Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factor Rotation and Standard Errors in Exploratory Factor Analysis

In this article, we report a surprising phenomenon: Oblique CF-varimax and oblique CF-quartimax rotation produced similar point estimates for rotated factor loadings and factor correlations but different standard error estimates in an empirical example. Influences of factor rotation on asymptotic standard errors are investigated using a numerical exploration method. The results are (a) CF-varimax, CF-quartimax, CF-equamax, and CF-parsimax produced similar asymptotic standard errors when the factor loading matrix is an independent cluster solution and (b) the four rotation methods produced different asymptotic standard errors when the factor loading matrix has a more complex structure. In addition, properties of the CF family are explored with a full range of κ values.
Tai Chi Chuan for the Primary Prevention of Stroke in Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults: A Systematic Review

Background. Stroke is a major healthcare problem with serious long-term disability and is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Prevention of stroke is considered an important strategy. Methods. Seven electronic databases were searched. Results. 36 eligible studies with a total of 2393 participants were identified. Primary outcome measures, TCC exercise combined with other intervention had a significant effect on decreasing the incidence of nonfatal stroke (n = 185, RR = 0.11, 95% CI 0.01 to 0.85, P = 0.03) and CCD (n = 125, RR = 0.33, 95% CI 0.11 to 0.96, P = 0.04). For the risk factors of stroke, pooled analysis demonstrated that TCC exercise was associated with lower body weight, BMI, FBG level, and decreasing SBP, DBP, plasma TC, and LDL-C level regardless of the intervention period less than half a year or more than one year and significantly raised HDL-C level in comparison to nonintervention. Compared with other treatments, TCC intervention on the basis of the same other treatments in patients with chronic disease also showed the beneficial effect on lowering blood pressure. Conclusion. The present systematic review indicates that TCC exercise is beneficially associated with the primary prevention of stroke in middle-aged and elderly adults by inversing the high risk factors of stroke.
Verification of Timed Automata Based on Similarity

The paper presents a modification of the standard partitioning technique to generate abstract state spaces preserving similarity for Timed Automata. Since this relation is weaker than bisimilarity, most of the obtained models (state spaces) are smaller than bisimilar ones, but still preserve the universal fragments of branching time temporal logics. The theoretical results are exemplified for strong, delay, and observational simulation relations.
Living Life in the Balance at Midlife

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the perceived effects of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program on stress and quality of life of women in midlife. A total of 20 nurses, aged 45 to 55 years, who participated in a stress reduction course were contacted for interviews. A total of 9 nurses agreed to be interviewed. Content analysis was used to analyze these interviews. The five themes that emerged from the analysis were as follows: strengthening of interpersonal communication through social support, increased personal awareness through becoming more mindful and reflective, a spiritual awakening, effective ways of dealing with stress, and living life in balance by taking hold of one’s life. This study increased the authors’ understanding of effects/benefits, adherence, and application of MBSR techniques for women in midlife. It is concluded that MBSR may be a useful intervention for nurses in midlife to develop successful strategies for dealing with stress and to improve their quality of life.
Area optimization algorithm for body-bias based on input vector control

With the technology scaling down to the deep sub-micron domain, leakage power increases rapidly in VLSI, enhancing the area overhead of dynamic power management system. Reverse Body Bias(RBB) is a common method to reduce the leakage power at run-time. To overcome the larger area overhead of controller applied on RBB, this paper proposes a new way of connection, which can reduce area of controller substantially. Based on dual-threshold voltage CMOS designs, when the input vector is the minimum leakage pattern, this paper applies VRBB to the low threshold voltage (LVT) and Dominate Leakage State (DLS) MOS transistors. Experimental results is based on a set of ISCAS85 benchmark circuits in a Predictive 22nm process, comparing with previous works, this algorithm can reduce 84.91% area overhead with the cost of 27.94% leakage current penalty.
Interaction-free calibration for optical see-through head-mounted displays based on 3D Eye localization

