Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship of bacterial strains to clinical syndromes of Campylobacter-associated neuropathies

Background: Clinical and serologic studies suggest that Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) and atypical GBS with preserved muscle stretch reflexes (MSRs) form a continuous spectrum as well as do Fisher syndrome (FS), FS/GBS overlap, Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis (BBE), BBE/GBS overlap, acute ophthalmoparesis (AO), ataxic GBS, and acute oropharyngeal palsy. Objective: To clarify the spectrum of neurologic disorders that occur subsequent to Campylobacter jejuni enteritis. Methods: We recruited patients with various neurologic conditions and from whom C jejuni was isolated. Bacterial features were investigated. Results: Diagnoses for the patients from whom C jejuni was isolated were GBS (n = 90), FS (n = 22), MSR-preserved GBS (n = 10), FS/GBS (n = 6), BBE (n = 1), BBE/GBS (n = 2), AO (n = 3), ataxic GBS (n = 1), and acute oropharyngeal palsy (n = 3). Isolates from MSR-preserved GBS were similar to those of GBS in serotype (HS:19), genotype (lipo-oligosaccharide [LOS] locus class A or B, cst-II genotype [Thr51]), and GM1 or GD1a epitope expression on LOS. FS/GBS overlap, BBE, BBE/GBS overlap, AO, ataxic GBS, and acute oropharyngeal palsy isolates were similar to those of FS in serotype (HS:2 or HS:4-complex), genotype (LOS locus class A or B, cst-II genotype [Asn51]), and GQ1b epitope expression on LOS. Conclusions: The bacterial findings support the proposal that Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) and muscle stretch reflex–preserved GBS comprise a continuous spectrum as well as do Fisher syndrome (FS), FS/GBS overlap, Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis (BBE), BBE/GBS overlap, acute ophthalmoparesis, ataxic GBS, and acute oropharyngeal palsy.
Cost optimization for Online Social Networks on geo-distributed clouds

Geo-distributed IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) clouds provide an intriguing platform to deploy Online Social Network (OSN) services. To leverage the potential of clouds, a major task of OSN providers is optimizing the monetary cost spent on cloud resource utilization while providing satisfactory Quality of Service (QoS) to OSN users. We thus study the problem of cost optimization for the dynamic OSN on multiple geo-distributed clouds over consecutive time periods, with its QoS meeting the pre-defined requirement. We model the QoS as well as the cost of an OSN, formulate the problem, and design a solution named cosplay. Our experiments with a large-scale Twitter trace show that, while always ensuring the QoS as required, cosplay can achieve superior one-time cost reduction compared with the state of the art, and can also reduce the accumulative cost significantly when continuously evaluated over 48 months with dynamics comparable to real-world OSNs.
Assessing the Value of Inductive and Deductive Outcome Measures in Community-Based Programs: Lessons from the City Kidz Evaluation

Evaluators of community-based programs frequently need to decide whether to adopt an inductive or deductive approach in developing quantitative outcome measures. This article explores this issue using a case example of a child anti-poverty program called City Kidz. Its recent evaluation combined an inductive and deductive approach to develop a survey. The article describes the City Kidz evaluation and its survey before assessing the value of the survey, considering internal consistency and various aspects of validity. The article concludes with a discussion about the factors that helped and hindered the appropriateness of the survey in light of the inductive and deductive approaches used. Les evaluations de programmes communautaires necessitent frequemment de choisir entre une approche inductive et une approche deductive pour developper des indicateurs de resultats quantitatifs. Pour explorer cette question, cet article examine une etude de cas d’un programme sur la pauvrete enfantine nomme City Kidz. L’evaluation de ce programme a employe a la fois une approche inductive et deductive lors du developpement d’une enquete. Cet article decrit l’evaluation ainsi que son enquete, puis evalue la coherence et la validite de cette derniere. Cet article conclut en discutant des facteurs qui ont facilite ou nuit a la pertinence de l’enquete par l’entremise d’une approche inductive et deductive.
Exploration of Circadian Rhythms in Patients with Bilateral Vestibular Loss

