Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personality, Risk Perception, Benefit Sought and Terrorism Effect

Risk perception can affect travel decision-making. It is subjective and variable among different people. The purposes of this study are threefold: it examines the relationship between personality and risk perception, risk perception and benefit sought and finally tests to see whether willingness to travel alters after a terrorist attack and how this differs across different personalities. To do this, a random sample of 475 British households was selected to facilitate the analysis. The findings show that there are differences in terms of people's personality and risk perception. Benefit sought and risk perceptions are partially related, but not in the context of terrorism attacks in seaside resorts, where terrorism creates an atmosphere of uncertainty that leave the door open for fear, and the lack of ability to control the risk stops even the most confident traveller. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A Reinjected Cuspidal Horseshoe

Horseshoes play a central role in dynamical systems and are observed in many chaotic systems. However most points in a neighborhood of the horseshoe escape after finite iterations. In this work we construct a model that possesses an attracting set that contains a cuspidal horseshoe with positive entropy. This model is obtained by reinjecting the points that escape the horseshoe and can be realized in a 3-dimensional vector field.
Generalized Davenport – Schinzel sequences : results , problems , and applications

We survey in detail extremal results on Davenport–Schinzel sequences and their generalizations, from the seminal papers of H. Davenport and A. Schinzel in 1965 to present. We discuss geometric and enumerative applications, generalizations to colored trees, and generalizations to hypergraphs. Eleven illustrative examples with proofs are given and nineteen open problems are posed.
[3H]CGS 21680, a selective A2 adenosine receptor agonist directly labels A2 receptors in rat brain.

Characterization of the adenosine A2 receptor has been limited due to the lack of available ligands which have high affinity and selectivity for this adenosine receptor subtype. In the present study, the binding of a highly A2-selective agonist radioligand, [3H]CGS 21680 (2-[p-(2-carboxyethyl)-phenethylamino]-5'-N-ethylcarboxamido adenosine) is described. [3H]CGS 21680 specific binding to rat striatal membranes was saturable, reversible and dependent upon protein concentration. Saturation studies revealed that [3H]CGS 21680 bound with high affinity (Kd = 15.5 nM) and limited capacity (apparent Bmax = 375 fmol/mg of protein) to a single class of recognition sites. Estimates of ligand affinity (16 nM) determined from association and dissociation kinetic experiments were in close agreement with the results from the saturation studies. [3H]CGS 21680 binding was greatest in striatal membranes with negligible specific binding obtained in rat cortical membranes. Adenosine agonists ligands competed for the binding of 5 nM [3H]CGS 21680 to striatal membranes with the following order of activity; CGS 21680 = 5'-N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosine greater than 2-phenylaminoadenosine (CV-1808) = 5'-N-methylcarboxamidoadenosine = 2-chloroadenosine greater than R-phenylisopropyladenosine greater than N6-cyclohexyladenosine greater than N6cyclopentyltheophylline greater than S-phenylisopropyladenosine. The nonxanthine adenosine antagonist, CGS 15943A, was the most active compound in inhibiting the binding of [3H]CGS 21680. Other adenosine antagonists inhibited binding in the following order; xanthine amine congener = (1,3-dipropyl-8-(2-amino-4-chloro)phenylxanthine greater than 1,3-dipropyl-8-cyclopentylxanthine greater than 1,3-diethyl-8-phenylxanthine greater than 8-phenyltheophylline greater than 8-cyclopentyltheophylline = xanthine carboxylic acid congener greater than 8-parasulfophenyltheophylline greater than theophylline greater than caffeine. The pharmacological profile of both adenosine agonist and antagonist compounds to compete for the binding of [3H]CGS 21680 was consistent with a selective interaction at the high affinity adenosine A2 receptor. A high positive correlation (r = 0.98, P less than .01) was observed between the pharmacological profile of adenosine ligands to inhibit the binding of [3H]CGS 21680 and the selective binding of [3H]NECA (+50 nM CPA) to high affinity A2 receptors. However, some differences between these assays were found for compounds which have moderate affinity and nonselective actions at both the A1 and A2 adenosine receptor subtypes. Unlike data obtained with nonselective adenosine ligands, the present results indicate that [3H]CGS 21680 directly labels the high affinity A2 receptor in rat brain without the need to block binding activity at the A1 receptor. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
The Developmentally Regulated Expression of Twisted Gastrulation Reveals a Role for Bone Morphogenetic Proteins in the Control of T Cell Development

