Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sagittal abdominal diameter is a strong anthropometric marker of insulin resistance and hyperproinsulinemia in obese men.

OBJECTIVE It is clinically important to find noninvasive markers of insulin resistance and hyperproinsulinemia because they both predict cardiovascular and diabetes risk. Sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) or "supine abdominal height" is a simple anthropometric measure previously shown to predict mortality in men, but its association with insulin resistance and hyperproinsulinemia is unknown. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In a common high-risk group of 59 moderately obese men (aged 35-65 years, BMI 32.6 +/- 2.3 kg/m(2)), we determined anthropometry (SAD, BMI, waist girth, and waist-to-hip ratio [WHR]); insulin sensitivity (euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp); and plasma concentrations of intact proinsulin, specific insulin, C-peptide, glucose, and serum IGF binding protein-1 (IGFBP-1). To compare SAD with other anthropometric measures, univariate and multiple regression analyses were used to determine correlations between anthropometric and metabolic variables. RESULTS SAD showed stronger correlations to all measured metabolic variables, including insulin sensitivity, than BMI, waist girth, and WHR. SAD explained the largest degree of variation in insulin sensitivity (R(2) = 0.38, P < 0.0001) compared with other anthropometric measures. In multiple regression analyses, including all anthropometric measures, SAD was the only independent anthropometric predictor of insulin resistance (P < 0.001) and hyperproinsulinemia (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS In obese men, SAD seems to be a better correlate of insulin resistance and hyperproinsulinemia (i.e., cardiovascular risk) than other anthropometric measures. In overweight and obese individuals, SAD could represent a simple, cheap, and noninvasive tool that could identify the most insulin resistant in both the clinic and clinical trials evaluating insulin sensitizers. These results need confirmation in larger studies that also include women and lean subjects.
Role of HU and DNA supercoiling in transcription repression: specialized nucleoprotein repression complex at gal promoters in Escherichia coli

Efficient repression of the two promoters P1 and P2 of the gal operon requires the formation of a DNA loop encompassing the promoters. In vitro, DNA looping‐mediated repression involves binding of the Gal repressor (GalR) to two gal operators (OE and OI) and binding of the histone‐like protein HU to a specific locus (hbs) about the midpoint between OE and OI, and supercoiled DNA. Without DNA looping, GalR binding to OE partially represses P1 and stimulates P2. We investigated the requirement for DNA supercoiling and HU in repression of the gal promoters in vivo in strains containing a fusion of a reporter gene, gusA or lacZ, to each promoter individually. While the P1 promoter was found to be repressible in the absence of DNA supercoiling and HU, the repression of P2 was entirely dependent upon DNA supercoiling in vivo. The P2 promoter was fully derepressed when supercoiling was inhibited by the addition of coumermycin in cells. P2, but not P1, was also totally derepressed by the absence of HU or the OI operator. From these results, we propose that the repression of the gal promoters in vivo is mediated by the formation of a higher order DNA–multiprotein complex containing GalR, HU and supercoiled DNA. In the absence of this complex, P1 but not P2 is still repressed by GalR binding to OE. The specific nucleoprotein complexes involving histone‐like proteins, which repress promoter activity while remaining sensitive to inducing signals, as discussed, may occur more generally in bacterial nucleoids.
Single Nucleotide Polymorphism in the Interleukin 12B Gene is Associated with Risk for Breast Cancer Development

We analysed the association of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the gene encoding the IL‐12 subunit p40 (IL12B, rs3212227, A>C) with breast cancer. The SNPs allelic and genotypic frequencies were compared between patients (n = 191) and healthy (n = 194) women in a case–control study from Croatia. The major allele (A) was associated with susceptibility to breast cancer (P = 0.003; OR = 1.67; 95% CI: 1.17–2.38). Likewise, the minor allele (C) was significantly correlated with protection (P = 0.003; OR = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.42–0.86). At the genotype level, AA homozygosity was significantly associated with predisposition to disease (P = 0.013; OR = 1.68, 95% CI: 1.09–2.59), whereas the minor allele homozygosity (CC) was correlated with protection to disease (P = 0.020, OR = 0.28, 95% CI: 0.09–0.91). The heterozygous genotype showed no significant correlation with disease. The product of the IL12B gene (IL‐12 p40) can either form a homodimeric cytokine or be part of two pro‐inflammatory (IL‐12 and IL‐23) cytokines. It is presently unclear whether the major allele is associated with higher or lower protein levels of IL‐12 p40 and IL‐12 p70, which are critical in inflammation and adaptive immune responses. However, as the A allele is high producer of IL12B (p40) mRNA, these results might imply that higher levels of IL‐12 p40 (either as homodimers or joined with one or both of the other two subunits) predispose to breast cancer.
Looking for French-English translations in comparable medical corpora

