Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association between Glutathione S-Transferase GSTM1-T1 and P1 Polymorphisms with Metabolic Syndrome in Zoroastrians in Yazd, Iran

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the possible association between genetic polymorphisms of the glutathione S-transferase (GST) gene family and the risk of the development of metabolic syndrome (MS) in Zoroastrian females in Yazd, Iran. Methods: In this case-control study, GSTM1, T1, and P1 polymorphisms were genotyped in 51 randomly selected MS patients and 50 randomly selected healthy controls on February 2014 among Zoroastrian females whose ages ranged from 40 to 70 yr. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 17. Results: We observed a significant association of GSTP1-I/V (Isoleucine/Valine) allele and GSTP1-V/V (Valine / Valine) allele with MS (P = 0.047 and P = 0.044, respectively). The combined analysis of the two genotypes, the present genotype of GSTT1, I/V and V/V alleles of GSTP1 genotype demonstrated a decrease in the risk of acquiring MS (OR = 0.246, P = 0.031). The null genotype of GSTM1, I/V, and V/V alleles of the GSTP1 genotype showed a lower risk in double combinations (OR = 0.15, P = 0.028 and OR = 0.13, P = 0.013, respectively). The combinations of the GSTM1 null genotypes and GSTT1 present genotypes and the GSTP1 I/V and V/V alleles together were associated with decreased risk of having MS in triple combinations (OR = 0.071, P = 0.039 and OR = 0.065, P = 0.022, respectively). Conclusion: GSTP1-I/V and V/V alleles, alone or in association with GSTM1 null and GSTT1 present genotypes, are related with decreased susceptibility to the development of MS in Zoroastrian females.
Nonlesional skin in atopic dermatitis is seemingly healthy skin – observations using noninvasive methods

Introduction Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic and relapsing skin disorder, which is characterized by abnormal skin barrier function within the entire skin surface. Several noninvasive bioengineering methods have been commonly used to quantify disease severity. High-frequency ultrasonography (HF-USG) is an important contribution to this field. Aim To evaluate noninvolved skin during the external treatment in relation to involved regions in patients with AD skin using noninvasive methods. Material and methods Transepidermal water loss (TEWL), capacitance and erythema assessment and HF-USG were performed in 55 AD patients within 2 regions (involved and uninvolved skin) before and after therapy. The clinical severity of the disease process was based on the eczema area and severity index (EASI) score. A control group consisting of 15 subjects was also included. Results On the basis of 4 bioengineering methods our study revealed that uninvolved skin in AD presents subclinical disturbances and significantly changes during therapy. The HF-USG detects inflammation in the upper dermis in AD patients in the form of a hypoechoic band, which may also be observed to a lesser extent within normal-appearing skin. Conclusions Nonlesional skin differs significantly from lesional skin in AD and from skin of healthy subjects. Noninvasive methods are able to measure subclinical skin disturbances within normal-appearing skin, which are not evaluated using standard clinical scores. They are objective and may facilitate communication between different research groups.
Prior information based segmentation: A 3D level set surface matching approach

This paper presents a level set based segmentation method with shape priors. The shape priors guide the level set deformations so that the contour extraction process is affected not only from the local image properties, but also from the expert knowledge in the form of manual contours. The method does not need an explicit training phase and it does not complicate the level set functional because level set deformations and incorporation of prior information are done separately. The system uses manual expert contours to produce new level set surfaces which are warped into the surface from the level set process. The prior information is incorporated into the level sets by re-initializing these warped surfaces as new level set surfaces. The resulting system is validated by running experiments on synthetic data and real MR and ultrasound cardiac images.
On Throughput and Decoding Delay Performance of Instantly Decodable Network Coding

In this paper, a comprehensive study of packet-based instantly decodable network coding (IDNC) for single-hop wireless broadcast is presented. The optimal IDNC solution in terms of throughput is proposed and its packet decoding delay performance is investigated. Lower and upper bounds on the achievable throughput and decoding delay performance of IDNC are derived and assessed through extensive simulations. Furthermore, the impact of receivers' feedback frequency on the performance of IDNC is studied and optimal IDNC solutions are proposed for scenarios where receivers' feedback is only available after and IDNC round, composed of several coded transmissions. However, since finding these IDNC optimal solutions is computational complex, we further propose simple yet efficient heuristic IDNC algorithms. The impact of system settings and parameters such as channel erasure probability, feedback frequency, and the number of receivers is also investigated and simple guidelines for practical implementations of IDNC are proposed.
Determination of Chlamydia trachomatisPrevalence in an Asymptomatic Screening Population: Performances of the LCx and COBAS Amplicor Tests with Urine Specimens

