Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Testosterone Gel Replacement Improves Sexual Function in Depressed Men Taking Serotonergic Antidepressants: A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial

Testosterone replacement is the most effective treatment for sexual dysfunction in hypogonadal men. Comorbid depression and antidepressant side effects may reduce its influence. The authors conducted a 6-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of testosterone gel versus placebo gel in men with major depressive disorder who were currently taking a serotonergic antidepressant and exhibited low or low-normal testosterone level. A total of 100 men were enrolled at 2 study sites (Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and Tel Aviv, Israel). The effects of testosterone augmentation on sexual functioning were determined using domain scores on the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF). Complete pre- and posttrial IIEF data were available for 63 subjects. Men randomized to testosterone (n = 31) and placebo (n = 32) were similar in age, baseline testosterone levels, and baseline IIEF scores. At study termination, men randomized to placebo showed virtually no change from baseline in mean (95% CI) IIEF score (−0.7 [−6.5, 5.2]), whereas those receiving testosterone exhibited a substantial increase (15.8 [8.5, 23.1]). The estimated mean difference between groups was 16.8 [7.5, 26.1]; p = . 001 by linear regression with adjustment for age and study site. There were also significant between-group differences in each of the 5 IIEF subscales, as well as on the single question involving ejaculatory ability (p ≤ .03 in all cases). Effect sizes in these comparisons remained little changed, and generally remained statistically significant, when we further adjusted for change in depression scores on the Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale. It is notable that the subgroup of men with the highest baseline testosterone levels showed virtually the same improvement as those with lower levels, suggesting that the observed improvement was unlikely to be due simply to correction of hypogonadism alone. In depressed men with low or low-normal testosterone levels who continued to take serotonergic antidepressants, treatment with exogenous testosterone was associated with a significant improvement in sexual function, particularly including ejaculatory ability.
Loss of Heterozygosity at an Unlinked Genomic Locus Is Responsible for the Phenotype of a Candida albicans sap4Δ sap5Δ sap6Δ Mutant

ABSTRACT The diploid genome of the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans exhibits a high degree of heterozygosity. Genomic alterations that result in a loss of heterozygosity at specific loci may affect phenotypes and confer a selective advantage under certain conditions. Such genomic rearrangements can also occur during the construction of C. albicans mutants and remain undetected. The SAP2 gene on chromosome R encodes a secreted aspartic protease that is induced and required for growth of C. albicans when proteins are the only available nitrogen source. In strain SC5314, the two SAP2 alleles are functionally divergent because of differences in their regulation. Basal expression of the SAP2-2 allele, but not the SAP2-1 allele, provides the proteolytic degradation products that serve as inducers for full SAP2 induction. A triple mutant lacking the SAP4, SAP5, and SAP6 genes, which are located on chromosome 6, has previously been reported to have a growth defect on proteins, suggesting that one of the encoded proteases is required for SAP2 expression. Here we show that this sap4Δ sap5Δ sap6Δ mutant has become homozygous for chromosome R and lost the SAP2-2 allele. Replacement of one of the SAP2-1 copies in this strain by SAP2-2 and its regulatory region restored the ability of the sap4Δ sap5Δ sap6Δ mutant to utilize proteins as the sole nitrogen source. This is an illustrative example of how loss of heterozygosity at a different genomic locus can cause the mutant phenotype attributed to targeted deletion of a specific gene in C. albicans.
Accurate Measurement of Optical Resonator Finesse

We report on a novel and general measurement technique to characterize the finesse of optical resonators. The method retrieves the cavity transmission profile coefficient by using an amplitude modulation of the probe beam and a synchronous detection scheme. Both the real and imaginary parts of the transmission profile can be accurately measured. Validation of the method is performed using two different cavity configurations, a linear and a ring resonator, probed by both continuous-wave and mode-locked laser sources. A comparison with respect to conventional cavity-ring-down measurement scheme shows the accuracy of the proposed method.
A 28 GHz front-end module with T/R switch achieving 17.2 dBm Psat, 21.5% PAEmax and 3.2 dB NF in 22 nm FD-SOI for 5G communication

A 28 GHz front-end module (FEM) for 5G communication is implemented in 22 nm FD-SOI technology. Competitive performance for both TX and RX modes is achieved simultaneously with robustness in TX mode and ESD protection. The key for these features is the transmit/receive (T/R) switch incorporating PA circuitry, offering high linearity and robustness in TX mode, low NF in RX mode, and ESD-protection capability. The PA output stage uses a 3-stacked-FET topology to achieve high output power. Several matching techniques are implemented to equally distribute the large output voltage swing among the three stacked FETs. Psat and PAEmax in TX mode are 17.2 dBm and 21.5%, respectively. NF and IIP3 in RX mode are 3.2 dB and -5.4 dBm, respectively. With a 100 MHz bandwidth 256-QAM single-carrier signal the FEM achieves an EVM of -30 dB with average output power of 10.1 dBm and average PAE of 8.3 %. The reliability of the FEM in TX mode is assessed, demonstrating the robustness of the FEM. The ESD measurement of the FEM shows 2 kV human-body-model (HBM) ESD protection.
Neurogenetics of food anticipation

