Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A novel member of the integrin receptor family mediates Arg-Gly-Asp- stimulated neutrophil phagocytosis

Human neutrophils (PMN) express a heterodimeric receptor that has ligand binding specificity for the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence within many adhesive proteins. A monoclonal antibody, B6H12, which binds to this receptor, inhibits both RGD-mediated ligand binding and stimulation of IgG-mediated phagocytosis by fibronectin, fibrinogen, vitronectin, von Willebrand's factor, and collagen type IV. By several criteria this receptor is neither a known very late antigen, a known cytoadhesin (gp IIb/IIIa-vitronectin receptor), nor a member of the LFA- 1, Mac-1, p150,95 group of integrin receptors. Ligand binding via this receptor is rapidly inactivated by products of the myeloperoxidase- hydrogen peroxide-halide system of PMN. We conclude that this receptor, for which we propose the name leukocyte response integrin, is a signal- transducing molecule on PMN which may have a significant early role in modulation of PMN function at inflammatory sites.
Public Administration Education and Europeanization: Prospects for the Emancipation of a Discipline?

The twin processes of Europeanization and Transition provide significant opportunities for the development of Public Administration education in Europe and provide a possibility to further the ‘emancipation’ of the discipline. In terms of Europeanization, the increasing challenges of politico-administrative interaction between national administrations and the institutions of the European Union illustrate that it is essential for Public Administration graduates to acquire an informed understanding of both the European context of policy-making and of the administrative organization and culture of other member states and countries associated with the EU. As a second element, the transition process in Central and Eastern European states could provide the discipline with further impetus to search for its own identity and approach in a European context. This article reviews the key findings of the results of the comprehensive inventories undertaken by the SOCRATES Thematic Network in Public Administration with regard to the current direction in which Public Administration education in Europe is moving. It addresses whether attention to European issues is reflected in the curriculum as well as links with the profession and whether cross-fertilization between the development of new programmes in the transition states and PA academic programmes in the EU member states has actually occurred.
Epidemiology of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction in an Elderly Population

Purpose: To study the epidemiology of meibomian gland (MG) dysfunction in an elderly, predominantly male population. Methods: Prospective study of 233 subjects seen in the Miami Veterans Affairs eye clinic. Patients underwent a complete ocular surface examination, including dry eye questionnaires and tear assessments (osmolarity, tear breakup time, corneal staining, Schirmer test). The main outcome measures were correlations between MG parameters and demographics, dry eye symptoms, and tear parameters. The studied MG parameters were eyelid vascularity and meibum quality; a score ≥2 for either parameter was considered abnormal. Results: Mean age of the 233 subjects was 63 years (SD = 11); 91% were male and 59% had at least 1 abnormal MG parameter (abnormal quality 55%; vascularity 17%). Demographically, patients with abnormal MG parameters were significantly older than their counterparts without these findings. Whites were more likely to have abnormal eyelid vascularity compared with blacks [n = 36 (31%) vs. n = 1 (1%), P < 0.0005] but no differences were noted between races with respect to meibum quality. Abnormal meibum quality, but not abnormal vascularity, was significantly associated with more severe dry eye symptoms. Similarly, abnormal meibum quality, but not eyelid vascularity, was significantly associated with worse dry eye signs, including decreased tear breakup time and increased corneal staining (P < 0.05 for all). Conclusions: MG dysfunction is a frequent finding in an elderly, predominantly male population with racial differences noted in the frequency of abnormal eyelid vascularity but not in MG quality. Abnormal meibum quality was significantly associated with more severe dry eye symptoms and signs.
Parallel Hardware / Software Implementation of the N-body Problem on a Supercomputer CS 213 Report

The marriage of a highly parallel supercomputer with FPGA presents new opportunities for high performance computing. We implement and analyze an important scientific application called the N-body problem on an SGI Altix 4700 machine, a supercomputer which is coupled with two Xilinx Virtex 4 LX200 FPGAs. We analyze the tradeoff space for implementing the N-body problem as a highly parallel algorithm versus adding hardware support. We also consider combining a parallel implementation with hardware support. Our results show that a new computation workload assignment policy on software and hardware should be taken into consideration to fully take advantage of both CPU and FPGA computation power. We propose one hybrid approach to combine computational capabilities of the SGI CPU cores and the FPGAs together to calculate gravitational forces to improve the latency of the N-body simulation. Results show that our hybrid scheme can achieve 36X and 42X speedup respectively comparing to 8X and 13X with only a pure hardware offload.
Sleep disruption in PTSD: A pilot study with home-based polysomnography

