LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Modulation of Immune Response by Organophosphate Pesticides: Mammals as Potential Model

Organophosphates (OPs) are most widely used pesticides and primarily induce toxicity by inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE) in the nerve terminals of central and peripheral nervous system, leading to a variety of short-term and chronic effects in the non-target animals. In addition to acetylcholinesterase, OPs are known to potent inhibitors of serine hydrolases which are vital component of the immune system and therefore influence the immune functions. OPs induce several immunomodulatory effects in vertebrates by altering neutrophil function, macrophage production, antibody production, immunosuppression, reduced interleukin production and T cell proliferation. Immunotoxicity due to OP exposure is mediated through perturbation of the cholinergic response of lymphocytes, altering signal transduction, mutilating granule exocytosis pathway and impairing FasL/Fas pathway of natural killer cell and other immune related cells. Apoptosis of lymphocytes or immune related cells is promoted through mitochondrial pore formation and DNA fragmentation. In this review an attempt has been made to document the immunomodulatory effects of organophosphate pesticides using mammals as potential model with an additional information on the probable mechanism of immunotoxicity induced by OPs.
Examining the influence of gender, education, social class and birth cohort on MMSE tracking over time: a population-based prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND
Whilst many studies have analysed predictors of longitudinal cognitive decline, few have described their impact on population distributions of cognition by age cohort. The aim of this paper was to examine whether gender, education, social class and birth cohort affect how mean population cognition changes with age.


METHODS
The Medical Research Council Cognitive Function and Ageing Study (MRC CFAS) is a multi-centre population based longitudinal study of 13,004 individuals in England and Wales. Using ten years of follow-up data, mean Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) scores were modelled by age and birth cohort adjusting for non-random drop-out. The model included terms to estimate cohort effects. Results are presented for five year age bands between 65-95 years.


RESULTS
At a population level, women show greater change in MMSE scores with age than men. Populations with lower education level and manual work also show similar effects. More recent birth cohorts have slightly higher scores.


CONCLUSION
Longitudinal data can allow examination of population patterns by gender, educational level, social class and cohort. Each of these major socio-demographic factors shows some effect on whole population change in MMSE with age.
Self-adaptive systems: A survey of current approaches, research challenges and applications

Self-adaptive software is capable of evaluating and changing its own behavior, whenever the evaluation shows that the software is not accomplishing what it was intended to do, or when better functionality or performance may be possible. The topic of system adaptivity has been widely studied since the mid-60s and, over the past decade, several application areas and technologies relating to self-adaptivity have assumed greater importance. In all these initiatives, software has become the common element that introduces self-adaptability. Thus, the investigation of systematic software engineering approaches is necessary, in order to develop self-adaptive systems that may ideally be applied across multiple domains. The main goal of this study is to review recent progress on self-adaptivity from the standpoint of computer sciences and cybernetics, based on the analysis of state-of-the-art approaches reported in the literature. This review provides an over-arching, integrated view of computer science and software engineering foundations. Moreover, various methods and techniques currently applied in the design of self-adaptive systems are analyzed, as well as some European research initiatives and projects. Finally, the main bottlenecks for the effective application of self-adaptive technology, as well as a set of key research issues on this topic, are precisely identified, in order to overcome current constraints on the effective application of self-adaptivity in its emerging areas of application. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Large Scale Image Deduplication

