Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Comparative Factor Analysis of Attitudes toward Societal Relations of the Elderly

The major objectives of this study were to explore the factorial dimensionality of forty-two additudinal items designed to measure attitudes concerning old people, and to compare these factor structures in two groups. Respondents were divided into a younger group (370 participants aged 30–65) and an older group (337 participants aged 70 and 75). Factor analyses were run independently for each group, providing obliquely rotated factors. Six pairs of factors were judged to be congruent and sufficiently reliable: Work, Welfare, Social Work, Dwelling, Gatherings, and Administratorship. One postulated factor emerged in the older group alone and was named Housekeeping, the conceptual counterpart of which split into two conjugate factors in the younger group. Second-order factor analyses yielded two comparable sets of three second-order factors: Social Activities and Self-Care Ability, whereas the third factor connected high welfare with age-segregated dwelling (and low welfare with age-integration).
Split-based time-interleaved ADC with digital background timing-skew calibration

This paper presents a split-based time-interleaved (TI) ADC with digital background timing calibration for wideband applications. Each interleaved channel uses a split ADC, which adds a dimension for timing-skew error detection and correction. Thus, the complexity of digital post-processing is greatly relaxed without the use of any dummy channel. The behavioral simulations show a 28 dB and 35 dB improvements in signal-to-noise plus distortion (SNDR) and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) respectively, after adopting the proposed timing skew correction for a 10-bit 4GS/s ADC example.
Valuation-Based Systems for Bayesian Decision Analysis

This paper proposes a new method for representing and solving Bayesian decision problems. The representation is called a valuation-based system and has some similarities to influence diagrams. However, unlike influence diagrams which emphasize conditional independence among random variables, valuation-based systems emphasize factorizations of joint probability distributions. Also, whereas influence diagram representation allows only conditional probabilities, valuation-based system representation allows all probabilities. The solution method is a hybrid of local computational methods for the computation of marginals of joint probability distributions and the local computational methods for discrete optimization problems. We briefly compare our representation and solution methods to those of influence diagrams.
Reaching “An Audience That You Would Never Dream of Speaking To”: Influential Public Health Researchers' Views on the Role of News Media in Influencing Policy and Public Understanding

While governments and academic institutions urge researchers to engage with news media, traditional academic values of public disengagement have inhibited many from giving high priority to media activity. In this interview-based study, the authors report on the views about news media engagement and strategies used by 36 peer-voted leading Australian public health researchers in 6 fields. The authors consider their views about the role and importance of media in influencing policy, their reflections on effective or ineffective media communicators, and strategies used by these researchers about how to best retain their credibility and influence while engaging with the news media. A willingness and capacity to engage with the mass media was seen as an essential attribute of influential public health researchers.
PER3, a Gene Required for Peroxisome Biogenesis in Pichia pastoris, Encodes a Peroxisomal Membrane Protein Involved in Protein Import (*)

PER genes are essential for the biogenesis of peroxisomes in the yeast Pichia pastoris. Here we describe the cloning of PER3 and functional characterization of its product Per3p. The PER3 sequence predicts that Per3p is a 713-amino acid (81-kDa) hydrophobic protein with at least three potential membrane-spanning domains. We show that Per3p is a membrane protein of the peroxisome. Methanol- or oleate-induced cells of per3-1, a mutant strain generated by chemical mutagenesis, lack normal peroxisomes but contain numerous abnormal vesicular structures. The vesicles contain thiolase, a PTS2 protein, but only a small portion of several other peroxisomal enzymes, including heterologously expressed luciferase, a PTS1 protein. These results suggest that the vesicles in per3-1 cells are peroxisomal remnants similar to those observed in cells of patients with the peroxisomal disorder Zellweger syndrome, and that the mutant is deficient in PTS1 but not PTS2 import. In a strain in which most of PER3 was deleted, peroxisomes as well as peroxisomal remnants appeared to be completely absent, and both PTS1- and PTS2-containing enzymes were located in the cytosol. We propose that Per3p is an essential component of the machinery required for import of all peroxisomal matrix proteins and is composed of independent domains involved in the import of specific PTS groups.
The fiscal and monetary determinants of sovereign bond yields in the Euro Area

