Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparative study of fluorescent singlet oxygen probes in plant leaves

Four fluorescent singlet oxygen sensors: DanePy, its oxalate salt, Singlet Oxygen Sensor Green and MVP, were infiltrated into tobacco leaves and tested for toxicity, subcellular localization, light sensitivity and capacity to trap the singlet oxygen produced in photoinhibition. For reference, a broad sensitivity free radical probe, TEMPO-9-AC, was also included. Photochemical yield was approximately 15% and 10% inhibited by Singlet Oxygen Sensor Green and MVP, respectively, but was not significantly affected by the other probes. Under photoinhibitory conditions, brought about by irradiating lincomycin-treated leaves with strong photosynthetically active radiation, DanePy and Singlet Oxygen Sensor Green were responsive. Singlet Oxygen Sensor Green was also reactive to low, non-photoinhibitory light exposure of the leaf, which was not characteristic to the other probes. MVP did not respond to singlet oxygen which can partly be explained by a possible attenuation of its blue emission in the leaf, as shown by the example TEMPO-9-AC. DanePy-oxalate did not respond to photosynthetic singlet oxygen due to lack of its penetration into photosynthetic tissue and hence could be useful in detecting any singlet oxygen which escapes from a chloroplast initiation site. DanePy was localized in the chloroplasts, while Singlet Oxygen Sensor Green was mainly found in the epidermal cells preferentially associated with the nucleus.
Parallel Black Hole Clustering Based on MapReduce

One of the key reasons that traditional clustering methods are inefficient for analyzing large-scale datasets is because most of them are designed for a centralized system. This means that if the size of input data exceeds the size of storage or memory of such a system, it would make the task of clustering much more difficult. To mitigate this problem, an efficient clustering algorithm, called MapReduce Black Hole (MRBH), is presented in this paper to leverages the strength of the black hole algorithm and the MapReduce programming model of Hadoop to accelerate the clustering speed by both software and hardware. By using MapReduce, MRBH will then divide a large dataset into a number of small data sets and cluster these smaller data sets in parallel. Moreover, MRBH inherits the characteristics of the black hole algorithm, meaning that no parameters are to be set manually, thus, the implementation is easy. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, several datasets are used with different numbers of nodes. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can provide a significant speedup as the number of nodes increases.
Generalizing Treatment Effect Estimates From Sample to Population: A Case Study in the Difficulties of Finding Sufficient Data

Background: Given increasing concerns about the relevance of research to policy and practice, there is growing interest in assessing and enhancing the external validity of randomized trials: determining how useful a given randomized trial is for informing a policy question for a specific target population. Objectives: This article highlights recent advances in assessing and enhancing external validity, with a focus on the data needed to make ex post statistical adjustments to enhance the applicability of experimental findings to populations potentially different from their study sample. Research design: We use a case study to illustrate how to generalize treatment effect estimates from a randomized trial sample to a target population, in particular comparing the sample of children in a randomized trial of a supplemental program for Head Start centers (the Research-Based, Developmentally Informed study) to the national population of children eligible for Head Start, as represented in the Head Start Impact Study. Results: For this case study, common data elements between the trial sample and population were limited, making reliable generalization from the trial sample to the population challenging. Conclusions: To answer important questions about external validity, more publicly available data are needed. In addition, future studies should make an effort to collect measures similar to those in other data sets. Measure comparability between population data sets and randomized trials that use samples of convenience will greatly enhance the range of research and policy relevant questions that can be answered.
Communicating with American consumers in the post 9/11 climate: an empirical investigation of consumer ethnocentrism in the United States

The present study examines the extent to which American consumers’ political attitudes translate into their economic preferences in the post-September 11 climate. Specifically, nationalism, patriotism, and internationalism as antecedents to consumer ethnocentrism are investigated. A web-based survey was carried out on a sample drawn from a population of known internet users in the USA. Results from this study show that nationalism and internationalism are good predictors of American consumers’ ethnocentric tendencies. In addition, demographic characteristics such as gender, age, income, and education exhibit significant effects on consumer ethnocentrism. Male, younger, higher-income and better-educated consumers tend to be less ethnocentric. Suggestions are made to help both domestic and foreign firms and marketers understand how the post-September 11 political climate affects American consumers’ economic preferences. Results from this study also provide useful insights for further theory development on consumer ethnocentrism in today’s global marketplace.
Decreased false memory for visually presented shapes and symbols among adults on the autism spectrum

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been shown in some studies to be less susceptible to the verbal “false memory” effect, perhaps due to restricted semantic associative networks. High-functioning individuals with ASD can demonstrate subtle language impairments. However, relative preservation of spatial skills can also be observed. This study investigated false memory in both visual and verbal paradigms to elucidate whether adults with ASD would be more or less prone to illusory recognition in a visual paradigm that contained slides of geometric figures with minimal linguistic and semantic associative representation. In the verbal paradigm, modeled on the Deese–Roediger–McDermott method, those with ASD did not perform significantly better than a matched comparison group. In contrast, in the visual paradigm those with ASD were significantly better able to discriminate true items from lure items and were less likely to falsely recognize the lures. Findings from the visual paradigm provide further evidence of restricted associative networks in ASD, particularly in the spatial domain.
Attitudes about aging well among a diverse group of older Americans: implications for promoting cognitive health.

