Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gene Pathways Discovery in Asbestos-Related Diseases using Local Causal Discovery Algorithm

To learn about the progression of a complex disease, it is necessary to understand the physiology and function of many genes operating together in distinct interactions as a system. In order to significantly advance our understanding of the function of a system, we need to learn the causal relationships among its modeled genes. To this end, it is desirable to compare experiments of the system under complete interventions of some genes, e.g., knock-out of some genes, with experiments of the system without interventions. However, it is expensive and difficult (if not impossible) to conduct wet lab experiments of complete interventions of genes in animal models, e.g., a mouse model. Thus, it will be helpful if we can discover promising causal relationships among genes with observational data alone in order to identify promising genes to perturb in the system that can later be verified in wet laboratories. While causal Bayesian networks have been actively used in discovering gene pathways, most of the algorithms that discover pairwise causal relationships from observational data alone identify only a small number of significant pairwise causal relationships, even with a large dataset. In this article, we introduce new causal discovery algorithms—the Equivalence Local Implicit latent variable scoring Method (EquLIM) and EquLIM with Markov chain Monte Carlo search algorithm (EquLIM-MCMC)—that identify promising causal relationships even with a small observational dataset.
Structured Nursing Intervention Versus Routine Rehabilitation After Stroke

Nir Z, Zolotogorsky Z, Sugarman H: Structured nursing intervention versus routine rehabilitation after stroke. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2004;83:522–529. Objective:The goal of this study was to examine the effect of a structured, comprehensive nursing intervention on the course of rehabilitation over the first 6 mos after a first-ever stroke. Design:Intervention (experimental) study. The participants were 155 elderly stroke survivors who were admitted to a geriatric rehabilitation department. Stratified random sampling generated intervention and control groups. The intervention was designed to work together with the routine rehabilitation program and consisted of 12 consecutive weekly meetings. The control group received only the routine rehabilitation program. Study variables were measured at entry to study and after 3- and 6-mo intervals. Results:Although there were no significant differences between the two groups at entry to study, at 3 and 6 mos after stroke, the intervention group showed better scores than the control group in functional status (FIM™ instrument), depression (Geriatric Depression Scale), self-perceived health, self-esteem, and dietary adherence. Conclusion:The nursing intervention had both short- and long-term effects on functional, psychological, and emotional variables. Serious consideration should be given to implementing comprehensive nursing interventions during rehabilitation tailored to meet the specific needs of stroke survivors and their caregivers.
La estrategia y el emprendedor: diversas perspectivas para el análisis

Research in the field of entrepreneurship comes from diverse disciplines, and in this regard the Strategy and the Entrepreneur are two concepts requiring inspection. In this paper the authors offer from the perspective of the Strategy a context for the analysis of the actor known as an entrepreneur. The first part of the document discusses the configuration and construction of the field of the strategy domain. The second part develops the concept of the entrepreneur, from the perspective of the individual, the process, the organization and environment (Gartner, 1985), and the third part deals, from different perspectives, with the relationship between strategy and entrepreneurship, such perspectives include: strategy as a plan and its putting into action, strategy as a projection of its leadership and strategy as an approach to environment.
Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-C Expression and Invasive Phenotype in Ovarian Carcinomas

Purpose: To investigate the biological correlation between vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C expression and invasive phenotype in ovarian carcinomas. Experimental Design: Gene and protein expression levels of VEGF-C in 10 ovarian carcinoma cell lines were correlated with invasive activity of the cells. The correlation between immunohistochemical expression of VEGF-C and tumor aggressiveness in 73 ovarian carcinomas was also examined with respect to clinicopathologic features and patient outcome. Results:VEGF-C gene and protein expression differed remarkably among the cell lines, and there was a statistical correlation among VEGF-C expression, in vitro invasive activity, and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) gene expression and its activity. Anti-VEGF-C and anti-MMP-2 antibodies inhibited the invasive activity of tumor cells. VEGF-C expression in clinical tissue samples was well correlated with clinical stages, retroperitoneal lymph node metastasis, MMP-2 expression, angiogenesis, lymphangiogenesis, and low apoptotic index (AI). The patients whose tumors had strong VEGF-C expression and low AI underwent a poorer prognosis than did those with weak VEGF-C expression and high AI. Conclusion: VEGF-C expression is closely related to invasive phenotype and affects the patient's survival in ovarian carcinomas.
A Survey of Satellite High Resolution Image Classification

