Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fine Structure of Listeria monocytogenes in Relation to Protoplast Formation

Among the eight strains of Listeria monocytogenes tested for lysozyme sensitivity, two were resistant to lysozyme but became sensitive after lipase pretreatment. Among the other six, one was very sensitive to lipase and another one was extremely susceptible to lysozyme. Stable protoplasts were formed from the lysozyme-resistant strain (42) by lipase and lysozyme treatment, which completely digested the cell wall. The cell wall (uranyl acetate-lead stained) was of a thick triple-layered profile, with the intermediate layer of low density. Lipase treatment for a short time (60 min) did not cause any alteration in structure, but prolonged treatment (180 min) caused extensive digestion of the plasma membrane and the cell wall, liberating cytoplasmic material. When the cells were treated with either lipase or lysozyme, a small number of protoplasts were extruded through the partly digested or weakened transverse cell wall, leaving an almost intact cell wall ghost. There were small vesicular structures in the interspace between cell wall and plasma membrane. Mesosomes of varied organization were prominent in electron micrographs, both in sections and in negatively stained preparations. These were largely everted during protoplasting in the form of tubules and as small peripheral buds; a few small vesicles also remained as intrusive structures, some of which were very unusual because they appeared to be enclosed by the inner layer of plasma membrane alone. Lysis of the protoplasts by dilution of the sucrose, while maintaining a constant ionic environment, liberated many small vesicular structures and fibrillar nuclear material.
An Incentive Scheme for Non-cooperative Social Networks under the Independent Cascade Model

In this paper we analyze influence maximization for noncooperative social networks under the Independent Cascade Model. We propose a model of noncooperative nodes and prove some interesting properties of this model. Based on this, we further develop a game-theoretic model to characterize the behavior of noncooperative nodes, and design a Vickrey-Clarke-Groves-like scheme to incentivise cooperation. An advertiser can resolve the negative effect of noncooperation with our proposed solution. Evaluation on large social networks demonstrates the importance of cooperation and the effectiveness of our proposed incentive scheme in maximizing influence. We also discuss the budget allocation between seed nodes activation and incentives to non-seed nodes.
Development of a Racial Identity Scale for Low-Income African Americans

During the past 25 years, there has been considerable interest in delineating a Black psychology; one that considers the many biologic, cultural, historical, and spiritual characteristics unique to people of African descent (Baldwin, Brown, & Rackley, 1990; Cross, 1991; Harris, 1992; Montgomery, Fine, & James-Myers, 1990; Mosby, 1972; Nobles, 1972; Parham & Helms, 1985b; White, 1972). Personality in Black psychology has been conceptualized as comprising two primary domains: personal identity (PI) and racial group identity (Cross, 1991; Cross, Parham, & Helms, 1991; Whaley, 1993). PI includes personality traits that are common to all human beings, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic class, whereas, racial group identity includes those "aspects of self that are culture, class, and gender specific" (Cross,
Efficience du travail mental sur le développement et le recouvrement des capacités motrices : force musculaire et imagerie motrice

L’analyse de l’activite electromyographique (EMG) correlative de l’imagerie motrice (IM) et l’effet de l’entrainement mental sur l’amelioration et le recouvrement de la force musculaire permettent de mieux comprendre les mecanismes nerveux de l’IM et l’importance du contenu de l’image mentale. Une activite EMG subliminale a en effet ete enregistree lors de l’IM, validant l’hypothese d’une inhibition incomplete de la commande motrice. Elle etait modulee selon l’intensite de l’effort mental et le regime de contraction, comme lors d’une contraction physique. Ces donnees renforcent l’equivalence physiologique entre IM et execution reelle. Les programmes d’entrainement et de rehabilitation integrant l’IM s’appuient sur ces donnees theoriques. L’amelioration de la force musculaire etait significativement plus importante suite a un entrainement combinant repetitions physiques et mentales, comparativement a une pratique physique seule, meme si l’effet ne concernait que certains groupes musculaires. Ce travail demontre egalement l’efficacite d’un entrainement par IM, lorsqu’il est associe a des soins de kinesitherapie, apres rupture du ligament croise anterieur ou brulure de la main. L’IM jouerait un role preponderant dans l’activation des programmes moteurs et faciliterait la recuperation fonctionnelle. L’IM peut donc etre consideree comme un complement benefique aux programmes d’entrainement et de rehabilitation dans le developpement et le recouvrement des fonctions motrices
Inferring population-level contact heterogeneity from common epidemic data

