Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Blood lead concentration and delayed puberty in girls.

BACKGROUND Environmental lead exposure has been linked to alterations in growth and endocrine function. It is not known whether such exposure affects pubertal development. METHODS We analyzed the relations between blood lead concentration and pubertal development among girls (defined as females 8 to 18 years of age) who were enrolled in a cross-sectional study (the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) in which race was self-reported or proxy-reported: 600 were non-Hispanic white, 805 were non-Hispanic African-American, and 781 were Mexican-American girls. Puberty was measured on the basis of the age at menarche and Tanner stage for pubic-hair and breast development. RESULTS Geometric mean lead concentrations were less than 3 microg per deciliter (0.144 micromol per liter) in all three groups. As compared with concentrations of 1 microg per deciliter (0.048 micromol per liter), lead concentrations of 3 microg per deciliter were associated with decreased height (P<0.001), after adjustment for age, race, and other factors, but not with body-mass index or weight. Blood lead concentrations of 3 microg per deciliter were associated with significant delays in breast and pubic-hair development in African-American and Mexican-American girls. The delays were most marked among African-American girls; in this group, the delays in reaching Tanner stages 2, 3, 4, and 5 associated with a lead concentration of 3 microg per deciliter as compared with 1 microg per deciliter were 3.8, 5.3, 5.8, and 2.1 months, respectively, for breast development and 4.0, 5.5, 6.0, and 2.2 months, respectively, for pubic-hair development; the associated delay in age at menarche was 3.6 months. In white girls, there were nonsignificant delays in all pubertal measures in association with a lead concentration of 3 microg per deciliter. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest that environmental exposure to lead may delay growth and pubertal development in girls, although confirmation is warranted in prospective studies.
Cytoplasmic streaming in amoeboid movement.

The study of motility and its molecular basis has received an important impetus from the discovery that the contractile protein actin is present in cells from organ­ isms of four of the five kingdoms (90), and bacterial elongation factor Tu from Escherichi a coli shares many but not all properties of actin (95). Myosin has been found in animals, protists, and fungi (90), but not yet in bacteria. The inconclusive evidence for myosin in plant cells is discussed in another review (8). Progress in motility research has been rapid and has been stimulated by recent reviews, which have focused on the broad perspective of the biochemistry of con­ tractile proteins (90) and on the range of possible control systems in motility (52). The present review and the one to follow (8) are more restricted in scope and represent an attempt to integrate the cellular and biophysical aspects of one type of motility with the emerging biochemical information. Although contraction in muscle is a reversible deformation attributable to cyclic movement of the myosin heads of thick filaments (56, 90), streaming is an irreversi­ ble deformation of whole cytoplasm that is apparently dependent upon the activity of similar contractile proteins. The complex relationship between the phenomena of contractility and of streaming in large, free-living amoebae is explored in depth in this review. Amoeboid movement is a fundamental cellular process of wide distribution in which cytoplasm streams within pseudopodia. Observers have described the process in many types of cells and have debated the merits of hypothetical mechanisms since the time of Dujardin (34), The review of DeBruyn (33) discusses the early literature and the development of the ectoplasmic contraction theory in the 19208 out of the descriptive studies of Pant in (83) and Mast (71), The ectoplasmic contrac­ tion theory was influential up to the early 1960s because of its logical simplicity and because no experiments had been designed to test it critically.
Service encounter dimensions ‐ a dyadic perspective: Measuring the dimensions of service encounters as perceived by customers and personnel

Selling services supposes that customers and personnel meet. This service encounter is not haphazard. Behind each ordinary exchange, there are rules that everybody is supposed to follow. This paper looks at the different components of service encounter that are relevant for assessing service quality. A dyadic face‐to‐face survey undertaken in local branches of the ANPE Agency (the French National Agency for Employment) studies the perceptions of both personnel and customers. Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, proposes a scale measuring the dimensions of service encounter.
Can Venture Success Be Predicted?

This study addresses the cross-cultural utility of a model integrating behavioural and contextual variables interacting in a way likely to spawn firm success. A sample of 38 growth-oriented entrepreneurs from the Lazio region of central Italy has been tested by means of structured interviews based on two predictor measures (the Miner Sentence Completion Scale-T and the Differential Attribution Questionnaire) together with two performance measures (growth in sales and growth in profit over a three-year period) in an attempt to provide cross-cultural substantiation for a model employed in previous research. The findings of this study corroborate earlier findings and support, overall, the predictive feature of the model. The practical utility of this type of research in designing and implementing entrepreneurial development programmes in southern Italy is discussed.
Unsuccessful effort to detect human papillomavirus DNA in urinary bladder cancers by the polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization

The association of human papillomavirus (HPV) with urinary bladder carcinogenesis is now a controversial issue. In order to certify the presence of HPV DNA in urinary bladder cancers, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using five primer sets for detecting various HPV types was used in this study as weli as in sltu hybridizetion (ISH) for HPV 16 and 18 detection. In the PCR study of 93 DNA samples extracted from formalin‐fixed and paraffin‐ernbedded urinary bladder cancem, no HPV DNA was detected in these tumor samples. The ISH study was also performed on the same tumor samples, but failed to demonstrate any HPV 16‐or 18‐positive signals in ail except one of the tumor samples. However, the FCR failed to demonstrate HPV 16 DNA even in the bladder cancer positive for HPV 16 DNA by the ISH. This ISH technique was able to demonstrate HPV 16 and 18 DNA in eight of 13 paraffinembedded cervical cancers, in which HPV 16 or 18 DNA had already been detected by the PCR. Our HPV study using PCR and ISH revealed that the HPV status of urinary bladder carcinomas was far different from that of cervical cancers.
The Hip Sports Activity Scale (HSAS) for Patients with Femoroacetabular Impingement

Purpose To develop and validate a sports activity scale for patients with a diagnosis of femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). Methods A nine level Hip Sports Activity Scale (HSAS) was constructed both in German and English languages. Fifty-nine consecutive patients undergoing surgical treatment for FAI at two centers in Switzerland and in the US completed a questionnaire set consisting of the HSAS, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) activity scale and different hip joint-specific and generic outcome tools. For reliability assessment, the HSAS was completed twice about nine days apart. Evidence of reliability, validity and responsiveness was investigated by classical psychometric analyses. Results Reliability was excellent for both the German and the English versions with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.94 and 0.96, respectively. Evidence of convergent validity was supported by moderate to high correlations with the UCLA activity scale and with the joint-specific measures used. Evidence of divergent validity was supported by low correlations with the SF-12 Mental Component Scale and the WOMAC stiffness subscale. The standardised response mean was 0.69. Conclusions The HSAS is a reliable and valid tool to determine sports levels in patients suffering from FAI. Its use in future studies investigating outcomes in young patients with hip disease can be recommended. Level of Evidence Level III, Diagnostic Studies – An independent, masked comparison with an appropriate population of patients, but reference standard not applied to all study patients.
Optimized distance‐dependent atom‐pair‐based potential DOOP for protein structure prediction

The DOcking decoy‐based Optimized Potential (DOOP) energy function for protein structure prediction is based on empirical distance‐dependent atom‐pair interactions. To optimize the atom‐pair interactions, native protein structures are decomposed into polypeptide chain segments that correspond to structural motives involving complete secondary structure elements. They constitute near native ligand–receptor systems (or just pairs). Thus, a total of 8609 ligand–receptor systems were prepared from 954 selected proteins. For each of these hypothetical ligand–receptor systems, 1000 evenly sampled docking decoys with 0–10 Å interface root‐mean‐square‐deviation (iRMSD) were generated with a method used before for protein–protein docking. A neural network‐based optimization method was applied to derive the optimized energy parameters using these decoys so that the energy function mimics the funnel‐like energy landscape for the interaction between these hypothetical ligand–receptor systems. Thus, our method hierarchically models the overall funnel‐like energy landscape of native protein structures. The resulting energy function was tested on several commonly used decoy sets for native protein structure recognition and compared with other statistical potentials. In combination with a torsion potential term which describes the local conformational preference, the atom‐pair‐based potential outperforms other reported statistical energy functions in correct ranking of native protein structures for a variety of decoy sets. This is especially the case for the most challenging ROSETTA decoy set, although it does not take into account side chain orientation‐dependence explicitly. The DOOP energy function for protein structure prediction, the underlying database of protein structures with hypothetical ligand–receptor systems and their decoys are freely available at http://agknapp.chemie. fu‐berlin.de/doop/. Proteins 2015; 83:881–890. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Coaction of Sub‐band and Doped Nitrogen on Visible Light Photoactivity of N‐Doped TiO2

We found in our previous work that the high photoactivity of N‐doped TiO2 for the oxidation of propylene under visible light was attributed to the photoactive center Vo•‐NO‐Ti and the formation of sub‐band originated from a large amount of single‐electron‐trapped oxygen vacancies (denoted as Vo•; C. X. Feng, Y. Wang, Z. S. Jin, J. W. Zhang, S. L. Zhang, Z. S. Wu, Z. J. Zhang [2008], New J. Chem. 32, 1038). In the present study, the structure of the sub‐band within Eg of a representative sample N‐NTA‐400 was investigated by means of photoluminescence (PL) spectrometry and ultraviolet‐visible light‐near infrared diffuse reflectance spectra. The coaction of the sub‐band and doped nitrogen on visible light photocatalytic activity of N‐doped TiO2 was also investigated. The electron spin resonance spectra measured under laser irradiation (λ = 532 nm) indicate that the doped nitrogen may contribute to stabilize the trapping electron center, i.e. surface oxygen vacancy (Vo••), and hence suppress the PL, enhancing the photocatalytic activity.
Towards SENTIEXTRACT: A Combination of OCR and Sentiment Analysis

