Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Probiotics Reduce Inflammation in Antiretroviral Treated, HIV-Infected Individuals: Results of the “Probio-HIV” Clinical Trial

Background HIV infection results in damage to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, microbial translocation and immune activation. These are not completely normalized with combined antiretroviral therapy (cART). Moreover, increate morbidity and mortality of cART-treated HIV-infected individuals is associated with inflammation. Methods In order to enhance GI tract immunity, we recruited and treated 20 HIV-infected humans with cART supplemented with probiotics and followed inflammation and immunological parameters (clinical trial number NCT02164344). 11 HIV seronegative subjects were included as control group. The enumeration of CD4+, CD8+, CD38+ and HLA-DR+ lymphocytes were evaluated on peripheral blood; HIV-RNA levels, sCD14, d-dimer, C-reactive protein (CRP) high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), IL-6 and Lipopolysaccharide Binding Protein (LBP) were assayed on plasma. Results We observe that cART does not normalize the levels of immune activation in HIV positive patients anyway inflammation and markers of microbial translocation were significantly reduced with probiotic supplementation. Patients show a clear and statistically significant reduction in the levels of immune activation on CD4 T-lymphocytes, for both markers CD38 and HLA-DR and their simultaneous expression, LBP and hsCRP plasma levels after probiotic diet supplementation settling to values comparable to controls. Conclusions Supplementing cART with probiotics in HIV-infected individuals may improve GI tract immunity and there by mitigate inflammatory sequelae, ultimately improving prognosis. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02164344
Neighbourhood deprivation and health: does it affect us all equally?

BACKGROUND Neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) may affect rich and poor residents differentially. Two models are proposed. Model 1: living in a non-deprived neighbourhood is better for health because better collective material and social resources are available. Model 2: being poor (rich) relative to the neighbourhood average is associated with worse (better) health because of the discrepancy between an individual's situation and those around them. METHODS Individual data from the Whitehall II study covering health, SES, and perceived status were linked to census data on neighbourhood deprivation. RESULTS Both individual and neighbourhood deprivation increased the risk of poor general and mental health. There was a suggestion that the effect of living in a deprived area was more marked for poorer individuals, although interactions were not statistically significant. Poor people in poor neighbourhoods reported more financial and neighbourhood problems and rated themselves lowest on the ladder of society. CONCLUSIONS We found no evidence that personal poverty combined with affluent neighbourhood had negative health consequences. Rather, living in a deprived neighbourhood may have the most negative health effects on poorer individuals, possibly because they are more dependent on collective resources in the neighbourhood.
Does the Efficient Market Hypothesis Hold?: Evidence from Six Transition Economies

In this paper, a wavelet analysis of long-range dependence (LRD) based on the Hurst exponent is presented. An estimator is used to perform an analysis of LRD in the capital markets of six transition economies. The results suggest that we can divide the stock markets into two groups: markets with strong LRD (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, and Slovenia), and markets with no or only a weak form of LRD (Poland and Slovakia). Additionally, if the Hurst exponent is estimated on a sliding time window, the results show some additional properties, which we believe are representative for the markets in transition economies.
Recent Advances in Neurotrauma

The frequency of and outcome from acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) in humans are detailed together with a classification of the principal focal and diffuse pathologies, and their mechanisms in extract laboratory models are outlined. Particular emphasis is given to diffuse axonal injury, which is a major determinant of outcome. Cellular and molecular cascades triggered by injury are described with reference to the induction of axolemmal and cytoskeletal abnormalities, necrotic and apoptotic cell death, the role of Ca2+, cytokines and free radicals, and damage to DNA. It is concluded that TBI in humans is heterogeneous, reflecting various pathologies in differing proportions in patients whose genetic background (APOE gene polymorphisms) contributes to the outcome at 6 months. Although considerable progress has been made in the understanding of TBI, much remains to be determined. However, a deeper understanding of the pathophysiological events may lead to the possibility of improving outcome from rational targeted therapy.
Combined Dielectrophoretic / Electrohydrodynamic / Evanescence based biosensor devices