PURPOSE To examine perceptions about aging well in the context of cognitive health among a large and diverse group of older adults. DESIGN AND METHODS Forty-two focus groups were conducted with older adults living in the community (N = 396; White, African American, American Indian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Hispanic). Participant descriptions of "someone who you think is aging well" were analyzed. Constant comparison methods examined themes by race/ethnicity. RESULTS There were notable race/ethnicity differences in perceptions of aging well. Compared with other racial/ethnic groups Chinese participants were more likely to emphasize relationships between mental outlook and physical abilities, Vietnamese participants were less likely to emphasize independent living. American Indians did not relate aging well to diet or physical activity. Important themes that emerged about aging well for all racial/ethnic groups were as follows: living to advanced age, having good physical health, having a positive mental outlook, being cognitively alert, having a good memory, and being socially involved. IMPLICATIONS To promote cognitive health among diverse populations, communication strategies should focus on shared perceptions of aging well, such as living to an advanced age with intact cognitive function, having a positive attitude, and being mobile. Health promotions may also create a range of culturally sensitive messages, targeted to views that are more salient among some racial/ethnic groups.
T-cells and B-cells in osteoporosis

Purpose of reviewBone disease is a leading cause of fractures and continues to be a source of significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. As the underlying mechanisms of osteoporosis are elucidated, immune dysfunction continues to emerge as a key precipitating factor in multiple bone disease contexts. This review examines recent findings in the osteoimmunology field and their implications for bone disease and for novel future therapeutic approaches to rejuvenate the skeleton. Recent findingsT-cells and B-cells have long been recognized to play important roles in the etiology of inflammatory bone disease; however, new findings continue to challenge our understanding of the depth of the immuno-skeletal interface. In this review, we examine recent evidence for new roles of B-cells in oestrogen deficiency bone loss; central actions of interleukin-7 in the cause of T-cell mediated tissue destruction in rheumatoid arthritis; novel RANKL-independent alveolar bone loss in periodontal infection; and a putative role for &ggr;&dgr; T-cells in bisphosphonate-associated osteonecrosis of the jaw. Finally, evidence for novel bone anabolic activities mediated through T-cells by the CD28 antagonist CTLA-4Ig and by intermittently administered parathyroid hormone are examined. SummaryAs the field of osteoimmunology continues to mature, new interrelationships between immune cells and bone turnover continue to emerge.
[Self-reported health status in adolescents, adults and the elderly].

The scope of this study was to verify the prevalence and associated factors of self-reported health status as regular/bad. A cross-sectional, population-based study was conducted in Pelotas. The sample size comprised 820 adolescents, 2715 adults and 385 elderly. Self-reported health status was investigated via the question: "How do you rate your health? " Data on demographics, socioeconomic, behavioral, and health-related characteristics of individuals were gathered. Adjusted prevalence ratios were estimated through the Poisson regression. Prevalence of reporting health status as regular or bad was 12.1%, 22.3% and 49.4% in adolescents, adults and the elderly, respectively. Adolescents with lower economic status and schooling had higher prevalence of regular/bad self-reported health. Among adults and the elderly, women and older men with lower economic status and some morbidity presented a higher proportion of regular/bad self-reported health. In conclusion, individuals perceive health not only as the absence of a disease, but also as a construct related to social, demographic and, to a lesser extent, behavioral aspects. Health approaches must recognize this fact and transcend the simplistic model where health is dichotomized into the sick and the non-sick.
A novel design of CAVLC decoder with low power consideration

This paper proposes a novel architecture and its VLSI design for MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 CAVLC decoding. In order to improve throughput of CAVLC decoder, we propose two new methods, which are called MLD (Multi-Level Decoding) and NZS (Non Zero Skip for run_before decoding). By performing parallel operation on level decoder, MLD can decode two levels in one cycle at most situations, and NZS can produce several run_befores in the same cycle. These two methods have the advantages of low complexity and regularity design. According to the evaluation, our design only needs 137 cycles in average for one macroblock decoding. Moreover, the proposed CAVLC decoder can run at 33.5 MHz to meet the real time requirement for H.264 video decoding on 1920 times1088 resolution. Compared with the previous designs, it can reduce around 29.1% to 71.5% on operation frequency for the same requirement, but not increase the gate count so much. With an aid on a lower operation frequency, it will be suitable for a low power application.
Search Engine Optimization for Threaded-Conversations

