Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Education, lifestyle factors and mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer. A 25-year follow-up of Swedish 50-year-old men.

BACKGROUND There is a well-established inverse relation between education and mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer. The reasons for this are still in part unclear. We aimed to investigate whether differences in traditional vascular risk factors, adult height, physical activity, and biomarkers of fatty acid and antioxidant intake, could explain this association. METHODS In all, 2301 50-year-old men in Uppsala, Sweden (82% of the background population) were examined with regard to educational level, blood pressure, blood glucose, body mass index, serum lipids, smoking, body height, physical activity, serum beta carotene, alpha tocopherol, selenium, and serum fatty acids in cholesterol esters. Cause-specific mortality was registered 25 years later. RESULTS Low education was associated with a higher rate of mortality from cardiovascular disease (crude relative risk [RR] = 1.67, 95% CI : 1.17-2.39), and from cancer (crude RR = 1.94, 95% CI : 1.21-3.10), compared to high educational attainment. Men with high education had an overall more beneficial risk factor profile concerning traditional cardiovascular risk factors, physical activity, and biomarkers of dietary intake of antioxidants and fat. After adjustment for all examined risk factors, the inverse gradient between education and cardiovascular mortality disappeared (RR in low education = 1.01. 95% CI : 0.67-1.52). Controlling for smoking, physical activity and dietary biomarkers explained less than half of the excess cancer mortality in the lower educational groups. Smoking (adjusted RR = 1.89, 95% CI : 1.37-2.61), and high proportions of palmitoleic acid in serum cholesterol esters (adjusted RR per 1 SD = 1.39, 95% CI : 1.07-1.82) predicted cancer mortality, independently of all other factors. There were no independent relations between serum antioxidants and mortality. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that modifiable lifestyle factors mediate the inverse gradient between education and death from cerebro- and cardiovascular disease. Smoking, physical activity and dietary factors explained half of the excess cancer mortality in lower educated groups. Further studies are needed to explore the proposed association between palmitoleic acid, a marker of high intake of animal and dairy fat, and cancer.
Sedation Guidelines, Protocols, and Algorithms in PICUs: A Systematic Review

Objective: To evaluate the impact of sedation guidelines, protocols, and algorithms on clinical outcomes in PICUs. Data Sources: CINAHL, Medline, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Study Selection: English-only publications from 1966 to December 2013, which included keywords “sedation,” ”guideline,” “algorithm,” “protocol,” and “pediatric intensive care. ” We included all primary studies involving critically ill children on sedation guidelines, protocols, and algorithms and excluded those which focused mainly on diagnostic or procedural purposes. Data Extraction: Two authors independently screened each article for inclusion. A standardized data extraction sheet was used to extract data from all included studies. Data Synthesis: Among the 1,283 citations yielded from our search strategy, six observational studies were included in the final review. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies included, clinical outcomes were not combined into a meta-analysis. A descriptive account of the studies was formulated to characterize all included studies. The three outcomes of interest were clinical outcomes, patients’ comfort and safety, and sedative use. We found an association between the use of sedation guidelines, protocols, and algorithms and reduced PICU length of stay, frequency of unplanned extubation, prevalence of patients experiencing drug withdrawal, total sedation duration, and doses. Overall, the quality of identified studies is low. Conclusions: Despite widespread recommendation for the use of sedation guidelines, protocols, and algorithms in critically ill children, our systematic review revealed a paucity of high-quality evidence to guide this practice. More robust studies are urgently needed for this important aspect of PICU care.
Mesoscopic Thermodynamics for the Dynamics of Small-Scale Systems

We analyze the mesoscopic dynamics of small-scale systems from the perspective of mesoscopic non-equilibrium thermodynamics. The theory obtains the Fokker–Planck equation as a diffusion equation for the probability density of the mesoscopic variables and the nonlinear relationships between activation rates and affinities proper of activated processes. The situations that can be studied with this formalism include, among others, barrier crossing dynamics and non-linear transport in a great variety of systems. We, in particular, consider the cases of single-molecule stretching and activated processes in small systems.
Developmental Perspectives and the Teaching of Composition.

