Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of habitual snoring and obstructive sleep apnea risk in patients with asthma.

BACKGROUND A high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) symptoms was reported in patients with asthma. Our goal was to evaluate factors associated with habitual snoring and OSA risk in these patients. METHODS Patients with asthma were surveyed at specialty clinics with the Sleep Apnea scale of the Sleep Disorders Questionnaire (SA-SDQ) and questions about the frequency of asthma symptoms (National Asthma Education and Prevention Program guidelines), followed by medical record review. SA-SDQ scores >or= 36 for men and >or= 32 for women defined high OSA risk. Logistic regression was used to model associations with habitual snoring and high OSA risk. RESULTS Among 244 patients, 37% snored habitually and 40% demonstrated high OSA risk. Independent predictors of habitual snoring included gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) [odds ratio (OR), 2.19; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.19 to 4.02] and use of an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) [OR, 2.66; 95% CI, 1.05 to 6.72]. High OSA risk was predicted by asthma severity step (OR, 1.59; 95% CI, 1.23 to 2.06), GERD (OR, 2.70; 95% CI, 1.51 to 4.83), and ICS use (OR, 4.05; 95% CI, 1.56 to 10.53). Linear, dose-dependent relationships of ICS with habitual snoring and high OSA risk were seen (p = 0.004 and p = 0.0006, respectively). Women demonstrated a 2.11 times greater odds for high OSA risk (95% CI, 1.10 to 4.09) when controlling for the above covariates. CONCLUSIONS Symptoms of OSA in patients with asthma are predicted by asthma severity, coexistent GERD, and use of an ICS in a dose-dependent fashion. The well-recognized male gender predominance for OSA symptoms is not apparent in these patients. Further exploration of these relationships may help to explain the increased prevalence of OSA in asthma and provide new insights into the reported female predominance of asthma morbidity.
Invasive Assessment of the Coronary Microcirculation in Reperfused ST-Segment–Elevation Myocardial Infarction Patients: Where Do We Stand?

For patients presenting with an acute ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction, the most effective therapy for reducing myocardial infarct size and preserving left ventricular systolic function is primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). However, mortality and morbidity remain significant. This is partly attributed to the development of microvascular obstruction, which occurs in around 50% of ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction patients post-PPCI, and it is associated with adverse left ventricular remodeling and worse clinical outcomes. Although microvascular obstruction can be detected by cardiac imaging techniques several hours post-PPCI, it may be too late to intervene at that time. Therefore, being able to predict the development of microvascular obstruction at the time of PPCI may identify high-risk patients who might benefit from further adjuvant intracoronary therapies, such as thrombolysis, vasodilators, glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, and anti-inflammatory agents that may reduce microvascular obstruction. Recent studies have shown that invasive coronary physiology measurements performed during PPCI can be used to assess the coronary microcirculation. In this article, we provide an overview of the various invasive methods currently available to assess the coronary microcirculation in the setting of ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction, and how they could potentially be used in the future for tailoring therapies to those most at risk.
Building-Blocks Selection based on Business Processes Semantics for SAP R/3

We present a semantic-based toolkit for the automated selection of Building-Blocks in SAP R/3, aimed at easing and improving Best Practices reusability. The automated selection process exploits Abduction-based Concept Covering in Description Logics to select Building Blocks and provides, if necessary, logic-based information on what remains unavailable.
Performance models for peering Content Delivery Networks

A content delivery network (CDN) is expected to provide high performance content delivery, which requires scalable infrastructure to achieve global coverage. The provision of such infrastructure may form a substantial entry barrier for new CDN providers, as well as affecting commercial viability of the existing ones. Peering of CDNs can be a way to allow dynamic infrastructural cooperation between CDNs in a scalable manner, in order to mitigate the impact of flash crowds and to achieve better overall service times. In this paper, we present a quality of service (QoS)-driven model to evaluate the user perceived performance of CDN peering relationships. In this model, an overloaded CDN redirects a fraction of its incoming requests to peered CDNs and thereby can avoid the impact of flash crowds. The model-based approach also assists in making concrete QoS guarantee for a given CDN. Our approach endeavors to achieve scalability for a CDN in a user transparent manner.
Postpartum stress: current concepts and the possible protective role of breastfeeding.

