Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Massive graph triangulation

This paper studies I/O-efficient algorithms for settling the classic triangle listing problem, whose solution is a basic operator in dealing with many other graph problems. Specifically, given an undirected graph G, the objective of triangle listing is to find all the cliques involving 3 vertices in G. The problem has been well studied in internal memory, but remains an urgent difficult challenge when G does not fit in memory, rendering any algorithm to entail frequent I/O accesses. Although previous research has attempted to tackle the challenge, the state-of-the-art solutions rely on a set of crippling assumptions to guarantee good performance. Motivated by this, we develop a new algorithm that is provably I/O and CPU efficient at the same time, without making any assumption on the input G at all. The algorithm uses ideas drastically different from all the previous approaches, and outperformed the existing competitors by a factor over an order of magnitude in our extensive experimentation.
Application of camera phones in telehaematology

We investigated the use of camera phones for telehaematology. First, the minimum requirements for the camera phones to be used in telehaematology were investigated. A single image containing white cells, red cells and platelets was sent from a camera phone to 33 different camera phones. Nine of the camera phones were found to be unsuitable for telehaematology due to low display resolution or no zoom function of the image. Then we examined the agreement between a haematologist using a suitable camera phone for remote diagnosis and the blood film report made in the usual way. Blood samples were collected from nine patients who had conditions in which diagnostically important morphological abnormalities occurred. In seven of the nine cases, the telehaematology responses were similar to the documented blood film reports. We conclude that telehaematology using camera phones offers a quick and potentially valuable method of support for the diagnostic haematology laboratory.
CRTH2 is Critical to the Development of Colitis Induced by Dextran Sodium Sulfate (DSS)

Chemoattractant Receptor-homologous molecule expressed on Th2 cells [CRTH2] is expressed on granulocytes (eosinophils, basophils and neutrophils), Th2 cells and monocytes. CRTH2 has been implicated in the development of cutaneous inflammation as CRTH2+ CD4+ T cells and CRTH2+ eosinophils are increased in the blood of atopic dermatitis patients. CRTH2 is also up-regulated in circulating neutrophils of psoriatic patients. Interestingly, CRTH2 is detected in the mucosa of patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) ulcerative colitis, where the CRTH2 positive cells localize within and adjacent to regions of inflamed mucosa suggesting that CRTH2 may play a role in IBD. However, the exact downstream inflammatory pathways resulting from CRTH2 activation in colitis are not well characterized. To gain a better understanding of the effects of CRTH2 activation in the pathogenesis of colitis, we have generated a small molecule inhibitor against CRTH2 and its potency was first validated in an oxazolone induced contact dermatitis model. We investigated the consequences of inhibiting CRTH2 in the development of IBD using a Dextran Sodium Sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis mouse model. Compared to the vehicle control group, mice treated with a selective CRTH2 antagonist had reduced disease severity as measured by weight loss, as well as serum acute phase protein, haptoglobin. Furthermore, pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression for TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-17A, and IFNγ were reduced in colons of mice that had been treated with the CRTH2 antagonist compared with DSS treated controls that received vehicle. Taken together, our data identify a previously unrecognized role for CRTH2 in the initiation/amplification and/or stabilization of colon inflammation.
An empirical approach to estimating the effect of e-health on medical expenditure

We studied the e-health system used in Nishi-aizu Town in Fukushima Prefecture in Japan. The system allows elderly people at home to transmit vital signs data to the Town's health centre, where nurses provide advice based on the data. Our hypothesis was that the e-health system in Nishi-aizu Town reduced the need to visit clinics. We attempted to prove this by a regression analysis, in which days for treatment were compared between users and non-users of e-health. The results showed that days for treatment of e-health users were shorter than those of non-users by 1.6 days per year. Thus the total reduction in expenditure as a result of fewer hospital visits (emergency and elective) was about 16,000 yen per year. In a previous study, we proved that in Nishi-aizu Town the medical expenditure of e-health users was smaller than those of non-users by 15,688 yen. The results of the present study therefore coincide with those of the previous one and show that the reduction of medical expenditure is principally caused by the reduction of days for treatment.
BUZZARD: a NUMA-aware in-memory indexing system

