Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphologic Characteristics of Choroid in the Major Choroidal Thickening Diseases, Studied by Optical Coherence Tomography

We investigated morphologic features of choroid in the choroidal thickening diseases, including central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC), polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), and Vogt-Koyanagi-Harada disease (VKH), by a novel tomographic classification system of the choroid. This cross-sectional study involved 30 patients with active CSC, 30 patients with active PCV, and 27 patients with active VKH, and 30 normal controls. Utilizing enhanced depth imaging optical coherence tomography, we classified the morphology of the choroid into five categories: 1) Standard (S), 2) Dilated outer layer and Attenuated inner layer (DA), 3) Darkened (D), 4) Marbled (M), and 5) Pauci-Vascular (PV) types. Additional tomographic characteristics of the choroid such as choroidal vascular dilation, convolution, scleral invisibility, and choroidal hyper- or hypo-thickening were identified as well. The distribution of five choroidal tomographic morphology and additional tomographic characteristics in each group were analyzed. The DA type was observed in the CSC group more frequently than in the normal control group (53.3% vs 3.3%, P < 0.001). Additional tomographic characteristics, such as choroidal vascular dilation (76.7%), and choroidal hyper-thickening (36.7%), were more prevalent in the CSC group than in the control group. The PCV group showed higher prevalence of DA type (33.3% vs. 3.3%, P = 0.006) than the control group. The VKH group showed a significantly higher frequency of the D type (63.0%), convolution (40.7%), and scleral invisibility (70.4%) than controls (0% for all three findings). In conclusion, CSC and PCV shared common morphologic characteristics of choroid, including dilated outer vascular layer and focally attenuated innermost layer. Dense hypo-reflectivity and convolution of choroid were the specific tomographic markers for acute VKH. A new tomographic classification system of choroid may provide discrimination ability and insight into major pachychoroidopathies.
Abrogation of fibroblast activation protein enzymatic activity attenuates tumor growth

Tumor-associated fibroblasts are functionally and phenotypically distinct from normal fibroblasts that are not in the tumor microenvironment. Fibroblast activation protein is a 95 kDa cell surface glycoprotein expressed by tumor stromal fibroblasts, and has been shown to have dipeptidyl peptidase and collagenase activity. Site-directed mutagenesis at the catalytic site of fibroblast activation protein, Ser624 → Ala624, resulted in an ∼100,000-fold loss of fibroblast activation protein dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP) activity. HEK293 cells transfected with wild-type fibroblast activation protein, enzymatic mutant (S624A) fibroblast activation protein, or vector alone, were inoculated subcutaneously into immunodeficient mouse to assess the contribution of fibroblast activation protein enzymatic activity to tumor growth. Overexpression of wild-type fibroblast activation protein showed growth potentiation and enhanced tumorigenicity compared with both fibroblast activation protein S624A and vector-transfected HEK293 xenografts. HEK293 cells transfected with fibroblast activation protein S624A showed tumor growth rates and tumorigenicity potential similar only to vector-transfected HEK293. In vivo assessment of fibroblast activation protein DPP activity of these tumors showed enhanced enzymatic activity of wild-type fibroblast activation protein, with only baseline levels of fibroblast activation protein DPP activity in either fibroblast activation protein S624A or vector-only xenografts. These results indicate that the enzymatic activity of fibroblast activation protein is necessary for fibroblast activation protein–driven tumor growth in the HEK293 xenograft model system. This establishes the proof-of-principle that the enzymatic activity of fibroblast activation protein plays an important role in the promotion of tumor growth, and provides an attractive target for therapeutics designed to alter fibroblast activation protein–induced tumor growth by targeting its enzymatic activity.
Mining for personal name aliases on the web

We propose a novel approach to find aliases of a given name from the web. We exploit a set of known names and their aliases as training data and extract lexical patterns that convey information related to aliases of names from text snippets returned by a web search engine. The patterns are then used to find candidate aliases of a given name. We use anchor texts and hyperlinks to design a word co-occurrence model and define numerous ranking scores to evaluate the association between a name and its candidate aliases. The proposed method outperforms numerous baselines and previous work on alias extraction on a dataset of personal names, achieving a statistically significant mean reciprocal rank of 0.6718. Moreover, the aliases extracted using the proposed method improve recall by 20% in a relation-detection task.
Antimicrobial Qualities of Senna Alata