OBJECTIVE To review stress during the postpartum and the research supporting that a unique, protective biology exists in breastfeeding mothers that may reduce reactivity to stress. DATA SOURCES Publications from nursing and biomedical literature. STUDY SELECTION Studies reviewed were those that have contributed to concurrent conceptualizations of postpartum stress. Additionally, studies with sufficient participants were analyzed for common findings. Animal literature was reviewed for studies on the stress response in lactating and nonlactating animal models. DATA EXTRACTION Stress during the postpartum may be conceptualized as physical, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. Animal data and a few recent human studies suggest that the neuroendocrinology of the lactating mother may down-regulate the magnitude of the stress response. DATA SYNTHESIS A diminished stress response may serve to protect the breastfeeding maternal-infant dyad from environmental stimuli and to direct the physiology of the mother toward milk production, energy conservation, and nurturance. CONCLUSION Nurses understand the benefits of breastfeeding for optimal infant health, but new research suggests that maternal health may also be benefited in a biologic and as yet unexplored way.
Balancing Work and Family

This article describes an investigation of the effect of postpartum employment and occupational type on breastfeeding initiation and duration. Data were from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort. Postpartum employment status was classified as full-time, part-time, and not employed. Among postpartum workers, occupational type was classified as management, professional, service, sales, administrative, and “other. ” In adjusted analysis, professional women had a 20% greater likelihood of initiating breastfeeding than administrative workers (risk ratio [RR] 1.20; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-1.30). Full-time workers had a 10% lower likelihood of initiating breastfeeding than those not employed (RR 0.90; 95% CI, 0.82-0.97). Among breastfeeding initiators, full-time workers had a 19% lower likelihood of any breastfeeding beyond 6 months than those not employed (RR 0.81; 95% CI, 0.65-0.99). To improve breastfeeding initiation and duration in the United States, part-time options may be an effective solution for working mothers.
Adenocarcinomas with predominant ground-glass opacity: correlation of morphology and molecular biomarkers.

PURPOSE To retrospectively identify successive changes in peripheral lung adenocarcinoma that feature dominant ground-glass opacity (GGO) at computed tomography (CT) and correlate with biomolecular markers. MATERIALS AND METHODS The institutional review board approved this retrospective study, and all 25 patients provided informed consent. Patients with lung adenocarcinomas smaller than 3 cm in diameter in whom tumor growth could be evaluated with CT before surgery were included. Two thoracic radiologists evaluated tumor growth by analyzing GGO type (pure or mixed) and size increases. Immunohistochemistry of the p53 protein and molecular analysis of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and K-ras genes were performed. The Fisher exact test was used to assess statistical significance. RESULTS Tumor size increased in 19 of 25 patients (76%) during the observation period. The CT changes in 19 patients were classified into four patterns: persistent pure GGO (n = 8), change from pure to mixed GGO (n = 3), mixed GGO with growth of solid component (n = 4), and mixed GGO with growth of GGO component (n = 4). The remaining six patients (24%) had pure GGO without any interval changes. Staining for p53 was negative in all 14 patients with pure GGO and positive in six of 11 patients (55%) with mixed GGO (P < .01). In these six patients appearance or growth of the solid component was seen. EGFR mutations were found in both pure (36%) and mixed (45%) GGO lesions (P = .70). CONCLUSION Lung adenocarcinomas with a dominant GGO often possess EGFR mutations. Interval changes in the solid component may be related to p53 inactivation.
Nonlinear and Linear Broadcasting With QoS Requirements: Tractable Approaches for Bounded Channel Uncertainties

