Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Longitudinal and Comparative Content Analysis of Instagram Fitness Posts

Body dissatisfaction is among the most common mental health challenges experienced by women and has been identified as a risk factor for disordered eating. Research has found that exposure to social media images depicting thin, muscular bodies, often dubbed ‘fitspiration’, may contribute to body dissatisfaction. Image-centred social media platforms, such as Instagram, have rising popularity among adolescents and young adults. However, little is known about the content of images produced by different fitness-related sources, such as those from fitness brands compared with individual users, and how fitness content on social media is evolving over time. This study sought to determine whether Instagram content varied between female fitness influencers and brands and how this content changed between 2019 and 2021. A longitudinal content analysis was conducted on a sample of 400 Instagram images using a coding scheme developed specifically for this project. The scheme coded images for fit ideal body depiction, fitness focus, objectification, and sexualisation. Chi-square tests indicated that female fitness influencer content was more sexualised and portrayed more of the fit ideal, while fitness brands produced more Instagram content with a fitness focus. There were no significant overall longitudinal changes for any of the four key variables. However, when looking at longitudinal changes by account type, fitness-focused influencer content increased while fitness-focused brand content decreased over time. These findings highlight discernible differences in content produced by different Instagram account types. It points future research towards the consideration of potential moderating factors, such as account type, when exploring the impact of social media images on body image and mental health.
Can tenants afford to care? Investigating the willingness-to-pay for improved energy efficiency of rental tenants and returns to investment for landlords

Throughout the developed world, residential buildings in the rental sector exhibit lower levels of energy efficiency than the owner-occupied building stock. A double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method is used to examine how much renters are willing to pay in their monthly rent for improved energy efficiency, measured via energy performance certificates. The results of this analysis are used to examine the returns to investment available to landlords for various measures. Using an administrative dataset of residential retrofits, we examine the upfront cost to landlords of engaging in energy efficiency retrofits of varying depths and calculate the relevant payback period. Conditional upon possessing a non-zero willingness-to-pay, we find that tenants in Ireland are willing to pay an average of over €40 for each one-grade improvement in their accommodation’s Building Energy Rating. We find short payback periods for attic and cavity wall insulation and prohibitively long payback periods for external wall insulation and solar heating.
Could the ketogenic diet induce a shift in thyroid function and support a metabolic advantage in healthy participants? A pilot randomized-controlled-crossover trial

Background The ketogenic diet (KD) has been shown to result in body mass loss in people with disease as well as healthy people, yet the effect of the KD on thyroid function and metabolism are unknown. Objective We aimed to determine the effects of a KD, compared with an isocaloric high-carbohydrate low-fat (HCLF) diet, on resting metabolic rate and thyroid function in healthy individuals. Design Eleven healthy, normal-weight participants (mean(SD) age: 30(9) years) completed this randomized crossover-controlled study. For a minimum of three weeks on each, participants followed two isocaloric diets: a HCLF diet (55%carbohydrate, 20%fat, 25%protein) and a KD (15%carbohydrate, 60%fat, 25% protein), with a one-week washout period in-between. Importantly, while on the KD, the participants were required to remain in a state of nutritional ketosis for three consecutive weeks. Crossover analyses and linear mixed models were used to assess effect of diet on body mass, thyroid function and resting metabolic rate. Results Both dietary interventions resulted in significant body mass loss (p<0.05) however three weeks of sustained ketosis (KD) resulted in a greater loss of body mass (mean (95%CI): -2.9 (-3.5, -2.4) kg) than did three weeks on the HCLF diet (-0.4 (-1.0, 0.1) kg, p < 0.0001). Compared to pre-diet levels, the change in plasma T3 concentration was significantly different between the two diets (p = 0.003), such that plasma T3 concentration was significantly lower following the KD diet (4.1 (3.8, 4.4) pmol/L, p<0.0001) but not different following the HCLF diet (4.8 (4.5, 5.2) pmol/L, p = 0.171. There was a significant increase in T4 concentration from pre-diet levels following the KD diet (19.3 (17.8, 20.9) pmol/L, p < 0.0001), but not following the HCLF diet (17.3 (15.7, 18.8) pmol.L, p = 0.28). The magnitude of change in plasma T4 concentration was not different between the two diets (p = 0.4). There was no effect of diet on plasma thyroid stimulating hormone concentration (p = 0.27). There was a significantly greater T3:T4 ratio following the HCLF diet (0.41 (0.27, 0.55), p < 0.0001) compared to pre-diet levels but not following the KD diet (0.25 (0.12, 0.39), p = 0.80). Conclusions Although the diets were isocaloric and physical activity and resting metabolic rate remained constant, the participants lost more mass after the KD than after the HCLF diet. The observed significant changes in triiodothyronine concentration suggest that unknown metabolic changes occur in nutritional ketosis, changes that warrant further investigation. Trial registration Pan African Clinical Trial Registry: PACTR201707002406306 URL: https://pactr.samrc. ac.za/.
Knowledge and Myths about Eating Disorders in a German Adolescent Sample: A Preliminary Investigation

