Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevention of asthma with ketotifen in preasthmatic children: a three‐year follow‐up study

Growing morbidity and mortality rates call for research towards more effective methods of preventing asthma. During the last decade several groups have reported the results of natural history and asthma prevention studies. However, the attempt to prevent development of asthma in genetically predisposed children, has not resulted in a generally accepted management scheme. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of ketotifen in preventing the onset of asthma in infants considered to be at high risk of developing the disease, but who had no history of respiratory obstruction. These children have been described as preasthmatic. In this double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, parallel study, 100 infants with a family history of major allergy and elevated serum IgE levels, but with no history of bronchial obstruction, were treated with either ketotifen (n= 50) or placebo (n= 50) over a 3‐year period. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups with regard to age, sex, degree of hereditary allergy, levels of serum IgE upon joining the study, and family smoking habits. At the end of 3 years, only four of the 45 infants who had received ketotifen had developed asthma (9%). Of the 40 children given placebo, 14 had developed asthma (35%) (P= 0.003). These results suggest that ketotifen is effective in preventing the onset of asthma in preasthmatic children.
Wasteful disposition: Analysis of municipal household waste using geodemographic classification

The continuous flow of resources through the economy is the origin of most of the environmental problems evident today. These problems are directly related to production and introduction of wastes and pollutants into the natural environment. The study investigated the relationship between household waste and geodemographic grouping (GDG) at the municipal level across England. A correlation analysis of the GDG and waste data revealed a positive relationship between waste and proportion of different GDG. A robust regression model generated represents 74% of the variation across the dataset, and it shows that there is a significant relationship between municipal waste and GDG. A higher number of GDG (e.g. 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8) displayed a very strong association with increasing total municipal household waste (TMHW). GDG such as 1, 2 and 10, despite their higher disposable incomes, displayed a weak association with TMHW. Furthermore, GDGs such as 8, 3, 7, 4 and 6 generated more household waste in comparison to GDG. This model provides an understanding that can influence the organisation of waste management programmes and forecasting of municipal waste. It also provides essential input for decisions in structuring promotion of sustainable behaviour and implementing local initiatives to support such activities.
Cultured rat hippocampal neural progenitors generate spontaneously active neural networks

We previously demonstrated that the neural cell adhesion molecule (N-CAM) inhibited the proliferation of cultured rat hippocampal progenitor cells and increased the number of neurons generated. We demonstrate here that the continued presence of fibroblast growth factor 2 along with N-CAM or brain-derived neurotrophic factor over 12 days of culture greatly increased the number of both progenitors and neurons. These progenitor-derived neurons expressed neurotransmitters, neurotransmitter receptors, and synaptic proteins in vitro consistent with those expressed in the mature hippocampus. Progenitor cells cultured on microelectrode plates formed elaborate neural networks that exhibited spontaneously generated action potentials after 21 days. This activity was observed only in cultures grown in the presence of fibroblast growth factor 2 and either N-CAM or brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Analysis of neuronal activity after various pharmacological treatments indicated that the networks formed functional GABAergic and glutamatergic synapses. We conclude that mitogenic growth factors can synergize with N-CAM or neurotrophins to generate spontaneously active neural networks from neural progenitors.
Study of Relationship of anthropometric measurements with blood pressure among endogamous groups of Punjab & Haryana

The present study was done on 1200 young adult unmarried females belonging to age group 18-35 years residing in Haryana and Punjab region. The study was done on subjects of two sects of these two regions, i.e. Jat and Baniya. Present study was undertaken to study the correlation of anthropometric measurements in young unmarried females with blood pressure and to find out effectiveness of anthropometric indicators as predictors of high blood pressure. A positive correlation of weight, BMI, WC, WHR and WHtR with SBP & DBP was observed and it was found to be highly significant. In the present study it was found that BMI, WC, WHR and WHtR can be used as predictors of blood pressure in Haryana and Punjab region. When seen specifically in endogamous groups, WC was found to be stronger predictor of DBP in Punjabi Baniya females with variance of 25% and in Haryanvi Baniya with variance of 10%. BMI showed strong predicting power in Punjabi Baniya females for SBP with 19% variance, while WHtR was found as strong predictor of DBP in Jat Sikh females of Punjab with 21% variance.
Unilateral and Mild Bilateral Hearing Loss in Children: Past and Current Perspectives

