Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lower toenail chromium in men with diabetes and cardiovascular disease compared with healthy men.

OBJECTIVE Chromium may improve insulin sensitivity, which can modify the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Therefore, we evaluated the association between toenail chromium and CVD in diabetic men. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We performed cross-sectional and nested case-control analyses among men aged 40-75 years within the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The cross-sectional analysis compared men with diabetes only (n = 688), diabetes with prevalent CVD (n = 198), and healthy control subjects (n = 361). The nested case-control study included 202 men with baseline diabetes who developed incident CVD and 361 matched control subjects. RESULTS Mean toenail chromium (microg/g) was 0.71 in healthy control subjects, 0.61 in diabetes-only subjects, and 0.52 in diabetic subjects with prevalent CVD (P for trend = 0.003). In the cross-sectional analysis, the multivariate odds ratio (OR) between extreme quartiles was 0.74 (95% CI 0.49-1.11; P for trend = 0.18), comparing diabetes only with healthy control subjects. A similar comparison between diabetic subjects with prevalent CVD and healthy control subjects yielded an OR of 0.45 (0.24-0.84; P for trend = 0.003). In the nested case-control study, comparing diabetic men with incident CVD with healthy control subjects, the multivariate OR was 0.65 (0.36-1.17; P for trend = 0.16) between extreme quartiles. When we combined prevalent and incident CVD cases among diabetic men and compared them with healthy control subjects, the OR was 0.62 (0.39-1.01; P for trend = 0.02) between extreme quartiles. CONCLUSIONS Our results suggest that diabetic men with CVD have lower toenail chromium than healthy control subjects. However, this study could not distinguish between the effects of chromium on diabetes and those on CVD. Long-term clinical trials are needed to determine whether chromium supplementation is beneficial for preventing CVD among diabetic patients.
Go patterns generated by retrograde analysis

1. Introduction Retrograde analysis is a qualification and generation technique of positions in two-player, complete information games. In Chess [Thomson 1986], retrograde analysis enabled researchers to generate all six-piece positions [Thomson1996] and most of seven-or-eight-piece positions, retrograde analysis was used to solve these games.
EFFECTS OF ORGANIC AND CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS ON YIELD COMPONENTS OF COMMON WHEAT ( TRITICUMAESTIVUM L . )

This experiment was laid out in order to study on effect of organic fertilizer and P fertilizer on yield and yield components of common wheat (triticumaestivum L.) cv. Chemranin Islamic Azad University, Khorramabad branch, Iran in 2015. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design based on randomized block design with three replications. Treatments were organic fertilizer (0, 10, 20 ton/ha manure and 10, 20 ton/ha compost) in main plots and phosphate fertilizer (0, 50, 75 and 100 percent based on proposed soil analyzing) in sub plot. Analysis of variance results showed that effect of organic and chemical fertilizers and interaction effect of them were significant on someyield components of common wheat. Based on the results, combined application of organic manure or vermicompot with chemical fertilizer has a better effect on yield and yield components of common wheat rather than single application of them and control treatments. Higher grain yield was obtained in 20ton/ha organic matter and 75% phosphate fertilizer recommendation treatment with the average of 5472 kg/ha as compared with control treatment (without consuming organic matter and phosphate about 3 ton/ha). Therefore, we can conclude that combined application of organic and chemical fertilizers had more efficiency because of some positive interaction between their microorganisms in soil that result to synergistic effect and laid to increase in yield components and in final grain yield. In final our results indicated that higher grain yield observed in combined application 20ton/ha organic matter and 75% chemical P fertilizer and application of combined fertilizer is better for farmer in wheat field of Khorramabad region for high yield and economic benefits in common wheat.
Analysis of Enterprise Media Server Workloads : Access Patterns , Locality , Dynamics , and Rate of Change

The main issue we address in this paper is the workload analysis of today's enterprise media servers. This analysis aims to establish a set of properties speci c for enterprise media server workloads and to compare them with well known related observations about web server workloads. We propose two new metrics to characterize the dynamics and evolution of the accesses, and the rate of change in the site access pattern, and illustrate them with the analysis of two di erent enterprise media server workloads collected over a signi cant period of time. Another goal of our workload analysis study is to develop a media server log analysis tool, called MediaMetrics, that produces a media server tra c access pro le and its system resource usage in a way useful to service providers.
Morphometric study of mesenteric arteries from genetically hypertensive Dahl strain rats.

