Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimization of production and quality evaluation of maize‐based snack supplemented with soybean and tiger‐nut (Cyperus esculenta) flour

Abstract Optimization of the production and evaluation of the quality of maize‐based snack supplemented with soy and tigernut flour was carried out. Experimental design for the composite flour was carried out using optimal design model of response surface methodology. The variables were toasted maize flour (75–85%), soy flour (10–20%), and tigernut flour (5–10%); while the responses were proximate composition and mineral contents. Three blends were selected from optimization results; runs 2, 7, and 11. The functional properties, pasting properties, antioxidant, antinutritional, and amino acid profile of the three blends were evaluated. In addition, sensory evaluation of the cookies produced from the three blends was determined. The results (75/100 g toasted maize flour, 20/100 g soy flour, and 5/100 g tigernut flour) had 16.4/100 g protein, 4.2/100 g ash, 3.5/100 g moisture, 58.5/100 g carbohydrate, 3.0/100 g crude fiber, 14.4/100 g fat, 30.20 ppm calcium, 38.90 ppm potassium, 0.25 ppm manganese, 1.91 ppm iron, 0.14 ppm copper, and 0.98 ppm zinc contents. It also had best overall acceptability.
Alcohol Use by Men Is a Risk Factor for the Acquisition of Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus From Female Sex Workers in Mumbai, India

Objective: We investigated whether men who were under the influence of alcohol when visiting female sex workers (FSW) were at greater risk for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Study: A cross-sectional analysis using baseline data from a randomized controlled trial of an HIV prevention intervention for high-risk men in Mumbai, India. Results: The overall HIV prevalence among 1741 men sampled was 14%; 64% had either a confirmed STI or HIV; 92% reported sex with an FSW, of whom 66% reported having sex while under the influence of alcohol (SUI). SUI was associated with unprotected sex (odds ratio [OR]: 3.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.3–4.1), anal sex (OR: 1.5; 1.1–2.0), and more than10 FSW partners (OR: 2.2; 1.8–2.7). SUI was independently associated with having either an STI or HIV (OR: 1.5; 1.2–1.9). Conclusion: Men who drink alcohol when visiting FSWs engage in riskier behavior and are more likely to have HIV and STIs. Prevention programs in India need to raise awareness of this relationship.
Risk of venous thromboembolism and primary prophylaxis in cancer

Summary Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common complication in patients with cancer that causes significant morbidity and mortality. Several patient-, tumour-and treatment-related risk factors for VTE in cancer patients have been identified. An effective and safe thromboprophylaxis in cancer patients at high risk of VTE is desirable. Recently, the identification of potential biomarkers and the development of risk scoring models for prediction of cancer-associated VTE have been published. Whether primary VTE prophylaxis based on risk assessment through these biomarkers and risk prediction models might be useful, is currently not yet known. However, thromboprophylaxis is clearly indicated in high-risk situations. While VTE prophylaxis is recommended in cancer patients undergoing surgery and in hospitalised patients with acute disease, studies in ambulatory cancer patients are still rare and evidence for primary VTE prophylaxis is currently limited. In this review, risk factors associated with VTE in cancer patients and current approaches of thromboprophylaxis in different settings, specifically in ambulatory cancer patients are subjected to a critical evaluation.
Information exchange in a Cournot duopoly with nonlinear demand function

We study information sharing in a Cournot duopoly with isoelastic demand function, when the elasticity is uncertain. This is one of the first attempts to analyze the role of nonlinearity in such a framework. We found important results about the profitability of sharing informations when marginal costs are high and/or the variance between elasticity values is low. From the point of view of welfare considerations, not sharing information seems to be the best scenario.
A central role for ubiquitination within a circadian clock protein modification code

