Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probing Structure-Function Relationships in Missense Variants in the Carboxy-Terminal Region of BRCA1

Germline inactivating variants in BRCA1 lead to a significantly increased risk of breast and ovarian cancers in carriers. While the functional effect of many variants can be inferred from the DNA sequence, determining the effect of missense variants present a significant challenge. A series of biochemical and cell biological assays have been successfully used to explore the impact of these variants on the function of BRCA1, which contribute to assessing their likelihood of pathogenicity. It has been determined that variants that co-localize with structural or functional motifs are more likely to disrupt the stability and function of BRCA1. Here we assess the functional impact of 37 variants chosen to probe the functional impact of variants in phosphorylation sites and in the BRCT domains. In addition, we perform a meta-analysis of 170 unique variants tested by the transcription activation assays in the carboxy-terminal domain of BRCA1 using a recently developed computation model to provide assessment for functional impact and their likelihood of pathogenicity.
Hugging the Middle: Teaching in an Era of Testing and Accountability, 1980-2005.

In the last quarter-century and especially the last decade, testing and accountability have come to dominate education policy at the state and national levels. The common concern about the effects of such testing is that it reshapes teaching in the classroom. But such claims do not look at the evidence of deeper classroom structures (the mix of teacher-centered and student-centered practices) in historical context. This article extends historical research in How Teachers Taught (Cuban, 1993) to the present in three metropolitan school districts. While testing and accountability have become more obvious concerns of teachers, the hybridized classroom environment documented in How Teachers Taught have become more pervasive. This article documents this continuing ubiquity and addresses the apparent inconsistency between evidence of a hybridized classroom environment and the unintended consequences of testing and accountability.
Remote interactive visualization for particle-based simulations on graphics clusters

Particle-based models are widely spread in the field of Computer Graphics, and mainly used for real-time simulations of soft deformable bodies. However, simulations including high-resolution models have a great computational cost and, when adding the need for real-time rendering and interaction, they fall way outside the range of applications that traditional computing architectures can accommodate. Graphics clusters can offer the raw computing power needed for such simulations but, due to their physical design and operating mode, introduce a series of challenges that must be overcome, such as efficient distributed rendering and remote visualization and interaction with the simulated scenes. This paper presents a solution to interactive visual particle-based simulations on graphics clusters using an optimized in-situ distributed rendering approach which, coupled with state-of-the-art remote visualization and interaction techniques and tools, provide efficient means for highly scalable interactive simulations.
Deep and surface learning: a simple or simplistic dichotomy?

In recent years, broad evaluations of higher education in several countries have called for a greater degree of deep learning (i.e. learning with understanding) relative to surface learning (i.e. rote learning). These concepts, having been developed in the 1970s and 1980s, are now well established in the higher education literature. However, to a large extent, exploration and discussion of these concepts is missing from the accounting education literature. The present paper aims to fill this gap in the accounting education literature by introducing the full complexity of this important education literature on deep and surface learning. We show that the use of this dichotomy, which is often used as a convenient shorthand, generally oversimplifies in two key respects. First, the deep- surface distinction is relevant in analysing the following aspects of learning: student learning intentions, learning styles, learning approaches adopted and learning outcomes. The specific context in which the distinction is .
Real-time Motion Generating Method for Artificial Fish

Summary In interactive 3D cyber space systems including computer games and virtual reality applications, we have increased need for realtime interactive control of articulated body motions for more realistic expression of characters. Animation methods that based on articulated body motions are used for produce real-time control of artificial life character’s motion. But these methods are not adequate to complex systems, like virtual marine world, that transact many interactive actions. In this paper, we present the real-time animation method that can be applied to control of artificial fish character for constructing the virtual marine world.
Methodological Caveats in the Assessment of Single-Parent Families of Handicapped Children

Negative stereotypes regarding mother-child, single-parent families of young handicapped children can affect the design of both research and intervention for these families. Drawing illustrations from a pilot study of single parents of handicapped children and from the limited research in this area, the following article challenges those negative assumptions and issues six methodological caveats that should be observed in designing research and intervention for single parents of handicapped children.
A model for the role of similarity of values in friendship development

Previous research has shown that similarity of values can significantly enhance interpersonal attraction. The present study sought to refine and clarify this finding within the context of friendship development. The relationship between value similarity and friendship choice for subjects was examined cross-sectionally after three periods of acquaintance: 1–2 months, 4–6 months, and 12+ months. Two factors, namely the importance of the values to the subjects and the uncommonness of the similarity for them, were hypothesized to affect this relationship. The hypothesis was supported. A further hypothesis was that the salience of these factors for subjects was dependent upon factors that related to the length of their friendships. The results offered only marginal support for this hypothesis. Additional data on unreciprocated friendship choices are presented. The results are discussed in relation to the hypothesized predictive function (to reduce interpersonal risk or uncertainty) as well as the supportive function of value similarity, and the wider implications of the results are considered.
Building Multi-UAV Simulation Methods

