Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dose-Response Relationship Between Thrombin-Activatable Fibrinolysis Inhibitor (TAFI) and Stroke: A Chinese Case-Control Study

Background Because TAFI (thrombin-activatable fibrinolysis inhibitor) antigen varies widely among different populations, we performed this case-control study to explore the relationship between TAFI levels and stroke in a Chinese population. Material/Methods Our population-based case-control study included 217 stroke patients and 218 healthy controls. The plasma TAFI level was measured by immune turbidimetry. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the association between different TAFI levels and stroke and its subtypes. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) combined with logistic regression analysis were used to explore the dose-response relationship between TAFI levels and stroke. Results The plasma TAFI levels of cases were much higher than in the control group (p=0.038) and this difference persisted even after adjustment (OR=2.2). In the elderly (aged over 60) and female subgroups, TAFI levels in stroke patients were higher than those in controls, and the results were also noted in ischemic stroke. The dose-response curve showed that, as a whole, with the increase of TAFI levels, the relative risk of stroke first increased and then decreased (p=0.0127). Similarly, in general, with the increase of TAFI levels, the curve showed that the relative risk of ischemic stroke first increased and then decreased (p=0.0110). Conclusions There was a definite correlation between TAFI levels and stroke in this Chinese population, and with the increase of TAFI levels, the relative risk of stroke or ischemic stroke first increased and then decreased.
Molecular-Level Variation Affects Population Growth in a Butterfly Metapopulation

The dynamics of natural populations are thought to be dominated by demographic and environmental processes with little influence of intraspecific genetic variation and natural selection, apart from inbreeding depression possibly reducing population growth in small populations. Here we analyse hundreds of well-characterised local populations in a large metapopulation of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia), which persists in a balance between stochastic local extinctions and recolonisations in a network of 4,000 discrete habitat patches. We show that the allelic composition of the glycolytic enzyme phosphoglucose isomerase (Pgi) has a significant effect on the growth of local populations, consistent with previously reported effects of allelic variation on flight metabolic performance and fecundity in the Glanville fritillary and Colias butterflies. The strength and the sign of the molecular effect on population growth are sensitive to the ecological context (the area and spatial connectivity of the habitat patches), which affects genotype-specific gene flow and the influence of migration on the dynamics of local populations. The biological significance of the results for Pgi is underscored by lack of any association between population growth and allelic variation at six other loci typed in the same material. In demonstrating, to our knowledge for the first time, that molecular variation in a candidate gene affects population growth, this study challenges the perception that differential performance of individual genotypes, leading to differential fitness, is irrelevant to population dynamics. These results also demonstrate that the spatial configuration of habitat and spatial dynamics of populations contribute to maintenance of Pgi polymorphism in this species.
Generating Customer Profiles for Retail Stores Using Clustering Techniques

– The retail industry collects huge amounts of data on sales, customer buying history, goods transportation, consumption, and service. With increased availability and ease of use of modern computing technology and e-commerce, the availability and popularity of such businesses has grown rapidly. Many retail stores have websites where customers can make online purchases. These factors have resulted in increase in the quantity of the data collected. For this reason, the retail industry is a major application area for data mining. This paper elaborates upon the use of the data mining technique of clustering to segment customer profiles for a retail store. Retail data mining can help identify customer buying patterns and behaviours, improve customer service for better customer satisfaction and hence retention.
Conservation Genetics of Potentially Endangered Mutualisms: Reduced Levels of Genetic Variation in Specialist versus Generalist Bees

Abstract: Oligolectic bees collect pollen from one or a few closely related species of plants, whereas polylectic bees visit a variety of flowers for pollen. Because of their more restricted range of host plants, it maybe expected that specialists exist in smaller, more isolated populations, with lower effective population sizes than generalists. Consequently, we hypothesized that oligolectic bees have reduced levels of genetic variation relative to related polylectic species. To test this hypothesis, we used five phylogenetically independent pairs of species in which one member was oligolectic and the other was polylectic. We assayed genetic variation in our species pairs at an average of 32 allozyme loci. Within each species pair, the oligolectic member had fewer polymorphic loci, lower average allelic richness, and lower average expected heterozygosity than its polylectic relative. Averaged over all species pairs, this corresponds to a 21% reduction in allelic richness, a 72% reduction in the proportion of polymorphic loci, and an 83% reduction in expected heterozygosity in specialists compared with generalists. Our data support the hypothesis of reduced effective population size in oligolectic bees and suggest that they may be more prone to extinction as a result. We suggest that in instances in which bee specialists are involved in mutually codependent relationships with their floral hosts, these mutualisms may be endangered for genetic and ecological reasons.
3ircular dichroism simulation shows a site-II-to-site-I displacement of human serum albumin-bound diclofenac by ibuprofen