Circadian rhythms, endogenous cycles of about 24 h in physiology, are generated by a master clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus and other clocks located in the brain and peripheral tissues. Circadian disruption is known to increase the incidence of various illnesses, such as mental disorders, metabolic syndrome, and cancer. At the molecular level, periodicity is established by a set of clock genes via autoregulatory translation–transcription feedback loops. This clock mechanism is regulated by post-translational modifications such as phosphorylation and ubiquitination, which set the pace of the clock. Ubiquitination in particular has been found to regulate the stability of core clock components but also other clock protein functions. Mutation of genes encoding ubiquitin ligases can cause either elongation or shortening of the endogenous circadian period. Recent research has also started to uncover roles for deubiquitination in the molecular clockwork. Here, we review the role of the ubiquitin pathway in regulating the circadian clock and we propose that ubiquitination is a key element in a clock protein modification code that orchestrates clock mechanisms and circadian behavior over the daily cycle.
Dissociation of Antithrombotic Effect and Bleeding Time Prolongation in Rabbits by Inhibiting Tissue Factor Function

Summary Inhibition of the tissue factor/factor Vila (TF/F. Vila) complex attenuates thrombosis in different animal models of arterial thrombosis. However, it remains unclear to what extent the antithrombotic effects are associated with changes in hemostatic functions and how this compares with inhibition of thrombin, an enzyme acting at a later stage in the coagulation cascade. The antithrombotic and the antihemostatic effects of a monoclonal anti-TF antibody (AP-1) were compared in a model of arterial thrombosis to those of a direct thrombin inhibitor (napsagatran) and heparin. In anesthetized rabbits transient arterial thrombi were induced by mechanical damage to the subendothelium of a moderately stenosed carotid artery. Recurrent formation and dis lodgement of thrombi resulted in cyclic flow variations (CFVs) which were monitored over 2 hours. Rabbits received intravenously either a placebo (control), a monoclonal anti-rabbit TF antibody (AP-1, 05 mg/kg as an i.v. bolus repeated every 15 min, a specific low molecular weight thrombin inhibitor (napsagatran, 3 fxg/kg/min) or heparin (3 and 13 fig/kg/min). The effect of the inhibitors on the hemostatic system was studied in a separate set of rabbits by measuring template bleeding times (BT) in the ear arterioles, marginal ear vein and the nail cuticle of the foreleg. AP-1 and napsagatran showed a similar antithrombotic activity (78% and 80% abolition of the CFVs, respectively), whereas either low or high dose heparin was poorly effective (43 % and 40% inhibition of CFVs, respectively). At these antithrombotic doses and even at 4-fold higher dosage, AP-1 did not significantly alter the BT, whereas napsagatran and heparin prolonged the ear vessels and cuticle BT in a dose-dependent manner. These results suggest that in contrast to direct thrombin inhibition, the blockade of the TF/F. Vila function did not result in a concomitant prolongation of the bleeding time. Thus, dissociation of antithrombotic and antihemostatic effects indicates that inhibition of the coagulation system at its initial stage represents a promising approach for the development of new anticoagulants.
Enzymatic properties of the Caenorhabditis elegans Dna2 endonuclease/helicase and a species-specific interaction between RPA and Dna2

In both budding and fission yeasts, a null mutation of the DNA2 gene is lethal. In contrast, a null mutation of Caenorhabditis elegans dna2+ causes a delayed lethality, allowing survival of some mutant C.elegans adults to F2 generation. In order to understand reasons for this difference in requirement of Dna2 between these organisms, we examined the enzymatic properties of the recombinant C.elegans Dna2 (CeDna2) and its interaction with replication-protein A (RPA) from various sources. Like budding yeast Dna2, CeDna2 possesses DNA-dependent ATPase, helicase and endonuclease activities. The specific activities of both ATPase and endonuclease activities of the CeDna2 were considerably higher than the yeast Dna2 (∼10- and 20-fold, respectively). CeDna2 endonuclease efficiently degraded a short 5′ single-stranded DNA tail (<10 nt) that was hardly cleaved by ScDna2. Both endonuclease and helicase activities of CeDna2 were stimulated by CeRPA, but not by human or yeast RPA, demonstrating a species-specific interaction between Dna2 and RPA. These and other enzymatic properties of CeDna2 described in this paper may shed light on the observation that C.elegans is less stringently dependent on Dna2 for its viability than Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We propose that flaps generated by DNA polymerase δ-mediated displacement DNA synthesis are mostly short in C.elegans eukaryotes, and hence less dependent on Dna2 for viability.
Hospital Smoke-Free Policy: Compliance, Enforcement, and Practices. A Staff Survey in Two Large Public Hospitals in Australia

