Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychological Changes following Weight Loss in Overweight and Obese Adults: A Prospective Cohort Study

Background Participation in weight loss programs is often associated with improved wellbeing alongside reduced cardio-metabolic risk. In contrast, population-based analyses have found no evidence of psychological benefits of weight loss, but this may be due to inclusion of healthy-weight individuals. We therefore examined cardio-metabolic and psychological changes following weight loss in a cohort of overweight/obese adults. Methods Data were from 1,979 overweight and obese adults (BMI ≥25 kg/m2; age ≥50 y), free of long-standing illness or clinical depression at baseline, from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Participants were grouped according to four-year weight change into those losing ≥5% weight, those gaining ≥5%, and those whose weight was stable within 5%. Logistic regression examined changes in depressed mood (eight-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression score ≥4), low wellbeing (Satisfaction With Life Scale score <20), hypertension (systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg or anti-hypertensives), and high triglycerides (≥1.7 mmol/l), controlling for demographic variables, weight loss intention, and baseline characteristics. Results The proportion of participants with depressed mood increased more in the weight loss than weight stable or weight gain groups (+289%, +86%, +62% respectively; odds ratio [OR] for weight loss vs. weight stable = 1.78 [95% CI 1.29–2.47]). The proportion with low wellbeing also increased more in the weight loss group (+31%, +22%, −4%), but the difference was not statistically significant (OR = 1.16 [0.81–1.66]). Hypertension and high triglyceride prevalence decreased in weight losers and increased in weight gainers (−28%, 4%, +18%; OR = 0.61 [0.45–0.83]; −47%, −13%, +5%; OR = 0.41 [0.28–0.60]). All effects persisted in analyses adjusting for illness and life stress during the weight loss period. Conclusions Weight loss over four years in initially healthy overweight/obese older adults was associated with reduction in cardio-metabolic risk but no psychological benefit, even when changes in health and life stresses were accounted for. These results highlight the need to investigate the emotional consequences of weight loss.
Development of the MACARM - a novel cable robot for upper limb neurorehabilitation

This paper describes the design and operation of the multi-axis cartesian-based arm rehabilitation machine (MACARM), a new cable (wire) robot for upper limb rehabilitation. The prototype configuration is comprised of an array of 8 motors mounted at the corners of a cubic support frame that provides, via cables, 6 degree of freedom (DOF) control of a centrally located end-effector. A 6 DOF load cell mounted on the end-effector provides force measurement. Given its relatively simple architecture, the MACARM may provide an attractive alternative to serial robots for use in neurorehabilitation.
From Reality to Programs and (Not Quite) Back Again

Making explicit the mappings between real-world concepts and program elements that implement them is an essential step in understanding, using or evaluating the public interface of programs, libraries and other collections of classes that model core domain concepts. Unfortunately, due to the big abstraction gap between the modeled domain and today's programming languages, the mapping is most of the times ambiguous as concepts and relations from the real world are distorted and diffused in the code. In this paper we present a comprehensive formal framework for describing the many-to-many mappings between domain concepts and the program elements, real-world relations and program relations and the real-world concept names and program identifiers. This framework allows us to describe and discuss typical classes of diffusion of the domain knowledge in code. Based on our formal framework we describe an algorithm to recover the mappings between entities from an ontology and program elements. We illustrate the framework by using examples from the Java standard library.
Efficient and correct execution of parallel programs that share memory

