Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary care Re-engineering systems for the treatment of depression in primary care: cluster randomised controlled trial

Objective To test the effectiveness of an evidence based model for management of depression in primary care with support from quality improvement resources. Design Cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting Five healthcare organisations in the United States and 60 affiliated practices. Patients 405 patients, aged ≥ 18 years, starting or changing treatment for depression. Intervention Care provided by clinicians, with staff providing telephone support under supervision from a psychiatrist. Main outcome measures Severity of depression at three and six months (Hopkins symptom checklist-20): response to treatment ( ≥ 50% decrease in scores) and remission (score of < 0.5). Results At six months, 60% (106 of 177) of patients in intervention practices had responded to treatment compared with 47% (68 of 146) of patients in usual care practices (P = 0.02). At six months, 37% of intervention patients showed remission compared with 27% for usual care patients (P = 0.014). 90% of intervention patients rated their depression care as good or excellent at six months compared with 75% of usual care patients (P = 0.0003). Conclusion Resources such as quality improvement programmes can be used effectively in primary care to implement evidence based management of depression and improve outcomes for patients with depression. We on binary outcomes with generalised linear mixed effect models with a logit link. The random effects portion of these models provides the structure needed to account for clustering or potential lack of independence that may exist between observations for the same practice. 16 We fitted the mixed effects using SAS Proc mixed and Proc nlmixed. Both progams use all data to yield unbiased estimates of variables for mixed effect models when outcomes are missing at random. at and time.
Efficient and fast distributed top-k query protocol in wireless sensor networks

In this paper, we focus on designing efficient query of top-k data produced by sensor nodes in a wireless sensor network (WSN). Assume that we are given a connected WSN of diameter D, consisting of n nodes with maximum node degree Δ. Two different models are studied. In the first model, each node holds a numeric element, the goal is to determine the top-k smallest (or biggest) of these elements from all nodes. In the second model, there are m objects in set ℒ, each node v<sub>i</sub>, 1 ≤ i ≤ n holds a numeric value S<sub>j</sub>(v<sub>i</sub>) for each object L<sub>j</sub> ∈ ℒ,1 ≤ j ≤ m, the goal is to find the k objects in ℒ with the k smallest (or biggest) aggregated values /(s<sub>j</sub>(u<sub>1</sub>), S<sub>j</sub>(v<sub>2</sub>), . , S<sub>j</sub>(v<sub>n</sub>)), where f is an aggregation function given in advance. We propose both fast and message efficient methods for conducting top-k queries in the two aforementioned models. Following that we study the minimum delay and messages required by any distributed method for top-k queries in both models. Our analysis shows that our methods are almost optimum. We conducted extensive experiments in both testbed and simulations to study the practical performances of our methods.
Perception of strength and power of realistic male characters

We investigated the influence of body shape and pose on the perception of physical strength and social power for male virtual characters. In the first experiment, participants judged the physical strength of varying body shapes, derived from a statistical 3D body model. Based on these ratings, we determined three body shapes (weak, average, and strong) and animated them with a set of power poses for the second experiment. Participants rated how strong or powerful they perceived virtual characters of varying body shapes that were displayed in different poses. Our results show that perception of physical strength was mainly driven by the shape of the body. However, the social attribute of power was influenced by an interaction between pose and shape. Specifically, the effect of pose on power ratings was greater for weak body shapes. These results demonstrate that a character with a weak shape can be perceived as more powerful when in a high-power pose.
Retrieved endogenous biotin: a novel marker and a potential pitfall in diagnostic immunohistochemistry

Antigen retrieval (AR) procedures are based on the effect of heating (by either microwave or pressure cooking treatments) on routinely fixed and paraffin embedded tissues. We observed that AR procedures restore the reactivity of endogenous biotin (EB) and report on the distribution of EB following AR in a series of routinely fixed and embedded tissues.
OntCAAC: An Ontology-Based Approach to Context-Aware Access Control for Software Services

In modern communication environments, the ability to provide access control to services in a context-aware manner is crucial. By leveraging the dynamically changing context information, we can achieve context-specific control over access to services, better satisfying the security and privacy requirements of the stakeholders. In this paper, we introduce a new Context-Aware Access Control (CAAC) Framework that adopts an ontological approach in modelling dynamic context information and the corresponding CAAC policies. It includes a context model specific to access control, capturing the relevant low-level context information and inferring the high-level implicit context information. Using the context model, the policy model of the framework provides support for specifying and enforcing CAAC policies. We have developed a prototype and presented a healthcare case study to realise the framework.
Spanish Version of the Bayer Activities of Daily Living Scale in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Alzheimer Disease: Discriminant and Concurrent Validity

