Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Systematic Reviews and Meta- and Pooled Analyses Who is More Affected by Ozone Pollution? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Ozone is associated with adverse health; however, less is known about vulnerable/sensitive populations, which we refer to as sensitive populations. We systematically reviewed epidemiologic evidence (1988 – 2013) regarding sensitivity to mortality or hospital admission from short-term ozone exposure. We performed meta-analysis for overall associations by age and sex; assessed publication bias; and qualitatively assessed sensitivity to socioeconomic indicators, race/ethnicity, and air conditioning. The search identified 2,091 unique papers, with 167 meeting inclu-sion criteria (73 on mortality and 96 on hospitalizations and emergency department visits, including 2 examining both mortality and hospitalizations). The strongest evidence for ozone sensitivity was for age. Per 10-parts per billion increase in daily 8-hour ozone concentration, mortality risk for younger persons, at 0.60% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.40, 0.80), was statistically lower than that for older persons, at 1.27% (95% CI: 0.76, 1.78). Findings adjusted for publication bias were similar. Limited/suggestive evidence was found for higher associations among women; mortality risks were 0.39% (95% CI: − 0.22, 1.00) higher than those for men. We identified strong evidence for higher associations with unemployment or lower occupational status and weak evidence of sensitivity for racial/ ethnic minorities and persons with low education, in poverty, or without central air conditioning. Findings show that some populations, especially the elderly, are particularly sensitive to short-term ozone exposure.
Combining Process Modelling and Case Modeling

– Adaptive Case Management deals with processes that are not predefined or repeatable, but depend on evolving circumstances and decisions regarding a particular situation. While case management is often considered as different from conventional business process management, in reality they cannot be strictly separated. A structured business process can contain parts which deal with non-routine cases. The Object Management Group (OMG) published the Business Process Model & Notation (BPMN) as well as the Case Management Model & Notation (CMMN). There is an ongoing debate whether these two languages should be combined are kept independent. After a short introduction into CMMN and BPMN we analyse an application process as it is typical for public administration in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of both BPMN and CMMN. We show that typical processes contain both structured and non-structured parts and neither BPMN nor CMMN alone is adequate to model the process. Finally, we propose recommendations for a meta-model, which combines elements of BPMN and CMMN.
Dengue Virus Targets the Adaptor Protein MITA to Subvert Host Innate Immunity

Dengue is one of the most important arboviral diseases caused by infection of four serotypes of dengue virus (DEN). We found that activation of interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) triggered by viral infection and by foreign DNA and RNA stimulation was blocked by DEN-encoded NS2B3 through a protease-dependent mechanism. The key adaptor protein in type I interferon pathway, human mediator of IRF3 activation (MITA) but not the murine homologue MPYS, was cleaved in cells infected with DEN-1 or DEN-2 and with expression of the enzymatically active protease NS2B3. The cleavage site of MITA was mapped to LRR↓96G and the function of MITA was suppressed by dengue protease. DEN replication was reduced with overexpression of MPYS but not with MITA, while DEN replication was enhanced by MPYS knockdown, indicating an antiviral role of MITA/MPYS against DEN infection. The involvement of MITA in DEN-triggered innate immune response was evidenced by reduction of IRF3 activation and IFN induction in cells with MITA knockdown upon DEN-2 infection. NS2B3 physically interacted with MITA, and the interaction and cleavage of MITA could be further enhanced by poly(dA:dT) stimulation. Thus, we identified MITA as a novel host target of DEN protease and provide the molecular mechanism of how DEN subverts the host innate immunity.
Functional Characterizations of RIG-I to GCRV and Viral/Bacterial PAMPs in Grass Carp Ctenopharyngodon idella

Background RIG-I (retinoic acid inducible gene-I) is one of the key cytosolic pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) for detecting nucleotide pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and mediating the induction of type I interferon and inflammatory cytokines in innate immune response. Though the mechanism is well characterized in mammals, the study of the accurate function of RIG-I in teleosts is still in its infancy. Methodology/Principal Findings To clarify the functional characterizations of RIG-I in grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella (CiRIG-I), six representative overexpression plasmids were constructed and transfected into C. idella kidney (CIK) cell lines to obtain stably expressing recombinant proteins, respectively. A virus titer test and 96-well plate staining assay showed that all constructs exhibited the antiviral activity somewhat. The quantitative real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) demonstrated that mRNA expressions of CiIPS-1, CiIFN-I and CiMx2 were regulated by not only virus (GCRV) or viral PAMP (poly(IC)) challenge but also bacterial PAMPs (LPS and PGN) stimulation in the steadily transfected cells. The results showed that the full-length CiRIG-I played a key role in RLR pathway. The repressor domain (RD) exerted an inhibitory function of the signaling channel under all utilized challenges. Caspase activation and recruitment domains (CARDs) showed a positive role in GCRV and poly(I:C) challenge. Helicase motifs were crucial for the signaling pathway upon LPS and PGN stimulation. Interestingly, ΔCARDs (CARDs deleted) showed postive modulation in RIG-I signal transduction. Conclusions/Significance The results provided some novel insights into RIG-I sensing with a strikingly broad regulation in teleosts, responding not only to the dsRNA virus or synthetic dsRNA but also bacterial PAMPs.
The Influence of Virtuality on Social Networks Within and Across Work Groups: A Multilevel Approach