In this paper we consider an optimization problem that arises in the execution of parallel programs on shared-memory multiple-instruction-stream, multiple-data-stream (MIMD) computers. A program on such machines consists of many sequential program segments, each executed by a single processor. These segments interact as they access shared variables. Access to memory is asynchronous, and memory accesses are not necessarily executed in the order they were issued. An execution is correct if it is sequentially consistent: It should seem as if all the instructions were executed sequentially, in an order obtained by interleaving the instruction streams of the processors. Sequential consistency can be enforced by delaying each access to shared memory until the previous access of the same processor has terminated. For performance reasons, however, we want to allow several accesses by the same processor to proceed concurrently. Our analysis finds a minimal set of delays that enforces sequential consistency. The analysis extends to interprocessor synchronization constraints and to code where blocks of operations have to execute atomically. We use a conflict graph similar to that used to schedule transactions in distributed databases. Our graph incorporates the order on operations given by the program text, enabling us to do without locks even when database conflict graphs would suggest that locks are necessary. Our work has implications for the design of multiprocessors; it offers new compiler optimization techniques for parallel languages that support shared variables.
Learning English in Multicultural Malaysia: Are Learners Motivated?

There is a general belief that Asian students are primarily motivated by a desire to succeed at university and obtain a well-paid career upon graduation. Kember et al. (1999) discovered in a series of interviews with Hong Kong students that many statements about career preparation and career relevance showed that they expected the courses to provide both intrinsic and career motivation. Kember (2000) proposed that these students have internalised a value for a high-status well-paid careers and suggested that these findings are applicable to other Asian contexts. This paper discusses the applicability of the above findings to the Malaysian context in the learning of English as a Second language (ESL). Can we generalise the findings of a homogenous society like Hong Kong to a multicultural society like Malaysia? What are other dynamics involved and in what ways do they affect students’ motivation in learning English. This paper will refer to the findings of a doctoral thesis, which explored distance, and oncampus learners’ conceptions of their approaches to studying, and their perceptions of the English Proficiency courses offered by a public university in Malaysia. A mixed approach comprising questionnaires and semi-structured interviews was used to gather data for the research. The findings reveal that motivating students to learn English in Malaysia is no straightforward task as it involves the interplay of several factors .
The relationship between leadership style and customer orientation in sport clubs of Tabriz, Iran.

This study aimed to determine the relationship between leadership style and customer orientation in sport clubs of Tabriz, Iran using descriptive co relational study method. Studied population were 180 managers of all sport clubs in the city of Tabriz, where 127 persons were chosen as the sample volume using Morgan table calculation and were selected by randomized cluster sampling method. Data was collected using two standard questionnairesas leadership style of Burden's and Metezcus (1992) with 35 questions and costumer orientation of Ali Quazi (2002) with 21 questions. The reliability value for task- oriented leadership style, relation-orientedleadership style and costumer orientation were calculated as 0.677, 0.751 and 0.811, respectively. The obtained data was analyzed using Pearson's correlation test. The findings suggested that the prevailing management style of sports clubs in Tabriz, Iran was the consolidated leadership style then relationship- oriented and eventually task-oriented. There was a significant inverse relationship between task-oriented and customer-oriented management styles in the sports clubs of Tabriz (r=-0.272). Whereas, there were direct significant relationship between costumer orientation and relation-oriented leadership styles (r=0.461) as well between costumer orientation and consolidated leadership styles (r=0.513) of sports clubs' managers in Tabriz.
Real-time flood forecasting using updateable linguistic decision trees.

This paper focuses on the application of LID3 (linguistic decision tree induction algorithm) to real-time flood forecasting. Specifically the prediction of the river level at locations along the River Severn, Britainpsilas largest river. Modelling river dynamics implies modelling a system that changes over time. It is therefore inappropriate to use a static model to model river levels, that are driven by an underlying dynamic system. Hence, an updateable version of LID3 is proposed. There are two main features of ULID3 (updateable LID3). The first being error-based updating, which weights new instances depending on the treepsilas current ability to describe each new example. The ability to update probability distributions at each node enables the tree to adapt and capture the new dynamic concept more effectively. The second feature is the ability to extend both the input and output domains, given new examples. This is necessary when the data available for updating, exceeds the current domain set by the training data. An algorithm is presented to update the new probability distributions throughout the tree, without the need for storing the complete set of examples at each node.
Inhibition of Angiogenesis by a Mouse Sprouty Protein*

