Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Renal impairment and late toxicity in germ-cell cancer survivors.

BACKGROUND Treatment with bleomycin-etoposide-cisplatin (BEP) impairs renal function and increases the risk of late cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death. We investigated the influence of BEP on glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and assessed the importance of GFR changes on CVD and death in a large cohort of germ-cell cancer survivors. PATIENTS AND METHODS BEP-treated patients (N = 1206) were identified in the Danish DaTeCa database, and merged with national registers to identify late toxicity. GFR were measured (51Cr-EDTA clearance) before and after treatment and at 1, 3 and 5-year follow-up. The influence of BEP on GFR was evaluated with a linear mixed model. Risk factors for late toxicity were identified by a landmark analysis adjusting for covariates. The cohort was compared with the background population with standardized hospitalization/mortality rates. RESULTS GFR changed (ΔGFR) -11.3%, -15.4% and -25.9% after three, four and five+ cycles of BEP. For patients with impaired renal function before treatment the changes were 4.3%, 0.0% and -12.8%, respectively. During follow-up a significant rebound of GFR was documented. Compared with the background population, all patients, irrespective of renal function, had an increased risk of CVD and death. This risk depended on chronic kidney disease stage before treatment but not after treatment. ΔGFR had no influence on risk of late toxicity [death: hazard ratio (HR) 1.06, P = 0.50; CVD: HR 0.97, P = 0.61]. CONCLUSIONS Renal function after BEP is closely related to number of cycles, but the changes in GFR are partly reversible and have no impact on risk of CVD or death.
Public Goods, Club Goods and the Measurement of Crowding

The paper shows that some frequently used measures of the degree of publicness of publicly provided goods and club goods are seriously affected by metrization problems. The paper proposes measures that do not depend on arbitrary metrization conventions, and discusses the relationship of these measures to the question of private provision and optimal club size.
Serotypes of Non-O157 Shigatoxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC)

Non-O157 STEC has been shown to have a diverse ecological distribution among food-animals. It has been associated with both outbreaks and individual cases of severe illness. This group of the organisms is now considered as a major contributor to human disease. The clinical description of the diseases caused by these organisms is reviewed. The host specificity of these pathogens is described and discussed. These organisms appear widespread among food animals like cattle and sheep, and can therefore affect a range of foods directly from the meat and excretions of these animals being used in farming practices. This article reviews the origins, diversity and pathogenesis of non-O157 STEC.
Momentary Affective States Are Associated with Momentary Volume, Prospective Trends, and Fluctuation of Daily Physical Activity

Several interventions aiming to enhance physical activity in everyday life showed mixed effects. Affective constructs are thought to potentially support health behavior change. However, little is known about within-subject associations between momentary affect and subsequent physical activity in everyday life. This study analyzed the extent to which three dimensions of affective states (valence, calmness, and energetic arousal) were associated with different components of daily activity trajectories. Sixty-five undergraduates’ students (Age: M = 24.6; SD = 3.2; females: 57%) participated in this study. Physical activity was assessed objectively through accelerometers during 24 h. Affective states assessments were conducted randomly every 45 min using an e-diary with a six-item mood scale that was especially designed for ambulatory assessment. We conducted three-level multi-level analyses to investigate the extent to which momentary affect accounted for momentary volume, prospective trends, and stability vs. fluctuation of physical activity in everyday life. All three affect dimensions were significantly associated with momentary activity volumes and prospective trends over 45 min periods. Physical activity didn’t fluctuate freely, but featured significant autocorrelation across repeated measurements, suggesting some stability of physical activity across 5-min assessments. After adjusting for the autoregressive structure in physical activity assessments, only energetic arousal remained a significant predictor. Feeling energized and awake was associated with an increased momentary volume of activity and initially smaller but gradually growing decreases in subsequent activity within the subsequent 45 min. Although not related to trends in physical activity, higher valence predicted lower stability in physical activity across subsequent 45 min, suggesting more short-term fluctuations in daily activity the more participants reported positive affective valence. The current analyses afford interesting insight into within-subject associations between momentary affect and activity-trajectories in everyday life. Energetic arousal emerged as the only meaningful predictor of physical activity in daily life after adjusting for autoregression. A significant effect of valence on short-term activity fluctuations might indicate that activity interventions would benefit from taking into account enhancement of positive affective valence in everyday life. Moments of enhanced valence may scaffold attempts helping inactive people to get started with daily activities and overcome periods of inactivity in everyday life.
Recognizing Human Activities from Silhouettes: Motion Subspace and Factorial Discriminative Graphical Model

