Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Smoking and tuberculosis: a chance or causal association?

Possible explanations for the association between smoking and tuberculosis In 1956 Doll and Hill1 wrote that “ the relationship between smoking and mortality from pulmonary tuberculosis is distinct, but with a disease so influenced by social factors more precise data are needed to justify a direct cause and effect hypothesis ”. The essential risk factors for human tuberculosis are (1) the tubercle bacillus, (2) a susceptible host, and (3) an environment which allows the tubercle bacilli to survive transit from one host to the next. All other risk factors are subsumed under these headings. If smoking is a risk factor for tuberculosis, then it must act by increasing the susceptibility of the human host or the probability of transmission by encouraging infectious individuals to cough (this requires smoking to be a social as much as an individual pursuit). If the association between smoking and tuberculosis is more apparent than real, then smoking may be a pointer to other risk factors. These include social class—itself a marker for overcrowding, poor ventilation and rooms with no natural light as well as poor nutrition—general ill health and, increasingly, HIV infection with prostitution and intravenous drug use. Tuberculous infection and tuberculosis as a disease are entirely different states. The former is commonly characterised by tuberculin reactivity (despite the known problem of exposure to non-tuberculous mycobacteria and the cross reactivity of the mixture of antigens2). Approximately one third of the world’s population may be infected with the tubercle bacillus, but only eight million (0.4%) develop tuberculosis each year. Studies conflict as to whether smoking affects delayed hypersensitivity to tuberculin. Kuemmerer and Comstock3 noted that …
Life events, mental health functioning and the use of health care services by the elderly.

The association of life events and mental health impairment was studied in a community-based population of the elderly (n = 986). A crude estimate of the relative risk for mental health impairment given life events larger than or equal to 150 (as measured by the Schedule of Recent Events) was 2.14. A relative risk of 1.73 (p < .01) was estimated when a binary regression procedure was used, controlling for physical health, economic status, social support, and age. Increased life events were associated with health seeking behavior, even when physical and mental health functioning were controlled. The associations between increased life events and both mental health functioning and health seeking behavior were small, suggesting that life events, as measured by the Schedule of Recent Events may not be important risk factors for elderly living in the community.
A Comparative Study of Impedance versus Optical Label-Free Systems Relative to Labelled Assays in a Predominantly Gi Coupled GPCR (C5aR) Signalling

Profiling ligand function on G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) typically involves using transfected cells over-expressing a target of interest, a labelled ligand, and intracellular secondary messenger reporters. In contrast, label-free assays are sensitive enough to allow detection in native cells, which may provide a more physiologically relevant readout. Here, we compare four agonists (native agonists, a peptide full agonist and a peptide partial agonist) that stimulate the human inflammatory GPCR C5aR. The receptor was challenged when present in human monocyte-derived macrophages (HMDM) versus stably transfected human C5aR-CHO cells. Receptor activation was compared on label-free optical and impedance biosensors and contrasted with results from two traditional reporter assays. The rank order of potencies observed across label-free and pathway specific assays was similar. However, label-free read outs gave consistently lower potency values in both native and transfected cells. Relative to pathway-specific assays, these technologies measure whole-cell responses that may encompass multiple signalling events, including down-regulatory events, which may explain the potency discrepancies observed. These observations have important implications for screening compound libraries against GPCR targets and for selecting drug candidates for in vivo assays.
Spending and mortality in US acute care hospitals.

BACKGROUND Despite evidence that greater US Medicare spending is not associated with better quality of care at a regional level, recent studies suggest that greater hospital spending is associated with lower risk-adjusted mortality. Studies have been limited to older data, specific US states and conditions, and the Medicare population. OBJECTIVES To analyze the association between hospital spending and risk-adjusted inpatient mortality for 6 major medical conditions in US acute care hospitals. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort study of risk adjusted inpatient mortality, with hospital spending taken from the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care. The study population included 2,635,510 patients admitted to 1201 US hospitals between 2003 and 2007. METHODS Patient-level logistic regression models were used to estimate the effect of hospital spending on inpatient mortality, controlling for mortality risk, comorbidities, community characteristics (eg, median household income in a patient's zip code), hospital volume and ownership, and admission year. RESULTS Patients treated at hospitals in the highest spending quintile (relative to the lowest) had lower risk-adjusted inpatient mortality for acute myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR] 0.751, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.656-0.859), congestive heart failure (OR 0.652, 95% CI 0.560-0.759), stroke (OR 0.852, 95% CI, 0.739-0.983), and hip fracture (OR 0.691, 95% CI 0.545-0.876). Greater spending was associated with lower mortality primarily in nonteaching hospitals, hospitals with fewer than the median number of beds, and nonprofit/public hospitals. CONCLUSIONS Greater hospital spending is associated with lower risk-adjusted inpatient mortality for major medical conditions in the United States.
Evolution, climatic change and species boundaries: perspectives from tracing Lemmiscus curtatus populations through time and space

