Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Who succeeds in maintaining weight loss? A conceptual review of factors associated with weight loss maintenance and weight regain

Weight loss is difficult to achieve and maintaining the weight loss is an even greater challenge. The identification of factors associated with weight loss maintenance can enhance our understanding for the behaviours and prerequisites that are crucial in sustaining a lowered body weight. In this paper we have reviewed the literature on factors associated with weight loss maintenance and weight regain. We have used a definition of weight maintenance implying intentional weight loss that has subsequently been maintained for at least 6 months. According to our review, successful weight maintenance is associated with more initial weight loss, reaching a self‐determined goal weight, having a physically active lifestyle, a regular meal rhythm including breakfast and healthier eating, control of over‐eating and self‐monitoring of behaviours. Weight maintenance is further associated with an internal motivation to lose weight, social support, better coping strategies and ability to handle life stress, self‐efficacy, autonomy, assuming responsibility in life, and overall more psychological strength and stability. Factors that may pose a risk for weight regain include a history of weight cycling, disinhibited eating, binge eating, more hunger, eating in response to negative emotions and stress, and more passive reactions to problems.
Women’s Dangerous World Beliefs Predict More Accurate Discrimination of Affiliative Facial Cues

Cues indicating environmental threat have been shown to influence women’s preferences for physical traits in men. For example, women’s beliefs about their vulnerability to aggression are associated with a stronger preference for physical formidability and aggressive dominance in male bodies and faces. In the current study, we extend these previous findings by testing whether dangerous world beliefs predict accuracy in processing facial cues associated with affiliation or deception. In addition, we include a sample of men to determine if these effects generalize to both genders. In the present study, participants viewed a series of images of a target displaying both Duchenne (genuine) and non-Duchenne (posed) smiles and were asked to categorize them as real or fake; participants also completed the Belief in a Dangerous World scale. Results revealed that for women, greater dangerous world beliefs predicted greater accuracy in discriminating real and fake smiles; no relationship was observed between dangerous world beliefs and smile detection accuracy for men. These findings uniquely demonstrate that dangerous world beliefs predict greater accuracy in adaptive face perception; however, this relationship seems to be specific to women.
Vitamin E (α-tocopherol) ameliorates aristolochic acid-induced renal tubular epithelial cell death by attenuating oxidative stress and caspase-3 activation

Aristolochic acid (AA) is a component identified in traditional Chinese remedies for the treatment of arthritic pain, coughs and gastrointestinal symptoms. However, previous studies have indicated that AA can induce oxidative stress in renal cells leading to nephropathy. α-tocopherol exists in numerous types of food, such as nuts, and belongs to the vitamin E isoform family. It possesses antioxidant activities and has been used previously for clinical applications. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine whether α-tocopherol could reduce AA-induced oxidative stress and renal cell cytotoxicity, determined by cell survival rate, reactive oxygen species detection and apoptotic features. The results indicated that AA markedly induced H2O2 levels and caspase-3 activity in renal tubular epithelial cells. Notably, the presence of α-tocopherol inhibited AA-induced H2O2 and caspase-3 activity. The present study demonstrated that antioxidant mechanisms of α-tocopherol may be involved in the increased survival rates from AA-induced cell injury.
SVM Classification of Sparse Set of 1:1 Ventricular and Supraventricular Tachycardia

Inappropriate classification of Supraventricular Tachycardias with 1:1 atriovetricular conduction is a mayor issue in dual-chamber implantable cardioverter defribillators. In order to distinguish Supraventricular from Ventricular Tachycardias a new methodology is proposed. The tachyarrhythmia episodes ECGs are characterized into feature vectors, which are then classified using a Support Vector Machine. The best features of the vectors are selected by means of several Feature Selection methods. The performance of the algorithm overcomes existing algorithms for implantable devices.
Comparison of growth performance and biometric relationships in two reciprocal sturgeon hybrids reared in net cages (Sicily, Mediterranean)

