Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Safety and tolerability of atomoxetine over 3 to 4 years in children and adolescents with ADHD.

OBJECTIVE To assess the long-term safety and tolerability of atomoxetine hydrochloride in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder treated for > or = 3 years. METHOD Data from 13 double-blind, placebo-controlled trials and 3 open-label extension studies were pooled. Outcome measures were patient-reported treatment-emergent adverse events (AEs); discontinuations due to AEs, serious AEs, and changes in body weight, height, vital signs, electrocardiogram, and hepatic function tests. RESULTS In total, 714 patients were treated with atomoxetine for > or = 3 years (mean follow-up 4.8 years [SD 1.1 years]), including a subset of 508 treated for > or = 4 years (mean follow-up 5.3 years [SD 0.8 years]). Most subjects were younger than 12 years at entry (73.8%), male (78.4%), and white (88.9%). The mean final daily dose of atomoxetine was 1.35 mg/kg (SD 0.37 mg/kg). No new or unexpected AEs were observed compared with acute-phase treatment. Less than 6% of patients exhibited aggressive/hostile behaviors, and less than 1.6% reported suicidal ideation/behavior. No clinically significant effects were seen on growth rate, vital signs, or electrocardiographic parameters, and < or = 2% of patients showed potentially clinically significant hepatic changes. CONCLUSION Atomoxetine was safe and well tolerated for children and adolescents with > or = 3 and/or > or = 4 years of treatment.
New EMBO Member's Review Deconstructing stemness

Stem cells are unique in their capacity to self-renew and generate differentiated progeny to maintain tissues throughout life. A common molecular program for stem cells has remained elusive. We discuss what the molecular logic of stemness may be. We suggest that it may not be coupled to distinct cellular properties such as self-renewal or multipotency, but rather to the stable suspension at a specific developmental stage. In this view, the stem cell niche allows a cell to maintain a transcriptional accessibility enabling the generation of specific differentiated progeny. The EMBO Journal (2005) 24, 2715–2719. doi:10.1038/ sj.emboj. 7600749; Published online 21 July 2005 Subject Categories: cell & tissue architecture; differentiation & death
Oxidative profile varies with personality in European greenfinches

SUMMARY Where behavioural responses differ consistently between individuals, this is termed ‘personality’. There is the suggestion, but with little supporting data, that personality traits reflect underlying variation in physiology. Here, we tested whether greenfinches Carduelis chloris differing in personality traits differed in various plasma indices of oxidative profile: antioxidant capacity (OXY), pro-oxidant status (reactive oxygen metabolites, ROMs), oxidative stress (OS) and an end-product of oxidative damage: malondialdehyde (MDA). We measured two personality traits: neophobia (latency to approach food near novel objects) and object exploration (latency to approach novel objects). These traits were uncorrelated. ROMs, OXY, OS and MDA were also uncorrelated with each other. Highly neophobic birds had lower OXY, higher ROMs and higher OS than less neophobic birds. Fast exploring birds had higher OXY than slow explorers, but did not differ in ROMs or OS. Variation in MDA was described by a quadratic relationship with neophobia: birds with extremely high or low neophobia had lower MDA than birds with intermediate neophobia, despite highly neophobic birds exhibiting lower OS than intermediately neophobic birds. Additively in that model, fast explorers had lower MDA than slower explorers. To conclude: first, personality types can differ in oxidative profile. Second, although physiological differences (e.g. hormonal stress responsiveness) between personality types generally range along a linear continuum, physiological costs may not. Finally, relationships with oxidative profile differed between neophobia and object exploration. Understanding how oxidative profile and thus physiological costs vary within and between personality traits may explain how differences in personality traits can predict fitness.
A prospective study of plasma selenium levels and prostate cancer risk.

