Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is There Evidence of ‘Hardening’ Among Australian Smokers Between 1997 and 2007? Analyses of the Australian National Surveys of Mental Health and Well-Being

Objectives: To use data from the 1997 and 2007 National Surveys of Mental Health and Well-Being (NSMHWB) to assess whether Australian smokers in 2007 have higher rates of mental distress and social disadvantage than smokers in 1997. Method: We compared symptoms of mental distress and social disadvantage in Australian smokers in the 1997 and 2007 National Surveys of Mental Health and Well-Being (N = 10 373 in 1997 and N = 8135 in 2007). Both surveys used multistage probability samples of Australians living in private dwellings. Participants were classified into smokers and non-smokers (which included former and never smokers). We used the Kessler 10 (K10) symptom score to classify smokers into three levels of psychological distress (low, medium or high) and socioeconomic disadvantage was measured using an area-based index of relative disadvantage converted into quintiles. We used logistic regressions to: (i) examine associations between smoking status (smoker/non-smoker) and psychological distress and socioeconomic disadvantage in 1997 and 2007 surveys; and (ii) to test whether the prevalence of psychological distress and social disadvantage among smokers increased between 1997 and 2007. Results: Psychological distress and social disadvantage were more common among smokers than non-smokers in both surveys but there was no evidence that the prevalence of psychological distress or social disadvantage was more common among smokers in 2007 than in 1997. Conclusion: We find no evidence that the declining smoking prevalence in Australia (over the last decade) has been accompanied by a ‘hardening’ of continuing smokers in terms of rates of mental disorders and socioeconomic disadvantage.
Stable Carbon Isotope Discrimination Is under Genetic Control in the C4 Species Maize with Several Genomic Regions Influencing Trait Expression1[W]

Multiplatform-based phenotyping and high-density genotyping uncovers multiple genomic regions controlling stable carbon isotope discrimination in a maize introgression library. In plants with C4 photosynthesis, physiological mechanisms underlying variation in stable carbon isotope discrimination (Δ13C) are largely unknown, and genetic components influencing Δ13C have not been described. We analyzed a maize (Zea mays) introgression library derived from two elite parents to investigate whether Δ13C is under genetic control in this C4 species. High-density genotyping with the Illumina MaizeSNP50 Bead Chip was used for a detailed structural characterization of 89 introgression lines. Phenotypic analyses were conducted in the field and in the greenhouse for kernel Δ13C as well as plant developmental and photosynthesis-related traits. Highly heritable significant genetic variation for Δ13C was detected under field and greenhouse conditions. For several introgression library lines, Δ13C values consistently differed from the recurrent parent within and across the two phenotyping platforms. Δ13C was significantly associated with 22 out of 164 analyzed genomic regions, indicating a complex genetic architecture of Δ13C. The five genomic regions with the largest effects were located on chromosomes 1, 2, 6, 7, and 9 and explained 55% of the phenotypic variation for Δ13C. Plant development stage had no effect on Δ13C expression, as phenotypic as well as genotypic correlations between Δ13C, flowering time, and plant height were not significant. To our knowledge, this is the first study demonstrating Δ13C to be under polygenic control in the C4 species maize.
An experimental study of social tagging behavior and image content

Social tags have become an important tool for improving access to online resources, particularly non-text media. With the dramatic growth of user-generated content, the importance of tags is likely to grow. However, while tagging behavior is well studied, the relationship between tagging behavior and features of the media being tagged is not well understood. In this paper, we examine the relationship between tagging behavior and image type. Through a lab-based study with 51 subjects and an analysis of an online dataset of image tags, we show that there are significant differences in the number, order, and type of tags that users assign based on their past experience with an image, the type of image being tagged, and other image features. We present these results and discuss the significant implications this work has for tag-based search algorithms, tag recommendation systems, and other interface issues. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Tear lipocalin is the major endonuclease in tears

