Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Valproic acid induces functional heat‐shock protein 70 via Class I histone deacetylase inhibition in cortical neurons: a potential role of Sp1 acetylation

Neuroprotective properties of the mood stabilizer valproic acid (VPA) are implicated in its therapeutic efficacy. Heat‐shock protein 70 (HSP70) is a molecular chaperone, neuroprotective and anti‐inflammatory agent. This study aimed to investigate underlying mechanisms and functional significance of HSP70 induction by VPA in rat cortical neurons. VPA treatment markedly up‐regulated HSP70 protein levels, and this was accompanied by increased HSP70 mRNA levels and promoter hyperacetylation and activity. Other HDAC inhibitors – sodium butyrate, trichostatin A, and Class I HDAC‐specific inhibitors MS‐275 and apicidin, – all mimicked the ability of VPA to induce HSP70. Pre‐treatment with phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase inhibitors or an Akt inhibitor attenuated HSP70 induction by VPA and other HDAC inhibitors. VPA treatment increased Sp1 acetylation, and a Sp1 inhibitor, mithramycin, abolished the induction of HSP70 by HDAC inhibitors. Moreover, VPA promoted the association of Sp1 with the histone acetyltransferases p300 and recruitment of p300 to the HSP70 promoter. Further, VPA‐induced neuroprotection against glutamate excitotoxicity was prevented by blocking HSP70 induction. Taken together, the data suggest that the phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase/Akt pathway and Sp1 are likely involved in HSP70 induction by HDAC inhibitors, and induction of HSP70 by VPA in cortical neurons may contribute to its neuroprotective and therapeutic effects.
Effects of Musical Training on Key and Harmony Perception

Even adults with no formal music lessons have implicit musical knowledge acquired through exposure to the music of their culture. Two of these abilities are knowledge of key membership (which notes belong in a key) and harmony (chord progressions). Studies to date suggest that perception of harmony emerges around 5–6 years of age. Using simple tasks, we found that formal music training influences key and harmony perception in 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds, and that even nonmusicians as young as 3 years have some knowledge of key membership and harmony.
Internalization of Red Blood Cell-Mimicking Hydrogel Capsules with pH-Triggered Shape Responses

We report on naturally inspired hydrogel capsules with pH-induced transitions from discoids to oblate ellipsoids and their interactions with cells. We integrate characteristics of erythrocytes such as discoidal shape, hollow structure, and elasticity with reversible pH-responsiveness of poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) to design a new type of drug delivery carrier to be potentially triggered by chemical stimuli in the tumor lesion. The capsules are fabricated from cross-linked PMAA multilayers using sacrificial discoid silicon templates. The degree of capsule shape transition is controlled by the pH-tuned volume change, which in turn is regulated by the capsule wall composition. The (PMAA)15 capsules undergo a dramatic 24-fold volume change, while a moderate 2.3-fold volume variation is observed for more rigid PMAA–(poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PMAA–PVPON)5 capsules when solution pH is varied between 7.4 and 4. Despite that both types of capsules exhibit discoid-to-oblate ellipsoid transitions, a 3-fold greater swelling in radial dimensions is found for one-component systems due to a greater degree of the circular face bulging. We also show that (PMAA–PVPON)5 discoidal capsules interact differently with J774A.1 macrophages, HMVEC endothelial cells, and 4T1 breast cancer cells. The discoidal capsules show 60% lower internalization as compared to spherical capsules. Finally, hydrogel capsules demonstrate a 2-fold decrease in size upon internalization. These capsules represent a unique example of elastic hydrogel discoids capable of pH-induced drastic and reversible variations in aspect ratios. Considering the RBC-mimicking shape, their dimensions, and their capability to undergo pH-triggered intracellular responses, the hydrogel capsules demonstrate considerable potential as novel carriers in shape-regulated transport and cellular uptake.
Title Exact visual hull from marching cubes

The marching cubes algorithm has been widely adopted for extracting a surface mesh from a volumetric description of the visual hull reconstructed from silhouettes. However, typical volumetric descriptions, such as an octree, provide only a binary description about the visual hull. The lack of interpolation information along each voxel edge, which is required by the marching cubes algorithm, usually results in inaccurate and bumpy surface mesh. In this paper, we propose a novel method to efficiently estimate the exact intersections between voxel edges and the visual hull boundary, which replace the missing interpolation information. The method improves both the visual quality and accuracy of the estimated visual hull mesh, while retaining the simplicity and robustness of the volumetric approach. To verify this claim, we present both synthetic and real-world experiments, as well as comparisons with existing volumetric approaches and other approaches targeting at an exact visual hull reconstruction.
Studienbezogenes Erleben und Verhalten, Selbstaufmerksamkeit und soziale Unterstützung zu Beginn des Medizinstudiums

