Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolic syndrome , cognitive performance and dementia : A review

Obesity, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance have been associated with an increased risk of cognitive impairment or dementia. Together, these risk factors cluster as metabolic syndrome (MetS). The first aim of this systematic review was to identify and critically review studies assessing associations between MetS and cognition, with consideration given both to early cognitive changes and the severe endpoint of dementia. The second aim was to identify and discuss limitations in the literature and subsequent difficulties in drawing conclusions from research to date. Nine studies that assessed cognitive performance and ten studies that estimated incidence of dementia in relation to MetS were identified and appraised. Limitations in the literature include the lack of standardized nomenclature for cognitive variables, the use of multiple MetS definitions, and the difficulty in differentiating the adverse effects of multiple risk factors on cognition. 10
Nitrous Oxide Reductase Genes (nosZ) of Denitrifying Microbial Populations in Soil and the Earthworm Gut Are Phylogenetically Similar

ABSTRACT Earthworms emit nitrous oxide (N2O) and dinitrogen (N2). It has been hypothesized that the in situ conditions of the earthworm gut activates ingested soil denitrifiers during gut passage and leads to these in vivo emissions (M. A. Horn, A. Schramm, and H. L. Drake, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69:1662-1669, 2003). This hypothesis implies that the denitrifiers in the earthworm gut are not endemic to the gut but rather are regular members of the soil denitrifier population. To test this hypothesis, the denitrifier populations of gut and soil from three different sites were comparatively assessed by sequence analysis of nosZ, the gene for the terminal enzyme in denitrification, N2O reductase. A total of 182 and 180 nosZ sequences were retrieved from gut and soil, respectively; coverage of gene libraries was 79 to 100%. Many of the nosZ sequences were heretofore unknown, clustered with known soil-derived sequences, or were related to N2O reductases of the genera Bradyrhizobium, Brucella, Dechloromonas, Flavobacterium, Pseudomonas, Ralstonia, and Sinorhizobium. Although the numbers of estimators for genotype richness of sequence data from the gut were higher than those of soil, only one gut-derived nosZ sequence did not group phylogenetically with any of the soil-derived nosZ sequences. Thus, the phylogenies of nosZ from gut and soil were not dissimilar, indicating that gut denitrifiers are soil derived.
Fast and Furious (and Dirty): How Asymmetric Regulation May Hinder Environmental Policy

In the first year after the inception of the Swedish Green Car Rebate (GCR), green cars had carved over 25 percent market share in the new vehicle market, an effect of unprecedented scale if compared to recent policies incentivizing the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles. By awarding vehicles satisfying certain emission criteria a rebate, but giving alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs, those able to run on alternative fuels) a more lenient treatment than regular fuel vehicles (RFVs, those able to run only on gasoline and diesel), the GCR created a regulatory loophole which led carmakers to increase the emissions of AFVs as compared to RFVs. This paper examines the impact of regulation on market developments comparing CO2 emissions (and fuel economy) of AFVs and RFVs. Once carmakers adjust their product lines to the policy, CO2 emissions of AFVs increased significantly as compared to those of RFVs, thus undermining the very objectives of the GCR.
Role of the carbohydrate domains of glycophorins as erythrocyte receptors for invasion by Plasmodium falciparum merozoites

Solubilized preparations of purified glycophorins and specific domains of these molecules were assessed for their effects as inhibitors of Plasmodium falciparum invasion of human erythrocytes in vitro. The ability of newly invaded merozoites to continue developing and incorporating [3H]hypoxanthine during a 24-h period after their invasion was used as an assay for merozoite invasion. Glycophorins A, B, and C were found to be equally effective as inhibitors. Previous studies had shown N-acetylglucosamine, a sugar component of glycophorins A and C but not B, to be an effective inhibitor. Accordingly, molecular domains common to all of the glycophorins were further assessed. Sialic acid was shown to act almost as effectively as N-acetylglucosamine, presumably because of the structural similarities between these sugars. The inhibitory ability of sialic acid is considerably enhanced when presented to the parasite in a clustered form, as in an oligosaccharide. The acetyl group of these sugars does not appear to play an essential role in this inhibition. How the P. falciparum merozoite recognizes and interacts with the sugar domains of the glycophorin molecule remains to be determined.
Rapid and consistent evolution of colistin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa during morbidostat culture

