Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Solution and surface effects on plasma fibronectin structure

As assessed by electron microscopy, the reported shape of the plasma fibronectin molecule ranges from that of a compact particle to an elongated, rod-like structure. In this study, we evaluated the effects of solution and surface conditions on fibronectin shape. Freeze-dried, unstained human plasma fibronectin molecules deposited at pH 7.0-7.4 onto carbon films and examined by scanning transmission electron microscopy appeared relatively compact and pleiomorphic, with approximate average dimensions of 24 nm X 16 nm. Negatively stained molecules also had a similar shape but revealed greater detail in that we observed irregular, yarn-like structures. Glutaraldehyde-induced intramolecular cross-linking did not alter the appearance of plasma fibronectin. Molecules deposited at pH 2.8, pH 9.3, or after succinylation were less compact than those deposited at neutral pH. In contrast, fibronectin molecules sprayed onto mica surfaces at pH 7, rotary shadowed, and examined by transmission electron microscopy were elongated and nodular with a contour length of 120-130 nm. Sedimentation velocity experiments and electron microscopic observations indicate that fibronectin unfolds when it is succinylated, when the ionic strength is raised at pH 7, or when the pH is adjusted to 9.3 or 2.8. Greater unfolding is observed at pH 2.8 at low ionic strength (less than 0.01) compared with material at that pH in 0.15 M NaCl solution. We conclude that (a) the shape assumed by the fibronectin molecule can be strongly affected by solution conditions and by deposition onto certain surfaces; and that (b) the images of fibronectin seen by scanning transmission electron microscopy at neutral pH on carbon film are representative of molecules in physiologic solution.
Overall and site‐specific risk of malignant melanoma associated with nevus counts at different body sites: A multicenter case‐control study of the german central malignant‐melanoma registry

A large number of benign melanocytic nevi is the major risk factor for malignant melanoma (MM). In a multicenter case‐control study, the number of common (CN) and clinically atypical (AN) nevi were counted separately at individual sites in 278 melanoma patients and 278 age‐and gender‐matched non‐melanoma controls. Relative risk (RR) adjusted for age and sex was calculated. In men as well as women, the number of CN on the legs was the best predictor of overall melanoma risk. In men, RR for developing MM when ≥1 AN were present on the trunk was 4‐fold (vs. none). In women, presence of AN on the arms increased RR 9.5‐fold. For men and women combined, after adjusting for age and gender, the RR for developing MM on the trunk and on the legs was best predicted by counts of CN at the respective body region. However, high counts of CN on the arms were associated with high melanoma risk on the legs (somewhat lower on the trunk). For AN, no site‐specificity of melanoma risk was found. Our data suggest that nevus counts of the legs are the best predictor of overall melanoma risk if total body nevus counts are not feasible. Although high counts of CN on the trunk and legs are associated with a higher risk of developing MM at the respective site than at another site, our data do not unequivocally support a direct site‐specific melanoma risk. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fos-Related Antigen Immunoreactivity After Acute and Chronic Angiotensin II–Induced Hypertension in the Rabbit Brain

Several brain regions are proposed as contributing to chronic sympatho-excitatory effects of elevated circulating angiotensin II. However, earlier c-Fos studies have been limited to acute angiotensin II exposure. This study aims to determine brain regions responding with chronic elevated angiotensin II. Rabbits were administered angiotensin II (50 ng/kg per minute) or saline for 3 hours, 3 days, or 14 days. Basal mean arterial pressure was 71±2 mm Hg and increased 23±2 mm Hg, 32±4 mm Hg, and 22±2 mm Hg for 3 hours, 3 days, and 14 days, respectively, with angiotensin II infusion. Neuronal activation was detected using Fos-related antigens, which recognizes all of the known members of the Fos family. Neurons located in the amygdala and area postrema were activated transiently after acute infusion of angiotensin II but were not responsive by days 3 or 14. Neurons located in the nucleus of the solitary tract, caudal ventrolateral medulla, and lateral parabrachial nucleus were activated for ≤3 days after infusion of angiotensin II but were not responsive by day 14, which is consistent with their role in response to baroreceptor pathways that reset with sustained hypertension. The vascular organ of the lamina terminalis and subfornical organ showed sustained but diminishing activation over the 14-day period. However, the downstream hypothalamic nuclei that receive inputs from these nuclei, the paraventricular, supraoptic, and arcuate nuclei, showed marked sustained activation. These findings suggest that there is desensitization of circumventricular organs but sensitization of neurons in hypothalamic regions to long-term angiotensin II infusion.
Displaying proportions and percentages

