Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Application of a quality of life measure, the life situation survey (LSS), to alcohol-dependent subjects in relapse and remission.

BACKGROUND Recent studies have shown that quality of life (QOL) is improved significantly when subjects do not relapse to heavy drinking, and QOL deteriorates significantly on prolonged relapse. This article further investigates these relationships using a QOL index, the Life Situation Survey (LSS). METHODS Eighty-two DSM-IV alcohol-dependent subjects admitted for alcohol detoxification were studied at baseline and 12 week follow-up. Sociodemographic data were collected, and severity of alcohol dependence (SADQ) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) were baseline indices only. The main outcome measure, the LSS, was administered at both time points. RESULTS Two subjects were lost to follow-up and one died during the study period. Thus, the relapse/ nonrelapse analysis related to 79 subjects. Fifty subjects (63%) had relapsed to heavy drinking at 3 months follow-up. There was a significant correlation between LSS and GHQ-12 scores. Significant changes occurred in total LSS scores as a result of relapse and nonrelapse. The improvement in LSS scores associated with nonrelapse was larger than the deterioration that accompanied relapse. In those subjects who did not relapse to heavy drinking, the mean follow-up score remained in the poor/borderline LSS range. Remission from heavy drinking was accompanied by significant improvements in appetite, sleep, and self-esteem. Relapse to heavy drinking coincided with a significant deterioration in mood/affect, public support, and work/life role scores. CONCLUSION QOL as assessed by the LSS in recently detoxified alcoholics is impaired significantly. In the nonrelapse group, there was a significant improvement in LSS scores after 3 months. Relapse was accompanied by a smaller deterioration in LSS scores. The LSS can play an important role in monitoring the clinical care and progress of alcohol-dependent subjects.
A Multi-Objective Optimization Approach for Question Routing in Community Question Answering Services

Community Question Answering (CQA) has increasingly become an important service for people asking questions and providing answers online, which enables people to help each other by sharing knowledge. Recently, with accumulation of users and contents, much concern has arisen over the efficiency and answer quality of CQA services. To address this problem, question routing has been proposed which aims at routing new questions to suitable answerers, who have both high possibility and high ability to answer the questions. In this paper, we formulate question routing as a multi-objective ranking problem, and present a multi-objective learning-to-rank approach for question routing (MLQR), which can simultaneously optimize the answering possibility and answer quality of routed users. In MLQR, realizing that questions are relatively short and usually attached with tags, we first propose a tagword topic model (TTM) to derive topical representations of questions. Based on TTM, we then develop features for each question-user pair, which are captured at both platform level and thread level. In particular, the platform-level features summarize the information of a user from his/her history posts in the CQA platform, while the thread-level features model the pairwise competitions of a user with others in his/her answered threads. Finally, we extend a state-of-the-art learning-to-rank algorithm for training a multi-objective ranking model. Extensive experimental results on real-world datasets show that our MLQR can outperform state-of-the-art methods in terms of both answering possibility and answer quality.
Genome analysis and genetic enhancement of tomato

The Solanaceae is an important family of vegetable crops, ornamentals and medicinal plants. Tomato has served as a model member of this family largely because of its enriched cytogenetic, genetic, as well as physical, maps. Mapping has helped in cloning several genes of importance such as Pto, responsible for resistance against bacterial speck disease, Mi-1.2 for resistance against nematodes, and fw2.2 QTL for fruit weight. A high-throughput genome-sequencing program has been initiated by an international consortium of 10 countries. Since heterochromatin has been found to be concentrated near centromeres, the consortium is focusing on sequencing only the gene-rich euchromatic region. Genomes of the members of Solanaceae show a significant degree of synteny, suggesting that the tomato genome sequence would help in the cloning of genes for important traits from other Solanaceae members as well. ESTs from a large number of cDNA libraries have been sequenced, and microarray chips, in conjunction with wide array of ripening mutants, have contributed immensely to the understanding of the fruit-ripening phenomenon. Work on the analysis of the tomato proteome has also been initiated. Transgenic tomato plants with improved abiotic stress tolerance, disease resistance and insect resistance, have been developed. Attempts have also been made to develop tomato as a bioreactor for various pharmaceutical proteins. However, control of fruit quality and ripening remains an active and challenging area of research. Such efforts should pave the way to improve not only tomato, but also other solanaceous crops.
Progress in socio‐hydrology: a meta‐analysis of challenges and opportunities

