Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mental health trajectories from childhood to young adulthood affect the educational and employment status of young adults: results from the TRAILS study

Background Young adults at work without basic educational level (BEL), and young adults in Neither Employment, Education nor Training (NEET) are at high risk of adverse employment outcomes. Evidence lacks on the impact of mental health problems during childhood, adolescence and young adulthood on employment outcomes of young adults. Therefore, the aims of this study were to (1) identify trajectories of mental health problems from childhood to young adulthood and (2) investigate the relation between these trajectories and the educational or employment status of young adults. Methods Data were used from the Tracking Adolescents’ Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a Dutch prospective cohort study with 9-year follow-up. Trajectories of mental health problems measured at ages 11, 13.5, 16 and 19 years were identified in 1711 young adults with latent class growth models. Results Young adults with high-stable trajectories of total problems, from childhood to young adulthood, were more likely to work without BEL or be in NEET at age 19, than to be at school or to work with BEL (28.0% vs 16.0%, p=0.01). The same was found for externalising problems (35.3% vs 23.2%, p=0.02). For internalising and attention problems, no statistically significant differences were found. Conclusions Young adults with high-stable trajectories of mental health problems from age 11 to 19, were at risk of adverse employment outcomes. Interventions reducing mental health problems in childhood may improve the educational or employment status of young adults and their chances for successfully entering the labour market.
Étude des références (Partie 8) extraites des recommandations de bonne pratique analysées dans le cadre du projet SPICES

Les maladies cardiovasculaires (MCV) etaient la premiere cause de deces dans le monde en 2017. La prise en charge des facteurs de risque cardiovasculaire (FDRCV) permet de reduire l’incidence des MCV. SPICES est une etude d’implementation visant a mettre en place des interventions non medicamenteuses pour la prevention primaire des MCV en soin primaire. L’analyse des recommandations de pratique clinique (RPC) par procede ADAPTE et outil AGREE 2 ne definissait pas de strategie d’intervention detaillee. L’objectif de ce travail etait d’identifier et decrire les interventions non medicamenteuses efficaces en prevention primaire des MCV realisables en soins primaire issues des references extraites des RPC. Methode : 899 references ont ete extraites des RPC et analysees, dont 113 dans ce travail. Les criteres d’inclusions recherches sur le resume des articles etaient les suivant : interventions non medicamenteuses efficaces sur des criteres de jugement pertinents realisees dans un contexte de soins primaires ou dans la communaute. Les articles inclus etaient lus en integralite pour verifier les criteres d’inclusion. Les interventions incluses etaient decrites, resumees en mots cles et classees en themes (dietetique, activite physique, arret du tabac, multi-composantes). Resultats : Le regime mediterraneen, le regime DASH et l’association d’activite physique de type aerobie (de 20 a 40 minutes a une intensite moderee, 3 a 5 fois par semaine) et d’un regime pauvre en graisses et en sel etaient efficace sur la reduction des FDRCV. Les interventions breves etaient efficaces sur la consommation d’alcool et de tabac. L’utilisation des medias, du lieu de travail, de strategies comportementales, dont le modele trans-theorique de Prochaska et d’interventions breves favorisaient les changements comportementaux vers une hygiene de vie saine. Conclusion : des interventions non medicamenteuses efficaces en prevention primaire des MCV en contexte de soins primaires ont ete decrites. Les interventions incluses seront analysees afin de definir des strategies claires et detaillees en vue de l’etude SPICES.
A proteomic study of the HUPO Plasma Proteome Project's pilot samples using an accurate mass and time tag strategy

