Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Proton Pump Inhibitors Decrease Eotaxin-3 Expression in the Proximal Esophagus of Children with Esophageal Eosinophilia

Objective Besides reducing gastric acid secretion, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) suppress Th2-cytokine-stimulated expression of an eosinophil chemoattractant (eotaxin-3) by esophageal epithelial cells through acid-independent, anti-inflammatory mechanisms. To explore acid-inhibitory and acid-independent, anti-inflammatory PPI effects in reducing esophageal eosinophilia, we studied eotaxin-3 expression by the proximal and distal esophagus of children with esophageal eosinophilia before and after PPI therapy. In vitro, we studied acid and bile salt effects on IL-13-stimulated eotaxin-3 expression by esophageal epithelial cells. Design Among 264 children with esophageal eosinophilia seen at a tertiary pediatric hospital from 2008 through 2012, we identified 10 with esophageal biopsies before and after PPI treatment alone. We correlated epithelial cell eotaxin-3 immunostaining with eosinophil numbers in those biopsies. In vitro, we measured eotaxin-3 protein secretion by esophageal squamous cells stimulated with IL-13 and exposed to acid and/or bile salt media, with or without omeprazole. Results There was strong correlation between peak eosinophil numbers and peak eotaxin-3-positive epithelial cell numbers in esophageal biopsies. Eotaxin-3 expression decreased significantly with PPIs only in the proximal esophagus. In esophageal cells, exposure to acid-bile salt medium significantly suppressed IL-13-induced eotaxin-3 secretion; omeprazole added to the acid-bile salt medium further suppressed that eotaxin-3 secretion, but not as profoundly as at pH-neutral conditions. Conclusion In children with esophageal eosinophilia, PPIs significantly decrease eotaxin-3 expression in the proximal but not the distal esophagus. In esophageal squamous cells, acid and bile salts decrease Th2 cytokine-stimulated eotaxin-3 secretion profoundly, possibly explaining the disparate PPI effects on the proximal and distal esophagus. In the distal esophagus, where acid reflux is greatest, a PPI-induced reduction in acid reflux (an effect that could increase eotaxin-3 secretion induced by Th2 cytokines) might mask the acid-independent, anti-inflammatory PPI effect of decreasing cytokine-stimulated eotaxin-3 secretion.
A new species of Neisseria from the dental plaque of the domestic cow, Neisseria dentiae sp. nov.

P.H. A. SNEATH AND S.J. BARRETT. 1996. A new species of the genus Neisseria is proposed, Neisseria dentiae sp. nov. The organism is found in dental plaque of domestic cows. It resembles N. animalis, N. canis and N. iguanae phenotypically but is distinguished from the first two by being positive for acidification of gluconate, D‐glucose and usually D‐fructose, and from the third by lack of predominant tetrad arrangement, lack of distinct α‐haemolysis and by growing on nutrient agar and usually acidifying D‐fructose. It is suggested that it may have significance for dental microbiology because members of the genus rapidly utilize oxygen and this may contribute to the anaerobic microenvironment found in dental plaque.
Antimicrobial Susceptibility of Bacteria Isolated from Urine Samples Obtained from Nursing Home Residents

In our study of nursing home residents with clinically suspected urinary tract infection who did not require the use of an indwelling catheter, we identified bacteria isolated from urine samples, the resistance patterns of these isolated bacteria, and the antibiotic therapy prescribed to the residents. Escherichia coli, the predominant organism isolated, frequently was resistant to commonly prescribed oral antibiotics. Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole remains the best empiric antimicrobial therapy for a urinary tract infection, but nitrofurantoin should be considered if E. coli is identified.
96-29 July 1996 Constant Ratio Approximations of Feedback Vertex Sets in Weighted Undirected Graphs 1 by Vineet Bafna

A feedback vertex set of a graph is a subset of vertices that contains at least one vertex from every cycle in the graph. We show that a feedback vertex set approximating a minimum one within a constant factor can be eciently found in undirected graphs. In fact the derived approximation ratio matches the best constant ratio known today for the vertex cover problem, improving the previous best results for both weighted and unweighted cases. The existence of an approximation preserving reduction of the vertex cover problem to the feedback vertex set problem suggests that further improvement of the obtained ratio will require entirely new ideas. We extend our approach to handle graphs of bounded vertex degree, and show that it achieves even better performance, 2 0 2 3102 , where 1 is the maximum degree of graphs. These approximation bounds are obtained by using a non{trivial generalization of the classical local ratio principle of Bar{Yehuda and Even.
Do a Firm's Equity Returns Reflect the Risk of its Pension Plan?

