Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Women solicitors in a fractured profession: Intersections of gender and professionalism in England and Wales

This paper will explore aspects of the position of women lawyers in England and Wales through a focus on material and cultural change. The last two decades have witnessed a transformation of the English and Welsh legal profession. Change has occurred at numerous levels, from the public image of the profession to the technology underpinning service delivery. However arguably the most fundamental change has occurred in the organisation and composition of the profession. At one end of the spectrum there has been the emergence of the mega commercial firm, a key player in the globalised economy; at the other end the High Street generalist appears to be threatened with extinction, whilst the legal aid sector has been transformed by regulatory reform. At the same time the composition of this increasingly fractured profession has been radically altered by the influx of women. To what extent have women lawyers played a key role in the evolution of the mega firm? How has the decline in traditional, gentlemanly professionalism intersected with and affected/been affected by women lawyers? What material and discursive strategies have been employed to maintain patriarchal power in this changing world? Has professional hegemony been retained by male solicitors throughout the profession, or have some sectors become more 'feminised', and if so, how and why? This paper will draw on a series of qualitative studies of lawyers and bibliographic sources such as the trade press to explore some of these questions.
Project Learning Tree Teacher Assessment Survey

Environmental education (EE) is a learning process that increases people's knowledge and awareness about the environment and prepares learners to be environmentally responsible citizens (UNESCO, 1978). One common approach to integrating EE into the formal education sector is to infuse EE into existing lessons or units in subjects such as science, history, and social studies (Monroe & Cappaert, 1994; Ramsey et al., 1992). A variety of supplemental resources have been developed to assist teachers with this process. Project WILD, Project WET, and Project Learning Tree are among the most widely used and nationally known EE programs in the United States. Together, they contain hundreds of lessons that are easy for teachers to use in the classroom to convey concepts and practice skills. These materials are well received because they bring a balanced focus to popular environmental concepts and encourage teaching methods such as cooperative learning, constructivism, and utilization of higher-order thinking skills. These EE materials are only available through workshops, which are typically offered to preservice students or in-service teachers.
Selective targeting of epigenetic reader domains

ABSTRACT Introduction: Epigenetic regulators including writers, erasers, and readers of chromatin marks have been implicated in numerous diseases and are therefore subject of intense academic and pharmaceutical research. While several small-molecule inhibitors targeting writers or erasers are either approved drugs or are currently being evaluated in clinical trials, the targeting of epigenetic readers has lagged behind. Proof-of-principle that epigenetic readers are also relevant drug targets was provided by landmark discoveries of selective inhibitors targeting the BET family of acetyl-lysine readers. More recently, high affinity chemical probes for non-BET acetyl- and methyl-lysine reader domains have also been developed. Areas covered: This article covers recent advances with the identification and validation of inhibitors and chemical probes targeting epigenetic reader domains. Issues related to epigenetic reader druggability, quality requirements for chemical probes, interpretation of cellular action, unexpected cross-talk, and future challenges are also discussed. Expert opinion: Chemical probes provide a powerful means to unravel biological functions of epigenetic readers and evaluate their potential as drug targets. To yield meaningful results, potency, selectivity, and cellular target engagement of chemical probes need to be stringently validated. Future chemical probes will probably need to fulfil additional criteria such as strict target specificity or the targeting of readers within protein complexes.
Authorization policies :

Nowadays privacy in ambient system is a real issue. Users will have to control their data more and more in the future. Current security systems don’t support a strong constraint: policy writers are non-technical users and not security experts. We propose in this paper to use Decision Support techniques and more specifically Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in the process of authorization policy writing. This research area provides techniques to inform and assist non-technical users to write their own authorization policies following the paradigm of AttributeBased Access Control.
Empathy and Helping: Considering the Consequences of Intervention

This study tested the prediction derived from the empathy-altruism hypothesis that more empathically concerned persons would be more sensitive to the long-term consequences of their intervention for recipients. Subjects (N = 84), instructed either to observe the situation or to imagine another's feelings, were exposed to a person in immediate distress who requested assistance (hints) to complete an anagram task. Half the subjects were informed that giving too many hints could have long-term detrimental effects (potential detrimental-effect condition); half were given no information about future consequences (no-detrimental-effect condition). Consistent with the predictions, although the anticipated effect of intervention made no difference in the number of hints given by subjects in the observe-set condition, imagine-set subjects gave fewer hints when they were informed of potentially detrimental effects of intervention. These results suggest that empathy enhances sensitivity to the needs of others, inclu.
An Assessment of Student Acceptance and Performance in Distance Education with Two-Way Interactive Compressed Video

