Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incidence of hypertension in individuals with different blood pressure salt-sensitivity: results of a 15-year follow-up study

Objective To evaluate the incidence of hypertension and the rate of decline in renal function in a sample of 47 Olivetti Heart Study (OHS) participants whose blood pressure (BP) salt-sensitivity and renal tubular sodium handling had been assessed in 1987–88. Methods During the 2002–04 OHS follow-up examination, medical history, physical examination and blood and urine sampling were performed in 36 of the 47 participants to the baseline study (age 60 ± 6 years; average follow-up = 15.1 ± 0.6 years). The renal length was measured in 23 participants by kidney ultrasonography. Based on the baseline salt-sensitivity evaluation, the subjects were classified into a lower salt-sensitivity (LSS, n = 20) and a higher salt-sensitivity group (HSS, n = 16). Results In comparison with the LSS group, HSS participants had a significantly higher incidence of hypertension (87.5 versus 50.0%, P = 0.02), a higher glomerular filtration rate (median, first to fourth quartile: 81.9, 72.3–95.2 versus 72.3, 59.9–81.2 ml/min; P = 0.03) and greater kidney length (median, first to fourth quartile: 68.2, 63.3–72.1 versus 61.9, 58.7–62.7 mm/m of height; P = 0.003). The incidence of hypertension remained significantly higher in HSS individuals after adjustment for age, intercurrent changes in body mass index and baseline blood pressure on low sodium diet (P = 0.04). Conclusion Our findings indicate that individuals with higher BP salt-sensitivity have a higher rate of incident hypertension and suggest an altered renal tubular sodium handling involving a trend to increased glomerular filtration rate and blood pressure over time as a possible mechanism.
Overdominant vs. frequency-dependent selection at MHC loci.

There has been much discussion recently about the relative roles of overdominant and frequency-dependent selection in the maintenance of polymorphism at major histocompatibility complex (MHC) loci. This has arisen since the confirmation, using nucleotide sequence data from the antigen binding sites, that balancing selection is mainly responsible for the observed polymorphism (HUGHES and NEI 1988, 1989). So far, only one study has addressed the question directly. TAKAHATA and NEI (1990) conducted simulations comparing allelic genealogy under various selection regimes. They concluded that frequency-dependent selection (specifically, rare allele advantage) and overdominance could not be distinguished mathematically, and that both could explain the extreme polymorphism, and long term persistence of alleles, at the MHC. Nevertheless, they argued against the former on biological grounds: they asserted that whilst a new rare allele may have a selective advantage as no pathogen strain is adapted to it, a rare old allele should have no such advantage and should disappear from the population by selection or genetic drift. Recent developments in theoretical studies of hostpathogen coevolution do not support this assertion (see MAY and ANDERSON 1990). Host-parasite interactions are intrinsically frequency dependent, and dynamic, because transmission efficiency increases with the frequency of susceptible hosts. A rare MHC allele A1 of recent origin may, as TAKAHATA and NEI state, initially have a selective advantage, as no pathogen strain may be adapted to it. In response, the rare ll le A1 will increase in frequency, and there will be selection pressure in favor of a pathogen strain (say P I ) that is able to attack it. Should such a strain arise by mutation, it will also increase in frequency, to a point where it begins to decrease the frequency of A I . This seems to be the endpoint of TAKAHATA and NEI’S argument. It may well, however, be just the first stage in a dynamic cycle. Once Al is sufficiently rare, its density may be insufficient to maintain P I , which will then decline in frequency until the selective advantage of A, is restored. This verbal argument has been made explicit mathematically (BECK 1984). In frequency dependent selection, rare alleles do not necessarily disappear from the population by selection, and would not drift out of the population because allele frequencies may cycle over relatively short time periods. While overdominance has not been incorporated in
Organization of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae actin gene UAS: functional significance of reiterated REB1 binding sites and AT‐rich elements