Online discussion communities are becoming increasingly popular among web users, where an extensive amount of discussion and commenting takes place. However, it is difficult to search these conversations as search engines are not optimized for the conversation-structure of online communities. In this paper, we purpose a method of ranking search results based on the conversation-structure and using it to optimize a domain-specific search engine. To solve this problem, we design several extension to a general-purpose search engine, focusing on maintaining the conversation-structure throughout the extraction, calculating and ranking of search results. Results from our experiments show that users can find optimized search results quicker as it is ranked higher than keyword based results.
The level of tetanus immunity in the population of villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Determination of the level of tetanus immunity in different age groups of a population is important in relation to the results of mass immunization of the population with vaccines containing tetanus toxoid.In this study, the level of tetanus antitoxin in sera from 1053 inhabitants of 6 villages in Bosnia and Herzegovina was determined by means of the passive haemagglutination test. The results show that children from 1 to 14 years of age regularly immunized with DT and DTP vaccines possessed a high level of immunity against tetanus (geometric mean antitoxin titre >/=0.8 IU/ml) and were protected against tetanus in 80-95% of cases. The adult inhabitants (men and women over 29 years of age) were not sufficiently protected against tetanus, the concentrations of antitoxin in their sera being equal to or greater than 0.01 IU/ml in less than 50% of cases.
Interactivity and Trust as Antecedents of E-Training Use Intention in Nigeria: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

Background: The last few decades saw an intense development in information technology (IT) and it has affected the ways organisations achieve their goals. Training, in every organisation is an ongoing process that aims to update employees’ knowledge and skills towards goals attainment. Through adequate deployment of IT, organisations can effectively meet their training needs. However, for successful IT integration in training, the employees who will use the system should be positively disposed towards it. This study predicts employees’ intention to use the e-training system by extending the technology acceptance model (TAM) using interactivity and trust. Methods: Two hundred and fourteen employees participated in the study and structural equation modelling was used in the analysis. Results: The findings of the structural equation modelling reveal that interactivity, trust, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have direct and positive effects on employees’ intention to use e-training. It was also shown that perceived ease of use had no effects on perceived usefulness, while trust has the strongest indirect effects on employees’ intention. In addition, the results of Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA), which compares the contributions of each construct to the importance and performance of the model, indicate that to predict intention to use e-training, priorities should be accorded to trust and perceived usefulness.
Associations between Interleukin-6 Genetic Polymorphisms and Levels of Autoantibodies to 60-kDa Heat-Shock Proteins

Aims: Previously we reported an association between levels of anti-Hsp60 autoantibodies and interleukin-6 (IL-6) –174 SNP in Finnish population. The aim of this study was to investigate the same association in an independent population and to study four recently described SNP in IL-6. Materials and Methods: 313 healthy Hungarian subjects were recruited and genotyped for IL-6 –174(G→C), –9316(T→C), –1363(G→T), +1753(C→G), +2954(G→C). IgG antibodies to Hsp60 were measured by ELISA. LD between SNPs was computed by Haploview 3.2 software. Results: A strong association between IL-6 –174 polymorphism and anti-Hsp60 autoantibody levels was observed. Carriers of –174 CC genotype had significantly lower levels of anti-Hsp60 (p = 0.0052). Eight haplotypes were observed with five SNP-s and autoantibody levels in individuals carrying the most common haplotype (containing allele C of –174) were significantly lower than in all other genotype combinations (p = 0.026). Conclusions: Allele C of –174 promoter polymorphism of the IL-6 gene was repeatedly shown to be associated with low anti-Hsp60 autoantibody levels. Strong linkage in the IL-6 gene was observed and the most frequent haplotype containing the –174 C allele was significantly associated with autoantibody levels. Since the –174 SNP of IL-6 is a functional polymorphism, our results indicate for a direct regulatory effect of IL-6 genotypes in the determination of autoantibody levels.
Robust feature estimation by non-rigid hierarchical image registration and its application in disparity measurement

