Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased Xanthine Oxidase in the Skin of Preeclamptic Women

Xanthine oxioreductase is the holoenzyme responsible for terminal purine catabolism. Under conditions of metabolic stress or heightened proinflammatory cytokine production, this enzyme is preferentially in its oxidized form, xanthine oxidase, with catalytic action that generates uric acid and the free radical superoxide. As preeclampsia is characterized by heightened inflammation, oxidative stress, and hyperuricemia, it has been proposed that xanthine oxidase plays a pivotal role in this hypertensive disorder of pregnancy. We sought to determine whether xanthine oxidase protein content was higher in maternal tissue of preeclamptic mothers, compared to healthy pregnant controls, using immunohistochemical analysis of skin biopsies. We further compared xanthine oxidase immunoreactivity in skin biopsies from preeclamptic women and patients with several inflammatory conditions. In preeclamptic women, intense xanthine oxidase immunoreactivity was present within the epidermis. By contrast, only very faint xanthine oxidase staining was observed in skin biopsies from healthy pregnant controls. Further, a role for inflammation in the increase of xanthine oxidase was suggested by similar findings of heightened xanthine oxidase immunoreactivity in the skin biopsies from nonpregnant individuals diagnosed with conditions of systemic inflammation. The finding of increased xanthine oxidase in maternal tissue, most likely as the result of heightened maternal inflammation, suggests maternal xanthine oxidase as a source of free radical and uric acid generation in preeclampsia.
Actor goal achievement and sensitivity to partner as critical factors in understanding interpersonal communication competence and conflict strategies

Communication scholars have long argued that achieving one's personal goals with others constitutes an important element of interpersonal communication competence. Moreover, sensitivity to the partner's goals has been implicated in various lines of research related to competence. Despite the presumed status of goal achievement and sensitivity to the partner's goals, models do not develop the relationships between these constructs and how actors are assessed in terms of competence criteria. This paper attempts to repair this oversight by advancing and testing hypotheses that connect assessments of competence to actor's goal achievement and sensitivity to the partner's goals. Using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) (Kashy & Kenny, 1999), both actor and partner assessments of the actor's sensitivity and conflict strategies were analyzed. Results reveal that sensitivity to the partner's goals was a strong predictor of competence assessments and that actor goal achievement was a moderate predictor of competence assessments. In short, support was found for the explicit inclusion of goal achievement and goal sensitivity in models of interpersonal communication competence.
Freqency Compensation for Multistage Amplifiers using Active-Feedback Current Buffers

A frequency compensation scheme based on an active-feedback current buffer (AFCB) is presented in this paper. With an active-feedback mechanism, the proposed AFCB offers quite low input impedance across wide frequency spectrum, which greatly reduces the power consumption of AFCB amplifiers employing the AFCB as frequency compensation. The bandwidth and slew rate of the AFCB amplifier are also improved due to the much smaller compensation capacitors. Moreover, the presence of a left-half-plane zero in the AFCB amplifier enhances the stability and settling behavior of the amplifier. A three-stage AFCB amplifier is implemented by a standard 0.5-mum CMOS process. When driving a 120-pF capacitive load, the AFCB amplifier achieves over 100-dB DC gain, 4-MHz gain-bandwidth product (GBW), 65deg phase margin, and 1.9-V/mus average slew rate with total 3.5-pF compensation capacitances, while only dissipating 160-muW power at a 2.5-Vsupply
The Social Sources of Educational Credentialism: Status Cultures, Labor Markets, and Organizations.

