Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Barker hypothesis confirmed: association of low birth weight with all-cause natural deaths in young adult life in a remote Australian Aboriginal community.

Barker et al. proposed that low birth weight predisposes to higher death rates in adult life. We previously confirmed this fact in a cohort of young adults who were born in a remote Australian Aboriginal community between 1956 and 1985. We now present data in these same people with four more years of follow-up and a greater number of deaths. The fates of participants were documented from age 15 years until death, start of dialysis, or until the end of 2010 and causes of death were derived from clinic narratives and dialysis records. Rates of natural deaths were compared by birth cohorts and birth weight, and hazard ratios were calculated using Cox proportional hazards methods, by birth weight and adjusted for birth cohort and sex. Over follow-up of 19,661 person-years, 61 people died of natural causes between age 15 and the censor date. Low birth weights (<2.5 kg) were associated with higher rates of natural death, with HR (95% CI) 1.76 (1.1-2.9, P=0.03), after adjustment for year of birth and sex. The effect was particularly prominent for deaths at <41 years of age, and with deaths from respiratory conditions/sepsis and unusual causes. A predisposing effect of low birth weight on adult deaths was confirmed. This phenomenon, occurring in the context of dramatically improved survivals of lower birth weight infants and children since the early 1960s, helps explain the current epidemic of chronic disease in Aboriginal people. Birth weights continue to improve, so excess deaths from this source should progressively be minimized.
The Relevance of QEEG to the Evaluation of Behavioral Disorders and Pharmacological Interventions

It has become apparent that the electrical signals recorded from the scalp of healthy individuals under standardized conditions are predictable, and that patients with a wide variety of brain disorders display activity with unusual features. It also early became apparent that centrally active medications produced striking changes in this activity. The application of computerized signal analysis to EEG recordings collected using standardized procedures has made it possible to obtain quantitative descriptions of brain electrical activity (QEEG) in normal individuals and patients with disorders of brain function or structure, as well as quantitative description of the ways in which centrally active medications alter this activity (Pharmaco-EEG or “PEEG”). With the emergence of three-dimensional EEG source localization techniques, it has recently become possible to visualize the mathematically most probable generators of QEEG abnormalities within the brain as well as the neuroanatomical regions where abnormal activity is most altered by efficacious medication. As QEEG and PEEG have evolved, a vast body of facts has been accumulated, describing changes in the EEG or event-related potentials (ERPs) observed in a variety of brain disorders or after administration of a variety of medications. With some notable exceptions, these studies have tended to be phenomenological rather than analytic. There has not been a systematic attempt to integrate these phenomena in order to build better understanding of how the abnormal behaviors of a particular psychiatric patient might be related to the specific pattern of the deviant electrical activity, nor just how pharmacological reduction of that deviant activity may have resulted in more normal behavior. This article is an endeavor to provide a more specific theoretical framework for understanding the relationships between the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of the homeostatic system underlying the regulation of the QEEG, and the mechanisms revealed by Pharmaco-EEG that aid in correcting these illnesses.
Potential Impacts of Climate Change on Insect Communities: A Transplant Experiment

Climate change will have profound impacts on the distribution, abundance and ecology of all species. We used a multi-species transplant experiment to investigate the potential effects of a warmer climate on insect community composition and structure. Eight native Australian plant species were transplanted into sites approximately 2.5°C (mean annual temperature) warmer than their native range. Subsequent insect colonisation was monitored for 12 months. We compared the insect communities on transplanted host plants at the warmer sites with control plants transplanted within the species' native range. Comparisons of the insect communities were also made among transplanted plants at warmer sites and congeneric plant species native to the warmer transplant area. We found that the morphospecies composition of the colonising Coleoptera and Hemiptera communities differed markedly between transplants at the control compared to the warmer sites. Community structure, as described by the distribution of feeding guilds, was also found to be different between the controls and transplants when the entire Coleoptera and Hemiptera community, including non-herbivore feeding guilds, was considered. However, the structure of the herbivorous insect community showed a higher level of consistency between plants at control and warm sites. There were marked differences in community composition and feeding guild structure, for both herbivores and non-herbivores, between transplants and congenerics at the warm sites. These results suggest that as the climate warms, considerable turnover in the composition of insect communities may occur, but insect herbivore communities may retain elements of their present-day structure.
Joint source and channel coding of view and rate scalable multi-view video

We study multicast of multi-view content in the video plus depth format to heterogeneous clients. We design a joint source-channel coding scheme based on view and rate embedded source coding and rateless channel coding. It comprises an optimization framework for joint view selection and source-channel rate allocation, and includes a fast method for separate optimization of the source and channel coding components, at a negligible performance loss wrt the joint solution. We demonstrate performance gains over a state-of-the-art method based on H.264/SVC, in the case of two client classes.
Calcium-dependent Changes in the Flexibility of the Regulatory Domain of Troponin C in the Troponin Complex*

