Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Drinking patterns, gender and health I: Attitudes and health practices

Background: Despite considerable research, relationships among gender, alcohol consumption, and health remain controversial, due to potential confounding by health-related attitudes and practices associated with drinking, measurement challenges, and marked gender differences in drinking. We examined gender/alcohol consumption differences in health-related attitudes and practices, and evaluated how these factors affected relationships among gender, alcohol consumption, and health status. Methods: A stratified random sample of adult health-plan members completed a mail survey, yielding 7884 respondents (2995 male/4889 female). Using multivariate analyses of covariance and adjusting for health-related attitudes, values, and practices, we examined gender differences in relationships between alcohol consumption and health. Results: More frequent heavy drinking was associated with worse health-related attitudes and values, worse feelings about visiting the doctor, and worse health-related practices. Relationships between health-related practices and alcohol use differed by gender, and daily or almost daily heavy drinking was associated with significantly lower physical and mental health for women compared to men. Drinking status (lifelong abstainers, former drinkers, and level of regular alcohol consumption) was related to health status and vitality, even after adjusting for health-related attitudes, values, and practices. Relationships did not differ by gender. Former drinkers reported lower physical and mental health status than either lifelong abstainers or current drinkers. Conclusions: Drinking status is independently related to physical health, mental health, and vitality, even after controlling for the health-related attitudes, values, and practices expected to confound these relationships. Among current drinkers, women who engage in very frequent heavy drinking have worse physical and mental health than their male counterparts.
Word Crimes: Blasphemy, Culture, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century England by Joss Marsh (review)

In 1883 the editor of a penny newspaper stood trial three times for the "obsolete" crime of blasphemy. The editor was G.W. Foote, the paper was the "Freethinker", and the trial was the defining event of the decade. This is a reconstructed account of blasphemy in Victorian England, retelling the forgotten stories of more than 200 working-class blasphemers, such as Foote, whose stubborn refusal to silence their "hooligan" voices helped secure the present right to speak and write freely, and whose "martyrdom" transformed blasphemy from a religious offence into a class and cultural crime.
The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect: Implications for Federal Responses to Child Maltreatment

In Canada, provinces and territories directly deliver services related to child maltreatment, but various federal departments share responsibility for responding in other ways. The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS) is one of the Public Health Agency's contributions. This paper presents an overview of its key findings, and points to some implications for program and policy development. CIS data suggest that neglect is the most common type of child maltreatment in Canada, followed by physical abuse, emotional maltreatment and sexual abuse. Because CIS data suggest that parents and other adult relatives are most often the perpetrators of child maltreatment, and that the maltreatment rarely results in severe physical harm, federal support of parenting education programs may be a useful response to the problem of child maltreatment.
Induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemotherapy and definitive high-dose radiotherapy for patients with locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (stages IIIa/IIIb): a pilot phase I/II trial.

BACKGROUND Overall prognosis of patients with locally advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (LAD-NSCLC) is still unfavourable. Different attempts to improve treatment results have been made using combinations of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The aim of this pilot phase I/II investigation was to test the feasibility and toxicity of a definitive multimodality protocol in patients with irresectable NSCLC stages IIIA (N2) and IIIB. PATIENTS AND METHODS Thirty LAD-NSCLC patients (stages IIIA/IIIB: 3/27; median age: 54 years, range 34-70; male/female: 17/13) who were consecutively enrolled onto our ongoing neoadjuvant multimodality protocol from October 1996 to February 1999 remained inoperable after induction treatment. Three cycles of cisplatin/etoposide (PE) were followed by hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy (HF-RTx: 1.5 Gy bid up to a total dose of 45 Gy in 3 weeks) concurrent with one cycle of PE. Definitive local treatment was completed with a small volume boost of 20 Gy (qd), adding up to a total dose of 65 Gy to the primary. Patients were routinely offered prophylactic cranial irradiation (PCI; 30 Gy; 2 Gy qd). RESULTS Overall toxicity of the definitive CTx/RTx protocol-the main endpoint of this investigation-turned out to be acceptable (oesophagitis grade 3/4: 6/4 patients; pneumonitis grade 3/4: 0/1 patients; no treatment-related deaths). Actuarial survival at 2 years was 31% with a loco-regional control rate of 21%. CONCLUSIONS This regimen turned out to be feasible with acceptable toxicity and will serve as a reference arm in a planned randomised trial in stage IIIB NSCLC, testing the value of surgery in this setting: preoperative induction CTx/RTx followed by surgery versus definitive CTx/RTx.
Gender and Hazard Perception Skills in Relation to Road Traffic Police Officers

