Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Clostridium difficile toxins given intragastrically to animals

We examined the activities of Clostridium difficile toxin preparations given intragastrically to hamsters, mice, and rats. The culture filtrate from a highly toxigenic strain of C. difficile caused hemorrhage and accumulation of fluid in the small intestine and cecum, diarrhea, and death in hamsters and mice. In rats, the culture filtrate caused only a small amount of fluid accumulation and slight hemorrhage along the small intestine. When toxin A was removed from the culture filtrate, the filtrate lost its activity. Preparations of homogeneous toxin A caused a response similar to that observed after the administration of culture filtrate. Hamsters were more sensitive to toxin A than mice or rats were. When hamsters were given multiple low doses of toxin A 1 week apart at a concentration which singly caused no response, they became ill and died, indicating that the toxin may have long-term effects. High amounts of toxin B did not cause any significant response when given intragastrically, unless initially mixed with low amounts of toxin A or given to hamsters with bruised ceca. These results suggest that toxins A and B act synergistically and that the action of toxin B may occur via the tissue damage caused by toxin A.
Career management attitudes among business undergraduates

Globalisation, organisational restructuring and new technology have been connected with a shift to ‘protean’ and ‘boundaryless’ career attitudes with workers, including new graduates, increasingly required to be self-reliant in successfully navigating their careers. This study explores protean and boundaryless career attitudes among Business undergraduates and the influence of demographic, background and employment characteristics on these attitudes. Data were collected for Business undergraduates at a UK (N = 88) and Australian university (N = 284). Results indicate the students score more highly, on average, in the self-direction and boundaryless mindset dimensions. Relatively lower mean scores for physical mobility and values-driven suggest a ‘one high, one low’ pattern among the two items that constitute protean and boundaryless career attitudes. Employment status and Business degree specialisation were found to significantly predict career attitudes. Findings develop our understanding of whether emerging professionals are equipped to effectively self-manage their careers and implications for educators and professional practitioners are discussed.
A Trans-Hemispheric Migratory Songbird Does Not Advance Spring Schedules or Increase Migration Rate in Response to Record-Setting Temperatures at Breeding Sites

The decline of long distance migratory songbirds has been linked to an increasing mismatch between spring arrival date and timing of food availability caused by climate change. It is unclear to what extent individuals can adjust migration timing or en route rate in response to annual variation in temperature at breeding sites. We tracked the ca. 7300 km spring migration of 52 purple martins Progne subis from the Amazon basin to two breeding sites in eastern North America. Spring 2012 was the warmest on record in eastern North America, but contrary to predictions, this did not result in earlier departure, faster migration, or earlier arrival at breeding areas compared with earlier years. Temperatures and rainfall in the Amazon basin at the time of departure were not higher in 2012, and conditions along migration routes did not give consistent signals of a warmer spring at the breeding site. Once in North America, individuals likely had limited opportunity to speed up their migration because this final portion of the journey was already very rapid (570 km/d; 4–5 d in duration). Migration timing over the entire journey was best predicted by breeding latitude and sex and was not sensitive to ecological cues (temperature and rainfall amount) at departure from South American overwintering sites or en route, in contrast to recent studies of other songbirds. Our results provide the first direct evidence for a mismatch between higher spring temperatures at breeding sites and departure schedules of individual songbirds, and suggest phenotypic responses to short-term climatic warming may be limited for some species. Further direct-tracking data with greater geographic and temporal scope is needed to test for individual plasticity in response to temperature and rainfall along migratory routes for this, and other, species.
Carcinogens from Fungi Pathogenic for Man 1

Cells of Candida parapsilosis were extracted sequentially with different organic solvents. The sodium carbonate wash of the methanol extract showed carcinogenic activity in mice as demonstrated by the appearance of 6 sarcomas at the site of injection in a group of 16 animals. Suggestive carcinogenic activity in the appearance of subcutaneous sarcomas and increased frequency of leukemias and pulmonary tumors was observed with lipid extracts of species of the genera Microsporum, Trichophyton, Epidermophyton, and Scopulariopsis.
Harmful Microinjecting Practices Among a Cohort of Injection Drug Users in Vancouver Canada

