Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nephroprotective Effect of Ursolic Acid in a Murine Model of Gentamicin-Induced Renal Damage

The present study evaluates the nephroprotective effects of ursolic acid in a murine model of gentamicin induced renal damage. Wistar albino rats of either sex, weighing 150–200 g were divided into 5 groups; normal saline, gentamicin 80 mg/kg, intraperitoneally for 8 days, ursolic acid at 2, 5, and 10 mg/kg, per oral for 8 days, ursolic acid administered 3 days prior and concurrently with gentamicin for 5 days. Blood urea, serum creatinine, uric acid and blood urea nitrogen analyses and microscopic examination of kidney were performed. Gentamicin treatment caused nephrotoxicity as evidenced by marked elevation in serum urea, serum uric acid, serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen (162.33 ± 9.92 mg/dL, 3.13 ± 0.12 mg/dL, 6.85 ± 0.35 mg/dL and 75.86 ± 4.64 mg/dL; resp.) when compared to the saline treated groups. Co-administration of ursolic acid with gentamicin decreased the rise in these parameters in a dose dependent manner. Histopathological analysis revealed epithelial loss with intense granular degeneration in gentamicin treated rats, whereas ursolic acid mitigated the severity of gentamicin-induced renal damage. To conclude, our data suggest that ursolic acid exhibits renoprotective effect in gentamicin induced renal damage and further studies on its mechanis of action are warranted.
CARE - extending a digital picture frame with a recommender mode to enhance well-being of elderly people

This contribution addresses the development of technology for the elderly with the aim to improve their general well-being. We report work on a prototype system named CARE that combines the functionality of a digital image frame with an active recommender mode. Recommendations are chosen on the basis of context information acquired by sensors embedded in the user's environment, and a well-being model to carefully decide on at which point in time what kind of activity is most suitable to suggest. We describe conception and implementation of a first CARE prototype that we used for in-situ testing in a senior's home, as well as for gathering feedback on system usage and user appreciation. The paper concludes with some lessons learned from analyzing log file data of the trial period and from conducting a post-trial interview.
THE ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF MINDREADING: BELIEFS, PERSPECTIVES, AND CHARACTER

Title of Dissertation: THE ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF MINDREADING: BELIEFS, PERSPECTIVES, AND CHARACTER Evan Edward Westra, Doctor of Philosophy, 2017. Dissertation directed by: Professor Peter Carruthers, Department of Philosophy This dissertation puts forward a series of arguments and theoretical proposals about the architecture and development of the human capacity to reason about the internal, psychological causes of behavior, known as “theory of mind” or “mindreading. ” Chapter 1, “Foundations and motivations,” begins by articulating the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary theory-of-mind debates, especially the dispute between empiricists and nativists. I then argue for a nativist approach to theory-of-mind development, and then go on to outline how the subsequent chapters each address specific challenges for this nativist perspective. Chapter 2, “Pragmatic development and the false-belief task,” addresses the central puzzle of the theory-of-mind development literature: why is it that children below the age of five fail standard false-belief tasks, and yet are able to pass implicit versions of the false-belief task at a far younger age? According to my novel, nativist account, while they possess the concept of BELIEF very early in development, children’s early experiences with the pragmatics of belief discourse initially distort the way they interpret standard false-belief tasks; as children gain the relevant experience from their social and linguistic environment, this distortion eventually dissipates. In the Appendix (co-authored with Peter Carruthers), I expand upon this proposal to show how it can also account for another set of phenomena typically cited as evidence against nativism: the Theory-of-Mind Scale. Chapter 3, “Spontaneous mindreading: A problem for the two-systems account,” challenges the “two-systems” account of mindreading, which provides a different explanation for the implicit/explicit false-belief task gap, and has implications for the architecture of mature, adult mindreading. Using evidence from adults’ perspective-taking abilities I argue that this account is theoretically and empirically unsound. Chapter 4, “Character and theory of mind: An integrative approach,” begins by noting that contemporary accounts of mindreading neglect to account for the role of character or personality-trait representations in action-prediction and interpretation. Employing a hierarchical, predictive coding approach, I propose that character-trait representations are rapidly inferred in order to inform and constrain our mental-state attributions. Because this is a “covering concept” dissertation, each of these chapters (including the Appendix) is written so that it is independent of all of the others; they can be read in any order, and do not presuppose one another. THE ARCHITECTURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF MINDREADING: BELIEFS, PERSPECTIVES, AND CHARACTER
Effect of Knee Position on Hip and Knee Torques During the Barbell Squat

