Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phagocyte receptors for apoptotic cells: recognition, uptake, and consequences.

Apoptosis, a genetically programmed cell death conserved throughout phylogeny, provides a counterbalance to mitosis in the regulation of tissue growth and homeostasis (1, 2). Interest in and knowledge of the mechanisms mediating the induction and execution of the death program have blossomed in the last decade and a half. Engulfment of apoptotic bodies and debris represents the denouement of the death program for most cells in multicellular organisms. Macrophages and other cells manifesting their primitive phagocytic potential clear apoptotic bodies from tissues, preventing their lysis and the consequent release of toxic or immunogenic intracellular components. By inducing the release of mediators such as TGF-β, IL-10, prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), and others, clearance of apoptotic cells also sets up an anti-inflammatory milieu within the tissue (reviewed in refs. 3, 4). However, phagocytic clearance is not merely a silent process with respect to inflammation and immunity but is also actively anti-inflammatory. In spite of its critical importance to tissue and host homeostasis, clearance of apoptotic cells is poorly understood, and studies devoted to elucidating the mechanisms mediating recognition and engulfment have lagged behind those probing the induction and execution of the death process itself. This situation is finally changing as we begin to unravel the mechanisms mediating clearance of apoptotic cells. Many of the macrophage receptors that contribute to apoptotic cell recognition are critical players in innate immunity. These include certain lectins and integrins, the class A and class B scavenger receptors (see Platt and Gordon, this Perspective series, ref. 5; and Krieger, this series, ref. 6), receptors for oxidized LDL, including CD68 and lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor-1 (LOX-1), some of the receptors for complement-derived proteins, and the endotoxin receptor CD14 (reviewed in ref. 7). Paradoxically, however, when microbial organisms or their products are engulfed via these receptors, inflammation results, and in many cases, acquired immunity is stimulated. In contrast, uptake of apoptotic cells is generally noninflammatory and thereby avoids activation of an acquired immune response. Our task is to understand and explain these diametrically opposed reactions to stimulation of the same receptors.
Mother Tongue Maintenance Among North American Ethnic Groups

Research among groups of immigrants to the United States and Canada has isolated a number of possible factors for both loss and persistence of the mother tongue in subsequent generations. These include practice of the religion of the homeland, residential concentration, within-group marriage, occupational specialization, visits to the homeland, and others. The research reported in this article is based on data in theHumanRelations Area Files from 11 immigrant groups to North America. The research suggests that residential pattern and religious practice are the principal factors accounting for mother tongue maintenance into the third generation. Appeal is made to the childhood language socialization paradigm in explaining this finding.
On handling exceptions

The current literature of information systems has dealt extensively with all kinds of exceptions. There are several studies defining the concept of exception and even providing classifications. However, no studies provide a method for verifying the rules in order to handle exceptions and to achieve the goals set by an organization's rules. In this paper, a model employing a set of unique input/output (UIO) sequences is presented for verifying such rules. The model originally presented for Finite State Machines (FSM) has been modified to include concepts of exception handling and will be used to form a tool usable for verifying exception handling rules in OISs.
Executive function behaviours in children with specific language impairment (SLI)

Abstract Background: There is growing evidence that linguistic and non-linguistic factors may contribute to the problems associated with specific language impairment (SLI). One factor that has been implicated is executive functioning (EF). Most studies investigating EF in children with SLI use performance based tasks. Significant group differences in children with SLI are reported on the following components of EF: inhibition, working memory, planning and fluency, although not on the ‘shifting’ component. Correlations between performance based measurements of EF and ratings of everyday EF behaviours are often low. It is possible that standardised tests are not sufficiently sensitive to the multidimensional nature of EF. Therefore it is suggested that information on EF should be collected in different contexts and from different sources using behavioural ratings, like the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) for children. Methods and procedures: A clinical sample of 237 school aged children, aged 5–12 years, (157 boys, 80 girls) with SLI participated in this study. Behavioural and cognitive measures of EF were administered: the BRIEF-questionnaire, assessing everyday EF behaviour in a home and school setting and two EF tasks: Digit span (WISC-III-NL) and Creature Counting (TEA-Ch). Outcomes and results: Compared to the normative sample the prevalence of EF problems in school in children with SLI is much higher than in the normal population. Teachers reported significantly more problems on almost all EF domains (i.e. Inhibition, Shifting, Emotional control, Initiate, Working memory, Plan/organise, and Monitor), except organisation of materials. Working memory and Initiate are the most impaired, since more than one third of the children had scores in the clinical range on these scales. Compared to the normative sample parents scored significantly more working memory problems. MANOVA-analyses showed developmental and gender differences on EF behaviour in school. Overall, older children had less problems in EF behaviours than younger children and boys showed more problems than girls. Like others we found low correlations between behavioural and cognitive measures (r = 0·20). Conclusions: School aged children with SLI show substantial impairments in everyday EF behaviour in a classroom setting. Almost one third of the children scored in the clinical range on the Metacognition Index. Our findings replicate low correlations between performance based and behavioural based measures on EF. These findings indicate the importance of expanding EF assessment with behavioural measures in clinical practice for children with SLI.
Status and Stratification Processes in Organizational Life

