Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stressful events and life satisfaction among elderly men and women.

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationships among stressful events, domain-specific assessments of life satisfaction, and global evaluations of life satisfaction. This research was guided by two competing theoretical formulations. According to bottom-up theory, older adults first assess feelings of satisfaction within specific life domains that are based in part on the experiences (i.e., stressors) they encounter in these areas. The domain-specific views are subsequently synthesized to form an overall sense of satisfaction with life as a whole. In contrast, the top-down theory suggests that a person's ongoing sense of satisfaction with life as a whole predisposes him or her to assess satisfaction with specific domains in ways that are congruent with his or her initial sense of global life satisfaction. Analysis of data provided by older participants in a nationwide survey tends to support the bottom-up perspective.
Effects of Screening Mammography on the Comparative Survival Rates of African American, White, and Hispanic Beneficiaries of a Comprehensive Health Care System

Abstract: This study reviewed mammographic screening related to breast carcinoma diagnosis and treatment between 1987 and 1997 at Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, TX. Epidemiologic data from the Department of Defense Automated Central Tumor Registry were merged with data from patients’ medical records and responses of the patients or their families to a mailed survey. The cases of 907 women grouped by race—white, African American, and Hispanic—were analyzed. Breast carcinoma diagnosed by mammographic screening showed a reversed ratio of early to late stage of cancer occurring for all three groups. That ratio was 1.45 for African Americans, 2.67 for Hispanics, and 3.08 for whites. For those women diagnosed with screening mammography, no statistically significant difference in 5‐year survival was found between the races: 86% for whites, 83% for Hispanics, and 80% for African Americans. Mammographic screening as a diagnostic tool appears to equalize survival among whites, Hispanics, and African Americans, in spite of differences in age, stage of diagnosis, and military rank used as a proxy for socioeconomic status. When not controlling for mammographic diagnosis, Kaplan–Meier analysis revealed significant differences in survival patterns between whites, Hispanics, and African Americans. Five‐year survival rates were 71% for whites, 74% for Hispanics, and 53% for African Americans. Screening mammography reduced 5‐year mortality by almost 59% in African Americans, 52% in whites, and 36% in Hispanics. Whites were diagnosed with breast carcinoma, on average, at 57 years of age—11 years later than African Americans (average age 46 years) and 7 years later than Hispanic women (average age 50 years). As a diagnostic tool, screening mammography was used to discover breast cancer in 36% of white women, 33% of Hispanics, and 22% of African Americans. Further research is recommended to examine the use of mammography among various racial/ethnic groups.
Defect Loss: A New Concept for Reliability of MOSFETs

Defect generation limits device lifetime and enhances its variability. Previous works mainly addressed the generation kinetics and process. The current understanding is that the microstructure responsible for defect can exist either as a precursor or as a charged defect. A precursor is converted into a defect during stresses, but a defect can return to its precursor status through recovery and/or anneal. This letter will introduce a new concept: defect loss. A lost defect will not return to the precursor status. When stressed again, the lost defect will not reappear. It is found that the defect loss is thermally activated and a reduction of the “permanent component” makes substantial contribution to the loss. This letter opens the way for improving device lifetime through maximizing defect loss.
Protection of Porcine Islet Xenografts in Mice Using Sertoli Cells and Monoclonal Antibodies

