Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diuretic and diet treatment of hypertension.

Diuretic drugs and low-sodium diets are effective in control of hypertension. They seem to have a similar mechanism of action that is dependent on their ability initially to produce a negative salt and water balance and, during long-term treatment, to prevent sodium retention. This effect on body sodium and water stores produces both short-term and long-term hemodynamic adjustments that account for the arterial blood pressure reduction. There is a wide variety of diuretic drugs available with differing potencies and renal sites of action. All, however, have similar antihypertensive potential when given in equal diuretic dosages. Dietary sodium restriction is equally effective in lowering arterial blood pressure, but its usefulness is sharply limited by cultural dietary habits.
A constraint extension to scalable vector graphics

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is a language that describes two-dimensional vector graphics for storage and distribution on the Web. Unlike raster image formats, SVG-based images scale nicely to arbitrary resolutions and sizes. However, the current SVG standard provides little flexibility for taking into account varying viewing conditions, such as different screen formats, and there is little support for interactive exploration of a diagram. We introduce an extension to SVG called Constraint Scalable Vector Graphics (CSVG) that permits a more flexible description of figures. With CSVG, an image can contain objects whose positions and other properties are specified in relation to other objects using constraints, rather than being specified in absolute terms. For example, a box can be specified to remain inside another box, without being given an absolute position. The precise layout can then be left to the browser, which can adapt it dynamically to changing viewing conditions on the client side. Further extensions add support for alternate layouts, interaction, and declarative animation. Leveraging well-established methods for linear constraint solving, we implemented a prototype viewer for CSVG by embedding our Cassowary constraint solver into an existing SVG renderer.
Optimizing Network Performance in Distributed Machine Learning

To cope with the ever growing availability of training data, there have been several proposals to scale machine learning computation beyond a single server and distribute it across a cluster. While this enables reducing the training time, the observed speed up is often limited by network bottlenecks. To address this, we design MLNET, a host-based communication layer that aims to improve the network performance of distributed machine learning systems. This is achieved through a combination of traffic reduction techniques (to diminish network load in the core and at the edges) and traffic management (to reduce average training time). A key feature of MLNET is its compatibility with existing hardware and software infrastructure so it can be immediately deployed. We describe the main techniques underpinning MLNET and show through simulation that the overall training time can be reduced by up to 78%. While preliminary, our results indicate the critical role played by the network and the benefits of introducing a new communication layer to increase the performance of distributed machine learning systems.
Effect of Melissa officinalis Capsule on the Intensity of Premenstrual Syndrome Symptoms in High School Girl Students

Background: Several studies are conducted on Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS). However, a few herbal surveys exist on the treatment of PMS in Iran. Due to the sedative effects of Melissa officinalis (M. officinalis), this question comes to mind that “can it be used in the treatment of PMS symptoms? ” Objectives: The current study aimed to assess the effect of M. officinalis capsule on the intensity of PMS in high-school girls. Materials and Methods: A double-blind randomized, placebo-controlled trial was performed on 100 high school girls from 2013 to 2014. The intervention group (n = 50) received 1200 mg of M. officinalis essence daily from the first to the last day of their menstrual cycle for three consecutive cycles. The second group (n = 50) received the placebo. The premenstrual symptoms screening tool was used to assess the intensity of PMS symptoms in the two groups before and one, two, and three months after the intervention. The data were analyzed using paired t-test and repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: The results of repeated measures test revealed a significant reduction (P < 0.001) in PMS symptoms. Overall, the mean score of PMS intensity in the intervention group was 42.56 + 15.73 before the intervention and changed to 32.72 ± 13.24, 30.02 ± 12.08, and 13.90 ± 10.22 at the three consecutive months after the intervention, respectively (P = 0.001). Conclusions: M. officinalis capsules were effective in reduction of the PMS symptoms. Yet, application of this medication requires further investigations.
Distinguishing Different Types of Coproduction: A Conceptual Analysis Based on the Classical Definitions

Coproduction of public services means that services are not only delivered by professional and managerial staff in public agencies but also coproduced by citizens and communities. Although recent research on this topic has advanced the debate considerably, there is still no consensus on precisely what coproduction means. This article argues that rather than trying to determine one encompassing definition of the concept, several different types of coproduction can be distinguished. Starting from the classical definitions of Elinor Ostrom and Roger Parks, the article draws on the literature on professionalism, volunteering, and public management to identify the distinctive nature of coproduction and identify basic dimensions on which a typology of coproduction can be constructed. Recognizing different types of coproduction more systematically is a critical step in making research on this phenomenon more comparable and more cumulative.
Analyzing Spectrum Management Policy for Utilizing TV White Space