Sprouty negatively modulates branching morphogenesis in the Drosophila tracheal system. To address the role of mammalian Sprouty homologues in angiogenesis, another form of branching morphogenesis, a recombinant adenovirus engineered to express murine Sprouty-4 selectively in endothelial cells, was injected into the sinus venosus of embryonic day 9.0 cultured mouse embryos. Sprouty-4 expression inhibited branching and sprouting of small vessels, resulting in abnormal embryonic development. In vitro, Sprouty-4 inhibited fibroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial cell growth factor-mediated cell proliferation and migration and prevented basic fibroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial cell growth factor-induced MAPK phosphorylation in endothelial cells, indicating inhibition of tyrosine kinase-mediated signaling pathways. The ability of constitutively activated mutant RasL61 to rescue Sprouty-4 inhibition of MAPK phosphorylation suggests that Sprouty inhibits receptor tyrosine kinase signaling upstream of Ras. Thus, Sprouty may regulate angiogenesis in normal and disease processes by modulating signaling by endothelial tyrosine kinases.
Interpersonal stance recognition using non-verbal signals on several time windows

We present a computational model for interpreting non-verbal signals of a user during an interaction with a virtual character in order to obtain a representation of his interpersonal stance. Our model starts, on the one hand, from the analysis of multimodal signals. On the other hand, it takes into account the temporal patterns of the interactants behaviors. That is, it analyses signals and reactions to signals in their immediate context, as well as features of signal production patterns and reaction patterns on different time windows : signal reaction, sentence reaction, conversation topic, whole interaction. In this paper, we propose a first model parameterized using data obtained from the literature on the expressions of stances through interpersonal behavior.
Simultaneous determination of water-soluble vitamins in beverages and dietary supplements by LC-MS/MS

An LC-MS/MS method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 15 water-soluble vitamins that are widely used as additives in beverages and dietary supplements. This combined method involves the following simple pre-treatment procedures: dietary supplement samples were prepared by centrifugation and filtration after an extraction step, whereas beverage samples were diluted prior to injection. Chromatographic analysis in this method utilised a multi-mode ODS column, which provided reverse-phase, anion- and cation-exchange capacities, and therefore improved the retention of highly polar analytes such as water-soluble vitamins. Additionally, the multi-mode ODS column did not require adding ion pair reagents to the mobile phase. We optimised the chromatographic separation of 15 water-soluble vitamins by adjusting the mobile phase pH and the organic solvent. We also conducted an analysis of a NIST Standard Reference Material (SRM 3280 Multi-vitamin/Multi-element tablets) using this method to verify its accuracy. In addition, the method was applied to identify the vitamins in commercial beverages and dietary supplements. By comparing results with the label values and results obtained by official methods, it was concluded that the method could be used for quality control and to compose nutrition labels for vitamin-enriched products.
Complete Genome Sequence of the Oral Pathogenic Bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis Strain W83

ABSTRACT The complete 2,343,479-bp genome sequence of the gram-negative, pathogenic oral bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis strain W83, a major contributor to periodontal disease, was determined. Whole-genome comparative analysis with other available complete genome sequences confirms the close relationship between the Cytophaga-Flavobacteria-Bacteroides (CFB) phylum and the green-sulfur bacteria. Within the CFB phyla, the genomes most similar to that of P. gingivalis are those of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and B. fragilis. Outside of the CFB phyla the most similar genome to P. gingivalis is that of Chlorobium tepidum, supporting the previous phylogenetic studies that indicated that the Chlorobia and CFB phyla are related, albeit distantly. Genome analysis of strain W83 reveals a range of pathways and virulence determinants that relate to the novel biology of this oral pathogen. Among these determinants are at least six putative hemagglutinin-like genes and 36 previously unidentified peptidases. Genome analysis also reveals that P. gingivalis can metabolize a range of amino acids and generate a number of metabolic end products that are toxic to the human host or human gingival tissue and contribute to the development of periodontal disease.
CSSF Miner: A Technique for Mining of Constraint Sequential Patterns from Progressive Database

