Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social isolation in parents of children with hemangiomas: Effects of coping styles and emotional distress

This study investigated factors associated with social isolation in parents of children with hemangiomas. Eighty-one parents completed questionnaires assessing their emotional distress, social isolation, and coping styles. To explore the relationships between these variables, a path analysis was used to test a model in which clinical characteristics of hemangiomas and parents’ coping strategies do not have direct effects on their social isolation but indirect effects via their emotional distress. Bootstrapping was used to assess indirect effects. Time since onset and lesional complications had positive direct effects on parents’ social isolation. Lesional visibility and emotion-focused coping had negative indirect effects on parents’ social isolation via their emotional distress, while problem-focused coping showed a positive indirect effect. These findings may have implications for clinicians managing parents of children with hemangiomas.
Duration of remission during maintenance cyclosporine therapy for psoriasis. Relationship to maintenance dose and degree of improvement during initial therapy.

BACKGROUND Cyclosporine therapy is highly effective in the treatment of psoriasis. To minimize side effects, the lowest effective dosage for maintenance therapy should be sought. METHODS We selected 61 patients who had achieved clearing or near-clearing of psoriasis during an induction phase of cyclosporine therapy. We then randomly assigned them in a double-blind fashion to receive one of two dosages of cyclosporine (1.5 or 3 mg/kg per day) or placebo for maintenance treatment. For each patient, the time to relapse was the time from the start of maintenance therapy until the patient showed a two-point worsening of psoriasis on a seven-point scale, up to a maximum of 4 months, when the study ended. RESULTS Sixty patients completed the maintenance study. The mean time to relapse was significantly longer in the 3-mg/kg group (12 +/- 1 weeks) than in the 1.5-mg/kg group (9 +/- 1 weeks; P = .04) and the placebo group (7 +/- 1 weeks; P = .002); the latter two groups were not significantly different (P = .3). When the study ended, 57% of the 3-mg/kg group had not relapsed, compared with 21% and 5% of the 1.5-mg/kg and placebo groups, respectively. The following factors were associated with longer remissions: less psoriasis at the start of maintenance dosing (r = .40, P = .002); lower dosage of cyclosporine to achieve clearing or near-clearing during induction (r = -.30, P = .02); higher maintenance dosing (r = .38, P = .004); and smaller differences between the induction and maintenance dosages (r = -.41, P = .002). Patients' laboratory values improved compared with those at induction, and no patient experienced important clinical side effects during maintenance dosing. CONCLUSIONS After clearing or near-clearing is achieved in patients with severe psoriasis, 3 mg/kg per day is a reasonable dosage to choose for maintenance. Patients who are more responsive to cyclosporine (as measured by greater clearing of psoriasis at lower induction dosages) tend to have longer remissions.
Treadmill Workstations: The Effects of Walking while Working on Physical Activity and Work Performance

We conducted a 12-month-long experiment in a financial services company to study how the availability of treadmill workstations affects employees’ physical activity and work performance. We enlisted sedentary volunteers, half of whom received treadmill workstations during the first two months of the study and the rest in the seventh month of the study. Participants could operate the treadmills at speeds of 0–2 mph and could use a standard chair-desk arrangement at will. (a) Weekly online performance surveys were administered to participants and their supervisors, as well as to all other sedentary employees and their supervisors. Using within-person statistical analyses, we find that overall work performance, quality and quantity of performance, and interactions with coworkers improved as a result of adoption of treadmill workstations. (b) Participants were outfitted with accelerometers at the start of the study. We find that daily total physical activity increased as a result of the adoption of treadmill workstations.
Inverse polarization raytracing: estimating surface shapes of transparent objects

We propose a novel method for estimating the surface shapes of transparent objects by analyzing the polarization state of the light. Existing methods do not fully consider the reflection, refraction, and transmission of the light occurring inside a transparent object. We employ a polarization raytracing method to compute both the path of the light and its polarization state. Our proposed iterative computation method estimates the surface shape of the transparent object by minimizing the difference between the polarization data rendered by the polarization raytracing method and the polarization data obtained from a real object.
Emotions in social psychology : essential readings