A common problem facing the application of dielectrophoresis for practical problems in medicine and biology is that the electric field gradient required to manipulate cells limits both the geometry of the electrodes, the volume of solution over which the device is effective, and the time taken to trap particles on the electrode surface. Furthermore, the nature of the dielectrophoretic force is such that particles generally collect on electrode edges, whereas for many surface detection methods, collection on the metal electrode surface is preferable. In this paper, we present a method of particle collection for enhancement of surface-based biosensors using evanescent light scattering for particle detection, using combined dielectrophoretic forces and electrohydrodynamic fluid flow to concentrate particles onto the central electrode area using relatively large electrode arrays. Bacterial spores of Bacillus subtilis var niger were observed to collect from particle concentrations as low as 5x10 3 spores/ml.
Illness Beliefs Predict Mortality in Patients with Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Background Patients’ illness beliefs have been associated with glycaemic control in diabetes and survival in other conditions. Objective We examined whether illness beliefs independently predicted survival in patients with diabetes and foot ulceration. Methods Patients (n = 169) were recruited between 2002 and 2007. Data on illness beliefs were collected at baseline. Data on survival were extracted on 1st November 2011. Number of days survived reflected the number of days from date of recruitment to 1st November 2011. Results Cox regressions examined the predictors of time to death and identified ischemia and identity beliefs (beliefs regarding symptoms associated with foot ulceration) as significant predictors of time to death. Conclusions Our data indicate that illness beliefs have a significant independent effect on survival in patients with diabetes and foot ulceration. These findings suggest that illness beliefs could improve our understanding of mortality risk in this patient group and could also be the basis for future therapeutic interventions to improve survival.
Who Will Feed China?: Wake-Up Call for a Small Planet

To feed its 1.2 billion people, China may soon have to import so much grain that this action could trigger unprecedented rises in world food prices. In Who Will Feed China: Wake-up Call for a Small Planet, Lester Brown shows that even as water becomes more scarce in a land where 80 percent of the grain crop is irrigated, as per-acre yield gains are erased by the loss of cropland to industrialization, and as food production stagnates, China still increases its population by the equivalent of a new Beijing each year. When Japan, a nation of just 125 million, began to import food, world grain markets rejoiced. But when China, a market ten times bigger, starts importing, there may not be enough grain in the world to meet that need - and food prices will rise steeply for everyone. Analysts foresaw that the recent four-year doubling of income for China's 1.2 billion consumers would increase food demand, especially for meat, eggs, and beer. But these analysts assumed that food production would rise to meet those demands. Brown shows that cropland losses are heavy in countries that are densely populated before industrialization, and that these countries quickly become net grain importers. We can see that process now in newspaper accounts from China as the government struggles with this problem.
Focus-based filtering + clustering technique for power-law networks with small world phenomenon

Realistic interaction networks usually present two main properties: a power-law degree distribution and a small world behavior. Few nodes are linked to many nodes and adjacent nodes are likely to share common neighbors. Moreover, graph structure usually presents a dense core that is difficult to explore with classical filtering and clustering techniques. In this paper, we propose a new filtering technique accounting for a user-focus. This technique extracts a tree-like graph with also power-law degree distribution and small world behavior. Resulting structure is easily drawn with classical force-directed drawing algorithms. It is also quickly clustered and displayed into a multi-level silhouette tree (MuSi-Tree) from any user-focus. We built a new graph filtering + clustering + drawing API and report a case study.
Impact of buildings on vehicle-to-vehicle communication at urban intersections

Although the potential of Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETS) to improve road safety and traffic efficiency for next-generation vehicular traffic system has been well investigated and proved, the performance of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, especially at urban intersections has not been clearly quantified. In this paper, we evaluate the effects of buildings on the vehicle-to-vehicle performance at urban intersections based on a profound simulation campaign. Due to the two-dimensional nature of intersection topologies, we investigate the performance of V2V communication by analyzing packet delivery ratios and packet drop rates with respect to sender and receiver's position under varying node density and intersection layout. While stationary and mobile obstacles considerably attenuate the received signal power, the results reveal that the presence of buildings could in some situations improve the performance of V2V communication by reducing co-channel interference from hidden nodes.
Genetic Changes To Optimize Carbon Partitioning between Ethanol and Biosynthesis in Ethanologenic Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT The production of ethanol from xylose by ethanologenic Escherichia coli strain KO11 was improved by adding various medium supplements (acetate, pyruvate, and acetaldehyde) that prolonged the growth phase by increasing cell yield and volumetric productivity (approximately twofold). Although added pyruvate and acetaldehyde were rapidly metabolized, the benefit of these additives continued throughout fermentation. Both additives increased the levels of extracellular acetate through different mechanisms. Since acetate can be reversibly converted to acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) by acetate kinase and phosphotransacetylase, the increase in cell yield caused by each of the three supplements is proposed to result from an increase in the pool of acetyl-CoA. A similar benefit was obtained by inactivation of acetate kinase (ackA), reducing the production of acetate (and ATP) and sparing acetyl-CoA for biosynthetic needs. Inactivation of native E. coli alcohol-aldehyde dehydrogenase (adhE), which uses acetyl-CoA as an electron acceptor, had no beneficial effect on growth, which was consistent with a minor role for this enzyme during ethanol production. Growth of KO11 on xylose appears to be limited by the partitioning of carbon skeletons into biosynthesis rather than the level of ATP. Changes in acetyl-CoA production and consumption provide a useful approach to modulate carbon partitioning. Together, these results demonstrate that xylose fermentation to ethanol can be improved in KO11 by redirecting small amounts of pyruvate away from fermentation products and into biosynthesis. Though negligible with respect to ethanol yield, these small changes in carbon partitioning reduced the time required to complete the fermentation of 9.1% xylose in 1% corn steep liquor medium from over 96 h to less than 72 h.
Internal Funds , Moral Hazard , and Post-Financing Stock Underperformance