Objectives: We sought to identify factors associated with harmful microinjecting practices in a longitudinal cohort of IDU. Methods: Using data from the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS) between January 2004 and December 2005, generalized estimating equations (GEE) logistic regression was performed to examine sociodemographic and behavioral factors associated with four harmful microinjecting practices (frequent rushed injecting, frequent syringe borrowing, frequently injecting with a used water capsule, frequently injecting alone). Results: In total, 620 participants were included in the present analysis. Our study included 251 (40.5%) women and 203 (32.7%) self-identified Aboriginal participants. The median age was 31.9 (interquartile range: 23.4–39.3). GEE analyses found that each harmful microinjecting practice was associated with a unique profile of sociodemographic and behavioral factors. Discussion: We observed high rates of harmful microinjecting practices among IDU. The present study describes the epidemiology of harmful microinjecting practices and points to the need for strategies that target higher risk individuals including the use of peer-driven programs and drug-specific approaches in an effort to promote safer injecting practices.
Antiallodynic Effects of Electroacupuncture Combined with MK-801 Treatment through the Regulation of p35/p25 in Experimental Diabetic Neuropathy

The anti-allodynic effect of NMDA receptor antagonist and acupuncture treatments were explored through spinal p35 regulation of diabetic neuropathic rat. We evaluated the change over time of p35/p25 protein levels in the spinal cord compared with behavioral responses to thermal and mechanical stimulation in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Additionally, we studied p35 expression when electroacupuncture (EA) and a sub-effective dose of NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptor antagonist (MK-801) were used to treat hyperalgesia in the diabetic neuropathic pain (DNP). Thermal paw withdrawal latency (PWL) and mechanical paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) were significantly decreased in the early stage of diabetes in rats. p35 expression after STZ injection gradually decreased from 1 week to 4 weeks compared to normal controls. p25 expression in 4-week diabetic rats was significantly higher than that of 2-week diabetic rats, and thermal PWL in 4-week diabetic rats showed delayed responses to painful thermal stimulation compared with those at 2 weeks. EA applied to the SP-9 point (2 Hz frequency) significantly prevented the thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia in the DNP rat. Additionally, EA combined with MK-801 prolonged anti-hyperalgesia, increased p35 expression, and decreased the cleavage of p35 to p25 during diabetic neuropathic pain. In this study we show EA combined with a sub-effective dose of MK-801 treatment in DNP induced by STZ that is related to p35/p25 expression in spinal cord.
Expression of costimulatory molecules on peripheral blood mononuclear cells in multiple sclerosis

Objective ‐ To determine whether there was aberrant expression of costimulatory molecules and their receptors on peripheral blood mononuclear cells of MS patients and healthy individuals and whether expression correlated with disease status. Methods ‐ Forty‐six patients with MS and 29 healthy individuals were analyzed by direct 2‐color immunofluorescence flow cytometry for expression of CD80, CD86, CD28 and CTLA‐4 on T and B cells and monocytes. Results‐Expression of CD80 on CD4 + T cells was upregulated in progressing MS patients compared to stable MS patients and controls. Marked increase in the expression of CD80 and CD86 was seen on both CD4 + and CD8 + T cells from an MS patient with rapidly progressing disease. No difference in the expression of the costimulatory molecules or their ligands was seen between IFN‐β treated and non‐treated MS patients. Conclusions ‐ Aberrant expression of costimulatory molecules occurs on T lymphocytes in MS patients with progressing disease.
Adapted Treatment of Epstein–Barr Virus Infection to Prevent Posttransplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder After Heart Transplantation

