Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
STRESS SYMPTOMS AMONG AFRICAN-AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS AFTER THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 TERRORIST ATTACKS

The current study examined stress reactions to the events of September 11, 2001 among African-American college students not directly exposed to the attacks. Within 3 days of September 11, 219 undergraduates (78.3% women) completed self-report measures assessing stress symptoms and other reactions to the attacks. The results indicated that many students experienced a variety of stress symptoms and distressing thoughts and feelings in response to the events of September 11, including academic problems, concerns about family and friends in the military, and fear about war. Most students were highly distressed by specific attack-related news reports and images. Anger toward persons of Middle Eastern descent was not frequently reported. Later college year and having parents not currently together were predictors of overall stress symptom severity as assessed by the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist. Later college year also predicted academic problems after September 11. The findings are discussed in terms of intervention implications and suggested directions for future research.
Addition of Milk Does Not Alter the Antioxidant Activity of Black Tea

Tea is a polyphenol-rich beverage like wine and catechins are its chief polyphenols. Catechins have cardio-protective effects as they can scavenge free radicals and inhibit lipid peroxidation. Epidemiological studies indicate an inverse relation between tea consumption and the risk of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. Addition of milk to black tea has been reported to adversely affect its beneficial effects, but the data are not unequivocal. Therefore, we assessed the effect of the addition of milk to black tea on its ability to modulate oxidative stress and antioxidant status in adult male human volunteers. Although the area under the curve of plasma catechins was lower on the consumption of tea with milk compared to black tea, it did not affect the beneficial effects of black tea on total plasma antioxidant activity, plasma resistance to oxidation induced ex vivo, and decreased plasma and urinary thiobarbituric acid reactive substance levels. The results suggest that addition of milk may not obviate the ability of black tea to modulate the antioxidant status of subjects and that consumption of black tea with/without milk prevents oxidative damage in vivo.
Simulation of Permanent Deformation in High-Modulus Asphalt Pavement with Sloped and Horizontally Curved Alignment

This study aims to evaluate the permanent deformation of high-modulus asphalt pavement in special road using viscoelastic theory. Based on the creep test, the Prony series representation of Burgers model parameters for different asphalt mixtures were obtained and used in the deformation simulation of a high-modulus asphalt pavement situated in a horizontally curved ramp. The orthogonal design method was used to show the effect of different factors on the deformation. Results reveal that rutting in curved ramp was greater than in straightaway. Further, evident upheaval was found on the downhill pavement surface and outer pavement parts of the curve due to longitudinal friction force and sideway force. In addition, the upper and middle asphalt courses in such road seemed more crucial to pavement anti-rutting performance, since inclusion of shear force changed pavement deformation characteristic and the potential rutting area tended to move up. Finally, a preliminary equation to predict rutting in sloped and curved road with widely accepted pavement structure in China was proposed.
Flip chip solder joint reliability under harsh environment

Flip chip solder joint reliability under thermal shock stress was investigated both experimentally and by 2D finite element simulation. The results indicate that solder fatigue is the dominant failure mode and that delamination has obvious adverse effects on the solder joint lifetime. Different material/process combinations (underfill, flux, reflow atmospheres) were designed in order to understand the role of material/process factors on the solder joint lifetime and the results are discussed.
A New Mapping from ALCI to ALC

