Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STIM1 and calmodulin interact with Orai1 to induce Ca2+-dependent inactivation of CRAC channels

Ca2+-dependent inactivation (CDI) is a key regulator and hallmark of the Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channel, a prototypic store-operated Ca2+ channel. Although the roles of the endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ sensor STIM1 and the channel subunit Orai1 in CRAC channel activation are becoming well understood, the molecular basis of CDI remains unclear. Recently, we defined a minimal CRAC activation domain (CAD; residues 342–448) that binds directly to Orai1 to activate the channel. Surprisingly, CAD-induced CRAC currents lack fast inactivation, revealing a critical role for STIM1 in this gating process. Through truncations of full-length STIM1, we identified a short domain (residues 470–491) C-terminal to CAD that is required for CDI. This domain contains a cluster of 7 acidic amino acids between residues 475 and 483. Neutralization of aspartate or glutamate pairs in this region either reduced or enhanced CDI, whereas the combined neutralization of six acidic residues eliminated inactivation entirely. Based on bioinformatics predictions of a calmodulin (CaM) binding site on Orai1, we also investigated a role for CaM in CDI. We identified a membrane-proximal N-terminal domain of Orai1 (residues 68–91) that binds CaM in a Ca2+-dependent manner and mutations that eliminate CaM binding abrogate CDI. These studies identify novel structural elements of STIM1 and Orai1 that are required for CDI and support a model in which CaM acts in concert with STIM1 and the N terminus of Orai1 to evoke rapid CRAC channel inactivation.
Mapping out Min protein patterns in fully confined fluidic chambers

The bacterial Min protein system provides a major model system for studying reaction-diffusion processes in biology. Here we present the first in vitro study of the Min system in fully confined three-dimensional chambers that are lithography-defined, lipid-bilayer coated and isolated through pressure valves. We identify three typical dynamical behaviors that occur dependent on the geometrical chamber parameters: pole-to-pole oscillations, spiral rotations, and traveling waves. We establish the geometrical selection rules and show that, surprisingly, Min-protein spiral rotations govern the larger part of the geometrical phase diagram. Confinement as well as an elevated temperature reduce the characteristic wavelength of the Min patterns, although even for confined chambers with a bacterial-level viscosity, the patterns retain a ~5 times larger wavelength than in vivo. Our results provide an essential experimental base for modeling of intracellular Min gradients in bacterial cell division as well as, more generally, for understanding pattern formation in reaction-diffusion systems. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.19271. 001
Self-practice and self-reflection in cognitive behaviour therapy training: what factors influence trainees' engagement and experience of benefit?

BACKGROUND Previous studies of self-practice/self-reflection (SP/SR) CBT training have found that trainees report significant benefits from practising CBT techniques on themselves (self-practice) and reflecting on their experience (self-reflection) as a formal part of their CBT training. However, not all trainees experience the same level of benefit from SP/SR and not all types of training course produce benefits to the same extent. AIMS This paper examines the question: What factors influence trainees' reported benefit from SP/SR? The aim was to develop a model to maximize the value of SP/SR training. METHOD The authors used a grounded theory analysis of four SP/SR training courses, varying along several dimensions, to derive a model that could account for the data. RESULTS A model was derived comprising of seven elements: Two outcomes - "Experience of Benefit" and "Engagement with the Process" - that mutually influence one another; and five other influencing factors - "Course Structure and Requirements", "Expectation of Benefit", "Feeling of Safety with the Process", "Group Process", and "Available Personal Resources" - that mediate the impact on Engagement with the Process and Experience of Benefit from SP/SR. CONCLUSIONS A model that provides guidance about the best ways to set up and develop SP/SR programs has been developed. This model may now be subject to empirical testing by trainers and researchers. Implications and recommendations for the design and development of future SP/SR programs are discussed.
The Politics of Venture Philanthropy in Charter School Policy and Advocacy

Philanthropists have long funded a wide range of educational research, practice, and policy initiatives, primarily through namesake foundations. Some observers have criticized these efforts as doing little to change the status quo in education and have called for more aggressive action on the part of this sector. Out of this critique has emerged a new philanthropic form, often termed venture philanthropy . Perhaps nowhere is venture philanthropy more prevalent than in the charter school and policy and advocacy terrain. Drawing from document analysis and a review of historical literature, this article provides a sociopolitical, descriptive discussion of this “new” form of philanthropy in supporting the charter school reform network. It also examines the funding strategies of venture philanthropies and the areas of policy intersection in program initiatives. The article concludes with a discussion of some political and philosophical tensions that venture philanthropy raises and also provides suggestions for further research.
In vivo effect of herbal products against Histomonas meleagridis in turkeys

