Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autocrine/Paracrine Function of Globular Adiponectin: Inhibition of Lipid Metabolism and Inflammatory Response in 3T3‐L1 Adipocytes

Adiponectin is an adipose‐derived hormone, with beneficial effects on insulin sensitivity and inflammation. The aim of this study was to clarify the autocrine/paracrine effects of globular adiponectin (gAd) administrated during differentiation on the function of the mature adipocytes. Experiments were performed on 3T3‐L1 preadipocytes treated with gAd (10 nM), starting at an early stage of differentiation. gAd treatment during differentiation was without effect on mRNA expression of adiponectin and AdipoR2, but increased AdipoR1 expression. PPARgamma, perillipin and FABP4 mRNA expressions were lower in gAd‐treated adipocytes, accompanied by a reduction in lipid accumulation. While mRNA expression of HSL was not affected by gAd compared to untreated adipocytes, both ATGL and FAS were reduced, indicating that gAd regulates both lipolysis and lipogenesis. PPARα, ACOX2 and UCPs mRNA expressions were not affected by gAd, indicating that the reduction in lipid content is not attributed to an increase in fatty‐acid oxidation. In accord with the lower PPARγ expression, there was reduced Glut4 mRNA expression; however, insulin‐induced PKB phosphorylation was enhanced by gAd, and glucose uptake was not altered. To investigate the effect of gAd on LPS‐induced inflammatory response, cells were treated with gAd either during differentiation or 24 h before induction of inflammation in differentiated adipocytes. LPS‐induced inflammatory response, as indicated by increase in IL6 and MCP‐1 mRNA expression. gAd given through differentiation was much more effective in abrogating LPS‐dependent cytokines production than gAd given to the mature adipocyte. In conclusion, elevated gAd at differentiation of 3T3‐L1 cells leads to reduced lipid content, reduced lipid metabolism and high resistance to inflammation. J. Cell. Biochem. 116: 754–766, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Regulating child care: from the Children Act 1948 to the present day

This article reflects selectively on the development of the legal regulation of child care practice in England and Wales since the Children Act 1948. Two main themes are identified: the burgeoning burden of the statutory responsibilities of local authorities throughout the period, and the controls more recently imposed on the discretionary exercise of statutory powers. The impact of the latter on particular areas of practice is discussed within the context of the growing influence of international treaty obligations, the concept of children's rights, and the outcomes of research on the legal framework of child care practice.
Design Principles for Iterated Hash Functions

This paper deals with the security of iterated hash functions against generic attacks, such as, e.g., Joux’ multicollision attacks from Crypto 04 [6]. The core idea is to increase the size of the internal state of an n-bit hash function to w > n bit. Variations of this core idea allow the use of a compression function with n output bits, even if the compression function itself is based on a block cipher. In a formal model, it is shown that these modifications quantifiably improve the security of iterated hash functions against generic attacks.
Effects of Gender, Socioeconomic Status, and Early Academic Performance on Postsecondary Educational Choice

National data were used to study the effects of gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and 4 types of eighth-grade academic performance on postsecondary educational choices at late adolescence. Educational choices were classified by predominant Holland type (R, I, A, S, E, C). Gender had strongest independent influences on educational choice. Gender also interacted with SES and academic performance. Relationships between SES and educational choice were stronger for women than for men. For women, eighth-grade reading scores were the strongest predictor of educational choice, whereas for men, mathematics scores were the strongest predictor. Implications for theory and counseling practice are discussed.
The effect of background babble on working memory in young and middle-aged adults.

BACKGROUND Background noise has been found to negatively affect working memory. Numerous studies have also found that older adults perform more poorly on working memory tasks than young adults (YA). Hearing status has often been a confounding factor in older individuals. Therefore, it would be beneficial to investigate working memory functions in adverse listening conditions early in the aging process (i.e., middle-age), when hearing function is relatively unaffected. PURPOSE The focus of this study was to determine the influence of background babble on working memory in YA and middle-aged adults (MA) with normal hearing. RESEARCH DESIGN Before testing was begun, we established that all participants could correctly identify words in a degraded experimental testing environment with 100% accuracy. Then, the participants listened to lists composed of five pairs of words in quiet and in 20-talker babble. After the final word pair, the participants were cued with the first word of one of the previous five word pairs. The participants were required to write down the second word of the pair. The percent correct scores for each of the five serial positions were analyzed comparing the two listening conditions for YA and MA. Ten YA and ten MA with normal hearing between 250-8000 Hz and a score of at least 26/30 on the Mini-Mental State Examination participated in the study. As different cognitive processes are used for initial, middle, and final serial positions, averaged scores were obtained for Positions 2 and 3 and for Positions 4 and 5. Subsequently, repeated-measures analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were conducted on mean scores of correctly recalled word pairs with serial positions (initial, middle, and final) and listening condition (quiet, babble) as the within-participant variables and age group (YA, MA) as the between-participant independent variable. This OMNIBUS repeated-measures ANOVA was then followed up with separate repeated-measures ANOVAS for the initial, middle, and final positions. RESULTS Correct recall scores were lower for early positions compared with the latter positions, irrespective of listening condition. For Position 1, YA-but not MA-performed significantly better in babble than in quiet. For the middle positions (Positions 2 and 3), MA performed significantly more poorly than the YA irrespective of listening condition. For the final positions (Positions 4 and 5), no age differences or effects of listening condition were found. CONCLUSIONS The results indicate that both YA and MA have trouble recalling earlier pieces of information in quiet and in babble. However, MA exhibited significantly poorer recall scores than YA in babble for Position 1, which suggest that cognitive processes related to memory encoding and retrieval are different in background babble for MA and YA.
The Dopamine Hypothesis of Schizophrenia: An Historical and Philosophical Analysis

