Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Staging the progression to type 1 diabetes with prediagnostic markers

Purpose of reviewThere are an increasing number of markers that are used to predict the occurrence of type 1 diabetes (T1D), and to study the progression of pathologic changes prior to diagnosis. This review discusses some of those markers, particularly markers for which data are available that pertain to the progression to T1D. Recent findingsA study of birth cohorts showed that young children who develop multiple autoantibodies are at a particularly high risk for developing T1D, and that there appears to be a typical sequence for autoantibody development. The measurement of autoantibodies by electrochemiluminescence can increase the prediction accuracy for T1D. A new marker of changes in glucose over 6 months (PS6 M) has potential utility as an endpoint in short-term prevention trials. Markers which combine C-peptide and glucose, such as the Diabetes Prevention Trial-Type 1 Risk Score and the Index60, can increase the accuracy of prediction, and can potentially be utilized as prediagnostic endpoints. &bgr;-cell death measurements could have substantial utility in future T1D research. SummaryMarkers are highly useful for studying the prediction of and progression to T1D. Moreover, markers can possibly be utilized to diagnose T1D at an earlier stage of disease.
Possible Fruit Protein Effects on Primate Communities in Madagascar and the Neotropics

Background The ecological factors contributing to the evolution of tropical vertebrate communities are still poorly understood. Primate communities of the tropical Americas have fewer folivorous but more frugivorous genera than tropical regions of the Old World and especially many more frugivorous genera than Madagascar. Reasons for this phenomenon are largely unexplored. We developed the hypothesis that Neotropical fruits have higher protein concentrations than fruits from Madagascar and that the higher representation of frugivorous genera in the Neotropics is linked to high protein concentrations in fruits. Low fruit protein concentrations in Madagascar would restrict the evolution of frugivores in Malagasy communities. Methodology/Principal Findings We reviewed the literature for nitrogen concentrations in fruits from the Neotropics and from Madagascar, and analyzed fruits from an additional six sites in the Neotropics and six sites in Madagascar. Fruits from the Neotropical sites contain significantly more nitrogen than fruits from the Madagascar sites. Nitrogen concentrations in New World fruits are above the concentrations to satisfy nitrogen requirements of primates, while they are at the lower end or below the concentrations to cover primate protein needs in Madagascar. Conclusions/Significance Fruits at most sites in the Neotropics contain enough protein to satisfy the protein needs of primates. Thus, selection pressure to develop new adaptations for foods that are difficult to digest (such as leaves) may have been lower in the Neotropics than in Madagascar. The low nitrogen concentrations in fruits from Madagascar may contribute to the almost complete absence of frugivorous primate species on this island.
Challenges and opportunities of the integration of IoT and smart grid in Iran transmission power system

IoT refers to the internetworking of physical devices including passive sensors and actuators that collect, analyze and exchange data via the Internet. Recently, AMI has attracted attention and praise from both industry and commerce for the vast improvements it has brought about in the accuracy of online meter reading and control. The modern Smart Meter can monitors electricity consumption, supply characteristics and its environment (against tampering) and sends the stored data back to the utility company for load monitoring, trend analysis, network loss management and billing purposes. The AMI system with aforementioned capabilities is generally regarded as Smart Grid 1.0. Recent developments and initiatives across the international landscape have been focused around leveraging IoT technologies to create Smart Grid 2.0. Smart Grid 2.0 is based on a qualified peer-to-peer architecture, which eliminates the disadvantages of SG 1.0. In this paper, a detailed comparison and analysis between SG 1.0 and 2.0 is done and the challenges and opportunities associated with the integration of IoT and SG 1.0 is described. Also, as a case study, different problems and challenges of IoT implementation in Iran transmission power system is presented and a conceptual structure, named as Power IoT (PIoT) is illustrated.
A review of pay-for-performance programs in the inpatient sector in OECD countries

