Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A clinical prediction rule for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease: validation, updating, and extension.

AIMS The aim was to validate, update, and extend the Diamond-Forrester model for estimating the probability of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) in a contemporary cohort. METHODS AND RESULTS Prospectively collected data from 14 hospitals on patients with chest pain without a history of CAD and referred for conventional coronary angiography (CCA) were used. Primary outcome was obstructive CAD, defined as ≥ 50% stenosis in one or more vessels on CCA. The validity of the Diamond-Forrester model was assessed using calibration plots, calibration-in-the-large, and recalibration in logistic regression. The model was subsequently updated and extended by revising the predictive value of age, sex, and type of chest pain. Diagnostic performance was assessed by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (c-statistic) and reclassification was determined. We included 2260 patients, of whom 1319 had obstructive CAD on CCA. Validation demonstrated an overestimation of the CAD probability, especially in women. The updated and extended models demonstrated a c-statistic of 0.79 (95% CI 0.77-0.81) and 0.82 (95% CI 0.80-0.84), respectively. Sixteen per cent of men and 64% of women were correctly reclassified. The predicted probability of obstructive CAD ranged from 10% for 50-year-old females with non-specific chest pain to 91% for 80-year-old males with typical chest pain. Predictions varied across hospitals due to differences in disease prevalence. CONCLUSION Our results suggest that the Diamond-Forrester model overestimates the probability of CAD especially in women. We updated the predictive effects of age, sex, type of chest pain, and hospital setting which improved model performance and we extended it to include patients of 70 years and older.
Analysing Variability in Geophysical Data Interpretation by Monitoring Eye Gaze Movement

Summary Geoscientific data interpretation is a highly subjective task as human intuition and biases play a significant role. Based on these interpretations, however, mining and petroleum industries make decisions with paramount financial implications. The aim of this study is to better understand variability in geophysical data interpretation between and within individuals. We examine the data observation pattern during interpretation using an eye tracker that captures the interpreter’s eye gaze motion. Two preliminary experiments were conducted to analyse how individuals approached the task of identifying prescribed ‘targets’ in magnetic and seismic data respectively. Each experiment used five participants who have varying degrees of experience in these tasks. The first experiment involved identifying responses from porphyry-style intrusive systems in magnetic data of an area from Reko Diq, Pakistan. The target responses are sub-circular positive magnetic anomalies surrounded by annular lows. The second experiment was to spot unconformities and faults in a seismic image using data from the Mentelle Basin in Western Australia. The results show a significant variation in data observation patterns between interpreters. Some key findings include: a direct correlation between a higher target spotting success rate and a more systematic data search pattern; significant inconsistency in target spotting results when viewing a data in a different orientation; and a significant variation in the amount of time spent on noise dominated region.
The Neisseria meningitidis Capsule Is Important for Intracellular Survival in Human Cells

ABSTRACT While much data exist in the literature about how Neisseria meningitidis adheres to and invades human cells, its behavior inside the host cell is largely unknown. One of the essential meningococcal attributes for pathogenesis is the polysaccharide capsule, which has been shown to be important for bacterial survival in extracellular fluids. To investigate the role of the meningococcal capsule in intracellular survival, we used B1940, a serogroup B strain, and its isogenic derivatives, which lack either the capsule or both the capsule and the lipooligosaccharide outer core, to infect human phagocytic and nonphagocytic cells and monitor invasion and intracellular growth. Our data indicate that the capsule, which negatively affects bacterial adhesion and, consequently, entry, is, in contrast, fundamental for the intracellular survival of this microorganism. The results of in vitro assays suggest that an increased resistance to cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs), important components of the host innate defense system against microbial infections, is a possible mechanism by which the capsule protects the meningococci in the intracellular environment. Indeed, unencapsulated bacteria were more susceptible than encapsulated bacteria to defensins, cathelicidins, protegrins, and polymyxin B, which has long been used as a model compound to define the mechanism of action of CAMPs. We also demonstrate that both the capsular genes (siaD and lipA) and those encoding an efflux pump involved in resistance to CAMPs (mtrCDE) were up-regulated during the intracellular phase of the infectious cycle.
Joint Symbolic Dynamic Analysis of Cardiorespiratory Interactions in Patients on Weaning Trials

