Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Chromosome aberration and lipid peroxidation in chromium-exposed workers

Chromosome aberration frequency and lipid peroxidation levels were analysed to investigate their efficacy as biological markers for monitoring the genotoxicity and oxidative damage in Korean chromium (Cr)-exposed workers. Fifty-one Cr-exposed workers and 31 age-matched controls in ten chrome-plating plants were sampled. The Cr level was measured in the workers’ blood and urine, and in the ambient air at the workplaces. The conventional Giemsa staining method and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique were used for chromosome aberration analysis. Spectrum green whole chromosome paint specific for chromosome 4 was used in the FISH procedure. As for lipid peroxidation, malondialdehyde (MDA) was measured in the blood plasma as thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS). The blood Cr concentration was statistically correlated with both the frequency of chromatid exchange and the total frequency of chromosome/chromatid breaks and exchanges, as detected by the Giemsa staining. Meanwhile, the frequency of translocation, as detected by the FISH technique, was significantly higher in the Cr-exposed workers than in the controls and it correlated with the blood Cr concentration. Although the concentration of MDA, the metabolite of lipid peroxidation, in the exposed workers was higher than that in the controls, no statistically significant correlation between the MDA level and the blood or urine Cr levels was observed. Accordingly, the genotoxicity and oxidative damage (plasma lipid peroxidation) in the Korean Cr-exposed workers were consequential at quite low exposure levels, plus chromosome rearrangement, especially translocation, was clearly evident as a biological response marker for Cr exposure based on a significant positive correlation between the translocations detected by FISH and the Cr in the blood.
Preferential phenotypic association linked with cooperation in paper wasps

Animals can influence their social environment by preferentially associating with certain conspecifics. Such preferential association has gained increasing theoretical attention, as it may influence social evolution and population dynamics. However, relatively little empirical work has examined the occurrence of preferential association and its effects on cooperative group formation. Here, we test the factors associated with cooperative group formation in Polistes dominulus nest‐founding queen wasps. P. dominulus are a good system to study preferential association, as foundresses can nest alone or in groups and group membership is flexible. We found that both social and environmental factors were associated with partner choice. First, facial patterns were associated with cooperation. Wasps with more similar facial patterns were more likely to cooperate than wasps with less similar facial patterns. This preferential phenotypic association fits the theoretical criteria for the evolution of tag‐based cooperation. Season was also associated with cooperation; wasps on early‐season nests were more likely to cooperate than wasps on late‐season nests. High levels of aggression by nest owners during initial interactions were also correlated with lower probabilities of subsequent cooperation, suggesting that nest owners have some control over group membership. Other factors including body weight, weight similarity and nest productivity were not linked with cooperation. Overall, multiple factors influence cooperation in paper wasps, including facial pattern similarity. The occurrence of preferential phenotypic association in paper wasps is quite interesting and may influence the evolution of cooperation and population divergence in this group.
A Reliable Network Identification Method Based on Transition Pattern of Payload Length

In recent years, information leakage through the Internet has become a new social problem. Many information leakage incidents are caused by illegal applications such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing software. To prevent information leakage, early detection and blocking of the traffic exchanged by illegal applications is strongly required. We have proposed a method for application identification based on the transition pattern of payload length of startup phase of the communication. The method can identify applications without using port numbers, which can be easily spoofed. However, the method can identify only applications which the method learned and cannot discriminate unlearned applications. In this paper, we propose a new application identification method by introducing "unknown" category to handle flows of unlearned applications.
Efficacy of peeling during different periods of the menstrual cycle on acne

ABSTRACT Background and design: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of 50% glycolic acid peeling performed at different phases of menstruation on acne. Materials and methods: This study included 30 patients with mild-to-moderate acne. Those with regular menstrual cycles and no history or laboratory evidence of hormonal pathology, hirsutism were selected. Thirty patients were divided in three groups. The first group received peeling applications in the first 7 days of menstruation; the second group received the peel between 10 and 14 days; and the third group received the peel during the last 10 days of menstruation. Results: The 30 female patients included in study. All patients’ menstrual cycles were regular. All groups were homogenous in terms of initial acne severity scores. Acne severity scores decreased in all groups after 3 months of therapy; statistically significant differences were achieved only in the second group. Discussion: The results of our study suggest that chemical peeling administered during ovulation provides the most significant benefit for acne lesions. Ovulation is the period when estrogen reaches its highest level. Estrogen decreases sebum production through different mechanisms. The beneficial effects of estrogen on acne and healing in combination with those of chemical peeling may cause synergistic therapeutic effects with pronounced results.
Modelling of viral dynamics in hepatitis B and hepatitis C clinical trials