This paper summarizes the debate concerning the value of distance education, reports distance education experiences in agricultural economics courses at The Ohio State University, and analyzes the effects of “distance” on student performance in and acceptance of the distance course. Results suggest that distance and “live” students performed equally in the same course, and they evaluated the course experience in a similar manner. These results provide some assurance that distance education, at least using the two-way interactive synchronous learning model of the courses in this study, does not place the distant student in jeopardy. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.
Splenic accumulation of IL-10 mRNA in T cells distinct from CD4+CD25+ (Foxp3) regulatory T cells in human visceral leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is a life-threatening disease characterized by uncontrolled parasitization of the spleen, liver, and bone marrow. Interleukin (IL)-10 has been implicated in the suppression of host immunity in human VL based on the elevated levels of IL-10 observed in plasma and lesional tissue, and its role in preventing clearance of Leishmania donovani in murine models of VL. The aim of this study was to identify the cellular source of IL-10 in human VL and determine if CD4+CD25+ (Foxp3high) regulatory T (T reg) cells are associated with active disease. We analyzed surface marker and gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and splenic aspirates from Indian VL patients before and 3–4 wk after treatment with Amphotericin B. The results did not point to an important role for natural CD4+CD25+ (Foxp3high) T reg cells in human VL. They did not accumulate in and were not a major source of IL-10 in the spleen, and their removal did not rescue antigen-specific interferon γ responses. In contrast, splenic T cells depleted of CD25+ cells expressed the highest levels of IL-10 mRNA and were the predominant lymphocyte population in the VL spleen. The elevated levels of IL-10 in VL plasma significantly enhanced the growth of L. donovani amastigotes in human macrophages. The data implicate IL-10–producing CD25−Foxp3− T cells in the pathogenesis of human VL.
Role of beta1- and beta2-adrenoceptor polymorphisms in heart failure: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND We hypothesised that the polymorphisms of the genes encoding for beta1- and the beta2-adrenoceptors may have a role in the pathogenesis of heart failure (HF). We therefore compared the polymorphisms of the beta1-adrenoceptor gene (Arg389Gly), the beta2-adrenoceptor gene (Arg16Gly, Gln27Glu) and their combinations in patients with HF and normal subjects living in the same area. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 256 cases with HF (left ventricular ejection fraction < or = 40%) and 230 normal subjects were enrolled. The beta1- and beta2-adrenoceptor gene polymorphisms were assessed by PCR, followed by restriction enzyme digestion. No differences were observed in the distribution of any of the three genotypes studied in patients with HF and normal subjects. An analysis of the genotype combinations showed a non-significant increase in the risk of HF associated with the Arg389Gly16Gln27 (odds ratio = 1.4; 95%CI 0.5-3.6) and Arg389Gly16 Glu27 (odds ratio = 1.2; 95%CI, 0.5-2.8) homozygous allele combinations. CONCLUSION None of the three most common polymorphisms of beta-adrenoreceptors are associated with an increased risk of HF.
Trehalose lyophilized platelets for wound healing

Fresh platelet preparations are utilized to treat a wide variety of wounds, although storage limitations and mixed results have hampered their clinical use. We hypothesized that concentrated lyophilized and reconstituted platelet preparations, preserved with trehalose, maintain and possibly enhance fresh platelets' ability to improve wound healing. We studied the ability of a single dose of trehalose lyophilized and reconstituted platelets to enhance wound healing when topically applied on full‐thickness wounds in the genetically diabetic mouse. We compared these results with the application of multiple doses of fresh platelet preparations and trehalose lyophilized and reconstituted platelets as well as multiple doses of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and wounds left untreated. Trehalose lyophilized and reconstituted platelets, in single and multiple applications, multiple applications of fresh platelets and multiple applications of VEGF increased granulation tissue deposition, vascularity, and proliferation when compared with untreated wounds, as assessed by histology and immunohistochemistry. Wounds treated with multiple doses of VEGF and a single dose of freeze‐dried platelets reached 90% closure faster than wounds left untreated. A single administration of trehalose lyophilized and reconstituted platelet preparations enhanced diabetic wound healing, therefore representing a promising strategy for the treatment of nonhealing wounds.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccines

SUMMARY Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the most important cause of viral lower respiratory tract illness (LRI) in infants and children worldwide and causes significant LRI in the elderly and in immunocompromised patients. The goal of RSV vaccination is to prevent serious RSV-associated LRI. There are several obstacles to the development of successful RSV vaccines, including the need to immunize very young infants, who may respond inadequately to vaccination; the existence of two antigenically distinct RSV groups, A and B; and the history of disease enhancement following administration of a formalin-inactivated vaccine. It is likely that more than one type of vaccine will be needed to prevent RSV LRI in the various populations at risk. Although vector delivery systems, synthetic peptide, and immune-stimulating complex vaccines have been evaluated in animal models, only the purified F protein (PFP) subunit vaccines and live attenuated vaccines have been evaluated in recent clinical trials. PFP-2 appears to be a promising vaccine for the elderly and for RSV-seropositive children with underlying pulmonary disease, whereas live cold-passaged (cp), temperature-sensitive (ts) RSV vaccines (denoted cpts vaccines) would most probably be useful in young infants. The availability of cDNA technology should allow further refinement of existing live attenuated cpts candidate vaccines to produce engineered vaccines that are satisfactorily attenuated, immunogenic, and phenotypically stable.
Object Classification from a Single Example Utilizing Class Relevance Metrics

