Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulation of homocysteine metabolism and methylation in human and mouse tissues

Hyperhomocysteinemia is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Homocysteine (Hcy) metabolism involves multiple enzymes; however, tissue Hcy metabolism and its relevance to methylation remain unknown. Here, we established gene expression profiles of 8 Hcy metabolic and 12 methylation enzymes in 20 human and 19 mouse tissues through bioinformatic analysis using expression sequence tag clone counts in tissue cDNA libraries. We analyzed correlations between gene expression, Hcy, S‐adenosylhomocysteine (SAH), and S‐adenosylmethionine (SAM) levels, and SAM/SAH ratios in mouse tissues. Hcy metabolic and methylation enzymes were classified into two types. The expression of Type 1 enzymes positively correlated with tissue Hcy and SAH levels. These include cystathionine β‐synthase, cystathionine‐γ‐lyase, paraxonase 1, 5,10‐methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase, betaine:homocysteine methyltransferase, methionine adenosyl‐transferase, phosphatidylethanolamine N‐methyltransferases and glycine N‐methyltransferase. Type 2 enzyme expressions correlate with neither tissue Hcy nor SAH levels. These include SAH hydrolase, methionyl‐tRNA synthase, 5‐methyltetrahydrofolate:Hcy methyltransferase, S‐adenosylmethionine decarboxylase, DNA methyltransferase 1/3a, isoprenylcysteine carboxyl methyltransferases, and histone‐lysine N‐methyltransferase. SAH is the only Hcy metabolite significantly correlated with Hcy levels and methylation enzyme expression. We established equations expressing combined effects of methylation enzymes on tissue SAH, SAM, and SAM/SAH ratios. Our study is the first to provide panoramic tissue gene expression profiles and mathematical models of tissue methylation regulation. —Chen, N. C. , Yang, F. , Capecci, L. M. , Gu, Z. , Schafer, A. I. , Durante, W. , Yang, X. ‐F. , Wang, H. Regulation of homocysteine metabolism and methylation in human and mouse tissues. FASEB J. 24, 2804–2817 (2010). www.fasebj. org
Using signal processing to analyze wireless data traffic

Experts have long recognized that theoretically it was possible to perform traffic analysis on encrypted packet streams by analyzing the timing of packet arrivals (or transmissions). We report on experiments to realize this possiblity using basic signal processing techniques taken from acoustics to perform traffic analysis on encrypted transmissions over wireless networks. While the work discussed here is preliminary, we are able to demonstrate two very interesting results. First, we can extract timing information, such as round-trip times of TCP connections, from traces of aggregated data traffic. Second, we can determine how data is routed through a network using coherence analysis. These results show that signal processing techniques may prove to be valuable network analysis tools in the future.
Sexualities in health and social care : a textbook

Introduction - sexuality, health and social care sexual orientation and its consequences a history of ideas about sexuality - culture and religion science and sexuality - the medical model and its implications social theories - development and debates sexual health writing sexual orientation into health sexuality and th family sexuality and public policy sexuality and health promotion moving towards good practice.
Using a social ecological model in predicting type 2 diabetes self-care in rural African American women

CARE IN RURAL AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN by KELLY STIDHAM KENNEDY (Under the Direction of Dr. Stephanie Burwell) ABSTRACT Rural African American women in Georgia have a disproportionate prevalence rate of diabetes, which nearly doubled in the past 30 years. Self-care behaviors, such as healthy eating, physical activity, foot care, and monitoring blood glucose levels, are important in the long-term prognosis of the disease. Using a social ecological model and stress coping theory, I examined the pathways in which community disadvantage, social support, and depressive symptoms are linked to type 2 diabetes self-care in women. Specifically, I hypothesized that community disadvantage would affect women’s self-care by increasing depressive symptoms and that social support would ameliorate the influence of community disadvantage on depressive symptoms. Hypotheses were tested with data from 140 rural African American women diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. As hypothesized, community disadvantage was linked to type 2 diabetes self-care and this association was mediated through depressive symptoms. No evidence was found to support the moderating influence of social support on the association between community disadvantage and depressive symptoms. Interventions are needed to decrease depressive symptoms and increase community support for rural African American women with type 2 diabetes.
A model for serendipitous music retrieval

Music retrieval systems that take into account the user's taste and information or entertainment need when building the results set to a query are of vital interest for academia, industry, and the passionate music listener. Unfortunately, preliminary attempts to incorporate such aspects have been rather sparse so far. Focusing on the problem of music recommendation, we therefore present a new model that combines several factors we deem to be important for personalizing retrieval results: similarity, diversity, popularity, hotness, recentness, novelty, and serendipity. We further propose different ways to measure the corresponding aspects and, where available, point to literature for a more detailed elaboration of the corresponding measures. In addition, we propose the use of social media mining techniques to address the problem of estimating popularity and hotness in a geo-aware manner.
Hardware implementation of fast traffic sign recognition for intelligent vehicle system

In intelligent vehicle systems, the traffic sign recognition (TSR) has become very important because of the rapid increase in demand of intelligent transportation system (ITS). However, most of them were implemented by expensive systems due to the high complex computation for processing the real-time segmentation and recognition process. In this paper, the preprocessing with the red region extraction in the RGB color space has been applied to improve TSR performance. To implement proposed architecture, we adopt the Xilinx Virtex-7 V2000T Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with a fully pipelined structure. Experimental results show that the implemented preprocessing block use 1,212 lookup table (LUT) and 11.14 KB sized internal memory. The proposed architecture enables a real-time TSR processing with pipelining for a full-HD (FHD) video (2 Mega pixels) at 60 frames per second.
A novel pierced rectangular dielectric resonator antenna for wideband communication systems

In this paper, a novel pierced rectangular dielectric resonator antenna for wideband communication systems has been proposed. The effect of piercing array of square shaped slots and further, providing an air gap between dielectric resonator element and ground plane results in the lowering of `Q' factor and enhancement of the bandwidth S11 <; -10 dB because both are inversely related. Numerical analysis has been performed to find effective dielectric constant. The enhancement in bandwidth is from 9.8 % to 41 % at the resonant frequency of 3.3 GHz with the peak gain of 6.4 dBi. The mode excited is the fundamental TE111 mode. The proposed antenna finds application in various wideband communication systems falling in the range of 3.03 - 4.38 GHz.
The Iowa 500. I. Diagnostic validity in mania, depression, and schizophrenia.

Five hundred twenty-five patients were selected according to specific research criteria from records of 25 to 35 years ago. Diagnoses appended to charts at that time are compared with research diagnoses. Of patients originally diagnosed as having affective disorder, 25% were discarded from research sample. Of patients originally diagnosed as schizophrenics, 63% were not included in research sample, mainly because of acute onset or episodic course. A high degree of correlation between clinical and research criteria for affective disorders was found, but criterion of "agreement amongst experienced clinicians" relatively poorly satisfies research criteria for schizophrenia. Very stringent research diagnostic criteria were used; but for 200 schizophrenics diagnosed systematically, there was chart agreement for 95%; and in 325 affective disorders diagnosed systematically, there was 93% agreement with original chart diagnoses made in 1935.
Syntactic and Semantic Patterns in Child African American English

Thorough descriptions of some areas of adolescent and adult African American English (AAE) have been presented in the literature over the past 40 years; however, the use of AAE by young children has received limited attention. In general, child AAE has been analyzed in the context of communication disorders in efforts to compare normally developing child AAE to impaired uses of the variety. Such studies have been designed to determine the extent to which child AAE speakers use specific isolated features of adolescent and adult AAE that were published in early feature lists characterizing the variety. Research in communication disorders has been targeted toward developing intervention strategies that are useful for treating children with speech and language impairments, so it has not always been concerned with the entire system of AAE that children acquire. In presenting findings from an ongoing study of the use of AAE by 3-, 4and 5-year olds, I explain the syntactic and semantic patterns that child AAE speakers use and show the ways in which they develop a complete linguistic system, not just a list of features. In addition, I discuss data that provide insight into the way child AAE speakers use remote past BIN to mark the distant past and the way they use preterite had to mark events in narratives. The data description presented here sets the course for research on the early stages of acquisition of AAE.
KCNQ5, a Novel Potassium Channel Broadly Expressed in Brain, Mediates M-type Currents*