The objective of this paper is to show a complete simulation of multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs), with emphasis on the requirements needed and the benefits realized in making the simulation functional for an arbitrary number of vehicles. Cooperative control will be shown for an autonomous set of UAV in performance of some task, such as formation, reconnaissance, surveillance, search, jamming, decoy, or target attack. The simulation is developed using a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) software package that allows for a hierarchical block diagram representation to include the control laws and vehicle models. The tools also allow for the use of finite state machines to be used for control law modes. Visualization is achieved by having the simulation drive a VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) virtual world allowing the interactions of the vehicles in their environment to be seen as the simulation is running. The simulation also will allow for replacement of certain components; such as the control scheme that is used or the vehicles that are modeled. The basis of this simulation comes from previous research performed in the study of aircraft formation flight in the context of cooperative game theory and the natural aggregate motion of flocking birds, schooling fish, and herding of land animals.
The relationship between arousal and the remembered duration of positive events

Summary: The relation between affect and retrospective duration estimation has hardly been examined. In this paper, we contribute to filling this gap by studying the influence of arousal on the remembered duration of positive events. On the basis of the contextual change model, we expected that high-arousal positive events would be remembered as longer compared with low-arousal positive events. To test this hypothesis, we set up a naturalistic study in which participants were asked at the end of a pleasant amusement park ride at the local fair to rate how pleasant and aroused they felt during the ride as well as to estimate the ride’s duration. Feeling more aroused during a ride was associated with longer estimates of the ride’s duration. Results are discussed within the framework of retrospective time estimation models. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Duration estimation is central to proper human functioning as reflected by the many actions and decisions that require us to accurately estimate time. In some cases, duration is estimated largely automatically. For instance, crossing a busy street involves making an implicit comparison between the time needed to cross the road and the time it will take an approaching car to reach the crosswalk. In other cases, duration estimates are the outcome of a deliberative process. For example, a witness may mentally reconstruct events when asked to provide an estimate of how much time elapsed between two incidents in the context of a criminal investigation. Given the obvious importance of time estimation, it should come as no surprise that it has been a central topic in psychology from the very start (Grondin, 2008)
Lactate released by Muller glial cells is metabolized by photoreceptors from mammalian retina

The nature of fuel molecules trafficking between mammalian glial cells and neurons was explored using acute retinal cell preparations of solitary Muller glial cells, Muller cells still attached to photoreceptors (the “cell complex”), and solitary photoreceptors. 14C- Molecules in the cell complex, Muller cells, and respective baths were quantitated following 30 min incubation in bicarbonate-buffered Ringer's solution carrying 5 mM 14C(U)-glucose, and substrate preference by solitary photoreceptors was assessed by measuring 14CO2 production. Muller cells alone metabolized 14C-glucose predominantly to carbohydrate intermediates, while the presence of photoreceptors raised proportionately the amount of radiolabeling in amino acids. 14C-Lactate was the major carbohydrate found in the bath. However, in the presence of photoreceptors, its amount was 70% less than that for Muller cells alone. This decrease matched the expected production of 14CO2 by photoreceptor oxidative metabolism and was antagonized by the addition of unlabeled lactate. Moreover, while solitary photoreceptors consumed both exogenous 14C-lactate and 14C-glucose, lactate was a better substrate for their oxidative metabolism. In the cell complex, the metabolism of amino acids increased and illumination affected primarily glutamate and glutamine production: the specific activity of glutamate changed in parallel with that of lactate, and that of glutamine increased by eightfold in darkness. These results demonstrate transfer of lactate from Muller cells to photoreceptors and underscore a photoreceptor-dependent modulation of lactate and amino acid metabolism. We propose that net production and release of lactate by Muller cells serves to maintain their glycolysis elevated and to fuel mitochondrial oxidative metabolism and glutamate resynthesis in photoreceptors.
Ego depletion and aggressive behavior: Is the inhibition of aggression a limited resource?