Models of infectious disease spread that incorporate contact heterogeneity through contact networks are an important tool for epidemiologists studying disease dynamics and assessing intervention strategies. One of the challenges of contact network epidemiology has been the difficulty of collecting individual and population-level data needed to develop an accurate representation of the underlying host population's contact structure. In this study, we evaluate the utility of common epidemiological measures (R0, epidemic peak size, duration and final size) for inferring the degree of heterogeneity in a population's unobserved contact structure through a Bayesian approach. We test the method using ground truth data and find that some of these epidemiological metrics are effective at classifying contact heterogeneity. The classification is also consistent across pathogen transmission probabilities, and so can be applied even when this characteristic is unknown. In particular, the reproductive number, R0, turns out to be a poor classifier of the degree heterogeneity, while, unexpectedly, final epidemic size is a powerful predictor of network structure across the range of heterogeneity. We also evaluate our framework on empirical epidemiological data from past and recent outbreaks to demonstrate its application in practice and to gather insights about the relevance of particular contact structures for both specific systems and general classes of infectious disease. We thus introduce a simple approach that can shed light on the unobserved connectivity of a host population given epidemic data. Our study has the potential to inform future data-collection efforts and study design by driving our understanding of germane epidemic measures, and highlights a general inferential approach to learning about host contact structure in contemporary or historic populations of humans and animals.
Predictors of weight gain at 6 and 18 months after childbirth: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE To test the contributions of life-style and stress to postpartum weight gain after controlling for sociodemographic and reproductive influences. DESIGN Longitudinal mail survey with retrospective data on gestational weight gain and prospective data on postpartum weight gain. SETTING Multicounty community in the midwestern United States. PARTICIPANTS After deleting from the sample women who became pregnant again, had confounding medical conditions, or had missing weight data, the sample consisted of 88 predominantly white mothers at 6 months after childbirth and 75 predominantly white mothers at 18 months after childbirth. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Weight gain at 6 and 18 months after childbirth. RESULTS Maternal race and gestational weight gain accounted for significant amounts of variance in 6-month and 18-month postpartum weight gain. Neither life-style nor perceived stress contributed significantly to predicting postpartum weight gains. Gestational weight gain was the most important predictor of postpartum weight gain. CONCLUSIONS Given the contribution of gestational weight gain to postpartum weight gain, further study is needed of high gestational weight gain.
Association of metabolic syndrome with severity of coronary artery disease

Background: South Asians are more prone to develop metabolic syndrome (MetS). The additive predictive value of components of MetS for cardiovascular diseases is still debated. We undertook this study to evaluate the association of MetS and its components with severity of coronary artery disease (CAD). Materials and Methods: Three hundred patients with known coronary disease above the age of 25 years were included in this study. Blood samples were collected for biochemical markers. Patients were stratified into subjects with and without MetS (International Diabetes Federation, IDF, criteria) and severity of CAD (number of vessel involved). Results: Mean age of the patient in the study was 60.9 ± 12.4 years (male, M: 72%; female, F: 28%). MetS was present in 64% patients. Patients with MetS had more severe CAD compared to those without MetS. Triple vessel disease (TVD) was present in 62.5% of patients with MetS compared to 34.3% among without MetS (P < 0.0001). The percent number of patients with TVD showed increasing trend with increasing number of components of MetS (0-0%; 1-20%; 2-27.5%; 3-47.8%; 4-72.6%; 5-78.3%; Chi square for trend < 0.0001). Inflammatory markers [interleukin (IL) 6: 77.67 ± 79.48 vs. 41.21 ± 60.72 pg/ml, P < 0.0001; tumor nuclear factor (TNF)-α: 28.0 ± 47.49 vs 20.43 ± 24.5 pg/ml, P < 0.0001; high sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP): 14.30 ± 9.91 vs. 7.02 ± 7.18 mg/L, P < 0.0001], insulin resistance [homeostatic model analysis insulin resistance (HOMA-IR): 22.33 ± 23.37 vs. 10.86 ± 13.90, P < 0.0001] were higher and insulin sensitivity [quantitative insulin check index (QUICKI): 0.26 ± 0.03 vs. 0.30 ± 0.04, P < 0.0001] was significantly lower in subjects with MetS compared to subjects without MetS. Among lipids, total cholesterol were comparable but triglyceride (175 ± 42 vs. 179 ± 48 vs. 180 ± 47 mg/dl, P < 0.0001) was high and high-density lipoprotein (HDL; 44.72 ± 7.63 vs. 39.96 ± 8.70 vs. 36.05 ± 8.84, P < 0.0001) was low in subjects with TVD compared to others. Similarly, percentage of patients with diabetes (7.5% vs. 26.3% vs. 63.7%, P < 0.0001) and hypertension (34.3% vs. 56.6% vs. 77.7%, P < 0.0001) were higher in subjects with TVD compared to others. Conclusions: There is a strong correlation of MetS and its components with severity of CAD.
Negative regulation of Wnt signaling mediated by CK1‐phosphorylated Dishevelled via Ror2