This paper investigates the determinants of sovereign bond yields in the Euro Area through the lens of the expectations hypothesis adjusting for measures of risk. This allows us to see the extent to which monetary policy, which controls the path of short-term nominal interest rates, is a driver of longer-term sovereign yields. To do this we include a forward-looking measure of expectations of overnight interest rates alongside debt-GDP in an error-correcting panel framework. We find that the expected path of the short-term nominal interest rate is a significant long-run determinant of 10 year sovereign bond yields in the Euro Area and that this relationship is robust to a wide range of alternative specifications and controls, especially in the Northern Euro Area economies. This result implies that the reduction in Northern Euro Area sovereign bond yields in recent years has been driven by the current and expected future loose stance of monetary policy. In the periphery economies this effect appears to have been dominated by other factors, such as default risk.
Chemotherapy of advanced Hodgkin's disease with MOPP, ABVD, or MOPP alternating with ABVD.

BACKGROUND AND METHODS MOPP (mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone) has been the standard treatment for Hodgkin's disease for almost 20 years. In a randomized, multicenter trial, we compared three regimens of primary systemic therapy for newly diagnosed advanced Hodgkin's disease in Stages IIIA2, IIIB, and IVA or IVB: (1) MOPP alone given for 6 to 8 cycles, (2) MOPP alternating with ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine) for 12 cycles, and (3) ABVD alone for 6 to 8 cycles. Patients in a first relapse after radiation therapy were eligible. No additional radiation therapy was given. Patients who did not have a complete response or who had a relapse with either MOPP alone or ABVD alone were switched to the opposite regimen. RESULTS Of 361 eligible patients, 123 received MOPP, 123 received MOPP alternating with ABVD, and 115 received ABVD alone. The patients were stratified according to age, stage, previous radiation, histologic features, and performance status. The overall response rate was 93 percent, with complete responses in 77 percent: 67 percent in the MOPP group, 82 percent in the ABVD group, and 83 percent in the MOPP-ABVD group (P = 0.006 for the comparison of MOPP with the other two regimens, both of which contained doxorubicin). The rates of failure-free survival at five years were 50 percent for MOPP, 61 percent for ABVD, and 65 percent for MOPP-ABVD. Age, stage (III vs. IV), and regimen influenced failure-free survival significantly. Overall survival at five years was 66 percent for MOPP, 73 percent for ABVD, and 75 percent for MOPP-ABVD (P = 0.28 for the comparison of MOPP with the doxorubicin regimens). MOPP had more severe toxic effects on bone marrow than ABVD and was associated with greater reductions in the prescribed dose. CONCLUSIONS In this trial, ABVD therapy for 6 to 8 months was as effective as 12 months of MOPP alternating with ABVD, and both were superior to MOPP alone in the treatment of advanced Hodgkin's disease. ABVD was less myelotoxic than MOPP or ABVD alternating with MOPP.
Mediation of Staphylococcus saprophyticus adherence to uroepithelial cells by lipoteichoic acid

Treatment of uroepithelial cells with lipoteichoic acid from Staphylococcus saprophyticus resulted in a decrease in the adherence of this organism. Similar effects were observed when bacteria were pretreated with the lipoteichoic acid ligands albumin and anti-polyglycerophosphate monoclonal antibodies. Lipoteichoic acid might behave as an adhesin of S. saprophyticus.
In situ Assessment of Intraepithelial Neoplasia in Hamster Trachea Epithelium Using Angle-Resolved Low-Coherence Interferometry

