Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of Racial Discrimination and Hostility on Adrenergic Receptor Responsiveness in African American Adults

Objective Racial discrimination is increasingly recognized as a contributor to increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among African Americans. Previous research has shown significant overlap between racial discrimination and hostility, an established predictor of CVD risk including alterations in adrenergic receptor functioning. The present study examined the associations of racial discrimination and hostility with adrenergic receptor responsiveness. Methods In a sample (N = 57) of young to middle-aged African American adults (51% female) with normal and mildly elevated blood pressure, a standardized isoproterenol sensitivity test (CD25) was used to evaluate &bgr;-AR responsiveness, whereas the dose of phenylephrine required to increase mean arterial pressure by 25 mm Hg (PD25) was used to assess &agr;1-AR responsiveness. Racial discrimination was measured using the Perceived Racism Scale and hostility was assessed using the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale. Results In hierarchical regression models, greater racial discrimination, but not hostility, emerged as a significant predictor of decreased &bgr;-adrenergic receptor responsiveness (&bgr; = .38, p = .004). However, moderation analysis revealed that the association between racial discrimination and blunted &bgr;-adrenergic receptor responsiveness was strongest among those with higher hostility (&bgr; = .49, 95% confidence interval = .17–.82, p = .004). In addition, hostility, but not racial discrimination, significantly predicted &agr;1-AR responsiveness. Conclusions These findings suggest racial discrimination was associated with blunted &bgr;-adrenergic receptor responsiveness, providing further evidence of the potential contribution of racial discrimination to increased CVD risk among African Americans. The adverse effects of discrimination on cardiovascular health may be enhanced in individuals with higher levels of hostility.
Strain hardening behaviour and the Taylor factor of pure magnesium

Taylor orientation factors for strain hardening in textured and random polycrystals of magnesium were derived from the ratio of the strain hardening rates of polycrystals to that of single crystals deforming by equivalent polyslip. For polycrystals with textures that inhibit basal and prismatic slip while favouring pyramidal polyslip, the Taylor factor is estimated to be between 2.1 and 2.5, increasing to about 4.5 for randomly textured polycrystals. The micromechanics of strain hardening in polycrystals are discussed.
D-Sempre: Learning Deep Semantic-Preserving Embeddings for User interests-Social Contents Modeling

Exponential growth of social media consumption demands effective user interests-social contents modeling for more personalized recommendation and social media summarization. However, due to the heterogeneous nature of social contents, traditional approaches lack the ability of capturing the hidden semantic correlations across these multi-modal data, which leads to semantic gaps between social content understanding and user interests. To effectively bridge the semantic gaps, we propose a novel deep learning framework for user interests-social contents modeling. We first mine and parse data, i.e. textual content, visual content, social context and social relation, from heterogeneous social media feeds. Then, we design a two-branch network to map the social contents and users into a same latent space. Particularly, the network is trained by a large margin objective that combines a cross-instance distance constraint with a within-instance semantic-preserving constraint in an end-to- end manner. At last, a Deep Semantic-Preserving Embedding (D-Sempre) is learned, and the ranking results can be given by calculating distances between social contents and users. To demonstrate the effectiveness of D-Sempre in user interests-social contents modeling, we construct a Twitter dataset and conduct extensive experiments on it. As a result, D-Sempre effectively integrates the multi-modal data from heterogeneous social media feeds and captures the hidden semantic correlations between users' interests and social contents.
Broader horizons for animal personality research

Personality is at the forefront of current behavioral ecological research. Most research concerns boldness, aggressiveness, activity, exploratory tendency, and sociability. However, many species may exhibit consistent variation in other traits, which the current research problematically misses. Exclusive adherence to the five traits ignores the possibility that other traits may be more consequential for a species and limits our understanding of the personality trait repertoire and the potentially complex associations among the usually sampled and other traits. Selecting personality traits based on species’ ecology is crucial for understanding the causes and consequences of personality, and assessing a broader range of personality traits yields a better understanding of the trait associations. Studying the five traits has been useful in delineating research methods and aims, but it is time to broaden the personality horizon.
A case for leveraging 802.11p for direct phone-to-phone communications

WiFi cannot effectively handle the demands of device-to-device communication between phones, due to insufficient range and poor reliability. We make the case for using IEEE 802.11p DSRC instead, which has been adopted for vehicle-to-vehicle communications, providing lower latency and longer range. We demonstrate a prototype motivated by a novel fabrication process that deposits both III-V and CMOS devices on the same die. In our system prototype, the designed RF front-end is interfaced with a baseband processor on an FPGA, connected to Android phones. It consumes 0.02uJ/bit across 100m assuming free space. Application-level power control dramatically reduces power consumption by 47-56%.
Regulation of C-Type Lectin Receptor-Mediated Antifungal Immunity

