Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of a common coding polymorphism (N453S) of the cytochrome P450 1B1 (CYP1B1) gene with optic disc cupping and visual field alteration in French patients with primary open-angle glaucoma.

PURPOSE To investigate a role of common polymorphisms of the CYP1B1 gene in French patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). METHODS Six common CYP1B1 variants, 5 coding and one in promoter, were compared in 224 unrelated French Caucasian POAG patients, excluding those with a CYP1B1 mutation, and in 47 population-matched controls with a normal ophthalmic examination. Allelic associations were assessed with the D' and r2 parameters. An effect of the representative variants on subphenotypes, including the age and the intraocular pressure at diagnosis, the cup to disk ratio, and the visual field alteration, was tested by multivariate analyses. RESULTS Allele and haplotype frequencies were similar in patients and in controls. Five variants formed two groups with tightly correlated alleles while the sixth one, N453S, was independent. The age and the intraocular pressure at diagnosis were not influenced by any of the variants. In contrast, the 453*Serine allele was associated with decreased cupping of the optic disk (Odds ratio=0.32, 95% CI: 0.15-0.70; p=0.0036) and with a milder alteration of the visual field (p=0.025). CONCLUSIONS The common N453S coding variant of CYP1B1 is potentially a factor of severity in POAG patients.
Competing with Costco and Sam's Club: Warehouse Club Entry and Grocery Prices

Prior research shows that grocery stores reduce prices to compete with Walmart Supercenters. This study finds evidence that the competitive effects of two other big-box retailers—Costco and Walmart-owned Sam's Club—are quite different. Using city-level panel grocery price data matched with a unique data set on Walmart and warehouse club locations, we find that Costco entry is associated with higher grocery prices at incumbent retailers and that the effect is strongest in cities with small populations and high grocery store densities. This is consistent with incumbents competing with Costco along nonprice dimensions, such as product quality or quality of the shopping experience. We find no evidence that Sam's Club entry affects grocery stores' prices, consistent with Sam's Club's focus on small businesses instead of consumers.
Deposition and Characteristics of Sputtered Coated CCTO Thin Layer on Silicon Wafer

In the present study, the calcium copper titanate (CCTO) thin layer has been coated onto Si wafer at 300°C using a CCTO target by Radio Frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering in argon atmosphere. The surface morphology crystal structure was examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), respectively. The CCTO layer revealed polycrystalline nature with characteristic peaks of (0 2 2), (2 2 4), and (0 2 4) at 34.19°, 54.75° and 61.29°. The average grain size and pore size of porous sputtered CCTO were determined as 20 nm and 15.70 nm, respectively.
A Global Property of Restarted FOM Algotrithm

In this paper an interesting property of the restarted FOM algorithm for solving large nonsymmetric linear systems is presented and studied. By establishing a relationship between the convergence of its residual vectors and the convergence of Ritz values in the Arnoldi procedure, it is shown that some important information of previous FOM(m) cycles may be saved by the iteration approximates at the time of restarting, with which the FOM(m) cycles can complement one another harmoniously in reducing the iteration residual. Based on the study of FOM(m), two polynomial preconditioning techniques are proposed; one is for solving nonsymmetric linear systems and another is for forming an effective starting vector in the restarted Arnoldi method for solving nonsymmetric eigenvalue problems.
Stable multi-project scheduling of airport ground handling services by heterogeneous agents

This paper addresses decentralized multi-project scheduling under uncertainty. The problem instance we study is the scheduling of airport ground handling services, where aircraft turnarounds can be seen as multiple projects, ground handling services as activities, and service providers as resources. In this environment aircraft requiring ground handling services and the corresponding service providers are self-interested autonomous parties. Moreover, the environment is well-known for its large number of disturbances. We employ a heterogeneous multiagent scheduling framework with two types of autonomous agents representing aircraft and ground service providers respectively. We use online scheduling to cope with uncertainty in the release time of project: the uncertainty in aircraft arrival time at an airport. To balance the interests of the two types of agents in this heterogeneous multiagent system, we propose a market-based mechanism to assign time slots to aircraft turnaround activities. We study the use of this mechanism in a cooperative and a non-cooperative setting. In a dynamic environment such as airport ground handling, the execution of project schedules may be invalidated by various disruptions. As a result project agents may incur high costs if they have to reschedule some of their activities. The insertion of slack time between activities is a well known solution. The delay cost incurred by inserting slack should balance the expected costs of rescheduling some activities. Since in a dynamic multiagent system it is hard to analytically calculate optimal slack time between activities, we propose that agents determine these slack time using a co-evolutionary learning approach. Experiment show that our decentralized scheduling approach scores on average as high as well-established OR-based heuristics, and that slack times to keep a schedule stable can be learned.
The Way Forward

