Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceived environmental barriers to outdoor mobility and feelings of loneliness among community-dwelling older people.

BACKGROUND We examined the association between perceived environmental barriers to outdoor mobility and loneliness among community-dwelling older people. In addition, we studied whether walking difficulties and autonomy in participation outdoors affected this association. METHODS Cross-sectional analyses of face-to-face home interview data with 848 people aged 75-90 years (mean age: 80.1 years; 62% women) gathered within the "Life-Space Mobility in Old Age" (LISPE) project. Self-reports of loneliness, environmental barriers to outdoor mobility, and difficulties in walking 2 km were obtained with structured questionnaires. Autonomy in participation outdoors was assessed with the "Impact on Participation and Autonomy" questionnaire. RESULTS Altogether, 28% of participants reported experiencing loneliness sometimes or often. These participants also reported more difficulties in walking 2 km, restricted autonomy in participation outdoors, and more environmental barriers to outdoor mobility than people not experiencing loneliness. Snowy and icy winter conditions (odds ratio: 1.59 [95% confidence interval: 1.15-2.20]), long distances to services (odds ratio: 1.57 [1.00-2.46]), and hills in the nearby environment (odds ratio: 1.49 [1.05-2.12]) significantly increased the odds for loneliness, even after adjustments for walking difficulties, autonomy in participation outdoors, perceived financial situation, living alone, and health. Path modeling revealed that environmental barriers increased loneliness either through direct association or indirectly through restricted autonomy in participation outdoors. CONCLUSIONS Prospective studies should investigate whether removing environmental barriers to outdoor mobility improves autonomy in participation outdoors and alleviates loneliness among older people.
Demographics, attitudes, and technology readiness: A cross-cultural analysis and model validation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the cross-cultural validity of the Technology Readiness Index (TRI) (Parasuraman, 2000) and explore how demographics and attitudinal variables may help to explain adoption and use of technology-based products and services. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on surveys conducted with probabilistic samples from two culturally distant countries, the USA and Chile. Findings Results support the TRI’s cross-cultural validity. They also suggest that demographic variables do matter when explaining people’s willingness to adopt new technology, with education being the most consistent predictor. Moreover, some of the findings seem to challenge the attitude-behavior consistency implied by conventional theory – while attitudinal variables are better predictors of pro-technological behavior in the USA, with technology-related insecurity being the most important of four attitudinal dimensions included in the analysis, demographic variables perform as better predictors in Chile, with educational level outperforming age and gender. Originality/value This is the first-ever cross-cultural test of the TRI using actual consumer samples from two culturally very different countries.
Generic R-transform for invariant pattern representation

The beneficial properties of the Radon transform make it an useful intermediate representation for the extraction of invariant features from pattern images for the purpose of indexing/matching. This paper revisits the problem with a generic view on a popular Radon-based pattern descriptor, the R-signature, bringing in a class of descriptors spatially describing patterns at all the directions and at different levels. The domain of this class and the selection of its representative are also discussed. Theoretical arguments validate the robustness of the generic R-signature to additive noise and experimental results show its effectiveness.
Effects of ICT Service Innovation and Complementary Strategies on Brand Equity and Customer Loyalty in a Consumer Technology Market

This paper examines the effects of information and communication technology ICT service innovation and its complementary strategies on brand equity and customer loyalty toward ICT service providers. We draw from research on brand equity and customer loyalty, ICT innovation management, and strategy complementarity to propose a model that includes new constructs representing ICT service innovation, i.e., service leadership, and its two complementary strategies, i.e., customization-personalization control and technology leadership, and how their interactions influence customer loyalty through customer-based brand equity. We test our model using data from an online survey of 1,210 customers of mobile data services. The results show that service leadership and customization-personalization control have significant direct impacts on ICT service providers' brand equity. Moreover, when either the level of technology leadership or the level of customization-personalization control is high, the impact of service leadership on brand equity is enhanced. In turn, brand equity has significant impacts on consumers' affective loyalty and conative loyalty, but not on cognitive loyalty. Our study contributes to the literature on service management and service science, and in particular to the management of ICT service innovation in a consumer technology market.
Urine-derived induced pluripotent stem cells as a modeling tool for paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia

ABSTRACT Paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia (PKD) is a monogenic movement disorder with autosomal dominant inheritance. We previously identified the proline-rich transmembrane protein 2 (PRRT2) as a causative gene of PKD. However, the pathogenesis of PKD remains largely unknown so far. In addition, applicable modeling tools to investigate the underlying mechanisms of PKD are still lacking. The combination of disease-specific human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and directed cell differentiation offers an ideal platform for disease modeling. In this study, we generated two iPSC lines from the renal epithelial cells of one PKD patient with the hotspot c.649dupC mutation (PKD-iPSCs). These cell lines were positive for alkaline phosphatase Nanog, Tra-1-80, Tra-1-60, SSEA-3 and SSEA-4. Teratomas with three blastoderms including ectoderm, mesoderm, and endoderm were obtained two months after injection of PKD-iPSCs into NOD/SCID mice. The expression of PRRT2 mRNA was decreased in PKD-iPSCs compared with that of the control iPSCs. Furthermore, PKD-iPSCs possessed the differentiation potential of functional glutamatergic, dopaminergic and motor neurons in vitro. Electrophysiological examinations revealed that the current densities of fast activated and deactivated sodium channels as well as voltage gated potassium channels were not different between the neurons from PKD-iPSCs and control iPSCs. Thus, PKD-iPSCs are a feasible modeling tool to investigate the pathogenic mechanisms of PKD. Summary: This is the first report of urinary cell-induced pluripotent stem cells being used as resources for investigation of the pathological mechanisms of paroxysmal kinesigenic dyskinesia.
Relationships between Perceived Adult Parental Role, Intergenerational Ambivalence, and Personal Well-Being among Midlife Parents

The long middle phase of parenting is neither sufficiently understood, not are there enough studies on the issue. The reported research was undertaken with the intention of revealing associations among three variables: perceived parental role, intergenerational ambivalence and parents' well-being with an examination of gender differences. Sixty mid-life Israeli parents with at least one offspring over the age of 25 constituted the population in this two-phase mixed methods research. Quantitative research tools included three questionnaires whose reliability and validity were established; semi-structured interviews comprised the qualitative research tools. The main quantitative findings indicated significant correlations among the research variables. There was a positive correlation between Self-Perceived Parental Role (SPPR) and Parental Well-Being (PWB), and a negative correlation with Intergenerational Ambivalence. Qualitative results suggested a direct and strong relationship between ambivalence expressed by parents and their evaluation of their perceived role and well-being as parents. This research enriches existing theoretical knowledge with regard to experiences of midlife parents, and in particular with regard to their parental role. The correlations identified between midlife parenthood variables as studied in this research may contribute to parents' quality of life, to improving family well-being when identifying problems and strengthening coping resources for cases that lead to stress and crisis. © 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy. org.uk
The mites (acari) associated with bark beetles in the Koli National Park in Finland

Thirty-three taxa associated with Ips typographus were identified, of which fifteen species were phoretic. The most abundant species were Insectolaelaps quadrisetus (Mesostigmata), Siculobata lentonycha (Oribata), Diapterobates humeralis (Oribata), Ereynetes propescutulis (Prostigmata), Aetiophenax ipidarius (Prostigmata), and an unidentified species of Nanacarus (Astigmata). Eight species - I. quadrisetus, Proctolaelaps fiseri, Trichouropoda polytricha, Mexecheles virginiensis, A. ipidarius, E. propescutulis, Bonomoia pini, and Boletoglyphus boletophagi - and four genera - Nanacarus, Elattoma, Schwiebia, and Parawinterschmidtia - were new taxa in Finland.
Delay at Controlled Intersections: The Old Theory Revised

The calculation of delays at an intersection is an old problem that has been studied and solved by many researchers. This paper reanalyzes the problem by using a Markov chain model for the probability distribution of queue length. From the dynamics of the expectation value of the queue length, the authors derive a formula for the delay in fixed time traffic control. The effect of the overflow queue is made explicit. The result is a new formula, but even more important, a clear understanding of the role of the overflow queue
istar: A Web Platform for Large-Scale Protein-Ligand Docking

Protein-ligand docking is a key computational method in the design of starting points for the drug discovery process. We are motivated by the desire to automate large-scale docking using our popular docking engine idock and thus have developed a publicly-accessible web platform called istar. Without tedious software installation, users can submit jobs using our website. Our istar website supports 1) filtering ligands by desired molecular properties and previewing the number of ligands to dock, 2) monitoring job progress in real time, and 3) visualizing ligand conformations and outputting free energy and ligand efficiency predicted by idock, binding affinity predicted by RF-Score, putative hydrogen bonds, and supplier information for easy purchase, three useful features commonly lacked on other online docking platforms like DOCK Blaster or iScreen. We have collected 17,224,424 ligands from the All Clean subset of the ZINC database, and revamped our docking engine idock to version 2.0, further improving docking speed and accuracy, and integrating RF-Score as an alternative rescoring function. To compare idock 2.0 with the state-of-the-art AutoDock Vina 1.1. 2, we have carried out a rescoring benchmark and a redocking benchmark on the 2,897 and 343 protein-ligand complexes of PDBbind v2012 refined set and CSAR NRC HiQ Set 24Sept2010 respectively, and an execution time benchmark on 12 diverse proteins and 3,000 ligands of different molecular weight. Results show that, under various scenarios, idock achieves comparable success rates while outperforming AutoDock Vina in terms of docking speed by at least 8.69 times and at most 37.51 times. When evaluated on the PDBbind v2012 core set, our istar platform combining with RF-Score manages to reproduce Pearson's correlation coefficient and Spearman's correlation coefficient of as high as 0.855 and 0.859 respectively between the experimental binding affinity and the predicted binding affinity of the docked conformation. istar is freely available at http://istar.cse. cuhk.edu. hk/idock.
Pathological Scenario with the Mannose-Binding Lectin in Patients with IgA Nephropathy

