Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Texting while stressed: Implications for students’ burnout, sleep, and well-being.

Text messaging has become an integral part of social life, especially among adolescents and young adults. As a potentially continuously accessible form of communication, texting may affect individuals’ psychosocial functioning in interesting—and unex-plored—ways. The current study examines links among interpersonal stress, text messaging behavior, and 3 indicators of college students’ health and well-being: burnout, sleep problems, and emotional well-being. It was proposed that high rates of text messaging may exacerbate the effects of interpersonal stress on these aspects of students’ health and well-being. Participants included 83 ﬁrst-year undergraduate students. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that higher levels of interpersonal stress were signiﬁcantly associated with compromises in all 3 areas of functioning. A higher number of daily texts was directly associated with more sleep problems. The number of daily texts moderated the association between interpersonal stress and both burnout and emotional well-being; interpersonal stress was associated with poorer functioning only at higher levels of texting. Promising future directions for research on texting behavior are discussed.
Circadian modulation of starvation-induced hypothermia in sheep and goats

Prolonged food deprivation is known to cause a fall in the core body temperature of homeotherms. In various species of small birds and mammals (body mass up to 2–3 kg), it has been shown that starvation-induced hypothermia is modulated by the circadian system, in the sense that hypothermia is observed primarily during the inactive phase of the daily activity cycle (i.e., during the night for diurnal animals and during the day for nocturnal animals), whereas relatively normal temperatures are recorded during the active phase. To investigate whether this modulation occurs also in larger animals, we investigated the effects of 4d food deprivation on the body temperature rhythm of goats and sheep (body mass 30–40 kg). In goats, the body temperature rhythm was found to have a mean level of 39.0°C with a mean daily range of excursion of 0.42°C. The daily oscillation in body temperature persisted during the first day of fasting, but the rhythm was drastically damped, if not eliminated, over the next 3 d as body temperature descended from the baseline level of 39.0 to 38.2°C. In sheep, the rhythm was found to have a mean level of 39.3°C with a mean daily range of excursion of 0.34°C. The daily oscillation in body temperature persisted through the 4 d of food deprivation, even though the mean level of body temperature gradually fell. Temperature fell more during the third and fourth nights than during the third and fourth days. Thus, circadian modulation of starvation-induced hypothermia was observed in sheep but not in goats.
Disassembly of interchromatin granule clusters alters the coordination of transcription and pre-mRNA splicing

To examine the involvement of interchromatin granule clusters (IGCs) in transcription and pre-mRNA splicing in mammalian cell nuclei, the serine-arginine (SR) protein kinase cdc2-like kinase (Clk)/STY was used as a tool to manipulate IGC integrity in vivo. Both immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy analyses of cells overexpressing Clk/STY indicate that IGC components are completely redistributed to a diffuse nuclear localization, leaving no residual structure. Conversely, overexpression of a catalytically inactive mutant, Clk/STY(K190R), causes retention of hypophosphorylated SR proteins in nuclear speckles. Our data suggest that the protein–protein interactions responsible for the clustering of interchromatin granules are disrupted when SR proteins are hyperphosphorylated and stabilized when SR proteins are hypophosphorylated. Interestingly, cells without intact IGCs continue to synthesize nascent transcripts. However, both the accumulation of splicing factors at sites of pre-mRNA synthesis as well as pre-mRNA splicing are dramatically reduced, demonstrating that IGC disassembly perturbs coordination between transcription and pre-mRNA splicing in mammalian cell nuclei.
Does Obstructive Sleep Apnea Affect Aerobic Fitness?

