Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health and Quality of Life Outcomes

Objective: We sought to assess the validity and short-term responsiveness of the Pediatric Quality of Life InventoryTM 4.0 Generic Core Scales (PedsQLTM) for febrile illnesses evaluated in the pediatric emergency department (ED). Design: Prospective cohort study of children 2–18 years discharged after ED evaluation for fever (≥ 38°C). Self-administered, parent-report of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) was assessed using the PedsQLTM Acute Version, a validated HRQOL instrument. HRQOL was measured on ED presentation and at 7–10 day follow-up. At follow-up, duration of fever, child functional impairment, missed daycare/school, and disrupted family unit functioning, were assessed. Results: Of 160 subjects enrolled, 97 (61%) completed the study; mean follow-up was 8.7 days. Mean total HRQOL score on ED presentation was 76.4; mean follow-up score was 86.3. Compared to subjects that returned to baseline, statistically significant differences in HRQOL were noted for those with prolonged fever, child functional impairment, and relapse. Significant correlation was observed between HRQOL at follow-up and days of daycare/school missed (r = 0.35, p = .003) and days of family disruption (r = -0.43, p < .001). Mean change in HRQOL within subjects, from ED visit to follow-up, was +9.8 (95% CI: 5.6–14.6). Effect size was 0.53, indicating moderate responsiveness. Conclusion: The PedsQLTM appears to be a valid and responsive indicator of HRQOL for shortterm febrile illnesses evaluated in the ED. Introduction Health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) is an important patient-centered outcome, and the best available method for assessment of perceived health. HRQOL has yet to be assessed for many pediatric emergency department (ED) illnesses[1], although the need for such formal outcome measurements is a research priority for emergency medicine [2-4]. The lack of HRQOL data is largely a result of the absence of validated HRQOL instruments available for the ED setting. Published: 29 January 2009 Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2009, 7:5 doi:10.1186/1477-7525-7-5 Received: 19 May 2008 Accepted: 29 January 2009 This article is available from: http://www.hqlo. com/content/7/1/5 © 2009 Mistry et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Designing Realised Kernels to Measure the Ex-Post Variation of Equity Prices in the Presence of Noise

This paper shows how to use realised kernels to carry out efficient feasible inference on the expost variation of underlying equity prices in the presence of simple models of market frictions. The issue is subtle with only estimators which have symmetric weights delivering consistent estimators with mixed Gaussian limit theorems. The weights can be chosen to achieve the best possible rate of convergence and to have an asymptotic variance which is close to that of the maximum likelihood estimator in the parametric version of this problem. Realised kernels can also be selected to (i) be analysed using endogenously spaced data such as that in databases on transactions, (ii) allow for market frictions which are endogenous, (iii) allow for temporally dependent noise. The finite sample performance of our estimators is studied using simulation, while empirical work illustrates their use in practice.
Improving the estimation of mesophyll conductance to CO2: on the role of electron transport rate correction and respiration

Mesophyll conductance (gm) can markedly limit photosynthetic CO2 assimilation and is required to estimate the parameters of the Farquhar–von Caemmerer–Berry (FvCB) model properly. The variable J (electron transport rate) is the most frequently used method for estimating gm, and the correct determination of J is one of its requirements. Recent evidence has shown that calibrating J can lead to some errors in estimating gm, but to what extent the parameterization of the FvCB model is affected by calibrations is not well known. In addition to determining the FvCB parameters, variants of the J calibration method were tested to address whether varying CO2 or light levels, possible alternative electron sinks, or contrasting leaf structural properties might play a role in determining differences in αβ, the product of the leaf absorptance (α) and the photosystem II optical cross-section (β). It was shown that differences in αβ were mainly attributed to the use of A/Ci or A/PPFD curves to calibrate J. The different αβ values greatly influenced gm, leading to a high number of unrealistic values in addition to affecting the estimates of the FvCB model parameters. A new approach was devised to retrieve leaf respiration in the light from combined A/Ci and A/Cc curves and a framework to understand the high variation in observed gm values. Overall, a background is provided to decrease the noise in gm, facilitating data reporting and allowing better retrieval of the information presented in A/Ci and A/Cc curves.
The role of FGF/Erk signaling in pluripotent cells

Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling controls fundamental processes such as proliferation, differentiation and migration throughout mammalian development. Here we discuss recent discoveries that implicate FGF/Erk signaling in the control of pluripotency and lineage specification in several different stem cell states, including the separation of pluripotent epiblast and primitive endoderm in the blastocyst, the lineage priming of embryonic stem (ES) cells, and in the stabilization of the metastable state of mouse epiblast and human ES cells. Understanding how extrinsic signals such as FGF regulate different stem cell states will be crucial to harvest the clinical promise of induced pluripotent and embryo-derived stem cells.
Involvement of ER stress in retinal cell death

Purpose To clarify whether endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is involved in retinal cell death, using cultured retinal ganglion cells (RGC-5, a rat ganglion cell line transformed with E1A virus), and transgenic mice ER stress-activated indicator (ERAI) mice carrying a human XBP1 and venus a variant of green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusion gene. Methods RGC-5 damage was induced by tunicamycin, and cell viability was measured by double nuclear staining (Hoechst 33342 and either YO-PRO-1 or propidium iodide). The expressions of glucose-regulated protein 78(GRP78)/BiP, the phosphorylated form of eukaryotic initiation factor 2α (p-eIF2α), and C/EBP-homologous (CHOP) protein after tunicamycin (in vitro or in vivo) or N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA; in vivo) treatment were measured using immunoblot or immunostaining. ERAI mice carrying the F-XBP1-DBD-venus expression gene were used to monitor ER-stress in vivo. Twenty-four hours after intravitreal injection of tunicamycin or NMDA, or after raising intraocular pressure (IOP), the retinal fluorescence intensity was visualized in anesthetized animals using an ophthalmoscope and in retinal flatmount or cross-section specimens using laser confocal microscopy. Results Treatment with tunicamycin induced apoptotic cell death in RGC-5 and also induced production of ER stress-related proteins (BiP, the phosphorylated form of eIF2α, and CHOP protein). In vivo, tunicamycin induced retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss and thinning of the inner plexiform layer, 7 days after intravitreal injection. In flatmounted retinas of ERAI mice, the fluorescence intensity arising from the XBP-1-venus fusion protein, indicating ER-stress activation, was increased at 24 h after tunicamycin, NMDA, or IOP elevation. In transverse cross-sections from ERAI mice, the fluorescence intensity was first increased in cells of the ganglion cell and inner plexiform layers at 12 and 24 h, respectively, after NMDA injection, and it was localized to ganglion and amacrine cells at 12 and 24 h, respectively, and to microglial cells at 72 h. BiP and CHOP were increased at 12 h after NMDA injection, and the increases persisted for the remainder of the 72 h observation period. Conclusions These data indicate that ER-stress may play a pivotal role in RGC death, whether induced by NMDA or IOP elevation.
Are farm-to-school programs more common in states with farm-to-school-related laws?

BACKGROUND Farm-to-School programs (FTSPs) connect schools with locally grown food. This article examines whether FTSPs are more common in public elementary schools (ESs) in states with a formal, FTSP law or with a related, locally grown procurement law. METHODS A pooled, cross-sectional analysis linked nationally representative samples of 1872 public ESs (across 47 states) for the 2006-2007, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 school years with state laws effective as of the beginning of September of each year that were collected and analyzed for all states. Multivariate logistic regression models examined the impact of state law on school FTSP participation, controlling for year and school-level race/ethnicity, region, locale, free-reduced lunch participation, and school size. RESULTS The percentage of schools located in a state with a FTSP-specific law increased from 7.3% to 20.4% over the 3-year period, while the percentage of schools located in a state with a locally grown procurement law was approximately 30% across all years. The percentage of schools with FTSPs has more than tripled over the last 3 years (from 4.9% to 17.7%). After adjusting for all covariates except year, FTSPs were significantly more likely in states with a FTSP-specific law (OR = 2.45, 95% CI = 1.28-4.67); once adjusting for year, the results were marginally significant (OR = 1.72, 95% CI = .91-3.25). School-level FTSPs were not related to state locally grown procurement laws. CONCLUSION Although the percentage of schools with FTSPs is relatively small, these programs are becoming more common, particularly in states with FTSP-specific laws.
Demonstration of a Bactericidal Substance Against β-Hemolytic Streptococci in Supernatant Fluids of Staphylococcal Cultures