Aims: To test the discriminant and concurrent validity of the Spanish version of the Bayer Activities of Daily Living scale (B-ADL) in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer disease (AD). Methods: The B-ADL scale, the Blessed Dementia Rating Scale (BDRS), and the Interview for Deterioration in Daily Living in Dementia (IDDD) were administered to 277 elderly Spanish patients (78 MCI and 199 AD). Correlations between scales were performed, and ROC curves were plotted. Results: In MCI and mild AD discrimination, an area under the ROC curve of 0.84 was found; a cut-off point of 3.3 was proposed with values of 0.81 for sensitivity and 0.72 for specificity. The B-ADL correlated positively to both the BDRS (r = 0.7) and the IDDD (r = 0.8). Conclusion: The B-ADL is a valid and sensitive scale that can be used to discriminate mild AD from MCI.
Antifibrinolytic drugs and perioperative hemostasis

Although excessive bleeding is widely recognized as a common complication of cardiac surgery, the recent success of antifibrinolytic drugs as prophylactic hemostatic agents has received little attention outside the surgical literature. The etiology of the coagulopathy following cardiac surgery is clearly multifactorial; however, the success of antifibrinolytic drugs as hemostatic agents suggests that fibrinolysis contributes to bleeding in this setting. Increasingly widespread administration of these drugs necessitates increased awareness of the risks and benefits posed by perioperative antifibrinolytic therapy. The objectives of this review are to understand the mechanisms of action of antifibrinolytic drugs in the context of the normal hemostatic response and to review evidence pertaining to the efficacy and safety of antifibrinolytic drugs as hemostatic agents during cardiac surgery. Am. J. Hematol. 56:32–36, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Antimalarial Activity of Axidjiferosides, New β-Galactosylceramides from the African Sponge Axinyssa djiferi

The marine sponge, Axinyssa djiferi, collected on mangrove tree roots in Senegal, was investigated for glycolipids. A mixture containing new glycosphingolipids, named axidjiferoside-A, -B and -C, accounted for 0.07% of sponge biomass (dry weight) and for 2.16% of total lipids. It showed a significant antimalarial activity, with a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 0.53 ± 0.2 μM against a chloroquine-resistant strain of Plasmodium falciparum. They were identified as homologous β-galactopyranosylceramides composed of 2-amino-(6E)-octadec-6-en-1,3,4-triol, and the major one, axidjiferoside-A (around 60%), contained 2-hydroxytetracosanoic acid. Cytotoxicity was studied in vitro on human cancer cell lines (multiple myeloma, colorectal adenocarcinoma, glioblastoma and two lung cancer NSCLC-N6 and A549). Results of this investigation showed that axidjiferosides are of interest, because they proved a good antiplasmodial activity, with only a low cytotoxicity against various human cell lines and no significant antitrypanosomal and antileishmanial activity. Thus, it seems that galactosylceramides with a β anomeric configuration may be suitable in searching for new antimalarial drugs.
Land Subdivision in Peri-Urban Areas of Sub-Saharan African Cities: Conceptual Definitions and Policy Guidelines

This paper reviews the conceptual issues of land subdivision in peri-urban areas within the context of African cities. Land subdivision is often the first step in the process of converting rural land to urban uses. It involves the division of land into plots or lots for sale and development. The purpose is to provide orderly and efficient development of a new incorporated township. Research on the formation of urban fringe zones has not been explicit about land subdivision though its importance is implicit. Research on urban land subdivision provides us with useful conceptual link between rural-to-urban land use conversion and internal structural changes within a city. The lack of implementation of existing regulatory framework of land subdivision often creates land use conflicts especially in cities of developing countries. The review of literature thus provides clarity on the definitions of sub-themes and policy guidelines in urban land subdivision with particular reference to sub-Saharan Africa.
Exploiting Multi-Antenna Non-Reciprocal Channels for Shared Secret Key Generation

Traditional physical-layer (PHY)-based secret key generation schemes typically assume reciprocity of forward and reverse channels in order for facilitated shared secrecy. However, frequency-selective channels for frequency division duplex links as well as calibration difference of transceiver hardwares can invalidate reciprocity assumption and can cause severe key error floors between users. In this paper, we propose two practical PHY-based secret key generation schemes for multiple-input and multiple-output wireless links over non-reciprocal physical channels. One is pilot assistant secret key (PASKey) generation and the other is eigenvalue-based secret key (EVSKey) generation. In PASKey, both legitimate users estimate the same composite channel, while EVSKey exploits the properties of eigenvalues to generate secret bits. Both are effective against secrecy key theft by eavesdroppers. Furthermore, without adopting public training signals, EVSKey manages to generate secret bits even when nearby eavesdroppers collude. Our two schemes are shown to be more efficient and can achieve lower key error ratio than the existing methods.
Isolation and Characterization of Differentially Expressed Genes in the Mycelium and Fruit Body of Tuber borchii

