Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predicting hospitalisation of patients with diabetes mellitus. An application of the Bayesian discriminant analysis.

The objective of this study was to develop, and subsequently test, a Bayesian discrimination model for the purpose of identifying both the personal and the healthcare system characteristics predictive of hospitalisation for the treatment of patients with diabetes mellitus or commonly observed cormorbidities associated with the disease. First, a Bayesian classification framework was proposed. The model was then tested by using a logit regression technique in order to estimate the probability of one or more hospitalisation events among patients with diabetes. The study used claims data extracted from the Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA) Private Business Claims (PBS) files for the 1995 calendar year. Patients under 65 years were identified by paid claims with ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes of 250.xx which gave a sample size of 6841 patients. Age, gender, various pharmacotherapy variables, presence of hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, congestive heart failure, multiple cardiovascular diseases, any combination of commonly observed comorbidities, dialysis services and annual eye examination are highly predictive of 1 or more hospitalisation events. The model shows a predictive power of almost 90%. This study found that multivariate discriminant analysis using a logit regression model successfully identifies: (i) important explanatory variables predictive of hospitalisation; (ii) assigns patients into 1 of 2 mutually exclusive classes; and (iii) offers a benchmark for a comprehensive disease management strategy for patients with more complicated diabetes.
Emergence of and Risk Factors for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus of Community Origin in Intensive Care Nurseries

OBJECTIVE. The goal of this study was to define more clearly the impact of community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clones (eg, USA300 and USA400) on colonization and infection in infants in intensive care nurseries and potential modes of transmission of community-acquired methicillin-resistant S aureus clones. METHODS. Prospective surveillance for methicillin-resistant S aureus colonization and infection was performed among infants in the intensive care nurseries at Grady Memorial Hospital (Atlanta, GA) between 1993 and 2006. Beginning in September 2004, nares surveillance cultures were collected at admission. Methicillin-resistant S aureus isolates were genotyped by using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and multiplex polymerase chain reaction assays for staphylococcal chromosomal cassette mec gene complex type and Panton-Valentine leukocidin genes. Prevalence of and risk factors for colonization with community-acquired versus health care-associated methicillin-resistant S aureus clones (eg, USA100) were assessed. RESULTS. Between 1993 and 2006, 130 (3.5%) of 3707 infants were identified to be colonized with methicillin-resistant S aureus. Twelve (1.2%) of 996 admission nares cultures were positive for methicillin-resistant S aureus (since initiation of admission cultures in September 2004). Community-acquired methicillin-resistant S aureus clones were first recovered in 1998; the proportion of methicillin-resistant S aureus clones of community origin increased significantly between 1998 and 2004. Multivariate analysis identified vaginal delivery and maternal smoking, both among infants of mothers receiving systemic antibiotic treatment before delivery, as independent predictors for neonatal colonization with community-acquired methicillin-resistant S aureus. Systemic antibiotic therapy before delivery for nonsmoking mothers delivering through cesarean section and possibly endotracheal intubation were associated with the recovery of health care-associated methicillin-resistant S aureus clones. CONCLUSIONS. Community-acquired methicillin-resistant S aureus clones have emerged as a major cause of methicillin-resistant S aureus colonization in high-risk newborns. Community-acquired methicillin-resistant S aureus recovery was associated with acquisition during birth, whereas health care-associated methicillin-resistant S aureus clones seemed to be transmitted nosocomially.
Cyclic AMP-Dependent Osmoregulation of crp Gene Expression in Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT We have found that the cyclic AMP (cAMP) receptor protein (CRP)-cAMP regulatory complex in Escherichia coli is subject to osmoregulation at the level of crp gene expression. This osmoregulation was lost in a cya mutant strain but could be restored by external addition of cAMP, suggesting that the intracellular level of cAMP is a key factor in the osmoregulation of CRP. The ability of the cell to maintain optimal CRP activity was essential for the growth and survival of the bacteria under low-osmolarity conditions as shown by studies with different crp mutant alleles. A suppressor mutant with a novel amino acid substitution (L124R) in CRP showed restored growth at low osmolarity. CRP(L124R) was not activated by cAMP and was shown to be dominant negative over the wild type. Our findings suggest that the fine-tuning of the CRP activity may be critical for bacterial viability and adaptability to changing osmotic conditions.
Effect of Genistein and 17-β Estradiol on the Viability and Apoptosis of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma HepG2 cell line

