Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increased (CTG/CAG)(n) lengths in myotonic dystrophy type 1 and Machado-Joseph disease genes in idiopathic azoospermia patients.

BACKGROUND An increase in CAG trinucleotide repeat length in the androgen receptor (AR) gene has been linked to idiopathic azoospermia. METHODS In order to test whether other (CAG/CTG)(n) loci are also affected, the (CAG/CTG)(n) frequency distribution at myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1), Machado-Joseph disease (MJD), dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy (DRPLA) and spinocerebellar ataxia type 8 (SCA8) loci, in addition to the AR gene, was investigated in 48 azoospermia patients and 47 controls. RESULTS The median CAG repeat length in the AR gene was significantly longer in azoospermia patients than in controls (23 versus 21, P < 0.001). Significant differences were also noted in the upper tails of trinucleotide repeat length distributions at both DM1 and MJD loci between the two populations. At the DM1 locus, alleles of more than 18 repeats were observed only in azoospermia patients, and not in controls (P = 0.014). At the MJD locus, the frequency of normal alleles (ANs) with 29 or more CAG repeats was also much higher in azoospermia patients (29.2 versus 7.4%; P = 0.0001). However, the repeat length distribution at DRPLA and SCA8 loci did not differ in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS These data indicated that, at least in a subset of azoospermia patients, there was an increase in the number of trinucleotide repeats in some disease loci. Thus, it is noteworthy to evaluate whether offspring of these azoospermia patients, if born by assisted reproductive technologies, have an increased risk of trinucleotide repeat diseases.
The Impact of Heterogeneity and Dark Acceptor States on FRET: Implications for Using Fluorescent Protein Donors and Acceptors

Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) microscopy is widely used to study protein interactions in living cells. Typically, spectral variants of the Green Fluorescent Protein (FPs) are incorporated into proteins expressed in cells, and FRET between donor and acceptor FPs is assayed. As appreciable FRET occurs only when donors and acceptors are within 10 nm of each other, the presence of FRET can be indicative of aggregation that may denote association of interacting species. By monitoring the excited-state (fluorescence) decay of the donor in the presence and absence of acceptors, dual-component decay analysis has been used to reveal the fraction of donors that are FRET positive (i.e., in aggregates). _However, control experiments using constructs containing both a donor and an acceptor FP on the same protein repeatedly indicate that a large fraction of these donors are FRET negative, thus rendering the interpretation of dual-component analysis for aggregates between separately donor-containing and acceptor-containing proteins problematic. Using Monte-Carlo simulations and analytical expressions, two possible sources for such anomalous behavior are explored: 1) conformational heterogeneity of the proteins, such that variations in the distance separating donor and acceptor FPs and/or their relative orientations persist on time-scales long in comparison with the excited-state lifetime, and 2) FP dark states.
Multicomponent Analysis of the Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Progression Model Using a Pancreatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia Tissue Microarray

A multistep model for pancreatic adenocarcinoma has been proposed recently. In this model, well-defined, noninvasive ductal lesions are recognized as precursors of invasive cancer and have been classified under the nomenclature of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia, or PanIN. Increasing evidence suggests that PanINs represent true neoplasms of the pancreatic ductal epithelium, accumulating histologic and genetic abnormalities in their progression toward invasive cancer. We have constructed a tissue microarray containing 55 PanIN lesions of all histologic grades in order to perform a multicomponent analysis of the pancreatic adenocarcinoma progression model. The protein products of 14 genes encompassing a variety of functional classes, such as tumor suppressor genes (p53, Smad4/Dpc4), oncogenes (β-catenin), cell cycle antigens (p16, cyclin D1), proliferation antigens (Ki-67, topoisomerase II alpha), and epithelial apomucins (MUC1, MUC2, MUC5), as well as “novel” genes described as differentially up-regulated in invasive pancreas cancer by global microarray expression analysis (mesothelin, prostate stem cell antigen, fascin, and 14-3-3σ), were analyzed by immunohistochemistry on the PanIN tissue microarray. Comparison of the results from the current study with previously published data performed on routine histologic sections of PanINs demonstrates that tissue microarrays are a valid platform for molecular analysis not only of invasive cancers but of precursor lesions as well. In addition, this study demonstrates that molecular abnormalities in PanINs are not random but can usually be stratified into “early” changes (e.g., expression of MUC5 and prostate stem antigen, or loss of p16), “intermediate” changes (e.g., expression of cyclin D1), and “late” changes (e.g., expression of p53, proliferation antigens, MUC1, mesothelin, and 14-3-3σ, or loss of Smad4/Dpc4). Understanding the molecular pathogenesis of precursor lesions of invasive pancreatic adenocarcinomas using a high-throughput tissue microarray–based approach is a valuable adjunct to designing rational strategies for early detection of this lethal neoplasm.
Gravity duals for non-relativistic CFTs

