Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emotion Work On The Home-Front: The Special Case Of Military Wives

This research includes interviews with twelve military wives to examine emotionwork techniques used to negotiate the everyday life of wives during their husbands’ deployment. In this study, I seek to better understand the ways in which military wives negotiate their feelings within a context of military masculinity and how they manage role strain, feelings of loneliness, isolation, and marginalization. In addition, I examine the cultural constructs available to wives, such as traditional gender roles and subordination. Interviews confirm the complexity of the life of the military wife, revealing challenges of contradictory emotions in relationship to the military, her husband, her family, and the war in Iraq. Findings reveal that military wives engage in significant emotion work to support their husbands during deployment. Findings also identify the support structures that military wives either enjoy or lack during deployment, their views toward soldiers versus the bureaucratic structure of the military, and their participation in the moral order of military communities through patriotism. Suggestions for future studies are presented, as more research is needed to deepen our understanding of the isolation and marginalization of life for military spouses.
Effect of Early Enteral Nutrition on Clinical Outcomes in an Intensive Care Unit

unit. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of early enteral nutrition on clinical outcomes in medical patients admitted to the intensive care unit. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was performed on 94 patients admitted to the medical intensive care unit (ICU). The patients were divided into two groups according to nutrition onset. Enteral nutrition for group one was started within the first 48 hours of admission to the ICU and group two received enteral nutrition after the third day of admission to the ICU. Patients were monitored for ICU length of stay, organ failure (SOFA score), aspiration pneumonia, duration of mechanical ventilation and mortality. Results: The average daily caloric intake between the two groups did not differ significantly (P = 0.4). Both groups received more than 75% of the calculated required calorie. The mean duration of hospitalization, occurrences of organ failure and mortality were lower in patients who received their calculated daily nutrition during the first 48 hours of admission (P < 0.05). Regarding ventilator-associated pneumonia, there was no significant difference between the two groups of early and late enteral nutrition. There was no significant difference between the two groups of early and late nutrition in the duration of mechanical ventilation. Logistic regression analysis showed that late nutrition causes a 3.3 times increase in mortality rate, 1.3 times in the length of ICU stay and 1.8 times in organ failure (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Early enteral nutrition within 24 to 48 hours of admission to ICU reduces the duration of hospitalization, organ failure and mortality of the medical patients.
A microfluidic gas analyzer for selective detection of biomarker gases

We report fabricating a microfluidic device that selectively detects biomarker gases. It consists of a microfluidic channel and a semiconductor gas sensor integrated on a PMMA chip. Biomarker gases are identified by monitoring their transient molecular diffusion-driven flow in a microfluidic channel using a semiconductor gas sensor. Analyte-dependent specific features of the sensor response patterns are extracted, which facilitate analyte classification in a 3-D feature space. The ability of the device to distinguish four different gas biomarkers, including acetone, hydrogen, ethanol and benzene, in a wide concentration range, is demonstrated. The miniaturized gas analyzer presented is versatile and cost effective.
Purification of Neuronal Cell Surface Proteins and Generation of Epitope‐Specific Monoclonal Antibodies Against Cell Adhesion Molecules

Abstract: To establish a procedure for the purification of a broad spectrum of cell surface proteins, three separate methods based on different principles were compared with the aid of four marker proteins. Membrane preparation by sedimentation–flotation centrifugation, temperature‐induced phase separation with Triton X‐114, and lectin affinity chromatography were used separately as well as in combination. The two‐step procedure of membrane preparation and lectin affinity chromatography provided by far the best enrichment of cell surface marker proteins. This result was further substantiated by screening >6,600 hybridoma cultures that originated from mice that had been immunized with protein fractions obtained by different purification protocols. In addition, it was found that solubilized glycoproteins used as immunogens led to many more cell surface‐specific monoclonal antibodies than glycoproteins immobilized on lectinagarose beads. Three monoclonal antibodies that recognize distinct epitopes of cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) were isolated. Monoclonal antibody C4 bound to a detergent‐labile epitope of G4 (neuron–glia CAM). Monoclonal antibody D1 recognized specifically nonreduced neural CAM (N‐CAM) with intact disulfide bridges, and monoclonal antibody D3 recognized only the 180‐kilodalton isoform of N‐CAM. Because of these specificities, these monoclonal antibodies promise to be useful tools for the elucidation of the structural organization of adhesion molecules.
A cooperation-driven ICN-based caching scheme for mobile content chunk delivery at RAN

