Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxidant-induced Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Expression in Human Keratinocytes and Cutaneous Wound Healing*

Neutrophils and macrophages, recruited to the wound site, release reactive oxygen species by respiratory burst. It is commonly understood that oxidants serve mainly to kill bacteria and prevent wound infection. We tested the hypothesis that oxidants generated at the wound site promote dermal wound repair. We observed that H2O2 potently induces vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression in human keratinocytes. Deletion mutant studies with a VEGF promoter construct revealed that a GC-rich sequence from bp −194 to −50 of the VEGF promoter is responsible for the H2O2 response. It was established that at μm concentrations oxidant induces VEGF expression and that oxidant-induced VEGF expression is independent of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1 and dependent on Sp1 activation. To test the effect of NADPH oxidase-generated reactive oxygen species on wound healing in vivo, Rac1 gene transfer was performed to dermal excisional wounds left to heal by secondary intention. Rac1 gene transfer accelerated wound contraction and closure. Rac1 overexpression was associated with higher VEGF expression both in vivo as well in human keratinocytes. Interestingly, Rac1 gene therapy was associated with a more well defined hyperproliferative epithelial region, higher cell density, enhanced deposition of connective tissue, and improved histological architecture. Overall, the histological data indicated that Rac1 might be an important stimulator of various aspects of the repair process, eventually enhancing the wound-healing process as a whole. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that wound healing is subject to redox control.
Improving elementary mathematics education in Nicaragua : an experimental study of the impact of textbooks and radio on achievement

Because widespread availability of textbooks in the United States preceded research on the effectiveness of instructional materials, there has been little systematic study of their impact on student achievement. The developing world provides an appropriate setting for such studies. This article reports an experimental study of the impact of textbook availability on mathematics achievement of students in Nicaraguan first-grade classes. This intervention is compared with control classes in which textbooks are relatively rare and with a radio-based instructional program that uses student worksheets but no other textual material. Classes were assigned at random to the three conditions. The control and two treatment groups scored similarly on a pretest of mathematical readiness. Both the textbook and the radio treatments had significant positive effects on achievement. Availability of textbooks increased student posttest scores by about 3.5 items correct, approximately . 33 of a standard deviation. Availability of the radio instructional program increased student posttest scores 14.9 items, about 1.5 standard deviations. Both interventions reduced the achievement gap between urban and rural students.
Validation of a Spanish adaptation of the Gambling Self-Efficacy Questionnaire

The US Spanish-speaking population has rapidly increased in recent years and there is a need for valid Spanish measures to assess gambling behaviour. This study reports on the development of a Spanish measure of self-efficacy to control gambling behaviour (Gambling Self-Efficacy Questionnaire [GSEQ]; May, Whelan, Steenbergh, & Meyers, 2003). One hundred and eighty-seven Spanish-speaking individuals residing in the south-east United States completed the 16-item measure. The GSEQ-Spanish version (GSEQ-S) showed high internal consistency (α = 0.99) and evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Factor analytic data supported a single factor structure similar to that found with the English version. As expected, pathological gamblers scored significantly lower on the GSEQ-S than non-pathological gamblers. The results provide initial psychometric support for the GSEQ-S and suggest that the measure can be used as a valid assessment of gambling self-efficacy among Spanish-speaking gamblers. Further evaluation of the psychometric properties of this instrument is suggested.
Unit 5 Case studies

This case study reports on an ESRC-funded research demonstrator project that looks at the planning and development of the third generation of corpus tools: the multi-modal, multi-media corpus. It firstly explores the context for the research, explaining the limitations that current corpora exhibit in the exploration of conversation, beyond the mere spoken word. It continues with a brief exploration of the main phases in the planning, development and analysis of corpora for the future, highlighting requirements and problems encountered at each stage.
A study on replay attack and anti-spoofing for text-dependent speaker verification