This study investigates how external financing affects incentives and long-term post-financing stock performance conditioned on the availability of internal funds. Post-financing stock underperformance is concentrated among firms with low internal funds at the time of external financing, and is disproportionately large during earnings announcement periods. Furthermore, these firms experience less decrease in post-financing average selling, general, and administrative expenses due to economies of scale from expansion. Finally, related to their external financing activities, these firms have a weaker information environment represented by more optimistic analyst earnings forecasts, larger forecast dispersion, and lower analyst coverage. This empirical evidence is consistent with existence and underestimation of a moral hazard problem induced by conflicts between current shareholders and new claimholders when firms lack internal funds.
Maternofoetal Complications and Their Association with Proteinuria in a Tertiary Care Hospital of a Developing Country

Objective. To investigate association between maternofoetal complications and the amount of proteinuria measured by spot urine protein creatinine ratio in patients with preeclampsia. Methods. 200 consecutive patients with preeclampsia were recruited in the study. The complications like first episode of severe hypertension, renal insufficiency, raised level of aspartate transaminase, signs of neurological involvement, thrombocytopenia, eclampsia, and need to shift in intensive care units were studied. The maternal outcome was studied in terms of type of labour, outcome of pregnancy, mode of delivery, indication of cesarean section, and maternal mortality. The foetal complications and outcome parameters were birth weight, Apgar score at the time of birth and at five minutes, need of high dependency unit care, and perinatal mortality. Result. The frequency of various maternal and foetal complications was between 14–53% and 22–92%, respectively. Maternal mortality was 3%, whereas perinatal mortality was 23%. Statistically significant association was found between the frequencies of various complications in mother and newborn and spot UPCR. Conclusion. The rate of various maternofoetal complications in preeclampsia is higher in developing countries than in developed world. Maternofoetal complications and outcome correlate with maternal spot UPCR.
Molecular Gas and Star Formation in Bars of Nearby Spiral Galaxies

We compare the distribution of molecular gas and star formation activity in the bar region of six spirals (NGC 2903, 3627, 4321, 5457, 6946, and IC 342) from the BIMA Survey of Nearby Galaxies. The molecular gas, traced using the CO (J = 1–0) emission line, is brightest along the leading edge of the stellar bar in the bar dust lanes. The star formation activity, traced using the Hα emission line, is offset toward the leading side of the CO emission. A cross-correlation analysis shows that (1) the H II regions are offset 0–800 pc on the leading side of the CO emission, (2) the largest offsets are found in the strongest bars, and (3) there is a wide range in offsets in a single bar with no systematic pattern as a function of the galactocentric radius. The CO-Hα offset constrains how stars may form depending on the gas flow. We examine possible star formation scenarios in context of the two main classes of bar gas-flow simulations, the N-body/sticky particle and hydrodynamic models. Though both model gas flows are generally consistent with the observed offsets, we suggest the inclusion of a two-phase or multiphase medium to improve the agreement between models and observations.
The Economics of Solid Waste Reduction: The Impact of User Fees

Part 1 Introduction: the problem with the market for solid waste services the primary purpose of this book existing research on the Household's Response to User Fees for SWS factors that affect residential and commercial demand for SWS characteristic of the data collected a summary of the empirical results an outline of this book. Part 2 A review of the literature: the impact of volume-based user fees the impact of service-level-based user fees and service levels the impact of income and other socioeconomic variables population density. part 3 Models of the household and the firm: a model to explain the household's decisions regarding solid waste a model to explain the firm's decisions regarding household waste. Part 4 The residential and commercial demand equations - some econometric issues: specifications of the empirical model stacking and aggregating the data method of estimation. Part 5 A description of the data and details of the empirical model: data related to waste quantities and prices of SWS the funding of SWS in non-user fee communities inconsistancies within the quantity data data related to community characteristics and regional prices details of the empirical model. Part 6 How waste quantities respond to a user fee for SWS: results of the GLS estimation. Part 7 Tests and respecifications of the empirical model: an annual version of the generalized least squares (GLS) model a Hausman test for endogeneity of the user fee variables a test for constant slope coefficients. Part 8 Forecasting waste quantities: forecasting the quantity of residential waste estimating the welfare gain from a residential user fee forecasting the quantity of commercial waste forecasting the sum of residential and commercial waste.
Energy Optimization Using Object Co-Location in Java

