Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age Differences in Emotion Recognition: A Question of Modality?

Previous research has suggested age deficits in unimodal emotion recognition tasks. In 2 studies with independent samples, we tested the idea that older adults’ performance will be enhanced in multimodal emotion recognition tasks. In each study, participants were presented with newly developed film clips, each portraying a young or an old woman while she relived an emotional memory. As a first step, participants received the film clips in each of 3 unimodal conditions (facial, lexical, prosodic). As a second step, participants were presented with tasks that contained different combinations of these modalities. Consistent with prior research, younger adults outperformed older adults in unimodal facial and prosodic tasks (Study 1) or in all 3 unimodal tasks (Study 2). As predicted, older adults profited more from multimodal stimuli than young adults so that there were no age deficits in the multimodal tasks (Studies 1 and 2). The findings support the idea that the ecological validity of laboratory tasks influence age differences in emotion recognition.
Nonexponential decay of a stochastic one-channel system.

A general formula is presented that expresses the temporal evolution of compound systems. It connects the time dependence of the density matrix with the energy dependence of the scattering matrix. Using results of random matrix theory, we then study the decay behavior of stochastic compound systems with arbitrary coupling between bound states and decay channels. As an example we consider the case of one open channel and prove a nonexponential decay law for all times that asymptotically is of the form ${\mathit{t}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}3/2}$.
Glucocorticoids and insulin both modulate caloric intake through actions on the brain

Glucocorticoids act primarily in a feed‐forward fashion on brain to activate CNS pathways that implement wanting appropriate to physiological needs. Thus, depending on the available conditions, elevated glucocorticoids may augment the behavioural want to run, fight or feed. Although glucocorticoids stimulate intake of chow, fat and sucrose, insulin appears to sculpt calorie‐associated desires toward foods high in fat, acting through hepatic branch afferents of the vagus nerve. Both conditions of reduced food allowance and chronic stress excite glucocorticoid‐augmented central neural networks that may lead toward ultimate abdominal obesity.
Teen conceptualization of digital technologies

This research explores teenagers’ knowledge representation of six digital technologies – email, IM, internet, digital photos, sms and games. Instead of pre-imposing a specific structure, teens freely express everything they consider relevant by identifying the meanings associated with each digital technology. Drawing on cognitive psychology theories and teenagers’ social development theories, the data from thirteen focus groups were analyzed. The nature of attributes comprising technical features, personal and socially relevant activities/experiences, feelings and attitudes towards these instruments only partially matched other IT conceptualizations. However, those studies applied different methodological approaches. Among the 133 attributes suggested, 30 were shared by at least two digital technologies. The Multiple Correspondence Analysis showed that games were psychologically and functionally (physical attributes) more integrated with IM and internet whereas digital photos were segregated. The communicational and product design implications of assessing attributes are discussed.
Compressive-Sensing-Based Video Codec by Autoregressive Prediction and Adaptive Residual Recovery

This paper presents a compressive-sensing- (CS-) based video codec which is suitable for wireless video system requiring simple encoders but tolerant, more complex decoders. At the encoder side, each video frame is independently measured by block-based random matrix, and the resulting measurements are encoded into compressed bitstream by entropy coding. Specifically, to reduce the quantization errors of measurements, a nonuniform quantization is integrated into the DPCM-based quantizer. At the decoder side, a novel joint reconstruction algorithm is proposed to improve the quality of reconstructed video frames. Firstly, the proposed algorithm uses the temporal autoregressive (AR) model to generate the Side Information (SI) of video frame, and next it recovers the residual between the original frame and the corresponding SI. To exploit the sparse property of residual with locally varying statistics, the Principle Component Analysis (PCA) is used to learn online the transform matrix adapting to residual structures. Extensive experiments validate that the joint reconstruction algorithm in the proposed codec achieves much better results than many existing methods with consideration of the reconstructed quality and the computational complexity. The rate-distortion performance of the proposed codec is superior to the state-of-the-art CS-based video codec, although there is still a considerable gap between it and traditional video codec.
Less Skilled Readers Have Less Efficient Suppression Mechanisms

One approach to understanding the component processes and mechanisms underlying adult reading skill is to compare the performance of more skilled and less skilled readers on laboratory experiments. The results of some recent experiments employing this approach demonstrate that less skilled adult readers suppress less efficiently the inappropriate meanings of ambiguous words (e.g., the playing card vs. garden tool meanings of spaded, the incorrect forms of homophones (e.g., patients vs. patience), the typical-but-absent members of scenes (e.g., a tractor in a farm scene), and words superimposed on pictures. Less skilled readers are not less efficient in activating contextually appropriate information; in fact, they activate contextually appropriate information more strongly than more skilled readers do. Therefore, one conclusion that can be drawn from these experiments is that less skilled adult readers suffer from less efficient suppression mechanisms.
Effects of Humoral Hypercalcemia of Malignancy and Gallium Nitrate on Thyroid C Cells in Nude Mice: Immunohistochemical and Ultrastructural Investigations

Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural investigations of thyroid C cells were conducted in male nude (athymic) mice bearing a serially transplantable canine adenocarcinoma (CAC-8) model of humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy following subcutaneous administration of gallium nitrate. The following four groups were investigated: 1) vehicle-treated non-tumor-bearing control mice; 2) non-tumor-bearing mice treated with gallium nitrate; 3) vehicle-treated hypercalcemic mice bearing CAC-8; and 4) CAC-8 tumor-bearing mice treated with gallium nitrate. Gallium nitrate-treated tumor-bearing mice had a significant decrease in serum calcium as compared with tumor-bearing controls. C cells of non-tumor-bearing mice stained intensely for calcitonin and calcitonin gene-related peptide and weakly for chromogranin A and neuron-specific enolase. In C cells of both vehicle- and gallium-treated tumor-bearing mice, immunoreactive staining was decreased for calcitonin, calcitonin gene-related peptide, and chromogranin A, whereas there was a moderate increase in staining for neuron-specific enolase. Ultrastructurally, thyroid C cells in hypercalcemic tumor-bearing control and gallium-treated mice were hypertrophic and markedly degranulated as compared with those of non-tumor-bearing controls. Hypertrophic C cells contained few mature secretory granules, a well-developed Golgi apparatus, and lamellar arrays of rough endoplasmic reticulum. There was no evidence of C-cell hyperplasia. Immunohistochemical and ultrastructural findings revealed that C cells in mice with cancer-associated hypercalcemia were primarily in the actively synthesizing phase of the secretory cycle and had diminished immunoreactivity for calcitonin, calcitonin gene-related peptide, and chromogranin A. Gallium nitrate did not alter immunohistochemical or ultrastructural features of chronically stimulated C cells even though serum calcium was reduced.
Body weight and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol changes after consumption of a low-fat ad libitum diet.

OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of a diet restricted in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol, under weight-maintenance and ad libitum conditions on body weight and plasma lipid levels in hypercholesterolemic subjects. DESIGN Dietary intervention study. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Twenty-seven free-living, healthy middle-aged and elderly men (n = 13, age range, 41 to 81 years) and women (n = 14, age range, 52 to 79 years) with moderate hypercholesterolemia (low-density lipoprotein cholesterol [LDL-C] > or = 3.36 mmol/L [130 mg/dL]) participated in the study. INTERVENTION Subjects underwent three dietary phases. First, subjects were provided with a diet similar to the average US diet (baseline diet; 35.4% total fat, 13.8% to 14.1% saturated fat, and 30 to 35 mg/1000 kJ [128 to 147 mg/1000 kcal] cholesterol). During the second dietary phase, subjects consumed a low-fat diet (15.1% total fat, 5.0% saturated fat, 17 mg/1000 kJ [73 mg/1000 kcal] cholesterol). During the baseline and low-fat diet phases, which lasted 5 to 6 weeks each, the energy intake was adjusted to keep body weight constant. During the third diet phase (low-fat ad libitum diet) subjects were given the same low-fat diet for 10 to 12 weeks, but could adjust their intake between 66% and 133% of the energy required to maintain body weight. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Body weight and plasma lipid levels. RESULTS Consumption of the low-fat diet under weight-maintenance conditions had significant lowering effects on plasma total cholesterol (TC), LDL-C, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels (mean change, -12.5%, -17.1%, and -22.8%, respectively). This diet significantly increased plasma triglyceride levels (+47.3%) and the TC/HDL-C ratio (+14.6%). In contrast, consumption of the low-fat ad libitum diet was accompanied by significant weight loss (3.63 kg), by a mean decrease in LDL-C (124.3%), and by mean triglyceride levels and TC/HDL-C ratio that were not significantly different from values obtained at baseline. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that a low-fat ad libitum diet promotes weight loss and LDL-C lowering without adverse effects on triglycerides or the TC/HDL-C ratio in middle-aged and elderly men and women with moderate hypercholesterolemia.
Evaluation of bone mineral density of the peripheral skeleton in pre‐ and postmenopausal women with newly diagnosed endogenous Cushing's syndrome

objective Cushing's syndrome (CS) is a well recognized cause of bone loss. Although many previous studies have shown decreased bone mineral density (BMD) in the lumbar spina and proximal femur of patients with endogenous CS, so far, the data estimating BMD in their peripheral skeleton are sparse. The aim of the present study was to evaluate BMD in the forearm and heel of women with newly diagnosed CS and to investigate its possible correlation with serum osteocalcin (BGP) and 24‐hour urinary free cortisol levels (UFC).
Severe psychomotor retardation in a boy with a small supernumerary marker chromosome 19p

We describe the clinical case of a nine-year-old boy with psychomotor retardation and a small supernumerary marker chromosome (sSMC) present in mosaic form. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) using centromere cross-hybridizing probes D1/5/19Z (pZ5.1), the whole chromosome paint probe 19, pool YACs19p (839B1, 872G3, 728C8), and pool YACs19q (767C4, 761C1, 786G6) demonstrated that the sSMC was derived from chromosome 19p. Based on GTG-banding and FISH analyses, the patient’s karyotype was interpreted as: 47,XY,+mar.ish der(19) (:p13.3→p11:)(839B1+, 872G3+,728C8+, D1/5/19Z+) de novo[52]/46,XY[48]. To our knowledge, only two other similar cases have been reported. This case helps to better delineate karyotype-phenotype correlations between sSMC 19p and associated clinical phenomena.
The Role of Trainer Behavior in End User Software Training

Understanding the factors that differentiate effective from ineffective end user software training is an underresearched topic in MIS research. Only a few studies have investigated the characteristics of effective training, and the cognitive and social processes through which they influence learning. Of these, none has focused on the role of the trainer and his or her influence on training effectiveness. Thus, the purpose of this research is to identify the behaviors that characterize effective trainers, and examine these behaviors in the context of the learning process. Fifty-three items were identified through interviews with trainers as characterizing effective trainer behavior. These items were organized using card sorting and factor analysis. Six primary categories of behavior emerged: knowledge, communication, course design, sympathy, training techniques, and class management. The prototypicality of the behaviors was also assessed, through a survey of 68 trainers. The results of the study are useful in a number of ways. First, the study provides a basis for training feedback instruments that can be used in applied settings. Second, the results provide a foundation for including trainer behavior into existing training models in a more comprehensive fashion than has been undertaken to date.
Empathy in boys with disruptive behavior disorders.

