Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vascular Response to Graded Angiotensin II Infusion in Offspring Subjected to High-Salt Drinking Water during Pregnancy: The Effect of Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Urine Output, Endothelial Permeability, and Gender

Introduction. Rennin-angiotensin system and salt diet play important roles in blood pressure control. We hypothesized that the high-salt intake during pregnancy influences the degree of angiotensin-dependent control of the blood pressure in adult offspring. Methods. Female Wistar rats in two groups (A and B) were subjected to drink tap and salt water, respectively, during pregnancy. The offspring were divided into four groups as male and female offspring from group A (groups 1 and 2) and from group B (groups 3 and 4). In anesthetized matured offspring mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate and urine output were measured in response to angiotensin II (AngII) (0-1000 ng/kg/min, iv) infusion. Results. An increase in MAP was detected in mothers with salt drinking water (P < 0.05). The body weight increased and kidney weight decreased significantly in male offspring from group 3 in comparison to group 1 (P < 0.05). MAP and urine volume in response to AngII infusion increased in group 3 (P < 0.05). These findings were not observed in female rats. Conclusion. Salt overloading during pregnancy had long-term effects on kidney weight and increased sex-dependent response to AngII infusion in offspring (adult) that may reveal the important role of diet during pregnancy in AngII receptors.
How the Equity Market Responds to Unanticipated Events

We examine the market reaction of prices, volume, spreads, and trading location when firms experience events that are totally unanticipated by the equity market in terms of both timing and content. We find that the response time is longer than previous studies have reported. Selling pressure, wider spreads, and higher volume remain significant for over an hour. We also find an immediate price reaction for overnight events; however, the market takes longer to react to events that occur when it is open. These findings may shed light on the efficacy of trading halts.
Comparison of the Bondi-Sachs and Penrose approaches to asymptotic flatness

Relations between the Bondi-Sachs approach and the Penrose conformal technique for asymptotically flat metrics are reviewed. Conditions on the conformal factor and the Ricci tensor are examined in order to compare the two approaches. The Bondi-Sachs coordinates are constructed (up to O( 3 )) for a class of Robinson-Trautman metrics. Some solutions within this class (with pure radiation fields) are given.
Dynamic Sounds Capture the Boundaries of Peripersonal Space Representation in Humans

Background We physically interact with external stimuli when they occur within a limited space immediately surrounding the body, i.e., Peripersonal Space (PPS). In the primate brain, specific fronto-parietal areas are responsible for the multisensory representation of PPS, by integrating tactile, visual and auditory information occurring on and near the body. Dynamic stimuli are particularly relevant for PPS representation, as they might refer to potential harms approaching the body. However, behavioural tasks for studying PPS representation with moving stimuli are lacking. Here we propose a new dynamic audio-tactile interaction task in order to assess the extension of PPS in a more functionally and ecologically valid condition. Methodology/Principal Findings Participants vocally responded to a tactile stimulus administered at the hand at different delays from the onset of task-irrelevant dynamic sounds which gave the impression of a sound source either approaching or receding from the subject’s hand. Results showed that a moving auditory stimulus speeded up the processing of a tactile stimulus at the hand as long as it was perceived at a limited distance from the hand, that is within the boundaries of PPS representation. The audio-tactile interaction effect was stronger when sounds were approaching compared to when sounds were receding. Conclusion/Significance This study provides a new method to dynamically assess PPS representation: The function describing the relationship between tactile processing and the position of sounds in space can be used to estimate the location of PPS boundaries, along a spatial continuum between far and near space, in a valuable and ecologically significant way.
Changes in older couples’ compassionate love over a year

Although compassionate love has been identified as a key characteristic of healthy relationships, it is unknown how it changes over time. Thus, both self- and spouse-reported compassionate love toward a spouse were assessed from a sample of 64 older married couples to begin to understand the course of compassionate love and to identify predictors of potential changes over a 1-year period. In contrast to prior theoretical and cross-sectional work, results indicated that compassionate love modestly declined over two waves spaced approximately 17 months apart. Although health was largely unrelated to compassionate love, wives’ attachment avoidance emerged as a consistent, negative predictor of compassionate love for both husbands and wives. These preliminary findings raise some concern for older spouses as they transition into more caregiving roles, as the need for compassionate love is theorized to be greater later in life. Future research should focus on replicating these findings in more diverse samples of older adults to capture how compassionate love develops amid the unique challenges associated with aging.
Innovation Activities and the Incentives for Vertical Acquisitions and Integration

