Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temporal requirements of heat shock factor‐1 for longevity assurance

Reducing the activity of the insulin/IGF‐1 signaling pathway (IIS) modifies development, elevates stress resistance, protects from toxic protein aggregation (proteotoxicity), and extends lifespan (LS) of worms, flies, and mice. In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, LS extension by IIS reduction is entirely dependent upon the activity of the transcription factors DAF‐16 and the heat shock factor‐1 (HSF‐1). While DAF‐16 determines LS exclusively during early adulthood, it is required for proteotoxicity protection also during late adulthood. In contrast, HSF‐1 protects from proteotoxicity during larval development. Despite the critical requirement for HSF‐1 for LS extension, the temporal requirements for this transcription factor as a LS determinant are unknown. To establish the temporal requirements of HSF‐1 for longevity assurance, we conditionally knocked down hsf‐1 during larval development and adulthood of C. elegans and found that unlike daf‐16, hsf‐1 is foremost required for LS determination during early larval development, required for a lesser extent during early adulthood and has small effect on longevity also during late adulthood. Our findings indicate that early developmental events affect LS and suggest that HSF‐1 sets during development of the conditions that enable DAF‐16 to promote longevity during reproductive adulthood. This study proposes a novel link between HSF‐1 and the longevity functions of the IIS.
Beyond Heroes and Villains: Examining Explanatory Mechanisms Underlying Moral Disengagement

In recent years, theorizing regarding the role and importance of media entertainment in everyday life has garnered much serious attention by media effects scholars. The role of moral judgments, sanctions, and lack thereof are areas in which theoretical development has expanded. The present study examines narrative exposure, identification, and moral judgment as indicators of the degree to which individuals may morally disengage during mediated entertainment experiences. In addition, this study attempts to further expand disposition theory and theorizing about the role of moral disengagement by moving beyond conceptualizations of good, bad, and morally ambiguous characters to explore more subtle moral distinctions between characters as they exist within the same narrative and along a continuum. Results suggest that identification and moral judgment serve as important mediators predicting moral disengagement; however, the nature of these relationships are moderated by the perception of the character’s moral fortitude.
General Gauss-Bonnet brane cosmology

We consider five-dimensional spacetimes of constant three-dimensional spatial curvature in the presence of a bulk cosmological constant. We find the general solution of such a configuration in the presence of a Gauss–Bonnet term. Two classes of non-trivial bulk solutions are found. The first class is valid only under a fine-tuning relation between the Gauss–Bonnet coupling constant and the cosmological constant of the bulk spacetime. The second class of solutions are static and are the extensions of the AdS–Schwarzchild black holes. Hence in the absence of a cosmological constant or if the fine-tuning relation is not true, the generalized Birkhoff's staticity theorem holds even in the presence of Gauss–Bonnet curvature terms. We examine the consequences in braneworld cosmology obtaining the generalized Friedmann equations for a perfect fluid 3-brane and discuss how this modifies the usual scenario.
Tamarind Seed: Properties, Processing and Utilization

Tamarind seed is an underutilized byproduct of the tamarind pulp industry. Only a small portion of the seed, in the form of tamarind kernel powder (TKP), is used as a sizing material in the textile, paper, and jute industries. Though many applications of this seed are possible, there have been hardly any other uses for it including using it as an additive in food formulations. The excellent gelling cum adhesive characteristics of the decorticated seed powder can lead to several applications in food and pharmaceutical industries which are evident by the number of research papers as well as patent applications. This article thus focuses on the possibilities of using the seed in several food and non-food industries with particular reference to physical and engineering properties, hydration behavior, rheological properties, functional and nutritional characteristics, and the processing of the tamarind seed for wider applications.
Ad-hoc Technology in Future IP based Mobile Communication Systems

In this paper we outline our future research activities in the field of ad--hoc communication systems for IP based services. We summarize why omnipresent technologies fail to support ad--hoc technology and give the motivation for our own approach. We identify different ad-hoc scenarios and emphasize the required research activities. We provide an overview of our intermediate results and explain how our results can be obtained by the WWRF working group.
The Interpretation of Three-Dimensional Structure from Image Curves

