Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Binge-Watching and its Impact on Learning Behaviour and Important Daily Life Activities among University Students : A Study using Ecological Momentary Assessment

With the emerging video-on-demand streaming, the so far known construction of television changes and the so-called phenomenon ‘binge-watching’ (watching two or more episodes of a series in one sitting) rises, especially among university students. Although binge-watching is widely related to unhealthy and excessive behaviour and assumed to have a negative influence on daily live activities and academical achievements, the overall extent and impact on students are hardly researched. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) was used to gather information about prevalence, impact and context of students’ on-demand streaming behaviour and evaluate intended and unintended watching behaviour. Using a mobile application, 23 participants answered a daily questionnaire, regarding their watching and study behaviour and important daily live activities over the course of 15 days. It was observed that the participants used on-demand streaming services on a regular basis and binge-watched on 36% of the measured days. They indicated to watch on average 1.42 hours online series per day whereby the intended and actually observed watching time were closely related. Also noticeable was a strong variation between the 23 participants. One of the main findings of this study was furthermore, that the students who indicated to watch more online series, reported to spent less time than planned on physical activities. Additionally, on days the participants watched more online series and movies, they spent more time than planned on social activities and less time than planned on housekeeping. In contrast, no negative influence of the watching time on neither the learning behaviour nor the grades of the students was found. It was thus indicated that binge-watching is a popular pastime among university students. Although no alarming negative influence of the daily life of the participants was observed, it was well indicated that some students might tend to excessive binge-watching behaviour. Further research in the field of binge-watching is necessary, and EMA was rated as a valid method to get an insight in students’ behaviour in a real-life, real-time setting.
POST—prototype for the Chinese Large Solar Telescope

Abstract. For a better understanding of small-scale solar activities, the Chinese Large Solar Telescope (CLST) with a 1.8-m aperture was proposed in 2011. As the first open solar telescope in China, it has some technical challenges that need to be addressed (e.g., thermal controlling for the primary mirror, cooling for the heat stop, system assembly, etc.). To support the design of CLST, a prototype of an open solar telescope (POST) with a 600-mm aperture was designed and fabricated from 2014 to 2017. A series of experiments for technical verifications were carried out based on the POST. The design, integration, and experiments done with the POST are reviewed. The solar observation results during its first commissioning phase are also presented.
Behçet's Disease (Adamantiades-Behçet's Disease)

Adamantiades-Behçet's disease (ABD) is characterized by starting with oral aphthous ulceration and developing of the systemic involvements. The pathogenesis of ABD is closely correlated with the genetic factors and the triggering factors which acquire delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction against oral streptococci mediated by IL-12 cytokine family. HLA-B51 is associated in more than 60% of the patients and its restricted CD8+ T cell response is clearly correlated with the target tissues. Bes-1 gene encoded partial S. sanguinis genome which is highly homologous with retinal protein, and 65 kD heat shock protein (Hsp-65) released from streptococci is playing an important role with human Hsp-60 in the pathogenesis of ABD. Although Hsp-65/60 has homologies with the respective T cell epitope, it stimulates peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from ABD patients. On the other hand, some peptides of Hsp-65 were found to reduce IL-8 and IL-12 production from PBMCs of ABD patients in active stage.
Motivating Energy-Efficient Behavior with Green IS: An Investigation of Goal Setting and the Role of Defaults

This study investigates the role of information systems in stimulating energy-efficient behavior in private households. We present the example of Velix, a web portal designed to motivate customers of a utility company to reduce their electricity consumption. In particular, we consider the effectiveness of goal setting functionality and defaults in influencing energy conservation behavior. For this purpose, we use the web portal as a test of the theoretical propositions underlying its design. Based on data collected from a field experiment with 1,791 electricity consumers, we test hypotheses regarding the structural relations between defaults and goals, the impact of defaults and goals on consumption behavior, and the moderating role of feedback on goal choice. Our results confirm the positive impact of goal setting on energy conservation. We show that default goals lead to statistically significant savings by affecting goal choice. However, if the default goals are set too low or too high with respect to a self-set goal, the defaults will detrimentally affect behavior. We also show that feedback on goal attainment moderates the effect of default goals on goal choice. The results extend the knowledge on goal setting and defaults and have implications for the design of effective energy feedback systems. The study's approach, which combines hypothesis-driven work and design-oriented IS research, could serve as a blueprint for further research endeavors of this kind, particularly with regard to feedback systems based on future smart metering infrastructures.
Ultra-Soft PDMS-Based Magnetoactive Elastomers as Dynamic Cell Culture Substrata