Do you have a lot of unstructured data in image files? Are you interested in finding out the sentiment of those files? If you are SENTIEXTRACT is the perfect tool for you. In this paper, we have given an insight of our system (SENTIEXTRACT). Our system works on algorithms such as tesseract-ocr to convert image files to text files and naive bayes classifier to find out the sentiments of these files. In this system we are using a data set of movie reviews collected from IMDB. Giving this dataset as training dataset to our naive bayes classifier, we have tried to achieve high accuracy for our system. Also, experimental results of how our system responds are shown for image files based different size and number of words. General Terms Sentiment Analysis, Optical Character Recognition, Internet Movie Database
Is Symmetric Dimethylarginine a sensitive biomarker of subclinical kidney injury in children born with low birth weight?

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate if Symmetric Dimethylarginine (SDMA) is a sensitive biomarker of renal function and may predict subclinical kidney injury in low birth weight (LBW) children. Methods: We studied 68 LBW children and 20 children as reference group. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to measure serum SDMA and Cystatin C (Cys C). Results: SDMA levels were higher in study groups compared to reference groups. There was a strong correlation between SDMA and Cys C, also SDMA negatively correlated with eGFR. Conclusion: Elevated SDMA concentration may play an important role in pathogenesis of chronic kidney disease.
The Establishment of Yanjiao's Real Estate Price Index

Due to the real estate price index can guide the national macro-economic regulation and play an important role in the direction about development of the real estate market, it has attracted much attention. Yanjiao, as a small town surrounding the larger towns, its development of real estate is representative. This paper determines the sources of the samples and makes the coverage as extensive as they can by analyzing the real estate market of Yanjiao. In order to keep them effective and continuous, an investigation should be done once a week. As the common and lower-cost approach in our country, weighted mean is used to compile the real estate price index of Yanjiao. For more research and guiding significance, draw up index publishing table as the basis of summing up the development trend of real estate and leading the real estate market to develop healthily and orderly.
Service2vec: A Vector Representation for Web Services

Among the approaches that investigate the similarity between web services, hardly any concentrates on the impacts from contexts. In this paper we introduce service2vec which is an approach to represent web services as service embeddings based on a recent popular deep learning technique word2vec. Our approach composes and combines web services to be a document that is trained by the modeling technique of word2vec. As a result, each web service in the document is vectorized. By taking the advantage of word2vec, the resulting service embeddings of service2vec can be used to illustrate the contextual relations between web services. The experimental results suggest that service2vec can deliver contextual similarity between web services.
Delayed-onset delirium tremens – a diagnostic and management challenge

Background: Delirium tremens (DT) is one of the most serious complications of alcohol withdrawal, affecting 5–10% of in-patients with a mortality rate up to 15%. DT, characterised by delirium and tremors, appears within 48–72 h of abstinence and persists for about 5–10 days. Case presentation: We report a case of DT in a young man with delayed onset on the 15th day after the cessation of alcohol use, despite an uncomplicated detoxification with benzodiazepine treatment. Conclusion: We hypothesise that the intake of country liquor in our patient, which contains higher percentages of alcohol, causes a prolonged imbalance of N-methyl-d-aspartic acid and glutamate receptor activity, leading to the picture of delayed-onset DT and that an atypical presentation at the time of admission and atypicality in early course are clinical pointers to the subsequent development of delayed-onset DT.
Thaw: A Tool for Approximating Cut Loci on a Triangulation of a Surface

The cut locus from a point on the surface of a convex polyhedron is a tree containing a line segment beginning at every vertex. In the limit of infinitely small triangles, the cut locus from a point on a triangulation of a smooth surface therefore tends to become dense in the smooth surface, whereas the cut locus from the same point on the smooth surface is also a tree, but of finite length. We introduce a method for avoiding this problem. The method involves introducing a minimal angular resolution and discarding those points of the cut locus on the triangulation for which the angle measured between the shortest geodesic curves meeting at these points is smaller than the given angular resolution. We also describe software based upon this method that allows one to visualize the cut locus from a point on a surface of the form (x/a) n +(y/b)n +(z/c) n = 1, where n is a positive even integer. We use the software to support a new conjecture that the cut locus of a general ellipsoid is a subarc of a curvature line of the ellipsoid.
Conditionally lethal and recessive UGA-suppressor mutations in the prfB gene encoding peptide chain release factor 2 of Escherichia coli