Histomoniasis is a serious disease in poultry. All chemotherapeutics with known efficacy against its causative agent, Histomonas meleagridis, have been banned from use as prophylactic or therapeutic use in production animals. In a search for possible alternatives, the in vivo effects of the herbal products Enteroguard™ and Protophyt™ were examined. Two-week-old turkeys allocated into 13 groups of 18 birds were either sham inoculated (negative control group) or were inoculated with 100, 3162 or 200 000 histomonads per bird. Control groups (no feed additives, dimetridazole, or Histostat-50™) were included in the study. No morbidity or mortality was observed in the negative control group or in the groups inoculated with 100 histomonads per bird. Mortality was 100% in the groups inoculated with 200 000 histomonads per bird and either untreated (positive control group) or receiving Protophyt SP™, Protophyt™ SP and Protophyt™ B, Enteroguard™, or Histostat-50™. Mortality was 17% in the dimetridazole-treated group. In the groups inoculated with 3162 histomonads per bird, mortality was 100% for the positive control group and the group receiving Enteroguard™, and was 94% in the group receiving Protophyt™ SP. In the present study, Enteroguard™ or Protophyt™ was not found to be effective against histomoniasis.
Le pilotage des communautés de pratique au sein de l'industrie des télécommunications : une comparaison des sociétés Bell et Orange

Les communautes de pratique regroupent des personnes qui partagent des preoccupations ou une passion a propos d’un sujet et qui approfondissent leur expertise dans un domaine a travers des interactions regulieres. En principe, elles devraient faciliter l’apprentissage organisationnel, le partage des connaissances et l’innovation. En pratique, toutefois, il faut determiner la maniere de les piloter ou de les gerer afin d’en optimiser l’efficacite. Dans un premier temps, l’article discute les defis lies au pilotage des communautes de pratique, notamment un controle approprie et une transmission optimisee des connaissances tacites et formelles. Dans un deuxieme temps, nous presentons les caracteristiques des communautes de pratique implantees dans deux grandes organisations du secteur des telecommunications au Canada et en France : Bell et Orange. Finalement, nous mettons en lumiere les conditions de succes du pilotage des communautes de pratique : les piloter en fonction de la categorie de personnel et des emplois vises; mettre en place des technologies de l’information et des communications adaptees aux besoins de la communaute; trouver un equilibre entre le pilotage de la communaute et le respect de son autonomie; integrer et utiliser les connaissances apportees par des communautes de pratique pour optimiser la performance organisationnelle; adopter des pratiques d’incitation a la participation aux communautes de pratique; enfin, fournir des espaces de socialisation et de rencontres a leurs membres.Fonctions : GRH, management, innovation, gestion des operations, TIIndustries : telecommunications, TI
Setting up suicide prevention plans at the local level: the methodology of focus groups with stakeholders

In the prevention of suicide, there is a need to transform clinical studies into health promotion by a cooperation with territorial agencies. A survey on a group of stakeholders was performed with the methodology of focus group. The evaluation criteria used by the participants were practical and not methodological and were closely linked to the stakeholders' point of view. High importance was given to building a network in the territory and some indications came out for each target group (e.g., interventions in schools for adolescents). In conclusion, a qualitative survey on the stakeholders' opinion is useful, but it needs a steering that integrates the different points of view and joins them with methodological requirements and funds availability. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Are adolescents with anorexia nervosa better at reading minds?

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate mindreading abilities in female adolescent patients with AN compared to healthy controls (HCs), analysing differences for emotional valence of facial stimuli. Methods: The Eating Disorder Inventory) for evaluating psychological traits associated with eating disorders and the Children's version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test for evaluating mindreading abilities were administered to 40 Italian female patients (mean age = 14.93; SD = 1.48) with restrictive diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN) and 40 healthy females (mean age = 14.88; SD = 0.56). Results: No significant differences between the AN group and HCs for the Eyes Total score were found. Even when analysing emotional valence of the items, the two groups were equally successful in the facial recognition of positive, negative and neutral emotions. A significant difference was revealed for the percentage of correct responses of item 10 and item 15, where the AN group was less able to correctly identify the target descriptor (Not believing) over the foils than HCs. A significant difference was revealed in discriminating for affective emotions versus cognitive states; only for affective but not for cognitive states, patients with AN were found to perform better than controls on the mindreading task. Conclusions: Our study highlighted the importance of analysing and discriminating for different valences of facial stimuli when assessing mindreading abilities in adolescents with AN, so that more precise and specific treatment approaches could be developed for female adolescents with AN.
Gene selection for cancer classification using a hybrid of univariate and multivariate feature selection methods

