Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of inactivity in the working-age population.

OBJECTIVES Burden of diseases attributable to low physical activity is increasing worldwide mainly among working age populations. The aim of the study was to evaluate the association between selected (including demographic and socioeconomic) factors and leisure-time physical activity. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was performed in the randomly selected group of 450 men and 502 women in the working age. Logistic regression models were applied to assess factors related to physical activity limitations. Physical activity was determined by the physical activity questionnaire. RESULTS Over 55% of the study participants were inactive, 34.1% were insufficiently active, and only 10.6% of the subjects achieved the level of physical activity recommended by experts in health promotion. Significant differences in physical activity behaviors across age, education, income levels, and marital status were found in the study participants. Unhealthy weight and smoking habit also formed certain barriers to exercise in both men and women. CONCLUSIONS Low number of physically active working-age citizens is a challenge for public health, and it confirms the need for promoting active lifestyles. Effective strategies to encourage leisure-time physical need to be targeted at specific age and socioeconomic groups.
The Adenylyl Cyclase Inhibitor MDL-12,330A Potentiates Insulin Secretion via Blockade of Voltage-Dependent K+ Channels in Pancreatic Beta Cells

Objective Adenylyl cyclases (ACs) play important role in regulating pancreatic beta cell growth, survival and secretion through the synthesis of cyclic AMP (cAMP). MDL-12,330A and SQ 22536 are two AC inhibitors used widely to establish the role of ACs. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of MDL-12,330A and SQ 22536 on insulin secretion and underlying mechanisms. Methods Patch-clamp recording, Ca2+ fluorescence imaging and radioimmunoassay were used to measure outward K+ currents, action potentials (APs), intracellular Ca2+ ([Ca2+]i) and insulin secretion from rat pancreatic beta cells. Results MDL-12,330A (10 µmol/l) potentiated insulin secretion to 1.7 times of control in the presence of 8.3 mmol/l glucose, while SQ 22536 did not show significant effect on insulin secretion. MDL-12,330A prolonged AP durations (APDs) by inhibiting voltage-dependent K+ (KV) channels, leading to an increase in [Ca2+]i levels. It appeared that these effects induced by MDL-12,330A did not result from AC inhibition, since SQ 22536 did not show such effects. Furthermore, inhibition of the downstream effectors of AC/cAMP signaling by PKA inhibitor H89 and Epac inhibitor ESI-09, did not affect KV channels and insulin secretion. Conclusion The putative AC inhibitor MDL-12,330A enhances [Ca2+]i and insulin secretion via inhibition of KV channels rather than AC antagonism in beta cells, suggesting that the non-specific effects is needed to be considered for the right interpretation of the experimental results using this agent in the analyses of the role of AC in cell function.
Genes to Diseases (G2D) Computational Method to Identify Asthma Candidate Genes

Asthma is a complex trait for which different strategies have been used to identify its environmental and genetic predisposing factors. Here, we describe a novel methodological approach to select candidate genes for asthma genetic association studies. In this regard, the Genes to Diseases (G2D) computational tool has been used in combination with a genome-wide scan performed in a sub-sample of the Saguenay−Lac-St-Jean (SLSJ) asthmatic familial collection (n = 609) to identify candidate genes located in two suggestive loci shown to be linked with asthma (6q26) and atopy (10q26.3), and presenting differential parent-of-origin effects. This approach combined gene selection based on the G2D data mining analysis of the bibliographic and protein public databases, or according to the genes already known to be associated with the same or a similar phenotype. Ten genes (LPA, NOX3, SNX9, VIL2, VIP, ADAM8, DOCK1, FANK1, GPR123 and PTPRE) were selected for a subsequent association study performed in a large SLSJ sample (n = 1167) of individuals tested for asthma and atopy related phenotypes. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (n = 91) within the candidate genes were genotyped and analysed using a family-based association test. The results suggest a protective association to allergic asthma for PTPRE rs7081735 in the SLSJ sample (p = 0.000463; corrected p = 0.0478). This association has not been replicated in the Childhood Asthma Management Program (CAMP) cohort. Sequencing of the regions around rs7081735 revealed additional polymorphisms, but additional genotyping did not yield new associations. These results demonstrate that the G2D tool can be useful in the selection of candidate genes located in chromosomal regions linked to a complex trait.
An adaptive robust framework for model-based state fault detection

