Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Waist‐to‐height ratio is a better screening tool than waist circumference and BMI for adult cardiometabolic risk factors: systematic review and meta‐analysis

Our aim was to differentiate the screening potential of waist‐to‐height ratio (WHtR) and waist circumference (WC) for adult cardiometabolic risk in people of different nationalities and to compare both with body mass index (BMI). We undertook a systematic review and meta‐analysis of studies that used receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves for assessing the discriminatory power of anthropometric indices in distinguishing adults with hypertension, type‐2 diabetes, dyslipidaemia, metabolic syndrome and general cardiovascular outcomes (CVD). Thirty one papers met the inclusion criteria. Using data on all outcomes, averaged within study group, WHtR had significantly greater discriminatory power compared with BMI. Compared with BMI, WC improved discrimination of adverse outcomes by 3% (P < 0.05) and WHtR improved discrimination by 4–5% over BMI (P < 0.01). Most importantly, statistical analysis of the within‐study difference in AUC showed WHtR to be significantly better than WC for diabetes, hypertension, CVD and all outcomes (P < 0.005) in men and women.
Listener Perception of Monopitch, Naturalness, and Intelligibility for Speakers With Parkinson's Disease.

PURPOSE Given the potential significance of speech naturalness to functional and social rehabilitation outcomes, the objective of this study was to examine the effect of listener perceptions of monopitch on speech naturalness and intelligibility in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). METHOD Two short utterances were extracted from monologue samples of 16 speakers with PD and 5 age-matched adults without PD. Sixteen listeners evaluated these stimuli for monopitch, speech naturalness and intelligibility using the visual sort and rate method. RESULTS Naïve listeners can reliably judge monopitch, speech naturalness, and intelligibility with minimal familiarization. While monopitch and speech intelligibility were only moderately correlated, monopitch and speech naturalness were highly correlated. CONCLUSIONS A great deal of attention is currently being paid to improvement of vocal loudness and thus speech intelligibility in PD. Our findings suggest that prosodic characteristics such as monopitch should be explored as adjuncts to this treatment of dysarthria in PD. Development of such prosodic treatments may enhance speech naturalness and thus improve quality of life.
An Information-Theoretic Metric for Collective Human Judgment

We consider the problem of evaluating the performance of human contributors for tasks involving answering a series of questions, each of which has a single correct answer. The answers may not be known a priori. We assert that the measure of a contributor’s judgments is the amount by which having these judgments decreases the entropy of our discovering the answer. This quantity is the pointwise mutual information between the judgments and the answer. The expected value of this metric is the mutual information between the contributor and the answer prior, which can be computed using only the prior and the conditional probabil- ities of the contributor’s judgments given a correct answer, without knowing the answers themselves. We also propose using multivariable information measures, such as conditional mutual information, to measure the inter- actions between contributors’ judgments. These metrics have a variety of applications. They can be used as a basis for contributor performance evaluation and incentives. They can be used to measure the efficiency of the judgment collection process. If the collection process allows assignment of contributors to questions, they can also be used to optimize this scheduling.
Learning human-like facial expressions for Android Phillip K. Dick

Android robots with human-like appearance can engage in superior conversational interaction with humans due to their ability to generate expressive faces. In this paper we describe a learning algorithm to map the rich facial features of a human to an Android, capable of replicating them. The methodology we employ is automated, marker-less, and has a high degree of generality. As a result, it can be applied to any Android face design, not just those exploiting linear or decoupled relationships between actuator inputs and facial feature point motions. To ensure robust results, we employed a genetic algorithm to search the actuator space and generate a rich set of robot facial expressions. Experimental results clearly show that once learning is complete, accurate facial expressions for the Phillip K. Dick Android can be achieved by mimicking those of a human.
Comparison of Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide Release from Rat Lymphocytes and Dorsal Root Ganglia Neurons

Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), a neuropeptide contained in primary sensory neurons, has been demonstrated to be synthesized and released by rat lymphocytes in our previous studies. In this study, the release properties and molecular characteristics of CGRP such as immunoreactivity (CGRP-LI) from lymphocytes were compared with those from dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons by using CGRP-specific RIA, reverse-phase HPLC, and RT-PCR. Con A and IL-2 could trigger CGRP-LI release from lymphocytes in a time-dependent manner. After 3 days stimulation with 4 microg/ml Con A, the level of CGRP-LI released by lymphocytes was increased from 77.4 +/- 9.6 pg/10(8) cells to 191.1 +/- 13.6 pg/10(8) cells and increased further to 374.5 +/- 38.3 pg/10(8) cells after 5 days. Stimulation with 750 U/ml human IL-2 recombinant (rhIL-2) caused a significantly elevated CGRP-LI release from 75.4 +/- 6.5 pg/10(8) cells to 266.2 +/- 16.2 pg/10(8) cells after 3 days and to 469.1 +/- 43.2 pg/10(8) cells after 5 days. Con A and IL-2 also augmented CGRP mRNA expression in lymphocytes. In the tested period (1-5 days), Con A and rhIL-2 had no stimulating effect on CGRP release from DRG neurons. In contrast, a high concentration of potassium and LPS could induce an acute release of CGRP from DRG neurons, but not from lymphocytes. Lymphocyte-released CGRP-LI was shown to coelute with synthetic rat CGRP (rCGRP) and DRG neuron-released CGRP by reverse-phase HPLC. In addition, to displace (125)I-CGRP from CGRP antibody by lymphocyte-released CGRP-LI was similar to that by synthetic rCGRP. These data suggest that lymphocyte- and nerve-derived CGRP-LI are similar in terms of immunological characteristics, molecular size, and polarity. However, lymphocytes secrete CGRP-LI in response to different stimuli compared to nerve-derived CGRP.
Non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors: a review on pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, safety and tolerability

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type‐1 non‐nucleoside and nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) are key drugs of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the clinical management of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)/HIV infection.
(−)-Englerin A-evoked Cytotoxicity Is Mediated by Na+ Influx and Counteracted by Na+/K+-ATPase*

(−)-Englerin A ((−)-EA) has a rapid and potent cytotoxic effect on several types of cancer cell that is mediated by plasma membrane ion channels containing transient receptor potential canonical 4 (TRPC4) protein. Because these channels are Ca2+-permeable, it was initially thought that the cytotoxicity arose as a consequence of Ca2+ overload. Here we show that this is not the case and that the effect of (−)-EA is mediated by a heteromer of TRPC4 and TRPC1 proteins. Both TRPC4 and TRPC1 were required for (−)-EA cytotoxicity; however, although TRPC4 was necessary for the (−)-EA-evoked Ca2+ elevation, TRPC1 was not. TRPC1 either had no role or was a negative regulator of Ca2+ entry. By contrast, both TRPC4 and TRPC1 were necessary for monovalent cation entry evoked by (−)-EA, and (−)-EA-evoked cell death was dependent upon entry of the monovalent cation Na+. We therefore hypothesized that Na+/K+-ATPase might act protectively by counteracting the Na+ load resulting from sustained Na+ entry. Indeed, inhibition of Na+/K+-ATPase by ouabain potently and strongly increased (−)-EA-evoked cytotoxicity. The data suggest that (−)-EA achieves cancer cell cytotoxicity by inducing sustained Na+ entry through heteromeric TRPC1/TRPC4 channels and that the cytotoxic effect of (−)-EA can be potentiated by Na+/K+-ATPase inhibition.
Performance and power impact of issue-width in chip-multiprocessor cores

We explore the trade-off between the issue-width of the cores and the number of cores on a chip by considering design points with comparable area with respect to both performance and energy. We focus on scalable parallel applications from SPLASH-2. While they are known to benefit from as many cores as possible we show that these applications can be run as efficiently and with comparable power consumption on a chip-multiprocessor (CMP) with fewer, but wider-issue cores. This is attributable to their inherent ILP and the fact that fewer cores result in less performance and power consumption losses in the on-chip memory hierarchy
Stroke Magnetic Resonance Imaging Is Accurate in Hyperacute Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Multicenter Study on the Validity of Stroke Imaging

