Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Eosinophil Count Is a Common Factor for Complex Metabolic and Pulmonary Traits and Diseases: The LifeLines Cohort Study

There is ongoing debate on the association between eosinophil count and diseases, as previous studies were inconsistent. We studied the relationship of eosinophil count with 22 complex metabolic, cardiac, and pulmonary traits and diseases. From the population-based LifeLines Cohort Study (N = 167,729), 13,301 individuals were included. We focused on relationship of eosinophil count with three classes of metabolic (7 traits, 2 diseases), cardiac (6 traits, 2 diseases), and pulmonary (2 traits, 2 diseases) outcomes. Regression analyses were applied in overall, women and men, while adjusted for age, sex, BMI and smoking. A p-value of <0.00076 was considered statistically significant. 58.2% of population were women (mean±SD 51.3±11.1 years old). In overall, one-SD higher of ln-eosinophil count was associated with a 0.04 (±SE ±0.002;p = 6.0×10−6) SD higher levels in ln-BMI, 0.06 (±0.007;p = 3.1×10−12) SD in ln-TG, 0.04 (±0.003;p = 7.0×10−6) SD in TC, 0.04 (±0.004;p = 6.3×10−7) SD in LDL, 0.04 (±0.006;p = 6.0×10−6) SD in HbA1c; and with a 0.05 (±0.004;p = 1.7×10−8) SD lower levels in HDL, 0.05 (±0.007;p = 3.4×10−23) SD in FEV1, and 0.09 (±0.001;p = 6.6×10−28) SD in FEV1/FVC. A higher ln-eosinophil count was associated with 1.18 (95%CI 1.09–1.28;p = 2.0×10−5) odds ratio of obesity, 1.29 (1.19–1.39;p = 1.1×10−10) of metabolic syndrome, 1.40 (1.25–1.56;p = 2.7×10−9) of COPD and 1.81 (1.61–2.03;p = 1.0×10−23) of asthma. Similar results were found in women. We found no association between ln-eosinophil count either with blood pressure indices in overall, women and men; or with BMI, LDL, HbA1c and obesity in men. In a large population based cohort, we confirmed eosinophil count as a potential factor implicated in metabolic and pulmonary outcomes.
Progress in example based automatic speech recognition

In this paper we present a number of improvements that were recently made to the template based speech recognition system developed at ESAT. Combining these improvements resulted in a decrease in word error rate from 9.6% to 8.2% on the Nov92, 20k trigram, Wall Street Journal task. The improvements are along different lines. Apart from the time warping already applied within the DTW, it was found beneficial to apply additional length compensation on the template score. The single best score was replaced by a weighted k-NN average, while maintaining natural successor information as an ensemble cost. The local geometry of the acoustic space is now taken into account by assigning a diagonal covariance matrix to each input frame. Context sensitivity of short templates is increased by taking cross boundary scores into account for sorting the N best templates. Furthermore boundaries on the template segmentations may be relaxed. Finally context dependent word templates are now being used for short words. Several other variants that were not retained in the final system are discussed as well.
OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR CONTROL BY STIMULUS FEATURES DURING FADING 1

Sixteen children were given four successive circle-size discrimination problems with luminance as the fading stimulus. Children who were first presented with a difficult size discrimination failed to acquire this discrimination. Those who first received an easy discrimination learned the difficult discrimination. At the end of each 10-trial block, two probe stimuli were presented to monitor any shift in control from luminance to size. One probe was the same size as the positive stimulus but of different luminance; the other was the same luminance but of different size. If, in the course of fading, size and luminance both controlled responding, fading was successful. If luminance alone controlled responding until the end of fading, the size discrimination was not established. Dual control, and thus successful fading, resulted when the target stimuli were very discriminable, or when the target stimuli were subtly different provided that previous fading series had first established less subtle discriminations.
Risk Premia and the Conditional Tails of Stock Returns

Theory suggests that the risk of infrequent yet extreme events has a large impact on asset prices. Testing models of this hypothesis remains a challenge due to the diculty of measuring tail risk uctuations over time. I propose a new measure of time-varying tail risk that is motivated by asset pricing theory and is directly estimable from the cross section of returns. My procedure applies Hill’s (1975) tail risk estimator to the cross section of extreme events each day. It then optimally averages recent cross-sectional Hill estimates to provide conditional tail risk forecasts. Empirically, my measure has strong predictive power for aggregate market returns, outperforming all commonly studied predictor variables. I nd that a one standard deviation increase in tail risk forecasts an increase in excess market returns of 4.4% over the following year. Crosssectionally, stocks that highly positively covary with my tail risk measure earn average annual returns 6.0% lower than stocks with low tail risk covariation. I show that these results are consistent with predictions from two structural models: i) a long run risks economy with heavy-tailed consumption and dividend growth shocks, and ii) a time-varying rare disaster framework.
Nephrogenesis and angiotensin II receptor subtypes gene expression in the fetal lamb.

