Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relationship between knowledge, health literacy, and adherence among patients taking oral anticoagulants for stroke thromboprophylaxis in atrial fibrillation

BACKGROUND Patients' knowledge regarding their oral anticoagulant (OAC) treatment for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF), their level of medication adherence, and health literacy are known to affect treatment outcomes. However, contemporary data regarding the relationships between these variables are lacking. OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationships between anticoagulant knowledge, health literacy, and self-reported adherence in patients taking warfarin and the directly acting oral anticoagulants. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 48 patients with AF identified from general practices. The Anticoagulation Knowledge Tool (AKT) was used to assess anticoagulation knowledge; the Short Test of Functional Health Literacy in Adults (s-TOFHLA) for health literacy; and the 8-item Morisky Medication Adherence Scale (MMAS) for medication adherence. RESULTS Participants had mean scores of 61.6 ± 15.8, 7.2 ± 1.1, and 24.7 ± 9.5 for the AKT, MMAS-8 and s-TOFHLA, respectively. Significant correlations were observed between anticoagulation knowledge and health literacy with medication adherence (0.37, P < .01 and .30, P < .05, respectively). Participants with inadequate health literacy had a significantly lower mean knowledge score than those with adequate health literacy (55.8 ± 15.9 vs 66.1 ± 14.4, P < .05). Participants who self-reported adherence to their OAC had significantly higher knowledge scores than those who did not (67.5 ± 13.3 vs 56.1 ± 16.2, P < .05). CONCLUSION Significant correlations between health literacy, OAC knowledge, and adherence were observed, and these relationships should to be considered by health professionals responsible for monitoring patients who are prescribed anticoagulants. We also observed serious gaps in OAC knowledge. Interventions designed to optimize the outcomes of anticoagulant treatment need to address these factors.
Undersowing wheat with different living mulches in a no-till system. II. Competition for light and nitrogen

No-till wheat management systems with a living mulch is a possible means to improve agricultural sustainability. Nonetheless living mulches may affect wheat production by competition for light and nutrients. Therefore, here we studied competition for light and nitrogen between wheat and different living mulches under no-till. We grew wheat using three different practices: (1) conventionally-tilled wheat, (2) no-till wheat and (3) wheat undersown with various living mulches. Living mulches were: red fescue, sheep’s fescue, alfalfa, bird’s-foot-trefoil, black medic, and white clover. We measured: leaf area index and height of wheat and living mulch, and radiation partitioning between species; above-ground biomass of wheat and living mulch; nitrogen uptake of wheat and living mulch; and wheat nitrogen status using a nitrogen nutrition index. Our results showed that at flowering, competition for light between mixed species occurred in sixteen out of the eighteen situations, i.e. in three experiments times six no-till/living mulch treatments. Further, the biomass of wheat grown with living mulches was 24–84% lower than no-till wheat alone. At flowering, competition for nitrogen only occurred in seven out of the eighteen situations. Our findings showed that competition for light was due to light partitioning between mixed species. Furthermore, we found that the light competitive ability of wheat undersown with a living mulch was the highest when wheat was much taller than living mulch, and also when wheat leaf area in the mixed canopy layer was greater than that of living mulch. We conclude that the negative effects of living mulches on wheat yield should be solved by a careful choice of living mulch species and the control of living mulches by mechanical or chemical means.
MgcRacGAP Is Involved in Cytokinesis through Associating with Mitotic Spindle and Midbody*

We have recently cloned a cDNA for a full-length form of MgcRacGAP. Here we show using anti-MgcRacGAP antibodies that, unlike other known GAPs for Rho family, MgcRacGAP localized to the nucleus in interphase, accumulated to the mitotic spindle in metaphase, and was condensed in the midbody during cytokinesis. Overexpression of an N-terminal deletion mutant resulted in the production of multinucleated cells in HeLa cells. This mutant lost the ability to localize in the mitotic spindle and midbody. MgcRacGAP was also found to bind α-, β-, and γ-tubulins through its N-terminal myosin-like domain. These results indicate that MgcRacGAP dynamically moves during cell cycle progression probably through binding to tubulins and plays critical roles in cytokinesis. Furthermore, using a GAP-inactive mutant, we have shown that the GAP activity of MgcRacGAP is required for cytokinesis, suggesting that inactivation of the Rho family of GTPases may be required for normal progression of cytokinesis.
Estrogen-induced Smooth Muscle Cell Growth Is Regulated by Tuberin and Associated with Altered Activation of Platelet-derived Growth Factor Receptor-β and ERK-1/2*

