Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Type 1 diabetes.

Type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes occurs worldwide and can appear at any age. The genetic susceptibility is strongly associated with HLA-DQ and DR on chromosome 6, but genetic factors on other chromosomes such as the insulin gene on chromosome 11 and the cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen gene on chromosome 2 may modulate disease risk. Numerous studies further support the view that environmental factors are important. Gestational infections may contribute to initiation, whereas later infections may accelerate islet beta-cell autoimmunity. The pathogenesis is strongly related to autoimmunity against the islet beta cells. Markers of autoimmunity include autoantibodies against glutamic acid decarboxylase, insulin, and islet cell antigen-2, a tyrosine phosphatase-like protein. Molecular techniques are used to establish reproducible and precise autoantibody assays, which have been subject to worldwide standardization. The diagnostic sensitivity (40-80%) and specificity (99%) of all three autoantibodies for type 1 diabetes are high, and double or triple positivity among first-degree relatives predicts disease. Combined genetic and antibody testing improved prediction in the general population despite the transient nature of these autoantibodies. Classification of diabetes has also been improved by autoantibody testing and may be used in type 2 diabetes to predict secondary failure and insulin requirement. Islet autoantibodies do not seem to be related to late complications but rather to metabolic control, perhaps because the presence of islet cell autoantibodies marks different residual beta-cell function. Combined genetic and autoantibody screening permit rational approaches to identify subjects for secondary and tertiary intervention trials.
Enlarging the Kerr constant of polymer-stabilised blue phases with a novel chiral monomer

ABSTRACT Polymer-stabilised blue phase liquid crystals (PS-BPLC) have attracted many attentions in the area of display and photonic applications because of the superior electro-optical properties. Before application, the problem of high driving voltage should be resolved first. In this report, a new chiral monomer (C5011) has been synthesised and its influence on PS-BPLC was investigated. By adopting this chiral monomer, the Kerr constant of the PS-BPLC could be increased dramatically, which means improved driving capacity can be achieved. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Poor nutrition on the menu: children's meals at America's top chain restaurants.

BACKGROUND We evaluated the nutritional quality of children's meals at chain restaurants, because children obtain about a third of their daily calories from away-from-home foods and studies show that restaurant foods are often higher in calories and lower in nutritional value than foods prepared at home. METHODS We assessed the nutritional quality of children's meals at the 50 largest U.S. restaurant chains by visiting each chain's web site or calling the company. Eighteen of the chains did not have children's meals and 10 did not provide adequate nutrition information to be included in the study. The nutritional quality of each meal combination was evaluated against a set of nutrition standards based on key nutrition recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. RESULTS Of the 22 restaurants that had children's menus and available nutrition information, 99% of 1662 children's meal combinations were of poor nutritional quality. CONCLUSIONS Restaurants should support healthier choices for children by reformulating existing menu items and adding new healthier items, posting calories on menus, and setting nutrition standards for marketing to children.
Value Creation in the Multi-Project Environment

In this study, the author assumes that the value created by multi-project structures significantly affects the financial performance of an organisation. Currently available studies focus on the creation of the expected outputs of project portfolios, the author assumes, however, that the construct of other multi-project structures that is similar in conceptual terms (i.e. project chains and networks) justifies the generalisation of conclusions included in such studies. An analysis of the available literature on the subject in the context of requirements of a knowledge-based economy (KBE) makes it possible to distinguish some key factors affecting the value created by multi-project structures. These include: appropriate allocation and balancing of resources, transfer of knowledge within such structures, as well as development and maintenance of positive relationships with stakeholders. In the opinion of the author, these factors create value within the framework of multi-project structures, as they generate and accumulate the added value and intangible assets. The second assumption made in this paper is that the level of value created by multi-project structures has a significant impact on the financial performance of an organisation. This approach is different from the few previously employed, as it assumes that the added value and intangible assets generated within multi-project structures significantly contribute to such performance.
Mirtazapine: efficacy and tolerability in comparison with fluoxetine in patients with moderate to severe major depressive disorder. Mirtazapine-Fluoxetine Study Group.

OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy and tolerability of mirtazapine and fluoxetine in depressed inpatients and outpatients. METHOD Patients with a major depressive episode (DSM-III-R), a baseline score of > or=21 on the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), and > or=2 on HAM-D Item 1 (depressed mood) were randomly assigned to a 6-week treatment with either mirtazapine (N=66, 15-60 mg/day) or fluoxetine (N=67, 20-40 mg/day). The upper limit of the mirtazapine dose range was above the dose range approved in the United States (15-45 mg/day). Efficacy was evaluated by the HAM-D, Clinical Global Impressions, the Visual Analogue Mood Rating Scale (VAMRS), and the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Questionnaire (QLESQ). The efficacy analyses were performed on the intent-to-treat group using the last-observation-carried-forward method. RESULTS Mean total 17-item HAM-D scores at baseline were 26.0 for the mirtazapine- and 26.1 for the fluoxetine-treated group. The decrease from baseline on the HAM-D was larger in the mirtazapine than in the fluoxetine group throughout the treatment period, reaching statistical significance at days 21 and 28. At assessments from day 21 and onward, the absolute difference between the 2 study groups favoring mirtazapine ranged from 3.7 to 4.2 points, the magnitude of difference usually seen between an efficacious antidepressant drug and placebo. Mean dosages at weeks 1-4 were 36.5 mg/day for mirtazapine and 19.6 mg/day for fluoxetine; the respective dosages at weeks 5-6 were 56.3 mg and 35.8 mg. Similar numbers of patients dropped out due to adverse events; tolerability profiles were comparable except for changes in body weight from baseline which were statistically significantly more pronounced in the mirtazapine group compared to the fluoxetine group. CONCLUSION We found that mirtazapine was as well tolerated as fluoxetine and significantly more effective after 3 and 4 weeks of therapy.
Understanding the experiences of middle school girls who have received help for non-suicidal self-injury

This study aimed to understand the experiences of middle school girls who have engaged in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and have received professional help for these behaviors. Participants described engaging in NSSI in response to uncomfortable feelings and invasive negative thoughts. They reported that engaging in NSSI decreased their uncomfortable feelings. While each participant had at least one person in her life who knew about her NSSI, participants did not feel supported or validated by these people. Participants were not completely honest with their therapists because they were afraid of being misunderstood, dismissed, or getting others into trouble. Despite these things, participants wanted support and understanding about who they are as unique individuals, why they are struggling, and why they self-injure. They also wanted to be in a transparent therapeutic relationship where they felt respected and accepted. Unfortunately, they did not describe relationships with their therapists as possessing these qualities. Professionals would better meet the need of adolescents by clearly discussing confidentiality, boundaries, conveying respect and acceptance, and recognizing the uniqueness of their clients. Assessing for self-harm and treatment reluctance should be done in the context of resistance to therapy and a sensitivity to judgment.
Crystal structure of β‐galactosidase from Bacillus circulans ATCC 31382 (BgaD) and the construction of the thermophilic mutants

β‐Galactosidase (EC 3.2.1.23) from Bacillus circulans ATCC 31382, designated BgaD, exhibits high transglycosylation activity to produce galacto‐oligosaccharides. BgaD has been speculated to have a multiple domain architecture including a F5/8‐type C domain or a discoidin domain in the C‐terminal peptide region from amino acid sequence analysis. Here, we solved the first crystal structure of the C‐terminal deletion mutant BgaD‐D, consisting of sugar binding, Glyco_hydro, catalytic and bacterial Ig‐like domains, at 2.5 Å. In the asymmetric unit, two molecules of BgaD‐D were identified and the value of VM was estimated to be 5.0 Å3·Da−1. It has been speculated that BgaD‐D consists of four domains. From the structural analysis, however, we clarified that BgaD‐D consists of five domains. We identified a new domain structure comprised of β‐sheets in BgaD. The catalytic domain exhibits a TIM barrel structure with a small pocket suited for accommodating the disaccharides. Detailed structural information for the amino acid residues related to activity and substrate specificity was clarified in the catalytic domain. Furthermore, using the structural information, we successfully constructed some thermostable mutants via protein engineering method.
Employment Drivers in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Poland

The paper encapsulates empirical research on factors driving employment in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Poland. A linear econometric model has been constructed whereby the workforce employed in SMEs (expressed as a percentage of the total number of the working population) has been used as a dependent variable. The quality of the model’s results is high, in particular, it may be interpreted as an econometric record of a long-term co-integrating relationship. Further to the research, a hypothesis has been set whereby an increase in employment within this group of enterprises is affected by an increase in the index of monetary freedom and reduction of budget deficit. An analysis of alternative models has also performed demonstrating that an increase in the index of fiscal freedom and a decrease in public debt tends to boost employment in the SME sector as a proportion of the population employed. Intriguing conclusions have been drawn from the analysis of an alternative model under which a strongly correlated unemployment rate has been used as a dependent variable instead of the ratio of budget deficit to the GDP. Consequently, if the unemployment rate increases, the number of people employed in SMEs as a proportion of the employed population appears to grow as well.
Is the Quality of Diabetes Care Better in a Diabetes Clinic or in a General Medicine Clinic?

