Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Common variation in NOS1AP and KCNH2 genes and QT interval duration in young adults. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

Background: Common genetic variants in the nitric oxide synthase 1 adaptor protein gene (NOS1AP) and in the HERG potassium channel gene (KCNH2) have been associated with cardiac repolarization in middle-aged and elderly subjects. Aim: We examined the relation between these variants and QT interval duration in a population of healthy young adults. Methods: We measured QT interval duration and genotyped rs10494366 T>G (NOS1AP gene, n=1,842) and rs1805123 A>C (KCNH2 gene, n=1,894) in subjects aged 24–39 years. Results: The NOS1AP variant was significantly related with heart rate-corrected QT interval duration (QTc). Additive regression model adjusting for age, sex, systolic blood pressure, body mass index, alcohol use, and smoking indicated that the G allele was associated with a 3.2 ms (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.7–4.6 ms, P<0.0001) increase in QTc interval duration for each additional copy. The KCNH2 variant was not significantly related with QTc interval duration in the study sample. Conclusion: These findings provide evidence from a population of healthy young adults that a common variation in the NOS1AP gene influences cardiac repolarization within the normal physiological range. Further studies are warranted to investigate the effects of this variant on sudden cardiac death and ventricular arrhythmias.
Politecnico di Torino Porto Institutional Repository

This paper proposes a semi-analytical framework for estimating the erasure probability in single-hop multi-relay networks. Specifically, we consider a system, in which relays do not decode the information but simply forward coded packets that have been previously received from the source. This allows for uncoordinated, low-complexity processing at the relays. We present a detailed analysis of the proposed network model, which represents an instance of a new coding scheme that we refer to as distributed fountain coding.
Effects of Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Synbiotics on Human Health

The human gastrointestinal tract is colonised by a complex ecosystem of microorganisms. Intestinal bacteria are not only commensal, but they also undergo a synbiotic co-evolution along with their host. Beneficial intestinal bacteria have numerous and important functions, e.g., they produce various nutrients for their host, prevent infections caused by intestinal pathogens, and modulate a normal immunological response. Therefore, modification of the intestinal microbiota in order to achieve, restore, and maintain favourable balance in the ecosystem, and the activity of microorganisms present in the gastrointestinal tract is necessary for the improved health condition of the host. The introduction of probiotics, prebiotics, or synbiotics into human diet is favourable for the intestinal microbiota. They may be consumed in the form of raw vegetables and fruit, fermented pickles, or dairy products. Another source may be pharmaceutical formulas and functional food. This paper provides a review of available information and summarises the current knowledge on the effects of probiotics, prebiotics, and synbiotics on human health. The mechanism of beneficial action of those substances is discussed, and verified study results proving their efficacy in human nutrition are presented.
Hepatoprotective Effect of Curcumin on Lindane-induced Oxidative Stress in Male Wistar Rats

Lindane, an organochlorine pesticide, is recognized as a major public health concern because of its potential toxic effects on human health. Its persistence in the body fluids may lead to continuous blood circulation, liver exposure and hepatotoxicity. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the possible protective role of curcumin on lindane-induced hepatotoxicity. Forty-two healthy adult male Wistar rats were divided into seven groups of six rats each. Group I was given dimethylsulfoxide. A single dose of lindane (60 mg/kg bw) was given to group II. Lindane (30 mg/kg bw) was given daily to group III for 14 days. Treatment with curcumin (100 and 200 mg/kg) was given to groups IV and V before (pretreatment) and to groups VI and VII after (post-treatment) 14 days exposure of lindane. Oxidative stress parameters and antioxidative enzymes were investigated in the liver of exposed and treated rats. A significant increase in lipid peroxidation, and decrease in glutathione level, Superoxide dismutase catalase, glutathione-S-transferase, glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and NADPH quinine reductase activities was observed in liver of rats exposed to lindane. Curcumin (Pre- and post-treatment) nearly normalized all these parameters. Histological alterations were also observed in the liver tissue after lindane exposure. Treatment with curcumin significantly prevented the lindane-induced histological alterations. In conclusion, curcumin has protective effect over lindane-induced oxidative damage in rat liver.
A Goal-Oriented Approach for Workflow Monitoring 119