Purpose Human endonucleases are integral to apoptosis in which unwanted or potentially harmful cells are eliminated. The rapid turnover of ocular surface epithelium and microbial colonization of the eyelids are continual sources of DNA in tears. Here, we determine the principal sources of endonuclease activity in tears. Methods Endonucleases in human tears were identified after Sephadex G100 gel filtration. DNA hydrolyzing activity was measured by the conversion pUC19 plasmid DNA to its circular form in agarose gels. Fractions with endonuclease activity were further isolated using a combination ConA-Sepharose DNA, oligo (dT) cellulose, and anion exchange chromatographies. The molecular weights of the DNA hydrolyzing proteins were estimated in zymograms and by calibration of size exclusion chromatography. DNase activities were characterized for activity at a variety of pH and ion concentrations as well as in the presence of inhibitors including NiCl2, ZnCl2, G-actin, and aurintricarboxylic acid (ATA). To determine the mode of hydrolysis, the cleaved ends of the DNA digested by tear DNases were analyzed by 3′ and 5′ end labeling using either terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase or polynucleotide kinase with or without pretreatment with alkaline phosphatase. Results Tear lipocalin (TL) accounts for over 75% of the DNA catalytic activity in tears while a second endonuclease, ~34 kDa, is responsible for less than 24% of the activity. Both are Mg2+ dependent enzyme endonucleases that are enhanced by Ca2+, active at physiologic pH, inhibited by aurintricarboxylic acid, and catalyze hydrolysis of DNA to produce 3′-OH/5′P ends. However, the two enzymes can be distinguished by the inhibitory effect of NiCl2 and the sizes of the cleaved DNA fragments. Conclusions Two magnesium dependent extracellular endonucleases were identified in tears that are different from other major human extracellular nucleases. TL is the principal endonuclease in human tear fluid. Tear endonucleases have unique characteristics that differ from other known human endonucleases.
Efficient Planning by Gra Josh his Ambite

Planning involves the generation of a network of actions that achieves a desired goal given an initial state of the world. There has been significant progress in the analysis of planning algorithms, particularly in partialorder and in hierarchical task network (HTN) planning (Kambhampati 95; Erol et al. 94). In this abstract we propose a more general framework in which planning is seen as a graph rewriting process. This approach subsumes previous work and offers new opportunities for efficient planning.
A Joint Communiqué: The Psi Ganzfeld Controversy

: Instead of continuing with another round of our debate on the psi ganzfeld experiments, we decided to collaborate on a joint communiqué. The Honorton-Hyman debate empha-sized the differences in our positions, many of these being technical in nature. But during a recent discussion, we realized that we possessed similar viewpoints on many issues concerning parapsychological research. This communiqué, then, emphasizes these points of agreement. We agree that there is an overall significant effect in this data base that cannot reasonably be explained by selective reporting or multiple analysis. We continue to differ over the degree to which the effect consti-tutes evidence for psi, but we agree that the final verdict awaits the outcome of future experiments conducted by a broader range of investigators and according to more stringent standards. We make recommendations about how such experiments should be conducted and reported. Specific recommendations are about randomization, judging and feedback procedures, multiple analysis and statistics, documentation, and the growing role we believe meta-analysis will play in the evaluation of research quality and the assessment of moderating variables. We conclude that psi researchers and their critics share many common goals, and we hope that our joint communiqué will encourage future cooperation to further these goals. written the other preparing a rejoinder when we each other at the 1986 meetings the Parapsychological Association. round of exchanges with this joint communiqué a discussion a luncheon meeting. 2, 3 During the discussion we realized that each of us not fully and accurately understood the other’s position on some of the major issues dividing us. In addition, much of our disagreement at this stage involves technicalities and differences of opinion about the proper ways to assign and rate studies on specific attributes. To put emphasis on these details detracts from the broader and more important propositions, on which we find ourselves in agreement.
Melanopsin, Ganglion-Cell Photoreceptors, and Mammalian Photoentrainment