It is well known that a correspondence theory for description logics (DLs), propositional modal logics (MLs) and propositional dynamic logics (PDLs) was given in [Sch91] and that an axiomatic system for a description logic with inverse roles was presented in the same paper. Schild’s paper covers what is to be discussed in this paper although his paper did not mention nominals as well as expressive roles explicitly. On the other hand, reductions to eliminate converse programs (inverse roles in DLs) are known even for full PDL (ALCIreg); the original reduction from converse PDL to PDL was in [Gia96]. Moreover, a direct tableaux method for converse PDL and further discussions on the elimination of converse programs were given in [GM00]. Besides graded modalities, it was pointed out in [Gia96] that the previous reduction technique is also applicable to nominals. This paper shares some viewpoints well made in [Gia96]. The proposed mapping process here is based on the simple idea to capture possible backpropagation caused by the use of inverse roles. This process consists of three steps, tagging, recording, polarisation, which are introduced below. Concept expressions/formulae are assumed to be in negation norm form (NNF). For simplicity, existential restrictions and universal restrictions are called modal constraints somewhere. We refer to [BCM03] for usual background knowledge on description logics (DLs).
Extracellular Ionic Locks Determine Variation in Constitutive Activity and Ligand Potency between Species Orthologs of the Free Fatty Acid Receptors FFA2 and FFA3*

Background: Differences in ligand potency and selectivity are observed between human and mouse FFA2 and FFA3 orthologs. Results: Potency differences result from differential constitutive activity between species. Conclusion: An “ionic lock” between extracellular loop 2 and the ligand binding pocket regulates constitutive activity. Significance: Understanding species differences in FFA2 and FFA3 function is critical to future studies with these receptors. Free fatty acid receptors 2 and 3 (FFA2 and FFA3) are G protein-coupled receptors for short chain free fatty acids (SCFAs). They respond to the same set of endogenous ligands but with distinct rank-order of potency such that acetate (C2) has been described as FFA2-selective, whereas propionate (C3) is non-selective. Although C2 was confirmed to be selective for human FFA2 over FFA3, this ligand was not selective between the mouse orthologs. Moreover, although C3 was indeed not selective between the human orthologs, it displayed clear selectivity for mouse FFA3 over mouse FFA2. This altered selectivity to C2 and C3 resulted from broad differences in SCFAs potency at the mouse orthologs. In studies to define the molecular basis for these observations, marked variation in ligand-independent constitutive activity was identified using a [35S]GTPγS assay. The orthologs with higher potency for the SCFAs, human FFA2 and mouse FFA3, displayed high constitutive activity in this assay, whereas the orthologs with lower potency for the agonist ligands, mouse FFA2 and human FFA3, did not. Sequence alignments of the second extracellular loop identified single negatively charged residues in FFA2 and FFA3 not conserved between species and predicted to form ionic lock interactions with arginine residues within the FFA2 or FFA3 agonist binding pocket to regulate constitutive activity and SCFA potency. Reciprocal mutation of these residues between species orthologs resulted in the induction (or repression) of constitutive activity and in most cases also yielded corresponding changes in SCFA potency.
Complications Associated with the Use of Supraglottic Airway Devices in Perioperative Medicine

Supraglottic airway devices are routinely used for airway maintenance in elective surgical procedures where aspiration is not a significant risk and also as rescue devices in difficult airway management. Some devices now have features mitigating risk of aspiration, such as drain tubes or compartments to manage regurgitated content. Despite this, the use of these device may be associated with various complications including aspiration. This review highlights the types and incidence of these complications. They include regurgitation and aspiration of gastric contents, compression of vascular structures, trauma, and nerve injury. The incidence of such complications is quite low, but as some carry with them a significant degree of morbidity the need to follow manufacturers' advice is underlined. The incidence of gastric content aspiration associated with the devices is estimated to be as low as 0.02% with perioperative regurgitation being significantly higher but underreported. Other serious, but extremely rare, complications include pharyngeal rupture, pneumomediastinum, mediastinitis, or arytenoid dislocation. Mild short-lasting adverse effects of the devices have significantly higher incidence than serious complications and involve postoperative sore throat, dysphagia, pain on swallowing, or hoarseness. Devices may have deleterious effect on cervical mucosa or vasculature depending on their cuff volume and pressure.
A survey on jamming attacks and countermeasures in WSNs