If self-regulation is a limited resource, the capacity to inhibit aggressive behavior should be lower among people who have already exercised self-regulation. In Experiment 1, participants who had to resist the urge to eat tempting food later reacted more aggressively to an insult than other participants who were allowed to eat as much as they wanted. In Experiments 2 and 3, some participants had to self-regulate by making themselves concentrate on a boring film and stifling their physical and facial movements, and afterward they, too, responded more aggressively than controls. Experiment 3 also showed that the results were not due to differential moods and that one act of self-regulation (unrelated to aggression) was sufficient to enhance subsequent aggressive responses toward the experimenter.
Etude génétique de la reproduction de phrases relatives: I. Reproduction immédiate

Resume ; Une etude concernant la reproduction immediate de phrases complexes (relatives) realisee avec des enfants (5;3 a 9;6) a montre : ; a) que l'interruption de la phrase matrice par la subordonnee (enchâssees/ derivees) ; ; b) que la non-correspondance de l'ordre de surface et de l'ordre sous-jacent dans la relative (relatives en QUE/relatives en QUI) ; ; c) que le non-respect de l'ordre canonique SVO dans les relatives en QUE (QUE V SN/ QUE SN V) constituent des facteurs qui rendent plus difficile cette reproduction. L'effet de ces facteurs est maximum a 6;7. En revanche, dans cette tâche, le caractere reversible ou non reversible des phrases n'intervient pas. ; Ces resultats, ainsi que l'analyse des reproductions incorrectes, sont compatibles avec les hypotheses selon lesquelles les enfants utilisent des strategies (de perception et/ou de production) les conduisant a eviter l'interruption et le rearrangement des unites linguistiques.
Clinical diagnostic utility of CA 15-3 for the diagnosis of malignant pleural effusion: A meta-analysis

Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is one of the most common pleura-associated conditions observed in clinical practice. The development of MPE usually defines advanced cancer with a poor prognosis. Carbohydrate antigen 15-3 (CA 15-3), as an effective pleural fluid biomarker, has been an object of ongoing research in the detection of MPE. The aim of this meta-analysis was to establish the overall diagnostic accuracy of the measurement of pleural CA 15-3 for diagnosing MPE. The databases Medline (using PubMed as the search engine), Embase, Ovid, Web of Science and Cochrane database (up to December 2013) were searched to identify relevant studies. No lower date limit was applied. All literature published in English was reviewed. Sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were pooled using a random-effect model. Summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve analysis was conducted to evaluate the overall diagnostic value. The methodological quality was assessed in line with the Quality Assessment for Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy statement. Twenty-one studies with a total of 2,861 cases were included in present meta-analysis. The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR) and DOR of CA 15-3 in the diagnosis of MPE were 0.58 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.56–0.61], 0.91 (95% CI, 0.90–0.93), 8.93 (95% CI, 4.45–17.93), 0.46 (95% CI, 0.37–0.56) and 24.89 (95% CI, 10.39–59.63), respectively. In addition, the area under the curve (AUC) was 0.84. In conclusion, due to the significantly high specificity of pleural CA 15-3 in detecting MPE, it may play a pivotal role in screening to identify patients who may benefit from further invasive pathologic examination, particularly in those presenting clinical manifestations of MPE but with negative cytological findings of the pleural fluid. However, ruling out MPE by testing CA15-3 alone is not recommended due to its limited sensitivity, and it is recommended that the results of CA15-3 assays are interpreted in parallel with conventional test results and other clinical findings.
The influence of beta-carotene on homocysteine level and oxidative stress in lead-exposed workers.

BACKGROUND Oxidative stress is involved in lead toxicity. This suggests that some antioxidants may play a role in the treatment of lead poisoning. In the light of this, the aim of the study was to determine whether beta-carotene administration reduces oxidative stress and homocysteine level in workers chronically exposed to lead. MATERIAL AND METHODS The exposed population included healthy male workers exposed to lead who were randomly divided into 2 groups (mean blood lead level ca. 44 microg/dl). Workers in the 1st group (N = 49, reference group) had no antioxidants, drugs, vitamins or dietary supplements administered, while workers in the 2nd group (N = 33) had beta-carotene administered in a dose of 10 mg per day for 12 weeks. Biochemical analysis included markers of lead-exposure and the level of malondialdehyde (MDA), an oxidative stress biomarker. We also measured the level of homocysteine (Hcy) and thiol groups as well as the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and its isoenzyme EC-SOD in serum. RESULTS After supplementation, the level of MDA significantly decreased, compared to baseline, by 16%, and to the reference group. When compared to the reference group, Hcy level was also significantly decreased. However, the level of thiol groups was significantly higher after supplementation with beta-carotene compared to the reference group. Analogically, the activity of SOD and EC-SOD was significantly higher compared to the baseline and to the reference group. CONCLUSIONS Despite some controversies over antioxidant properties of beta-carotene, our results indicate that its antioxidant action could provide some beneficial effects in lead poisoning independent of chelation.
Comparing elected mayors