Some recommendations suggest keeping the shank as vertical as possible during the barbell squat, thus keeping the knees from moving past the toes. This study examined joint kinetics occurring when forward displacement of the knees is restricted vs. when such movement is not restricted. Seven weight-trained men (mean ± SD; age = 27.9 ± 5.2 years) were videotaped while performing 2 variations of parallel barbell squats (barbell load = body weight). Either the knees were permitted to move anteriorly past the toes (unrestricted) or a wooden barrier prevented the knees from moving anteriorly past the toes (restricted). Differences resulted between static knee and hip torques for both types of squat as well as when both squat variations were compared with each other (p < 0.05). For the unrestricted squat, knee torque (N·m; mean ± SD) = 150.1 ± 50.8 and hip torque = 28.2 ± 65.0. For the restricted squat, knee torque = 117.3 ± 34.2 and hip torque = 302.7 ± 71.2. Restricted squats also produced more anterior lean of the trunk and shank and a greater internal angle at the knees and ankles. The squat technique used can affect the distribution of forces between the knees and hips and on the kinematic properties of the exercise. Practical applications: Although restricting forward movement of the knees may minimize stress on the knees, it is likely that forces are inappropriately transferred to the hips and low-back region. Thus, appropriate joint loading during this exercise may require the knees to move slightly past the toes.
Learning Halfspaces and Neural Networks with Random Initialization

We study non-convex empirical risk minimization for learning halfspaces and neural networks. For loss functions that are $L$-Lipschitz continuous, we present algorithms to learn halfspaces and multi-layer neural networks that achieve arbitrarily small excess risk $\epsilon>0$. The time complexity is polynomial in the input dimension $d$ and the sample size $n$, but exponential in the quantity $(L/\epsilon^2)\log(L/\epsilon)$. These algorithms run multiple rounds of random initialization followed by arbitrary optimization steps. We further show that if the data is separable by some neural network with constant margin $\gamma>0$, then there is a polynomial-time algorithm for learning a neural network that separates the training data with margin $\Omega(\gamma)$. As a consequence, the algorithm achieves arbitrary generalization error $\epsilon>0$ with ${\rm poly}(d,1/\epsilon)$ sample and time complexity. We establish the same learnability result when the labels are randomly flipped with probability $\eta<1/2$.
Because Wisdom Can’t Be Told

This study used text-related, video-based case materials to assess teacher candidates’ readiness to communicate with families. Participants (N = 141) rated their efficacy for home–school communication and then responded to a description of a classroom-based challenge regarding one student’s behavioral and academic performance. Next, they evaluated two videos, each capturing how a teacher addressed the challenge in a parent–teacher conference. Cases offered contrasting models of communication effectiveness along two dimensions: structuring and responsiveness. Finally, candidates chose which model did the better job and justified their choice. Findings revealed that candidates had high self-efficacy for communicating with families but generated a small number and range of strategies for dealing with the situation; could discriminate between the models’ effectiveness; and their reasons for choosing one model as best centered on their valuing of structuring or responsiveness and their conceptions of partnership. Content validity and reliability assessments of the research materials are described.
Religiosity, Cultural Values, and Attitudes Toward Seeking Psychological Services in Turkey

Most research with Muslim populations has been conducted with samples of immigrants living in the West as minority populations. This study investigates how the culture-related variables of family values and self-construal relate to religiosity and attitudes toward psychological services among Muslims living in Turkey, a country where over 99% of the population identifies as Muslim. To examine how these cultural variables may relate to attitudes toward psychological services, Muslim Turks completed a survey which included measures of religiosity, hierarchical and harmonious family values, cultural self-construal, and attitudes toward psychological services. Religiosity was associated with negative attitudes toward psychological services. The relationship between religiosity and attitudes toward psychological services was fully mediated by hierarchical family values such that when the variable hierarchical family values was added to the model, the relation between religiosity and attitudes toward psychological services was no longer significant. The mediation of hierarchical family values on the relation between religiosity and attitudes toward psychological services was moderated by independent self-construal, so that independent self-construal weakened the mediation while interdependent self-construal had no effect. The results of this study indicate that among Muslim Turks, the relation between religiosity and attitudes toward psychological services is more fully explained when culture-related variables are considered.
Effects of cereal bars for breakfast and mid-morning snacks on mood and memory

