Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TRAIL Death Pathway Expression and Induction in Thyroid Follicular Cells*

To determine whether programmed cell death in thyroid follicular cells can be related to activation of the tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) pathway, we examined the expression and function of this pathway in primary thyroid follicular cells and a papillary thyroid carcinoma cell line in vitro. Despite the expression of TRAIL receptors death receptor 4 and death receptor 5, purified TRAIL could not induce programmed cell death (PCD) in any of the thyroid follicular cells examined. However, pre-incubation with cycloheximide before TRAIL facilitated the induction of rapid and massive PCD. This suggested that despite the presence of a labile inhibitor of the TRAIL pathway, TRAIL could mediate PCD under appropriate conditions. To determine whether there were sources of TRAIL in the thyroid that could interact with thyroid follicular cell TRAIL receptors, RNase protection assays were used to determine TRAIL mRNA expression. TRAIL message was expressed in intrathyroidal lymphocytes isolated from a patient with thyroiditis, and unexpectedly, thyroid follicular cells themselves could be induced to express abundant TRAIL message in the presence of the inflammatory cytokines interferon γ, tumor necrosis factor α, and interleukin 1β. Furthermore, the papillary thyroid carcinoma cell line could be induced to kill the TRAIL-sensitive lymphoma cell line BJAB through a TRAIL-dependent mechanism.
An Integrated Framework for Opinion Mining and Summarization of Hotel Reviews

Customer opinions hold a very important place in businesses, especially for companies and hotels. In last years, opinions have become more important due to global Internet usage as opinions pool. The opinion mining is one of the most popular topics in Text mining and Natural Language Processing. Unfortunately, looking through customer reviews and pulling out information to improve their service is a difficult work due to the large number of existing reviews. It is identified that there is no such an automated system to mine and extract information from consumer opinions in Sri Lanka for hotel industry. The proposed system focuses on the problem of opinion mining, particularly applied to hotel reviews and targets to develop a system that is capable of extracting and classifying different opinions automatically, based on the sentiments polarity. The objectives of this research are: Study the existing problem of opinion mining of Hotel Reviews in Sri Lanka, study the technologies and tools to solve the problem, develop a prototype to solve the identified problem of opinion mining and to test and evaluate the proposed solution. The proposed solution presents a system to mine client opinions, classify them as positive, negative or neutral. This system mine the reviews and summarize them for the ease of decision making.The system uses Sentiment Word Net based method for opinion mining from hotel reviews and sentence relevance score based method for opinion summarization of hotel reviews. The proposed system will save the time of consumers by providing the summarized opinions.Also this website allow users to search for hotels based on category and the location according to the ratings.In addition this will help the higher authorities by making decisions and improve the services based on opinions of customers. Keywords—Opinion mining, customer feedback, sentiment classification
Resistance training improves muscle strength and functional capacity in multiple sclerosis

Objective: To test the hypothesis that lower extremity progressive resistance training (PRT) can improve muscle strength and functional capacity in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and to evaluate whether the improvements are maintained after the trial. Methods: The present study was a 2-arm, 12-week, randomized controlled trial including a poststudy follow-up period of 12 weeks. Thirty-eight moderately impaired patients with MS were randomized to a PRT exercise group (n = 19) or a control group (n = 19). The exercise group completed a biweekly 12-week lower extremity PRT program and was afterward encouraged to continue training. After the trial, the control group completed the PRT intervention. Both groups were tested before and after 12 weeks of the trial and at 24 weeks (follow-up), where isometric muscle strength of the knee extensors (KE MVC) and functional capacity (FS; combined score of 4 tests) were evaluated. Results: KE MVC and FS improved after 12 weeks of PRT in the exercise group (KE MVC: 15.7% [95% confidence interval 4.3–27.0], FS: 21.5% [95% confidence interval 17.0–26.1]; p < 0.05), and the improvements were better than in the control group (p < 0.05). The improvements of KE and FS in the exercise group persisted at follow-up after 24 weeks. Also, the exercise effects were reproduced in the control group during the 12-week posttrial PRT period. Conclusions: Twelve weeks of intense progressive resistance training of the lower extremities leads to improvements of muscle strength and functional capacity in patients with multiple sclerosis, the effects persisting after 12 weeks of self-guided physical activity. Level of evidence: The present study provides level III evidence supporting the hypothesis that lower extremity progressive resistance training can improve muscle strength and functional capacity in patients with multiple sclerosis.
Decline in verbal memory in non-demented older adults