Background: One of the most lethal cancers is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Genistein (GE) is a choice compound for treatment of certain types of cancer. Phytoestrogens are plant derivatives that bear a structural similarity to 17-β estradiol (E2) and act in a similar manner. They are a group of lipophillic plant compounds with tumorigenic and antitumorigenic effects. E2 has stimulatory and inhibitory effects on cancer cell lines. This study was designed to investigate the antiproliferative and apoptotic effects of GE and E2 on the HCC HepG2 cell line. Materials and Methods: HepG2 cells were cultured and treated with various concentrations of GE and E2 and then 3-[4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl]-2, 5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromideand flow cytometry assay were performed to determine cell viability and apoptosis. Results: GE and E2 induced apoptosis and inhibited cell growth significantly. Reduction of cell viability by 50% required 20 μM E2 for E2-treatment groups and 20 μMGE for GE-treatment groups. The percentage of the GE-treated apoptotic cells was reduced by about 35%, 42%, and 47% (P < 0.001) and that of E2-treated groups 34%, 39%, and 42% (P < 0.001) after 24, 48, and 72 h, respectively. Conclusions: Our experimental work clearly demonstrated that GE and E2 exhibited significant antiproliferative and apoptotic effects on human HCC HepG2 cells.
HFSP: Bringing Size-Based Scheduling To Hadoop

Size-based scheduling with aging has been recognized as an effective approach to guarantee fairness and near-optimal system response times. We present HFSP, a scheduler introducing this technique to a real, multi-server, complex, and widely used system such as Hadoop. Size-based scheduling requires a priori job size information, which is not available in Hadoop: HFSP builds such knowledge by estimating it on-line during job execution. Our experiments, which are based on realistic workloads generated via a standard benchmarking suite, pinpoint at a significant decrease in system response times with respect to the widely used Hadoop Fair scheduler, without impacting the fairness of the scheduler, and show that HFSP is largely tolerant to job size estimation errors.
Detection and evolution of the CO (Δv= 2) emission in Nova V2615 Ophiuchi (2007)

We present near-infrared (1-2.5 μm) spectroscopic and photometric results of Nova V2615 Ophiuchi which was discovered in outburst in 2007 March. Our observations span a period of ~80 d starting from 2007 March 28 when the nova was at its maximum light. The evolution of the spectra is shown from the initial P Cygni phase to an emission-line phase and finally to a dust formation stage. The characteristics of the JHK spectra are very similar to those observed in a nova outburst occurring on a carbon-oxygen white dwarf. We analyse an observed line at 2.088 μm and suggest that it could be due to Fe II excited by Lyman α fluorescence. The highlight of the observations is the detection of the first overtone bands of carbon monoxide (CO) in the 2.29-2.40 μm region. The CO bands are modelled to estimate the temperature and mass of the emitting CO gas and also to place limits on the 12 C/ 13 C ratio. The CO bands are recorded over several epochs, thereby allowing a rare opportunity to study the evolution from a phase of constant strength through a stage when the CO is destroyed fairly rapidly. We compare the observed time-scales involved in the evolution of the CO emission and find a good agreement with model predictions that investigate the chemistry in a nova outflow during the early stages.
Rank penalized estimators for high-dimensional matrices

In this paper we consider the trace regression model. Assume that we observe a small set of entries or linear combinations of entries of an unknown matrix $A_0$ corrupted by noise. We propose a new rank penalized estimator of $A_0$. For this estimator we establish general oracle inequality for the prediction error both in probability and in expectation. We also prove upper bounds for the rank of our estimator. Then, we apply our general results to the problems of matrix completion and matrix regression. In these cases our estimator has a particularly simple form: it is obtained by hard thresholding of the singular values of a matrix constructed from the observations.
Electronic Sensors for Assessing Interactions between Healthcare Workers and Patients under Airborne Precautions

