Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health promotion in older Chinese: a 12-month cluster randomized controlled trial of pedometry and "peer support".

PURPOSE Aging, in conjunction with decreasing physical activity, is associated with a range of health problems. Simple, low-maintenance, population-based means of promoting activity to counteract the age-associated decline are required. We therefore assessed the effect of pedometry and buddy support to increase physical activity. METHODS We undertook a clustered randomized trial (HKCTR-346) of 24 community centers involving 399 older Chinese participants (≥ 60 yr). Centers were randomly allocated to 1) pedometry and buddy, 2) pedometry and no buddy, 3) no pedometry and buddy, and 4) no pedometry and no buddy with a 2 × 2 factorial design. The trial simultaneously tested the individual and combined effects of the interventions. The intervention groups also received monthly organized group activities to provide encouragement and support. Outcome measures were assessed at 6 and 12 months, including physical fitness and activity and cardiovascular disease risk factors (anthropometry and blood pressure). RESULTS From the 24 centers, 356 volunteers (89.2%) completed the study. Those receiving the interventions had higher mean physical activity levels at 12 months of 1820 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1360-2290) and 1260 (95% CI = 780-1740) MET·min·wk(-1), respectively relative to the decrease in the control groups. The buddy peer support intervention significantly improved mean aerobic fitness (12% [95% CI = 4%-21%]) and reduced both body fat (-0.6% [95% CI = -1.1% to 0.0%]) and time to complete the 2.5-m get-up-and-go test (-0.27 [95% CI = -0.53 to -0.01] s). No other improvements in the cardiovascular disease risk factors were observed. The combination of motivational tools was no better than the individual interventions. CONCLUSIONS Both motivational interventions increased physical activity levels, and the buddy style improved fitness. These tools could be useful adjuncts in the prevention of obesity and age-related complications.
A Ten‐Year Chronicle of Student Attitudes Toward Foreign Language in the Elementary School

This article reports the results of 2 studies conducted over a 10-year period that researched student attitudes toward early foreign language learning. These studies are unique because of the long time frame in which the students were followed, and the large data sets collected at the elementary school level. Surveys of students in the Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools (FLES) programs examined the attitudes of all children in 2 school systems in North Carolina: one suburban and one urban. The students studied either French or Spanish. The number of responses to the survey questions ranged from 22,549 to 52,227 for a 4-year period. The results indicated that boys and girls had positive attitudes when responding to 2 questions about enjoyment of their FLES classes and teachers. The girls were positively inclined, and the boys were neutral, in their desire to continue with foreign language study in the next grade. Two items about the use of foreign language outside the school venue and comprehension of foreign language teacher input revealed negative attitudes for both genders. As a follow-up to the quantitative study, qualitative data about attitudes toward foreign language speakers, foreign cultures, and their own education with respect to foreign language study were gathered through structured interviews. The participants were the same students who had completed the original surveys 10 years earlier. In corroboration of the quantitative data, a qualitative analysis revealed that, for a majority of the students, foreign language study was viewed positively, as were foreign language speakers and their cultures.
Competing values leadership: quadrant roles and personality traits

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to validate the number and order of leadership roles and identify the personality traits which trigger the choice of leadership roles.Design/methodology/approach – A survey addressing classification and measurement questions in each of the competing values framework (CVF) quadrants was administered to a sample of managerial leaders across organizations. Multidimensional scaling representing the underlying CVF dimensions in a spatial arrangement was conducted with input derived from LISREL, which was also used to test the degree‐of‐fit between the CVF roles and quadrants as well as to examine the relationships between personality traits and leadership roles.Findings – The results produced a remarkable synthesis of two separate fields of study within a single competing quadrants grid confirming the causal paths from traits to the compressed CVF latent variables.Research limitations/implications – This study raises important questions about the causal effects of persona.
Imagery or meaning? Evidence for a semantic origin of category-specific brain activity in metabolic imaging