With the availability of large main memory capacities, in-memory index structures have become an important component of modern data management platforms. Current research even suggests index-based query processing as an alternative or supplement for traditional tuple-at-a-time processing models. However, while simple sequential scan operations can fully exploit the high bandwidth provided by main memory, indexes are mainly latency bound and spend most of their time waiting for memory accesses. Considering current hardware trends, the problem of high memory latency is further exacerbated as modern shared-memory multiprocessors with non-uniform memory access (NUMA) become increasingly common. On those NUMA platforms, the execution time of index operations is dominated by memory access latency that increases dramatically when accessing memory on remote sockets. Therefore, good index performance can only be achieved through careful optimization of the index structure to the given topology. BUZZARD is a NUMA-aware in-memory indexing system. Using adaptive data partitioning techniques, BUZZARD distributes a prefix-tree-based index across the NUMA system and hands off incoming requests to worker threads located on each partition's respective NUMA node. This approach reduces the number of remote memory accesses to a minimum and improves cache utilization. In addition, all indexes inside BUZZARD are only accessed by their respective owner, eliminating the need for synchronization primitives like compare-and-swap.
A pilot programme using mobile phones for HIV prevention

We explored the feasibility of engaging young black men in a 12-week text messaging programme about HIV prevention. There were two non-randomized groups of 30 young men each. The participants were aged 16–20 years, self-identifying as black or African-American, sexually active, who owned a mobile phone and lived in Philadelphia. They received three text messages per week for 12 weeks. People in the intervention group received text messages about HIV prevention, while those in the control group received text messages about nutrition. The intervention participants showed trends in increased monogamy at follow-up compared to controls. Awareness of sexual health was significantly higher in the intervention group. Condom norms were significantly higher for the control group. There were no differences in the proportion of protected sex acts. The participants embraced the project, and were enrolled and retained in numbers that suggest such an intervention is worth examining for efficacy.
Assessing disease activity in psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis: impact on management and therapy

ABSTRACT The management of psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and psoriasis has undergone major advancements over the last decade. This has been made possible, in part, due to the introduction of new therapies for their management, as well as global collaboration in the development of outcome measures and “treat- to- target” paradigms. In this review article, we discuss how disease activity is measured and the outcome measures that have been recently developed for the management of PsA. The importance of assessing the individual domains as well as global assessments both from the physician and patient perspective, and the development of composite measures are discussed. The newer PsA specific measures are expected to be more commonly used in clinical trials as well as clinical practice.
Overcoming challenges of treating inflammatory bowel disease in pregnancy

ABSTRACT Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is frequently diagnosed before or during the peak reproductive years. Overall management of inflammatory bowel disease is becoming more complex given the nuances involved with multiple mechanisms of action of the current treatment and need for therapeutic monitoring for safety and efficacy; another layer of complexity is added in the setting of a pregnancy. In this review, we have identified several key challenges that health care providers face when caring for patients with IBD during pregnancy. The goal of this review is to provide the most up-to-date evidence and provide our expert recommendations so that providers can more comfortably address patients’ questions about pregnancy in IBD and the associated risks as well as optimize their care to ensure the best outcomes possible.
Presto: distributed machine learning and graph processing with sparse matrices

It is cumbersome to write machine learning and graph algorithms in data-parallel models such as MapReduce and Dryad. We observe that these algorithms are based on matrix computations and, hence, are inefficient to implement with the restrictive programming and communication interface of such frameworks. In this paper we show that array-based languages such as R [3] are suitable for implementing complex algorithms and can outperform current data parallel solutions. Since R is single-threaded and does not scale to large datasets, we have built Presto, a distributed system that extends R and addresses many of its limitations. Presto efficiently shares sparse structured data, can leverage multi-cores, and dynamically partitions data to mitigate load imbalance. Our results show the promise of this approach: many important machine learning and graph algorithms can be expressed in a single framework and are substantially faster than those in Hadoop and Spark.
Talking about tactile experiences

A common problem with designing and developing applications with tactile interfaces is the lack of a vocabulary that allows one to describe or communicate about haptics. Here we present the findings from a study exploring participants' verbalizations of their tactile experiences across two modulated tactile stimuli (16Hz and 250Hz) related to two important mechanoreceptors in the human hand. The study, with 14 participants, applied the explicitation interview technique to capture detailed descriptions of the diachronic and synchronic structure of tactile experiences. We propose 14 categories for a human-experiential vocabulary based on the categorization of the findings and tie them back to neurophysiological and psychophysical data on the human hand. We finally discuss design opportunities created through this experiential understanding in relation to the two mechanoreceptors.
Echocardiographic assessment of global left ventricular function in mice

