Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The genetics of problem and pathological gambling: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The primary aim of the present review was to summarize the findings of genetic studies conducted on problem and pathological gambling. METHOD Literature searches were conducted using PubMed, Medline and the HuGE Navigator databases using the keywords 'gambling' and 'genetic*'. RESULTS The literature searches identified 21 empirical studies that had analyzed data from eight independent samples. Empirical research utilizing twin data accounted for eight of the studies, while gene association data were presented in 13 studies (including one genome wide-association study [GWAS] study). Twin studies emphasized the significant role of genetic and individual environmental factors in problem and pathological gambling. Gene association studies primarily reported the involvement of the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. DISCUSSION Despite the relatively low number of genetic studies, the data clearly indicated the genetic vulnerability of problem and pathological gambling. Studies to date have mainly investigated and verified the role of factors reported to be important in other types of addiction, and it is suggested that pathological gambling should be included as a subtype of 'Reward Deficiency Syndrome' (RDS). It is concluded that future research should attempt to identify possible gambling specific susceptibility factors.
Residents' Attachment to New Urbanist versus Conventional Suburban Developments

HASHAS, MINE HATUN. Residents’ Attachment to New Urbanist versus Conventional Suburban Developments. (Under the direction of Henry Sanoff.) Living in satisfying environments is important for individual well-being. Therefore, community well-being depends on enduring and vital community residential environments. In order to create such environments, planners, designers, and policymakers need to understand the structures that cause residents to feel attached to an environment. Before people will feel safe and secure in a residential environment— before they will care for it, pay attention to it, and commit to living in it—they must first feel attached to it. Suburban developments are said to lack the physical and social conditions necessary for the attachment process. New Urbanist (NU) neighborhoods have been suggested as alternatives to conventional suburban (CS) developments because they are claimed to be more viable in social and physical terms. Consequently, it is argued that NU neighborhoods create a greater sense of community and place identity. In spite of these claims, little empirical study has been conducted to assess the appeal and effectiveness of NU developments. This study aims to understand why people choose to move to and remain in a neotraditional suburban residential environment versus a traditional suburban residential environment. Do NU and CS development residents’ characteristics differ from each other? Do their residential environment attachments differ? What are the social and physical features that foster attachment? Do personal predispositions and residential choices play a role in attachment to residential environments? Does more interaction with residential environment result in stronger attachment? These questions are answered through a comparative case study that adapted correlational, factor, and stepwise regression analyses. The study used observations and questionnaires. Meadowmont and Southern Village in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, were selected as the NU residential neighborhood cases. Lake Hogan Farm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Preston Village in Cary, North Carolina, were selected as the CS residential neighborhoods. The NU and CS sites were matched by approximate age, size, and residents’ economic level. The results of this study are expected to shed light on the relative effectiveness of the neotraditional and conventional suburban developments in terms of the opportunities they provide for their residents to live in a better social and physical environment. The findings of the study will contribute to a knowledge base that may support the creation of physically and socially more viable residential environments for future generations in the United States. RESIDENTS’ ATTACHMENT TO NEW URBANIST VERSUS CONVENTIONAL SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENTS by MINE HATUN HASHAS A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN
Effects of Controlling Versus Autonomy-Supportive Language on Learning a Novel Motor Skill and Cortisol Release

The purpose of this study was to compare how different types of instruction effect the learning of a novel motor skill and how salivary cortisol correlates to learning differences. Participants (N = 44), average age 22.3 years (standard deviation 2.37), were randomly assigned to an autonomy-supportive, controlling-language or neutral language group which was manipulated via instructional video. Saliva was collected before and after each session, and questionnaires were given after pitching was completed during each day. Results showed that there was a significant difference among groups in throwing accuracy on performance and retention. Questionnaire results also showed significant group differences in perceived autonomy and self-efficacy. There was no difference in cortisol on either day between groups. Further analysis showed that the autonomy-supportive group was superior in all domains over the controlling-language group. From these results, we concluded autonomy-supportive language is a beneficial form of instruction for learning a novel motor skill versus controlling language due to its ability to increase self-efficacy and perception of autonomy. Further research should be done on the psychological and hormonal aspect of motor learning.
Stress memory induced rearrangements of HSP transcription, photosystem II photochemistry and metabolism of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) in response to high-temperature stress

