Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Weight Loss Speed on Kidney Function Differ Depending on Body Mass Index in Nondiabetic Healthy People: A Prospective Cohort

Background Obesity is associated with diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. However, it has been reported that weight loss is associated with incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) in healthy males. The purpose of this prospective cohort study is to investigate the effects of weight loss on kidney function in healthy people in terms of body mass index (BMI) and gender. Methods A total of 8447 nondiabetic healthy people were enrolled in the Saitama Cardiometabolic Disease and Organ Impairment Study, Japan. Relationships between estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) change, BMI, and BMI change were evaluated using 3D-scatter plots with spline and generalized additive models (GAMs) adjusted for baseline characteristics. Results The subjects were stratified into four groups according to BMI. The mean±standard deviations for males and females were, respectively, 40.11±9.49, and 40.3±9.71 years for age and 76.39±17.72 and 71.49±18.4 ml/min/1.73m2 for eGFR. GAMs showed that a decreasing BMI change (<-1 kg/m2/year) was associated with a decreasing eGFR change in males with high normal BMIs (22 kg/m2≤BMI<25 kg/m2). A decreasing BMI change (<-2 kg/m2/year) was associated with an increasing eGFR change in overweight males (25 kg/m2≤BMI). Among underweight females (BMI<18.5 kg/m2), decreasing BMI was observed with decreasing eGFR. Conclusions These findings suggest that the benefit and risk of weight loss in relation to kidney function differs depending on BMI and weight loss speed, especially in males.
Clinical impact of post-progression survival on overall survival in patients with limited-stage disease small cell lung cancer after first-line chemoradiotherapy

Abstract Background. The effects of first-line chemoradiotherapy on overall survival (OS) may be confounded by subsequent lines of therapy in patients with limited-stage disease small cell lung cancer (LD-SCLC). Therefore, we aimed to determine the relationships between progression-free survival (PFS), post-progression survival (PPS) and OS after first-line chemoradiotherapy in LD-SCLC patients. Patients and methods. We retrospectively analyzed 71 LD-SCLC patients with performance status (PS) 0-2 who received first-line chemoradiotherapy and had disease recurrence between September 2002 and March 2013 at Shizuoka Cancer Center (Shizuoka, Japan). We determined the correlation between PFS and OS and between PPS and OS at the individual level. In addition, we performed univariate and multivariate analyses to identify significant prognostic factors of PPS. Results. OS is more strongly correlated with PPS (Spearman’s r = 0.86, R2 = 0.72, p < 0.05) than PFS (Spearman’s r = 0.46, R2 = 0.38, p < 0.05). In addition, the response to second-line treatments, the presence of distant metastases at recurrence and the number of additional regimens after first-line chemoradiotherapy were significant independent prognostic factors for PPS. Conclusions. PPS has more impact on OS than PFS in recurrent LD-SCLC patients with good PS at beginning of the treatment. Moreover, treatments administered after first-line chemoradiotherapy may affect their OS. However, larger multicenter studies are needed to validate these findings.
Solar off-limb line widths: Alfvén waves, ion-cyclotron waves, and preferential heating

Context. Alfven waves and ion-cyclotron absorption of high-frequency waves are frequently brought into models devoted to coronal heating and fast solar-wind acceleration. Signatures of ion-cyclotron resonance have already been observed in situ in the solar wind (HELIOS spacecrafts) and, recently, in the upper corona (UVCS/SOHO remote-sensing results). Aims. We propose a method to constrain both the Alfven wave amplitude and the preferential heating induced by ion-cyclotron resonance, above a partially developed polar coronal hole observed with the SUMER/SOHO spectrometer. Methods. The instrumental stray light contribution is first substracted from the spectra. By supposing that the non-thermal velocity is related to the Alfven wave amplitude, it is constrained through a density diagnostic and the gradient of the width of the Mg x 625 A line. The temperatures of several coronal ions, as functions of the distance above the limb, are then determined by substracting the non-thermal component to the observed line widths. Results. The effect of stray light explains the apparent decrease with height in the width of several spectral lines, this decrease usually
Evolution or Revolution? Disparities in Earnings and Household Income in the Czech Republic 1988-2002

This paper draws on income surveys covering the period 1988-2002 to illustrate the changes in inequality of earnings and household incomes, the main factors behind their disparities, and the connections between these two distributions. The first part suggests a systemic change occurred, leading from the application of the "need principle" to the assertion of the "market principle". In the second part, the changing importance of individual factors of earnings in favour of education and occupation is demonstrated. In the third part, the intermediating factors between earnings and household are presented and income packaging is analyzed. More income is collected from the labour market and more of it is redistributed by the state. A systemic change occurred on one principal axis - the much greater role of education in the entire process.
Categorizing the provision of mobile centric information access and interaction for higher educational institutions