An understanding of the retinal mechanisms in mammalian photoentrainment will greatly facilitate optimization of the wavelength, intensity, and duration of phototherapeutic treatments designed to phase shift endogenous biological rhythms. A small population of widely dispersed retinal ganglion cells projecting to the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the hypothalamus is the source of the critical photic input. Recent evidence has shown that many of these ganglion cells are directly photosensitive and serve as photoreceptors. Melanopsin, a presumptive photopigment, is an essential component in the phototransduction cascade within these intrinsically photosensitive ganglion cells and plays an important role in the retinal photoentrainment pathway. This review summarizes recent findings related to melanopsin and melanopsin ganglion cells and lists other retinal proteins that might serve as photopigments in the mammalian photoentrainment input pathway.
Tunable band-stop and band-pass filters based on microstrip stub resonators

A novel concept for controlling of tunable microstrip resonators is proposed. The microstrip stub control is realized by detaching a part of the stub from the substrate. The air gap between the substrate and the signal electrode is the heterogeneity which controls the stub effective permittivity, in this way providing a resonance frequency shift. By moving the stub 50 microns the resonance frequency is shifted about 0.7 GHz (30%). An equivalent circuit model of the resonator is developed. Measurements results are in good agreement with circuit model, finite-difference time domain method (FDTD) and finite elements method (FEM) results.
Gender Differences in College Applications: Evidence from the Centralized System in Turkey

In Turkey, as in many other countries, female students perform better in high school and have higher test scores than males. Nevertheless, men still predominate at highly selective programs that lead to high-paying careers. The gender gap at elite schools is particularly puzzling because college admissions are based entirely on nationwide exam scores. Using detailed administrative data from the centralized college entrance system, I study the impact of gender differences in preferences for programs and schools on the allocation of students to colleges. Controlling for test score and high school attended, I find that females are more likely to apply to lower-ranking schools, whereas males set a higher bar, revealing a higher option value for re-taking the test and applying again next year. I also find that females and males value program attributes differently, with females placing more weight on the distance from home to college, and males placing more weight on program attributes that are likely to lead to better job placements. Together, these differences in willingness to be unassigned and in relative preferences for school attributes can explain much of the gender gap at the most elite programs.
Phase-Shifting in the Discrete Haar Domain

This paper presents a new approach for tackling the shift-invariance problem in the discrete Haar domain, without trading off any of its desirable properties, such as compression, separability, orthogonality, and symmetry. The paper presents several key theoretical contributions. First, we derive closed form expressions for phase shifting in the Haar domain both in partially decimated and fully decimated transforms. Second, it is shown that the wavelet coefficients of the shifted signal can be computed solely by using the coefficients of the original transformed signal. Third, we derive closed-form expressions for non-integer shifts, which have not been previously reported in the literature. Fourth, we establish the complexity of the proposed phase shifting approach using the derived analytic expressions. As an application example of these results, we apply the new formulae to image rotation and interpolation, and evaluate its performance against standard methods.
Modelling of peripheral lymphocyte migration: System identification approach

This is the first application of the prediction error method (PEM) of system identification to modelling lymphocyte migration through peripheral lymphoid tissue. The PEM was applied to the emergence of labelled lymphocytes from the efferent lymphatic of a lymph node following their intravenous administration. Advantages of PEM included the capacity to calculate the response to a unit impulse stimulus, unavailable to direct observation, and to allow for the return to the node of labelled cells that had already recirculated once. Calculation of the system delay (time between introduction of cells into the blood and their first appearance in lymph) indicated 4.67 ± 1.05 h for the total lymphocyte population. The peak in efferent lymph occurred at 11.91 ± 4.68 h, much earlier than previous reports, which were affected by cells that had already recirculated. While 75% of labelled cells had emerged in efferent lymph by 20.77 ± 5.62 h, 86.38 ± 29.44 h was required for 100% emergence. The considerable heterogeneity in migratory behaviour is likely to reflect frequency and duration of binding of lymphocytes by dendritic cells in paracortical cord corridors. It is proposed that differences in the speed with which lymphocytes pass along corridors depend on their functional status, in particular whether they are naïve or memory cells.
Analysis of Cytochrome P450 CYP119 Ligand-dependent Conformational Dynamics by Two-dimensional NMR and X-ray Crystallography*