When it is said that education is development, everything depends on how development is conceived. John Dewey, Democracy and Education IN A RECENT ARTICLE DISCUSSING NEEDED research on composing, Richard Young calls for more historical research in the field of composition-rhetoric, particularly investigations of the development of contemporary approaches to the teaching of writing. Drawing on the work of Thomas Kuhn, Young asserts that our approaches to composition teaching are based on sets of tacit assumptions, and that these assumptions form a paradigm,
Structural Modifications of Bacterial Lipopolysaccharide that Facilitate Gram-Negative Bacteria Evasion of Host Innate Immunity

Bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a cell wall component characteristic of Gram-negative bacteria, is a representative pathogen-associated molecular pattern that allows mammalian cells to recognize bacterial invasion and trigger innate immune responses. The polysaccharide moiety of LPS primary plays protective roles for bacteria such as prevention from complement attacks or camouflage with common host carbohydrate residues. The lipid moiety, termed lipid A, is recognized by the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4)/MD-2 complex, which transduces signals for activation of host innate immunity. The basic structure of lipid A is a glucosamine disaccharide substituted by phosphate groups and acyl groups. Lipid A with six acyl groups (hexa-acylated form) has been indicated to be a strong stimulator of the TLR4/MD-2 complex. This type of lipid A is conserved among a wide variety of Gram-negative bacteria, and those bacteria are easily recognized by host cells for activation of defensive innate immune responses. Modifications of the lipid A structure to less-acylated forms have been observed in some bacterial species, and those forms are poor stimulators of the TLR4/MD-2 complex. Such modifications are thought to facilitate bacterial evasion of host innate immunity, thereby enhancing pathogenicity. This hypothesis is supported by studies of Yersinia pestis LPS, which contains hexa-acylated lipid A when the bacterium grows at 27°C (the temperature of the vector flea), and shifts to contain less-acylated forms when grown at the human body temperature of 37°C. This alteration of lipid A forms following transmission of Y. pestis from fleas to humans contributes predominantly to the virulence of this bacterium over other virulence factors. A similar role for less-acylated lipid A forms has been indicated in some other bacterial species, such as Francisella tularensis, Helicobacter pylori, and Porphyromonas gingivalis, and further studies to explore this concept are expected.
Discourse in Late Modernity: Rethinking Critical Discourse Analysis

Discourse in Late Modernity sets out to show that critical discourse analysis is strongly positioned to address empirical research and theory-building across the social sciences, particularly research and theory on the semiotic/linguistic aspects of the social world. It situates critical discourse analysis as a form of critical social research in relation to diverse theories from the philosophy of science to social theory and from political science to sociology and linguistics. First, the authors clarify the ontological and epistemological assumptions of critical discourse analysis - its view of what the social world consists of and how to study it - and, in so doing, point to the connections between critical discourse analysis and critical social scientific research more generally. Secondly, they relate critical discourse analysis to social theory, by creating a research agenda in contemporary social life on the basis of narratives of late modernity, particularly those of Giddens, Habermas, and Harvey as well as feminist and postmodernist approaches. Thirdly, they show the relevance of sociological work in the analysis of discursive aspects of social life, drawing on the work of Bourdieu and Bernstein to theorise the dialectic of social reproduction and change, and on post-structuralist, post-colonial and feminist work to theorise the dialectic of complexity and homogenisation in contemporary societies. Finally, they discuss the relationship between systemic-functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis, showing how the analytical strength of each can benefit from the other. * Sets out a new and distinctive theoretical grounding and research agenda for critical discourse analysis * Interdisciplinary in scope * Draws on a broad range of theories and approaches
Flagellar protein localization mediated by a calcium–myristoyl/palmitoyl switch mechanism