Eating disorder mental health literacy (ED-MHL) refers to knowledge about the symptoms, causes, and treatment of eating disorders (EDs) and is an important factor in people’s attitudes towards individuals with EDs and help-seeking for EDs. Associations between ED-MHL, stigma, ED symptomatology, and gender were investigated in a sample of N = 194 German high school students. Knowledge and myths about EDs were assessed with 18 factual statements about EDs and agreement/disagreement with common myths about ED. Students also completed the Universal Stigma Scale (USS), the Weight Concerns Scale (WCS), and demographic items. Students judged M = 8.39 (SD = 3.40) statements correctly, while the average agreement with all ED myths was low (M = 0.19, SD = 0.14). Greater ED-MHL was associated with lower stigmatization of EDs. Male participants were less knowledgeable and more likely to agree with the ED myths. Participants displayed moderate ED-MHL; however, certain aspects such as ED risk factors or symptoms of specific disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa were less well known. These results can inform the design of future MHL interventions for adolescents.
High resolution integrated light spectroscopy of galactic globular clusters

Detailed chemical abundances of globular clusters can provide valuable information about nucleosynthesis, stellar evolution, and galaxy and cluster formation. High spectral resolution analyses enable abundance measurements of a larger number of elements with increased precision to study the relative contributions of different types of supernovae and AGB stars. In the Galaxy and its closest satellites, high resolution spectroscopy of individual stars has enabled the determination of chemical abundances in massive and low mass galaxies, with great success. Outside the Local Group of galaxies, however, integrated light spectra (ILS) of entire clusters must be used, as the individual stars cannot be resolved. A high resolution ILS analysis method, ILABUNDS, has been developed and tested on Galactic globular clusters by McWilliam & Bernstein (2008). This poster presents the analysis of the ILS of five Galactic globular clusters (47 Tuc, M3, M13, NGC 7006, and M15) with ILABUNDS. The latter four clusters were observed with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory, while 47 Tuc was observed with the Las Campanas du Pont telescope (from McWilliam & Bernstein). Analyses of these clusters help to clarify the limits of the application of ILABUNDS to different stellar populations. In particular, the effects of different modeling assumptions are examined here, e.g. the effects of different horizontal branch morphologies.
An Investor’s Guide to Crypto

The authors provide practical insights for investors seeking exposure to the growing cryptocurrency space. Today, crypto is much more than just bitcoin, which historically dominated the space but accounted for just a 31% share of total crypto trading volume in June 2022. The authors discuss a wide variety of tokens, highlighting both their functionality and their investment properties. The authors critically compare popular valuation methods, and they contrast buy-and-hold investing with more active styles. The authors only deem return data from 2017 representative, but the use of intraday data boosts statistical power. Underlying crypto performance has been notoriously volatile, but volatility-targeting methods are effective at controlling risk, and trend-following strategies have performed well. Crypto assets display a low correlation with traditional risky assets in normal times, but the correlation also rises in the left tail of these risky assets. Finally, the authors detail important custody and regulatory considerations for institutional investors.
Disruption of Smad 4 impairs TGF-b / Smad 3 and Smad 7 transcriptional regulation during renal inflammation and fibrosis in vivo and in vitro

