Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
RET Gly691Ser mutation is associated with primary vesicoureteral reflux in the French‐Canadian population from Quebec

Primary vesicoureteral reflux (pVUR) is a common, genetically heterogeneous congenital urinary tract abnormality in children. It causes urine to flow backward from the bladder to the ureter due to a developmental defect at the vesicoureteral junction, whose formation requires rearrangement during transformation (Ret)‐mediated signaling pathways. To study the genetic causes of pVUR in Quebec patients, we used a sequencing‐based candidate gene approach to screen the RET gene and found that 83 out of 118 pVUR patients are carriers of the rare A allele of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1799939:G>A that results in a Gly691Ser mutation, a statistically significant increase in allelic frequency, that is absent at six flanking RET SNPs tested. Ser691 is a predicted phosphorylation site and our analysis of transfected cells showed that the Gly691Ser Ret mutant can efficiently interact and associate with a 75–80‐kD tyrosine phosphorylated cellular protein, an event not seen with wild‐type Ret. This interaction and/or the steric or electric hindrance created by phospho‐Ser691 may interfere with the known regulatory functions of the normally phosphorylated phospho‐Tyr687 and phospho‐Ser696 on the cytoskeleton actin reorganization that are responsible for cell motility and morphology, which consequently may lead to the deficiency in ureteral development observed in pVUR. Our study demonstrates that the Ret Gly691Ser mutation is associated with pVUR and may be one of the genetic causes of this condition in the French‐Canadian population in Quebec. Hum Mutat 29(5), 695–702, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Open verdict v. suicide – importance to research

Background Open verdicts are often included in with suicides for research purposes and for setting health targets. Aims To examine similarities and differences in cases defined by the coroner as suicide and open verdicts and the implications of open verdicts for suicide research. Method All cases of open and suicide verdicts recorded in the Newcastle Coroner's Court in the period 1985–1994 were compared on demographic and medical parameters. Results Open and suicide verdicts had many similarities, differing only in some respects, of which logistic regression identified the most significant to be a suicide note, method used and age. Conclusions Open verdicts should be included in all suicide research after excluding cases in which suicide was unlikely. Objective criteria are needed to facilitate comparison between different studies.
The Specific Conditions of the Valorization of Capital in a Dependent Nation: The Case of Argentina (2002–2014)

In this article, we examine the tendency toward stagnation in the Argentinean economy, as a dependent economy, in the context of a new development model that emerged in this country before the neoliberal crisis in 2001. The initial boom of accumulation in the period 2002–2007, after the devaluation of the peso, has been challenged for various tensions that emerged, in our perspective, for the dependent economic structure of Argentina in the years 2007 and 2008. These tensions were increased after the European economic crisis and China’s slowdown in 2012–2014, leading to the stop of the accumulation process and the start of economic transition to the different development model. JEL Classification: P16; O11
Support Efforts for Caregivers of Chronically Ill Persons

An increasing number of people today live with chronic diseases that affect their quality of life and that of their families. Health professionals confirm this finding based on their clinical interventions targeting families of chronically ill patients. The aim of this study was to describe and evaluate these interventions. A systematic literature review was conducted, including previous reviews and controlled studies from 1997 to 2007 of interventions targeting caregivers of adults with stroke, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.Ten out of the 32 studies included found the interventions to have no effect, whereas effects were found in the other 22 studies in one or more areas, including burden, knowledge level, mastering skills, and satisfaction. The literature review concludes that the impact of these interventions is neither unique nor significant. The defined concepts of the randomized clinical studies appear problematic when implemented and underscore the importance of strict requirements on future randomized, controlled designs.
Promise of combining a Bcl-2 family inhibitor with bortezomib or SAHA for adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma.

BACKGROUND Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) is an aggressive malignancy of peripheral T-lymphocytes and its prognosis still remains very poor. MATERIALS AND METHODS The potential of combining the Bcl-2 homology 3 mimetic ABT-737, which blocks Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, and Bcl-w, with either the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib or histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) to inhibit the growth of human T-lymphotropic virus type-I (HTLV-1) infected T-cell lines and its mechanism was further evaluated. RESULTS ABT-737 synergistically induced apoptosis when combined with either bortezomib or SAHA in HTLV-1 infected T-cell lines and fresh ATL cells. Bortezomib increased the expression of Noxa, which subsequently enhanced the formation of Mcl-1-Noxa complexes, resulting in the functional neutralization of Mcl-1, an inducer of resistance to ABT-737. On the other hand, SAHA reduced the expression of survivin, an anti-apoptotic molecule that confers drug resistance on ATL cells. CONCLUSION The combination of ABT-737 with bortezomib or SAHA is promising for the treatment of ATL.
Maternal Obesity, Inflammation, and Fetal Skeletal Muscle Development1