Cross-language retrieval of medical information needs to translate input queries into target language queries. It must be prepared to cope with 'new' words not yet listed in a multilingual lexicon. We address the issue of finding translational equivalents of such 'unknown' words from French to English in the medical domain. We rely on non-parallel, comparable corpora and an initial bilingual medical lexicon. We compare the distributional contexts of source and target words, testing several weighting factors and similarity measures. For the best combination (the Jaccard similarity measure with or without weighting), the correct translation is found in the top 10 candidates for more than 60% of the test words. This shows the potential of this technique to help extending bilingual medical lexicons.
VisAR: Bringing Interactivity to Static Data Visualizations through Augmented Reality

Static visualizations have analytic and expressive value. However, many interactive tasks cannot be completed using static visualizations. As datasets grow in size and complexity, static visualizations start losing their analytic and expressive power for interactive data exploration. Despite this limitation of static visualizations, there are still many cases where visualizations are limited to being static (e.g., visualizations on presentation slides or posters). We believe in many of these cases, static visualizations will benefit from allowing users to perform interactive tasks on them. Inspired by the introduction of numerous commercial personal augmented reality (AR) devices, we propose an AR solution that allows interactive data exploration of datasets on static visualizations. In particular, we present a prototype system named VisAR that uses the Microsoft Hololens to enable users to complete interactive tasks on static visualizations.
ScienceDirect Information Technology and Quantitative Management ( ITQM 2015 ) Assessing the efficiency of sports in using financial resources with DEA models

This paper presents and compares two different DEA models used to evaluate the efficiency of Brazilian Olympic Confederations in using the financial funds (from the Agnelo/Piva Law in 2011) e transform them into results, that is, medals. We use two different models, in both models the funds coming from the Agnelo/Piva Law distributed in 2011 is considered as an input, in order to evaluate how efficiently these funds were being converted into results by each one. The main difference between these two models is how each one of them used the data related to the number of gold medals offered by each sport in 2011 Guadalajara Pan American Games and also the data related to the number of gold, silver and bronze medals won by each sport during this same competition. The number of gold medals offered represent a proxy for difficulty measure in winning a medal. The first model considered these data as a second input and the number of gold, silver and bronze medals won by each sport were considered as outputs. The second model used only the funds received by each Confederation as an input and it used three outputs, which were formed by a ratio of the first model’s output to the number of gold medals offered by each sport. After comparing these models, the results obtained by each one of them are presented and discussed in order to determine the best approach to perform an efficiency evaluation of Olympic sports. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the organizers of ITQM 2015
Sociodemographic features, affective symptoms and family functioning in hospitalized patients with dissociative disorder (convulsion type).

OBJECTIVE To study the sociodemographic features, co-morbid anxiety and depression and family functioning in patients admitted with dissociative disorder to a tertiary care hospital in Peshawar, Pakistan. METHOD Patients admitted between April 2004 to September 2004 in Psychiatry Unit, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar and diagnosed as dissociative disorder (convulsion type) based on ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for mental disorders were included in the study. The sample size was 100. The demographic information was recorded, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale and Family APGAR scale were administered. RESULTS Majority of patients were female (88%), uneducated (71%) and residing in rural areas (70%). Scores on anxiety scale showed no significant relation with demographic variables except area of residence (p = 0.002). Scores on depression subscale of HADS also showed a significant relation only with area of residence p = 0.05. Clinical anxiety was present in 43% of patients while 73% had clinical depression. The relation between family functioning and dissociative disorder was not significant in our sample. CONCLUSION Dissociative disorder, convulsive type, occurs mostly in females who are uneducated and residents of rural areas. Association of depression with dissociative disorder was significant, however our study did not show any significant relation between this disorder and family functioning.
A nanomachined tunable oscillator controlled by electrostatic and optical force

We develop a miniaturized electrostatically tunable optomechanical oscillator, whose frequencies can be electrostatically tuned by as much as 10%. By taking advantage of the optical and the electrical spring, the oscillator achieves a high tuning sensitivity without resorting to mechanical tension. Particularly, the high-Q optical cavity greatly enhances the system sensitivity, making it extremely sensitive to the motional signal, which is often overwhelmed by background noise.
Negotiating the Boundaries of American Blackness: The Experiences of African Students in the United States

