Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inorganic Nitrate Supplementation Lowers Blood Pressure in Humans: Role for Nitrite-Derived NO

Ingestion of dietary (inorganic) nitrate elevates circulating and tissue levels of nitrite via bioconversion in the entero-salivary circulation. In addition, nitrite is a potent vasodilator in humans, an effect thought to underlie the blood pressure–lowering effects of dietary nitrate (in the form of beetroot juice) ingestion. Whether inorganic nitrate underlies these effects and whether the effects of either naturally occurring dietary nitrate or inorganic nitrate supplementation are dose dependent remain uncertain. Using a randomized crossover study design, we show that nitrate supplementation (KNO3 capsules: 4 versus 12 mmol [n=6] or 24 mmol of KNO3 (1488 mg of nitrate) versus 24 mmol of KCl [n=20]) or vegetable intake (250 mL of beetroot juice [5.5 mmol nitrate] versus 250 mL of water [n=9]) causes dose-dependent elevation in plasma nitrite concentration and elevation of cGMP concentration with a consequent decrease in blood pressure in healthy volunteers. In addition, post hoc analysis demonstrates a sex difference in sensitivity to nitrate supplementation dependent on resting baseline blood pressure and plasma nitrite concentration, whereby blood pressure is decreased in male volunteers, with higher baseline blood pressure and lower plasma nitrite concentration but not in female volunteers. Our findings demonstrate dose-dependent decreases in blood pressure and vasoprotection after inorganic nitrate ingestion in the form of either supplementation or by dietary elevation. In addition, our post hoc analyses intimate sex differences in nitrate processing involving the entero-salivary circulation that are likely to be major contributing factors to the lower blood pressures and the vasoprotective phenotype of premenopausal women.
Mutations in gfpt1 and skiv2l2 Cause Distinct Stage-Specific Defects in Larval Melanocyte Regeneration in Zebrafish

The establishment of a single cell type regeneration paradigm in the zebrafish provides an opportunity to investigate the genetic mechanisms specific to regeneration processes. We previously demonstrated that regeneration melanocytes arise from cell division of the otherwise quiescent melanocyte precursors following larval melanocyte ablation with a small molecule, MoTP. The ease of ablating melanocytes by MoTP allows us to conduct a forward genetic screen for mechanisms specific to regeneration from such precursors or stem cells. Here, we reported the identification of two mutants, eartha j23e1 and julie j24e1 from a melanocyte ablation screen. Both mutants develop normal larval melanocytes, but upon melanocyte ablation, each mutation results in a distinct stage-specific defect in melanocyte regeneration. Positional cloning reveals that the eartha j23e1 mutation is a nonsense mutation in gfpt1 (glutamine:fructose-6-phosphate aminotransferase 1), the rate-limiting enzyme in glucosamine-6-phosphate biosynthesis. Our analyses reveal that a mutation in gfpt1 specifically affects melanocyte differentiation (marked by melanin production) at a late stage during regeneration and that gfpt1 acts cell autonomously in melanocytes to promote ontogenetic melanocyte darkening. We identified that the julie j24e1 mutation is a splice-site mutation in skiv2l2 (superkiller viralicidic activity 2-like 2), a predicted DEAD-box RNA helicase. Our in situ analysis reveals that the mutation in skiv2l2 causes defects in cell proliferation, suggesting that skiv2l2 plays a role in regulating melanoblast proliferation during early stages of melanocyte regeneration. This finding is consistent with previously described role for cell division during larval melanocyte regeneration. The analyses of these mutants reveal their stage-specific roles in melanocyte regeneration. Interestingly, these mutants identify regeneration-specific functions not only in early stages of the regeneration process, but also in late stages of differentiation of the regenerating melanocyte. We suggest that mechanisms of regeneration identified in this mutant screen may reveal fundamental differences between the mechanisms that establish differentiated cells during embryogenesis, and those involved in larval or adult growth.
Self-Calibration in Cluster Studies of Dark Energy: Combining the Cluster Redshift Distribution, the Power Spectrum, and Mass Measurements

