Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The regular general practitioner and sickness absence--a register-based study.

BACKGROUND Undertaking research on the role of regular GPs with regard to rates of sickness absence is methodologically challenging, and existing results show a wide divergence. We investigated how long-term sickness absence is affected by the characteristics of doctors and their patient lists. MATERIAL AND METHODS The study encompassed all those vocationally active residents of Oslo and Bergen in 2005-2006 who had the same regular GP throughout 2006 (N = 298,039). Encrypted data on sickness absence for each individual in 2006, as well their age, gender and level of education were merged with data on the regular GPs (N = 568) and their patient lists, and subsequently analysed with the aid of logistic regression. The outcome variable was at least one period of sickness absence which had been paid for by the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NLWA). The explanatory variables included the age, gender, list length and list status (open/closed) of the regular GPs, as well as variables that characterised the composition of the patient lists. The analyses were stratified by gender and controlled for individual age and education. RESULTS The age, gender and list length of the regular GPs were not associated with sickness absence paid for by the NLWA. The odds ratio for sickness absence > 16 days was reduced for both women and men when the list contained many highly educated patients, a high proportion of elderly people and few disability pensioners. Men on lists with a high proportion of men and lists with a high proportion of vocationally active patients also had lower odds rates for sickness absence > 16 days. Among women, the rate of sickness absence was lower for those on open lists than for those on closed lists. INTERPRETATION In addition to well-known individual factors, the study shows that the likelihood of sickness absence is affected by the socio-demographic composition of the patient list to which one belongs.
The Impact of (In)Equality of Opportunities on Wealth Distribution: Evidence from Ultimatum Games

We study the impact on payoff distribution of varying the probability (opportunity) that a player has of becoming the proposer in an ultimatum game (UG). Subjects' assignment to roles within the UG was randomised before the interactions. Subjects played 20 rounds anonymously and with random rematching at each round. We compare the outcomes of four different settings that differed according to the distribution of opportunities between the pair of players in each round, and across the whole 20 rounds. The results clearly point to the existence of a discontinuity in the origin of the opportunity spectrum.Allowing a player a 1% probability of becoming the proposer brings about significantly lower offers and higher acceptance rates with respect to the benchmark case where a player has no such a chance. As such probability is raised to 20% and 50%, this same trend continues, but the effects are generally no longer significant with respect to the 1% setting. In one case the monotonic pattern is violated. We conclude that subjects in our experiment appear to be motivated mostly by the purely symbolic aspect of opportunity rather than by the actual fairness in the allocation of opportunities.
Compréhension et gestion des signaux faibles dans le domaine de la santé-sécurité

Ce travail de recherche etait base dans le laboratoire CRC des Mines ParisTech, finance par la FonCSI et avait pour terrain de recherche sanofi-aventis (la direction centrale HSE et les sites pharmaceutiques core solid francais). Le but de ce travail etait de comprendre et d'aider a mieux gerer les signaux faibles sur nos terrains de recherche, dans le domaine des risques d'accidents de travail et de maladies professionnelles. Cette these propose une vision holistique des signaux faibles en les observant tout au long de leur vie, au travers des differents groupes d'acteurs, de la hierarchie et des outils. Les methodes de travail sont basees sur la grounded theory, en extrayant du terrain le modele que nous proposons et en travaillant a base d'etudes de cas. Nous avons donc extrait un modele permettant de mieux definir les signaux faibles : le « modele DPTP » : un signal faible est un signal pouvant annoncer un evenement majeur (accident majeur, accident du travail ou maladie professionnelle) et restant faible aux differentes etapes de sa vie (detection, pertinence, transmission, priorisation). Pour chacune des etapes de notre modele nous avons cherche dans la litterature quelles etaient les connaissances necessaires a l'avancement de notre travail. Ensuite, nous sommes retournes sur le terrain afin de mener differentes etudes de cas pour valider et preciser chacune de ces etapes. Au terme de ce travail, nous pouvons proposer le modele DPTP comme un modele permettant l'aide a la gestion des signaux faibles.
Otolith tethering in the zebrafish otic vesicle requires Otogelin and α-Tectorin