BACKGROUND Epidemiologic studies suggest that low selenium levels are associated with an increased incidence of prostate cancer, although results are conflicting. We examined the association between pre-diagnostic plasma selenium levels and risk of prostate cancer in men enrolled in the Physicians' Health Study. METHODS Using plasma samples obtained in 1982 from healthy men enrolled in the study, we conducted a nested case-control study among 586 men diagnosed with prostate cancer during 13 years of follow-up and 577 control subjects. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the risk of prostate cancer in pre- (before October 1990) and post- (after October 1990) prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening eras were calculated using multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS Pre-diagnostic plasma selenium levels were inversely associated with risk of advanced prostate cancer (5th versus 1st quintile OR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.28 to 0.98; P(trend) =. 05), even among men diagnosed after 1990 (5th versus 1st quintile OR = 0.39, 95% CI = 0.16 to 0.97). The inverse association with prostate cancer risk was observed only for case subjects with elevated baseline PSA levels (PSA >4 ng/mL, 5th versus 1st quintile OR = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.28 to 0.86; P(trend) =. 002). These inverse associations were observed in both pre- and post-PSA eras. CONCLUSIONS The inverse association between baseline plasma selenium levels and risk of advanced prostate cancer, even among men diagnosed during the post-PSA era, suggests that higher levels of selenium may slow prostate cancer tumor progression. Ongoing randomized trials of selenium supplements may help to further evaluate this issue.
VLAT: Development of a Visualization Literacy Assessment Test

The Information Visualization community has begun to pay attention to visualization literacy; however, researchers still lack instruments for measuring the visualization literacy of users. In order to address this gap, we systematically developed a visualization literacy assessment test (VLAT), especially for non-expert users in data visualization, by following the established procedure of test development in Psychological and Educational Measurement: (1) Test Blueprint Construction, (2) Test Item Generation, (3) Content Validity Evaluation, (4) Test Tryout and Item Analysis, (5) Test Item Selection, and (6) Reliability Evaluation. The VLAT consists of 12 data visualizations and 53 multiple-choice test items that cover eight data visualization tasks. The test items in the VLAT were evaluated with respect to their essentialness by five domain experts in Information Visualization and Visual Analytics (average content validity ratio = 0.66). The VLAT was also tried out on a sample of 191 test takers and showed high reliability (reliability coefficient omega = 0.76). In addition, we demonstrated the relationship between users' visualization literacy and aptitude for learning an unfamiliar visualization and showed that they had a fairly high positive relationship (correlation coefficient = 0.64). Finally, we discuss evidence for the validity of the VLAT and potential research areas that are related to the instrument.
The Integration of Collocated GPS, VLBI and SLR Results

In recent years space geodetic techniques such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), and Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR) have been collocated to address many applications in geoscience. While results from all these techniques are contaminated by various biases and errors, a commonmode signal has been found among the collocated results of GPS, VLBI and SLR. An adaptive filter based on the Least-Mean-Square algorithm is proposed to integrate these techniques, i.e. to extract this common-mode signal by inputting to the filter the GPS result as the primary sequence and VLBI and/or SLR results as the reference sequences. Numerical simulation indicates that the filter is a powerful signal decomposer, which can separate the primary input into coherentand incoherent-components relative to the reference input. Data from the Matera Station in Italy and the Wettzell Station in Germany have been used to test the algorithm. The derived commonmode signal has better repeatability than the individual results of GPS, VLBI and SLR.
Guidelines on the management of valvular heart disease The Task Force on the Management of Valvular Heart Disease of the European Society of Cardiology

Authors/Task Force Members, Alec Vahanian (Chairperson) Paris (France)*, Helmut Baumgartner, Vienna (Austria), Jeroen Bax, Leiden (The Netherlands), Eric Butchart, Cardiff (UK), Robert Dion, Leiden (The Netherlands), Gerasimos Filippatos, Athens (Greece), Frank Flachskampf, Erlangen (Germany), Roger Hall, Norwich (UK), Bernard Iung, Paris (France), Jaroslaw Kasprzak, Lodz (Poland), Patrick Nataf, Paris (France), Pilar Tornos, Barcelona (Spain), Lucia Torracca, Milan (Italy), Arnold Wenink, Leiden (The Netherlands)
Role of enteric adenoviruses and rotaviruses in mild and severe acute enteritis

