Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Haptoglobin Genotype

OBJECTIVE—Haptoglobin is a plasma protein that binds free hemoglobin, thereby inhibiting hemoglobin-induced oxidative damage. We investigated the association between the haptoglobin genotype and the incidence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in a cohort of individuals with childhood-onset type 1 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—Participants from the Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications Study who were free of CAD at study entry and had DNA available were selected (n = 453, mean age 27.1 years, and diabetes duration 18.8 years). CAD was defined as angina, ischemic electrocardiogram, myocardial infarction confirmed by Q-waves on electrocardiogram or hospital records, angiographic stenosis >50%, or revascularization. RESULTS—The proportions of the cohort with the haptoglobin 1/1, 2/1, and 2/2 genotypes were 11.5, 41.3, and 47.2%, respectively. During 18 years of follow-up, there were 135 (29.8%) incident CAD events. Univariately, the proportion of CAD events increased from 15.4 to 28.3 and 34.6% for haptoglobin 1/1, 2/1, and 2/2, respectively (P = 0.02, P-trend = 0.007). Cumulative incidence (including 33 baseline prevalent cases) also increased from 24.1 to 32.3 and 39.1%, respectively (P = 0.07, P-trend = 0.02). In Cox proportional hazards models adjusting for traditional CAD risk factors, the haptoglobin 2/2 genotype was associated with increased CAD incidence compared with the haptoglobin 1/1 genotype (hazard ratio [HR] 2.21, 95% CI 1.05–4.65, P = 0.04). Although the risk associated with the haptoglobin 2/1 genotype did not reach significance (1.78, 0.84–3.79, P = 0.13), there remained a significant trend across the three groups (P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS—These data support the hypothesis that the haptoglobin genotype influences cardiovascular risk in type 1 diabetes.
Code generation for a DSP processor

Proposes a method for compiling an application program into microcodes of a programmable DSP processor. Since most state-of-the-art DSP processors feature some sort of parallel processing architectures, the code generation is a non-trivial task. Based on several scheduling and allocation techniques previously developed by the CAD community for high-level synthesis, we propose a DSP code generator. We emphasize reducing the memory access and register usage conflicts, which often lengthen the total execution time. Starting with an as-soon-as-possible scheduling, without regard to the resource constraints, we transform this illegal scheduling step-by-step into a legal one. In the meantime, registers are allocated and reallocated for variables, taking into account both memory access and register usage constraints. A software system called THEDA.DSP/sub CG/ has been implemented and tested using a set of benchmark programs. Simulation of generated codes which are targeted towards the TI TMS320C40 DSP processor shows that the proposed approach is indeed very effective. <<ETX>>
Development of a Falls Registry: A Pilot Study

Each year approximately 1 in 4 healthy older adults aged 65+ years and 1 in 2 aged 80+ years living in the community will fall. Fall-related injuries are the leading cause of death and disability and cost the United States approximately $31 billion annually. Currently, no repository of scene data exists that informs prevention programs regarding circumstances that contribute to older adult falls. This was a multicenter (4 sites: Kansas, Maryland, Oregon, and Texas) pilot study consisting of interviews of older (55+ years) patients who had been admitted to a trauma center with fall-related injuries. Questions included information regarding environment, behaviors, injuries, and demographics. Additional information was abstracted from patient medical record: comorbidities, medications, and discharge information. Data are presented descriptively. Forty-nine patients were interviewed: average age was 78 years; White (93.9%); female (53.1%); and most (63.3%) had fallen before. The most commonly reported fall factors and injuries included those occurring at home without agency services (65.0%), on hard flooring (51.1%), with laced shoes (44.2%), and with walkers (36.7%) and contained contusion/open wound of head (61.2%). Survey time was anecdotally estimated at 10–15 min. Preliminary data suggest that prevention efforts should emphasize on educating older adults to focus on ambulation, body position, and use of assistive devices in their daily activities. The development of a systematic and organized registry that documents scene data would inform public health agencies to develop fall prevention programs that promote older adult safety. Furthermore, it would provide a large sample size to test factor associations with injury severity.
A 128Gb 3b/cell NAND flash design using 20nm planar-cell technology

