Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dispatches from the Interface of Salivary Bioscience and Neonatal Research

The emergence of the interdisciplinary field of salivary bioscience has created opportunity for neonatal researchers to measure multiple components of biological systems non-invasively in oral fluids. The implications are profound and potentially high impact. From a single oral fluid specimen, information can be obtained about a vast array of biological systems (e.g., endocrine, immune, autonomic nervous system) and the genetic polymorphisms related to individual differences in their function. The purpose of this review is to describe the state of the art for investigators interested in integrating these unique measurement tools into the current and next generation of research on gonadal steroid exposure during the prenatal and neonatal developmental periods.
Counting beyond a Yottabyte, or how SPARQL 1.1 property paths will prevent adoption of the standard

SPARQL -the standard query language for querying RDF- provides only limited navigational functionalities, although these features are of fundamental importance for graph data formats such as RDF. This has led the W3C to include the property path feature in the upcoming version of the standard, SPARQL 1.1. We tested several implementations of SPARQL 1.1 handling property path queries, and we observed that their evaluation methods for this class of queries have a poor performance even in some very simple scenarios. To formally explain this fact, we conduct a theoretical study of the computational complexity of property paths evaluation. Our results imply that the poor performance of the tested implementations is not a problem of these particular systems, but of the specification itself. In fact, we show that any implementation that adheres to the SPARQL 1.1 specification (as of November 2011) is doomed to show the same behavior, the key issue being the need for counting solutions imposed by the current specification. We provide several intractability results, that together with our empirical results, provide strong evidence against the current semantics of SPARQL 1.1 property paths. Finally, we put our results in perspective, and propose a natural alternative semantics with tractable evaluation, that we think may lead to a wide adoption of the language by practitioners, developers and theoreticians.
Inherited and acquired colour vision deficiencies : fundamental aspects and clinical studies

Inherited and acquired colour vision deficiencies - fundamental aspects and clinical studies, David Foster introduction on differences between acquired and inherited deficiences in colour vision, Foster psychophysics of inherited colour vision deficiencies, King-Smith electroretinographic aspects of colour vision deficiencies, Van Norren electrophysiological aspects of colour vision deficiencies, de Monasterio VEPs and colour vision deficiencies, Spekreijse and Estevez abnormalities associated with short-wavelength sensitive pathway, Sperling genetics of inherited colour vision deficiencies, Piantanida and Nathans mechanisms of dysfunction in acquired colour vision deficiencies, Zrenner ophthalmological disease and colour vision deficiencies, Moreland and Krastel neurological disease and colour vision deficiencies, Plant variations in colour vision in non-human primates, Jacobs classification of colour vision tests, Birch colour vision tests - decision-theoretic aspects, Hill.
The development and plasticity of alveolar type 1 cells

Alveolar type 1 (AT1) cells cover >95% of the gas exchange surface and are extremely thin to facilitate passive gas diffusion. The development of these highly specialized cells and its coordination with the formation of the honeycomb-like alveolar structure are poorly understood. Using new marker-based stereology and single-cell imaging methods, we show that AT1 cells in the mouse lung form expansive thin cellular extensions via a non-proliferative two-step process while retaining cellular plasticity. In the flattening step, AT1 cells undergo molecular specification and remodel cell junctions while remaining connected to their epithelial neighbors. In the folding step, AT1 cells increase in size by more than 10-fold and undergo cellular morphogenesis that matches capillary and secondary septa formation, resulting in a single AT1 cell spanning multiple alveoli. Furthermore, AT1 cells are an unexpected source of VEGFA and their normal development is required for alveolar angiogenesis. Notably, a majority of AT1 cells proliferate upon ectopic SOX2 expression and undergo stage-dependent cell fate reprogramming. These results provide evidence that AT1 cells have both structural and signaling roles in alveolar maturation and can exit their terminally differentiated non-proliferative state. Our findings suggest that AT1 cells might be a new target in the pathogenesis and treatment of lung diseases associated with premature birth. Highlighted article: Mouse lung alveolar type 1 cells form expansive thin cellular extensions via a non-proliferative two-step process, while retaining cellular plasticity.
Brucellosis - regionally emerging zoonotic disease?

