Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Politics and Power in Global Health: The Constituting Role of Conflicts; Comment on 'Navigating between Stealth Advocacy and Unconscious Dogmatism: The Challenge of Researching the Norms, Politics and Power of Global Health'

In a recent article, Gorik Ooms has drawn attention to the normative underpinnings of the politics of global health. We claim that Ooms is indirectly submitting to a liberal conception of politics by framing the politics of global health as a question of individual morality. Drawing on the theoretical works of Chantal Mouffe, we introduce a conflictual concept of the political as an alternative to Ooms' conception. Using controversies surrounding medical treatment of AIDS patients in developing countries as a case we underline the opportunity for political changes, through political articulation of an issue, and collective mobilization based on such an articulation.
Chronic Stress Reduces Nectin-1 mRNA Levels and Disrupts Dendritic Spine Plasticity in the Adult Mouse Perirhinal Cortex

In adulthood, chronic exposure to stressful experiences disrupts synaptic plasticity and cognitive function. Previous studies have shown that perirhinal cortex-dependent object recognition memory is impaired by chronic stress. However, the stress effects on molecular expression and structural plasticity in the perirhinal cortex remain unclear. In this study, we applied the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) paradigm and measured the mRNA levels of nectin-1, nectin-3 and neurexin-1, three synaptic cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) implicated in the adverse stress effects, in the perirhinal cortex of wild-type (WT) and conditional forebrain corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 conditional knockout (CRHR1-CKO) mice. Chronic stress reduced perirhinal nectin-1 mRNA levels in WT but not CRHR1-CKO mice. In conditional forebrain corticotropin-releasing hormone conditional overexpression (CRH-COE) mice, perirhinal nectin-1 mRNA levels were also reduced, indicating that chronic stress modulates nectin-1 expression through the CRH-CRHR1 system. Moreover, chronic stress altered dendritic spine morphology in the main apical dendrites and reduced spine density in the oblique apical dendrites of perirhinal layer V pyramidal neurons. Our data suggest that chronic stress disrupts cell adhesion and dendritic spine plasticity in perirhinal neurons, which may contribute to stress-induced impairments of perirhinal cortex-dependent memory.
Video Forgery Detection Using a Bayesian RJMCMC-Based Approach

We propose a Bayesian approach to learn finite generalized inverted Dirichlet mixture models. The developed approach performs simultaneous parameters estimation, model complexity determination, and feature selection via a reversible jump Markov Chain Monte Carlo (RJMCMC) algorithm. A challenging application that concerns video forgery detection is deployed to validate our statistical framework and to show its merits.
Evaluation of outlier prevalence of density distribution in brain computed tomography: Comparison of kurtosis and quartile statistics

The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between the morphology of the brain computed tomography (CT) density distribution and pathological change of the brain. We retrospectively analyzed CT images of 221 patients with acquired brain injury (normal subject=102 vs. abnormal subject=119), obtained during emergency department admission. The kurtosis and the length of the whisker of the quartile statistics in the density distribution were derived to assess the degree of outliers of the density distribution. Although both parameters showed significance with CT abnormality (p <0.001), the area under the curve (AUC) of length of the whisker was higher than the AUC of kurtosis (0.70, 0.65, respectively). In conclusion, the length of whisker in quartile statistics more reliably reflects the extent of hemorrhagic and edematous lesions than the kurtosis.
Detection of a Fourth Orbivirus Non-Structural Protein

