Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short-chain fatty acids and human colonic function: roles of resistant starch and nonstarch polysaccharides.

Resistant starch (RS) is starch and products of its small intestinal digestion that enter the large bowel. It occurs for various reasons including chemical structure, cooking of food, chemical modification, and food mastication. Human colonic bacteria ferment RS and nonstarch polysaccharides (NSP; major components of dietary fiber) to short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), mainly acetate, propionate, and butyrate. SCFA stimulate colonic blood flow and fluid and electrolyte uptake. Butyrate is a preferred substrate for colonocytes and appears to promote a normal phenotype in these cells. Fermentation of some RS types favors butyrate production. Measurement of colonic fermentation in humans is difficult, and indirect measures (e.g., fecal samples) or animal models have been used. Of the latter, rodents appear to be of limited value, and pigs or dogs are preferable. RS is less effective than NSP in stool bulking, but epidemiological data suggest that it is more protective against colorectal cancer, possibly via butyrate. RS is a prebiotic, but knowledge of its other interactions with the microflora is limited. The contribution of RS to fermentation and colonic physiology seems to be greater than that of NSP. However, the lack of a generally accepted analytical procedure that accommodates the major influences on RS means this is yet to be established.
A modal calculus for effect handling

In their purest formulation, monads are used in functional programming for two purposes: (1) to hygienically propagate effects, and (2) to globalize the effect scope once an effect occurs, the purity of the surrounding computation cannot be restored. As a consequence, monadic typing does not provide very naturally for the practically important ability to handle effects, and there is a number of previous works directed toward remedying this deficiency. It is mostly based on extending the monadic framework with further extra-logical constructs to support handling. In this paper we adopt a different approach, founded on the observation of Pfenning and Davies that an abstract monad can be decomposed in terms of modal operators for possibility O and necessity D. Our idea is to use the • modality (which is a comonad) for hygienic propagation of effects, and leave the globalization of effect scope to O. Then the effects which admit a natural notion of handling can be encoded using • ; since they are not global, there is no need to push them under O. Based on this idea, we develop a general framework for effect handling systems, and obtain novel calculi for exceptions, catch-and-throw and composable continuations as specific instantiations.
Structured Sparse Canonical Correlation Analysis

In this paper, we propose to apply sparse canonical correlation analysis (sparse CCA) to an important genome-wide association study problem, eQTL mapping. Existing sparse CCA models do not incorporate structural information among variables such as pathways of genes. This work extends the sparse CCA so that it could exploit either the pre-given or unknown group structure via the structured-sparsity-inducing penalty. Such structured penalty poses new challenge on optimization techniques. To address this challenge, by specializing the excessive gap framework, we develop a scalable primal-dual optimization algorithm with a fast rate of convergence. Empirical results show that the proposed optimization algorithm is more efficient than existing state-of-the-art methods. We also demonstrate the effectiveness of the structured sparse CCA on both simulated and genetic datasets.
Inverting hyperspectral images with Gaussian Regularized Sliced Inverse Regression

In the context of hyperspectral image analysis in planetology, we show how to estimate the physical parameters that generate the spectral infrared signal reflected by Mars. The training approach we develop is based on the estimation of the functional relationship between parameters and spectra, using a database of synthetic spectra generated by a physical model. The high dimension of spectra is reduced by using Gaussian regularized inverse regression to overcome the curse of dimensionality. Compared with a basic k-nearest neighbors approach or a Partial Least Square (PLS) regression, estimates are more accurate and are thus promising.
Informative frequent assembled feature for face detection

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to automatically generating, instead of manually designing, discriminative visual features for face detection. The features are composed by multiple local features (e.g., Haar features), and such features can capture not only the local texture information but also their spatial configurations. Therefore, the proposed feature contains rich semantic information so that the classifier built on a set of such features can achieve high accuracy and high efficiency. Experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms the techniques based on local features and the state-of-the-art discriminative features for face detection.
Late Sodium Current in Human Atrial Cardiomyocytes from Patients in Sinus Rhythm and Atrial Fibrillation