We examine the prospects for measuring the dark energy equation-of-state parameter w within the context of any uncertain redshift evolution of galaxy cluster structure (building on our earlier work) and show that including the redshift-averaged cluster power spectrum (cl) and direct mass measurements of 100 clusters helps tremendously in reducing cosmological parameter uncertainties. Specifically, we show that when combining the redshift distribution and the power spectrum information for a particular X-ray survey (DUET) and two Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect surveys (South Pole Telescope and Planck), the constraints on the dark energy equation-of-state w can be improved by roughly a factor of 4. Because surveys designed to study the redshift distribution of clusters will have all the information necessary to construct cl, the benefit of adding cl in reducing uncertainties comes at no additional observational cost. Combining detailed mass studies of 100 clusters with the redshift distribution improves the parameter uncertainties by a factor of 3-5. The data required for these detailed mass measurements—assumed to have 1 σ uncertainties of 30%—are accumulating in the XMM-Newton and Chandra archives. The best constraints are obtained when one combines both the power spectrum constraints and the mass measurements with the cluster redshift distribution; when using the survey to extract the parameters and evolution of the mass-observable relations, we estimate uncertainties on w of ~4%-6%. These parameter constraints are possible with cluster surveys that are carried out over large, contiguous regions of the sky, so that the cluster power spectrum can be reasonably measured. In combination with cosmic microwave background or distance measurements that have different parameter degeneracies, cluster studies of dark energy will provide enhanced constraints and allow for cross-checks of systematics.
Loss of stem cell regenerative capacity within aged niches

This work uncovers novel mechanisms of aging within stem cell niches that are evolutionarily conserved between mice and humans and affect both embryonic and adult stem cells. Specifically, we have examined the effects of aged muscle and systemic niches on key molecular identifiers of regenerative potential of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and post‐natal muscle stem cells (satellite cells). Our results reveal that aged differentiated niches dominantly inhibit the expression of Oct4 in hESCs and Myf‐5 in activated satellite cells, and reduce proliferation and myogenic differentiation of both embryonic and tissue‐specific adult stem cells (ASCs). Therefore, despite their general neoorganogenesis potential, the ability of hESCs, and the more differentiated myogenic ASCs to contribute to tissue repair in the old will be greatly restricted due to the conserved inhibitory influence of aged differentiated niches. Significantly, this work establishes that hESC‐derived factors enhance the regenerative potential of both young and, importantly, aged muscle stem cells in vitro and in vivo; thus, suggesting that the regenerative outcome of stem cell‐based replacement therapies will be determined by a balance between negative influences of aged tissues on transplanted cells and positive effects of embryonic cells on the endogenous regenerative capacity. Comprehensively, this work points toward novel venues for in situ restoration of tissue repair in the old and identifies critical determinants of successful cell‐replacement therapies for aged degenerating organs.
The rhythmicity of cells of the medial septum/diagonal band of Broca in the awake freely moving rat: relationships with behaviour and hippocampal theta

Chronic extracellular recordings were obtained from cells of the medial septum and diagonal band of Broca in rats performing a simple behavioural task. The cells were found to display a variety of bursting patterns phase‐locked to hippocampal theta rhythm to a greater or lesser degree. Among phase‐locked cells, no systematic distribution in preferential phase could be found, and these cells were shown to maintain their preferential phase for extended periods. Cells were classified into those which showed signs of a broadening of the repolarization phase of their action potential (‘inflected’: putative cholinergic) and those without (‘non‐inflected’: putative GABAergic). Non‐inflected cells tended to fire rhythmic bursts while inflected cells mostly fired in an irregular fashion, although still significantly phase‐locked to hippocampal theta. In neither population did the phase‐locked cells show any coherent distribution of their preferential phase. Sixty‐five per cent of the rhythmically bursting cells showed a significant correlation between the interburst frequency and the animal’s running speed. Five cells displayed rhythmic activity only when the rat ran in a specific direction. These results have implications for models of septohippocampal function and the effects of variable septal rhythmicity on the production of hippocampal theta rhythm.
The Implementations and Challenges of Assessment Practices for Students' Learning in Public Selected Universities, Ethiopia

This study explored the instructors' practices of assessing students for learning in selected Ethiopian higher education institutions. Mixed method approach was employed in collecting data from 80(55 males & 25 females) instructors. Stratified and purposive sampling was used. Questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and observation were used as instruments for collecting data. For analysis frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and one-sample t-test were used. The results showed that the practices of assessment for learning were very low. Most instructors were administered test items, homework, assignment and class work, but they did not integrate other assessment methods for learning. Those challenges are found lack of resources, large class size, shortage of instructional time, inadequate support, lack of instructional materials, instructors' negative perception, lack of knowledge and skill in assessment, and large content of courses as major factors for proper implementation of assessment for quality learning. It was concluded that instructors should pay attention to the assessment of students learning and further study need to be conducted for identifying why they were paying less attention to student assessment than lecturers. Specifically, comprehensive and relevant assessment trainings should be given for instructors on a regular basis to integrate assessment with daily instruction to improve students' learning.
2 OPENNESS CAN BE GOOD FOR GROWTH : THE ROLE OF POLICY COMPLEMENTARITIES 1