ABSTRACT The transition from vegetative mycelium to fruit body in truffles requires differentiation processes which lead to edible fruit bodies (ascomata) consisting of different cell and tissue types. The identification of genes differentially expressed during these developmental processes can contribute greatly to a better understanding of truffle morphogenesis. A cDNA library was constructed from vegetative mycelium RNAs of the white truffle Tuber borchii, and 214 cDNAs were sequenced. Up to 58% of the expressed sequence tags corresponded to known genes. The majority of the identified sequences represented housekeeping proteins, i.e., proteins involved in gene or protein expression, cell wall formation, primary and secondary metabolism, and signaling pathways. We screened 171 arrayed cDNAs by using cDNA probes constructed from mRNAs of vegetative mycelium and ascomata to identify fruit body-regulated genes. Comparisons of signals from vegetative mycelium and fruit bodies bearing 15 or 70% mature spores revealed significant differences in the expression levels for up to 33% of the investigated genes. The expression levels for six highly regulated genes were confirmed by RNA blot analyses. The expression of glutamine synthetase, 5-aminolevulinic acid synthetase, isocitrate lyase, thioredoxin, glucan 1,3-β-glucosidase, and UDP-glucose:sterol glucosyl transferase was highly up-regulated, suggesting that amino acid biosynthesis, the glyoxylate cycle pathway, and cell wall synthesis are strikingly altered during morphogenesis.
Knowledge diffusion from FDI and intellectual property rights

We study the extent to which a country's strength of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection mediates knowledge spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Following the opposing views in the IPR debate, we propose a negative effect of IPR strength on unintentional horizontal (intra-industry) knowledge diffusion. Using a unique firm-level dataset of large, publicly traded firms in 22 (mostly) developed countries, we find partial support for these expectations. Strong IPR indeed reduces horizontal knowledge diffusion, while it stimulates backward (to suppliers) knowledge diffusion. Somewhat unexpectedly however, we also find that forward (to customers) knowledge diffusion decreases with IPR strength. In general, and in line with earlier literature, the results regarding backward knowledge diffusion are most robust to changes in model specification. Our results contribute to the debate regarding the desirability of strengthening national IPR systems, and suggest that local firms might indeed benefit from this through their (backward) linkages with multinationals. Additionally, our results suggest that the moderating effect of IPR strength might partly explain the inconclusive results in the FDI knowledge diffusion literature.
A design technique for evolving web services

In this paper, we define the problem of simultaneously deploying multiple versions of a web service in the face of independently developed unsupervised clients. We then propose a solution in the form of a design technique called Chain of Adapters and argue that this approach strikes a good balance between the various requirements. We recount our experiences in automating the application of the technique and provide an initial analysis of the performance degradations it may occasion. The Chain of Adapters technique is particularly suitable for self-managed systems since it makes many version-related reconfiguration tasks safe, and thus subject to automation.
Two-cover descent on hyperelliptic curves

We describe an algorithm that determines a set of unramified covers of a given hyperelliptic curve, with the property that any rational point will lift to one of the covers. In particular, if the algorithm returns an empty set, then the hyperelliptic curve has no rational points. This provides a relatively efficiently tested criterion for solvability of hyperelliptic curves. We also discuss applications of this algorithm to curves of genus 1 and to curves with rational points.
Temporal Constraints on Language Processing: Syntactic Priming in Broca's Aphasia

This study tests the hypothesis that agrammatic comprehension is due to a computational rather than a structural language deficit. It is claimed that grammatic Broca's aphasics do not meet the temporal constraints in the activation of different types of linguistic information necessary for normal parsing. These temporal constraints are investigated in two experiments using a crossmodal syntactic priming paradigm. Each experiment tests the effect on recognition of grammatical versus ungrammatical links between an auditory sentence fragment (the prime) and a visually presented word (the target). The experiments differ in the interstimulus interval (ISI i.e., the amount of time provided between the offset of the auditory prime and the onset of the visuai target. Experiment 1, with an ISI of 0 msec, reveals that Broca patients much like the control groups show a grammaticality effect. In contrast to normal students and age matched controls, however, these patients are in general much slower in making lexical decisions when auditory context is present as compared to when visual targets are presented in isolation. Experiment 2 with an ISI of 200 msec demonstrates that when additional time is given to process the syntactic context, Broca's aphasics in contrast to age matched controls show faster decision times on the target than when the ISI is 0 msec. The results are in accord with the view that agrammatic Broca's aphasics have not lost their syntactic knowledge, but that their a grammatic comprehension behavior is due to the inability to process the linguistic information within a given time frame. More generally, the findings suggest that language processing can break down once activation of different types of linguistic information does not follow the normal time pattern.
Algorithms for Molecular Biology