With the rise of internet and personal digital camera, it becomes easy for researchers to get image data in mass quantity. With these large amount of image data, it is impossible for humans to examine each image and insure the quality of the dataset. Therefore it is crucial to develop algorithms that can process large amount of data. This paper will focus on a particular problem related to image dataset, image deduplication. We propose an efficient and scalable method to find near-duplicate images in an image collection. Our method includes 3-steps, first, extract compact features from each image. Second, use a fast clustering algorithm to reduce possible image match. The clustering algorithm should be CPU/memory efficient and can scale through multiple machines easily. We will use the method proposed by [4] that uses map-reduce to implement approximate nearest neighbor. Finally, apply a more accurate method on the clustered images to find duplicate images in each group. We will use method proposal by [9].
Folate Augmentation of Treatment – Evaluation for Depression (FolATED): protocol of a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND
Clinical depression is common, debilitating and treatable; one in four people experience it during their lives. The majority of sufferers are treated in primary care and only half respond well to active treatment. Evidence suggests that folate may be a useful adjunct to antidepressant treatment: 1) patients with depression often have a functional folate deficiency; 2) the severity of such deficiency, indicated by elevated homocysteine, correlates with depression severity, 3) low folate is associated with poor antidepressant response, and 4) folate is required for the synthesis of neurotransmitters implicated in the pathogenesis and treatment of depression.


METHODS/DESIGN
The primary objective of this trial is to estimate the effect of folate augmentation in new or continuing treatment of depressive disorder in primary and secondary care. Secondary objectives are to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of folate augmentation of antidepressant treatment, investigate how the response to antidepressant treatment depends on genetic polymorphisms relevant to folate metabolism and antidepressant response, and explore whether baseline folate status can predict response to antidepressant treatment. Seven hundred and thirty patients will be recruited from North East Wales, North West Wales and Swansea. Patients with moderate to severe depression will be referred to the trial by their GP or Psychiatrist. If patients consent they will be assessed for eligibility and baseline measures will be undertaken. Blood samples will be taken to exclude patients with folate and B12 deficiency. Some of the blood taken will be used to measure homocysteine levels and for genetic analysis (with additional consent). Eligible participants will be randomised to receive 5 mg of folic acid or placebo. Patients with B12 deficiency or folate deficiency will be given appropriate treatment and will be monitored in the 'comprehensive cohort study'. Assessments will be at screening, randomisation and 3 subsequent follow-ups.


DISCUSSION
If folic acid is shown to improve the efficacy of antidepressants, then it will provide a safe, simple and cheap way of improving the treatment of depression in primary and secondary care.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
Current controlled trials ISRCTN37558856.
[Assessment of the management of community-acquired pneumonia in adults outpatients].

BACKGROUND
There is limited information about the effectiveness of the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in Chilean emergency rooms.


AIM
To assess the treatment of CAP in emergency rooms at the Viña del Mar Health Service in Chile.


MATERIAL AND METHODS
Prospective study of immunocompetent adult patients consulting for a CAP in emergency rooms. Those that required hospital admission were considered ineligible. The initial clinical and laboratory assessment, antimicrobial treatment and their condition after 30 days of follow up, were recorded.


RESULTS
Three hundred eleven adult patients aged 57+/-22 years (152 males), were evaluated. Patients with class I CAP (40% of cases) were treated with Clarithromycin (71.8%) or Amoxicillin (26.6%) for 10 days. Patients with class II CAP (60%) were treated with Amoxicillin-clavulanate (80.7%) or Levofloxacin (18.2%) for 10 days. Three hundred eight patients (99%) were cured without need of hospital admission; three patients (1%) were subsequently hospitalized because of clinical failure of ambulatory treatment. Overall, three patients (1%) died; all deaths occurred during or immediately after hospitalization and were related to the severity of lung infection but not to the choice of antibiotic treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
The outpatient management of CAP by general practitioners working at emergency rooms was clinically effective with low rates of hospital admission and mortality.
Mosapride, a 5HT-4 receptor agonist, improves insulin sensitivity and glycaemic control in patients with Type II diabetes mellitus