Mechanical cues such as extracellular matrix stiffness and movement have a major impact on cell differentiation and function. To replicate these biological features in vitro, soft substrata with tunable elasticity and the possibility for controlled surface translocation are desirable. Here we report on the use of ultra-soft (Young’s modulus <100 kPa) PDMS-based magnetoactive elastomers (MAE) as suitable cell culture substrata. Soft non-viscous PDMS (<18 kPa) is produced using a modified extended crosslinker. MAEs are generated by embedding magnetic microparticles into a soft PDMS matrix. Both substrata yield an elasticity-dependent (14 vs. 100 kPa) modulation of α-smooth muscle actin expression in primary human fibroblasts. To allow for static or dynamic control of MAE material properties, we devise low magnetic field (≈40 mT) stimulation systems compatible with cell-culture environments. Magnetic field-instigated stiffening (14 to 200 kPa) of soft MAE enhances the spreading of primary human fibroblasts and decreases PAX-7 transcription in human mesenchymal stem cells. Pulsatile MAE movements are generated using oscillating magnetic fields and are well tolerated by adherent human fibroblasts. This MAE system provides spatial and temporal control of substratum material characteristics and permits novel designs when used as dynamic cell culture substrata or cell culture-coated actuator in tissue engineering applications or biomedical devices.
HPLC for simultaneous quantification of total ceramide, glucosylceramide, and ceramide trihexoside concentrations in plasma.

BACKGROUND Simple, reproducible assays are needed for the quantification of sphingolipids, ceramide (Cer), and sphingoid bases. We developed an HPLC method for simultaneous quantification of total plasma concentrations of Cer, glucosylceramide (GlcCer), and ceramide trihexoside (CTH). METHODS After addition of sphinganine as internal calibrator, we extracted lipids from 50 microL plasma. We deacylated Cer and glycosphingolipids by use of microwave-assisted hydrolysis in methanolic NaOH, followed by derivatization of the liberated amino-group with o-phthaldialdehyde. We separated the derivatized sphingoid bases and lysoglycosphingolipids by HPLC on a C18 reversed-phase column with a methanol/water mobile phase (88:12, vol/vol) and quantified them by use of a fluorescence detector at lambda(ex) 340 nm and lambda(em) 435 nm. RESULTS Optimal conditions in the Solids/Moisture System SAM-155 microwave oven (CEM Corp.) for the complete deacylation of Cer and neutral glycosphingolipids without decomposition were 60 min at 85% power, fan setting 7. Intra- and interassay CVs were <4% and <14%, respectively, and recovery rates were 87%-113%. The limit of quantification was 2 pmol (0.1 pmol on column), and the method was linear over the interval of 2-200 microL plasma. In samples from 40 healthy individuals, mean (SD) concentrations were 9.0 (2.3) micromol/L for Cer, 6.3 (1.9) micromol/L for GlcCer, and 1.7 (0.5) micromol/L for CTH. Plasma concentrations of GlcCer were higher in Gaucher disease patient samples and of CTH in Fabry disease patient samples. CONCLUSIONS HPLC enables quantification of total Cer, GlcCer, and CTH in plasma and is useful for the follow-up of patients on therapy for Gaucher or Fabry disease.
Visual processing speed in the aging brain

Either reading a text in the office or looking for an apple in the supermarket, we are continuously flooded with visual stimuli. But how does the human brain support the efficient processing of those stimuli? And, if pathological changes occur in the brain, how do these changes lead to reductions in such efficient processing? In the present dissertation, aging is used as a model to address these two questions. First, individual differences in visual processing speed are examined in association with the coherence of the brain’s spontaneous activity and how this coherence is affected by normal aging. Second, individual differences in visual processing speed are studied in association with behavior in tasks that measure complex visual object perception in patients at risk of Alzheimer’s dementia and healthy aging adults. Based on these two approaches, evidence will be presented for an association of a slowed visual processing with (a) decreased coherent activity of a frontoinsular network in healthy aging and (b) simultaneous object perception deficits in patients at risk of Alzheimer’s dementia. This evidence provides critical insights into the particular link between visual processing speed and the coherence of the brain’s spontaneous activity and reveals perceptual deficits in patients whose clinically most apparent impairments lie in memory.
Pengaruh Soft Skill dan Dukungan Sosial Teman Kerja Terhadap Kinerja Pemasaran BMT di Yogyakarta

Divisi pemasaran berperan penting dalam perusahaan dan merupakan ujung tombak dari peningkatan omset sebuah perusahaan. Oleh karenanya seorang pemasar harus mempunyai soft skill yang tinggi agar dapat menjalankan tugas sebaik mungkin dan memerlukan dukungan sosial dari orang lain khususnya rekan kerja agar termotivasi untuk meningkatkan kualitas kerjanya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh soft skill dan dukungan sosial terhadap kinerja karyawa karyawan BMT di Yogyakarta. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif. Teknik pengambilan sampel dengan judgement sampling, responden penelitian merupakan karyawan BMT bagian pemasaran. Pengolahan dengan ordinary least square menggunakan program Eviews. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan variabel soft skill dan dukungan sosial masing-masing memiliki pengaruh yang positif dan signifikan terhadap kinerja pemasaran.
Assessing Death Anxiety and its Correlates Among Severe Medically Ill in- Patients