With the recent advances in structure determination of the troponin complex, it becomes even more important to understand the dynamics of its components and how they are affected by the presence or absence of Ca2+. We used NMR techniques to study the backbone dynamics of skeletal troponin C (TnC) in the complex. Transverse relaxation-optimized spectroscopy pulse sequences and deuteration of TnC were essential to assign most of the TnC residues in the complex. Backbone amide 15N relaxation times were measured in the presence of Ca2+ or EGTA/Mg2+. T1 relaxation times could not be interpreted precisely, because for a molecule of this size, the longitudinal backbone amide 15N relaxation rate due to chemical shift anisotropy and dipole-dipole interactions becomes too small, and other relaxation mechanisms become relevant. T2 relaxation times were of the expected magnitude for a complex of this size, and most of the variation of T2 times in the presence of Ca2+ could be explained by the anisotropy of the complex, suggesting a relatively rigid molecule. The only exception was EF-hand site III and helix F immediately after, which are more flexible than the rest of the molecule. In the presence of EGTA/Mg2+, relaxation times for residues in the C-domain of TnC are very similar to values in the presence of Ca2+, whereas the N-domain becomes more flexible. Taken together with the high flexibility of the linker between the two domains, we concluded that in the absence of Ca2+, the N-domain of TnC moves independently from the rest of the complex.
Role of cyclooxygenase‐2 induction by transcription factor Sp1 and Sp3 in neuronal oxidative and DNA damage response

Cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2) has been implicated in neuronal survival and death. However, the precise regulatory mechanisms involved in COX‐2 function are unclear. In the present study we found that COX‐2 is induced in response to glutathione depletion‐induced oxidative stress in primary cortical neurons. Two proximal specific Sp1 and Sp3 binding sites are responsible for the COX‐2 promoter activity under normal as well as oxidative stress conditions through enhanced Sp1 and Sp3 DNA binding activity. Site‐directed mutagenesis confirmed that −268/–267 positions serve as specific Sp1 and Sp3 recognition sites under oxidative stress. Enforced expression of Sp1 and Sp3 using HSV vectors increased the promoter activity, transcription, and protein level of COX‐2 in cortical neurons. The dominant negative form of Sp1 abrogated the oxidative stress‐induced promoter activity and expression of COX‐2. We also demonstrated that adenovirus‐mediated COX‐2 gene delivery protected neurons from DNA damage induced by oxidative, genotoxic, and excitotoxic stresses and by ischemic injury. Moreover, COX‐2−/− cortical neurons were more susceptible to DNA damage‐induced cell death. These results indicate that in primary neurons Sp1 and Sp3 play an essential role in the modulation of COX‐2 transcription, which mediates neuronal homeostasis and survival by preventing DNA damage in response to neuronal stress. —Lee, J., Kosaras, B. , Aleyasin, H. , Han, J. A. , Park, D. S. , Ratan, R. R. , Kowall, N. W. , Ferrante, R. J., Lee, S. W. , Ryu, H. Role of cyclooxygenase‐2 induction by transcription factor Sp1 and Sp3 in neuronal oxidative and DNA damage response. FASEB J. 20, E1657–E1669 (2006)
Structural Equation Modeling

The chapters demonstrate two SEM programs with distinct user interfaces and capabilities (Amos and Mplus) with enough specificity that readers can conduct their own analyses without consulting additional resources. Examples from social work literature highlight best practices for the specification, estimation, interpretation, and modification of structural equation models. Oftentimes, confirmatory factor analysis and general structure modeling are the most flexible, powerful, and appropriate choices for social work data.
Understanding Customer Dissatisfaction with Underutilized Distributed File Servers (CMU-CS-96-158)

An important trend in the design of storage subsystems is a move toward direct network attachment. Network-attached storage offers the opportunity to off-load distributed file system functionality from dedicated file server machines and execute many requests directly at the storage devices. For this strategy to lead to better performance as perceived by users, the response time of distributed operations must improve. In this paper, we analyze measurements of an Andrew File System (AFS) server that we recently upgraded in an effort to improve client performance in our laboratory. While the original server’s overall utilization was only about 3%, we show how burst loads were sufficiently intense to lead to periods of poor response time significant enough to trigger customer dissatisfaction. In particular, we show how, after adjusting for network load and traffic to non-project servers, 50% of the variation in client response time was explained by variation in server CPU utilization. That is, clients saw long response times in large part because the server was often over-utilized when it was used at all. Using these measures, we see that off-loading file server work in a network-attached storage architecture has the potential to benefit user response time. Computational power in such a system scales directly with storage capacity, so the slowdown during burst periods should be reduced.
Hybrid ARIMA-IIS Approach for Wheat Yield Forecasting: An Integrated Approach