Background: Affymetrix High Density Oligonuclotide Arrays (HDONA) simultaneously measure expression of thousands of genes using millions of probes. We use correlations between measurements for the same gene across 6685 human tissue samples from NCBI's GEO database to indicated the quality of individual HG-U133A probes. Low correlation indicates a poor probe. Results: Regular expressions can be automatically created from a Backus-Naur form (BNF) context-free grammar using strongly typed genetic programming. Conclusion: The automatically produced motif is better at predicting poor DNA sequences than an existing human generated RE, suggesting runs of Cytosine and Guanine and mixtures should all be avoided.
Release of the antimicrobial peptide LL-37 from DNA/F-actin bundles in cystic fibrosis sputum

Cationic antibacterial peptides (ABPs) are secreted in the airways and function in the first line of defence against infectious agents. They attack multiple molecular targets to cooperatively penetrate and disrupt microbial surfaces and membrane barriers. Antibacterial properties of ABPs, including cathelicidin LL-37, are reduced in cystic fibrosis (CF) airways as a result of direct interaction with DNA and filamentous (F)-actin. Microscopic evaluation of a mixed solution of DNA and F-actin, after the addition of rhodamine-B-labelled LL-37 peptide, revealed the presence of a bundle structure similar to that present in CF sputum. Analysis of CF sputum after centrifugation showed that LL-37 was mostly bound to components of the pellet fraction containing DNA, F-actin and cell remnants. Factors that dissolve DNA/actin bundles and fluidise CF sputum, such as Dornase alfa (recombinant human DNase I), gelsolin, polyaspartate or their combinations, increased the amount of LL-37 peptide detected in the supernatant of CF sputum. The presence of the bacterial endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in CF sputum and the ability of LPS to inhibit the antibacterial activity of LL-37 suggests that inactivation of LL-37 function in CF sputum partially results from its interaction with LPS. LL-37–LPS interaction was prevented by an LPS-binding protein (LBP)-derived peptide known for its ability to neutralise LPS, whereas LBPW91A, a mutant peptide that lacks ability to bind LPS, had no effect. A combination of factors that dissolve DNA/filamentous-actin aggregates together with lipopolysaccharide-binding agents may represent a potential treatment for the chronic infections that occur in cystic fibrosis airways.
Prospective associations between physical activity and obesity among adolescent girls: racial differences and implications for prevention.

OBJECTIVE To test for differences in prospective associations between physical activity and obesity among black and white adolescent girls. DESIGN Prospective cohort study using data from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study. SETTING Multicenter study at the University of California (Berkeley), Children's Medical Center at the University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, Ohio), and Westat, Inc, and Group Health Association (Rockville, Maryland). PARTICIPANTS A total of 1148 adolescent girls (538 black and 610 white) who provided valid data on levels of physical activity and obesity at ages 12 and 14 years. INTERVENTION Physical activity, assessed as accelerometer counts per day. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Three measurements of obesity were obtained using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition of obesity (at or above the age-specific 95th percentile of body mass index), the International Obesity Task Force reference body mass index cut points for obesity in children, and the sums of skinfold thickness (with the cohort ≥90th percentile as indicative of obesity). RESULTS We found a strong negative dose-response association between quartiles of accelerometer counts per day at age 12 years and obesity at age 14 years (using all 3 measurements of obesity) in white but not black girls (P < .001 for body mass index interaction and P = .06 for sums of skinfold thickness interaction). The odds ratios for obesity (using the cohort ≥90th percentile for sums of skinfold thickness) in adjusted models between the top and the bottom quartiles of accelerometer counts per day were 0.15 (95% CI, 0.04-0.63; P = .03 for trend) in white girls and 0.85 (95% CI, 0.32-2.26; P = .93 for trend) in black girls. CONCLUSIONS Higher levels of physical activity are prospectively associated with lower levels of obesity in white adolescent girls but not in black adolescent girls. Obesity prevention interventions may need to be adapted to account for the finding that black girls are less sensitive to the effects of physical activity.