Objectives: We sought to determine whether patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) had an objective change in aerobic fitness during cycle ergometry compared to a normal population. The most accurate test of aerobic fitness is measurement of maximum oxygen consumption (V̇O2max) with cycle ergometry. Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort analysis (247 patients with OSA) of V̇O2max from annual cycle ergometry tests compared to a large control group (normative data from 1.4 million US Air Force tests) in a tertiary care setting. Results: Overall, individuals with OSA had increased V̇O2max when compared to the normalized US Air Force data (p > .001). Patients with an apnea-hypopnea index of greater than 20 demonstrated a decreased V̇O2max as compared to normalized values (p > .001). No differences in V̇O2max were observed after either medical or surgical therapy for OSA. Conclusions: Overall, in a US Air Force population, OSA does not predict a decrease in aerobic fitness as measured by cycle ergometry. However, patients with an apnea-hypopnea index of greater than 20 have a statistically significant decrease in aerobic fitness compared to the normal population. This study demonstrates the effects of OSA on aerobic fitness. Further correlation of fitness testing results with OSA severity and treatment is needed.
An adaptive state-space model for predicting remaining useful life of planetary gearbox

State-space model is often used to estimate system degradation. However, the state-space model is usually only one observation equation in existing research, and it only applies to one observation indicator. This paper puts forward an adaptive state-space model, which can be applied to multiple observation indicators. The modeling method and parameter estimation approach of adaptive state-space model are studied. In order to show that the proposed model is better than traditional state-space model, planetary gearbox remaining useful life (RUL) estimation based on adaptive state-space model is carried out.
Disturbed connexin43 gap junction distribution correlates with the location of reentrant circuits in the epicardial border zone of healing canine infarcts that cause ventricular tachycardia.

BACKGROUND Slow, nonuniform conduction caused by abnormal gap-junctional coupling of infarct-related myocardium is thought to be a component of the arrhythmogenic substrate. The hypothesis that changes in gap-junctional distribution in the epicardial border zone (EBZ) of healing canine infarcts define the locations of reentrant ventricular tachycardia (VT) circuits was tested by correlating activation maps of the surviving subepicardial myocardial layer with immunolocalization of the principal gap-junctional protein, connexin43 (Cx43). METHODS AND RESULTS The EBZ overlying 4-day-old anterior infarcts in three dogs with inducible VT and three noninducible dogs was mapped with a high-resolution electrode array and systematically examined by standard histology and confocal immunolocalization of Cx43. The thickness of the EBZ was significantly less in the hearts with (538 +/- 257 microns) than without (840 +/- 132 microns; P < .05) VT. At the interface with the underlying necrotic cells, the EBZ myocardium showed a marked disruption of gap-junctional distribution, with Cx43 labeling abnormally arrayed longitudinally along the lateral surfaces of the cells. In the EBZ of all hearts, the disrupted Cx43 labeling extended part of the way to the epicardial surface, with the most superficial epicardial myocytes having the normal transversely orientated pattern. Only in the hearts with inducible VT did the disorganization extend through the full thickness of the surviving layer at sites correlating with the location of the central common pathways of the figure-of-8 reentrant VT circuits. CONCLUSIONS Altered gap-junctional distribution is part of the early remodeling of myocardium after infarction, and by defining the location of the common central pathway of the reentrant VT circuits, it may be a determinant of VT susceptibility.
The effect of activation level on muscle function during locomotion: are optimal lengths and velocities always used?

Skeletal muscle exhibits broad functional diversity, despite its inherent length and velocity constraints. The observed variation in morphology and physiology is assumed to have evolved to allow muscle to operate at its optimal length and velocity during locomotion. Here, we used the variation in optimum lengths and velocities that occurs with muscle activation level to experimentally test this assumption. Muscle ergometry and sonomicrometry were used to characterize force–length and power–velocity relationships, and in vivo operating lengths and velocities, at a range of activation levels. Operating lengths and velocities were mapped onto activation level specific force–length and power–velocity relationships to determine whether they tracked changing optima. Operating velocities decreased in line with decreased optimal velocities, suggesting that optimal velocities are always used. However, operating lengths did not change with changing optima. At high activation levels, fibres used an optimal range of lengths. However, at lower activation levels, fibres appeared to operate on the ascending limb of sub-maximally activated force–length relationships. This suggests that optimal lengths are only used when demand is greatest. This study provides the first mapping of operating lengths to activation level-specific optima, and as such, provides insight into our assumptions about the factors that determine muscle performance during locomotion.
Cell to Cell Contact Is Not Required for Bystander Cell Killing by Escherichia coli Purine Nucleoside Phosphorylase*

