Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ramadan Fasting Exerts Immunomodulatory Effects: Insights from a Systematic Review

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar and is observed by Muslims as a month of fasting. All Muslim adults are expected to fast; nevertheless certain subgroups, including sick, frail subjects, and pregnant women, among others, are exempted. Ramadan fasting has been shown to impact on body systems in different manners. The influence of Ramadan fasting on immune system regulation remains elusive; however, immune system changes, such as the modulation of body response to various infectious, stressful, and other harmful events, are of great interest during fasting. In this paper, we performed an extensive systematic literature review of different scholarly databases (ISI/Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed,/MEDLINE, Google Scholar, Directory of Open Access Journals, EbscoHOST, Scirus, Science Direct, the Cochrane Library, and ProQuest), using the following key words: “fasting,” “Ramadan,” “Islam,” and “immunity. ” Conclusions drawn from these findings included: (1) Ramadan fasting has been shown to only mildly influence the immune system and the alterations induced are transient, returning to basal pre-Ramadan status shortly afterward. (2) Ramadan fasting during the second trimester of pregnancy was shown to be safe and did not result in negative fetal outcomes, or maternal oxidative status alterations. (3) In cardiac patients, Ramadan fasting can have beneficial effects including lipid profile improvement and alleviation of oxidative stress. (4) In asthmatic patients as well as in patients with human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and autoimmune disorders, fasting was safe. (5) In psychiatric patients, such as those suffering from schizophrenia, fasting could increase immunologic markers. (6) Fasting Muslim athletes who maintain intensive training schedule during Ramadan showed fluctuations of immunologic markers.
Prenatal risk factors for autism: comprehensive meta-analysis

Background The aetiology of autism is unknown, although prenatal exposures have been the focus of epidemiological research for over 40 years. Aims To provide the first quantitative review and meta-analysis of the association between maternal pregnancy complications and pregnancy-related factors and risk of autism. Method PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO databases were searched for epidemiological studies that examined the association between pregnancy-related factors and autism. Forty studies were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Summary effect estimates were calculated for factors examined in multiple studies. Results Over 50 prenatal factors have been examined. The factors associated with autism risk in the meta-analysis were advanced parental age at birth, maternal prenatal medication use, bleeding, gestational diabetes, being first born v. third or later, and having a mother born abroad. The factors with the strongest evidence against a role in autism risk included previous fetal loss and maternal hypertension, proteinuria, pre-eclampsia and swelling. Conclusions There is insufficient evidence to implicate any one prenatal factor in autism aetiology, although there is some evidence to suggest that exposure to pregnancy complications may increase the risk.
Spectral-Domain Optical Coherence Tomography Features of Acute Syphilitic Posterior Placoid Chorioretinitis: The Role of Autoimmune Response in Pathogenesis

Purpose: Syphilis is an infectious disease that can cause a wide variety of ocular signs. One of the rarest manifestations of ocular syphilis is acute syphilitic posterior placoid chorioretinitis (ASPPC). We report on the spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) features of a case diagnosed with unilateral ASPPC. Methods: A 64-year-old man presented with a sudden loss of visual acuity (VA) in the right eye. His only clinical sign was a large, geographic, yellow-white lesion centered on the right fovea. Our patient was studied with SD-OCT on presentation and during follow-up, as well as with fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography, electrophysiological study, and serologic and autoimmune screening. Results: Laboratory workup revealed positive serology for active syphilis and elevated anti-beta2 glycoprotein I antibodies. SD-OCT showed a marked distortion of both the choroidal and outer retinal architecture. After treatment, best-corrected VA improved to 20/25. Pattern electroretinography displayed a severe reduction of P50 amplitude, which improved in late follow-up. Six months after presentation, VA was 20/25 and anti-beta2 glycoprotein I antibodies returned to normal levels. Conclusions: Our findings are compatible with immunologically mediated temporary physiological impairment of the neuroretina, since the changes seen by SD-OCT could not have normalized if they were due to anatomical injury. The results of our study provide clues to understanding the pathogenesis of this disease and allow us to define a characteristic temporal sequence of events in ASPPC.
IR-Based Traceability Recovery Processes: An Empirical Comparison of "One-Shot" and Incremental Processes

