Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sex differences and predictors of objective cough frequency in chronic cough

Background: Women are consistently over-represented in specialist cough clinics and known to have a more sensitive cough reflex than men. Whether female sex and other patient characteristics are associated with higher cough rates is not known. A study was conducted to determine the predictors of objective cough frequency in patients presenting to a tertiary referral clinic with chronic cough. Methods: 100 subjects (65 women) of mean (SD) age 55.8 (11.0) years and median cough duration 4 years (IQR 2.0–10.0) with unexplained chronic cough completed flow-volume loops (mean (SD) forced expiratory volume in 1 s 103 (15.2)% predicted; forced expiratory flow (FEF50) 68.8 (24.1)% predicted), methacholine challenge (42% positive), citric acid cough reflex sensitivity (C5; 0.12 M (IQR 0.06–0.50)) and the Leicester Cough Questionnaire. 24-h ambulatory cough monitoring was performed in 86 subjects; manually counted coughs were quantified as the number of explosive cough sounds per hour. Results: Women coughed significantly more than men (geometric mean 16.6 coughs/h (95% CI 13.1 to 21.0) vs 9.4 coughs/h (95% CI 6.4 to 13.9), p = 0.01)). The cough reflex was also more sensitive in women than in men (median logC5 −0.9 M vs −0.6 M, p = 0.002), but cough-related quality of life was similar in women and men (12.0 (3.6) and 12.2 (3.2), respectively, p = 0.76). Linear regression analysis showed that 38.6% of the variation in cough rate was predicted by sex (p = 0.01), logC5 (p<0.001) and age (p = 0.002) but not lung function or bronchial hyper-reactivity. Conclusions: Ambulatory objective cough monitoring provides novel insights into factors modulating chronic cough. These findings suggest that effects of sex and age must be taken into account in the study of cough and when designing clinical trials testing novel antitussive agents.
Top-N recommendation through belief propagation

The top-n recommendation focuses on finding the top-n items that the target user is likely to purchase rather than predicting his/her ratings on individual items. In this paper, we propose a novel method that provides top-n recommendation by probabilistically determining the target user's preference on items. This method models the purchasing relationships between users and items as a bipartite graph and employs Belief Propagation to compute the preference of the target user on items. We analyze the proposed method in detail by examining the changes in recommendation accuracy under different parameter settings. We also show that the proposed method is up to 40% more accurate than an existing method by comparing it with an RWR-based method via extensive experiments.
The Effects of Variable Work Arrangements on the Organizational Commitment of Contingent Workers

Drawing on social exchange theory and research on organizational commitment, we developed a model of contingent workers’ commitment to two foci: their hiring agencies and the organizations to which they have been assigned. Hypotheses were tested using survey data from 197 contingent workers. We found that commitment to the hiring agency was positively related to pay satisfaction and perceived organizational support from the agency. Commitment to the client organization was positively related to perceived organizational support from the client, co-worker relations, and job satisfaction. Preference for contingent work exhibited a positive relationship with pay and job satisfaction. Holding job and pay satisfaction constant, we found that commitment was negatively related to preference for contingent work. Of the factors studied, perceived organizational support exhibited the largest effect. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.
Factors Leading to Sales Force Automation Use: A Longitudinal Analysis

Motivating the sales force to adopt and use sales force automation (SFA) technology remains an issue. If salespeople are not committed to the selling organization's technology strategies, customer alliances are hindered. Survey data were collected from a national sales force before and after the introduction of an SFA application. The results of this study indicate that salesperson attitudes (Perceived Usefulness, Attitude Toward the New System, and Compatibility) have an impact on intention to use new SFA systems prior to implementation. However, Personal Innovativeness, Attitude Toward the New System, and Facilitating Conditions have more of an effect on infusion of new SFA systems.
Fruit and vegetable intake: issues with definition and measurement

Abstract Accurate determination of fruit and vegetable consumption is essential for research that seeks to determine current fruit and vegetable intake patterns, what type and amount of fruit and vegetable consumption is optimal for human health and for evaluating interventions developed to increase such consumption. However, there are many issues that make accurate determination of fruit and vegetable consumption quite difficult. There are many methods used to measure fruit and vegetable intake, but all have limitations. Also, what foods individuals consider to be or to not be fruits or vegetables appear to be quite variable, with such variability often associated with the individual's racial/ethnic background. Researchers and governmental agencies vary with respect to what foods they include and do not include when calculating fruit and vegetable intake. These differences make it difficult to conduct, evaluate and compare studies in this area. The current paper reviews some of the major issues with measuring and determining fruit and vegetable intake.
Human approach distances to a mechanical-looking robot with different robot voice styles