Background. To remedy the shortage of human donor islets, xenotransplantation of neonatal porcine islets (NPI) provides an attractive alternative source of donor tissue so long as graft rejection can be circumvented. Thus, in this study, we sought to determine whether cotransplantation of NPI with Sertoli cells (SC) combined with a short-course treatment of monoclonal antibody (mAb) could provide long-term islet xenograft survival. Methods. NPI alone or NPI cotransplanted with neonatal porcine SC were transplanted into diabetic C57BL/6 mice. These mice were left untreated or were treated with a short course of antileukocyte function associated antigen-1 (LFA-1), anti-CD154, or anti-CD45RB mAb. Blood glucose levels were monitored twice a week to assess graft function. At more than 100 days posttransplantation or on the day of rejection, graft-bearing kidneys were collected for characterization using immunohistochemistry. Results. None of the untreated control mice transplanted with NPI alone (0/5) or NPI cotransplanted with SC (0/8) achieved normoglycemia. However, of the mice receiving NPI alone, 3 of 7 treated with anti-LFA-1 mAb, 2 of 7 treated with anti-CD154 mAb, and 1 of 7 treated with anti-CD45RB mAb achieved long-term graft survival (>100 days). These proportions improved considerably when NPI were cotransplanted with SC, as 15 of 15 mice treated with anti-LFA-1 mAb, 7 of 8 mice treated with anti-CD154 mAb, and 4 of 9 mice treated with anti-CD45RB mAb achieved long-term graft survival. Conclusions. These results show that transient administration of anti-LFA-1 mAb or anti-CD154 mAb is efficacious in prolonging NPI xenograft survival when islets are cotransplanted with SC. Interleukin-4 and Serpina3n may be important mediators of protection observed in this model.
EFFECT OF GHRELIN ON ERYTHROPOIETIC INDICATORS IN MYELOSUPPRESSED RATS

Background: Ghrelin is a 28-amino acid acylated peptide released from the enteroendocrine cells of stomach. Aim of the study was to find out the possible beneficial role of ghrelin in erythropoiesis of myelosuppressed rats and its possible mediator. Methods: This randomized control trial was carried out at the Department of Physiology Foundation University Medical College in collaboration with the National Institute of Health, Islamabad, from February 2013 to June 2014. A total of 130 SpragueDawley rats were randomly divided into four groups. Group I was treated with ghrelin only (1 nmol/100μl), group II received intraperitoneal carboplatin and 5-flurouracil (5-FU) only while group III received chemotherapy with rat ghrelin. Group IV received growth hormone releasing hormone antagonist in addition to chemotherapy and ghrelin. Erythrocyte count, haemoglobin, reticulocytes count and serum growth hormone levels were measured on day 7 and 14. Results: The erythrocyte count, haemoglobin and reticulocytes count showed a drop on day 14 in group II, III and IV. This fall was significantly less in group III as compared to group II and IV. The serum growth hormone levels in group III were significantly higher as compared to group IV (p<0.05). Conclusions: In myelosuppressed rats treated with rat ghrelin, the reduction in erythrocyte count, haemoglobin and reticulocyte count was less as compared to myelosuppressed rats suggesting valuable role of ghrelin in stimulating erythropoiesis. While decreased erythrocyte count and growth hormone level in group treated with chemotherapy, ghrelin and GHRH antagonist suggest growth hormone as possible mediator of ghrelin in erythropoiesis.
Analgesic properties of some ethiopian medicinal plants in different models of nociception in mice

Many people use analgesic plants to relieve pain and inﬂammation though most of them have not yet been proved to possess such properties. The objective of the present study was to screen the aqueous and ethanol extracts of four Ethiopian traditionally used medicinal plants for analgesic properties. Aqueous and ethanol extracts of the plant materials were screened for their analgesic properties in mice using tail‐ﬂick, hot‐plate and tail‐pinch tests at three dose levels. Normal saline and standard analgesics were employed as negative and positive controls, respectively. The plants subject for the present screening were Ocimum suave, Ocimum lamiifolium, Lippia adoensis, and Ajuga remota. All extracts were observed to possess analgesic properties with varying potencies in tail‐ﬂick and hot‐plate tests. Analgesic activity, however was not observed with tail‐pinch test. The analgesic potencies also varied with concentrations and time after administration. From the present ﬁndings, it can be concluded that the extracts of all the plant materials have got analgesic properties with fast onset of action whose mechanisms need to be investigated further. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Gut content- and stable isotope-derived diets of four commercially and recreationally important fish species in two intermittently open estuaries

