Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mild chronic kidney disease and functional impairment in community-dwelling older adults.

BACKGROUND chronic kidney disease (CKD) has been associated with an increased risk of death and cardiovascular events, but its relationship with non-vascular outcomes, including functional impairment (FI), is less well understood. OBJECTIVE in this study, we review the association between CKD and FI, adjusting for potential confounders and risk factors, with a primary outcome of impairment in any instrumental ADL (IADL) or basic ADL (BADL). DESIGN the Cardiovascular Multimorbidity in Primary Care Study (CLARITY) is a cross-sectional study of community-dwelling adults. SETTING participants were adults living in the West of Ireland attending university-affiliated general practices. SUBJECTS all participants were adults aged ≥50 years living in the community. METHODS CKD was defined as an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≤60 ml/min/1.73 m(2). A standardised self-reported health questionnaire to measure activities of daily living (ADL) was completed by participants. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine the independent association between CKD and FI. RESULTS a total of 3,499 patients were included with a mean age of 66.2 ± 10.3 years. 18.0% (n = 630) had CKD (mean eGFR 50.2 ± 9.2 ml/min/1.73m(2)), 21.9% (n = 138) of which had a diagnosis of CKD documented in medical records. 40.4% (n = 1,413) reported FI and multivariable adjustment showed CKD to be independently associated with FI (OR: 1.43, 1.15-1.78), impairment in IADL (OR: 1.43, 1.15-1.78) and impairment in BADL (OR: 1.39, 1.11-1.75). CONCLUSION our study shows even mild CKD is associated with FI, independent of age, gender, co-morbidities, traditional vascular risk factors and cardiovascular events.
Optimizing Downlink Throughput with User Cooperation and Scheduling in Adaptive Cellular Networks

User cooperation is an emerging transmission framework where users act as relays of each other to provide extra diversity paths for better overall performance. However, most work in the literature focused only on the physical-layer properties and operations of a fixed pair of source and destination at a particular time instant. In contrast, we consider the downlink throughput optimization for an adaptive cellular network with both user cooperation and scheduling. Firstly, we evaluate several commonly used cooperation strategies under different fairness constraints. We show that the decode-and-forward protocol cannot deliver any capacity gain over its non-cooperative counterpart when users are scheduled for maximizing the overall system throughput. Secondly, the placement of relaying timeslots, which directly affects the cooperation performance, is investigated over existing frame structures so that user cooperation can be enabled easily in conventional networks. It is shown that multiple relays can actually be supported in different timeslots concurrently with other transmissions through scheduling and the corresponding optimal relays selection and power allocation are derived.
Results-based monitoring and evaluation for organizations working in agricultural development: a guide for practitioners

Inputs Activities Outputs Immediate outcomes (short-term) Intermediate outcomes (medium-term) Ultimate outcomes (long-term) ISBN 92–9146–245–4 Correct citation: Berhanu Gebremedhin, Abraham Getachew and Rebeka Amha. 2010. Results-based monitoring and evaluation for organizations working in agricultural development: A guide for practitioners.
Tracing soybean domestication history: From nucleotide to genome

Since the genome sequences of wild species may provide key information about the genetic elements involved in speciation and domestication, the undomesticated soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. and Zucc.), a wild relative of the current cultivated soybean (G. max), was sequenced. In contrast to the current hypothesis of soybean domestication, which holds that the current cultivated soybean was domesticated from G. soja, our previous work has suggested that soybean was domesticated from the G. soja/G. max complex that diverged from a common ancestor of these two species of Glycine. In this review, many structural genomic differences between the two genomes are described and a total of 705 genes are identified as structural variations (SVs) between G. max and G. soja. After protein families database of alignments and hidden Markov models IDs and gene ontology terms were assigned, many interesting genes are discussed in detail using four domestication related traits, such as flowering time, transcriptional factors, carbon metabolism and disease resistance. Soybean domestication history is explored by studying these SVs in genes. Analysis of SVs in genes at the population-level may clarify the domestication history of soybean.
Gingival microleakage of class V composite restorations with fiber inserts.