Replay, which is to playback a pre-recorded speech sample, presents a genuine risk to automatic speaker verification technology. In this study, we evaluate the vulnerability of text-dependent speaker verification systems under the replay attack using a standard benchmarking database, and also propose an anti-spoofing technique to safeguard the speaker verification systems. The key idea of the spoofing detection technique is to decide whether the presented sample is matched to any previous stored speech samples based a similarity score. The experiments conducted on the RSR2015 database showed that the equal error rate (EER) and false acceptance rate (FAR) increased from both 2.92 % to 25.56 % and 78.36 % respectively as a result of the replay attack. It confirmed the vulnerability of speaker verification to replay attacks. On the other hand, our proposed spoofing countermeasure was able to reduce the FARs from 78.36 % and 73.14 % to 0.06 % and 0.0 % for male and female systems, respectively, in the face of replay spoofing. The experiments confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed anti-spoofing technique.
Enhancement of Abscisic Acid Sensitivity and Reduction of Water Consumption in Arabidopsis by Combined Inactivation of the Protein Phosphatases Type 2C ABI1 and HAB11[W]

Abscisic acid (ABA) plays a key role in plant responses to abiotic stress, particularly drought stress. A wide number of ABA-hypersensitive mutants is known, however, only a few of them resist/avoid drought stress. In this work we have generated ABA-hypersensitive drought-avoidant mutants by simultaneous inactivation of two negative regulators of ABA signaling, i.e. the protein phosphatases type 2C (PP2Cs) ABA-INSENSITIVE1 (ABI1) and HYPERSENSITIVE TO ABA1 (HAB1). Two new recessive loss-of-function alleles of ABI1, abi1-2 and abi1-3, were identified in an Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) T-DNA collection. These mutants showed enhanced responses to ABA both in seed and vegetative tissues, but only a limited effect on plant drought avoidance. In contrast, generation of double hab1-1 abi1-2 and hab1-1 abi1-3 mutants strongly increased plant responsiveness to ABA. Thus, both hab1-1 abi1-2 and hab1-1 abi1-3 were particularly sensitive to ABA-mediated inhibition of seed germination. Additionally, vegetative responses to ABA were reinforced in the double mutants, which showed a strong hypersensitivity to ABA in growth assays, stomatal closure, and induction of ABA-responsive genes. Transpirational water loss under drought conditions was noticeably reduced in the double mutants as compared to single parental mutants, which resulted in reduced water consumption of whole plants. Taken together, these results reveal cooperative negative regulation of ABA signaling by ABI1 and HAB1 and suggest that fine tuning of ABA signaling can be attained through combined action of PP2Cs. Finally, these results suggest that combined inactivation of specific PP2Cs involved in ABA signaling could provide an approach for improving crop performance under drought stress conditions.
Predicting Academic Achievement of High-School Students Using Machine Learning

The present paper presents a relatively new non-linear method to predict academic achievement of high school students, integrating the fields of psychometrics and machine learning. A sample composed by 135 high-school students (10th grade, 50.34% boys), aged between 14 and 19 years old (M = 15.44, DP = 1.09), answered to three psychological instruments: the Inductive Reasoning Developmental Test (TDRI), the Metacognitive Control Test (TCM) and the Brazilian Learning Approaches Scale (BLAS-Deep Approach). The first two tests have a self-appraisal scale attached, so we have five independent variables. The students’ responses to each test/scale were analyzed using the Rasch model. A subset of the original sample was created in order to separate the students in two balanced classes, high achievement (n = 41) and low achievement (n = 47), using grades from nine school subjects. In order to predict the class membership a machine learning non-linear model named Random Forest was used. The subset with the two classes was randomly split into two sets (training and testing) for cross validation. The result of the Random Forest showed a general accuracy of 75%, a specificity of 73.69% and a sensitivity of 68% in the training set. In the testing set, the general accuracy was 68.18%, with a specificity of 63.63% and with a sensitivity of 72.72%. The most important variable in the prediction was the TDRI. Finally, implications of the present study to the field of educational psychology were discussed.
Simulating the Dynamics of the Dancing Lights