Of all the pathogen recognition receptor families, C-type lectin receptor (CLR)-induced intracellular signal cascades are indispensable for the initiation and regulation of antifungal immunity. Ongoing experiments over the last decade have elicited diverse CLR functions and novel regulatory mechanisms of CLR-mediated-signaling pathways. In this review, we highlight novel insights in antifungal innate and adaptive-protective immunity mediated by CLRs and discuss the potential therapeutic strategies against fungal infection based on targeting the mediators in the host immune system.
Blind Equalisation of High-Order QAM Channels Using a Fuzzy-Logic Tuned Constant Modulus Algorithm and Soft Decision-Directed Scheme

We consider blind equalisation for high-order quadrature amplitude modulation channels using a lowcomplexity high-performance concurrent constant modulus algorithm (CMA) and soft decision-directed (SDD) scheme. Instead of using a constant step size, we design a fuzzy-logic (FL) tuning unit to adjust the step size of the CMA. Simulation investigation confirms that faster convergence can be achieved with this FL assisted CMA and SDD scheme, compared with the constant step-size CMA and SDD scheme. Specifically, the former requires several thousands fewer samples to converge to the same steadystate solution achieved by the latter.
Influence of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion in the control of type 1 diabetes in children

Diabetes mellitus type 1 is the most frequent endocrinological chronic disease during childhood. Selfcare and the knowledge about this disease are the facts that are directly related to the reduction of health costs as well as the improvement of the life quality. The continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion pump (CSII) emulates the normal physiology and eliminates the need of continuous injections, remaining to determinate if this treatment contributes positively to the self-control of the diabetes. Didactic Materials and Methods: Retrospective cohort study. The data collection is made by a survey based on the NOC’s “Conocimiento: control de la diabetes” (Knowledge: diabetes control) and “Autocontrol diabetes” (Diabetes self-care) of all the children with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion pump (CSII) at the health area number 2 from the Region of Murcia, as well as to their homologous with multiple injection. To draw the results, the statistic program SPSS v21, was the one used. Results: The study subjects have an average age of 11 years, being the 60% male and 40% female. Statistical significance was not obtained concerning to the level of knowledge, self-control and HbA1c values between the exposed group (CSII) and nonexposed group (multiple injection), except for the diet monitoring, where there was obtained a connection with the CSII treatment (p=0.037). The age was also related to a knowledge increasement (p=0.001). Conclusion: Households units with children under 7 years with multiple injections should have a more intense training in order to reduce the anxiety and doubts of the parents.
Rapid Glucocorticoid Receptor-Mediated Inhibition of Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Ultradian Activity in Healthy Males

A complex dynamic ultradian rhythm underlies the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) circadian rhythm. We have investigated in normal human male subjects the importance, site of action, and receptor-mediated processes involved in rapid basal corticosteroid feedback and its interaction with corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH) drive. Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC), ACTH, and cortisol were measured every 10 min from healthy males during the awakening period or late afternoon using an automated blood sampling system. Mathematical modeling into discrete pulses of activity revealed that intravenous infusion of the synthetic mixed glucocorticoid/mineralocorticoid agonist prednisolone produced rapid inhibition of ACTH and cortisol pulsatility within 30 min in the morning and afternoon. Any pulse that had commenced at the time of injection was unaffected, and subsequent pulsatility was inhibited. Prednisolone also inhibited ACTH and cortisol secretion in response to exogenous CRH stimulation, inferring rapid feedback inhibition at the anterior pituitary. Circulating POMC peptide concentrations were unaffected, suggesting that the rapid corticosteroid inhibitory effect specifically targeted ACTH secretion from pituitary corticotrophs. Prednisolone fast feedback was only reduced by glucocorticoid receptor antagonist pretreatment and not by mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism, suggesting a glucocorticoid receptor-mediated pathway. The intravenous prednisolone suppression test provides a powerful new tool to investigate HPA abnormalities underlying metabolic and psychiatric disease states.
All-Carbon Electrodes for Flexible Solar Cells

Transparent electrodes based on carbon nanomaterials have recently emerged as new alternatives to indium tin oxide (ITO) or noble metal in organic photovoltaics (OPVs) due to their attractive advantages, such as long-term stability, environmental friendliness, high conductivity, and low cost. However, it is still a challenge to apply all-carbon electrodes in OPVs. Here, we report our efforts to develop all-carbon electrodes in organic solar cells fabricated with different carbon-based materials, including carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and graphene films synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Flexible and semitransparent solar cells with all-carbon electrodes are successfully fabricated. The best power conversion efficiency achieved for the devices with all-carbon electrodes is 0.63%, comparable to the reported performance of OPVs using pristine CVD graphene films as anodes on rigid substrates (glass). Moreover, the current densities of as-obtained devices are comparable to those assembled with all-carbon active layers and standard electrodes (e.g., ITO and metal), which indicates that the all-carbon electrodes made of CNT and graphene films are suitably effective for carrier collection and extraction. Our results present the feasibility and potential of applying all-carbon electrodes based on graphitic nanomaterials in next-generation carbon-based photovoltaics.
Diagnosis of Linitis Plastica–Type Gastric Adenocarcinoma by Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration

BACKGROUND The diagnosis of linitis plastica-type adenocarcinomas of the stomach has traditionally been made by brush cytology and mucosal biopsy. These techniques may yield false negative results due to the often submucosal location of these lesions. CASE A 46-year-old woman presented witb epigaseric abdominal pain and loss of abbetite. Computed tomography of her abdomen revealed diffuse thickening of a portion of the gastric wall. Subsequent endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) of the stomach yielded abundant single, discohesive malignant cells suspicious for lymphoma vs. poorly differentiated carcinoma. Special stains and immunohistochemical stains confirmed the diagnosis of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma ofsignet ring cell type. CONCLUSION As many linitisplastica-type adenocarcinomas are submucosal lesions, mucosal sampling by biopsy may yield nondiagnostic material in up to one third of cases. With its ability to sample deep submucosal lesions, EUS-FNA is an appropriate technique for establishing this diagnosis and guiding patient treatment.
Epidemiology of blindness and eye disease.

Introduction: historical aspects objectives of the study. Materials and methods: research strategy evaluation evolutionary trends classification of the causes of blindness determining the cause of blindness definitions of blindness material for studies on the number of blind and the causes of blindness, Results: blindness rate in Germany number of visually handicapped degree of disability demographics of the onset blindness sex distribution age distribution age at the onset of blindness duration of blindness macular degeneration as a cause of blindness diabetes mellitus as a cause of blindness cataract as a cause of blindness glaucoma as a cause of blindness high-grade myopia as a cause of blindness retinal detachment as a cause of blindness `tapetoretinal' degeneration (retinitis pigmentosa) as a cause of blindness optic atrophy (degeneration of the optic nerve) as a cause of blindness infections as causes of blindness disorders of the uvea as a cause of blindness injuries as a cause of blindness. Blindness in childhood: prevalence and incidence of childhood blindness bupthalmia as a cause of blindness congenital cataract as a cause of blindness malformation as causes of blindness retinopathy of prematurity as a cause of blindness amblyopia in childhood.
Information Visualization Techniques and Decision Style: The Effects in Decision Support Environments

The importance of individual characteristics has been emphasized in the human computer interaction and information visualization (IV) literature. However, decision style, which is recognized as one of the key individual cognitive differences that affects system success, has received little attention in these areas. This study aims to examine how decision style, IV techniques and task complexity affects decision performance and user preferences in a managerial decision support environment. The study adopted an experimental method, based on within-participants design approach. The results showed that there were significant differences in decision performance between IV techniques, individual differences and task. The results suggest that decision style moderates the relationship between IV techniques and performance. The findings have important implications for the DSS designers, and provide important research issues for future work.
Plant Ageing, a Counteracting Agent to Xenobiotic Stress

A xenobiotic can be defined as any chemical or other substance that is not normally found in the ecosystems or that is present at concentrations harmful to all biological organisms. This general definition could be applied to anthropogenic and naturally occurring constituents. Organic contaminants can include pesticides, solvents and petroleum products. Inorganic xenobiotics include heavy metals, nonmetals, metalloids, radionuclides and simple soluble salts (Schwab, 2005).
Exosome-Based Cell-Cell Communication in the Tumor Microenvironment

Tumors are not isolated entities, but complex systemic networks involving cell-cell communication between transformed and non-transformed cells. The milieu created by tumor-associated cells may either support or halt tumor progression. In addition to cell-cell contact, cells communicate through secreted factors via a highly complex system involving characteristics such as ligand concentration, receptor expression and integration of diverse signaling pathways. Of these, extracellular vesicles, such as exosomes, are emerging as novel cell-cell communication mediators in physiological and pathological scenarios. Exosomes, membrane vesicles of endocytic origin released by all cells (both healthy and diseased), ranging in size from 30 to 150 nm, transport all the main biomolecules, including lipids, proteins, DNAs, messenger RNAs and microRNA, and perform intercellular transfer of components, locally and systemically. By acting not only in tumor cells, but also in tumor-associated cells such as fibroblasts, endothelium, leukocytes and progenitor cells, tumor- and non-tumor cells-derived exosomes have emerged as new players in tumor growth and invasion, tumor-associated angiogenesis, tissue inflammation and immunologic remodeling. In addition, due to their property of carrying molecules from their cell of origin to the peripheral circulation, exosomes have been increasingly studied as sources of tumor biomarkers in liquid biopsies. Here we review the current literature on the participation of exosomes in the communication between tumor and tumor-associated cells, highlighting the role of this process in the setup of tumor microenvironments that modulate tumor initiation and metastasis.
Application of Water Based-TiO2 Nano-fluid for Cooling of Hot Steel Plate