A goal in many applications is to combine a priori knowledge of the physical system with experimental data to detect faults in a system at an early enough stage as to conduct preventive maintenance. The information available beforehand is the mathematical model of the physical system and the key issue in the design of model-based fault detection is the effect of model uncertainties such as severe parametric uncertainties and unmodeled dynamics on their performance. This paper presents the application of a nonlinear model-based adaptive robust state fault detection that combines online parameter adaptation with robust filter structures to reduce the extent of model uncertainty to help in the improvement of the sensitivity of the fault detection scheme to faults. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed scheme in the early and reliable detection of incipient faults
A Fourth-Order Time-Splitting Laguerre-Hermite Pseudospectral Method for Bose-Einstein Condensates

A fourth-order time-splitting Laguerre--Hermite pseudospectral method is introduced for Bose--Einstein condensates (BECs) in three dimensions with cylindrical symmetry. The method is explicit, time reversible, and time transverse invariant. It conserves the position density and is spectral accurate in space and fourth-order accurate in time. Moreover, the new method has two other important advantages: (i) it reduces a three-dimensional (3-D) problem with cylindrical symmetry to an effective two-dimensional (2-D) problem; (ii) it solves the problem in the whole space instead of in a truncated artificial computational domain. The method is applied to vector Gross--Pitaevskii equations (VGPEs) for multicomponent BECs. Extensive numerical tests are presented for the one-dimensional (1-D) GPE, the 2-D GPE with radial symmetry, the 3-D GPE with cylindrical symmetry, as well as 3-D VGPEs for two-component BECs, to show the efficiency and accuracy of the new numerical method.
Disjunctions of Horn Theories and Their Cores

In this paper, we study issues on disjunctions of propositional Horn theories. In particular, we consider deciding whether a disjunction of Horn theories is Horn, and, if not, computing a Horn core, i.e., a maximal Horn theory included in this disjunction. The problems are investigated for different representations of Horn theories, namely for Horn CNFs and characteristic models. While the problems are shown to be intractable in general, we present polynomial time algorithms for bounded disjunctions in the formula-based case.
Engineering cancer stem-like cells from normal human lung epithelial cells

It has been proposed that a subpopulation of tumour cells with stem cell-like characteristics, known as cancer stem cells (CSCs), drives tumour initiation and generates tumour heterogeneity, thus leading to cancer metastasis, recurrence, and drug resistance. Although there has been substantial progress in CSC research into many solid tumour types, an understanding of the biology of CSCs in lung cancer remains elusive, mainly because of their heterogeneous origins and high plasticity. Here, we demonstrate that engineered lung cancer cells derived from normal human airway basal epithelial cells possessed CSC-like characteristics in terms of multilineage differentiation potential and strong tumour-initiating ability. Moreover, we established an in vitro 3D culture system that allowed the in vivo differentiation process of the CSC-like cells to be recapitulated. This engineered CSC model provides valuable opportunities for studying the biology of CSCs and for exploring and evaluating novel therapeutic approaches and targets in lung CSCs.
The Domatic Number of Regular Graphs

The domatic number of a graph G is the maximum number of dominating sets into which the vertex set of G can be partitioned. We show that the domatic number of a random r-regular graph is almost surely at most r, and that for 3-regular random graphs, the domatic number is almost surely equal to 3. We also give a lower bound on the domatic number of a graph in terms of order, minimum degree and maximum degree. As a corollary, we obtain the result that the domatic number of an r-regular graph is at least (r + 1)/(3ln(r + 1)).
Signature verification: A study