Various approaches to gene selection for cancer classification based on microarray data can be found in the literature and they may be grouped into two categories: univariate methods and multivariate methods. Univariate methods look at each gene in the data in isolation from others. They measure the contribution of a particular gene to the classification without considering the presence of the other genes. In contrast, multivariate methods measure the relative contribution of a gene to the classification by taking the other genes in the data into consideration. Multivariate methods select fewer genes in general. However, the selection process of multivariate methods may be sensitive to the presence of irrelevant genes, noises in the expression and outliers in the training data. At the same time, the computational cost of multivariate methods is high. To overcome the disadvantages of the two types of approaches, we propose a hybrid method to obtain gene sets that are small and highly discriminative. We devise our hybrid method from the univariate Maximum Likelihood method (LIK) and the multivariate Recursive Feature Elimination method (RFE). We analyze the properties of these methods and systematically test the effectiveness of our proposed method on two cancer microarray datasets. Our experiments on a leukemia dataset and a small, round blue cell tumors dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of our hybrid method. It is able to discover sets consisting of fewer genes than those reported in the literature and at the same time achieve the same or better prediction accuracy.
Neo-Institutionalism and Dissent in State Supreme Courts

This study applies concepts derived from neo-institutionalism to coalition behavior in state supreme courts, using a pooled cross-sectional time series design. Neo-institutionalism embraces rational choice assumptions about human behavior, with particular attention to how institutional arrangements shape purposive behavior. From this perspective, dissent, or the tendency to form less than unanimous voting coalitions, is viewed not merely as the collective expression of individual attitudes or policy preferences or the result of structural characteristics of institutions but rather as a complex interaction of values and structures. A model incorporating variables derived from the neo-institutional perspective was estimated with GLS-ARMA and compared to an environmental model generated from past research. The amount of variation in dissent rates uniquely accounted for by the neo-institutional model is over six times that of the environmental model, while a composite model can explain more than one-third of the variation in state supreme court dissent rates for 1966, 1973, and 1981. More importantly, however, all the relationships posited by the neo-institutional approach are statistically significant and in the expected direction. An institutional approach guided by rational choice theory offers an important contribution toward developing a more refined understanding of judicial behavior.
DNA Catalysis: The Chemical Repertoire of DNAzymes

Deoxyribozymes or DNAzymes are single-stranded catalytic DNA molecules that are obtained by combinatorial in vitro selection methods. Initially conceived to function as gene silencing agents, the scope of DNAzymes has rapidly expanded into diverse fields, including biosensing, diagnostics, logic gate operations, and the development of novel synthetic and biological tools. In this review, an overview of all the different chemical reactions catalyzed by DNAzymes is given with an emphasis on RNA cleavage and the use of non-nucleosidic substrates. The use of modified nucleoside triphosphates (dN*TPs) to expand the chemical space to be explored in selection experiments and ultimately to generate DNAzymes with an expanded chemical repertoire is also highlighted.
Hypotheses for the origin and early evolution of triterpenoid cyclases

Hopanes and steranes are found almost universally in the sedimentary rock record where they often are used as proxies for aerobic organisms, metabolisms, and environments. In order to interpret ancient lipid signatures confidently we require a complementary understanding of how these modern biochemical pathways evolved since their conception. For example, generally it has been assumed that hopanoid biosynthesis was an evolutionary predecessor to steroid biosynthesis. Here we re‐evaluate this assumption. Using a combined phylogenetic and biochemical perspective, we address the evolution of polycyclic triterpenoid biosynthesis and suggest several constraints on using these molecules as aerobic biomarkers. Amino acid sequence data show that the enzymes responsible for polycyclic triterpenoid biosynthesis (i.e. squalene and 2,3‐oxidosqualene cyclases) are homologous. Numerous conserved domains correspond to active sites in the enzymes that are required to complete the complex cyclization reaction. From these sites we develop an evolutionary analysis of three independent characters to explain the evolution of the major classes of polycyclic triterpenoids. These characters are: (i) the number of unfavourable anti‐Markovnikov ring closures, (ii) all‐chair (CCC) or chair‐boat‐chair (CBC) substrate conformation, and (iii) the choice between squalene and 2,3‐oxidosqualene as the substrate. We use these characters to construct four competing phylogenies to describe the evolution of polycyclic triterpenoid biosynthesis. The analysis suggests that malabaricanoids would be the most ancient polycyclic triterpenoids. The two most parsimonious evolutionary trees are the ones in which hopanoid and steroid cyclases diverged from a common ancestor. The transition from a CCC‐ to CBC‐fold marks the major divergence in the evolution of these pathways, and it is diagnosable in the geological record. However, this transition does not require the simultaneous adoption of the aerobic substrate, 2,3‐oxidosqualene, because these characters are controlled by independent parts of the enzyme.
The Economic Organization of Science, the Firm, and the Marketplace