Since the early 1980s, audiologists have become increasingly aware of the potential effect of even mild degrees of hearing loss on the psychoeducational and psychosocial outcomes of children. This review describes some of the key research findings during the past several decades that have led us to our current thinking about unilateral and mild bilateral hearing loss in children. The first section addresses unilateral hearing loss. This is followed by a review of the literature on mild bilateral hearing loss. Specifically, the issues addressed include the significance of permanent mild degrees of hearing loss on children's psychoeducational and psychosocial development and the speech, language, and auditory characteristics of children with mild degrees of hearing loss. Finally, some recommendations regarding the direction of future research are offered. This review is followed by 2 articles summarizing the proceedings of a 2005 workshop convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) program, and the Marion Downs Hearing Center to address concerns about the underidentification of—and professionals' apparent lack of awareness of—permanent unilateral and minimal to mild hearing loss in children. 56,57
A Measurement Study of Wide-Area Cloud Paths

Many popular cloud applications use inter-data center paths; yet, little is known about the characteristics of these “cloud paths”. Over an eighteen month period, wemeasure the intercontinental cloud paths of three providers (Amazon, Google, andMicrosoft) using client side (VM-to-VM)measurements. We find that cloud paths are more predictable compared to public Internet paths, with an order of magnitude lower loss rate and jitter at the tail (95th percentile and beyond) compared to public Internet paths. We also investigate the nature of packet losses on these paths (e.g., random vs. bursty) and potential reasons why these paths may be better in quality. Based on our insights, we consider how we can further improve the quality of these paths with the help of existing loss mitigation techniques. We demonstrate that using the cloud path in conjunction with a detour path can mask most of the cloud losses, resulting in up to five 9’s of network availability for applications.
PyDial: A Multi-domain Statistical Dialogue System Toolkit

Statistical Spoken Dialogue Systems have been around for many years. However, access to these systems has always been dif-ﬁcult as there is still no publicly available end-to-end system implementation. To alleviate this, we present PyDial, an open-source end-to-end statistical spoken dialogue system toolkit which provides implementations of statistical approaches for all dialogue system modules. Moreover, it has been extended to provide multi-domain conversational functionality. It offers easy conﬁguration, easy extensibility, and domain-independent implementations of the respective dialogue system modules. The toolkit is available for download under the Apache 2.0 license.
Improving operational performance within social housing

Facility management is the practice of coordinating the physical workplace with the people and work of the organization. As such it requires multi-focused organisational strategy orientation combined with proactive identification and assessment of new service concepts. The goal is to enhance property values through active day-to-day management that focuses on maintaining high levels of occupancy and owner/tenant satisfaction, while lowering facility costs. With this study we try to implement additionally Analytical Hierarchical Process and Knowledge Management methods with the aim to maintain cost efficient operations while providing the users a quality living & working environment. What does it require from the strategic management and organization of operations?
Power-efficient resource allocation for cognitive radio in OFDM contexts

Cognitive radio is presently being researched as a means to greatly improve spectrum usage efficiency, connectivity and QoS among wireless devices and systems. In parallel, efficient and fair resource allocation strategies are being studied in order to address the requirements of future wireless technologies. In this paper, we assess a novel resource allocation scheme for OFDM systems which aims to maximize performance while limiting received interference at each user to below a defined threshold. We show that our scheme is relevant to cognitive radio, and demonstrate that through our approach, significant power savings can be achieved in wireless systems.
PENGARUH LEVERAGE, PROFITABILITAS, PERTUMBUHAN PERUSAHAAN, DAN OPINI AUDIT TAHUN SEBELUMNYA TERHADAP PENERIMAAN OPINI AUDIT GOING CONCERN (Studi Pada Perusahaan Pertambangan yang Terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia Tahun 2013-2016)

