Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of sodium hyaluronate and methylprednisolone acetate on proteoglycan synthesis in equine articular cartilage explants.

OBJECTIVE To determine effects of sodium hyaluronate (HA) on corticosteroid-induced cartilage matrix catabolism in equine articular cartilage explants. SAMPLE POPULATION 30 articular cartilage explants from fetlock joints of 5 adult horses without joint disease. PROCEDURE Articular cartilage explants were treated with control medium or medium containing methylprednisolone acetate (MPA; 0.05, 0.5, or 5.0 mg/mL), HA (0.1, 1.0, or 1.5 mg/mL), or both. Proteoglycan (PG) synthesis was measured by incorporation of sulfur 35-labeled sodium sulphate into PGs, and PG degradation was measured by release of radiolabeled PGs into the medium. Total glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content in media and explants and total explant DNA were determined. RESULTS Methylprednisolone acetate caused a decrease in PG synthesis, whereas HA had no effect. Only the combination of MPA at a concentration of 0.05 mg/mL and HA at a concentration of 1.0 mg/mL increased PG synthesis, compared with control explants. Methylprednisolone acetate increased degradation of newly synthesized PGs into the medium, compared with control explants, and HA alone had no effect. Hyaluronate had no effect on MPA-induced PG degradation and release into media. Neither MPA alone nor HA alone had an effect on total cartilage GAG content. Methylprednisolone acetate caused an increase in release of GAG into the medium at 48 and 72 hours after treatment. In combination, HA had no protective effect on MPA-induced GAG release into the medium. Total cartilage DNA content was not affected by treatments. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Our results indicate that HA addition has little effect on corticosteroid-induced cartilage matrix PG catabolism in articular cartilage explants.
Rebels without a clause: towards an institutional framework for dealing with plagiarism by students

This paper explores why an institutional framework for dealing with plagiarism by students is necessary and it outlines the main ingredients of such a framework that has been developed at Lancaster University. It defines plagiarism as a form of academic malpractice and frames it as a breach of academic integrity. The framework places a strong emphasis on prevention and education, backed up by robust and transparent procedures for detecting and punishing plagiarism. It is informed by a number of core pillars, including transparency, ownership, responsibility, academic integrity, compatibility with the institution's academic culture, focus on prevention and deterrence and support for and development of students' skills. The key criteria in evaluating the usefulness of such an institutional framework are transparency, appropriateness, fairness and consistency.
Achieving DesignClosure Thr oughDelayRelaxationParameter Abstract

Currentdesignautomationmethodologiesare becomingincapable of achieving designclosure especiallyin the presenceof deepsubmicron effects.Thispaperaddressesthe issueof design closure froma high levelpointof view. A new metriccalleddelay relaxationparameter(DRP) for RTL designsis proposed.DRP essentiallycapturesthedegreeof delayrelaxationthat thedesign can tolerate without violating the clock constraint. This metric whenoptimizedresultsin quicker designflow. Algorithmsto optimizeDRPare formulatedandtheir optimalityare investigated. Experimentalresultsareconductedusinga stateof theart design flow with SynopsysDesignCompilerfollowedby CadencePlace andRoute. Our approachof optimizingDRPresultedin lesserdesign iterationsand fasterdesignclosure ascomparedto designs generatedthroughSynopsysBehavioral Compilerandarepresentativeacademicdesignflow. For mostbenchmarks,our approach resultedin fasterclock frequencywhencomparedwith otherapproaches. Evenwhenboth approachesmetthe clock constraint, our approach wasbetterin designquality (placementarea,routing wirelength,numberof vias). The overall designtime was faster. Thesecomparisonswere madeat layout level, therefore they representreal improvements.
Moderators of Couples' Emotional Coordination: Attachment, Cooperation, and Marriage Type

My goal was to examine potential moderators that affect emotional coordination between romantic partners. I conducted three separate empirical studies that are conceptually related. I used data collected in conjunction with Dr. Emily Butler (all 3 papers), and Dr. Shanmukh Kamble of Karnatak University, India (paper 3). Using models of two forms of emotional coordination in partners emotion transmission and synchrony I examined the moderating effects of attachment, cooperation and marriage type on emotional coordination between partners. The purpose of first paper was to examine the role that individual factors, specifically differences in attachment avoidance and anxiety, have on the transmission of emotions between partners. Interestingly, results were counter to hypotheses based on attachment differences in emotion regulation, which suggests the limitations of taking an individual perspective within dyadic contexts. The second paper examined how cooperation impacts emotional coordination between partners. I found that cooperation produces different emotional coordination patterns for men and women. Specifically, when both partners were at high levels of cooperation, men showed an inphase emotional coordination pattern (changes in unison), whereas women showed an anti-phase emotional coordination (changes in opposite directions). Therefore, while both partners were engaging in similar behaviors their emotional experience was different. In the third paper, I moved to a more global analysis of factors that moderate emotional synchrony between partners. Specifically, I examined how different marriage-types in American and Indian cultures (love versus arranged marriages) impact emotional synchrony between partners. I expected that Indian-love marriages would show similar
Avaliação qualitativa de interações em redes sociais: relacionamentos no blog Martelada

