Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analgesic effects of treatments for non-specific low back pain: a meta-analysis of placebo-controlled randomized trials.

OBJECTIVE Estimates of treatment effects reported in placebo-controlled randomized trials are less subject to bias than those estimates provided by other study designs. The objective of this meta-analysis was to estimate the analgesic effects of treatments for non-specific low back pain reported in placebo-controlled randomized trials. METHODS Medline, Embase, Cinahl, PsychInfo and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases were searched for eligible trials from earliest records to November 2006. Continuous pain outcomes were converted to a common 0-100 scale and pooled using a random effects model. RESULTS A total of 76 trials reporting on 34 treatments were included. Fifty percent of the investigated treatments had statistically significant effects, but for most the effects were small or moderate: 47% had point estimates of effects of <10 points on the 100-point scale, 38% had point estimates from 10 to 20 points and 15% had point estimates of >20 points. Treatments reported to have large effects (>20 points) had been investigated only in a single trial. CONCLUSIONS This meta-analysis revealed that the analgesic effects of many treatments for non-specific low back pain are small and that they do not differ in populations with acute or chronic symptoms.
Cardinality heterogeneities in Web service composition: Issues and solutions

Data exchanges between Web services engaged in a composition raise several heterogeneities. In this paper, we address the problem of data cardinality heterogeneity in a composition. Firstly, we build a theoretical framework to describe different aspects of Web services that relate to data cardinality, and secondly, we solve this problem by developing a solution for cardinality mediation based on constraint logic programming.
Challenges in Mobile Application Development

Mobile systems and mobile applications have gained a lot of attention both in research and industry over the last years. The market share of mobile devices is constantly growing. More and more, users expect their mobile devices to provide functionality similar to the one they know from their desktop computers, but also to provide additional, mobile device specific functionality, like location based services. However, software development for mobile devices is still cumbersome and a methodology geared towards supporting the development of such mobile applications is still lacking. While there is broad agreement that developing for mobile devices is more difficult than traditional software engineering, we lack a precise understanding that goes beyond anecdotic evidence of why this is the case and how the situation can be ameliorated. We do not precisely know where and how the development of mobile application differs from “normal” software development and where new methodologies are needed. Aspects that need to be addressed in this context are, among others, the questions of software architectures for mobile applications, approaches to the software design for mobile applications and how the consequences of being mobile, e. g. , changing location, changing context, changing connectivity, heterogeneous software and platforms influence the software development process and what design approaches do reflect the specialties of mobile applications and systems appropriately. While this special issue cannot provide a definite or complete answer to these questions, it does provide answers to some important aspects. In the following, we will first try to get a more thorough understanding of some of the main differences between mobile and classical application development and will then discuss how the papers contained in this special issue address these differences.
Ruhr Economic Papers Taxing Human Capital Efficiently – the Double Dividend of Taxing Nonqualified Labour More Heavily than Qualified Labour

The working papers published in the Series constitute work in progress circulated to stimulate discussion and critical comments. Views expressed represent exclusively the authors' own opinions and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über Abstract Assuming isoelastic returns to education and an endogenous supply of qualified and nonqualified labour, it is shown to be second-best efficient not to distort the choice of education. Furthermore, taxation should set incentives so that qualified labour is substituted for nonqualified labour. As a result, it is efficient to tax labour income regressively with respect to qualification and to tax the monetary cost of education at a level that restores efficiency in education. A tax on capital income alleviates the distortion that progressive taxation of labour income exerts on human-capital investment.
Formal verification of safety properties in timed circuits

The incorporation of timing makes circuit verification computationally expensive. This paper proposes a new approach for the verification of timed circuits. Rather than calculating the exact timed stare space, a conservative overestimation that fulfills the property under verification is derived. Timing analysis with absolute delays is efficiently performed at the level of event structures and transformed into a set of relative timing constraints. With this approach, conventional symbolic techniques for reachability analysis can be efficiently combined with timing analysis. Moreover the set of timing constraints used to prove the correctness of the circuit can also be reported for backannotation purposes. Some preliminary results obtained by a naive implementation of the approach show that systems with more than 10/sup 6/ untimed states can be verified.
Δ9‐Tetrahydrocannabivarin suppresses in vitro epileptiform and in vivo seizure activity in adult rats

