Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Jailed Wire and Jailed Balloon for Prevention of Side Branch Occlusion in Provisional Stenting: Evidence from a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background : Side branch (SB) occlusion after main vessel stenting is the main complication in treating coronary bifurcation lesions by provisional stenting. The Jailed Wire Technique (JWT), recommended by the European Bifurcation Club, is a standard technique to deal with this issue. The Jailed Balloon Technique (JBT) has been found to be more effective than the JWT in clinical practice by some interventionists, but it has not been widely accepted. In this meta-analysis, we compared the efficacy and safety of JBT and JWT. Methods : The literature comparing JBT and JWT was systematically reviewed. Stata/MP 17.0 was used to perform a meta-analysis. The primary endpoints were major adverse cardiac events (MACE), cardiac death, myocardial infarction (MI) and target lesion revascularization (TLR). The secondary endpoints were SB occlusion and SB dissection. Aggregated odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. A sensitivity analysis was conducted if I 2 was > 50% or p < 0.01. Results : Thirteen studies involving 1789 patients were enrolled. JBT was found to have a significantly lower incidence of MACE, SB occlusion and dissection. The incidence of cardiac death, MI and TLR were also lower in the JBT group, though the differences were not significant. Conclusions : JBT prevents SB occlusion more effectively and does not increase immediate or long-term complications. JBT, or its modified versions, can be used to treat SBs with a high risk of occlusion.
A methodology for probabilistic predictions of regional climate change from perturbed physics ensembles

A methodology is described for probabilistic predictions of future climate. This is based on a set of ensemble simulations of equilibrium and time-dependent changes, carried out by perturbing poorly constrained parameters controlling key physical and biogeochemical processes in the HadCM3 coupled ocean–atmosphere global climate model. These (ongoing) experiments allow quantification of the effects of earth system modelling uncertainties and internal climate variability on feedbacks likely to exert a significant influence on twenty-first century climate at large regional scales. A further ensemble of regional climate simulations at 25 km resolution is being produced for Europe, allowing the specification of probabilistic predictions at spatial scales required for studies of climate impacts. The ensemble simulations are processed using a set of statistical procedures, the centrepiece of which is a Bayesian statistical framework designed for use with complex but imperfect models. This supports the generation of probabilities constrained by a wide range of observational metrics, and also by expert-specified prior distributions defining the model parameter space. The Bayesian framework also accounts for additional uncertainty introduced by structural modelling errors, which are estimated using our ensembles to predict the results of alternative climate models containing different structural assumptions. This facilitates the generation of probabilistic predictions combining information from perturbed physics and multi-model ensemble simulations. The methodology makes extensive use of emulation and scaling techniques trained on climate model results. These are used to sample the equilibrium response to doubled carbon dioxide at any required point in the parameter space of surface and atmospheric processes, to sample time-dependent changes by combining this information with ensembles sampling uncertainties in the transient response of a wider set of earth system processes, and to sample changes at local scales. The methodology is necessarily dependent on a number of expert choices, which are highlighted throughout the paper.
Comparative Analysis of EspF from Enteropathogenic and Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli in Alteration of Epithelial Barrier Function

ABSTRACT Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC) and enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) are related intestinal pathogens that harbor highly similar pathogenicity islands known as the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE). Despite their genetic similarity, these two pathogens disrupt epithelial tight junction barrier function with distinct kinetics. EHEC-induced reduction in transepithelial electrical resistance (TER), a measure of barrier function disruption, is significantly slower and more modest in comparison to that induced by EPEC. The variation in bacterial adherence only partially accounted for these differences. The LEE-encoded effector protein EspF has been shown to be critical for EPEC-induced alterations in TER. EspF from both EPEC and EHEC is expressed and secreted upon growth in tissue culture medium. The mutation of EHEC cesF suggested that the optimal expression and secretion of EHEC EspF required its chaperone CesF, as has been shown for EPEC. In contrast to EPEC espF and cesF, mutation of the corresponding EHEC homologs did not dramatically alter the decrease in TER. These differences could possibly be explained by the presence of additional espF-like sequences (designated U- and M-espF, where the letter designations refer to the specific cryptic prophage sequences on the EHEC chromosome closest to the respective genes) in EHEC. Reverse transcription-PCR analyses revealed coordinate regulation of EHEC U-espF and the LEE-encoded espF, with enhanced expression in bacteria grown in Dulbecco-Vogt modified Eagle’s medium compared to bacteria grown in Luria broth. Both EHEC espF and U-espF complemented an EPEC espF deletion strain for barrier function alteration. The overexpression of U-espF, but not espF, in wild-type EHEC potentiated the TER response. These studies reveal further similarities and differences in the pathogenesis of EPEC and EHEC.
Plot Analysis for Describing Punch Line Functions in Shinichi Hoshi's Microfiction