Circadian clocks enable the organisms to anticipate predictable cycling events in the environment. The mechanisms of the main circadian clock, localized in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the hypothalamus, involve intracellular autoregulatory transcriptional loops of specific genes, called clock genes. In the suprachiasmatic clock, circadian oscillations of clock genes are primarily reset by light, thus allowing the organisms to be in phase with the light–dark cycle. Another circadian timing system is dedicated to preparing the organisms for the ongoing meal or food availability: the so‐called food‐entrainable system, characterized by food‐anticipatory processes depending on a circadian clock whose location in the brain is not yet identified with certainty. Here we review the current knowledge on food anticipation in mice lacking clock genes or feeding‐related genes. The food‐entrainable clockwork in the brain is currently thought to be made of transcriptional loops partly divergent from those described in the light‐entrainable suprachiasmatic nuclei. Possible confounding effects associated with behavioral screening of meal anticipation in mutant mice are also discussed.
A brief self-affirmation study to improve the experience of minority patients.

BACKGROUND There is evidence that Black patients may experience stereotype threat--apprehension about being negatively stereotyped--in healthcare settings, which might adversely affect their behavior in clinical encounters. Recent studies conducted outside of healthcare have shown that a brief self-affirmation intervention, in which individuals are asked to focus on and affirm their valued characteristics and sources of personal pride, can reduce the negative effects of stereotype threat on academic performance and on interpersonal communication. METHODS This randomised controlled trial examined whether a self-affirmation (SA) intervention would decrease the negative effects of stereotype threat (negative mood, lower state self-esteem, greater perceptions of racial discrimination) and increase communication self-efficacy among Black primary care patients. Self-affirmation was induced by having patients complete a 32-item values affirmation questionnaire. RESULTS Patients in the SA condition had lower levels of performance self-esteem and social self-esteem than patients in the control. There were no differences between the SA and the control groups on negative mood, communication self-efficacy, and perceptions of discrimination. CONCLUSIONS Our SA intervention lowered state self-esteem among Black patients. Future research is needed to determine the type of SA task that is most effective for this population.
Mining Tourist Motive for Marketing Development via Twice-Learning

Prediction of tourist decision-making processes, including tourist motive, attitude, behavior, and so on, is of great importance for the development of tourism marketing strategies. Recently, applying machine learning techniques to predict tourist decision-making processes has drawn much attention. However, many machine learning techniques applied in the tourist decision-making prediction task fail to address two practical yet important problems. One is the failure of constructing models that can generate accurate yet comprehensible predictions at the same time, and the other is the failure to accommodate the characteristics of data collected from tourists that is usually small yet noise prone. In this article, we address the two entangled problems using the twice-learning framework to predict tourist motive from tourist external and internal features data collected through on-site survey. The results indicate that, based on the two-phase learning process, we can predict tourist motive accurately as well as extract meaningful insights, which are useful for targeted marketing strategies development from the real-world data.
Structure–function relationships in the tryptophan‐rich, antimicrobial peptide indolicidin

Indolicidin is a cationic 13 amino acid peptide amide produced in the granules of bovine neutrophils with the sequence H‐ILPWKWPWWPWRR‐NH2. Indolicidin is both antimicrobial and, to a lesser extent, haemolytic. In order to systematically investigate structure–function relationships, the solid‐phase synthesis of indolicidin and 48 distinct analogues are reported, as well as the characterization of their respective biological properties. Peptides synthesized and characterized include analogues with modified terminal functions, truncations from either terminus, an alanine scan to determine the role of each individual amino acid, specific amino acid exchanges of aromatic, charged and structural residues and several retro‐, inverso‐ and retroinverso‐analogues. Together, characterization of these analogues identifies specific residues involved in antimicrobial or haemolytic activity and suggests a core structure that may form a scaffold for the further development of peptidomimetic analogues of indolicidin. Copyright © 2001 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Multiple Robots For Multiple Missions : Architecture for Complex Collaboration