Background New insights have expanded the influence of the vestibular system to the regulation of circadian rhythmicity. Indeed, hypergravity or bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) in rodents causes a disruption in their daily rhythmicity for several days. The vestibular system thus influences hypothalamic regulation of circadian rhythms on Earth, which raises the question of whether daily rhythms might be altered due to vestibular pathology in humans. The aim of this study was to evaluate human circadian rhythmicity in people presenting a total bilateral vestibular loss (BVL) in comparison with control participants. Methodology and Principal Findings Nine patients presenting a total idiopathic BVL and 8 healthy participants were compared. Their rest-activity cycle was recorded by actigraphy at home over 2 weeks. The daily rhythm of temperature was continuously recorded using a telemetric device and salivary cortisol was recorded every 3 hours from 6:00AM to 9:00PM over 24 hours. BVL patients displayed a similar rest activity cycle during the day to control participants but had higher nocturnal actigraphy, mainly during weekdays. Sleep efficiency was reduced in patients compared to control participants. Patients had a marked temperature rhythm but with a significant phase advance (73 min) and a higher variability of the acrophase (from 2:24 PM to 9:25 PM) with no correlation to rest-activity cycle, contrary to healthy participants. Salivary cortisol levels were higher in patients compared to healthy people at any time of day. Conclusion We observed a marked circadian rhythmicity of temperature in patients with BVL, probably due to the influence of the light dark cycle. However, the lack of synchronization between the temperature and rest-activity cycle supports the hypothesis that the vestibular inputs are salient input to the circadian clock that enhance the stabilization and precision of both external and internal entrainment.
Trust Transference from Brick to Click Retailers: A Conceptual Model for Impersonal Trust

Previous researches have revealed that the creation of synergy between retailers' channels can enhance customers' satisfaction and loyalty. Nevertheless, little is known about utilizing such synergy in inducing customers' purchasing behavior in electronic commerce. In an attempt to address this issue, few empirical studies have been conducted on the role of trust transference from brick to click channels to understand customers' purchasing intentions. These studies have mainly focused on interpersonal trust as a proxy of the transference process. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to articulate the importance of impersonal trust and shed light on its expected role during the transference process. Based on this, the paper presents a conceptual model for impersonal trust to identify its transferable drivers and its relationship with customers' purchasing intentions. The proposed methodology for testing the conceptual model is also discussed in the final part of this paper.
Execution Drafting: Energy Efficiency through Computation Deduplication

Computation is increasingly moving to the data enter. Thus, the energy used by CPUs in the data centeris gaining importance. The centralization of computation in the data center has also led to much commonality between the applications running there. For example, there are many instances of similar or identical versions of the Apache web server running in a large data center. Many of these applications, such as bulk image resizing or video Transco ding, favor increasing throughput over single stream performance. In this work, we propose Execution Drafting, an architectural technique for executing identical instructions from different programs or threads on the same multithreaded core, such that they flow down the pipe consecutively, or draft. Drafting reduces switching and removes the need to fetch and decode drafted instructions, thereby saving energy. Drafting can also reduce the energy of the execution and commit stages of a pipeline when drafted instructions have similar operands, such as when loading constants. We demonstrate Execution Drafting saving energy when executing the same application with different data, as well as different programs operating on different data, as is the case for different versions of the same program. We evaluate hardware techniques to identify when to draft and analyze the hardware overheads of Execution Drafting implemented in an Open SPARC T1 core. We show that Execution Drafting can result in substantial performance per energy gains (up to 20%) in a data center without decreasing throughput or dramatically increasing latency.
Increased peritoneal damage in glyoxalase 1 knock-down mice treated with peritoneal dialysis.

