Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hepatoprotective Effect of Allium ochotense Extracts on Chronic Alcohol-Induced Fatty Liver and Hepatic Inflammation in C57BL/6 Mice

This study was performed to investigate the protective effects of Allium ochotense on fatty liver and hepatitis in chronic alcohol-induced hepatotoxicity. The physiological compounds of a mixture of aqueous and 60% ethanol (2:8, w/w) extracts of A. ochotense (EA) were identified as kestose, raffinose, kaempferol and quercetin glucoside, and kaempferol di-glucoside by UPLC Q-TOF MSE. The EA regulated the levels of lipid metabolism-related biomarkers such as total cholesterol, triglyceride, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol in serum. Also, EA ameliorated the levels of liver toxicity-related biomarkers such as glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT), and total bilirubin in serum. EA improved the antioxidant system by reducing malondialdehyde contents and increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels and reduced glutathione content. EA improved the alcohol metabolizing enzymes such as alcohol dehydrogenase, acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, and cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1). Treatment with EA alleviated lipid accumulation-related protein expression by improving phosphorylation of AMP-activated protein kinase (p-AMPK) expression levels. Especially, EA reduced inflammatory response by regulating the toll-like receptor–4/nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (TLR-4/NF-κB) signaling pathway. EA showed an anti-apoptotic effect by regulating the expression levels of B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCl-2), BCl-2-associated X protein (BAX), and caspase 3. Treatment with EA also ameliorated liver fibrosis via inhibition of transforming growth factor-beta 1/suppressor of mothers against decapentaplegic (TGF-β1/Smad) pathway and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA). Therefore, these results suggest that EA might be a potential prophylactic agent for the treatment of alcoholic liver disease.
Learning from crowds in the presence of schools of thought

Crowdsourcing has recently become popular among machine learning researchers and social scientists as an effective way to collect large-scale experimental data from distributed workers. To extract useful information from the cheap but potentially unreliable answers to tasks, a key problem is to identify reliable workers as well as unambiguous tasks. Although for objective tasks that have one correct answer per task, previous works can estimate worker reliability and task clarity based on the single gold standard assumption, for tasks that are subjective and accept multiple reasonable answers that workers may be grouped into, a phenomenon called schools of thought, existing models cannot be trivially applied. In this work, we present a statistical model to estimate worker reliability and task clarity without resorting to the single gold standard assumption. This is instantiated by explicitly characterizing the grouping behavior to form schools of thought with a rank-1 factorization of a worker-task groupsize matrix. Instead of performing an intermediate inference step, which can be expensive and unstable, we present an algorithm to analytically compute the sizes of different groups. We perform extensive empirical studies on real data collected from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Our method discovers the schools of thought, shows reasonable estimation of worker reliability and task clarity, and is robust to hyperparameter changes. Furthermore, our estimated worker reliability can be used to improve the gold standard prediction for objective tasks.
Biologically-inspired dynamical systems for movement generation: Automatic real-time goal adaptation and obstacle avoidance

Dynamical systems can generate movement trajectories that are robust against perturbations. This article presents an improved modification of the original dynamic movement primitive (DMP) framework by Ijspeert et al [1], [2]. The new equations can generalize movements to new targets without singularities and large accelerations. Furthermore, the new equations can represent a movement in 3D task space without depending on the choice of coordinate system (invariance under invertible affine transformations). Our modified DMP is motivated from biological data (spinal-cord stimulation in frogs) and human behavioral experiments. We further extend the formalism to obstacle avoidance by exploiting the robustness against perturbations: an additional term is added to the differential equations to make the robot steer around an obstacle. This additional term empirically describes human obstacle avoidance. We demonstrate the feasibility of our approach using the Sarcos Slave robot arm: after learning a single placing movement, the robot placed a cup between two arbitrarily given positions and avoided approaching obstacles.
Changes in glucose tolerance, insulin, serum lipids and lipoproteins in patients with renal failure on intermittent haemodialysis

