Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vitamin D Status in Pregnancy and Determinants in a Southern European Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND Population-based data on vitamin D status in pregnancy in southern European countries are scarce. We assessed the prevalence and determinants of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency in pregnancy in Spain. METHODS Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) concentration was measured at the first trimester of gestation in 2,036 pregnant women from several geographical areas of Spain (latitude 39-42°N). Uni- and multivariable regression models were conducted to identify predictors of circulating 25(OH)D3 concentration and vitamin D insufficiency (20-30 ng/mL) and deficiency (<20 ng/mL). RESULTS Thirty-one per cent and 18% of women were vitamin D insufficient and deficient, respectively. Season at blood collection, latitude, age, social class, tobacco smoking, physical activity and use of vitamin D supplements were identified as independent determinants of 25(OH)D3 concentration. Lower risk of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency was associated with summer season at blood collection (RR for insufficiency = 0.34, confidence intervals (CI) 0.25, 0.48; and RR for deficiency = 0.07, 95% CI 0.04, 0.12), southern latitude (RR for insufficiency = 0.71, 95% CI 0.50, 1.02; RR for deficiency = 0.60, 95% CI 0.38, 0.94); use of vitamin D supplements (RR for insufficiency = 0.50, 95% CI 0.35, 0.71; RR for deficiency = 0.24, 95% CI 0.14, 0.41); and strong physical activity (RR for insufficiency = 0.80, 95% CI 0.58, 1.09; and RR for deficiency = 0.67, 95% CI 0.46, 1.03). Higher risk of vitamin D deficiency was related to lower social class (RR = 1.94, 95% CI 1.19, 3.16) and smoking (RR = 1.76, 95% CI 1.23, 2.54). CONCLUSIONS Vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency are highly prevalent in pregnancy. Recommendations and policies to detect and prevent hypovitaminosis D during pregnancy should be developed taking into account the associated factors.
Eukaryotic Translation Initiation Factor 4E Activity Is Modulated by HOXA9 at Multiple Levels

ABSTRACT The eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) alters gene expression on multiple levels. In the cytoplasm, eIF4E acts in the rate-limiting step of translation initiation. In the nucleus, eIF4E facilitates nuclear export of a subset of mRNAs. Both of these functions contribute to eIF4E's ability to oncogenically transform cells. We report here that the homeodomain protein, HOXA9, is a positive regulator of eIF4E. HOXA9 stimulates eIF4E-dependent export of cyclin D1 and ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) mRNAs in the nucleus, as well as increases the translation efficiency of ODC mRNA in the cytoplasm. These activities depend on direct interactions of HOXA9 with eIF4E and are independent of the role of HOXA9 in transcription. At the biochemical level, HOXA9 mediates these effects by competing with factors that repress eIF4E function, in particular the proline-rich homeodomain PRH/Hex. This competitive mechanism of eIF4E regulation is disrupted in a subset of leukemias, where HOXA9 displaces PRH from eIF4E, thereby contributing to eIF4E's dysregulation. In regard to these results and our previous finding that ∼200 homeodomain proteins contain eIF4E binding sites, we propose that homeodomain modulation of eIF4E activity is a novel means through which this family of proteins implements their effects on growth and development.
An operational system for forecasting hypoxic events in the northern Adriatic Sea