The authors develop a 128Gb 3b/cell NAND Flash memory based on 20nm fully planar cell process technology. The planar cell allows the memory cell to be scaled in both the wordline (WL) and bitline (BL) directions, resulting in a small 3b/cell memory device. The sensing scheme is based on a ramping technique that allows the detection of hard and soft states in a single operation.
A Pilot-Aided Frequency Offset Estimation Algorithm for OFDMA Uplink Systems

In this paper, we propose a pilot aided carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation algorithm for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (OFDMA) uplink systems based on two consecutive received OFDMA symbols. Assuming that the channels and the CFOs are static over the two consecutive symbols, we express the second received OFDMA symbol in terms of the CFOs and the first OFDMA symbol. Based on this signal model, a new estimation algorithm which obtains the CFOs by minimizing the mean square distance between the received OFDMA symbol and its regenerated signal is provided. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm approaches the average Cramer Rao bound for moderate and high signal to noise ratio regions. Moreover, the algorithm can be applied for any carrier assignment schemes.
Drosophila: a model for studying genetic and molecular aspects of haematopoiesis and associated leukaemias

Vertebrate haematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) give rise to a hierarchically organised set of progenitors for erythroid, myeloid, lymphoid and megakaryocyte lineages, and are responsible for lifelong maintenance of the blood system. Dysregulation of the haematopoietic differentiation programme is at the origin of numerous pathologies, including leukaemias. With the discoveries that many transcriptional regulators and signalling pathways controlling blood cell development are conserved between humans and Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly has become a good model for investigating the mechanisms underlying the generation of blood cell lineages and blood cell homeostasis. In this review article, we discuss how genetic and molecular studies of Drosophila haematopoiesis can contribute to our understanding of the haematopoietic niche, as well as of the origin and/or progression of haematopoietic malignancies in humans.
Altered growth characteristics of skin fibroblasts from wild‐derived mice, and genetic loci regulating fibroblast clone size

Mouse fibroblast senescence in vitro is an important model for the study of aging at cellular level. However, common laboratory mouse strains may have lost some important allele variations related to aging processes. In this study, growth in vitro of tail skin fibroblasts (TSFs) derived from a wild‐derived stock, Pohnpei (Pohn) mice, differed from growth of control C57BL/6 J (B6) TSFs. Pohn TSFs exhibited higher proliferative ability, fewer apoptotic cells, decreased expression of Cip1, smaller surface areas, fewer cells positive for senescence associated‐β‐galactosidase (SA‐β‐gal) and greater resistance to H2O2‐induced SA‐β‐gal staining and Cip1 expression. These data suggest that TSFs from Pohn mice resist cellular senescence‐like changes. Using large clone ratio (LCR) as the phenotype, a quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis in a Pohn/B6 backcross population found four QTLs for LCR: Fcs1 on Chr 3 at 55 cm; Fcs2 on Chr X at 50 cm; Fcs3 on Chr 4 at 51 cm and Fcs4 on Chr 10 at 25 cm. Together, these four QTLs explain 26.1% of the variations in LCRs in the N2 population. These are the first QTLs reported that regulate fibroblast growth. Glutathione S transferase mu (GST‐mu) genes are overrepresented in the 95% confidence interval of Fcs1, and Pohn TSFs have higher H2O2‐induced GST‐mu 4, 5 and 7 mRNA levels than B6 TSFs. These enzymes may protect Pohn TSFs from oxidation.
Dropping out of further education: a fresh start? Findings from a German longitudinal study

In the labour market, formal qualifications—both school and vocational or university degrees—are of increasing importance. This may be especially true in Germany, where formal qualifications are highly valued. Dropping out of vocational or university training is therefore regarded as a risk for young people in the process of entering the labour market. In the present paper, two questions are being addressed: (1) Who are the young adults who are at risk of dropping out? (2) What happens to them, i.e. do they get a chance to resume their education and if so, who is more likely to do so? Using a longitudinal perspective, both individual factors such as scholastic achievement, intelligence or motivation and structural factors pertaining to the education system are taken into account. Both kinds of influencing factors are shown to contribute to the likelihood of dropping out and starting again.
Higher autoantibody levels and recognition of a linear NH2-terminal epitope in the autoantigen GAD65, distinguish stiff-man syndrome from insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus

The smaller form of the GABA-synthesizing enzyme glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65) is a major autoantigen in two human diseases that affect its principal sites of expression. Thus, destruction of pancreatic beta cells, which results in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), and impairment of GABA-ergic synaptic transmission in Stiff-Man syndrome (SMS) are both characterized by circulating autoantibodies to GAD65. Anti-GAD65 autoantibodies in IDDM are predominantly directed to conformational epitopes. Here we report the characterization of humoral autoimmune responses to GAD65 in 35 SMS patients, of whom 13 (37%) also had IDDM. All SMS patients immunoprecipitated native GAD65 and the main titers were orders of magnitude higher than in IDDM patients. Furthermore, in contrast to the situation in IDDM, autoantibodies in 35 of 35 (100%) of SMS patients recognized denatured GAD65 on Western blots. Two major patterns of epitope specificity were identified on Western blots. The first pattern, detected in 25 of 35 SMS patients (71%), of whom 11 had IDDM (44%), was predominantly reactive with a linear NH2-terminal epitope residing in the first eight amino acids of GAD65. Nine of nine individuals who were HLA-haplotyped in this group carried an IDDM susceptibility haplotype and HLA-DR3, DQw2 was particularly abundant. The second pattern, detected in 10 of 35 patients (29%) of whom two had IDDM (20%), included reactivity with the NH2-terminal epitope plus strong reactivity with one or more additional epitope(s) residing COOH- terminal to amino acid 101. The second epitope pattern may represent epitope spreading in the GAD65 molecule, but may also include some cases of epitope recognition associated with IDDM resistant HLA- haplotypes. The principal NH2-terminal linear epitope in GAD65 distinguishes the reactivity of SMS and IDDM autoantibodies and may be a determinant of pathogenicity for GABA-ergic neurons. The greater magnitude and distinct specificity of the humoral response to GAD65 in SMS may reflect a biased involvement of the T helper cell type 2 (Th2) subset of CD4+ T cells and antibody responses, whereas IDDM is likely mediated by the Th1 subset of CD4+ T cells and cytotoxic T cell responses.
Synaptotagmin-1 and -7 are functionally overlapping Ca2+ sensors for exocytosis in adrenal chromaffin cells

Synaptotagmin-1, the canonical isoform of the synaptotagmin family, is a Ca2+ sensor for fast synchronous neurotransmitter release in forebrain neurons and chromaffin cells. Even though deletion of synaptotagmin-1 abolishes fast exocytosis in chromaffin cells, it reduces overall secretion by only 20% because of the persistence of slow exocytosis. Therefore, another Ca2+ sensor dominates release in these cells. Synaptotagmin-7 has a higher Ca2+ affinity and slower binding kinetics than synaptotagmin-1, matching the proposed properties for the second, slower Ca2+ sensor. Here, we examined Ca2+-triggered exocytosis in chromaffin cells from KO mice lacking synaptotagmin-7, and from knockin mice containing normal levels of a mutant synaptotagmin-7 whose C2B domain does not bind Ca2+. In both types of mutant chromaffin cells, Ca2+-triggered exocytosis was decreased dramatically. Moreover, in chromaffin cells lacking both synaptotagmin-1 and -7, only a very slow release component, accounting for ≈30% of WT exocytosis, persisted. These data establish synaptotagmin-7 as a major Ca2+ sensor for exocytosis in chromaffin cells, which, together with synaptotagmin-1, mediates almost all of the Ca2+ triggering of exocytosis in these cells, a surprising result, considering the lack of a role of synaptotagmin-7 in synaptic vesicle exocytosis.
Atomicity with incompatible presumptions

We identify one of the incompatibility problems associated with atomic commit protocols that prevents them from being used together and we derive a correctness criterion that cap tures the correctness of their integration. We also present a new atomic commit protocol, called Presumed Any, that integrates the three commonly known two-phase commit protocols and prove its correctness.
Stream Reasoning : Where We Got So Far