Gender differences have been observed in driving styles and in the types of reported collisions that males and females are involved in. This study was conducted to examine gender differences in a hazard perception task independently of motion judgements. Participants were asked to rate a series of traffic still photos as to how hazardous they perceived the depicted situations to be. Several trained road traffic police officers were also asked to complete the task and act as an expert group with which the participants could be compared. The results showed that there was no gender difference, with males and females rating all scenes similarly, and that although the police officers demonstrated within-group consistency, there was no significant difference between their ratings and those of the civilians. It was concluded that hazard perception skills are not a major factor in the prevalence of collisions and that other factors such as overconfidence in one's own ability and consequent decision-making processes may account for many gender-related incidents.
Letter. Crystal structure of uchucchacuaite, AgMnPb3Sb5S12, and its relationship with ramdohrite and fizélyite

Abstract Uchucchacuaite, ideally AgMnPb3Sb5S12, was originally reported as orthorhombic, with possible space group Pmmm, P222, or Pmm2, and unit-cell parameters a = 12.67, b = 19.32, and c = 4.38 Å obtained from powder X‑ray diffraction data (Moëlo et al. 1984a). Using single-crystal X‑ray diffraction, we examined two uchucchacuaite samples, one from the type locality, Uchucchacua, Peru, and the other from Hokkaido, Japan (designated as R100213 and R070760, respectively). Our results show that uchucchacuaite is isostructural with ramdohrite and fizélyite, with monoclinic symmetry (P21/n) and the unit-cell parameters a = 19.3645(11), b = 12.7287(8), c = 8.7571(6) Å, β = 90.059(3)° for R100213 and a = 19.3462(7), b = 12.7251(5), c = 8.7472(3) Å, β = 90.017(2)° for R070760. Both samples are pervasively twinned and the twin refinements yielded the final R1 factors of 0.037 and 0.031 for R100213 and R070760, respectively. The chemical compositions determined from electron microprobe analysis are Ag0.99(Mn0.92Pb0.03Sb0.02Bi0.01)Σ=0.98Pb3. 00Sb5.00S12. 00 for R100213 and Ag1.00(Mn0.82Sb0.11Ag0.04Bi0.02)Σ=0.99Pb2. 98Sb5.00S12. 00 for R070760. The key structural difference among uchucchacuaite, ramdohrite, and fizélyite lies in the cations occupying the M2 site, which can be expressed with a general structural formula as Ag(M2+2yAg½-ySb½-y)Pb3Sb5S12, where M2+ represents divalent cations with 0 ≤ y ≤ ½. From the current list of IMA-defined minerals, we consider M = Cd with y = 0.125 for ramdohrite, M = Pb with y = 0.25 for fizélyite, and M = Mn with y = 0.5 for uchucchacuaite. Associated with the variation in the average M2 cation size from fizélyite (1.078 Å) to ramdohrite (0.955 Å) and uchucchacuaite (0.83 Å) is the significant decrease in the average M2-S bond distance from 2.917 to 2.834, and 2.654 Å, respectively, as well as corresponding variations in the unit-cell b dimension from ~13.23 to 13.06 and 12.73 Å.
A new multiagent reinforcement learning algorithm to solve the symmetric traveling salesman problem

Travelling salesman problem (TSP) looks simple, however it is an important combinatorial problem. Its computational intractability has attracted a number of heuristic approaches to generate satisfactory, if not optimal solutions. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for the Symmetric TSP using Multiagent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) approach. Each agent in the multiagent system is an autonomous entity with personal declarative memory and behavioral components which are used to tour construction and then constructed tour of each agent is improved by 2-opt local search heuristic as tour improvement heuristic in order to reach optimal or near-optimal solutions in a reasonable time. The experiments in this paper are performed using the 29 datasets obtained from the TSPLIB. Also, the experimental results of the proposed method are compared with some well-known methods in the field. Our experimental results indicate that the proposed approach has a good performance with respect to the quality of the solution and the speed of computation.
VOLIP: a corpus of spoken Italian and a virtuous example of reuse of linguistic resources

