Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perceived Negative and Positive Impacts of Redefining Older Persons in Thailand

“Older” in many countries has been defined as a chronological age of either 60 or 65 years or older. Due to a rapidly growing aging population in Thailand, as well as state welfare payments and improved health, this study aims to explore how Thai people define “older person” and what perceived psychosocial and health impacts may occur if “older person” is redefined. Forty-five focus group discussions were conducted using working-age groups and older-persons’ groups from major occupations in all regions. The findings reveal that the perceived current definition of “older persons” is those aged 60 and older, and it carries with it negative and positive connotations. Most participants felt that it would be appropriate to consider a revised definition of “older person” if the following criteria were taken into consideration: (1) chronological age only, but raised to age 65 or 70; (2) chronological age and positive attributes; (3) positive attributes only; and (4) no criteria at all. Rival patterns were also discussed. The perceived positive impacts included better mental health, longer employment and increased value of older people. Reduced job opportunities for younger people and a shortage of home care providers for grandchildren were reported as the negative impacts. The challenge is how to incorporate a suitable multidimensional definition into a new concept of older person.
E-inclusion Process and Societal Digital Skill Development

Abstract Nowadays, the focus shifts from information and communication technology access to skills and knowledge. Moreover, lack of digital skills is an obstacle in the process of learning new digital competences using technologies and e-learning. The objective of this research is to investigate how to facilitate students to use the acquired digital skills in practice and to evaluate the impact of students’ previous knowledge level. Based on the e-inclusion digital skills model, the author develops two research questions: How students’ previous experience impacts practical usage of the acquired ICT skills and How students’ self-assessment correlates with practical usage of the acquired ICT skills. The research employs student-centred learning theory, where the learning process is based on students’ active action, experience and values. The research is based on a literature review and one case study. The results of this study confirm the relationship of the e-inclusion digital skills model with the knowledge level acquired and its usage.
Performance analysis of DVB-NGH MIMO coded modulation system

Digital video broadcasting-next generation handheld (DVB-NGH) is the first broadcasting standard that incorporates multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) techniques to overcome the Shannon limit of single antenna systems. This paper contributes to analyze the performance of the DVB-NGH MIMO coded modulation system. The detailed performance degradation from information-theoretic limit to implementation by average mutual information and extrinsic information transfer analysis is presented, which provides an insight guideline for future system improvement. Finally, bit error rate simulations are carried out to verify the analysis.
Diagnostic and Therapeutic Capability of Double-Balloon Enteroscopy in Clinical Practice

Advances in technology have facilitated the common use of small-bowel imaging. Intraoperative enteroscopy was the gold standard method for small-bowel imaging. However, noninvasive capsule endoscopy and invasive balloon enteroscopy are currently the main endoscopic procedures that are routinely used for small-bowel pathologies, and the indications for both techniques are similar. Although obstruction is a contraindication for capsule endoscopy, it is not considered to be problematic for double-balloon enteroscopy. The most important advantage of double-balloon enteroscopy is the applicability of therapeutic interventions during the procedure; however, double-balloon enteroscopy has certain advantages as well as disadvantages.
Minimal Actuation for a Flat Actuated Flexible Manifold

The fabrication of a multiactuator mechanism requires excessive wiring that may become the design's bottleneck. We introduce a novel actuation method for an actuated flexible manifold (AFM). The AFM is a 2-D surface embedded in ℝ2 or ℝ3. The AFM shape can theoretically be manipulated into any continuous smooth function. The mechanism possesses dozens of degrees of freedom (DOF). However, an applicable AFM would require thousands or even an infinite number of DOF (for the continuous case). This paper addresses the need to aggressively reduce the number of inputs. To exemplify our optimization, we introduce an algorithm for the forward kinematics and the inverse kinematics for such mechanisms. We then present a periodic actuation method, which enables input reduction to its peripheral inputs alone. We show how a 40-DOF AFM can make the most of its capabilities, while the number of inputs substantially drops. To exemplify our results, we have fabricated an AFM as a grid using shape memory alloy artificial muscle wire. Our input method may simplify the fabrication process, reduce the mechanism's overall weight, and improve the actuation performance.
Deity and Destiny

The current studies investigate whether different forms of fatalistic thinking follow from the Christian and Hindu cosmologies. The authors found that fatalistic interpretations of one’s own life events center on deity influence for Christians, especially for those high in religiosity; however, Hindu interpretations of one’s own life emphasized destiny as much as deity (Study 1). Also, the focus on fate over chance when explaining others’ misfortunes depends on the presence of known misdeeds for Christians, but not for Hindus (Study 2). Finally, Christians prefer petitionary prayer over divination as a strategy for managing uncontrollable future risks (Studies 3a and 3c), and preference for these strategies can be primed in bicultural Hindu Americans by a Hindi-accented telephone interviewer (Study 3b).
Hypothalamic Ahi1 Mediates Feeding Behavior through Interaction with 5-HT2C Receptor*