Purpose – The paper aims to compare the office of directly elected mayor in England, Germany and the USA. Proposing and applying a conceptual model of government, governance and allegiance, it assesses the leadership role of the elected mayor in the three countries.Design/methodology/approach – Qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of mayors in each country over a period of 11 years. These formed part of the authors' continuing research into local leadership and political management, which has also included interviews with ex‐mayors, elected representatives and senior officials.Findings – The operation and success of the elected mayor in specific countries is influenced by formal variables (e.g. state constitutions, formal requirements) and informal relationships (e.g. with officials), represented in the distinction between structure and agency. The role of the individual mayor also varied in the light of local party affiliations. The paper considers the impact of these variables on the gove.
Managing the Adoption of New Technologies: Does Personality Affect the Acceptance of New Audit Technologies?

Traditionally, auditors have been slow to adopt new technologies in their profession. One proposed explanation for this phenomenon is a psychological factors model, which hypothesizes that auditors have a personality structure that makes them reluctant to accept change and innovation. We tested this model by assessing personality traits related to “Openness to Experience” in auditors and comparing their trait strength to that of the general population. Contrary to the model's predictions, auditors as a group exhibited average to above average levels of Openness-related traits. Additional tests indicated that “influential” auditors (partners and those in large firms) had higher levels of Openness than their less influential colleagues, making it unlikely that innovation-resistant auditors act as technological gatekeepers in the profession. We conclude that auditors in general, and influential auditors in particular, have the psychological resources necessary to accept change and innovation in their profession. Future research should focus on social/organizational factors as an explanation for the slow adoption of new auditing technologies. Resume Traditionnellement, les verificateurs comptables sont lents a adopter de nouvelles technologies. L'article propose d'expliquer ce phenomene par des facteurs psychologiques, ce qui presuppose que c'est la structure de leur personnalite qui les rend refractaires au changement et a l'innovation. Nous avons teste ce modele psychologique en evaluant les traits de la personnalite relies a “l'ouverture a l'experience” chez les verificateurs par rapport a la population en general. Contrairement aux attentes, les verificateurs — en tant que groupe — se sont situes dans la moyenne et meme au-dessus de la moyenne. Des tests supplementaires ont indique que les verificateurs “influents” (les associes et ceux qui travaillent dans des grandes firmes) affichaient un degre d'ouverture plus grand que leurs collegues moins en vue, ce qui rend improbable que les verificateurs resistant a l'innovation fassent obstruction au changement technologique. Conclusion: les verificateurs en general, et les verificateurs influents en particulier, sont dotes des ressources psychologiques necessaires a l'acceptation du changement et de l'innovation dans leur profession. Une prochaine recherche devrait se concentrer sur les facteurs sociaux/organisationnels pour expliquer la lenteur d'adoption des nouvelles techniques de verification.
Semantic Argument Classification Exploiting Argument Interdependence

This paper describes our research on automatic semantic argument classification, using the PropBank data [Kingsbury et al., 2002]. Previous research employed features that were based either on a full parse or shallow parse of a sentence. These features were mostly based on an individual semantic argument and the relation between the predicate and a semantic argument, but they did not capture the interdependence among all arguments of a predicate. In this paper, we propose the use of the neighboring semantic arguments of a predicate as additional features in determining the class of the current semantic argument. Our experimental results show significant improvement in the accuracy of semantic argument classification after exploiting argument interdependence. Argument classification accuracy on the standard Section 23 test set improves to 90.50%, representing a relative error reduction of 18%.
Experiences of Families With Children With Autism in Rural New England

This study examined the impact of children With autism on their families. TWenty-one parents Who Were the primary caregivers Were intervieWed about (a) recognition and diagnosis of autism in their child, (b) intervention services accessed, and (c) the impact of having a child With autism on their family. The results suggest that families Who have a child With autism share many of the same feelings of frustration, stress, and hope for the future. Often the family as a Whole is greatly affected by the diagnosis. Implications for those Working in the area of autism are discussed.
Motivation based difficulty adaptation for therapeutic games

A post-stroke rehabilitation based on therapeutic serious game can be a useful approach to increase rehabilitation volume by maintaining patients' motivation and engagement. In particular, a dynamic difficulty adaptation technique of therapeutic tasks allows increasing patients' motivation by adapting the game difficulty to the patients' capabilities. This paper presents a difficulty adaptation technique dedicated to a family of therapeutic games for upper limb rehabilitation. The proposed technique provides a generic real-time adaptation module to dynamically adjust the game difficulty to each patient according to his profile and observed performances. A pre-pilot experiment is presented to demonstrate how this technique has been implemented and could be integrated to post-stroke therapeutic games.