The corpus VoLIP (The Voice of LIP) is an Italian speech resource which associates the audio signals to the orthographic transcriptions of the LIP Corpus. The LIP Corpus was designed to represent diaphasic, diatopic and diamesic variation. The Corpus was collected in the early 90s to compile a frequency lexicon of spoken Italian and its size was tailored to produce a reliable frequency lexicon for the first 3,000 lemmas. Therefore, it consists of about 500,000 word tokens for 60 hours of recording. The speech materials belong to five different text registers and they were collected in four different cities. Thanks to a modern technological approach VoLIP web service allows users to search the LIP corpus using IMDI metadata, lexical or morpho-syntactic entry keys, receiving as result the audio portions aligned to the corresponding required entry. The VoLIP corpus is freely available at the URL http://www.parlaritaliano. it.
Utility of carotid intimal medial thickness as a screening tool for evaluation of coronary artery disease in pre-transplant end stage renal disease.

BACKGROUND Coronary artery disease (CAD) is associated with a higher incidence of allograft failure and mortality in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) following renal transplant. AIM To evaluate the efficacy of using carotid intimal medial thickness (CIMT) to predict the presence of CAD in patients with ESRD, using coronary angiography (CAG) as the gold standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS This prospective study enrolled consecutive patients with ESRD who underwent CAG as a part of pretransplant evaluation to rule out the presence of atherosclerotic CAD. An operator who was blinded with respect to the results of the CAG, measured carotid IMT in all patients prior to CAG and recorded it on videotape. Two independent observers blinded to the results of CAG measured carotid IMT offline to validate its predictive accuracy as a noninvasive test in predicting the presence or absence of CAD. Measurement of carotid IMT was done on USG B mode 7.5 MHZ probe [HP 5500 andover, Massachusetts]. Student's t-test was used for inter-group comparisons. Pearson correlation coefficient test was used to assess the relation between CAD and various risk factors and carotid IMT. Linear regression analysis was applied to identify independent factors determining presence of CAD. A P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS Mean CIMT was significantly higher in those with CAD as compared to those without [0.80+/- 0.06 vs.0. 70+/-0.06 mm, P< 0.0001). Patients with CIMT> 0.75 mm were older and had more incidence of diabetes(78% vs. 47%; P=0.001). Only 4/53 (7%) of patients with CIMT< 0.75 mm had CAD, vs. 38/52 (73%) in those with CIMT >0.75 mm. The sensitivity and specificity of using CIMT > 0.75 as a predictor of CAD was 90.47%and 73% and its positive and negative predictive values were 0.73 and 0.92. On multivariate analysis, only CIMT was a significant predictor of CAD. CONCLUSION Carotid IMT can be used to predict CAD in patients with ESRD. In the absence of other risk factors,patients with IMT< 0.75 mm may not need a pretransplant CAG.
A Multi-task Learning Framework for Time-continuous Emotion Estimation from Crowd Annotations

We propose Multi-task learning (MTL) for time-continuous or dynamic emotion (valence and arousal) estimation in movie scenes. Since compiling annotated training data for dynamic emotion prediction is tedious, we employ crowdsourcing for the same. Even though the crowdworkers come from various demographics, we demonstrate that MTL can effectively discover (1) consistent patterns in their dynamic emotion perception, and (2) the low-level audio and video features that contribute to their valence, arousal (VA) elicitation. Finally, we show that MTL-based regression models, which simultaneously learn the relationship between low-level audio-visual features and high-level VA ratings from a collection of movie scenes, can predict VA ratings for time-contiguous snippets from each scene more effectively than scene-specific models.
Rickettsia Detected in the Reptile Tick Bothriocroton hydrosauri from the Lizard Tiliqua rugosa in South Australia