Doppler-echocardiographic assessment of cardiovascular structure and function in murine models has developed into one of the most commonly used non-invasive techniques during the last decades. Recent technical improvements even expanded the possibilities. In this review, we summarize the current options to assess global left ventricular (LV) function in mice using echocardiographic techniques. In detail, standard techniques as structural and functional assessment of the cardiovascular phenotype using one-dimensional M-mode echocardiography, two-dimensional B-mode echocardiography and spectral Doppler signals from mitral inflow respective aortal outflow are presented. Further pros and contras of recently implemented techniques as three-dimensional echocardiography and strain and strain rate measurements are discussed. Deduced measures of LV function as the myocardial performance index according to Tei, estimation of the mean velocity of circumferential fibre shortening, LV wall stress and different algorithms to estimate the LV mass are described in detail. Last but not least, specific features and limitations of murine echocardiography are presented. Future perspectives in respect to new examination techniques like targeted molecular imaging with advanced ultrasound contrast bubbles or improvement of equipment like new generation matrix transducers for murine echocardiography are discussed.
A universal 30-month child health assessment focussed on social and emotional development

Background : The Glasgow Parenting Support Framework was published in 2009 with a view to improving universal and targeted parenting support for families in the city of Glasgow. In order to provide structured support to families at all levels of need (i.e., either the whole population (universal) or those families with identified problems (targeted)), it was important to have a robust means of assessing the needs of families. To this end, two routine family visits by Health Visitors (community child nurses) were piloted in order to assess their utility in assessing need for parenting support. Both visits involved home assessments, one when the child reached 13 months of age and the other at 30 months. The utility of the 13 month visit is reported elsewhere [6] . We describe findings from the 30 month contact in this paper. Aims : The present study aimed to assess the utility of a home visit at 30 months of age in assessing families’ need for parenting support. It describes (a) the level of need established and (b) the extent to which the home assessment influenced health visitors’ choice of subsequent action. Methods : Health visitors were asked to arrange to see the principal carer (usually the mother) of the child at home with the child within a month of the child reaching 30 months of age. They collected data on: existing problems and service provision to families, including whether there were known developmental problems for the child or parental issues such as substance misuse or medical problems; parenting stress reported by the child’s principal carer using the Parenting Daily Hassles Scale; parent’s perception of their child’s language development using a two-item brief language screen and parent’s perception of the child’s behaviour using the Behaviour Screening Questionnaire. Using unique Community Health Index identification numbers, linked data from the Child Health Surveillance System, which allowed us to allocate a social deprivation score (using Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)) to families, were incorporated into statistical models of service use. Results : From a whole population of 819, data were obtained for 437 families of which 330 had a completed visit. The remaining families were not visited usually due to difficulties in securing an appointment or families not being home at the time of the planned appointment. Parenting stress was generally low and behaviour problems commonly reported. Scores on both parenting stress and behaviour measures were higher in families already identified to have higher levels of need and those living in more deprived areas. Health visitors were more likely to intend to revisit or refer as parenting stress and behaviour scores increased, and where there was previously identified need and socio-economic deprivation. Conclusions: Current service provision matches need to some extent but routine visits focused on children’s social and emotional development at 30 months may help to identify families needing support who would not otherwise have received it.
Recommending insurance riders

Insurance riders are optional addendum to base insurance policies. In this paper we discuss the application of recommender systems to the task of matching riders to clients. This task is difficult because of the variety of possible riders, as well as the poor knowledge of the client over these riders. We focus on call centers where the agent also has limited knowledge and expertise. For such agents, discovering appropriate riders for the current client is very difficult, and automated tools that suggest such riders can play an important role in the agent-client dialogue, and may influence considerably the outcome of the interaction. This paper presents and discusses in detail the problem of recommending insurance riders to clients in call centers, comparing it to other, classic, recommendation system applications. In addition, we present an analysis of customer purchase behavior, showing that simple item-item recommendation algorithms provide good recommendations for riders given a base policy.
The Effect of Consuming Food With “Warm” or “Cold” Temperaments on Students’ Mental Health and Aggression

: Background: Aggression is a complex behavior affected by different psychological, genetic, and biological factors. Nutrition is an important factor affecting aggressive behavior. Objectives: The aim of the present research was to study the effect of cold and hot nature food on students’ mental health and aggressive behavior. Materials and Methods: In a quasi-experimental study, we recruited 61 normal students in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences during summer semester. The students were randomly allocated into three groups for three weeks, of which one group was served with food of normal nature, the second with hot food and the third group with food of cold nature. Students' mental health and aggressive behavior were measured by General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire before and after intervention. Results: There were no significant differences in demographic characteristics and physical examination among students of three groups (P > 0.05). There was no significant difference regarding mental health and its components after serving the students with normal, hot, or cold nature food (P > 0.05). No significant differences in aggressive behavior and associated factors were found among three groups of students before and after intervention (P > 0.05). Conclusions: The findings of this study showed that cold and hot nature of food had no effect on students’ mental health and aggressive behavior.
Learning to detect english and hungarian light verb constructions

