Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
As emoções desencadeadas pelas interfaces web: o caso do site Duolingo

As emocoes, como componente da experiencia do utilizador, tem vindo a ganhar destaque na area da interacao humano-computador. As respostas emocionais revelam-se assim como um fator determinante para a preferencia dos utilizadores por um site especifico. Neste sentido, analisou-se a experiencia emocional do utilizador, atraves do estudo das respostas emocionais despoletadas na interacao com uma interface web, o Duolingo, um site de aprendizagem de linguas. De modo a apurar que emocoes devem ser o objetivo quando se desenham interfaces, verificou-se a ocorrencia de emocoes negativas e positivas nas varias fases de interacao com o site, averiguando a frequencia da associacao das emocoes negativas e positivas aos diferentes aspetos da interface do site.
OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR EFFECTS OF DELAYED CONDITIONED REINFORCEMENT IN CHAIN

The contingency between responding and stimulus change on a chain variable-interval 33-s, variableinterval 33-s, variable-interval 33-s schedule was weakened by interposing 3-s delays between either the first and second or the second and third links. No stimulus change signaled the delay interval and responses could occur during it, so the obtained delays were often shorter than the scheduled delay. When the delay occurred after the initial link, initial-link response rates decreased by an average of 77% with no systematic change in response rates in the second or third links. Response rates in the second link decreased an average of 59% when the delay followed that link, again with little effect on response rates in the first or third links. Because the effect of delaying stimulus change was comparable to the effect of delaying primary reinforcement in a simple variable-interval schedule, and the effect of the unsignaled delay was specific to the link in which the delay occurred, the results provide strong evidence for the concept of conditioned reinforcement.
Motility Abnormalities in Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Background/Aims: The intestinal pathophysiology in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is largely unknown. The lactulose breath test has been used to identify small bowel bacterial overgrowth in these patients. Methods: We studied intestinal transit in patients with IBS using of the SmartPill® (SP) wireless pH/pressure recording capsule and performed lactulose breath tests to look for physiologic abnormalities. Results: A total of 35/46 (76%) of the IBS patients had prolonged gastric emptying times. Constipation-predominant disease was associated with prolonged gut transit times. The mean hours ± SD for colonic transit time in the constipation group was 71.7 ± 61.1 (n = 13) compared with 22.5 ± 14.9 (n = 14) for diarrhea-predominant and 26.4 ± 21.5 (n = 20) for mixed clinical subtype (p = 0.0010). No correlation between small bowel transit time and abnormal breath hydrogen or methane excretion in the 46 combined patients with IBS was seen. Conclusions: Delayed gastric emptying was identified in IBS and in some patients may contribute to at least a component of their symptoms. Constipation-predominant IBS is associated with prolonged gut transit times. Otherwise, transit abnormalities do not appear to be important in IBS. Intestinal transit did not correlate with breath test results.
Regulation of Wnt/LRP Signaling by Distinct Domains of Dickkopf Proteins

ABSTRACT Dickkopfs (Dkks) are secreted developmental regulators composed of two cysteine-rich domains. We report that the effects of Dkks depend on molecular context. Although Wnt8 signaling is inhibited by both Dkk1 and Dkk2 in Xenopus embryos, the same pathway is activated upon interaction of Dkk2 with the Wnt coreceptor LRP6. Analysis of individual Dkk domains and chimeric Dkks shows that the carboxy-terminal domains of both Dkks associate with LRP6 and are necessary and sufficient for Wnt8 inhibition, whereas the amino-terminal domain of Dkk1 plays an inhibitory role in Dkk-LRP interactions. Our study illustrates how an inhibitor of a pathway may be converted into an activator and is the first study to suggest a molecular mechanism for how a ligand other than Wnt can positively regulate β-catenin signaling.
Peri-Prosthetic Infections. When to Avoid Surgery

Successful treatment of prosthetic joint infections often requires multiple surgical interventions and prolonged antibiotic therapy. However, in some specific situations surgical intervention can not be the treatment of choice. We refer to situations where there is no pain or impairment of the general conditions, involving patients, usually elderly, refusing surgery. In these cases we consider the conservative approach as an option.
Collecting duct carcinoma: cytogenetic characterization

