Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Secular trends in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in 32 countries from 2002 to 2010: a cross-national perspective.

BACKGROUND Sufficient levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) give substantial health benefits to adolescents. This article examines trends in physical activity (PA) from 2002 to 2010 across 32 countries from Europe and North America. METHODS Representative samples included 479 674 pupils (49% boys) aged 11 years (n = 156 383), 13 years (n = 163 729) and 15 years (n = 159 562). The trends in meeting the recommendations for PA (at least 60 min daily) were evaluated using logistic regression. RESULTS There was a slight overall increase between 2002 and 2010 (17.0% and 18.6%, respectively). MVPA increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) among boys in 16 countries. Conversely, nine countries showed a significant decrease. Among girls, 10 countries showed a significant increase (P ≤ 0.05). Eight countries showed a significant decrease. For all countries combined, girls were slightly less likely to show an increase in PA over time. CONCLUSIONS The majority of adolescents do not meet current recommendations of PA. Further investment at national and international levels is therefore necessary to increase PA participation among children and adolescents and reduce the future health burden associated with inactivity.
Parenting Practices, Racial Socialization, and Adolescent Functioning in African American Families

African American parents’ use of racial socialization messages has been associated with other parenting practices and behaviors as well as adolescent functioning. This study explored the relationships among racial socialization, general parenting practices (e.g., parental monitoring knowledge, harsh parental discipline, and parent-child relationship) and three psychological outcomes (e.g., scholastic competence, self-esteem, and externalizing behaviors) among 103 African American adolescents. Based on linear regressions, adolescents’ scholastic competence was positively associated with cultural socialization and negatively associated with promotion of mistrust, but self-esteem and externalizing behaviors were not linked to any racial socialization dimension. Further, cultural socialization was found to be related to each of the general parenting practices. Implications for research on African American parenting behaviors and adolescents’ functioning are discussed.
gMAP: Efficient construction of global maps for mobility-assisted wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Networks are seeing increasing usage in several applications such as military, rescue and surveillance scenarios. Typical for such scenarios is that mobile nodes cooperate side-by-side with stationary sensor nodes to monitor the area of interest and to support the core network operations such as data transport. Global maps of the sensor field, such as temperature and residual energy maps, are of high interest for both users and network designers. However, the map construction can become very inefficient if it requires an extensive intervention of the resource-limited sensor nodes. In this work, we present gMAP, an extremely efficient mobility-assisted approach to construct global maps. In gMAP (a) sensor nodes do not need to process readings of other nodes and (b) require to communicate a minimal number of messages compared to all existing approaches. This is achieved by opportunistically exploiting node mobility to collect data of interest, keeping sensor nodes transmit only their own readings on-demand to a mobile node in their transmission area.
Implementation of Brackish Groundwater Desalination Using Wind-Generated Electricity: A Case Study of the Energy-Water Nexus in Texas

Growing populations and periodic drought conditions have exacerbated water stress in many areas worldwide. In response, some municipalities have considered desalination of saline water as a freshwater supply. Unfortunately, desalination requires a sizeable energy investment. However, renewable energy technologies can be paired with desalination to mitigate concern over the environmental impacts of increased energy use. At the same time, desalination can be operated in an intermittent way to match the variable availability of renewable resources. Integrating wind power and brackish groundwater desalination generates a high-value product (drinking water) from low-value resources (saline water and wind power without storage). This paper presents a geographically-resolved performance and economic method that estimates the energy requirements and profitability of an integrated wind-powered reverse osmosis facility treating brackish groundwater. It is based on a model that incorporates prevailing natural and market conditions such as average wind speeds, total dissolved solids content, brackish well depth, desalination treatment capacity, capital and operation costs of wind and desalination facilities, brine disposal costs, and electricity and water prices into its calculation. The model is illustrated using conditions in Texas (where there are counties with significant co-location of wind and brackish water resources). Results from this case study indicate that integrating wind turbines and brackish water reverse osmosis (BWRO) systems is economically favorable in a few municipal locations in West Texas.
EFFECTIVE CLINICAL PRACTICES IN TREATING CLIENTS IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

for example entailing only a set of testable propositions or principles. Other models, conversely, may be quite concrete and detailoriented (Bogue et al, 2004). Evidence-based practices can involve research-tested principles that guide intervention—e.g. the Responsivity Principle—or they can refer to specific intervention models—e.g. Motivational Enhancement or CognitiveBehavioral Treatment. The field of behavioral healthcare also defines evidence-based practice in terms of specific intervention models and principles; however, it also includes a broader, more abstract conceptual framework for how professionals think about the integration of research evidence, assessment of the client’s needs and values, and the specific condition being treated. This conceptual framework allows the practitioner greater facility to individualize a course of treatment for a particular client with unique needs. While the two frameworks may appear at times to be contradictory, they are reconcilable. The model of evidence-based practice introduced within this monograph appropriates the healthcare model of evidence-based practice and adapts it for the purposes of clinical treatment in correctional settings.
Hitting densities for spectrally positive stable processes