Assessing autonomic control provides information about patho-physiological imbalances. Measures of variability of the cardiac interbeat duration RR(n) and the variability of the breath duration T Tot(n) are sensitive to those changes. The interactions between RR(n) and TTot(n) are complex and strongly non-linear. A study of joint symbolic dynamics is presented as a new short-term non-linear analysis method to investigate these interactions in patients on weaning trials. 78 patients from mechanical ventilation are studied: Group A (patients that failed to maintain spontaneous breathing and were reconnected) and Group B (patients with successful trials). Using the concept of joint symbolic dynamics, cardiac and respiratory changes were transformed into a word series, and the probability of occurrence of each word type was calculated and compared between both groups. Significant differences were found in 13 words, and the most significant pn(wc010, r010): 0.0041 plusmn 0.0036 (group A) against 0.0012 plusmn 0.0024 (group B), p-value = 0.00001. The number of seldom occurring word types (forbidden words) also presents significant differences fwcr: 6.9 plusmn 6.6 against 13.5 plusmn 5.3, p-value = 0.00004. Joint symbolic dynamics provides an efficient non-linear representation of cardiorespiratory interactions that offers simple physiological interpretations
The Impact of Training and Visit System on Professionalization of Extension Agents in Oyo State Agricultural Development Programme

Abstract The study assessed the impact of training and visit (T &V) system of extension on professionalization of extension agents in Oyo State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP). One hundred and thirty (130) extension agents were interviewed and simple percentages and product moment correlation utilized for data analysis. A positive impact of T & V system with respect to the profession skill of extension agents was observed. The calibre of manpower involved in extension activity under T&V system at the field level appears to be rising, an indication of brighter future for extension service in Nigeria. The system has remarkably improved the technical competence of the extension agents by providing a climate, under which extension agents develop favourable attitude toward their clientele through frequent interactions. The regular and continuous training of extension agents under T & V approach play a significant role on the job effectiveness of the agents. The T & V system should be retained. However, the extension practitioner particularly those at the top management level should recognize the constraints facing the T&V system and adjust accordingly to enhance sustainability.
Low-Power 1-bit CMOS Full Adder Using Subthreshold Conduction Region

In balancing the trade-off between power, area and performance, numerous efforts have been done. However, not much study has been done at the two extreme ends of the design spectrum, namely the ultra low-power with acceptable performance at one end (the main concern of this paper), and high performance with power within limit at the other. This paper is based on the exclusive use of subthreshold conduction currents to perform circuit operations, yielding a dramatic improvement in power consumption compared to traditional circuit design approaches. This improvement makes it feasible to design extreme low-power circuits with such an approach. The CMOS digital circuits for this work have been designed using standard TSMC 0.18 �� m Technology. —————————— a —————————— 1 I N most VLSI applications, arithmetic operations play an important role. Commonly used operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication and accumulation, and 1-bit Full Adder is the building block for most implementations of these operations. Obviously, enhancing the building block performance is critical for enhancing overall system performance (1) and in present, the power consumption has become a critical concern in today's VLSI system design. The need for low-power VLSI systems arises from two main forces. First, with the steady growth of processing capacity per chip, large current has to be delivered and the heat due to large power consumption must be removed by proper cooling techniques. Second, battery life in portable electronic devices is limited. Low-power design directly leads to prolonged operation time in these portable devices (2). Subthreshold circuit design provides an efficient solution to significantly reduce the power. So this work is based on subthreshold conduction principle to design a low-power 1-bit Full Adder. In subthreshold circuits, the supply voltage is reduced well below the threshold voltage of a transistor. Due to the quadratic reduction in power with respect to the supply voltage, subthreshold circuits are classified as ultra low-power circuits. Specifically in application areas where performance can be sacrificed for low-power, subthreshold circuits are an ideal fit. Some of the applications include devices such as digital wrist watches, radio frequency identification (RFID), sensor nodes, pacemakers and battery operated devices such as, cellular phones (3).
The Responsibility to Protect and the Great Powers: The Tensions of Dual Responsibility