Over the past ten years mobile phone technology have been adopted and become integrated into the daily lives of the larger South African population especially students at higher educational institutions (HEIs). Given the realities of South Africa, as a developing country where public information access can be unreliable or even non-existing in some areas, mobile phone access has become the preferred communication channel and most students have become mobile-centric. In contrast, the public provision of administrative and academic information by universities is mostly pc-centric. Against the background of the global drive towards equal access to learning opportunities, institutions in developing countries are challenged to provide access through technologies that are accessible, usable, scalable and sustainable. Therefore, there is a need at institutional level to develop strategies for providing mobile cellular technology access to services, content and interaction. Hence, the aim of this paper is to investigate the critical categories and their characteristics for providing content and services for facilitating students' private access and interaction through mobile cellular phone technology at HEIs. Literature analysis was used as the research strategy to propose a conceptual framework for categorising the provision of mobile centric information access and interaction at HEIs. The framework could be a useful tool for informing HEIs' ICT strategy when rolling out mobile phone information access and structuring policies.
FDDL : A Graphical Functional Design Decomposition Language

Surprisingly little research has explored the potential interaction between CASE tools and functional programming languages. The authors believe the functional programming paradigm, especially the concept of pure functions, creates the potential for new extensions to CASE tools. This paper introduces Functional Design and Decomposition Language (FDDL or “fiddle”), a graphical language supporting design of pure functions and functional decomposition. A FDDL node specifies a function or represents the invocation of a function or operator. Such nodes can be decomposed into a tree of nodes and arcs. Each node is the target of at least one arc (entering from the bottom of the node) that represents the node’s input. Each node is also the source of exactly one arc (exiting from the top of the node) that represents the node’s single output. Multiple output values must be tupled together or embedded in a single container data structure. FDDL trees represent abstract syntax trees of expressions that compute the specified function. Data flows from the leaves to the root of a FDDL tree. FDDL nodes are functionally composed by connecting the output of a node to the input of another node. Common sub expressions are named and referenced wherever needed, thus preserving tree structure. FDDL is applicable wherever functional decomposition is needed: it fits within OO methods such as Rational Unified Process (RUP) and notations such as UML. This paper introduces FDDL’s syntax, shows several nontrivial applications, and outlines the plan to automate FDDL as an add-in to Rational Rose and evaluate FDDL in an educational setting.
UBI: user body interface for wearable and touch panel device

This study designed an interaction technique for transferring digital information between a wearable device and a touch panel device. To this end, we developed a prototype system, referred to as a User Body Interface (UBI), that enables easy bidirectional data transmission using a human body communication technique. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate how this system works during an image exchange scenario. Using the prototype UBI system, a user can transmit image data files bidirectionally between devices using only simple touch operations.
Detecting MS initiated signaling DDoS attacks in 3G/4G wireless networks

The hierarchical architecture of present day cellular data networks implies that a large number of base stations depend on a small number of core network elements for essential services (including Internet connectivity). If a mobile botnet launches a distributed signaling attack on one or more core network elements (e.g., gateway), a large number of subscribers would experience service degradation. In this work, we propose a new detector that examines a subset of IP packets transmitted by a mobile station (MS) to determine its infection status. Service providers can install this detector anywhere in the data path, i.e., MS, Base Station (BS), gateway, etc., to detect and quarantine infected terminals. The proposed algorithm was trained using one week of IP packet traces generated by 62 different smartphones. Results indicate that this method can detect most types of signaling attacks with more than 0.9 detection probability and less than 0.1 false alarm probability.
microRNAs as Potential Biomarkers in Adrenocortical Cancer: Progress and Challenges

Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a rare malignancy with poor prognosis and limited therapeutic options. Over the last decade, pan-genomic analyses of genetic and epigenetic alterations and genome-wide expression profile studies allowed major advances in the understanding of the molecular genetics of ACC. Besides the well-known dysfunctional molecular pathways in adrenocortical tumors, such as the IGF2 pathway, the Wnt pathway, and TP53, high-throughput technologies enabled a more comprehensive genomic characterization of adrenocortical cancer. Integration of expression profile data with exome sequencing, SNP array analysis, methylation, and microRNA (miRNA) profiling led to the identification of subgroups of malignant tumors with distinct molecular alterations and clinical outcomes. miRNAs post-transcriptionally silence their target gene expression either by degrading mRNA or by inhibiting translation. Although our knowledge of the contribution of deregulated miRNAs to the pathogenesis of ACC is still in its infancy, recent studies support their relevance in gene expression alterations in these tumors. Some miRNAs have been shown to carry potential diagnostic and prognostic values, while others may be good candidates for therapeutic interventions. With the emergence of disease-specific blood-borne miRNAs signatures, analyses of small cohorts of patients with ACC suggest that circulating miRNAs represent promising non-invasive biomarkers of malignancy or recurrence. However, some technical challenges still remain, and most of the miRNAs reported in the literature have not yet been validated in sufficiently powered and longitudinal studies. In this review, we discuss the current knowledge regarding the deregulation of tumor-associated and circulating miRNAs in ACC patients, while emphasizing their potential significance in pathogenic pathways in light of recent insights into the role of miRNAs in shaping the tumor microenvironment.
A new 2-D parameter estimation method of near-field sources based on polarization sensitive array

An algorithm is presented for estimation of elevation and range parameters of near-field sources based on four-order cumulant and polarization sensitive array in this paper. The algorithm adopts non-centra-symmetric uniform linear array, and constructs two four cumulant matrixes pencils by the array outputs. Because the matrix pencil's generalized value contains the parameter pairing information, so need not any extra parameter pairing of various parameters. In addition, the algorithm has high array aperture utilization, and has high estimation accuracy, can be applied to additive Gaussian noise environment (white or color). The performance of the proposed algorithm is verified by computer simulations.
Analysis of the involvement of cytokines in allergy and breast cancer association

Aim of the study The existence of a correlation between allergy disorders and cancer diseases has been confirmed by several epidemiological studies. Although the molecular mechanism involved in this phenomenon remains unknown, there are data indicating that certain cytokines, engaged in allergic processes, have antineoplastic activities. The aim of the present study was to explore the association between advanced breast cancer and allergic state on the molecular level. Material and methods We determined and compared the mRNA and protein expression of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-4, IL-6, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ), cytokines known for antitumor properties, in the blood of advanced breast cancer patients and individuals with allergic diseases related to type 2 response. In addition, we performed an in vitro assay of reactivity of peripheral blood mononuclear cells after exogenous antigen stimulation. As a preliminary to molecular analysis we conducted a questionnaire study concerning the incidence of allergy among breast cancer patients and healthy subjects without malignancy. Results The results of the survey study revealed a negative relation between breast cancer and allergy prevalence. Subsequent molecular analysis, however, did not show statistically significant differences in cytokines mRNA and protein expression levels between allergic patients and those with malignancy. The in vitro reactivity test also did not reveal marked differences between IL-1β, IL-4 and IL-6 production after PBMC triggering with exogenous antigen. Conclusions We concluded that the studied cytokines (IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, and IFN-γ) are not engaged in breast cancer-allergy negative relation.
Localisation vs. globalisation of typical products and experiential consumption

The transformations taking place in the world economy can facilitate integration processes, both on a horizontal and vertical scale, and can be an opportunity for all businesses, of whatever size and sector. Nowadays, in this globalized economy consumers seem to be more and more interested in buying artisan products as synonymous of quality, tradition, culture and environment respect. The aim of this paper is to analyse and define characteristic local products in the framework of an economic model of experience. In this perspective, once having highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of this particular supply system, we intend to stretch the conceptual scheme of the typical product to the point of including in the concept of supply the relative experience connected to such specificity to be found only in their places of origin.
The “family friendly” workplace: Origins, meaning and application at Australian workplaces

The closer integration of work and family responsibilities has become an important element in the promotion of the decentralisation of the Australian industrial relations system. This article outlines the origins of the work and family agenda and discusses how it has come to be incorporated into the industrial relations reform agenda. A work and family typology is developed. Examples of family friendly workplace arrangements are outlined and discussed, and the extent to which these are incorporated into enterprise agreements is then outlined. There must be doubts as to how far family friendly workplace arrangements can be extended in an economy with high rates of casualisation, falling trade union densities and considerable differences in bargaining power. Indeed, many of the current family friendly arrangements are distinctly family unfriendly. Finally, there are important gender issues to consider in relation to the family friendly industrial relations agenda.
Quantization of the spectral envelope for sinusoidal coders