As systems of multiple robots become more prevalent both in research and in real world applications, they may be required to handle new missions, collaborate in teams they are not necessarily familiar with, and react, during mission execution, to changes in both the environment and in their own abilities. In this paper we describe a six-layered architecture that handles inherently these challenges, as well as allowing human operator to oversee and intervene whenever needed. We have implemented the architecture and demonstrate the activity flow of execution, namely: how does the system and its components react to dynamic changes. We have conducted experiments in both simulation and in real robots, and show the efficiency of the system in two different parameters: cost of coordination and communication, and mission performance. The implementation is open source, and available for future use.
Development of Shigella sonnei live oral vaccines based on defined rfbInaba deletion mutants of Vibrio cholerae expressing the Shigella serotype D O polysaccharide

Previous experimentation has highlighted a number of difficulties in the development of carrier-based bivalent vaccines (J.-F. Viret and D. Favre, Biologicals 22:361-372, 1994) In an attempt to obviate these carrier strains. Toward this aim, a series of defined rfbInaba deletion (delta rfbInaba) mutants of the cholera vaccine strain V. cholerae CVD103-HgR (O1 Inaba serotype) and derivative bearing the chromosomally integrated locus encoding the S. sonnei O-PS were constructed and characterized. The various mutations disrupt genes thought to be involved in either the synthesis of perosamine, the synthesis of 3-deoxy-L-glycero tetronic acid, or the O-PS transport functions together with synthesis of the perosamine synthetase. Some deletions were obtained only in strains expressing the heterologous lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Viable delta rfbInaba deletions in CVD103-HgR profoundly altered some of its phenotypic properties. The same deletions present in CVD103-HgR derivatives expressing the heterologous LPS affected their phenotypes only to a lesser extent. Only in strains in which perosamine synthesis was specifically abolished could high amounts of core-bound S. sonnei O-PS be synthesized. Two such strains (CH21, which expresses both the R1 core and the S. sonnei O-PS, and CH22, which expresses only the latter antigenic determinant) were further analyzed and were found to be indistinguishable from CVD103-HgR with regard to lack of enterotoxin activity, choleragenoid production, mercury resistance, pilin production, and, for CH22, motility. Mice immunized with CH22 produced high titers of S. sonnei O-PS-specific antibodies.
Signal pathway of hippocampal apoptosis and cognitive impairment of mice caused by cerium chloride

Experimental studies have demonstrated that lanthanides could impair cognitive functions of children and animals, but very little is known about the hippocampal apoptosis and its molecular mechanism. The study investigated the signal pathway of hippocampal apoptosis induced by intragastric administration of CeCl3 for 60 consecutive days. It showed that cerium had been significantly accumulated in the mouse hippocampus, and CeCl3 caused hippocampal apoptosis and impairment of spatial recognition memory of mice. CeCl3 effectively activated caspase‐3 and ‐9, inhibited Bcl‐2, and increased the levels of Bax and cytochrome c, promoted accumulation of reactive oxygen species in the mouse hippocampus. It implied that CeCl3‐induced apoptosis in the mouse hippocampus could be triggered via mitochondrion‐mediated pathway. Our findings suggest the need for great caution to handle the lanthanides for workers and consumers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 2012.
A Collaborative filtering based sentiment analyzer to evaluate textual user feedbacks / opinions

We propose a system to automatically analyze the textual feedbacks of products or services. User-to-User and Aspectto-Aspect based collaborative filtering is used to estimate the sentiment scores of those aspects of a feedback which are not cited in the feedback but are important aspects. The proposed system is able to perform a more reliable sentiment analysis of all necessary aspects of products/services/movies/books, etc., and on the basis of the reports generated by the system, two products or two services can be compared. It allows the users to make quick decisions about the product they want to procure. We have implemented the system to process the feedbacks of the product “laptop” but the system can be used for other domains easily.
Low Level Segmentation of Motion Capture Data based on Hierarchical Clustering with Cosine Distance

D motion capture is to track and record human movements. In recent years, it has been applied into many fields, such as human computer interaction, animation, etc. Low- level segmentation of motion capture data is of significance to the various applications of 3D motion capture; however, due to the high dimensionality of motion capture data, traditional low-level segmentation methods can hardly work out a suitable segmentation for motion capture data. In order to solve this problem, a low-level temporal segmentation algorithm based on cosine distance is proposed, hierarchical clustering is explored so that similar velocity vectors are clustered together according to the cosine distance in a progressive way, the center of each cluster is updated as the vector derived with linear regression, the segment boundaries are determined as the point when the cosine distance between adjacent velocity vectors is greater than 1 (angle>90 degrees). We have conducted experiments on the motion capture database provided by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the experiment results show that the performance of the proposed method is optimistic.
The on-road experiences and awareness of sleepiness in a sample of Australian highway drivers: A roadside driver sleepiness study