The antimicrobial activity of the root and leaf extracts of the Senna alata plant against some infectious bacteria (Escherichia coli, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa etc) and fungi (spergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans etc) as well as the physiochemical and microbiological quality of the plant was determined using the cup plate agar diffusion method. The freshly collected fresh mature leaves and roots were chopped into pieces and shade-dried at 32-35 0 C to constant weight for 5 days. 50g each of the plant parts was coarsely powdered using a mortar and pestle and finely powdered using an electric blender. Each of the powdered air-dried plant material was extracted with water, acetone and methanol. All the extracts demonstrated considerable activity against both Gram negative and Gram positive bacteria and some fungi with the organic extracts showing higher activity than the aqueous extracts. Stretococus pyogenes and S. aureus were the most susceptible to all the extracts followed by Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli. The most susceptible fungi were Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans while the least susceptible was Aspergillus flavus. The minimum inhibitory concentration and minimum bactericidal concentration of the methanol extracts ranged between 3-10 mg/ml and 25-50 mg/ml for bacteria and fungi respectively. Preliminary phytochemical analysis showed that the extracts contained tannins, saponins, glycosides, flavonoids and phenols. The results obtained show the basis for the local usage of S. alata Linn as an antimicrobial. Phytochemical result showed ethanol to be a better solvent for the extraction of the bioactive agents in Senna alata which include: glycosides, alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids and volatile oil. Despite the significant progress made in microbiology and the control of microorganisms, sporadic incidents of epidemics due to drug resistant microorganisms pose an enormous threat to public health. The use of medicinal plants for antimicrobial activities needs to be given more attention.
"Moral Referendums": Values, News Media, and the Process of Candidate Choice

Relatively unexplored in political communication research are the mental processes involved when political issues, particularly those framed by news media in moral terms, interact with individuals personal values in an electoral context. This study explored how the process of candidate choice is influenced by interactions between (1) individuals values and (2) news framing of issues in terms of contending values. Subjects were presented simulated newspaper articles about an election contest and asked to make a candidate choice. Across four otherwise constant political environments, a single issue which varied in the ethical dimensions emphasized was systematically altered to create parallel examinations of how voters process, interpret, and use issue information in choosing among candidates. Data from two differing subpopulations, evangelical Christians and undergraduate students, were gathered and pooled in analysis. Findings indicate that, in combination, an individual's interpretation of issues and new.
Reduced leaf complexity in tomato wiry mutants suggests a role for PHAN and KNOX genes in generating compound leaves

Recent work on species with simple leaves suggests that the juxtaposition of abaxial (lower) and adaxial (upper) cell fates (dorsiventrality) in leaf primordia is necessary for lamina outgrowth. However, how leaf dorsiventral symmetry affects leaflet formation in species with compound leaves is largely unknown. In four non-allelic dorsiventrality-defective mutants in tomato, wiry, wiry3, wiry4 and wiry6, partial or complete loss of ab-adaxiality was observed in leaves as well as in lateral organs in the flower, and the number of leaflets in leaves was reduced significantly. Morphological analyses and expression patterns of molecular markers for ab-adaxiality [LePHANTASTICA (LePHAN) and LeYABBY B (LeYAB B)] indicated that ab-adaxial cell fates were altered in mutant leaves. Reduction in expression of both LeT6 (a tomato KNOX gene) and LePHAN during post-primordial leaf development was correlated with a reduction in leaflet formation in the wiry mutants. LePHAN expression in LeT6 overexpression mutants suggests that LeT6 is a negative regulator of LePHAN. KNOX expression is known to be correlated with leaflet formation and we show that LeT6 requires LePHAN activity to form leaflets. These phenotypes and gene expression patterns suggest that the abaxial and adaxial domains of leaf primordia are important for leaflet primordia formation, and thus also important for compound leaf development. Furthermore, the regulatory relationship between LePHAN and KNOX genes is different from that proposed for simple-leafed species. We propose that this change in the regulatory relationship between KNOX genes and LePHAN plays a role in compound leaf development and is an important feature that distinguishes simple leaves from compound leaves.
Daytime and nighttime enuresis : a functional disorder and its ethological decoding

In wetting children (functional enuresis nocturna and diurna) days and nights with perfect bladder control alternate with wet days and nights. Changes of behaviourial regulation are responsible for the temporary disfunction of bladder control when awake or asleep. By means of long-term behaviour observations of wetting children in their families and in kindergarten we succeeded in isolating different forms of wetting. Wetting during zealous play, referred to as enuresis diurna type A, occurs when the bladder is filled during an intensive play activity. Wetting due to conflict (enuresis diurna type B) as well as nighttime wetting (enuresis nocturna) occur independently of the filling of the bladder, but directly depending on preceding stressful events. Step by step the information from the behaviour observations are incorporated into the functional diagram of the regulation of micturition until the elements of the faulty regulation in functional enuresis can be demonstrated. In the wetting child the need for loving attention has become the signal for the micturition. This learned association is the pathological part within the behaviour regulation. Functional enuresis is an example for a modification of biologically adaptive behaviourial elements by unfavourable environmental conditions.
Adolescents Who Carry Weapons to School

