Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk factors associated with the reporting of musculoskeletal symptoms in workers at a laboratory of clinical pathology.

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted with the participation of 120 workers at a laboratory of clinical pathology, with the objective of determining the association of demographic factors, clinical and occupational case histories, individual characteristics, work-related stress and ergonomic workplace analysis with the following outcomes: musculoskeletal symptoms and absences from work associated with these symptoms reported by a questionnaire. METHODS Interviews were carried out in order to obtain demographic data, occupational case history and risk factors in workplaces. Data related to musculoskeletal symptoms and absences from work have been registered by means of an adaptation of the Nordic Questionnaire. The variables related to stress at work were based on the questionnaire of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Life and Work Conditions. According to the model prepared by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, 120 workers' workstations have been submitted for ergonomic analysis of work. RESULTS By means of multiple logistic regression, the results showed that the symptoms have been significantly associated with the previous history of rheumatic or orthopaedic disease (OR = 15.4; 95% CI, 1.7-135.7) and with movements and postures at work (OR = 13.5; 95% CI, 3.8-47.9). Absences from work due to musculoskeletal symptoms have been significantly associated with the low level of education (OR = 32.3; 95% CI, 4.9-211.8) and marital status (OR = 37.1; 95% CI, 2.3-593.9). CONCLUSIONS The symptoms have been significantly associated with a previous history of rheumatic or orthopaedic disease and with inadaequate movements and postures at work. Absences from work due to musculoskeletal symptoms have been significantly associated with the workers' low level of education and marital status.
Proteomic Changes in Rat Gastrocnemius Muscle After Botulinum Toxin A Injection

Objective To observe the changes in protein expression induced by botulinum toxin A (BoNT-A) injection and to characterize the molecular and cellular action of mechanisms of BoNT-A injection on skeletal muscles using proteomic elements as biomarkers. Methods BoNT-A was injected into left gastrocnemius muscles of 12 Sprague-Dawley rats (2 months of age) at a dosage of 5 units/kg body weight. For the controls same volume of normal saline was injected to right gastrocnemius muscle of each rat. Muscle samples were obtained at 4 time points (3 rats per time point): 3, 7, 14, and 56 day post-injection. To reveal the alterations in muscle protein, we performed 2-dimensional electrophoresis (2DE) and compared Botox group and normal saline group at each time point. Altered protein spots in 2DE were identified using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometer (MALDI-TOF MS) proteomics analysis. Results Compared with normal saline group, 46 protein spots showed changed protein expression. Twelve protein spots demonstrated increased volume and 34 protein spots demonstrated decreased volume. Among spots of decreased volume, 17 spots showed statistically significant differences. Thirty-eight identified proteins were associated with alterations in energy metabolism, muscle contractile function, transcription, translation, cell proliferation, and cellular stress response. Conclusion BoNT-A gives influences on muscle contractile function and energy metabolism directly or indirectly besides neurotoxic effects. Proteomic expression provides better understanding about the effect of BoNT-A on skeletal muscle.
Linear gaussian computations for near-exact Bayesian Monte Carlo inference in skewed alpha-stable time series models

In this paper we study parameter estimation for time series with asymmetric α-stable innovations. The proposed methods use a Poisson sum series representation (PSSR) for the asymmetric α-stable noise to express the process in a conditionally Gaussian framework. That allows us to implement Bayesian parameter estimation using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. We further enhance the series representation by introducing a novel approximation of the series residual terms in which we are able to characterise the mean and variance of the approximation. Simulations illustrate the proposed framework applied to linear time series, estimating the model parameter values and model order P for an autoregressive (AR(P)) model driven by asymmetric α-stable innovations.
Genetic Diversity and Antimicrobial Resistance of Escherichia coli from Human and Animal Sources Uncovers Multiple Resistances from Human Sources

Escherichia coli are widely used as indicators of fecal contamination, and in some cases to identify host sources of fecal contamination in surface water. Prevalence, genetic diversity and antimicrobial susceptibility were determined for 600 generic E. coli isolates obtained from surface water and sediment from creeks and channels along the middle Santa Ana River (MSAR) watershed of southern California, USA, after a 12 month study. Evaluation of E. coli populations along the creeks and channels showed that E. coli were more prevalent in sediment compared to surface water. E. coli populations were not significantly different (P = 0.05) between urban runoff sources and agricultural sources, however, E. coli genotypes determined by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were less diverse in the agricultural sources than in urban runoff sources. PFGE also showed that E. coli populations in surface water were more diverse than in the sediment, suggesting isolates in sediment may be dominated by clonal populations.Twenty four percent (144 isolates) of the 600 isolates exhibited resistance to more than one antimicrobial agent. Most multiple resistances were associated with inputs from urban runoff and involved the antimicrobials rifampicin, tetracycline, and erythromycin. The occurrence of a greater number of E. coli with multiple antibiotic resistances from urban runoff sources than agricultural sources in this watershed provides useful evidence in planning strategies for water quality management and public health protection.
An Investigation into the Performance of First Year , First Entry Students in Information Systems and Technology in Relation to their Matriculation Results