We attempt to generalize the AdS/CFT correspondence to non-relativistic conformal field theories which are invariant under Galilean transformations. Such systems govern ultracold atoms at unitarity, nucleon scattering in some channels, and more generally, a family of universality classes of quantum critical behavior. We construct a family of metrics which realize these symmetries as isometries. They are solutions of gravity with negative cosmological constant coupled to pressureless dust. We discuss realizations of the dust, which include a bulk superconductor. We develop the holographic dictionary and find two-point correlators of the correct form. A strange aspect of the correspondence is that the bulk geometry has two extra noncompact dimensions.
Unsuspected infection is infrequent in asymptomatic outpatients with refractory ascites undergoing therapeutic paracentesis

Objective:Large-volume paracentesis is a safe and effective means of treating patients with refractory ascites. However, there is limited information regarding the need for ascitic fluid studies in asymptomatic outpatients presenting for therapeutic paracentesis. The aim of this prospective study was to define the incidence and natural history of peritoneal fluid infection in asymptomatic outpatients undergoing therapeutic paracentesis.Methods:Over a 13-month period, 118 therapeutic paracenteses were performed in 29 outpatients with decompensated cirrhosis (Child-Pugh class B = 38%, C = 62%). After a brief medical history and physical examination, ascitic fluid cell count with differential and culture were obtained from all participating subjects. Seven (24%) of the subjects were receiving norfloxacin prophylaxis, accounting for antibiotic coverage during 40% of the procedures performed. The clinical course and outcome of study subjects during a mean follow-up of 137 days was reviewed.Results:All 118 (100%) of the ascitic fluid samples demonstrated absolute neutrophil counts of <250/mm3 (mean = 6.5 ± 22.5 pmn/mm3). Asymptomatic bacterascites was identified from three of the 118 (2.5%) fluid samples, but all of these subjects spontaneously recovered without treatment or sequelae. During follow-up, six episodes of symptomatic or hospital-associated peritoneal fluid infection were identified in study participants, emphasizing the importance of fluid studies in other clinical settings.Conclusion:Although further studies are needed, the routine culture of ascitic fluid in asymptomatic outpatients with refractory ascites requiring therapeutic paracentesis may not be necessary when there is a low index of suspicion for occult infection. In circumstances of clinical uncertainty, however, obtaining ascitic fluid cell counts with differential is recommended to insure patient safety.
A Novel Strategy for Radar Imaging Based on Compressive Sensing

This paper aims at introducing the recent theory of compressive sensing to radar imaging systems in order to retrieve the imaged scene with better resolution and a reduced amount of collected samples. As a result of the application of the alternative imaging technique proposed, the use of matched filtering is avoided and the effect of its sidelobes in the images is drastically diminished. Furthermore, the amount of data to be stacked in the sensor and then downlinked to the ground station is meaningfully lower. This permits a more efficient management of resources.
The mental representation of derived words: An experimental study of –sa and –mi nominals in Japanese

