Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Telephone Case Management for Asthma: An Acceptable and Effective Intervention within a Diverse Pediatric Population

Background. Asthma disproportionately affects low-income and medically underserved children; additional tools are needed in the effort to improve asthma care. Objectives. We reviewed the implementation of a telephone case management program provided by community health workers (CHWs) as an alternative to home visits, to examine its efficiency, acceptability, and capacity to identify and address challenges with asthma management. Methods. This retrospective cohort study included children (and their caregivers) presenting for scheduled visits to a comprehensive asthma clinic at an urban, public hospital during 2007. Results. Overall, 83.2% of caregivers were contacted for follow-up. Of those not reachable, one-third had been discharged from the clinic, and most of the remainder later returned for a subsequent visit. Latino patients were more likely not to be reached by telephone (p < .001). Following the implementation of telephone case management, the number of patient visits to the asthma clinic increased by almost one-third. Conclusions. Telephone case management identified problems which were successfully addressed through improved patient care practices and system changes within the clinic. Telephone case management by CHWs can be an efficient, acceptable mechanism to supplement comprehensive asthma care in a diverse, urban pediatric population.
Application of environmental scanning electron microscopy for study of biofilms in medical devices

Medical devices have caused a great advance in the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. However, recurrent infections lead to lack of tolerance and malfunctioning. Bacterial biofilms have been implicated in such infections. The protective layer and distinct metabolic states of bacteria within biofilms provide them with special resistance to biocides and this makes biofilm-related diseases very difficult to treat medically. Until the advent of confocal laser scanning microscopy in recent years, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was considered the gold standard for morphological study of biofilms and is still of great help. However, this technique requires a gradual dehydration of the specimen prior to examination, which results in sample distortion and artifacts. On the contrary, environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) allows visualization of practically any specimen without prior dehydration or conducting coating and thus the highly hydrated glycocalyx of biofilms can be visualized in its natural state. Biofilms colonizing metallic and polymeric otolaryngologic devices are presented. This technique allows visualization of both biofilm and synthetic material in the same examination.
Loss of DAP12 and FcRγ Drives Exaggerated IL-12 Production and CD8+ T Cell Response by CCR2+ Mo-DCs

Dap12 and FcRγ, the two transmembrane ITAM-containing signaling adaptors expressed in dendritic cells (DC), are implicated in the regulation of DC function. Several activating and adhesion receptors including integrins require these chains for their function in triggering downstream signaling and effector pathways, however the exact role(s) for Dap12 and FcRγ remains elusive as their loss can lead to both attenuating and enhancing effects. Here, we report that mice congenitally lacking both Dap12 and FcRγ chains (DF) show a massively enhanced effector CD8+ T cell response to protein antigen immunization or West Nile Virus (WNV) infection. Thus, immunization of DF mice with MHCI-restricted OVA peptide leads to accumulation of IL-12-producing monocyte-derived dendritic cells (Mo-DC) in draining lymph nodes, followed by vastly enhanced generation of antigen-specific IFNγ-producing CD8+ T cells. Moreover, DF mice show increased viral clearance in the WNV infection model. Depletion of CCR2+ monocytes/macrophages in vivo by administration anti-CCR2 antibodies or clodronate liposomes completely prevents the exaggerated CD8+ T cell response in DF mice. Mechanistically, we show that the loss of Dap12 and FcRγ-mediated signals in Mo-DC leads to a disruption of GM-CSF receptor-induced STAT5 activation resulting in upregulation of expression of IRF8, a transcription factor. Consequently, Dap12- and FcRγ-deficiency exacerbates GM-CSF-driven monocyte differentiation and production of inflammatory Mo-DC. Our data suggest a novel cross-talk between DC-ITAM and GM-CSF signaling pathways, which controls Mo-DC differentiation, IL-12 production, and CD8+ T cell responses.
Direction matters in high-dimensional optimisation

