Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sympathetic Neural Activation in Visceral Obesity

Background—Muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) is elevated in obese humans. However, the potential role of abdominal visceral fat as an important adipose tissue depot linking obesity to elevated MSNA has not been explored. Accordingly, we tested the hypothesis that MSNA would be increased in men (age=18 to 40 years, body mass index ≤35 kg/m2) with higher abdominal visceral fat (HAVF; n=13, abdominal visceral fat=118.1±15.8 cm2) compared with their age- (28.7±2.4 versus 25.5±2.0 years, P >0.05), total fat mass-matched (20.6±2.1 versus 20.8±2.4 kg, P >0.05) and abdominal subcutaneous fat-matched (230.6±24.9 versus 261.4±34.8 cm2, P >0.05) peers with lower abdominal visceral fat levels (LAVF; n=13, visceral fat= 73.0±6.0 cm2). Methods and Results—MSNA (microneurography), body composition (dual energy x-ray absorptiometry), and abdominal visceral and subcutaneous fat (computed tomography) were measured in 37 sedentary men across a wide range of adiposity. MSNA was ≈55% higher in men with HAVF compared with men with LAVF (33±4 versus 21±2 bursts/min, P <0.05). Furthermore, MSNA was more closely associated with the level of abdominal visceral fat (r =0.65, P <0.05) than total fat mass (r =0.323, P <0.05) or abdominal subcutaneous fat (r =0.27, P =0.05). The relation between MSNA and abdominal visceral fat was independent of total body fat (r =0.61, P <0.05). Conclusions—The results of our study indicate that MSNA is elevated in men with visceral obesity. Our observations are consistent with the idea that abdominal visceral fat is an important adipose tissue depot linking obesity with sympathetic neural activation in humans. Furthermore, these findings may have important implications for understanding the increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases in individuals with visceral obesity.
Modeling the Cost-Effectiveness of Colorectal Cancer Screening: Policy Guidance Based on Patient Preferences and Compliance

Background: Obtaining regular screening exams can significantly reduce colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality. Most CRC models to date have assumed “ideal conditions” such as 100% compliance, and the effects of CRC screening tests have been assessed only under these conditions. In this study, we assess cost-effectiveness incorporating real-world patient preferences and compliance. Methodology: We built an agent-based simulation model to assess the effect of compliance and patient preferences. Baseline values were derived from the 2003 and 2005 National Health Interview Survey, and effectiveness and cost parameters were obtained through literature review. Initial screening compliance was 45%, and compliance with follow-up diagnostic tests was 75%. Results: The current level of screening reduces CRC mortality by 44.1% when compared with no screening. Increasing diagnostic follow-up compliance to 95% can lead to an additional 9.3% reduction in CRC mortality, whereas increasing initial screening compliance to 95% can result in an additional 50.4% reduction. These increases can be achieved at a cost of about $7,500 ($1,309-$32,864) per life year saved and $14,000 ($3,620-$35,855) per life year saved for diagnostic follow-up and initial screening tests, respectively. Conclusions: Increasing compliance with both initial screening test recommendation and diagnostic testing are cost-effective approaches. The most cost-effective approach under limited funding is to increase compliance with diagnostic testing for those already being screened. Targeted interventions, which are necessary to increase compliance, are generally cost-effective under the base case scenarios presented in this model, but additional studies are required to identify the most cost-effective approach. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2009;18(7):1971–8)
Brand personality and destination image of Istanbul: A comparison across nationalities

Brand Personality and Destination Image of Istanbul: A Comparison across Nationalities by Safak Sahin Dr. Seyhmus Baloglu, Examination Committee Chair Professor of Hotel Administration University of Nevada, Las Vegas This study is intended to measure brand personality and destination image of Istanbul (Istanbul, Turkey) and compare the perceived image and personality across different nationalities. A representative sample of 334 tourists was surveyed while visiting Istanbul and 272 usable surveys were analyzed in SPSS 15. The survey instrument included quantitative and qualitative (open ended) items to better grasp the visitors’ individual perceptions. Respondents were grouped into four segments depending on the geographic and cultural proximity of their nationalities: USA, UK, Europe, and East Asia. Factor analysis was conducted to find underlying image and personality dimensions. Next ANOVA was conducted to identify significant image and personality variations across different nationalities. ANOVA findings showed that there are statistically significant perception differenees across different nationalities for cognitive and overall image, as well as for personality perception and behavioral intension to recommend. Practical and theoretical implications are also discussed.
On the flow past a magnetic obstacle