Socio‐hydrology was introduced 4 years ago into the scientific lexicon, and elicited several reactions about the meaning and originality of the concept. However, there has also been much activity triggered by the original paper, including further commentaries that clarified the definitions, and several papers that acted on the definitions, and through these activities further clarified and illustrated the meaning and usefulness of socio‐hydrology for understanding coupled human–water systems and to assist with sustainable water management. This paper restates the case for socio‐hydrology by articulating the need to consider the two‐way feedbacks between human and water systems in order to explain puzzles, paradoxes, and unintended consequences that arise in the context of water management, and to suggest ways to avoid or overcome these challenges. The paper then presents a critical review of past research on socio‐hydrology through the prism of historical, comparative, and process socio‐hydrology, documenting both the progress made and the challenges faced. Much of the work done so far has involved studies of socio‐hydrological systems in spatially isolated domains (e.g., river basins), and phenomena that involve emergent patterns in the time domain. The modeling studies so far have involved testing hypotheses about how these temporal patterns arise. An important feature that distinguishes socio‐hydrology from other related fields is the importance of allowing human agency (e.g., socioeconomics, technology, norms, and values) to be endogenous to the systems. This paper articulates the need to extend socio‐hydrology to explore phenomena in space and in space‐time, as the world becomes increasingly globalized and human–water systems become highly interconnected. The endogenization of human agency, in terms of values and norms, technology, economics, and trade must now be extended to space and to space‐time. This is a necessity, and a challenge, for water sustainability, but presents exciting opportunities for further research. WIREs Water 2017, 4:e1193. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1193
Device-Level Experimental Observations of NBTI-Induced Random Timing Jitter

This paper utilizes device-level eye-diagram measurements to examine negative bias temperature instability (NBTI)-induced changes in timing jitter at circuit speeds. The measured jitter is examined for a variety of ring oscillator and pseudorandom gate patterns. The ring oscillator patterns were chosen to mimic typical NBTI reliability characterizations, whereas the pseudorandom patterns act as an approximation for real-world random logic. Our observations indicate that NBTI-induced jitter is gate pattern dependent and most severe for the pseudorandom case. Collectively, this paper strongly suggests that typical NBTI ring oscillator characterization methods are insensitive to random logic timing jitter.
Long-term effects of the British evacuation of children during World War 2 on their adult mental health

Objectives: This study of 870 respondents aged 62–72 years investigates possible long-term effects on adult mental health due to temporary childhood separation by evacuation in the United Kingdom during World War 2. Method: Using univariate and multivariate analyses associations were examined between upbringing, evacuation experience and certain life-course variables with the lifetime incidence of depression and clinical anxiety, and also with the dependency and self-critical factors of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) (Blatt, S.J., D’Affitti, J.P., & Quinlan, D.M. (1976). Experiences of depression in normal young adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 383–389. ) were examined by univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Those evacuated at a young age, 4–6 years, or who received poor foster care, were found to be at a greater risk of depression and clinical anxiety, with high levels of self-criticism. Compared to other groups respondents evacuated at 13–15 years age, who received good care, had reduced incidences of both affective disorders, comparable to those who were not evacuated. The quality of home nurture was also found to be significantly associated with both disorders. Structural equation models for each sex based on those variables significantly associated with depression explained 45% of the variance of the incidence of depression for males and 25% for females. The models also confirmed the relatively high levels of dependency for females and their vulnerability to these levels in terms of depression. Conclusion: The study demonstrated significant associations between childhood experiences and lifespan mental health, reinforcing the importance of knowledge of childhood history in the clinical treatment of older adults.
Cross-layer Optimization for Next Generation Wi-Fi