This paper proposes a method of describing narrative structure, that focuses on the behavior of the characters in the story. It also proposes to assign the concepts of focus, polarity, dynamic, motivation, and result as attributes of behavior. Utilizing these attributes, the plots of shortshort stories by Shinichi Hoshi can be represented formally. Moreover, the method presented here shows that some reversal punch-line patterns can be described using the data captured from plot representations. 1998 ACM Subject Classification I.7. 5 Document analysis
Micro-aggregation-based heuristics for p-sensitive k-anonymity: one step beyond

Micro-data protection is a hot topic in the field of Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC), that has gained special interest after the disclosure of 658000 queries by the AOL search engine in August 2006. Many algorithms, methods and properties have been proposed to deal with micro-data disclosure, p-Sensitive k-anonymity has been recently defined as a sophistication of k-anonymity. This new property requires that there be at least p different values for each confidential attribute within the records sharing a combination of key attributes. Like k-anonymity, the algorithm originally proposed to achieve this property was based on generalisations and suppressions; when data sets are numerical this has several data utility problems, namely turning numerical key attributes into categorical, injecting new categories, injecting missing data, and so on. In this article, we recall the foundational concepts of micro-aggregation, k-anonymity and p-sensitive k-anonymity. We show that k-anonymity and p-sensitive k-anonymity can be achieved in numerical data sets by means of micro-aggregation heuristics properly adapted to deal with this task. In addition, we present and evaluate two heuristics for p-sensitive k-anonymity which, being based on micro-aggregation, overcome most of the drawbacks resulting from the generalisation and suppression method.
Female Aggression Toward Male Intimate Partners: An Examination of Social Norms in a Community-Based Sample

We investigated the effect of assailant gender on injunctive social norms (i.e., beliefs about what ought to happen) regarding violence toward an intimate heterosexual partner. In a random-digit-dialed survey conducted in four languages, 3,769 community-residing adults were presented with five vignettes in which we experimentally manipulated characteristics of the assailant, victim, and incident. We examined the vignette variables and measured respondent characteristics using multivariate logistic regressions. Judgments about women's violence against male intimates (vs. men's violence against female intimates) were less harsh and took contextual factors more fully into account. The type of violence and the presence of a weapon played a central role in respondent judgments. Respondent demographic characteristics were largely unrelated to their judgments.
How Much Should We Pay for a New HIV Diagnosis? A Mathematical Model of HIV Screening in US Clinical Settings

Objective. To develop a model to assist clinical setting decision makers in determining how much they can spend on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening and still be cost-effective. Design. The authors developed a simple mathematical model relating the program cost per new HIV diagnosis to the cost per HIV infection averted and the cost per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) saved by screening. They estimated outcomes based on behavioral changes associated with awareness of HIV infection and applied the model to US sexually transmitted disease clinics. Methods. The authors based the cost per new HIV diagnosis (2009 US dollars) on the costs of testing and the proportion of persons who tested positive. Infections averted were calculated from the reduction in annual transmission rates between persons aware and unaware of their infections. The authors defined program costs from the sexually transmitted disease clinic perspective and treatment costs and QALYs saved from the societal perspective. They undertook numerous sensitivity analyses to determine the robustness of the base case results. Results. In the base case, the cost per new HIV diagnosis was $2528, the cost per infection averted was $40,516, and the cost per QALY saved was less than zero, or cost-saving. Given the model inputs, the cost per new diagnosis could increase to $22,909 to reach the cost-saving threshold and to $63,053 for the cost-effectiveness threshold. All sensitivity analyses showed that the cost-effectiveness results were consistent for extensive variation in the values of model inputs. Conclusions. HIV screening in a clinical setting is cost-effective for a wide range of testing costs, variations in positivity rates, reductions in HIV transmissions, and variation in the receipt of test results.
Demethylation-Induced Developmental Pleiotropy in Arabidopsis

The function of DNA methylation in higher plants was investigated by expression of a complementary DNA encoding a cytosine methyltransferase (MET1) from Arabidopsis thaliana as an antisense RNA in transgenic plants. This expression resulted in a 34 to 71 percent reduction in total genomic cytosine methylation. Loss of methylation was observed in both repetitive DNA and single-copy gene sequences. Developmental effects included altered heterochrony, changes in meristem identity and organ number, and female sterility. Cytosine demethylation prolonged both vegetative and reproductive phases of development. These findings implicate DNA methylation in establishing or maintaining epigenetic developmental states in the meristem.
An Open Source Robotic Platform for Ambient Assisted Living