To provide empirical evidence of species boundaries and the role of climatic change in affecting evolution, we documented evolution of the sagebrush vole, Lemmiscus curtatus, through hundreds of thousands of years by following populations from the middle Pleistocene to the present. We found that: (i) extant representatives of the species culminate a morphological transition that was initiated within an unusually arid and warm interglacial period, perhaps related to the shift from glacial–interglacial cycles dominated by a 41 000 year periodicity to those dominated by a 100 000 year rhythm; and (ii) sympatry of extant and extinct morphotypes persisted for more than 800 000 years. This exceptionally detailed tracing of extinct populations into extant ones suggests that species such as the one we studied are real entities in space, that their boundaries become fuzzy (although potentially diagnosable) through time and that unusual climatic warming may initiate significant evolutionary change manifested at the morphological level.
Activation of dormant ovarian follicles to generate mature eggs

Although multiple follicles are present in mammalian ovaries, most of them remain dormant for years or decades. During reproductive life, some follicles are activated for development. Genetically modified mouse models with oocyte-specific deletion of genes in the PTEN-PI3K-Akt-Foxo3 pathway exhibited premature activation of all dormant follicles. Using an inhibitor of the Phosphatase with TENsin homology deleted in chromosome 10 (PTEN) phosphatase and a PI3K activating peptide, we found that short-term treatment of neonatal mouse ovaries increased nuclear exclusion of Foxo3 in primordial oocytes. After transplantation under kidney capsules of ovariectomized hosts, treated follicles developed to the preovulatory stage with mature eggs displaying normal epigenetic changes of imprinted genes. After in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer, healthy progeny with proven fertility were delivered. Human ovarian cortical fragments from cancer patients were also treated with the PTEN inhibitor. After xeno-transplantation to immune-deficient mice for 6 months, primordial follicles developed to the preovulatory stage with oocytes capable of undergoing nuclear maturation. Major differences between male and female mammals are unlimited number of sperm and paucity of mature oocytes. Thus, short-term in vitro activation of dormant ovarian follicles after stimulation of the PI3K-Akt pathway allows the generation of a large supply of mature female germ cells for future treatment of infertile women with a diminishing ovarian reserve and for cancer patients with cryo-preserved ovaries. Generation of a large number of human oocytes also facilitates future derivation of embryonic stem cells for regenerative medicine.
A General Noise-Resilient Technique Based on the Matrix Pencil Method for the Assessment of Harmonics and Interharmonics in Power Systems

This paper presents a high-accuracy technique for the assessment of harmonics and interharmonics in power systems. In the proposed method, a generalized eigenvalue problem is solved by making use of the matrix pencil method. It is a general method in the sense that it has the ability to predict the frequency, amplitude, and relative phase of frequency components present in a given signal, while the dc-off set and damping factors can be accurately estimated. It also offers a noise-resilient feature which helps to efficiently analyze the noise-contaminated signals. It shows a good performance in dealing with modulated signals as well. Due to its excellent accuracy, the proposed method is foreseen to properly work for the estimation of phasors which is a crucial need in the electrical networks. Different simulation and experimental cases are presented to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Evidence for Ca2+‐ and ATP‐sensitive peripheral channels in nuclear pore complexes

ABSTRACT In eukaryotic cells the nuclear envelope (NE) serves as a functional barrier between cytosol and nucleoplasm perforated by nuclear pore complexes (NPCs). Both active and passive transport of ions and macromolecules are thought to be mediated by the centrally located large NPC channel. However, 3‐di‐mensional imaging of NPCs based on electron microscopy indicates the existence of additional small channels of unknown function located in the NPC periphery. By means of the recently developed nuclear hourglass technique that measures NE electrical conductance, we evaluated passive electrically driven transport through NPCs. In isolated Xenopus laevis oocyte nuclei, we varied ambient Ca2+ and ATP in the cytoso‐lic solution and/or chelated Ca2+ in the perinuclear stores in order to assess the role of Ca2+ in regulating passive ion transport. We noticed that NE electrical conductance is large under conditions where macro‐molecule permeability is known to be low. In addition, atomic force microscopy applied to native NPCs detects multiple small pores in the NPC periphery consistent with channel openings. Peripheral pores were detectable only in the presence of ATP. We conclude that NPC transport of ions and macromolecules occurs through different routes. We present a model in which NE ion flux does not occur through the central NPC channel but rather through Ca2+‐ and ATP‐activated peripheral channels of individual NPCs.
Multi-layer traffic engineering in data-centric optical networks - illustration of concepts and benefits (IST LION)

