Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
When Is Diabetes Distress Clinically Meaningful?

OBJECTIVE To identify the pattern of relationships between the 17-item Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS17) and diabetes variables to establish scale cut points for high distress among patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Recruited were 506 study 1 and 392 study 2 adults with type 2 diabetes from community medical groups. Multiple regression equations associated the DDS17, a 17-item scale that yields a mean-item score, with HbA1c, diabetes self-efficacy, diet, and physical activity. Associations also were undertaken for the two-item DDS (DDS2) screener. Analyses included control variables, linear, and quadratic (curvilinear) DDS terms. RESULTS Significant quadratic effects occurred between the DDS17 and each diabetes variable, with increases in distress associated with poorer outcomes: study 1 HbA1c (P < 0.02), self-efficacy (P < 0.001), diet (P < 0.001), physical activity (P < 0.04); study 2 HbA1c (P < 0.03), self-efficacy (P < 0.004), diet (P < 0.04), physical activity (P = NS). Substantive curvilinear associations with all four variables in both studies began at unexpectedly low levels of DDS17: the slope increased linearly between scores 1 and 2, was more muted between 2 and 3, and reached a maximum between 3 and 4. This suggested three patient subgroups: little or no distress, <2.0; moderate distress, 2.0–2.9; high distress, ≥3.0. Parallel findings occurred for the DDS2. CONCLUSIONS In two samples of type 2 diabetic patients we found a consistent pattern of curvilinear relationships between the DDS and HbA1c, diabetes self-efficacy, diet, and physical activity. The shape of these relationships suggests cut points for three patient groups: little or no, moderate, and high distress.
Historical Aspects of Thermomechanical Processing for Steels

Thermomechanical processing (TMP) involves both thermal and mechanical treatments that define both product shape and microstructure/properties. Since the industrial revolution, machines of augmented power, size and precision have given rise to TMP that challenged explanation of the crystal mechanisms. In wrought iron, lamellar ferrite exhibited high transverse crack resistance due to fine slag stringers that as flux facilitated welding of puddled bars in forging of shafts or rolling of plates for bell-welding into pressure tight pipes; the substructure developed in the iron as working continued below 900°C strengthened it. Patenting of high C steel wire led to an optimum cold-drawn structure for outstanding strength and toughness. Hot forming technology, combined with the refining potential for austenite decomposition gave rise to controlled rolling for enhanced ferrite nucleation, ausforming to refine martensite and intercritical rolling to deform the ferrite or to spheroidize the carbides. Cold rolling and annealing have been scheduled to impart suitable strength, grain size, substructure and texture.
Risk of Venous Thromboembolism in Patients with Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Venous thromboembolism in patients with cancer is common, but precise incidence rates in different cancers are not known, making it difficult to target prevention strategies. This study summarizes the existing literature to determine the risk of venous thromboembolism in high- and average-risk groups of patients with different cancers.
Concepts in social and spatial marginality

The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual taxonomy of marginality resulting from two counterposed structural conditions within laissez‐faire on the one hand and controlled markets on the other. Marginality is a complex condition of disadvantage that individuals and communities may experience because of vulnerabilities which may arise from unequal or inequitable environmental, ethnic, cultural, social, political and economic factors. A typology of marginality is based on two primary and two derivative forms. The primary forms are contingent and systemic. The derivative forms are collateral and lever‐aged. Contingent marginality is a condition that results from competitive inequality in which individuals and communities are put at a disadvantage because of the dynamics of the free market whose uncertain and stochastic outcomes affect them adversely. Systemic marginality is a socioeconomic condition of disadvantage created by socially constructed inequitable non‐market forces of bias. Collateral marginality is a condition experienced by individuals or communities who are marginalized solely on the basis of their social and/or geographic proximity to individuals or communities that experience either contingent or systemic marginality. Lever‐aged marginality is a contingent or systemic disadvantage that people/communities are made to experience when their bargaining position in free markets is weakened by dominant stakeholders like transnational corporations which are able to leverage lucrative concessions by using the threat of alternative, often cheaper and marginalized (contingent or systemic) labour pools to which they can potentially take their business.
Modeling and Optimization of Memristor and STT-RAM-Based Memory for Low-Power Applications

