Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparative analyses of more than 50 household surveys on health status

The objective of this study is to determine whether existing data sources from household interview based surveys conducted in a large number of countries may be used towards estimating the distribution and levels of severity of non-fatal health at the population level. Operationally, this objective addresses two main questions: 1. Is there information content on the severity and distribution of non-fatal health status in data collected through household interview surveys? 2. May this information be compared in a valid and reliable manner across countries? The paper first reviews current approaches to measure health status within interview based surveys and the limitations of these approaches concerning the cross-population comparability of data collected, not only the comparability of questions. Issues demanding further attention concerning the cross-population comparability include inconsistent reporting and differences in end-points and cut-points on reference scales. These limitations prevent the meaningful comparison of survey data within and across populations. The paper then describes and tests a methodology to extract information on non-fatal health status. This approach is specific to self-reported data from different surveys conducted in different populations, as a first attempt to improve comparability of data given that no external means to calibrate responses are available. Sixty four data sets from an array of surveys in 46 countries are analyzed using factor analysis, based on the hypothesis that one underlying latent construct, non-fatal health, is similar across surveys and populations. A factor score of the level of non-fatal health is estimated for each individual and all scores are re-scaled within each population to improve comparability of end-points. Results are provided by age groups and sex, for data from each of the 46 countries included in this study. Based on an examination of the results within countries, the evidence concerning the information content of surveys is mixed. Despite efforts to improve the comparability of existing household interview data on non-fatal health, the paper concludes that the valid comparison of existing data from household interview surveys across countries is limited. Even where the survey methodologies and data collection approaches are standardized, biases in the self-report of health status prevent a meaningful comparison of non-fatal health status across populations. These results are disappointing given that a growing number of countries carry out household interview surveys addressing health topics, coupled with the WHO mandate to improve the use and comparability of existing data on non-fatal health. Yet WHO realizes that household interview …
Achieving comprehensive remission or low disease activity in rheumatoid patients and its impact on workability – Saudi Rheumatoid Arthritis Registry

Purpose Ability to work is an important endpoint in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It is not clear what outcome measures should be used to guide treatment in order to maximize workability. This study addressed the impact of RA on workability in a Saudi population and examined the correlation between objective measures of disease activity and reduced workability. This will allow better understanding of treatment targets that will translate into improved workability. Patients and methods Data were collected through a digital patient record keeper: The Rheumatoid Arthritis Saudi Database. Male and female patients, ≥18 years of age, that met the American College for Rheumatology criteria for diagnosis of RA, were recruited, regardless of treatment. Demographic and disease-specific data were collected. Disease Activity Score-28 (DAS-28) was used to define patients as low (DAS-28 ≤3.2) vs high (DAS-28 >3.2) disease activity. Health assessment questionnaire (HAQ) score, visual analog scale (VAS) score, and musculoskeletal ultrasound 7 joint score were documented also. The work productivity and activity impairment (WPAI) score was used to measure absenteeism, presenteeism, overall work impairment, and activity impairment. DAS-28 score was correlated with WPAI score and linear regression used to identify the demographic and measures of treatment response that predict improvement in WPAI score. Results Higher absenteeism and more activity impairment were seen for patients with persistent DAS-28 >3.2 (non-achievers). HAQ and VAS scores correlated with presenteeism, overall work impairment, and activity impairment. Conclusion Disease activity, as defined by DAS-28 score, correlates with absenteeism and work impairment in a Saudi population. However, on linear regression analysis, HAQ and VAS scores were the only measures predictive of work impairment. These scores should be used to monitor response to treatment regimens that aim to maximize work potential for Saudi individuals.
Elucidation of the molecular mechanisms underlying the ability of C. elegans pharynx to recognize as toxicant the soluble, pre-fibrillar assemblies of the amyloidogenic proteins