The mechanisms that regulate the diverse responses to estrogen (E2) are unknown. Loss of function of the tuberous sclerosis 2 gene (TSC2), a tumor suppressor gene, has been associated with a growth-promoting effect of E2. We hypothesized that tuberin, the protein product of TSC2, binds to estrogen receptors (ER) and regulates the growth effect of E2. An in vivo association between full-length tuberin and ERα was observed in HEK 293 cells and ELT-3 smooth muscle cells. In contrast, poor association was observed between tuberin and ERβ. Complex formation with ERα and the C-terminal end of tuberin was also observed in vivo and in vitro, indicating that binding between ERα and tuberin occurs at the C-terminal end of the tuberin molecule. We examined the effect of tuberin expression in ELT-3 smooth muscle cells on the growth response to E2. The growth-promoting effect of E2 in tuberin-null ELT-3 smooth muscle cells was ERα-specific, associated with up-regulation and activation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFRβ) and activation of the signaling intermediate, extracellular signal-regulated kinase-1/-2 (ERK-1/2). In contrast, the expression of tuberin in ELT-3 smooth muscle cells resulted in significant abrogation of E2-stimulated growth. In parallel with this observation, the expression of tuberin in ELT-3 cells also resulted in significant inhibition of PDGFRβ and ERK-1/2 activation in response to E2. These results demonstrate that tuberin binds specifically to ERα and inhibits E2-induced proliferation of ELT-3 cells. Furthermore, the opposing effects of tuberin on estrogen-induced activation of PDGFRβ and ERK-1/-2 suggest a pivotal role for tuberin in directing the signaling events that dictate the growth response to E2.
A taxonomy for selecting global supply chain strategies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the increasingly important question of supply chain design for global operations. With the rise of off-shore sourcing and the simultaneous need for improved responsiveness to customer demand, the choice of supply chain strategy is critical. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws its conclusions from case-based research supported by survey data. Findings – The paper provides evidence that the choice of supply chain strategy should be based upon a careful analysis of the demand/supply characteristics of the various product/markets served by a company. It presents the basis for a taxonomy of appropriate supply chain strategies. Research limitations/implications – The case studies and empirical research reported in this paper are specific to the clothing manufacturing and fashion industries and there would be benefit in extending the research into other sectors. Practical implications – Given the increasing trend to out-sourcing and off-shore sourcing, the choice of supply chain strategy is of some significance and clearly impacts competitive performance. Originality/value – Whilst there is a growing recognition of the need to match the supply chain to the market, there is still limited research into what criteria should be utilised to aid the choice of supply chain strategy. This paper attempts to extend our understanding of the issues.
Simultaneous Detection of Salmonella Strains and Escherichia coli O157:H7 with Fluorogenic PCR and Single-Enrichment-Broth Culture

ABSTRACT A multiplex fluorogenic PCR assay for simultaneous detection of pathogenic Salmonella strains and Escherichia coli O157:H7 was developed and evaluated for use in detecting very low levels of these pathogens in meat and feces. Two sets of primers were used to amplify a junctional segment of virulence genessipB and sipC of Salmonella and an intragenic segment of gene eae of E. coliO157:H7. Fluorogenic reporter probes were included in the PCR assay for automated and specific detection of amplified products. The assay could detect <10 CFU of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium or E. coli O157:H7 per g of meat or feces artificially inoculated with these pathogens and cultured for 6 to 18 h in a single enrichment broth. Detection of amplification products could be completed in ≤4 h after enrichment.
Biomedical Image Processing for Human Elbow

