Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visual Analytics of Surveillance Data on Foodborne Vibriosis, United States, 1973–2010

Foodborne illnesses caused by microbial and chemical contaminants in food are a substantial health burden worldwide. In 2007, human vibriosis (non-cholera Vibrio infections) became a notifiable disease in the United States. In addition, Vibrio species are among the 31 major known pathogens transmitted through food in the United States. Diverse surveillance systems for foodborne pathogens also track outbreaks, illnesses, hospitalization and deaths due to non-cholera vibrios. Considering the recognition of vibriosis as a notifiable disease in the United States and the availability of diverse surveillance systems, there is a need for the development of easily deployed visualization and analysis approaches that can combine diverse data sources in an interactive manner. Current efforts to address this need are still limited. Visual analytics is an iterative process conducted via visual interfaces that involves collecting information, data preprocessing, knowledge representation, interaction, and decision making. We have utilized public domain outbreak and surveillance data sources covering 1973 to 2010, as well as visual analytics software to demonstrate integrated and interactive visualizations of data on foodborne outbreaks and surveillance of Vibrio species. Through the data visualization, we were able to identify unique patterns and/or novel relationships within and across datasets regarding (i) causative agent; (ii) foodborne outbreaks and illness per state; (iii) location of infection; (iv) vehicle (food) of infection; (v) anatomical site of isolation of Vibrio species; (vi) patients and complications of vibriosis; (vii) incidence of laboratory-confirmed vibriosis and V. parahaemolyticus outbreaks. The additional use of emerging visual analytics approaches for interaction with data on vibriosis, including non-foodborne related disease, can guide disease control and prevention as well as ongoing outbreak investigations.
Smoking Cessation Increases Short-Term Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Irrespective of Weight Gain: The Japan Public Health Center-Based Prospective Study

Objective The effect of smoking cessation on the risk of diabetes has been reported previously. However, it is unknown whether the association is influenced by weight gain and other potential risk factors. Methods The Japan Public Health Center-Based Prospective Study established in 1990 for Cohort I and in 1993 for Cohort II provided data, and 25,875 men and 33,959 women were analyzed. The response rate to the baseline questionnaire was 80.9%, and 68.4% of the respondents participated both the 5- and 10-year follow-up surveys. Smoking cessation was noted during the initial five years and the development of diabetes was reported in the subsequent five years. Results An increased risk was observed among individuals who newly quit smoking compared with never smokers among men (odds ratio (OR) = 1.42, 95% CI = 1.03–1.94) and women (OR = 2.84, CI = 1.53–5.29). The risk of developing diabetes among male new quitters who gained 3 kg or more during the 5-year follow-up did not substantially differ from the risk among male never smokers with less than 3 kg of weight gain or no weight gain, while an increased risk was observed among male new quitters with less or no weight gain (OR = 1.46, 95%CI 1.00–2.14). An insignificant increased risk was observed among male new quitters with a family history of diabetes compared with male never smokers with a family history of diabetes. The risk was more than twice as high for male new quitters who used to smoke 25 or more cigarettes per day compared with never smokers (OR = 2.15, 95%CI: 1.34–3.47). Discussion An increased risk of diabetes was implied among individuals who quit smoking. However, the increased risk was not implied among those who gained weight over the 5-years of follow-up. Those who had major risk factors for diabetes or who smoked heavier had a higher risk.
Breathable polymer films produced by the microlayer coextrusion process

Fabrication of a breathable film by the microlayer coextrusion process is described. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) was microlayered with a filled polyolefin, either CaCO3-filled polyethylene or CaCO3-filled polypropylene. The thickness of individual layers was varied by increasing the total number of layers in the microlayered film from 8 to 4096. The water vapor transport rate (WVTR) was measured for microlayer films that varied in composition and number of layers. Especially with the PP(CaCO3)/PEO system, systematic variation in composition and number of layers made it possible to obtain large changes in the WVTR. The results were related to the tortuousity of the pathway through the microlayer. The filled polyolefins acted as a barrier to water vapor transport through the hydrophilic PEO. As the individual layers were made thinner by increasing the total number of layers, the polyolefin layers changed from continuous to discontinuous. Tortuousity concepts were used to correlate the increase in WVTR with an effective aspect ratio of the discontinuous polyolefin layers. In addition to high WVTR values, the breathable films produced by microlayering PEO with a filled polyolefin exhibited excellent mechanical properties. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 78: 816 - 828, 2000
A DTI-Based Template-Free Cortical Connectome Study of Brain Maturation

