Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tenascin-C May Accelerate Cardiac Fibrosis by Activating Macrophages via the Integrin &agr;V&bgr;3/Nuclear Factor–&kgr;B/Interleukin-6 Axis

Tenascin-C (TN-C) is an extracellular matrix protein not detected in normal adult heart, but expressed in several heart diseases closely associated with inflammation. Accumulating data suggest that TN-C may play a significant role in progression of ventricular remodeling. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the role of TN-C in hypertensive cardiac fibrosis and underlying molecular mechanisms. Angiotensin II was administered to wild-type and TN-C knockout mice for 4 weeks. In wild-type mice, the treatment induced increase of collagen fibers and accumulation of macrophages in perivascular areas associated with deposition of TN-C and upregulated the expression levels of interleukin-6 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 as compared with wild-type/control mice. These changes were significantly reduced in TN-C knockout/angiotensin II mice. In vitro, TN-C accelerated macrophage migration and induced accumulation of integrin &agr;V&bgr;3 in focal adhesions, with phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and Src. TN-C treatment also induced nuclear translocation of phospho-NF-&kgr;B and upregulated interleukin-6 expression of macrophages in an NF-&kgr;B–dependent manner; this being suppressed by inhibitors for integrin &agr;V&bgr;3 and Src. Furthermore, interleukin-6 upregulated expression of collagen I by cardiac fibroblasts. TN-C may enhance inflammatory responses by accelerating macrophage migration and synthesis of proinflammatory/profibrotic cytokines via integrin &agr;V&bgr;3/FAK-Src/NF-&kgr;B, resulting in increased fibrosis.
Learning to Control a Reverberator Using Subjective Perceptual Descriptors

The complexity of existing tools for mastering audio can be daunting. Moreover, many people think about sound in individualistic terms (such as “boomy”) that may not have clear mappings onto the controls of existing audio tools. We propose learning to map subjective audio descriptors, such as “boomy”, onto measures of signal properties in order to build a simple controller that manipulates an audio reverberator in terms of a chosen descriptor. For example, “make the sound less boomy”. In the learning process, a user is presented with a series of sounds altered in different ways by a reverberator and asked to rate how well each sound represents the audio concept. The system correlates these ratings with reverberator parameters to build a controller that manipulates reverberation in the user’s terms. In this paper, we focus on developing the mapping between reverberator controls, measures of qualities of reverberation and user ratings. Results on 22 subjects show the system learns quickly (under 3 minutes of training per concept), predicts users responses well (mean correlation coefficient of system predictiveness 0.75) and meets users’ expectations (average human rating of 7.4 out of 10).
Domain Cartridge: Unsupervised Framework for Shallow Domain Ontology Construction from Corpus

In this work we propose an unsupervised framework to construct a shallow domain ontology from corpus. It is essential for Information Retrieval systems, Question-Answering systems, Dialogue etc. to identify important concepts in the domain and the relationship between them. We identify important domain terms of which multi-words form an important component. We show that the incorporation of multi-words improves parser performance, resulting in better parser output, which improves the performance of an existing Question-Answering system by upto 7%. On manually annotated smartphone dataset, the proposed system identifies 40:87% of the domain terms, compared to 22% recall obtained using WordNet, 43:77% by Yago and 53:74% by BabelNet respectively. However, it does not use any manually annotated resource like the compared systems. Thereafter, we propose a framework to construct a shallow ontology from the discovered domain terms by identifying four domain relations namely, Synonyms ('similar-to'), Type-Of ('is-a'), Action-On ('methods') and Feature-Of ('attributes'), where we achieve significant performance improvement over WordNet, BabelNet and Yago without using any mode of supervision or manual annotation.
Myosin isoform expression in dog rectus muscles: patterns in global and orbital layers and among single fibers.

PURPOSE To quantitate the distribution of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoforms along the global and orbital layers of dog rectus muscles and determine MyHC and myosin light chain (MLC) isoform patterns among single fibers from both layers. METHODS Serial samples of both layers of rectus muscles were prepared for gel electrophoresis. Relative amounts of each MyHC isoform in each sample were determined with scanning densitometry. Single fibers were isolated from each layer for analyses of MyHC and MLC isoforms. RESULTS Nine MyHC isoforms were detected. Four prominent MyHC isoforms, and an additional MyHC isoform at very low levels, are expressed in the global layer. Evidence suggests that all nine MyHC isoforms are expressed in the orbital layer. There are marked gradients in the levels of some MyHC isoforms along the length of both layers. Complex patterns of coexpression of multiple MyHC isoforms exist in single fibers from both layers. Most fibers express conventional slow or fast MLC isoforms, in accordance with the type (slow or fast) of MyHC isoform(s) in a given fiber, with the exception that slow fibers in the orbital layer express the atrial/embryonic isoform of MLC1. CONCLUSIONS MyHC isoform expression patterns differ markedly between and along global and orbital layers of dog rectus muscles, with greater complexity in the orbital layer. Heterogeneity in MyHC isoform expression in rectus muscles is much greater than in limb muscles and presumably is the basis for the broad spectrum of extraocular muscle (EOM) contractile properties in driving oculomotor functions.
Benzene Modulation of Liver Cell Structure and Heme‐Cytochrome P‐450 Metabolism

