Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fulfilled Emotional Outcome Expectancies Enable Successful Adoption and Maintenance of Physical Activity

Although outcome expectancies are regarded as key determinants of health behavior change, studies on the role of their degree of fulfillment in long-term activity changes are lacking. This study investigated the impact of (un-)fulfilled outcome expectancies (OE) on (un-)successful attempts to increase physical activity, assuming that disengagement is the logical consequence of perceived futility. Participants (n = 138) of a longitudinal cohort study with three measurement waves were assigned to eight different groups according to a staging algorithm of their self-reported, 1-year-long physical activity behavior track. Stages were validated by objective changes in objective fitness, e.g., Physical Working Capacity (PWC). Social cognitive variables, self-efficacy, proximal and distal OE, and fulfillment of OE, were assessed via self-report. Discriminant analyses revealed that OE fulfillment was the predominant predictor for differentiating between successful and unsuccessful behavior change. Amongst OE, proximal OE concerning emotional rewards, in conjunction with action self-efficacy, further improved discriminatory power. OE adjustment warranting hedonic rewards appears to be a crucial mechanism as it facilitates long-term changes through interventions aimed at increasing physical activity rates. Theoretical models might benefit by including the concept of fulfilled expectations acting in terms of feedback loops between volitional and motivational processes.
Lumbar Total Disc Replacement for Discogenic Low Back Pain: Two-year Outcomes of the activL Multicenter Randomized Controlled IDE Clinical Trial

Study Design. A prospective, multicenter, randomized, controlled, investigational device exemption (IDE) noninferiority trial. Objective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the comparative safety and effectiveness of lumbar total disc replacement (TDR) in the treatment of patients with symptomatic degenerative disc disease (DDD) who are unresponsive to nonsurgical therapy. Summary of Background Data. Lumbar TDR has been used to alleviate discogenic pain and dysfunction while preserving segmental range of motion and restoring stability. There is a paucity of data available regarding the comparative performance of lumbar TDR. Methods. Patients presenting with symptomatic single-level lumbar DDD who failed at least 6 months of nonsurgical management were randomly allocated (2:1) to treatment with an investigational TDR device (activL®, n = 218) or FDA-approved control TDR devices (ProDisc-L or Charité, n = 106). The hypothesis of this study was that a composite effectiveness outcome at 2 years in patients treated with activL would be noninferior (15% delta) to that in controls. Results. The primary composite endpoint of this study was met, which demonstrated that the activL TDR was noninferior to control TDR (P < 0.001). A protocol-defined analysis of the primary composite endpoint also confirmed that activL was superior to controls (P = 0.02). Radiographic success was higher with activL versus controls (59% vs. 43%; P < 0.01). Mean back pain severity improved by 74% with activL and 68% with controls. Oswestry Disability Index scores decreased by 67% and 61% with activL and controls, respectively. Patient satisfaction with treatment was over 90% in both groups at 2 years. Return to work was approximately 1 month shorter (P = 0.08) with activL versus controls. The rate of device-related serious adverse events was lower in patients treated with activL versus controls (12% vs. 19%; P = 0.13). Surgical reintervention rates at the index level were comparable (activL 2.3%, control 1.9%). Conclusion. The single-level activL TDR is safe and effective for the treatment of symptomatic lumbar DDD through 2 years. Level of Evidence: 2
Retrotransposon Silencing by DNA Methylation Can Drive Mammalian Genomic Imprinting

Among mammals, only eutherians and marsupials are viviparous and have genomic imprinting that leads to parent-of-origin-specific differential gene expression. We used comparative analysis to investigate the origin of genomic imprinting in mammals. PEG10 (paternally expressed 10) is a retrotransposon-derived imprinted gene that has an essential role for the formation of the placenta of the mouse. Here, we show that an orthologue of PEG10 exists in another therian mammal, the marsupial tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii), but not in a prototherian mammal, the egg-laying platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), suggesting its close relationship to the origin of placentation in therian mammals. We have discovered a hitherto missing link of the imprinting mechanism between eutherians and marsupials because tammar PEG10 is the first example of a differentially methylated region (DMR) associated with genomic imprinting in marsupials. Surprisingly, the marsupial DMR was strictly limited to the 5′ region of PEG10, unlike the eutherian DMR, which covers the promoter regions of both PEG10 and the adjacent imprinted gene SGCE. These results not only demonstrate a common origin of the DMR-associated imprinting mechanism in therian mammals but provide the first demonstration that DMR-associated genomic imprinting in eutherians can originate from the repression of exogenous DNA sequences and/or retrotransposons by DNA methylation.
Small-Molecule Inhibitor of Vibrio cholerae Virulence and Intestinal Colonization