Decline in memory function was detected in 30% of healthy community-dwelling elderly over 6 years using a task assessing delayed word list recall. Individuals with memory decline over time also demonstrated relative deficits on additional tasks of memory and learning, a task of working memory and executive function, and on a verbal (category) fluency task at their most recent assessment. These relative deficits in the performance of individuals with memory decline cannot be explained by age-related changes, education, intelligence, mood, health-related factors, or the individuals' APOE ϵ 4 status. Decline in memory performance did not result in greater complaints of cognitive difficulties when compared with normal elderly, nor did it limit overall participation in life activities. Although the significance of memory decline in the current study was not determined quantitatively, memory decline is consistent with the early deterioration characteristic of mild cognitive impairment and preclinical Alzheimer's disease and confirms the need to monitor individuals with objective memory decline, even when these individuals fall within normal limits for a given neuropsychological task.
Evolving individual and collective behaviours for the Kilobot robot

This paper demonstrates how individual and collective behaviours of robots can be evolved using a novel technique of applying a genetic algorithm on a lookup table based chromosome. The evolved behaviours are: orbiting a stationary robot; navigation between three robots; follow the leader using six robots; and robot dispersal where the robots move away from each other. These behaviours are based on those used by Harvard University when demonstrating some of the collective behaviours that can be implemented by the Kilobot robot. With careful selection of the lookup tables and fitness functions all the above behaviours can be successfully evolved.
Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH): ischaemia, CSF stagnation or both.

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a clinical and radiographic syndrome first described by Hakim and Adams in 1965 (Hakim and Adams, 1965) and characterized clinically by gait apraxia (‘magnetic gait’), incontinence and dementia, and diagnosed predominantly among people over the age of 60 years. Only a minority of patients present with the complete triad of symptoms, gait apraxia being the most common presenting complaint. On brain imaging, one sees ventricular enlargement without significant cerebral atrophy. The radiographic observation that best distinguishes the ventriculo‐megaly of NPH from the ‘hydrocephalus ex vacuo ’ of advanced Alzheimer’s disease is the degree of dilatation of the peri‐hippocampal fissures (PHFs). PHFs are normal or only minimally dilated in NPH, and typically markedly dilated in Alzheimer’s disease. The ‘normal pressure’ aspect of NPH is something of a misnomer. While CSF pressure may be within the normal range when measured by manometry at lumbar puncture, continuous CSF pressure measurements reveal waves of increased pressure, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and CSF infusion studies reveal abnormal CSF circulation. Sceptics may doubt the existence of NPH as a clear‐cut clinical–pathological entity (Bret et al., 2002). Among ‘believers,’ most accept CSF shunting as a reasonably effective treatment for the gait disorder of NPH. The effectiveness of CSF shunting as a useful treatment for the dementia of NPH has never been demonstrated, and many doubt that there is a rationale for such an approach among …
Altered molecular profile in thyroid cancers from patients affected by the Three Mile Island nuclear accident

In 1979, Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear power plant experienced a partial meltdown with release of radioactive material. The effects of the accident on thyroid cancer (TC) in the surrounding population remain unclear. Radiation‐induced TCs have a lower incidence of single nucleotide oncogenic driver mutations and higher incidence of gene fusions. We used next generation sequencing (NGS) to identify molecular signatures of radiation‐induced TC in a cohort of TC patients residing near TMI during the time of the accident.
Roboticists aim to ape nature: Engineers are thinking in new ways about sensing, chips, and robots as they study dolphins, slugs, and Homo sapiens

The way in which bionics is affecting research and development in robotics is discussed. It is pointed out that mimicry itself is not the goal; rather, researchers hope that in building artificial analogues to biological systems they will discover principles that will advance both engineering and biology. Most profoundly, bionics is dissolving barriers between the science of the living and the artificial. The result may be the formation of a discipline that, by treating biological and technological systems as being alike in a fundamental way, advances both. The success achieved in a number of research projects is surveyed.
Antiviral Actions of Interferons

SUMMARY Tremendous progress has been made in understanding the molecular basis of the antiviral actions of interferons (IFNs), as well as strategies evolved by viruses to antagonize the actions of IFNs. Furthermore, advances made while elucidating the IFN system have contributed significantly to our understanding in multiple areas of virology and molecular cell biology, ranging from pathways of signal transduction to the biochemical mechanisms of transcriptional and translational control to the molecular basis of viral pathogenesis. IFNs are approved therapeutics and have moved from the basic research laboratory to the clinic. Among the IFN-induced proteins important in the antiviral actions of IFNs are the RNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR), the 2′,5′-oligoadenylate synthetase (OAS) and RNase L, and the Mx protein GTPases. Double-stranded RNA plays a central role in modulating protein phosphorylation and RNA degradation catalyzed by the IFN-inducible PKR kinase and the 2′-5′-oligoadenylate-dependent RNase L, respectively, and also in RNA editing by the IFN-inducible RNA-specific adenosine deaminase (ADAR1). IFN also induces a form of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS2) and the major histocompatibility complex class I and II proteins, all of which play important roles in immune response to infections. Several additional genes whose expression profiles are altered in response to IFN treatment and virus infection have been identified by microarray analyses. The availability of cDNA and genomic clones for many of the components of the IFN system, including IFN-α, IFN-β, and IFN-γ, their receptors, Jak and Stat and IRF signal transduction components, and proteins such as PKR, 2′,5′-OAS, Mx, and ADAR, whose expression is regulated by IFNs, has permitted the generation of mutant proteins, cells that overexpress different forms of the proteins, and animals in which their expression has been disrupted by targeted gene disruption. The use of these IFN system reagents, both in cell culture and in whole animals, continues to provide important contributions to our understanding of the virus-host interaction and cellular antiviral response.
Defining knowledge management (KM) activities: towards consensus