BACKGROUND The present study examined empathy in 8- to 12-year-old clinically referred boys with disruptive behavior disorders (DBD) (n=25) and age-matched normal controls (n=24). METHOD Situational empathy was assessed by children's emotional and cognitive responses to six empathy-inducing vignettes (displaying sadness, anger or happiness). Dispositional affective empathy was measured by a self-report questionnaire for children. RESULTS In line with predictions, results revealed deficits in dispositional and situational empathy among DBD boys, and inverse relationships between both empathy measures and parent-reports of aggressive/disruptive behavior among all children. The study also explored whether DBD boys are less responsive to just any emotion, or to specific emotions. Compared to normal controls, DBD boys responded less empathically to sadness and anger, but equally empathically to happiness. In addition, while DBD boys responded less empathically than the normal controls to each and every sadness vignette, they did not show equally low levels of empathic responses to all sadness vignettes. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that situational factors may be involved in DBD boys' reduced responsiveness to another person's sadness.
Effect of Molecule Branching and Glycosidic Linkage on the Degradation of Polydextrose by Gut Microbiota

Polydextrose is a randomly linked complex glucose oligomer that is widely used as a sugar replacer, bulking agent, dietary fiber and prebiotic. Polydextrose is poorly utilized by the host and, during gastrointestinal transit, it is slowly degraded by intestinal microbes, although it is not known which parts of the complex molecule are preferred by the microbes. The microbial degradation of polydextrose was assessed by using a simulated model of colonic fermentation. The degradation products and their glycosidic linkages were measured by combined gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, and compared to those of intact polydextrose. Fermentation resulted in an increase in the relative abundance of non-branched molecules with a concomitant decrease in single-branched glucose molecules and a reduced total number of branching points. A detailed analysis showed a preponderance of 1,6 pyranose linkages. The results of this study demonstrate how intestinal microbes selectively degrade polydextrose, and provide an insight into the preferences of gut microbiota in the presence of different glycosidic linkages.
Structural Insights into HypB, a GTP-binding Protein That Regulates Metal Binding*

HypB is a prokaryotic metal-binding guanine nucleotide-binding protein that is essential for nickel incorporation into hydrogenases. Here we solved the x-ray structure of HypB from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii. It shows that the G-domain has a different topology than the Ras-like proteins and belongs to the SIMIBI (after Signal Recognition Particle, MinD and BioD) class of NTP-binding proteins. We show that HypB undergoes nucleotide-dependent dimerization, which is apparently a common feature of SIMIBI class G-proteins. The nucleotides are located in the dimer interface and are contacted by both subunits. The active site features residues from both subunits arguing that hydrolysis also requires dimerization. Two metal-binding sites are found, one of which is dependent on the state of bound nucleotide. A totally conserved ENV/IGNLV/ICP motif in switch II relays the nucleotide binding with the metal ionbinding site. The homology with NifH, the Fe protein subunit of nitrogenase, suggests a mechanistic model for the switch-dependent incorporation of a metal ion into hydrogenases.
Explore the Buffering Effects of Perceived Hidden Inflation on Survival of Mobile Phone Service Providers in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to examine the moderating role of perceived hidden inflation on the relationships between service quality, brand trust and brand loyalty. All data collected from the target population are analyzed through two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) and moderated multiple regression (MMR) to examine the hypotheses. 1,050 questionnaires are randomly distributed at 21 telecommunication service stores in Taiwan. Findings indicated that service quality has no direct impact on behavioral loyalty but it has a significant indirect impact on behavioral loyalty through brand trust or attitudinal loyalty. Moreover, findings identify perceived hidden inflation as the moderating role in the service quality–brand trust–brand loyalty chain. Besides the need for empirical confirmation of the hypotheses given, finally, there are several practical implications for service marketers and future research directions for scholars.
GD1b-specific antibody induces ataxia in Guillain-Barré syndrome

