Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prenatal cocaine exposure and trajectories of externalizing behavior problems in early childhood: Examining the role of maternal negative affect

Abstract This study examined the association between prenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) and developmental trajectories of externalizing behavior problems from 18 to 54 months of child age. A hypothesized indirect association between PCE and externalizing trajectories via maternal negative affect was also examined. Caregiving environmental risk and child sex were evaluated as moderators. This study consisted of 196 mother–child dyads recruited at delivery from local area hospitals (107 PCE, 89 non-PCE) and assessed at seven time points across the toddler to preschool periods. Results revealed no direct associations between PCE and externalizing behavior problem trajectories. However, results did indicate that PCE shared a significant indirect relationship with externalizing behavior problem trajectories via higher levels of maternal negative affect. The association between PCE and externalizing problem trajectories was also moderated by caregiving environmental risk such that PCE children in high-risk caregiving environments did not experience the well-documented normative decline in externalizing behavior problems beginning at around 3 years of age. This study suggests potential pathways to externalizing behavior problems among high-risk children.
The Integration of Domain-Independent Strategies into an Affective Tutoring System : Can Students ' Learning Gain be Improved ?

Students ordinarily use both domain-dependent (such as seeking specific domain help) and domainindependent (such as trying to relax) strategies in regulating their affective states in learning. By contrast, current affective tutoring systems concentrate on the deployment of domaindependent strategies only in regulating students’ emotional states in learning. This paper reports the results of an experimental study that evaluated students’ performance using the proposed framework. In a between-subjects experiment, students used two versions of a system for teaching data structures. The systems differed only in that one supported domain independent strategies, while both system systems supported domain-dependent strategies. Results provide some evidence that the experimental groups (presented with both the domain-dependent and domain-independent strategies) performed better than the control group (presented with only domain-dependent strategy) in learning data structures. KeywordsEmotions, Affective tutoring system, Domainindependent strategies
Age-Dependent Differences in Flurothyl-Induced c-fos and c-jun mRNA Expression in the Mouse Brain

Numerous studies have examined the brain regional distribution of the immediate early gene (IEG), c-fos, following seizures induced by a variety of chemical or electrical provocations in the rat. Very little is known concerning the regional and temporal distribution of IEG expression following seizures in mice, and even less regarding the effects of development. In the present study, seizures of varying severities were induced in immature (postnatal day 17–18) and mature male (postnatal day 55–60) C3H mice with flurothyl, a volatile convulsant. In the immature mouse, neither c-fos nor c-jun mRNA were statistically elevated following any type of acute seizure activity. In the mature mouse, seizures of different severity resulted in differential effects on regional c-fos and c-jun mRNA expression. We conclude that the c-fos and c-jun are not reliable indicators of seizure activity in immature mice, whereas they remain indirect markers of neuronal activity in mature mice.
The Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor γ (PPARγ) Controls Natural Protective Mechanisms against Lipid Peroxidation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis*

Background: The mechanism of motor neuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is poorly understood. Results: The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) can be activated by lipid peroxidation metabolites in ALS motor neurons, and this can prompt the expression of antioxidant enzymes. Conclusion: PPARγ can exert a direct protective effect in ALS motor neurons. Significance: PPARγ transcriptional co-activators may represent therapeutic targets in ALS. Recent evidence highlights the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) as critical neuroprotective factors in several neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To gain new mechanistic insights into the role of these receptors in the context of ALS, here we investigated how PPAR transcriptional activity varies in hSOD1G93A ALS transgenic mice. We demonstrate that PPARγ-driven transcription selectively increases in the spinal cord of symptomatic hSOD1G93A mice. This phenomenon correlates with the up-regulation of target genes, such as lipoprotein lipase and glutathione S-transferase α-2, which are implicated in scavenging lipid peroxidation by-products. Such events are associated with enhanced PPARγ immunoreactivity within motor neuronal nuclei. This observation, and the fact that PPARγ displays increased responsiveness in cultured hSOD1G93A motor neurons, points to a role for this receptor in neutralizing deleterious lipoperoxidation derivatives within the motor cells. Consistently, in both motor neuron-like cultures and animal models, we report that PPARγ is activated by lipid peroxidation end products, such as 4-hydroxynonenal, whose levels are elevated in the cerebrospinal fluid and spinal cord from ALS patients. We propose that the accumulation of critical concentrations of lipid peroxidation adducts during ALS progression leads to the activation of PPARγ in motor neurons. This in turn triggers self-protective mechanisms that involve the up-regulation of lipid detoxification enzymes, such as lipoprotein lipase and glutathione S-transferase α-2. Our findings indicate that anticipating natural protective reactions by pharmacologically modulating PPARγ transcriptional activity may attenuate neurodegeneration by limiting the damage induced by lipid peroxidation derivatives.
The effects of two types of cognitive tasks on postural stability in older adults with and without a history of falls.

