Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
c-Myc Interacts with Hypoxia to Induce Angiogenesis In vivo by a Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-Dependent Mechanism

The proto-oncogene c-myc is involved in the regulation of cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. In this study, we used an inducible transgenic mouse model in which c-Myc was targeted to the epidermis and, after activation, gave rise to hyperplastic and dysplastic skin lesions and to dermal angiogenesis, involving both vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor-1 and VEGF receptor-2. After c-Myc activation, VEGF mRNA was expressed in postmitotic keratinocytes where it colocalized with transgene expression and areas of tissue hypoxia, suggesting a role of hypoxia in VEGF induction. In vitro, c-Myc activation alone was able to induce VEGF protein release and in conjunction with hypoxia, c-Myc activation further increased VEGF protein. Blocking VEGF signaling in vivo significantly reduced dermal angiogenesis, demonstrating the importance of VEGF as a mediating factor for the c-Myc–induced angiogenic phenotype.
College Experiences: First-Generation Female Undergraduates at the University of Northern Colorado

The number of women entering college and receiving degrees is continuously increasing while simultaneously first-generation students also are making up a larger portion of college students. Though numbers have increased, both populations are frequently viewed as vulnerable when it comes to succeeding in college. Much research has covered each populace separately. Minimal focus on first-generation female (FGF) students has limited the understanding of what the everyday college environment offers to enhance academic, social, and ethical experiences. Past research has focused on financing and academics; however, this study’s purpose was to explore the collegiate experiences that contribute to FGF student’s success and positive individual development throughout college. Qualitative group discussions involving FGF undergraduate students demonstrated key aspects of their college experiences as well as what supportive and educational resources universities were potentially missing. Findings include issues related to family and peer support, society role-expectations, self-development, decision-making, health-related behaviors, emotional well-being, student engagement, and student support services.
Quasars and the Big Blue Bump

We investigate the ultraviolet-to-optical spectral energy distributions of 17 active galactic nuclei (AGNs) using quasi-simultaneous spectrophotometry spanning 900-9000 Å (rest frame). We employ data from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the 2.1 m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Taking advantage of the short-wavelength coverage, we are able to study the so-called big blue bump, the region in which the energy output peaks, in detail. Most objects exhibit a spectral break around 1100 Å. Although this result is formally associated with large uncertainty for some objects, there is strong evidence in the data that the far-ultraviolet spectral region is below the extrapolation of the near-ultraviolet-optical slope, indicating a spectral break around 1100 Å. We compare the behavior of our sample to those of non-LTE thin-disk models covering a range in black hole mass, Eddington ratio, disk inclination, and other parameters. The distribution of ultraviolet-optical spectral indices redward of the break and far-ultraviolet indices shortward of the break are in rough agreement with the models. However, we do not see a correlation between the far-ultraviolet spectral index and the black hole mass, as seen in some accretion disk models. We argue that the observed spectral break is intrinsic to AGNs, although intrinsic reddening as well as Comptonization can strongly affect the far-ultraviolet spectral index. We make our data available online in digital format.
Empirical tests of the role of disruptive coloration in reducing detectability

Disruptive patterning is a potentially universal camouflage technique that is thought to enhance concealment by rendering the detection of body shapes more difficult. In a recent series of field experiments, artificial moths with markings that extended to the edges of their ‘wings’ survived at higher rates than moths with the same edge patterns inwardly displaced. While this result seemingly indicates a benefit to obscuring edges, it is possible that the higher density markings of the inwardly displaced patterns concomitantly reduced their extent of background matching. Likewise, it has been suggested that the mealworm baits placed on the artificial moths could have created differential contrasts with different moth patterns. To address these concerns, we conducted controlled trials in which human subjects searched for computer-generated moth images presented against images of oak trees. Moths with edge-extended disruptive markings survived at higher rates, and took longer to find, than all other moth types, whether presented sequentially or simultaneously. However, moths with no edge markings and reduced interior pattern density survived better than their high-density counterparts, indicating that background matching may have played a so-far unrecognized role in the earlier experiments. Our disruptively patterned non-background-matching moths also had the lowest overall survivorship, indicating that disruptive coloration alone may not provide significant protection from predators. Collectively, our results provide independent support for the survival value of disruptive markings and demonstrate that there are common features in human and avian perception of camouflage.
“It's in God's Hands”: The Attitudes of Elderly Muslim Women in Antwerp, Belgium, Toward Active Termination of Life