7.3 Conclusions After the March 2004 attacks in Madrid, there can be no doubt that European cities are as likely to be targeted by terrorist activities as their US counterparts. The drafters of the EU constitutional treaty have thus rightly foreseen a solidarity clause providing mutual assistance for EU member states in case of terrorist activities. So far, however, ongoing discussions about improving Europe’s security capabilities have focused primarily on expeditionary tasks while neglecting the provision of homeland security. To overcome this problem, the capabilities of First Responders must receive substantial reinforcement. Here the corporate sector can play a useful role. However, the most substantial reform effort will have to be undertaken by the community of First Responders themselves. By adopting a capabilities-based planning approach, First Responders should jointly identify their capabilities at the international and national levels and set up a capability development mechanism. These actions will help coordinate research, procurement, and training. In doing so, First Responders will be able to assume the much needed role of a credible and capable player to complement NATO’s security and defense policy.
Result Integrity Verification of Outsourced Bayesian Network Structure Learning

There has been considerable recent interest in the datamining-as-a-service paradigm: the client that lacks computational resources outsources his/her data and data mining needs to a third-party service provider. One of the security issues of this outsourcing paradigm is how the client can verify that the service provider indeed has returned correct data mining results. In this paper, we focus on the problem of result verification of outsourced Bayesian network (BN) structure learning. We consider the untrusted service provider that intends to return wrong BN structures. We develop three efficient probabilistic verification approaches to catch the incorrect BN structure with high probability and cheap overhead. Our experimental results demonstrate that our verification methods can capture wrong BN structure effectively and efficiently.
Designing Emotional Expressions of Conversational States for Voice Assistants: Modality and Engagement

The use of voice-activated virtual assistants (VAs) to execute tasks, request information, or entertain oneself on the smartphone is on the rise. However, insufficient feedback on the states of VAs may impair the interaction flow. We propose to use nonverbal emotional expressions to indicate a VA's conversational states and promote user engagement. We introduce three emotional expression designs of VA, iconic facial expressions, a text box with body movements, and emotional voice waveforms. Our user study results show that a VA with an expressive face or text body movements can evoke stronger user engagement than the one with voice waveforms.
Transparent nanostructured Fe-doped TiO2 thin films prepared by ultrasonic assisted spray pyrolysis technique

Nanostructured TiO2 and Fe-doped TiO2 thin films with high transparency were deposited on glass substrate through ultrasonic-assisted spray pyrolysis technique and were used in the visible light photocatalytic degradation of MB dye. The resulting thin films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Raman spectroscopy, photoluminescence spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy techniques. Based on Raman spectroscopy results, both of the TiO2 and Fe-doped TiO2 films have anatase crystal structure, however, because of the insertion of Fe in the structure of TiO2 some point defects and oxygen vacancies are formed in the Fe-doped TiO2 thin film. Presence of Fe in the structure of TiO2 decreases the band gap energy of TiO2 and also reduces the electron–hole recombination rate. Decreasing of the electron–hole recombination rate and band gap energy result in the enhancement of the visible light photocatalytic activity of the Fe-doped TiO2 thin film.
Methyl Jasmonate Ameliorates Testosterone Propionate‐induced Prostatic Hyperplasia in Castrated Wistar Rats

Benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH) is a progressive disease that is related to age. Known therapeutic agents used in the treatment of BPH are associated with toxicity. Therefore, chemoprevention could be an effective approach. We investigated the ameliorative effects of methyl jasmonate (MeJA) in testosterone propionate (TP)‐induced BPH in castrated rats. Castration was performed by removing both testes through the scrotum sack under ketamine anesthesia. Rats were assigned into seven groups of seven animals each: non‐castrated control, castrated control, castrated rats that received TP, castrated rats that received TP and MeJA, castrated rats that received TP and finasteride, castrated rats that received MeJA, and castrated rats that received finasteride. Results indicate that BPH rats had significantly (p < 0.05) elevated prostate weight and relative weight of prostate relative to control. Also, BPH rats had significantly (p < 0.05) increased activities of prostatic acid and alkaline phosphatases, levels of zinc, and malondialdehyde. Further, levels of enzymic and non‐enzymic antioxidative indices were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced in BPH. Histology of prostate revealed hyperplasia of transition lobe, increased expression of PSA, and Ki67 in BPH. Treatment with MeJA and finasteride attenuated the activities of the phosphatases and levels of antioxidants in BPH. Overall, MeJA ameliorates BPH via antioxidative mechanism. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An Exploration of Stochastic Completion Fields

We present in this paper a method originally proposed by Williams and Jacobs to determine the shape of illusory contours. The theory on stochastic completion fields is based on the assumption that the prior probability distribution of completion shapes can be modelled by the random walks of particles. Two different algorithms to compute completion fields are presented. The first is based on the convolution of a large kernel determined by MonteCarlo simulation and the other on the integration of the Fokker-Planck equation by repeated convolutions of small kernels. Experimental results are then presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of stochastic completion fields. We conclude with a discussion that suggests when the use of completion fields may fail.
Ingredients for change: revisiting a conceptual framework

