Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
TOURISTS' SATISFACTION AT TRIJUGINARAYAN, INDIA: AN IMPORTANCE-PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

Satisfaction is an excellent predictor of tourist behaviour as it influences the choice of destination, consumption of products and services, the decision to return and maintain lasting relationships. This paper analyzes the level of tourist satisfaction with destination attributes using the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), based on the information obtained from 200 domestic tourists visiting Trijuginarayan, an emerging spiritual and adventure tourist destination located in Garhwal Himalaya in Uttarakhand state of India. The results obtained show that attributes related to tourism product of spiritual and cultural nature, atmosphere and climate, a variety of tourist activities, hospitality and safety are significant factors in determining tourist satisfaction, whereas basic facilities such infrastructure and hygiene and sanitation at destination are of significant importance in satisfaction evaluation. Findings also reveal that tourists were satisfied with the core products, but were dissatisfied with basic tourist facilities offered at the destination. Based on the results, the paper concludes that tourism stakeholders must outline effective strategies for holistic development and improving performance of attributes in the given destination
Recommendations for Management of Equine Athletes with Cardiovascular Abnormalities

Murmurs and arrhythmias are commonly detected in equine athletes. Assessing the relevance of these cardiovascular abnormalities in the performance horse can be challenging. Determining the impact of a cardiovascular disorder on performance, life expectancy, horse and rider or driver safety relative to the owner's future expectations is paramount. A comprehensive assessment of the cardiovascular abnormality detected is essential to determine its severity and achieve these aims. This consensus statement presents a general approach to the assessment of cardiovascular abnormalities, followed by a discussion of the common murmurs and arrhythmias. The description, diagnosis, evaluation, and prognosis are considered for each cardiovascular abnormality. The recommendations presented herein are based on available literature and a consensus of the panelists. While the majority of horses with cardiovascular abnormalities have a useful performance life, periodic reexaminations are indicated for those with clinically relevant cardiovascular disease. Horses with pulmonary hypertension, CHF, or complex ventricular arrhythmias should not be ridden or driven.
Association between complement component C3 and body composition: a possible obesity inflammatory biomarker for insulin resistance.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The C3 complement component (C3) is increasingly recognized as a cardiometabolic risk factor. We aimed to examine the role of C3 in insulin resistance (IR) and its association with adiposity. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN Sixty-seven obese (18-35 years) participants were matched with normal weight participants from the University of Jordan. BMI, waist-hip ratio (WHpR), and waist-height ratio (WHtR) were calculated. Body percent fat mass (%FM) was determined using the bioelectrical impedance analysis. C3, insulin, and glucose serum concentrations were measured. IR was assessed by the homeostasis model assessment of IR (HOMA-IR). RESULTS Serum concentrations of C3 and IR were significantly higher in the obese group than that in the normal body weight, regardless of gender (women: 1.2±0.08 and men: 1.2±0.08 vs women: 0.88±0.07 and men: 0.94±0.05, p<0.01; women: 3.6±0.34 and men: 3.9±0.43 vs women: 1.7±0.12 and men: 2.0±0.24, respectively; p<0.001). After adjustment for the potential confounders, BMI, waist circumference, WHtR and %FM were correlated positively with C3 (r=0.44; 0.42; 0.47; 0.43, respectively; p<0.001), and with IR (r=0.67; 0.61; 0.59; 0.59, respectively; p<0.001). C3 was correlated with IR (r=0.35, p<0.001). In linear regression analysis, C3 was not associated with IR independent of BMI (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS C3 may be a marker of chronic inflammatory process independently underlying IR obese individuals regardless of gender, which may have a role in the progression of IR during obesity.
Simulation-Based Evaluation of Resource Allocation Strategies for Archival Management Workflow: The Macau Case

