Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of phosphatidylinositol-transfer proteins at membrane contact sites.

Phosphatidylinositol-transfer proteins (PITPs) have been initially identified as soluble factors that accelerate the monomeric exchange of either phosphatidylinositol (PI) or phosphatidylcholine (PC) between membrane bilayersin vitro They are highly conserved in eukaryotes and have been implicated in different cellular processes, including vesicular trafficking, signal transduction, and lipid metabolism. Recent studies suggest that PITPs function at membrane contact sites (MCSs) to facilitate the transport of PI from its synthesis site at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to various membrane compartments. In this review, we describe the underlying mechanism of PITPs targeting to MCSs, discuss their cellular roles and potential mode of action.
Activation of brain mechanisms of attention switching as a function of auditory frequency change

The activation of the cerebral network underlying involuntary attention switching was studied as a function of the magnitude of auditory change. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during the performance of a visual discrimination task in which task-irrelevant auditory frequency changes of six different levels (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 40% and 80%) occurred randomly within the same stimulus sequence. All the frequency changes elicited a typical ERP waveform, characterized by MMN, P3a and RON, their respective amplitudes increasing linearly as a function of the magnitude of change. The results indicate that attentional processes in the brain may follow a linear function of activation, contrasting with the well-established logarithmic functions underlying perceptual and psychophysical processes.
Conceptualization and Measurement of Team Workload

Objective: The purpose of this article is to present and expand on current theories and measurement techniques for assessing team workload. Background: To date, little research has been conducted on the workload experienced by teams. A validated theory describing team workload, which includes an account of its relation to individual workload, has not been articulated. Method: The authors review several theoretical approaches to team workload. Within the team research literature, attempts to evaluate team workload have typically relied on measures of individual workload. This assumes that such measures retain their validity at the team level of measurement, but empirical research suggests that this method may lack sensitivity to the drivers of team workload. Results: On the basis of these reviews, the authors advance suggestions concerning a comprehensive theory of team workload and methods for assessing it in team settings. The approaches reviewed include subjective, performance, physiological, and strategy shift measures. Theoretical and statistical difficulties associated with aggregating individual-level workload responses to a team-level measure are discussed. Conclusion: Conception and measurement of team workload have not significantly matured alongside developments in individual workload. Application: Team workload remains a complex research area without simple measurement solutions, but as a research domain it remains open for contributions from interested and enterprising researchers.
Contingency Effects of People and Objects on Subsequent Cognitive Functioning in Three‐month‐old Infants

Three month-old infants' responses to persons and objects who interacted with the infant at two levels of contingency were contrasted in two experiments. In experiment 1, contingent responding of people and objects was controlled. In experiment 2, the faciallvocal dynamics were controlled as well as contingent responding. In both experiments, contingent interaction had different effects on infants depending on whether the “actor” was a person or an object. In addition, the contingency and personlobject variables influenced infants' states of attention to a nonsocial stimulus on subsequent transfer tasks. Specifically, infants who experienced contingent interactions with people exhibited positive affect and exposed themselves to subsequent higher levels of stimulation than infants who experienced noncontingent interactions with people. These infants exhibited negative affective states and exposed themselves to very low levels of subsequent stimulation. In contrast, infants who experienced contingent and noncontingent interactions with objects did not show such variation in emotional expressions. Instead they produced primarily neutral facial expressions in all conditions and did not show very high nor very low levels of interest for the multi-modal stimulus on the subsequent transfer tasks. The discussion centers on the mechanism that allow infants to discriminate between contingencies provided by people and objects and that drive the results obtained on the transfer tasks.
Development and validation of a decision-making questionnaire

ABSTRACT The ‘Decision-Making Questionnaire’ (DMQ) was developed and validated in order to examine the factors that affect decision making. The investigation was carried out with two samples, one of 170 participants and the other of 425 of both sexes. Each sample was divided into three age ranges: young students (18–25 years), adults (26–60 years), and seniors (61–75 years). Psychometric analyses revealed satisfactory internal consistency and a first-order factor structure comprising 10 scales: Uncertainty, Time/money pressure, Information and goals, Consequences of the decision, Motivation, Self-regulation, Cognition, Emotion, Social pressure, and Work pressure. These scales in turn yielded a second-order factor structure of Task, Subject, and Context. The results highlight the ways in which youths, adults, and seniors are influenced by diverse factors when making decisions. They also suggest that men are more likely than women to seek and analyse information, whereas women place higher value on the available time and money. The article concludes that the DMQ examines the factors that have the most influence on professional decisions and it could guide adolescents in the vocational decision process.
A comparative health survey of the inhabitants of Roma settlements in Hungary.

