Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gendered Racial Socialization in Black Families: Mothers' Beliefs, Approaches, and Advocacy

The purpose of this study was to explore Black mothers' beliefs about socializing their children to negotiate gendered and racial contexts. Sixteen Black mothers were individually interviewed about their gendered racial socialization beliefs and experiences. The process of gendered racial socialization is defined as the ways by which parents socialize their sons and daughters to issues of race. To understand how and why mothers socialize their adolescents to racial issues, the research questions of interest were: (1) What are similarities and differences among mothers' beliefs regarding socializing their sons and daughters to issues of race? (2a) What informs mothers' decisions to prepare children for bias or not? (2b) Do mothers consider preparation for bias messages to be beneficial or harmful to children's well being? (3a) What types of racialized experiences do children encounter that prompt mothers' racial socialization efforts? and (3b) In what ways do mothers respond to these incidents? Guided by grounded theory, the findings indicate that mothers had some gender-neutral concerns, yet they also had distinct concerns for their sons and daughters. Specific concerns for sons included physical safety and fair treatment, and concerns for daughters included acceptance of their physical beauty. Mothers' gender-neutral concerns included sons' and daughters' sense of self-worth and racial pride. The findings also suggest two primary approaches to discussions of racial bias with children: proactive and moderate. Whereas mothers with a proactive approach prepared children for bias because they believed that awareness of discrimination was beneficial to children's well being, mothers with a reactive approach chose not to give preparatory messages in order to avoid the psychological consequences of children knowing that they are in a stigmatized group. Additionally, results show that mothers' racial socialization messages were prompted by children's encounters with peer-related, teacher-related, and police-related racialized experiences. Furthermore, mothers' responses to these incidents took the form of direct communication with children and advocacy on children's behalf. As most of the research on racial socialization examines the frequency of messages and practices, the current study extends the literature by gathering more contextual and process-oriented data to help explain how and why mothers discuss race with their sons and daughters. This work is important because it sheds light on the factors contributing to mothers' racial socialization decisions. Complementing research that examines what parents do, the present study analyzes why parents make particular parenting choices. Instead of viewing racial socialization as static and unidirectional, the methodological and analytical approaches used in this study reposition the processes of racial socialization as dynamic and interdependent. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of Black parenting, family processes, and adolescent development.
Genetic Transformation and Hairy Root Induction Enhance the Antioxidant Potential of Lactuca serriola L.

Lactuca serriola L. is a herbaceous species, used for human nutrition and medicinal purposes. The high antioxidant capacity of L. serriola indicates the possibility of enhancing its edible and health potential by increasing the flavonoid and phenolic contents. The present study aimed at enhancing the production of phenolics and flavonoids by hairy root cultures in Lactuca serriola transformed with Agrobacterium rhizogenes strain AR15834 harbouring the rolB gene. The genetic transformation of rolB in transformed roots was validated, and rolB expression level was evaluated using real-time qPCR analysis. Expression levels of flavonoid biosynthesis genes (CHI, PAL, FLS, and CHS) were assessed in the hairy and nontransformed roots. Results showed higher expression levels in the transgenic roots than in the nontransformed ones (p < 0.01). Transgenic hairy roots exhibited a 54.8–96.7% increase in the total phenolic content, 38.1–76.2% increase in the total flavonoid content, and 56.7–96.7% increase in the total reducing power when compared with the nontransgenic roots (p < 0.01). DPPH results also revealed that the transgenic hairy roots exhibited a 31.6–50% increase in antioxidant potential, when compared to normal roots. This study addressed the enhancement of secondary metabolite biosynthesis by hairy root induction in L. serriola.
Depressive symptoms, antidepressant use, and future cognitive health in postmenopausal women: the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study

ABSTRACT Background: Antidepressants are commonly prescribed medications in the elderly, but their relationship with incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and probable dementia is unknown. Methods: The study cohort included 6,998 cognitively healthy, postmenopausal women, aged 65–79 years, who were enrolled in a hormone therapy clinical trial and had baseline depressive symptoms and antidepressant use history assessments at enrollment, and at least one postbaseline cognitive measurement. Participants were followed annually and the follow-up averaged 7.5 years for MCI and probable dementia outcomes. A central adjudication committee classified the presence of MCI and probable dementia based on extensive neuropsychiatric examination. Results: Three hundred and eighty-three (5%) women were on antidepressants at baseline. Antidepressant use was associated with a 70% increased risk of MCI, after controlling for potential covariates including the degree of depressive symptom severity. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) were both associated with MCI (SSRIs: hazard ratios (HR), 1.78 [95% CI, 1.01–3.13]; TCAs: HR, 1.78 [95% CI, 0.99–3.21]). Depressed users (HR, 2.44 [95% CI, 1.24–4.80]), non-depressed users (HR, 1.79 [95% CI, 1.13–2.85]), and depressed non-users (HR, 1.62 [95% CI, 1.13–2.32]) had increased risk of incident MCI. Similarly, all three groups had increased risk of either MCI or dementia, relative to the control cohort. Conclusions: Antidepressant use and different levels of depression severity were associated with subsequent cognitive impairment in a large cohort of postmenopausal women. Future research should examine the role of antidepressants in the depression–dementia relationship and determine if antidepressants can prevent incident MCI and dementia in individuals with late-life depression subtypes with different levels of severity.
Cannabis use and transition to psychosis in people at ultra-high risk