The mechanisms by which proteins are targeted to flagella and cilia are poorly understood. We set out to determine the basis for the specific localization of a 24 kDa flagellar calcium‐binding protein (FCaBP) expressed in all life cycle stages of Trypanosoma cruzi. Through the study of trypanosome transfectants expressing various FCaBP deletion mutants, we found that the N‐terminal 24 amino acids of the protein are necessary and sufficient for flagellar localization. Subsequent experiments revealed that FCaBP is myristoylated and palmitoylated and, in fact, is one of very few proteins in the cell possessing these acyl modifications. Both fatty acids are required for flagellar localization, suggesting that FCaBP localization may be mediated through association with the flagellar plasma membrane. Indeed, FCaBP associates with the flagellar membrane in a calcium‐dependent manner, reminiscent of the recoverin family of calcium–myristoyl switch proteins. Thus, FCaBP is a novel member of the calcium–acyl switch protein family and is the only member described to date that requires two fatty acid modifications for specific membrane association. Its unique localization mechanism is the first described for any flagellar protein. The existence of such a protein in this protozoan suggests that acylation and calcium switch mechanisms for regulated membrane association are conserved among eukaryotes.
PageCluster: Mining conceptual link hierarchies from Web log files for adaptive Web site navigation

User traversals on hyperlinks between Web pages can reveal semantic relationships between these pages. We use user traversals on hyperlinks as weights to measure semantic relationships between Web pages. On the basis of these weights, we propose a novel method to put Web pages on a Web site onto different conceptual levels in a link hierarchy. We develop a clustering algorithm called PageCluster, which clusters conceptually-related pages on each conceptual level of the link hierarchy based on their in-link and out-link similarities. Clusters are then used to construct a conceptual link hierarchy, which is visualized in a prototype called Online Navigation Explorer (ONE) for adaptive Web site navigation. Our experiments show that our method can put Web pages onto conceptual levels of a link hierarchy more accurately than both the breadth-first search method and the shortest-weighted-path method, and PageCluster can cluster conceptually-related pages more accurately than the bibliographic analysis method. Our user study also shows that the conceptual link hierarchy visualized in ONE can help users find information more effectively and efficiently as the task of finding information becomes less specific and involves more Web pages on multiple conceptual levels.
Archiv für Religionspsychologie = Archive for the psychology of religion

The "Archiv fur Religionspsychologie" is the oldest medium in the psychology of religion. It is the official organ of the Internationale Gesellschaft fur Religionspsychologie (International Association for the Psychology of Religion [IAPR]) founded in 1914. Following a reorganization of the IAPR in 2001, the "Archiv" is now published as an international, peer-reviewed yearbook. The current editorship is shared by Jacob A. Belzen, Nils G. Holm and Ralph W. Hood Jr. The "Archiv fur Religionspsychologie" is open to all scientific methodologies, quantitative and qualitative as well as to established and innovative conceptual and theoretical perspectives in the psychology of religion.
Interhelical hydrogen bonds and spatial motifs in membrane proteins: Polar clamps and serine zippers

Polar and ionizable amino acid residues are frequently found in the transmembrane (TM) regions of membrane proteins. In this study, we show that they help to form extensive hydrogen bond connections between TM helices. We find that almost all TM helices have interhelical hydrogen bonding. In addition, we find that a pair of contacting TM helices is packed tighter when there are interhelical hydrogen bonds between them. We further describe several spatial motifs in the TM regions, including “Polar Clamp” and “Serine Zipper,” where conserved Ser residues coincide with tightly packed locations in the TM region. With the examples of halorhodopsin, calcium‐transporting ATPase, and bovine cytochrome c oxidase, we discuss the roles of hydrogen bonds in stabilizing helical bundles in polytopic membrane proteins and in protein functions. Proteins 2002;47:209–218. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evaluation and Intercomparison of MODIS and GEOV1 Global Leaf Area Index Products over Four Sites in North China

