Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Climate Change and Air Pollution: Effects on Respiratory Allergy

A body of evidence suggests that major changes involving the atmosphere and the climate, including global warming induced by anthropogenic factors, have impact on the biosphere and human environment. Studies on the effects of climate change on respiratory allergy are still lacking and current knowledge is provided by epidemiological and experimental studies on the relationship between allergic respiratory diseases, asthma and environmental factors, such as meteorological variables, airborne allergens, and air pollution. Urbanization with its high levels of vehicle emissions, and a westernized lifestyle are linked to the rising frequency of respiratory allergic diseases and bronchial asthma observed over recent decades in most industrialized countries. However, it is not easy to evaluate the impact of climate changes and air pollution on the prevalence of asthma in the general population and on the timing of asthma exacerbations, although the global rise in asthma prevalence and severity could also be an effect of air pollution and climate change. Since airborne allergens and air pollutants are frequently increased contemporaneously in the atmosphere, an enhanced IgE-mediated response to aeroallergens and enhanced airway inflammation could account for the increasing frequency of respiratory allergy and asthma in atopic subjects in the last 5 decades. Pollen allergy is frequently used to study the relationship between air pollution and respiratory allergic diseases, such as rhinitis and bronchial asthma. Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that urbanization, high levels of vehicle emissions, and westernized lifestyle are correlated with an increased frequency of respiratory allergy prevalently in people who live in urban areas in comparison with people living in rural areas. Climatic factors (temperature, wind speed, humidity, thunderstorms, etc.) can affect both components (biological and chemical) of this interaction.
Infrared and Millimetric Study of the Young Outflow Cepheus E

The Cepheus E outflow has been studied in the mid- and far-IR using the ISOCAM and Long Wavelength Spectrometer (LWS) instruments and at millimetric wavelengths using the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO). In the near- and mid-IR, its morphology is similar to that expected for a jet-driven outflow, where the leading bow shocks entrain and accelerate the surrounding molecular gas. As expected, fine-structure atomic/ionic emission lines arise from the bow shocks, at both the Mach disk and the stagnation tip, where J-shocks are dominant. The H2, H2O, and CO molecular emission could arise farther "downstream" at the bow shock wings where the shocks (v = 8-35 km s-1) are oblique and more likely to be C-type. The 13CO emission arises from entrained molecular gas, and a compact high-velocity emission is observed, together with an extended low-velocity component that almost coincides spatially with the H2 near-IR emission. The millimetric continuum emission shows two sources. We identify one of them with IRAS 23011+6126, postulating that it is the driver of the Cepheus E outflow; the other, also an embedded source, is likely to be driving one of the other outflows observed in the region. Finally, we suggest that the strong [C II] 158 μm emission must originate from an extended photodissociation region, very likely excited by the nearby Cepheus OB3 association.
Understanding Racial-ethnic Disparities in Health: Sociological Contributions

This article provides an overview of the contribution of sociologists to the study of racial and ethnic inequalities in health in the United States. It argues that sociologists have made four principal contributions. First, they have challenged and problematized the biological understanding of race. Second, they have emphasized the primacy of social structure and context as determinants of racial differences in disease. Third, they have contributed to our understanding of the multiple ways in which racism affects health. Finally, sociologists have enhanced our understanding of the ways in which migration history and status can affect health. Sociological insights on racial disparities in health have important implications for the development of effective approaches to improve health and reduce health inequities.
Plitidepsin: design, development, and potential place in therapy

Plitidepsin is a cyclic depsipeptide that was first isolated from a Mediterranean marine tunicate (Aplidium albicans) and, at present, is manufactured by total synthesis and commercialized as Aplidin®. Its antitumor activity, observed in preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies has prompted numerous clinical trials to be conducted over the last 17 years, alone or in combination with other anticancer agents. Single-agent plitidepsin has shown limited antitumor activity and a tolerable safety profile in several malignancies, such as noncutaneous peripheral T-cell lymphoma, melanoma, and multiple myeloma. In patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, plitidepsin activity seems to be enhanced after addition of dexamethasone while remaining well tolerated, and a Phase III trial comparing plitidepsin plus dexamethasone vs dexamethasone alone is underway. Additional studies are required to better define the role of plitidepsin in combination with other active agents in these indications. Results of plitidepsin activity in other hematological malignancies or solid tumors have been disappointing so far. Further studies analyzing its mechanisms of action and potential biomarkers will help select patients who may benefit most from this drug. In this review, we critically analyze the published studies on plitidepsin in hematological malignancies and solid tumors and discuss its current role and future perspectives in treating these malignancies. We also review its design, pharmaceutical data, and mechanism of action.
Physical basis for nondestructive tests of MOS radiation hardness

It was found that the 1/f noise and channel resistance of unirradiated nMOS transistors from a single lot with various gate-oxide splits closely correlate with the oxide-trap and interface trap charge, respectively, following irradiation. The 1/f noise is explained by scattering from interface-trap precursor defects. It appears that both noise and channel mobility measurements may be useful in defining nondestructive hardness assurance test methods for devices fabricated from a single technology. It may be difficult to use either for making cross-technology comparisons. It was found that process techniques that improve the radiation hardness of MOS devices at room temperature can greatly reduce the 1/f noise of MOS devices at cryogenic temperatures. >
Effect of patient-controlled analgesia on plasma catecholamine, cortisol and glucose concentrations after cholecystectomy.