The genus Orbivirus includes both insect and tick-borne viruses. The orbivirus genome, composed of 10 segments of dsRNA, encodes 7 structural proteins (VP1–VP7) and 3 non-structural proteins (NS1–NS3). An open reading frame (ORF) that spans almost the entire length of genome segment-9 (Seg-9) encodes VP6 (the viral helicase). However, bioinformatic analysis recently identified an overlapping ORF (ORFX) in Seg-9. We show that ORFX encodes a new non-structural protein, identified here as NS4. Western blotting and confocal fluorescence microscopy, using antibodies raised against recombinant NS4 from Bluetongue virus (BTV, which is insect-borne), or Great Island virus (GIV, which is tick-borne), demonstrate that these proteins are synthesised in BTV or GIV infected mammalian cells, respectively. BTV NS4 is also expressed in Culicoides insect cells. NS4 forms aggregates throughout the cytoplasm as well as in the nucleus, consistent with identification of nuclear localisation signals within the NS4 sequence. Bioinformatic analyses indicate that NS4 contains coiled-coils, is related to proteins that bind nucleic acids, or are associated with membranes and shows similarities to nucleolar protein UTP20 (a processome subunit). Recombinant NS4 of GIV protects dsRNA from degradation by endoribonucleases of the RNAse III family, indicating that it interacts with dsRNA. However, BTV NS4, which is only half the putative size of the GIV NS4, did not protect dsRNA from RNAse III cleavage. NS4 of both GIV and BTV protect DNA from degradation by DNAse. NS4 was found to associate with lipid droplets in cells infected with BTV or GIV or transfected with a plasmid expressing NS4.
Application of Probabilistic Modeling to Quantify the Reduction Levels of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Risk Attributable to Chronic Aflatoxins Exposure

ABSTRACT Epidemiological studies show a definite connection between areas of high aflatoxin content and a high occurrence of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Hepatitis B virus in individuals further increases the risk of HCC. The two risk factors are prevalent in rural Kenya and continuously predispose the rural populations to HCC. A quantitative cancer risk assessment therefore quantified the levels at which potential pre- and postharvest interventions reduce the HCC risk attributable to consumption of contaminated maize and groundnuts. The assessment applied a probabilistic model to derive probability distributions of HCC cases and percentage reductions levels of the risk from secondary data. Contaminated maize and groundnuts contributed to 1,847 ± 514 and 158 ± 52 HCC cases per annum, respectively. The total contribution of both foods to the risk was additive as it resulted in 2,000 ± 518 cases per annum. Consumption and contamination levels contributed significantly to the risk whereby lower age groups were most affected. Nonetheless, pre- and postharvest interventions might reduce the risk by 23.0–83.4% and 4.8–95.1%, respectively. Therefore, chronic exposure to aflatoxins increases the HCC risk in rural Kenya, but a significant reduction of the risk can be achieved by applying specific pre- and postharvest interventions.
Quadrature VCOs based on direct second harmonic locking: Theoretical analysis and experimental validation

We propose a theoretical analysis of the class of quadrature VCOs (QVCOs) based on two LC‐oscillators directly coupled by means of the second harmonic. The analysis provides the conditions for the existence and stability of steady‐state quadrature oscillations and a simplified model for the phase noise (PN) transfer function with respect to a noise source in parallel to the tank. We show that the figure of merit defined as the product between PN and current equals that of the single VCO, confirming that quadrature generation is achieved by this class of QVCO without degrading that figure of merit. An analytical model for the phase quadrature error due to tank mismatches is also proposed. The validity of all analytical models is discussed against numerical simulations. A practical implementation at 3.26 GHz with ±20% tuning range in a 0. 13µm CMOS technology is also presented, confirming the main theoretical findings. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Contrasting Evolutionary Dynamics and Information Content of the Avian Mitochondrial Control Region and ND2 Gene

Mitochondrial DNA is an important tool for inference of population history in animals. A variety of mitochondrial loci have been sampled for this purpose, but many studies focus on the non-coding D-loop or control region (CR), which in at least some species appears hypermutable. Unfortunately, analyses of this region are sometimes complicated by segmental duplications, as well as by difficulties in sequencing through repeat expansions, driving many researchers to favor single-copy protein-coding or ribosomal RNA genes. Without systematic comparison, it is unclear if, how much, and what sort of information might be lost by focusing on coding regions, or conversely whether such regions might offer significant advantages over the CR. In this study, we compare the information content, both in terms of genealogy and tests of neutral equilibrium, of the mitochondrial CR and protein-coding ND2 gene of the red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) and its close relative the tricolored blackbird (A. tricolor). Both gene regions violate the standard infinite sites assumption central to moment-based population genetic inference, as well as exhibiting considerable among-site rate heterogeneity, obscuring significant departures from neutral equilibrium. Given the ubiquity of rate heterogeneity in mtDNA, use of more sophisticated tests that account for this should be obligatory. The two regions yield quite similar genealogical reconstructions, as well as indicating similar departures from neutral equilibrium assumptions for A. phoeniceus. However, individual Sanger-read-length fragments (∼600 bases) of the CR have significantly higher information content than comparable fragments of ND2, suggesting that limited sampling of the mitochondrial genome should focus on the CR.
Dietary choline and betaine intakes in relation to concentrations of inflammatory markers in healthy adults: the ATTICA study.