This study was designed to investigate growth performance in two sturgeon hybrids reared in two quadrangular floating cages moored in an artificial pond, representing the first experience of sturgeon culture performed at Southern Mediterranean latitudes. The research was carried out from December 2000 to July 2001 and tested the growth performance, feeding parameters and biometric relationships. The sturgeons were randomly collected from the cages on a monthly basis, and total length, standard length (SL) and wet weight (WW) were recorded. The specific daily growth rate (SGRW) as somatic WW, food conversion ratio and condition factor (CF) were calculated. Biometric relationships, as linear regression, were also calculated on SL and WW data. Both hybrids grew slowly from December to April, but faster during the warm months. The growth performance of the two hybrids seems to be influenced by variability of the environmental conditions and, for both fish groups, there was a strong correlation between water temperature and SGRW at temperatures below 25 °C. The CF (constantly below 1) was similar for both hybrids. The regression analysis for WW and SL calculated for the entire period showed a positive allometry for both hybrids, indicating that the fishes grew in weight at a greater rate than required to maintain constant body proportion.
Rfx2 Stabilizes Foxj1 Binding at Chromatin Loops to Enable Multiciliated Cell Gene Expression

Cooperative transcription factor binding at cis-regulatory sites in the genome drives robust eukaryotic gene expression, and many such sites must be coordinated to produce coherent transcriptional programs. The transcriptional program leading to motile cilia formation requires members of the DNA-binding forkhead (Fox) and Rfx transcription factor families and these factors co-localize to cilia gene promoters, but it is not clear how many cilia genes are regulated by these two factors, whether these factors act directly or indirectly, or how these factors act with specificity in the context of a 3-dimensional genome. Here, we use genome-wide approaches to show that cilia genes reside at the boundaries of topological domains and that these areas have low enhancer density. We show that the transcription factors Foxj1 and Rfx2 binding occurs in the promoters of more cilia genes than other known cilia transcription factors and that while Rfx2 binds directly to promoters and enhancers equally, Foxj1 prefers direct binding to enhancers and is stabilized at promoters by Rfx2. Finally, we show that Rfx2 and Foxj1 lie at the anchor endpoints of chromatin loops, suggesting that target genes are activated when Foxj1 bound at distal sites is recruited via a loop created by Rfx2 binding at both sites. We speculate that the primary function of Rfx2 is to stabilize distal enhancers with proximal promoters by operating as a scaffolding factor, bringing key regulatory domains bound by Foxj1 into close physical proximity and enabling coordinated cilia gene expression. Author Summary The multiciliated cell extends hundreds of motile cilia to produce fluid flow in the airways and other organ systems. The formation of this specialized cell type requires the coordinated expression of hundreds of genes in order to produce all the protein parts motile cilia require. While a relatively small number of transcription factors has been identified that promote gene expression during multiciliate cell differentiation, it is not clear how they work together to coordinate the expression of genes required for multiple motile ciliation. Here, we show that two transcription factors known to drive cilia formation, Foxj1 and Rfx2, play complementary roles wherein Foxj1 activates target genes but tends not to bind near them in the genome, whereas Rfx2 can’t activate target genes by itself but instead acts as a scaffold by localizing Foxj1 to the proper targets. These results suggest not only a mechanism by which complex gene expression is coordinated in multiciliated cells, but also how transcriptional programs in general could be modular and deployed across different cellular contexts with the same basic promoter configuration.
Approaching capacity with asymptotically regular LDPC codes

We present a family of protograph based LDPC codes that can be derived from permutation matrix based regular (J,K) LDPC convolutional codes by termination. In the terminated protograph, all variable nodes still have degree J but some check nodes at the start and end of the protograph have degrees smaller than K. Since the fraction of these stronger nodes vanishes as the termination length L increases, we call the codes asymptotically regular. The density evolution thresholds of these protographs are better than those of regular (J, K) block codes. Interestingly, this threshold improvement gets stronger with increasing node degrees (at a fixed rate) and it does not decay as L increases. Terminated convolutional protographs can also be derived from standard irregular protographs and may exhibit a significant threshold improvement.
Peripheral Inflammation, Apolipoprotein E4, and Amyloid-β Interact to Induce Cognitive and Cerebrovascular Dysfunction