We describe a probabilistic framework for recognizing human activities in monocular video based on simple silhouette observations in this paper. The methodology combines kernel principal component analysis (KPCA) based feature extraction and factorial conditional random field (FCRF) based motion modeling. Silhouette data is represented more compactly by nonlinear dimensionality reduction that explores the underlying structure of the articulated action space and preserves explicit temporal orders in projection trajectories of motions. FCRF models temporal sequences in multiple interacting ways, thus increasing joint accuracy by information sharing, with the ideal advantages of discriminative models over generative ones (e.g., relaxing independence assumption between observations and the ability to effectively incorporate both overlapping features and long-range dependencies). The experimental results on two recent datasets have shown that the proposed framework can not only accurately recognize human activities with temporal, intra-and inter-person variations, but also is considerably robust to noise and other factors such as partial occlusion and irregularities in motion styles.
Possible Ameliorative Effect of Antioxidant (Taurine) in Pregnant Toxemic Female Rats

The present study was designed to investigate the possible effects of the antioxidant taurine on pregnant adriamycin (ADR) induced toxemic female rats. ADR was injected intraperitoneally to 50 pregnant female rats (5 groups) to induce toxemia. the first is Frank control group injected only with saline; the second group is the Taurine group that determined the effect of taurine alone; the third group is the Toxemic group that showed the toxicity of Adriamycin; the fourth group is the Therapeutic group (Adriamycin followed by Taurine) and the fifth group is the Protective group (Taurine followed by Adriamycin) that showed the amelurative effect of taurine in these groups. Blood pressure, liver and kidney function, lipid profile, taurine concentration in plasma, serum cortisone, T3 &T4 were measured for all animals. Furthermore, histopathological examination and morphometric study for liver, kidney and cardiac muscle were done for all groups. The results showed that, the Protective group has marked improvement in most biochemical parameters than the Therapeutic group compared to Toxemic group. Morphometric study revealed a significant decrease in the nuclear area in the tissues of toxemic rats. Also, marked disturbances were observed in the histopathological architecture of the kidney, liver and heart in all toxemic rats. However, a marked improvement in morphometrical parameters and histopathological architecture was observed in protective group. The results support the ameliorative effect of taurine in the protection against toxemia during pregnancy in experimental animals.
Estrogen Receptor Beta Displays Cell Cycle-Dependent Expression and Regulates the G1 Phase through a Non-Genomic Mechanism in Prostate Carcinoma Cells

Background: It is well known that estrogens regulate cell cycle progression, but the specific contributions and mechanisms of action of the estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) remain elusive. Methods: We have analyzed the levels of ERβ1 and ERβ2 throughout the cell cycle, as well as the mechanisms of action and the consequences of the over-expression of ERβ1 in the human prostate cancer LNCaP cell line. Results: Both ERβ1 mRNA and protein expression increased from the G1 to the S phase and decreased before entering the G2/M phase, whereas ERβ2 levels decreased during the S phase and increased in the G2/M phase. ERβ1 protein was detected in both the nuclear and non-nuclear fractions, and ERβ2 was found exclusively in the nucleus. Regarding the mechanisms of action, endogenous ERβ was able to activate transcription via ERE during the S phase in a ligand-dependent manner, whereas no changes in AP1 and NFκB transactivation were observed after exposure to estradiol or the specific inhibitor ICI 182,780. Over-expression of either wild type ERβ1 or ERβ1 mutated in the DNA-binding domain caused an arrest in early G1. This arrest was accompanied by the interaction of over-expressed ERβ1 with c-Jun N-terminal protein kinase 1 (JNK1) and a decrease in c-Jun phosphorylation and cyclin D1 expression. The administration of ICI impeded the JNK1–ERβ1 interaction, increased c-Jun phosphorylation and cyclin D1 expression and allowed the cells to progress to late G1, where they became arrested. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that, in LNCaP prostate cancer cells, both ERβ isoforms are differentially expressed during the cell cycle and that ERβ regulates the G1 phase by a non-genomic mechanism.
Ejaculate Characteristics Depend on Social Environment in the Horse (Equus caballus)

Sperm competition theory predicts semen characteristics to be affected by the social environment. We used the polygamous horse (Equus caballus) to experimentally study within-subject plasticity in response to different social environments. Stallions were sequentially exposed, over a period of 8 weeks each, to other stallions and then singly to mares, or vice versa (in adjacent boxes separated by grills). Ejaculates were collected to determine semen characteristics. Highest sperm numbers were found in stallions that were first exposed to other stallions and then to mares, while lowest sperm numbers were observed in stallions that had been exposed to mares but not yet to other stallions. One of three sperm velocity measures (curvilinear velocity) was consistently elevated in stallions that were first exposed to stallions and then to mares. Sperm number after exposure to mares and curvilinear sperm velocity after exposure to stallions were both positively correlated to average blood testosterone levels during the corresponding period of exposure. We conclude that ejaculate characteristics are plastic traits affected by the social environment in horses.
Long-term care preference among Japanese older adults: differences by age, period and cohort