Staphylococcal skin isolates belonging to phage type 71 were found to produce a bactericidal substance against some streptococci, pneumococci, and corynebacteria. Fifteen strains of group A streptococci belonging to 13 different M types, group C streptococci, and group D streptococci were uniformly inhibited on solid media and in broth by membrane-filtered supernatant fluids of the staphylococcal broth cultures. Inhibition of group G streptococci and other staphyloccoci was variable, and no inhibition of group B streptococci or of a variety of gram-negative rods was demonstrable. A quantitative variation observed to exist among susceptible organisms was a function of the inoculum size of the inhibited strains. The bactericidal substance could be detected best from 24 to 48 hr after inoculation of the staphylococci in tryptic soy broth or in a dialysate of tryptic soy broth. Little or no bactericidal activity was noted when the organisms were grown in several other liquid media. The bactericidal substance was nondialyzable and could be precipitated with ammonium sulfate. It was heat-stable and its activity was not altered within a pH range of 4.0 to 8.5. Pronase and three times crystallized trypsin totally abolished its activity. The concentrated ammonium sulfate precipitate could be fractionated on a Sephadex G-100 column into several peaks, with the bactericidal activity localized to a single peak.
Regulator of Calcineurin (RCAN1-1L) Is Deficient in Huntington Disease and Protective against Mutant Huntingtin Toxicity in Vitro*

Our work suggests an important new link between the RCAN1 gene and Huntington disease. Huntington disease is caused by expansion of glutamine repeats in the huntingtin protein. How the huntingtin protein with expanded polyglutamines (mutant huntingtin) causes the disease is still unclear, but phosphorylation of huntingtin appears to be protective. Increased huntingtin phosphorylation can be produced either by inhibition of the phosphatase calcineurin or by activation of the Akt kinase. The RCAN1 gene encodes regulators of calcineurin, and we now demonstrate, for the first time, that RCAN1-1L is depressed in Huntington disease. We also show that RCAN1-1L overexpression can protect against mutant huntingtin toxicity in an ST14A cell culture model of Huntington disease and that increased phosphorylation of huntingtin via calcineurin inhibition, rather than via Akt induction or activation, is the likely mechanism by which RCAN1-1L may be protective against mutant huntingtin. These findings suggest that RCAN1-1L “deficiency” may actually play a role in the etiology of Huntington disease. In addition, our results allow for the possibility that controlled overexpression of RCAN1-1L in the striatal region of the brain might be a viable avenue for therapeutic intervention in Huntington disease patients (and perhaps other polyglutamine expansion disorders).
Receptor interacting protein kinase 1 mediates murine acetaminophen toxicity independent of the necrosome and not through necroptosis

Although necrosis in the acetaminophen (APAP) model is known to be regulated by c‐Jun NH2‐terminal kinase (JNK) through interaction with mitochondria, the role of necroptosis through receptor‐interacting proteins 1 and 3 (RIPK1 and RIPK3) has also been suggested. Our aim was to determine the relationship between these two mechanisms of cell death. To verify the participation of RIPK1, we used antisense knockdown and confirmed protection comparable to the RIPK1 inhibitor, necrostatin, in vivo and in vitro. However, we found no evidence that RIPK3 is expressed in primary mouse hepatocytes under basal conditions or after APAP and RIPK3−/− mice were not protected. RIPK3 was exclusively expressed in nonparenchymal cells. RIPK1 knockdown protected RIPK3−/− mice to the same extent as wild‐type mice, underscoring the independent role of RIPK1. We confirmed that necroptosis is not involved in APAP toxicity by using mixed lineage kinase domain‐like protein (MLKL) knockout mice, which were not protected from APAP. Next, we addressed whether there is interplay between RIPK1 and JNK. RIPK1 knockdown decreased the level of JNK activation and translocation to mitochondria and abrogated subsequent translocation of dynamin‐related protein 1 (Drp1). Interestingly, APAP induced translocation of RIPK1 to mitochondria, which was unaffected by knockdown of the mitochondrial JNK docking protein, Sh3 homology 3 binding protein 5 (Sab). Conclusion: RIPK1 participates in APAP‐induced necrosis upstream of JNK activation whereas RIPK3 and MLKL are dispensable, indicating that necroptosis does not contribute to APAP‐induced necrosis and RIPK1 has a unique, independent role. (Hepatology 2015;62:1847–1857)
An Augmented Three-Pass System Combination Framework: DCU Combination System for WMT 2010