Expression of Escherichia coli purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP) activates prodrugs and kills entire populations of mammalian cells, even when as few as 1% of the cells express this gene. This phenomenon of bystander killing has been previously investigated for herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase (HSV-TK) and has been shown to require cell to cell contact. Using silicon rings to separate E. coli PNP expressing cells from non-expressing cells sharing the same medium, we demonstrate that bystander cell killing by E. coli PNP does not require cell-cell contact. Initially, cells expressing E. coli PNP convert the non-toxic prodrug, 6-methylpurine-2′-deoxyriboside (MeP-dR) to the highly toxic membrane permeable toxin, 6-methylpurine (MeP). As the expressing cells die, E. coli PNP is released into the culture medium, retains activity, and continues precursor conversion extracellularly (as determined by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography of both prodrug and toxin). Bystander killing can also be observed in the absence of extracellular E. coli PNP by removing the MeP-dR prior to death of the expressing cells. In this case, 100% of cultured cells die when as few as 3% of the cells of a population express E. coli PNP. Blocking nucleoside transport with nitrobenzylthioinosine reduces MeP-dR mediated cell killing but not MeP cell killing. These mechanisms differ fundamentally from those previously reported for the HSV-TK gene.
An audio-visual solution to sound source localization and tracking with applications to HRI

Robot audition is an emerging and growing branch in the robotic community and is necessary for a natural Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). In this paper, we propose a framework that integrates advances from Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM), bearing-only target tracking, and robot audition techniques into a unified system for sound source identification, localization, and tracking. In indoors, acoustic observations are often highly noisy and corrupted due to reverberations, the robot egomotion and background noise, and the possible discontinuous nature of them. Therefore, in everyday interaction scenarios, the system requires accommodating for outliers, robust data association, and appropriate management of the landmarks, i.e. sound sources. We solve the robot self-localization and environment representation problems using an RGB-D SLAM algorithm, and sound source localization and tracking using recursive Bayesian estimation in the form of the extended Kalman filter with unknown data associations and an unknown number of landmarks. The experimental results show that the proposed system performs well in the medium-sized cluttered indoor environment.
How users associate wireless devices

In a wireless world, users can establish connections between devices spontaneously, and unhampered by cables. However, in the absence of cables, what is the natural interaction to connect one device with another? A wide range of device association techniques have been demonstrated, but it has remained an open question what actions users would spontaneously choose for device association. We contribute a study eliciting device association actions from non-technical users without premeditation. Over 700 user-defined actions were collected for 37 different device combinations. We present a classification of user-defined actions, and observations of the users' rationale. Our findings indicate that there is no single most spontaneous action; instead five prominent categories of user-defined actions were found.
Mapping a Vocal User Interface to a Graphical User Interface

Although Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) often increase usability, those with physical disabilitie s may be unable to use a mouse and keyboard to interact with a GUI. Fo r such users, a Vocal User Interface (VUI) may be a viable alternat ive. There are existing vocal tools (e.g., the generic Vocal Joyst ick) that can be integrated into software applications; however, mos t applications require tedious and manual adaptation to integrate an assistive technology into a legacy application. Furthermore, the challenges are much deeper for an application whose GUI change s dynamically at run-time. This paper provides a disc u sion of challenges that we have observed while mapping a GU I to a VUI. We present three categories of dynamic interface ch anges, document the specific challenges, and discuss the s olution that we have investigated followed by an evaluation. The pa per uses examples from our Myna project, which provides a VU I mapping to the GUI of the Scratch programming environment, whi c enables “Programming by Voice. ” Keywords—voice user interface; design; speech recog nition.
Illness, disease, and sickness absence: an empirical test of differences between concepts of ill health

