Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The clinical course of alcoholism in Trinidad and Tobago.

OBJECTIVE The clinical course of alcoholism has been described as a series of distinct, alcohol-related life events that occur in an orderly sequence. However, whether that sequence differs, depending on ethnicity and country of origin, is less clear. The purposes of this study were to investigate the sequence and progression of alcohol-related life events in individuals of East Indian (Indo) and African (Afro) heritage on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, and compare those results with data reported previously by the Collaborative study for the Genetics of Alcoholism (COGA). METHOD Participants who were alcohol dependent (based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition, Revised, criteria) and of Afro-Trinidadian and Tobagonian ancestry or Indo-Trinidadian ancestry were recruited from inpatient treatment facilities. A total of 148 alcohol-dependent men and women completed the Semi-Structured Assessment of the Genetics of Alcoholism, which assessed the physical, psychological, and social manifestations of alcohol dependence and other psychiatric disorders. RESULTS A high degree of similarity in the sequence of alcohol-related life events was found between Indo-Trinidadian, Afro-Trinidadian and Tobagonian, and COGA participants. However, Trinidadian and Tobagonian alcoholics were more likely to endorse severe alcohol drinking in the form of binges (2 or more days of intoxication), blackouts, withdrawal, and medical consequences; however, they were less likely to endorse aggressive acts associated with drinking. Progression to alcohol dependence was significantly slower in Trinidadian and Tobagonian alcoholics than in the U.S. population of alcoholics, but severe alcohol symptoms were more commonly endorsed in Trinidadian and Tobagonians. CONCLUSIONS Identifying ethnic and country of origin differences in the clinical course of alcohol dependence may assist in the development of culturally sensitive intervention and prevention programs.
Discriminative Structure Learning for Semantic Concept Detection With Graph Embedding

Semantic concept detection is a very promising way to manage huge amounts of personal contents. In this paper, we propose discriminative structure learning for semantic concept detection with graph embedding. We focus on the task of whole-image categorization and employ graphical model inference based semi-supervised learning (SSL) to detect the semantic category of an image. To effectively extract global features from images, we utilize the spatial pyramid image representation. Then, we perform data warping over the histogram intersection kernel-based graph to learn discriminative features and make image distributions more discriminative for both labeled and unlabeled images. By data warping, each cluster of images is mapped into a relatively compact cluster as well as clusters become well-separated. Moreover, we adopt low-rank representation (LRR) in the embedded space to capture the global discriminative structure from the learned features for label propagation due to its good ability of capturing the global structure of data distributions and robustness against noise and outliers. Finally, we design a smooth nonlinear detector on the captured global discriminative structure to effectively propagate the concepts of labeled images to unlabeled images. Extensive experiments are conducted on four publicly available databases to verify the superiority of the proposed method compared to the state-of-the-art methods.
Health Limitations and Quality of Life Associated With Cancer and Other Chronic Diseases by Phase of Care

Objective:To estimate health limitations and health-related quality of life (HRQL) associated with cancer and other chronic conditions in a nationally representative sample within a phase-of-care framework. Study Design and Setting:We used a nested case–control design to assess health limitations and HRQL in individuals reporting a breast, colorectal, prostate, or lung cancer diagnosis, or a diagnosis of arthritis, diabetes, heart disease, or hypertension compared with similar controls without these conditions. All subjects were selected from the 1986–1994 National Health Interview Surveys linked to mortality files in 1995, and classified into the initial, continuing, or last year of life phase of care. Health limitations and HRQL were compared for cases and controls for each condition with 2-sided statistical tests. Results:Across all conditions, individuals in the last year of life phase of care reported greater health limitations and lower HRQL, as measured by the Health Activities and Limitations Index (HALex), than did individuals in the initial and continuing phases of care. Compared with their matched controls, individuals with cancer or other chronic conditions were more likely to report health limitations and lower mean HALex values in the initial, continuing, and last year of life phases of care (P < 0.05). Conclusions:We observed greater health limitations and lower HRQL associated with cancer and other chronic diseases compared with similar individuals without these conditions. The phase-of-care framework used in this study seems to be applicable to the assessment of HRQL for cancer and other chronic diseases.
A comparative study on machine learning algorithms for green context-aware intelligent transportation systems

