Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are we missing the sitting? Agreement between accelerometer non-wear time validation methods used with older adults’ data

Abstract We used Bland Altman plots to compare agreement between a self-report diary and five different non-wear time algorithms [an algorithm that uses ≥60 min of consecutive zeroes (Troiano) and four variations of an algorithm that uses ≥90 min of consecutive zeroes to define a non-wear period] for estimating community-dwelling older adults’ (n = 106) sedentary behaviour and wear time (min/day) as measured by accelerometry. We found that the Troiano algorithm may overestimate sedentary behaviour and wear time by ≥30 min/day. Algorithms that use ≥90 min of continuous zeroes more closely approximate participants’ sedentary behaviour and wear time. Across the self-report diary vs. ≥90 min algorithm comparisons, mean differences ranged between −4.4 to 8.1 min/day for estimates of sedentary behaviour and between −10.8 to 1.0 min/day for estimates of wear time; all 95% confidence intervals for mean differences crossed zero. We also found that 95% limits of agreement were wide for all comparisons, highlighting the large variation in estimates of sedentary behaviour and wear time. Given the importance of reducing sedentary behaviour and encouraging physical activity for older adult health, we conclude that it is critical to establish accurate approaches for measurement.
Drum-Dance-Music-Machine: Construction of a Technical Toolset for Low-Threshold Access to Collaborative Musical Performance

Most instruments traditionally used to teach music in early education, like xylophones or flutes, encumber children with the additional difficulty of an unfamiliar and unnatural interface. The most simple expressive interaction, that even the smallest children use in order to make music, is pounding at surfaces. Through the design of an instrument with a simple interface, like a drum, but which produces a melodic sound, children can be provided with an easy and intuitive means to produce consonance. This should be further complemented with information from analysis and interpretation of childlike gestures and dance moves, reflecting their natural understanding of musical structure and motion. Based on these assumptions we propose a modular and reactive system for dynamic composition with accessible interfaces, divided into distinct plugins usable in a standard digital audio workstation. This paper describes our concept and how it can facilitate access to collaborative music making for small children. A first prototypical implementation has been designed and developed during the ongoing research project Drum-Dance-Music-Machine (DDMM), a cooperation with the local social welfare association AWO Hagen and the chair of musical education at the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld.
Association Between Birth Weight and Blood Pressure Is Robust, Amplifies With Age, and May Be Underestimated

Data on the early life origins of adult hypertension have been widely reported: however, recent research shows that the strength of association between small size at birth and higher blood pressure weakens as study size increases. In this article, we retest the association between birth weight and systolic blood pressure in a large cohort, examine whether age interacts with birth weight to predict blood pressure, and explore reasons why birth weight-blood pressure associations tend to weaken with increasing study size. Measurements from 25874 employees of a large United Kingdom company (mean [SD] age: 38.0 [7.9] years), undertaking voluntary occupational health screening, were available. Using linear regression analysis, we observed that systolic blood pressure changed −0.8 (95% CI: −1.1 to −0.5) mmHg per 1-kg increase in birth weight (P<0.001) adjusted for age and sex and −1.1 (95% CI: −1.3 to −0.8) mmHg/kg (P<0.001) after further adjustment for body size. This inverse association amplified with age (age/birth weight interaction term P<0.001). In participants reporting birth weight from hospital records (n=744), systolic blood pressure changed −1.4 (95% CI: −3.1 to 0.2) mmHg/kg compared with −0.8 (95% CI: −1.0 to −0.5) mmHg/kg in all of the other participants. Finally, the data show evidence of “fixed-category blood pressure allocation,” where participants are allocated certain blood pressure values, such as 120/80 mmHg, independent of actual blood pressure. Although the association between birth weight and systolic blood pressure was weaker than observed in smaller studies, recalled birth weight and fixed blood pressure measurement error may generate a trend toward weaker associations in larger studies.
Measuring Reminiscence Characteristics from Conversation as Adaptive Features of Old Age

A methodological study is reported into measuring reminiscing characteristics (including life reviewing) from spontaneous conversation, in elderly people living in sheltered housing in London. The reliability and stability of these measures were well demonstrated. Further statistical analyses were carried out to test the hypotheses e.g., that reminiscing is an adaptive feature of old age in the presence of severe life change, life reviewing in the presence of low past life satisfaction. No significant evidence was found for the role of simple reminiscence itself, but “life reviewing” appeared as an adaptive response when accompanied by dissatisfaction with past life. The relevance of these results to Butler's theory of the life review (1963) and to future studies of the concept is discussed, and also the possibility of using similar forms of content analyses of spontaneous conversation.
The outer regions of galaxy clusters: Chandra constraints on the X-ray surface brightness