Background: CYP119 structural rearrangements were examined by 1H,15N HSQC NMR of 15N-labeled Phe residues and x-ray crystallography. Results: In solution, an open conformation of CYP119 is favored, but ligand-dependent F-G loop rearrangements produce two distinct closed conformations. Conclusion: The two closed conformations are generated by ligands that differ by a fluoro to chloro substitution. Significance: Cytochrome P450 enzymes ratchet among a discontinuous set of discrete conformations. Defining the conformational states of cytochrome P450 active sites is critical for the design of agents that minimize drug-drug interactions, the development of isoform-specific P450 inhibitors, and the engineering of novel oxidative catalysts. We used two-dimensional 1H,15N HSQC chemical shift perturbation mapping of 15N-labeled Phe residues and x-ray crystallography to examine the ligand-dependent conformational dynamics of CYP119. Active site Phe residues were most affected by the binding of azole inhibitors and fatty acid substrates, in agreement with active site localization of the conformational changes. This was supported by crystallography, which revealed movement of the F-G loop with various azoles. Nevertheless, the NMR chemical shift perturbations caused by azoles and substrates were distinguishable. The absence of significant chemical shift perturbations with several azoles revealed binding of ligands to an open conformation similar to that of the ligand-free state. In contrast, 4-phenylimidazole caused pronounced NMR changes involving Phe-87, Phe-144, and Phe-153 that support the closed conformation found in the crystal structure. The same closed conformation is observed by NMR and crystallography with a para-fluoro substituent on the 4-phenylimidazole, but a para-chloro or bromo substituent engendered a second closed conformation. An open conformation is thus favored in solution with many azole ligands, but para-substituted phenylimidazoles give rise to two closed conformations that depend on the size of the para-substituent. The results suggest that ligands selectively stabilize discrete cytochrome P450 conformational states.
Popularity and Acceptance as Distinct Dimensions of Social Standing for Chinese Children in Hong Kong

This study attempted to validate distinctions between popularity and social acceptance in the cultural context of Hong Kong. We recruited 280 Chinese children (132 girls, 148 boys, mean age = 9.5) from Hong Kong primary schools. These children completed a peer nomination inventory assessing popularity, social acceptance, social rejection, aggression, peer victimization, and social behavior. Consistent with research conducted in western samples, we found that social acceptance was correlated primarily with positive behavioral characteristics (i.e., assertiveness-leadership and low levels of submissiveness-withdrawal). In contrast, popularity was associated with a more mixed pattern of features including high levels of aggression. The overall pattern of findings closely replicates past research conducted in North American and European settings.
A method for energy saving on context-aware system by sampling control and data complement

Although various systems use multiple accelerometers to recognize minute motions and states in the research area of context-awareness, a conventional architecture can be optimized from the viewpoint of its energy consumption and accuracy. In this paper, we propose a context-aware system that reduces the energy consumption by controlling the sampling frequency of wearable sensors. Even if the sampling frequency changes, no extra configuration is required because the missing data for the controlled sensors are complemented by our proposed algorithm. The evaluation results confirmed a power-reduction of 34.28% with keeping the accuracy. The energy consumption can be reduced without a large loss in accuracy using our system.
Detecting optic disk based on structured learning