Finding ways to deliver care based on the best possible evidence remains an ongoing challenge. Further theoretical developments of a conceptual framework are presented which influence the uptake of evidence into practice. A concept analysis has been conducted on the key elements of the framework—evidence, context, and facilitation—leading to refinement of the framework. While these three essential elements remain key to the process of implementation, changes have been made to their constituent sub-elements, enabling the detail of the framework to be revised. The concept analysis has shown that the relationship between the elements and sub-elements and their relative importance need to be better understood when implementing evidence based practice. Increased understanding of these relationships would help staff to plan more effective change strategies. Anecdotal reports suggest that the framework has a good level of validity. It is planned to develop it into a practical tool to aid those involved in planning, implementing, and evaluating the impact of changes in health care.
Suffix arrays: a new method for on-line string searches

A new and conceptually simple data structure, called a suffixarray, for on-line string searches is introduced in this paper. Constructing and querying suffixarrays is reduced to a sort and search paradigm that employs novel algorithms. The main advantage of suffixarrays over suffixtrees is that, in practice, they use three to five times less space. From a complexity standpoint, suffix arrays permit on-line string searches of the type, ‘‘Is W a substring of A? ’’ to be answered in time O(P + log N), where P is the length of W and N is the length of A, which is competitive with (and in some cases slightly better than) suffixtrees. The only drawback is that in those instances where the underlying alphabet is finiteand small, suffixtrees can be constructed in O(N) time in the worst case, versus O(N log N) time for suffixarrays. However, we give an augmented algorithm that, regardless of the alphabet size, constructs suffixarrays in O(N) expected time, albeit with lesser space efficiency. We believe that suffixarrays will prove to be better in practice than suffixtrees for many applications.
IL-1B Gene Polymorphism and Susceptinility to Rheumatoid Arthritis in Ethnic Saudi Patients

IL-1 is an inflammatory cytokine that has been widely implicated in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). In Saudi Arabia, limited work has addressed the genetic bases of RA. In this case-control study, association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the IL-1 gene is investigated in a well characterized Saudi cohort. Keeping in view the genetic heterogeneity of Saudi population, blood samples from 100 ethnic Saudi RA patients and 200 matched healthy controls were analyzed. Genotyping for SNPs including IL-1A +4845, IL-1B -511, IL-1B +3954 and IL-1RA +2018 was performed by amplifying the polymorphic region using PCR followed by restriction enzyme analysis on polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). Comparison of RA patient data and healthy controls revealed significant increase in the carriage rate of rare (2/2) genotype for IL-1B +3954 in the RA cases (13% in RA vs 5% in controls, P= 0.022). Subsequently the rare allele frequency (+3954T) was significantly increased in the RA patient group (frequency= 32.5% in RA patients P= 0.01) compared to controls (frequency= 22.5%). No differences were observed for the remaining polymorphisms, indicating that the rare allele of IL-1B +3954 is associated with susceptibility to RA in ethnic Saudis. Due to known extracellular pro-inflammatory activity of secretory IL-1B, it is suggested that this bi-allelic polymorphism could be used as a prognostic marker for RA in ethnic Saudis.
Tibetan Weibo User Group Division Based on User Behaviors for Analyzing Health Problems

Group division is a typical task involved in online social network analysis. Group division can be based on static and dynamic relationships. Compared to static group division, dynamic interactions between users can better reflect the intimacy of relationships between users in the online social network. This paper proposes a group division method based on the analysis of interactive behaviors among users and constructs a single-dimensional network structure between users based on behaviors of connecting, commenting, forwarding, and liking among users. Then, several single-dimensional networks are integrated into one complex network, this complex network is divided into groups and different groups of the online social network are identified. The experimental results show that the group division method based on users and behaviors is effective. The method proposed in this paper is used to identify Tibetan user groups and provides a theoretical basis for analyzing the health statuses of Tibetan user groups from online social networks.
Essential Role of Rta in Lytic DNA Replication of Epstein-Barr Virus