Jamming represents the most serious security threat in the field of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), as it can easily put out of order even WSNs that utilize strong highlayer security mechanisms, simply because it is often ignored in the initial WSN design. The objective of this article is to provide a general overview of the critical issue of jamming in WSNs and cover all the relevant work, providing the interested researcher pointers for open research issues in this field. We provide a brief overview of the communication protocols typically used in WSN deployments and highlight the characteristics of contemporary WSNs, that make them susceptible to jamming attacks, along with the various types of jamming which can be exercised against WSNs. Common jamming techniques and an overview of various types of jammers are reviewed and typical countermeasures against jamming are also analyzed. The key ideas of existing security mechanisms against jamming attacks in WSNs are presented and open research issues, with respect to the defense against jamming attacks are highlighted.
Investigations of electron emission from DLC thin films deposited by means of RF PCVD at various self-bias voltages

The aim of this paper is to report the results of field emission experiments on undoped, flat diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films deposited at various self-bias voltages using radio frequency plasma chemical vapor deposition (RF PCVD) technique. It has been observed that the emission properties improve when the absolute value of self-bias voltage becomes higher, e.g., the turn-on field value decreases. The correlation between electron field emission and sp content in these films showed improvement of electron emission properties of DLC films for higher amount of sp phase. Keywords—DLC, RF PCVD, Raman spectroscopy, turn-on field, electron emission, effective work function.
The New Frontier in RAN Heterogeneity: Multi-Tier Drone-Cells

In cellular networks, the locations of the RAN elements are determined mainly based on the long-term traffic behavior. However, when the random and hard-to-predict spatio-temporal distribution of the traffic (load, demand) does not fully match the fixed locations of the RAN elements (supply), some performance degradation becomes inevitable. The concept of multi-tier cells (heterogeneous networks, HetNets) has been introduced in 4G networks to alleviate this mismatch. However, as the traffic distribution deviates more and more from the long-term average, even the HetNet architecture will have difficulty in coping with the erratic supply-demand mismatch, unless the RAN is grossly over-engineered (which is a financially non-viable solution). In this article, we study the opportunistic utilization of low-altitude unmanned aerial platforms equipped with BSs (i.e., drone-BSs) in future wireless networks. In particular, we envisage a multi-tier drone-cell network complementing the terrestrial HetNets. The variety of equipment and non-rigid placement options allow utilizing multi-tier drone-cell networks to serve diversified demands. Hence, drone-cells bring the supply to where the demand is, which sets new frontiers for the heterogeneity in 5G networks. We investigate the advancements promised by dronecells and discuss the challenges associated with their operation and management. We propose a drone-cell management framework (DMF) benefiting from the synergy among SDN, network functions virtualization, and cloud computing. We demonstrate DMF mechanisms via a case study, and numerically show that it can reduce the cost of utilizing drone-cells in multi-tenancy cellular networks.
Effect of Blinding With a New Pragmatic Placebo Needle

AbstractPlacebo control is a useful method for determining the efficacy of a therapy. In acupuncture researches, the preferred method for placebo control is acupuncture using a placebo needle that has a blunt tip and achieves no skin penetration.We performed a crossover study to validate the blinding effect of a new type of placebo needle. Sixty volunteers were randomized to receive acupuncture using 2 types of needles with different sequences: sequence AB, involving first the pragmatic placebo needle and then the real needle, and sequence BA, in a reverse order. Placebo acupuncture was performed by administering the placebo needle through an adhesive pad without skin penetration on the acupoints LI4, RN12, BL25, and BL36. Real acupuncture was performed by needling through the pad and penetrating the skin to 15 mm using a real needle on the same acupoints. The acupuncture was administered every other day with 3 sessions for 1 type of needle. The primary outcome was the perception of needle penetration. Besides degree of acupuncture pain, type, and degree of needle sensation, needle acceptability and factors influencing the subject blinding effect were assessed.Needle penetration was felt by 100%, 90% (54/60), 88.3% (53/60), and 95% (57/60) of volunteers receiving placebo acupuncture and 98.3% (59/60), 96.7% (58/60), 95% (57/60), and 95% (57/60) of volunteers receiving real acupuncture on LI4, RN12, BL25, and BL36, respectively. Differences of the volunteers’ perception of needle penetration between the placebo needle and real needle were not significant for the 4 acupoints (all P > 0.05). Volunteers experienced fewer distension sensations (P = 0.01), a lower degree of needle sensation (P = 0.007), and less pain (P = 0.006) during placebo acupuncture than during real acupuncture. The placebo needle was more easily accepted than the real needle (OR = 1.63, 95% CI, 1.01–2.64). The influences of age, sex, educational level, acupuncture experience, needle sensation, acupuncture pain, and needle acceptability on volunteers’ perception of needle penetration were not significant.The pragmatic placebo needle is a valid control for acupuncture research. It produces a good subject blinding effect with a similar appearance to conventional acupuncture needles and no skin penetration when applied.
Neural Machine Translation with Source-Side Latent Graph Parsing

