Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of extensive reading on reading attitudes in a foreign language

Extensive reading (ER) is an instructional option steadily gaining support and recognition in second language (L2) reading pedagogy. Even though many attempts have been made to unravel the impact of ER on L2 development, there is a paucity of investigation into the affective domains of reading. The current study helps fill this gap by examining the effect of ER on L2 reading attitude. Participants were 61 undergraduates learning English as a foreign language at a Japanese university. Five attitudinal variables were measured using a 22-item questionnaire scored on a Likert scale in the categories of Comfort, Anxiety, Intellectual Value, Practical Value, and Linguistic Value. After the removal of Linguistic Value because of a ceiling effect, the result showed increases in Comfort and Intellectual Value and a decrease in Anxiety, with no effect on Practical Value. Implications for research and pedagogy are discussed.
Differential effect of YidC depletion on the membrane proteome of Escherichia coli under aerobic and anaerobic growth conditions

YidC of Escherichia coli belongs to the evolutionarily conserved Oxa1/Alb3/YidC family. Members of the family have all been implicated in membrane protein biogenesis of respiratory and energy transducing proteins. The number of proteins identified thus far to require YidC for their membrane biogenesis remains limited and the identification of new substrates may allow the elucidation of properties that define the YidC specificity. To this end we investigated changes in the membrane proteome of E. coli upon YidC depletion using metabolic labeling of proteins with 15N/14N combined with a MS‐centered proteomics approach and compared the effects of YidC depletion under aerobic and anaerobic growth conditions. We found that YidC depletion resulted in protein aggregation/misfolding in the cytoplasm as well as in the inner membrane of E. coli. A dramatic increase was observed in the chaperone‐mediated stress response upon YidC depletion and this response was limited to aerobically grown cells. A number of transporter proteins were identified as possible candidates for the YidC‐dependent insertion and/or folding pathway. These included the small metal ion transporter CorA, numerous ABC transporters, as well as the MFS transporters KgtP and ProP, providing a new subset of proteins potentially requiring YidC for membrane biogenesis.
Visible . A Service of zbw

Suggested Citation: Daube, Dirk (2011) : Public Private Partnership (PPP) für Immobilien öffentlicher Krankenhäuser: Entwicklung eines PPP-Eignungstests als Entscheidungshilfe für kommunale Krankenhäuser und Universitätsklinika, Schriftenreihe der Professur Betriebswirtschaftslehre im Bauwesen, No. 13, Verlag der Bauhaus-Universität, Weimar, http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:wim2-20110309-15369
Carbon dioxide toxicity and climate change : a serious unapprehended risk for human health

As atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide continue to escalate and drive climate change, the issue of CO2 toxicity is not recognised as a global risk. The toxicity of CO2 for breathing has been well defined for high concentrations but it remains effectively unknown what level will compromise human health when individuals are perpetually exposed for their lifetime. There is evidence from the few studies of long-term low-level exposure that permanent exposure, to CO2 levels predicted by the end of the century, will have significant effects on humans. Other studies of slightly higher CO2 levels may offer clues to effects, not yet observed, that may occur when humans experience lifelong exposure. Although humans and animals are able to deal with elevated levels of CO2 in the shortterm due to various compensation mechanisms in the body, the persistent effects of these mechanisms may have severe consequences in a perpetual environment of elevated CO2. These include threats to life such as kidney failure, bone atrophy and loss of brain function. Existing research also indicates that as ambient CO2 increases in the near-future, there will be an associated increase in cancers, neurological disorders and other conditions. Research is urgently required to clearly identify the severity and proximity of this risk, associated with the primary human function of breathing, being a potential major aspect of climate change.
Role of MHC Class II on Memory B Cells in Post-Germinal Center B Cell Homeostasis and Memory Response1