We examine how the virtuality of work context influences individuals' social networks within and across work groups. Given this purpose, we develop a multilevel research framework that explores the effects of different levels of virtuality on one's intra-group tie strength and extra-group network range based on the computer-mediated communication theory, the proximity theory, and the social network theory. The results of the hierarchical linear modeling indicate that the individual-level virtuality (use of personal and communal communication technologies) significantly influences one's intra-group tie strength and extra-group network range. Moreover, the results show that the effects of individual-level virtuality on social networks vary depending on the group-level virtuality, such as geographic/temporal dispersion and technological support. By illuminating how individuals' social networks can be developed through the appropriate use of personal and communal communication technologies in the context of a virtual group, this study provides useful insights into the mechanics that underlie effective virtual work.
Saturday opening of alcohol retail shops in Sweden: an experiment in two phases.

AIM In February 2000, a trial started with Saturday opening of alcohol retail shops in certain parts of Sweden (phase I), and in July 2001, Saturday opening was extended to the whole country (phase II). The aim of this study is to assess the impact of phase II, and to probe previous results regarding phase I. DESIGN Prior to February 2000, all alcohol monopoly outlets were closed on Saturdays. After this date, stores in an experimental area (six counties) were open on Saturdays. In the control area (seven counties) the shops remained closed. To prevent biases due to trade leakage, the experimental and control areas were separated by a buffer area (seven counties). Because continuous evaluations of the trial did not reveal any negative consequences, the Saturday opening was implemented in the whole of Sweden after 17 months. DATA AND METHODS The outcome measures included alcohol sales and indicators of assaults and drunk driving. The pre-intervention period covered the time period January 1995-January 2000, phase I of the post-intervention period February 2000-June 2001 (17 months), and phase II July 2001-July 2002 (13 months). The effects of the two phases were estimated through analyses of monthly data (auto-regressive integrated moving-average (ARIMA) modelling) depicting how sales and harm rates evolved in the experimental area compared to the control area during phase I as well as during phase II. RESULTS The analysis uncovered a statistically significant increase in alcohol sales of 3.7% during phase I, and about the same increase during phase II (3.6%). There were no significant changes in any of the assault indicators, neither during phase I nor during phase II. There was a statistically significant increase in drunk driving (12%) during phase I, but no change during phase II. The analyses suggested that the increase during phase I was mainly due to a change in the surveillance strategy of the police. CONCLUSIONS The results lend support to the public health perspective in that the increased accessibility to alcohol rendered by Saturday opening also seems to have increased consumption. On the other hand, we could not detect any increase in alcohol-related harm. The question of whether this may be due to insufficient statistical power is discussed, together with some other methodological complications that were highlighted by the study.
The symmetry preserving removal lemma

In this paper we observe that in the hypergraph removal lemma, the edge removal can be done in such a way that the symmetries of the original hypergraph remain preserved. As an application we prove the following generalization of Szemeredi's Theorem on arithmetic progressions. Let A be an Abelian group with subsets S 1 , S 2 ,. ,S t such that the number of arithmetic progressions x, x + d,. , x + (t - 1)d with x + (i - 1)d ∈ S i is o(|A| 2 ). Then we can shrink each S i by o(|A|) elements such that the new sets don't have any arithmetic progression of the above type.
Design of Signature Sequences for Overloaded CDMA and Bounds on the Sum Capacity With Arbitrary Symbol Alphabets

In this paper, we explore some of the fundamentals of synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) as applied to wireless and optical communication systems under very general settings (of any size) for the user symbols and the signature matrix entries. The channel is modeled by real/complex additive noise of arbitrary distribution. Two problems are addressed. The first problem concerns whether uniquely detectable overloaded matrices exist in the absence of additive noise under these general settings, and if so, whether there are any practical optimum detection algorithms. The second one is about the bounds for the sum channel capacity when user data and signature matrices employ any real or complex alphabets (finite or infinite). In response to the first problem, we have developed practical maximum likelihood detection algorithms for overloaded CDMA systems for a large class of alphabets. In response to the second problem, a general theorem has been developed in which the sum capacity lower bounds with respect to the number of users, spreading gain, and signal-to-noise ratio can be derived. To show the power and utility of the main theorem, a number of sum capacity bounds for special cases are evaluated. An important conclusion of this paper is that the lower and upper bounds of the sum capacity for small/medium-size CDMA systems depend on both the input and the signature symbols; this is contrary to the asymptotic results for large-scale systems reported in the literature (also confirmed in this paper) where the signature symbols and statistics disappear for signature matrices and input vectors with i.i. d. entries. Furthermore, upper and asymptotic bounds are derived and compared to other derivations.
A faster algorithm for betweenness centrality

