Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Leptin and Its Relation to Obesity and Insulin in the SHR/N-corpulent Rat, A Model of Type II Diabetes Mellitus

The spontaneously hypertensive/NIH-corpulent (SHR/N-cp) rat is a genetic animal model that exhibits obesity, metabolic features of hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia, which are characteristic of type II diabetes and mild hypertension. To determine the role of leptin, the protein product of the ob gene, in the development of obesity and diabetes in this model, we measured steady-state circulating levels of leptin in obese and lean SHR/N-cp rats and examined the relation between plasma leptin levels and metabolic variables at the stage of established obesity in these animals. Mean fasting plasma leptin concentration was 8-fold higher in obese than in lean rats (p<0.01). This was associated with a 6-fold elevation in plasma insulin in the obese group. Fasting levels of plasma glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride were all significantly higher in obese rats than in lean controls. Spearman correlation analysis showed a significant positive correlation between plasma leptin concentration and body weight among the animals (r=0.73, p<0.01). Similarly, plasma insulin concentration was significantly correlated with BW in all animals (r=0.54, p<0.05). There was also a significant positive.correlation between plasma leptin and plasma insulin in the entire group (r=0.70, p<0.01). However, this relationship was significant only for lean rats but not for obese rats (r=0.59, p<0.05 for lean rats, and r=0.23, p=NS, for obese rats). Plasma leptin also correlated positively with fasting plasma glucose (r=0.75, p<0.05), total cholesterol (r=0.63, p<0.05), and triglyceride (r=0.67, p <0.05). The marked elevation of plasma leptin in obese SHR/N-cp rats suggests that obesity in this animal model is related to up-regulation of the ob gene. Circulating leptin appears to be one of the best biological markers of obesity and that hyperleptinemia is closely associated with several metabolic risk factors related to insulin resistance in the diabesity syndrome.
Adaptive hybrid force/position control of robot manipulators using an adaptive force estimator in the presence of parametric uncertainty

This study is devoted to sensorless adaptive force/position control of robot manipulators using a position-based adaptive force estimator (AFE) and a force-based adaptive environment compliance estimator. Unlike the other sensorless method in force control that uses disturbance observer and needs an accurate model of the manipulator, in this method, the unknown parameters of the robot can be estimated along with the force control. Even more, the environment compliance can be estimated simultaneously to achieve tracking force control. In fact, this study deals with three challenging problems: No force sensor is used, environment stiffness is unknown, and some parametric uncertainties exist in the robot model. A theorem offers control laws and updating laws for two control loops. In the inner loop, AFE estimates the exerted force, and then, the force control law in the outer loop modifies the desired trajectory of the manipulator for the adaptive tracking loop. Besides, an updating law updates the estimated compliance to provide an accurate tracking force control. Some experimental results of a PHANToM Premium robot are provided to validate the proposed scheme. In addition, some simulations are presented that verify the performance of the controller for different situations in interaction.
Testosterone and Cortisol Release among Spanish Soccer Fans Watching the 2010 World Cup Final

This field study investigated the release of testosterone and cortisol of a vicarious winning experience in Spanish fans watching the finals between Spain and the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer. Spanish fans (n = 50) watched the match with friends or family in a public place or at home and also participated in a control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that testosterone and cortisol levels were higher when watching the match than on a control day. However, neither testosterone nor cortisol levels increased after the victory of the Spanish team. Moreover, the increase in testosterone secretion was not related to participants' sex, age or soccer fandom, but the increase in total cortisol secretion during the match was higher among men than among women and among fans that were younger. Also, increases in cortisol secretion were greater to the degree that people were a stronger fan of soccer. Level of fandom further appeared to account for the sex effect, but not for the age effect. Generally, the testosterone data from this study are in line with the challenge hypothesis, as testosterone levels of watchers increased to prepare their organism to defend or enhance their social status. The cortisol data from this study are in line with social self-preservation theory, as higher cortisol secretion among young and greater soccer fans suggests that especially they perceived that a negative outcome of the match would threaten their own social esteem.
Geometric phase gates and development of dedicated laser sources for quantum computing