A multiplicative identity in law connecting the hitting times of completely asymmetric α-stable Lévy processes in duality is established. In the spectrally positive case, this identity allows with an elementary argument to compute fractional moments and to get series representations for the density. We also prove that the hitting times are unimodal as soon as . Analogous results are obtained for the first passage time across a positive level, in a simple manner.
Exploring the Mediating and Moderating Effects of Information Quality on Firms? Endeavor on Information Systems

Information quality has been largely neglected by many business firms and firms are losing or wasting big money because of the poor information quality in their information systems. This paper will theoretically examine where and how information quality influences a firm’s performance. The mediating and moderating effects of information quality on information systems’ impact toward business operations and consumer behaviors are identified and analyzed. The managerial implication of information quality is also emphasized. Top management team is called to pay close attention to the information quality in their information systems.
Television and Media Literacy in Young Children: Issues and Effects in Early Childhood

elevision viewing among young children has been an on going issue as it is found to effect their development in various areas. This problem is getting more worrisome as the percentage and amount of hours of television exposure among young children is increasing, especially with the growing production of children television programs. Studies have found that television exposure to young children could effects their language and cognitive development, lead to behavior problems, attention disorder, aggression and obesity. This paper will discuss the issues of television exposure to young children, and the effects of promoting media literacy.
Mutation Frequency of the Major Frontotemporal Dementia Genes, MAPT, GRN and C9ORF72 in a Turkish Cohort of Dementia Patients

‘Microtubule-associated protein tau’ (MAPT), ‘granulin’ (GRN) and ‘chromosome 9 open reading frame72’ (C9ORF72) gene mutations are the major known genetic causes of frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Recent studies suggest that mutations in these genes may also be associated with other forms of dementia. Therefore we investigated whether MAPT, GRN and C9ORF72 gene mutations are major contributors to dementia in a random, unselected Turkish cohort of dementia patients. A combination of whole-exome sequencing, Sanger sequencing and fragment analysis/Southern blot was performed in order to identify pathogenic mutations and novel variants in these genes as well as other FTD-related genes such as the ‘charged multivesicular body protein 2B’ (CHMP2B), the ‘FUS RNA binding protein’ (FUS), the ‘TAR DNA binding protein’ (TARDBP), the ‘sequestosome1’ (SQSTM1), and the ‘valosin containing protein’ (VCP). We determined one pathogenic MAPT mutation (c.1906C>T, p.P636L) and one novel missense variant (c.38A>G, p.D13G). In GRN we identified a probably pathogenic TGAG deletion in the splice donor site of exon 6. Three patients were found to carry the GGGGCC expansions in the non-coding region of the C9ORF72 gene. In summary, a complete screening for mutations in MAPT, GRN and C9ORF72 genes revealed a frequency of 5.4% of pathogenic mutations in a random cohort of 93 Turkish index patients with dementia.
The Past and the Future of The Counseling Psychologist

In this article, I describe the development of The Counseling Psychologist since its founding in 1969 and the ways in which counseling psychologists can further promote the future growth of TCP. Also, in an attempt to forecast the future articles published in TCP, I conducted an exploratory content analysis of the Major Contributions published between 1969 and 2018 and a Delphi poll with expert counseling psychologists and I describe the results in this article.
Validity of Time Reversal for Testing Granger Causality

Inferring causal interactions from observed data is a challenging problem, especially in the presence of measurement noise. To alleviate the problem of spurious causality, Haufe (2013) proposed to contrast measures of information flow obtained on the original data against the same measures obtained on time-reversed data. They show that this procedure, time-reversed Granger causality (TRGC), robustly rejects causal interpretations on mixtures of independent signals. While promising results have been achieved in simulations, it was so far unknown whether time reversal leads to valid measures of information flow in the presence of true interaction. Here, we prove that, for linear finite-order autoregressive processes with unidirectional information flow between two variables, the application of time reversal for testing Granger causality indeed leads to correct estimates of information flow and its directionality. Using simulations, we further show that TRGC is able to infer correct directionality with similar statistical power as the net Granger causality between two variables, while being much more robust to the presence of measurement noise.
Cobra: Toward Concurrent Ballot Authorization for Internet Voting