www.sciencemag. org (this information is current as of March 5, 2007 ): The following resources related to this article are available online at http://www.sciencemag. org/cgi/content/full/310/5748/670 version of this article at: including high-resolution figures, can be found in the online Updated information and services, http://www.sciencemag. org/cgi/content/full/1116739/DC1 can be found at: Supporting Online Material http://www.sciencemag. org/cgi/content/full/310/5748/670#otherarticles , 9 of which can be accessed for free: cites 18 articles This article 16 article(s) on the ISI Web of Science. cited by This article has been http://www.sciencemag. org/cgi/content/full/310/5748/670#otherarticles 9 articles hosted by HighWire Press; see: cited by This article has been http://www.sciencemag. org/cgi/collection/microbio Microbiology : subject collections This article appears in the following http://www.sciencemag. org/about/permissions.dtl in whole or in part can be found at: this article permission to reproduce of this article or about obtaining reprints Information about obtaining
Role of Heat-Stable Enterotoxins in the Induction of Early Immune Responses in Piglets after Infection with Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains that produce heat-stable (ST) and/or heat - labile (LT) enterotoxins are cause of post – weaning diarrhea in piglets. However, the relative importance of the different enterotoxins in host immune responses against ETEC infection has been poorly defined. In the present study, several isogenic mutant strains of an O149:F4ac+, LT+ STa+ STb+ ETEC strain were constructed that lack the expression of LT in combination with one or both types of ST enterotoxins (STa and/or STb). The small intestinal segment perfusion (SISP) technique and microarray analysis were used to study host early immune responses induced by these mutant strains 4 h after infection in comparison to the wild type strain and a PBS control. Simultaneously, net fluid absorption of pig small intestinal mucosa was measured 4 h after infection, allowing us to correlate enterotoxin secretion with gene regulation. Microarray analysis showed on the one hand a non-toxin related general antibacterial response comprising genes such as PAP, MMP1 and IL8. On the other hand, results suggest a dominant role for STb in small intestinal secretion early after post-weaning infection, as well as in the induced innate immune response through differential regulation of immune mediators like interleukin 1 and interleukin 17.
Reorganization of columnar architecture in the growing visual cortex

Many cortical areas increase in size considerably during postnatal development, progressively displacing neuronal cell bodies from each other. At present, little is known about how cortical growth affects the development of neuronal circuits. Here, in acute and chronic experiments, we study the layout of ocular dominance (OD) columns in cat primary visual cortex during a period of substantial postnatal growth. We find that despite a considerable size increase of primary visual cortext, the spacing between columns is largely preserved. In contrast, their spatial arrangement changes systematically over this period. Whereas in young animals columns are more band-like, layouts become more isotropic in mature animals. We propose a novel mechanism of growth-induced reorganization that is based on the “zigzag instability,” a dynamical instability observed in several inanimate pattern forming systems. We argue that this mechanism is inherent to a wide class of models for the activity-dependent formation of OD columns. Analyzing one representative of this class, the Elastic Network model, we show that this mechanism can account for the preservation of column spacing and the specific mode of reorganization of OD columns that we observe. We conclude that column width is preserved by systematic reorganization of neuronal selectivities during cortical expansion and that this reorganization is well described by the zigzag instability. Our work suggests that cortical circuits may remain plastic for an extended period in development to facilitate the modification of neuronal circuits to adjust for cortical growth.
Unseen visible watermarking for color plus depth map 3D images

Unseen visible watermarking (UVW) is a novel data hiding scheme that imitates real-world watermarks and maintains advantages of both visible and invisible watermarking. One important feature of UVW is that specific extraction module is not required during watermarking decoding. The UVW for 2D image is studied based on imaging functions, e.g. gamma-correction in LCD monitors. On the other hand, due to the great success of 3D movies and low-priced 3D display devices, 3D contents are booming up in recent years. In this work, we propose a UVW for color plus depth map 3D images in which the watermark extraction is realized by changing of the rendering conditions. Under normal rendering conditions, the watermarked cover can be perceived exactly the same as the original one. Limitations and future extensions of the proposed 3D UVW are also addressed in this work.
Progress in Adhesion and Adhesives

We review here the recent developments on the adhesion of condensed bodies at microscale, spanning from droplets, microbeams, CNTs (carbon nanotubes) to cells. We first introduce a general method to completely tackle the adhesion problem with movable boundary conditions, from the viewpoint of energy variation. Based on this theoretical framework, we then use the developed line of reasoning to investigate the adhesion behaviors of several condensed systems. According to the variation with movable boundary conditions, the governing equations and transversality conditions of these systems are derived, leading to closed-form problems. The presented method is verified via the concept of energy release rate or J-integral in fracture mechanics. This analysis provides a new approach to explore the mechanism of different systems with similarities as well as to better understand the unification of nature. The analysis results may be beneficial to the design of micro-machined MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) structures, super-hydrophobic materials, nano-structured materials, and hold potential for predicting the adhesion behavior of cells or vesicles.
Living on the edge: phase transitions in convex programs with random data