The upstream activation sequence (UAS) in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae actin gene promoter contains three different motifs, specifically two AT‐rich tracts, two binding sites for the yeast protein REB1, and an Mlul site. Synthetic UAS elements containing individual motifs, or combinations of them, were inserted in place of the natural UAS, and assayed using a lacZ reporter gene. The REB1 binding sites were found to be essential for, and sufficient to restore partial, UAS activity. AT‐rich tracts alone were inactive. Multimerization of a REB1 binding site created a UAS that in galactose is more active, but in glucose less active, than a UAS having a single REB1 site with one AT‐rich tract. In general, transcription during growth in galactose or glycerol/lactate responds more to multimerization of motifs. The results suggest that the natural actin promoter UAS retains activity on these alternative carbon sources because of reiteration of sequence elements within it; the additional elements appear to be redundant when cells are grown on glucose. The mlul site, which is present upstream of a number of yeast genes involved in DNA synthesis and confers cell cycle periodicity to those genes, contributes to the activity of the synthetic UAS elements, but not in a cell‐cycle‐dependent manner.
PARTICIPATION OF TWO ISOFORMS OF C/EBPβ TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR IN THE ACUTE‐PHASE REGULATION OF THE RAT HAPTOGLOBIN GENE

Previous analyses of the mechanism of the transcriptional induction of the rat haptoglobin (Hp) gene during acute‐phase (AP)‐reaction have revealed the involvement of several trans ‐acting nucleoproteins (NPs) in controlling this process. In this study, by using antibodies against C/EBPβ factor in Western immunoblot assay, we found that rat liver trans ‐acting NPs p35 and p20 are two characteristic C/EBPβ isoforms whose expression is induced under AP‐conditions. DNA‐binding assays identified the binding sites for these two C/EBPβ proteins in the functionally defined elements A and C of the rat Hp gene and also revealed that they have specific binding affinity towards these elements. Under non‐induced conditions, p35 was the only C/EBPβ binding factor; however, upon AP‐conditions both, 35kDa‐ and 20kDa‐C/EBPβ binding activities were significantly induced suggesting that these interactions are necessary for the activation of the Hp gene. By in vitro phosphorylation assay and selective proteolysis, we also present evidence that p35 requires phosphorylation for its DNA binding ability. Thus, we conclude that increase in binding of C/EBPβ isoforms during AP‐reaction occurs through their upregulation and structural modification.
Biphenotypic Acute Leukemia Following Intensive Adjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract: The risk of secondary leukemia in breast cancer patients who receive adjuvant chemotherapy is an open question. We describe the case a 38‐year‐old woman who developed acute leukemia 18 months after completion of intense adjuvant chemotherapy with prophylactic granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor (G‐CSF) support and chest wall irradiation. The diagnosis of biphenotypic T‐cell acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was based on morphologic and immunophenotypic criteria. Chromosomal analysis of blasts revealed multiple trisomies and tetrasomies. The patient failed to respond to induction and salvage chemotherapy and died 4 months later. This case of acute leukemia occurred in a cohort of 65 high‐risk breast cancer patients who were given intense adjuvant chemotherapy during the last 5 years in our hospital. This is the first case reported in the literature of acute leukemia following intense adjuvant chemotherapy with continuous prophylactic G‐CSF, which is an actively investigated therapeutic strategy. Vigilance and investigation are needed to determine the leukemogenic potential of intense adjuvant chemotherapy plus radiotherapy in breast cancer patients. A brief review of the literature that deals with acute leukemia that develops after adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer and with secondary biphenotypic acute leukemia is presented.
Für den Erfolg entscheidend: metallfreie zirkoniumdioxidbasierte Rekonstruktionen - Bearbeitungsschritte zum Erfolg

