Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relation of sleep quality and sleep duration to type 2 diabetes: a population-based cross-sectional survey

Objectives To investigate the association between self-reported sleep duration, sleep quality and the prevalence of diabetes in a contemporary sample of Chinese adults. Design Cross-sectional survey. Setting Community-based investigation in Xuzhou, China. Participants 16 893 Chinese men and women aged 18–75 who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled. Primary and secondary outcome measures Self-reported quality and duration of sleep were obtained by questionnaire, and type 2 diabetes was assessed by fasting blood glucose. Sleep quality was categorised as good, common or poor. Sleep duration was measured by average hours of sleep per night, with categories of ≤6 h, 6–8 h and ≥8 h. A logistic regression model was used to evaluate the association between sleep duration or sleep quality and diabetes. Results Both poor quality of sleep and short sleep duration (≤6 h) were associated with increased prevalence of diabetes, with higher rates in relatively healthy Chinese people. Compared with the group with good quality of sleep and 6–8 h sleep duration, diabetes was the most prevalent in individuals with poor sleep quality and ≤6 h sleep duration (OR 1.41, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.85) and in those with poor sleep quality who slept ≥8 h (OR 1.39, 95% CI 0.85 to 2.26), even after adjustment for a large number of further possible factors. Conclusions The results suggest that sleep of poor quality and short duration is associated with diabetes.
Information, prosody, and modeling - with emphasis on tonal features of speech -

An extension collar suitable for engagement with an upper ledge of an invert liner positioned within the canal bed of the base of a manhole or catch basin structure. The extension collar is replaceable and is suitable for use in either new construction or rehabilitation of the manhole structure. A plurality of extension collars may be sealably stacked one on top of the other to create a corrosion resistant barrier at a desired height from the bottom of the base of the manhole or catch basin.
Infant preferences for two properties of infant-directed speech

Title of Document: INFANT PREFERENCES FOR TWO PROPERTIES OF INFANT-DIRECTED SPEECH Judith Segal, Master of Arts, 2010 Directed By: Dr. Rochelle Newman, Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences This study examined preferences for prosodic and structural properties of infant-directed speech (IDS) in 20 infants, 11 girls and 9 boys, ages 0;11;3 to 0;13;0 (mean age 0;11;28). It was hypothesized that year-old infants would demonstrate a preference for infantdirected structure (IS) over adult-directed structure (AS) regardless of prosody, and that infants would demonstrate no preference for either infant-directed prosody (IP) or adultdirected prosody (AP) regardless of structure. Listening times to passages were compared across infants for four conditions: IS/IP; IS/AP; AS/IP; AS/AP. Results indicate a non-significant but noticeable trend toward a preference for infant-directed structure. In addition, weak correlations were found between vocabulary size and strength of preference for adult-directed prosody, and between age and strength of preference for adult-directed prosody. A non-significant but noticeable interaction was found between prosody and structure and vocabulary. Overall, infants appear to prefer listening to infant-directed structure to adult-directed structure; more advanced language learners show a stronger preference for adult-directed prosody than do their less advanced age-mates; older infants show a stronger preference for adult-directed prosody than do younger infants; and preference for infant-directed structure (but not infant-directed prosody) depends on vocabulary level. INFANT PREFERENCES FOR TWO PROPERTIES OF INFANT-DIRECTED SPEECH
An Experimental Comparison of Vertical and Horizontal Dynamic Peephole Navigation

Dynamic peephole navigation represents a technique for navigating large information spaces in an egocentric way. Studies have shown cognitive benefits for a vertical peephole orientation, when compared to non-egocentric interaction styles. To see how the aspect of canvas orientation effects user performance, we conducted a study (N=16) which revealed that canvas orientation has no significant effect on either navigation performance or spatial memory. We also found a significantly lower physical demand and a higher mental demand in the horizontal orientation. For short-term activities we therefore propose a vertical orientation, while for long-term activities horizontal dynamic peephole navigation is more suitable.
An in vitro evaluation of human cytochrome P450 3A4 and P-glycoprotein inhibition by garlic.