BACKGROUND Choline and betaine are found in a variety of plant and animal foods and were recently shown to be associated with decreased homocysteine concentrations. OBJECTIVE The scope of this work was to investigate the associations between dietary choline and betaine consumption and various markers of low-grade systemic inflammation. DESIGN Under the context of a cross-sectional survey that enrolled 1514 men (18-87 y of age) and 1528 women (18-89 y of age) with no history of cardiovascular disease (the ATTICA Study), fasting blood samples were collected and inflammatory markers were measured. Dietary habits were evaluated with a validated food-frequency questionnaire, and the intakes of choline and betaine were calculated from food-composition tables. RESULTS Compared with the lowest tertile of choline intake (<250 mg/d), participants who consumed >310 mg/d had, on average, 22% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein (P < 0.05), 26% lower concentrations of interleukin-6 (P < 0.05), and 6% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (P < 0.01). Similarly, participants who consumed >360 mg/d of betaine had, on average, 10% lower concentrations of homocysteine (P < 0.01), 19% lower concentrations of C-reactive protein (P < 0.1), and 12% lower concentrations of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (P < 0.05) than did those who consumed <260 mg/d. These findings were independent of various sociodemographic, lifestyle, and clinical characteristics of the participants. CONCLUSIONS Our results support an association between choline and betaine intakes and the inflammation process in free-eating and apparently healthy adults. However, further studies are needed to confirm or refute our findings.
Conception fabrication et caractérisation d'un photorécepteur cohérent en filière PIC InP pour les applications 100-400 Gbit/s. (Design, manufacturing and characterization of a coherent photodetector in PIC InP for 100-400 Gbit/s applications)

Ce travail porte sur la conception, la fabrication et la caracterisation d’un photorecepteur coherent en filiere PIC InP pour les applications 100-400 Gbit/s. La solution retenue est un recepteur coherent pre-amplifie par un SOA pour permettre d’ameliorer la responsivite du recepteur par rapport a un recepteur coherent classique. De plus, ce recepteur est realise en technologie enterree pour permettre un fonctionnement sur une plus grande gamme de longueurs d’onde. Enfin, un recepteur coherent non pre-amplifie est aussi realise pour pouvoir evaluer l’impact de l’integration du SOA sur le fonctionnement de notre recepteur. La premiere partie de cette etude est consacree a des rappels sur les transmissions optiques a tres haut debit, a un etat de l’art sur les recepteurs coherents, a une presentation des differents photodetecteurs et a une presentation de l’hybrid 90° qui est le composant coeur des recepteurs coherents. Dans un second temps, nous presentons les differents choix retenus pour la conception de notre recepteur. L’etude de deux hybrid 90° simules en technologie ridge et en technologie enterree est detaillee. Nous commentons egalement le choix des photodiodes ainsi que le choix du SOA utilise pour notre composant. Le troisieme chapitre est consacre aux differentes etapes technologiques permettant la fabrication de notre recepteur coherent pre amplifie. Nous commencons par une description des differentes techniques d’epitaxie utilisees. Ensuite, nous presentons en details les 22 etapes technologiques necessaires pour realiser notre recepteur. Enfin, nous regroupons l’ensemble des caracterisations realisees sur notre recepteur coherent. Apres un rappel sur les differentes parties de celui-ci et de leurs performances cles, nous caracterisons les composants unitaires formant notre recepteur (mixeur coherent, photodiodes UTC et SOA). Enfin nous presentons les caracteristiques statiques et dynamiques de notre recepteur et nous comparons ses performances avec celles de l’etat de l’art. Ces travaux de these ont permis de demontrer la faisabilite d’un recepteur pre-amplifie utilisant un SOA integre en technologie InP enterree avec un record de responsivite de 5 A/W. Ceci represente un gain de 12,5 dB par rapport a un recepteur coherent non amplifie ideal et un gain de 15,5 dB par rapport a l’etat de l’art des recepteurs coherents. De plus, la consommation engendree par cette integration reste tres faible (240 mW). Enfin, nous avons demontre une demodulation a 32 Gbauds avec un facteur Q de 14 dB. La bande passante de 40 GHz de nos diodes est compatible avec des applications a 56 Gbauds et peut etre amelioree pour des applications a 100 Gbauds en reduisant la taille des photodiodes. Ce travail de these ouvre donc le chemin pour de nouveaux recepteurs pre-amplifes par un SOA pour des applications a 400 Gbit/s
Optimizing complex sequence pattern extraction using caching