BACKGROUND Peritoneal dialysis (PD) is limited by peritoneal fibrosis and ultrafiltration failure. This is in part caused by the high concentration of glucose degradation products (GDPs) present in PD fluids (PDF) as a consequence of heat sterilization. Existing research in long-term PD has mainly dealt with the toxicity induced by GDPs and the development of therapeutic strategies to reduce the cellular burden of GDPs. Currently, there are few data regarding the potential role of detoxification systems of GDP in PD. In this study, the role of glyoxalase 1 (Glo1), the major detoxification pathway for dicarbonyl-derived GD such as methylglyoxal (MG) and glyoxal (Gx), was investigated in vivo using heterozygous knock-down mice for Glo1 (Glo1(-/+)). METHODS Wild-type (WT) and Glo1(-/+) mice were repeatedly treated with PDF containing low and high amounts of GDP, particularly with respect to the content of dicarbonyls. After 12 weeks of treatment with PDF, peritoneal damage and function were evaluated. RESULTS Glo1(-/+) mice treated with PDF showed increased formation of advanced glycation endproduct (AGE) when compared with WT mice, particularly the Gx-derived AGE, carboxymethyl-lysine. This was associated with increased inflammation, neovascularization, increased peritoneal fibrosis and impaired peritoneal function. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests a pivotal and underestimated role for Glo1 as a detoxifying enzyme in GDP-associated peritoneal toxicity in PD. The indirect and direct modulation of Glo1 may therefore offer a new therapeutic option in prevention of GDP-induced peritoneal damage in PD.
Impact of Intraguild Predation and Stage Structure on Simple Communities along a Productivity Gradient

We analyze the consequences of intraguild predation and stage structure for the possible composition of a three‐species community consisting of resource, consumer, and predator. Intraguild predation, a special case of omnivory, induces two major differences with traditional linear food chain models: the potential for the occurrence of two alternative stable equilibria at intermediate levels of resource productivity and the extinction of the consumer at high productivities. At low productivities, the consumer dominates, while at intermediate productivities, the predator and the consumer can coexist. The qualitative behavior of the model is robust against addition of an invulnerable size class for the consumer population and against addition of an initial, nonpredatory stage for the predator population, which means that the addition of stage structure does not change the pattern. Unless the top predator is substantially less efficient on the bottom resource, it tends to drive the intermediate species extinct over a surprisingly large range of productivities, thus making coexistence generally impossible. These theoretical results indicate that the conditions for stable food chains involving intraguild predation cannot involve strong competition for the bottommost resource.
Marketing and the Internet

This paper reviews the research to-date on how the Internet is impacting marketing. It focuses mainly on academic research published in US journals, but includes selected material from other sources. It covers internet adoption and usage; online purchasing behavior; internet advertising; internet economics and pricing; channels and intermediaries and online marketing strategy. The final section gives overall conclusions and briefly lists some opportunities for future research. Contrary to earlier hype, the Internet does not change the fundamental principles of marketing. Nor has its impact to-date – e.g. on consumer behavior, advertising, pricing, channels, intermediaries, strategy and globalization – been anything like as dramatic as predicted. Nevertheless, it has already had some effect on all of these areas. For instance, it is emerging as a flexible, fast-growing advertising medium and as a significant direct channel in many markets (PCs, books, music, travel, and even cars). It has led to some reduction in average prices and in price dispersion. It is bringing into the mainstream previously exotic business models such as auctions, electronic markets, and brand communities. Most of its successes have come from established businesses with ‘bricks and clicks’ strategies which use the Internet to supplement existing activities but rarely to generate much direct revenue (although there are exceptions such as Dell). We expect its impact to increase steadily over the next ten years, as the technology improves, its availability and usage continue to grow, and businesses learn better how to use it within their wider marketing strategy. Earlier expectations about the Internet were so overblown that the reality was bound to disappoint. But by any normal standards, it is a fast-growing young medium with wide-ranging effects across the whole marketing spectrum. This paper will be published in the Handbook of Marketing, edited by Barton Weitz and Robin Wensley (Sage, 2002) and is also available at www.marketingandtheinternet. com
European Kinship in the Age of Biotechnology

