Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of botulinum toxin type A on movement-associated rhytides following CO2 laser resurfacing.

BACKGROUND Many patients who undergo CO2 laser resurfacing for correction of rhytides experience recurrence of movement-associated wrinkles within 6 to 12 months following the laser procedure. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of botulinum toxin type A (Botox) injections on movement-associated rhytides following cutaneous laser resurfacing. METHODS Forty patients who had received full face CO2 laser resurfacing for the treatment of facial rhytides were randomized to receive Botox injections to the glabella, forehead or lateral canthal regions or to receive no additional treatment (control group). Clinical and photographic assessments were performed at baseline and at 3, 6 and 9 months. RESULTS Enhanced and more prolonged correction of forehead, glabellar and/or lateral canthal rhytides was observed in patients treated with Botox injections postoperatively compared to non-Botox treated control patients. CONCLUSION The use of botulinum toxin type A following cutaneous CO2 laser resurfacing results in prolonged correction of movement-associated rhytides. It is advised that patients receive information regarding the benefits of maintenance therapy with botulinum toxin as part of their routine preoperative education.
OriDB, the DNA replication origin database updated and extended

OriDB (http://www.oridb.org/) is a database containing collated genome-wide mapping studies of confirmed and predicted replication origin sites. The original database collated and curated Saccharomyces cerevisiae origin mapping studies. Here, we report that the OriDB database and web site have been revamped to improve user accessibility to curated data sets, to greatly increase the number of curated origin mapping studies, and to include the collation of replication origin sites in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. The revised database structure underlies these improvements and will facilitate further expansion in the future. The updated OriDB for S. cerevisiae is available at http://cerevisiae.oridb. org/ and for S. pombe at http://pombe.oridb. org/.
Dietary fiber and prebiotics and the gastrointestinal microbiota

ABSTRACT The gastrointestinal microbiota has an important role in human health, and there is increasing interest in utilizing dietary approaches to modulate the composition and metabolic function of the microbial communities that colonize the gastrointestinal tract to improve health, and prevent or treat disease. One dietary strategy for modulating the microbiota is consumption of dietary fiber and prebiotics that can be metabolized by microbes in the gastrointestinal tract. Human alimentary enzymes are not able to digest most complex carbohydrates and plant polysaccharides. Instead, these polysaccharides are metabolized by microbes which generate short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), including acetate, propionate, and butyrate. This article reviews the current knowledge of the impact of fiber and prebiotic consumption on the composition and metabolic function of the human gastrointestinal microbiota, including the effects of physiochemical properties of complex carbohydrates, adequate intake and treatment dosages, and the phenotypic responses related to the composition of the human microbiota.
In-flight validation of mid- and thermal infrared data from the Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) using an automated high-altitude validation site at Lake Tahoe CA/NV, USA

The Multispectral Thermal Imager (MTI) is a 15-band satellite-based imaging system. Two of the bands (J, K) are located in the mid-infrared (3-5 /spl mu/m) wavelength region: J, 3.5-4.1 /spl mu/m and K, 4.9-5.1 /spl mu/m, and three of the bands (L, M, N) are located in the thermal infrared (8-12 /spl mu/m) wavelength region: L, 8.0-8.4 /spl mu/m; M, 8.4-8.8 /spl mu/m; and N, 10.2-10.7 /spl mu/m. The absolute radiometric accuracy of the MTI data acquired in bands J-N was assessed over a period of approximately three years using data from the Lake Tahoe, CA/NV, automated validation site. Assessment involved using a radiative transfer model to propagate surface skin temperature measurements made at the time of the MTI overpass to predict the vicarious at-sensor radiance. The vicarious at-sensor radiance was convolved with the MTI system response functions to obtain the vicarious at-sensor MTI radiance in bands J-N. The vicarious radiances were then compared with the instrument measured radiances. In order to avoid any reflected solar contribution in the mid-infrared bands, only nighttime scenes were used in the analysis of bands J and K. Twelve cloud-free scenes were used in the analysis of the data from the mid-infrared bands (J, K), and 23 cloud-free scenes were used in the analysis of the thermal infrared bands (L, M, N). The scenes had skin temperatures ranging between 4.4 and 18.6/spl deg/C. The skin temperature was found to be, on average, 0.18/spl plusmn/0.36 degC cooler than the bulk temperature during the day and 0.65/spl plusmn/0.31 degC cooler than the bulk temperature at night. The smaller skin effect during the day was attributed to solar heating. The mean and standard deviation of the percent differences between the vicarious (predicted) at-sensor radiance convolved to the MTI bandpasses and the MTI measured radiances were -1.38/spl plusmn/2.32, -2.46/spl plusmn/1.96, -0.04/spl plusmn/0.78, -1.97/spl plusmn/0.62, -1.59/spl plusmn/0.55 for bands J-N, respectively. The results indicate that, with the exception of band L, the instrument measured radiances are warmer than expected.
Learning Hierarchical Linguistic Descriptions of Visual Datasets