Up to 35% of posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder (PTLD) cases occur within 1 year of transplantation, and over 50% are associated with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). EBV primary infection and reactivation are PTLD predictive factors, but there is no consensus for their treatment. We conducted a prospective single‐center study on 299 consecutive heart‐transplant patients treated with the same immunosuppressive regimen and monitored by repetitive EBV viral‐load measurements and endomyocardial biopsies to detect graft rejection. Immunosuppression was tapered on EBV reactivation with EBV viral loads >105 copies/mL or primary infection. In the absence of response at 1 month or a viral load >106 copies/mL, patients received one rituximab infusion (375 mg/m2). All patients responded to treatment without increased graft rejection. One primary infection case developed a possible PTLD, which completely responded to diminution of immunosuppression, and one patient, whose EBV load was unevaluable, died of respiratory complications secondary to PTLD. Compared with a historical cohort of 820 patients, PTLD incidence was decreased (p = 0.033) by a per‐protocol analysis. This is the largest study on EBV primary infection/reactivation treatment, the first using rituximab following solid organ transplantation to prevent PTLD and the first to demonstrate an acceptable tolerability profile in this setting.
A Treebank of Ugaritic. Annotating Fragmentary Attested Languages

The paper presents an outline of a treebank of Ugaritic, an extinct Semitic language. It describes the basic structure of the treebank, and possibility of re-using approaches applied to other Semitic languages. It also discusses problems of analyzing a language attested in a fragmentary form and possible usage of a treebank based approaches for further reconstruction of text passages.
How java programs interact with virtual machines at the microarchitectural level

Java workloads are becoming increasingly prominent on various platforms ranging from embedded systems, over general-purpose computers to high-end servers. Understanding the implications of all the aspects involved when running Java workloads, is thus extremely important during the design of a system that will run such workloads. In other words, understanding the interaction between the Java application, its input and the virtual machine it runs on, is key to a succesful design. The goal of this paper is to study this complex interaction at the microarchitectural level, e.g., by analyzing the branch behavior, the cache behavior, etc. This is done by measuring a large number of performance characteristics using performance counters on an AMD K7 Duron microprocessor. These performance characteristics are measured for seven virtual machine configurations, and a collection of Java benchmarks with corresponding inputs coming from the SPECjvm98 benchmark suite, the SPECjbb2000 benchmark suite, the Java Grande Forum benchmark suite and an open-source raytracer, called Raja with 19 scene descriptions. This large amount of data is further analyzed using statistical data analysis techniques, namely principal components analysis and cluster analysis. These techniques provide useful insights in an understandable way.From our experiments, we conclude that (i) the behavior observed at the microarchitectural level is primarily determined by the virtual machine for small input sets, e.g., the SPECjvm98 s1 input set; (ii) the behavior can be quite different for various input sets, e.g., short-running versus long-running benchmarks; (iii) for long-running benchmarks with few hot spots, the behavior can be primarily determined by the Java program and not the virtual machine, i.e., all the virtual machines optimize the hot spots to similarly behaving native code; (iv) in general, the behavior of a Java application running on one virtual machine can be significantly different from running on another virtual machine. These conclusions warn researchers working on Java workloads to be careful when using a limited number of Java benchmarks or virtual machines since this might lead to biased conclusions.
Interleukin‐1β converting enzyme subfamily inhibitors prevent induction of CD86 molecules by butyrate through a CREB‐dependent mechanism in HL60 cells