Rats were treated with subcutaneous benzene, 440 mg/kg, for 3 and 14 days (acute and chronic exposure). Their hepatic cell heme and drug metabolizing enzymes as well as cell morphology by electron microscopy were examined. Electron micrographs of hepatocytes from the benzene-treated rats showed disruption of the mitochondrial membranes and mitochondrial structure. The activity of the rate-limiting enzyme of heme synthesis, δ-aminolevulinic acid synthase was increased 1.5–2-fold in both acutely and chronically exposed animals. In the acutely exposed animals, there was a 50% inhibition of the second enzyme of heme synthesis, δ-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase, while in the chronically exposed there was 70% inhibition. The rate-limiting enzyme of heme degradation, heme oxygenase, was increased more than twofold in both sets of animals. Cytochrome P-450 content was increased 77% in the acutely treated and 35% in the chronic. Associated with this increase in cytochrome P-450 content, there was a twofold increase in both arylhydrocarbon hydroxylase and aminopyrine-N-demethylase activities after acute exposure. During chronic exposure, however, there was a return to normal of the aminopyrine-N-demethylase activity and a decline in arylhydrocarbon hydroxylase induction to 1.25 times control. Results from this study indicate that benzene exposure produces adverse effects on mitochondria and heme metabolism. The precise relationships of these disturbances to benzene toxicity are not clear; however the possible role of heme oxygenase and degree of cytochrome P-450 induction are considered. Finally, the alterations of arylhydrocarbon hydroxylase and aminopyrine-N-demethylase activities point to a potential mechanism of differential toxicity from metabolites of benzene.
Predictors of Smoking Cessation and Duration: Implication for Smoking Prevention

Background: There are few articles studding the factors associated with successful smoking cessation in Iranian smokers. The aim of this study is to clarify the association between socio-demographic factors and smoking behavior, such as number of failed smoking cessation and duration of abstinence in Iranian population. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire survey of 673 participants was conducted in a local government health-care center. The questionnaire included items on socio-demographic information including, age, marital status, education, income, and job. Furthermore, information on smoking cigarettes including number of smoking per day, duration of smoking, cigarettes brand, nicotine concentration, and history of cessation was obtained. Results: Mean ± SD of age and daily cigarette consumption were 39.7 ± 1.1 and 22.1 ± 1.1 respectively. Failure rate of smoking cessation was higher in the lower age group (odds ratios [OR] 2.9; 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.1, 7.7) and less than 10 numbers smoking per day (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.3, 4.5) and duration of smoking more than 30 years (OR 3.4; 95% CI 1.2, 9.3) and foreign cigarette brand (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.1, 2.7). Length time of cessation was prominent in participants with lower age group (OR 5.4; 95% CI 1.3, 22.1), and less than 10 numbers smoking per day (OR 2.7; 95% CI 1.5, 4.9) and lower in smokers with duration of smoking more than 10 and 10-19 years (OR 0.32; 95% CI 0.12, 0.89), (OR 0.34; 95% CI 0.17, 0.76), respectively. Conclusions: The above results suggest that there are a significant association between socio-demographic factors and smoking-related behaviors in the Iranian population, consistent with previous reports world-wide. These factors should be considered to have appropriate public-health and policy response.
Alternative Antimicrobial Approach: Nano-Antimicrobial Materials