To investigate the role of angiotensin II (ANG II) in nephrogenesis, a developmental study of renal AT1 and AT2 receptor mRNA expression was performed in parallel with the quantitative and qualitative analysis of metanephros development in fetal lamb from 60 to 140 days of gestation. Both ANG II receptor subtypes were expressed early during nephrogenesis but displayed specific spatial and temporal distribution during gestation. High-AT2 mRNA expression took place in the outermost nephrogenic area and in the undifferentiated mesenchymal cells surrounding the ampulla; level of AT2 expression in this localization followed closely glomeruli proliferation rate and disappeared after nephrogenesis completion (>120 days). AT2 mRNA was also detected in the differentiated epithelial cells of macula densa of maturing glomeruli. Although most of AT1 mRNA labeling was found in the mesangial cells of maturing glomeruli, where it persisted after nephrogenesis completion, additional labeling was found in undifferentiated cells, in cells invading the inferior cleft of S-shaped bodies (80 days), and in medullar cells between tubules (120 days). Our results suggest that each receptor subtype has a specific role in renal morphogenesis, i.e., AT2 in mesenchymal proliferation or apoptosis and AT1 in vascular smooth muscle cells differentiation.
GLAUCOMA AND THE THYROID*

THE observation of Lagrange (1922) that a glaucomatous eye is "a sick eye in a sick body" is a challenge to ophthalmologists. For some time an association has been noted between hypertension and a high intra-ocular pressure, but Duke-Elder (1940) considers that this relationship is accidental rather than essential. More recently an increased incidence of primary glaucoma has been noted in diabetics. In the series here reported the development of primary open-angle glaucoma in two cases of Hashimoto's disease first suggested a possible link of this eye condition with auto-immune concepts; a review of the previous illnesses of 100 patients with openangle glaucoma showed a striking incidence of thyroid disturbances of various types. An assessment of these patients on a clinical and biochemical basis substantiated the initial impression that thyroid dysfunction walked in the shadow of open-angle glaucoma. The diagnosis of hypothyroidism was made on the basis of the clinical findings, laboratory investigations, and on the results of therapy. Twenty-five per cent. of open-angle glaucoma patients evaluated by Waynes's Diagnostic Index were considered to be subthyroid, with conditions ranging from frank myxoedema to mild hypothyroidism. The following laboratory investigations were carried out in assessing thyroid function in two groups of 100 patients (100 with open-angle glaucoma, and 100 controls). (1) Radio-iodineUptakeTests. -Theuptake of 131lbythethyroidwasmeasured after2 hours and after 24 hours. This isotope emits chiefly beta-rays,whoseaction is limited to a fewmm. of tissue, but in addition gamma-rays are also emitted, which ionize negligibly within the body, but which are penetrating and can be measured by an externally placed gamma-ray detector such as the Geiger counter. Of the cases of open-angle glaucoma 54 per cent. showed an abnormally low uptake, irrespective of whether definite clinical evidence of hypothyroidism was present or not. In the control series of 100 cases of closed-angle glaucoma an abnormally low uptake was found in only 13 per cent. In a series of 10 cases of persons without glaucoma taken at random who were suffering from eye conditions such as high myopia, cataract, and senile macular degeneration, the radio-iodine uptake was normal without exception.
Examining the psychometric properties of the brief 'Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale'.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To examine the psychometric properties of the Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale. BACKGROUND Sleep disturbances are an extensive and common problem among menopausal women. However, no unique and specific scale has yet been developed to detect the inductive symptoms distresses that cause poor sleep quality for menopausal women. DESIGN A cross-sectional design. METHODS The Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale was based on in-depth interviews with menopausal women and literature review. Convenience sampling was employed. One hundred and fifty three women participated in this study. Exploratory factor analysis, concurrent validity and contrasting group validity were used to examine the validity of the Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale. Cronbach's α was conducted to test the reliability. The accuracy of the scale was analysed with the receiver operating characteristic from MED CALC version 10.4. 8.0 software. The scale's sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value were analysed to locate the best cut-off point. RESULTS One factor was generated by Exploratory factor analysis, and this factor explained 49·07% of total variance. In addition, the Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale had significant positive correlations with the Greene Climacteric Scale and the self-evaluation of menopausal symptoms scale. Cronbach's α of the Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale was 0·89. Moreover, the diagnostic accuracy probability of the scale's receiver operating characteristic curve was 0·85. The best cut-off point was three with a sensitivity of 76% and a specificity of 87%. CONCLUSIONS The Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale had good reliability and validity, as well as refined indicators for assessing the tool's accuracy. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE The Menopausal Symptoms Distress Affecting Sleep Quality Scale is easy to use, can quickly detect the sleep conditions of menopausal women who suffer from menopausal symptom distress, and provide efficient nursing interventions to relieve menopausal symptom distresses, and then improve sleep quality.
piRNA and spermatogenesis in mice

