Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Factors for Dieulafoy Lesions in the Upper Gastrointestinal Tract

Background/Aims The purpose of this study is to verify the risk factors associated with Dieulafoy lesion formation in the upper gastrointestinal tract. Methods A case-control study was performed by reviewing the electronic medical records of 42 patients who were admitted to a tertiary medical center in the Daejeon region for Dieulafoy lesions from September 2008 to October 2013, and the records of 132 patients who were admitted during the same period and who underwent endoscopic examination for reasons other than bleeding. We analyzed clinical and endoscopic findings retrospectively, and searched for risk factors associated with Dieulafoy lesion formation. Results All 42 patients diagnosed with Dieulafoy lesion had accompanying bleeding, and the location of the bleeding was proximal in 25 patients (59.5%), the middle portion in seven patients (16.7%), and distal in 10 patients (23.8%). Antiplatelet agents (p=0.022) and alcohol (p=0.001) use showed statistically significant differences between the two groups. The odds ratios (95% confidence intervals) of the two factors were 2.802 (1.263 to 6.217) and 3.938 (1.629 to 9.521), respectively. Conclusions This study showed that antiplatelet agents and alcohol consumption were risk factors associated with Dieulafoy lesion formation in the upper gastrointestinal tract.
Yeast Bax Inhibitor, Bxi1p, Is an ER-Localized Protein That Links the Unfolded Protein Response and Programmed Cell Death in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Bax inhibitor-1 (BI-1) is an anti-apoptotic gene whose expression is upregulated in a wide range of human cancers. Studies in both mammalian and plant cells suggest that the BI-1 protein resides in the endoplasmic reticulum and is involved in the unfolded protein response (UPR) that is triggered by ER stress. It is thought to act via a mechanism involving altered calcium dynamics. In this paper, we provide evidence that the Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein encoded by the open reading frame, YNL305C, is a bona fide homolog for BI-1. First, we confirm that yeast cells from two different strain backgrounds lacking YNL305C, which we have renamed BXI1, are more sensitive to heat-shock induced cell death than wildtype controls even though they have indistinguishable growth rates at 30°C. They are also more susceptible both to ethanol-induced and to glucose-induced programmed cell death. Significantly, we show that Bxi1p-GFP colocalizes with the ER localized protein Sec63p-RFP. We have also discovered that Δbxi1 cells are not only more sensitive to drugs that induce ER stress, but also have a decreased unfolded protein response as measured with a UPRE-lacZ reporter. Finally, we have discovered that deleting BXI1 diminishes the calcium signaling response in response to the accumulation of unfolded proteins in the ER as measured by a calcineurin-dependent CDRE-lacZ reporter. In toto, our data suggests that the Bxi1p, like its metazoan homologs, is an ER-localized protein that links the unfolded protein response and programmed cell death.
Socioeconomic inequalities in stroke mortality among middle-aged men: an international overview. European Union Working Group on Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Several studies observed that people from lower socioeconomic groups have higher chances of dying of stroke. There are reasons to expect that these differences are relatively small in southern European countries or in Nordic welfare states. This report therefore presents an international overview of socioeconomic differences in stroke mortality. METHODS Unpublished data on mortality by occupational class were obtained from national longitudinal studies or cross-sectional studies. The data refer to deaths among men aged 30 to 64 years in the 1980s. A common occupational class scheme was applied to most countries. The mortality difference between manual classes and nonmanual classes was measured in relative terms (by rate ratios) and in absolute terms (by rate differences). RESULTS In all countries, manual classes had higher stroke mortality rates than nonmanual classes. This difference was relatively large in England and Wales, Ireland, and Finland and relatively small in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, and Spain. Differences were intermediate in the United States, France, and Switzerland. In Portugal, mortality differences were intermediate in relative terms but large in absolute terms. In most countries, inequalities were much larger for stroke mortality than for ischemic heart disease mortality. CONCLUSIONS Socioeconomic differences in stroke mortality are a problem common to all countries studied. There are probably large variations, however, in the contribution that different risk factors, such as tobacco and alcohol consumption, make to the stroke mortality excess of lower socioeconomic groups. Medical services can contribute to reducing socioeconomic differences in stroke mortality.
RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Project: change-detection and surface velocity campaign