Improved understanding of how the human brain is “wired” on a macroscale may now be possible due to the emerging field of MRI connectomics. However, mapping the rapidly developing infant brain networks poses challenges. In this study, we applied an automated template-free “baby connectome” framework using diffusion MRI to non-invasively map the structural brain networks in subjects of different ages, including premature neonates, term-born neonates, six-month-old infants, and adults. We observed increasing brain network integration and decreasing segregation with age in term-born subjects. We also explored how the equal area nodes can be grouped into modules without any prior anatomical information – an important step toward a fully network-driven registration and analysis of brain connectivity.
The DNA–protein interaction modes of FEN-1 with gap substrates and their implication in preventing duplication mutations

Flap endonuclease-1 (FEN-1) is a structure-specific nuclease best known for its involvement in RNA primer removal and long-patch base excision repair. This enzyme is known to possess 5′-flap endo- (FEN) and 5′–3′ exo- (EXO) nuclease activities. Recently, FEN-1 has been reported to also possess a gap endonuclease (GEN) activity, which is possibly involved in apoptotic DNA fragmentation and the resolution of stalled DNA replication forks. In the current study, we compare the kinetics of these activities to shed light on the aspects of DNA structure and FEN-1 DNA-binding elements that affect substrate cleavage. By using DNA binding deficient mutants of FEN-1, we determine that the GEN activity is analogous to FEN activity in that the single-stranded DNA region of DNA substrates interacts with the clamp region of FEN-1. In addition, we show that the C-terminal extension of human FEN-1 likely interacts with the downstream duplex portion of all substrates. Taken together, a substrate-binding model that explains how FEN-1, which has a single active center, can have seemingly different activities is proposed. Furthermore, based on the evidence that GEN activity in complex with WRN protein cleaves hairpin and internal loop substrates, we suggest that the GEN activity may prevent repeat expansions and duplication mutations.
Mental Health Difficulties and Help-Seeking Beliefs within a Sample of Female Partners of UK Veterans Diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

In the UK there is a paucity of research about the needs of partners who are supporting ex-service personnel with mental health difficulties. In this study, we surveyed the mental health needs and barriers to help-seeking within a sample of partners of UK veterans who had been diagnosed with PTSD. Our sample included 100 participants. Forty-five percent met criteria for alcohol problems, 39% for depression, 37% for generalised anxiety disorder and 17% for symptoms of probable PTSD. Participants who met case criteria for depression, anxiety and problems with alcohol were more likely to report a greater number of help-seeking barriers. Participants who were experiencing mental health difficulties were more likely to endorse barriers connected to stigmatising beliefs than those associated with practical issues around accessing mental health services. The evidence presented suggests there may be a considerable burden of mental illness within this population. It would seem prudent to conduct further work to understand how best to address this clinical need.
Explaining Color Term Typology With an Evolutionary Model

An expression-induction model was used to simulate the evolution of basic color terms to test Berlin and Kay's (1969) hypothesis that the typological patterns observed in basic color term systems are produced by a process of cultural evolution under the influence of biases resulting from the special properties of universal focal colors. Ten agents were simulated, each of which could learn color term denotations by generalizing from examples using Bayesian inference, and for which universal focal red, yellow, green, and blue were especially salient, but unevenly spaced in the perceptual color space. Conversations between these agents, in which agents would learn from one another, were simulated over several generations, and the languages emerging at the end of each simulation were investigated. The proportion of color terms of each type correlated closely with the equivalent frequencies found in the World Color Survey, and most of the emergent languages could be placed on one of the evolutionary trajectories proposed by Kay and Maffi (1999). The simulation therefore demonstrates how typological patterns can emerge as a result of learning biases acting over a period of time.
A New and Improved Quantitative Recovery Analysis for Iterative Hard Thresholding Algorithms in Compressed Sensing

We present a new recovery analysis for a standard compressed sensing algorithm, Iterative Hard Thresholding (IHT) (Blumensath and Davies, 2008), which considers the fixed points of the algorithm. In the context of arbitrary measurement matrices, we derive a sufficient condition for the convergence of IHT to a fixed point and a necessary condition for the existence of fixed points. These conditions allow us to perform a sparse signal recovery analysis in the deterministic noiseless case by implying that the original sparse signal is the unique fixed point and limit point of IHT, and in the case of Gaussian measurement matrices and noise by generating a bound on the approximation error of the IHT limit as a multiple of the noise level. By generalizing the notion of fixed points, we extend our analysis to the variable stepsize Normalised IHT (Blumensath and Davies, 2010). For both stepsize schemes, we obtain lower bounds on asymptotic phase transitions in a proportional-dimensional framework, quantifying the sparsity/undersampling tradeoff for which recovery is guaranteed. Exploiting the reasonable average-case assumption that the underlying signal and measurement matrix are independent, comparison with previous results within this framework shows a substantial quantitative improvement.
Personality characteristics and individual factors associated with PTSD in firefighters one month after extended wildfires