In this work, a green adaptive transportation decision system is proposed for choosing the best transportation route calculated for different means of transportation (train, metro and bus) to reach a certain destination at time t. This selection will be based on significant parameters like CO2 emissions of these transport means, travel duration, ticket tariff, waiting connection time to catch such a transport mean, connection time between the different transport means to reach the destination, and comfortability feedback. Q-Learning, a reinforcement learning technique based reward is applied for validating the first phase in this work. The second contribution is to build the prediction of the best transport route by using Support Vector Machine (SVM) learning techniques.
POPULATION DIFFERENTIATION IN THE BEETLE TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM. I. GENETIC ARCHITECTURE

Abstract We used joint-scaling analyses in conjunction with rearing temperature variation to investigate the contributions of additive, non-additive, and environmental effects to genetic divergence and incipient speciation among 12 populations of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum, with small levels of pairwise nuclear genetic divergence (0.033 < Nei's D < 0.125). For 15 population pairs we created a full spectrum of line crosses (two parental, two reciprocal F1's, four F2's, and eight backcrosses), reared them at multiple temperatures, and analyzed the numbers and developmental defects of offspring. We assayed a total of 219,388 offspring from 5147 families. Failed crosses occurred predominately in F2's, giving evidence of F2 breakdown within this species. In all cases where a significant model could be fit to the data on offspring number, we observed at least one type of digenic epistasis. We also found maternal and cytoplasmic effects to be common components of divergence among T. castaneum populations. In some cases, the most complex model tested (additive, dominance, epistatic, maternal, and cytoplasmic effects) did not provide a significant fit to the data, suggesting that linkage or higher order epistasis is involved in differentiation between some populations. For the limb deformity data, we observed significant genotype-by-environment interaction in most crosses and pure parent crosses tended to have fewer deformities than hybrid crosses. Complexity of genetic architecture was not correlated with either geographic distance or genetic distance. Our results support the view that genetic incompatibilities responsible for postzygotic isolation, an important component of speciation, may be a natural but serendipitous consequence of nonadditive genetic effects and structured populations.
Does the Eye Benefit From Wearing Ultraviolet-Blocking Contact Lenses?

Objectives:The human eye is exposed to toxic ultraviolet radiation (UVR) from sunlight and artificial sources. The UVR-induced damage occurs in ocular tissues from the corneal surface to the retina. Although the cornea and crystalline lens provide inherent UVR protection, the anterior ocular surface and the limbus, which contains stem cells, receive toxic levels of UVR from relatively short solar exposures. Methods:Shading headwear and some UVR-blocking sunglasses are designed to reduce direct solar exposure but may not protect the eye from diffuse ambient and surface reflected light. If the squint mechanism is reduced because of the reduction of visible light, the ocular surface is then exposed to ambient and reflected UVR. In addition, laterally incident radiation that is focused across the cornea onto the limbus, a phenomenon known as peripheral light focusing, can increase the dose at the nasal limbus by a factor of 20. Results:The UVR-blocking contact lenses that cover the limbus provide protection from all sources of ocularly incident UVR. Although directly relating solar UVR dose to ocular damage is epidemiologically challenging, irradiation of ocular cell cultures can estimate the toxic effects of UVR exposure. The use of UVR-blocking contact lenses greatly increases the time the wearer can be exposed to solar UVR before a toxic ocular dose is reached. Conclusions:There is a need for the development of a scientifically rigorous, clinically applicable ocular protection factor metric, based not only on the transmittance of eyewear but on the protection afforded from the total UVR field and the length of that exposure.
Postoperative multiple organ dysfunction syndrome associated with gut mucosal hypoperfusion, increased neutrophil degranulation and C1-esterase inhibitor depletion.

