Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hypertension causes premature aging of endothelial function in humans.

We designed the present study to evaluate whether in normotensive subjects and hypertensive patients aging causes endothelial dysfunction by a defect in the L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway or production of cyclooxygenase-dependent vasoconstrictors. In 43 normotensive subjects and 47 essential hypertensive patients, we evaluated forearm blood flow (strain-gauge plethysmography) modifications evoked by intrabrachial acetylcholine (0.15, 0.45, 1.5, 4.5, and 15 microg/100 mL per minute), an endothelium-dependent vasodilator, in the presence of saline, L-arginine (1 micromol/100 mL per minute), or indomethacin (50 microg/100 mL per minute), a cyclooxygenase inhibitor, and by sodium nitroprusside (1, 2, and 4 microg/100 mL per minute), an endothelium-independent vasodilator. Vasodilation to acetylcholine was lower (P<.01) in essential hypertensive patients than normotensive control subjects, and in both groups, it declined with advancing age. In normotensive subjects older than 30 years, L-arginine potentiated the response to acetylcholine in parallel with increasing age, whereas indomethacin increased the vasodilation to acetylcholine only in the oldest group (>60 years). In younger hypertensive patients (<30 years), L-arginine but not indomethacin potentiated the response to acetylcholine. In adult patients (31 to 45 years), L-arginine still potentiated the vasodilation to acetylcholine, and indomethacin began to show some effect. In the oldest patients (46 to 60 and >60 years), L-arginine was no longer effective, and indomethacin exerted a potentiating action that was positively related to advancing age. In normotensive and hypertensive humans, similar mechanisms, including dysfunction of the nitric oxide pathway and production of cyclooxygenase-dependent vasoconstrictors, cause age-related impairment of endothelium-dependent vasodilation, and only their earlier appearance characterizes hypertensive disease. Thus, the endothelial dysfunction that occurs in hypertension seems to represent an accelerated form of dysfunction that occurs in aging.
Rapid, local adaptation of zooplankton behavior to changes in predation pressure in the absence of neutral genetic changes

Organisms producing resting stages provide unique opportunities for reconstructing the genetic history of natural populations. Diapausing seeds and eggs often are preserved in large numbers, representing entire populations captured in an evolutionary inert state for decades and even centuries. Starting from a natural resting egg bank of the waterflea Daphnia, we compare the evolutionary rates of change in an adaptive quantitative trait with those in selectively neutral DNA markers, thus effectively testing whether the observed genetic changes in the quantitative trait are driven by natural selection. The population studied experienced variable and well documented levels of fish predation over the past 30 years and shows correlated genetic changes in phototactic behavior, a predator-avoidance trait that is related to diel vertical migration. The changes mainly involve an increased plasticity response upon exposure to predator kairomone, the direction of the changes being in agreement with the hypothesis of adaptive evolution. Genetic differentiation through time was an order of magnitude higher for the studied behavioral trait than for neutral markers (DNA microsatellites), providing strong evidence that natural selection was the driving force behind the observed, rapid, evolutionary changes.
Reflexive Learning: Stages towards wisdom with Dreyfus

The ) account of seven stages of learning is considered in the context of the Dreyfus (1980s) account of five stages of skill development. The two new stages, Mastery and Practical Wisdom, make more explicit certain themes implicit in the five‐stage account. In this way ) encourages a more reflexive approach. The themes now more explicit are, in part, derived from Aristotle on phronesis, but are also influenced by Heidegger and Foucault on cultural dimensions of meaning and value. The paper considers whether Dreyfus’ revised account tends towards a relativism of different worlds of meaning, disclosed through personal commitment. A more reflexive account of phronesis, it is suggested, needs to clarify the potentiality of phronesis for co‐ordination as it promotes patterns of unity in difference and difference in unity.
Quantitative Trait Loci Association Mapping by Imputation of Strain Origins in Multifounder Crosses

Although mapping quantitative traits in inbred strains is simpler than mapping the analogous traits in humans, classical inbred crosses suffer from reduced genetic diversity compared to experimental designs involving outbred animal populations. Multiple crosses, for example the Complex Trait Consortium's eight-way cross, circumvent these difficulties. However, complex mating schemes and systematic inbreeding raise substantial computational difficulties. Here we present a method for locally imputing the strain origins of each genotyped animal along its genome. Imputed origins then serve as mean effects in a multivariate Gaussian model for testing association between trait levels and local genomic variation. Imputation is a combinatorial process that assigns the maternal and paternal strain origin of each animal on the basis of observed genotypes and prior pedigree information. Without smoothing, imputation is likely to be ill-defined or jump erratically from one strain to another as an animal's genome is traversed. In practice, one expects to see long stretches where strain origins are invariant. Smoothing can be achieved by penalizing strain changes from one marker to the next. A dynamic programming algorithm then solves the strain imputation process in one quick pass through the genome of an animal. Imputation accuracy exceeds 99% in practical examples and leads to high-resolution mapping in simulated and real data. The previous fastest quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping software for dense genome scans reduced compute times to hours. Our implementation further reduces compute times from hours to minutes with no loss in statistical power. Indeed, power is enhanced for full pedigree data.
Survey on Illumination Based Digital Image Forgery Detection Techniques