In an effort to efficiently code the spectral envelope of speech signals for wideband speech coding based on sinusoidal models, a robust computation of the discrete cepstrum coefficients and their quantization is investigated. A parameterization of the spectral envelope has been proposed which is based on discrete cepstral coefficients using regularization techniques. This paper presents an efficient quantization scheme for these coefficients in order to use them in applications like speech coding. We present results which show a 35% reduction in the bit rate when compared to simple scalar quantization. To verify the efficiency of the proposed quantization schemes, informal listening tests were performed in the context of a sinusoidal coder.
Capital Mobility and Devaluation in an Optimizing Model with Rational Expectations

This paper examines the effects of ex-change-rate policies when individuals maximize lifetime utility on the basis of rational expectations about the future. The economy studied is one in which the authorities allow free mobility of capital under a crawling-peg exchange-rate regime. Many industrializing economies have adopted a crawling peg as a means of reconciling disparate inflation rates at home and abroad, and some recent efforts to use the rate of crawl as an instrument of anti-inflation policy have attracted considerable interest (see Carlos Diaz Alejandro). Tools similar to those employed here have been applied by Guillermo Calvo (forthcoming) to study this type of exchange-rate management under conditions of capital immobility.
Learning From the News: The Role of Topic, Multimedia and Interest in Knowledge Retention

We conducted a study to examine how people interact with and learn from human-interest news stories. Participants engaged with news stories and completed knowledge retention tests to evaluate their ability to remember the content. We analyzed how the stories and the way in which they were presented (audio, video, text) related to knowledge retention. Results demonstrated a complex interaction between topic and knowledge retention, where participants obtained higher scores for the least preferred story. We explored these findings with respect to participants' demographics and user experience.
Emergence of high-level azithromycin resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae in England and Wales.

OBJECTIVES This study aimed to investigate the origin of high-level azithromycin resistance that emerged in isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in England and Wales in 2007, and to establish methods for identifying high-level azithromycin resistance. METHODS The Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme (GRASP) data from 2001-07 were examined for emerging trends in azithromycin susceptibility. Further to the identification of six high-level azithromycin-resistant isolates in GRASP 2007, an additional 102 isolates were selected on the basis of azithromycin susceptibility and geographic origin from the GRASP 2006 and 2007 collections. Susceptibility testing by Etest and disc diffusion was performed on all 108 isolates and 75 of these were typed by N. gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing. RESULTS A slight drift towards higher MICs of azithromycin was observed in the gonococcal population since 2001. Of greater concern was the first example of a shift to high-level resistance observed in six isolates in 2007. All six isolates were sequence type 649, which was not observed in any of the lower-level azithromycin-resistant isolates from 2007 or in any isolates tested from the same geographical locations. Contact tracing data for one patient suggested a link with Scotland. Disc diffusion testing of all 108 isolates showed that azithromycin, but not erythromycin, discs can differentiate between low-level and high-level resistance. CONCLUSIONS High-level azithromycin resistance has emerged in England and Wales. Contact tracing and typing data suggest this may have originated from Scotland. Surveillance of azithromycin resistance will be key in controlling its further dissemination.
UAVNet: A mobile wireless mesh network using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

We developed UAVNet, a framework for the autonomous deployment of a flying Wireless Mesh Network using small quadrocopter-based Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The flying wireless mesh nodes are automatically interconnected to each other and building an IEEE 802.11s wireless mesh network. The implemented UAVNet prototype is able to autonomously interconnect two end systems by setting up an airborne relay, consisting of one or several flying wireless mesh nodes. The developed software includes basic functionality to control the UAVs and to setup, deploy, manage, and monitor a wireless mesh network. Our evaluations have shown that UAVNet can significantly improve network performance.
Struttura ed effetti redistributivi dell'imposta personale italiana: il confronto 2000-2005 e un esercizio di modifica

Struttura ed effetti redistributivi dell'imposta personale italiana: il confronto 2000-2005 e un esercizio di modifica (di Simone Pellegrino) - ABSTRACT: During the last five years the Italian Personal Income Tax structure has experienced important changes: the number of income tax rates has been reduced from five to four and almost all the tax credits have been replaced with two kind of income-related tax deductions. All these alterations have left the redistributive effect of tax quite unchanged: the Reynolds-Smolenky index decreases from 4.97 in 2000 to 4.89 in 2005, while tax progressivity improves because Kakwani index increases from 20.33 in 2000 to 24.44 in 2005. This has been possible because of the large lowering in overall average income tax rate, which decreases from 19.64 to 16.66 per cent. In addition, the present PIT structure does not seem to improve efficiency: the marginal effective tax rates are not increasing with the gross income and higher than the nominal ones, while the deductions for dependent children augment the unequal tax treatment among families with one or more source of income. This paper analyses these issues trying to individuate a possible PIT structure able to improve the present one from both the efficiency and equality ground.