Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blood Pressure-Lowering Effects of Lifestyle Modification: Possible Involvement of Nitric Oxide Bioavailability

Lifestyle modification is recommended as a non-pharmacological approach to treatment of hypertension. Many investigators have reported that exercise has antihypertensive effects, and various mechanisms have been proposed to explain this phenomenon. For example, nitric oxide (NO), which may be increased by exercise, has been reported to play a crucial role in preserving vessel homeostasis both by regulating vascular tone and by exerting anti-atherosclerotic effects. NO is known to be exquisitely sensitive to inactivation by superoxide radicals. However, the relationship between the blood pressure-lowering effect of lifestyle modification and NO bioavailability remains unknown. We investigated the effects of a 12-week lifestyle modification program consisting of mild exercise and diet on changes in blood pressure, plasma nitrate/nitrite (NOx), plasma nitrotyrosine, which is the footprint of NO interaction with reactive oxygen species, and plasma extracellular-superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD). The 12-week lifestyle modification program lowered blood pressure and increased plasma NOx. When the subjects were divided into two groups according to the change of plasma nitrotyrosine as an indicator of NO bioavailability, the subjects whose plasma nitrotyrosine decreased exhibited a significant relationship between the blood pressure-lowering effect of the lifestyle modification and the increase in EC-SOD, whereas those without a decrease in plasma nitrotyrosine exhibited a significant relationship between the blood pressure-lowering effect and the increase in maximum oxygen consumption. These results indicate that the level of NO bioavailability influences the mechanism of the blood pressure-lowering effect of aerobic exercise and diet.
Religious Research in Gerontology, 1980–1994: A Systematic Review

ABSTRACT This article presents results of an NIA-funded systematic review of research on religion and aging published from 1980–1994 in mainstream gerontology and religion journals, including the Journal of Religious Gerontology. Findings are summarized from 73 empirical studies, a subset of the 115 articles included in NIA's bibliography on this topic. In general, these studies use multiethnic samples, include multiple religious dimensions, and focus on age comparative analyses and on analyses of religious effects on life satisfaction, health, and well-being. Also summarized is gerontological research on patterns, predictors, outcomes, and measures of religious involvement, and an agenda for future research is proposed.
A Repeated Measures Investigation of the First-Year Adaptation Experiences of the Female Expatriate Spouse Living in Turkey

Using a 1-year longitudinal-panel design, 32 American, female expatriate spouses who relocated to Ankara, Turkey, completed measures of global functioning and were interviewed at just-arrived, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month stages. Because of the mixed methods approach of this project, results of the Naturalistic Inquiry are reported in a companion manuscript (Bikos et al., 2007, this issue). Differences in the importance and expectation of life roles (i.e., occupational, parent, marital, homecare) were found. Quantitative results indicated no differences in life roles importance, alcohol use, marital satisfaction, or mental health functioning as a function of time-in-country. Analyses do not support the culture shock/U-curve model as a predictable pattern of adaptation. The authors conclude that time-in-country is only one of a myriad of variables that could be used to predict adaptation. Future expatriate research should use models that offer greater complexity.
Functional Architecture of the Inner Pore of a Voltage-gated Ca2+ Channel

The inner pore of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (VGCCs) is functionally important, but little is known about the architecture of this region. In K+ channels, this part of the pore is formed by the S6/M2 transmembrane segments from four symmetrically arranged subunits. The Ca2+ channel pore, however, is formed by four asymmetric domains of the same (α1) subunit. Here we investigated the architecture of the inner pore of P/Q-type Ca2+ channels using the substituted-cysteine accessibility method. Many positions in the S6 segments of all four repeats of the α1 subunit (Cav2.1) were modified by internal methanethiosulfonate ethyltrimethylammonium (MTSET). However, the pattern of modification does not fit any known sequence alignment with K+ channels. In IIS6, five consecutive positions showed clear modification, suggesting a likely aqueous crevice and a loose packing between S6 and S5 segments, a notion further supported by the observation that some S5 positions were also accessible to internal MTSET. These results indicate that the inner pore of VGCCs is indeed formed by the S6 segments but is different from that of K+ channels. Interestingly some residues in IIIS6 and IVS6 whose mutations in L-type Ca2+ channels affect the binding of dihydropyridines and phenylalkylamines and are thought to face the pore appeared not to react with internal MTSET. Probing with qBBr, a rigid thiol-reactive agent with a dimension of 12 Å × 10 Å × 6 Å suggests that the inner pore can open to >10 Å. This work provides an impetus for future studies on ion permeation, gating, and drug binding of VGCCs.
What is evidence-based practice?