Last years have seen a worldwide lengthening of life expectancy [1] and, as a consequence, an increment of advanced assistive solutions for integrated care models. In this context, ICT can enhance home assistance services for elderly people and thus, the economical burden for health-care institutions. Indeed, recent studies report that 89% wish to stay at home for sentimental reasons or because they cannot afford nursing homes [2]. In addition, the shortage of professional caregivers is a well-known issue and relatives or friends must face with emotional distress negatively impacting also their productivity at work [3]. In this perspective, home robots will play a crucial role. Not only they will keep their house safe by monitoring and detecting anomalies or sources of hazards but they can also be companions able to enhance their social life, e.g. by better connecting them with their relatives and friends. Examples of recent projects that have tried to develop such a kind of systems are Hobbit [4, 5], Astro [6, 7] and Giraffplus [8]. The difficulties in creating a robust and reliable prototype and the encountered challenges in computer vision and autonomous robotics have been well-explained in [5]. This work aims at presenting an open-source and practical solution for an autonomous robotic platform for home care. The final goal is to develop a set of artificial intelligence services for indoor autonomous and safe navigation, fall detection, people recognition, speech interaction and telepresence. In Section 2 and 3 respectively, the prototype and the tasks currently implemented are described. We have developed these functions in ROS: Robot Operating System [9] which provides many algorithms and a standard communication framework. The need for standards and open solutions have been already pointed out in [10]. Future works are reported in Section 4: this project enables research in many fields like scene understanding, human robot interaction, socially assistive/intelligent robotics and sensor integration.
Heterosexism in Employment Decisions: The Role of Job Misfit

We developed and tested a model of heterosexism in employment decisions based on the lack of fit model of discrimination and social psychological research on attitudes toward gay men and lesbians. Results were supportive of both perspectives in that job candidates’ sexual orientation, gender, and job gender type interacted with raters’ gender and exposure to diversity training to predict ratings of candidate hirability. Consistent with prior attitudinal research, male raters tended to perceive gay male applicants as least suitable for employment. Finally, raters’ attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, beliefs about the employability of gay men and lesbians, and social dominance orientation were differentially related to suitability and hirability ratings. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed. jasp_669 2527.2555
A new mechanism for benzopyrone formation in aromatic polyketide biosynthesis.

Aromatic polyketides are all biosynthesized from highly reactive poly-β-ketone intermediates. Keys to introducing the vast chemical diversity seen in these natural products are the enzymatic and non-enzymatic tailoring chemistries that occur after biosynthesis of the poly-β-keto backbone. In this work, we expand the scope of non-enzyme-catalyzed modifications and show that primary amides can act in vivo as an electrophilic center and be attacked by an intramolecular phenol to generate dibenzopyrones. Synthetic reaction sequences were developed to confirm that the displacement can take place under neutral, low temperature aqueous conditions. We demonstrate this tailoring reaction can be rationally introduced into an engineered biosynthetic pathway to produce new compounds. This mechanism is of particular note since it demonstrates the use of a “protecting group” in polyketide biosynthesis and may be the route by which pyrones are formed in other aromatic polyketide natural products.
An Implicit Measure of Associations with Mental Illness versus Physical Illness: Response Latency Decomposition and Stimuli Differential Functioning in Relation to IAT Order of Associative Conditions and Accuracy

The present study aimed at the definition of a latent measurement dimension underlying an implicit measure of automatic associations between the concept of mental illness and the psychosocial and biogenetic causal explanatory attributes. To this end, an Implicit Association Test (IAT) assessing the association between the Mental Illness and Physical Illness target categories to the Psychological and Biologic attribute categories, representative of the causal explanation domains, was developed. The IAT presented 22 stimuli (words and pictures) to be categorized into the four categories. After 360 university students completed the IAT, a Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM) modelling approach was applied. The model specified a person latency parameter and a stimulus latency parameter. Two additional parameters were introduced to denote the order of presentation of the task associative conditions and the general response accuracy. Beyond the overall definition of the latent measurement dimension, the MFRM was also applied to disentangle the effect of the task block order and the general response accuracy on the stimuli response latency. Further, the MFRM allowed detecting any differential functioning of each stimulus in relation to both block ordering and accuracy. The results evidenced: a) the existence of a latency measurement dimension underlying the Mental Illness versus Physical Illness - Implicit Association Test; b) significant effects of block order and accuracy on the overall latency; c) a differential functioning of specific stimuli. The results of the present study can contribute to a better understanding of the functioning of an implicit measure of semantic associations with mental illness and give a first blueprint for the examination of relevant issues in the development of an IAT.
Remarriage Preparation: Usage, Perceived Helpfulness, and Dyadic Adjustment.

