Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Telehealth on Quality of Life and Psychological Outcomes Over a 12-Month Period in a Diabetes Cohort Within the Whole Systems Demonstrator Cluster Randomized Trial

Background Much is written about the promise of telehealth and there is great enthusiasm about its potential. However, many studies of telehealth do not meet orthodox quality standards and there are few studies examining quality of life in diabetes as an outcome. Objective To assess the impact of home-based telehealth (remote monitoring of physiological, symptom and self-care behavior data for long-term conditions) on generic and disease-specific health-related quality of life, anxiety, and depressive symptoms over 12 months in patients with diabetes. Remote monitoring provides the potential to improve quality of life, through the reassurance it provides patients. Methods The study focused on participant-reported outcomes of patients with diabetes within the Whole Systems Demonstrator (WSD) Telehealth Questionnaire Study, nested within a pragmatic cluster-randomized trial of telehealth (the WSD Telehealth Trial), held across 3 regions of England. Telehealth was compared with usual-care, with general practice as the unit of randomization. Participant-reported outcome measures (Short-Form 12, EuroQual-5D, Diabetes Health Profile scales, Brief State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale) were collected at baseline, short-term (4 months) and long-term (12months) follow-ups. Intention-to-treat analyses testing treatment effectiveness, were conducted using multilevel models controlling for practice clustering and a range of covariates. Analyses assumed participants received their allocated treatment and were conducted for participants who completed the baseline plus at least one follow-up assessment (n=317). Results Primary analyses showed differences between telehealth and usual care were small and only reached significance for 1 scale (diabetes health profile-disinhibited eating, P=.006). The magnitude of differences between trial arms did not reach the trial-defined minimal clinically important difference of 0.3 standard deviations for most outcomes. Effect sizes (Hedge's g) ranged from 0.015 to 0.143 for Generic quality of life (QoL) measures and 0.018 to 0.394 for disease specific measures. Conclusions Second generation home-based telehealth as implemented in the WSD evaluation was not effective in the subsample of people with diabetes. Overall, telehealth did not improve or have a deleterious effect quality of life or psychological outcomes for patients with diabetes over a 12-month period.
Insect Biometrics: Optoacoustic Signal Processing and Its Applications to Remote Monitoring of McPhail Type Traps

Monitoring traps are important components of integrated pest management applied against important fruit fly pests, including Bactrocera oleae (Gmelin) and Ceratitis capitata (Widemann), Diptera of the Tephritidae family, which effect a crop-loss/per year calculated in billions of euros worldwide. Pests can be controlled with ground pesticide sprays, the efficiency of which depends on knowing the time, location and extent of infestations as early as possible. Trap inspection is currently carried out manually, using the McPhail trap, and the mass spraying is decided based on a decision protocol. We introduce the term ‘insect biometrics’ in the context of entomology as a measure of a characteristic of the insect (in our case, the spectrum of its wingbeat) that allows us to identify its species and make devices to help face old enemies with modern means. We modify a McPhail type trap into becoming electronic by installing an array of photoreceptors coupled to an infrared emitter, guarding the entrance of the trap. The beating wings of insects flying in the trap intercept the light and the light fluctuation is turned to a recording. Custom-made electronics are developed that are placed as an external add-on kit, without altering the internal space of the trap. Counts from the trap are transmitted using a mobile communication network. This trap introduces a new automated remote-monitoring method different to audio and vision-based systems. We evaluate our trap in large number of insects in the laboratory by enclosing the electronic trap in insectary cages. Our experiments assess the potential of delivering reliable data that can be used to initialize reliably the spraying process at large scales but to also monitor the impact of the spraying process as it eliminates the time-lag between acquiring and delivering insect counts to a central agency.
Scaling up and Bearing Down in Discourse Analysis: Questions Regarding Textual Agencies and Their Context

This paper assesses the contributions that discourse analysis and organizational discourse theory can make to our understanding of organization and organizing. By clarifying the theoretical assumptions that underpin this work, especially its social constructivist credentials, it is possible to show the potential of this methodology. A discursive approach can help answer a series of questions that interest organizational theorists: the constitution question of how local interactions develop organizing properties; the scaling-up question concerning the identification of characteristics that imbue certain texts and their authors with agency; as well as how grand discourses bear down on organizational life and how practices of consumption relate to acts of resistance.
Inhibitory Effects of PEI-RGD/125I-(αV) ASODN on Growth and Invasion of HepG2 Cells