Despite remaining closed for variable periods, intermittently open estuaries provide habitat for estuarine and marine fish species of commercial and recreational value. To better understand how these systems trophically support their fish assemblages, the diets of four valued fish species, namely Acanthopagrus australis, Platycephalus fuscus, Sillago ciliata and Mugil cephalus, were examined in two intermittently open estuaries in New South Wales, Australia. Fish diets were determined using both gut contents and stable isotope analyses because the different temporal resolutions afforded by these methods can provide insight into the flexibility of fish diets. Stable isotope signatures of prey and fish proved to be particularly useful in analyses of the diets of M. cephalus and P. fuscus, because these species consume large quantities of unidentifiable organic matter and have high incidences of empty guts respectively. Diet reconstructions across methods were generally consistent for A. australis, but differed substantially for S. ciliata, with fewer prey taxa identified in the guts than expected. This result suggests that individual S. ciliata switch between local resources on the basis of their fluctuating temporal availability. Trophic flexibility, coupled with broad physicochemical tolerances, enables these species to flourish in the challenging environment of intermittently open estuaries.
Effect of chronic hypoxia on hypoxic ventilatory response in awake rats.

We compared the hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) of two groups of unrestrained awake male rats (300-550 g): those acclimatized to hypoxia > 7 wk at simulated altitude (380 Torr, n = 12) and sea level controls (n = 8). Chronic catheters were placed in the iliac artery and vein 3-7 days before study. An "on-line" system was used to measure arterial PO2 and PCO2. Arterial blood was drawn via a roller pump past O2 and CO2 electrodes and returned to the vein. Batch samples were taken before and after HVR measurements for calibrating and determining arterial pH and hematocrit. Inspired ventilation, tidal volume, and respiratory frequency were measured with barometric pressure plethysmography at several levels of inspired O2 fraction (0.08-0.30) maintained for 15 min. For isocapnic HVR, inspired CO2 fraction was increased as necessary to maintain arterial PCO2 at the hyperoxic level. In both groups, poikilocapnic HVRs (inspired CO2 fraction = 0) were significantly less than isocapnic HVRs. Isocapnic HVRs were significantly greater in hypoxia-acclimatized (2,783 +/- 233 ml.min-1.kg-1) than in sea level control rats (1,826 +/- 106 ml.min-1.kg-1), mainly due to a significant increase in tidal volume (P < 0.05). In conclusion, relieving hypocapnia in hypoxia, by maintaining isocapnia, reveals a significant increase in the ventilatory response to arterial PO2 in awake rats with chronic hypoxia.
Effects of Chronic Imipramine Combined With Swimming Exercise on Memory in Mice

–The aim of this study was to investigate in mice the possible effects of imipramine treatment and/or swimming exercise in the animal’s models of anxiety and memory. The results suggest that imipramine treatment and/or swimming exercise induces an anxiolytic-like effect in mice in the elevated plus-maze and open-field tests. In addition, comparison within each group during the five days of Morris water maze test, showed a decrease of latency time us groups imipramine from the second day the testing, with increased in exploration ratio in both short and long-term object recognition memory. However, the mice previously exposed to swimming exercise did not differ from saline controls in the memory tests. The results provide evidence that swimming exercise prevents the increased in learning and memory improvement induced by imipramine treatment, while not influencing their anxiotytic effects; a fact that should be relevant to a better understanding of the combination of behavioral and pharmacological therapy. Keywords––Imipramine, Morris water maze, Object recognition, swimming exercise
Grammatical Morphologic Development in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users May Be Affected by the Perceptual Prominence of the Relevant Markers

The goal of this study was to test 2 hypotheses about language development in pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users. The “language instinct” hypothesis states that children with CIs will develop language in the same sequence as children with normal hearing, but in a delayed fashion. In other words, noun plurals will develop first, and the use of the uncontractible copula and regular past tense will follow. An alternative hypothesis (the “perceptual prominence” hypothesis) is that the pattern of language development in CI users will be strongly affected by the perceptual prominence of the relevant morphological markers. This hypothesis predicts that the uncontractible copula will develop first, followed by noun plurals, and then by regular past tense. A sentence completion task was used to measure the performance of 9 pediatric CI users and compare it to that of several groups of children with normal hearing. The results from the CI users were consistent with the perceptual prominence hypothesis. In particular, the scores for the copula probe were higher than those for the noun plural probe for 8 of the 9 CI users. This result represents a rather striking inversion with respect to the usual development pattern in children with normal hearing and even in children with specific language impairment. If the perceptual prominence hypothesis receives further support in future studies, clinicians who work in language rehabilitation of CI users may choose to target those aspects of grammar that are less acoustically prominent to these children. In addition, and from a theoretical standpoint, these results suggest that although there may well be an innate language acquisition mechanism, patterns of language development can be strongly affected by the acoustic input.
Self-Supervised Learning for Stereo Matching with Self-Improving Ability