Transposable elements and their fossil sequences occupy about half of the genome in mammals. While most of these selfish mobile elements have been inactivated by truncations and mutations during evolution, some copies remain competent to transpose and/or amplify, posing an ongoing genetic threat. To control such mutagenic sequences, host genomes have developed multiple layers of defence mechanisms, including epigenetic regulation and RNA silencing. Germ cells, in particular, employ the piwi–small RNA pathway, which plays a central and adaptive role in safeguarding the germline genome from retrotransposons. Recent studies have revealed that a class of developmentally regulated genes, which have long been implicated in germ cell specification and differentiation, such as vasa and tudor family genes, play key roles in the piwi pathway to suppress retrotransposons, indicating that the piwi-mediated genome protection is at the core of germline development. Furthermore, while the piwi system primarily operates post-transcriptionally at the RNA level, it also affects the epigenetics of cognate genome loci, offering an intriguing link between small RNAs and transcriptional control in mammals. In this review, we summarize our current understanding of the piwi pathway in mice, which is emerging as a fundamental component of spermatogenesis that ensures male fertility and genome integrity.
Dissolution is the solution: on the reduced mass-to-light ratios of Galactic globular clusters

Context. The observed dynamical mass-to-light (M/L) ratios of globular clusters (GCs) are systematically lower than the value expected from “canonical” simple stellar population models, which do not account for dynamical effects such as the preferential loss of low-mass stars due to energy equipartition. It has recently been shown that low-mass star depletion can qualitatively explain this discrepancy for globular clusters in several galaxies. Aims. To verify whether low-mass star depletion is indeed the driving mechanism behind the M/L decrease, we aim to predict the M/LV ratios of individual GCs for which orbital parameters and dynamical V-band mass-to-light ratios M/LV are known. There is a sample of 24 Galactic GCs for which this is possible. Methods. We used the SPACE cluster models, which include dynamical dissolution, low-mass star depletion, stellar evolution, stellar remnants, and various metallicities. We derived the dissolution timescales due to two-body relaxation and disc shocking from the orbital parameters of our GC sample and used these to predict the M/LV ratios of the individual GCs. To verify our findings, we also predicted the slopes of their low-mass stellar mass functions. Results. The computed dissolution timescales agree well with earlier empirical studies. The predicted M/LV are in 1σ agreement with the observations for 12 out of 24 GCs. The discrepancy for the other GCs probably arises because our predictions give global M/L ratios, while the observations represent extrapolated central values that are different from global ones in the case of mass segregation and a long dissolution timescale. The GCs in our sample that likely have dissimilar global and central M/L ratios can be excluded by imposing limits on the dissolution timescale and King parameter. For the remaining GCs, the observed and predicted average M/LV are 78 +9 −11 % and 78 ± 2% of the canonically expected values, while the values are 74 +6 −7 % and 85 ± 1% for the entire sample. The predicted correlation between the slope of the low-mass stellar mass function and M/LV drop is found to be qualitatively consistent with observed mass function slopes. Conclusions. The dissolution timescales of Galactic GCs are such that the ∼20% gap between canonically expected and observed M/LV ratios is bridged by accounting for the preferential loss of low-mass stars, also when considering individual clusters. It is concluded that the variation in M/L ratio due to dissolution and low-mass star depletion is a plausible explanation for the discrepancy between the observed and canonically expected M/L ratios of GCs.
A system of constructor classes: overloading and implicit higher-order polymorphism

Abstract This paper describes a flexible type system that combines overloading and higher-order polymorphism in an implicitly typed language using a system of constructor classes—a natural generalization of type classes in Haskell. We present a range of examples to demonstrate the usefulness of such a system. In particular, we show how constructor classes can be used to support the use of monads in a functional language. The underlying type system permits higher-order polymorphism but retains many of the attractive features that have made Hindley/Milner type systems so popular. In particular, there is an effective algorithm that can be used to calculate principal types without the need for explicit type or kind annotations. A prototype implementation has been developed providing, amongst other things, the first concrete implementation of monad comprehensions known to us at the time of writing.
ADOPS - Automatic Detection Of Positively Selected Sites