Complex Event Processing (CEP) has become increasingly important for tracking and monitoring complex event anomalies and trends in event streams emitted from business processes such as supply chain management to online stores in e-commerce. These monitoring applications submit complex event queries to track sequences of events that match a given pattern. The state-of-the-art CEP systems mostly focus on the execution of flat sequence queries, we instead support the execution of nested CEP queries specified by our NEsted Event Language NEEL. However, the iterative execution of nested CEP expressions often results in the repeated recomputation of the same or similar results for nested subexpressions as the window slides over the event stream. In this work we thus propose to optimize NEEL execution performance by caching intermediate results. In particular we design two methods of applying selective caching of intermediate results namely Object Caching and the Interval-Driven Semantic Caching. Techniques for incrementally loading, purging and exploiting the cache content are described. Our experimental study using real-world stock trades evaluates the performance of our proposed caching strategies for different query types.
Prédiction par simulation des défauts de plissement lors de la mise en forme des matériaux composites mono et multiplis

Lors de la mise en forme des renforts de composites l’apparition des plissements fait parti des defauts les plus courants. Ces plissements sont frequents en raison des tres faibles raideurs en flexion dues aux mouvements relatifs entre les fibres constituant chaque meche. Il est necessaire de detecter leur apparition, ainsi que leur evolution au cours de la phase de preformage, et ce afin de s’assurer qu’ils ne s’etendent pas a la partie utile de la piece. La simulation des renforts de composites textiles en cours de mise en forme se fonde sur une forme simplifiee du travail virtuel des efforts internes de chaque cellule elementaire, decouplee en une energie de tension, de cisaillement dans le plan et du moment flechissant. L’influence des trois rigidites (traction, cisaillement dans le plan et flexion) sur l’apparition des plissements lors de la simulation est analysee. Meme si la raideur en cisaillement dans le plan joue un role principal sur leur apparition, il n’y a pas de correlation directe entre l’angle de cisaillement et les plis. Le plissement est un phenomene global dependant autant des deformations, des raideurs et des conditions aux limites. La raideur en flexion joue un role principal sur la forme que prendront ces plis, et il n’est pas possible de simuler proprement un pli avec une approche membranaire seule.
NPC: Neighbors' progressive competition algorithm for classification of imbalanced data sets

Learning from many real-world datasets is limited by a problem called the class imbalance problem. A dataset is imbalanced when one class (the majority class) has significantly more samples than the other class (the minority class). Such datasets cause typical machine learning algorithms to perform poorly on the classification task. To overcome this issue, this paper proposes a new approach Neighbors' Progressive Competition (NPC) for classification of imbalanced datasets. Whilst the proposed algorithm is inspired by weighted k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) algorithms, it has major differences from them. Unlike k-NN, NPC does not limit its decision criteria to a preset number of nearest neighbors. In contrast, NPC considers progressively more neighbors of the query sample in its decision making until the sum of grades for one class is much higher than the other classes. Furthermore, NPC uses a novel method for grading the training samples to compensate for the imbalance issue. The grades are calculated using both local and global information. In brief, the contribution of this paper is an entirely new classifier for handling the imbalance issue effectively without any manually-set parameters or any need for expert knowledge. Experimental results compare the proposed approach with five representative algorithms applied to fifteen imbalanced datasets and illustrate this algorithm's effectiveness.
Neuroprotective mechanisms of rutin for spinal cord injury through anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation and inhibition of p38 mitogen activated protein kinase pathway