This paper analyses numerically the quasi-two-dimensional flow of an incompressible electrically conducting viscous fluid past a localized zone of applied magnetic field, denominated a magnetic obstacle. The applied field is produced by the superposition of two parallel magnetized square surfaces, uniformly polarized in the normal direction, embedded in the insulating walls that contain the flow. The area of these surfaces is only a small fraction of the total flow domain. By considering inertial effects in the analysis under the low magnetic Reynolds number approximation, it is shown that the flow past a magnetic obstacle may develop vortical structures and eventually instabilities similar to those observed in flows interacting with bluff bodies. In the small zone where the oncoming uniform flow encounters the non-negligible magnetic field, the induced electric currents interact with the field, producing a non-uniform Lorentz force that brakes the fluid and creates vorticity. The effect of boundary layers is introduced through a friction term. Due to the localization of the applied magnetic field, this term models either the Hartmann braking within the zone of high magnetic field strength or a Rayleigh friction in zones where the magnetic field is negligible. Finite difference numerical computations have been conducted for Reynolds numbers $\hbox{\it Re}\,{=}\,100$ and 200, and Hartmann numbers in the range $1 \le \hbox{\it Ha} \le 100$ ($\hbox{\it Re}$ and $\hbox{\it Ha}$ are based on the side length of the magnetized square surfaces). Under these conditions, a wake is formed behind the obstacle. It may display two elongated streamwise vortices that remain steady as long as the Hartmann number does not exceed a critical value. Once this value is reached, the wake becomes unstable and a vortex shedding process similar to the one observed in the flow past bluff bodies is established. Similarities and differences with the flow around solid obstacles are discussed.
Fabrication of Large Area Fishnet Optical Metamaterial Structures Operational at Near-IR Wavelengths

In this paper, we demonstrate a fabrication process for large area (2 mm × 2 mm) fishnet metamaterial structures for near IR wavelengths. This process involves: (a) defining a sacrificial Si template structure onto a quartz wafer using deep-UV lithography and a dry etching process (b) deposition of a stack of Au-SiO2-Au layers and (c) a ‘lift-off’ process which removes the sacrificial template structure to yield the fishnet structure. The fabrication steps in this process are compatible with today’s CMOS technology making it eminently well suited for batch fabrication. Also, depending on area of the exposure mask available for patterning the template structure, this fabrication process can potentially lead to optical metamaterials spanning across wafer-size areas.
Does Anticipated Regret Really Matter? Revisiting the Role of Feedback in Auction Bidding

Does the type of post-auction feedback affect bidding behavior in first price auctions? Filiz- Ozbay and Ozbay (2007) find that such manipulation can increase bids in a one-shot auction. They explain this as an effect of anticipated regret combined with the assumption that feedback directly affects salience of regret relative to material payoff. We revisit this important market design issue using four different auction protocols and a large sample of subjects. We do not find any systematic effect of feedback on the average bid/value ratio. This evidence indicates either the lack of anticipated regret or its manipulability by feedback in one-shot auctions.
TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING – NEW PERSPECTIVES IN 3D SURVEYING

Laser scanners are used more and more as surveying instruments for various applications. With the advance of high precision systems, capable of working in most real world environments under a variety of conditions, numerous applications have opened up. In the field of surveying laser scanners open up a new dimension with data capturing. Different industrial sectors require precise data of the environment in order to be able to have a as-build documentation of the facility. Especially as build documentation of plants (automotive, chemical, pharmaceutical etc.) has become a very sensitive and important new segment, as companies need to document their facilities. This is a basic requirement to plan and evaluate emergency situations (evacuation scenarios etc.) but also for simulation purposes of specific manufacturing cycles (car assembly etc.) as well as design studies. Having the environment in 3D as a CAD model (“digital factory”) open up design studies without changing anything in the real environment and therefore causing no down time of production lines. This paper reports about several systems and physical technologies used for measuring distances and presents several products available in this area. Furthermore it presents technical specifications of different systems and summarises with a comparison of achievable results.
Sensitivity of mineral dust concentrations to the model size distribution accuracy

[1] Evaluating the impacts of atmospheric dust on marine ecosystems and climate requires the use of three-dimensional transport models including a size-resolved bins scheme to describe the evolution of the particle size distribution. Recently, Foret et al. (2006) proposed an alternative size bins scheme to better account for the physical size-dependent processes such as dry deposition. This paper evaluates the benefit of using this new bin scheme in three-dimensional transport models. This is achieved by performing a one-and-a-half month simulation with the CHIMERE-DUST model forced by the Mesoscale Model, Version 5 (MM5)/National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) analysis fields, for an area covering the northern Atlantic Sea and the western Africa. Compared to a reference run performed using a large number of size bins (40), our results show that the size bins scheme proposed by Foret et al. (2006) reduces at least by a factor of 2 the numerical errors on the simulated concentrations compared to the classical isolog bins scheme for the same number of size bins. However, with this new bins scheme requiring to define the bins according to a dry deposition velocity corresponding to a given friction velocity, we examine the errors associated to this constraint.
How Does Cognitive Behavior Therapy view an Academic Anxiety of The Undergraduate Thesis?