Immunoglobulin light chain amyloidosis (AL) is the most common form of systemic amyloidosis in which a plasma-cell dyscrasia results in the overproduction of amyloidogenic immunoglobulin light chains (LC). Although LC organize in extracellular deposits in different target organs, approximately 75% of patients manifest heart involvement at presentation, with a median survival of only 6 months if chemotherapy fails to stop LC production. Although an active role of radical oxygen species (ROS) has already been envisaged, the actual mechanisms behind their generation remain elusive. In this study, it was observed that amyloidogenic LC purified from patients with cardiac involvement intrinsically generated high levels of ROS and, when administered to C. elegans resulted in ROS production. These species can directly target the pharyngeal cells, causing remarkable damage particularly at the mitochondrial level, similar to that observed in amyloid-affected hearts from AL patients. Tetracycline counteracted all these ROS-mediated effects and, when added to standard chemotherapy, they reduced early deaths in patients with cardiac AL. To limit and repair the stress-induced damage, different intracellular signalling events are activated. In particular, the nuclear translocation of the FOXO/DAF-16 transcription factor triggers the transcription of stress-responsive genes, including heat-shock protein (hsp)-16.2 and manganese superoxide dismutase (sod)-3, and controlling stress resistance and survival. All these effects were entirely dependent on the presence of metal ions, particularly copper. Metal chelators or metal-binding compounds, particularly the new drug PBT2, block ROS production and interrupt the vicious cycle of oxidative stress. In C. elegans, low doses of PBT2 in combination with tetracycline result in a synergistic beneficial effect, highlighting the potential application of this pharmacological strategy for AL patients. These findings indicate that metal-induced oxidative stress, already reported to be linked with some neurological disorders, is also a key element in cardiac AL amyloidosis.
Recent Advances in Origins of Life Research by Biophysicists in Japan

Biophysics research tends to focus on utilizing multidisciplinary technologies and interdisciplinary collaborations to study biological phenomena through the lens of chemistry and physics. Although most current biophysics work is focused on studying extant biology, the fact remains that modern biological systems at some point were descended from a universal common ancestor. At the core of modern biology is the important question of how the earliest life on (or off) Earth emerged. Recent technological and methodological advances developed by biophysicists in Japan have allowed researchers to gain a new suite of knowledge related to the origins of life (OoL). Using these reports as inspiration, here, we highlight some of the significant OoL advances contributed by members of the biophysical research field in Japan with respect to the synthesis and assembly of biological (or pre-biological) components on early Earth, the co-assembly of primitive compartments with biopolymer systems, and the evolution of early genetic systems. We hope to provide inspiration to other biophysicists to not only use the always-advancing suite of available multidisciplinary technologies to continue their own line of work, but to also consider how their work or techniques can contribute to the ever-growing field of OoL research.
External compression increases forearm perfusion.

Application of compression stockings to the lower extremities is a widely used therapeutic intervention to improve venous return, but there is little information about the effects of compression on local arterial perfusion. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that a positive external pressure increases forearm perfusion. The relation of increasing external pressure induced by standardized compression to the arterial inflow and arterial flow reserve of the forearm was critically evaluated in a group of healthy young men (n = 9). Flow was measured with venous occlusion plethysmography after a 10-min application of six different stockings with compression pressure increasing from 13 to 23 mmHg. During compression, the arterial inflow increased significantly from 3.7 +/- 0.85 to 8.8 +/- 2.01 ml.min(-1). 100 ml tissue(-1) (P < 0.001) and the arterial flow reserve increased from 17.7 +/- 4.7 to 28.3 +/- 7.0 ml.min(-1). 100 ml tissue(-1). The flow increase was persistent after 3 h of constant application of external pressure and also during simultaneous low-intensity hand grip. Similar results obtained with occlusion plethysmography were seen with MRI. During the interventions, forearm temperature was unchanged, and the volunteers reported no discomfort. In conclusion, 1) arterial perfusion of the human forearm increases more than twofold during application of external compression over a pressure range of 13-23 mmHg, and 2) the result is interpreted as an autoregulatory response following the decrease of the vascular transmural pressure gradient.
Teletraffic analysis of hierarchical cellular communication networks

The sustained increase of users and the request for advanced multimedia services are amongst the key motivations for designing new high-capacity cellular telecommunication systems. The proposals that are being pursued by several studies and field implementations consider hierarchical architectures and dynamic resource allocation. A hierarchical cellular communication network is analyzed, taking user mobility into account and exploiting dynamic channel-allocation schemes. In particular, a finite number of users has been considered, moving at different speeds in a geographical region covered by a finite number of cells structured in two hierarchical levels: micro- and macrocells. For such a system, mobility and traffic models have been developed, both based on queueing networks analyzing maximum packing (MP), a dynamic channel-allocation scheme. The obtained results, validated by simulation experiments, allow the evaluation of main system-performance parameters in terms of new-call and handoff blocking probabilities, and forced-termination probability as a function of load and system parameters.
Copy number variation (CNV) in the IGF1R gene across four cattle breeds and its association with economic traits

Abstract The insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF1R) plays a vital role in immunomodulation and muscle and bone growth. The copy number variation (CNV) is believed to the reason for many complex phenotypic variations. In this paper, we statistically analyzed the copy number and the expression profiling in different tissue types of the IGF1R gene using the 422 samples from four Chinese beef cattle breeds, and the mRNA of IGF1R was widely expressed in nine tissue types of adult cattle (heart, liver, kidney, muscle, fat, stomach, spleen, lung and testis). Results of CNV and growth traits indicated that the IGF1R CNV was significantly associated with body weight and body height of Jinnan (JN) cattle and was significantly associated with body height and hucklebone width of Qinchuan (QC) cattle, making IGF1R CNV a promising molecular marker to improve meat production in beef cattle breeding. Bioinformatics predictions show that the CNV region is highly similar to the human genome, and there are a large number of transcription factors, DNase I hypersensitive sites, and high levels of histone acetylation, suggesting that this region may play a role in transcriptional regulation, providing directions for further study of the role of bovine CNV and economic traits.
Head circumference and incident Alzheimer’s disease

Background: The clinical expression of AD likely occurs when the accumulation of degeneration in specific brain regions leads to the descent below a critical threshold of “brain reserve” beyond which normal cognitive function cannot be maintained. The association between head circumference (HC), a measure of brain reserve, and the incidence of probable AD was examined in a large nondemented cohort that has been followed since 1992 and its modification by APOE ε4 genotype. Methods: Fifty-nine incident cases of probable AD were identified from 1,869 initially nondemented individuals seen at the baseline examination (1992 to 1994) and followed for a mean of 3.8 years. Variables measured at baseline included age, education, gender, HC, height, weight, and score on the National Adult Reading Test–Revised. APOE was genotyped at the time of the first biennial examination (1994 to 1996) and was available for 1,111 individuals in the cohort. Cox proportional hazard regression was performed to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for probable AD for HC and other covariates. Results: Incident cases were significantly older, less educated, shorter, and lighter, had lower estimated verbal IQ scores, and were more likely to have at least one APOE ε4 allele than unaffected individuals. The HR associated with the lowest tertile of HC (<21.4 inches) adjusted for education, gender, and APOE ε4 was 2.3 (95% CI 0.7 to 6.9, p = 0.16). The HR for one or two APOE ε4 alleles was significant (HR = 4.8, 95% CI 1.8 to 12.9, p = 0.002). The combination of low HC and APOE ε4 strongly predicted earlier onset of AD with HR = 14.1 (95% CI 3.0 to 65, p = 0.0007). Conclusions: Smaller HC, in the presence of the APOE ε4 allele, hastens the age at onset of AD. These results support the brain reserve hypothesis and its importance in precipitating the clinical expression of AD among genetically predisposed individuals.
Training in virtual environments: transfer to real world tasks and equivalence to real task training

Virtual environments (VEs) are extensively used in training but there have been few rigorous scientific investigations of whether and how skills learned in a VE are transferred to the real world. This research aimed to measure and evaluate what is transferring from training a simple sensorimotor task in a VE to real world performance. In experiment 1, real world performances after virtual training, real training and no training were compared. Virtual and real training resulted in equivalent levels of post-training performance, both of which significantly exceeded task performance without training. Experiments 2 and 3 investigated whether virtual and real trained real world performances differed in their susceptibility to cognitive and motor interfering tasks (experiment 2) and in terms of spare attentional capacity to respond to stimuli and instructions which were not directly related to the task (experiment 3). The only significant difference found was that real task performance after training in a VE was less affected by concurrently performed interference tasks than was real task performance after training on the real task. This finding is discussed in terms of the cognitive load characteristics of virtual training. Virtual training therefore resulted in equivalent or even better real world performance than real training in this simple sensorimotor task, but this finding may not apply to other training tasks. Future research should be directed towards establishing a comprehensive knowledge of what is being transferred to real world performance in other tasks currently being trained in VEs and investigating the equivalence of virtual and real trained performances in these situations.
Commentary: New Insights in Anorexia Nervosa

In a comprehensive overview of the concomitants of anorexia nervosa (AN), Dr. Gorwood and collaborators list nine hormones “driving of the reward aspect of thinness” and “abnormal satiety feedback,” and they incorporate new neuropeptides, sociocultural, psychological, psychiatric co-morbidity, genetic, epigenetic and gut microbiological factors and 11 risk factors into a “holistic model of AN,” including “body, brain and mind”.
Pretensioner Loading to Rear-Seat Occupants During Static and Dynamic Testing