Dishevelled (Dvl) is a multifunctional effector of different Wnt cascades. Both canonical Wnt3a and noncanonical Wnt5a stimulate casein‐kinase‐1 (CK1) ‐mediated phosphorylation of Dvl, visualized as electrophoretic mobility shift [phosphorylated and shifted Dvl (ps‐Dvl)]. However, the role of this phosphorylation remains obscure. Here we report the functional interaction of ps‐Dvl with the receptor tyrosine kinase Ror2, which is an alternative Wnt receptor and is able to inhibit canonical Wnt signaling. We demonstrate interaction between Ror2 and ps‐Dvl at the cell membrane after Wnt3a or Wnt5a stimulus dependent on CK1. Ps‐Dvl interacts with the C‐terminal proline‐serine‐threonine‐rich domain of Ror2, which is required for efficient inhibition of canonical Wnt signaling. We further show that the Dvl C terminus, which seems to be exposed in ps‐Dvl and efficiently binds Ror2, is an intrinsic negative regulator of the canonical Wnt pathway downstream of ß‐catenin. The Dvl C terminus is necessary and sufficient to inhibit canonical Wnt/ß‐catenin signaling, which is dependent on the presence of Ror2. Furthermore, both the Dvl C terminus and CK1E can inhibit the Wnt5a/Ror2/ATF2 pathway in mammalian cells and Xenopus explant cultures. This suggests that phosphorylation of Dvl triggers negative feedback regulation for different branches of Wnt signaling in a Ror2‐dependent manner. —Witte, F. , Bernatik, O. , Kirchner, K. , Masek, J., Mahl, A. , Krejci, P., Mundlos, S. , Schambony, A, Bryja, V. , Stricker, S. Negative regulation of Wnt signaling mediated by CK1‐phosphorylated Dishevelled via Ror2. FASEB J. 24, 2417–2426 (2010). www.fasebj. org
Dynamic behavior of GFP–CLIP-170 reveals fast protein turnover on microtubule plus ends

Microtubule (MT) plus end–tracking proteins (+TIPs) specifically recognize the ends of growing MTs. +TIPs are involved in diverse cellular processes such as cell division, cell migration, and cell polarity. Although +TIP tracking is important for these processes, the mechanisms underlying plus end specificity of mammalian +TIPs are not completely understood. Cytoplasmic linker protein 170 (CLIP-170), the prototype +TIP, was proposed to bind to MT ends with high affinity, possibly by copolymerization with tubulin, and to dissociate seconds later. However, using fluorescence-based approaches, we show that two +TIPs, CLIP-170 and end-binding protein 3 (EB3), turn over rapidly on MT ends. Diffusion of CLIP-170 and EB3 appears to be rate limiting for their binding to MT plus ends. We also report that the ends of growing MTs contain a surplus of sites to which CLIP-170 binds with relatively low affinity. We propose that the observed loss of fluorescent +TIPs at plus ends does not reflect the behavior of single molecules but is a result of overall structural changes of the MT end.
Covering vectors by spaces: Regular matroids