Motivated by the fast‐growing need to compute centrality indices on large, yet very sparse, networks, new algorithms for betweenness are introduced in this paper. They require O(n + m) space and run in O(nm) and O(nm + n2 log n) time on unweighted and weighted networks, respectively, where m is the number of links. Experimental evidence is provided that this substantially increases the range of networks for which centrality analysis is feasible. The betweenness centrality index is essential in the analysis of social networks, but costly to compute. Currently, the fastest known algorithms require ? (n 3) time and ? (n 2) space, where n is the number of actors in the network.
A stochastic algorithm for function minimization

Focusing on the conditions that an optimization problem may comply with, the so-called convergence conditions have been proposed and sequentially a stochastic optimization algorithm named as DSZ algorithm is presented in order to deal with both unconstrained and constrained optimizations. The principle is discussed in the theoretical model of DSZ algorithm, from which we present the practical model of DSZ algorithm. Practical model efficiency is demonstrated by the comparison with the similar algorithms such as Enhanced simulated annealing (ESA), Monte Carlo simulated annealing (MCS), Sniffer Global Optimization (SGO), Directed Tabu Search (DTS), and Genetic Algorithm (GA), using a set of well-known unconstrained and constrained optimization test cases. Meanwhile, further attention goes to the strategies how to optimize the high-dimensional unconstrained problem using DSZ algorithm.
Investigation of Social Recognition Degree of the Autistic

"Autism"(also known as autistic disorder) is a kind of pervasive developmental disorders occurring in early childhood.This concept was put forward by Leo Kanner,an American doctor in 1943.In China,Taoguotai,a doctor in child mental health research center of Nanjing brain hospital reported 4 cases of autism in his professional literature in 1982 and that is when the concept first appeared in China.Autism is known by people for a short time in China.How much does the society know about autism? What is people's acceptance degree of the autistic? Based on this,the author did a questionnaire survey about the social recognition of the autistic in hope of providing help for enhancing social support for autism.
DFT-spread OFDM for optical communications

We propose DFT-spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM) to mitigate fiber nonlinearity in long-haul transmission systems. For 1000-km standard-single-mode-fiber transmission at 420-Gb/s, 32-band DFT-S-OFDM outperforms conventional coherent optical-OFDM (CO-OFDM) and coherent single-carrier by 1.1 and 0.8 dB, respectively.
Vitamin E: tocopherols and tocotrienols as potential radiation countermeasures

Despite the potential devastating health consequences of intense total-body irradiation, and the decades of research, there still remains a dearth of safe and effective radiation countermeasures for emergency, radiological/nuclear contingencies that have been fully approved and sanctioned for use by the US FDA. Vitamin E is a well-known antioxidant, effective in scavenging free radicals generated by radiation exposure. Vitamin E analogs, collectively known as tocols, have been subject to active investigation for a long time as radioprotectors in patients undergoing radiotherapy and in the context of possible radiation accidents or terrorism scenarios. Eight major isoforms comprise the tocol group: four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. A number of these agents and their derivatives are being investigated actively as radiation countermeasures using animal models, and several appear promising. Although the tocols are well recognized as potent antioxidants and are generally thought to mediate radioprotection through ‘free radical quenching’, recent studies have suggested several alternative mechanisms: most notably, an ‘indirect effect’ of tocols in eliciting specific species of radioprotective growth factors/cytokines such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF). The radioprotective efficacy of at least two tocols has been abrogated using a neutralizing antibody of G-CSF. Based on encouraging results of radioprotective efficacy, laboratory testing of γ-tocotrienol has moved from a small rodent model to a large nonhuman primate model for preclinical evaluation. In this brief review we identify and discuss selected tocols and their derivatives currently under development as radiation countermeasures, and attempt to describe in some detail their in vivo efficacy.
Reliable mission deployment in vulnerable distributed systems

Recent years have seen a growing interest in mission-centric operation of large-scale distributed systems. However, due to their complexity, these systems are prone to failures and vulnerable to a wide range of cyber-attacks. Current solutions focus either on the infrastructure itself or on mission analysis, but fail to consider information about the complex interdependencies existing between system components and mission tasks. In this paper, we take a different approach, and present a solution for deploying mission tasks in a distributed computing environment in a way that minimizes a mission's exposure to vulnerabilities by taking into account available information about vulnerabilities and dependencies. We model the mission deployment problem as a task allocation problem, subject to various dependability constraints. The proposed solution is based on the A* algorithm for searching the solution space, but we also introduce a heuristic to significantly improve the search performance. We validate our approach, and show that our algorithm scales linearly with the size of both missions and networks.
Simulating the effects of spatial configurations of agricultural ditch drainage networks on surface runoff from agricultural catchments

