Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining the Genomic Influence of Skin Antioxidants In Vitro

A series of well-known, purified antioxidants including: Resveratrol, Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG), Genistein, Rosavin, Puerarin, Chlorogenic Acid, Propolis and two newer unexplored isoflavonoids isolated from Maclura pomifera (Osage Orange) including Pomiferin and Osajin, were applied to Normal Human Dermal Fibroblasts (NHDF) and Normal Human Dermal Keratinocytes (NHEK) for 24 hours. The resulting treated cells were then examined using human gene microarrays supplied by Agilent. These chips typically have somewhere on the order of 30,000 individual genes which are expressed in the human genome. For our study, this large list of genes was reduced to 205 principal genes thought to be important for skin and each individual ingredient was examined for its influence on the culled list of genes. Working on a hypothesis that there may be some common genes which are either upregulated or downregulated by all or most of these ingredients, a short list of genes for each cell line was developed. What appears to emerge from these studies is that several genes in the gene pool that was screened are influenced by most or all of the molecules of interest. Genes that appear to be upregulated in both cell lines by all the ingredients include: ACLY, AQP3, COX1, NOS3, and PLOD3. Genes that appear to be downregulated in both cell lines by all ingredients include only PGR.
EFFECTS OF LONG-TERM PHYSICAL INACTIVITY ON DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS, ANXIETY, AND COPING BEHAVIOUR OF YOUNG PARTICIPANTS

The aim of the study was to examine the effects of a prolonged period of physical inactivity, induced by bed rest, on depressive symptoms, state anxiety levels and coping with stress strategies. Ten healthy males, aged between 20 and 30 years, were exposed to a 35-day head-down bed rest in a strict hospital environment. Participants completed the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Coping Responses Inventory before and after the bed rest (BR) experiment. Results showed that following the period of prolonged physical inactivity there were no significant differences in perceived depressive symptoms and state anxiety levels. Among the evaluated coping strategies, the use of “seeking guidance and support” significantly decreased after the prolonged bed rest. Research findings have an applicative value in the areas of health, sport, and rehabilitation, suggesting that the provision of favourable habitability countermeasures could prevent deterioration of psychological state under the conditions of prolonged physical inactivity.
CMOS UWB Multiplier

A fully differential analog multiplier for wideband operations is presented. The circuit consists of a p-MOSFET common-gate differential pair input stage for wideband impedance matching, a p-MOSFET Gilbert quad as a multiplier stage, and active loads. The circuit has been designed and fabricated in 90-nm CMOS. The test-chip area is 560 × 700 μm2. The overall power consumption is 3.7 mW from a 1.2-V power supply. In the case of input monocycle pulses with duration time of 700 ps, the measurements show an input-output energy ratio equal to 2, a conversion gain of 12.7 dB at intermediate frequencies in the range of 0.001-10 MHz for input tones in the range of 2-4 GHz, a noise figure of 14.4 dB (minimum) and compression points of -3.5 and -2 dBm for the two inputs. The performance of the proposed multiplier favorably compares with the state of the art.
Computational techniques for hybrid system verification