Objectives: In studies of public health and morbidity different concepts of ill health are often seen as interchangeable alternatives. With the help of extensive population information this research intends to show how different concepts and measurements produce very different pictures of health and ill health. The concept trilogy of “illness,” “disease,” and “sickness” is used to capture different aspects of ill health. Design: Cross sectional data were obtained through comprehensive interview surveys 1988–2001 and registers of sickness absence. Because of lack of data some years had to be excluded. Settings: Swedish population. Participants: Annual data for around 3500 employed and self employed persons. Main results: Most people have some sort of illness or complaint. Fewer could be registered with a disease. Even fewer had been on sick leave. The overlap was fairly low. There also was an obvious discrepancy between reporting having a disease and a subject’s rating of general health. It was shown that the different concepts showed different trends over time. Conclusions: The discrepancies between the concepts imply that you have to be very careful when using public health data to illustrate different aspects of morbidity. The comparatively low degree of overlap between them shows that they represent different realities. There is a need to do further empirical research about how different aspects of morbidity are interrelated. Their lack of interrelation seems to be an important research area worth developing further.
Pleiotropy among Common Genetic Loci Identified for Cardiometabolic Disorders and C-Reactive Protein

Pleiotropic genetic variants have independent effects on different phenotypes. C-reactive protein (CRP) is associated with several cardiometabolic phenotypes. Shared genetic backgrounds may partially underlie these associations. We conducted a genome-wide analysis to identify the shared genetic background of inflammation and cardiometabolic phenotypes using published genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We also evaluated whether the pleiotropic effects of such loci were biological or mediated in nature. First, we examined whether 283 common variants identified for 10 cardiometabolic phenotypes in GWAS are associated with CRP level. Second, we tested whether 18 variants identified for serum CRP are associated with 10 cardiometabolic phenotypes. We used a Bonferroni corrected p-value of 1.1×10-04 (0.05/463) as a threshold of significance. We evaluated the independent pleiotropic effect on both phenotypes using individual level data from the Women Genome Health Study. Evaluating the genetic overlap between inflammation and cardiometabolic phenotypes, we found 13 pleiotropic regions. Additional analyses showed that 6 regions (APOC1, HNF1A, IL6R, PPP1R3B, HNF4A and IL1F10) appeared to have a pleiotropic effect on CRP independent of the effects on the cardiometabolic phenotypes. These included loci where individuals carrying the risk allele for CRP encounter higher lipid levels and risk of type 2 diabetes. In addition, 5 regions (GCKR, PABPC4, BCL7B, FTO and TMEM18) had an effect on CRP largely mediated through the cardiometabolic phenotypes. In conclusion, our results show genetic pleiotropy among inflammation and cardiometabolic phenotypes. In addition to reverse causation, our data suggests that pleiotropic genetic variants partially underlie the association between CRP and cardiometabolic phenotypes.
Unveiling White Privilege in South Dakota

Past research has shown white privilege, or the tendency of a certain group of people to receive increased opportunities and access to the benefits of society, to be commonly experienced by people identifying themselves as “white” (McIntosh, 1989). In this study, we explored the relationship between the race of participants and their reported experience of white privilege. The present study examined if this concept is applicable and holds true in current society among Midwestern undergraduate students and the general public in a Midwestern state. A total of 329 participants (46 undergraduate students and 283 from the general public) in a nonrandom sample answered a modified version of Peggy McIntosh’s White Privilege Survey (1988) to measure their experience of white privilege. The results revealed that whites experienced the highest degree of white privilege among the general public’s responses, the undergraduate students’ responses, and my own personal responses. However, the general public reported a lesser perception of white privilege (M=1.8601) overall compared to the undergraduate classes (fall: M=1.6850, spring: M=1.7461) and my own responses (M=1.1975). The results supported my hypothesis that white privilege is a factor in the general public in the state and in the fall undergraduate class of which I was a student. I also predicted that females would report less white privilege experience compared to males, which was confirmed. Identifying the occurrence of white privilege serves an important purpose of highlighting its presence and potential negative effects to those who are unaware of its influence.
Hereditary variation in platelet integrin alpha 2 beta 1 density is associated with two silent polymorphisms in the alpha 2 gene coding sequence.