This study investigated the performances of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and GEOLAND2 Version 1 (GEOV1) Leaf Area Index (LAI) products using ground measurements and LAI reference maps over four sites in North China for 2011–2013. The Terra + Aqua MODIS and Terra MODIS LAI retrieved by the main algorithm and GEOV1 LAI within the valid range were evaluated and intercompared using LAI reference maps to assess their uncertainty and seasonal variability The results showed that GEOV1 LAI is the most similar product with the LAI reference maps (R2 = 0.78 and RMSE = 0.59). The MODIS products performed well for biomes with low LAI values, but considerable uncertainty arose when the LAI was larger than 3. Terra + Aqua MODIS (R2 = 0.72 and RMSE = 0.68) was slightly more accurate than Terra MODIS (R2 = 0.57 and RMSE = 0.90) for producing slightly more successful observations. Both MODIS and GEOV1 products effectively followed the seasonal trajectory of the reference maps, and GEOV1 exhibited a smoother seasonal trajectory than MODIS. MODIS anomalies mainly occurred during summer and likely occurred because of surface reflectance uncertainty, shorter temporal resolutions and inconsistency between simulated and MODIS surface reflectances. This study suggests that further improvements of the MODIS LAI products should focus on finer algorithm inputs and improved seasonal variation modeling of MODIS observations. Future field work considering finer biome maps and better generation of LAI reference maps is still needed.
A new fuzzy logic based pseudo-random bit generator for secure DS-CDMA systems

In this paper, a new method for generating pseudo-random binary sequence based on fuzzy logic is described. The generated fuzzy binary sequences had sutcessfblly passed randomness tests and their length can be made long. Such sequences are suitable for data encryption and for secure direct-sequence (DS) spreadspectrum (SS) systems, Next, we wiil use this fuzzy binary generator to generate code families with good auto and cross correlation properties, which make them suitable for secure code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems. Although the generated codes appear to be random and enjoy most of the properties of random codes, they are deterministic. In other words, they can be exactly regenerated by fixing the parameters of the fuzzy random number generator.
Efg1, a Morphogenetic Regulator in Candida albicans, Is a Sequence-Specific DNA Binding Protein

ABSTRACT Efg1 is essential for hyphal development in the human pathogenCandida albicans under most conditions. Efg1 is related to basic helix-loop-helix regulators, and therefore most workers presume that Efg1 is a transcription factor. Here we confirm that Efg1 is a DNA binding protein that can interact specifically with the E box.
Modeling affected user behavior during human-machine interaction

Spoken human-machine interaction supported by state-of-theart dialog systems is becoming a standard technology. A lot of effort has been invested for this kind of artificial communication interface. But still the spoken dialog systems (SDS) are not able to provide to the users a natural way of communication. Most part of the existing automated dialog systems is based on a questionnaire based strategy with sentence by sentence confirmation request. This paper addresses aspects of design and implementation of user behavior models in dialog systems for frustration detection and user intention recognition, aimed to provide naturalness of human-machine interaction. We overview our acoustic emotion classification, robust affected automatic speech recognition (ASR) and user emotion correlated dialog management. A multimodal human-machine interaction system with integrated user behavior model is created within the project ”Neurobiologically Inspired, Multimodal Intention Recognition for Technical Communication Systems” (NIMITEK). Currently the NIMITEK demonstration system provides a technical demonstrator to study user behavior modeling principles in a dedicated task, namely solving the game “Towers of Hanoi”. During communication with our demonstration system users are free to use natural language. By using natural language understanding and intention recognition modules the system provides task control management. To show the Spoken Dialog System performance uprating with the user’s behavior correlated dialog management we present results of the NIMITEK demonstrator’s usability test. After having analyzed the results of the usability test, we find out that our system provides more cooperative computer machine interaction and decreases interaction time required to complete the puzzle.
Évolutions récentes de la géopolitique de la cocaïne

