Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Donepezil for dementia in people with Down syndrome.

BACKGROUND Alzheimer's dementia (AD) is the most common form of dementia in people with Down Syndrome [DS]. Acetylcholine is a chemical found in the brain that has an important role in memory, attention, reason and language. Donepezil a reversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase, which is thought to maintain levels of acetylcholine, and is reported to have some benefits for people with AD in the general population. It is important to note that people with DS tend to present with AD at a much younger age than the normal population as well as having subtle differences in physiology (e.g. metabolism and heart rate) and may therefore have different requirements from the general population. OBJECTIVES To determine the effectiveness and safety of donepezil for people with DS who develop AD. SEARCH STRATEGY CENTRAL, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, BIOSIS, SCI, SSCI and the NRR were searched up to October 2008. We contacted the manufacturers of donepezil as well as experts in the field, to ask about reports of unpublished or ongoing trials. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised controlled trials of participants with DS and AD in which treatment with donepezil was administered compared with a placebo group. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Data were extracted from the published reports of the one relevant study identified. MAIN RESULTS The one study included in this review is a small (n=30) randomised controlled trial lasting 24 weeks. It was followed-up by an open label study with a crossover design.No significant differences were found on any four validated outcomes including global functioning and three measures of cognitive abilities and behavioural problems. 6 out of 16 carers (37%) of participants on donepezil and 2 out of 15 (13%) on placebo reported improvement. No data were available for day to day skills, institutionalisation, reduction in carers' stress or economic outcomes. Half the intervention group and 20% of the placebo group reported adverse events; two participants left because of adverse events. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS To date there is only one small randomised controlled study on the effect of donepezil. This shows, at best, a modest, non statistically significant trend in favour of people with Down syndrome and Alzheimer's dementia who are able to tolerate donepezil (this drug is currently only dispensed in relatively large doses and is contraindicated for those with cardiac and respiratory problems). This study does not provide good evidence on which to base practice. Findings in an open-label follow up to this study suggest possible benefit in some individuals. Further, larger randomised controlled studies with longer-term follow up are required.
Recent theories stress two distinct economic mechanisms that can explain why households reallocate expenditures across broad economic sectors : one

We assess the empirical importance of changes in income and relative prices for structural transformation in the postwar US. We explain two natural approaches to the data: sectors may be categories of final expenditure or value added; e.g., the service sector may be the final expenditure on services or the value added from service industries. We estimate preferences for each approach and find that with final expenditure income effects are the dominant force behind structural transformation whereas with value added categories price effects are more important. We show how the input–output structure of the US can reconcile these findings. JEL: O11; O14
Research and Development of New Drugs Against Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a contagious infectious disease caused byspecies belonging to the Mycobac‐ terium tuberculosis complex. At present, it is a re-emerging disease, due to co-infection with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), but also to global bacterial resistance, and lack of adequate treatment in some places in the world. Approximately one third of the world’s population is infected with M. tuberculosis, and out of these people, about 1.1 million people die every year of TB [1], making this disease the main cause of bacterial infectious death in adoles‐ cents and adults all around the world. In 2010 there was an estimation of 8.8 million incident cases and 12.0 million prevalent cases of TB worldwide. M. tuberculosis drug-resistant isolates have appeared giving origin to multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains. XDR-TB has been identified in every continent of the planet. By 2010, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of the existence of 53.018 cases of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) worldwide; figure that only represents 18% of the TB-MDR estimated cases among reported pulmonary TB cases around the world [1]. Currently, there is global alarm since the infection with these strains is cured only in 66% of MDR cases and in 60% of the XDR cases [2].
Occurrence of gastric cancer among patients with pernicious anemia at the Boston City Hospital.

ALTHOUGH it is generally recognized that gastric cancer occurs with increased frequency in patients with pernicious anemia,1 2 3 reported rates vary widely from a low of 0.16 per cent4 to a high of 14.9 per cent.5 Differences in the sampling methods, the relatively small number of patients with pernicious anemia available at any one clinic and the differing criteria utilized for the diagnosis of pernicious anemia contribute to the disparity among these figures. Many patients with pernicious anemia are seen at the Boston City Hospital every year. To assess the practicality of routine screening of these patients for gastric cancer it .
50 GHz mm-Wave CMOS Active Inductor

This letter presents a millimeter-wave active inductor circuit designed and fabricated in 65 nm bulk CMOS technology. The measurement results show an equivalent inductance of 133 pH with a quality factor exceeding 400 at 50 GHz, demonstrating experimentally for the first time the possibility to implement high- Q active inductors in CMOS technology operating at the mm-waves.
Institutional Innovation Practices In Technopoles: An Example in France