We present the results of a controlled experiment aiming at analysing the role played by the approach adopted during an IR-based traceability recovery process. In particular, we compare the tracing performances achieved by subjects using the "one-shot" process, where the full ranked list of candidate links is proposed, and the incremental process, where a similarity threshold is used to cut the ranked list and the links are classified step-by-step. The analysis of the achieved results shows that, in general, the incremental process improves the tracing accuracy and reduces the effort to analyse the proposed links.
Differences in mortality rates and causes of death between HIV positive and HIV negative intravenous drug users.

In order to study differences in mortality and causes of death between HIV positive and HIV negative intravenous drug users (IVDU), 1009 (180 HIV positive and 829 HIV negative) IVDU in Oslo, Norway, were followed from their first HIV test for a mean period of 36 months (range 1-67 months). Eighty-seven (55 HIV negatives and 32 HIV positives) died during the follow-up period. The risk of death for IVDU was 31 times higher than for the general population. The estimated probability of survival after 3 years of follow-up was 0.92 for the whole cohort, 0.93 for the HIV negative group and 0.87 for the HIV positive group (P < 0.001, log rank test). In a Cox regression analysis, HIV positivity, > 30 years of age and > 5 years of IV drug use prior to study entry were all significantly associated with a fatal outcome. Eleven per cent (n = 20) of the HIV positives and 4% (n = 38) of the HIV negatives died from drug overdose, which accounted for 68% of all deaths; 2.2% of the HIV positives and 0.4% (n = 4) of the total cohort died from AIDS. Drug overdose represented the major threat to life among IVDU in this study. Because of the dynamics of the HIV epidemic, AIDS may have an increasing impact on mortality. However, in order to forecast the number of AIDS cases among IVDU the high non-AIDS mortality must be controlled for.
Improved heavy quark action

Building upon the work of the Fermilab and Tsukuba groups, we discuss improved lattice actions capable of describing onium and heavy-light systems with errors of order (~pa)2 but accurate to arbitrary order in(ma)n, wherea is the lattice spacing, ~p is the spatial momentum of the heavy quark(s) andm the heavy quark mass. We demonstrate using both a tree-level example and an inductive proof that this accuracy can be achieved for hadronic masses using an action containing only three mass-dependent parameters: the bare quark mass ( 0), an anisotropy coefficient (ζ ) of the Dirac spatial derivative term and a coefficient (cP) of the chromomagnetic Pauli term. Further improvement terms are needed to calculate matrix elements involving spinor fields or composite operators. This represents a simplification of earlier results and makes practical the non-perturbative evaluation of these coefficients.
Increased Expression of Interleukin‐8 mRNA in Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease Mucosa and Epithelial Cells

&NA; Interleukin‐8 (IL‐8) is a chemotactic cytokine (chemokine), which both attracts and activates granulocytes. IL‐8 could have a central function in the initiation and perpetuation of the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), due to its relative resistance to inactivation and long half‐life in vivo. Using a quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) assay, we have observed elevated levels of IL‐8 mRNA in colonic mucosal sections obtained from surgically resected specimens from ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD) patients with actively inflamed mucosa. The level of IL‐8 mRNA expression in the intestinal mucosal biopsies from UC and CD patients was much greater in involved as opposed to noninvolved mucosal sections. The highest expression of IL‐8 mRNA detected by RT‐PCR was in UC mucosa and in isolated intestinal epithelial cells from UC patients. Increased IL‐8 production by cells in IBD intestinal mucosa as well as IBD epithelial cells may be involved in the continuous attraction and activation of granulocytes in the inflamed intestine in both UC and CD patients. Chemokines, such as IL‐8, are potent chemoattractant molecules and may have a central role in the augmentation and perpetuation of inflammation in IBD.
Abatement of VOCs with alternate adsorption and plasma-assisted regeneration: a review

