Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Simultaneous measurement of serum tryptophan and kynurenine by HPLC.

l-Tryptophan is an essential amino acid that is required for the biosynthesis of proteins and is the precursor for several important biological compounds, e.g., 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin). In an alternative reaction series, the so-called kynurenine pathway, tryptophan is catabolized to form nicotine amides and the vitamin niacin (1) as end products. A cytokine-inducible indoleamine-(2,3)-dioxygenase (IDO) catalyzes the first step of tryptophan degradation (2)(3)(4)(5), forming the intermediate kynurenine. Interferon-γ has been shown to be a potent stimulating cytokine for IDO in vitro (6)(7). Similarly in vivo, a decrease of serum tryptophan and an increase of kynurenine in parallel was described (8)(9)(10)(11)(12), indicating an enhanced cytokine-induced degradation of tryptophan, when the cellular immune system is activated. In particular, the ratio of kynurenine to tryptophan seems to be a sensitive indicator for interferon-γ-induced tryptophan degradation and therefore for an activated immune system (10)(13). Thus, simultaneous measurements of kynurenine and tryptophan, allowing calculation of the ratio, enables indirect examination of endogenous interferon-γ formation. We describe a new HPLC method to determine the amounts of kynurenine and tryptophan in serum simultaneously with use of an external albumin-based calibrator and an internal calibrator. The human subjects involved within the scope of this method development correspond to the ethical standards of our institutions’ responsible committee. l-Tryptophan was obtained from Serva, l-kynurenine and 3-nitro-l-tyrosine were from Sigma, and potassium phosphates and acetonitrile for the HPLC elution buffer were from Merck. All chemicals used were of analytical grade. The HPLC pump was a Model 9010 (Varian) controlled by a DS …
Risk factors for Barrett's oesophagus: A population-based approach

Objective. Given its often subclinical course, Barrett's oesophagus (BO) hardly lends itself to epidemiologically stringent evaluations. The objective of this study was to investigate risk factors for incident BO diagnosed in a defined population in southeast Sweden while paying particular attention to epidemiological aspects of the study design. Material andmethods. Consecutive patients (aged 18–79 years) who were endoscoped with new indications at units exclusively responsible for all gastroscopies in defined catchment area populations were invited to take part in the study. Biopsies were taken above and immediately below the gastro-oesophageal junction, and exposure information was collected through self-administered questionnaires. Endoscopy-room-based cross-sectional data from 604 patients were supplemented with exposure data from 160 population controls. Associations, expressed as odds ratios (ORs), were modelled by means of multivariable logistic regression. Results. In the comparison with population controls, reflux symptoms and smoking indicated a 10.7- and 3.3-fold risk, respectively, for BO (95% confidence interval (CI) 3.5–33.4 and 1.1–9.9, respectively). Body mass was unrelated to risk. In the cross-sectional analysis among endoscopy-room patients, reflux symptoms were associated with an OR of 2.0 (95% CI 0.8–5.0). This association was, however, modified by the subjunctional presence of Helicobacter pylori; although the infection was not in itself significantly connected with risk, a combination of reflux symptoms and H. pylori infection was linked to an almost 5-fold risk (95% CI 1.4–16.5) as compared with the absence of both factors. The BO prevalence increased by 5% per year of age (95% CI 1–9%). Conclusions. Reflux is the predominant risk factor for BO, and proximal gastric colonization of H. pylori seems to amplify this risk.
Health and use of health services: a comparison between Gypsies and Travellers and other ethnic groups