Morphometric measurements on different arteries at the light-microscopic level and ultrastructural studies of the mesenteric arteries were carried out in salt-sensitive (DS) and salt-resistant (DR) Dahl rats given a high-salt (8%) or low-salt (0.4%) diet for 6-7 weeks. Hypertension was produced in DS rats given high-salt diet (DS-H), while only moderate hypertension was produced in DS rats given low-salt diet (DS-L). Blood pressure in DR rats given high salt (DR-H) and low salt (DR-L), however, was normal. Cross-sectional area of the media was increased significantly in the superior mesenteric artery (an elastic artery), large mesenteric arteries (muscular arteries) and small mesenteric arteries (small muscular arteries or arterioles) from DS-H rats. In all the vessel types, this increase was positively correlated with the increase in blood pressure. In the superior mesenteric artery, medial wall increase was probably due to an increase in intercellular space, and/or hypertrophy of the smooth muscle cells. Similarly, increase in the media of small mesenteric arteries was probably due to hypertrophy of the smooth muscle cells. In contrast, increase in the media of large mesenteric arteries was related to hyperplasia of the smooth muscle cells. Damage to endothelial cells was noted in the 3 vessel types from DS-H. Intimal lesions composed of myointimal cells were found in the superior mesenteric arteries of all the rat groups. Our results showed that the incidence of these lesion formations was higher in the following order: DS-H greater than DS-L greater than DR-H greater than DR-L, suggesting that the degree of hypertension (DS vs. DR rats) and the amount of salt in the diet (DR-H vs. DR-L) may be some of the factors contributing to the development of these lesions. We conclude that hyperreactivity of the arteries due to increase in medial smooth muscle mass (e.g. muscular arteries), and/or probably impaired relaxation capability of the arteries in the DS-H rats due to endothelial cell damage, may contribute to the elevation of BP in the Dahl model of genetic hypertension.
Channel Estimation and Linear Precoding in Multiuser Multiple-Antenna TDD Systems

Traditional approaches in the analysis of downlink systems decouple the precoding and the channel estimation problems. However, in cellular systems with mobile users, these two problems are, in fact, tightly coupled. In this paper, this coupling is explicitly studied by accounting for the channel training overhead and estimation error while determining the overall system throughput. This paper studies the problem of utilizing imperfect channel estimates for efficient linear precoding and user selection. It presents precoding methods that take into account the degree of channel estimation error. Information-theoretic lower and upper bounds are derived to evaluate the performance of these precoding methods. In typical scenarios, these bounds are close.
Deformable Medical Image Registration Using a Randomly-Initialized CNN as Regularization Prior

We present deformable unsupervised medical image registration using a randomly-initialized deep convolutional neural network (CNN) as regularization prior. Conventional registration methods predict a transformation by minimizing dissimilarities between an image pair. The minimization is usually regularized with manually engineered priors, which limits the potential of the registration. By learning transformation priors from a large dataset, CNNs have achieved great success in deformable registration. However, learned methods are restricted to domain-specific data and the required amounts of medical data are difficult to obtain. Our approach uses the idea of deep image priors to combine convolutional networks with conventional registration methods based on manually engineered priors. The proposed method is applied to brain MRI scans. We show that our approach registers image pairs with state-of-the-art accuracy by providing dense, pixel-wise correspondence maps. It does not rely on prior training and is therefore not limited to a specific image domain.
Performance of Sludge Palm Oil Combustion Using Waste Oil Burner