Este artigo busca demonstrar a diversidade de interagentes com quem um mesmo blogueiro interage e os diferentes relacionamentos mantidos. Pelo procedimento metodológico qualitativo utilizado (Primo 2006) na investigação empírica do blog Martelada, procura-se discutir as dicotomias ego/alter e laços fracos/laços fortes. A pesquisa visa observar não o aspecto de conteúdo, o que é dito, ou meramente as questões tecnológicas envolvidas, mas sim o aspecto relacional das interações. Palavras-chave: Interação mediada por computador; análise de redes sociais; blog; conversação. ABSTRACT This article aims to show the diversity of interagents with whom any given blogger interacts and the different relationships that are established in this context. Through qualitative methodological procedures used in the empirical investigation of the blog Martelada (Primo 2006), we try to discuss the ego/alter and the strong bonds/weak bonds dichotomies. This piece of research aims to analyse not what is said – the content – or purely technological questions involved, but to focus on the relational aspect of these interactions. Keywords: Computer-mediated interaction; analysis of social networks; blog; conversation.
Thirty-One Students

In this article, the experiences of a first-year teacher of students with mild mental retardation are described from the perspective of that teacher. The authors reflect on these experiences and discuss them with respect to the enormous burdens that can be placed on new teachers in difficult situations. Implications are discussed for teacher education, interpersonal relationships, and the role of special education in public schools.
Cognitive underpinnings of moral reasoning in adolescence: The contribution of executive functions

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by intense changes, which impact the interaction between individuals and their environments. Moral reasoning (MR) is an important skill during adolescence because it guides social decisions between right and wrong. Identifying the cognitive underpinnings of MR is essential to understanding the development of this function. The aim of this study was to explore predictors of MR in typically developing adolescents (n = 92, 33 males, M = 16.3 years, SD = 2.2 years) and the specific contribution of higher order cognitive processing using an innovative visual MR assessment tool and measures of executive functioning and intelligence. MR maturity was correlated with four executive functions (cognitive flexibility, feedback utilization, conceptual reasoning, verbal fluency) and was predicted by four variables: age, intelligence, nonverbal flexibility and verbal fluency. Overall, these results contribute to a better understanding of MR during adolescence and highlight the importance of using innovative tools to measure social cognition.
Nitric oxide as a mediator of relaxation of the corpus cavernosum in response to nonadrenergic, noncholinergic neurotransmission.

BACKGROUND Nitric oxide has been identified as an endothelium-derived relaxing factor in blood vessels. We tried to determine whether it is involved in the relaxation of the corpus cavernosum that allows penile erection. The relaxation of this smooth muscle is known to occur in response to stimulation by nonadrenergic, noncholinergic neurons. METHODS We studied strips of corpus cavernosum tissue obtained from 21 men in whom penile prostheses were inserted because of impotence. The mounted smooth-muscle specimens were pretreated with guanethidine and atropine and submaximally contracted with phenylephrine. We then studied the smooth-muscle relaxant responses to stimulation by an electrical field and to nitric oxide. RESULTS Electrical-field stimulation caused a marked, transient, frequency-dependent relaxation of the corpus cavernosum that was inhibited in the presence of N-nitro-L-arginine and N-amino-L-arginine, which selectively inhibit the biosynthesis of nitric oxide from L-arginine. The addition of excess L-arginine, but not D-arginine, largely reversed these inhibitory effects. The specific liberation of nitric oxide (by S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine) caused rapid, complete, and concentration-dependent relaxation of the corpus cavernosum. The relaxation caused by either electrical stimulation or nitric oxide was enhanced by a selective inhibitor of cyclic guanosine monophosphate (GMP) phosphodiesterase (M&B 22,948). Relaxation was inhibited by methylene blue, which inhibits cyclic GMP synthesis. CONCLUSIONS Our findings support the hypothesis that nitric oxide is involved in the nonadrenergic, noncholinergic neurotransmission that leads to the smooth-muscle relaxation in the corpus cavernosum that permits penile erection. Defects in this pathway may cause some forms of impotence.
Two Spx Proteins Modulate Stress Tolerance, Survival, and Virulence in Streptococcus mutans