This paper surveys the literature on illumination based digital image forgery detection techniques. With the development of advanced digital image processing techniques, it has been so easy to manipulate images, and therefore forge new realities. So we need an effective approach to distinguish between real and fake images. In this paper, we introduce some methods of digital image forgery detection, mainly including detection based on inconsistencies in lighting, inconsistencies in lighting model, inconsistencies in reflections, specular highlights on the eye and inconsistencies in illumination color. The goal of this paper is to provide a review of the existing literature available on illumination based digital image forgery detection techniques.
Casein Kinase 1 Delta Regulates the Pace of the Mammalian Circadian Clock

ABSTRACT Both casein kinase 1 delta (CK1δ) and epsilon (CK1ε) phosphorylate core clock proteins of the mammalian circadian oscillator. To assess the roles of CK1δ and CK1ε in the circadian clock mechanism, we generated mice in which the genes encoding these proteins (Csnk1d and Csnk1e, respectively) could be disrupted using the Cre-loxP system. Cre-mediated excision of the floxed exon 2 from Csnk1d led to in-frame splicing and production of a deletion mutant protein (CK1δΔ2). This product is nonfunctional. Mice homozygous for the allele lacking exon 2 die in the perinatal period, so we generated mice with liver-specific disruption of CK1δ. In livers from these mice, daytime levels of nuclear PER proteins, and PER-CRY-CLOCK complexes were elevated. In vitro, the half-life of PER2 was increased by ∼20%, and the period of PER2::luciferase bioluminescence rhythms was 2 h longer than in controls. Fibroblast cultures from CK1δ-deficient embryos also had long-period rhythms. In contrast, disruption of the gene encoding CK1ε did not alter these circadian endpoints. These results reveal important functional differences between CK1δ and CK1ε: CK1δ plays an unexpectedly important role in maintaining the 24-h circadian cycle length.
Dissociation in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa

The present study employed the Riley Questionnaire of Experiences of Dissociation in order to assess degree of dissociation in females diagnosed with anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The subjects consisted of 26 anorexic and 18 bulimic females, and a non eating-disordered control group of 22 females. Results indicated that eating disordered subjects, considered together, had significantly higher dissociation scores than the non eating-disordered control group. Additionally, when considered separately, both the anorexic and bulimic groups had significantly higher dissociation scores than the control subjects. No significant difference was found in the level of dissociation between anorexic and bulimic groups. These findings are discussed in relation to previous investigations and implications for possible future research and treatment.
EAPC White Paper on outcome measurement in palliative care: Improving practice, attaining outcomes and delivering quality services – Recommendations from the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC) Task Force on Outcome Measurement

Background: Outcome measurement plays an increasing role in improving the quality, effectiveness, efficiency and availability of palliative care. Aim: To provide expert recommendations on outcome measurement in palliative care in clinical practice and research. Methods: Developed by a European Association for Palliative Care Task Force, based on literature searches, international expert workshop, development of outcome measurement guidance and international online survey. A subgroup drafted a first version and circulated it twice to the task force. The preliminary final version was circulated to wider expert panel and 28 international experts across 20 European Association for Palliative Care member associations and the European Association for Palliative Care Board of Directors and revised according to their feedback. The final version was approved by the European Association for Palliative Care Board for adoption as an official European Association for Palliative Care position paper. Results: In all, 12 recommendations are proposed covering key parameters of measures, adequate measures for the task, introduction of outcome measurement into practice, and national and international outcome comparisons and benchmarking. Compared to other recommendations, the White Paper covers similar aspects but focuses more on outcome measurement in clinical care and the wider policy impact of implementing outcome measurement in clinical palliative care. Patient-reported outcome measure feedback improves awareness of unmet need and allows professionals to act to address patients’ needs. However, barriers and facilitators have been identified when implementing outcome measurement in clinical care that should be addressed. Conclusion: The White Paper recommends the introduction of outcome measurement into practice and outcomes that allow for national and international comparisons. Outcome measurement is key to understanding different models of care across countries and, ultimately, patient outcome having controlled for differing patients characteristics.
Compilation Accelerator on Silicon

