Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Food cravings, appetite, and snack-food consumption in response to a psychomotor stimulant drug: the moderating effect of “food-addiction”

There is mounting evidence that many highly processed foods have addictive properties, and that some cases of compulsive overeating resemble an addiction disorder. While support for the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) as a valid diagnostic tool has been impressive and continues to increase, to date, no research has examined the food-addiction construct in response to an actual food stimulus, and in relation to direct measures of appetite and food consumption. As part of a larger community-based study of overeating in healthy adults who were predominately overweight and obese (aged 25–50 years), 136 participants completed the YFAS, of whom 23 met the diagnostic criteria for food-addiction. They took part in a 2-day, double-blind, cross-over, single-dose drug challenge using a psychomotor stimulant (methylphenidate) and placebo. Participants were first assessed on ratings of appetite and food cravings after holding and tasting their favorite snack food, after which they were able to eat all or part of the snack, as they wished. Three separate repeated-measures analysis-of-variance procedures were carried out, each with two between-subjects factors (Diagnosis: food-addiction vs. non-food addiction) and (Sex: male vs. female) and 1 within-subjects factor (Days: drug vs. placebo). As anticipated, for all three dependent variables, there was a significant main effect for Days with a response decrease from placebo to the drug condition. With respect to food cravings and appetite ratings, results indicated that the food addiction group had significantly higher scores on both variables. For food consumption, there was a significant Days × Diagnosis interaction whereby the food-addiction group showed no food-intake suppression across days compared to the non-food-addiction group who demonstrated a significant decrease in snack-food consumption with methylphenidate. The finding that the food-addiction group was resistant to the food-intake suppression typically induced by a dopamine agonist supports evidence of dopamine signaling-strength differences in individuals with compulsive overeating compared to those without this disorder. This represents the first demonstration that individuals defined by their food-addiction status have a unique pattern of food-intake following a pharmacologic challenge with such agents.
Reputation Distribution Based on Structure-Related Importance in Services Composition

A reputation mechanism is critical for a distributed service environment. A customer can select the optimal services to compose a value-added composite service based on services' reputation. However, a composite service obtains only one score (or feedback) after every invocation. In order to compute the reputation of every component service, it is necessary for the composite service to distribute this score to its component services. How to achieve a fair distribution is a challenging issue, as each component service may perform differently in contributing to the success or failure of the composite service. Although several efforts have been made for this problem, they do not consider the structure information of composition, which makes the distribution unfair. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a fair score distribution framework which combines the structure-related importance of component services and their runtime performance. Experimental results show that our approach can achieve a more reasonable and fair score distribution than existing methods.
Intra-Population Genetic Variation in the Temporal Pattern of Egg Maturation in a Parasitoid Wasp

Parasitoid wasps are taxonomically and biologically extremely diverse. A conceptual framework has recently been developed for understanding life-history evolution and diversification in these animals, and it has confirmed that each of two linked life-history traits – the mode of larval development and the temporal pattern of egg maturation – acts as an organiser of life-history. The framework has been predicated on the assumption that there exists sufficient genetic variation in the latter trait to allow it to be shaped by natural selection. Focusing on the parasitoid wasp Trichogramma brassicae, our aim was to test the validity of that assumption, using established quantitative genetic methods. We demonstrate the existence of a statistically significant degree of intra-population polygenic variation in the temporal pattern of egg production within the wasp population we studied. Furthermore, our results, together with published data on clinal variation in the egg maturation pattern of another species, suggest that intra-specific evolutionary shifts in the temporal pattern of egg maturation of parasitoid wasps can result from a change in allocation to egg production either before, or very shortly after adult emergence, without there being an accompanying change in lifetime fecundity. As well as opening new avenues of research into the reproductive strategies, behaviour, community organisation and biological control potential of parasitoid wasps, this discovery also has implications for studies of life-history evolution and diversification in insects generally.
The Capital Asset Pricing Model: Some Empirical Tests