While much work has been published on the relationship between school leaving results and the success at various first year University courses, not much literature is available on the correlation between school leaving results and first year Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) courses at University. This exploratory study attempts to correlate the performance, as opposed to the potential for success, in first year IS&T, of matriculants in Mathematics, English First Language and Zulu First Language with their first year IS&T results. Additionally, the study explores whether any relationships exist on a racial and gender basis between these matriculation results and first year University IS&T performance. Only first entry students for the first examination are considered, that is, repeat students and those sitting supplementary examinations are not considered. With the exception of the African race group, which showed no mathematics*IS&T correlation, all other race groups showed a positive correlation, however in all cases the IST*first language correlation was found to be greater than the IST*mathematics correlation.
Evaluation of passive satellite remote sensing of cloud liquid water

We compared one year of AMSR-E Wentz and MODIS cloud liquid water path estimates in warm marine clouds. In broken scenes AMSR-E increasingly overestimated MODIS, and retrievals became uncorrelated as cloud fraction decreased, while in overcast scenes the techniques showed generally better agreement but with a MODIS overestimation. We found microwave and optical retrievals being most consistent in marine Sc clouds with correlations up to 0.95 and typical rms differences of 15 g/m2. The overall MODIS high bias in overcast domains could be removed, in a global mean sense, by adiabatic correction; however, large regional differences remained. Most notably, MODIS showed strong overestimations at high latitudes, which we traced to 3D effects in plane-parallel optical retrievals over heterogeneous clouds at low Sun. In the tropics/subtropics, microwave-optical differences also depended on cloud type, with MODIS overestimating in stratiform and underestimating in cumuliform clouds, resulting in large-scale coherent bias patterns where marine Sc transitioned into trade wind Cu. We noted similar geographic variations in Wentz cloud temperature errors and MODIS 1.6-3.7 ¿m droplet effective radius differences, suggesting that microwave retrieval errors due to cloud absorption uncertainties, and optical retrieval errors due to cloud vertical stratification might have contributed to the observed liquid water path bias patterns. Finally, cloud-rain partitioning was found to introduce a systematic low bias in Wentz retrievals above 180 g/m2 as the microwave algorithm erroneously assigned an increasing portion of the liquid water content of thicker non-precipitating clouds to rain.
Religion, Religiosity, and the Decline of Marital Fertility in the United States, 1850-1930

United States, 1850-1930 Paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America, Thursday, March 29, 2007 J. David Hacker, Binghamton University, SUNY In their introduction to a new edited collection of articles on religion and fertility decline in the Western world, Frans van Poppel and Renzo Derosas lament historical demographers’ failure to examine the link between religion and demographic behavior systematically. Because of this failure, “the actual contribution of religion to the changes in the demographic landscape of the West remains obscure. ” The difficulty, they observe, is not a lack of interest among historians but a lack of data. Although information on religious affiliation, church attendance, and religiosity become increasingly more common in the twentieth century, there is little comparable data on religion and fertility for the period coinciding with the onset of the fertility transition. To overcome data limitations, van Poppel and Derosas suggest that historians “be innovative in their research, and where possible to use indirect indicators for the relevant dimensions. ” Finally, they encourage researchers to use individual-level data containing biological information, socioeconomic status, education, ethnicity, and other variables so that the interactions between religion and other aspects of a person’s position in society can be disentangled (van Poppel and Derosas 2006:10-11). This paper attempts to follow that advice. It investigates economic, demographic, and religious correlates of marital fertility in the nineteenth-century United States using the recently released 1850 and 1880 IPUMS census samples (Ruggles and Sobek 1997). The censuses were conducted near the onset (in the case of the 1850 census) and midpoint (in the case of the 1880
Improved diversification through a mix of oil and equities