The undergraduate thesis is still a terrifying final project for most millennials college students. Many of them are procrastinating, avoiding their supervisors, doing non-productive things as a form of anxiety diversion, and the most extreme is to committing suicide as a result of excessive academic anxiety. The educational counselors as one of the college internal agents is expected to solve the problems that often occured. Based on Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) approach, the academic anxiety of the undergraduate thesis experienced by millennials college students is a cognitive distortion caused by maladaptive core beliefs. Therefore, what we need to know more about how CBT view an academic anxiety of the undergraduate thesis as a problem, so that counselors in Indonesia will be able to understand conceptually before do practice of healing counseling to help the millennials college students to be free from this problem in the future. This research uses descriptive analysis and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) approach. The result of this research is CBT-Based Music can help millennials college students to restore cognitive, affective, and behavioral functions to be adaptive again, so millennials college students are expected to independently optimize their potential, in order to reduce academic anxiety and solve the undergraduate thesis well.
Genetic Consideration of Schizotypal Traits: A Review

Schizotypal traits are of interest and importance in their own right and also have theoretical and clinical associations with schizophrenia. These traits comprise attenuated psychotic symptoms, social withdrawal, reduced cognitive capacity, and affective dysregulation. The link between schizotypal traits and psychotic disorders has long since been debated. The status of knowledge at this point is such schizotypal traits are a risk for psychotic disorders, but in and of themselves only confer liability, with other risk factors needing to be present before a transition to psychosis occurs. Investigation of schizotypal traits also has the possibility to inform clinical and research pursuits concerning those who do not make a transition to psychotic disorders. A growing body of literature has investigated the genetic underpinnings of schizotypal traits. Here, we review association, family studies and describe genetic disorders where the expression of schizotypal traits has been investigated. We conducted a thorough review of the existing literature, with multiple search engines, references, and linked articles being searched for relevance to the current review. All articles and book chapters in English were sourced and reviewed for inclusion. Family studies demonstrate that schizotypal traits are elevated with increasing genetic proximity to schizophrenia and some chromosomal regions have been associated with schizotypy. Genes associated with schizophrenia have provided the initial start point for the investigation of candidate genes for schizotypal traits; neurobiological pathways of significance have guided selection of genes of interest. Given the chromosomal regions associated with schizophrenia, some genetic disorders have also considered the expression of schizotypal traits. Genetic disorders considered all comprise a profile of cognitive deficits and over representation of psychotic disorders compared to the general population. We conclude that genetic variations associated with schizotypal traits require further investigation, perhaps with targeted phenotypes narrowed to assist in refining the clinical end point of significance.
COPPER SULPHATE INDUCED NEURONAL HISTOLOGICAL CHANGES IN THE FRESHWATER SNAIL BELLAMYA BENGALENSIS (L)

Present study was carried to investigate the nuropathological effect of induced copper sulphate in cerebral ganglion of the freshwater snail Bellamya bengalensis. Histopathological and ultrastructural changes found hypertrophy, hypotrophy, shrinkage in the neuronal cells with include degeneration in neurons leading to changes in axonal processes. Ganglionic histopathology were compared and discussed with normal neuronal cells of snail Bellayma bengalensis.
The population structure and recent colonization history of Oregon threespine stickleback determined using restriction‐site associated DNA‐sequencing

Understanding how genetic variation is partitioned across genomes within and among populations is a fundamental problem in ecological and evolutionary genetics. To address this problem, we studied the threespine stickleback fish, which has repeatedly undergone parallel phenotypic and genetic differentiation when oceanic fish have invaded freshwater habitats. While significant evolutionary genetic research has been performed using stickleback from geographic regions that have been deglaciated in the last 20 000 years, less research has focused on freshwater populations that predate the last glacial maximum. We performed restriction‐site associated DNA‐sequencing (RAD‐seq) based population genomic analyses on stickleback from across Oregon, which was not glaciated during the last maximum. We sampled stickleback from coastal, Willamette Basin and central Oregon sites, analysed their genetic diversity using RAD‐seq, performed structure analyses, reconstructed their phylogeographic history and tested the hypothesis of recent stickleback introduction into central Oregon, where incidence of this species was only recently documented. Our results showed a clear phylogeographic break between coastal and inland populations, with oceanic populations exhibiting the lowest levels of divergence from one another. Willamette Basin and central Oregon populations formed a clade of closely related populations, a finding consistent with a recent introduction of stickleback into central Oregon. Finally, genome‐wide analysis of genetic diversity (π) and correlations of alleles within individuals in subpopulations (FIS) supported a role for introgressive hybridization in coastal populations and a recent expansion in central Oregon. Our results exhibit the power of next‐generation sequencing genomic approaches such as RAD‐seq to identify both historical population structure and recent colonization history.
Online Pursuit in the Twilight Zone: Cyberstalking Perpetration by College Students

