Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Living arrangements of older malaysians: Who coresides with their adult children?

More than two-thirds of Malaysians age 60 or older coreside with an adult child. Data from the Senior sample of the Second Malaysian Family Life Survey (MFLS-2) are used to investigate which “seniors” (persons age 60 or older) live in this way. The analysis generally supports the notion that coresidence is influenced by the benefits, costs, opportunities, and preferences for coresidence versus separate living arrangements. For example, married seniors are more likely to coreside with adult children when housing costs are greater in their area or when the husband or wife is in poor health. This finding suggests that married parents and children live together to economize on living costs or to receive help with household services. Unmarried seniors who are better off economically are less likely to live with adult children, presumably because they use their higher incomes to “purchase privacy. ”
Pyrophosphate Inhibits Mineralization of Osteoblast Cultures by Binding to Mineral, Up-regulating Osteopontin, and Inhibiting Alkaline Phosphatase Activity*

Inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi) produced by cells inhibits mineralization by binding to crystals. Its ubiquitous presence is thought to prevent “soft” tissues from mineralizing, whereas its degradation to Pi in bones and teeth by tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (Tnap, Tnsalp, Alpl, Akp2) may facilitate crystal growth. Whereas the crystal binding properties of PPi are largely understood, less is known about its effects on osteoblast activity. We have used MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cultures to investigate the effect of PPi on osteoblast function and matrix mineralization. Mineralization in the cultures was dose-dependently inhibited by PPi. This inhibition could be reversed by Tnap, but not if PPi was bound to mineral. PPi also led to increased levels of osteopontin (Opn) induced via the Erk1/2 and p38 MAPK signaling pathways. Opn regulation by PPi was also insensitive to foscarnet (an inhibitor of phosphate uptake) and levamisole (an inhibitor of Tnap enzymatic activity), suggesting that increased Opn levels did not result from changes in phosphate. Exogenous OPN inhibited mineralization, but dephosphorylation by Tnap reversed this effect, suggesting that OPN inhibits mineralization via its negatively charged phosphate residues and that like PPi, hydrolysis by Tnap reduces its mineral inhibiting potency. Using enzyme kinetic studies, we have shown that PPi inhibits Tnap-mediated Pi release from β-glycerophosphate (a commonly used source of organic phosphate for culture mineralization studies) through a mixed type of inhibition. In summary, PPi prevents mineralization in MC3T3-E1 osteoblast cultures by at least three different mechanisms that include direct binding to growing crystals, induction of Opn expression, and inhibition of Tnap activity.
A continental risk assessment of West Nile virus under climate change

Since first introduced to North America in 1999, West Nile virus (WNV) has spread rapidly across the continent, threatening wildlife populations and posing serious health risks to humans. While WNV incidence has been linked to environmental factors, particularly temperature and rainfall, little is known about how future climate change may affect the spread of the disease. Using available data on WNV infections in vectors and hosts collected from 2003–2011 and using a suite of 10 species distribution models, weighted according to their predictive performance, we modeled the incidence of WNV under current climate conditions at a continental scale. Models were found to accurately predict spatial patterns of WNV that were then used to examine how future climate may affect the spread of the disease. Predictions were accurate for cases of human WNV infection in the following year (2012), with areas reporting infections having significantly higher probability of presence as predicted by our models. Projected geographic distributions of WNV in North America under future climate for 2050 and 2080 show an expansion of suitable climate for the disease, driven by warmer temperatures and lower annual precipitation that will result in the exposure of new and naïve host populations to the virus with potentially serious consequences. Our risk assessment identifies current and future hotspots of West Nile virus where mitigation efforts should be focused and presents an important new approach for monitoring vector‐borne disease under climate change.
Developing an Ontology for Architecture Knowledge from Developer Communities

Software architecting is a knowledge-intensive activity. However, obtaining and evaluating the quality of relevant and reusable knowledge (and ensuring that this knowledge is up-to-date) requires significant effort. In this paper, we explore how online developer communities (e.g., Stack Overflow), traditionally used by developers to solve coding problems, can help solve architectural problems. We develop an ontology that covers architectural knowledge concepts in Stack Overflow. The ontology provides a description of architecture-relevant information to represent and structure architectural knowledge in Stack Overflow. The ontology is empirically grounded through qualitative analyses of different Stack Overflow posts, as well as inter-coder reliability tests. Our results show that the architecture knowledge ontology in Stack Overflow captures architecture-relevant information and supports achieving practitioners' requirements and concerns.
Trust and Electronic Commerce - A Test of an E-Bookstore