Nowadays, the use of software systems implemented for automatically guiding and monitoring business processes is becoming a common option in modern enterprises. This kind of systems (workflow management systems) is designed to monitor tasks, documents, rules, computers etc. To do this, these software systems implement an automated representation of the enterprise processes. In most cases, these systems are mainly oriented to capture the tasks performed in the business from a processbased view. However, current workflow systems have neglected the goals and objectives that enterprise wants to achieve with the performance of business tasks. Therefore, in current workflow approaches, it could be very complicated to determine if these tasks actually satisfy the business goals. In this paper, the framework Tropos is used to model the goals of the business processes and also, to establish the mechanism to control and monitor the goals of each one of the actors involved in the process. With this, it is possible to measure the impact of the fulfillment of the actor goals in the satisfaction of the enterprise goals. A software tool, called GoalFlow has been developed in order to validate the proposed methodology. This approach enables the managers to take the appropriate decisions according to the knowledge on relevant aspects in process execution: who, what, how, and why.
A Robotic Wayfinding System for the Visually Impaired

We present an emerging indoor assisted navigation system for the visually impaired. The core of the system is a mobile robotic base with a sensor suite mounted on it. The sensor suite consists of an RFID reader and a laser range finder. Small passive RFID sensors are manually inserted in the environment. We describe how the system was deployed in two indoor environments and evaluated by visually impaired participants in a series of pilot experiments.
AIM Research Working Paper Series:

The concept of “vertical architecture” defines the scope of a firm and the extent to which it is open to final and intermediate markets. A firm can make or buy inputs, and transfer outputs downstream or sell them. Permeable vertical architectures are partly integrated and partly open to the markets along a firm’s value chain. Increased permeability enables more effective use of resources and capacities, better matching of capabilities with market needs and benchmarking to improve efficiency. Partial integration promotes a more dynamic, open innovation platform and enhances strategic capabilities by linking key parts of the value chain. This permeable vertical architecture, accompanied by appropriate transfer prices and incentive design, facilitates resource allocation and guides a firm’s growth process. Our longitudinal study of a major European manufacturer suggests that to understand how firm boundaries are set and what are their impacts, we need to complement the micro-analytic focus on transactions with a systemic analysis at the level of the firm. It also shows how, over and above transactional alignment, decisions about boundaries can transform a firm’s strategic and productive capabilities and prospects.
Prevalence of delusions in drug‐naïve Alzheimer disease patients: A meta‐analysis

Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are common at all stages of Alzheimer disease (AD). Delusions in AD are associated with negative clinical consequences and may signal rapid disease progression. Hence, we sought to determine the prevalence of delusions in drug‐naïve (no cholinesterase inhibitor or neuroleptic medications) AD patients.
From projective to Euclidean reconstruction

To make a Euclidean reconstruction of the world seen through a stereo rig, we can either use a calibration grid, and the results will rely on the precision Of the grid and the extracted points of interest, or use self-calibration. Past work on self-calibration is focussed on the use of only one camera, and gives sometimes very unstable results. In this paper, we use a stereo rig which is supposed to be weakly calibrated using a method such as the one described in Deriche et al. (1994). Then, by matching two sets of points of the same scene reconstructed from different points of view, we try to find both the homography that maps the projective reconstruction to the Euclidean space and the displacement from the first set of points to the second set of points. We present results of the Euclidean reconstruction of a whole object from uncalibrated cameras using the method proposed here.
The security of vehicular ad hoc networks

