Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is early detection of colon cancer possible with red blood cell distribution width?

BACKGROUND Red cell distribution width (RDW) is one of the standard parameters with blood cell counts. Much previous research has indicated that it increases in cases of systemic inflammation or cardiametabolic incident. However, information on the relation of RDW with solid tumors causing systemic inflammation is limited. In the present research, we examined the relation of RDW with malignant and benign lesions of the colon. MATERIALS AND METHODS 115 patients with colon polyps (group 1), and 30 with colon cancer (group 2) who were diagnosed histopathologically in our clinic between January 2010-January 2013 were scanned retrospectively. Patients with anemia, hematologic diseases and active inflammation were excluded. RDW, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), hemoglobin (Hgb) and platelet (Plt) measurements were recorded and their relations with the malignant and benign lesions of the colon were examined. RESULTS Both groups were similar in age and gender distribution. RDW values of patients with colon cancer were significantly higher than the patients with colon polyp (p=0,01). No significant differences were detected between the two groups in terms of MCV and Plt values (p>0,05). CONCLUSIONS RDW can be used as an early warning biomarker for solid colon tumors. Further prospective research is required on the relations of cheap and easily measured RDW parameters with colon malignancies.
Reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Self‐care Ability Scale for the Elderly

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To translate the Self-care Ability Scale for the Elderly into Simplified Chinese and to test the Chinese version of the scale regarding its reliability and validity among older people. BACKGROUND Self-care is an important topic in nursing. When assessing older people's self-care ability, it is essential that a reliable and valid instrument is used. DESIGN This study employed across-sectional design. METHODS We translated the English version of the Self-care Ability Scale for the Elderly into Simplified Chinese according to Brislin's translation guidelines and carried out a questionnaire survey among 610 older people, including both community-dwelling people and hospital patients, in Jinzhou City, People's Republic of China. Eighty participants completed the instrument twice for test-retest reliability. Data analyses were performed using spss 17.0 and Mplus, version 5, to assess reliability and validity. RESULTS A Cronbach's alpha coefficient of . 89 and statistically significant item-to-total correlations showed evidence of homogeneity. An intraclass correlation coefficient of . 99 for the test-retest between total scores and intraclass correlation coefficients between . 87-. 99 for the test-retest scores of each item explained the almost perfect test-retest reliability noted in this study. Content validity was found to be good, and a three-factor model was obtained in an exploratory factor analysis (explaining a variance of 57%) and modified in a confirmatory factor analysis (χ2 = 261.559, df = 98, root mean square error of approximation = 0.074; standardised root mean square residual = 0.059), which reflected an acceptable construct validity. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that the Chinese version of the Self-care Ability Scale for the Elderly has sufficient psychometric properties for assessing self-care ability among older people in China. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE A reliable and valid instrument is available to assess the self-care ability of older Chinese people.
The Wicked Problem of China's Disappearing Coral Reefs

We examined the development of coral reef science and the policies, institutions, and governance frameworks for management of coral reefs in China in order to highlight the wicked problem of preserving reefs while simultaneously promoting human development and nation building. China and other sovereign states in the region are experiencing unprecedented economic expansion, rapid population growth, mass migration, widespread coastal development, and loss of habitat. We analyzed a large, fragmented literature on the condition of coral reefs in China and the disputed territories of the South China Sea. We found that coral abundance has declined by at least 80% over the past 30 years on coastal fringing reefs along the Chinese mainland and adjoining Hainan Island. On offshore atolls and archipelagos claimed by 6 countries in the South China Sea, coral cover has declined from an average of >60% to around 20% within the past 10–15 years. Climate change has affected these reefs far less than coastal development, pollution, overfishing, and destructive fishing practices. Ironically, these widespread declines in the condition of reefs are unfolding as China's research and reef‐management capacity are rapidly expanding. Before the loss of corals becomes irreversible, governance of China's coastal reefs could be improved by increasing public awareness of declining ecosystem services, by providing financial support for training of reef scientists and managers, by improving monitoring of coral reef dynamics and condition to better inform policy development, and by enforcing existing regulations that could protect coral reefs. In the South China Sea, changes in policy and legal frameworks, refinement of governance structures, and cooperation among neighboring countries are urgently needed to develop cooperative management of contested offshore reefs.
The contribution of a central pattern generator in a reflex-based neuromuscular model

Although the concept of central pattern generators (CPGs) controlling locomotion in vertebrates is widely accepted, the presence of specialized CPGs in human locomotion is still a matter of debate. An interesting numerical model developed in the 90s’ demonstrated the important role CPGs could play in human locomotion, both in terms of stability against perturbations, and in terms of speed control. Recently, a reflex-based neuro-musculo-skeletal model has been proposed, showing a level of stability to perturbations similar to the previous model, without any CPG components. Although exhibiting striking similarities with human gaits, the lack of CPG makes the control of speed/step length in the model difficult. In this paper, we hypothesize that a CPG component will offer a meaningful way of controlling the locomotion speed. After introducing the CPG component in the reflex model, and taking advantage of the resulting properties, a simple model for gait modulation is presented. The results highlight the advantages of a CPG as feedforward component in terms of gait modulation.
The tension‐depolarization relationship of frog atrial trabeculae as determined by potassium contractures.