The evolutionarily conserved, secreted protein Twisted gastrulation (Tsg) modulates morphogenetic effects of decapentaplegic (dpp) and its orthologs, the bone morphogenetic proteins 2 and 4 (BMP2/4), in early Drosophila and vertebrate embryos. We have uncovered a role for Tsg at a much later stage of mammalian development, during T cell differentiation in the thymus. BMP4 is expressed by thymic stroma and inhibits the proliferation of CD4−CD8− double-negative (DN) thymocytes and their differentiation to the CD4+CD8+ double-positive (DP) stage in vitro. Tsg is expressed by thymocytes and up-regulated after T cell receptor signaling at two developmental checkpoints, the transition from the DN to the DP and from the DP to the CD4+ or CD8+ single-positive stage. Tsg can synergize with the BMP inhibitor chordin to block the BMP4-mediated inhibition of thymocyte proliferation and differentiation. These data suggest that the developmentally regulated expression of Tsg may allow thymocytes to temporarily withdraw from inhibitory BMP signals.
Mutation screening of the SLC26A4 gene in a cohort of 192 Chinese patients with congenital hypothyroidism

ABSTRACT Objective Pendred syndrome (PS) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by sensorineural hearing loss and thyroid dyshormonogenesis. It is caused by biallelic mutations in the SLC26A4 gene encoding for pendrin. Hypothyroidism in PS can be present from birth and therefore diagnosed by neonatal screening. The aim of this study was to examine the SLC26A4 mutation spectrum and prevalence among congenital hypothyroidism (CH) patients in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China and to establish how frequently PS causes hearing impairment in our patients with CH. Subjects and methods Blood samples were collected from 192 CH patients in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, and genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes. All exons of the SLC26A4 gene together with their exon-intron boundaries were screened by next-generation sequencing. Patients with SLC26A4 mutations underwent a complete audiological evaluation including otoscopic examination, audiometry and morphological evaluation of the inner ear. Results Next generation sequencing analysis of SLC26A4 in 192 CH patients revealed five different heterozygous variations in eight individuals (8/192, 4%). The prevalence of SLC26A4 mutations was 4% among studied Chinese CH. Three of the eight were diagnosed as enlargement of the vestibular aqueduct (EVA), no PS were found in our 192 CH patients. The mutations included one novel missense variant p.P469S, as well as four known missense variants, namely p.V233L, p.M147I, p.V609G and p.D661E. Of the eight patients identified with SLC26A4 variations in our study, seven patients showed normal size/location of thyroid gland, and one patients showed a decreased size one. Conclusions The prevalence of SLC26A4 pathogenic variants was 4% among studied Chinese patients with CH. Our study expanded the SLC26A4 mutation spectrum, provided the best estimation of SLC26A4 mutation rate for Chinese CH patients and indicated the rarity of PS as a cause of CH.
The 1998 outburst of the x-ray transient xte j2012+381 as observed with bepposax

We report on the results of a series of X-ray observations of the transient black hole candidate XTE J2012+381 during the 1998 outburst performed with the BeppoSAX satellite. The observed broad-band energy spectrum can bedescribed by the superposition of an absorbed disk black body, with an iron line plus a high energy component, modelled with either a power law or a Comptonisation tail. The source showed pronounced spectral variability between our five observations. While the soft component in the spectrum remained almost unchanged throughout our campaign, we detected a hard spectral tail which extended to 200 keV in the first two observations, but became barely detectable up to 50 keV in the following two. A further re-hardening is observed in the final observation. The transition from a hard to a soft and then back to a hard state occurred around an unabsorbed 0.1-200 keV luminosity of 10 3 8 erg s - 1 (at 10 kpc). This indicates that state transitions in XTE 2012+281 are probably not driven only by mass accretion rate, but additional physical parameters must play a role in the evolution of the outburst.
Social Touch Gesture Recognition using Random Forest and Boosting on Distinct Feature Sets