Signatures are widely used as a means of personal identification and verification. Many documents like bank cheques and legal transactions require signature verification. Signature-based verification of a large number of documents is a very difficult and time consuming task. Consequently an explosive growth has been observed in biometric personal verification and authentication systems that are connected with quantifiable physical unique characteristics (finger prints, hand geometry, face, ear, iris scan, or DNA) or behavioral features (gait, voice etc.). As traditional identity verification methods such as tokens, passwords, pins etc suffer from some fatal flaws and are incapable to satisfy the security necessities, the paper aims to consider a more reliable biometric feature, signature verification for the considering. We present a survey of signature verification systems. We classify and give an account of the various approaches that have been proposed for signature verification.
THE EFFECT OF TEACHER’S INDIRECT FEEDBACK ON DESCRIPTIVE WRITING AT SMA AL-AZHAR 3 BANDAR LAMPUNG

Writing is simply regarded as the most complex language skill to study. This stands to reason for it has crucial elements covering content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. Therefore, it is not uncommon that learners often make errors in learning writing. In view of this, the purposes of this research were to investigate whether there is a statistically significant difference of students’ writing descriptive text after the implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback and to find out what aspect of writing that improves the most after the implementation of teacher’s indirect feedback. This research was quantitative research. The subjects were 25 students of X IPA 2 of SMA Al-Azhar 3 Bandar Lampung. The writing test was used to collect the data. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 software program. The treatments were done in 5 meetings. In the first meeting, the researcher conducted pre test. In the second meeting, the researcher taught them about descriptive text by providing the example of descriptive text, generic structure, and language features. After explaining, they were asked to make first draft of descriptive text. In the next meeting, the researcher introduced about aspects of writing and the kind of feedback given. The researcher explained about the correction codes or symbols of teacher’s indirect feedback given in their draft and asked the student to revise their first draft into the second draft. In the fourth meeting, the researcher listed students’ common mistakes and gave the example of their correct form. Next, the students were asked to revise their second draft into the third draft based on the feedback given. In the last meeting, the researcher conducted post test. The result showed that there was a statistically significant improvement of students’ writing of descriptive text with the significant level 0.00<0.05. The next result showed that mechanic was the aspect of writing that significantly improved the most. This suggests that indirect feedback facilitates students to improve their writing. Keywords: descriptive writing, indirect feedback
Linking Stressful Experiences and Psychological Problems: The Role of Self-Esteem

Stressful experiences have repeatedly been related to psychological problems. The current study extends previous work on stress and psychological problems by examining the link between stressful experiences and both internalizing (INT) and externalizing (EXT) problems. Additionally, individual differences are investigated by testing the moderating role of self-esteem. Questionnaire data of 750 adolescents aged 12–18 were collected and analyzed using multiple regression analyses. Analyses were controlled for sex and socioeconomic status. Results indicated that adolescents who report more stressful experiences are more likely to experience both INT and EXT problems, and these relationships were stronger for adolescents with low self-esteem. Post hoc analyses (e.g., different thresholds for determining stressful experiences) support the robustness of our findings. The findings on self-esteem emphasize the importance of taking individual differences into account in the relation between stressful experiences and psychological problems. The results can be seen as a next step in cross-sectional research.
Learning Affordances of Consummatory Behaviors: Motivation-Driven Adaptive Perception

This article introduces a formalization of the dynamics between sensorimotor interaction and homeostasis, integrated in a single architecture to learn object affordances of consummatory behaviors. We also describe the principles necessary to learn grounded knowledge in the context of an agent and its surrounding environment, which we use to investigate the constraints imposed by the agent’s internal dynamics and the environment. This is tested with an embodied, situated robot, in a simulated environment, yielding results that support this formalization. Furthermore, we show that this methodology allows learned affordances to be dynamically redefined, depending on object similarity, resource availability, and the rhythms of the agent’s internal physiology. For example, if a resource becomes increasingly scarce, the value assigned by the agent to its related effect increases accordingly, encouraging a more active behavioral strategy to maintain physiological stability. Experimental results also suggest that a combination of motivation-driven and affordance learning in a single architecture should simplify its overall complexity while increasing its adaptivity.
De-indigenized but not defeated: race and resistance in Colombia's Peace Community and Campesino University