Abstract The RADARSAT-1 Antarctic Mapping Project (RAMP) is a collaboration between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to map Antarctica using synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The first Antarctic Mapping Mission (AMM-1) was successfully completed in October 1997. Data from the acquisition phase of the 1997 campaign have been used to achieve the primary goal of producing the first high-resolution SAR image map of Antarctica. The Modified Antarctic Mapping Mission (MAMM) occurred during the fall of 2000. The acquisition strategy concentrated on collecting highest- resolution RADARSAT-1 data of Antarctica’s fast glaciers for change detection and feature-retracking estimates of surface velocity. Additionally, extensive data were acquired for interferometric analysis over the entire viewable region, which extends north of 80.1˚ S latitude. This paper summarizes the goals and strategy behind MAMM. It goes on to discuss ice-sheet margin changes observed on several ice shelves around the continent. Margin changes are documented by comparing AMM-1 and MAMM data with earlier datasets including European Remote-sensing Satellite-1 SAR imagery, Landsat imagery, the Antarctic Digital Database (version 1) coastline and Declassified Intelligence Satellite Photography. Analysis reveals a complex pattern of ice-margin advance and retreat without indicating any systematic behavior in ice-sheet extent about the ice-sheet perimeter.
Reconstructing the regional economy: industrial transformation and regional development in Slovakia

This text examines the limits and scope of regional capitalist development, documenting the nature and causes of uneven development in Slovakia. It addresses industrial and restructuring strategies, arguing that current progress must be understood within the context of the past and that the present complex mid of old and new economic and institutional structures contribute significantly to economic fragmentation and divergence. The book focuses on regional and economic change in Eastern and Central Europe, using Slovakia as a case study. It explains the relationship between industrial change and regional development and discusses fragmentation within the context of the legacy of the state socialist industralization model.
Effects of Vitrification on Immature and in vitro Matured, Denuded and Cumulus Compact Goat Oocytes and Their Subsequent Fertilization

Background Vitrification has proven to be more effective than slow freezing methods to cryopreserve mammalian oocytes. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of vitrification on immature and in vitro matured, denuded and cumulus compact goat oocytes and their subsequent fertilization. Methods Oocytes were either cryopreserved as immature cumulus compact (IMCC) (n=98 Exp 1; 102 Exp 2) and immature denuded (IMDN) (n=127 Exp 1; 109 Exp 2) or were first matured in vitro for 28 h and then cryopreserved as mature cumulus compact (MCC) (n=109 Exp 1; 89 Exp 2) or mature denuded (MDN) (n=112 Exp 1; 110 Exp 2) oocytes in four groups. The vitrification solution comprised of Dulbecco's phosphate buffered saline supplemented with 0.5% sucrose, 0.4% bovine serum albumin and 8 M propylene glycol. After 7 days of cryopreservation in liquid nitrogen, oocytes in all groups were evaluated for normal morphologic survival and in vitro maturation (Experiment 1) and fertilization in vitro using epididymal buck spermatozoa (Experiment 2). Results The number of oocytes retaining normal morphology was significantly higher (p <0.05) for cumulus compact oocytes (IMCC: 94.12% vs. IMDN: 89.22%, experiment 1 and MCC: 87.80% vs. MDN: 82.17%, experiment 2) compared to the denuded oocytes. The in vitro maturation of oocytes was highest for non-vitrified control oocytes. The maturation of vitrified IMCC oocytes was significantly higher than IMDN and their fertilizability was higher than MCC and MDN oocytes. Conclusion The results suggest that immature cumulus compact goat oocytes better tolerate cryopreservation stress by vitrification in terms of fertilization rate.
Optimal Block Design for Asynchronous Wake-Up Schedules and Its Applications in Multihop Wireless Networks