This paper presents a novel neural machine translation model which jointly learns translation and source-side latent graph representations of sentences. Unlike existing pipelined approaches using syntactic parsers, our end-to-end model learns a latent graph parser as part of the encoder of an attention-based neural machine translation model, and thus the parser is optimized according to the translation objective. In experiments, we first show that our model compares favorably with state-of-the-art sequential and pipelined syntax-based NMT models. We also show that the performance of our model can be further improved by pre-training it with a small amount of treebank annotations. Our final ensemble model significantly outperforms the previous best models on the standard English-to-Japanese translation dataset.
Triterpene Composition and Bioactivities of Centella asiatica

Leaves of Centella asiatica (Centella) were analysed for their triterpene composition and bioactivity such as collagen enhancement, antioxidant, anticellulite and UV protection capacity properties. Triterpenes of Centella were measured using HPLC-PAD on an Excil ODS 5 μm (C18) column for the simultaneous determination of asiatic acid, madecassic acid, asiaticoside and madecassoside. Centella was found to contain significant amounts of madecassoside (3.10 ± 4.58 mg/mL) and asiaticoside (1.97 ± 2.65 mg/mL), but was low in asiatic and madecassic acid. The highest collagen synthesis was found at 50 mg/mL of Centella extracts. The antioxidant activity of Centella (84%) was compared to grape seed extract (83%) and Vitamin C (88%). Its lipolytic activity was observed by the release of glycerol (115.9 µmol/L) at 0.02% concentration. Centella extracts exhibited similar UV protection effect to OMC at 10% concentration. In view of these results, the potential application of Centella in food and pharmaceutical industries is now widely open.
The impacts of obesity on psychological well-being: a cross-sectional study about depressive mood and quality of life.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to assess whether individuals who visit clinics to ask medical help for obesity treatment depict comparable levels of depression, body dissatisfaction, eating psychopathology and lower quality of life. METHODS This is a cross sectional study with 534 females who sought treatment for their obesity or overweight being recruited in seven clinical units in Seoul, Korea. The patients group was divided into two groups. The group 1 consisted of the patients with BMI >25 kg/m(2). The women who showed BMI < or =25 kg/m(2) among patients recruited for this study were classified as the group 2. The control group (group 3) was composed of 398 healthy females who have never tried to lose weight. RESULTS We found that group 1 had higher frequency of more than moderate level of depression than group 2 and group 3 did. Both patients groups showed greater eating disordered attitudes and behaviors regardless of obese condition than the control group. Group 1 showed relatively lower level of quality of life than group 2 and group 3 in terms of the quality of life related to physical well-being. In addition, the control group reported higher quality of life in psychological health than both patients groups did. CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, it is necessary for clinicians to make a careful evaluation of depressive tendency and eating disorders when obese women seek for medical help. The combination of medical treatment and psychological approach for obese women would result in higher quality of life.
National Use of Safety-Net Clinics for Primary Care among Adults with Non-Medicaid Insurance in the United States