We propose a method to learn succinct hierarchical linguistic descriptions of visual datasets, which allow for improved navigation efficiency in image collections. Classic exploratory data analysis methods, such as agglomerative hierarchical clustering, only provide a means of obtaining a tree-structured partitioning of the data. This requires the user to go through the images first, in order to reveal the semantic relationship between the different nodes. On the other hand, in this work we propose to learn a hierarchy of linguistic descriptions, referred to as attributes, which allows for a textual description of the semantic content that is captured by the hierarchy. Our approach is based on a generative model, which relates the attribute descriptions associated with each node, and the node assignments of the data instances, in a probabilistic fashion. We furthermore use a nonparametric Bayesian prior, known as the tree-structured stick breaking process, which allows for the structure of the tree to be learned in an unsupervised fashion. We also propose appropriate performance measures, and demonstrate superior performance compared to other hierarchical clustering algorithms.
Parental representations and attachment style as predictors of support‐seeking behaviors and perceptions of support in an academic counseling relationship

The role of parental representations and attachment style as predictors of support-seeking behaviors and perceptions of support in the context of an academic counseling relationship was investigated. Prior to participation in a 10-hour academic counseling program in college, 91 students completed scales assessing perceptions of their current relationship with their parents and their attachment style. Students' support-seeking behaviors and counselors' sensitivity, as reported by both participants (students and counselors), were evaluated twice during the counseling process, and general feelings of support were evaluated at the end of the program. Parental representations and attachment style both predicted students' support-seeking behaviors and perceptions of support in counseling. The strength of the prediction differed as a function of time of measurement and source of evaluation. In addition, student-perceived counselor sensitivity was found to mediate the relation between parental representations and support-seeking behaviors in counseling
Crisis or Crossroads?

Educational management is a relatively new academic discipline but it has grown strongly in the United Kingdom and in most other English-speaking countries. The widespread shift to selfmanagement has served to enhance the importance of effective leadership within educational institutions and the parallel need for theory and research to establish what constitutes good practice. Rapid and multiple policy change constitutes a challenging context for educational management but also points to the need for a review of the discipline. This article examines the opportunities and challenges for educational management at the end of the 20th century and concludes that the discipline has to develop a new sense of direction to meet the needs of educational institutions and practitioners in the new millennium.
Neither Altruistic Suicide, nor Terrorism but Martyrdom: A Muslim Perspective

The objective of the present article is to elucidate specific Islamic and psychological aspects of martyrdom (Istish'had) in the light of one example, that is the Palestinian martyrs in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conflict has historical roots. The day the British mandate in Palestine ended in 1948, Israel was declared a state. War broke out, and around half of the Palestinian population was expelled in the diaspora. In 1950, Israel passed a law that gave every Jew in any country the right to emigrate to Israel. Israelis are burying POWs alive, using arrested people as human spare parts for wounded Israelis, demolishing more than 17,000 houses, and bulldozing the farm lands. Therefore, the soil has become fertile ground for the growing phenomenon of martyrdom and has given rise to a culture of resistance, based on the Islamic principles of Jihad (holy war) and the right to resist the Israeli colonizer. Several specialists in Islamic law (Shari'a), consider that martyrdom is legitimate and does not count as suicide of any kind.
Energy efficient greedy link scheduling and power control in wireless networks

We consider the problem of joint link scheduling and power control for wireless networks with average transmission power constraints. Due to the high computational complexity of the optimal policies, we extend the class of greedy link scheduling policies to handle average power constraints. We develop a greedy link scheduling and power control scheme GECS, with provable performance guarantees. We show that the performance of our greedy scheduler can be characterized using the Local Pooling Factor (LPF) of a network graph, which has been previously used to characterize the stability of the Greedy Maximal Scheduling (GMS) policy for wireless networks. We also simulate the performance of GECS on wireless network, and compare its performance to another candidate greedy link scheduling and power control policy.
M2M Communications in the Smart Grid: Applications, Standards, Enabling Technologies, and Research Challenges

We present some of the ongoing standardisation work in M2M communications followed by the application of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications to smart grid. We analyse and discuss the enabling technologies in M2M and present an overview of the communications challenges and research opportunities with a focus on wireless sensor networks and their applications in a smart grid environment.
The Putative Coupling Protein TcpA Interacts with Other pCW3-Encoded Proteins To Form an Essential Part of the Conjugation Complex

