Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preterm Birth and the Metabolic Syndrome in Adult Life: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Preterm birth is associated with features of the metabolic syndrome in later life. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies reporting markers of the metabolic syndrome in adults born preterm. METHODS: Reports of metabolic syndrome–associated features in adults (≥18 years of age) born at <37-week gestational age and at term (37- to 42-week gestational age) were included. Outcomes assessed were BMI, waist-hip ratio, percentage fat mass, systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, 24-hour ambulatory SBP and DBP, flow-mediated dilatation, intima-media thickness, and fasting glucose, insulin, and lipid profiles. RESULTS: Twenty-seven studies, comprising a combined total of 17 030 preterm and 295 261 term-born adults, were included. In adults, preterm birth was associated with significantly higher SBP (mean difference, 4.2 mm Hg; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.8 to 5.7; P < .001), DBP (mean difference, 2.6 mm Hg; 95% CI, 1.2 to 4.0; P < .001), 24-hour ambulatory SBP (mean difference, 3.1 mm Hg; 95% CI, 0.3 to 6.0; P = .03), and low-density lipoprotein (mean difference, 0.14 mmol/L; 95% CI, 0.05 to 0.21; P = .01). The preterm–term differences for women was greater than the preterm–term difference in men by 2.9 mm Hg for SBP (95% CI [1.1 to 4.6], P = .004) and 1.6 mm Hg for DBP (95% CI [0.3 to 2.9], P = .02). CONCLUSIONS: For the majority of outcome measures associated with the metabolic syndrome, we found no difference between preterm and term-born adults. Increased plasma low-density lipoprotein in young adults born preterm may represent a greater risk for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease in later life. Preterm birth is associated with higher blood pressure in adult life, with women appearing to be at greater risk than men.
Computing Paraphrasability of Syntactic Variants Using Web Snippets

In a broad range of natural language processing tasks, large-scale knowledge-base of paraphrases is anticipated to improve their performance. The key issue in creating such a resource is to establish a practical method of computing semantic equivalence and syntactic substitutability, i.e., paraphrasability, between given pair of expressions. This paper addresses the issues of computing paraphrasability, focusing on syntactic variants of predicate phrases. Our model estimates paraphrasability based on traditional distributional similarity measures, where the Web snippets are used to overcome the data sparseness problem in handling predicate phrases. Several feature sets are evaluated through empirical experiments.
Achieving a more usable World Wide Web

Over the last few years, we have built and tested two systems designed to make Web content more accessible for people with limited vision and dexterity. The first system, based on content transcoding via a proxy server, possessed several attractive features but proved to be unacceptably complex, error prone, and slow. The second system, based on client-side transformations, worked well enough to be broadly deployed. We report here on lessons learned and on the current state of the research effort. We review the two systems, discuss their strengths and weaknesses, and examine how the second system is being used.
Meta‐analysis using individual participant data: one‐stage and two‐stage approaches, and why they may differ

Meta‐analysis using individual participant data (IPD) obtains and synthesises the raw, participant‐level data from a set of relevant studies. The IPD approach is becoming an increasingly popular tool as an alternative to traditional aggregate data meta‐analysis, especially as it avoids reliance on published results and provides an opportunity to investigate individual‐level interactions, such as treatment‐effect modifiers. There are two statistical approaches for conducting an IPD meta‐analysis: one‐stage and two‐stage. The one‐stage approach analyses the IPD from all studies simultaneously, for example, in a hierarchical regression model with random effects. The two‐stage approach derives aggregate data (such as effect estimates) in each study separately and then combines these in a traditional meta‐analysis model. There have been numerous comparisons of the one‐stage and two‐stage approaches via theoretical consideration, simulation and empirical examples, yet there remains confusion regarding when each approach should be adopted, and indeed why they may differ.
Signals Derived From Glucose Metabolism Are Required for Glucose Regulation of Pancreatic Islet GLUT2 mRNA and Protein