Abstrak Opini audit going concern merupakan opini yang diberikan auditor apabila perusahaan tidak dapat mempertahankan keberlangsungan hidupnya. Opini audit going concern dapat digunakan sebagai sebuah peringatan bagi para pengguna laporan keuangan guna menghindari kesalahan dalam pembuatan keputusan khususnya dalam hal berinvestasi. Hal tersebut tentu akan berpengaruh terhadap keberlangsungan usaha entitas di masa yang akan datang. Penelitian ini menggunakan perusahaan pertambangan yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) tahun 2013- 2016 sebagai sampel. Populasi penelitian ini sebanyak 43 perusahaan. Sampel penelitian berjumlah 16 perusahaan yang dipilih dengan metode purposive sampling, dengan periode pengamatan selama 4 tahun. Metode yang digunakan untuk menganalisis hubungan antar variabel adalah metode regresi logistik. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa secara simultan terdapat pengaruh yang signifikan antara leverage, profitabilitas, pertumbuhan perusahaan, dan opini audit tahun sebelumnya terhadap penerimaan opini audit going concern. Secara parsial profitabilitas berpengaruh negatif signifikan terhadap penerimaan opini audit going concern. Opini audit tahun sebelumnya berpengaruh positif signifikan terhadap penerimaan opini audit going concern. Sedangkan leverage dan pertumbuhan perusahaan tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap penerimaan opini audit going concern. Kata kunci : Leverage, Profitabilitas, Pertumbuhan Perusahaan, Opini Audit tahun Sebelumnya, dan Opini Audit Going Concern. Abstract The going concern audit opinion is an opinion given by the auditor if the company cannot maintain its survival. The going concern audit opinion can be used as a warning to users of financial statements to avoid mistakes in making decisions, especially in terms of investing. This will certainly affect the business continuity of the entity in the future. This study uses mining companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) 2013-2016 as samples. The population of this study were 43 companies. The research sample consisted of 16 companies selected by purposive sampling method, with an observation period of 4 years. The method used to analyze the relationship between variables is logistic regression method. The results of this study indicate that simultaneously there is a significant influence between leverage, profitability, company growth, and previous year's audit opinion on the acceptance of going concern audit opinion. Partially profitability has a significant negative effect on the acceptance of going concern audit opinion. Previous year audit opinion has a significant positive effect on the acceptance of going concern audit opinion. While leverage and company growth do not significantly influence the acceptance of going concern audit opinion. Keywords: Leverage, Profitability, Company Growth, Previous Year’s Audit Opinion, and Going Concern Audit Opinion
Direct Evidence for Circulating apoSAA as the Precursor of Tissue AA Amyloid Deposits

A precursor product study was carried out using tritiated, undenatured murine high‐density lipoprotein (HDL)‐apoSAA, to assess whether circulating HDL‐apoSAA is the precursor of tissue AA amyloid deposits. The quantity of label accumulating in AA over a 24‐h period was determined per unit weight of spleen. In addition a mathematical assessment of the quantity of label that should have accumulated in splaenic AA within 2–1 h was nude, based on the half‐life of circulating apoSAA, the rate of change of the specific activity of circulating apoSAA, and rate of deposition of splenic AA. The observed result was approximately 47%, of the theoretically predicted value. The latter did not include extraction efficiencies of AA peptide from spleen nor losses which might nave occurred during column fractionation of splenic extracts The observed and predicted results are therefore in remarkably good agreement and indicate that circulating apoSAA is the major source of protein for splenic AA amyloid deposition.
PENGARUH PDRB PERKAPITA, PENDIDIKAN, PENGANGGURAN, DAN JUMLAH POLISI TERHADAP ANGKA KRIMINALITAS DI PROVINSI ACEH