In this paper, we consider the problem of designing optimal asynchronous wake-up schedules to facilitate distributed power management and neighbor discovery in multihop wireless networks. We first formulate it as a block design problem and derive the fundamental trade-offs between wake-up latency and the average duty cycle of a node. After the theoretical foundation is laid, we then devise a neighbor discovery and schedule bookkeeping protocol that can operate on the optimal wake-up schedule derived. To demonstrate the usefulness of asynchronous wake-up, we investigate the efficiency of neighbor discovery and the application of on-demand power management, which overlays a desirable communication schedule over the wake-up schedule mandated by the asynchronous wake-up mechanism. Simulation studies demonstrate that the proposed asynchronous wake-up protocol has short discovery time which scales with the density of the network; it can accommodate various traffic characteristics and loads to achieve an energy savings that can be as high as 70 percent, while the packet delivery ratio is comparable to that without power management
A semiotic analysis of the genetic information system

Abstract Terms loaded with informational connotations are often employed to refer to genes and their dynamics. Indeed, genes are usually perceived by biologists as basically ‘the carriers of hereditary information. ’ Nevertheless, a number of researchers consider such talk as inadequate and ‘just metaphorical,’ thus expressing a skepticism about the use of the term ‘information’ and its derivatives in biology as a natural science. First, because the meaning of that term in biology is not as precise as it is, for instance, in the mathematical theory of communication. Second, because it seems to refer to a purported semantic property of genes without theoretically clarifying if any genuinely intrinsic semantics is involved. Biosemiotics, a field that attempts to analyze biological systems as semiotic systems, makes it possible to advance in the understanding of the concept of information in biology. From the perspective of Peircean biosemiotics, we develop here an account of genes as signs, including a detailed analysis of two fundamental processes in the genetic information system (transcription and protein synthesis) that have not been made so far in this field of research. Furthermore, we propose here an account of information based on Peircean semiotics and apply it to our analysis of transcription and protein synthesis.
Genome-wide linkage disequilibrium from 100,000 SNPs in the East Finland founder population.

Information about linkage disequilibrium (LD) is important in understanding the genome structure and has its applications in association studies. Here we present the first genome-wide LD study based on a founder population (East Finland). The LD data consist of 118 unrelated individuals and around 480,000 SNP pairs genotyped with the Affymetrix 100K genotyping assay. Using the minor allele frequency (MAF) limit of . 05, the squared correlation coefficient between two loci (r(2)) was . 48, . 37, . 28, and . 20 for distances of 5, 10, 20, and 40 kb respectively. MAF had a significant effect on the mean r(2) so that the extent of useful LD (r(2) > . 3) varied from 17 kb to 80 kb depending on the limit set for the MAF. For D' the effect of MAF was smaller but reflected the possible age of the mutation: SNPs with high MAF had lower D' than those with low MAF. The X chromosome showed higher D' values than autosomes and the extent of useful LD (r(2) > . 3) was twice as long on the X chromosome than on the autosomes. Based on the results, LD varies across the genome and is correlated to local recombination rate between and within chromosomes. However, the recombination rate does not explain all the variation found in LD. We also report a number of long chromosomal regions where exceptionally high or low LD were detected.
Curcuminoids Extract, Hydrolyzed Collagen and Green Tea Extract Synergically Inhibit Inflammatory and Catabolic Mediator’s Synthesis by Normal Bovine and Osteoarthritic Human Chondrocytes in Monolayer