Summary Maximum-likelihood methods based on models of codon substitution have been widely used to infer positively selected amino acid sites that are responsible for adaptive changes. Nevertheless, in order to use such an approach, software applications are required to align protein and DNA sequences, infer a phylogenetic tree and run the maximum-likelihood models. Therefore, a significant effort is made in order to prepare input files for the different software applications and in the analysis of the output of every analysis. In this paper we present the ADOPS (Automatic Detection Of Positively Selected Sites) software. It was developed with the goal of providing an automatic and flexible tool for detecting positively selected sites given a set of unaligned nucleotide sequence data. An example of the usefulness of such a pipeline is given by showing, under different conditions, positively selected amino acid sites in a set of 54 Coffea putative S-RNase sequences. ADOPS software is freely available and can be downloaded from http://sing.ei. uvigo.es/ADOPS.
Chronic Fos-Related Antigens: Stable Variants of ΔFosB Induced in Brain by Chronic Treatments

Fos family transcription factors are believed to play an important role in the transcriptional responses of the brain to a variety of stimuli. Previous studies have described 35 and 37 kDa Fos-like proteins, termed chronic Fos-related antigens (FRAs), that are induced in brain in a region-specific manner in response to several chronic perturbations, including chronic electroconvulsive seizures, psychotropic drug treatments, and lesions. We show in this study that the chronic FRAs are isoforms of ΔFosB, a truncated splice variant of FosB that accumulate in brain after chronic treatments because of their stability. ΔFosB cDNA encodes the expression of 33, 35, and 37 kDa proteins that arise from a single AUG translation start site. The 35 and 37 kDa proteins correspond to the chronic FRAs that are induced in brain by chronic treatments, whereas the 33 kDa protein corresponds to a Fos-like protein that is induced in brain by acute treatments, findings based on migration on one- and two-dimensional Western blots with anti-FRA and anti-FosB antibodies. Using cells in which ΔFosB or FosB expression is under the control of a tetracycline-regulated gene expression system, we show that the 37 kDa ΔFosB protein exhibits a remarkably long half-life, the 35 kDa ΔFosB protein exhibits an intermediate half-life, and the 33 kDa ΔFosB protein and all FosB-derived proteins exhibit relatively short half-lives. Moreover, we show that the 33 kDa ΔFosB protein is the first to appear after activation of ΔFosB expression. Finally, ΔFosB proteins are shown to possess DNA-binding activity and to exert potent transactivating effects in reporter gene assays. Together, these findings support a scheme wherein ΔFosB, expressed as a 33 kDa protein, is modified to form highly stable isoforms of 35 and 37 kDa. As a result, these stable isoforms gradually accumulate in the brain with repeated treatments to mediate forms of long-lasting neural and behavioral plasticity.
What variables predict generic and health-related quality of life in a sample of Brazilian women experiencing infertility?

BACKGROUND Infertility is a condition associated with impairment in several areas of life. Questionnaires about quality of life (QoL) allow the examination of the impact of health conditions in a broader way, comprehending outcomes beyond symptomatology, morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with various aspects of QoL. METHODS Cross-sectional study using the following: a socio-demographic and clinical data form, the Health Survey Short Form (SF-36) which examines health-related QoL and the WHOQOL-BREF which examines general QoL. RESULTS 177 women seeking fertility assistance were interviewed. The sample was predominantly composed of women between 30 and 40 years old (64%), who had known about their infertility for <5 years (57%) and who had had no previous attempts at assisted reproduction (79%). Logistic regression indicated the following predictor variables: age (for better general health and physical functioning), previous in vitro fertilization (for lower vitality and poor psychological health scores), previous reproductive tract surgery (for worse general health but higher environment scores), advanced education (for higher vitality, mental health and environment scores, but for worse social relationships) and perception of worse sexual life (for lower overall scores). CONCLUSIONS The identification of factors associated with better or worse QoL, in its different domains, is vital in order to propose and test scientifically based interventions on infertile women.
Choice of Variables in Vector Autoregressions ∗

Suppose that a dataset with N time series is available. N1 < N of those are the variables of interest. You want to estimate a vector autoregression (VAR) with the variables of interest. Which of the remaining N−N1 variables, if any, should you include in the VAR with the variables of interest? We develop a Bayesian methodology to answer this question. This question arises in most applications of VARs, whether in forecasting or impulse response analysis. We apply the methodology to the euro area data and find that when the variables of interest are the price level, GDP, and the short-term interest rate, the VAR with these variables should also include the unemployment rate, the spread between corporate bonds and government bonds, the purchasing managers index, and the federal funds rate. Of independent interest, we develop Bayesian tests of block-exogeneity – Granger causality – in VARs.