ABSTRACT Despite the institution of multicultural policies and pluriethnic governments across Latin America, racist violence against Indigenous and Afro-descendant groups persists. Yet the racial facets of violence against non-ethnic campesinos remain unexplored. Integrating scholarship on race as a global structure and Latin American racial formations, I offer an account of racialization in Colombia. This article analyzes the racial dynamics of resistance to extractivism in Colombia's Campesino University, uniting Indigenous and campesino groups like the San José de Apartadó Peace Community. While the dominant race lexicon separates “campesinos” like San José's peasants from “Indigenous” and “Black” groups, I argue that the identifier campesino mestizo hides how San José's farmers were “de-indigenized” yet remain racialized as the less-than-human “Indigenous savage”. If racialization works to dominate but also divide the subaltern, then Campesino University participants’ cross-ethnic solidarity network against what they affirm is a shared experience of racist violence both unveils and counters racism.
Human proximal tubule epithelial cells modulate autologous dendritic cell function.

BACKGROUND We have previously demonstrated that human kidney proximal tubule epithelial cells (PTEC) are able to modulate autologous T and B lymphocyte responses. It is well established that dendritic cells (DC) are responsible for the initiation and direction of adaptive immune responses and that these cells occur in the renal interstitium in close apposition to PTEC under inflammatory disease settings. However, there is no information regarding the interaction of PTEC with DC in an autologous human context. METHODS Human monocytes were differentiated into monocyte-derived DC (MoDC) in the absence or presence of primary autologous activated PTEC and matured with polyinosinic:polycytidylic acid [poly(I:C)], while purified, pre-formed myeloid blood DC (CD1c(+) BDC) were cultured with autologous activated PTEC in the absence or presence of poly(I:C) stimulation. DC responses were monitored by surface antigen expression, cytokine secretion, antigen uptake capacity and allogeneic T-cell-stimulatory ability. RESULTS The presence of autologous activated PTEC inhibited the differentiation of monocytes to MoDC. Furthermore, MoDC differentiated in the presence of PTEC displayed an immature surface phenotype, efficient phagocytic capacity and, upon poly(I:C) stimulation, secreted low levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-12p70, high levels of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 and induced weak Th1 responses. Similarly, pre-formed CD1c(+) BDC matured in the presence of PTEC exhibited an immature tolerogenic surface phenotype, strong endocytic and phagocytic ability and stimulated significantly attenuated T-cell proliferative responses. CONCLUSIONS Our data suggest that activated PTEC regulate human autologous immunity via complex interactions with DC. The ability of PTEC to modulate autologous DC function has important implications for the dampening of pro-inflammatory immune responses within the tubulointerstitium in renal injuries. Further dissection of the mechanisms of PTEC modulation of autologous immune responses may offer targets for therapeutic intervention in renal medicine.
Bounding Tree-Width via Contraction on the Projective Plane and Torus

If $X$ is a collection of edges in a graph $G$, let $G/X$ denote the contraction of $X$. Following a question of Oxley and a conjecture of Oporowski, we prove that every projective planar graph $G$ admits an edge partition $\{X,Y\}$ such that $G/X$ and $G/Y$ have tree-width at most three. We prove that every toroidal graph $G$ admits an edge partition $\{X,Y\}$ such that $G/X$ and $G/Y$ have tree-width at most three and four, respectively.
Dendritic cell-derived exosomes as maintenance immunotherapy after first line chemotherapy in NSCLC