AIM This study investigated the effect of different fiber inserts (glass and polyethylene), bonding agents, and resin composites on the gingival margin microleakage of class V composite restorations. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty premolars were sterilized and mounted in acrylic resin bases. Class V cavities were prepared buccally and lingually, 1 mm below the cementoenamel junction, comprising 12 groups (n = 10). In the experimental groups fiber inserts were cut and placed at the gingival seat, while the control groups had no inserts. Combinations of two composite materials, Filtek-Z250 and Filtek-LS (3M-ESPE), and four bonding agents, Clearfil SE bond (Kuraray) (C), Scotch Bond Multipurpose (3M-ESPE) (SB), Prime and Bond NT (Dentsply) (PB), and Filtek-LS (3M-ESPE) (LS) were used. Restorations were incrementally inserted and polymerized for 40s. Specimens were then stored in distilled water for 7 days and thermocycled for 500 cycles. Teeth surfaces were sealed with nail polish except for 1 mm around restoration margins and immersed in 2% red procion dye. Teeth were then sectioned buccolingually and dye penetration was assessed with five-point scale. Data were statistically-analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis, ANOVA and Tukey's tests (α = 5%). RESULTS Mean microleakage scores varied from 0.40 (Groups C, C with polyethylene, LS, LS with polyethylene) to 1.50 (SB). CONCLUSION Different bonding agents led to differences in microleakage scores where C and LS showed significantly lower microleakage than PB. SB had highest mean microleakage score, however, incorporation of fibers resulted in significant reduction in microleakage. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Class V resin composite restorations bonded with a total-etch adhesive had a significant reduction in mean microleakage scores when glass or polyethylene fibers were placed at the gingival cavo-surface margin. In contrast, for two self-etch adhesive systems, the incorporation of fibers had no significant effect on mean microleakage scores.
Hearing and Patient Satisfaction Among 19 Patients Who Received Implants Intended for Hybrid Hearing: A Two-Year Follow-Up

Objectives: To measure patient satisfaction and correlate to hearing results in partially deaf patients, after hearing preservation cochlear implant surgery with hybrid hearing strategy, and to evaluate the stability of residual low-frequency hearing (LFH) over time. Design: A patient satisfaction survey and a retrospective, 2-year follow-up journal study. Nineteen partially deaf patients intended for hybrid hearing responded to a questionnaire when they had used their cochlear implants for at least a year. The questionnaire consisted of the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids, EuroQol Group visual analogue scale and nine questions about hybrid hearing. Pure-tone audiometry, monosyllables, and hearing in noise test results from the patients’ medical records were evaluated and compared with the results from the patient satisfaction survey. Results: All of the patients were satisfied with their CIs. The mean International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids score was 29. The CIs provided a major contribution to the speech comprehension of these partially deaf patients. Two years after surgery, the patients’ mean binaural score on tests of monosyllables was 58%, and the mean signal to noise ratio was 4.6 dB. We observed ongoing deteriorations in the residual hearing of the operated ears that surpassed the deteriorations observed in the contralateral ears. One month after surgery, the LFH loss (125–500 Hz) was 17 dB, and after 2 years, this loss was 24 dB compared with 5 dB in the nonoperated ear. There were no significant correlations between preserved LFH and patient satisfaction or speech perception results. Conclusions: Electric stimulation provided a major contribution to speech comprehension of partially deaf patients. The gain reached in speech understanding widely exceeded the downside in losing some residual hearing. All the patients showed a high degree of satisfaction with their CIs regardless of varying hearing preservation.
The nature and evolution of Nova Cygni 2006

Aims. Nova Cyg 2006 has been intensively observed throughout its full outburst. We investigate the energetics and evolution of the central source and of the expanding ejecta, their chemical abundances and ionization structure, and the formation of dust. Methods. We recorded low, medium, and/or high-resolution spectra (calibrated into accurate absolute fluxes) on 39 nights, along with 2353 photometric UB VRcIc measures on 313 nights, and complemented them with IR data from the literature. Results. The nova displayed initially the normal photometric and spectroscopic evolution of a fast nova of the FeII-type. Premaximum, principal, diffuse-enhanced, and Orion absorption systems developed in a normal way. After the initial outburst, the nova progressively slowed its fading pace until the decline reversed and a second maximum was reached (eight months later), accompanied by large spectroscopic changes. Following the rapid decline from second maximum, the nova finally entered the nebular phase and formed optically thin dust. We performed a photo-ionization analysis of the emission-line spectrum during the nebular phase, which showed a strong enrichment of the ejecta in nitrogen and oxygen, and none in neon, in agreement with theoretical predictions for the
C-reactive protein is protective against Streptococcus pneumoniae infection in mice

C-reactive protein (CRP) has several properties that suggest that it may function as a bacterial opsonin. CRP shows binding reactivity with pneumococcal C-polysaccharide, the cell wall carbohydrate of Streptococcus pneumoniae. In this study we have demonstrated protection of mice against serotypes 3 and 4 of S. pneumoniae infection by a single prior injection of CRP. This effect was seen both in mice that lacked antibody to phosphocholine and in normal mice. Thus the opsonic properties of CRP previously described may be related to protection against pneumococcal infection.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute Trilemma, Not Dilemma: Financial Globalisation and Monetary Policy Effectiveness

