Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of dropout in weight loss interventions: a systematic review of the literature

Attendance and completion of weight loss intervention is associated with better weight loss outcomes; however, attrition is neither consistently reported nor comprehensively explored in the weight loss literature. A systematic review was undertaken to identify factors associated with attrition in weight loss interventions involving overweight or obese (body mass index ≥ 25) adults (18–65 years). Sixty‐one studies published before May 2011 and addressing factors associated with weight loss programme attrition were identified. Conclusions were limited by the large number of variables explored, the small number of studies exploring each variable, the large variety of study settings and methodologies used, the inconsistent reporting of results, and the conflicting findings across studies. A consistent set of predictors has not yet been identified. The majority of studies relied on pre‐treatment routinely collected data rather than variables selected because of their theoretical and/or empirical relationship with attrition. However, psychological and behavioural patient factors and processes associated with the treatment were more commonly associated with attrition than patient background characteristics. Future research should consider theoretically grounded social–psychological and behavioural processes as potential predictors of dropout. Identification of patients at risk of dropout will contribute to both the effectiveness and the cost‐effectiveness of weight loss interventions.
Sensitivity evaluation of embedded code detection in imperceptible structured light sensing

We address the use of pre-trained primitive-shape detectors for identifying embedded codes in imperceptible structured light (ISL) sensing. The accuracy of the whole sensing system is determined by the performance of such detectors. In training-based methods, generalization of the training results is often an issue, and it is especially so when the work scenario could have substantial variation between the training stage and the operation stage. This paper presents sensitivity evaluation results of embedded code detection in ISL sensing, together with the associated statistical analysis. They show that the scheme of embedding imperceptible codes into normal video projection can be maintained effective despite possible variations on sensing distance, projection-surface orientation, projection-surface shape, projection-surface texture and hardware configuration. The finding indicates the feasibility of integrating the ISL method into robotic systems for operation over a wide domain of circumstances.
Novel biological strategies for treatment of wear particle-induced periprosthetic osteolysis of orthopaedic implants for joint replacement

Wear particles and by-products from joint replacements and other orthopaedic implants may result in a local chronic inflammatory and foreign body reaction. This may lead to persistent synovitis resulting in joint pain and swelling, periprosthetic osteolysis, implant loosening and pathologic fracture. Strategies to modulate the adverse effects of wear debris may improve the function and longevity of joint replacements and other orthopaedic implants, potentially delaying or avoiding complex revision surgical procedures. Three novel biological strategies to mitigate the chronic inflammatory reaction to orthopaedic wear particles are reported. These include (i) interference with systemic macrophage trafficking to the local implant site, (ii) modulation of macrophages from an M1 (pro-inflammatory) to an M2 (anti-inflammatory, pro-tissue healing) phenotype in the periprosthetic tissues, and (iii) local inhibition of the transcription factor nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) by delivery of an NF-κB decoy oligodeoxynucleotide, thereby interfering with the production of pro-inflammatory mediators. These three approaches have been shown to be viable strategies for mitigating the undesirable effects of wear particles in preclinical studies. Targeted local delivery of specific biologics may potentially extend the lifetime of orthopaedic implants.
The Concept of Algorithm as an Interpretative Key of Modern Rationality

According to Ernst Cassirer, the transition from the concept of substance to that of mathematical function as a guide of knowledge coincided with the end of ancient and the beginning of modern theoretical thought. In the first part of this article we argue that a similar transition has also taken place in the practical sphere, where mathematical function occurs in one of its specific forms, which is that of the algorithm concept. In the second part we argue that with the rise of modernity the idea of substance and the related concepts of category and classification, which are deeply embedded in western culture, have not been totally supplanted by that of function. The intertwining of the concepts of substance and function has generated contradictory hybrids. These hybrids are used as a key for the understanding of the different repercussions of algorithmic logic on society in terms of social integration.
Geographies of policy

The paper develops a geographical approach to the issues of policy transfer and transformation, taking the form of a critical dialogue with three literatures at the borderlands of political science, comparative institutionalism, and political sociology. Making the case for moving beyond rational-choice frameworks and essentialized, formalist representations of policy transfer, the paper advocates a social-constructivist understanding of policy mobilities-and-mutations, sensitive to the constitutive roles of spatiotemporal context.
From Management to Leadership

Educational management was still a relatively new field of study and practice in the UK at the time of the Education Reform Act (ERA) 1988. The field focused on `management' and not leadership. This emphasis very much reflected the business world and its use in education illustrated the `policy borrowing' characteristic of an emerging field. This article revisits the concepts of leadership and management, examines the impact of the ERA on management practice in schools and colleges, and discusses the notion of managerialism. The chronology of leadership and management during the past 20 years is explored, including the role of New Labour and the opening of the National College for School Leadership. The paper concludes with a review of the contemporary emphasis on leadership for learning.
Performance of broiler breeder hens on wire and litter floors.