Optic Disk (OD) detection plays an important role for fundus image analysis. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for detecting OD mainly based on a classifier model trained by structured learning. Then we use the model to achieve the edge map of OD. Thresholding is performed on the edge map to obtain a binary image. Finally, circle Hough transform is carried out to approximate the boundary of OD by a circle. The proposed algorithm has been evaluated on the public database and obtained promising results. The results (an area overlap and Dices coefficients of 0.8636 and 0.9196, respectively, an accuracy of 0.9770, and a true positive and false positive fraction of 0.9212 and 0.0106) show that the proposed method is a robust tool for the segmentation of OD and is very competitive with the stage-of-the-art methods.
Upper digestive bleeding in cirrhosis. Post‐therapeutic outcome and prognostic indicators

Several treatments have been proven to be effective for variceal bleeding in patients with cirrhosis. The aim of this multicenter, prospective, cohort study was to assess how these treatments are used in clinical practice and what are the posttherapeutic prognosis and prognostic indicators of upper digestive bleeding in patients with cirrhosis. A training set of 291 and a test set of 174 bleeding cirrhotic patients were included. Treatment was according to the preferences of each center and the follow‐up period was 6 weeks. Predictive rules for 5‐day failure (uncontrolled bleeding, rebleeding, or death) and 6‐week mortality were developed by the logistic model in the training set and validated in the test set. Initial treatment controlled bleeding in 90% of patients, including vasoactive drugs in 27%, endoscopic therapy in 10%, combined (endoscopic and vasoactive) in 45%, balloon tamponade alone in 1%, and none in 17%. The 5‐day failure rate was 13%, 6‐week rebleeding was 17%, and mortality was 20%. Corresponding findings for variceal versus nonvariceal bleeding were 15% versus 7% (P = .034), 19% versus 10% (P = .019), and 20% versus 15% (P = .22). Active bleeding on endoscopy, hematocrit levels, aminotransferase levels, Child‐Pugh class, and portal vein thrombosis were significant predictors of 5‐day failure; alcohol‐induced etiology, bilirubin, albumin, encephalopathy, and hepatocarcinoma were predictors of 6‐week mortality. Prognostic reassessment including blood transfusions improved the predictive accuracy. All the developed prognostic models were superior to the Child‐Pugh score. In conclusion, prognosis of digestive bleeding in cirrhosis has much improved over the past 2 decades. Initial treatment stops bleeding in 90% of patients. Accurate predictive rules are provided for early recognition of high‐risk patients.
Disentangling Shape from Level Effects in Person-Centered Analyses: An Illustration Based on University Teachers’ Multidimensional Profiles of Effectiveness

This study compares alternative ways of disentangling the effects of level (the tendency for a person to be high, medium, or low across all factors) and shape (the tendency for a person to have a distinct pattern of factors on which they are high, medium, or low) in profile analyses. This issue is particularly relevant to performance appraisals where it is often useful to identify specific strengths and weaknesses over and above a person global performance, but also to person-centered analyses more generally where the observation of qualitative (shape) differences between profiles is often used as justification for the added value of profiles. Substantively, this study illustrates these issues in the identification of profiles of teachers based on multidimensional students’ ratings of their effectiveness, using an archival data set of 31,951 class-average ratings based on the Students’ Evaluations of Educational Quality (SEEQ) instrument collected over a 13-year period. The results show the superiority of a factor mixture operationalization of teaching effectiveness in which a global effectiveness factor was used to control for unnecessary level effects in the profiles.
Academic advising in baccalaureate criminology and criminal justice programs: A national assessment

We present findings from a survey of 304 criminal justice and criminology baccalaureate programs on academic advising. We collected information on the organization, philosophy and practices of undergraduate advising. Most campuses assign students to faculty advisors in their major department. More than four-fifths described the advising philosophy on their campus as intrusive, meaning that students are required or encouraged to seek academic advising. Advising about degree requirements and course selection were reported as the most important and most time-consuming aspects of advising. Respondents were highly satisfied with academic advising in their department. We discuss implications and offer suggestions.