This paper studies how the effect of trade openness on economic growth depends on complementary reforms that help a country take advantage of international competition. This issue is illustrated with a simple Harris-Todaro model where output gains after trade liberalization depend on the degree of labor market flexibility. In that model, trade protection may ameliorate the problem of underemployment (and underproduction) in sectors affected by labor market distortions; hence trade liberalization unambiguously increases per capita income only when labor markets are sufficiently flexible. We then present some panel evidence on how the growth effect of openness depends on a variety of structural characteristics. For this purpose, we use a non-linear growth regression specification that interacts a proxy of trade openness with proxies of educational investment, financial depth, inflation stabilization, public infrastructure, governance, labor-market flexibility, ease of firm entry, and ease of firm exit. We find that the growth effects of openness are positive and economically significant if certain complementary reforms are undertaken.
Is network traffic approximated by stable Levy motion or fractional Brownian motion

Cumulative broadband network traffic is often thought to be well modeled by fractional Brownian motion (FBM). However, some traffic measurements do not show an agreement with the Gaussian marginal distribution assumption. We show that if connection rates are modest relative to heavy tailed connection length distribution tails, then stable Levy motion is a sensible approximation to cumulative traffic over a time period. If connection rates are large relative to heavy tailed connection length distribution tails, then FBM is the appropriate approximation. The results are framed as limit theorems for a sequence of cumulative input processes whose connection rates are varying in such a way as to remove or induce long range dependence.
Random rewards, fractional Brownian local times and stable self-similar processes

We describe a new class of self-similar symmetric $\alpha$-stable processes with stationary increments arising as a large time scale limit in a situation where many users are earning random rewards or incurring random costs. The resulting models are different from the ones studied earlier both in their memory properties and smoothness of the sample paths.
A Sub-Gaussian Berry-Esseen Theorem For the Hypergeometric Distribution

In this paper, we derive a necessary and sucient condition on the parameters of the Hypergeometric distribution for weak convergence to a Normal limit. We establish a Berry-Esseen theorem for the Hypergeometric distribution solely under this necessary and sucient condition. We further derive a nonuniform Berry-Esseen bound where the tails of the dierence between the Hypergeometric and the Normal distribution functions are shown to decay at a sub-Gaussian rate.
Symbolic Abstractions of Networked Control Systems

The last decade has witnessed significant attention on networked control systems (NCSs) due to their ubiquitous presence in industrial applications, and in the particular case of wireless NCSs, because of their architectural flexibility and low installation and maintenance costs. In wireless NCSs, the communication between sensors, controllers, and actuators is supported by a communication channel that is likely to introduce variable communication delays, packet losses, limited bandwidth, and other practical nonidealities leading to numerous technical challenges. Although stability properties of NCSs have been investigated extensively in the literature, results for NCSs under more complex and general objectives, and, in particular, results dealing with verification or controller synthesis for logical specifications, are much more limited. This paper investigates how to address such complex objectives by constructively deriving symbolic models of NCSs, while encompassing the mentioned network nonidealities. The obtained abstracted (symbolic) models can then be employed to synthesize hybrid controllers enforcing rich logical specifications over the concrete NCS models. Examples of such general specifications include properties expressed as formulas in linear temporal logic or as automata on infinite strings. We thus provide a general synthesis framework that can be flexibly adapted to a number of NCS setups. We illustrate the effectiveness of the results over some case studies.
Exact non-asymptotic threshold for eigenvalue-based spectrum sensing

Eigenvalue-based detection is one of the most promising techniques proposed for spectrum sensing in cognitive radio as it is insensitive to the noise uncertainty problem. However, the eigenvalue-based detection schemes presented so far rely on asymptotic assumptions that are not suitable for many realistic scenarios, thus determining a substantial degradation of detection performance. In this paper, starting from the analytical distribution of the ordered eigenvalues of finite-dimension Wishart matrices, we derive an exact expression for the decision threshold as a function of the probability of false alarm. Since it is not based on asymptotical assumptions, the novel decision rule is valid for any, even small, number of samples and cooperating receivers. In addition to the exact expression, an alternative (approximated) formula is then derived to reduce the computational complexity. Simulation results show that the proposed detector, both with the exact and the approximated formula, outperforms the other existing eigenvalue-based techniques, especially when the receiver operates under non-asymptotical conditions.
Swift captures the spectrally evolving prompt emission of GRB 070616

The origins of gamma-ray burst (GRB) prompt emission are currently not well understood and in this context long, well-observed events are particularly important to study. We present the case of GRB 070616, analysing the exceptionally long-duration multipeaked prompt emission, and later afterglow, captured by all the instruments on-board Swift and by Suzaku Wide-Band All-Sky Monitor (WAM). The high-energy light curve remained generally flat for several hundred seconds before going into a steep decline. Spectral evolution from hard to soft is clearly taking place throughout the prompt emission, beginning at 285 s after the trigger and extending to 1200 s. We track the movement of the spectral peak energy, whilst observing a softening of the low-energy spectral slope. The steep decline in flux may be caused by a combination of this strong spectral evolution and the curvature effect. We investigate origins for the spectral evolution, ruling out a superposition of two power laws and considering instead an additional component dominant during the late prompt emission. We also discuss origins for the early optical emission and the physics of the afterglow. The case of GRB 070616 clearly demonstrates that both broad-band coverage and good time resolution are crucial to pin down the origins of the complex prompt emission in GRBs.
A Survey of Social Difficulties in Adults with ADHD and their Relationship to Symptom Severity and Quality of Life

