Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trajectories and Predictors of Nocturnal Awakenings and Sleep Duration in Infants

Objectives: To examine the trajectories of sleep duration and nocturnal awakenings in infants from 6 to 18 months of age and to identify predictors of short sleep duration and nocturnal awakenings. Methods: Data for this study come from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study conducted at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. A total of 55,831 mother reports of child sleep were used to estimate the stability and predictors of awakenings and short sleep. Results: Nocturnal awakenings were frequent among 6-month-old children. Although there was an overall reduction in both sleep duration and nocturnal awakenings from 6 to 18 months, the chronicity of sleep problems was high and impacted by prior sleep behavior and sleeping arrangements. Bedsharing was an independent and graded predictor of nocturnal awakenings and short sleep duration, also after controlling for prior sleep. Breastfeeding was related to concurrent nocturnal awakening but was not negatively related to later nocturnal awakenings. Conclusions: Considering the chronicity of nocturnal awakening and its association with bedsharing, our findings support current recommendations of reducing bedsharing to improve sleep among infants.
Soy germ isoflavones improve menopausal symptoms but have no effect on blood lipids in early postmenopausal Chinese women: a randomized placebo-controlled trial

Objective Estrogen therapy is, to date, the most effective treatment of menopausal syndrome and also has a favorable effect on lipid profiles. Because of its potential adverse effects, however, a more acceptable alternative therapy needs to be identified. This study examines the effect of soy germ isoflavones on menopausal symptoms and serum lipids. Methods Ninety early postmenopausal Chinese women, aged 45 to 60 years, were randomly assigned to three treatment groups (30 each) receiving daily doses of 0 (placebo), 84, and 126 mg of soy germ isoflavones. Hot flush frequency, Kupperman scores, serum 17&bgr;-estradiol, follicle-stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone, and serum lipids, including triglyceride, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-I, and apolipoprotein B100, were assessed at baseline and at 12 and 24 weeks after treatment. Results Both the frequency of hot flushes and the Kupperman index score decreased in all three treatment groups during the intervention period, but the percentage decreases in both were significantly greater in the two isoflavone groups (44.3 ± 19.1 and 57.8 ± 37.4 [84 mg isoflavones]; 48.5 ± 27.2 and 56.7 ± 26.7 [126 mg isoflavones]) than in the placebo group (27.8 ± 15.5 and 34.6 ± 46.2; p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in the changes in estradiol, follicle-stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone among the three treatment groups during the study, and no significant differences were observed in the lipid components. Conclusions A daily supplement of 84 or 126 mg soy germ isoflavones may improve menopausal symptoms, although neither dose was found to affect lipid profiles in early postmenopausal Chinese women after 24 weeks of treatment. The favorable effects are unlikely to be associated with female hormones.
The Performance Analysis of Diversity Technologies for Mobile Ad Hoc Communications Between Moving Cars

In this paper, we have applied diversity technologies to the IEEE 802.11g to use the IEEE 802.11g in moving channel environments. After analyzing the measurement data, it is shown that the diversity gain is 14 dB at the probability of 1%. The reliable communication range is 63 m when transmitting power is 10 dBm, while the range increases to 163 m when the diversity technique is used. Also the communication range increases from 122 m to 306 m by using diversity technologies when the transmitting power is 20 dBm
Yeasts in periodontal pockets.

OBJECTIVES The presence of yeasts in periodontal pockets has been described in a few studies. The association between yeasts and putative periodontal pathogens is not well described. This study aims at assessing the prevalence of yeasts in periodontal pockets and possible associations with the clinical conditions of the sampled sites and other micro-organisms present. MATERIAL AND METHODS 2 subject groups form the basis for this study. The 1st comprises results from microbiological samples from periodontal pockets of 128 subjects. The 2nd originates from 126 periodontal patients with untreated pockets. Microbiological identification was performed after cultivation on blood and Sabouraud agar plates, and "checkerboard" DNA-DNA hybridisation. RESULTS The prevalence of subjects with yeasts in the pockets was 15.6% and 17.5% in the 2 groups respectively and was inconsistent according to gender. No correlation was found between age and the presence of yeasts. Eubacterium saburreum was weakly correlated with presence of yeasts (r=0.194 p=0.03). Yeasts were rarely found in both samples from the same individual. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that yeasts can be expected to be present in periodontal pockets in one out of 6 periodontal patients independent of gender and age. Eubacterium saburreum seems to occur frequently together with yeasts.
Perception and production of consonant clusters in Japanese-English bilingual and Japanese monolingual speakers

