Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Scores on the 20 ‘ successful ageing ’ items by country and for Europe and Latin America , mid 2000 s

A review of several studies examining the lay concept of successful ageing and related concepts leads to the conclusion that elders from different cultures appear to agree on most of the components identified in the literature. From the research emerges a multidimensional conceptualisation of ‘ successful ageing’ that is described on the basis of physical, emotional, cognitive and social domains, and which coincides with most theoretical and empirical definitions. The main goal of the present research is to study similarities and differences between concepts of ‘ successful ageing’ in several Latin American and European countries and in two different age groups, and also to examine whether a similar structure of the lay concept can be found across both continents. The results show minor differences at item levels among countries, continents and age groups, and a similar internal structure across them.
Computer Aided Phenomenography: The R ole of Leximancer Computer Soft ware in Phenomenographic Investigation

The qualitative research methodology of phenomenography has traditionally required a manual sorting and analysis of interview data. In this paper I explore a potential means of streamlining this procedure by considering a computer aided process not previously reported upon. Two methods of lexicological analysis, manual and automatic, were examined from a phenomenographical perspective and compared. It was found that the computer aided process – Leximancer – was a valid investigative tool for use in phenomenography. Using Leximancer was more efficacious than manual operation; the researcher was able to deal with large amounts of data without bias, identify a broader span of syntactic properties, increase reliability, and facilitate reproducibility. The introduction of a computer aided methodology might also encourage other qualitative researchers to engage with
The Geographic Sources of Innovation: Technological Infrastructure and Product Innovation in the United States

Abstract The fate of regions and of nations increasingly depends upon ideas and innovations to facilitate growth. In recent years, geographers have made fundamental contributions to our understanding of the innovation process by exploring the diffusion of innovation, the location of R&D, and the geography of high-technology industry. This paper examines the geographic sources of innovation, focusing specifically on the relationship between product innovation and the underlying “technological infrastructure” of particular places. This infrastructure is comprised of agglomerations of firms in related manufacturing industries, geographic concentrations of industrial R&D, concentrations of university R&D, and business-service firms. Once in place, these geographic concentrations of infrastructure enhance the capacity for innovation, as regions come to specialize in particular technologies and industrial sectors. Geography organizes this infrastructure by bringing together the crucial resources and inputs for .
Model for the Onset of Fibrillation Following Coronary Artery Occlusion

Introduction: It is the hypothesis of this article that the onset of fibrillation following a coronary artery occlusion is a direct consequence of the spatial inhomogeneity of chemical processes that occur following the occlusion. In particular, the localized increase of extracellular potassium and decrease of ATP availability lead to an increase of resting potential in the affected cells. This difference in potential between affected cells and normal cells drives a current, the “current of injury,” which may drive oscillations in the border zone, a “border zone arrhythmia. ” The border zone arrhythmia may drive a “breakup instability” (related to the action potential duration restitution instability) in the surrounding tissue, leading to self‐sustained fibrillation.
Simulation of microwave backscatter from a red pine stand

The modeling of microwave backscatter from forests is considered. A simulation is implemented where every tree is viewed as a collection of cylindrical segments whose size and position are known. The total backscatter is then computed by adding the scattered field from each segment. The calculations are carried out using red pine tree data, provided by R. Landry of the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing. By using a surveying instrument, he has generated the coordinates for all segments of a typical red pine tree. The simulation accounts for trunk and branch curvature and tapering which are not usually included in the statistical approach. In addition, array effects at the level of first order scattering are accounted for. The calculations are performed at P band where multiple scattering contributions should be small.
Vishnoo — An open-source software for vision research

The visual input is perhaps the most important sensory information. Understanding its mechanisms as well as the way visual attention arises could be highly beneficial for many tasks involving the analysis of users' interaction with their environment. We present Vishnoo (Visual Search Examination Tool), an integrated framework that combines configurable search tasks with gaze tracking capabilities, thus enabling the analysis of both, the visual field and the visual attention. Our user studies underpin the viability of such a platform. Vishnoo is an open-source software and is available for download at http://www.vishnoo. de/
Optogenetically evoked gamma oscillations are disturbed by cocaine administration