Cerebrovascular dysfunction is rapidly reemerging as a major process of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It is, therefore, crucial to delineate the roles of AD risk factors in cerebrovascular dysfunction. While apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4), Amyloid-β (Aβ), and peripheral inflammation independently induce cerebrovascular damage, their collective effects remain to be elucidated. The goal of this study was to determine the interactive effect of APOE4, Aβ, and chronic repeated peripheral inflammation on cerebrovascular and cognitive dysfunction in vivo. EFAD mice are a well-characterized mouse model that express human APOE3 (E3FAD) or APOE4 (E4FAD) and overproduce human Aβ42 via expression of 5 Familial Alzheimer’s disease (5xFAD) mutations. Here, we utilized EFAD carriers [5xFAD+/−/APOE+/+ (EFAD+)] and noncarriers [5xFAD−/−/APOE+/+ (EFAD−)] to compare the effects of peripheral inflammation in the presence or absence of human Aβ overproduction. Low-level, chronic repeated peripheral inflammation was induced in EFAD mice via systemic administration of lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 0.5 mg/kg/wk i.p.) from 4 to 6 months of age. In E4FAD+ mice, peripheral inflammation caused cognitive deficits and lowered post-synaptic protein levels. Importantly, cerebrovascular deficits were observed in LPS-challenged E4FAD+ mice, including cerebrovascular leakiness, lower vessel coverage, and cerebral amyloid angiopathy-like Aβ deposition. Thus, APOE4, Aβ, and peripheral inflammation interact to induce cerebrovascular damage and cognitive deficits.
A crucial role in cell spreading for the interaction of Abl PxxP motifs with Crk and Nck adaptors

The dynamic reorganization of actin structures helps to mediate the interaction of cells with their environment. The Abl non-receptor tyrosine kinase can modulate actin rearrangement during cell attachment. Here we report that the Abl PxxP motifs, which bind Src homology 3 (SH3) domains, are indispensable for the coordinated regulation of filopodium and focal adhesion formation and cell-spreading dynamics during attachment. Candidate Abl PxxP-motif-binding partners were identified by screening a comprehensive SH3-domain phage-display library. A combination of protein overexpression, silencing, pharmacological manipulation and mutational analysis demonstrated that the PxxP motifs of Abl exert their effects on actin organization by two distinct mechanisms, involving the inhibition of Crk signaling and the engagement of Nck. These results uncover a previously unappreciated role for Abl PxxP motifs in the regulation of cell spreading.
Distinct Embryonic and Adult Fates of Multipotent Myogenic Progenitors Isolated from Skeletal Muscle and Bone Marrow

Identification of multipotent progenitors has been difficult due to their rarity in adults. Here, we report a novel type of neuroepithelial myogenic progenitor that can be isolated from adult murine skeletal muscle. In culture, these progenitors generated radial glia-like cells that initiated mosaic myotubes, and subsequently developed into embryonic/fetal-like myoblasts capable of robust myofiber formation. These cells could also differentiate into neuronal lineage. By contrast, progenitors from bone marrow produced progenies more uniformly of an adult myoblast lineage. When grafted into dystrophic muscles of mdx mice, the muscle- and marrow-derived cells restored dystrophin expression; however, fetal-like myogenesis towards a defective adult fate was demonstrated in the muscle-derived cells. This impaired regenerative capacity resembled Duchenne muscular dystrophy patients, suggesting a potential connection between the neuroepithelial myogenic progenitor and the etiology of this myopathy. The distinct fates of the two types of progenitors imply their different roles in muscle regeneration and pathogenesis.
Light-activated helical inversion in cholesteric liquid crystal microdroplets