ABSTRACT Two transcription factors, ZEBRA and Rta, switch Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) from the latent to the lytic state. While ZEBRA also plays an obligatory role as an activator of replication, it is not known whether Rta is directly required for replication. Rta is dispensable for amplification of an oriLyt-containing plasmid in a transient-replication assay. Here, we assessed the requirement for Rta in activation of viral DNA synthesis from the endogenous viral genome, a function that has not been established. Initially, we searched for a ZEBRA mutant that supports viral replication but not transcription. We found that Z(S186A), a mutant of ZEBRA unable to activate transcription of Rta or viral genes encoding replication proteins, is competent to bind to oriLyt and to function as an origin recognition protein. Ectopic expression of the six components of the EBV lytic replication machinery failed to rescue replication by Z(S186A). However, addition of Rta to Z(S186A) and the mixture of replication factors activated viral replication and late gene expression. Deletion mutagenesis of Rta indicated that the C-terminal 10 amino acids (aa) were essential for the function of Rta in replication. In vivo DNA binding studies revealed that Rta interacted with the enhancer region of oriLyt. In addition, expression of Rta and Z(S186A) together, but not individually, activated synthesis of the BHLF1 transcript, a lytic transcript required for the process of viral DNA replication. Our findings demonstrate that Rta plays an indispensable role in the process of lytic DNA replication.
Dietary Guidelines for Americans and risk of the metabolic syndrome 1 4

Background: The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Index (DGAI) was created to assess adherence to the dietary recommendations of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) in relation to chronic disease risk. Objective: The objective was to assess the relation between dietary patterns consistent with the 2005 DGA as measured by the DGAI and both the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and individual MetS risk factors. Design: DGAI scores and metabolic risk factors for MetS were assessed in a cross-sectional study of 3177 participants from the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. MetS was defined on the basis of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Results: After adjustment for potential confounders, the DGAI score was inversely related to waist circumference (P for trend 0.001), triacylglycerol concentration (P for trend 0.005), both diastolic (P for trend 0.002) and systolic (P for trend 0.01) blood pressure, the prevalence of abdominal adiposity (P for trend 0.001), and hyperglycemia (P for trend 0.03). The prevalence of MetS was significantly lower in individuals in the highest DGAI quintile category than in those in the lowest category (odds ratio: 0.64; 95% CI: 0.47, 0.88; P for trend 0.005) when those being treated for any of the risk factors were excluded. There was a significant interaction between DGAI score and age; the association between the DGAI score and MetS was confined largely to adults younger than 55 y (odds ratio: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.36, 0.92; P for trend
Photophysics and ex vivo biodistribution of β-cyclodextrin-meso-tetra(m-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrin conjugate for biomedical applications

Low aqueous solubility of porphyrin-based photosensitizers hampers their clinical use in photodynamic therapy because of complex delivery. In this study, we explore meso -tetra( m -hydroxyphenyl)-21,23 H -porphyrin ( m THPP), a potent photosensitizer, covalently attached to β-cyclodextrin (CD- m THPP) with a focus on topical delivery and cellular uptake. The photophysical properties of CD- m THPP were examined using steady-state fluorescence and lifetime measurements verifying increased aqueous solubility. Confocal and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy on human squamous carcinoma cells (A431) evidenced a cytoplasmic uptake of CD- m THPP in predominantly monomeric form. CD- m THPP was also delivered to human skin ex vivo and the skin penetration was assessed using two-photon fluorescence microscopy. The results indicated that CD- m THPP exhibits improved skin distribution compared to m THPP alone using aqueous vehicles. Thus the CD- m THPP conjugate demonstrates improved biodistribution ex vivo compared to m THPP and is a promising multimodal system for photodynamic therapy.
Additive Manufacturing Technologies Used for Processing Polymers: Current Status and Potential Application in Prosthetic Dentistry

There are 7 categories of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, and a wide variety of materials can be used to build a CAD 3D object. The present article reviews the main AM processes for polymers for dental applications: stereolithography (SLA), digital light processing (DLP), material jetting (MJ), and material extrusion (ME). The manufacturing process, accuracy, and precision of these methods will be reviewed, as well as their prosthodontic applications.
Analyzing the Ecosystem Carbon and Hydrologic Characteristics of Forested Wetland Using a Biogeochemical Process Model

A comprehensive biogeochemical model, Wetland-DNDC, was applied to analyze the carbon and hydrologic characteristics of forested wetland ecosystem at Minnesota (MN) and Florida (FL) sites. The model simulates the flows of carbon, energy, and water in forested wetlands. Modeled carbon dynamics depends on physiological plant factors, the size of plant pools, environmental factors, and the total amount and turnover rates of soil organic matter. The model realistically simulated water level fluctuation, forest production, carbon pools change, and CO 2 and CH 4 emission under natural variations in different environmental factors at two sites. Analyses were focused on parameters and inputs potentially cause the greatest uncertainty in calculated change in plant and soil C and water levels fluctuation and shows that it was important to obtain accurate input data for initial C content, climatic conditions, and allocation of net primary production to various forested wetland components. The magnitude of the forest responses was dependent not only on the rate of changes in environmental factors, but also on site-specific conditions such as climate and soil. This paper explores the ability of using the biogeochemical process model Wetland-DNDC to estimate the carbon and hydrologic dynamics of forested wetlands and shifts in these dynamics in response to changing environmental conditions.