We have examined the relationship between gut mucosal perfusion, as determined by gastric intramucosal pH (pHi), changes in plasma neutrophil elastase concentrations and components of the contact system during elective major surgery and related these findings to patient outcome. Of the 26 patients studied, 16 developed gut mucosal hypoperfusion (pHi < 7.32) by the end of surgery; four of these developed multiple organ dysfunction syndrome; three of these died. In this group there was a significant increase in neutrophil elastase (P < 0.005) and significant reductions in plasma components of the contact system from immediately before surgery to 24 h later. Ten patients maintained gut mucosal perfusion (pHi > or = 7.32); none of these developed life threatening complications. In this group there was no significant increase in neutrophil elastase and, although there were significant reductions in some plasma components of the contact system, concentrations of C1-esterase inhibitor (the main inhibitor of the contact system) were not significantly reduced. We conclude that gut mucosal hypoperfusion, neutrophil degranulation and activation of the contact system to the extent that C1-esterase inhibitor becomes depleted are associated with a poor outcome after major surgery.
Discovery of Novel Antiviral Agents Directed Against the Influenza A Virus Nucleoprotein

The influenza virus types A, B, and C belong to the family Orthomyxoviridae. Influenza B and C viruses are predominantly human pathogens, whereas influenza A virus spreads not only in humans but also in many animals, including birds and pigs. This characteristic of influenza A viruses is a major cause of influenza pandemics in humans. Influenza A viruses are responsible for periodic widespread epidemics, or pandemics, which have taken the form of respiratory diseases with cold-like symptoms, but also sometimes serious disease with high mortality rates (Webster et al., 1992). Four outbreaks of influenza occurred in the last and current centuries: Spanish influenza (H1N1) in 1918, Asian influenza (H2N2) in 1957, Hong Kong influenza (H3N2) in 1968, and H1N1 influenza in 2009. Recently, an influenza pandemic was caused by swine influenza (H1N1) in 2009, and according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, so far this global pandemic brought on 1.2 million infections and took the lives of more than fourteen thousand people. A strong sense of fear pervaded, but many lessons were learned from this pandemic. For example, this pandemic illustrated once again that the available vaccines against influenza virus were not completely effective for the prevention of influenza outbreaks, due to the extraordinarily rapid mutation rate that influenza viruses possess (Steinhauer & Holland, 1987). In addition, we did not have enough efficient antiviral drugs to cover all of the people infected (Stiver, 2004). On the other hand, there had been avian influenza (H5N1) infections in humans several years ago in Southeast Asia (Tran et al., 2004), and, importantly, that virus caused a high mortality rate. Putting it all together, in the face of the persistent threat of human influenza A infections, and moreover, the possibility of outbreaks of an avian influenza (H5N1) pandemic (Ungchusak et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2008), there is much concern about the shortage of effective anti-influenza virus agents, and for this reason, the development of novel anti-influenza virus agents is being strongly demanded.
Decreased levels of plasma adiponectin associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer.

AIM To investigate the association between adiponectin levels and risk of colorectal adenoma and cancer (early and advanced). METHODS A cross-sectional study in a cohort of hospital-based patients was conducted between January 2004 and March 2006 at Yamagata University Hospital. Male subjects, who had colorectal tumors detected by endoscopic examination, were enrolled according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Based on the T factor of the TNM system, intraepithelial carcinoma and submucosally invasive carcinoma were defined as early cancer, and invasion into the muscularis propria or deeper was defined as advanced cancer. The plasma levels of glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, triglyceride, high sensitivity C-reactive protein, insulin like growth factor (IGF)-1, IGF binding protein-3, adiponectin, leptin, and resistin were measured. Each factor level was designated low or high, and the risk of adenoma or cancer was estimated by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis. RESULTS We enrolled 124 male subjects (47 with adenoma, 34 with early cancer, 17 with advanced cancer, and 26 without tumors as controls). In patients with adenoma, high triglyceride and low adiponectin were associated with a significant increase in the odds ratio (OR) by univariate analysis. Only a low adiponectin level was related to increased adenoma risk, with an adjusted OR for low level (< 11 microg/mL) to high (>or=11 microg/mL) of 5.762 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.683-19.739, P = 0.005). In the patients with early cancer, high body mass index, high triglyceride, and low adiponectin were associated with a significant increase in OR in univariate analysis. In multivariate analysis, only low adiponectin was significantly associated with early cancer, with an adjusted OR of 4.495 (95% CI: 1.090-18.528, P = 0.038). However, in patients with advanced cancer, low adiponectin was not recognized as a significant risk factor for advanced cancer. CONCLUSION A decreased level of adiponectin is strongly associated with an increased risk of colorectal adenoma and early cancer. These data call for further investigation, including a controlled prospective study.
Lipoprotein Promotes Caveolin-1 and Ras Translocation to Caveolae: Role of Cholesterol in Endothelial Signaling