Vehicular networks are likely to become the most relevant form of mobile ad hoc networks. In this paper, we address the security of these networks. We provide a detailed threat analysis and devise an appropriate security architecture. We also describe some major design decisions still to be made, which in some cases have more than mere technical implications. We provide a set of security protocols, we show that they protect privacy and we analyze their robustness, and we carry out a quantitative assessment of the proposed solution.
Regulation of oligodendrocyte precursor maintenance by chondroitin sulphate glycosaminoglycans

Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) have been proven to inhibit morphological maturation of oligodendrocytes as well as their myelination capabilities. Yet, it remained unclear, whether CSPGs and/or their respective chondroitin sulfate glycosaminoglycan (CS‐GAG) side chains also regulate the oligodendrocyte lineage progression. Here, we initially show that CS‐GAGs detected by the monoclonal antibody 473HD are expressed by primary rat NG2‐positive oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and O4‐positive immature oligodendrocytes. CS‐GAGs become down‐regulated with ongoing oligodendrocyte differentiation. Enzymatic removal of the CS‐GAG chains by the bacterial enzyme Chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) promoted spontaneous differentiation of proliferating rat OPCs toward O4‐positive immature oligodendrocytes. Upon forced differentiation, the enzymatic removal of the CS‐GAGs accelerated oligodendrocyte differentiation toward both MBP‐positive and membrane forming oligodendrocytes. These processes were attenuated on enriched CSPG fractions, mainly consisting of Phosphacan/RPTPβ/ζ and to less extent of Brevican and NG2. To qualify CS‐GAGs as universal regulators of oligodendrocyte biology, we finally tested the effect of CS‐GAG removal on OPCs from different sources such as mouse cortical oligospheres, mouse spinal cord neurospheres, and most importantly human‐induced pluripotent stem cell‐derived radial glia‐like neural precursor cells. For all culture systems used, we observed a similar inhibitory effect of CS‐GAGs on oligodendrocyte differentiation. In conclusion, this study clearly suggests an important fundamental principle for complex CS‐GAGs to regulate the oligodendrocyte lineage progression. Moreover, the use of ChABC in order to promote oligodendrocyte differentiation toward myelin gene expressing cells might be an applicable therapeutic option to enhance white matter repair. GLIA 2016;64:270–286
Chromosome Alignment and Transvection Are Antagonized by Condensin II

Polytene chromosome structure is a characteristic of some polyploid cells where several to thousands of chromatids are closely associated with perfect alignment of homologous DNA sequences. Here, we show that Drosophila condensin II promotes disassembly of polytene structure into chromosomal components. Condensin II also negatively regulates transvection, a process whereby certain alleles are influenced transcriptionally via interallelic physical associations. We propose that condensin II restricts trans-chromosomal interactions that affect transcription through its ability to spatially separate aligned interphase chromosomes.
Wysteria: A Programming Language for Generic, Mixed-Mode Multiparty Computations

In a Secure Multiparty Computation (SMC), mutually distrusting parties use cryptographic techniques to cooperatively compute over their private data, in the process each party learns only explicitly revealed outputs. In this paper, we present Wysteria, a high-level programming language for writing SMCs. As with past languages, like Fairplay, Wysteria compiles secure computations to circuits that are executed by an underlying engine. Unlike past work, Wysteria provides support for mixed-mode programs, which combine local, private computations with synchronous SMCs. Wysteria complements a standard feature set with built-in support for secret shares and with wire bundles, a new abstraction that supports generic n-party computations. We have formalized Wysteria, its refinement type system, and its operational semantics. We show that Wysteria programs have an easy-to-understand single-threaded interpretation and prove that this view corresponds to the actual multi-threaded semantics. We also prove type soundness, a property we show has security ramifications, namely that information about one party's data can only be revealed to another via (agreed upon) secure computations. We have implemented Wysteria, and used it to program a variety of interesting SMC protocols from the literature, as well as several new ones. We find that Wysteria's performance is competitive with prior approaches while making programming far easier, and more trustworthy.
New insight into the shortening of the collagen fibril D-period in human cornea