We consider the downlink of a cellular system in which the base station employs multiple transmit antennas, each receiver has a single antenna, and the users specify certain quality of service (QoS) requirements. We study the design of robust broadcasting schemes that minimize the transmission power necessary to guarantee that the QoS requirements are satisfied for all channels within bounded uncertainty regions around the transmitter's estimate of each user's channel. Each user's QoS requirement is formulated as a constraint on the mean square error (MSE) in its received signal, and we show that these MSE constraints imply constraints on the received signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio. Using the MSE constraints, we present a unified approach to the design of linear and nonlinear transceivers with QoS requirements that must be satisfied in the presence of bounded channel uncertainty. The proposed designs overcome the limitations of existing approaches that provide conservative designs or are only applicable to the case of linear precoding. Furthermore, we provide computationally efficient design formulations for a rather general model of bounded channel uncertainty that subsumes many natural choices for the uncertainty region. We also consider the problem of the robust counterpart to precoding schemes that maximize the fidelity of the weakest user's signal subject to a power constraint. For this problem, we provide quasi-convex formulations, for both linear and nonlinear transceivers, that can be efficiently solved using a one-dimensional bisection search. Our numerical results demonstrate that in the presence of bounded uncertainty in the transmitter's knowledge of users' channels, the proposed designs provide guarantees for a larger range of QoS requirements than the existing approaches that are based on bounded channel uncertainty models and require less transmission power to provide these guarantees.
Reducing memory buffering overhead in software thread-level speculation

Software-based, automatic parallelization through Thread-Level Speculation (TLS) has significant practical potential, but also high overhead costs. Traditional "lazy" buffering mechanisms enable strong isolation of speculative threads, but imply large memory overheads, while more recent "eager" mechanisms improve scalability, but are more sensitive to data dependencies and have higher rollback costs. We here describe an integrated system that incorporates the best of both designs, automatically selecting the best buffering mechanism. Our approach builds on well-optimized designs for both techniques, and we describe specific optimizations that improve both lazy and eager buffer management as well. We implement our design within MUTLS, a software-TLS system based on the LLVM compiler framework. Results show that we can get 75% geometric mean performance of OpenMP versions on 9 memory intensive benchmarks. Application of these optimizations is thus a useful part of the optimization stack needed for effective and practical software TLS.
ras‐p21 Activates phospholipase D and A2, but not phospholipase C or PKC, in Xenopus laevis Oocytes

Xenopus laevis oocytes are a powerful tool for the characterization of signal transduction pathways leading to the induction of DNA synthesis. Since activation of PLA2, PLC, or PLD has been postulated as a mediator of ras function, we have used the oocyte system to study the putative functional relationship between ras‐p21 and these phospholipases. A rapid generation of PA and DAG was observed after ras‐p21 microinjection, suggesting the activation of both PLC and PLD enzymes. However, production of DAG was sensitive to inhibition of the PA‐hydrolase by propranolol, indicating that PLD is the enzyme responsible for the generation of both PA and DAG. Microinjection of PLD or ras‐p21 induced the late production of lysophosphatidylcholine on a p42MAPK‐dependent manner, an indication of the activation of a PLA2. Inhibition of this enzyme by quinacrine does not inhibit PLD‐ or ras‐induced GVBD, suggesting that PLA2 activation is not needed for ras or PLD function. Contrary to 3T3 fibroblasts, where ras‐p21 is functionally dependent for its mitogenic activity on TPA‐ and staurosporine‐sensitive PKC isoforms, in Xenopus oocytes, induction of GVBD by ras‐p21 was independent of PKC, while PLC‐induced GVBD was sensitive to PKC inhibition. Thus, our results demonstrate the activation of PLD and PLA2 by ras‐p21 proteins, while no effect on PLC was observed.
Responsabilidad social empresarial percibida desde una perspectiva sostenicéntrica, y su influencia en la reputación de la empresa y en el comportamiento del turista.