We propose and study the notion of concurrent ballot authorization for coercion-resistant, end-to-end verifiable (E2E) internet voting. A central part of providing coercion resistance is the ability for an election authority to filter out fake ballots from legitimate ones in a way that is both private and universally verifiable. This ballot authorization process, however, can potentially come at a heavy computational cost. In previous proposals, the bulk of this computation cannot be performed until the last ballot has been cast. By contrast, concurrent ballot authorization allows ballots to be authorized as they are submitted, allowing the tally to be declared immediately after polls close. An efficient tally is especially important in the coercion-resistant internet voting setting, as it is particularly vulnerable to denial of service attacks caused by floods of fake ballots. We present a proof-of-concept voting system, Cobra, the first coercion-resistant system to offer concurrent ballot authorization. Although Cobra offers the fastest tallying relative to the related work, it has a registration process that we consider to be too slow to be viable; one that is quadratic in the number of eligible voters. We present Cobra as a first-step toward what we hope will become a standard feature of coercion-resistant internet voting schemes: concurrent ballot authorization.
Novel Anthra[1,2-c][1,2,5]Thiadiazole-6,11-Diones as Promising Anticancer Lead Compounds: Biological Evaluation, Characterization & Molecular Targets Determination

The novel compounds NSC745885 and NSC757963 developed at our laboratory were tested against a panel of 60 cancer cell lines at the National Cancer Institute, USA, and a panel of 39 cancer cell lines at the Japanese Foundation of Cancer Research. Both compounds demonstrated selective unique multi-log differential patterns of activity, with GI50 values in the sub-micro molar range against cancer cells rather than normal cardiac cells. NSC757963 showed high selectivity towards the leukemia subpanel. Activities of both compounds strongly correlated to expression of NFKB1 and CSNK2B genes, implying that they may inhibit the NF-κB pathway. Immunocytochemical microscopy of OVCAR-3 cells showed clear cytosolic accumulation of the NF-κB p65 subunit following treatment. Western blotting showed dose dependent inhibition of the nuclear expression of the NF-κB p65 subunit with subsequent accumulation in the cytosol following treatment. Docking experiments showed binding of both compounds to the NF-κB activator IKKβ subunit preventing its translocation to the nucleus. Collectively, these results confirm the ability of our compounds to inhibit the constitutively active NF-κB pathway of OVCAR-3 cells. Furthermore, COMPARE analysis indicated that the activity of NSC757963 is similar to the antituberculosis agent rifamycin SV, this was confirmed by testing the antimycobacterial activity of NSC757963 against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, results revealed potent activity suitable for use in clinical practice. Molecular properties and Lipinski’s parameters predicted acceptable bioavailability properties with no indication of mutagenicity, tumorigenicity, irritability and reproductive effects. Oral absorption experiments using the human Caco-2 model showed high intestinal absorption of NSC745885 by passive transport mechanism with no intestinal efflux or active transport mechanisms. The unique molecular characterization as well as the illustrated anticancer spectra of activity and bioavailability properties warrant further development of our compounds and present a foundation brick in the pre-clinical investigations to implement such compounds in clinical practice.
Cognitive Cellular Networks: A Q-Learning Framework for Self-Organizing Networks

Self-organizing networks (SON) aim at simplifying network management (NM) and optimizing network capital and operational expenditure through automation. Most SON functions (SFs) are rule-based control structures, which evaluate metrics and decide actions based on a set of rules. These rigid structures are, however, very complex to design since rules must be derived for each SF in each possible scenario. In practice, rules only support generic behavior, which cannot respond to the specific scenarios in each network or cell. Moreover, SON coordination becomes very complicated with such varied control structures. In this paper, we propose to advance SON toward cognitive cellular networks (CCN) by adding cognition that enables the SFs to independently learn the required optimal configurations. We propose a generalized Q-learning framework for the CCN functions and show how the framework fits to a general SF control loop. We then apply this framework to two functions on mobility robustness optimization (MRO) and mobility load balancing (MLB). Our results show that the MRO function learns to optimize handover performance while the MLB function learns to distribute instantaneous load among cells.
Testing Two Basic Predictions of PM

PM, Propositional Model, is a highly interactive model of language comprehension which can be contrasted with language processing models which assume an autonomous syntactic component. Models assuming an autonomous syntax can be divided into two basic types: (a) Strong Autonomy Models which assume that only the part of speech of lexical items is available to the syntactic analyzer, and (b) Weak Autonomy Models which assume that information other than the part of speech, but of a purely syntactic nature, is available to syntactic analyzer. This paper presents the results of two experiments using the cumulative self-paced reading task which are intended to distinguish PM from both Strong and Weak Autonomy Models. The first experiment considers the influence of verb argument preferences on the initial determination of structure. The existence of such influences would argue against the Strong Autonomy Model and in favor of Weak Autonomy or Interactive Models. The second experiment considers the influence of object schematicity on the initial determination of structure. An influence of object schematicity argues against the Weak Autonomy Models and in favor of Interactive Models like PM. The results of the two experiments do indeed show effects of verb argument and object schematicity preferences. If the cumulative self-paced reading task is a legitimate measure of immediate, on-line processing, then Interactive Models are supported by these experiments and Autonomous models are not.
Abrogated transforming growth factor beta receptor II (TGFβRII) signalling in dendritic cells promotes immune reactivity of T cells resulting in enhanced atherosclerosis.