Pie and bar charts are commonly used to display percentage or proportional data, but professional data analysts have frowned on the use of the pie chart on the grounds that judgements of area are less accurate than judgements of lenth. Thus the bar chart has been favoured. When the amount of data to be communicated is small, some authorities have advocated the use of properly constructed tables, as another option. The series of experiments reported here suggests that there is little to choose between the pie and the bar chart, with the former enjoying a slight advantage if the required judgement is a complicated one, but that both forms of chart are superior to the table. Thus our results do not support the commonly expressed opinion that pie charts are inferior. An analysis of the nature of the task and a review of the psychophysical literature suggest that the traditional prejudice against the pie chart is misguided.
Transparency in search of a theory

Transparency’s importance as an administrative norm seems self-evident. Prevailing ideals of political theory stipulate that the more visible government is, the more democratic, accountable, and legitimate it appears. The disclosure of state information consistently disappoints, however: there is never enough of it, while it often seems not to produce a truer democracy, a more accountable state, better policies, and a more contented populace. This gap between theory and practice suggests that the theoretical assumptions that provide the basis for transparency are wrong. This article argues that transparency is best understood as a theory of communication that excessively simplifies and thus is blind to the complexities of the contemporary state, government information, and the public. Taking them fully into account, the article argues, should lead us to question the state’s ability to control information, which in turn should make us question not only the improbability of the state making itself visible, but also the improbability of the state keeping itself secret.
The ET Column: Globalization and the spread of English: what does it mean to be Anglophone?

The author wonders whether English is becoming as universal as is often claimed? Demand for English and American language centers has increased around the world, and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is now administered regularly in many metropolises. To ensure that their students are competitive, economically affluent countries have invested lots of money in the latest audio-visual technology while also recruiting the most competent teachers of English as a second or foreign language. South Korea has stood out in contracting American and British teachers to provide interaction-with-native-speaker experience to its students via satellite while European countries have benefited greatly from student exchange programs that enable their students to improve their competence by immersion in native socio-economic ecologies. Equally noteworthy are financial and emotional sacrifices endured by many, chiefly Korean, families whose mothers/wives and school-age children live in Anglophone countries so that the children can develop native competence in English. The relevant parents assume that as the world-wide market value of English continues to rise, every young person anywhere will need it, at least as a lingua franca, and the more fluent ones will have a competitive edge over their peers. Pop culture will undoubtedly have contributed its share to this rise of its market value.
Retinopathy Screening in Type 2 Diabetes: Reliability of Wide Angle Fundus Photography

The purpose of the study was to assess the reliability of mydriatic 60° fundus photography in a retinopathy screening programme for Type 2 diabetic patients in a primary health care setting. In 323 eligible consecutive Type 2 diabetic patients above 40 years of age, attending a regional shared care diabetes project, mydriatic wide angle fundus photography was compared with standardized fundoscopy in dilated pupils as the recommended test for the detection of diabetic retinopathy. Fundus photography included two black and white transparencies per eye visualizing the central and nasal retinal field. Fundoscopy findings and pictures were scored according to modified Wisconsin criteria. Fundoscopy revealed in 95/646 eyes (14.7 %) some degree of diabetic retinopathy. Sensitivity and specificity of fundus photography (omitting ungradable transparencies) were 97 % for the diagnosis of any diabetic retinopathy (DRP). All patients with moderate and severe DRP (Wisconsin grade 3 and worse) according to fundoscopy were detected by fundus photography. In conclusion, mydriatic wide angle 60° fundus photography, making two pictures per eye, can be applied effectively and reliably in the detection of diabetic retinopathy in patients with Type 2 diabetes.
Human airway epithelial tight junctions

The flux of fluid, ions, macromolecules, and inflammatory cells across airway epithelium depends in part upon the integrity of its apico‐lateral tight junctions. Without the correct balance of fluid and ions, the normal functioning of mucociliary clearance and the neural responsiveness of the airways cannot take place. Freeze‐fracture electron microscopy has been used to investigate the structure of human airway tight junctions and their morphology comprehensively characterised at two airway levels (main and lobar bronchi). Further data is needed to establish if the fall in transepithelial electrical resistance found across progressively proximal disparate airway generations is correlated with an alteration in tight junction morphology.
How to select information that matters: a comparative study on active learning strategies for classification

Facing ever increasing volumes of data but limited human annotation capabilities, active learning strategies for selecting the most informative labels gain in importance. However, the choice of an appropriate active learning strategy itself is a complex task that requires to consider different criteria such as the informativeness of the selected labels, the versatility with respect to classification algorithms, or the processing speed. This raises the question, which combinations of active learning strategies and classification algorithms are the most promising to apply. A general answer to this question, without application-specific, label-intensive experiments on each dataset, is highly desirable, as active learning is applied in situations with limited labelled data. Therefore, this paper studies several combinations of different active learning strategies and classification algorithms and evaluates them in a series of comparative experiments.
IL-17 Promotes Progression of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis in Susceptible Mice1