Directional biases are evident in many benchmarking problems for real-valued global optimisation, as well as many of the evolutionary and allied algorithms that have been proposed for solving them. It has been shown that directional biases make some kinds of problems easier to solve for similarly biased algorithms, which can give a misleading view of algorithm performance. In this paper we study the effects of directional bias for high- dimensional optimisation problems. We show that the impact of directional bias is magnified as dimension increases, and can in some cases lead to differences in performance of many orders of magnitude. We present a new version of the classical evolutionary programming algorithm, which we call unbiased evolutionary programming (UEP), and show that it has markedly improved performance for high-dimensional optimisation.
SUPERVISED HEAT KERNEL LPP METHOD FOR FACE RECOGNITION

This paper details the advantages of using Locality Preserving Projections (LPP) for face recognition over other dimensional reducing methods, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and also shows how using different methods of weights in LPP recognition ensues in varied results. The most accurate method for weight is a new combination of both a Supervised and Heat Kernel weight. Experiments on the Yale, Yale B, ORL, and PIE databases are used to verify the method.
Finding an optimal rehabilitation paradigm after stroke: enhancing fiber growth and training of the brain at the right moment

After stroke the central nervous system reveals a spectrum of intrinsic capacities to react as a highly dynamic system which can change the properties of its circuits, form new contacts, erase others, and remap related cortical and spinal cord regions. This plasticity can lead to a surprising degree of spontaneous recovery. It includes the activation of neuronal molecular mechanisms of growth and of extrinsic growth promoting factors and guidance signals in the tissue. Rehabilitative training and pharmacological interventions may modify and boost these neuronal processes, but almost nothing is known on the optimal timing of the different processes and therapeutic interventions and on their detailed interactions. Finding optimal rehabilitation paradigms requires an optimal orchestration of the internal processes of re-organization and the therapeutic interventions in accordance with defined plastic time windows. In this review we summarize the mechanisms of spontaneous plasticity after stroke and experimental interventions to enhance growth and plasticity, with an emphasis on anti-Nogo-A immunotherapy. We highlight critical time windows of growth and of rehabilitative training and consider different approaches of combinatorial rehabilitative schedules. Finally, we discuss potential future strategies for designing repair and rehabilitation paradigms by introducing a “3 step model”: determination of the metabolic and plastic status of the brain, pharmacological enhancement of its plastic mechanisms, and stabilization of newly formed functional connections by rehabilitative training.
Stealthy video capturer: a new video-based spyware in 3G smartphones

In this paper, we investigate video-based vulnerabilities in 3G Smartphones. Particularly, we design a new video-based spyware, called Stealthy Video Capturer (SVC). SVC can secretly record video information for the third party, greatly compromising Smartphone users' privacy. We implement the spyware and conduct extensive experiments on real world 3G Smartphones. Our experimental results show that the spyware can capture private video information with unremarkable power consumption, CPU and memory occupancy, hence being stealthy to Smartphone users. Moreover, SVC can naturally be resistant to almost all commercial anti-virus tools, like McAfee, Kaspersky and F-Secure mobile version. To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first one to address video-based vulnerabilities in 3G Smartphones. We expect our work will prompt serious attentions on this issue.
Imaging neural crest cell dynamics during formation of dorsal root ganglia and sympathetic ganglia

The neural crest is a migratory population of cells that produces many diverse structures within the embryo. Trunk neural crest cells give rise to such structures as the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) and sympathetic ganglia (SG), which form in a metameric pattern along the anterior-posterior axis of the embryo. While static analyses have provided invaluable information concerning the development of these structures, time-lapse imaging of neural crest cells navigating through their normal environment could potentially reveal previously unidentified cellular and molecular interactions integral to DRG and SG development. In this study, we follow fluorescently labeled trunk neural crest cells using a novel sagittal explant and time-lapse confocal microscopy. We show that along their dorsoventral migratory route, trunk neural crest cells are highly motile and interact extensively with neighboring cells and the environment, with many cells migrating in chain-like formations. Surprisingly, the segregated pattern of crest cell streams through the rostral somite is not maintained once these cells arrive alongside the dorsal aorta. Instead, neural crest cells disperse along the ventral outer border of the somite, interacting extensively with each other and their environment via dynamic extension and retraction of filopodia. Discrete sympathetic ganglia arise as a consequence of intermixing and selective reorganization of neural crest cells at the target site. The diverse cell migratory behaviors and active reorganization at the target suggest that cell-cell and cell-environment interactions are coordinated with dynamic molecular processes.
What does a child's story tell you?