It is indicated that there are important molecules interacting with brain nervous systems to regulate feeding and energy balance by influencing the signaling pathways of these systems, but relatively few of the critical players have been identified. In the present study, we provide the evidence for the role of Abelson helper integration site 1 (Ahi1) protein as a mediator of feeding behavior through interaction with serotonin receptor 2C (5-HT2CR), known for its critical role in feeding and appetite control. First, we demonstrated the co-localization and interaction between hypothalamic Ahi1 and 5-HT2CR. Ahi1 promoted the degradation of 5-HT2CR through the lysosomal pathway. Then, we investigated the effects of fasting on the expression of hypothalamic Ahi1 and 5-HT2CR. Fasting resulted in an increased Ahi1 expression and a concomitant decreased expression of 5-HT2CR. Knockdown of hypothalamic Ahi1 led to a concomitant increased expression of 5-HT2CR and a decrease of food intake and body weight. Last, we found that Ahi1 could regulate the expression of neuropeptide Y and proopiomelanocortin. Taken together, our results indicate that Ahi1 mediates feeding behavior by interacting with 5-HT2CR to modulate the serotonin signaling pathway.
Option Pricing, Interest Rates and Risk Management: Purely Discontinuous Asset Price Processes

This paper presents the case for modeling asset price processes as purely discontinuous processes of nite variation with an in nite arrival rate of jumps that have arrival rates completely monotone in the jump size. The arguments address both the empirical realities of asset returns and the implications of the economic principle of no arbitrage. Two classes of economic models meeting these conditions are presented and linked. An important example given by the variance gamma process is studied in detail and used to design optimal derivative investment portfolios that are calibrated to actual portfolios to reverse engineer trader preferences and beliefs and infer personalized risk neutral measures termed position measures. Illustrative comparisons of statistical, risk neutral and position measures are also provided.
An Entropy-Based Complexity Measure for Web Applications Using Structural Information

Web applications tend to get more change requests, evolve faster, and have shorter life-cycles than general applications. However, there are few systematic approaches dealing with their development and management, which results in a degrading structural quality and high maintenance costs. Complexity is a measure that is closely related to maintainability, understandability, and testing efforts. Most of the existing complexity measures for the web are count-based, and they provide a biased view of WAs. Therefore, it is necessary to define another complementary complexity notion. In this paper, entropy-based complexity measures, WCOXIN and WCOXOUT, are proposed for web applications, with a model which is defined using pages, relations, and parameter information. Entropy, which is connected to a system's average information quantity, can be used as a metric of software aging and structural degradation. Several experiments are conducted to show the effectiveness of the proposed complexity measure, using WANA, a tool especially developed for the experiments. The experimental results reveal that the proposed WCOXIN and WCOXOUT measures effectively reflect the structural changes of web applications, which are not considered by count-based complexity measures.
Inversion of multilayer nets

The method of inversion for arbitrary continuous multilayer nets is developed. The inversion is done by computing iteratively an input vector which minimizes the least-mean-square errors to approximate a given output target. This inversion is not unique for given targets and depends on the starting point in input space. The inversion method turns out to be a valuable tool for the examination of multilayer nets (MLNs). Applications of the inversion method to constraint satisfaction, feature detection, and the testing of reliability and performance of MLNs are outlined. It is concluded that recurrent nets and even time-delay nets might be invertible. <<ETX>>
Endothelin‐1 Induces Myofibrillar Disarray and Contractile Vector Variability in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy–Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell–Derived Cardiomyocytes

