Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atenolol Enhances Growth Hormone Release to Exogenous Growth Hormone-Releasing Hormone but Fails to Alter Spontaneous Nocturnal Growth Hormone Secretion in Boys with Constitutional Delay of Growth

ABSTRACT: We tested the hypothesis that selective β1-adrenergic blockade will enhance growth hormone (GH) secretion in boys with constitutional delay of growth in response to both exogenously administered growth hormone-releasing hormone as well as to endogenous GH-releasing hormone pulsations. The study group comprised eight healthy, short, prepubertal boys ranging from 7 2/12 to 15 0/12 yr old with bone ages delayed 15 to 42 months. All had demonstrated GH levels of greater than 10 ng/ml following a pharmacologic or physiologic stimulus. During two consecutive nights, blood samples were withdrawn every 20 min for GH determination between 2000 and 0800 h. Immediately after each 0800 h blood withdrawal, 1 μg/kg of GH-releasing hormone (1–40)-OH was administered intravenously to each subject and blood was withdrawn every 15 min for an additional 2 h. During the day before the second overnight sampling period each subject received atenolol, 25 mg orally, at 1030 and 1600 h to induce β-adrenergic blockage. The six subjects in whom β-adrenergic blockade could be documented had enhanced GH release after GH-releasing hormone administration on the atenolol treatment day both in terms of higher peak GH levels achieved p < 0.05) as well as greater total GH secretion (3916 ± 701 versus 5624 ± 986 ng/ml min, p < 0.01). In contrast, there were no differences in endogenous, unstimulated nocturnal GH pulse characteristics between study and control days. In particular, there were no changes in number of GH pulses, mean 12-h GH concentrations, mean GH pulse height, amount of GH secreted in pulses, mean interpulse GH levels, or total area under the GH versus time curve.
Evolving Learnable Neural Networks Under Changing Environments with Various Rates of Inheritance of Acquired Characters: Comparison of Darwinian and Lamarckian Evolution

The processes of adaptation in natural organisms consist of two complementary phases: learning, occurring within each individual's lifetime, and evolution, occurring over successive generations of the population. In this article, we study the relationship between learning and evolution in a simple abstract model, where neural networks capable of learning are evolved using genetic algorithms (GAs). Individuals try to maximize their life energy by learning certain rules that distinguish between two groups of materials: food and poison. The connective weights of individuals' neural networks undergo modification, that is, certain characters will be acquired, through their lifetime learning. By setting various rates for the heritability of acquired characters, which is a motive force of Lamarckian evolution, we observe adaptational processes of populations over successive generations. Paying particular attention to behaviors under changing environments, we show the following results. Populations with lower rates of heritability not only show more stable behavior against environmental changes, but also maintain greater adaptability with respect to such changing environments. Consequently, the population with zero heritability, that is, the Darwinian population, attains the highest level of adaptation to dynamic environments.
Following the Rules? Candidate Strategy in Presidential Primaries

The competitiveness of the 2008 presidential primaries in both the Republican and Democratic parties has prompted a reconsideration of the role of delegate-selection rules in influencing the strategic behavior of presidential candidates. Using advertising and candidate state-visit data from the 2004 and 2008 presidential nominating campaigns, we reexamine the strategies presidential candidates use when competing for the nomination of their party. Copyright (c) 2009 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.
A Metric for Comparing the Anthropomorphic Motion Capability of Artificial Hands

We propose a metric for comparing the anthropomorphic motion capability of robotic and prosthetic hands. The metric is based on the evaluation of how many different postures or configurations a hand can perform by studying the reachable set of fingertip poses. To define a benchmark for comparison, we first generate data with human subjects based on an extensive grasp taxonomy. We then develop a methodology for comparison using generative, nonlinear dimensionality reduction techniques. We assess the performance of different hands with respect to the human hand and with respect to each other. The method can be used to compare other types of kinematic structures.
THALICTRUM ALKALOIDS. I. THALICARPINE, A NEW HYPOTENSIVE ALKALOID FROM THALICTRUM DASYCARPUM.