1bstractPurpose: The purpose of this study was to confirm the hypothesis that a site-II-to-site-I displacement takes place when some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are displaced by another drug from their high-affinity binding site to a site of lower affinity on human serum albumin (HSA). Methods: Diclofenac, sodium salt, was used as a representative example because of its prominent reversal of the Cotton effect. Effects of site-specific drugs on the free fraction of diclofenac were determined by equilibrium dialysis, and effects on induced circular dichroism (CD) of diclifenac bound to HSA were studied by CD and CD simulation techniques.Results: Ibuprofen, a site-II-specific drug, altered the CD spectrum of the diclofenac-HSA complex at a molar ratio of 0.5∶1 to that obtained at a higher ratio (5∶1) without ibuprofen. The induced CD spectrum obtained in the presence of ibuprofen was very similar to one that assumed that all diclofenac displaced from its high-affinity binding site (site II) became rebound to a lower-affinity site (site I). The rebinding could be influenced by a free energy linkage between the two sites which would make site I (or parts thereof) more suitable for diclofenac binding.Conclusion: We have confirmed the existence of a site II-to-site displacement, which is very striking and pharmacologically important, because the concentration of unbound drug being displaced is much lower than expected for a competitive mechanism.
Skin Flora and Infection

Human skin provides a great living environment for the growth of microbes. The types and numbers of microbes vary according to the part of the human body and the age and gender of the individual. These microbes have a definite impact on the incidence of catheter-related infections. By understanding the process of how infections develop, appropriate choices can be made for techniques and methods that prevent these infections.
Efectos de sugestión en preescolares: capacidades mentalistas y diferencias individuales en sugestionabilidad

Resumen Presentamos una investigación sobre las relaciones entre las capacidades mentalistas, la memoria y la sugestionabilidad en preescolares. Noventa y nueve preescolares (de 39 a 87 meses) participaron en dos sesiones experimentales en las que una entrevistadora evaluó, primero, sus capacidades mentalistas y sugestionabilidad a través de dos escalas y, una semana después, otra entrevistadora realizó pruebas de recuerdo libre y reconocimiento así como preguntas sugestivas sobre acciones desarrolladas en la primera sesión. Los preescolares con un nivel inferior de teoría de la mente aceptaron más sugestiones, recordaron peor y puntuaron más alto en la escala de Sugestionabilidad. En contextos aplicados, esto significa que los preescolares con menor capacidad mentalista también recordarán peor, serán objeto de más sugestiones y las aceptarán en mayor grado.
On the Behavior of Input Queuing Switch Architectures

On the Behavior of Input Queuing Switch Architectures Many proposals of input queuing cell switch architectures have recently appeared in the literature. Some have found application in commercial very high speed IP routers. In this paper we discuss the pros and cons of input and output queuing switch architectures, we provide a taxonomy of scheduling algorithms for input queuing switches, and we present comparative performance results for some of the recent proposals of input queuing cell switches. Performance is measured in terms of cell loss probability, as well as average, standard deviation, and 99--th quantile of the cell delay with different traffic patterns. The complexity of the algorithms, and the amount of control information to be exchanged inside the switch for their execution, are also discussed.
Generalized Label Reduction for Merge-and-Shrink Heuristics

Label reduction is a technique for simplifying families of labeled transition systems by dropping distinctions between certain transition labels. While label reduction is critical to the efficient computation of merge-and-shrink heuristics, current theory only permits reducing labels in a limited number of cases. We generalize this theory so that labels can be reduced in every intermediate abstraction of a merge-and-shrink tree. This is particularly important for efficiently computing merge-and-shrink abstractions based on non-linear merge strategies. As a case study, we implement a non-linear merge strategy based on the original work on merge-and-shrink heuristics in model checking by Dräger et al.
On the Impossibility of Strong Encryption over א 0

We give two impossibility results regarding strong encryption over an infinite enumerable domain. The first one relates to statistically secure one-time encryption. The second one relates to computationally secure encryption resisting adaptive chosen ciphertext attacks in streaming mode with bounded resources: memory, time delay or output length. Curiously, both impossibility results can be achieved with either finite or continuous domains. The latter result explains why known CCA-secure cryptosystem constructions require at least two passes to decrypt a message with bounded resources.
Effects of Rosiglitazone on Lipids, Adipokines, and Inflammatory Markers in Nondiabetic Patients With Low High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Metabolic Syndrome