Acknowledgements Introduction: The Matter in Kinship Jeanette Edwards Chapter 1. Knowing and Relating: Kinship, Assisted Reproductive Technologies and the New Genetics Joan Bestard Chapter 2. Imagining Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Family, Kinship and 'Local Thinking' in Lithuania Auksuole Cepaitiene Chapter 3. Eating Genes and Raising People: Kinship Thinking and Genetically Modified Food in the North of England Cathrine Degnen Chapter 4. The Family Body: Persons, Bodies and Resemblance Diana Marre and Joan Bestard Chapter 5. The Contribution of Homoparental Families to the Current Debate on Kinship Anne Cadoret Chapter 6. Corpo-real Identities: Perspectives from a Gypsy Community Nathalie Manrique Chapter 7. Incest, Embodiment, Genes and Kinship Enric Porqueres i Gene and Jerome Wilgaux(France) Chapter 8. 'Loving Mothers' at Work: Raising Others' Children and Building Families with the Intention to Love and Take Care Eniko Demeny Chapter 9. Adoption and Assisted Conception: One Universe of Unnatural Procreation. An Examination of Norwegian Legislation Marit Melhuus and Signe Howell Chapter 10. Fields of Post-human Kinship Ben Campbell Chapter 11. Are Genes Good to Think With? Carles Salazar Notes on Contributors Bibliography Author Index Subject Index
A Systematic Analysis of Software Architecture Visualization Techniques

The visualization of software systems allows a software developer to build a mental model of the program supporting her to better understand its design and functionality. This research aims at studying current visualization techniques and practices to propose a set of principles for designing effective software architecture visualization techniques, focusing on their support for program comprehension. The research will be carried out in three main phases. First, we will complement current works by proposing a taxonomy of visualization techniques. The second contribution will be to identify different requirements and characteristics of architecture visualization techniques. Finally, to evaluate software visualization's usability and effectiveness in practice, we will measure the performance of developers in terms of their percentage of the correct answers and effort developers spend to answer given questions. To compute the developer's effort, we will use eye-tracker's data.
Four Decades of Progress in Monitoring and Modeling of Processes in the Soil-Plant- Atmosphere System: Applications and Challenges Olive agroecosystems in the Mediterranean Basin: multitrophic analysis of climate effects with process-based representation of soil water balance

b Center for the Analysis of Sustainable Agricultural Systems (CASAS), Kensington, California, USA (http://cnr.berkeley.edu/casas/). c Abstract Olive is of major eco-social importance for the Mediterranean Basin, a climate change and biodiversity hotspot of global relevance where remarkable climate change is expected over the next few decades with unknown ecosystem impacts. However, climate impact assessments on terrestrial ecosystems have long been constrained by a narrow methodological basis (ecological niche models, ENMs) that is correlative and hence largely omits key impact drivers such as trophic interactions and the effect of water availability, the latter being especially relevant to desertification- prone Mediterranean ecosystems. ENMs use correlative measures of water availability unsuitable for making projections about the future. To bridge this gap, mechanistic approaches such as physiologically-based weather- driven demographic models (PBDMs) may be used as they embed by design both the biology of trophic interactions and a mechanistic representation of soil water balance. Here we report progress towards assessing climate effects on olive culture across the Mediterranean region using mechanistic PBDMs that project regionally the multitrophic population dynamics of olive and olive fly as affected by daily weather and soil water balance.
Corporate Governance: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives

Preface Contributors 1. Corporate governance: does it matter? Xavier Vives 2. Corporate governance and competition Franklin Allen and Douglas Gale Discussion A Jorge Padilla Discussion B Monika Schnitzer 3. On the economics and politics of corporate finance and corporate control Martin Hellwig Discussion Andrei Shleifer 4. How do financial systems affect economic performance? Wendy Carlin and Colin Mayer Discussion A Marco Betch Discussion B Vicente Salas 5. Information and governance in the Silicon Valley model Masahiko Aoki Discussion Miguel A. Garcia-Cestona 6. The governance of the new enterprise Raghuram G. Rajan and Luigi Zingales Discussion A Carmen Matutes Discussion B Joan Enric Ricart Index.
Prevalence Ratio of HTLV-1 in Nursing Mothers From the State of Paraíba, Northeastern Brazil