The role of enteric-type adenoviruses and rotaviruses in mild and severe acute gastroenteritis was investigated among children younger than 5 years of age seeking treatment at an urban hospital (UH) and at a rural health center (RHC) in India. There were 330 children at the UH and 340 at the RHC; 319 and 315 age matched nondiarrheal children served as controls for the respective groups.
Serum vitamin A concentrations in asthmatic children in Japan

Background: Vitamin A is an essential micronutrient with important roles in immunity and maintenance of normal epithelial cell differentiation. Little information is available regarding the relationship between vitamin A concentrations and asthma despite the repair of epithelial and other structural changes being of utmost importance for the relief of symptoms and control of the disease. The authors evaluated vitamin A and vitamin E concentrations in well‐nourished children with asthma.
Diagnosing performance changes in distributed systems by comparing request flows

Diagnosing performance problems in modern datacenters and distributed systems is challenging, as the root cause could be contained in any one of the system’s numerous components or, worse, could be a result of interactions among them. As distributed systems continue to increase in complexity, diagnosis tasks will only become more challenging. ere is a need for a new class of diagnosis techniques capable of helping developers address problems in these distributed environments. As a step toward satisfying this need, this dissertation proposes a novel technique, called request-ow comparison, for automatically localizing the sources of performance changes from the myriad potential culprits in a distributed system to just a few potential ones. Request-ow comparison works by contrasting the workow of how individual requests are serviced within and among every component of the distributed system between two periods: a non-problem period and a problem period. By identifying and ranking performance-aecting changes, request-ow comparison provides developers with promising starting points for their diagnosis eorts. Request workows are obtained with less than 1% overhead via use of recently developed end-to-end tracing techniques. To demonstrate the utility of request-ow comparison in various distributed systems, this dissertation describes its implementation in a tool called Spectroscope and describes how Spectroscope was used to diagnose real, previously unsolved problems in the Ursa Minor distributed storage service and in select Google services. It also explores request-ow comparison’s applicability to the Hadoop File System. Via a 26-person user study, it identies eective visualizations for presenting request-ow comparison’s results and further demonstrates that request-ow comparison helps developers quickly identify starting points for diagnosis. is dissertation also distills design choices that will maximize an end-to-end tracing infrastructure’s utility for diagnosis tasks and other use cases.
The use of capnography and the availability of airway equipment on Intensive Care Units in the UK and the Republic of Ireland *

At least 20% of reported major adverse airway events occur on the intensive care unit. This study surveyed 315 (96%) of all general, satellite, hepatobiliary, cardiac and neuro‐intensive care units in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, finding that only 100 (32%) units always use capnography for tracheal intubation while only 80 (25%) always use capnography for continuous monitoring of patients requiring controlled ventilation. Three hundred and ten (98%) units utilise a checklist of airway equipment, 311 (99%) check its functionality on a daily basis and 296 (94%) units have access to a bronchoscope. Whilst 297 (94%) ICUs have an airway trolley, sufficient equipment for unanticipated difficult intubation was only seen on 33 (10%) of units. Guidelines addressing minimum standards for monitoring and airway safety on ICU are not being met and remain below the standard expected.
Pen‐and‐Ink for BlobTree Implicit Models

We present new techniques for rendering hierarchical, skeletal implicit models in several pen-and-ink styles. Our approach extracts silhouette strokes and lines following local shape features, such as those caused by CSG junctions. To this end, it uses particle systems to find interesting areas on the surface and perform stroke stylization guided by local shape features. Also, it removes hidden lines either by applying a surfel technique for rapid prototyping, or more accurately by using ray tracing. Examples from simple to complex models illustrate the capabilities of our system.
Asexual Versus Promiscuous Bisexual Galton-Watson Processes: The Extinction Probability Ratio