Significance Controlled switching between right- and left-handedness in spherical cholesteric droplets could lead to easily manufacturable objects for diverse applications in optoelectronics, especially in the area of circularly polarized light-responsive materials and devices. In this work, we show that photoinduced inversion of the cholesteric helix is supported in spherical droplets of a nematic liquid crystal doped with a chiral light-driven molecular motor. We show how the handedness inversion occurs in the sequence of phase transitions induced by light irradiation, combining experiments on several hundreds of droplets and simulations. We demonstrate the strong influence of the confinement on the droplet structure and on the dynamics under light irradiation, which allows for this handedness inversion. Cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) droplets exhibit nontrivial topological features, which are controlled by the ratio between the cholesteric pitch and the droplet radius. The radial spherical structure (RSS) is of particular interest, as it reveals an onion-like concentric organization of the cholesteric helices, leading to the expression of spherical Bragg microcavities. Using an overcrowded alkene-based unidirectional molecular motor as a dopant, we show that the topological defect structure in the droplet can be activated by illumination. By using appropriate molecular motor concentrations, light can either break the symmetry of topological defects (as observed for the bent-twisted bipolar structure), or it can induce inversion of handedness in an onion-like organization (in the case of RSS). This latter feature may pave the way toward alternative activation modes of lasers based on cholesteric droplets. By also studying CLC droplets once they have reached full photoconversion at photostationary state (PSS), we highlight that the strong influence of confinement on the droplets structure occurs to the same extent after the helix inversion event. Our results are interpreted in terms of numerical simulations of the droplets’ structure, which shed light on the major role played by curvature close to the droplets’ center, this latter one becoming dominant when the droplet radius is small.
A Survey of Naturally-Occurring Steroid Hormones in Raw Milk and the Associated Health Risks in Tangshan City, Hebei Province, China

In recent years, high levels of hormone residue in food, capable of damaging the health of consumers, have been recorded frequently. In this study, 195 raw milk samples were obtained from Tangshan City, China, and the concentrations of 22 steroid hormones were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). Cortisol was detected in 12.5% of raw milk samples (mean 0.61 µg/kg; range: <limit of quantification (LOQ)–0.94 µg/kg). Progesterone was detected in 85.9% of raw milk samples (mean 5.12 µg/kg; range: <LOQ–9.04 µg/kg). The concentration of cortisol present in milk was lower than the maximum residue limit defined in Japan (10 µg/kg). Children aged between one and five years were expected to be the at-risk population when exposed to detectable steroid hormone concentrations. Based on the mean and maximum concentrations of progesterone detected in milk, the contribution was 0.85% and 0.9%, and 1.48% and 1.6% of the acceptable daily intake for boys and girls, respectively. These results imply that the concentrations of steroid hormones present in raw milk should not present a health risk for young children.
TableView: A Visual Interface for Generating Preview Tables of Entity Graphs

This paper introduces TableView, a tool that helps generate preview tables of massive heterogeneous entity graphs. Given the large number of datasets from many different sources, it is challenging to select entity graphs for a particular need. TableView produces preview tables to offer a compact presentation of important entity types and relationships in an entity graph. Users can quickly browse the preview in a limited space instead of spending precious time or resources to fetch and explore the complete dataset that turns out to be inappropriate for their needs. In this paper we present: 1) a detailed description of TableView's graphical user interface and its various features, 2) a brief description of TableView's preview scoring measures and algorithms, and 3) the demonstration scenarios we intend to present to the audience.
Funnel-Control in robotics: An introduction

An adaptive (time-varying) MIMO/SISO control strategy - funnel-control - for position control of nonlinear, coupled (rigid) robotic systems is presented and its applicability in robotics introductory shown. The concept is based on the high-gain controllability of minimum-phase systems with relative degree one and known high-frequency gain. The approach allows prescribed transient behavior without identification and/or parameter estimation, although the plant is only structurally known. As most industrial applications - also the considered robotic systems - exhibit higher relative degrees, funnel-control is not directly applicable. Therefore a state-feedback like extension is introduced, which permits the reduction of the relative degree and retains the minimum-phase property. The additional implementation of a Pi-like structure assures good disturbance rejection and asymptotic tracking of the reference position trajectory. Simulation results for a 6-DOF Manutec R3 robot show the achievable performance of one overall MIMO Funnel Controller for all joints and one SISO funnel controller for each joint (6 controllers).
Low cycle fatigue life prediction in shot-peened components of different geometries – Part II: Life prediction