Conventional charge-based memory usage in low-power applications is facing major challenges. Some of these challenges are leakage current for static random access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random access memory (DRAM), additional refresh operation for DRAM, and high programming voltage for Flash. In this paper, two emerging resistive random access memory (ReRAM) technologies are investigated, memristor and spin-transfer torque (STT)-RAM, as potential universal memory candidates to replace traditional ones. Both of these nonvolatile memories support zero leakage and low-voltage operation during read access, which makes them ideal for devices with long sleep time. To date, high write energy for both memristor and STT-RAM is one of the major inhibitors for adopting the technologies. The primary contribution of this paper is centered on addressing the high write energy issue by trading off retention time with noise margin. In doing so, the memristor and STT-RAM power has been compared with the traditional six-transistor-SRAM-based memory power and potential application in wireless sensor nodes is explored. This paper uses 45-nm foundry process technology data for SRAM and physics-based mathematical models derived from real devices for memristor and STT-RAM. The simulations are conducted using MATLAB and the results show a potential power savings of 87% and 77% when using memristor and STT-RAM, respectively, at 1% duty cycle.
A New On-Line Learning Model

We introduce a new supervised learning model that is a nonhomogeneous Markov process and investigate its properties. We are interested in conditions that ensure that the process converges to a correct state, which means that the system agrees with the teacher on every question. We prove a sufficient condition for almost sure convergence to a correct state and give several applications to the convergence theorem. In particular, we prove several convergence results for well-known learning rules in neural networks.
Observation Can Be as Effective as Action in Problem Solving

This study discusses findings that replicate and extend the original work of Burns and Vollmeyer (2002), which showed that performance in problem-solving tasks was more accurate when people were engaged in a non-specific goal than in a specific goal. The main innovation here was to examine the goal specificity effect under both observation-based and conventional action-based learning conditions. The findings show that goal specificity affects the accuracy of problem solving in the same way when the learning stage of the task is observation-based as when it is action-based. In addition, the findings show that, when instructions do not promote goal specificity, observation-based problem solving is as effective as action-based problem solving.
Lineage relationships, homeostasis, and recall capacities of central– and effector–memory CD8 T cells in vivo

The lineage relationships of central–memory T cells (TCM) cells and effector–memory T cells (TEM), as well as their homeostasis and recall capacities, are still controversial. We investigated these issues in a murine model using two complementary approaches: T cell receptor repertoire analysis and adoptive transfer experiments of purified H-Y–specific TCM and TEM populations. Repertoire studies showed that approximately two thirds of TCM and TEM clones derived from a common naive precursor, whereas the other third was distinct. Both approaches highlighted that TCM and TEM had drastically distinct behaviors in vivo, both in the absence of antigen or upon restimulation. TCM clones were stable in the absence of restimulation and mounted a potent and sustained recall response upon secondary challenge, giving rise to both TCM and TEM, although only a fraction of TCM generated TEM. In contrast, TEM persisted for only a short time in the absence of antigen and, although a fraction of them were able to express CD62L, they were unable to mount a proliferative response upon secondary challenge in this model.
THE EFFECT OF VARIOUS CONSTRAINT CONDITIONS IN THE FREQUENCY RESPONSE MODEL OF THERMAL STRIPING

— Thermal fatigue damage may be caused when incompletely mixed hot and cold fluid streams pass over the surface of a component or structure. This kind of thermal fatigue, known as thermal striping, is of particular concern in various types of nuclear reactors and for rapid shut-downs of hot plant. A computer code, known as TBL, is an engineering design tool which has been developed to assess thermal striping damage for fully constrained plates. This model is further developed to account for various plate-constraint conditions. It is compared with two other methods of assessing thermal striping damage. Good agreement is found for the cases when the component is (a) a plate, constrained in various ways and exposed to a sinusoidally varying temperature time striping history and (b) a shroud tube found in the above-core region of a fast reactor pressure vessel and striped with a random temperature time history.
2015 Ieee International Conference on Big Data (big Data) Inferring Crowd-sourced Venues for Tweets