Background: The influence of Islam is increasing in Western societies due to different migration waves. Migrants originating from Islamic countries are confronted with a dominant right to self-determination mentality in the West, which affects attitudes regarding a number of issues, such as those surrounding death. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 first-generation Muslim women who migrated to Belgium from Turkey and Morocco between the early 1960s and early 1980s, with the aim of eliciting their attitudes toward active termination of life. Results: We found a huge contrast with the secular right-to-die discourse, which is quite dominant in the West. Among the participants, we elicited a predominantly negative attitude toward (non)voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide. We observed that participants displayed a theological line of reasoning when dealing with these bioethical issues similar to the one offered in normative Islamic guidance (e.g., fatwas). Conclusions: The study shows an important and complex impact of religion, specifically one's image of God, on attitudes toward active termination of life, and points to the danger of adopting a simplistic and non-nuanced approach to Islam.
Representation of linguistic and domain knowledge for second language learning in virtual worlds

There has been much debate, both theoretical and practical, on how to link ontologies and lexicons in natural language processing (NLP) applications. In this paper, we focus on an application in which lexicon and ontology are used to generate teaching material. We briefly describe the application (a serious game for language learning). We then zoom in on the representation and interlinking of the lexicon and of the ontology. We show how the use of existing standards and of good practice principles facilitates the design of our resources while satisfying the expressivity requirements set by natural language generation.
Planning Local Energy Communities to develop low carbon urban and suburban areas

This paper presents a model of a Local Energy Community (LEC) that is a set of users that share renewable sources and storage resources to satisfy energy demand while minimising carbon emissions and operating costs. The main contribution is the design of a planner that systematically assesses a target territory to cluster buildings into LECs while maximising an objective function. The planner leverages on a LEC simulation engine and the k-medoids clustering algorithm. The development demonstrate the feasibility of the approach and the results show the effectiveness of planner. It is worth noting that the planner paves the way for the implementation of a decision support system and the design of new business-oriented applications for smart urban and sub-urban areas in the energy domain.
Zinc methionine for ruminants: relative bioavailability of zinc in lambs and effects of growth and performance of growing heifers.

Studies were conducted to evaluate zinc methionine (ZnMet) as a source of Zn for ruminants. Experiment 1 compared the availability of Zn in ZnMet and zinc oxide (ZnO) in lambs fed a semi-purified diet deficient in Zn. Based on growth rate and animal performance, plasma Zn and plasma alkaline phosphatase activity, no differences in Zn availability were detected between the two Zn sources. Apparent absorption of Zn also was similar, but Zn retention was higher (P less than .01) in lambs fed ZnMet because of a tendency for lower urinary Zn excretion (P less than .19) in this group. Zinc absorption and retention by lambs were similar for the two Zn sources in Exp. 2 when 20 mg Zn/kg was added to an orchardgrass hay-based diet containing 30 mg Zn/kg. In Exp. 3, lambs were dosed orally with 300 mg of Zn as ZnO or ZnMet, and the increase in plasma Zn following dosing was monitored. The increase in plasma Zn above predosing values was similar at 6 h but was higher at 12 (P less than .10) and 24 h (P less than .05) postdosing in lambs given ZnMet. Thirty-six Hereford x Simmental heifers (271 kg) were used in Exp. 4 to determine the influence of supplementing Zn (25 mg/kg) as ZnO or ZnMet of growth performance and Zn status. Heifers were fed a corn silage-based diet that contained 23.1 mg Zn/kg during the 126-d study. Zinc supplementation to the basal diet increased (P less than .05) gain and feed/gain during the first 56 d, but not for the entire 126-d study. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
MARKETING VIRTUAL: SEPARANDO O JOIO DO TRIGO... OS RISCOS INERENTES E MANIPULADOS NO E-COMMERCE