We consider the supercritical bisexual Galton–Watson process (BGWP) with promiscuous mating, that is, a branching process which behaves like an ordinary supercritical Galton–Watson process (GWP) as long as at least one male is born in each generation. For a certain example, it was pointed out by Daley, Hull and Taylor [J. Appl. Probab. 23 (1986) 585–600] that the extinction probability of such a BGWP apparently behaves like a constant times the respective probability of its asexual counterpart (where males do not matter) if the number of ancestors grows to ∞. In an earlier paper, we provided general upper and lower bounds for the ratio between both extinction probabilities and also numerical results that seemed to confirm the convergence of that ratio. However, theoretical considerations rather led us to the conjecture that this does not generally hold. The present article turns this conjecture into a rigorous result. The key step in our analysis is to identify the extinction probability ratio as a certain functional of a subcritical ordinary GWP and to prove its continuity as a function of the number of ancestors in a suitable topology associated with the entrance Martin boundary of that GWP.
Automated Thermal Cycling Is Superior to Traditional Methods for Nucleotide Sequencing ofblaSHV Genes

ABSTRACT Genes encoding SHV-1 and SHV-2 were sequenced by different methods. Nucleotide sequencing of the coding strand by standard dideoxy-chain termination methods resulted in errors in the interpretation of the nucleotide sequence and the derived amino acid sequence in two main regions which corresponded to nucleotide and amino acid changes that had been reported previously. The automated thermal cycling method was clearly superior and consistently resulted in the correct sequences for these genes.
EL CVn-type binaries - Discovery of 17 helium white dwarf precursors in bright eclipsing binary star systems

The star 1SWASP J024743.37−251549.2 was recently discovered to be a binary star in which an A-type dwarf star eclipses the remnant of a disrupted red giant star (WASP 0247−25 B). The remnant is in a rarely observed state evolving to higher effective temperatures at nearly constant luminosity prior to becoming a very low mass white dwarf composed almost entirely of helium, i.e. it is a pre-helium white dwarf (pre-He-WD). We have used the photometric database from the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) to find 17 eclipsing binary stars with orbital periods P = 0.7–2.2 d with similar light curves to 1SWASP J024743.37−251549.2. The only star in this group previously identified as a variable star is the brightest one, EL CVn, which we adopt as the prototype for this class of eclipsing binary star. The characteristic light curves of EL CVn-type stars show a total eclipse by an A-type dwarf star of a smaller, hotter star and a secondary eclipse of comparable depth to the primary eclipse. We have used new spectroscopic observations for six of these systems to confirm that the companions to the A-type stars in these binaries have very low masses (≈0. 2M � ). This includes the companion to EL CVn which was not previously known to be a pre-He-WD. EL CVn-type binary star systems will enable us to study the formation of very low mass white dwarfs in great detail, particularly in those cases where the pre-He-WD star shows non-radial pulsations similar to those recently discovered in WASP0247−25 B.
Innovative capability development process: A Singapore IT healtcare case study

With the global spending of more than US$4.1 trillion in 2007, healthcare has been one of the largest industries worldwide. To better plan and develop the healthcare system, an effective way is to leverage on the advancement of information technology (IT). However, despite of many attempts in the computerization and automation of healthcare services, most of the healthcare information systems failed to deliver in the era of rising expectations. With respect to this aspect, this study focuses on the success stories of a private-owned hospital in Singapore. We illustrate our lessons learned from this hospital, the Alexandra Hospital, which has successfully innovated a healthcare system setting and making a benchmark standard for the Singapore healthcare industry. By conceptualizing on the generation of innovative capability process, this study complements the scarce innovation literature in the service industry. Theoretical and practical contributions were shared and documented in this paper.
Care-Based and Altruistically Based Morality

Children are completely egoistic; they feel their needs intensely and strive ruthlessly to satisfy them . we do not on that account call the child “bad,” we call him “naughty”; he is no more answerable for his evil deeds in our judgement than in the eyes of the law. And it is right that this should be so; for we may expect that before the end of the period which we count as childhood, altruistic impulses and morality will awaken the little egoist . (Freud, 1900/1965, p. 284)
Structural Requirements for Assembly of the CSL·Intracellular Notch1·Mastermind-like 1 Transcriptional Activation Complex*