It is a common problem of AR applications that optical see-through head-mounted displays (OST-HMD) move on users' heads or are even temporarily taken off, thus requiring frequent (re)calibrations. If such calibrations involve user interactions, they are time consuming and distract users from their applications. Furthermore, they inject user-dependent errors into the system setup and reduce users' acceptance of OST-HMDs. To overcome these problems, we present a method that utilizes dynamic 3D eye position measurements from an eye tracker in combination with pre-computed, static display calibration parameters. Our experiments provide a comparison of our calibration with SPAAM (Single Point Active Alignment Method) for several head-display conditions: in the first condition, repeated calibrations are conducted while keeping the display position on the user's head fixed. In the second condition, users take the HMD off and put it back on in between calibrations. The result shows that our new calibration with eye tracking is more stable than repeated SPAAM calibrations. We close with a discussion on potential error sources which should be removed to achieve higher calibration quality.
Characterization of Lyt-2-, L3T4- class I-specific cytolytic clones in C3H-gld/gld mice. Implications for functions of accessory molecules and programmed development

We report the first demonstration of Thy-1+, Lyt-2-, L3T4- MHC-specific CTL clones derived from the Lyt-2-, L3T4- subset of lymph node cells of C3H-gld/gld mice. These clones express alpha/beta heterodimeric TCRs on the cell surface and specifically recognize class I molecules on target cells. Lyt-2 and L3T4 molecules are therefore not essential for the induction, recognition, and killing of antigen-specific CTL. In addition, these studies suggest that antigen specificity development for class I structures may occur before Lyt-2 gene activation in the differentiation of T cells.
Flattening of Caribbean coral reefs: region-wide declines in architectural complexity

Coral reefs are rich in biodiversity, in large part because their highly complex architecture provides shelter and resources for a wide range of organisms. Recent rapid declines in hard coral cover have occurred across the Caribbean region, but the concomitant consequences for reef architecture have not been quantified on a large scale to date. We provide, to our knowledge, the first region-wide analysis of changes in reef architectural complexity, using nearly 500 surveys across 200 reefs, between 1969 and 2008. The architectural complexity of Caribbean reefs has declined nonlinearly with the near disappearance of the most complex reefs over the last 40 years. The flattening of Caribbean reefs was apparent by the early 1980s, followed by a period of stasis between 1985 and 1998 and then a resumption of the decline in complexity to the present. Rates of loss are similar on shallow (<6 m), mid-water (6–20 m) and deep (>20 m) reefs and are consistent across all five subregions. The temporal pattern of declining architecture coincides with key events in recent Caribbean ecological history: the loss of structurally complex Acropora corals, the mass mortality of the grazing urchin Diadema antillarum and the 1998 El Nino Southern Oscillation-induced worldwide coral bleaching event. The consistently low estimates of current architectural complexity suggest regional-scale degradation and homogenization of reef structure. The widespread loss of architectural complexity is likely to have serious consequences for reef biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and associated environmental services.
Postlaunch sensor verification and calibration of the NASA Scatterometer

Scatterometer instruments are active microwave sensors that transmit a series of microwave pulses and measure the returned echo power to determine the normalized radar backscattering cross section (sigma-0) of the ocean surface from which the speed and direction of near-surface ocean winds are derived. The NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) was launched on board the ADEOS spacecraft in August 1996 and returned ten months of high-quality data before the failure of the ADEOS spacecraft terminated the data stream in June 1997. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the NSCAT instrument and sigma-0 computation and to describe the process and the results of an intensive postlaunch verification, calibration, and validation effort. This process encompassed the functional and performance verification of the flight instrument, the sigma-0 computation algorithms, the science data processing system, and the analysis of the sigma-0 and wind products. The calibration process included the radiometric calibration of NSCAT using both engineering telemetry and science data and the radiometric beam balance of all eight antenna beams using both open ocean and uniform land targets. Finally, brief summaries of the construction of the NSCAT geophysical model function and the verification and validation of the wind products will be presented. The key results of this paper are as follows: The NSCAT instrument was shown to function properly and all functional parameters were within their predicted ranges. The instrument electronics subsystems were very stable and all of the key parameters, such as transmit power, receiver gain, and bandpass filter responses, were shown to be stable to within 0.1 dB. The science data processing system was thoroughly verified and the sigma-0 computation error was shown to be less than 0.1 dB. All eight antenna beams were radiometrically balanced, using natural targets, to an estimated accuracy of about 0.3 dB.
A Simulation Based Study of TLB Performance