The aim of this research is to present a detailed step-by-step method for classification of very high resolution urban satellite images (VHRSI) into specific classes such as road, building, vegetation, etc., using fuzzy logic. In this study, object-based image analysis is used for image classification. The main problems in high resolution image classification are the uncertainties in the position of object borders in satellite images and also multiplex resemblance of the segments to different classes. In order to solve this problem, fuzzy logic is used for image classification, since it provides the possibility of image analysis using multiple parameters without requiring inclusion of certain thresholds in the class assignment process Image classification is the most important process in pattern reorganization. Image classification is one of the most complex areas in image processing. It is more complex and difficult to classify if it contain blurry and noisy content. There are several methods to classify images and they provide good classification result but they fail to provide satisfactory classification result when the image contains blurry and noisy content. The two main methods for image classification are supervised and unsupervised classification. In general, this is a final stage of pattern matching.
Occurrence of Co-colonization or Co-Infection with Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus in a Medical Intensive Care Unit

Abstract Objective: To determine the occurrence of co-colonization or co-infection with VRE and MRSA among medical patients requiring intensive care. Design: Prospective, single-center, observational study. Setting: A 19-bed medical ICU in an urban teaching hospital. Patients: Adult patients requiring at least 48 hours of intensive care and having at least one culture performed for microbiologie evaluation. Results: Eight hundred seventy-eight consecutive patients were evaluated. Of these patients, 402 (45.8%) did not have microbiologie evidence of colonization or infection with either VRE or MRSA 355 (40.4%) were colonized or infected with VRE, 38 (4.3%) were colonized or infected with MRSA, and 83 (9.5%) had co-colonization or co-infection with VRE and MRSA. Multiple logistic regression analysis demonstrated that increasing age, hospitalization during the preceding 6 months, and admission to a long-term-care facility were independently associated with colonization or infection due to VRE and co-colonization or co-infection with VRE and MRSA. The distributions of positive culture sites for VRE (stool, 86.7%; blood, 6.5%; urine, 4.8%; soft tissue or wound, 2.0%) and for MRSA (respiratory secretions, 34.1%; blood, 32.6%; urine, 17.1%; soft tissue or wound, 16.2%) were statistically different (P < .001). Conclusions: Co-colonization or co-infection with VRE and MRSA is common among medical patients requiring intensive care. The recent emergence of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and the presence of a patient population co-colonized or co-infected with VRE and MRSA support the need for aggressive infection control measures in the ICU.
Balancing Cloud and Mobile Terminal: An Empirical Study on Decomposed Cloud Gaming

Decomposed cloud gaming is a novel paradigm to deliver gaming as a service to mobile terminals. In such a system, video games are decomposed into software components that are cognitive to players' behavior and execution environments in both cloud and mobile devices. However, in order to balance the workload distribution between cloud and mobile terminals in a real system, there are still a number of questions to be answered, which requires empirical studies with detailed measurement and analysis. In this work, we identify these questions and answer them by measuring the execution and networking performance data from a tank game prototype in our test-bed. Based on our observations on the affecting factors on the system performance, we design and implement the cognitive capacity for the system to dynamically adapt its service to different terminals and networks.
Entrepreneurs as cultural heroes

Purpose – This exploratory, interdisciplinary, cross‐cultural study attempt to examine the hypothesis that in a country, where entrepreneurs have high status, individuals will describe themselves as more entrepreneurial, will exhibit greater risk‐taking tendency and more will be involved in entrepreneurial activity.Design/methodology/approach – The study included MBA students in Israel, the USA and Hungary who were asked to compare the social status of entrepreneurs with that of other professionals, rate themselves on traits that were identified as characterizing successful entrepreneurs, and rate the risk they were willing to take to join a start‐up.Findings – Results showed that Israelis perceived entrepreneurs as having higher social status than Americans and Hungarians. Israelis also demonstrated greater risk taking expressed in the readiness to leave a secure job to join a start‐up. Israelis and Americans rated themselves higher than Hungarians on initiative, love of challenge and independence, the t.
Maternal Environment Influences Cocaine Intake in Adulthood in a Genotype-Dependent Manner

Background Accumulating epidemiological evidence points to the role of genetic background as a modulator of the capacity of adverse early experiences to give rise to mental illness. However, direct evidence of such gene-environment interaction in the context of substance abuse is scarce. In the present study we investigated whether the impact of early life experiences on cocaine intake in adulthood depends on genetic background. In addition, we studied other behavioral dimensions associated with drug abuse, i.e. anxiety- and depression-related behaviors. Methodology/Principal Findings For this purpose, we manipulated the maternal environment of two inbred mouse strains, the C57BL/6J and DBA/2J by fostering them with non-related mothers, i.e. the C3H/HeN and AKR strains. These mother strains show respectively high and low pup-oriented behavior. As adults, C57BL/6J and DBA/2J were tested either for cocaine intravenous self-administration or in the elevated plus-maze and forced swim test (FST). We found that the impact of maternal environment on cocaine use and a depression-related behavior depends upon genotype, as cocaine self-administration and behavior in the FST were influenced by maternal environment in DBA/2J, but not in C57BL/6J mice. Anxiety was not influenced by maternal environment in either strain. Conclusions/Significance Our experimental approach could contribute to the identification of the psychobiological factors determining the susceptibility or the resilience of certain individuals to develop psychopathologies.
A Dynamic Reputation Management System for mobile ad hoc networks