BACKGROUND This study used a dual task design to investigate the effects of two different types of cognitive tasks on stability (as measured by center of pressure displacement) in young vs older adults with and without a history of falls. METHODS Two secondary cognitive tasks, a sentence completion and a visual perceptual matching task, were used to produce changes in attention during quiet stance under flat vs compliant surface conditions in 20 healthy young adults, 20 healthy older adults, and 20 older adults with a history of imbalance and falls. Postural stability was quantified using forceplate measures of center of pressure (COP). Speed and accuracy of verbal response on the cognitive tasks were also quantified. RESULTS During the simultaneous performance of a cognitive and postural task, decrements in performance were found in the postural stability measures rather than the cognitive measures for all three groups. While no differences were found between the young adults and the older healthy adults on the firm surface, no task condition, when task complexity was increased (either through the introduction of a secondary cognitive task, or a more challenging postural condition such as standing on the compliant surface), significant differences in postural stability between the two groups became apparent. In contrast to the young and healthy older adults, postural stability in older adults with a history of falls was significantly affected by both cognitive tasks. CONCLUSION Results suggest that when postural stability is impaired, even relatively simple cognitive tasks can further impact balance. Results further suggest that the allocation of attention during the performance of concurrent tasks is complex; depending on many factors including the nature of both the cognitive and postural task, the goal of the subject and the instructions.
Refining Service-Oriented Model Using Interpretation Mapping

An approach is proposed to refining service oriented specification model into an application architecture model using model-theoretic interpretation mapping. The service-oriented feature model is employed to describe the application specification and component-based application model to describe the application architecture. The application specification and application architecture are represented as model theory. Then an isomorphic interpretation mapping is calculated to refine the models. The approach proposed provides a way of bridging the service-oriented specification and the object-oriented software architecture.
User experience of a web-based platform for poultry market linkages in Tanzania

In Tanzania the advancement of technology has brought about affordable smartphones to most of livestock farmers. However, despite this potential, livestock farmers have limited utilization and access to livestock information systems to improve their business. Poultry farming has business potential in Tanzania but farmers in the sector are challenged on reliable market linkage information systems to interface with buyers for their products. Poultry farmers are equally challenged on limited exposure to technology. The aim of this study was to develop a web-based platform for poultry market linkage with more focus on its usability and user experience (UX) design and assessment of the user experience. Eye tracking method combined with retrospective thinks aloud method together with facial expression was used to test user experience of the developed web-based platform. The results on eye tracking experiment for user experience indicated that users were emotionally happy when performing two tasks; 1) finding posts for advertisements on poultry and poultry products and 2) obtaining more information on advertised products. Users struggled on tasks for creating account on the web-based platform as well as purchasing items online on the platform. It is now more important than ever before that web applications provide a good user experience which was once considered luxury or an added expense.
Structural Characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotype 9A Capsule Polysaccharide Reveals Role of Glycosyl 6-O-Acetyltransferase wcjE in Serotype 9V Capsule Biosynthesis and Immunogenicity*

Background: The identity and immunogenicity of wcjE-mediated capsule features in Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 9V are unclear. Results: Isogenic serotype 9A lacks 6-O-acetylation of βManNAc present in the 9V capsule. Conclusion: wcjE mediates βManNAc-6-O-acetylation, a modification that is preferentially targeted by anti-serotype 9V antibodies. Significance: Elucidating the role of the widely conserved capsule biosynthesis gene wcjE aids in understanding pneumococcal-host interactions. The putative capsule O-acetyltransferase gene wcjE is highly conserved across various Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes, but the role of the gene in capsule biosynthesis and bacterial fitness remains largely unclear. Isolates expressing pneumococcal serotype 9A arise from precursors expressing wcjE-associated serotype 9V through loss-of-function mutation to wcjE. To define the biosynthetic role of 9V wcjE, we characterized the structure and serological properties of serotype 9V and 9A capsule polysaccharide (PS). NMR data revealed that both 9V and 9A PS are composed of an identical pentasaccharide repeat unit, as reported previously. However, in sharp contrast to previous studies on 9A PS being devoid of any O-acetylation, we identified O-acetylation of α-glucuronic acid and α-glucose in 9A PS. In addition, 9V PS also contained –CH2 O-acetylation of β-N-acetylmannosamine, a modification that disappeared following in vitro recombinatorial deletion of wcjE. We also show that serotyping sera and monoclonal antibodies specific for 9V and 9A bound capsule PS in an O-acetate-dependent manner. Furthermore, IgG and to a lesser extent IgM from human donors immunized with serotype 9V PS displayed stronger binding to 9V compared with 9A PS. We conclude that serotype 9V wcjE mediates 6-O-acetylation of β-N-acetylmannosamine. This PS modification can be selectively targeted by antibodies in immunized individuals, identifying a potential selective advantage for wcjE inactivation and serotype 9A emergence.
Temperature Regulation of Heat-Labile Enterotoxin (LT) Synthesis in Escherichia coli Is Mediated by an Interaction of H-NS Protein with the LT A-Subunit DNA