To investigate the underlying mechanism for induction of CD86 molecules, we analysed the ability of the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor, sodium butyrate (NaB), to induce CD86 at the transcriptional level in HL60 cells. Our studies showed that the expression of CD86 on the cell surface was increased by 24 hr of NaB treatment, and the enhancement of CD86 mRNA expression was observed by real‐time polymerase chain reaction. When we measured NF‐κB binding activity, significant activity was induced upon NaB stimulation, which was suppressed by the addition of pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate. Butyrate also induced phosphorylated cAMP response element‐binding protein (CREB), which bound to cAMP‐responsive elements. Dibutyryl (db) ‐cAMP induced active CREB and increased the levels of CD86 by 24 hr. These observations indicated that NF‐κB and/or CREB are crucial for butyrate‐dependent activation of CD86 gene expression. We examined the inhibitory effects of various caspase inhibitors on the expression of CD86 in cells treated with NaB, because NaB also induced apoptosis with slow kinetics. Intriguingly, our results demonstrated that inhibitors of the interleukin‐1β converting enzyme subfamily (caspase‐1, ‐4, ‐5 and ‐13) blocked the butyrate‐induced increase in level of CD86. These inhibitors interfered with CD86 gene transcription in the presence of activated NF‐κB, whereas phosphorylated CREB was down‐regulated in the reactions where these inhibitors were added to inhibit CD86 gene expression. These results suggested that butyrate not only acetylates histones on the CD86 promoter through the suppression of HDAC activity, but that butyrate also regulates CREB‐mediated transcription, possibly through the caspase activities triggered by NaB.
Stimulus Threat and Exposure Context Modulate the Effect of Mere Exposure on Approach Behaviors

Mere-exposure (ME) research has found that initially neutral objects made familiar are preferred relative to novel objects. Recent work extends these preference judgments into the behavioral domain by illustrating that mere exposure prompts approach-oriented behavior toward familiar stimuli. However, no investigations have examined the effect of mere exposure on approach-oriented behavior toward threatening stimuli. The current work examines this issue and also explores how exposure context interacts with stimulus threat to influence behavioral tendencies. In two experiments participants were presented with both mere-exposed and novel stimuli and approach speed was assessed. In the first experiment, when stimulus threat was presented in a homogeneous format (i.e., participants viewed exclusively neutral or threatening stimuli), ME potentiated approach behaviors for both neutral and threatening stimuli. However, in the second experiment, in which stimulus threat was presented in a heterogeneous fashion (i.e., participants viewed both neutral and threatening stimuli), mere exposure facilitated approach only for initially neutral stimuli. These results suggest that ME effects on approach behaviors are highly context sensitive and depend on both stimulus valence and exposure context. Further implications of these findings for the ME literature are discussed.
Serine proteinases are regionally segregated within mast cell granules.

BACKGROUND By ultrastructure, human skin mast cell granules exhibit amorphous regions situated next to crystalline regions with scroll, lamellar, and grating/lattice-like configurations. The composition and function of these structural domains is unknown. These granules also contain large amounts of three serine proteinases termed tryptase, chymase, and cathepsin G. In this study, subgranular proteinase distribution is correlated with granule ultrastructure. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Human skin sections were immunolabeled for each proteinase, visualized with gold-conjugated antibodies, and then stained with heavy metals to enhance granule features. Both single and double labeling experiments were analyzed. RESULTS Comparison of the immunogold labeling patterns revealed nonrandom distributions for each proteinase within most granules. At low magnification, chymase and cathepsin G immunoreactivity was found preferentially over more electron-dense granule subregions, whereas tryptase immunoreactivity was found preferentially over less electron-dense subregions. The complimentary staining pattern of the proteinases was also observed in double labeling experiments where tryptase immunoreactivity was compared directly with that of chymase or cathepsin G. Higher magnification of sections revealed that electron-dense granule areas corresponded to amorphous regions, whereas less dense regions most often demonstrated crystalline structures. CONCLUSIONS These observations correlate the subgranular distribution of serine proteinases with specific granule ultrastructure and suggest that the different morphologic features within granules may be related, in part, to the packaging of serine proteinases. Human mast cells differ from human basophils and rat mast cells by virtue of the presence of high amounts of tryptase and the presence of crystalline substructures. This raises the possibility that association of tryptase with crystalline structures reflects a specialized form of packaging permitting efficient storage of high levels of this proteinase within mast cell granules.
Relationships among person and environment variables and turnover intention in adults with multiple sclerosis