Nodes in mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are mandated to utilize their limited energy resources in forwarding routing control and data packets for other nodes. Since a MANET lacks a centralized administration and control, a node may decide to act selfishly by not responding to route requests from other nodes or deceitfully by responding to some route requests but dropping the corresponding data packet that is presented for forwarding. A significant increase in the presence of these misbehaving nodes in a MANET can subsequently degrade network performance. In this paper, we propose a Dynamic Reputation Management System for detecting and isolating misbehaving nodes in MANETs. Our model employs a novel direct monitoring technique to evaluate the reputation of a node in the network which ensures that nodes that expend their energy in transmitting data and routing control packets for others are allowed to carry out their network activities while the misbehaving nodes are detected and isolated from the network. Simulation results show that our model is effective in curbing and mitigating the effects of misbehaving nodes in the network.
On the Tamability of the Location Consistency Memory Model

Gao and Sarkar have proposed Location Consistency (LC), the weakest memory model described in the literature to date for shared memory architectures. The advantage of LC is that it does not require invalidation/update messages across processors, thus dispensing with cache snooping or directories. Gao and Sarkar have argued that, although LC is strictly weaker than Release Consistency (RC), it is equivalent to RC for all programs that are data-race free. However the LC specification is silent about which reorderings of consistency related operations and program statements are allowed. In this paper we argue that under permissive reordering rules, LC is not equivalent to RC, even for data race free programs. On the other hand, if strict reordering rules are followed, then LC is equivalent to RC for data race free programs but the distinction between LC and RC is greatly diminished and many of the advantages of LC are
Asynchronous communication for wireless sensors using ultra wideband impulse radio

This paper addresses simulations and design of an asynchronous integrated ultra wideband impulse radio transmitter and receiver suitable for low-power miniaturized wireless sensors. This paper first presents software simulations for asynchronous transmission over noisy channels using FSK-OOK modulation, which demonstrates that the proposed architecture is capable to communicate reliably at moderate signal-to-noise ratios and that the main errors are due to deletions of received noisy transmit pulses. Then, we address a hardware chip implementation of the integrated UWB transmitter and receiver, which is fabricated using an IBM 0. 18μm CMOS process. This implementation provides a low peak power consumption, i.e., 10.8 mW for the transmitter and 5.4 mW for the receiver, respectively. The measured maximum baseband data rate of the proposed radio is 2.3 Mb/s.
The myeloperoxidase-derived oxidant HOSCN inhibits protein tyrosine phosphatases and modulates cell signalling via the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway in macrophages

MPO (myeloperoxidase) catalyses the oxidation of chloride, bromide and thiocyanate by hydrogen peroxide to HOCl (hypochlorous acid), HOBr (hypobromous acid) and HOSCN (hypothiocyanous acid) respectively. Specificity constants indicate that SCN− is a major substrate for MPO. HOSCN is also a major oxidant generated by other peroxidases including salivary, gastric and eosinophil peroxidases. While HOCl and HOBr are powerful oxidizing agents, HOSCN is a less reactive, but more specific, oxidant which targets thiols and especially low pKa species. In the present study we show that HOSCN targets cysteine residues present in PTPs (protein tyrosine phosphatases) with this resulting in a loss of PTP activity for the isolated enzyme, in cell lysates and intact J774A.1 macrophage-like cells. Inhibition also occurs with MPO-generated HOCl and HOBr, but is more marked with MPO-generated HOSCN, particularly at longer incubation times. This inhibition is reversed by dithiothreitol, particularly at early time points, consistent with the reversible oxidation of the active site cysteine residue to give either a cysteine–SCN adduct or a sulfenic acid. Inhibition of PTP activity is associated with increased phosphorylation of p38a and ERK2 (extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 2) as detected by Western blot analysis and phosphoprotein arrays, and results in altered MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) signalling. These data indicate that the highly selective targeting of some protein thiols by HOSCN can result in perturbation of cellular phosphorylation and altered cell signalling. These changes occur with (patho)physiological concentrations of SCN− ions, and implicate HOSCN as an important mediator of inflammation-induced oxidative damage, particularly in smokers who have elevated plasma levels of SCN−.
Preservation Methods Differ in Fecal Microbiome Stability, Affecting Suitability for Field Studies