With the digital TV transition, TV white space issue stands out. While economic value of TV white space is estimated to be about 200~320 million pounds, there are several problems such as spectrum interference, publicity and business model issues. To analyze current spectrum management policy in utilizing TV white space in Korea, this research conducted FGI based on PEST frameworks. As a result, for successfully utilizing TV white space, Korea spectrum management policy should be evolved to maximize social welfare by considering adopting spectrum sharing and incentive system. This research has its limitation that FGI was conducted to a small group of people since TV white space is a touchy issue in Korea. Nevertheless, this study is expected to suggest political implications not only to Korea but also to other countries which is about to utilize TV white space in the future.
Atendimento ao idoso hospitalizado: percepções de profissionais de saúde / Service hospitalized elderly: perceptions of health professionals DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v12i2.18999

O aumento da populacao idosa fragilizada e com co-morbidades tem contribuido para hospitalizacao e dependencia de cuidados prestados por profissionais de saude, os quais desempenham funcao primordial na promocao e garantia de atencao integral e qualificada a pessoa idosa. Neste contexto, delineou-se este estudo com o objetivo de descrever as percepcoes de profissionais de saude que atuam em unidade publica hospitalar sobre o atendimento prestado as pessoas idosas, em um municipio do interior da Bahia. As informacoes foram coletadas por meio de entrevista e submetidas a Analise de Conteudo Tematica. Para os profissionais investigados, o atendimento a pessoa idosa vincula-se as normas de funcionamento dos diferentes setores e as dificuldades encontradas para o atendimento adequado a clientela idosa estao associadas a: estrutura fisica impropria, insuficiencia de leitos hospitalares e de recursos humanos e a falta de capacitacao para o cuidado gerontogeriatrico. Portanto, faz-se necessario a Implementacao da Rede de Atencao a Saude da Pessoa Idosa e readequacao dos servicos para assegurar um atendimento qualificado, norteado pelas Politicas Publicas especificas a pessoa que envelhece.
GR-Aligner: an algorithm for aligning pairwise genomic sequences containing rearrangement events

MOTIVATION Homologous genomic sequences between species usually contain different rearrangement events. Whether some specific patterns existed in the breakpoint regions that caused such events to occur is still unclear. To resolve this question, it is necessary to determine the location of breakpoints at the nucleotide level. The availability of sequences near breakpoints would further facilitate the related studies. We thus need a tool that can identify breakpoints and align the neighboring sequences. Although local alignment tools can detect rearrangement events, they only report a set of discontinuous alignments, where the detailed alignments in the breakpoint regions are usually missing. Global alignment tools are even less appropriate for these tasks since most of them are designed to align the conserved regions between sequences in a consistent order, i.e. they do not consider rearrangement events. RESULTS We propose an effective and efficient pairwise sequence alignment algorithm, called GR-Aligner (Genomic Rearrangement Aligner), which can find breakpoints of rearrangement events by integrating the forward and reverse alignments of the breakpoint regions flanked by homologously rearranged sequences. In addition, GR-Aligner also provides an option to view the alignments of sequences extended to the breakpoints. These outputs provide materials for studying possible evolutionary mechanisms and biological functionalities of the rearrangement.
Variable Stoichiometry and Homeostatic Regulation of Bacterial Biomass Elemental Composition

Prokaryotic heterotrophs (hereafter, bacteria) represent a large proportion of global biomass, and therefore bacterial biomass stoichiometry likely exerts control on global phosphorus (P), carbon (C), and nitrogen cycling and primary productivity. In this study we grew recently isolated freshwater heterotrophic bacteria across an ecologically relevant range of resource C:P ratios (organic C to P ratio in available resources) to quantify the P requirements of these organisms and examine the degree to which they regulated their P content under P-sufficient and P-deficient conditions. Bacterial biomass was only limited by P when resource C:P was greater than 250 (by atoms). Bacterial C:P ranged from 71 to 174 under P sufficiency and from 252 to 548 under P deficiency. Bacteria exhibited very little C:P homeostasis under P-sufficient growth conditions, greater C:P homeostasis under P-deficient conditions, and the ability of bacteria to outcompete one another in short-term experiments depended on a tradeoff between storing excess P for later use under P-deficient conditions or immediately using P to produce more biomass. These results indicate that freshwater heterotrophic bacteria are not as P-rich as previously thought and that homeostatic regulation of C:P stoichiometry depends on the individual taxa and what resource (organic C or available P) is limiting bacterial growth. Individual bacterial populations can vary between strong C:P homeostasis under P deficiency to virtually no C:P homeostasis under P sufficiency, but variation between taxa and the effect this has on competitive ability may dampen the signal in C:PB at the bacterial community level. Nevertheless, the prevalence of homeostatic and non-homeostatic strategies in a bacterial community should have important implications for nutrient regeneration and carbon cycling.
A Generic Proximal Algorithm for Convex Optimization—Application to Total Variation Minimization

