Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of low estimated glomerular filtration rate after living kidney donation in a Southeast Asian population from Singapore

Post‐donation kidney function has not been well characterized in the Southeast Asian population. We studied a retrospective cohort of 174 living kidney donors at Singapore General Hospital between 1976 and 2012, evaluated patterns of change in kidney function using quantile regression analysis and investigated for predictors of low estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min per 1.73m2. Median follow‐up time (range) was 7.8 (0.1–33.8) years following donor nephrectomy.
Using Objective Analysis of Scanning Radiometer Measurements to Compute the Water Vapor Path Delay for Altimetry

An objective analysis (OA) method is implemented to compute the water vapor path delay (PD) correction of the altimeter range using total precipitable water measurements from scanning microwave radiometers (Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit A, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System, Tropical Rain Measuring Mission Microwave Imager, and Special Sensor Microwave Imager). The European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model-derived water vapor PD correction given in the altimeter products is used as the first-guess field. The calculation of the statistical variables required by the OA is presented: These include the variance and correlation function of the radiometer observations minus its first guess, as well as the observation error variance. The performance of the OA-derived water vapor PD correction is assessed, using four months of Jason-1 altimeter data. It is shown that the OA-derived correction is more accurate than the ECMWF-derived correction but remains less accurate than the one derived from the Jason microwave radiometer.
Hormonal contraceptive use and female-to-male HIV transmission: a systematic review of the epidemiologic evidence

Objective:To systematically review epidemiologic evidence assessing whether hormonal contraception alters the risk of HIV transmission from an HIV-positive woman to an HIV-negative male partner. Design:Systematic review. Methods:We included articles published or in press through December 15, 2011. We assessed studies with direct evidence on hormonal contraception use and HIV transmission, and summarized studies with indirect evidence related to genital or plasma viral load. Results:One study provided direct evidence on oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) or injectable contraception and female-to-male HIV transmission; both injectables [Cox-adjusted hazard ratio (adjHR) 1.95, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.06–3.58; marginal structural model (MSM) adjusted odds ratio (adjOR) 3.01, 95% CI 1.47–6.16] and OCPs (Cox adjHR 2.09, 95% CI 0.75–5.84; MSM adjOR 2.35, 95% CI 0.79–6.95) generated elevated point estimates, but only estimates for injectables were significant. Findings from 11 indirect studies assessing various hormonal contraception methods and viral genital shedding or setpoint were mixed, and seven of eight studies indicated no adverse effect of various hormonal contraception methods on plasma viral load. Conclusion:The only direct study on OCPs or injectable contraception and female-to-male HIV transmission suggests increased risk with the use of injectables. Given the potential for confounding in observational data, the paucity of direct evidence on this subject, and mixed indirect evidence, additional evidence is needed.
Infection of Human Dendritic Cells with a Mycobacterium tuberculosis sigE Mutant Stimulates Production of High Levels of Interleukin-10 but Low Levels of CXCL10: Impact on the T-Cell Response

ABSTRACT The Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome encodes 13 sigma factors. We have previously shown that mutations in some of these transcriptional activators render M. tuberculosis sensitive to various environmental stresses and can attenuate the virulence phenotype. In this work, we focused on extracytoplasmic factor σE and studied the effects induced by the deletion of its structural gene (sigE) in the infection of human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MDDC). We found that the wild-type M. tuberculosis strain (H37Rv), the sigE mutant (ST28), and the complemented strain (ST29) were able to infect dendritic cells (DC) to similar extents, although at 4 days postinfection a reduced ability to grow inside MDDC was observed for the sigE mutant ST28. After mycobacterium capture, the majority of MDDC underwent full maturation and expressed both inflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor alpha, and the regulatory cytokines interleukin-12 (IL-12), IL-18, and beta interferon (IFN-β). Conversely, a higher level of production of IL-10 was observed in ST28-infected MDDC compared to H37Rv- or ST29-infected cell results. However, in spite of the presence of IL-10, supernatants from ST28-infected DC induced IFN-γ production by T cells similarly to those from H37Rv-infected DC culture. On the other hand, IL-10 impaired CXCL10 production in sigE mutant-infected DC and, indeed, its neutralization restored CXCL10 secretion. In line with these results, supernatants from ST28-infected cells showed a decreased capability to recruit CXCR3+ CD4+ T cells compared to those obtained from H37Rv-infected DC culture. Thus, our findings suggest that the sigE mutant-induced secretion of IL-10 inhibits CXCL10 expression and, in turn, the recruitment of activated-effector cells involved in the formation of granulomas.
Opodatkowanie pracy w OECD. Analiza porównawcza i wnioski dla Polski