Abstract:The dopamine (DA) hypothesis of schizophrenia (DHS) has, since its inception over 30 years ago, been among the most prominent etiologic theories in psychiatry. This essay begins by summarizing the history of its emergence and efforts to empirically test it through the examination of (i) cerebrospinal fluid DA metabolites, (ii) neuroendocrine measures, (iii) clinical response to psychostimulants, (iv) brain levels of DA and its metabolites, (v) brain studies of DA receptors, and (vi) genetic association studies. We then examine how successful the DHS has been and by what criteria its performance should be evaluated. In this process, it is critical to distinguish the etiological DHS from the pharmacological DA hypothesis of neuroleptic action. Although the DHS stimulated much science, most efforts to empirically validate it have failed, in contrast with the well-supported pharmacological DA hypothesis of neuroleptic action. Nonetheless, the DHS has held the status of a scientific paradigm defended by some with great avidity. Like other temporally extended theories, the DHS in its most general form is relatively nonspecific and protean in nature. In its evolution through successive more specific forms, often embodying ad hoc modifications of subsidiary hypotheses, it became very difficult to falsify. Although stimulating much research, it has not produced a progressive research program generating various novel and confirmed predictions about schizophrenia. For most of its history, the DHS has lacked a viable competing alternative theory against which it could be incisively compared. Sociological factors, especially the rise to prominence of the biological psychiatry movement, and the conflation of the DHS and the DA theory of antipsychotic drug action have probably played an important role in its persistence. Psychiatry needs theories with higher levels of specificity and falsifiability. As the science of psychiatry matures, the field needs to become more self-critical about the validity of its theories.
Schedule a Rich Sentimental Travel via Sentimental POI Mining and Recommendation

Trip is an important part of people's lives. We need to obtain interesting location information quickly and conveniently from the huge amount of information. The existing data source of geographic locations can be divided into two categories. The one is users' information that we can utilize to deeply understand their trajectories, the other one is the characteristics and attributes of geographic locations. In this paper, we focus on sentimental attributes of location and propose a POI (Point-Of-Interest) Mining method. Firstly, we use SPM (Sentiment-based POI Mining) algorithm to mine the POIs (Points-Of-Interest) with obvious sentimental attributes, and then recommend the POIs to users by using SPR (Sentiment-based POI Recommendation) algorithm. We conduct a series of experiments in Sina Weibo dataset. The results show the effectiveness of our method.
Depth of anesthesia indicator using combination of complexity and frequency measures

Depth of anesthesia estimation with the Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a main current challenge in anesthesia studies. This paper proposes an original method founded on combination of permutation entropy and frequency measure to calculate an index, called Brain function index (BFI), to quantify depth of anesthesia. As EEG derived features characterize different aspects of EEG signal, it would be logical to utilize multiple features to evaluate the effect of anesthetic. Such a method implemented in the Saadat brain function assessment module (Saadat Co., Tehran, Iran). The BFI and commercial RE index as employed in the Datex-Ohmeda monitor are applied to EEG signals gathered from 18 patients during sevoflurane anesthesia. The results show that both BFI and RE indices track the changes in EEG especially at deep anesthesia state. However, the BFI index makes better response about the point of loss of consciousness and it can be derived with significantly less computational complexity. Taking into account the high accuracy of this method, an innovative EEG processing device may be extended to help the anesthetists to estimate the depth of anesthesia precisely.
Digital Image Watermarking in Robust Feature Region Set