The stories that students tell in the classroom have the potential to be an invaluable resource for teachers. Through a focus on the language used, these stories can provide teachers with information about their students' sociocultural backgrounds and therefore, the knowledge that students bring to the context of the classroom. In today's diverse classrooms, teachers need to discover this information about their students to enhance the planning process for students' learning. The stories that students tell provide teachers with one avenue by which they can begin to meet the requirements of the Curriculum Framework/or Kindergarlen to Year 12 Education in Western Australia (Curriculum Council, 1998). The study investigates the potential of collecting and using the language in students' stories, as told in the classroom, to discover information about the students' sociocultural backgrounds. The study took place in a pre-primary classroom situated in the South West of Western Australia. The students' stories were collected, transcribed and analysed. Following this, six students were selected whose stories were notable in their ability to reveal much information about those students' sociocultural backgrounds. The parents of those six students were interviewed in order to confirm or negate the information about the students' sociocultural backgrounds as collected from their stories. The teacher of the class was also interviewed in a bid to confirm or negate the information about all the students' sociocultural backgrounds overall as collected from all the stories.
Alternative definition of "early gastric cancer": stage A of Dukes' classification.

There is no doubt that for gastric cancer, as for most solid tumors, anatomic extent is one of the most important guides to treatment as well as the strongest predictor of outcome. The two important factors influencing survival in resectable gastric cancer are the depth of invasion through the gastric wall and the presence or absence of regional lymph node involvement. To assess the extent of tumor, determine prognosis and select treatment, a TNM system emphasizing the two prognostic factors is commonly used. In 1962 the Japanese Society for Gastroenterological Endoscopy introduced the definition of “early gastric cancer” (EGC) as that in which invasion is limited to the mucosa or submucosa, regardless of the status of lymph nodes. This tumor shows excellent prognosis after resection with lymphadenectomy 1, but it is not necessarily a curable malignant tumor, because recurrence is not infrequent especially in the submucosal cancer with positive nodes 2. In these cases the survival of patients is similar to or lower than that of patients with advanced gastric cancer (AGC) 3. For this reason several Authors disagree on the definition of EGC 2,4. Journal of Chemotherapy Vol. 11 n. 3 (222-223) 1999
The health of Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking schoolchildren in Finland.

BACKGROUND It is well known that Swedish-speaking adults in Finland have higher life expectancy and better health than their Finnish-speaking counterparts. Among young people, similar comparisons have been scarce. The present paper aims to compare the health of Swedish-speaking and Finnish-speaking schoolchildren. METHODS Survey data from 1997, representing children at grades 8 and 9 of compulsory school in a bilingual region, are analysed with the help of logistic regression models. Self-rated health as well as objective measures of health are explored. RESULTS We find that Swedish-speaking schoolchildren are healthier than Finnish-speaking ones in terms of objective measures of health, whereas there is no difference between language groups in terms of self-assessed health. Self-rated health seems to reflect well-being in a very broad context rather than objective health from a medical perspective. Risk factors and health behaviours being equal, both language groups consequently assess their health in a similar manner. CONCLUSIONS Policy makers should be careful when advocating the health needs of schoolchildren based on survey results concerned with self-assessed health measures, particularly when they are concerned with targeting measures towards specific subgroups of the population. Self-rated health is obviously not well suited for reflecting overall and specific needs of medical assistance and expertise for schoolchildren.
CD4+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells confer infectious tolerance in a TGF-β–dependent manner