Most renal cell carcinomas are assigned to either the papillary or clear cell, non‐papillary type by morphological and cytogenetic criteria. In rare cases, papillary carcinomas of the kidney have been classified as collecting duct carcinoma because of their medullary localization and the associated hyperplastic and dysplastic epithelial lesions of collecting ducts in the vicinity of the tumour. In this first report on the cytogenetics of collecting duct carcinoma, we describe unique and consistent chromosomal aberrations in three cases. Each of the three tumours showed monosomies for chromosomes 1, 6, 14, 15, and 22. This suggests that collecting duct carcinoma is the third type of kidney tumour whose definition is based on morphological as well as on cytogenetic criteria. It appears to be cytogenetically different from the cortical papillary kidney tumour which exhibits trisomy 17 and tri‐ or tetrasomy 7, and from the non‐papillary renal cell carcinoma which characteristically presents deletion of the short arm of chromosome 3.
Legumes: Importance and Constraints to Greater Use

Legumes, broadly defined by their unusual flower structure, podded fruit, and the ability of 88% of the species examined to date to form nodules with rhizobia ([de Faria et al., 1989][1]), are second only to the Graminiae in their importance to humans. The 670 to 750 genera and 18,000 to 19,000
La modélisation des réseaux écologiques par les graphes paysagers

Les questions relatives aux modifications paysageres et a la diminution de la biodiversite qui en resulte ont fait emerger la notion de reseau ecologique. Dans son acception spatiale, un reseau ecologique represente l'ensemble des taches d'un habitat donne et des flux potentiels qui les relient. Les graphes paysagers etant apparus recemment comme des methodes efficaces pour modeliser les reseaux ecologiques, cet article propose d'en faire l'etat des lieux. Le contexte d'utilisation de ces graphes est tout d'abord precise, en opposant les approches " habitat " aux approches " especes ". Ensuite sont abordees les principales etapes de construction, de la definition des taches et des liens, a la finalisation du graphe et au calcul de metriques de connectivite. Enfin, un recensement des outils logiciels disponibles vient completer cette presentation. L'ensemble alimente finalement une discussion sur le positionnement de ces methodes dans la perspective de la cartographie des trames vertes et bleues.
A novel [Mn2(μ-(C6H5)2CHCOO)2(bipy)4](bipy)(ClO4)2 complex loaded solid lipid nanoparticles: synthesis, characterization and in vitro cytotoxicity on MCF-7 breast cancer cells

Abstract Manganese (Mn)-based complexes have been drawing attention due to the fact that they are more effective than other metal complexes. However, the use of Mn(II)-based complexes in medicine remains limited because of certain side effects. The aim of this study was to investigate the cytotoxic and apoptotic effects of a novel Mn(II) complex [Mn2(μ-(C6H5)2CHCOO)2(bipy)4](bipy)(ClO4)2 and Mn(II) complex loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) on MCF-7 and HUVEC control cells. The average diameter of Mn(II) complex was about 1120 ± 2.43 nm, while the average particle size of Mn(II) complex-SLNs was ∼340 ± 2.27 nm. The cytotoxic effects of Mn(II) complex and Mn(II)-SLNs were 86.8 and 66.4%, respectively (p < .05). Additionally, both Mn(II) complex (39.25%) and Mn(II)-SLNs (38.05%) induced apoptosis and increased the arrest of G0/G1 phase. However, Mn(II) complex exerted toxic effects on the HUVEC control cell (63.4%), whereas no toxic effects was observed when treated with Mn(II)-SLNs at 150 μM. As a consequence, SLNs might be potentially used for metal-based complexes in the treatment of cancer due to reducing size and toxic effects of metal-based complexes.
The design and performance evaluation of a proactive multipath routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks

Due to unpredictable network topology changes, routing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET) is an important and challenging research area. The routing protocol should detect and maintain a good route(s) between source and destination nodes in these dynamic networks. Many routing protocols have been proposed for mobile ad hoc networks, and none can be considered as the best under all conditions. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a new proactive multipath MANET routing protocol. The protocol, named Multipath Destination Sequenced Distance Vector (MDSDV), is based on the well known single path Destination Sequenced Distance Vector (DSDV). We show that the protocol finds node-disjoint paths, i.e., paths which do not have any nodes in common, except for the source and the destination. The thesis presents a systematic evaluation of MDSDV in comparison with three well known protocols: one proactive (DSDV), and two reactive (AODV) and (DSR). MDSDV behaves very well in terms of its packet delivery fraction and data dropped in both static and dynamic networks. It delivers nearly 100% of data in dense networks (networks with more than 20 nodes). The speed of the nodes and the number of sources have a low impact on its performance.
Polypharmacy in children and adolescents treated for major depressive disorder: a claims database study.

OBJECTIVE To describe the rate and trajectory of change in psychiatric polypharmacy during the past decade in children and adolescents treated for major depressive disorder. METHOD Data from the South Carolina Medicaid program covering outpatient and inpatient medical services and medication prescriptions from January 1996 through December 2005 were procured for the analysis herein. We examined pharmacotherapy patterns for 1,544 children and adolescents diagnosed with major depressive disorder using DSM-IV criteria. RESULTS A rapid upward trajectory in the rate of psychiatric polypharmacy (i.e., > or = 2 psychotropic medications) was noted (chi(2) = 810.46; p < . 0001), with the greatest velocity of change between 1997 and 2003. The likelihood of being prescribed conventional unimodal antidepressants decreased significantly between 2001 and 2005 (chi(2) = 831.06; p < . 0001). Non-African Americans and males were 1.27 times more likely to be prescribed a polypharmacy regimen, as were those with additional psychiatric disorders, especially attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (OR = 2.58), bipolar disorder (OR = 1.87), and psychotic disorders (OR = 1.74). Individuals with a substance use disorder were less likely (OR = 0.86) to be prescribed a polypharmacy regimen. The likelihood of being prescribed psychiatric polypharmacy increased as a function of the number of additional psychiatric disorders (chi(2) = 798.22; p < . 0001). CONCLUSION Psychiatric polypharmacy is both prevalent and increasing in pediatric populations, in tandem with the greater diagnostic complexity (multiple disorders) of those treated. Simultaneously, practitioner reliance on conventional unimodal antidepressants has been decreasing, a trend that began prior to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warnings regarding their potential for increasing the risk of suicidality.
Sequential Trends in Overall and Cause-Specific Mortality in Diabetic and Nondiabetic Pima Indians

OBJECTIVE To compare sequential trends in overall and cause-specific death rates for diabetic and nondiabetic Pima Indians. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Underlying causes of death in Pimas aged 15 years old were determined for the years 1975–1989 from review of death certificates and medical records. Overall and cause-specific death rates were compared for consecutive intervals. RESULTS The all-causes death rate, age- and sex-adjusted, did not change significantly between the first and second halves of the study for diabetic (death rate ratio [DRR] = 0.99, 95% CI 0.70–1.4) or nondiabetic Pimas (DRR = 0.92, 95% CI 0.74–1.1). Among diabetic Pimas, however, the death rate for diabetic nephropathy declined from 2.7 to 1.5/1,000 person-years (DRR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.33–0.93), with ischemic heart disease (IHD) replacing diabetic nephropathy as the leading cause in the second half (DRR = 1.5, 95% CI 0.91–2.6). For diabetic and nondiabetic Pimas combined, the death rate in three consecutive 5-year periods declined progressively for alcoholic liver disease (P = 0.024) and external causes of death (P = 0.016), the largest component of which was automobile accidents. CONCLUSIONS The decrease in death rate for diabetic nephropathy may be a result of greater access to and improvements in renal replacement therapy. Because of shared risk factors, however, the IHD death rate increased and largely offset the decrease in diabetic nephropathy deaths. The decline in deaths from alcoholic liver disease and from automobile accidents parallels the national trend.
Magnetically Labeled Neural Progenitor Cells, Which Are Localized by Magnetic Force, Promote Axon Growth in Organotypic Cocultures