1. In the presence of extracellular Na ions K contractures evoked from isolated frog atrial trabeculae show an initial phasic and a subsequent tonic contractile response. 2. The phasic response shows a steep dependence on membrane potential, persists in Na‐free fluid, but is blocked by Mn ions, D600 and tetracaine. It has an indirect dependence on the [Ca]0 and would seem to be associated with both the secondary inward current and the release of Ca2+ from intracellular stores. 3. The tonic component of the K contracture is unaffected by D600 or tetracaine, shows a shallow dependence on membrane potential but is absent in Na‐free fluid. Its tension‐depolarization curve is immediately affected by alteration of either the [Ca]0 or the [Na]0. The form of the tension‐depolarization relationship and the effects of [Ca]0 and [Na]0 are consistent with the strength of the tonic tension being determined by a 3Na+ for 1Ca2+ exchange across the cell membrane. 4. The results agree well with those obtained previously with voltage‐clamp experiments on the same tissue, and may also help with the interpretation of Ca‐flux experiments.
Low probability of double integration in transformation of nonpermissive cells by polyomavirus

The fate of polyomavirus genomes in stable transformants was examined in experiments in which rat or hamster cells were infected with mixed viral populations containing either two distinguishable wild types or a wild type plus a transformation-deficient mutant. The results demonstrate that in 90% of the cases in either situation, a single polyomavirus parental genome became integrated into the host genome. Both parents in the mixed infection were present in the same cells and both persisted in the infected cells until transformants appeared, eliminating the possibility that one virus would exclude the other in the early steps of the infection process. We believe that these results can be generalized to transformation events derived from normal single infections. Thus, contrary to previous results for the number of integration sites determined by restriction endonuclease and blot hybridization analysis, it appears that the probability for more than one integration event in transformation by polyomavirus is low (1 in 10). A reinterpretation of previous data is proposed.
Organization Citizenship Behaviour Path Analysis: Justice, Trust, Satisfaction and Commitment

This paper examines the impact of: organization justice, transactional: attitudinal commitment, organization trust, and job satisfaction on organization citizenship behaviour. The study was conducted on the primary and secondary catholic schools in Thailand. The organizational objective is to provide an understanding of the relationship between the variables in the organization development area. The sample of the study involved 350 respondents from 10 schools with work groups ranging from top-management, support-management, teachers, as well as staff who took part in the research. The research findings indicate a significant relationship between variables that contribute to change in organization citizenship behaviour. The findings indicate its usefulness as a tool for organization development and business practitioners in understanding the change in behaviour in organization development. However, other elements in the management environment play a critical role in changing organization citizenship behaviour. Future studies may employ different elements in management with existing variables from this study to extend the validity and reliability of the models developed from this study. Key Words: catholic school, change, organization citizenship behaviour, organization development.
m2r2: A Framework for Results Materialization and Reuse in High-Level Dataflow Systems for Big Data

High-level parallel dataflow systems, such as Pig and Hive, have lately gained great popularity in the area of big data processing. These systems often consist of a declarative query language and a set of compilers, which transform queries into execution plans and submit them to a distributed engine for execution. Apart from the useful abstraction and support for common analysis operations, high-level processing systems also offer great opportunities for automatic optimizations. Existing studies on execution traces from big data centers and industrial clusters show that there is significant computation redundancy in analysis programs, i.e., there exist similar or even identical queries on the same datasets in different jobs. Furthermore, workload characterization of MapReduce traces from large organizations suggest that there is a big need for caching job results, that will enable their reuse and improve execution time. In this paper, we propose m2r2, an extensible and language-independent framework for results materialization and reuse in high-level dataflow systems for big data analytics. Our prototype implementation is built on top of the Pig dataflow system and handles automatic results caching, common sub-query matching and rewriting, as well as garbage collection. We have evaluated m2r2 using the TPC-H benchmark for Pig and report reduced query execution time by 65% on average.
THE COMPLEX MULTICHANNEL LMS ALGORITHM FOR ADAPTIVE BLIND SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION

Existing adaptive algorithmsfor blind SIMO system identification are implicitly derived for real signals. In this paper, we extend the multichannel LMS algorithm to the complex case. This is useful, for example, in multirate implementationsof the algorithmswhere the subband signals are usually complex. With this algorithm, the channels are identified correctlyup to a complex multiplicative factor resulting in magnitude and phase ambiguity. The complications arising due to this phase ambiguity are discussed andsimulationresults arepresentedto demonstrate and to validatethe performanceof the complexmultichannel LMS algorithm.
Contribution of tonic vagal modulation of heart rate, central respiratory drive, respiratory depth, and respiratory frequency to respiratory sinus arrhythmia during mental stress and physical exercise.

This study tested various sources of changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). Twenty-two healthy participants participated in three experimental conditions (mental stress, relaxation, and mild physical exercise) that each consisted of three breathing parts (normal breathing, breathing compressed room air, and breathing compressed 5% CO2-enriched air). Independent contributions to changes in RSA were found for changes in tonic vagal modulation of heart rate, central respiratory drive (i.e., PaCO2), respiratory depth, and respiratory frequency. The relative contributions to changes in RSA differed for mental stress and physical exercise. It is concluded that uncorrected RSA will suffice to index within-subject changes in tonic vagal modulation of heart rate in most situations. However, if the central respiratory drive is expected to change, RSA should ideally be corrected for changes in PaCO2, respiratory depth, and respiratory frequency.
Formation of N‐Nitrosamines in Drinking Water Sources: Case Studies from Western Australia

This study investigated the formation of eight N‐nitrosamines after laboratory chlorination and chloramination of Western Australian source waters (from protected catchments), which experience periodic cyanobacterial blooms. All measured N‐nitrosamines, except N‐nitrosodipropylamine, were detected at least once, and total N‐nitrosamine formation was higher after chloramination than after chlorination. While previous studies have shown that some cyanobacteria can be related to the formation of N‐nitrosamines, formation of N‐nitrosamines in the waters tested did not correlate with total cyanobacteria count. Estimates of toxicity, using published 50% lifetime excess cancer risk values, indicated that N‐nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) was the highest contributor to the total measured N‐nitrosamine toxicity, suggesting that other measured N‐nitrosamines will only influence toxicity when they are present at significantly higher concentrations than NDMA. When assessing the overall health impact of disinfection by‐products, it is important to also consider the formation of disinfection by‐products other than N‐nitrosamines, which may be present at higher concentrations and thus may present higher toxicity.
Overproduction of the Bradyrhizobium japonicum c-type cytochrome subunits of the cbb3 oxidase in Escherichia coli.

We report on a system to improve expression of mature c-type cytochromes in Escherichia coli. It is based on the use of plasmid pEC86 that expresses the E. coli cytochrome c maturation genes ccmABCDEFGH constitutively, whereby the production of both endogenous and foreign c-type cytochromes was increased substantially. The periplasmic soluble domains of the c-type cytochrome subunits FixO and FixP of the Bradyrhizobium japonicum cbb3 oxidase could be expressed in E. coli only when pEC86 was provided in a degP-deficient strain. This shows that a stimulation of heme attachment by the Ccm maturase system combined with the diminished proteolytic activity in the periplasm can increase c-type cytochrome yields.
Cardiac outcomes after myocardial infarction in elderly patients with diabetes mellitus.

OBJECTIVES To examine the association between (1) comorbid conditions related to diabetes mellitus, clinical findings on arrival at the hospital, and characteristics of the myocardial infarction and (2) risk of heart failure, recurrent myocardial infarction, and mortality in the year after myocardial infarction in elderly 30-day survivors of myocardial infarction who had non-insulin- or insulin-treated diabetes. METHODS Medical records for June 1, 1992, through February 28, 1993, of Medicare beneficiaries (n = 1698), 65 years or older, hospitalizedfor acute myocardial infarction in Connecticut were reviewed by trained abstractors. RESULTS One year after myocardial infarction, elderly patients with non-insulin- and insulin-treated diabetes mellitus had significantly greater risk for readmission for heart failure and recurrent myocardial infarction than did patients without diabetes mellitus, and risk was greater in patients treated with insulin than in patients not treated with insulin. Diabetes mellitus, comorbid conditions related to diabetes mellitus, clinical findings on arrival, and characteristics of the myocardial infarction, specifically measures of ventricular function, were important predictors of these outcomes. Mortality was greater in patients not treated with insulin than in patients treated with insulin; the increased risk was mostly due to comorbid conditions related to diabetes mellitus and poorer ventricular function. CONCLUSIONS Risk of heart failure, recurrent myocardial infarction, and mortality is elevated in elderly patients who have non-insulin- or insulin-treated diabetes mellitus. Comorbid conditions related to diabetes mellitus and ventricular function at the time of the index myocardial infarction are important contributors to poorer outcomes in patients with diabetes mellitus.
A New Hierarchical Network Coordinate Algorithm Based on Community Structure

