Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social support, social strain, loneliness, and well-being among older adults

This study proposed that, among older adults, higher support and lower strain received from each of the four relational sources (spouse/partner, children, family, and friends) were associated with reduced loneliness and improved well-being and that loneliness might mediate the relationship between support/strain and well-being. Structural equation modeling was conducted using a national sample of adults aged 50 years and older (N = 7,367) from the Health and Retirement Study. Findings indicated that support from spouse/partner and friends alleviated loneliness, while strain from all the four sources intensified loneliness; higher support and lower strain from various sources directly and indirectly improved well-being, with indirect effects mediated through reduced loneliness. It was concluded that, in later life, various sources of support/strain engender distinct effects on loneliness and well-being, and loneliness serves as one of the psychological pathways linking support/strain to well-being.
Targeted DNA Methylation Analysis by High Throughput Sequencing in Porcine Peri-attachment Embryos

Abstract The purpose of this experiment was to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a next-generation sequencing-based method for DNA methylation analysis in porcine embryonic samples. Fourteen discrete genomic regions were amplified by PCR using bisulfite-converted genomic DNA derived from day 14 in vivo-derived (IVV) and parthenogenetic (PA) porcine embryos as template DNA. Resulting PCR products were subjected to high-throughput sequencing using the Illumina Genome Analyzer IIx platform. The average depth of sequencing coverage was 14,611 for IVV and 17,068 for PA. Quantitative analysis of the methylation profiles of both input samples for each genomic locus showed distinct differences in methylation profiles between IVV and PA samples for six of the target loci, and subtle differences in four loci. It was concluded that high throughput sequencing technologies can be effectively applied to provide a powerful, cost-effective approach to targeted DNA methylation analysis of embryonic and other reproductive tissues.
Terahertz dynamics of ionic liquids from a combined dielectric relaxation, terahertz, and optical Kerr effect study: evidence for mesoscopic aggregation

To exploit the great potential of room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) as solvents that offer both low environmental impact and product selectivity, an understanding of the liquid structure, the microscopic dynamics, and the way in which the pertinent macroscopic properties, such as viscosity, thermal conductivity, ionic diffusion, and solvation dynamics depend on these properties, is essential. We have measured the intermolecular dynamics of the 1,3-dialkylimidazoliumbased RTILs [emim][BF4], [emim][DCA], and [bmim][DCA], at 25 °C from below 1 GHz to 10 THz by ultrafast optical Kerr effect (OKE) spectroscopy and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (DRS) augmented by time-domain terahertz and far-infrared FTIR spectroscopy. This concerted approach allows a more detailed analysis to be made of the relatively featureless terahertz region, where the higher frequency diffusional modes are strongly overlapped with librations and intermolecular vibrations. In the terahertz region, the signal-to-noise ratio of the OKE spectra is particularly high and the data show that there is a greater number of librational and intermolecular vibrational modes than previously detected. Of greatest interest though, is an intense low frequency (sub-alpha) relaxation that we show is in strong accordance with recent simulations that observe mesoscopic structure arising from aggregates or clusters; structure that explains the anomalous and inconveniently-high viscosities of these liquids.
Oleate and Other Long Chain Fatty Acids Stimulate Low Density Lipoprotein Receptor Activity by Enhancing Acyl Coenzyme A:Cholesterol Acyltransferase Activity and Altering Intracellular Regulatory Cholesterol Pools in Cultured Cells (*)

Modification of dietary fatty acid composition results in changes in plasma cholesterol levels in man. We examined the effect of in vitro fatty acid supplementation on low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor activity in cultured cells and questioned whether changes were related to fatty acid-induced alterations in acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) activity. Preincubation of cultured cells (i.e. human skin fibroblasts, J774 macrophages, and HepG2 cells) with oleic acid (oleic acid:bovine serum albumin molar ratio 2:1) at 37°C for longer than 2 h resulted in a 1.2- to 1.5-fold increase in LDL cell binding at 4°C and LDL cell degradation at 37°C. Scatchard analysis showed that oleic acid increased LDL receptor number but not LDL affinity (K). Fatty acid supplementation of J774 macrophages increased both LDL receptor activity and cholesteryl ester accumulation. The ACAT inhibitor, 58-035, eliminated both effects, and increased ACAT activity preceded stimulation of LDL receptor activity by 1-2 h. Supplementation of macrophages with triolein emulsion particles also increased LDL cell binding and degradation, and addition of cholesterol to the emulsions abolished this effect. Among fatty acids tested, oleate (18:1), arachidonate (20:4), and eicosapentanoate (20:5) demonstrated the greatest effects. We hypothesize that certain fatty acids delivered to cells either in free form, or as triglyceride, first increase cellular ACAT activity, which then causes a decrease in an intracellular free cholesterol pool, signaling a need for increased LDL receptor activity. This mechanism may play a role in the effect of certain dietary fatty acids on LDL metabolism in vivo.
Birigidity in the Plane