KCNQ2 and KCNQ3, both of which are mutated in a type of human neonatal epilepsy, form heteromeric potassium channels that are expressed in broad regions of the brain. The associated current may be identical to the M-current, an important regulator of neuronal excitability. We now show that the RNA encoding the novel KCNQ5 channel is also expressed in brain and in sympathetic ganglia where it overlaps largely with KCNQ2 and KCNQ3. In addition, it is expressed in skeletal muscle. KCNQ5 yields currents that activate slowly with depolarization and can form heteromeric channels with KCNQ3. Currents expressed from KCNQ5 have voltage dependences and inhibitor sensitivities in common with M-currents. They are also inhibited by M1 muscarinic receptor activation. A KCNQ5 splice variant found in skeletal muscle displays altered gating kinetics. This indicates a molecular diversity of channels yielding M-type currents and suggests a role for KCNQ5 in the regulation of neuronal excitability.
"Genus är att låta barnen vara dom de är" - hur barnsyn och genusmedvetenhet får ämnesdidaktiska konsekvenser.

This paper reports from a study exploring how an increased knowledge about gender issues can affect pre-school student teachers’ reflections and actions concerning science and technology activities. We have analysed written assignments given to student enrolled in a teacher education programme as well as group discussions that were part of their science and technology courses. One assignment was focused on describing situations during their pre-school placements where the students themselves judged gender to be important. The analysis identifies a reoccurring argumentation among the students that draws on an idea that children need to ‘be who they are’, thus portraying them as having a stable core identity. In this paper we ask what it means to let the children ‘be who they are’ and what the consequences of this view for developing the pre-school according to the curriculum and the education act can be. In doing so, we discuss issues that respectively may promote and hinder pre-school teachers to develop strategies that challenges stereotypical gender patterns. Furthermore, we problematize what consequences this might have for science teaching.
A Privacy Model for Social Networks

This paper defines a new multilevel privacy model for social networks like Facebook. This model is user-friendly i.e. it does not require the users to alter some security settings. It provides the users with a privacy policy with a high expressive power. First, authorizations are based on the type of relationships that the users have between them. Second, relationships themselves are protected.
Pharmacogenetic Analysis of INT 0144 Trial: Association of Polymorphisms with Survival and Toxicity in Rectal Cancer Patients Treated with 5-FU and Radiation

Purpose: We tested whether 18 polymorphisms in 16 genes (GSTP1, COX2, IL10, EGFR, EGF, FGFR4, CCDN1, VEGFR2, VEGF, CXCR2, IL8, MMP3, ICAM1, ERCC1, RAD51, and XRCC3) would predict disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and toxicity in the INT0144 trial, which was designed to investigate different postoperative regimens of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)–based chemoradiation (CRT) in locally advanced rectal cancers: Arm 1 consisted of bolus 5-FU followed by 5-FU protracted venous infusion (PVI) with radiotherapy; arm 2 was induction and concomitant PVI 5-FU with radiotherapy and arm 3 was induction and concomitant bolus 5-FU with radiotherapy. Experimental Design: DNA from 746 stage II/III rectal patients enrolled in the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG) S9304 phase III trial was analyzed. Genomic DNA was extracted from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tumor tissue. The polymorphisms were analyzed using direct DNA-sequencing or polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Results: GSTP1-Ile105Val (rs1695) was significantly associated with DFS and OS and its effect did not vary by treatment arm. The five-year DFS and OS were 53% and 58%, respectively, for G/G, 66% and 72% for G/A, and 57% and 66% for A/A patients. In arm 2, IL8-251A/A genotype (rs4073) was associated with a lower risk of toxicities (P = 0.04). The VEGFR2 H472Q Q/Q genotype (rs1870377) was associated with a higher risk of grade 3–5 proximal upper gastrointestinal tract (PUGIT) mucositis (P = 0.04) in arm 2. However, in arm 1, this genotype was associated with a lower risk of PUGIT mucositis (P = 0.004). Conclusion: rs1695 may be prognostic in patients with rectal cancer treated with adjuvant CRT. rs4073 and rs1870377 may exhibit different associations with toxicity, according to the 5-FU schedule. Clin Cancer Res; 21(7); 1583–90. ©2015 AACR.
A Wide Load Range and High Efficiency Switched-Capacitor DC-DC Converter With Pseudo-Clock Controlled Load-dependent Frequency