This paper concerns computational methods for verifying properties of polyhedral invariant hybrid automata (PIHA), which are hybrid automata with discrete transitions governed by polyhedral guards. To verify properties of the state trajectories for PIHA, the planar switching surfaces are partitioned to define a finite set of discrete states in an approximate quotient transition system (AQTS). State transitions in the AQTS are determined by the reachable states, or flow pipes, emitting from the switching surfaces according to the continuous dynamics. This paper presents a method for computing polyhedral approximations to flow pipes. It is shown that the flow-pipe approximation error can be made arbitrarily small for general nonlinear dynamics and that the computations can be made more efficient for affine systems. The paper also describes CheckMate, a MATLAB-based tool for modeling, simulating and verifying properties of hybrid systems based on the computational methods previously described.
Evaluation of a formal mentoring programme in the New Zealand police : a thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Mentoring has been found to be an effective psychosocial buffer to occupational stress (Chao & Walz, 1992; Noe, 1988; Siegel & Reinstein, 2001). Mentoring provides support for personal confirmation, acceptance, friendship and role modelling (Kram 1985, 1986) The current study was part of an initiative within the New Zealand Police to introduce mentoring as part of a supported induction for new Police Constables into the organisation. The aim was to evaluate the use of mentoring as a psychosocial support in this induction process. Using a Solomon Four Group design the 254 subjects (180 protege( e)s and 74 mentors) were randomly assigned to four groups. These groups were (i) those who had a pre-test, assigned a mentor and post test (ii) those who had a pre-test and post test (iii) those who had a mentor and a post test (iv) those who had a post test only. Testing included two questionnaires; a Combined Measures Questionnaire which incorporated six psychometric tests including BDI, BHS, MHI, CMTS, HSCL-21 and ITQ; and a Mentor Relationship Questionnaire. The former was administered at preand posttest in accordance with the experimental design while the later was only administered at the end of the mentoring programm e. There was no clinically significant effect noted in terms of change in psychological well-being or distress for either protege(e)s or mentors (p > .05). There was a significant effect of mentoring in terms of an increase in intent to quit, F(1, 1 0) = 7.43, P = . 02 and a trend toward significance for decreased general distress levels F(1,10) = 4 . 80, P = . 53 for the mentors at the end of the experimental period. These findings are tempered
Oxidative damage in telomeric DNA disrupts recognition by TRF1 and TRF2

The ends of linear chromosomes are capped by protein–DNA complexes termed telomeres. Telomere repeat binding factors 1 and 2 (TRF1 and TRF2) bind specifically to duplex telomeric DNA and are critical components of functional telomeres. Consequences of telomere dysfunction include genomic instability, cellular apoptosis or senescence and organismal aging. Mild oxidative stress induces increased erosion and loss of telomeric DNA in human fibroblasts. We performed binding assays to determine whether oxidative DNA damage in telomeric DNA alters the binding activity of TRF1 and TRF2 proteins. Here, we report that a single 8-oxo-guanine lesion in a defined telomeric substrate reduced the percentage of bound TRF1 and TRF2 proteins by at least 50%, compared with undamaged telomeric DNA. More dramatic effects on TRF1 and TRF2 binding were observed with multiple 8-oxo-guanine lesions in the tandem telomeric repeats. Binding was likewise disrupted when certain intermediates of base excision repair were present within the telomeric tract, namely abasic sites or single nucleotide gaps. These studies indicate that oxidative DNA damage may exert deleterious effects on telomeres by disrupting the association of telomere-maintenance proteins TRF1 and TRF2.
Mutagenesis of the 3' nontranslated region of Sindbis virus RNA

A cDNA clone from which infectious RNA can be transcribed was used to construct 42 site-specific mutations in the 3' nontranslated region of the Sindbis virus genome. The majority of these mutations were made in the 3'-terminal 19-nucleotide conserved sequence element and consisted of single nucleotide substitutions or of small (1 to 8) nucleotide deletions. An attempt was made to recover mutant viruses after transfection of SP6-transcribed RNA into chicken cells. In most cases, viable virus was recovered, but almost all mutants grew more poorly than wild-type virus when tested under a number of culture conditions. In the case of mutations having only a moderate effect, the virus grew as well as the wild type but was slightly delayed in growth. Mutations having a more severe effect led to lower virus yields. In many cases, virus growth was more severely impaired in mosquito cells than in chicken cells, but the opposite phenotype was also seen, in which the mutant grew as well as or better than the wild type in mosquito cells but more poorly in chicken cells. One substitution mutant, 3NT7C, was temperature sensitive for growth in chicken cells and severely crippled for growth in mosquito cells. Insertion mutations were also constructed which displaced the 19-nucleotide element by a few nucleotides relative to the poly(A) tail. These mutations had little effect on virus growth. Deletion of large regions (31 to 293 nucleotides long) of the 3' nontranslated region outside of the 19-nucleotide element resulted in viruses which were more severely crippled in mosquito cells than in chicken cells. From these results, the following principles emerge. (i) The entire 3' nontranslated region is important for efficient virus replication, although there is considerable plasticity in this region in that most nucleotide substitutions or deletions made resulted in viable virus and, in some cases, in virus that grew quite efficiently. Replication competence was particularly sensitive to changes involving the C at position 1, the A at position 7, and a stretch of 9 U residues punctuated by a G at position 14. (ii) The panel of mutants examined collectively deleted the entire 3' nontranslated region. Only mutants in which 8 nucleotides in the 3' terminal 19 nucleotides had been deleted or in which the 3' terminal C was deleted were nonviable. Although the 3' terminal C was essential for replication, it could be displaced by at least 7 nucleotides from its 3' terminal position adjacent to the poly(A) tract. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Perturbations in growth trajectory due to early diet affect age‐related deterioration in performance

