Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tools to Support Policy Decisions Related to Treatment Strategies and Surveillance of Schistosomiasis Japonica towards Elimination

Background Appropriate diagnostics to monitor disease trends and assess the effectiveness and impact of interventions are essential for guiding treatment strategies at different thresholds of schistosomiasis transmission and for certifying elimination. Field validation of these assays is urgently needed before they can be adopted to support policy decisions of the national programme for control and elimination of schistosomiasis in P.R. China. We compared the efficacy and utility of different immunoassays in guiding control strategies and monitoring the endemic status of S. japonicum infections towards elimination. Methodology/Principal Findings A cross-sectional survey was conducted in seven villages with different transmission intensities settings to assess the performance and utility of three immunoassays, e.g., an indirect hemagglutination assay (IHA_JX), an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA_SZ), and a dot immunogold filtration assay (DIGFA_SH). 6,248 individuals aged 6–65 years old who gave consent and supplied their stool and blood samples were included for data analysis. Results showed that ELISA_SZ performed significantly higher sensitivity (95.45%, 95%CI: 92.94–97.97%) than IHA_JX (87.59%, 95%CI: 83.51–91.49%) and DIGFA_SH (79.55%, 95%CI: 74.68–84.41%), especially in subgroups with very low infection intensity. The specificity of ELISA_SZ, IHA_JX, DIGFA_SH in 6–9 year olds with occasional exposure was nearly 90%. DIGFA_SH performed the highest screening efficacy for patients among three assays with overall positive predicative value of 13.07% (95%CI: 11.42–14.72%). We found a positive correlation of antibody positive rate of IHA_JX with results of stool examination in age strata (r = 0.70, P<0.001). Seropositivity of IHA_JX in children aged 6–9 years old showed an excellent correlation with prevalence of schistosome infection in the seven communities (r = 0.77, P<0.05). Conclusions/Significance Studies suggest that ELISA_SZ could be used to guide selective chemotherapy in moderate or low endemic regions. IHA_JX could be used to as a surveillance tool and for certifying elimination of schistosomiasis through monitoring children as a sentinel population.
Reducing Occupational Sex Segregation: Explaining Failure and Success

Abstract Recent developments in theory and public policy regarding occupational sex segregation are reviewed and evaluated. It is argued that the shift away from individual and sex role explanations and toward structural explanations is an important step forward In particular, socialist feminist and labor market segmentation theories provide useful frameworks for understanding the obstacles to occupational integration. However, in order to understand both the failures and the successes of attempts to reduce segregation, a neo-Weberian conflict model is more fruitful This model recognizes that social outcomes may reflect the power of capital or patriarchy, but they may also reflect sources of power and group interest which cut across those categories. The usefulness of this approach is illustrated through an examination of three empirical questions: 1) Why did the rate of sex segregation decline for the first time in the 1970's; 2) Why did segregation decline significantly more in some occupations than oth.
Ablation of MEK Kinase 1 Suppresses Intimal Hyperplasia by Impairing Smooth Muscle Cell Migration and Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Expression in a Mouse Blood-Flow Cessation Model

Background—Migration, proliferation, and matrix-degrading protease expression of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) are major features of intimal hyperplasia after vascular injury. Although MEK kinase 1 (MEKK1) has been shown to regulate cell migration and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) expression, the precise role of MEKK1 in this process remains unknown. Methods and Results—We triggered a vascular remodeling model by complete ligation of the right common carotid artery in wild-type (WT) and MEKK1-null (MEKK1−/−) mice. The intimal areas 28 days after ligation were significantly decreased in the ligated MEKK1−/− arteries compared with WT arteries (28±8 versus 65±17 &mgr;m2, P<0.05). There were no differences in the ratios of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA)–positive cells to total cells within the arterial wall between WT and MEKK1−/− arteries. Proliferation capacity also did not differ between WT and MEKK1−/− cultured aortic smooth muscle cells (AoSMCs). In contrast, the number of intimal PCNA-positive cells 7 days after ligation was significantly smaller in MEKK1−/− arteries. Three different migration assays revealed that migration and invasion of MEKK1−/− AoSMCs were markedly impaired. Addition of full-length MEKK1 restored the migration capacity of MEKK1−/− AoSMCs. The number of MEKK1−/− AoSMCs showing lamellipodia formation by epithelial growth factor was significantly smaller compared with those of WT SMCs. Furthermore, uPA expression after ligation was markedly decreased in MEKK1−/− arteries. Conclusions—MEKK1 is implicated in vascular remodeling after blood-flow cessation by regulating the migration and uPA expression of SMCs. MEKK1 is a potential target for drug development to prevent vascular remodeling.
Microfluidic Concentric Gradient Generator Design for High-Throughput Cell-Based Studies