Despite numerous existing potent antibiotics and other antimicrobial means, bacterial infections are still a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Moreover, the need to develop additional bactericidal means has significantly increased due to the growing concern regarding multidrug-resistant bacterial strains and biofilm associated infections. Consequently, attention has been especially devoted to new and emerging nanoparticle-based materials in the field of antimicrobial chemotherapy. The present review discusses the activities of nanoparticles as an antimicrobial means, their mode of action, nanoparticle effect on drug-resistant bacteria, and the risks attendant on their use as antibacterial agents. Factors contributing to nanoparticle performance in the clinical setting, their unique properties, and mechanism of action as antibacterial agents are discussed in detail.
Diabetes and physical disability among older U.S. adults.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence of physical disability associated with diabetes among U.S. adults > or =60 years of age. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed data from a nationally representative sample of 6,588 community-dwelling men and women > or =60 years of age who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Diabetes and comorbidities (coronary heart disease, intermittent claudication, stroke, arthritis, and visual impairment) were assessed by questionnaire. Physical disability was assessed by self-reported ability to walk one-fourth of a mile, climb 10 steps, and do housework. Walking speed, lower-extremity function, and balance were assessed using physical performance tests. RESULTS Among subjects > or =60 years of age with diabetes, 32% of women and 15% of men reported an inability to walk one-fourth of a mile, climb stairs, or do housework compared with 14% of women and 8% of men without diabetes. Diabetes was associated with a 2- to 3-fold increased odds of not being able to do each task among both men and women and up to a 3.6-fold increased risk of not being able to do all 3 tasks. Among women, diabetes was also associated with slower walking speed, inferior lower-extremity function, decreased balance, and an increased risk of falling. Of the >5 million U.S. adults > or =60 years of age with diabetes, 1.2 million are unable to do major physical tasks. CONCLUSIONS Diabetes is associated with a major burden of physical disability in older U.S. adults, and these disabilities are likely to substantially impair their quality of life.
Using needs assessment as a learning tool in the product development process: A case study of a quick service restaurant chain

Purpose – The purpose of this case study was threefold. First, to examine whether a needs assessment can work in the context of an organization’s new product development process to identify the gap between what “is” occurring and what “should” be occurring. Second, to investigate how a well-known stakeholder classification system can be adopted in a practitioner setting. Third, to identify why the new product development process derailed in a quick-service restaurant chain. Design/methodology/approach – A Fortune 200 quick-service restaurant chain provided the setting for a case study on the new product development (NPD) process. Data were gathered from multiple stakeholder groups using interviews and a survey questionnaire. Findings – Findings support the adaptability of needs assessment as a learning tool to help organizations identify and address performance gaps. A second finding was the applicability of the Mitchell et al. (1997) classification system to identify and prioritize groups of stakeholders.
The effect of occupational therapy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract Aim The main aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of individualized occupational therapy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Additionally, the authors wanted to explore the occupational problems experienced in daily life by individuals with COPD. Methods A total of 52 patients were randomly assigned to the intervention group (occupational therapy) or control group (treatment as usual). The primary outcome was assessed using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), and participants were assessed at baseline and after four and 12 months. Results There were no treatment effects on occupational performance or satisfaction with performance, as measured by the COPM. However, we found a significant effect in favour of the intervention group at exertion when performing an individually chosen activity, and in the activity dimension of St George’s Respiratory Questionnaire. A total of 595 occupational problems were reported, most frequently within mobility, active recreation, and household management. Conclusions The results show that, compared with the usual care, individualized occupational therapy did not improve occupational performance or satisfaction with performance. Small but significant changes in activity performance in favour of the intervention group were found in some of the secondary outcomes.
Broadening the Scope of Residential Treatment Outcome: The Information Processing and Object Relations of Externalizing Adolescents

Experimental and clinical research has discovered certain qualities of information processing and object relations to underlie externaliz ing behavior disorders in adolescence. The purpose of this study was to test the hypotheses that adolescents with externaliz ing behavior disorders demonstrate distinct and clinically significant . information processing tendencies and object relations than non-patient adolescents. Additionally, this study aimed to investigate changes in information processing and object relations among this sample through treatment at a residential treatment center. Finally, this study tested the hypothesis that information processing and object relations changes underlie changes adolescents make in their social behavior as a consequence of psychological treatment. The 49 participants of this study were recruited from a group of patients admitted to a resident ial treatment center in eastern Tennessee. The part icipants were administered the Rorschach Inkblot Method, Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory, Adolescent Version (MMPI-A), and Child Behavior Checklists were rated by staff (CBCL) at admission and discharge. Result s of the study indicated that the majority of information processing and object relations variables on the Rorschach (X-%, F%, ZD, DQC, MOA and AGC) varied significantly from nqn-patient peers and were consistent with previous samples of agerelated adolescents with externaliz ing behavior disorders. Indices on the MMPI-A (CYN, CON, ANG, and ALN) did not significantly differ from age-matched normative samples, however. When the information processing and object relations of this sample was assessed for changes made upon the Rorschach, MMPI-A and CB CL variables, IV significant changes were found to have occurred. The participants made significant behavioral changes as indicated by CBCL scales SOC, AGG, and DEL and made improvements on roughly half of the MMPI-A and Rorschach variables. However, only one of the four information processing variables on the Rorschach, ZD, was found to alter after treatment. Finally, results indicated MMPI-A changes, but not Rorschach changes, were statistically predictive of behavior changes . Specifically, changes participants made upon scales CON and CYN were highly associated with diminished aggressive behavior and social problems, respectively. The results are discussed in light of the on-going concern that psychological intervention may address dynamic aspects but not structural aspects of personality, especially during briefer treatments.
A Computational Geometry Approach to Automated Pulmonary Fissure Segmentation in CT Examinations