In the recent years, studies of hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) dynamics have drawn great attention as they provide insight into the process of virus elimination/production and of infected cells decay during antiviral treatment. Estimates of viral dynamic parameters may be used to determine the lifetime of HCV/HBV virions and of infected cells, to estimate how long patients need to be treated and to evaluate antiviral therapies. The implementation of viral dynamics studies is difficult because they involve an intensive blood‐sampling schedule and subsequent viral load quantification. In the majority of these studies, a model proposed by Neumann et al. (Science 1998; 282:103–107) is used under various assumptions, such as ignoring the delay in initial viral load decay, assuming time‐constant treatment efficacy in reducing virion production and/or complete blocking of new infections, etc. However, only recently the effect of some of these assumptions on the estimated parameters has been evaluated. In this paper we provide a detailed review of the model, its underlying assumptions as well as the assumptions usually made by researchers during the design and analysis of viral dynamics studies. Then, we investigate the effect of these assumptions on the estimated parameters using simulations and draw useful conclusions concerning the analysis of these studies. Real data examples from a clinical trial on hepatitis B are provided as illustrations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Agonist‐specific patterns of β2‐adrenoceptor responses in human airway cells during prolonged exposure

Background and purpose: β2‐Adrenoceptor agonists (β2‐agonists) are important bronchodilators used in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. At the molecular level, β2‐adrenergic agonist stimulation induces desensitization of the β2‐adrenoceptor. In this study, we have examined the relationships between initial effect and subsequent reduction of responsiveness to restimulation for a panel of β2‐agonists in cellular and in vitro tissue models.
MetaGeneAlyse: analysis of integrated transcriptional and metabolite data

UNLABELLED New techniques in sample preparation allow high throughput analysis of samples on the transcriptional as well as on the metabolic level. We present a service accessible via the web that allows the analysis of integrated data sets that combine gene-expression data and metabolic data. After uploading, data sets can be normalized, clustered by various methods and results can be graphically visualized. All calculations are carried out on a server, so even time- and memory-consuming analyses can be done independently of the performance of the client. AVAILABILITY The service is accessible via web-interface at http://metagenealyse.mpimp-golm.mpg. de/
Automatic fall detectors and the fear of falling

We studied the effect of automatic fall detection units on the fear of falling. Participants were community alarm users living in the community aged over 75 years or those aged 60–74 years who had experienced a fall in the previous six months. Of those approached, 31% consented to take part; the main reason given for potential participants declining involvement was that they were happy with the technology they already had. Subjects were assigned to a control group (n = 21) or intervention group (n = 34) based on age, the number of self-reported falls in the previous six months and their score on the self-administered Falls Efficacy Scale (FES), which measures fear of falling on a scale of 0–100, with higher scores indicating less fear. The monitoring period lasted a mean of 17 weeks (SD 3.1). There was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in their mean ratings of fear of falls (40.3 vs 37.5, difference 2.8, 95% CI 6.2 to 11.8), health-related quality of life or morale. Differences in fear of falling between an intervention subgroup who wore their detector at least occasionally (62%) and those who did not (38%) suggested that some people may benefit from a fall detector while others may lose confidence if they are provided with one. Most users who wore their detectors at least occasionally felt more confident and independent and considered that the detector improved their safety.
Diagnosis of femoral neck fractures in patients with a femoral shaft fracture. Improvement with a standard protocol.

BACKGROUND An ipsilateral fracture of the femoral neck is seen in association with 1% to 9% of femoral shaft fractures, and 20% to 50% of these injuries are missed initially. Recognition of an associated femoral neck fracture prior to stabilization of the femoral shaft fracture is imperative to avoid or minimize complications of displacement and osteonecrosis. METHODS A protocol to look for a femoral neck fracture in all patients with a femoral shaft fracture was instituted at a single level-I trauma center. This protocol consisted of a dedicated anteroposterior internal rotation plain radiograph, a fine (2-mm) cut computed tomographic scan through the femoral neck, and an intraoperative fluoroscopic lateral radiograph prior to fixation as well as postoperative anteroposterior and lateral radiographs of the hip in the operating room prior to awakening the patient. A chi-square analysis comparing pre-protocol and post-protocol fracture prevalences was used to assess the relative risk of missing an associated femoral neck fracture. RESULTS Two hundred and sixty-eight consecutive patients with a femoral shaft fracture formed the basis of the study group. Of 254 who were followed for at least two months, sixteen were identified as having an associated ipsilateral femoral neck fracture with use of the protocol. Thirteen associated femoral neck fractures were identified before the patient entered the operating room for definitive fixation, and twelve of them were identified with the fine-cut computed tomographic scan. One fracture was identified intraoperatively. There was one iatrogenic fracture and one delayed diagnosis of a femoral neck fracture. With this protocol, we reduced the delay in diagnosis by 91% as compared with our experience in the year prior to the initiation of the protocol. CONCLUSIONS In the presence of a femoral shaft fracture, evaluation of the femoral neck with fine-cut computed tomography and dedicated internal rotation hip radiographs significantly improves the ability to diagnose an associated femoral neck fracture.
Establishing a method to estimate the cost‐effectiveness of a kindergarten‐based, family‐involved intervention to prevent obesity in early childhood. The ToyBox‐study