Deadjectival nominals with –sa and –mi in Japanese are both phonologically transparent and morphologically decomposable. However, whilst –sa essentially serves to form nouns out of adjectives, –mi forms function as semantic labels with specific meanings. We examined –sa and –mi nominals in three experiments, an eye-movement experiment presenting –sa and –mi forms in sentence contexts and in two word recognition experiments using (primed and unprimed) lexical decision, to investigate the nature of their form-level representations. Whilst the word recognition experiments produced the same pattern of results for –sa and –mi forms, the eye-movement experiment demonstrated clear differences: –mi forms elicited longer reading times compared to –sa forms, except when the particular meanings of –mi forms were contextually licensed. These results show how different semantic properties affect the performance of derived words that have the same type of word level representation.
Visual Modeling and Feature Adaptation in Sign Language Recognition

We propose a tracking adaptation to recover from early tracking errors in sign language recognition by optimizing the obtained tracking paths w.r. t. the hypothesized word sequences of an automatic sign language recognition system. Hand or head tracking is usually only optimized according to a tracking criterion. As a consequence, methods which depend on accurate detection and tracking of body parts lead to recognition errors in gesture and sign language processing. Similar to speaker dependent feature adaptation methods in automatic speech recognition, we propose an automatic visual alignment of signers for vision-based sign language recognition. Furthermore, the generation of additional virtual training samples is proposed to reduce the lack of data problem in sign language processing, which often leads to “one-shot” trained models. Most state-ofthe-art systems are speaker dependent, and consider tracking as a preprocessing feature extraction part. Experiments on a publicly available benchmark database show that the proposed methods strongly improve the recognition accuracy of the system.
Stratégies d'adaptation des organismes subventionnaires en sciences humaines et sociales au Canada et au Québec aux compressions budgétaires gouvernementales

Dans la presente etude, nous nous concentrons sur les initiatives touchant la mise sur pied et/ou la consolidation des programmes de recherche orientee depuis le debut des annees 90, et ce, pour les OS oeuvrant dans le domaine des sciences humaines et sociales (SHS). L'objectif consiste a examiner la reponse de deux categories d'acteurs concernes par le developpement des programmes de subvention de recherche orientee, soit les pourvoyeurs de fonds (i.e. les partenaires) d'une part, et le professeurs-chercheurs en SHS d'autre part.
Unions and the Sword of Justice: Unions and Pay Systems, Pay Inequality, Pay Discrimination and Low Pay

Dispersion in pay is lower among union members than among non-unionists. This reflects two factors. First, union members and jobs are more homogeneous than their non-union counterparts. Second, union wage policies within and across firms lower pay dispersion. Unions' minimum wage targets also truncate the lower tail of the union distribution. There are two major consequences of these egalitarian union wage policies. First, the return to human capital is lower in firms which recognise unions than in the unorganised sector. Second, unions compress the wage structure by gender, race and occupation.
Non-Rigid Shape from Image Streams

We present a framework for estimating 3D relative structure (shape) and motion given objects undergoing nonrigid deformation as observed from a fixed camera, under perspective projection. Deforming surfaces are approximated as piece-wise planar, and piece-wise rigid. Robust registration methods allow tracking of corresponding image patches from view to view and recovery of 3D shape despite occlusions, discontinuities, and varying illumination conditions. Many relatively small planar/rigid image patch trackers are scattered throughout the image; resulting estimates of structure and motion at each patch are combined over local neighborhoods via an oriented particle systems formulation. Preliminary experiments have been conducted on real image sequences of deforming objects and on synthetic sequences where ground truth is known.
Children's Eyewitness Memory: A Modern History and Contemporary Commentary

This article provides a modern historical overview of child eyewitness research, as well as an evaluative commentary on the field, with special emphasis on children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility in child sexual abuse cases. Four historical periods are reviewed: the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (to date). Examples of legal cases that inform scientific research are described, discussion of relevant laws is presented, and a review of selected studies is offered. It is concluded that although we have learned a great deal about children's eyewitness memory and suggestibility over the last few decades, simple answers are evasive and much more research is needed.
The use of induced sputum in the assessment of pulmonary involvement in Crohn's disease