Previous research has revealed that Japanese native speakers are more likely to perceive an ‘illusory vowel’ within consonant clusters compared to French native speakers (Dupoux et al. 1998). The aim of this research is to investigate the differences of perception and production of consonant clusters in Japanese-English bilinguals and Japanese monolinguals. The stimuli of the two experiments consist of 36 pseudo-words that contain the two sequences, VCCV and VCVCV. Results of the perception and the production experiments on the two groups of participants revealed that bilinguals were more likely to achieve high scores in both experiments. Index Terms: consonant clusters, bilingual, speech perception, speech production
Haplotype Association Analysis of AGT Variants with Hypertension-Related Traits: The HyperGEN Study

Objective: Function of the renin-angiotensin system is important to human hypertension, but its genetic etiology remains elusive. We set out to examine a hypothesis that multiple genetic variants in the system act together in blood pressure regulation, via intermediate phenotypes such as blood pressure reactivity. Methods: A sample of 531 hypertensive cases and 417 controls was selected from the HyperGEN study. Hypertension-related traits including blood pressure responses to challenges to math test, handgrip and postural change (mathBP, gripBP, and postBP), and body mass index (BMI) were analyzed for association with 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the angiotensinogen (AGT) gene. Single-marker and haplotype analyses were performed to examine the effects of both individual and multiple variants. Multiple-trait profiling was used to assess interaction of latent intermediate factors with susceptible haplotypes. Results: In Blacks, two SNPs in exon 5 and 3′UTR showed significant association with gripBP, and two promoter SNPs were strongly associated with postBP. In Whites, only borderline association was found for 2 promoter SNPs with mathBP. Haplotype analyses in Blacks confirmed association with gripBP, and detected significant association of a haplotype to BMI (p =0.029). With the interactions modeled, haplotype associations found in Blacks remain significant, while significant associations to BMI (p = 0.009) and gripSBP emerged in Whites. Conclusion: Genetic variants in regulatory regions of AGT showed strong association with blood pressure reactivity. Interaction of promoter and genic SNPs in AGT revealed collective action of multiple variants on blood pressure reactivity and BMI both in Blacks and in Whites, possibly following different pathways.
Antibacterial Mechanisms of Polymyxin and Bacterial Resistance

Multidrug resistance in pathogens is an increasingly significant threat for human health. Indeed, some strains are resistant to almost all currently available antibiotics, leaving very limited choices for antimicrobial clinical therapy. In many such cases, polymyxins are the last option available, although their use increases the risk of developing resistant strains. This review mainly aims to discuss advances in unraveling the mechanisms of antibacterial activity of polymyxins and bacterial tolerance together with the description of polymyxin structure, synthesis, and structural modification. These are expected to help researchers not only develop a series of new polymyxin derivatives necessary for future medical care, but also optimize the clinical use of polymyxins with minimal resistance development.
GODZ-Mediated Palmitoylation of GABAA Receptors Is Required for Normal Assembly and Function of GABAergic Inhibitory Synapses