Optical spectroscopy was used to evaluate the transformation of nuclear morphology associated with intraepithelial neoplasia in an animal model of carcinogenesis. In this pilot study, we have assessed the capability of angle-resolved low-coherence interferometry (a/LCI) to monitor in situ the neoplastic progression of hamster trachea epithelial tissue. By using the depth resolution made possible by coherence gating, the a/LCI system has been adapted to the unique geometry of the hamster trachea to allow us to extract useful nuclear morphometric information from cells in the epithelial layer without the need for exogenous staining or tissue fixation. Analysis of a/LCI nuclear morphology measurements has identified two important biomarkers of neoplastic transformation in hamster trachea epithelium, the size and the refractive index of epithelial cell nuclei. By comparing the a/LCI measurements of these two biomarkers to pathologic classification, we distinguished nuclear morphology changes for normal tissue, low-grade dysplasia, and high-grade dysplasia. Given its previous usefulness for tracking neoplastic change through nuclear morphometry measurements, the a/LCI technique may prove to be a useful tool in evaluating chemopreventive agents in future studies of hamster trachea epithelium. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(2):223–7)
Four‐body contact potentials derived from two protein datasets to discriminate native structures from decoys

Two‐body inter‐residue contact potentials for proteins have often been extracted and extensively used for threading. Here, we have developed a new scheme to derive four‐body contact potentials as a way to consider protein interactions in a more cooperative model. We use several datasets of protein native structures to demonstrate that around 500 chains are sufficient to provide a good estimate of these four‐body contact potentials by obtaining convergent threading results. We also have deliberately chosen two sets of protein native structures differing in resolution, one with all chains' resolution better than 1.5 Å and the other with 94.2% of the structures having a resolution worse than 1.5 Å to investigate whether potentials from well‐refined protein datasets perform better in threading. However, potentials from well‐refined proteins did not generate statistically significant better threading results. Our four‐body contact potentials can discriminate well between native structures and partially unfolded or deliberately misfolded structures. Compared with another set of four‐body contact potentials derived by using a Delaunay tessellation algorithm, our four‐body contact potentials appear to offer a better characterization of the interactions between backbones and side chains and provide better threading results, somewhat complementary to those found using other potentials. Proteins 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Evidence-Based Analysis of Australian Optometrists’ Dry Eye Practices

Purpose The aims of this study were to investigate the clinical practices of Australian optometrists as related to the diagnosis, quantification, and management of dry eye and to assess whether these are consistent with research evidence and current guidelines. Methods An online survey was distributed to registered optometrists (n = 654). Respondents provided information regarding their preferred diagnostic procedures and management strategies for dry eye, practice modality, year of commencing practice, and whether they possessed an interest in dry eye. Results Respondents (n = 144) used multiple procedures for diagnosis. Recording patient symptoms ranked as the most important, most valuable, and most commonly used technique. The main objective tests were fluorescein-assisted tear breakup time, corneal fluorescein staining, and meibomian gland evaluation. Optometrists with an interest in dry eye more frequently used lissamine green, phenol red test, interference fringes, and tear osmolarity than nonspecialist practitioners. Dry eye treatment varied with severity. The mainstay of therapy was nonpreserved lubricants and eyelid hygiene; more practitioners recommended topical corticosteroids, systemic omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and increased dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids for moderate and severe disease, respectively. The primary sources of information used to guide practitioners’ management were derived from continuing education conferences. Conclusions This study indicates that although Australian optometrists use subjective and objective diagnostic tests and stratify treatment based on dry eye severity, there is a lack of uniformity regarding diagnostic testing, infrequent use of standardized grading scales, and significant variability in clinical care. These findings highlight the potential to improve the translation of dry eye research evidence and evidence-based guidelines into Australian optometric practice.
The free energy of DNA supercoiling is enthalpy-determined.