Purpose: We assessed the anticonvulsant potential of the phytocannabinoid Δ9‐tetrahydrocannabivarin (Δ9‐THCV) by investigating its effects in an in vitro piriform cortex (PC) brain slice model of epileptiform activity, on cannabinoid CB1 receptor radioligand‐binding assays and in a generalized seizure model in rats.
FLUORIDE AND MAGNESIUM CONTENT IN SUPERFICIAL ENAMEL LAYERS OF TEETH WITH EROSIONS

In the absence of any previous research on the content of fluoride and magnesium in superficial enamel layers of eroded teeth in relation to acid resistance of the enamel, a study was undertaken to determine the concentration of both elements in eroded teeth using the acid biopsy technique. Biopsies were obtained from the labial surface below (upper dentition) or above (lower dentition) the erosion from the following teeth: one upper central incisor, five upper canines, three lower canines, two upper premolars, and three lower premolars. Corresponding teeth without erosions from ageand gender-matched patients living in the same area served as controls. Microsamples of enamel were obtained using 3 μL of 0.5 M perchloric acid. Fluoride concentrations were measured chromatographically, and magnesium and calcium were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. Teeth with enamel erosions had significantly lower concentrations of both fluoride and magnesium as well as lower resistance to penetration by acid. Significantly lower concentrations of fluoride and magnesium were found in upper as well as in deeper enamel layers of eroded teeth compared to controls. These findings confirm an association between the content of fluoride and magnesium and acid resistance in dental enamel, which is reduced in teeth with erosions. In areas of low exposure to fluoride, topical fluoride may be protective against enamel erosion by acids, especially in carbonated beverages.
On the success probability of the box-constrained rounding and Babai detectors

In communications, one frequently needs to detect a parameter vector x in a box from a linear model. The box-constrained rounding detector x<sup>BR</sup> and Babai detector x<sup>BB</sup> are often used to detect x due to their high probability of correct detection, which is referred to as success probability, and their high efficiency of implimentation. It is generally believed that the success probability P<sup>BR</sup> of x<sup>BR</sup> is not larger than the success probability P<sup>BB</sup> of x<sup>BB</sup>. In this paper, we first present formulas for P<sup>BR</sup> and P<sup>BB</sup> for two different situations: x is deterministic and x is uniformly distributed over the constraint box. Then, we give a simple example to show that P<sup>BR</sup> may be strictly larger than P<sup>BB</sup> if x is deterministic, while we rigorously show that p<sup>BR</sup> ≤ p<sup>BB</sup> always holds if x is uniformly distributed over the constraint box.
Escherichia coli SeqA protein affects DNA topology and inhibits open complex formation at oriC

Chromosome replication in Escherichia coli is initiated by the DnaA protein. Binding of DnaA to the origin, oriC, followed by formation of an open complex are the first steps in the initiation process. Based on in vivo studies the SeqA protein has been suggested to function negatively in the initiation of replication, possibly by inhibiting open complex formation. In vitro studies have shown that SeqA inhibits oriC‐dependent replication. Here we show by KMnO4 probing that SeqA inhibits open complex formation. The inhibition was not caused by prevention of DnaA binding to the oriC plasmids, indicating that SeqA prevented strand separation in oriC either directly, by interacting with the AT‐rich region, or indirectly, by changing the topology of the oriC plasmids. SeqA was found to restrain the negative supercoils of the oriC plasmid. In comparison with the effect of HU on plasmid topology, SeqA seemed to act more cooperatively. It is likely that the inhibition of open complex formation is caused by the effect of SeqA on the topology of the plasmids. SeqA also restrained the negative supercoils of unmethylated oriC plasmids, which do not bind SeqA specifically, suggesting that the effect on topology is not dependent on binding of SeqA to a specific sequence in oriC.
Macro transmission power reduction for HetNet co-channel deployments

Enhanced Inter-Cell Interference Coordination (eICIC) techniques are targeted to improve the system and cell-edge throughput of Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) in LTE-Advanced systems. In order to protect pico UEs from the strong macro interference, the macro eNB can either stop data transmission or simply reduce the transmission power during certain subframes. In this paper, we investigate the impact of reducing the transmission power in LTE HetNets. We evaluate the tradeoff among macro transmission power, cell load and system and cell-edge throughput, with bursty and non-bursty traffic. Moreover, we address some of the technical and standardization challenges related to having a time-varying transmission power. Based on the results, we provide guidance on how to best configure the network to achieve the full potential of the eICIC concept in dynamically changing environments.
Antiperiodontitis Effects of Magnolia biondii Extract on Ligature-Induced Periodontitis in Rats