Otoliths are biomineralised structures important for balance and hearing in fish. Their counterparts in the mammalian inner ear, otoconia, have a primarily vestibular function. Otoliths and otoconia form over sensory maculae and are attached to the otolithic membrane, a gelatinous extracellular matrix that provides a physical coupling between the otolith and the underlying sensory epithelium. In this study, we have identified two proteins required for otolith tethering in the zebrafish ear, and propose that there are at least two stages to this process: seeding and maintenance. The initial seeding step, in which otolith precursor particles tether directly to the tips of hair cell kinocilia, fails to occur in the einstein (eis) mutant. The gene disrupted in eis is otogelin (otog); mutations in the human OTOG gene have recently been identified as causative for deafness and vestibular dysfunction (DFNB18B). At later larval stages, maintenance of otolith tethering to the saccular macula is dependent on tectorin alpha (tecta) function, which is disrupted in the rolling stones (rst) mutant. α-Tectorin (Tecta) is a major constituent of the tectorial membrane in the mammalian cochlea. Mutations in the human TECTA gene can cause either dominant (DFNA8/12) or recessive (DFNB21) forms of deafness. Our findings indicate that the composition of extracellular otic membranes is highly conserved between mammals and fish, reinforcing the view that the zebrafish is an excellent model system for the study of deafness and vestibular disease. Summary: The tethering of zebrafish otoliths, which are important for balance and hearing in fish, occurs in two stages that are dependent on genes that have been implicated in human deafness.
Improving lip-reading with feature space transforms for multi-stream audio-visual speech recognition

In this paper we investigate feature space transforms to improve lip-reading performance for multi-stream HMM based audio-visual speech recognition (AVSR). The feature space transforms include non-linear Gaus-sianization transform and feature space maximum likelihood linear regression (fMLLR). We apply Gaussianiza-tion at the various stages of visual front-end. The results show that Gaussianizing the ﬁnal visual features achieves the best performance: (cid:2) (cid:4) gain on lip-reading and (cid:5) (cid:7) (cid:4) gain on AVSR. We also compare performance of speaker-based Gaussianization and global Gaussianization. With-out fMLLR adaptation, speaker-based Gaussianization improves more on lip-reading and multi-stream AVSR performance. However, with fMLLR adaptation, global Gaussianization shows better results, and achieves (cid:5) (cid:2) (cid:4) over baseline fMLLR adaptation for AVSR.
Review of Different Inpainting Algorithms

inpainting was historically done manually by painters for removing defect from paintings and photographs. Fill the region of missing information from a signal using surrounding information and re-form signal is the basic work of inpainting algorithms. Here in this paper we have studied and reviewed many different algorithms present for doing image inpainting and explain their approach. We have briefly explain some algorithms for video inpainting applications. This paper contain work done in the field of image inpainting and guide newcomers who are willing to work in image inpainting field.
The dose dependent in vitro responses of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines to extracts of Vatica diospyroides symington type SS fruit include effects on mode of cell death

Background: Vatica diospyroides type LS is a known source of valuable compounds for cancer treatment, however, in contrast little is known about therapeutic efficacy of type SS. Objective: This study focused on in vitro cytotoxicity of these fruit extracts, and the cell death mode they induce in breast cancer cells. Materials and Methods: Acetone extracts of fruit were tested for cytotoxicity against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines. The apoptosis and necrosis of these cells were quantified by fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) and western blot analyses. Results: After 72 h of treatment, the 50% growth inhibition concentrations (IC50) levels were 16.21 ± 0.13 µg/mL against MCF-7 and 30.0 ± 4.30 µg/mL against MDA-MB-231, indicating high and moderate cytotoxicity, respectively. From the FACS results, we estimate that the cotyledon extract at half IC50 produced 11.7% dead MCF-7 cells via apoptosis, whereas another concentrations both apoptosis and necrosis modes co-existed in a dose-dependent manner. In MDA-MB-231 cell line, only the apoptosis was induced by the pericarp extract in a dose-dependent manner. With the extracts at half IC50 concentration, in both cells, the expression of p21 decreased while that of Bax increased within 12–48 h of dosing, confirming apoptosis induced by time-dependent responses. Apoptosis dependent on p53 was found in MCF-7, whereas the mutant p53 of MDA-MB-231 cells was expressed. Conclusion: The results indicate that fruit extracts of V. diospyroides have cytotoxic effects against MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cells via apoptosis pathway in a dose-dependent manner. This suggests that the extracts could provide active ingredients for the development, targeting breast cancer therapy.
A Gyrovector Space Approach to Hyperbolic Geometry