The aims of this study were to survey a sample of Swedish adults with self-reported ADHD and to investigate: 1) the extent of their reported impairments in social functioning and the relationship between these and the severity of their ADHD symptoms, comorbid symptoms of anxiety and depression, psychological flexibility and ADHD-specific quality of life (QoL); 2) investigate whether the participants had ever been offered treatment involving social skills training and whether they think they would benefit from such treatment; and 3) the extent to which the participant’s QoL was impacted by social impairments. A total of 273 adults (aged 18-73 years) answered an online survey posted on ADHD -interest groups on Facebook. The survey included questions designed by the author/supervisor to assess social impairments and standardized measures of ADHD, anxiety, depression, ADHD-specific QoL, and psychological inflexibility. The results of the survey indicated that participants tended to agree more than disagree on experiencing social impairments as a result of their ADHD, and the extent of these impairments was significantly correlated with their levels of ADHD, anxiety, depression, QoL and psychological inflexibility. The social skills impairment significantly contributed to the variance in QoL even after controlling for the other variables. Of note, very few participants reported receiving any kind of treatment involving social skills training but the majority thought that such treatment would have be helpful and want such treatments. The social interactions of adults with ADHD suffer from as a result of these symptoms, which in turn is related to their overall quality of life. Treatments addressing this form of impairment in this population warrant investigation. (Less)
Cycles are determined by their domination polynomials

Let $G$ be a simple graph of order $n$. A dominating set of $G$ is a set $S$ of vertices of $G$ so that every vertex of $G$ is either in $S$ or adjacent to a vertex in $S$. The domination polynomial of $G$ is the polynomial $D(G,x)=\sum_{i=1}^{n} d(G,i) x^{i}$, where $d(G,i)$ is the number of dominating sets of $G$ of size $i$. In this paper we show that cycles are determined by their domination polynomials.
The Psychological Treatment of Obsessive—Compulsive Disorder

The psychological treatment of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) with exposure and response prevention (ERP) methods is one of the great success stories within the field of mental health. Within the span of about 20 years, the prognosis for individuals with OCD has changed from poor to very good as a result of the development of ERP. This success not withstanding, the procedures are far from perfect because a substantial minority of patients still either refuse treatment, drop out prematurely, or fail to benefit. I begin this article with a review of the development of ERP from early animal research on avoidance learning conducted during the 1950s. Next, I discuss the mechanisms of ERP. The bulk of the article reviews the treatment-outcome literature on ERP for OCD and includes comparisons with cognitive therapy—the “new kid on the block” with respect to psychological treatments for OCD.
Working Notes for the Placing Task at MediaEval 2013

This paper provides a description of the MediaEval 2013 Placing Task. The primary task of location estimation asks participants to place images on the world map, that is, to automatically estimate the latitude/longitude coordinates at which a photograph was taken. The newly introduced secondary task of placeability prediction asks participants to estimate the error of their predicted location. Annotating images with this kind of geographical location tag, or geotags, has a number of applications in personalization, recommendation, crisis management and archiving. Currently, the vast majority of images online are not labelled with this kind of data. This task encourages participants to find innovative ways of automatically geo-labelling images while at the same time providing a measure of their algorithm’ accuracy. This year’s data were drawn from Flickr. In comparison to previous editions of this task, the test set has not only increased drastically in size but has also been derived according to different assumptions in order to model a more realistic use-case scenario.
Nonlinear force‐free modeling of the solar coronal magnetic field

[1] The coronal magnetic field is an important quantity because the magnetic field dominates the structure of the solar corona. Unfortunately, direct measurements of coronal magnetic fields are usually not available. The photospheric magnetic field is measured routinely with vector magnetographs. These photospheric measurements are extrapolated into the solar corona. The extrapolated coronal magnetic field depends on assumptions regarding the coronal plasma, for example, force-freeness. Force-free means that all nonmagnetic forces like pressure gradients and gravity are neglected. This approach is well justified in the solar corona owing to the low plasma beta. One has to take care, however, about ambiguities, noise and nonmagnetic forces in the photosphere, where the magnetic field vector is measured. Here we review different numerical methods for a nonlinear force-free coronal magnetic field extrapolation: Grad-Rubin codes, upward integration method, MHD relaxation, optimization, and the boundary element approach. We briefly discuss the main features of the different methods and concentrate mainly on recently developed new codes.