PURPOSE Garlic has been used as a flavouring agent, traditional medicine, and functional food to improve physical or mental well-being. Garlic and garlic products generally have been regarded as safe but a number of conflicting reports in the literature and confounding factors make it difficult to unequivocally establish the clinical efficacy and safety of these products either alone or in the presence of therapeutic products. A preliminary study was undertaken with fresh garlic and garlic products using the major cDNA-expressed human cytochrome P-450 isozymes associated with the metabolism of HIV/AIDS drugs, and purified P-glycoprotein (P-gp) cell membranes to ascertain the risk potential for generating interactions with therapeutic products. METHODS A broad screening was undertaken with 10 garlic products (aged, odourless, oil, freeze-dried) and 3 varieties of fresh garlic bulbs (common, Elephant and Chinese), all purchased from local outlets, to examine their potential to affect human cytochrome P-450 2C9*1, 2C9*2, 2C19, 2D6, 3A4, 3A5 and 3A7 mediated-metabolism of marker substrates using an in vitro fluorometric microtiter plate assay. Four garlic products were screened for their potential to interact with P-gp using an in vitro colourmetric ATPase assay. RESULTS Extracts of fresh garlic, different brands and lots of odourless garlic and representative samples of garlic oil, freeze dried garlic, and aged garlic exhibited an inhibitory effect on cytochrome P450 2C9*1, 2C19, 3A4, 3A5 and 3A7 mediated metabolism of a marker substrate. The activity of 2D6 mediated-metabolism was generally unaffected by garlic. Extracts of the fresh garlic stimulated CYP2C9*2 metabolism of the marker substrate. With the extracts tested, garlic had very low to moderate P-gp interaction as compared with the positive control verapamil. CONCLUSIONS Our in vitro findings demonstrate that garlic components can affect cytochrome P-450 2C, 2D and 3A mediated-metabolism of the isoforms studied. The safety and efficacy of conventional therapeutic products metabolized by the affected isozymes, particularly those with a narrow therapeutic index, taken concomitantly with garlic needs to be examined further under clinical settings.
Wittgenstein and Political Philosophy: A Reexamination of the Foundations of Social Science

Wittgenstein and Political Philosophy is motivated by a deep dissatisfaction with the state of political science, and the social sciences generally. Contemporary political science is incapable of instructing us about the most important questions of politics-questions about how we ought to live. This deficiency is “only one aspect of a more fundamental problem,” the problem of the grounding of science itself. Not only does science teach us nothing about values, but it may also be unable to provide us with truth about the world. And it “is but a short step from this to radical nihilism, which teaches that there are novalues at all or that all values are equally worthless, and which opens the door to undreamed of brutality and destruction” (p. 5). Professor Danford sets out to discover how it is that we arrived at such a sorry state of affairs, and he does so by reconsidering the arguments for our contemporary understanding of science that were first advanced by Hobbes and Locke. By understanding these arguments, we may be in a position to see if and where they went wrong, so as to rescue ourselves from our predicament. Since Hobbes’s understanding of science was self-consciously presented in opposition to that of classical philosophy, if we find Hobbes’s arguments inadequate, we may be able to draw upon the resources and methods of classical political theory in our reconstruction of political science. In Danford‘s interpretation of Hobbes, the key to his conception of political science is to be found in his empiricist conception of language, a conception articulated more fully and cogently by Locke than by Hobbes. In this view, according to Danford, words “stand for” conception or ideas that, in turn, are ultimately the results of sense impressions. Danford then turns to Wittgenstein for the arguments with which to demolish this “picture theory” of meaning and the whole conception of “science” that rests on it, particularly Hobbes’s ideas that science seeks certain knowledge, and that its method is analytical and -reductionist. Having disposed of Hobbes and Locke, he then turns to the thinkers Hobbes rejected, Aristotle and Plato, in search of an alternative approach to the study of politics.
Stimulation of Cortical Myosin Phosphorylation by p114RhoGEF Drives Cell Migration and Tumor Cell Invasion