Objectives. To examine the health status of adults from black and minority ethnic groups and from a socio-economically mixed White population, all resident in England. Design. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey using validated standardised health measures of a sample of Gypsies and Travellers, Pakistani Muslims, African Caribbean, and White adults living in five geographical locations. Health outcomes included general health, health in the past year, limiting long-term illness, anxiety, depression, respiratory symptoms and angina. Results. Of the 520 recruited age–sex matched sample (260 Gypsies and Travellers matched with 260 Pakistani Muslims, African Caribbean, and White residents), 516 were included in this analysis (173 men, 343 women). There were no differences by age between the four groups but men were approximately four years older than women. There were significant statistical differences in smoking status and educational attendance with more Gypsies and Travellers being current smokers (58% (95% confidence interval (CI) 52, 64) versus 25% (14, 38) or lower in the other groups) and having poorer regular educational attendance (61% (54, 68) versus 89% (77, 96) or higher in the other groups). For all health outcomes examined, Gypsies and Travellers had significantly poorer outcomes (after adjustment for age, sex and smoking status) compared with the White population. The health status of the Pakistani Muslims and African Caribbeans was similar to that of the Gypsies and Travellers for health in the past year, asthma, and depression, but other outcomes (cough, sputum) were significantly less prevalent. There were also significant differences in specific outcomes between African Caribbean and Pakistani Muslim populations. Consultations with various health professionals and use of health services varied between the groups. Conclusion. Being a Gypsy or Traveller is associated with even poorer health outcomes than those seen in two other ethnic minority groups resident in England, Pakistani Muslim and African Caribbean, and they in turn have poorer health outcomes than the White residents. More remains to be done to address the health and health service needs of such black and minority ethnic groups.
Untangling a Web of Lies: Exploring Automated Detection of Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication

Abstract Safeguarding organizations against opportunism and severe deception in computer-mediated communication (CMC) presents a major challenge to chief information officers and information technology managers. New insights into linguistic cues of deception derive from the speech acts innate to CMC. Applying automated text analysis to archival e-mail exchanges in a CMC system as part of a reward program, we assess the ability of word use (micro level), message development (macro level), and intertextual exchange cues (meta level) to detect severe deception by business partners. We empirically assess the predictive ability of our framework using an ordinal multilevel regression model. Results indicate that deceivers minimize the use of referencing and self-deprecation but include more superfluous descriptions and flattery. Deceitful channel partners also overstructure their arguments and rapidly mimic the linguistic style of the account manager across dyadic e-mail exchanges. Thanks to its diagnostic value, the proposed framework can support firms’ decision making and guide compliance monitoring system development.
The treatment of emotion vocabulary in FrameNet: Past, present and future developments

Both for psychology and linguistics, emotion concepts are a continuing challenge for analysis in several respects. In this contribution, we take up the language of emotion as an object of study from several angles. First, we consider how frame semantic analyses of this domain by the FrameNet project have been developing over time, due to theory-internal as well as application-oriented goals, towards ever more fine-grained distinctions and greater within-frame consistency. Second, we compare how FrameNet’s linguistically oriented analysis of lexical items in the emotion domain compares to the analysis by domain experts of the experiences that give rise (directly or indirectly) to the lexical items. And finally, we consider to what extent frame semantic analysis can capture phenomena such as connotation and inference about attitudes, which are important in the field of sentiment analysis and opinion mining, even if they do not involve the direct evocation of emotion.
Alginate hydrogel matrix stiffness influences the in vitro development of caprine preantral follicles