ABSTRACT Dendritic cell-derived exosomes (Dex) are small extracellular vesicles secreted by viable dendritic cells. In the two phase-I trials that we conducted using the first generation of Dex (IFN-γ-free) in end-stage cancer, we reported that Dex exerted natural killer (NK) cell effector functions in patients. A second generation of Dex (IFN-γ-Dex) was manufactured with the aim of boosting NK and T cell immune responses. We carried out a phase II clinical trial testing the clinical benefit of IFN-γ-Dex loaded with MHC class I- and class II-restricted cancer antigens as maintenance immunotherapy after induction chemotherapy in patients bearing inoperable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without tumor progression. The primary endpoint was to observe at least 50% of patients with progression-free survival (PFS) at 4 mo after chemotherapy cessation. Twenty-two patients received IFN-γ-Dex. One patient exhibited a grade three hepatotoxicity. The median time to progression was 2.2 mo and median overall survival (OS) was 15 mo. Seven patients (32%) experienced stabilization of >4 mo. The primary endpoint was not reached. An increase in NKp30-dependent NK cell functions were evidenced in a fraction of these NSCLC patients presenting with defective NKp30 expression. Importantly, MHC class II expression levels of the final IFN-γ-Dex product correlated with expression levels of the NKp30 ligand BAG6 on Dex, and with NKp30-dependent NK functions, the latter being associated with longer progression-free survival. This phase II trial confirmed the capacity of Dex to boost the NK cell arm of antitumor immunity in patients with advanced NSCLC.
Trichotomy and dichotomy results on the complexity of reasoning with disjunctive logic programs

Abstract We present trichotomy results characterizing the complexity of reasoning with disjunctive logic programs. To this end, we introduce a certain definition schema for classes of programs based on a set of allowed arities of rules. We show that each such class of programs has a finite representation, and for each of the classes definable in the schema, we characterize the complexity of the existence of an answer set problem. Next, we derive similar characterizations of the complexity of skeptical and credulous reasoning with disjunctive logic programs. Such results are of potential interest. On the one hand, they reveal some reasons responsible for the hardness of computing answer sets. On the other hand, they identify classes of problem instances, for which the problem is “easy” (in P) or “easier than in general” (in NP). We obtain similar results for the complexity of reasoning with disjunctive programs under the supported-model semantics.
Research Note—Multiple Time Point Course Evaluation and Student Learning Outcomes in an MSW Course

ABSTRACT Evaluation methods play a key role in measuring student learning outcomes. Yet traditional assessments focus on assessing student satisfaction with instructors or courses rather than their progress toward competencies. In addition, the common pretest-posttest assessment is problematic because of response-shift bias. Although multiple time point assessment is suggested, very little is known about its application and potential in social work education. This research note examines how student self-assessments of their progress on core competencies in an MSW-level social work course change across three time points (pretest, posttest, retrospective test). The findings suggest that students underrated and overrated their competencies at the pretest. We argue that using multiple time point self-assessment addresses this internal validity threat and should be considered in social work course evaluation.
Novel neurotransmitters and their neuropsychiatric relevance.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this review is to integrate insights regarding novel neurotransmitters or neuromodulators of neuropsychiatric significance. METHOD Evolving concepts of neurotransmitter criteria are reviewed in light of the unexpected properties displayed by recently identified transmitters. RESULTS Classic criteria for transmitters were based on the properties of acetylcholine but were markedly revised with the recognition of the catecholamines, serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and other amino acid transmitters and neuropeptides. Nitric oxide and carbon monoxide are notably atypical, as they are not stored in synaptic vesicles, are not released by exocytosis, and do not act at postsynaptic membrane receptor proteins. D-Serine, recently appreciated as the endogenous ligand for the glycine site of the glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, overturns fundamental axioms of biology as well as those of neuroscience. It is a D-amino acid, and it is synthesized and stored in glia rather than neurons. Released glutamate acts on receptors on the protoplasmic astrocytes closely apposed to the synapse to release D-serine, which coactivates postsynaptic NMDA receptors together with glutamate. D-Serine is formed by serine racemase, which directly converts L-serine to D-serine. Inhibitors of this enzyme should reduce NMDA neurotransmission and might be therapeutic in stroke and other conditions associated with glutamate excitotoxicity. CONCLUSIONS The diversity of novel neurotransmitters and venues of their activity afford multiple opportunities for therapeutic intervention.