The auroral displays, known as the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis, are geomagnetic phenomena of impressive visual characteristics and remarkable scientific value. Auroras present a complex behavior that arises from interactions between plasma (hot, ionized gases composed of ions, electrons and neutral atoms) and Earth’s electromagnetic fields. In this paper we present a physically-based model to perform 3D visual simulations of auroral dynamics. This model takes into account the physical parameters and processes directly associated with plasma flow. The set of partial differential equations associated with these processes is solved using a practical multigrid algorithm, which can also be applied in the simulation of natural phenomena such as gas, smoke or water flow. In order to illustrate the applicability of our model we provide animation sequences rendered using a distributed forward mapping approach. CR Categories: I.3. 7 [Computing Methodologies ]: Computer Graphics—Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism.
Robust H.263 compatible video transmission for mobile access to video servers

For interactive video storage applications that retrieve video data over low bit-rate networks, precoded bit-streams have to be transmitted to the receiver with low latency. Besides random access, fast forward and reverse, the scalability of the bit-stream is an important requirement for the above application. In this paper, we investigate a standard compatible approach that avoids the overhead involved in the transmission of periodic I-frames. We propose to store multiple bit-streams of different rates at the video server, which can be selected for transmission. Especially encoded P-frames are used to switch between the stored bit-streams. During normal-speed playback only P-frames are transmitted, providing increased efficiency. The approach is evaluated in the framework of the H.263 video compression standard. Based on the Salesman test sequence encoded at 12.5 fps in QCIF format, the resulting frame jitter is investigated when an error control protocol is used to transmit the bit-streams over a wireless DECT channel. Compared to periodic I-frames at an interval of 800 ms, a gain of 2 dB PSNR can be observed at the same frame jitter.
Creating a Framework: Art Therapy Elicits the Narrative

Abstract A case study illustrates how art therapy was used to elicit the narrative of an adolescent male student in transition from incarceration to a transfer school setting. Childhood trauma was addressed in individual sessions and within a literacy group co-led by a reading specialist. The art therapist responded to the client's needs by broadening the scope of art therapy with both art and writing. From careful observation and listening to the adolescent's verbal clues about past trauma, the therapist developed familiar, structured worksheets that helped the student focus and safely explore his feelings. The art therapeutic process created a framework from which to understand patterns of attachment and past trauma on the resulting narrative.
Case{based Meta Learning: Sustained Learning supported by a Dynamically Biased Version Space

It is well{recognized that in practical inductive learning systems the search for a concept must be heavily biased. In addition the bias must be dynamic, adapting to the current learning problem. Another important requirement is sustained learning, allowing transfer from known tasks to new ones. Previous work on dynamic bias has not explicitly addressed learning transfer, while previous case{based learning research su ers from a variety of problems. This paper presents a method of Case{Based Meta Learning (CBML), in which the cases are concepts, rather than instances, and retrieved similar concepts are used as a skeletal version space to speed up learning. CBML is independent of the concept representation language. The CBML{Clerk system, which learns repetitive operating system tasks, is presented as a demonstration.
The guilty couch potato: The role of negative emotions in reducing recovery through media use

This article addresses ego depletion as a mechanism influencing media-based stress recovery processes. Using structural equation modeling, relationships between ego depletion, procrastination, guilt, enjoyment, vitality, and recovery experience were tested using data from an online survey (N = 471). Results suggest that ego depletion may increase the risk of negatively appraising the use of interactive (video games) and noninteractive (television) entertaining media as a form of procrastination. The resulting guilt is negatively related to the recovery experience associated with using entertainment. Therefore, ego-depleted individuals may benefit less from the psychological recovery potential of entertainment media, despite their greater need for recovery. These findings are an important step in understanding the pivotal role of appraisal processes for media-induced recovery and the entertainment experience.
Cytochrome p450 and glutathione transferase expression in human breast cancer.