Findings are presented from a Human Robot Interaction (HRI) Demonstration Trial where attendees approached a stationary mechanical looking robot to a comfortable distance. Instructions were given to participants by the robot using either a high quality male, a high quality female, a neutral synthesized voice, or by the experimenter (no robot voice). Approaches to the robot with synthesized voice were found to induce significantly further approach distances. Those who had experienced a previous encounter with the robot tended to approach closer to the robot. Possible reasons for this are discussed.
Association between TERT promoter polymorphisms and acute myeloid leukemia risk and prognosis

Telomerase reverse transcriptase gene (TERT) promoter mutations are identified in many malignancies but not in hematological malignancies. Here we analyzed TERT and protection of telomeres 1 gene (POT1) mutations, and four different TERT SNVs in 226 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and 806 healthy individuals in a case referent design, where also overall survival was assessed. A significant association for increased risk of AML was found for TERT SNVs, rs2853669 (OR = 2.45, p = 0.00015) and rs2736100 (OR = 1.5, p = 0.03). The overall survival for patients with CC genotype of rs2853669 was significantly shorter compared to those with TT or TC genotypes (p = 0.036 and 0.029 respectively). The influence of TERT rs2853669 CC on survival was confirmed in multivariable Cox regression analysis as an independent risk biomarker in addition to high risk group, higher age and treatment. No hot spot TERT promoter mutations at −228C > T or −250C > T or POT1 mutations could be identified in this AML cohort. We show that rs2853669 CC may be a risk factor for the development of AML that may also be used as a prognostic marker to identify high risk normal karyotype -AML (NK-AML) patients, for treatment guidance.
Mandatory implicatures in Gricean pragmatics

Gricean implicatures are often viewed as a very weak kind of implication, viz., as optional enrichments of the literal meaning of an utterance. In virtue of being optional, they need not be present on every occasion of utterance, and they can be explicitly denied. Further, if implicatures are viewed as optional enrichments, a false implicature cannot be the reason why an utterance is infelicitous: If an implicature is known to be false, it should simply fail to arise. I argue that this view is mistaken. There is no reason to think that Gricean reasoning cannot lead to very robust inferences, which are neither optional nor cancelable, and whose falsity can render an utterance infelicitous. Moreover, I point out that a number of explicit recent theories do not exclude such robust implicatures without additional stipulation, and that informal appeal to Gricean reasoning triggering infelicity has been made in the investigation of a number of apparently semantic phenomena. I conclude that implicatures are only weak, optional and cancelable if the pragmatic pressures driving them are context-dependent in a particular way, and further that there is no reason to think that all pressures are of this kind.
The influence of transformational leadership on organisational citizenship behaviour through justice and trust

An organisation's ability to elicit Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB), a willingness to contribute beyond the call of duty, can be a key asset. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test a model in which both procedural justice and trust in the leader mediate the relationship between transformational leadership and OCB. The results indicate that transformational leadership exerts a positive influence on OCB, through procedural justice and trust. However, transformational leadership docs not directly leadto trust.
SNS trend-based TV program recommendation scheme

Recently, as countries have switched over from analog broadcasting to digital broadcasting, various services for digital broadcasting have been introduced to enhance customer satisfaction. However, users still experience difficulties in selecting what they want to watch due to the large volume of TV contents. Often, social trends and TV programs are closely related; TV programs could be produced to deal with some hot issues and public interest could be formed for some TV program. Nowadays, such public interest can be detected as trends from popular SNS such as Twitter. In this paper, we propose a SNS trend-based TV program recommendation scheme. To do that, we first extract trend keywords from Twitter stream data and augment them semantically by referring to recommendation log and portal sites. Finally, we analyze EPGs to find matched TV programs to the trends. We implemented a prototype system to evaluate the effectiveness of our scheme.
Real‐Time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction to Measure mRNA: Use, Limitations, and Presentation of Results

Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was originally developed for DNA quantitation. There are various applications for quantitative PCR, and it is now increasingly used for measurement of messenger RNA (mRNA) levels (VanGuilder et al., 2008). Quantitative PCR became well known with the introduction of real-time quantitative PCR methods. The focus of this article is the use of quantitative realtime reverse transcription PCR for the measurement of mRNA.
Mucus pathophysiology in COPD: differences to asthma, and pharmacotherapy.