Golgi-specific DHHC (Asp-His-His-Cys) zinc finger protein (GODZ) is a DHHC family palmitoyl acyltransferase that is implicated in palmitoylation and regulated trafficking of diverse substrates that function either at inhibitory or excitatory synapses. Of particular interest is the γ2 subunit of GABAA receptors, which is required for targeting these receptors to inhibitory synapses. Here, we report that GODZ and, to a lesser extent, its close paralog sertoli cell gene with a zinc finger domain-β (SERZ-β) are the main members of the DHHC family of enzymes that are able to palmitoylate the γ2 subunit in heterologous cells. Yeast two-hybrid and colocalization assays in human embryonic kidney 293T (HEK293T) cells indicate that GODZ and SERZ-β show indistinguishable palmitoylation-dependent interaction with the γ2 subunit. After coexpression in HEK293T cells, they form homomultimers and heteromultimers, as shown by coimmunoprecipitation and in vivo cross-linking experiments. Analyses in neurons transfected with dominant-negative GODZ (GODZC157S) or plasmid-based GODZ-specific RNAi indicate that GODZ is required for normal accumulation of GABAA receptors at synapses, for normal whole-cell and synaptic GABAergic inhibitory function and, indirectly, for GABAergic innervation. Unexpectedly, GODZ was found to be dispensable for normal postsynaptic AMPA receptor-mediated glutamatergic transmission. We conclude that GODZ-mediated palmitoylation of GABAA receptors and possibly other substrates contributes selectively to the formation and normal function of GABAergic inhibitory synapses.
Research on Tool Wear Prediction Based on Deep Residual Network

The convolution neural network with deep residual network structure is applied to the prediction of milling tool wear, and the high prediction accuracy is obtained. Based on the data set of the 2010 PHM data competition, this paper constructs 64000 data samples from the total life cycle wear data of three milling tools. Then a 12-layer deep residual network is trained based on these data. Compared with the classical signal analysis method, this method is more convenient for modeling and application because no signal feature extraction is needed, and the generalization ability of the model is better.
Electronic features of vacancy, nitrogen, and phosphorus defects in nanodiamonds

Defective nanostructures with a surface termination are the focus of this work. In order to elucidate the influence of the defect on the properties of nanomaterials, we take hydrogen terminated nanodiamonds. Various vacancy defect centers are separately embedded in a nanodiamond at different positions. These include some of the known defects, such as the charged nitrogen-vacancy (NV−), the silicon-vacancy (SiV0), the germanium-vacancy (GeV0), the phosphorous-nitrogen (PN), and the nickel-vacancy (NiV−). For these defective nanodiamonds, we probe the influence of the defect type, its position, as well as the size of the nanodiamond through their structural and electronic features. A detailed and comparative analysis is provided here, based on quantum mechanical simulations. Our results shed light into the inherent differences of these defects in nanodiamonds, allowing for a better understanding of defective nanostructures. In the end, we discuss the potential of tuning their characteristics in view of novel nanotechnological applications.
Effect of improved glycemic control on health care costs and utilization.

CONTEXT Because of the additional costs associated with improving diabetes management, there is interest in whether improved glycemic control leads to reductions in health care costs, and, if so, when such cost savings occur. OBJECTIVE To determine whether sustained improvements in hemoglobin A(1c) (HbA(1c)) levels among diabetic patients are followed by reductions in health care utilization and costs. DESIGN AND SETTING Historical cohort study conducted in 1992-1997 in a staff-model health maintenance organization (HMO) in western Washington State. PARTICIPANTS All diabetic patients aged 18 years or older who were continuously enrolled between January 1992 and March 1996 and had HbA(1c) measured at least once per year in 1992-1994 (n = 4744). Patients whose HbA(1c) decreased 1% or more between 1992 and 1993 and sustained the decline through 1994 were considered to be improved (n = 732). All others were classified as unimproved (n = 4012). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Total health care costs, percentage hospitalized, and number of primary care and specialty visits among the improved vs unimproved cohorts in 1992-1997. RESULTS Diabetic patients whose HbA(1c) measurements improved were similar demographically to those whose levels did not improve but had higher baseline HbA(1c) measurements (10.0% vs 7.7%; P<.001). Mean total health care costs were $685 to $950 less each year in the improved cohort for 1994 (P =.09), 1995 (P =.003), 1996 (P =.002), and 1997 (P =.01). Cost savings in the improved cohort were statistically significant only among those with the highest baseline HbA(1c) levels (>/=10%) for these years but appeared to be unaffected by presence of complications at baseline. Beginning in the year following improvement (1994), utilization was consistently lower in the improved cohort, reaching statistical significance for primary care visits in 1994 (P =.001), 1995 (P<.001), 1996 (P =.005), and 1997 (P =.004) and for specialty visits in 1997 (P =.02). Differences in hospitalization rates were not statistically significant in any year. CONCLUSION Our data suggest that a sustained reduction in HbA(1c) level among adult diabetic patients is associated with significant cost savings within 1 to 2 years of improvement.
Gender‐based cardiometabolic risk evaluation in minority and non‐minority men grading the evidence of non‐traditional determinants of cardiovascular risk

