Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reducing causes of inequity: policies focused on social determinants of health during generational transitions in Colombia

ABSTRACT Health inequalities often result from social inequities, and those, in turn, are generated by social determinants of health (SDoH). Hence, to reduce health inequalities, it is necessary to consider all health-related determinants. Disadvantages arise even before birth, and they tend to accumulate throughout an individual’s life. Thus, policy actions intended to overcome these health inequalities should take place before birth and continue throughout life. This review aimed to describe the first steps of that Colombia has taken to reduce health inequalities during generational transitions through an inter-sectorial coordination upon SDoH. The review was guided by the question ‘What are the implemented policy responses aimed to reduce health inequalities during generational transitions in Colombia, and what can be considered in order to improve inter-sectorial coordination? ’ Given the novelty of this area of research, the existent literature is presented more as narrative, rather than systematic review. Seven policies focused on five SDoH have been taken as examples. These policies show how Colombia plans to reduce health inequalities by acting upon these five SDoH: (1) early childhood development, (2) opportunities for education and first employment, (3) improved housing conditions, (4) social protection for families, and (5) vulnerable populations (e.g. elderly population). Additionally, more specific cases are examined in more detail that take place during sensitive periods in a person’s life, such as pregnancy, birth, early childhood, entry to higher education, first time job search, family building, elderly years, and so on. The evidence represents Colombian’s first steps toward reducing health inequalities during generational transitions. Elimination of health inequalities becomes feasible when governments recognize the importance of bringing opportunities to the worst-off populations, as well as the pivotal role of properly and well-coordinated inter-sectorial actions.
Analysis of Z PHi / PH / 1 Queues t

In this paper we analyze a queue to which the arrival process can be depicted as the transition times on marked arcs in a finite Markov chain, and the service process is a phase distribution. We use the term generalized phase process (GPH) to denote point processes that can be depicted as the transition times in a finite Markov chain. Special cases of GPH are renewal processes with inter-renewal times distributed as phase distributions, and superposition of phase renewal processes. Performance measure studied include the moments of the number in queue as seen by each customer class, and the first two moments of the waiting time for each customer class. We derive a system of differential equations whose solution gives the waiting time distribution. We also characterize the asymptotic tails of the waiting time distribution and the distribution of the number in queue. The stationary interval distribution of the departure process and the correlation in the departure process are also derived. * Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management Cambridge, MA 02139 ** Anderson Graduate School of Management University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024 t This research has been partially supported by the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, and by the UCLA Committee on Grants #99.
Spontaneous emergence of modularity in cellular networks

Modularity is known to be one of the most relevant characteristics of biological systems and appears to be present at multiple scales. Given its adaptive potential, it is often assumed to be the target of selective pressures. Under such interpretation, selection would be actively favouring the formation of modular structures, which would specialize in different functions. Here we show that, within the context of cellular networks, no such selection pressure is needed to obtain modularity. Instead, the intrinsic dynamics of network growth by duplication and diversification is able to generate it for free and explain the statistical features exhibited by small subgraphs. The implications for the evolution and evolvability of both biological and technological systems are discussed.
A Simple Ultrasound Approach for Detection of Recurrent Proximal‐Vein Thrombosis

BackgroundThe objective of this study was to develop a simple ultrasound method for measuring thrombus regression in patients with proximal deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) and to test its utility for the detection of DVT recurrence.Methods and Resuls. The study comprised a cross-sectional survey and a prospective investigation (149 and 145 patients, respectively). In both phases, the normalization rate of a previously abnormal ultrasound test, applying the criterion of full compressibility of the common femoral and popliteal veins (C-US method), was assessed. In the prospective study, the vein diameter under maximum compression (thrombus thickness) was measured in the abnormal venous segments at scheduled times (1, 3, 6, and 12 months). In patients presenting with suspected DVT recurrence, the procedure was repeated and results were compared with those available from the previous examination. Noncompressibility of a previously normal(ized) venous segment and enlargement of thrombus thickness (.$2 mm) were considered diagnostic of proximal DVT recurrence. The diagnostic accuracy of the C-US method alone, as well as of the combined ultrasound methods (C-US + thrombus thickness), was assessed against contrast phlebography. C-US test normalization occurred in only 301% of patients within 1 year. A significant reduction of the thrombus mass (P<.0001) was recorded throughout the entire study period. However, a major decrease in thrombus mass (>50%o) was recorded within the first 3 months. Of 29 patients who developed a suspected recurrent DVT, phlebography confirmed diagnosis in 11. The C-US method alone showed an excellent accuracy (100%) but was applicable in only 6 patients (21%). Both the sensitivity and the specificity for proximal DVT recurrence of the combined ultrasound methods were 100%o (95% confidence interval, 69% to 100% and 81% to 100%, respectively) and were applicable in all patients. ConclusionsThe serial ultrasound measurement of thrombus mass after an acute episode of DVT may allow the correct identification of patients who develop a recurrent proximal-vein thrombosis.
A Conformationally Constrained Peptidomimetic Binds to the Extracellular Region of HER2 Protein