Background Despite the accumulating genetic and molecular investigations into hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), it remains unclear how this condition develops and worsens pathologically and clinically in terms of the genetic–environmental interactions. Establishing a human disease model for HCM would help to elucidate these disease mechanisms; however, cardiomyocytes from patients are not easily obtained for basic research. Patient‐specific induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) potentially hold much promise for deciphering the pathogenesis of HCM. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the interactions between genetic backgrounds and environmental factors involved in the disease progression of HCM. Methods and Results We generated iPSCs from 3 patients with HCM and 3 healthy control subjects, and cardiomyocytes were differentiated. The HCM pathological phenotypes were characterized based on morphological properties and high‐speed video imaging. The differences between control and HCM iPSC‐derived cardiomyocytes were mild under baseline conditions in pathological features. To identify candidate disease‐promoting environmental factors, the cardiomyocytes were stimulated by several cardiomyocyte hypertrophy‐promoting factors. Interestingly, endothelin‐1 strongly induced pathological phenotypes such as cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and intracellular myofibrillar disarray in the HCM iPSC‐derived cardiomyocytes. We then reproduced these phenotypes in neonatal cardiomyocytes from the heterozygous Mybpc3‐targeted knock in mice. High‐speed video imaging with motion vector prediction depicted physiological contractile dynamics in the iPSC‐derived cardiomyocytes, which revealed that self‐beating HCM iPSC‐derived single cardiomyocytes stimulated by endothelin‐1 showed variable contractile directions. Conclusions Interactions between the patient's genetic backgrounds and the environmental factor endothelin‐1 promote the HCM pathological phenotype and contractile variability in the HCM iPSC‐derived cardiomyocytes.
Hand Functioning in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Brain lesions may disturb hand functioning in children with cerebral palsy (CP), making it difficult or even impossible for them to perform several manual activities. Most conventional treatments for hand dysfunction in CP assume that reducing the hand dysfunctions will improve the capacity to manage activities (i.e., manual ability, MA). The aim of this study was to investigate the directional relationships (direct and indirect pathways) through which hand skills influence MA in children with CP. A total of 136 children with CP (mean age: 10 years; range: 6–16 years; 35 quadriplegics, 24 diplegics, 77 hemiplegics) were assessed. Six hand skills were measured on both hands: touch-pressure detection (Semmes–Weinstein esthesiometer), stereognosis (Manual Form Perception Test), proprioception (passive mobilization of the metacarpophalangeal joints), grip strength (GS) (Jamar dynamometer), gross manual dexterity (GMD) (Box and Block Test), and fine finger dexterity (Purdue Pegboard Test). MA was measured with the ABILHAND-Kids questionnaire. Correlation coefficients were used to determine the linear associations between observed variables. A path analysis of structural equation modeling was applied to test different models of causal relationships among the observed variables. Purely sensory impairments did seem not to play a significant role in the capacity to perform manual activities. According to path analysis, GMD in both hands and stereognosis in the dominant hand were directly related to MA, whereas GS was indirectly related to MA through its relationship with GMD. However, one-third of the variance in MA measures could not be explained by hand skills. It can be concluded that MA is not simply the integration of hand skills in daily activities and should be treated per se, supporting activity-based interventions.
Molecular Interrogation of the Feeding Behaviour of Field Captured Individual Insects for Interpretation of Multiple Host Plant Use

The way in which herbivorous insect individuals use multiple host species is difficult to quantify under field conditions, but critical to understanding the evolutionary processes underpinning insect–host plant relationships. In this study we developed a novel approach to understanding the host plant interactions of the green mirid, Creontiades dilutus, a highly motile heteropteran bug that has been associated with many plant species. We combine quantified sampling of the insect across its various host plant species within particular sites and a molecular comparison between the insects' gut contents and available host plants. This approach allows inferences to be made as to the plants fed upon by individual insects in the field. Quantified sampling shows that this “generalist” species is consistently more abundant on two species in the genus Cullen (Fabaceae), its primary host species, than on any other of its numerous listed hosts. The chloroplast intergenic sequences reveal that C. dilutus frequently feeds on plants additional to the one from which it was collected, even when individuals were sampled from the primary host species. These data may be reconciled by viewing multiple host use in this species as an adaptation to survive spatiotemporally ephemeral habitats. The methodological framework developed here provides a basis from which new insights into the feeding behaviour and host plant relationships of herbivorous insects can be derived, which will benefit not only ecological interpretation but also our understanding of the evolution of these relationships.
Real-Time Speed Variation Detection of Moving Human Using Polar Projection Feature

This paper proposes a method to detect speed variation of a moving human target, based on polar projection feature. Through even-grid-polar mapping, two polar projection feature images, namely r-projection and q-projection, are obtained respectively. It is found that the frequency of double-peak in q-projection feature image series in a motion cycle is sensitive to speed variation and can be utilized to distinguish running from walking. Experimental results show that the proposed method is robust to rotation, scaling, translation and small non-rigid deformation in spite of multi-angle cases.
Down-Regulation of Canonical and Up-Regulation of Non-Canonical Wnt Signalling in the Carcinogenic Process of Squamous Cell Lung Carcinoma

The majority of lung cancers (LC) belong to the non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) type. The two main NSCLC sub-types, namely adenocarcinoma (AC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), respond differently to therapy. Whereas the link between cigarette smoke and lung cancer risk is well established, the relevance of non-canonical Wnt pathway up-regulation detected in SCC remains poorly understood. The present study was undertaken to investigate further the molecular events in canonical and non-canonical Wnt signalling during SCC development. A total of 20 SCC and AC samples with matched non-cancerous controls were obtained after surgery. TaqMan array analysis confirmed up-regulation of non-canonical Wnt5a and Wnt11 and identified down-regulation of canonical Wnt signalling in SCC samples. The molecular changes were tested in primary small airway epithelial cells (SAEC) and various lung cancer cell lines (e.g. A549, H157, etc). Our studies identified Wnt11 and Wnt5a as regulators of cadherin expression and potentiated relocation of β-catenin to the nucleus as an important step in decreased cellular adhesion. The presented data identifies additional details in the regulation of SCC that can aid identification of therapeutic drug targets in the future.
Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 Reverses Hepatic Steatosis, Increases Energy Expenditure, and Improves Insulin Sensitivity in Diet-Induced Obese Mice