This paper examines the empirical question of whether systematic equity risk of U.S. firms as measured by beta from the Capital Asset Pricing Model reflects the risk of their pension plans. There are a number of reasons to suspect that it might not. Chief among them is the opaque set of accounting rules used to report pension assets, liabilities, and expenses. Pension plan assets and liabilities are off-balance sheet, and are often viewed as segregated from the rest of the firm, with its own trustees. Pension accounting rules are complicated. Furthermore, the role of Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation further clouds the real relation between pension plan risk and firm equity risk. The empirical findings in this paper are consistent with the hypothesis that equity risk does reflect the risk of the firm's pension plan despite arcane accounting rules for pensions. This finding is consistent with informational efficiency of the capital markets. It also has implications for corporate finance practice in the determination of the cost of capital for capital budgeting. Standard procedure uses de-leveraged equity return betas to infer the cost of capital for operating assets. But the de-leveraged betas are not adjusted for the risk of the pension assets and liabilities. Failure to make this adjustment will typically bias upwards estimates of the discount rate for capital budgeting. The magnitude of the bias is shown here to be large for a number of well-known U.S. companies. This bias can result in positive net-present-value projects being rejected.
Observations and modeling of a clumpy galaxy at z = 1.6 - Spectroscopic clues to the origin and evolution of chain galaxies

We investigate the properties of a clump-cluster galaxy at redshift 1.57. In optical observations, the morphology of this galaxy is dominated by eight star-forming clumps, and its photometric properties are typical of most clump-cluster and chain galaxies. Its complex asymmetrical morphology has led to the suggestion that this system is a group merger of several initially separate protogalaxies. We performed Ha integral field spectroscopy of this system using SINFONI on VLT UT4. These observations reveal a large-scale velocity gradient throughout the system, but with large local kinematic disturbances. Using a numerical model of gas-rich disk fragmentation, we find that clump interactions and migration can explain the observed disturbed rotation. On the other hand, the global rotation would not be expected for a multiply merging system. We also find that this system follows the relations of stellar mass versus metallicity, star formation rate, and size that are expected for a disk at this redshift. Furthermore, the galaxy exhibits a disk-like radial metallicity gradient. A formation scenario of internal disk fragmentation is therefore the most likely one. A red and metallic central concentration appears to be a bulge in this proto-spiral clumpy galaxy. A chain galaxy at redshift 2.07 in the same field also shows disk-like rotation. Such systems are likely progenitors of present-day bright spiral galaxies, which shape their exponential disks through clump migration and disruption, a process that in turn fuels their bulges. Our results show that disturbed morphologies and kinematics are not necessarily signs of galaxy mergers and interactions, but may instead be produced by the internal evolution of primordial disks.
Predicting Grade One Reading Performance: Intelligence VS. Reading Readiness Tests

Since both intelligence and reading readiness tests are widely used to predict reading success in grade one, both types of tests were administered to all entering first-grade pupils in two schools. Performance on these measures was correlated with end-of-year teacher marks and scores on a standardized reading test. Although the predictive validity coefficients for the readiness test were larger than those for the intelligence test on both criteria, the differences were not statistically reliable. When IQ was added to reading readiness scores, the multiple correlation rose from . 61 to . 67. Adding father occupation, sex, and age failed to meaningfully increase the accuracy in prediction; the multiple R’s increased only to . 68.
Accounting for Mega-Events

The 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan was the first football World Cup Finals ever to take place in Asia and be co-hosted by two countries. Drawing on data provided by the national and local organizing committees, football’s world governing institution, local and international media accounts and first-hand observations made before, during and after the event, the article discusses the contrast between discourses that forecast and described the actual impacts of the 2002 World Cup on its host societies. In particular three aspects are discussed: the specific regional political economy of the 2002 World Cup; the role of sports mega-events in identity construction and promotion; and how such events are both constituted by and constitutive of globalization. While a largely sceptical view of the economic impact informs our article, our conclusion explains the gap between forecast and actual impacts as indicative of the power struggle for determining the meaning of mega-events between different agents.
Improvement of the Han-Kobayashi Rate Region for General Interference Channel-v2

Allowing the input auxiliary random variables to be correlated and using the binning scheme, the Han-Kobayashi (HK) rate region for general interference channel is partially improved. The obtained partially new achievable rate region (i) is compared to the HK region and its simplified description, i.e., Chong-Motani-Garg (CMG) region, in a detailed and favorable manner, by considering different versions of the regions, and (ii) has an interesting and easy interpretation: as expected, any rate in our region has generally two additional terms in comparison with the HK region (one due to the input correlation and the other as a result of the binning scheme). Keywords. Interference channel, Input correlation, Binning scheme
Modelling of human alarm handling response times: a case study of the Ladbroke Grove rail accident in the UK