Pancreatic islet GLUT2 mRNA is known to be regulated in vitro and in vivo by glucose. We have investigated several potential mechanisms mediating the response of islet GLUT2 to glucose. GLUT2 mRNA and protein were measured from isolated rat islets cultured for up to 24 h under selected conditions. Glucose at 11 mM stimulated GLUT2 mRNA 10-fold compared with 2 mM glucose, with no additional increase at 16.7 mM glucose, whereas maximal 4-fold induction of the protein was attained with 16 mM glucose. Time course studies showed a 2.5-fold induction of GLUT2 mRNA apparent after only 8 h of culture at 16.7 mM glucose. Glycolysis inhibitor mannoheptulose suppressed the stimulatory effect of 16.7 mM glucose on GLUT2 mRNA and protein. Metabolizable sugars mannose and glyceraldehyde enhanced transporter mRNA levels, in contrast with the lack of stimulation by nonmetabolizable 2-deoxy-D-glucose. Stimulation by different sugars and glycolysis inhibition led to analogous changes of proinsulin mRNA, suggesting that common signaling mechanisms are shared in glucose regulation of proinsulin and GLUT2 gene expression. Preexposure to mannoheptulose, however, failed to suppress glucose-stimulated insulin release. Tunicamycin, a glycoprotein synthesis inhibitor, did not block the effect of 16 mM glucose on GLUT2 mRNA levels. RNA and protein synthesis inhibitors actinomycin and cycloheximide abolished the enhancing effects of high glucose on GLUT2 mRNA. These findings indicate that glucose metabolism, but not glycoprotein synthesis or substrate interaction with the transporter protein, is instrumental in the stimulatory effects of glucose on β-cell GLUT2 mRNA accumulation. In addition, ongoing RNA and protein synthesis are required for this effect.
Performance preserving network downscaling

The Internet is a large, complex, heterogeneous system operating at very high speeds and consisting of a large number of users. Researchers use a suite of tools and techniques in order to understand the performance of networks: measurements, simulations, and deployments on small to medium-scale testbeds. This work considers a novel addition to this suite: a class of methods to scale down the topology of the Internet that enables researchers to create and observe a smaller replica, and extrapolate its performance to the expected performance of the larger Internet. The key insight that we leverage in this work is that only the congested links along the path of each flow introduce sizable queueing delays and dependencies among flows. Hence, one might hope that the network properties can be captured by a topology that consists of the congested links only. We show that for a network that is shared by TCP flows it is possible to achieve this kind of performance scaling. We also show that simulating a scaled topology can be up to two orders of magnitude faster than simulating the original topology.
Optimal Selection of Aggregation Nodes in Sensor Networks with Time Delay Constraint

A critical problem in wireless sensor networks is to maximize their lifetimes. Data aggregation is an effective method to reduce redundant data and minimize the overall energy consumption. This method requires data to be delayed and processed in their paths to the sink node, so it causes extra time delay to the networks. This paper studies the aggregation node selection problem in sensor networks with time delay constraint, and the objective is to minimize the overall energy consumption of networks. A dynamic programming algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. This algorithm can turn out the optimal solution in polynomial time. Extensive simulations have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm; the results show the efficiency of the algorithm in energy consumption reduction.
String loop corrections to the universal hypermultiplet

We study loop corrections to the universal dilaton supermultiplet for type IIA strings compactified on Calabi-Yau threefolds. We show that the corresponding quaternionic kinetic terms receive non-trivial one-loop contributions proportional to the Euler number of the Calabi-Yau manifold, while the higher-loop corrections can be absorbed by field ��
A Graph-Based Approach to Named Entity Categorization in Wikipedia Using Conditional Random Fields