Background Direct observation has been widely used to assess interactions between healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients but is time-consuming and feasible only over short periods. We used a Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) system to automatically measure HCW-patient interactions. Methods We equipped 50 patient rooms with fixed sensors and 111 HCW volunteers with mobile sensors in two clinical wards of two hospitals. For 3 months, we recorded all interactions between HCWs and 54 patients under airborne precautions for suspected (n = 40) or confirmed (n = 14) tuberculosis. Number and duration of HCW entries into patient rooms were collected daily. Concomitantly, we directly observed room entries and interviewed HCWs to evaluate their self-perception of the number and duration of contacts with tuberculosis patients. Results After signal reconstruction, 5490 interactions were recorded between 82 HCWs and 54 tuberculosis patients during 404 days of airborne isolation. Median (interquartile range) interaction duration was 2.1 (0.8–4.4) min overall, 2.3 (0.8–5.0) in the mornings, 1.8 (0.8–3.7) in the afternoons, and 2.0 (0.7–4.3) at night (P<10−4). Number of interactions/day/HCW was 3.0 (1.0–6.0) and total daily duration was 7.6 (2.4–22.5) min. Durations estimated from 28 direct observations and 26 interviews were not significantly different from those recorded by the network. Conclusions The RFID was well accepted by HCWs. This original technique holds promise for accurately and continuously measuring interactions between HCWs and patients, as a less resource-consuming substitute for direct observation. The results could be used to model the transmission of significant pathogens. HCW perceptions of interactions with patients accurately reflected reality.
Gestational age and cognitive ability in early childhood: a population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND Recent studies suggest that children born at late preterm (34-36 weeks gestation) and early term (37-38 weeks) may have poorer developmental outcomes than children born at full term (39-41 weeks). We examined how gestational age is related to cognitive ability in early childhood using the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study. METHODS Cognitive development was assessed using Bracken School Readiness Assessment at age 3 years, British Ability Scales II at ages 3, 5 and 7 years and Progress in Mathematics at age 7 years. Sample size varied according to outcome between 12,163 and 14,027. Each gestational age group was compared with the full-term group using differences in z-scores and risk ratios for scoring more than -1 SD below the mean. RESULTS Children born at <32 weeks gestation scored lower (P < 0.05) than the full-term group on all scales with unadjusted z-score differences ranging between -0.8 to -0.2 SD. In all groups, there was an increased risk (P < 0.05) of scoring less than -1 SD below the mean compared with the full-term group for some of the tests: those born at < 32 weeks had a 40-140% increased risk in seven tests, those born at 32-33 weeks had a 60-80% increased risk in three tests, those born at 34-36 weeks had a 30-40% increased risk in three tests, and those born at 37-38 weeks had a 20% increased risk in two tests. CONCLUSIONS Cognitive ability is related to the entire range of gestational age, including children born at 34-36 and 37-38 weeks gestation.
Mental Illness Stigma Expressed by Police to Police.

OBJECTIVE This paper describes mental health related stigma expressed by police to police using a newly developed 11-item Police Officer Stigma Scale and reports on the preliminary psychometric properties (factor structure and internal reliability) of this scale. METHOD The scale used an indirect measurement approach adapted from the Perceived Devaluation and Discrimination Scale. Five themes appropriate to police culture were adapted and six additional items were added. Responses were rated on a 5-point agreement scale with an additional don't know option. Data were collected from officers attending a mandatory workshop (90.5% response). RESULTS Exploratory factor analysis showed the scale to be unidimensional and internally reliable (Cronbach's alpha was 0.82). The most endorsed items pertained to avoiding disclosure to a supervisor/manager or to a colleague (85% agreement), that most officers would expect discrimination at work (62%), and that most officers would not want a supervisor or manager who had a mental illness (62%). CONCLUSIONS Findings highlight that (a) Police-to-police mental illness stigma may be a particularly strong feature of police cultures; (b) police should be a focus for targeted anti-stigma interventions; and
On stability of capillary surfaces in a ball