Overweight and obesity in children are recognized as a major health problem. The ToyBox‐intervention was developed with the aim of preventing obesity in pre‐schoolers. Because it is increasingly important to inform policy makers not only on the effects of prevention interventions, but also on their costs and cost‐effectiveness, our purpose was to establish a method to estimate the cost‐effectiveness of the ToyBox‐intervention. In order to estimate the long‐term impact of the ToyBox‐intervention on health and societal costs, extrapolations of the intervention effect will be conducted to predict children's weight status (based on the body mass index) at adult age. Effects of the adult weight status on the prevalence of obesity‐related complications will be modelled through a Markov model, with a total time horizon of 70 years and a cycle length of 1 year. The model will be conducted in six European countries participating in the ToyBox‐intervention, based on country‐specific economic and epidemiological data. This study describes the methodological rationale and implementation of an analytic model to examine the cost‐effectiveness of the ToyBox‐intervention for six European countries, in order to inform decision‐makers on the value for money of this intervention in the prevention of obesity in pre‐schoolers.
Equity in statin use in New Zealand.

INTRODUCTION Preventive medications such as statins are used to reduce cardiovascular risk. There is some evidence to suggest that people of lower socioeconomic position are less likely to be prescribed statins. In New Zealand, Maori have higher rates of cardiovascular disease. AIM This study aimed to investigate statin utilisation by socioeconomic position and ethnicity in a region of New Zealand. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study in which data were collected on all prescriptions dispensed from all pharmacies in one city during 2005/6. Linkage with national datasets provided information on patients' age, gender and ethnicity. Socioeconomic position was identified using the New Zealand Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation 2006. RESULTS Statin use increased with age until around 75 years. Below age 65 years, those in the most deprived socioeconomic areas were most likely to receive statins. In the 55-64 age group, 22.3% of the most deprived population received a statin prescription (compared with 17.5% of the mid and 18.6% of the least deprived group). At ages up to 75 years, use was higher amongst Maori than non-Maori, particularly in middle age, where Maori have a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. In the 45-54 age group, 11.6% of Maori received a statin prescription, compared with 8.7% of non-Maori. DISCUSSION Statin use approximately matched the pattern of need, in contrast to other studies which found under-treatment of people of low socioeconomic position. A PHARMAC campaign to increase statin use may have increased use in high-risk groups in New Zealand.
Psychometric Analyses to Improve the Dutch ICF Activity Inventory

Purpose In the past, rehabilitation centers for the visually impaired used unstructured or semistructured methods to assess rehabilitation needs of their patients. Recently, an extensive instrument, the Dutch ICF Activity Inventory (D-AI), was developed to systematically investigate rehabilitation needs of visually impaired adults and to evaluate rehabilitation outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the underlying factor structure and other psychometric properties to shorten and improve the D-AI. Methods The D-AI was administered to 241 visually impaired persons who recently enrolled in a multidisciplinary rehabilitation center. The D-AI uses graded scores to assess the importance and difficulty of 65 rehabilitation goals. For high-priority goals (e.g., daily meal preparation), the difficulty of underlying tasks (e.g., read recipes, cut vegetables) was assessed. To reduce underlying task items (>950), descriptive statistics were investigated and factor analyses were performed for several goals. The internal consistency reliability and test-retest reliability of the D-AI were investigated by calculating Cronbach &agr; and Cohen (weighted) &kgr;. Finally, consensus-based discussions were used to shorten and improve the D-AI. Results Except for one goal, factor analysis model parameters were at least reasonable. Internal consistency reliability was satisfactory (range, 0.74 to 0.93). In total, 60% of the 65 goal importance items and 84.4% of the goal difficulty items showed moderate to almost perfect &kgr; values (≥0.40). After consensus-based discussions, a new D-AI was produced, containing 48 goals and less than 500 tasks. Conclusions The analyses were an important step in the validation process of the D-AI and to develop a more feasible assessment tool to investigate rehabilitation needs of visually impaired persons in a systematic way. The D-AI is currently implemented in all Dutch rehabilitation centers serving all visually impaired adults with various rehabilitation needs.
Optimal Link Weights for Maximizing QoS Traffic

