Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prognostic significance of ischemia-modified albumin in patients with acute coronary syndrome

To improve prognosis in acute coronary syndrome, new clinical applications in terms of diagnosis, risk stratification, and treatment strategies are still under investigation. Ischemia-modified albumin was one of the novel markers of myocardial ischemia. In our study, we aimed to determine the prognostic significance of the albumin cobalt binding capacity test in patients with acute coronary syndromes. We compared the ischemia-modified albumin levels of patients with acute coronary syndrome with those of patients with stable coronary artery disease and those of normal individuals and found them to be significantly higher in the first group (P<0.05). A cutoff value of ischemia-modified albumin of 477 U/ml was found by using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Mortality in groups of patients whose ischemia-modified albumin levels were above 477 U (50%) was found to be significantly higher than in those whose levels were below 477 U (8.3%) (P<0.05). The sensitivity and specificity of the cutoff value, 477 U/ml, for the 1-year mortality were found to be 70 and 82%, respectively. Using the Cox regression model the relation of albumin cobalt binding capacity test results with mortality was statistically significant (&bgr;=1.013, confidence interval 95%, P=0.01) and independent of the existence of hypertension, diabetes, and advanced age. In conclusion, ischemia-modified albumin was found to be significantly related to 1-year mortality. Prognostic significance of ischemia-modified albumin should be evaluated in large populated and randomized study groups. Afterwards, ischemia-modified albumin could be used in risk stratification modality in patients with acute coronary syndrome.
Identifying Well-Connected Opinion Leaders for Informal Health Promotion: The Example of the ASSIST Smoking Prevention Program

ABSTRACT Methods used to select opinion leaders for informal behavior change interventions vary, affecting the role they adopt and the outcomes of interventions. The development of successful identification methods requires evidence that these methods achieve their aims. This study explored whether the “whole community” nomination process used in the ASSIST smoking prevention program successfully identified “peer supporters” who were well placed within their school social networks to diffuse an antismoking message to their peers. Data were collected in the United Kingdom during A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial. Behavioral data were provided at baseline and post intervention by all students. Social network data were provided post intervention by students in four control and six intervention schools. Centrality measures calculated using UCINET demonstrate that the ASSIST nomination process successfully identified peer supporters who were more socially connected than others in their year and who had social connections across the entire year group including the program’s target group. The results indicate that three simple questions can identify individuals who are held in high esteem by their year group and who also have the interpersonal networks required of opinion leaders to successfully disseminate smoke-free messages through their social networks. This approach could be used in other informal health promotion initiatives.
Underwater sound detection by cephalopod statocyst

The cephalopod receptor of particle motion was identified. In a previous study, it was suggested that statocysts served this function, but there was no direct supporting evidence, and epidermal hair cells had not been conclusively ruled out. Experiments on Octopus ocellatus were conducted using respiratory activity as an indicator of sound perception. Intact animals clearly responded to 141-Hz particle motion at particle accelerations below 1.3×10−3 m/s2, and the mean perception threshold at this frequency was approximately 6.0×10−4 m/s2. Specimens in which the statoliths had been surgically removed did not show any response for accelerations up to 3.9×10−3 m/s2 at 141 Hz, which was approximately 16 dB greater than the mean perception threshold at this frequency. Specimens that had undergone a control operation in which the statoliths remained intact showed positive responses at 2.8×10−3 m/s2 for the same frequency stimulus. This indicates that the statocyst, which is morphologically similar to the inner ear system in fish, is responsible for the observed responses to particle motion in O. ocellatus. This is the first direct evidence that cephalopods detect kinetic sound components using statocysts.
DENDRITIC CELLS: TO WHERE DO THEY LEAD?

Dendritic cells are a heterogeneous population of bone marrow-derived cells present in most peripheral tissues. These cells are able to capture and present antigens to T cells. Such presentation can lead to two opposite outcomes: potent activation (immunogenicity) or inhibition (tolerance) of the immune response. The fine regulation of these two distinct functions is not completely understood to date. In this review, we discuss three potential variables that may influence dendritic cell function: the origin of dendritic cells, their maturation state, and their capture properties. Each hypothesis is illustrated with examples in the field of transplantation. Lastly, the criteria necessary for proposing tolerogenic dendritic cells to promote engraftment and long-term allograft survival are discussed.
Mediators and Treatment Factors in Intervention for Children Exposed to Interparental Violence