Slowly inactivating Na+ channels conducting “late” Na+ current (INa,late) contribute to ventricular arrhythmogenesis under pathological conditions. INa,late was also reported to play a role in chronic atrial fibrillation (AF). The objective of this study was to investigate INa,late in human right atrial cardiomyocytes as a putative drug target for treatment of AF. To activate Na+ channels, cardiomyocytes from transgenic mice which exhibit INa,late (ΔKPQ), and right atrial cardiomyocytes from patients in sinus rhythm (SR) and AF were voltage clamped at room temperature by 250-ms long test pulses to -30 mV from a holding potential of -80 mV with a 100-ms pre-pulse to -110 mV (protocol I). INa,late at -30 mV was not discernible as deviation from the extrapolated straight line IV-curve between -110 mV and -80 mV in human atrial cells. Therefore, tetrodotoxin (TTX, 10 μM) was used to define persistent inward current after 250 ms at -30 mV as INa,late. TTX-sensitive current was 0.27±0.06 pA/pF in ventricular cardiomyocytes from ΔKPQ mice, and amounted to 0.04±0.01 pA/pF and 0.09±0.02 pA/pF in SR and AF human atrial cardiomyocytes, respectively. With protocol II (holding potential -120 mV, pre-pulse to -80 mV) TTX-sensitive INa,late was always larger than with protocol I. Ranolazine (30 μM) reduced INa,late by 0.02±0.02 pA/pF in SR and 0.09±0.02 pA/pF in AF cells. At physiological temperature (37°C), however, INa,late became insignificant. Plateau phase and upstroke velocity of action potentials (APs) recorded with sharp microelectrodes in intact human trabeculae were more sensitive to ranolazine in AF than in SR preparations. Sodium channel subunits expression measured with qPCR was high for SCN5A with no difference between SR and AF. Expression of SCN8A and SCN10A was low in general, and lower in AF than in SR. In conclusion, We confirm for the first time a TTX-sensitive current (INa,late) in right atrial cardiomyocytes from SR and AF patients at room temperature, but not at physiological temperature. While our study provides evidence for the presence of INa,late in human atria, the potential of such current as a target for the treatment of AF remains to be demonstrated.
The Effect of Glutathione S-transferase M1 Genotype on Benzo[a]pyrene-Induced Sister Chromatid Exchanges and Chromosomal Aberrations in Peripheral Blood Lymphocytes

Sister chromatid exchange (SCE) and chromosomal aberration (CA) in peripheral lymphocytes have been widely used in assessing exposure to mutagens and carcinogens. One of the extensively studied genotoxins is benzo[a]pyrene (BaP). The aim of the present study was to examine the ability of BaP to induce different individual cytogenetic response measured by SCE and CA frequency. The possible influence of genetic polymorphism was also taken into account, by including donors representing positive or null glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) genotypes. SCEs and CAs were analyzed from 72-h whole-blood lymphocyte cultures of 16 GSTM1 positive and 15 GSTM1 null donors after treatment with 5 µM BaP, which do not decrease cell viability. We found no influence of the GSTM1 genotype on SCE or CA frequency. The rates of chromatid and chromosome-type gaps and breaks induced in vitro by BaP were similar in all the groups. In the GSTM1 null genotype, however, chromatid-type breaks were seen more frequently than chromosome-type breaks after a 48 h treatment with BaP. These findings suggest that SCEs and CAs induced in vitro by BaP are not influenced by the genotype GSTM1.
Fluid Injection and Time‐Dependent Seismic Hazard in the Barnett Shale, Texas

The Barnett Shale in Texas experienced an increase in seismicity since 2008, coinciding with high‐volume deep fluid injection. Despite the spatial proximity, the lack of a first‐order correlation between seismic records and the total volume of injected fluid requires more comprehensive geomechanical analysis, which accounts for local hydrogeology. Using time‐varying injections at 96 wells and employing a coupled linear poroelastic model, we simulate the spatiotemporal evolution of pore pressure and poroelastic stresses during 2007–2015. The overall contribution of poroelastic stresses to Coulomb failure stress change is ~10% of that of pore pressure; however, both can explain the spatiotemporal distribution of earthquakes. We use a seismicity rate model to calculate earthquake magnitude exceedance probability due to stress changes. The obtained time‐dependent seismic hazard is heterogeneous in space and time. Decreasing injection rates does not necessarily reduce probabilities immediately.
Salmonella Co-opts Host Cell Chaperone-mediated Autophagy for Intracellular Growth*