Seymour's decomposition theorem for regular matroids is a fundamental result with a number of combinatorial and algorithmic applications. In this work we demonstrate how this theorem can be used in the design of parameterized algorithms on regular matroids. We consider the problem of covering a set of vectors of a given finite dimensional linear space (vector space) by a subspace generated by a set of vectors of minimum size. Specifically, in the Space Cover problem, we are given a matrix M and a subset of its columns T; the task is to find a minimum set F of columns of M disjoint with T such that that the linear span of F contains all vectors of T. For graphic matroids this problem is essentially Stainer Forest and for cographic matroids this is a generalization of Multiway Cut. Our main result is the algorithm with running time 2^{O(k)}||M|| ^{O(1)} solving Space Cover in the case when M is a totally unimodular matrix over rationals, where k is the size of F. In other words, we show that on regular matroids the problem is fixed-parameter tractable parameterized by the rank of the covering subspace.
Energy-aware software updates in heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Software updates for Wireless Sensor Networks have traditionally taken the form of either binary machine code or bytecode for a target Virtual Machine. Each aim to strike a compromise between radio transmission power and CPU execution time for the target microcontroller. Binary updates are either monolithic or modular, while bytecode updates are modular. We present a novel paradigm which takes advantage of both these approaches' strengths while alleviating their weaknesses. Our solution consists of compiling in-situ (on the WSN node) a high-level language called MinTax. Next, we demonstrate this approach in an heterogeneous context, consisting of WSN nodes of different hardware architectures. The sensor nodes we deployed our solution onto are MSP430 hardware-based(16-bit core) and AVR hardware-based(8-bit core).
The Changing Well-Being of Thai elderly

Any parts of this publication may be reproduced for non-profit purposes unless indicated otherwise. Please clearly credit HelpAge International and send us a copy of the reprinted article or a web link. HelpAge International helps older people claim their rights, challenge discrimination and overcome poverty, so that they can lead dignified, secure, active and healthy lives. The Changing Well-being of Thai Elderly V Foreword As Thailand undergoes rapid population ageing, the impact on families and society at large are significant. Ageing is one of the most critical policy challenges facing Thailand and is receiving great attention by the government, the private sector, civil society and other players. Measures to respond to ageing are increasingly prominent in national development plans, including the current National Economic and Social Development Plan, and the recent review of the 2 nd National Plan of Older Persons. HelpAge International values our collaboration with the research team of Dr. John Knodel, Dr. Vipan Prachuabmoh and Dr. Napaporn Chayovan. Their study, laid out in the first six chapters, provides new insights on the rapidly changing situation of older people. The final section of this report, " Reflections: Options for the future, " was written separately by HelpAge International. It draws on a broader range of evidence and the experience of HelpAge and other actors in ageing. Usa Khiewrord of HelpAge International led the development of this section in consultation with the Thai experts listed in the final section. HelpAge appreciates their thoughtful advice. However, the opinions in the final section are those of HelpAge International only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the authors or the experts consulted. It is our hope that this publication will assist government and service providers to improve policies and programs that benefit Thailand's growing population of older people. At present, Thai society is confronting the process of population ageing. This population dynamic poses serious challenges for traditional family support, communities' ability to provide backup support for older persons and government policies. A series of national surveys of the older population together with related analyses and extensive studies by Thai and foreign researchers in the academic community provide important information for evidence-based povlicies and programs for improving the welfare of older persons. University has played an important role in accumulating empirical evidence that forms the body of knowledge on issues related to population ageing in Thailand for more than three decades. …
Generating Synthetic Comparable Questions for News Articles

We introduce the novel task of automatically generating questions that are relevant to a text but do not appear in it. One motivating example of its application is for increasing user engagement around news articles by suggesting relevant comparable questions, such as “is Beyonce a better singer than Madonna? ”, for the user to answer. We present the first algorithm for the task, which consists of: (a) offline construction of a comparable question template database; (b) ranking of relevant templates to a given article; and (c) instantiation of templates only with entities in the article whose comparison under the template’s relation makes sense. We tested the suggestions generated by our algorithm via a Mechanical Turk experiment, which showed a significant improvement over the strongest baseline of more than 45% in all metrics.
Qualms Regarding the Optimality of Cumulative Path Length Control in CSA/CMA-Evolution Strategies