Metallfreie Rekonstruktionen setzten sich aufgrund der guten Asthetik, Biokompatibilitat und der guten mechanischen Eigenschaften immer starker durch. Zirkoniumdioxid als Gerustmaterial wird mittlerweile fast in jedem Labor bearbeitet. Leider wird immer haufiger festgestellt, dass dieses Material eine „Sonderbearbeitung“ benotigt und sich nicht wie die herkommlichen VMK-Rekonstruktionen lasst. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag werden die mechanischen Eigenschaften und die Verarbeitungsarten von Zirkoniumdioxidrekonstruktionen mit VMK-Versorgung gegenubergestellt und diskutiert.
Dynamical Analysis of Circadian Gene Expression

(cid:3) Abstract— Microarrays technique allows the simultaneous measurements of the expression levels of thousands of mRNAs. By mining this data one can identify the dynamics of the gene expression time series. By recourse of principal component analysis, we uncover the circadian rhythmic patterns underlying the gene expression profiles from Cyanobacterium Synechocystis. We applied PCA to reduce the dimensionality of the data set. Examination of the components also provides insight into the underlying factors measured in the experiments. Our results suggest that all rhythmic content of data can be reduced to three main components.
Análise da Volatilidade dos Retornos de Ações do Mercado de Capitais Brasileiro: uma Aplicação de Modelos de Variância Condicional

Este artigo tem como objetivo identificar anomalias no mercado de capitais brasileiros por meio da analise da dinâmica da volatilidade dos retornos, composta pela reacao, persistencia e assimetria. Para isso, foram utilizados modelos de variância condicional (GARCH, EGARCH e TARCH). A amostra foi composta pelos retornos diarios de cinco acoes de empresas negociadas na Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo – BM&FBOVESPA: BBDC4, PETR4, VALE5, TCSL4 e CMIG4, no periodo de 2006 a 2011. Os resultados obtidos mostram que, de maneira geral, os cinco ativos analisados apresentaram comportamentos semelhantes no que se refere a reacao e persistencia da volatilidade, independentemente do modelo utilizado. Durante todo o periodo de tempo analisado, ocorreram choques de volatilidade nos cinco ativos estudados, sobretudo no subperiodo que compreendeu a crise financeira mundial de 2008. Verificou-se tambem que esses choques foram persistentes, indicando a necessidade um maior periodo de tempo para dissipar-se. Isso evidencia que o mercado de capitais brasileiro tende a reagir de maneira semelhante a eventos relevantes, independente do setor de atuacao da empresa. Com relacao a assimetria da volatilidade, os resultados encontrados diferiram em relacao aos ativos estudados e ao modelo utilizado. Os ativos apresentaram comportamentos assimetricos divergentes, indicando que reagem de maneira diferente as informacoes positivas e negativas divulgadas no mercado. Esse resultado vai de encontro a Hipotese de Eficiencia de Mercado, que preconiza a incorporacao, praticamente automatica, das informacoes nos precos dos ativos, nao possibilitando ganhos financeiros provenientes de tais informacoes.
Islet amyloid polypeptide/amylin messenger RNA and protein expression in human insulinomas in relation to amyloid formation.

OBJECTIVE Islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP), also named amylin, is the predominant protein component of amyloid deposits in human islet beta cell tumours of the pancreas (insulinomas). IAPP is co-produced with insulin by islet beta cells. We investigated IAPP expression in relation to insulin expression and to amyloid formation in eleven insulinomas. DESIGN AND METHODS RNA and protein extracts were prepared from the same pieces of tumour tissue, and from specimens of two normal human pancreata. IAPP and insulin mRNA and peptide content were quantified using Northern blot analysis and radioimmunoassay (RIA) respectively. Molecular forms of IAPP immunoreactivity were analysed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The presence of islet hormones and of amyloid was assessed by (immuno)histochemical staining of paraffin sections. Plasma levels of IAPP and insulin prior to tumour resection were determined by RIA. RESULTS IAPP and insulin mRNA and peptide content varied widely between the tumour specimens, and there was considerable intratumour heterogeneity of peptide content. HPLC analysis indicated correct proteolytic processing of the IAPP precursor protein. Amyloid deposits were detected only in the three tumours with the highest IAPP content. In contrast to insulin, plasma levels of IAPP were not elevated in the insulinoma patients. CONCLUSIONS The spectrum of hormone production by insulinomas cannot be inferred from only a few tissue sections due to intratumour heterogeneity. Expression of the IAPP and insulin genes is not coupled in insulinomas, which produce properly processed mature IAPP. In addition to IAPP overproduction, additional factors such as intracellular accumulation of IAPP are involved in amyloidogenesis in insulinomas.
Syntactic context effects in visual word recognition: An MEG study