Gradients of diffusible signaling molecules play important role in various processes, ranging from cell differentiation to toxicological evaluation. Microfluidic technology provides an accurate control of tempospatial conditions. However, current microfluidic platforms are not designed to handle multiple gradients and cell populations simultaneously. Here, we demonstrate a rapidly adaptable microfluidic design able to expose multiple cell populations to an array of chemical gradients. Our design is based on pressure-equilibrated concentric channels and a pressure-dissipating control layer, facilitating the seeding of multiple cell populations in a single device. The design was numerically evaluated and experimentally validated. The device consists of 8 radiating stimuli channels and 12 circular cell culture channels, creating an array of 96 different continuous gradients that can be simultaneously monitored over time.
Social Network Based Music Recommendation System

Mass multimedia contents are shared through various social media servies including social network service. As social network reveals user`s current situation and interest, highly satisfactory personalized recommendation can be made when such features are applied to the recommendation system. In addition, classifying the music by emotion and using analyzed information about user`s recent emotion or current situation by analyzing user`s social network, it will be useful upon recommending music to the user. In this paper, we propose a music recommendation method that makes an emotion model to classify the music, classifies the music according to the emotion model, and extracts user`s current emotional state represented on the social network to recommend music, and evaluates the validity of our method through experiments.
Natural Disasters as a Political Variable: The Effect of a Hurricane on an Urban Election

Political scientists usually assume that physical environment helps determine political behavior. They would not, for example, expect a homogeneous political culture in a country sharply divided by mountains. Also, extreme variations in physical environment, such as droughts and floods, have been traditionally considered bad omens for governments. However, very little empirical research has been done on the relationship between natural disasters and attitudes toward government for three reasons. First, political activity seems more determined by social environment than physical. Also, since the individual is influenced by a greater number of social factors than physical factors, the former are more accessible for study and comparison. Finally, it is especially difficult to examine the effect of natural disasters, for they are rather uncommon and unpredictable. This research gap is unfortunate, since such catastrophes place great stress upon the social framework and thus test the adaptive capabilities of the political system.
Testing Alternative Dynamic Systems for Modelling Tourism Demand

This paper presents an empirical study of tourism demand dynamics and identifies areas in which the scrutiny of relationships between theoretical and empirical considerations is likely to produce new insights. A flexible general form of a Dynamic Almost Ideal Demand System (DAIDS) is derived to analyse UK tourism demand for the neighbouring destinations of Portugal, Spain and France during 1969–97. Nested within the general dynamic structure are Deaton and Muellbauer's static AIDS model itself, the partial adjustment model and the auto-regressive distributed lag model, which are tested against the general dynamic alternative. The empirical results obtained show that DAIDS is a data-coherent and theoretically consistent model, providing evidence of the robustness of this methodology for tourism demand analysis in a temporal context. Moreover, the dynamic model offers statistically strong evidence of the inadequacy of the orthodox static AIDS and other restricted models for the consistent reconciliation of data and theory within their formulations. Estimates for tourism price and expenditure elasticities are obtained, permitting a comparative analysis of the relative magnitudes and statistical relevance of the long-run and short-run sensitivity of UK tourism demand to changes in its determinants.
Follow Me, Like Me, Tweet Me!

Occupational health nurses can advance their professional practices through virtual platforms (e.g., social media and mobile applications). Virtual platforms allow occupational health nurses to disseminate occupational safety and health information efficiently to employees, families, and other stakeholders. Occupational health nurses exchange information with employees, enhancing communication and disseminating appropriate and accurate safety and health information to workers and their families. This article assists occupational health nurses in understanding how to use social media and other mobile applications to enhance their practices.
A Web-based Tool for Expert Elicitation in Distributed Teams

We present in this paper a web-based tool developed to enable expert elicitation of the probabilities associated with a Bayesian Network. The motivation behind this tool is to enable assessment of probabilities from a distributed team of experts when face-to-face elicitation is not an option, for instance because of time and budget constraints. In addition to the ability to customize surveys, the tool provides support for both quantitative and qualitative elicitation, and offers administrative features such as elicitation surveys management and probability aggregation.
Does individualism bring happiness? Negative effects of individualism on interpersonal relationships and happiness