This paper presents a method for categorizing named entities in Wikipedia. In Wikipedia, an anchor text is glossed in a linked HTML text. We formalize named entity categorization as a task of categorizing anchor texts with linked HTML texts which glosses a named entity. Using this representation, we introduce a graph structure in which anchor texts are regarded as nodes. In order to incorporate HTML structure on the graph, three types of cliques are defined based on the HTML tree structure. We propose a method with Conditional Random Fields (CRFs) to categorize the nodes on the graph. Since the defined graph may include cycles, the exact inference of CRFs is computationally expensive. We introduce an approximate inference method using Treebased Reparameterization (TRP) to reduce computational cost. In experiments, our proposed model obtained significant improvements compare to baseline models that use Support Vector Machines.
Frequency of cognitive impairment and depression in Parkinson's disease: A preliminary case-control study

Background: This study aimed to determine the frequency of cognitive impairment and depression in our Parkinson's Disease (PD) and their relationship with disease severity and disability. Patients and Methods: A total of 40 PD patients and 40 age-, sex-, and educationally matched controls were studied. The Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) Motor and Activities of Daily Living (ADL) scores and the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stage were documented. Depression was assessed using the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (ZSDS), while cognition was evaluated using a composite score of the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) score and category fluency score. Results: A total of 55% (22/40) of PD and 10% (4 of 40) of controls had depression (P<0.001). A total of 60% of PD (24/40) and 5% of controls (2/40) had cognitive impairment (P<0.001). Both NMS coexisted in 16 of 40 PD (40%) compared with none of the controls (P<0.001). UPDRS (motor and ADL) scores and HY stage were significantly worse with impaired ZSDS scores - P 0.001. UPDRS ADL was significantly impaired by the presence of cognitive impairment. Coexisting depression and cognitive impairment were associated with significant worsening of all scores of severity and disability. Conclusion: Cognitive impairment and depression accompany our PD and are related to disability and worsening disease severity.
An Examination of the Third Stage in the Analogy Process: Verification-based Analogical Learning

Many studies of analogy in Artificial Intelligence have focused on analogy as a heuristic mechanism to guide search and simplify problem solving or as a basis for forming generalizations. This paper examines analogical learning, where analogy is used to conjecture new knowledge about some domain. A theory of Verification-Based Analogical Learning is presented which addresses the tenuous nature of analogically inferred concepts and describes procedures that can be used to increase confidence in the inferred knowledge. The theory describes how analogy may be used to discover and refine scientific models of the physical world. Examples are taken from an implemented system, which discovers qualitative models of processes such as liquid flow and heat flow.
Lapatinib-loaded human serum albumin nanoparticles for the prevention and treatment of triple-negative breast cancer metastasis to the brain

Brain metastasis from triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) has continued to lack effective clinical treatments until present. However, the feature of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) frequently overexpressed in TNBC offers the opportunity to employ lapatinib, a dual-tyrosine kinase inhibitor of human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) and EGFR, in the treatment of brain metastasis of TNBC. Unfortunately, the low oral bioavailability of lapatinib and drug efflux by blood-brain barrier have resulted in low drug delivery efficiency into the brain and limited therapeutic effects for patients with brain metastasis in clinical trials. To overcome such disadvantages, we developed lapatinib-loaded human serum albumin (HSA) nanoparticles, named LHNPs, by modified nanoparticle albumin-bound (Nab) technology. LHNPs had a core-shell structure and the new HSA/phosphatidylcholine sheath made LHNPs stable in bloodstream. Compared to free lapatinib, LHNPs could inhibit the adhesion, migration and invasion ability of high brain-metastatic 4T1 cells more effectively in vitro. Tissue distribution following intravenous administration revealed that LHNPs (i.v., 10 mg/kg) achieved increased delivery to the metastatic brain at 5.43 and 4.36 times the levels of Tykerb (p.o., 100 mg/kg) and lapatinib solution (LS, i.v., 10 mg/kg), respectively. Compared to the marketed Tykerb group, LHNPs had markedly better inhibition effects on brain micrometastasis and significantly extended the median survival time of 4T1 brain metastatic mice in consequence. The improved anti-tumor efficacy of LHNPs could be partly ascribed to down-regulating metastasis-related proteins. Therefore, these results clearly indicated that LHNPs could become a promising candidate for clinical applications against brain metastasis of TNBC.
The current research status of normal tension glaucoma

Normal tension glaucoma (NTG) is a progressive optic neuropathy that mimics primary open-angle glaucoma, but lacks the findings of elevated intraocular pressure or other mitigating factors that can lead to optic neuropathy. The present review summarized the causes, genetics, and mechanisms underlying NTG in both animal models and human patients. We also proposed that the neurovascular unit is a therapeutic target for NTG management.
Demonstration of a role for growth hormone in glucose counterregulation.