Resistance to leishmaniasis in C57BL/6 mice depends on Th1/Tc1 cells. BALB/c mice preferentially develop Th2 immunity and succumb to infection. We now assessed the role of IL-17 in cutaneous leishmaniasis. During the course of Leishmania major infection, BALB/c CD4 cells and neutrophils produced increased amounts of IL-17 as compared with cells from C57BL/6 mice. This increase was associated with significantly increased IL-23 release from L. major-infected BALB/c dendritic cells (DC), whereas IL-6 and TGF-β1 production by BALB/c and C57BL/6 DC were comparable. Interestingly, lesion sizes in infected IL-17-deficient BALB/c mice were dramatically smaller and failed to progress as compared with those in control mice. Similar amounts of IL-4, IL-10, and IFN-γ were produced by T cells from IL-17-deficient mice and control mice consistent with development of Th2-predominant immunity in all animals. Improved disease outcome was associated with decreased CXCL2-accumulation in lesion sites and decreased neutrophil immigration into lesions of infected IL-17-deficient mice confirming prior observations that enhanced neutrophil recruitment contributes to disease susceptibility in BALB/c mice. This study excludes an important facilitating role for IL-17 in Th1/Th2 development in L. major-infected BALB/c mice, and suggests that IL-23 production by L. major-infected DC maintains IL-17+ cells that influence disease progression via regulation of neutrophil recruitment.
Progressive renal insufficiency, hypercalcaemia, bicytopaenia and a history of breast cancer

Sarcoidosis can affect all organs and may mimic a variety of other diseases. In the absence of typical pulmonary features, extrapulmonary manifestations may be difficult to diagnose. We describe here the very uncommon case of a patient with mild pulmonal involvement but distinct renal, bone marrow and lymph node sarcoidosis. Treatment with glucocorticoids significantly improved kidney function and normalized serum calcium levels as well as the blood count. This case underscores the importance of sarcoidosis to be considered as a differential diagnosis of renal failure associated with hypercalcaemia and nephrocalcinosis. Bone marrow involvement should always be suspected if mono-, bi- or pancytopaenia coexist.
Language skills, learning to read, and reading intervention.

The paper outlines a framework for the development of reading that shows it is heavily dependent upon spoken language processes. Within this view, reading difficulties can follow from difficulties with speech processing (decoding problems) or from broader language processing impairments (comprehension problems). The paper describes the literacy development of children at high-risk of reading failure and shows how their reading outcome depends on the interaction of the phonological and language skills they bring to the task of reading. Findings have implications for the development of theoretically motivated reading interventions. The evaluation of such interventions is described.
A New Theory of Fashion Change: a Test of Some Predictions

Various theories of why fashion occurs are critically discussed. An alternative theory is presented which suggests that clothes are used as media of communication whose message describes the wearer. The assumption is made that the clothes actually worn are a compromise between what the wearer sees herself to be and what she would like to be, but closer to the former. To explain the spread of fashion, it is hypothesized that fashionable outfits bear a fairly consistent message which is different from that carried by unfashionable clothes. This is borne out by the results of an investigation in which female psychology students judged the wearer of 10 unfashionable and 10 fashionable outfits. The theory predicts that for potential adopters of a fashion, i.e. a group of girls unselected for fashionability, the ideal self image (ISI) will be nearer the impression conveyed by fashionable clothes than will the self image and that women who are regarded as fashionable differ in their perceptions of themselves from unfashionable women. Investigations were carried out, the results of which are consistent with these hypotheses. If these results are generally repeatable it follows from this theory that fashion change can occur either because, with the general adoption of a style its message changes, or because the average aspirations of women (ISI) change. The latter suggestion implies that fashions do as, for example, Laver (1945) has suggested, reflect the ‘Spirit of the Age’ in quite a straightforward sense.
Rad Reward Card

Parents may at times have difficulty communicating expectations they have of their adolescent in a way that the adolescent understands. The art of compromise may get lost in the battle between adolescent independence and parent-established boundaries. The intervention presented is designed to start a dialogue between parent and adolescent in which negotiation and compromise can take place. The intervention presented focuses on child and adolescent behavior modification through positive reinforcement and can be used in any instance in which the desire is to increase a particular behavior. The intervention is used to reinforce desired behavior through a reward system. Thus, it is likely to be useful only with children or adolescents motivated by compensation. A Rad Reward Card is similar to a punch card and is used to track desired behavior. The child or adolescent will be referred to as the Identified Patient or “IP” from this point forward due to the assumption that specific behavioral or academic issues are the presenting problem. The IP is given the card and a punch is received each time a desired behavior is exhibited.
Nitric oxide enhances experimental wound healing in diabetes