OBJECTIVE—Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) has emerged as an important metabolic regulator of glucose and lipid metabolism. The aims of the current study are to evaluate the role of FGF21 in energy metabolism and to provide mechanistic insights into its glucose and lipid-lowering effects in a high-fat diet–induced obesity (DIO) model. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—DIO or normal lean mice were treated with vehicle or recombinant murine FGF21. Metabolic parameters including body weight, glucose, and lipid levels were monitored, and hepatic gene expression was analyzed. Energy metabolism and insulin sensitivity were assessed using indirect calorimetry and hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp techniques. RESULTS—FGF21 dose dependently reduced body weight and whole-body fat mass in DIO mice due to marked increases in total energy expenditure and physical activity levels. FGF21 also reduced blood glucose, insulin, and lipid levels and reversed hepatic steatosis. The profound reduction of hepatic triglyceride levels was associated with FGF21 inhibition of nuclear sterol regulatory element binding protein-1 and the expression of a wide array of genes involved in fatty acid and triglyceride synthesis. FGF21 also dramatically improved hepatic and peripheral insulin sensitivity in both lean and DIO mice independently of reduction in body weight and adiposity. CONCLUSIONS—FGF21 corrects multiple metabolic disorders in DIO mice and has the potential to become a powerful therapeutic to treat hepatic steatosis, obesity, and type 2 diabetes.
Peer-to-Peer Distributed Shared Memory?

In this paper, we show that, although P2P systems and DSM systems have been designed in rather different contexts, both can serve as major sources of inspiration for the design of a hybrid system, with intermediate hypotheses and properties. We propose the concept of data sharing service for grid computing, as a compromise between DSM systems and P2P systems. The main contribution of such a service is to decouple data management from grid computation, by providing location transparency as well as data persistence in a dynamic environment. To illustrate the proposed concept and validate its feasibility, we have implemented a software prototype: the JuxMem platform.
Contextualizing distributed leadership in higher education

ABSTRACT This case study of development in a technical university situates distributed leadership in higher education in an organizational perspective. Analysis of documentation from development programs and interviews with 10 faculty members showed that leadership practices were related to different institutional logics prominent in four key activities in this specific university: education, research, formal organization and boundary-spanning cross-scientific environments. A shared understanding of these logics was accompanied with a reported increase in organizational understanding and leadership awareness that helped establish collaboration and sensemaking. Furthermore, we show that the theory of logic multiplicity provides a way to analyze previously neglected aspects of power, tensions, context and the practical relevance of the concept of distributed leadership.
Search your interests everywhere!: wikipedia-based keyphrase extraction from web browsing history

This paper proposes a method that can extract user interests from the user's Web browsing history. Our method allows easy access to multiple content domains such as blogs, movies, QA sites, etc. since the user does not need to input a separate search query in each domain/site. To extract user interests, the method first extracts candidate keyphrases from the user's web browsed documents. Second, important keyphrases obtained from a link structure analysis of Wikipedia content is extracted from the main contents of web documents. This technique is based on the idea that important keyphrases in Wikipedia are important keyphrases in the real world. Finally, keyphrases contained in the documents important to the user are set in order as user interests. An experiment shows that our method offers improvements over a conventional method and can recommend interests attractive to the user.
Evaluation of a 5-Year Cloud and Radiative Property Dataset Derived from GOES-8 Data Over the Southern Great Plains

Satellite cloud analyses can provide a long-term record of microphysical, macrophysical and radiative properties over a large area. However, to have confidence in these retrievals, the results must be compared with ground truth or reliable reference sources. The layered bispectral threshold method (LBTM; Minnis et al. 1995) has been used to derive cloud and radiative properties from the eighth geostationary operational environmental satellite (GOES-8) data over a 5-year period for the Southern Great Plains (SGP) domain. These properties include cloud OD, amount, height, temperature, and thickness, total and clear-sky longwave (LW) fluxes, clear-sky temperatures, and total and clear-sky albedos. In this paper, data from several ground instruments at the SGP central facility (CF) and from the Clouds and Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES; Wielicki et al. 1998) are used to examine the GOES-8 products.
The application of discriminative training techniques in LID system fusion

This paper reports an approach to language identification (LID) system fusion using discriminative training. Maximum mutual information (MMI) training for Gaussian mixture model is introduced to the standard LDA-GMM fusion framework. Experimental results show that the proposed fusion scheme outperforms the maximum likelihood (ML) trained backend of LID system. The impact of number of Gaussian mixtures on fusion performance is also discussed.