Genera/ constraints on the interpretation of image curves are described and implemented We illustrate the use of these constraints to interpret three dimensional structure from an image up to the volumetric level These constraints do not use any knowledge regarding the specific objects in the image, but rely on general assumptions regarding illumination, occlusion, object geometry, and the imaging process They are based on coincidence assumptions that various coincidental lcatures or alignments in an image are unlikely to arise without reason. The strength of these coincidence assumptions depends on the accuracy of the low-level description of an image. Since any one feature can be the result of pure coincidence or errors in the detection process, it is necessary to use a reasoning system which can use these hypotheses to derive consistent global interpretations, while maintaining the ability to remove the implications of hypotheses which are disproved in the face of further evidence We demonstrate the successful interpretation of some hand derived image curves up to the volumetric level, including the construction of a three- space model.
Effect of Metal Chelators on γ-Secretase Indicates That Calcium and Magnesium Ions Facilitate Cleavage of Alzheimer Amyloid Precursor Substrate

Gamma-secretase is involved in the production of Aβ amyloid peptides. It cleaves the transmembrane domain of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) at alternative sites to produce Aβ and the APP intracellular domain (AICD). Metal ions play an important role in Aβ aggregation and metabolism, thus metal chelators and ligands represent potential therapeutic agents for AD treatment. A direct effect of metal chelators on γ-secretase has not yet been investigated. The authors used an in vitro γ-secretase assay consisting of cleavage of APP C100-3XFLAG by endogenous γ-secretase from rodent brains and human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y, and detected AICD production by western blotting. Adding metalloprotease inhibitors to the reaction showed that clioquinol, phosphoramidon, and zinc metalloprotease inhibitors had no significant effect on γ-secretase activity. In contrast, phenanthroline, EDTA, and EGTA markedly decreased γ-secretase activity that could be restored by adding back calcium and magnesium ions. Mg2+ stabilized a 1,000 kDa presenilin 1 complex through blue native gel electrophoresis and size-exclusion chromatography. Data suggest that Ca2+ and Mg2+ stabilize γ-secretase and enhance its activity.
Enhanced security and reliability with MIMO communications for smart grid

As a critical infrastructure element, smart grid is facing security and reliability challenges. In this paper, we have investigated the real-time communication between a smart meter and the central control system, a component that provides centralized monitoring and performs control operations for the power grid. To combat severe communication impairments induced by malicious attacks or link failures, we propose to implement space-time block coding over multiple antennas at the transmitter and the receiver. We first investigated the security challenges from malicious attacks, in which the malicious attacks of additive pattern were primarily addressed. Reliability challenges from link failure were then considered. Finally present were extensive numerical studies on multiple-link attacks, multiple-link failures and receiver with detection scenarios. Simulations showed that additive malicious attacks and link failures could be effectively mitigated in virtue of space-time block coding. Meanwhile, it is verified that more antennas will give more diversity gain and better performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A genetic algorithm-based beamforming approach for delay-constrained networks

In this paper, we study the performance of initial access beamforming schemes in the cases with large but finite number of transmit antennas and users. Particularly, we develop an efficient beamforming scheme using genetic algorithms. Moreover, taking the millimeter wave communication characteristics and different metrics into account, we investigate the effect of various parameters such as number of antennas/receivers, beamforming resolution as well as hardware impairments on the system performance. As shown, our proposed algorithm is generic in the sense that it can be effectively applied with different channel models, metrics and beamforming methods. Also, our results indicate that the proposed scheme can reach (almost) the same end-to-end throughput as the exhaustive search-based optimal approach with considerably less implementation complexity.
Clustering in WSN Using Node Ranking with Hybrid Nodes Duty-Cycle and Energy Threshold

The denseness and random distribution of large-scale WSNs makes it quite difficult to replace or recharge nodes. Energy efficiency and management is a major design goal in these networks. In this paper, a new node energy efficient algorithm using energy thresholds to replace cluster heads is proposed. The proposed algorithm uses node ranking to elect cluster heads based on energy levels and positions of the nodes in reference to the base station (BS) which is used as a sink for gathered information. Since the BS calculates the number of rounds a cluster head can remain through in advance, this feature will have a great effect in prolonging the network life time as it reduces the amount of energy wasted on replacing cluster heads. In addition, hybrid redundant nodes duty-cycle is used for nodes to take turn in covering the monitored area which will improve the performance further. The performance of this algorithm compared to other well-known algorithms is shown. Also the performance of the algorithm using random cluster heads replacement and using threshold values to replace the cluster heads are compared.
Experimental assessment of a RSS-based localization algorithm in indoor environment

In this paper we show the results of an experimental assessment of an indoor localization system based on a Wireless Sensor Network. The estimated position of a target node embedded in the monitored environment is obtained by running of the Relative Span Exponentially Weighted Localization (REWL) algorithm, a novel localization procedure recently proposed in the literature. The inputs of the algorithm are the Received Signal Strength (RSS) measurements collected in a real indoor scenario. A description of the developed system and a metrological characterization of the proposed technique is presented in this paper.
Virtual browser: a virtualized browser to sandbox third-party JavaScripts with enhanced security