Abstract Evidence-based practice (EBP) first evolved within medicine in the early 1990s, and has since influenced nearly every clinical discipline. Despite differing definitions, its central tenet remains the appropriate integration of relevant best practice (usually based on published research findings when available) into clinical practice. EBP has also attracted criticisms; but, notwithstanding these, there are many reasons why healthcare professionals need to have an understanding of EBP as it now stands, ranging from its potential to contribute to improved clinical outcomes, through to participation in the further development and refinement of EBP. Minimally, clinicians should be aware of, understand, and be able to find EBP resources that provide access to research already appraised for both its quality and relevance. More extensive EBP skills remain highly desirable, and might be viewed as essential skills for life-long learning regardless of EBP.
Étude d'une exception française : les déterminants du choix de la composition du collège de commissaires aux comptes

We examine the determinants of the choice of joint-auditors (zero, one or two Big 4) by French listed companies. This choice is theoretically associated with corporate governance mechanisms. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 175 listed companies from the SBF 250 index and find only weak empirical evidence. Consequently, we partition our sample into more homogenous sub-samples in respect of auditee size. For small and medium companies, family ownership is negatively associated with the selection of at least one Big 4 but not related to the choice of two Big 4. For medium companies, the choice of at least one Big 4 is also associated with other corporate governance mechanisms, either positively (board independence and separation of the roles of chairman and CEO) or negatively (existence of an audit committee). For large companies, the choice is limited to two options (one or two Big 4) and is driven by operational constraints (size and internationalization level of the auditee).
Elites, Structures, and Political Action in Latin America

In 1967, Oxford University Press published a collection, Elites in Latin America, edited by Seymour Martin Lipset and Aldo Solari. It featured such essays as ‘Values, Education, and Entrepreneurship’, by Lipset; ‘Political Elites and Political Modernization: the Crisis of Transition’, by Robert Scott; and ‘Contemporary Peasant Movements’, by Aníbal Quijano. Twelve other authors included Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Irving Louis Horowitz, and Frank Bonilla. There was no general theoretical chapter. As if in answer, the same press three years later published Masses in Latin America, edited by Irving Louis Horowitz, consisting of articles previously published in Studies in Comparative International Development. Horowitz produced an introductory chapter, ‘Masses in Latin America’. Other essays included ‘Working Class Consciousness and Economic Development in Latin America’, by Alaine Touraine and Daniel Pécaut; ‘The Political Integration of Lower-class Urban Settlements in Chile and Peru’, by Daniel Goldrich, Raymond Pratt, and C. R. Schuller; and ‘Social Change and Rural Violence in Colombia’, by Camilo Torres. Twelve other authors included Celso Furtado, Andrew G. Frank [sic], Gino Germani, Francisco Weffort, and Julio Cotler. Horowitz’  rst paragraph throws down the gauntlet:
Incidence and Outcome of Traumatic Brain Injury in an Urban Area in Western Europe over 10 Years