Background To investigate the in vitro inhibitory effects of PEI-RGD/125I-(αV)ASODN (PEI, polyethylenimine; RGD, Arg-Gly-Asp; ASODN, antisense oligodeoxynucleotide) on the growth and invasion of HepG2 cells. Material/Methods ASODN of the integrin αV-subunit was marked with 125I and underwent complexation with PEI-RGD, a PEI derivative. Next, PEI-RGD/125I-(αV) ASODN was introduced into HepG2 cells via receptor-mediated transfection, and its inhibition rate on HepG2 cell growth was tested using the methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) method. The effects of PEI-RGD/125I-(αV) ASODN on HepG2 cell invasion ability were evaluated using the Boyden chamber assay. Results 1) The 125I marking rate of (αV) ASODN was 73.78±4.09%, and the radiochemical purity was 96.68±1.38% (greater than 90% even after a 48-h incubation period at 37°C), indicating high stability. 2) The cytotoxicity assays showed that the cell inhibition rates did not differ significantly between the PEI-RGD/125I-(αV)ASODN group and the PEI-RGD/(αV) ASODN group, but they were both significantly higher than in the other groups and were positively correlated (r=0.879) with the dosage within a certain range. 3) The invasion assays showed that the inhibition rate was significantly greater in the PEI-RGD/125I-(αV) ASODN group compared to the other groups. Conclusions PEI-RGD/125I-(αV) ASODN can efficiently inhibit the growth and proliferation of HepG2 cells and can also weaken their invasive ability.
A comparison of perceived parental influence on mathematics learning among students in China and Australia

This paper explores levels of perceived parental influence on mathematics learning among over 700 students in China and Australia. Students in China had stronger perceived parental influences than students in Australia, and while students in China, Chinese speaking students in Australia, and other language speaking students in Australia demonstrated similar levels of perceived parental influence, these three groups of students had higher levels of perceived parental influence than English speaking students in Australia. Possible reasons for the similarities and differences found are discussed.
Accelerating the Computation of Haralick's Texture Features using Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)

This paper presents the speedup of the computation of co-occurrence matrices and Haralick Texture Features, as used for analyzing images of cells, by general-purpose graphic processing units (GPU). The computation sequence for the features is analyzed in a graph and an optimized software version is derived. Afterwards, a massive parallel software version for GPUs is designed. On a single node of a cluster, a speedup of 216 was obtained compared to an un-optimized software version, and speedup of 19 compared to an optimized software version.
NF-κB Regulates MICA Gene Transcription in Endothelial Cell through a Genetically Inhibitable Control Site*

Background: Expression of activating immune ligands promotes inflammation. Results: A pro-inflammatory immune ligand (MICA) is expressed in atherosclerotic lesions and is regulated by different transcription factors (NF-κB and HSF1) that compete for binding to overlapping promoter sites. Conclusion: Competition for overlapping promoter sites integrates input from multiple transcriptional pathways. Significance: Inflammatory immune responses may be influenced by genetic targeting of overlapping promoter sites. Endothelial cells form a barrier between blood and the underlying vessel wall, which characteristically demonstrates inflammatory damage in atherosclerotic disease. MICA is a highly polymorphic ligand for the activating immune receptor NKG2D and can be expressed on endothelial cells. We hypothesized that damaged vessel walls, such as those involved in atherosclerosis, might express MICA, which could contribute to the vascular immunopathology. Immune activation resulting from MICA expression could play a significant role in the development of vascular damage. We have demonstrated that TNFα up-regulates MICA on human endothelial cells. The up-regulation is mediated by NF-κB, and we have defined the regulatory control site responsible for this at −130 bp upstream of the MICA transcription start site. This site overlaps with a heat shock response element and integrates input from the two pathways. We have shown that in atherosclerotic lesions there is expression of MICA on endothelial cells. Using lentivirus-mediated gene delivery in primary human endothelial cells, we were able to inhibit the MICA response to TNFα with a truncated HSF1 that lacked a transactivation domain. This highlights the potential for transcription-based therapeutic approaches in atherosclerotic vascular disease to reduce immune-mediated endothelial and vessel wall damage.
The Metabolic Pathway of 4-Aminophenol in Burkholderia sp. Strain AK-5 Differs from That of Aniline and Aniline with C-4 Substituents

ABSTRACT Burkholderia sp. strain AK-5 utilized 4-aminophenol as the sole carbon, nitrogen, and energy source. A pathway for the metabolism of 4-aminophenol in strain AK-5 was proposed based on the identification of three key metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis. Strain AK-5 converted 4-aminophenol to 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene via 1,4-benzenediol. 1,2,4-Trihydroxybenzene 1,2-dioxygenase cleaved the benzene ring of 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene to form maleylacetic acid. The enzyme showed a high dioxygenase activity only for 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene, with Km and Vmax values of 9.6 μM and 6.8 μmol min−1 mg of protein−1, respectively.
Functional analysis of the two alternative translation initiation sites of foot-and-mouth disease virus

The effect of deletion of each of the two authentic polyprotein translation initiation sites of foot-and-mouth disease virus on viral protein synthesis and replication was analyzed. Deletion of either the first or the second initiation site led to the expression of only one form of the leader protein, L or L', respectively, but in vitro processing of the viral polyprotein and cleavage of eIF-4 gamma were not affected by either deletion. Whereas RNA in which the first translation initiation site had been deleted led to the production of viruses in transfected BHK cells, deletion of the second translation initiation site abolished virus replication.
Complementary and alternative medicine use in infertility: cultural and religious influences in a multicultural Canadian setting.