Two experiments were conducted with broiler breeder hens to study the influence of litter versus wire floor on weight and specific gravity of eggs. In Experiment 1, one group of broiler breeder hens was maintained on litter and the other on wire. Specific gravity was significantly higher for eggs from hens kept on litter floors. When hens on wire floors had access to litter in a feeder, an increase in egg specific gravity was noted within one day. In Experiment 2, broiler breeder hens, 52 weeks of age, were separated into three treatments: litter floor, wire floor, and wire floor with old litter material in feeder. When hens received 3.22% dietary calcium, the egg specific gravity was highest (P less than .05) from hens on the litter floor, intermediate from hens on wire with access to litter, and lowest from hens on wire without access to litter. Hens on wire with access to litter consumed 18.3 g litter/bird/day, corresponding to an additional intake of 352 mg calcium and 93 mg phosphorus. They also received 4700 mg calcium and 790 mg phosphorus from the feed. The specific gravity of eggs from hens with access to litter was higher than for eggs from those hens without access to the litter when hens received diets with 1.0 and . 15% calcium. No significant differences were found in egg whites among treatments. The hens on wire with access to litter and fed 1.0 or . 25 or 3.22% dietary calcium consumed 24.5, 28.5, and 18.9 g more of litter, respectively. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Bacterial induction of proinflammatory cytokines in inflammatory bowel disease

&NA; It has become increasingly clear that inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) develops on the background of genetic defects in the host, conveying an increased susceptibility to an environmental antigen or antigens. The environmental factor implicated in the pathophysiology of gut inflammation, which is undergoing increased scrutiny, is the intestinal flora. The intestinal flora as a whole and specific bacteria and their products have been found to trigger cytokine expression in various cell types. Consistently, multiple bacterial strains were found to induce tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐&agr;) and interleukin‐8 (IL‐8) in macrophage and epithelial cell systems, respectively, in particular in Crohn's disease. Interestingly, various cell types from patients with IBD display an increased susceptibility to specific bacterial products, including flagellin, pili, and lipopolysaccharides. It remains to be determined whether additional effector proteins regulate cytokine expression and the aberrant mucosal immune response in IBD. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2010)
Wilderness Food Storage in Yosemite: Using the Theory of Planned Behavior to Understand Backpacker Canister Use

Bear-resistant food storage canisters have gained widespread acceptance by backpackers as the most convenient and effective means of avoiding conflict with black bears in Sierra Nevada wilderness areas. Bear incidents, however, continue in the Yosemite Wilderness. Beginning in 2004, Yosemite backpackers were required to store their food in approved bear-resistant food storage canisters when camped within seven air miles of a road and anywhere above 9,600 feet; this constitutes a large majority of the park's wilderness. In 2005 we evaluated backpackers' use of canisters for food storage. Trailhead and Internet-based surveys were used to identify wilderness visitors' beliefs, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control, and intentions regarding use of food storage canisters. We used the Theory of Planned Behavior to explain intended use of food storage canisters in the Yosemite Wilderness and found that models containing measures of attitudes and subjective norm explained 38 to 43% of backpackers' intentions to use canisters.
Can a long term perceptual hypothesis affect visual perception

Visual masking is a psychophysical method commonly used to study visual information processing. Visual masking can be used to study the time course of visual information processing, but one of the limitations of this method is its inability to separate perceptual level processing from decision level processing. This study demonstrates that perceptual level processing can be separated from decision level processing by using a series of alternative forced choice visual masking tasks. Priming of perceptual level information is demonstrated. This priming can not be explained by existing feed forward visual information processing theories, but can be explained by the objects substitution model (Di Lollo et. al., 2000).
LACHESIS Restricts Gametic Cell Fate in the Female Gametophyte of Arabidopsis

In flowering plants, the egg and sperm cells form within haploid gametophytes. The female gametophyte of Arabidopsis consists of two gametic cells, the egg cell and the central cell, which are flanked by five accessory cells. Both gametic and accessory cells are vital for fertilization; however, the mechanisms that underlie the formation of accessory versus gametic cell fate are unknown. In a screen for regulators of egg cell fate, we isolated the lachesis (lis) mutant which forms supernumerary egg cells. In lis mutants, accessory cells differentiate gametic cell fate, indicating that LIS is involved in a mechanism that prevents accessory cells from adopting gametic cell fate. The temporal and spatial pattern of LIS expression suggests that this mechanism is generated in gametic cells. LIS is homologous to the yeast splicing factor PRP4, indicating that components of the splice apparatus participate in cell fate decisions.
Critical path driven cosynthesis for heterogeneous target architectures