The mechanism by which TGF-b regulates renal inflammation and fibrosis is largely unclear; however, it is well accepted that its biological effects are mediated through Smad2 and Smad3 phosphorylation. Following activation, these Smads form heteromeric complex with Smad4 and translocate into the nucleus to bind and regulate the expression of target genes. Here we studied the roles of Smad4 to regulate TGF-b signaling in a mouse model of unilateral ureteral obstruction using conditional Smad4 knockout mice and in isolated Smad4 mutant macrophages and fibroblasts. Disruption of Smad4 significantly enhanced renal inflammation as evidenced by a greater CD45þ leukocyte and F4/80þ macrophage infiltration and upregulation of IL-1b, TNF-a, MCP-1, and ICAM-1 in the obstructed kidney and in IL-1bstimulated macrophages. In contrast, deletion of Smad4 inhibited renal fibrosis and TGF-b1-induced collagen I expression by fibroblasts. Further studies showed that the loss of Smad4 repressed Smad7 transcription, leading to a loss of functional protein. This, in turn, inhibited IjBa expression but enhanced NF-jB activation, thereby promoting renal inflammation. Interestingly, deletion of Smad4 influenced Smad3-mediated promoter activities and the binding of Smad3 to the COL1A2 promoter, but not Smad3 phosphorylation and nuclear translocation, thereby inhibiting the fibrotic response. Thus, Smad4 may be a key regulator for the diverse roles of TGF-b1 in inflammation and fibrogenesis by interacting with Smad7 and Smad3 to influence their transcriptional activities in renal inflammation and fibrosis.
Generation of cart‐pulling animation in a multiagent environment using deep learning

In this article, we propose a framework to generate cart‐pulling animation using deep learning in a multiagent environment. Mainly, two workers pull a cart using ropes and interact with crowd agents which exhibit following, wandering, and evasion behaviors. The main idea is to train a policy to learn an individual behavior of the workers and crowd agents. Furthermore, the challenge is that as the ropes are flexible, rewards are designed carefully so that the workers pull the ropes in a collaborative and consistent manner. Hence, the workers can pull the cart while avoiding collision with the crowd agents and surrounding static objects. In the stage of animation generation, we assign the policies deliberately to the workers and the crowd agents so that they interact with each other naturally. We conducted experiments on animal characters and the system could produce animations of characters with diverse behaviors.
Coordinated operation strategies for natural gas and power systems in presence of gas‐related flexibilities

A detailed investigation of the interaction between natural gas and power systems is necessary, due to the increasing interdependency of these vectors, especially in the context of renewable generations integration growth into the grid. In this study, an outer approximation with an equality relaxation decomposition method is proposed to solve a mixed-integer non-linear problem representing the operation of coupled natural gas and power systems. The proposed coupled modelling of natural gas and power systems is compared to decoupled operational modelling. It is demonstrated that operating gas and electricity as a coupled system resulted in about 7% of operational cost savings. In addition, the value of gas-related flexibility options, including flexible gas compressors, flexible gas generation plants, and gas interconnections, to the operation of natural gas and power systems is quantified for a 2030 GB energy system. It is shown that if the natural gas and power systems are flexible enough, the operation of the systems in the decoupled approach is almost the same as the coupled model and therefore there is no need to reform the current energy market framework to make the systems fully coupled.
Event-based, Direct Camera Tracking from a Photometric 3D Map using Nonlinear Optimization

Event cameras are novel bio-inspired vision sensors that output pixel-level intensity changes, called “events”, instead of traditional video images. These asynchronous sensors naturally respond to motion in the scene with very low latency (microseconds) and have a very high dynamic range. These features, along with a very low power consumption, make event cameras an ideal sensor for fast robot localization and wearable applications, such as AR/VR and gaming. Considering these applications, we present a method to track the 6-DOF pose of an event camera in a known environment, which we contemplate to be described by a photometric 3D map (i.e., intensity plus depth information) built via classic dense 3D reconstruction algorithms. Our approach uses the raw events, directly, without intermediate features, within a maximum-likelihood framework to estimate the camera motion that best explains the events via a generative model. We successfully evaluate the method using both simulated and real data, and show improved results over the state of the art. We release the datasets to the public to foster reproducibility and research in this topic.
Characterizing Temperature Variability States Across Southern South America and Associated Synoptic-Scale Meteorological Patterns