— Sequential pattern mining is a significant data-mining method for determining time-related behavior in sequence databases. The information achieved from sequential pattern mining can be used in marketing, medical records, sales analysis, and so on. Existing methods only focus on the concept of frequency because of the assumption that sequences’ behaviors do not change over time. Several efficient algorithms for maintaining sequential patterns have been developed. Here, we have developed proposed Algorithm for Mining of constraint sequential patterns from progressive database. In order to efficiently capturing the dynamic nature of data addition and deletion into the mining problem, initially, we construct the updated CSSF-trie from the static database. Then, the database gets updated from the distributed sources; data in the database may be static, inserted, or deleted. Whenever the database is updated from the multiple sources, CSSF trie is also updated by including the updated sequence. Then, the updated CSSF-trie is used to mine the progressive CSSF-patterns using the proposed trie pattern mining algorithm. Finally, the experimentation is carried out using the synthetic and real life distributed databases that are given to the progressive CSSF-miner using thread environment. The experimental results and analysis provides better results in terms of the generated number of sequential patterns, execution time and the memory usage over the existing IncSpan algorithm.
Scene classification using unsupervised neural networks for mobile robot vision

This paper presents an unsupervised scene classification method based on context of features for semantic recognition of indoor scenes used for an autonomous mobile robot. Our method creates Visual Words (VWs) of two types using Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) and Gist. Using the combination of VWs, our method creates Bags of VWs (BoVWs) to vote to a two-dimensional histogram as context-based features. Moreover, our method generates labels as a candidate of categories with maintaining stability and plasticity together using the incremental learning function of Adaptive Resonance Theory-2 (ART-2). Our method actualizes unsupervised learning based scene classification using generated labels of ART-2 for teaching signals of Counter Propagation Networks (CPNs). The spatial and topological relations among scenes are mapped on the category map of CPNs. The relations of classified scenes that contain categories are visualized on the category map. The experiment demonstrates that classification accuracy of semantic categories such as office rooms, corridors, etc. using an open dataset for an evaluation platform of position estimation and navigation for an autonomous mobile robot.
On Navigating Custody & Visitation Evaluations in Cases With Domestic Violence: A Judge's Guide

In 2006, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges issued a revised and improved edition of Navigating Custody & Visitation Evaluations in Cases with Domestic Violence: A Judge's Guide, which now focuses on safety for victims and their children. This new edition explains the dynamics of domestic violence, that parental alienation syndrome and parental alienation have been discredited, and why psychological tests are largely useless and unreliable in domestic violence cases. The guide, however, is still too optimistic about the success of batterer programs. The guide is sometimes misleading and gender biased as it uses gender neutral language and because what men and women do differs and usually affects them differently.
Comparison of atlas-based bone segmentation methods in whole-body PET/MRI

The aim of this work is to compare bone extraction accuracy of commonly used atlas-based segmentation algorithms for generation of pseudo-CT images in whole-body PET/MRI. Eight different bone segmentation methods from whole-body MR images were implemented. The study comprised 23 patients who underwent sequential PET/CT and PET/MRI scans, thus enabling to produce pairs of aligned 3D Dixon MR and CT images. The voxel-wise weighting method, which employs local normalized cross-correlation similarity measure to give appropriate weights locally, outperformed other pseudo-CT generation approaches, yielding a Dice similarity index of 0.77±0.04 (P<;0.05) compared to 0.60±0.02 (P<;0.05) achieved by bone segmentation using simple averaging of all CT atlases. This approach is promising for MRI-guided attenuation correction in whole-body PET/MRI.
Highly Asynchronous and Asymmetric Cleavage Divisions Accompany Early Transcriptional Activity in Pre-Blastula Medaka Embryos