This paper presents a critical path driven algorithm to produce a static schedule of a single-rate system onto a heterogeneous target architecture. Our algorithm is a list based scheduling algorithm which concurrently assigns tasks to processors and allocates nets to interprocessor communication. Experimental results show that our algorithm is able to find good results, as compared to other methods, in small amount of CPU time.
Small noncoding RNAs: Biogenesis, function, and emerging significance in toxicology

In recent years, the discovery of small ncRNAs (noncoding RNAs) has unveiled a slew of powerful riboregulators of gene expression. So far, many different types of small ncRNAs have been described. Of these, miRNAs (microRNAs), siRNAs (small interfering RNAs), and piRNAs (Piwi‐interacting RNAs) have been studied in more detail. A significant fraction of genes in most organisms and tissues is targets of these small ncRNAs. Because these tiny RNAs are turning out to be important regulators of gene and genome expression, their aberrant expression profiles are expected to be associated with cellular dysfunction and disease. In fact, an ever‐increasing number of studies have implicated miRNAs and siRNAs in human health and disease ranging from metabolic disorders to diseases of various organ systems as well as various forms of cancer. Nevertheless, despite the flurry of research on these small ncRNAs, many aspects of their biology still remain to be understood. The following discussion focuses on some aspects of the biogenesis and function of small ncRNAs with major emphasis on miRNAs since these are the most widespread endogenous small ncRNAs that have been called “micromanagers” of gene expression. Their emerging significance in toxicology is also discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 24:195–216, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/jbt.20325
Fluent Conceptual Processing and Explicit Memory for Faces Are Electrophysiologically Distinct

Implicit memory and explicit memory are fundamentally different manifestations of memory storage in the brain. Yet, conceptual fluency driven by previous experience could theoretically be responsible for both conceptual implicit memory and aspects of explicit memory. For example, contemplating the meaning of a word might serve to speed subsequent processing of that word and also make it seem familiar. We examined electrophysiological correlates of conceptual priming with 180 celebrity faces to determine whether or not they resemble electrophysiological correlates of explicit memory. Celebrity faces are ideal for this purpose because they carry with them preexisting conceptual information (i.e., biographical facts) that can selectively be brought to mind such that conceptual processing can be manipulated systematically. In our experiment, exposure to biographical information associated with only one-half of the celebrities yielded conceptual priming for those faces, whereas all faces were perceptually primed. Conceptual priming was indexed by positive brain potentials over frontal regions from ∼250 to 500 ms. Explicit memory retrieval was associated with later brain potentials over posterior regions that were strikingly similar to potentials previously associated with pure familiarity for faces (when a face seems familiar in the absence of retrieval of any specific information about previous occurrence). Furthermore, the magnitude of conceptual priming was correlated across subjects with the amplitude of frontal but not posterior potentials, whereas the opposite was true for explicit memory. Distinct brain processes were thus associated with conceptual priming and conscious recognition of faces, thus providing a sharper focus on the border between implicit and explicit memory.
Comparison Of Empathy Quotient Of Prospective Teachers Based On Certain Selected Demographic Variables

Empathy as a social skill is of great importance for educators as they deal with multifarious problems of students in this challenging world. The present study was an attempt to assess the empathy quotient of student teachers undergoing training at secondary teacher education institutions in Kerala State. An Empathy Quotient Questionnaire prepared and standardized by Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright (2003) was administered to a sample of 150 student teachers from various training colleges. It was revealed that the prospective teachers possess moderate level of empathy quotient and domicile of residence has no influence on the possession of empathy. However, female prospective teachers possess high level of empathy quotient than that of their male counter parts. The findings of the study indicate the need of incorporating empathy building exercises in the curriculum for secondary teacher education.
Development of Anthropomorphic Robot Hand with Tactile Sensor : SKKU Hand II

In this paper, an anthropomorphic robot hand called SKKU Hand II is presented, which has a miniaturized fingertip tactile sensor. The thumb is designed as one part of the palm and provides the mobility of the palm. The fingertip tactile sensor, based on polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and pressure variable resistor ink, is physically flexible enough to be deformed into any three-dimensional geometry. In order to detect incipient slip, a PVDF strip is arranged along the direction normal to the surface of the finger of the robot hand. Also, a thin flexible sensor to sense the static force as well as the contact location is fabricated into an arrayed type using pressure variable resistor ink. The driving circuits for the SKKU Hand II are embedded in the hand, and each driving circuit communicates with others using CAN protocol. In addition, a tactile sensing system is developed with miniaturized electronic hardwares such as charge amplifier, signal processing unit etc., and it is integrated into the robot hand. The SKKU Hand II is manufactured and feasibility of the hand and the fingertip tactile sensor is validated through preliminary experiments
Behavior of Microtubules in Living Plant Cells