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exhibit characteristics of airway mucus hypersecretion, including sputum production, increased luminal mucus, goblet cell hyperplasia and submucosal gland hypertrophy. These features are not common to all patients and the impact of hypersecretion on morbidity and mortality is a matter for debate. However, current evidence indicates that airway hypersecretion has pathophysiological and clinical significance in COPD, particularly as patients age or are prone to respiratory tract infection. This suggests that it is important to develop drugs that inhibit mucus hypersecretion in these patients. A number of drugs are currently available that may be of therapeutic benefit in hypersecretory disorders of the airways, e.g. glucocorticosteroids and anticholinergics. Novel compounds are undergoing preclinical research, e.g. inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase and antisense oligomers. However, preliminary data indicate that the mucus in COPD differs to that in asthma in that: 1) it is less viscous and without marked plasma exudation, 2) the ratio of mucin (MUC) 5AC:MUC5B may be reduced, and 3) there is full release of mucin into the airway lumen rather than "tethering" of mucus as in asthma. Consequently, future research should determine whether there really is an intrinsic abnormality specific to mucus in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Based upon this information, appropriate suppressers of mucus hypersecretion in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can be developed.
Prediction Model for Critically Ill Patients with Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

Background and objectives Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a major cause respiratory failure in intensive care unit (ICU). Early recognition of patients at high risk of death is of vital importance in managing them. The aim of the study was to establish a prediction model by using variables that were readily available in routine clinical practice. Methods The study was a secondary analysis of data obtained from the NHLBI Biologic Specimen and Data Repository Information Coordinating Center. Patients were enrolled between August 2007 and July 2008 from 33 hospitals. Demographics and laboratory findings were extracted from dataset. Univariate analyses were performed to screen variables with p<0.3. Then these variables were subject to automatic stepwise forward selection with significance level of 0.1. Interaction terms and fractional polynomials were examined for variables in the main effect model. Multiple imputations and bootstraps procedures were used to obtain estimations of coefficients with better external validation. Overall model fit and logistic regression diagnostics were explored. Main result A total of 282 ARDS patients were included for model development. The final model included eight variables without interaction terms and non-linear functions. Because the variable coefficients changed substantially after exclusion of most poorly fitted and influential subjects, we estimated the coefficient after exclusion of these outliers. The equation for the fitted model was: g(Χ)=0.06×age(in years)+2.23(if on vasopressor)+1.37×potassium (mmol/l)-0.007×platelet count (×109)+0.03×heart rate (/min)-0.29×Hb(g/dl)-0.67×T(°C)+0.01×PaO_2+13, and the probability of death π(Χ)=eg(Χ)/(1+eg(Χ)). Conclusion The study established a prediction model for ARDS patients requiring mechanical ventilation. The model was examined with rigorous methodology and can be used for risk stratification in ARDS patients.
Schizotypy assessment: State of the art and future prospects

Schizotypy is considered to be a multidimensional construct distributed along a dynamic neurodevelopmental vulnerability continuum for schizophrenia. The interest in the assessment of schizotypy focuses on the detection of individuals at a heightened risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The purpose of this theoretical study was to review the current state of the most important tests for the measurement of schizotypy according to their psychometric properties. There is a wide range of questionnaires for the assessment of schizotypal traits with different psychometric properties. The review of the different schizotypy scales seems to indicate that both versions of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire, as well as the Perceptual Aberration Scale, Magical Ideation Scale, Physical Anhedonia Scale and Revised Social Anhedonia Scale all developed by the research team of the University of Wisconsin, show better psychometric properties than the rest of the self-report questionnaires. However, the measures of schizotypy should improve in certain aspects related to the response format, test-retest reliability, and predictive validity. Future lines of research should consider different statistical models, the use of computerized procedures, and its study in different cultures.
Weapons of Influence Misused: A Social Influence Analysis of Why People Fall Prey to Internet Scams

Internet crime, including fraud and spread of malicious software, is a pervasive and costly global issue. Many of these crimes occur not because of technology failure but because of the human element. People can easily be manipulated through social engineering – the use of psychological tactics to influence individuals to assist in their own victimization. We employ a social influence framework, drawing upon ideas from Robert Cialdini, to understand the nature of social engineering techniques and why they are successful in exploiting unsuspecting individuals. Specifically, we discuss how social engineers misuse six pervasive weapons of influence – Liking, Authority, Scarcity, Social Proof, Reciprocity, and Commitment and Consistency – in order to effectively influence individuals to take the initial steps toward their exploitation. We conclude with a discussion of the precautions individuals can take to resist malicious influence attempts online.
Comparative Genomics of Carp Herpesviruses