El objetivo principal de esta tesis doctoral es estudiar la responsabilidad social empresarial (RSE) o corporativa percibida por el turista y sus dimensiones desde la perspectiva del paradigma del desarrollo sostenible, es decir, sus dimensiones economica, social y medioambiental, asi como sus influencia, directas e indirectas, sobre la reputacion de la empresa, las dimensiones cognitiva y afectiva de las actitudes del turista hacia la marca y las intenciones de compra y recomendacion futuras del propio turista. Una contribucion especifica destacable a las literaturas de marketing y de RSE alcanzada con esta tesis es la proposicion, el desarrollo y la validacion de una escala de medicion de las percepciones de la responsabilidad social empresarial (PeRSE) desde la perspectiva antedicha. La tesis se estructura en seis capitulos. Los dos primeros capitulos contienen el marco conceptual general, el cual esta cimentado en las literaturas de marketing, RSE y comportamiento del consumidor, y en las teorias de los stakeholders, integradora del contrato social, del desarrollo sostenible y neo-institucional. En ellos se identifican, describen y analizan veintiuna teorias empleadas para el estudio de los fenomenos de RSE, se establecen los nexos conceptuales entre marketing y RSE, se propone una definicion de RSE capaz de ser operativa en el contexto estudiado, y se conceptualizan las variables identificadas como consecuentes de la RSE en esta tesis. En el tercer capitulo se proponen dos modelos teoricos; uno correspondiente a la escala para la medicion de las percepciones de los consumidores turisticos sobre la RSE, y otro referente a las influencias de esas percepciones sobre la reputacion de la empresa, las dimensiones cognitiva y afectiva de las actitudes del turista hacia la marca y sus intenciones comportamentales. En el capitulo cuarto se presenta la metodologia de investigacion seguida para contrastar empiricamente los modelos planteados, la cual se compone de cuatro fases: una cualitativa, basada en un panel de expertos, una cuali-cuantitativa, basada en la tecnica de concept mapping, y dos cuantitativas, la primera basada en los resultados de una encuesta aplicada a una muestra de 183 turistas, y la segunda en los de una muestra de 462 turistas nacionales e internaciones. Se han utilizado diversas tecnicas de analisis multivariante, entre las que destacan el analisis de estructuras de covarianzas (analisis factorial confirmatorio de primero y segundo ordenes y sistemas de ecuaciones estructurales), y el concept mapping (basado en el uso combinado de las tecnicas de analisis multidimensional y de analisis de conglomerados, aplicadas a los resultados de una dinamica de grupos). En el quinto capitulo se exponen y discuten los resultados obtenidos para finalizar presentando, en el capitulo sexto, las principales conclusiones derivadas de la tesis doctoral, sus implicaciones gerenciales, las limitaciones de la investigacion y las lineas de trabajo futuro propuestas.
The Architecture of Cognition

Now available in paper, The Architecture of Cognition is a classic work that remains relevant to theory and research in cognitive science. The new version of Anderson's theory of cognitive architecture -- Adaptive Control of Thought (ACT*) -- is a theory of the basic principles of operation built into the cognitive system and is the main focus of the book. (http://books.google.fr/books? id=Uip3_g7zlAUC&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr#v=onepage&q&f=false)
Handling Uncertainty in Autonomic Systems

Autonomic, or self-adaptive, systems are increasingly important. One of the most prevalent techniques is to adopt a control systems view of the solution: adding a runtime, separate control unit that monitors and adapts the system under consideration. A problem with this paradigm for system engineering is that the control and the system are loosely coupled, introducing a variety of sources of uncertainty. In this paper we describe three specific sources of uncertainty, and briefly explain how we address those in the Rainbow Project.
Recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae Expressing P450 in Artificial Digestive Systems: a Model for Biodetoxication in the Human Digestive Environment

ABSTRACT The use of genetically engineered microorganisms such as bacteria or yeasts as live vehicles to carry out bioconversion directly in the digestive environment is an important challenge for the development of innovative biodrugs. A system that mimics the human gastrointestinal tract was combined with a computer simulation to evaluate the survival rate and cinnamate 4-hydroxylase activity of a recombinant model of Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing the plant P450 73A1. The yeasts showed a high level of resistance to gastric and small intestinal secretions (survival rate after 4 h of digestion, 95.6% ± 10.1% [n = 4]) but were more sensitive to the colonic conditions (survival rate after 4 h of incubation, 35.9% ± 2.7% [n = 3]). For the first time, the ability of recombinant S. cerevisiae to carry out a bioconversion reaction has been demonstrated throughout the gastrointestinal tract. In the gastric-small intestinal system, 41.0% ± 5.8% (n = 3) of the ingested trans-cinnamic acid was converted into p-coumaric acid after 4 h of digestion, as well as 8.9% ± 1.6% (n = 3) in the stomach, 13.8% ± 3.3% (n = 3) in the duodenum, 11.8% ± 3.4% (n = 3) in the jejunum, and 6.5% ± 1.0% (n = 3) in the ileum. In the large intestinal system, cinnamate 4-hydroxylase activity was detected but was too weak to be quantified. These results suggest that S. cerevisiae may afford a useful host for the development of biodrugs and may provide an innovative system for the prevention or treatment of diseases that escape classical drug action. In particular, yeasts may provide a suitable vector for biodetoxication in the digestive environment.
Divergence based graph estimation for manifold learning