Background: Smoke-free hospital policies are becoming increasingly common to promote good health and quit attempts among patients who smoke. This study aims to assess: staff perceived enforcement and compliance with smoke-free policy; the current provision of smoking cessation care; and the characteristics of staff most likely to report provision of care to patients. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey of medical, nursing, and allied staff from two Australian public hospitals was conducted. Staff report of: patient and staff compliance with smoke-free policy; perceived policy enforcement; the provision of the 5As for smoking cessation (Ask, Assess, Advise, Assist, and Arrange follow-up); and the provision of stop-smoking medication are described. Logistic regressions were used to determine respondent characteristics related to the provision of the 5As and stop-smoking medication use during hospital admission. Results: A total of 805 respondents participated. Self-reported enforcement of smoke-free policy was low (60.9%), together with compliance for both patients (12.9%) and staff (23.6%). The provision of smoking cessation care was variable, with the delivery of the 5As ranging from 74.7% (ask) to 18.1% (arrange follow-up). Medical staff (odds ratio (OR) = 2.09, CI = 1.13, 3.85, p = 0.018) and full time employees (OR = 2.03, CI = 1.06, 3.89, p = 0.033) were more likely to provide smoking cessation care always/most of the time. Stop-smoking medication provision decreased with increasing age of staff (OR = 0.98, CI = 0.96, 0.99, p = 0.008). Conclusions: Smoke-free policy enforcement and compliance and the provision of smoking cessation care remains low in hospitals. Efforts to improve smoking cessation delivery by clinical staff are warranted.
Why do healthy elderly people fail to comply with influenza vaccination?

OBJECTIVE to assess motivating factors of healthy elderly people to comply with influenza vaccination. DESIGN survey of healthy elderly people invited by mail by their general practitioner to come for influenza vaccination. Compliance and the personal characteristics of gender, age and medical insurance were recorded by the general practitioner. A postal questionnaire assessing socio-psychological factors was sent to all non-compliant patients and to a random sample of 30% of the compliant patients. SETTING seven family practices with a total of 26,000 patients in The Netherlands. PATIENTS 505 healthy elderly people over 65. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES odds ratios (ORs) for non-compliance by personal characteristics and socio-psychological factors, adjusted by multiple logistic regression analysis; decisive reason whether to comply. RESULTS non-compliance was 16%. Correlations between personal characteristics and non-compliance were low, except for age: those under 75 were less compliant than those over 75. Elderly people endorsing the statement about the vaccine's serious side-effects displayed the highest non-compliance [adjusted OR 216; 95% confidence interval (CI) 16.2 to 2883]; patients judging their own health to be good were also less compliant (adjusted OR 57.9; 95% CI 4.4 to 770). The belief of not being susceptible to influenza was the most frequently mentioned reason for not complying, while the general practitioner's mail cue was the most common reason for complying. CONCLUSIONS in healthy elderly people, fear of the side-effects of influenza vaccination and perceived good health seem to be the main factors leading to non-compliance. Better and more specific information about the paucity of systemic side-effects should accompany the invitations.
Functional Divergence of Platelet Protein Kinase C (PKC) Isoforms in Thrombus Formation on Collagen*