ABSTRACT Protein and mRNA levels of heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) ofEscherichia coli are highest at 37°C, and they decrease gradually as temperature is decreased. This temperature effect is eliminated in an Hns− mutant. Deletion of portions of DNA coding for the LT A subunit also results in an increase in LT expression at low temperatures, suggesting that the H-NS protein causes inhibition of transcription at low temperatures by interacting with the LT A-subunit DNA. The region that interacts with H-NS is referred to as the downstream regulatory element (DRE). Plasmids in an hns strain from which the DRE has been deleted still produce elevated levels of LT at 18°C, suggesting that intact DRE is not required for transcription from the LT promoter.
Moving to the country for a graduated retirement: constructing new meaningful lives

It is assumed that anything to do with ‘the rural’ is in decline but no account has been made of the flow of ‘older’ people into the countryside—those people who after successful careers elsewhere are moving to rural locations to set up new, supposedly less stressful working lives. In this chapter, I explore the way in which some couples in New Zealand are creating new and meaningful lives by growing kiwifruit, an activity that fits well with those who seek an active and graduated retirement. These people saw orchards as actors capable of a moral exchange: ‘if we make an orchard like this then it will reward us by giving us indications of our care’. Two different orchards were constructed. One was an orchard that was so wild that it needed to be made tidy and productive and the other was an orchard that was so needy it required nurturing. Are these ‘new’ orchardists really creating new lives or are they creating orchards that represent their old identities but in a different medium? What are the implications of their practices for the resilience of the environment, the countryside and the kiwifruit industry?
Regenerative Strategy for Fairness in Bi-directional Three-Node Relaying

The fairness solution without deteriorating the system sum-rate is a challenge under a total energy constraint. One regenerative strategy is proposed to improve the fairness for bi-directional three-node relaying, which is based on decode-and-forward technique with network coding and power optimization. In this letter, the application of network coding decreases the number of transmission phases from traditional four phases to three phases. Moreover, the proposed power optimization algorithm can be applied in practical system, which transforms max-min optimization problem to linear programming (LP) with low complexity. Numerical simulations shows this strategy enhances the minimum of unidirectional transmission rate up to 94% as compared to a four-phase bi-directional strategy, and up to 46% as compared to the three-phase bi-directional strategy with equal-power allocation.
Fourier Transform Methods for Option Pricing

Since Bachelier, a French mathematician, first tried to give a mathematical definition for Brownian motion and used it to model the dynamics of stock process in 1900, financial mathematics has developed a lot. Black & Scholes (1973) and Merton (1973) respectively used the geometric Brownian motion (GBM) to model the underlying asset’s price process so that they opened the gate of easy ways to compute option prices, which led one of the major breakthroughs of modern finance. Many good ideas have been proposed to model the stock pricing processes since then. Merton (1976) first introduced the jumps into the asset price processes in his seminar paper. More recently, a lot of exponential Lévy models, including Kou’s model, Variance Gamma (VG) model, Inverse Gaussian (IG) model, Normal Inverse Gaussian (NIG) model, and CGMY model, etc., were proposed to add jumps in the financial models so that they can describe the statistical properties of financial time series better [e.g. see Cont & Tankov (2003) and references there in]. Also, serval stochastic volatility modes were presented [e.g. see Heston (1993), Bates (1996), and Duffie et al (2000), etc.]. Empirical financial data indicate that these models are usually more consist with financial markets.
A Shape Descriptor for 3D Objects Based on Rotational Symmetry

The ability to extract spatial features from 3D objects is essential for applications such as shape matching and object classification. However, designing an effective feature vector which is invariant with respect to rotation, translation and scaling is a challenging task and is often solved by normalization techniques such as PCA, which can give rise to poor object alignment. In this paper, we introduce a novel method to extract robust and invariant 3D features based on rotational symmetry. By applying a rotation‐variant similarity function on two instances of the same 3D object, we can define an autocorrelation on the object in the space of rotations. We use a special representation of the SO(3) and determine significant rotation axes for an object by means of optimization techniques. By sampling the similarity function via rotations around these axes, we obtain robust and invariant features, which are descriptive for the underlying geometry. The resulting feature vector cannot only be used to characterize an object with respect to rotational symmetry but also to define a distance between 3D models. Because the features are compact and pre‐computable, our method is suitable to perform similarity searches in large 3D databases.
A class of three-point spline collocation methods for solving delay differential equations