To test the hypothesis that growth hormone secretion plays a counterregulatory role in prolonged hypoglycemia in humans, four studies were performed in nine normal subjects. Insulin (15 mU.M-2.min-1) was infused subcutaneously (plasma insulin 27 +/- 2 microU/ml), and plasma glucose decreased from 88 +/- 2 to 53 +/- 1 mg/dl for 12 h. In study 1, plasma glucose, glucose fluxes (D-[3-3H]glucose), substrate, and counterregulatory hormone concentrations were simply monitored. In study 2 (pituitary-adrenal-pancreatic clamp), insulin and counterregulatory hormone secretions (except for catecholamines) were prevented by somatostatin (0.5 mg/h iv) and metyrapone (0.5 g/4 h po), and glucagon, cortisol, and growth hormone were reinfused to reproduce the concentrations of study 1. In study 3 (lack of growth hormone increase), the pituitary-adrenal-pancreatic clamp was performed with maintenance of plasma growth hormone at basal levels, and glucose was infused whenever needed to reproduce plasma glucose concentration of study 2. Study 4 was identical to study 3, but exogenous glucose was not infused. Isolated lack of a growth hormone response caused a decrease in hepatic glucose production and an increase in glucose utilization that resulted in an approximately 25% greater hypoglycemia despite compensatory increases in plasma catecholamines. Plasma free fatty acid, 3-beta-hydroxybutyrate, and glycerol concentrations were reduced approximately 50%. It is concluded that growth hormone normally plays an important counterregulatory role during hypoglycemia by augmenting glucose production, decreasing glucose utilization, and accelerating lipolysis.
Children's Trait and Emotion Attributions in Socially Ambiguous and Unambiguous Situations

ABSTRACT Children's attributions about story characters in ambiguous and unambiguous social situations were assessed. One hundred and forty-four 6–7-year-olds and 10–11-year-olds heard about actors who slighted a recipient intentionally or for an undetermined reason and then made causal attributions about the events, an emotion attribution about the recipient, and global personality attributions about the actors and recipient. Relations between perceived self-competence and attribution style were also assessed. Participants were more likely to make negative causal attributions in the unambiguous condition and with increasing age. Older girls and younger boys were more likely than other groups to attribute negative emotions to the recipient. Overall, participants perceived recipients positively and actors negatively. Perceived self-competence was positively correlated with actor attributions, although these differed by age and gender. Implications for children's psychosocial adjustment are discussed.
Antiretroviral Therapy Optimisation without Genotype Resistance Testing: A Perspective on Treatment History Based Models

Background Although genotypic resistance testing (GRT) is recommended to guide combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), funding and/or facilities to perform GRT may not be available in low to middle income countries. Since treatment history (TH) impacts response to subsequent therapy, we investigated a set of statistical learning models to optimise cART in the absence of GRT information. Methods and Findings The EuResist database was used to extract 8-week and 24-week treatment change episodes (TCE) with GRT and additional clinical, demographic and TH information. Random Forest (RF) classification was used to predict 8- and 24-week success, defined as undetectable HIV-1 RNA, comparing nested models including (i) GRT+TH and (ii) TH without GRT, using multiple cross-validation and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). Virological success was achieved in 68.2% and 68.0% of TCE at 8- and 24-weeks (n = 2,831 and 2,579), respectively. RF (i) and (ii) showed comparable performances, with an average (st.dev.) AUC 0.77 (0.031) vs. 0.757 (0.035) at 8-weeks, 0.834 (0.027) vs. 0.821 (0.025) at 24-weeks. Sensitivity analyses, carried out on a data subset that included antiretroviral regimens commonly used in low to middle income countries, confirmed our findings. Training on subtype B and validation on non-B isolates resulted in a decline of performance for models (i) and (ii). Conclusions Treatment history-based RF prediction models are comparable to GRT-based for classification of virological outcome. These results may be relevant for therapy optimisation in areas where availability of GRT is limited. Further investigations are required in order to account for different demographics, subtypes and different therapy switching strategies.
javar: A Prototype Java Restructuring Compiler

