Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cystatin C and albuminuria as risk factors for development of CKD stage 3: the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).

BACKGROUND The growing burden and morbidity of chronic kidney disease (CKD) warrant effective strategies for identifying those at increased risk. We examined the association of cystatin C level and albuminuria with the development of CKD stage 3. STUDY DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS 5,422 participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m(2). PREDICTOR Participants were categorized into 4 mutually exclusive groups: the presence or absence of microalbuminuria (albumin-creatinine ratio >17 and >25 μg/mg in men and women, respectively) in those with or without cystatin C level ≥1.0 mg/L. OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS Incident CKD stage 3 was defined as eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) at the third or fourth visit and an annual decrease >1 mL/min/1.73 m(2). Poisson regression was used to evaluate incident rate ratios in unadjusted and adjusted analyses that include baseline eGFR. RESULTS Mean age was 61 years, 49% were men, 38% were white, 11% had diabetes, 13.7% had cystatin C level ≥1 mg/L, 8.4% had microalbuminuria, and 2.7% had cystatin C level ≥1 mg/L with microalbuminuria. 554 (10%) participants developed CKD stage 3 during a median follow-up of 4.7 years, and adjusted incidence rate ratios were 1.57 (95% CI, 1.19-2.07), 1.37 (95% CI, 1.13-1.66), and 2.12 (95% CI, 1.61-2.80) in those with microalbuminuria, cystatin C level ≥1 mg/L, and both, respectively, compared with those with neither. LIMITATIONS Relatively short follow-up and absence of measured GFR. CONCLUSIONS Cystatin C level and microalbuminuria are independent risk factors for incident CKD stage 3 and could be useful as screening tools to identify those at increased risk.
Cytokine expression profiles of bovine lymph nodes: effects of Mycobacterium bovis infection and bacille Calmette–Guérin vaccination

Cytokine expression in lymph nodes from cattle inoculated intranasally with Mycobacterium bovis was compared to that of non‐infected animals using real‐time polymerase chain reaction. The effect of M. bovis infection, 4 months post‐challenge, was to suppress the expression of anti‐inflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)‐4 and IL‐10 as well as the pro‐inflammatory cytokines tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and IL‐6. Expression of interferon (IFN)‐γ and IL‐12 was maintained. Animals vaccinated with bacille Calmette–Guérin responded differently to challenge with M. bovis. In particular, no decrease in expression of IL‐4 or IL‐6 was observed following challenge of vaccinated animals and decreased IFN‐γ was detected. Also, vaccinated animals had higher levels of IL‐4 and IL‐10 transcripts compared to unvaccinated animals following challenge. These changes in cytokine expression levels led to a significant shift in the IFN‐γ/IL‐4 or IFN‐γ/IL‐10 ratio within the lymph node following challenge. Challenged animals generally showed a strong Th1 bias that was not seen in animals vaccinated prior to challenge. An inverse correlation between the level of pathology and bacterial load within the lymph node and the expression of IL‐4, IL‐10 and TNF was also observed. These results suggest that in the lymph nodes of cattle with established tuberculosis and a persisting bacterial infection, maintenance of the pro‐inflammatory response in combination with a suppressed anti‐inflammatory response may control the infection but contribute to host‐induced tissue damage. Vaccination, which reduces the bacterial load and consequently the IFN‐γ response, may result in less suppression of anti‐inflammatory cytokines.
Lactose and melibiose metabolism in Erwinia chrysanthemi

A Lac+ mutant of Erwinia chrysanthemi was isolated from the Lac- wild type on lactose agar. beta-Galactosidase was expressed independently of lactose transport in both the mutant and the wild type, and neither strain expressed thiogalactoside transacetylase. Lactose transport and alpha-galactosidase, constitutive in the Lac+ strain, were coordinately induced in the Lac- strain by melibiose and raffinose but not by isopropyl-beta-D-thiogalactopyranoside or thiomethyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside. Melibiose was a strong inhibitor of both the melibiose- and the raffinose-induced lactose permeases, whereas raffinose was a strong inhibitor of only the raffinose-induced lactose permease.
Enzootic and epizootic dynamics of the chytrid fungal pathogen of amphibians