Strains carrying mutations in the prfB gene encoding peptide chain release factor 2 of Escherichia coli were isolated. prfB1, prfB2, and prfB3 were selected as suppressor mutations of a lacZ (UGA) mutation at 37 degrees C, one of which, prfB2, is temperature sensitive in growth. A prfB286 strain was selected as a conditionally lethal mutant which grows at 32 but not at 43 degrees C and was shown to have UGA-suppressor activity. All the mutations are recessive UGA-suppressors. These data indicate that release factor 2 is essential to E. coli growth and that all mutants isolated here trigger suppression of the UGA codon.
Database of protein complexes with multivalent binding ability: Bival‐bind

Phenomena of multivalent binding of ligands with receptors are ubiquitous in biology and of growing interest in material sciences. Multivalency can enhance binding affinity dramatically. To understand the mechanism of multivalent binding in more detail model systems of bi‐ and multivalent receptors are needed, but are difficult to find. Furthermore it is useful to know about multivalent receptors, which can serve as targets to design multivalent drugs. The present contribution tries to close this gap. The Bival‐Bind database (http://agknapp.chemie.fu‐berlin.de/bivalbind) provides a relatively complete list – 2073 protein complexes with less than 90% sequence identity – out of the protein database, which can serve as bi‐ or multivalent receptors. Steric clashes of molecular spacers – necessary to connect the monomeric ligand units – with the receptor surface can diminish binding affinity dramatically and, thus, abolish the expected enhancement of binding affinity due to the multivalency. The potential multivalent receptors in the Bival‐Bind database are characterized with respect to the receptor surface topography. A height profile between the receptor binding pockets is provided, which is an important information to estimate the influence of unfavorable spacer receptor interaction. Proteins 2014; 82:744–751. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Islamic Banking and the Credit Crunch

This paper investigates the effects that the credit crunch has had on the normal differences of Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) Islamic banks relative to their peers for the period 2000 - 2008. Using the Two-sample t-test with unequal variances, nine ratios for 76 banks are studied to compare measures of liquidity, credit risk, profitability, and efficiency. It suggests that even though conventional banks were statistically more profitable and efficient with superior liquidity risk status during normal economic circumstances, it has been evident that the credit crunch has brought them at par with Islamic banks recording better profitability figures, while they have increased their superiority in terms of credit risk.
Evaluation of pressure boundary conditions for permeability calculations using the lattice-Boltzmann method

Lattice-Boltzmann (LB) simulations are a common tool to numerically estimate the permeability of porous media. For valuable results, the porous struc- ture has to be well resolved resulting in a large computational effort as well as high memory demands. In order to estimate the permeability of realistic samples, it is of importance to not only implement very efficient codes, but also to choose the most appropriate simulation setup to achieve accurate results. With the focus on accuracy and computational effort, we present a comparison between different methods to apply an effective pressure gradient, efficient boundary conditions, as well as two LB implementations based on pore-matrix and pore-list data structures. AMS subject classifications: 76S05
Expanding the Design Space of ICT for Participatory Budgeting

This paper analyzes existing practices and supporting technologies for Participatory Budgeting (PB), with a special focus on US-related initiatives, as a mean to understand the current and future design space of ICT for participatory democracy. We suggest new design opportunities for ICT to facilitate citizen collaboration in the PB process, and by extension, to reflect on how these technologies could better foster deliberative decision-making at a scale that is both small and large.
Antecedents and consequences of infomercial viewershio

A survey of consumers investigated the nature and extent of infomercial viewership. This study assessed differences in viewership based on demographic, media usage and shopper orientation differences among consumers, as well as the relation of viewership to attitude and purchase intent. Viewership was measured in several ways to distinguish breath of viewing experience from depth of viewing experience. Findings suggest that different groups of variables are associated with breadth of viewing and depth of viewing and that breath of viewing and depth of viewing differentially affect attitude and purchase intent.
Development, measurement and validation of supply chain performance measurement (SCPM) scale in Indian retail sector

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale with a high degree of reliability, validity and dimensionality which help to determine appropriate supply chain performance measurement (SCPM). Design/methodology/approach – The data were compiled and collected from 213 operations and supply chain heads from leading retail stores in India. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the validity of the proposed measurement scale. Findings – The major contribution of the present study is the development of SCPM constructs as well as a rigorously validated measurement instrument. The confirmation process is according to the typical standards of scale development. Research limitations/implications – This paper strives to contribute to the literature on the SCPM in Indian retail industry. This paper tests the validity of the measurement scales which will enable the managers to determine the appropriate SCPM. Practical implications – In the long run a good set of identified SCPM and their implementati.