Touch is a primary nonverbal communication channel used to communicate emotions or other social messages. Despite its importance, this channel is still very little explored in the affective computing field, as much more focus has been placed on visual and aural channels. In this paper, we investigate the possibility to automatically discriminate between different social touch types. We propose five distinct feature sets for describing touch behaviours captured by a grid of pressure sensors. These features are then combined together by using the Random Forest and Boosting methods for categorizing the touch gesture type. The proposed methods were evaluated on both the HAART (7 gesture types over different surfaces) and the CoST (14 gesture types over the same surface) datasets made available by the Social Touch Gesture Challenge 2015. Well above chance level performances were achieved with a 67% accuracy for the HAART and 59% for the CoST testing datasets respectively.
Androgen‐dependent expression of FcγRIIB2 by thyrocytes from patients with autoimmune Graves' disease: a possible molecular clue for sex dependence of autoimmune disease

Thyrocyte expression of HLA class I and class II antigens and related accessory molecules would convert these epithelial cells into functional antigen‐presenting cells. Here we show that whereas normal thyrocytes express FcRn, Graves' disease thyrocytes also express Fc'RIIB2. We further find that expression of FcγRIIB2, but not FcRn, is repressed by dihydrotestosterone. By mediating the uptake and transport of autoantibodies, we suggest that these IgG Fc receptors contribute in various ways to the onset and/or progression of autoimmune thyroid diseases. The androgen‐mediated decrease of Fc'RIIB2 expression in Graves' disease thyrocytes also provides a rationale for the predominant susceptibility of women to develop an autoimmune thyroid disease. Our findings open up a new prospect to autoimmunity, linking the role of the target organ to the sex dependence in autoimmune disease. —Estienne, V. , Duthoit, C. , Reichert, M. , Praetor, A. , Carayon, P., Hunziker, W. , Ruf, J. Androgen‐dependent expression of FcγRIIB2 by thyrocytes from patients with autoimmune Graves' disease: a possible molecular clue for sex dependence of autoimmune disease. FASEB J. 16, 1087–1092 (2002)
Statins and Blood Coagulation

The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-coenzyme A (CoA) reductase inhibitors (statins) have been shown to exhibit several vascular protective effects, including antithrombotic properties, that are not related to changes in lipid profile. There is growing evidence that treatment with statins can lead to a significant downregulation of the blood coagulation cascade, most probably as a result of decreased tissue factor expression, which leads to reduced thrombin generation. Accordingly, statin use has been associated with impairment of several coagulant reactions catalyzed by this enzyme. Moreover, evidence indicates that statins, via increased thrombomodulin expression on endothelial cells, may enhance the activity of the protein C anticoagulant pathway. Most of the antithrombotic effects of statins are attributed to the inhibition of isoprenylation of signaling proteins. These novel properties of statins, suggesting that these drugs might act as mild anticoagulants, may explain, at least in part, the therapeutic benefits observed in a wide spectrum of patients with varying cholesterol levels, including subjects with acute coronary events.
Scientists and the media: the struggle for legitimacy in climate change and conservation science

Abstract Despite the uncertainties associated with forecasts of the possible negative effects of climate change on natural environments, such research is often widely reported in the news media. Here we review the presentation in the UK news media and on the internet of an academic study published in Nature, forecasting future global extinctions as a result of climate change. The results and conclusions of the study were widely misrepresented, especially in the news media, to make the consequences seem more catastrophic and the timescale shorter. Representations of the original article on the internet were more variable, with several sites ranked highly on popular search engines being overtly critical of the underlying science. We suggest that such polarised representations of environmental science are indicative of a 'struggle for legitimacy' between environmentalist and anti-environmentalist groups, with potential negative consequences for public trust in science.
Mixed Signal Circuits : Overview of a Flexible Design Methodology using BICMOS Processes

