Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Enduring Vulnerabilities and Coping in Adjusting to Marital Stress

This investigation examines some of the potential underlying processes and factors associated with marital stability. Two studies were guided by Karney and Bradbury’s vulnerability-stress-adaptation (VSA) model of marital development. Variables examined included negative affectivity, educational attainment, work and family stressors, conflict resolution styles, mutual problem solving, marital satisfaction, personal commitment, and divorce proneness. Study one used an existing data set consisting of 194 married couples and tested a part of the VSA model. Results indicate that high negative affectivity is associated with the endorsement of negatively toned conflict styles. In comparison to husbands, wives’ negative affectivity and use of negatively toned conflict styles were found to be more detrimental to marital quality in general. Conflict resolution styles were able to explain the relationship between negative affectivity and marital quality for husbands more so than wives. Study two examined 186 newly married couples and tested additional paths of the VSA. The enduring vulnerability, negative affectivity, played a significant role in wives’ and husbands’ perceived stress and lower marital quality. Marital quality was significantly associated with how spouses personally communicated with their spouses about problems and concerns. Additionally, mutual problem solving was related to increased levels of stress for wives and husbands. There were partner effects for husbands’ mutual problem solving on wives’ perceived stress, but not vice versa. Last, mutual problem solving significantly mediated some of the relationships between enduring vulnerabilities, stressful events, and marital quality. Both studies highlight the impact communication processes have on a
Voronoi-based coverage control of heterogeneous disk-shaped robots

In distributed mobile sensing applications, networks of agents that are heterogeneous, respecting both actuation as well as body and sensory footprint, are often modelled by recourse to power diagrams - generalized Voronoi diagrams with additive weights. In this paper, we adapt the body power diagram to introduce its “free subdiagram,” generating a vector field planner that solves the combined sensory coverage and collision avoidance problem via continuous evaluation of an associated constrained optimization problem. We propose practical extensions (a heuristic congestion manager that speeds convergence and a lift of the point particle controller to the more practical differential drive kinematics) that maintain the convergence and collision guarantees.
Marker-assisted selection: an approach for precision plant breeding in the twenty-first century

DNA markers have enormous potential to improve the efficiency and precision of conventional plant breeding via marker-assisted selection (MAS). The large number of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) mapping studies for diverse crops species have provided an abundance of DNA marker–trait associations. In this review, we present an overview of the advantages of MAS and its most widely used applications in plant breeding, providing examples from cereal crops. We also consider reasons why MAS has had only a small impact on plant breeding so far and suggest ways in which the potential of MAS can be realized. Finally, we discuss reasons why the greater adoption of MAS in the future is inevitable, although the extent of its use will depend on available resources, especially for orphan crops, and may be delayed in less-developed countries. Achieving a substantial impact on crop improvement by MAS represents the great challenge for agricultural scientists in the next few decades.
Effects of lisinopril on cardiorespiratory, neuroendocrine, and renal function in patients with asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction.

OBJECTIVE--To determine the cardiac, renal, and neuroendocrine effects of lisinopril in men with untreated, symptom free left ventricular systolic dysfunction. DESIGN--A randomised, double blind cross over trial with six week treatment periods to compare lisinopril (10 mg/day) and matching placebo. SETTING--Hospital outpatient department. PATIENTS--Patients with pronounced systolic dysfunction on cross sectional echocardiography due to myocardial infarction at least six months previously, without angina and with no or minimal breathlessness. Eighteen men were identified of whom 15 completed the study. INTERVENTIONS--Lisinopril (10 mg) or placebo given once daily by mouth. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Primary: oxygen consumption at peak exercise. Secondary: resting cardiac function as measured by radionuclide ventriculography and echocardiography, renal function estimated radioisotopically, and plasma indices of neuroendocrine activity. RESULTS--Compared with placebo, lisinopril increased (mean (SD)) peak oxygen consumption during exercise (19.8(3.1) ml/kg/min v 21.4(3.2) ml/kg/min; p < 0.003). Lisinopril did not improve indices of cardiac function at rest. It reduced plasma concentrations of angiotensin II (median values 7 pg/ml to 5 pg/ml; p < 0.02), aldosterone (median values 113 pg/ml to 66 pg/ml; p < 0.05) and atrial natriuretic peptide (median values 69 pg/ml to 40 pg/ml; p < 0.04), but noradrenaline and antidiuretic hormone concentrations did not change. Renal blood flow increased and glomerular filtration rate declined. CONCLUSIONS--Even before the onset of heart failure lisinopril improves the cardiopulmonary response to exercise in patients with systolic ventricular dysfunction.
Smad7 gene transfer attenuates angiogenesis in peritoneal dialysis rats

Transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β) has been shown to play a role in peritoneal angiogenesis associated with peritoneal dialysis (PD). The present study investigated whether blockade of TGF‐β signalling with Smad7 has a therapeutic effect on PD induced‐peritoneal angiogenesis.
Ectopic Expression of Ephrin-A5 Under the EphA8 Promoter at the Anterior Region of the Superior Colliculus

EphA/ephrin-A mediated signaling has emerged as a key mechanism regulating axon guidance and topographic mapping, particularly in the well-characterized visual system from the retina to the superior colliculus (SC). In this study, EphA8 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) was manipulated to contain a floxed eGFP and human ephrin-A5 expression cassette using homologous recombination method. In the mice containing the recombinant BAC, it was shown that GFP is expressed in an anterior>posterior gradient in the SC. Furthermore, when these mice were crossed with the transgenic mice expressing Cre under the EphA8 promoter, it was evident that a GFP expression cassette was eliminated, and that human ephrin-A5 was ectopically expressed in the anterior region of the SC. This transgenic model would be useful to analyze the role of ephrin-A5 in the SC during the retinocollicular topography formation.
Endogeneity, Time-Varying Coefficients, and Incorrect vs. Correct Ways of Specifying the Error Terms of Econometric Models

Using the net effect of all relevant regressors omitted from a model to form its error term is incorrect because the coefficients and error term of such a model are non-unique. Non-unique coefficients cannot possess consistent estimators. Uniqueness can be achieved if; instead; one uses certain “sufficient sets” of (relevant) regressors omitted from each model to represent the error term. In this case; the unique coefficient on any non-constant regressor takes the form of the sum of a bias-free component and omitted-regressor biases. Measurement-error bias can also be incorporated into this sum. We show that if our procedures are followed; accurate estimation of bias-free components is possible.
Disruption of Smad4 in Odontoblasts Causes Multiple Keratocystic Odontogenic Tumors and Tooth Malformation in Mice

ABSTRACT Keratocystic odontogenic tumors (KCOTs) are cystic epithelial neoplasias with a high recurrence rate. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the initiation and progression of KCOTs are still largely unknown. Here, we show that specific ablation of Smad4 in odontoblasts unexpectedly resulted in spontaneous KCOTs in mice. The mutant mice exhibited malformed teeth characterized by fractured incisors and truncated molar roots. These abnormalities were mainly caused by disrupted odontoblast differentiation that led to irregular dentin formation. The cystic tumors arising from the reactivation of epithelial rests of Malassez (ERM), in which Smad4 remained intact, proliferated and formed stratified and differentiated squamous epithelia that exhibited a dramatic upregulation of Hedgehog signaling. Odontoblasts, which are responsive to transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β)/bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signals, may produce signal molecules to inhibit the activation of ERM. Indeed, we observed a downregulation of BMP signals from Smad4 mutant odontoblasts to the adjacent Hertwig's epithelial root sheath (HERS). Intriguingly, KCOTs frequently emerged from Smad4-deficient ERM in keratinocyte-specific Smad4 knockout mice, suggesting a novel mechanism in which reciprocal TGF-β/BMP signaling between odontoblasts and HERS was required for tooth root development and suppression of KCOT formation. These findings provide insight into the genetic basis underlying KCOTs and have important implications for new directions in KCOT treatment.
Tight Spirals and Industry Clients: The Modern SE Education Experience