Abstract Background: Firefighters participate in activities with intense physical and psychological stress and are constantly at risk to develop various psychopathological reactions. Aims: To investigate psychological reactions in firefighters one month after devastating wildfires in Greece, during August 2007, which lead to the devastation of large areas and the death of 43 people among whom three were firefighters. Methods: One month after the wildfires, a joint task force of mental health clinicians was organized in order to provide psychological support and to investigate the psychological consequences of wildfires to firefighters. One hundred and two firefighters, living within the fire-devastated area, who were on duty for the whole period of wildfires were interviewed and assessed with the use of several questionnaires and inventories. Results: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was detected in 18.6% of firefighters. Multiple logistic regression found that existence of fear of dying during firefighting, insomnia and increased scores in neuroticism, as well as in depression subscale of the SCL-90, were significantly associated with greater likelihood for having PTSD. Additionally those firefighters who worked permanently had 70% lower probability of having PTSD vs. those seasonally employed. Conclusions: Insomnia, depressive symptoms, as well as personality characteristics as neuroticism and the perception of fear of imminent death during firefighting operations may precipitate the development of PTSD in firefighters. Within this context, mental health clinicians should be aware that the early detection of these predisposing factors may facilitate the prevention and mitigation of PTSD in firefighters particularly those who are seasonally employed.
Study of the effect of wind speed on evaporation from soil through integrated modeling of the atmospheric boundary layer and shallow subsurface

In an effort to develop methods based on integrating the subsurface to the atmospheric boundary layer to estimate evaporation, we developed a model based on the coupling of Navier‐Stokes free flow and Darcy flow in porous medium. The model was tested using experimental data to study the effect of wind speed on evaporation. The model consists of the coupled equations of mass conservation for two‐phase flow in porous medium with single‐phase flow in the free‐flow domain under nonisothermal, nonequilibrium phase change conditions. In this model, the evaporation rate and soil surface temperature and relative humidity at the interface come directly from the integrated model output. To experimentally validate numerical results, we developed a unique test system consisting of a wind tunnel interfaced with a soil tank instrumented with a network of sensors to measure soil‐water variables. Results demonstrated that, by using this coupling approach, it is possible to predict the different stages of the drying process with good accuracy. Increasing the wind speed increases the first stage evaporation rate and decreases the transition time between two evaporative stages (soil water flow to vapor diffusion controlled) at low velocity values; then, at high wind speeds the evaporation rate becomes less dependent on the wind speed. On the contrary, the impact of wind speed on second stage evaporation (diffusion‐dominant stage) is not significant. We found that the thermal and solute dispersion in free‐flow systems has a significant influence on drying processes from porous media and should be taken into account.
Hybrid Model for Cascading Outage in a Power System: A Numerical Study

Analysis of cascading outages in power systems is important for understanding why large blackouts emerge and how to prevent them. Cascading outages are complex dynamics of power systems, and one cause of them is the interaction between swing dynamics of synchronous machines and protection operation of relays and circuit breakers. This paper uses hybrid dynamical systems as a mathematical model for cascading outages caused by the interaction. Hybrid dynamical systems can combine families of flows describing swing dynamics with switching rules that are based on protection operation. This paper refers to data on a cascading outage in the September 2003 blackout in Italy and shows a hybrid dynamical system by which propagation of outages reproduced is consistent with the data. This result suggests that hybrid dynamical systems can provide an effective model for the analysis of cascading outages in power systems.
Determinants of Open Source Software License Choice: A Social Influence Perspective

This study presents a social influence model of open source license choice. For our theoretical foundation, we build on the heterogeneous diffusion model of social influence from the sociology literature. We characterize specific open source licenses as discrete practices that are at risk of being adopted by new open source projects. Specific hypotheses are proposed and tested on a sample of 5,307 open source projects hosted at SourceForge. Our findings suggest the most important factor that determines which license will be adopted by a new project is the type of license chosen by licensors more socially proximate in the social network of a new project’s licensor. Moreover, the likelihood that a new open source project adopts a particular license increases when additional similar open source projects have previously adopted such a license and when these projects are large and successful. We also find that project managers with longer tenure in open source environments or who have been members of successful open source projects are less susceptible to social influence. This suggests that project managers who are inexperienced with open source software development or who have contributed to unsuccessful open source projects are most influenced by their social context.
Ovarian Function in Girls with McCune-Albright Syndrome