PURPOSE The cytochrome P-450 (CYP) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) enzyme systems may influence the biological effects of carcinogens, including estrogens. As such, these enzymes may predict the developmental risk of breast cancer, as well as be potential targets for chemoprevention. The purpose of this study was to compare the expression of GST-Pi and CYPs 1A1, 2B6, 2E1, and 3A4 in paired samples of normal and malignant breast tissue from patients with breast cancer and women undergoing reduction mammoplasty. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Expression of CYPs 1A1, 2B6, 2E1, 3A4, and GST-Pi was quantified in breast tissue from 33 patients with breast cancer and in 17 women without history of cancer who underwent reduction mammoplasty. The expression of CYP 1A1, 2B6, 2E1, 3A4, and GST-Pi was quantified by immunoblotting. RESULTS CYP 1A1, 2E1, and 3A4 expression was significantly lower (P < 0.05) in malignant tissue as compared with morphologically normal adjacent tissue. Conversely, GST-Pi expression was marginally lower in the normal tissue (P = 0.08). No significant difference in enzyme expression was seen between the tissue from reduction mammoplasty and normal tissue from breast cancer patients. There was a trend for higher expression of CYP 2B6 and GST-Pi in the estrogen receptor expressing tumors than those tumors without expression (P > 0.28). CONCLUSION The expression of these enzymes was similar in morphologically normal breast tissue from patients with or without breast cancer. The expression of CYPs was down-regulated in the tumor tissue. The clinical significance of CYP alterations in breast cancer will need further characterization.
Analyzing the structure of multidimensional compressed sensing problems through coherence

Recently it has been established that asymptotic incoherence can be used to facilitate subsampling, in order to optimize reconstruction quality, in a variety of continuous compressed sensing problems, and the coherence structure of certain one-dimensional Fourier sampling problems was determined. This paper extends the analysis of asymptotic incoherence to cover multidimensional reconstruction problems. It is shown that Fourier sampling and separable wavelet sparsity in any dimension can yield the same optimal asymptotic incoherence as in one dimensional case. Moreover in two dimensions the coherence structure is compatible with many standard two dimensional sampling schemes that are currently in use. However, in higher dimensional problems with poor wavelet smoothness we demonstrate that there are considerable restrictions on how one can subsample from the Fourier basis with optimal incoherence. This can be remedied by using a sufficiently smooth generating wavelet. It is also shown that using tensor bases will always provide suboptimal decay marred by problems associated with dimensionality. The impact of asymptotic incoherence on the ability to subsample is demonstrated with some simple two dimensional numerical experiments.
Oscillations in the Spontaneous Fluorescence from Photosynthetic Reaction Centers

The spontaneous fluorescence from the special pair primary electron donor in bacterial photosynthetic reaction centers has been measured at low temperature using fluorescence up-conversion following excitation of the special pair with 80 fs pulses from a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser. Oscillations are observed during the first few picoseconds of the decay. The frequency of the oscillations and the detection wavelength dependence of their intensity are similar to results obtained by Vos, Martin, and co-workers using stimulated emission. This demonstrates that the oscillations are associated with the excited state of the special pair, not with stimulated Raman scattering. Vibrational coherence persists on the time scale of electron transfer. Possible relationships between these results and other observables are discussed. 30 refs., 4 figs.
A portable respiratory rate estimation system with a passive single-lead electrocardiogram acquisition module.