The two-dimensional generic rigidity matroid $R(G)$ of a graph G is considered. The notions of vertex and edge birigidity are introduced. It is proved that vertex birigidity of G implies the connectivity of $R(G)$ and that the connectivity of $R(G)$ implies the edge birigidity of G. These implications are not equivalences.A class of minimal vertex birigid graphs is exhibited and used to show that $R(G)$ is not representable over any finite field.
Promoting Interdisciplinary Practice

As part of an ongoing oral history project, a conversation was held with Dr. Stephen Forness on the past, present, and possible future of the field of providing services to children with emotional-behavioral disorders. Dr. Forness stresses the increasing importance of providing an interdisciplinary approach to meeting these needs.
Strengthening the police in divided societies – empowerment and accountability in Bosnia-Herzegovina1

After 11 years of international assistance the police in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) still struggle to perform their duties effectively and impartially against a backdrop of nationalist party politics and ethnic divisions. Responsiveness and accountability are critical factors for the success of democratic policing but become problematic where the police are confronted with conflicting demands and nationalist agendas. This article takes a closer look at internationally driven measures to strengthen the police, build public confidence and reduce political interference. They include the introduction of Police Commissioners/Directors and laws on police, support for non-partisan state-level institutions and Police Restructuring. Other measures have sought to engender public trust by addressing misconduct and strengthening police–community relations. Attempts to foster the law enforcement capacity of the police have been quite successful, but they are still held hostage by their political context and the wider debate on the national cohesion of BiH.
Detection of asymmetric aging-critical voltage conditions in analog power-down mode

In this work, a new verification method for the power-down mode of analog circuit blocks is presented. In power-down mode, matched transistors can be stressed with asymmetric voltages. This will cause time-dependent mismatch due to transistor aging. In order to avoid reliability problems, a new method for automatic detection of asymmetric power-down stress conditions is presented. Therefore, power-down voltage-matching rules are formulated. The method combines structural analysis and voltage propagation. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the approach.
Best-response team power control for the interference channel with local CSI

We study in this paper the problem of binary power control in interference channels with single-antenna nodes. In many practical scenarios, letting transmitters (TXs) exchange the locally available channel state information (CSI) is unpractical. In such cases, coordinating the power allocation is a difficult problem and we propose in this work a novel binary power control policy for maximizing the ergodic sum-rate when each TX has only access to the instantaneous channel realization of the direct channel to its own user. We prove rigorously the intuitive result that the optimal binary power control policy consists in letting each TX transmits with full power if and only if the realization of this direct channel is above a threshold. The power control policy obtained with the algorithm is a “best-response” power control policy and allows to achieve benefits of coordinated power allocation at a low cost in terms of backhaul resources and complexity.
Social Support, Social Undermining, and Coping in Underemployed and Unemployed Persons

A sample of 171 participants (94 unemployed and 77 underemployed) was administered scales tapping social support, social undermining, coping and psychological distress. It was hypothesised (a) that the unemployed would exhibit less social support, but more social undermining and psychological distress than the underemployed group; (b) that females would report more social support but less social undermining than males; and (c) that social support would be a better predictor of coping than social undermining, but that social undermining would be a better predictor of psychological distress than social support. It was found that the unemployed reported less social support, more psychological distress and less problem-focused coping than the underemployed. Males reported less social support but more emotion-focused coping than females. Social support was a significant individual predictor for both psychological distress and rational/cognitive coping, but not of self-care coping. No group or gender differences were identified for social undermining, and social undermining was not a significant predictor of psychological distress or coping. The role of social undermining in well-being in unemployed people is discussed. Practical suggestions are outlined.
Benefits and factors influencing the design of intergenerational digital games : A Systematic Literature Review

The main purpose of this paper is to review the benefits and factors to be taken into consideration for the design of intergenerational digital games. We conducted a systematic in Scopus, Web of Science, PsicInfo, Pubmed and Science Direct, finally including 16 empirical studies written in English. The identified benefits were found to fall into four main categories, i.e., (1) reinforcing family bond, (2) enhancing reciprocal learning (3) increasing understanding of the other generation and (4) reducing social anxiety. According to the literature, two types of factors are important to take into consideration: player-centric and game-centric factors. We identified the nature of the interactions between older (55–81 year-olds) and younger players (4–22 year-olds), their motivations to play digital games and the difference in abilities as the main player-centric factors to take into account when designing intergenerational games. The most relevant game-centric factors were found to be goal-related and space-related forms of interaction. To gain more insight into how specific benefits of playing digital games are related to a type of game, gender or age of the participant, additional empirical studies (comparative analyses), that take these factors into account are needed.
VERTICAL PLANE MOTION OF HIGH SPEED PLANING VESSELS WITH CONTROLLABLE TRANSOM FLAPS: MODELING AND CONTROL

Abstract Hydrodynamics of porpoising instability in vertical-plane motions of high-speed planing vessels have been investigated for years. However, not much work has been published on dynamic control of vertical-plane motions of planing boats by controllable appendages. In this paper, effects of controllable transom flaps on heave/pitch motion characteristics of high-speed planing vessels are investigated. A control-oriented nonlinear model is derived first for the high-speed prismatic planing craft equipped with a controllable transom flap in the calm water. Then, effects of different static flap deflections on the ship's equilibrium running attitude and vertical-plane motion stability are analyzed. Analysis shows that porpoising cannot be avoided at high speeds by presetting static transom flap deflections through static feedforward control. An LQR feedback controller is designed to achieve local asymptotical stability.
Gene Expression Omnibus: NCBI gene expression and hybridization array data repository

The Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) project was initiated in response to the growing demand for a public repository for high-throughput gene expression data. GEO provides a flexible and open design that facilitates submission, storage and retrieval of heterogeneous data sets from high-throughput gene expression and genomic hybridization experiments. GEO is not intended to replace in house gene expression databases that benefit from coherent data sets, and which are constructed to facilitate a particular analytic method, but rather complement these by acting as a tertiary, central data distribution hub. The three central data entities of GEO are platforms, samples and series, and were designed with gene expression and genomic hybridization experiments in mind. A platform is, essentially, a list of probes that define what set of molecules may be detected. A sample describes the set of molecules that are being probed and references a single platform used to generate its molecular abundance data. A series organizes samples into the meaningful data sets which make up an experiment. The GEO repository is publicly accessible through the World Wide Web at http://www.ncbi. nlm.nih. gov/geo.
Exploring teaching concerns and characteristics of graduate teaching assistants

The purpose of the study was to explore a conceptual structure of graduate teaching assistant (GTA) teaching concerns. Results indicated that GTAs experience five distinct, inter-related types of concerns: class control, external evaluation, task, impact and role/time/communication. These ‘teaching concerns’ were further analysed by examining their relationship with the value placed on them by the GTAs and the confidence in dealing with the teaching-related issues of concern. The results revealed that GTAs tend to have concerns about self, task or role/time/communication-related issues when the nature of the concerned issues is perceived as being valuable but challenging. On the other hand, GTAs are more likely to have concerns with impact-related issues when the nature of the issues is perceived as both being valuable and manageable. Several GTA characteristics, such as teaching experience, teacher efficacy, participation in professional development and values on teaching practices, were examined as predictors of GTA teaching concerns.
Spectral sensitivity, spatial resolution and temporal resolution and their implications for conspecific signalling in cleaner shrimp

ABSTRACT Cleaner shrimp (Decapoda) regularly interact with conspecifics and client reef fish, both of which appear colourful and finely patterned to human observers. However, whether cleaner shrimp can perceive the colour patterns of conspecifics and clients is unknown, because cleaner shrimp visual capabilities are unstudied. We quantified spectral sensitivity and temporal resolution using electroretinography (ERG), and spatial resolution using both morphological (inter-ommatidial angle) and behavioural (optomotor) methods in three cleaner shrimp species: Lysmata amboinensis, Ancylomenes pedersoni and Urocaridella antonbruunii. In all three species, we found strong evidence for only a single spectral sensitivity peak of (mean±s.e.m.) 518±5, 518±2 and 533±3 nm, respectively. Temporal resolution in dark-adapted eyes was 39±1.3, 36±0.6 and 34±1.3 Hz. Spatial resolution was 9.9±0.3, 8.3±0.1 and 11±0.5 deg, respectively, which is low compared with other compound eyes of similar size. Assuming monochromacy, we present approximations of cleaner shrimp perception of both conspecifics and clients, and show that cleaner shrimp visual capabilities are sufficient to detect the outlines of large stimuli, but not to detect the colour patterns of conspecifics or clients, even over short distances. Thus, conspecific viewers have probably not played a role in the evolution of cleaner shrimp appearance; rather, further studies should investigate whether cleaner shrimp colour patterns have evolved to be viewed by client reef fish, many of which possess tri- and tetra-chromatic colour vision and relatively high spatial acuity. Summary: Cleaner shrimp – colourful, finely patterned animals – are probably colour blind and have coarse spatial resolution, and thus cannot resolve their own appearance or that of conspecifics.
Appreciation at Work in the Swiss Armed Forces

This study explores the impact of appreciation at work among military professionals. Based on the concept of “Stress-as-Offense-to-Self” (Semmer, Jacobshagen, Meier, & Elfering, 2007), appreciation is a possible resource due to boosts to self-esteem. We measured appreciation at work with a scale differentiating several forms and sources of appreciation. Data were gathered by an online survey of 228 male career officers and career noncommissioned officers of the Swiss Armed Forces. Appreciation at work correlated positively with job satisfaction and negatively with feelings of resentment. Moreover, appreciation at work explained incremental variance over and above job control, social support, and interactional justice. These results underline its distinction from other resource variables. Legal employment conditions of the military professionals include working hours in accordance with ongoing requirements without upper limits established. Moderator analysis showed that appreciation buffered the effect of .
Intermediated communication by interpreters in psychotherapy with traumatized refugees

Immigrants in need of psychotherapy are often confronted with the fact that there is no psychotherapist available with whom they can proceed in a common language understood well by both. In some cases psychotherapy with communication intermediated by interpreters is offered. This study compares the outcome of 190 individual psychotherapies with refugees with post-traumatic disorders, half of them with the help of interpreters, the other half without. The results show that psychotherapies with the help of interpreters were as effective as those without, even though the psychosocial conditions (such as employment, training, foreign language proficiency and social network) for those patients who needed interpreters were tougher. We conclude that psychotherapy with the help of an interpreter should not be considered the poorer alternative.
University of Birmingham Ventricular volumes across stages of schizophrenia and other psychoses

Objective: Ventricular enlargement (VE) is common in established schizophrenia, however, data from ultra high-risk for psychosis (UHR) and first episode psychosis (FEP) studies are inconclusive. This study aims to investigate ventricular volumes at different stages of psychosis. Methods: Ventricular volumes were measured using a semi-automated and highly reliable method, for 89 established schizophrenia, 162 FEP, 135 UHR and 87 healthy controls using 1.5T magnetic resonance images. Clinical outcome diagnoses for UHR were evaluated at long-term follow-up (mean 7.5 years). Results : Compared to controls we identified significant VE of 36.2% in established schizophrenia (p<.001). VE was not significant in FEP (6%) or UHR (-3%). Examination across stages of schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses subgroups revealed a significant linear trend (p=.006; established schizophrenia = 36.2%; FEP schizophrenia = 18.5%; FEP schizophreniform = -4.2%; UHR-schizophrenia converters = -18.5%). Conclusions: VE is apparent in patients with established schizophrenia but is not a feature at the earliest stages of illness (UHR and FEP). Further research is needed to fully characterise the nature and timing of ventricular volume changes early in the course of illness and how these changes impact on outcomes.
Leadership Skills Training for Chinese Secondary Students in Hong Kong: Does Training Make a Difference?

A sample of 116 Chinese secondary students nominated by their schools to participate in university gifted programs in Hong Kong were assessed on their divergent thinking and leadership characteristics prior to their admission to programs. Sixty of these students participated in the Creative Leadership Training Program (CLTP), and 56 joined other non-leadership training programs. The 2 groups of students did not differ on the pretraining assessment of general measures of divergent thinking and self-report leadership qualities. To evaluate the effectiveness of the leadership training, CLTP participants were also assessed on specific measures of interpersonal communication, public speaking, and social problem solving before and after the leadership training. The general findings indicated that CLTP participants gained confidence as leaders, especially in skill areas of communication and public speaking, and in regulating emotions and generating alternatives in social problem solving. The limitations of the pre- and postmeasures comparison and the need to develop program components for the enhancement of leadership flexibility and goal orientation are discussed
A Segmentation Based Lossless Compression Scheme for Volumetric Medical Image Data

It is not acceptable to use loss less techniques when compressing medical image data, and as a result, it is difficult to achieve high compression ratios. We have developed a novel segmentation based compression scheme to overcome this problem and our experimental results indicate that this scheme is capable of achieving a high level of compression without sacrificing the quality of the patient data.
Structural Equivalence in Multilevel Research

In cross-cultural research, there is an increasing interest in the comparison of constructs at different levels of aggregation, such as the use of individualism—collectivism at the individual and country levels. A procedure is described for establishing structural equivalence (i.e., similarity of psychological meaning) at various levels of aggregation based on exploratory factor analysis. A construct shows structural equivalence across aggregation levels if its factor structure is invariant across levels. The procedure was applied to the Postmaterialism scale of the World Values Survey. The similarity of postmaterialism at the individual and country levels could not be unambiguously demonstrated; a likely reason is that the concept does not have an identical meaning in countries with low and high gross national products.