In the initial phase of development of fish embryos, a prominent and critical event is the midblastula transition (MBT). Before MBT cell cycle is rapid, highly synchronous and zygotic gene transcription is turned off. Only during MBT the cell cycle desynchronizes and transcription is activated. Multiple mechanisms, primarily the nucleocytoplasmic ratio, are supposed to control MBT activation. Unexpectedly, we find in the small teleost fish medaka (Oryzias latipes) that at very early stages, well before midblastula, cell division becomes asynchronous and cell volumes diverge. Furthermore, zygotic transcription is extensively activated already after the 64-cell stage. Thus, at least in medaka, the transition from maternal to zygotic transcription is uncoupled from the midblastula stage and not solely controlled by the nucleocytoplasmic ratio.
PSO BASED OPTIMIZED SECURITY SCHEME

The hash function offers an authentication and an integrity to digital images. In this paper an innovative optimized security scheme based on Particle swarm optimization (PSO) for image authentication and tamper proofing is proposed. This scheme provide solutions to the issues such as robustness, security and tamper detection with precise localization. The features are extracted in Daubechies4 wavelet transform domain with help of PSO to generate the image hash. This scheme is moderately robust against attacks and to detect and locate the tampered areas in an image. The experimental results are presented to exhibit the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
Drosophila lacks C20 and C22 PUFAs

Drosophila melanogaster has been considered a model organism for investigating human diseases and genetic pathways. Whether Drosophila is an ideal model for nutrigenomics, especially for FA metabolism, however, remains to be illustrated. The aim of this study was to examine the metabolism of C20 and C22 PUFAs in Drosophila. Analysis of FA composition revealed a complete lack of C20 and C22 PUFAs in the body tissue of larvae, pupae, and adult flies fed either a base or supplemented diet abundant in the PUFA precursors linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid. PUFA with >C20 could only be found in flies supplemented with specific FAs. Interestingly, the supplemented C22 PUFAs docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3) and docosatetraenoic acid (22:4n-6) were largely converted to the shorter chain C20 PUFAs eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5n-3) and arachidonic acid (20:4n-6), respectively. Furthermore, a genome sequence scan indicated that no gene encoding Δ-6/ Δ-5 desaturases, the key enzymes for the synthesis of C20/C22 PUFA, was present in Drosophila. These findings demonstrate that Drosophila lacks the capability to synthesize the biologically important C20 and C22 PUFAs, and thereby argue that Drosophila is not a valid model for the study of lipid metabolism and related diseases.
Fatigability and blood flow in the rat gastrocnemius-plantaris-soleus after hindlimb suspension.

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that hindlimb suspension increases the fatigability of the soleus during intense contractile activity and determine whether the increased fatigue is associated with a reduced muscle blood flow. Cage-control (C) and 15-day hindlimb-suspended (HS) rats were anesthetized, and either the gastrocnemius-plantaris-soleus (G-P-S) muscle group or the soleus was stimulated (100 Hz, 100-ms trains at 120/min) for 10 min in situ. In the G-P-S preparation, blood flow was measured with radiolabeled microspheres before and at 2 and 10 min of contractile activity. The G-P-S fatigued markedly at this stimulation frequency, and the differences between C and HS animals were not significant until the 9th min of contractile activity. In contrast, the stimulation resulted in faster rates and significantly larger amounts of fatigue in the soleus from HS than from C animals. The atrophied soleus showed significant differences by 1 min of stimulation (C = 70 +/- 1% vs. HS = 57 +/- 2% of peak train force) and remained different at 10 min (C = 64 +/- 4% vs. HS = 45 +/- 2% peak train force). Relative blood flow to the soleus was similar between groups before and during contractile activity (rest: C = 20 +/- 3 vs. HS = 12 +/- 3; 2 min: C = 128 +/- 6 vs. HS = 118 +/- 4; 10 min: C = 123 +/- 11 vs. HS = 105 +/- 11 ml.min-1.100 g-1). In conclusion, these results established that 15 days of HS increased the fatigability of the soleus, but the effect was not caused by a reduced muscle blood flow.