Article history: Received 14 April 2018 Received in revised form 25 June 2018 Accepted 4 July 2018 Available online 2 September 2018 Sludge palm oil (SPO) is one of the wastes produced during the activity of palm oil milling process. The most common method to synthesise biodiesel from SPO is through a chemical process known as esterification and transesterification. The chemical process required additional cost and time. Hence this paper aims to evaluate the utilisation of SPO directly as fuel in burner system and compare with conventional diesel. The SPO studied contain free fatty acid (FFA) content about 30 %, density and viscosity at 0.982 g/cm3 and 67.76 mm2/s respectively which is higher than diesel. The maximum combustion temperature achieved was 869 °C lower than diesel, 891 °C. Lower CO, CO2 and NOx emission during combustion compare to diesel around 34 %, 6% and 90 % reduction respectively. The low combustion temperature, flame length and emission due to the high viscosity of SPO compare to diesel. Fuel spray and flow was affected by viscosity which lowers the combustibility and consumption of SPO. SPO show great properties and combustion performance as fuel for burner system and improvement can make it even better.
Mind the Gap: Disentangling Credit and Liquidity in Risk Spreads

Wide and volatile interest rate spreads in the 2007-2009 financial crisis could represent concerns over asset liquidity or issuer solvency. To precisely identify the contribution of these two effects on sovereign bond and interbank spreads, I propose a model-free measure of euro-area market liquidity, and a measure of near-term interbank default risk. I find that credit and liquidity are independently important. In interbank risk spreads, the role of liquidity dominates, while the importance in sovereign bond yield spreads varies substantially by country and maturity. To better understand the liquidity channel that is captured by the new liquidity measure, but is understated by extant measures, I test the pricing of liquidity risk; the possibility that liquidity could be negatively correlated with marginal utility. I exploit the variation in returns over countries, maturities and time, and find that liquidity euro-area sovereign bond risk premia are large and significant.
Protective immunity to heartwater (Cowdria ruminantium infection) is acquired after vaccination with in vitro-attenuated rickettsiae

A Senegalese (S) stock of Cowdria ruminantium was passaged on bovine umbilical endothelial cells with an average interval of 13.9 days (range, 8 to 34 days) between passages. The virulence of infected bovine umbilical endothelial cultures was tested in susceptible goats and sheep by intravenous inoculation of culture supernatant from passages 2 (51 days in vitro), 3 (69 days), 11 (229 days), 14 (264 days), and 16 (291 days). Both animals inoculated with passages 2 and 3 died of heartwater. However, clinical reactions were completely absent in goats and sheep that were inoculated with C. ruminantium from passages 11, 14, and 16. High antibody titers were detected, with immunofluorescence in all vaccinated animals, and a strong signal was found against a 32-kDa Cowdria protein in Western blots (immunoblots). Moreover, the vaccinated animals proved solidly immune when challenged with virulent Cowdria sp. -infected blood stabilate (S strain), whereas all control goats died. No attenuation of a second Cowdria stock (W) was achieved after 226 days in culture, at which time passage 17 was tested in a recipient goat which died of typical heartwater. This is the first report of vaccination with live attenuated C. ruminantium. These attenuated organisms may replace vaccination with virulent blood currently in use in areas where heartwater is endemic.
An empirical assessment of the link between Industrial Upgrading and firm innovativeness in China

Industrial upgrading (IU), is the stepwise development of manufacturing capabilities from simple to more complicated tasks. IU has proven to be a highly effective approach for late entrants in catching up with incumbents. In essence, IU relies on a sequential and paced approach to organizational learning to develop progressively more complicated industryestablished practices. Whether this systematic learning of operational processes would allow latecomers to eventually learn to exploratively innovate is yet to be investigated. We propose and test a series of hypotheses using path analysis on a sample of 535 Chinese manufacturers. Supporting the notion of the cumulative sand cone model of manufacturing capabilities, we show that firms indeed progress from lower rungs of manufacturing and design to higher rungs. Furthermore, the results suggest that IU has a positive association with exploitative innovations. In turn, such exploitative innovations partially mediate the effect of IU on explorative innovations.
THE IMPACT OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ONCONSUMERS ' ADOPTION OF PRODUCT INNOVATION