AIM To gain deeper insight into the seroprevalence of brucellosis, which remains a zoonotic disease of worldwide public health concern, by reviewing studies from countries including North Africa, the Middle East, and India. METHODS Studies on brucellosis performed in countries that are neighbors or important trading partners of the European Union and on trade animals and their products were analyzed. We reviewed 37 seroprevalence studies on brucellosis published from 1948 to 2009 retrieved from Pubmed, Google, and ScienceDirect. RESULTS The set of studies was heterogeneous in the number of samples and laboratory tests used. We included studies from Algeria (n=1), Egypt (n=7), India (n=3), Iran (n=3), Iraq (n=1), Jordan (n=5), Libya (n=3), Saudi Arabia (n=3), Syria (n=1), Turkey (n=5), and Yemen (n=2). The total number of animals in these studies was 116317 (cattle 75375; buffalo 9644; sheep 10550; goats 14447; camels 6301). The prevalence of brucellosis in different animal species varied widely. Representative surveillance data have not recently been published in any of the countries. CONCLUSIONS Wars in the Middle East, insufficient preventive measures, the lack of adequate control programs in some countries, as well as uncontrolled animal transportation through "open" borders increased the risk that brucellosis will spread in some regions. New seroprevalence data are needed urgently to evaluate the current situation and for continuous monitoring of necessary control programs.
Attitudes of Health Care Professionals towards Female Obese Patients

Objective: The health care setting has been reported to be one main source of weight stigma repeatedly; however, studies comparing different professions have been lacking. Methods: 682 health care professionals (HCP) of a large German university hospital were asked to fill out a questionnaire on stigmatizing attitudes, perceived causes of obesity, and work-related impact of obesity. Stigmatizing attitudes were assessed on the Fat Phobia Scale (FPS) based on a vignette describing a female obese patient. Results: Only 25% graded current health care of obese patients to be ‘good' or ‘very good'. 63% of all HCPs ‘somewhat' or ‘strongly' agreed that it was often difficult to get the resources needed in order to care for obese patients. The mean FPS score was comparable to that in the general public (M = 3.59), while nursing staff showed slightly more positive attitudes compared to physicians and therapists. Higher age, higher BMI, and ascribing personal responsibility for obesity to the individual were associated with a higher level of stigmatizing attitudes. The nursing staff agreed on obesity as an illness to a greater extent while physicians attributed obesity to the individual. Conclusions: In summary, by making complex models on the causes of obesity known among health care professionals, stigmatizing attitudes might be reduced. Ongoing further education for health care professionals ought to be part of anti-stigma campaigns in the medical field.
Environment and Identity in Later Life

Throughout life, our everyday interactions with material, social and psychological environments influence our self identity; and 'who we think we are' influences how we behave in particular places. In later life, people bring to this relationship a lifetime's experience that makes certain associations more or less important. This book explores the relationship between environment and identity for older people. In this detailed ethnographic study, older people talk in depth about their situations and experiences of space and place. The book examines the experiences of men and women of different ages and cultures living in a range of different kinds of places, including 'ordinary' and 'special' housing - from a high-rise flat to a resiential care home - in semi-rural, urban and metropolitan locations within the Midlands and south-east England. This research enables us to appreciate how older people manage their needs within the context of their whole lives. Many are able to achieve a 'life of quality' as they constantly engage and re-engage with their environment. The discussion of how environmental complexity influences people in developing and maintaining their own identity is essential for those involved in planning, designing, caring and supporting people as they age.
Flicker Stimulation in Amblyopia *

PROVIDED that the pathways are intact, it is possible to alter the normal electrical activity of the cerebral cortex by illuminating the retina with a ffickering signal. The cortical responses are varied and depend upon the rate of the flicker. If the frequency of the stimulating signal is exactly the same as the patient's alpha rhythm, or harmonically related with it, the stability and voltage of the alpha rhythm will be enhanced. When there is only a small difference in rate between the fficker and the alpha rhythm, e.g., one or two cycles, the alpha rhythm will follow the speed of the signal and be driven by it temporarily at the new rate. At other stimulating frequencies the response by the cortex varies from case to case. At some rates the cortex may be able to keep pace with the flicker, whilst at others this is not possible. Either the cortex appears to be able to ignore the flicker so that its normal activity continues, or else it resents the flicker and the alpha rhythm becomes suppressed. In certain cases very abnormal cortical rhythms may be produced. Thus, in those patients who have an abnormally low threshold to epilepsy, the typical high-voltage electrical outbursts of this condition may be evoked by flicker stimuli applied at certain rates which may be specific for each patient. Any lesion in the eye, optic nerve, tract, or cortex would modify these changes, and if gross enough would prevent them. Wald and Burian (1944) considered that in amblyopic vision the entire apparatus of light perception and spatial localization is normal, whilst that part subserving the highest visual function of pattern vision is defective. They showed in severe cases of amblyopia that the absolute light threshold was normal both at the fovea and in the periphery, in light and dark adaptation, and that the capacity to localize luminous points was also normal. It has been shown that the activity of the cerebral cortex may be abnormal in patients suffering from neuro-ocular pathology (Levinson and others, 1951), and pathological cortical rhythms have been found in amblyopia (Dyer and Bierman, 1952; Parsons-Smith, 1953). In view of these facts, and of the known effects of flicker stimuli acting through the normal visual apparatus, it seems likely that fficker studies in patients with amblyopia may throw further light on the mechanism and site of the process which results in the visual extinction.
Origins of generalized control expectancies: reported child stress and observed maternal control and warmth.