This chapter aims at filling a void in the literature on the question as to whether organizational proximity can be fostered within clusters. We address a dimension that has received little attention until recently, namely the local governance structures of technopoles. The objective was to gain an insight into such institutional practices and to evaluate their effects on firms’ innovation performance. By identifying how geographical and organizational (cognitive and relational) proximity interrelate in the analysis of cluster forms we sought to contribute to the burgeoning literature on the different types of proximity. The empirical research relies on a representative sample of 88 firms implanted within the Savoie Technolac technopole, in the French Rhône-Alpes region. Our results suggest that, even though local governance contributes to territorial anchoring, only the local labor market had a direct significant impact on the firms’ innovation performance. In addition, territorial anchoring combined with the roles played by governance in terms of ‘matchmaking’ and support for technology transfer significantly increased the number of innovation projects. These results suggest that governance has a decisive role in the creation of communication and interaction structures between firms, which are essential for firm innovation. This research may have important implications for governance modes, in not only technopoles but also more generally in clusters. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-61350-165-8.ch024
Linearization and control of a system of pneumatic suspension of a sphere

In this paper, details the functioning of a plant of control, air suspension of a sphere, through which it will analyze its mathematical model, its nonlinear behavior, which must be linearized in a point of operation, to subsequently generate a PID control of it, in order to verify the correct behavior of the plant against several perturbations, their respective testing and simulation using MATLAB software.
Unexpected trapping of particles at a T junction

Significance Most flow systems we encounter in everyday life, such as cardiovascular blood flow in our body or the flow in typical domestic or industrial piping systems, present T junctions that split the flow into two streams. Another characteristic that these systems often have in common is the presence of a dispersed phase made of low-density particles or air bubbles. In this paper we present evidence that in these situations particles can get trapped at the junction, accumulate, and ultimately change the flow distribution. The unanticipated trapping mechanism can affect health and diagnostics in human beings or create malfunctions, and consequently unexpected dangers, in industrial environments. Nonetheless, the same effect can also be exploited to design new particle separation devices. A common element in physiological flow networks, as well as most domestic and industrial piping systems, is a T junction that splits the flow into two nearly symmetric streams. It is reasonable to assume that any particles suspended in a fluid that enters the bifurcation will leave it with the fluid. Here we report experimental evidence and a theoretical description of a trapping mechanism for low-density particles in steady and pulsatile flows through T-shaped junctions. This mechanism induces accumulation of particles, which can form stable chains, or give rise to significant growth of bubbles due to coalescence. In particular, low-density material dispersed in the continuous phase fluid interacts with a vortical flow that develops at the T junction. As a result suspended particles can enter the vortices and, for a wide range of common flow conditions, the particles do not leave the bifurcation. Via 3D numerical simulations and a model of the two-phase flow we predict the location of particle accumulation, which is in excellent agreement with experimental data. We identify experimentally, as well as confirm by numerical simulations and a simple force balance, that there is a wide parameter space in which this phenomenon occurs. The trapping effect is expected to be important for the design of particle separation and fractionation devices, as well as used for better understanding of system failures in piping networks relevant to industry and physiology.
Feature Ranking Based on Information Gain for Large Classification Problems with MapReduce

In classification problems the large number of features can pose a significant challenge from many aspects. This is particularly the case in the context of Big Data. In order to address this issue we propose a distributed and parallel computation of information gain based on MapReduce. The proposed implementation on Hadoop can be used for ranking features of large datasets and furthermore for feature selection. The data-parallelism is achieved by uniformly distributing it using HBase tables with proper row keys. Performance evaluations are made by estimation of the speed-up of multi-node clusters against a one-node cluster. The framework was deployed on a on-premises Hadoop cluster. The results show that by parallelization and distribution of the computations on a cluster significant speedup can be achieved. The main contribution of this paper is that we have demonstrated how the higher level scripting language Pig Latin can be used for writing MapReduce jobs instead of directly writing a separate map and reduce function. Additionally, we have proposed the use of manually pre-splitted HBase tables instead of HDFS files for data fragmentation in order to set the degree of parallelism on a higher level.
Students' Creativity and Entrepreneurial Learning for Developing Corporate Entrepreneurship

The chapter aims to contribute at the discussion on the role of creativity in sustaining corporate entrepreneurship development by focusing on entrepreneurial learning in the context of incumbent enterprises. Empirical evidences coming from the case study of “Mimprendo” project (www.mimprendo.it), an initiative promoted by the Italian Conference of the University Colleges and the Italian Association of Young Entrepreneurs, are presented. Findings provides insights about the collaborative entrepreneurial learning as happening in the community composed by University students, entrepreneurs, and researchers to solve relevant managerial and entrepreneurial innovation’s needs. Those evidences are at the basis of an integrated framework aimed to provide a coherent and a systematic view on the collaborative entrepreneurial learning processes to nurture, select, and implement creative ideas of universities students for sustaining the corporate entrepreneurship in incumbent companies. Students’ Creativity and Entrepreneurial Learning for Developing Corporate Entrepreneurship Giustina Secundo University of Salento, Italy Pasquale Del Vecchio University of Salento, Italy Giuseppina Passiante University of Salento, Italy Mirco Paoletto Collegio Universitario Don Nicola Mazza, Italy Students’ Creativity and Entrepreneurial Learning
Communicating with Cancer Patients