Today, innovation is one of the main concerns of companies’ senior managers. In the new age, organizations on the one hand should be equipped to innovation system in order to preserve their own existence, and on the other hand should adopt methods for production and supply of goods to make their goods and services accepted by the users. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of individual differences (variety-seeking, risk aversion, and consumer product knowledge) on consumer adoption and attitudes towards innovation in electronic products. This research is applied in terms of objective, and descriptive-survey based on data collection method. The main data collection tool is questionnaire. The statistical population includes electronic products consumers in Rasht city, and using available non-probability sampling method, the sample includes 384 persons. Experts’ views are used to examine the validity of the questionnaire and Cronbach's alpha is used to examine its reliability. Data analysis is conducted in descriptive and inferential statistics. Since research data are non-normal, structural equation modeling in PLS method is used to analyze the data. The results show that varietyseeking and consumer product knowledge affect consumer attitudes towards product innovation. However, effect of risk aversion on consumer attitudes towards product innovation is rejected. The impact of attitude on consumer adoption is also confirmed.
A Candidate Brightest Protocluster Galaxy at z = 3.03

We report the discovery of a bright (mR = 22.2) Lyman break galaxy at z = 3.03 that appears to be a massive system in a late stage of merging. Deep imaging reveals multiple peaks in the flux profile with angular separations of ~0.8″ (~20 h−1 kpc, comoving). In addition, high signal-to-noise ratio rest-frame UV spectroscopy shows evidence for at least three individual components based on stellar photospheric and ISM absorption lines. We find a 1D velocity dispersion of σ ∼ 450 km s−1 for the three strongest components. Both the dynamics and high luminosity as well as our analysis of a ΛCDM numerical simulation suggest that this is a system with halo mass M ∼ 1013 M☉. We find in the simulation that all halos of this mass at z = 3 contain massive subhalos that agree with the observed component properties. These halos typically evolve into M ∼ 1014–1014.5 M☉ halos in groups and clusters by z = 0. This discovery provides a rare opportunity to study the properties and components of a z ∼ 3 system that is likely to be the progenitor of a brightest cluster galaxy.
Central Nervous System Involvement in Wegener Granulomatosis

Abstract: Wegener granulomatosis (WG) is an antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA)-associated granulomatous vasculitis of small and medium-sized vessels. This vasculitis involves mainly the upper and lower respiratory tracts and kidneys, although WG may affect any organ. Central nervous system (CNS) involvement is an uncommon manifestation of WG, reported in 7%-11% of patients. Three major mechanisms have been incriminated as causing CNS disease in WG: contiguous invasion of granuloma from extracranial sites, remote intracranial granuloma, and CNS vasculitis. Herein we describe 6 patients with WG-related CNS involvement, 2 of whom had chronic hypertrophic pachymeningitis, 3 with pituitary involvement, and 1 with cerebral vasculitis. CNS involvement was present at disease onset in 2 patients and occurred 5-18 years after WG diagnosis in the remaining 4. Based on these observations and a review of the literature, we discuss the pathogenic mechanisms, clinical features, imaging findings, treatment, and outcome of meningeal, pituitary, and vascular involvement, with an emphasis on differential diagnoses, prognosis, and therapeutic management of WG-related CNS involvement. Abbreviations: ANCA = antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody, C-ANCA = cytoplasmic ANCA, CHP = chronic hypertrophic pachymeningitis, CNS = central nervous system, CS = corticosteroids, CSF = cerebrospinal fluid, CYC = cyclophosphamide,DI = diabetes insipidus, ELISA= enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, ENT = ear, nose and throat, ESR = erythrocyte sedimentation rate, PR3 = proteinase 3, WG = Wegener granulomatosis.
Endovascular strategy or open repair for ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm: one-year outcomes from the IMPROVE randomized trial