OBJECTIVE To compare the quality of ambulatory diabetes care delivered by physicians in the diabetes clinic versus the general medicine clinic of a university-affiliated Veterans Administration medical center. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This is a retrospective study that involved the review of medical records against predetermined process-of-care criteria. A total of 112 patients with diabetes were randomly selected, of whom 56 were cared for in the general medicine clinic and 56 in the diabetes clinic. The following main outcome measures were examined: 1) the compliance with individual criteria; and 2) the proportion of patient visits in each clinic receiving minimally acceptable quality, defined as a blood pressure measurement, a record of type of hypoglycemic medication, a glycated hemoglobin measurement within the past year, a urinalysis within the past year, an ophthalmologist or optometrist eye examination within the past year or scheduled in the next six months, a record of change in therapeutic management, and a scheduled return visit. RESULTS The diabetes clinic performed significantly better than the general medicine clinic on the following criteria: a record of a patient's self-monitoring of blood glucose levels; a foot examination; a comprehensive eye examination; a glycated hemoglobin measurement; and a referral for diabetic education. The proportion of patient visits meeting the minimally acceptable levels of quality was better in the diabetes clinic than the general medicine clinic (73 vs. 52%, P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS Patients cared for by physicians in the diabetes clinic receive better quality of diabetes care than do patients cared for by physicians in the general medical clinic. If patient care is to be shifted from specialists to generalists, additional attention needs to be paid to ensure that generalists have the knowledge and system resources necessary to deliver an acceptable quality of diabetes care.
The Importance of a Good Ending in a Service Encounter

Abstract This study uses video sequences of positive and negative events during the course of a service encounter to examine the relative influence of emotions experienced in the beginning and end on overall evaluations. The findings suggest that the end-point of the experience had the highest impact on how the experience was evaluated. Along these lines, encounters with an improving trend were also evaluated more positively.
AN EFFICIENT SPATIO-TEMPORAL GAIT REPRESENTATION FOR GENDER CLASSIFICATION

Gait-based gender identification has received great attention from biometric researchers in the vision field because of its potential in different applications. Gait-based gender identification will help a human identification system to focus only on the identified gender-related features, which can improve the search speed and efficiency of the retrieval system by limiting the subsequent searching space to either a male database or a female database. In this study, after preprocessing, five binary moment features and four spatial features are extracted from a human silhouette. Then the extracted features are used for training and testing pattern classifiers. We have successfully achieved our objective with one gait cycle and nine features of normal video sequences only. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, experiments have been conducted by using probablistic neural network (PNN) and support vector machine (SVM) on the benchmark CASIA B database. Experimental results show superior performance of our approach in terms of correct classification rate, and it shows robustness to variations in clothing and carrying condition.
Security and Game Theory - Algorithms, Deployed Systems, Lessons Learned

Global threats of terrorism, drug-smuggling, and other crimes have led to a significant increase in research on game theory for security. Game theory provides a sound mathematical approach to deploy limited security resources to maximize their effectiveness. A typical approach is to randomize security schedules to avoid predictability, with the randomization using artificial intelligence techniques to take into account the importance of different targets and potential adversary reactions. This book distills the forefront of this research to provide the first and only study of long-term deployed applications of game theory for security for key organizations such as the Los Angeles International Airport police and the U.S. Federal Air Marshals Service. The author and his research group draw from their extensive experience working with security officials to intelligently allocate limited security resources to protect targets, outlining the applications of these algorithms in research and the real world. The book also includes professional perspectives from security experts Erroll G. Southers; Lieutenant Commander Joe DiRenzo III, U.S. Coast Guard; Lieutenant Commander Ben Maule, U.S. Coast Guard; Erik Jensen, U.S. Coast Guard; and Lieutenant Fred S. Bertsch IV, U.S. Coast Guard.
Initial Online Trust Building: A Social Learning Theory Perspective

With the rapid expansion of e-commerce, trust has become a central research topic in online environment for its key role in affecting e-commerce success. Our study focuses on the initial online trust building for brick-and-click companies. Building upon social learning theory, we propose a framework to examine the learning processes and important antecedents to online trust building. To demonstrate the utility of the framework, we apply it to the initial online trust building for brick-and-click firms. Our results suggest that the social learning theory is a viable tool to understand customer’s trust building process. Based on the effective learning processes identified for trust building, firms can allocate their resource accordingly.
Selective Phosphodiesterase 5 Inhibition Does Not Reduce Propofol Sedation Requirements but Affects Speed of Recovery and Plasma Cyclic Guanosine 3′,5′-Monophosphate Concentrations in Healthy Volunteers

