Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synthesis of Zeolite Membranes from Coal Fly Ash

Zeolite membranes were successfully synthesized from coal fly ash by hydrothermal treatment onto 10-cm-long tubular porous supports. The membranes were characterized from XRD analysis, SEM observation and the pervaporation performance. Under the optimized conditions, LTA-type membrane from coal fly ash showed fairly efficient for the dehydration of organic liquids. The maximum selectivity reached more than 3000 with accompanying flux as high as 3.0 kg/(m2•h) for separation of 90 wt% EtOH aqueous solution at 75 °C.
Novel insights into the dynamics of intractable human epilepsy

Probability density functions and the probability of Sz occurrence conditional upon the time elapsed from the previous Sz were estimated using the energy and intervals of SZ in prolonged recordings from subjects with localization- related pharmaco-resistant epilepsy, undergoing surgical evaluation. Clinical and subclinical seizure E and ISI distributions are governed by power laws in subjects on reduced doses of anti-seizure drugs. There is increased probability of Sz occurrence 30 minutes before and after a seizure and the time to next seizure increases with the duration of the seizure-free interval since the last one. Also, over short time scales, ``seizures may beget seizures. '' The cumulative empirical evidence is compatible with and suggests that at least over short time scales, seizures have the inherent capacity of triggering other seizures. This may explain the tendency of seizures to cluster and evolve into status epilepticus. Power law distributions of E and ISI indicate these features lack a typical size/duration and may not be accurate criteria or sufficient for classifying paroxysmal activity as ictal or interictal. This dependency and the existence of power law distributions raise the possibility that Sz occurrence and intensity may be predictable, without specifying the likelihood of success.
Barriers to the use of a Personal Health Record by an Elderly Population

Personal health records(PHRs) are proposed as a strategy to make health care delivery increasingly patient-centered. Yet little work has been done in understanding the workflows of patients in their own homes, or influence of access, cognitive, physical, or literacy barriers on workflow and outcomes of using health records. Many populations may require assistance in using PHRs to improve their health out-comes. We studied PHR use by an elderly and disabled population and describe those barriers encountered by our patients.
Evaluative Conditioning Is Pavlovian Conditioning: Issues of Definition, Measurement, and the Theoretical Importance of Contingency Awareness

In her commentary of Field (1999), Hammerl (1999) has drawn attention to several interesting points concerning the issue of contingency awareness in evaluative conditioning. First, she comments on several contentious issues arising from Field's review of the evaluative conditioning literature, second she critiques the data from his pilot study and finally she argues the case that EC is a distinct form of conditioning that can occur in the absence of contingency awareness. With reference to these criticisms, this reply attempts to address Hammerl's comments by exploring the issues of how awareness is defined, how it is best measured, and whether it is reasonable to believe that EC uniformly occurs in the absence of contingency awareness. The article concludes that the available evidence supports Field's proposition that EC is, in fact, Pavlovian learning. Copyright 2000 Academic Press.
EEG-based assessment of video and in-game learning

People often learn game-related information in video games by taking turns playing and watching each other play. This type of in-game learning involves both observation and imitation of actions. However, games are also made to be learnt individually during gameplay. Our study seeks to assess which is more effective for learning: just playing a game yourself or watching somebody play it first. We compare two gameplay situations: playing a digital game before watching a game-play video and playing a digital game after watching a gameplay video. Using a between-participants design, to measure learning effectiveness we recorded Mu rhythms, which are indirectly linked to mirror neuron activation during imitation learning. We also analyze hemispheric frontal alpha asymmetry. Our results indicate that presentation order of the video game matters and players are more aroused when watching a gameplay video before playing.
Understanding TRPV1 activation by ligands: Insights from the binding modes of capsaicin and resiniferatoxin