ABSTRACT Three alloherpesviruses are known to cause disease in cyprinid fish: cyprinid herpesviruses 1 and 3 (CyHV1 and CyHV3) in common carp and koi and cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV2) in goldfish. We have determined the genome sequences of CyHV1 and CyHV2 and compared them with the published CyHV3 sequence. The CyHV1 and CyHV2 genomes are 291,144 and 290,304 bp, respectively, in size, and thus the CyHV3 genome, at 295,146 bp, remains the largest recorded among the herpesviruses. Each of the three genomes consists of a unique region flanked at each terminus by a sizeable direct repeat. The CyHV1, CyHV2, and CyHV3 genomes are predicted to contain 137, 150, and 155 unique, functional protein-coding genes, respectively, of which six, four, and eight, respectively, are duplicated in the terminal repeat. The three viruses share 120 orthologous genes in a largely colinear arrangement, of which up to 55 are also conserved in the other member of the genus Cyprinivirus, anguillid herpesvirus 1. Twelve genes are conserved convincingly in all sequenced alloherpesviruses, and two others are conserved marginally. The reference CyHV3 strain has been reported to contain five fragmented genes that are presumably nonfunctional. The CyHV2 strain has two fragmented genes, and the CyHV1 strain has none. CyHV1, CyHV2, and CyHV3 have five, six, and five families of paralogous genes, respectively. One family unique to CyHV1 is related to cellular JUNB, which encodes a transcription factor involved in oncogenesis. To our knowledge, this is the first time that JUNB-related sequences have been reported in a herpesvirus.
Mining Genomes of Marine Cyanobacteria for Elements of Zinc Homeostasis

Zinc is a recognized essential element for the majority of organisms, and is indispensable for the correct function of hundreds of enzymes and thousands of regulatory proteins. In aquatic photoautotrophs including cyanobacteria, zinc is thought to be required for carbonic anhydrase and alkaline phosphatase, although there is evidence that at least some carbonic anhydrases can be cambialistic, i.e., are able to acquire in vivo and function with different metal cofactors such as Co2+ and Cd2+. Given the global importance of marine phytoplankton, zinc availability in the oceans is likely to have an impact on both carbon and phosphorus cycles. Zinc concentrations in seawater vary over several orders of magnitude, and in the open oceans adopt a nutrient-like profile. Most studies on zinc handling by cyanobacteria have focused on freshwater strains and zinc toxicity; much less information is available on marine strains and zinc limitation. Several systems for zinc homeostasis have been characterized in the freshwater species Synechococcus sp. PCC 7942 and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, but little is known about zinc requirements or zinc handling by marine species. Comparative metallo-genomics has begun to explore not only the putative zinc proteome, but also specific protein families predicted to have an involvement in zinc homeostasis, including sensors for excess and limitation (SmtB and its homologs as well as Zur), uptake systems (ZnuABC), putative intracellular zinc chaperones (COG0523) and metallothioneins (BmtA), and efflux pumps (ZiaA and its homologs).
Imaging outcome measures for progressive multiple sclerosis trials

Imaging markers that are reliable, reproducible and sensitive to neurodegenerative changes in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) can enhance the development of new medications with a neuroprotective mode-of-action. Accordingly, in recent years, a considerable number of imaging biomarkers have been included in phase 2 and 3 clinical trials in primary and secondary progressive MS. Brain lesion count and volume are markers of inflammation and demyelination and are important outcomes even in progressive MS trials. Brain and, more recently, spinal cord atrophy are gaining relevance, considering their strong association with disability accrual; ongoing improvements in analysis methods will enhance their applicability in clinical trials, especially for cord atrophy. Advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques (e.g. magnetization transfer ratio (MTR), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), spectroscopy) have been included in few trials so far and hold promise for the future, as they can reflect specific pathological changes targeted by neuroprotective treatments. Position emission tomography (PET) and optical coherence tomography have yet to be included. Applications, limitations and future perspectives of these techniques in clinical trials in progressive MS are discussed, with emphasis on measurement sensitivity, reliability and sample size calculation.
Characterization and tissue distribution of conjugated metabolites of pyrene in the rat

Pyrene (PY) is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) that is often used as a biomarker for human and wildlife exposure to PAHs. As the metabolites of PAHs, similar to their parent compounds, pose public health risks, it is necessary to study their characteristics and tissue-specific distribution. The present study was performed to experimentally characterize PY metabolites and analyze the tissue-specific distribution of the conjugated metabolites after oral administration of PY to rats. PY metabolites, such as pyrenediol-disulfate (PYdiol-diS), pyrenediol-sulfate (PYdiol-S), pyrene-1-sufate (PYOS), pyrene-1-glucuronide (PYOG) and 1-hydroxypyrene (PYOH), were detected in rat urine. Although glucuronide conjugate was the predominant metabolite, the metabolite composition varied among tissues. Interestingly, the proportion of PYOH was high in the large intestine. Furthermore, PYOH was the only PY metabolite detected in feces.