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of consuming cereal bars, given either for breakfast or a mid-morning snack, on mood and memory. Thirty-two volunteers (16 males, 16 females; mean age, 20 years 9 months) were randomly assigned to one of four groups formed by combining breakfast (cereal bar versus no breakfast) and snack (cereal bar versus no snack) conditions. A baseline session was completed at 08:30 h followed by breakfast at 9:00 h, another test at 10:00 h, followed by a mid-morning snack and then a final test at 12:00 h. In each session, volunteers rated their mood and carried out four memory tasks: free recall; recognition memory; a verbal reasoning task; and a semantic processing task. The results showed that volunteers who consumed a cereal bar for breakfast felt more alert, happy and sociable and less anxious. In addition, they also recalled more words in a free recall task. When the cereal bar was consumed as a mid-morning snack, alertness and hedonic tone increased, especially in the group who received no breakfast. The group who had no breakfast reported reduced anxiety after consumption of the snack. Recall was also improved after the snack. These findings show that consuming cereal bars in the early and mid-morning leads to beneficial behavioural effects. The results confirm earlier research on effects of breakfast and extend our knowledge of effects of snacks. Consumption of cereal bars may have important practical applications especially in situations where preparation of breakfast is difficult.
Social Media Activities of Political Communication Practitioners: The Impact of Strategic Orientation and In-Group Orientation

ABSTRACT The question of why political communication practitioners use social media for strategic political communication activities has rarely been investigated. By using well-established theoretical approaches of communication research, such as the influence of presumed influence approach, this study sought to determine the extent to which the subjective perceptions of German political communication practitioners explain their professional social media activities. The results of a survey (N = 1,067) indicate that the more political communication practitioners perceived that other political communication practitioners used and were influenced by Facebook and Twitter, the more often they used social media themselves. In contrast, the presumed reach of Facebook and Twitter among politicians, journalists, and citizens, as well as the presumed influence of both media on these groups, were not related to the practitioners’ social media activities. These findings suggest that the practitioners’ social media activities are driven more by an in-group orientation toward their colleagues and less by a strategic orientation toward external stakeholders.
A video watermarking algorithm based on pseudo 3D DCT

In this paper, we propose an adaptive video watermarking algorithm based on a pseudo 3D DCT to insert the high transparency and slight distortion messages to resist the attacks. The watermark is mainly inserted into the uncompressed domain by adjusting the correlation between DCT coefficients of the selected blocks, and the watermark extraction is blind, i.e., no original unwatermarked video is needed for watermark extraction. The system consists of pseudo 3D DCT technique, watermark embedding, and extraction. A pseudo 3D DCT technique will utilize to calculate the embedding factor and the advantageous messages. In the embedding process, using the quantization index modulation (QIM), we embed the watermark into the quantization regions from the successive raw frames in the uncompressed domain and record the relative information to create a secret embedding key. This secret embedding key will further apply to watermark extraction. Experimental results show that the proposed method can obtain the good performance in transparency and robustness against various attacks such as filtering, compression, and addition of noise.
Predictors of colonoscopy use one year after colonoscopy: prospective study of surveillance behavior for colorectal cancer

We hypothesized that perceived risk of colorectal cancer (CRC) and CRC worry would be the main predictors of surveillance behavior in patients undergoing colonoscopy. We therefore assessed factors predicting colonoscopy use for re-examination one year after colonoscopy. Patients who had undergone colonoscopy and were scheduled for re-examination one year later were recruited. Patients were administered questionnaires after baseline colonoscopy assessing demographic factors, perceived risk, CRC worry, cancer preventability, knowledge of CRC and results of colonoscopy. We confirmed whether participants underwent colonoscopy re-examinations one year later (follow-up). Finally, 56 participants completed the research and were used in the final analysis (response rate = 65.1%). We found that 37.5% of the participants who underwent baseline colonoscopy underwent follow-up colonoscopy one year later. Follow-up colonoscopy was not significantly associated with any psychological variables, but was significantly associated with educational status (postsecondary) (odds ratio [OR] = 7.10, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.83–27.56) and the results of baseline colonoscopy in patients who did not undergo polypectomy but had remaining polyps (OR = 4.26, 95% CI = 1.02–17.84). Additionally, significant differences in cancer threat-related variables were observed among groups of patients who, during baseline colonoscopy, underwent polypectomy but had no remaining polyps, had polyps removed with some polyps remaining, or did not undergo polypectomy but had remaining polyps (p < .05), with the latter group having a significant relationship with repeat colonoscopy. Cancer threat-related variables were not predictive of repeat colonoscopy after one year. In contrast, patient educational status and the colonoscopy results were predictors. We also found a non-linear relationship between high CRC threat and inhibition of the screening behavior in that the CRC threat functions as motivation for the surveillance behavior of colonoscopy.
RESOLUTION OF THE λ Φ 4 PUZZLE AND A 2 TeV HIGGS BOSON