This study examined caprine follicular development in different concentrations of alginate matrix to determine the optimal conditions for culture. Caprine preantral follicles were cultured in a two‐dimensional system (control) or a three‐dimensional encapsulated system in 0.25%, 0.5%, or 1% alginate (ALG 0.25, ALG 0.5, and ALG 1, respectively). A higher percentage of morphologically normal follicles developed in ALG 0.5 and ALG 1 than in ALG 0.25 or the control (P < 0.05). The rate of antrum formation, however, was higher in ALG 0.25 than in ALG 0.5 and ALG 1 conditions (P < 0.05), but similar to the control. Follicles cultured in ALG 0.25 had higher growth rates and meiotic resumption than those cultured in ALG 0.5, ALG 1, or the control (P < 0.05). Moreover, follicles cultured in ALG 0.25 had higher levels of estradiol and progesterone than those cultured in ALG 0.5, ALG 1, or the control, as well as higher levels of CYP19A1 and HSD3B mRNA. In conclusion, a three‐dimensional system that uses ALG 0.25 fosters the in vitro development of caprine preantral follicles and increases the rate of meiotic resumption. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 81: 636–645, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Efficient attribute based sequential aggregate signature for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are broadly applied in real scenarios, such as remote environmental monitoring and target tracking. However, data can be easily compromised by the adversary. Although attribute based signature (ABS) scheme is an important cryptographic primitive which provides a powerful way for users to control their privacy. When the number of users involved in the system becomes huge, the computational and storage overhead will grow large so that existing ABS schemes are insufficient for WSNs. In order to reduce the communication and computational cost of ABS to make it more suitable for WSNs, we propose an efficient attribute based sequential aggregate signature (EABSAS) scheme which allows a set of sensor nodes to sign on different messages, combine and compress them into a short signature which can greatly decrease the storage space. Through extensive analysis, we demonstrate that our EABSAS scheme can achieve the existential unforgeability to keep the data integrity, and significantly reduces computation and communication overhead than existing competing approaches.
InAs/GaAs Quantum Dot Lasers on Silicon-on-Insulator Substrates by Metal-Stripe Wafer Bonding

InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) lasers on silicon-on-insulator substrates with Si rib structures are fabricated by metal-stripe wafer bonding, where the metal strips work not only as the bonding layer but also as electrodes. Our Fabry-Pérot lasers operate with a threshold current density of 520 A · cm-2 for the broad-area laser, and a threshold current of 110 mA for the ridge laser. The bonded lasers exhibit an InAs QD ground-state lasing at 1.3 μm at room temperature.
Efficient Memory Mapped File I/O for In-Memory File Systems

Recently, with the emergence of low-latency NVM storage, software overhead has become a greater bottleneck than storage latency, and memory mapped file I/O has gained attention as a means to avoid software overhead. However, according to our analysis, memory mapped file I/O incurs a significant amount of additional overhead. To utilize memory mapped file I/O to its true potential, such overhead should be alleviated. We propose map-ahead, mapping cache, and extended madvise techniques to maximize the performance of memory mapped file I/O on low-latency NVM storage systems. This solution can avoid both page fault overhead and page table entry construction overhead. Our experimental results show throughput improvements of 38-70% in microbenchmarks and performance improvements of 6-18% in real applications compared to existing memory mapped I/O mechanisms.
Can Exergaming Promote Physical Fitness and Physical Activity?: A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews

This systematic review of systematic reviews evaluates the effectiveness of exergaming on physical fitness and physical activity. A systematic literature search was conducted on 10 databases, and 1040 articles were identified. Sixty-eight articles were found potentially relevant and were selected for closer screening. Cross-referencing was conducted to find other potentially relevant articles. The quality of all relevant articles was evaluated using the AMSTAR tool. After all the duplicates were removed and inclusion, exclusion, and quality criteria were implemented, six articles remained for review. The results indicate that exergaming is generally enjoyed and can evoke some benefits for physical fitness and physical activity, but the current evidence does not support the ability of exergaming to increase physical fitness or physical activity levels sufficiently for significant health benefits. This systematic review also revealed several gaps in previous research. Additional high-quality research and systematic reviews concerning exergaming are needed.
Adaptive Expiration Time for Dynamic Beacon Scheduling in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks

In Vehicle Ad-hoc Networks, beacon is generated periodically to provide adequate awareness of the surrounding vehicles and environment. Generating periodic beacons at the same rates for all vehicles, typically high rates for safety applications, consume sizeable resources on communication channel. This is in turn presents a challenge to a reliable and successful delivery. This problem gains a lot of attention and researchers started to come up with many fundamentally different solutions to adjust beacons rate for better scalability. However, adjusting beacon rate without a good estimate of beacon data lifetime may impact the accuracy of the awareness of the surrounding vehicles. Particularly, for the applications and protocols that require knowledge about network topology. Accordingly, we propose a new mathematical formula, Adaptive Expiry Time (AET), to determine the lifetime of beacon data. It is independent of beacon scheduling interval and based on neighbour position, speed and orientation. It has been evaluated using proposed Dynamic Beacon Scheduling (DBS) that adjusts beacon interval according vehicle speed. Furthermore, it has been compared to different approaches of expiry time, such as Constant Expiry Time (CET), Variable Expiry Time (VET).
Consistency Analysis for Binary Classification Revisited

