Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender comparisons of preferred coaching behaviors in Australian sports.

This sllldy investigated the preferred coaching hehaviors 0( athletes /Yom three distinct Australian sporting contexts (\'ingle-gender male, single-gender female, dual-gender male and female), and discussed the significance of the findings in relation to the Multidimensional Model of Leadership (Chelladurai, 1990; Chelladurai & Salah, /980). The coaching preferences of317 athletes (Australlllnfoothall n = 110, nethall n = 88, and baskethall n = 114) were obtained using the Leadership Scale fi . r Sport (ehel/adura; & Saleh, 1978, 1980). As previous studies using the Scale reported many gender-hased inconsistencies, comparisons hetween athletes' pre. /erence scores were examined on this variable. Despite some small differences between the groups (? f athletes, the results revealed an overwhelmingly high level ofsimilarity in the coaching preferences hetween all athletes regardless of gendel: Athletesfrom all three sports indicated that Positive Feedback. Training & Instruction and Democratic behavior were preferred coach in? , hehaviors and that Social Support and Autocratic behavior were not preferred. This study established that athletes participating in some single-gender sporting l'nvironments in 4ustralia share similar preferences for coaching behavior to athletes participating in sports of a dual-gender nature, and. that ~f there are unique sociali::ation processes occurring in the two distinct sporting environments 0{ A ustralian{ootball and ner"all. they have lillIe or no effect on the coaching preferences of the athletes. The results o( the study challenge the number of member (athlete) characteristics claimed by Chelladurai to determine preferred coaching behavior, and have important practical impli('ations . fiJI' coaching sport, partielllorrr in A IIstralio.
Fireworks Enriched P&O Algorithm for GMPPT and Detection of Partial Shading in PV Systems

Global maximum power point tracking (GMPPT) strategies for photovoltaic systems are effective under nonuniform irradiation conditions but cause unnecessary power loss due to wide search under uniform irradiance. This paper proposes a scheme for detecting the type of irradiation, viz., uniform or nonuniform, using the trend observed in the string maximum power point (MPP) voltage and current. This partial shading detection scheme is implemented in a GMPPT control strategy combining the conventional perturb and observe (P&O) algorithm and the Fireworks Algorithm (FWA). Under uniform irradiation conditions, the P&O algorithm is used owing to the lower magnitude of power oscillations during tracking as compared to the FWA. On the other hand, under partial shading conditions, the FWA is employed due to its global search and fast tracking capability. The proposed GMPPT method is tested experimentally to verify its effectiveness under different shading patterns.
Emotion in motion: comparing the effects of a range of everyday life driving conditions on driver behaviour

A driver’s mental state can affect vehicle control. This is understood for known impairments such as alcohol, drugs and sleepiness. Drivers may however be less aware of how situations in everyday life may affect their driving abilities. To investigate the relative impairment levels of such conditions, a series of simulator studies was conducted by a total of 74 participants using a validated test route. The route included tests of response times, behaviour in traffic, and lateral/longitudinal control. The conditions tested were the effects of preferred and non-preferred music; pre-drive stress or relaxation; engaging sports commentary; arguing children; and passengers on driver behaviour. A number of significant results emerged with some of these routinely experienced situations causing performance impairments on specific tasks comparable to that of alcohol to the UK legal limit. Some gender differences were observed. Different situations were found to either facilitate or impede performance, suggestive of both stimulative and distractive effects. Beneficial effects of improved response times appeared to be negated by smaller safety margins. Gender differences in impairment were also observed. This paper provides an overview of these studies.
Regulation of inward rectifier K+ channels by shift of intracellular pH dependence