Summary Fluctuations in early developmental conditions can cause changes in growth trajectories that subsequently affect the adult phenotype. Here, we investigated whether compensatory growth has long‐term consequences for patterns of senescence. Using three‐spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus), we show that a brief period of dietary manipulation in early life affected skeletal growth rate not only during the manipulation itself, but also during a subsequent compensatory phase when fish caught up in size with controls. However, this growth acceleration influenced swimming endurance and its decline over the course of the breeding season, with a faster decline in fish that had undergone faster growth compensation. Similarly, accelerated growth led to a more pronounced reduction in the breeding period (as indicated by the duration of sexual ornamentation) over the following two breeding seasons, suggesting faster reproductive senescence. Parallel experiments showed a heightened effect of accelerated growth on these age‐related declines in performance if the fish were under greater time stress to complete their compensation prior to the breeding season. Compensatory growth led to a reduction in median life span of 12% compared to steadily growing controls. While life span was independent of the eventual adult size attained, it was negatively correlated with the age‐related decline in swimming endurance and sexual ornamentation. These results, complementary to those found when growth trajectories were altered by temperature rather than dietary manipulations, show that the costs of accelerated growth can last well beyond the time over which growth rates differ and are affected by the time available until an approaching life‐history event such as reproduction.
Preservation metadata - a framework for 3D data based on the Semantic Web

Preservation metadata, information that supports and documents the long term preservation of a digital object, is an essential component of any preservation environment that must manage knowledge over time. It describes the digital objectpsilas associated semantic information. Furthermore, in the case of preserving 3D data, it can also support future post-processing of the preserved 3D object. However, a preservation metadata framework to support semantic data associated with a 3D object is currently lacking. Developing such a framework, and anticipating what semantic information should be included within this framework, is the focus of this paper.
Delay Reduction for Instantly Decodable Network Coding in Persistent Channels With Feedback Imperfections

This paper considers the multicast decoding delay reduction problem for generalized instantly decodable network coding (G-IDNC) over persistent erasure channels with feedback imperfections. The feedback scenario discussed is the most general situation in which the sender does not always receive acknowledgments from the receivers after each transmission and the feedback communications are subject to loss. The decoding delay increment expressions are derived and employed to express the decoding delay reduction problem as a maximum weight clique problem in the G-IDNC graph. This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the expected decoding delay increase at each time instant. Problem formulations in simpler channel and feedback models are shown to be special cases of the proposed generalized formulation. Since finding the optimal solution to the problem is known to be NP-hard, a suboptimal greedy algorithm is designed and compared with blind approaches proposed in the literature. Through extensive simulations, the proposed algorithm is shown to outperform the blind methods in all situations and to achieve significant improvement, particularly for high time-correlated channels.
Emotion regulation consumption: When feeling better is the aim