—Knowing the geo-located venue of a tweet can facilitate better understanding of a user's geographic context, allowing apps to more precisely present information, recommend services, and target advertisements. However, due to privacy concerns, few users choose to enable geotagging of their tweets, resulting in a small percentage of tweets being geotagged; furthermore, even if the geo-coordinates are available, the closest venue to the geo-location may be incorrect. In this paper, we present a method for providing a ranked list of geo-located venues for a non-geotagged tweet, which simultaneously indicates the venue name and the geo-location at a very fine-grained granularity. In our proposed method for Venue Inference for Tweets (VIT), we construct a heterogeneous social network in order to analyze the embedded social relations, and leverage available but limited geographic data to estimate the geo-located venue of tweets. A single classifier is trained to estimate the probability of a tweet and a geo-located venue being linked, rather than training a separate model for each venue. We examine the performance of four types of social relation features and three types of geographic features embedded in a social network when inferring whether a tweet and a venue are linked, with a best accuracy of over 88%. We use the classifier probability estimates to rank the candidate geo-located venues of a non-geotagged tweet from over 19k possibilities, and observed an average top-5 accuracy of 29%.
Head-only electrical stunning of poultry using a waterbath: a feasibility study

1. The objective of this work was to investigate the feasibility of head only waterbath stunning as a means of generating immediate and long lasting unconsciousness while preventing wing flapping and avoiding carcass damage. 2. EEG measurements showed that immersion of the heads of the broilers for one second in a waterbath containing water of conductivity 2·5 mS/cm and a 50 Hz electric field of 10 V/cm resulted in immediate unconsciousness, and that increasing the electric field strength extended the duration of unconsciousness. 3. The passage of a 25–30 mA alternating current of frequency 2000 Hz through the broilers’ bodies suppressed the wing flapping that followed a stun. 4. When the body current and electric field were applied simultaneously, wing flapping was prevented and EEG signals were suppressed for over 30 seconds indicating that the immediate unconsciousness lasted long enough to facilitate humane slaughter.
A Soluble Form of α1,3-Galactosyltransferase Functions within Cells to Galactosylate Glycoproteins*

It has been assumed that membrane-bound glycosyltransferases function within the Golgi apparatus to glycosylate glycoproteins. We now report, however, that a truncated, soluble recombinant form of the murine α1,3-galactosyltransferase expressed in human 293 cells is highly efficient and comparable to the full-length enzyme in α-galactosylating both newly synthesized membrane-associated and secreted glycoproteins. Although the soluble enzyme was secreted by cells as expected, we also found that the full-length, membrane-associated form was secreted. Unexpectedly, both secreted forms are cleaved identically at two primary sites within the stem region by endogenous protease(s) at the indicated positions in the sequence 73KDWW↓FPS↓WFKNG. These results demonstrate that the soluble α1,3-galactosyltransferase is functional within the cell and that specific proteolysis occurs in the stem region. The widespread occurrence of different soluble glycosyltransferases secreted by cells suggests that normal glycoconjugate biosynthesis may involve cooperation between membrane-bound and soluble enzymes.
Calibration of COSMO-SkyMed SAR data for hydrology applications

In this paper we present a procedure for the calibration of SAR data devoted to extract physical information from Cosmo-Skymed images. The main purpose is the extraction of land cover indexes for hydrology applications. The calibration procedure was implemented in a rural context in Burkina Faso, where along with the technical challenges we faced socio-economic problems. A set of handmade trihedral corner reflectors were deployed and their response measured from SAR images. The results were used for calibration of an erosion product.
Performance comparison of sampling techniques for web-based networks