We investigated the role of B cell Ag presentation in homeostasis of the memory B cell compartment in a mouse model where a conditional allele for the β-chain of MHC class II (MHC-II) is deleted in the vast majority of all B cells by cd19 promoter-mediated expression of Cre recombinase (IA-B mice). Upon T cell-dependent immunization, a small number of MHC-II+ B cells in IA-B mice dramatically expanded and restored normal albeit delayed levels of germinal center (GC) B cells with an affinity-enhancing somatic mutation to Ag. IA-B mice also established normal levels of MHC-II+ memory B cells, which, however, subsequently lost MHC-II expression by ongoing deletion of the conditional iab allele without significant loss in their number. Furthermore, in vivo Ag restimulation of MHC-II− memory B cells of IA-B mice failed to cause differentiation into plasma cells (PCs), even in the presence of Ag-specific CD4+ T cells. In addition, both numbers and Ag-specific affinity of long-lived PCs during the late post-GC phase, as well as post-GC serum affinity maturation, were significantly reduced in IA-B mice. These results support a notion that MHC-II-dependent T cell help during post-GC phase is not absolutely required for the maintenance of memory B cell frequency but is important for their differentiation into PCs and for the establishment of the long-lived PC compartment.
Improving Operational Resiliency and Sensemaking during Crisis

Understanding the mechanisms of analysis and decision-making processes during extreme events allows to improve an organizational state and to maintain an ideal level of resilience through situational (re)formulations and awareness. Studying the concepts of sensemaking altogether, situational awareness and resilience highlight their affinities to understand their mutual influences in the construction of organizational performance in times of crisis. This article is structured around three objectives. Initially, it defines what sensemaking, situational awareness and resilience are. Secondly, it intends to show how the concepts of sensemaking, situational awareness and resilience are interconnected. Finally, regarding system dynamics, this article attempts to underline the various factors and variables that influence levels of operational resiliency, sensemaking and situational awareness critical maintaining an optimum level of performance.
Indulgent algorithms (preliminary version)

Informally, an <italic>indulgent</italic> algorithm is a distributed algorithm that tolerates <italic>unreliable</italic> failure detection: the algorithm is <italic>indulgent</italic> towards its failure detector. This paper formally characterises such algorithms and states some of their interesting features. We show that indulgent algorithms are inherently <italic>safe</italic> and <italic>uniform</italic>. We also state impossibility results for indulgent solutions to <italic>divergent</italic> problems like consensus, and <italic>failure-sensitive</italic> problems like non-blocking atomic commit and terminating reliable broadcast.
An Interaction between KSHV ORF57 and UIF Provides mRNA-Adaptor Redundancy in Herpesvirus Intronless mRNA Export

The hTREX complex mediates cellular bulk mRNA nuclear export by recruiting the nuclear export factor, TAP, via a direct interaction with the export adaptor, Aly. Intriguingly however, depletion of Aly only leads to a modest reduction in cellular mRNA nuclear export, suggesting the existence of additional mRNA nuclear export adaptor proteins. In order to efficiently export Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) intronless mRNAs from the nucleus, the KSHV ORF57 protein recruits hTREX onto viral intronless mRNAs allowing access to the TAP-mediated export pathway. Similarly however, depletion of Aly only leads to a modest reduction in the nuclear export of KSHV intronless mRNAs. Herein, we identify a novel interaction between ORF57 and the cellular protein, UIF. We provide the first evidence that the ORF57-UIF interaction enables the recruitment of hTREX and TAP to KSHV intronless mRNAs in Aly-depleted cells. Strikingly, depletion of both Aly and UIF inhibits the formation of an ORF57-mediated nuclear export competent ribonucleoprotein particle and consequently prevents ORF57-mediated mRNA nuclear export and KSHV protein production. Importantly, these findings highlight that redundancy exists in the eukaryotic system for certain hTREX components involved in the mRNA nuclear export of intronless KSHV mRNAs.
Intention-based walking support for paraplegia patients with Robot Suit HAL