Introduction: In spite of the certainty of reality of death, people seem unable to escape anxiety at the prospect of them. Death anxiety contributes to important emotional and behavioral consequences. The aim of this study is to investigate relation of death anxiety with variable such as severity of illness, depression and religious belief Method: The study is a cross-sectional, descriptive study. Data were collected using demographic questionnaire, templar death anxiety scale, beck depression questionnaire, cumulative illness rating scale and religious attitude questionnaire. The co relational and regression analysis were conducted to identify the factors that correlate and predict the level of death anxiety respectively. Result: A group of hundred and fifty persons including 50 severely ill patients, 50 relative caregivers and 50 normal healthy controls completed the questionnaires. Death anxiety score was 7.2 relatives, 5.3 in patients and 4.4 in control group. Depression and severity of illness had positive correlation with death anxiety in medical patients (P < 0.05). in addition to that religious belief had negative correlation with death anxiety (P < 0.05) and was the strongest protective factor for death anxiety in patients group. In relatives and controls depression predicted more death anxiety. Conclusion: individuals suffering from Sever medical illnesses do not inevitably experience more death anxiety. Discussing to the relative the fact, the low death anxiety in their relative patients, will preserve the right of patients to make rational decision about their treatment and life. In presence of death anxiety early detection and management of depression could reduce death anxiety.
A Field Experiment Demonstrating Plant Life-History Evolution and Its Eco-Evolutionary Feedback to Seed Predator Populations

The extent to which evolutionary change occurs in a predictable manner under field conditions and how evolutionary changes feed back to influence ecological dynamics are fundamental, yet unresolved, questions. To address these issues, we established eight replicate populations of native common evening primrose (Oenothera biennis). Each population was planted with 18 genotypes in identical frequency. By tracking genotype frequencies with microsatellite DNA markers over the subsequent three years (up to three generations, ≈5,000 genotyped plants), we show rapid and consistent evolution of two heritable plant life-history traits (shorter life span and later flowering time). This rapid evolution was only partially the result of differential seed production; genotypic variation in seed germination also contributed to the observed evolutionary response. Since evening primrose genotypes exhibited heritable variation for resistance to insect herbivores, which was related to flowering time, we predicted that evolutionary changes in genotype frequencies would feed back to influence populations of a seed predator moth that specializes on O. biennis. By the conclusion of the experiment, variation in the genotypic composition among our eight replicate field populations was highly predictive of moth abundance. These results demonstrate how rapid evolution in field populations of a native plant can influence ecological interactions.
A New Control Architecture for Robust Controllers in Rear Electric Traction Passenger HEVs

It is well known that control systems are the core of electronic differential systems (EDSs) in electric vehicles (EVs)/hybrid HEVs (HEVs). However, conventional closed-loop control architectures do not completely match the needed ability to reject noises/disturbances, especially regarding the input acceleration signal incoming from the driver's commands, which makes the EDS (in this case) ineffective. Due to this, in this paper, a novel EDS control architecture is proposed to offer a new approach for the traction system that can be used with a great variety of controllers (e.g., classic, artificial intelligence (AI)-based, and modern/robust theory). In addition to this, a modified proportional-integral derivative (PID) controller, an AI-based neuro-fuzzy controller, and a robust optimal H∞ controller were designed and evaluated to observe and evaluate the versatility of the novel architecture. Kinematic and dynamic models of the vehicle are briefly introduced. Then, simulated and experimental results were presented and discussed. A Hybrid Electric Vehicle in Low Scale (HELVIS)-Sim simulation environment was employed to the preliminary analysis of the proposed EDS architecture. Later, the EDS itself was embedded in a dSpace 1103 high-performance interface board so that real-time control of the rear wheels of the HELVIS platform was successfully achieved.
Metabolic Crosstalk: Molecular Links Between Glycogen and Lipid Metabolism in Obesity

Glycogen and lipids are major storage forms of energy that are tightly regulated by hormones and metabolic signals. We demonstrate that feeding mice a high-fat diet (HFD) increases hepatic glycogen due to increased expression of the glycogenic scaffolding protein PTG/R5. PTG promoter activity was increased and glycogen levels were augmented in mice and cells after activation of the mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) and its downstream target SREBP1. Deletion of the PTG gene in mice prevented HFD-induced hepatic glycogen accumulation. Of note, PTG deletion also blocked hepatic steatosis in HFD-fed mice and reduced the expression of numerous lipogenic genes. Additionally, PTG deletion reduced fasting glucose and insulin levels in obese mice while improving insulin sensitivity, a result of reduced hepatic glucose output. This metabolic crosstalk was due to decreased mTORC1 and SREBP activity in PTG knockout mice or knockdown cells, suggesting a positive feedback loop in which once accumulated, glycogen stimulates the mTORC1/SREBP1 pathway to shift energy storage to lipogenesis. Together, these data reveal a previously unappreciated broad role for glycogen in the control of energy homeostasis.
Cognitive Intervention For Individuals With Probable MCI: A Pilot Study

The dementia population has accumulated to 47 million people, creating an $818 billion global expense. Approximately 20% of people 65 and older are living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer's disease. Cognitive intervention strategies have the potential to reduce the prevalence of dementia due to their ability to slow the conversion to dementia. Speech-language pathologists are uniquely positioned to identify and treat cognitive impairments. If intervention strategies could delay the onset of dementia by five years, there could be a 57% decrease in the dementia population. A single group, pre/post-test design was used. Thirty-six elders at-risk for cognitive decline participated. Eight weeks of group-based, cognitive-linguistic intervention was administered, implementing language stimulation, social engagement, and person-centered memory strategies. Measures of verbal episodic memory, linguistic comprehension and expression, mental status, and visuospatial skills were administered pre- and post-intervention. Data was analyzed using paired samples t-tests. Significant differences were found of assessment measures of linguistic comprehension, linguistic expression, and visuospatial construction following the intervention. Results nearing significance were found on assessment measures of verbal episodic memory. These results support the hypothesis that group-based, cognitive-linguistic intervention programs have the potential to improve cognition and language. Additional research is merited.
Determination of Lactones in Wines by Headspace Solid-Phase Microextraction and Gas Chromatography Coupled with Mass Spectrometry

Application of headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) coupled with high-resolution gas chromatographic (HRGC) analysis was studied for determining lactones in wines. Six different SPME fibers were tested, and the influence of different factors such as temperature and time of desorption, ionic strength, time of extraction, content of sugar, ethanol, tannins and anthocyanins, and pH and influence of SO2 were studied. The proposed HS-SPME-GC method is an appropriate technique for the quantitative analysis of γ-butyrolactone, γ-hexalactone, trans-whiskey lactone, γ-octalactone, cis-whiskey lactone, γ-nonalactone, γ-decalactone, δ-decalactone, and γ-undecalactone in wines. Method reproducibility and repeatability ranged between 0.6 and 5.2% for all compounds. Detection limit for γ-butyrolactone was 0.17 mg/L and a few μg/L for the rest of the compounds. The optimized method has been applied to several wine samples.
On the complexity of some problems on groups input as multiplication tables

The Cayley group membership problem (CGM) is to input a groupoid (binary algebra) G given as a multiplication table, a subset X of G, and an element t of G, and to determine whether t can be expressed as a product of elements of X. For general groupoids CGM is P-complete, and for associative algebras (semigroups) it is NL-complete. Here we investigate CGM for particular classes of groups. The problem for general groups is in SL (symmetric log space), but any kind of hardness result seems difficult because it would require constructing the entire multiplication table of a group. We introduce the complexity class FOLL, or FO(log log n), of problems solvable by uniform polysize circuit families of unbounded fan-in and depth O(log log n). Since parity is not in FOLL, no problem in FOLL can be complete for any class containing parity, such as NC/sup 1/, L, or SL. But FOLL is not known to be contained even in SL. We show that CGM for cyclic groups is in FOLL/spl cap/L and that CGM for abelian groups is in FOLL. We then partially extend our method to solvable groups, showing that CGM for groups of constant solvability class is in FOLL and that CGM for nilpotent groups can be solved by poly-size circuits of depth O((log log n)/sup 2/). (Thus the latter problem is provably not complete for any class containing parity) We also consider the problem of testing for various properties of a group input as a table: we prove that cyclicity and nilpotency can each be tested in FOLL/spl cap/L. Finally, we examine the implications of our results for the complexity of iterated multiplication, powering, and division of integers, in the context of the recent results of Chiu, Davida, and Litow.
Exosomes: secreted vesicles and intercellular communications

Exosomes are small membrane vesicles of endocytic origin secreted by most cell types, and are thought to play important roles in intercellular communications. Although exosomes were originally described in 1983, interest in these vesicles has really increased dramatically in the last 3 years, after the finding that they contain mRNA and microRNA. This discovery sparked renewed interest for the general field of membrane vesicles involved in intercellular communications, and research on these structures has grown exponentially over the last few years, probing their composition and function, as well as their potential value as biomarkers.