In order to resolve the tension between continuously growing mobile users' demands on content access and the scarcity of the bandwidth capacity over backhaul links, we propose in this paper a fully distributed ICN-based caching scheme for content objects in Radio Access Network (RAN) at eNodeBs. Such caching scheme operates in a cooperative way within neighbourhoods, aiming to reduce cache redundancy so as to improve the diversity of content distribution. The caching decision logic at individual eNodeBs allows for adaptive caching, by taking into account dynamic context information, such as content popularity and availability. The efficiency of the proposed distributed caching scheme is evaluated via extensive simulations, which show great performance gains, in terms of a substantial reduction of backhaul content traffic as well as great improvement on the diversity of content distribution, etc.
Response to the Commentary of Richard W. Moodey

It’s good to see that Richard Moodey readily agrees with my differentiation of experience-in-itself from conscious experience in my first essay, “Panexperientialism”; however, he would also like to differentiate experience-in-itself from non-conscious experience, as well as be more specific with a number of terms that I lumped generically together. I would say that if experience is not conscious experience than it can only be non-conscious (or unconscious or preconscious experience). I cannot conceive of any experience that is neither conscious nor unconscious. We ourselves have created that dichotomy and, though there may be many vague degrees of partially conscious or unconscious experience, surely all experience can be classified within this continuum. Of course “consciousness without a mind” and “experience without an experiencer” seem contradictory on first reading, but, again, I see them as fundamentally equivalent to the idea of non-conscious (unconscious or preconscious) experience, which also seems contradictory on first glance. I presume that being aware, i.e., conscious (if you must), but having no central perspective like that which we refer to as a “mind” is consciousness-without-a-mind or consciousness-without-a-self and I see that as equivalent to non-conscious experience, or close enough to make my point. The same thing applies to experience-without-an-experiencer. Experience is happening but there may be no central entity that is “having” the experience. How is this possible? I maintain that experience is relational; in its early, most rudimentary stages it takes place in what might be described as frictional sensation wherever parts of a dynamic field or system encounter each other, or when parts of two separate dynamic fields or systems encounter each other. Such friction is felt as sensation only locally, at the place where the two foreign elements meet, so there is no central experiencer, yet that local encounter will affect the behaviour of the whole system(s). When such localized sensations become remembered where they occurred and perhaps anticipated, the entire system/field may come to recognize them. At that instant, I would suggest that the amorphous system or field becomes an entity in the world, for that recognition of previously displaced sensation internalizes the feeling as one of belonging to the whole. At that point, experience has created experiencers, and fields have produced entities (that may or may not become organisms). I equate non-conscious experience with “core consciousness” simply because the definition perfectly describes what I mean. Wikipedia (2010) states: “In biological psychology the core consciousness describes a hypothesized level of awareness facilitated by neural structures of most animals that allows them to be aware of and
Practical Swarm Optimization based Fault-Tolerance Algorithm for the Internet of Things

The fault-tolerance routing problem is one of the most important issues in the application of the Internet of Things, and has been attracting growing research interests. In order to maintain the communication paths from source sensors to the macronodes, we present a hybrid routing scheme and model, in which alternate paths are created once the previous routing is broken. Then, we propose an improved efficient and intelligent fault-tolerance algorithm (IEIFTA) to provide the fast routing recovery and reconstruct the network topology for path failure in the Internet of Things. In the IEIFTA, mutation direction of the particle is determined by multi-swarm evolution equation, and its diversity is improved by the immune mechanism, which can improve the ability of global search and improve the converging rate of the algorithm. The simulation results indicate that the IEIFTA-based fault-tolerance algorithm outperforms the EARQ algorithm and the SPSOA algorithm due to its ability of fast routing recovery mechanism and prolonging the lifetime of the Internet of Things.
Multi resolution medical image registration using maximization of mutual information & optimization by genetic algorithm

Biomedical image registration or geometrical alignment of 2-D/2-D image data is increasingly important in diagnosis, treatment planning, computer-guided therapies and in biomedical research. In this paper we present affine registration of same modality images and different (MR & CT) modality images. Automatic registration is achieved by maximization of a similarity metric, which is mutual information (MI) or relative entropy, based on the concept of information theory. Registration based on MI usually requires an optimization technique to achieve correctly aligned images. There exist many optimization schemes, most of which are local and require a starting point. Unfortunately the functions of similarity metric used in the present problem are nonconvex and irregular and therefore global methods are often required. In this paper, we have implemented genetic algorithm as an optimization technique to overcome these problems. Experimental results show our algorithm is a robust and efficient method.
α-Dystroglycan Is a Laminin Receptor Involved in Extracellular Matrix Assembly on Myotubes and Muscle Cell Viability