This paper proposes an algorithm to estimate human intentions related to walking in order to comfortably and safely support a paraplegia patient's walk. Robot Suit HAL (Hybrid Assistive Limb) has been developed for enhancement of a healthy person's activities and for support of a physically challenged person's daily life. The assisting method based on bioelectrical signals such as myoelectricity successfully supports a healthy person's walking. These bioelectrical signals, however, cannot be measured properly from a paraplegia patient. Therefore another interface that can estimate a patient's intentions without any manual controller is desired for robot control since a manual controller deprives a patient of his/her hand freedom. Estimation of a patient's intentions contributes to providing not only comfortable support but also safe support, because any inconformity between the robot suit motion and the patient motion results in his/her stumbling or falling. The proposed algorithm estimates a patient's intentions from a floor reaction force (FRF) reflecting a patient's weight shift during walking and standing. The effectiveness of this algorithm is investigated through experiments on a paraplegia patient who has a sensory paralysis on both legs, especially his left leg. We show that HAL supports the patient's walk properly, estimating his intentions based on the FRF, while he keeps his own balance by himself.
The Effects of Emotional Expressions on Attention-Inhibition Processes of Depressed Patients: An ERP Systematic Review

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) affects millions of people across the lifespan and causes tremendous burden across the globe. Abnormalities in cognitive functions, including decreased cognitive processing speed, trouble concentrating, and biases towards emotional expressions are major reasons of the debilitating effects of MDD. This systematic review aims to examine the attention-inhibition processes of MDD patients (without comorbidity) in comparison to healthy controls (HCs) based on emotional expressions, using a multistaged Information Processing Model. An online search was conducted in EBSCO, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Wiley from inception to September 2017. Ten studies were extracted for a detailed review. Behavioural and electrophysiological results reveal that depressed patients are hypersensitive towards negative or sad emotional stimuli but hyposensitive towards positive or happy emotional stimuli. The bias is stronger in MDD when the patients are symptomatic but there is a ‘transition’ from negative emotional bias to positive emotional bias during remission. This bias is also observed at the early/perceptual processing stage, mid/ post-perceptual processing stage, and late/central processing stage. Based on the results, it is recommended that, first, future studies should examine the number of stages involved in information processing in addition to examining which stage remains unaffected by MDD. Second, studies should examine the reasons behind this negativity bias as well as the association between ERP components and daily functions among MDD patients so as to get a holistic view of their condition. Third, ERP studies can investigate in what ways antidepressants improve the information processing and negative bias in MDD patients.
Lipid Body–Phagosome Interaction in Macrophages during Infectious Diseases: Host Defense or Pathogen Survival Strategy?

Phagocytosis of invading microorganisms by specialized cells such as macrophages and neutrophils is a key component of the innate immune response. These cells capture and engulf pathogens and subsequently destroy them in intracellular vacuoles—the phagosomes. Pathogen phagocytosis and progression and maturation of pathogen-containing phagosomes, a crucial event to acquire microbicidal features, occurs in parallel with accentuated formation of lipid-rich organelles, termed lipid bodies (LBs), or lipid droplets. Experimental and clinical infections with different pathogens such as bacteria, parasites, and viruses induce LB accumulation in cells from the immune system. Within these cells, LBs synthesize and store inflammatory mediators and are considered structural markers of inflammation. In addition to LB accumulation, interaction of these organelles with pathogen-containing phagosomes has increasingly been recognized in response to infections and may have implications in the outcome or survival of the microorganism within host cells. In this review, we summarize our current knowledge on the LB-phagosome interaction within cells from the immune system, with emphasis on macrophages, and discuss the functional meaning of this event during infectious diseases.
New technique to measure forest floor interception – an application in a beech forest in Luxembourg