The northern Adriatic Sea (NA), the northernmost region of the Mediterranean Sea, is affected by strong anthropogenic pressure (e.g., tourism, fisheries, maritime traffic, discharge from agriculture and industry), superimposed to a large river runoff. The consequent pressure exerted on the NA ecosystem either triggers or worsens massive mucilage insurgence, harmful algal blooms, eutrophication and even anoxic/hypoxic events. This work focuses on the anoxic/hypoxic events. During the summer-autumn period, the NA is often exposed to these events, which can be categorised as either coastal (relatively frequent south of the Po River delta during the summer) and offshore (rare, affecting wider areas). In order to improve our knowledge about these processes and to meet the needs of local governments and decision makers, an operational system for monitoring and forecasting anoxic and hypoxic events has been set up in the framework of the EU LIFE "EMMA" project. The system is composed of a meteo-oceanographic buoy; a numerical prediction system based on the Regional Ocean Modelling System (ROMS), including a Fasham-type module for biogeochemical fluxes; and periodic oceanographic surveys. Every day since June 2007, the system provides 3-hourly forecasts of marine currents, thermohaline and biogeochemical fields for the incoming three days. The system has demonstrated its ability to produce accurate temperature forecasts and relatively good salinity and dissolved oxygen forecasts. The Root Mean Square Error of the dissolved oxygen forecast was largely due to the mean bias. The system is currently being improved to include a better GEOFIZIKA VOL. 26 No. 2 2009
Estrogen Regulates Functional Inhibition of Hippocampal CA1 Pyramidal Cells in the Adult Female Rat

Previous studies have focused considerable attention on the effects of estrogen on excitatory synaptic input to hippocampal CA1 pyramidal cells. Estrogen increases the density of dendritic spines and synapses on CA1 pyramidal cells and increases the sensitivity of these cells to excitatory synaptic input. Little is known, however, about the effects of estrogen on inhibitory synaptic input to CA1 pyramidal cells. We have used immunohistochemistry for glutamic acid decarboxylase and whole-cell voltage-clamp recording of IPSCs and EPSCs at multiple time points after estrogen treatment to (1) investigate estrogen regulation of synaptic inhibition in CA1 and (2) evaluate how estrogen affects the interaction between inhibitory and excitatory input to CA1 pyramidal cells. We find that estrogen transiently suppresses GABAA-mediated inhibition of CA1 pyramidal cells at a time point before changes in excitatory input to these cells occur. This finding is consistent with the suggestion that transient disinhibition of CA1 pyramidal cells is involved in estrogen-induced dendritic spine formation. We have also found that at a later time after estrogen, inhibition of CA1 pyramidal cells recovers in parallel with enhancement of NMDA-mediated excitatory input. The concurrent enhancement of GABAA and NMDA-mediated input to CA1 pyramidal cells restores a balance of excitatory and inhibitory input to these cells and increases the potential dynamic range of CA1 pyramidal cell responses to synaptic input.
Planning with Conflicting Advice

The paradigm of advisable planning, in which a user provides guidance to influence the content of solutions produced by an underlying planning system, holds much promise for improved usability of planning technology. The success of this approach, however, requires that a planner respond appropriately when presented with conflicting advice. This paper introduces two contrasting methods for planning with conflicting advice, suited to different user requirements. Soft enforcement embodies a heuristic approach that prefers planning choices that are consistent with specified advice but will disregard advice that introduces conflicts. Soft enforcement enables rapid generation of solutions but with suboptimal results. Local maxima search navigates through the space of advice subsets, using strict enforcement techniques to identify satisfiable subsets of advice. As more time is allocated, the search will yield increasingly better results. The paper presents specific algorithms for soft enforcement and local maxima search, along with experimental results that illustrate their relative strengths and weaknesses in trading computation time for advice satisfaction.
A Service-oriented Infrastructure for Mutual Assistance Community

Elder people are becoming a predominant aspect of our societies and solutions both efficacious and cost-effective need to be sought. This paper proposes a service-oriented infrastructure approach to this problem. We propose an open and integrated service infrastructure to orchestrate the available resources (smart devices, professional carers, informal carers) to help elder or disabled people. Main characteristic of our design is the explicitly support of dynamically available service providers such as informal carers. By modeling the service description as Semantic Web Services, the service request can automatically be discovered, reasoned about and mapped onto the pool of heterogeneous service providers. We expect our approach to be able to efficiently utilize the available service resources, enrich the service options, and best match the requirements of the requesters.
Through the looking glass: Pretend play for children with autism

Lack of spontaneous pretend play is an early diagnostic indicator of autism spectrum conditions (ASC) along with impaired communication and social interaction. In a previous ISMAR poster [2] we proposed an Augmented Reality (AR) system to encourage pretend play, based on an analogy between imaginative interpretation of physical objects (pretense) and the superimposition of virtual content on the physical world in AR. This paper reports an empirical experiment evaluating that proposal, involving children between the ages of 4 and 7 who have been diagnosed with ASC. Results find significantly more pretend play, and higher engagement, using the AR system by comparison to a non-augmented condition. We also discuss usability issues and design implications for AR systems that aim to support children with ASC and other pervasive developmental disorders.
The first high-amplitude δ Scuti star in an eclipsing binary system

We report the discovery of the first high-amplitude δ Scuti star in an eclipsing binary, which we have designated UNSW-V-500. The system is an Algol-type semi-detached eclipsing binary of maximum brightness V = 12.52 mag. A best-fitting solution to the binary light curve and two radial velocity curves is derived using the Wilson‐Devinney code. We identify a late-A
Integer programming-based approach to allocation of reporter genes for cell array analysis

In this paper, we consider the problem of selecting the most effective set of reporter genes for analysis of biological networks using cell microarrays. We propose two graph theoretic formulations of the reporter gene allocation problem, and show that both problems are hard to approximate. We propose integer programming-based methods for solving practical instances of these problems optimally. We apply them to apoptosis pathway maps, and discuss the biological significance of the result. We also apply them to artificial networks, the result of which shows that optimal solutions can be obtained within several seconds for networks with 10,000 nodes.
'Skyful of Lies' and Black Swans: The New Tyranny of Shifting Information Power in Crises

* 'Sky ful of Lies' and Black Swans: The New Tyranny of Shifting Information Power in Crises. Nik Gowing. Oxford, UK: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2009. 84 pp. £13 pbk. Free download from http: / / reutersinstitute.politics. ox.ac. uk/ publications /risj.html. Nik Gowing's career as a media professional, pundit, and scholar gives his insights into how news works considerable credibility. In this 2009 paper for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, the longtime BBC commentator wonders and wanders through new media's impact on public policy, and ponders "the new fragility and brittleness" of social institutions. Are government, military, and corporate bosses powerless or ineffectual when what Gowing calls "fast proliferating and almost ubiquitous breed of 'information doers'" can set and frame the debate before the institutions of power can in gear? Perhaps, but Gowing himself falls victim to this phenomenon. The veteran newsman's insights suffer in this case from the inabuity of traditional publishing to get him into print before the "urn, duh" response to his analysis kicks in. As he worries about the impact of new technologies and real-time commentary, the "information doers" have already, well, done it. The value of Gowing's thoughts developed over his impressive news career resides not in his perspectives, but in noting how "the new tyranny of shifting information power" got there before him. "Black Swan Theory" refers to unexpected events that change the world before the powers that be can react to head off media reports that may be "skyfuls of Ues. " Gowing worries that such events and, perhaps more important, the new realities of instant communication, make message management by governments, social and corporate leaders - and traditional media - impotent. "Empowered by current, cheap, lightweight, 'go anywhere' technologies, ['information doers'] have an unprecedented mass ability to bear witness," Gowing writes. "The result is a matrix of real-time information flows that challenges the inadequacy oi the structures oi power to respond with effective impact and in a timely way. " As any old-time journalist knows, being first and being right are crucial to the social role of the press as an influential thought-leader and player in the larger society. In this case, Gowing is right, but not first. In this essay, Gowing concludes that news can turn our lives upside-down, and that traditional institutions - governmental, political, corporate, educational - are too far behind the gentle curving flight of swans, black or otherwise. "[T]he new real-time media realities are harsh," Gowing observes. "But once understood the nature of the solutions is a 'no-brainer. '" Given that this is such a no-brainer, it is a wonder that so much effort was required to outline the nature of the proposed solutions. As a major U.S. TV network once proposed in an advertising campaign for summer reruns, if you haven't seen it (or thought about it), it's new to you. …
Load Balancing in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks: A Survey