This paper describes a new design methodology for mixed signal circuits using BICMOS processes. An overview of BICMOS process requirements for mixed applications is presented as well as a new 0.7 um CMOS and 13 Ghz / NPN process. Some innovative library concepts, which offer a lot of flexibility, are shown in the third chapter. A mixture of classical library concepts and CAD tools are extensively used. Then, an overview of a front-end and a back-end design tool offering most of the functionality needed to develop mixed signal circuits is presented. Finally, some considerations on mixed signal circuit testing are discussed, and new tools introduced.
Gas Bubble Effects and Elimination in Ultrasonic Measurement of Particle Concentrations in Solid–Liquid Mixing Processes

In this paper, the online measurement of particle concentrations in suspensions containing gas bubbles is studied using the ultrasonic spectra and the synergy interval partial least squares regression (Si-PLS) model in the solid–liquid mixing processes. At first, a comparison is made among the ultrasonic signals obtained from suspensions and pure water with and without gas bubbles and the gas bubble effects of high agitation speeds on ultrasonic measurement are evaluated. A moving average and standard deviation method is developed to deal with the real-time ultrasonic signals, aiming to decrease the fluctuations and noises of signals and improve the stability of signals. Then, based on the optimal spectral subintervals selected with the Si-PLS model, the prediction model for the particle concentrations is built, which considers the gas bubble effects as an interferent. The optimal model, of which the root-mean-square error of the prediction subset is 0.38 wt%, is successfully applied to measure the concentration of TiO2 suspensions in the range of 0–15.79 wt% when the agitation speed is less than 1200 r/min. The online measurement results suggest that the proposed method has the potential to be a useful tool for eliminating gas bubble effects and measuring particle concentrations in the solid–liquid mixing processes.
The design, rationale, and baseline characteristics of a nationwide cohort registry in China: blood pressure and clinical outcome in TIA or ischemic stroke

Background The relationship between poststroke blood pressure (BP) and clinical outcomes in ischemic stroke (IS) is still controversial. However, there is no large BP database for IS or transient ischemic attack (TIA) in China. This study aims to describe the rationale, study design, and baseline characteristics of a nationwide BP database in IS or TIA patients in China. Materials and methods The BOSS (blood pressure and clinical outcome in TIA or ischemic stroke) study was a hospital-based, prospective cohort study aiming to assess BP parameters and clinical outcome in IS/TIA patients. BP parameters were based on office BP, ambulatory BP, and home BP. Clinical outcomes included stroke recurrence, combined vascular events, and disability. Electronic case-report forms were used to record baseline and follow-up data. The patients were followed up for clinical outcomes at 3 months through face-to-face interview and at 12 months by telephone. Results Between October 2012 and February 2014, the BOSS registry recruited 2,608 patients from 61 hospitals, with a mean age of 62.5 years, 32.4% of whom were female, 88.9% with an entry diagnosis of IS, and 86% diagnosed with hypertension. The rates of patients lost-to-follow-up were 3.1% at 3 months and 5.1% at 1 year; 93% of patients completed ambulatory BP monitoring during hospitalization and 94.7% finished a 3-month BP diary. Conclusion The BOSS registry will provide important evidence about BP management in the acute phase and secondary prevention for IS/TIA patients.
Simulated Programmable Apertures with Lytro

This paper presents a simulation method using the commercial light field camera Lytro, which allows simulation of various aperture shapes and noise characteristics. A modified shift-and-add algorithm is used to implement aperture shape simulation. Two example use cases, special bokeh effects generation and multiplexed light field acquisition analysis, are given to demonstrate the system. Comparing to the conventional approaches, the proposed simulation system provides both convenience and flexibility.
Trading Recall for Precision with Confidence Sets

Many statistical applications in computational linguistics are plagued by sparse data. Exact statistics can be used to avoid the inaccuracies of methods that rely on large sample approximations, but point estimators (even using exact statistics) suffer from high variance when used with extremely small sample sizes. While the performance of any statistical method is limited by the lack of information in a small sample, confidence set estimators provide a systematic way of trading recall for precision, e.g., increasing the likelihood that an association actually exists, at the cost of potentially ignoring many real associations.
Simple proofs of uniformization theorems