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat pengaruh PDRB perkapita, pendidikan, pengangguran dan jumlah polisi terhadap angka kriminalitas di provinsi Aceh dengan menggunakan data sekunder dari tahun 2011-2015 dengan metode, Fixed Effect Model (FEM). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pendapatan Pendapatan perkapita terhadap kriminalitas berpengaruh negative namun tidak signifikan. Variabel pendidikan dan pengangguran memiliki koefisien positif signifikan terhadap kriminalitas. Jumlah polisi menunjukkan pengaruh positif signfikan terhadap kriminalitas di Provinsi Aceh. Disarankan kepada pemerintah agar sebaiknya pemerintah lebih banyak membuka lapangan pekerjaan baru agar dapat menyerap lebih banyak tenaga kerja, pemerintah juga memberikan pendidikan gratis kepada masyarakat yang kurang mampudan diberikan kemampuan skill sesuai kebutuhan ekonomi, dan diharapkan kepada pihak keamanan yang terkait, agar memperbanyak pengamanan guna untuk memperkecil tingkat kejahatan. Kata Kunci : PDRB, Pendidikan, Pengangguran, Jumlah Polisi, Kriminalitas
EMOJIS: VISUAL COMMUNICATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Emojis are increasingly becoming part of the lexicon many of our students recognize and use daily, and they are being touted as leading the way in the development of visual communication for sharing ideas and information. However, while research indicates that their use is helping to clarify or disambiguate messages, a number of issues have restricted their adoption in educational communication and feedback. To ensure that the intended connotation of an emoji is conveyed, companies that use emojis for branding and marketing, such as Pepsi, MTV, and Burger King, rely on custom-designed emojis their consumers can recognise and use in their text messages. Not only are these emojis used for selecting and ordering products and providing feedback on services, customers use them when communicating with their friends and family. To emulate the successful implementation of emojis in commerce, their use in higher education needs to be as targeted in purpose and meaning, and instructional designers need to define and develop a set of emojis specifically intended to support contemporary social-constructivist pedagogy. This paper looks at the current use of emojis in business and education and examines how a sound instructional design approach to the development of emojis could support learning through shared visual elements in contemporary social/educational media environments. Article DOI: https://dx.doi. org/10.20319/pijtel.2018. 22.0111 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
The influence of activity on muscle size and protein turnover.

1. The effects of the loss of normal activity can be studied in muscles held in a shortened position by immobilizing the ankle in a plaster cast. Since the innervation remains intact with this procedure, removal of the restraining case allows normal activity to be restored. The soleus and plantaris muscles grew as a function of time after the return of normal activity and these changes in tissue size are explained by changes in the average rates of protein synthesis and protein break‐down as measured by sensitive in vitro techniques. Activity stimulates protein synthesis and inhibits protein break‐down of the soleus muscle, thus enabling the tissue to accumulate protein. Blockage of de novo synthesis of RNA, but not DNA, severely restricted the normal, rapid enhancement of protein synthesis after thr return of activity. 2. The return of isotonic activity to the extensor digitorum longus muscle after immobilization in a lengthened position failed to fully compensate for the loss of the growth‐promoting influence of stretch and the tissue gradually returned to the size of the control muscle. During the recovery process the higher rate of protein turnover and RNA concentrations of the immobilized muscle returned to the lower values of the control.
Motivations for and outcomes of participating in research online communities

This study examined consumers’ motivations for participating in market research online communities (MROCs) and an integrative role of community identification in explaining its motivational antecedents and consequences. Online survey data (n = 1,461) were collected from various company-sponsored MROCs, which were run by a leading online community service provider in the United States. The findings showed that several motivations underlying MROC participation had an influence on members’ sense of identification with MROCs. Furthermore, members’ identification with MROCs was found to contribute to enhancing their feeling heard by the sponsoring company, which in turn affected their intention to continually participate in communities and trust in the sponsoring company’s brand. Theoretical and managerial implications were discussed in relation to the value that listening to consumers has for market research.
Hydroxyurea therapy lowers circulating DNA levels in sickle cell anemia