We examined the negative effects of individualism in an East Asian culture. Although individualistic systems decrease interpersonal relationships through competition, individualistic values have prevailed in European American cultures. One reason is because individuals could overcome negativity by actively constructing interpersonal relationships. In contrast, people in East Asian cultures do not have such strategies to overcome the negative impact of individualistic systems, leading to decreased well-being. To test this hypothesis, we investigated the relationship between individualistic values, number of close friends, and subjective well-being (SWB). Study 1 indicated that individualistic values were negatively related with the number of close friends and SWB for Japanese college students but not for American college students. Moreover, Study 2 showed that even in an individualistic workplace in Japan, individualistic values were negatively related with the number of close friends and SWB. We discuss how cultural change toward increasing individualism might affect interpersonal relationships and well-being.
Evaluation of estimation quality with respect to sensors losses

This paper deals with the estimation quality of nonlinear filters in relation to sensors losses. In a nonlinear state space representation setting, Central Difference Kalman Filter, Ensemble Kaman Filter and Particle Filter are tested on a second order system. Their comportment in relation to the sensors available are then studied, in order to compare the estimation quality by computing criteria such that variances of estimation errors and observability gramian.
Professionals Play Minimax

During the last few decades game theory has contributed to a reshaping of important aspects of the methodology of Economics and other social sciences. In large part this is because the language, concepts, and techniques of noncooperative game theory have become central to many areas of the discipline. Undoubtedly, studying the interaction of ideally rational players greatly aids our understanding of the behavior of real individuals, firms and other agents. Moreover, as Kreps (1991) remarks, "studying the former should aim at understanding the latter. The point of game theory is to help economists understand and predict what will happen in economic, social and political contexts. " Theoretical contributions should thus feed back to empirical analysis. However, testing the implications of the theory has proven extremely difficult in the literature. The primary reason is that many predictions often hinge on properties of the utility functions and the values of the rewards used. Even when predictions are invariant over classes of preferences, data on rewards are seldom available in natural settings. Moreover, there is often great difficulty in determining strategy sets and in measuring individuals� choices, effort levels, and the incentive structures they face. As a result, even the most fundamental predictions of game-theoretical models have not been supported empirically in real situations yet.
Ieee 6th Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications Impact of Spatial Channel Correlation on Super Quasi-orthogonal Space-time Trellis Codes

The error performance of a new family of super quasi-orthogonal space-time trellis codes (S-QSTTCs) for four transmit antennas on correlated MIMO channels is investigated. Two slightly different designs of S-QSTTCs, namely S-QSTTCs obtained by concatenating the extended Alam-outi space-time code (EAC) with a simple outer trellis code and the concatenation of the ABBA code with a simple outer trellis code are compared in detail. It is shown that EA-type and ABBA-type S-QSTTCs perform quite different on spatially correlated MIMO channels. However, a unique labelling of the trellis diagram adapted to these two super quasi-orthogonal constituent code types, results in a very similar error performance even in spatially correlated channels .
Involvement of integrins in fimbriae‐mediated binding and invasion by Porphyromonas gingivalis

Interaction between the major fimbriae of Porphyromonas gingivalis and gingival epithelial cells is important for bacterial adhesion and invasion. In this study, we identified integrins as an epithelial cell cognate receptor for P. gingivalis fimbriae. Immunoprecipitation and direct binding assays revealed a physical association between recombinant fimbrillin and β1 integrins. In vitro adhesion and invasion assays demonstrated inhibition of binding and invasion of P. gingivalis by β1 integrin antibodies. In contrast, invasion of a fimbriae‐deficient mutant of P. gingivalis was not affected by integrin antibodies. Infection of gingival epithelial cells with wild‐type P. gingivalis induced tyrosine phosphorylation of the 68 kDa focal adhesion protein paxillin, whereas the fimbriae‐deficient mutant failed to evoke similar changes. Interestingly, activation of paxillin was not accompanied by an increase in the phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK). These results provide evidence that P. gingivalis fimbriae promote adhesion to gingival epithelial cells through interaction with β1 integrins, and this association represents a key step in the induction of the invasive process and subsequent cell responses to P. gingivalis infection.
Depressive Symptoms and Mental Health Treatment in an Ethnoracially Diverse College Student Sample

Abstract Objectives: To study (a) the prevalence of depressive symptoms and (b) the utilization of mental health treatment in an ethnoracially diverse sample consisting primarily of Asian Americans, European Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Participants: Five hundred eighty-nine college students. Method: A questionnaire packet that included the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) was administered to students in introductory psychology courses. Results: (a) There were no differences among ethnoracial groups in levels of depressive symptoms as measured by the CES-D; (b) 71% of participants with high levels of depressive symptoms had not received any mental health treatment in the previous 12 months; and (c) European Americans were 3.7 times more likely to have received mental health treatment in the previous 12 months than other students. Conclusion: Outreach efforts designed to improve utilization of mental health treatment services by depressed college students, especially by members of ethnoracial minority groups, should be increased.
Cognitive styles in hypomanic episodes of bipolar I disorder