Although status and stratification processes have been studied extensively at the societal level in the sociology literature, they continue to be neglected in the study of management and organizational life. This review begins by questioning why this neglect has occurred. The authors then focus on the theoretical perspectives and empirical findings related to ascribed and achieved status, their interrelationships, how status hierarchies are established and maintained in organizational settings, and the role of culture in these processes. They conclude with an agenda for future research and implications for management practice.
Five myofibrillar lesion types in eccentrically challenged, unloaded rat adductor longus muscle—a test model

Sarcomere disruptions are observed in the adductor longus (AL) muscles following voluntary reloading of spaceflown and hindlimb suspension unloaded (HSU) rat, which resemble lesions in eccentrically challenged muscle. We devised and tested an eccentric contraction (ECCON) test system for the 14‐day HSU rat AL. Six to 7 hours following ECCON, ALs were fixed to allow immunostaining and electron microscopy (EM). Toluidine blue‐stained histology semithin sections were screened for lesion density (#/mm2). Serial semithin sections from the ECCON group were characterized for myosin immunointensity of lesions. Five myofibrillar lesion types were identified in histological semithin sections: focal contractions; wide A‐bands; opaque areas; missing A‐bands; and hyperstretched sarcomeres. Lesion density by type was greater for ECCON than NonECCON ALs (P ≤ 0.05; focal contractions and opaque regions). Lesion density (#‐of‐all‐five‐types/mm2) was significantly different (ECCON: 23.91 ± 10.58 vs. NonECCON: 5.48 ± 1.28, P ≤ 0.05; ECCON vs. SHAM: 0.00 ± 0.00; P ≤ 0.025). PostECCON optimal tension decreased (Poi‐drop, 17.84 ± 4.22%) and was correlated to lesion density (R2 = 0.596), but prestretch tension demonstrated the highest correlation with lesion density (R2 = 0.994). In lesions, the darkly staining A‐band lost the normally organized thick filament alignment to differing degrees across the different lesion types. Ranking the five lesion types by a measure of lesion length deformation (hypercontracted to hyperstretched) at the light microscopy level, related to the severity of thick filament registry loss across the lesion types at the electron microscopic level. This ranking suggested that the five lesion types seen in semithin sections at the light level represented a lesion progression sequence and paralleled myosin immunostaining loss as the distorted A‐band filaments spread across the hyperlengthening lesion types. Lesion ultrastructure indicated damage involved calcium homeostasis loss (focal contraction lesions) and “thick‐filamentcentering” failure of titin (wide A‐band lesions) in the early stages of lesion development. Anat Rec 254:39–52, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Robust N-dimensional orientation estimation using quadrature filters and tensor whitening

It is shown how estimates of local structure and orientation can be obtained using a set of spherically separable quadrature filters. The method is applicable to signals of any dimensionality the only requirement being that the filter set spans the corresponding orientation space. The estimates produced are second order tensors, the size of the tensors corresponding to the dimensionality of the input signal. A central part of the algorithm is an operation termed 'tensor whitening' reminiscent of classical whitening procedures. This operation compensates exactly for any biases introduced by non-uniform filter orientation distributions and/or non-uniform filter output certainties. Examples of processing of 2D-images, 3D-volumes and 2D-image sequences are given. Sensitivity to noise and missing filter outputs are analyzed in different situations. Estimation accuracy as a function of filter orientation distributions are studied. The studies provide evidence that the algorithm is robust and preferable to other algorithms in a wide range of situations. <<ETX>>
Conceptualizing Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression in Youth: A Comparison of the Weakest Link and Additive Approaches

The current study examined whether the relationship between four cognitive vulnerability factors (e.g., depressogenic inferential styles, dysfunctional attitudes, self-criticism, and rumination) is best captured by an additive or a weakest link approach. Fifty-six children (ages 7-14) of affectively ill parents completed measures assessing depressive symptoms and cognitive vulnerability factors. Subsequently, children were given handheld personal computers (HP Jornada 720) to carry with them for the next six weeks. Computers signaled the children to complete measures assessing depressive symptoms and negative events once a week at a randomly selected time. Results provided full support for the weakest link approach towards conceptualizing vulnerability. More specifically, children who possessed a depressogenic weakest link were more likely than children who did not to experience elevations in depressive symptoms following elevations in stress. In contrast, results provided partial support for the additive.
Empirical evaluation of an educational conservation programme introduced in Swiss secondary schools

This paper surveys the consequences of pupils' participation in a conservation education programme by monitoring changes in their relevant knowledge as well as in their environmental perception. The programme in question is an extra-curricular education unit about an endangered migrant bird (Apus apus; Apodidae) which was initiated by a state-wide conservation agency and offered free of charge to all secondary schools of the German-speaking part of Switzerland. An activity package was provided to the participating classes and individually introduced by the classroom teacher during an entire school year. The programme highlighted the bird's natural history and also focused on the individual involvement of pupils who built artificial nest-boxes and watched the bird's breeding and feeding behaviour at appropriate outdoors sites. A bilingual approach was included by sharing these observations with pupils of (French-speaking) Senegal, this country being the wintering region of the rd. bi Based on an instrument.
Personal relationships in late life: An introduction to the special issue

textabstractIntroduction: Improvements in living standards have brought unprecedented increases in longevity (Vaupel, 2010). In industrialized societies, most people can expect to celebrate their 80th birthday and many live beyond that. Moreover, epidemiological studies consistently show that personal relationships are among the best predictors of a long life. Large, controlled, prospective studies show that personal relationships reduce mortality independently of potentially confounding factors such as socioeconomic status, healthrisk behaviors, use of health services, and personality (Berkman, Glass, Brissette, & Seeman, 2000; Uchino, 2004). Despite their importance, research on late-life personal ties lags behind scholarship on early and middle adulthood. For example, of the 135 articles published during 2007, 2008, and 2009 in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships (disregarding the special issues), only one article had an older-adult sample. Eighty percent of the articles’ samples included people under the age of 60, 13% had samples which included the 60-plus group, and for 7% of the articles, age was either unknown or irrelevant (e.g., a unit of analysis other than the individual). Although personal relationship researchers have largely neglected late-life issues, ageing scholars have not placed older adults’ social worlds at center stage either. Health issues dominate the study of late-life quality (Walker & Mollenkopf, 2007). Concerns about the costs of an ageing population and how older adults can maintain selfreliance have clear policy relevance. Elusive issues such as older adults’ social embeddedness have received little attention. Clearly, the decision to devote a special issue of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships to personal relationships and older adults is a timely one.
When and how to visualize traceability links?

This position paper discusses the situations when visualizing traceability links is opportune, as well as what information pertaining to these links should be visualized and how.It also presents a prototype tool, which is used to visualize traceability links to provide support for the user during recovery, maintenance, and browsing of such links.
Molecular analysis of pericentrin gene (PCNT) in a series of 24 Seckel/microcephalic osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II (MOPD II) families

Microcephalic osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II (MOPD II, MIM 210720) and Seckel syndrome (SCKL, MIM 210600) belong to the primordial dwarfism group characterised by intrauterine growth retardation, severe proportionate short stature, and pronounced microcephaly. MOPD II is distinct from SCKL by more severe growth retardation, radiological abnormalities, and absent or mild mental retardation. Seckel syndrome is associated with defective ATR dependent DNA damage signalling. In 2008, loss-of-function mutations in the pericentrin gene (PCNT) have been identified in 28 patients, including 3 SCKL and 25 MOPDII cases. This gene encodes a centrosomal protein which plays a key role in the organisation of mitotic spindles. The aim of this study was to analyse PCNT in a large series of SCKL-MOPD II cases to further define the clinical spectrum associated with PCNT mutations. Among 18 consanguineous families (13 SCKL and 5 MOPDII) and 6 isolated cases (3 SCKL and 3 MOPD II), 13 distinct mutations were identified in 5/16 SCKL and 8/8 MOPDII including five stop mutations, five frameshift mutations, two splice site mutations, and one apparent missense mutation affecting the last base of exon 19. Moreover, we demonstrated that this latter mutation leads to an abnormal splicing with a predicted premature termination of translation. The clinical analysis of the 5 SCKL cases with PCNT mutations showed that they all presented minor skeletal changes and clinical features compatible with MOPDII diagnosis. It is therefore concluded that, despite variable severity, MOPDII is a genetically homogeneous condition due to loss-of-function of pericentrin.
Research Note: Statistical Methods Employed in American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, and Review of Educational Research From 1978 to 1987

I t is the purpose of this paper to review the literature published in Ameńcαn Educational Research Journal (AERJ), Educational Researcher (ER), and Review of Educational Research (RER) for the 10-year period ending in 1987. Such a review of statistical techniques has ap­ peared frequently in the educational literature. For example, Shaver and Norton (1980) examined the extent to which articles published in AERJ ex­ emplified the canons of randomness and replication. Willson (1980) sur­ veyed the research techniques in AERJ from 1969 to 1978, finding that such biology-based techniques as correlation, multiple regression, discriminant analysis, and multivariate analysis of variance accounted for 41% of the tech­ niques, whereas agriculture methods such as ANOVA and ANCOVA ac­ counted for 34%. Goodwin and Good­ win (1985a) tabulated the statistical techniques used in the Journal of Educa­ tional Psychology (JEP) over a 4-year period and found that most were taught in introductory and intermediate methods or statistics classes; the authors obtained similar results when they examined the statistical techniques used in AERJ over the same time period (Goodwin & Goodwin, 1985b).
Image Registration and Change Detection under Rolling Shutter Motion Blur