Words are typically encountered in the context of a sentence. Recent studies suggest that the contexts in which a word typically appears can affect the way it is recognized in isolation. We distinguish two types of context: collocational, involving specific lexical items, and syntactic, involving abstract syntactic structures. We investigate the effects of syntactic context using the distribution that verbs induce over the syntactic category of their complements (subcategorization frames). Magnetoencephalography (MEG) data was recorded while participants performed a lexical decision task. Verbs with low-entropy subcategorization distributions, in which most of the probability mass is concentrated on a handful of syntactic categories, elicited increased activity in the left anterior temporal lobe, a brain region associated with combinatory processing. Collocational context did not modulate neural activity, but had an effect on reaction times. These results indicate that both collocational and syntactic contextual factors affect word recognition, even in isolation.
One ring or two? Determination of ring number in carotenoids by lycopene epsilon-cyclases.

Carotenoids in the photosynthetic membranes of plants typically contain two beta-rings (e.g., beta-carotene and zeaxanthin) or one epsilon- and one beta-ring (e.g., lutein). Carotenoids with two epsilon-rings are uncommon. We reported earlier that the Arabidopsis thaliana lycopene epsilon-cyclase (LCYe) adds one epsilon-ring to the symmetrical linear substrate lycopene, whereas the structurally related lycopene beta-cyclase (LCYb) adds two beta-rings. Here we describe a cDNA encoding LCYe in romaine lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. romaine), one of the few plant species known to accumulate substantial quantities of a carotenoid with two epsilon-rings: lactucaxanthin. The product of the lettuce cDNA, similar in sequence to the Arabidopsis LCYe (77% amino acid identity), efficiently converted lycopene into the bicyclic epsilon-carotene in a heterologous Escherichia coli system. Regions of the lettuce and Arabidopsis epsilon-cyclases involved in the determination of ring number were mapped by analysis of chimeric epsilon-cyclases constructed by using an inverse PCR approach. A single amino acid was found to act as a molecular switch: lettuce LCYe mutant H457L added only one epsilon-ring to lycopene, whereas the complementary Arabidopsis LCYe mutant, L448H, added two epsilon-rings. An R residue in this position also yields a bi-epsilon-cyclase for both the lettuce and Arabidopsis enzymes. Construction and analysis of chimera of related enzymes with differing catalytic activities provide an informative approach that may be of particular utility for studying membrane-associated enzymes that cannot easily be crystallized or modeled to existing crystal structures.
The short-time modified coherence representation and noisy speech recognition

A technique for robust spectral representation of all-pole sequences is proposed. It is shown that the autocorrelation of an all-pole sequence, obtained by passing white noise through an all-pole filter 1/A(z), is an all-pole sequence of the form 1/A/sup 2/(z). A short-time modified coherence (SMC) representation is proposed that is an all-pole modeling of the autocorrelation sequence with a spectral shaper. The spectral shaper, essentially a square root operator in the frequency domain, compensates for the inherent spectral distortion introduced by the autocorrelation operation on the autocorrelation sequence of the signal. The properties of the SMC representation, especially its robustness to additive white noise, are analyzed. Initial implementation of the SMC in a speaker-dependent isolated word recognizer shows an improvement in recognition accuracy equivalent to an increase in input SNR of approximately 13 dB, as compared to the LPC recognizer. >
Artículo I. Desarrollo de una metodología para la planificación de un SAT a inundaciones

