonfilter cigarettes and filter cigarettes except in the case of low- and ultralow-yield cigarettes, which showed reduced TSNA yields. The MS of cigarettes made from Burley or dark tobacco is exceptionally high in TSNA, primarily because of the high nitrate content of those tobacco types. Taking puffs of larger volume and drawing puffs more frequently, practices observed among most smokers of cigarettes with low nicotine yield, results in high TSNA values in the MS. The formation of the lung carcinogen NNK is favored during the smoldering of cigarettes, between puffs, when SS is generated. Consequently, in most samples from indoor air polluted with environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), the highest concentration of an individual TSNA is that of NNK. When nonsmokers had remained for up to 2 h in a test laboratory with high ETS pollution, they excreted measurable amounts of NNK metabolites in the urine, indicative of the uptake of TSNA.
Shading a Fresh Light on Proactivity Research : Examining when and how proactive behaviors benefit individuals and their employing organizations

Purpose: In this paper, 75 studies were reviewed on workplace proactivity that are published over the past 20 years. By doing so, individual and contextual factors were analyzed that affect workplace proactivity at the individual, team and organizational levels. Design/methodology/approach: A systematic literature review. Findings: The review reveals that, at the individual level, proactive behavior is the outcome of a complex interplay between person and context. However, at the team and organizational levels, research is still underdeveloped. Research limitations/implications: Because research is still underdeveloped at the team and organization levels, this paper suggests that the nature of the interplay between person and context needs further theoretical advancement in these research areas. Originality/value: With growing evidence that workplace proactivity is not only a result of individual characteristics, more studies are examining the effects of contextual factors on proactivity in organizations. While this research has already resulted in a substantial body of literature on the predictors of proactivity in the organizational context, this is the first study that puts effort into integrating these studies’ findings.
Principal Inpatient Diagnostic Cost Group Model for Medicare Risk Adjustment

The Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 required HCFA to implement health-status-based risk adjustment for Medicare capitation payments for managed care plans by January 1, 2000. In support of this mandate, HCFA has been collecting inpatient encounter data from health plans since 1997. These data include diagnoses and other information that can be used to identify chronic medical problems that contribute to higher costs, so that health plans can be paid more when they care for sicker patients. In this article, the authors describe the risk-adjustment model HCFA is implementing in the year 2000, known as the Principal Inpatient Diagnostic Cost Group (PIPDCG) model.
Brain-derived TNFalpha mediates neuropathic pain.

Neuropathic pain is a chronic pain state that develops a central component following acute nerve injury. However, the pathogenic mechanisms involved in the expression of this central component are not completely understood. We have investigated the role of brain-associated TNF in the evolution of hyperalgesia in the chronic constriction injury (CCI) model of neuropathic pain. Thermal nociceptive threshold has been assessed in rats (male, Sprague-Dawley) that have undergone loose, chromic gut ligature placement around the sciatic nerve. Total levels of TNF in regions of the brain, spinal cord and plasma have been assayed (WEHI-13VAR bioassay). Bioactive TNF levels are elevated in the hippocampus. During the period of injury, hippocampal noradrenergic neurotransmission demonstrates a decrease in stimulated norepinephrine (NE) release, concomitant with elevated hippocampal TNF levels. Continuous intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) microinfusion of TNF-antibodies (Abs) starting at four days, but not six days, following ligature placement completely abolishes the hyperalgesic response characteristic of this model, as assessed by the 58 degrees C hot-plate test. Antibody infusion does not decrease spinal cord or plasma levels of TNF. Continuous i.c. v. microinfusion of rrTNF alpha exacerbates the hyperalgesic response by ligatured animals, and induces a hyperalgesic response in animals not receiving ligatures. Likewise, field-stimulated hippocampal adrenergic neurotransmission is decreased upon continuous i.c. v. microinfusion of TNF. These results indicate an important role of brain-derived TNF, both in the pathology of neuropathic pain, as well as in fundamental pain perception.
Performance Analysis of Never Die Network Based on Software Defined Disaster Resilient System

By large tsunami damage due to the Great East Japan Earthquake, many existing network system stopped functioning in various factors. And even in such a situation, satellite IP communication system and mobile telephone network, wireless LAN has been effective for temporary recovery of disaster area networks. We develop the Never Die Network (NDN) System that is a Disaster Resilient Network System based on the lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake. NDN system can accommodate multiple different networks to internet access network, and monitors each network performance. We propose a method to autonomously derive the optimum packet flow in NDN system based on the measured network performance. We performed quantitative evaluation of the proposed method by performing the constructed of the prototype system. Also, in order to verify the effectiveness of the system under actual disaster situation, we evaluated based on the disaster scenarios using the prototype system.
Local Clique Covering of Claw‐Free Graphs

A k−clique covering of a simple graph G is a collection of cliques of G covering all the edges of G such that each vertex is contained in at most k cliques. The smallest k for which G admits a k− clique covering is called the local clique cover number of G and is denoted by lcc(G). Local clique cover number can be viewed as the local counterpart of the clique cover number that is equal to the minimum total number of cliques covering all edges. In this article, several aspects of the local clique covering problem are studied and its relationships to other well‐known problems are discussed. In particular, it is proved that the local clique cover number of every claw‐free graph is at most cΔ/logΔ , where Δ is the maximum degree of the graph and c is a constant. It is also shown that the bound is tight, up to a constant factor. Moreover, regarding a conjecture by Chen et al. (Clique covering the edges of a locally cobipartite graph, Discrete Math 219(1–3)(2000), 17–26), we prove that the clique cover number of every connected claw‐free graph on n vertices with the minimum degree δ, is at most n+cδ4/3log1/3δ , where c is a constant.