Overview. Part I: The Nature of Emotion. P. Shaver, J. Schwartz, D. Kirson, and C. O'Connor, Emotion Knowledge: Further Exploration of a Prototype Approach. N. Frijda, The Laws of Emotion. Part II: The Role of Cognition. S. Schachter and J. Singer, Cognitive, Social, and Physiological Determinants of Emotional State. C. Smith and R. Lazarus, Appraisal Components, Core Relational Themes, and the Emotions. Part III: Culture and Socialization. H. Markus and S. Kitayama, The Cultural Construction of Self and Emotion: Implications for Social Behavior. Part IV: Gender Differences: Evolution, Socialization, and Stereotyping. D. Buss, R. Larsen, D. Westen, and J. Semmelroth, Sex Differences in Jealousy: Questioning the "Fitness" of the Model. M. Robinson, J. Johnson, and S. Shields, the Gender Heuristic and the Database: Factors Affecting the Perception of Gender-related Differences in the Experience and Display of Emotions. Part V: The Social Functions of Emotions. D. Keltner and J. Haidt, Social Functions of Emotions at Four Levels of Analysis. P. Salovey, C. Hsee, and J. Mayer, Emotional Intelligence and the Self-Regulation of Affect. Part VI: Emotion and Social Cognition. J. Forgas and G. Bower, Mood Effects on Person-Perception Judgements. H. Bless, G. Bohner, N. Schwarz, and F. Strack, Mood and Persuasion: A Cognitive Response Analysis. Part VII: Emotion's Effects on Others. J. Coyne, Depression and the Response of Others. V. Christophe and B. Rime, Exposure to the Social Sharing of Emotion: Emotional Impact, Listener Responses and Secondary Social Sharing. Part VIII: Emotion and Facial Expressions. P. Ekman, W. Friesen, and S. Ancoli, Facial Signs of Emotional Experience. A. Fridlund, Sociality of Solitary Smiling: Potentiation by an Implicit Audience. Part IX: Shame, Guilt, Envy, and Jealousy. J. Tagney, P. Wagner, C. Fletcher, and R. Gramzow, Shamed into Anger? The Relation of Shame and Guilt to Anger and Self-reported Aggression. R. Baumeister, A. Stillwell, and T. Heatherton, Guilt: An Interpersonal Approach. W. Parrott, The Emotional Experiences of Envy and Jealousy. Part X: The Nature of Emotion, Revisited: The Case of Anger. L. Berkowitz, On the Formation and Regulation of Anger and Aggression: A Cognitive-neoassociationistic Approach. J. Averill, Studies on Anger and Aggression: Implications for Theories of Emotion.
A 2-DOF fMRI compatible haptic interface to investigate the neural control of arm movements

This paper describes a two-degrees-of-freedom haptic interface to investigate the brain mechanisms of human motor control, which is capable of safely and gently interacting with human arm motion during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A hydrostatic transmission separates the interface into a master and an MR compatible slave system, allowing the placement of all interfering components outside the electromagnetic shield of the MR room. The transmission mirrors force and motion of the master actuators on the slave system placed close to the MR scanner. The parallel architecture takes advantage of the linear MR compatible actuators and allows human subjects to perform reaching movements comfortably in the small workspace limited by the dimensions of the MR scanner and the biomechanics of the arm. The kinematic structure of the slave interface was optimized with respect to the available space and types of movements to be investigated. Materials were chosen based on their MR compatibility, their stiffness and weight. The interaction force with the subject is measured over two optical force sensors, located close to the output of the interface. Two shielded optoelectronic encoders measure the extension of the slave hydraulic pistons. Detailed tests demonstrated the fMRI compatibility even during movement of the interface
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES THE IMPORTANCE OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOR STUDENT LOAN REPAYMENT