α-Dystroglycan (α-DG) is a laminin-binding protein and member of a glycoprotein complex associated with dystrophin that has been implicated in the etiology of several muscular dystrophies. To study the function of DG, C2 myoblasts were transfected stably with an antisense DG expression construct. Myotubes from two resulting clones (11F and 11E) had at least a 40–50% and 80–90% reduction, respectively, in α-DG but normal or near normal levels of α-sarcoglycan, integrin β1 subunit, acetylcholine receptors (AChRs), and muscle-specific kinase (MuSK) when compared with parental C2 cells or three clones (11A, 9B, and 10C) which went through the same transfection and selection procedures but expressed normal levels of α-DG. Antisense DG-expressing myoblasts proliferate at the same rate as parental C2 cells and differentiate into myotubes, however, a gradual loss of cells was observed in these cultures. This loss correlates with increased apoptosis as indicated by greater numbers of nuclei with condensed chromatin and more nuclei labeled by the TUNEL method. Moreover, there was no sign of increased membrane permeability to Trypan blue as would be expected with necrosis. Unlike parental C2 myotubes, 11F and 11E myotubes had very little laminin (LN) on their surfaces; LN instead tended to accumulate on the substratum between myotubes. Exogenous LN bound to C2 myotubes and was redistributed into plaques along with α-DG on their surfaces but far fewer LN/α-DG plaques were seen after LN addition to 11F or 11E myotubes. These results suggest that α-DG is a functional LN receptor in situ which is required for deposition of LN on the cell and, further, implicate α-DG in the maintenance of myotube viability.
Effects of Gender on North Carolina Community College Boards of Trustees' Perceptions of Community College Presidents

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to compare the effects of gender on the perceptions that members of the boards of trustees of community colleges have of community college presidents. This study was guided by two research questions; the first one comparing the participants’ perceptions of the male and female leader with the leader’s gender acting as the sole independent variable; the second one examining the interaction effect of the participant’s gender and the leader’s gender on the participant’s perception of the leader. Twelve boards of trustees within the North Carolina Community College System self-selected to participate. Participants read a brief vignette depicting a community college president exhibiting a transformational leadership style then evaluated that leader using the three Outcomes of Leadership subscales of the MLQ – 5X Short: extra effort (EE), effectiveness (EFF), and satisfaction (SAT). Half the boards of trustees received a vignette and survey depicting a male leader and half received a vignette and survey depicting a female leader. One hundred forty-seven surveys were distributed. Ninety-four surveys were returned. Data analyzed using MANOVAs and ANOVA revealed that, while both male and female participants rated the female president lower than the male president on all three subscales, the difference was not statistically significant; resulting in a failure to reject all null hypotheses.
Transient Shielding of Intimin and the Type III Secretion System of Enterohemorrhagic and Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli by a Group 4 Capsule

ABSTRACT Enterohemorrhagic and enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EHEC and EPEC, respectively) strains represent a major global health problem. Their virulence is mediated by the concerted activity of an array of virulence factors including toxins, a type III protein secretion system (TTSS), pili, and others. We previously showed that EPEC O127 forms a group 4 capsule (G4C), and in this report we show that EHEC O157 also produces a G4C, whose assembly is dependent on the etp, etk, and wzy genes. We further show that at early time points postinfection, these G4Cs appear to mask surface structures including intimin and the TTSS. This masking inhibited the attachment of EPEC and EHEC to tissue-cultured epithelial cells, diminished their capacity to induce the formation of actin pedestals, and attenuated TTSS-mediated protein translocation into host cells. Importantly, we found that Ler, a positive regulator of intimin and TTSS genes, represses the expression of the capsule-related genes, including etp and etk. Thus, the expression of TTSS and G4C is conversely regulated and capsule production is diminished upon TTSS expression. Indeed, at later time points postinfection, the diminishing capsule no longer interferes with the activities of intimin and the TTSS. Notably, by using the rabbit infant model, we found that the EHEC G4C is required for efficient colonization of the rabbit large intestine. Taken together, our results suggest that temporal expression of the capsule, which is coordinated with that of the TTSS, is required for optimal EHEC colonization of the host intestine.
Prediction models for dynamic demand response: Requirements, challenges, and insights

As Smart Grids move closer to dynamic curtailment programs, Demand Response (DR) events will become necessary not only on fixed time intervals and weekdays predetermined by static policies, but also during changing decision periods and weekends to react to real-time demand signals. Unique challenges arise in this context vis-a-vis demand prediction and curtailment estimation and the transformation of such tasks into an automated, efficient dynamic demand response (D2R) process. While existing work has concentrated on increasing the accuracy of prediction models for DR, there is a lack of studies for prediction models for D2R, which we address in this paper. Our first contribution is the formal definition of D2R, and the description of its challenges and requirements. Our second contribution is a feasibility analysis of very-short-term prediction of electricity consumption for D2R over a diverse, large-scale dataset that includes both small residential customers and large buildings. Our third, and major contribution is a set of insights into the predictability of electricity consumption in the context of D2R. Specifically, we focus on prediction models that can operate at a very small data granularity (here 15-min intervals), for both weekdays and weekends - all conditions that characterize scenarios for D2R. We find that short-term time series and simple averaging models used by Independent Service Operators and utilities achieve superior prediction accuracy. We also observe that workdays are more predictable than weekends and holiday. Also, smaller customers have large variation in consumption and are less predictable than larger buildings. Key implications of our findings are that better models are required for small customers and for non-workdays, both of which are critical for D2R. Also, prediction models require just few days' worth of data indicating that small amounts of historical training data can be used to make reliable predictions, simplifying the complexity of big data challenge associated with D2R.
Maximum likelihood array processing in spatially correlated noise fields using parameterized signals