The relations among reported stressful events, maternal control and warmth, and children's locus of control of reinforcement were investigated. Fifty-five 2nd-grade. U.S. children completed the Children's Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Locus of Control Scale, and their mothers completed a modified form of Coddington's Life Events Scale for their child. Mother and child also were videotaped while they worked together on three puzzles. The results indicated that, compared with children with external control expectancies, children with internal control expectancies had experienced less stress in their lives. Furthermore, when observed interacting with their children, mothers of children with internal control expectancies were rated as displaying less control and more warmth than mothers of children with external control expectancies. The findings generally are consistent with predictions based on Rotter's social learning theory for the development of individual differences in generalized control expectancies.
Combining verbal analysis protocol and wireless audiovisual observation to examine consumers' supermarket shopping behaviour: Examining consumers' shopping behaviour

The study investigates the benefits of using a verbal analysis protocol combined with wireless audiovisual observation technology to collect information about consumer behaviour in real-life environments. A sample of consumers (n = 36) were given a task to select food products in 11 different categories in a supermarket. Combining methods enabled simultaneous collection of multiple forms of qualitative and quantitative data by recording data simultaneously from different perspectives: the consumer's visual range; the wider shopping environment, to provide context; the consumer's verbalizations. Qualitative data on extrinsic and intrinsic factors that affect decision making and quantitative data on product selection time were taken as an example of rich and real-time data obtained using the combined methods. Audiovisual material was analysed by Usability Test Software 2.0, verbal analysis data were sorted by a database programme and quantitative data were processed using SPSS 17.0. The study design provided sensitive verification of the nature of consumer interaction with the shopping environment: e.g. during the product selection time (average 23 ± 10 s/product), the interaction with the environment varied between individuals and among products selected. The approach represents a useful technique to enable the value of consumer input to direct innovation in consumer-oriented product development. It also offers new perspectives to consumers and authorities and related organizations to understand shopping behaviour and the role of critical factors behind the food choices at the supermarket.
Une analyse longitudinale (1975-2005) de l’évolution de la profession ressources humaines

La presente etude longitudinale, dans le prolongement de celle realisee precedemment par Haines et Arcand (1997), vise a retracer et a analyser l’evolution de la profession ressources humaines sur une periode de trois decennies, tout en situant cette evolution dans la perspective theorique de la professionnalisation (Wilensky, 1964). Pour ce faire, les chercheurs ont eu recours a l’analyse de contenu d’annonces de recrutement portant sur les emplois en gestion des ressources humaines parues dans le quotidien La Presse du samedi dans la section « carrieres et professions » en 1975, 1985, 1995 et 2005. Les auteurs ont ensuite emis cinq hypotheses relatives a l’evolution des roles et sept hypotheses relatives a l’evolution des competences des professionnels en ressources humaines. Ces hypotheses sont, pour la plupart, confirmees. Ainsi, les resultats de l’etude tendent a demontrer une evolution marquee des exigences auxquelles doivent repondre les professionnels, notamment en termes de roles et de competences. Plus specifiquement, les conclusions sont a l’effet que la profession ressources humaines a suivi un parcours marque par l’appropriation d’un role strategique et par une diversification des competences. La periode de reference de trente ans serait notamment marquee par l’augmentation de la demande pour un diplome de deuxieme cycle, une augmentation de la demande pour une experience de travail dans le secteur d’activite qui recrute ainsi que par l’augmentation de la demande pour des connaissances telles la maitrise de l’informatique, de l’anglais parle ou ecrit et d’habiletes comme l’esprit d’equipe, la communication et le leadership. Considerant le role important des professionnels en ressources humaines tant dans l’entreprise que dans le systeme de relations industrielles, alors meme que l’on questionne a la fois l’avenir de la profession et sa legitimite sociale (Kochan, 2007), les resultats ont permis de degager certaines pistes d’interventions, lesquelles devraient interesser les personnes qui se preparent a exercer la profession, les institutions d’enseignements et les associations regroupant des professionnels en ressources humaines.
Commensal Viruses of Mosquitoes: Host Restriction, Transmission, and Interaction with Arboviral Pathogens

Recent advances in virus detection strategies and deep sequencing technologies have enabled the identification of a multitude of new viruses that persistently infect mosquitoes but do not infect vertebrates. These are usually referred to as insect-specific viruses (ISVs). These novel viruses have generated considerable interest in their modes of transmission, persistence in mosquito populations, the mechanisms that restrict their host range to mosquitoes, and their interactions with pathogens transmissible by the same mosquito. In this article, we discuss studies in our laboratory and others that demonstrate that many ISVs are efficiently transmitted directly from the female mosquito to their progeny via infected eggs, and, moreover, that persistent infection of mosquito cell cultures or whole mosquitoes with ISVs can restrict subsequent infection, replication, and transmission of some mosquito-borne viral pathogens. This suggests that some ISVs may act as natural regulators of arboviral transmission. We also discuss viral and host factors that may be responsible for their host restriction.
The localization of cyclo-oxygenase immuno-reactivity (COX I-IR) to the urothelium and to interstitial cells in the bladder wall