Actinomyosin activity is an important driver of cell locomotion and has been shown to promote collective cell migration of epithelial sheets as well as single cell migration and tumor cell invasion. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying activation of cortical myosin to stimulate single cell movement, and the relationship between the mechanisms that drive single cell locomotion and those that mediate collective cell migration of epithelial sheets are incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate that p114RhoGEF, an activator of RhoA that associates with non-muscle myosin IIA, regulates collective cell migration of epithelial sheets and tumor cell invasion. Depletion of p114RhoGEF resulted in specific spatial inhibition of myosin activation at cell-cell contacts in migrating epithelial sheets and the cortex of migrating single cells, but only affected double and not single phosphorylation of myosin light chain. In agreement, overall elasticity and contractility of the cells, processes that rely on persistent and more constant forces, were not affected, suggesting that p114RhoGEF mediates process-specific myosin activation. Locomotion was p114RhoGEF-dependent on Matrigel, which favors more roundish cells and amoeboid-like actinomyosin-driven movement, but not on fibronectin, which stimulates flatter cells and lamellipodia-driven, mesenchymal-like migration. Accordingly, depletion of p114RhoGEF led to reduced RhoA, but increased Rac activity. Invasion of 3D matrices was p114RhoGEF-dependent under conditions that do not require metalloproteinase activity, supporting a role of p114RhoGEF in myosin-dependent, amoeboid-like locomotion. Our data demonstrate that p114RhoGEF drives cortical myosin activation by stimulating myosin light chain double phosphorylation and, thereby, collective cell migration of epithelial sheets and amoeboid-like motility of tumor cells.
Tunneling Through Black Rings

Hawking radiation of black ring solutions to 5-dimensional Einstein–Maxwell-dilaton theory is analyzed by use of the Parikh–Wilczek tunneling method. To get the correct tunneling amplitude and emission rate, we adopt and develop the Angheben–Nadalini–Vanzo–Zerbini covariant approach to cover the effects of rotation and electronic discharge all at once, and the effect of back reaction is also taken into account. This constitutes a unified approach to the tunneling problem. Provided the first law of thermodynamics for black rings holds, the emission rate is proportional to the exponential of the change of Bekenstein–Hawking entropy. Explicit calculation for black ring temperatures agrees exactly with the results obtained via the classical surface gravity method and the quasi-local formalism.
Real-time simulation of water surface

The paper is devoted to efficient algorithms for computer simulation of water surface with waves. The water surface is a usual component of virtual environment in trainers/simulators and games and often should look as highly realistic as possible, which leads to sophisticated algorithms. On the other hand, these algorithms are aimed at real time mode, and their high speed is crucial. This paper embraces a number of techniques covering all three steps of water simulation: the surface generation, optical effects imitation and building a polygon mesh. Some of the used techniques are well known; we have adapted them to real time requirements. Some new algorithms were developed. There are presented results of implementation of these three steps altogether: on up-to-date personal computers we can calculate and render the surface 30 times per sec and spend at most 8 ms for each frame.
Developing a Method of Critical Thematic Analysis for Qualitative Communication Inquiry

ABSTRACT This case study elucidates a method of critical thematic analysis that the authors argue is useful as a methodological tool used to code and interpret in-depth, qualitative interview discourses. They extend Owen's (1984) articulation of thematic analysis via recurrence, repetition, and forcefulness by adding a method of closed coding that identifies the prominence of ideologies, power relations, and status-based hierarchies. This method is demonstrated through a case study of interviews with female immigrant faculty members. Critically informed themes are purposefully selected and explained, and implications for this methodological development are discussed.
Electronic Reprint Biological Crystallography High-pressure Cooling of Protein Crystals without Cryoprotectants Biological Crystallography High-pressure Cooling of Protein Crystals without Cryoprotectants