Network coordinate algorithm provides anefficient way to predict communication latency between hosts withlimited measurements. Hosts are embedded into a coordinate space andassigned a set of coordinates which reflect their positions in thegeometric space. The distance between the coordinates of two hostscan be a predictor of the actual communication latency between them.How to improve the prediction accuracy is a problem which challengesthe practical applications of network coordinate algorithm. In orderto improve the short distance prediction accuracy of traditionalnetwork coordinate algorithm such as Vivaldi, we propose a newhierarchical network coordinate algorithm based on communitystructure detection. The whole network is organized into N-levelhierarchies without any requirement of fixed nodes asinfrastructure. Each host is assigned multiple coordinatescorresponding to the N-level hierarchies so that different sets ofcoordinates satisfy different ranges of distance prediction.Simulation results show that the new hierarchical network coordinatealgorithm provides more accurate short distance predictions withoutdegrading the accuracy of long distance predictions. Internetapplications such as the nearest server selection will benefit fromthe more accurate prediction of short distance using this newhierarchical network coordinate algorithm.
Self-Reported Psychopathic Traits and Antisocial Outcomes in Detained Girls

This study examines the usefulness of self-reported psychopathy scores in predicting various antisocial outcomes in a sample of detained girls (n = 95, M age = 16.25). Psychopathic traits at baseline were measured by the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD). Other self-report tools were completed at baseline and 6 months after discharge to assess violent and nonviolent offending, reactive and proactive aggression, and alcohol/drug use. Only occasionally a significant relationship between the APSD total score and these antisocial outcomes was revealed, though the APSD total score did never remain a significant predictor after controlling for past offenses, aggression, and alcohol/drug use. Altogether, these findings suggest that the APSD total score is of restricted usefulness in predicting antisocial outcomes among detained girls. This overall conclusion is consistent with past research using the APSD and other tools and suggests that one should rethink the role of psychopathy measures for risk assessment purposes among detained youths.
Effectively Adapting the Sport Management Curricula

Abstract Academic programs must constantly evolve in order to ensure that students are best prepared for success in internships and subsequent postcollegiate endeavors within the dynamic, rapidly changing sport industry. Based upon qualitative research, this work assesses and recommends areas of development in sport management curricula using internal and external resources so as to facilitate the best educational and preparatory experience for students seeking to enter this highly competitive field. This research provides a foundation from which faculty can benefit by further considering best practices in curriculum and course design as well as cross-campus and external resource collaboration to augment students' preparation in the areas of academic, experiential and professional development.
Angiotensin II Stimulates Basolateral 10-pS Cl Channels in the Thick Ascending Limb

Chloride channels in the basolateral membrane play a key role in Cl absorption in the thick ascending limb (TAL). The patch-clamp experiments were performed to test whether angiotensin II (AngII) increases Cl absorption in the TAL by stimulating the basolateral 10-pS Cl channels. AngII (1–100 nmol/L) stimulated the 10-pS Cl channel in the TAL, an effect that was blocked by losartan (angiotension AT1 receptor [AT1R] antagonist) but not by PD123319 (angiotension AT2 receptor [AT2R] antagonist). Inhibition of phospholipase C or protein kinase C also abolished the stimulatory effect of AngII on Cl channels. Moreover, stimulation of protein kinase C with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate mimicked the effect of AngII and increased Cl channel activity. However, the stimulatory effect of AngII on Cl channels was absent in the TAL pretreated with diphenyleneiodonium sulfate, an inhibitor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase. Moreover, treatment of the TAL with diphenyleneiodonium sulfate also blocked the effect of phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate on the 10-pS Cl channel. Western blotting demonstrated that incubation of isolated TAL with AngII increased phosphorylation of p47phox at Ser304, suggesting that AngII stimulates the basolateral Cl channels by increasing NADPH oxidase–dependent superoxide generation. This notion was also supported by the observation that H2O2 significantly increased 10-pS Cl channel activity in the TAL. We conclude that stimulation of AT1R increased the basolateral Cl channels by activating the protein kinase C–dependent NADPH oxidase pathway. The stimulatory effect of AngII on the basolateral Cl channel may contribute to AngII-induced increases in NaCl reabsorption in the TAL and AngII-infuse–induced hypertension.