AIMS The importance of transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) as an immune regulatory cytokine in atherosclerosis has been established. However, the role of TGFβ signalling in dendritic cells (DCs) and in DC-mediated T cell proliferation and differentiation in atherosclerosis is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS Here, we investigated the effect of disrupted TGFβ signalling in DCs on atherosclerosis by using mice carrying a transgene resulting in functional inactivation of TGFβ receptor II (TGFβRII) signalling in CD11c(+) cells (Apoe(-/-)CD11cDNR). Apoe(-/-)CD11cDNR mice exhibited an over two-fold increase in the plaque area compared with Apoe(-/-) mice. Plaques of Apoe(-/-)CD11cDNR mice showed an increase in CD45(+) leucocyte content, and specifically in CD3(+), CD4(+) and CD8(+) cells, whereas macrophage content was not affected. In lymphoid organs, Apoe(-/-)CD11cDNR mice had equal amounts of CD11c(+) cells, and CD11c(+)CD8(+) and CD11c(+)CD8(-) subsets, but showed a subtle shift in the CD11c(+)CD8(-) population towards the more inflammatory CD11c(+)CD8(-)CD4(-) DC subset. In addition, the number of plasmacytoid-DCs decreased. Maturation markers such as MHCII, CD86 and CD40 on CD11c(hi) cells did not change, but the CD11cDNR DCs produced more TNFα and IL-12. CD11c(+) cells from CD11cDNR mice strongly induced T-cell proliferation and activation, resulting in increased amounts of effector T cells producing high amounts of Th1 (IFN-γ), Th2 (IL-4, IL-10), Th17 (IL-17), and Treg (IL-10) cytokines. CONCLUSION Here, we show that loss of TGFβRII signalling in CD11c(+) cells induces subtle changes in DC subsets, which provoke uncontrolled T cell activation and maturation. This results in increased atherosclerosis and an inflammatory plaque phenotype during hypercholesterolaemia.
Anti-inflammatory and Immunomodulatory Effects of Antibiotics and Their Use in Dermatology

Antibiotics (antibacterial, antiviral, and antiparasitic) are class of drugs which result in either killing or inhibiting growth and multiplication of infectious organisms. Antibiotics are commonly prescribed by all specialties for treatment of infections. However, antibiotics have hitherto immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties and can be exploited for various noninfectious dermatoses. Dermatologists routinely prescribe antibiotics in treatment of various noninfectious disorders. This study will review anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects of antibiotics and their use in dermatology.
Stochastic approximation in nonparametric identification of Hammerstein systems

Derived from the idea of stochastic approximation, recursive algorithms to identify a Hammerstein system are presented. Two of them recover the characteristic of the nonlinear memoryless subsystem, while the third one estimates the impulse response of the linear dynamic part. The a priori information about both subsystems is nonparametric. Consistency in quadratic mean is shown, and the convergence rate is examined. Results of numerical simulation are also presented.
The small molecule Hesperadin reveals a role for Aurora B in correcting kinetochore–microtubule attachment and in maintaining the spindle assembly checkpoint

The proper segregation of sister chromatids in mitosis depends on bipolar attachment of all chromosomes to the mitotic spindle. We have identified the small molecule Hesperadin as an inhibitor of chromosome alignment and segregation. Our data imply that Hesperadin causes this phenotype by inhibiting the function of the mitotic kinase Aurora B. Mammalian cells treated with Hesperadin enter anaphase in the presence of numerous monooriented chromosomes, many of which may have both sister kinetochores attached to one spindle pole (syntelic attachment). Hesperadin also causes cells arrested by taxol or monastrol to enter anaphase within <1 h, whereas cells in nocodazole stay arrested for 3–5 h. Together, our data suggest that Aurora B is required to generate unattached kinetochores on monooriented chromosomes, which in turn could promote bipolar attachment as well as maintain checkpoint signaling.
Specific siRNA Targeting the Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products Inhibits Experimental Hepatic Fibrosis in Rats

Receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) was studied in different stages of carbon tetrachloride induced hepatic fibrosis (HF), and effect of its gene silencing in the HF development was evaluated in rats. Silencing RAGE expression by specific siRNA effectively suppressed NF-κB activity, hepatic stellate cell activation, and accumulation of extracellular matrix proteins in the fibrotic liver, and also greatly improved the histopathology and the ultrastructure of liver cells. These effects may be partially mediated by the inhibition on IκBα degradation. RAGE gene silencing effectively prevented liver from fibrosis, therefore it offers a potential pharmacological tool for anti-HF gene therapy.