The mechanistic link between mitochondrial metabolism and inward rectifier K+ channel activity was investigated by studying the effects of a mitochondrial inhibitor, carbonyl cyanide p‐trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (FCCP) on inward rectifiers of the Kir2 subfamily expressed in Xenopus oocytes, using two‐electrode voltage‐clamp, patch‐clamp, and intracellular pH recording. FCCP inhibited Kir2.2 and Kir2.3 currents and decreased intracellular pH, but the pH change was too small to account for the inhibitory effect by itself. However, pre‐incubation of oocytes with imidazole prevented both the pH decrease and the inhibition of Kir2.2 and Kir2.3 currents by FCCP. The pH dependence of Kir2.2 was shifted to higher pH in membrane patches from FCCP‐treated oocytes compared to control oocytes. Therefore, the inhibition of Kir2.2 by FCCP may involve a combination of intracellular acidification and a shift in the intracellular pH dependence of these channels. To investigate the sensitivity of heteromeric channels to FCCP, we studied its effect on currents expressed by heteromeric tandem dimer constructs. While Kir2.1 homomeric channels were insensitive to FCCP, both Kir2.1‐Kir2.2 and Kir2.1‐Kir2.3 heterotetrameric channels were inhibited. These data support the notion that mitochondrial dysfunction causes inhibition of heteromeric inward rectifier K+ channels. The reduction of inward rectifier K+ channel activity observed in heart failure and ischemia may result from the mitochondrial dysfunction that occurs in these conditions. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Characterization of the interactions of the nephrin intracellular domain

Nephrin is a signalling cell–cell adhesion protein of the Ig superfamily and the first identified component of the slit diaphragm that forms the critical and ultimate part of the glomerular ultrafiltration barrier. The extracellular domains of the nephrin molecules form a network of homophilic and heterophilic interactions building the structural scaffold of the slit diaphragm between the podocyte foot processes. The intracellular domain of nephrin is connected indirectly to the actin cytoskeleton, is tyrosine phosphorylated, and mediates signalling from the slit diaphragm into the podocytes. CD2AP, podocin, Fyn kinase, and phosphoinositide 3‐kinase are reported intracellular interacting partners of nephrin, although the biological roles of these interactions are unclarified. To characterize the structural properties and protein–protein interactions of the nephrin intracellular domain, we produced a series of recombinant nephrin proteins. These were able to bind all previously identified ligands, although the interaction with CD2AP appeared to be of extremely low stoichiometry. Fyn phosphorylated nephrin proteins efficiently in vitro. This phosphorylation was required for the binding of phosphoinositide 3‐kinase, and significantly enhanced binding of Fyn itself. A protein of 190 kDa was found to associate with the immobilized glutathione S‐transferase–nephrin. Peptide mass fingerprinting and amino acid sequencing identified this protein as IQGAP1, an effector protein of small GTPases Rac1 and Cdc42 and a putative regulator of cell–cell adherens junctions. IQGAP1 is expressed in podocytes at significant levels, and could be found at the immediate vicinity of the slit diaphragm. However, further studies are needed to confirm the biological significance of this interaction and its occurrence in vivo.
Human-Centred Design for Silver Assistants

To alleviate the rapidly increasing need of the healthcare workforce to serve the enormous ageing population, leveraging intelligent and autonomous caring agents is one promising way. Working towards the design and development of dedicated personal silver assistants for older adults, we follow the human-centred design approach. Specifically, we identify a number of human factors that affect the user experience of the older adults and develop an agent named Mobile Intelligent Silver Assistant (MISA) by applying these human factors. Integrating multiple reusable services onto one platform, MISA acts as a single point of contact while simultaneously providing easy and convenient access to a wide range of personalized services to support a more independent and active lifestyle of the older adults. Furthermore, the architecture of MISA would allow new services to be incorporated easily in the future.
Obesity in Iranian children

We surveyed 4315 2–5 year olds in Iran. Prevalence of obesity (BMI >95th centile, Iranian reference data) was compared with the recent “IOTF” approach. Prevalence was significantly higher than expected, and increased with age, but contradictory trends were obtained from the two approaches. Monitoring of childhood obesity using the BMI in developing countries is indicated, but differences associated with obesity definition should be considered.
The Caucal Hierarchy of Infinite Graphs in Terms of Logic and Higher-order Pushdown Automata