Aims/hypothesis. We investigated the potential role of mosapride, a 5HT-4 receptor agonist, in glycaemic control in Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic mellitus patients without autonomic neuropathy. Methods. Thirty-four inpatients with Type II diabetes mellitus were randomly assigned to receive either mosapride (5 mg orally three times a day, n=17) or a placebo (n=17) for 1 week (first study). Changes in blood glucose and insulin were determined basally as well as after intravenous glucose loading. Insulin sensitivity was evaluated during hyperinsulinaemic-normoglycaemic-clamp studies and by measuring the number of and the autophosphorylation of insulin receptors on the erythrocytes of patients (n=9). Sixty-nine outpatients with Type II diabetes were similarly treated with mosapride or a placebo for 8 weeks (second study). Finally, tissue- specific expression of 5HT-4 receptors was examined by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Results. Mosapride lowered fasting blood glucose and fructosamine concentrations (p<0.05) (first study). It significantly increased the number of (Mosapride 3323±518 vs 4481±786 [p<0.05], Control 4227±761 vs 3275±554 per 300 µl erythrocytes) and the tyrosine autophosphorylation (Mosapride 3178±444 vs 4043±651 [p<0.05], Control 3721±729 vs 3013±511 insulin receptor unit) of insulin receptors, as well as glucose utilisation (Mosapride 4.92±0.53 vs 5.88±0.72 [p<0.05], Control 4.74±0.65 vs 4.70±0.31 mg/kg·min). Mosapride treatment for 8 weeks significantly reduced fasting glucose (9.91±0.34 vs 8.51±0.34 mmol/l, p<0.05), insulin (53.2±4.62 vs 40.8±5.52 pmol/l, p<0.05) and HbA1c (8.61±0.20 vs 7.67±0.19%, p<0.01) concentrations (second study). The RT-PCR analysis demonstrated specific expression of 5HT-4 receptors in the muscle, but not in the liver or fat tissues. Conclusions/interpretation. Mosapride could improve insulin action at muscle and glycaemic control in Type II diabetic patients.
The practice of crowdsourcing is transforming the Web and giving rise to a new field

social systems, social search, social media, collective intelligence, wikinomics, crowd wisdom, smart mobs, mass collaboration, and human computation. The topic has been discussed extensively in books, popular press, and academia.1,5,15,23,29,35 But this body of work has considered mostly efforts in the physical world.23,29,30 Some do consider crowdsourcing systems on the Web, but only certain system types28,33 or challenges (for example, how to evaluate users12). This survey attempts to provide a global picture of crowdsourcing systems on the Web. We define and classify such systems, then describe a broad sample of systems. The sample CROWDSOURCING SYSTEMS enlist a multitude of humans to help solve a wide variety of problems. Over the past decade, numerous such systems have appeared on the World-Wide Web. Prime examples include Wikipedia, Linux, Yahoo! Answers, Mechanical Turk-based systems, and much effort is being directed toward developing many more. As is typical for an emerging area, this effort has appeared under many names, including peer production, user-powered systems, user-generated content, collaborative systems, community systems, Crowdsourcing Systems on the World-Wide Web DOI:10.1145/1924421.1924442
Assessing the Validity and Reliability of a Questionnaire on Dietary Fibre-related Knowledge in a Turkish Student Population

This study aimed to validate a questionnaire on dietary fibre (DF)-related knowledge in a Turkish student population. Participants (n=360) were either undergraduate students who have taken a nutrition course for 14 weeks (n=174) or those in another group who have not taken such a nutrition course (n=186). Test-retest reliability, internal reliability, and construct validity of the questionnaire were determined. Overall internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.90) and test-retest reliability (0.90) were high. Significant differences (p<0.001) between the scores of the two groups of students indicated that the questionnaire had satisfactory construct validity. It was found that one-fifth of the students were unsure of the correct answer for any item, and 52.5% of them were not aware that DF had to be consumed on a daily basis. Only 36.4 to 44.2% of the students were able to correctly identify the food sources of DF.
Onset time, recovery duration, and drug cost with four different methods of inducing general anesthesia.