The mere mention of hyperbolic geometry is enough to strike fear in the heart of the undergraduate mathematics and physics student. Some regard themselves as excluded from the profound insights of hyperbolic geometry so that this enormous portion of human achievement is a closed door to them. The mission of this book is to open that door by making the hyperbolic geometry of Bolyai and Lobachevsky, as well as the special relativity theory of Einstein that it regulates, accessible to a wider audience in terms of novel analogies that the modern and unknown share with the classical and familiar. These novel analogies that this book captures stem from Thomas gyration, which is the mathematical abstraction of the relativistic effect known as Thomas precession. Remarkably, the mere introduction of Thomas gyration turns Euclidean geometry into hyperbolic geometry, and reveals mystique analogies that the two geometries share. Accordingly, Thomas gyration gives rise to the prefix "gyro" that is extensively used in the gyrolanguage of this book, giving rise to terms like gyrocommutative and gyroassociative binary operations in gyrogroups, and gyrovectors in gyrovector spaces. Of particular importance is the introduction of gyrovectors into hyperbolic geometry, where they are equivalence classes that add according to the gyroparallelogram law in full analogy with vectors, which are equivalence classes that add according to the parallelogram law. A gyroparallelogram, in turn, is a gyroquadrilateral the two gyrodiagonals of which intersect at their gyromidpoints in full analogy with a parallelogram, which is a quadrilateral the two diagonals of which intersect at their midpoints. Table of Contents: Gyrogroups / Gyrocommutative Gyrogroups / Gyrovector Spaces / Gyrotrigonometry
Macrophage accumulation and renal fibrosis are independent of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in mouse obstructive nephropathy

Background and Aim: The progression of renal injury, initiated by either an immune or non‐immune insult, is closely associated with the accumulation of leucocytes and fibroblasts in the damaged kidney. Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) regulates leucocyte activation and fibroblast proliferation in vitro. Studies have identified a pathological role for MIF in immune‐initiated renal injury in the rat. In this study, we examined the role of MIF in obstructive nephropathy, where renal injury is initiated by a non‐immune insult.
Working Papers in Economics and Statistics Environmental Regulation and Investment: Evidence from European Industries Environmental Regulation and Investment: Evidence from European Industries

This paper contributes to the empirical literature on the relationship between environmental regulation and firm behavior. In particular, we ask whether and how strongly investment decisions of firms respond to stringency in environmental regulation. Environmental stringency is measured as (i) an industry's total current expenditure on environmental protection, and (ii) a country's revenue from environmental taxes. Focusing on European industry level data between 1995 and 2005, we estimate the differential impact of environmental stringency on four types of investment: gross investment in tangible goods, in new buildings, in machinery, and in 'productive' investment (investment in tangible goods minus investment in abatement technologies). Both environmental variables enter positively, and their quadratic terms exhibit significantly negative parameter estimates. This, in turn, indicates a positive but diminishing impact of environmental regulation on investment.
Fuzzy Wavelet Neural Networks for Identification and Control of Dynamic Plants—A Novel Structure and a Comparative Study

One of the main problems for effective control of an uncertain system is the creation of the proper knowledge base for the control system. In this paper, the integration of fuzzy set theory and wavelet neural networks (WNNs) is proposed to alleviate the problem. The proposed fuzzy WNN is constructed on the base of a set of fuzzy rules. Each rule includes a wavelet function in the consequent part of the rule. The parameter update rules of the system are derived based on the gradient descent method. The structure is tested for the identification and the control of the dynamic plants commonly used in the literature. It is seen that the proposed structure results in a better performance despite its smaller parameter space.
Clinical methodologies for achieving primary dental implant stability: the effects of alveolar bone density.