Background and Purpose— Although modern multisequence stroke MRI protocols are an emerging imaging routine for the diagnostic assessment of acute ischemic stroke, their sensitivity for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), the most important differential diagnosis, is still a matter of debate. We hypothesized that stroke MRI is accurate in the detection of ICH. To evaluate our hypotheses, we conducted a prospective multicenter trial. Methods— Stroke MRI protocols of 6 university hospitals were standardized. Images from 62 ICH patients and 62 nonhemorrhagic stroke patients, all imaged within the first 6 hours after symptom onset (mean, 3 hours 18 minutes), were analyzed. For diagnosis of hemorrhage, CT served as the “gold standard. ” Three readers experienced in stroke imaging and 3 final-year medical students, unaware of clinical details, separately evaluated sets of diffusion-, T2-, and T2*-weighted images. The extent and phenomenology of the hemorrhage on MRI were assessed separately. Results— Mean patient age was 65.5 years; median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score was 10. The experienced readers identified ICH with 100% sensitivity (confidence interval, 97.1 to 100) and 100% overall accuracy. Mean ICH size was 17.3 mL (range, 1 to 101.5 mL). The students reached a mean sensitivity of 95.16% (confidence interval, 90.32 to 98.39). Conclusions— Hyperacute ICH causes a characteristic imaging pattern on stroke MRI and is detectable with excellent accuracy. Even raters with limited film-reading experience reached good accuracy. Stroke MRI alone can rule out ICH and demonstrate the underlying pathology in hyperacute stroke.
A Concentric-Based Sleep Scheduling Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), how to extend the lifetime is an important issue. Our research uses Sleeping Scheduling scheme which divides the network into many concentric layers and rotates sensors in different odd and even layers to sleep. By our scheme, we can balance the power consumption among all sensors and reduce power and transmission load of sensors near sink. Our research use Transmit Power Control (TPC) technique to control topology and divide concentric layers, and use the topology to transmit packets to sink. Finally, the performance of our scheme is better than other Sleeping Scheduling schemes in the simulations.
The other-race and other-species effects in face perception – a subordinate-level analysis

The ability of face discrimination is modulated by the frequency of exposure to a category of faces. In other words, lower discrimination performance was measured for infrequently encountered faces as opposed to frequently encountered ones. This phenomenon has been described in the literature: the own-race advantage, a benefit in processing own-race as opposed to the other-race faces, and the own-species advantage, a benefit in processing the conspecific type of faces as opposed to the heterospecific type. So far, the exact parameters that drive either of these two effects are not fully understood. In the following we present a full assessment of data in human participants describing the discrimination performances across two races (Asian and Caucasian) as well as a range of non-human primate faces (chimpanzee, Rhesus macaque and marmoset). We measured reaction times of Asian participants performing a delayed matching-to-sample task, and correlated the results with similarity estimates of facial configuration and face parts. We found faster discrimination of own-race above other-race/species faces. Further, we found a strong reliance on configural information in upright own-species/-race faces and on individual face parts in all inverted face classes, supporting the assumption of specialized processing for the face class of most frequent exposure.
Characterization and Genetic Variation of Vibrio cholerae Isolated from Clinical and Environmental Sources in Thailand

Cholera is still an important public health problem in several countries, including Thailand. In this study, a collection of clinical and environmental V. cholerae serogroup O1, O139, and non-O1/non-O139 strains originating from Thailand (1983 to 2013) was characterized to determine phenotypic and genotypic traits and to investigate the genetic relatedness. Using a combination of conventional methods and whole genome sequencing (WGS), 78 V. cholerae strains were identified. WGS was used to determine the serogroup, biotype, virulence, mobile genetic elements, and antimicrobial resistance genes using online bioinformatics tools. In addition, phenotypic antimicrobial resistance was determined by the minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) test. The 78 V. cholerae strains belonged to the following serogroups O1: (n = 44), O139 (n = 16) and non-O1/non-O139 (n = 18). Interestingly, we found that the typical El Tor O1 strains were the major cause of clinical cholera during 1983–2000 with two Classical O1 strains detected in 2000. In 2004–2010, the El Tor variant strains revealed genotypes of the Classical biotype possessing either only ctxB or both ctxB and rstR while they harbored tcpA of the El Tor biotype. Thirty O1 and eleven O139 clinical strains carried CTXϕ (Cholera toxin) and tcpA as well four different pathogenic islands (PAIs). Beside non-O1/non-O139, the O1 environmental strains also presented chxA and Type Three Secretion System (TTSS). The in silico MultiLocus Sequence Typing (MLST) discriminated the O1 and O139 clinical strains from other serogroups and environmental strains. ST69 was dominant in the clinical strains belonging to the 7th pandemic clone. Non-O1/non-O139 and environmental strains showed various novel STs indicating genetic variation. Multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains were observed and conferred resistance to ampicillin, azithromycin, nalidixic acid, sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, and trimethoprim and harboured variants of the SXT elements. For the first time since 1986, the presence of V. cholerae O1 Classical was reported causing cholera outbreaks in Thailand. In addition, we found that V. cholerae O1 El Tor variant and O139 were pre-dominating the pathogenic strains in Thailand. Using WGS and bioinformatic tools to analyze both historical and contemporary V. cholerae circulating in Thailand provided a more detailed understanding of the V. cholerae epidemiology, which ultimately could be applied for control measures and management of cholera in Thailand.
Graphical Analysis of Value of Information in Decision Models