Objective: Pretensioners reduce the seat belt slack and couple the occupant early to the restraint system. There is a growing prevalence of rear seat pretensioners and it is essential to determine whether the load from the pretensioner itself can cause injuries to rear-seated children. The aim of the study was to investigate the loading to the neck, chest, and abdomen of various sizes of anthropometric test devices (ATDs) during the pretensioner deployment phase and the crash phase in low-severity frontal sled tests and during static deployment. Methods: Low-severity frontal sled tests were conducted with the Hybrid III (HIII) 3-year-old, HIII 6-year-old, HIII 5th percentile, and HIII 50th percentile ATDs. Two different retractor pretensioners with varying pretensioner force were used. The child ATDs were restrained on a booster cushion (BC), with and without a back. The loading to the neck and chest was compared to injury assessment reference values (IARVs) reported by Mertz et al. (2003). The chest loading to the HIII 5th percentile and HIII 50th percentile ATDs was also analyzed using age-related injury risk curves. Static pretensioner tests with the Q-series 10-year-old ATD, equipped with an advanced abdominal loading device, were conducted in standard ATD position and out-of-position with the lap belt positioned high on the abdomen. Results: During the crash phase, head excursion and neck loading were reduced for both pretensioners for all ATDs compared to testing without a pretensioner. The pretensioner reduced chest deflection to the adult ATDs but not to child ATDs when seated on a BC with a back during the crash phase. When the back was removed, chest deflection was reduced below IARV. The head excursion was reduced for all ATDs with both pretensioners. During the pretensioner deployment phase, the chest deflection exceeded the IARV for the HIII 3-year-old with the stronger pretensioner when seated on booster with a back and it was reduced below the IARV with the lower force pretensioner. For all ATDs, neck and chest loading during the pretensioner deployment phase were reduced when a pretensioner with lower force was used. Abdominal loading to the Q10 in the static pretensioner deployments indicated a low risk of abdominal injury in all tested positions. Conclusion: This study indicates the need to balance the pretensioner force and seat belt geometry to gain good pretensioner performance in both the pretensioner deployment phase and the crash phase.
Robust non-preemptive hard real-time scheduling for clustered multicore platforms

Scheduling task graphs under hard (end-to-end) timing constraints is an extensively studied NP-hard problem of critical importance for predictable software mapping on Multiprocessor System-on-chip (MPSoC) platforms. In this work we focus on an off-line (design-time) version of this problem, where the target task graph is known before execution time. We address the issue of scheduling robustness, i.e. providing hard guarantees that the schedule will meet the end-to-end deadline in presence of bounded variations of task execution times expressed as min-max intervals known at design time. We present a robust scheduling algorithm that proactively inserts sequencing constraints when they are needed to ensure that execution will have no inserted idle times and will meet the deadline for any possible combination of task execution times within the specified intervals. The algorithm is complete, i.e. it will return a feasible graph augmentation if one exists. Moreover, we provide an optimization version of the algorithm that can compute the shortest deadline that can be met in a robust way.
A Mini-Library of TBA Analogues Containing 3′-3′ and 5′-5′ Inversion of Polarity Sites

Several researches have been devoted to structure-activity relationship and to post-SELEX modifications of the thrombin binding aptamer (TBA), one of the first aptamers discovered by the SELEX methodology. However, no studies on TBA dealing with the effects of introduction of inversion of polarity sites have been reported yet. In this frame, we have undertaken the synthesis and the study of a mini-library composed of several TBA analogues containing a 3′-3′ or a 5′-5′ inversion of polarity site at different positions into the sequence. Particularly, in this article, we present preliminary results about their structural and biological properties.
A Generalization of L = λW to Moments of Queue Length and Waiting Times

The well known formula L = λW relates the time-average number in queue to the expected wait in queue of a customer. This paper specializes a more general formula, denoted by H = λG, in order to obtain relations between moments of L and W other than the first. The basic queue considered is G/G/k with stationary input. The special case where the arrival times form a renewal process and the more special case where they are a Poisson process are also discussed.
Measurement of distribution of maximum index-fingertip force in all directions at fingertip in flexion/extension plane.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate whether distribution patterns of the maximum fingertip force in all directions from 0 deg to 360 deg around the index fingertip are the same among subjects. Distributions of the maximum index fingertip force were measured at four finger postures for five subjects (healthy males, ages 21 to 25). It became apparent that distribution patterns of the fingertip force were very similar among subjects, through the application of an analysis of variance (level of significance: 5%) to the measurement results. In the production of the maximum fingertip force, Valero-Cuevas et al. [1998, 2000] reported that patterns of control signals for driving muscle forces were common among subjects. The results of the present study indicate that patterns of maximum fingertip force are also similar among subjects. Therefore, the possibility is high that the static transfer characteristic for index fingers from input (i.e., control signals to muscles) to output (ie., the maximum fingertip force) is also common among subjects.