Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Children with Coeliac Disease and Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus - Growth, Diabetes Control and Dietary Intake

We aimed to assess the growth, diabetes control, dietary intake and compliance with a gluten-free diet in children with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and coeliac disease in a major paediatric and adolescent diabetes clinic. Children with IDDM and biopsy-proven coeliac disease aged <18 years were included and compared with IDDM controls matched for age, sex and duration of diabetes. Twenty patients with coeliac disease and IDDM participated (15 female, age 7.4-17.3 yr), with two matched IDDM controls for each (age 6.9-17.4 yr). The prevalence of coeliac disease in this diabetes clinic population was 2.6%. All patients completed a 3 day food record (3DFR) and a 7 day food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess dietary intake and gluten-free compliance. Diabetes control measured by HbA1c was not different between groups or compared to the overall clinic population (8.48 +/- 0.98% for coeliac patients vs 8.87 +/- 1.46 for IDDM controls vs 8.60 +/- 1.30 for overall clinic population aged 5.0-17.9 yr). Height, weight and BMI standard deviation scores were not different between coeliac patients and IDDM controls. No clinically significant differences were found in intake of energy, macronutrients or micronutrients. The proportion of energy intake from carbohydrate, protein and fat was within recommended ranges, except for a higher saturated fat intake. Only 30% of coeliac patients complied with a strict gluten-free diet, but growth parameters were unaffected by dietary compliance. Thus, we found that children and adolescents with coexisting IDDM and coeliac disease have normal growth, equivalent diabetes control and no differences in energy or nutrient intake compared to matched IDDM controls in our clinic population.
Cooperative Relay Selection and Forwarding in Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Communications

The wireless sensors deployed at the highway can ensure the safety of the traveling vehicles. However, the ribbon deployed wireless sensor network in the roadside infrastructure can easily to generate energy hole. Cooperative communication between sensors and vehicles is an effective way to improve this situation and reduce the energy consumption of the sensors. A cooperative relay selection algorithm based on residence time (CRSR) and cooperative relay selection algorithms based on prediction (CRSP) are proposed in this paper. In order to improve the data transfer amount of the vehicle, residence time is considered in CRSR when sensors select the vehicles. To further improve energy efficiency CRSP considers arrival time of the vehicle to store collected data in the delay tolerance situation. Energy is also considered in CRSP to reduce the energy consumption and ease energy hole. Simulation results show that the CRSR and CRSP methods can reduce the energy consumption and prolong sensor network lifetime than the traditional algorithm.
Turning Informal Thesauri Into Formal Ontologies: A Feasibility Study on Biomedical Knowledge re-Use

This paper reports a large-scale knowledge conversion and curation experiment. Biomedical domain knowledge from a semantically weak and shallow terminological resource, the UMLS, is transformed into a rigorous description logics format. This way, the broad coverage of the UMLS is combined with inference mechanisms for consistency and cycle checking. They are the key to proper cleansing of the knowledge directly imported from the UMLS, as well as subsequent updating, maintenance and refinement of large knowledge repositories. The emerging biomedical knowledge base currently comprises more than 240 000 conceptual entities and hence constitutes one of the largest formal knowledge repositories ever built.
Large T Antigen-Specific Cytotoxic T Cells Protect Against Dendritic Cell Tumors through Perforin-Mediated Mechanisms Independent of CD4 T Cell Help