OBJECTIVE:Our aim was to evaluate lung involvement in Crohn's disease (CRD) patients by induced sputum (IS). Extraintestinal manifestations are frequent in CRD, but lung involvement is rare. Induced sputum is a reliable noninvasive method of investigating the pathogenesis, pathophysiology, and treatment of lung disease.METHODS:Twenty-four CRD patients and nine control subjects (all nonsmokers) without respiratory symptoms were tested. Sputum was induced by 20′ inhalation of 3.5% saline using ultrasonic nebulizer. Samples were studied by differential counts of 200 cells on cytopreps stained by Giemsa. T-lymphocyte subset analyses were done by FACS using three monoclonal antibodies: CD3 = total T cells, CD4 = T helper cells, and CD8 = T suppressor-cytotoxic cells. CD4/CD8 >2.5 was considered abnormal.RESULTS:Four patients did not produce sputum. Of the remaining 20 patients, seven had active CRD and 13 were in remission. They were divided into two groups: Group A patients had abnormal CD4/CD8 ratio of 6.7 ± 2.5; Group B (seven patients) had normal CD4/CD8 ratio of 1.7 ± 0.52 (p = 0.0001). The differential counts of IS samples were similar in both groups, but lymphocyte count was significantly higher in CRD patients than in the control group (13.2 ± 11.2 vs 4.8 ± 3.6, p = 0.036). There were no differences in spirometry, treatment, extent, or activity of CRD.CONCLUSION:Using a simple noninvasive method, we found that among CRD patients without respiratory symptoms there was a high (65%) incidence of lung involvement.
The Threefold Structure of the Atmosphere and the Characteristics of the Tropopause

All available soundings for January 1, 1956 have been studied with respect to their tropospheric and stratospheric temperature structure and with emphasis on the height and form of the tropopause. It was found that the latitudinal influence on the total vertical structure of the soundings was not dominating, but rather the location of soundings with respect to the two main westwind maxima (polarfront jet and subtropical jet) of the westerlies seemed to be important. A selection of soundings according to this principle (north of polarfront jet, between the two jets, south of subtropical jet) made it possible to distinguish between different types of soundings. This fundamental difference is discussed and will form the basis for future studies of world wide circulation changes. Furthermore the distribution of tropopause height and temperature has been mapped and studied on a hemispheric scale. Each of the above mentioned types possesses a typical vertical temperature structure and a characteristic tropopause heigth. Two rapid changes in tropopause height (tropopause breaklines) connected with the main westwind belts separate areas possessing an almost uniform tropopause level. Inside each of these areas a remarkable quasi-barotropic state of the upper tropospheric layers is shown. Similar discussion has been devoted to the nature of soundings inside or close to the jets or the breaks in tropopause height. Here the soundings have a more complicated vertical structure and their interpretation becomes difficult. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1957. tb01884.x
Acoustic and Perceptual Indicators of Normal and Pathological Voice

The aim of this study was to obtain acoustic correlates to vocal quality of a group of men and women with and without voice disorders, based on evaluations of a group of judges experienced in the field of vocal rehabilitation. In male subjects, perceptual evaluation of normal, hoarse and rough voice qualities was related to the following acoustic features: frequency perturbation measures (JITA, RAP, and SPPQ), amplitude perturbation (SAPQ and VAM), soft phonation index (SPI) and fundamental frequency tremor intensity (FTRI). While these measures presented normal values for normal voice, hoarseness showed some deviations in perturbation frequency variables and very high SPI values, while rough voice showed deviations in all the measures. Qualities of female voices were perceived as normal, breathy and hoarse, but the acoustic correlates of these qualities were less conclusive.
Quality of life and lifestyle among city dwellers participating in the medical programs

