Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatiotemporal analysis of ambient air pollution exposure and respiratory infections cases in Beijing.

BACKGROUND Ambient air pollutants (PM2.5) are components of persistent haze in Beijing during the autumn and winter seasons. MATERIALS We collected hourly PM2.5 monitoring data for 35 days from 35 sites in Beijing during 2012. We also identified patients developing respiratory infections during the same time period in the same locale. A BME model was used to simulate environmental exposure concentrations over the course of each day. A medical accessibility analysis was performed to exclude the impact of medical availability on the analysis. A spatial analysis was included in the evaluation of the relationship between exposure duration and concentration of PM2.5 with the development of acute respiratory disease. RESULTS A low concentration of PM2.5 (greater than 35 µg/m3 and less than 115 µg/m3) for at least 3 days was associated with an increased risk of acute respiratory disease. A high concentration of PM2.5 (greater than 115 µg/m3) was associated with an increased risk of infection even after 1 day of exposure.
A 1q44 deletion, paternal UPD of chromosome 2 and a deletion due to a complex translocation detected in children with abnormal phenotypes using new SNP array technology

Children with intellectual disability, dysmorphic features, malformations and/or growth abnormalities frequently display normal karyotypes. Recent studies have shown that genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays can be effective in detecting abnormalities involving copy number variation (CNV), deletions, duplications and loss of heterozygosity (LOH) that routine cytogenetic tests fail to identify. Five patients with various degrees of intellectual disability and/or dysmorphic features and other malformations were whole-genome genotyped using the Human-1 Genotyping BeadChip – Exon-Centrix 100K SNP arrays (Illumina). All patients had undergone routine cytogenetic testing; four patients had normal karyotypes, while one patient had an apparently balanced complex translocation involving chromosomes 1q25, 1q32, 2q23, 7q22 and 16q24. We detected deletions on chromosome 1q44 and 13q31.1 in one patient, and LOH of the entire chromosome 2 in another patient, both with cytogenetically normal karyotypes. The patient with the complex translocation had a deletion on chromosome 7q22.2-22.3, which is in conjunction with one of the translocation breakpoints. Our findings provide further evidence of there being a critical region for the development of microcephaly and corpus callosum abnormalities in children with distal 1q deletions. We have also shown that apparently balanced complex translocations might not be balanced at the DNA level, and we report the fourth case of paternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 2. The results of this study suggest that it may be desirable to investigate idiopathic mental retardation using genome-wide SNP arrays, in conjunction with other cytogenetic and molecular techniques.
Predicting Citizens Acceptance of Government-led e-Participation Initiatives through Social Media: A Theoretical Model

Whilst the idea of utilizing social media to advance government-led e-Participation initiatives has proliferated significantly in recent years, mostly such initiatives do not meet the intended expectations, as the majority of them fail to attract wider citizens’ audience. Overall, the key factors that could explain and predict citizens’ participation are not yet thoroughly identified. Therefore, the current study develops a theoretical citizen-centric model that seeks to explain and predict the intention of citizens’ behavior towards their involvement in government-led e-Participation initiatives through social media. The methodological approach is primarily based on utilizing and extending one of the well-known theories for describing a person acceptance behavior, namely the Theory of Planned Behavior. The model applies the main constructs of the Theory – attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control; and complements them with several constructs drawn from relevant literature. The paper contributes to understanding the reasons why citizens decide to engage or not in government-led e-Participation initiatives through social media.
Effect of Various Nerve Decompression Procedures on the Functions of Distal Limbs in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats: Further Optimism in Diabetic Neuropathy

It is known that diabetic neuropathy is the result of endoneurial edema caused by various biochemical reactions triggered by hyperglycemia. This sequence of events can cause cessation of circulation at the perineurial level, or the tough layer, which is not resilient enough to spread intraneural pressure. Internal and external limiting structures create a double crush phenomenon to the nerve structure. Decompression of the nerve trunk at separate levels is one of the adjuncts to the overall treatment plan for diabetic neuropathy. In this study, the right sciatic nerves of 30 rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes were used; three groups were created. In the control group, the sciatic nerves were explored and dissected only. In group II, tarsal tunnel release was performed and accompanied by epineurotomy of the sciatic nerve and its peroneal and tibial extensions. In group III, in addition to the procedures performed in group II, perineural sheaths, exposed through the epineurotomy sites at both the peroneal and tibial nerves, were incised for decompression of the fascicles. Improvement in diabetic neuropathy was evaluated by using footprint parameters. The last print length values, estimated according to the 38-month measurements, were 26.1 ± 0.12 mm in the control group, 23.2 ± 0.07 mm in group II, and 22.2 ± 0.1 mm in group III. The toe spread and intermediate toe spread values of the groups were parallel to improvements in print lengths throughout the study. The best improvement was observed in the perineurotomy group. Finally, an electron microscopic study revealed variable degenerative changes in all groups, but they were milder in groups II and III. This experimental study reveals that adding internal decompression to external release doubled the effect in reducing derangement in the sciatic nerves of the rats and, in the authors’ opinion, offers cause for further optimism in the treatment of diabetic neuropathy.
SLEEP DISTURBANCE IN BATTERED WOMEN LIVING IN TRANSITIONAL HOUSING