This study explores the application of a hybrid approach, combining the Impulse Indicator Saturation (IIS) method with an ARIMA(x) model, to forecast wheat yield. The IIS method is employed to find potential impulse responses, which are then integrated into the ARIMA(x) framework. The IIS method captures the potential joint effects of the weather, climate and other inputs on the data generating process of the wheat yield time series. The performance of the hybrid ARIMA(x) model is compared with that of the standalone ARIMA model using various error metrics, including Mean Squared Error (MSE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD). Additionally, model selection criteria such as the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC), Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC), Schwarz Bayesian Information Criterion (SBIC), and Hannan-Quinn Criterion (HQ) are used to identify the optimal model for forecasting. The training data of wheat yield from 1948-2018 was used to fit both the ARIMA and ARIMA(x) models, while the remaining observations until 2023 are used for model validation. The results of the study reveal that the hybrid ARIMA(x) model exhibits superior forecasting ability, demonstrating lower error metrics compared to the standalone ARIMA model. Notably, the ex-ante forecasts for the 2023-24 period predict a wheat production of 29.916 million tons using the ARIMA(x) model and 29.656 million tons using the ARIMA (2,1,2) model. These findings underscore the efficacy of the hybrid approach in enhancing production forecasting accuracy, thereby serving as a valuable basis for early warning systems to address potential demand and supply gaps in wheat production.
Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Faculty Publications Anatomy and Regenerative Biology Recommended Citation Weak Tradeoff between Xylem Safety and Xylem-specific Hydraulic Efficiency across the World's Woody Plant Species

Weak tradeoff between xylem safety and xylem-specific hydraulic efficiency across the world' s woody plant species. (2015), Weak tradeoff between xylem safety and xylem-specific hydraulic efficiency across the world's woody plant species. New Phytologist. Summary The evolution of lignified xylem allowed for the efficient transport of water under tension, but also exposed the vascular network to the risk of gas emboli and the spread of gas between xylem conduits, thus impeding sap transport to the leaves. A well-known hypothesis proposes that the safety of xylem (its ability to resist embolism formation and spread) should trade off against xylem efficiency (its capacity to transport water). We tested this safety–efficiency hypothesis in branch xylem across 335 angiosperm and 89 gymnosperm species. Safety was considered at three levels: the xylem water potentials where 12%, 50% and 88% of maximal conductivity are lost. Although correlations between safety and efficiency were weak (r 2 < 0.086), no species had high efficiency and high safety, supporting the idea for a safety–efficiency tradeoff. However, many species had low efficiency and low safety. Species with low efficiency and low safety were weakly associated (r 2 < 0.02 in most cases) with higher wood density, lower leaf-to sap-wood-area and shorter stature. There appears to be no persuasive explanation for the considerable number of species with both low efficiency and low safety. These species represent a real challenge for understanding the evolution of xylem.
Social Skills Deficits as a Mediator Between PTSD Symptoms and Intimate Partner Aggression in Returning Veterans

This study examined social skills deficits as a mediator of the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and use of intimate partner aggression (IPA) among returning veterans. Prior research with veterans has focused on PTSD-related deficits at the decoding stage of McFall’s (1982) social information processing model, and the current study adds to this literature by examining social skills deficits at the decision stage. Participants were 92 male veterans recruited from the greater Boston area. PTSD symptoms were assessed through clinician interview, IPA use was assessed through self- and partner report, and social skills deficits were assessed in a laboratory task in which veterans listened to a series of problematic marital situations and responded with what they would say or do in the situation. Responses were coded for social competency. Bivariate correlations revealed several significant associations among PTSD symptoms, social skills deficits, and use of IPA. When all PTSD symptom clusters were entered into a regression predicting social skills deficits, only emotional numbing emerged as a unique predictor. Finally, social skills deficits significantly mediated the relationship between veterans’ PTSD symptoms and use of psychological (but not physical) IPA. Findings extend prior research on McFall’s (1982) social information processing model as it relates to veterans’ PTSD symptoms and use of IPA. More research is needed to understand the associations between PTSD symptoms and deficits at each individual step of this model.
Long-term association of cardiovascular risk factors with impaired insulin secretion and insulin resistance.