A. S. Wierzbicki, S. Pendleton, Z. McMahon, A. Dar, J. Oben, M. A. Crook, A. J. Botha Departments of Metabolic Medicine ⁄ Chemical Pathology, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Trust, St Thomas Hospital, London, UK Departments of Nutrition & Dietetics, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Trust, St Thomas Hospital, London, UK Departments of Gastroenterology, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Trust, St Thomas Hospital, London, UK Departments of Bariatric & upper gastrointestinal surgery, Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Trust, St Thomas Hospital, London, UK Email: anthony.wierzbicki@kcl.ac. uk
Reading a Suspenseful Literary Text Activates Brain Areas Related to Social Cognition and Predictive Inference

Stories can elicit powerful emotions. A key emotional response to narrative plots (e.g., novels, movies, etc.) is suspense. Suspense appears to build on basic aspects of human cognition such as processes of expectation, anticipation, and prediction. However, the neural processes underlying emotional experiences of suspense have not been previously investigated. We acquired functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data while participants read a suspenseful literary text (E.T.A. Hoffmann's “The Sandman”) subdivided into short text passages. Individual ratings of experienced suspense obtained after each text passage were found to be related to activation in the medial frontal cortex, bilateral frontal regions (along the inferior frontal sulcus), lateral premotor cortex, as well as posterior temporal and temporo-parietal areas. The results indicate that the emotional experience of suspense depends on brain areas associated with social cognition and predictive inference.
Determinants of e‐commerce Website

The success of electronic commerce for any individual company, especially if it is not a well-known name, is greatly dependent on the appropriate design of its Website. This study investigates the major determinants of an effective Website. A literature survey indicated that the major categories of determinants are: page loading speed, business content, navigation efficiency, security, and marketing/customer focus. The relative importance of each category was determined by counting the number of citations in the literature, and by conducting a survey for soliciting the opinions of customers and potential customers of e-commerce. The research reported is exploratory, aiming to identify the most important issues as perceived by different groups of users. The major findings indicated the expert and consumer differ significantly in what they consider to be the most important factors.
Avaliação arquitetural do Sistema SUAP: uma análise sistematizada sobre desempenho

Sistemas de informacao tem se tornado cada vez mais robustos, trabalhando com altos volumes de dados, objetos e, consequentemente, processos. No contexto do Instituto Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN), foi desenvolvido um sistema proprio para atender a todas as atividades administrativas e academicas da instituicao: o SUAP, Sistema Unificado de Administracao Publica. Ao longo de 11 anos, a aplicacao evoluiu de apenas um modulo para mais de 40, alem do crescimento vertiginoso de usuarios – que hoje permeia o numero de 35 mil. Esses aspectos muitas vezes impactam diretamente no desempenho de sistemas, levando os arquitetos de software a buscarem alternativas para melhor escalar suas aplicacoes. No caso do IFRN, mesmo apos altos investimentos realizados em infraestrutura, os problemas de desempenho do SUAP persistem. Buscando um melhor aproveitamento da estrutura de hardware disponivel, faz-se necessario compreender as razoes destes problemas de desempenho, a fim de que estes recursos computacionais sejam utilizados de forma dinâmica e crescente, geridos de forma mais eficiente e capazes de suportar cargas excedentes sem prejuizo de desempenho da aplicacao. Surge, assim, a necessidade de se avaliar aspectos mais abrangentes da arquitetura atual da aplicacao, para que possam ser conhecidos elementos que prejudiquem seu desempenho. Este trabalho tem o objetivo de realizar uma analise sistematizada de desempenho do SUAP atraves da aplicacao do metodo de avaliacao arquitetural ATAM (Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method) e da execucao de um conjunto de testes de desempenho que possibilitem a identificacao de seus principais pontos de lentidao. Com isso, espera-se contribuir para a definicao de uma estrategia para testes de desempenho que possam ser incorporados ao processo de desenvolvimento do SUAP.
Leveraging Mindsets to Promote Academic Achievement