Laboratory-based sleep studies have yielded inconsistent results regarding the nature of objective sleep anomalies in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This pilot study aimed at assessing sleep in adult crime victims with PTSD and healthy subjects by using in-home polysomnography. Compared to the control group, PTSD subjects showed longer sleep latency and reduced total sleep time. Ambulatory methods can capture objective signs of sleep disruption and corroborate subjective complaints of disrupted sleep in PTSD.
Preliminary study of natural reservoirs as sentinels of Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Ehrlichia chaffeensis in Soria, northern Spain

The serum of foxes and red deer from the Province of Soria (northern Spain) was screened in indirect immunofluorescence assays to determine whether these animals could be used as sentinels of the tick-borne pathogens Anaplasma phagocytophilum and Ehrlichia chaffeensis. The results suggest that foxes and red deer would not make good sentinels in epidemiological studies on E. chaffeensis in this region, although red deer could be used as such for the study of A. phagocytophilum transmission.
Spatial memory—a unique window into healthy and pathological aging

The world's population is aging at an unprecedented rate, because the number of people aged over 60 will rise from 784 million in 2011 to 2 billion by 2050. Such a dramatic increase has made age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD) a pressing social and health concern. Work described in this volume considers scientific efforts to understand the neural mechanisms of age-related changes in spatial navigation, both in humans and non-human animal models. A central theme in these papers is that damage to structures of the medial temporal lobe, including the hippocampus, contributes to the difficulties in spatial memory found in aging and AD.
Book reviews : Autism and the development of mind R. Peter Hobson Hove: Erlbaum, 1993. x + 246 pp

and their point of view taken into account. However, many of the children in the described client groups are unable to put this across themselves. For this reason, a whole chapter on communication/speech and language disorders would have been welcome and illuminating. It is only minimally discussed within the text that many children with hearing impairment, learning difficulties, etc. do in fact have major communication difficulties which do cause a great deal of unhappiness, as do primary speech and language disorders. I would recommend this book to professionals such as teachers, psychologists, speech and language therapists, social workers, etc. who work with children, as a means of reminding them of the constant need to understand a child’s perspective as an integral part of their client management. It is very easy to ’plough on’ with programmes, objectives, and procedures, forgetting that we are dealing with children who are often unable to communicate how they feel and why they behave the way they do, and why they are sometimes unable to achieve our objectives for no apparent reason. This book attempts to explain why.
Intrinsic tendon fibroplasia: Documentation by In vitro studies

There has been considerable controversy concerning the capacity of tendons to heal intrinsically without adhesion formation. To help clarify this issue, a tissue culture model was developed to study the potential of tendon fibroblasts to proliferate and migrate. Avian flexor tendons, isolated free of sheath and all synovial components, were maintained in sterile culture plates with Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium. After 5 days in culture, the 2 mm tendon biopsies were analyzed for DNA synthesis ([125I]iododeoxyuridine incorporation) and migration of fibroblasts out of the explant (planimeter analysis). DNA synthesis was maximal on day 5 in culture, and tendon fibroblasts were observed migrating from the biopsy within 48 h. Addition of cells from plasma resulted in a significant increase in fibroblast migration, and the presence of fibrin in the plasma clot was an absolute requirement for the migratory process. These findings further support the hypothesis that injured tendons can heal by an intrinsic healing process in addition to healing by adhesion formation.
No Transcription-Translation Feedback in Circadian Rhythm of KaiC Phosphorylation

An autoregulatory transcription-translation feedback loop is thought to be essential in generating circadian rhythms in any model organism. In the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus, the essential clock protein KaiC is proposed to form this type of transcriptional negative feedback. Nevertheless, we demonstrate here temperature-compensated, robust circadian cycling of KaiC phosphorylation even without kaiBC messenger RNA accumulation under continuous dark conditions. This rhythm persisted in the presence of a transcription or translation inhibitor. Moreover, kinetic profiles in the ratio of KaiC autophosphorylation-dephosphorylation were also temperature compensated in vitro. Thus, the cyanobacterial clock can keep time independent of de novo transcription and translation processes.
Psychosocial counselling of identifiable sperm donors.