OBJECTIVES To explore the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for infertility in a multicultural healthcare setting and to compare Western and non-Western infertility patients' reasons for using CAM and the meanings they attribute to CAM use. DESIGN Qualitative semi-structured interviews using thematic analysis. SETTINGS/LOCATION Two infertility clinics in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. PARTICIPANTS An ethnoculturally varied sample of 32 heterosexual infertile couples. RESULTS CAM used included lifestyle changes (e.g., changing diet, exercise), alternative medicine (e.g., acupuncture, herbal medicines), and religious methods (e.g., prayers, religious talismans). Patients expressed three attitudes toward CAM: desperate hope, casual optimism, and amused skepticism. PARTICIPANTS' CAM use was consistent with cultural traditions of health and fertility: Westerners relied primarily on biomedicine and used CAM mainly for relaxation, whereas non-Westerners' CAM use was often influenced by culture-specific knowledge of health, illness and fertility. CONCLUSIONS Understanding patients' CAM use may help clinicians provide culturally sensitive, patient-centered care.
Inhibition of Liver Fibrosis by L-Azetidine-2-Carboxylic Acid in Rats Treated with Carbon Tetrachloride

A B S T R A C T L-Azetidiine-2-carboxylic acid (AZC), an analogue of proline, has been shown to partially ameliorate hepatic cirrhosis induced in rats by CCli. AZC caused a diminution in formation of collagen in the liver accompanied by a relative decrease in the pool of free proline. The synthesis of noncollagenous proteins in the livers of treated rats did not appear to be affected.
Most information feature extraction (MIFE) approach for face recognition

We present a MIFE (Most Information Feature Extraction) approach, which extract as abundant as possible information for the face classification task. In the MIFE approach, a facial image is separated into sub-regions and each sub-region makes individual’s contribution for performing face recognition. Specifically, each sub-region is subjected to a sub-region based adaptive gamma (SadaGamma) correction or sub-region based histogram equalization (SHE) in order to account for different illuminations and expressions. Experiment results show that the proposed SadaGamma/SHE correction approach provides an efficient delighting solution for face recognition. MIFE and SadaGamma/SHE correction together achieves lower error ratio in face recognition under different illumination and expression.
Renalase Protects against Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in Sprague-Dawley Rats

Background Contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN) is the third leading cause of hospital-acquired acute renal failure. Oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation play crucial roles in CIN. Renalase is a newly discovered monoamine oxidase from the kidney. We hypothesize that renalase could protect against CIN through anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation and anti-apoptosis pathways. Methods We tested our hypothesis in vivo with a rat model of Ioversol-induced CIN and in vitro. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 4 groups (n = 6 per group): control group, Ioversol group (rats subjected to Ioversol-induced CIN), Ioversol plus vehicle group (CIN rats pretreated with vehicle) and Ioversol plus renalase group (CIN rats pretreated with 2 mg/kg recombinant renalase). HK2 cells were treated with Ioversol or H2O2. Results The results showed that pretreatment with renalase attenuated the deterioration of renal function, tubular necrosis, oxidative stress, apoptosis and inflammation (P<0.05). Furthermore, renalase protected HK2 cells against the cytotoxicity of Ioversol and suppressed Caspase-3 activity, oxidative stress and apoptosis induced by H2O2. Conclusion Recombinant renalase protected CIN in rats through anti-oxidation, anti-apoptosis and anti-inflammation mechanisms.
Class-based graph anonymization for social network data

The recent rise in popularity of social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace, has created large quantities of data about interactions within these networks. Such data contains many private details about individuals so anonymization is required prior to attempts to make the data more widely available for scientific research. Prior work has considered simple graph data to be anonymized by removing all non-graph information and adding or deleting some edges. Since social network data is richer in details about the users and their interactions, loss of details due to anonymization limits the possibility for analysis. We present a new set of techniques for anonymizing social network data based on grouping the entities into classes, and masking the mapping between entities and the nodes that represent them in the anonymized graph. Our techniques allow queries over the rich data to be evaluated with high accuracy while guaranteeing resilience to certain types of attack. To prevent inference of interactions, we rely on a critical "safety condition" when forming these classes. We demonstrate utility via empirical data from social networking settings. We give examples of complex queries that may be posed and show that they can be answered over the anonymized data efficiently and accurately.
A WLAN Scheduling Algorithm to Reduce the Energy Consumption of a Distributed Speech Recognition Front-End