Author(s) of this paper may load this reprint on their own web site provided that this cover page is retained. Republication of this article or its storage in electronic databases or the like is not permitted without prior permission in writing from the IUCr. Flash-cooling of protein crystals is the best known method to effectively mitigate radiation damage in macromolecular crystallography. To prevent physical damage to crystals upon cooling, suitable cryoprotectants must usually be found, a process that is time-consuming and in some cases unsuccessful. A method is described to cool protein crystals in high-pressure helium gas without the need for penetrative cryoprotectants. The method involves mounting protein crystals from the native mother liquor in a cryoloop with a droplet of oil, pressurizing the crystal to 200 MPa in He gas, cooling the crystal under pressure and then releasing the pressure. The crystal is then removed from the apparatus under liquid nitrogen and handled thereafter like a normal cryocooled crystal. Results are presented from three representative proteins. Dramatic improvement in diffraction quality in terms of resolution and mosaicity was observed in all cases. A mechanism for the pressure cooling is proposed involving high-density amorphous (HDA) ice which is produced at high pressure and is metastable at room pressure and 110 K. Dedicated to Raphael Kapfer, who tragically passed away in a bicycle accident early on in the work.
Further Result of Compressing Maps on Primitive Sequences Modulo Odd Prime Powers

Let be the integer residue ring with odd prime and integer . For a sequence over , there is an unique -adic expansion , where each is a sequence over , and can be regarded as a sequence over the prime field GF naturally. Let be a strongly primitive polynomial over , and the set of all primitive sequences generated by over . Suppose that GF GF . It is shown that any function in is an injective map from to GF, and the derived sequences of different functions are also different. That is, if and only if and for and . These injective functions in can be considered as good candidates for the keys of a stream cipher.
Headspace-Solid Phase Microextraction Approach for Dimethylsulfoniopropionate Quantification in Solanum lycopersicum Plants Subjected to Water Stress

Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) and dimethyl sulphide (DMS) are compounds found mainly in marine phytoplankton and in some halophytic plants. DMS is a globally important biogenic volatile in regulating of global sulfur cycle and planetary albedo, whereas DMSP is involved in the maintenance of plant-environment homeostasis. Plants emit minute amounts of DMS compared to marine phytoplankton and there is a need for hypersensitive analytic techniques to enable its quantification in plants. Solid Phase Micro Extraction from Head Space (HS-SPME) is a simple, rapid, solvent-free and cost-effective extraction mode, which can be easily hyphenated with GC-MS for the analysis of volatile organic compounds. Using tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants subjected to water stress as a model system, we standardized a sensitive and accurate protocol for detecting and quantifying DMSP pool sizes, and potential DMS emissions, in cryoextracted leaves. The method relies on the determination of DMS free and from DMSP pools before and after the alkaline hydrolysis via Headspace-Solid Phase Micro Extraction-Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC-MS). We found a significant (2.5 time) increase of DMSP content in water-stressed leaves reflecting clear stress to the photosynthetic apparatus. We hypothesize that increased DMSP, and in turn DMS, in water-stressed leaves are produced by carbon sources other than direct photosynthesis, and function to protect plants either osmotically or as antioxidants. Finally, our results suggest that SPME is a powerful and suitable technique for the detection and quantification of biogenic gasses in trace amounts.
Can Deliberative Minipublics Influence Public Opinion? Theory and Experimental Evidence

Deliberative minipublics are small groups of citizens who deliberate together about a policy issue and convey their conclusions to decision makers. Theorists have argued that deliberative minipublics can give observers evidence about counterfactual, “enlightened” public opinion—what the people would think about an issue if they had the opportunity to deliberate with their fellow citizens. If the conclusions of a deliberative minipublic are received in this spirit and members of the public revise their opinions upon learning them, then deliberative minipublics could be a means of bringing actual public opinion into closer conformity with counterfactual, enlightened public opinion. We formalize a model of this theory and report the results of a survey experiment designed to test its predictions. The experiment produced evidence that learning the conclusions of a deliberative minipublic influenced respondents’ policy opinions, bringing them into closer conformity with the opinions of the participants in the deliberative minipublic.
Accounting and capital markets: a survey of the European evidence