Our newly generated murine tumor dendritic cell (MuTuDC) lines, generated from tumors developing in transgenic mice expressing the simian virus 40 large T antigen (SV40LgT) and GFP under the DC specific promoter CD11c, reproduce the phenotypic and functional properties of splenic wild type CD8α+ conventional DCs. They have an immature phenotype with low co-stimulation molecule expression (CD40, CD70, CD80, and CD86) that is upregulated after activation with toll-like receptor ligands. We observed that after transfer into syngeneic C57BL/6 mice, MuTuDC lines were quickly rejected. Tumors grew efficiently in large T transgene-tolerant mice. To investigate the immune response toward the large T antigen that leads to rejection of the MuTuDC lines, they were genetically engineered by lentiviral transduction to express luciferase and tested for the induction of DC tumors after adoptive transfer in various gene deficient recipient mice. Here, we document that the MuTuDC line was rejected in C57BL/6 mice by a CD4 T cell help-independent, perforin-mediated CD8 T cell response to the SV40LgT without pre-activation or co-injection of adjuvants. Using depleting anti-CD8β antibodies, we were able to induce efficient tumor growth in C57BL/6 mice. These results are important for researchers who want to use the MuTuDC lines for in vivo studies.
Shear wave elastography of a liver fibrosis mouse model using a high frequency ultrasound system with mechanical scanning

Liver fibrosis is one of the most common chronic liver diseases and has long serious consequence for patient's morbidity and mortality. As the liver fibrosis often involves the changes of mechanical properties, shear wave elastography (SWE) can be a promising tool for diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis. In clinical applications, SWE is generally performed with an array system at relative low frequencies (<;20MHz). For preclinical studies on small animals, on the other hand, a high frequency (> 30MHz) single element transducer with mechanical scanning may still be used. In addition, high frequency transducers (both array and single element transducers) may not be able to produce shear wave with sufficient amplitudes for detection and estimation. Consequently, the objective of this study is to develop a high frequency platform for evaluation of liver fibrosis on mice using SWE. The platform uses a 40MHz single element transducer for imaging and a separate 20MHz transducer for producing radiation force and shear waves. Liver fibrosis is induced in 10 mice using carbon tetrachloride (CCl4); 10 mice served as control group. Special pulse sequence was also designed so that shear wave propagation can be monitored and measured with this mechanical scanning setup. Liver elastic properties were measured in vivo by analyzing shear wave dispersion combined with a Voigt model fitting. The animals were then sacrificed and the stages of fibrosis were analyzed using METAVIR score. The measured mean values of shear elasticity ranged from 1.06 to 1.89 kPa for normal (stage F0) and fibrosis stages with METAVIR score of F3-F4, respectively. The spearman correlation coefficient presents a high correlation between the measured elasticity and fibrosis stages (0.73, p<;0.001). Based on these results, elasticity measurements using this high frequency SWE platform can provide quantitative assessment of liver fibrosis stages. In other words, this new imaging platform that combines the advantages of high frequency ultrasound and SWE can be a promising tool for studying the progression of liver fibrosis on pre-clinical animal models non-invasively and quantitatively.
Kisspeptin Depolarizes Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone Neurons through Activation of TRPC-Like Cationic Channels

Kisspeptin and its cognate receptor, GPR54, are critical for reproductive development and for the regulation of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion. Although kisspeptin has been found to depolarize GnRH neurons, the underlying ionic mechanism has not been elucidated. Presently, we found that kisspeptin depolarized GnRH neurons in a concentration-dependent manner with a maximum depolarization of 22.6 ± 0.6 mV and EC50 of 2.8 ± 0.2 nm. Under voltage-clamp conditions, kisspeptin induced an inward current of 18.2 ± 1.6 pA (Vhold = −60 mV) that reversed near −115 mV in GnRH neurons. The more negative reversal potential than EK+ (−90 mV) was caused by the concurrent inhibition of barium-sensitive, inwardly rectifying (Kir) potassium channels and activation of sodium-dependent, nonselective cationic channels (NSCCs). Indeed, reducing extracellular Na+ (to 5 mm) essentially eliminated the kisspeptin-induced inward current. The current–voltage relationships of the kisspeptin-activated NSCC currents exhibited double rectification with negative slope conductance below −40 mV in the majority of the cells. Pharmacological examination showed that the kisspeptin-induced inward currents were blocked by TRPC (canonical transient receptor potential) channel blockers 2-APB (2-aminoethyl diphenylborinate), flufenamic acid, SKF96365 (1-[β-[3-(4-methoxyphenyl)propoxy]-4-methoxyphenethyl]-1H-imidazole hydrochloride), and Cd2+, but not by lanthanum (100 μm). Furthermore, single-cell reverse transcription-PCR analysis revealed that TRPC1, TRPC3, TRPC4, TRPC5, TRPC6, and TRPC7 subunits were expressed in GnRH neurons. Therefore, it appears that kisspeptin depolarizes GnRH neurons through activating TRPC-like channels and, to a lesser extent, inhibition of Kir channels. These actions of kisspeptin contribute to the pronounced excitation of GnRH neurons that is critical for mammalian reproduction.
A Robust Dynamic Watermarking Scheme Based on STBDW

