Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Minimum vs. maximum left atrial volume for prediction of first atrial fibrillation or flutter in an elderly cohort: a prospective study.

AIMS We sought to compare the predictive power and reproducibility between minimum and maximum left atrial (LA) volume for the development of first atrial fibrillation (AF)/flutter. METHODS AND RESULTS This prospective study included 574 adults, mean age 74+/-6 years, in sinus rhythm, and had no history or evidence of prior atrial arrhythmias. During a mean follow-up of 1.9+/-1.2 years, 30 (5.2%) developed first AF/flutter. The 3-year risk estimates of freedom from AF/flutter by tertiles of minimum and maximum LA volumes were, respectively, 97, 87, and 74% (P<0.0006) and 94, 85, and 78% (P=0.03). Minimum LA volume was incremental to clinical and other echocardiographic parameters of AF/flutter prediction [per tertile, hazard ratio (HR) 2.4], as was maximum LA volume (per tertile, HR 1.8) in a separate model. When both volumes were entered into the same model and adjusting for covariates, minimum but not maximum LA volume retained significance. However, in terms of interobserver reproducibility, maximum LA volume compared more favourably (mean difference 3.1+/-7.1 vs. 7.4+/-7.3 mL/m(2)). CONCLUSION Minimal LA volume was an independent predictor of first AF/flutter. Although it was marginally superior to maximal LA volume in terms of predictive ability, the interobserver variability was greater.
Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Promote Proliferation of Endometrial Cancer Cells

Endometrial cancer is the most commonly diagnosed gynecologic malignancy worldwide; yet the tumor microenvironment, especially the fibroblast cells surrounding the cancer cells, is poorly understood. We established four primary cultures of fibroblasts from human endometrial cancer tissues (cancer-associated fibroblasts, CAFs) using antibody-conjugated magnetic bead isolation. These relatively homogenous fibroblast cultures expressed fibroblast markers (CD90, vimentin and alpha-smooth muscle actin) and hormonal (estrogen and progesterone) receptors. Conditioned media collected from CAFs induced a dose-dependent proliferation of both primary cultures and cell lines of endometrial cancer in vitro (175%) when compared to non-treated cells, in contrast to those from normal endometrial fibroblast cell line (51%) (P<0.0001). These effects were not observed in fibroblast culture derived from benign endometrial hyperplasia tissues, indicating the specificity of CAFs in affecting endometrial cancer cell proliferation. To determine the mechanism underlying the differential fibroblast effects, we compared the activation of PI3K/Akt and MAPK/Erk pathways in endometrial cancer cells following treatment with normal fibroblasts- and CAFs-conditioned media. Western blot analysis showed that the expression of both phosphorylated forms of Akt and Erk were significantly down-regulated in normal fibroblasts-treated cells, but were up-regulated/maintained in CAFs-treated cells. Treatment with specific inhibitors LY294002 and U0126 reversed the CAFs-mediated cell proliferation (P<0.0001), suggesting for a role of these pathways in modulating endometrial cancer cell proliferation. Rapamycin, which targets a downstream molecule in PI3K pathway (mTOR), also suppressed CAFs-induced cell proliferation by inducing apoptosis. Cytokine profiling analysis revealed that CAFs secrete higher levels of macrophage chemoattractant protein (MCP)-1, interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, RANTES and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) than normal fibroblasts. Our data suggests that in contrast to normal fibroblasts, CAFs may exhibit a pro-tumorigenic effect in the progression of endometrial cancer, and PI3K/Akt and MAPK/Erk signaling may represent critical regulators in how endometrial cancer cells respond to their microenvironment.
Categorization and Standardizing Proper Nouns for Efficient Information Retrieval

In this paper, we describe the most recent implementation and evaluation of the proper noun categorization and standardization module of the DRLINK document detection system being developed at Syracuse University, under the auspices of ARPA's TIPSTER program. We also discuss the expansion of group common nouns and group proper nouns to enhance retrieval recall. Successful proper noun boundary identification within the part of speech tagger is essential for successful categorization. The proper noun classification module is designed to assign a category code to each proper noun entity, using 30 ca tegor ies genera ted f rom corpus analysis . Standardization of variant proper nouns occurs at three levels of processing. Expansion of group proper nouns and group common nouns is performed on queries. Standardization and categorization is performed on queries and documents. DR-LINK's overall precision for proper noun categorization was 93%, based on 589 proper nouns occurring in the evaluation set.
Comparative analysis of different control techniques for a distillation column

This paper provides a comparative analysis of different control strategies used to control the top and bottom product of binary distillation column. Classical Wood and Berry model has been considered as the model of distillation column and the controller is designed considering a non-interacting process. Performance evaluation of different controllers such as internal model controller (IMC), lead-lag IMC, smith predictor IMC and feed forward IMC controller has been carried out in this paper. Set point regulation and disturbance rejection property of the controller is evaluated.
Pleasure, displeasure, and mixed feelings: Are semantic opposites mutually exclusive?