A preliminary study of the roots of Thalictrum dasycarpum Fisch. and Lall from Wisconsin yielded magnoflorine and a new alkaloid, thalicarpine. Evidence is presented for assignment to thalicarpine of the empirical formula C 41 H 48 O 8 N 2. carpine was evaluated in a variety of pharmacologic procedures and found to possess a modicum of biological activity.
α2A‐adrenergic receptors are expressed by diverse cell types in the fetal primate cerebral wall

The cellular elements of the fetal monkey cerebral wall expressing α2A, the most common subtype of the α2 receptor class, were examined by using nonisotopic in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry with double‐labeling for cell type‐specific markers. At the three embryonic ages examined, E70, E90, and E120, α2A receptors were expressed throughout the embryonic cerebral wall. In the E70 and E90 fetuses, α2A receptors were observed in most cells of the proliferative zones. Some α2A‐positive cells also expressed a proliferation‐associated antigen, Ki‐67, suggesting that the receptors are present in dividing cells. Furthermore, at E90, α2A receptors were detected on fibers passing between the ventricular and subventricular proliferative zones. At all ages studied, α2A receptors were expressed by migrating neurons in the intermediate zone, characterized by a spindle‐like shape, radial alignment, and close association with radial glia. α2A receptors were also expressed by postmigrational microtubule‐associated protein‐2‐positive neurons of the intermediate and subplate zones and the cortical plate. In the marginal zone, α2A receptors were present in the Cajal‐Retzius neurons. Finally, α2A receptors were seen in the glial fibrillary acidic protein‐positive cells at all ages studied. In addition, dopamine‐β‐hydroxylase immunohistochemistry, employed to determine the potential source of noradrenaline in the embryonic cerebral wall, revealed noradrenergic innervation in the marginal, subplate, and intermediate zones of the monkey occipital lobe as early as E70. Based on our observations and available data on α2A signal transduction pathways, we propose that these receptors are involved in regulating the generation, migration, and maturation of cerebral cortical cells. J. Comp. Neurol. 378:493–507, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Inter-Laboratory Validation of a Real Time PCR Assay to Measure Host Excretion of Bacterial Pathogens, Particularly of Mycobacterium bovis

Advances in the diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis infection in wildlife hosts may benefit the development of sustainable approaches to the management of bovine tuberculosis in cattle. In the present study, three laboratories from two different countries participated in a validation trial to evaluate the reliability and reproducibility of a real time PCR assay in the detection and quantification of M. bovis from environmental samples. The sample panels consisted of negative badger faeces spiked with a dilution series of M. bovis BCG Pasteur and of field samples of faeces from badgers of unknown infection status taken from badger latrines in areas with high and low incidence of bovine TB (bTB) in cattle. Samples were tested with a previously optimised methodology. The experimental design involved rigorous testing which highlighted a number of potential pitfalls in the analysis of environmental samples using real time PCR. Despite minor variation between operators and laboratories, the validation study demonstrated good concordance between the three laboratories: on the spiked panels, the test showed high levels of agreement in terms of positive/negative detection, with high specificity (100%) and high sensitivity (97%) at levels of 105 cells g−1 and above. Quantitative analysis of the data revealed low variability in recovery of BCG cells between laboratories and operators. On the field samples, the test showed high reproducibility both in terms of positive/negative detection and in the number of cells detected, despite low numbers of samples identified as positive by any laboratory. Use of a parallel PCR inhibition control assay revealed negligible PCR-interfering chemicals co-extracted with the DNA. This is the first example of a multi-laboratory validation of a real time PCR assay for the detection of mycobacteria in environmental samples. Field studies are now required to determine how best to apply the assay for population-level bTB surveillance in wildlife.
Toward a “Modest Pedagogy”: Reflections on the Problematics of Critical Pedagogy