Context. We study the properties of the X-ray surface brightness profiles in a sample of galaxy clusters that were observed with Chandra and have emission detectable with a signal-to-noise ratio higher than 2 per radial bin at a radius beyond R 500 ≈ 0.7 $\times$ R 200 . Aims. Our study aims to measure the slopes in both the X-ray surface brightness and gas density profiles in the outskirts of massive clusters. These constraints are compared with similar results obtained from observations and numerical simulations of the temperature and dark-matter density profiles with the intention of presenting a consistent picture of the outer regions of galaxy clusters. Methods. We extract the surface brightness profiles $S_{\rm b}(r)$ of 52 X-ray luminous galaxy clusters at $z>0.3$ from X-ray exposures obtained with Chandra . These objects, which are of both high X-ray surface brightness and high redshift, allow us to use Chandra either in ACIS-I or even ACIS-S configuration to survey the cluster outskirts. We estimate R 200 using both a β -model that reproduces the surface brightness profiles and scaling relations from the literature. The two methods converge to comparable values. We determine the radius, R S2N , at which the signal-to-noise ratio is higher than 2, and select the objects in the sample that satisfy the criterion $R_{\rm S2N}/R_{200} > 0.7$. For the eleven selected objects, we model by a power-law function the behaviour of $S_{\rm b}(r)$ to estimate the slope at several characteristic radii expressed as a fraction of R 200 . Results. We measure a consistent steepening of the $S_{\rm b}(r)$ profile moving outward from $0. 4R_{200}$, where an average slope of -3.6 ( σ = 0.8) is estimated. At R 200 , we evaluate a slope of -4.3 ( σ = 0.9) that implies a slope in the gas density profile of ≈ -2.6 and a predicted mean value of the surface brightness in the 0.5–2 keV band of 2 $\times$ 10 -12 erg s -1 cm -2 deg -2 . Conclusions. Combined with estimates of the outer slope of the gas temperature profile and expectations about the dark matter distribution, these measurements lie well within the physically allowed regions, allowing us to describe properly how X-ray luminous clusters behave out to the virial radius.
Ungulate effects on tawa ( Beilschmiedia tawa ) forest in Urewera National Park

In early mid 1997 five exclosures located in or adjoining the northern part of Te Urewera National Park were remeasured in order to assess changes in species composition and structure due to the influence of feral pigs and deer. These plots were last assessed in 1980/81, and it was hoped that any difference in vegetation outside would give an indication of change in browsing pressure since this time. The main aim of the study, however, was to obtain data to compare with a mainland island area located in the northern reaches of the park. Results were obtained only from exclosures sited within tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa) forest in order to be comparable with the `mainland island' area in which this was the dominant canopy species. The main results for exclosure/adjacent control comparisons were similar to those obtained in 1980/81. In summary, density and diversity of sapling and tree (2-10 cm dbh) species was found to be significantly greater within exclosures compared with unprotected areas. Plots located within the mainland island area were not significantly different from browsed control areas at exclosure locations. This indicates that browsing ungulates are exerting similar pressure on forest dynamics of this area. At most control and mainland island sites very few species were found in the sapling and small tree tiers whereas within exclosures subcanopy species such as kanono (Coprosma grandifolia), hangehange (Geniostoma ruprestre var. ligustrifolium), mahoe (Melicytus ramiflorus) and pate (Schefflera digitata) formed a dense understorey. These results would suggest that ungulates are still influencing the structure and composition of taws forest within Urewera National Park. This continued removal of palatable subcanopy and sapling tiers by ungulates (in particular deer) has important implications for the ecological restoration of the 'mainland island' area.
Nucleosome stability mediated by histone variants H 3 . 3 and H 2

Nucleosomes containing the histone variant H3.3 tend to be clustered in vivo in the neighborhood of transcriptionally active genes and over regulatory elements. It has not been clear, however, whether H3.3-containing nucleosomes possess unique properties that would affect transcription. We report here that H3.3 nucleosomes isolated from vertebrates, regardless of whether they are partnered with H2A or H2A.Z, are unusually sensitive to salt-dependent disruption, losing H2A/H2B or H2A.Z/H2B dimers. Immunoprecipitation studies of nucleosome core particles (NCPs) show that NCPs that contain both H3.3 and H2A.Z are even less stable than NCPs containing H3.3 and H2A. Intriguingly, NCPs containing H3 and H2A.Z are at least as stable as H3/H2A NCPs. These results establish an hierarchy of stabilities for native nucleosomes carrying different complements of variants, and suggest how H2A.Z could play different roles depending on its partners within the NCP. They also are consistent with the idea that H3.3 plays an active role in maintaining accessible chromatin structures in enhancer regions and transcribed regions. Consistent with this idea, promoters and enhancers at transcriptionally active genes and coding regions at highly expressed genes have nucleosomes that simultaneously carry both H3.3 and H2A.Z, and should therefore be extremely sensitive to disruption.
Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders in Young Military Men