Third party JavaScripts not only offer much richer features to the web and its applications but also introduce new threats. These scripts cannot be completely trusted and executed with the privileges given to host web sites. Due to incomplete virtualization and lack of tracking all the data flows, all existing approaches without native sandbox support can secure only a subset of third party JavaScripts, and they are vulnerable to attacks encoded in non-standard HTML/-JavaScript (browser quirks) as these approaches will parse third party JavaScripts independently at server side without considering client-side non-standard parsing quirks. At the same time, native sandboxes are vulnerable to attacks based on unknown native JavaScript engine bugs. In this paper, we propose Virtual Browser, a full browser-level virtualized environment within existing browsers for executing untrusted third party code. Our approach supports more complete JavaScript language features including those hard-to-secure functions, such as with and eval. Since Virtual Browser does not rely on native browser parsing behavior, there is no possibility of attacks being executed through browser quirks. Moreover, given the third-party Javascripts are running in Virtual Browser instead of native browsers, it is harder for the attackers to exploit unknown vulnerabilities in the native JavaScript engine. In our design, we first completely isolate Virtual Browser from the native browser components and then introduce communication by adding data flows carefully examined for security. The evaluation of the Virtual Browser prototype shows that our execution speed is the same as Microsoft Web Sandbox[5], a state of the art runtime web-level sandbox. In addition, Virtual Browser is more secure and supports more complete JavaScript for third party JavaScript development.
Evolutionary dynamics at high latitudes: speciation and extinction in polar marine faunas

Ecologists have long been fascinated by the flora and fauna of extreme environments. Physiological studies have revealed the extent to which lifestyle is constrained by low temperature but there is as yet no consensus on why the diversity of polar assemblages is so much lower than many tropical assemblages. The evolution of marine faunas at high latitudes has been influenced strongly by oceanic cooling during the Cenozoic and the associated onset of continental glaciations. Glaciation eradicated many shallow-water habitats, especially in the Southern Hemisphere, and the cooling has led to widespread extinction in some groups. While environmental conditions at glacial maxima would have been very different from those existing today, fossil evidence indicates that some lineages extend back well into the Cenozoic. Oscillations of the ice-sheet on Milankovitch frequencies will have periodically eradicated and exposed continental shelf habitat, and a full understanding of evolutionary dynamics at high latitude requires better knowledge of the links between the faunas of the shelf, slope and deep-sea. Molecular techniques to produce phylogenies, coupled with further palaeontological work to root these phylogenies in time, will be essential to further progress.
The “Being Hopeful in the Face of Chronic Pain” Program: A Counseling Program for People Experiencing Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is a condition defined by its intractable nature, with a host of negative impacts on the lives of sufferers, including a deficit of positive emotions. This article presents an innovative group therapy program for chronic pain patients entitled Being Hopeful in the Face of Chronic Pain. Theoretical background for the creation of the group is presented, along with empirical evidence to support the efficacy of the program. The 6-week group program is described in sufficient detail for practitioners to adapt it for use, delineating the specific activities undertaken in each session. Implications for chronic pain treatment are discussed.
Neuropsychiatric symptoms and their impact on quality of life in multiple system atrophy

Abstract Background: Multiple system atrophy (MSA) is a sporadic neurodegenerative disorder characterized by severe dysautonomia and atypical Parkinsonism or cerebellar dysfunction. Disease-modifying treatment is not available and the mainstream of care is supportive. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are frequent in MSA and their successful management can improve patients’ quality of life (QOL). This study aimed to define a comprehensive neuropsychiatric profile in MSA patients in relation to QOL. Methods: In 48 MSA patients and 40 controls neuropsychiatric symptoms were assessed using Neuropsychiatric Inventory. MSA patients completed Beck Depression Inventory and QOL questionnaire (SF12), including Mental and Physical subscales. Results: Eighty-seven percent of MSA patients had neuropsychiatric symptoms as compared with 10.4% of controls. Depression (56%), apathy (48%), anxiety (27%), and agitation (27%) predominated. The Physical SF-12 scores were lower in the patients as compared with the controls. Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) scores did not correlate with QOL measures. Depression, as reflected by the BDI, correlated with the mental component score of the SF-12 in MSA patients. Conclusions: Neuropsychiatric symptoms are very frequent in patients with MSA and are dominated by depression and apathy. They appear independent from physical disability and loosely map onto the known brain pathology of MSA. Only depression, as reflected by the BDI, negatively affected mental QOL. The discrepancy between the BDI and NPI-depression scores likely stems from the different approaches to symptoms by these questionnaires.
Metabotropic glutamate2/3 receptor agonism facilitates autonomic recovery after pharmacological panic challenge in healthy humans