A nano-fluid was prepared by dispersing 0.1 wt% TiO2 nano particles in water along with a small amount of surfactant. The performance of the nano-fluid vis-a-vis water as coolant was studied on hot steel plates by measuring the cooling curves and by appropriate metallographic investigations. Significant enhancement in cooling rate was observed for the nano-fluid which could be due to an enhancement of convective heat transfer by jet impingement, coupled with lower surface tension of the nano-fluid, as compared to water.
Current treatment options for meningioma

ABSTRACT Introduction: With an annual incidence of 5/100,000, meningioma is the most frequent primary tumor of the central nervous system. Risk factors are radiotherapy and hormone intake. Most meningiomas are grade I benign tumors, but up to 15% are atypical and 2% anaplastic according to the WHO 2016 histological criteria. Areas covered: This review details the current standard therapy based on international guidelines and recent literature, and describes new approaches developed to treat refractory cases. First-line treatments are observation and surgery, but adjuvant radiotherapy/radiosurgery is discussed for atypical and indicated for anaplastic meningiomas. The most problematic cases include skull base meningiomas that enclose vasculo-nervous structures and surgery- and radiation-refractory tumors that present with significant morbidity and mortality. The treatment of recurrent tumors is based on radiotherapy and repeated surgery. Systematic therapies are not effective in general but several clinical trials are ongoing. Expert commentary: Molecular characterization of the tumors, based on genetic mutations such as NF2, SMO, TERT, TRAF7, and on the methylation profile are developing, completing the histological classification and giving new insights into prognosis and treatment options.
Impact of Interference on Multi-Hop Wireless Network Performance

In this paper, we address the following question: given a specific placement of wireless nodes in physical space and a specific traffic workload, what is the maximum throughput that can be supported by the resulting network? Unlike previous work that has focused on computing asymptotic performance bounds under assumptions of homogeneity or randomness in the network topology and/or workload, we work with any given network and workload specified as inputs.A key issue impacting performance is wireless interference between neighboring nodes. We model such interference using a conflict graph, and present methods for computing upper and lower bounds on the optimal throughput for the given network and workload. To compute these bounds, we assume that packet transmissions at the individual nodes can be finely controlled and carefully scheduled by an omniscient and omnipotent central entity, which is unrealistic. Nevertheless, using ns-2 simulations, we show that the routes derived from our analysis often yield noticeably better throughput than the default shortest path routes even in the presence of uncoordinated packet transmissions and MAC contention. This suggests that there is opportunity for achieving throughput gains by employing an interference-aware routing protocol.
Study the Entanglement Dynamics of an Anisotropic Two-Qubit Heisenberg XYZ System in a Magnetic Field

We investigate the entanglement dynamics of an anisotropic two-qubit Heisenberg XYZ system with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction in the presence of both inhomogeneity of the external magnetic field b and intrinsic decoherence which has been studied. The behavior of quantum correlation and the degree of entanglement between the two subsystems is quantified by using measurement-induced disturbance (MID), negativity (N) and Quantum Discord (QD), respectively. It is shown that in the presence of an inhomogeneity external magnetic field occur the phenomena of long-lived entanglement. It is found that the initial state is the essential role in the time evolution of the entanglement.
Verifying Semantic Conflict-Freedom in Three-Way Program Merges

Even though many programmers rely on 3-way merge tools to integrate changes from different branches, such tools can introduce subtle bugs in the integration process. This paper aims to mitigate this problem by defining a semantic notion of confict-freedom, which ensures that the merged program does not introduce new unwanted behaviors. We also show how to verify this property using a novel, compositional algorithm that combines lightweight dependence analysis for shared program fragments and precise relational reasoning for the modifications. We evaluate our tool called SafeMerge on 52 real-world merge scenarios obtained from Github and compare the results against a textual merge tool. The experimental results demonstrate the benefits of our approach over syntactic confict-freedom and indicate that SafeMerge is both precise and practical.
Out of the Hands of the Parties: Women’s Legislative Recruitment at Westminster

At the next general election the percentage of women elected to the smaller House of Commons risks being lower than in the current parliament, where they constitute 22 percent of all MPs. The 2008–10 Speaker's Conference identified many of the barriers faced by women and other under-represented groups and made a series of recommendations, only some of which have been introduced. The Government favours a voluntary approach to Recommendation 24, which calls for diversity data monitoring, whilst Recommendation 25 which calls for serious consideration of legislative quotas in the absence of a significant increase in the numbers of women in 2010, appears forgotten. A second Speaker's Conference should therefore be established; the issue of women's under-representation should be taken up above the party level—with legislative quotas introduced to address the system level failure of democratic representation at Westminster.