The United States must improve its students’ educational achievement. Race, gender, and social class gaps persist, and, overall, U.S. students rank poorly among peers globally. Scientific research shows that students’ psychology—their “academic mindsets”—have a critical role in educational achievement. Yet policymakers have not taken full advantage of cost-effective and well-validated mindset interventions. In this article, we present two key academic mindsets. The first, a growth mindset, refers to the belief that intelligence can be developed over time. The second, a belonging mindset, refers to the belief that people like you belong in your school or in a given academic field. Extensive research shows that fostering these mindsets can improve students’ motivation; raise grades; and reduce racial, gender, and social class gaps. Of course, mindsets are not a panacea, but with proper implementation they can be an excellent point of entry. We show how policy at all levels (federal, state, and local) can leverage mindsets to lift the nation’s educational outcomes.
New Approach to Inter‐domain Multicast Protocols

IPTV broadcast channels and video content distribution are increasingly saturating network paths. New solutions based on inter‐domain multicast protocols could contribute to the enhancement of multimedia content distribution over the Internet. The aim of this paper is to propose new capabilities for an existing inter‐domain multicast protocol, the Protocol Independent Multicast‐Sparse Mode. We describe the modified protocol and analyze its behavior using newly developed tools based on an open‐source software simulator. The resulting protocol does not require topology information, which is advantageous for easier deployment. In addition, the adopted solution avoids inherent problems with inter‐domain multicast routing, such as multiple paths and path asymmetries.
Development of a minimum data set-based depression rating scale for use in nursing homes.

BACKGROUND depression is common but under-diagnosed in nursing-home residents. There is a need for a standardized screening instrument which incorporates daily observations of nursing-home staff. AIM to develop and validate a screening instrument for depression using items from the Minimum Data Set of the Resident Assessment Instrument. METHODS we conducted semi-structured interviews with 108 residents from two nursing homes to obtain depression ratings using the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia. Nursing staff completed Minimum Data Set assessments. In a randomly assigned derivation sample (n = 81), we identified Minimum Data Set mood items that were correlated (P < 0.05) with Hamilton and Cornell ratings. These items were factored using an oblique rotation to yield five conceptually distinct factors. Using linear regression, each set of factored items was regressed against Hamilton and Cornell ratings to identify a core set of seven Minimum Data Set mood items which comprise the Minimum Data Set Depression Rating Scale. We then tested the performance of the Minimum Data Set Depression Rating Scale against accepted cut-offs and psychiatric diagnoses. RESULTS a cutpoint score of 3 on the Minimum Data Set Depression Rating Scale maximized sensitivity (94% for Hamilton, 78% for Cornell) with minimal loss of specificity (72% for Hamilton, 77% for Cornell) when tested against cut-offs for mild to moderate depression in the derivation sample. Results were similar in the validation sample. When tested against diagnoses of major or non-major depression in a subset of 82 subjects, sensitivity was 91% and specificity was 69%. Performance compared favourably with the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. CONCLUSION items from the Minimum Data Set can be organized to screen for depression in nursing-home residents. Further testing of the instrument is now needed.