In this paper we explore the optimal weight setting to maximize QoS traffic admissible to a hop-by-hop routing network (such as the Internet). We try to answer the following questions: (1) How much ingress and egress traffic can be admitted to a hop-by-hop routing network (such as the Internet) without causing congestion of any link, and (2) what is the optimal link weight setting that can maximize the amount of traffic admissible to the network? We first present a mixed-integer programming formulation to compute the optimal link weights that can maximize the ingress and egress QoS traffic admissible to a hop-by-hop routing network. We then present a heuristic search algorithm to find the optimal weights. The heuristic algorithm has a performance comparable to the optimal link weights, but its computation complexity is much lower.
Why are unsolicited ratings lower than solicited ratings? A theoretical and empirical assessment

This paper examines why unsolicited ratings are lower than solicited ratings for comparable flrms. In a theoretical framework we argue that unsolicited ratings might be lower due to purely exogenous reasons such as adverse selection. Yet, rating agencies might also use their market power to force flrms into ordering a paid rating by announcing lower unsolicited ratings. We test our theoretical predictions by comparing ex post default rates of non-US flrms with solicited and unsolicited ratings in the period January 1996 to December 2005. We flnd that unsolicited ratings are not only lower than solicited ratings but they are too low given the predicted default probability expressed by the assigned unsolicited rating. We conclude that rating level difierences are not only due to exogenous reasons but possibly also to endogenous reasons such as blackmailing.
Financial Crisis and Macro-Prudential Policies

Since the financial crisis, governments and central banks have launched a consolidation of financial systems which focuses on building a macroprudential framework. In section 1, we define the content of macroprudential rules and principles which underlie their adoption. In Section 2, we study the theoretical foundations that justify the use of such policies. In Section 3, the effects of macroprudential paradigm for monetary policy and central banking are examined. Finally, Section 4 highlights the incompleteness and even hypothetical macroprudential paradigm, given the resistance it generates. Classification JEL: E44, G28
Neuroevolution by Particle Swarm Optimization with Adaptive Input Selection for Controlling Platform-Game Agent

Neuroevolution has been widely used for action control of agents. Agent controllers are represented by Neural Networks (NN), and the connection weights and/or the structure of NN are optimized by evolutionary computation such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The agent's perceptual inputs are used as the inputs of NN. When the framework is applied to the agent control in platform games where a lot of perceptual information is available, the number of nodes in the input layer becomes enormous if all the information is used. Therefore, only the necessary information should be selected and used as the NN inputs, but it is difficult to select the appropriate information beforehand. In this research, we propose a new PSO method which can optimize not only the connecting weights of NN but also the selection of the perceptual information simultaneously. By our method, the increase of network size can be prevented and the controllers can be optimized efficiently. We examined the effectiveness of our method in the Mario AI Championship.
[Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of cyanidin from cherries on rat adjuvant-induced arthritis].

OBJECTIVE To assess the possible antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity of cyanidin from cherries on adjuvant induced arthritis (AA) in SD rats. METHOD Arthritis was induced by the complete Freud's adjuvant in male Sprague Dauley rats and assessed based on paw swelling. Rats were randomly divided into normal group (NM), adjuvant arthritis group (AA) and three cyanidin-treated groups in high dosage (HA), middle dosage (MA), and low dosage (LA). The morphological changes in the hind limbs were conducted under a light microscope. We detected glutathione (GSH) in whole blood and malonaldehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), total antioxidative capacity (T-AOC) activity in serum by special kits to assess the antioxidant effects of cyanidin on AA. Moreover, the prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) levels in paw tissues were determined by radioimmunoassay and TNF-alpha levels in serum were determined using ELISA kits specific for rat. RESULT The cyanidin could protect against the paws swelling in AA rats. From the day 14 after AA induction, the swellings of the cyanidin treated groups at high dosage and low dosage were significantly reduced compared with the model group (P < 0.05, 0.01). Histological examination of sections through the hind limbs revealed alleviation of inflammatory reaction in the joint after the treatment. The cyanidin at high and low dosage could increase the GSH, SOD activity and T-AOC levels in whole blood or serums and decrease MDA in AA rats (P < 0.01). The cyanidin could decrease the PGE2 levels in paw tissues and the TNF-alpha levels in serum at high and low dosages (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION The cyanidin could protect against the paws swelling in AA rats, and alleviate the inflammatory reaction in the joint, and the mechanism might be via the increase activity of GSH, SOD and T-AOC that improve the total antioxidative capacity and scavenge the free radicals, perhaps as a result of that the levels of the PGE2 in paw tissues and TNF-alpha contents in serum were decreased. The results suggest that the cyanidin from cherries could be one of the potential candidates for the alleviation of arthritis.