Drugs of abuse have enormous societal impact by degrading the cognitive abilities, emotional state and social behavior of addicted individuals. Among other events involved in the addiction cycle, the study of a single exposure to cocaine, and the contribution of the effects of that event to the continuous and further use of drugs of abuse are fundamental. Gamma oscillations are thought to be important neural correlates of cognitive processing in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) which include decision making, set shifting and working memory. It follows that cocaine exposure might modulate gamma oscillations, which could result in reduced cognitive ability. Parvalbumin-positive fast-spiking interneurons play an orchestrating role in gamma oscillation induction and it has been shown recently that gamma oscillations can be induced in an anesthetized animal using optogenetic techniques. We use a knock-in mouse model together with optogenetics and in vivo electrophysiology to study the effects of acute cocaine on PFC gamma oscillation as a step toward understanding the cortical changes that may underlie continuous use of stimulants. Our results show that acute cocaine administration increases entrainment of the gamma oscillation to the optogentically induced driving frequency. Our results also suggest that this modulation of gamma oscillations is driven trough activation of D1 receptors. The acute cocaine-mediated changes in mPFC may underlie the enhancement of attention and awareness commonly reported by cocaine users and may contribute to the further use and abuse of psychostimulants.
Distinct roles of immunoreceptor tyrosine‐based motifs in immunosuppressive indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase 1

The enzyme indoleamine 2,3‐dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) catalyses the initial, rate‐limiting step in tryptophan (Trp) degradation, resulting in tryptophan starvation and the production of immunoregulatory kynurenines. IDO1's catalytic function has long been considered as the one mechanism responsible for IDO1‐dependent immune suppression by dendritic cells (DCs), which are master regulators of the balance between immunity and tolerance. However, IDO1 also harbours immunoreceptor tyrosine‐based inhibitory motifs, (ITIM1 and ITIM2), that, once phosphorylated, bind protein tyrosine phosphatases, (SHP‐1 and SHP‐2), and thus trigger an immunoregulatory signalling in DCs. This mechanism leads to sustained IDO1 expression, in a feedforward loop, which is particularly important in restraining autoimmunity and chronic inflammation. Yet, under specific conditions requiring that early and protective inflammation be unrelieved, tyrosine‐phosphorylated ITIMs will instead bind the suppressor of cytokine signalling 3 (SOCS3), which drives IDO1 proteasomal degradation and shortens the enzyme half‐life. To dissect any differential roles of the two IDO1's ITIMs, we generated protein mutants by replacing one or both ITIM‐associated tyrosines with phospho‐mimicking glutamic acid residues. Although all mutants lost their enzymic activity, the ITIM1 – but not ITIM2 mutant – did bind SHPs and conferred immunosuppressive effects on DCs, making cells capable of restraining an antigen‐specific response in vivo. Conversely, the ITIM2 mutant would preferentially bind SOCS3, and IDO1's degradation was accelerated. Thus, it is the selective phosphorylation of either ITIM that controls the duration of IDO1 expression and function, in that it dictates whether enhanced tolerogenic signalling or shutdown of IDO1‐dependent events will occur in a local microenvironment.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Challenges in Integrating Biological Data Sources

Scientific data of importance to biologists reside in a number of different data sources, such as GenBank, GSDB, SWISS-PROT, EMBL, and OMIM, among many others. Some of these data sources are conventional databases implemented using database management systems (DBMSs) and others are structured files maintained in a number of different formats (e.g., ASN.l and ACE). In addition, software packages such as sequence analysis packages (e.g., BLAST and FASTA) produce data and can therefore be viewed as data sources. To counter the increasing dispersion and heterogeneity of data, different approaches to integrating these data sources are appearing throughout the bioinformatics community. This paper surveys the technical challenges to integration, classifies the approaches, and critiques the available tools and methodologies.
A Synchronous Multioutput Step-Up/Down DC-DC Converter With Return Current Control

This brief presents a new return-current control method for a multioutput step-up/down dc-dc converter. Compared with prior multioutput dc-dc converters, the presently described converter can generate outputs higher or lower than the input voltage with simple control-loop compensation while guaranteeing stability in a wide load range. Using a 0.5-mum bipolar CMOS (BiCMOS) process, a converter having five outputs has been implemented for an LG active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AM-OLED) display panel. The implemented converter operates at 1-MHz switching frequency with 4.7- muH inductor and 10-muF capacitor. Experimental results show that the proposed control method can generate tightly regulated stepped-up or -down outputs stably under a wide load variation. The conversion efficiency is higher than 80% at a typical AM-OLED panel grey level.
Prevalence, incidence and risk factors of testosterone deficiency in a population-based cohort of men: results from the study of health in Pomerania

Objective. Low total testosterone levels (TT) have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. However, the prevalence and incidence of testosterone deficiency (TD) in association with its risk has not been assessed systematically to date. Methods. Data from the prospective population-based Study of Health in Pomerania were used. From the 2117 men aged 20–79 years at baseline, 1490 men with complete TT data were analysed. Crude and age-specific prevalence and incidence rates of TD were estimated by TT levels below the age-specific 10th percentile. Analysis of covariance and Poisson regression models were used to assess the association of socio-demographic characteristics, health-related lifestyle, as well as somatometric, medical and laboratory measures with risk of incident TD. Results. TD baseline prevalence was 10.4% (N = 155) and incidence 11.7 per 1000 person-years. TT levels showed a significant age-related decline with an unadjusted rate of 0.05 nmol/l per year. Obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and dyslipidaemia were identified as risk factors of incident TD. Subpopulations of men without the revealed risk factors at both examinations maintained constant TT levels over time. Conclusions. Besides aging alone, lifestyle and different comorbidities were associated with TT level decline, suggesting that the age-related TT decline may be at least partly prevented through the management of potentially modifiable risk factors and health related behaviour.
Optimal aggregation algorithms for middleware