This study describes objective and subjective sleep in a convenience sample of 29 battered women living in specialized transitional housing programs compared to 30 women living in their own stable home environment. Compared to healthy controls, battered women living in transitional housing experienced longer sleep onset latencies by both subjective and objective measures and higher percentage of time awake during the night by objective measure. Poor sleep quality may reflect the relative contributions of less total sleep time, difficulty falling asleep, and more awakenings during the night rather than just one aspect of disturbed sleep. Findings suggest that battered women in transitional housing programs may improve daytime alertness and benefit from interventions directed toward reducing sleep onset latency as well as increasing total sleep time.
SGP: Sampling Big Social Network Based on Graph Partition

Deriving a representative sample from a big social network is essential for many Internet services that rely on accurate analysis of big social data. A good sampling method for social network should be able to generate small sample networks with similar structures as original big network. In this paper, we propose SGP, a new big social network sampling algorithm based on graph partition. In SGP, original network is firstly partitioned into several sub-networks that will be sampled evenly. This procedure enables SGP to effectively maintain the topological similarity and community structure similarity between the sampled network and its original network. We have evaluated SGP on several well-known data sets. The experimental results show that SGP outperforms six state-of-the-art methods.
Integration of experimental and computatonal microfluidics in 3D tissue engineering

Manuela T. Raimondi, Devin T. Bridgen, Matteo Lagana, Beatrice Tonnarelli, Margherita Cioffi, Federica Boschetti, and David Wendt LaBS, Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy, IRCCS Galeazzi Orthopaedic Institute, Milano, Italy, Departments of Surgery and of Biomedicine, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland, corresponding author: Manuela Teresa Raimondi, address: Laboratory of Biological Structure Mechanics (LaBS), Department of Structural Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, 32, piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 30133 Milano, Italy, phone: +39.02. 2399.4306, e-mail: manuela.raimondi@polimi.it
Quality Evaluation of Poison Control Information Systems: A Case Study of the DATATOX System

Poison Control Centres (PCCs) provide information and advise about poisoning, poisoning case management, and toxicovigilance activities. They are supported by information systems that help physicians and toxicologists to attend cases of patient exposure to poisonous agents. Still, there is no consensus on how to evaluate software quality of such systems. This work performs a case study applying a customized software quality evaluation model -- the AdEQUATE model -- in order to assess the software quality of a poison control information system widely used in Brazil - the DATATOX information system. Analysing the specificities of DATATOX we customized AdEQUATE, a model for evaluating the quality of telemedicine systems based on the ISO/IEC 25010 standard through the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire has been answered by 49 end users, and the acquired data were analysed employing descriptive statistics. Overall, the DATATOX information system has been perceived as having a good quality, specifically for characteristics like effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction. Nevertheless, few characteristics have been considered of low quality, including reliability, compatibility, and age. As a complement, the work attest the feasibility on using AdEQUATE's questionnaires as an evaluation tool for software quality evaluation.
An architecture for integrated resource management of MPI jobs

We present a new architecture for the integration of distributed resource management systems and parallel run-time environments such as MPI. The architecture solves the long-standing problem of achieving a tight integration between the two in a clean and robust manner that fully enables the functionality of both systems, including resource limit enforcement and accounting. We also present a more uniform command interface to the user, which simplifies the task of running parallel jobs and tools under a resource manager. The architecture is extensible and allows new systems to be incorporated. We describe the properties that a resource management system must have to work in this architecture, and find that these are ubiquitous in the resource management world. Using the Sun/spl trade/ Cluster Runtime Environment, we show the generality of the approach by implementing tight integrations with PBS, LSF and Sun Grid Engine software, and we demonstrate the advantages of a tight integration. No modifications or enhancements to these resource management systems were required, which is in marked contrast to ad-hoc approaches which typically require such changes.
Neurofilament and tubulin mRNA expression in schwann cells