Characterization of the human blood plasma proteome is critical to the discovery of routinely useful clinical biomarkers. We used an accurate mass and time (AMT) tag strategy with high‐resolution mass accuracy cLC‐FT‐ICR MS to perform a global proteomic analysis of pilot study samples as part of the HUPO Plasma Proteome Project. HUPO reference serum and citrated plasma samples from African Americans, Asian Americans, and Caucasian Americans were analyzed, in addition to a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reference serum and plasma. The AMT tag strategy allowed us to leverage two previously published “shotgun” proteomics experiments to perform global analyses on these samples in triplicate in less than 4 days total analysis time. A total of 722 (22% with multiple peptide identifications) International Protein Index redundant proteins, or 377 protein families by ProteinProphet, were identified over the six individual HUPO serum and plasma samples. The samples yielded a similar number of identified redundant proteins in the plasma samples (average 446 ± 23) as found in the serum samples (average 440 ± 20). These proteins were identified by an average of 956 ± 35 unique peptides in plasma and 930 ± 11 unique peptides in serum. In addition to this high‐throughput analysis, the AMT tag approach was used with a Z‐score normalization to compare relative protein abundances. This analysis highlighted both known differences in serum and citrated plasma such as fibrinogens, and reproducible differences in peptide abundances from proteins such as soluble activin receptor‐like kinase 7b and glycoprotein m6b. The AMT tag strategy not only improved our sample throughput but also provided a basis for estimated quantitation.
An attenuated temperature‐sensitive strain of cytomegalovirus (tsm5) establishes immunity without development of CD8+ T cell memory inflation

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a widely prevalent herpesvirus that is well tolerated by an immune competent host yet establishes a state of chronic infection. The virus is thought to undergo frequent subclinical episodes of reactivation which leads to an unusually large accumulation of CMV‐specific CD8+ T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, a phenomenon termed “memory inflation. ” The high magnitude of the CMV T cell response has been implicated in impaired immunity to heterologous pathogens such as EBV, influenza and West Nile virus. Here, using murine CMV (MCMV), we show that memory inflation of virus‐specific CD8+ T cells is avoided if mice are infected with a replication defective virus called temperature‐sensitive mutant 5 (tsm5), which carries an attenuating mutation within the DNA primase gene. Mice infected with tsm5 do generate primary T cell responses towards viral proteins but these do not amass to skew the memory repertoire of CD8+ T cells. Therefore, attenuation of the virus replication machinery may be valuable in future CMV vaccine designs because the virus remains immunogenic but does not contribute to CMV associated T cell immune senescence. J Med. Virol. 85:1968–1974, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The export additionality of innovation policy

The empirical evidence that innovation policies often lead to innovation additionality is long-standing. However, innovation is an intermediate outcome. Innovations are important to the extent that they contribute to some broader goal, such as the competitiveness of firms and economies. To this end, we take exporting as an important indicator of competitiveness and investigate whether innovation interventions lead to exporting outcomes. Using the Mannheim Innovation Panel, the current study explores whether innovation interventions at various administrative levels associate with changing export behaviors among German Small- and Medium-sized Enterprise (SMEs). Our results provide evidence of the scope for policymakers to employ innovation interventions as export policy.
A Smartwatch Step Counter for Slow and Intermittent Ambulation

The ambulatory monitoring of human movement can provide valuable information regarding the degree of functional ability and general level of activity of individuals. Since walking is a basic everyday movement, automatic step detection or step counting is very important in developing ambulatory monitoring systems. This paper is concerned with the development and the preliminary validation of a step counter (SC) designed to operate also in conditions of slow and intermittent ambulation. The SC was based on processing the accelerometer data measured by a Gear 2 smartwatch running a custom wearable app, named ADAM. A data set of eight users, for a total of 80 trials, was used to tune ADAM. Finally, ADAM was compared with two different commercial SCs: the native SC running on the Gear 2 smart watch and a waist-worn SC, the Geonaute ONSTEP 400. A second data set of eight additional users for a total of 80 trials was used for the assessment study. The three SCs performed quite similarly in conditions of normal walking over long paths (1%–3% of mean absolute relative error); ADAM outperformed the two other SCs in conditions of slow and intermittent ambulation; the error incurred by ADAM was limited to 5%, which is significantly lower than errors of 20%–30% incurred by the two other SCs.
Experiments on Adaptation Methods to Improve Acoustic Modeling for French Speech Recognition