ABSTRACT This study determined the performances of the LCx (Abbott) and COBAS Amplicor (Roche) tests with urine specimens for the detection ofChlamydia trachomatis in an asymptomatic screening population. Randomly selected women and men (age range, 15 to 40 years) registered in 20 general practices in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, were invited to participate in this study. Urine specimens (n = 2,906; 1,138 specimens from men and 1,717 specimens from women) were tested for C. trachomatis by the COBAS Amplicor (Roche) and LCx (Abbott) tests. Samples which were positive by only one assay were subjected to discrepant analyses by a third assay (in-house plasmid PCR). By the LCx assay C. trachomatis DNA was detected in urine specimens from 46 of 1,717 women and 29 of 1,138 men, while the COBAS Amplicor detected C. trachomatis DNA in 52 and 35 specimens, respectively. When comparing the LCx and COBAS Amplicor tests, 32 test results (20 for women and 12 for men) were discrepant. After discrepant analyses the following sensitivities, specificities, and positive predictive values were found for the LCx and COBAS Amplicor tests: 78.6 versus 98.8%, 99.7 versus 99.9%, and 88.0 versus 95.4%, respectively. No prominent differences were found between men and women with regard to the test performances. After discrepant analyses the overall prevalences ofC. trachomatis in women and men were 3.0 and 2.8%, respectively. For both women and men the prevalence in the younger age groups was higher than that in the older age groups. In conclusion, the COBAS Amplicor tests shows better diagnostic characteristics than the LCx assay for the detection of C. trachomatis in urine specimens from an asymptomatic screening population. In this asymptomatic population the overall prevalence of C. trachomatis was 2.9%.
Antiphospholipid antibodies in critically ill patients

Antiphospholipid antibodies are responsible for a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. Venous, arterial and microvascular thrombosis and severe catastrophic cases account for a large morbidly/mortality. Through the connection between the immune, inflammatory and hemostatic systems, it is possible that these antibodies may contribute to the development of organ dysfunction and are associated with poor short and long-term prognoses in critically ill patients. We performed a search of the PubMed/MedLine database for articles written during the period from January 2000 to February 2013 to evaluate the frequency of antiphospholipid antibodies in critically ill patients and their impact on the outcomes of these patients. Only eight original studies involving critically ill patients were found. However, the development of antiphospholipid antibodies in critically ill patients seems to be frequent, but more studies are necessary to clarify their pathogenic role and implications for clinical practice.
Characterization of the Transmembrane Molecular Architecture of the Dystroglycan Complex in Schwann Cells*

We have demonstrated previously 1) that the dystroglycan complex, but not the sarcoglycan complex, is expressed in peripheral nerve, and 2) that α-dystroglycan is an extracellular laminin-2-binding protein anchored to β-dystroglycan in the Schwann cell membrane. In the present study, we investigated the transmembrane molecular architecture of the dystroglycan complex in Schwann cells. The cytoplasmic domain of β-dystroglycan was co-localized with Dp116, the Schwann cell-specific isoform of dystrophin, in the abaxonal Schwann cell cytoplasm adjacent to the outer membrane. β-dystroglycan bound to Dp116 mainly via the 15 C-terminal amino acids of its cytoplasmic domain, but these amino acids were not solely responsible for the interaction of these two proteins. Interestingly, the β-dystroglycan-precipitating antibody precipitated only a small fraction of α-dystroglycan and did not precipitate laminin and Dp116 from the peripheral nerve extracts. Our results indicate 1) that Dp116 is a component of the submembranous cytoskeletal system that anchors the dystroglycan complex in Schwann cells, and 2) that the dystroglycan complex in Schwann cells is fragile compared with that in striated muscle cells. We propose that this fragility may be attributable to the absence of the sarcoglycan complex in Schwann cells.
The Two Faces of Age Identity