The expansion of access to higher education and the proliferation of formal degree requirements for entry to employment have been enduring trends over the past century. This article reviews the contested development and promise of the Weberian theory of educational credentialism, which views competition for credentials as a primary determinant of modern stratification systems. The key issues that are elaborated include the relationship of educational expansion to economic growth, the relative importance of technical skills versus occupational status-group cultures in degrees and recruitment, the significance of the formalization of degrees, and the peculiar dynamics of bureaucratic and professional credential markets. The future trajectory of credentialism is assessed in light of potential policy reforms, market crises, and state interventions
How Chinese college students make sense of foreign films and TV series: implications for the development of intercultural communicative competence in ELT

Films and TV series are widely used to support teaching in English language classrooms. They are seen largely as a source of authentic language, as a way of motivating students or as a means of conveying knowledge about another culture. There is less emphasis on their use as a focus for developing intercultural competence. This is particularly the case in China. This article reports on an empirical project with Chinese college students (CCSs) designed to examine the processes they engage in when viewing films. The analysis of the data shows that this process is not linear but complex and multi-dimensional. The findings suggest that making sense of foreign films and TV series is a highly dynamic process which is culturally specific and often specific to the individual; there are many varied factors which influence their viewing. The results have implications for using films in the language classroom.
The JOS Morphosyntactically Tagged Corpus of Slovene

The JOSmorphosyntactic resources for Slovene consist of the specifications, lexicon, and two corpora: jos100k, a 100,000 word balanced monolingual sampled corpus annotated with hand validated morphosyntactic descriptions (MSDs) and lemmas, and jos1M, the 1 million-word partially hand validated corpus. The two corpora have been sampled from the 600M-word Slovene reference corpus FidaPLUS. The JOS resources have a standardised encoding, with the MULTEXT-East-type morphosyntactic specifications and the corpora encoded according to the Text Encoding Initiative Guidelines P5. JOS resources are available as a dataset for research under the Creative Commons licence and are meant to facilitate developments of HLT for Slovene.
Neuro-Glial and Systemic Mechanisms of Pathological Responses in Rat Models of Primary Blast Overpressure Compared to “Composite” Blast

A number of experimental models of blast brain injury have been implemented in rodents and larger animals. However, the variety of blast sources and the complexity of blast wave biophysics have made data on injury mechanisms and biomarkers difficult to analyze and compare. Recently, we showed the importance of rat position toward blast generated by an external shock tube. In this study, we further characterized blast producing moderate traumatic brain injury and defined “composite” blast and primary blast exposure set-ups. Schlieren optics visualized interaction between the head and a shock wave generated by external shock tube, revealing strong head acceleration upon positioning the rat on-axis with the shock tube (composite blast), but negligible skull movement upon peak overpressure exposure off-axis (primary blast). Brain injury signatures of a primary blast hitting the frontal head were assessed and compared to damage produced by composite blast. Low to negligible levels of neurodegeneration were found following primary blast compared to composite blast by silver staining. However, persistent gliosis in hippocampus and accumulation of GFAP/CNPase in circulation was detected after both primary and composite blast. Also, markers of vascular/endothelial inflammation integrin alpha/beta, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and L-selectin along with neurotrophic factor nerve growth factor-beta were increased in serum within 6 h post-blasts and persisted for 7 days thereafter. In contrast, systemic IL-1, IL-10, fractalkine, neuroendocrine peptide Orexin A, and VEGF receptor Neuropilin-2 (NRP-2) were raised predominantly after primary blast exposure. In conclusion, biomarkers of major pathological pathways were elevated at all blast set-ups. The most significant and persistent changes in neuro-glial markers were found after composite blast, while primary blast instigated prominent systemic cytokine/chemokine, Orexin A, and Neuropilin-2 release, particularly when primary blast impacted rats with unprotected body.
Supernova Blast Waves in Low-Density Hot Media: A Mechanism for Spatially Distributed Heating

Most supernovae are expected to explode in low-density hot media, particularly in galactic bulges and elliptical galaxies. The remnants of such supernovae, although difficult to detect individually, can be profoundly important in heating the media on large scales. We characterize the evolution of this kind of supernova remnant, based on analytical approximations and hydrodynamic simulations. We generalize the standard Sedov solution to account for both temperature and density effects of the ambient media. Although cooling can be neglected, the expansion of such a remnant deviates quickly from the standard Sedov solution and asymptotically approaches the ambient sound speed as the swept-up thermal energy becomes important. The relatively steady and fast expansion of the remnants over large volumes provides an ideal mechanism for spatially distributed heating, which may help to alleviate the overcooling problem of hot gas in groups and clusters of galaxies, as well as in galaxies themselves. The simulations were performed with the FLASH code.
Does multilingualism influence plurilingual awareness of Polish teachers of English?