Abstract. In hydrological models, evaporation from interception is often disregarded, combined with transpiration, or taken as a fixed percentage of rainfall. In general interception is not considered to be a significant process in rainfall-runoff modelling. However, it appears that on average interception can amount to 20–50% of the precipitation. Therefore, knowledge about the process of interception is important. Traditional research on interception mainly focuses on canopy interception and almost completely denies forest floor interception, although this is an important mechanism that precedes infiltration or runoff. Forest floor interception consists partly of interception by dry soil, partly of interception by short vegetation (mosses, grasses and creeping vegetation) and partly of interception by litter. This research project concentrates on litter interception: to measure its quantities at point scale and subsequently to upscale it to that of a hydrotope. A special measuring device has been developed, which consists of a permeable upper basin filled with forest floor, and a watertight lower basin. Both are weighed continuously. The device has been tested in the Huewelerbach catchment (Luxembourg). The preliminary measuring results show that the device is working properly. For November 2004, evaporation from interception was calculated to be 14 mm of 42 mm throughfall (i.e., 34%).
Near-lossless video summarization

The daunting yet increasing volume of videos on the Internet brings the challenges of storage and indexing to existing online video services. Current techniques like video compression and summarization are still struggling to achieve the two often conflicting goals of low storage and high visual and semantic fidelity. In this work, we develop a new system for video summarization, called "Near-Lossless Video Summarization" (NLVS), which is able to summarize a video stream with the least information loss by using an extremely small piece of metadata. The summary consists of a set of synthesized mosaics and representative keyframes, a compressed audio stream, as well as the metadata about video structure and motion. Although at a very low compression ratio (i.e., 1/30 of H.264 baseline in average, where traditional compression techniques like H.264 fail to preserve the fidelity), the summary still can be used to reconstruct the original video (with the same duration) nearly without semantic information loss. We show that NLVS is a powerful tool for significantly reducing video storage through both objective and subjective comparisons with state-of-the-art video compression and summarization techniques.
Pegylated Interferon α-2a Triggers NK-Cell Functionality and Specific T-Cell Responses in Patients with Chronic HBV Infection without HBsAg Seroconversion

Pegylated interferon α-2a (Peg-IFN-α) represents a therapeutic alternative to the prolonged use of nucleos(t)ide analog (NA) in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection. The mechanisms leading to a positive clinical outcome remain unclear. As immune responses are critical for virus control, we investigated the effects of Peg-IFN-α on both innate and adaptive immunity, and related it to the clinical evolution. The phenotypic and functional features of the dendritic cells (DCs), natural killer (NK) cells and HBV-specific CD4/CD8 T cells were analyzed in HBeAg-negative CHB patients treated for 48-weeks with NA alone or together with Peg-IFN-α, before, during and up to 2-years after therapy. Peg-IFN-α induced an early activation of DCs, a potent expansion of the CD56bright NK subset, and enhanced the activation and functionality of the CD56dim NK subset. Peg-IFN-α triggered an increase in the frequencies of Th1- and Th17-oriented HBV-specific CD4/CD8 T cells. Peg-IFN-α reversed the unresponsiveness of patients to a specific stimulation. Most of the parameters returned to baseline after the stop of Peg-IFN-α therapy. Peg-IFN-α impacts both innate and adaptive immunity, overcoming dysfunctional immune responses in CHB patients. These modulations were not associated with seroconversion, which questioned the benefit of the add-on Peg-IFN-α treatment.
Physical Inactivity Differentially Alters Dietary Oleate and Palmitate Trafficking