UNLABELLED
We compared two conventional induction techniques (thiopental and propofol), an inhaled induction with sevoflurane using a circle system, and a rebreathing method. Fentanyl 1 microg/kg was given to women undergoing 10- to 20-min procedures. Anesthesia was induced (n = 20 each) with one of the following: 1) sevoflurane and N2O from a rebreathing bag (Sevo/Bag). A 5-L bag was prefilled with a mixture of sevoflurane 7% and N2O 60% in oxygen. The bag was connected between the normal circle system, separated by a spring-loaded valve; 2) sevoflurane 8% and N2O 60% from a circle system on a conventional anesthesia machine with a total fresh gas flow of 6 L/min (Sevo/Circle); 3) propofol 3 mg/kg as an i.v. bolus; 4) thiopental sodium 5 mg/kg as an i.v. bolus. Postoperative nausea and vomiting was treated with ondansetron. Induction times were comparable with each method. Recovery duration was shortest with sevoflurane, intermediate with propofol, and longest with thiopental. Induction drug costs were lowest with Sevo/Bag and thiopental, intermediate with Sevo/Circle, and highest with propofol. However, sevoflurane (by either method) caused considerable nausea and vomiting that required treatment. Consequently, total drug cost was least with thiopental, intermediate with Sevo/Bag and propofol, and greatest with Sevo/Circle. Thus, no single technique was clearly superior.


IMPLICATIONS
Anesthetic induction techniques influence awakening time, recovery duration, and drug costs. We tested two i.v. methods and two inhaled techniques. However, none of the four tested methods was clearly superior to the others.
Effects of improvement in aerobic power on resting insulin and glucose concentrations in children

In this study we determined the influence of improving aerobic power (V˙O2max) on basal plasma levels of insulin and glucose of 11- to 14-year-old children, while accounting for body fat, gender, pubertal status, and leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) levels. Blood samples were obtained from 349 children after an overnight fast and analyzed for plasma insulin and glucose. Height, mass, body mass index (BMI), and sum of skinfolds (Σ triceps + subscapular sites) were measured. LTPA levels and pubertal status were estimated from questionnaires, and V˙O2max was predicted from a cycle ergometry test. Regardless of gender, insulin levels were significantly correlated (P = 0.0001) to BMI, skinfolds, pubertal stage, and predicted V˙O2max, but were not related to LTPA levels. Fasting glucose levels were not correlated to measures of adiposity or exercise (LTPA score, V˙O2max) for females; however, BMI and skinfolds were correlated for males (P < 0.006). The children then took part in an 8-week aerobic exercise program. The 60 children whose V˙O2max improved (≥3 ml · kg−1 · min−1) had a greater reduction in circulating insulin than the 204 children whose V˙O2max did not increase −16 (41) vs −1 (63) pmol · l−1; P = 0.028. The greatest change occurred in those children with the highest initial resting insulin levels. Plasma glucose levels were slightly reduced only in those children with the highest insulin levels whose V˙O2max improved (P < 0.0506). The results of this study indicate that in children, adiposity has the most significant influence on fasting insulin levels; however, increasing V˙O2max via exercise can lower insulin levels in those children with initially high levels of the hormone. In addition, LTPA does not appear to be associated with fasting insulin status, unless it is sufficient to increase V˙O2max.
Structural Basis for Activation of the Receptor Tyrosine Kinase KIT by Stem Cell Factor

Stem Cell Factor (SCF) initiates its multiple cellular responses by binding to the ectodomain of KIT, resulting in tyrosine kinase activation. We describe the crystal structure of the entire ectodomain of KIT before and after SCF stimulation. The structures show that KIT dimerization is driven by SCF binding whose sole role is to bring two KIT molecules together. Receptor dimerization is followed by conformational changes that enable lateral interactions between membrane proximal Ig-like domains D4 and D5 of two KIT molecules. Experiments with cultured cells show that KIT activation is compromised by point mutations in amino acids critical for D4-D4 interaction. Moreover, a variety of oncogenic mutations are mapped to the D5-D5 interface. Since key hallmarks of KIT structures, ligand-induced receptor dimerization, and the critical residues in the D4-D4 interface, are conserved in other receptors, the mechanism of KIT stimulation unveiled in this report may apply for other receptor activation.
Optimal financial contracts with unobservable investments