From the initial 1997 specification to the undergoing IEEE 802.11ac standardization, a leap in throughput has been observed with every new generation. The expectations for next generations on issues like throughput, range, reliability, and power consumption are even higher. This is quite a challenge considering all the work already done. Cross-layer optimization of physical (PHY) and medium access control (MAC) layers can be an interesting exploration path for further enhancement. During this thesis we have studied cross-layer optimization techniques, with a focus on the IEEE 802.11ac standard. A new multichannel aggregation scheme involving cross-knowledge between PHY and MAC layers has been proposed to improve performance in collision-prone environments. We have shown that some functionalities directly involved PHY and MAC layers. An accurate modeling of both PHY and MAC mechanisms is thus needed to have a realistic characterization of such functionalities. A cross-layer simulator, compliant with IEEE 802.11ac specifications, has thus been implemented. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first simulator incorporating detailed PHY and MAC functionalities for the IEEE 802.11ac standard. The multiple-user multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technique, which is one of the main innovations of the IEEE 802.11ac, needs both PHY and MAC layer considerations. We have thus used the implemented cross-layer simulator to evaluate the performance of MU-MIMO and compared it with the single-user MIMO (SU-MIMO). The aim of these studies was to evaluate the 'real' gains of MU-MIMO solutions (accounting for PHY+MAC) over SU-MIMO solutions and not the generally accepted ones. The impact of the channel sounding interval has particularly been studied. Finally, we have proposed a short PHY layer version of acknowledgment frames for overhead reduction in IEEE 802.11ah communications.
Polymorphisms of the Beta Fibrinogen Gene and Plasma Fibrinogen Concentration in Caucasian and Japanese Population Samples

Summary We reported previously that plasma fibrinogen was significantly higher in U.S. Caucasians than in Japanese, which may contribute to the higher mortality rate of coronary heart disease in the United States than in Japan. To examine the contribution of genetic variations to the race difference in plasma fibrinogen levels, restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of the beta fibrinogen gene were examined in 293 nonsmoking Caucasians and Japanese men and women aged 47-69 years. Three RFLPs were detected by digestion of genomic DNA using the BclI restriction enzyme, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products using HaeIII and HindIII. The alleles B2 (4.2 kb, BclI digestion), H2 (957 b, HaeIII) and Hd2 (465 b, HindIII) were associated with higher fibrinogen concentrations in previous studies. Because of a strong linkage disequilibrium between HaeIII and HindIII polymorphisms, the data of HindIII was presented. The frequency of the B2 allele was 22% (95% Cl: 17-27%) for Caucasians and 13% (10-17%) for Japanese (the difference: p <0.01). The respective frequency of the Hd2 allele was 26% (21-31%) and 12% (8-16%) (p <0.001). After controlling for age, body mass index, alcohol intake, triglycerides, fish intake, and for women, menopausal status and hormone replacement therapy, the adjusted mean fibrinogen level among Caucasians was 289 mg/dl for genotype B1B1 and 301 mg/dl for genotype B1B2 or B2B2 combined (p = 0.18), and 285 mg/dl for Hd1Hd1 and 306 mg/dl for Hd1Hd2 or Hd2Hd2 combined (p = 0.03). The respective mean values among Japanese were 251 mg/dl for B1B1 and 257 mg/dl for B1B2 or B2B2 combined (p = 0.37), 248 mg/dl for Hd1Hd1 and 259 mg/dl for Hd1Hd2 or Hd2Hd2 combined (p = 0.16). These polymorphisms had a similar effect on plasma fibrinogen concentrations for both men and women. The results suggest that a genetic difference may partly explain the higher plasma fibrinogen in Caucasians than in Japanese.
SAPNSP: Select actionable positive and negative sequential patterns based on a contribution metric