This study focuses on the electronic business-to-consumer (B2C) market application in electronic bookstore (e-bookstore). It tests a proposed theoretical revision of DeLone and McLean's model of information system (IS) success that explains how personnel beliefs contribute to a user's utilization of electronic commerce (EC). The proposed revised model is tested using the structural equation model (SEM) and a survey of 325 members of e-bookstore in Taiwan was carried out. The theoretical model proposed in this study elucidates the concept of trust perception as incorporated into the DeLone and McLean model, and plays a critical mediating role to influence the intention toward EC applications. The implications of these findings for both researchers and practitioners are discussed
Scatter search for distributed assembly flowshop scheduling to minimize total tardiness

The distributed assembly permutation flowshop problem (DAPFSP) is a typical NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem and represents an important area in multiple distributed production systems, where a series of jobs are to be processed on machines in one of specific factories (processing stage) and then assembled into final products by a single machine (assembly stage). In this study, a class of complex DAPFSP with respect to minimizing the total tardiness is investigated by considering real-practice constraints, including no-wait, no-idle and due dates, labeled as DAPFSP-T hereafter. And an effective scatter search based memetic algorithm (SS-MA) is proposed to address the difficulties of proposed DAPFSP-T model. Specifically, in the proposed SS-MA, a few compositive heuristics are proposed by comprehensively deploying several well-known constructive heuristics, and serve as the initialization method. Subset generation mechanism and solution combination methods are deliberatively designed to implement the global coarse exploration. Meanwhile, the improvement procedure in conventional SS is incarnated by a three-stage simulated annealing (3SSA) with three kinds of neighborhood structures to perform the local fine exploitation. Through the above sophisticated combination of multiple operators, it is expected in the proposed SS-MA the balance between global and local search abilities could be well achieved. And it is demonstrated by our experimental studies and comparisons that the proposed SS-MA could yield satisfactory searching performances, where solutions are significantly improved compared with multiple heuristic methods.
Organization of reciprocal connections between the perigeniculate nucleus and dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus in the cat: A transneuronal transport study

Cells of the cat's perigeniculate nucleus (PGN), part of the visual sector of the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), provide GABAergic inhibition to the A and A1 layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGNd) and, therefore, may control information flow from the retina to the cortex. Previous electrophysiological experiments suggested that the PGN may be subdivided on the basis of ocular dominance thus reflecting the afferent and efferent projections with lamina A and A1 of the LGNd. The present study utilized the ability of wheat germ agglutinin-horseradish peroxidase (WGA-HRP) to be transported transneuronally following intraocular injections in four cats to examine whether there is any anatomical evidence for eye specific layers within the PGN. Sections were processed with tetramethylbenzidine. Light WGA-HRP transneuronal labeling of LGNd collaterals and somata were seen in the PGN and very light labeling (but not somata) was seen in the TRN. Neither the cells of the PGN projecting to the LGNd nor the LGNd relay collaterals within the PGN were clearly organized into nonoverlapping laminae related to the eye specific layers of the LGNd. However, parts of the PGN immediately adjacent to the LGNd appear devoid of connections with lamina A1 thus creating a thin monocular segment for the contralateral eye.
CsgA, an extracellular protein essential for Myxococcus xanthus development

CsgA mutants of Myxococcus xanthus appear to be defective in producing an extracellular molecule essential for the developmental behaviors of this bacterium. The csgA gene encodes a 17.7-kilodalton polypeptide whose function and cellular location were investigated with immunological probes. Large quantities of the CsgA gene product were obtained from a lacZ-csgA translational gene fusion expressed in Escherichia coli. The chimeric 21-kilodalton protein was purified by preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Affinity-purified polyclonal antibodies raised against the fusion protein were used to determine the cellular location of the native CsgA protein by colloidal gold labeling and transmission electron microscopy. Between 1,100 and 2,200 extracellular molecules of CsgA per developing M. xanthus cell were detected, most of which were associated with the extracellular matrix. The anti-CsgA antibodies inhibited wild-type development unless they were first neutralized with the fusion protein. Together these results suggest that the CsgA gene product has an essential, extracellular function during development, possibly as a pheromone.
A Programmable MEMS FSK Transmitter

An FSK transmitter is modulated by changing the polarization voltage of a micromechanical resonator. The transmitter frequency can be programmed from 2 to 437MHz with 1ppm accuracy. The transmitter has 6times greater frequency deviation than quartz-based FSK modulators, 20kb/s data rate, and total 8ppm frequency variation from -40 to 85degC
Clinical and microbiologic features of Shigella and enteroinvasive Escherichia coli infections detected by DNA hybridization