Workflow management systems are widely adopted for implementing business processes. Archival workflow [3] is a precise representation of the archival process, reflecting the formal coordination mechanisms between archival activities and manual processes with respect to the specific requirements of the local governing body. Understanding key performance indicators of archival processes is considered as one of the crucial factors for the government organizations. Process Simulation enables detailed analysis of such performance indicators without actually deploying the processes. In this paper, we analyze a number of resource allocation strategies for the existing workflow model from Macau Historical Archives using Colored Petri Nets models. Based on these models, the strengths and the weaknesses of each resource assignment schemes are evaluated against a number of performance indicators.
Efficient Mean‐shift Clustering Using Gaussian KD‐Tree

Mean shift is a popular approach for data clustering, however, the high computational complexity of the mean shift procedure limits its practical applications in high dimensional and large data set clustering. In this paper, we propose an efficient method that allows mean shift clustering performed on large data set containing tens of millions of points at interactive rate. The key in our method is a new scheme for approximating mean shift procedure using a greatly reduced feature space. This reduced feature space is adaptive clustering of the original data set, and is generated by applying adaptive KD‐tree in a high‐dimensional affinity space. The proposed method significantly reduces the computational cost while obtaining almost the same clustering results as the standard mean shift procedure. We present several kinds of data clustering applications to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method, including image and video segmentation, static geometry model and time‐varying sequences segmentation.
Factors Associated with Visceral Fat Loss in Response to a Multifaceted Weight Loss Intervention

Background Visceral adipose tissue is more metabolically active than other fat depots and is more closely associated with obesity-related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, than indicators of obesity, such as body mass index. Across various strategies to promote weight loss, including energy-reduced diet and exercise, variable effects on VAT compared to loss of total body fat have been reported. Methods To examine the effect of a behavioral weight loss intervention using portion-controlled prepackaged entrées on VAT, we examined data and measurements from overweight/obese men and women (N=183) who were assigned to a weight loss intervention and prescribed a reduced-energy diet with either portion-controlled prepackaged entrées or self-selected meals in a randomized clinical trial. VAT was estimated with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry at baseline and study end (12 weeks). Results VAT loss was greater for the prepackaged entrees group (p=0.02), with an average loss of 29% compared to an average loss of 19% among participants consuming self-selected meals. VAT (mean [SEM]) was 1651 (71) g and 1546 (157) g at baseline and 1234 (59) g and 1278 (118) g at study end in the prepackaged entrees and self-selected meal groups, respectively. Greater VAT loss was associated with higher baseline weight and VAT, and greater weight loss, but not associated with age or physical activity. Conclusion Prescribing portion-controlled prepackaged entrees in a behavioral weight loss intervention promotes a reduction in VAT, which should promote improved metabolic profile and reduced cardiovascular disease risk.
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern of Escherichia coli from Patients with Urinary Tract Infections in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is one of the most common bacterial infections in humans affecting all age groups and both genders in the community and hospital (Tekin et al., 2012) after respiratory tract infection (Tekin et al., 2012; Sobel, 2000). UTIs occur in both men and women, clinical studies suggest that the overall prevalence of UTI is higher in women. Uncomplicated UTIs in healthy women have an incidence of 50/1000/year (De Backer et al., 2008). An estimated 50% of women experience at least one episode of UTI at some point in their lifetime and between 20% and 40% of women have recurrent episodes. 20% of all UTIs occur in men (Rock et al., 2007; Vasquez and Hand, 2004; Pearle et al., 2007).
Emotion and Appraisal Profiles of the Needs for Competence and Relatedness

This study examined the emotion and appraisal correlates of the needs for Competence and Relatedness. Using experience-sampling, fluctuations of competence and relatedness throughout a day's period were found to correspond to fluctuations in emotions and appraisals in ways theoretically consistent with the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000). Each need was related in specific ways to the six emotions examined (anger, sadness, fear, guilt, shame, and joy) and, more interesting, was characterized by a specific appraisal-profile. Implications of these findings for needs processes are discussed.
Variation in the microbiome of the urogenital tract of Chlamydia-free female koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) with and without ‘wet bottom’

Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) are iconic Australian marsupials currently threatened by several processes, including infectious diseases and ecological disruption. Infection with Chlamydia pecorum, is considered a key driver of population decline. The clinical sign of ‘wet bottom’, a staining of the rump associated with urinary incontinence, is often caused by chlamydial urinary tract infections. However, wet bottom has been recorded in koalas free of C. pecorum, suggesting other causative agents in those individuals. We used 16S rRNA diversity profiling to investigate the microbiome of the urogenital tract of ten female koalas in order to identify potential causative agents of wet bottom, other than C. pecorum. Five urogenital samples were processed from koalas presenting with wet bottom and five were clinically normal. All koalas were negative for C. pecorum infection. We detected thirteen phyla across the ten samples, with Firmicutes occurring at the highest relative abundance (77.6%). The order Lactobacillales, within the Firmicutes, comprised 70.3% of the reads from all samples. After normalising reads using DESeq2 and testing for significant differences (P < 0.05), there were 25 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) more commonly found in one group over the other. The families Aerococcaceae and Tissierellaceae both had four significantly differentially abundant OTUs. These four Tissierellaceae OTUs were all significantly more abundant in koalas with wet bottom. This study provides the foundation for future investigations of causes of koala wet bottom, other than C. pecorum infection. This is of clinical relevance as wet bottom is often assumed to be caused by C. pecorum and treated accordingly. Our research highlights that other organisms may be causing wet bottom, and these potential aetiological agents need to be further investigated to fully address the problems this species faces.
Patient satisfaction and experience with anesthesia: A multicenter survey in Saudi population

Background and Objectives: Patients' satisfaction of anesthesia outcomes is a major part of the overall quality of health care. The aim of this study is to evaluate patient's satisfaction whether pre- or post-operative as well as overall impression using a multicenter prespecified survey tool. Methods: Three hundred and three patients who underwent surgery regardless the type of anesthesia were surveyed. The interview conducted face-to-face before surgery then within the first 24 h of surgery. We recorded all basic demographics of patients, the quality of postoperative symptoms control, and the impression about anesthesia team. Results: The overall satisfaction level was moderate (56.5%) with nearly half of the patients dissatisfied with their anesthetic care due to different reasons. Nausea and vomiting control was the most common postoperative reasons for dissatisfaction followed by pain control with 35.6% and 31.7%, respectively. Conclusion: Type of anesthesia, giving an informative visit to the patient, and the control of postoperative symptoms are the most important predictors of patients' satisfaction.
Evaluation of an intervention providing HPV vaccine in schools.

OBJECTIVES To conduct outcome and process evaluations of school-located HPV vaccination clinics in partnership with a local health department. METHODS Temporary clinics provided the HPV vaccine to middle school girls in Guilford County, North Carolina, in 2009-2010. RESULTS HPV vaccine initiation was higher among girls attending host schools than satellite schools (6% vs. 1%, OR = 6.56, CI = 3.99-10.78). Of the girls who initiated HPV vaccine, 80% received all 3 doses. Private insurance or federal programs paid for most vaccine doses. CONCLUSIONS Lessons learned for creating more effective school-health department partnerships include focusing on host schools and delivering several vaccines to adolescents, not just HPV vaccine alone.
Robust Low-Rank Matrix Completion by Riemannian Optimization

Low-rank matrix completion is the problem where one tries to recover a low-rank matrix from noisy observations of a subset of its entries. In this paper, we propose RMC, a new method to deal with the problem of robust low-rank matrix completion, i.e., matrix completion where a fraction of the observed entries are corrupted by non-Gaussian noise, typically outliers. The method relies on the idea of smoothing the $\ell_1$ norm and using Riemannian optimization to deal with the low-rank constraint. We first state the algorithm as the successive minimization of smooth approximations of the $\ell_1$ norm, and we analyze its convergence by showing the strict decrease of the objective function. We then perform numerical experiments on synthetic data and demonstrate the effectiveness on the proposed method on the Netflix dataset.
Intelligent ECG Signal Noise Removal using PSONN

The electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is susceptible to noise and artifacts and it is essential to remove the noise in order to support any decision making for specialist and automatic heart disorder diagnosis systems. In this paper, the use of Particle Swarm Optimization Neural Network (PSONN) for automatically identifying the cutoff frequency of ECG signal for low-pass filtering is investigated. Generally, the spectrums of the ECG signal are extracted from four classes: normal sinus rhythm, atrial fibrillation, arrhythmia and supraventricular. Baseline wander is removed using the moving median filter. A dataset of the extracted features of the ECG spectrums is used to train the PSONN. The performance of the PSONN with various parameters is investigated. The PSONN-identified cutoff frequency is applied to a Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter and the resulting signal is evaluated against the original clean and conventional filtered ECG signals. The results show that the intelligent PSONN-based system successfully denoised the ECG signals more effectively than the conventional method.
Therapeutic effects of paeonol on methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine/probenecid-induced Parkinson's disease in mice

Paeonol is a major phenolic compound of the Chinese herb, Cortex Moutan, and is known for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and antitumor properties. The present study was designed to investigate the therapeutic potential and underlying mechanisms of paeonol on a 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine/probenecid (MPTP/p)-induced mouse model of Parkinson's disease (PD). MPTP (25 mg/kg), followed by probenecid (250 mg/kg), was administered via i.p. injection for five consecutive days to induce the mouse model of PD. Paeonol (20 mg/kg) was administrated orally for 21 days. Behavior was assessed using the rotarod performance and open-field tests. Additionally, the levels of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), microglia, interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) were evaluated by immunohistochemical staining. MPTP/p-induced motor deficits were observed to be significantly improved following long-term treatment with paeonol. Paeonol treatment decreased MPTP/p-induced oxidative stress, as determined by evaluating the activity levels of superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione. Additionally, MPTP/p-induced neuroinflammation was assessed by examining the levels of microglia and IL-1β, which were significantly decreased following paeonol treatment. Paeonol treatment improved the MPTP/p-induced dopaminergic neurodegeneration, as measured by observing the increased TH level in the SNpc. Furthermore, the BDNF level was significantly elevated in the paeonol treatment group compared with mice treated with MPTP/p only. In conclusion, paeonol exerted therapeutic effects in the MPTP/p-induced mouse model of PD, possibly by decreasing the damage from oxidative stress and neuroinflammation, and by enhancing the neurotrophic effect on dopaminergic neurons. The results demonstrate paeonol as a potential novel treatment for PD.
Gene regulation mediates host specificity of a bacterial pathogen.

Many bacterial plant pathogens have a gene-for-gene relationship that determines host specificity. However, there are pathogens such as the xylem-limited bacterium Xylella fastidiosa that do not carry genes considered essential for the gene-for-gene model, such as those coding for a type III secretion system and effector molecules. Nevertheless, X. fastidiosa subspecies are host specific. A comparison of symptom development and host colonization after infection of plants with several mutant strains in two hosts, grapevines and almonds, indicated that X. fastidiosa virulence mechanisms are similar in those plants. Thus, we tested if modification of gene regulation patterns, by affecting the production of a cell-cell signalling molecule (DSF), impacted host specificity in X. fastidiosa. Results show that disruption of the rpfF locus, required for DSF synthesis, in a strain incapable of causing disease in grapevines, leads to symptom development in that host. These data are indicative that the core machinery required for the colonization of grapevines is present in that strain, and that changes in gene regulation alone can lead X. fastidiosa to exploit a novel host. The study of the evolution and mechanisms of host specificity mediated by gene regulation at the genome level could lead to important insights on the emergence of new diseases.
Hemodialysis‐induced cardiovascular disease

More than half of all deaths among end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients are due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). Cardiovascular changes secondary to renal dysfunction, including fluid overload, uremic cardiomyopathy, secondary hyperparathyroidism, anemia, altered lipid metabolism, and accumulation of gut microbiota‐derived uremic toxins like trimethylamine N‐oxidase, contribute to the high risk for CVD in the ESRD population. In addition, conventional hemodialysis (HD) itself poses myocardial stress and injury on the already compromised cardiovascular system in uremic patients. This review will provide an overview of cardiovascular changes in chronic kidney disease and ESRD, a description of reported mechanisms for HD‐induced myocardial injury, comparison of HD with other treatment modalities in the context of CVD, and possible management strategies.
Characterizing long-range correlations in DNA sequences from wavelet analysis.