Abstract This study examined the differences in the preference for long-term care (LTC) by age, period and cohort (A-P-C) in Japanese older adults through repeated cross-sectional surveys from 1998 – before the establishment of LTC insurance – to 2016, in a suburban city of metropolitan Tokyo. We analysed the direct effects of A-P-C on the preference for LTC, as well as the interaction effects of A-P-C on preference by gender, family structure and activities of daily living. Data were obtained at six time-points using repeated cross-sectional surveys for people aged 65 and older; surveys were conducted in 1998, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2013 and 2016. The preference for LTC was composed of three categories: informal care, community LTC services (CLTCS) and institutional LTC services (ILTCS). The cross-classified random-effect model was used to specify A-P-C effects. Informal care, CLITCS, ILTCS and other/no answer composed 35, 23, 33 and 9 per cent of preferences, respectively. In terms of the period effect, while there was an increase in levels of preference for CLTC between 1998 and 2010 as compared to informal care, the levels of preference were almost identical after 2010. In terms of the age effect, younger participants were more likely to prefer CLTCS and ILTCS over informal care. Moreover, the age influence was stronger in females and respondents who lived alone. We did not observe a cohort effect for preference. This study suggests that there are gaps by period and age between the preference for LTC services and the actual LTC use in Japanese older adults, and as a result, the use of actual LTC services cannot fully reflect the intentions and preference for LTC in them.
The role of awareness, neuromodulation and metacognition in human decision making

In this thesis I have investigated the role of consciousness in human decision making and cognition and I have tried to increase our understanding about why we sometimes become aware of visual information and why sometimes not. To investigate that, I have manipulated external variables that influence our decisions, such as the visibility of visual stimuli that our decisions are based on, or visual stimuli that indicate the correctness of a previous decision (performance outcome). I have also investigated how (internal) fluctuations in the state of alertness of the brain (measured by pupil size) influence the accuracy and metacognitive insight of our decisions. In summary, using EEG measurements, we show that the brain can extract the meaning of explicit performance feedback, irrespective of the (complete) visibility of that information. However, awareness of performance outcomes seems crucial for optimal control and adaptation of our performance and it is important to learn flexibly from mistakes and adjust future choice strategies. Furthermore, increased alertness during the presentation of decision-relevant information influences both our perception of that information and the metacognitive evaluation of our decision in opposite ways. This may be due to stimulus induced noradrenaline release, a neurotransmitter amplifying the processing of external stimuli and reducing the processing of weaker internal signals. Finally, although stimuli that are hard to perceive may still affect ongoing behavior and simple decisions, these effects are not necessarily accompanied by changes in the metacognitive evaluation of decision correctness or fail to initiate control processes following difficult decisions.
Reachability analysis of sequential circuits

Reachability analysis is a fundamental technique in the synthesis, verification of VLSI circuits. This paper presents a novel semi-formal approach which combines the advantages of simulation and formal methods to traverse the state space of the FSMs. We conduct the experiments on a set of ISCAS'89 benchmarks. Compared with a previous work which relies on biased random technique, our approach reaches more states with less CPU time.
Preliminary development of a questionnaire to assess peer athlete mentoring functions: the Athlete Mentoring Questionnaire (AMQ)

ABSTRACT Using a multiphase approach, the purpose of the present study was to develop a psychometrically sound questionnaire to measure protégés’ perceptions of peer athlete mentoring functions. Phase 1 consisted of three stages: (a) item development, (b) assessment of content validity via think-aloud interviews with peer mentored athletes, and (c) assessment of content validity via an expert rating panel. In phase 2, 377 Canadian National team and varsity athletes who were peer mentored completed an initial 42-item version of the Athlete Mentoring Questionnaire (AMQ) and its factor structure was examined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), and hierarchical ESEM (ESEM-within-CFA). Measurement invariance testing was also performed in phase 2. The final version of the AMQ contains 34 items that measure six peer athlete mentoring functions. It is hoped that the development of the AMQ will spur research in the emerging area of peer athlete mentoring.
Emergence of Young Human Genes after a Burst of Retroposition in Primates

The origin of new genes through gene duplication is fundamental to the evolution of lineage- or species-specific phenotypic traits. In this report, we estimate the number of functional retrogenes on the lineage leading to humans generated by the high rate of retroposition (retroduplication) in primates. Extensive comparative sequencing and expression studies coupled with evolutionary analyses and simulations suggest that a significant proportion of recent retrocopies represent bona fide human genes. We estimate that at least one new retrogene per million years emerged on the human lineage during the past ∼63 million years of primate evolution. Detailed analysis of a subset of the data shows that the majority of retrogenes are specifically expressed in testis, whereas their parental genes show broad expression patterns. Consistently, most retrogenes evolved functional roles in spermatogenesis. Proteins encoded by X chromosome−derived retrogenes were strongly preserved by purifying selection following the duplication event, supporting the view that they may act as functional autosomal substitutes during X-inactivation of late spermatogenesis genes. Also, some retrogenes acquired a new or more adapted function driven by positive selection. We conclude that retroduplication significantly contributed to the formation of recent human genes and that most new retrogenes were progressively recruited during primate evolution by natural and/or sexual selection to enhance male germline function.
A novel scheme for authenticated secured de-duplication with identity based encryption in cloud