Fasting serum lipids and lipoprotein patterns, glucose tolerance and serum insulin response to glucose were investigated in eight patients with renal failure on intermittent haemodialysis and five normal controls. The mean 0·5, 1 and 2 hr blood glucose values were significantly higher in patients compared with controls but there was no significant difference between patients and controls in respect of fasting serum insulin levels or the insulin response to glucose. Six of the eight patients showed hypertriglyceridaemia (hyperprebetalipoproteinaemia).
Capsular polysaccharide induction of apoptosis by intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms

A purified microbial capsular polysaccharide of Cryptococcus neoformans, glucuronoxylomannan (GXM), induces Fas ligand (FasL) upregulation on macrophages and, as a consequence, apoptosis of lymphocytes. The mechanisms that lead to lymphocyte apoptosis in both in vitro and in vivo systems were investigated by cytofluorimetric analysis and Western blotting experiments. Caspase 8 cleaves caspase 3 in two different pathways: directly as well as indirectly by activation of Bcl‐2 interacting domain, which initiates caspase 9 cleavage. Therefore, the caspase 8 and caspase 9 pathways cooperate in an amplification loop for efficient cell death, and noteworthily we provide evidence that they are both activated in one single cell. Furthermore, both activation of GXM‐mediated caspase 8 and apoptosis were also found in in vivo systems in an experimental model of murine candidiasis. Collectively, our data show that GXM‐induced apoptosis involves, in a single cell, a cross‐talk between extrinsic and intrinsic pathways. Such a finding offers opportunities for the therapeutic usage of this polysaccharide in appropriate clinical settings for taming T‐cell responses.
A Sex Difference in Facial Contrast and its Exaggeration by Cosmetics

This study demonstrates the existence of a sex difference in facial contrast. By measuring carefully controlled photographic images, female faces were shown to have greater luminance contrast between the eyes, lips, and the surrounding skin than did male faces. This sex difference in facial contrast was found to influence the perception of facial gender. An androgynous face can be made to appear female by increasing the facial contrast, or to appear male by decreasing the facial contrast. Application of cosmetics was found to consistently increase facial contrast. Female faces wearing cosmetics had greater facial contrast than the same faces not wearing cosmetics. Female facial beauty is known to be closely linked to sex differences, with femininity considered attractive. These results suggest that cosmetics may function in part by exaggerating a sexually dimorphic attribute—facial contrast—to make the face appear more feminine and hence attractive.
A role for neuronal cAMP responsive-element binding (CREB)-1 in brain responses to calorie restriction

Calorie restriction delays brain senescence and prevents neurodegeneration, but critical regulators of these beneficial responses other than the NAD+-dependent histone deacetylase Sirtuin-1 (Sirt-1) are unknown. We report that effects of calorie restriction on neuronal plasticity, memory and social behavior are abolished in mice lacking cAMP responsive-element binding (CREB)-1 in the forebrain. Moreover, CREB deficiency drastically reduces the expression of Sirt-1 and the induction of genes relevant to neuronal metabolism and survival in the cortex and hippocampus of dietary-restricted animals. Biochemical studies reveal a complex interplay between CREB and Sirt-1: CREB directly regulates the transcription of the sirtuin in neuronal cells by binding to Sirt-1 chromatin; Sirt-1, in turn, is recruited by CREB to DNA and promotes CREB-dependent expression of target gene peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α and neuronal NO Synthase. Accordingly, expression of these CREB targets is markedly reduced in the brain of Sirt KO mice that are, like CREB-deficient mice, poorly responsive to calorie restriction. Thus, the above circuitry, modulated by nutrient availability, links energy metabolism with neurotrophin signaling, participates in brain adaptation to nutrient restriction, and is potentially relevant to accelerated brain aging by overnutrition and diabetes.
Family Perceptions of Clinicians’ Outstanding Practices in End-of-Life Care

EMILY CHERLlN, Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, DEN.A SCHULMAN-GREEN and RUTH McCORKLE, Yale University, School of Nursing, Center for Excellence In Chronic Illness Care New Haven ROSEMARY JOHNSON-HURZELER, The Connecticut Hospice and John D. Thompson Institute f~r Training, Education, and Research, Inc., Branford, ELIZABETH BRADLE~, Yale University, School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A.
Taming code explosion in supercompilation