In this paper a study of the existence, uniqueness, stability and convergence of a class of C 2-spline collocation methods for solving delay differential equations (DDEs) is introduced. Letting the interior collocation points , j=1(1)3 be dependent on the parameters c 1, c 2∈(0, 1) and c 3=1 it is shown that the proposed methods for DDEs possess a convergence rate of order six if 58−57(c 1+c 2)+55c 1 c 2=0, and they are unstable if c 1+c 2<1. Moreover, the methods are P-stable for 0.8028≤c 1<c 2. Numerical results illustrating the behaviour of the methods when faced with some difficult problems are presented and the numerical results are compared to those obtained by other methods.
Effects of levosimendan on renal function in patients undergoing coronary artery surgery.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of levosimendan on postoperative renal function in patients with compromised heart function undergoing on-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery. DESIGN A prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind substudy. SETTING Cardiothoracic surgery, anesthesiology, and intensive care units at 2 university hospitals. PARTICIPANTS Sixty patients with left ventricular ejection fraction ≤50% were randomized into 2 parallel treatment groups. INTERVENTIONS Levosimendan or placebo was started after the induction of anesthesia with a 12-μg/kg bolus in 10 minutes followed by the infusion of 0.2 μg/kg/min for the next 23 hours and 50 minutes. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Serum cystatin C and plasma creatinine were measured at baseline; at 6 and 24 hours after declamping the aorta; and on the 1st, 2nd, and 5th postoperative days. Urine N-acetyl-β-glucosaminidase (U-NAG) was measured at baseline and at 6 and 24 hours after declamping of the aorta. Renal function was estimated with calculated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). The changes in plasma creatinine, serum cystatin C, and urine NAG were not significant among the placebo and the levosimendan groups at any of the measuring points. CONCLUSIONS After coronary artery surgery, levosimendan did not have a significant influence on the kidney function measured with these specific kidney markers.
Initial experience with negative-pressure wound therapy with instillation in complex wounds.

OBJECTIVE to report the initial experience with Negative-Pressure Wound Therapy with instillation in infected or contaminated complex wounds. METHODS the negative-pressure wound therapy with instillation used was V.A. C. Ulta with Veraflo instillation (Kinetic Concepts, Inc). The mode of operation was continuous with negative pressure set at 125 mmHg for two hours and instillation between the pauses. The instillation time was 20 minutes (contact time of the topical agent with the wound) and the instilled substance was 0.9% normal saline. After adequate preparation of the wound, it was covered with graft or flap. RESULTS ten patients with complex or contaminated wounds were operated on. The mean number of NPWTi changes was 1.4, the mean number of surgeries was 2.4, the interval until complete wound coverage was 6.3 days, and the interval up to the time of discharge was 11.4 days. CONCLUSION the comparison of the negative-pressure wound therapy with instillation with two previous studies (historical control) evidenced a shorter hospitalization time, favoring TPNi. This study had an initial character, making it necessary to conduct a randomized and controlled trial to confirm the efficacy of this therapy and verify its cost-effectiveness.
Timing in internationalisation: Automobile component suppliers entering emerging markets.

This research focuses on researching the variables that impact on time in internationalisation processes within the automotive supply industry, and thus for companies further down the supply chain. This is regarded as important, since time is a critical success factor when doing international business in that specific industry (keeping milestones, being ready on time for new vehicle launches in a small window of opportunity etc.). The theories around internationalisation are out-dated, while the global environment is changing ever more rapidly. This supports the idea that a gap in knowledge exists, and explains the wish of the researcher to take a fresh look at internationalisation, specifically at the timing aspects involved. Following an interpretive inductive analytical approach from a neo-empiricist standpoint, the researcher conducted 12 interviews with 5 companies within the industry. The companies comprised all the companies in that sector of industry, listed by the Federal Reserve Bank of North Germany. The outcome of the triangulated data collection and thematic analysis is the BIDS-L-Model (Brand, Information, Direct, Speed, Learning), symbolizing the variables that influence time in the internationalisation process, in chronological order. This model not only fills the gap in knowledge but also, when applied in practice, it will fundamentally change the way suppliers further down the supply chain architecture their internationalisation process, thus leading to massive improvements. The next step is to apply the model using 4 pillars. Firstly, the researcher will teach the model in his role as associate university lecturer. Secondly, he will publish it, e.g. in the Newsletter of the German Association of Automotive Industry, which reaches 600 member companies; and thirdly, he will offer consultancy to small and medium enterprises to help them to achieve successful timing of their internationalisation process. Finally, the researcher will apply the model in his leading Marketing role for Asia in the strategy planning process.