To determine the clinical and microbiologic features of Shigella and enteroinvasive Escherichia coli (EIEC) infections, we investigated 410 children with diarrhea and 410 control children without diarrhea who were seen at Children's Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand, from January to June 1985. Shigella spp. were isolated from 96 (23%) and EIEC were isolated from 17 (4%) of 410 children with diarrhea and from 12 (3%) and 6 (1%) of 410 control children, respectively. The isolation rates of both pathogens increased with age and peaked in children 3 to 5 years old from whom Shigella spp. were isolated from 38% and EIEC were isolated from 9%. Shigella spp. were isolated from 52% and EIEC were isolated from 7% of 91 children with bloody diarrhea and from 15 and 3% of 319 children with nonbloody diarrhea. Fifteen (65%) of 23 EIEC were lactose positive, and all belonged to recognized EIEC serotypes. Among children with diarrhea, the stool blots of 76% of 17 children infected with EIEC, 45% of 96 children infected with Shigella spp. , and 1% of 297 culture-negative children hybridized with the 17-kilobase EcoRI digestion fragment of pRM17, a recombinant plasmid containing DNA derived from the 140-megadalton Shigella flexneri plasmid. Although EIEC colonies can be reliably detected by DNA hybridization, detection by stool blot is less sensitive. Shigella spp. and EIEC are important causes of endemic diarrhea among children greater than 1 year old in Thailand.
Minimalist design of water-soluble cross-β architecture

Demonstrated successes of protein design and engineering suggest significant potential to produce diverse protein architectures and assemblies beyond those found in nature. Here, we describe a new class of synthetic protein architecture through the successful design and atomic structures of water-soluble cross-β proteins. The cross-β motif is formed from the lamination of successive β-sheet layers, and it is abundantly observed in the core of insoluble amyloid fibrils associated with protein-misfolding diseases. Despite its prominence, cross-β has been designed only in the context of insoluble aggregates of peptides or proteins. Cross-β’s recalcitrance to protein engineering and conspicuous absence among the known atomic structures of natural proteins thus makes it a challenging target for design in a water-soluble form. Through comparative analysis of the cross-β structures of fibril-forming peptides, we identified rows of hydrophobic residues (“ladders”) running across β-strands of each β-sheet layer as a minimal component of the cross-β motif. Grafting a single ladder of hydrophobic residues designed from the Alzheimer’s amyloid-β peptide onto a large β-sheet protein formed a dimeric protein with a cross-β architecture that remained water-soluble, as revealed by solution analysis and x-ray crystal structures. These results demonstrate that the cross-β motif is a stable architecture in water-soluble polypeptides and can be readily designed. Our results provide a new route for accessing the cross-β structure and expanding the scope of protein design.
Hepatic lipid droplet biology: Getting to the root of fatty liver

Hepatic steatosis is defined by the accumulation of lipid droplets (LDs). Once thought to be only inert energy storage depots, LDs are increasingly recognized as organelles that have important functions in hepatocytes beyond lipid storage. The lipid and protein composition of LDs is highly dynamic and influences their intrinsic metabolism and signaling properties, which ultimately links them to the changes in hepatic function. This concise review highlights recent discoveries in LD biology and unique aspects of hepatic LDs and their role in liver disease. (Hepatology 2015;62:964–967)
Analysis on the cycle fluctuation of the maize production in Henan Province

The remaining method was used to measure and analyze the fluctuation of maize production in Henan province.The result improves that: from 1978 to 2010 the maize production in Henan province experienced two classical periodic fluctuations which from 1985 to 1993 and 1994 to 2003.The fluctuation has high wave amplitude which is 0.28 and 0.20. Output of per unit area is one main factor which influences the fluctuation of output.The government macro-control policy and the change in demand of maize market and the weather conditions and the improvement of production technology are the indirect factors which influence the fluctuation of output.Therefore a constant input and stable output of per unit area are important to help promote a long-term and stable and harmonious development maize production in Henan Province.
Combination treatment with clomipramine and fluvoxamine: drug monitoring, safety, and tolerability data.

BACKGROUND Combination treatment with tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is an increasingly employed strategy especially in depressed patients unresponsive to monotherapy. Comedications with SSRIs, however, may be hazardous owing to pharmacokinetic interactions that can result in elevated serum TCA levels. For the combinations, safety and tolerability data are lacking. METHOD We report tolerability and safety of combined treatment with fluvoxamine and clomipramine (CMI) in 22 patients. Most patients suffered from depression and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Diagnoses were made according to DSM-III-R criteria. Serum levels of CMI, N-desmethylclomipramine (DCMI), and 8-hydroxylated metabolites were determined. EEG, ECG, and laboratory parameters and adverse effects reported by the patients, as well as global clinical improvement, were assessed. RESULTS Generally, fluvoxamine/clomipramine comedication was well tolerated. Serum CMI levels reached 500 to 1200 ng/mL in half of the patients, while corresponding levels for DCMI and 8-hydroxylated metabolites were low. Moreover, the ratios of N-demethylation DCMI:CMI calculated from the ratios of drug concentrations in serum were markedly lower under comedication than under CMI monotherapy. Alterations in EEG, ECG, and laboratory parameters that had clinical relevance were rarely observed and were reversible after dose reduction of CMI. However, 2 patients developed myoclonic jerks. A majority of patients improved clinically during combination treatment. Clinically relevant side effects were absent in patients with serum CMI and DCMI levels below 450 ng/mL and ratios of N-demethylation below 0.3. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that comedication of fluvoxamine and clomipramine will result in markedly elevated serum clomipramine levels. Therefore, combination treatment with fluvoxamine and clomipramine should be carefully monitored by determination of serum levels of the TCA. Clinically, the pharmacokinetic interactions between fluvoxamine and clomipramine may be well tolerated in a majority of patients. However, in a few patients, higher serum levels may be associated with an increased risk of EEG changes and changes of intracardiac conductance. EEG and ECG should be used regularly to monitor comedicated patients.
Performance Analysis of Orthogonal STBC in Generalized- $K$ Fading MIMO Channels