Industries are moving towards automation in order to increase productivity and ensure quality. Variety of electronic and electromagnetic systems are being employed to assist human operator in fast and accurate quality inspection of products. Majority of these systems are equipped with cameras and rely on diverse image processing algorithms. Information is lost in 2D image, therefore acquiring accurate 3D data from 2D images is an open issue. FAST, SURF and SIFT are well-known spatial domain techniques for features extraction and henceforth image registration to find correspondence between images. The efficiency of these methods is measured in terms of the number of perfect matches found. A novel fast and robust technique for stereo-image processing is proposed. It is based on non-rigid registration using modified normalized phase correlation. The proposed method registers two images in hierarchical fashion using quad-tree structure. The registration process works through global to local level resulting in robust matches even in presence of blur and noise. The computed matches can further be utilized to determine disparity and depth for industrial product inspection. The same can be used in driver assistance systems. The preliminary tests on Middlebury dataset produced satisfactory results. The execution time for a 413 x 370 stereo-pair is 500ms approximately on a low cost DSP.
Alpha/Beta Interferons Potentiate Virus-Induced Apoptosis through Activation of the FADD/Caspase-8 Death Signaling Pathway

ABSTRACT Interferon (IFN) mediates its antiviral effects by inducing a number of responsive genes, including the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-dependent protein kinase, PKR. Here we report that inducible overexpression of functional PKR in murine fibroblasts sensitized cells to apoptosis induced by influenza virus, while in contrast, cells expressing a dominant-negative variant of PKR were completely resistant. We determined that the mechanism of influenza virus-induced apoptosis involved death signaling through FADD/caspase-8 activation, while other viruses such as vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and Sindbis virus (SNV) did not significantly provoke PKR-mediated apoptosis but did induce cytolysis of fibroblasts via activation of caspase-9. Significantly, treatment with IFN-α/β greatly sensitized the fibroblasts to FADD-dependent apoptosis in response to dsRNA treatment or influenza virus infection but completely protected the cells against VSV and SNV replication in the absence of any cellular destruction. The mechanism by which IFN increases the cells' susceptibility to lysis by dsRNA or certain virus infection is by priming cells to FADD-dependent apoptosis, possibly by regulating the activity of the death-induced signaling complex (DISC). Conversely, IFN is also able to prevent the replication of viruses such as VSV that avoid triggering FADD-mediated DISC activity, by noncytopathic mechanisms, thus preventing destruction of the cell.
Emote aloud during learning with AutoTutor: Applying the Facial Action Coding System to cognitive–affective states during learning

In an attempt to discover the facial action units for affective states that occur during complex learning, this study adopted an emote-aloud procedure in which participants were recorded as they verbalised their affective states while interacting with an intelligent tutoring system (AutoTutor). Participants’ facial expressions were coded by two expert raters using Ekman's Facial Action Coding System and analysed using association rule mining techniques. The two expert raters received an overall kappa that ranged between . 76 and . 84. The association rule mining analysis uncovered facial actions associated with confusion, frustration, and boredom. We discuss these rules and the prospects of enhancing AutoTutor with non-intrusive affect-sensitive capabilities.
A tunable optical tapped-delay-line that simultaneously and independently processes multiple input WDM data signals

We demonstrate an optical tapped-delay-line that is reconfigurable with complex tapcoefficients and independently and simultaneously performs data pattern recognition, equalization, and QAM format conversion on eight B/QPSK WDM signals at both 20 and 26 Gbaud, demonstrating >400 Gbit/s processing speed.
Brain Regional Correspondence Between Alzheimer's Disease Histopathology and Biomarkers of Protein Oxidation

Abstract: Four biomarkers of neuronal protein oxidation [W/S ratio of MAL‐6 spin‐labeled synaptosomes, phenylhydrazine‐reactive protein carbonyl content, glutamine synthetase (GS) activity, creatine kinase (CK) activity] in three brain regions [cerebellum, inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and hippocampus (HIP)] of Alzheimer's disease (AD)‐demented and age‐matched control subjects were assessed. These endpoints indicate that AD brain protein may be more oxidized than that of control subjects. The W/S ratios of AD hippocampal and inferior parietal synaptosomes are 30 and 46% lower, respectively, than corresponding values of tissue isolated from control brain; however, the difference between the W/S ratios of AD and control cerebellar synaptosomes is not significant. Protein carbonyl content is increased 42 and 37% in the Alzheimer's HIP and IPL regions, respectively, relative to AD cerebellum, whereas carbonyl content in control HIP and IPL is similar to that of control cerebellum. GS activity decreases an average of 27% in the AD brain; CK activity declines by 80%. The brain regional variation of these oxidation‐sensitive biomarkers corresponds to established histopathological features of AD (senile plaque and neurofibrillary tangle densities) and is paralleled by an increase in immunoreactive microglia. These data indicate that senile plaque‐dense regions of the AD brain may represent environments of elevated oxidative stress.