Rickettsiosis is a potentially fatal tick borne disease. It is caused by the obligate intracellular bacteria Rickettsia, which is transferred to humans through salivary excretions of ticks during the biting process. Globally, the incidence of tick-borne diseases is increasing; as such, there is a need for a greater understanding of tick–host interactions to create more informed risk management strategies. Flinders Island spotted fever rickettsioses has been identified throughout Australia (Tasmania, South Australia, Queensland and Torres Strait Islands) with possible identifications in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Italy. Flinders Island spotted fever is thought to be spread through tick bites and the reptile tick Bothriocroton hydrosauri has been implicated as a vector in this transmission. This study used qPCR to assay Bothriocroton hydrosauri ticks collected from Tiliqua rugosa (sleepy lizard) hosts on mainland South Australia near where spotted fever cases have been identified. We report that, although we discovered Rickettsia in all tick samples, it was not Rickettsia honei. This study is the first to use PCR to positively identify Rickettsia from South Australian Bothriocroton hydrosauri ticks collected from Tiliqua rugosa (sleepy lizard) hosts. These findings suggest that B. hydrosauri may be a vector of multiple Rickettsia spp. Also as all 41 tested B. hydrosauri ticks were positive for Rickettsia this indicates an extremely high prevalence within the studied area in South Australia.
Collecting Provenance via the Xen Hypervisor

The Provenance Aware Storage Systems project (PASS) currently collects system-level provenance by intercepting system calls in the Linux kernel and storing the provenance in a stackable ﬁlesystem. While this approach is reasonably efﬁcient, it suffers from two signiﬁcant drawbacks: each new revision of the kernel requires reintegration of PASS changes, the stability of which must be continually tested; also, the use of a stackable ﬁlesystem makes it difﬁcult to collect provenance on root volumes, especially during early boot. In this paper we describe an approach to collecting system-level provenance from virtual guest machines running under the Xen hypervisor. We make the case that our approach alleviates the aforementioned difﬁculties and promotes adoption of provenance collection within cloud computing platforms.
The role of the C terminus of the SNARE protein SNAP-25 in fusion pore opening and a model for fusion pore mechanics

Formation of a fusion pore between a vesicle and its target membrane is thought to involve the so-called SNARE protein complex. However, there is no mechanistic model explaining how the fusion pore is opened by conformational changes in the SNARE complex. It has been suggested that C-terminal zipping triggers fusion pore opening. A SNAP-25 mutant named SNAP-25Δ9 (lacking the last nine C-terminal residues) should lead to a less-tight C-terminal zipping. Single exocytotic events in chromaffin cells expressing this mutant were characterized by carbon fiber amperometry and cell-attached patch capacitance measurements. Cells expressing SNAP-25Δ9 displayed smaller amperometric “foot-current” currents, reduced fusion pore conductances, and lower fusion pore expansion rates. We propose that SNARE/lipid complexes form proteolipid fusion pores. Fusion pores involving the SNAP-25Δ9 mutant will be less tightly zipped and may lead to a longer fusion pore structure, consistent with the observed decrease of fusion pore conductance.
Comparison of identification procedures in the frame of fault detection and isolation

Paper presents a model-based fault detection and isolation technique which relies on system identification procedure. Several open-loop identification methods are discussed since they are usually less complex and thus easier for implementation in large-scale systems. However, since the system analysis is usually conducted in a closed-loop structure, prediction error based direct closed-loop method was also taken into consideration. The efficiency of these four identification methods is demonstrated keeping in mind the final goal of the algorithm, which is the fault detection and isolation. Therefore, the performance of these methods in the light of FDI is emphasized, while the accuracy of parameter estimates is considered less important. The comparative analysis of suggested methods was done using data obtained from the steam separator in TEKO B1 unit of the Kostolac thermal power plant, Republic of Serbia.
E-4010 , a selective phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor , attenuates hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in rats