The study aim was to investigate the association of cardiovascular risk factors with insulin resistance and impaired insulin secretion in an 8-year prospective population study in nondiabetic subjects. Cardiovascular risk factors of 271 subjects aged 16 to 61 years were measured at baseline, and insulin sensitivity and acute-phase insulin secretion were assessed by an intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) and Bergman's minimal model 8 years later. In logistic regression analysis, baseline high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol (P < .001 and P = .006, respectively), total, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and VLDL triglycerides (P = .004, P = .048, and P = .002, respectively), apolipoprotein A1 (P = .010), and uric acid (P < .001) were associated with insulin resistance after adjustment for age and the body mass index (BMI). Systolic blood pressure (P = .042) and VLDL cholesterol (P = .018) were associated with impaired insulin secretion after adjustment for age and the BMI. This 8-year longitudinal study demonstrates that dyslipidemia, high blood pressure, and uric acid are associated with insulin resistance, whereas high systolic blood pressure and VLDL cholesterol are associated with impaired first-phase insulin secretion.
A Tale of Three Security Operation Centers

Security researchers have been trying to understand functioning of a security operation center (SOC) and how security analysts perform their job. This effort is motivated by the fact that security monitoring and analysis is not just a technical problem. Researchers must take into consideration the human and organizational factors for their research ideas to succeed. Much work towards this direction has been through interviews of security analysts in SOCs. Interviews, however useful, will not be always possible as analysts work in a high-stress and time constrained environment. Thus the understanding of operational challenges through interviews is quite shallow. There is also an issue of trust that limits the amount of information an analyst shares with an interviewing researcher. In our work, we take an anthropological approach to address this problem. Students with Computer Science background get trained in anthropological methods by an anthropologist and are embedded as security analysts in operation centers. Embedded students perform the same job as an analyst and see the operational world from the view point of an analyst. Through reflection on the observations made by the students we gain a holistic perspective of the challenges in operation centers. In this paper we report preliminary results on the ongoing fieldwork at two corporate and a University SOC.
The Utility of Event-Based Knowledge Elicitation

The purpose of this investigation was to describe and evaluate an event-based knowledge elicitation technique. With this approach experts are provided with deliberate and controlled job situations, allowing investigation of specific task aspects and the comparison of expert responses. For this effort a videotape was developed showing an instructor pilot and student conducting a training mission. Various job situations were depicted in the video to gather information pertinent to understanding team situational awareness. The videotape was shown to 10 instructors and 10 student aviators in the community, and responses to the videotape were collected using a questionnaire at predetermined stop points. Consistent with expectations, the results showed that more experienced respondents (i.e., instructors) identified a richer database of cues and were more likely than students to identify strategies for responding to the situations depicted, providing some empirical evidence for the validity of the event-based technique. This method may serve as a useful knowledge elicitation technique, especially in the later stages of a job analysis when focused information is sought.
Performance Analysis of Network Lifetime and Energy Consumption in a Multi-Hop Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are recently attracting a lot of interest due to their low cost. They are rapidly replacing the wired data acquisition systems due to the ability to use them in benign environments. However, WSNs suffer from many constraints, including low computation capability, small memory, susceptibility to physical capture, the lack of infrastructure and limited energy resources which imposes unique challenges. One of the methods to improve the performance of a WSN is to introduce multiple hops between the source and destination. In this paper, an attempt has been made to analyze the relationship between network lifetime and the energy consumption in a multi-hop wireless sensor network (WSN). Network lifetime can be defined as the maximum time for which the network is able to successfully transmit data from the source to the sink, using all possible alternate routes. It has been shown that as the network lifetime increases, the percentage energy consumption decreases with increase in the number of hops and attains a minimum at critical hops. After the critical hops, the energy consumption gradually increases due to increase in cumulative energy consumption of the intermediate nodes.
X‐ray structure of the T. Aquaticus Ftsy:GDP complex suggests functional roles for the C‐terminal helix of the SRP GTPases

FtsY and Ffh are structurally similar prokaryotic Signal Recognition Particle GTPases that play an essential role in the Signal Recognition Particle (SRP)‐mediated cotranslational targeting of proteins to the membrane. The two GTPases assemble in a GTP‐dependent manner to form a heterodimeric SRP targeting complex. We report here the 2.1 Å X‐ray structure of FtsY from T. aquaticus bound to GDP. The structure of the monomeric protein reveals, unexpectedly, canonical binding interactions for GDP. A comparison of the structures of the monomeric and complexed FtsY NG GTPase domain suggests that it undergoes a conformational change similar to that of Ffh NG during the assembly of the symmetric heterodimeric complex. However, in contrast to Ffh, in which the C‐terminal helix shifts independently of the other subdomains, the C‐terminal helix and N domain of T. aquaticus FtsY together behave as a rigid body during assembly, suggesting distinct mechanisms by which the interactions of the NG domain “module” are regulated in the context of the two SRP GTPases. Proteins 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.