Intelligent Optical Networks (IONs) allow setting up or tearing down lightpaths dynamically. The logical topology in multi-layer networks (such as IP-over-OTN scenarios) is supported by these lightpaths, and thus dynamically configurable. Consequently, traffic engineering functionality is extended with cross-layer capabilities, leading to multi-layer traffic engineering (MTE). This paper explains the concepts behind MTE, how typical MTE strategies function and what issues arise while developing such strategies. The benefits are illustrated by means of the results from two case studies.
ARECIBO PULSAR SURVEY USING ALFA. III. PRECURSOR SURVEY AND POPULATION SYNTHESIS

The Pulsar Arecibo L-band Feed Array (PALFA) Survey uses the ALFA 7-beam receiver to search both inner and outer Galactic sectors visible from Arecibo (32° ≲ ℓ ≲ 77° and 168° ≲ ℓ ≲ 214°) close to the Galactic plane (|b| ≲ 5°) for pulsars. The PALFA survey is sensitive to sources fainter and more distant than have previously been seen because of Arecibo's unrivaled sensitivity. In this paper we detail a precursor survey of this region with PALFA, which observed a subset of the full region (slightly more restrictive in ℓ and |b| ≲ 1°) and detected 45 pulsars. Detections included 1 known millisecond pulsar and 11 previously unknown, long-period pulsars. In the surveyed part of the sky that overlaps with the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey (36° ≲ ℓ ≲ 50°), PALFA is probing deeper than the Parkes survey, with four discoveries in this region. For both Galactic millisecond and normal pulsar populations, we compare the survey's detections with simulations to model these populations and, in particular, to estimate the number of observable pulsars in the Galaxy. We place 95% confidence intervals of 82,000 to 143,000 on the number of detectable normal pulsars and 9000 to 100,000 on the number of detectable millisecond pulsars in the Galactic disk. These are consistent with previous estimates. Given the most likely population size in each case (107,000 and 15,000 for normal and millisecond pulsars, respectively), we extend survey detection simulations to predict that, when complete, the full PALFA survey should have detected normal pulsars and millisecond pulsars. Identical estimation techniques predict that normal pulsars and millisecond pulsars would be detected by the beginning of 2014; at the time, the PALFA survey had detected 283 normal pulsars and 31 millisecond pulsars, respectively. We attribute the deficiency in normal pulsar detections predominantly to the radio frequency interference environment at Arecibo and perhaps also scintillation—both effects that are currently not accounted for in population simulation models.
Switching Control of Buck Converter Based on Energy Conservation Principle

This brief presents a switching control scheme (SCS) based on the energy conservation principle for buck converters. The concept of the SCS is based on the conservation of energy in circuit. It keeps the balance between the energy that is injected into a circuit and the sum of the energy that is consumed by the load and stored in reactive components. The SCS not only regulates the output voltage of the buck converter accurately under static conditions, but also improves its dynamic responses to disturbances of input voltage and load current. Furthermore, the SCS is capable of operating in both the continuous current mode and the discontinuous current mode, and the stability analysis undertaken using the Lyapunov stability criterion shows that the SCS is stable in all cases. Simulation and experimental results confirm the possibility and attractiveness of using this method to control buck converters.
Physical fitness percentiles for Portuguese children and adolescents aged 10–18 years

Abstract This study aimed to produce age- and sex-specific physical fitness reference data for Portuguese youth; to report the prevalence of youth in the healthy zone of physical fitness according to the FITNESSGRAM® criteria; to verify the agreement between the Portuguese physical fitness percentiles and the FITNESSGRAM® healthy zones. In 2008, 22,048 Portuguese children and adolescents (10–18 years) were evaluated. Physical fitness (curl-ups, push-ups, 20-m shuttle run and modified-back-saver-sit-and-reach tests) was evaluated using the FITNESSGRAM® Test Battery 8.0. Smoothed percentile curves were estimated using Cole’s LMS method. Boys consistently outperformed girls in every physical fitness test, except for the modified-back-saver-sit-and-reach tests. In both sexes and for all physical fitness tests, higher percentile values were observed at older ages. The 50th percentile of all physical fitness tests had the highest accuracy to discriminate between under healthy zone and healthy zone of the FITNESSGRAM®. Portuguese schools and physical education teachers may considerer the 50th percentile for age and sex or the FITNESSGRAM® criteria for classifying participants in the healthy zone as acceptable cut-offs, above which youth should be considered fit. These reference values can be used as normative data and for baseline values for subsequent surveillance of the physical fitness of Portuguese youth.
Phonologically Aware Neural Model for Named Entity Recognition in Low Resource Transfer Settings