Salmonella enterica are invasive intracellular pathogens that replicate within a membrane-bound compartment inside infected host cells known as the Salmonella-containing vacuole. How Salmonella obtains nutrients for growth within this intracellular niche despite the apparent isolation is currently not known. Recent studies have indicated the importance of glucose and related carbon sources for tissue colonization and intracellular proliferation within host cells during Salmonella infections, although none have been found to be essential. We found that wild-type Salmonella are capable of replicating within infected host cells in the absence of both exogenous sugars and/or amino acids. Furthermore, mutants defective in glucose uptake or dependent upon peptides for growth also showed no significant loss in intracellular replication, suggesting host-derived peptides can supply both carbon units and amino acids. Here, we show that intracellular Salmonella recruit the host proteins LAMP-2A and Hsc73, key components of the host protein turnover pathway known as chaperone-mediated autophagy involved in transport of cytosolic proteins to the lysosome for degradation. Host-derived peptides are shown to provide a significant contribution toward the intracellular growth of Salmonella. The results reveal a means whereby intracellular Salmonella gain access to the host cell cytosol from within its membrane-bound compartment to acquire nutrients. Furthermore, this study provides an explanation as to how Salmonella evades activation of autophagy mechanisms as part of the innate immune response.
Surgical treatment of spondylodiscitis.

BACKGROUND Spondylodiscitis is a rare bacterial infection of the vertebra and intervertebral discs with an inflammatory, destructive course. METHODS To gain further information about the management and clinical course of spondylodiscitis, we retrospectively reviewed 32 patients in 2002 who had surgical interventions between 1992 and 2001. RESULTS The mean age of patients was 61 years (29-78 years). The mean hospital stay was 47 days (+/- 5.6 days; 3-121 days), including 28 days (+/- 8.1 days; 2-112 days) in the ICU. In-hospital mortality was 6%. The cervical spine was affected in 20% of patients (6/32), the thoracic spine in 25% (8/32), and the lumbosacral spine in 55% (18/32). Abscesses occurred in 63% of patients (20/32) and destruction of the vertebral body in 71% (23/32). Neurological deficits were present in 17 patients, which improved by surgical intervention in 82% of those affected. Thirty-one patients underwent ventral resection of the focus, spondylodesis with a bone graft or titanium cage, and ventral stabilization with a plate. In 19% of patients (6/32), additional dorsal bridging instrumentation was performed. Complete healing was obtained in 94% (30/32) patients. At follow-up, 50% of patients (16/32) had no complaints. CONCLUSIONS Spondylodiscitis requires immediate debridement of the focus, with decompression and stabilization through a ventral approach, when conservative management fails. Otherwise, severe complications occur, such as sepsis, vertebral body destruction, abscess, or neurological deficits.
Consumer acceptance of foods containing edible insects in Belgium two years after their introduction to the market

As the Belgian market and legislation on insect-based foods have evolved the past years, this study aimed at generating an updated and representative insight into the consumer acceptance of these foods. Data were collected via a telephone survey. The distribution of the 388 respondents across regions, gender and age matched that of the Belgian population. Of those surveyed, 79% were aware of the fact that foods with insects can be bought; 11.2% had already eaten foods with processed insects; 31.8% had no experience but were willing to try, and 57% had no experience or interest in tasting such products. Potential consumers accepted invisible processed mealworms in energy shakes (60.7%), energy bars (59.6%), burgers (59.3%), soup (56.8%), sandwich spreads (56.2%), unfried snacks (56.2%) and fried snacks (52.7%). Consumers indicated that the presence of insects should be clearly declared on the package and that they wanted to be able to buy these products primarily in the supermarket.
Trends in Caffeine Intake Among US Children and Adolescents