We investigate whether the classic Mundell-Flemming " trilemma " has morphed into a " dilemma " due to financial globalisation. According to the dilemma hypothesis, global financial cycles determine domestic financial conditions regardless of an economy's exchange rate regime and monetary policy autonomy is possible only if capital mobility is restricted. We find that global financial cycles indeed reduce domestic monetary policy effectiveness in more financially integrated economies. However, we also find that another salient feature of financial globalisation has the opposite effect and amplifies monetary policy effectiveness: Economies increasingly net long in foreign currency experience larger valuation effects on their external balance sheets in response to exchange rate movements triggered by monetary policy impulses. Overall, we find that the net effect of financial globalisation since the 1990s has been to amplify monetary policy effectiveness in the typical advanced and emerging market economy. Specifically, our results suggest that the output effect of a tightening in monetary policy has been stronger by 40% due to financial globalisation. Insofar as valuation effects can only play out if an economy's exchange rate is flexible, the choice of the exchange rate regime remains critical for monetary policy autonomy under capital mobility and in the presence of global financial cycles. Thus, our results suggest that the classic trilemma remains valid. and at the conference on " Exchange Rates, Monetary Policy and Financial Stability in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries " on 13 October 2014 for helpful comments and suggestions. We are also grateful to Philip Lane for sharing with us unpublished updated data on net foreign currency exposures. The views in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas or the Federal Reserve System.
Captopril modifies the hemodynamic and neuroendocrine responses to sodium nitroprusside in hypertensive patients.

To determine if clinically effective doses of the antihypertensive agent captopril affected the neuronal release of norepinephrine or baroreflex sensitivity, changes in plasma norepinephrine concentration and heart rate were related to the changes in mean arterial pressure seen during the intravenous infusion of stepwise incremental doses of sodium nitroprusside before and during captopril treatment in eight hypertensive men with normal or low plasma renin activity. At all times, significant linear correlations were found between the decrease in mean arterial pressure and the dose of sodium nitroprusside, the increase in heart rate and the decrease in mean arterial pressure, and the increase in plasma norepinephrine concentration and the decrease in mean arterial pressure. When the subjects were treated with captopril (25 mg t.i.d.) for 2 to 4 weeks, supine mean arterial pressure decreased from 130 to 114 mm Hg (-12%; p less than 0.05), heart rate did not change, supine and upright plasma renin activity increased, while supine plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine concentration decreased slightly. Therapy with captopril (25 mg t.i.d.) increased baroreflex sensitivity, as assessed by the slope of the regression line relating the increase in heart rate to the decrease in mean arterial pressure, and increased the responsiveness of the sympathetic nervous system, as assessed by the slope of the regression line relating the increase in plasma norepinephrine concentration to the decrease in mean arterial pressure. These increases were accompanied by a decrease in the slope of the regression line relating the decrease in mean arterial pressure to the dose of sodium nitroprusside and thus were associated with a decreased sensitivity to the vasodepressor effects of sodium nitroprusside. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Understanding the relations among gender, disinhibition, and disruptive behavior in adolescents.

This study examined whether disinhibition shows similar relations with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (CD) symptomatology among male and female adolescents. The mixed-incentive or punishment condition of Newman's go/no-go task was administered to 172 adolescents. As expected, ADHD symptoms in boys and girls were predictive of disinhibition (i.e., commission errors) in the mixed-incentive but not punishment condition. Also consistent with expectations, CD symptoms in boys were predictive of disinhibition in the mixed-incentive but not punishment condition. In contrast, CD symptoms in girls were not predictive of disinhibition in either condition. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for understanding sex differences in the etiology of ADHD and CD.
Neural Manifestations of Implicit Self-Esteem: An ERP Study

Behavioral research has established that humans implicitly tend to hold a positive view toward themselves. In this study, we employed the event-related potential (ERP) technique to explore neural manifestations of positive implicit self-esteem using the Go/Nogo association task (GNAT). Participants generated a response (Go) or withheld a response (Nogo) to self or others words and good or bad attributes. Behavioral data showed that participants responded faster to the self paired with good than the self paired with bad, whereas the opposite proved true for others, reflecting the positive nature of implicit self-esteem. ERP results showed an augmented N200 over the frontal areas in Nogo responses relative to Go responses. Moreover, the positive implicit self-positivity bias delayed the onset time of the N200 wave difference between Nogo and Go trials, suggesting that positive implicit self-esteem is manifested on neural activity about 270 ms after the presentation of self-relevant stimuli. These findings provide neural evidence for the positivity and automaticity of implicit self-esteem.
Celecoxib in arthritis: relative risk management profile and implications for patients