ABSTRACT Previous work suggested that the underlying mechanisms by which the Streptococcus mutans ClpXP protease affects virulence traits are associated with accumulation of two orthologues of the Spx regulator, named SpxA and SpxB. Here, a thorough characterization of strains lacking the spx genes (ΔspxA, ΔspxB, and ΔspxA ΔspxB) revealed that Spx, indeed, participates in the regulation of processes associated with S. mutans pathogenesis. The ΔspxA strain displayed impaired ability to grow under acidic and oxidative stress conditions and had diminished long-term viability at low pH. Although the ΔspxB strain did not show any inherent stress-sensitive phenotype, the phenotypes observed in ΔspxA were more pronounced in the ΔspxA ΔspxB double mutant. By using two in vivo models, we demonstrate for the first time that Spx is required for virulence in a Gram-positive pathogen. Microarrays confirmed the global regulatory role of SpxA and SpxB. In particular, SpxA was shown to positively regulate genes associated with oxidative stress, a finding supported by enzymatic assays. SpxB had a secondary role in regulation of oxidative stress genes but appeared to play a larger role in controlling processes associated with cell wall homeostasis. Given the high degree of conservation between Spx proteins of low-GC Gram-positive bacteria, these results are likely to have broad implications.
Personal and environmental factors encouraging or preventing healthy lifestyle behaviours among Persian couples: a phenomenological investigation

Objective: The aim of this study was to qualitatively assess the socio‐culturally and religion‐driven lived experiences before, during and after pregnancy from Persian men and women’s perspectives using descriptive phenomenological analysis. This study also assessed the application of components of socio‐cognitive theory on couples’ lifestyle behaviours. Background: Social and cultural influences on preconception, pregnancy and postnatal behaviours of women have been acknowledged in the research literature, but remain under‐studied in men and in countries driven by strong religious and cultural influences. Methods: A descriptive phenomenological approach was employed using 16 participants (8 male and 8 female), recruited from an Obstetric Hospital Clinic in Iran. Data were analysed by means of thematic content analysis. Results: Five major themes were identified, incorporating positive and negative dimensions to enhancing healthy pre‐ and perinatal lifestyle behaviours: access to information regarding lifestyles; external obstacles to healthy lifestyle behaviours; personal constraints; factors influencing quality of life; and factors encouraging healthy lifestyles. Conclusion: Analysis revealed that lifestyle behaviours before, during and after pregnancy were influenced by a number of interrelating factors involving personal, socio‐cultural/environmental and psychological variables, with cultural norms prevailing over Western medical advice. These findings may inform culturally diverse health care systems and be useful in formulating recommendations for policies to improve future quality of care.
Host galaxy identification for binary black hole mergers with long baseline gravitational wave detectors

The detection of black hole binary coalescence events by Advanced LIGO allows the science benefits of future detectors to be evaluated. In this paper, we report the science benefits of one or two 8 km arm length detectors based on the doubling of key parameters in an Advanced LIGO-type detector, combined with realizable enhancements. It is shown that the total detection rate for sources similar to those already detected would increase to ∼ 103–105 per year. Within 0.4 Gpc, we find that around 10 of these events would be localizable to within ∼10−1 deg2. This is sufficient to make unique associations or to rule out a direct association with the brightest galaxies in optical surveys (at r-band magnitudes of 17 or above) or for deeper limits (down to r-band magnitudes of 20) yield statistically significant associations. The combination of angular resolution and event rate would benefit precision testing of formation models, cosmic evolution, and cosmological studies.
College Freshmen's Perceptions of Their High School Experiences

Among academically talented students, SES and racial group membership predict both college expectations and matriculation, and youth less often attend and complete postsecondary education if their parents did not go to college. For successful adjustment to college, significant adults during high school matter more than they might imagine. Talking to teachers and counselors had strong relationships with social and academic adjustment as well as with positive attitudes for all students. Interestingly, the more participants talked to teachers in high school, the more academically competent they felt in college, and this relationship was especially strong for first-generation students. Such findings suggest that “getting ready” experiences may prepare students to more effectively balance the multiple developmental tasks they face as college students on the threshold of adulthood. This preparation may be especially important for persistence among vulnerable populations, including first-generation students, who spend the least time of any group talking to teachers outside class. Students in low-income, urban communities may be in reasonable proximity to a community, vocational, or 4-year college; students in rural schools may more often see relatively few opportunities for higher education. An academically oriented high school peer group also may prepare students to become socially engaged on the college campus. These preliminary findings are a strong argument for policies and practices that bring all new college students together in personalized social interactions as quickly as possible rather than focusing on groups perceived to be “at risk. ”
Signaling Competition and Social Welfare