Abstract Maternal obesity coupled with Western-style high-energy diets represents a special problem that can result in poor fetal development, leading to harmful, persistent effects on offspring, including predisposition to obesity and type 2 diabetes. Mechanisms linking maternal obesity to the increased incidence of obesity and other metabolic diseases in offspring remain poorly defined. Because skeletal muscle is the principal site for glucose and fatty acid utilization and composes 40%–50% of total body mass, changes in the properties of offspring skeletal muscle and its mass resulting from maternal obesity may be responsible for the increase in type 2 diabetes and obesity. Fetal stage is crucial for skeletal muscle development because there is no net increase in the muscle fiber number after birth. Fetal skeletal muscle development involves myogenesis, adipogenesis, and fibrogenesis, which are all derived from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Shifting commitment of MSCs from myogenesis to adipogenesis and fibrogenesis will result in increased intramuscular fat and connective tissue, as well as reduced numbers of muscle fiber and/or diameter, all of which have lasting negative effects on offspring muscle function and properties. Maternal obesity leads to low-grade inflammation, which changes the commitment of MSCs in fetal muscle through several possible mechanisms: 1) inflammation downregulates wingless and int (WNT) signaling, which attenuates myogenesis; 2) inflammation inhibits AMP-activated protein kinase, which promotes adipogenesis; and 3) inflammation may induce epigenetic modification through polycomb group proteins. More studies are needed to further explore the underlying mechanisms associated with maternal obesity, inflammation, and the commitment of MSCs.
Carbohydrate Export from the Leaf: A Highly Regulated Process and Target to Enhance Photosynthesis and Productivity

The phloem is a central component of the plant9s complex vascular system that plays a vital role in moving photoassimilates from sites of primary acquisition to the heterotrophic tissues and organs of the plant. Indeed, as much as 50-80% of the CO2 photoassimilated in a mature leaf is transported out of the leaf in the phloem to satisfy the needs of the non-photosynthetic organs of the plant (Kalt-Torres et al., 1987). In recent years, new data has shown that the phloem also plays a key role in moving information molecules that coordinate many facets of plant growth and development (Turgeon and Wolf, 2009). This update will focus on phloem loading9s contribution to assimilate partitioning, and its role in balancing photosynthetic activity with sink utilization of photoassimilates.
Specific skill set and goals of focused echocardiography for critical care clinicians

Echocardiography in the critical care setting can provide crucial information about the patient’s cardiac anatomy, ejection fraction, valvular function, and volume status. There is a need for more involvement by intensivists in performing focused echocardiographic studies as this modality has been well shown to improve patient care. Several factors limit the widespread use of this technology by intensivists that are noncardiologists. One of them is the lack of formal didactic and practical training programs in “goal-directed” echocardiography specifically oriented for the critical care specialist. Although it is clear that extensive training and experience are needed to perform and interpret a complete echocardiographic study, a growing body of literature demonstrates that noncardiology medical professionals can be trained to acquire and interpret echocardiographic imaging in a goal-directed or “focused” manner with an acceptable overall level of accuracy. Performance of such focused echocardiography by intensivists has been shown to provide new information not assessable by physical examination, and often leads to change in therapeutic management at the bedside. Echocardiography using the transthoracic approach is a noninvasive imaging modality and is of great value in the critical care setting because of its portability, widespread availability, and rapid diagnostic capability. Programs for intensivists should cover both the transthoracic and transesophageal approach. Focused training with the transthoracic approach should be offered to all intensivists, while training with the transesophageal approach should be offered to intensivists who desire more advanced training. This article will go over important issues regarding current and potential avenues for training of critical care physicians in performance of focused bedside echocardiography.
Development of prosodic patterns in Mandarin-learning infants*

ABSTRACT Early prosodic development (f0 variation) was systematically measured in Mandarin-learning infants at the transition from babbling to producing first words. Spontaneous vocalizations of twenty-four infants aged 0 ; 7 to 1 ; 6 were recorded in 45-minute sessions. The speech production of twenty-four caregivers was also audio-recorded during caregiver–infant natural daily interactions at home. All recordings were transcribed using broad prosodic patterns. Analysis revealed four major findings: (1) falling f0 contours were more prominently produced than level and rising contours; (2) high prosodic patterns occurred more frequently than mid and low prosodic patterns; (3) these distribution patterns of f0 contours showed significant similarities in babbling and early words; and (4) these distribution patterns were also similar in infants' and their caregivers' data.
Access Log Generator for Analyzing Malicious Website Browsing Behaviors