To improve the performance of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems, the models must be retrained in order to better adjust to the speakerâ? s voice characteristics, the environmental and channel conditions or the context of the task. In this project we focus on the mismatch between the acoustic features used to train the model and the vocal characteristics of the front-end user of the system. To overcome this mismatch, speaker adaptation techniques have been used. A significant performance improvement has been shown using using constrained Maximum Likelihood Linear Regression (cMLLR) model adaptation methods, while a fast adaptation is guaranteed by using linear Vocal Tract Length Normalization (lVTLN). We have achieved a relative gain of approximately 9.44% in the word error rate with unsupervised cMLLR adaptation. We also compare our ASR system with the Google ASR and show that, using adaptation methods, we exceed its performance.
The photoactive yellow protein from Ectothiorhodospira halophila as studied with a highly specific polyclonal antiserum: (intra)cellular localization, regulation of expression, and taxonomic distribution of cross-reacting proteins

A rabbit antiserum was raised against the photoactive yellow protein (PYP) from Ectothiorhodospira halophila and purified by adsorption experiments to obtain a highly specific polyclonal antiserum. This antiserum was used to obtain the following results. (i) In E. halophila, PYP can be isolated from the fraction of soluble proteins. In the intact cell, however, PYP appeared to be associated with (intra)cytoplasmic membranes, as was concluded from analysis of immunogold-labelled thin sections of the organism. (ii) The regulation of expression of PYP was studied by using dot blot assays, Western blotting (immunoblotting), and rocket immunoelectrophoresis. Under all conditions investigated (light color, salt concentration, and growth phase), PYP was expressed constitutively in E. halophila. However, when Rhodospirillum salexigens was grown aerobically, the expression of PYP was suppressed. (iii) A large number of prokaryotic microorganisms contained a single protein, with an apparent size of approximately 15 kDa, that cross-reacted with the antiserum. Among the positively reacting organisms were both phototrophic and chemotrophic, as well as motile and nonmotile, organisms. After separation of cellular proteins into a membrane fraction and soluble proteins, it was established that organisms adapted to growth at higher salt concentrations tended to have the cross-reacting protein in the soluble fraction. In the cases of R. salexigens and Chromatium salexigens, we have shown that the cross-reacting protein involved is strongly homologous to PYP from E. halophila.
A Novel Glucosyltransferase Involved in O-Antigen Modification of Shigella flexneri Serotype 1c

ABSTRACT The O antigen of serotype 1c differs from the unmodified O antigen of serotype Y by the addition of a disaccharide (two glucosyl groups) to the tetrasaccharide repeating unit. It was shown here that addition of the first glucosyl group is mediated by the previously characterized gtrI cluster, which is found within a cryptic prophage at the proA locus in the bacterial chromosome. Transposon mutagenesis was performed to disrupt the gene responsible for addition of the second glucosyl group, causing reversion to serotype 1a. Colony immunoblotting was used to identify the desired revertants, and subsequent sequencing, cloning, and functional expression successfully identified the gene encoding serotype 1c-specific O-antigen modification. This gene (designated gtrIC) was present as part of a three-gene cluster, similar to other S. flexneri glucosyltransferase genes. Relative to the other S. flexneri gtr clusters, the gtrIC cluster is more distantly related and appears to have arrived in S. flexneri from outside the species. Analysis of surrounding sequence suggests that the gtrIC cluster arrived via a novel bacteriophage that was subsequently rendered nonfunctional by a series of insertion events.
Protein synthesis in embryonic tissues during mouse postimplantation development