Colistin is a last resort antibiotic commonly used against multidrug-resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To investigate the potential for in-situ evolution of resistance against colistin and map the molecular targets of colistin resistance, we exposed two P. aeruginosa isolates to colistin using a continuous culture device known as morbidostat. Colistin resistance emerged within two weeks along with highly stereotypic yet strain specific mutation patterns. The majority of mutations hit the prmAB two component signaling system and genes involved in lipopolysaccharide synthesis, including lpxC, pmrE, and migA. In seven out of 18 cultures, we observed mutations in mutS along with a mutator phenotype that seemed to facilitate resistance evolution.
Steady-State Scheduling

In this chapter, we propose a general framework for deriving efficient (polynomial-time) algorithms for steady-state scheduling. In the context of large scale platforms (grids or volunteer computing platforms), we show that the characteristics of the resources (volatility, heterogeneity) limit their use to large regular applications. Therefore, steady-state scheduling, that consists in optimizing the number of tasks that can be processed per time unit when the number of tasks becomes arbitrarily large, is a reasonable setting. In this chapter, we concentrate on bag-of-tasks and collective communications (broadcast and multicast) applications and we prove that efficient schedules can be derived in the context of steady-state scheduling, under realistic communication models that take into account both the heterogeneity of the resources and the contentions in the communication network. 8.
Improving memory Bank-Level Parallelism in the presence of prefetching

DRAM systems achieve high performance when all DRAM banks are busy servicing useful memory requests. The degree to which DRAM banks are busy is called DRAM Bank-Level Parallelism (BLP). This paper proposes two new cost-effective mechanisms to maximize DRAM BLP. BLP-Aware Prefetch Issue (BAPI) issues prefetches into the on-chip Miss Status Holding Registers (MSHRs) associated with each core in a multi-core system such that the requests can be serviced in parallel in different DRAM banks. BLP-Preserving Multi-core Request Issue (BPMRI) does the actual loading of the DRAM controller's request buffers so that requests from the same core can be serviced in parallel, minimizing the serialization of each core's concurrent requests. When combined, BAPI and BPMRI improve system performance by 11.7% on a 4-core CMP system for a wide variety of multiprogrammed workloads. BAPI and BPMRI also complement various existing DRAM scheduling and prefetching algorithms, and can be used in conjunction with them.
Early Assessments of Dysphagia and Aspiration Risk in Acute Stroke Patients

Background and Purpose— Dysphagia is common after stroke and is a marker of poor prognosis. Early identification is important. This article reviews the merits and limitations of various assessment methods available to clinicians. Methods— An electronic database search was performed of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane database using such terms as stroke, aspiration, dysphagia, and assessment; extensive manual searching of articles was also conducted. Results— Bedside tests are safe, relatively straightforward, and easily repeated but have variable sensitivity (42% to 92%), specificity (59% to 91%), and interrater reliability (&kgr;=0 to 1.0). They are also poor at detecting silent aspiration. Videofluoroscopy gives anatomic and functional information and allows testing of therapeutic techniques. However, swallowing is assessed under ideal conditions that are different from clinical settings, and reliability is often poor (&kgr;=0 to 0.75) in the absence of assessor training. Fiberoptic endoscopy allows swallow assessment and sensory testing but requires specialized staff and equipment. Oxygen desaturation during swallowing may be predictive of aspiration (sensitivity, 73% to 87%; specificity, 39% to 87%) but is more useful in combination with bedside testing than in isolation. Other methods of swallow testing are invasive and require specialized staff and equipment. Conclusions— Although bedside tests remain an important early screening tool for dysphagia and aspiration risk, further refinements are needed to improve their accuracy.
WITHDRAWN: Antivirals for the common cold.

BACKGROUND The common cold is a ubiquitous short and usually mild illness for which preventive and treatment interventions have been under development since the mid-40s. As our understanding of the disease has increased, more experimental antivirals have been developed. This review attempts to draw together experimental evidence of the effects of these compounds. OBJECTIVES To identify, assemble, evaluate and (if possible) synthesise the results of published and unpublished randomised controlled trials of the effects of antivirals to prevent or minimise the impact of the common cold. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched electronic databases, corresponded with researchers and handsearched the archives of the MRC's Common Cold Unit (CCU). SELECTION CRITERIA We included original reports of randomised and quasi-randomised trials assessing the effects of antivirals on volunteers artificially infected and in individuals exposed to colds in the community. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS We included 241 studies assessing the effects of Interferons, interferon-inducers and other antivirals on experimental and naturally occurring common colds, contained in 230 reports. We structured our comparisons by experimental or community setting. MAIN RESULTS Although intranasal interferons have high preventive efficacy against experimental colds (protective efficacy 46%, 37% to 54%) and to a lesser extent against natural colds (protective efficacy 24%, 21% to 27%) and are also significantly more effective than placebo in attenuating the course of experimental colds (WMD 15.90, 13.42 to 18.38), their safety profile makes compliance with their use difficult. For example, prolonged prevention of community colds with interferons causes blood-tinged nasal discharge (OR 4.52, 3.78 to 5.41). Dipyridamole (protective efficacy against natural colds 49%, 30% to 62%), ICI 130, 685 (protective efficacy against experimental colds 58%, 35% to 74% ), Impulsin (palmitate) (protective efficacy against natural colds 44%, CI 35% to 52% ) and Pleconaril (protective efficacy against experimental colds 71%, 15% to 90% ) appear to have important antiviral properties and are well-tolerated. The evidence of effectiveness of other compounds in the treatment of experimental or natural colds is sparse. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS There are no licensed effective antivirals for the common cold. Because prolonged intranasal administration causes a clinical picture which is not distinguishable from the common cold, interferons have no place in everyday use. Further assessment of the effects of dipyridamole, ICI 130, 685, Impulsin (palmitate) and Pleconaril in preventing the common cold should be carried out. Given the multi-agent nature of the causes of the common cold, future research efforts should focus on non virus-specific compounds.
Epithelial PD-L2 Expression Marks Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma

Esophageal adenocarcinoma and Barrett's esophagus epithelial cells commonly express PD-L2 in the setting of a Th2-skewed chronic inflammatory environment. Additional tumors express PD-L1 in immune cells. Evaluation of PD-1 inhibition and PD-L2 as biomarkers is warranted. Esophageal adenocarcinoma is an increasingly common disease with a dismal 5-year survival rate of 10% to 15%. In the first systematic evaluation of the PD-1 pathway in esophageal adenocarcinoma, we identify expression of PD-L2 in cancer cells in 51.7% of esophageal adenocarcinomas. Epithelial PD-L1 was expressed on only 2% of cases, although PD-L1+ immune cells were observed in 18% of esophageal adenocarcinomas. We also evaluated expression in the precursor lesion of esophageal adenocarcinoma, Barrett's esophagus, which emerges following gastric reflux–induced esophageal inflammation, and found PD-L2 expression in Barrett's esophagus but not in non–Barrett's esophagus esophagitis. Because the progression from squamous esophagitis to Barrett's esophagus is accompanied by a transition from a TH1 to TH2 immune response, we hypothesized that the TH2 cytokines IL4/IL13 could contribute to PD-L2 induction. We confirmed that these cytokines can augment PD-L2 expression in esophageal adenocarcinoma cell lines. These results suggest that the inflammatory environment in Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma may contribute to the expression of PD-L2. Furthermore, the potential for PD-1 receptor blockade to be effective in esophageal adenocarcinomas with epithelial PD-L2 or immune cell PD-L1 expression should be evaluated in clinical trials. Cancer Immunol Res; 3(10); 1123–9. ©2015 AACR.
Inter-Relay Cooperation: A New Paradigm for Enhanced Relay-Assisted FSO Communications

In this paper, we study the effect of the presence of inter-relay connections on the performance of cooperative free-space optical (FSO) networks. Unlike the existing literature where conventional cooperation in FSO systems is realized in two steps through source-relay (S-R) followed by relay-destination (R-D) communications, we propose and analyze a novel three-stage cooperation methodology. The proposed scheme is based on exploiting the potential presence of FSO links between neighboring relays for the sake of complementing the S-R and R-D steps with an intermediate inter-relay communication step that serves in enhancing the fidelity of signal reconstruction at the relays before retransmitting to the destination. For the proposed scheme, we derive closed-form expressions for the conditional error probability with any number of relays. We also propose a closed-form power allocation strategy (PAS) in the case where the background noise is negligible. This PAS is based on minimizing an asymptotic upper-bound on the conditional error probability by applying the method of Lagrange multipliers with the solution satisfying the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. Results show that the presence of inter-relay connections, associated with an appropriate cooperation scheme and PAS, can significantly boost the performance of relay-assisted FSO systems.
Performance Studies of Integrated Network Scenarios in a Hospital Environment