The measurable Riemann mapping theorem proved by Morrey and in some particu- lar cases by Ahlfors, Lavrentiev and Vekua, says that any measurable almost complex structure on R 2 (S 2 ) with bounded dilatation is integrable: there is a quasiconformal homeomorphism of R 2 (S 2 ) onto C (C) transforming the given almost complex structure to the standard one. We give an elementary proof of this theorem that is done as follows. Firstly we prove its double-periodic version: each C 1 almost complex structures on the two-torus can be transformed by a diffeomorphism to the standard complex structure on appropriate complex torus. The proof is based on the homotopy method for the Bel- trami equation on T 2 with parameter. (As a by-product, we present a simple proof of the Poincare-Kobe theorem saying that each simply-connected Riemann surface is con- formally equivalent to either C, or C, or the unit disc.) Afterwards the general case is treated by C 1 double-periodic approximation and simple normality arguments (involving Grotzsch inequality) following the classical scheme.
Utilizing Twins as Controls for Non-Twin Case-Materials in Genome Wide Association Studies

Twin registries around the globe have collected DNA samples from large numbers of monozygotic and dizygotic twins. The twin sample collections are frequently used as controls in disease-specific studies together with non-twins. This approach is unbiased under the hypothesis that twins and singletons are comparable in terms of allele frequencies; i.e. there are no genetic variants associated with being a twin per se. To test this hypothesis we performed a genome-wide association study comparing the allele frequency of 572,352 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 1,413 monozygotic (MZ) and 5,451 dizygotic (DZ) twins with 3,720 healthy singletons. Twins and singletons have been genotyped using the same platform. SNPs showing association with being a twin at P-value < 1 × 10-5 were selected for replication analysis in 1,492 twins (463 MZ and 1,029 DZ) and 1,880 singletons from Finland. No SNPs reached genome-wide significance (P-value < 5 × 10-8) in the main analysis combining MZ and DZ twins. In a secondary analysis including only DZ twins two SNPs (rs2033541 close to ADAMTSL1 and rs4149283 close to ABCA1) were genome-wide significant after meta-analysis with the Finnish population. The estimated proportion of variance on the liability scale explained by all SNPs was 0.08 (P-value=0.003) when MZ and DZ were considered together and smaller for MZ (0.06, P-value=0.10) compared to DZ (0.09, P-value=0.003) when analyzed separately. In conclusion, twins and singletons can be used in genetic studies together with general population samples without introducing large bias. Further research is needed to explore genetic variances associated with DZ twinning.
The influence of dynamic content on visual attention during television commercials

The way in which humans visually comprehend dynamic stimuli is largely unexplored, however, understanding this process is crucial in order to better inform existing eye movement research. Unfortunately, due to the complex nature of dynamic content, it becomes difficult to distinguish which characteristics affect visual attention. In an attempt to identify elements that attract visual attention during dynamic stimuli, the present study used eye tracking technology to examine eye movement data from 37 American participants (mean age = 36.92) collected during the presentation of 34 randomly selected Australian commercials. It was important that novel stimuli were used in this study in order that participants’ eye movements were not influenced by prior exposure to the commercials. A content analysis of the visual elements present in each advertisement was conducted to identify characteristics that might impact eye movements. This content analysis resulted in a total of 606 scenes and 2,695 Areas Of Interest (AOIs) that were then further coded for their visual components (i.e., pixel size, color makeup, location, luminosity etc.) across 299 variables (translating into 141,015 fields in the coding database). Two regression analyses were run to identify which visual characteristics captured and/or sustained visual attention. Results revealed that items containing highly relevant visual elements (i.e., faces, products, branding elements), as well as highly salient features (i.e., large size, location, text) were more likely to acquire visual attention. Additionally, except for Faces, Logos and Products, the presence of visual clutter negatively impacted the ability for many AOIs to acquire and/or sustain visual attention. Furthermore, the effect of contrast was a significant predictor of visual attention in dynamic content, as well as AOIs growing in size, moving up or down, or appearing in a centralized location. Results from this study effectively contribute to existing eye movement and advertising effectiveness research and serve as a launch pad for future research using eye tracking with dynamic content.