OBJECTIVES We compared the health of people living in Roma settlements with that of the general population in Hungary. METHODS We performed comparative health interview surveys in 2003 to 2004 in representative samples of the Hungarian population and inhabitants of Roma settlements. RESULTS In persons older than 44 years, 10% more of those living in Roma settlements reported their health as bad or very bad than did those in the lowest income quartile of the general population. Of those who used any health services, 35% of the Roma inhabitants and 4.4% of the general population experienced some discrimination. In Roma settlements, the proportion of persons who thought that they could do much for their own health was 13% to 15% lower, and heavy smoking and unhealthy diet were 1.5 to 3 times more prevalent, than in the lowest income quartile of the general population. CONCLUSIONS People living in Roma settlements experience severe social exclusion, which profoundly affects their health. Besides tackling the socioeconomic roots of the poor health of Roma people, specific public health interventions, including health education and health promotion programs, are needed.
Phylogenetic perspective reveals abundant Ty1/Ty2 hybrid elements in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome.

Retrotransposons are a class of repetitive mobile elements which transpose via the reverse transcription of an RNA intermediate (Boeke et al. 1985). These eukaryotic elements are abundant and widespread and are hypothesized to be of major evolutionary significance (Miller, Kruckenhauser, and Pinsker 1996; Kidwell and Lisch 1997; McDonald 1998). The yeast Ty retrotransposons (Ty1–Ty5) are arguably the best-characterized retrotransposons (Boeke 1989). A vast number of studies have elucidated in detail the mechanisms of Ty retrotransposition and the molecular interactions between Ty elements and their host genomes (Garfinkel 1992). The sequencing of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome (Goffeau et al. 1996) provides an unprecedented opportunity to examine the patterns of molecular variation existing among an entire complement of retrotransposons residing within a genome. Detailed analysis of these Ty element sequences promises to yield deep insight into the nature of Ty element evolution and retroelement evolution in general. Recent studies demonstrate the potential power of such analyses and have shed new light on retroelement–host coevolution (Hani and Feldman 1998; Jordan and McDonald 1998; Kim et al. 1998). We recently performed phylogenetic analyses on sequence alignments of Ty1 and Ty2 elements characterized during the yeast genome project. Also included in our analyses were previously reported Ty1 (Ty1-H3 and Ty1-912) and Ty2 (Ty2-117) sequences (Clare and Farabaugh 1985; Warmington et al. 1985; Boeke et al. 1988). The Ty1 and Ty2 element families consist of closely related elements that are similar in size and sequence. These elements consist of two long terminal repeats (LTRs), known as d sequences, which flank two open reading frames (ORFs) TYA and TYB. The d sequences are made up of the U3-R-U5 regions as defined by the initiation and termination of transcription (Boeke et al. 1985). Ty1 and Ty2 elements were previously thought to share similar d sequences but differ in their open reading frames (Curcio and Garfinkel 1994). The TYA ORF is homologous to the gag locus of retroviruses and encodes structural proteins of the viral-like particle (Clare and Farabaugh 1985). TYB is homologous to the pol locus and encodes the catalytic proteins protease
Human Neuroscience

the variance of choice options (Preuschoff et al., 2006). Here we tested the hypothesis that it would also be sensitive to the actions of others in the context of an economic decision making (stock buying) task. To do this, we first asked whether the ventral stria-tum is sensitive to the actions of others (social information) in the absence of economic information. Secondly, we asked if the same regions were sensitive to economic information (the mean and variance of various stock return data) in the absence of social information. Thirdly, if the ventral striatum was sensitive to both social and stock information, we investigated how this combined information is represented in the brain. For example, do the actions of others change the processing of objective stock value or variance or do they modulate subjective preferences for different options? Methodologically, we were in a position to answer these three questions by having trial types with only social, only stock, or with both kinds of information. For the fist two questions, we hypothesized that participants would make more " buy " decisions as more of the herd bought, even in the absence of any stock information. In addition to this, there would be an increase in ventral striatum activity inline with behavior. This reflection of behavior in ven-tral striatum activity would also be observed in response to stock information when social information was absent. For the third question, we hypothesized that social information would modulate the processing of stock parameters directly. For example, activity in the ventral striatum relating to a stock value signal would be increased if participants subsequently became aware that others had bought that particular stock. In agreement with our first and second hypotheses, we found that activity in the ventral stria-tum tracks social information (actions of others), and economic information (stock parameters). However, in contrast to the third hypothesis, social information influenced ventral striatum activity through participants' subjective preferences for different stock types rather than by modulating the objective stock properties.
Individual variation in the effects of dietary cholesterol on plasma lipoproteins and cellular cholesterol homeostasis in man. Studies of low density lipoprotein receptor activity and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity in blood mononuclear cells.