Hospital network is evolving towards a more integrated approach by interconnecting wireless technologies into backbone networks. Although various integrated network scenarios have been published in the networking literature, a generic hospital model has not yet been fully explored and it remains a challenging topic in practice. One of the problems encountered by network practitioners is the seamless integration of network components into healthcare delivery. A good understanding of the performance of integrated networks is required for efficient design and deployment of such technologies in hospital environments. This research paper discuss on the modelling and evaluation of integrated network scenarios in hospital environments. The impact of traffic types e.g. data, voice and video, traffic load, network size and signal strength on network performance is investigated by simulation. Three piloted case studies look at client performance in radiology Accident and Emergency A & E and Intensive Care Unit ICU scenarios. Each scenario reflects the need for various traffic types that end up distinct network behaviours. In the radiology scenario, email and File Transfer Protocol FTP traffic is found to perform well for medium-to-large networks. In the A & E scenario, Voice over Internet Protocol VoIP traffic is shown to generate very limited jitter and data loss. The performance is aligned with the Quality of Service QoS requirements. In the ICU scenario, the performance of video conference degrades with network size, thus, a QoS-enabled device is recommended to reduce the packet delay and data loss. IEEE 802.11a suits in hospital environment because it mitigates interference on the 2.4GHz band where most wireless devices operate.
The host of GRB 030323 at z=3.372: A very high column density DLA system with a low metallicity

We present photometry and spectroscopy of the afterglow of GRB 030323. VLT spectra of the afterglow show damped Lyα (DLA) absorption and low- and high-ionization lines at a redshift z = 3.3718 ± 0.0005. The inferred neutral hy- drogen column density, log N(Hi) = 21.90 ± 0.07, is larger than any (GRB- or QSO-) DLA H  column density inferred directly from Lyα in absorption. From the afterglow photometry, we derive a conservative upper limit to the host-galaxy extinction: AV < 0.5 mag. The iron abundance is (Fe/H) = −1.47 ± 0.11, while the metallicity of the gas as measured from sulphur is (S/H) = −1.26 ± 0.20. We derive an upper limit on the H2 molecular fraction of 2N(H2)/(2N(H2) + N(Hi)) < 10 −6 . I n the Lyα trough, a Lyα emission line is detected, which corresponds to a star-formation rate (not corrected for dust extinction) of roughly 1 Myr −1 . All these results are consistent with the host galaxy of GRB 030323 consisting of a low metallicity gas with a low dust content. We detect fine-structure lines of silicon, Si *, which have never been clearly detected in QSO-DLAs; this suggests that these lines are produced in the vicinity of the GRB explosion site. Under the assumption that these fine-structure levels are populated by particle collisions, we estimate the H  volume density to be nHi = 10 2 −10 4 cm −3 . H ST/ACS imaging 4 months after the burst shows an extended AB(F606W) = 28.0 ± 0.3 mag object at a distance of 0.
Hypoxia sensing in cryptococcus neoformans: biofilm-like adaptation for dormancy?

BACKGROUND Cryptococcus neoformans is an obligate aerobic pathogenic yeast causing lung infection typically followed by spread to the central nervous system. During pathogenesis, it relies on well-established virulence factors. This review focuses on the emerging role of cryptococcal adaptation to hypoxia in pathogenesis. METHODS AND RESULTS We examined the MedLine database for information on the cryptococcal hypoxia response. While several recent papers describe components of two presumable hypoxia-sensing pathways including description of their target genes, a link of this system to the hypoxic tuning of proliferation is still missing. In addition, an interpretation of this knowledge in respect to the general picture of microbial pathogenesis is lacking. CONCLUSIONS There seems to be a striking parallel between biofilm formation in bacteria, which results in chronic dormant infection with the potential for acute outbreaks, and the dormant state of primary infection followed by secondary outbreaks in C. neoformans. We propose a hypothesis that cryptococcal response to hypoxia might be the driving force for developing a state of dormant infection which is characterized by slowed proliferation and extensive changes in transcriptome and phenotype. This state enables C. neoformans to survive in host and possibly develop life-threatening acute outbreaks later. Hence, conventional well-aerated planktonic culture is not a good in vitro model for studying the pathogenesis of infection and we advocate the development of a more adequate model. Our further conclusion is that the ability of the immune system and antifungal agents to cope with hypoxia-adapted cells is crucial for the successful eradication of cryptococcal infection.
Safe composition levels of transgenic crops assessed via a clinical medicine model

Substantial equivalence has become established as a foundation concept in the safety evaluation of transgenic crops. In the case of a food and feed crop, no single variety is considered the standard for safety or nutrition, so the substantial equivalence of transgenic crops is investigated relative to the array of commercial crop varieties with a history of safe consumption. Although used extensively in clinical medicine to compare new generic drugs with brand‐name drugs, equivalence limits are shown to be a poor model for comparing transgenic crops with an array of reference crop varieties. We suggest an alternate model, also analogous to that used in clinical medicine, where reference intervals are constructed for a healthy heterogeneous population. Specifically, we advocate the use of distribution‐free tolerance intervals calculated across a large amount of publicly available compositional data such as is found in the International Life Sciences Institute Crop Composition Database.