BACKGROUND Among vital signs of acutely ill hospital patients, respiratory rate (RR) is a highly accurate predictor of health deterioration. OBJECTIVE This study proposes a system that consists of a passive and non-invasive single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition module and an ECG-derived respiratory (EDR) algorithm in the working prototype of a mobile application. METHOD Before estimating RR that produces the EDR rate, ECG signals were evaluated based on the signal quality index (SQI). The SQI algorithm was validated quantitatively using the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2011 training data set. The RR extraction algorithm was validated by adopting 40 MIT PhysioNet Multiparameter Intelligent Monitoring in Intensive Care II data set. RESULTS The estimated RR showed a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.4 compared with the ``gold standard'' RR. The proposed system was used to record 20 ECGs of healthy subjects and obtained the estimated RR with MAE of 0.7 bpm. CONCLUSION Results indicate that the proposed hardware and algorithm could replace the manual counting method, uncomfortable nasal airflow sensor, chest band, and impedance pneumotachography often used in hospitals. The system also takes advantage of the prevalence of smartphone usage and increase the monitoring frequency of the current ECG of patients with critical illnesses.
Characterization of Bacillus subtilis Colony Biofilms via Mass Spectrometry and Fluorescence Imaging

Colony biofilms of Bacillus subtilis are a widely used model for studying cellular differentiation. Here, we applied matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) to examine cellular and molecular heterogeneity in B. subtilis colony biofilms. From B. subtilis cells cultivated on a biofilm-promoting medium, we detected two cannibalistic factors not found in previous MALDI MSI studies of the same strain under different culturing conditions. Given the importance of cannibalism in matrix formation of B. subtilis biofilms, we employed a transcriptional reporter to monitor matrix-producing cell subpopulations using fluorescence imaging. These two complementary imaging approaches were used to characterize three B. subtilis strains, the wild type isolate NCIB3610, and two mutants, Δspo0A and ΔabrB, with defective and enhanced biofilm phenotypes, respectively. Upon deletion of key transcriptional factors, correlated changes were observed in biofilm morphology, signaling, cannibalistic factor distribution, and matrix-related gene expression, providing new insights on cannibalism in biofilm development. This work underscores the advantages of using multimodal imaging to compare spatial patterns of selected molecules with the associated protein expression patterns, obtaining information on cellular heterogeneity and function not obtainable when using a single method to characterize biofilm formation.
Human tracking and identification using a sensitive floor and wearable accelerometers

We describe a method for user tracking and localization based on textile capacitive sensor arrays placed under the floor. The sensor array is a commercial product (SensFloor®) that can be installed under any standard floor type (from carpet to stone) and is able to detect objects (including the user's foot) being placed on it. The challenges addressed in this paper are (1) how to map sequences of such signals onto user trajectories and (2) how to correlate the steps detected by the SensFloor system with the step detection based on a wearable accelerometer as means of user identification. Footstep detection is performed online on the devices, which are seamlessly integrated with the floor's wireless sensor network. Initial experiments performed over a week in a real life office environment show the ability to track multiple humans and to identify up to three users walking in a narrow corridor at the same time.
Exploiting Ligand-Protein Conjugates to Monitor Ligand-Receptor Interactions

We introduce three assays for analyzing ligand-receptor interactions based on the specific conjugation of ligands to SNAP-tag fusion proteins. Conjugation of ligands to different SNAP-tag fusions permits the validation of suspected interactions in cell extracts and fixed cells as well as the establishment of high-throughput assays. The different assays allow the analysis of strong and weak interactions. Conversion of ligands into SNAP-tag substrates thus provides access to a powerful toolbox for the analysis of their interactions with proteins.
Semi-Supervised Classification Based on Mixture Graph

Graph-based semi-supervised classification heavily depends on a well-structured graph. In this paper, we investigate a mixture graph and propose a method called semi-supervised classification based on mixture graph (SSCMG). SSCMG first constructs multiple k nearest neighborhood (kNN) graphs in different random subspaces of the samples. Then, it combines these graphs into a mixture graph and incorporates this graph into a graph-based semi-supervised classifier. SSCMG can preserve the local structure of samples in subspaces and is less affected by noisy and redundant features. Empirical study on facial images classification shows that SSCMG not only has better recognition performance, but also is more robust to input parameters than other related methods.