Modern software engineering education is driven by an expectation that industry best practice and state of the art software technologies should not wait until graduation, but should appear early in the undergraduate curriculum. Moreover, students in our programmes have a strong, and well-justified belief that industrial strength project work is well-regarded by potential employers, and have had little difficulty expressing their preference for more relevant courses.In response, we have significantly enhanced the industry linkages and professional focus of our SE programme through a series of initiatives over a four year period. These initiatives have included: the introduction of a more modern development process employing multiple iterations; a novel approach to the first software engineering unit in which the students must extend an existing (phase 1) software system; the involvement of a live industry partner in the advanced software engineering unit, with regular and candid feedback from the company staff; and the provision of detailed support materials for version control and automated unit testing as part of our process infrastructure. This paper details our experiences during this period, the rationale for our process and course structure, and discusses the feedback on our approaches from students and local employers.
An Integrated Method Using Conceptual Modelling to Generate an Ontology-based Query Mechanism

The application of ontologies in information systems is becoming increasingly prevalent. In particular, the use of ontologies as a conceptual view for the purpose of accessing information stored in underlying data repositories can increase the effectiveness of mechanisms for information querying and browsing. However, the process of ontology construction requires expertise in DLs, which is a scarce skill. An opportunity has been identified to capitalise on the advantages of ontologybased querying while reducing the challenges encountered in ontology construction, by utilising conceptual modelling techniques more prevalent in information systems development teams. This can be achieved by using traditional conceptual modelling techniques to develop a conceptual model of the domain of interest and utilising this to generate an ontology-based query mechanism. In this paper, an overview of an integrated method that uses conceptual modelling to generate an ontologybased query mechanism is presented. The described method utilises existing tools, technologies and approaches. The challenges regarding integration are addressed resulting in an end-to-end method. The developed method was evaluated and refined by applying it in a real-world domain of Indigenous Knowledge, in particular to the themes of African Traditional Medicine and Food Security. The resulting method can be utilised by any organisation interested in building an ontology-based query mechanism over information in a specific domain.
An unexpected role for fibroblast growth factor-2 in modulating anxiety and hippocampal stem cells

Emotionality refers to the unique constellation and magnitude of the endocrine, neural and behavioral responses of an organism when exposed to environmental stimuli that have valence be it negative or positive. The hippocampus is one of the key brain structures that modulate these responses. Exposure to sustained stress increases anxiety-like behavior and can lead to various structural changes in the hippocampus, including disruption of adult neurogenesis. In contrast Environmental Complexity (EC), a behavioral paradigm involving communally housed animals exposed to various objects and toys, has been shown to enhance neurogenesis and reduce anxiety-like behavior. Previous findings showing decreased levels of FGF-2 expression in brains of postmortem subjects that suffered from major depression have implicated the FGF system as a novel target modulating vulnerability to mood disorders. However, the extent of such findings has yet to be linked to behavioral measures of emotionality. Given that altered anxiety is observed in mood disorders such as depression we examined the potential contribution of FGF-2 on the anxiolytic and neurogenic effects of
Orthopaedic Modular Implants Based on Shape Memory Alloys