The main objective of this study was to assess the in vitro effects of curcuminoids extract, hydrolyzed collagen and green tea extract in normal bovine chondrocytes and osteoarthritic human chondrocytes cultured in monolayer. This study also investigated the synergic or additive effects of these compounds. Enzymatically isolated primary bovine or human chondrocytes were cultured in monolayer until confluence and then incubated for 24 hours or 48 hours in the absence or in the presence of interleukin-1β and with or without curcuminoids extract, hydrolyzed collagen or green tea extract, added alone or in combination, at different concentrations. Cell viability was neither affected by these compounds, nor by interleukin 1β. In the absence of interleukin-1β, compounds did not significantly affect bovine chondrocytes metabolism. In human chondrocytes and in the absence of interleukin 1β, curcuminoids extract alone or in combination with hydrolyzed collagen and green tea extract significantly inhibited matrix metalloproteinase-3 production. In interleukin-1β-stimulated bovine chondrocytes, interleukin-6, inducible nitric oxide synthase, cyclooxygenase2, matrix metalloproteinase 3, a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin type I motifs 4 and a disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin type I motifs 5 expressions were decreased by curcuminoids extract alone or in combination with hydrolyzed collagen and green tea extract. The combination of the three compounds was significantly more efficient to inhibit interleukin-1β stimulated matrix metalloproteinase-3 expression than curcuminoids extract alone. In interleukin-1β-stimulated human chondrocytes, nitric oxide, interleukin-6 and matrix metalloproteinase 3 productions were significantly reduced by curcuminoids extract alone or in combination with hydrolyzed collagen and green tea extract. These findings indicate that a mixture of curcuminoids extract, hydrolyzed collagen and green tea extract has beneficial effects on chondrocytes culture in inflammatory conditions and provide a preclinical basis for the in vivo testing of this mixture.
Cloning and functional validation of early inducible Magnaporthe oryzae responsive CYP76M7 promoter from rice

Cloning and functional characterization of plant pathogen inducible promoters is of great significance for their use in the effective management of plant diseases. The rice gene CYP76M7 was up regulated at 24, 48, and 72 hours post inoculation (hpi) with two isolates of Magnaporthe oryzae Mo-ei-11 and Mo-ni-25. In this study, the promoter of CYP76M7 gene was cloned from rice cultivar HR-12, characterized and functionally validated. The Transcription Start Site of CYP76M7 was mapped at 45 bases upstream of the initiation codon. To functionally validate the promoter, 5′ deletion analysis of the promoter sequences was performed and the deletion fragments fused with the β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene were used for generating stable transgenic Arabidopsis plants as well as for transient expression in rice. The spatial and temporal expression pattern of GUS in transgenic Arabidopsis plants and also in transiently expressed rice leaves revealed that the promoter of CYP76M7 gene was induced by M. oryzae. The induction of CYP76M7 promoter was observed at 24 hpi with M. oryzae. We report that, sequences spanning -222 bp to -520 bp, with the cluster of three W-boxes, two ASF1 motifs and a single GT-1 element may contribute to the M. oryzae inducible nature of CYP76M7 promoter. The promoter characterized in this study would be an ideal candidate for the overexpression of defense genes in rice for developing durable blast resistance rice lines.
Implementation of a K-best based MIMO-OFDM detector algorithm

The combination of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) is a promising solution for high-data-rate transmission. An architecture of a K-best based list sphere detector (LSD) algorithm for a MIMO-OFDM system is introduced in this paper. The architecture was designed for a 2 × 2 antenna system with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) and 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The implementation of the architecture was synthesized for a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The feasibility of the implementation for wireless local area network (WLAN) and third generation (3G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) is considered.
Compositional Semantics for Uni cation-based Linguistic Formalisms