Since the UN’s 2005 adoption of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) the five permanent members (P5) of the organisation’s Security Council have been burdened with a special dual responsibility, entailing a special responsibility to maintain international peace and security, and a special responsibility to assist those imperilled by the mass atrocity crimes of their home state. The tensions which can arise within this dual responsibility is a largely under-explored aspect of the R2P literature. But consideration of it helps explain why, despite differing views over how best to balance individual and state rights, at times accentuated by clashing interests, the P5 have nevertheless found common R2P ground, most particularly in their largely concerted opposition to the idea of a ‘responsibility not to veto’ R2P-related resolutions within the Council.
A 15mW 3.6GS/s CT-ΔΣ ADC with 36MHz bandwidth and 83dB DR in 90nm CMOS

We propose design techniques that enable the realization of power-efficient single-bit CT-ΔΣ ADCs at multi-Gb/s speeds. An FIR DAC [1 ] is used to reduce sensitivity to clock jitter and relax loop filter linearity. A mostly analog path compensates the modulator for the delay introduced by the FIR DAC. The CTDSM samples at 3.6GS/S, has 83dB DR in 36MHz BW, and occupies 0.12mm2 in 90nm CMOS. Dissipating 15mW from a 1.2V supply, it thereby achieves an FoMSNDR of 72.8fJ/level, which is an improvement over the state of the art for converters with bandwidths greater than 20MHz.
Response to Perceptual Novelty in Tortoises-A Preliminary Study

The ways of responding to novelty have not yet been thoroughly and comprehensively researched in reptiles, and studies undertaken so far have been conducted mainly on laboratory rats. The purpose of this paper is to present results of research carried out on the land tortoises Testudo hermanni and Agrionemys horsfieldii . Current research on tortoises as study subjects indicates that while undertaking environmental exploration these animals rely, to a large extent, on their sight, which is why this study employed visual stimuli to measure the tortoises’ response to novelty. In the course of the experiment, three objects were presented: the first imitated a biologically significant stimulus, the second was biologically indifferent, while the third was variable, and therefore perceived by the animals as novel. The results obtained suggest that the biologically significant and the variable objects elicited a response which involved the animals’ looking more intently at those objects than at the biologically indifferent object. It may be concluded, therefore, that tortoises have demonstrated exploratory responses which varied according to the object presented. While this study was only preliminary, the results obtained substantiate the view that tortoises may be interesting study subjects in comparative psychology.
Quantitative and dynamic expression profile of premature and active forms of the regional ADAM proteins during chicken brain development

The ADAM (A Disintegrin and Metalloprotease) family of transmembrane proteins plays important roles in embryogenesis and tissue formation based on their multiple functional domains. In the present study, for the first time, the expression patterns of the premature and the active forms of six members of the ADAM proteins — ADAM9, ADAM10, ADAM12, ADAM17, ADAM22 and ADAM23 — in distinct parts of the developing chicken brain were investigated by quantitative Western blot analysis from embryonic incubation day (E) 10 to E20. The results show that the premature and the active forms of various ADAM proteins are spatiotemporally regulated in different parts of the brain during development, suggesting that the ADAMs play a very important role during embryonic development.
Effects of Death Education on Conscious and Unconscious Death Anxiety

One-hundred sixty-two adults varying in the extent to which they participated in either didactic or experiential forms of death education versus those who had no such exposure to death and dying-related issues completed both self-report measures of overt death fear as well as twenty-five sentence completion stems assessing unconscious covert death fears. Data analysis suggested that in contrast to previous research, didactic death education was effective in altering death anxiety. However, such effects were restricted to measures of covert death fear. These findings suggest that the previously reported moderate impact of death education on death attitudes may be a consequence of too much attention to self-reported concerns, and that the effects of death education may be much greater if more emphasis is placed on unconscious covert fears about one's mortality, wherein a didactic approach may yield more success.
[Evaluation of cognitive functions after anesthesia with propofol].