Significance Using computational methodologies, we refined the binding modes of the transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (TRPV1) modulators, capsaicin and resiniferatoxin, provided by the recent experimental cryo-electron microscopy electron density. The resulting insights enable us to predict the binding pose of 96 additional TRPV1 agonists, which we compare with reported mutagenesis studies. Specifically, we characterize the response of five previously unidentified mutants to capsaicin and resiniferatoxin. Analysis of the amino acids engaged in favorable ligand–channel interactions defines the key structural determinants of the TRPV1 vanilloid binding site. The transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (TRPV1) or vanilloid receptor 1 is a nonselective cation channel that is involved in the detection and transduction of nociceptive stimuli. Inflammation and nerve damage result in the up-regulation of TRPV1 transcription, and, therefore, modulators of TRPV1 channels are potentially useful in the treatment of inflammatory and neuropathic pain. Understanding the binding modes of known ligands would significantly contribute to the success of TRPV1 modulator drug design programs. The recent cryo-electron microscopy structure of TRPV1 only provides a coarse characterization of the location of capsaicin (CAPS) and resiniferatoxin (RTX). Herein, we use the information contained in the experimental electron density maps to accurately determine the binding mode of CAPS and RTX and experimentally validate the computational results by mutagenesis. On the basis of these results, we perform a detailed analysis of TRPV1–ligand interactions, characterizing the protein ligand contacts and the role of individual water molecules. Importantly, our results provide a rational explanation and suggestion of TRPV1 ligand modifications that should improve binding affinity.
Spatial Distance and Mental Construal of Social Events

Construal-level theory proposes that increasing the reported spatial distance of events leads individuals to represent the events by their central, abstract, global features (high-level construal) rather than by their peripheral, concrete, local features (low-level construal). Results of two experiments indicated that participants preferred to identify actions as ends rather than as means to a greater extent when these actions occurred at a spatially distant, as opposed to near, location (Study 1), and that they used more abstract language to recall spatially distant events, compared with near events (Study 2). These findings suggest that spatially distant events are associated with high-level construals, and that spatial distance can be conceptualized as a dimension of psychological distance.
Relation between renal function and outcomes in patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome: real-world data from the European Public Health Outcome Research and Indicators Collection Project.

BACKGROUND Clinical trials provide limited information about the outcome of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACSs) and kidney disease (KD) owing to underrepresentation of this population in most studies. METHODS To evaluate the outcome of patients with non-ST-segment elevation ACS (NSTE-ACS) and KD in a real-world setting, we compared the risk of in-hospital and 30-day mortality by the presence of KD (defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2)) in 13 141 patients with NSTE-ACS enrolled in 3 multinational ACS registries between 2000 and 2006 as part of the European Public Health Outcome Research and Indicators Collection Project. RESULTS Patients with KD (n = 4181) composed 31.8% of the study population and had significantly higher rates of in-hospital (5.4%) and 30-day (7.2%) case fatality compared with patients without KD (1.1% and 1.7%, respectively; P < .001 for both). In multivariate analysis, the presence of KD was independently associated with a significantly higher mortality risk (in-hospital: odds ratio [OR], 2.11; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.48-3.00; 30-day: OR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.46-2.61). Patients with KD who underwent coronary angiography experienced a 36% (P = .05) and 40% (P < .001) lower risk of in-hospital and 30-day mortality, respectively, but this high-risk population still exhibited significantly higher case-fatality rates during hospitalization (3.3%) and at 30 days (4.6%) compared with patients without KD who underwent coronary angiography (0.7% and 1.3%, respectively; P < .001 for all). CONCLUSIONS In a real-world setting, KD was present in approximately one-third of patients with NSTE-ACS and is a powerful independent predictor of subsequent mortality. Patients with NSTE-ACS and KD referred for coronary angiography have a significantly lower risk of death, but this high-risk population continues to exhibit increased mortality rates despite intervention procedures.
Growth among Tibetans at high and low altitudes in India

In India, Tibetans have been living at different altitudes for more than 40 years. This study describes physical growth in terms of height, weight, sitting height, skinfold thickness at triceps and upper arm circumference of Tibetans born and raised at three Tibetan refugee settlements (3,521; 970; and 800 m) from the view point of the hypothesis that growth is retarded at high altitude. Samples consist of individuals between the ages of 2 and 40 years. Tibetans at high altitude in India show a growth pattern similar to that previously observed among Tibetans in Tibet. Tibetans at high altitude are taller and heavier compared to Andean highlanders. The general trends show that Tibetan children and adults of both sexes at low altitude in India are advanced in terms of height, weight, skinfold thickness at triceps and upper arm circumference compared to Tibetans at high altitude. Trunk length (sitting height) is similar at the two altitudes but relative sitting height is greater at high altitude. Greater relative sitting height and lesser leg length at high altitude than at low altitudes is discussed in terms of effect of altitude, temperature, and nutritional status. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Antimicrobial, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activity of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized by Leaf Extract of Erythrina suberosa (Roxb.)