Contemporary linguistic formalisms have become so rigorous that it is now possible to view them as very high level declarative programming languages. Consequently, grammars for natural languages can be viewed as programs; this view enables the application of various methods and techniques that were proved useful for programming languages to the study of natural languages. This paper adapts the notion of program composition, well developed in the context of logic programming languages, to the domain of linguistic formalisms. We study alternative de nitions for the semantics of such formalisms, suggesting a denotational semantics that we show to be compositional and fully-abstract. This facilitates a clear, mathematically sound way for de ning grammar modularity.
Employment Instruction for Secondary Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle with features of adult life, including obtaining and maintaining gainful employment. Many factors seem to contribute to this issue, such as: (a) access to financial resources, (b) interaction between the unique characteristics of ASD and employment settings, and (c) curriculum and instructional practices in secondary special education that may not focus specifically on the procurement of employment. An additional area that may be a factor is the paucity of research on employment development for students with ASD while attending middle and high school programs. This article examined the research on teaching strategies used to develop employment skills among secondary students with ASD between the ages 14–22. Twelve studies were identified with a total of 55 participants with ASD. A summary of the articles meeting the inclusion criteria is provided along with recommendations for future research. Questions about how adolescents and adults with developmental disabilities can and should be taught functional skills have been a focus in the literature since the introduction of the criterion of ultimate functioning as a guiding principle in special education (Brown, Nietupski, & Hamre-Nietupski, 1976). What should be taught and how is a major consideration for any instructional program. The literature is replete with studies demonstrating the effectiveness of systematic instruction techniques used to teach a wide range of skills to adolescents with various disabilities (Test et al., 2009). Clearly, teaching employability and daily living skills, among others, has enjoyed some of this attention (Test et al., 2009). There does, however, seem to be a gap in the literature reporting on adolescents with ASD receiving direct instruction in employment skills, or job skills, while in middle and high school. Most of the intervention research on individuals with ASD has focused on young children with very little attention given to adolescents (Gerhardt & Weiss, 2011), including employment skills (Hendricks, 2010; Hendricks & Wehman, 2009). Recent prevalence data place the occurrence of ASD in the United States at an average rate of 1 in 110, representing a sizable increase over the last two decades (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). In their report to Congress, the United States Department of Education (US-DOE, 2007) reported that the prevalence of ASD in the American school system increased by 410% among children ages 6–11 from 1996 to 2005. During that period, there was a 514% increase among students with ASD ages 14 and older, and there was a 317% increase among students with ASD ages 18–21 (US-DOE, 2007). This represents a substantial increase in the number of students with ASD requiring programming at the secondary level and a formidable challenge for schools (Gerhardt &
Australian arsonists: an analysis of trends between 1990 and 2015

There have been few studies to date focused on identifying the characteristics of Australian arsonists, and a distinct absence of any analyses of trends in arson offending over time. In order to address this gap, the current study reviewed sentencing transcripts obtained across all Australian jurisdictions between 1990 and 2015, to identify trends in the features of arson offending and key characteristics of the arsonists, over this 25-year period. Offender characteristics such gender, motivation, Indigenous status and degree of exclusivity–versatility of the arson offending were considered. Trend analyses indicated substance use, mental illness and female gender to be increasingly significant factors in the commission of arson offences over time. Significant differences were identified between Indigenous and non-Indigenous arsonists, which raises questions as to the adequacy of current theory to explain firesetting in this group.
Postseismic Relaxation Along the San Andreas Fault at Parkfield from Continuous Seismological Observations

Seismic velocity changes and nonvolcanic tremor activity in the Parkfield area in California reveal that large earthquakes induce long-term perturbations of crustal properties in the San Andreas fault zone. The 2003 San Simeon and 2004 Parkfield earthquakes both reduced seismic velocities that were measured from correlations of the ambient seismic noise and induced an increased nonvolcanic tremor activity along the San Andreas fault. After the Parkfield earthquake, velocity reduction and nonvolcanic tremor activity remained elevated for more than 3 years and decayed over time, similarly to afterslip derived from GPS (Global Positioning System) measurements. These observations suggest that the seismic velocity changes are related to co-seismic damage in the shallow layers and to deep co-seismic stress change and postseismic stress relaxation within the San Andreas fault zone.