STUDY QUESTION What do identifiable sperm donors feel about psychosocial counselling? SUMMARY ANSWER Identifiable sperm donors found it important that psychosocial counselling focused on emotional consequences and on rules and regulations and they expected to have access to psychosocial counselling at the time that donor-offspring actually sought contact. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Most studies on sperm donors are on anonymous donors and focus on recruitment, financial compensation, anonymity and motivations. There is limited knowledge on the value that identifiable sperm donors place on psychosocial counselling and what their needs are in this respect. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE AND DURATION We performed a qualitative study from March until June 2014 with 25 identifiable sperm donors, who were or had been a donor at the Centre for Reproductive Medicine of the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam any time between 1989 and 2014. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING AND METHODS We held semi-structured in-depth interviews with identifiable sperm donors with an average age of 44 years. The interviews were fully transcribed and analysed using the constant comparative method of grounded theory. MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANGE Twelve out of 15 donors (former donors ITALIC! n = 8, active donors ITALIC! n = 7) who had received a counselling session during their intake procedure found it important that they had been able to talk about issues such as the emotional consequences of donation, disclosure to their own children, family and friends, future contact with donor-offspring and rules and regulations. Of the 10 former donors who had received no counselling session, 8 had regretted the lack of intensive counselling. In the years following their donation, most donors simply wanted to know how many offspring had been born using their sperm and had no need for further counselling. Nevertheless, they frequently mentioned that they were concerned about the well-being of 'their' offspring. In addition, they would value the availability of psychosocial counselling in the event that donor-offspring actually sought contact. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION A limitation of our study is its generalizability, since only a small number of identifiable donors at a single centre were studied. Variation in how donors are counselled upon intake may affect how donors value psychosocial counselling. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS This study reports on the issues that identifiable donors value being addressed during their intake procedure, as well as during counselling in the event that donor-offspring actually seek contact. These findings can be used to achieve a higher quality of care for identifiable sperm donors and may be the starting point for developing guidelines on psychosocial counselling for sperm donors. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTERESTS No funding was obtained for this study. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Stability of genetic influence on morningness–eveningness: a cross‐sectional examination of South Korean twins from preadolescence to young adulthood

A cross‐sectional twin design was used to study the developmental nature of genetic and environmental influences on morningness–eveningness (M–E). A total of 977 South Korean twin pairs aged 9–23 years completed 13 items of a Korean version of the Composite Scale through the telephone interview. The total sample was split into three age groups: preadolescents, adolescents, and young adults. Twin correlations did not vary significantly with age, suggesting that genetic influences on M–E are stable throughout the developmental span. Results of model‐fitting analyses indicated that genetic and environmental factors explained, respectively, 45% and 55% of the variance in all three age groups. Environmental factors were primarily those factors that twins did not share as a consequence of their common rearing; family environmental factors in M–E were consistently near zero in all three age groups. The present study is the first to demonstrate genetic influences on M–E in preadolescent children as young as 9 years old. In spite of differences in culture and frequencies of genes between South Koreans and Caucasians, genetic and environmental influences on M–E found in the present sample were remarkably similar to those reported by previous studies on the basis of late adolescent and adult Caucasian twins.
Center for Policy Research Working Paper No . 12 DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE GAY AND LESBIAN POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES : EVIDENCE FROM AVAILABLE SYSTEMATIC DATA SOURCES

There are thousands of studies on the gay and lesbian population. Because of the difficulty of sampling this population, most studies have used “convenience samples” for analysis. Until recently, it was extremely rare that survey data on gays and lesbians were collected from a known sampling frame, and equally rare that the same survey instrument was fielded to the gay and lesbian population and to a comparison group of other men and women. Comparative analysis of the gay and lesbian population has thus been difficult, and researchers have been properly reluctant to draw general inferences from available samples of gays and lesbians. This paper has two related objectives. First we provide an overview of standard social science data sources that now allow some systematic study of the gay and lesbian population in the United States. We consider how sexual orientation can be defined in each data source, and we note the potential sample sizes of gays and lesbians from each data source. Special attention is given to the important problem of measurement error, especially the extent to which individuals recorded as gay and lesbian are indeed recorded correctly. Our concern is that as gays and lesbians comprise a relatively small fraction of the population, modest measurement problems could lead to serious errors in inference. In examining gays and lesbians in multiple data sets we also achieve a second objective—we provide a set of statistics about the gay and lesbian population, relevant to several current policy debates.
TWENTY‐FIVE YEARS ON: A REPLICATION OF FLUGEL'S (1947) WORK ON LAY ‘POPULAR VIEWS OF INTELLIGENCE AND RELATED TOPICS’

Summary. 575 adults drawn from both rural and urban areas completed a questionnaire designed and used originally by Flugel in 1947 to see how far lay opinions on intelligence reflect views held by professional psychologists and how far lay responses now differ from those reported by Flugel. Generally, lay and professional views have moved closer to question a one-factor view; men and women are seen to be equally intelligent; environmental influence on test scores is noted; a complete validity in intelligence tests is queried, as is a high correlation between tests and occupational performance.
Central Nervous System Tuberculosis: Pathogenesis and Clinical Aspects