This paper presents the results of a simulation-based study of various translation lookaside buffer JLB) architectures, in the context of a modem VLSI RISC processor. The simulators used address traces, generated by instrumented versions of the SPECmarks and several other programs running on a DECstation 5000. The performance of two-level TLBs and fully-associative TLBs were investigated. The amount of memory mapped was found to be the dominant factor in TLB performance. Small first-level FIFO instruction TLBs can be effective in two level TLB configurations. For some applications, the cycles-per-instruction (CPI) loss due to TLB misses can be reduced from as much as 5 CPI to negligible levels with typical TLB parameters through the use of variable-sized pages.
Treatment of Wastewaters Containing Bisphenol A: State of the Science Review

The presence of microconstituents in effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and their receiving waters has attracted considerable recent attention. This review summarizes the state of the science on the removal of bisphenol A (BPA) by WWTPs and presents evidence that the compound should be effectively removed in well‐operated activated sludge systems. The biological treatment of BPA has been extensively studied in laboratory, pilot, and full‐scale municipal WWTPs. Although removal efficiencies varied, the average of the reported removal efficiencies for BPA in full‐scale facilities was 84%. Mass balance studies conducted in the laboratory with 14C‐labeled BPA and studies of full‐scale facilities show that biodegradation is the dominant removal process, consistent with the fact that BPA is readily degradable and able to support microbial growth. Many of the plants were able to reduce BPA concentrations in the wastewater effluent to significantly less than 1 µg/L. This review examines operating parameters important for optimizing and sustaining the performance of wastewater treatment systems including solids residence time (SRT), which proved to be the most critical. The weight of evidence suggests the optimum SRT needs to be approximately 10 days to ensure high treatment efficiencies. Other optimum operating conditions include maintaining dissolved oxygen concentrations of greater than or equal to 2.0 mg/L, elevating the SRT during periods of low temperature, and implementing step‐feed control during storm‐induced high flow conditions to avoid the washout of biomass.
Understanding the Physical and Molecular Basis of Stability of Arabidopsis DNA Pol λ under UV-B and High NaCl Stress

Here, we have investigated the physical and molecular basis of stability of Arabidopsis DNA Pol λ, the sole X family DNA polymerase member in plant genome, under UV-B and salinity stress in connection with the function of the N-terminal BRCT (breast cancer-associated C terminus) domain and Ser-Pro rich region in the regulation of the overall structure of this protein. Tryptophan fluorescence studies, fluorescence quenching and Bis-ANS binding experiments using purified recombinant full length Pol λ and its N-terminal deletion forms have revealed UV-B induced conformational change in BRCT domain deficient Pol λ. On the other hand, the highly conserved C-terminal catalytic core PolX domain maintained its tertiary folds under similar condition. Circular dichroism (CD) and fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectral studies have indicated appreciable change in the secondary structural elements in UV-B exposed BRCT domain deficient Pol λ. Increased thermodynamic stability of the C-terminal catalytic core domain suggested destabilizing effect of the N-terminal Ser-Pro rich region on the protein structure. Urea-induced equilibrium unfolding studies have revealed increased stability of Pol λ and its N-terminal deletion mutants at high NaCl concentration. In vivo aggregation studies using transient expression systems in Arabidopsis and tobacco indicated possible aggregation of Pol λ lacking the BRCT domain. Immunoprecipitation assays revealed interaction of Pol λ with the eukaryotic molecular chaperone HSP90, suggesting the possibility of regulation of Pol λ stability by HSP90 in plant cell. Overall, our results have provided one of the first comprehensive information on the biophysical characteristics of Pol λ and indicated the importance of both BRCT and Ser-Pro rich modules in regulating the stability of this protein under genotoxic stress in plants.
Measurement of Hydraulic Conductivity of Single Perfused Rana Mesenteric Microvessels between Periods of Controlled Shear Stress