The effects of dietary cholesterol on plasma lipoproteins and cholesterol homeostasis in blood mononuclear cells have been examined in healthy adults. Addition of 1,500 mg of cholesterol to the daily diet of 37 subjects for 14 d was associated with a wide range of response of plasma total cholesterol concentration (from -6 to +75 mg/dl; mean change, +29 mg/dl; P < 0.001). Increases in plasma cholesterol reflected increased cholesterol concentrations in intermediate density lipoprotein (IDL; 1.006-1.019 g/ml), low density lipoprotein (LDL; 1.019-1.063 g/ml), and the HDL(2) subclass (1.063-1.125 g/ml) of high density lipoprotein, which on average accounted for 20, 58, and 22%, respectively, of the total increment. Similar responses occurred in 14 other subjects given 750 mg cholesterol per day for 28 d. Plasma apolipoprotein B concentrations in IDL and LDL also increased. THESE EFFECTS ON PLASMA LIPOPROTEINS WERE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE CHANGES IN FRESHLY ISOLATED BLOOD MONONUCLEAR CELLS: (a) an increase in cell cholesterol content (mean change, +17%; P < 0.01); (b) suppression of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase activity (-32%; P < 0.001); and (c) reduction of LDL receptor activity (-74%; P < 0.01), quantified as the rate of degradation of (125)I-LDL to noniodide trichloroacetic acid-soluble material. These results provide the first direct evidence for the modulation of LDL receptor activity and HMG CoA reductase activity in a peripheral cell type in response to a dietary perturbation of human lipoprotein metabolism.The percentage increase in LDL cholesterol was negatively correlated with the percentage decrease in HMG CoA reductase activity (r = -0.49, P < 0.01). An additional negative correlation existed between the increment in plasma cholesterol concentration and the capacity of cells to degrade (125)I-LDL after derepression by preincubation for 72 h in lipoprotein-deficient medium (r = -0.74, P < 0.001). Thus, differences between individuals in the responses of the plasma lipoproteins to dietary cholesterol appear to be related in part to differences in the capacity of peripheral cells to catabolize LDL and to down-regulate cholesterol synthesis.
Competitive Frontiers: Women Managing across Borders

Examines the underlying assumptions that companies make about the role of women in international management. Based on numerous studies, explodes some of the traditional myths about women expatriates: that they do not want to be international managers and that foreign prejudice against women renders them ineffective. However, another myth – that companies hesitate to send women abroad – is found to be true. Competitive advantage in transnationals can only come from a combination of an increased representation of women and a recognition of differences as complementary. Recommendations are given to companies and to future women expatriates.
How do they (participants) understand our (researchers) intentions? a qualitative test of the curvilinear assumptions of the adaptability items of the faces iii

Abstract Subjects were interviewed in an in-depth fashion as to their understanding of the adaptability items of the regular FACES III and two alternate versions. A qualitative analysis of the interviews indicate that participants may not be understanding the items as intended by the researchers. An alternate version of the items enhanced the curvilinear properties of the adaptability dimension.
Sexual Prejudice

Sexual prejudice may arise from beliefs that certain sexual orientation groups direct unwanted sexual interest, with the implication that heterosexual men and women hold prejudices against different groups. Study 1 confirmed that heterosexual women believe bisexual men, bisexual women, and lesbians (but not gay men) direct unwanted sexual interest, whereas heterosexual men believe bisexual and gay men (but not bisexual women or lesbians) direct unwanted sexual interest. Study 2 revealed patterns of negativity toward different sexual orientation groups mirroring Study 1’s pattern of perceptions of unwanted sexual interest and Study 3 demonstrated that the perception of unwanted sexual interest statistically mediates the relationship between target sexual orientation group and negativity. Existing theoretical approaches for understanding sexual prejudices, including the in-group–out-group heterosexism, gender–role violation, and sexual identity threat approaches, fail to account for the nuanced pattern of findings observed.
The influence of low self-control on violent and nonviolent delinquencies: a study of male adolescents from two Chinese societies

Low self-control is theorized to be a key correlate of delinquency. Using a nonadjudicated sample (N = 1057) from Hong Kong and Macau, the influence of self-control on self-reported violent and nonviolent delinquencies was investigated using Grasmick’s self-control scale. The influences of demographics and self-control on delinquency were also examined. Findings indicate that these adolescents are more likely to engage in overall delinquency, particularly violence, if they are older and if they are less educated. Age is the only demographic predictor of nonviolent delinquency. Risk-seeking behaviors and self-centeredness have significant influences on both violent and nonviolent delinquencies, while low frustration tolerance and preference for cognitive activities are only associated with an increased level of violent misconduct. These findings highlight the overall significant influence of self-control on adolescent delinquency in Chinese adolescents. Suggestions are offered to enhance adolescents’ self-control as a way to reduce their tendency to involvement in delinquent activities.
The mental representation of parity and number magnitude.