Background Cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of developing a psychotic disorder but the temporal relationship between cannabis use and onset of illness is unclear. The objective of this study was to assess prospectively the influence of cannabis use on transition to psychosis in people at ultra-high risk (UHR) for the disorder. Method Lifetime and continued cannabis use was assessed in a consecutively ascertained sample of 182 people (104 male, 78 female) at UHR for psychosis. Individuals were then followed clinically for 2 years to determine their clinical outcomes. Results Lifetime cannabis use was reported by 134 individuals (73.6%). However, most of these individuals had stopped using cannabis before clinical presentation (n = 98, 73.1%), usually because of adverse effects. Among lifetime users, frequent use, early-onset use and continued use after presentation were all associated with an increase in transition to psychosis. Transition to psychosis was highest among those who started using cannabis before the age of 15 years and went on to use frequently (frequent early-onset use: 25%; infrequent or late-onset use: 5%; χ 2 1 = 10.971, p = 0.001). However, within the whole sample, cannabis users were no more likely to develop psychosis than those who had never used cannabis (cannabis use: 12.7%; no use: 18.8%; χ 2 1 = 1.061, p = 0.303). Conclusions In people at UHR for psychosis, lifetime cannabis use was common but not related to outcome. Among cannabis users, frequent use, early-onset use and continued use after clinical presentation were associated with transition to psychosis.
Graph Cuts and Approximation of the Euclidean Metric on Anisotropic Grids

Graph cuts can be used to find globally minimal contours and surfaces in 2D and 3D space, respectively. To achieve this, weights of the edges in the graph are set so the capacity of the cut approximates the contour length or surface area under chosen metric. Formulas giving good approximation in the case of the Euclidean metric are known, however, they assume isotropic resolution of the underlying grid of pixels or voxels. Anisotropy has to be simulated using more general Riemannian metrics. In this paper we show how to circumvent this and obtain a good approximation of the Euclidean metric on anisotropic grids directly by exploiting the well-known Cauchy-Crofton formulas and Voronoi diagrams theory. Furthermore, we show that our approach yields much smaller metrication errors and most interestingly, it is in particular situations better even in the isotropic case due to its invariance to mirroring. Finally, we demonstrate an application of the derived formulas to biomedical image segmentation.
Abnormal Development of Tapetum and Microspores Induced by Chemical Hybridization Agent SQ-1 in Wheat

Chemical hybridization agent (CHA)-induced male sterility is an important tool in crop heterosis. To demonstrate that CHA-SQ-1-induced male sterility is associated with abnormal tapetal and microspore development, the cytology of CHA-SQ-1-treated plant anthers at various developmental stages was studied by light microscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, in situ terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferasemediated dUTP nick end-labelling (TUNEL) assay and DAPI staining. The results indicated that the SQ-1-treated plants underwent premature tapetal programmed cell death (PCD), which was initiated at the early-uninucleate stage of microspore development and continued until the tapetal cells were completely degraded; the process of microspore development was then blocked. Microspores with low-viability (fluorescein diacetate staining) were aborted. The study suggests that premature tapetal PCD is the main cause of pollen abortion. Furthermore, it determines the starting period and a key factor in CHA-SQ-1-induced male sterility at the cell level, and provides cytological evidence to further study the mechanism between PCD and male sterility.
Electrokinetic Potential and Other Surface Properties of Polymer Foils and Their Modifications

© 2013 Kolska et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Electrokinetic Potential and Other Surface Properties of Polymer Foils and Their Modifications
Generalizing Common Tasks in Automated Skin Lesion Diagnosis

We present a general model using supervised learning and MAP estimation that is capable of performing many common tasks in automated skin lesion diagnosis. We apply our model to segment skin lesions, detect occluding hair, and identify the dermoscopic structure pigment network. Quantitative results are presented for segmentation and hair detection and are competitive when compared to other specialized methods. Additionally, we leverage the probabilistic nature of the model to produce receiver operating characteristic curves, show compelling visualizations of pigment networks, and provide confidence intervals on segmentations.
Valued Constraint Satisfaction Problems: Hard and Easy Problems