Government student loan programs must balance the need to enforce repayment among borrowers who can afford to make their payments with some form of forgiveness or repayment assistance for those who cannot. Using unique survey and administrative data from the Canada Student Loan Program, we show that nearly all recent borrowers with annual incomes above $40,000 make their standard loan payments while repayment problems are common among borrowers earning less than $20,000. Still, over half of all low-income borrowers manage to make timely payments. We demonstrate that other financial resources in the form of savings and family support are key to understanding this – repayment problems are rare among low-earners with access to savings and family support. This has important policy implications, in part, because many recent proposals have advocated for a move to an income-based repayment system. Under such a system, many low-income borrowers in good-standing (due primarily to savings and family support) would pay less, while little new revenue would likely be generated from inducing payment among those that are currently delinquent or in default since their income levels are so low. Specifically, we show that expanding Canada’s income-based Repayment Assistance Plan to automatically cover all borrowers could reduce revenue by nearly one-half over the first few years of repayment. Although a sizeable group of recent borrowers would benefit from improved repayment assistance, our results suggest caution before broadly expanding assistance to all low-income borrowers, many of whom already benefit from informal insurance provided by savings and their families. Lance Lochner Department of Economics Faculty of Social Science University of Western Ontario 1151 Richmond Street, North London, ON N6A 5C2 CANADA and NBER llochner@uwo.ca Todd Stinebrickner Department of Economics University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, N6A 5C2 CANADA and NBER trstineb@uwo.ca Utku Suleymanoglu Department of Economics University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A5C2 usuleyma@uwo.ca
Private and Secure Distribution of Targeted Advertisements to Mobile Phones

Online Behavioural Advertising (OBA) enables promotion companies to effectively target users with ads that best satisfy their purchasing needs. This is highly beneficial for both vendors and publishers who are the owners of the advertising platforms, such as websites and app developers, but at the same time creates a serious privacy threat for users who expose their consumer interests. In this paper, we categorize the available ad-distribution methods and identify their limitations in terms of security, privacy, targeting effectiveness and practicality. We contribute our own system, which utilizes opportunistic networking in order to distribute targeted adverts within a social network. We improve upon previous work by eliminating the need for trust among the users (network nodes) while at the same time achieving low memory and bandwidth overhead, which are inherent problems of many opportunistic networks. Our protocol accomplishes this by identifying similarities between the consumer interests of users and then allows them to share access to the same adverts, which need to be downloaded only once. Although the same ads may be viewed by multiple users, privacy is preserved as the users do not learn each other’s advertising interests. An additional contribution is that malicious users cannot alter the ads in order to spread malicious content, and also, they cannot launch impersonation attacks.
A CMOS Bidirectional 32-Element Phased-Array Transceiver at 60 GHz With LTCC Antenna

Fully integrated 32-element symmetrical TX/RX 60-GHz RF integrated circuit (RFIC) with built-in self-test is presented. The RF bidirectional power-combining architecture with shared blocks and less than 1-dB millimeter-wave transmit/receive (T/R) switch loss achieves record size and power consumption. The RFIC features an 8-dB noise figure and - 28-dBm IP1 dB in RX mode, 10-dB power gain, and Psat of +3.5 dBm per chain in TX mode. Further included are a 2-bit phase shifter, an IF converter to/from 12 GHz, and an integrated frac-N synthesizer with push-push voltage-controlled oscillator having a-93 dBc@1-MHz phase noise at 48-GHz local oscillator port. A novel high dynamic range phase and power detector is presented with 2° and ±1-dB accuracy over PVT in phase and power. A detailed analysis of both phase quantization and power distribution is presented. Array impairments such as mismatch and coupling were compared for different topologies. The RFIC is packaged on alumina for testing and on low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) for antenna integration. The 6 × 6 patch antenna on LTCC including four dummies achieves a gain of 19 dBi with scanning of ± 30°. The total root mean square amplitude and phase error of the array is 0.8 dB and 6° , respectively, resulting in a maximum array beam degradation of 1.4 dB for 2-bit quantization. The RFIC area is 29 mm2 and it consumes 1.2 W/0.85 W at TX/RX, with a 29-dBm effective isotropic radiated power at -19-dB error vector magnitude.
Using a controller based on reinforcement learning for a passive dynamic walking robot