To explore the role of LDL in caveolin-Ras regulation in human endothelial cells (ECs), we incubated confluent human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) with LDL. This resulted in a high steady-state caveolin-1 (Cav-1) expression at both the mRNA and protein levels. LDL exposure appeared not to regulate the abundance of Cav-1. Immunofluorescence staining showed that Cav-1 protein migrated from the cytoplasm to the cell membrane after LDL exposure. Cav-1 protein and cholesterol partitioned mainly into the caveola fractions, and LDL increased both Cav-1 and cholesterol in these fractions. Ras protein in caveola fractions was also increased by LDL. Increased Ras was detected in Cav-1 immunoprecipitated samples, and conversely, increased Cav-1 was found in Ras-immunoprecipitated samples. We also demonstrated LDL-increased Ras activity in HUVECs by measuring the GTP/GTP+GDP ratio of Ras with [32P]orthophosphate labeling in the cells. Finally, we determined the binding of [3H]-labeled free cholesterol and recombinant H-Ras to Cav-1 fusion proteins in vitro. Both cholesterol and Ras bound to full-length GST–Cav-1, scaffolding domain (61–101), and C-terminal (135–178) Cav-1 fusion peptides. Addition of cholesterol enhanced Ras binding to the full-length and scaffolding domain of Cav-1 but not to the C-terminal Cav-1. These findings strongly suggest a role for Cav-1 in cholesterol trafficking and cholesterol-mediated intracellular signaling, which may mediate EC activation by LDL.
Towards a prioritization of code debt: A code smell Intensity Index

Code smells can be used to capture symptoms of code decay and potential maintenance problems that can be avoided by applying the right refactoring. They can be seen as a source of technical debt. However, tools for code smell detection often provide far too many and different results, and identify many false positive code smell instances. In fact, these tools are rooted on initial and rather informal code smell definitions. This represents a challenge to interpret their results in different ways. In this paper, we provide an Intensity Index, to be used as an estimator to determine the most critical instances, prioritizing the examination of smells and, potentially, their removal. We apply Intensity on the detection of six well known and common smells and we report their Intensity distribution from an analysis performed on 74 systems of the Qualitas Corpus, showing how Intensity could be used to prioritize code smells inspection.
COMBINATION OF TWO TYPES OF TRANSMISSIBLE DRUG-RESISTANCE FACTORS IN A HOST BACTERIUM

Mitsuhashi, Susumu (Gunma University, Maebashi, Japan), Kenji Harada, Hajime Hashimoto, Mitsuo Kameda, and Mitsue Suzuki. Combination of two types of transmissible drug-resistance factors in a host bacterium. J. Bacteriol. 84:9–16. 1962. —When two types of R factor, R(TC) and R (CM.SM.SA), or R(TC) and R (CM), were brought together in a host bacterium by superinfection with both factors, loss of either one or both factors was found. In the imperfectly stable existence of both factors in a host bacterium, both factors were transmitted separately by conjugation. As the result of interaction between the two types of R factor present in a host bacterium, recombinant factors were formed, R25 (TC.CM.SM.SA) and R31 (CM.TC). The recombinant factors were able to transfer their resistance by conjugation. They were also transduced as one unit into Escherichia coli K12 by Plke phage in the same fashion as the original R11 (TC.CM.SM.SA) and R14 (CM.TC) factors independently isolated from dysenteric patients.
Constant photoperiods and sexual maturity in broiler breeder pullets

1. Broiler breeder pullets were maintained on 10-, 11-, 12-, 13-, 14- or 16-h photoperiods to determine the effect of constant photoperiods on sexual development in broiler breeders. The birds were fed to achieve a 2100 g body weight at approximately 17 or 20 weeks to see if the photosexual response was modified by rate of growth. 2. In both body weight groups, pullets maintained on 10 h were the first to reach sexual maturity (50 eggs/100 bird-d), and these and the 11-h pullets matured significantly earlier than any of the other photoperiod groups. Pullets maintained on 13 or 14 h matured latest, at about 3 weeks after the 10-h pullets, though both were only marginally later than the 12- or 16-h birds. These differences in maturation probably reflect the different rates at which photorefractoriness is dissipated in broiler breeders reared on photoperiods that vary in their degree of stimulatory competence. 3. There were no significant interactions among the photoperiods and the ages at 2100 g; faster-growing birds consistently matured about 10 d earlier than conventionally grown pullets.
Heterozygous Arg753Gln Polymorphism of Human TLR-2 Impairs Immune Activation by Borrelia burgdorferi and Protects from Late Stage Lyme Disease1

Lyme disease (LD) is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi and displays different stages, including localized, early disseminated, and persistent infection, all of which are associated with profound inflammatory reactions in the host. Induction of proinflammatory cytokines by B. burgdorferi is mainly mediated by outer surface proteins interacting with TLR-2/TLR-1 heterodimers. In this study, we show that TNF-α induction by Borrelia lysate was impaired in heterozygous TLR-2 knockout mice, while reactivity to lipoteichoic acid, another TLR-2 ligand signaling via TLR-2/TLR-6 heterodimers, was unaffected. Blood from individuals heterozygous for the TLR-2 polymorphism Arg753Gln was tested for cytokine release upon stimulation with Borrelia lysate, and induction of TNF-α and IFN-γ was significantly lower as compared with individuals not exhibiting this variation. Overexpression of TLR-2 carrying the Arg753Gln polymorphism in HEK 293 cells led to a significantly stronger impairment of activation by TLR-2/TLR-1 ligands as compared with TLR-2/TLR-6 ligands. To study whether heterozygosity for the Arg753Gln variant of TLR-2 influenced susceptibility for LD, we analyzed 155 patients for this polymorphism. The Arg753Gln variant occurs at a significantly lower frequency in LD patients as compared with matched controls (5.8 vs 13.5%, odds ratio 0.393, 95% confidence interval 0.17–0.89, p = 0.033), with an even more pronounced difference when late stage disease was observed (2.3 vs 12.5%, odds ratio 0.163, 95% confidence interval 0.04–0.76, p = 0.018). These data suggest that Arg753Gln may protect from the development of late stage LD due to a reduced signaling via TLR-2/TLR-1.
The comfort women : Japan's brutal regime of enforced prostitution in the Second World War

Over 100,000 women across Asia were victims of enforced prostitution by the Japanese Imperial Forces during World War II. Until as recently as 1993 the Japanese government continued to deny this shameful aspect of its wartime history. George Hicks's book is the only history in English regarding this terrible enslavement of women.
Inositol biosynthesis: Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes share common regulation

The Candida albicans inositol biosynthetic gene and its regulation have been studied. The gene, CalNO1, was cloned on a multicopy vector by complementation of a Saccharomyces cerevisae mutant strain. Southern blot analysis established that the cloned DNA was C. albicans genomic DNA in origin; neither rearrangements nor pseudogenes were evident. Blot hybridization analysis using RNA isolated from C. albicans revealed that a single RNA species (1·8 kilobases) was homologous to the cloned DNA fragment. The steady‐state levels of these transcripts were shown to be regulated in response to inositol in the growth media. In addition, the steady‐state levels of the RNA encoded by the cloned C. albicans DNA present in S. cerevisiae on a plasmid (YRpCalNO1) were regulated in response to exogenously provided inositol. The cloned C. albicans DNA fragment was shown to restore inositol‐1‐phosphate synthase activity to a S. cerevisiae mutant strain defective in this enzyme. This activity was also shown to be regulated in response to the presence of inositol in the growth media.