A deeper understanding of the mechanism of complement activation may help to elucidate the pathogenesis of IgA nephropathy (IgAN). Traditionally, the activation of an alternative pathway (AP) has been recognized as an enhancer mechanism of glomerular damage. This paper documents contemporary information concerning the possible pathological mechanisms of the lectin pathway (LP) in the circulation and in the glomerulus. The circulating initiator of LP activation is not fully understood. However, ligands for mannose-binding lectin (MBL) which are among the starter molecules of the LP are aberrant glycosylated molecules-containing immune complex. Recent reports have focused on N-glycans on secretory IgA as a candidate ligand. Mesangial deposits of MBL are seen in 25% of patients with IgAN. Mesangial deposits of MBL and C4 and/or C4 breakdown products are implicated as markers for disease progression of IgAN. On the other hand, patients with MBL deficiency tend to show better clinical presentation and lower levels of urinary protein and serum creatinine than MBL-sufficient patients. It is now recognized that involvement of AP and LP constitutes an additional mechanism for explaining the progression of IgAN.
The Work–Home Interface: Linking Work-Related Wellbeing and Volunteer Work

An abundance of research shows the benefits of participation in volunteer work for individuals, employers and the society as a whole. However, relatively little is known about the precursors of volunteer work. In this study, we aim to fill this gap by investigating to what extent work-related well-being can function as a driver of volunteer work. Moreover, building on the Conservations of Resources Theory (Hobfoll, 1989, 2011), we propose that the relationship between work-related well-being (burnout and engagement) and volunteer work is mediated by the work–home interface (work–home enrichment and work–home conflict). This hypothesis was tested in a large Swiss sample (N = 1947). Consistent with our expectations, structural equation analyses revealed an indirect relationship between (i) work engagement and volunteer work via work–home enrichment and (ii) between burnout and volunteer work via work–home conflict. In conclusion, it seems that well-being at work indeed functions as a precursor for volunteer work because of the consequences it has for the work–family interface. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Optimal and Suboptimal Multi Antenna Spectrum Sensing Techniques with Master Node Cooperation for Cognitive Radio Systems

In this paper, we consider the primary user detection problem in cognitive radio systems by using multi antenna at the cognitive radio receiver. An optimal linear combiner multi antenna based spectrum sensing technique is proposed using the multitaper spectrum estimation method. A suboptimal square law combiner multi antenna based technique, using the multitaper method, is also proposed. The decision statistics’ probability density functions of the proposed techniques are derived theoretically. Probabilities of detection and false alarm formulae are presented using the Neyman Pearson criterion. Both proposed techniques are derived when energy detector is used. Based on our results, we found that the general likelihood ratio detector1 (GLRD1) and the blind GLRD that are proposed in the literature, require signal to noise ratios SNRs=7.5 and 9.6 dB, respectively to achieve a probability of detection of 99.99% at false alarm 1% with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) using 4 antennas and 16 samples for sensing. In our proposed optimal and suboptimal techniques, the required SNRs are found as 12 and 7.5 dB, respectively to achieve the same probabilities in the same conditions. Of course, this result gives an indication that even GLRD multi antenna based spectrum sensing techniques are blind in their philosophy, but that comes at the expense of their performance. Simulation results that confirm the theoretical work are also presented. An AWGN and Rayleigh flat fading environments are examined in the results. Finally, a new concept of cooperative spectrum sensing, the master node, is introduced.
Genome‐wide association for methamphetamine sensitivity in an advanced intercross mouse line