Data Streams unbounded sequences of time-varying data elements are pervasive. They occur in a variety of modern applications including the Web where blogs, feeds, and microblogs are increasingly adopted to distribute and present information in real-time streams. We foresee the need for languages, tools and methodologies for representing, managing and reasoning on data streams for the Semantic Web. We collectively name those research chapters Stream Reasoning. In this extended abstract, we motivate the need for investigating Steam Reasoning; we characterize the notion of Stream Reasoning; we report the results obtained by Politecnico di Milano in studying Stream Reasoning from 2008 to 2010; and we close the paper with a short review of the related works and some outlooks.
Early Estimation of Microlensing Event Magnifications

Gravitational microlensing events with high peak magniﬁcations provide a much enhanced sensitivity to the detection of planets around the lens star. However, estimates of peak magniﬁcation during the early stages of an event by means of χ 2 minimization frequently involve an overprediction, making observing cam-paigns with strategies that rely on these predictions ineﬃcient. I show that a rudimentary Bayesian formulation, incorporating the known statistical characteristics of a detection system, produces much more accurate predictions of peak magniﬁcation than χ 2 minimisation. Implementation of this system will allow eﬃcient follow-up observing programs that focus solely on events that contribute to planetary abundance statistics.
Oral Gabapentin Activates Spinal Cholinergic Circuits to Reduce Hypersensitivity after Peripheral Nerve Injury and Interacts Synergistically with Oral Donepezil

Background:Gabapentin administration into the brain of mice reduces nerve injury–induced hypersensitivity and is blocked by intrathecal atropine and enhanced by intrathecal neostigmine. The authors tested the relevance of these findings to oral therapy by examining the efficacy of oral gabapentin to reduce hypersensitivity after nerve injury in rats and its interaction with the clinically used cholinesterase inhibitor, donepezil. Methods:Male rats with hypersensitivity after spinal nerve ligation received gabapentin orally, intrathecally, and intracerebroventricularly with or without intrathecal atropine, and withdrawal threshold to paw pressure was determined. The effects of oral gabapentin and donepezil alone and in combination on withdrawal threshold were determined in an isobolographic design. Results:Gabapentin reduced hypersensitivity to paw pressure by all routes of administration, and was more potent and with a quicker onset after intracerebroventricular than intrathecal injection. Intrathecal atropine reversed the effect of intracerebroventricular and oral gabapentin. Oral gabapentin and donepezil interacted in a strongly synergistic manner, with an observed efficacy at one tenth the predicted dose of an additive interaction. The gabapentin–donepezil combination was reversed by intrathecal atropine. Conclusions:Although gabapentin may relieve neuropathic pain by actions at many sites, these results suggest that its actions in the brain to cause spinal cholinergic activation predominate after oral administration. Side effects, particularly nausea, cannot be accurately determined on rats. Nevertheless, oral donepezil is well tolerated by patients in the treatment of Alzheimer dementia, and the current study provides the rationale for clinical study of combination of gabapentin and donepezil to treat neuropathic pain.
A Look At Mass and Computer Mediated Technologies: Understanding the Roles of Television and Computers in the Home

The multi-channel, multi-option television and the personal computer are two media technologies that have dramatically altered the home media environment. New media technologies have the capacity to create new media use patterns and blur the lines between entertainment and information. This study examines the social role of new media technologies in the home relative to: (1) social facilitation; (2) rule making (3) shifting/expanding media use; and, (4) attitudes toward media technologies.
Sex Role Stereotyping in Children's Advertising: Current and past Trends

Abstract A content analysis of 64 television commercials directed toward children was conducted. An examination of sex role stereotyping with previous trends suggested little change over the past decade in terms of ad dominance, active/passive behavior, aggressive behavior, voice-overs, and audiotrack/background music. The importance of tracking change is footed in research describing the importance of observational learning in children's development. It should be stressed that statements about change, or the lack thereof, are tempered in recognition of methodological differences among studies. When conducting content analytic investigations, researchers make decisions that may influence outcomes. Sound trend analysis is thus made difficult.
Comparison of nebulized ipratropium bromide with salbutamol vs salbutamol alone in acute asthma exacerbation in children.