As people grow older they develop a sense of a dual age identity, referring to their age group and generation (Weiss & Lang, 2009). Two studies (N1 = 37, 60–85 years and N2 = 104, 65–88 years of age) compared and contrasted older adults’ cognitive representations of two types of age cohort groups (age group vs. generation). Analyses reveal that age-group identity was more frequently associated with loss and decline, whereas generation identity was more frequently associated with positive characteristics and increased levels of agency. Findings also show that generation identity may – especially in later adulthood – serve as a means to compensate for loss. The self-protective function of the dual age identity and the dynamic and flexible nature of identification are further discussed.
A Structured Model for Joint Learning of Argument Roles and Predicate Senses

In predicate-argument structure analysis, it is important to capture non-local dependencies among arguments and inter-dependencies between the sense of a predicate and the semantic roles of its arguments. However, no existing approach explicitly handles both non-local dependencies and semantic dependencies between predicates and arguments. In this paper we propose a structured model that overcomes the limitation of existing approaches; the model captures both types of dependencies simultaneously by introducing four types of factors including a global factor type capturing non-local dependencies among arguments and a pairwise factor type capturing local dependencies between a predicate and an argument. In experiments the proposed model achieved competitive results compared to the state-of-the-art systems without applying any feature selection procedure.
Balls-into-bins with nearly optimal load distribution

We consider sequential balls-into-bins processes that randomly allocate m balls into n bins. We analyze two allocation schemes that achieve a close to optimal maximum load of ⌈m/n⌉ + 1 and require only O(m) (expected) allocation time. These parameters should be compared with the classic d-choice-process which achieves a maximum load of m/n + log log n/d + O(1) and requires m • d allocation time.
Incidental Affect, Facial Expressions, and Risk

1 General Introduction . 4 Incidental Affect and Risk. 7 Emotional Facial Expressions, Affect, and Subjective Evaluations . 14 Facial electromyography (EMG) . 17 Rationale For Study 1. 20 Statement of Hypotheses . 24 Method . 25 Research participants . 25 Measures . 25 Procedure . 31 Analysis and results . 31 Hypothesis I . 33 Hypothesis II . 33 Rationale For Study 2. 52 Statement of Hypotheses . 57 Method . 61 Research participants . 61 Materials . 61 Procedure . 66 Analysis and results. 67 Hypothesis I . 68 Hypothesis II . 69 Hypothesis III. 73 Hypothesis IV . 73 Hypothesis V . 80 References. 116 Appendix A. Affect Grid. 132 Appendix B mDES State affect Measure. 133 Appendix C. Numeracy Questionnaire. 134 Appendix D. Pre-Flu Study. 135 Appendix E. Post-Flu Study Questionnaire. 137 Appendix F. Script for Flu Commercials. 138
Updating pregnancy diabetes guidelines: is (y)our laboratory ready?

*Corresponding author: Sjoerd A.A. van den Berg, PhD, Department of Clinical Chemistry and Hematology, Amphia Hospital, Breda, The Netherlands, Phone: +31-(0)765954231, E-mail: svandenberg@amphia.nl Sjoerd W. van Thiel: Department of Internal Medicine, Amphia Hospital, Breda, The Netherlands Marc H.M. Thelen: Department of Clinical Chemistry and Hematology, Amphia Hospital, Breda, The Netherlands Letter to the Editor
Temperature and CO2 Level Influence Potato leafroll virus Infection in Solanum tuberosum