Abstract Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a member of the human epidermal growth factor receptor kinases (other members include EGFR or HER1, HER3, and HER4) that are involved in signaling cascades for cell growth and differentiation. It is well established that HER2-mediated heterodimerization has important implications in cancer. Deregulation of signaling pathways and overexpression of HER2 is known to occur in cancer cells, indicating a role of HER2 in tumorigenesis. Therefore, blocking HER2-mediated signaling has potential therapeutic value. We have designed several peptidomimetics to inhibit HER2-mediated signaling for cell growth. One of the compounds (HERP5, Arg-βNaph-Phe) exhibited antiproliferative activity with IC50 values in the micromolar-to-nanomolar range in breast cancer cell lines. Binding of fluorescently labeled HERP5 to HER2 protein was evaluated by fluorescence assay, microscopy, and circular dichroism spectroscopy. Results indicated that HERP5 binds to the extracellular region of the HER2 protein. Structure of the peptidomimetic HERP5 was studied by NMR and molecular dynamics simulations. Based on these results a model was proposed for HER2-EGFR dimerization and possible blocking by HERP5 peptidomimetic using a protein-protein docking method.
A flexible MAC development framework for cognitive radio systems

Cognitive radios are becoming the technological foundation for efficiently managing the scarcity of wireless spectrum, fulfilling various QoS demands and allowing different networks to coexist. Cognition and spectrum agility in MAC protocols require adaptability and close PHY-MAC interaction. Classically, MAC protocols have been implemented in hardware, which gives a limited possibility for reconfiguration and customization. Recently, software based MAC implementations have emerged although a close hardware-software co-design is typically required to keep the time critical operations in ASICs or FPGAs. We introduce a MAC development framework for enabling fast composition of MAC protocols, which are best fitted to the application requirements, communication capabilities of the radio, and current spectrum regulations and policies. We decompose MAC protocols into their basic functionalities which are perceived as building blocks and are partitioned across hardware/software. Our framework allows on-the-fly realization of the envisioned MAC protocol through wiring of these fundamental components. By exposing extended metadata and hardware functionalities for the MAC implementation through our granular components, together with the support for run-time re-configuration, spectrum agile and cognitive MAC solutions can be easily realized. In this paper, we describe the design rationale and implementation details of our framework on WARP [1] boards. We show through experimental evaluation that the framework provides flexible means for prototyping different reconfigurable cognitive and spectrum agile MAC protocols.
Visputer - A Graphical Visualization Tool for Parallel Programming

Designing parallel programs for message-passing systems is not an easy task. Difficulties arise largely due to human limitations in identifying relationships between simultaneously executed program components, or processes, and between the data computed by these processes. This paper presents a parallel program visualization tool, Visputer, that provides the ability to graphically design and edit message-passing programs written in Occam2, configure parallel processes onto a multi-transputer network and visualize the execution of programs. The textual versions of programs and network configurations are automatically generated by Visputer based on program and network graphs, and then statically analysed for their performance and communication patterns. Animation of program execution is achieved by instrumenting the original program with event collecting code. The event collection method maintains program behaviour and imposes little performance impact on the original program.
A quality characteristics estimation methodology for the hierarchy of RTL compilers

For System-on-Chips (SoCs) one of the most critical design constraints are gate count and power consumption. This paper presents a quality characteristics estimation methodology for STAR Memory System (SMS) network. Our proposed methodology is based on linear and polynomial approximation. The obtained approximate functions are embedded in scripts that were developed for automated estimation of gate count and power consumption. The mentioned methodology enables to perform area and power-aware SMS network design at early stages of SoC design.
State of the Art in Similarity Preserving Hashing Functions

One of the goals of digital forensics is to analyse the content of digital devices by reducing its size and complexity. Similarity preserving hashing functions help to accomplish that mission through a resemblance comparison between different files. Some of the best-known functions of this type are the context-triggered piecewise hashing functions, which create a signature formed by several hashes of the initial file. In this contribution, we present the state of the art of the most important similarity preserving hashing functions, analysing their main features. We conclude our work listing the most relevant properties that such type of functions should satisfy in order to improve their efficiency.
Compiler and runtime support for enabling generalized reduction computations on heterogeneous parallel configurations