This research explored how individuals regulate their emotions by consuming products of a hedonic nature. We introduce a new construct to the consumer research literature, emotion regulation consumption (ERC), which involves the consumption or purchase of a good or service for the purposes of alleviating, repairing, or managing an emotion in the short term. Specifically, ERC processes were examined for four discrete emotions – sadness, amusement, contentment, and fear/anxiety. Additionally, this research demonstrates how an individual's ability to use internal cognitive control processes, or “emotion regulation strategies,” to manage emotions may differentially moderate the effects of emotions on hedonic consumption. Important theoretical and managerial implications are offered: Anytime that I am bummed, I order in the unhealthiest foods I can think of. I definitely use food as a crutch. I call it eating my feelings. (female, 23). Whenever I feel great, the first thing I want to do is play golf. It does not matter if I go play a full round somewhere or just get in some practice at the driving range…I just want to hit some golf balls. (male, 24). 1 Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Involvement of Sensorimotor, Limbic, and Associative Basal Ganglia Domains in L-3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine-Induced Dyskinesia

Dyskinesia represents a debilitating complication of l-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (l-dopa) therapy for Parkinson's disease. Such motor manifestations are attributed to pathological activity in the motor parts of basal ganglia. However, because consistent funneling of information takes place between the sensorimotor, limbic, and associative basal ganglia domains, we hypothesized that nonmotor domains play a role in these manifestations. Here we report the changes in 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG) accumulation in the sensorimotor, limbic, and associative domains of basal ganglia and thalamic nuclei of four groups of nonhuman primates: normal, parkinsonian, parkinsonian chronically treated with l-dopa without exhibiting dyskinesia, and parkinsonian chronically treated with l-dopa and exhibiting overt dyskinesia. Although nondyskinetic animals display a rather normalized metabolic activity, dyskinetic animals are distinguished by significant changes in 2-DG accumulation in limbic- and associative-related structures and not simply in sensorimotor-related ones, suggesting that dyskinesia is linked to a pathological processing of limbic and cognitive information. We propose that these metabolic changes reflect the underlying neural mechanisms of not simply motor dyskinesias but also affective, motivational, and cognitive disorders associated with long-term exposure to l-dopa.
Relationship between ADIPOQ polymorphisms and polycystic ovary syndrome : a meta-analysis involving 6 , 735 subjects

To address the relationship of ADIPOQ T45G and G276T polymorphisms with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a meta-analysis was performed in this report. An extensive literature search, selection of eligible publications and extract relevant data were carried out. Sixteen eligible papers with a total number of 2,456 PCOS patients and 4,279 controls met the major including criteria in the pooled analysis on the correlation between ADIPOQ polymorphisms and PCOS. We used crude odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to evaluate the strength of relationship. The results demonstrated that there was no evidence for the correlation between ADIPOQ T45G and PCOS even in the subgroup analyses. However, ADIPOQ G276T polymorphism conferred the decreased risk to PCOS in two genetic models: T vs. G (OR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.78-1.00; P=0.047) and TT+GT vs. GG (OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.70-0.93; P=0.003). In a subgroup analysis by ethnicity, the similar findings were also found among Asians in two genetic models: TT vs. GG (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.39-0.78; P=0.001) and TT+GT vs. GG (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.56-0.89; P=0.003). In a subgroup analysis by diagnosis criteria of PCOS, we found that ADIPOQ G276T polymorphism was associated with the decreased risk of PCOS among European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology/ American Society for Reproductive Medicine criteria (ESHRE/ASRM) in three genetic models: T vs. G (OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.66-0.99; P=0.036), TT vs. GG (OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.40-0.91; P=0.015) and TT+GT vs. GG (OR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.59-0.85; P<0.001). In summary, our results suggest that ADIPOQ G276T polymorphism was associated with the decreased risk of PCOS, especially in Asians and ESHRE/ASRM of PCOS subgroups.
Detecting Experiences from Weblogs