Objective To describe the prevalence, characteristics, and predictors of safety-net use for primary care among non-Medicaid insured adults (i.e., those with private insurance or Medicare). Methods Cross-sectional analysis using the 2006–2010 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys, annual probability samples of outpatient visits in the U.S. We estimated national prevalence of safety-net visits using weighted percentages to account for the complex survey design. We conducted bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses to examine characteristics associated with safety-net clinic use. Results More than one-third (35.0%) of all primary care safety-net clinic visits were among adults with non-Medicaid primary insurance, representing 6,642,000 annual visits nationally. The strongest predictors of safety-net use among non-Medicaid insured adults were: being from a high-poverty neighborhood (AOR 9.53, 95% CI 4.65–19.53), being dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid (AOR 2.13, 95% CI 1.38–3.30), and being black (AOR 1.97, 95% CI 1.06–3.66) or Hispanic (AOR 2.28, 95% CI 1.32–3.93). Compared to non-safety-net users, non-Medicaid insured adults who used safety-net clinics had a higher prevalence of diabetes (23.5% vs. 15.0%, p<0.001), hypertension (49.4% vs. 36.0%, p<0.001), multimorbidity (≥2 chronic conditions; 53.5% vs. 40.9%, p<0.001) and polypharmacy (≥4 medications; 48.8% vs. 34.0%, p<0.001). Nearly one-third (28.9%) of Medicare beneficiaries in the safety-net were dual eligibles, compared to only 6.8% of Medicare beneficiaries in non-safety-net clinics (p<0.001). Conclusions Safety net clinics are important primary care delivery sites for non-Medicaid insured minority and low-income populations with a high burden of chronic illness. The critical role of safety-net clinics in care delivery is likely to persist despite expanded insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
The TLR and IL-1 signalling network at a glance

ABSTRACT Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and the receptors for interleukin (IL)-1, IL-18 and IL-33 are required for defence against microbial pathogens but, if hyper-activated or not switched off efficiently, can cause tissue damage and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Understanding how the checks and balances in the system are integrated to fight infection without the network operating out of control will be crucial for the development of improved drugs to treat these diseases in the future. In this Cell Science at a Glance article and the accompanying poster, I provide a brief overview of how one of these intricate networks is controlled by the interplay of protein phosphorylation and protein ubiquitylation events, and the mechanisms in myeloid cells that restrict and terminate its activation to prevent inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Finally, I suggest a few protein kinases that have been neglected as drug targets, but whose therapeutic potential should be explored in the light of recent advances in our understanding of their roles in the innate immune system.
Speech activity detection on youtube using deep neural networks

Speech activity detection (SAD) is an important first step in speech processing. Commonly used methods (e.g., frame-level classification using gaussian mixture models (GMMs)) work well under stationary noise conditions, but do not generalize well to domains such as YouTube, where videos may exhibit a diverse range of environmental conditions. One solution is to augment the conventional cepstral features with additional, hand-engineered features (e.g., spectral flux, spectral centroid, multiband spectral entropies) which are robust to changes in environment and recording condition. An alternative approach, explored here, is to learn robust features during the course of training using an appropriate architecture such as deep neural networks (DNNs). In this paper we demonstrate that a DNN with input consisting of multiple frames of mel frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) yields drastically lower frame-wise error rates (19.6%) on YouTube videos compared to a conventional GMM based system (40%).
Efficiency of Coordinate Descent Methods on Huge-Scale Optimization Problems

In this paper we propose new methods for solving huge-scale optimization problems. For problems of this size, even the simplest full-dimensional vector operations are very expensive. Hence, we propose to apply an optimization technique based on random partial update of decision variables. For these methods, we prove the global estimates for the rate of convergence. Surprisingly enough, for certain classes of objective functions, our results are better than the standard worst-case bounds for deterministic algorithms. We present constrained and unconstrained versions of the method, and its accelerated variant. Our numerical test confirms a high efficiency of this technique on problems of very big size.