Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short rest periods between work shifts predict sleep and health problems in nurses at 1-year follow-up

Objectives We investigated whether the number of work shifts separated by less than 11 hours (quick returns) at baseline (T1) could predict health problems in nurses at 1-year follow-up (T2). Methods 1224 nurses responded to a questionnaire-based survey in 2009 (T1) and 2010 (T2). Crude and adjusted logistic regression analyses were completed to assess the association between annual number of quick returns at T1 and the following outcome variables at T2: shift work disorder (SWD), excessive sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale), pathological fatigue (Chalder Fatigue Scale) and anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), while controlling for age, gender, the corresponding outcome variable at T1, number of night shifts at T1, change in number of quick returns and number of night shifts from T1 to T2. Results The adjusted analyses showed that the annual number of quick returns at T1 predicted the occurrence of SWD (OR=1.01, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.01) and pathological fatigue (OR=1.01, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.01) at T2. A decreased number of quick returns from T1 to T2 entailed a reduced risk of pathological fatigue (OR=0.67, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.99) at T2. There was no association between quick returns at T1 and excessive sleepiness, anxiety or depression at T2 in the adjusted analyses. Conclusions This is the first longitudinal study investigating the associations between quick returns and future health problems. Quick returns increased the risk of SWD and pathological fatigue at 1-year follow-up. Reducing the number of quick returns from 1 year to the next was related to reduced risk of developing pathological fatigue.
Silent brain infarcts and the risk of dementia and cognitive decline.

BACKGROUND Silent brain infarcts are frequently seen on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in healthy elderly people and may be associated with dementia and cognitive decline. METHODS We studied the association between silent brain infarcts and the risk of dementia and cognitive decline in 1015 participants of the prospective, population-based Rotterdam Scan Study, who were 60 to 90 years of age and free of dementia and stroke at base line. Participants underwent neuropsychological testing and cerebral MRI at base line in 1995 to 1996 and again in 1999 to 2000 and were monitored for dementia throughout the study period. We performed Cox proportional-hazards and multiple linear-regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, and level of education and for the presence or absence of subcortical atrophy and white-matter lesions. RESULTS During 3697 person-years of follow-up (mean per person, 3.6 years), dementia developed in 30 of the 1015 participants. The presence of silent brain infarcts at base line more than doubled the risk of dementia (hazard ratio, 2.26; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.09 to 4.70). The presence of silent brain infarcts on the base-line MRI was associated with worse performance on neuropsychological tests and a steeper decline in global cognitive function. Silent thalamic infarcts were associated with a decline in memory performance, and nonthalamic infarcts with a decline in psychomotor speed. When participants with silent brain infarcts at base line were subdivided into those with and those without additional infarcts at follow-up, the decline in cognitive function was restricted to those with additional silent infarcts. CONCLUSIONS Elderly people with silent brain infarcts have an increased risk of dementia and a steeper decline in cognitive function than those without such lesions.
INTERNET ADDICTION: IT'S RELATION WITH LONELINESS AMONG UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS OF SOUTH-PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

The current research aims to explain the excessive use of internet as becomes internet addiction and its relation with loneliness. The sample of (N =1020) undergraduates from Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan (BZU) and The Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB) were taken, including 255 male and 255 female from each university. A-Priori sample size was calculated to estimate minimum sample size that was 974 to remove biasness; I was taken twenty three respondents additionally from each university. There were two questionnaires used for measuring variables that were Chen Internet Addiction Scale, and UCLA Loneliness Scale was employed. Cross-sectional survey research design was used. Data was collected through purposive sampling technique and it analyzed by using SPSS version 21.0. Statistical techniques Regression, t-test, mean, and standard deviation were used. The results confirm from the collected data, 28% students have internet addicts, and 13.5% have high level of loneliness. Comparatively BZU students have more prevalence of internet addiction and high level of loneliness as compared to IUB. Likewise male students have more occurrences of these psychological problem as compared to female students overall. Study provides the potential negative impact and effect of internet addiction, developed a consensus definition, sign and symptoms of IA, and explored the physical, psychological and sociological outcomes of IA. Key terms: Internet Addiction, Problematic Internet Use (PIU), Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD), Loneliness.
A unified framework for phrase-based, hierarchical, and syntax-based statistical machine translation

Despite many differences between phrase-based, hierarchical, and syntax-based translation models, their training and testing pipelines are strikingly similar. Drawing on this fact, we extend the Moses toolkit to implement hierarchical and syntactic models, making it the first open source toolkit with end-to-end support for all three of these popular models in a single package. This extension substantially lowers the barrier to entry for machine translation research across multiple models.
Topic Modeling for Wikipedia Link Disambiguation