In this paper we give two equivalent characterizations of the Caucal hierarchy, a hierarchy of infinite graphs with a decidable monadic second-order (MSO) theory. It is obtained by iterating the graph transformations of unfolding and inverse rational mapping. The first characterization sticks to this hierarchical approach, replacing the languagetheoretic operation of a rational mapping by an MSO-transduction and the unfolding by the treegraph operation. The second characterization is non-iterative. We show that the family of graphs of the Caucal hierarchy coincides with the family of graphs obtained as the ε-closure of configuration graphs of higher-order pushdown automata. While the different characterizations of the graph family show their robustness and thus also their importance, the characterization in terms of higher-order pushdown automata additionally yields that the graph hierarchy is indeed strict.
Fast Thermal Calibration of Low-Grade Inertial Sensors and Inertial Measurement Units

The errors of low-cost inertial sensors, especially Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) ones, are highly dependent on environmental conditions such as the temperature. Thus, there is a need for the development of accurate and reliable thermal compensation models to reduce the impact of such thermal drift of the sensors. Since the conventional thermal calibration methods are typically time-consuming and costly, an efficient thermal calibration method to investigate the thermal drift of a full set of gyroscope and accelerometer errors (i.e., biases, scale factor errors and non-orthogonalities) over the entire temperature range in a few hours is proposed. The proposed method uses the idea of the Ramp method, which removes the time-consuming process of stabilizing the sensor temperature, and addresses its inherent problems with several improvements. We change the temperature linearly for a complete cycle and take a balanced strategy by making comprehensive use of the sensor measurements during both heating and cooling processes. Besides, an efficient 8-step rotate-and-static scheme is designed to further improve the calibration accuracy and efficiency. Real calibration tests showed that the proposed method is suitable for low-grade IMUs and for both lab and factory calibration due to its efficiency and sufficient accuracy.
Selective Activation of p120ctn-Kaiso Signaling to Unlock Contact Inhibition of ARPE-19 Cells without Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition

Contact-inhibition ubiquitously exists in non-transformed cells and explains the poor regenerative capacity of in vivo human retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPE) during aging, injury and diseases. RPE injury or degeneration may unlock mitotic block mediated by contact inhibition but may also promote epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) contributing to retinal blindness. Herein, we confirmed that EMT ensued in post-confluent ARPE-19 cells when contact inhibition was disrupted with EGTA followed by addition of EGF and FGF-2 because of activation of canonical Wnt and Smad/ZEB signaling. In contrast, knockdown of p120-catenin (p120) unlocked such mitotic block by activating p120/Kaiso, but not activating canonical Wnt and Smad/ZEB signaling, thus avoiding EMT. Nuclear BrdU labeling was correlated with nuclear release of Kaiso through p120 nuclear translocation, which was associated with activation of RhoA-ROCK signaling, destabilization of microtubules. Prolonged p120 siRNA knockdown followed by withdrawal further expanded RPE into more compact monolayers with a normal phenotype and a higher density. This new strategy based on selective activation of p120/Kaiso but not Wnt/β-catenin signaling obviates the need of using single cells and the risk of EMT, and may be deployed to engineer surgical grafts containing RPE and other tissues.
Relative contribution of human erythrocyte aldehyde dehydrogenase to the systemic detoxification of the oxazaphosphorines.