Sensitivity to the locomotor stimulant effects of methamphetamine (MA) is a heritable trait that utilizes neurocircuitry also associated with the rewarding effects of drugs. We used the power of a C57BL/6J × DBA/2J F2 intercross (n = 676) and the precision of a C57BL/6J × DBA/2J F8 advanced intercross line (Aap: B6, D2–G8; or F8 AIL; n = 552) to identify and narrow quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with sensitivity to the locomotor stimulant effects of MA. We used the program QTLRel to simultaneously map QTL in the F2 and F8 AIL mice. We identified six genome‐wide significant QTLs associated with locomotor activity at baseline and seven genome‐wide significant QTLs associated with MA‐induced locomotor activation. The average per cent decrease in QTL width between the F2 and the integrated analysis was 65%. Additionally, these QTLs showed a distinct temporal specificity within each session that allowed us to further refine their locations, and identify one QTL with a 1.8‐LOD support interval of 1.47 Mb. Next, we utilized publicly available bioinformatics resources to exploit strain‐specific sequence data and strain‐ and region‐specific expression data to identify candidate genes. These results illustrate the power of AILs in conjunction with sequence and gene expression data to investigate the genetic underpinnings of behavioral and other traits.
Video transport over VANETs: Multi-stream coding with multi-path and network coding

The emerging and promising Vehicular Ad hoc Networks (VANET) are receiving a lot of attention from both industry and academia due to the wide variety of services such as safe navigation support, entertainment and many more. Providing robust and reliable dissemination of data over VANET is the key issue. Due to varying network topology packet loss and delay are very common in such type of networks which severely influence the perceived video quality at receiving end. We need reliable transmission protocols for text data dissemination while the video data can tolerate a certain amount of packet loss. Therefore, we are more interested in robust Scalable Video Coding (SVC) based streaming over VANET for multi-purpose including safe navigation support, because SVC is a very good solution to alleviate the effects of the error-prone channels. In this paper, we propose a robust scheme for SVC-based streaming over an urban VANET with path diversity and network coding. The scheme calculates the quality of all candidate paths based on Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) and then assigns paths to different layers according to their importance. We also select some nearby nodes along the transmission path for recoding their received packets and store them in buffers for unit period of time. These network coded packets can be retransmit to receivers for recovering lost packets.
Qualitative Reasoning about Physical Systems

To my parents vii Abstract In this thesis we talk about physical theories from a very special point of view. Our purpose is to explore the structure of the theories and the reasoning processes so that they can be encoded in a machine understandable form. In the process of exploration we describe the existing approaches to the eld and point out the importance of the research from a novel point of view. The focal point is the area of qualitative reasoning, a common procedure to a scientist but sometimes that is not of precise nature. We try to demonstrate the importance of qualitative reasoning even as part of normal mathematical reasoning. Great weight is given to the mathematical representation of the qualitative language; this is further applied to the theories already proposed.
Corporate Governance , Auditing and Reporting Distortions 1

Conventional wisdom suggests that hiring independent boards limit earnings manipulations and promote accurate reporting. In contrast, this study indicates that hiring some insiders to the board facilitates the integrity of the reporting process. The central result is that strengthening board independence curtails earnings overstatements, but heightens the likelihood of understatements. This is because, reinforcing board independence limits the CEO’s ability to over-report, but also encourages the auditor to economize on effort. The reduced effort impairs the auditor’s ability to verify high earnings and, because auditors tend to favor conservative reports when in doubt, leads to increased incidence of conservative under-reporting.
Update and developments in the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme – focus on bevacizumab

Glioblastoma is the most common primary brain tumor with a relatively poor prognosis. This article reviews the current standard therapy and discusses new developments in treatment of this disease. Surgical resection followed by radiation and chemotherapy has proven to be the most effective initial therapy. Recent advancement in molecular targeted therapies has led to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of bevacizumab in the setting of recurrent glioblastoma. The molecular pathways of glioblastoma growth are highlighted in this review. While numerous molecular targets are currently being intensely investigated, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor targeted therapy has been the only one to have shown clinical effect. The role of bevacizumab in this context provides a dynamic breakthrough in cancer therapy. Clinical trials have demonstrated significantly increased overall survival and six month progression free survival (PFS) in recurrent glioblastoma treated with bevacizumab alone or in combination with irinotecan. The use of this agent has also dramatically changed the imaging characteristics of glioblastoma. The anti-angiogenesis effects of bevacizumab have complicated the criterion for determining tumor growth. This may lead to redefinition of progressive disease based on non-invasive monitoring.
Multigenerational Differences in Career Preferences, Reward Preferences and Work Engagement among Indian Employees

The purpose of the present study is to empirically examine the multigenerational differences in career preferences, reward preferences and work engagement among three generations (senior generation, generation X and generation Y). Data were collected with the help of an online questionnaire from 653 working executives working in different Indian public and private organizations. Significance of differences in career preference, reward preference and work engagement among generations was analyzed with the help of analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post hoc Tukey test. Findings of the present study indicate that there is a significant difference in career preferences and work engagement among the three studied generations. Additionally, there is no significant difference in reward preferences among the three studied generations. The present article describes and discusses these findings and the global implications of the same for managers.