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. For more information, please contact pdxscholar@pdx.edu. Recommended Citation Detzer, Judah Adam, "Characterizing Temperature Variability States Across Southern South America and Associated Synoptic-Scale Meteorological Patterns" (2018). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 4679.
Sensorless Position Estimation for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Linear Motor with Variable Coupling Length

Affected by the structure size of a permanent magnet synchronous linear motor, the coupling length of the mover and stator will change when the relative motion occurs. This paper analyzes the influence of the linear motor coupling length change on the position estimation accuracy of the position sensorless algorithm and proposes a Gauss-Newton iterative method to estimate the position. Compared with the existing high-frequency injection method, the proposed method is unaffected by the change of the coupling length, has strong robustness to the change of inductance parameters, and can obtain high position accuracy in the entire motion stroke. In this paper, the finite element method is used to analyze the variation law of the inductance parameter caused by the change of the coupling length, and the influence of the change of the inductance parameter on the position estimation accuracy of the position sensorless algorithm. The high-frequency differential current is obtained by the stationary reference frame high-frequency square-waveform injection method and difference processing, Moreover, the fast Fourier transform in the position domain is carried out to obtain the high-frequency differential current model function. The Gauss-Newton iterative method is used to obtain the estimated position of the linear motor in the entire motion stroke by estimating the position of each position sampling point. Lastly, the position accuracy of the proposed method and the traditional phase-locked loop method is compared and verified through experiments, and the corresponding conclusions are drawn.
Effectiveness of methylene blue photosensitizers compared to that of corticosteroids in the management of oral lichen planus: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This study aimed to systematically review the effectiveness of methylene blue (MB) photosensitizers in the management of symptomatic oral lichen planus (OLP). Electronic online databases and manual searches were performed for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English between January 2010 and February 2022. RCTs comparing photodynamic therapy (PDT) and corticosteroid therapy at baseline and follow-up period were identified. The Cochrane risk of bias tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. A meta-analysis was performed regarding visual analog scale (VAS) scores, Thongprasom sign scores, lesion size, response to treatment, and exacerbation of lesions after therapy. The clinical severity was analyzed qualitatively. Five RCTs consisting of 180 samples fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria. All parameters of VAS score, Thongprasom sign score, lesion size, and response to treatment were statistically non-significant. Our results indicate that both MB-PDT and corticosteroid therapy are effective for the management of OLP. Moreover, MB-PDT is an effective alternative treatment option for OLP when corticosteroids are contraindicated. However, conclusive evidence cannot be ascertained owing to the heterogeneity among the studies.
Synthesis , Characterization and Anti-Microbial Activities on Polyaniline-CdTiO 3 Nanocomposite

Conducting polyaniline-inorganic nanocomposite (PINC) is applied in various fields via electrotherapy, electro-magnetic materials for monitoring health, antimicrobial clothing, data transfer in smart textiles, biosensors and for defence technology. In the present study, polyaniline (Pani) and its nanocomposites with TiO2 and CdTiO3 in 1 M H2SO4 medium were prepared using ammonium perdisulphate (APS) as an oxidizing agent. The polymerization yield was noted. The conductivities of the samples were measured by four probe method. The spectral properties of EPR, UV-Visible and FTIR were studied to confirm the chemical structure of Pani and its nanocomposites. The sharp peaks in the XRD show that Pani-SO4/TiO2 and Pani-SO4/CdTiO3 have enhanced crystallinity. The particle size was evaluated using Debye-Scherrer's formula and the average crystalline size of Pani-SO4 and its nanocomposites were found to be 53, 46 and 42 nm, respectively. The SEM studies were supported that the polymer samples were in homogeneity. The polymer samples were examined for antibacterial activities against Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria such as more activity against Streptococcus faecalis and Bacillus subtilis and lesser activity against Klebsilla pneumonae, Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris and Pseudomonas aeruginosa comparative to standard chloramphenicol. The antibacterial activities were evaluated by measuring the zone of inhibition. It is found that Pani-SO4 /CdTiO3 has higher antimicrobial activity than Pani-SO4 and Pani-SO4/TiO2. This information is useful to the potential application of nanocomposites in fabrics incorporated with antibacterial agents as a prophylactic use against bacterial skin infections in the near future. Keyword: Polyaniline; nanocomposite; conductivity; spectral properties; anti-microbial activity
Fluoxetine for the Treatment of Childhood and Adolescence Social Phobia : Factors playing a role in Efficacy