The present paper discusses the components of language teachers' awareness, which should differ qualitatively and quantitatively from that of language learners and users. It is argued that especially teachers of English, the European lingua franca, should develop plurilingual awareness to train learners to become multilingual citizens. This awareness involves crosslinguistic, metalinguistic and psycholinguistic knowledge concerning multiple language acquisition. Apart from that, teachers should ideally be multilingual themselves. The paper reports on a survey carried out on over 230 pre-service and in-service Polish teachers of English. It compares their levels of plurilingual awareness relative to their teaching experience, bilingualism/multilingualism factors and the level of L3-Ln languages known. Their awareness seems to be linked with both teaching experience and multilingualism, but it is higher for multilingual teachers proficient in several languages. The paper also presents a qualitative study in the form of a guided interview on a focus group of five in-service teachers. This provides in-depth insight into how they understand plurilingual language teaching. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning changes in teacher training that would enable teachers to promote plurilingual approaches in class.
Identification of Novel TGF-β/Smad Gene Targets in Dermal Fibroblasts using a Combined cDNA Microarray/Promoter Transactivation Approach*

Despite major advances in the understanding of the intimate mechanisms of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling through the Smad pathway, little progress has been made in the identification of direct target genes. In this report, using cDNA microarrays, we have focussed our attention on the characterization of extracellular matrix-related genes rapidly induced by TGF-β in human dermal fibroblasts and attempted to identify the ones whose up-regulation by TGF-β is Smad-mediated. For a gene to qualify as a direct Smad target, we postulated that it had to meet the following criteria: (1) rapid (30 min) and significant (at least 2-fold) elevation of steady-state mRNA levels upon TGF-β stimulation, (2) activation of the promoter by both exogenous TGF-β and co-transfected Smad3 expression vector, (3) up-regulation of promoter activity by TGF-β blocked by both dominant-negative Smad3 and inhibitory Smad7 expression vectors, and (4) promoter transactivation by TGF-β not possible inSmad3 −/− mouse embryo fibroblasts. Using this stringent approach, we have identified COL1A2, COL3A1, COL6A1, COL6A3, and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteases-1 as definite TGF-β/Smad3 targets. Extrapolation of this approach to other extracellular matrix-related gene promoters also identified COL1A1 and COL5A2, but not COL6A2, as novel Smad targets. Together, these results represent a significant step toward the identification of novel, early-induced Smad-dependent TGF-β target genes in fibroblasts.
Consumer exposures to anthocyanins from colour additives, colouring foodstuffs and from natural occurrence in foods

ABSTRACT Anthocyanins are responsible for the red/blue colour of grapes, currants, and other fruits and vegetables. They may also be extracted for use as colour additives (E163) or concentrated for use as colouring foods. Consumer exposures have been assessed using data on natural occurrence, use levels and frequencies from food manufacturers and European food consumption data. Intakes from natural occurrence can be up to 4 mg kg bw−1 day−1 at the mean and up to 17 mg kg bw−1 day−1 for children who are high level consumers of red/black berries and small fruits. High-level intakes for children from food colour and colouring food applications lie in the range 0.3–6.3 mg kg bw−1 day−1 and for adults at 0.6–2.8 mg kg bw−1 day−1. Exposures from food colour use and colouring foods separately or combined are therefore lower than those from natural occurrence in foods. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Adenosine triphosphate‐binding cassette B1 (ABCB1) (multidrug resistance 1) G2677T/A gene polymorphism is associated with high risk of lung cancer