image watermarking is widely used for copyright protection of digital information. The effectiveness of a digital watermarking technique is indicated by the robustness of embedded watermarks against various attacks. A new method for watermarking is suggested is feature based watermarking. For getting robust watermark, the watermark should be embedded in silent part of the data and for these significant features of data is used. In this paper few methods of feature extraction as Harris Laplacian, Laplacian-of-Gaussian, Susan, Gilles are applied for feature extraction. Robust Non overlapping regions against different attacks are selected for watermarking. Comparison for robust feature selection is done against different feature extraction methods. In next stage those regions are pruned to get minimal primary feature region set using pruning algorithm and watermark is embedded in selected regions and then again results of extracted watermark is compared against different feature selection methods for robustness.
Neutralization of ciliary neurotrophic factor reduces astrocyte production from transplanted neural stem cells and promotes regeneration of corticospinal tract fibers in spinal cord injury

Transplantation of neural stem cells (NSC) into lesioned spinal cord offers the potential to increase regeneration by replacing lost neurons or oligodendrocytes. The majority of transplanted NSC, however, typically differentiate into astrocytes that may exacerbate glial scar formation. Here we show that blocking of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) with anti‐CNTF antibodies after NSC transplant into spinal cord injury (SCI) resulted in a reduction of glial scar formation by 8 weeks. Treated animals had a wider distribution of transplanted NSC compared with the control animals. The NSC around the lesion coexpressed either nestin or markers for neurons, oligodendrocytes, or astrocytes. Approximately 20% fewer glial fibrillary acidic protein‐positive/bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)‐positive cells were seen at 2, 4, and 8 weeks postgrafting, compared with the control animals. Furthermore, more CNPase+/BrdU+ cells were detected in the treated group at 4 and 8 weeks. These CNPase+ or Rip+ mature oligodendrocytes were seen in close proximity to host corticospinal tract (CST) and 5HT+ serotonergic axon. We also demonstrate that the number of regenerated CST fibers both at the lesion and at caudal sites in treated animals was significantly greater than that in the control animals at 8 weeks. We suggest that the blocking of CNTF at the beginning of SCI provides a more favorable environment for the differentiation of transplanted NSC and the regeneration of host axons. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Limited Attention and Discourse Structure

Cet article examine le role de l'attention limitee dans un modele informatique de traitement du discours. Le modele de cache est propose comme une implementation informatique de la memoire de travail humaine ; les operations sur l'etat d'attention sont formulees comme des operations sur un cache. Puisqu'un cache peut etre utilise pour traiter les references et les operations d'un programme structure hierarchiquement, alors un cache peut etre utilise pour modeliser un etat d'attention quand les intentions du discours sont structures hierarchiquement
RESEARCH: Sanctification of Parenting: Links to Corporal Punishment and Parental Warmth Among Biblically Conservative and Liberal Mothers

A growing body of research has examined links between religious beliefs and parenting practices. This study used the theoretical construct of sanctification to examine the degree to which parenting holds spiritual significance and meaning for parents and whether sanctification is related to parenting behaviors. Seventy—four mothers completed questionnaires measuring sanctification of the parenting role, a biblical conservatism scale, and measures of parenting practices. Greater sanctification of parenting was associated with less use of verbal aggression and, to some extent, increased parental consistency. Biblical conservatism moderated the link between sanctification and (a) use of corporal punishment and (b) positive parent—child interactions. Specifically, greater sanctification of parenting was tied to decreased corporal punishment by mothers with liberal biblical beliefs but related to more use of corporal punishment among conservative mothers; greater sanctification was tied to increased positive mother—child interactions by mothers with conservative biblical views but did not alter the uniformly high rates of positivity reported by liberal mothers. Findings are integrated with theoretical work on sanctification and existing empirical research on religion and parenting.
The Antagonist Function of Arabidopsis WRKY53 and ESR/ESP in Leaf Senescence Is Modulated by the Jasmonic and Salicylic Acid Equilibrium

Crosstalk between salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) signaling is well-studied but not during leaf senescence. We found that the senescence-specific WRKY53 transcription factor interacts with the JA-inducible protein EPITHIOSPECIFYING SENESCENCE REGULATOR (ESR/ESP). The expression of these genes is antagonistically regulated in response to JA and SA, respectively, and each negatively influences the other. Leaf senescence is accelerated in ESR knockout plants (ESR-KO) but retarded in ESR overexpressors (ESR-OE), with the reverse true for WRKY53. ESR-OE showed higher resistance than ESR-KO to bacterial and fungal pathogens. However, pathogen resistance was not altered in WRKY53 overexpressors or knockouts (W53-KO), suggesting that ESR has a greater impact on WRKY53 function in senescence than WRKY53 on ESR function in pathogen resistance. ESR inhibits WRKY53 DNA binding in vitro, and their interaction is localized to the nucleus in vivo; however, ESR is exclusively in the cytoplasm in W53-KO cells, indicating that ESR is brought to the nucleus by the interaction. Therefore, ESR has dual functions: as cytoplasmic epithiospecifier and as negative regulator of WRKY53 in the nucleus. These results suggest that WRKY53 and ESR mediate negative crosstalk between pathogen resistance and senescence, which is most likely governed by the JA and SA equilibrium.
“Leading According to Need” in Self‐Organizing Groups