ABSTRACT Objective: Driver sleepiness contributes substantially to road crash incidents. Simulator and on-road studies clearly reveal an impairing effect from sleepiness on driving ability. However, the degree to which drivers appreciate the dangerousness of driving while sleepy is somewhat unclear. This study sought to determine drivers' on-road experiences of sleepiness, their prior sleep habits, and personal awareness of the signs of sleepiness. Methods: Participants were a random selection of 92 drivers traveling on a major highway in the state of Queensland, Australia, who were stopped by police as part of routine drink driving operations. Participants completed a brief questionnaire that included demographic information, sleepy driving experiences (signs of sleepiness and on-road experiences of sleepiness), and prior sleep habits. A modified version of the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS) was used to assess subjective sleepiness in the 15 min prior to being stopped by police. Results: Participants' ratings of subjective sleepiness were quite low, with 90% reporting being alert to extremely alert on the KSS. Participants were reasonably aware of the signs of sleepiness, with many signs of sleepiness associated with on-road experiences of sleepiness. Additionally, the number of hours spent driving was positively correlated with the drivers' level of sleep debt. Conclusions: The results suggest that participants had moderate experiences of driving while sleepy and many were aware of the signs of sleepiness. The relationship between driving long distances and increased sleep debt is a concern for road safety. Increased education regarding the dangers of sleepy driving seems warranted.
Out‐of‐Core Simplification and Crack‐Free LOD Volume Rendering for Irregular Grids

We propose a novel out‐of‐core simplification and level‐of‐detail (LOD) volume rendering algorithm for large irregular grids represented as tetrahedral meshes. One important feature of our algorithm is that it creates a space decomposition as required by I/O‐efficient simplification and volume rendering, and simplifies both the internal and boundary portions of the sub‐volumes progressively by edge collapses using the (extended) quadric error metric, while ensuring any selected LOD mesh to be crack‐free (i.e., any neighboring sub‐volumes in the LOD have consistent boundaries, and all the cells in the LOD do not have negative volumes), with all computations performed I/O‐ejficiently. This has been an elusive goal for out‐of‐core progressive meshes and LOD visualization, and our novel solution achieves this goal with a theoretical guarantee to be crack‐free for tetrahedral meshes. As for selecting a desirable LOD mesh for volume rendering, our technique supports selective refinement LODs (where different places can have different error bounds), in addition to the basic uniform LODs (where the error bound is the same in all places). The proposed scalar‐value range and view‐dependent selection queries for selective refinement are especially effective in producing images of the highest quality with a much faster rendering speed. The experiments demonstrate the efficacy of our new technique.
Time-Varying Multimodal Volume Rendering with 3D Textures

In this paper, we propose a rendering method for multimodal and time-varying data based on 3D texture mapping. Our method takes as input two registered voxel models: one with static data and the other with timevarying values. It visualizes the fusion of data through time steps of different sizes, forward and backward. At each frame we use one 3D texture for each modality. We compute and compose a set of view-aligned texture slices. For each texel of a slice, we perform a fetch to each 3D texture and realize fusion and shading using a fragment shader. We codify the two shading transfer functions on auxiliary 1D textures. Moreover, the weight of each modality in fusion is not constant but defined through a 2D fusion transfer function implemented as a 2D texture. We benefit from frame-to-frame coherence to avoid reloading the time-varying data texture at each frame. Instead, we update it at each frame using a 2D texture that run-length encodes the variation of property values through time. The 3D texture updating is done entirely on the GPU, which significantly speeds up rendering. Our method is fast and versatile and it provides a good insight into multimodal data.
The Social Implications of Videotext

Adopting a literacy perspective towards student interactions with digital media can extend and develop views of second language (L2) listening comprehension. In this case study, variations in play are grounded in a media literacy perspective as a way to frame student work with authentic videotext. Twenty-two Australian students of Japanese watched three digitized news clips as they talked aloud. Qualitative analysis of their immediately retrospective verbal reports showed that learners do indeed play and replay the media texts as they, for example, perform, fool around, and establish signposts. The article concludes with a discussion urging language teachers and researchers to adopt media literacy perspectives in their use of electronic media.
Parallel programming of exogenous and endogenous components in the antisaccade task

In the antisaccade task subjects are required to suppress the reflexive tendency to look at a peripherally presented stimulus and to perform a saccade in the opposite direction instead. The present studies aimed at investigating the inhibitory mechanisms responsible for successful performance in this task, testing a hypothesis of parallel programming of exogenous and endogenous components: A reflexive saccade to the stimulus is automatically programmed and competes with the concurrently established voluntary programme to look in the opposite direction. The experiments followed the logic of selectively manipulating the speed of processing of these components and testing the prediction that a selective slowing of the exogenous component should result in a reduced error rate in this task, while a selective slowing of the endogenous component should have the opposite effect. The results provide evidence for the hypothesis of parallel programming and are discussed in the context of alternative accounts of antisaccade performance.