When plants are pre-exposed to stress, they can produce some stable signals and physiological reactions that may be carried forward as “stress memory”. However, there is insufficient information about plants' stress memory responses mechanisms. Here, two tall fescue genotypes, heat-tolerant PI 574522 and heat-sensitive PI 512315, were subjected to recurring high-temperature pre-acclimation treatment. Two heat shock protein (HSP) genes, LMW-HSP and HMW-HSP, exhibited transcriptional memory for their higher transcript abundance during one or more subsequent stresses (S2, S3, S4) relative to the first stress (S1), and basal transcript levels during the recovery states (R1, R2, and R3). Activated transcriptional memory from two trainable genes could persist up to 4 days, and induce higher thermotolerance in tall fescue. This was confirmed by greater turf quality and lower electrolyte leakage. Pre-acclimation treatment inhibited the decline at steps of O-J-I-P and energy transport fluxes in active Photosystem II reaction center (PSII RC) for both tall fescue genotypes. The heat stress memory was associated with major shifts in leaf metabolite profiles. Furthermore, there was an exclusive increase in leaf organic acids (citric acid, malic acid, tris phosphoric acid, threonic acid), sugars (sucrose, glucose, idose, allose, talose, glucoheptose, tagatose, psicose), amino acids (serine, proline, pyroglutamic acid, glycine, alanine), and one fatty acid (butanoic acid) in pre-acclimated plants. These observations involved in transcriptional memory, PSII RC energy transport and metabolite profiles could provide new insights into the plant high–temperature response process.
Estrogen receptor status prediction for breast cancer using artificial neural network

The status of estrogen receptor (ER) has been profoundly associated with breast cancer. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify informative genes that are associated to ER status. However, the integrity of the reported genes is still inconclusive as the results are derived from small cohort of breast cancer patients (< 200 samples). In this paper, we studied gene signatures from a cohort of 278 breast cancer samples, labelled in ER positive and ER negative classes, using artificial neural network (ANN). Our model has showed its efficacy for selecting significant genes compared to the previous study. The result also showed that the highly ranked genes have been previously reported in association to the breast cancer development.
Energy-based binary segmentation of snow microtomographic images

Abstract X-ray microtomography has become an essential tool for investigating the mechanical and physical properties of snow, which are tied to its microstructure. To allow a quantitative characterization of the microstructure, the grayscale X-ray attenuation coefficient image has to be segmented into a binary ice/pore image. This step, called binary segmentation, is crucial and affects all subsequent analysis and modeling. Common segmentation methods are based on thresholding. In practice, these methods present some drawbacks and often require time-consuming manual post-processing. Here we present a binary segmentation algorithm based on the minimization of a segmentation energy. This energy is composed of a data fidelity term and a regularization term penalizing large interface area, which is of particular interest for snow where sintering naturally tends to reduce the surface energy. The accuracy of the method is demonstrated on a synthetic image. The method is then successfully applied on microtomographic images of snow and compared to the threshold-based segmentation. The main advantage of the presented approach is that it benefits from local spatial information. Moreover, the effective resolution of the segmented image is clearly defined and can be chosen a priori.
Correlation between Serum Tryptase, Mast Cells Positive to Tryptase and Microvascular Density in Colo-Rectal Cancer Patients: Possible Biological-Clinical Significance

Background Tryptase is a serin protease stored and released from mast cells (MCs) that plays a role in tumour angiogenesis. In this study we aimed to evaluate serum tryptase levels in colo-rectal cancer (CRC) patients before (STLBS) and after (STLAS) radical surgical resection. We also evaluated mast cell density positive to tryptase (MCDPT) and microvascular density (MVD) in primary tumour tissue. Methods A series of 61 patients with stage B and C CRC (according to the Astler and Coller staging system) were selected. Serum blood samples were collected from patients one day before and one day after surgery. Tryptase levels were measured using the UniCAP Tryptase Fluoroenzymeimmunoassay (Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden). Tumour sections were immunostained with a primary anti-tryptase antibody (clone AA1; Dako, Glostrup, Denmark) and an anti CD-34 antibody (QB-END 10; Bio-Optica Milan, Italy) by means of immunohistochemistry and then evaluated by image analysis methods. Results The mean ± s.d. STLBS and STLAS was 5.63±2.61 µg/L, and 3.39±1.47 µg/L respectively and a significant difference between mean levels was found: p = 0.000 by t-test. The mean ± s.d. of MCDPT and MVD was 8.13±3.28 and 29.16±7.39 respectively. A strong correlation between STLBS and MVD (r = 0.83, p = 0.000); STLBS and MCDPT (r = 0.60, p = 0.003); and MCDPT and MVD (r = 0.73; p = 0.001) was found. Conclusion Results demonstrated higher STLBS in CRC patients, indicating an involvement of MC tryptase in CRC angiogenesis. Data also indicated lower STLAS, suggesting the release of tryptase from tumour-infiltrating MCs. Serum tryptase levels may therefore play a role as a novel bio-marker predictive of response to radical surgery. In this context tryptase inhibitors such as Gabexate and Nafamostat Mesilate might be evaluated in adjuvant clinical trials as a new anti-angiogenic approach.
French Validation of the Internet Addiction Test