P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp) is a transmembrane transporter that is encoded by the adenosine triphosphate‐binding cassette B1 (ABCB1) (multidrug resistance 1) gene, which plays a role in cell defense against environmental attacks, like those generated by xenobiotics. P‐gp is expressed in the lung, where it has been suggested to transport these compounds from the interstitium into the lumen.
Modelling Learning Difficulty and Second Language Proficiency: The Differential Contributions of Implicit and Explicit Knowledge

This article re-examines the question of what makes some grammatical structures more difficult to learn than others, arguing that this question can only be properly understood and investigated with reference to the distinction between implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language. Using a battery of tests that were designed to measure implicit and explicit L2 grammatical knowledge of seventeen grammatical structures (Ellis 2005), learning difficulty in relation to these two types of knowledge was investigated. The results showed that structures that were easy in terms of implicit knowledge were often difficult in terms of explicit knowledge and sometimes vice versa and that, overall, there was no correlation between the rank orders of difficulty of seventeen grammatical structures for the two types of knowledge. A correlational analysis showed that the structures varied as to whether it was implicit or explicit knowledge of them that was related to a measure of general language proficiency. A regression analysis demonstrated that both types of knowledge predict general language proficiency.
Looking Back with Gadamer Over his Writings and their Effective History

In this interview with Jean Grondin, Gadamer discusses the meaning ‘linguisticality’ and acknowledges his intellectual debt to Heidegger, Augustine, Vico and classical Greek philosophy. Heidegger’s influence on Gadamer can be seen in Gadamer’s awareness of pernicious ontological effects of the Latinization of European language, his awareness of the centrality of technology to the understanding of contemporary philosophical problems and the idea that ‘language speaks’. From Augustine, Gadamer derived his theory of the word as that which cannot be known and brought under control; from Vico the idea that language is rhetorical; and from classical philosophy the Aristotelian idea of phronesis and the Platonic idea that the idea of beauty is inseparable from the idea of the good. Gadamer concludes the interview with a discussion of the need for humanity to overcome its present fascination with technology.
Globalism as the Product of Nationalism

This study is based on the argument that globalism is a product of nationalism. I argue that globalism, understood as the imagination of the world as a single place, was made possible by and accompanies the emergence of nationalism, defined as the formation of an imagined community in a given (local) discursive space. Focusing on the specific ways in which globalism is understood and experienced locally in Turkey, this study examines how the world-at-large is seen from Turkey as part and product of the founding national ideology during the 1920s and 1930s, particularly as expressed in cartoons, and how these visions and images of the globe are produced, mobilized and disseminated locally as part of ongoing nation-building efforts. I argue that during these years the global was invariably imagined as the West, referring mainly to Western Europe, and this imagining was mobilized toward the creation and projection of Turkey as a modern, Western, secular country. I argue that the founding national ideology projected an image of the West as the global-other to be taken as a model and imitated, setting norms for the creation of a new national identity and new norms of citizenship around the principles of secularism, modernity and civilization, which could only be attained by the erasure of the local.
Increasing efficiency and precision of data analysis: multivariate vs. univariate statistical techniques.

In deciding upon an appropriate analysis strategy during the planning phase of a research study, it is important to specify all of the independent and dependent variables to be included. From there, a technique should be chosen that will yield all of the information desired in the most efficient, precise, and powerful way. Frequently, the method of choice in nursing research will be a multivariate technique, since so many studies involve numerous variables whose effects on, or relationships with, other variables are of interest, as well as involving additional variables that should be taken into account for control or generalizability purposes. Not discussed in this paper, but worth mention, is the fact that all of these techniques involve various underlying assumptions (e.g., normality, homogeneity of variance, and independence in ANOVA) that must be met in order to use the techniques appropriately. If the assumptions are not met, the researcher might want to consider the use of nonparametric techniques--and there are both univariate and multivariate techniques available to choose from (Hollander & Wolfe, 1973; Siegel, 1956). The general advantages of a multivariate technique rather than separate univariate techniques would apply in terms of nonparametric statistics as well as parametric statistics. Increasing the accuracy, power, and efficiency of data analysis strategies should be a major concern to researchers. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
HU-EP-03-27 SHEP-0310 Chiral Symmetry Breaking and Pions in Non-Supersymmetric Gauge / Gravity Duals