PURPOSE The authors conducted a literature review to determine the effects of local alveolar bone density on clinical techniques designed to achieve primary implant stability. TYPES OF STUDIES REVIEWED The authors reviewed articles in the literature that addressed attaining primary stability of dental implants. They combined their findings with their own clinical experiences to produce the information provided in this article. RESULTS The authors present practical information regarding bone density to delineate for clinicians instances in which modifications of the drilling protocol are needed. They also correlate measures to enhance primary stability with the alveolar bone density at the implantation site. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS To enhance primary implant stability, modifications of the drilling protocol are necessary in different bone densities.
Lakatos’ Scientific Research Programmes as a Framework for Analysing Informal Argumentation about Socio‐scientific Issues

The purpose of this study is to explore how Lakatos’ scientific research programmes might serve as a theoretical framework for representing and evaluating informal argumentation about socio‐scientific issues. Seventy undergraduate science and non‐science majors were asked to make written arguments about four socio‐scientific issues. Our analysis showed that the science majors’ informal arguments were significantly better than the non‐science majors’ arguments. In terms of the resources for supporting reasons, we find that personal experience and scientific belief are the two categories that are generated most often in both groups of the participants. Besides, science majors made significantly greater use of analogies, while non‐science majors made significantly greater use of authority. In addition, both science majors and non‐science majors had a harder time changing their arguments after participating in a group discussion. In the study of argumentation in science, scholars have often used Toulmin’s framework of data, warrant, backing, qualifiers, claims, and rebuttal. Our work demonstrates that Lakatos’ work is also a viable perspective, especially when warrant and backing are difficult to discern, and when students’ arguments are resistant to change. Our use of Lakatos’ framework highlights how the ‘hard core’ of students’ arguments about socio‐scientific issues does, indeed, seem to be protected by a ‘protective belt’ and, thus, is difficult to alter. From these insights, we make specific implications for further research and teaching.
VEGF-A/NRP1 stimulates GIPC1 and Syx complex formation to promote RhoA activation and proliferation in skin cancer cells

ABSTRACT Neuropilin-1 (NRP1) has been identified as a VEGF-A receptor. DJM-1, a human skin cancer cell line, expresses endogenous VEGF-A and NRP1. In the present study, the RNA interference of VEGF-A or NRP1 suppressed DJM-1 cell proliferation. Furthermore, the overexpression of the NRP1 wild type restored shNRP1-treated DJM-1 cell proliferation, whereas NRP1 cytoplasmic deletion mutants did not. A co-immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that VEGF-A induced interactions between NRP1 and GIPC1, a scaffold protein, and complex formation between GIPC1 and Syx, a RhoGEF. The knockdown of GIPC1 or Syx reduced active RhoA and DJM-1 cell proliferation without affecting the MAPK or Akt pathway. C3 exoenzyme or Y27632 inhibited the VEGF-A-induced proliferation of DJM-1 cells. Conversely, the overexpression of the constitutively active form of RhoA restored the proliferation of siVEGF-A-treated DJM-1 cells. Furthermore, the inhibition of VEGF-A/NRP1 signaling upregulated p27, a CDK inhibitor. A cell-penetrating oligopeptide that targeted GIPC1/Syx complex formation inhibited the VEGF-A-induced activation of RhoA and suppressed DJM-1 cell proliferation. In conclusion, this new signaling pathway of VEGF-A/NRP1 induced cancer cell proliferation by forming a GIPC1/Syx complex that activated RhoA to degrade the p27 protein.
A unified order-theoretic view of the capacity region of the Kuser DM-MAC with general message sets