Feeding of elemental tellurium to weanling rats blocks synthesis of cholesterol (a major component of myelin), and causes demyelination of the sciatic nerve. Expression of mRNA for myelin‐specific genes in Schwann cells is downregulated. We now demonstrate specificity for Schwann cell injury in that expression of mRNAs for neurofilament subunits and for class II β‐tubulin (parameters sensitive to axonal injury) is unaltered in neurons of the dorsal root ganglia. An unexpected result was that in tellurium‐treated rats there was marked upregulation of expression of mRNAs coding for the light and medium neurofilament subunits (“neuron‐specific” proteins) as well as that for class II β‐tubulin (the major neuronal β‐tubulin isotype) in Schwann cells. Expression of these “neuronal” mRNA species was also detected in distal stumps of transected nerves at times when Schwann cells were undergoing dedifferentiation. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Trapezoidal DP matching with time reversibility

DP matching is widely used in speech recognition. But none of the conventional formulations (Rectangular DP Matching) seem to have all the three properties: pattern commutativeness, time reversibility, and linear matching consistency. In this paper, a new formulation named "Trapezoidal DP Matching" is proposed, which preserves time reversibility and can have all the three properties. In addition, the following points are clarified; (1) The formulation gives a better approximation of continuous-time pattern distance, and is expected to improve recognition accuracy. (2) It has an effect of smoothing the weighting coefficients on local distances. (3) It provides a clear viewpoint on the relationship between weighting coefficients and the normalized time. (4) Its evaluation is reliable even for a transient portion matching.
FBG interrogation and the benchmark for algorithms in the processing of experimental data

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) spectrometric interrogation is widely used in strain, temperature, and refractive index sensing, where the acquired FBG sensor reflected signal has the spectrum peak monitored to infer a physical quantity. This monitoring, or peak detection, is subject to noise and different types of distortion, and many applications require the preprocessing of the signals to achieve the required precision and accuracy. This work extends the benchmarks already proposed in the literature with tests using specific experimental data with reduced signal to noise ratio and with systematic distortions in the FBG sensor. The obtained results show that specific conditions such as the distortion in the spectrum of the light reflected by the sensor can lead to poor performance of algorithms that reportedly show acceptable results under more ideal conditions. A metric for the performance evaluation of algorithms using experimental data in FBG interrogation is also presented.
Understanding and predicting protein misfolding and aggregation: Insights from proteomics

Protein misfolding and aggregation are being found to be associated with an increasing number of human diseases and premature aging, either because they promote a loss of protein function or, more frequently, because the aggregated species gain a toxic activity. Despite potentially harmful, aggregation seems to be a generic property of polypeptide chains and aggregation‐prone protein sequences seem to be ubiquitous, which, counterintuitively, suggests that they serve evolutionary conserved functions. The in vitro study of individual aggregation reactions of a large number of proteins has provided important insights on the structural and sequential determinants of this process. However, it is clear that understanding the role played by protein aggregation and its regulation in health and disease at the cellular, developmental, and evolutionary levels require more global approaches. The use of model organisms and their proteomic analysis hold the power to provide answers to such issues. In the present review, we address how, initially, computational large‐scale analysis and, more recently, experimental proteomics are helping us to rationalize how, why and when proteins aggregate, as well as to decipher the strategies organisms have developed to control proteins aggregation propensities.
Novel Rapidly Diversifiable Antimicrobial RNA Polymerase Switch Region Inhibitors with Confirmed Mode of Action in Haemophilus influenzae

ABSTRACT A series of inhibitors with a squaramide core was synthesized following its discovery in a high-throughput screen for novel inhibitors of a transcription-coupled translation assay using Escherichia coli S30 extracts. The inhibitors were inactive when the plasmid substrate was replaced with mRNA, suggesting they interfered with transcription. This was confirmed by their inhibition of purified E. coli RNA polymerase. The series had antimicrobial activity against efflux-negative strains of E. coli and Haemophilus influenzae. Like rifampin, the squaramides preferentially inhibited synthesis of RNA and protein over fatty acids, peptidoglycan, and DNA. However, squaramide-resistant mutants were not cross-resistant to rifampin. Nine different mutations were found in parts of rpoB or rpoC that together encode the so-called switch region of RNA polymerase. This is the binding site of the natural antibiotics myxopyronin, corallopyronin, and ripostatin and the drug fidaxomicin. Computational modeling using the X-ray crystal structure of the myxopyronin-bound RNA polymerase of Thermus thermophilus suggests a binding mode of these inhibitors that is consistent with the resistance mutations. The squaramides are the first reported non-natural-product-related, rapidly diversifiable antibacterial inhibitors acting via the switch region of RNA polymerase.
Implementation and Evaluation of Evolutionary Connectionist Approaches to Automated Text Summarization