Introduction: Valid epidemiological data on incidence and outcome of traumatic brain injury (TBI) show great variability. A study on incidence, severity and outcome of TBI was conducted in an urban area of one million inhabitants. Materials and Methods: 130,000 prehospital emergencies were screened for TBI. Inclusion criteria: Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score ≤8 and/or Abbreviated Injury Scale for head injuries (AIShead) score ≧2 with confirmed TBI via appropriate diagnostics. Results: Annual incidence was 7.3/100,000. Overall mortality rate was 45.8%: 182 (28%) were prehospital deaths, 116 (17.8%) patients died in hospital. Two hundred and fourteen of 352 (60.8%) surviving patients were sufficiently rehabilitated at discharge [Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) score = 1], but 138 patients (39.2%) survived with persisting deficits. GOS was associated with initial GCS and AIShead. Conclusion: The incidence of TBI was lower compared to the literature. The overall mortality was high, especially prehospital and early in-hospital mortality rates.
A Selective Video Encryption Scheme for MPEG Compression Standard

With the increase of commercial multimedia applications using digital video, the security of video data becomes more and more important. Although several techniques have been proposed in order to protect these video data, they provide limited security or introduce significant overhead. This paper proposes a video security scheme for MPEG video compression standard, which includes two methods: DCEA (DC Coefficient Encryption Algorithm) and "Event Shuffle. " DCEA is aim to encrypt group of codewords of DC coefficients. The feature of this method is the usage of data permutation to scatter the ciphertexts of additional codes in DC codewords. These additional codes are encrypted by block cipher previously. With the combination of these algorithms, the method provides enough security for important DC component of MPEG video data. "Event Shuffle" is aim to encrypt the AC coefficients. The prominent feature of this method is a shuffling of AC events generated after DCT transformation and quantization stages. Experimental results show that these methods introduce no bit overhead to MPEG bit stream while achieving low processing overhead to MPEG codec.
Stromal cell‐secreted factors promote the survival of embryonic stem cell‐derived early neural stem/progenitor cells via the activation of MAPK and PI3K‐Akt pathways

Neural stem/progenitor cells (NS/PCs) have been studied extensively with the hope of using them clinically to repair the damaged central nervous system. However, little is known about the signals that regulate the proliferation, survival, and differentiation of NS/PCs in early development. To clarify the underlying mechanisms, we took advantage of an in vitro ES cell differentiation system from which we can obtain neurospheres containing NS/PCs with characteristics of the early caudal neural tube, by treating embryoid bodies (EBs) with a low concentration of retinoic acid (RA). We found that conditioned medium from the PA6 stromal cell line (PA6CM) increased the efficiency of neurosphere formation by suppressing apoptosis and promoting the survival of the NS/PCs. PA6CM also induced the phosphorylation of Erk1/2 and Akt1 in cells derived from the EBs. Furthermore, inhibitors of the MAPK and PI3K‐Akt signaling pathways, U0126 and LY294002, attenuated the effects of PA6CM, significantly increasing the number of apoptotic cells and decreasing the number of viable cells among the ES cell‐derived NS/PCs. Thus, PA6CM appears to contain soluble factors that promote the survival of ES cell‐derived early NS/PCs through the activation of the MAPK and PI3K‐Akt pathways. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Two independently constructed Italian trait taxonomies: comparisons among Italian and between Italian and Germanic Languages

Two existing selection procedures are distinguished, exemplified in the Dutch and German trait taxonomies. The characteristic features of the two approaches are identified in two independently constructed Italian taxonomies. We test the two approaches for their effects on the resulting trait structures and place the findings against the background of the established Germanic trait structures in four subsequent studies. In Study 1, the selection procedures in the two Italian studies are scrutinized and the resulting lists of trait descriptors are compared. In Study 2, the two Italian trait structures are compared both in terms of the trait descriptors they have in common and in terms of their unique sets. In Study 3, congruences between the corresponding factors from the two trait structures are calculated before rotation, after target rotation, and after joint rotation. In Study 4, congruences between the two Italian structures and three Germanic structures are investigated by calculating congruence coefficients before and after target rotation. We conclude that the trait selection procedures are evidently distinct, but that the two Italian structures are overwhelmingly similar. They show higher similarity to each other than either of them shows to the Germanic trait structures. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Fatty Acid Profile Is Modulated by Dietary Resveratrol in Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