One of the difficulties with passive dynamic walking is the stability of walking. In our robot, small uneven or tilted parts of the floor disturb the locomotion and must be dealt with by the feedback controller of the hip actuation mechanism. This paper presents a solution to the problem in the form of controller that is based on reinforcement learning. The control mechanism is studied using a simulation model that is based on a mechanical prototype of passive dynamic walking robot with a conventional feedback controller. The successful walking results of our simulated walking robot with a controller based on reinforcement learning showed that in addition to the prime principle of our mechanical prototype, new possibilities such as optimization towards various goals like maximum speed and minimal cost of transport, and adaptation to unknown situations can be quickly found
Two‐dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with immobilized pH gradients in the first dimensin (IPG‐Dalt): The state of the art and the controversy of vertical versus horizontal systems

After having established the basic protocol of two‐dimensional electrophoresis with immobilized pH gradients in the first dimension (IPG‐Dalt) in 1988 (A. Görg et al., Electrophoresis 1988, 9, 531–546), some critical parameters of the actual IPG‐Dalt protocols as well as the results obtained with horizontal and vertical second‐dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate‐electrophoresis are demonstrated and discussed.
Face recognition using gender information

In this paper, we propose a novel method using gender information for achieving better performances of face recognition systems. Gender is one of the important factors for recognizing appearance of human faces and there are many studies on gender classifications such. However, the gender information is not actively applied in vision-based face recognition tasks, because we cannot find out human identity using only gender information. Therefore, we design the face recognition system based on the gender-based facial features with global facial features, and moreover, gender-based score normalization method for verification task. For fair evaluations, we use FRGC database known as a large size face image database.
Quick Hypervolume

In this paper, we present a new algorithm for calculating exact hypervolumes. Given a set of d -dimensional points, it computes the hypervolume of the dominated space. Determining this value is an important subroutine of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms. We analyze the quick hypervolume (QHV) algorithm theoretically and experimentally. The theoretical results are a significant contribution to the current state of the art. Moreover, the experimental performance is also very competitive, compared with existing exact hypervolume algorithms.
Parallel stochastic simulation using graphics processing units for the Systems Biology Toolbox for MATLAB Supplemental material

This document briefly introduces parallel computations on graphics processing units (GPUs) and the implemented exact stochastic simulation algorithms (i) the stochastic simulation algorithm (SSA) byGillespie [5], (ii) the logarithmic direct method (LDM) by Li and Petzold [10] and (iii) the next reaction method of Gibson and Bruck [3]. The LDM and NRM are more efficient reformulations of the SSA. Section 1 briefly introduces the application of GPUs to general purpose computation. Section 2 motivates the stochastic simulation of well-mixed chemical reaction systems and introduces the implemented simulation algorithms. Section 3 provides details on the threading approach taken and section 4 on the sampling regimes used. Section 5 lists the features and limitations of our stochastic simulation MATLAB plugin. Section 6 lists the hardware and software used.
High-Speed Multilevel Wrapped-Select-Gate SONOS Memory Using a Novel Dynamic Threshold Source-Side-Injection (DTSSI) Programming Method

A high programming speed with a low-power-consumption wrapped-select-gate poly-Si-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon memory is successfully demonstrated using the novel dynamic threshold source-side-injection programming technique. The select gate embedded in such particular memory structure acts like a dynamic MOSFET resulting in programming current (I PGM) that can be enhanced in this DT mode, easily attaining a high programming speed of about 100 ns. It still doubles the memory density by achieving the 2-bit/cell operation with MLC under DT mode.
Dietary Intake Estimates and Urinary Cadmium Levels in Danish Postmenopausal Women