We examine firm vertical integration through acquisitions and organic changes in production. We develop a new firm-specific measure of vertical relatedness and integration using 10-K product text. We find that firms in high R&D industries are less likely to become targets in vertical acquisitions or vertically integrate. These findings are consistent with firms with unrealized innovation avoiding integration to maintain ex ante incentives to invest in intangible assets and keep residual rights of control. In contrast, firms in high patenting and more mature industries are more likely to vertically integrate, consistent with ownership facilitating commercialization and reducing ex post holdup.
Estimating the Sentence-Level Quality of Machine Translation Systems

We investigate the problem of predicting the quality of sentences produced by machine translation systems when reference translations are not available. The problem is addressed as a regression task and a method that takes into account the contribution of different features is proposed. We experiment with this method for translations produced by various MT systems and different language pairs, annotated with quality scores both automatically and manually. Results show that our method allows obtaining good estimates and that identifying a reduced set of relevant features plays an important role. The experiments also highlight a number of outstanding features that were consistently selected as the most relevant and could be used in different ways to improve MT performance or to enhance MT evaluation.
Learning Character Representations for Chinese Word Segmentation

We propose a simple yet effective semi-supervised method for improving Chinese Word Segmentation. Our method is based on learning generalizable vector and cluster representations of variable-length character sequences from large unlabeled data, which is then incorporated into a sequence labeling model with the passive-aggressive algorithm as features. We achieve state-of-the-art results on the SIGHAN2005 Bakeoff and show significant improvements on Out-Of-Vocabulary (OOV) words, a long-standing challenge in word segmentation.
Students Evaluation of Faculty

This study aimed to investigate how students evaluate their faculty and the effect of gender, expected grade, and college on students’ evaluation. The study sample consisted of 5291 students from Tafila Technical University Faculty evaluation scale was used to collect data. The results indicated that student evaluation of faculty was high (mean = 4.14, S.D. = 0.79) and there were statistically significant differences in students’ evaluation attributed to students’ gender, college and expected grade in the course.
Examining different measures of multimorbidity, using a large prospective cross-sectional study in Australian general practice

Objectives Prevalence estimates of multimorbidity vary widely due to inconsistent definitions and measurement methods. This study examines the independent effects on prevalence estimates of how ‘disease entity’ is defined—as a single chronic condition or chapters/domains in the International Classification of Primary Care (V.2; ICPC-2), International Classification of Disease (10th revision; ICD-10) or the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS), the number of disease entities required for multimorbidity, and the number of chronic conditions studied. Design National prospective cross-sectional study. Setting Australian general practice. Participants 8707 random consenting deidentified patient encounters with 290 randomly selected general practitioners. Main outcome measures Prevalence estimates of multimorbidity using different definitions. Results Data classified to ICPC-2 chapters, ICD-10 chapters or CIRS domains produce similar multimorbidity prevalence estimates. When multimorbidity was defined as two or more (2+) disease entities: counting individual chronic conditions and groups of chronic conditions produced similar estimates; the 12 most prevalent chronic conditions identified about 80% of those identified using all chronic conditions. When multimorbidity was defined as 3+ disease entities: counting individual chronic conditions produced significantly higher estimates than counting groups of chronic conditions; the 12 most prevalent chronic conditions identified only two-thirds of patients identified using all chronic conditions. Conclusions Multimorbidity defined as 2+ disease entities can be measured using different definitions of disease entity with as few as 12 prevalent chronic conditions, but lacks specificity to be useful, especially in older people. Multimorbidity, defined as 3+, requires more measurement conformity and inclusion of all chronic conditions, but provides greater specificity than the 2+ definition. The proposed concept of “complex multimorbidity”, the co-occurrence of three or more chronic conditions affecting three or more different body systems within one person without defining an index chronic condition, may be useful in identifying high-need individuals.
Simulation of femtosecond laser ablation of silicon

Femtosecond laser ablation is an important process in micromachining and nanomachining of microelectronic, optoelectronic, biophotonic and MEMS components. The process of laser ablation of silicon is being studied on an atomic level using molecular dynamics simulations. We investigate ablation thresholds for Gaussian laser pulses of 800 nm wavelength, in the range of a few hundred femtoseconds in duration. Absorption is modelled via linear and 2-photon absorption processes into a hot electron bath which then transfers energy into the crystal lattice. The simulation box is a narrow column approximately 5.4 nm x 5.4 nm x 81 nm with periodic boundaries in the x and y transverse directions and a 1-D heat flow model at the bottom coupled to a heat bath to simulate an infinite bulk medium corresponding to the solid bulk material. A modified Stillinger-Weber potential is used to model the silicon atoms. The calculated thresholds are compared to various reported experimental values for the ablation threshold of silicon. We provide an overview of the code and discuss the simulation techniques used.
Stimuli-Responsive Hydrogels Bearing ÃÂ±amino acid Residues: a PotentialPlatform for Future Therapies