Study Design. An in vitro, rat animal study was conducted. Objective. To assess the corticospinal axon growth potential in varying concentrations of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and in magnetically localized labeled NPCs, quantitatively using our original organotypic coculture system. Summary of Background Data. Transplantation of NPCs for spinal cord injury has been anticipated as a possible future treatment. It is important not only to illuminate the mechanism of NPCs for spinal cord injury, but also to develop an effective cell delivery system for clinical use. In order to develop more effective, efficient, and minimally invasive cell delivery systems, we established a new system using magnetic targeting. Methods. Magnetically labeled NPCs were suspended with activated magnetic beads and individual NPCs, and were compared the characterization to nonlabeled NPCs in vitro. We transplanted varying concentrations of 102, 103, 104, 105, and 106 NPCs in 1 &mgr;L medium to coculture models. Then the 104 labeled NPCs were transplanted with or without magnet to the cocultures. Results. Magnetically labeled NPCs had similar potential in axon growth compared with nonlabeled NPCs, so there were few toxic effects of magnetically labeling NPCs. The differential potentials were not changed whether they were localized or scattered in vitro. Corticospinal axon growth was promoted in accordance with the transplanted NPC numbers around the organotypic coculture. Localized labeled NPCs with a magnet promoted axon growth much more than scattered labeled NPCs without a magnet, so magnetically localized labeled NPCs expressed higher potential in axon growth. Conclusion. Magnetically labeled NPCs, which were localized by magnetic force, could promote axon growth in this organotypic coculture system.
Efficiencies and Regulatory Shortcuts: How Should We Regulate Companies like Airbnb and Uber?

New software platforms use modern information technology, including full-featured web sites and mobile apps, to allow service providers and consumers to transact with relative ease and increased trust. These platforms provide notable benefits including reducing transaction costs, improving allocation of resources, and information and pricing efficiencies. Yet they also raise questions of regulation, including how regulation should adapt to new services and capabilities, and how to correct market failures that may arise. We explore these challenges and suggest an updated regulatory framework that is sufficiently flexible to allow software platforms to operate and deliver their benefits, while ensuring that service providers, users and third parties are adequately protected from harms that may arise.
RF MEMS and its Applications in Microwaves and Millimeter Waves

RF MEMS devices utilized micromachining technologies offer a high performance to several RF applications. They receive increasingly attentions in microwave researchers and engineers in the recent years. This paper includes two parts. In the first part, a brief review of RF MEMS is presented. In the second part, some research work of the author's group on RF MEMS technology is introduced.
Genome‐wide analysis of the general stress response in Bacillus subtilis

Bacteria respond to diverse growth‐limiting stresses by producing a large set of general stress proteins. In Bacillus subtilis and related Gram‐positive pathogens, this response is governed by the σB transcription factor. To establish the range of cellular functions associated with the general stress response, we compared the transcriptional profiles of wild and mutant strains under conditions that induce σB activity. Macroarrays representing more than 3900 annotated reading frames of the B. subtilis genome were hybridized to 33P‐labelled cDNA populations derived from (i) wild‐type and sigB mutant strains that had been subjected to ethanol stress; and (ii) a strain in which σB expression was controlled by an inducible promoter. On the basis of their significant σB‐dependent expression in three independent experiments, we identified 127 genes as prime candidates for members of the σB regulon. Of these genes, 30 were known previously or inferred to be σB dependent by other means. To assist in the analysis of the 97 new genes, we constructed hidden Markov models (HMM) that identified possible σB recognition sequences preceding 21 of them. To test the HMM and to provide an independent validation of the hybridization experiments, we mapped the σB‐dependent messages for seven representative genes. For all seven, the 5′ end of the message lay near typical σB recognition sequences, and these had been predicted correctly by the HMM for five of the seven examples. Lastly, all 127 gene products were assigned to functional groups by considering their similarity to known proteins. Notably, products with a direct protective function were in the minority. Instead, the general stress response increased relative message levels for known or predicted regulatory proteins, for transporters controlling solute influx and efflux, including potential drug efflux pumps, and for products implicated in carbon metabolism, envelope function and macromolecular turnover.
Pharmacoutilization of antihypertensive drugs: a model of analysis.