Objectives: Physicians show a higher risk of psychosocial strain or impairment than the general population or professions with comparable responsibility. We evaluated if training-related behavior and ex perience patterns of medical students in their first term may already bear risk f actors for this development. Method: Written survey at two German Universities (Freiburg and Lubeck) with three standard instruments (AVEM, SAM, F-SozU). The response rate was n = 435 (84.5 %), 61.8 % were female, 38.2 % male students. Results: Analysis showed a distinct psychosocial strain constella tion with at-risk patterns in approximately 40 % of students. There was a significant difference between the students of Freiburg and Lubeck. Social support and self-awareness were significantly correlated with heal th-promoting experience and behavior patterns and must therefore be viewed as important elements of healthy behavior. Conclusions: Relevant strain patterns are already evident at the beginn ing of medical training. The integration of health promotion and successful coping for medical students and prevention of profession-related stress for physicians emerges as an important issue.
Climate Change in China

Mounting international pressure on China to accept binding targets for reducing carbon emissions appears to have put the Chinese public firmly behind the state’s defence of national autonomy in formulating responses to climate change. This widely shared support for autonomy may then indicate a passive form of political coherence, where official policies and public preferences are not in conflict. This profile examines some evidence for this hypothesis and calls for further exploring the role of global environmental controversies in shaping domestic politics in China, a political context devoid of legal oppositional politics.
Adaptation of the Defensive Style Questionnaire 60 (DSQ-60) within an Iranian Cancer Patients Sample

Background: Defense mechanisms defined as unconscious process, cognitive operations alter by developmental periods for protective function, and that can be assessment of personality and experimental schedules. Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-60) is a self-report instrument designed to measuredefensive functioning and coping styles. The aim of this study was to adaptive theDSQ-60 in a sample of cancer patients in Iran using exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic procedures. Method:The DSQ-60 was used to measure the conscious derivatives of three factors defense styles includeimage.distorting, affect.regulating and adaptive in a sample of 200 cancer patients. Result: Cronbach's coefficient alpha for image.distorting (ex = 0.54),affect.regulating (ex = 0.53) and adaptive (ex = 0.5) were found to be poor in terms of potential clinical significance,internal consistency for all components was acceptable (.68). Conclusion:Our results were consistent with the previous research on the DSQ-60 indicating that the psychometric features need to be improved before the wider use of the scale. Further, DSQ-60 is a suitable tool to assess cancer patients psychological defense styles and that may be used for psychological interventions to improve the care of these patients. Keyword: defense styles, adaptation, DSQ-60, confirmatory factor analysis
A maschine learning approach to improve precision for navigational queries in a Web information retrieval system

With the continuously growing amount of information available on the Internet it is important to have efficient and precise information retrieval methodologies. Current popular Internet search engines (e.g., Google [1]) combine traditional IR (information retrieval) methods with Web specific methods (WebIR) that are mostly based on hyperlink analysis (e.g., Pagerank [21], Clever [5]). One of the key challenges that requires further investigation is the ranking of search result lists. Quality of search results is traditionally measured with recall and precision [22], although different useful models based on click-through data exist [2]. Studies [23] conducted over the recent years show that users are typically examining at most the first top 20 search results in a search result list (sometimes even fewer). Therefore high precision is very important as opposed to recall, and is crucial for the usability of a search engine. To obtain such a high precision new ranking methods and algorithms are needed. The application of machine learning algorithms combined with IR and WebIR methodologies seems to represent a promising step into this direction. This paper shows how two such machine learning algorithms LearnRank 1 and LearnRank 2 in context of the on-line learning framework can be integrated into today’s search engine architecture that improve considerably a search engine’s ranking, the precision, and therefore the overall quality of search results.
Mass Media and HIV/AIDS in China

Exposure to mass media related to HIV/AIDS has been linked to attitudinal and behavioral changes. This study aims to identify the source(s) of HIV information for the general Chinese population and examine their association with HIV transmission knowledge and stigmatizing attitude toward people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). A total of 3,716 market workers in Fuzhou, China, participated in a face-to-face survey. Multiple regression models were used to describe correlations among respondents’ HIV/STD information sources, HIV transmission knowledge, and stigmatizing attitude toward PLWHA. Mass media sources, such as television programs, newspapers, and magazines, were more frequently identified as the channels for HIV information than interpersonal sources, such as friends and service providers. Exposure to multiple sources of HIV information (where at least one source is mass media) was significantly related to HIV knowledge and less stigmatizing attitude toward PLWHA. Mass media in China has been a major source of HIV information to the public. Enhancing the content and penetration of HIV/AIDS campaigns within various channels of the media can be an important strategy in disseminating HIV knowledge and reducing HIV-related discrimination.
Motion Coherent Tracking with Multi-label MRF optimization