OBJECTIVES To assess the disturbances and delay of recovery of cognitive functions following propofol anaesthesia, and to evaluate a series of simple cognitive recovery tests. STUDY DESIGN Prospective comparative non randomized clinical study. PATIENTS Two groups of non premedicated patients, of ASA physical class 1 and 2 were studied. The control group (n = 11) included patients undergoing gastric fibroscopy under local anaesthesia. The propofol group (n = 22) consisted of patients scheduled for coloscopy under propofol anaesthesia. METHODS The gastric fibroscopy was performed under local anaesthesia with lidocaine and the coloscopy under general anaesthesia with propofol as the sole anaesthetic. Five cognitive tests, designed to assess short-term memory, delayed memory, the ability to plan complex tasks, attention, and language comprehension were conducted the day before, and 1 hour, 3 hours and 6 hours after the endoscopy. RESULTS The cognitive functions remained significantly depressed for at least 3 hours after anaesthesia, and recovered fully about 6 hours after the cessation of propofol administration. The capacity for planning was the most heavily affected. CONCLUSIONS Complete recovery can be evaluated by simple cognitive tests, which showed that cognitive functions are impaired over a longer period than psychomotor functions. Oral instructions may therefore not be fully understood by the patient within 3 hours after anaesthesia, emphasizing the importance of written instructions and the essential role played by a well-informed accompanying person.
Epithelial Ca2+ entry channels: transcellular Ca2+ transport and beyond

The recently discovered apical calcium channels CaT1 (TRPV6) and ECaC (TRPV5) belong to a family of six members called the ‘TRPV family’. Unlike the other four members which are nonselective cation channels functioning as heat or osmolarity sensors in the body, CaT1 and ECaC are remarkably calcium‐selective channels which serve as apical calcium entry mechanisms in absorptive and secretory tissues. CaT1 is highly expressed in the proximal intestine, placenta and exocrine tissues, whereas ECaC expression is most prominent in the distal convoluted and connecting tubules of the kidney. CaT1 in the intestine is highly responsive to 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 and shows both fast and slow calcium‐dependent feedback inhibition to prevent calcium overload. In contrast, ECaC only shows slow inactivation kinetics and appears to be mostly regulated by the calcium load in the kidney. Outside the calcium‐transporting epithelia, CaT1 is highly expressed in exocrine tissues such as pancreas, prostate and salivary gland. In these tissues it probably mediates re‐uptake of calcium following its release by secretory vesicles. CaT1 also contributes to store‐operated calcium entry in Jurkat T‐lymphocytes and prostate cancer LNCaP cells, possibly in conjunction with other cellular components which link CaT1 activity to the filling state of the calcium stores. Finally, CaT1 expression is upregulated in prostate cancer and other cancers of epithelial origin, highlighting its potential as a target for cancer therapy.
Image Hunter at ImageCLEF 2012 Personal Photo Retrieval Task

This paper presents the participation of the Pattern Recogni- tion and Application Group (PRA Group) and the Ambient Intelligence (AmILAB) in the ImageCLEF 2012 Personal Photo Retrieval Pilot Task. This is a pilot task that aims to provide a test bed for QBE-based re- trieval scenarios in the scope of personal information retrieval based on a collection of 5,555 personal images plus rich meta-data. For this chal- lenge we used Image Hunter, a content based image retrieval tool with relevance feedback previously developed by ourselves. The results show that we obtained good results by taking into account that we used only visual data, moreover we were the only one that used relevance feedback.
PKC-theta-mediated signal delivery from the TCR/CD28 surface receptors