A well isolated environment can be ideal for a quantum system to perform e ciently. Unlike this a PhD student needs to interact with many people during the course to complete a research project timely. Having said that, here is a list of people whom I would like to pay my deepest and profound gratitude. I would like to thank my rst principal supervisor Prof. David Kielpinski, who accepted me to work in his research group and guided me like a professional physicist. Later on, sudden news about his permanent departure to USA at the stage when I was really close to nish a project was quite challenging. Nevertheless, Dr. Erik Streed and Dr. Mirko Lobino took me under their wings as new advisers with their instrumental counselling to complete my PhD thesis. My special thanks goes to Dr. Tim Byrnes from New York University, with whom I did some theoretical work mentioned in the thesis. Beside these, my lab fellows including Matthew Petrasiunas, Valdis Blums, Paul Fisher, Dr. Ben Norton and Dr. Moji Ghadimi were very instructive and helping during my stay at Gri th University. Above all, I have no words to thank my parents and family for their selfess support over the years. An experimental research project is no more than a dream without money. Therefore, I would like to say a big thanks to all the funding agencies who were linked to this project, directly or indirectly from the beginning to end, including Gri th University for their international postgraduate research and postgraduate research scholarships, the US air force and the Australian research council.
Inhibition of HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase-Catalyzed Synthesis by Intercalated DNA Benzo[a]Pyrene 7,8-Dihydrodiol-9,10-Epoxide Adducts

To aid in the characterization of the relationship of structure and function for human immunodeficiency virus type-1 reverse transcriptase (HIV-1 RT), this investigation utilized DNAs containing benzo[a]pyrene-7,8-dihydrodiol-9,10-epoxide (BPDE)-modified primers and templates as a probe of the architecture of this complex. BPDE lesions that differed in their stereochemistry around the C10 position were covalently linked to N 6-adenine and positioned in either the primer or template strand of a duplex template-primer. HIV-1 RT exhibited a stereoisomer-specific and strand-specific difference in replication when the BPDE-lesion was placed in the template versus the primer strand. When the C10 R-BPDE adduct was positioned in the primer strand in duplex DNA, 5 nucleotides from the 3΄ end of the primer terminus, HIV-1 RT could not fully replicate the template, producing truncated products; this block to further synthesis did not affect rates of dissociation or DNA binding affinity. Additionally, when the adducts were in the same relative position, but located in the template strand, similar truncated products were observed with both the C10 R and C10 S BPDE adducts. These data suggest that the presence of covalently-linked intercalative DNA adducts distant from the active site can lead to termination of DNA synthesis catalyzed by HIV-1 RT.
Estimating the number of fiber orientations in diffusion MRI voxels : a constrained spherical deconvolution study

Introduction: It has long been recognized that the Gaussian diffusion tensor model is inappropriate for voxels with complex fiber architecture [1, 2]. Many groups have tried to classify voxels in terms of their diffusion complexity. The earliest studies distinguished between voxels with isotropic, single-fiber anisotropic, and multifiber anisotropic complexity and have reported clustered and symmetric regions of increased complexity, supporting genuine effects consistent with anatomical knowledge [3, 4]. However, they were not able to report the number of fiber orientations found in each voxel. Recent advances of high angular resolution diffusion imaging allow the extraction of multiple fiber orientations [5] and have spawned an interest for classification of voxels by the number of fiber orientations. Recently, a Bayesian Automatic Relevance Determination method was proposed to infer the number of fiber orientations in a multi-compartment model [6]. The study was able to find voxels with up to two fiber orientations and estimated the proportion of white matter fiber voxels that contain complex fiber architecture at approximately one third. In this work, we estimated the number of fiber orientations within each voxel using the constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD) method [7] with the residual bootstrap approach [8]. We showed that multiple-fiber profiles arise consistently in various regions of the human brain where complex tissue structure is known to exist. Moreover, we detect voxels with more than two fiber orientations and detect a much higher proportion of multi-fiber voxels than previously reported.
The opportunities and challenges for employability-related support in STEM degrees

This research explores the opportunities and challenges for incorporating employability-related support into STEM (Sciences; Technology; Engineering; Mathematics) degree programmes, based in part on recent research (O’Leary, 2016a) outlining that significant variations in employability-related support exist across the STEM disciplines. These issues were highlighted at a recent conference on STEM pedagogy (O’Leary, 2016b) and this paper explores them in more depth. While O’Leary (2016a) finds that Engineering and Sciences are performing relatively well on employability-support matters, in comparison with Social Sciences and Humanities, there is still room for improvement across STEM programmes. The research suggest that students’ employability can be enhanced through a combination of the content of the curriculum and the development of key student capabilities and characteristics. To achieve this, it is necessary to address several issues; the development of academic staff, the use of external speakers, the provision of business and management expertise, cross-disciplinary approaches and the integration of professional services into the curriculum. In addition, the most effective gains from a cross-Faculty viewpoint may exist in what may seem unlikely liaisons; for effective employability-related support, the Sciences and Humanities think along the same lines; while Social Sciences & Engineering think along another line. Therefore, improvements to the provision of such support may be better achieved by such non-traditional cross-Faculty partnerships. An approach based on the “3E’s” is suggested: Enhanced Learning & Teaching; Employer-engagement; and Embedding into the Curriculum.
High-Fidelity Solar Power Income Modeling for Solar-Electric UAVs: Development and Flight Test Based Verification