We study stable capillary surfaces in a euclidean ball in the absence of gravity. We prove, in particular, that such a surface must be a flat disk or a spherical cap if it has genus zero. We also prove that its genus is at most one and it has at most three connected boundary components in case it is minimal. Some of our results also hold in H 3 and S 3 . Consider a smooth and compact convex body B in R 3 . Let @B and intB denote its boundary and its interior respectively. We are interested in em- bedded constant mean curvature surfacesM inR 3 with non empty boundary such that intM intB and @M@B and which intersect @B at a constant angle 2 (0;). Such surfaces, called capillary surfaces, are critical points of an energy functional under some constraints. The energy functional is de- ned as follows: the surface M separates B into two bodies, consider among these two bodies the one inside which the angle is measured and call the part of its boundary that lies on @B. Denote by A the area of M and by T that of . The energy function is then E = A cosT: The space of surfaces under consideration are compact orientable surfaces in R 3 with boundary contained in @B and interior contained in intB and which divide B into two bodies of preassigned volumes. The Euler-Lagrange equation shows that a critical point ofE under these constraints is a constant mean curvature surface that intersect @B at the constant angle , that is the angle between the exterior conormals to @M in M and is everywhere equal to along @M. We say that such a surface is capillarily stable if it minimizes the energy up to second order. Capillary surfaces correspond to the physical problem of the behavior of an incompressible liquid in a container B in the absence of gravity. A great deal of work has been devoted to capillary phenomena from the point of view of existence and uniqueness of solutions mainly in the non-parametric case and in the more general situation of presence of gravity (see the book of R. Finn, (F), for an account of the
Small effective population sizes in two planktonic freshwater copepod species (Eudiaptomus) with apparently large census sizes

In small planktonic organisms, large census sizes (Nc) suggest large effective population sizes (Ne), but reliable estimates are rare. Here, we present Ne/Nc ratios for two freshwater copepod species (Eudiaptomus sp.) using temporal samples of multilocus microsatellite genotypes and a pseudo‐likelihood approach. Ne/Nc ratios were very small in both Eudiaptomus species (10−7–10−8). Although we hypothesized that the species producing resting eggs (E. graciloides) had a larger Ne than the other (E. gracilis), estimates were not statistically different (E. graciloides: Ne = 672.7, CI: 276–1949; E. gracilis: Ne = 1027.4, CI: 449–2495), suggesting that the propagule bank of E. graciloides had no detectable influence on Ne.
Tollip is a critical mediator of cerebral ischaemia–reperfusion injury

Toll‐like receptor (TLR) signalling plays an important role in regulating cerebral ischaemia–reperfusion (I/R) injury. Toll‐interacting protein (Tollip) is an endogenous negative modulator of TLR signalling that is involved in several inflammatory diseases. Our previous study showed that Tollip inhibits overload‐induced cardiac remodelling. However, the role of Tollip in neurological disease remains unknown. In the present study, we proposed that Tollip might contribute to the progression of stroke and confirmed this hypothesis. We found that Tollip expression was significantly increased in I/R‐challenged brain tissue of humans, mice and rats in vivo and in primary neurons subjected to oxygen and glucose deprivation in vitro, indicating the involvement of Tollip in I/R injury. Next, using genetic approaches, we revealed that Tollip deficiency protects mice against I/R injury by attenuating neuronal apoptosis and inflammation, as demonstrated by the decreased expression of pro‐apoptotic and pro‐inflammatory genes and the increased expression of anti‐apoptotic genes. By contrast, neuron‐specific Tollip over‐expression exerted the opposite effect. Mechanistically, the detrimental effects of Tollip on neuronal apoptosis and inflammation following I/R injury were largely mediated by the suppression of Akt signalling. Additionally, to further support our findings, a Tollip knockout rat strain was generated via CRISPR‐Cas9‐mediated gene inactivation. The Tollip‐deficient rats were also protected from I/R injury, based on dramatic decreases in neuronal apoptosis and ischaemic inflammation through Akt activation. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that Tollip acts as a novel modulator of I/R injury by promoting neuronal apoptosis and ischaemic inflammation, which are largely mediated by suppression of Akt signalling. Copyright © 2015 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Nesting habitats and rates of cell parasitism in some bee species of the genera ancyloscelis, centris and euglossa (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from Colombia