This study investigates the effects of shot peening on the low-cycle fatigue (LCF) performance of a low pressure steam turbine blade material. The finite element (FE) model incorporating shot peening effects, which has been introduced in Part I, has been used to predict the stabilised stress/strain state in shot-peened samples during fatigue loading. The application of this model has been extended to different notched geometries in this study. Based on the modelling results, both the Smith-Watson-Topper and Fatemi-Socie critical plane fatigue criteria have been used to predict the fatigue life of shot-peened samples (treated with two different peening intensities) with varying notched geometries. A good agreement between experiments and predictions was obtained. The application of a critical distance method considering the stress and strain hardening gradients near the shot-peened surface has been found to improve the life prediction results. The effects of surface defects on the accuracy of life predictions using the proposed method were also discussed
STRENGTH MEASUREMENT OF CONCRETE USING DIFFERENT CYLINDER SIZES: A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS

Literature was analyzed to determine the relationship between strength of 150-mm (6 in.) diameter cylinders and smaller 100-mm (4 in.) and 75-mm (3 in.) diameter cylinders. The precision of measurement of strength when smaller cylinders are used was also examined. Almost 8000 cylinder strengths ranging from less than 20 MPa to greater than 100 MPa were analyzed. Results show: (1) over all strength ranges the coefficients of variation of strength (CV) for 100- and 150-mm cylinders are equivalent, (2) For 75-mm cylinders with strengths in the 20 to 60 MPa range, the mean CV is 5.2%, significantly higher than a mean CV of 3.0% for both 100- and 150-mm cylinders, (3) for 100- or 150-mm cylinders, the CV is significantly higher for strengths less than 60 MPa (3.0%) than for strengths greater than 60 MPa (1.8%), (4) within the range 20 to 100 MPa, the expected strength using 100-mm plastic or steel molds is 5% greater than if 150-mm plastic or steel molds are used.
WOOD ASH AS AN EFFECTIVE RAW MATERIAL FOR CONCRETE BLOCKS

Utilization of wood ash as a partial substitution for cement is one of the promising method to increase the strength and thermal insulation for cement blocks. The present study focused to use wood ash as a partial replacement for cement material during sand cement block manufacturing. The concrete mixtures have been mixed with 10%, 15% 20% and 25% of wood ash as a partial replacement for cement with sand and tested for compressive strength, water absorption and heat release. Higher compressive strength was observed in the samples of 15% containing wood ash replacement material. All the samples other than 25% of wood ash replacement were shown lower water absorption and highest was found in 15% wood ash content. Slower heat release was observed in the samples of 15% and 20% of wood ash replacement after 21 days of curing time. Addition of 15% wood ash for the manufacturing of concrete blocks was developed and these blocks meet standard limits.
Nonlinear dynamics of mental processes : Emotion-cognition interaction

Emotion (i.e., spontaneous motivation and subsequent implementation of a behavior) and cognition (i.e., problem solving by information processing) are essential to how we, as humans, respond to changes in our environment. Recent studies in cognitive science suggest that emotion and cognition are sub-served by different, although heavily integrated, neural systems. Understanding the time-varying relationship of emotion and cognition is a challenging goal with important implications for neuroscience. We formulate here the dynamical model of emotion-cognition interaction that based on the following principles: (1) the temporal evolution of cognitive and emotion modes are captured by the incoming stimuli and competition within and among themselves (ecological principle); (2) metastable states exist in the unified emotion-cognition phase space; and (3) the brain processes information with robust and reproducible transients through the sequence of metastable states. Such a model can take advantage of the often ignored temporal structure of the emotion-cognition interaction to provide a robust and generalizable method for understanding the relationship between brain activation and complex human behavior. The mathematical image of the robust and reproducible transient dynamics is a Stable Heteroclinic Sequence (SHS), and the Stable Heteroclinic Channels (SHCs). These have been hypothesized to be possible mechanisms