Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exploring associations between group yoga participation over time, psycho-social variables and exercise adherence

Background Physical inactivity is a serious issue among the American public. The impact of yoga on exercise adherence has not been investigated. Primary Study Objective To assess the relationship between yoga participation over time and adherence to exercise and other health-related behaviors. Study Design Exploratory design, mixed methods. Setting Yoga studios and fitness facilities across central New Jersey Participants 87 men and women who participate in yoga regularly defined as at least once per week on a regular basis. Outcome Measures Participants self-selected to complete survey packets at their yoga establishments. The primary outcome variable measured was exercise adherence using a 7 -Day Physical Activity Recall. The secondary measures included exercise self­ efficacy using the Multidimensional Self-efficacy for Exercise Scale, general well-being measured with the General Well-being Schedule, Mindful Eating using the Mindful Eating Questionnaire, group cohesion using the Group Environment Questionnaire. Two open ended questions were posed to understand yoga participant's perceptions of yoga and their health-related behaviors including exercise adherence. Results The analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between yoga tenure and exercise adherence, r =. 22, p< . 02. In addition, participants reported a mean of 239 minutes of weekly exercise other than yoga participation. A significant difference was found in mindful eating score relative to yoga tenure, F= 3.633, P < . 03 and vegetable and fruit intake relative to yoga tenure, F = 4.527, P < . 01. Mindful eating score was inversely correlated with Body Mass Index (BMI) r = -. 185, p< . 04. Further analysis revealed that 72% of the yoga participants had a BMI of 24.9 or less. Qualitative data revealed that the participants felt yoga enhanced their exercise adherence and promoted the adoption of positive health habits. Conclusion Yoga participation over time is associated with the adherence to exercise and the adoption and maintenance of other health-related behaviors. The findings suggest that group yoga participation may be an affective mind/body intervention in the fight against physical inactivity also impacting health behaviors.
The Correlation between Thermal and Noxious Gas Environments, Pig Productivity and Behavioral Responses of Growing Pigs

Correlations between environmental parameters (thermal range and noxious gas levels) and the status (productivity, physiological, and behavioral) of growing pigs were examined for the benefit of pig welfare and precision farming. The livestock experiment was conducted at a Seoul National University station in South Korea. Many variations were applied and the physiological and behavioral responses of the growing pigs were closely observed. Thermal and gas environment parameters were different during the summer and winter seasons, and the environments in the treatments were controlled in different manners. In the end, this study finds that factors such as Average Daily Gain (ADG), Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (ACTH), stress, posture, and eating habits were all affected by the controlled environmental parameters and that appropriate control of the foregoing could contribute to the improvement of precision farming and pig welfare.
Conductance from Non-perturbative Methods I

This talk provides a natural continuation of the talk presented by Andreas Fring in this conference. Part I was focused on explaining how the DC conductance for a free Fermion theory in the presence of different kinds of defects can be computed by evaluating the Kubo formula. In this talk I will focus on an alternative method for the computation of the same quantity, that is the evaluation of Landauer formula. Once again, the integrability of the theories under consideration will be exploited, since a thermodynamic Bethe ansatz analysis provides all the input needed in that case, apart from the corresponding reflection and transmition amplitudes of the defect. The basic conclusion of our analysis will be the perfect agreement between the two different theoretical descriptions mentioned.
FROM PHYSICAL TO VIRTUAL WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS USING CLOUD COMPUTING

In the modern world, billions of physical sensors are used for various dedications: Environment Monitoring, Healthcare, Education, Defense, Manufacturing, Smart Home, Agriculture Precision and others. Nonetheless, they are frequently utilized by their own applications and thereby snubbing the significant possibilities of sharing the resources in order to ensure the availability and performance of physical sensors. This paper assumes that the immense power of the Cloud can only be fully exploited if it is impeccably integrated into our physical lives. The principal merit of this work is a novel architecture where users can share several types of physical sensors easily and consequently many new services can be provided via a virtualized structure that allows allocation of sensor resources to different users and applications under flexible usage scenarios within which users can easily collect, access, process, visualize, archive, share and search large amounts of sensor data from different applications. Moreover, an implementation has been achieved using Arduino-Atmega328 as hardware platform and Eucalyptus/Open Stack with Orchestra-Juju for Private Sensor Cloud. Then this private Cloud has been connected to some famous public clouds such as Amazon EC2, ThingSpeak, SensorCloud and Pachube. The testing was successful at 80%. The recommendation for future work would be to improve the effectiveness of virtual sensors by applying optimization techniques and other methods.
Non-suicidal self-injury in United States adults: prevalence, sociodemographics, topography and functions