This paper deals with the problem of estimating signal parameters using an array of sensors. This problem is of interest in a variety of applications, such as radar and sonar source localization. A vast number of estimation techniques have been proposed in the literature during the past two decades. Most of these can deliver consistent estimates only if the covariance matrix of the background noise is known. In many applications, the aforementioned assumption is unrealistic. Recently, a number of contributions have addressed the problem of signal parameter estimation in unknown noise environments based on various assumptions on the noise. Herein, a different approach is taken. We assume instead that the signals are partially known. The received signals are modeled as linear combinations of certain known basis functions. The exact maximum likelihood (ML) estimator for the problem at hand is derived, as well as computationally more attractive approximation. The Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRB) on the estimation error variance is also derived and found to coincide with the CRB, assuming an arbitrary deterministic model and known noise covariance.
Linkage disequilibrium estimates of contemporary Ne using highly variable genetic markers: a largely untapped resource for applied conservation and evolution

Genetic methods are routinely used to estimate contemporary effective population size (Ne) in natural populations, but the vast majority of applications have used only the temporal (two‐sample) method. We use simulated data to evaluate how highly polymorphic molecular markers affect precision and bias in the single‐sample method based on linkage disequilibrium (LD). Results of this study are as follows: (1) Low‐frequency alleles upwardly bias , but a simple rule can reduce bias to
Vocal cues of ovulation in human females

Recent research has documented a variety of ovulatory cues in humans, and in many nonhuman species, the vocal channel provides cues of reproductive state. We collected two sets of vocal samples from 69 normally ovulating women: one set during the follicular (high-fertility) phase of the cycle and one set during the luteal (low-fertility) phase, with ovulation confirmed by luteinizing hormone tests. In these samples we measured fundamental frequency (pitch), formant dispersion, jitter, shimmer, harmonics-to-noise ratio and speech rate. When speaking a simple introductory sentence, women's pitch increased during high- as compared with low-fertility, and this difference was the greatest for women whose voices were recorded on the two highest fertility days within the fertile window (the 2 days just before ovulation). This pattern did not occur when the same women produced vowels. The high- versus low-fertility difference in pitch was associated with the approach of ovulation and not menstrual onset, thus representing, to our knowledge, the first research to show a specific cyclic fertility cue in the human voice. We interpret this finding as evidence of a fertility-related enhancement of femininity consistent with other research documenting attractiveness-related changes associated with ovulation.
SG2-Type R2R3-MYB Transcription Factor MYB15 Controls Defense-Induced Lignification and Basal Immunity in Arabidopsis

SG2-type R2R3-MYB transcription factor MYB15 regulates preformed and inducible Arabidopsis defense through the production of antimicrobial coumarin scopoletin and G-rich lignin, respectively. Lignification of cell wall appositions is a conserved basal defense mechanism in the plant innate immune response. However, the genetic pathway controlling defense-induced lignification remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate the Arabidopsis thaliana SG2-type R2R3-MYB transcription factor MYB15 as a regulator of defense-induced lignification and basal immunity. Loss of MYB15 reduces the content but not the composition of defense-induced lignin, whereas constitutive expression of MYB15 increases lignin content independently of immune activation. Comparative transcriptional and metabolomics analyses implicate MYB15 as necessary for the defense-induced synthesis of guaiacyl lignin and the basal synthesis of the coumarin metabolite scopoletin. MYB15 directly binds to the secondary wall MYB-responsive element consensus sequence, which encompasses the AC elements, to drive lignification. The myb15 and lignin biosynthetic mutants show increased susceptibility to the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas syringae, consistent with defense-induced lignin having a major role in basal immunity. A scopoletin biosynthetic mutant also shows increased susceptibility independently of immune activation, consistent with a role in preformed defense. Our results support a role for phenylalanine-derived small molecules in preformed and inducible Arabidopsis defense, a role previously dominated by tryptophan-derived small molecules. Understanding the regulatory network linking lignin biosynthesis to plant growth and defense will help lignin engineering efforts to improve the production of biofuels and aromatic industrial products as well as increase disease resistance in energy and agricultural crops.