Mouse embryos of the NMRI strain between the 7th and 9th day of gestation were isolated from the uterus and dissected into the various tissue derivatives in order to investigate newly synthesized proteins during morphogenesis. The day 7 embryo was fragmented into trophoblast and ectoplacental cone, distal and proximal endoderm, extraembryonic and embryonic ectoderm. The day 8 and day 9 embryos were divided into trophoblast and placental anlage, yolk sac, amnion, and allantois, as well as cranial, central, and caudal embryonic tissue. The intact embryos were incubated in Dulbecco's minimum essential medium in the presence of 35S‐methionine for 4 h, then dissected into the various fragments, and further processed for two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis. Protein synthesis of the isolated tissue derivatives was analyzed and compared for the three developmental stages. Concerning the proteins with isoelectric points in the range of 4.5 to 8.0 and molecular weight ratio (Mr) values between 20,000 and 200,000, we found several significant quantitative and qualitative differences in the various tissue fragments. In addition, we observed further quantitative and qualitative differences in protein synthesis during the postimplantation period investigated. We propose that the differences reflect some of the cell lineage‐ and developmental stage‐specific changes in gene expression during early mammalian differentiation.
Adaptive Neural Control for a Class of Perturbed Strict-Feedback Nonlinear Time-Delay Systems

This paper proposes a novel adaptive neural control scheme for a class of perturbed strict-feedback nonlinear time-delay systems with unknown virtual control coefficients. Based on the radial basis function neural network online approximation capability, an adaptive neural controller is presented by combining the backstepping approach and Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals. The proposed controller guarantees the semiglobal boundedness of all the signals in the closed-loop system and contains minimal learning parameters. Finally, three simulation examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed scheme.
Propensity Score Analysis of Clinical Outcome After Bypass Surgery vs. Endovascular Therapy for Infrainguinal Artery Disease in Patients With Critical Limb Ischemia

Purpose To compare endovascular therapy (EVT) outcomes to those of bypass surgery (BSG) for infrainguinal artery disease in patients with critical limb ischemia (CLI). Methods A retrospective review was conducted of 1053 CLI patients (1053 first treated limbs) who underwent BSG (n=230) or EVT (n=823) for de novo infrainguinal lesions between January 2004 and December 2009 at 14 Japanese centers. Propensity score analysis was used for risk adjustment in multivariate analysis and for one-to-one matching (n=200 in each group). Amputation-free survival, overall survival, limb salvage, and freedom from major adverse limb events (any repeat revascularization or major amputation) were calculated. Results Mean follow-up was 30±16 months. In the overall series, there was no significant difference at 3 years between the EVT and BSG groups in amputation-free survival (60.5% vs. 62.1%, p=0.84), limb salvage (88.7% vs. 85.4%, p=0.24), or overall survival (65.8% vs. 69.2%, p=0.40). However, freedom from adverse limb events was significantly lower in the EVT group (56.6% vs. 69.2%, p=0.02) at 3 years. In the matched pairs analysis, there was no significant difference in any outcome between BSG and EVT at 3 years: amputation-free survival 66.3% vs. 62.0 (p=0.44), limb salvage 88.8% vs. 84.8% (p=0.44), survival 73.8% vs. 68.8% (p=0.61), and freedom from adverse limb events 61.3% vs. 69.1% (p=0.27). Conclusion Our cohort suggested that the frequency of serious adverse events after EVT was comparable to that after BSG in CLI patients who underwent their first infrainguinal revascularization.
Molecular Characterization and Phenotypical Study of β-Thalassemia in Tucumán, Argentina