Software piracy is a major concern for organizations that create, use, and distribute digital content. Software watermarking is such a technique for protecting software by embedding secret information into the software to identify its copyright owner. This paper presents a novel robust dynamic watermarking scheme based on STBDW that first utilizes the Shamir threshold scheme to split the watermark number into pieces, which help to retrieve the original watermark with partial information and increase resilience. Then the pieces are run through the block cipher and self isomorphic mapping operations that makes the unrelated pieces become associated, which improves STBDW robustness further. In this article, we describe a software watermark embedding prototype in which the watermark pieces are embedded into the dynamic branch structure of program. Experiment shows that our technique has great robustness, it can effectively resist semantics-preserving code transform attacks and immune from most obfuscation attacks.
A dichromatic polynomial for weighted graphs and link polynomials

A dichromatic polynomial for weighted graphs is presented. The Kauffman bracket of a signed graph, an invariant inspired by the Jones poly- nomial of a link in three-space, is shown to be essentially an evaluation of this dichromatic polynomial, as are the homfly polynomials of certain particular types of links. 1. THE DICHROMATIC POLYNOMIAL OF A WEIGHTED GRAPH In this note we use the term graph to refer to a finite multigraph, i.e. a graph G = (V(G),E(G)) which has a finite number zz > 0 of vertices and a finite number zzz > 0 of edges, some of which may be multiple edges or loops. The zeroth Betti number p0(G) of such a graph is the number of its connected components, and the first Betti number px(G) is px(G) = m - n + p0(G). A weighted graph is a graph G together with a function w mapping E(G) into some commutative ring with unity R ; if e is an edge of G then w(e) is the weight or conductance of e . If S is any set of edges of a graph G then we denote by G : S the subgraph of G which includes all the vertices of G but only the edges in S. Using this notation, we define the dichromatic polynomial Q(G ;t,z) of a weighted graph
Predictive factors for hospitalization of nonurgent patients in the emergency department

AbstractNonurgent emergency department (ED) patients are a controversial issue in the era of ED overcrowding. However, a substantial number of post-ED hospitalizations were found, which prompted for investigation and strategy management. The objective of this study is to identify risk factors for predicting the subsequent hospitalization of nonurgent emergency patients. This was a retrospective study of a database of adult nontrauma ED visits in a medical center for a period of 12 months from January 2013 to December 2013. Patient triages as either Taiwan Triage and Acuity Scale (TTAS) level 4 or 5 were considered “nonurgent. ” Basic demographic data, primary and secondary diagnoses, clinical parameters including blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, and chief complaint category in TTAS were analyzed to determine if correlation exists between potential predictors and hospitalization in nonurgent patients.A total of 16,499 nonurgent patients were included for study. The overall hospitalization rate was 12.47 % (2058/16,499). In the multiple logistic regression model, patients with characteristics of males (odds ratio, OR = 1.37), age more than 65 years old (OR = 1.56), arrival by ambulance (OR = 2.40), heart rate more than 100/min (OR = 1.47), fever (OR = 2.73), and presented with skin swelling/redness (OR = 4.64) were predictors for hospitalization. The area under receiver-operator calibration curve (AUROC) for the prediction model was 0.70. Nonurgent patients might still be admitted for further care especially in male, the elderly, with more secondary diagnoses, abnormal vital signs, and presented with dermatologic complaints. Using the TTAS acuity level to identify patients for diversion away from the ED is unsafe and will lead to inappropriate refusal of care for many patients requiring hospital treatment.
The value of online surveys