Collagen fibrils type I display a typical banding pattern, so-called D-periodicity, of about 67 nm, when visualized by atomic force or electron microscopy imaging. Herein we report on a significant shortening of the D-period for human corneal collagen fibrils type I (21 ± 4 nm) upon air-drying, whereas no changes in the D-period were observed for human scleral collagen fibrils type I (64 ± 4 nm) measured under the same experimental conditions as the cornea. It was also found that for the corneal stroma fixed with glutaraldehyde and air-dried, the collagen fibrils show the commonly accepted D-period of 61 ± 8 nm. We used the atomic force microscopy method to image collagen fibrils type I present in the middle layers of human cornea and sclera. The water content in the cornea and sclera samples was varying in the range of . 066–. 085. Calculations of the D-period using the theoretical model of the fibril and the FFT approach allowed to reveal the possible molecular mechanism of the D-period shortening in the corneal collagen fibrils upon drying. It was found that both the decrease in the shift and the simultaneous reduction in the distance between tropocollagen molecules can be responsible for the experimentally observed effect. We also hypothesize that collagen type V, which co-assembles with collagen type I into heterotypic fibrils in cornea, could be involved in the observed shortening of the corneal D-period.
Accuracy of phenotyping children with autism based on parent report: what specifically do we gain phenotyping “rapidly”?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is considered among the most heritable of all neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders, but identification of etiologically significant genetic markers and risk variants has been hampered by a lack of sufficiently large samples. Rapid phenotyping procedures, where self‐report measures are used instead of extensive clinical assessment, have been proposed as methods for amassing large genetic databases due to their hypothesized time‐efficiency and affordability. We assessed the diagnostic accuracy of potential rapid phenotyping procedures using the Social Communication Questionnaire and the Social Responsiveness Scale in a sample of 333 children who also received extensive phenotypic assessments. While the rapid phenotyping measures were able to accurately identify a large number of children with ASD, they also frequently failed to differentiate children with ASD from children with other complex neurobehavioral profiles. These data support the continued need of expert clinical validation in combination with rapid phenotyping procedures in order to accurately amass large‐scale genetic collections of children with ASD. Autism Res 2012,5:31–38. © 2011 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF MIGRAINE

Primary headache is a common problem in neurology. The main disabling form of primary headache presenting to neurologists is migraine, either episodic or chronic. Migraine is an inherited disorder of the brain that involves dysfunction of subcortical structures that modulate sensory input. Its therapy involves reducing afferent traffic or stabilizing these abnormal pathways. Understanding the pathophysiology of migraine is integral to providing explanations to patients and good management strategies.
Development and Validation of a Miniature Tensile Specimen for Determination of Mechanical Properties

In this work, a miniature tensile specimen with nominal dimensions of 3.0-mm gage length (GL), 1.5-mm gage width, and 0.5-mm thickness that was carved out of a 10.0-mm-diameter disk has been developed and standardized using analytical and experimental methods. The geometry of the miniature specimen, called ultra sub-size (USS), was optimized using finite element analysis to determine the fillet radius and appropriate geometrical tolerances for specimen dimensions like gage width and thickness. The methods of specimen preparation, gripping, and tensile testing with the use of digital image correlation for strain measurement were standardized. The 0.2 % offset yield strength, ultimate tensile strength, and uniform strain of different materials obtained using this specimen geometry were analyzed and compared with the results of ASTM sub-size (GL: 25 mm) and further sub-size geometry (GL: 12.5 mm). The results of this study show that USS tensile specimen geometry developed in this work can be reliably employed for mechanical property evaluation in situations where tensile testing using standard-size specimens is practically not possible.
Perceptions of a mobile technology on learning strategies in the anatomy laboratory