The thermodynamics of superhelix formation was determined by combining superhelix density data with enthalpy values obtained from microcalorimetric measurements of the relaxation of supercoiled ColE1 amp plasmid DNA in the presence of topoisomerase I from Escherichia coli (omega protein). The thermodynamic quantities for superhelix formation at 37 degrees C in 10 mM Tris/2 mM MgCl2/1 mM EDTA pH 8, are: delta G = 921 kJ X (mol of plasmid)-1; delta H 2260 kJ X (mol of plasmid)-1; deltaS = 4.3 kJ X (mol of plasmid X K)-1. These data clearly demonstrate that the unfavorable Gibbs free energy associated with supercoiling of DNA results exclusively from the positive enthalpy involved in formation of superhelical turns. A positive overall entropy change accompanies superhelix formation, which overcompensates the expected decrease of configurational entropy. By neglecting contributions from bending, an estimate of the torsional rigidity C = 1.79 X 10(-19) erg X cm (1 erg = 0.1 microJ) of the supercoiled ColE1 amp plasmid DNA was made on the basis of the enthalpy value. This value is in excellent agreement with values of C derived from subnanosecond time-resolved fluorescence depolarization measurements for pBR322 DNA [Millar, D. P., Robbins, R. J. & Zewai, A.H. (1982) J. Chem. Phys. 76, 2080-2094]. The magnitude of C is larger than for linear DNAs, indicating that supercoiled DNA is more rigid than linear DNA.
Host based intrusion detection system using frequency analysis of n-gram terms

Host based Intrusion Detection Systems (HIDSs) analyze the sequence of system calls in the trace and audit log files to identify intrusive system processes. HIDSs use the frequency analysis of n-gram terms in the system call traces to identify intrusive processes. However, they are computation and resource intensive as they need to analyze a large number of n-gram input features to differentiate between normal and intrusive system processes. This put a severe limitation on their real time application while analyzing voluminous system call traces. To address this issue, we propose a computation efficient HIDS framework that initially transforms the system call traces to n-gram vector representational model and then uses a dimensionality reduction process to reduce the size of the input feature vectors. The dimensionality reduced n-gram feature vectors are finally analyzed by various machine learning based classifier models to identify intrusive processes. Performance evaluation of the proposed HIDS framework on the benchmark Australian Defense Force Academy Linux Dataset (ADFA-LD) shows that it effectively detects intrusive system processes with high accuracy and low false positive rate, while at the same time incur a minimum computational overhead.
Use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) to describe patient-reported disability in primary brain tumour in an Australian community cohort.

OBJECTIVE To describe patient-reported disability in primary brain tumours using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF); and comparison with categories within the core sets for stroke and traumatic brain injury. METHOD A prospective community cross-sectional survey (n = 106) following definitive treatment for primary brain tumours. Problems reported by participants were linked with ICF categories using 'linkage' rules. Participants rated 'activities and participation' and 'environmental factor' components of ICF checklist (using qualifiers); and responses compared with categories within core sets for stroke and traumatic brain injury. RESULTS Participant mean age 51 years, median time since diagnosis 2 years; over a third had high grade tumours. Participants considered 44 categories in 'activities and participation' and 16 categories (barriers) in 'environmental factors' as relevant (≥ 10% response) using checklist. Reported problems included: Mobility, Domestic life, General tasks/ demands; and Human made changes to environment. Although the linked categories for brain tumour survivors were similar to those in the core sets for stroke and traumatic brain injury, there was more commonality with the traumatic brain injury core set. CONCLUSION The existing comprehensive stroke and traumatic brain injury core sets incorporate issues relevant to brain tumour survivors in post-acute settings. Findings from this report will assist in defining a future core set for brain tumour; the possibility however, of using a single core set relevant to most long-term neurological conditions needs to be explored.
Opposite Effects of Mechanical Action of Fluid Flow on Proangiogenic Factor Secretion From Human Adipose‐Derived Stem Cells With and Without Oxidative Stress