ABSTRACT Conjugative plasmids encode antibiotic resistance determinants or toxin genes in the anaerobic pathogen Clostridium perfringens. The paradigm conjugative plasmid in this bacterium is pCW3, a 47-kb tetracycline resistance plasmid that encodes the unique tcp transfer locus. The tcp locus consists of 11 genes, intP and tcpA-tcpJ, at least three of which, tcpA, tcpF, and tcpH, are essential for the conjugative transfer of pCW3. In this study we examined protein-protein interactions involving TcpA, the putative coupling protein. Use of a bacterial two-hybrid system identified interactions between TcpA and TcpC, TcpG, and TcpH. This analysis also demonstrated TcpA, TcpC, and TcpG self-interactions, which were confirmed by chemical cross-linking studies. Examination of a series of deletion and site-directed derivatives of TcpA identified the domains and motifs required for these interactions. Based on these results, we have constructed a model for this unique conjugative transfer apparatus.
Validity of Seven Commercially Available Heart Rate Monitors

Heart rate monitors have been marketed as an accurate way to measure heart rate. This investigation was designed to determine the validity of seven different types of heart rate monitors. Fourteen men (19.6 ± 2.3 years, 77.7 ±7.1 kg) participated in the study. Heart rate was measured simultaneously for 10 sec during minute 9 -10 of rest or during exercise on a treadmill at 85.7 m · min-1, 107.3 m · min-1, and 160.8 m · min-1. Pearson product-moment correlation (r) and standard error of estimate (SEE) were calculated between an electrocardiogram (ECG) measurement and the measurement of heart rate from each of the 7 heart rate monitors. The POLAR Vantage XL, POLAR Accurex II, Cardiochamp, and the Cateye-PL 6000 heart rate monitors accurately assessed heart rates (r ⪈ 0.90, SEE £ 5 beats · min-1) during rest and at moderate activity. At the highest speed, the accuracy decreased, leading us to caution the heart rate monitor user regarding the validity of any of these monitors at high heart rates and motion levels.
Collaborative Curriculum Development: an encounter of different professional knowledge systems

Abstract Teachers and educationalists working together in curriculum development is still rather unusual. The article reports on a project of collaborative curriculum development and uses it as a case‐study that reveals more general insights. The authors describe and interpretatively analyse collaborative curriculum development as the encounter of different professional knowledge systems. This encounter implies certain tensions and specific difficulties, but at the same time it offers rich opportunities to benefit from the ‘complementary competence’ of the different collaborating professionals. The authors conclude that collaborative curriculum development not only improves the quality of the curriculum outcomes, but at the same time constitutes a powerful means for teachers' professional development. The article is intended to contribute to a more balanced understanding of collaborative curriculum development, by explicitly describing its positive potential and its eventual pitfalls.
High-level resistance to isoniazid and ethionamide in multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis of the Lisboa family is associated with inhA double mutations.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to determine the levels of isoniazid and ethionamide resistance and to identify associated mutations in endemic multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from the Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal. METHODS Seventeen clinical MDR tuberculosis (TB) strains were characterized by standard and semi-quantitative drug susceptibility testing to assess the level of isoniazid and ethionamide resistance. The genes katG, inhA, ethA and ndh were screened for mutations. All strains were genotyped by 24 loci mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number of tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR) analysis. RESULTS All strains showed high-level resistance to both isoniazid (>1 mg/L) and ethionamide (>25 mg/L). MIRU-VNTR typing revealed the presence of two main clusters, Lisboa3 and Q1, in 16/17 strains, all of which showed the C-15T mutation in the promoter region of the inhA gene. The 16 strains belong to the Latino-American-Mediterranean (LAM) genotype and the other strain belongs to the Beijing genotype. Sequencing of the inhA open reading frame revealed that the 16 strains also had mutations in the structural region of the gene, leading to the S94A substitution in 9 strains and the I194T substitution in 7 strains. CONCLUSIONS The results reveal that the presence of a mutation in the inhA regulatory region together with a mutation in the inhA coding region can lead to the development of high-level isoniazid resistance and cross-resistance to ethionamide among the MDR-TB strains circulating in Lisbon. This mutational pattern also hints to a possible involvement of strain-specific factors that could be a feature of the Portuguese MDR-TB strains where the LAM family is the major circulating genotype.
TRPA1 expression and its functional activation in rodent cortex

TRPA1 is a non-selective cation channel involved in pain sensation and neurogenic inflammation. Although TRPA1 is well established in a number of organs including the nervous system, its presence and function in the mammalian cortex remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate the expression of TRPA1 in rodent somatosensory cortex through immunostaining and investigate its functional activation by whole-cell electrophysiology, Ca2+ imaging and two-photon photoswitching. Application of TRPA1 agonist (AITC) and antagonist (HC-030031) produced significant modulation of activity in layer 5 (L5) pyramidal neurons in both rats and mice; AITC increased intracellular Ca2+ concentrations and depolarized neurons, and both effects were blocked by HC-030031. These modulations were absent in the TRPA1 knockout mice. Next, we used optovin, a reversible photoactive molecule, to activate TRPA1 in individual L5 neurons of rat cortex. Optical control of activity was established by applying a tightly focused femtosecond-pulsed laser to optovin-loaded neurons. Light application depolarized neurons (n = 17) with the maximal effect observed at λ = 720 nm. Involvement of TRPA1 was further confirmed by repeating the experiment in the presence of HC-030031, which diminished the light modulation. These results demonstrate the presence of TRPA1 in L5 pyramidal neurons and introduce a highly specific approach to further understand its functional significance.
Individualism-Collectivism