BACKGROUND Despite multiple doses of beta2-agonists in the treatment of acute asthma exacerbation, significant residual airways obstruction often remains. OBJECTIVE To determine whether the addition of inhaled ipratropium bromide to salbutamol provides improvement in lung function and clinical asthma symptoms in young children with acute asthma exacerbation. METHODS This study was a prospective, double-blind randomized control trial of children aged 3 to 15 years who presented with an acute asthma exacerbation at the emergency department or outpatient clinic of Thammasat University Hospital, Pathumthani, Thailand, between September 2001 and February 2003. Subjects were randomized to receive 3 doses of nebulized salbutamol mixed with isotonic sodium chloride solution (control) or ipratropium bromide (treatment) every 20 minutes. Additional doses of salbutamol were given every 30 minutes as needed. Asthma outcome measures were evaluated 40, 70, 100, and 120 minutes after baseline. Primary outcomes were the differences in percent change in asthma clinical score and percent change in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR) from baseline. Secondary outcomes included change in percent predicted PEFR. RESULTS Of 74 children randomized and enrolled in the trial, 71 had complete data for analysis. Thirty-three children were in the control group and 38 were in the treatment group. Both the percent change in PEFR and the change in percent predicted PEFR at any time were higher in the treatment group, but these findings were not statistically significantly different. The number of subjects with at least a 100% percent predicted PEFR at any time point was greater in the treatment group. CONCLUSION Although this study did not demonstrate a significant advantage in clinical score and PEFR, the trend toward additional effect of ipratropium bromide was consistent with previous studies.
Sirtio: Towards Scalable Virtual SSDs

In this paper, we point out that SSDs may give a new opportunity in performance enhancement of virtualization environment. By the analysis of virtio, a de-facto standard framework for virtual I/O devices and the evaluation experiments of original version of virtio, we show that in order to get better scalability for SSDs, virtio needs to be redesign on the new assumption that requests of different types from different VMs are quite independent. Under such an assumption, a new framework is designed based on virtio, which is sirtio, as we put scalability the first place. According to our evaluation, sirtio can improve the scalability of SSDs in virtualization environment.
Gross pathologic types of hepatocellular carcinoma in Italian patients: Relationship with demographic, environmental, and clinical factors

Background. The prevalence of the different hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) macroscopic types, and the association between these types and age, gender, blood group, alcohol and coffee intake, smoking habit, hepatitis virus markers, underlying cirrhosis, and cancer histologic type were retrospectively assessed in 416 unselected patients (321 with cirrhosis).
Pedunculopontine nucleus electric stimulation alleviates akinesia independently of dopaminergic mechanisms

The symptom of Parkinson's disease that is most disabling and difficult to treat is akinesia. We have previously shown that low-frequency stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus can alleviate such akinesia in a macaque rendered Parkinsonian using 1-methyl 4-phenyl 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine. Here, we have extended that study to show that adding stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus to levodopa treatment in this Parkinsonian monkey increased its motor activity significantly more than levodopa alone. This additivity suggests that pedunculopontine nucleus stimulation may improve movement by acting at a site downstream from where levodopa therapy affects the basal ganglia.
Regime shifts in the breeding of an Atlantic puffin population

Timing of breeding is a key factor determining the reproductive success in bird populations and known to be affected by climate fluctuations. We investigated the longterm (1978‐2002) relationship between climate and hatching date within a population of Atlantic puffin Fratercula arctica at Rost in the Norwegian Sea. The timing of puffin breeding was found to be influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation winter index (NAO). We isolated two temporal regimes, one where NAO had a significant effect on hatching date (1978‐1986 and 1995‐2002) and one where these variables were independent (1987‐1994). Hatching date could be modelled using, in addition to NAO, hatching date and food abundance in the preceding breeding season (possibly proxies of parental effort). The models remained significant for regime 1 but not for regime 2. NAO differed between the two regimes suggesting that the shifts were induced by climate change, possibly via its effect on the availability of prey in the preceding year. The novelty of our study is the identification of temporal regimes in the effects of climate within one population.