Changes in children's emotion differentiation, coping skills, parenting stress, parental psychopathology, and parent–child interaction were explored as mediators of treatment factors in two selective preventive group interventions for children exposed to interparental violence (IPV) and their parents. One hundred thirty-four IPV-exposed children (ages 6–12 years, 52% boys) and their parents were randomized to an IPV-focused or common factors community-based group intervention and completed baseline, posttest, and follow-up assessments for posttraumatic stress (PTS). A multilevel model tested mediators that included children's ability to differentiate emotions and coping skills, parenting stress, parental psychopathology, and parent–child interactions. In both conditions, exposure to nonspecific factors, specific factors unrelated to IPV and trauma-specific intervention factors was coded from videotaped child and parent sessions. Improved parental mental health mediated the link between greater exposure to nonspecific treatment factors and decreases in PTS symptoms. In addition, an increase in emotion differentiation and a decrease in parenting stress were associated with a decrease in PTS symptoms. Greater exposure to trauma-specific factors in child sessions was associated with a small decrease in emotion differentiation, an increase in coping skills, and a decrease in PTS symptoms over time. Greater exposure to nonspecific treatment factors in child and parent sessions was associated with more positive parent–child interaction. Parental mental health appears to be an important mechanism of change that can be promoted through exposure to nonspecific factors in parent intervention. For children, the effect of greater exposure to trauma-specific factors in intervention is less clear and may not have clear benefits.
Novel Node-Arc Model and Multiiteration Heuristics for Static Routing and Spectrum Assignment in Elastic Optical Networks

We consider an elastic optical network and study the static routing and spectrum assignment (RSA) problem aiming to minimize the maximum number of frequency slots required to accommodate all lightpath demands. We introduce a novel node-arc integer linear programming (ILP) model, which jointly decides optimal routes and assigned spectra for lightpaths between all source-destination pairs. To reduce the total number of variables, and therefore lower the computational complexity, our new node-arc model extends previous work by representing the spectrum assigned to each lightpath by two variables (i.e., the starting and ending boundary frequency slot indexes). To achieve scalability, we also develop an efficient spectrum-window-based greedy heuristic algorithm, and further propose three multiiteration-based algorithms that consider the effect of demand-serving sequences. Analytical and numerical results show that comparing with an existing approach, our solution to the RSA problem based on the new node-arc ILP model achieves a significant computational complexity improvement. Further numerical results demonstrate that the proposed multiiteration algorithms obtain solutions closer to optima than existing algorithms.
Depositional architecture, facies character and geochemical signature of the Tivoli travertines (pleistocene, acque albule basin, central Italy)

Facies character, diagenesis, geochemical signature, porosity, permeability, and geometry of the upper Pleistocene Tivoli travertines were investigated integrating information from six borehole cores, drilled along a 3 km N-S transect, and quarry faces, in order to propose a revised depositional model. Travertines overlie lacustrine and alluvial plain marls, siltstones, sandstones and pyroclastic deposits from the Roman volcanic districts. In the northern proximal area, with respect to the inferred hydrothermal vents, travertines accumulated in gently-dipping, decametre-scale shallow pools of low-angle terraced slopes. The intermediate depositional zone, 2 km southward, consisted of smooth and terraced slopes dipping S and E. In the southernmost distal zone, travertine marshes dominated by coated vegetation and Charophytes interfingered with lacustrine siltstones and fluvial sandstones and conglomerates. Travertine carbon and oxygen stable isotope data confirm the geothermal origin of the precipitating spring water. The travertine succession is marked by numerous intraclastic/extraclastic wackestone to rudstone beds indicative of non-deposition and erosion during subaerial exposure, due to temporary interruption of the vent activity or deviation of the thermal water flow. These unconformities identify nine superimposed travertine units characterized by aggradation in the proximal zone and southward progradation in the intermediate to distal zones. The wedge geometry of the travertine system reflects the vertical and lateral superimposition of individual fan-shaped units in response to changes in the vent location, shifting through time to lower elevations southward. The complexity of the travertine architecture results from the intermittent activity of the vents, their locations, the topographic gradient, thermal water flow paths and the rates and modes of carbonate precipitation.
A glance at an overlooked part of the world wide web

Although according to surveys related to internet user activity it is considered one of the most popular aspects, few studies are actually concerned with internet pornography. This paper is aimed at rectifying that overlook. In particular, we study user activity related to internet pornography by looking at two main behaviors: (i) watching pornography, and (ii) providing feedback on pornography items in the form of ratings and comments. By using appropriate datasets that we collect, we make contributions related to the study of both behaviors pointed out above. With regards to viewing, we observe that views are highly dependent on pornography category and video size. By studying the feedback system of pornography video websites, we observe differences in the way users rate items across websites popular in different parts of the world. Finally, we employ sentiment analysis to study the comments that users leave on pornography websites and we find surprising similarities across the analyzed websites. Our results pave the way to understanding more about human behavior related to internet pornography and can impact, among others, fields such as content personalization, video content delivery, recommender systems
Proton-beam therapy in acromegaly.