The gaining popularity of social networks is attracting a large number of researchers to study the behaviour and characteristics of social networks at a large scale. But it is difficult to capture full view of many social networks due to their large size and access limitations. Therefore, sampling techniques are essential to analyse Online Social Network's characteristics and behaviours. It is a challenging task to create a small but representative sample from a large social graph having millions of nodes. Many graph sampling algorithms have been proposed in past like BFS (Breadth First Search), DFS (Depth First Search), Snowball sampling, Random Walk sampling and their variations. In this paper, we evaluated the performance of Random Walk (RW) and Metropolis Hastings Random Walk (MHRW) algorithm on web-based network datasets. Evaluation is done on the basis of two parameters: average path length and average clustering coefficient. Our results show that MHRW technique performed better than RW technique for both the parameters.
Admission to the intensive care unit for respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis: a national survey before palivizumab use.

OBJECTIVE Preterm infants, especially those with chronic lung disease (CLD), are considered more susceptible to severe respiratory illness from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection than healthy term infants, and are therefore targeted for prophylactic administration of immune globulins. The impact of this practice on the more severe cases of bronchiolitis (i.e., pediatric intensive care unit [PICU] admission, mechanical ventilation, mortality) has not been reported to date. The aim of this study was to evaluate PICU admissions, need for mechanical ventilation, and mortality attributable to RSV bronchiolitis in Israel before the introduction of RSV prophylaxis to the country. DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective survey of 11 PICUs in Israel during the RSV season (November 2000-March 2001). PATIENTS All patients admitted to the PICU because of bronchiolitis, and the subgroups who needed mechanical ventilation or who died, were analyzed for known risk factors, namely, prematurity, CLD, and chronic oxygen dependence. RESULTS A total of 105 patients with RSV bronchiolitis met the inclusion criteria, of whom 33 were mechanically ventilated. Most of the patients (84% total admission, 88% ventilated) were born after 32 weeks' gestation, and 89% and 88%, respectively, did not have CLD. Only 16% and 9%, respectively, met any of the American Academy of Pediatrics criteria for RSV prophylaxis, such that 84% of the whole sample and 91% of the ventilated patients were not candidates for RSV prophylaxis. Five patients died, 2 of them with cyanotic heart disease. CONCLUSIONS Most of the infants with severe RSV bronchiolitis were born at term and did not have CLD. The great majority of patients admitted to the PICU for bronchiolitis were not candidates for RSV prophylaxis. Administration of RSV prophylaxis to the predefined high-risk population could be expected to yield no significant change in PICU admissions or number of infants needing mechanical ventilation. New risk-stratified guidelines for RSV prophylaxis are needed.
Cytogenetic Profile of Variant Philadelphia Translocations in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative neoplasm characterised by the presence of the Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome which is due to the reciprocal translocation, t(9;22)(q34;q11.2). The translocation results in the BCR-ABL1 fusion gene, encoding a constitutively active tyrosine kinase protein which causes the genesis of CML. About 5-10% of newly diagnosed Ph-positive CML patients have a variant translocation involving chromosomes 9 and 22, and one or more than one other chromosomes. The objectives of this study are to identify the chromosomes involved, breakpoints and additional chromosomal aberrations in variant Ph translocation. Conventional cytogenetic analysis is performed as a routine diagnostic test for all patients with hematological malignancies in our Cytogenetic Laboratory. Based on cytogenetic findings, 42 newly diagnosed CML patients with variant Ph translocation were selected for this study. Thirty nine patients (93%) had simple variant translocation and three patients (7%), complex variant translocation. Besides chromosomes 9 and 22, a total of 16 different chromosomes were involved in variant Ph translocation. The most frequently involved chromosomes were chromosomes 1 and 11. A total of 34 breakpoints were identified. Additional chromosomal abnormalities such as trisomies, translocations, and deletions were also observed. This shows that variant Ph translocations are very heterogeneous at the genetics level, with the involvement of different chromosomes and a diversity of breakpoints.
The effect of SRNR on timing characteristics of signal busses