We propose new optimization algorithms to minimize a sum of convex functions, which may be smooth or not and composed or not with linear operators. This generic formulation encompasses various forms of regularized inverse problems in imaging. The proposed algorithms proceed by splitting: the gradient or proximal operators of the functions are called individually, without inner loop or linear system to solve at each iteration. The algorithms are easy to implement and have proven convergence to an exact solution. The classical Douglas-Rachford and forward-backward splitting methods, as well as the recent and efficient algorithm of Chambolle-Pock, are recovered as particular cases. The application to inverse imaging problems regularized by the total variation is detailed.
Attachment Styles and Self-Image in Turkish Adolescents

The purpose of this article is to examine the attachment styles and the relation of these styles to the self-image in Turkish adolescents. The study included 378 adolescents (196 females and 182 males) from high schools with different socioeconomic status (SES) who were administered Relationship Scale Questionnaires and Offer Self-Image Questionnaires. The findings indicate that adolescents from a low SES had significantly low scores on self-image scales compared with those from high and middle SES. It was found that secure attachment patterns affect social relationships and superior adjustment aspects of self-image positively. The results of this study show that attachment patterns play an important role in the development of the self-image, which is a crucial psychological structure gained in adolescence.
25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels and the Risk of Stroke: A Prospective Study and Meta-analysis

Background and Purpose— Despite evidence suggesting that vitamin D deficiency may lead to elevated cardiovascular disease risk, results regarding the association of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels with stroke risk are inconclusive. We aimed to examine this association in a prospective study in women and to summarize all existing data in a meta-analysis. Methods— We measured 25(OH)D levels among 464 women who developed ischemic stroke and an equal number of control subjects who were free of stroke through 2006 in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS). We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for articles published through March 2011 that prospectively evaluated 25(OH)D levels in relation to stroke. Results— After multivariable adjustment for lifestyle and dietary covariates, lower 25(OH)D levels were associated with an elevated risk of ischemic stroke in the NHS: the OR (95% CI) comparing women in the lowest versus highest tertiles was 1.49 (1.01–2.18; Ptrend=0.04). We found 6 other prospective studies that examined 25(OH)D in relation to stroke outcomes. After pooling our results with these prospective studies that included 1214 stroke cases in total, low 25(OH)D levels were associated with increased risk of developing stroke outcomes in comparison to high levels: the pooled relative risk (95% CI) was 1.52 (1.20–1.85; I2=0.0%, Pheterogeneity=0.63). In 2 studies that explicitly examined ischemic stroke, this association was 1.59 (1.07–2.12; I2=0.0%, Pheterogeneity=0.80). Conclusions— These data provide evidence that low vitamin D levels are modestly associated with risk of stroke. Maintaining adequate vitamin D status may lower the risk of stroke in women.
Classification of Vegetation Type in Iraq Using Satellite-Based Phenological Parameters

Primary information of great importance to various grand challenges such as sustainable agricultural intensification, food insecurity, and climate change impacts, can be obtained indirectly from land cover monitoring. However, in arid-to-semiarid regions, such as Iraq, accurate discrimination of different vegetation types is challenging due to their similar spectral responses. Moreover, Iraq has been subjected to major disturbances, both natural and anthropogenic which have affected the distribution of land cover types through space and time. Reliable information about croplands and natural vegetation in such regions is generally scarce. This research aimed to develop a phenology-based classification approach using support vector machines for the assessment of space-time distribution of the dominant vegetation land cover (VLC) types in Iraq, particularly croplands, from 2002 to 2012. Thirteen successive years of 8-day composites of MODISNDVI data at a spatial resolution of 250 m were employed to estimate 11 phenological parameters. The classification methodology was assessed using reference samples taken from fine spatial resolution imagery and independent testing data obtained through fieldwork. Overall accuracies were generally >85 %, with relatively high Kappa coefficients (>0.86) across the classified land cover types. The predicted cropland class area and the Global MODIS land cover product were compared with ground statistical data at the governorate level, revealing a significantly larger coefficient of determination for the present phenology-based approach (R2 = 0.70 against R2 = 0.33 for MODIS, p<; 0.05). The resulting maps delimit for the first time, at a fine spatial resolution, the spatial and interannual variability in the dominant VLC classes across Iraq.
Analysis of oxidative events induced by expanded polyglutamine huntingtin exon 1 that are differentially restored by expression of heat shock proteins or treatment with an antioxidant