Exiting deep-learning based dense stereo matching methods often rely on ground-truth disparity maps as the training signals, which are however not always available in many situations. In this paper, we design a simple convolutional neural network architecture that is able to learn to compute dense disparity maps directly from the stereo inputs. Training is performed in an end-to-end fashion without the need of ground-truth disparity maps. The idea is to use image warping error (instead of disparity-map residuals) as the loss function to drive the learning process, aiming to find a depth-map that minimizes the warping error. While this is a simple concept well-known in stereo matching, to make it work in a deep-learning framework, many non-trivial challenges must be overcome, and in this work we provide effective solutions. Our network is self-adaptive to different unseen imageries as well as to different camera settings. Experiments on KITTI and Middlebury stereo benchmark datasets show that our method outperforms many state-of-the-art stereo matching methods with a margin, and at the same time significantly faster.
Glutamatergic Modulation of Cerebellar Interneuron Activity Is Mediated by an Enhancement of GABA Release and Requires Protein Kinase A/RIM1α Signaling

Information processing in the CNS is controlled by the activity of neuronal networks composed of principal neurons and interneurons. Activity-dependent modification of synaptic transmission onto principal neurons is well studied, but little is known about the modulation of inhibitory transmission between interneurons. However, synaptic plasticity at this level has clear implications for the generation of synchronized activity. We investigated the molecular mechanism(s) and functional consequences of an activity-induced lasting increase in GABA release that occurs between inhibitory interneurons (stellate cells) in the cerebellum. Using whole-cell recording and cerebellar slices, we found that stimulation of glutamatergic inputs (parallel fibers) with a physiological-like pattern of activity triggered a lasting increase in GABA release from stellate cells. This activity also potentiated inhibitory transmission between synaptically connected interneurons. Extracellular recording revealed that the enhanced inhibitory transmission reduced the firing frequency and altered the pattern of action potential activity in stellate cells. The induction of the sustained increase in GABA release required activation of NMDA receptors. Using pharmacological and genetic approaches, we found that presynaptic cAMP/PKA (protein kinase A) signaling and RIM1α, an active zone protein, is the critical pathway that is required for the lasting enhancement of GABA release. Thus, a common mechanism can underlie presynaptic plasticity of both excitatory and inhibitory transmission. This activity-dependent regulation of synaptic transmission between inhibitory interneurons may serve as an important mechanism for interneuronal network plasticity.
n-Channel Symmetric Multiple-Description Lattice Vector Quantization

We derive analytical expressions for the central and side quantizers in an n-channel symmetric multiple-description lattice vector quantizer which, under high-resolution assumptions, minimize the expected distortion subject to entropy constraints on the side descriptions for given packet-loss probabilities. The performance of the central quantizer is lattice dependent whereas the performance of the side quantizers is lattice independent. In fact the normalized second moments of the side quantizers are given by that of an L-dimensional sphere. Furthermore, our analytical results reveal a simple way to determine the optimum number of descriptions. We verify theoretical results with numerical experiments and show that with a packet-loss probability of 5%, a gain of 9.1 dB in MSE over state-of-the-art two-description systems can be achieved when quantizing a two-dimensional unit-variance Gaussian source using a total bit budget of 15 bits/dimension and using three descriptions. With 20% packet loss, a similar experiment reveals an MSE reduction of 10.6 dB when using four descriptions.
Aalborg Universitet Application of Autocovariance Least-Squares Method for Model Predictive Control of Hybrid Ventilation in Livestock Stable