We argue that massless (λΦ 4) 4 is " trivial " without being entirely trivial. It has a non-trivial effective potential which leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking, but the particle excitations above the broken vacuum are non-interacting. The key to this picture is the realization that the constant background field (the mode with zero 4-momentum) renormalizes differently from the fluctuation field (the finite-momentum modes). This picture reconciles rigorous results and lattice calculations with one-loop and Gaussian-approximation analyses. Because of " triviality " , these latter two methods should be effectively exact. Indeed, they yield the same renormalized effective potential and the same relation m 2 h = 8π 2 v 2 between the particle mass and the physical vacuum expectation value. This relation predicts a Higgs mass m h ∼ 2 TeV in the standard model. The non-interacting nature of the scalar sector implies, by the equivalence theorem, that Higgs and gauge bosons interact only weakly, through their gauge and Yukawa couplings.
Algorithm for Web Service Composition using Multi-Agents

term Web Services describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. Merely providing services to the users in the heterogeneous distributed environments, service oriented systems are very important. Most of the time, the individual services do not have the sufficient conditions to provide any services to the users. In order to resolve the aforementioned problem, one may compose several individual services together. The proposed method currently applied to ensure the robustness and dependability of Web Services compositions do not effectively map to more open dynamic environments. The proposed approach has a new multi-layer Web Services composition model based on Multi-Agent System. We propose a different self-adaptive mechanisms corresponding to different environment's evolutions to improve the reliability of Web Services composition efficiently. Also we introduce an algorithm for dynamic approach to select the best composition. This composition is selected based on the quality and the compose-ability of participated services. Advantage of the proposed approach is to recognize the feasibility of the composition process at any point of execution and produce better throughput and a less consumption of memory to select composition of services dynamically. General Terms: Information systems, Algorithm.
Discussion of Hepatitis B Vaccine: Prospects for Duration of Immunity

When Al Evans started exploring the hepatitis field almost forty years ago, he had to do so with the techniques of the time. In retrospect, these were usually inadequate for answering the questions being asked. He did try new approaches, derived from recent clinical observations, and new developments in biochemical and liver biopsy methods. His work added significantly to the evaluation of steroid therapy in acute viral hepatitis, and his attempts at experimental transmission, particularly in primates, took advantage of his epidemiologic and clinical studies. Although he subsequently left the full "active duty" ranks of persistent hepatitis explorers, he has remained a close observer and helpful consultant. My guess is that today he can still muster some nostalgic thoughts about a serum known to be infective (HBV) and some immune or clinically "unresponsive" chimpanzees, as well as some then-unprovable hypotheses about hepatitis recurrence, reinfection, immunity, and multiple etiologies, even including mononucleosis. At that time, few could envision any reasonable expectation for the relatively clear answers we have today, and probably fewer still expected the development of an effective vaccine against even one of the elusive hepatitis viruses. Saul Krugman was a most appropriate person to initiate the human testing of the first pilot production lot of hepatitis B vaccine, since it was a derivative of his earlier hepatitis transmission studies and the demonstrated specific protective effect of antibodies (HBsAb). The individuals (including Saul himself) who volunteered for the first human trial were relatively easily followed for development of HBsAb. Since the study involved "at-risk" but not "high-risk" subjects and did not include a "control" group, protective efficacy could not be established as it clearly was in the subsequent field trials among "high-risk" groups. Early results of long-term antibody duration studies among Krugman's original group appeared to be disappointing, with a 15 percent reversion to "negative" status in five to seven years. He has now "challenged" a large segment of the original group, using the newly produced DNA recombinant vaccine. In addition to further demonstrating its safety, the results he has presented today indicate clearly that the timing of the "booster" response is well within the usual incubation period for HBV and, by analogy, that, in the long run, protective efficacy may extend well beyond the duration of measurable levels of serum antibodies. Had he waited longer than five to seven years to measure residual antibody levels, it is likely that the proportion of "negatives" would have been greater than 15 percent and that, among those, after challenge with the new vaccine, the proportion of low-level boosts and of "non-responders" would also have been greater. Until such measurements can be obtained from the field and their meaning in relation to challenge by infectious virus can be ascertained, however, we can take comfort in the results presented today.