Assume that each object in a database has m grades, or scores, one for each of m attributes. For example, an object can have a color grade, that tells how red it is, and a shape grade, that tells how round it is. For each attribute, there is a sorted list, which lists each object and its grade under that attribute, sorted by grade (highest grade first). There is some monotone aggregation function, or combining rule, such as min or average, that combines the individual grades to obtain an overall grade. To determine objects that have the best overall grades, the naive algorithm must access every object in the database, to find its grade under each attribute. Fagin has given an algorithm (“Fagin's Algorithm”, or FA) that is much more efficient. For some distributions on grades, and for some monotone aggregation functions, FA is optimal in a high-probability sense. We analyze an elegant and remarkably simple algorithm (“the threshold algorithm”, or TA) that is optimal in a much stronger sense than FA. We show that TA is essentially optimal, not just for some monotone aggregation functions, but for all of them, and not just in a high-probability sense, but over every database. Unlike FA, which requires large buffers (whose size may grow unboundedly as the database size grows), TA requires only a small, constant-size buffer. We distinguish two types of access: sorted access (where the middleware system obtains the grade of an object in some sorted list by proceeding through the list sequentially from the top), and random access (where the middleware system requests the grade of object in a list, and obtains it in one step). We consider the scenarios where random access is either impossible, or expensive relative to sorted access, and provide algorithms that are essentially optimal for these cases as well.
Multiple Human Localization Method Using Compressed Sensing

This paper investigates the multiple human localization using Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) sensor. We propose a living body position estimation method based on a compressed sensing using a newly developed two-stage virtual array technique for enhancing the sensitivity to the vital sign. The proposed method estimates the positions of multiple objects without the knowledge of the number targets by using the correlation matrix obtained from the frequency response of the channel matrix. The experimental results show that the proposed method can estimate the location of a single target with 0.15 m accuracy on average. Moreover, the average accuracies with two and three subjects are 0.25 m and 0.29 m, respectively.
Model Evaluation for Computer Graphics Renderings of Artist Paint Surfaces

Light reflection models for computer graphics have been developed over the past several decades. For real paint surfaces, it is possible to model their bidirectional reflectance distribution function with simple models. This research established a framework to evaluate two simple reflection models, Phong and Torrance-Sparrow, which were used to render artist paint surfaces under different illumination angles. An image acquisition system was set up to capture the images under selected illuminated angles. The parameters of the specular and the diffuse components were estimated with these image sequences. At the evaluation stage, both physical-based metrics and psychophysical techniques were used to evaluate the estimation accuracy of each model. For both methods, the comparison of the estimations of two models showed that better estimations were obtained from the TorranceSparrow model for the glossy samples. The estimation accuracies of two models are almost the same for the matte samples. In addition, the numbers of illumination angles of the test samples can be minimized based on both mathematical calculations and psychophysical experiments.
Monitoring the Vegetation Resources in Riparian Areas

__________________________________________ Winward, Alma H. 2000. Monitoring the vegetation resources in riparian areas. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS­ GTR-47. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 49 p. This document provides information on three sampling methods used to inventory and monitor the vegetation resources in riparian areas. The vegetation cross-section method evaluates the health of vegetation across the valley floor. The greenline method provides a measurement of the streamside vegetation. The woody species regeneration method measures the density and age class structure of any shrub or tree species that may be present in the sampling area. Together these three sampling procedures can provide an evaluation of the health of all the vegetation in a given riparian area.
Application of a Computational Fluid Dynamics Code to Fuel Cells — Integrated SOFC Fuel Cell and Post Oxidizer

This paper presents results from a FLUENT TM CFD model of an integrated fuel cell and post fuel cell oxidizer. The FLUENT software is a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package that has been modified to include fuel cell electrochemistry. The electrochemical model is directly coupled with the solutions for mass, momentum, and energy, and accounts for the three primary loss mechanisms in fuel cells: ohmic overpotential, concentration overpotential, and elec-trochemical overpotential. Thus far, the FLUENT/Electrochemical model has been verified by the favorable comparison of results with other 1-D models developed by our group. As a preliminary assessment of the new capability, a study of the performance of a tubular fuel cell with integrated post oxidizer is performed. This post oxidizer is used to burn the residual fuel emitted from a fuel cell. The present study assumes a partially reformed natural gas fuel supply to the fuel cell, and no additional reforming is modeled within the fuel cell. The study examines the impact of radiation on the cell temperature, as well as the performance of the combustor as the fuel cell operates under a variety of load (fuel consumption) conditions. The results show a 23% percent decrease in the cell temperature gradient due to radiative heat transfer, which is in agreement with prior literature indicating that radiation plays a significant role in the thermal management of a fuel cell. It is also found (for fixed flow rates and steady-state assumptions) that the extent of residual fuel from the combustor section is independent of fuel cell load.
Chromite composition and PGE content of Bushveld chromitites: Part 1 – the Lower and Middle Groups