Celecoxib is a selective cyclo-oxygenase 2 inhibitor licensed for use in musculoskeletal symptoms as well as in primary dysmenorrhea and acute pain. One advantage celecoxib has over traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is that of significantly fewer gastrointestinal side-effects associated with its use. Much has been published on the potential cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications of its administration. This review details the available evidence to allow prescribers to make informed decisions in the light of potentially conflicting evidence. The overall cardiovascular risk is increased with higher doses of celecoxib but is comparable with nonselective nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory use. As with all of these drugs, the potential cardiovascular and gastrointestinal risks of prescription need to be weighed up against possible benefits for each individual patient and discussed with the patients themselves.
Enabling FPGAs in Hyperscale Data Centers

FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) are making their way into data centers (DCs) and are used to offload and accelerate specific services, but they are not yet available to cloud users. This puts the cloud deployment of compute-intensive workloads at a disadvantage compared with on-site infrastructure installations, where the performance and energy efficiency of FPGAs are increasingly being exploited for application-specific accelerators and heterogeneous computing. The cloud is housed in DCs, and DCs are based on ever shrinking servers. Today, we observe the emergence of hyper scale data centers, which are based on densely packaged servers. The shrinking form factor brings the potential to deploy FPGAs on a large scale in such DCs. These FPGAs must be deployed as independent DC resources, and they must be accessible to the cloud users. Therefore, we propose to change the traditional paradigm of the CPU-FPGA interface by decoupling the FPGA from the CPU and connecting the FPGA as a standalone resource to the DC network. This allows cloud vendors to offer an FPGA to users in a similar way as a standard server. As existing infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) mechanisms are not suitable, we propose a new Open Stack (open source cloud computing software) service to integrate FPGAs in the cloud. This proposal is complemented by a framework that enables cloud users to combine multiple FPGAs into a programmable fabric. The proposed architecture and framework address the scalability problem that makes it difficult to provision large numbers of FPGAs. Together, they offer a novel solution for processing large and heterogeneous data sets in the cloud.
Pretreatment Lifestyle Behaviors as Survival Predictors for Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Background Lifestyle behaviors have been widely reported to influence the survival of patients with head and neck cancer. However, the relationship between pretreatment lifestyle behaviors and survival among patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is unclear. Methods A prospective cohort study was designed to determine the relationship between lifestyle behaviors and survival in 1,533 NPC patients recruited from October 2005 to October 2007. Pretreatment lifestyle behaviors (such as body-mass index [BMI], smoking, alcohol, diet) of the patients were investigated. Univariate and multivariate proportional-hazards models were used to assess the impact of lifestyle behaviors on patient survival. Results Smoking was a predictor of survival; both current smokers (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.88; 95% CI, 1.33 to 2.65) and heavy smokers (≥25 Pack-years; HR = 1.84; 95% CI, 1.30 to 2.60) showed associations with poor survival. Higher BMI was significantly associated with a lower risk of death (P trend = 0.002). Compared with under/normal-weight patients (BMI less than 22.99 kg/m2), the multivariate HR for survival was 0.66 (95% CI, 0.48 to 0.90) and 0.47 (95% CI, 0.23 to 0.97) for overweight and obese patients, respectively. No alcohol intake and high fruit intake were associated with favorable survival in the univariate analysis but lost significance in the multivariate model. Conclusion Our findings indicate that pretreatment lifestyle behaviors, especially smoking status and BMI, as easily available data, provide prognostic value for survival in NPC patients.
C42. PAPR reduction for LFDMA using a reduced complexity PTS scheme

Three subcarrier mapping schemes are used for single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) system: interleaved (IFDMA), distributed (DFDMA) and localized (LFDMA) subcarrier mapping. Comparison between these schemes showed that the peak to average power ratio (PAPR) for both IFDMA and DFDMA systems is less than that of LFDMA system. In this paper, a low complexity Partial Transmit Sequence (PTS) technique is proposed for the reduction of PAPR in LFDMA system by generating the candidates using the time domain cyclical shift of each sub-block sequence and combining them in a recursive manner. This enables the detector to recover the original signal without needing side information. In this paper, mathematical analysis is explained in details for both the conventional PTS (C-PTS) scheme and the proposed PTS (P-PTS) scheme. Also, computational complexity comparison is performed between the C-PTS and P-PTS schemes.