De-duplication is a common methodology which is been used for eliminating out the similar copies of same or repeating data in storage device of Cloud computing. A good majority of Cloud offer services processing of huge data. Although the resources are not limited in cloud, when the services are been expanded, there arises a high demand for storage space. The idea of data de-duplication gains its importance here by offering less storage space needs and hence saving the disk expenditures. However there do also exists some issues on data security and privacy. A number of methodologies are present for data security in cloud when using deduplication since the common deduplication techniques favors the deduplication algorithm to fetch and read data in each file. When coming into security challenges, the positives of deduplication unfortunately comes with high price. The proposed system assures deduplication in block-level and confidentiality of the data. Under the hood of Hadoop the system uses HDFS (Hadoop Distributed File System) for storing data. The same helps to store large files across multiple machines achieving reliability by replicating the data across multiple hosts. The overhead introduced by the mechanism is less and would not be impacting the cost for computation and overall storage.
Application of customer satisfaction study to derive customer knowledge

Abstract Customer knowledge has become one of the most important economic assets to a firm. Knowing what customers value most in a company's products or services helps companies optimize resource utilization in areas for continuous improvement based on their needs and wants. This study extends previous research in customer satisfaction by showing how a customer satisfaction study can help answer questions, such as why customers are satisfied or dissatisfied, whether the company's complaint handling is effective and how to improve customers' satisfaction. We surveyed 532 customers served by a commercial banking organization in Taiwan. In addition, researchers demonstrated that there are differences in satisfaction levels among different genders. To explore further the reasons for these differences, we separated our sample to compare the specific causal links between the two gender samples and we draw broader inference from the results. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was used to test the theoretical model. PLS not only bridges theoretical and empirical knowledge but also facilitates the construction of a strategic management map and provides latent variable scores that could be utilized to report CSI scores. Our findings provide support for the application of CSI study to derive customer knowledge, which also reveals some interesting suggestions for future research.
The perception of risk among unauthorized migrants in Ghana

Abstract In recent years, the number of unauthorized migrants trying to reach Europe by boat has increased. In an attempt to curtail this trend, European countries have increasingly deployed information campaigns regarding the risks involved in unauthorized migration. The assumption behind these campaigns is that a strong relation exists between the prevalence of high-risk migration and a lack of awareness of the involved dangers, and that the dissemination of ‘objective’ information would cause prospective migrants to refrain from leaving. Although regarded as a crucial tool in the management of migration, there is little evidence on their effectiveness. Based on four weeks of fieldwork in Ghana, this qualitative study has sought to fill this lacuna. By concentrating on both the circulation and perception of the available risk information in Ghana, this article explores the ways in which notions of risk affect the motivation and decision of unauthorized migrants to engage in high-risk behaviour. Thereby, it will be argued that unauthorized migrants are not the ignorant actors they are often portrayed to be, but that they make their decisions carefully and within a particular vulnerable, socioeconomic and cultural context.
Time–Frequency Matrix Feature Extraction and Classification of Environmental Audio Signals

Audio feature extraction and classification are important tools for audio signal analysis in many applications, such as multimedia indexing and retrieval, and auditory scene analysis. However, due to the nonstationarities and discontinuities exist in these signals, their quantification and classification remains a formidable challenge. In this paper, we develop a new approach for audio feature extraction to effectively quantify these nonstationarities in an attempt to achieve high classification accuracy for environmental audio signals. Our approach consists of three stages: first we propose to construct the time-frequency matrix (TFM) of audio signals using matching-pursuit time-frequency distribution (MP-TFD) technique, and then apply the non-negative matrix decomposition (NMF) technique to decompose the TFM into its significant components. Finally, we propose seven novel features from the spectral and temporal structures of the decomposed vectors in a way that they successfully represent joint TF structure of the audio signal, and combine them with the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) features. These features are examined using a database of 192 environmental audio signals which includes 20 aircraft, 17 helicopter, 20 drum, 15 flute, 20 piano, 20 animal, 20 bird, and 20 insect sounds, and the speech of 20 males and 20 females. The results of the numerical simulation support the effectiveness of the proposed approach for environmental audio classification with over 10% accuracy-rate improvement compared to the MFCC features.