Our study, spanning 15 individuals and over 1,200 samples, provides our most comprehensive view to date of storage and stabilization effects on stool. We tested five methods for preserving human and dog fecal specimens for periods of up to 8 weeks, including the types of variation often encountered under field conditions, such as freeze-thaw cycles and high temperature fluctuations. We show that several cost-effective methods provide excellent microbiome stability out to 8 weeks, opening up a range of field studies with humans and wildlife that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive. ABSTRACT Immediate freezing at −20°C or below has been considered the gold standard for microbiome preservation, yet this approach is not feasible for many field studies, ranging from anthropology to wildlife conservation. Here we tested five methods for preserving human and dog fecal specimens for periods of up to 8 weeks, including such types of variation as freeze-thaw cycles and the high temperature fluctuations often encountered under field conditions. We found that three of the methods—95% ethanol, FTA cards, and the OMNIgene Gut kit—can preserve samples sufficiently well at ambient temperatures such that differences at 8 weeks are comparable to differences among technical replicates. However, even the worst methods, including those with no fixative, were able to reveal microbiome differences between species at 8 weeks and between individuals after a week, allowing meta-analyses of samples collected using various methods when the effect of interest is expected to be larger than interindividual variation (although use of a single method within a study is strongly recommended to reduce batch effects). Encouragingly for FTA cards, the differences caused by this method are systematic and can be detrended. As in other studies, we strongly caution against the use of 70% ethanol. The results, spanning 15 individuals and over 1,200 samples, provide our most comprehensive view to date of storage effects on stool and provide a paradigm for the future studies of other sample types that will be required to provide a global view of microbial diversity and its interaction among humans, animals, and the environment. IMPORTANCE Our study, spanning 15 individuals and over 1,200 samples, provides our most comprehensive view to date of storage and stabilization effects on stool. We tested five methods for preserving human and dog fecal specimens for periods of up to 8 weeks, including the types of variation often encountered under field conditions, such as freeze-thaw cycles and high temperature fluctuations. We show that several cost-effective methods provide excellent microbiome stability out to 8 weeks, opening up a range of field studies with humans and wildlife that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive.
Estimating which Object Type a Sensor Node is Attached to in Ubiquitous Sensor Environment

By simply attaching sensor nodes to physical objects with no information about the objects, the method proposed in this article infers the type of the physical indoor objects and the states they are in. Assuming that an object has its own states that have transitions represented by a state transition diagram, we prepare the state transition diagrams for such indoor objects as a door, a drawer, a chair, and a locker. The method determines the presumed state transition diagram from prepared diagrams that matches sensor data collected from people's daily living for a certain period. A 2 week experiment shows that the method achieves high accuracy of inferring objects to which sensor nodes are attached. The method allows us to introduce ubiquitous sensor environments by simply attaching sensor nodes to physical objects around us.
An Evaluation of Generic Screens for Poor Quality of Hospital Care on a General Medicine Service

In this study, 675 general medicine admissions at a university teaching hospital were reviewed to evaluate six potential generic quality screens: 1) in-hospital death; 2) 28-day early readmission; 3) low patient satisfaction; 4) worsening severity of illness (as determined by an increase in Laboratory Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation APACHE-L); and 5) deviations from expected hospital length of stay; and 6) expected ancillary resource use. The quality of care for a stratified random sample of admissions were evaluated using structured implicit review (inter-rater reliability, Kappa=0.5). Patients who died in-hospital were substantially more likely than those who were discharged alive to be rated as having had substandard care (30% vs. 10%; P<0.001). In contrast, cases who had subsequent early readmissions did not have poorer quality ratings. Similarly, lower patient satisfaction was not associated with poorer ratings of technical process of care. Cases with lower-than-expected ancillary resource use (case-mix adjusted for diagnosis-related group) were more likely to be rated as having received substandard care than those with higher-than-expected resource use (16% vs. 6%; P<0.05), and there was a similar trend for cases with shorter than expected length of stays. Associations between worsening severity of illness, as determined by APACHE-L scores, and quality were confounded because such patients were more likely to have died in-hospital. When deaths were excluded from the analysis, we found no association between increases in APACHE-L scores during the hospital course and quality of care. It was found that in-hospital death and lower-than-expected ancillary resource use were associated with poorer implicit quality ratings, but that early readmission, lower patient satisfaction, and increases in APACHE-L scores were not. Quality screens, such as early readmissions, should be critically evaluated before being used administratively.