Background Cadmium is a known carcinogen that can disrupt endocrine signalling. Cigarette smoking and food are the most common routes of non-occupational exposure to cadmium. Cadmium accumulates in the kidney and can be measured in urine, making urine cadmium (U-Cd) a biomarker of long-term exposure. However dietary-cadmium (D-Cd) intake estimates are often used as surrogate indicator of cadmium exposure in non-smoking subjects. It is therefore important to investigate the concordance between D-Cd estimates obtained with Food Frequency Questionnaires and U-Cd. Methods U-Cd levels were compared with estimated dietary-cadmium (D-Cd) intake in 1764 post-menopausal women from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort. For each participant, a food frequency questionnaire, and measures of cadmium content in standard recipes were used to judge the daily intake of cadmium, normalized by daily caloric intake. Cadmium was measured by ICP-MS in spot urine sampled at baseline and normalized by urinary creatinine. Information on diet, socio-demographics and smoking were self-reported at baseline. Results Linear regressions between U-Cd and D-Cd alone revealed minimal but significant positive correlation in never smokers (R2 = 0.0076, β = 1.5% increase per 1 ng Cd kcal-1, p = 0.0085, n = 782), and negative correlation in current smokers (R2 = 0.0184, β = 7.1% decrease per 1 ng Cd kcal-1 change, p = 0.0006, n = 584). In the full study population, most of the variability in U-Cd was explained by smoking status (R2 = 0.2450, n = 1764). A forward selection model revealed that the strongest predictors of U-Cd were age in never smokers (Δ R2 = 0.04), smoking duration in former smokers (Δ R2 = 0.06) and pack-years in current smokers (Δ R2 = 0.07). Food items that contributed to U-Cd were leafy vegetables and soy-based products, but explained very little of the variance in U-Cd. Conclusions Dietary-Cd intake estimated from food frequency questionnaires correlates only minimally with U-Cd biomarker, and its use as a Cd exposure indicator may be of limited utility in epidemiologic studies.
Protein O-Glucosyltransferase 1 (POGLUT1) Promotes Mouse Gastrulation through Modification of the Apical Polarity Protein CRUMBS2

Abstract Crumbs family proteins are apical transmembrane proteins with ancient roles in cell polarity. Mouse Crumbs2 mutants arrest at midgestation with abnormal neural plate morphology and a deficit of mesoderm caused by defects in gastrulation. We identified an ENU-induced mutation, wsnp, that phenocopies the Crumbs2 null phenotype. We show that wsnp is a null allele of Protein O-glucosyltransferase 1 (Poglut1), which encodes an enzyme previously shown to add O-glucose to EGF repeats in the extracellular domain of Drosophila and mammalian Notch, but the role of POGLUT1 in mammalian gastrulation has not been investigated. As predicted, we find that POGLUT1 is essential for Notch signaling in the early mouse embryo. However, the loss of mouse POGLUT1 causes an earlier and more dramatic phenotype than does the loss of activity of the Notch pathway, indicating that POGLUT1 has additional biologically relevant substrates. Using mass spectrometry, we show that POGLUT1 modifies EGF repeats in the extracellular domain of full-length mouse CRUMBS2. CRUMBS2 that lacks the O-glucose modification fails to be enriched on the apical plasma membrane and instead accumulates in the endoplasmic reticulum. The data demonstrate that CRUMBS2 is the target of POGLUT1 for the gastrulation epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions (EMT) and that all activity of CRUMBS2 depends on modification by POGLUT1. Mutations in human POGLUT1 cause Dowling-Degos Disease, POGLUT1 is overexpressed in a variety of tumor cells, and mutations in the EGF repeats of human CRUMBS proteins are associated with human congenital nephrosis, retinitis pigmentosa and retinal degeneration, suggesting that O-glucosylation of CRUMBS proteins has broad roles in human health.
Space efficient bitmap indexing

There exists a well known tradeoo between the performance of queries on a collection of tables and the space devoted to the indices indexing the attributes in these tables. We introduce additional parameters in the analysis of this tradeoo namely the query and data distribution on the attribute instance. We propose a technique to index large cardinality attributes using bitmaps taking into account both the query and data distribution of the attribute instance, as well as the space requirements of the bitmaps. We formulate this problem in mathematical terms and we propose optimal algorithms for its solution. We also consider variants of the problem in which bitmap compression is taken into account. Detailed experimental results obtained from the application of our techniques in realistic databases, highlight t h e beneets of the proposed solution.