Diabetes is characterized by a nitric oxide deficiency at the wound site. This study investigated whether exogenous nitric oxide supplementation with the nitric oxide donor molsidomine (N‐ethoxycarbomyl‐3‐morpholinyl‐sidnonimine) could reverse the impaired healing in diabetes.
Internetware: Challenges and Future Direction of Software Paradigm for Internet as a Computer

Internet is becoming an open, global, ubiquitous and smarter computer for our society and planet. Such “Internet as a Computer” requires substantial improvements in software characteristics such as collaborative, situational, autonomous, evolvable and trustworthy, which challenge existing software paradigms, including software model, software middleware and engineering approach. In this talk, a new software paradigm, called Internetware, is presented as a synergy of these future directions.
Smooth, Volume-Accurate Material Interface Reconstruction

A new material interface reconstruction method for volume fraction data is presented. Our method is comprised of two components: first, we generate initial interface topology; then, using a combination of smoothing and volumetric forces within an active interface model, we iteratively transform the initial material interfaces into high-quality surfaces that accurately approximate the problem's volume fractions. Unlike all previous work, our new method produces material interfaces that are smooth, continuous across cell boundaries, and segment cells into regions with proper volume. These properties are critical during visualization and analysis. Generating high-quality mesh representations of material interfaces is required for accurate calculations of interface statistics, and dramatically increases the utility of material boundary visualizations.
Acute Exercise Thoughts, Coping, and Exercise Intention in Older Adults

Two purposes of this study were to identify the types of acute thoughts older adults experienced when making exercise decisions and the strategies used to cope with negative thoughts. The third purpose was to examine the relationships between acute thoughts, coping self-efficacy, and the outcomes of decisional struggle and exercise intention. Participants were 117 exercising older adults (Mage= 72 years). Acute thoughts, coping strategies and self-efficacy, decisional struggle, and intention measures were taken concurrently. Results indicate that older adults experienced both acute positive and negative thoughts. To cope with negative thoughts, participants used cognitive and behavioral strategies. Further, coping self-efficacy significantly predicted decisional struggle and intention.
Historical Trauma Among Urban American Indians: Impact on Substance Abuse and Family Cohesion

Historical trauma theory suggests that many American Indians are still affected by the cultural losses and injustices endured by previous generations. The current study examines historical trauma in an urban American Indian sample using validated measures of historical loss and associated symptoms (N = 120). Urban American Indians reported high degrees of historical trauma compared to reservation samples in past research. Generalized linear models showed that historical trauma symptoms were significantly associated with past month alcohol use, lifetime use of non-marijuana illicit drugs, and lower family cohesion. However, frequent thoughts about historical losses were positively associated with family cohesion. Implications are discussed.
The folkloric, the spectacular, and the institutionalized: touristifying ethnic minority dances on China's southwest frontiers

This article examines the upsurge of producing ethnic minority dance spectacles for tourists in contemporary Yunnan, southwest China. This new wave, along with the shift from the folkloric to the spectacular and professional, indicates a distinct scenario of transformation as the productions of these performances are shaped by the intriguing collaboration among capitalist tourism enterprises, regional governments, and art professionals who are engaged in the state-promoted institutionalization of ethnic minority dances. This article questions what scripts underlie this collaboration and how the collaboration itself structures the artistic presentations and the politics of representation on the stage. Through a case study of Mengbalanaxi, a large-scale ethnic minority dance show in Xishuangbanna, this article argues that this trend transforms the produced dance spectacles into regional–cultural brands under the state and local governmental discourses of cultural industry and regional development. It also forms a powerful channel of institutionalizing ethnic minority dances outside the mainstream art institutions as well as on a larger scale. The re-configured dance presentations on the stage promote a nuanced narrative of the embodied ethnic cultures, transmitting and simultaneously re-shaping the tourist imaginary of China's national other in this era.
Quantification et microvariation : les adjectifs de dimension spatiale

Résumé Cette étude en microvariation porte sur des constructions nominales quantifiées (Elle a pas long de jupe) impliquant des adjectifs de dimension spatiale en français québécois et examine comment elles se distinguent de celles avec le quantificateur beaucoup. Après une brève description des faits, je propose une structure sous-jacente pour ces constructions et une analyse des propriétés reférentielles des N que ces adjectifs quantifient : N de masse, N collectifs, N d’Espèces au singulier et quelquefois au pluriel avec certains adjectifs quantificateurs seulement, mais jamais des Individualités. Sont aussi abordées les restrictions sur la modification et les restrictions aspectuelles qu’elles manifestent. J’en viens à la conclusion que la microvariation observée est minime. Elle est le résultat d’une interaction entre les propriétés lexicales de ces adjectifs de dimension et les principes de la Grammaire universelle.