Energy consumption is an important concern for the removal of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from waste air with non-thermal plasma (NTP). Although the combination of NTP with heterogeneous catalysis has shown to reduce the formation of unwanted by-products and improve the energy efficiency of the process, further optimization of these hybrid systems is still necessary to evolve to a competitive air purification technology. A newly developed innovative technique, i.e., the cyclic operation of VOC adsorption and NTP-assisted regeneration has attracted growing interest of researchers due to the optimized energy consumption and cost-effectiveness. This paper reviews this new technique for the abatement of VOCs as well as for regeneration of adsorbents. In the first part, a comparison of the energy consumption between sequential and continuous treatment is given. Next, studies dealing with adsorption followed by NTP oxidation are reviewed. Particular attention is paid to the adsorption mechanisms and the regeneration of catalysts with in-plasma and post-plasma processes. Finally, the influence of critical process parameters on the adsorption and regeneration steps is summarized.
Pengembangan Instrumen Kemandirian Belajar Mahasiswa

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyusun dan mengembangkan instrumen kemandirian belajar mahasiswa yang handal. Metode yang digunakan adalah model pengembangan teoretik. Penelitian dilaksanakan di FMIPA UNY, pada semester gasal tahun akademik 2009/2010. Populasi adalah seluruh mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Matematika FMIPA UNY. Sampel diambil dengan cara cluster random sampling. Kelas terpilih adalah Prodi PMatNR kelas C angkatan 2007, Prodi PMatR angkatan 2007, dan Prodi PMatR angkatan 2008. Hasil penelitian adalah: (1) Penyusunan dan pengembangan instrumen dilakukan dengan delapan langka'h. (2) Instrumen tersusun memiliki validitas yang baik, ditinjau dari validitas isi oleh expert judgement, validitas konstruk dengan analisis faktor dan validitas empiris dengan Peanon product moment correlation. Pengujian validitas konstruk melalui analisis faktor dengan metode eksploratori berhasil diekstraksi enam faktor sesuai dengan teori yang diestimasikan yaitu: (a) Ketidaktergantungan terhadap orang lain, (b) kepercayaan diri, (c) Berperilaku disiplin, (d) rasa tanggung jawab, (e) Berperilaku berdasarkan inisiatif sendiri, dan (f) kontrol diri. (3) Reliabilitas instrumen termasuk kategori cukup tinggi yang ditunjukkan dengan besarnya koefisien reliabilitas alpha yakni sebesar 0.8797. Kara kunci: instrumen kemandirian belajar mahasiswa
BigRoots: An Effective Approach for Root-Cause Analysis of Stragglers in Big Data System

Stragglers are commonly accepted to have a great impact on the performance of big data system. However, the reason to cause straggler is complicated. Previous works mostly focus on straggler detection, scheduling optimization, and coarse-grained root-cause analysis. These methods fail to provide useful insights to help users optimize their programs. In this paper, we propose BigRoots, a general method incorporating both framework and system features for root-cause analysis of stragglers in the big data system. BigRoots analyzes the stragglers using features from big data framework such as shuffle read/write bytes and JVM garbage collection time, as well as system resource utilization, such as CPU, I/O, and network, which is able to detect both internal and external causes of stragglers. We verify BigRoots by injecting high resource utilization across different system components and perform case studies to analyze different workloads in Hibench. The experimental results demonstrate that BigRoots is effective to identify the root causes of stragglers and provide useful guidance for performance optimization. Based on the root causes identified by BigRoots, the workloads achieve significant performance improvement (by 37.74% in the best case) after optimization.
Understanding individuals’ initial and continued use of online auction marketplaces: A meta-analysis

Purpose – The current study aims to systematically review the existing literature, identify the main determinants that impact individuals’ perceptions, attitude, intention and behavior and meta-analytically evaluate their respective strength. Moreover, this study examines the specific mechanism through which more distal factors, such as trust, risk, experience and enjoyment influence individuals’ decision in the context of online auction markets. Finally, the moderating effects of contextual and methodological factors that could potentially influence the relationships are explored. During the past two decades, a large number of empirical studies examined the factors that hinder or foster individuals’ initial and continued acceptance of online auction marketplaces. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the effect sizes reported, 91 studies, including 95 independent samples (N = 36.788), the current study utilizes bivariate meta-analysis, meta-analytic structural equation modeling and weighted least square.
Factor VIII Structure and Function