Abstract Bragg-peak proton hypophysectomy was used in 22 acromegalic patients. Of 14 followed for two to 36 months, size of hands, feet or face decreased in nine. Variable improvement took place in headache, fatigability, heat intolerance, joint pain, sexual function, weight, skin, tachycardia, hypertension, visual fields, glucose tolerance, thyroid-function tests and ketosteroid and hydroxysteroid secretions. Levels of human growth hormone fell strikingly in eight and to an insignificant degree in four, and increased in two. These effects were ordinarily progressive over the follow-up months, and longer observations are necessary. There has been no mortality, cerebrospinal-fluid leak, infection or diabetes insipidus. Complications included transient headache, occasional diplopia and one case of anterior pituitary insufficiency. The first patient treated had serious unilateral visual loss. The method compares favorably with other procedures in its ability to suppress human growth hormone and in the infreq.
Different tropism of adenoviruses and adeno-associated viruses to corneal cells: implications for corneal gene therapy

Purpose Diseased corneas are potential targets for viral-based gene therapy to normalize (stimulate or inhibit) the expression of specific proteins. The choice of viral vectors is important to achieve optimal effect. The purpose of this study was to compare the tropism to different corneal cells of recombinant adenovirus (rAV) and recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) constructs using live rabbit and organ-cultured human corneas. Methods rAV constructs harbored the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene under the control of major immediate early cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. rAAV constructs from virus serotypes 1, 2 5, 7, and 8 had GFP under the chicken β-actin promoter and CMV enhancer. For organ culture, 16 healthy and diabetic postmortem human corneas were used. Five or fifteen μl rAV at 107 plaque forming units per 1 μl were added for 2 days to culture medium of uninjured corneas that were further cultured for 5–32 days. rAAV were added at 1.2–7.8×1010 vector genomes per cornea for 3 days to each cornea; the culture then continued for another 14–23 days. Corneal cryostat sections were examined by immunohistochemistry. Live rabbit corneas were used following excimer laser ablation of the corneal epithelium with preservation of the basal cell layer. Equal numbers of rAAV particles (2x1011 vector genomes) were applied to the cornea for 10 min. After seven days to allow for corneal healing and gene expression the animals were euthanized, the corneas were excised, and sections analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Results By direct fluorescence microscopy of live organ-cultured human corneas GFP signal after rAV transduction was strong in the epithelium with dose-dependent intensity. On corneal sections, GFP was seen in all epithelial layers and some endothelial cells but most keratocytes were negative. In rAAV-transduced organ-cultured human corneas GFP signal could only be detected with anti-GFP antibody immunohistochemistry. GFP was observed in the epithelium, keratocytes, and endothelium, with more pronounced basal epithelial cell staining with rAAV1 than with other serotypes. No difference in the GFP expression patterns or levels between normal and diabetic corneas was noted. The rabbit corneas showed very similar patterns of GFP distribution to human corneas. With all rAAV serotype vectors, GFP staining in the epithelium was significantly (p=0.007) higher than the background staining in non-transduced corneas, with a trend for rAAV1 and rAAV8 to produce higher staining intensities than for rAAV2, rAAV5 (p=0.03; rAAV5 versus rAAV1), and rAAV7. rAAV serotype vectors also transduced stromal and endothelial cells in rabbit corneas to a different extent. Conclusions rAAV appears to reach many more corneal cells than rAV, especially keratocytes, although GFP expression levels were lower compared to rAV. rAV may be more useful than rAAV for gene therapy applications requiring high protein expression levels, but rAAV may be superior for keratocyte targeting.
Effect of the Arakan Mountains in the northwestern Indochina Peninsula on the late May Asian monsoon transition