This study provides a contemporary evaluation of 10 different forms of remarriage preparation. Utilizing a subsample of 303 remarried couples from a larger study of newlyweds, we report usage of remarriage preparation and perceived helpfulness as well as differences in dyadic adjustment between respondents who did or did not prepare. Those who participated in some form of preparation generally found it helpful. The majority of those who did not prepare felt it was unnecessary. Differences in dyadic adjustment varied by the form of preparation. Implications for scholars, practitioners, and policy makers include the need for more research-based materials that counter popular stepfamily myths as well as resources that can be made available to the public through mediums that are trusted and commonly accessed.
Improving browsing usability for mobile learners

Educational web sites can be used as supporting learning tools for students that wish to supplement their knowledge without restrictions of time and place. The objective of this work is to propose a methodology for improving the mobile learners' web experience and provide personalized presentation of educational content. The proposed approach results in recommending relevant links to the users' interests, by exploiting the logs of the educational portal and the semantics of the learning content.
Differences in Company Leadership Between Infantry and Armor Units in the Israel Defense Forces

In view of differences between the historical origins of infantry and armor units in the Israel Defense Forces and the more technology-dependent and mechanistic nature of armor units in comparison with infantry units, we hypothesized certain differences in the leadership style of company leaders in the 2 types of units. We compared leader behaviors and some of their correlates in 24 infantry companies and 21 tank companies on the basis of surveys answered by company staff members (n = 166 and n = 146, respectively) and soldiers (n = 310 and n = 235, respectively). We complemented the quantitative analysis with an interview-based qualitative comparison of high-performing company leaders in the 2 types of units. The findings provide partial support for the hypotheses and suggest that more attention should be given to interunit differences in leadership patterns.
Construction of language models using the morphic generator grammatical inference (MGGI) methodology

Over the last few years, some alternatives to N-gram language models, which are based on stochastic regular grammars, have been proposed. These grammars are estimated from data through Grammatical Inference algorithms. In particular, the Morphic Generator Grammatical Inference (MGGI) methodology has been applied to tasks of written natural language queries to databases. As for N-gram models, language models obtained through this methodology require the use of smoothing techniques. This work incorporates a version of the well-known Back-Off smoothing method to the MGGI language models to solve the estimation problem of unseen events in the training corpus, and shows the behaviour of the smoothed MGGI models in two tasks of written sentences. The results illustrate that the smoothed MGGI model works better than the standard smoothed bigram model.
Identification of a Highly Antigenic Linear B Cell Epitope within Plasmodium vivax Apical Membrane Antigen 1 (AMA-1)

Apical membrane antigen 1 (AMA-1) is considered to be a major candidate antigen for a malaria vaccine. Previous immunoepidemiological studies of naturally acquired immunity to Plasmodium vivax AMA-1 (PvAMA-1) have shown a higher prevalence of specific antibodies to domain II (DII) of AMA-1. In the present study, we confirmed that specific antibody responses from naturally infected individuals were highly reactive to both full-length AMA-1 and DII. Also, we demonstrated a strong association between AMA-1 and DII IgG and IgG subclass responses. We analyzed the primary sequence of PvAMA-1 for B cell linear epitopes co-occurring with intrinsically unstructured/disordered regions (IURs). The B cell epitope comprising the amino acid sequence 290–307 of PvAMA-1 (SASDQPTQYEEEMTDYQK), with the highest prediction scores, was identified in domain II and further selected for chemical synthesis and immunological testing. The antigenicity of the synthetic peptide was identified by serological analysis using sera from P. vivax-infected individuals who were knowingly reactive to the PvAMA-1 ectodomain only, domain II only, or reactive to both antigens. Although the synthetic peptide was recognized by all serum samples specific to domain II, serum with reactivity only to the full-length protein presented 58.3% positivity. Moreover, IgG reactivity against PvAMA-1 and domain II after depletion of specific synthetic peptide antibodies was reduced by 18% and 33% (P = 0.0001 for both), respectively. These results suggest that the linear epitope SASDQPTQYEEEMTDYQK is highly antigenic during natural human infections and is an important antigenic region of the domain II of PvAMA-1, suggesting its possible future use in pre-clinical studies.
Dual Enrollment in a Rural Environment: A Descriptive Quantitative Study

Dual enrollment is a federally funded program that offers high school students the opportunity to earn both high school and postsecondary credits for the same course. While the phenomenon of concurrent enrollment in postsecondary and college educational programs is not new, political support and public funding has drawn focus to the policies of dual enrollment as an initiative of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Federal Act of 2001. This descriptive, quantitative study observed courses taken by dual enrollment students from a program seated in rural western Pennsylvania near the Allegheny foothills. Course registrations for 164 students between spring 2006 through spring 2008 semesters were examined. Implementation of NCLB guidelines for course selection and examples of how such courses have been researched were discussed. Concerns about course selection observed in other states were raised.