Chytridiomycosis, the disease caused by the chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has contributed to amphibian population declines and extinctions worldwide. The impact of this pathogen, however, varies markedly among amphibian species and populations. Following invasion into some areas of California's Sierra Nevada, Bd leads to rapid declines and local extinctions of frog populations (Rana muscosa, R. sierrae). In other areas, infected populations of the same frog species have declined but persisted at low host densities for many years. We present results of a 5-year study showing that infected adult frogs in persistent populations have low fungal loads, are surviving between years, and frequently lose and regain the infection. Here we put forward the hypothesis that fungal load dynamics can explain the different population-level outcomes of Bd observed in different areas of the Sierra Nevada and possibly throughout the world. We develop a model that incorporates the biological details of the Bd-host interaction. Importantly, model results suggest that host persistence versus extinction does not require differences in host susceptibility, pathogen virulence, or environmental conditions, and may be just epidemic and endemic population dynamics of the same host–pathogen system. The different disease outcomes seen in natural populations may result solely from density-dependent host–pathogen dynamics. The model also shows that persistence of Bd is enhanced by the long-lived tadpole stage that characterize these two frog species, and by nonhost Bd reservoirs.
Directed induction of anterior and posterior primitive streak by Wnt from embryonic stem cells cultured in a chemically defined serum‐free medium

Formation of the primitive streak (PS) is the initial specification step that generates all the mesodermal and endodermal tissue lineages during early differentiation. Thus, a therapeutically compatible and efficient method for differentiation of the PS is crucial for regenerative medicine. In this study, we developed chemically defined serum‐free culture conditions for the differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells into the PS‐like cells. Cultures supplemented with Wnt showed induction of expression of a PS marker, the brachyury gene, followed by induction of the anterior PS markers goosecoid and foxa2, a posterior PS marker, evxl, and the endoderm marker sox17. Similar differentiation of PS by Wnt was also observed in human ES cells. Moreover, we revealed that the activation of the Wnt canonical pathway is essential for PS differentiation in mouse ES cells. These results dem‐onstrated that Wnt is an essential and sufficient factor for the induction of the PS‐like cells in vitro. These conditions of induction could constitute the initial step in generating therapeutically useful cells of the definitive endoderm lineage, such as hepatocytes and pancreatic endocrine cells, under chemically defined conditions. — Nakanishi, M. , Kurisaki, A. , Hayashi, Y. , Warashina, M. , Ishiura, S. , Kusuda‐Furue, M. , Asashima, M. Directed induction of anterior and posterior primitive streak by Wnt from embryonic stem cells cultured in a chemically defined serum‐free medium. FASEB J. 23, 114‐122 (2009)
Nocturnal nasal obstruction is frequent and reduces sleep quality in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

The prevalence and consequences of nasal obstruction in untreated obstructive sleep apnea patients are not known. The study objectives were to investigate the frequency of subjective and objective nasal obstruction in untreated sleep apnea patients and the associations with sleep and quality of life. Patients in the Icelandic Sleep Apnea Cohort were subjected to a type 3 sleep study, answered questionnaires and had their nasal dimensions measured by acoustic rhinometry. In total, 810 patients participated (including 153 females), aged 54.5 ± 10.6 years [mean ± standard deviation (SD)] with an apnea/hypopnea index 44.7 ± 20.7 h−1. Nocturnal nasal obstruction (greater than or equal to three times per week) was reported by 35% of the patients. These patients had smaller nasal dimensions measured by the minimum cross‐sectional area within the smaller nasal valve (0.42 ± 0.17 versus 0.45 ± 0.16 cm2, P = 0.013), reported more daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale score 12.5 ± 4.9 versus 10.8 ± 5.0; P < 0.001) and slightly lower mental quality of life than patients without nocturnal nasal obstruction. Nocturnal nasal obstruction is reported in one‐third of the sleep apnea patients and they are more likely to suffer from daytime sleepiness and slightly reduced quality of life than other sleep apnea patients.
Managing Contingencies in Smart Grids via the Internet of Things