In order to deal with over-constrained Constraint Satisfaction Problems, various extensions of the CSP framework have been considered by taking into account costs, uncertainties, preferences, priorities.Each extension uses a specific mathematical operator (+, max.) to aggregate constraint violations. In this paper, we consider a simple algebraic framework, related to Partial Constraint Satisfaction, which subsumes most of these proposals and use it to characterize existing proposals in terms of rationality and computational complexity. We exhibit simple relationships between these proposals, try to extend some traditional CSP algorithms and prove that some of these extensions may be computationally expensive.
Cosmological unification of string theories

We present an exact solution of superstring theory that interpolates in time between an initial type 0 phase and a final phase whose physics is exactly that of the bosonic string. The initial theory is deformed by closed-string tachyon condensation along a lightlike direction. In the limit of large tachyon vev, the worldsheet conformal field theory precisely realizes the Berkovits-Vafa embedding of bosonic string theory into superstring theory. Our solution therefore connects the bosonic string dynamically with the superstring, settling a longstanding question about the relationship between the two theories.
Topology-aware Gossip Dissemination for Large-scale Datacenters

Gossip-based protocols are very robust and are able to distribute the load uniformly among all processes. Furthermore, gossip-protocols circumvent the oscillatory phenomena that are known to occur with other forms of reliable multicast. As a result, they are excellent candidates to support the dissemination of information in large-scale datacenters. However, in this context, topology oblivious approaches may easily saturate the switches in the highest level of the datacenter network fabric. This thesis presents a novel gossip protocol for datacenters, named Bounded Gossip, that provides an adequate load distribution among the different layers of the switching fabric of the datacenter, avoiding being a source of network bottlenecks. Bounded Gossip embodies techniques from previous protocols, such as Hierarchical Gossip and CLON, and combines them with a topology-aware membership maintenance scheme and a topology aware rate-based flow control scheme. The benefits from our solution are illustrated by an experimental evaluation that compares the performance of Bounded Gossip with that of other competing protocols, in terms of imposed load in the routing topology, overall cost of communication, and dissemination latency. Palavras Chave Keywords
Sustained and Transient Contributions to the Rat Dark-Adapted Electroretinogram b-Wave

The most dominant feature of the electroretinogram, the b-wave, is thought to reflect ON-bipolar cell responses. However, a number of studies suggest that the b-wave is made up of several components. We consider the composition of the rat b-wave by subtracting corneal negative components obtained using intravitreal application of pharmacological agents to remove postreceptoral responses. By analyzing the intensity-response characteristic of the PII across a range of fixed times during and after a light step, we find that the rat isolated PII has 2 components. The first has fast rise and decay characteristics with a low sensitivity to light. GABAc-mediated inhibitory pathways enhance this transient-ON component to manifest increased and deceased sensitivity to light at shorter (<160 ms) and longer times, respectively. The second component has slower temporal characteristics but is more sensitive to light. GABAc-mediated inhibition enhances this sustained-ON component but has little effect on its sensitivity to light. After stimulus offset, both transient and sustained components return to baseline, and a long latency sustained positive component becomes apparent. The light sensitivities of transient-ON and sustained-OFF components are consistent with activity arising from cone ON- and OFF-bipolar cells, whereas the sustained-ON component is likely to arise from rod bipolar cells.
Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (casl)

The Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (Carrow-Woolfolk, 1999a) is a norm-referenced, individually administered test designed to measure expressive, receptive, and retrieval skills in oral language. It contains 15 subtests that assess four categories of spoken language: lexical//semantic, syntactic, supralinguistic, and pragmatic. Subtests are categorized as core, supplementary, or not required to be administered according to the age of the examinee. Thus, not all subtests are administered to each individual. Table 24.4 illustrates the ages at which subtests are administered and their correspondence to each of the four language categories. The CASL is intended to be administered to individuals between the ages of 3 and 21 years. Students provide verbal responses or respond to items by pointing; no student reading or writing is required. Testing time typically ranges from 15 to 60 minutes. The author of the CASL states four purposes for the test: (1) identification of language disorders, (2) diagnosis and intervention in spoken language, (3) monitoring of growth in language skills and knowledge, and (4) conducting of research on oral language skills. Subtests Each of the subtests includes examples given prior to the test items.
Molecular epidemiology of DNA repair gene polymorphisms and head and neck cancer