In this experiment, biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized using aqueous leaf extract of Erythrina suberosa (Roxb.). The biosynthesis of silver nanoparticle was continuously followed by UV-vis spectrophotometric analysis. The response of the phytoconstituents resides in E. suberusa during synthesis of stable AgNPs were analyzed by ATR- fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. Further, the size, charge, and polydispersity nature of AgNPs were studied using dynamic light scattering spectroscopy. The morphology of the nanoparticles was determined by scanning electron microscopy. Current result shows core involvement of plant extracts containing glycosides, flavonoids, and phenolic compounds played a crucial role in the biosynthesis of AgNPs. The antimicrobial activities of silver nanoparticles were evaluated against different pathogenic bacterium and fungi. The antioxidant property was studied by radical scavenging (DPPH) assay and cytotoxic activity was evaluated against A-431 osteosarcoma cell line by MTT assay. The characteristics of the synthesized silver nanoparticles suggest their application as a potential antimicrobial and anticancer agent.
Web-Based Training in Family Advocacy

Objective:To examine the efficacy of an interactive multimedia intervention that teaches advocacy skills to people caring for a family member with traumatic brain injury. Participants:A total of 201 individuals (control, n = 97; treatment, n = 104) providing support to a family member with traumatic brain injury. Design:Randomized controlled study. Main Measures:Caregiver knowledge, skill application, behavioral intention, and overall life satisfaction. Intervention:The Brain Injury Partners program, a Web site focused on advocacy, communication skills, and resources for families affected by brain injury. Results:Univariate analyses revealed that compared with the control group, the Brain Injury Partners group reported statistically significant higher adjusted means for application, knowledge, and attitudes scales immediately postintervention and at follow-up. Satisfaction with life, assessed at follow-up but not posttest, was not significant. Discussion:This study demonstrated the effectiveness of a Web-based intervention to teach effective skills to caregivers advocating for a family member with traumatic brain injury.
Automatic factual question generation from text

Texts with potential educational value are becoming available through the Internet (e.g., Wikipedia, news services). However, using these new tests in classrooms introduces many challenges, one of which is that they usually lack practice exercises and assessments. Here, we address part of this challenge by automating the creation of specific type of assessment item. Specifically, we focus automatically generating factual WH questions. Our goal is to create an automated system that can take as input a text and produce as output questions for assessing a reader's knowledge of the information in the text. The questions could then be presented to a teacher, who could select and revise the ones that he or she judges to be useful. After introducing the problem, we describe some of the computational and linguistic challenges presented by factual question generation. We then present an implemented system that leverages existing natural language processing techniques to address some of these challenges. The system uses a combination or manually encoded transformation rules and a statistical question ranker trained on a tailored dataset of labeled system output. We present experiments that evaluate individual components of the system as well as the system as a whole. We found, among other things, that the question ranker roughly doubled the acceptability rate of top-ranked questions. In a user study, we tested whether K-12 teachers could efficiently create factual questions by selecting and revising suggestions from the system. Offering automatic suggestions reduced the time and effort spent by participants, though it also affected the types or questions that were created. This research supports the idea that natural language processing can help teachers efficiently create instructional content. It provides solutions to some of the major challenges in question generation and an analysis and better understanding of those that remain.
Oxygen defects in amorphous Al2O3: A hybrid functional study

The electronic properties of the oxygen vacancy and interstitial in amorphous Al2O3 are studied via ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and hybrid functional calculations. Our results indicate that these defects do not occur in amorphous Al2O3, due to structural rearrangements which assimilate the defect structure and cause a delocalization of the associated defect levels. The imbalance of oxygen leads to a nonstoichiometric compound in which the oxygen occurs in the form of O2– ions. Intrinsic oxygen defects are found to be unable to trap excess electrons. For low Fermi energies, the formation of peroxy linkages is found to be favored leading to the capture of holes. The relative +2/0 defect levels occur at 2.5 eV from the valence band.
RE-EVALUATION OF STRENGTH AND STIFFNESS RELATIONSHIPS FOR HIGH-STRENGTH CONCRETE

It has been generally accepted that the tensile strength and elastic modulus of concrete is proportional to the square-root of its compressive strength. This relationship, however, may not be applicable for high-performance concrete. The study presents data on strength and stiffness of concretes containing a laboratory produced metakaolin and commercial silica fume as cement replacement materials, with water-to-cementitious materials ratio of 0.27 to 0.33. Approximately 750 specimens were tested and compressive strength of up to 110 MPa at 90 days were reported. Analysis of the best-fit relationships for tensile-compressive strength and stiffness-compressive strength found that the square-root function recommended by most codes of practice is inadequate when applied to concretes of higher strength, particularly in the case for tensile strength prediction.
Exploring the Factors Influencing Learning Effectiveness in Digital Game-based Learning