Identification of pulmonary fissures, which form the boundaries between the lobes in the lungs, may be useful during clinical interpretation of computed tomography (CT) examinations to assess the early presence and characterization of manifestation of several lung diseases. Motivated by the unique nature of the surface shape of pulmonary fissures in 3-D space, we developed a new automated scheme using computational geometry methods to detect and segment fissures depicted on CT images. After a geometric modeling of the lung volume using the marching cubes algorithm, Laplacian smoothing is applied iteratively to enhance pulmonary fissures by depressing nonfissure structures while smoothing the surfaces of lung fissures. Next, an extended Gaussian image based procedure is used to locate the fissures in a statistical manner that approximates the fissures using a set of plane ldquopatchesrdquo. This approach has several advantages such as independence of anatomic knowledge of the lung structure except the surface shape of fissures, limited sensitivity to other lung structures, and ease of implementation. The scheme performance was evaluated by two experienced thoracic radiologists using a set of 100 images (slices) randomly selected from 10 screening CT examinations. In this preliminary evaluation 98.7% and 94.9% of scheme segmented fissure voxels are within 2 mm of the fissures marked independently by two radiologists in the testing image dataset. Using the scheme detected fissures as reference, 89.4% and 90.1% of manually marked fissure points have distance les2 mm to the reference suggesting a possible under-segmentation of the scheme. The case-based root mean square (rms) distances (ldquoerrorsrdquo) between our scheme and the radiologist ranged from 1.48plusmn0. 92 to 2.04plusmn3. 88 mm. The discrepancy of fissure detection results between the automated scheme and either radiologist is smaller in this dataset than the interreader variability.
A method for multi-oriented Thai text localization in natural scene images using Convolutional Neural Network

Text information in natural scene images plays an important role in many computer vision applications, such as license plate recognition, scene text recognition, and assistive text reading for visually impaired people. Unlike the existing Thai text localization methods, which use connected component analysis and rule-based techniques to locate text position, in this paper, we present a new way to locate multi-oriented Thai text based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). Like sliding window based object detection methods, text confidence maps are constructed by using our trained CNN text detector on multi-scaled images. The multi-scaled text confidence maps are merged to produce original input size text confidence map. By using Thai text characteristics, text line hypothesis is generated from a merged text confidence map. Finally, the post-processing techniques and Thai text characteristic analysis are performed to acquire text locations. The experimental result on our mixed Thai-English, BEST2015 Text Location Detection Contest dataset, ICDAR2003 and ICDAR2011 dataset show that our method can locate English and Thai text with promising accuracy compared to the state-of-the-art. Our proposed method won the 1st prize in BEST2015 Text Location Detection Contest organized by National Electronic and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC).
Culture and Psychology

1. What is Culture? 2. Research Methods. 3. Developmental Processes & Culture. 4. Cognition & Culture. 5. Cognition & Culture. 6. Gender & Culture. 7. Health & Culture. 8. Emotion & Culture. 9. Language and Communication in Culture. 10. Personality & Culture. 11. Abnormal Psychology & Culture. 12. Treatment of Abnormal Behavior & Culture. 13. Social Behavior Part I. 14. Social Behavior Part II. 15. Organizations & Culture.
Mediterranean Conference on Embedded Computing MECO-2014 Budva , Montenegro Elliptic Biquadratic Sections Using Second Generation Current Conveyors ( CCIIs )

In this paper we propose a new, programmable, easytunable, current-mode general-purpose Biquad (C-GP-B), using second-generation current conveyors (CCIIs), based on the wellknown direct form II, which, among other transfer functions, is also suitable to realize band-rejection (BR) or notch transfer function. It is convenient for elliptic transfer function realizations because it can realize finite transfer function zeroes. Since it has low sensitivity and grounded capacitors it is suitable for integrated circuit (IC) design. The new Biquad is then compared in sensitivity performance with other two CCII-based versions of biquadratic sections obtained by different approaches. Since all presented Biquads use CCIIs they operate in the current mode, and are therefore suitable to realize filter circuits operating at higher frequencies, consuming less power, and needing lower supply voltage. As an example, the design procedure, and the Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis using PSpice were performed for a fourth-order elliptic low-pass (LP) filter. Keywords-current mode filters; general-purpose Biquad; second-generation current conveyor; elliptic filters; low sensitivity.
On Goals and Strategies: How a Fit between Performance Goals and Regulatory Strategies Affects Performance

In the present research, we argue and demonstrate that a fit or non-fit between regulatory strategy and performance goal affects task performance. Specifically, we found that a prevention strategy results in better performance among performance avoidance (PAv) goal participants compared to performance approach (PAp) goal participants. However, in the promotion strategy condition and the no strategy control condition, no differences between both groups were observed. Practical implications and opportunities for future research are considered in the discussion.