We review and extend the qualitative relationships about the informational relevance of variables in graphical decision models based on conditional independencies revealed through graphical separations of nodes from nodes representing utility on outcomes. We exploit these qualitative relationships to generate non-numerical graphical procedures for identifying partial orderings over chance variables in a decision model in terms of their informational relevance. We describe an efficient algorithm based on a consideration of local properties of a property we refer to as useparation. Finally, we present results of computational efficiencies gained via the application of the new policies, based on analyses of sample networks with different degrees of connectivity.
Fairness und Zufriedenheit im Schweizer Bio-Markt: Neue empirische Ergebnisse und aktuelle Entwicklungen

Fairness im Miteinander ist eines der Bio-Grundprinzipien des Okologischen Landbaus (IFOAM 2005). In den letzten Jahren wurden zahlreiche Initiativen mit dem Ziel ins Leben gerufen, Fairness starker in den Geschaftsbeziehungen eines wachsenden Bio-Marktes zu verankern (u.a. Bio-Fair-Verein; Naturland Fair; Bio Fair Regio). Bio Suisse verabschiedete im Jahr 2012 einen verbindlichen Verhaltenskodex zu fairen Handelsbeziehungen, initiierte auf die Geschaftsbeziehungen fokussierte Branchegesprachsrunden und richtete in diesem Jahr eine Ombudsstelle zur Schlichtung von ggf. unter Marktpartnern auftretenden Konflikten ein. In diesem Zusammenhang wurde 2012 in einer ersten umfassenden empirischen Erhebung (Muhlrath et al. 2013) ein Stimmungsbild unter Schweizer Bio-Landwirten und deren Abnehmern erhoben. Hier wurde auserdem in Anlehnung an den von Colquitt (2001) masgeblich gepragten Organizational Justice Ansatz ein Messinstrument zur Analyse von Fairness in landwirtschaftlichen Abnehmer-Lieferantenbeziehungen entwickelt. Daraus wurde anschliesend ein auf die konkrete Initiative der Bio Suisse zugeschnittener Erhebungsanasatz abgeleitet, der als begleitende empirische Untersuchung in regelmasigen Abstanden durchgefuhrt werden soll. In diesem Beitrag wird der Frage nachgegangen, inwieweit sich standardisierte Befragungen zur Begleitung eines kontinuierlichen Weiterentwicklungsprozesses von Fairnessinitiativen eignen, die auf einem vertrauensbasierten Verhaltenskodex basieren. Auserdem wird im Zeitablauf vergleichend beleuchtet, inwieweit die Handelspartner im Schweizer Bio-Markt mit ihren Geschaftsbeziehungen zufrieden sind und wie sie die Umsetzung der Aspekte des Verhaltenskodex durch die Marktpartner wahrnehmen.
Approche dynamique de l'apprentissage de coordinations posturales