Category‐specific brain activation distinguishing between semantic word types has imposed challenges on theories of semantic representations and processes. However, existing metabolic imaging data are still ambiguous about whether these category‐specific activations reflect processes involved in accessing the semantic representation of the stimuli, or secondary processes such as deliberate mental imagery. Further information about the response characteristics of category‐specific activation is still required. Our study for the first time investigated the differential impact of word frequency on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses to action‐related words and visually related words, respectively. First, we corroborated previous results showing that action‐relatedness modulates neural responses in action‐related areas, while word imageability modulates activation in object processing areas. Second, we provide novel results showing that activation negatively correlated with word frequency in the left fusiform gyrus was specific for visually related words, while in the left middle temporal gyrus word frequency effects emerged only for action‐related words. Following the dominant view in the literature that effects of word frequency mainly reflect access to lexico‐semantic information, we suggest that category‐specific brain activation reflects distributed neuronal ensembles, which ground language and concepts in perception‐action systems of the human brain. Our approach can be applied to any event‐related data using single‐stimulus presentation, and allows a detailed characterization of the functional role of category‐specific activation patterns.
Toward Metabolic Phenomics: Analysis of Genomic Data Using Flux Balances

Small genome sequencing and annotations are leading to the definition of metabolic genotypes in an increasing number of organisms. Proteomics is beginning to give insights into the use of the metabolic genotype under given growth conditions. These data sets give the basis for systemically studying the genotype−phenotype relationship. Methods of systems science need to be employed to analyze, interpret, and predict this complex relationship. These endeavors will lead to the development of a new field, tentatively named phenomics. This article illustrates how the metabolic characteristics of annotated small genomes can be analyzed using flux balance analysis (FBA). A general algorithm for the formulation of in silico metabolic genotypes is described. Illustrative analyses of the in silico Escherichia coli K‐12 metabolic genotypes are used to show how FBA can be used to study the capabilities of this strain.
Evaluating the Quality of Distance Education Services by Using Modern Information Technology

With the development of the society, distance education and training gradually shows some characteristics similar to the service industry, such as invisible, cannot be stored, heterogeneous, serving and consuming in the same time and so on. To gain a bigger market share in competition and more reputation and brand value in development, distance education and training institutions must pay great attention to the satisfaction and acceptation of its students for its teaching. The rapid development of modern Information Technology (IT) brings new opportunities to promote the quality of distance education services. In this paper, we design an evaluation index system based on an "IT application fields - service quality promotion" two dimensions framework. The dimension of IT application fields includes academic and non-academic student support services. The dimension of service quality promotion includes tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The quality of student support services is measured by the SERVPERF method. Finally, we also provide a case study from The Open University of China(http://ouchn.edu.cn/) to validate our assumptions.
Constrained triple-component T2 quantification in vivo

T2 relaxation decay curves from in vivo human brain tissue are rarely mono-exponential due to both physiology and partial volume averaging. We propose a tri-exponential model, parametric fitting of the T2 relaxation curve, restricting the range for the T2 in each compartment, and estimating the probability of the existence of each of the components on a voxel-by-voxel basis. The model quantifies the T2 into three discrete compartments: Myelin (T2 short = 20-50 ms), White / Gray Matter (T2 middle = 50-120 ms), and CSF (T2 long = 120-500 ms). A constrained nonlinear minimization technique using subspace trust-region methods was implemented. A voxel-by-voxel analysis was performed, and for any given voxel, the three T2 components were forced to lie within each compartment. However, the magnitude for each of these components was allowed to take any non-negative value including zero. As a result, if any component were absent, its magnitude would be zero and hence not contribute to the fit. Results from the processing of six healthy normal adults, imaged on a 3T magnet with clinically viable imaging protocols, have been presented and are shown to be in excellent agreement with reported values. This technique is robust and accurate and may potentially be useful in aiding clinical diagnosis and follow-up of patients with white matter abnormalities.
The Differential Availability of Relationships and the Provision and Effectiveness of Support to Older Adults

Does information on the types of relationships composing older adults' networks provide an indication of the amount and effectiveness of network support? This question was addressed using data from a representative sample from the Netherlands of 160 non-institutionalized older adults between the ages of 65 and 75. Results showed first that different types of relationships differed in their supportiveness. These differences were linked with the degree of consanguinity of kin and the degree of friendship of non-kin. Second, consistent with a mechanism of compensation, the supportiveness of particular types of relationships depended upon the network in which they were embedded, namely upon the availability of an alternative source of support. For example, adult children were more supportive to parents who no longer had a partner than to parents who were still together. Third, the effectiveness of support in providing protection against loneliness varied according to the availability of a partner. Among the cohabiting, support from friends and adult children was unrelated to loneliness. Furthermore, support from the network, instrumental support in particular was less closely associated with loneliness among the cohabiting than among the never married and the formerly married.
Using VARs and TVP-VARs with Many Macroeconomic Variables