We present a novel off-line algorithm for target segmentation and tracking in video. In our approach, video data is represented by a multi-label Markov Random Field model, and segmentation is accomplished by finding the minimum energy label assignment. We propose a novel energy formulation which incorporates both segmentation and motion estimation in a single framework. Our energy functions enforce motion coherence both within and across frames. We utilize state-of-the-art methods to efficiently optimize over a large number of discrete labels. In addition, we introduce a new ground-truth dataset, called SegTrack, for the evaluation of segmentation accuracy in video tracking. We compare our method with two recent on-line tracking algorithms and provide quantitative and qualitative performance comparisons.
Less-than-Best-Effort Capacity Sharing over High BDP Networks with LEDBAT

There has been a renewed interest at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in using Less-than-Best Effort (LBE) methods for background applications. IETF recently published a RFC for Low Extra Delay Background Transport (LEDBAT), a congestion control algorithm for LBE transmissions. This paper provides an analysis of LEDBAT performance over congested large bandwidth × delay product (LBDP) networks, and assesses the validity of having a fixed target queuing time. In particular, we lead a study of the impact of this target queuing delay when LEDBAT is used over 4G satellite networks. The rationale is to explore the possibility to grab the unused 4G satellite links' capacity to carry non-commercial traffic. We show that this is achievable with LEDBAT. However, depending on the fluctuation of the load, performance improvements could be obtained by properly setting the target value. We generalize this evaluation over different congested LBDP networks and confirm that the target value might need to be adjusted to networks' and traffic's characteristics. Further work will study whether and how this parameter should be dynamically adapted, and LEDBAT's congestion control improved.
Optimal approximations of the frequency moments of data streams

We give a 1-pass <i>Õ</i>(<i>m</i><sup>1-2⁄<i>k</i></sup>)-space algorithm for computing the <i>k</i>-th frequency moment of a data stream for any real <i>k</i> > 2. Together with the lower bounds of [1, 2, 4], this resolves the main problem left open by Alon et al in 1996 [1]. Our algorithm also works for streams with deletions and thus gives an <i>Õ</i>(<i>m</i> <sup>1-2⁄p</sup>) space algorithm for the <i>L</i><i><inf>p</inf></i> difference problem for any p > 2. This essentially matches the known Ω(<i>m</i><sup>1-2⁄<i>p</i>-<i>o</i>(1)</sup>) lower bound of [12, 2]. Finally the update time of our algorithms is <i>Õ</i>(1).
Fast Stochastic Global Optimization Methods and Their Applications to Cluster Crystallization and Protein Folding

Two global optimization methods are proposed in this thesis. They are the multicanonical basin hopping (MUBH) method and the basin paving (BP) method. The MUBH method combines the basin hopping (BH) method, which can be used to efficiently map out an energy landscape associated with local minima, with the multicanonical Monte Carlo (MUCA) method, which encourages the system to move out of energy traps during the computation. It is found to be more efficient than the original BH method when applied to the Lennard-Jones systems containing 150–185 particles. The asynchronous multicanonical basin hopping (AMUBH) method, a parallelization of the MUBH method, is also implemented using the message passing interface (MPI) to take advantage of the full usage of multiprocessors in either a homogeneous or a heterogeneous computational environment. AMUBH, MUBH and BH are used together to find the global minimum structures for Co nanoclusters with system size N ≤ 200. The BP method is based on the BH method and the idea of the energy landscape paving (ELP) strategy. In comparison with the acceptance scheme of the ELP method, moving towards the low energy region is enhanced and no low energy configuration may be missed during the simulation. The applications to both the pentapeptide Met-enkephalin and the villin subdomain HP-36 locate new configurations having energies lower than those determined previously. The MUBH, BP and BH methods are further employed to search for the global minimum structures of several proteins/peptides using the ECEPP/2 and ECEPP/3 force fields. These two force fields may produce global minima with different structures. The present study indicates that the global minimum determination from ECEPP/3 prefers helical structures. Also discussed in this thesis is the effect of the environment on the formation of beta hairpins.
Detecting Image Splicing Using Merged Features in Chroma Space

Image splicing is an image editing method to copy a part of an image and paste it onto another image, and it is commonly followed by postprocessing such as local/global blurring, compression, and resizing. To detect this kind of forgery, the image rich models, a feature set successfully used in the steganalysis is evaluated on the splicing image dataset at first, and the dominant submodel is selected as the first kind of feature. The selected feature and the DCT Markov features are used together to detect splicing forgery in the chroma channel, which is convinced effective in splicing detection. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method can detect splicing forgeries with lower error rate compared to the previous literature.
Performance optimization for querying social network data

