Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The SHEDS-Wood Model: Incorporation of Observational Data to Estimate Exposure to Arsenic for Children Playing on CCA-Treated Wood Structures

Background Lumber treated with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) compounds has been used in residential outdoor wood structures and public playgrounds. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has conducted a probabilistic assessment of children’s exposure to arsenic using the Stochastic Human Exposure and Dose Simulation model for the wood preservative scenario (SHEDS-Wood). The assessment relied on data derived from an experimental study conducted using adult volunteers and designed to result in maximum hand and wipe loadings to estimate the residue–skin transfer efficiency. Recent analyses of arsenic hand-loading data generated by studies of children actively involved in playing on CCA-treated structures indicate that the transfer efficiency coefficient and hand-loading estimates derived from the experimental study significantly overestimate the amount that occurs during actual play. Objectives Our goal was to assess the feasibility of using child hand-loading data in the SHEDS-Wood model and their impact on exposure estimates. Methods We used data generated by the larger of the studies of children in SHEDS-Wood, instead of the distributions used by U.S. EPA. We compared our estimates of the lifetime average daily dose (LADD) and average daily dose (ADD) with those derived by the U.S. EPA. Results Our analysis indicates that data from observational studies of children can be used in SHEDS-Wood. Our estimates of the mean (and 95th percentile) LADD and ADD were 27% (10%) and 29% (15%) of the estimates derived by U.S. EPA. Conclusion We recommend that the SHEDS-Woods model use data from studies of children actively playing on playsets to more accurately estimate children’s actual exposures to CCA.
Mean field limit for disordered diffusions with singular interactions

Motivated by considerations from neuroscience (macroscopic behavior of large ensembles of interacting neurons), we consider a population of mean field interacting diffusions in $\mathbf {R}^m$ in the presence of a random environment and with spatial extension: each diffusion is attached to one site of the lattice $\mathbf {Z}^d$, and the interaction between two diffusions is attenuated by a spatial weight that depends on their positions. For a general class of singular weights (including the case already considered in the physical literature when interactions obey to a power-law of parameter $0<\alpha<d$), we address the convergence as $N\to\infty$ of the empirical measure of the diffusions to the solution of a deterministic McKean-Vlasov equation and prove well-posedness of this equation, even in the degenerate case without noise. We provide also precise estimates of the speed of this convergence, in terms of an appropriate weighted Wasserstein distance, exhibiting in particular nontrivial fluctuations in the power-law case when $\frac{d}{2}\leq\alpha<d$. Our framework covers the case of polynomially bounded monotone dynamics that are especially encountered in the main models of neural oscillators.
Effects of Dichloroethene Isomers on the Induction and Activity of Butane Monooxygenase in the Alkane-Oxidizing Bacterium “Pseudomonas butanovora”

ABSTRACT We examined cooxidation of three different dichloroethenes (1,1-DCE, 1,2-trans DCE, and 1,2-cis DCE) by butane monooxygenase (BMO) in the butane-utilizing bacterium “Pseudomonas butanovora. ” Different organic acids were tested as exogenous reductant sources for this process. In addition, we determined if DCEs could serve as surrogate inducers of BMO gene expression. Lactic acid supported greater rates of oxidation of the three DCEs than the other organic acids tested. The impacts of lactic acid-supported DCE oxidation on BMO activity differed among the isomers. In intact cells, 50% of BMO activity was irreversibly lost after consumption of ∼20 nmol mg protein−1 of 1,1-DCE and 1,2-trans DCE in 0.5 and 5 min, respectively. In contrast, a comparable loss of activity required the oxidation of 120 nmol 1,2-cis DCE mg protein−1. Oxidation of similar amounts of each DCE isomer (∼20 nmol mg protein−1) produced different negative effects on lactic acid-dependent respiration. Despite 1,1-DCE being consumed 10 times faster than 1,2,-trans DCE, respiration declined at similar rates, suggesting that the product(s) of oxidation of 1,2-trans DCE was more toxic to respiration than 1,1-DCE. Lactate-grown “P. butanovora” did not express BMO activity but gained activity after exposure to butane, ethene, 1,2-cis DCE, or 1,2-trans DCE. The products of BMO activity, ethene oxide and 1-butanol, induced lacZ in a reporter strain containing lacZ fused to the BMO promoter, whereas butane, ethene, and 1,2-cis DCE did not. 1,2-trans DCE was unique among the BMO substrates tested in its ability to induce lacZ expression.
The Influence of Observation on Cooperative Decision Making