Load balancing is a crucial problem in mobile ad hoc networks. Many conventional routing protocols that are developed are not having functionality of coping up load balancing. Hence several kinds of approaches are followed in the design and development of load balancing routing protocols. This paper aims to survey research articles pertaining to load balancing research problem in mobile ad hoc networks. Here various approaches are taken into account and literatures' key ideas are presented.
Distribution loss allocation technique with distributed generations

The cost of real power generation is affected by distribution losses which must be allocated fairly between generators and consumers to get the economic efficiency of the electricity market. The paper presents a new methodology for allocation of losses to network participants of radial distribution networks (RDNs) in the liberalized electricity market. The proposed method is based on the power summation algorithm. By using a circuit based branch oriented approach, it develops suitable relationship between branch losses and injected real and reactive power in the nodes. The proposed method develops new scheme for distributing cross terms by multiplicative of generator and load power which oppose the allocation techniques as described in the literature. Application of the proposed method for loss allocation is illustrated on 33-node RDNs incorporating three distributed generations. In order to validate the proposed method and show its effectiveness, it has been compared with other method.
Effect of introducing the Modified Early Warning score on clinical outcomes, cardio‐pulmonary arrests and intensive care utilisation in acute medical admissions *

The effects of introducing Modified Early Warning scores to identify medical patients at risk of catastrophic deterioration have not been examined. We prospectively studied 1695 acute medical admissions. All patients were scored in the admissions unit. Patients with a Modified Early Warning score > 4 were referred for urgent medical and critical care outreach team review. Data was compared with an observational study performed in the same unit during the proceeding year. There was no change in mortality of patients with low, intermediate or high Modified Early Warning scores. Rates of cardio‐pulmonary arrest, intensive care unit or high dependency unit admission were similar. Data analysis confirmed respiratory rate as the best discriminator in identifying high‐risk patient groups. The therapeutic interventions performed in response to abnormal scores were not assessed. We are convinced that the Modified Early Warning score is a suitable scoring tool to identify patients at risk. However, outcomes in medical emergency admissions are influenced by a multitude of factors and so it may be difficult to demonstrate the score's benefit without further standardizing the response to abnormal values.
Isolation of Cell Nuclei Using Inert Macromolecules to Mimic the Crowded Cytoplasm

Cell nuclei are commonly isolated and studied in media which include millimolar concentrations of cations, which conserve the nuclear volume by screening the negative charges on chromatin and maintaining its compaction. However, two factors question if these ionic conditions correctly reproduce the environment of nuclei in vivo: the small-scale motion and conformation of chromatin in vivo are not reproduced in isolated nuclei, and experiments and theory suggest that small ions in the cytoplasm are not free in the soluble phase but are predominantly bound to macromolecules. We studied the possible role in maintaining the structure and functions of nuclei in vivo of a further but frequently overlooked property of the cytoplasm, the crowding or osmotic effects caused by diffusible macromolecules whose concentration, measured in several studies, is in the range of 130 mg/ml. Nuclei which conserved their volume in the cell and their ultrastructure seen by electron microscopy were released from K562 cells in media containing the inert polymer 70 kDa Ficoll (50% w/v) or 70 kDa dextran (35% w/v) to replace the diffusible cytoplasmic molecules which were dispersed on cell lysis with digitonin, with 100 µM K-Hepes buffer as the only source of ions. Immunofluorescence labelling and experiments using cells expressing GFP-fusion proteins showed that internal compartments (nucleoli, PML and coiled bodies, foci of RNA polymerase II) were conserved in these nuclei, and nascent RNA transcripts could be elongated. Our observations are consistent with the hypothesis that crowding by diffusible cytoplasmic macromolecules is a crucial but overlooked factor which supports the nucleus in vivo by equilibrating the opposing osmotic pressure cause by the high concentration of macromolecules in the nucleus, and suggest that crowded media provide more physiological conditions to study nuclear structure and functions. They may also help to resolve the long-standing paradox that the small-scale motion and irregular conformation of chromatin seen in vivo are not reproduced in nuclei isolated in conventional ionic media.
Intrarenal Distribution of Nutrient Blood Flow Determined with Krypton85 in the Unanesthetized Dog