This paper investigates the performance of orthogonal space-time block codes over generalized-K fading multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channels. We present exact analytical expressions for three important performance measures, namely, outage probability, average capacity, and average symbol error rate (SER). In addition, we derive simple expressions for key parameters dictating the system performance at the high and low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regimes, i.e., diversity order, coding gain, minimum energy per information bit, and wideband slope, which provide insight on how various key system parameters, such as number of antennas and fading severity level, affect the performance of the system.
Visual Memory Performance in Patients with Major Depression: A 9-Month Follow-Up

The aim of the present study was to investigate delayed recall, recognition, and visual-spatial memory among subjects (N = 24) with major depressive disorder (MDD) following 9 months of recovery from acute depression. Visual-spatial memory assessment was conducted using the Rey Complex Figure Test. In the acute phase, the MDD subjects performed significantly worse compared with control subjects in delayed recall and recognition. Following 9 months of recovery, there were no longer differences between groups. The MDD group made a significant improvement in terms of depressive symptoms and performed better in recall and recognition. The results suggest that depression and memory performance are linked.
Essays on the Environmental Determinants of Crime.

In the extensive literature on temperature and crime, a clear positive correlation between observed temperature and criminal activity has been documented. The dominant explanation for this effect is that observed temperature conditions affect planning, which leads to changes in the number of opportunities for crime. Since planning necessarily applies to activities occurring in the future, it is more accurate to say that the plans one makes depend on temperature expectations, both in the current period and the near future. In this paper, I examine the impact of temperature expectations on daily violent crime and property theft levels for a set of 50 U.S. cities during the 2004-2012 period. I find that the effect of observed maximum temperature on a given day is largely captured by temperature expectations for that day. However, I also find that crime is affected by expectations about weather in the near future, and that forecast errors (i.e. unexpectedly hot or cold temperatures) significantly impact violent crime (but not property theft). This set of findings represents an important contribution to the temperature-crime literature, and provides new insight into the determinants of criminal labor supply. Furthermore, these results have significant policy implications for short-run crime forecasting.
Fitting Semi‐Markov Models to Interval‐Censored Data with Unknown Initiation Times

Summary. In a semi‐Markov model, the hazard of making a transition between stages depends on the time spent in the current stage but is independent of time spent in other stages. If the initiation time (time of entry into the network) is not known for some persons and if transition time data are interval censored (i.e., if transition times are not known exactly but are known only to have occurred in some interval), then the length of time these persons spent in any stage is not known. We show how a semi‐Markov model can still be fit to interval‐censored data with missing initiation times. For the special case of models in which all persons enter the network at the same initial stage and proceed through the same succession of stages to a unique absorbing stage, we present discrete‐time nonparametric maximum likelihood estimators of the waiting‐time distributions for this type of data.
Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Regulates Transforming Growth Factor-β-dependent Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition by Promoting Hyaluronan-CD44-Moesin Interaction*

Aberrant epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is involved in development of fibrotic disorders and cancer invasion. Alterations of cell-extracellular matrix interaction also contribute to those pathological conditions. However, the functional interplay between EMT and cell-extracellular matrix interactions remains poorly understood. We now show that the inflammatory mediator tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) induces the formation of fibrotic foci by cultured retinal pigment epithelial cells through activation of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling in a manner dependent on hyaluronan-CD44-moesin interaction. TNF-α promoted CD44 expression and moesin phosphorylation by protein kinase C, leading to the pericellular interaction of hyaluronan and CD44. Formation of the hyaluronan-CD44-moesin complex resulted in both cell-cell dissociation and increased cellular motility through actin remodeling. Furthermore, this complex was found to be associated with TGF-β receptor II and clathrin at actin microdomains, leading to activation of TGF-β signaling. We established an in vivo model of TNF-α-induced fibrosis in the mouse eye, and such ocular fibrosis was attenuated in CD44-null mice. The production of hyaluronan and its interaction with CD44, thus, play an essential role in TNF-α-induced EMT and are potential therapeutic targets in fibrotic disorders.