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Physicians and policy makers are increasingly interested in caffeine intake among children and adolescents in the advent of increasing energy drink sales. However, there have been no recent descriptions of caffeine or energy drink intake in the United States. We aimed to describe trends in caffeine intake over the past decade among US children and adolescents. METHODS: We assessed trends and demographic differences in mean caffeine intake among children and adolescents by using the 24-hour dietary recall data from the 1999–2010 NHANES. In addition, we described the proportion of caffeine consumption attributable to different beverages, including soda, energy drinks, and tea. RESULTS: Approximately 73% of children consumed caffeine on a given day. From 1999 to 2010, there were no significant trends in mean caffeine intake overall; however, caffeine intake decreased among 2- to 11-year-olds (P < .01) and Mexican-American children (P = .003). Soda accounted for the majority of caffeine intake, but this contribution declined from 62% to 38% (P < .001). Coffee accounted for 10% of caffeine intake in 1999–2000 but increased to nearly 24% of intake in 2009–2010 (P < .001). Energy drinks did not exist in 1999–2000 but increased to nearly 6% of caffeine intake in 2009–2010. CONCLUSIONS: Mean caffeine intake has not increased among children and adolescents in recent years. However, coffee and energy drinks represent a greater proportion of caffeine intake as soda intake has declined. These findings provide a baseline for caffeine intake among US children and young adults during a period of increasing energy drink use.
Bit-Sequences: A New Cache Invalidation Method in Mobile Environments

In this paper, we address the problem of cache invalidation in mobile environments. We present Bit-Sequences, a new cache invalidation algorithm in which a periodically-broadcast invalidation report. is organi~cd as a set of binary bit sequences with an associated set of timestamps. A scalable version of the Bit-Sequences algorithm for large databases, called Multi-Level Bit-Sequences, is also discussed. As demonstrated through simulation experiments, the Bit-Sequences algorithm performs consistently well under conditions of variable update rates/patterns and client disconnection times. Furthermore, the size of the invalidation report in this algorithm is relatively small and is independent of the number of data items to be invalidated.
Multi-Factor Password-Authenticated Key Exchange

We consider a new form of authenticated key exchange which we call multi-factor passwordauthenticated key exchange, where session establishment depends on successful authentication of multiple short secrets that are complementary in nature, such as a long-term password and a one-time response, allowing the client and server to be mutually assured of each other’s identity without directly disclosing private information to the other party. Multi-factor authentication can provide an enhanced level of assurance in higher security scenarios such as online banking, virtual private network access, and physical access because a multi-factor protocol is designed to remain secure even if all but one of the factors has been compromised. We introduce the first formal security model for multi-factor password-authenticated key exchange protocols, propose an efficient and secure protocol called MFPAK, and provide a formal argument to show that our protocol is secure in this model. Our security model is an extension of the Bellare-Pointcheval-Rogaway security model for password-authenticated key exchange and the formal analysis proceeds in the random oracle model.
Disease-specific impairment of the quality of life in adult patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria

Background/Aims Chronic urticaria (CU) is a common skin disorder characterized by wheals and pruritus lasting more than 6 weeks. Due to its long duration and changeable symptoms, the quality of life (QOL) of patients with CU can be impaired substantially. We evaluated the CU-QOL, a previously validated CU-specific QOL measure, and investigated factors influencing QOL in chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) patients. Methods A hospital-based cross-sectional study was performed on 390 adult patients diagnosed with CSU from March 2009 to December 2012 at the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Clinic at Ajou University Hospital. The CU-QOL questionnaire, urticaria activity score (UAS), combined angioedema, and serum total immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels were investigated. Results The average CU-QOL score obtained from the questionnaire was 70.6 (of 100 points). The CU-QOL scores correlated significantly with the UAS, particularly with the 15-point UAS (UAS-15; coefficient –0.532, p < 0.01) rather than the 6-point UAS (–0.502, p < 0.01). The patients presenting with angioedema and urticaria had poorer scores in the urticaria symptom domain than those with urticaria alone (37.4 vs. 46.9, p = 0.004). Log-transformed serum total IgE levels correlated significantly with CU-QOL (–0.131, p < 0.05). Multivariate regression models indicated that severe CU (UAS-15 score ≥ 13), log (total IgE), and the presence of angioedema were significant predictors of impaired CU-QOL (< 85 points). Conclusions CU has a substantial negative impact on QOL. The assessment of UAS-15, total IgE, and the presence of angioedema can be useful to predict QOL of the patients with CSU.
Analysis of KIR Ligand Incompatibility in Human Renal Transplantation