Biomedical image processing is an emerging field for analyzing medical images to develop models for clinical analysis and medical intervention. Recently with the development in biomechanics, the models developed can be used for mechanical stress and vibrational analysis of human body parts. In this work, computer aided design (CAD) models are developed for a patient specific human elbow using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data using open source software ITK-snap. The 3-D CAD model is developed using segmentation of MRI data using manual method and automatic methods. Different algorithms and parameter variation have been implemented for development of the human elbow model.
A Third of the Internet is Under Attack : a Macroscopic Characterization of the DoS Ecosystem

Denial-of-Service attacks have rapidly increased in terms of frequency and intensity, steadily becoming one of the biggest threats to Internet stability and reliability. However, a rigorous comprehensive characterization of this phenomenon, and of countermeasures to mitigate the associated risks, faces many infrastructure and analytic challenges. We make progress toward this goal, by introducing and applying a new framework to enable a macroscopic characterization of attacks, attack targets, and DDoS Protection Services (DPSs). Our analysis leverages data from four independent global Internet measurement infrastructures over the last two years: backscatter traffic to a large network telescope; logs from amplification honeypots; a DNS measurement platform covering 60% of the current namespace; and a DNS-based data set focusing on DPS adoption. Our results reveal the massive scale of the DoS problem, including an eye-opening statistic that one-third of all /24 networks recently estimated to be active on the Internet have suffered at least one DoS attack over the last two years. We also discovered that often targets are simultaneously hit by different types of attacks. In our data, Web servers were the most prominent attack target; an average of 3% of the Web sites in . com, . net, and . org were involved with attacks, daily. Finally, we shed light on factors influencing migration to a DPS.
Relationship between Visual and Motor Imagery

The relationship between visual and motor imagery was investigated by administering a battery of visual and motor imagery measures to a sample of 101 men (n = 49) and women (n = 52), who ranged in age from 18 to 59 (M=34.5, SD=12.6). A principal components analysis applied to the correlation matrix indicated four underlying components, which explained 62.9% of the variance. The components were named Implicit Visual Imagery Ability, Self-report of Visual and Motor Imagery, Implicit Motor Imagery Ability, and Explicit Motor Imagery Ability. These results suggested a dissociation between visual and motor imagery although visual and motor imagery were associated as self-reports and there were correlations among particular measures.
Tag SNPs chosen from HapMap perform well in several population isolates

Population isolates may be particularly useful for association studies of complex traits. This utility, however, largely depends on the transferability of tag SNPs chosen from reference samples, such as HapMap, to samples from such populations. Factors that characterize population isolates, such as widespread genetic drift, could impede such transferability. In this report, we show that tag SNPs chosen from HapMap perform well in several population isolates; this is true even for populations that differ substantially from the HapMap sample either in levels of linkage disequilibrium or in SNP allele frequency distributions. Genet. Epidemiol. 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
CS 224 W : Social and Information Network Analysis Project Proposal

In this project, we plan to explore the property of self-similarity exhibited by real world networks, and the use of Kronecker graphs to model and analyze such networks. It has been observed that self-similarity is an emergent property of many real world networks such as WWW, e-mail and biological networks. These networks show properties such as heavy tails for the inand out-degree distribution, heavy tails for the eigenvalues and eigenvectors, small diameters, and densification and shrinking diameters over time. Recently, Kronecker Graphs have been shown to elegantly model these networks, while being mathematically tractable [5]. We would like to show that this property also holds for a social network like Twitter.
Tricomponent Immunopotentiating System as a Novel Molecular Design Strategy for Malaria Vaccine Development