Supercompilation algorithms can perform great optimizations but sometimes suffer from the problem of code explosion. This results in huge binaries which might hurt the performance on a modern processor. We present a supercompilation algorithm that is fast enough to speculatively supercompile expressions and discard the result if it turned out bad. This allows us to supercompile large parts of the imaginary and spectral parts of nofib in a matter of seconds while keeping the binary size increase below 5%.
Gesture-Based Adaptive Haptic Guidance: A Comparison of Discriminative and Generative Modeling Approaches

This paper investigates the incorporation of hidden conditional random fields (HCRF) as a discriminative statistical modeling technique into adaptive haptic guidance (HG) for physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). In this gesture-based HG approach, the knowledge and experience of experts are modeled to improve the unpredictable motions of novice trainees in a virtual minimally invasive surgery (MIS) training task. The HCRF models are developed for automatic gesture recognition and segmentation as well as generating guidance forces. The forces are adaptively calculated in real time with respect to gestural similarities among user motions and the gesture models. The HCRF-based approach is compared with a hidden Markov model-based (HMM-based) method for capturing the gestures of the user and providing adaptive HG. The experimental results show that the HCRF, as a discriminative method, can outperform HMM, as a generative method, in terms of user performance.
Assessing Stress and Emotional Responses of a Salutogenesis-Enhanced Software Tool Using Psychophysiological Measurements

—Software development is intellectual, based on collaboration, and performed in a highly demanding economic market. As such, it is dominated by time pressure, stress, and emotional trauma. While studies of affect are emerging and rising in software engineering research, stress has yet to ﬁnd its place in the literature despite that it is highly related to affect. In this paper, we study stress coping with the affect-laden framework of Salutogenesis, which is a validated psychological framework for enhancing mental health through a feeling of coherence. We propose a controlled experiment for testing our hypotheses that a static analysis tool enhanced with the Salutogenesis model will bring 1) a higher number of ﬁxed quality issues, 2) reduced cognitive load, 3) reduction of the overall stress, and 4) positive affect induction effects to developers. The experiment will make use of validated physiological measurements of stress as proxied by cortisol and alpha-amylase levels in saliva samples, a psychometrically validated measurement of mood and affect disposition, and stress inductors such as a cognitive load task. Our hypotheses, if empirically supported, will lead to the creation of environments, methods, and tools that alleviate stress among developers while enhancing affect on the job and task performance.
Study on changes in microclimatic parameters under poly-house with different color plastic mulching during tomato cultivation

Partial control of the microclimatic conditions can be achieved in low cost polyhouses with detachable roof during summer season. One means of alleviating climatically induced stress is through modifications of microclimate which include any artificially introduced changes in the composition, behavior or dynamics of the atmosphere near the ground so as to improve the environment in which crops grow. The present investigation was carried out to study the performance of Tomato (cv:All rounder) under both polyhouse and open condition with different plastic mulches. This experiment was conducted at field of the department of agricultural engineering, Birsa Agricultural University, Kanke, Ranchi during the period from December 2011 to May 2013. Air temperature inside the polyhouse was distinctly higher than the open field condition from December to March and after March air temperature at outside was found higher. Relative humidity showed a reverse trend with respect to temperature under both environmental conditions. The light intensity inside the greenhouse was always lower (30 – 50%) than the open field. Soil under polyhouse always maintained 25C lower temperature as compared to the open field irrespective of the growing periods of the crop. Among the mulches, soil temperature was recorded higher under transparent mulch followed by silver black mulch under both conditions. Highest yield of 22.2 kg/plot (73.9 t/ha) and 376 fruits/ plot were obtained inside the polyhouse under black mulch. The fruit yield inside the greenhouse was nearly two times more than in the open field condition. Detachable roof Polyhouse has been found to be a good alternative to have minor alterations under microclimatic conditions for achieving almost double yield of tomato compared to open field. Among the mulches, black and silver black mulches, have been found to bring about the desired conditions both within the polyhouse as well as open conditions. When farmers are not able to grow tomato under polyhouse conditions application of these two mulches would be advantageous even under open conditions.
Quasisymmetric nonparametrization and spaces associated with the Whitehead continuum

The decomposition space R 3 =Wh associated with the Whitehead continuum Wh is not a manifold, but the product . R 3 =Wh/ R m is homeomorphic to R 3Cm for any m 1 (known since the 1960’s). We study the quasisymmetric structure on . R 3 =Wh/ R m and show that the space . R 3 =Wh/ R m may be equipped with a metric resembling R 3Cm geometrically and measure theoretically—it is linearly locally contractible and Ahlfors . 3Cm/‐regular—nevertheless the resulting space does not admit a quasisymmetric parametrization by R 3Cm . 30C65; 57N16, 57N45 In memory of Juha Heinonen, an extraordinary mathematician and friend, who passed away after the mathematical work in this paper was completed. ‐ J-M W
CFR-Working Paper NO . 09-10 Low Risk and High Return – Affect ive Attitudes and Stock Market expectations

This experimental study investigates the impact of affective attitudes on risk and return estimates of stocks. Participants rate well-known blue-chip firms on an affective scale and forecast risk and return of the firms’ stock. We find that positive affective attitudes lead to a prediction of high return and low risk, while negative attitudes lead to a prediction of low return and high risk. This bias increases with participants’ confidence in their ratings and decreases with financial literacy. Firm characteristics such as a firm’s marketing expenditures and the strength of its brand have a positive impact on its affective rating.
Fast and reliable image-noise estimation using a hybrid approach

Image denoising algorithms often require their parameters to be adjusted according to the noise level. We propose a fast and reliable method for estimating image noise. The input image is assumed to be contaminated by an additive white Gaussian noise process. To exclude structures or details from contributing to the estimation of noise variance, a Sobel edge detection operator with a self-determined threshold is first applied to each image block. Then a filter operation, followed by an averaging of the convolutions over the selected blocks, provides a very accurate estimation of noise variance. We successfully combine the effectiveness of filter-based approaches with the efficiency of block-based approaches, and the simulated results demonstrate that the proposed method performs well for a variety of images over a large range of noise variances. Performance comparisons against other approaches are also provided.
Circulating Chemerin Is Associated With Carotid Plaque Instability, Whereas Resistin Is Related to Cerebrovascular Symptomatology

Objective—The rupture of unstable carotid atherosclerotic plaques is one of the main causes of cerebrovascular ischemic events. There is need for circulating markers that can predict plaque instability and risk of stroke. Proinflammatory chemerin, leptin, and resistin, along with anti-inflammatory adiponectin, are adipokines with direct influence on vascular function. We investigated the association of circulating adipokines with carotid plaque instability and cerebrovascular symptomatology. Approach and Results—Neurologically symptomatic and asymptomatic patients (n=165) scheduled for carotid endarterectomy were recruited. Fasting blood samples were collected preoperatively; adiponectin and leptin levels were determined by radioimmunoassay; and chemerin and resistin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The instability of plaque specimens was assessed using gold-standard histological classifications. Chemerin was significantly associated with plaque instability. The fully adjusted model, accounting for age, sex, body mass index, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and circulating adiponectin, leptin, and resistin, yielded an odds ratio of 0.991 (95% confidence interval 0.985–0.998) for plaque instability per unit increase in chemerin. High leptin levels were significantly associated with presence of specific features of plaque instability. In subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus, resistin levels were significantly elevated in symptomatic when compared with asymptomatic subjects (P=0.001) and increased the risk of cerebrovascular symptomatology (adjusted odds ratio 1.264, 95% confidence interval 1.004–1.594). Conclusions—Low chemerin and high resistin levels were associated with carotid disease severity, suggesting that these adipokines may act as potential markers for plaque instability and stroke risk. Future studies are needed to assess causation between circulating adipokines and plaque instability.
Music therapy may increase breastfeeding rates among mothers of premature newborns: a randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of music therapy on breastfeeding rates among mothers of premature newborns. METHOD In this open randomized controlled trial, mothers of premature neonates weighting ≤ 1,750 g were submitted to music therapy sessions three times a week for 60 minutes. The endpoints were breastfeeding rates at the moment of infant hospital discharge and at follow-up visits (7-15 days, 30 and 60 days after discharge). RESULTS A total of 94 mothers (48 in the music therapy group and 46 in the comparison group) were studied. Breastfeeding was significantly more frequent in the music therapy group at the first follow-up visit [relative risk (RR) = 1.26; 95% confidence interval (95%CI) = 1.01-1.57; p = 0.03; number needed to treat (NNT) = 5.6]. Moreover, this group showed higher breastfeeding rates at the moment of infant discharge (RR = 1.22; 95%CI = 0.99-1.51; p = 0.06; NNT = 6.3) and at days 30 and 60 after discharge (RR = 1.21; 95%CI = 0.73-5.6; p = 0.13 and RR = 1.28; 95%CI = 0.95-1.71; p = 0.09, respectively), but those results were not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that music therapy had a significant effect in increasing breastfeeding rates among mothers of premature newborns at the first follow-up visit, and also a positive influence (although not significant) that lasted up to 60 days after infant discharge. Music therapy may be useful for increasing breastfeeding rates among mothers of premature newborns.
Lateral Continuity of Layering in the Mars South Polar Layered Deposits From SHARAD Sounding Data

The south polar layered deposits (SPLD) are composed of alternating layers of ice and dust in varying proportions. The accumulation of the layers is driven by orbital forcings, and the cadence and structure of these layers preserve a record of the past Martian climate. We use SHARAD data to examine the radar properties of SPLD reflectors and to infer their spatial correlations. Crossing orbit tracks are incoherently stacked to improve the echo signal‐to‐noise ratio and extend the delineation of reflectors, laterally and vertically, into areas where they are not evident in individual SHARAD traces. Three distinct radar reflection “facies” are identified: (a) shallow layers that are generally well focused in processed radargrams, (b) less densely spaced layers that occur over much of the depth of the SPLD but are blurred to varying degrees, and (c) low reflectivity zones. A pattern of diffuse echoes termed fog, which originates from an uncertain surface or volume scattering mechanism, extends to varying round‐trip delay times and is often correlated with blurring of subsurface reflections. The fog signature is pervasive, being present in some form over 64% of the SPLD. Unconformities are observed in stacks of reflectors that both intersect the surface and are confined to the subsurface. Only one major deviation from near‐horizontality of the reflectors, located to the east of Australe Mensa, was identified. There is no evidence for major unconformities that suggest multiple depositional centers that later merged into the SPLD. Instead, SHARAD data suggest that the materials of the SPLD were deposited regionally, superposing materials from previous depositional episodes.
Survival and Covey Density of Northern Bobwhites in Relation to Habitat Characteristics and Usable Space in Ohio

ii Acknowledgements . v Vita . viii List of Tables . xi List of Figures . xiii Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 Study Design . 3 Thesis Content . 7 Literature Cited . 8 Chapter 2: Relationship of Northern Bobwhite Survival and Habitat Use During Winter in Ohio . 13 Abstract . 13 Introduction . 14 Study Area . 16 Methods.18 Results . 29 Discussion . 44 Management Implications . 48 Literature Cited . 49 Chapter 3: Influence of Land Use Change and Woodlot Edge Management on Usable Space Characteristics and Density of Northern Bobwhites in Ohio . 55 Abstract . 55 Introduction . 56 Study Area . 58 Methods.60 Results . 65 Discussion . 80 Management Implications . 85 x Literature Cited . 86 Chapter 4: Management Implications . 91 Literature Cited . 95 Bibliography . 97 Appendix A: Fate Codes and Field Signs Used at Telemetry Locations of Radio-marked Bobwhites . 107 Appendix B: Habitat Classification Codes for Telemetry Locations of Radio-marked Bobwhites . 108 Appendix C: Usable Space Raster Maps with Feathered Edge and Covey Locations . 109