Nine experiments of timed odd-even judgments examined how parity and number magnitude are accessed from Arabic and verbal numerals. With Arabic numerals, Ss used the rightmost digit to access a store of semantic number knowledge. Verbal numerals went through an additional stage of transcoding to base 10. Magnitude information was automatically accessed from Arabic numerals. Large numbers preferentially elicited a rightward response, and small numbers a leftward response. The Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) effect depended only on relative number magnitude and was weaker or absent with letters or verbal numerals. Direction did not vary with handedness or hemispheric dominance but was linked to the direction of writing, as it faded or even reversed in right-to-left writing Iranian Ss
Book Reviews : Problems of Scientific Revolution: Progress and Obstacles to Progress in the Sciences. The Herbert Spencer Lectures 1973. Edited by ROM HARRÉ. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1975. Pp. vi + 104. Can. $5.75

counter. These chapters are tough going for anyone not versed in social science; they can hardly be over-praised, and certainly not summarised in a short review. The two main points are that the historian, unlike the social scientist, cannot create the data he needs for testing his hypotheses but has to make do ’with whatever data flood, fire, and loving daughters have left him’ and that the historian cannot cross-question his informants. Because of these limitations,
On semi-blind estimation of echo paths during double-talk based on nonstationarity

The estimation of a filter that determines an echo path is a difficult problem when double-talk is present. We use a Blind Source Separation model based on signals' nonstationarity with a partially known mixing matrix to estimate the filter during the double talk. A second-order approximation of a log-likelihood function is used to derive a quadratic criterion. Then, we propose two methods to estimate the filter through minimizing the criterion. The first method works in a batch-offline regime, while the second method is designed to estimate the filter adaptively. The methods are verified by experiments and compared with standard least-squares-based approaches.
Psychopharmakologische Differentialtherapie generalisierter Angststörungen - Ergebnisse einer Studie mit 30 Einzelfallexperimenten

In pharmacotherapy of generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) different psychopharmacological agents (neuroleptics, diazepines, antidepressants) proved to be effective. However, there is a lack of predictors of therapeutic response. The present study was designed to address this question in 30 patients with treatment refractory GAD (12 male, 18 female). Amitriptyline 30 mg/d, flupentixol 1.5 mg/d, clotiazepam 15 mg/d, and placebo were administered double-blind and randomly. Each agent was given 4 times for one week. To avoid carry-over effects, all treatment weeks were interrupted by one week's wash-out periods. Thus each single-case experiment comprised 31 weeks. Primary efficacy criterion was Hamilton total score at the end of each treatment week. Statistical analysis (U-test) showed that in 19 patients one agent was significantly (p < 0.05) superior to the other substances (clotiazepam n = 11, flupentixol n = 3, amitriptyline n = 5). Placebo was not superior in any of these 30 patients. There was no significant difference between the drugs in 11 patients. However, metaanalysis showed that in chronic GAD, by means of single-case experiments, differences in efficacy between different drugs can be found (p < 0.01). ANOVA showed no drug x time interaction.
Very Early Mobilization After Stroke Fast-Tracks Return to Walking: Further Results From the Phase II AVERT Randomized Controlled Trial

Background and Purpose— Regaining functional independence is an important goal for people who have experienced stroke. We hypothesized that introducing earlier and more intensive out-of-bed activity after stroke would reduce time to unassisted walking and improve independence in activities of daily living. Methods— A Very Early Rehabilitation Trial (AVERT) was a phase II randomized controlled trial. Patients with confirmed stroke (infarct or hemorrhage) admitted <24 hours after stroke and who met physiological safety criteria were eligible. Patients randomized to the very early and intensive mobilization group were mobilized within 24 hours of stroke and at regular intervals thereafter. Control patients received standard stroke unit care. The primary outcome for this analysis was the number of days required to return to walking 50 m unassisted. Secondary outcomes were the Barthel Index and Rivermead Motor Assessment at 3 and 12 months after stroke. Results— Seventy-one stroke patients with a mean age of 74.7 years were recruited from 2 hospitals. Adjusted Cox regression indicated that very early and intensive mobilization group patients returned to walking significantly faster than did standard stroke unit care controls (P=0.032; median 3.5 vs 7.0 days). Multivariable regression revealed that exposure to very early and intensive mobilization was independently associated with good functional outcome on the Barthel Index at 3 months (P=0.008) and on the Rivermead Motor Assessment at 3 (P=0.050) and 12 (P=0.024) months. Conclusions— Earlier and more intensive mobilization after stroke may fast-track return to unassisted walking and improve functional recovery. Clinical Trial Registration— This trial was not registered because enrollment began before July 2005.
Merging two tactile stimulation principles: electrovibration and squeeze film effect

Electrovibration and squeeze film effect can modify the perception a user has of a flat surface. These two stimulation principles are compatible, which means that they can be used at the same time on the same tactile stimulator. This paper first highlights the differences between the two principles, then gives experimental results obtained when merging, with specific conditions, these two stimulation principles.