OECD statistical data on tax wedge is a convenient and reliable tool which can be used to show differences in labour taxation between countries. The analysis of this data shows very little progressiveness of the Polish tax wedge which means that it does not take the employee’s income level and his/her family situation under consideration. Moreover, the internal structure of the Polish tax wedge is also quite unusual because of the high share of insurance contributions. This article is aimed at finding the reasons why Polish tax wedge is so different compared with other countries and defining the economic and social consequences of these differences.
A QoS-Based Scheduling Approach for Complex Workflow Applications

In dynamic and heterogeneous Grid environments, the majority of the scientific applications require to be expressed as complex workflows which assemble multiple Web Services to implement complex scientific tasks. In addition, most workflow management systems are bound to concrete services distributed in different physical domains or concrete environments. Therefore, scientists still need to discover resources manually and schedule the jobs directly onto the Grid, and it could not meet users’ requirement of scheduling workflow with large scale services. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive QoS (Quality of Service) model to support the possibility that a service instance is capable of offering to satisfy the user’s requirements. Further we propose a complex workflow scheduling approach using dynamic programming, which focus on how to select a global optimal path for workflow scheduling based on QoS, and addressing services binding problem. At last, we demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approach by simulating experiments in heterogeneous and dynamic grid environment.
Informational logistic models and concept of coordination strategies resources management

Organizations are spending an increasing amount of their budgets on the communication infrastructure. At the same time, the solutions are becoming less defined with more technologies available and accessible. Organizations must develop an informational model and comprehensive strategies to control the flows of resources in their hierarchical structure. The hierarchical system can be decomposed into multiple application groups, which can be further decomposed into multiple applications. At the top of the hierarchy, the global controller controls the gross allocation of resources to the groups. In this paper we propose an approaches to the synthesis of coordination strategies for managing the flow of resources in distributed hierarchical systems.
Comparison of DNA content in primary and lymph node metastases in prostate adenocarcinoma.

There is increasing evidence that nuclear DNA content has significant prognostic value for adenocarcinoma of the prostate. There also appear to be considerable differences in cellular DNA content between patient cohorts when primary tumor or pelvic lymph node metastases are measured. In addition, prostate adenocarcinoma is heterogeneous in DNA measurements; that adds confusion to studies incorporating fine needle aspiration biopsy samples. We compared cellular DNA content in 34 patients with available needle biopsies and pelvic lymph node metastases. Four groups of patients were identified: diploid-range primaries and metastases (8 patients), diploid-range primaries and aneuploid metastases (13), aneuploid primaries and metastases (10), and aneuploid primaries and diploid-range metastases (2). Patients with diploid-range primary tumors had a longer interval to progression and death than did patients with aneuploid primary tumors, although neither was significant in this small series. Patients with diploid-range lymph node metastasis had a longer interval to progression (P = .04) and survival (P = .09) than did individuals with aneuploid metastases. We conclude that the cellular DNA content of prostate cancer metastases in this series of stage D1 patients was more powerful in predicting time to progression and ultimate survival than evaluation of needle biopsy specimens of the primary cancer.
Kinetic and crystallographic studies on deacetoxycephalosporin C synthase (DAOCS).

Deacetoxycephalosporin C synthase (DAOCS) is an iron(II) and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent oxygenase that catalyzes the conversion of penicillin N to deacetoxycephalosporin C, the committed step in the biosynthesis of cephalosporin antibiotics. The crystal structure of DAOCS revealed that the C terminus of one molecule is inserted into the active site of its neighbor in a cyclical fashion within a trimeric unit. This arrangement has hindered the generation of crystalline enzyme-substrate complexes. Therefore, we constructed a series of DAOCS mutants with modified C termini. Oxidation of 2-oxoglutarate was significantly uncoupled from oxidation of the penicillin substrate in certain truncated mutants. The extent of uncoupling varied with the number of residues deleted and the penicillin substrate used. Crystal structures were determined for the DeltaR306 mutant complexed with iron(II) and 2-oxoglutarate (to 2.10 A) and the DeltaR306A mutant complexed with iron(II), succinate and unhydrated carbon dioxide (to 1.96 A). The latter may mimic a product complex, and supports proposals for a metal-bound CO(2) intermediate during catalysis.
Use of multiple markers in population-based molecular epidemiologic studies of tuberculosis.