Cyclic guanosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cyclic GMP) has been implicated in modulating the effects of anesthesia. We hypothesized that limiting the breakdown of cyclic GMP through selective phosphodiesterase inhibition would influence propofol sedation requirements and plasma cyclic GMP concentrations. Ten volunteers received 100 mg of sildenafil or placebo orally in this placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized crossover pilot study. Propofol sedation was achieved using a target-controlled infusion system until loss of verbal contact (LVC). Plasma cyclic GMP concentrations were determined at baseline, LVC, and 30 min after LVC. There was no difference in the amount of propofol used, predicted plasma concentration, or duration of sedation in volunteers after sildenafil compared with placebo treatment. Return of spontaneous verbal contact was faster after sildenafil (4 [3–8] min versus 6 [3–5] min, median [range], P = 0.019). Cyclic GMP concentrations were reduced during propofol sedation in the placebo group compared with baseline (P < 0.004). The plasma cyclic GMP concentrations were larger (P = 0.004) at LVC in the sildenafil group compared with placebo. We have shown that selective phosphodiesterase 5 inhibition decreases recovery time from propofol sedation without affecting propofol requirements. The decrease of plasma cyclic GMP concentrations during propofol sedation in the placebo group indicates a potential role of cyclic GMP in propofol anesthesia in humans.
Phosphoinositide 3‐kinase‐regulated adapters in lymphocyte activation

Summary: Signaling via phosphoinositide 3‐kinases (PI3Ks) has emerged as a central component of lymphocyte activation via immunoreceptors, costimulatory receptors, cytokine receptors, and chemokine receptors. The discovery of phosphoinositide‐binding pleckstrin homology (PH) domains has substantially increased understanding of how PI3Ks activate cellular responses. Accumulating evidence indicates that PH‐domain containing adapter molecules provide important links between PI3K and lymphocyte function. Here, we review data on PI3K‐regulated adapter proteins of the Grb‐associated binder (GAB), Src kinase‐associated phosphoprotein (SKAP), and B‐lymphocyte adapter molecule of 32 kDa (Bam32)/ dual‐adapter for phosphotyrosine and 3‐phosphoinositides (DAPP)/TAPP families, with a focus on the latter group. Current data support the model that recruitment of these adapters to the plasma membrane of activated lymphocytes is driven by the phosphoinositides phosphatidylinositol‐3,4,5‐tris‐phosphate and phosphatidylinositol‐3,4‐bisphosphate, generated through the action of PI3Ks and under the regulatory control of lipid phosphatases Src homology 2 domain‐containing inositol phosphatase (SHIP), phosphatase and tensin homolog, and inositol polyphosphate 4‐phosphatase. At the plasma membrane, these adapters serve to assemble distinct protein complexes. Bam32/DAPP1 and SKAPs function to promote activation of monomeric guanosine triphosphatases, including Rac and Rap, and promote integrin activation, lymphocyte adhesion to matrix proteins, and cell:cell interactions between B and T lymphocytes. GABs can provide feedforward amplification or feedback inhibition of PI3K signaling. Current work is further defining the molecular interactions driven by these molecules and identifying the functions of TAPP adapters, which also appear to be involved in lymphocyte adhesion and are specific effectors downstream of the SHIP product phosphatidylinositol‐3,4‐bisphosphate.
International Outlook of US‐based Franchisers

Many US‐based franchisers have expanded into international markets during the past two decades. However, a vast majority is still confined to the domestic market. Domestic franchisers are focused on and their international outlook is examined. In particular, the reasons why most US franchisers have not extended internationally, the extent of their disposition towards overseas expansion, and the attributes associated with prospective future international franchisers are explored.
Temporal relation between bottom-up versus top-down strategies for gaze prediction

Much research has been focused on the study of bottom-up, feature-based visual perception, as a means to generate salience maps, and predict the distribution of fixations within images. However, it is plausible that the eventual perception of distinct objects within a 3D scene (and the subsequent top-down effects) would also have a significant effect on the distributions of fixations within that scene. This research is aimed at testing a hypothesis that there exists a switching from feature-based to object-based scanning of images, as the viewer gains a higher-level understanding of the image content, and that this switching can be detected by changes in the pattern of eye fixations within the image. An eye tracker is used to monitor the fixations of human participants over time, as they view images, in an effort to answer questions pertaining to (1) the nature of fixations during bottom-up and top-down scene scan scenarios (2) the ability of assessing whether the subject is perceiving the scene content based on low-level visual features or distinct objects, and (3) identification of the participant's transition from a bottom-up feature-based perception to a top-down object-based perception.
A self-oscillating active filtering antenna with second and third harmonic suppressions

In this paper, a self-oscillating antenna is presented. The proposed circuit consists of an amplifier with positive feedback. In the feedback path, a two-way power divider is utilized for power splitting. One output of the power divider is electromagnetically coupled to the antenna for radiation, and the other is connected to the input of the amplifier through a delay line for positive feedback. To have a good frequency selectivity and harmonic suppression, coupled stepped impedance resonators are utilized to design the power divider. The proposed concept has been validated by simulating and measuring the open-loop gain of a designed circuit. An open-loop gain of 2.3 dB has been measured and shows the possibility of positive feedback for oscillation. A self-oscillating filtering antenna utilizing stepped-impedance resonators has been implemented. The measured harmonic suppression at the second/third harmonic frequency is 28/40 dB.