We determined the effects of atmospheric temperature (10–30 ± 2°C in 5°C increments) and carbon dioxide (CO2) levels (400 ± 50 ppm, 540 ± 50 ppm, and 940 ± 50 ppm) on the infection of Solanum tuberosum cv. Chubaek by Potato leafroll virus (PLRV). Below CO2 levels of 400 ± 50 ppm, the PLRV infection rate and RNA content in plant tissues increased as the temperature increased to 20 ± 2°C, but declined at higher temperatures. At high CO2 levels (940 ± 50 ppm), more plants were infected by PLRV at 30 ± 2°C than at 20 or 25 ± 2°C, whereas PLRV RNA content was unchanged in the 20–30 ± 2°C temperature range. The effects of atmospheric CO2 concentration on the acquisition of PLRV by Myzus persicae and accumulation of PLRV RNA in plant tissues were investigated using a growth chamber at 20 ± 2°C. The M. persicae PLRV RNA content slightly increased at elevated CO2 levels (940 ± 50 ppm), but this increase was not statistically significant. Transmission rates of PLRV by Physalis floridana increased as CO2 concentration increased. More PLRV RNA accumulated in potato plants maintained at 540 or 940 ± 50 ppm CO2, than in plants maintained at 400 ± 50 ppm. This is the first evidence of greater PLRV RNA accumulation and larger numbers of S. tuberosum plants infected by PLRV under conditions of combined high CO2 levels (940 ± 50 ppm) and high temperature (30 ± 2°C).
Evaluating a technique for requirements extraction from business process diagrams through empirical studies

In the area of requirements engineering there are elicitation techniques that are based on business context to identify the software requirements. However, these techniques do not commonly use business processes models as a source of information relevant to the elicitation of requirements. Such techniques extract use cases from business processes models. However, before modeling use cases, it is important to produce a document with functional and non-functional requirements and business rules. Therefore, this work proposes a new technique to aid extracting the requirements from business process diagrams: the REMO (Requirements Elicitation oriented by business process MOdeling) technique. This paper shows that, through the use of empirical studies, it was possible to obtain results that contributed to the evolution of the REMO technique. Additionally, the paper describes the qualitative analysis of the second empirical study, which used the procedures of two different methods: the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Grounded Theory.
Burnout among Female Teachers in Malaysia.

This study is an attempt to survey the burnout level of female teachers in Malaysia and determine the likely factors that are associated with this phenomenon. The subjects of the study were 437 female teachers from primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. A demographic questionnaire was used to collect the data regarding the individual characteristics (e.g., marital status, number of children, age, and teaching experience) and organizational factors (e.g., teaching level and workload). The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educator Survey (MBI-ES) (Maslach, Jackson, & Schwab, 1986) was also employed to collect the data concerning the burnout levels of the teachers in the three dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Descriptive and univariate statistics were used in the data analysis. It was found that the number of children, level of teaching, age, and years of teaching experience were significant indicators of burnout among the female teachers, while marital status and workload were not significantly related to their burnout syndrome. The implications and recommendations are also presented.
ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS' EMOTIONS IN AGREEMENT WITH THE DANCE TEACHING TECHNIQUE USED

The main aim of this study was to examine emotional responses that pupils experience with the look and feel, as determining of the social judgment they are subjected with respect to the technique used during the dance practice in physical education. The sample was formed by 47 pupils from secondary, a class of 20 students received 12 sessions of dance education under Direct Instruction Technique and another class of 27 students received 12 sessions of teaching dance under Creative Inquiry Technique. The instrument used to know the emotions of the students was the self-report, collected at three different points in the process and analyzing its content with a categorical system. Results showed that the Creative Inquiry Technique increased pupils´ negative feelings related with social exposition whereas Direct Instruction Technique revealed a faster understanding of the contents. Hence, it is considered necessary that dance learning was preceded by a more directive basic teaching period.
Universal Complex Structures in Written Language

Quantitative linguistics has provided us with a number of empirical laws that characterise the evolution of languages and competition amongst them. In terms of language usage, one of the most influential results is Zipf's law of word frequencies. Zipf's law appears to be universal, and may not even be unique to human language. However, there is ongoing controversy over whether Zipf's law is a good indicator of complexity. Here we present an alternative approach that puts Zipf's law in the context of critical phenomena (the cornerstone of complexity in physics) and establishes the presence of a large scale "attraction" between successive repetitions of words. Moreover, this phenomenon is scale-invariant and universal -- the pattern is independent of word frequency and is observed in texts by different authors and written in different languages. There is evidence, however, that the shape of the scaling relation changes for words that play a key role in the text, implying the existence of different "universality classes" in the repetition of words. These behaviours exhibit striking parallels with complex catastrophic phenomena.
Racial/Ethnic Variation in Carotid Artery Revascularization Utilization and Outcomes: Analysis From the National Cardiovascular Data Registry