Are pleasure and displeasure opposite markers of a single dimension, or are pleasure and displeasure two separate feelings? The present article argues that the existing evidence proved inconclusive for four reasons: (a) assessment of affect in unspecified situations, (b) assessment of affect at one moment in time, (c) use of inappropriate statistics, and (d) lack of theoretical predictions. The present article presents a study in which affect was assessed before and after an induction of mild displeasure via unpleasant pictures. Furthermore, pleasure and displeasure ratings are compared to ratings of feeling hot and cold. Results indicate that hot and cold ratings represent opposite ends of a single hot-cold dimension. Pleasure ratings could not be represented along a single pleasure-displeasure dimension. Methodological implications for future research on the structure of affect are discussed.
‘How long was your poem?’ Social comparison among junior high school students

The present article focuses on in situ social comparison among junior high school students. Rather than studying social comparison as an individual phenomenon in experimental situations, which has been common in previous research, the study analyzes social comparison as a real‐life social practice. The results show that the practice of social comparison among students reconnects to central elements of the formal assessment system. For instance, in staging comparison sequences, the students often circulated prior teacher assessments or engaged in various counting practices. Moreover, the results show that students partake in social comparison in order to establish, protect, or recapture an image as successful students. In so doing, they are socialized into a range of useful social‐comparison practices. Despite this, some students necessarily turn out to be positioned lower than others. Thus, social comparison among students can be seen as an informal stratification process in the school system.
Evaluating the Outcomes of Family-Based Intervention for Troubled Children: A Pretest-Posttest Study

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a 12-week family-based intervention for troubled children. One important element was to strengthen families. Method: Psychological, social, and demographic data on 176 parents and 160 children receiving weekly skills and relationship training were analyzed. Results: Significant improvements were found for family cohesion, family conflict, family time together, time spent in community, mental health of parents, and parenting style. Furthermore, significantly positive gains were found on the total and most subscale scores of the Child Behavior Checklist. Conclusions: Family-based intervention provided by social workers were associated with improved psychosocial functioning on the part of parents and children with child behavioral problems.
An algorithm for the choice of the regularization parameter in inverse problems in imaging

In this paper we present an iterative algorithm for the solution of regularization problems arising in inverse image processing. The regularization function to be minimized is constituted by two terms, a data fit function and a regularization function, weighted by a regularization parameter. The proposed algorithm solves the minimization problem and estimates the regularization parameter by an iterative procedure. Numerical results on image denoising, deblurring and tomographic images reconstruction show that the method is efficient and computationally fast in these applications.
Comparison of different classifiers for script identification from handwritten document

For a multi script/lingual country like India Script identification is a complex real life problem for automation of document processing. Handwritten script identification is again much more complex compared to print one. Here scripts from multi script handwritten documents are identified and then performance is compared using different well known classifiers. We followed a two stage approach for the same. Firstly, we have identified six scripts used for writing six official languages of India in Handwritten domain, which are easily available to us. Using some Abstract/Mathematical features, Structure based features and Script dependent features at document level a 41 dimensional feature set is prepared. Then, a series of classifiers namely Logistic Model Tree, Random Forest, Multi Layer Perceptron, Sequential Minimal Optimization, LibLINEAR, RBFNetwork and Fuzzy Unordered Rule Induction Algorithm are applied on the feature set to classify among the six handwritten scripts and the results are compared. Among all these classifiers, Logistic Model Tree shows highest accuracy rate of 91.2% with a 5 fold cross validation whereas SMO model has lowest convergence time of 0.05s.
Feeding Ecology of Arctic-Nesting Sandpipers During Spring Migration Through the Prairie Pothole Region

Abstract We evaluated food habits of 4 species of spring-migrant calidrid sandpipers in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North Dakota. Sandpipers foraged in several wetland classes and fed primarily on aquatic dipterans, mostly larvae, and the midge family Chironomidae was the primary food eaten. Larger sandpiper species foraged in deeper water and took larger larvae than did smaller sandpipers. The diverse wetland habitats that migrant shorebirds use in the PPR suggest a landscape-level approach be applied to wetland conservation efforts. We recommend that managers use livestock grazing and other tools, where applicable, to keep shallow, freshwater wetlands from becoming choked with emergent vegetation limiting chironomid production and preventing shorebird use.
Beyond Deserving More