A high efficiency 3.3 V-to-1 V switched-capacitor (SC) step-down DC-DC converter with load-dependent frequency control (LFC) and deep-green mode (DGM) operation is proposed for system-on-a-chip (SoC) application. According to output loading current, the LFC technique can immediately and dynamically adjust the switching frequency through the use of pseudo-clock generator (PCG) and lead-lag detector (LLD) circuit to obtain high power conversion efficiency and small output voltage ripple over a wide loading current range. Therefore, adequate loading current supplying function and output voltage regulation can be guaranteed. Moreover, the DGM operation, similar to pulse skipping mode, can mask the switching clock to reduce power loss at ultra-light loads for further improving power efficiency. The test chip fabricated in 55 nm CMOS process demonstrates that the proposed fast transient converter can deliver wide load range from 10 mA to 250 mA with two small flying capacitors (CF1, CF2 = 0.1 μF) and one output capacitor (COUT = 1 μF). The peak conversion efficiency is 89% compared to the ideal value of 91% (3 * VOUT/VIN). In other words, the peak normalized efficiency is equal to 98%. The overall normalized efficiency is always kept higher than 90% while the output voltage ripple is guaranteed smaller than 30 mV.
Minimum payments that reward honest reputation feedback

Online reputation mechanisms need honest feedback to function effectively. Self interested agents report the truth only when explicit rewards offset the cost of reporting and the potential gains that can be obtained from lying. Side-payment schemes (monetary rewards for submitted feedback) can make truth-telling rational based on the correlation between the reports of different buyers.In this paper we use the idea of automated mechanism design to construct the payments that minimize the budget required by an incentive-compatible reputation mechanism. Such payment schemes are defined by a linear optimization problem that can be solved efficiently in realistic settings. Furthermore, we investigate two directions for further lowering the cost of incentive-compatibility: using several reference reports to construct the side-payments, and filtering out reports that are probably false.
Protective Levels of Diphtheria-Neutralizing Antibody Induced in Healthy Volunteers by Unilateral Priming-Boosting Intranasal Immunization Associated with Restricted Ipsilateral Mucosal Secretory Immunoglobulin A

ABSTRACT Subunit intranasal vaccines offer the prospect of inducing combined systemic-mucosal immunity against mucosally transmitted infections such as human immunodeficiency virus. However, although human studies have demonstrated the induction of active immunity, secretory immunoglobulin A (sIgA) responses are variable, and no study has demonstrated protection by accepted vaccine-licensing criteria as measured by direct toxin-neutralizing activity. Using the genetically inactivated mutant diphtheria toxoid CRM197 in a bioadhesive polycationic polysaccharide chitosan delivery system, we found that a single nasal immunization was well tolerated and boosted antitoxin neutralizing activity in healthy volunteers, which could be further boosted by a second immunization. The neutralizing activity far exceeded accepted protective levels and was equivalent to that induced by standard intramuscular vaccine and significantly greater than intranasal immunization with CRM197 in the absence of chitosan. A striking but unexpected observation was that although unilateral intranasal immunization induced circulating antitoxin antibody-secreting cells, a nasal antitoxin sIgA response was seen only after the second immunization and only in the vaccinated nostril. If these data are reproduced in larger studies, an intranasal diphtheria vaccine based on CRM197-chitosan could be rapidly licensed for human use. However, a restricted sIgA response suggests that care must be taken in the priming-boosting strategy and clinical sampling techniques when evaluating such vaccines for the induction of local mucosal immunity.
Effects of Craving Self-Report Measurement on Desire for Heroin in Opioid Dependent Individuals