Current day processors utilize a complex and finely tuned system software to map applications across their cores and extract optimal performance. However with increasing core counts and the rise of heterogeneity among cores, tremendous stress will be exerted on the software stack leading to bottlenecks and underutilization of resources. We propose an architecture for a Compilation Accelerator on Silicon (CAS) coupled with a hardware instruction scheduler to tackle the complexity involved in analyzing dependencies among instructions dynamically, accelerate machine code generation and obtain optimum resource utilization across the cores by effective and efficient scheduling. The CAS is realized as a two-level hierarchical subsystem employing the Primary Compiler on Silicon (PCOS) and Secondary Compiler on Silicon (SCOS) with the hardware instruction scheduler as an integral part of it. A comparative analysis with the conventional GCC compiler is presented for a real world brain modeling application and higher instruction generation rates along with improved scheduling efficiency is observed resulting in a corresponding increase in resource utilization.
Dynamic mobility management architecture to improve quality of experience (QOE) in wireless networks

Wireless mobile network consist of mobile nodes without wired connection between the nodes and that nodes will leaves as well as enters in the network due to the mobile nodes. Mobility management and topology maintenance is the major issue in wireless mobile network. Due to the mobility, packet loss and routing overhead will be high. To improve the overall performance proposed a new technique called mobility management using corner nodes (MMCN) by different topology such as square, pentagon and hexagonal shapes. This fixed corner nodes will monitor the mobile user nodes and it update when any mobile user nodes enters or leaves in the network. Experimental results compares the existing technique and proposed technique with four corner nodes, five corner nodes and six corner nodes. Simulation results shows that the proposed scheme mobility management using corner nodes (MMCN) is used to increase the quality of experience (QoE) using the quality of service parameters such as routing overhead, throughput, delay and network efficiency.
Widening participation on early years degrees: ‘I realised I could, and would, do this—and I have!’

This article reviews the outcomes to date of a collaborative project at Sheffield Hallam University to develop clear progression routes into higher education (HE) for further education (FE) students studying on Advanced Diploma, Higher National Certificate (HNC) and Higher National Diploma (HND) courses in childcare and education. Since 2002, students from partnership colleges have been eligible for enrolment on the BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies degree at Sheffield Hallam, starting at Level 5 or Level 6, depending on previous attainment and performance at interview. While the numbers involved during the past four years have been small, student retention has been high and attainment has equalled that of their traditional‐entry colleagues. The results support the notion that it is possible to widen participation without lowering standards or suffering high rates of attrition, but there are implications for students and staff alike.
Effect of white rot basidiomycetes on chemical composition and in vitro digestibility of oat straw and alfalfa stems.

Five white rot basidiomycetes were evaluated for their potential to improve ruminal degradation of oat straw and alfalfa stems. Phanerochaete chrysosporium (PC), Scytinostroma galactinum (SG), Phlebia tremellosa (PT), Phellinus pini (PP), and Pholiota mutabilis (PM) were incubated on oat straw and alfalfa stems for 30 d at 28 degrees C and 90% relative humidity. Detergent fiber and total fiber components (neutral sugars, uronic acids, Klason lignin [KL], and ester- and ether-linked non-core lignin phenolics), core lignin nitrobenzene oxidation products, and IVDMD were determined. Electron microscopy of KMnO4-stained and cellulase/colloidal gold-labeled sections was used to monitor fungal activity. Large losses of DM were noted for all fungal species on both substrates. Lignin (KL and ADL) was removed (P less than .05) from oat straw by PC and PT treatment, but no net loss of lignin was observed for fungal treatment of alfalfa stems. Cell-wall polysaccharides were removed from both substrates by fungal activity. Only PC increased (P less than .05) IVDMD of oat straw, and SG, PT, PP, and PC treatment decreased (P less than .05) IVDMD of alfalfa stems, presumably because the fungi removed the most readily fermentable polysaccharides. Transmission electron microscopy using KMnO4 staining showed a nonselective white rot attack. Cytochemical studies using colloidal gold-labeled exo- and endocellulases were used to map the location of cellulose in the cell wall before and after decay by the white rot fungi. All the white rot fungi tested had eroded and thinned cell walls. Residual cell walls were well-labeled; both endo- and exocellulose-colloidal gold identified the cellulosic wall material that remained. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Clinical outcomes of therapeutic agents that block the platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa integrin in ischemic heart disease.