A trend that has materialized, and has given rise to much attention, is of the increasingly heterogeneous computing platforms. Presently, it has become very common for a desktop or a notebook computer to come equipped with both a multi-core CPU and a GPU. Capitalizing on the maximum computational power of such architectures (i.e., by simultaneously exploiting both the multi-core CPU and the GPU) starting from a high-level API is a critical challenge. We believe that it would be highly desirable to support a simple way for programmers to realize the full potential of today's heterogeneous machines. This paper describes a compiler and runtime framework that can map a class of applications, namely those characterized by generalized reductions, to a system with a multi-core CPU and GPU. Starting with simple C functions with added annotations, we automatically generate the middleware API code for the multi-core, as well as CUDA code to exploit the GPU simultaneously. The runtime system provides efficient schemes for dynamically partitioning the work between CPU cores and the GPU. Our experimental results from two applications, e.g., k-means clustering and Principal Component Analysis (PCA), show that, through effectively harnessing the heterogeneous architecture, we can achieve significantly higher performance compared to using only the GPU or the multi-core CPU. In k-means, the heterogeneous version with 8 CPU cores and a GPU achieved a speedup of about 32.09x relative to 1-thread CPU. When compared to the faster of CPU-only and GPU-only executions, we were able to achieve a performance gain of about 60%. In PCA, the heterogeneous version attained a speedup of 10.4x relative to the 1-thread CPU version. When compared to the faster of CPU-only and GPU-only versions, we achieved a performance gain of about 63.8%.
Modulation of an inactivating human cardiac K+ channel by protein kinase C.

The transient outward current (ITO) is an important repolarizing component of the cardiac action potential. In native cardiac myocytes, ITO is modulated after activation of protein kinase C, although the molecular nature of this effect is not well understood. A channel recently cloned from human ventricular myocardium (Kv1.4, HK1) produces a rapidly inactivating K+ current, which has phenotypic similarities to the 4-aminopyridine-sensitive component of ITO. Therefore, we examined whether this recombinant channel was also modulated by protein kinase C activation by investigating the effects of the diacylglycerol analogue phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) on Kv1.4 K+ current expressed in Xenopus oocytes. At a concentration of 10 nmol/L, PMA caused a biphasic response with an initial increase (14 +/- 4%, mean +/- SEM) in current, which peaked in 14 minutes. This was followed by a significant reduction (40 +/- 11%) in the current within 30 minutes. There was no significant change in cell membrane electrical capacitance with 10 nmol/L PMA (1 +/- 1% decline in 30 minutes), demonstrating that loss of cell membrane surface area did not explain the reduction in K+ current, although cell capacitance did decrease when using a higher concentration of PMA (81 nmol/L). The inactive stereoisomer, 4 alpha-PMA, had no effect on Kv1.4 current, whereas preincubation with the protein kinase inhibitor staurosporine or protein kinase C-selective chelerythrine prevented the effects of PMA. When purified from a stably transfected mammalian cell line by using immunoprecipitation, the channel protein was readily phosphorylated in vitro by purified protein kinase C. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Multiple-perspective Visual Analytics for GRC Platforms

GRC (Governance, Risk, and Compliance) data is voluminous and highly interrelated, yet sparsely populated. This fact represents one of the biggest challenges when creating visualizations for such datasets: the data does not align well in a tabular structure typically used to populate displays and reports. GRC Platforms provide reporting capabilities and data visualization techniques to summarize data, yet most common GRC visualizations are restricted to certain inflexible perspectives, e.g., Risk Matrix. This work presents a Visual Analytics system that provides multiple visual perspectives over GRC data. The evaluation of the system involved four GRC specialists. The results show that the multiple perspectives approach supports the summarization of different portions of the GRC data, especially regarding business process and business entity taxonomies, and risk/control relationships. The results provide useful insights for specialists working to explore and summarize GRC data and to integrate Visual Analytics Systems with GRC platforms. In addition, the multiple-perspective approach presented could also be applied in systems sharing the same data structure GRP Platforms use.
Mitigating the elderly's privacy concerns when making use of Mobile Monitoring and Care systems