Arterial thrombosis, a major cause of myocardial infarction and stroke, is initiated by activation of blood platelets by subendothelial collagen. The protein kinase C (PKC) family centrally regulates platelet activation, and it is becoming clear that the individual PKC isoforms play distinct roles, some of which oppose each other. Here, for the first time, we address all four of the major platelet-expressed PKC isoforms, determining their comparative roles in regulating platelet adhesion to collagen and their subsequent activation under physiological flow conditions. Using mouse gene knock-out and pharmacological approaches in human platelets, we show that collagen-dependent α-granule secretion and thrombus formation are mediated by the conventional PKC isoforms, PKCα and PKCβ, whereas the novel isoform, PKCθ, negatively regulates these events. PKCδ also negatively regulates thrombus formation but not α-granule secretion. In addition, we demonstrate for the first time that individual PKC isoforms differentially regulate platelet calcium signaling and exposure of phosphatidylserine under flow. Although platelet deficient in PKCα or PKCβ showed reduced calcium signaling and phosphatidylserine exposure, these responses were enhanced in the absence of PKCθ. In summary therefore, this direct comparison between individual subtypes of PKC, by standardized methodology under flow conditions, reveals that the four major PKCs expressed in platelets play distinct non-redundant roles, where conventional PKCs promote and novel PKCs inhibit thrombus formation on collagen.
Ma(r)king concessions in English and German

Natural language generation aims at automatically verbalizing a “deep” representation of content, so that coherent and cohesive text originates. To produce such cohesive discourse, it is important to signal many of the relations holding between text segments to the reader by means of cue words, which we call discourse markers. Current generation systems usually do this in a simplistic way, e.g., by using one marker per relation. In reality, however, language offers a wide range of markers from which informed choices should be made. This paper suggests a method for equipping generators with the knowledge to select the most appropriate discourse marker from a set of candidate expressions. We concentrate on one area of discourse relations, the CONCESSION family, and identify its underlying semantics and pragmatics. On the basis of extensive corpus studies, we propose a new classification of CONCESSION markers in English and German, and then suggest a generation model for producing bilingual text that can inc.
LITL at CLEF eHealth2017: Automatic Classification of Death Reports

This paper describes the participation of a group of students supervised by two teachers to the CLEF eHealth 2017 campaign, task 1. The task involves the classication of death certicates in French and more precisely the labelling of each cause of death with the relevant ICD10 code. The system that performs the automatic coding is based on an information retrieval method using the Solr interface. Two runs were submitted according to whether the system distinguishes cases of multiple causes or not. The best performance was obtained with the system which distinguishes multiple causes, with a precision of 0.61 and a recall of 0.55.
Symbolic Polynomial Maximization Over Convex Sets and Its Application to Memory Requirement Estimation

Memory requirement estimation is an important issue in the development of embedded systems, since memory directly influences performance, cost and power consumption. It is therefore crucial to have tools that automatically compute accurate estimates of the memory requirements of programs to better control the development process and avoid some catastrophic execution exceptions. Many important memory issues can be expressed as the problem of maximizing a parametric polynomial defined over a parametric convex domain. Bernstein expansion is a technique that has been used to compute upper bounds on polynomials defined over intervals and parametric ldquoboxesrdquo. In this paper, we propose an extension of this theory to more general parametric convex domains and illustrate its applicability to the resolution of memory issues with several application examples.
Identification of Carboxylesterase Genes Implicated in Temephos Resistance in the Dengue Vector Aedes aegypti

Background Thailand is currently experiencing one of its worst dengue outbreaks in decades. As in most countries where this disease is endemic, dengue control in Thailand is largely reliant on the use of insecticides targeting both immature and adult stages of the Aedes mosquito, with the organophosphate insecticide, temephos, being the insecticide of choice for attacking the mosquito larvae. Resistance to temephos was first detected in Aedes aegypti larvae in Thailand approximately 25 years ago but the mechanism responsible for this resistance has not been determined. Principal Findings Bioassays on Ae. aegypti larvae from Thailand detected temephos resistance ratios ranging from 3.5 fold in Chiang Mai to nearly 10 fold in Nakhon Sawan (NS) province. Synergist and biochemical assays suggested a role for increased carboxylesterase (CCE) activities in conferring temephos resistance in the NS population and microarray analysis revealed that the CCE gene, CCEae3a, was upregulated more than 60 fold in the NS population compared to the susceptible population. Upregulation of CCEae3a was shown to be partially due to gene duplication. Another CCE gene, CCEae6a, was also highly regulated in both comparisons. Sequencing and in silico structure prediction of CCEae3a showed that several amino acid polymorphisms in the NS population may also play a role in the increased resistance phenotype. Significance Carboxylesterases have previously been implicated in conferring temephos resistance in Ae aegypti but the specific member(s) of this family responsible for this phenotype have not been identified. The identification of a strong candidate is an important step in the development of new molecular diagnostic tools for management of temephos resistant populations and thus improved control of dengue.
3D short fatigue crack investigation in beta titanium alloys using phase and diffraction contrast tomography