Intelligent materials are those materials whose physical characteristics can be modified not only through the charging factors of a certain test, but also through diverse mechanisms involving a series of additional parameters like luminous radiation, temperature, magnetic or electric fields etc. The use of intelligent materials in medical sciences offers to the economic medium the safest way to launch effective, highly-feasible and especially biocompatible products on the internal and international markets. The most important alloy used in biomedical applications is Ni–Ti, Nitinol (Nickel Titanium Naval Ordinance Laboratory), an alloy of an almost equal mixture of nickel and titanium, which is able to fulfil functional requirements related not only to their mechanical reliability but also to its chemical reliability and its biological reliability. Superelastic Nitinol alloys are becoming integral to the design of a variety of new medical products. The very big elasticity of these alloys is the most important advantage afforded by this material, but by no means the only or most important one. To highlight the value of superelastic Nitinol to the medical industry, we can present other properties: biocompatibility, kink resistance, constancy of stress, physiological compatibility, shape-memory deployment, dynamic interference, fatigue resistance hysteresis, and MRI compatibility (Duerig et al., 1999; Friend & Morgan, 1999; Mantovani, 2000; Pelton et al., 2000; Ryhanen et al., 1999). These properties were used for manufacturing medical products including stents, filters, retrieval baskets, and surgical tools. There are many metals exhibit superelastic effects, but only Nitinol based alloys is biologically and chemically compatible with the human body (Kapanen et al., 2002; Raghubir et al., 2007; Shabalovskaya, 1995; Yeung et al., 2007). In vivo testing and experience indicates that Nitinol is highly biocompatible, more so than stainless steel. The extraordinary compliance of Nitinol clearly makes it the metal that is most similar mechanically to biological materials. This improved physiological similarity promotes bony ingrowths and proper healing by sharing loads with the surrounding tissue, and has led to applications such as hip implants, bone spacers, bone staples, and skull plates. NiTi applications in orthopaedics currently include internal fixation by the use of fixatives, compression bone stables used in osteotomy and fracture fixation, rods for the correction of scoliosis (Yang et al., 1987), shape memory expansion staples used in cervical surgery (Sanders et al., 1993), staples in small bone surgery (Mei et al., 1997), and fixation systems for suturing tissue in minimal invasive surgery (Musialek et al., 1998). Several types of
Tissue and cell-specific patterns of expression of rat liver and intestinal fatty acid binding protein during development and in experimental colonic and small intestinal adenocarcinomas.

BACKGROUND Mammalian small intestinal and colonic epithelium express members of a multigene family of hydrophobic ligand binding proteins of which liver and intestinal fatty acid binding protein represent among the most abundant intestinal gene products. These proteins are expressed in a cell- and region-specific manner and emerge in a temporally distinctive pattern. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN We have studied expression of these genes in the small intestine and colon of rats treated with 1,2-dimethylhydrazine since these animals develop a predictable pattern of both small and large bowel cancers. Studies were also undertaken in fetal and neonatal small intestine and colon. RESULTS There was a 10- and 50-fold decrease, respectively, in mRNA abundance for intestinal and liver fatty acid binding protein in RNA from colon cancers compared with either uninvolved or control RNA. Immunocytochemical analysis revealed decreased staining for both proteins within their normal distribution together with ectopic clusters of cells reactive for liver fatty acid binding protein within colonic tumors. A more striking mosaic of immunocytochemical staining for both liver and intestinal fatty acid binding protein was found in small intestinal adenocarcinomas. Similar mosaic patterns of immunocytochemical staining were transiently detectable in rat fetal small intestine and neonatal colon. CONCLUSIONS The region- and cell-specific expression of these genes, which may be linked temporally to events in intestinal differentiation, are subject to disruption in a cell-specific manner in the transformed, or dedifferentiated, phenotype.
Does Dietary P Affect Feeding and Performance in the Mixed-Feeding Grasshopper (Acrididae) Melanoplus bivitattus?