Many articles in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia have hyperlinks to ambiguous article titles; these ambiguous links should be replaced with links to unambiguous articles, a process known as disambiguation. We propose a novel statistical topic model based on link text, which we refer to as the Link Text Topic Model (LTTM), that we use to suggest new link targets for ambiguous links. To evaluate our model, we describe a method for extracting ground truth for this link disambiguation task from edits made to Wikipedia in a specific time period. We use this ground truth to demonstrate the superiority of LTTM over other existing link- and content-based approaches to disambiguating links in Wikipedia. Finally, we build a web service that uses LTTM to make suggestions to human editors wanting to fix ambiguous links in Wikipedia.
Validation of Four Measures of Social Support With Latina/o and Non-Hispanic White Undergraduates

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Perceived Social Support-Family and -Friends Scales, the Family Valuing of Education Scale, and the Mentoring Scale with Latina/o and non-Hispanic White college freshmen. When scores for 112 Latina/o and 597 non-Hispanic White freshmen were examined, strong reliability was found for the Perceived Social Support Scale scores and acceptable reliability for the Family Valuing of Education and Mentoring Scale scores for both groups. Evidence of concurrent validity was found for the Perceived Social Support-Friend and Mentoring Scale scores for Latina/o students. Evidence of construct and concurrent validity was found for both of the Social Support scales and the Mentoring Scale scores for non-Hispanic White students.
The Optimistic Trust Effect: Use of Belief in a Just World to Cope with Decision-Generated Threat

In a process the authors term just world coping, some consumers use positive beliefs concerning the general benevolence of the world as a resource to cope with marketplace threat. This belief buffers or even, ironically, enhances trust judgments in the face of threat. Three experiments and one replication show that, whereas consumers who do not hold this belief respond to decision-generated threat with distrust, trust is significantly higher for those who believe in a just world (optimistic trust effect). Process evidence shows such coping is automatically activated in response to threat but can be corrected for more normative considerations when an obvious ulterior motive is present. Finally, evidence this coping serves an ego-protective function is provided by manipulating whether consumers are directly threatened. Overall, findings are consistent with the view that belief in a just world operates as a positive illusion that allows consumers to cope with decision threat.
Characterization of intraocular immunopathology following intracameral inoculation with alloantigen

Purpose: Anterior chamber-associated immune deviation (ACAID) is a form of peripheral tolerance achieved via intracameral antigen inoculation. It is well known that ACAID effectively down-regulates potentially destructive immunities such as delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) at extraorbital sites. However, what has not been specifically addressed is whether local intraocular tissues are negatively affected from intracamerally placed antigen. Thus, the current study was undertaken to detect and characterize potential pathological effects on intraocular tissues following intracameral inoculation with alloantigen. Methods: ACAID induced in C57BL/6 hosts via intracameral inoculation with allogeneic (BALB/c) splenocytes was confirmed by the absence of DTH reactivity in the periphery. Injuries to the anterior segment and neuroretina following intracameral inoculation were evaluated pathologically via histological evaluation, molecularly via upregulation of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and functionally via assessment of photoreceptor degeneration and electroretinogram (ERG) out to 24 days. In all experiments, intracamerally inoculated mice were compared to sham-operated, and controlled lens-punctured mice—a procedure that elicits intracameral inflammation for positive identification of immunopathological changes. Results: Inflammation of anterior segment tissues persisted out to eight days, despite evidence that significant clearance of allogeneic cells took place within 6 h. In the neuroretina, a transient loss in ERG B-wave amplitudes was detected, but photoreceptor degeneration and GFAP upregulation were not. Conclusions: Intracameral inoculation with alloantigen leads to anterior segment inflammation and ERG dysfunction; however, this was markedly reduced and transient when compared to strong anterior segment inflammation induced by a more serious lens-puncture wound.
Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase Single Nucleotide Polymorphism and Left Ventricular Function in Early Chronic Kidney Disease

Background Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is associated with accelerated cardiovascular disease and heart failure. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) Glu298Asp single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotype has been associated with a worse phenotype amongst patients with established heart failure and in patients with progression of their renal disease. The association of a cardiac functional difference in non-dialysis CKD patients with no known previous heart failure, and eNOS gene variant is investigated. Methods 140 non-dialysis CKD patients, who had cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging and tissue doppler echocardiography as part of two clinical trials, were genotyped for eNOS Glu298Asp SNP retrospectively. Results The median estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was 50mls/min and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was 74% with no overt diastolic dysfunction in this cohort. There were significant differences in LVEF across eNOS genotypes with GG genotype being associated with a worse LVEF compared to other genotypes (LVEF: GG 71%, TG 76%, TT 73%, p = 0.006). After multivariate analysis, (adjusting for age, eGFR, baseline mean arterial pressure, contemporary CMR heart rate, total cholesterol, high sensitive C-reactive protein, body mass index and gender) GG genotype was associated with a worse LVEF, and increased LV end-diastolic and systolic index (p = 0.004, 0.049 and 0.009 respectively). Conclusions eNOS Glu298Asp rs1799983 polymorphism in CKD patients is associated with relevant sub-clinical cardiac remodelling as detected by CMR. This gene variant may therefore represent an important genetic biomarker, and possibly highlight pathways for intervention, in these patients who are at particular risk of worsening cardiac disease as their renal dysfunction progresses.
A wideband IM3 cancellation technique for CMOS attenuators