African students in the United States are assigned a racial identity ‘Black’ in accordance with racial stratifications of the U.S. society. This designation makes it necessary for them to negotiate the structural constructions of American Blackness. Guided by social constructivism, the author explored African students’ negotiation of Black racial solidarity. African students’ racial solidarity was embedded within shared perspectives of common fate, which provided a reference for collective Black identity but; however, did not culminate into strong racial in-group loyalty. African students’ racial solidarity was mitigated by the desire to exonerate themselves from inherent Black stereotypes. This was exacerbated by their non-prototypic cultural characteristics, which, according to native-born counterparts, rendered them ‘illegitimate’ in-group members. The increasing presence of foreign-born Black students unveils both commonalities and heterogeneity among Black student populations, which scholars of Black Studies must reflect upon to explore ideological standpoints of Blackness.
C9ORF72 hexanucleotide repeat exerts toxicity in a stable, inducible motor neuronal cell model, which is rescued by partial depletion of Pten

Abstract Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating and incurable neurodegenerative disease, characterised by progressive failure of the neuromuscular system. A (G4C2)n repeat expansion in C9ORF72 is the most common genetic cause of ALS and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). To date, the balance of evidence indicates that the (G4C2)n repeat causes toxicity and neurodegeneration via a gain-of-toxic function mechanism; either through direct RNA toxicity or through the production of toxic aggregating dipeptide repeat proteins. Here, we have generated a stable and isogenic motor neuronal NSC34 cell model with inducible expression of a (G4C2)102 repeat, to investigate the gain-of-toxic function mechanisms. The expression of the (G4C2)102 repeat produces RNA foci and also undergoes RAN translation. In addition, the expression of the (G4C2)102 repeat shows cellular toxicity. Through comparison of transcriptomic data from the cellular model with laser-captured spinal motor neurons from C9ORF72-ALS cases, we also demonstrate that the PI3K/Akt cell survival signalling pathway is dysregulated in both systems. Furthermore, partial knockdown of Pten rescues the toxicity observed in the NSC34 (G4C2)102 cellular gain-of-toxic function model of C9ORF72-ALS. Our data indicate that PTEN may provide a potential therapeutic target to ameliorate toxic effects of the (G4C2)n repeat.
The Changing Governance of Japanese Public Science

Overview This chapter provides an overview of Japan’s public science system (PSS) and the major changes under way concerning its governance. From the end of the Second World War until 2004, Japan’s national universities, which account for the great majority of basic science research, were under the direct control of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (known as Monbusho before 2001 and Monbu-kagaku-sho, or MEXT, thereafter). Government research institutes (GRIs) similarly were under the direct control of their responsible ministries until about the same time. Since 2000–2004, various policies have been initiated to change the governance and administrative system of national universities and GRIs across a wide front. Financial and administrative independence and mobility of researchers have been encouraged and comprehensive evaluation procedures implemented. The push towards greater financial independence is indicated by a continuing decline in general operational and administration subsidies (block grants) to universities, which now must compete for a growing supply of competitive research funds. However, some of these competitive programmes are aimed explicitly at creating a limited number of centres of excellence. Some are under the control of ministries and their academic advisers who strongly influence research themes and award decisions. This chapter adopts a system-wide analytical perspective. It is based on twelve years of experience in an interdisciplinary graduate-level education and research centre of the University of Tokyo, and frequent contacts with scientists and students. It also draws upon a large number of interviews over the past decade with companies that deal with universities. However, most first-hand observations are from Japan’s best endowed and most prestigious university. Therefore, the perspectives of researchers in some of Japan’s GRIs and good but lesser known universities may not be adequately represented in this chapter.
Trypanosoma cruzi discrete typing units in patients of Chagas disease and Triatoma infestans after insecticide spraying in Chile

In this study, we evaluate mixed discrete typing units (DTUs) of Trypanosoma cruzi present in 69 patients of Chagas disease and 92 Triatoma infestans collected under the entomological surveillance program after more than 20 years of intervention with insecticide spraying in Chile. Our aim is to identify T. cruzi DTUs still circulating in T. infestans and chronic patients to evaluate their impact on the environmental health in endemic areas of the country. Blood DNA or triatomine DNA was used as DNA template for PCR assays. For genotyping, different T. cruzi stocks were used to generate the DNA probes to determine four parasite DTUs or mixtures infecting each patient or vector by means of hybridization assays. We found different frequencies of T. cruzi DTUs in patients and in T. infestans. Tc I was the most frequent found in T. infestans, but was less frequent in humans. In contrast, in humans Tc V was most frequent but was less frequent in T. infestans. In conclusion, there were significant differences between the T. cruzi DTUs circulating in patients and vectors. We discussed these results in the context of what has being reported in Chile before the vector control, in neighboring countries, and the selection pressures existing for T. cruzi populations within the invertebrate and vertebrate hosts. Keywords— Chagas disease in Chile, Trypanosoma cruzi DTUs, Triatoma infestans, kinetoplast minicircles.
THE EVOLUTION AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW AGE FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CITY AND REGION