The multiple access channel with private messages has a single accepted capacity characterization. By contrast, when the same channel is considered with message sources that may be commonly known to multiple transmitters, a plurality of distinct capacity descriptions arises. Two descriptions currently exist in the literature, with the capacity region attained with superposition coding in one description, and without superposition in the other. To unify these descriptions, we highlight the successive nature of superposition coding and recast its analysis and description into the language of order theory. Consequently, we obtain a wide class of capacity descriptions by intermingling coding with, and without, superposition.
An ensemble learning method for scene classification based on Hidden Markov Model image representation

Low level images representation in feature space performs poorly for classification with high accuracy since this level of representation is not able to project images into the discriminative feature space. In this work, we propose an efficient image representation model for classification. First we apply Hidden Markov Model (HMM) on ordered grids represented by different type of image descriptors in order to include causality of local properties existing in image for feature extraction and then we train up a separate classifier for each of these features sets. Finally we ensemble these classifiers efficiently in a way that they can cancel out each other errors for obtaining higher accuracy. This method is evaluated on 15 natural scene dataset. Experimental results show the superiority of the proposed method in comparison to some current existing methods
Work-related stress and occupational burnout in AIDS caregivers: Test of a coping model with nurses providing AIDS care

Occupational stress and burnout are potential threats to quality of care for people living with HIV/AIDS. A total of 445 nurses who provide care to people living with HIV/AIDS responded to an anonymous postal survey that consisted of: demographic and work history questions, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, Rotter's Internal-External Locus of Control scale, and internal and external coping styles as measured by the Ways of Coping scale. Path analyses showed that both external (13.6% of the variance) and internal (3.1% of the variance) coping styles significantly predicted levels of burnout among AIDS caregivers, over and above participants' age, perceived workload and locus of control. Mediation analyses further showed that external coping mediates the effect of locus of control on burnout, but internal coping styles do not exhibit mediation. Results therefore replicate and extend previous research demonstrating the important roles of cognitive and behavioural coping styles in understanding burnout among providers of AIDS care.
Alteration of Gene Expression Profile in Niemann-Pick Type C Mice Correlates with Tissue Damage and Oxidative Stress

Background Niemann-Pick type C disease (NPC) is a neurovisceral lipid storage disorder mainly characterized by unesterified cholesterol accumulation in lysosomal/late endosomal compartments, although there is also an important storage for several other kind of lipids. The main tissues affected by the disease are the liver and the cerebellum. Oxidative stress has been described in various NPC cells and tissues, such as liver and cerebellum. Although considerable alterations occur in the liver, the pathological mechanisms involved in hepatocyte damage and death have not been clearly defined. Here, we assessed hepatic tissue integrity, biochemical and oxidative stress parameters of wild-type control (Npc1 +/+; WT) and homozygous-mutant (Npc1 −/−; NPC) mice. In addition, the mRNA abundance of genes encoding proteins associated with oxidative stress, copper metabolism, fibrosis, inflammation and cholesterol metabolism were analyzed in livers and cerebella of WT and NPC mice. Methodology/Principal Findings We analyzed various oxidative stress parameters in the liver and hepatic and cerebellum gene expression in 7-week-old NPC1-deficient mice compared with control animals. We found signs of inflammation and fibrosis in NPC livers upon histological examination. These signs were correlated with increased levels of carbonylated proteins, diminished total glutathione content and significantly increased total copper levels in liver tissue. Finally, we analyzed liver and cerebellum gene expression patterns by qPCR and microarray assays. We found a correlation between fibrotic tissue and differential expression of hepatic as well as cerebellar genes associated with oxidative stress, fibrosis and inflammation in NPC mice. Conclusions/Significance In NPC mice, liver disease is characterized by an increase in fibrosis and in markers associated with oxidative stress. NPC is also correlated with altered gene expression, mainly of genes involved in oxidative stress and fibrosis. These findings correlate with similar parameters in cerebellum, as has been previously reported in the NPC mice model.