Group II metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR2/3) are suggested to modulate anxiety, arousal, and stress including autonomic control. However, no study has investigated mGluR2/3-related effects on baseline autonomic activity and reactivity to emotional challenge in humans as yet. Using a double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled, cross-over study design, we investigated the influence of a 1-week treatment with the mGluR2/3 agonist LY544344, prodrug of LY354740, on autonomic reactivity to a cholecystokinin tetrapeptide (CCK-4) panic challenge in eight healthy young men. The main outcome measures were time and frequency domain heart rate variability parameters during baseline, CCK-4 challenge, and recovery. There was no evidence for LY544344-mediated effects on baseline and CCK-4 challenge vagal activity, but a significantly lower recovery low frequency (%) and low frequency/high frequency ratio in the LY544344 group, suggesting enhanced autonomic recovery. This pilot study provides first human data indicating that mGluR2/3 agonism is involved in autonomic responsiveness, suggesting an important role of mGluR2/3 in central autonomic regulation.
Context query in information retrieval

There is an important query requirement missing for search engines. With the wide variation of domain knowledge and user interest, a user would like to retrieve documents in which one query term is discussed in the context of another. Based on existing query mechanisms, what can be specified at most is the co-occurrence of multiple terms in a query. This is insufficient because the co-occurrence of two terms does not necessarily mean that one is discussed in the context of the other. In this paper we propose the context query for Web searching. A new query operator, called the 'in' operator, is used to specify context inclusion between two terms. Heuristic rules to identify context inclusion are suggested and implementation of the 'in' operator in search engines is proposed. Results show that both the precision and ranking relevance of Web searching are improved significantly.
Enabling professionals to succeed in post-qualifying education: initial concerns and assessment outcomes from classroom-based and blended learning modules

Professional social workers in the UK, undertaking the entry module for the post-qualifying specialist child care award were surveyed at the beginning of their studies (N=90). Students were on a Classroom-Based Route (N= 40) or Blended Learning Route (N=50). A survey was used to explore students’ concerns about starting post-qualifying education and their perceived barriers to study. The findings were analysed in relation to their performance in the course assessment along with their demographics to evaluate whether either the students’ previous educational experience or their anxieties about the programme influenced their performance on the programme. Results indicated that perceived barriers to study were linked to whether English is a second language and to age. English as a second language did not affect performance in assessment. Age was related to assessment outcomes. The main influence on assessment outcomes appears to be the method of teaching delivery with those on classroom-based programmes more likely to complete the programme and to achieve higher grades than those on blended learning programmes.
State estimation of continuous-time linear stochastic systems subject to state equality or inequality constraints

In this paper, the constrained estimators are derived for continuous-time linear stochastic systems whose states obey state equality or inequality constraints. The principal idea is the projection of the Kalman estimate onto the constraint subspace. The estimator is extended to the identification problem to estimate the unknown parameters in the system matrix which are subjected to some inequality constraints.
A First-time Wireless Internet Connection: More Than Just Clicking on a Link

In the context of understanding the particular use made of nomad Internet and mobile computing in its interactional dimension, this article examines the detail of a first-time connection to the university’s Wi-Fi network. Through video ethnography, we analyse the collaborative talk as work between two participants in a public place and finely examine their use of artefacts and distributed information in the accomplishment of connection activities. Both their speech and their actions have been transcribed using the conventions of Conversation Analysis. We therefore follow the connection procedure step by step and demonstrate how handling computerized artefacts is not transparent and requires a certain degree of learning concerning this particular communicative and working tool.
Running Bamboo: A Mentoring Network of Women Intending to Thrive in Academia

This article is based on the authors’ experiences as women academics who engage in informal peer mentoring to persist in the cultural milieus of their respective institutions. The authors draw on poststructural perspectives and the metaphor of the rhizome “running bamboo” to illustrate the connections they forged in a mentoring network that folds across multiethnic, multilingual, and multi-geographic spaces. The analysis of personal narratives surfaced the significance of context for understanding each other’s persistence in the academy. By rhizomatically constructing personal and professional narratives, the authors identified how shared experiences in academia, the contextual variations among them, and a process of becoming peers in a mentoring network supports their negotiation of the academy.