Weblogs are a source of human activity knowledge comprising valuable information such as facts, opinions and personal experiences. In this paper, we propose a method for mining personal experiences from a large set of weblogs. We define experience as knowledge embedded in a collection of activities or events which an individual or group has actually undergone. Based on an observation that experience-revealing sentences have a certain linguistic style, we formulate the problem of detecting experience as a classification task using various features including tense, mood, aspect, modality, experiencer, and verb classes. We also present an activity verb lexicon construction method based on theories of lexical semantics. Our results demonstrate that the activity verb lexicon plays a pivotal role among selected features in the classification performance and shows that our proposed method outperforms the baseline significantly.
On Automatic Absorption Detection for Imaging Spectroscopy: A Comparative Study

In this paper, we aim at presenting a survey on automatic absorption recovery methods for imaging spectroscopy. We commence by viewing the algorithms in the literature from a technical perspective and presenting an overview of the derivative analysis, fingerprint, and maximum modulus wavelet transform techniques. In addition to these methods, we also present a novel absorption recovery approach based upon unimodal regression and continuum removal. With this technical review of the methods under study, we perform a complexity analysis and examine the implementation issues pertaining to each of the alternatives. We show how detected absorption bands can be used for purposes of material identification. We conclude this paper by providing a performance study and providing identification results on hyperspectral imagery. To this end, we make use of a number of distance measures to evaluate the quality of the recovered absorptions, as compared to continuum-removed spectra.
A general utility optimization framework for energy-harvesting-based wireless communications

In the near future, wireless communication systems are expected to achieve more cost-efficient and sustainable operations by replacing conventional fixed power supplies such as batteries with energy harvesting devices, which could provide electric energy from renewable energy sources (e.g., solar and wind). Such EH power supplies, however, are random and unstable in nature, and as a result impose new challenges on reliable communication design and have triggered substantial research interest in EH-based wireless communications. Building on existing works, in this article, we develop a general optimization framework to maximize the utility of EH wireless communication systems. Our framework encapsulates a variety of design problems, such as throughput maximization and outage probability minimization in single-user and multiuser setups, and provides useful guidelines to the practical design of general EH-based communication systems with different assumptions regarding the knowledge of time-varying wireless channels and EH rates at the transmitters.
An Improvement of Kernel-Based Object Tracking Based on Human Perception

The objective of the paper is to embed perception rules into the kernel-based target tracking algorithm and to evaluate to what extent these rules are able to improve the original tracking algorithm, without any additional computational cost. To this aim, the target is represented through features that are related to its visual appearance; then, it is tracked in subsequent frames using a metric that, again, correlates well with the human visual perception (HVP). The use of HVP rules are twofold advantageous: it allows us to both increase tracking efficacy and considerably reduce the computational cost of the tracking process-thanks to the reduced size of the perceptual feature space. Various tests on video sequences have shown the stability and the robustness of the proposed framework, also in the presence of both other moving objects and partial or complete target occlusion in a limited number of subsequent frames.
Flow Cytometry of Apoptosis

Common methods applicable to flow cytometry make it possible to: (1) identify and quantify dead or dying cells, (2) reveal a mode of cell death (apoptosis or necrosis), and (3) study mechanisms involved in cell death. Gross changes in cell morphology and chromatin condensation, which occur during apoptosis, can be detected by analysis with laser light beam scattering. Early events of apoptosis, dissipation of the mitochondrial transmembrane potential and caspase activation, can be detected using either fluorochrome reporter groups or appropriate antibodies. Exposure of phosphatidylserine on the exterior surface of the plasma membrane can be detected by the binding of fluoresceinated annexin V. Another apoptotic event, DNA fragmentation based on DNA content of cells with fractional (“sub‐G1”) or DNA strand‐break labeling, TUNEL; or In Situ End Labeling, ISEL;. Still another hallmark of apoptosis is the activation of tissue transglutaminase (TGase), the enzyme that crosslinks protein and thereby makes them less immunogenic. The major advantage of flow cytometry in these applications is that it provides the possibility of multiparametric measurements of cell attributes.