Background: Across the member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), pay-for-performance (P4P) programs have been implemented in the inpatient sector to improve the quality of care provided by hospitals. However, little is known about whether such programs can live up to expectations. Thus far, evaluations and reviews have focused on the ambulatory care sector in Anglo-Saxon countries. The transferability of lessons learned to the inpatient sector, however, is limited. Objectives: We aimed to provide an overview of existing P4P programs in the inpatient sector in the OECD countries and to assemble information on their effects. Furthermore, we attempted to identify whether evaluations of such programs allow preliminary conclusions to be drawn about the effects of P4P. [. ]
Simultaneous Dyeing and Antibacterial Finishing of Nylon Fabric Using Acid Dyes and Colloidal Nanosilver

The simultaneous finishing and dyeing of nylon fabric were investigated through exhaustion using acid dye and colloidal silver nanoparticles to obtain colored nylon with antimicrobial properties. The antimicrobial property of the fabrics was evaluated against two pathogenic bacteria including E. coli and S. aureus. The durability of antibacterial properties and the colour coordination of the fabrics treated against washing were investigated. In addition, some properties of the fabrics treated, including the surface morphology, and XRD and EDX diagrams were reported and discussed.
The radiative impact of water ice clouds from a reanalysis of Mars Climate Sounder data

The radiative impact of water ice clouds on the atmosphere of Mars is analyzed via a reanalysis of Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) temperature and ice opacity profiles. Polar hood clouds only have a small radiative impact, while tropical clouds increase diurnally averaged temperatures at the 10 Pa level by ∼10–15 K. Cloud radiative heating strengthens the meridional overturning circulation, increasing temperatures in the polar warmings by ∼6–8 K and temperatures in the tropics by ∼2 K (due to increased dust mass). The positions and wind speeds of the tropical and high‐latitude jets are also modified through changes to the meridional temperature gradients. An effective ice particle radius of reff=1. 4μm produces temperatures around the aphelion cloud belt in close agreement to MCS temperature retrievals. For high‐altitude tropical clouds during northern autumn, a better agreement is found using reff=0. 8μm.
Thymic PTH Increases After Thyroparathyroidectomy in C57BL/KaLwRij Mice

We previously reported a substantial correlation between serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels and the myeloma response to proteasome inhibition that suggests a crucial role for the PTH receptor 1 system in the control of myeloma tumor growth. While investigating the role of PTH in the antimyeloma effect, we observed the recovery of serum PTH levels after thyroparathyroidectomy (TPTX). Although the presence of thymus-derived PTH has been reported previously, the existence or role of thymic PTH in the serum remains controversial. Here, TPTX was performed in 8- to 12-week-old C57BL/KaLwRij mice to delineate the potential source(s) for the recovery of serum PTH. Immediately after TPTX, the expected loss of measurable serum PTH was observed. Serum PTH levels recovered 3 to 4 weeks after TPTX. Thirteen endocrine organs from mice with recovered serum PTH were examined. The thymus from control mice expressed measurable and detectable Pth transcripts; however, the Pth transcript level was substantially elevated in tissue from TPTX mice. Western blot analysis of the thymus demonstrated a reproducible and distinct PTH band in thymus tissue that was significantly increased after TPTX. To directly confirm the identity of the distinct PTH band, immunoprecipitated proteins were isolated and subjected to tandem mass spectrometry. After fragmentation and direct peptide sequencing, PTH peptides PTH(1-13) and PTH(54-70), diagnostic for PTH, were identified. These data demonstrate that the murine thymus produces PTH and that after TPTX the thymus becomes the major source of serum PTH, compensating for the loss of the parathyroid glands and returning circulating PTH levels to normal.
Behavioral correlates of television viewing in primary school children evaluated by the child behavior checklist.