Hemophilia A. the most conlmon of the severe. inherited bleeding disorders. results from a deficiency or defect in the plasma protein, factor VIII. Interest in the structure. function and metabolism of factor VIII is commensurate with its biochemical and clinical importance. although progress has been limited because of its low plasma concentration and labile activity. In the past decade significant advances in our knowledge of this protein have been achieved following the development of methods to purify sufficient amounts of material for biochemical analyses and information derived froin the factor VIII gene sequence. This review will sumlnarize recent studies on the structure and function of factor VIII with special emphasis devoted to intersubunit interactions and mechanisms that regulate coagulant activity. Factor VIII circulates in complex n~ith the large multiineric protein. von Willebrand factor (vWf), and this association stabilizes factor VIII activity i n vitro (1.2). Proteolytic activation of factor VIII liberates it from the vWf carrier protein to allow participation as a protein cofactor in the intrinsic factor Xase complex. This complex, consisting of the serine protease factor IXa and factor VIIIa assembled on a (phospholipid) membrane surface catalyzes the conversion of factor X to factor Xa (see ref. 3 for a recent review). The role of factor VIII in formation of this complex. which is analogous to the role of the structurally similar factor V in prothrombinase, is to nlarkedly increase the catalytic efficiency of factor 1Xa toward factor X by several orders of magnitude (4). Rate enhancement occurs in part through an increase in collisiolial frequency by restricting the reactants to a twodimensional surface. Furthermore, the cofactor may affect the active site of factor IXa (5) since its primary kinetic effect is to increase k,,,.
Distinct phenotypes of plasma cells in spleen and bone marrow of autoimmune NOD.B10.H2b mice

Long-lived plasma cells (PCs) residing in the bone marrow (BM) are important producers of protective antibodies. However, when reacting against self-antigens, these PCs produce autoantibodies that contribute to progression of autoimmune diseases such as Sjögren's syndrome (SS). By using a murine model of primary SS, the NOD.B10. H2b mice, we characterized phenotype and generation of PCs at different stages of the pSS disease progression. In general, the PC population found in the NOD.B10. H2b mice expressed high amounts of MHCII, IgG, and BrdU. We further demonstrate the presence of both short- and long-lived PCs in autoimmune spleen and in autoimmune BM. A long-lived PC subset was also found in the spleen and BM of non-autoimmune BALB/c mice, which have not been treated with any immunological agent. Quantitative investigation of splenic and BM PCs revealed that in the NOD.B10. H2 mice, splenic PCs migrate not only to the BM but possibly also to the sites of inflammation. Finally, BM in the aged NOD.B10. H2b mice (40-week-old) presented significantly higher quantities of long-lived PCs than BM of BALB/c mice.
Proactive failure detection learning generation patterns of large-scale network logs

With the growth of services in IP networks, network operators are required to perform proactive operation that quickly detects the signs of critical failures and prevents future problems. Network log data, including router syslog, are rich sources for such operations. However, it has become impossible to find genuinely important logs that lead to serious problems due to the large volume and complexity of log data. We propose a log analysis system for proactive detection of failures. Our key observation is that the abnormality of logs depends on not just the keywords in the messages (e.g. ERROR, FAIL), but generation patterns such as burstiness. Our system consists of three functions: (i) extracting log templates automatically and quickly from a massive amount of unstructured log data; (ii) constructing log feature vectors to characterize the generation patterns of logs; and (iii) using a supervised machine learning approach to associate failures with the log data that appeared before them. We validated our system using real log data collected from a large network and determined its effectiveness.
Analogies Between Oxytocin Systems of the Uterus and Brain