Background—PPAR-γ agonists improve insulin sensitivity and glycemic control in type 2 diabetes and may reduce atherosclerosis progression. Thus, PPAR-γ agonists may be an effective therapy for metabolic syndrome. However, the full spectrum of potentially antiatherogenic mechanisms of PPAR-γ agonists have not been fully tested in nondiabetic patients with metabolic syndrome. Methods and Results—We performed a prospective, double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of 60 nondiabetic subjects with low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) level and metabolic syndrome to rosiglitazone 8 mg daily or placebo for 12 weeks. We found no significant effect of rosiglitazone on HDL-C (+5.5% versus +5.8%, P=0.89), and an increase in total cholesterol (+8% versus −1%; P=0.03). Nevertheless, rosiglitazone significantly increased adiponectin (+168% versus +25%; P<0.001), and lowered resistin (−6% versus +4%; P=0.009), C-reactive protein (−32% versus +36%, P=0.002), interleukin (IL)-6 (−22% versus +4%, P<0.001), and soluble tumor-necrosis factor-α receptor-2 (−5% versus +7%, P<0.001). Conclusions—These findings suggest that rosiglitazone, presumably through its PPAR-γ agonist properties, has direct effects on inflammatory markers and adipokines in the absence of favorable lipid effects. These findings may help explain the mechanism underlying the possible antiatherosclerotic effects of rosiglitazone.
Effects of intermittent fasting on glucose and lipid metabolism

Two intermittent fasting variants, intermittent energy restriction (IER) and time-restricted feeding (TRF), have received considerable interest as strategies for weight-management and/or improving metabolic health. With these strategies, the pattern of energy restriction and/or timing of food intake are altered so that individuals undergo frequently repeated periods of fasting. This review provides a commentary on the rodent and human literature, specifically focusing on the effects of IER and TRF on glucose and lipid metabolism. For IER, there is a growing evidence demonstrating its benefits on glucose and lipid homeostasis in the short-to-medium term; however, more long-term safety studies are required. Whilst the metabolic benefits of TRF appear quite profound in rodents, findings from the few human studies have been mixed. There is some suggestion that the metabolic changes elicited by these approaches can occur in the absence of energy restriction, and in the context of IER, may be distinct from those observed following similar weight-loss achieved via modest continuous energy restriction. Mechanistically, the frequently repeated prolonged fasting intervals may favour preferential reduction of ectopic fat, beneficially modulate aspects of adipose tissue physiology/morphology, and may also impinge on circadian clock regulation. However, mechanistic evidence is largely limited to findings from rodent studies, thus necessitating focused human studies, which also incorporate more dynamic assessments of glucose and lipid metabolism. Ultimately, much remains to be learned about intermittent fasting (in its various forms); however, the findings to date serve to highlight promising avenues for future research.
Performance Characterization of Relay-Assisted Wireless Optical CDMA Networks in Turbulent Underwater Channel

In this paper, we characterize the performance of relay-assisted underwater wireless optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) networks over turbulent channels. In addition to scattering and absorption effects of underwater channels, we also consider optical turbulence as a log-normal fading coefficient in our analysis. To simultaneously and asynchronously share medium among many users, we assign a unique optical orthogonal code (OOC) to each user in order to actualize OCDMA-based underwater network. The most significant challenge in underwater optical communication is in the ability to extend the short range of its coverage. In order to expand the viable communication range, we consider multi-hop transmission to the destination. Moreover, we evaluate the performance of a relay-assisted point-to-point UWOC system as a special case of the proposed relay-assisted OCDMA network. Our numerical results indicate significant performance improvement by employing intermediate relays, e.g., one can achieve 32 dB improvement in the bit error rate (BER) of 10-6 using only a dual-hop transmission in a 90 m point-to-point clear ocean link.
Research on the application of improved hybrid genetic algorithm in the vehicle routing problem

Vehicle route problem of logistics distribution is the important step optimizing logistics distribution. According to the traditional genetic algorithm shortcomings of slowly convergent speed, weakly partial searching ability and easily premature, therefore, hybrid genetic algorithm is used to get the optimization solution, namely, use dualistic coding so as to simplify the problem and improve the searching efficiency of genetic algorithm. The individual amount control choice strategy so as to guard the diversity of group. Improved ordinal crossover operators can avoid destroying good gene parts during the course of ordinal crossover so as that the algorithm can be convergent to the optimization as whole. Adopt self-adaptive thought to strengthen the partial searching ability of chromosome, improve the convergent speed of algorithm. Finally, the good performance of improved algorithm can be proved by experiment calculation and concrete examples.
Multilingual large vocabulary speech recognition: the European SQALE project