With the paradigm shift in computer systems towards ubiquitous computing, energy, together with performance, has become an important parameter to measure e ciency. Java is increasingly becoming the programming language of choice for applications expected to run in embedded and mobile environments. Java's platform independence and security features serve the needs of these environments very well, which expect the same application to run in a variety of environments in a secure manner. The devices used in these environments, for example hand-held computers, have a limited battery life. The needs to increase the period between recharging and decrease the cooling costs provide the incentive to use energy as a performance parameter. This paper presents object co-location, an optimization method for Java applications. Object co-location exploits the temporal locality in heap references, to achieve better cache performance. This reduces the cache miss rate of programs, and subsequent reduction in memory energy consumption is observed due to fewer main memory accesses.
Where are we now? A review of management development issues in the hospitality and tourism sector: Implications for talent management

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore the range of research that has been published in the field of hospitality management development and discuss the implications of findings for the field of talent management.Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a literature review into factors influencing and components of management development. It encompasses literature that addresses management learning, management development and career progression as these are seen to impact on talent management. Secondary research into articles published under the broad heading of “management development in the hospitality industry” in management, hospitality and tourism journals from 2000‐2007 was conducted. After this initial trawl the author themed these into categories to aid presentation and discussion of findings.Findings – There are four key areas which emerge from this review. First, there is research which focuses on factors which influence management development; second, there is a focus on hospitality manag.
The Effect of Health Insurance Coverage on the Use of Medical Services

Substantial uncertainty exists regarding the causal effect of health insurance on the utilization of care. Most studies cannot determine whether the large differences in healthcare utilization between the insured and the uninsured are due to insurance status or to other unobserved differences between the two groups. In this paper, we exploit a sharp change in insurance coverage rates that results from young adults "aging out" of their parents' insurance plans to estimate the effect of insurance coverage on the utilization of emergency department (ED) and inpatient services. Using the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and a census of emergency department records and hospital discharge records from seven states, we find that aging out results in an abrupt 5 to 8 percentage point reduction in the probability of having health insurance. We find that not having insurance leads to a 40 percent reduction in ED visits and a 61 percent reduction in inpatient hospital admissions. The drop in ED visits and inpatient admissions is due entirely to reductions in the care provided by privately owned hospitals, with particularly large reductions at for profit hospitals. The results imply that expanding health insurance coverage would result in a substantial increase in care provided to currently uninsured individuals.
HI in Galactic Disks

Abstract Studies of the atomic phase of the interstellar medium, via the 21–cm spectral line of neutral hydrogen (H I), play a key rôle in our attempts to understand the structure and evolution of disk galaxies. We present here results from The H I Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS) and focus on the mass distribution as derived from the observed kinematics, and on the link between gas and star formation rate surface density, i.e., the Schmidt–Kennicutt law. Also, we briefly dwell on the wealth and wide variety of structures, often outlining what seem to be expanding shells surrounding sites of recent, massive star formation.
Human Preferences for Colorful Birds: Vivid Colors or Pattern?

In a previous study, we found that the shape of a bird, rather than its color, plays a major role in the determination of human preferences. Thus, in the present study, we asked whether the preferences of human respondents towards uniformly shaped, colorful birds are determined by pattern rather than color. The experimental stimuli were pictures of small passerine birds of the family Pittidae possessing uniform shape but vivid coloration. We asked 200 participants to rank 43 colored and 43 identical, but grayscaled, pictures of birds. To find the traits determining human preferences, we performed GLM analysis in which we tried to explain the mean preference ranks and PC axes by the following explanatory variables: the overall lightness and saturation, edges (pattern), and the portion of each of the basic color hues. The results showed that the mean preference ranks of the grayscale set is explained mostly by the birds' pattern, whereas the colored set ranking is mostly determined by the overall lightness. The effect of colors was weaker, but still significant, and revealed that people liked blue and green birds. We found no significant role of the color red, the perception of which was acquired relatively recently in evolution.