The relationship between accounting information and capital markets has been the subject of numerous studies, especially in the US. The purpose of this article is to examine the corresponding evidence in Europe. This review classifies the European literature into three groups: studies of the market reaction to newly released accounting information; studies of the long-term association between stock returns and accounting numbers; studies devoted to the use of accounting data by investors and to the impact of market pressure on accounting choices. The paper reviews and summarizes the main results related to each of these topics. It also addresses some methodological issues and provides suggestions for future research.
A Gene Optimization Strategy that Enhances Production of Fully Functional P-Glycoprotein in Pichia pastoris

Background Structural and biochemical studies of mammalian membrane proteins remain hampered by inefficient production of pure protein. We explored codon optimization based on highly expressed Pichia pastoris genes to enhance co-translational folding and production of P-glycoprotein (Pgp), an ATP-dependent drug efflux pump involved in multidrug resistance of cancers. Methodology/Principal Findings Codon-optimized “Opti-Pgp” and wild-type Pgp, identical in primary protein sequence, were rigorously analyzed for differences in function or solution structure. Yeast expression levels and yield of purified protein from P. pastoris (∼130 mg per kg cells) were about three-fold higher for Opti-Pgp than for wild-type protein. Opti-Pgp conveyed full in vivo drug resistance against multiple anticancer and fungicidal drugs. ATP hydrolysis by purified Opti-Pgp was strongly stimulated ∼15-fold by verapamil and inhibited by cyclosporine A with binding constants of 4.2±2.2 µM and 1.1±0.26 µM, indistinguishable from wild-type Pgp. Maximum turnover number was 2.1±0.28 µmol/min/mg and was enhanced by 1.2-fold over wild-type Pgp, likely due to higher purity of Opti-Pgp preparations. Analysis of purified wild-type and Opti-Pgp by CD, DSC and limited proteolysis suggested similar secondary and ternary structure. Addition of lipid increased the thermal stability from Tm ∼40°C to 49°C, and the total unfolding enthalpy. The increase in folded state may account for the increase in drug-stimulated ATPase activity seen in presence of lipids. Conclusion The significantly higher yields of protein in the native folded state, higher purity and improved function establish the value of our gene optimization approach, and provide a basis to improve production of other membrane proteins.
Near-infrared photometry of four metal-rich bulge globular clusters: NGC 6304, 6569, 6637 and 6638

We present high-quality near-infrared (near-IR) photometry of four bulge metal-rich globular clusters, namely NGC 6304, 6569, 6637 and 6638. By using the observed colour-magnitude diagrams we derived photometric estimates of the cluster reddening and distance. We performed a detailed analysis of the red giant branch (RGB), presenting a complete description of its morphologic parameters and evolutionary features (bump and tip). Photometric estimates of the cluster metallicity were obtained using the updated data set (published by our group) linking metal abundance to a variety of near-IR indices measured along the RGB. The detection of the RGB bump and tip is also presented and briefly discussed.
The Role of Thematic Roles in Sentence Processing: Evidence from Structural Priming in Young Children

The syntactic realization of a verb’s arguments is constrained by the role that the argument plays in the meaning of the verb. In most linguistic frameworks, these constraints are captured by mappings between syntactic functions and thematic roles. Such mappings clearly shape our interpretation of novel verbs. But there is controversy about when these mappings develop and whether they are employed in the processing of utterances containing known verbs. We explored these issues using the visual-world paradigm and structural priming during comprehension in 4-year-old children. In Experiment I, we found robust priming of dative constructions. This priming persisted when animacy cues were put in competition with argument structure, indicating that the locus of priming was either in syntax or in the mapping between thematic roles and syntactic functions. Experiment II demonstrated priming from locatives to datives indicating that this priming was not purely syntactic. Together these experiments provide evidence for the use of thematic mappings during sentence processing, independent of confounding syntactic or conceptual factors. We discuss the developmental implications, apparent discrepancies with the adult priming literature, and the compatibility of our findings with different theories of argument structure alternations.