Hydroxyurea reduces the frequency of acute pain in sickle cell disease (SCD). We sought to determine if hydroxyurea therapy affects cell free DNA (cfDNA) levels in SCD. cfDNA levels fell in all 10 patients studied; before hydroxyurea, mean was 1,879 (95% CI 1,104–3,199) GE/mL; after hydroxyurea, mean was 780 (95% CI, 634–959) GE/mL (P = 0.002). Mean cfDNA level in the 10 HbSS adults prior to starting hydroxyurea was also significantly higher than that in 115 HbSS case controls who had never taken hydroxyurea (1,879 vs 975 GE/mL, P = 0.02). cfDNA levels may be useful in monitoring response to hydroxyurea therapy in SCD. Am. J. Hematol. , 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of bariatric surgery on cardiovascular risk factors among morbidly obese patients.

AIM OF THE STUDY The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric by-pass on risk factors of cardiovascular diseases. MATERIAL AND METHODS We analyzed prospectively collected data of patients operated for morbid obesity who were qualified for laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) or laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric by-pass (LRYGB). Risk factors for wyłączecardiovascular diseases were assessed with the SCORE scale and both full and hard Framingham cardiovascular risk scores (FCRs). The data were collected on admission and one year after the procedures. We enrolled 264 patients (119 females, 116 males, 40.2±9.9 years old), of whom 117 underwent LRYGB and 118 LSG, respectively. RESULTS Preoperatively, 12% of patients were in the high-risk category of the SCORE scale, 65% were in the moderate risk category, and 24% were in the low-risk category. The median score of the SCORE scale was 1 (1-2). Lipid-based full FCR was 34.5% (24%-68%) and the hard FCR was 17.5% (10%-52%), while the respective BMI-based FCRs were 59% (31%-84%) and 37% (15%-67%). One year after the procedures, the mean %EBMIL (62.88%±20.02%) and %EWL (53.18%±15.87) were comparable between both procedures. Hypertension treatment was not necessary in 33 patients after LSG and in 55 after LRYGB. Diabetes mellitus remitted in 9 and 29 patients, respectively. Both procedures significantly reduced high and moderate risk prevalence in the SCORE scale in favor of the low risk category. Surgical interventions resulted in significant reductions of FCRs 1 year after surgery ( p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS Both LSG and LRYGB lead to a significant and comparable body mass reduction. Both procedures significantly decrease of the risk of cardiovascular diseases, based on SCORE and Framingham scales.
Molecular Basis of Tubulin Transport Within the Cilium by IFT74 and IFT81

Cilium Conundrum The cilium has emerged as the antenna of eukaryotic cells, having numerous functions in sensory reception and developmental signaling. Several disorders, such as polycystic kidney disease, are the result of compromised cilia structure. Bhogaraju et al. (p. 1009) elucidate how the intraflagellar transport machinery recognizes tubulin, a ciliary cargo that is integral to cilium maintenance and formation and is constantly turned over at the cilium tip. Two proteins cooperate to promote tubulin transport to and into cilia. Intraflagellar transport (IFT) of ciliary precursors such as tubulin from the cytoplasm to the ciliary tip is involved in the construction of the cilium, a hairlike organelle found on most eukaryotic cells. However, the molecular mechanisms of IFT are poorly understood. Here, we found that the two core IFT proteins IFT74 and IFT81 form a tubulin-binding module and mapped the interaction to a calponin homology domain of IFT81 and a highly basic domain in IFT74. Knockdown of IFT81 and rescue experiments with point mutants showed that tubulin binding by IFT81 was required for ciliogenesis in human cells.