Background/Aims To estimate the prevalence and evaluate the associated psychological factors of functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs) in males in their twenties who are currently enrolled in military service. Methods A total of 1,073 men in the Korean army were asked to complete questionnaires based on the Rome III criteria and Symptom Checklist-90-revised (SCL-90R). The prevalence of FGIDs was estimated, and the associated psychological factors were evaluated. Results A total of 967 men participated. The total prevalence of FGIDs was 18.5% (age-adjusted prevalence, 18.1%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 15.3% to 20.8%). The total SCL-90R scores were higher in men with FGIDs than men without FGIDs (24 [interquartile range, 13 to 44] vs 13 [5 to 28], p<0.001) and higher in men with overlapping syndromes than in those with single FGIDs (31 [18 to 57] vs 14 [5.75 to 29], p<0.001). Somatization (odds ratio [OR], 1.141; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.20; p<0.001), obsessive-compulsive behaviors (OR, 1.084; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.14; p=0.002) and depression (OR, 0.943; 95% CI, 0.90 to 0.99; p=0.020) were identified as independent predictive factors for FGIDs. Conclusions FGIDs are common among men in their twenties who are fulfilling their military duty. Somatization and obsessive-compulsive features from the tense atmosphere are associated with the development or progression of FGIDs. Patients who exhibit overlapping syndromes require greater attention given their more severe psychopathology.
Segment-dependent dynamics in predicting parkinson's disease

Early, accurate detection of Parkinson’s disease may aid in possible intervention and rehabilitation. Thus, simple noninvasive biomarkers are desired for determining severity. In this study, a novel set of acoustic speech biomarkers are introduced and fused with conventional features for predicting clinical assessment of Parkinson’s disease. We introduce acoustic biomarkers reflecting the segment dependence of changes in speech production components, motivated by disturbances in underlying neural motor, articulatory, and prosodic brain centers of speech. Such changes occur at phonetic and larger time scales, including multi-scale perturbations in formant frequency and pitch trajectories, in phoneme durations and their frequency of occurrence, and in temporal waveform structure. We also introduce articulatory features based on a neural computational model of speech production, the Directions into Velocities of Articulators (DIVA) model. The database used is from the Interspeech 2015 Computational Paralinguistic Challenge. By fusing conventional and novel speech features, we obtain Spearman correlations between predicted scores and clinical assessments of r = 0.63 on the training set (four-fold cross validation), r = 0.70 on a held-out development set, and r = 0.97 on a held-out test set.
Gender differences and job satisfaction: a study of university teachers in the United States

Purpose – The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of gender on the job satisfaction of US academics.Design/methodology/approach – The population for this study consisted of full‐time college and university teachers listed in the “Brain Track University Index Directories of the United States Colleges and Universities”. A sampling technique was used to select the respondents surveyed for this study. A total of 1,100 questionnaires were administered to respondents chosen from 80 universities. A total of 560 usable questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 51 percent.Findings – The findings of this research show that there are gender differences apparent in the job satisfaction levels of university teachers surveyed for this study. Female faculty were more satisfied with their work and co‐workers, whereas, their male colleagues were more satisfied with their pay, promotions, supervision, and overall job satisfaction. Results also indicated that ranks were significant in explaining g.
The Impact of Positive and Negative Mood on the Hypothesis Generation and Ethical Judgments of Auditors

SUMMARY: This paper examines the impact of mood on the hypothesis generation and ethical judgments of auditors. Prior psychology research documents different effects of negative and positive mood on information processing such that negative (positive) mood leads to more systematic (heuristic) processing (e.g., Forgas 1995a; Bless 2000). Theoretical accounting research (Gaudine and Thorne 2001) proposes a positive relation between positive mood and ethical decision‐making. Based on this research, we predict that negative (compared with positive) mood will enhance performance on a hypothesis generation task and impair performance on two ethical tasks. These predictions are tested in an experiment in which auditors perform an analytical procedures task involving the generation of explanations for fluctuations in financial ratios and two ethical tasks involving the truthful reporting of information. Consistent with predictions, the results show that auditors' judgments are influenced by their mood state. Spec.
Partner support and marital satisfaction: Support amount, adequacy, provision, and solicitation

To compare the extent to which (a) amount versus adequacy of received support and (b) support provision versus solicitation behaviors predict marital satisfaction, married couples from the United States (N= 275) provided perceptions of received support and participated in 2 support transactions. Actor–partner interdependence modeling and structural equation modeling techniques were employed. Husbands’ perceptions of support adequacy predicted marital satisfaction more than their perceptions of support amount, whereas the results were generally the opposite for wives. Husbands’ provision and wives’ solicitation behaviors predicted marital satisfaction. Results suggest the need to move beyond simple counts of support received to examining support adequacy—and the various behaviors and roles involved in supportive transactions—to enhance theories of support and relationship functioning.
How does individual smoking behaviour among hospital staff influence their knowledge of the health consequences of smoking?