A new method for the determination of hydraulic conductivity in individually perfused microvessels in vivo is described. A vessel is cannulated at both ends with glass micropipettes and the fluid filtration rate across the vessel wall measured from the velocities of red cells when the pressure in the micropipettes is balanced. Hydraulic conductivity measured using this double‐cannulation method (2.6 (± 0.9) × 10−7 cm s−1 cmH2O−1) was not significantly different from that measured using a previously described technique in the same vessel (2.4 (± 0.9) × 10−7 cm s−1 cmH2O−1 using the Landis‐Michel method). Shear stress on the vessel wall was controlled by changing the difference between the inflow and outflow pressures during periods of perfusion. The volume flow through the vessel, calculated from red cell velocity either in the vessel or in the pipette, was linearly proportional to this pressure difference. Higher flow rates could only be calculated from red cell velocities in the micropipette. There was no relationship between the imposed shear stress and intervening measurements of hydraulic conductivity (r= 0.029). This novel technique has advantages over the Landis‐Michel method, which include the control of outflow resistance, the measurement of shear stress under conditions of controlled pressure, the elimination of compression damage to the vessel (since vessel occlusion is not necessary) and assessment of hydraulic conductivity over the same length of vessel throughout the experiment. The measurement of solute concentrations by indwelling micropipette electrodes and the collection of perfusate for analysis are other possibilities.
rVarBase: an updated database for regulatory features of human variants

We present here the rVarBase database (http://rv.psych.ac.cn), an updated version of the rSNPBase database, to provide reliable and detailed regulatory annotations for known and novel human variants. This update expands the database to include additional types of human variants, such as copy number variations (CNVs) and novel variants, and include additional types of regulatory features. Now rVarBase annotates variants in three dimensions: chromatin states of the surrounding regions, overlapped regulatory elements and variants’ potential target genes. Two new types of regulatory elements (lncRNAs and miRNA target sites) have been introduced to provide additional annotation. Detailed information about variants’ overlapping transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) (often less than 15 bp) within experimentally supported TF-binding regions (∼150 bp) is provided, along with the binding motifs of matched TF families. Additional types of extended variants and variant-associated phenotypes were also added. In addition to the enrichment in data content, an element-centric search module was added, and the web interface was refined. In summary, rVarBase hosts more types of human variants and includes more types of up-to-date regulatory information to facilitate in-depth functional research and to provide practical clues for experimental design.
Analysis of projections from the medial prefrontal cortex to the thalamus in the rat, with emphasis on nucleus reuniens