BACKGROUND Several platelet glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa receptor antagonists have been evaluated in clinical trials. We conducted a systematic overview (meta-analysis) to assess the effect of these compounds on death, myocardial infarction (MI), and revascularization. METHODS AND RESULTS ORs were calculated for 16 randomized, controlled trials of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors. An empirical Bayesian random-effects model combined the outcomes of 32 135 patients. There was a significant mortality reduction by GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors at 48 to 96 hours, with an OR of 0.70 (95% CI, 0. 51 to 0.96; P<0.03), equivalent to a reduction of 1 death per 1000 patients treated. Mortality benefits at 30 days (OR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0. 74 to 1.02; P=0.08) and 6 months (OR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.86 to 1.10; P=0.67) were not statistically significant. For the combined end point of death or MI, there was a highly significant (P<0.001) benefit for GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors at each time point. The 30-day OR was 0.76 (95% CI, 0.66 to 0.87), or 20 fewer events per 1000 patients treated. For the composite end point of death, MI, or revascularization, there was also a highly significant (P<0.001) benefit for GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors. At 30 days, the OR was 0.77 (95% CI, 0.68 to 0.86), or 30 fewer events per 1000 patients treated. The risk differences for death, death or MI, and composite outcomes were similar at 6 months, indicating a sustained absolute improvement. Similar benefit was seen when trials were subgrouped by therapeutic indication (percutaneous intervention versus acute coronary syndromes). CONCLUSIONS Application of this new therapeutic class to clinical practice promises substantial benefit for both indications.
Few electron double quantum dot in an isotopically purified $^{28}$Si quantum well

We present a few electron double quantum dot (QD) device defined in an isotopically purified $^{28}$Si quantum well (QW). An electron mobility of $5.5 \cdot 10^4 cm^2(Vs)^{-1}$ is observed in the QW which is the highest mobility ever reported for a 2D electron system in $^{28}$Si. The residual concentration of $^{29}$Si nuclei in the $^{28}$Si QW is lower than $10^{3} ppm$, at the verge where the hyperfine interaction is theoretically no longer expected to dominantly limit the $T_{2}$ spin dephasing time. We also demonstrate a complete suppression of hysteretic gate behavior and charge noise using a negatively biased global top gate.
Radical Rap: Does It Further Ethnic Division?

African-American and White high-school students were exposed to a series of music videos featuring (a) popular rock, Co) nonpolitical rap, or (c) radical political rap. They recorded their enjoyment after exposure. In a purportedly unrelated subsequent study, the students, after assessment of their self-esteem, took part in a mock student-government election. African-American and White candidates presented ethnically (a) liberal, (b) neutral, or (c) radical platforms. It was found that African-American students enjoyed rap more than rock, whereas White students enjoyed rock more than rap. More important, musical genres were without consequence for the self-esteem of African-American students. Self-esteem of White students was marginally affected: Compared to exposure to rock, it was higher after exposure to rap, hut only with regard to scholastic abilities. Musical genres were also without consequence for African-American students' support of candidates. In contrast, White students' candidate support was .
The evolution of consumer well‐being

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the historical origins of consumer well‐being as well as the factors that shaped its evolution.Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a review of original publications that highlight classic views of consumer well‐being, including schools of thought on functionalism, management, buyer‐behavior, macromarketing, and consumer activism.Findings – There has been a tendency to understand consumer well‐being as a function of economic‐based choice, where a “more‐is‐better” ideology has motivated much of the extant literature on the topic.Originality/value – Integrating literature from the twentieth century demonstrates that perspectives on consumer well‐being have been influenced by forces beyond the classic economic model. The paper speculates that incorporating more community‐oriented and contextually‐bound criteria into the understanding of consumer well‐being may yield new research insights.
An Optimal Alternative to Iterative Footing

The process of stress assignment justifies creating metrical constituents. Reducing the ultimate effect of exhaustive footing to a mere counting tool breaches economy of representation. However, some derivational accounts require iterative footing to locate primary stress, even though no secondary stressing is attested. Using a rule as line conflation, the non-stressed feet are subsequently deleted. This derivation, nonetheless, is incompatible with OT that abstracts from serial processing. Thus, assuming a mono-foot account, for a number of bounded stress systems with no secondary stresses, requires adopting a different underlying principle. The notion of Parsability, that evaluates candidates for exhaustive footing, is introduced to achieve the crucial counting effect. The same rationale is extended to account for wordlevel headedness and directionality. The proposed mono-foot account is applied to a number of stress patterns like Cairene, Seminole/Creek, and Hindi. Disfavouring any redundant footing, constraint interaction nominates the proper sequence, in each pattern, for footing.