This study developed an educational online game, Super Delivery, targeting knowledge about saving electricity, and conducted case studies of eight sixth-grade students using this game to explore the factors influencing the effectiveness of students’ knowledge acquisition in digital game-based learning (DGBL). This study followed Miles and Huberman’s (1994) suggested procedure to analyze qualitative data and find the patterns across cases. Based on the analysis of the case-ordered predictor-outcome matrix and diverse evidence including qualitative and quantitative data, a casual map and a decision tree were constructed to explain why differences in the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition existed among the study participants. It was found that many factors interactively influence students’ effectiveness of knowledge acquisition in DGBL. Students’ learning motivation, learning ability, and playing skill could be key factors that collectively influence the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition in DGBL. Also, students’ learning motivation, learning ability, and playing skill were affected by their playing motivation, prior knowledge, as well as online game experience respectively. The results of this study may help teachers consider how effectively utilizing an educational game for enhancing students’ learning effectiveness in DGBL.
Identification of two risk haplotypes for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in the synaptic vesicle monoamine transporter gene (SVMT)

The synaptic vesicular monoamine transporter (SVMT) plays a key role in monoaminergic neurotransmission determining the size of neurotransmitter vesicular pools available for exocytotic release. Recently, several lines of evidence have suggested that altered functions of SVMT may be involved in the pathogenesis of certain neuropsychiatric diseases, including psychotic and mood disorders. In the present study, we tested the potential involvement of SVMT gene variants in the etiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Five different SNPs (T440G, C1368T, T2666C, A2683C, and A745G) were included in the analysis covering a region of about 35 kb along the SVMT gene. Analyses were performed in a case‐control sample consisting of 88 bipolar patients, 107 subjects with schizophrenia, and 164 controls. Two risk haplotypes for both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in SVMT gene were identified. Particularly, 2666T‐2683A‐745G (TAG) and 2666C‐2683C‐745A (CCA) combinations were significantly more frequent in both bipolar and schizophrenic patients than in controls. UNPHASED package estimated haplotype effects for all patients yielded relative risks of 4.1 (95%CI: 1.83–9.21) for TAG combination and 2.336 (95%CI: 1.28–4.26) for CCA haplotype. Conversely, 2666T‐2683C‐745A (TCA) and 2666C‐2683A‐745G (CAG) haplotypes seemed to protect against these mental disorders, since the estimated frequency in control chromosomes was 12% whilst such haplotypes were not observed in any bipolar or schizophrenic subject (P < 0.0000). Our results strongly suggest that SVMT gene or certain regions of it may constitute a genetic substrate of susceptibility for both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Predicting and explaining transtheoretical model stage transitions in relation to condom-carrying behaviour.

OBJECTIVES The stages of change component of the transtheoretical model have been applied to safe sex behaviours in cross-sectional analyses, but have not yet been subject to prospective analysis. It was predicted that: (a) cross-sectional analyses would demonstrate good discrimination between the stages of change; (b) prospective analyses would allow for the identification of predictors of stage transitions; and (c) implementation intentions would explain progression from the preparation stage. DESIGN This study employed an experimental longitudinal design. Participants were randomly assigned to the experimental (implementation intention) or control conditions and completed questionnaires at baseline and at 2-month follow-up. METHODS Five hundred and twenty-five adolescents who were broadly representative of the UK population completed questionnaires at baseline and follow-up (N=393) measuring: demographic variables; stage of change; theory of planned behaviour constructs; anticipated regret; and moral norm in relation to condom-carrying behaviour. The experimental condition completed a self-generated implementation intention to carry condoms at the end of the baseline questionnaire. RESULTS Discriminant function analyses indicated that the stages of change could be accurately discriminated from one another cross-sectionally and that, longitudinally, the measured variables were able to predict transitions between most stages. Implementation intentions caused people to progress from the preparation stage. CONCLUSIONS Transitions between most stages were reliably predicted, thereby providing potential targets for intervention. The brief implementation intention intervention was effective and could easily be utilized and expanded to encompass a broader range of sexual health behaviours.