This paper describes the augmented three-pass system combination framework of the Dublin City University (DCU) MT group for the WMT 2010 system combination task. The basic three-pass framework includes building individual confusion networks (CNs), a super network, and a modified Minimum Bayes-risk (mConMBR) decoder. The augmented parts for WMT2010 tasks include 1) a rescoring component which is used to re-rank the N-best lists generated from the individual CNs and the super network, 2) a new hypothesis alignment metric -- TERp -- that is used to carry out English-targeted hypothesis alignment, and 3) more different backbone-based CNs which are employed to increase the diversity of the mConMBR decoding phase. We took part in the combination tasks of English-to-Czech and French-to-English. Experimental results show that our proposed combination framework achieved 2.17 absolute points (13.36 relative points) and 1.52 absolute points (5.37 relative points) in terms of BLEU score on English-to-Czech and French-to-English tasks respectively than the best single system. We also achieved better performance on human evaluation.
Decidable Model-Checking for a Resource Logic with Production of Resources

Several logics for expressing coalitional ability under resource bounds have been proposed and studied in the literature. Previous work has shown that if only consumption of resources is considered or the total amount of resources produced or consumed on any path in the system is bounded, then the model-checking problem for several standard logics, such as Resource-Bounded Coalition Logic (RB-CL) and Resource-Bounded Alternating-Time Temporal Logic (RB-ATL) is decidable. However, for coalition logics with unbounded resource production and consumption, only some undecidability results are known. In this paper, we show that the model-checking problem for RB-ATL with unbounded production and consumption of resources is decidable.
Faster and better spectral algorithms for multi-way partitioning

In this paper two faster and better spectral algorithms are presented for the multi-way circuit partitioning problem with the objective of minimizing the scaled cost. The problem can be approximately transformed into the vector partitioning problem by mapping each circuit component to a multi-dimensional vector. The common key idea of our two algorithms for solving the vector partitioning problem is to first treat the set of vectors as a cluster; and then repeatedly select a cluster which gives the maximum cost improvement among all the current clusters, and partition it into two new clusters. The bipartitioning process is continued until the number of clusters is equal to the required number of partitions. The experimental results indicate that the two algorithms significantly outperform MELO+DP-RP [3] in both the run time and partitioning result.
Practical Incentive Mechanisms for IoT-Based Mobile Crowdsensing Systems

Powerful smart terminals with rich set of embedded sensors promote the development of the Internet of Things (IoTs). Mobile crowdsensing systems (MCSs) can be formed by these mobile smart terminals from IoTs to collect and exchange data. The main idea of MCSs is to outsource sensing tasks (collecting data) to various mobile devices which are carried by people or vehicles. The design of incentive mechanisms in MCSs is one of the hottest current research topics. However, most of the existing studies focus on maximizing the utilities or social welfare while neglecting the practical requirements of MCSs surveillance applications. In this paper, we discuss the importance of fairness and unconsciousness of MCS surveillance applications. Then, we propose offline and online incentive mechanisms with fair task scheduling based on the <italic>proportional share allocation rules</italic>. Furthermore, to have more sensing tasks done over time dimension, we relax the truthfulness and unconsciousness property requirements and design a (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\varepsilon $ </tex-math></inline-formula>, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu $ </tex-math></inline-formula>)-unconsciousness online incentive mechanism. Real map data are used to validate these proposed incentive mechanisms through extensive simulations.
A waveguide-based lens-less x-ray microscope