This paper discusses the challenges faced by the empirical macroeconomist and methods for surmounting them. These challenges arise due to the fact that macroeconometric models potentially include a large number of variables and allow for time variation in parameters. These considerations lead to models which have a large number of parameters to estimate relative to the number of observations. A wide range of approaches are surveyed which aim to overcome the resulting problems. We stress the related themes of prior shrinkage, model averaging and model selection. Subsequently, we consider a particular modelling approach in detail. This involves the use of dynamic model selection methods with large TVP-VARs. A forecasting exercise involving a large US macroeconomic data set illustrates the practicality and empirical success of our approach.
Literature review of methods to translate health-related quality of life questionnaires for use in multinational clinical trials.

OBJECTIVES We conducted a literature review to respond to regulatory concerns about the quality of translated patient-reported outcome questionnaires. Our main objective was to answer two questions: What do the methods have in common (and how do they differ)? Is there evidence of the superiority of one method over another? METHODS We identified 891 references by searching MEDLINE, Embase, and the Mapi Research Trust's database with "quality-of-life,""questionnaires,""health status indicators" matched with "translating,""translation issues,""cross-cultural research," and "cross-cultural comparison. " Articles were included if they proposed, compared or criticized translation methods. RESULTS Forty-five articles met our inclusion criteria: 23 representing 17 sets of methods, and 22 reviews. Most articles recommend a multistep approach involving a centralized review process. Nevertheless, each group proposes its own sequence of translation events and weights each step differently. There is evidence demonstrating that a rigorous and a multistep procedure leads to better translations. Nevertheless, there is no empirical evidence in favor of one specific method. CONCLUSIONS We need more empirical research on translation methodologies. Several points emerge from this review. First, producing high-quality translations is labor-intensive. Second, the availability of standardized guidelines and centralized review procedures improves the efficiency of the production of translations. Although we did not find evidence in favor of one method, we strongly advise researchers to adopt a multistep approach. In line with the recent Food and Drug Administration recommendations, we developed a checklist summarizing the steps used for translations, which can be used to evaluate the rigor of the applied methodologies.
Biocatalytic Conversion of Avermectin to 4″-Oxo-Avermectin: Improvement of Cytochrome P450 Monooxygenase Specificity by Directed Evolution

ABSTRACT Discovery of the CYP107Z subfamily of cytochrome P450 oxidases (CYPs) led to an alternative biocatalytic synthesis of 4″-oxo-avermectin, a key intermediate for the commercial production of the semisynthetic insecticide emamectin. However, under industrial process conditions, these wild-type CYPs showed lower yields due to side product formation. Molecular evolution employing GeneReassembly was used to improve the regiospecificity of these enzymes by a combination of random mutagenesis, protein structure-guided site-directed mutagenesis, and recombination of multiple natural and synthetic CYP107Z gene fragments. To assess the specificity of CYP mutants, a miniaturized, whole-cell biocatalytic reaction system that allowed high-throughput screening of large numbers of variants was developed. In an iterative process consisting of four successive rounds of GeneReassembly evolution, enzyme variants with significantly improved specificity for the production of 4″-oxo-avermectin were identified; these variants could be employed for a more economical industrial biocatalytic process to manufacture emamectin.
Data Independence of Read, Write, and Control Structures in PRAM Computations

We introduce the notions of control and communication structures in PRAM computations and relate them to the concept of data independence. Our main result is to characterize differences between unbounded fan-in parallelism ACk, bounded fan-in parallelism NCk, and the sequential classes DSPACE(logn) and LOGDCFL in terms of a PRAM's communication structure and instruction set. Our findings give a concrete indication that in parallel computations writing is more powerful than reading. Further characterizations are given for parallel pointer machines and the semiunbounded fan-in circuit classes SACk. In particular, we obtain the first characterizations of NCk and DSPACE(logn) in terms of PRAMs. Finally, we introduce Index-PRAMs, which in some sense have built-in data independence. We propose Index-PRAMs as a tool for the development of data-independent parallel algorithms. Index-PRAMs serve for studying the essential differences between the above mentioned complexity classes with respect to the underlying instruction set used.
Modeling support systems for multi-modal design of physical environments