Detoxification of cyclophosphamide is effected, in part, by hepatic class 1 aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH-1)-catalyzed oxidation of aldophosphamide, a pivotal aldehyde intermediate, to the nontoxic metabolite, carboxyphosphamide. This enzyme is found in erythrocytes as well. Detoxification of aldophosphamide may also be effected by enzymes, viz. certain aldo-keto reductases, that catalyze the reduction of aldophosphamide to alcophosphamide. Such enzymes are also found in erythrocytes. Not known at the onset of this investigation was whether the contribution of erythrocyte ALDH-1 and/or aldo-keto reductases to the overall systemic detoxification of circulating aldophosphamide is significant. Thus, NAD-linked oxidation and NADPH-linked reduction of aldophosphamide catalyzed by relevant erythrocyte enzymes were quantified. ALDH-1-catalyzed oxidation of aldophosphamide (160 microM) to carboxyphosphamide occurred at a mean (+/- SD) rate of 5.0 +/- 1.4 atmol/min/rbc (red blood cell). Aldo-keto reductase-catalyzed reduction of aldophosphamide (160 microM) to alcophosphamide occurred at a much slower rate, viz. 0.3 +/- 0.2 atmol/min/rbc. Thus, at a pharmacologically relevant concentration of aldophosphamide, viz. 1 microM, estimated aggregate erythrocyte ALDH-1-catalyzed aldophosphamide oxidation, viz. 2.0 micromol/min, was only about 3% of estimated aggregate hepatic enzyme-catalyzed aldophosphamide oxidation, viz. 72 micromol/min; however, this rate is greater than the estimated flow-limited rate of aldophosphamide delivery to the liver by the blood, viz. 1.5 micromol/min. These observations/considerations suggest an important in vivo role for erythrocyte ALDH-1 in systemic aldophosphamide detoxification. Erythrocyte ALDH-1-effected oxidation of other aldehydes to their corresponding acids, e.g. retinaldehyde to retinoic acid, may also be of pharmacological and/or physiological significance since a wide variety of aldehydes are known to be substrates for ALDH-1.
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patients Have a Preserved Cytomegalovirus-Specific Antibody Response despite Progressive Hypogammaglobulinemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is characterized by progressive hypogammaglobulinemia predisposing affected patients to a variety of infectious diseases but paradoxically not to cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease. Moreover, we found reactivity of a panel of CLL recombinant antibodies (CLL-rAbs) encoded by a germ-line allele with a single CMV protein, pUL32, despite differing antibody binding motifs. To put these findings into perspective, we studied prospectively relative frequency of viremia, kinetics of total and virus-specific IgG over time, and UL32 genetic variation in a cohort of therapy-naive patients (n=200). CMV-DNA was detected in 3% (6/200) of patients. The decay of total IgG was uniform (mean, 0.03; SD, 0.03) and correlated with that of IgG subclasses 1-4 in the paired samples available (n=64; p<0.001). Total CMV-specific IgG kinetics were more variable (mean, 0,02; SD, 0,06) and mean decay values differed significantly from those of total IgG (p=0.034). Boosts of CMV-specific antibody levels were observed in 49% (22/45) of CMV-seropositive patients. In contrast, VZV- and EBV-specific IgG levels decayed in parallel with total IgG levels (p=0.003 and p=0.001, respectively). VZV-specific IgG even became undetectable in 18% (9/50) of patients whereas CMV-specific ones remained detectable in all seropositive patients. The observed CMV-specific IgG kinetics were predicated upon the highly divergent kinetics of IgG specific for individual antigens - glycoprotein B-specific IgG were boosted in 51% and pUL32-specific IgG in 32% of patients. In conclusion, CLL patients have a preserved CMV-specific antibody response despite progressive decay of total IgG and IgG subclasses. CMV-specific IgG levels are frequently boosted in contrast to that of other herpesviruses indicative of a higher rate of CMV reactivation and antigen-presentation. In contrast to the reactivity of multiple different CLL-rAbs with pUL32, boosts of humoral immunity are triggered apparently by other CMV antigens than pUL32, like glycoprotein B.
An Unsupervised Ensemble Learning Method for Nonlinear Dynamic State-Space Models

A Bayesian ensemble learning method is introduced for unsupervised extraction of dynamic processes from noisy data. The data are assumed to be generated by an unknown nonlinear mapping from unknown factors. The dynamics of the factors are modeled using a nonlinear state-space model. The nonlinear mappings in the model are represented using multilayer perceptron networks. The proposed method is computationally demanding, but it allows the use of higher-dimensional nonlinear latent variable models than other existing approaches. Experiments with chaotic data show that the new method is able to blindly estimate the factors and the dynamic process that generated the data. It clearly outperforms currently available nonlinear prediction techniques in this very difficult test problem.
On the mechanism of interaction of steroids with human glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase.