Rutin has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anti-viral, anti-tumor and immune regulatory effects. However, the neuroprotective effects of rutin in spinal cord injury are unknown. The p38 mitogen activated protein kinase (p38 MAPK) pathway is the most important member of the MAPK family that controls inflammation. We assumed that the mechanism of rutin in the repair of spinal cord injury is associated with the inhibition of p38 MAPK pathway. Allen's method was used to establish a rat model of spinal cord injury. The rat model was intraperitoneally injected with rutin (30 mg/kg) for 3 days. After treatment with rutin, Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan locomotor function scores increased. Water content, tumor necrosis factor alpha, interleukin 1 beta, and interleukin 6 levels, p38 MAPK protein expression and caspase-3 and -9 activities in T8–9 spinal cord decreased. Oxidative stress related markers superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase levels increased in peripheral blood. Rutin exerts neuroprotective effect through anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, anti-apoptosis and inhibition of p38 MAPK pathway.
Rapidly available glucose in foods: an in vitro measurement that reflects the glycemic response.

BACKGROUND A chemically based classification of dietary carbohydrates that takes into account the likely site, rate, and extent of digestion is presented. The classification divides dietary carbohydrates into sugars, starch fractions, and nonstarch polysaccharides, and groups them into rapidly available glucose (RAG) and slowly available glucose (SAG) as to the amounts of glucose (from sugar and starch, including maltodextrins) likely to be available for rapid and slow absorption, respectively, in the human small intestine. OBJECTIVE We hypothesize that RAG is an important food-related determinant of the glycemic response. DESIGN The measurement of RAG, SAG, and starch fractions by an in vitro technique is described, based on the measurement by HPLC of the glucose released from a test food during timed incubation with digestive enzymes under standardized conditions. Eight healthy adult subjects consumed 8 separate test meals ranging in RAG content from 11 to 49 g. RESULTS The correlation between glycemic response and RAG was highly significant (P < 0.0001) and a given percentage increase in RAG was associated with the same percentage increase in glycemic response. After subject variation was accounted for, RAG explained 70% of the remaining variance in glycemic response. CONCLUSIONS We show the significance of in vitro measurements of RAG in relation to glycemic response in human studies. The simple in vitro measurement of RAG and SAG is of physiologic relevance and could serve as a tool for investigating the importance of the amount, type, and form of dietary carbohydrates for health.
Ergodic Theory, Dynamic Mode Decomposition, and Computation of Spectral Properties of the Koopman Operator

We establish the convergence of a class of numerical algorithms, known as dynamic mode decomposition (DMD), for computation of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the infinite-dimensional Koopman operator. The algorithms act on data coming from observables on a state space, arranged in Hankel-type matrices. The proofs utilize the assumption that the underlying dynamical system is ergodic. This includes the classical measure-preserving systems, as well as systems whose attractors support a physical measure. Our approach relies on the observation that vector projections in DMD can be used to approximate the function projections by the virtue of Birkhoff's ergodic theorem. Using this fact, we show that applying DMD to Hankel data matrices in the limit of infinite-time observations yields the true Koopman eigenfunctions and eigenvalues. We also show that the singular value decomposition, which is the central part of most DMD algorithms, converges to the proper orthogonal decomposition of observables. We use.
Effect of Information System Co-construction Policy on Cultural Propaganda Oriented Government Website - The National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra as a Case Study

The main purpose of information system consolidation is to avoid repetitive system development and to lighten the heavy burden of government financial expenditure so that resources can be shared and the overall operating costs can be reduced. This study takes the cultural propaganda oriented government website of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra as an example to explore the problems faced in the process of introducing information systems as well as their solutions. Information system consolidation can actually solve the problems of repetitive system development and inadequate resources sharing.