We study gravity duals of large N non-supersymmetric gauge theories with matter in the fundamental representation by introducing a D7-brane probe into deformed AdS backgrounds. In particular, we consider a D7-brane probe in both the AdS Schwarzschild black hole solution and in the background found by Constable and Myers, which involves a non-constant dilaton and S5 radius. Both these backgrounds exhibit confinement of fundamental matter and a discrete glueball and meson spectrum. We numerically compute the Ψ̄Ψ condensate and meson spectrum associated with these backgrounds. In the AdS-black hole background, a quark-bilinear condensate develops only at non-zero quark mass. We speculate on the existence of a third order phase transition at a critical quark mass where the D7 embedding undergoes a geometric transition. In the Constable-Myers background, we find a chiral symmetry breaking condensate as well as the associated Goldstone boson in the limit of small quark mass. The existence of the condensate ensures that the D7-brane never reaches the naked singularity at the origin of the deformed AdS space. ∗james@physik.hu-berlin.de, jke@physik.hu-berlin.de, evans@phys.soton. ac.uk, zack@physik.hu-berlin.de, ik@physik.hu-berlin.de
Percutaneous radio-frequency neurotomy for chronic cervical zygapophyseal-joint pain.

BACKGROUND Chronic pain in the cervical zygapohyseal joints is a common problem after whiplash injury, but treatment is difficult. Percutaneous radiofrequency neurotomy can relieve the pain by denaturing the nerves innervating the painful joint, but the efficacy of this treatment has not been established. METHODS In a randomized, double-blind trial, we compared percutaneous radio-frequency neurotomy in which multiple lesions were made and the temperature of the electrode making the lesions was raised to 80 degrees C with a control treatment using an identical procedure except that the radio-frequency current was not turned on. We studied 24 patients (9 men and 15 women; mean age, 43 years) who had pain in one or more cervical zygapophyseal joints after an automobile accident (median duration of pain, 34 months). The source of their pain had been identified with the use of double-blind, placebo-controlled local anesthesia. Twelve patients received each treatment. The patients were followed by telephone interviews and clinic visits until they reported that their pain had returned to 50 percent of the preoperative level. RESULTS The median time that elapsed before the pain returned to at least 50 percent of the preoperative level was 263 days in the active-treatment group and 8 days in the control group (P=0.04). At 27 weeks, seven patients in the active-treatment group and one patient in the control group were free of pain. Five patients in the active-treatment group had numbness in the territory of the treated nerves, but none considered it troubling. CONCLUSIONS In patients with chronic cervical zygapophyseal-joint pain confirmed with double-blind, placebo-controlled local anesthesia, percutaneous radio-frequency neurotomy with multiple lesions of target nerves can provide lasting relief.
Correlates of functional disability in essential tremor

The decision to treat patients with essential tremor (ET) is based primarily on the functional impact of the tremor. Correlates of functional disability, apart from the severity of the tremor itself, have not been studied. The objective of this work was to study correlates of functional disability in ET, and to present data on the extent of functional disability in community‐dwelling ET cases.
Induction of cytochrome P450 3A by metyrapone in human hepatocyte culture

see Figure 1) is a potent inhibitor of cytochrome P450 llf3 hydroxylase activity (cytochrome P450 11B1) which is expressed in adrenals and functions in humans to convert deoxycortisol to cortisol.l Reductions in blood cortisol levels on metyrapone administration is used clinically as a test for hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function,~ and in treatments for Cushing’s syndrome,3.4 elevated ocular pressure5 and depression.6 In rats, metyrapone has recently been shown to be