SETTING Many epidemiologic studies of tuberculosis are being conducted worldwide. Fingerprinting with a secondary marker in strains with fewer than six IS6110-hybridizing bands enhances the tracking of strains, but its impact on population-level inferences has not been well studied. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of secondary genotyping for low-copy Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates with polymorphic guanine-cytosine-rich repetitive sequence (PGRS) on epidemiologic inferences in population-based research settings. DESIGN For San Francisco tuberculosis cases (1991-1996), clusters were defined by IS6110 alone and by PGRS/IS6110 to 1) estimate recent transmission, 2) evaluate the theoretical influence of bacterial population parameters on these estimates, and 3) assess risk factors for recent transmission. RESULTS Secondary typing on low-copy strains (20.3% of all isolates) decreased the estimate of recent transmission from 29.1% to 25.3% (P = 0.03). The most influential parameters in determining whether supplemental genotyping results in different estimates were the proportion of low-copy strains and the amount of clustering. Risk factors for recent transmission were identical for both definitions of clustering. CONCLUSION The statistical and inferred effects of secondary genotyping of M. tuberculosis seem to depend on the proportion of low-copy strains in the population. When this proportion is low or when few secondary patterns match, supplemental genotyping may yield minimal insight into population-level investigations.
DENSITY DEPENDENCE AND POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION OF GENETIC ARCHITECTURE IN IMPATIENS CAPENSIS IN NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract We identified environment-dependent constraints on the evolution of plasticity to density under natural conditions in two natural populations of Impatiens capensis. We also examined the expression of population divergence in genetic variance-covariance matrices in these natural environments. Inbred lines, originally collected from a sunny site with high seedling densities and a woodland site with low seedling densities, were planted in both original sites at natural high densities and at low density. Morphological and life-history characters were measured. More genetic variation for plastic responses to density was expressed in the sun site than in the woodland site, so the evolutionary potential of plasticity was greater in the sun site. Strong genetic correlations between the same character expressed at different densities and correlations among different characters could constrain the evolution of plasticity in both sites. Genetically based trade-offs in meristem allocation to vegetative growth and reproduction were apparent only in the high-resource environment with no overhead canopy and no intraspecific competition. Therefore, genetic constraints on the evolution of plasticity depended on the site and density in which plants were grown, and correlated responses to selection on plastic characters are also expected to differ between sites and densities. Population differentiation in genetic variance-covariance matrices was detected, but matrix structural differences, as opposed to proportional differences, were detected between populations only in the sun site at natural high density. Thus, population divergence in genetic architecture can occur rapidly and on a fine spatial scale, but the expression of such divergence may depend on the environment. Editor: A. Caballero
Underground Power Cable Detection and Inspection Technology Based on Magnetic Field Sensing at Ground Surface Level

In this paper, a novel technique based on magnetic field sensing is proposed for underground power cable detection and inspection. In this technique, the current sources of the underground power cables are reconstructed based on a set of measured magnetic field values at the ground surface level emanated by the electric currents carried by the underground power cables. The stochastic optimization technique developed with an artificial immune system algorithm is applied to realize the reconstruction. The principle of this method was proved and verified experimentally by our laboratory setup. Application of this method was demonstrated on the simulation models of 11- and 132-kV underground power cables. The reconstruction results of the electrical and spatial parameters of the cables match accurately with the actual source parameters of the cables in the models. This paper shows that the proposed method is able to remotely detect the horizontal locations and vertical depths of underground power cables with high accuracy at the ground surface level requiring no prior knowledge about the exact locations of the cables. Thus, it can be potentially used to develop a portable locator for providing a map of the underground electrical cables by simultaneous detection of multiple power lines. This method can also enable engineers to correctly inspect the operation states of the target cables during onsite maintenance. This technique is applicable to various laying conditions and cable configurations (three core or single core) of the underground power cables. In addition, this is an entirely passive method and does not need any signal injection into the cables.
Hyperspectral face recognition with log-polar Fourier features and collaborative representation based voting classifiers

Hyperspectral imagery analysis has become a popular topic for improving face recognition accuracy. Nevertheless, it encounters difficulty in data acquisition, low signal-to-noise ratio, and high dimensionality. As a result, there exists a need to develop better algorithms in order to achieve higher classification rates. In this study, the authors propose a new method for hyperspectral face recognition with very competitive experimental results. Since there is a significant amount of noise in every spectral band, they reduce noise adaptively from each spectral band by using any image denoising method, e.g. block matching and 3D filtering. They then crop each face according to its eye coordinates so that translation invariance can be achieved. They conduct log-polar transform to each cropped face image and extract 2D Fourier spectrum from them. In this way, the extracted features are approximately invariant to translation, rotation, and scaling. They use the collaborative representation-based classifier with voting for hyperspectral face recognition. They perform some experiments to test the authors’ new method for hyperspectral face recognition with very promising results.
Design considerations and comparison of high-speed gate drivers for Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET modules

The high switching frequency (> 20 kHz) of SiC MOSFET module makes it as an attractive alternative of Si IGBT module for high power density applications. Since SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT have the similar MOS-gated structure, it is normally regarded that the gate driver of SiC MOSFET can directly inherit from that of Si IGBT. However, considering the different device physics properties, some special design considerations need to be taken. In addition, the higher dv/dt and di/dt in SiC MOSFET module leads to more serious EMI issues, which will comprise the switching speed in return. In this work, the high-speed gate drivers for Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET modules with similar ratings are designed and optimized. Based on the experiment of switching characterization, the considerations of gate driver design to migrate from Si IGBT module to SiC MOSFET module are presented. And the EMI issue is the major challenge in the gate driver design for SiC MOSFET module.
Effects of an Education and Home-Based Pedometer Walking Program on Ischemic Heart Disease Risk Factors in People Infected with HIV: A Randomized Trial

Objective:People infected with the human immunodeficiency virus are at an increased risk of developing ischemic heart disease (IHD); however, the effects of an education and home-based pedometer walking program on risk factors of IHD are not known. Methods:We conducted a 12-month randomized study of an education and home-based pedometer walking program in 84 human immunodeficiency virus–infected individuals with risk factors of IHD. Results:Pedometer step count of the control and intervention groups improved significantly (P = 0.03 for both groups) at 6 months but was not significant at 12 months (P = 0.33 and 0.21, respectively). Significant between-group effects were observed in 6-minute walk test distance (P = 0.01), waist to hip ratio (P = 0.00), glucose (P = 0.00), and high-density lipoprotein (P = 0.01) over the 12-month period. The program did not result in change in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein as it was associated with perceived stress (r = 0.23; P = 0.03), weight (r = 0.28; P = 0.01), body mass index (r = 0.35; P < 0.00), waist (r = 0.28; P = 0.01) and hip circumference (r = 0.28; P = 0.01). Multivariate generalized estimation equation analysis demonstrated an inverse association between interaction and perceived stress (logB = −0.01; 95% confidence interval: −0.02 to −0.01; P <0.00) and body mass index (logB = −0.02; 95% confidence interval: −0.03 to −0.002; P = 0.02) at group level. Conclusion:An education and home-based pedometer walking program improves physical activity levels, and beneficial changes in other IHD risk factors were noted.
A Note on Correlation in Regressions Without Cointegration

With integrated economic time series one usually tries to find a long-run cointegration relationship and the error correction mechanism driving the series of interest. However, it may occur that a stationary level relationship of integrated series cannot be detected, although economic theory clearly tells there should be one. If a cointegrating vector does not exist, the series are not necessarily independent. They still may be correlated, and the reason for the lack of cointegration may simply be an omitted variable. An example with bond yields is discussed below. This paper considers the coefficient of determination R 2 under the null hypothesis of uncorrelated integrated series. In this situation Granger and Newbold (1974, Table 2) estimated the mean of the adjusted R by Monte Carlo methods and found it to be rather large and growing with the number of regressors. A general expression of the asymptotic distribution in case of no cointegration was provided by Phillips (1986). If regressand and regressors are uncorrelated, the distribution of R turns out to be free of nuisance parameters and to depend on the number of regressors only. Hence it is easy to compute percentiles by Monte Carlo methods. We tabulate percentiles allowing to test formally for the null hypothesis of no correlation. In case of rejection, one may conclude that a level combination exists, even if cointegration cannot be found. This tells the applied worker that the regression is not nonsensical but rather misspecified. If the series are correlated but not cointegrated we should not look for alternative but rather additional explanatory variables in order to establish an empirically stable long-run relationship. It should be noted that the test considered here is not consistent, i.e. the probability of rejection under the alternative of correlation (but no cointegration) does not converge to one. The purpose of this paper is not to develop a consistent test but to obtain some further insight in the behaviour of the coefficient of determination in case of no cointegration. A consistent test for uncorrelatedness against correlation is of course readily available: Considering the differences of integrated series the standard stationary theory applies. Before making the assumptions precise in Section 3 and investigating the coefficient of determination in Section 4, the next section motivates the analysis with an empirical example. The final section provides some discussion.
The role of positive and negative affectivity on job satisfaction and life satisfaction

This study examines the relationship between positive affectivity, negative affectivity, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction using a sample of 558 urban employees from Dalian. Positive and negative affectivity were measured with Watson's PANAS scale, job satisfaction was measured with Spector's JSS scale, and life satisfaction was measured with the International Wellbeing Group's PWI scale. All the scales are well established multi-item scales that have been validated both in English speaking populations and in China. The statistical analysis found that affectivity is a source of both job satisfaction and life satisfaction. Job satisfaction is positively related to life satisfaction, supporting the spillover theory. Job satisfaction partly mediates the relationship between affectivity and life satisfaction. The practical implications for managers is that because of the dispositional source of job and life satisfaction, managers need to put more emphasis on improving job satisfaction and subjective quality of life by improving the workplace environment.