Cet article examine les nouvelles tendances geographiques et geopolitiques du trafic illicite de cocaine dans les regions productrices sud americaines, les marches consommateurs occidentaux, et les espaces intermediaires, particulierement la region Caraibe et l’Afrique. Des evolutions importantes ont touchees ces trois espaces-types depuis deux decennies : l’etape de la production a ete concentree en Colombie sans avoir pour autant disparue du Perou et de Bolivie, la consommation augmente en Europe, en Amerique latine et en Afrique, et le trafic se developpe fortement dans les espaces intermediaires, en se contractant et se dilatant au gre des mesures repressives mises en place. Ces evolutions sont dues a l’effet ballon, le contournement des repressions mises en place et le deplacement des problemes plutot que sa resolution, et ce d’autant plus que, en dehors des discours, aucune volonte nette d’eradication de ce trafic n’apparait a travers les actions entreprises. Ceci suffit a soulever la question de l’instrumentalisation de la prohibition, soulignant le fait que la repression masque en realite des interventions geopolitiques majeures.
LIF TREC VIDEO 2009 High Level Feature Extraction Using Genetic Fusion

This paper describes our participation to the TRECVID 2009 challenge [5]. This year, we focused on an optimized fusion by means of Genetic Algorithm. We have implemented a classical approach for concept detection in video shots based on low-level and intermediate features extraction, supervised classiﬁers and fusion process. We compare the genetic fusion with usual late fusion (sum or weighted sum) in order to combine a lot of classiﬁers output. We show that, empirically, genetic fusion can achieve reasonable performance although it tends to overﬁt the annotation data
Effects of nontraditional sources of inorganic Ca and P on the growth of male broilers

The objective for this project was to test the adequacy of the NRC (1994) lysine levels, for chicks 0-3 weeks of age. Thirty male broilers were obtained on the hatch day and used in a 14 day experiment. Each pen contained 5 broilers, and each diet was fed to 2 pens. Diets 1, 2, and 3 contained 1.10, 1.21, and 1.04% lysine, respectively. Diet 1 served as a control, following the NRC (1994) recommendation for 0-3 wk broilers of 1.10% lysine. Pen body weights and feed intake were recorded weekly. The diet adequate in lysine surprisingly had a higher average daily feed intake than either the high or low lysine diets. Since there is no significant difference in the growth of the broilers, the low lysine diet is the cheapest, therefore it would be the recommended diet based solely on this data. Introduction: The most recent NRC (1994) established the Lysine requirement at 1.10% for broiler chicks 0-3 weeks of age. Vazquez and Pesti (1997) reported that the NRC (1994) level was adequate for broiler chicks 0-3 weeks of age. They were fed diets containing 1.04%, 1.10%, and 1.21% Lysine, and reported that maximal growth rates were achieved when 1.10% Lysine was fed. There was no additional improvement when Lysine was fed at 1.21%. However, according to Griminger and Scott (1958) there is “no significant differences in requirements that were found between fast and slow growing chicks. ” Our objective was to evaluate the adequacy of the recommended Lysine requirement by feeding three diets of varying Lysine levels to the broiler chicks, replicating Vazquez and Pesti’s experiment. According to Schwartz, et al. (2007), Lysine requirements are “influenced by the rate of gain” of the birds. Our hypothesis is that the NRC lysine requirement is adequate for 0-3 week old chicks. To test our hypothesis, 30 male broilers were obtained on the hatch day and used in a 14 day experiment to determine whether the lysine is adequate. Materials & Methods: • 30 male broilers were obtained on the day after hatching • Birds were randomly allotted to petersime battery cages with nipple and plastic fountain waterers and trough feeders • Birds were housed in groups of five per pen with two pens per diet • Birds were allowed ad libitum access to feed and water • All diets were corn-soybean meal based, and formulated to meet or exceed all nutrient requirements • Diets 1, 2 and 3 were formulated to contain 1.10%, 1.21%, and 1.04% Lysine respectively. Materials and Methods (cont): •Pen body weights and feed intakes were recorded weekly •Pen weights served as experimental means •Mortality was recorded daily •Diets compared by t-tests on Excel with p-value being significant at p<0.1 Diet Composition: