Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MicroRNA-21 modulates biological functions of pancreatic cancer cells including their proliferation, invasion, and chemoresistance

Due to the poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer, novel diagnostic modalities for early diagnosis and new therapeutic strategy are urgently needed. Recently, microRNA-21 (miR-21) was reported to be strongly overexpressed in pancreatic cancer as well as in other solid cancers. We investigated the functional roles of miR-21, which have not been fully elucidated in pancreatic cancer. miR-21 expression was assessed in pancreatic cancer cell lines (14 cancer cell lines, primary cultures of normal pancreatic epithelial cells and fibroblasts, and a human normal pancreatic ductal epithelial cell line) and pancreatic tissue samples (25 cancer tissues and 25 normal tissues) by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR amplification. Moreover, we investigated the proliferation, invasion, and chemoresistance of pancreatic cancer cells transfected with miR-21 precursor or inhibitor. miR-21 was markedly overexpressed in pancreatic cancer cells compared with nonmalignant cells, and miR-21 in cancer tissues was much higher than in nonmalignant tissues. The cancer cells transfected with the miR-21 precursor showed significantly increased proliferation, Matrigel invasion, and chemoresistance for gemcitabine compared with the control cells. In contrast, inhibition of miR-21 decreased proliferation, Matrigel invasion, and chemoresistance for gemcitabine. Moreover, miR-21 positively correlated with the mRNA expression of invasion-related genes, matrix metalloproteinase-2 and -9, and vascular endothelial growth factor. These data suggest that miR-21 expression is increased in pancreatic cancer cells and that miR-21 contributes to the cell proliferation, invasion, and chemoresistance of pancreatic cancer. [Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(5):1067–74]
Cytochrome P450 CYP79B2 from Arabidopsis Catalyzes the Conversion of Tryptophan to Indole-3-acetaldoxime, a Precursor of Indole Glucosinolates and Indole-3-acetic Acid*

Glucosinolates are natural plant products known as flavor compounds, cancer-preventing agents, and biopesticides. We report cloning and characterization of the cytochrome P450 CYP79B2 fromArabidopsis. Heterologous expression of CYP79B2 inEscherichia coli shows that CYP79B2 catalyzes the conversion of tryptophan to indole-3-acetaldoxime. Recombinant CYP79B2 has a K m of 21 μm and aV max of 7.78 nmol/h/ml culture. Inhibitor studies show that CYP79B2 is different from a previously described enzyme activity that converts tryptophan to indole-3-acetaldoxime (Ludwig-Müller, J., and Hilgenberg, W. (1990)Phytochemistry, 29, 1397–1400). CYP79B2 is wound-inducible and expressed in leaves, stem, flowers, and roots, with the highest expression in roots. Arabidopsis overexpressing CYP79B2 has increased levels of indole glucosinolates, which strongly indicates that CYP79B2 is involved in indole glucosinolate biosynthesis. Our data show that oxime production by CYP79s is not restricted to those amino acids that are precursors for cyanogenic glucosides. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that indole glucosinolates have evolved from cyanogenesis. Indole-3-acetaldoxime is a precursor of the plant hormone indole-3-acetic acid, which suggests that CYP79B2 might function in biosynthesis of indole-3-acetic acid. Identification of CYP79B2 provides an important tool for modification of the indole glucosinolate content to improve nutritional value and pest resistance.
Direct and indirect effects of three core charismatic leadership components on performance and attitudes.

On the basis of 7 charismatic and transformational leadership theories, 3 core components (vision, vision implementation through task cues, and communication style) were identified. A laboratory simulation manipulated the 3 components in a completely crossed experimental design, where 2 trained actors portrayed the leader. Participants were 282 students in upper level business classes who performed a simulated production task. The vision of high quality weakly affected performance quality but significantly affected many attitudes. Vision implementation, in the form of task cues, affected performance quality and quantity. Charismatic communication style affected only the perception of charisma. Mediation was not found ; rather, an exploratory path analysis found a 2-part causal sequence, where the vision of quality and vision implementation each affected self-set goals and self-efficacy, which, in turn, affected performance.
Aluminum as a toxicant

Although aluminum is the most abundant metal in nature, it has no known biological function. However, it is known that there is a causal role for aluminum in dialysis encephalopathy, microcytic anemia, and osteomalacia. Aluminum has also been proposed to play a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) even though this issue is controversial. The exact mechanism of aluminum toxicity is not known but accumulating evidence suggests that the metal can potentiate oxidative and inflammatory events, eventually leading to tissue damage. This review encompasses the general toxicology of aluminum with emphasis on the potential mechanisms by which it may accelerate the progression of chronic age-related neurodegenerative disorders.
Global Anticoagulant Effects of a Novel Sulfated Pentomanan Oligosaccharide Mixture

PI-88 is a potent antiproliferative agent, which is developed for various indications in cancer. This agent is obtained from yeast fermentation and is primarily composed of pentamannose and tetramannose oligosacchafide units. PI-88 is capable of prcaclucang anticoagulant effects, which are mediated by heparin cofactor II. The purpose of this study was to determine the anticoagulant properties of PI-88 in native whole blood, freshly drawn from human volunteers, supplemented with PI-88 at various concentrations (0-100 μg/mL). Whole blood activated clotting time (ACT) was measured using Hemochron instruments. PI-88 produced a strong anticoagulant effect at 100 μg/mL (479.0 ± 59.5 see). This anticoagulant effect was comparable to that observed in interventional cardiology and open-heart surgery. At the lower level, PI-88 produced concentration-dependent effects on ACT. Using thromboelastographic techniques (TEG), the effect of PI-88 was measured in terms of various parameters. PI-88 produced potent anticoagulant effects in the TEG studies. At the concentration of 25 μg/mL, it produced a complete anticoagutant effect in whole blood. Whole blood samples supplemented with PI-88 showed a concentration-dependent decrease in the generation of various markers of clotting activation. These results clearly suggest that PI-88 exerts an anticoagulant effect in whole blood. Because of the low-molecular-weight nature and a novel mechanism of action, this new drug may be considered for further development, particularly in cancer patients.
Differences in the Motivational Characteristics of “Professional”, “Serious Amateur” and “Recreational” Sports Performers

Conceptualised within the Reversal theory of M. J. Apter is the concept of metamotivational dominance. Dominance is the tendency of an individual to spend longer periods in one metamotivational state, rather than in the other member of the pair which they constitute together. This study examined the nature of telic dominance in male sports performers. Three groups of performers categorised as “professional”, “serious amateur”, and “recreational” were subjects. Telic dominance was measured using the Telic Dominance Scale. Analysis showed that professionals scored significantly higher than the other two groups on 2 of the 3 subscales and on the combined score for telic dominance.
Building Full-Service Schools: Lessons Learned in the Development of Interagency Collaboratives

Although the history of clinical–school–community collaboration can be traced back to the end of the 19th century, the full-service school movement represents a new era in the quest for more effective ways to deliver human services to children. Building on the personal experience of the authors and the literature concerning the development of integrated service delivery systems, this article outlines conceptual, administrative, fiscal, legal–ethical, and practical issues that can hinder local efforts to develop full-service schools. The systematic analysis of potentially negative influences is presented as something that must be pursued by educational and psychological consultants so that, as the next millennium begins, they will be in a position to help local working groups develop interagency collaboratives that more effectively integrate school and human service systems, increase service use, and promote positive developmental outcomes for children living in high-risk situations.
Uniaxial cyclic tensile stretch inhibits osteogenic and odontogenic differentiation of human dental pulp stem cells

As the most important organs of occlusion, teeth are subjected to a variety of mechanical stresses. These stresses are transmitted into the dental pulp tissue and affect the dental pulp stem cells. In this study, human dental pulp stem cells were isolated from human impacted third molars and their multilineage differentiation abilities were tested. Human dental pulp stem cells were then exposed to cyclic tensile stretch. The results showed that the cyclic tensile stretch inhibited the expression of osteogenic marker genes and proteins such as BMP‐2, OCN and ALP. Simultaneously, odontogenic marker genes and proteins such as DSPP, DSP and BSP were also inhibited by the mechanical stress. It was concluded that cyclic tensile stretch inhibits the osteogenic and odontogenic differentiation of dental pulp stem cells. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Failure to Find Self-Recognition in Asian Elephants ( Elephas maximus ) in Contrast to Their Use of Mirror Cues to Discover Hidden Food

Only humans, chimpanzees, and orangutans have demonstrated that they recognize their reflections in mirrors. Other mammals (including over a dozen species of monkeys) have failed to show signs of self-recognition. Recent investigations have attempted to discover if the absence of self-recognition is related to a general inability to process mirrored information. This article describes the failure to find self-recognition in two adult Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) along with their spontaneous use of mirrored information to locate otherwise hidden food. Ss responded appropriately on Trial 1 to novel placements of food items, but continued to respond to their images as if confronted by another elephant. Results are discussed in the context of the relationship (or lack thereof) between different types of mirror-mediated behavior and selfrecognition. It is concluded that possession of mirror-mediated abilities is not a sufficient condition for the development of self-recognition.
Joint Inventory Replenishment and Pricing Control for Systems with Uncertain Yield and Demand