Mechanical forces, hypoxia, and oxidative stress contribute to skin renewal, perfusion, and wound healing, but how are they regulating subcutaneous adipose‐derived stem cells (ASCs) in the inflammatory microenvironment associated to skin repair and disorders is unknown. In this study, ASCs were isolated from lipoaspirate samples from plastic surgery patients, primary cultured and their differentiation and secretion of a panel of cytokines with pronounced effects on skin repair and angiogenesis were studied under mechanical stimulation by intermittent fluid flow, 1% hypoxia and oxidative stress by glutathione (GSH) depletion with buthionine sulfoximine (BSO) treatment. Mechanical action of fluid flow did not alter mesenchymal phenotype of CD90+/CD29+/CD44+/CD34−/CD106−/CD45−ASCs; however, it remarkably induced ASC secretion of human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) migration‐stimulating factors. Multiplex Luminex assay further confirmed an increased secretion of VEGF, G‐CSF, HGF, Leptin, IL‐8, PDGF‐BB, Angiopoietin‐2, and Follistatin from mechanically‐stimulated ASCs via cyclooxygenase‐2. Consistent with this mechanism, GSH depletion and hypoxia also increased ASC secretion of VEGF, IL‐8, leptin, Angiopoitein‐2, and PDGF‐BB. However, mechanical action of fluid flow abrogated VEGF and HUVEC migration‐stimulating activity from GSH‐depleted and hypoxic ASCs. Conversely, GSH depletion and hypoxia abrogated VEGF and HUVEC migration‐stimulating activity from mechano‐stimulated ASCs. Although mechanical action of fluid flow, hypoxia, and GSH‐depletion had independent proangiogenic‐stimulating activity on ASCs, mechanical stimulation had opposite effects on proangiogenic factor secretion from ASCs with and without oxidative stress. These data uncover the role of hypoxia and endogenous redox balance during the proangiogenic response of ASCs and other mesenchymal‐derived cell types to mechanical action of interstitial fluid flow. J. Cell. Physiol. 232: 2158–2167, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Perception of academic staff in Kenyan public universities towards application of performance appraisal results in training and promotion decisions

Kenyan public universities have experienced a decline in performance exemplified by enrolment of less than 35% of qualifying students, near collapse of physical facilities, lack of relevance of curricular and low quality of teaching and research (ChachaNyaigoti, 2004; Gudo et al., 2011). Stakeholder demands for accountability have escalated inevitably cascading to academic staff, the principal actors in university operations. Despite the reputed usefulness of performance appraisal systems in ameliorating such challenges (Boswell and Boudreau, 2002; Fletcher, 2002), universities worldwide have hitherto adopted a laissezfaire attitude towards these systems, claiming that they are managerialist and, therefore, inappropriate to a collegial context which value collaborative and developmental tasks. Using survey data from 276 multi-disciplinary academic staff and interviews with 3 human resource managers from 7 Kenyan universities, this study examined the perceptions of academic staff on application of performance appraisal results in training and promotion decisions. Descriptive statistics, correlation and content analyses were used to analyze data. The study revealed that respondents were ambivalent as to whether performance assessment systems were used for developmental or managerialist purposes. Nevertheless, univerisity funding support for academic staff training and performance appraisal purpose of providing feedback yielded significant results ((3 = 0.30. p < 0.05). Moreover, the study found a relationship between managerialist performance appraisal purposes and promotion decisions ((3 = 0.325, p < 0.01). Consistent with the literature, the study concluded that performance appraisal systems are not entrenched in public universities in Kenya. It was recommended that top management investigate the barriers to implementation of performance appraisal systems. The findings of the study may contribute to the theory
A Robust  $\hbox{H}_{2}$-Consumption-Minimization-Based Energy Management Strategy for a Fuel Cell Hybrid Emergency Power System of More Electric Aircraft

This paper presents a new real-time H2-consumption-minimization energy management strategy for a fuel cell hybrid emergency power system of a more electric aircraft (MEA). Compared to existing H2-consumption-minimization strategies based on the equivalent fuel consumption [such as the well-known equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS)], the proposed strategy is less sensitive to the load profile, as the cost function to be optimized does not involve the evaluation of the equivalent fuel consumption, which strongly depends on the whole mission profile. This improves the robustness of the energy management system toward load profile variations, while minimizing the H2 consumption. Using two typical emergency mission profiles of an MEA, the performance of the proposed strategy is compared with the ECMS through simulations and experiments. Moreover, an off-line optimization-based algorithm is developed to ascertain the validity of the proposed strategy in terms of fuel consumption.