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is involved in high‐order cognitive processes, including, but not limited to, decision making, goal directed behavior, and working memory. Although previous reports have included descriptions of mPFC projections to the thalamus in overall examinations of mPFC projections throughout the brain, no previous study has comprehensively examined mPFC projections to the thalamus. The present report compares and contrasts projections from the four divisions of the mPFC, i.e., the infralimbic, prelimbic, anterior cingulate and medial agranular cortices, to the thalamus in the rat by using the anterograde anatomic tracer Phaseolus vulgaris‐leucoagglutinin. We showed that (1) the infralimbic, prelimbic, anterior cingulate cortices distribute heavily and selectively to midline/medial structures of the thalamus, including the paratenial, paraventricular, interanteromedial, anteromedial, intermediodorsal, mediodorsal, reuniens, and the central medial nuclei; (2) the medial agranular cortex distributes strongly to the rostral intralaminar nuclei (central lateral, paracentral, central medial nuclei) as well as to the ventromedial and ventrolateral nuclei of thalamus; and (3) all four divisions of the mPFC project densely to the nucleus reuniens (RE) of the thalamus. The nucleus reuniens is the major source of thalamic afferents to the hippocampal formation. There are essentially no direct projections from the mPFC to the hippocampus. The present demonstration of pronounced mPFC projections to RE suggests that the nucleus reuniens is a critical relay in the transfer of information from the medial prefrontal cortex to the hippocampus. Our further demonstration of strong mPFC projections to several additional thalamic nuclei, particularly to the mediodorsal nucleus, suggests that these thalamic nuclei, like RE, represent important output stations (or gateways) for the actions of mPFC on diverse subcortical and cortical structures of the brain. J. Comp. Neurol. 442:163–187, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Chronic hypoxia causes angiogenesis in addition to remodelling in the adult rat pulmonary circulation

Chronic hypoxia caused by migration of native sea‐level dwellers to high altitude or chronic lung disease leads to the development of increased pulmonary vascular resistance and pulmonary hypertension. This altitude‐induced hypertension offers no obvious benefit and may indeed be maladaptive. A major mechanism thought to contribute to the development of pulmonary hypertension is hypoxia‐induced loss of small blood vessels, sometimes termed rarefaction or pruning. More recent evidence caused us to question this widely accepted concept including the potent angiogenic effect of chronic hypoxia in all other vascular beds and the demonstration that new vessels can form in the pulmonary circulation when stimulated by chronic infection and lung resection. We tested the hypothesis that chronic environmental hypoxia causes angiogenesis in the adult pulmonary circulation by using stereological techniques combined with confocal microscopy to examine the resultant changes in pulmonary vascular structure in rats. We found that chronic hypoxia resulted in increased total pulmonary vessel length, volume, endothelial surface area and number of endothelial cells in vivo. This is the first reported demonstration of hypoxia‐induced angiogenesis in the mature pulmonary circulation, a structural adaptation that may have important beneficial consequences for gas exchange. These findings imply that we must revise the widely accepted paradigm that hypoxia‐induced loss of small vessels is a key structural change contributing to the development of pulmonary hypertension in high altitude adaptation and chronic lung disease.
Chapter 2 Biosurfactants : Production and Applications

Great emphasis has recently been given to the environmental impacts caused by chemical surfactants due to their toxicity and difficulty in being degraded in the environment [1]. Increasing environmental concerns, the advance in biotechnology and the emergence of more stringent laws have led to biosurfactants being a potential alternative to the chemical surfac‐ tants available on the market [2, 3]. Although biosurfactants have promising use in bioreme‐ diation processes, their industrial scale production is currently difficult due to high rawmaterial costs, high processing costs and low manufacturing output [3]. As a result, the current research challenges are to increase the yield and to reduce the cost of raw materials [4].
Heterogeneous network design for effective support of invalidation-based coherency protocols

Future chip multiprocessors will include tens and hundreds of cores organized in a tile-based design pattern. A built-in on-chip network (NoC) will be devoted to communicating processors and memory controllers among them. In these systems, a shared memory programming model is appealing since it simplifies programming efforts. However, a coherence protocol is needed to keep the data consistent all along the various levels of memory hierarchy. Usually an invalidation-based protocol is used where memory copies are invalidated before a processor writes on a memory block. Usually, all these control messages are delivered through the built-in NoC. In this paper we propose a NoC re-organization in which a small and fast control network is dedicated only to invalidation messages. By doing this, application traffic is alleviated and traffic overhead is significantly reduced. We explore different coherency protocol strategies to cope with an efficient mapping of network control messaging thus, optimizing the use of the control network. Simulation results demonstrate the impact of the control network over invalidation-based protocols. In particular, using this network is possible to lower the store miss latency by 20% and execution time.