Manifold learning algorithms rely on a neighbourhood graph to provide an estimate of the data's local topology. Unfortunately, current methods for estimating local topology assume local Euclidean geometry and locally uniform data density, which often leads to poor embeddings of the data. We address these shortcomings by proposing a framework that combines local learning with parametric density estimation for local topology estimation. Given a data set D ⊂ χ, we first estimate a new metric space (X; dX) that characterizes the varying sample density of χ in X, and then use (X; dX) as a new (pilot) input space for manifold learning. The proposed framework results in significantly improved embeddings, which we demonstrated objectively by assessing clustering accuracy.
Mindfulness training for smoking cessation: A meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials

Recent studies have shown that mindfulness training has a promising potential for smoking treatment. In order to examine the efficacy of mindfulness training in smoking cessation, we performed a systematic review of the literature and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Four randomized controlled trials with 474 patients were included in our analysis. The results showed that 25.2 percent of participants remained abstinent for more than 4 months in the mindfulness group compared to 13.6 percent of those who received usual care therapy (relative risk, 1.88; 95 percent confidence interval, 1.04–3.40). Our results suggest that mindfulness training may have an important role to play in efforts to lower cigarette smoking rates.
Hemodynamic, Renal, and Hormonal Effects of 8‐Br‐Cyclic GMP in Conscious Dogs With and Without Congestive Heart Failure

In conscious dogs, we examined the hypothesis that the effects of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) are mediated by cyclic GMP and tested whether stimulation of the intracellular pathway beyond the ANP receptor level still exerts ANP-like effects during tolerance to ANP in heart failure. We studied the hemodynamic, renal, and hormonal effects of the cyclic GMP analogue 8-bromo-cyclic GMP (8-Br-cyclic GMP) in conscious dogs before and after induction of congestive heart failure by right ventricular pacing. In healthy dogs, 8-Br-cyclic GMP (1–100 μg/kg/min) dose-dependently decreased mean arterial pressure (MAP —19% by 100 μg/kg/min) and total peripheral resistance (TPR −22%) with no change in cardiac output (CO) and right atrial pressure, increased urine flow (UF 52%), and sodium excretion (UNaV 135%). Plasma renin (62%) and norepinephrine (NE 24%) were increased. In dogs with heart failure, 8-Br-cyclic GMP induced a similar arteriolar dilation (MAP - 16%, TPR - 23%) with no change in CO and preload. However, the effects on renal excretory function were abolished or markedly attenuated (UF −4%, UNaV 7%). Plasma renin (163%) and aldosterone (40%) were increased. Our findings support the hypothesis that the renal effects of ANP are mediated by cyclic GMP in vivo. The attenuation of renal effects of 8-Br-cyclic GMP in heart failure does not prove but is in agreement with the hypothesis that an intracellular defect beyond cyclic GMP production might be involved in the tolerance to ANP in heart failure.
3D Visualization of Relation Clusters from OWL Ontologies

This paper presents an enhanced methodology to visualize clusters of relations from OWL ontologies. The relations are clustered by comparing their intrinsic semantics. The intrinsic semantics of every relation from an input ontology is explicitly specified by a framework of 32 common elements; each element captures a specific aspect of the relationship between a relation’s domain and range. Using this framework, each relation can be represented in a 32 dimensional “relation space. ” Relation clusters in 32 dimensions are projected to 3 dimensions using an automated 3D star coordinate visualization technique. Results from the application of the proposed algorithm to visualize relation clusters from the IEEE SUMO Ontology are presented in this paper; and discussed in the context of their potential utility to knowledge reuse and interoperability on the Semantic Web.