The practical implementation of and assumptions underpinning critical pedagogy have taken something of a battering over the last decade of the 20th century. In the field of physical education, the article by O'Sullivan, Siedentop, and Locke (1992) delivered a challenge that deserved to be answered. In education more generally, major voices of critical pedagogy such as Giroux and McLaren have been roundly criticized by feminist scholars such as Gore, Lather, Ellsworth, and Luke. In this paper, I discuss the difficulties of “doing” critical pedagogy with postmodern students. I will consider the advantages of working toward what I am calling a “modest pedagogy” (after Law's modest sociology), which takes seriously the problematization of knowledge and schooling yet avoids some of the pitfalls of Enlightenment thinking and the neglect of student subjectivity.
Influence of Salivary Macromolecules and Fluoride on Enamel Lesion Remineralization in vitro

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of salivary macromolecules on enamel lesion remineralization in the presence or absence of fluoride. Paraffin-stimulated whole saliva was centrifuged, and the supernatant was dialyzed in 1,000 molecular-weight cutoff dialysis tubes, first against a phosphate buffer and then against a mineral solution containing Ca and phosphate. Artificial subsurface lesions of human enamel, created in pH 4.5 acetate buffer, were remineralized for 28 days in 4 remineralizing solutions: group C – mineral solution as a control; group S – mineral solution + dialyzed saliva; group F – mineral solution + 1 ppm F; group SF – mineral solution + dialyzed saliva + 1 ppm F. Changes in relative mineral concentration in the lesions were assessed by transverse microradiography. The results showed statistically significant mineral gains in the lesion body in groups C (ΔZ = 3,254 ± 1,562% ×µm) and SF (ΔZ = 2,973 ± 1,349% ×µm), but not in groups S (ΔZ = 5,192 ± 1,863% ×µm) and F (ΔZ = 4,310 ± 1,138% ×µm) compared with the baseline group (ΔZ = 5,414 ± 461% ×µm). It was also found that the mineral density at the surface layer in group F (75.0 ± 15.7%) was greater than that in the baseline group (30.1 ± 12.3%) with statistical significance, but not in group SF (39.9 ± 16.5%). It was concluded that the macromolecules inhibited lesion remineralization fundamentally but that these molecules, in the presence of fluoride, seemed to play an important role in the continuation of remineralization by reducing mineral gains at the surface layer.
Clostridium difficile in Ready-to-Eat Salads, Scotland

Of 40 ready-to-eat salads, 3 (7.5%) were positive for Clostridium difficile by PCR. Two isolates were PCR ribotype 017 (toxin A–, B+), and 1 was PCR ribotype 001. Isolates were susceptible to vancomycin and metronidazole but variably resistant to other antimicrobial drugs. Ready-to-eat salads may be potential sources for virulent C. difficile.
Backtesting Methods for Evaluating Value-at-Risk Navneet

Value at Risk (VaR) measures the lower tail of the distribution and maximum portfolio loss that could occur for a given holding period with a given confidence level. VaR models are based on number of assumptions and accuracy of VaR depends on these assumptions. Backtesting is a process to evaluate the accuracy of VaR. Hence, to check the accuracy of VaR models, Backtesting methods are popular tool among researchers and professionals. Expectations from Backtesting methods are high in terms of differentiating good VaR model from bad VaR model. In this paper we have critically examined assumptions and features of various Backtesting methods and assessed their accuracy in Indian capital market. We calculated the VaR for Nifty Fifty securities on daily adjusted closing price for the period 2007-08 and Backtested the results for the period 200406 assuming log normal distribution.
Autonomous DNSSEC: Secured pseudo DNS domains for personal networks