This paper proposes a framework for contingency management using smart loads, which are realized through the emerging paradigm of the Internet of things. The framework involves the system operator, the load serving entities (LSEs), and the end-users with smart home management systems that automatically control adjustable loads. The system operator uses an efficient linear equation solver to quickly calculate the load curtailment needed at each bus to relieve congested lines after a contingency. Given this curtailment request, an LSE calculates a power allowance for each of its end-use customers to maximize the aggregate user utility. This large-scale NP-hard problem is approximated to a convex optimization for efficient computation. A smart home management system determines the appliances allowed to be used in order to maximize the user’s utility within the power allowance given by the LSE. Since the user’s utility depends on the near-future usage of the appliances, the framework provides the Welch-based reactive appliance prediction (WRAP) algorithm to predict the user behavior and maximize utility. The proposed framework is validated using the New England 39-bus test system. The results show that power system components at risk can be quickly alleviated by adjusting a large number of small smart loads. Additionally, WRAP accurately predicts the users’ future behavior, minimizing the impact on the aggregate users’ utility.
Differential Effects of CD18, CD29, and CD49 Integrin Subunit Inhibition on Neutrophil Migration in Pulmonary Inflammation1

Neutrophil migration to lung alveoli is a characteristic of lung diseases and is thought to occur primarily via capillaries rather than postcapillary venules. The role of adhesion molecules CD18 and CD29 on this migration in a mouse model of lung inflammation has been investigated. The number of neutrophils present in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid was determined 4 h after intratracheal instillation of LPS (0.1–1 μg) or murine recombinant KC (CXC chemokine, 0.03–0.3 μg). Both stimuli produced a dose-related increase in neutrophil accumulation. Intravenous anti-mouse CD18 mAb, 2E6 (0.5 mg/mouse), significantly (p < 0.001) attenuated LPS (0.3 μg)- but not KC (0.3 μg)-induced neutrophil accumulation. The anti-mouse CD29 mAb, HMβ1-1 (0.02 mg/mouse), significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited both LPS (0.3 μg)- and KC (0.3 μg)-induced neutrophil migration. A second mAb to CD18 (GAME-46) and both F(ab′)2 and Fab of HMβ1-1 produced similar results to those above, while coadministration of mAbs did not result in greater inhibition. Electron microscopy studies showed that CD29 was involved in the movement of neutrophils from the interstitium into alveoli. The effect of mAbs to CD49 (α integrin) subunits of CD29 was also examined. mAbs to CD49e and CD49f inhibited both responses, while anti-CD49b and CD49d significantly inhibited responses to KC only. These data suggest that CD29 plays a critical role in neutrophil migration in pulmonary inflammation and that CD49b and CD49d mediate CD18-independent neutrophil accumulation.
The Impact of Commuting Time on Youth's School Performance

Using Brazilian data, we estimate the impact of commuting duration on students' performance using distance to closest schools as an instrumental variable. In addition, we also use identification through heteroskedasticity, which does not rely on exclusion restrictions, and estimate bounds for the treatment effect in case there is remaining bias from unobservables. We find strong and consistent evidence that duration of commuting has a negative causal effect on academic achievement. Moreover, the relatively small heterogeneity across quantiles of test score makes us believe that public transportation policies targeted at students can promote education not only for those less well-off.
Stationary wavelet transform and principal component analysis application on capacitive electrocardiography

The gradual aging and the prevalence of cardiac pathologies in society has motivated an increase in research of homecare technologies. Capacitive sensing of the electrocardiogram (ECG) allows unobtrusively monitoring of the most well-known physiological signal. However, this measurement process is relentlessly superimposed with interferences and noise, namely movement artifacts which nearly erase the signal. This work presents a system implementing a new data processing technique, based on stationary wavelet transform together with principal component analysis. This approach is successful, as it is able to characterize motion artifacts, and to improve the quality of the ECG acquired without the subject's knowledge.
Hypersensitivity to low intensity fearful faces in autism when fixation is constrained to the eyes

Previous studies that showed decreased brain activation in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) viewing expressive faces did not control that participants looked in the eyes. This is problematic because ASD is characterized by abnormal attention to the eyes. Here, we collected fMRI data from 48 participants (27 ASD) viewing pictures of neutral faces and faces expressing anger, happiness, and fear at low and high intensity, with a fixation cross between the eyes. Group differences in whole brain activity were examined for expressive faces at high and low intensity versus neutral faces. Group differences in neural activity were also investigated in regions of interest within the social brain, including the amygdala and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC). In response to low intensity fearful faces, ASD participants showed increased activation in the social brain regions, and decreased functional coupling between the amygdala and the vmPFC. This oversensitivity to low intensity fear coupled with a lack of emotional regulation capacity could indicate an excitatory/inhibitory imbalance in their socio‐affective processing system. This may result in social disengagement and avoidance of eye‐contact to handle feelings of strong emotional reaction. Our results also demonstrate the importance of careful control of gaze when investigating emotional processing in ASD. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5943–5957, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Discrete Multitone Modulation for Maximizing Transmission Rate in Step-Index Plastic Optical Fibers

The use of standard 1-mm core-diameter step-index plastic optical fiber (SI-POF) has so far been mainly limited to distances of up to 100 m and bit-rates in the order of 100 Mbit/s. By use of digital signal processing, transmission performance of such optical links can be improved. Among the different technical solutions proposed, a promising one is based on the use of discrete multitone (DMT) modulation, directly applied to intensity-modulated, direct detection (IM/DD) SI-POF links. This paper presents an overview of DMT over SI-POF and demonstrates how DMT can be used to improve transmission rate in such IM/DD systems. The achievable capacity of an SI-POF channel is first analyzed theoretically and then validated by experimental results. Additionally, first experimental demonstrations of a real-time DMT over SI-POF system are presented and discussed.
Analysis of exopolysaccharide production by Lactobacillus casei CG11, isolated from cheese

Exopolysaccharide-producing Lactobacillus casei CG11 was isolated from soft, white, homemade cheese. In basal minimal medium, it produces a neutral heteropolysaccharide consisting predominantly of glucose (about 75%) and rhamnose (about 15%). Plasmid curing experiments revealed that exopolysaccharide production by strain CG11 is linked to a plasmid approximately 30 kb in size.
The cardiovascular health informatics system using LabVIEW

The cardiovascular health informatics system is developed using Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW). The system work starts with the acquisition of ECG from the patient or ECG simulator, using ECG amplifier circuit. The signal from amplifier circuit is acquired in LabVIEW environment by using DAQ cards. The advantage of LabVIEW is that it has special toolkits, pallets and modules which can be used for ECG acquisition, processing, detection of related diseases. The system will be used to CVDs detection, prediction, diagnosis and treatment. Finally, IoT technology has been implemented in this work to make the system more advanced and effective in the field of telemedicine. This will help in telediagnosis and monitoring of ECG signals.
Suggestions for improving the study of health program implementation.

More will be learned about health programs and the implementation of health policy in this country if we pay more attention to issues of program implementation. Of particular use would be more studies which explicitly link program implementation with program outcomes and which recognize the need to combine quantitative and qualitative analysis of program implementation; the use of triangulated methods in focusing on the relationship between program implementation and program outcomes; the incorporation and study of planned variation in the methods of implementing programs; recognition that the process is essentially one of organizational change and innovation, and the incorporation of existing theory and evidence relevant to these issues; and recognition that the ongoing nature of the implementation process requires longitudinal study designs for implementation as well as for outcome assessment. Cronbach [9] has remarked that evaluation research "lights a candle in the darkness, but it never brings dazzling clarity. " It may be that more attention to program implementation and better research on the process, such as that suggested in this note, will provide a little more light and will bring if not dazzling , at least modest, improvements in clarity.
Assessment's Place in the New MOOC World.