Mobile technologies offer new opportunities to improve dissection learning. This study examined the effect of using an iPad‐based multimedia dissection manual during anatomy laboratory instruction on learner's perception of anatomy dissection activities and use of time. Three experimental dissection tables used iPads and three tables served as a control for two identical sessions. Trained, non‐medical school anatomy faculty observers recorded use of resources at two‐minute intervals for 20 observations per table. Students completed pre‐ and post‐perception questionnaires. We used descriptive and inferential analyses. Twenty‐one control and 22 experimental students participated. Compared with controls, experimental students reported significantly (P < 0.05) less reliance on paper and instructor resources, greater ability to achieve anatomy laboratory objectives, and clarity of the role of dissection in learning anatomy. Experimental students indicated that the iPad helped them in dissection. We observed experimental students more on task (93% vs. 83% of the time) and less likely to be seeking an instructor (2% vs. 32%). The groups received similar attention from instructors (33% vs. 37%). Fifty‐nine percent of the time at least one student was looking at the iPad. Groups clustered around the iPad a third of their time. We conclude that the iPad‐manual aided learner engagement, achieved instructional objectives, and enhanced the effectiveness and efficiency of dissection education. Anat Sci Educ 6: 81–89. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.
Mr-arm: a Map-Reduce Association Rule Mining Framework

Association rule is one of the primary tasks in data mining that discovers correlations among items in a transactional database. The majority of vertical and horizontal association rule mining algorithms have been developed to improve the frequent items discovery step which necessitates high demands on training time and memory usage particularly when the input database is very large. In this paper, we overcome the problem of mining very large data by proposing a new parallel Map-Reduce (MR) association rule mining technique called MR-ARM that uses a hybrid data transformation format to quickly finding frequent items and generating rules. The MR programming paradigm is becoming popular for large scale data intensive distributed applications due to its efficiency, simplicity and ease of use, and therefore the proposed algorithm develops a fast parallel distributed batch set intersection method for finding frequent items. Two implementations (Weka, Hadoop) of the proposed MR association rule algorithm have b.
On hazard-free implementation of speed-independent circuits

We investigate the problem of hazard free gate level implementation of speed independent circuits specified by event based models, such as signal transition Graph (for processes with AND causality and input choice) or its extension, called change diagram (which allows OR causality). The main result of the paper is twofold: the proof that any speed independent behavior can be implemented at the gate level without hazards; and an efficient method for such an implementation. This method is based on transformations of the specification to the form satisfying the monotonous cover requirement. Since this method is based on standard gate cells it can be used both in the full custom and semi custom VLSI design. Experimental results demonstrate area and performance efficiency of our method.
Norovirus in Captive Lion Cub (Panthera leo)

African lions (Panthera leo) are susceptible to viral diseases of domestic carnivores, including feline calicivirus infection. We report the identification of a novel enteric calicivirus, genetically related to human noroviruses of genogroup IV, in a lion cub that died of severe hemorrhagic enteritis.
Fast Arbitrary BRDF Shading for Low-Frequency Lighting Using Spherical Harmonics

Real-time shading using general (e.g., anisotropic) BRDFs has so far been limited to a few point or directional light sources. We extend such shading to smooth, area lighting using a low-order spherical harmonic basis for the lighting environment. We represent the 4D product function of BRDF times the cosine factor (dot product of the incident lighting and surface normal vectors) as a 2D table of spherical harmonic coefficients. Each table entry represents, for a single view direction, the integral of this product function times lighting on the hemisphere expressed in spherical harmonics. This reduces the shading integral to a simple dot product of 25 component vectors, easily evaluatable on PC graphics hardware. Non-trivial BRDF models require rotating the lighting coefficients to a local frame at each point on an object, currently forming the computational bottleneck. Real-time results can be achieved by fixing the view to allow dynamic lighting or vice versa. We also generalize a previous method for precomputed radiance transfer to handle general BRDF shading. This provides shadows and interreflections that respond in real-time to lighting changes on a preprocessed object of arbitrary material (BRDF) type.