In a prospective study, 100 cancer patients and their relatives were separately interviewed using a structured interview to examine whether the diagnosis of cancer should be communicated to patients and relatives; the reasons for doing so or not, the emotional reactions of patients and families; any change in the attitude of relatives; behaviour of patients and patient's expectation, on diagnosis, of the course of their illness. The majority of patients, who knew their diagnosis (71 %), wanted to be told the truth. The majority of relatives wanted to know the truth themselves (81 %) without the patients being told (77%). Patients did show immediate emotional reactions like anxiety and dejection, however they appeared to accept the diagnosis. Findings suggest that in an Indian setting the attitude of family members is more positive. The role played by sociocultural factors in the acceptance of the truth is discussed.
11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases: intracellular gate-keepers of tissue glucocorticoid action.

Glucocorticoid action on target tissues is determined by the density of "nuclear" receptors and intracellular metabolism by the two isozymes of 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (11β-HSD) which catalyze interconversion of active cortisol and corticosterone with inert cortisone and 11-dehydrocorticosterone. 11β-HSD type 1, a predominant reductase in most intact cells, catalyzes the regeneration of active glucocorticoids, thus amplifying cellular action. 11β-HSD1 is widely expressed in liver, adipose tissue, muscle, pancreatic islets, adult brain, inflammatory cells, and gonads. 11β-HSD1 is selectively elevated in adipose tissue in obesity where it contributes to metabolic complications. Similarly, 11β-HSD1 is elevated in the ageing brain where it exacerbates glucocorticoid-associated cognitive decline. Deficiency or selective inhibition of 11β-HSD1 improves multiple metabolic syndrome parameters in rodent models and human clinical trials and similarly improves cognitive function with ageing. The efficacy of inhibitors in human therapy remains unclear. 11β-HSD2 is a high-affinity dehydrogenase that inactivates glucocorticoids. In the distal nephron, 11β-HSD2 ensures that only aldosterone is an agonist at mineralocorticoid receptors (MR). 11β-HSD2 inhibition or genetic deficiency causes apparent mineralocorticoid excess and hypertension due to inappropriate glucocorticoid activation of renal MR. The placenta and fetus also highly express 11β-HSD2 which, by inactivating glucocorticoids, prevents premature maturation of fetal tissues and consequent developmental "programming. " The role of 11β-HSD2 as a marker of programming is being explored. The 11β-HSDs thus illuminate the emerging biology of intracrine control, afford important insights into human pathogenesis, and offer new tissue-restricted therapeutic avenues.
Influence of dietary cholesterol and fat source on atherosclerosis in the Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)

The Japanese quail has been used as a model of human atherosclerosis to investigate the mechanisms underlying the development of vascular lesions, i.e. hyperlipoproteinaemia and impaired endogenous antioxidant status. In the present study, Japanese quail were fed on semi-purified diets containing butter, beef tallow or soyabean-oil blends, with either 0.5 or 5 g cholesterol/kg for 9 weeks to examine the effects of dietary fat blends varying in fatty acid composition and cholesterol intake on plasma lipids and aortic atherosclerotic plaque and sterol composition. These findings were related to possible diet-induced changes in antioxidant status of selected tissues. Hypercholesterolaemia was confirmed (P < 0.001) in birds fed on high-cholesterol (HC) diets. Plasma total cholesterol concentration and cholesterol content of lipoprotein fractions in hypercholesterolaemic birds were lower (P < 0.05) in quail fed on the soyabean-oil blend. Plasma triacylglycerol content was increased (P < 0.001) in HC-fed birds. Dietary fat blends did not influence plasma triacylglycerol levels. Tissue antioxidant status (catalase (EC 1.11.1.6), glutathione peroxidase (EC 1.11.1.9), glutathione reductase (EC 1.6.4.1) and superoxide dismutase (EC 1.15.1.1) activities and glutathione content) was generally not greatly affected by dietary fat blend or cholesterol treatment. Birds fed on HC diets exhibited severe (P < 0.001) atherosclerotic plaque in aortas which was not influenced by the source of dietary fat blend. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed results of visual aortic plaque scoring using dissecting light microscopy. Several cholesterol oxides were identified and quantified in aortic plaque from HC-fed birds (5,6α-epoxy-5α-cholesterol, 7β-hydroxycholesterol and 7-ketocholesterol) regardless of dietary fat blend. The results indicate that dietary fat blends varying in polyunsaturated: saturated fatty acid ratios only marginally influence the degree of hypercholesterolaemia in atherosclerosis-susceptible quail fed on atherogenic diets only, and are not a factor, compared with sterol feeding, in modulating the degree of atherosclerosis or the aortic oxysterol content in these same birds. Moreover, diet-induced hyperlipoproteinaemia had only a small effect on antioxidant status of selected tissues examined.
Cerebral thrombotic complications in adolescent leukemia/lymphoma patients treated with L-asparaginase-containing chemotherapy