This study presents evidence of a statistically significant negative correlation between crude oil and equities over the past 20 years. Including proper proportions of negatively correlated assets in a diversified portfolio can improve the ratio of reward relative to risk, and therefore, adding crude oil with equities into a diversified portfolio can provide superior portfolio performance, compared with equities alone. Because crude oil prices held stable for nearly a century before the oil crisis of 1973, and oil derivatives did not begin trading actively on public markets until the 1980s, the diversification value of oil is a relatively new phenomenon. Also contributing to the phenomenon, the majority of oil reserves and the majority of crude oil production capacity worldwide are held by entities that are not traded in public equity markets, and therefore, the diversification benefits of oil cannot be fully realized by holding a portion of the global market portfolio of equities.
Exploring Design Factors for Transforming Passive Vibration Signals into Smartwear Interactions

Vibrational signals that are generated when a finger is swept over an uneven surface can be reliably detected via low-cost sensors that are in proximity to the interaction surface. Such interactions provide an alternative to touchscreens by enabling always-available input. In this paper we demonstrate that Inertial Measurement Units (known as IMUs) embedded in many off-the-shelf smartwear are well suited for capturing vibrational signals generated by a user's finger swipes, even when the IMU appears in a smartring or smartwatch. In comparison to acoustic based approaches for capturing vibrational signals, IMUs are sensitive to a vast number of factors, both, in terms of the surface and swipe properties, when the interaction is carried out. We contribute by examining the impact of these surface and swipe properties, including surface or bump height and density, surface stability, sensor location, swipe style, and swipe direction. Based on our results, we present a number of usage scenarios to demonstrate how this approach can be used to provide always-available input for digital interactions.
Preinvasive colorectal lesion transcriptomes correlate with endoscopic morphology (polypoid vs. nonpolypoid)

Improved colonoscopy is revealing precancerous lesions that were frequently missed in the past, and ∼30% of those detected today have nonpolypoid morphologies ranging from slightly raised to depressed. To characterize these lesions molecularly, we assessed transcription of 23,768 genes in 42 precancerous lesions (25 slightly elevated nonpolypoid and 17 pedunculated polypoid), each with corresponding samples of normal mucosa. Nonpolypoid versus polypoid morphology explained most gene expression variance among samples; histology, size, and degree of dysplasia were also linked to specific patterns. Expression changes in polypoid lesions frequently affected cell‐cycling pathways, whereas cell‐survival dysregulation predominated in nonpolypoid lesions. The latter also displayed fewer and less dramatic expression changes than polypoid lesions. Paradigmatic of this trend was progressive loss through the normal > nonpolypoid > polypoid > cancer sequence of TMIGD1 mRNA and protein. This finding, along with TMIGD1 protein expression patterns in tissues and cell lines, suggests that TMIGD1 might be associated with intestinal‐cell differentiation. We conclude that molecular dysregulation in slightly elevated, nonpolypoid, precancerous colorectal lesions may be somewhat less severe than that observed in classic adenomatous polyps.
A Multi-Location Continuous Review ( Q , R ) Inventory Model with Emergency Transshipments

Previous studies on multi-location inventory systems with transshipments have focused mainly on periodic review systems with no fixed ordering cost. Since continuous review systems are also frequently used in practice, this research develops a multi-location inventory transshipment model that combines the popular order-quantity, reorder-point (Q,R) system with a third parameter, the hold-back amount, which limits the degree of sharing. The degree to which transshipments improve both Type I (no-stockout probability) and Type II (fill-rate) customer service levels can be calculated using the model. Simulation studies conducted to test the validity of the approximate analytical model indicate that it performs very well over a wide range of inputs. From a managerial viewpoint, the model indicates that as the number of transshipping locations increases, partial pooling provides almost the same benefits as complete pooling.
Critical thinking about critical periods: Perspectives on a critical period for language acquisition.

Acknowledgements: We are grateful to Dick Aslin, Kathy Nordeen, and Emmanuel Dupoux for stimulating discussion and helpful comments. During the writing of this paper we were supported in part by NIH grant DC00167 to ELN, a Charles A. Dana Foundation grant to DB, and NIH grant DC00481 to HJN.
Predictive Value of Imaging Markers at Multiple Sclerosis Disease Onset Based on Gadolinium- and USPIO-Enhanced MRI and Machine Learning

Objectives A novel characterization of Clinically Isolated Syndrome (CIS) patients according to lesion patterns is proposed. More specifically, patients are classified according to the nature of inflammatory lesions patterns. It is expected that this characterization can infer new prospective figures from the earliest imaging signs of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), since it can provide a classification of different types of lesions across patients. Methods The method is based on a two-tiered classification. Initially, the spatio-temporal lesion patterns are classified. The discovered lesion patterns are then used to characterize groups of patients. The patient groups are validated using statistical measures and by correlations at 24-month follow-up with hypointense lesion loads. Results The methodology identified 3 statistically significantly different clusters of lesion patterns showing p-values smaller than 0.01. Moreover, these patterns defined at baseline correlated with chronic hypointense lesion volumes by follow-up with an score of . Conclusions The proposed methodology is capable of identifying three major different lesion patterns that are heterogeneously present in patients, allowing a patient classification using only two MRI scans. This finding may lead to more accurate prognosis and thus to more suitable treatments at early stage of MS.
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Distinguishing between Basal and Nonbasal Subtypes