Negative sequential patterns refer to sequences with non-occurring and occurring items, contrast to positive sequential patterns, its search space becomes very large. The number of these two kinds frequent sequence is also quite generous. However, not all of the discovered frequent patterns are useful to us, part of these sequences just occur frequently in database, but part of these sequences is actionable, because they conform to special rules rather than occur frequently. Here, we put forward a new method SAPNSP to select these actionable frequent positive and negative patterns. These selected sequential patterns are more conducive to our decision. Through real-world data and synthetic data to make experiments, we can see that the method is very effective to select these actionable patterns.
Global cost estimates of reducing carbon emissions through avoided deforestation

Tropical deforestation is estimated to cause about one-quarter of anthropogenic carbon emissions, loss of biodiversity, and other environmental services. United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change talks are now considering mechanisms for avoiding deforestation (AD), but the economic potential of AD has yet to be addressed. We use three economic models of global land use and management to analyze the potential contribution of AD activities to reduced greenhouse gas emissions. AD activities are found to be a competitive, low-cost abatement option. A program providing a 10% reduction in deforestation from 2005 to 2030 could provide 0.3–0.6 Gt (1 Gt = 1 × 105 g) CO2·yr−1 in emission reductions and would require $0.4 billion to $1.7 billion·yr−1 for 30 years. A 50% reduction in deforestation from 2005 to 2030 could provide 1.5–2.7 Gt CO2·yr−1 in emission reductions and would require $17.2 billion to $28.0 billion·yr−1. Finally, some caveats to the analysis that could increase costs of AD programs are described.
Continuous subcutaneous hydrocortisone infusion in Addison's disease.

OBJECTIVE The conventional replacement therapy in Addison's disease (AD) does not restore the normal diurnal cortisol rhythm. We explored the feasibility and safety of continuous s.c. hydrocortisone infusion (CSHI) as a novel mode of glucocorticoid replacement therapy. DESIGN AND METHODS Seven patients with AD were treated with CSHI in an open-labelled clinical study for up to three months. Adequacy of glucocorticoid replacement was assessed by 24 h blood and saliva sampling in one patient and by salivary cortisol day curves in six outpatients. Subjective health status was monitored by the Short Form-36 questionnaire. RESULTS CSHI re-established the circadian variation and normal levels of cortisol in the patients, with minor day-to-day variation. Most of the patients could reduce their glucocorticoid dose considerably without adverse reactions. The treatment was well tolerated and positively evaluated by the patients. CONCLUSIONS CSHI is technically feasible and safe in patients with AD. A daily dose of approximately 10 mg/m(2) body surface area/day restores the circadian variation and normal levels of salivary cortisol in most patients, which is close to the estimated daily requirement. We hypothesise that selected patients will benefit from restoration of the circadian cortisol rhythm.
Proteomic identification of carbonylated proteins in the kidney of trichloroethene-exposed MRL+/+ mice

Abstract Trichloroethene (TCE), a common environmental and occupational pollutant, is associated with multiorgan toxicity. Kidney is one of major target organs affected as a result of TCE exposure. Our previous studies have shown that exposure to TCE causes increased protein oxidation (protein carbonylation) in the kidneys of autoimmune-prone MRL+/+ mice, and suggested a potential role of protein oxidation in TCE-mediated nephrotoxicity. To assess the impact of chronic TCE exposure on protein oxidation, particularly to identify the carbonylated proteins in kidneys, female MRL+/+ mice were treated with TCE at the dose of 2 mg/ml via drinking water for 36 weeks and kidney protein extracts were analyzed for protein carbonyls and carbonylated proteins identified using proteomic approaches (2D gel, Western blot, MALDI TOF/TOF MS/MS, etc.). TCE treatment led to significantly increased protein carbonyls in the kidney protein extracts (20 000 g pellet fraction). Interestingly, among 18 identified carbonylated proteins, 10 were found only in the kidneys of TCE-treated mice, whereas other 8 were present in the kidneys of both control and TCE-treated mice. The identified carbonylated proteins represent skeletal proteins, chaperones, stress proteins, enzymes, plasma protein and proteins involved in signaling pathways. The findings provide a map for further exploring the role of carbonylated proteins in TCE-mediated nephrotoxicity.
Improved MIMO Throughput With Inverse Power Allocation—Study Using USRP Measurement in Reverberation Chamber