Previous studies have demonstrated that certain 17- and 20-ketosteroids are potent inhibitors of the NADP-linked oxidation of glucose 6-phosphate by mammalian glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenases. This inhibition is uncompetitive with respect to both NADP+ and glucose 6-phosphate. In order to elucidate the detailed mechanism of this rare type of inhibition, we examined the effects of steroids on human glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase catalyzing the reverse reaction, i.e., the reduction of the gluconolactone by NADPH. To circumvent problems associated with the known instability of 6-phospho-delta-gluconolactone, the natural product of glucose 6-phosphate oxidation, the more stable 6-phospho-gamma-gluconolactone was used. Dehydroepiandrosterone, epiandrosterone, 16 alpha-bromoepiandrosterone, and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate all inhibited the reverse reaction uncompetitively with respect to both NADPH and the gamma-lactone. The Ki values for each of these steroids, determined by varying either coenzyme or substrate in both the forward and the reverse reactions, are very similar. These results demonstrate that steroids inhibit glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase by binding to the ternary enzyme-coenzyme-substrate ternary complex(es). This is the first direct demonstration that uncompetitive inhibition of a two-substrate enzyme, by compounds other than its substrates or products, can occur by binding of the inhibitor to a ternary enzyme complex.
The Taming of R1

F or several years, Digital Equipment Corporation has used a system called RI (or sometimes Xcon) to configure the computer systems it manufactures. The most recent account of RI's development' notes that as RI has grown to several thousand rules, maintaining and developing it have become substantially more difficult. As we explored what kind of tool could facilitate knowledge acquisition for RI, we saw that the most valuable tool would (1) help determine the role any new piece of knowledge should play and (2) suggest how to represent the knowledge so it would be applied whenever relevant. Several researchers in recent years2-4 have stressed that to maintain and to continue to develop a knowledge base it is critical to identify the various knowledge roles and to represent the knowledge in a way that does not conflate these roles. What is not yet clear is how many interestingly different roles exist and, if there are many, how one identifies the appropriate-subset for a particular expert system. We believe we will find the answers to these questions by studying knowledge roles in different problem-solving methods. Our approach is to develop knowledge acquisition tools that make explicit the knowledge representation implications of various methods. Until recently, most of the research in knowledge acquisition tools has concentrated on tools for classification problem-solvers.5 Because knowledge acquisition tools such as Teiresias,6 ETS,7 and More8 presuppose relatively similar problem-solving methods, the systems built with these tools have similar knowledge roles. However, knowledge acquisition tools for constructive problem-solvers are now being developed-e.g., Salt9 and Sear, the knowledge acquisition tool we describe in this article-that are
Impact of oxidative/nitrosative stress and inflammation on cognitive functions in patients with recurrent depressive disorders

Data show that up to 38.2% of the European population have a mental disorder and that recurrent depressive disorder (rDD) is among the most commonly diagnosed disabling diseases. Over the last few years, neurocognitive impairments in rDD have become a new research front focusing on the role of cognitive decline during the course of rDD and in relation to its clinical presentation and prognosis. Both immune-inflammatory and oxidative and nitrosative stress (O&NS) processes potentially play a role in development of cognitive dysfunction in rDD. New evidence shows that chronic inflammatory and O&NS reactions occur in the brains of patients with neurodegenerative disorders and those with rDD. This narrative review presents the current state of knowledge on the possible impact of selected inflammatory and O&NS enzymes on cognitive functioning in patients with rDD. We focus on manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), and myeloperoxidase (MPO).
DMSO and Betaine Greatly Improve Amplification of GC-Rich Constructs in De Novo Synthesis

In Synthetic Biology, de novo synthesis of GC-rich constructs poses a major challenge because of secondary structure formation and mispriming. While there are many web-based tools for codon optimizing difficult regions, no method currently exists that allows for potentially phenotypically important sequence conservation. Therefore, to overcome these limitations in researching GC-rich genes and their non-coding elements, we explored the use of DMSO and betaine in two conventional methods of assembly and amplification. For this study, we compared the polymerase (PCA) and ligase-based (LCR) methods for construction of two GC-rich gene fragments implicated in tumorigenesis, IGF2R and BRAF. Though we found no benefit in employing either DMSO or betaine during the assembly steps, both additives greatly improved target product specificity and yield during PCR amplification. Of the methods tested, LCR assembly proved far superior to PCA, generating a much more stable template to amplify from. We further report that DMSO and betaine are highly compatible with all other reaction components of gene synthesis and do not require any additional protocol modifications. Furthermore, we believe either additive will allow for the production of a wide variety of GC-rich gene constructs without the need for expensive and time-consuming sample extraction and purification prior to downstream application.