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to present a vocabulary of terms that clearly define knowledge management (KM) activities in order to move towards consensus in the adoption of a common language within the field.Design/methodology/approach – Existing literature across several disciplines has been integrated to provide a clear description of the sorts of activities an individual undertakes in order to move from knowledge acquisition to innovation, and a clarification of the terms used to describe such activities is put forth.Findings – Adoption of a common vocabulary to describe KM activities provides a platform to better understand how best to manage these activities, and enables clearer identification of the knowledge management capabilities held by various sectors within the broader business community.Research limitations/implications – There is a need to undertake empirical research and in‐depth case studies of knowledge management practices using a common vocabulary as a framework with which to i.
Isolation and characterization of conditionally immortalized astrocyte cell lines derived from adult human spinal cord

As an approach to develop both oligodendrocytic and astrocytic cell lines from adult human spinal cord, a cellular preparation of highly enriched oligodendrocytes and their precursors was infected with a replication‐deficient retrovirus containing DNA sequences encoding the temperature‐sensitive mutant of SV40 large T antigen. Six immortal cell lines were obtained. At both permissive (33°C) and non‐permissive (38.5°C) temperatures, all cell lines were positive for vimentin, two demonstrated glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity, and none expressed oligodendrocyte or micro‐glial markers. The 2 GFAP‐positive cell lines [human spinal cord (HSC)2 and HSC6] were further characterized. Karyotype analysis revealed that both HSC2 and HSC6 cells showed gain of chromosomal material and structural chromosomal abnormalities. However, at non‐permissive temperature both cell lines were indistinguishable from primary human astrocytes by a number of criteria. These properties included glutamine synthetase activity, Na+‐dependent glutamate uptake, K+ flux, purine‐evoked Ca2+ mobilization and entry, and the ability to support neurite outgrowth from embryonic rat retinal explants. The HSC2 and HSC6 cell lines may prove to be valuable models for studying the physiological properties of adult human astrocytes. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior Problems

Body-focused repetitive behaviors (BFRBs) such as skin picking or scratching and nail biting can be physically and socially detrimental. Given the potential consequences associated with these behaviors, it is unfortunate this area has received relatively limited attention. The two purposes of the current study were (a) to determine the prevalence of BFRBs among typically developing persons and (b) to examine the contribution of reported somatic activity to the occurrence of BFRBs. Results indicated that 13.7% of the sample met criteria for at least one BFRB, of which the most common topographywas nail biting. Persons with aBFRBreported significantly more somatic activity than persons without a BFRB. Further analyses revealed consistent findings across three separate topographies in which persons with a BFRB for nail biting, mouth chewing, and/or skin picking reported significantly more somatic activity than did persons without a BFRB. Clinical implications and diagnostic considerations are discussed.
Kinematic changes in jaw and lip control of children with cerebral palsy following participation in a motor-speech (PROMPT) intervention

Abstract This study evaluates kinematic movements of the jaw and lips in six children (3–11 years) with moderate-to-severe speech impairment associated with cerebral palsy before, during, and after participation in a motor-speech (PROMPT) intervention program. An ABCA single subject research design was implemented. Subsequent to the baseline phase (A), phase B targeted each participant's first intervention priority on the PROMPT motor-speech hierarchy. Phase C then targeted one level higher. A reference group of 12 typically-developing peers, age- and sex-matched to each participant with CP, was recruited for comparison in the interpretation of the kinematic data. Jaw and lip measurements of distance, velocity, and duration, during the production of 11 untrained stimulus words, were obtained at the end of each study phase using 3D motion analysis (Vicon Motus 9.1). All participants showed significant changes in specific movement characteristics of the jaw and lips. Kinematic changes were associated with significant positive changes to speech intelligibility in five of the six participants. This study makes a contribution to providing evidence that supports the use of a treatment approach aligned with dynamic systems theory to improve the motor-speech movement patterns and speech intelligibility in children with cerebral palsy.
Empirical analysis of different hierarchical addressing deployments