Hanasato, Norihisa, Masahiko Oka, Masashi Muramatsu, Mayu Nishino, Hideyuki Adachi, and Yoshinosuke Fukuchi. E-4010, a selective phosphodiesterase 5 inhibitor, attenuates hypoxic pulmonary hypertension in rats. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Lung Cell. Mol. Physiol. 21): L225–L232, 1999. —The purpose of this study was to determine whether E-4010, a newly synthesized potent and selective orally active phosphodiesterase (PDE) 5 inhibitor, would prevent the development of chronic hypoxia-induced pulmonary hypertension in rats. In conscious, pulmonary hypertensive rats, a single oral administration of E-4010 (1.0 mg/kg) caused an acute, long-lasting reduction in mean pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), with no significant effects on systemic arterial pressure, cardiac output, and heart rate. In rats that received food containing 0.01 or 0.1% E-4010 during the 3-wk exposure to hypoxia, mean PAP was significantly decreased (mean PAP 24.0 6 0.9, 16.2 6 0.8, and 12.8 6 0.5 mmHg in rats treated with 0, 0.01, and 0.1% E-4010containing food, respectively), whereas mean systemic arterial pressure was unchanged and cardiac output was slightly increased compared with chronically hypoxic control rats. Right ventricular hypertrophy, medial wall thickness in pulmonary arteries corresponding to the respiratory and terminal bronchioles, and the degree of muscularization of more distal arteries were less severe in E-4010-treated rats. Long-term treatment with E-4010 caused an increase in cGMP levels in lung tissue and plasma but not in aortic tissue and no significant change in cAMP levels in either lung, aorta, or plasma. These results suggest that long-term oral treatment with E-4010 reduced the increase in PAP, right ventricular hypertrophy, and pulmonary arterial remodeling induced by exposure to chronic hypoxia, probably through increasing cGMP levels in the pulmonary vascular smooth muscle.
The ends of tropomyosin are major determinants of actin affinity and myosin subfragment 1-induced binding to F-actin in the open state.

Tropomyosin (TM) is thought to exist in equilibrium between two states on F-actin, closed and open [Geeves, M. A. , and Lehrer, S. S. (1994) Biophys. J. 67, 273-282]. Myosin shifts the equilibrium to the open state in which myosin binds strongly and develops force. Tropomyosin isoforms, that primarily differ in their N- and C-terminal sequences, have different equilibria between the closed and open states. The aim of the research is to understand how the alternate ends of TM affect cooperative actin binding and the relationship between actin affinity and the cooperativity with which myosin S1 promotes binding of TM to actin in the open state. A series of rat alpha-tropomyosin variants was expressed in Escherichia coli that are identical except for the ends, which are encoded by exons 1a or 1b and exons 9a, 9c or 9d. Both the N- and C-terminal sequences, and the particular combination within a TM molecule, determine actin affinity. Compared to tropomyosins with an exon 1a-encoded N-terminus, found in long isoforms, the exon 1b-encoded sequence, expressed in 247-residue nonmuscle tropomyosins, increases actin affinity in tropomyosins expressing 9a or 9d but has little effect with 9c, a brain-specific exon. The relative actin affinities, in decreasing order, are 1b9d > 1b9a > acetylated 1a9a > 1a9d >> 1a9a > or = 1a9c congruent with 1b9c. Myosin S1 greatly increases the affinity of all tropomyosin variants for actin. In this, the actin affinity is the primary factor in the cooperativity with which myosin S1 induces TM binding to actin in the open state; generally, the higher the actin affinity, the lower the occupancy by myosin required to saturate the actin with tropomyosin: 1b9d >1a9d> 1b9a > or = acetylated 1a9a > 1a9a > 1a9c congruent with 1b9c.
Enhancing Network Based Bot Detection with Contextual Information

In this paper, we propose a bot detection method that enhances traffic analysis of Network based IDS (NIDS) by using process contextual information obtained from monitored machines. Existing NIDS classifies hosts suspected of doing both of the Command and Control (C&C) communication and infection activities as bots. However, this approach cannot conduct finer-grained analysis than IP address level, and which leads to false positives and negatives. To address this problem, this proposed method enables NIDS to achieve process-grained detection by feeding the contextual information of the processes that perform network activities. Through experiments using a prototype implementation on Xen and a bot sample, we demonstrate that the proposed method enables to detect bots appropriately.