Abstract This paper describes the S qale project in which the ARPA large vocabulary evaluation paradigm was adapted to meet the needs of European multilingual speech recognition development. It involved establishing a framework for sharing training and test materials, defining common protocols for training and testing systems, developing systems, running an evaluation and analysing the results. The specifically multilingual issues addressed included the impact of the language on corpora and test set design, transcription issues, evaluation metrics, recognition system design, cross-system and cross-language performance, and results analysis. The project started in December 1993 and finished in September 1995. The paper describes the evaluation framework and the results obtained. The overall conclusions of the project were that the same general approach to recognition system design is applicable to all the languages studied although there were some language specific problems to solve. It was found that the evaluation paradigm used within ARPA could be used within the European context with little difficulty and the consequent sharing amongst the sites of training and test materials and language-specific expertise was highly beneficial.
Improvements on construction of quasi cyclic irregular non binary LDPC codes

Non Binary Low Density Parity Check (NB-LDPC) codes, a category of LDPC codes have better decoding performance in high order Galois field. A construction method called hierarchically diagonal matrix (HDM) is proposed in this paper. The constructed HDM is analyzed for IEEE 802.11 n specification of code length 648, rate 1/2 over GF (4). Codes constructed based on the hierarchical matrix perform well over the AWGN channel with FFT based sum product iterative decoding (FFT-SPA) algorithm. The computation complexity of the HDM is analyzed. The average number of multiplications and additions involved in the HDM of check node unit and variable node unit has reduced to 62% and 48% when compared with random matrix.
Manifold aspects of specificity in a nematode–bacterium mutualism

Coevolution in mutualistic symbiosis can yield, because the interacting partners share common interests, to coadaptation: hosts perform better when associated with symbionts of their own locality than with others coming from more distant places. However, as the two partners of a symbiosis might also experience conflicts over part of their life cycle, coadaptation might not occur for all life‐history traits. We investigated this issue in symbiotic systems where nematodes (Steinernema) and bacteria (Xenorhabdus) reproduce in insects they have both contributed to kill. Newborn infective juveniles (IJs) that carry bacteria in their intestine then disperse from the insect cadaver in search of a new host to infect. We ran experiments where nematodes coinfect insects with bacteria that differ from their native symbiont. In both Steinernema carpocapsae/Xenorhabdus nematophila and Steinernema feltiae/Xenorhabdus bovienii symbioses, we detected an overall specificity which favours the hypothesis of a fine‐tuned co‐adaptation process. However, we also found that the life‐history traits involved in specificity strongly differ between the two model systems: when associated with strains that differ too much from their native symbionts, S. carpocapsae has low parasitic success, whereas S. feltiae has low survival in dispersal stage.
Introducing Scientific Methods for the Interpretation of the Bible: Quantitative Analysis of Christian Documents

Systematic thought (such as Christian theology) has primarily been investigated using literature-based approaches, with texts that are usually more abstract and subjective in nature than scientific papers. However, as systematic ideas and thought influence all areas of human activity and thinking, the application of scientific methodologies such as bibliometrics, NLP (Natural Language Processing), and other information technologies may provide a more objective understanding of systematic thought. This paper introduces four methods of quantitative analysis for interpretation of the Bible in a scientific manner. The methods are citation analysis for interpreter's texts, vocabulary analysis for translations, variant text analysis for canonical texts, and evaluation method for rhetorical structure.
Embedding-Based Interpolation on the Special Orthogonal Group

We study schemes for interpolating functions that take values in the special orthogonal group $SO(n)$. Our focus is on interpolation schemes obtained by embedding $SO(n)$ in a linear space, interpolating in the linear space, and mapping the result onto $SO(n)$ via the closest point projection. The resulting interpolants inherit both the order of accuracy and the regularity of the underlying interpolants on the linear space. The values and derivatives of the interpolants admit efficient evaluation via either explicit formulas or iterative algorithms, which we detail for two choices of embeddings: the embedding of $SO(n)$ in the space of $n \times n$ matrices and, when $n=3$, the identification of $SO(3)$ with the set of unit quaternions. Along the way, we point out a connection between these interpolation schemes and geodesic finite elements. We illustrate the utility of these interpolation schemes by numerically computing minimum acceleration curves on $SO(n)$, a task which is handled naturally with $SO(n)$-valued finite elements having $C^1$-continuity.