Over the past decades, periodontitis has become a rising health problem and caused various diseases. In the many studies shows that some extracts and compound to the prevention and treatment of periodontitis. This study focuses on the effects of inhibition of gingival damage and alveolar bone loss. The aim of this study was to evaluate the protective effects of Magnolia biondii extract (MBE) against ligature-induced periodontitis in rats. A ligature was placed around the molar teeth for 8 weeks, and MBE was administered for 8 weeks. Gingival tissue damage and alveolar bone loss were measured by microcomputed tomography (CT) analysis and histopathological examination. Serum Interluekin-1 β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), cyclooxygenases-2 (COX-2), and receptor activator of nuclear factor–κB ligand (RANKL) levels were investigated using commercial kits to confirm the antiperiodontitis effects of MBE. We confirmed that ligature-induced periodontitis resulted in gingival tissue damage and alveolar bone loss. However, treatment for 8 weeks with MBE protected from periodontal tissue damage and downregulated serum inflammatory cytokine factors and RANKL levels. These results suggest that MBE exerts antiperiodontitis effects by inhibiting gingival tissue destruction and alveolar bone loss through regulation of anti-inflammatory cytokines in periodontitis-induced rats.
Boosting multi-step autoregressive forecasts

Multi-step forecasts can be produced recursively by iterating a one-step model, or directly using a specific model for each horizon. Choosing between these two strategies is not an easy task since it involves a trade-off between bias and estimation variance over the forecast horizon. Using a nonlinear machine learning model makes the tradeoff even more difficult. To address this issue, we propose a new forecasting strategy which boosts traditional recursive linear forecasts with a direct strategy using a boosting autoregression procedure at each horizon. First, we investigate the performance of the proposed strategy in terms of bias and variance decomposition of the error using simulated time series. Then, we evaluate the proposed strategy on real-world time series from two forecasting competitions. Overall, we obtain excellent performance with respect to the standard forecasting strategies.
Stimulus factors in aversive controls: the generalization of conditioned suppression.

When a previously neutral stimulus has gained control over a given segment of behavior, stimuli which are like the stimulus, but not identical to it, frequently will exhibit control over that behavior. In the present sequence of studies, we attempted to examine the phenomenon of stimulus generalization when the behavior consisted of a reduction in the rate of ongoing responses. This latter process, conditioned suppression, is one of the by-products of a training history in which a neutral stimulus has typically preceded the occurrence of an unavoidable noxious event (for example, electrical shock). The behavior resulting from the joint action of stimulus generalization and conditioned suppression is of particular interest to the student of aversive controls because it represents a process by which the effects of aversive training may come to encompass large segments of an organism's behavior. An analysis of this process may help to clarify certain of the mechanisms involved in the behavioral phenomena of anxiety, conflict, and avoidance. We posed three questions: (1) What is the nature of the generalization gradient following training to a single stimulus? (2) How does the gradient change during the extinction of the suppressing capacities of the several stimuli? (3) In what way does the shape of the gradient depend upon the strength of the ongoing (positively reinforced) behavior?
The protective effects of acetyl L-carnitine on testis gonadotoxicity induced by Cisplatin in rats.

BACKGROUND Cisplatin, an effective antineoplastic agent, damages normal cells in a manner related to chemotherapy. Acetyl L-carnitine protects cells against mitochondrial and nuclear damage induced by chemotherapy. AIMS Animal experiment. STUDY DESIGN The aim of this study was to examine the protective effects of acetyl L-carnitine on cisplatin-induced gonadotoxicity in testicular structures. Twenty-four male Wistar albino rats were divided into four Groups (n=6): Group 1 (control) was administered saline; Group 2 was administered acetyl L-carnitine; Group 3 was administered cisplatin; and Group 4 was pre-treated with acetyl L-carnitine before cisplatin administration. METHODS After 72hr of treatment with cisplatin, the rats were sacrificed, and the testicular tissues were removed. Morphometric, histomorphologic and immunohistochemical analyses were conducted. RESULTS At the end of the experiment, Group 3 was characterised by statistically significant weight loss, a degenerative appearance of the seminiferous tubules in the peripheral region, separation of spermatogenic cell series from the tubular wall, cellular debris in the lumen and central interstitial oedema. Sperm morphology appeared to be abnormal. Tubular diameter and wall thickness decreased, and the number of TUNEL- and active caspase-positive cells increased compared with the other Groups. The histological findings in Group 4 were better than those in Group 3. CONCLUSION It was concluded that the prophylactic use of acetyl L-carnitine protects against cisplatin-induced testicular tissue damage.
GPGPU Power Modeling for Multi-domain Voltage-Frequency Scaling

Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) components is one of the most promising power management strategies, due to its potential for significant power and energy savings. However, there is still a lack of simple and reliable models for the estimation of the GPU power consumption under a set of different voltage and frequency levels. Accordingly, a novel GPU power estimation model with both core and memory frequency scaling is herein proposed. This model combines information from both the GPU architecture and the executing GPU application and also takes into account the non-linear changes in the GPU voltage when the core and memory frequencies are scaled. The model parameters are estimated using a collection of 83 microbenchmarks carefully crafted to stress the main GPU components. Based on the hardware performance events gathered during the execution of GPU applications on a single frequency configuration, the proposed model allows to predict the power consumption of the application over a wide range of frequency configurations, as well as to decompose the contribution of different parts of the GPU pipeline to the overall power consumption. Validated on 3 GPU devices from the most recent NVIDIA microarchitectures (Pascal, Maxwell and Kepler), by using a collection of 26 standard benchmarks, the proposed model is able to achieve accurate results (7%, 6% and 12% mean absolute error) for the target GPUs (Titan Xp, GTX Titan X and Tesla K40c).
Evolutionary continuous optimization by Bayesian networks and Guassian mixture model

In this paper, an evolutionary continuous optimization algorithm based on Bayesian networks and Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is proposed. A Bayesian network is used to model the relationship of variables in individual vector and the learned graphical structure is decomposed into subgraphs representing subproblems. Subsequently, GMM is adopted to model the probability distribution of each subproblem and its parameters are estimated by the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. New samples are generated from the GMM of each subproblem and Anally are mixed into new individuals. It is demonstrated by numerical examples that the proposed algorithm could achieve better performance than previous related algorithms.
Hardware design in education using C λ aSH Rinse

In order to bring the theory of embedded computer architectures into practice, a practical assignment has been developed where students design digital hardware using the functional hardware description language CλaSH. The assignment focuses on specifying the structure of FIR filters and analyzing the resulting hardware. By working through the assignment, students gain insight in the use of higher-order functions in the context of hardware design. It also shows that the declarative aspect of functional programming also applies to functional hardware design.
Identification of Borrelia Species after Creation of an In-House MALDI-TOF MS Database

Lyme borreliosis (LB) is a multisystemic disease caused by Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (sl) complex transmitted to humans by Ixodes ticks. B. burgdorferi sl complex, currently comprising at least 19 genospecies, includes the main pathogenic species responsible for human disease in Europe: B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (ss), B. afzelii, and B. garinii. In this study, for the first time, MALDI-TOF MS was applied to Borrelia spp. , supplementing the existing database, limited to the species B. burgdorferi ss, B . spielmanii and B. garinii, with the species B. afzelii, in order to enable the identification of all the species potentially implicated in LB in Europe. Moreover, we supplemented the database also with B. hermsii, which is the primary cause of tick-borne relapsing fever in western North America, B. japonica, circulating in Asia, and another reference strain of B. burgdorferi ss (B31 strain). The dendrogram obtained by analyzing the protein profiles of the different Borrelia species reflected Borrelia taxonomy, showing that all the species included in the Borrelia sl complex clustered in a unique branch, while Borrelia hermsii clustered separately. In conclusion, in this study MALDI-TOF MS proved a useful tool suitable for identification of Borrelia spp. both for diagnostic purpose and epidemiological surveillance.
Epidemiology of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, West South of Iran, 2006-2014

Abstract The World Health Organization recommended that comprehensive studies should be conducted on leishmaniasis, which is of the six important diseases in tropical regions. This study was carried out to investigate the epidemiological status of cutaneous leishmaniasis in Jahrom city of Fars province in southern Iran. In this analytical-descriptive study 1140 patients with cutaneous leishmaniasis were included. All patients were registered in the Disease Surveillance System of the Health Deputy of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences from 21 March 2006 to 20 March 2014. We extracted underlying and epidemiological variables of patients who were under treatment and follow-up procedures. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and chi-square test using SPSS17 at significance level of 0.05. Findings showed that 58.3% of patients were males, 64.3% of them were living in villages, and the majority of them were above 30 years of age. Moreover, 64% of them had a previous history of living in or traveling to a leishmaniasis endemic region in Iran. Hands were the most affected part of the body (39.4%) followed by face (23%). This study showed that cutaneous leishmaniasis was hypoendemic in Jahrom also the disease was more prevalent in rural areas. Leishmaniasis control programs in Jahrom requires an intersectoral collaboration of all involved organizations along with the proper education of the people at risk.