To produce fish of a high quality that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA) and simultaneously generate more sustainable aquaculture, the combined use of phytochemicals and vegetable oils in fish feed seems to be a promising approach. Resveratrol (RV) potentially induces endogenous fatty acid synthesis, resulting in elevated n-3 FA levels in fish. RV putatively influences ∆6-desaturase, the key enzyme in FA metabolism, and serves as a ligand for PPARα, a transcription factor regulating β-oxidation. Rainbow trout (36.35 ± 0.03 g) were randomly allocated into six groups and fed diets with reduced fish oil levels (F4 = 4%, F2 = 2% and F0 = 0% of dry matter) supplemented with 0.3% (w/w) RV (F4 + RV, F2 + RV and F0 + RV). RV significantly affected FA composition in liver tissue and whole fish homogenates. 20:5n-3 (EPA) and 22:6n-3 (DHA) were significantly increased whereas precursor FA were diminished in fish fed the F2 + RV and F0 + RV diets when compared to F4 + RV and F0. RV significantly elevated ∆6-desaturase protein levels in the livers of F0 + RV fed animals. Hepatic mRNA expression of ∆6-desaturase, PPARα, and its target genes were affected by the dietary fish oil level and not by dietary RV. The results of this study indicated a potential benefit of supplementing RV in fish oil deprived diets elevating n-3 FA levels in rainbow trout.
Effect of dietary supplementation of prebiotic, probiotic, and synbiotic on growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens

Aim: The aim was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementations of prebiotic, probiotic, and synbiotic on growth performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chickens. Materials and Methods: A total of 360 1-day-old Vencobb broiler chickens of either sex were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments each consisting of three replicates and each replicate having 30 birds for 6 weeks. The dietary treatments were (1) control group with basal diet, (2) basal diet supplemented with prebiotic (at 400 g/tonne of starter as well as finisher ration), (3) basal diet supplemented with probiotic (at 100 g/tonne of starter ration and 50 g/tonne of finisher ration), and (4) basal diet supplemented with synbiotic(at 500 g/tonne of starter as well as finisher ration). The birds were provided with ad-libitum feed and drinking water during the entire experimental period. Results: The highest body weight observed in asynbiotic group, which was non-significantly (p>0.05) higher than thecontrol group. Prebiotic and probiotic groups showed lower body weight than synbiotic and control groups. A total feed intake did not show any significant (p>0.05) difference between experimental groups. There were no significant (p>0.05) differences in feed conversion ratio of broiler chickens in prebiotic, probiotic, and synbiotic groups as compared with control group. There was no significant (p>0.05) difference in the carcass traits with respect to dressing percentage, carcass percentage, heart weight, liver weight and gizzard weight, wing percentage, breast percentage, back percentage, thigh percentage, and drumstick percentage in Cobb broilers under study. Conclusion: The growth performance and percentage of carcass yield did not show any significant increase by the dietary inclusion of prebiotic, probiotic, and synbiotic compared with unsupplemented control in a commercial broiler chicken.
Suspicious Minds: Exploring Neural Processes during Exposure to Deceptive Advertising

When viewing advertisements, consumers must decide what to believe and what is meant to deceive. Accordingly, much behavioral research has explored strategies and outcomes of how consumers process persuasive messages that vary in perceived sincerity. New neuroimaging methods enable researchers to augment this knowledge by exploring the cognitive mechanisms underlying such processing. The current study collects neuroimaging data while participants are exposed to advertisements with differing levels of perceived message deceptiveness (believable, moderately deceptive, and highly deceptive). The functional magnetic resonance imaging data, combined with an additional behavioral study, offer evidence of two noteworthy results. First, confirming multistage frameworks of persuasion, the authors observe two distinct stages of brain activity: (1) precuneus activation at earlier stages and (2) superior temporal sulcus and temporal-parietal junction activation at later stages. Second, the authors observe disproportionately greater brain activity associated with claims that are moderately deceptive than those that are either believable or highly deceptive. These results provoke new thinking about what types of claims garner consumer attention and which consumers may be particularly vulnerable to deceptive advertising.
Apples are not the only fruit: the effects of concept typicality on semantic representation in the anterior temporal lobe