O objetivo desta investigacao foi realizar uma analise sobre os riscos inerentes e os manipulados na compra pela internet. A pesquisa teve o intuito de averiguar a necessidade de separacao desses riscos, visto que, em grande parte dos estudos, nao e realizada essa distincao, sendo agrupados os riscos de uma maneira geral. O estudo teve um carater exploratorio-descritivo de corte transversal, tendo sido realizado em duas etapas. Inicialmente foram conduzidas entrevistas com 20 compradores do varejo eletronico. Posteriormente foi realizado um levantamento, em que foi estabelecida uma parceria com a E-bit, tendo o link do instrumento de coleta de dados sido enviado para 2.000 usuarios cadastrados no banco de dados da instituicao. Foram obtidos 692 questionarios validos. As analises fatoriais empregadas indicaram a necessidade da divisao dos riscos em inerentes e manipulados, reforcando a teoria inicial de Bettman (1973). A presente pesquisa traz, como principal contribuicao, a recomendacao aos futuros investigadores dessa area sobre a importância de considerar e, principalmente, empregar separadamente a analise dos riscos inerentes e a analise dos riscos manipulados em estudos do comportamento do consumidor nas compras on-line. DOI: 10.5585/remark.v8i2. 2139
Decolorization of Dye RB-19 Solution in a Continuous Ozone Process

Abstract This work studied the decolorization of dye C.I. Reactive Blue 19 (RB-19) solution in a new gas-inducing reactor under continuous process. The decolorization behavior, decolorization kinetic, ozone utilization rate and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) are examined under various operation conditions, such as input ADMI color values (ADMI o ), input liquid flow rates (Q L ), input ozone gas concentrations , input gas flow rates (Q g ), and agitation speeds (N). Experimental results of decolorization behavior indicate that the American Dye Manufactures Institute (ADMI) removal percentage ( R ADMI) decreases with increasing ADMI color value input rate or decreasing ozone input rate. For the study of ozone utilization rate, increases with increasing ADMI color value input rate or decreasing ozone input rate. The 70% ADMI removal percentage can be regarded as the index of the competition of dye and its unknown intermediates for ozone. In addition, the increase of the agitation speed can improve the ADMI removal percentage as well as the ozone utilization rate. A pseudo-first order kinetic model is adopted to describe the decolorization behavior. At steady state, the overall decolorization rate constant, k ADMIs.s. , can be expressed as a function of liquid flow rate, input ADMI color value, input ozone gas concentration, gas flow rate, and agitation speed. This correlation can be used to predict the ADMI color value at steady state (ADMIs.s.) and the reactor size in the continuous process. The ΔO3/ΔCOD is dependent on the liquid composition. The higher the dye concentration in the liquid, the higher the ΔO3/ΔCOD. The COD removal percentage ( R COD) and the ozone utilization rate can be further improved by using the continuous operation with two reactors in series.
Nber Working Paper Series Optimal Unemployment Insurance When Income Effects Are Large Optimal Unemployment Insurance When Income Effects Are Large

Studies of the consumption-smoothing benefits of unemployment insurance (UI) have found that the optimal benefit level is very small, perhaps even 0, for conventional levels of risk aversion. In this paper, I derive a formula for the optimal benefit rate in terms of income and price elasticities of unemployment durations, directly inferring risk aversion for the unemployed from their behavioral responses to UI benefits. The optimal rate of social insurance is shown to depend positively on the size of the income elasticity and negatively on the size of the substitution elasticity. I estimate these elasticities using semi-parametric hazard models and variation in UI laws across states and over time. The estimates indicate that income effects account for 70% of the effect of UI on unemployment durations, and yield an optimal replacement rate around 50% of pre-unemployment wages. These results challenge the prevailing view that social safety nets provide minimal welfare gains at a large efficiency cost.
Re-feedback : freedom with accountability for causing congestion in a connectionless internetwork