THE INFLUENCE OF OBSERVATION ON COOPERATIVE DECISION MAKING Amanda M. Rotella University of Guelph, 2015 Advisor: Dr. Pat Barclay Reputational incentives, such as observation, influence cooperative decisions. People increase cooperative efforts in response to observation to gain a good reputation. Extending on this, the current research investigated: (1) how people use contextual cues of observation and cooperative signals to assess trustworthiness, and (2) if thinking about observation was sufficient to elicit an observation effect. Additionally, I explored how individual differences in social value orientation influenced responses to observation. For the first objective, predictions were partially supported. Individuals with a prosocial orientation used contextual cues of observation to assess the trustworthiness of targets, while individuals with a self-oriented disposition (proselfs) did not. For the second objective, thoughts of observation increased reciprocity. However, this effect was only present when participants were thinking about a mundane action. When thinking about performing a cooperative action, a moral licensing effect was produced. Lastly, exploratory results suggest that moral licensing is specific to proselfs.
Characterization of cis-Acting Sites Controlling Arginine Deiminase Gene Expression in Streptococcus gordonii

ABSTRACT The arginine deiminase system (ADS) is responsible for the production of ornithine, CO2, ammonia, and ATP from arginine. The ADS of the oral bacterium Streptococcus gordonii plays major roles in physiologic homeostasis, acid tolerance, and oral biofilm ecology. To further our understanding of the transcriptional regulation of the ADS (arc) operon, the binding of the ArcR transcriptional activator, which governs expression of the ADS in response to arginine, was investigated by DNase I protection and gel mobility shift assays. An ArcR binding sequence was found that was 27 bp in length and had little sequence similarity to binding sites of other arginine metabolism regulators. The presence of arginine at physiologically relevant concentrations enhanced the binding of ArcR to its target. Using cat fusions, various deletion and substitution mutations within the putative ArcR footprint were shown to cause dramatic reductions in expression from the arcA promoter in vivo, confirming that the 27-bp sequence is required for optimal expression and induction of the ADS by arginine. Mutation of two putative catabolite response elements (CREs) within the arc promoter region showed that both CREs contribute to catabolite repression. A thorough understanding of the regulation of the ADS in S. gordonii and related organisms is needed to develop ways to exploit arginine catabolism for the control of oral diseases. Identification of the ArcR and CcpA binding sites lays the foundation for a more complete understanding of the complex interactions of multiple regulatory proteins with elements in the arc promoter region.
Nontrivial Stable Control Economic Model of Sports Facilities

Given that multiple regions have their own development speeds of supply and demand for public sports facilities, a dynamic supply and demand control model of multiple regional public sports facilities is built in this paper. With the range of residents' income increases and the public sports facilities supply investment as the control variables, we established a unified construction controlling means by using the Linear Matrix Inequality approach derived from Lyapunov stability theory. As such, this means guarantees that the systems of public sports facilities in multiple regions with various developments are asymptotically stable; meanwhile, it can lower the difficulty of the control. DOI : http://dx.doi. org/10.11591/telkomnika.v12i2. 3888
(+)-Catechin is more bioavailable than (−)-catechin: Relevance to the bioavailability of catechin from cocoa

Catechin is a flavonoid present in fruits, wine and cocoa products. Most foods contain the (+)-enantiomer of catechin but chocolate mainly contains ( − )-catechin, in addition to its major flavanol, ( − )-epicatechin. Previous studies have shown poor bioavailability of catechin when consumed in chocolate. We compared the absorption of ( − ) and (+)-catechin after in situ perfusion of 10, 30 or 50 μmol/l of each catechin enantiomer in the jejunum and ileum in the rat. We also assayed 23 samples of chocolate for (+) and ( − )-catechin. Samples were analyzed using HPLC with a Cyclobond I-2000 RSP chiral column. At all concentrations studied, the intestinal absorption of ( − )-catechin was lower than the intestinal absorption of (+)-catechin (p < 0.01). Plasma concentrations of ( − )-catechin were significantly reduced compared to (+)-catechin (p < 0.05). The mean concentration of ( − )-catechin in chocolate was 218 ± 126 mg/kg compared to 25 ± 15 mg/kg (+)-catechin. Our findings provide an explanation for the poor bioavailability of catechin when consumed in chocolate or other cocoa containing products.
Design a 4GHz PLL for wireless receiver

:This paper presents the design of a 4 GHz PLL used in wireless receiver. The Verilog-A models are used in behavioral level simulation and in post-layout simulation. The design is based on SMIC 0.18 um 1P6M CMOS RF process. The settling time is 19us and the reference spur is 42.2 dB, the phase noise of VCO is -115 dBc/Hz@lMHz, the power dissipation of the PLL is 36 mW.
Analysis and comparison of oxygen consumption of HepG2 cells in a monolayer and three‐dimensional high density cell culture by use of a matrigrid®