OBJECTIVE— Obesity and diabetes are characterized by the incapacity to use fat as fuel. We hypothesized that this reduced fat oxidation is secondary to a sedentary lifestyle. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS— We investigated the effect of a 2-month bed rest on the dietary oleate and palmitate trafficking in lean women (control group, n = 8) and the effect of concomitant resistance/aerobic exercise training as a countermeasure (exercise group, n = 8). Trafficking of stable isotope–labeled dietary fats was combined with muscle gene expression and magnetic resonance imaging–derived muscle fat content analyses. RESULTS— In the control group, bed rest increased the cumulative [1-13C]oleate and [d31]palmitate appearance in triglycerides (37%, P = 0.009, and 34%, P = 0.016, respectively) and nonesterified fatty acids (NEFAs) (37%, P = 0.038, and 38%, P = 0.002) and decreased muscle lipoprotein lipase (P = 0.043) and fatty acid translocase CD36 (P = 0.043) mRNA expressions. Plasma NEFA-to-triglyceride ratios for [1-13C]oleate and [d31]palmitate remained unchanged, suggesting that the same proportion of tracers enters the peripheral tissues after bed rest. Bed rest did not affect [1-13C]oleate oxidation but decreased [d31]palmitate oxidation by −8.2 ± 4.9% (P < 0.0001). Despite a decreased spontaneous energy intake and a reduction of 1.9 ± 0.3 kg (P = 0.001) in fat mass, exercise training did not mitigate these alterations but partially maintained fat-free mass, insulin sensitivity, and total lipid oxidation in fasting and fed states. In both groups, muscle fat content increased by 2.7% after bed rest and negatively correlated with the reduction in [d31]palmitate oxidation (r2 = 0.48, P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS— While saturated and monounsaturated fats have similar plasma trafficking and clearance, physical inactivity affects the partitioning of saturated fats toward storage, likely leading to an accumulation of palmitate in muscle fat.
The Empowerment Model: Turning Barriers into Possibilities

There are many barriers that participants with disabilities face when attempting to participate in community-based organized physical activity programs (e.g., sports). In this article, we briefly discuss specific barriers that inhibit one’s ability to successfully participate in community-based physical activity programs and present a model to overcome these barriers. The Empowerment Model, based on empowerment theory (Perkins & Zimmerman, 1995; Sadan, 1997; Zimmerman, 1995, 2000), is a training and implementation model designed specifically to address many of the identified barriers. The model is meant to empower four distinct, but interrelated parties: individuals with disabilities; parents; teachers/instructors; and community-based programs. The Demand-Response approach of the article identifies the barriers to successful participation and then discusses how a given element(s) of the Empowerment Model provides potential solutions to assist in turning these barriers into possibilities. Subscribe to Palaestra
Posttraining Epinephrine Reverses Memory Deficits Produced by Traumatic Brain Injury in Rats

The aim of this research is to evaluate whether posttraining systemic epinephrine is able to improve object recognition memory in rats with memory deficits produced by traumatic brain injury. Forty-nine two-month-old naïve male Wistar rats were submitted to surgical procedures to induce traumatic brain injury (TBI) or were sham-operated. Rats were trained in an object recognition task and, immediately after training, received an intraperitoneal injection of distilled water (Sham-Veh and TBI-Veh group) or 0.01 mg/kg epinephrine (TBI-Epi group) or no injection (TBI-0 and Sham-0 groups). Retention was tested 3 h and 24 h after acquisition. The results showed that brain injury produced severe memory deficits and that posttraining administration of epinephrine was able to reverse them. Systemic administration of distilled water also had an enhancing effect, but of a lower magnitude. These data indicate that posttraining epinephrine and, to a lesser extent, vehicle injection reduce memory deficits associated with TBI, probably through induction of a low-to-moderate emotional arousal.
COMPARISON OF CLUSTERING ALGORITHMS IN SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION

In speaker identification, we match a given (unkown) speaker to the set of known speakers in a database. The database is constructed from the speech samples of each known speaker. Feature vectors are extracted from the samples by short-term spectral analysis, and processed further by vector quantization for locating the clusters in the feature space. We study the role of the vector quantization in the speaker identification system. We compare the performance of different clustering algorithms, and the influence of the codebook size. We want to find out, which method provides the best clustering result, and whether the difference in quality contribute to improvement in recognition accuracy of the system.