Considerable attention has recently been given to general equilibrium models of the pricing of capital assets. Of these, perhaps the best known is the mean-variance formulation originally developed by Sharpe (1964) and Treynor (1961), and extended and clarified by Lintner (1965a; 1965b), Mossin (1966), Fama (1968a; 1968b), and Long (1972). In addition Treynor (1965), Sharpe (1966), and Jensen (1968; 1969) have developed portfolio evaluation models which are either based on this asset pricing model or bear a close relation to it. In the development of the asset pricing model it is assumed that (1) all investors are single period risk-averse utility of terminal wealth maximizers and can choose among portfolios solely on the basis of mean and variance, (2) there are no taxes or transactions costs, (3) all investors have homogeneous views regarding the parameters of the joint probability distribution of all security returns, and (4) all investors can borrow and lend at a given riskless rate of interest. The main result of the model is a statement of the relation between the expected risk premiums on individual assets and their "systematic risk. " Our main purpose is to present some additional tests of this asset pricing model which avoid some of the problems of earlier studies and which, we believe, provide additional insights into the nature of the structure of security returns. The evidence presented in Section II indicates the expected excess return on an asset is not strictly proportional to its B, and we believe that this evidence, coupled with that given in Section IV, is sufficiently strong to warrant rejection of the traditional form of the model given by (1). We then show in Section III how the cross-sectional tests are subject to measurement error bias, provide a solution to this problem through grouping procedures, and show how cross-sectional methods are relevant to testing the expanded two-factor form of the model. We show in Section IV that the mean of the beta factor has had a positive trend over the period 1931-65 and was on the order of 1.0 to 1.3% per month in the two sample intervals we examined in the period 1948-65. This seems to have been significantly different from the average risk-free rate and indeed is roughly the same size as the average market return of 1.3 and 1.2% per month over the two sample intervals in this period. This evidence seems to be sufficiently strong enough to warrant rejection of the traditional form of the model given by (1). In addition, the standard deviation of the beta factor over these two sample intervals was 2.0 and 2.2% per month, as compared with the standard deviation of the market factor of 3.6 and 3.8% per month. Thus the beta factor seems to be an important determinant of security returns.
MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF SPONGE GOURD (LUFFA CYLINDRICA)–POLYESTER COMPOSITE MATERIALS

The use of sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica) as reinforcement in resin matrix composite materials is evaluated. The morphology of the fibrous vascular system of Luffa's fruit is presented and the advantages of using this natural mat material are highlighted. The use of untreated Luffa does not increase the mechanical properties of the bare resin. Nevertheless, its incorporation produces a change on the fracture mode of the composites from an abrupt one to a controlled and safer one. This result and the values obtained from mechanical tests show that, without any surface treatment, Luffa already has a high potential use as a core material in hybrid composites.
Mitogenic action of hypoxia upon cutaneous neuroepithelial cells in developing zebrafish

In zebrafish, cutaneous neuroepithelial cells (NECs) contain serotonin (5‐HT) and are believed to initiate physiological and behavioral responses to hypoxia during embryonic and early larval development, when mature gills and O2 chemoreceptors are not yet present. The number of skin NECs rapidly declines as embryos develop into larvae, but acclimation to hypoxia leads to retention of a greater number of these cells. We hypothesized that reduction of the partial pressure of oxygen (PO2) in water would stimulate mitosis in cutaneous NECs in zebrafish. Zebrafish were exposed to 5‐bromo‐2′‐deoxyuridine (BrdU) and immunolabeled with antibodies against serotonin and BrdU to identify mitotic skin cells, including NECs. Cells were imaged and quantified using confocal microscopy. From embryonic to larval stages, we observed an overall increase in the number of BrdU‐positive cells in the skin, but a decrease in BrdU‐positive serotonergic NECs. Exposure of larvae to hypoxia (PO2 = 30 mmHg) in vivo for 24 h produced a 1.7‐fold increase in the number of NECs labeled with BrdU. We conclude that under normal environmental PO2 the population of cutaneous NECs declines due to a decrease in mitotic activity. During environmental hypoxia, the number of NECs undergoing cell division in the skin is increased, and this promotes retention of NECs under these conditions. These data demonstrate the direct action of hypoxia upon the cell cycle of cutaneous NECs in developing zebrafish, and support the notion that cutaneous NECs are embryonic O2 chemoreceptors. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 77: 789–801, 2017
Efficient OFDM symbol estimation algorithm over time-frequency-selective fading channels

In orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, time-frequency-selective, equivalently time-variant multipath fading destroys subcarrier orthogonality, resulting in intercarrier interference (ICI). OFDM systems with guard interval (GI) can prevent intersymbol interference (ISI) caused by frequency-selective fading, but do not combat ICI caused by time-selective fading. To mitigate the effects of ICI, several estimation methods have been proposed. These conventional algorithms are highly complex in general due to the large-sized matrix inversion. In this paper, we propose an efficient OFDM symbol estimation scheme, called iterative sequential neighbor search (ISNS) algorithm, which achieves an enhanced performance with a moderate complexity compared with the conventional methods. The validity of the proposed estimation scheme is demonstrated by computer simulations.
CRTER: using cross terms to enhance probabilistic information retrieval