OBJECTIVES To identify clinical and economic indicators of pharmacoutilization of antihypertensive drugs. PATIENTS AND METHODS 4614 subjects receiving a first prescription for amlodipine, atenolol, fosinopril, indapamide, or losartan were included in the study. All prescriptions filled during the study period from January 1, 1997 to December 31, 1998 were considered. A retrospective analysis was carried out on information recorded in the drug database. The percentage of patients continuing, discontinuing, and switching the initial treatment, duration of treatment, and doses used were calculated together with total costs. RESULTS A large proportion of patients (65.1%) discontinued the treatment. From the analysis of the mean daily dose taken by patients who continued the treatment, it was found that many subjects took a drug dosage which was below the therapeutic dose range, whereas the administration of doses above the therapeutic range occurred only occasionally. Continuation of treatment accounted for 48.1% of total costs, switching accounted for 20.8%, and discontinuation represented 31.1% of total expenditures. CONCLUSIONS With adequate markers, helpful data can be collected for monitoring the quality of antihypertensive drug prescriptions and the rational usage of resources in the general practice setting.
Fast Food Ingestion for Lunch Delays Postprandial Lipid Metabolism in Young Women

We investigated the effect of fast food on diurnal lipid and carbohydrate profiles in healthy young Japanese women. Eight healthy young women with the apolipoprotein E3/3 phenotype were studied on two occasions in a randomized crossover design. On one occasion, the subjects consumed common foods at breakfast (9:00), lunch (13:00), and dinner (19:00) (C trial). On the other occasion, they consumed common foods at breakfast and dinner, but they consumed fast food (a cheeseburger, fried potatoes, and cola) at lunch (F trial). Blood samples were taken at 9:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, and 19:00, and at 9:00 the next morning. In the C trial, the serum triglyceride (TG) concentration at 19:00 was significantly lower compared with that at 13:00, but in the F trial, it was significantly higher at 15:00, 17:00, and 19:00 compared with that at 13:00. The incremental area under the curve for TG (ΔAUC-TG) (13:00 to 9:00 the next morning) in the F trial was significantly larger than that in the C trial. The concentration of fasting remnant lipoprotein-cholesterol (RemL-C) the next morning was positively correlated with ΔAUC-TG (13:00 to 9:00 the next morning). In conclusion, compared with the conventional diet, the intake of fast food at lunch delayed the postprandial TG metabolism and the serum TG concentration did not return to baseline (before lunch) even before dinner in healthy young Japanese women.
A Reliable Multicast Routing Protocol for High-speed Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: R-ODMRP

Based on the ODMRP (On-Demand Multicast Routing Protocol) in MANET (Mobile Ad hoc NETwork), a reliable ODMRP (R-ODMRP) is proposed for preferable throughput and especially suited for high-speed MANET, which includes packet acknowledgement, lost packet recovery, secure authentication and QoS based packet delivery. With the exploration of active network, R-ODMRP constructs the multicast routing based on the cluster, establishes a distributed mechanism of the acknowledgment and recovery of packet delivery. Along with cluster key distributed in one cluster, this protocol can authenticate the consistency of multicast source and receivers depending on local security strategy. The specific m esh links are adaptively chosen by virtue of the descriptive QoS vectors meanwhile, the forwarding nodes can flexibly schedule different multicast packets according to the types of the multicast applications. The performance of the proposed schemes is evaluated based on the network simulator and achieves a significant improvement.
Mechanoreceptors in the anterior cruciate ligament contribute to the joint position sense

We have investigated the correlation between the number of mechanoreceptors in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) remnants and the joint position sense just before an ACL reconstruction in 29 patients. The number of mechanoreceptors was evaluated histologically, using the Gairns gold chloride method. Mechanoreceptors were also found in patients who had a long interval between injury and the operation. A joint position sense test was done within 3 days before surgery. We found a positive correlation between the number of mechanoreceptors and accuracy of the joint position sense, suggesting that proprioceptive function of the ACL is related to the number of mechanoreceptors. Therefore, we should consider preserving ACL remnants during ACL reconstruction.