Background Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has received increased attention in the mental health literature and has been proposed as a diagnostic entity for DSM-5. However, data on NSSI in the United States adult population are lacking. Method The prevalence and nature of NSSI were examined in a random-digit dialing sample of 439 adults in the United States. Participants were recruited during July and August of 2008. Results Lifetime prevalence of NSSI was 5.9%, including 2.7% who had self-injured five or more times. The 12-month prevalence was 0.9%. Methods of NSSI reported included cutting/carving, burning, biting, scraping/scratching skin, hitting, interfering with wound healing and skin picking. Half of self-injurers reported multiple methods. The average age of onset was 16 years (median 14 years). Instances of NSSI infrequently co-occurred with suicidal thoughts and with use of alcohol or drugs and rarely required medical treatment. Most injurers reported that NSSI functioned to alleviate negative emotions. Fewer reported that they self-injured to punish themselves, to communicate with others/get attention or to escape a situation or responsibility. NSSI was associated with younger age, being unmarried and a history of mental health treatment, but not with gender, ethnicity, educational history or household income. Conclusions Results are largely consistent with previous research in adolescent and young adult samples. Study limitations notwithstanding, this study provides the most definitive and detailed information to date regarding the prevalence and characteristics of NSSI in US adults. In the future, it will be important for large-scale epidemiological studies of psychopathology to include questions about NSSI.
On the Number of Preganglionic Neurons Driving Human Postganglionic Sympathetic Neurons: A Comparison of Modeling and Empirical Data

Postganglionic sympathetic axons in awake healthy human subjects, regardless of their identity as muscle vasoconstrictor, cutaneous vasoconstrictor, or sudomotor neurons, discharge with a low firing probability (∼30%), generate low firing rates (∼0.5 Hz) and typically fire only once per cardiac interval. The purpose of the present study was to use modeling of spike trains in an attempt to define the number of preganglionic neurons that drive an individual postganglionic neuron. Artificial spike trains were generated in 1–3 preganglionic neurons converging onto a single postganglionic neuron. Each preganglionic input fired with a mean interval distribution of either 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, or 3000 ms and the SD varied between 0.5×, 1.0×, and 2.0× the mean interval; the discharge frequency of each preganglionic neuron exhibited positive skewness and kurtosis. Of the 45 patterns examined, the mean discharge properties of the postganglionic neuron could only be explained by it being driven by, on average, two preganglionic neurons firing with a mean interspike interval of 2500 ms and SD of 5000 ms. The mean firing rate resulting from this pattern was 0.22 Hz, comparable to that of spontaneously active muscle vasoconstrictor neurons in healthy subjects (0.40 Hz). Likewise, the distribution of the number of spikes per cardiac interval was similar between the modeled and actual data: 0 spikes (69.5 vs 66.6%), 1 spike (25.6 vs 21.2%), 2 spikes (4.3 vs 6.4%), 3 spikes (0.5 vs 1.7%), and 4 spikes (0.1 vs 0.7%). Although some features of the firing patterns could be explained by the postganglionic neuron being driven by a single preganglionic neuron, none of the emulated firing patterns generated by the firing of three preganglionic neurons matched the discharge of the real neurons. These modeling data indicate that, on average, human postganglionic sympathetic neurons are driven by two preganglionic inputs.
Splicing Regulator SC35 Is Essential for Genomic Stability and Cell Proliferation during Mammalian Organogenesis

ABSTRACT The members of the SR family of splicing regulators were initially characterized for their critical roles in constitutive and regulated splicing. They are implicated in different aspects of gene expression processes, including transcription, RNA stability, mRNA transport, and translational control. While knockout studies have demonstrated their essential functions during animal development, the pathway(s) leading to a specific cellular phenotype remains poorly understood. We report here that the SR protein SC35 controls cell proliferation during pituitary gland development but is completely dispensable in terminal differentiated mature cardiomyocytes in mice. We show that loss of SC35 in mouse embryonic fibroblasts induces G2/M cell cycle arrest and genomic instability, resulting at least in part from p53 hyperphosphorylation and hyperacetylation. While p53 hyperphosphorylation appears related to ATM activation, its hyperacetylation has been attributed to the increased expression of the acetyltransferase gene p300 and the aberrant splicing of the deacetylase gene SirT1. These findings reveal the involvement of SC35 in specific pathways in regulating cell proliferation and genomic stability during mammalian organogenesis and suggest its potential function in tumorigenesis.
Changes in extracellular matrix proteins in the cardinal ligaments of post-menopausal women with or without prolapse: a computerized immunohistomorphometric analysis.