We study the joint inventory replenishment and pricing problem for production systems with random demand and yield. More specifically, we analyze the following single-item, periodic-review model. Demands in consecutive periods are independent random variables and their distributions are price sensitive. The production yield is uncertain so that the quantity received from a replenishment is a random variable whose distribution depends on the production quantity. Stockouts are fully backlogged. Our problem is to characterize the optimal dynamic policy that simultaneously determines the production quantity and the price for each period to maximize the total discounted profit. We show that the optimal replenishment policy is of a threshold type, i.e., it is optimal to produce if and only if the starting inventory in a period is below a threshold value, and that both the optimal production quantity and the optimal price in each period are decreasing in the starting inventory. We further study the operational e.
Harmonic Load-Pull Techniques: An Overview of Modern Systems

The characterization of microwave devices under nonlinear conditions is fundamental for device technology development, to improve device large signal model accuracy and reliability, as well as an essential tool to support the design of power amplifiers (PAs). Since the input and output device terminations at fundamental and harmonics frequencies play a crucial role to set the device behaviors and performances, load-pull (LP) measurements are today one of the prominent characterization solutions at RF, micro-, and millimeter waves. In this article, a concise but comprehensive overview of the most important LP techniques available today is presented and pros and cons of the several approaches are highlighted and discussed.
Income, Consumption, and Subjective Well-Being: Toward a Composite Macromarketing Model

This article reviews, critiques, and integrates three psychological perspectives on the relationship between wealth and subjective well-being. First, the comparative perspective holds that life satisfaction results from a comparison of one's own financial position to that of some reference group or material norm. Second, the goal attainment perspective looks at money as a potential source of well-being by enabling people to attain goals they set. Finally, the hedonic perspective looks at how money leads to well-being by enabling people to use their time in more satisfying ways. In addition to providing a critical analysis, this article integrates these three perspectives into a single composite model. This model explains the mechanisms linking income and other material resources with the cognitive and affective elements of subjective well-being. The model also clarifies why income has only a modest relationship to subjective well-being.
An Evaluation of Cyber-Bookshops: The WebQual Method

This paper describes the use of WebQual 2.0 to evaluate Internet bookshop Web sites. Initially applied in the domain of information-intensive Web sites, WebQual 2.0 has been extended and refined to encompass an interaction-quality perspective on e-commerce Web sites. Its development draws on an analysis of the service-quality literature. WebQual assesses Web site quality from the "voice of the customer" perspective, an approach adopted in quality-function deployment. It is used to assess customer perceptions of on-line bookshops, one of the more mature areas of Internet commerce. Three UK-based Internet bookshops are assessed using a natural experiment. Data are collected from students using an on-line questionnaire. Analysis of the results demonstrates considerable variations in the offerings of the Web sites. The findings and their implications for e-commerce are discussed, and conclusions and directions for further research are provided.
How to build a human: practical physics-based character animation

We present state-of-the-art character animation techniques for generating realistic anatomical motion of muscles, fat, and skin. Physics-based character animation uses computational resources in lieu of exhaustive artist effort to produce physically realistic images and animations. This principle has already seen widespread adoption in rendering, fluids, and cloth simulation. We believe that the savings in manpower and improved realism of results provided by a physics- and anatomy-based approach to characters cannot be matched by other techniques. Over the past year we have developed a physics-based character toolkit at Ziva Dynamics and used it to create a photo-realistic human character named Adrienne. We give an overview of the workflow used to create Adrienne, from modeling of anatomical bodies to their simulation via the Finite Element Method. We also discuss practical considerations necessary for effective physics-based character animation.
The Role of Shame and Attributional Style in Children's and Adolescents' Adaptation to Sexual Abuse

This study examined the role of shame and a self-blaming attributional style as factors that can help explain the level of psychological distress in child and adolescent victims of sexual abuse. A total of 142 participants (82 children, 60 adolescents) were seen within 8 weeks of discovery of the abuse. Regression analyses were used to examine how age at discovery, gender, abuse characteristics, shame, and attribution were related to depression, self-esteem, and traumatic events sequelae. As expected, shame and self-blaming attributions were strongly related to depression, self-esteem, and traumatic events sequelae and accounted for significant variance even after age, gender, and abuse characteristics had been controlled. The relations between number of abusive events and depressive symptoms, self-esteem, and eroticism were mediated by shame and attributional style.
New Directions: Robotics: Coordination and Learning in Multirobot Systems