Ligand binding by Notch receptors triggers a series of proteolytic cleavages that liberate the intracellular portion of Notch (ICN) from the cell membrane, permitting it to translocate to the nucleus. Nuclear ICN binds to a highly conserved DNA-binding transcription factor called CSL (also known as RBP-Jκ, CBF1, Suppressor of Hairless, and Lag-1) and recruits Mastermind-like transcriptional co-activators to form a transcriptional activation complex. Using bioinformatics tools, we identified a Rel homology region (RHR) within CSL that was used as a guide to determine the minimal protein requirements for ternary complex formation. The RHR of CSL contains both the N- and C-terminal β-sheet domains (RHR-n and RHR-c) of typical Rel transcription factors, as judged by circular dichroism spectra. Binding of monomeric CSL to DNA requires the entire RHR of CSL and an additional 125-residue N-terminal sequence, whereas binding to ICN requires only the RHR-n domain. Although the RAM (RBP-Jκ (recombination-signal-sequence-binding protein for Jκ genes)-associated molecule) domain of ICN is flexible and relatively unstructured as an isolated polypeptide in solution, it associates stably with CSL on DNA. Recruitment of Mastermind-like 1 (MAML1) to CSL·ICN complexes on DNA requires inclusion of the ankyrin repeat domain of ICN, and N- and C-terminal sequences of CSL extending beyond the DNA-binding region. The requirement for cooperative assembly of the MAML1·ICN·CSL·DNA complex suggests that a primary function of ICN is to render CSL competent for MAML loading. On the basis of our results, we present a working structural model for the organization of the MAML1·ICN·CSL·DNA complex.
Institute for International Integration Studies Risk, Government and Globalization: International Survey Evidence Risk, Government and Globalization: International Survey Evidence Risk, Government and Globalization: International Survey Evidence

Disclaimer Any opinions expressed here are those of the author(s) and not those of the IIIS. All works posted here are owned and copyrighted by the author(s). Papers may only be downloaded for personal use only. Abstract This paper uses international survey data to document two stylized facts. First, risk aversion is associated with anti-trade attitudes. Second, this effect is smaller in countries with greater levels of government expenditure. The paper thus provides evidence for the microeconomic underpinnings of the argument associated with Ruggie (1982), Rodrik (1998) and others that government spending can bolster support for globalization by reducing the risk associated with it in the minds of voters. Humanities and Social Sciences for their generous funding. Richard Sinnott would like to thank his co-investigators on the ASES (Asia-Europe Survey) project-Jean Blondel, Takashi Inoguchi, Ikuo Kabashima and Ian Marsh for much enjoyable and fruitful collaboration. The ASES project, which produced the data set used in this paper, was supported by a grant from the Japanese Ministry of
Proteome Evolution of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Alvinellid Polychaetes Supports the Ancestry of Thermophily and Subsequent Adaptation to Cold in Some Lineages

Temperature, perhaps more than any other environmental factor, is likely to influence the evolution of all organisms. It is also a very interesting factor to understand how genomes are shaped by selection over evolutionary timescales, as it potentially affects the whole genome. Among thermophilic prokaryotes, temperature affects both codon usage and protein composition to increase the stability of the transcriptional/translational machinery, and the resulting proteins need to be functional at high temperatures. Among eukaryotes less is known about genome evolution, and the tube-dwelling worms of the family Alvinellidae represent an excellent opportunity to test hypotheses about the emergence of thermophily in ectothermic metazoans. The Alvinellidae are a group of worms that experience varying thermal regimes, presumably having evolved into these niches over evolutionary times. Here we analyzed 423 putative orthologous loci derived from 6 alvinellid species including the thermophilic Alvinella pompejana and Paralvinella sulfincola. This comparative approach allowed us to assess amino acid composition, codon usage, divergence, direction of residue changes and the strength of selection along the alvinellid phylogeny, and to design a new eukaryotic thermophilic criterion based on significant differences in the residue composition of proteins. Contrary to expectations, the alvinellid ancestor of all present-day species seems to have been thermophilic, a trait subsequently maintained by purifying selection in lineages that still inhabit higher temperature environments. In contrast, lineages currently living in colder habitats likely evolved under selective relaxation, with some degree of positive selection for low-temperature adaptation at the protein level.