BACKGROUND The precise mechanism of uterine prolapse is poorly understood. There is evidence to suggest that abnormalities of connective tissue structure or its repair mechanism may predispose women to prolapse. METHODS AND RESULTS This immunohistochemical study was performed on paraffin-embedded sections of the cardinal ligaments in an attempt to evaluate differences in the expression of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins: collagen I, collagen III, elastin and tenascin, in the cardinal ligaments of prolapsed compared to non-prolapsed uteri. There appear to be discernable differences in the level of expression of ECM proteins in prolapsed compared to non-prolapsed cardinal ligaments. We found that the ligaments of the prolapsed uteri are characterized by a higher expression of collagen III and tenascin, and lower quantities of elastin. It appears that the use of HRT in post-menopausal women reverses some of the changes observed in cases of prolapse. Collagen I expression is directly related to the age and menopausal status rather than to prolapse. CONCLUSIONS In contrast to collagen I, our findings clearly indicate that collagen III expression is directly related to the presence of prolapse rather than age or menopausal status and is suppressed with the use of HRT. The pattern of change may fit a picture of healing phase of traumatized tissue as evidenced by the raised tenascin expression. The trauma itself may have been initiated by events such as childbirth, and that the lack of estrogen following the menopause results in decompensation. In spite of ameliorating some of the changes such as suppression of collagen III expression, treatment with estrogen falls short of rectifying the expression of other necessary proteins. If these mechanisms can be elucidated, a supplementary drug therapy may help along with estrogens to rebuild these ligaments.
Design and testing of a hybrid expressive face for a humanoid robot

The BERT2 social robot, a platform for the exploration of human-robot interaction, is currently being built at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory. This paper describes work on the robot's face, a hybrid face composed of a plastic faceplate and an LCD display, and our implementation of facial expressions on this versatile platform. We report the implementation of two representations of affect space, each of which map the space of potential emotions to specific facial feature parameters and the results of a series of human-robot interaction experiments to characterize the recognizability of the robot's archetypal facial expressions. The tested subjects' recognition of the implemented facial expressions for happy, surprised, and sad was robust (with nearly 100% recognition). Subjects, however, tended to confuse the expressions for disgusted and afraid with other expressions, with correct recognition rates of 21.1% and 52.6% respectively. Future work involves the addition of more realistic eye movements for stronger recognition of certain responses. These results demonstrate that a hybrid face with affect space facial expression implementations can provide emotive conveyance readily recognized by human beings.
Regulation of cytoplasmic division of Xenopus embryo by rho p21 and its inhibitory GDP/GTP exchange protein (rho GDI)

Evidence is accumulating that the rho family, a member of the ras p21- related small GTP-binding protein superfamily, regulates cell morphology, cell motility, and smooth muscle contraction through the actomyosin system. The actomyosin system is also known to be essential for cytoplasmic division of cells (cytokinesis). In this study, we examined the action of rho p21, its inhibitory GDP/GTP exchange protein, named rho GDI, its stimulatory GDP/GTP exchange protein, named smg GDS, and botulinum ADP-ribosyltransferase C3, known to selectively ADP-ribosylate rho p21 and to impair its function, in the cytoplasmic division using Xenopus embryos. The sperm-induced cytoplasmic division of Xenopus embryos was not affected by microinjection into the embryos of either smg GDS or the guanosine-5'-(3-O-thio)triphosphate (GTP gamma S)-bound form of rhoA p21, one member of the rho family, but completely inhibited by microinjection of rho GDI or C3. Under these conditions, nuclear division occurred normally but the furrow formation, which was induced by the contractile ring consisting of actomyosin just beneath the plasma membrane, was impaired. Comicroinjection of rho GDI with the GTP gamma S-bound form of rhoA p21 prevented the rho GDI action. Moreover, the sperm-induced cytoplasmic division of Xenopus embryos was inhibited by microinjection into the embryos of the rhoA p21 pre-ADP- ribosylated by C3 which might serve as a dominant negative inhibitor of endogenous rho p21. These results indicate that rho p21 together with its regulatory proteins regulates the cytoplasmic division through the actomyosin system.
Effect of a school-based intervention on physical activity: cluster-randomized trial.