To quantify the effects of postoperative pain relief on surgical stress response, 16 patients undergoing cholecystectomy were allocated randomly to double-blind treatment with either fentanyl by patient controlled analgesia (PCA) with the Prominject plus saline given s.c. by nurses on demand (PCA group) or saline by the infusion pump plus morphine 10 mg/70 kg s.c. by nurses on demand (control). Pain intensity (VAS) and plasma catecholamine, cortisol and glucose concentrations were measured 2-hourly for 12 h after operation. PCA improved postoperative pain intensity (P less than 0.05) and reduced plasma cortisol (P less than 0.05), but not glucose and catecholamine concentrations compared with the control group. Thus improved postoperative pain relief per se by PCA with systemic opioids had no major influence on the catabolic response to abdominal surgery.
Curcumin suppresses intestinal polyps in APC Min mice fed a high fat diet

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Various risk factors have been associated with CRC including increasing age and diet. Epidemiological and experimental studies have implicated a diet high in fat as an important risk factor for colon cancer. High fat diets can promote obesity resulting in insulin resistance and inflammation and the development of oxidative stress, increased cell proliferation, and suppression of apoptosis. Because of the high consumption of dietary fats, especially saturated fats, by Western countries, it is of interest to see if non-nutrient food factors might be effective in preventing or delaying CRC in the presence of high saturated fat intake. Curcumin (Curcuma longa), the main yellow pigment in turmeric, was selected to test because of its reported anti-tumor activity. APC Min mice, which develop intestinal polyps and have many molecular features of CRC, were fed a diet containing 35% pork fat, 33% sucrose, and a protein and vitamin mineral mixture (HFD) with or without 0.5% curcumin. These cohorts were compared to APC Min mice receiving standard rodent chow (RC) with 8% fat. APC Min mice fed the HFD for 3 months had a 23% increase in total number of polyps compared to APC Min mice on RC. Curcumin was able to significantly reverse the accelerated polyp development associated with the HFD suggesting it may be effective clinically in helping prevent colon cancer even when ingesting high amounts of fatty foods. The anti-tumor effect of curcumin was shown to be associated with enhanced apoptosis and increased efficiency of DNA repair. Since curcumin prevented the gain in body weight seen in APC Min mice ingesting the HFD, modulation of energy metabolism may also be a factor.
Different roles for REM and stage 2 sleep in motor learning: A proposed model

It is now clear that states of sleep are involved with the off-line memory reprocessing or consolidation of a variety of tasks. The large majority of these sleep sensitive tasks has been of the procedural type, tasks thatare usually learned implicitly. It is still unclear which states of sleep are most important. For motor skills tasks, Stage 2 sleep has sometimes been implicated, while at other times the important sleep state appears to be rapid eye movement (REM). This paper is an attempt to more clearly identify the characteristics that differentiate REM-dependent from Stage 2-dependent motor tasks and to examine the nature of the brain state differences between the two stages at the neurophysiological and neurochemical levels. We have developed a model to explain how motor skills tasks involving REM and Stage 2 sleep might be dependent on two separate, but overlapping, neural systems.
Effect of fibrinogen on reversal of dilutional coagulopathy: a porcine model.

BACKGROUND This study was conducted to determine whether replacement of fibrinogen is useful in reversing dilutional coagulopathy following severe haemorrhage and administration of colloids. METHODS In 14 anaesthetized pigs, approximately 65% of the estimated blood volume was withdrawn and replaced with the same amount of gelatin solution to achieve dilutional coagulopathy. Animals were randomized to receive either 250 mg kg(-1) fibrinogen (n=7) or normal saline (n=7). A standardized liver injury was then inflicted to induce uncontrolled haemorrhage. Modified thrombelastography and standard coagulation tests were performed at baseline, after blood withdrawal, after dilution, after injection of the study drugs, and on conclusion of the protocol. Further, electron microscopy imaging of the blood clots was performed and blood loss after liver injury was determined. RESULTS Severely impaired haemostasis was observed after haemodilution with gelatin substitution. With administration of fibrinogen, clot firmness and dynamics of clot formation reached baseline values. Median blood loss following liver injury was significantly less (P=0.018) in the fibrinogen-treated animals (1100 ml; 800-1400 ml) than in the placebo group (2010 ml; 1800-2200 ml). CONCLUSIONS Replacing 65% of the estimated blood volume with gelatin in swine resulted in dilutional coagulopathy; subsequent fibrinogen administration improved clot formation and reduced blood loss significantly.
Neural substrates of similarity and rule-based strategies in judgment