The human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) was the first human retrovirus known as a direct causal agent of a malignant disease. The vertical route of HTLV transmission is the most frequent pathway of the virus contamination. This study was performed to determine the prevalence ratio of HTLV-1 infection among nursing women. From January 2004 to January 2005, blood samples from 1033 nursing mothers from Paraíba, Brazil were evaluated for HTLV antibodies by ELISA and HTLV-1 viral particles confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). HTLV antibodies were detected in 7 women. The overall seroprevalence ratio was 0.68% and HTLV-1 viral sequences were confirmed by PCR in 2 women. These preliminary data suggest that HTLV screening should be introduced as a mandatory test before breastfeeding and breast milk donation in Paraíba, Brazil. Additionally, counseling programs would help reduce the prevalence ratio of HTLV-1 infected individuals in this Brazilian region. J Hum Lact. 24(3):289-292. El Virus Linfotrópico Humano de Células T tipo 1 (HTLV-1) fue el primer retrovirus que se encontró como agente causal directo de una enfermedad maligna. La transmisión vertical del HTLV es la vía mas frecuente de contaminación. Este estudio determinó la proporción de prevalencia de infección por HTLV-1 en mujeres lactando. De enero del 2004 a enero del 2005, se tomaron muestras de sangre de 1,033 mujeres lactantes en Paraiba, Brasil para medir los anticuerpos de HTLV con pruebas de ELISA y partículas virales de HTLV-1 confirmadas por reacción en cadena de la polimerasa (PCR). Se detectaron anticuerpos de HTLV-1 en siete mujeres. La proporción de seroprevalencia fue de 0.68% y la secuencia viral de HTLV-1 se confirmó con PCR en dos mujeres. Estos datos preliminares sugieren que se debe introducir una prueba mandatoria antes de comenzar la lactancia y de donar leche en Paraiba-Brasil. Además un programa de conserjería puede ayudar a reducir la proporción de prevalencia de individuos infectados con el HTLV -1 en esta región de Brasil.
Z-Palatopharyngoplasty Plus Genioglossus Advancement and Hyoid Suspension for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Hypopnea Syndrome

Objective. To explore the feasibility and efficiency of Z-palato-pharyngoplasty (ZPPP) plus genioglossus advancement and hyoid suspension (GAHM) for severe obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). Study Design. Case series with planned data collection. Setting. A university medical center. Subjects and Methods. Twenty-six patients who had OSAHS with Friedman obstructive sleep apnea stage II/III and posterior airway space <11 mm received GAHM and ZPPP. All patients were reevaluated 6 months after surgery using the preoperative methods. Results. Based on success criteria, defined as an apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of <20 and a decrease >50%, the success rate was 46.2% at 6 months postoperatively. The AHI showed a significant reduction from 65.6 ± 17.6 preoperatively to 30.1 ± 23.1 postoperatively. The percentage of time with oxyhemoglobin saturation below 90% (CT90) decreased from 30.9% ± 28.1% preoperatively to 15.5% ± 25.6% postoperatively (P < .01). Sleep architecture was effectively changed. The S3 + S4 percentage of total sleep time increased from 3.6% ± 4.4% to 8.7% ± 5.0% (P < .05). The success rates were 100% (8/8) and 22.2% (4/18) in patients with Friedman obstructive sleep apnea stage II and III, respectively. Conclusion. The success rate of ZPPP plus GAHM for patients with severe OSAHS who suffer from oropharyngeal and hypopharyngeal obstruction was limited. Friedman stage was a predictor of ZPPP plus GAHM surgical success.
Mental health survey of the adult population in Iran

Background No national data on the prevalence of mental disorders are available in Iran. Such information may be a prerequisite for efficient national mental health intervention. Aims To determine the mental health status of a population sample aged 15 years and over. Method Through random cluster sampling, 35 014 individuals were selected and evaluated using the 28-item version of the General Health Questionnaire. A complementary semi-structured clinical interview was also undertaken to detect learning disability (‘mental retardation’), epilepsy and psychosis. Results About a fifth of the people in the study (25.9% of the women and 14.9% of the men) were detected as likely cases. The prevalence of mental disorders was 21.33% in rural areas and 20.9% in urban areas. Depression and anxiety symptoms were more prevalent than somatisation and social dysfunction. The interview of families by general practitioners revealed that the rates of learning disability epilepsy and psychosis were 1.4%, 1.2% and 0.6%, respectively Prevalence increased with age and was higher in the married, widowed, divorced, unemployed and retired people. Conclusions Prevalence rates are comparable with international studies. There is a wide regional difference in the country, and women are at greater risk.