By the use of a MatriGrid® we have established a three‐dimensional high density cell culture. The MatriGrid® is a culture medium permeable, polymeric scaffold with 187 microcavities. In these cavities (300 μm diameter and 207 μm deep) the cells can growth three‐dimensionally. For these experiments we measured the oxygen consumption of HepG2 cell cultures in order to optimize cultivation conditions. We measured and compared the oxygen consumption, growth rate and vitality under three different cultivation conditions: monolayer, three‐dimensional static and three‐dimensional actively perfused. The results show that the cells in a three‐dimensional cell culture consume less oxygen as in a monolayer cell culture and that the actively perfused three‐dimensional cell culture in the MatriGrid® has a similar growth rate and vitality as the monolayer culture. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2013; 110:2504–2512. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
DSP hardware design for fingerprint binarization and thinning on FPGA

Binarization and thinning are the two critical preprocessing stages designed for accurate extraction of minutiae features from the preprocessed image in fingerprint identification system. In this work an efficient design of DSP hardware for binarization and thinning of fingerprint images has been achieved based on Otsu's thresholding method for binarization and Zhang and Suen's method for thinning. Optimization has been achieved in our proposed hardware design, which improved the performance in terms of execution speed. The algorithms are designed in Xilinx System Generator using DSP hardware blocks and executed on Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA (field programmable gate array) device.
Ultra Low Emittance Light Sources

This paper outlines the special issues for reaching sub-nm emittance in a storage ring. Effects of damping wigglers, intra-beam scattering and lifetime issues, dynamic aperture optimization, control of optics, and their interrelations are covered in some detail. The unique choices for the NSLS-II are given as one example.
Directcha: A proposal of spatiometric mental rotation CAPTCHA

A 3D CAPTCHA using mental rotation, called YUNiTi CAPTCHA, has been proposed as an advanced system to enable discrimination between computers and humans. YUNiTi CAPTCHA is performed in a “cognometric” mental rotation task. We point out that YUNiTi CAPTCHA has a vulnerability to some pattern matching attacks, which choose the most similar images to a question image among a list of candidate images. We propose a new mental rotation CAPTCHA, called Directcha, to cope with the attacks. Directcha requires users to perform a “spatiometric” mental rotation task, in which users answer the direction of one 3D object in a question image. Directcha uses only one 3D object in the question image, so malware cannot break Directcha using pattern matching attacks. We implemented a prototype of Directcha and carried out basic experiments to test its usability. The results showed that, even though Directcha has higher attack tolerance than YUNiTi CAPTCHA, Directcha has nearly the same level of usability (correct response rate and response time) as that of YUNiTi CAPTCHA. We also describe threats to the security of Directcha.
THE EFFECT OF THE ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK STRUCTURE CHARACTERISTIC TOWARD COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE INVOLVEMENT, AND ITS IMPLICATION TOWARD PURCHASE INTENTION: BUZZING PRODUCT ON TWITTER

The purpose of this research is to examine the influence of online social network structure characteristics on cognitive and affective involvement, and its implication on purchase intention of the product buzzed on twitter. As one of online social media, twitter has created vast opportunity for companies to promote their products and services. Twitter becomes a new and promising alternative channel to promote companies' products and services. Twitter has been growth rapidly in Indonesia. However, only a few companies that have used twitter as a media to promote the product, and most of them are of small and mid size enterprises. In general, Indonesian companies still in doubt and skeptic on the use of twitter as an alternative promotion media. Research done by IBM revealed that the main reasons behind this skepticism were trust and privacy issues. The stimulus organism response was used as the underlying theory of this study. By using convenience sampling method, two hundred questionnaires were sent, and one hundred ninety returned and ready for further data analysis. This research found that network centrality and homophile are significantly influence affective involvement; tie strength, network density, and homophile are significantly influence cognitive involvement. Furthermore, this research also found that affective involvement is positively influence purchase intention. The limitation and suggestion of this research are also explained.
Design and analysis of very low voltage charge pumps for RFID tags

The design and analysis of very low-voltage driven charge pumps powered by RF telemetry is proposed. The use of thick oxide zero threshold voltage transistors along with appropriately sized boosting capacitors and matching techniques allows for charge pumps capable of achieving high voltage DC outputs with very low input voltages. Two test chips have been fabricated, an 11 stage pump and a 12 stage pump in 1.2 V 0.13-mum standard CMOS process. The pumps are capable of generating an output voltage above 1.2 volts with input voltages below 100 mV making them ideal for generating DC supplies from low RF scavenged sources.
Engagement in Risky Sexual Behavior

The current study examined associations among parenting practices, adolescents’ self-esteem and dating identity exploration, and adolescents’ sexual behaviors. Participants were 680 African American and European American sexually experienced adolescents attending public high schools in the southeast. Results indicated that risky sexual behavior was associated positively with parental psychological control, and negatively with self-esteem and dating identity exploration. Parental support positively predicted self-esteem and dating identity exploration; psychological control also showed a positive association with dating identity exploration. Contrary to expectation, neither self-esteem nor dating identity exploration mediated associations between parenting and risky sexual behavior; moderation tests showed few differences. However, dating identity exploration showed potential to serve as a protective factor for higher risk groups (i.e., males, African Americans), and psychological control appeared particularly detrimental for older adolescents. Finally, youth from stepfamilies showed associations among the variables that differed from youth living in single-parent and two-parent biological/adoptive families.
The effects of sensory impairments on product experience and personal well-being