Making accurate judgments is a core human competence and a prerequisite for success in many areas of life. Plenty of evidence exists that people can employ different judgment strategies to solve identical judgment problems. In categorization, it has been demonstrated that similarity-based and rule-based strategies are associated with activity in different brain regions. Building on this research, the present work tests whether solving two identical judgment problems recruits different neural substrates depending on people's judgment strategies. Combining cognitive modeling of judgment strategies at the behavioral level with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we compare brain activity when using two archetypal judgment strategies: a similarity-based exemplar strategy and a rule-based heuristic strategy. Using an exemplar-based strategy should recruit areas involved in long-term memory processes to a larger extent than a heuristic strategy. In contrast, using a heuristic strategy should recruit areas involved in the application of rules to a larger extent than an exemplar-based strategy. Largely consistent with our hypotheses, we found that using an exemplar-based strategy led to relatively higher BOLD activity in the anterior prefrontal and inferior parietal cortex, presumably related to retrieval and selective attention processes. In contrast, using a heuristic strategy led to relatively higher activity in areas in the dorsolateral prefrontal and the temporal-parietal cortex associated with cognitive control and information integration. Thus, even when people solve identical judgment problems, different neural substrates can be recruited depending on the judgment strategy involved.
Optimizing parameters of a mobile ad hoc network protocol with a genetic algorithm

Mobile ad hoc networks are typically designed and evaluated in generic simulation environments. However the real conditions in which these networks are deployed can be quite different in terms of RF attentution, topology, and traffic load. Furthermore, specific situations often have a need for a network that is optimized along certain characteristics such as delay, energy or overhead. In response to the variety of conditions and requirements, ad hoc networking protocols are often designed with many modifiable parameters. However, there is currently no methodical way for choosing values for the parameters other than intuition and broad experience. In this paper we investigate the use of genetic algorithms for automated selection of parameters in an ad hoc networking system. We provide experimental results demonstrating that the genetic algorithm can optimize for different classes of operating conditions. We also compare our genetic algorithm optimization against hand-tuning in a complex, realistic scenario and show how the genetic algorithm provides better performance.
An Iterative Approach for Maximum Concurrent Transmission Achievement in Multi-Channel Wireless Mesh Networks

We propose two algorithms to enhance the throughput of multi-channel WMNs. Towards this goal, we first utilize an iterative algorithm for cases where each link is allowed to be active on a single channel for the whole duration of network operation. To this end, a two phase algorithm with each phase containing an LP formulation step for link flow determination and a channel assignment step is proposed. In addition, we develop a two phase LP formulation to maximize the number of concurrent transmissions in such WMNs. We also investigated the performance of a combination of the two proposed algorithms for multi-channel WMNs.
Modeling and tracking of faces in real-life illumination conditions

In this paper, we address the problem of face tracking across illumination changes and occlusions. The method is based on leveraging the strengths of both Adaboost to deal with clutter and the image based parametric illumination model proposed by Kale and Jaynes. We show that a simple non-linear transformation of the Adaboost score multiplied with the illumination compensated likelihood leads to a fast robust tracking paradigm. We demonstrate the ability of our method to detect occlusions at the same time ensuring that mis-assignments between the occluder and the occluded does not occur. We present experimental results of our method on low resolution surveillance indoor and outdoor videos using an off the shelf DSP. We also demonstrate the power of the parametric illumination model for pose constrained face recognition when matching across known illumination conditions.
Bacterial flagellar capping proteins adopt diverse oligomeric states

Flagella are crucial for bacterial motility and pathogenesis. The flagellar capping protein (FliD) regulates filament assembly by chaperoning and sorting flagellin (FliC) proteins after they traverse the hollow filament and exit the growing flagellum tip. In the absence of FliD, flagella are not formed, resulting in impaired motility and infectivity. Here, we report the 2.2 Å resolution X-ray crystal structure of FliD from Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the first high-resolution structure of any FliD protein from any bacterium. Using this evidence in combination with a multitude of biophysical and functional analyses, we find that Pseudomonas FliD exhibits unexpected structural similarity to other flagellar proteins at the domain level, adopts a unique hexameric oligomeric state, and depends on flexible determinants for oligomerization. Considering that the flagellin filaments on which FliD oligomers are affixed vary in protofilament number between bacteria, our results suggest that FliD oligomer stoichiometries vary across bacteria to complement their filament assemblies. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.18857. 001
SEM: A Softmax-based Ensemble Model for CTR estimation in Real-Time Bidding advertising

