Cellular uptake of soy-derived phytoestrogens in vitro and in human whole blood

Epidemiological studies comparing typical Western and traditional Eastern lifestyles indicate that dietary intake of soyderived phytoestrogens, including genistein, daidzein, and equol, may have significant health protective effects on hormone-dependent cancers, osteoporosis and cardiovascular diseases. Phytoestrogens have been demonstrated to exert varying effects depending on tissue, endogenous hormone concentrations, and receptor types. Thus, a detailed understanding of the biodistribution and bioavailability of specific phytoestrogens is required in order to predict the subsequent biologic activities. In this study we aimed to investigate the cellular uptake of these soy-derived phytoestrogens in different cell types, including the mammary MCF-7/6 and MDAB-MB 231 cell lines, the ovarian Ishikawa Var-I cell lines and in murine adipocyte clusters. Furthermore, the biodistribution between serum and cell fraction was also investigated in human whole blood. Equol generally shows a higher cellular uptake when compared with genistein and daidzein. Therefore, equol may be more potent with respect to its relative bioactivity, which is corroborated by the observations of specific health effects associated with the equol-producer phenotype

Towards an Automatic Dictation System for Translators: the TransTalk Project

Professional translators often dictate their translations orally and have them typed afterwards. The TransTalk project aims at automating the second part of this process. Its originality as a dictation system lies in the fact that both the acoustic signal produced by the translator and the source text under translation are made available to the system. Probable translations of the source text can be predicted and these predictions used to help the speech recognition system in its lexical choices. We present the results of the first prototype, which show a marked improvement in the performance of the speech recognition task when translation predictions are taken into account.Comment: Published in proceedings of the International Conference on Spoken Language Processing (ICSLP) 94. 4 pages, uuencoded compressed latex source with 4 postscript figure

ISOTROPIC DIFFEOMORPHISMS: SOLUTIONS TO A DIFFERENTIAL SYSTEM FOR A DEFORMED RANDOM FIELDS STUDY

This Note presents the resolution of a differential system on the plane that translates a geometrical problem about isotropic deformations of area and length. The system stems from a probability study on deformed random fields [1], which are the composition of a random field with invariance properties defined on the plane with a deterministic diffeomorphism. The explicit resolution of the differential system allows to prove that a weak notion of isotropy of the deformed field, linked to its excursion sets, in fact coincides with the strong notion of isotropy. The present Note first introduces the probability framework that gave rise to the geometrical issue and then proposes its resolution

Paper Session II-D - Checkout and Launch Control System as a Case Study for Human Factors Education

The Checkout and Launch Control System (CLCS) Project is being used at FIU as a tool for improving the transmission of engineering education. This use has two goals. The first is to use exciting projects to inspire and motivate students in the pursuit of their engineering degrees. Excitement about education has been shown to captivate a greater percentage of a student’s attention, leading to better learning. The second is to enhance the visibility of NASA projects with future engineering professionals. This can lead to a more widespread appreciation of the needs of the aerospace industry within the general community of engineers. It may also encourage engineering students to pursue NASA related careers. CLCS-related units have been included at FIU in several ways. A major milestone of the CLCS project is an evaluation of four console workstation designs. This evaluation requires several detailed analyses to assess postures, productivity, and layout. In a Work Design and Ergonomics course, CLCS has been used as a case study through which to study these job evaluation methods. Another major initiative of the CLCS project is to evaluate the software development process in CLCS for the presence of user inclusion in the design operation. This involves working with users of the software systems in CLCS to gauge their requirements and expectations prior to software development and then involving those users in formal usability testing of the software throughout the design cycle. User inclusion from the perspective of CLCS is being used as a case study in a course called Cognitive Engineering in Human-Computer Interaction

Mens sana ad corpus sanum : Un modèle de motivation-stress-santé appliqué au couple et au travail

L'article prend position au sujet du vieil adage: « un esprit sain dans un corps sain ». Des recherches empiriques démontrent qu'avoir un "corps sain dans un esprit sain" est tout aussi important. L'accumulation d'évidences empiriques souligne l'impact des stresseurs psychosociaux sur les affects négatifs et sur la santé mentale de même que leurs répercussions sur la santé physique. En plus, le construit de la motivation et les besoins innés d'autodétermination, de compétence et d'attachement jouent un rôle crucial dans la compréhension des antécédents et des conséquences du stress psychologique, ainsi que du bien-être et de la santé. Un nouveau modèle théorique, bilan de plus de dix ans de travaux théoriques, méthodologiques et empiriques, est appliqué à deux domaines de vie importants : la relation de couple et le travail.The present article takes position regarding the proverb "a healthy mind in a healthy body". A review of the literature suggests that, in fact, a healthy mind is as important if not more for a healthy body. Empirical evidence is presented to show the impact of psycho-social stressors on negative affect and on mental as well as physical health. The authors propose that motivation as well as the innate need for self-determination, competence, and relatedness play a crucial role in the understanding of the antecedants and consequences of psychological stress as well as for well-being and health. A model summarizing the theoretical and empirical work of our laboratory in the fields of relationships and work, two areas, central to adult life, is presented

Plan-based narrative generation with coordinated subplots

Despite recent progress in plan-based narrative generation, one major limitation is that systems tend to produce a single plotline whose progression entirely determines the narrative experience. However, for certain narrative genres such as serial dramas and soaps, multiple interleaved subplots are expected by the audience, as this tends to be the norm in real-world, human-authored narratives. Current narrative generation techniques have overlooked this important requirement, something which could improve the perceived quality of generated stories. To this end, we have developed a flexible plan-based approach to multiplot narrative generation, that successfully generates narratives conforming to different subplot profiles, in terms of the number of subplots interleaved and the relative time spent on each presentation. We have identified specific challenges such as: distribution of virtual characters across subplots; length of each subplot presentation; and transitioning between subplots. In this paper, we overview this approach and describe its operation in a prototype Interactive Storytelling (IS) System set in the serial drama genre. Results of experiments with the system demonstrate its usability. Furthermore, results of a user study highlight the potential of the approach, with clear user preference for presentations that feature interleaved multiple subplots