In this article we propose a security-design problem in which risk neutral entrepreneurs make unobservable investment decisions while employing the investment funds of risk-neutral outside investor/creditor(s). Contracts are restricted to satisfy limited liability and monotonicity of the payment schedule. The model we present extends the classical one proposed by Innes (1990, Journal of Economic Theory 52, 47-67) along three main directions: agents' decisions may be restricted by their initial capital and outside financial opportunities; their investment decisions may also consist in hiding funds in an asset placed outside their firms; initial firms' capital, which identifies entrepreneur types, may only be imperfectly observed by creditors (i.e. types are private information). We motivate our interest in this security-design problem referring to the 'opacity' that often characterizes the financial situation and decisions of small firms, a particularly large fraction of the non-financial sector in most developed countries.
Generation using Generative Adversarial Training

Generative models reduce the need of acquiring laborious labeling for the dataset. Text generation techniques can be applied for improving language models, machine translation, summarization, and captioning. This project experiments on different recurrent neural network models to build generative adversarial networks for generating texts from noise. The trained generator is capable of producing sentences with certain level of grammar and logic.
Making time for mindfulness

OBJECTIVE
Digital mental wellbeing interventions are increasingly being used by the general public as well as within clinical treatment. Among these, mindfulness and meditation programs delivered through mobile device applications are gaining popularity. However, little is known about how people use and experience such applications and what are the enabling factors and barriers to effective use. To address this gap, the study reported here sought to understand how users adopt and experience a popular mobile-based mindfulness intervention.


METHODS
A qualitative semi-structured interview study was carried out with 16 participants aged 25-38 (M=32.5) using the commercially popular mindfulness application Headspace for 30-40days. All participants were employed and living in a large UK city. The study design and interview schedule were informed by an autoethnography carried out by the first author for thirty days before the main study began. Results were interpreted in terms of the Reasoned Action Approach to understand behaviour change.


RESULTS
The core concern of users was fitting the application into their busy lives. Use was also influenced by patterns in daily routines, on-going reflections about the consequences of using the app, perceived self-efficacy, emotion and mood states, personal relationships and social norms. Enabling factors for use included positive attitudes towards mindfulness and use of the app, realistic expectations and positive social influences. Barriers to use were found to be busy lifestyles, lack of routine, strong negative emotions and negative perceptions of mindfulness.


CONCLUSIONS
Mobile wellbeing interventions should be designed with consideration of people's beliefs, affective states and lifestyles, and should be flexible to meet the needs of different users. Designers should incorporate features in the design of applications that manage expectations about use and that support users to fit app use into a busy lifestyle. The Reasoned Action Approach was found to be a useful theory to inform future research and design of persuasive mental wellbeing technologies.
First-trimester combined screening for trisomy 21 in a predominantly Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the effectiveness of first-trimester fetal trisomy 21 screening using a combination of maternal age, nuchal translucency thickness (NT) and maternal serum free beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-hCG) and pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A (PAPP-A) levels in a predominantly Chinese population in Hong Kong.


METHODS
This was a prospective study over a 1.5-year period of 2990 women who underwent combined screening for trisomy 21 between 11+0 and 13+6 weeks of gestation in a university fetal medicine unit. NT was measured according to the criteria set by The Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF), maternal serum free beta-hCG and PAPP-A levels were measured, and the risk of trisomy 21 was calculated using The FMF's algorithm. Fetal karyotyping was advised when the risk was 1 : 300 or above. All subjects were followed up for pregnancy and fetal outcome.


RESULTS
Of the 2990 women who underwent the screening program, 99% were Chinese. There were 57 twin pregnancies, giving a total of 3047 fetuses. Thirty-one percent of the women were 35 years old or above. One hundred and eighty-five (6.1%) fetuses were screen-positive; this included 14 cases of trisomy 21 and 17 cases of other chromosomal abnormalities. The positive predictive value was 16.7%. Among the 2862 screen-negative fetuses, only 18 (0.6%) cases had an unknown fetal outcome. There were no cases in which trisomy 21 was missed and the infant was liveborn.


CONCLUSION
First-trimester combined screening for fetal trisomy 21 is highly effective among Chinese subjects.