Although security protocols like TLS/SSL are widely used in the Internet, it is still difficult to secure communications among personal network devices, typically seen in P2P applications and pervasive computing environment. This is because it is uncommon among such personal devices to have public key certificates to authenticate themselves, and furthermore, most of them do not have persistent names or addresses to identify themselves. In this paper, we propose Autonomous DNSSEC, which allows people to generate pseudo DNS domains for personal networks by themselves and to secure them with DNSSEC. By having a secured DNS domain, people can register names and authentication information like public keys of personal devices under their pseudo domain, and make that information securely accessible by other people. In our proposal, DNS records of pseudo domains are separately stored in the distributed hash tables (DHTs) dedicated to this purpose, and thus no modification to existing DNS servers is required. By modifying the DNS resolver mechanism on the client side, even unmodified applications can securely access the information registered under pseudo domains. Therefore, applications that can use the DNS for storing public keys or their certificates can instantly utilize our system for securing their communication. We demonstrate this by showing how an unmodified OpenSSH client can properly authenticate its target host using our system.
Automated multi-stage segmentation of white blood cells via optimizing color processing

Segmentation of white blood cells (i.e. leukocytes) is a crucial step toward the development of haematological images analysis of peripheral blood smears. This step, however, is complicated by the complex nature of the different types of white blood cells and their large variations in shape, texture, color, and density. This study addresses this issue and presents a single fully automatic segmentation framework for both nuclei and cytoplasm of the five classes of leukocytes in a microscope blood smear. The proposed framework integrates a priori information of enhanced nuclei color with Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization, and multi-scale morphological enhancement to localize the nuclei, whereas clustering-based seed extraction and watershed are utilized to segment the cytoplasm. The experimental results on two different datasets show that the proposed method works successfully for both nuclei and cytoplasm segmentation, and achieves more accurate segmentation results compared to six leukocytes segmentation methods in the literature.
Design of Planar Monopole Antenna for UWB Applications

A small-size microstrip-fed multi-band planar monopole antenna is presented. The base of the proposed antenna is a diamond-shaped patch (DSP) that covers the ultrawideband (UWB) frequency range. The range of UWB is 3.110.6GHz. Using narrow strips in DSP antenna, acting as resonance paths, can be integrated with the multiband antenna. It is shown that by removing the centre part of the DSP antenna, without distorting the UWB behavior, quarter-wavelength strips can be added to the notched region. This will not affect the dimension of the base antenna. The designed multiband antenna has a substrate size of 16×22×1 mm and covers the frequency bands 3.1– 10.6 GHz. The antennas have omnidirectional and stable radiation patterns across all the relevant bands.
Cyclin E and CDK-2 regulate proliferative cell fate and cell cycle progression in the C. elegans germline

The C. elegans germline provides an excellent model for analyzing the regulation of stem cell activity and the decision to differentiate and undergo meiotic development. The distal end of the adult hermaphrodite germline contains the proliferative zone, which includes a population of mitotically cycling cells and cells in meiotic S phase, followed by entry into meiotic prophase. The proliferative fate is specified by somatic distal tip cell (DTC) niche-germline GLP-1 Notch signaling through repression of the redundant GLD-1 and GLD-2 pathways that promote entry into meiosis. Here, we describe characteristics of the proliferative zone, including cell cycle kinetics and population dynamics, as well as the role of specific cell cycle factors in both cell cycle progression and the decision between the proliferative and meiotic cell fate. Mitotic cell cycle progression occurs rapidly, continuously, with little or no time spent in G1, and with cyclin E (CYE-1) levels and activity high throughout the cell cycle. In addition to driving mitotic cell cycle progression, CYE-1 and CDK-2 also play an important role in proliferative fate specification. Genetic analysis indicates that CYE-1/CDK-2 promotes the proliferative fate downstream or in parallel to the GLD-1 and GLD-2 pathways, and is important under conditions of reduced GLP-1 signaling, possibly corresponding to mitotically cycling proliferative zone cells that are displaced from the DTC niche. Furthermore, we find that GLP-1 signaling regulates a third pathway, in addition to the GLD-1 and GLD-2 pathways and also independent of CYE-1/CDK-2, to promote the proliferative fate/inhibit meiotic entry.
Privatização e mudanças organizacionais: um estudo de caso sobre transformação cultural e comportamental