In recent years, the target of the Denial-of-Service attacks, such as the Http flooding attack, have been switched from the Network Layer to the Application Layer. Various attacking schemes are adopted by the attackers to break down the website server, some of them send tremendous amount of packets to break down the target host, others send specific request packets to keep the website server busy in performing great amount of computations or searches of the database. In order to develop a detection scheme to detect Denial-of-service attacks, one needs log data for analysis of browsing behaviors of users. But suitable log data are not easy to obtain and some of available ones are out of date and are not appropriate for analyzing behaviors of present networks. So, we propose an access log generator to generate access logs with characteristics of browsing behaviors for the particular website under investigation. We also include malicious behaviors into the generated access log, which is combined with actual access log of the website for further tests and analyses.
Low complexity synchronization for UWB noncoherent receivers

This paper investigates the operation of noncoherent detectors for UWB applications. Binary pulse-position modulation is assumed and it is shown that, if no channel information is exploited for detection purposes, application of the generalized maximum ratio test leads to an energy capture receiver. A simple synchronization scheme is proposed for such a receiver, and its performance is assessed by simulation over realistic multipath channels. Bit-error-rate degradations due to synchronization errors are found to be marginal.
Comparison of pulmonary function and respiratory symptoms in water pipe and cigarette smokers

Background and objective: A major type of smoking in Middle Eastern countries is water pipe (WP) smoking. In the present study, pulmonary function tests (PFT) and respiratory symptoms (RS) were compared in WP smokers and deep inspiration (S‐DI) or normal inspiration (S‐NI) cigarette smokers.
From game events to team tactics: Visual analysis of dangerous situations in multi-match data

Sport analytics in general and soccer analytics in particular constitute quickly growing markets when it comes to professional analyses and visualizations. From a data analysis research perspective, soccer is a rich source of geospatial and temporal movement data, with high details and a controlled environment. However, soccer movement is complex as its compounds are actions and reactions of two opposing teams with inverse goals. Common analyses performed today are typically oriented towards statistical analysis and considering aggregate measurements. In this work, we propose a set of effective visual-interactive methods for investigating set plays as a first step towards semi-automated analysis of tactic behavior. In our analytic design, we follow the so-called Information-seeking Mantra by Ben Shneiderman by providing overview visualizations, interactive refinements, and detailed analysis views. We take an applied approach in showing case studies that give evidence for the applicability and merits of our proposed techniques.
Exploration of female academic staff experiences in a conservative and gendered society : a case study of selected universities in Pakistan

The focus of my research is to explore the experiences of female academic staff in a number of higher education institutions in Pakistan. The research looked at female academic staff perceptions in light of their socio-cultural experiences and how societal as well as cultural norms impacted their institutional experiences. It also investigated female academic career progression and work-life conflict which impacts their lives. The research also explored how multiple identities are adopted by these academics in their attempt to adjust to institutional life. A feminist discourse was adopted to understand female academic staff position in Pakistani society. From a methodological perspective, data was generated by conducting face-to-face interviews of 16 female academic staff from the four provinces in Pakistan. Sample was identified by snowballing technique and data was analysed thematically from the transcribed interviews. My findings show that female academics experience significant work-life conflict and career stagnation. Respondents indicated that their treatment was often based on their gender which was historically located and supported by male cultural and societal dominance. There was societal role differentiation with men being the bread-winners whereby women had a domestic role. Domestic responsibilities included women having to look after the home and the extended family. Within the institutions female academics are employed, their treatment was based on institutional ‘maleness’ whereby women were often denied opportunities to develop their careers in par with their male colleagues. Respondents indicated that institutional understanding of equality issues was often limited to policy rhetoric with little sign of policies being implemented. Overall, the findings show that for female academics there are a myriad of issues at institutional and societal level that need to be addressed to improve their overall experiences.
Cxcl8 (IL-8) Mediates Neutrophil Recruitment and Behavior in the Zebrafish Inflammatory Response

Neutrophils play a pivotal role in the innate immune response. The small cytokine CXCL8 (also known as IL-8) is known to be one of the most potent chemoattractant molecules that, among several other functions, is responsible for guiding neutrophils through the tissue matrix until they reach sites of injury. Unlike mice and rats that lack a CXCL8 homolog, zebrafish has two distinct CXCL8 homologs: Cxcl8-l1 and Cxcl8-l2. Cxcl8-l1 is known to be upregulated under inflammatory conditions caused by bacterial or chemical insult but until now the role of Cxcl8s in neutrophil recruitment has not been studied. In this study we show that both Cxcl8 genes are upregulated in response to an acute inflammatory stimulus, and that both are crucial for normal neutrophil recruitment to the wound and normal resolution of inflammation. Additionally, we have analyzed neutrophil migratory behavior through tissues to the site of injury in vivo, using open-access phagocyte tracking software PhagoSight. Surprisingly, we observed that in the absence of these chemokines, the speed of the neutrophils migrating to the wound was significantly increased in comparison with control neutrophils, although the directionality was not affected. Our analysis suggests that zebrafish may possess a subpopulation of neutrophils whose recruitment to inflamed areas occurs independently of Cxcl8 chemokines. Moreover, we report that Cxcl8-l2 signaled through Cxcr2 for inducing neutrophil recruitment. Our study, therefore, confirms the zebrafish as an excellent in vivo model to shed light on the roles of CXCL8 in neutrophil biology.
Purification of alpha-sarcin and an antifungal protein from mold (Aspergillus giganteus) by chitin affinity chromatography.