Abstract Although consequences of limited dietary protein and carbohydrate to performance are well studied for terrestrial insect herbivores, the importance of phosphorus (P) remains poorly understood. We examined the significance of dietary P to performance in fifth-instar nymphs of the grasshopper Melanoplus bivittatus fed artificial diets. Consumption, digestion, developmental rate, and growth in response to different levels of P nested within standard-Protein and carbohydrate diets were determined. Developmental rate was slowest on high-P diets; protein:carbohydrate concentration and P in diets affected frass production and consumption. Approximate digestibility and conversion of digested food were primarily influenced by the protein:carbohydrate quality of the diet but not P. Mass gain was marginally lower in the low-Protein:high carbohydrate diet used in this study. At the individual level, other than small effects to developmental rate at high concentrations for M. bivittatus, dietary P otherwise seems to have little effect on nymphal performance. To the degree that it is important, effects of dietary P depend on the concentrations of protein and carbohydrate in the diet.
A Deferred Payment Strategy for Risk-Averse Supply Chain based on CVaR

The offer of a delayed period for payment from suppliers may help retailers to order more but also improve the total supply chain performance. In this paper, we adopt Conditional Value-at-Risk, CVaR, as the performance criterion to examine how supply chain performance is affected through the deferred payment contract. Analytical results are yielded for the newsvendor retailer’s optimal order quantity and supplier’s optimal wholesale price, based on which sensitivity analysis is conducted. We show that by use of this deferred payment strategy, both the supplier and retailer can be better off. Keywords-risk aversion; deferred payment; conditional value-at-risk; supply chain
Homeostatic Sleep Pressure and Responses to Sustained Attention in the Suprachiasmatic Area

After prolonged wakefulness, people who are “night owls” do better at mental tests than those who are “early birds. ” Early Birds and Night Owls In humans, peaks and troughs in alertness and cognitive performance partly depend on the timing of daily activities. Using brain imaging from the extreme ends of the spectrum of individuals whose performance is better in the mornings to those who do best in the evenings, Schmidt et al. (p. 516) found that after more than 10 hours of wakefulness, morning types had less activity in brain areas linked to attention compared with evening types. Moreover, morning types felt sleepier and tended to perform slower on psychomotor vigilance tasks. It seems getting the balance of sleep at the right time is important for regulating the daily pattern of cognitive performance. Throughout the day, cognitive performance is under the combined influence of circadian processes and homeostatic sleep pressure. Some people perform best in the morning, whereas others are more alert in the evening. These chronotypes provide a unique way to study the effects of sleep-wake regulation on the cerebral mechanisms supporting cognition. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in extreme chronotypes, we found that maintaining attention in the evening was associated with higher activity in evening than morning chronotypes in a region of the locus coeruleus and in a suprachiasmatic area (SCA) including the circadian master clock. Activity in the SCA decreased with increasing homeostatic sleep pressure. This result shows the direct influence of the homeostatic and circadian interaction on the neural activity underpinning human behavior.
Steam-Powered Sensing : Extended Design and Evaluation

Sensornets promise to extend automated monitoring and control into industrial processes. In spite of great progress made in sensornet design, deployment and operational cost impedes use of sensornet in many real-word scenarios—these challenges are so great that industries often continue with infrequent, manual observations over automation, even for key business processes. In this paper we propose two novel approaches to reduce system deployment cost, and test those approaches in a real-world monitoring of steam pipelines in oil industry. First, we make use temperature differences between the pipeline’s surface and the atmosphere reliable source of harvestable energy for sensornet operation. We demonstrate that for temperature differences of 80  or more, batteryless operation is possible using only a low-cost 40x40mm thermoelectric generation module; thereby significantly reduce costs of deployment and operation. Second, we show that non-invasive sensing can infer blockages in water and steam pipelines, and partial blockages in steam pipelines. Non-invasive sensing eliminates the need to pierce the pipeline, greatly reducing deployment cost. Finally, we evaluate our “steam-powered sensing” system in an application monitoring blockage in steam pipeline chokes in a production oilfield. To our knowledge, this is ∗This research is partially supported by CiSoft (Center for Interactive Smart Oilfield Technologies), a Center of Research Excellence and Academic Training and a joint venture between the University of Southern California and Chevron Corporation. the first industrial field sensornet deployment that employ non-solar energy harvesting. To broaden our results, we also show our approaches also apply to blockage detection in lower temperature water pipelines through laboratory experiments.