In this paper, we report about benchmark experiments and results from optimizing database connectivity for querying social networking data from Apache Shindig in a Neo4j database. We built on our experiments from [1] and tried to improve performance of the current RESTful http connection in comparison to JDBC in order to fully utilize performance benefits of the graph database compared to relational database management systems. We implemented a database driver based on WebSockets. We found that BSON is a better data transfer format than JSON and compression increases performance in some settings while decreasing it in others. Multiple WebSocket connections are needed to scale to a high number of client requests and fully utilize database performance. Multi-threading is another key factor for scalability. Implementing a kind of stored procedure, we were able to further increase throughput and decrease response times.
BIOCHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE NEURON: RIBONUCLEIC ACID COMPOSITION OF THE NEURONAL CELL BODIES

Base composition of the two major RNA species, 18 S and 28 S, from the neuron were determined. Bulk isolation of the neuronal cell bodies, acrylamide gel electrophoresis of RNA and the microelectrophoresis of the hydrolysate of RNA species were carried out successively for this purpose. It is revealed that 28 S RNA has a base composition which resembles those reported for the cerebral cortex and other tissues. The base composition of the 18 S RNA from the neuron, however, differs from cerebral cortex and other tissue base compositions in that the neuronal 18 S RNA contains a higher percentage of C and a lower percentage of G compared with other tissues.
Developing an active play resource for a range of Australian early childhood settings: Formative findings and recommendations

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY HABITS ARE established in early childhood. Increasing a child's fundamental movement skill confidence and competence may result in a trajectory of increased physical activity and a lower risk of becoming overweight. The evidence upon which the promotion of physical activity in early childhood settings is based is tenuous. This study employed formative research methods (gaining the perspective of people both within and outside the target community) to identify current physical activity practices, barriers to physical activity and methods by which effective professional development could be delivered in three early childhood setting types: family day care, long day care and kindergarten. In these settings, lack of time, finances and motivation were the key barriers to implementing physical activity programs. Recommendations for a physical activity program and associated professional development resources were developed to overcome these barriers.
Validation of the Health ABC Heart Failure Model for Incident Heart Failure Risk Prediction: The Cardiovascular Health Study

Background—The recently developed and internally validated Health ABC HF model uses 9 routinely available clinical variables to determine incident heart failure risk. In this study, we sought to externally validate the Health ABC HF model. Methods and Results—Observed 5-year incidence of heart failure, defined as first hospitalization for new-onset heart failure, was compared with 5-year risk estimates derived from the Health ABC HF model among participants without heart failure at baseline in the Cardiovascular Health Study. During follow-up, 400 of 5335 (7.5%) participants developed heart failure over 5 years versus 364 (6.8%) predicted by the Health ABC HF model (predicted-to-observed ratio, 0.90). Observed versus predicted 5-year heart failure probabilities were 3.2% versus 2.8%, 9.0% versus 7.0%, 15.9% versus 13.7%, and 24.6% versus 30.8% for the <5%, 5% to 10%, 10% to 20%, and >20% 5-year risk categories, respectively. The Hosmer-Lemeshow &khgr;2 was 14.72 (degrees of freedom, 10; P=0.14), and the C index was 0.74 (95% CI, 0.72 to 0.76). Calibration and discrimination demonstrated adequate performance across sex and race overall; however, risk was underestimated in white men, especially in the 5% to 10% risk category. Model performance was optimal when participants with normal left ventricular function at baseline were assessed separately. Performance was consistent across age groups. Analyses with death as a competing risk yielded similar results. Conclusions—The Health ABC HF model adequately predicted 5-year heart failure risk in a large community-based study, providing support for the external validity of the model. This tool may be used to identify individuals to whom to target heart failure prevention efforts.
Intentionality attributions and humiliation

Purpose – This paper aims to determine whether intentionality attributions have an effect on the customer’s complaint and switching behavior after a service failure, after accounting for the effects of the traditional dimensions of attribution (stability and controllability), and to examine whether intentionality attributions give rise to humiliation and to what degree this negative emotion enables us to understand the customer’s complaint and switching behavior after a service failure. Design/methodology/approach – A contribution of this investigation is that it studies real complaint and switching behaviors, as the few studies that focus on understanding customers’ complaint and defection behaviors mostly analyze customers’ intentions. Findings – The results of the study indicate that intentionality attributions have an effect on the customer’s switching behavior after a service failure, in addition to the impact of the traditional dimensions of attribution. The findings also show that humiliation is th.
Effect of beamforming errors on the efficacy of maximal ratio and equal gain combining

Beamforming methods of maximal ratio combining (MRC) and equal gain combining (EGC) are compared in the presence of calibration errors. It is found that sufficient uncertainties in the antenna sensitivities make MRC less effective than EGC. Furthermore, the threshold noise temperature for including a new antenna in a time-limited survey is explored, and is found to be lower than previously-described results.