ABSTRACT The creation of subunit vaccines to prevent malaria infection has been hampered by the intrinsically weak immunogenicity of the recombinant antigens. We have developed a novel strategy to increase immune responses by creating genetic fusion proteins to target specific antigen-presenting cells (APCs). The fusion complex was composed of three physically linked molecular entities: (i) a vaccine antigen, (ii) a multimeric α-helical coiled-coil core, and (iii) an APC-targeting ligand linked to the core via a flexible linker. The vaccine efficacy of the tricomponent complex was evaluated using an ookinete surface protein of Plasmodium vivax, Pvs25, and merozoite surface protein-1 of Plasmodium yoelii. Immunization of mice with the tricomponent complex induced a robust antibody response and conferred substantial levels of P. vivax transmission blockade as evaluated by a membrane feed assay, as well as protection from lethal P. yoelii infection. The observed effect was strongly dependent on the presence of all three components physically integrated as a fusion complex. This system, designated the tricomponent immunopotentiating system (TIPS), onto which any recombinant protein antigens or nonproteinaceous substances could be loaded, may be a promising strategy for devising subunit vaccines or adjuvants against various infectious diseases, including malaria.
Nitrogen fixation (acetylene reduction) in stony corals: evidence for coral-bacteria interactions

Nitrogen fixation, as measured by acetylene reduct~on, has been detected to be associated with various hermatypic corals. Experiments were carried out on the massive coral Favia f a v u s both in situ and in the laboratory. Nitrogen fixation activity was found to be light dependent and fully inhibited by 5 X 10-6 M DCMU [3-(3,4-dichloropheny1)-1,l-dimethylurea Addition of glucose restored nitrogen fixation activity both in the dark and in the presence of DCMU. Removal of the coral tissue prevented acetylene reduction, while addition of glucose to the coral skeleton restored this activity. Bacteria isolated from the coral skeleton were found by dot blotting to contain the nif H gene. These results suggest that nitrogen-fixing bacteria found in the skeleton of corals benefit from organic carbon excreted by the coral tissue. The interaction between the nitrogen-fixing organisms and the coral may be of major lrnportance for the nitrogen budget of the corals.
Role of air distribution in SARS transmission during the largest nosocomial outbreak in Hong Kong.

UNLABELLED Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is primarily transmitted by bio-aerosol droplets or direct personal contacts. This paper presents a detailed study of environmental evidence of possible airborne transmission in a hospital ward during the largest nosocomial SARS outbreak in Hong Kong in March 2003. Retrospective on-site inspections and measurements of the ventilation design and air distribution system were carried out on July 17, 2003. Limited on-site measurements of bio-aerosol dispersion were also carried out on July 22. Computational fluid dynamics simulations were performed to analyze the bio-aerosol dispersion in the hospital ward. We attempted to predict the air distribution during the time of measurement in July 2003 and the time of exposure in March 2003. The predicted bio-aerosol concentration distribution in the ward seemed to agree fairly well with the spatial infection pattern of SARS cases. Possible improvement to air distribution in the hospital ward was also considered. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS Our study revealed the need for the development of improved ventilation and air-conditioning systems in an isolation ward or a general hospital ward for infectious respiratory diseases. The outbreak in Ward 8A, which was in a general hospital and could house nearly 40 patients, demonstrated the cross-infection risks of respiratory infectious diseases in hospitals if a potential highly infectious patient was not identified and isolated. Our example simulation, which extended the SARS Busters' design for an isolation room to Ward 8A, demonstrated that there was room for improvement to minimize cross-infection in large general hospital wards.
Protein fixation and antigen retrieval: chemical studies

Abstract Fixation with formaldehyde is the first process to which most biopsy and necropsy specimens are exposed prior to dehydration and embedding in paraffin wax. Tissue specimens that have been fixed in formaldehyde have architectural characteristics that are familiar to virtually every pathologist and these facilitate routine diagnosis. Nevertheless, formaldehyde fixation has some deleterious effects including reduction in immunoreactivity and degradation of nucleic acids. Development of methods to counteract these deleterious effects requires an understanding of the chemical events that occur during tissue fixation and subsequent tissue processing. This short review illustrates some of the chemical consequences of formaldehyde fixation and ethanol dehydration. It also provides some insight into the molecular events accompanying heat-induced antigen retrieval.
An Interface for Biomedical Big Data Processing on the Tianhe-2 Supercomputer