By simulations using a global climate model with and without the Arakan Mountains in the northwest of Myanmar, we demonstrated that this mesoscale meridionally elongated mountain range has a substantial effect on anchoring and enhancing precipitation in the region during the Bay of Bengal (BoB) monsoon onset in late May. In this period, the presence of the Arakan Mountains in the model significantly improves the simulation of the thermal and dynamical atmospheric structure of the monsoon, by substantially enhancing precipitation, deepening the midtropospheric trough and the southwesterly flow over the BoB and strengthening the upper tropospheric anticyclone atop the trough. These mountain‐induced changes essentially improve the simulation of the late May Asian summer monsoon transition. Prior to the BoB monsoon onset, the blocking and deflecting effects of the Arakan Mountains on the low‐level flow are marked, which enhance the moisture convergence and also probably influence the oceanic forcing over the BoB. As well as the mountain effect on the moisture convergence, inclusion of the Arakan Mountains apparently initiates an upstream troughing effect, which in turn enhances the synoptic and large‐scale circulation during the monsoon transition. Furthermore, the presence of the Arakan Mountains induces a large‐scale wavelike perturbation, which likely leads to an improvement of Meiyu/Baiu simulation. This study reveals that a narrow mountain like the Arakan Mountains likely contributes markedly to the characteristics of the Asian summer monsoon during its early seasonal march. Such effects need to be reasonably resolved in the models.
Identification and Characterization of Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria Isolated from Tuberculosis Suspects in Southern-Central China

The incidence of non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM)-related death has increased globally recently. To obtain information of the species and characterization of pathogens involved in NTM pulmonary infection in Southern-central China, we identified 160 non-tuberculous infection cases from 3995 acid-fast bacilli (AFB)-positive tuberculous suspects. We then randomly selected 101 non-tuberculous patients, isolated bacteria from their sputa and genotyped the pathogens using the 16S rRNA gene and 16S-23S rRNA internal transcribed spacer sequences. M. intracellulare (32.67%, 33/101), M. abscessus (32.67%, 33/101) and M. fortuitum (7.92%, 8/101) are identified in these isolates. Surprisingly, non-mycobacteria including Gordonia (8.91%, 9/101), Nocardia (5.94%, 6/101) and Tsukamurella (0.99%, 1/101) are also discovered, and the case of Tsukamurella pulmonis infection is first discovered in Southern-central China. Moreover, species of M. mucogenicum group, M. chubuense, M. kansasii, M. gastri, M. avium, M. porcinum and M. smegmatis are identified. In addition, nine immune compromised cases (8.91%, 9/101), including type two diabetes mellitus and HIV/AIDS are found to be infected with non-tuberculous bacteria. This study revealed the distribution and characteristics of non-tuberculous AFB pathogen infection occurred in Southern-central China, and suggested that physicians should be alert of the emerging of NTM and non-mycobacteria infection in AFB positive cases and take caution when choosing chemotherapy for tuberculosis-like pulmonary infections. Generally, this study may help with the development of new strategy for the diagnosis and treatment of mycobacterial infection.
Compressed Sensing for Networked Data

This article describes a very different approach to the decentralized compression of networked data. Considering a particularly salient aspect of this struggle that revolves around large-scale distributed sources of data and their storage, transmission, and retrieval. The task of transmitting information from one point to another is a common and well-understood exercise. But the problem of efficiently transmitting or sharing information from and among a vast number of distributed nodes remains a great challenge, primarily because we do not yet have well developed theories and tools for distributed signal processing, communications, and information theory in large-scale networked systems.
Anti-Sclerostin Antibody Inhibits Internalization of Sclerostin and Sclerostin-Mediated Antagonism of Wnt/LRP6 Signaling

Sclerosteosis is a rare high bone mass disease that is caused by inactivating mutations in the SOST gene. Its gene product, Sclerostin, is a key negative regulator of bone formation and might therefore serve as a target for the anabolic treatment of osteoporosis. The exact molecular mechanism by which Sclerostin exerts its antagonistic effects on Wnt signaling in bone forming osteoblasts remains unclear. Here we show that Wnt3a-induced transcriptional responses and induction of alkaline phosphatase activity, an early marker of osteoblast differentiation, require the Wnt co-receptors LRP5 and LRP6. Unlike Dickkopf1 (DKK1), Sclerostin does not inhibit Wnt-3a-induced phosphorylation of LRP5 at serine 1503 or LRP6 at serine 1490. Affinity labeling of cell surface proteins with [125I]Sclerostin identified LRP6 as the main specific Sclerostin receptor in multiple mesenchymal cell lines. When cells were challenged with Sclerostin fused to recombinant green fluorescent protein (GFP) this was internalized, likely via a Clathrin-dependent process, and subsequently degraded in a temperature and proteasome-dependent manner. Ectopic expression of LRP6 greatly enhanced binding and cellular uptake of Sclerostin-GFP, which was reduced by the addition of an excess of non-GFP-fused Sclerostin. Finally, an anti-Sclerostin antibody inhibited the internalization of Sclerostin-GFP and binding of Sclerostin to LRP6. Moreover, this antibody attenuated the antagonistic activity of Sclerostin on canonical Wnt-induced responses.