The purpose of the paper was to address the timeliness of the signaller's intervention in the Ladbroke Grove rail incident in the UK, as well as to consider the utility of human performance time modelling more generally. Human performance response time modelling is a critical area for Human Factors and Ergonomics research. This research applied two approaches to the same problem to see if they arrived at the same conclusion. The first modelling approach used the alarm initiated activity (AIA) model. This approach is useful for indicating general response times in emergency events, but it cannot comment in detail on any specific case. The second modelling approach employed a multi-modal critical path analysis (CPA) technique. The advantage of the latter approach is that it can be used to model a specific incident on the basis of the known factors from the accident inquiry. The results show that the AIA model produced an estimated response time of 17 s, whereas the CPA model produced an estimated response time of 19 s. This compares with the actual response time of the signaller of 18 s. The response time data from both approaches are concordant and suggest that the signaller's response time in the Ladbroke Grove rail accident was reasonable. This research has application to the modelling of human responses to emergency events in all domains. Rather than the forensic reconstruction approach used in this paper, the models could be used in a predictive manner to anticipate how long human operators of safety-critical systems might take to respond in emergency scenarios.
A Novel Parameter Estimation Method for Boltzmann Machines

We propose a novel estimator for a specific class of probabilistic models on discrete spaces such as the Boltzmann machine. The proposed estimator is derived from minimization of a convex risk function and can be constructed without calculating the normalization constant, whose computational cost is exponential order. We investigate statistical properties of the proposed estimator such as consistency and asymptotic normality in the framework of the estimating function. Small experiments show that the proposed estimator can attain comparable performance to the maximum likelihood expectation at a much lower computational cost and is applicable to high-dimensional data.
Buying a Beauty Standard or Dreaming of a New Life? Expectations Associated with Media Ideals

This study explored college women's ideas regarding how their lives would change if their appearance were consistent with a media-supported female beauty ideal. Participants rated self-generated life changes they associated with looking like a media ideal in terms of likelihood and positivity. Women's tendency to link positive and likely life expectations with looking like the media ideal was significantly associated with both internalization of media ideals and appearance-related dissatisfaction. However, internalization fully mediated the relationship between expectations and appearance-related dissatisfaction. Results are discussed in terms of implications for understanding the nature of internalization and implications for the design of programs targeted at reducing appearance-related dissatisfaction and eating disordered behaviors.
Hierarchical Partitioning of Metazoan Protein Conservation Profiles Provides New Functional Insights

The availability of many complete, annotated proteomes enables the systematic study of the relationships between protein conservation and functionality. We explore this question based solely on the presence or absence of protein homologues (a.k.a. conservation profiles). We study 18 metazoans, from two distinct points of view: the human's and the fly's. Using the GOrilla gene ontology (GO) analysis tool, we explore functional enrichment of the “universal proteins”, those with homologues in all 17 other species, and of the “non-universal proteins”. A large number of GO terms are strongly enriched in both human and fly universal proteins. Most of these functions are known to be essential. A smaller number of GO terms, exhibiting markedly different properties, are enriched in both human and fly non-universal proteins. We further explore the non-universal proteins, whose conservation profiles are consistent with the “tree of life” (TOL consistent), as well as the TOL inconsistent proteins. Finally, we applied Quantum Clustering to the conservation profiles of the TOL consistent proteins. Each cluster is strongly associated with one or a small number of specific monophyletic clades in the tree of life. The proteins in many of these clusters exhibit strong functional enrichment associated with the “life style” of the related clades. Most previous approaches for studying function and conservation are “bottom up”, studying protein families one by one, and separately assessing the conservation of each. By way of contrast, our approach is “top down”. We globally partition the set of all proteins hierarchically, as described above, and then identify protein families enriched within different subdivisions. While supporting previous findings, our approach also provides a tool for discovering novel relations between protein conservation profiles, functionality, and evolutionary history as represented by the tree of life.
The management of chronic hepatitis C virus infection.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) was, prior to introduction of blood donor screening in 1991, the major cause of posttransfusion hepatitis and still is an important cause of sporadic hepatitis throughout the world. The prevalence rates of infection in healthy blood donors range from 0O01-0.02% in the United Kingdom and northern Europe,' 1-1.5% in southern Europe2 to rates of 6.5% in parts of equatorial Africa.3 Prevalence rates as high as 20% have been found in Egypt.4 Although the virus was first cloned in 1989, only recently have there been claims of visualisation of the virus by immunoelectron microscopy.5
Infant Oral Health Knowledge and Awareness: Disparity among Pregnant Women and Mothers visiting a Government Health Care Organization