CD4+FoxP3+ regulatory T cells (TR) comprise a separate lineage of T cells that are essential for maintaining immunological tolerance to self. One molecule that has been extensively studied in TR suppression is TGF‐β, but its importance remains controversial. To further analyze the contribution of TGF‐β in TR function, we have used recombinant TGF‐β latency associated peptide (LAP) to neutralize active TGF‐β. LAP modestly reversed the non‐responsive state of CD4+CD25+ T cells from conventional mice, but had no effect on Foxp3+ TR from Foxp3‐GFP knock in mice, suggesting that TR associated TGF‐β plays a role in suppressing the responses of activated T cells. Co‐culture of pre‐activated Foxp3+ TR and naïve Foxp3−CD4+ T cells in the presence of anti‐CD3 and IL‐2 results in the induction of Foxp3 expression in 10–20% of the responder cells. This conversion is dependent on TGF‐β as it can be blocked with LAP and requires contact between the TR and effector T cell. The induced CD4+FoxP3+ T cells are suppressive when co‐cultured with fresh CD4+Foxp3− T cells in vitro and when mixed with CD4+Foxp3− T cells in vivo. Thus, it appears that TR associated TGF‐β can play a role in suppression of activated effectors, but more importantly can mediate infectious tolerance by converting conventional T cells into TR.
Performance indicators and use case analysis for wireless networks in factory automation

Wireless networks are currently considered as extension of typical wired networks to increase flexibility and scalability. However, this design freedom is accompanied by the reduced reliability and real-time capability of the wireless communication. To put these advantages and disadvantages in the required relationship, we introduce a use case analysis of typical factory automation applications within this paper. Additionally, we compare performance indicators of industrial communication systems to enable the evaluation of the arising hybrid wired/wireless networks with regard to the requirements. Especially reliability parameters like the packet error rate (PER) are often only weakly linked to their industrial application. Therefore, we finally present a bottom-up analysis of a typical factory automation machine to derive more realistic PER values based on real applications.
Relaxed min-augmented range trees for the representation of dynamic IP router tables

When an Internet router receives a packet p from an input link interface, it uses ppsilas destination field to look up a routing database. The result of the lookup provides an output link interface, to which packet p is forwarded. In dynamic router tables, where IP lookup is intermixed with table updates, lookups may be delayed while a preceding update completes. To minimize this delay, it is important that updates are performed as fast as possible. In relaxed balanced data structures, rebalancing is uncoupled from updates such that the rebalancing tasks can be performed gradually in less busy times. We investigate how the min-augmented range tree, a structure which can be utilized for IP lookup, can be relaxed. Our experiments with real IPv4 routing data indicate that the relaxed balanced min-augmented range tree has a significant advantage over the strictly balanced version.
The inbetweeners : young people making sense of youth anti-social behaviour

Beginning with the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the UK government’s ‘Anti-social Behaviour Agenda’ has served to label all young people as potentially anti-social. This study describes and analyses young people’s accounts of anti-social behaviour and the impact of anti-social behaviour legislation on young people living in a rural context. Through semi-structured interviews with eighteen teenagers in a rural northern town who had undertaken anti-social behaviour but were not subject to any individual control measures, the research explores the participants’ perceptions of their (informal) identification as anti-social, their interactions with institutions of social control and how these factors impacted on their sense of self. In particular, it explores the strategies that the respondents utilised to avoid internalising a deviant identity and through doing so examines the relationship between anti-social behaviour and youth as a transition. Whilst none of the respondents considered themselves to be anti-social, they had all been subject to informal control measures including being ‘moved on’ and having their details taken by the police. The findings indicate that for these young people, anti-social behaviour is inexorably tied to their liminal position as ‘youths’ and this allows their identities to be fluid and constantly changing. The respondents understand their social position/s as ‘in-between’ a variety of statuses, and it is postulated that the widely acknowledged vague nature of ASB definition and their identities as ‘youths’ allows them to negotiate the space between a pro- and anti-social identity without internalising either. They therefore construct anti-social behaviour as a normal part of conventional youth, and something which they will certainly ‘grow out of’.
Two resistive switching behaviors in Ag/SiO2/Pt memristors