Purpose – To provide a thorough analysis of the role of the internet in survey research and to discuss the implications of online surveys becoming such a major force in research.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is divided into four major sections: an analysis of the strengths and potential weaknesses of online surveys; a comparison of online surveys with other survey formats; a discussion on the best uses for online surveys and how their potential weaknesses may be moderated; and an overview of the online survey services being offered by the world's largest research firms.Findings – If conducted properly, online surveys have significant advantages over other formats. However, it is imperative that the potential weaknesses of online surveys be mitigated and that online surveys only be used when appropriate. Outsourcing of online survey functions is growing in popularity.Practical implications – The paper provides a very useful source of information and impartial advice for any professional who is co.
Emergency energy management strategy for commercial building microgrid consisting of PV and energy storage

When there is a power failure in distribution network, commercial building microgrid (CBMG) can be operated autonomously to guarantee the reliability of power supply. In order to reduce the influence of power outage and improve the reliability of power supply, this paper presents a novel emergency energy management (EEM) strategy, which is composed of EEM model and rolling optimization strategy. EEM model can determine the operation statues of energy storage system (ESS) and controllable loads, considering the intermittent solar energy and the fluctuations of loads. Rolling optimization strategy is proposed to reduce the prediction errors of photovoltaic (PV) output. A comprehensive result obtained from comparison simulations has shown that the proposed EEM strategy is efficacious in reducing the impact of blackout and improving the reliability of power supply. Additionally, the sensitivity analysis is carried out in case study section, and different sensitivity coefficients will considerably affect the optimization results.
Adaptive Centroid-Based Clustering Algorithm for Text Document Data

Document clustering is a significantly popular research, which aims to partition a corpus into many subgroups of homogeneous documents. Traditional clustering approaches catholically lack of considerations of word weights with clusters. To address this problem, we propose an Adaptive Centroid-based Clustering (ACC) algorithm. As a successful supervised centroid-based classifier, Class-Feature-Centroid (CFC) algorithm takes relationships among words into account. ACC attempts to employ this discriminative CFC vector to drive the clustering procedure. Since clustering is unsupervised, ACC begins with hundreds of small clusters for acceptable CFC vectors, and then iteratively regroups clusters of documents until convergence. As ACC is self-organized, it can determine the number of clusters adaptively. The experimental results validate that ACC achieves competitive performance with the state-of-art clustering approaches.
A History of ARNOVA

ARNOVA was founded in 1971 by David Horton Smith with the help of some others, particularly Burt R. Baldwin, Richard D. Reddy, and Eugene D. White, Jr. Financial resources were supplied by the Center for a Voluntary Society of Washington, DC, under the leadership first of James Shultz and later John Dixon. Incorporated as a 501(c)(3) in DC from the start, initially named Association of Voluntary Action Scholars, the organization operated very informally for the first 5 years. From 1977 to 1994, there was a more formal volunteer leadership period and then a paid executive director period beginning in 1994. The name was changed to ARNOVA in 1991. The Journal of Voluntary Action Research began publication in 1972, changing its name in 1989 to Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Other publications arose over the years. Annual conferences began in 1974. An ARNOVA-L Listserv was begun in 1991 and a CGAP-L Listserv in 1999. An awards program was begun in 1993. Two formal ARNOVA sections, one on teaching and one on community and grassroots associations, have been in existence since 1999. The association prospers with a variety of foundation grants and member revenues. There were more than 1,000 members at year-end 2000 from 34 nations and two U.S. territories.
Approximate filtering distributions for characterizing input-output behavior of biochemical networks