A method has been described for the measurement, by means of Kr85, of intrarenal nutrient blood flow distribution in the unanesthetized dog. Injection of the isotope into the renal artery is followed by a multi-exponential disappearance curve which can be obtained by external monitoring with a scintillation detector. In acute experiments autoradiographs have demonstrated that the first exponential component represents cortical blood flow; the second, outer medullary blood flow: the third, inner medullary blood flow; and the fourth, hilar and perirenal fat blood flow. The average cortical blood flow in 65 experiments in five kidneys of four nnanesthetized dogs was 472 ml/100 g/min, the outer medullary 132 ml/100 g/min, and the inner medullary 17 ml/100 g/min. Eighty per cent of the radioactivity was distributed initially to the cortex, 16% to the outer medulla, and 2% to the inner medulla. The hilar and perirenal fat, which receives approximately 2% of the initial radioactivity, was estimated to have a flow rate of 21 ml/100 g/min. In addition, a method for the rapid determination of serial cortical blood flow rates has been described. The importance of these findings has been discussed with reference to the anatomy of the kidney, and to the countercurrent concept as it applies to passive reabsorption of lipid soluble substances, and to the maintenance of an osmotic gradient.
Approximability of robust network design

We consider robust network design problems where the set of feasible demands may be given by an arbitrary polytope or convex body more generally. This model, introduced by Ben-Ameur and Kerivin [2], generalizes the well studied virtual private network (VPN) problem. Most research in this area has focused on finding constant factor approximations for specific polytope of demands, such as the class of hose matrices used in the definition of VPN. As pointed out in [4], however, the general problem was only known to be APX-hard (based on a reduction from the Steiner tree problem). We show that the general robust design is hard to approximate to within polylogarithmic factors. We establish this by showing a general reduction of buy-at-bulk network design to the robust network design problem. In the second part of the paper, we introduce a natural generalization of the VPN problem. In this model, the set of feasible demands is determined by a tree with edge capacities; a demand matrix is feasible if it can be routed on the tree. We give a constant factor approximation algorithm for this problem that achieves factor 8 in general, and 2 for the case where the tree has unit capacities.
Map-assisted visual localization using line features in urban area

A novel method is presented for robustly estimating the location of a mobile robot in urban areas based on images extracted from a monocular onboard camera, given a 2D building boundary map. The proposed approach firstly reconstructs a set of vertical planes by sampling and clustering vertical lines from the image with Random Sample Consensus (RANSAC), using the derived 1D homographies to inform the planar model. Then, an optimal autonomous localization algorithm based on the 2D building outline map is proposed. The physical experiments are carried out to validate the robustness and accuracy of our localization approach.
Human factors in visualization research

Visualization can provide valuable assistance for data analysis and decision making tasks. However, how people perceive and interact with a visualization tool can strongly influence their understanding of the data as well as the system's usefulness. Human factors therefore contribute significantly to the visualization process and should play an important role in the design and evaluation of visualization tools. Several research initiatives have begun to explore human factors in visualization, particularly in perception-based design. Nonetheless, visualization work involving human factors is in its infancy, and many potentially promising areas have yet to be explored. Therefore, we aim to 1) review known methodology for doing human factors research, with specific emphasis on visualization, 2) review current human factors research in visualization to provide a basis for future investigation, and 3) identify promising areas for future research.