Ag/SiO2/Pt memristors are fabricated to investigate their resistive switching characteristics. The devices exhibit stable and reversible nonvolatile bipolar resistive switching behavior under DC voltage sweeps with a current compliance (CC) of 1 mA. Moreover, electroforming process is not required in the first I-V cycle, the values of VSET and VRESET are 0.2 V and -0.2 V, respectively. Meanwhile, volatile resistive switching behavior of Ag/SiO2/Pt devices is also obtained under lower CC. The mechanism of two resistive switching behaviors in Ag/SiO2/Pt memristors are analyzed.
Food availability, neighborhood socioeconomic status, and dietary patterns among blacks with type 2 diabetes mellitus.

CONTEXT High diabetes prevalence among low-income and urban African American populations. OBJECTIVES & MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: This study aimed to determine associations between neighborhood-level food sources and socioeconomic status (SES), and dietary patterns and body-mass index (BMI). The hypotheses were that the presence of food stores in neighborhoods would be associated with better dietary habits and BMI, and that the presence of convenience stores, and lower neighborhood SES, would be associated with poorer dietary habits and BMI. DESIGN, SETTING, & PATIENTS: Black adults (n = 132) with type 2 diabetes in Project Sugar 2 (Baltimore, Maryland) underwent the Ammerman dietary assessment: total dietary risk score and subscores for meat, dairy, starches, and added fat. Food source availability (food stores, convenience stores, other food stores, restaurants, and other food service places) and SES data from the 2000 US census at the tract-level were linked to individual-level data. Linear mixed-effects regression models with random intercepts were used to account for neighborhood clustering and for individual-level SES and potential confounders. RESULTS The presence of restaurants and other food service places in census tracts were associated with better dietary patterns (adjusted added fat subscore beta = -1.1, 95% confidence interval [CI] = -1.8, -0.4, and beta = -1.0, 95% CI = -1.7, -0.3, respectively). The presence of convenience stores and lower neighborhood SES was not significantly associated with worse dietary patterns or body-mass index, although trends were in the hypothesized direction. CONCLUSIONS These findings provide some evidence for structural improvements to food environments in urban and low-income black neighborhoods.
Abscisic Acid Structure-Activity Relationships in Barley Aleurone Layers and Protoplasts (Biological Activity of Optically Active, Oxygenated Abscisic Acid Analogs)

Optically active forms of abscisic acid (ABA) and their oxygenated metabolites were tested for their biological activity by examining the effects of the compounds on the reversal of gibberellic acid-induced [alpha]-amylase activity in barley (Hordeum vulgare cv Himalaya) aleurone layers and the induction of gene expression in barley aleurone protoplasts transformed with a chimeric construct containing the promoter region of an albumin storage protein gene. Promotion of the albumin storage protein gene response had a more strict stereochemical requirement for elicitation of an ABA response than inhibition of [alpha]-amylase gene expression. The naturally occurring stereoisomer of ABA and its metabolites were more effective at eliciting an ABA-like response. ABA showed the highest activity, followed by 7[prime]-hydroxyABA, with phaseic acid being the least active. Racemic 8[prime]-hydroxy-2[prime],3[prime]-dihydroABA, an analog of 8[prime]-hydroxyABA, was inactive, whereas racemic 2[prime],3[prime]-dihydroABA was as effective as ABA. The differences in response of the same tissue to the ABA enantiomers lead us to conclude that there exists more than one type of ABA receptor and/or multiple signal transduction pathways in barley aleurone tissue.