In this letter, we study the spatial multiplexing throughputs of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems with fixed modulation and coding scheme (i.e., fixed peak rate) based on measurement of the universal software radio peripheral (USRP) in a reverberation chamber. In particular, we propose a simple inverse power allocation scheme for the singular value decomposition (SVD)-based MIMO system. Using the proposed power allocation, the power saving (for achieving the same throughput), compared to the SVD-MIMO without power allocation, is about 2.5 dB. Good agreement is observed between the USRP measurement and the simulation.
Municipal waste incinerators: air and biological monitoring of workers for exposure to particles, metals, and organic compounds

Aims: To evaluate occupational exposure to toxic pollutants at municipal waste incinerators (MWIs). Methods: Twenty nine male subjects working near the furnaces in two MWIs, and 17 subjects not occupationally exposed to combustion generated pollutants were studied. Individual air samples were taken throughout the shift; urine samples were collected before and after. Stationary air samples were taken near potential sources of emission. Results: Occupational exposure did not result in the infringement of any occupational threshold limit value. Atmospheric exposure levels to particles and metals were 10–100 times higher in MWIs than at the control site. The main sources were cleaning operations for particles, and residue transfer and disposal operations for metals. MWI workers were not exposed to higher levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons than workers who are routinely in contact with vehicle exhaust. The air concentrations of volatile organic compounds and aldehydes were low and did not appear to pose any significant threat to human health. Only the measurement of chlorinated hydrocarbon levels would seem to be a reliable marker for the combustion of plastics. Urine metal levels were significantly higher at plant 1 than at plant 2 because of high levels of pollutants emanating from one old furnace. Conclusion: While biological monitoring is an easy way of acquiring data on long term personal exposure, air monitoring remains the only method that makes it possible to identify the primary sources of pollutant emission which need to be controlled if occupational exposure and environmental pollution are to be reduced.
IgE‐induced histamine release from rat basophilic leukemia cell lines: isolation of releasing and nonreleasing clones

The rat basophilic leukemia (RBL) cell lines were cloned and the various sublines compared for their chromosome number, IgE‐mediated histamine release and for IgE surface receptors. It was found that cell lines started from tumors at different times vary in both their chromosome number and their ability to release histamine by an IgE‐mediated reaction. RBL‐I and III have ∼ 44 chromosomes and did not respond to an IgE‐mediated reaction, whereas RBL‐II and RBL‐IV have 68–73 chromosomes and showed moderate levels of histamine release (percent release x̄ = 5 ± 2 and 10 ± 4, respectively). The cloning of the RBL‐IV line resulted in some sublines which were excellent histamine releasers (range 39–100%) and some which were relatively refractory (< 10%) to IgE‐mediated histamine release. These clones did not differ significantly in chromosome number. Recloning the releasing lines gave rise to poor releasers, whereas the recloning of poor releasers did not produce good releasers indicating that the mutational drift in culture is toward loss of histamine‐releasing capacity. The number of IgE receptors and the rate of IgE association and dissociation were similar for the different cell lines. The study failed to disclose significant molecular weight differences in the IgE receptor from the various clones and sublines indicating that the failure to release probably does not reside in the receptor. The various cloned sublines are phenotypically stable, and the isolation of excellent histamine‐releasing sublines are useful for studies of the complex phenomenon of histamine release.