Aims To report the longer term outcomes following either a strategy of endovascular repair first or open repair of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, which are necessary for both patient and clinical decision-making. Methods and results This pragmatic multicentre (29 UK and 1 Canada) trial randomized 613 patients with a clinical diagnosis of ruptured aneurysm; 316 to an endovascular first strategy (if aortic morphology is suitable, open repair if not) and 297 to open repair. The principal 1-year outcome was mortality; secondary outcomes were re-interventions, hospital discharge, health-related quality-of-life (QoL) (EQ-5D), costs, Quality-Adjusted-Life-Years (QALYs), and cost-effectiveness [incremental net benefit (INB)]. At 1 year, all-cause mortality was 41.1% for the endovascular strategy group and 45.1% for the open repair group, odds ratio 0.85 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.62, 1.17], P = 0.325, with similar re-intervention rates in each group. The endovascular strategy group and open repair groups had average total hospital stays of 17 and 26 days, respectively, P < 0.001. Patients surviving rupture had higher average EQ-5D utility scores in the endovascular strategy vs. open repair groups, mean differences 0.087 (95% CI 0.017, 0.158), 0.068 (95% CI −0.004, 0.140) at 3 and 12 months, respectively. There were indications that QALYs were higher and costs lower for the endovascular first strategy, combining to give an INB of £3877 (95% CI £253, £7408) or €4356 (95% CI €284, €8323). Conclusion An endovascular first strategy for management of ruptured aneurysms does not offer a survival benefit over 1 year but offers patients faster discharge with better QoL and is cost-effective. Clinical trial registration ISRCTN 48334791.
Memory function and serotonin transporter promoter gene polymorphism in ecstasy (MDMA) users

Although 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ecstasy) has been shown to damage brain serotonin (5-HT) neurons in animals and possibly humans, little is known about the long-term consequences of MDMA-induced 5-HT neurotoxic lesions on functions in which 5-HT is involved, such as cognitive function. Because 5-HT transporters play a key element in the regulation of synaptic 5-HT transmission it may be important to control for the potential covariance effect of a polymorphism in the 5-HT transporter promoter gene region (5-HTTLPR) when studying the effects of MDMA as well as cognitive functioning. The aim of the study was to investigate the effects of moderate and heavy MDMA use on cognitive function, as well as the effects of longterm abstention from MDMA, in subjects genotyped for 5-HTTLPR. A second aim of the study was to determine whether these effects differ for females and males. Fifteen moderate MDMA users (55 lifetime tablets), 22 heavy MDMA β users (δ 55 lifetime tablets), 16 ex-MDMA β users (last tablet δ 1 year ago) and 13 controls were compared on a battery of neuropsychological tests. DNA from peripheral nuclear blood cells was genotyped for 5-HTTLPR using standard polymerase chain reaction methods. A signi.cant group effect was observed only on memory function tasks (p 0.04) but not on reaction times (p 0.61) or attention/ executive functioning (p 0.59). Heavy and ex-MDMA β users performed signi.cantly poorer on memory tasks than controls. In contrast, no evidence of memory impairment was observed in moderate MDMA users. No signi.cant effect of 5-HTTLPR or gender was observed. While the use of MDMA in quantities that may be considered ëmoderateí is not associated with impaired memory functioning, heavy use of MDMA use may lead to long lasting memory impairments. No effect of 5-HTTLPR or gender on memory function or MDMA use was observed.
Colorectal cancer and genetic polymorphisms of CYP1A1, GSTM1 and GSTT1: A case‐control study in the Grampian region of Scotland

Cytochrome P‐450 CYP1A1 is involved in the metabolism of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are derived from meat intake and tobacco smoking. Expression of the CYP1A1 gene is induced by compounds present in cruciferous vegetables. The glutathione S‐transferases play a central role in the detoxification of carcinogens, including PAHs. We investigated the association between colorectal cancer and three variants (CYP1A1*2A, CYP1A1*2C, CYP1A1*4) of the CYP1A1 gene, and homozygosity for the null deletion of the GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes, and the joint effects of these genotypes and smoking, meat intake and intake of green leafy vegetables in a population‐based study of 264 cases and 408 controls in Northeast Scotland. There was an inverse association with the CYP1A1*4 (m4) variant (OR 0.3, 95% CI 0.13–0.70). The OR for the CYP1A1*2C (m2) variant was 1.3 (95% CI 0.59–2.91), which is similar to a combined estimate for previous studies (OR 1.2, 95% CI 0.95–1.41). We observed no association with the CYP1A1*2A (m1) variant, or the GSTM1 and GSTT1 polymorphisms. Significant interactions between all 3 CYP1A1 variants and meat intake, and between the m1 and m2 variants and intake of green leafy vegetables, were observed. There was no evidence of interaction between CYP1A1 and smoking, and no evidence of interaction between the GSTM1 or GSTT1 polymorphisms and smoking, meat intake, green leafy vegetable intake, CYP1A1 variants or each other. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.