Localized phasic contractions in the bladder wall (autonomous activity) have been hypothesized to be an integral part of a motor/sensory system contributing to bladder sensation. The sites responsible for generating this activity, the mechanisms involved in its propagation and modulation remain unknown. This phasic motor activity is modulated by exogenous prostaglandins. Therefore, analysis of the sites of prostaglandin production and action within the bladder wall may shed light on the mechanisms of generation and modulation of this phasic activity. In this paper we report the localization of immuno‐reactivity indicative of the expression of cyclo‐oxygenase enzyme type I (COX I‐IR) within the bladder wall. Basically, three types of COX I‐IR cell were identified: epithelial cells in the basal and intermediate layers of the urothelium, complex vimentin‐positive and COX I‐IR cells in the lamina propria and vimentin‐negative COX I‐IR cells in the lamina propria and on the surface of the inner muscle bundles. These vimentin‐negative/COX I‐IR cells appear to be in close apposition to a continuous network of vimentin‐positive cells, which extends from the lamina propria into the inner muscle layers and subsequently into the outer muscle layers. However, the interstitial cells in this region might form a distinctly different sub‐type. First, the interstitial cells in this region differ from those in the inner layer by their responsiveness to NO with a rise in cGMP. Two subtypes have been identified: cells on the surface of the muscle bundles and within the muscle bundles. Second, COX I‐IR cells are not associated with the interstitial cells in the outer layers. The physiological significance for these apparent differences in the interstitial cell network is not clear. However, such differences are likely to reflect differences in the processes involved in their activation, modulation and control.
Mitochondrial Expression and Function of GAS-1 in Caenorhabditis elegans

A mutation in the gene gas-1 alters sensitivity to volatile anesthetics, fecundity, and life span in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. gas-1 encodes a close homologue of the 49-kDa iron protein subunit of Complex I of the mitochondrial electron transport chain from bovine heart.gas-1 is widely expressed in the nematode neuromuscular system and in a subcellular pattern consistent with that of a mitochondrial protein. Pharmacological studies indicate thatgas-1 functions partially via presynaptic effects. In addition, a mutation in the gas-1 gene profoundly decreases Complex I-dependent metabolism in mitochondria as measured by rates of both oxidative phosphorylation and electron transport. An increase in Complex II-dependent metabolism also is seen in mitochondria from gas-1 animals. There is no apparent alteration in physical structure in mitochondria from gas-1nematodes compared with those from wild type. These data indicate thatgas-1 is the major 49-kDa protein of complex I and that the GAS-1 protein is critical to mitochondrial function in C. elegans. They also reveal the importance of mitochondrial function in determining not only aging and life span, but also anesthetic sensitivity, in this model organism.
Positive Relationships between Association Strength and Phenotypic Similarity Characterize the Assembly of Mixed-Species Bird Flocks Worldwide

Competition theory predicts that local communities should consist of species that are more dissimilar than expected by chance. We find a strikingly different pattern in a multicontinent data set (55 presence-absence matrices from 24 locations) on the composition of mixed-species bird flocks, which are important subunits of local bird communities the world over. By using null models and randomization tests followed by meta-analysis, we find the association strengths of species in flocks to be strongly related to similarity in body size and foraging behavior and higher for congeneric compared with noncongeneric species pairs. Given the local spatial scales of our individual analyses, differences in the habitat preferences of species are unlikely to have caused these association patterns; the patterns observed are most likely the outcome of species interactions. Extending group-living and social-information-use theory to a heterospecific context, we discuss potential behavioral mechanisms that lead to positive interactions among similar species in flocks, as well as ways in which competition costs are reduced. Our findings highlight the need to consider positive interactions along with competition when seeking to explain community assembly.
Capecitabine and Docetaxel Combination for the Treatment of Breast Cancer

The management of breast cancer depends on the tumor and patient's characteristics. Anthracycline-based regimens have been proven to decrease the risk of relapse and prolong survival time in breast cancer. Taxanes have been incorporated not only into metastatic breast cancer but also into adjuvant regimens. Capecitabine, an oral fluoropyrimidine carbamate, has good single-agent activity and, together with docetaxel, demonstrated preclinical synergy and a survival benefit in metastatic breast cancer. Recent analyses show that capecitabine/docetaxel dosing flexibility for managing side effects does not compromise efficacy, and define this combination regimen as an important treatment option for its efficacy, tolerability and cost-effectiveness.