Although tobacco and alcohol consumption are two common risk factors of head and neck cancer (HNC), other specific etiologic causes, such as viral infection and genetic susceptibility factors, remain to be understood. Human DNA is often damaged by numerous endogenous and exogenous mutagens or carcinogens, and genetic variants in interaction with environmental exposure to these agents may explain interindividual differences in HNC risk. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in genes involved in the DNA damage-repair response are reported to be risk factors for various cancer types, including HNC. Here, we reviewed epidemiological studies that have assessed the associations between HNC risk and SNPs in DNA repair genes involved in base-excision repair, nucleotide-excision repair, mismatch repair, double-strand break repair and direct reversion repair pathways. We found, however, that only a few SNPs in DNA repair genes were found to be associated with significantly increased or decreased risk of HNC, and, in most cases, the effects were moderate, depending upon locus-locus interactions among the risk SNPs in the pathways. We believe that, in the presence of exposure, additional pathway-based analyses of DNA repair genes derived from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) in HNC are needed.
Simultaneous versus sequential bilateral cochlear implants in adults: Cost analysis in a US setting

From a purely surgical efficiency point of view, simultaneous cochlear implantation (SimCI) is more cost‐effective than sequential cochlear implantation (SeqCI) when total direct costs are considered (implant and hospital costs). However, in a setting where only SeqCI is practiced and a proportion of initially unilaterally implanted patients do not progress to a second implant, this may not be the case, especially when audiological costs are factored in. We present a cost analysis of such a scenario as would occur in our institution.
Relational.OWL - A Data and Schema Representation Format Based on OWL

One of the research fields which has recently gained much scientific interest within the database community are Peer-to-Peer databases, where peers have the autonomy to decide whether to join or to leave an information sharing environment at any time. Such volatile data nodes may appear shortly, collect or deliver some data, and disappear again. It even can not be assured that a peer joins the network ever again. In this paper we introduce a representation format fort both, schema and data information based on the Web Ontology Language OWL. According to the advantages of the Semantic Web we are thus able to represent and to transfer every schema and data component of a database to any partner, without having to define a data and schema exchange format explicitly.
Increased survival in calves of Escherichia coli K-12 carrying an Ent plasmid

Escherichia coli K-12 strains with and without an Ent plasmid were fed to calves, and the survival of each was monitored by viable bacterial counts of the feces. The E. coli K-12 strain carrying the Ent plasmid survived in the calves at significantly higher levels and for a longer period of time than the E. coli F(-) stain.
Many-body localization in a quasiperiodic system

Recent theoretical and numerical evidence suggests that localization can survive in disordered many-body systems with very high energy density, provided that interactions are sufficiently weak. Stronger interactions can destroy localization, leading to a so-called many-body localization transition. This dynamical phase transition is relevant to questions of thermalization in extended quantum systems far from the zero-temperature limit. It separates a many-body localized phase, in which localization prevents transport and thermalization, from a conducting ("ergodic") phase in which the usual assumptions of quantum statistical mechanics hold. Here, we present numerical evidence that many-body localization also occurs in models without disorder but rather a quasiperiodic potential. In one dimension, these systems already have a single-particle localization transition, and we show that this transition becomes a many-body localization transition upon the introduction of interactions. We also comment on possible relevance of our results to experimental studies of many-body dynamics of cold atoms and non-linear light in quasiperiodic potentials.
A New Method for Water Desalination Using Microbial Desalination Cells

X I A O X I N C A O , † X I A H U A N G , * , † P E N G L I A N G , † K A N G X I A O , † Y I N G J U N Z H O U , † X I A O Y U A N Z H A N G , † A N D B R U C E E . L O G A N ‡ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P.R. China, and Engineering Environmental Institute, Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
Dissolved organic nitrogen: a dynamic participant in aquatic ecosystems

In both marine and freshwaters, the concentration of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) frequently exceeds that of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), including ammonium, nitrate, and nitrite. Recent evidence indicates that many organic N compounds are released into the DON pool and taken up from this pool by planktonic microbiota on timescales of hours to days. This observation suggests that many components of the DON pool can play an active role in supplying N nutrition directly or indirectly to phytoplankton and bacteria and, in so doing, may affect the species composi- tion of the ambient microbial assemblage. Here we present an overview of the state of knowledge of DON pools in aquatic environments, focused mainly on data gathered in the last decade. We review information on DON concentrations in freshwater and marine systems, analytical methods for the determination of DON, and the biotic and abiotic sources and sinks of DON. More detailed discussion addresses specific components of the DON pool: urea, dissolved combined and free amino acids, pro- teins, nucleic acids, amino sugars, and humic substances. The DON pool in natural waters is not inert and can be an important sink and source for N. There is a need for greater appreciation and under- standing of the potential role of DON as a dynamic participant in the nitrogen cycle within aquatic ecosystems, particularly in freshwater environments.