In distributed speech recognition, speech features are computed on a mobile device, compressed, and sent to a server that performs the computationally intensive search for the most likely word sequence. Much of the current research in distributed speech recognition has been in the area of feature compression and communication robustness over wireless links, including error correction and concealment techniques. However, another challenge in designing a distributed speech recognition system is minimizing the energy consumption on the mobile device. We consider quality-of-service tradeoffs including compression ratio and overall system latency. Our measurements verify that for high speed wireless interfaces such as 802.11b, small changes in compression rates have little effect on system level energy consumption. However, for wireless networks with lower power/bit-rate ratios such as Bluetooth, the choice of bit-rate and compression ratio becomes more important. We present a wireless LAN scheduling algorithm to minimize the energy consumption of a distributed speech recognition front-end on a mobile device. By powering down the 802.11b interface when not in use, we are able to reduce the energy consumption by up to a factor of 5 in heavy traffic conditions. Increasing the total amount of time spent in the off state to almost one second will allow the system to save power regardless of traffic conditions. We compare the results of this power saving algorithm to the low-power mechanisms of Bluetooth. The lower overhead of Bluetooth allows for greater energy savings with a much lower delay of approximately 300ms.
Performance Pay and Multi-Dimensional Sorting: Productivity, Preferences and Gender

This paper studies the impact of incentives on worker self-selection in a controlled laboratory experiment. Subjects face the choice between a fixed and a variable payment scheme. Depending on the treatment, the variable payment is a piece rate, a tournament or a revenue-sharing scheme. We find that output is higher in the variable pay schemes (piece rate, tournament, and revenue sharing) compared to the fixed payment scheme. This difference is largely driven by productivity sorting. In addition personal attitudes such as willingness to take risks and relative self-assessment as well as gender affect the sorting decision in a systematic way. Moreover, self-reported effort is significantly higher in all variable pay conditions than in the fixed wage condition. Our lab findings are supported by an additional analysis using data from a large and representative sample. In sum, our findings underline the importance of multi-dimensional sorting, i.e., the tendency for different incentive schemes to systematically attract people with different individual characteristics.
Impact of Methods on the Measurement of mRNA Turnover

The turnover of the RNA molecules is determined by the rates of transcription and RNA degradation. Several methods have been developed to study RNA turnover since the beginnings of molecular biology. Here we summarize the main methods to measure RNA half-life: transcription inhibition, gene control, and metabolic labelling. These methods were used to detect the cellular activity of the mRNAs degradation machinery, including the exo-ribonuclease Xrn1 and the exosome. On the other hand, the study of the differential stability of mature RNAs has been hampered by the fact that different methods have often yielded inconsistent results. Recent advances in the systematic comparison of different method variants in yeast have permitted the identification of the least invasive methodologies that reflect half-lives the most faithfully, which is expected to open the way for a consistent quantitative analysis of the determinants of mRNA stability.
“Are We Real Americans?”: Cultural Production of Forever Foreigners at a Diversity Event

Although the history of Asian immigrants dates back to the 17th century, their status as authentic Americans is still questioned today. With this in mind, this article looks at how a diversity event at a racially diverse inner-city high school produces the image of Asian Americans as “forever foreigners. ” Using qualitative tools like observation and interviews, the article argues that mere celebration of cultural differences at a diversity event with a focus on teaching about the differences and improving human relations narrowly defines “real” Americans to mean cultureless Whites. Korean students are consequently portrayed as unauthentic Americans. The findings add to the ongoing discussions on Asian American school experiences, the construction of whiteness in schools, and schools’ approaches to diversity.
Shotgun Cloning of Transposon Insertions in the Genome of Caenorhabditis elegans

We present a strategy to identify and map large numbers of transposon insertions in the genome of Caenorhabditis elegans. Our approach makes use of the mutator strain mut-7, which has germline-transposition activity of the Tc1/mariner family of transposons, a display protocol to detect new transposon insertions, and the availability of the genomic sequence of C. elegans. From a pilot insertional mutagenesis screen, we have obtained 351 new Tc1 transposons inserted in or near 219 predicted C. elegans genes. The strategy presented provides an approach to isolate insertions of natural transposable elements in many C. elegans genes and to create a large-scale collection of C. elegans mutants.