In this brief review we have compared OT systems in the brain with those of the uterus and ovary particularly with respect to interactions with steroids. We have presented evidence of heterogeneous OTR and 125I-P-3-BSA binding sites in the MPOA as well as evidence of extensive interactions of steroids and OT in the MPOA, that cannot be adequately explained by genomic effects of steroids. We also discuss a putative analogue between steroid control of OTR stimulation of intracellular calcium levels, phospholipase C activity and prostaglandins in the uterus and steroid effects on OT systems in brain. We have developed a model for steroid control of both OT release and OTR in which we suggest that steroids and OT bind to membrane receptors coupled to G proteins. This model may prove useful in understanding the interactive central actions of steroids and OT systems in regulating the endocrinology and behaviors associated with reproduction.
Association of GSTP 1 and XRCC 1 gene polymorphisms with clinical outcomes of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

We investigated the association between the polymorphisms GSTP1 rs1695 and XRCC1 rs1799782 and rs25487 and the clinical outcome of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) receiving cisplatin-based chemotherapy. Genotyping of GSTP1 rs1695 and XRCC1 rs1799782, and rs25487 was conducted by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. By conditional logistic regression analysis, patients carrying the GG genotype of GSTP1 rs1695 and the AA genotype of XRCC1 rs25487 were found to be more highly associated with response to chemotherapy than were those carrying the AA genotype; the ORs (95%CIs) were 0.13 (0.04-0.37) and 3.37 (1.44-8.53), respectively. Presence of the GG genotype of GSTP1 rs1695 and the GA and AA genotypes of XRCC1 rs25487 was associated with overall survival of 10332 J.Y. Liu et al. ©FUNPEC-RP www.funpecrp. com.br Genetics and Molecular Research 14 (3): 10331-10337 (2015) NSCLC, and the hazards ratios (95%CI) were 4.35 (1.40-17.92), 0.53 (0.31-0.91), and 0.39 (0.18-0.83), respectively. The results of our study suggest that the GSTP1 rs1695 and XRCC1 rs25487 polymorphisms might affect the clinical outcome of patients with advanced NSCLC receiving cisplatin-based chemotherapy.
Fundamental relationship between NodeDensity and delay in wireless ad hoc networks with unreliable links

We investigate the fundamental relationship between node density and transmission delay in large-scale wireless ad hoc networks with unreliable links from percolation perspective. Previous works[11][2][10] have already showed the relationship between transmission delay and distance from source to destination. However, it still remains as an open question how transmission delay varies in accordance with node density. Answering this question can provide guidance for determining the number of nodes to meet the delay requirement when designing ad hoc networks. In this paper, we study the impact of node density λ on the ratio of delay and distance, denoted by γ(λ). We analytically characterize the properties of γ(λ) as a function of λ. And then we present upper and lower bounds to γ(λ). Next, we take propagation delay into consideration and obtain further results on the upper and lower bounds of γ(λ). Finally, we make simulations to verify our theoretical analysis.
Fear of Hypoglycaemia in parents of young children with type one diabetes: A qualitative study using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Background: Diabetes mellitus type 1 (DM1) is the most common form of diabetes in children. Strict glycaemic control can increase the risk of hypoglycaemia, which is characterised by a number of unpleasant and often frightening symptoms. Fear of Hypoglycaemia (FOH) is thought to contribute to psychological distress and diabetes management, however little is known about parents’ experiences of FOH. The aim of this study was to explore parents’ experience of FOH and its impact on their engagement with intensive insulin therapy. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted and analysed utilising an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach. Purposive, volunteer sampling was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 4 parents in the hospital setting. These were transcribed and analysed. Results: The results of this study suggest that FOH is a very salient topic for parents of children with DM1. Four super-ordinate themes emerged: parents’ internal experience, coping, family unit and school. FOH appears to be characterised by a range of emotional and psychological symptoms. Parents attempt to manage the condition and their experiences through a combination of emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies. The systemic challenges of diabetes and FOH were highlighted by parents’ worries about their child’s safety when under the care of others and the burden that this places on them.