Psychological entitlement is defined as the “stable and pervasive sense that one deserves more and is entitled to more than others. ” Research has shown those high in entitlement tend to behave selfishly, experience greater workplace conflict, and are low on the Big Five trait of Agreeableness. In a series of four studies, we demonstrate that psychological entitlement also predicts negative views of out-groups: It predicted lower liking for a rival student body, prejudice toward lesbians and gay men, negative attitudes toward female equality among male participants, and modern racism toward African Americans. Given that entitlement was unrelated to in-group identification or favoritism, these results suggest that it may be possible for those higher in entitlement to hold more negative views of out-groups without stronger in-group identification. Combined with previous findings, these studies suggest that the role of “others” in entitlement goes beyond merely believing that one deserves more than them.
“It's Not Like a Job Now; It's Part of Me”: Exploring African Women's Experiences in the Irish Childcare Sector

A small-scale qualitative research study was recently carried out in the West of Ireland to explore the experiences of African childminders who had established new childcare services. The intention of the study was to explore the issues, concerns and challenges of this group of providers given their unique position as recently settled, ethnic minority women in Ireland. Twelve women were interviewed as part of this study, all of whom had arrived with considerable educational and employment experiences from their home countries in West Africa. The research illustrates a number of key processes and characteristics within this sub-sector of childminding. It reveals that, in terms of pathways to work, these women had struggled to find employment in their new communities such that childcare provided a viable route that the women pursued with enthusiasm and commitment. Most had developed their services in a largely unintentional way to begin with. Having made a conscious decision to set up their services, this group appeared to demonstrate a strong determination to succeed by seeking out formal support, through advice and training, in order to enhance their services and adhere to professional regulations. They also encountered the need to proactively develop strategies that would overcome perceived barriers and broaden their appeal. While the women placed much emphasis on providing a high-quality service and adopting a professional approach, the group claimed to offer broader support and encouragement to parents in practical and emotional ways. In discussing the relationship the participants had with the families, the childminders felt that they provided a range of supportive services to the families with whom they worked. In documenting the reported experience and perspectives of these childminders, this research seeks to add to our understanding of what we conclude is a valuable yet potentially marginalised sector of childcare provision.
The Mammalian Protein (rbet1) Homologous to Yeast Bet1p Is Primarily Associated with the Pre-Golgi Intermediate Compartment and Is Involved in Vesicular Transport from the Endoplasmic Reticulum to the Golgi Apparatus

Yeast Bet1p participates in vesicular transport from the endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus and functions as a soluble N-ethylmaleimide–sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) associated with ER-derived vesicles. A mammalian protein (rbet1) homologous to Bet1p was recently identified, and it was concluded that rbet1 is associated with the Golgi apparatus based on the subcellular localization of transiently expressed epitope-tagged rbet1. In the present study using rabbit antibodies raised against the cytoplasmic domain of rbet1, we found that the majority of rbet1 is not associated with the Golgi apparatus as marked by the Golgi mannosidase II in normal rat kidney cells. Rather, rbet1 is predominantly associated with vesicular spotty structures that concentrate in the peri-Golgi region but are also present throughout the cytoplasm. These structures colocalize with the KDEL receptor and ERGIC-53, which are known to be enriched in the intermediate compartment. When the Golgi apparatus is fragmented by nocodazole treatment, a significant portion of rbet1 is not colocalized with structures marked by Golgi mannosidase II or the KDEL receptor. Association of rbet1 in cytoplasmic spotty structures is apparently not altered by preincubation of cells at 15°C. However, upon warming up from 15 to 37°C, rbet1 concentrates into the peri-Golgi region. Furthermore, rbet1 colocalizes with vesicular stomatitis virus G-protein en route from the ER to the Golgi. Antibodies against rbet1 inhibit in vitro transport of G-protein from the ER to the Golgi apparatus in a dose-dependent manner. This inhibition can be neutralized by preincubation of antibodies with recombinant rbet1. EGTA is known to inhibit ER-Golgi transport at a stage after vesicle docking but before the actual fusion event. Antibodies against rbet1 inhibit ER-Golgi transport only when they are added before the EGTA-sensitive stage. These results suggest that rbet1 may be involved in the docking process of ER- derived vesicles with the cis-Golgi membrane.
Education and the Importance of Religion in Decision Making: Do Other Dimensions of Religiousness Matter?