ABSTRACT The author provides one of the first empirical examinations of cyberstalking perpetration. The extent and nature of cyberstalking are investigated using a sample of college students from a large university in the Midwest. The results indicate that cyberstalking was perpetrated by 4.9% of research participants. In addition, the findings suggest that persons with low self-control are significantly more likely than their peers to perpetrate cyberstalking. Those who participated in sexting were also more likely to engage in cyberstalking. However, these variable effects differed by sex. In particular, women with low self-control were at higher risk of perpetrating cyberstalking, while low self-control did not affect offending risk for men. These results speak to the potentially gendered nature of cyberstalking, while at the same time finding that the prevalence of offending was essentially the same for men and women.
Medical and Social Determinants of Subsequent Labour Market Marginalization in Young Hospitalized Suicide Attempters

Background Individuals with a history of suicide attempt have a high risk for subsequent labour market marginalization. This study aimed at assessing the effect of individual and parental factors on different measures of marginalization. Methods Prospective cohort study based on register linkage of 5 649 individuals who in 1994 were 16–30 years old, lived in Sweden and were treated in inpatient care for suicide attempt during 1992–1994. Hazard ratios (HRs) for labour market marginalization defined as long-term unemployment (>180 days), sickness absence (>90 days), or disability pension in 1995–2010 were calculated with Cox regression. Results Medical risk factors, particularly any earlier diagnosed specific mental disorders (e.g., schizophrenia: HR 5.4 (95% CI: 4.2, 7.0), personality disorders: HR 3.9, 95% CI: 3.1, 4.9), repetitive suicide attempts (HR 1.6, 95% CI: 1.4, 1.9) were associated with a higher relative risk of disability pension. Individual medical factors were of smaller importance for long-term sickness absence, and of only marginal relevance to long-term unemployment. Country of birth outside Europe had an opposite effect on disability pension (HR 0.6, 95% CI: 0.4, 0.8) and long-term unemployment (HR 1.5, 95% CI: 1.3, 1.8). Female sex was positively correlated with long-term sickness absence (HR 1.6, 95% CI: 1.4, 1.7), and negatively associated with long-term unemployment (HR: 0.8, 95% CI: 0.7, 0.9). Conclusions As compared to disability pension, long-term sickness absence and unemployment was more strongly related to socio-economic variables. Marginalization pathways seemed to vary with migration status and sex. These findings may contribute to the development of intervention strategies which take the individual risk for marginalization into account.
with Complement Activation Nervous System Inflammation Associated Chronic but Not Acute Autoimmune Central Expressed by Neurons in Response to Decay-Accelerating Factor (CD55) Is

There is compelling evidence that a unique innate immune response in the CNS plays a critical role in host defense and clearance of toxic cell debris. Although complement has been implicated in neuronal impairment, axonal loss, and demyelination, some preliminary evidence suggests that the initial insult consequently activates surrounding cells to signal neuroprotective activities. Using two different models of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, we herein demonstrate selective C1q complement activation on neuron cell bodies and axons. Interestingly, in brains with chronic but not acute experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, C3b opsonization of neuronal cell bodies and axons was consistently associated with robust neuronal expression of one of the most effective complement regulators, decay-accelerating factor (CD55). In contrast, levels of other complement inhibitors, complement receptor 1 (CD35), membrane cofactor protein (CD46), and CD59 were largely unaffected on neurons and reactive glial cells in both conditions. In vitro, we found that proinﬂammatory stimuli (cytokines and sublytic doses of complement) failed to up-regulate CD55 expression on cultured IMR32 neuronal cells. Interestingly, overexpression of GPI-anchored CD55 on IMR32 was capable of modulating raft-associated protein kinase activities without affecting MAPK activities and neuronal apoptosis. Critically, ectopic expression of decay-accelerating factor conferred strong protection of neurons against complement attack (opsonization and lysis). We conclude that increased CD55 expression by neurons may represent a key protective signaling mechanism mobilized by brain cells to withstand complement activation and to survive within an inﬂammatory site.