In the receiver path and in spectrum analyzers, typically gain control blocks are used to limit the incident power to the level that the receiver circuitry can handle without degrading the linearity; in the transmitter path stringent power control is also desirable. Although variable-gain amplifiers (VGAs) traditionally implement the gain-control block, attenuators based on FET transistors show superior performances on linearity, power handling capability and power consumption.
Family conflict communication

Family communication is of great interest to researchers, counselors, and laypeople alike for at least three reasons. First, family is the context in which adults and children experience a great part of their most important and most intimate interpersonal relationships. Because most persons’ overall life satisfaction is dependent on the quality of their interpersonal relationships, the quality of family communication has great significance for the overall quality of life for most people in our society. Second, families are children’s main socialization agents (Noller, 1995). That is, the communication and relationship skills that children acquire in their families of origin, or fail to acquire, will affect the quality of their interpersonal relationships throughout their lifetime. Finally, unlike adults who are essentially free to choose with whom they associate and how they communicate with those with whom they associate, children have no choice over who is in their families and little influence on how other family members communicate. As such, they are particularly vulnerable to harmful or abusive behaviors by other family members, and society has a legitimate interest in learning about such behaviors and in protecting children from such negative influences. All these reasons that justify an interest in family communication in general also justify an interest in family conflict communication in particular. How persons communicate during interpersonal conflict is of paramount relevance in determining the quality and stability of their close interpersonal relationships, including family relationships. In the marital context, Gottman (1991, 1994) reported that couples that manage interpersonal conflict well in their relationships report greater relationship satisfaction, more love and respect for their partners, and greater commitment to their partners. Similar findings are reported for family conflict. Families that manage their conflicts well have more satisfied parents and children, and children perform better in school and in peer relationships (Sillars, Canary, & Tafoya, 2004).
Convex-Envelope Based Automated Quantitative Approach to Multi-Voxel 1H-MRS Applied to Brain Tumor Analysis

Background Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) can measure in vivo brain tissue metabolism that exhibits unique biochemical characteristics in brain tumors. For clinical application, an efficient and versatile quantification method of MRS would be an important tool for medical research, particularly for exploring the scientific problem of tumor monitoring. The objective of our study is to propose an automated MRS quantitative approach and assess the feasibility of this approach for glioma grading, prognosis and boundary detection. Methods An automated quantitative approach based on a convex envelope (AQoCE) is proposed in this paper, including preprocessing, convex-envelope based baseline fitting, bias correction, sectional baseline removal, and peak detection, in a total of 5 steps. Some metabolic ratios acquired by this quantification are selected for statistical analysis. An independent sample t-test and the Kruskal-Wallis test are used for distinguishing low-grade gliomas (LGG) and high-grade gliomas (HGG) and for detecting the tumor, peritumoral and contralateral areas, respectively. Seventy-eight cases of pre-operative brain gliomas with pathological reports are included in this study. Results Cho/NAA, Cho/Cr and Lip-Lac/Cr (LL/Cr) calculated by AQoCE in the tumor area differ significantly between LGG and HGG, with p≤0.005. Using logistic regression combining Cho/NAA, Cho/Cr and LL/Cr to generate a ROC curve, AQoCE achieves a sensitivity of 92.9%, a specificity of 72.2%, and an area under ROC curve (AUC) of 0.860. Moreover, both Cho/NAA and Cho/Cr in the AQoCE approach show a significant difference (p≤0.019) between tumoral, peritumoral, and contralateral areas. The comparison between the results of AQoCE and Siemens MRS processing software are also discussed in this paper. Conclusions The AQoCE approach is an automated method of residual water removal and metabolite quantification. It can be applied to multi-voxel 1H-MRS for evaluating brain glioma grading and demonstrating characteristics of brain glioma metabolism. It can also detect infiltration in the peritumoral area. Under the limited clinical data used, AQoCE is significantly more versatile and efficient compared to the reference approach of Siemens.
Effect of antimicrobial peptides from Apis mellifera hemolymph and its optimized version Api88 on biological activities of human monocytes and mast cells