Lex C, Hautzinger M, Meyer TD. Cognitive styles in hypomanic episodes of bipolar I disorder. Bipolar Disord 2011: 13: 355–364. © 2011 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
Did monetary forces cause the great depression

This paper recasts Temin's (1976) question of whether monetary forces caused the Great Depression in a modern time series framework. We analyse money-income causalities and predict US output in a recursive Bayesian framework, allowing for information updating and time-varying coefficients. The predictive power of money aggregates and the Fed discount rate is in general very weak and collapses after the crisis of the gold standard in 1931. In contrast, non-monetary variables, particularly leading indicators of residential construction and equipment investment, have impressive forecasting power, forecasting almost half the output decline already in mid-1929. Our recursive framework also allows examination of the stability of our estimated dynamic parameters. Recursive estimates of the monetary impulse responses exhibit remarkable structural instability and strongly react to monetary regime changes during the depression. This phenomenon is discomforting in the light of the Lucas (1976) critique, as it suggests that the money/income relationship may be endogenous to policy and was not in the set of deep parameters of the US economy. Given the instability and poor predictive power of monetary instruments and the strong showing of leading indicators of real activity, we remain skeptical about a monetary interpretation of the Great Depression in the US.
The Role of Inference in the Anonymization of Medical Records

The quality of life has been significantly improved and one of the main reasons is the medical advances of the past decades. Nevertheless, to further advance the research and services in the field, practitioners, researchers and health organizations should share more information. While this need is indisputable, the sensitivity of the information demands that it is preprocessed, so that the published data are anonym zed and individuals cannot be identified. The scope of this work is to highlight the difficulties in providing automated anonymization approaches for medical records without consulting experts in the field. One of the major problems that is going to be highlighted is that Quasi-Identifiers (QI) are not independent. It is well known that combinations of QIs can be used to infer other relevant information. Nevertheless, this work tries to exploit the other way of information flow, we show how sensitive attributes can be exploited to derive information about the QIs, leading to many privacy hazards for the patients whose records are shared. To this extent, we illustrate some relevant examples and discuss probable counter-measures.
Analysis of Recycling Capabilities of Individuals and Crowds to Encourage and Educate People to Separate Their Garbage Playfully

Sorting garbage is a relevant topic in many countries as it contributes to environmental protection. Empirical evidence suggests that not all people separate waste, potentially because they do not know how to do it correctly or are simply not motivated enough. We present the results of an online study (N=184) investigating people's capabilities for classifying waste, their capabilities to improve in this task over time and their current garbage separation behavior. The study confirms that the Wisdom of Crowds is applicable in this context as the crowd produces only half as many errors as the individual and feedback helps participants to improve. Based on this, we introduce the idea of a crowd classifying waste in a game, with their classification result then being used as feedback on gamified public trash cans to educate both the crowd playing the game and people using the trash can playfully.
Myocardial structure, function and ischaemic tolerance in a rodent model of obesity with insulin resistance

• What is the central question of this study? Does obesity with insulin resistance decrease left ventricular pump function and/or myocardial tolerance to ischaemia in a rodent model of metabolic syndrome, and what mechanisms are involved in these changes? • What is the main finding and its importance? These data suggest that although left ventricular pump function may be maintained with obesity and insulin resistance, the hearts from these animals are more prone to ischaemia–reperfusion injury, which is in part due to changes in the functionality of the myocardial reperfusion injury salvage kinase (RISK) pathway. Interventions/therapies aimed at normalizing RISK pathway function have the potential to normalize myocardial tolerance to ischaemia–reperfusion in patients with the metabolic syndrome.
A supporting system for quick dementia screening using PIR motion sensor in smart home

Because of the worldwide aging population, more and more elders suffer from dementia. Nowadays, it is inconvenient and time-consuming for doctors to diagnose whether elders who live independently have dementia because lots of diagnostic questions on a checklist must be asked first, and part of them even require a long-term observation. In order to help doctors and make this diagnostic process easier, we proposed a supporting system that can quickly screen the elders and estimate the likelihood of them having dementia based on a behavioral test in 2 to 4 hours. During the behavioral test, the elders only need to perform some activities selected from so-called Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) in a smart home environment, and a machine learning algorithm is adopted to carry out the classification based on our proposed features extracted from motion sensors deployed in the smart home environment. Our system supports the classification of two classes, Dementia and Non-Dementia, and its average precision and recall are both up to 98.3%. Besides, the value of Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) is 0.851.