Background and Purpose— It is not known whether racial or ethnic disparities observed with other revascularization procedures are also seen with carotid artery stenting (CAS) and endarterectomy (CEA). Methods— We compared the utilization and outcomes of CAS and CEA across racial/ethnic groups within the CARE Registry between May 2007 and December 2012. Results— Between 2007 and 2012, of the 13 129 patients who underwent CAS, majority were non-Hispanic whites (89.3%), followed by blacks (4.4%), Hispanics (4.3%), and other groups (2.0%). A similar distribution was observed among the 10 953 patients undergoing CEA (non-Hispanic whites, 92.6%; blacks, 3.5%; Hispanics, 2.8%; and other groups, 1.1%). During this time period, a trend toward proportionate increase in CAS utilization was observed in non-Hispanic whites and other groups, whereas the opposite was observed among Hispanics and blacks. This trend persisted even when hospitals performing both CAS and CEA were exclusively analyzed. Adherence to antiplatelet and statin therapy was significantly lower among blacks post CEA. In-hospital major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events remained comparable across groups post CAS and CEA. At 30 days, the incidence of stroke (7.2%) and major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (8.8%) was higher among blacks post CEA (P<0.05), after risk adjustment. Conclusion— During the study period, utilization of CAS and CEA was highest among non-Hispanic whites. There was a trend toward increased CAS utilization over time among non-Hispanic whites and other groups, and a trend toward increased CEA utilization among Hispanics and blacks. In-hospital major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events remained comparable between groups, whereas 30-day major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events were significantly higher in blacks.
Probing the benefits of real-time tracking during cancer care

People with cancer experience many unanticipated symptoms and struggle to communicate them to clinicians. Although researchers have developed patient-reported outcome (PRO) tools to address this problem, such tools capture retrospective data intended for clinicians to review. In contrast, real-time tracking tools with visible results for patients could improve health outcomes and communication with clinicians, while also enhancing patients' symptom management. To understand potential benefits of such tools, we studied the tracking behaviors of 25 women with breast cancer. We provided 10 of these participants with a real-time tracking tool that served as a "technology probe" to uncover behaviors and benefits from voluntary use. Our findings showed that while patients' tracking behaviors without a tool were fragmented and sporadic, these behaviors with a tool were more consistent. Participants also used tracked data to see patterns among symptoms, feel psychosocial comfort, and improve symptom communication with clinicians. We conclude with design implications for future real-time tracking tools.
Efektivitas Brain Gym dalam Meningkatkan Konsentrasi Belajar pada Anak

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui efektivitas Brain Gym dalam meningkatkan konsentrasi belajar pada anak. Anak seringkali harus bergelut dengan agenda pembelajaran tidak hanya ketika di lingkungan sekolah tetapi juga di rumah. Dengan memaksakan otak untuk bekerja sangat keras maka akan terjadi ketidakseimbangan dalam otak antara otak kanan dan otak kiri, juga dapat menyebabkan kelelahan pada otak sehingga konsentrasi dalam belajar anak menjadi menurun. Subjek dalam penelitian ini adalah siswa kelas IV Sekolah Dasar Negeri Serengan I, No.70 Surakarta yang berumur 10 tahun. Teknik pengambilan sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah Cluster Random Sampling dengan subjek sebanyak 76 orang dengan perincian subjek untuk try out 37 orang dan untuk penelitian 39 orang. Alat ukur dalam penelitian ini menggunakan tes konsentrasi anak. Analisis data yang dipergunakan dalam penelitian ini menggunakan statistik non parametrik uji Mann Whitney U-Test. Diperoleh nilai sebesar U= 80,000 p= 0.002 (p< 0.05). Nilai rata-rata gainscore konsentrasi belajar subjek pada kelompok eksperimen sebesar 25.50 sedangkan nilai rata-rata gainscore subjek pada kelompok kontrol sebesar 14.21. Nilai rata-rata ini dapat diinter- pretasi bahwa ada perbedaan atau selisih rata-rata pada hasil nilai kelompok eksperimen dengan kelompok kontrol. Artinya pemberian Brain Gym sangat efektif dalam meningkatkan konsentrasi belajar pada anak.