Term proximity retrieval rewards a document where the matched query terms occur close to each other. Although term proximity is known to be effective in many Information Retrieval (IR) applications, the within-document distribution of each individual query term and how the query terms associate with each other, are not fully considered. In this paper, we introduce a pseudo term, namely Cross Term, to model term proximity for boosting retrieval performance. An occurrence of a query term is assumed to have an impact towards its neighboring text, which gradually weakens with the increase of the distance to the place of occurrence. We use a shape function to characterize such an impact. A Cross Term occurs when two query terms appear close to each other and their impact shape functions have an intersection. We propose a Cross Term Retrieval (CRTER) model that combines the Cross Terms' information with basic probabilistic weighting models to rank the retrieved documents. Extensive experiments on standard TREC collections illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed CRTER model.
Revealing an outward-facing open conformational state in a CLC Cl–/H+ exchange transporter

CLC secondary active transporters exchange Cl- for H+. Crystal structures have suggested that the conformational change from occluded to outward-facing states is unusually simple, involving only the rotation of a conserved glutamate (Gluex) upon its protonation. Using 19F NMR, we show that as [H+] is increased to protonate Gluex and enrich the outward-facing state, a residue ~20 Å away from Gluex, near the subunit interface, moves from buried to solvent-exposed. Consistent with functional relevance of this motion, constriction via inter-subunit cross-linking reduces transport. Molecular dynamics simulations indicate that the cross-link dampens extracellular gate-opening motions. In support of this model, mutations that decrease steric contact between Helix N (part of the extracellular gate) and Helix P (at the subunit interface) remove the inhibitory effect of the cross-link. Together, these results demonstrate the formation of a previously uncharacterized 'outward-facing open' state, and highlight the relevance of global structural changes in CLC function. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.11189. 001
Icariin Ameliorate Thiram-Induced Tibial Dyschondroplasia via Regulation of WNT4 and VEGF Expression in Broiler Chickens

Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is main bone problem in fast growing poultry birds that effect proximal growth plate (GP) of tibia bone. TD is broadly defined as non-vascularized and non-mineralized, and enlarged GP with tibia bone deformation and lameness. Icariin (Epimedium sagittatum) is a traditional Chinese medicine, which is commonly practiced in the treatment of various bone diseases. Recently, many researcher reports about the beneficial effects of icariin in relation to various types of bone conditions but no report is available about promoting effect of icariin against TD. Therefore, current study was conducted to explore the ameliorating effect of icariin in thiram-induced TD chickens. A total of 180 broiler chicks were equally distributed in three groups; control, TD induced by thiram (50 mg/kg), and icariin group (treated with icariin @10 mg/kg). All groups were administered with normal standard diet ad libitum regularly until the end of experiment. The wingless-type member 4 (WNT4) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) genes and proteins expression were analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis respectively. Tibial bone parameters, physiological changes in serum, antioxidant enzymes, and chicken growth performance were determined to assess advantage and protective effect of the medicine in broiler chicken. The expression of WNT4 was decreased while VEGF increased significantly (P < 0.05) in TD affected chicks. TD enhanced the GP, lameness, and irregular chondrocytes, while reduced the liver function, antioxidant enzymes in liver, and performance of chickens. Icariin treatment up-regulated WNT4 and down-regulated VEGF gene and protein expressions significantly (P < 0.05), restored the GP width, increased growth performance, corrected liver functions and antioxidant enzymes levels in liver, and mitigated the lameness in broiler chickens. In conclusion, icariin administration recovered GP size, normalized performance and prevented lameness significantly. Therefore, icariin treatments are encouraged to reduce the incidence of TD in broiler chickens.
Stess@Work: from measuring stress to its understanding, prediction and handling with personalized coaching

The problem of job stress is generally recognized as one of the major factors leading to a spectrum of health problems. People with certain professions, like intensive care specialists or call-center operators, and people in certain phases of their lives, like working parents with young children, are at increased risk of getting overstressed. For instance, one third of the intensive care specialists in the Netherlands are reported to have (had) a burn-out. Stress management should start far before the stress starts causing illnesses. The current state of sensor technology allows to develop systems measuring physical symptoms reflecting the stress level. We propose to use data mining and predictive modeling for gaining insight in the stress effects of the events at work and for enabling better stress management by providing timely and personalized coaching. In this paper we present a general framework allowing to achieve this goal and discuss the lessons learnt from the conducted case study.
Hyperparameter estimation in maximum a posteriori regression using group sparsity with an application to brain imaging