We recently reported that the transient expression of polyglutamine tracts of various size in exon 1 of the huntingtin polypeptide (httEx1) generated abnormally high levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species that directly contributed to cell death. Here, we compared the protection generated by heat shock proteins to that provided by the antioxidant agent N‐acetyl‐l‐cysteine. In cells expressing httEx1 with 72 glutamine repeats (httEx1‐72Q), the overexpression of Hsp27 or Hsp70 plus Hdj‐1(Hsp40) or treatment of the cells with N‐acetyl‐l‐cysteine inhibited not only mitochondrial membrane potential disruption but also the increase in reactive oxygen species, nitric oxide and protein oxidation. However, only heat shock proteins and not N‐acetyl‐l‐cysteine reduced the size of the inclusion bodies formed by httEx1‐72Q. In cells expressing httEx1 polypeptide with 103 glutamine repeats (httEx1‐103Q), heat shock proteins neither decreased oxidative damage nor reduced the size of the inclusions. In contrast, N‐acetyl‐l‐cysteine still efficiently decreased the oxidative damage induced by httEx1‐103Q polypeptide without altering the inclusions. N‐Acetyl‐l‐cysteine was inactive with regard to proteasome inhibition, whereas heat shock proteins partially restored the caspase‐like activity of this protease. These observations suggest some relationships between the presence of inclusion bodies and the oxidative damage induced by httEx1‐polyQ.
The television will be revolutionized: effects of PVRs and filesharing on television watching

This paper investigates television-watching practices amongst early adopters of personal hard-disk video recorders (PVRs such as TiVotm) and Internet downloading of shows. Through in-depth interviews with early adopters, we describe how the rhythms of television watching change when decoupled from broadcast TV. For both the PVR users and downloaders TV watching has become less of a passive process, with viewers instead actively gathered shows from the schedules or online, and watching shows from their stored collection. From these results we discuss the 'video media lifecycle', and three new design concepts for supporting TV watching.
Negative Political Advertising and Voting Intent: The Role of Involvement and Alternative Information Sources

Abstract Previous research on negative political advertising has found both intended and backlash effects, indicating that the impact of these ads is likely to be contingent on other factors. The current study examines some potentially important contingent variables — level of involvement and attention to both newspapers and television for political information. Regression analyses indicate that both enduring and situational involvement and attention to television news increase the impact of negative political ads on voting decisions. Although it initially appears that attention to newspaper is unrelated to the impact of negative ads, analysis of covariance shows that newspaper reading actually reduces the impact of negative ads after controlling for other variables.
Enriching the sequence substitution matrix by structural information

A fundamental step in homology modeling is the comparison of two protein sequences: a probe sequence with an unknown structure and function and a template sequence for which the structure and function are known. The detection of protein similarities relies on a substitution matrix that scores the proximity of the aligned amino acids. Sequence‐to‐sequence alignments use symmetric substitution matrices, whereas the threading protocols use asymmetric matrices, testing the fitness of the probe sequence into the structure of the template protein. We propose a linear combination of threading and sequence‐alignment scoring function, to produce a single (mixed) scoring table. By fitting a single parameter (which is the relative contribution of the BLOSUM 50 matrix and the threading energy table of THOM2) we obtain a significant increase in prediction capacity in the twilight zone of homology modeling (detecting sequences with <25% sequence identity and with very similar structures). For a difficult test of 176 homologous pairs, with no signal of sequence similarity, the mixed model makes it possible to detect between 40 and 100% more protein pairs than the number of pairs that are detected by pure threading. Surprisingly, the linear combination of the two models is performing better than threading and than sequence alignment when the percentage of sequence identity is low. We finally suggest that further enrichment of substitution matrices, combing more structural descriptors such as exposed surface area, or secondary structure is expected to enhance the signal as well. Proteins 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The Reelin-signaling pathway and mouse cortical development.

Most of the cerebral cortex derives from the cortical plate which, in all mammals, is radially organized and develops from inside to outside. Several genes involved in the organization and inside-outside development of the embryonic cortical plate in the mouse form the so-called Reelin signaling pathway. Biochemical and genetic arguments show that the extracellular matrix protein Reelin binds to two lipoprotein receptors (VLDLR and ApoER2), which relay the Reelin signal inside target neurons by docking the tyrosine kinase adapter disabled-1 (Dab1). In addition, biochemical evidence suggests that the integrins alpha 3/beta 1 and protocadherins of the CNR family may also modulate the Reelin signal. The mechanisms by which the presence of Reelin stops migration and instructs the radial organization of cortical plate cells remains unknown.