Purpose: Triple-negative (TN; estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER-2 negative) cancer and basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) are associated with poor outcome and lack the benefit of targeted therapy. It is widely perceived that BLBC and TN tumors are synonymous and BLBC can be defined using a TN definition without the need for the expression of basal markers. Experimental Design: We have used two well-defined cohorts of breast cancers with a large panel of biomarkers, BRCA1 mutation status, and follow-up data to compare the clinicopathologic and immunohistochemical features of TN tumors expressing one or more of the specific basal markers (CK5/6, CK17, CK14, and epidermal growth factor receptor; BLBC) with those TN tumors that express none of these markers (TN3BKE−). Results: Here, we show that although the morphologic features of BLBC are not significantly different from that of TN3BKE- tumors, BLBC showed distinct clinical and immunophenotypic differences. BLBC showed a statistically significant association with the expression of the hypoxia-associated factor (CA9), neuroendocrine markers, and other markers of poor prognosis such as p53. A difference in the expression of cell cycle-associated proteins and biomarkers involved in the immunologic portrait of tumors was seen. Compared with TN3BKE- tumors, BLBC was positively associated with BRCA1 mutation status and showed a unique pattern of distant metastasis, better response to chemotherapy, and shorter survival. Conclusion: TN breast cancers encompass a remarkably heterogeneous group of tumors. Expression of basal markers identifies a biologically and clinically distinct subgroup of TN tumors, justifying the use of basal markers (in TN tumors) to define BLBC.
Instigation of NLRP3 inflammasome activation and glomerular injury in mice on the high fat diet: role of acid sphingomyelinase gene

Ceramide has been reported to initiate inflammasome formation and activation in obesity and different pathological conditions. The present study was performed to explore the role of acid sphingomyelinase (Asm) in the development of high fat diet (HFD)‐induced inflammasome formation and activation and consequent glomerular injury. Asm knockout (Asm−/−) and wild type (Asm+/+) mice were fed a HFD or normal chow for 6 weeks to produce obesity and associated glomerular injury. HFD significantly increased the body weight, renal Asm activity, O2. − production, and ceramide production in Asm+/+mice than in control diet‐fed mice. However, such HFD‐induced increases in body weight, Asm activity, O2− production and ceramide production was attenuated in asm−/− mice. Confocal fluorescent microscopy showed that HFD enhanced the colocalization of NALP3 with ASC or Caspase‐1, the essential components of NALP3 inflammasomes, in glomeruli of Asm+/+ than in Asm−/− mice. In consistency with decreased inflammasome formation, the caspase‐1 activity and IL‐1β production was significantly attenuated in Asm−/− mice fed a HFD. Morphological examinations showed that HFD induced profound injury in glomeruli of Asm+/+ mice which was markedly attenuated in Asm−/− mice(the glomerular damage index (GDI) in Asm+/+: 2.1 ± 0.05 vs. Asm−/−: 1.05 ± 0.04). The decreased GDI in Asm−/− mice was accompanied by attenuated proteinuria and albuminuria. Fluorescent immunohistochemical examinations using podocin as a podocyte marker showed that the inflammasome formation induced by the HFD were mostly located in podocytes as demonstrated by co‐localization of podocin with NALP3 or Caspase‐1. In conclusion, these observations disclose a pivotal role of Asm in the HFD‐induced inflammasome formation and consequent glomerular inflammation and injury (supported by NIH grants DK54927, HL‐091464 and HL‐75316).
Universal routing in distributed networks

We show that universal routing can be achieved with low overhead in distributed networks. The validity of our results rests on a new network called the fat-stack. We show that from a routing perspective the fat-stack is efficient and is suitable for use as a baseline distributed network We prove that the fat-stack is universal by routing efficiency. A requirement for the fat-stack to be universal is that link capacities double up the levels of the network. We use methods developed in the areas of VLSI and processor interconnect for much of our analysis. Our universality proof shows that a fat-stack of area /spl Theta/(A) can simulate any competing network of area A with O(log/sup 3/2/ A) overhead independently of wire delay. The universality result implies that the fat-stack of a given size is nearly the best routing network of that size. The fat-stack is also the minimal universal network for an O(log/sup 3/2/ A) overhead in terms of number of links.