Hyperparameter estimation is a recurrent problem in the signal and statistics literature. Popular strategies are cross-validation or Bayesian inference, yet it remains an active topic of research in order to offer better or faster algorithms. The models considered here are sparse regression models with convex or non-convex group-Lasso-like penalties. Following the recent work of Pereyra et al. [1] we study the fixed point iteration algorithm they propose and show that, while it may be suitable for an analysis prior, it suffers from limitations when using high-dimensional sparse synthesis models. The first contribution of this paper is to show how to overcome this issue. Secondly, we demonstrate how one can extend the model to estimate a vector of regularization parameters. We illustrate this on models with group sparsity reporting improved support recovery and reduced amplitude bias on the estimated coefficients. This approach is compared with an alternative method that uses a single parameter but a non-convex penalty. Results are presented on simulations and an inverse problem relevant for neuroscience which is the localization of brain activations using magneto/electroencephalography.
Study of the association between the BMP 4 gene and congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract

DOI se refere ao artigo: http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/ Como citar este artigo: Reis GS, Simões e Silva AC, Freitas IS, Heilbuth TR, Marco LA, Oliveira EA, et al. Study of the association between the BMP4 gene and congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2014;90:58-64. * Autor para correspondência. E-mail: acssilva@hotmail.com, ana@medicina.ufmg. br (A.C. Simões e Silva). ARTIGO ORIGINAL
A Typology of Lexical Analogy in WordNet

Analogy and metaphor are extremely knowledge-hungry processes, so one should question whether lightweight lexical ontologies like WordNet are sufficiently rich to support them. In this paper we argue that resources like WordNet are suited to the processing of certain kinds of lexical analogies and metaphors, for which we propose a spatially-motivated typology and a corresponding computational model. We identify two kinds of dimension that are important in lexical analogy ‐ lexicalized (taxonomic) dimensions and adhoc (goal-specific) dimensions ‐ and describe how these can be automatically identified, extracted and exploited in WordNet.
Platelets secrete stromal cell–derived factor 1α and recruit bone marrow–derived progenitor cells to arterial thrombi in vivo

The accumulation of smooth muscle and endothelial cells is essential for remodeling and repair of injured blood vessel walls. Bone marrow–derived progenitor cells have been implicated in vascular repair and remodeling; however, the mechanisms underlying their recruitment to the site of injury remain elusive. Here, using real-time in vivo fluorescence microscopy, we show that platelets provide the critical signal that recruits CD34+ bone marrow cells and c-Kit+ Sca-1+ Lin− bone marrow–derived progenitor cells to sites of vascular injury. Correspondingly, specific inhibition of platelet adhesion virtually abrogated the accumulation of both CD34+ and c-Kit+ Sca-1+ Lin− bone marrow–derived progenitor cells at sites of endothelial disruption. Binding of bone marrow cells to platelets involves both P-selectin and GPIIb integrin on platelets. Unexpectedly, we found that activated platelets secrete the chemokine SDF-1α, thereby supporting further primary adhesion and migration of progenitor cells. These findings establish the platelet as a major player in the initiation of vascular remodeling, a process of fundamental importance for vascular repair and pathological remodeling after vascular injury.
Enhanced Indoor Location Finding System

For applications running on mobile devices, they need to know the physical location of resources so that they can adapt their behavior accordingly. In this paper, we report the research about an indoor location system for the applications, which require high-rate update of location information, such as home service robot. We implement and analyze the performance of the conventional MIT’s Cricket system. Through the performance analysis, we observe the limitation of the chosen system: a low information update rate. We suggest an enhanced indoor location finding system to resolve the problem. Prototype of the proposed system is implemented and tested. We reach a conclusion with the basic test that the proposed system can resolve to the low-update-rate problem.
Implications of raising cigarette excise taxes in Peru.

Objective To assess how raising cigarette excise taxes in Peru might impact cigarette consumption, and to determine if higher taxes would be regressive. Methods Total demand price elasticity was estimated by income groups using two datasets: quarterly time-series data from 1993 - 2012 and data from a cross-sectional survey of income and expenses conducted in 2008 - 2009 . A functional form of the cigarette demand in Peru was specified using the quarterly data set, and the demand price elasticity was estimated for the short and long run. Using the second data set and Deaton methodology, the implementation of elasticity estimation and by groups' elasticity was done in a two-step procedure. Results Demand price elasticity was -0.7, implying that a 10% price increase via a new tax would reduce consumption by 7%. Demand price elasticity estimations by income group suggested that poorer families are not more price sensitive than richer ones, which implies that increasing cigarette taxes could be regressive. Conclusions Increasing cigarette taxes is the most efficient policy for inducing a reduction in smoking. However, in the case of Peru, an increase in cigarette taxes could be regressive.