This paper analyzes the basic relationship and the evolution motivation of the relationship between city and region,and summarize the process in the evolution.With the new characteristics and the development trend in the age of economic globalization and knowledge economy,the paper consider: relationship between city and region in China is in the stage that the city's function is in dominant with the guiding of regional development framework;the city's functionality and the region's integrity are the core for relationship between city and region in the new age.In a certain period of time,there will still be in the unity of opposites for the city and region,and at the same time,the boundary between city and region become illegibility and the geographical unit tend to organically intertwined and fusioned.
The gut microbiota and inflammatory bowel disease

Purpose of reviewInflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) reflect the cooperative influence of numerous host and environmental factors, including those of elements of the intestinal immune system, the gut microbiota, and dietary habits. This review focuses on features of the gut microbiota and mucosal immune system that are important in the development and control of IBDs. Recent findingsGut innate-type immune cells, including dendritic cells, innate lymphoid cells, and mast cells, educate acquired-type immune cells and intestinal epithelial cells to achieve a symbiotic relationship with commensal bacteria. However, perturbation of the number or type of commensal microorganisms and endogenous genetic polymorphisms that affect immune responses and epithelial barrier system can ultimately lead to IBDs. Providing beneficial bacteria or fecal microbiota transplants helps to reestablish the intestinal environment, maintain its homeostasis, and ameliorate IBDs. SummaryThe gut immune system participates in a symbiotic milieu that includes cohabiting commensal bacteria. However, dysbiotic conditions and aberrations in the epithelial barrier and gut immune system can disrupt the mutualistic relationship between the host and gut microbiota, leading to IBDs. Progress in our molecular and cellular understanding of this relationship has yielded numerous insights regarding clinical applications for the treatment of IBDs.
Hidden web data extraction using wordnet ontology's

In response to the search engine crawler's queries, the application servers generate the information and deliver it directly to the user. The generated information forms the hidden web (deep web or invisible web) because the information is usually enwrapped in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) pages as data records. Due to the dynamic nature of the generated data records from the hidden web, current search engines (either general or commercial) are unable to index the HTML page accordingly. Propose to develop an Ontological Wrapper (OW) for the extraction and alignment of data records using lightweight ontological technique driven by word net repositories. Main component of the wrapper involves checking the similarity of data records and not just visual cues by stripping the html aspects. There are three main components in our wrapper design, namely, parsing process performed with TEXT MDL Algorithm, extraction initiated with irrelevant HTML stripping, and alignment of data records for classification. After the three step process, we are left with pure text data records stripped of the html content which can be searched over by humans or search engine crawlers. Our Approach is almost adaptable to most websites of distinguished visual cues and yields better data extraction results at better speeds than prior systems and a practical implementation validates our claim.
Balance performance with a cognitive task: a dual-task testing paradigm.

PURPOSE Athletic performance demands simultaneous use of cognitive and postural control capabilities. Decrements to both systems have been observed following concussion. This study evaluated a dual-task methodology to establish the tenability of using this testing model in concussed athletes. METHODS Nonconcussed subjects were assessed over 2 d. Subjects were introduced to the task-switching cognitive assessment test and a NeuroCom Smart Balance Master postural control assessment protocol on day 1. In the following session, subjects were evaluated on postural control and cognitive function tests independently (single task), and then concurrently (dual task). RESULTS Significant improvements were seen in three of the four balance conditions and in three of the four reaction times when the cognitive and balance task were performed simultaneously (P<0.05). No significant balance by cognitive task interaction was revealed (P>0.05); however, significant differences existed in reaction time based on stimulus position and increasing balance demands (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Combining the cognitive and balance assessments resulted in healthy subjects showing improved performance when compared with individual task performance. The dual-task methodology brought about systematic changes to reaction time in relation to increasing balance demands. The ability of this protocol to detect changes in postural control or cognitive function following concussive injury requires further study.
Design and Performance Results of First Polish SMES

The magnet for superconducting magnetic energy storage system (SMES) cooled by SRDK-408 cryocooler has been described in this paper. The superconducting magnet consists of 7 double-pancake coils made of Bi-2223 HTS tape with the inner and outer diameters 210 mm, 315 mm respectively and height of 191 mm. The inductance of the magnet is about 1 H. In the paper we report the design and the first measurements results of the magnet.