Vinyl hydrogels bearing α-aminoacid residues have been explored as platforms for the treatment of cancer, glaucoma and mood disorder therapies. Ionic/ionizable groups of the L-valine, L-phenylalanine and L-histidine residues are able to modify the swelling properties of the hydrogel on the basis of their thermodynamic characteristics. Greater basicity constants of functional groups improve a greater loading of the drug and a longer sustained-release pattern. The pH and the temperature affect the swelling of the hydrogel and increase ‘on demand’ the drug availability. A further stimulus based on alternating magnetic fields can be applied on hydrogels containing embedded magnetic nanoparticles used for site-specific controlled drug delivery. The diffusion process for the in vitro release of the drug (cisplatin, doxorubicin, pilocarpine, trazodone, citalopram and paroxetine) from the drugloaded hydrogels is mainly controlled by the drug-polymer interaction, that in the meanwhile preservs it’s bioactivity. The different interaction strength between the drug and the polymer may be a strategy to develop suitable capsules for long-term therapies.
The Influence of Weight Change on Physical Fitness from Childhood to Adolescence

ABSTRACT The study aimed to explore how weight changes from childhood to adolescence influenced the performances of physical fitness. The participants (N = 115) were pre-tested when they were in kindergarten, first, or second grades (mean age = 7.25). The same participants were post-tested again after 6 years. The President’s Challenge test battery was used in the study. A repeated measure multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to examine the effects of time and body mass index (BMI) change on participants’ fitness performances. Results showed that participants who maintained normal weight made greater improvements in the performances of sit-ups, flexed-arm hang, and shuttle run tests than those who became or maintained overweight/obese weight status. Additionally, children who maintained normal weight were 6.21 times more likely to achieve healthy fitness zone (HFZ) standards for the 1-mile run post-test. The findings highlight the importance of maintaining normal body weight during elementary school years in achieving better physical fitness.
Title: Effects of acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine (Zhi Mu 14) on hot flushes and quality of life in postmenopausal women – Results from a four-armed randomized controlled pilot trial. Running title: Acupuncture and CHM for menopausal symptoms

quality in women – Results from a four-armed randomized controlled pilot trial. Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a clinical trial investigating the effects of acupuncture (AP) and Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) on hot flushes and quality of life in postmenopausal women. Methods: 40 postmenopausal women reporting at least 20 hot flushes per week were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial. They were randomly allocated to receive traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) AP, sham AP, verum CHM, or placebo CHM for 12 weeks. Follow-up assessment was conducted 12 weeks after intervention. Primary outcome measures included hot flush frequency and severity. As a secondary outcome measure the severity of menopausal symptoms was assessed using the menopause rating scale (MRS II). Results: TCM AP induced a significant decline in all outcome measures from pre- to post-treatment compared to sham AP (hot flush frequency: P = 0.016; hot flush severity: P = 0.013; MRS: P < 0.001). In the TCM AP group a larger decrease in MRS-scores persisted from pre-treatment to follow-up ( P = 0.048). No significant differences were noted between the verum and the placebo CHM group. Compared to the verum CHM group there was a significant decrease in MRS-scores ( P = 0.002) and a trend towards a stronger decrease in hot flush severity (P = 0.06) in the TCM AP group from pre- to post-treatment. Conclusions: TCM AP was found to be superior to sham AP and to verum CHM in reducing menopausal symptoms, while verum CHM showed no significant improvements when compared to placebo CHM. Our findings demonstrate a significant improvement of hot flush severity and frequency, as well as other menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women after 12 weeks of TCM AP treatment in comparison to sham AP. Moreover we measured persisting long-term effects of TCM AP on attenuation of overall, somato-vegetative and urogenital menopausal symptom severity at 12 weeks follow-up assessment. When comparing the effects of TCM AP with verum CHM, TCM AP was found to be superior to CHM in terms of significantly stronger decreases in all MRS II subscale scores, and a trend towards a stronger reduction in hot flush severity from pre- to post-treatment. No significant effects were found for verum CHM compared to placebo CHM. Interventions in all study arms were well tolerated.
Uncovering longitudinal life narratives: scrolling back on Facebook