L'approche dynamique de l'apprentissage moteur fournit de nombreux principes theoriques definissant les liens d'interdependance entre les coordinations preexistantes et l'apprentissage d'un nouveau mode de coordination. Bien que ces principes se veuillent generaux, ils sont principalement bases sur l'etude du systeme bi-manuel et ont ete evalues quasi-exclusivement dans ce contexte. Ce travail doctoral etudie l'interaction entre les modes preexistants et l'apprentissage d'un nouveau patron dans le cadre different du systeme postural. A cette fin, la dynamique de coordination hanche-cheville est investiguee a differents moments du processus d'apprentissage et au regard de deux tâches de nature distincte. Pour le premier type de tâche, le but du participant est sans rapport avec la coordination hanche-cheville, celle-ci emerge alors de facon spontanee. En accord avec les predictions theoriques de l'approche dynamique, nous observons une modification des patrons de coordination initiaux, en phase et en anti-phase, en direction du patron appris. Pour le second type de tâche, differents modes de coordination hanche-cheville sont requis, et constituent le but de la tâche. Dans ce cas, l'apprentissage du nouveau patron a pour consequence une amelioration de l'ensemble des patrons requis. Ce resultat ne presente pas de correspondance identifiable avec la dynamique de coordination posturale spontanee (mise au jour avec le premier type de tâche), et diverge des observations experimentales obtenues dans le cadre des coordinations bi-manuelles. Les raisons theoriques et fonctionnelles sous-tendant ces divergences sont discutees.
An instrumentation technique for online analysis of multithreaded programs

Summary form only given. A formal analysis technique aiming at finding safety errors in multithreaded systems at runtime is investigated. An automatic code instrumentation procedure based on multithreaded vector clocks for generating the causal partial order on relevant state update events from a running multithreaded program is first presented. Then, by means of several examples, it is shown how this technique can be used in a formal testing environment, not only to detect, but especially to predict safety errors in multithreaded programs. The prediction process consists of rigorously analyzing other potential executions that are consistent with the causal partial order: some of these can be erroneous despite the fact that the particular observed execution is successful. The proposed technique has been implemented as part of a Java program analysis tool. A bytecode instrumentation package is used, so the Java source code of the tested programs is not necessary.
Public-Private Partnerships and Cooperative Agreements in Municipal Service Delivery

Abstract This study uses quantitative and qualitative survey data on the use of public-private partnership in provision and production of public services by municipalities in predominantly rural New Hampshire (USA). Descriptive analysis suggests that town officials are less satisfied with the quality of privatized services, suggesting that privatization involves some tradeoff between costs and quality. These results differ from the experiences of large metropolitan areas and suggest that conclusions of previous research do not necessarily generalize to the challenges faced by small rural communities. Statistical analysis confirms that available fiscal health, geography, and voting patterns are linked to privatization decisions.
Nonmuscle Myosin Heavy Chain IIB Mediates Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Entry

ABSTRACT Nonmuscle myosin heavy chain IIA (NMHC-IIA) has been reported to function as a herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) entry coreceptor by interacting with viral envelope glycoprotein B (gB). Vertebrates have three genetically distinct isoforms of the NMHC-II, designated NMHC-IIA, NMHC-IIB, and NMHC-IIC. COS cells, which are readily infected by HSV-1, do not express NMHC-IIA but do express NMHC-IIB. This observation prompted us to investigate whether NMHC-IIB might associate with HSV-1 gB and be involved in an HSV-1 entry like NMHC-IIA. In these studies, we show that (i) NMHC-IIB coprecipitated with gB in COS-1 cells upon HSV-1 entry; (ii) a specific inhibitor of myosin light chain kinase inhibited cell surface expression of NMHC-IIB in COS-1 cells upon HSV-1 entry as well as HSV-1 infection, as reported with NMHC-IIA; (iii) overexpression of mouse NMHC-IIB in IC21 cells significantly increased their susceptibility to HSV-1 infection; and (iv) knockdown of NMHC-IIB in COS-1 cells inhibited HSV-1 infection as well as cell-cell fusion mediated by HSV-1 envelope glycoproteins. These results supported the hypothesis that, like NMHC-IIA, NMHC-IIB associated with HSV-1 gB and mediated HSV-1 entry. IMPORTANCE Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) was reported to utilize nonmuscle myosin heavy chain IIA (NMHC-IIA) as an entry coreceptor associating with gB. Vertebrates have three genetically distinct isoforms of NMHC-II. In these isoforms, NMHC-IIB is of special interest since it highly expresses in neuronal tissue, one of the most important cellular targets of HSV-1 in vivo. In this study, we demonstrated that the ability to mediate HSV-1 entry appeared to be conserved in NMHC-II isoforms. These results may provide an insight into the mechanism by which HSV-1 infects a wide variety of cell types in vivo.