Abstract Cumulative step-size adaptation (CSA) based on path length control is regarded as a robust alternative to the standard mutative self-adaptation technique in evolution strategies (ES), guaranteeing an almost optimal control of the mutation operator. This paper shows that the underlying basic assumption in CSA — the perpendicularity of expected consecutive steps — does not necessarily guarantee optimal progress performance for (μ/μIλ) intermediate recombinative ES
Effects of anxiety and exercise-induced fatigue on operational performance

State anxiety is known to affect far aiming tasks, but less is known about the effects of state anxiety on running and aiming while running. Therefore, in the current study participants ran on a treadmill at their preferred speed in a lowand high anxiety condition. In both conditions, running was combined with dart throwing in the last minutes. Results showed that attention shifted away from task execution with elevated levels of anxiety. Furthermore, gait patterns were more conservative and oxygen uptake was higher with anxiety. In addition, performance and efficiency on the dart throwing task also decreased with anxiety. These findings are in line with attentional control theory and provide an indication that state anxiety not only affects aiming tasks but also tasks that rely heavily on the aerobic system. Moreover, findings indicate that when combined, running, aiming, and anxiety all compete for attention leading to suboptimal attentional control and possibly a decrease in performance.
A Distributed Routing Algorithm for Data Collection in Low-Duty-Cycle Wireless Sensor Networks

In order to prolong the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs), a low-duty-cycle mode is widely used to save the energy for sensor nodes. Under this mode, sensor nodes switch between active and dormant states, which incurs a high latency for traditional routing algorithms. To mitigate this, in this paper, the data collection problem in low-duty-cycle WSNs is formulated as a delay optimization problem of traffic flow with consideration of both congestion and collision, which is solved by a distributed algorithm based on network utility maximization. Our proposed distributed routing algorithm achieves a better tradeoff between latency and energy conservation than existing schemes, and our schemes can find a nearly global-optimal-path to achieve almost minimum average end-to-end (E2E) delay with less energy consumption. The computation complexity and energy consumption of the distributed algorithm are analyzed and evaluated in detail. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can achieve almost the same average E2E delay performance as the global optimal algorithm with less energy, and reduce the average E2E delay by about 30% than the shortest path algorithm when the data generation rate is high.
Homicide Followed by Suicide

Homicide followed by suicide is an extremely rare event, requiring an integrated theoretical understanding that goes beyond explaining it as either homicide or suicide. Police reports, newspaper articles, and interviews with families, friends, and neighbors connected with 42 homicide–suicide cases that occurred in greater metropolitan New Orleans between 1989 and 2001 form the empirical base of this study. A homicide followed by suicide typology predicated on thematic context, including victim–perpetrator relationship, age, sex, race, ethnicity, and occupation in addition to precipitating factors, motivation, type of fatal injury, and location of event, is discussed. An integrated theoretical model using structural conflict intensity factors; elements of the social stress–strain perspective focusing on frustration, failure and anomie; and power dominance issues is presented. Although additional research is certainly called for, these sociological autopsies raise important methodological and theoretical questions for future exploration.
High speed eight-parallel mixed-radix FFT Processor for OFDM systems

This paper presents a novel eight-parallel 128/256-point mixed-radix multi-path delay commutator (MRMDC) FFT processor for orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The proposed FFT architecture can provide a higher throughput rate and low hardware complexity by using an eight-parallel data-path scheme, a multi-path delay commutator structure and an efficient scheduling scheme of complex multiplications. Using the modified radix-4 butterfly unit which can perform one radix-4 butterfly or two radix-2 butterflies, the proposed FFT processor can provide 128 and 256-point FFT computations. The proposed FFT processor has been designed and implemented with the 90nm CMOS technology. The proposed eight-parallel FFT processor can provide a throughput rate of up to 27.5Gsample/s at 430MHz.