The main goal of the present study is to investigate the psychometric properties of a French version of the Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and to assess its relationship with both time spent on Internet and online gaming. The French version of the Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT) was administered to a sample of 246 adults. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses were carried out. We discovered that a one-factor model of the IAT has good psychometric properties and fits the data well, which is not the case of a six-factor model as found in previous studies using exploratory methods. Correlation analysis revealed positive significant relationships between IAT scores and both the daily duration of Internet use and the fact of being an online player. In addition, younger people scored higher on the IAT. The one-factor model found in this study has to be replicated in other IAT language versions.
Psoriatic Arthritis and Diabetes: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study

Background. Diabetes has been associated with psoriasis, but little is known about the association between psoriatic arthritis and diabetes. Methods. Patients diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis by a rheumatologist were compared to age- and sex-matched patients without psoriatic arthritis regarding the prevalence of diabetes in a population-based cross-sectional study using logistic multivariate models. The study was performed utilizing the medical database of Clalit, the largest healthcare provider organization in Israel. Results. The study included 549 patients with psoriatic arthritis ≥21 years and 1,098 patients without psoriatic arthritis. The prevalence of diabetes in patients with psoriatic arthritis was increased as compared to the prevalence in patients without psoriatic arthritis (15.3% versus 10.7%, P value = 0.008). The difference was prominent among females (18.7% versus 10.3%, P < 0.001) but not among males (11.2% in patients with and without psoriatic arthritis, P = 1.000). In a multivariate analysis, psoriatic arthritis was associated with diabetes among females (OR = 1.60, 95% CI: 1.02–2.52, P = 0.040) but not among males (OR = 0.71, 95% CI: 0.42–1.22, P = 0.213). Conclusion. Our study suggests a possible association between psoriatic arthritis and diabetes in women. Women with psoriatic arthritis might be candidates for diabetes screening.
AN ADAPTIVE SPEAKER VERIFICATION SYSTE PRIORI DECISION THR

This paper presents a practical approach to deploying a priori speaker dependent thresholds (SDT) for adaptive speaker verification applications. Our motivations for exploring SDTs are two fold: one is to eliminate the externally pre-set overall system thresholds and replace them with automatically-set internal thresholds calculated at runtime; the second is to counter the verification score shifts resulting from online adaptation. The second motivation is based on the observation that after adaptation, verification scores for both true speakers and impostors increase, which in turn increases the false accept (FA) rates. The rise of FA rates, in an adaptive system, can be costly because of the possibility of model corruption. In this work, an approach similar to ZNORM [3] is used to calculate a threshold for each speaker, which is automatically updated every time the claimant model is adapted. The paper explores various computational efficiency strategies to make the deployment of this approach practical for a fielded system. Results of experiments on one Japanese and one English digits database are presented.
Extra-virgin olive oil phenols block cell cycle progression and modulate chemotherapeutic toxicity in bladder cancer cells

Epidemiological data indicate that the daily consumption of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), a common dietary habit of the Mediterranean area, lowers the incidence of certain types of cancer, in particular bladder neoplasm. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antiproliferative activity of polyphenols extracted from EVOO on bladder cancer (BCa), and to clarify the biological mechanisms that trigger cell death. Furthermore, we also evaluated the ability of low doses of extra-virgin olive oil extract (EVOOE) to modulate the in vitro activity of paclitaxel or mitomycin, two antineoplastic drugs used in the management of different types of cancer. Our results showed that EVOOE significantly inhibited the proliferation and clonogenic ability of T24 and 5637 BCa cells in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, cell cycle analysis after EVOOE treatment showed a marked growth arrest prior to mitosis in the G2/M phase for both cell lines, with the subsequent induction of apoptosis only in the T24 cells. Notably, simultaneous treatment of mitomycin C and EVOOE reduced the drug cytotoxicity due to inhibition of ROS production. Conversely, the co-treatment of T24 cells with paclitaxel and the polyphenol extract strongly increased the apoptotic cell death at each tested concentration compared to paclitaxel alone. Our results support the epidemiological evidence indicating that olive oil consumption exerts health benefits and may represent a starting point for the development of new anticancer strategies.
Implicit and Explicit Ethnocentrism: Revisiting the Ideologies of Prejudice