The organization and management literature presents a large base of research on the concept of turnover intention, i.e. the point at which a person decides to leave employment. What is known is that turnover intention is the precursor to employee turnover, yet very little research exists in the rehabilitation field to address this concept in terms of persons with chronic illness and disability. This study examines this variable in the population of adults with multiple sclerosis (MS). Employing multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to analyze three blocks of variables and their impact on turnover intention, the results show that groups with low turnover intention differ significantly from groups with high turnover intention on environmental variables. Interventions geared toward counselors within the state-federal rehabilitation system, which would amend current agency policy, are recommended. This dissertation is approved for Recommendation to the Graduate Council Dissertation Director: Brent Thomas Williams, Ph. D. Dissertation Committee: Richard T. Roessler, Ph. D. Ronna C. Turner, Ph. D.
The Molecular Basis of Lmo2-Induced T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is commonly caused by the overexpression of oncogenic transcription factors in developing T cells. In a mouse model of one such oncogene, LMO2, the cellular effect is to induce self-renewal of committed T cells in the thymus, which persist long-term while acquiring additional mutations and eventually giving rise to leukemia. These precancerous stem cells (pre-CSC) are intrinsically resistant to radiotherapy, implying that they may be refractory to conventional cancer therapies. However, they depend on an aberrantly expressed stem cell–like self-renewal program for their maintenance, in addition to a specialized thymic microenvironmental niche. Here, we discuss potential approaches for targeting pre-CSCs in T-ALL by using therapies directed at oncogenic transcription factors themselves, downstream self-renewal pathways, and the supportive cell niche. Clin Cancer Res; 16(23); 5618–23. ©2010 AACR.
Picture Perfect RGB Rendering Using Spectral Prefiltering and Sharp Color Primaries

Accurate color rendering requires the consideration of many samples over the visible spectrum, and advanced rendering tools developed by the research community offer multispectral sampling towards this goal. However, for practical reasons including efficiency, white balance, and data demands, most commercial rendering packages still employ a naive RGB model in their lighting calculations. This results in colors that are often qualitatively different from the correct ones. In this paper, we demonstrate two independent and complementary techniques for improving RGB rendering accuracy without impacting calculation time: spectral prefiltering and color space selection. Spectral prefiltering is an obvious but overlooked method of preparing input colors for a conventional RGB rendering calculation, which achieves exact results for the direct component, and very accurate results for the interreflected component when compared with full-spectral rendering. In an empirical error analysis of our method, we show how the choice of rendering color space also affects final image accuracy, independent of prefiltering. Specifically, we demonstrate the merits of a particular transform that has emerged from the color research community as the best performer in computing white point adaptation under changing illuminants: the Sharp RGB space.
Effect of Arachidonic Acid-enriched Oil Diet Supplementation on the Taste of Broiler Meat

To elucidate the relationship between the arachidonic acid (AA) content and the taste of broiler meat, the effects of AA-enriched oil (AAO) supplements on the fatty acid content and sensory perceptions of thigh meat were evaluated. Four types of oil, including corn oil (CO), a 1:1 mixture of AAO and palm oil (PO) (1/2 AAO), a 1:3 mixture of AAO and PO (1/4 AAO), and a 1:7 mixture of AAO and PO (1/8 AAO) were prepared. Each type of oil was mixed with silicate at a ratio of 7:3, and added to the diet at a final proportion of 5% of fresh matter. Broiler chickens were fed these diets for 1 wk before slaughter. In thigh meat, the AA content of the 1/2 and 1/4 AAO groups was significantly higher than that of the CO group. The AA content in thigh meat (y, mg/g) increased linearly with increasing dietary AAO content (x, g/100 g of diet), according to the equation y = 0.5674+0.4596× (r2 = 0.8454). The content of other fatty acids was not significantly different among the 4 diet groups. Sensory evaluation showed that the flavor intensity, umami (L-glutamate taste), kokumi (continuity, mouthfulness, and thickness), and aftertaste of the 1/2 and 1/4 AAO groups were significantly higher than that of the CO group. There were significant positive correlations between AA content in thigh meat and the flavor intensity, total taste intensity, umami, and aftertaste. These data suggest that the taste of broiler meat can be improved by the amount of dietary AA supplementation.