Finding methods for generating coherent, robust, useful and adaptive behavior in groups of autonomous robots is an increasingly active area of research. The incremental approach to robotics-first studying control and learning in a single robot-is not sufficient or even relevant (for some problems) to the multi-robot coordination and learning problem. Instead, the problem requires a general approach-which is fundamentally different from most of today's robot control and learning methods-to make the necessary strides in this challenging domain. Based on our research of situated, embodied systems, we suggest that control and learning in multi-robot systems must be addressed as a separate, novel and unified problem-not an additional "module" in a single-robot approach. We propose a bottom-up methodology to produce the desired system behavior.
Compreendendo as Dimensões de Relacionamento no Contexto do Ensino Superior Brasileiro: Estudo a Partir de um Modelo de Mensuração de Westbrook e Dholakia

The customer and service provider relationship is a recurrent topic in the marketing field. Nonetheless, researchers point out the need for a better understanding of factors that form perceptions of services in higher education and that reflect the way such perceptions affect students´ experiences. Aiming to help form a better comprehension of the topic, in this work, we assess a measurement model for the relationship of graduate students with the education institution, which was proposed in a study of Westbrook and Dholakia conducted in the United States. That original study was never concluded or submitted for publication. With authorization from the authors, we present their findings; propose a simplification of the model, aiming to make it more parsimonious leaving its content validity unharmed; and test the new version of the model, using scales adapted to be applied in Brazil, with a sample of 276 respondents. The more parsimonious version provides better internal consistency and validity results as compared to findings of Wesbrook and Dholakia. Thus, this paper has two main contributions: (1) we showcase results of an unpublished study by two celebrated researchers of the field of marketing; and (2) we present a new assessment of their model as adapted for a new context. Hence, the present work is collaborative and provides a better understanding of relationship variables in the education service context and for the reinforcement of the scientific status of marketing as well, as we reassess and compare findings with a previous scientific study of the same model.
Consistent Hashing with Bounded Loads

In dynamic load balancing, we wish to allocate a set of clients (balls) to a set of servers (bins) with the goal of minimizing the maximum load of any server and also minimizing the number of moves after adding or removing a server or a client1. We want a hashing-style solution where we given the ID of a client can efficiently find its server in a distributed dynamic environment. In such a dynamic environment, both servers and clients may be added and/or removed from the system in any order. The most popular solutions for such dynamic settings are Consistent Hashing [KLL +97, SML +03] or Rendezvous Hashing [TR98]. However, the load balancing of these schemes is no better than a random assignment of clients to servers, so with n of each, we expect many servers to be overloaded with Θ(log n/ log log n) clients. In this paper, we aim to design hashing schemes that achieve any desirable level of load balancing, while minimizing the number of movements under any addition or removal of servers or clients. In particular, we consider a problem with m balls and n bins, and given a user-specified balancing parameter c = 1 + e > 1, we aim to find a hashing scheme with no load above ⌈cm/n⌉, referred to as the capacity of the bins. Our algorithmic starting point is the consistent hashing scheme where current balls and bins are hashed to the unit cycle, and a ball is placed in the first bin succeeding it in clockwise order. In order to cope with given capacity constraints, we apply the idea of linear probing by forwarding the ball on the circle to the first non-full bin. We show that in our hashing scheme when a ball or bin is inserted or deleted, the expected number of balls that have to be moved is within a multiplicative factor of [Equation] of the optimum for e ≤ 1 (Theorem 1.2) and within a factor [Equation] of the optimum for e ≥ 1 (Theorem 1.1). Technically, the latter bound is the most challenging to prove. It implies that for superconstant c, we only pay a negligible cost in extra moves. We also get the same bounds for the simpler problem where, instead of a user specified balancing parameter, we have a fixed bin capacity C for all bins, and define c = 1 + e = Cn/m.
Predictable pulsatile release of tramadol hydrochloride for chronotherapeutics of arthritis

The present investigation deals with the development of a pH and time-dependent press-coated pulsatile drug delivery system for delivering drugs into the colon. The system consists of a drug containing core, coated by a combination of natural polymer Delonix regia gum (DRG) and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC K4M) in various proportions, which controls the onset of release. The whole system was coated with methacrylic acid copolymers, which not only prevents the drug release in the stomach, but also prolongs the lag time. Tramadol HCl was used as a model drug and varying combinations of DRG and HPMC K4M were used to achieve the desired lag time before rapid and complete release of the drug in the colon. It was observed that the lag time depends on the coating ratio of DRG to HPMC and also on press coating weight. Drug release was found to be increased by 15–30% in the presence of colonic microbial flora. The results showed the capability of the system in achieving pulsatile release for a programmable period of time and pH-dependent release to attain colon-targeted delivery.