Cytoplasmic MTs are recognized as important elements in plant development. They are categorized in four principal arrays: the PPB, the MA, the phragmoplast, and the cortical array, and they appear to participate in fundamental aspects of cell division, growth, and differentiation. Thus, such diverse activities as prediction of the alignment of the cell plate, the movement of chromosomes and transport of cell plate vesicles, and the orientation of the cellulose wall microfibrils are all mediated by MTs to varying degrees. Our knowledge about the distribution and function of MTs has been gleaned largely from studies at the electron microscope level, and more recently at the light microscope level using immunofluorescence methods. Because most of these observations have been based on cells that have been fixed, it has not been possible to examine directly the dynamic properties and behavior of MTs. Transitional states have been inferred from looking at numerous isolated examples, which have then been placed into a sequence. Other aspects, such as the sensitivity of MTs to drugs, ions, or cold temperature, have also been approximated through studies in which cells have been fixed at periodic intervals following application of an agent. Some important aspects of MT behavior, including, notably, their turnover, have been beyond the reach of these indirect methods. To enlarge our understanding of the dynamic properties of MTs, we have introduced the technique of fluorescent analog cytochemistry as applied to plant cells (Zhang et al., 1990b). In this procedure fluorescently labeled exogenous tubulin, which is injected into the cell, incorporates into the endogenous pool and acts as a reporter. MTs, which are observed with the CLSM, can be examined under any experimental condition to which the cells are exposed. The results have produced new information about MT transitions and dynamic behavior in live cells, which we address in this Update. Other aspects of plant MTs, including the identification of MT organizing centers, tubulin isoforms, and MAPs have been considered in other recent topical reviews (Lambert, 1993; Cyr, 1994; Goddard et al., 1994; Shibaoka, 1994; Cyr and Palevitz, 1995; Joshi and Palevitz, 1996), so they will not be covered here. INCORPORATION OF HETEROLOGOUS ANIMAL TUBULIN INTO PLANT MTS; OBSERVATIONS BY CLSM
Childhood asthma in adults

Abstract Incidence and prevalence of asthma have increased in recent decades with the underlying reason remaining unclear. The majority of cases of persistent wheezing and asthma begin in early childhood, which primarily defines the individual's respiratory health throughout their lifetime. Nearly half of wheezing preschoolers “outgrow” their symptoms and commonly demonstrate reduced pulmonary function early on. Their pulmonary function typically improves by age 6 years but not to the levels of normal function as seen in those children that never wheezed. Inhaled corticosteroids are the primary first-line therapy for asthma, helping physicians gain control of clinical symptoms. However, research is demonstrating that these therapies do not prevent the development of airway dysfunction later in life. In fact, asthma is now described as a risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Clearly, the pathogenic mechanisms have not been identified in this process, and thus research needs to target this very important topic. A combination of genetic and environmental factors is probably the cause. To impact prevalence, morbidity and mortality, research needs to address whether steroid insensitivity is playing a role or are there other physiological mechanisms playing a role.
PROTECTING YOUTH PLACED IN UNLICENSED, UNREGULATED RESIDENTIAL “TREATMENT” FACILITIES

Throughout the country, there is considerable inconsistency in how states regulate residential treatment programs for youth. In states with little oversight, the health and safety of youth are unprotected and they may be subject to substandard treatment, rights violations, and/or abuse. Three initiatives to address this issue are reported: (1) an Internet survey of youth who are former residents, (2) a four-state pilot study of how states regulate and monitor residential programs, and (3) a bridge-building conference between residential treatment providers and mental health leaders. Recommendations address the next steps for lawmakers, lawyers, judges, mental health and education professionals, and parents.
Adaptive Streaming of MPEG-based Audio/Video Content over Wireless Networks

This paper describes a method for robust streaming of combined MPEG audio/video content (encoded either with MPEG-2 or MPEG-4/H.264) over in-home wireless networks. We make use of currently used content distribution format (MPEG Transport Stream) and network protocols (either RTP or TCP/HTTP). The transmitted bit-rate is constantly adapted to the available network bandwidth, such that audio and video artifacts caused by packet loss are avoided. Bit-rate adaptation is achieved by using a packet scheduling technique called I-Frame Delay (IFD), which performs priority-based frame dropping upon insufficient bandwidth. We show an implementation using RTP and an implementation using TCP. Measurements on a real-life demonstrator set-up demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.