Currently the increasing prevalence of multi-homing and traffic engineering leads to an explosive growth of the global routing table. It is well known that hierarchical addressing could improve the routing scalability. Hence, some proposals exploring the routing architecture for future Internet reuse the hierarchical addressing for the locator assignment. However, this may result in some ASes assigned too many prefixes which would consequently make hosts, routers, Internet Service Providers and Domain Name System faced with big challenges. By modeling the Internet AS-level topology using a hierarchical graph, we define the processes of prefix assignment and routing advertisement in different hierarchical addressing deployment ways. Then, we quantify the impact of these deployments on the prefix assignment and the routing scalability based on the real routing data. we find that when the deploying position gets lower, the prefix amount of arbitrary AS is getting smaller, while the size of the global Forwarding Information Base is monotonically increasing. Comparing with the actual Internet's data, suitable deployment ways for hierarchical addressing are obtained. With these deployment ways, the excessive prefix problem is solved and the size of the global Forwarding Information Base could be reduced into 56% or even 32% of the one in current Internet.
ERPs reveal atypical processing of subject versus object Wh-questions in children with specific language impairment.

BACKGROUND Children with specific language impairment (SLI) show particular difficulty comprehending and producing object (Who did the bear follow? ) relative to subject (Who followed the tiger? ) wh-questions. AIMS To determine if school-age children with SLI, relative to children with typical development (TD), show a more distinct unevenness, or asymmetry, in the comprehension of these questions. In addition, this study examined whether the sustained left-anterior negativity (LAN) in event-related potentials (ERP) could be used as a marker for atypical processing of these questions in children with SLI. The LAN effect signals the greater working memory processes for maintaining in memory the dislocated object in object wh-questions and reflects working memory capacity in adults. It was predicted that the amplitude of the LAN would be greater in children with SLI, reflecting the characteristic low working memory capacity in this population. The concomitance of these behavioural and electrophysiological effects would suggest that the subject-object asymmetry in SLI should be investigated in relation to poor working memory skills. METHODS & PROCEDURES Groups including 13 children with SLI, 17 same-age TD children and 18 normal adults completed an auditory sentence comprehension task requiring button responses while continuous electroencephalography (EEG) was collected. Accuracy for subject and object questions was calculated. The mean amplitude values of the ERP data for the wh-questions were examined to identify differential processing of subject and object questions. OUTCOMES & RESULTS TD children demonstrated asymmetrical comprehension of subject and object wh-questions, whereas children with SLI comprehended both question types poorly and adults did not show subject-object asymmetry. ERP waveforms spanning the wh-dependency revealed a large and widespread sustained anterior positivity for object relative to subject questions in the TD group, indicating differential processing of these questions. This effect was attenuated and non-significant in the SLI group. The adults' grand average waveforms showed the expected LAN effect, which was opposite in polarity relative to the children, although it only approached significance. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The finding of less differential processing of subject and object wh-questions in SLI relative to TD children suggests inefficient maintenance of sentential information in working memory for object questions in SLI. Whereas behavioural methods did not identify subject-object asymmetry in SLI, the more fine-grained method of ERPs elucidated this effect. Further analysis of working memory as the basis for the subject-object asymmetry in SLI is critical for identifying appropriate intervention targets for this population.
Examination of the Coordinate Effects of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ExoS on Rac1

ABSTRACT Exoenzyme S (ExoS) is a bifunctional toxin directly translocated into eukaryotic cells by the Pseudomonas aeruginosa type III secretory (TTS) process. The amino-terminal GTPase-activating (GAP) activity and the carboxy-terminal ADP-ribosyltransferase (ADPRT) activity of ExoS have been found to target but exert opposite effects on the same low-molecular-weight G protein, Rac1. ExoS ADP-ribosylation of Rac1 is cell line dependent. In HT-29 human epithelial cells, where Rac1 is ADP-ribosylated by TTS-ExoS, Rac1 was activated and relocalized to the membrane fraction. Arg66 and Arg68 within the GTPase-binding region of Rac1 were identified as preferred sites of ExoS ADP-ribosylation. The modification of these residues by ExoS would be predicted to interfere with Rac1 inactivation and explain the increase in active Rac1 caused by ExoS ADPRT activity. Using ExoS-GAP and ADPRT mutants to examine the coordinate effects of the two domains on Rac1 function, limited effects of ExoS-GAP on Rac1 inactivation were evident in HT-29 cells. In J774A.1 macrophages, where Rac1 was not ADP-ribosylated, ExoS caused a decrease in the levels of active Rac1, and this decrease was linked to ExoS-GAP. Using immunofluorescence staining of Rac1 to understand the cellular basis for the targeting of ExoS ADPRT activity to Rac1, an inverse relationship was observed between Rac1 plasma membrane localization and Rac1 ADP-ribosylation. The results obtained from these studies have allowed the development of a model to explain the differential targeting and coordinate effects of ExoS GAP and ADPRT activity on Rac1 within the host cell.