ABSTRACT. We measured plasma estradiol levels and ovarian volumes in eight girls with precocious puberty due to McCune-Albright syndrome. Six girls had gonadotropin-independent ovarian estrogen secretion and two girls had pubertal gonadotropin levels. Mean ovarian volume in all patients was significantly greater than in normal prepubertal girls. Mean ovarian volumes of the girls with McCune-Albright syndrome overlapped the range found in girls with idiopathic central precocious puberty or central precocious puberty associated with central nervous system lesions. However, the degree of asymmetry between the right and left ovaries was significantly greater in girls with McCune-Albright syndrome. Asymmetry was due, for the most part, to the presence of large solitary cysts in the larger of the two ovaries. In the six girls with McCune-Albright syndrome and gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty, both mean ovarian volume and the degree of asymmetry between the right and left ovaries were significantly correlated with plasma estradiol. Serum follicle-stimulating hormone bioactivity was increased in two patients but did not vary with ovarian cyst size. Thyroid-stimulating hormone levels were normal but serum prolactin was slightly elevated in one of the six girls with gonadotropin-independent precocious puberty. Fluctuation in the size of unilateral ovarian cysts appears to result in changes in the plasma estradiol level, leading to advancement and spontaneous regression of secondary sexual characteristics and menses in girls with McCune-Albright syndrome. The cause of the cyst formation is unknown but may be related to periodic elevation of as yet undefined serum factors such as follicle-stimulating hormone bioactive substances.
Calcium Wave Propagation in Pancreatic Acinar Cells

In pancreatic acinar cells, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3)–dependent cytosolic calcium ([Ca2+]i) increases resulting from agonist stimulation are initiated in an apical “trigger zone,” where the vast majority of InsP3 receptors (InsP3R) are localized. At threshold stimulation, [Ca2+]i signals are confined to this region, whereas at concentrations of agonists that optimally evoke secretion, a global Ca2+ wave results. Simple diffusion of Ca2+ from the trigger zone is unlikely to account for a global [Ca2+]i elevation. Furthermore, mitochondrial import has been reported to limit Ca2+ diffusion from the trigger zone. As such, there is no consensus as to how local [Ca2+]i signals become global responses. This study therefore investigated the mechanism responsible for these events. Agonist-evoked [Ca2+]i oscillations were converted to sustained [Ca2+]i increases after inhibition of mitochondrial Ca2+ import. These [Ca2+]i increases were dependent on Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum and were blocked by 100 μM ryanodine. Similarly, “uncaging” of physiological [Ca2+]i levels in whole-cell patch-clamped cells resulted in rapid activation of a Ca2+-activated current, the recovery of which was prolonged by inhibition of mitochondrial import. This effect was also abolished by ryanodine receptor (RyR) blockade. Photolysis of d-myo InsP3 P4(5)-1-(2-nitrophenyl)-ethyl ester (caged InsP3) produced either apically localized or global [Ca2+]i increases in a dose-dependent manner, as visualized by digital imaging. Mitochondrial inhibition permitted apically localized increases to propagate throughout the cell as a wave, but this propagation was inhibited by ryanodine and was not seen for minimal control responses resembling [Ca2+]i puffs. Global [Ca2+]i rises initiated by InsP3 were also reduced by ryanodine, limiting the increase to a region slightly larger than the trigger zone. These data suggest that, while Ca2+ release is initially triggered through InsP3R, release by RyRs is the dominant mechanism for propagating global waves. In addition, mitochondrial Ca2+ import controls the spread of Ca2+ throughout acinar cells by modulating RyR activation.
Demographic Characteristics and Medical Service Use of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome Patients at an Integrated Treatment Hospital Focusing on Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Retrospective Review of Electronic Medical Records

Objective. To report the patient demographics and nonsurgical complementary and alternative medicine treatment used at a Korean medicine hospital for low back pain (LBP) and/or sciatica after surgery. Methods. Medical records of patients who visited a spine-specialized Korean medicine hospital at 2 separate sites for continuous or recurrent LBP or sciatica following back surgery were reviewed. The demographics, MRI and/or CT scans, and treatments were assessed. Results. Of the total 707 patients, 62% were male and the average age was 50.20 years. Ninety percent of patients presented with LBP and 67% with sciatica. Eighty-four percent were diagnosed with herniated nucleus pulposus at time of surgery. Of these patients, 70% had pain recurrence 6 months or later, but 19% experienced no relief or immediate aggravation of pain after surgery. Many patients selected traditional Korean medicine treatment as primary means of postsurgery care (47%). When time to pain recurrence was short or pain persisted after surgery, return of symptoms at the same disc level and side was frequent. Conclusion. An integrative treatment model focusing on Korean medicine and used in conjunction with radiological diagnostics and conventional medicine is currently used as a treatment option for patients with pain after lumbar spine surgery.