This paper studies the development of support systems for the improvement of environmental quality in office environments. First three types of representation required for different aspects of designing are discussed: (1) integrated modeling to represent physical behavior, (2) multi-dimensional formulation of required behavior and (3) multi-modal representation to support human design appraisal and modeling. In the following step the adaptive change process is compared to the design process for future artifacts in order to differentiate design activities which advance the design or change the design problem from activities which change the activities of designing and the systems that support them. For this differentiation six design processes are formulated formally adopting Gero’s original FBS framework. One of these processes is the actual design process and the five others develop support systems for the activities of designing: formulation, analysis and evaluation and the interfaces for structure and function manipulation. As a result of the discussion the evaluation statement E and the design intervention I are added to the FBS framework to enable formal formulation of the reformulation processes. Ten reformulation processes are identified. One progresses the structure (synthesis) another changes the design problem (reformulation), while the remaining eight adapt design support functions to the needs of the on-going design process. Through discussion of theses processes representation requirements – integrated, multidimensional and multi-modal – are mapped to the activities of designing. At the end of the paper the developed framework is applied in three case studies discussing the development and the application of design support systems, using occupant surveys, environmental measurement and integrated computational simulation. The application of the framework in these case studies demonstrates the various modes of representation and the significance of their interplay for dynamic design development and the development of systems to support such design development effectively.
Chemical Composition, Metabolizable Energy and Digestibility in Pea Seeds of Differing Testa and Flower Colors

Chemical composition, tannin content, metabolizable energy, organic matter digestibility and their relations with gas production were assessed in pea seeds of differing testa and flower color in 2003 and 2004. The pea genotypes were classified in five testa colors (white, light green, dark green, dark green-brown and brown-black) or in two flower colors (white and purple). Wide variation existed in the chemical composition of the investigated individual pea genotypes between testa color or flower color groups. Crude protein content for pea seed samples varied from 192.3 to 262.1 g kg with average N-free extract of 667.4 g kg, crude fiber of 65.1 g kg and ether extract of 21.4 g kg. In general, crude protein content was higher in dark green-brown and dark brown-black seeded and in purple flowered genotypes. Dark testa colored pea genotypes had higher tannin content in both years; however this variation was not statistically significant. Purple flowered genotypes had significantly higher tannin content than the white flowered genotypes. White and green seeded peas with white flowers had consistently higher metabolizable energy than dark brown or black seeds with purple flowers, with an average of 12.6 MJ/kg DM for white seeds and 11.3 MJ/kg DM for dark brown black seeds. Organic matter digestibility showed a similar pattern to metabolizable energy. Gas production profiles showed variations in both rate and extent of gas production among the pea groups. Gas production from white and green seeded or white flowered genotypes was always higher than those of dark seeded or purple flowered genotypes. The correlation coefficients between tannin content and metabolizable energy, organic matter digestibility and gas production were weak and mostly non-significant.
Evolving Neural Networks for Visual Processing

In this study a recently developed neuroevolution method, HyperNEAT, is applied to new tasks in order to learn more about its characteristics in general and for the tasks specifically. The tasks required directly processing raw image data, including some from a robot-mounted camera, requiring the neural networks to directly process hundreds or thousands of inputs. The tasks included object recognition and robot navigation. The complexity and properties of the tasks, as well as the neural network substrate topologies, were varied and the performance and characteristics of the evolutionary process and solutions generated were analysed. Positive results were achieved for non-trivial tasks, and some important characteristics of HyperNEAT not previously reported were discovered: a bias towards generating weight patterns aligned with the topographical arrangement of neurons within the layers of the substrate network; the impact on performance of the number of dimensions in the topographical arrangement of neurons in hidden layers; the ability to evolve solutions more quickly with larger substrate networks; and a possible difficulty co-evolving weight patterns for substrate networks containing more than one hidden layer. New directions for further research and possible enhancements to HyperNEAT are proposed based on these findings. Evolving Neural Networks for Visual Processing Oliver J. Coleman Supervisor: Alan Blair Pg. 2/69