Solar power models are a crucial element of solar-powered UAV design and performance analysis. During the conceptual design phase, their accuracy directly relates to the accuracy of the predicted performance metrics and thus the final design characteristics of the solar-powered UAV. Likewise, during the operations phase of a solar-powered UAV accurate solar power income models are required to predict and assess the solar power system performance. However, the existing literature on solar-powered UAVs uses highly simplified solar power models. This technical report therefore, first, introduces a high-fidelity solar power model that takes into account the exact aircraft attitude, aircraft geometry, and physical effects such as temperature and the sun radiation's angle-of-incidence that influence the overall solar power system efficiency. Second, models that require a reduced set of input data and are thus more appropriate for the initial design phase of solar-powered UAVs are derived from the high-fidelity model. Third, the models are compared and verified against flight data from a 28-hour continuous day/night solar-powered flight. The results indicate that our high-fidelity model allows a prediction of the average solar power income with an error of less than 5% whereas previous models were only accurate to about 18%.
COMPACT MULTIPLICATION OPERATORS ON NONLOCALLY CONVEX WEIGHTED SPACES OF CONTINUOUS FUNCTIONS

Let V be a system of weights on a completely regular Hausdorff space and let B(E) be the topological vector space of all continuous linear operators on a Hausdorff topological vector space E. Let CV0(X,E) and CVb(X,E) be the nonlocally convex weighted spaces of continuous functions. In the present paper, we characterize compact multiplication operators Mψ on CV0 (X,E) ( or CVb(X,E)) induced by the operator-valued mappings ψ : X → B(E) (or the vector-valued mappings ψ : X → E, where E is a topological algebra).
Technology gaps, absorptive capacity and the impact of inward investments on productivity of European firms *

Using a balanced panel of firm-level data on the manufacturing industry in France, Italy and Spain over the 1993-1997 period, this paper examines the impact of foreign presence on the productivity of domestic enterprises. We find positive and significant externalities on Italian firms and negative or non-significant effects on Spanish and French firms. A generalisation of the results obtained for individual countries is attempted by introducing two key variables in the analysis of the impact of inward investments on domestic performances: productivity gaps between foreign and domestic firms, and absorptive capacity of domestic firms. It is shown that high gaps tend to favour positive effects of FDI; while on the contrary absorptive capacity, as measured by local firms’ productivity levels, appears to inhibit externalities from FDI. This would confirm the “catching up” hypothesis, which identifies a positive relation between the size of technological gaps and growth opportunities induced by foreign investments; and would contradict the “technological accumulation” hypothesis, which stresses the role of domestic absorptive capacity and of coherence between foreign and domestic technology as determinants of virtuous effects of inward investments. Nevertheless, we show that this result hides some sectoral specificities. In fact, this pattern is reversed in science based industries, where FDI contribute more to domestic firms’ productivity the higher is their absorptive capacity and the lower is their gap from the average TFP of foreign firms in the sector.
Testing a Brief Interactive Teaching Demonstration to Explain Experimentation in Psychology

Having a firm grasp of psychological research methodology is a central goal for undergraduate training, yet effectively teaching methodology can be challenging in classes that are not primarily methodology classes. The present research describes a brief classroom demonstration—The Substitute Professor Opinion Survey (SPOS)—that serves as an interactive tool to explain the basics of experimentation. Across 2 studies, we provide evidence from 11 classroom samples collected in a variety of courses and institutions. Results show reliability and robustness of the SPOS teaching demonstration, replicating in all 11 samples. Additionally, students reported that the SPOS teaching demonstration enhanced their learning and was enjoyable (Study 1). Furthermore, Study 2 results indicated that students who experienced the SPOS demonstration as an integrated component of the class coverage of research methods performed significantly better on a posttest of their knowledge of experimentation than students who did not experience it. The present research offers psychology instructors a versatile tool to explain the basics of experimentation.
High-Order Central Schemes for Hyperbolic Systems of Conservation Laws

A family of shock capturing schemes for the approximate solution of hyperbolic systems of conservation laws is presented. The schemes are based on a modified ENO reconstruction of pointwise values from cell averages and on approximate computation of the flux on cell boundaries. The use of a staggered grid avoids the need of a Riemann solver. The integral of the fluxes is computed by Simpson's rule. The approximation of the flux on the quadrature nodes is obtained by Runge--Kutta schemes with the aid of natural continuous extension (NCE). This choice gives great flexibility at low computational cost. Several tests are performed on the scalar equation and on systems. The numerical results confirm the expected accuracy and the high resolution properties of the schemes.
Adenovirus-mediated delivery of herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase administration improves outcome of recurrent high-grade glioma