At exceedingly high integration nodes and high signal transition frequencies, signal integrity (SI) is a major design concern. The main culprits are parasitics, capacitive and inductive, inherent in the circuit elements and interconnect. The Semi-Random Net Reordering (SRNR) technique concentrates on reducing the fundamental contributors to capacitive and inductive coupling in interconnect at the top-level of an integrated circuit's design. By reducing overlap length and increasing separation distance, SRNR is able to improve signal timing characteristics in wide signal busses dramatically. A routing structure employing the SRNR technique is faster and more uniformly behaved compared to the same routing structure under standard routing methodology.
p38 Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase-Dependent Tumor Necrosis Factor-α-Converting Enzyme Is Important for Liver Injury in Hepatotoxic Interaction between Lipopolysaccharide and Ranitidine

Ranitidine (RAN) is one of the drugs associated with idiosyncratic adverse drug reactions (IADRs) in human patients. In rats, cotreatment with nontoxic doses of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and RAN causes liver injury. This is a potential animal model for RAN-induced IADRs in humans. Previous studies showed that RAN augmented serum tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α production and hepatic neutrophil activation after LPS treatment and that both TNF-α and neutrophils are crucial for the liver pathogenesis. We tested the hypothesis that p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase activation is necessary for TNF-α production, neutrophil activation, and subsequent liver injury. LPS/RAN cotreatment caused more p38 activation compared with LPS alone. The p38 inhibitor SB 239063 [trans-1-(4-hydroxycyclohexyl)-4-(4-fluorophenyl)-5-(2-methoxypyridimidin-4-yl) imidazole] reduced liver injury in rats cotreated with LPS/RAN. This inhibitor also reduced neutrophil activation and attenuated hemostatic system activation. SB 239063 decreased serum TNF-α concentration after LPS/RAN treatment to the same level as LPS treatment. However, the inhibitor did not reduce TNF-α mRNA in liver, suggesting a post-transcriptional mode of action. This might occur through TNF-α-converting enzyme (TACE), which cleaves pro-TNF-α into its active form. Indeed, a TACE inhibitor administered just before RAN treatment reduced serum TNF-α protein. The TACE inhibitor also reduced liver injury and serum plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)-1. Furthermore, a PAI-1 inhibitor reduced neutrophil activation and liver injury after LPS/RAN treatment. In summary, RAN enhanced TNF-α production after LPS treatment through augmented p38 activation, and this seems to occur through TACE. The prolonged TNF-α production enhanced PAI-1 production after RAN cotreatment, and this is important for the hepatotoxicity.
Chronic Arachidonic Acid Administration Decreases Docosahexaenoic Acid- and Eicosapentaenoic Acid-Derived Metabolites in Kidneys of Aged Rats

Arachidonic acid (ARA) metabolites produced by cyclo-oxygenase and lipoxygenase are important mediators maintaining physiological renal function. However, the effects of exogenous ARA on kidney function in vivo remain unknown. This study examined the effects of long-term oral ARA administration on normal renal function as well as inflammation and oxidative stress in aged rats. In addition, we measured levels of renal eicosanoids and docosanoids using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Control or ARA oil (240 mg/kg body weight/day) was orally administered to 21-month-old Wistar rats for 13 weeks. Levels of plasma creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines, reactive oxygen species, and lipid peroxidation were not significantly different between the two groups. The ARA concentration in the plasma, kidney, and liver increased in the ARA-administered group. In addition, levels of free-form ARA, prostaglandin E2, and 12- and 15-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid increased in the ARA-administered group, whereas renal concentration of docosahexaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid decreased in the ARA-administered group. Levels of docosahexaenoic acid-derived protectin D1, eicosapentaenoic acid-derived 5-, and 18-hydroxyeicosapentaenoic acids, and resolvin E2 and E3 decreased in the ARA-administered group. Our results indicate that long-term ARA administration led to no serious adverse reactions under normal conditions and to a decrease in anti-inflammatory docosahexaenoic acid- and eicosapentaenoic acid-derived metabolites in the kidneys of aged rats. These results indicate that there is a possibility of ARA administration having a reducing anti-inflammatory effect on the kidney.