The integrin alpha 2 beta 1 is a receptor for collagen that plays a fundamental role in the adhesion of blood platelets to the extracellular matrix. We previously reported that platelet alpha 2 beta 1 levels among randomly selected individuals can vary up to 10-fold and that this correlates with differences in adhesiveness to type-I or type-III collagens. We have now found two linked, allelic polymorphisms within the coding sequence of the alpha 2 gene that correlate with receptor density, TTT/TTC at codon Phe224 and ACA/ACG at codon Thr246. By Southern blot hybridization of specific antisense DNA probes to segments of genomic DNA that encompass each coding region, we have determined the gene frequencies of each allele in a random donor population (n = 65) to be 0.585 (TTC.ACG) and 0.415 (TTT.ACA). There is a statistically significant correlation between the alleles TTT.ACA (codons 224.246) and high receptor density (n = 30; P < .002), whereas the complimentary alleles TTC.ACG are associated with low receptor density. Heterozygous individuals express intermediate levels of this receptor, and familial studies confirm that these allelic polymorphisms are inherited characteristics. These findings prove that the level of platelet alpha 2 beta 1 is an inherited trait. The molecular basis for receptor density remains to be determined, but our findings establish that these silent alleles within the coding sequence of the alpha 2 gene are linked to the genetic basis for variation in receptor density.
The Complexity of Opportunity

This paper argues that entrepreneurship can usefully be characterized as the search for peaks on a fitness landscape. This conceptualization is useful in linking together several different views on the nature of opportunity, highlighting reasons for disagreement, and providing a way of bridging differences. In particular, the paper allows some old debates on the ontology and epistemology of opportunity to be laid to rest, and posits a new set of challenges for the field.
Model Predictive Control Schemes for Consensus in Multi-Agent Systems with Single- and Double-Integrator Dynamics

In this paper, we address the problem of driving a group of agents towards a consensus point when the agents have a discrete-time single- or double-integrator dynamics and the communication network is time-varying. We propose decentralized model predictive control schemes that take into account constraints on the agents' input and show that they guarantee consensus under mild assumptions. Since the global cost does not decrease monotonically, it cannot be used as a Lyapunov function for proving convergence to consensus. For this reason, our proofs exploit geometric properties of the optimal path followed by individual agents.
Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture

Agricultural lands occupy 37% of the earth's land surface. Agriculture accounts for 52 and 84% of global anthropogenic methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Agricultural soils may also act as a sink or source for CO2, but the net flux is small. Many agricultural practices can potentially mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the most prominent of which are improved cropland and grazing land management and restoration of degraded lands and cultivated organic soils. Lower, but still significant mitigation potential is provided by water and rice management, set-aside, land use change and agroforestry, livestock management and manure management. The global technical mitigation potential from agriculture (excluding fossil fuel offsets from biomass) by 2030, considering all gases, is estimated to be approximately 5500–6000 Mt CO2-eq. yr−1, with economic potentials of approximately 1500–1600, 2500–2700 and 4000–4300 Mt CO2-eq. yr−1 at carbon prices of up to 20, up to 50 and up to 100 US$ t CO2-eq.−1, respectively. In addition, GHG emissions could be reduced by substitution of fossil fuels for energy production by agricultural feedstocks (e.g. crop residues, dung and dedicated energy crops). The economic mitigation potential of biomass energy from agriculture is estimated to be 640, 2240 and 16 000 Mt CO2-eq. yr−1 at 0–20, 0–50 and 0–100 US$ t CO2-eq.−1, respectively.