Abstract Multiple self-report surveys have collected data about weapons in school. This record review study considers characteristics of 47 adolescents adjudicated for carrying weapons at school and provides a descriptive analysis against a comparison group of 37 juveniles with other offenses. Demographics, weapon type, legal history, prior school suspension, intelligence tests, substance use and mental health information are discussed. The results show that the populations appear more similar than different with high rates of prior criminal offenses, school problems, mental health referrals, low intelligence and problems with alcohol or drugs. No specific factor reliably distinguished weapon carriers from non-weapon carriers.
Age Friendly Environments

In 2050 the global population aged over 60 will reach 2 billion, making this age group three times larger than it was in 2000. This is a challenge that is facing both mature and emerging economies. The debate on the future shape of a long life is one that is key to social development in the twenty-first century and is increasingly exercising the minds of policy-makers throughout the world. The World Economic Forum (WEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have all identified population ageing as a key issue facing the world community. Beard et al. (2012) claim that while most talk is about the demographic shift, the task of addressing global ageing is principally one of cultural adaptation.
How individual interactions control aggregation patterns in gregarious arthropods

Aggregation is one of the most widespread phenomena in animal groups and often represents a collective dynamic response to environmental conditions. In social species the underlying mechanisms mostly obey self-organized principles. This phenomenon constitutes a powerful model to decouple purely social components from ecological factors. Here we used a model of cockroach aggregation to address the problems of sensitivity of collective patterns and control of aggregation dynamics. The individual behavioural rules (as a function of neighbour density) and the emergent collective patterns were previously quantified and modelled by Jeanson et al. (2003, 2004). We first present the diverse spatio-temporal patterns of a derived model in response to parameter changes, either involving social or non-social interactions. This sensitivity analysis is then extended to evaluate the evolution of these patterns in mixed societies of sub-populations with different behavioural parameters. Simple linear or highly non-linear collective responses emerge. We discuss their potential application to control animal populations by infiltration of biomimetic autonomous robots that mimic cockroach behaviour. We suggest that detailed behavioural models are a prerequisite to do so.
Optimality conditions for the nonlinear programming problems on Riemannian manifolds

In recent years, many traditional optimization methods have been successfully generalized to minimize objective functions on manifolds. In this paper, we first extend the general traditional constrained optimization problem to a nonlinear programming problem built upon a general Riemannian manifold M , and discuss the first-order and the second-order optimality conditions. By exploiting the differential geometry structure of the underlying manifold M , we show that, in the language of differential geometry, the first-order and the second-order optimality conditions of the nonlinear programming problem on M coincide with the traditional optimality conditions. When the objective function is nonsmooth Lipschitz continuous, we extend the Clarke generalized gradient, tangent and normal cone, and establish the first-order optimality conditions. For the case when M is an embedded submanifold of Rm, formed by a set of equality constraints, we show that the optimality conditions can be derived directly from the traditional results on Rm.
Demographic and personality predictors of intelligence: a study using the Neo Personality Inventory and the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator

The aim of the present study was to investigate to what extent personality, gender, and age can predict psychometric intelligence scores. A total of 900 participants completed the Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Test, the Graduate Managerial Assessment: Abstract, the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, and the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator. Intelligence was found to be most consistently predicted by high Openness and low Neuroticism, which has been repeatedly reported in the past (Ackerman & Heggestad, 1997; Kyllonen, 1997), as well as by low Extraversion and low Conscientiousness, which has also been previously reported (Furnham, Chamorro‐Premuzic, & Moutafi, under review). Of the demographic factors, there were no gender differences with respect to general intelligence (g), but age was found to be a significant negative predictor of g, in line with previous findings (Matthews, Davies, Westerman, & Stammers, 2000). Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
MEDIPS: genome-wide differential coverage analysis of sequencing data derived from DNA enrichment experiments.

4 Case study: Genome wide methylation and differential coverage between two conditions . 5 4.1 Data Import and Preprocessing . 5 4.2 Coverage, methylation profiles and differential coverage . 6 4.3 Differential coverage: selecting significant windows . 8 4.4 Merging neighboring significant windows . 9 4.5 Extracting data at regions of interest . 9
Staff and student attitudes to plagiarism at University College Northampton