Aims: This study examined associations between individual smoking habits among hospital staff and their knowledge of the health consequences of smoking and passive smoking. The a priori hypothesis was a higher level of knowledge among non-smokers compared with smokers. Methods: A survey was undertaken, based on self-administered questionnaires at a Danish hospital (Frederikssund Hospital) in the Copenhagen area. Descriptive statistics, chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analyses were used. A backward stepwise elimination of variables at a 5% level of significance was performed and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. Main outcome measures were knowledge of the health consequences of smoking, passive smoking and other lifestyle factors. Results: A total of 445 of 487 employees (91%) from all professional groups returned the questionnaire. Compared with ex- and never smokers, smokers systematically underestimate the health consequences of smoking and passive smoking independent of profession, department, sex, and age. There is no consistent association between knowledge of the health consequences of smoking and profession and department. There are significant inverse associations between smoking and knowledge of the health effects of excess use of alcohol and lack of physical activity. Conclusion: Individual smoking habits among hospital staff strongly influence smoking-related knowledge. No other variables are of consistent importance. These findings are supported by the literature. The validity of the study is good, but a similar study in a bigger population would strengthen the evidence.
Rubber hand illusion highlights massive visual capture and sensorimotor face-hand remapping in a tetraplegic man.

PURPOSE The illusory ownership of a fake hand as part the body follows synchronous tactile stimulation over a visible rubber hand and a covered hand. Whether brain plasticity mechanisms after sensory and motor disconnection modulates this illusion remain unexplored. METHODS We tested a tetraplegic man after synchronous and asynchronous stimulation of the hand and face. RESULTS The illusory ownership of the fake hand was tested four times in separate days and always reported. To verify whether this ownership feeling generalized also to object not resembling the human body we tested this illusion with a plastic bottle and a rubber hand. The illusionary perception of owning an external object using the rubber hand paradigm showed that the temporally matched tactile stimulation on a fake hand and visual capture mechanism create the illusionary feeling that the rubber hand was part of his body. CONCLUSIONS Despite lesions that dramatically disconnect the access to sensory inputs and motor outputs our data suggests a strong visual capture of a rubber hand and a possible remapping of hand-face representations after the spinal lesion. We suggest that vision and brain plasticity may represent a supportive tool for motor rehabilitation in patients with sensory deficits.
Exploring ethical issues associated with using online surveys in educational research

Online surveys are increasingly used in educational research, yet little attention has focused on ethical issues associated with their use in educational settings. Here, we draw on the broader literature to discuss 5 key ethical issues in the context of educational survey research: dual teacher/researcher roles; informed consent; use of incentives; privacy, anonymity, and confidentiality; and data quality. We illustrate methods of addressing these issues with our experiences conducing online surveys in educational contexts. Moving beyond the procedural ethics approach commonly adopted in quantitative educational research, we recommend adopting a situated/process ethics approach to identify and respond to ethical issues that may arise during the conduct, analysis, and reporting of online survey research. The benefits of online surveying in comparison to traditional survey methods are highlighted, including the potential for online surveys to provide ethically defensible methods of conducting research that would not be feasible in offline education research settings.
In Hepatic Fibrosis, Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells Acquire Enhanced Immunogenicity

The normal liver is characterized by immunologic tolerance. Primary mediators of hepatic immune tolerance are liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs). LSECs block adaptive immunogenic responses to Ag and induce the generation of T regulatory cells. Hepatic fibrosis is characterized by both intense intrahepatic inflammation and altered hepatic immunity. We postulated that, in liver fibrosis, a reversal of LSEC function from tolerogenic to proinflammatory and immunogenic may contribute to both the heightened inflammatory milieu and altered intrahepatic immunity. We found that, after fibrotic liver injury from hepatotoxins, LSECs become highly proinflammatory and secrete an array of cytokines and chemokines. In addition, LSECs gain enhanced capacity to capture Ag and induce T cell proliferation. Similarly, unlike LSECs in normal livers, in fibrosis, LSECs do not veto dendritic cell priming of T cells. Furthermore, whereas in normal livers, LSECs are active in the generation of T regulatory cells, in hepatic fibrosis LSECs induce an immunogenic T cell phenotype capable of enhancing endogenous CTLs and generating potent de novo CTL responses. Moreover, depletion of LSECs from fibrotic liver cultures mitigates the proinflammatory milieu characteristic of hepatic fibrosis. Our findings offer a critical understanding of the role of LSECs in modulating intrahepatic immunity and inflammation in fibro-inflammatory liver disease.