Cathy Sandeen is Vice President for Education Attainment and Innovation at American Council on Education, the nation’s largest organization providing leadership and advocacy for all sectors of higher education. Within this role she develops and articulates ACE’s attainment agenda and currently oversees a large research project on Massive Open Online Courses. Until January 2013, she served as dean of Continuing Education and UCLA Extension at the University of California, Los Angeles. This essay provides a brief primer on the evolution of MOOCs, an overview of major forces and trends shaping this evolution, and the role of assessment within the MOOC context. AUTHOR Cathy Sandeen, Ph.D. American Council on Education
From Analytics-as-a-Service to Analytics-as-a-Consumer-Service: Exploring a New Direction in Business Intelligence and Analytics Research

Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI&A) applications have been investigated predominantly within organizational contexts, with users in formal, normatively regulated roles. This research explores what happens when BI&A is taken out of organizational context and made available to consumers, rather than organizational (e.g. Business) users. The paper offers an exploratory case study of such an environment called My School, providing highly sensitive data and business analytics tools to a wide range of consumers for more than four years. The paper identifies different types of information users in this environment and explores various (intended and unintended) consequences of their combined data-informed decisions and actions. Based on our research insights, we propose a new direction in BI&A research, extending and combining previous research in BI&A, Analytics-as-a-Service and Consumer Information Systems.
Human influence network for understanding leadership behavior

We determined the results of the questionnaire for 97 staff members working in dot-jp, a non-profit organization in Japan, to understand the degrees of satisfaction of staff members with leaders. We then extracted human influence networks from the archives of e-mail used at dot-jp to understand relationships among leaders and other staff members. By integrating these two approaches, we revealed ideal leadership behavior. We discovered that leaders should receive messages from staff members as well as send messages to construct reliable relationships. Otherwise, leaders become smug and lose trusts from other staff members.
Synthetic neomycin‐kanamycin phosphotransferase, type II coding sequence for gene targeting in mammalian cells

The bacterial neomycin‐kanamycin phosphotransferase, type II enzyme is encoded by the neo gene and confers resistance to aminoglycoside drugs such as neomycin and kanamycin—bacterial selection and G418—eukaryotic cell selection. Although widely used in gene targeting in mouse embryonic stem cells, the neo coding sequence contains numerous cryptic splice sites and has a high CpG content. At least the former can cause unwanted effects in cis at the targeted locus. We describe a synthetic sequence, sneo, which encodes the same protein as that encoded by neo. This synthetic sequence has no predicted splice sites in either strand, low CpG content, and increased mammalian codon usage. In mouse embryonic stem cells sneo expressability is similar to neo. The use of sneo in gene targeting experiments should substantially reduce the probability of unwanted effects in cis due to splicing, and perhaps CpG methylation, within the coding sequence of the selectable marker. genesis 42:207–209, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
TOTEM: Personal Tweets Summarization on Mobile Devices

Tweets summarization aims to find a group of representative tweets for a specific topic. In recent times, there have been several research efforts toward devising a variety of techniques to summarize tweets in Twitter. However, these techniques are either not personal (i.e., consider only tweets in the timeline of a specific user) or are too expensive to be realized on a mobile device. Given that 80% of active Twitter users access the site on mobile devices, in this demonstration we present a lightweight, personalized, on-demand, topic modeling-based tweets summarization engine called TOTEM, designed for such devices. Specifically, TOTEM summarizes most recent tweets on a user's timeline and enables her to visualize and navigate representative topics and associated tweets in a user-friendly tap-and-swipe manner.