This dissertation concerns adding resource accountability to a simplex internetwork such as the Internet, with only necessary but sufficient constraint on freedom. That is, both freedom for applications to evolve new innovative behaviours while still responding responsibly to congestion; and freedom for network providers to structure their pricing in any way, including flat pricing. The big idea on which the research is built is a novel feedback arrangement termed ‘re-feedback’. A general form is defined, as well as a specific proposal (re-ECN) to alter the Internet protocol so that self-contained datagrams carry a metric of expected downstream congestion. Congestion is chosen because of its central economic role as the marginal cost of network usage. The aim is to ensure Internet resource allocation can be controlled either by local policies or by market selection (or indeed local lack of any control). The current Internet architecture is designed to only reveal path congestion to end-points, not networks. The collective actions of self-interested consumers and providers should drive Internet resource allocations towards maximisation of total social welfare. But without visibility of a cost-metric, network operators are violating the architecture to improve their customer’s experience. The resulting fight against the architecture is destroying the Internet’s simplicity and ability to evolve. Although accountability with freedom is the goal, the focus is the congestion metric, and whether an incentive system is possible that assures its integrity as it is passed between parties around the system, despite proposed attacks motivated by self-interest and malice. This dissertation defines the protocol and canonical examples of accountability mechanisms. Designs are all derived from carefully motivated principles. The resulting system is evaluated by analysis and simulation against the constraints and principles originally set. The mechanisms are proven to be agnostic to specific transport behaviours, but they could not be made flow-ID-oblivious.
On Integrating Standard Transactions in Real{time Database Systems

Real-time database systems are designed to handle workloads where transactions have completion deadlines and the goal is to meet these deadlines. However, many real-time database environments are characterized by workloads that are a mix of real-time and standard (non-real-time) transactions. Unfortunately, the system policies used to meet the performance goals of real-time transactions often work poorly for standard transactions. In particular, optimistic concurrency control algorithms are recommended for real-time transactions, whereas locking-based protocols are suited for standard transactions. In this paper, we present a new database system architecture in which real-time transactions use optimistic concurrency control and, simultaneously, standard transactions use locking. We prove that our architecture maintains data integrity and show, through a simulation study, that it provides signiicantly improved performance for the standard transactions without diminishing the real-time transaction performance. We also show, more generally, that the proposed architecture correctly supports the coexistence of any group of concurrency control algorithms that adhere to a standard interface.
Update Schlafmedizin 2010