University College Northampton (UCN) provides undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a wide range of subjects. In the past, instances of plagiarism were considered rare and were dealt with by academic staff on a case‐by‐case basis. However, the increase in instances detected by staff has led to a need to address the issue more consistently. The University has, for many years, provided students with a definition of plagiarism and has developed a procedure to deal with it. The definition however, did not provide adequate guidance to students, and staff have reported the plagiarism procedure to be unsatisfactory. Discussions with colleagues and students illuminated a general lack of understanding of plagiarism and a wide range of values and attitudes about the issue. It also appeared that the provision of student support and the application of sanctions were inconsistent. Before any institution‐wide changes in policy could be initiated, research was needed to clarify staff and student attitudes to plagiarism and develop a common framework. The overall aim of this research was to contextualise the problem at UCN; to produce evidence, raise awareness of the issues and encourage debate about the pedagogical issues associated with it. It was hoped that this would facilitate the changes in culture that would provide the environment for a holistic revision of institutional practice. This paper outlines the results of the initial distribution of a questionnaire to 53 (10.6%) academics and 509 (5.1%) students to elicit data about the issues associated with plagiarism. It is part of a larger action research project using a mixed methodology. As part of the survey, staff and students were asked to estimate how frequently certain tactics were employed by students to improve their coursework grades. The tactics described were based on those described by Norton et al. (1996) in their paper ‘“Rules of the Game” in essay writing’. This allowed a comparison between staff and students attitudes to the subject. The results so far, have provided sufficient evidence to initiate strategies and staff and student development activities with collegiate interest and support.
Surgical resection of pulmonary metastases.

BACKGROUND To review the results of complete surgical resection of pulmonary metastasis -- a ten-year experience. SETTING Retrospective analysis of all patients with lung secondaries who received complete surgical resection of pulmonary metastases (from 1984 to 1995) in Grantham Hospital, Hong Kong. Sixty patients over a 10-year period were studied. METHODS Eighty thoracotomies were performed with 88 tumour nodules excised. The follow-up period ranged from 5 months to 111 months. RESULTS Thirteen (14.8%) specimens were found to have tumour size greater than 5.0 cm. This may reflect late detection of metastatic tumour and probably accounts for the higher percentage of our patients receiving more major lung resections (63.3%) than just wedge resections (36.6%). The mean survival period for the subgroup with hepatocellular carcinoma was 28.2 months and for the nasopharyngeal carcinoma group was 25 months. The mean survival of the whole group was 26.4 months. CONCLUSIONS The favourable outcome for hepatocellular carcinoma and nasopharyngeal carcinoma could be due to the result of selection of patients with more favourable prognosis for surgery. The latent period, using 12 months as a break-off point, did not affect patient survival in our study.
Between Spatial and Social Segregation among Immigrants: The Case of Immigrants from the FSU in Israel

Studies on immigrants' residential concentration have reported mixed findings. Some have argued that immigrants' residential concentration is a necessary step in the process of their social integration because there the newcomers find housing and employment opportunities as well as social support. As they learn the language and improve their socioeconomic status, they move to neighborhoods where they share space with the native population. Others have argued that the ethnic neighborhood delays the process of social integration in the new society because it nurtures informal ethnic social networks that provide incomplete information and retard the process of language acquisition. The study reported here investigated the effect of motivations, perceptions of attitudes of the host society, acculturation and socioeconomic factors on immigrants' residential concentration. It also sought to expand previous research by examining the relationship between immigrants' residential concentration and social relationships with nonimmigrants. Data for the study were collected in 1999 through a survey of immigrants from the FSU who had settled in one northern city in Israel after 1989. The results show a negative relationship of socioeconomic status and fluency in Hebrew with the percentage of immigrants residing in a given neighborhood. The higher the socioeconomic status and the more fluent the immigrant in Hebrew, the lower the percentage of immigrants in his or her neighborhood. Immigrants who expressed a proactive motivation for migration resided in neighborhoods with a low percentage of immigrants. Immigrants' residential concentration was not found to be related to the development of social relationships with the local population. The implications of the findings are discussed.
Advances in Brief p 53 Point Mutation and Survival in Colorectal Cancer Patients '

We have examined the relationship between point mutation of the p53 tumor suppressor gene and survival in colorectal cancer patients We found that patients with tumors harboring mutated p53 genes showed a significantly poorer prognosis than did those patients with genes without point mutations, and, moreover, patient response to postoperative thera pies depended significantly on mutation status in both adjuvant and palliative treatment cohorts. However, not all point mutations were the same functionally; point mutations within the conserved domains of the p53 tumor suppressor gene were inherently more aggressive than tumors with point mutations outside ofthese domains, and mutations ofcodon 175 were particularly aggressive. These results suggest that knowledge of a patient's p53 status, both with respect to the presence of point mutations and to the specific nature of the lesion, may be required to accurately predict both the course of the disease and the response of the disease to postoperative therapeutic interventions, especially those therapies based on the induction of apoptosis in the neoplastic cell.