In Real-Time Bidding (RTB) advertising, evaluating the Click-Through Rate (CTR) of a bid request and an ad is important for bidding strategy optimization on Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs). The regression-based approaches are popular for CTR estimation in RTB since this kind of approach is highly efficient and scalable. The information of the bid request and the ad contains categorical attributes (such URL) and numerical attributes (such ad size). To vectorize the information for the input of regression-based approaches, the categorical attributes will be expanded to several binary features in general. However, some categorical attributes have infinite possible values (such as URL). Thus, for these attributes, only observed values in training will be transformed into binary features. If there is a new attribute or value in online environment, this information will be lost after vectorization. In this paper, we first exploit the feature hashing trick to transform the categorical and numerical attributes into the large fixed size vector. Since the vector is large and sparse, we propose a Softmax-based Ensemble Model, SEM, which adopts only a few key features after feature hashing for CTR estimation. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach is able to adapt to the harsh environments in RTB, and outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches effectively when only less than 50 features are adopted in two real datasets.
Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 and Osteocalcin Are Correlated with Markers of Osteoporosis in Postmenopausal Women with Type-2 Diabetes

Objective: The study was conducted to evaluate the relation between insulin-like growth factor-1 and osteocalcin and markers of bone modulation (osteoprotegerin; OPG, receptor activator nuclear kappa B; RANK and RANK ligand; RANKL) in postmenopausal Type 2 diabetic women with and without osteoporosis. Methods: The study was conducted on 90 female divided into three groups (30 each). Group I included healthy postmenopausal women as a control, Group II included diabetic postmenopausal women without osteoporosis Group III included diabetic postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Fasting blood samples were obtained for the determination of blood glucose, HbA1c, total and ionized calcium, OPG, RANK and RANKL. Also the levels of IGF-1 and osteocalcin were assessed. Results: In postmenopausal Type 2 diabetic women, the osteoporosis resulted in derangement in OPG/sRANKL system. The serum level of OPG was elevated while sRANKL declines in osteoporotic postmenopausal Type 2 diabetic women. IGF-1 level decreased in diabetic postmenopausal women but those women with osteoporosis showed a great decline by about 60%. IGF-1 level in osteoporotic diabetic postmenopausal women was correlated with BMD and most bone turnover markers (OPG, sRANKL, OPG/sRANKL). Osteocalcin declined significantly only in those women with osteoporosis not without osteoporosis. Conclusions: The circulating levels of OPG and sRANKL were not useful markers for bone status in postmenopausal women while the circulating levels of IGF-1 and osteocalcin might give useful information about bone status in postmenopausal diabetic women.
‘All quiet on the social work front’: Experiences of Zimbabwean day labourers in South Africa

Migration, particularly when triggered by economic or political hardship, has significant psychological and socio-economic consequences for the individuals concerned. While an impressive amount of research has been conducted by social workers into migration in North America, Europe and Asia, the same cannot be said for Africa. The continent has high numbers of displaced people and refugees, yet no Africa-linked research on migration has been published by the social work profession. This article addresses this gap in the literature by focusing specifically on Zimbabwean day labourers in South Africa. Survey results reveal that these migrants face intense competition for scarce jobs, and thus economic uncertainty, and are often victimised. It is incumbent upon the social work profession to expose the vulnerable conditions in which day labourers have to operate, and to mobilise a coordinated response from relevant government and non-profit organisations in the interests of greater social justice and harmony.
350 μm Observations of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies and the Temperature Dependence of the Emissivity Index

We report 350 μm observations of 18 nearby luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) using the Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera II (SHARC-II) mounted on the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO) 10.4 m telescope. Combining our 350 μm flux measurements with the existing far-infrared (FIR) and submillimeter data, we fit a single-temperature model to the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and find the dust temperatures, emissivity indices, and FIR luminosities having sample medians of Td = 39.4 ± 7.9 K, β = 1.6 ± 0.3, and LFIR = 1011.2±0.6 L☉. An empirical inverse Td-β correlation, best described by Td = (9.86 × 109)1/(4.63 + β), is established for the local LIRG sample, which we argue can be explained by the intrinsic interdependence between the dust temperature and grain emissivity index as physical parameters, as well as variations in grain properties in the interstellar medium (ISM).
WebVar: a resource for the rapid estimation of relative site variability from multiple sequence alignments

UNLABELLED WebVar is an online resource that provides estimates of relative site variability from multiple alignments of homologous protein or nucleic acid sequences. WebVar provides a variety of graphic and textual representations of estimates, designed to assist in phylogenetic analysis. AVAILABILITY The WebVar server is located at http://www.pesolelab. it/Tools/WebVar.html