Background: Rabbit ataxic neuropathy and several case reports have suggested a close association of IgG anti-GD1b antibodies with ataxia in Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). However, about half of the patients with GBS having IgG anti-GD1b antibodies with no reactivities against other gangliosides (GD1b-mono IgG) do not exhibit ataxia. Antibodies specific to ganglioside complexes (GSCs) containing GD1b have been found in sera from some patients with GBS. Objective: To investigate whether the reactivities of anti-GD1b IgG to such complexes are different between ataxic and nonataxic patients. Methods: The authors examined sera from 17 patients with GBS (9 with ataxia and 8 without ataxia) who had GD1b-mono IgG, with the use of an ELISA in which wells were coated with a mixture of GD1b and each of nine gangliosides (GM1, GM2, GM3, GD1a, GD3, GT1a, GT1b, GQ1b, and GalNAc-GD1a). The binding activities of the anti-GD1b IgG antibodies against such mixture antigens were compared between ataxic and nonataxic patients. Results: The reactivities to antigens, such as GD1b combined with GD1a, GT1b, GQ1b, and GalNAc-GD1a, were significantly reduced in ataxic compared with nonataxic patients. Sera from all nonataxic patients had antibody activities to GSCs not containing GD1b. Conclusions: The addition of another ganglioside may cause conformational change of GD1b. Given the inhibition of the binding ability of the anti-GD1b IgG antibodies by such a conformational change, the anti-GD1b IgG antibodies in ataxic patients may interact closely with GD1b. IgG antibodies highly specific for GD1b may induce ataxia in Guillain-Barré syndrome. GLOSSARY: GBS = Guillain-Barré syndrome; GSCs = ganglioside complexes; OD = optical density.
Design and Steering Control of a Center-Articulated Mobile Robot Module

This paper discusses the design and steering control for an autonomous modular mobile robot. The module is designed with a center-articulated steering joint to minimize the number of actuators used in the chain. We propose a feedback control law which allows steering between configurations in the plane and show its application as a parking control to dock modules together. The control law is designed by Lyapunov techniques and relies on the equations of the robot in polar coordinates. A set of experiments have been carried out to show the performance of the proposed approach. The design is intended to endow individual wheeled modules with the capability to merge and make a single snake-like robot to take advantage of the benefits of modular robotics.
Effects of reduced ambient temperature on fat utilization during submaximal exercise.

PURPOSE The influence of cold air exposure on fuel utilization during prolonged cycle exercise was investigated. METHODS Nine male subjects cycled for 90 min in ambient temperatures of -10 degrees C, 0 degrees C, 10 degrees C, and 20 degrees C. External work performed between conditions was constant. Mean oxygen consumption (VO2) over the 90 min in the 20 degrees C trial corresponded to 64 +/- 5.8% VO2peak. RESULTS Although mean skin temperature was different between trials (P < 0.05), rectal temperatures were not different. At -10 degrees C and 0 degrees C, the respiratory exchange ratio was higher compared with 10 degrees C and 20 degrees C (0.98 +/- 0.01 and 0.97 +/- 0.01 vs 0.92 +/- 0.01 and 0.91 +/- 0.01; P < 0.05). The associated rates of fat oxidation were lower at -10 degrees C and 0 degrees C compared with 10 degrees C and 20 degrees C (0.15 +/- 0.06 and 0.17 +/- 0.06 vs 0.35 +/- 0.06 and 0.40 +/- 0.04 g.min-1; P < 0.05). Blood glycerol was lower at -10 degrees C and 0 degrees C compared with 20 degrees C (P < 0.05); mean values were 0.13 +/- 0.0, 0.13 +/- 0.0, and 0.18 +/- 0.0 mmol.L-1 for the -10 degrees C, 0 degrees C, and 20 degrees C trials, respectively. Mean VO2 was lower in the -10 degrees C trial than the 20 degrees C trial (2.53 +/- 0.06 vs 2.77 +/- 0.09. L.min-1; P < 0.05). Mean blood glucose concentrations were lower at -10 degrees C than 20 degrees C (4.9 +/- 0.2 vs 5.3 +/- 0.1 mmol.L-1; P < 0.05). Although plasma epinephrine concentrations were greater during the 20 degrees C trial compared with all other trials (P < 0.05), plasma norepinephrine did not differ between trials. CONCLUSION The diminished fat oxidation at colder temperatures potentially reflects a reduction in lipolysis and/or mobilization of FFA or impairment in the oxidative capacity of the muscle.