The relationship between education and the importance of religion in everyday decision making is examined using data from two national surveys of American adults. People who have higher levels of education are less likely to rely on the Bible and the teachings of their place of worship for guidance in their decision making. However, previously undocumented contingencies attenuate the effect of education: (1) attending religious services regularly; (2) involvement in religious activities; (3) praying more frequently; (4) believing in the literal interpretation of the Bible; and (5) greater certainty in one's personal faith. These patterns hold net of income, which is also negatively associated with religious-based decision making—and only the socially integrative aspects of religiousness attenuate that association.
On Performance of Judging Region and Power Allocation for Wireless Network Coding with Asymmetric Modulation

We investigate a decode and forward (DF) scheme of Asymmetric modulation suited for two-way relay (TWR) with network coding. The considering network coding consists of two time-slots: two users transmit wireless signal to the relay in time-slot 1, and the processed signal is broadcasted in time-slot 2 by the relay. With the received asymmetric modulated signals by relay in time-slot 1, the judging, coding and power allocating problems are investigated. A judging region (JR) scheme is proposed to solve the issues and the symbol error ratio (SER) is derived. We also give the optimized power allocation method of JR scheme according to different asymmetric modulations. The performance evaluations show correctness of SER expression and efficiency of power allocation method.
Evaluating Signature Matching in a Multi-Sensor Vehicle Classification System ( extended ) ∗

Many academic sensornet systems consider the problem of tracking targets as they move through a fixed field of sensors. Such applications must relate sensor detections to specific targets, yet prior work has often ignored this problem, assuming either a single target, sufficient spatial separation that target-to-sensor mapping is clear, or some out-of-band detection-totarget mapping. There has been little study of algorithms to associate detections with targets, and effects of their accuracy on detection results, particularly in environments with dense targets. We explore the question of detection-to-target mapping in the context of a vehicle classification system for urban roadways, where vehicles pass fixed sensors at varying but frequent rates. We develop several signature matching algorithms that relate detections at different sensors to same or different vehicles. We evaluate these algorithms with data taken in a field test of live traffic compared against ground truth obtained through manual analysis of video and the resulting matching recall is over 78%. We investigate the effects of mapping accuracy on length-based vehicle classification. We show that accurate signature matching is critical to multi-sensor algorithms. We compare our matching algorithms against an oracle (perfect information), and find that all matching reduces end-to-end accuracy somewhat, but a poor ∗This research is supported in part by USC/CSULB METRANS Project 07-04. matching algorithm reduce accuracy by 21%, while our best algorithm reduces it by only 10% in our case study. Finally, we quantify the degree of correlation between matching correctness and classification accuracy.
Identifying depression and anxiety in a 40‐year epidemiological investigation: the Stirling County study

As a longitudinal investigation, the ‘Stirling County study’ involves a 40‐year period beginning with the drawing of a sample in 1952 for a survey of psychiatric disorders. In 1970 a new sample was drawn and subjects from 1952 were followed, and in 1992 another new sample was drawn and all 1952 and 1970 subjects were followed. During these years, knowledge about psychiatric disorders has increased in the population at large; changes in everyday language about them have occurred and criteria for identifying them have been improved. This report describes adaptations of methods designed to overcome some of the problems inherent in such changes.
Multilayer nano-structured field emitters for formation of high density electron beams in minituarized devices

The operation of the field emitters, consisting of nano-layers of materials with different work function was investigated in continuous mode. Dependence of the emission current on the thickness of the layers was calculated and experimentally measured. There were obtained currents ∼ 170– 180 mkA and current density up to 10 A/cm from the cathods containing 40 pairs of layers Yb-C. Tested cathodes stably operated in technical vacuum conditions.
Overexpression of RAN1 in Rice and Arabidopsis Alters Primordial Meristem, Mitotic Progress, and Sensitivity to Auxin1

Ran is an evolutionarily conserved eukaryotic GTPase. We previously identified a cDNA of TaRAN1, a novel Ran GTPase homologous gene in wheat (Triticum aestivum) and demonstrated that TaRAN1 is associated with regulation of genome integrity and cell division in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) systems. However, much less is known about the function of RAN in plant development. To analyze the possible biological roles of Ran GTPase, we overexpressed TaRAN1 in transgenic Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice (Oryza sativa). TaRAN1 overexpression increased the proportion of cells in the G2 phase of the cell cycle, which resulted in an elevated mitotic index and prolonged life cycle. Furthermore, it led to increased primordial tissue, reduced number of lateral roots, and stimulated hypersensitivity to exogenous auxin. The results suggest that Ran protein was involved in the regulation of mitotic progress, either in the shoot apical meristem or the root meristem zone in plants, where auxin signaling is involved. This article determines the function of RAN in plant development mediated by the cell cycle and its novel role in meristem initiation mediated by auxin signaling.