Characterizing complex biochemical networks in terms of their input-output behavior is at the core of rational circuit design. The theory of stochastic filtering offers an elegant methodology to describe such behavior by means of conditional probability distributions. The latter are relevant to various applications such as biomolecular estimation and control, robustness analysis and information transmission, to name a few. However, finding the conditional distributions as a function of time relies on the solution of a Kushner-Stratonovich equation that can be solved analytically in only a few exceptional cases. Here we develop an approximate filtering solution for the case when both input and output are described by one-dimensional discrete-valued Markov chains, whereas the output depends on the input through arbitrary rate functions. We analyze the accuracy of the approximation using a few examples and demonstrate its use for devising robust biochemical networks.
DSM–5’s Posttraumatic Stress Disorder with Dissociative Symptoms: Challenges and Future Directions

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, formally recognizes a dissociative subtype of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; PTSD with dissociative symptoms). This nomenclative move will boost empirical and theoretical efforts to further understand the links between dissociation, trauma, and PTSD. This article examines the empirical literature showing that patients with PTSD can be divided into 2 different groups based on their neurobiology, psychological symptom profile, history of exposure to early relational trauma, and depersonalization/derealization symptoms. It then explores the conceptual and empirical challenges of conceiving 1 of these types as reflecting a “dissociative” type of PTSD. First, this classification is based on the presence of a limited subset of dissociative symptoms (i.e., depersonalization, derealization). This sets aside an array of positive and negative psychoform and somatoform dissociative symptoms that may be related to PTSD. Second, empirical evidence suggests heightened dissociation in PTSD compared to many other disorders, indicating that dissociation is relevant to PTSD more broadly rather than simply to the so-called dissociative subtype. This article sets out important issues to be examined in the future study of dissociation in PTSD, which needs to be informed by solid conceptual understandings of dissociation.
The needs of spouses caring for severely aphasic persons

This qualitative research aimed to identify and describe the needs perceived by spouses of persons with severe aphasia. The analyses revealed different categories of needs: (1) information, (2) need to acquire an effective mode of communication with the aphasic partner, (3) better interpersonal relationships, (4) need to be considered as a partner in the caring process, (5) support, (6) respite. These needs were not static but in interaction with one another. Moreover, they varied within a temporal axis and appeared at different time periods: within the acute hospitalisation phase, rehabilitation phase, and after the aphasic person returned home. Taking into consideration the needs of spouses of persons with severe aphasia requires an eco-systemic and interdisciplinary approach aiming for the social reintegration of the person with aphasia. Services should be developed in order to respond to the unique and individual experiences and needs of people affected by aphasia. Speech language pathologists play a pivotal role within this approach because communication problems are central to the consequences of severe aphasia.
IBR-Assisted Volume Rendering

Volume rendering at interactive frame rates remains a challenge, especially with today’s increasingly large datasets. We propose a framework, using concepts from Image-Based Rendering (IBR), that decreases the required framerate for the volume renderer significantly. All the volume renderer needs to supply is a set of renderings at ‘key’ view points, and the IBR renderer will interpolate the intermittent frames at good accuracy. The IBR provides methods to handle both opaque and transparent datasets, and is an inexpensive process that can be run on the user’s desktop machine.
Colonization cycles in man and beast.

Abstract Pre‐industrial man and other animal species are compared with respect to colonization cycles, i.e. the cycles of population expansion and contraction that provide the historical basis for instantaneous biological distribution patterns. Because every species is basically different from every other species, biogeography has developed a common framework for understanding such unlike distributions as those of giraffes, oak trees and man by seeking relations among key variables or processes relevant to any species. Like other species, man reproduces, dies, disperses, exploits environments of varying stability and productivity, adapts phenotypically and genetically, is subject to intraspecific competition and ‐ still like other species ‐ differs from other species in particular characteristics of each of these processes. These key ingredients for biogeographic analysis are discussed to inquire in what ways man is unique as a colonist.