Abstract In order to offer health education to the general population, taking into account not only their physical health but also their QOL (quality of life), it is necessary to clarify what guidance should be provided in the sight of QOL. In this study, the relationship between QOL and lifestyle was investigated in 615 Japanese (402 males, 213 females; ranging in age from teens to nineties; mean age, 43.4 ± 16.3 years) undergoing medical checkups. After informed consent was obtained, subjects completed a questionnaire incorporating the Medical Outcome Study 36‐item Short Form Health Survey as a QOL scale in addition to questions concerning individual and lifestyle factors. The results showed that most individual factors and lifestyle factors evaluated were related to QOL. In particular, the physical health QOL of elderly subjects, females, and single subjects, was lower than that of other subjects. Moreover, subjects who ate ‘irregular meals’ and had ‘less than 6 h sleep’ reported lower mental health QOL scores than those who ate ‘regular meals’ and had ‘6 h or more sleep’. Smoking and alcohol consumption were not as significantly related to QOL as anticipated. Taking these findings into account, it is clear that it is necessary to offer medical and health services focusing on meals and sleep for medical program attendants in order to improve QOL.
A Nck‐Pak1 signaling module is required for T‐cell receptor‐mediated activation of NFAT, but not of JNK

The T‐cell antigen receptor (TCR) triggers a signaling cascade initiated by the tyrosine kinase Lck and requiring the proto‐oncogene p95vav. Vav is activated by Lck and can function as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor for the Rho‐family GTPases, Rac1 and Cdc42. To investigate the involvement of these GTPases in TCR signaling, we focused on their well characterized effector, Pak1. This serine/threonine kinase is activated by GTP‐bound Rac1 or Cdc42. However, its role in mediating downstream signaling events is controversial. We observed rapid, TCR‐dependent activation of Pak1 and TCR‐inducible association of Pak1 with Nck, which was tyrosine phosphorylated following stimulation. Pak1 activation occurred independently of Ras activation or calcium flux, but was dependent on the Lck tyrosine kinase, and was downstream of Vav and Cdc42. Dominant negative Pak1 or Nck specifically inhibited TCR‐mediated activation of the nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) transcription factor. TCR‐mediated activation of Erk2 was also inhibited by dominant negative Pak. However, Pak1 activation was neither necessary nor sufficient for TCR‐dependent c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase (JNK) activation. Therefore, Pak1 acts downstream of Vav and is required for activation of Erk2 and NFAT by a JNK‐independent pathway. This is the first demonstration of a requirement for Pak to mediate the regulation of gene expression by an extracellular ligand.
Reusability of the Software

is the likelihood a segment of source code that can be used again to add new functionalities with slight or no modification. Reusable modules and classes reduce implementation time, increase the likelihood that prior testing and use has eliminated bugs and localizes code modifications when a change in implementation is required. Subroutines or functions are the simplest form of reuse. A chunk of code is regularly organized using modules or namespaces into layers. Proponents claim that objects and software components offer a more advanced form of reusability, although it has been tough to objectively measure and define levels or scores of reusability. Reusability implies some explicit management of build, packaging, distribution, installation, configuration, deployment, maintenance and upgrade issues. If these issues are not considered, software may appear to be reusable from design point of view, but will not be reused in practice. This paper presents an empirical study of the software reuse activity by expertdesigners in the context of object-oriented design. Our study focuses on the three following aspects of reuse : (1) the interaction between some design processes, e.g. constructing a problem representation, searching for and evaluating solutions, and reuse processes, i.e. retrieving and using previous solutions, (2) the mental processes involved in reuse, e.g. example-based retrieval or bottom-up versus top-down expanding of the solution, and (3) the mental representations constructed throughout the reuse activity, e.g. dynamic versus static representations.
Padrões de Uso e Motivos para Envolvimento em Redes Sociais Virtuais na Adolescência

Este trabalho investigou se ha diferencas no acesso a internet e uso das redes sociais entre alunos de escolas publicas e privadas e quais os motivos para se conectarem nas mesmas. Um questionario aplicado em quatros escolas buscou compreender a opiniao dos jovens sobre o assunto. Os resultados apontaram diferencas no tempo de uso das redes sociais por estudantes de escolas publicas e privadas. Ademais, os alunos indicaram conectar-se nas redes sociais para falar, principalmente, com familiares e amigos ja conhecidos. Entende-se que os adolescentes consideram as redes sociais um local de circulacao de informacoes e que e necessaria cautela para navegar neste universo cibernetico.