Amaç: Bu çalışmanın amacı 7-17 yaş aralığındaki sosyal anksiyete bozukluğu (SAB) bulunan çocuk ve ergenlerde (n: 40) fluoksetinin 8. ve 12. haftalardaki etkinliğini araştırmak ve tedaviye yanıtı etkileyen faktörleri tespit etmektir. Yöntem: Çalışma natüralistik bir desende yapıldı ve sonuçlar geriye dönük olarak değerlendirildi. İlk başvuruda çocuklara Klinik Global İzlem Ölçeği, Çocuklar İçin Sosyal Anksiyete Ölçeği, Çocuklar için Sosyal Fobi ÖlçeğiYenilenmiş (ÇİSFÖ-Y) ve annelere Liebowitz Sosyal Fobi Belirtileri Ölçeği uygulandı. 8 ve 12. haftalarda hastalar Klinik Global İzlem Ölçeği ile değerlendirildi ve olgular ÇİSFÖ-Y’yi doldurdular. Bulgular: Fluoksetin SAB’de anlamlı olarak etkili bulunmuş ve hastalar tarafından iyi bir şekilde tolere edilmiştir. Olumlu etkisinin zaman içerisinde arttığı görülmüştür. En iyi lineer kombinasyonu belirlemek amacıyla eşlik eden anksiyete bozukluğu varlığı, temel ÇİSFÖ-Y puanları, SAB’nin süresi, maternal sosyal anksiyete skoru, depresyon ve anksiyete bozuklukları için aile öyküsü için bir çoklu regresyon modeli oluşturulmuştur. 12. haftadaki ÇİSFÖ-Y puanlarında bu değişkenler kombinasyonu için anlamlı bir farklılık saptandı F(6,99)=91.5, p:0.01. Sonuç: Bu çalışmanın bulguları çocuk ve ergenlerdeki sosyal anksiyete bozukluğunda fluoksetin kullanımının etkin ve güvenilir olduğunu göstermiştir. Sonuçlara göre, küçük yaşın, düşük bazal sosyal anksiyete skorunun, ailede depresyon veya anksiyete bozukluğu öyküsü olmamasının, annenin sosyal anksiyete skorunun düşük olmasının daha iyi tedavi yanıtıyla ilişkili olduğu bulunmuştur. Öte yandan, örtüşen anksiyete belirtileri var olmaya devam etse de, komorbid anksiyete bozukluğu olan çocuk ve ergenlerde sosyal anksiyete bozukluğunun iyileşme olasılığı daha yüksek bulunmuştur.
Seed coat fragment counting and sizing in card web

Le CIRAD-CA a developpe une methode pour differentier les varietes de coton sur leur quantite de fragments de coques de graines sur le fil en utilisant un regularimetre GGP Uster. Les resultats indiquent une forte heritabilite du caractere, mais la fabrication du fil de coton est trop couteuse pour etre employee en selection. Une nouvelle methode, utilisant l'analyse d'image, a donc ete developpee pour compter et mesurer les fragments sur les voiles de carde de coton. Les comptages faits sur voiles ont ete compares a ceux obtenus avec le regularimetre Uster III sur des fils de titres 20 tex, 27 tex et 37 tex sur 30 varietes de coton. Le nombre de fragments sur le fil peut etre predit avec un coefficient de determination d'au moins 80 %