Este artigo tem por objetivo identificar os impactos que mudancas organizacionais oriundas de programa de privatizacao causam na cultura das empresas e no comportamento dos funcionarios. A pesquisa foi realizada em uma empresa do setor de energia privatizada em 1997, com base no metodo de estudo de caso. A estrutura do estudo de caso consistiu, num primeiro momento, em entrevistas realizadas no nivel gerencial, a fim de entender as caracteristicas e percepcoes das mudancas empreendidas com a privatizacao. Posteriormente, foram utilizados questionarios fechados para o nivel operacional, com o intuito de verificar e estratificar os resultados identificados na primeira etapa. O estudo revelou que as mudancas estrategico-estruturais, culturais e as verificadas nas percepcoes dos relacionamentos intraorganizacionais foram as que mais impactaram o comportamento dos funcionarios. Concluiu-se que as mudancas organizacionais despertaram tanto resistencias quanto reacoes positivas, dependendo da posicao hierarquica na organizacao e da influencia de variaveis como: ambiente externo, cultura organizacional, multiculturalismo organizacional, tempo de trabalho na empresa, nacionalidade do empregado e acesso a informacao. Este estudo fornece subsidios para uma maior compreensao sobre os impactos dos processos de privatizacao nas organizacoes brasileiras, propiciando informacoes para o gerenciamento de transicoes corporativas, sejam publicas e/ou privadas.
The Institutionalization of the Strategic Communication Function in the United States

This article seeks to explore how the strategic communication practice has been institutionalized in organizations in the United States. Before delving into the topic of institutionalization, it seeks to gain an understanding of the definition of strategic communication. After identifying the meaning of strategic communication, we delve into a literature review to ascertain the role of communication and its current state. We also identify and propose the key indicators, which form the basis of the discussion of institutionalization through the review of relevant literature. This is done by analyzing previous discussions on organizational functions such as purchasing, human resources and information technology. These key indicators are then tested in an empirical study involving communication professionals of over five hundred organizations in the United States. The data from the study is presented, followed by a discussion of its strategic implications. The findings are then used to discuss the current state of institutionalization of the communication function in the United States.
Conceptualizing Teaching to the Test Under Standards-Based Reform

Teacher and school accountability systems based on high-stakes tests are ubiquitous throughout the United States and appear to be growing as a catalyst for reform. As a result, educators have increased the proportion of instructional time devoted to test preparation. Although guidelines for what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate test preparation exist, they are outdated and need revision. The current article proposes new guidelines within the framework of standards-based assessment. It also examines the test preparation practices in 32 third- and fifth-grade classrooms and examines the relationship between student test performance and test preparation activities using a two-level Hierarchical Linear Model. Instruction on tested objectives using items like those presented on the state test, decontextualized practice, and teaching test taking skills offered no student achievement benefit relative to general instruction on the state standards leading us to conclude that test preparation was not beneficial.
Models of Self-regulated Learning: A review

Questions connected with the regulation of one's own cognitive processes attract increasing numbers of researchers in psychology, as evidenced by the several different models of self-regulation that have been developed over the past two decades. The aim of this article was to present and compare the latest models of self-regulated learning (SRL), including those by Boekaerts, Borkowski, Pintrich, Winne and Zimmerman. The models were compared on four criteria (i.e. background theories, definitions of SRL, components included in the models and empirical work). The results show that theoretical background is an important differentiating feature. The two models that resembled each other more than any other two models (i.e. Pintrich and Zimmerman) were inspired by the same background theory (i.e. social cognitive theory). On the other hand, the models that differed most from the other models (i.e. Borkowski and Winne) were also theoretically the farthest removed ones.