SUMMARY We describe a dense nest aggregation of Ancyloscelis aff. apiformis, two nests of Centris flavifrons, and six nests of Euglossa. We found a nest of E. analis built inside a cavity of a living tree, an aerial nest of E. cybelia attached under a leaf of a palm tree and four nests of E. nigropilosa associated with timber buildings and abandoned nests of carpenter bees (Xylocopa sp.). We report for the first time wasps of the family Eurytomidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) and a cuckoo bee, Coelioxys (Rhinocoelioxys) sp. (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), attacking the brood cells of E. cybelia and E. nigropilosa. We also briefly discuss the variation found in the nest structure of C. flavifrons; unlike those nests studied in Costa Rica and northeastern Brazil, the nests in Colombia were shallow (~12 cm) and consisted of a main tunnel with three short branches, each one ending in a single cell. Further data from other localities are needed to detect other variations in the nesting biology and if they are correlated with the morphological variation exhibited by this species or with local differences in parasite pressure.
Incorporation of the Green Fluorescent Protein into the Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Capsid

ABSTRACT The herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) UL35 open reading frame (ORF) encodes a 12-kDa capsid protein designated VP26. VP26 is located on the outer surface of the capsid specifically on the tips of the hexons that constitute the capsid shell. The bioluminescent jellyfish (Aequorea victoria) green fluorescent protein (GFP) was fused in frame with the UL35 ORF to generate a VP26-GFP fusion protein. This fusion protein was fluorescent and localized to distinct regions within the nuclei of transfected cells following infection with wild-type virus. The VP26-GFP marker was introduced into the HSV-1 (KOS) genome resulting in recombinant plaques that were fluorescent. A virus, designated K26GFP, was isolated and purified and was shown to grow as well as the wild-type virus in cell culture. An analysis of the intranuclear capsids formed in K26GFP-infected cells revealed that the fusion protein was incorporated into A, B, and C capsids. Furthermore, the fusion protein incorporated into the virion particle was fluorescent as judged by fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis of infected cells in the absence of de novo protein synthesis. Cells infected with K26GFP exhibited a punctate nuclear fluorescence at early times in the replication cycle. At later times during infection a generalized cytoplasmic and nuclear fluorescence, including fluorescence at the cell membranes, was observed, confirming visually that the fusion protein was incorporated into intranuclear capsids and mature virions.
Adapting Minority Group Threat to Examine the Social Control of Sexual Orientation Bias

Blalock proposed that the threat of a minority group toward a majority in sheer size, economic competition, or power will result in an increase in discrimination toward that group. His original formulation of this theory of minority group threat, and its subsequent extensions, has focused almost exclusively on racial minority–majority relationships; however, Blalock asserted that his theory would apply to any minority–majority group relationship. Extensions to religious groups have shown this is likely the case. The current analysis assesses a further extension of minority group threat by reframing the arguments of the theory and adding two additional sources of threat to examine sexual orientation bias. Data from the Uniform Crime Reports Hate Crime Statistics program are used to assess whether the minority group threat hypotheses explain the reporting of sexual orientation bias crimes. The findings indicate that the original formulation of Blalock’s theory does not suffice to explain the reporting of anti–Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual bias crime, but the proposed extensions may explain some of this variation.
Ability and Mathematics: The Mindset Revolution that Is Reshaping Education.

Recent scientific evidence demonstrates both the incredible potential of the brain to grow and change and the powerful impact of growth mindset messages upon students’ attainment. Schooling practices, however, particularly in England, are based upon notions of fixed ability thinking which limits students’ attainment and increases inequality. This article reviews evidence for brain plasticity, the importance of mindset and the ways that mindset messages may be communicated through classroom and