Big data, cloud computing, and high-performance computing (HPC) are at the verge of convergence. Cloud computing is already playing an active part in big data processing with the help of big data frameworks like Hadoop and Spark. The recent upsurge of high-performance computing in China provides extra possibilities and capacity to address the challenges associated with big data. In this paper, we propose Orion—a big data interface on the Tianhe-2 supercomputer—to enable big data applications to run on Tianhe-2 via a single command or a shell script. Orion supports multiple users, and each user can launch multiple tasks. It minimizes the effort needed to initiate big data applications on the Tianhe-2 supercomputer via automated configuration. Orion follows the “allocate-when-needed” paradigm, and it avoids the idle occupation of computational resources. We tested the utility and performance of Orion using a big genomic dataset and achieved a satisfactory performance on Tianhe-2 with very few modifications to existing applications that were implemented in Hadoop/Spark. In summary, Orion provides a practical and economical interface for big data processing on Tianhe-2.
Determination of Forage Yield Performance of Some Promising Narbon Vetch (Vicia narbonensis L.) Lines under Rainfed Conditions in Southeastern Turkey

Bu calisma, bazi umitvar koca fig (Vicia narbonensis L.) hatlarinin Guneydogu Anadolu Bolgesi ekolojik kosullarinda yesil ot ve kuru madde verimleri ile bu verimler uzerinde etkili bazi onemli verim unsurlarini saptamak amaciyla yurutulmustur. Bu amacla; 2008-09, 2009-10 ve 2010-11 ekim sezonlarinda Diyarbakir GAP Uluslararasi Tarimsal Arastirma ve Egitim Merkezi Mudurlugu deneme arazisinde, tesaduf bloklari deneme desenine gore uc tekrarlamali olarak tarla denemeleri yurutulmustur. Arastirmada yesil ot verimi ve kuru madde veriminin de aralarinda bulundugu bes ozellik bakimindan genotip × yil interaksiyonu 0.01 duzeyinde istatistiki olarak onemli bulunurken, ana sap sayisi ozelligi bakimindan 0.05 duzeyinde onemli bulunmustur. Dogal bitki boyu ozelligi bakimindan ise genotip × yil interaksiyonu istatistiki olarak onemsiz bulunmustur. Arastirmada denemenin yurutuldugu yillar ve genotipler arasinda incelenen ozellikler asagidaki gibi degisim gostermistir. Yesil ot verimi 19.42-37.95 t ha-1; kuru madde verimi 4.07-7.16 t ha-1; % 50 ciceklenme gun sayisi 142.3-171.0 gun; dogal bitki boyu 63.8-79.3 cm; ana sap uzunlugu 79.3-133.3 cm; ana sap sayisi 1.93-3.40 sap bitki-1; ana sap kalinligi 3.32-4.97 mm. Korelasyon analizi sonucuna gore; yesil ot verimi ile kuru madde verimi arasinda istatistiki olarak cok onemli ve olumlu iliski belirlenirken (P
Which Encoding is the Best for Text Classification in Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean?

This article offers an empirical study on the different ways of encoding Chinese, Japanese, Korean (CJK) and English languages for text classification. Different encoding levels are studied, including UTF-8 bytes, characters, words, romanized characters and romanized words. For all encoding levels, whenever applicable, we provide comparisons with linear models, fastText and convolutional networks. For convolutional networks, we compare between encoding mechanisms using character glyph images, one-hot (or one-of-n) encoding, and embedding. In total there are 473 models, using 14 large-scale text classification datasets in 4 languages including Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. Some conclusions from these results include that byte-level one-hot encoding based on UTF-8 consistently produces competitive results for convolutional networks, that word-level n-grams linear models are competitive even without perfect word segmentation, and that fastText provides the best result using character-level n-gram encoding but can overfit when the features are overly rich.
Dynamic robot manipulation using visual tracking

The authors consider the multiple applications of vision in the solution of dynamic robot and positioning problems such as catching, hitting, and intercepting a moving object. They propose a framework for qualitative reasoning about such problems, and then present a robust vision-based control strategy that uses a Kalman filter to track image features. In the formulation, a given positioning problem is transformed into one of constrained trajectory planning on a topological surface defined by the relationship between positions of the robot and observable image features. By considering only the qualitative properties of this surface, the need for precise calibration of the various components of the system is eliminated. <<ETX>>