The study of runoff is a crucial issue because it is closely related to flooding, water quality and erosion. In cultivated catchments, agricultural ditch drainage networks are known to influence runoff. As anthropogenic elements, agricultural ditch drainage networks can therefore be altered to better manage surface runoff in cultivated catchments. However, the relationship between the spatial configuration, i.e. the density and the topology, of agricultural ditch drainage networks and surface runoff in cultivated catchments is not understood. We studied this relationship by using a random network simulator that was coupled to a distributed hydrological model. The simulations explored a large variety of spatial configurations corresponding to a thousand stochastic agricultural ditch drainage networks on a 6.4 km² Mediterranean cultivated catchment. Next, several distributed hydrological functions were used to compute water flow paths and runoff for each simulation. The results showed that (i) denser networks increased the drained volume and the peak discharge and decreased hillslopes runoff, (ii) greater network density did not affect the surface runoff any further above a given network density, (iii) the correlation between network density and runoff was weaker for small subcatchments (< 2 km²) where the variability in the drained area that resulted from changes in agricultural ditch drainage networks increased the variability of runoff and (iv) the actual agricultural ditch drainage network appeared to be well optimized for managing runoff as compared with the simulated networks. Finally, our results highlighted the role of agricultural ditch drainage networks in intercepting and decreasing overland flow on hillslopes and increasing runoff in drainage networks. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Polyphase spatial subsampling multiple description coding of video streams with H264

In this work, we propose a multiple description (MD) coding system for video streams. In particular, our scheme originates four descriptions from the spatially downsampled polyphase components of the original frames. Each description is compressed independently with the recent H264/AVC video coding standard, it is packetized and sent over an error prone network. In case of errors in one or more descriptions, appropriate concealing is applied at the receiver, before insertion of the corrected frames into the corresponding receiver frame buffers. We propose and compare different concealment solutions and a post processing stage to attenuate visual effects related to MD coding. We analyze the trade off between robustness to channel errors and coding efficiency, comparing the proposed technique with single description (SD) video coding with H264/AVC. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
A Novel Balanced-Lethal Host-Vector System Based on glmS

During the last decade, an increasing number of papers have described the use of various genera of bacteria, including E. coli and S. typhimurium, in the treatment of cancer. This is primarily due to the facts that not only are these bacteria capable of accumulating in the tumor mass, but they can also be engineered to deliver specific therapeutic proteins directly to the tumor site. However, a major obstacle exists in that bacteria because the plasmid carrying the therapeutic gene is not needed for bacterial survival, these plasmids are often lost from the bacteria. Here, we report the development of a balanced-lethal host-vector system based on deletion of the glmS gene in E. coli and S. typhimurium. This system takes advantage of the phenotype of the GlmS− mutant, which undergoes lysis in animal systems that lack the nutrients required for proliferation of the mutant bacteria, D-glucosamine (GlcN) or N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc), components necessary for peptidoglycan synthesis. We demonstrate that plasmids carrying a glmS gene (GlmS+p) complemented the phenotype of the GlmS− mutant, and that GlmS+p was maintained faithfully both in vitro and in an animal system in the absence of selection pressure. This was further verified by bioluminescent signals from GlmS +pLux carried in bacteria that accumulated in grafted tumor tissue in a mouse model. The signal was up to several hundred-fold stronger than that from the control plasmid, pLux, due to faithful maintenance of the plasmid. We believe this system will allow to package a therapeutic gene onto an expression plasmid for bacterial delivery to the tumor site without subsequent loss of plasmid expression as well as to quantify bioluminescent bacteria using in vivo imaging by providing a direct correlation between photon flux and bacterial number.
From Necker Cubes to Polyrhythms: Fostering a Phenomenological Attitude in Music Education

Phenomenology is explored as a way of helping students and educators open up to music as a creative and transformative experience. I begin by introducing a simple exercise in experimental phenomenology involving multi-stable visual phenomena that can be explored without the use of complex terminology. Here, I discuss how the “phenomenological attitude” may foster a deeper appreciation of the structure of consciousness, as well as the central role the body plays in how we experience and form understandings of the worlds we inhabit. I then explore how the phenomenological attitude may serve as a starting point for students and teachers as they begin to reflect on their involvement with music as co-investigators. Here I draw on my teaching practice as a percussion and drum kit instructor, with a special focus on multi-stable musical phenomena (e.g., African polyrhythm). To conclude, I briefly consider how the phenomenological approach might be developed beyond the practice room to examine music’s relationship to the experience of culture, imagination and “self. ”