Two studies investigated relationships among individual differences in implicit and explicit prejudice, right-wing ideology, and rigidity in thinking. The first study examined these relationships focusing on White Americans’ prejudice toward Black Americans. The second study provided the first test of implicit ethnocentrism and its relationship to explicit ethnocentrism by studying the relationship between attitudes toward five social groups. Factor analyses found support for both implicit and explicit ethnocentrism. In both studies, mean explicit attitudes toward out groups were positive, whereas implicit attitudes were negative, suggesting that implicit and explicit prejudices are distinct; however, in both studies, implicit and explicit attitudes were related (r = .37, .47). Latent variable modeling indicates a simple structure within this ethnocentric system, with variables organized in order of specificity. These results lead to the conclusion that (a) implicit ethnocentrism exists and (b) it is related to and distinct from explicit ethnocentrism.
Biographical disruption: Experiences of mothers of adults assessed for autism spectrum disorder

ABSTRACT Background Little is known about the experiences of parents whose sons or daughters are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during adulthood. Method In this exploratory study, 6 mothers of adults recently diagnosed with ASD were interviewed about the ASD assessment process. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the interviews. Results Two superordinate themes are described: (1) biographical continuity, and (2) biographical disruption. Mothers did not experience significant disruption around the ASD assessment itself, as they had sought an explanation for their son’s/daughter’s behaviour since childhood. Therefore, being referred for an ASD assessment was simply another assessment for their son or daughter and was thus a biographical continuity. Mothers experienced biographical disruption once an ASD diagnosis was received, as they realised that an ASD diagnosis did not result in any additional support, and found this greatly frustrating. Conclusions There is an unmet need for postdiagnostic support among adults diagnosed with ASD, and for their parents.
Dynamic Analysis and Traversability Prediction of Tracked Vehicles on Soft Terrain

Unmanned ground vehicles are widely used in industries where repetitive tasks or high risk missions are required. Such vehicles usually operate on soft deformable terrains and still require human supervision due to the complexity of the interaction between the vehicle and the terrain. The dynamic models currently used in predicting track forces on such terrains are empirical and out dated. This paper critically investigates the dynamics involved in a steady-state skid-steering manoeuvre of tracked vehicles and presents a novel technique for predicting track forces on soft terrains. The simulation results are in good agreement with previous field measurements. The results show that the coefficient of lateral resistance varies not only with turning radius but also with vehicle velocity, an aspect that has not been taken into consideration in previous models. Finally, a traversability criterion is presented.
An Asymptotically Optimal Cooperative Relay Scheme for Two-Way Relaying Protocol

Some of the existing relay schemes for cooperative networks based on one-way relaying protocol are not applicable to the case of two-way relaying protocol. In this letter, a cooperative relay scheme for distributed amplify-and-forward relays working under the two-way relaying protocol is designed in a closed-form, which is asymptotically optimal in the high levels of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). An upper-bound of the mean squared error (MSE) is derived via a tight approximation of the SNR expression. Based on the minimization of this upper-bound, the two-way relay scheme is then derived as a Rayleigh-Ritz ratio problem. The new relay scheme achieves the minimum MSE for both directional transmissions. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme especially in the high SNR regime.
Gene Expression Profiles in Human and Mouse Primary Cells Provide New Insights into the Differential Actions of Vitamin D3 Metabolites

1α,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1α,25(OH)2D3) had earlier been regarded as the only active hormone. The newly identified actions of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) and 24R,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (24R,25(OH)2D3) broadened the vitamin D3 endocrine system, however, the current data are fragmented and a systematic understanding is lacking. Here we performed the first systematic study of global gene expression to clarify their similarities and differences. Three metabolites at physiologically comparable levels were utilized to treat human and mouse fibroblasts prior to DNA microarray analyses. Human primary prostate stromal P29SN cells (hP29SN), which convert 25(OH)D3 into 1α,25(OH)2D3 by 1α-hydroxylase (encoded by the gene CYP27B1), displayed regulation of 164, 171, and 175 genes by treatment with 1α,25(OH)2D3, 25(OH)D3, and 24R,25(OH)2D3, respectively. Mouse primary Cyp27b1 knockout fibroblasts (mCyp27b1 −/−), which lack 1α-hydroxylation, displayed regulation of 619, 469, and 66 genes using the same respective treatments. The number of shared genes regulated by two metabolites is much lower in hP29SN than in mCyp27b1 −/−. By using DAVID Functional Annotation Bioinformatics Microarray Analysis tools and Ingenuity Pathways Analysis, we identified the agonistic regulation of calcium homeostasis and bone remodeling between 1α,25(OH)2D3 and 25(OH)D3 and unique non-classical actions of each metabolite in physiological and pathological processes, including cell cycle, keratinocyte differentiation, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis signaling, gene transcription, immunomodulation, epigenetics, cell differentiation, and membrane protein expression. In conclusion, there are three distinct vitamin D3 hormones with clearly different biological activities. This study presents a new conceptual insight into the vitamin D3 endocrine system, which may guide the strategic use of vitamin D3 in disease prevention and treatment.