Named Entity Recognition is a well established information extraction task with many state of the art systems existing for a variety of languages. Most systems rely on language speciﬁc resources, large annotated corpora, gazetteers and feature engineering to perform well monolingually. In this paper, we introduce an attentional neural model which only uses language universal phonological character representations with word embeddings to achieve state of the art performance in a monolingual setting using super-vision and which can quickly adapt to a new language with minimal or no data. We demonstrate that phonological character representations facilitate cross-lingual transfer, out-perform orthographic representations and incorporating both attention and phonological features improves statistical efﬁciency of the model in 0-shot and low data transfer settings with no task speciﬁc feature engineering in the source or target language.
The relationship between learning organization and organizational commitment among nursing managers in educational hospitals of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2008-9

BACKGROUND Old methods of administrating can't cover the rapid changes of today. These changes redounded new organizations like learning organizations to be formed. The purpose of this research was to study the relationship between learning organization and organizational commitment among nursing managers. METHODS This was a descriptive analytic survey. The population of study included 90 nursing managers of 9 educational hospitals. Data gathering was done via learning organizational (LO) and organizational commitment (OC) questionnaires. Data analysis was done using SPSS software. RESULTS The mean score of LO was 56.9 ± 18.1 among nursing mangers, and the mean score of OC was 62.3 ± 10.1. In general, there was a significant relationship between LO and OC and there was a significant relationship between LO and job experience based on ANOVA test. CONCLUSIONS In today's changing environment of very rapid changes which have been seen in different areas of science and technology and the increasing complexity and dynamics of environmental factors, only organizations with active adaptation (dynamic equilibrium) can survive and remain capable of growth. This aim can be fulfilled just in learning organizations.
- in-Progress

Organizations are beginning to experiment with the use of the “crowd” to complete tasks commonly performed by employees or designated agents. While “crowdsourcing” is growing, we know little about common uses of the crowd and the challenges such initiatives present. Findings from a grounded theory study reveal four common uses by established organizations: productivity, product/service innovation, knowledge capture, and marketing/branding. Further, leveraging internal crowds for product/service innovation may present unique challenges. Based on findings, an Internal-Crowdsourcing Acceptance Model illustrates the role of proactive executive leadership in breaking through organizational structure and processes that act as barriers to acceptance and use of internal-crowdsourcing platforms. The anticipated theoretical contribution of this research is the finding that internal-crowdsourcing presents many of the same challenges to organizations as faced in open innovation initiatives. Its anticipated contribution to practice is the identification of the role proactive executive leadership plays in reducing barriers to successful outcomes.
Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) Imaging of the Lockman Hole

IRAC imaging of a 4. ′7 × 4. ′7 area in the Lockman Hole detected over 400 galaxies in the IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 μm bands, 120 in the 5.8 μm band, and 80 in the 8.0 μm band in 30 minutes of observing time. Color-color diagrams suggest that about half of these galaxies are at redshifts 0.6 < z < 1.3 with about a quarter at higher redshifts (z > 1.3). We also detect IRAC counterparts for six of the seven SCUBA sources and all nine XMM-Newton sources in this area. The detection of the counterparts of the SCUBA sources and galaxies at z > 1.3 demonstrates the ability of IRAC to probe the universe at very high redshifts.
Thermal inactivation kinetics of bovine cathepsin D

Cathepsin D, the principal indigenous acid proteinase in bovine milk, is a lysosomal proteinase, which exists in milk in four forms, including the inactive zymogen procathepsin D. The thermal inactivation kinetics of bovine cathepsin D, isolated from spleen and milk, were studied under isothermal conditions, using a specific HPLC assay to determine residual activity. Inactivation of the blood enzyme preparation followed first order kinetics, with z-values in phosphate buffer (pH 6·7) and skimmed milk of 6·5 and 7·6 °C, respectively, the enzyme being far more stable in the latter environment. Inactivation kinetics of the enzyme purified from milk were more complex, and could be best approximated by a double exponential model. Again, stability was higher in milk than in buffer. The double exponential model may indicate differing heat stabilities of isoforms of the enzyme, or stabilization of the enzyme by some milk constituent. It is clear that the enzyme can survive, at least partially, processes such as heating at 55 °C for 30 min during manufacture of high-cook cheese varieties (45% survival), and HTST pasteurization (8% survival), and thus may contribute to proteolysis in a range of dairy products.