Abstract Objectives: The present study is designed to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of pregnant women and mothers about feeding habits and infant oral health. Materials and methods: A total of 230 study subjects were divided into two groups: Group A included pregnant women and group B were mothers of child up to 1 year of age. Each group comprised of 170 subjects. A self-administered questionnaire comprising of total 23 questions on infant feeding practices, nocturnal bottle feeding, correct age of eruption of first teeth and first dental visit. Two separate questionnaires were framed for both the groups. Results: There was a lack of knowledge among both the groups about infant feeding and weaning. Nocturnal bottle feeding was more prevalent. Conclusion: The present study reflects a need for maternal counseling on infant oral health. How to cite this article: Nagaraj A, Pareek S. Infant Oral Health Knowledge and Awareness: Disparity among Pregnant Women and Mothers visiting a Government Health Care Organization. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2012;5(3):167-172.
A Typology of Teaching Styles in Primary Schools.

Summary. Differences in teaching styles have conventionally been described in terms of ill-defined dichotomies. The aim of the present study was to provide a more adequate representation of teaching practices by creating a typology based on the self-reported strategies of primary school teachers. 1,258 third and fourth year teachers completed a questionnaire, and the resultant information was cluster analysed. Twelve teaching styles were extracted. Although the usual poles of informal and formal styles were apparent, most teachers appeared to adopt intermediate styles, incorporating elements of both informal and formal strategies. Evidence regarding the validity of the clusters is presented.
Turing Machine with Faults, Failures and Recovery

A Turing machine with faults, failures and recovery (TMF) is described. TMF is (weakly) non-deterministic Turing machine consisting of five semi-infinite tapes (Master Tape, Synchro Tape, Backup Tape, Backup Synchro Tape, User Tape) and four controlling components (Program, Daemon, Apparatus, User). Computational process consists of three phases (Program Phase, Failure Phase, Repair Phase). C++ Simulator of a Turing machine with faults, failures and recovery has been developed.
Bombykal, a Sex Pheromone of the Sphinx Moth Manduca sexta

Abstract The first sex pheromone of a Sphinx moth has been isolated from Manduca sexta (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) with the aid of an electroantennogram assay. It is attractive to males in a field test where its activity might be augmented by a second component in female extracts. Chemical tests and chromatographic properties identify the pheromone as a C16-aldehyde with a pair of conjugated double bonds. (E , Z)-0,12-hexadecadienal, (“bombykal”) was identical with the natural product. The comparison includes chromatography on three different capillary columns and determination of specific activities in the electroantennogram test.
A 3.15pJ/cyc 32-bit RISC CPU with timing-error prevention and adaptive clocking in 28nm CMOS

The increased performance from technology scaling makes it feasible to operate digital circuits at ultra-low voltages without the significant performance limitation of earlier process generations. The theoretical minimum energy point resides in near-threshold voltages in current processes, but device and environment variations make it a challenge to operate the circuits reliably. This paper presents an ASIC implementation of a 32-bit RISC CPU in 28nm CMOS employing timing-error prevention with clock stretching to enable it to operate with minimal safety margins while maximizing energy efficiency. Measurements show 3.15pJ/cyc energy consumption at 400mV/2.4MHz, which corresponds to 39% energy savings and 83% EDP reduction compared to operation based on static signoff timing.
How Death Imitates Life: Cultural Influences on Conceptions of Death and Dying

Regardless of how or where we are born, what unites people of all cultures is the fact everyone eventually dies. However, cultures vary in how they conceptualize death and what happens when a person dies. In some cultures, death is conceived to involve different conditions, including sleep, illness, and reaching a certain age. In other cultures, death is said to occur only when there is a total cessation of life. Similarly, certain cultural traditions view death as a transition to other forms of existence; others propose a continuous interaction between the dead and the living; some cultures conceive a circular pattern of multiple deaths and rebirths; and yet others view death as the final end, with nothing occurring after death. These different conceptions have a noticeable influence on their lifestyles, their readiness to die for a cause, the degree to which they fear death, their expressions of grief and mourning, and the nature of funeral rituals. Any reasonably broad conceptualization of death issues would necessarily have to incorporate these various cultural variations. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. This article is available in Online Readings in Psychology and Culture: http://scholarworks.gvsu. edu/orpc/vol6/iss2/3
Using human memory structures to model knowledge within algebra virtual laboratory

In this paper we describe our knowledge representation model embodied within an algebra virtual laboratory dedicated to Boolean reduction problem solving. The model is inspired by psychology theories that explain the human cognitive activity in terms of memory subsystems and their processes. During the problem solving, complex knowledge entities, built from primitive units of knowledge, are dynamically combined to represent the learner behavior. This has the advantage to offer a closely fine prediction of the mastery degree and the acquisition level of each element of the taught knowledge.