Zusammenfassung Schlafmedizinische Diagnostik kann gemäßder Leitlinie S3 der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Schlafforschung und Schlafmedizin „Nicht erholsamerSchlaf/Schlafstörungen” durchgeführtwerden. Die Auswertung der Polysomnografien (PSG) erfolgt seit 2007 nach neuenRichtlinien. Sie erfordern frontale und okzipitaleAbleitungen, um Grafoelemente, die dasSchlafstadium charakterisieren am Ort dermaximalen Ausprägung zu identifizieren. Tiefschlafwird auf ein Stadium N3 reduziert. DieIndikation für die ambulante Polygrafie zur Diagnostikschlafbezogener Atmungsstörungenwird mittels der Prätestwahrscheinlichkeit optimiert.Bei hoher Prätestwahrscheinlichkeit und geringer Apnoezahl in der Polygrafie sowiebei Verdacht auf eine alveoläre Hypoventilation,z. B. bei neuromuskulären Erkrankungen,ist immer eine PSG indiziert. SchlafbezogeneAtmungsstörungen und kurzer Schlafgehen mit hohem kardiovaskulärem-, metabolischem- und Mortalitätsrisiko einher. Ob die Insomnie ein Risikofaktor ist konnte nichteindeutig geklärt werden. Dafür finden sich zunehmend Belege für das zugrunde liegende Hyperarousal-Modell. Neue Therapien für die Insomnien bieten die Melatoninagonisten. In der Narkolepsie konnten mittels genomweiter Analysen mehrere Assoziationen gefunden werden, die eine Autoimmunhypothese stützen. Bei Narkolepsien ohne Kataplexie konnte inpostmortalen Untersuchungen eine quantitativgeringe Destruktion hypocretinerger Neuronefestgestellt werden. Das HLA-Allel DQB1*0602ist fast ausschließlich mit einem niedrigen Liquor Hypocretin assoziiert, sodass sich bei Vorliegendes Allels die diagnostische Liquorpunktionerübrigt. Die REM-Schlafverhaltensstörunghat sich als Prädiktor für neurodegenerativeErkrankungen etabliert. Ihre Diagnostikumfasst Fragebögen, Riechtests, transkraniellenUltraschall der Stammganglien, zerebralerBildgebung und Muskeltonusanalyse des REMSchlafes.
Community accessibility of health information and the consequent impact for translation into community languages

This paper reports on a research project that investigated the accessibility of health information and the consequent impact for translation into community languages. This is a critical aspect of the mediation of intercultural and interlingual communication in the domain of public health information and yet very little research has been undertaken to address such issues. The project was carried out in collaboration with the New South Wales Multicultural Health Communication Service (MHCS), which provides advice and services to state-based health professionals aiming to communicate with non-English speaking communities. The research employed a mixed-method and action research based approach involving two phases. The primary focus of this paper is to discuss major quantitative findings from the first pilot phase, which indicated that there is much room to improve the way in which health information is written in English for effective community-wide communication within a multilingual society.
Framewise and CTC training of Neural Networks for handwriting recognition

In recent years, Long Short-Term Memory Recurrent Neural Networks (LSTM-RNNs) trained with the Connectionist Temporal Classification (CTC) objective won many international handwriting recognition evaluations. The CTC algorithm is based on a forward-backward procedure, avoiding the need of a segmentation of the input before training. The network outputs are characters labels, and a special non-character label. On the other hand, in the hybrid Neural Network / Hidden Markov Models (NN/HMM) framework, networks are trained with framewise criteria to predict state labels. In this paper, we show that CTC training is close to forward-backward training of NN/HMMs, and can be extended to more standard HMM topologies. We apply this method to Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs), and investigate the properties of CTC, namely the modeling of character by single labels and the role of the special label.
Access to medical care among persons with psychotic and major affective disorders.

OBJECTIVE People with serious mental illness have higher mortality rates than the general population, and this difference is not explained by such causes as suicide or accidents. This study therefore examined access and barriers to medical care among persons with serious mental illness. METHODS Using a nationally representative sample, the authors examined access and barriers to medical care among individuals reporting psychotic and mood disorders. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and NHIS-Disability Component for 1994 and 1995 were merged to provide a sample of 156,475 people over age 18. Individuals with psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, or major depression were compared with persons without mental disorders on the following outcomes: having a primary care physician, being unable to get needed medical care, being unable to get a needed prescription medication, and delaying medical care because of cost. RESULTS Persons with psychotic disorders (odds ratio [OR]=.55, 95% confidence interval [CI]=.44-.69) and bipolar disorder (OR=.74, CI=.56-.98) had significantly reduced odds of having a primary care physician compared with people without mental disorders. For any barriers to care, persons with psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder had greatly increased odds (ORs=2.5-7.0) of reporting difficulties in accessing care. CONCLUSIONS Persons with psychotic disorders and bipolar disorder reported markedly more difficulty in obtaining a primary care physician and greater barriers to care than the general population. Interventions are needed to improve provision of primary medical care to this population.