Natural killer cells express killer immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIR) that bind to MHC class I antigens. Lack of self-MHC on the target cell can cause NK-cell mediated killing. Here, we analyzed the effect of KIR ligand incompatiblity on renal allograft survival in humans. Kidney recipient/donor pairs were separated according to their HLA-Cw alleles and HLA-Bw4 specificity which are considered epitopes for KIR. A total of 2,757 renal transplants were examined. Graft survival rates were computed according to the Kaplan-Meier method. No effect of KIR ligand matching on graft survival was observed in cadaver kidney transplants. Our results indicate that KIR ligand matching cannot be recommended as a strategy for improving renal allograft survival.
Glacial history and geomorphology of Trygghamna, western Svalbard

This study investigates Trygghamna, a small fjord on the western coast of Spitsbergen, Svalbard. In order to investigate its glacial history, high-resolution aerial images and swath bathymetry are used to produce a detailed geomorphological map of the area, with a focus on the Neoglacial extent of the three largest glaciers in the fjord, Protektor-, Harrietand Kjerulfbreen. The landforms are classified into; subglacial, supraglacial, ice-marginal, glaciofluvial, proglacial landforms and extra-marginal surface cover. The ice-margins were reconstructed from ~1900, based on historical and geomorphological data together with aerial and satellite images. The Neoglacial maximum extent of the glaciers was reached around 1900, or the culmination of the Little Ice Age in Svalbard. Harrietand Kjerulfbreen are considered to have exhibited surge behavior based on the presence of crevasse squeeze ridges (CSRs), which are considered unique for surging glaciers. The maximum extent is therefore, to some degree, related to a surge-event. Ice-marginal reconstructions and historical data suggest that the glaciers have been in overall retreat since then. It is more complex to determine if Protektorbreen surged as different factors in the glacier’s environment affect the formation and preservation potential of the landforms. The landform assemblages in the forefields do not show a good correspondence to previously published landsystem models for surge-type glaciers. Landsystem models should therefore be used with precaution when identifying undocumented surge-type glaciers. This investigation highlights the contrast in the record between terrestrial and marine environments of the glacier forefields in Trygghamna. Therefore it demonstrates the importance of incorporating evidence from both terrestrial and marine archives when reconstructing past glacial history, due to dynamic glacial behavior in different environments. 
Quantitative analysis of Control Flow Checking mechanisms for soft errors

Control Flow Checking (CFC) based techniques have gained a reputation of providing effective, yet low-overhead protection from soft errors. The basic idea is that if the control flow - or the sequence of instructions that are executed - is correct, then most probably the execution of the program is correct. Although researchers claim the effectiveness of the proposed CFC techniques, we argue that their evaluation has been inadequate and can even be wrong! Recently, the metric of vulnerability has been proposed to quantify the susceptibility of computation to soft errors. Laced with this comprehensive metric, we quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of several existing CFC schemes, and obtain surprising results. Our results show that existing CFC techniques are not only ineffective in protecting computation from soft errors, but that they incur additional power and performance overheads. Software-only CFC protection schemes (CFCSS [14], CFCSS+NA [2], and CEDA [18]) increase system vulnerability by 18% to 21% with 17% to 38% performance overhead; Hybrid CFC protection technique, CFEDC [4] also increases the vulnerability by 5%; While the vulnerability remains almost the same for hardware only CFC protection technique, CFCET [15], they cause overheads of design cost, area, and power due to the hardware modifications required for their implementations.