Individualism-collectivism emerges from the literature as a high-order concept, explaining cross-cultural differences over a wide range of situations, with collectivists more inclined than individualists to provide for others. The present study challenges this conceptualization. Not only the readiness to support others (input) but also the expectation to receive support (output) has to be taken into account. Subjects in Hong Kong, Turkey, Greece, The Netherlands, and the United States (New York State) completed a questionnaire asking how much support they expected to receive from and give to persons in a range of social categories. Results showed that (a) the ratio between input and output as well as (b) the patterning of input and output over social categories were similar in all samples. Ratings of emotional closeness that were also obtained could account for most variance between social categories. The findings fit an interpretation of cross-cultural differences in terms of specific patterns of interpersonal relationships.
Quality of life in patients with cognitive impairment: validation of the Quality of Life–Alzheimer's Disease scale in Portugal

ABSTRACT Background: Quality of Life–Alzheimer's Disease (QOL-AD) is a widely used scale for the study of quality of life in patients with dementia. The aim of this study is the transcultural adaptation and validation of the QOL-AD scale in Portugal. Methods: Translation and transcultural adaptation was performed according to state-of-the-art recommendations. For the validation study, 104 patient/caregiver pairs were enrolled. Patients had mild cognitive impairment or mild-to-moderate dementia (due to Alzheimer's disease or vascular dementia). Participants were recruited in a dementia outpatient clinic setting and a long-term care dementia ward. An additional comparison group of 22 patients without cognitive impairment, and their proxies, was recruited in a family practice outpatient clinic. Sociodemographic information on patients and caregivers was obtained. Acceptability, reliability, and construct validity were analyzed. Results: Internal consistency of the Portuguese version of QOL-AD was good for both patient and caregiver report (Cronbach's α = 0.867 and 0.858, respectively). Construct validity was confirmed by the correlation of patient reported QOL-AD with patient geriatric depression scale scores (ρ = −0.702, p < 0.001) and satisfaction with life scale scores (ρ = 0.543, p < 0.001). Caregiver ratings were correlated with neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) total score (ρ = −0.404, p < 0.001), NPI-distress (ρ = −0.346, p < 0.001), and patient Mini-Mental State Examination (ρ = 0.319, p < 0.01). QOL-AD patient ratings were higher than caregiver ratings (p < 0.001). Both patient- and caregiver-rated QOL-AD scores were lower in patients with cognitive impairment than in the comparison group without cognitive impairment (p < 0.01). Conclusions: A Portuguese version of QOL-AD with consistent psychometric properties was obtained and is proposed as a useful tool for research and clinical purposes.
Enduring Mental Health Morbidity and Social Function Impairment in World Trade Center Rescue, Recovery, and Cleanup Workers: The Psychological Dimension of an Environmental Health Disaster

Background The World Trade Center (WTC) attacks exposed thousands of workers to hazardous environmental conditions and psychological trauma. In 2002, to assess the health of these workers, Congress directed the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to establish the WTC Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program. This program has established a large cohort of WTC rescue, recovery, and cleanup workers. We previously documented extensive pulmonary dysfunction in this cohort related to toxic environmental exposures. Objectives Our objective in this study was to describe mental health outcomes, social function impairment, and psychiatric comorbidity in the WTC worker cohort, as well as perceived symptomatology in workers’ children. Methods Ten to 61 months after the WTC attack, 10,132 WTC workers completed a self-administered mental health questionnaire. Results Of the workers who completd the questionnaire, 11.1% met criteria for probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 8.8% met criteria for probable depression, 5.0% met criteria for probable panic disorder, and 62% met criteria for substantial stress reaction. PTSD prevalence was comparable to that seen in returning Afghanistan war veterans and was much higher than in the U.S. general population. Point prevalence declined from 13.5% to 9.7% over the 5 years of observation. Comorbidity was extensive and included extremely high risks for impairment of social function. PTSD was significantly associated with loss of family members and friends, disruption of family, work, and social life, and higher rates of behavioral symptoms in children of workers. Conclusions Working in 9/11 recovery operations is associated with chronic impairment of mental health and social functioning. Psychological distress and psychopathology in WTC workers greatly exceed population norms. Surveillance and treatment programs continue to be needed.