The fractal scaling properties of DNA sequences are analyzed using the wavelet transform. Because the wavelet transform microscope can be made blind to the ``patchiness'' of genomic sequences, we demonstrate and quantify the existence of long-range correlations in genes containing introns and noncoding regions. Moreover, the fluctuations in the patchy landscapes of DNA walks are found to be homogeneous with Gaussian statistics.
Dietary Quercetin Supplementation in Mice Increases Skeletal Muscle PGC1α Expression, Improves Mitochondrial Function and Attenuates Insulin Resistance in a Time-Specific Manner

Aims/Hypothesis High fat diet (HFD)-induced insulin resistance (IR) is partially characterized by reduced skeletal muscle mitochondrial function and peroxisome proliferator activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC1α) expression. Our previous study showed that a high dose of the bioflavonoid quercetin exacerbated HFD-induced IR; yet, others have demonstrated that quercetin improves insulin sensitivity. The aim of this study was to investigate whether differing doses of quercetin act in a time-dependent manner to attenuate HFD-induced IR in association with improved skeletal muscle mitochondrial function and PGC1α expression. Methods C57BL/6J mice were fed HFD for 3 or 8 wks, with or without a low (50 ug/day; HF+50Q) or high (600 ug/day, HF+600Q) dose of quercetin. Whole body and metabolic phenotypes and insulin sensitivity were assessed. Skeletal muscle metabolomic analysis of acylcarnitines and PGC1α mRNA expression via qRT-PCR were measured. Results Quercetin at 50 ug/day for 8 wk attenuated HFD-induced increases in fat mass, body weight and IR and increased PGC1α expression, whereas 600 ug/day of quercetin exacerbated fat mass accumulation without altering body weight, IR or PGC1α. PGC1α expression correlated with acylcarnitine levels similarly in HF and HF+600Q; these correlations were not present in HF+50Q. At both time points, energy expenditure increased in HF+50Q and decreased in HF+600Q, independent of PGC1α and IR. Conclusions/Interpretation Chronic dietary quercetin supplementation at low but not higher dose ameliorates the development of diet-induced IR while increasing PGC1α expression in muscle, suggesting that skeletal muscle may be an important target for the insulin-sensitizing effects of a low dose of quercetin.
Holistic Workload Scaling: A New Approach to Compute Acceleration in the Cloud

Workload scaling is an approach to accelerating computation and thus improving response times by replicating the exact same request multiple times and processing it in parallel on multiple nodes and accepting the result from the first node to finish. This is not unlike a TV game show, where the same question is given to multiple contestants and the (correct) answer is accepted from the first to respond. This is different than traditional strategies for parallelization as used in, say, MapReduce workloads, where each node runs a subset of the overall workload. There are a variety of strategies that trade off metrics such as cost, utilization, performance, and interprocessor communication requirements. Performance modeling can help determine optimal approaches for different environments and goals. This is important, because poor performance can lead to application and domain-specific losses, such as e-commerce conversions and sales. Performance modeling and analysis plays an important role in designing and driving the selection of resource scaling mechanisms. Such modeling and analysis is complex due to time-varying workload arrival rates and request sizes, and even more complex in cloud environments due to the additional stochastic variation caused by performance interference due to resource sharing across co-located tenants. Moreover, little is known on how to multi-scale, i.e., dynamically and simultaneously scale resources vertically, horizontally, and through workload scaling. In this article, we first demonstrate the effectiveness of multi-scaling in reducing latency, and then discuss the performance modeling challenges, particularly for workload scaling.