Recent research indicates that many convex optimization problems with random constraints exhibit a phase transition as the number of constraints increases. For example, this phenomenon emerges in the l_1 minimization method for identifying a sparse vector from random linear measurements. Indeed, the l_1 approach succeeds with high probability when the number of measurements exceeds a threshold that depends on the sparsity level; otherwise, it fails with high probability. This paper provides the first rigorous analysis that explains why phase transitions are ubiquitous in random convex optimization problems. It also describes tools for making reliable predictions about the quantitative aspects of the transition, including the location and the width of the transition region. These techniques apply to regularized linear inverse problems with random measurements, to demixing problems under a random incoherence model, and also to cone programs with random affine constraints. The applied results depend on foundational research in conic geometry. This paper introduces a summary parameter, called the statistical dimension, that canonically extends the dimension of a linear subspace to the class of convex cones. The main technical result demonstrates that the sequence of intrinsic volumes of a convex cone concentrates sharply around the statistical dimension. This fact leads to accurate bounds on the probability that a randomly rotated cone shares a ray with a fixed cone.
Version history, similar report, and structure: putting them together for improved bug localization

During the evolution of a software system, a large number of bug reports are submitted. Locating the source code files that need to be fixed to resolve the bugs is a challenging problem. Thus, there is a need for a technique that can automatically figure out these buggy files. A number of bug localization solutions that take in a bug report and output a ranked list of files sorted based on their likelihood to be buggy have been proposed in the literature. However, the accuracy of these tools still need to be improved. In this paper, to address this need, we propose AmaLgam, a new method for locating relevant buggy files that puts together version history, similar reports, and structure. To do this, AmaLgam integrates a bug prediction technique used in Google which analyzes version history, with a bug localization technique named BugLocator which analyzes similar reports from bug report system, and the state-of-the-art bug localization technique BLUiR which considers structure. We perform a large-scale experiment on four open source projects, namely AspectJ, Eclipse, SWT and ZXing to localize more than 3,000 bugs. Compared with a history-aware bug localization solution of Sisman and Kak, our approach achieves a 46.1% improvement in terms of mean average precision (MAP). Compared with BugLocator, our approach achieves a 24.4% improvement in terms of MAP. Compared with BLUiR, our approach achieves a 16.4% improvement in terms of MAP.
Association Between Metabolic Syndrome and Depressive Symptoms in Middle-Aged Adults

OBJECTIVE—Although it is possible that the association between depression and the metabolic syndrome is a “two-way street,” the metabolic syndrome as a predictor of depression has been little investigated. We examined whether the metabolic syndrome is associated with the onset of depressive symptoms in a cohort of middle-aged British civil servants. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Analyses included 5,232 participants (41–61 years of age) from the Whitehall II prospective cohort study. Depressive symptoms were assessed in 1991–1993 and again 6 years later using the depression subscale from the 30-item General Health Questionnaire. Metabolic syndrome was assessed in 1991–1993, according to National Cholesterol Education Program criteria. RESULTS—Presence of the metabolic syndrome was associated with an increased risk of future depressive symptoms, odds ratio 1.38 (95% CI 1.02–1.96) after adjustment for potential confounders. Of the five components, only central obesity, high triglyceride levels, and low HDL cholesterol levels predicted depressive symptoms. These components explained most of the association between the metabolic syndrome and the onset of depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS—Our results suggest that the metabolic syndrome, in particular the obesity and dyslipidemia components, is predictive of depressive symptoms.
Threshold of Clinical Severity of Cervical Dystonia for Positive 18F-FDG PET/CT

Objective To examine whether the clinical severity of cervical dystonia (CD) significantly correlates with 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FDG PET/CT) findings as well as to determine the threshold of the clinical severity of CD for positive 18F-FDG PET/CT study findings. Methods Forty-seven subjects with torticollis as one of the symptoms of CD were included. The clinical severity of CD was evaluated with the Toronto Western Spasmodic Torticollis Rating Scale (TWSTRS) at the time of 18F-FDG PET/CT. The correlation between the clinical severity of CD and the highest SUVmax was examined. The threshold of the clinical severity of CD necessary for positive 18F-FDG PET/CT findings was determined using receiver operating characteristics curve analysis. Results Thirty-three of the 47 subjects (70.21%) showed positive 18F-FDG PET/CT findings. The ipsilateral splenius capitis/cervicis, oblique capitis inferior, and longus colli/capitis were the rotators most frequently involved. The highest SUVmax of 18F-FDG PET/CT was significant correlated with the TWSTRS. Subjects with a total TWSTRS exceeding 39 showed positive 18F-FDG PET/CT findings, with those having a total TWSTRS ≤22 showing negative 18F-FDG PET/CT results. The cutoff value of the total TWSTRS for positive 18F-FDG PET/CT findings was set at 27.5 with 90.9% sensitivity and 64.3% specificity. Conclusion A significant correlation was evident between the clinical severity of CD and 18F-FDG PET/CT findings, providing a threshold of the clinical severity of CD for acquisition of positive 18F-FDG PET/CT findings.
Neural plasticity of development and learning