PURPOSE Physical activity in childhood has many health benefits; however, the majority of children in many countries, including Mexico, are insufficiently active. The objective of this investigation was to test the effect of a school-based environmental intervention on the physical activity and physical fitness of students attending public primary schools in Mexico City. METHODS Twenty-seven schools were randomly assigned to basic or plus intervention or control. The basic and plus groups were exposed to school environment and policy changes to enhance physical activity. Physical activity was evaluated in 699 randomly selected fourth- and fifth-grade students by measuring school-day and all-day (24 h) steps using pedometers worn for 5 d before and after the 6-month intervention. Physical fitness was assessed by measuring the 9-min run, flexibility, and sit-ups. We calculated the average change in school-day and all-day steps and fitness measures from baseline to follow-up. Using linear regression, we tested the effect of intervention on change controlling for baseline measures and covariates and accounting for the design effect of school. Using logistic regression, we tested the effect of intervention on reaching step cutoffs at baseline and follow-up. RESULTS The plus group significantly (P < 0.05) increased school-day steps relative to control (change = 687 vs -639). Significantly (P < 0.05) more participants in the basic (25.8%) and plus (36.4%) groups reached step cutoffs during school relative to control (12.0%). The basic group significantly (P < 0.05) increased all-day steps relative to control (change = 581 vs -419). The plus group significantly (P = 0.05) increased sit-ups relative to control (change = 0.3 vs -1.7). CONCLUSIONS A school-based environmental intervention improved student physical activity during school in public schools in Mexico City.
Moment-Height Tip-Over Measure for Stability Analysis of Mobile Robotic Systems

Mobile machines equipped with manipulator arm(s) are being increasingly used in a variety of areas of industry. When these mobile utilities perform fast maneuvers, move over rough terrain, manipulate heavy work pieces, or interact large wrenches with their environment, they may go unstable and overturn. Therefore, safety and efficiency of such systems can be improved with a reliable stability recognition metric. For on-line applications, such tip-over stability measure should be computationally simple which makes its presentation a challenging task. In this study, various dynamic stability measures are investigated and compared with each other in terms of their reliability and computational complexity. Then, a new reliable and efficient metric named as moment-height stability (MHS) measure is introduced for mobile manipulators. The proposed metric is a physically meaningful and reliable measure while it contains low computational burden. The MHS measure can be exploited successfully for wheeled mobile manipulators containing single or multiple arms. Besides, by some minor modifications the MHS measure can be also employed for the case of legged locomotion. Also, the proposed MHS measure may be extended for the case of suspended mobile manipulator on rough terrains. Several case studies are presented to reveal the effectiveness of the new MHS measure compared to the main previous measures
Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Low Molecular Weight Protein Involved in Intra-Golgi Traffic*

Analysis of the cytosolic requirements forin vitro intra-Golgi transport led to the characterization of three proteins: N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive fusion protein (NSF), soluble NSF attachment protein (SNAP), and p115, all involved in the docking and fusion of transport vesicles to their target membranes. In the course of determining the minimal cytosolic requirements for intra-Golgi transport in vitro, we identified three additional factors that are sufficient to replace crude cytosol. We describe here the purification and characterization of one of these factors, a novel 16-kDa protein, p16, an essential factor for intra-Golgi protein transport. Based on transport activity, this purification procedure resulted in ∼1,400-fold enrichment of p16 to apparent homogeneity. The activity of p16 could be observed in the absence of vesicle formation, suggesting that it may participate in the docking and fusion processes.
Influences on childhood height: comparing two generations in the 1958 British birth cohort.

BACKGROUND Genetics and early environment are known to influence height, but evidence is sparse on changes in these influences over time. METHODS The 1958 British birth cohort study includes all children born between March 3, 1958 and March 9, 1958, who were followed to age 41 yr, and one-third of their offspring in 1991. Childhood height in each generation (measured at 7 yr for cohort members and 4-18 yr for offspring) was converted to a standard deviation score based on the 1990 British growth reference. We used multilevel models to analyse influences on height in order to allow for the hierarchical within-family data structure. RESULTS Childhood height increased by 1 cm between 1958 cohort members and their offspring. Several influences on childhood height in the older generation (maternal smoking, breastfeeding, maternal age, social class, maternal education, and parental divorce) did not affect childhood height in the younger generation. Parental height was most strongly associated with childhood height and effects did not diminish between generations [adjusted increase approximately 2 cm for 1 maternal or paternal height standard deviation score (SDS)]. Third- or later-borns and those with three or more siblings had deficits of 1-2 cm (adjusted estimates) in both generations. Other factors, particularly indicators of socioeconomic position, showed weaker effects in the younger generation. For example, the growth deficit of 1.1 cm (adjusted estimate) among cohort members from households with >1.5 persons/room had disappeared in the offspring. CONCLUSIONS Within Great Britain, the adverse effects of environmental factors on childhood height have lessened between recent generations.