Intuitively, an apple seems a fairly good example of a fruit, whereas an avocado seems less so. The extent to which an exemplar is representative of its category, referred to here as concept typicality, has long been thought to be a key dimension determining semantic representation. Concept typicality is, however, correlated with a number of other variables, in particular age of acquisition (AoA) and name frequency. Consideration of picture naming accuracy from a large case-series of semantic dementia (SD) patients demonstrated strong effects of concept typicality that were maximal in the moderately impaired patients, over and above the impact of AoA and name frequency. Induction of a temporary virtual lesion to the left anterior temporal lobe, the region most commonly affected in SD, via repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation produced an enhanced effect of concept typicality in the picture naming of normal participants, but did not affect the magnitude of the AoA or name frequency effects. These results indicate that concept typicality exerts its influence on semantic representations themselves, as opposed to the strength of connections outside the semantic system. To date, there has been little direct exploration of the dimension of concept typicality within connectionist models of intact and impaired conceptual representation, and these findings provide a target for future computational simulation.
Neuropsychiatric side effects of cyclobenzaprine

Cyclobenzaprine is commonly used as a muscle relaxant and analgesic. Given its tricyclic properties, serotonin syndrome is a potential side effect of this drug. We report an unusual case of a patient who experienced symptoms of delirium and hyperkinetic movement disorders shortly after initiating treatment with cyclobenzaprine and oxycodone. Symptoms resolved within 48 h of discontinuing cyclobenzaprine. This case serves to remind clinicians to monitor for serotonin syndrome when initiating cyclobenzaprine, and when adding opiate or antidepressant medications to the regimen.
Action recognition by exploring data distribution and feature correlation

Human action recognition in videos draws strong research interest in computer vision because of its promising applications for video surveillance, video annotation, interactive gaming, etc. However, the amount of video data containing human actions is increasing exponentially, which makes the management of these resources a challenging task. Given a database with huge volumes of unlabeled videos, it is prohibitive to manually assign specific action types to these videos. Considering that it is much easier to obtain a small number of labeled videos, a practical solution for organizing them is to build a mechanism which is able to conduct action annotation automatically by leveraging the limited labeled videos. Motivated by this intuition, we propose an automatic video annotation algorithm by integrating semi-supervised learning and shared structure analysis into a joint framework for human action recognition. We apply our algorithm on both synthetic and realistic video datasets, including KTH [20], CareMedia dataset [1], Youtube action [12] and its extended version, UCF50 [2]. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms the compared algorithms for action recognition. Most notably, our method has a very distinct advantage over other compared algorithms when we have only a few labeled samples.
Parent Implementation of an Oral Reading Intervention: A Case Study

ABSTRACT Reading is an extremely important skill that children must learn; however, many children struggle to become competent readers. One response to a slow learning rate is to increase opportunities for responding. In this case study, a child's parent was recruited to provide additional opportunities for reading practice. A brief oral reading assessment was conducted to determine which of the reading interventions would be optimal for increasing parent adherence and the child's reading fluency. The parent was trained to implement a sight word flash card drill to address word knowledge out of context, to implement an overcorrection procedure for errors while reading in context, and to utilize rewards for reading. Results show that the parent reliably implemented the intervention as prescribed. In addition, the child's sight word knowledge reliably increased throughout the intervention. Finally, the child's reading fluency showed marked improvement with a combined overcorrection and reward procedure. The results of this case study demonstrate that a parent can be taught to implement reliably a reading program to provide additional reading practice with good treatment integrity. Follow-up data and additional implications are discussed.