We described the cerebral thrombotic complications developed in 2 adolescent patients treated with L-asparaginase-containing regimens. For determining risk factors, we retrospectively analysed hemostatic markers in 19 pediatric patients with leukemia or lymphoma who were treated with either 1 of the 2 L-asparaginase-containing regimens; 11 were treated with VLP1 and the remaining 8 were treated with the VLAD protocol. The data indicated that low coagulation factors in association with increased plasma D-dimer levels during or post-L-asparaginase administration combined with fresh frozen plasma infusion might have activated coagulation processes in these patients. Careful management is required to prevent such episodes in patients with markedly decreased coagulation factors and increased D-dimer levels following L-asparaginase administration.
Liposomes in diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disorders.

IntroductionThe common goal in using liposomes for diagnostics and therapy is to deliver a pharmaceutic to the injured area. Liposomes are spherical, self-closed structures formed by one or several concentric lipid bilayers with an aqueous phase inside and between the lipid bilayers. Their ability to entrap different water-soluble compounds within the inner aqueous phase and lipophilic agents between liposomal bilayers has made them useful for delivery of different kinds of drugs and for carrying diagnostic agents in all imaging modalities — gamma-scintigraphy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), computed tomography (CT) imaging, and sonography. Liposomal modification with polyethylene glycol (PEG) increases their field of usage by enhanc-ing circulation time and attachment of antibodies or different targeting moieties to their surface to target specific affected areas. Such modified liposomes and immunoliposomes can be considered for intravascular drug delivery, using cells and noncellular components (such as endothelial cells, subendothelial structures, and blood components) as the targeted sites for diagnosing and treating the most important cardiac pathologies, including myocardial infarction, coronary thrombosis, and atherosclerosis (Figure 1).
A Detailed Proof of the Prime Number Theorem for Arithmetic Progressions

We follow a research paper that J. Elstrodt published in 1998 to prove the Prime Number Theorem for arithmetic progressions. We will review basic results from Dirichlet characters and L-functions. Furthermore, we establish a weak version of the Wiener-Ikehara Tauberian Theorem, which is an essential tool for the proof of our main result.
Semantic Approach to Smart Home Data Aggregation Multi-sensor Data Processing for Smart Environments

One salient feature of data produced by the IoT is its heterogeneity. Despite this heterogeneity, future IoT applications including Smart Home, Smart City, Smart Energy services, will require that all data be easily compared, correlated and merged, and that interpretation of this resulting aggregate into higher level context better matches people needs and requirements. In this paper we propose a framework based on semantic technologies for aggregating IoT data. Our approach has been assessed in the domain of the Smart Home with real data provided by Orange Homelive solution. We show that our approach enables simple reasoning mechanisms to be conducted on the aggregated data, so that contexts such as the presence, activities of people as well as abnormal situations requiring corrective actions, be inferred. Copyright © 2016 IFSA Publishing, S. L.
Does the structure of causal models predict information search

This paper investigates whether the structure of people’s knowledge of causal relations between the features of categories predicts how they search for information in a categorization task. Participants were asked to draw a causal model that described how the symptoms of depression are causally related to one another, and to estimate the strengths of those relationships. Additionally, they were asked to categorize a series of patients as suffering from depression or not, after searching their symptoms. The results showed that the structurally more important a symptom was in a causal model, the more frequently and the earlier in search it was inspected. Also, a measure of feature importance that ignored causal strengths accounted for search behavior at least as well as the weighted version of the same measure.
Shortcomings in pharmacokinetic analysis by conceiving the body to exhibit properties of a single compartment.

In the past, pharmacokinetic assessment of drug absorption, metabolism, and excretion usually have been based on the concept of the body behaving as a single compartment. After rapid i.v. injection, provided that blood samples are taken sufficiently soon after injection, at least a bi-exponential curve is obtained. The initial portion of this curve, the so-called rapid distribution phase, has been ignored without proof, and it has been assumed that the single-compartment concept does not introduce large errors into the subsequent calculations. On the basis of first principles, at least one additional peripheral compartment must exist for virtually any compound introduced into the body. Such a model is physiologically compatible with distribution of the drug throughout the body under perfusion and diffusion forces. The two-compartmental open-system model is discussed in respect to the error introduced into the usual absorption rate and elimination rate calculations and on the estimation of the volume of distribution of various drugs.