We describe a framework for learning an object classifier from a single example. This goal is achieved by emphasizing the relevant dimensions for classification using available examples of related classes. Learning to accurately classify objects from a single training example is often unfeasible due to overfitting effects. However, if the instance representation provides that the distance between each two instances of the same class is smaller than the distance between any two instances from different classes, then a nearest neighbor classifier could achieve perfect performance with a single training example. We therefore suggest a two stage strategy. First, learn a metric over the instances that achieves the distance criterion mentioned above, from available examples of other related classes. Then, using the single examples, define a nearest neighbor classifier where distance is evaluated by the learned class relevance metric. Finding a metric that emphasizes the relevant dimensions for classification might not be possible when restricted to linear projections. We therefore make use of a kernel based metric learning algorithm. Our setting encodes object instances as sets of locality based descriptors and adopts an appropriate image kernel for the class relevance metric learning. The proposed framework for learning from a single example is demonstrated in a synthetic setting and on a character classification task.
Maternal and fetal IL1RN polymorphisms and the risk of preterm delivery: a meta-analysis

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between IL1RN*2 variants and preterm delivery (PTD) risk. Methods: Eligible studies were searched in Embase and PubMed databases from inception to November 2013. Two investigators identified relevant studies and extracted data of maternal and fetal genotype independently. Based on the evidence of functional studies, we used the dominant model to all compared studies. Results: To maternal genotype, 269 PTDs and 688 controls were included in meta-analysis. The overall combined odds ratio for the IL1RN*2 variant and PTD was 1.91 (95% CI, 1.41–2.58). To fetal genotype, five studies of 322 PTDs and 858 term controls were included. The result for fetal genotype analysis showed increased risk of PTD, but not significantly (OR 1.33, 95% CI 0.99–1.78). Subgroup analysis indicated that both maternal and fetal carriage of IL1RN*2 increased the risk of PTD only in studies including preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM), with a pooled OR 2.02 (95% CI 1.44–2.85) and 1.42 (1.02–1.99), respectively. Conclusions: This meta-analysis suggests that maternal carriage of IL1RN*2 were associated with increased risk in PTD. PPROM may be an important confounding factor that should be taken into consideration for study of IL1RN polymorphism and PTD.
Robustness to Unknown Error in Sparse Regularization

Quadratically constrained basis pursuit has become a popular device in sparse regularization; in particular, in the context of compressed sensing. However, the majority of theoretical error estimates for this regularizer assume an a priori bound on the noise level, which is usually lacking in practice. In this paper, we develop stability and robustness estimates, which remove this assumption. First, we introduce an abstract framework and show that the robust instance optimality of any decoder in the noise-aware setting implies stability and robustness in the noise-blind setting. This is based on certain sup-inf constants referred to as quotients, strictly related to the quotient property of compressed sensing. Then, we apply this theory to prove the robustness of quadratically constrained basis pursuit under unknown error in the cases of random Gaussian matrices and of random matrices with heavy-tailed rows, such as random sampling matrices from bounded orthonormal systems. We illustrate our results in several cases of practical importance, including subsampled Fourier measurements and the recovery of sparse polynomial expansions.
Downregulation of Akt activity contributes to the growth arrest induced by FGF in chondrocytes

Unregulated FGF signaling produced by activating FGFR3 mutations causes several forms of dwarfism‐associated chondrodysplasias in humans and mice. FGF signaling inhibits chondrocyte proliferation by activating multiple signal transduction pathways that all contribute to chondrocyte growth arrest and induction of some aspects of differentiation. Previous studies had identified the Stat1 pathway, dephosphorylation of the Rb family proteins p107 and p130, induction of p21 expression and sustained activation of MAP kinases as playing a role in the FGF response of chondrocytes. We have examined the role of Akt (PKB) in the response of chondrocytes to FGF signaling. Differently from what is observed in many other cell types, FGF does not activate Akt in chondrocytes, and Akt phosphorylation is actually downregulated after FGF treatment. By expressing a constitutively activated, myristylated form of Akt (myr‐Akt) in the RCS chondrosarcoma cell line, we show that Akt activation partially counteracts the inhibitory effect of FGF signaling. The response of myr‐Akt expressing cells to FGF is identical to parental RCS in the first few hours after treatment, but then diverges as myr‐Akt cells show decreased p130 phosphorylation, increased cyclin E/cdk2 activity and continue to proliferate at a slow rate. Constitutive Akt activation does not affect p21 expression but appears to influence directly cdk/cyclin activity. On the other hand, the induction of differentiation‐related genes is unchanged in myr‐Akt cells. These results identify Akt downregulation as an important aspect of the response of chondrocytes to FGF that, however, only affects chondrocyte proliferation and not the ability of FGF to induce differentiation genes. J. Cell. Physiol. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Microsatellite analysis for parentage testing of the Arabian horse breed from Syria