This paper is based on 465 new analyses of Ni, Cu, S and PGE from the 19 chromitite horizons between the LG-1 and UMG-2 from 6 sectors around the Bushveld Complex, along with microprobe analyses of representative samples of 41 chromites. Two trends in chromite composition, A and B, are distinguished on a plot of cation% Mg/(Mg + Fe2+) versus Cr/(Cr+Al). Trend A, that has a negative slope, is close to that predicted as the result of the reciprocal exchange substitution of Cr and Fe2+ for Mg and Al between spinel and liquid affecting the Mg-Fe2+ spinel-liquid Kd2. Trend B, that has a positive slope and is defined primarily by the LG-5 to MG-2 chromitites, is the result of the progressive increase in the activity of Al2O3 as a result of the fractional crystallization of orthopyroxene. Overall, the average PGE concentrations in massive chromitite increase upward. The LG-1 to LG-4 chromities have low (Pt+Pd)/(Rh+Ru+Ir+Os) ratios (0·1 to 0·3), above which there is an abrupt jump to higher ratios in the LG-5 (0·9 to 10) and all overlying chromitites (also documented by Scoon and Teigler). The Pt/Ru and Pd/Ru ratios are very variable, but the Ru/Ir, Ru/Rh and Ru/Os ratios of all chromitites are relatively constant, indicating that Pt and Pd respond to different concentration mechanisms to the other PGE. Rh, Ru, Ir and Os were likely concentrated by chromite itself, probably as grains of laurite and alloys incorporated in growing chromite crystals, but the bulk of the Pt, Pd along with lesser proportions of the other PGE were concentrated by sulphide liquid. Most chromitites now have very low contents of S, but mineragraphic and chemical data support the suggestion of Naldrett and Lehmann that vacancies in chromite forming above 900°C were filled by Fe2+ derived from the destruction of interstitial sulphide liquid. Data on En composition through the Bushveld CriticalZone, indicate that the LG-1 to LG-4 chromitites formed at a stage when influxes of magma into the chamber were rapid and primitive, and overrode the effect of fractional crystallization, whereas above this, fractionation mostly overrode influxes of new magma. Irvine's model of mixing of resident magma with influxes of more primitive magma is invoked as the origin of the chromitite horizons. It is shown, using the equation for sulphur solubility and the programme MELTS, that influxes and mixing of fresh primitive magma from depth with that in the chamber (i.e. as envisaged for the LG-1 to LG-4) would not have caused sulphide immiscibility along with chromitite crystallisation, but that influxes and mixing of slower-ascending magma, that fractionated en route, could give rise to sulphide liquid segregating along with the chromitite (i.e. the scenario for the LG-5 and overlying chromitites). The modelling also shows that the more fractionated the magma in the chamber becomes, the more sulphide will form, accounting for the overall upward increase in Pt and Pd above the LG-5.
Effects of Cystamine on antioxidant activities and regulatory T cells in lupus-prone mice

Attenuated antioxidant activities, irregular cytokines expressions and reduced regulatory T cells, are strongly associated with the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Despite the well‐established beneficial effects of cystamine on lupus‐prone mice, the extent to which cystamine contributes to antioxidant activity and the reduction of regulatory T cells has seldom been investigated. Therefore, this study elucidates how cystamine affects anti‐oxidant activities in NZB/W F1 mice by performing assays of Glutathione (GSH), 1,1‐diphenyl‐2‐ picryl‐hydrazyl (DPPH) and malondialdehyde thiobarbituric acid (MDA). In addition, investigations of the effects of cystamine on CD4+/CD25+ regulatory T cells and interleukin‐6 (IL6)/STAT‐3 signalling were performed with flow cytometry and immunoblots. Experimental results reveal more significantly reduced MDA and increased GSH and DPPH in NZB/W F1 mice receiving cystamine than in those mice receiving PBS. Meanwhile, CD4+/CD25+ regulatory T cells more significantly increase in NZB/W F1 mice receiving cystamine than in those mice receiving PBS, accompanied by significantly reduced IL‐6/phosphorylated STAT‐3 expression. The above findings suggest the beneficial effects of cystamine in terms of increasing antioxidant activities and CD4+/CD25+ regulatory T cells in lupus‐prone mice by suppressing IL‐6/STAT3 signalling.