SUMMARY Tuberculosis of the central nervous system (CNS) is a highly devastating form of tuberculosis, which, even in the setting of appropriate antitubercular therapy, leads to unacceptable levels of morbidity and mortality. Despite the development of promising molecular diagnostic techniques, diagnosis of CNS tuberculosis relies largely on microbiological methods that are insensitive, and as such, CNS tuberculosis remains a formidable diagnostic challenge. Insights into the basic neuropathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the development of an appropriate animal model are desperately needed. The optimal regimen and length of treatment are largely unknown, and with the rising incidence of multidrug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis, the development of well-tolerated and effective antibiotics remains a continued need. While the most widely used vaccine in the world largely targets this manifestation of tuberculosis, the BCG vaccine has not fulfilled the promise of eliminating CNS tuberculosis. We put forth this review to highlight the current understanding of the neuropathogenesis of M. tuberculosis, to discuss certain epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic aspects of CNS tuberculosis, and also to underscore the many unmet needs in this important field.
L2-loss twin support vector machine for classification

Twin support vector machine (TSVM) is a rapid algorithm for resolving discriminating problems using a pair of quadratic programming problems (QPPs). Based on the TSVM and SVM, this paper proposes regularization twin support vector machine with L2 loss function (L2-RTSVM) for Classification, the coordinate descent algorithm with shrinking technique is used to solve the L2-RTSVM. L2-RTSVM has higher classification accuracy and efficiency than TSVM, and overcomes the drawback of TSVM. The experiments show that the performance of L2-RTSVM is better than those of SVM, TSVM and TPMSVM in accuracy and time.
Turkish Tourism at the Door of Europe: Perceptions of Image in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

In most of the Turkish movies filmed in the sixties, the heroes – or heroines – were depicted with a small suitcase in hand, walking toward a plane bound for Europe. In these films, Europe was the destination for a ‘change of scenery’ as much as ‘transformation’. During the years this image was being frequently utilized, Turks actually entered European culture via a completely different experience. Following the worker migration that began with the 1960s, Europeans came face to face with Turkish culture for the first time in their own countries. Apart from this meeting arena, tourism was, without a doubt, another important platform that brought the ordinary European into contact with Turks. In other words, tourism became for many Europeans an opportunity to construct an idea about Turkey, maybe for the first time. This essay will comment on the various dimensions of tourism in Turkey, by approaching tourism as a cultural encounter arena where ‘Turkishness’ and ‘Europeanness’ meet. The question whether Turkey’s approach to tourism will serve as an agency for cultural interaction on the road to becoming a member of the European Union, may be answered only in the light of a certain historical and anthropological perspective. Based on archive research and interviews, this essay primarily aims to present the image of Turkish tourism as seen by Turkish media and managers. In this sense, it reflects the Turkish perceptions of Europe’s attitude to Turkey as a potential competitor. It points out the problems arising from the significant paradox between Turkey’s image as a holiday destination (i.e. country of ‘Sea, Sun, and History’) and its negative political image (i.e. human rights, Kurdish issue, women’s status). The first section of the paper touches on the various dimensions of tourism, and looks at the different approaches sociologists have developed in relation to it. Seeing how western social scientists have interpreted the tourism concept that has developed within Europe throughout history will constitute an important background in the assessment of the Turkish example. The second section of the article will then explore the regions and themes that tourism in Turkey focuses on, and the type of cultural message that is conveyed to the European public concerning modern day Turkey. The methodology of the study consists of a series of in-depth interviews and focus group interviews with around 20 tourism managers. Interviews were conducted by Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 41, No. 4, 605 – 621, July 2005
Separating Lesbian Theory from Feminist Theory

Heidi Hartmann once said of the marriage of Marxism and feminism that it "has been like the marriage of husband and wife depicted in English common law: marxism and feminism are one, and that one is marxism. "' Lesbian theory and feminism, I want to suggest, are at risk of falling into a similar unhappy marriage in which "the one" is feminism. Although lesbian feminist theorizing has significantly contributed to feminist thought, it has also generally treated lesbianism as a kind of applied issue. Feminist theories developed outside of the context of lesbianism are brought to bear on lesbianism in order to illuminate the nature of lesbian oppression and women's relation to women within lesbianism. So, for example, early radical lesbians played off the feminist claim that all male-female relationships are dominance relationships. They argued either that the lesbian is the paradigm case of patriarchal resister because she refuses to be heterosexual or that she fits on a continuum of types of patriarchal resisters.2 In taking this line, lesbian theorists made a space for lesbianism by focusing on what they took to be the inherently feminist and antipatriarchal nature of lesbian existence. Contemporary lesbian theorists are less inclined to read lesbianism as feminist resistance to male dominance.3 Instead,