Light verb constructions consist of a verbal and a nominal component, where the noun preserves its original meaning while the verb has lost it (to some degree). They are syntactically flexible and their meaning can only be partially computed on the basis of the meaning of their parts, thus they require special treatment in natural language processing. For this purpose, the first step is to identify light verb constructions. In this study, we present our conditional random fields-based tool—called FXTagger—for identifying light verb constructions. The flexibility of the tool is demonstrated on two, typologically different, languages, namely, English and Hungarian. As earlier studies labeled different linguistic phenomena as light verb constructions, we first present a linguistics-based classification of light verb constructions and then show that FXTagger is able to identify different classes of light verb constructions in both languages. Different types of texts may contain different types of light verb constructions; moreover, the frequency of light verb constructions may differ from domain to domain. Hence we focus on the portability of models trained on different corpora, and we also investigate the effect of simple domain adaptation techniques to reduce the gap between the domains. Our results show that in spite of domain specificities, out-domain data can also contribute to the successful LVC detection in all domains.
Time-aware point-of-interest recommendation

The availability of user check-in data in large volume from the rapid growing location based social networks (LBSNs) enables many important location-aware services to users. Point-of-interest (POI) recommendation is one of such services, which is to recommend places where users have not visited before. Several techniques have been recently proposed for the recommendation service. However, no existing work has considered the temporal information for POI recommendations in LBSNs. We believe that time plays an important role in POI recommendations because most users tend to visit different places at different time in a day, \eg visiting a restaurant at noon and visiting a bar at night. In this paper, we define a new problem, namely, the time-aware POI recommendation, to recommend POIs for a given user at a specified time in a day. To solve the problem, we develop a collaborative recommendation model that is able to incorporate temporal information. Moreover, based on the observation that users tend to visit nearby POIs, we further enhance the recommendation model by considering geographical information. Our experimental results on two real-world datasets show that the proposed approach outperforms the state-of-the-art POI recommendation methods substantially.
Rituximab by subcutaneous route

Rituximab has become a keystone of the treatment of B-cell lymphoproliferation. The standard administration route is intravenous infusion with risks of infusion-related reactions. In order to make administration easier, increase convenience for the patient and improve cost effectiveness, a subcutaneous (sc.) form has recently been developed. Early phase clinical studies in patients with follicular lymphoma have shown that a fixed dose of 1400 mg by sc. route yielded at least non-inferior pharmacokinetics that are at least as good as those of intravenous rituximab, as measured by Ctrough levels. The safety profile was also comparable. Preliminary analyses of clinical efficacy showed at least non-inferior response rates. Although additional information is required, these results suggest that sc. rituximab may become a useful option for treating patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Amputation of the ovine digit

THE main indication for digit amputation in the sheep is septic pedal arthritis which occurs not uncommonly, affecting individual animals on intensively managed sheep units. It results in chronic severe lameness, reduced production and rapid loss of body condition. As such, it represents a serious welfare concern. Deep penetrating wounds of the sole or deep infections secondary to solar ulceration, meanwhile, are very uncommon in sheep, although infection may result from traumatic injury - particularly if an object penetrates at the coronary band and is directed distally.
Copy number variations of six and seven α-globin genes in a family with intermedia and major thalassemia phenotypes

Background: Copy number variations in α-globin genes are results of unequal crossover between homologous segments in the α-globin gene cluster that misalign during the meiosis phase of the gametogenesis process. Reduction or augmentation of α-globin genes leads to imbalance of α/β chains in hemoglobin tetramer and consequently attenuate or worsen the β-thal clinical symptoms, respectively. Objective: Multiplications in α-globin genes have been found in some populations, justifying unexpected severe phenotype of β-thal carriers. Study design: Unexpected severe phenotype in the family members may result from coexistence of extra α-globin genes, which is an important factor in the causation of thalassemia intermedia and major in heterozygous β-thalassemia. Results: We described different multiplications in α-globin locus in an Iranian family with one, two or three extra α-globin genes (ααα/αα, αααα/αα and αααα/ααα). Conclusion: The excess α-globin gene/genes cause increment in β/α chain imbalance and leads to worsening pathophysiology and clinical severity of β-thalassemia carriers.