South Africa's ageing population is increasing. The elderly prefer to live independently for as long as possible in their own homes. Mobile Monitoring and Care systems (MMCs) are enabling the elderly to live independently while supporting their well-being in the comfort of their homes. However, literature has however shown that the elderly are not willing to make use of MMCs in their homes due to privacy concerns. The purpose of this paper is then to investigate the privacy concerns of the elderly towards the use of MMCs in their home environment. The study makes use of a qualitative, inductive approach. The study found that there are a variety of factors that influences the elderly's privacy concerns to make use of MMCs The study therefore recommends the following: to introduce appropriate privacy legislation, to implement and communicate fair information practices in the MMC industry, raising awareness about the benefits of MMCs among the elderly, developing inconspicuous and unobtrusive MMC technologies and educating the elderly about the privacy controls of MMC devices.
Market-Based Load Balancing for Distributed Heterogeneous Multi-Resource Servers

To cope with rapidly increasing Internet usage nowadays, providing Internet services using multiple servers has become a necessity. To ensure sufficient service quality and server utilization at the same time, effective methods are needed to spread load among servers properly. Existing load balancing methods often assume servers are homogeneous and consider only one type of resource, such as CPU. Such methods suffer from the fact that different requests often demand multiple types of resources with different requirements; trying to balance the usage of only one resource type may induce an inadvertent performance bottleneck, leading to low resource utilization and service quality. To address this problem, we propose a load balancing method based on the concept of distributed market mechanism, where requests are priced with respect to the load of multiple resources on each server. By migrating jobs among servers to balance inter-server load and minimize intra-server job cost at the same time, our method shows significant improvement in terms of load imbalance degrees, server utilization, and response time when compared to other published methods, especially when server heterogeneity increases.
Making the most of information-gathering with children

Because child abuse victims are often the only available sources of information about their experiences, extensive efforts have been made to understand how to maximize their informativeness. There is now broad international consensus regarding optimal interview practices, and broad awareness that children’s informativeness increases when interviewers conduct developmentally appropriate interviews with children. In this paper, we (1) summarize current understanding of how children remember, retrieve, and communicate information and (2) discuss ways in which children’s memory and reporting can be fostered using techniques designed to help children recount past experiences such as the Cognitive Interview, the Narrative Elaboration Technique, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-Protocol. Communicative success clearly depends on how well children understand their role and how effectively interviewers take advantage of children’s competencies and abilities to help them maximize their informativeness. Unfortunately, agreement regarding ways in which interviews should be conducted has not been paralleled by changes in the way interviews are actually conducted in the field and more attention thus needs to be paid to training and implementation. Copyright r 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The impact of mothers’ learning on their children’s academic performance at Key Stage 3: evidence from ALSPAC [Wider Benefits of Learning Research Report No. 32]

Parental education is thought to be one of the key factors that promote children’s academic development. Empirical studies, using sophisticated analytical techniques and complex research designs, have concluded that parental education does have a causal impact on children’s educational achievement. However, the literature tends to focus on the achievement of educational qualifications or years of schooling, and has largely ignored the role of adult education. In the UK context, where a significant minority of the population continue to leave the educational system without educational qualifications (Cassen and Kingdon, 2007), the hypothesis that higher levels of parental education lead to wider benefits for their children needs to be analysed over the lifecourse as a whole. Do these intergenerational benefits, over and above the achievement of educational qualifications, actually exist? And are the returns to parental adult learning greatest for children of parents with low or high levels of education? Very few studies have investigated these issues, leaving a significant gap in the evidence base for education and family policy. This study addresses one of these issues: the impact of mothers’ learning during adulthood on the subsequent attainment of their children, looking in particular at: • the relationship between mothers’ participation in adult education and children’s improvement in Key Stage 3 (KS3) (age 14) English and mathematics test scores; • whether this relationship varies according to the type of adult learning course taken, the time spent in adult learning by mothers, and the previous educational background of mothers.
Evolutionary Multiobjective Image Feature Extraction in the Presence of Noise

A Pareto-based evolutionary multiobjective approach is adopted to optimize the functionals in the trace transform (TT) for extracting image features that are robust to noise and invariant to geometric deformations such as rotation, scale, and translation (RST). To this end, sample images with noise and with RST distortion are employed in the evolutionary optimization of the TT, which is termed evolutionary TT with noise (ETTN). Experimental studies on a fish image database and the Columbia COIL-20 image database show that the ETTN optimized on a few low-resolution images from the fish database can extract robust and RST invariant features from the standard images in the fish database as well as in the COIL-20 database. These results demonstrate that the proposed ETTN is very promising in that it is computationally efficient, invariant to RST deformation, robust to noise, and generalizable.