This study aims to investigate whether the administration of questionnaires measuring subjective craving induces more craving for opiates compared to questionnaires measuring other subjective states. The study was conducted in 2000. The sample was composed of 53 patients that were treated as inpatients and outpatients for their opioid dependence syndrome. Participants were assigned randomly into four groups. Both a craving and negative affect condition were presented to each group. The administration of the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) preceded and followed each condition. Findings of the present study show that the administration of questionnaires measuring instant as well as general craving does not have a distinctive effect on measures of unidimensional craving compared to a questionnaire focused on anxiety and depression states. Because of the small sample, the results should be interpreted cautiously.
Critical Role of Kupffer Cell-Derived IL-10 for Host Defense in Septic Peritonitis1

Intra-abdominal infection in patients following major visceral surgery is associated with high mortality. Using a macrophage depletion technique, we demonstrate that in murine septic peritonitis, Kupffer cells are a major source of systemic IL-10 levels. Kupffer cell-depleted mice were highly susceptible to the lethal effects of septic peritonitis and exhibited an increased bacterial load. Kupffer cell-depleted mice were protected by the administration of an IL-10-Fc fusion protein. Loss of Kupffer cell-derived IL-10 was associated with a weak increase in serum IL-12 levels, whereas TNF, IL-1α, and IL-18 levels were not significantly elevated, suggesting that the loss of Kupffer cell-derived IL-10 did not result in a toxic cytokine release syndrome. Instead, loss of Kupffer cell-derived IL-10 was associated with a reduced splenocyte production of IFN-γ that is required for immune protection in murine septic peritonitis. Therefore, the results suggest that the protective function of IL-10 in septic peritonitis may not be restricted to the anti-inflammatory activities of IL-10.
Skin Involvement and Pulmonary Hypertension Are Associated with Vitamin D Insufficiency in Scleroderma

Vitamin D status has been linked to immune system and autoimmune disorders; in fact, low levels of vitamin D are common in many autoimmune disorders. The aims of our study were to assess the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency and the possible correlation with clinical parameters in systemic sclerosis (SSc). We recruited 40 patients (38 female and two male) with scleroderma and 40 healthy controls matched for age and gender. Demographic and clinical parameters were recorded and the 25-hydroxivitamin D3 serum levels were measured. Serum 25-hydroxivitamin D3 levels were significantly lower in patients with systemic sclerosis than in the control group. The prevalence of 25-hydroxivitamin D3 insufficiency was 50% in the patients and 22.5% in the control group. A statistically significant association was observed between the insufficiency of 25-hydroxivitamin D3 and skin involvement (p = 0.02) and echocardiography systolic pulmonary artery pressure >35 mmHg (p = 0.02). Our data show that the systemic sclerosis group has significantly lower serum 25-hydroxivitamin D3 concentrations compared to the control group; skin involvement and pulmonary hypertension are associated with vitamin D3 insufficiency.
SPEC CPU suite growth: an historical perspective

Since 1989, the SPEC CPU benchmarks have aspired to ambitious goals: fair, portable, comparable tests using the compute-intensive portion of real applications. It may be difficult today to remember just how much of a challenge these goals presented when SPEC was first founded, or how much of a break they were from previous industry practice.
Rumination: deductions on inductions

Rumination is a well established cognitive vulnerability to depressed mood. Research exploring the causal relationship between rumination and depressed mood has used an induction method limited by its design and the definition it is based on. The current project developed new rumination inductions and compared these with mood inductions (positive, negative and neutral) and the traditional rumination and distraction inductions. The three novel inductions were based on the mood inductions, but presented three phrases repeatedly instead of 24 sequential statements, mimicking the repetitive, recurrent nature of ruminative thought. Three hundred and eighty four student participants were randomly assigned to the 8 induction conditions. They then completed a mood measure and two cognitive tests assessing attention and inhibition. Results showed the two negative inductions and the two positive inductions produced poorer performance on the inhibition task, suggesting that mood may be more involved in impairments of inhibition than cognitive processes. There was also a significant difference in attention between the two neutral tasks suggesting that simply watching repeated phrases, as opposed to sequential phrases may impair attention. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.