In this paper, we address the problem of registering a distorted image and a reference image of the same scene by estimating the camera motion that had caused the distortion. We simultaneously detect the regions of changes between the two images. We attend to the coalesced effect of rolling shutter and motion blur that occurs frequently in moving CMOS cameras. We first model a general image formation framework for a 3D scene following a layered approach in the presence of rolling shutter and motion blur. We then develop an algorithm which performs layered registration to detect changes. This algorithm includes an optimisation problem that leverages the sparsity of the camera trajectory in the pose space and the sparsity of changes in the spatial domain. We create a synthetic dataset for change detection in the presence of motion blur and rolling shutter effect covering different types of camera motion for both planar and 3D scenes. We compare our method with existing registration methods and also show several real examples captured with CMOS cameras.
Property Rights and the Soybean Revolution: Shaping How China and Brazil Are Telecoupled

China currently has the largest population in the world and is currently experiencing rapid economic and urban growth, becoming the world’s number one pork and poultry consumer. In order to meet this growing demand for meat, China has increased its demand for soybeans to produce chicken and pork. It has imported soybeans from the United States, Brazil, and Argentina, while keeping its soybean production for direct human consumption stable at home. Brazil has become the largest soybean exporter to China, and, in response specifically to Chinese demand, has become the second largest producer of soybeans in the world. This has changed land use in Brazil, particularly in its central plateau. In this paper, we indicate how these two countries, telecoupled by trade in soybeans, are depending on each other as they try to balance environmental and economic objectives. Brazil, as a sending system, has created pressures on its natural ecosystems, which have led to losses particularly in the Cerrado biome and its ecotones in the Amazon’s tropical moist forest biome. China, as a receiving system, has created a land asset important to regenerating its lost natural systems (e.g., forest cover areas). Both countries have different property rights regimes, which have created distinct circumstances in which they are to protect or regenerate their natural ecosystems. Throughout this paper, we analyze how both countries have dealt with the lure offered by the soybean commodity trade.
Field of research : Nanoelectronics and Quantum Computing Project title : Superconducting quantum computers : control of dissipation Project instructor : MSc

Research group: Quantum Computing and Devices (QCD) Contact person: Dr. Mikko Möttönen (mikko.mottonen@aalto.fi) Field of research: Nanoelectronics and Quantum Computing Project title: Superconducting quantum computers: control of dissipation Project instructor: Dr. Jan Goetz, M.Sc. Matti Partanen, Dr. Vasilii Sevriuk, Dr. Jani Tuorila, Dr. Matti Silveri Site of research: Aalto University, QCD group, Otaniemi Website Click here! Level of student: applications from all students are welcome (also for people applying for a Mater’s or PhD thesis project) Introduction
Intraoperative stroke volume optimization using stroke volume, arterial pressure, and heart rate: closed-loop (learning intravenous resuscitator) versus anesthesiologists.

OBJECTIVE The authors compared the performance of a group of anesthesia providers to closed-loop (Learning Intravenous Resuscitator [LIR]) management in a simulated hemorrhage scenario using cardiac output monitoring. DESIGN A prospective cohort study. SETTING In silico simulation. PARTICIPANTS University hospital anesthesiologists and the LIR closed-loop fluid administration system. INTERVENTIONS Using a patient simulator, a 90-minute simulated hemorrhage protocol was run, which included a 1,200-mL blood loss over 30 minutes. Twenty practicing anesthesiology providers were asked to manage this scenario by providing fluids and vasopressor medication at their discretion. The simulation program was also run 20 times with the LIR closed-loop algorithm managing fluids and an additional 20 times with no intervention. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Simulated patient weight, height, heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and cardiac output (CO) were similar at baseline. The mean stroke volume, the mean arterial pressure, CO, and the final CO were higher in the closed-loop group than in the practitioners group, and the coefficient of variance was lower. The closed-loop group received slightly more fluid (2.1 v 1.9 L, p < 0.05) than the anesthesiologist group. CONCLUSIONS Despite the roughly similar volumes of fluid given, the closed-loop maintained more stable hemodynamics than the practitioners primarily because the fluid was given earlier in the protocol and CO optimized before the hemorrhage began, whereas practitioners tended to resuscitate well but only after significant hemodynamic change indicated the need. Overall, these data support the potential usefulness of this closed-loop algorithm in clinical settings in which dynamic predictors are not available or applicable.