Parentage testing is very important for genetically determining the accuracy of the pedigree of domestic animals. The Arabian horse population in Syria might be expected to have a high level of homozygosity because the traditional method of breeding results in such a small population. For this reason, using a set of highly polymorphic markers such as microsatellites is required for parentage testing. The purpose of this study was to analyze the usefulness of 16 STR markers for routine parentage testing in 94 samples from registered and nonregistered horses collected from Syria. The mean number of alleles was 5.69 per locus in the registered group and 7.69 in the nonregistered group. The nonregistered group had a mean polymorphic information content (PIC) of 0.715, which was significantly higher than the PIC in the registered group. The individual probability of exclusion per locus ranged from 32% for HTG7 to 80% for ASB17 in the registered group and 41% for HTG7 to 84% for ASB17 in the nonregistered group. The results of this study indicate no serious loss of heterozygosity and confirm that 13 STR markers can be used in parentage testing with high efficiency for the Arabian horses from Syria.
Pitman-Yor Diffusion Trees

We introduce the Pitman Yor Diffusion Tree (PYDT) for hierarchical clustering, a generalization of the Dirichlet Diffusion Tree (Neal, 2001) which removes the restriction to binary branching structure. The generative process is described and shown to result in an exchangeable distribution over data points. We prove some theoretical properties of the model and then present two inference methods: a collapsed MCMC sampler which allows us to model uncertainty over tree structures, and a computationally efficient greedy Bayesian EM search algorithm. Both algorithms use message passing on the tree structure. The utility of the model and algorithms is demonstrated on synthetic and real world data, both continuous and binary.
Appetitive and Dietary Effects of Consuming an Energy-Dense Food (Peanuts) with or between Meals by Snackers and Nonsnackers

Background. Energy-dense foods are inconsistently implicated in elevated energy intake (EI). This may stem from other food properties and/or differences in dietary incorporation, that is, as snacks or with meals. Objective. Assess intake pattern and food properties on acute appetitive ratings (AR) and EI. Design. 201 normal and overweight adults consuming a standard lunch. Test loads of 1255.2 kJ (300 kcal) were added to the lunch or provided as snack. Loads (peanuts, snack mix, and snack mix with peanuts) were energy, macronutrient, and volumetrically matched with a lunch portion as control. Participants completed meal and snack sessions of their randomly assigned load. Results. No differences were observed in daily EI or AR for meal versus snack or treatment versus control. Consumption of peanuts as a snack tended to strengthen dietary compensation compared to peanuts or other loads with a meal. Conclusions. Inclusion of an energy-dense food as a snack or meal component had comparable influence on AR and EI. Peanuts tended to elicit stronger dietary compensation when consumed as a snack versus with a meal. If substantiated, this latter observation suggests that properties other than those controlled here (energy, macronutrient content, and volume) modify AR and EI.
Two Residues of Rubisco Activase Involved in Recognition of the Rubisco Substrate*

Rubisco activase is an AAA+ protein, a superfamily with members that use a “Sensor 2” domain for substrate recognition. To determine whether the analogous domain of activase is involved in recognition of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco, EC 4.1.1.39), two chimeric activases were constructed, interchanging a Sensor 2-containing region between activases from spinach and tobacco. Spinach chimeric activase was a poor activator of both spinach and tobacco Rubisco. In contrast, tobacco chimeric activase activated spinach Rubisco far better than tobacco Rubisco, similar to spinach activase. A point mutation, K311D, in the Sensor 2 domain of the tobacco chimeric activase abolished its ability to better activate spinach Rubisco. The opposite mutation, D311K, in wild type tobacco activase produced an enzyme that activated both spinach and tobacco Rubisco, whereas a second mutation, D311K/L314V, shifted the activation preference toward spinach Rubisco. The involvement of these two residues in substrate selectivity was confirmed by introducing the analogous single and double mutations in cotton activase. The ability of the two tobacco activase mutants to activate wild type and mutant Chlamydomonas Rubiscos was also examined. Tobacco D311K activase readily activated wild type and P89R but not D94K Rubisco, whereas the tobacco L314V activase only activated D94K Rubisco. The tobacco activase double mutant D311K/L314V activated wild type Chlamydomonas Rubisco better than either the P89R or D94K Rubisco mutants, mimicking activation by spinach activase. The results identified a substrate recognition region in activase in which two residues may directly interact with two residues in Rubisco.