Abstract The main hereditary hemoglobin (Hb) disorder in Argentina is β-thalassemia (β-thal). Molecular studies performed in the center of the country exhibited a marked prevalence of the codon 39 (C > T) and IVS-I-110 (G > A) mutations. The northwest region of Argentina has a different demographic history characterized by an important Spanish influx. Seventy-one β-thal carriers attending the Instituto de Bioquímica Aplicada, Tucumán, Argentina, were investigated for β-globin gene mutations by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). To examine the genotype-phenotype relationship, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular Hb (MCH) and Hb A2 were measured. In order to recognize β-thal, Mentzer Index, Shine & Lal and Red Cell Distribution Width Index (RDWI), were calculated. The ethnic background of subjects revealed that 82.0% of the population was of Italian, Spanish and Arab origin. Seven mutations were detected: codon 39 (45.0%), IVS-I-1 (G > A) (22.5%), IVS-I-110 (16.3%), IVS-II-1 (G > A) (4.1%), IVS-I-1 (G > T) (2.0%), IVS-I-6 (T > C) (2.0%) and IVS-II-745 (G > C) (2.0%). In three families (6.1%), β-thal mutations were not determined. These results differed from other Argentinian studies because at present codon 39 and IVS-I-1 are the most prevalent; MCV, MCH and Hb A2 did not correlate with the type of mutation (β0/β+). Values of MCV (67.0 fL) and Hb A2 (4.85%) were unable to discriminate between them. Significant differences (p < 0.05) in MCV, MCH and Shine & Lal were observed between the undetermined group and the three most common mutations. These data show different patterns of β-thal mutations in the center and northwest regions of Argentina. Differences might represent the influence of Spanish immigration.
Safety and Immunogenicity of ALVAC vCP1452 and Recombinant gp160 in Newly Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Infected Patients Treated with Prolonged Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy

ABSTRACT In order to boost immune responses in persons in whom highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was initiated within 120 days of the onset of symptoms of newly acquired human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, we administered vaccines containing a canarypox virus vector, vCP1452, with HIV-1 genes encoding multiple HIV-1 proteins, and recombinant gp160. Fifteen HIV-1-infected subjects who achieved sustained suppression of plasma viremia for at least 2 years were enrolled. While continuing antiretroviral therapy, each subject received at least four intramuscular injections of the vaccines on days 0, 30, 90, and 180. Adverse events were mild, with the most common being transient tenderness at the vCP1452 injection site. Of the 14 patients who completed vaccination, 13 had significant increases in anti-gp120 or anti-p24 antibody titers, and 9 had transient augmentation of their T-cell proliferation responses to gp160 and/or p24. HIV-1-specific CD8+ T cells were quantified using an intracellular gamma interferon staining assay. Among 11 patients who had increased CD8+ T-cell responses, seven had responses to more than one HIV-1 antigen. In summary, vaccination with vCP1452 and recombinant gp160 appears safe and immunogenic in newly HIV-1-infected patients on HAART.
Coping-with-hearing-loss model for older adults.

We proposed a coping-with-hearing-loss model that explains how hearing loss, psychosocial factors (i.e., attitudes about aging, personal adjustment to hearing loss, and perceived social support), and perceived strategy effectiveness affect the use of adaptive and maladaptive strategies. Adaptive strategies are behaviors that improve communication (i.e., asking others to repeat). Maladaptive strategies are coping behaviors that do not promote communication (i.e., pretending to understand the conversation). Nonaudiological variables were more important than physical hearing loss (as measured by an audiological examination) in predicting coping behaviors for hearing loss. The use of adaptive strategies was predicted by perceived strategy effectiveness. The use of maladaptive strategies was predicted by perceived effectiveness of the strategies to cope with hearing loss in daily life, poor adjustment to hearing loss, and poor social support. The results suggest that psychosocial issues may need to be addressed when older adults have difficulties coping with their hearing loss.
The Coins’ Other Side – Dynamic Relationships Between Pre-Crash Cryptocurrency Prices and Their Determinants

Cryptocurrencies have become one of the most important and most disputed aspects in financial markets. However, the understanding of the price formation process for blockchain-based cryptocurrencies is still limited. This paper analyzes factors influencing the price of the five cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, and Monero in the time between January 2014 and July 2017. We conduct a Granger Causality study by estimating vector autoregressive models, vector error correction models, and autoregressive distributed lag models in order to test previously developed hypotheses on price determinants. The results suggest that the proportion of value of the global cryptocurrency portfolio as well as public attention are the two key factors that drive prices. The findings indicate that cryptocurrencies are subject to the formation of price bubbles, due to the reinforcing mechanism of positive feedback trading, herding, and public attention.