Apidaecin peptides are produced by the honeybee Apis mellifera as a major part of its non-specific defense system against infections. Having verified that the peptides apidaecin 1b and Api88—a designer peptide based on the native apidaecin 1b sequence—are highly active against Gram-negative bacteria, we studied their ability to modulate biological activities of human monocytes and mast cells (MC), two important cell types of the human innate immune system. We could show that both peptides are nontoxic and fairly resistant to degradation in cell culture medium containing 10% FBS. Among the peptides tested we found Api88 to inhibit LPS-induced TNF-α production in a concentration-dependent manner. Resting monocytes did not respond to Api88. Whilst Api88 neither induced migration nor affected the phagocytic activity of monocytes it partially inhibited the generation of reactive oxygen intermediates produced in response to LPS. In human MC, however, Api88 triggered degranulation and the mobilization of intracellular Ca2+-ions. Taken together these data clearly indicate that Api88 is a multifunctional molecule that can modulate biological responses of human monocytes and MC in addition to its antimicrobial activity.
The Sensor Reachback Problem

We consider the problem of reachback communication in sensor networks. In this problem, a large number of sensors are deployed on a field—the goal is for them to measure the state of some physical process unfolding over the field, and cooperate to send back this information to a far receiver for further processing. Formulating the problem as one of communicating multiple correlated sources over an array of independent channels, and with partial cooperation among encoders, we prove a set of coding theorems that give a complete characterization of the reachback capacity, i.e., of the exact conditions on the sources and the channels under which reliable communication with the far receiver is possible. An important conclusion that follows from the results presented in this paper is the fact that, for a large (and arguably most relevant) class of communication networks, separate source and channel coding does provide an optimal system architecture. J. Barros is with the Institute for Communications Engineering, Munich University of Technology, Munich, Germany. URL: http://www.ei. tum.de/∼barros/. S. D. Servetto is with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. URL: http://cn.ece. cornell.edu/. Work supported by a scholarship from the Fulbright commission, and by the National Science Foundation, under awards CCR-0238271 (CAREER), CCR-0330059, and ANR0325556. Parts of this work have been presented at the 2002 IEEE Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing held in the US Virgin Islands (paper invited to a special session on “Signal Processing for Wireless Networks”) [1], at the 2003 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory held in Yokohama (Japan) [2], and at the 2003 DIMACS Workshop on Network Information Theory [3].
Aberrant methylation and expression of DAPk1 in human hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract Conclusion: These findings indicate that in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC), hypermethylation and down-regulation of death-associated protein kinase-1 (DAPk1) are common events, which are associated with a poor prognosis. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the methylation and expression of DAPk1, a tumor suppressor gene, in HSCC, and explore its clinical significance. Methods: The tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues were collected from 53 patients with HSCC. The methylation status of DAPk1 was detected by methylation–specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP), and expression of DAPk1 was determined with real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunohistochemistry, and Western blot at mRNA or protein levels. Correlations between the findings and patients’ clinicopathological parameters were further evaluated. Results: The methylation ratio of DAPk1 in tumor tissues (60.38%) was significantly higher than that in the adjacent non-tumor tissues (26.42%) (p = 0.001), while DAPk1 expression in the tumors was down-regulated markedly (real-time RT-PCR, p = 0.002; immunohistochemistry, p = 0.006; Western blot, p < 0.001). DAPk1 methylation was negatively correlated with its mRNA expression (p = 0.002, r = –0.521). Both hypermethylation and down-regulation of DAPk1 were closely related to lymph node metastasis (p = 0.001 and 0.001, respectively), advanced TNM stage (p = 0.009 and 0.019, respectively), and low survival rates (p = 0.031 and 0.045, respectively).
Closed-form blind mimo channel estimation for OSTBCS: Resolving ambiguities in rotatable codes

In this paper, the problem of blind subspace-based channel estimation in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems under orthogonal space-time block coded (OSTBC) transmission is investigated. We introduce a virtual snapshot model in which the redundancies in the OSTBC are exploited to augment the received data. We show that the vector of true channel parameters is scaled version of the normalized principal eigenvector of the associated augmented data covariance matrix, which in the case of rotatable OSTBCs is not unique. We propose a simple weighting of the different virtual snapshots in the computation of a modified covariance matrix and derive general conditions that guarantee uniqueness of the channel estimates from the principal eigenvector of that matrix. Further, we prove that the blind estimation schemes of [8] and [9] can be viewed as a particular examples satisfying these uniqueness conditions. In previous works, the uniqueness of these schemes has only been concluded from simulation results but it has not been proven analytically before.