X-Ray Diffraction Contrast Tomography (DCT) is a recently developed, non-destructive synchrotron imaging technique which characterizes microstructure and grain orientation in polycrystalline materials in three dimensions (3D). By combining it with propagation based phase contrast tomography (PCT) it is for the first lime possible to observe in situ the 3D propagation behavior of short fatigue cracks (SFCs) within a set of fully characterized grains (orientation and shape). The combined approach, termed 3D X-ray Tomography of short cracks and Microstructure (3DXTSM), has been developed on the metastable beta titanium alloy "Beta21S". A large part of this work deals with the development of the 3DXTSM methodology. In the combined dataset, each point on the 3D fracture surface can be associated with a multidimensional data structure containing variables describing the grain orientation, the local fracture surface normal and the propagation history. The method uses a surface mesh composed of triangles that describes the crack (in other words: the fracture surface) in the last propagation state measured. Grain orientations, crack fronts, local growth rates and grain boundaries can be visualized by assigning colors to this mesh. The data structure can be interrogated in a number of different ways. Tools for extracting pole figures and pole density distribution functions have been implemented. An algorithm was developed that is capable of measuring the 3D local growth rate of a crack containing branches. The accuracy of the grain boundaries as reconstructed with OCT was evaluated and the elastic constants of Beta21S were determined.
The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI): Cross-Validation and Development of Clinical Cutoff Scores

The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) is a brief, multidimensional scale for assessing sexual function in women. The scale has received initial psychometric evaluation, including studies of reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity (Meston, 2003; Rosen et al., 2000). The present study was designed to cross-validate the FSFI in several samples of women with mixed sexual dysfunctions (N = 568) and to develop diagnostic cut-off scores for potential classification of women's sexual dysfunction. Some of these samples were drawn from our previous validation studies (N = 414), and some were added for purposes of the present study (N = 154). The combined data set consisted of multiple samples of women with sexual dysfunction diagnoses (N = 307), including female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD), hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), female sexual orgasm disorder (FSOD), dyspareunia/vaginismus (pain), and multiple sexual dysfunctions, in addition to a large sample of nondysfunctional controls (n = 261). We conducted analyses on the individual and combined samples, including replicating the original factor structure using principal components analysis with varimax rotation. We assessed Cronbach's alpha (internal reliability) and interdomain correlations and tested discriminant validity by means of a MANOVA (multivariate analysis of variance; dysfunction diagnosis x FSFI domain), with Bonferroni-corrected post hoc comparisons. We developed diagnostic cut off scores by means of standard receiver operating characteristics–curves and the CART (Classification and Regression Trees) procedure. Principal components analysis replicated the original five-factor structure, including desire/arousal, lubrication, orgasm, pain, and satisfaction. We found the internal reliability for the total FSFI and six domain scores to be good to excellent, with Cronbach alpha's > 0.9 for the combined sample and above 0.8 for the sexually dysfunctional and nondysfunctional samples, independently. Discriminant validity testing confirmed the ability of both total and domain scores to differentiate between functional and nondysfunctional women. On the basis of sensitivity and specificity analyses and the CART procedure, we found an FSFI total score of 26.55 to be the optimal cut score for differentiating women with and without sexual dysfunction. On the basis of this cut-off, we found 70.7% of women with sexual dysfunction and 88.1% of the sexually functional women in the cross-validation sample to be correctly classified. Addition of the lubrication score in the model resulted in slightly improved specificity (from .707 to .772) at a slight cost of sensitivity (from .881 to .854) for identifying women without sexual dysfunction. We discuss the results in terms of potential strengths and weaknesses of the FSFI, as well in terms of further clinical and research implications.