BACKGROUND Television is a source from which children gain information about life and experience different types of behavior. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) has not been used thoroughly to evaluate the behavioral effects of television viewing on children. OBJECTIVE To examine the competency and problem behavior correlates of television viewing in school-aged children using the CBCL. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey. SETTING Two randomly selected grade schools, one from a high-income district and the other from a low-income district. PARTICIPANTS Students in grades 2 and 3 and their parents. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES A questionnaire on children's time spent watching television and engaging in other daily activities and the CBCL were sent to the parents of 888 second- and third-grade students. RESULTS Results of the questionnaire reported that the overall mean +/- SD daily television viewing time was 2.5 +/- 1.3 hours. Overall television viewing time had a negative correlation with social and school achievement (r = -0.17, P<.001 and r = 0.11, P =.03, respectively) subscale scores. Withdrawn (r = 0.11, P =.004), social problem (r = 0.14, P =.001), thought problem (r = 0.11, P =.03), attention problem (r = 0.20, P<.001), delinquent behavior (r = 0.12, P<.001), aggressive behavior (r = 0.22, P<.001), and externalization (r = 0.19, P<.001) subscales and total problem (r = 0.15, P<.001) scores were positively correlated with time spent watching television. Stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that the only significant variables associated with a risk of watching television for more than 2 hours were age, gender, social subscale, and attention problem subscale scores of the CBCL. CONCLUSION As evaluated by the CBCL, television viewing time is positively associated with social problems, delinquent behavior, aggressive behavior, externalization, and total problem scores. Older age, male gender, and decreasing social subscale and increasing attention problem subscale scores on the CBCL increases the risk of watching television for more than 2 hours.
Recent advances in the understanding of Xanthomonas citri ssp. citri pathogenesis and citrus canker disease management.

Taxonomic status: Bacteria; Phylum Proteobacteria; Class Gammaproteobacteria; Order Xanthomonadales; Family Xanthomonadaceae; Genus Xanthomonas; Species Xanthomonas citri ssp. citri (Xcc). Host range: Compatible hosts vary in their susceptibility to citrus canker (CC), with grapefruit, lime and lemon being the most susceptible, sweet orange being moderately susceptible, and kumquat and calamondin being amongst the least susceptible. Microbiological properties: Xcc is a rod-shaped (1.5-2.0 × 0.5-0.75 µm), Gram-negative, aerobic bacterium with a single polar flagellum. The bacterium forms yellow colonies on culture media as a result of the production of xanthomonadin. Distribution: Present in South America, the British Virgin Islands, Africa, the Middle East, India, Asia and the South Pacific islands. Localized incidence in the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Bangladesh. Widespread throughout Paraguay, Comoros, China, Japan, Malaysia and Vietnam. Eradicated from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Absent from Europe.
EZH2 suppresses the nucleotide excision repair in nasopharyngeal carcinoma by silencing XPA gene

The enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) is involved in a number of fundamental pathological processes of cancer. However, its role in DNA repair pathway is still unclear. Here, we have identified XPA as a novel target gene of EZH2 via a DNA repair pathway PCR array. XPA plays a pivot role in nucleotide excision repair (NER). The expression of XPA was significantly increased by EZH2 specific inhibitor GSK126 or lentiviral shEZH2 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) CNE and 8F cell lines. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assay demonstrated that EZH2 catalyzes H3K27 trimethylation at the XPA promoters. Furthermore, we validated the negative correlation of EZH2 and XPA in a NPC tissue microarray by immunohistochemistry staining. We also found that high expression of EZH2 was positively correlated with advanced T, N, and AJCC stage of NPC; and low expression of XPA was positively correlated with advanced T and N stage. In NPC cell lines, increased XPA expression by EZH2 inhibition resulted in a more rapid removal of UVC induced 6‐4PP‐ and CPD‐DNA adducts, as well as enhanced efficiency of DNA repair after UVC irradiation as detected by the Comet assay and immunofluorescence staining of γH2Ax. Consistently, increased cell clonogenic survival, decreased apoptosis, and necrosis after UVC irradiation, and increased resistance to DNA damaging agent cisplatin was also observed in EZH2 inhibited cells. These results illustrate that EZH2 may promote carcinogenesis and cancer development of NPC by transcriptional repression of XPA gene and inactivation of NER pathway. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Study on antioxidant activity of isorhamnetin and isorhamnetin ⁃ 3 ⁃ O ⁃ glucoside

Quercetin compounds which are one of the most active compounds in many flavonoids have a strong efficacy efficacy in medicine. Two quercetin flavonoids isorhamnetin and isorhamnetin⁃3⁃O⁃glucoside are selected as the target compounds, and Gaussian 09 software and the density functional theory (DFT) method are used to study on antioxidant activity of isorhamnetin and isorhamnetin⁃3⁃O⁃glucoside from the total energy, the dissociation enthalpy of H⁃O bond (BDE), the front molecular orbital and the energy level and atomic net charge. The results show the activity of isorhamnetin was greater than isorhamnetin isorhamnetin⁃3⁃O⁃glucoside, and the loss of hydrogen by the phenolic hydroxyl groups at the 4􀆳position is the greatest for the two types molecules antioxidant activity overall, phenolic hydroxyl in this position shows obvious high activity characteristics. Although the glycosides do not have the effect of eliminating free radical activity, it is not involved in the formation of frontier molecular orbitals, and it has a great impact on the polarity of the molecule itself, can change the molecular solubility in the body and absorbance. The study provides further scientific basis for the further study on the antioxidant activity of quercetin flavonoids and the improvement of antioxidant structure.
Detecting Middlebox Interference on Applications

Middleboxes are widely used in today’s Internet, especially for security and performance. Recent studies have uncovered and studied middleboxes in different types of networks. Middleboxes classify, filter and shape traffic, therefore interfering with application performance. In this paper, we propose a tool to detect and locate middlebox interference for specific applications, specifically DNS and HTTP. The tool sends probes with crafted IP TTL and application payloads from multiple vantage points, that provides the ability to identify any middlebox interference in both directions of the traffic flows. In addition, we capture and analyse all transmitted packets to figure out the hop range of middlebox location.
Transcriptome Profiling of a Toxic Dinoflagellate Reveals a Gene-Rich Protist and a Potential Impact on Gene Expression Due to Bacterial Presence

Background Dinoflagellates are unicellular, often photosynthetic protists that play a major role in the dynamics of the Earth's oceans and climate. Sequencing of dinoflagellate nuclear DNA is thwarted by their massive genome sizes that are often several times that in humans. However, modern transcriptomic methods offer promising approaches to tackle this challenging system. Here, we used massively parallel signature sequencing (MPSS) to understand global transcriptional regulation patterns in Alexandrium tamarense cultures that were grown under four different conditions. Methodology/Principal Findings We generated more than 40,000 unique short expression signatures gathered from the four conditions. Of these, about 11,000 signatures did not display detectable differential expression patterns. At a p-value < 1E-10, 1,124 signatures were differentially expressed in the three treatments, xenic, nitrogen-limited, and phosphorus-limited, compared to the nutrient-replete control, with the presence of bacteria explaining the largest set of these differentially expressed signatures. Conclusions/Significance Among microbial eukaryotes, dinoflagellates contain the largest number of genes in their nuclear genomes. These genes occur in complex families, many of which have evolved via recent gene duplication events. Our expression data suggest that about 73% of the Alexandrium transcriptome shows no significant change in gene expression under the experimental conditions used here and may comprise a “core” component for this species. We report a fundamental shift in expression patterns in response to the presence of bacteria, highlighting the impact of biotic interaction on gene expression in dinoflagellates.
Ensemble Named Entity Recognition (NER): Evaluating NER Tools in the Identification of Place Names in Historical Corpora

The field of Spatial Humanities has advanced substantially in the past years. The identification and extraction of toponyms and spatial information mentioned in historical text collections has allowed its use in innovative ways, making possible the application of spatial analysis and the mapping of these places with Geographic Information Systems. For instance, automated place name identification is nowadays possible with Named Entity Recognition (NER) systems. Statistical NER methods based on supervised learning, in particular, are highly successful with modern datasets. However, there are still major challenges to address when dealing with historical corpora. These challenges include language changes over time, spelling variations, transliterations, OCR errors, and sources written in multiple languages among others. In this article, considering a task of place name recognition over two collections of historical correspondence, we report an evaluation of five NER systems and an approach that combines these through a voting system. We found that although individual performance of each NER system was corpus dependent, the ensemble combination was able to achieve consistent measures of precision and recall, outperforming the individual NER systems. Additionally, the results showed that these NER system are not strongly dependent on pre-processing and translation to modern English.
How high will it be? Using machine learning models to predict branch coverage in automated testing

Software testing is a crucial component in modern continuous integration development environment. Ideally, at every commit, all the system's test cases should be executed and moreover, new test cases should be generated for the new code. This is especially true in a Continuous Test Generation (CTG) environment, where the automatic generation of test cases is integrated into the continuous integration pipeline. Furthermore, developers want to achieve a minimum level of coverage for every build of their systems. Since both executing all the test cases and generating new ones for all the classes at every commit is not feasible, they have to select which subset of classes has to be tested. In this context, knowing a priori the branch coverage that can be achieved with test data generation tools might give some useful indications for answering such a question. In this paper, we take the first steps towards the definition of machine learning models to predict the branch coverage achieved by test data generation tools. We conduct a preliminary study considering well known code metrics as a features. Despite the simplicity of these features, our results show that using machine learning to predict branch coverage in automated testing is a viable and feasible option.
Observational Study of Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Outcomes in Adult Hospitalized Patients: A Multivariable Analysis of Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Failure

BACKGROUND: Almost 70% of hospitalized patients require a peripheral intravenous catheter (PIV), yet up to 69% of PIVs fail prior to completion of therapy. OBJECTIVE: To identify risk factors associated with PIV failure. DESIGN: A single center, prospective, cohort study. SETTING: Medical and surgical wards of a tertiary hospital located in Queensland, Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Adult patients requiring a PIV. MEASUREMENTS: Demographic, clinical, and potential PIV risk factors were collected. Failure occurred if the catheter had complications at removal. RESULTS: We recruited 1000 patients. Catheter failure occurred in 512 (32%) of 1578 PIVs. Occlusion/infiltration risk factors included intravenous (IV) flucloxacillin (hazard ratio [HR], 1.98; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19‐3.31), 22‐gauge PIVs (HR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.02‐2.00), and female patients (HR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.10‐2.00). Phlebitis was associated with female patients (HR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.40‐2.35), bruised insertion sites (HR, 2.16; 95% CI, 1.26‐3.71), IV flucloxacillin (HR, 2.01; 95% CI, 1.26‐3.21), and dominant side insertion (HR, 1.39; 95% CI, 1.09‐1.77). Dislodgement risks were a paramedic insertion (HR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.03‐3.06). Each increase by 1 in the average number of daily PIV accesses was associated (HR 1.11, 95% CI 1.03‐1.20)‐(HR 1.14, 95% CI 1.08‐1.21) with occlusion/infiltration, phlebitis and dislodgement. Additional securement products were associated with less (HR 0.32, 95% CI 0.22‐0.46)‐(HR 0.63, 95% CI 0.48‐0.82) occlusion/infiltration, phlebitis and dislodgement. CONCLUSION: Modifiable risk factors should inform education and inserter skill development to reduce the currently high rate of PIV failure.
Practical Time-Delay Control With Adaptive Gains for Trajectory Tracking of Robot Manipulators

This paper presents a practical adaptive time-delay control scheme (ATDC) and then applies it to robot manipulators. The proposed ATDC uses a time-delayed signal to cancel complex nonlinear dynamics and disturbances, and hence to provide a simple structure. The adaptive law of the proposed ATDC is developed to adjust the control gains appropriately while in operation and then to achieve good tracking performance with tolerant fluctuation and fast convergence speed. Such adaptive control gains are shown to have an effect of adding an adaptive auxiliary control to a conventional time-delay control (TDC). Moreover, the proposed ATDC includes a typical sliding-mode control as a second auxiliary control to suppress the time-delay estimation (TDE) errors caused by the time-delayed signal so that robust performance can be achieved. It is shown by the bounded input bounded output stability theory and a Lyapunov approach that the TDE errors are bounded and the tracking errors are uniformly ultimately bounded, respectively. The practical effectiveness of the proposed ATDC, or the synergistic effect of two auxiliary controls, is illustrated in simulations and experiments with robot manipulators.