Background This randomized, open-label, multicenter, phase II clinical trial was conducted to assess the anti-tumor efficacy and safety of replication-deficient adenovirus mutant thymidine kinase (ADV-TK) in combination with ganciclovir administration in patients with recurrent high-grade glioma (HGG). Patients and Methods 53 patients with recurrent HGG were randomly allocated to receive intra-arterial cerebral infusion of ADV-TK or conventional treatments. The primary end point was 6-month progression-free survival (PFS-6). Secondary end points included progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), safety, and clinical benefit. This trial is registered with Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT00870181. Results In ADV-TK group, PFS-6 was 54.5%, the median PFS was 29.6 weeks, the median OS was 45.4 weeks, and better survivals were achieved when compared with control group. The one-year PFS and OS were 22.7% and 44.6% in ADV-TK group respectively, and clinical benefit was 68.2%. There are 2 patients alive for more than 4 years without progression in ADV-TK group. In the subgroup of glioblastoma received ADV-TK, PFS-6 was 71.4%, median PFS was 34.9 weeks, median OS was 45.7 weeks respectively, much better than those in control group. The one-year PFS and OS were 35.7% and 50.0% in ADV-TK group respectively. ADV-TK/ganciclovir gene therapy was well tolerated, and no treatment-related severe adverse events were noted. Conclusion Our study demonstrated a notable improvement of PFS-6, PFS and OS in ADV-TK treated group, and the efficacy and safety appear to be comparable to other reported treatments used for recurrent HGG. ADV-TK gene therapy is therefore a valuable therapeutic option for recurrent HGG.
Factors affecting home advantage in football World Cup qualification

Abstract An analysis is made of home advantage in the group stages of qualification for the 2006, 2010 and 2014 football World Cup finals, the first such study of national teams worldwide in a competitive setting. Home advantage was greatest in Africa and South America where the home team won just over 69% of all points earned; it was lowest in Europe (56%). Bolivia was the country with the greatest home advantage. Using each of the 2040 games as the observational units, a general linear model produced a significant fit to the data (R2 = 0.326), home points being the dependent variable, with a set of factors believed to influence home advantage as predictor variables. After controlling for team strength and allowing for the effects of other variables in the model, home points were significantly related to altitude of the home stadium, crowd size and number of time zones crossed by the visiting team (all p < 0.05). There was no significant effect for distance travelled by the away team, the existence of a running track or crowd density. Referees, especially in Africa, issued red cards and awarded penalties against the away team significantly more often than against the home team.
ON THE IMF IN A TRIGGERED STAR FORMATION CONTEXT

The origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a fundamental issue in the theory of star formation. It is generally fit with a composite power law. Some clues on the progenitors can be found in dense starless cores that have a core mass function (CMF) with a similar shape. In the low-mass end, these mass functions increase with mass, albeit the sample may be somewhat incomplete; in the high-mass end, the mass functions decrease with mass. There is an offset in the turn-over mass between the two mass distributions. The stellar mass for the IMF peak is lower than the corresponding core mass for the CMF peak in the Pipe Nebula by about a factor of three. Smaller offsets are found between the IMF and the CMFs in other nebulae. We suggest that the offset is likely induced during a starburst episode of global star formation which is triggered by the formation of a few O/B stars in the multi-phase media, which naturally emerged through the onset of thermal instability in the cloud-core formation process. We consider the scenario that the ignition of a few massive stars photoionizes the warm medium between the cores, increases the external pressure, reduces their Bonnor–Ebert mass, and triggers the collapse of some previously stable cores. We quantitatively reproduce the IMF in the low-mass end with the assumption of additional rotational fragmentation.
Reviewers’ Perceptions of the Peer Review Process in Journalism and Mass Communication

This survey of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) scholars (N = 547; response rate = 39.3%) examines perceptions of peer review, a study last undertaken in 1990. Respondents rated intrinsic motivations, such as helping others, more highly than extrinsic motivations, such as reviewing as a consideration for career advancement. Respondents believed they did a significantly better job as reviewers than did scholars who reviewed their work. More experienced reviewers saw their role as balanced between critic and coach, whereas less experienced reviewers saw their role as significantly more critical. Overall, respondents were ambivalent about the state of peer review, yet they resisted adopting approaches other than double-blind review.
Light scattering by thin curved dielectric surface and cylinder

Light scattering properties from curved surface and cylinder are important in the area of propagation and remote sensing. The radar cross sections (RCS) of a dielectric thin curved surface and cylinder are obtained by employing a quasi-static approximation. The method is applicable to the electromagnetic (EM) scattering in general. However, the simulated results emphasize light scattering, i.e. the RCS displayed rather than the electric field. The results are complemented by numerical calculations.