Protein kinase C-theta (PKCθ) is a key enzyme in T lymphocytes, where it plays an important role in signal transduction downstream of the activated T cell antigen receptor (TCR) and the CD28 costimulatory receptor. Interest in PKCθ as a potential drug target has increased following recent findings that PKCθ is essential for harmful inflammatory responses mediated by Th2 (allergies) and Th17 (autoimmunity) cells as well as for graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and allograft rejection, but is dispensable for beneficial responses such as antiviral immunity and graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) response. TCR/CD28 engagement triggers the translocation of the cytosolic PKCθ to the plasma membrane (PM), where it localizes at the center of the immunological synapse (IS), which forms at the contact site between an antigen-specific T cell and antigen-presenting cells (APC). However, the molecular basis for this unique localization, and whether it is required for its proper function have remained unresolved issues until recently. Our recent study resolved these questions by demonstrating that the unique V3 (hinge) domain of PKCθ and, more specifically, a proline-rich motif within this domain, is essential and sufficient for its localization at the IS, where it is anchored to the cytoplasmic tail of CD28 via an indirect mechanism involving Lck protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) as an intermediate. Importantly, the association of PKCθ with CD28 is essential not only for IS localization, but also for PKCθ-mediated activation of downstream signaling pathways, including the transcription factors NF-κB and NF-AT, which are essential for productive T cell activation. Hence, interference with formation of the PKCθ-Lck-CD28 complex provides a promising basis for the design of novel, clinically useful allosteric PKCθ inhibitors. An additional recent study demonstrated that TCR triggering activates the germinal center kinase (GSK)-like kinase (GLK) and induces its association with the SLP-76 adaptor at the IS, where GLK phosphorylates the activation loop of PKCθ, converting it into an active enzyme. This recent progress, coupled with the need to study the biology of PKCθ in human T cells, is likely to facilitate the development of PKCθ-based therapeutic modalities for T cell-mediated diseases.
Human Capital Spillovers within the Workplace: Evidence for Great Britain

In this paper, we use a unique matched worker-workplace data set to estimate the effect on own earnings of co-workers' education. Our results, using the 1998 GB Workplace Employee Relations Survey, show significant effects. An independent, significantly positive effect from average workplace education is evident; own earnings premia from years of education fall only slightly when controlling for workplace education. This result suggests that the social returns to education are strongly positive - working with colleagues who each had 1.2 years (1 standard deviation) of more education than the average worker, boosts own earnings by 11.1%. An additional year of any single co-worker's education is worth about 3.2% of an additional own year of education. We also test for interactions between own and co-worker education levels and for 'skills incompatibility' when worker education levels are heterogeneous. The interactions appear negative: own education is not much valued at workplaces where co-workers' education levels are already high. There is no evidence that workplace heterogeneity in worker education levels adversely affects own earnings. This result runs counter to theoretical predictions, and suggests that workers compete in tournaments for high-paying jobs. Copyright 2003 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
On the Nash Equilibria of graphical games for channel access in multihop wireless networks

We study a multihop wireless network with a tree topology where selfish nodes compete for channel access. Firstly, we discuss how this is relevant to future multihop networks focusing on the concept of Device-to-Device communication. We then model this framework as a graphical game, which is a special case of a non-cooperative game in which the payoff of a node is influenced only by a subset of its neighbors. We discuss two payoff models that may be used depending on the application: The first focuses only on transmitters and assigns by default a zero payoff to the receivers and the second models a non-zero payoff to both transmitters and receivers. We then present a distributed scheme that finds an efficient Nash Equilibrium (NE) under both payoff models. We evaluate its performance through extensive simulations showing that the algorithm converges fast to a NE, in a number of rounds that is proportional to the logarithm of the number of nodes. Finally, we find that the number of successful transmissions is almost equal at any NE. This indicates that, under this metric, any NE is practically equally preferable.