Problem statement: Text summarization takes care of choosing the most significant portions of text and generates coherent summaries that express the main intent of the given document. This study aims to compare the performances of the three text summarization systems developed by the authors with some of the existing Summarization systems available. These three approaches to text summarization are based on semantic nets, fuzzy logic and evolutionary programming respectively. All the three represent approaches to achieve connectionism. Approach: First approach performs Part of Speech (POS) tagging, semantic and pragmatic analysis and cohesion. The second system under discussion was a new extraction based automated system for text summarization using a decision module that employs fuzzy concepts. Third system under consideration was based on a combination of evolutionary, fuzzy and connectionist techniques. Results: Semantic net approach performs better than the MS Word summarizer as far as the semantics of the original text was concerned. To compare our summaries with those of the well known MS Word, Intellexer and Copernic summarizers, we use DUC’s human generated summaries as the bench-mark. The results were very encouraging. The second approach based on fuzzy logic results in an efficient system since fuzzy logic mimics decision making of humans. Third system showed promising results as far as precision and F-measure are concerned than all the other approaches. Conclusion: Our first approach used WordNet, a lexical database for English. Unlike other dictionaries, WordNet does not include information about etymology, pronunciation and the forms of irregular verbs and contains only limited information about usage. To overcome this limitation, we developed a new text summarizer based on fuzzy logic. As Text summarization application requires learning ability based on activation, we utilize ANN attribute through a connectionist model to achieve the best results.
Nutrient intake and lifestyle factors by diabetes status of Circassians and Chechans in Jordan.

OBJECTIVES Diabetes is one of the most prevalent diseases in Jordan. However, little is known about nutrient intakes of minority groups in Jordan with and without diabetes. Our study aimed to examine if the intake of energy, macronutrients and some micronutrients differed between normal and diabetic adults among Circassians and Chechans in Jordan. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS This cross-sectional study was conducted among 437 Circassians (160 males and 277 females) and 355 Chechans (119 males and 236 females) aged > or = 18 years. They were recruited from the Chechan and Circassian communities living in Jordan. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES A participant was defined as affected by type 2 diabetes mellitus if diagnosis was known to patient or if his or her condition complied with the American Diabetes Association definition. One 24-hour dietary recall for each participant was collected by face-to-face interview. RESULTS Most of the measured anthropometric and biochemical parameters showed a significant difference between normal individuals and those with impaired fasting glucose or diabetes. Intakes of nutrients involved in the pathogenesis of diabetes including protein, fat and fiber did not differ between stratified participants according to blood glucose status for both Circassians and Chechans. CONCLUSIONS Intake of nutrients did not differ in participants with normal blood glucose from those who had impaired fasting glucose or diabetes in the two studied populations. These two populations may need genetic studies to identify the risk factors other than dietary and lifestyle factors for type 2 diabetes.
General Practitioners' willingness to Pay for Continuing Medical Education in a Fee-for-service Universal Coverage Health Care System

Background: Sponsoring of medical meetings by life science companies has led to reduced participation fees for physicians but questions potential drawbacks. Ongoing discussions are proposing to ban such sponsoring which may increase participation fees. Objectives: To evaluate factors associated with general practitioners’ willingness to pay for medical meetings, their support of a binding legislation prohibiting sponsoring and their opinion on alternative financing options. Methods: An anonymous web-based questionnaire was sent to 447 general practitioners’ of one state in Switzerland, identified through their affiliation to a medical association. Results: Of the 115 physicians answering, 48% were willing to pay more than what they currently pay for medical meetings and 79% disagreed that sponsoring introduced a bias in their own prescription practices. In univariate analyses, factors most associated with physician’s willingness to pay were perception of a bias in peers prescription practices (OR=6.67; 95% CI: 1.60-27.74), group practice (OR=3.01; 95% CI: 0.94-9.65) and having <4 meetings with sales representatives per month (OR=2.39; 95% CI: 0.91-6.33). 78% did not support the introduction of a binding legislation and 56% were in favor of creating a general fund set up by life science companies and centrally administered by an independent body as an alternative financing option. Conclusions: Our results suggest that almost half of physicians surveyed were willing to pay more than what they currently pay for medical meetings and that an independent body that would centrally administer a general fund set up by life science companies might be better received by general practitioners’ than a legislation banning the sponsoring of medical meetings by life science companies.