In this paper, the implementation of a new Autocovariance Least-Square (ALS) technique for livestock hybrid ventilation systems and associated indoor climate with a Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy is presented. The design is based on thermal comfort parameters for poultry in barns and a combined dynamic model describing the entire system knowledge. Reference offset-free tracking is achieved using target calculation and quadratic programming and adding a disturbance model that accommodates unmeasured disturbances entering through the process input. The unknown noise covariances are diagnosed and corrected by applying the ALS estimator with the closed loop process data. The comparative simulations show the performance improvement with the ALS estimator in the presence of disturbances and moderate amount of error in the model parameters. The results demonstrate the high potential of ALS methods in improving the best practice of process control and estimation.
Adapting multilingual neural network hierarchy to a new language

The neural network based features became an inseparable part of state-of-the-art LVCSR systems. With the increasing accent on fast development of ASR system on limited resources, there is an effort to alleviate the need of large amount of transcribed in-domain data. One successful way is to use data from other languages. We present extensive evaluation of several strategies to adapt hierarchical neural network in search for the most effective one. To avoid the bias towards one target language, our strategies were evaluated on five languages. Also, several multilingual neural network hierarchies were trained on two sets of languages. Thus the results provide solid insight into the problem of adapting hierarchical system.
Considerations for Teaching Integrated STEM Education

Quality Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is vital for the future success of students. Integrated STEM education is one way to make learning more connected and relevant for students. There is a need for further research and discussion on the knowledge, experiences, and background that teachers need to effectively teach integrated STEM education. A support, teaching, efficacy, and materials (s.t.e.m.) model of considerations for teaching integrated STEM education was developed through a year-long partnership with a middle school. The middle school was implementing Project Lead the Way’s Gateway to Technology curriculum. The s.t. e.m. model is a good starting point for teachers as they implement and improve integrated STEM education.
Mixture exposure to PFAS: A Relative Potency Factor approach

PFAS is een grote stofgroep van poly- en perfluoralkylverbindingen. Ze hebben onder andere een vuilafstotende werking en worden daarom bijvoorbeeld in kleding verwerkt. Van de bekendste, zoals PFOA en PFOS, is onderzocht welke eigenschappen ze hebben en welke hoeveelheid mensen ervan binnen mogen krijgen zonder negatieve effecten op de gezondheid te veroorzaken. In 2016 heeft het RIVM voor PFOA zo'n hoeveelheid afgeleid. Van de meeste andere verbindingen in deze stofgroep is echter veel minder bekend. PFAS stoffen komen vaak gezamenlijk als verontreiniging voor in grond, grondwater of drinkwater. Om de ernst van dergelijke verontreiniging beter te kunnen inschatten, heeft het RIVM onderzocht in hoeverre het mogelijk is om de schadelijkheid van een aantal PFAS ten opzichte van PFOA uit te drukken. Dat kan door gebruik te maken van zogeheten Relative Potency Factors (RPF). Hierbij wordt de blootstelling aan een PFAS-mengsel uitgedrukt in een vergelijkbare hoeveelheid PFOA. Deze methode kan worden gebruikt bij het omgaan met verontreiniging met PFAS in het milieu, zoals bij een verontreiniging in grond, grondwater of drinkwater. Gemeten PFAS-hoeveelheden worden eenvoudig in PFOA-eenheden uitgedrukt, zodat ze vergeleken kunnen worden met voor bodem of (drink)water geldende PFOA-normen. Aan het gebruik van de RPF-methode kleeft wel een belangrijke voorwaarde, namelijk dat een (beperkte) set aan vergelijkbare toxiciteitsgegevens voor individuele PFAS-verbindingen beschikbaar is. Voor het relevante gezondheidseffect (op de lever van proefdieren) bleek dergelijke informatie voor elf PFAS verbindingen beschikbaar. Dit effect is onderzocht omdat de lever bij mens en proefdieren het gevoeligst op PFOA reageert. Het ongewenste effect is een vergroting van de lever (hypertrofie).