Statistical learning theory is at an inflection point enabled by recent advances in understanding and optimizing a wide range of metrics. Of particular interest are non-decomposable metrics such as the F-measure and the Jaccard measure which cannot be represented as a simple average over examples. Non-decomposability is the primary source of difficulty in theoretical analysis, and interestingly has led to two distinct settings and notions of consistency. In this manuscript we analyze both settings, from statistical and algorithmic points of view, to explore the connections and to highlight differences between them for a wide range of metrics. The analysis complements previous results on this topic, clarifies common confusions around both settings, and provides guidance to the theory and practice of binary classification with complex metrics.
Multiple testing in high‐throughput sequence data: experiences from Group 8 of Genetic Analysis Workshop 17

The use of high‐throughput sequence data in genetic epidemiology allows the investigation of common and rare variants in the entire genome, thus increasing the amount of information and the potential number of statistical tests performed within one study. As a consequence, the problem of multiple testing may become even more pressing than in previous studies. As an important challenge, the exact number of statistical tests depends on the actual statistical method used. Furthermore, many statistical approaches for the analysis of sequence data require permutation. Thus it may be difficult to also use permutation to estimate correct type I error levels as in genome‐wide association studies. In view of this, a separate group at Genetic Analysis Workshop 17 was formed with a focus on multiple testing. Here, we present the approaches used for the workshop. Apart from tackling the multiple testing problem, the new group focused on different issues. Some contributors developed and investigated modifications of existing collapsing methods. Others aimed at improving the identification of functional variants through a reduction and analysis of the underlying data dimensions. Two research groups investigated the overall accumulation of rare variation across the genome and its value in predicting phenotypes. Finally, other investigators left the path of traditional statistical analyses by reversing null and alternative hypotheses and by proposing a novel resampling method. We describe and discuss all these approaches. Genet. Epidemiol. 35:S61–S66, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The effect of physician gender on length of patient consultations: observational findings from the UK hospital setting and synthesis with existing studies

Objectives To investigate the effect of physician gender on consultation length in UK hospital outpatient clinics and compare this, through meta-analysis, with previous studies outside the UK. Design Observational data on clinic times were analysed and findings were combined in a meta-analysis with existing studies investigating the effect of physician gender on consultation length. Setting UK hospital practice. Participants A total of 174 observations of outpatient consultations with 10 hospital specialists (consultants) from different specialties in two UK hospital trusts. Main outcome measures Clinic times were recorded and analysis of consultation length was undertaken with physician gender as a covariate. Data were then synthesised through meta-analysis with 10 existing studies in this field. Results No statistically significant difference was found in the length of consultations for male and female doctors in these UK hospital settings. When pooled with existing studies, consultations with women doctors were found to be approximately two minutes longer than with men (p = 0.01). Conclusions Findings from this analysis of clinic consultations in the UK National Health Service do not support previous studies, which were undertaken predominantly in North America and primary care settings. Overall, meta-analysis suggests doctors’ gender may influence consultation length. Gender differences in communication should be considered in training clinicians and in overall clinical practice.
High-Gain Observers With Sliding Mode for State and Unknown Input Estimations

To handle the state estimation of a nonlinear system perturbed by a scalar disturbance distributed by a known nonlinear vector, a sliding-mode term is incorporated into the nonlinear high-gain observer (HGO) to realize a robust HGO. By imposing a structural assumption on the unknown input distribution vector, the observability of the disturbance with respect to the output is safeguarded, and the disturbance can be estimated from the sliding surface. Under a Lipschitz condition for the nonlinear part, the nonlinear observers are designed under the structural assumption that the system is observable with respect to any input. In the sliding mode, the disturbance under an equivalent control becomes an increment of Lipschitzian function, and the convergence of the estimation error dynamics can be proven similar to the analysis of HGOs. The proposed technique can be applied for fault detection and isolation. The simulation results for the bioreactor application demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
The occurrence of spoilage yeasts in cream-filled bakery products.

BACKGROUND Filling creams can provide an adequate substrate for spoilage yeasts because some yeasts can tolerate the high osmotic stress in these products. To discover the source of spoilage of a cream-filled baked product, end products, raw materials, indoor air and work surfaces were subjected to microbiological and molecular analyses. The efficacy of disinfectants against spoilage yeasts was also assessed. RESULTS The analyses on end products revealed the presence of the closest relatives to Zygosaccharomyces bailii with counts ranging from 1.40 to 4.72 log cfu g-1 . No spoilage yeasts were found in the indoor air and work surfaces. Polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis, carried out directly on filling creams collected from unopened cans, showed the presence of bands ascribed to the closest relatives to Z. bailii sensu lato, although with counts < 1 log cfu g-1 . Susceptibility testing of yeast isolates to disinfectants showed a significantly lower effect of 10% alkyl dimethyl benzyl ammonium chloride. Different responses of isolates to the tested disinfectants were seen. CONCLUSION To guarantee the quality of end products, reliable and sensitive methods must be used. Moreover, hygiene and the application of good manufacturing practices represent the most efficient way for the prevention and minimization of cross-contamination. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.
Antispasmodic effect of Dracocephalum kotschyi hydroalcoholic extract on rat ileum contraction

Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss. (Labiatae) is a traditional medicine which is believed to have antispasmodic and analgesic activities. The antispasmodic action of D. kotschyi essential oil has been shown in a previous report. The objective of this research was to study antispasmodic activity of hydroalcoholic extract of D. kotschyi on ileum contractions. Hydroalcoholic extract was obtained from aerial part of D. kotschyi using percolation method. For antispasmodic studies, a portion of rat ileum was suspended under 1g tension in Tyrode's solution at 37 °C and gassed with O2. Effect of the D. kotschyi extract was assessed on ileum contractions induced by KCl (80 mM), acetylcholine (ACh, 500 nM) and electrical field stimulation (EFS). The D. kotschyi extract concentration dependently inhibited the response to KCl (IC50 =36 ± 5.1 μg/ml), ACh (IC50 =101 ± 9.5 μg/ml), EFS-1 (IC50 =96 ± 7.1 μg/ml) and EFS-2 (IC50 =53 ± 4.3 μg/ml). From this experiment it was concluded that D. kotschyi extract possessed potent antispasmodic activity. Therefore, identification of the active component(s) is (are) recommended in order to find the best lead compound for drug development.
Knoellia locipacati sp. nov., from soil of the Demilitarized Zone in South Korea.

A gram-positive, aerobic, rod- or coccus-shaped, non-motile bacterium, designated DMZ1(T), was isolated from soil of the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea. Strain DMZ1(T) grew optimally at 30 °C, at pH 7-8 and with 1 % (w/v) NaCl. The isolate showed high 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Knoellia aerolata 5317S-21(T) (98.2 %). The cell-wall sugars were glucose and ribose. The peptidoglycan amino acids were meso-diaminopimelic acid, glutamic acid and glycine. The major cellular fatty acids were iso-C(16 : 0), iso-C(15 : 0) and iso-C(14 : 0). The polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol and five unknown phospholipids. The isolate did not contain mycolic acids. The DNA G+C content was 72.6 mol%. The isolate showed <28 % DNA-DNA relatedness with members of the genus Knoellia. Phylogenetic, phenotypic and genotypic analysis indicated that strain DMZ1(T) represents a novel species of the genus Knoellia, for which the name Knoellia locipacati sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is DMZ1(T) ( = KACC 15114(T) = JCM 17313(T)).