A lot of effort is currently invested to realize phase contrast imaging with hard x-rays. For specimen consisting of light elements, e.g. biological samples, the induced phase shift of the x-ray wave is much higher than the absorption. Thus, phase sensitive x-ray imaging methods could pave the way for enhanced contrast and resolution. Making use of the coherence properties of third generation synchrotron sources, applications like Fourier transform holography and iterative reconstruction methods become possible. These techniques allow to obtain a phase image of the object with a resolution in the nanometer range and without any a-priori knowledge on the sample, as is the case for classical x-ray diffraction. Except for experimental problems, convergence and uniqueness of these algorithms are in discussion. X-ray microscopy using Fresnel zone plates, mainly in the soft x-ray regime, and compound refractive lenses for higher energy x-rays allow to image samples directly, i.e. without the need of image reconstruction. The quality of these focusing lenses is poor compared to visible light, since the refractive index in the x-ray range is close to unity. Thus the resolution in x-ray microscopy is far from the wavelength limit.X-ray waveguides consist of a guiding core embedded in a cladding material with adequate refractive index. Upon shining an x-ray beam onto the guiding channel, a discrete number of modes propagate in the waveguide, leading to a nanometer-sized, slightly divergent and highly coherent x-ray beam. Provided, that the intensity in the waveguided beam is sufficient, imaging experiments become possible. Using the small beam dimensions behind the guide, scanning fluorescence experiments with a resolution comparable to the size of the guiding core can be performed. Using illumination by waveguides it becomes possible to adapt in-line holography as well as reference beam holography to the hard x-ray wavelength range.The aim of this thesis is i) to fabricate and characterize two dimensionally confining hard x-ray waveguides and test-samples, meeting the demands for imaging, ii) to provide the instrumental and experimental prerequisites to allow for scanning fluorescence and holographic imaging with one setup and iii) to realize these imaging techniques using x-ray waveguides in proof-of-principle experiments.
Review of densification of titanium based powder systems in press and sinter processing

The development of novel extractive metallurgy techniques for titanium offers the prospect of lower cost Ti powder and therefore wider application of Ti. This review is largely confined to coverage of the low cost press and sinter methods of powder metallurgy, consisting of cold pressing of mixed elemental powders followed by sintering without the application of external pressure. Cold die compaction, sintering behaviour and densification are reviewed in detail. Some information on powders and cold isostatic pressing is included. Microstructure, mechanical properties and applications are considered in less detail. The review deals mostly with the sintering of alloys, but there is some reference to synthesis of intermetallic compounds, such as the shape memory alloy NiTi and titanium aluminides for high temperature applications. Densification is discussed in terms of the four fundamental processing variables: compaction pressure, particle size, sintering temperature and sintering time. Other factors such as alloy composition, the form of alloying addition, type and impurity content of powders and heating rate are also considered.
Optimal spilling for CISC machines with few registers

Many graph-coloring register-allocation algorithms don't work well for machines with few registers. Heuristics for live-range splitting are complex or suboptimal; heuristics for register assignment rarely factor the presence of fancy addressing modes; these problems are more severe the fewer registers there are to work with. We show how to optimally split live ranges and optimally use addressing modes, where the optimality condition measures dynamically weighted loads and stores but not register-register moves. Our algorithm uses integer linear programming but is much more efficient than previous ILP-based approaches to register allocation. We then show a variant of Park and Moon's optimistic coalescing algorithm that does a very good (though not provably optimal) job of removing the register-register moves. The result is Pentium code that is 9.5% faster than code generated by SSA-based splitting with iterated register coalescing.
Topological quantum field theory for Calabi-Yau threefolds and G-2 manifolds

We introduce a homology theory whose Euler characteristics counts ASD bundles over four dimensional co-associative submanifolds in (almost) G_2 manifolds. As a TQFT, in relative situations, we have the Fukaya-Floer category of Lagrangians intersection in the moduli space of special Lagrangian submanifolds in CY threefolds.