Self‐organizing‐system approaches have shed significant light on the mechanisms underlying synchronized movements by large groups of animals, such as shoals of fish, flocks of birds, or herds of ungulates. However, these approaches rarely consider conflicts of interest between group members, although there is reason to suppose that such conflicts are commonplace. Here, we demonstrate that, where conflicts exist, individual members of self‐organizing groups can, in principle, increase their influence on group movement destination by strategically changing simple behavioral parameters (namely, movement speed, assertiveness, and social attraction range). However, they do so at the expense of an increased risk of group fragmentation and a decrease in movement efficiency. We argue that the resulting trade‐offs faced by each group member render it likely that group movements are led by those members for which reaching a particular destination is most crucial or group cohesion is least important. We term this phenomenon leading according to “need” or “social indifference,” respectively. Both kinds of leading can occur in the absence of knowledge of or communication about the needs of other group members and without the assumption of altruistic cooperation. We discuss our findings in the light of observations on fish and other vertebrates.
A Survey of Checkpoint / Restart Implementations

In this paper we evaluate candidates for a checkpoint/restart implementation against a common set of requirements. Overall characteristics of the two main classes of checkpoint systems, library and system, are discussed followed by specific examples from existing systems. A detailed description of two system implementations is presented. We conclude that no single publically available implementation meets all requirements for a checkpoint/restart system for Linux clusters.
An optimization management strategy for energy efficiency of air conditioning loads in smart building

With the technological development of the smart grid, the demand response technology will be developed to enhance the security, stability and economy of power system to a great extent. The air conditioning load, as a kind of temperature controlled load, is a typical load that can be used for demand response. In this paper, an optimization management strategy of the air conditioning load is proposed, which can adapt to the seasonal temperature changes and increase the energy efficiency of smart buildings. First, we divided the control mode into two parts for summer and winter respectively, aiming at the peak load shifting and smooth the load curve. Secondly, the controlling process block is embed into the terminal control platform; Finally, an experimental system of energy efficiency optimization management has been developed as shown in the demonstration project, which indicates the feasibility of proposed strategy for load scheduling.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Encephalitis in HIV Patients

It is hypothesized that impaired CD4 cell functioning is attributable to viral replication. Most cases of CMV encephalitis occur when CD4 counts fall below 50, however patients may be predisposed to CMV infection prior to depletion of CD4 [1]. Previous opportunistic infections (OIs), a high level of CMV viremia, and high plasma HIV RNA levels (>100,000 copies/mL) are other reported risk factors [2].
Energy Balanced Non-Uniform Distribution Node Scheduling Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Node sleep scheduling is one of the most important methods to improve energy-constrained wireless sensor networks. Most existing approaches to solve this problem require sensors' location information, which may be impractical considering high positioning costs. In this paper, an energy balanced non-uniform distribution node scheduling algorithm (EBNDNS) is proposed and evaluated. This method needs distance between sensors instead of location information. A simple non-uniform distribution strategy is also proposed. Combined with this strategy, simulation results show that EBNDNS can relieve the "energy-hole" problem for the multi-hop communication and significantly prolong the lifetime of networks.
Context-based indoor object detection as an aid to blind persons accessing unfamiliar environments

Independent travel is a well known challenge for blind or visually impaired persons. In this paper, we propose a computer vision-based indoor wayfinding system for assisting blind people to independently access unfamiliar buildings. In order to find different rooms (i.e. an office, a lab, or a bathroom) and other building amenities (i.e. an exit or an elevator), we incorporate door detection with text recognition. First we develop a robust and efficient algorithm to detect doors and elevators based on general geometric shape, by combining edges and corners. The algorithm is generic enough to handle large intra-class variations of the object model among different indoor environments, as well as small inter-class differences between different objects such as doors and elevators. Next, to distinguish an office door from a bathroom door, we extract and recognize the text information associated with the detected objects. We first extract text regions from indoor signs with multiple colors. Then text character localization and layout analysis of text strings are applied to filter out background interference. The extracted text is recognized by using off-the-shelf optical character recognition (OCR) software products. The object type, orientation, and location can be displayed as speech for blind travelers.