Among the various institutional structures of an economy like the firm and the marketplace is one that is like no other. Science is unique. This uniqueness raises an important question: why does science exist? From an economic perspective, there are two potentially meaningful approaches to the existence of science. They both encompass institutional pluralism. A substitutes theory of comparative institutions presupposes the primacy of the commercial marketplace over firms—that firms substitute for the market when markets fail. This theory has not been used to explain the existence of science. A complements theory postulates that many simultaneous institutional responses, including science, are necessary for creating an efficient and equitable economy. The economic function of science is to produce fundamental theoretical abstractions about our world. Scientific theories are public goods that would not likely be produced within the governance structures of commercial markets and firms. The aim is to complement but not supplant traditional philosophical answers that science exists to discover truth and knowledge.
Conformable actuation and sensing with robotic fabric

Future generations of wearable robots will include systems constructed from conformable materials that do not constrain the natural motions of the wearer. Fabrics represent a class of highly conformable materials that have the potential for embedded function and are highly integrated into our daily lives. In this work, we present a robotic fabric with embedded actuation and sensing. Attaching the same robotic fabric to a soft body in different ways leads to unique motions and sensor modalities with many different applications for robotics. In one mode, the robotic fabric acts around the circumference of the body, and compression of the body is achieved. Attaching the robotic fabric in another way, along one surface of a body for example, bending is achieved. We use thread-like actuators and sensors to functionalize fabric via a standard textile manufacturing process (sewing). The actuated fabric presented herein yields a contractile force of 9.6N and changes in length by approximately 60% when unconstrained. The integrated strain sensor is evaluated and found to have an RMS error of 14.6%, and qualitatively differentiates between the compressive and bending motions demonstrated.
Brain Inflammation in Epilepsy: Experimental and Clinical Evidence

Summary: Inflammatory reactions occur in the brain in various CNS diseases, including autoimmune, neurodegenerative, and epileptic disorders. Proinflammatory and antiinflammatory cytokines and related molecules have been described in CNS and plasma, in experimental models of seizures and in clinical cases of epilepsy. Inflammation involves both the innate and the adaptive immune systems and shares molecules and pathways also activated by systemic infection. Experimental studies in rodents show that inflammatory reactions in the brain can enhance neuronal excitability, impair cell survival, and increase the permeability of the blood–brain barrier to blood‐borne molecules and cells. Moreover, some antiinflammatory treatments reduce seizures in experimental models and, in some instances, in clinical cases of epilepsy. However, inflammatory reactions in brain also can be beneficial, depending on the tissue microenvironment, the inflammatory mediators produced in injured tissue, the functional status of the target cells, and the length of time the tissue is exposed to inflammation. We provide an overview of the current knowledge in this field and attempt to bridge experimental and clinical evidence to discuss critically the possibility that inflammation may be a common factor contributing, or predisposing, to the occurrence of seizures and cell death, in various forms of epilepsy of different etiologies. The elucidation of this aspect may open new perspectives for the pharmacologic treatment of seizures.
Families, Intimacy and Social Capital

Three major emphases in interpretations of the state of contemporary intimate relationships can be broadly characterised. These are (i) breakdown and demoralisation; (ii) individualisation and democratisation; and (iii) a recognition of elements of continuity, particularly around power relations. We consider these three positions, which are not necessarily mutually exclusive, relating them to key themes of identities and values, networks and trust and reciprocity, and major theorisations of the concept of social capital. We offer a critique of existing positions and suggestions for the future, cast in the light of potential policy relevance.
Proving termination using dependent types: the case of XOR-terms

We study a normalization function in an algebra of terms quotiented by an associative, commutative and involutive operator (logical xor). This study is motivated by the formal verification of cryptographic systems, where a normalization function for xor-terms turns out to play a key role. Such a function is easy to define using general recursion. However, as it is to be used in a type theoretic proof assistant, we also need a proof termination of this function. Instead of using a clever mixture of various rewriting orderings, we follow an approach involving the power of Type Theory with dependent types. The results are to be applied in the proof of the security API described in [CM06].