This article explores the potential role of sustained social media use in longitudinal qualitative research. We introduce the research design and methodology of a research project exploring sustained use (five or more years) of the social network site Facebook among young people in their twenties. By focusing on this group, we seek to uncover how ‘growing up’ stories are told and archived online, and how disclosure practices (what people say and share on social media) change over time. We question how we can understand the ‘digital trace’ inscribed through the Facebook Timeline as a longitudinal narrative text. We argue that ‘scrolling back’ through Facebook with participants as ‘co-analysts’ of their own digital traces can add to the qualitative longitudinal research (QLR) tradition. QLR and the scroll back method attend to a similar set of concerns around change over time, the depth of inquiry, and uncovering rigorous, rich life narratives. We explore limitations (especially around intentionality) and ethical challenges, while also arguing for the inclusion of these often highly personal, deep, co-constructed digital texts in qualitative longitudinal research. We also consider how the scroll back method could apply to other digital media, as the sites and applications that people use diversifies and changes over time.
PZ: A Z-based Formalism for Modeling Probabilistic Behavior

Probabilistic techniques in computer programs are becoming more and more widely used. Therefore, there is a big interest in the formal specification, verification, and development of probabilistic programs. In our work-in-progress project, we are attempting to make a constructive framework for developing probabilistic programs formally. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce an intermediate artifact of our work, a Z-based formalism called PZ, by which one can build set theoretical models of probabilistic programs. We propose to use a constructive set theory, called CZ set theory, to interpret the specifications written in PZ. Since CZ has an interpretation in Martin-Lof’s theory of types, this idea enables us to derive probabilistic programs from correctness proofs of their PZ specifications. Keywords—formal specification, formal program development, probabilistic programs, CZ set theory, type theory.
The size distribution of void filaments in a ΛCDM cosmology

The size distribution of minifilaments in voids has been derived from the Millennium Run halo catalogues at redshifts z = 0, 0.5, 1 and 2. It is assumed that the primordial tidal field originated the presence of filamentary substructures in voids and that the void filaments have evolved only little, keeping the initial memory of the primordial tidal field. Applying the filament-finding algorithm based on the minimal spanning tree (MST) technique to the Millennium voids, we identify the minifilaments running through voids and measure their sizes at each redshift. Then, we calculate the comoving number density of void filaments as a function of their sizes in the logarithmic interval and determine an analytic fitting function for it. It is found that the size distribution of void minifilaments in the logarithmic interval, dN/d log S, has an almost universal shape, insensitive to the redshift. In the short-size section, it is well approximated as a power law, dN/dlog S ≈ S, while in the long-size section it decreases exponentially as dN /dlog S ≈ exp(-S α ). We expect that the universal size distribution of void filaments may provide a useful cosmological probe without resorting to the rms density fluctuations.
Fast Direct Mode Decision Algorithm based on Optimal Mode Pattern Searching

In H.264 video compression standard, B frame bi-directional predictions and its DIRECT mode coding are included to enhance video compression efficiency. However, such tools require a complex mode decision process and result in a long computation time. Therefore, fast algorithms are crucial in implementing H.264. In this paper, to save B frame encoding time, a fast DIRECT mode prediction algorithm is proposed, which determines DIRECT mode at an early stage by optimal mode pattern matching. Simulations show that the proposed algorithm can determine DIRECT mode without a complex mode decision process for 42% more macroblocks and, on mis-determination for DIRECT mode, cut down its rate-distortion (RD) cost increment by half, compared with Jin’s algorithm. This enables a fast B frame encoding with less quality degradation.
Implementation of a Physical Activity Monitoring System for the Elderly People with Built-in Vital Sign and Fall Detection

Physical activity monitoring of the elderly people provides valuable information for health aware services. This paper presents the implementation of a system to sense, send, display and store physiology activity. The system includes a wearable device to be worn by the individual to collect physical activity data, a wireless communication link between the patient and the monitoring network. A fall detection and heart beat measurement are also included to provide better monitoring. Testing results show the system function properly and provide accurate fall detection and data for monitoring purpose.
Appendage‐patterning genes regulate male and female copulatory structures in horned beetles

Explaining the extraordinarily rapid diversification of insect copulatory structures has been a longstanding objective in evolutionary biology. However, remarkably little is known about the developmental genetic underpinnings of their formation. Furthermore, recent work has questioned whether male genitalic structures in beetles are serially homologous to appendages, or even homologous to the genitalia of other orders. Using RNA interference, we demonstrate that several cardinal appendage‐patterning genes regulate the formation of copulatory structures in Onthophagus beetles of both sexes. These results are in strong disagreement with previous findings in the model beetle species Tribolium castaneum, but congruent with earlier studies in true bugs and flies. Our results support the hypotheses that genitalic development is largely conserved across insect orders, and that genitalia constitute serial appendage homologues. Moreover, we identify two patterning genes with striking phenotypic effects in both sexes. In these cases, the affected structures are known to interact functionally during copulation, but are not homologous to each other. This suggests that shared developmental regulation of male and female copulatory structures may extend beyond components related by descent to those related by function.