A simple method for preparation of alpha-sarcin and an antifungal protein (AFP) from mold (Aspergillus giganteus MDH 18894) has been developed. alpha-Sarcin and AFP were purified simultaneously by chitin affinity column chromatography and gel filtration. By this method, 4.5 mg of pure alpha-sarcin and 6.9 mg of pure AFP were obtained from 2 liters of culture medium. Compared with other purification methods such as ion-exchange column chromatography, this procedure was very simple and specific. The purified alpha-sarcin and AFP were homogeneous as characterized by SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Both alpha-sarcin and AFP exhibited the binding activity to generated chitin. Soluble glycochitin decreased the intensity of fluorescence of alpha-sarcin and made the lambda(em)m shift from 340 to 347 nm. Titration of alpha-sarcin with N-bromosuccinimide under native conditions revealed that two tryptophans (Trps) were all located in the core part of alpha-sarcin molecule. This indicated that Trps were not involved in the binding of alpha-sarcin to chitin. Glycochitin in the culture medium increased the expression of alpha-sarcin, while it had no effect on the expression of AFP. Unlike other ligands such as Cibacron blue for the affinity purification of alpha-sarcin and AFP, glycochitin increased the nuclease activity of alpha-sarcin.
Prioritising retail service quality determinants: a study in the context of India

The study explores the service quality of Indian departmental stores to prioritise service quality determinants from the customers' perspective. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is employed to achieve the objective of prioritisation of service quality determinants. At the dimension level, professionalism was found to be the most important factor, followed by physical aspects and policy. On the basis of composite priority, prompt service (0.113) was found to be the most important service attribute followed by fulfil promises (0.094), availability of merchandise (0.078) and timing of service (0.073). The approach adopted in the present study guides the marketer to understand the firm's competitive position vis-a-vis the competition.
Activation and Effective Connectivity Changes Following Explicit-Memory Training for Face–Name Pairs in Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment

Background. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is often a precursor to Alzheimer disease. Little research has examined the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation in patients with MCI, and the relevant neural mechanisms have not been explored. The authors previously showed the behavioral efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation using mnemonic strategies for face–name associations in patients with MCI. Here, the authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to test whether there were training-specific changes in activation and connectivity within memory-related areas. Methods. A total of 6 patients with amnestic, multidomain MCI underwent pretraining and posttraining fMRI scans, during which they encoded 90 novel face–name pairs and completed a 4-choice recognition memory test immediately after scanning. Patients were taught mnemonic strategies for half the face–name pairs during 3 intervening training sessions. Results. Training-specific effects comprised significantly increased activation within a widespread cerebral cortical network involving medial frontal, parietal, and occipital regions; the left frontal operculum and angular gyrus; and regions in the left lateral temporal cortex. Increased activation common to trained and untrained stimuli was found in a separate network involving inferior frontal, lateral parietal, and occipital cortical regions. Effective connectivity analysis using multivariate, correlation-purged Granger causality analysis revealed generally increased connectivity after training, particularly involving the middle temporal gyrus and foci in the occipital cortex and the precuneus. Conclusion. The authors’ findings suggest that the effectiveness of explicit-memory training in patients with MCI is associated with training-specific increases in activation and connectivity in a distributed neural system that includes areas involved in explicit memory.
Performance modeling and code partitioning for the DS architecture

DS (Decoupled-Superscalar) is a new microarchitecture that combines decoupled and superscalar techniques to exploit instruction level parallelism. Issue bandwidth is increased while circuit complexity growth is controlled with little negative impact on performance. Programs for DS are compiled into two instruction substreams: the dominant substream navigates the control flow and the rest of computational task is shared between the dominant and subsidiary substreams. Each substream is processed by a separate superscalar core realizable with current VLSI technology. DS machines are binary compatible with superscalar machines having the same instruction set, and a family of DS machines is binary compatible without recompilation. DS run time behavior is examined with an analytical model. A novel technique for controlling slip between substreams is introduced. Code partitioning issues of instruction count balancing and residence time balancing, important to any split-stream scheme, are discussed. Simulation shows DS achieves performance comparable to an aggressive superscalar, but with potentially less complex hardware and faster clock rate.