Development and learning are powerful agents of change across the lifespan that induce robust structural and functional plasticity in neural systems. An unresolved question in developmental cognitive neuroscience is whether development and learning share the same neural mechanisms associated with experience‐related neural plasticity. In this article, I outline the conceptual and practical challenges of this question, review insights gleaned from adult studies, and describe recent strides toward examining this topic across development using neuroimaging methods. I suggest that development and learning are not two completely separate constructs and instead, that they exist on a continuum. While progressive and regressive changes are central to both, the behavioral consequences associated with these changes are closely tied to the existing neural architecture of maturity of the system. Eventually, a deeper, more mechanistic understanding of neural plasticity will shed light on behavioral changes across development and, more broadly, about the underlying neural basis of cognition. Hum Brain Mapp, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Truncating Plakophilin-2 Mutations in Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy Are Associated With Protein Haploinsufficiency in Both Myocardium and Epidermis

Background—Arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC) is a hereditary cardiac condition associated with ventricular arrhythmias, heart failure, and sudden death. The disease is most often caused by mutations in the desmosomal gene for plakophilin-2 (PKP2), which is expressed in both myocardial and epidermal tissue. This study aimed to investigate protein expression in myocardial tissue of patients with AC carrying PKP2 mutations and elucidate whether keratinocytes of the same individuals exhibited a similar pattern of protein expression. Methods and Results—Direct sequencing of 5 AC genes in 71 unrelated patients with AC identified 10 different PKP2 mutations in 12 index patients. One patient, heterozygous for a PKP2 nonsense mutation, developed severe heart failure and underwent cardiac transplantation. Western blotting and immunohistochemistry of the explanted heart showed a significant decrease in PKP2 protein expression without detectable amounts of truncated PKP2 protein. Cultured keratinocytes of the patient showed a similar reduction in PKP2 protein expression. Nine additional PKP2 mutations were investigated in both cultured keratinocytes and endomyocardial biopsies from affected individuals. It was evident that PKP2 mutations introducing a premature termination codon in the reading frame were associated with PKP2 transcript and protein levels reduced to ≈50%, whereas a missense variant did not seem to affect the amount of PKP2 protein. Conclusions—The results of this study showed that truncating PKP2 mutations in AC are associated with low expression of the mutant allele and that the myocardial protein expression of PKP2 is mirrored in keratinocytes. These findings indicate that PKP2 haploinsufficiency contributes to pathogenesis in AC.
Acid-base regulation in fishes: cellular and molecular mechanisms.

The mechanisms underlying acid-base transfers across the branchial epithelium of fishes have been studied for more than 70 years. These animals are able to compensate for changes to internal pH following a wide range of acid-base challenges, and the gill epithelium is the primary site of acid-base transfers to the water. This paper reviews recent molecular, immunohistochemical, and functional studies that have begun to define the protein transporters involved in the acid-base relevant ion transfers. Both Na(+)/H(+) exchange (NHE) and vacuolar-type H(+)-ATPase transport H(+) from the fish to the environment. While NHEs have been thought to carry out this function mainly in seawater-adapted animals, these proteins have now been localized to mitochondrial-rich cells in the gill epithelium of both fresh and saltwater-adapted fishes. NHEs have been found in the gill epithelium of elasmobranchs, teleosts, and an agnathan. In several species, apical isoforms (NHE2 and NHE3) appear to be up-regulated following acidosis. In freshwater teleosts, H(+)-ATPase drives H(+) excretion and is indirectly coupled to Na(+) uptake (via Na(+) channels). It has been localized to respiratory pavement cells and chloride cells of the gill epithelium. In the marine elasmobranch, both branchial NHE and H(+)-ATPase have been identified, suggesting that a combination of these mechanisms may be utilized by marine elasmobranchs for acid-base regulation. An apically located Cl(-)/HCO(3)(-) anion exchanger in chloride cells may be responsible for base excretion in fresh and seawater-adapted fishes. While only a few species have been examined to date, new molecular approaches applied to a wider range of fishes will continue to improve our understanding of the roles of the various gill membrane transport processes in acid-base balance.