To determine the roles that the sensory modalities play in user – product interactions, one modality was blocked during the execution of eight simple tasks. Participants reported how they experienced the products and how they felt during the experiment. Blocking vision resulted in the largest loss of functional information, increased task difficulty and task duration, and fostered dependency. On the other hand, the other senses were used more and product experiences increased in perceived intenseness. When touch was blocked, the perceived loss of information was smaller and participants reported that familiar products felt less like their own. Blocking audition resulted in communication problems and a feeling of being cut off. Blocking olfaction mainly decreased the intenseness of the experience. These outcomes suggest that vision mainly plays a functional role in everyday user – product interactions, whereas the main role for olfaction lies in the affective domain. Sensory impairments change the way people experience products. Blocking a single modality during everyday tasks gives insight into the impact of impairments. These insights can be used to develop products for multiple user groups (inclusive design) or products used under extreme environmental conditions.
Predicting Tastes from Friend Relationships

In the last few years, online social networks have become an important part of people’s lives. They have made data describing the connections between people more accessible than it has ever been in the past. In light of this new technology, we can now explore the predictive power of social data. In this paper, we present a method to predict target variables that describe individuals based upon their relationships to others and knowledge of the target variables for some of those other individuals. In the next section, we do a survey of the previous research on using social graphs as predictive instruments. We then discuss in Section 3 how we apply machine learning to this problem by constructing an appropriate support vector machine. In Section 4, we describe how we obtained test data from the Facebook API[4], as well as the features and target variables that we used. In Section 5, we analyze how our algorithm performs when trained with the Facebook data using ten-fold cross validation.
TGFβ inducible early gene‐1 (TIEG1) and cardiac hypertrophy: Discovery and characterization of a novel signaling pathway

Cellular mechanisms causing cardiac hypertrophy are currently under intense investigation. We report a novel finding in the TGFβ inducible early gene (TIEG) null mouse implicating TIEG1 in cardiac hypertrophy. The TIEG−/− knock‐out mouse was studied. Male mice age 4–16 months were characterized (N = 86 total) using echocardiography, transcript profiling by gene microarray, and immunohistochemistry localized upregulated genes for determination of cellular mechanism. The female mice (N = 40) did not develop hypertrophy or fibrosis. The TIEG−/− knock‐out mouse developed features of cardiac hypertrophy including asymmetric septal hypertrophy, an increase in ventricular size at age 16 months, an increase (214%) in mouse heart/weight body weight ratio TIEG−/−, and an increase in wall thickness in TIEG−/− mice of (1.85 ± 0.21 mm), compared to the control (1.13 ± 0.15 mm, P < 0.04). Masson Trichrome staining demonstrated evidence of myocyte disarray and myofibroblast fibrosis. Microarray analysis of the left ventricles demonstrated that TIEG−/− heart tissues expressed a 13.81‐fold increase in pituitary tumor‐transforming gene‐1 (Pttg1). An increase in Pttg1 and histone H3 protein levels were confirmed in the TIEG−/− mice hearts tissues. We present evidence implicating TIEG and possibly its target gene, Pttg1, in the development of cardiac hypertrophy in the TIEG null mouse. J. Cell. Biochem. 100: 315–325, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A corpus-based contrastive study of mental verbs

In contrastive linguistics, the development of bilingual and multilingual corpora have provided new empirical data and has allowed linguists to focus attention on the syntagmatic axis and on the analysis of word co-occurrence patterns. Corpus linguistics has given new emphasis to the importance of the context in word meaning. When syntagmatic associations are taken into consideration together with paradigmatic ones, a finer-grained linguistic analysis and new insights into the comparison of languages can be obtained. The study presented here, in line with the current trend towards lexically oriented theories, approaches the interrelation between grammar and lexis, taking into account the interdependence between lexical choice and contextual patterns. The meaning of polysemous verbs is clearly related to their complementation patterns (Levin 1993, Poch and Verdaguer 1996, Faber and Mairal 1999) and the interface between syntax and semantics allows a coherent and systematic account of the differences in word meaning. In addition to the lexis-grammar interface, this analysis will also address the importance of the collocational patterns in the identification of word meaning. Firth’s well-known words “You shall know a word by the company it keeps” (Firth 1957), stating the close relationship of lexis and linguistic context, have been confirmed by corpus studies, which have provided large ample evidence for word co-occur-