In this paper we show how implicit parallelism in Java programs can be made explicit by a restructuring compiler using the multi-threading mechanism of the language. In particular, we focus on automatically exploiting implicit parallelism in loops and multi-way recursive methods. Expressing parallelism in Java itself clearly has the advantage that the transformed program remains portable. After compilation of the transformed Java program into bytecode, speedup can be obtained on any platform on which the implementation of the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) supports the true parallel execution of threads. Moreover, we will see that the transformations presented in this paper only induce a slight overhead on uni-processors.
Relationship between Blood Pressure Variability and the Quality of Life

Purpose Blood pressure variability (BPV) is emerging as an important cardiovascular prognostic factor in addition to average blood pressure level. While there have been some suggestions for the determinants of the blood pressure variability, little is known about the relationship between the blood pressure variability and health-related quality of life (QOL). Materials and Methods Fifty-six men and women with mild hypertension were enrolled from local health centers in Republic of Korea, from April to October 2009. They self-monitored their blood pressure twice daily for 8 weeks. Pharmacological treatment was not changed during the period. Standard deviation and coefficient of variation of blood pressure measurements were calculated as indices of BPV. Measurements of QOL were done at initial and at 8-week follow-up visits. Results Study subjects had gender ratio of 39:41 (male:female) and the mean age was 64±10 years. The mean home blood pressure's at week 4 and 8 did not differ from baseline. Total score of QOL at follow-up visit and change of QOL among two measurements were negatively correlated to BPV indices, i.e., higher QOL was associated with lower BPV. This finding persisted after adjustment for age, gender and the number of antihypertensive agents. Among dimensions of QOL, physical, mental and hypertension-related dimensions were associated particularly with BPV. Conclusion QOL may be a significant determinant of BPV. Improvement of QOL may lead to favorable changes in BPV.
Molecular Evidence Suggesting Species in the Zoanthid Genera Palythoa and Protopalythoa (Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) Are Congeneric

Abstract Taxonomic status of the zoanthid genera Palythoa and Protopalythoa has been in question for almost a century. Separation of the two genera has been based on traditional morphological methods (colony and polyp form, nematocyst size and form, and number of septa), with Palythoa polyps embedded in a well developed coenenchyme and Protopalythoa polyps standing free and clear of the coenenchyme. Here we sequenced two mitochondrial regions, the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene and 16S ribosomal DNA (16S rDNA) genes, from Palythoa and Protopalythoa samples from various parts of the world and performed phylogenetic analyses of the sequence data. The phylogenetic trees for both COI and 16S rDNA from Palythoa and Protopalythoa show four monophyletic groups (designated Palythoa tuberculosa, Palythoa heliodiscus, Palythoa mutuki 1, and Palythoa mutuki 2), with levels of sequence divergence (COI and 16S rDNA divergence approximately 0.0~1.1%) similar to or lower than that previously found among congeneric species within the closely related genus Zoanthus. Surprisingly, sequence differences among Palythoa tuberculosa, Palythoa mutuki 1, and Palythoa mutuki 2 were negligible (0.0~0.2% for both COI and 16S rDNA), potentially indicating relationships below the species level. Our sequences align well with the few Palythoa and Protopalythoa sequences reported to date. These findings strongly indicate that our samples represent a minimum of two and possibly up to four species (the Palythoa tuberculosa -P. mutuki 1 - P. mutuki 2 group, and P. heliodiscus) within the genus Palythoa, and that the genus Protopalythoa is erroneous nomenclature.