We consider an environment where sellers compete over buyers. All sellers are a-priori identical and strategically signal buyers about the product they sell. In a setting motivated by online advertising in display ad exchanges, where firms use second price auctions, a firm’s strategy is a decision about its signaling scheme for a stream of goods (e.g., user impressions), and a buyer’s strategy is a selection among the firms. In this setting, a single seller will typically provide partial information, and consequently, a product may be allocated inefficiently. Intuitively, competition among sellers may induce sellers to provide more information in order to attract buyers and thus increase efficiency. Surprisingly, we show that such a competition among firms may yield significant loss in consumers’ social welfare with respect to the monopolistic setting. Although we also show that in some cases, the competitive setting yields gain in social welfare, we provide a tight bound on that gain, which is shown to be small with respect to the preceding possible loss. Our model is tightly connected with the literature on bundling in auctions.
Les nouveaux liens sociaux au territoire

L’essor des preoccupations concernant les effets des activites agricoles sur la qualite de l’environnement remet en cause le mouvement de specialisation spatiale et sociale etabli par le processus de modernisation agricole. Base sur l’objectif de maximisation de la production alimentaire, ce processus a ete soutenu par d’importants amenagements structurels des territoires (irrigation, drainage, remembrements) et par une legislation qui a assure la preeminence des droits des producteurs agricoles sur l’espace rural au detriment des autres usagers. Dans les domaines scientifique et technique, l’agronomie et l’economie rurale ont joue un role dominant dans l’etablissement de cette differenciation spatiale et sociale. Les preoccupations environnementales remettent en cause a la fois la monofonctionnalite de l’usage des territoires et leur appropriation prioritaire par les producteurs agricoles. La multifonctionnalite des territoires s’accompagne de l’etablissement de nouveaux systemes de relations entre agriculteurs et autres usagers de l’espace rural. Dans cette conjoncture, l’agronomie doit aussi composer avec d’autres disciplines scientifiques, comme l’ecologie, dans l’orientation des techniques agricoles. La remise en cause du processus de specialisation productive spatiale et sociale donne de maniere croissante aux territoires ruraux le statut de biens publics, mais les forces du marche peuvent egalement entrainer une nouvelle tendance a la specialisation et a la privatisation environnementales.
Antigen-specific cellular hyporesponsiveness in a chronic human helminth infection is mediated by T(h)3/T(r)1-type cytokines IL-10 and transforming growth factor-beta but not by a T(h)1 to T(h)2 shift.

Exposure to infective larvae of the filarial nematode Onchocerca volvulus (Ov) either results in patent infection (microfilaridermia) or it leads to a status called putative immunity, characterized by resistance to infection. Similar to other chronic helminth infections, there is a T cell proliferative hyporesponsiveness to Ov antigen (OvAg) by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from individuals with patent infection, i.e. generalized onchocerciasis (GEO), compared to PBMC from putatively immune (PI) individuals. In this study, mechanisms mediating this cellular hyporesponsiveness in GEO were investigated: the low proliferative response in PBMC from GEO individuals was associated with a lack of IL-4 production and significantly lower production of IL-5 compared to those from PI individuals, arguing against a general shift towards a T(h)2 response being the cause of hyporesponsiveness. In contrast, IL-10 and transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta, two cytokines associated with a T(h)3 response, seemed to mediate hyporesponsiveness: PBMC from individuals with GEO produced significantly more IL-10, and T cell proliferative hyporesponsiveness in this group could be reversed by the addition of anti-IL-10 and anti-TGF-beta antibodies. Hyporesponsiveness was specific for OvAg and not observed upon stimulation with related nematode antigens, arguing for a T cell-mediated, Ov-specific down-regulation. Ov-specific T cells could be cloned from GEO PBMC which have a unique cytokine profile (no IL-2 but high IL-10 and/or TGF-beta production), similar to the T cell subsets known to suppress ongoing inflammation (T(h)3 and T(r)1), indicating that this cell type which has not been found so far in infectious diseases may be involved in maintaining Ov-specific hyporesponsiveness.
Internet-Based Innovations for the Prevention of Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review

The objective of this systematic review was to compare the results of studies of Internet-based eating disorder prevention programs. Eight electronic bibliographic databases, three key journals, and study reference lists were searched. This method yielded five published studies: four experimental and one quasi-experimental. A meta-analysis of the study results indicated no statistical significance for pooled study outcome data. No robust evidence exists on the impact of Internet-based prevention strategies on eating disordered symptomatology and on putative factors that contribute to eating disorder development. Further intervention development and consideration to study design are needed to move this field forward.