Las variaciones del clima a nivel mundial estan aumentando y con mayor variabilidad, principalmente por influencias humanas, lo que genera un aumento de los desastres por eventos naturales como por ejemplo, las inundaciones. Las recientes inundaciones en los poblados de Iberia e Inapari, localidades situadas en la region de Madre de Dios, Peru iniciaron el debate sobre las herramientas y aspectos para la proteccion frente a inundaciones.
Guiding, bending, and splitting of electromagnetic waves in highly confined photonic crystal waveguides

We have experimentally demonstrated the guiding, bending, and splitting of electromagnetic (EM) waves in highly confined waveguides built around three-dimensional layer-by-layer photonic crystals by removing a single rod. Full transmission of the EM waves was observed for straight and bended waveguides. We also investigated the power splitter structures in which the input EM power could be efficiently divided into the output waveguide ports. The experimental results, dispersion relation and photon lifetime, were analyzed with a theory based on the tight-binding photon picture. Our results provide an important tool for designing photonic crystal based optoelectronic components.
Odabk: An Effective Approach to Detecting Outlier in Data Stream

Currently, data mining in data stream becomes a very popular research field. One of the central tasks in mining data streams is that of identifying outliers which can lead to discovering unexpected and interesting knowledge, which is critical important. To effectively mine outliers in data stream, ODABK, an algorithm for outlier detection in data stream is presented. It is based on KNN and significantly enhanced by means of other data structures and its optimized logical operations. Finally, the paper reports experiments on a real-world census data which show that ODABK is more effective in detection rate and execution times
Prevalence and Determinants of Tinnitus in the Italian Adult Population

Background: Limited, outdated, and poor quality data are available on the prevalence of tinnitus, particularly in Italy. Methods: A face-to-face survey was conducted in 2014 on 2,952 individuals, who represented the Italian population aged 18 or more (50.6 million). Any tinnitus was defined as the presence of ringing or buzzing in the ears lasting for at least 5 min in the previous 12 months. Results: Any tinnitus was reported by 6.2% of Italian adults, chronic tinnitus (i.e. for more than 3 months) by 4.8%, and severe tinnitus (i.e. which constitutes a big or very big problem) by 1.2%. The corresponding estimates for the population aged ≥45 years were 8.7, 7.4 and 2.0%, respectively. Multivariable analysis on population aged ≥45 years revealed that old age (odds ratio (OR) = 4.49 for ≥75 vs. 45-54 years) and obesity (OR = 2.14 compared to normal weight) were directly related to any tinnitus, and high monthly family income (OR = 0.50) and moderate alcohol consumption (OR = 0.59 for <7 drinks/week vs. non-drinking) were inversely related. Conclusions: This is the first study on tinnitus prevalence among the general Italian adult population. It indicates that in Italy tinnitus affects more than 3 million adults and is felt as a major problem by more than 600,000 Italians, mostly aged 45 years or more.
Research on image classification based on a combination of text and visual features

As more and more text-image co-occurrence data become available on the web, mining on those data is playing an increasingly important role in web applications. In this paper, we consider utilizing description information to help image classification and propose a novel image classification method focusing on text-image co-occurrence data. In general, there are three main steps in our system: feature extraction, training classifiers and classifier fusion. In feature extraction phase, several features are extracted including not only visual features such as color, shape, texture, but also text features. In the process of training classifiers, visual and text classifiers are trained separately with SVM model. Finally, Weight learning is used to build the classifier fusion system. Comparing with other methods, we make full use of unstructured texts around images and filter text features through information gain, also efficient combination of features is achieved by comparing different combination methods. Experimental results show that our method is efficient and enhances the accuracy of image classification.
Strain-Induced Modulation of Electron Mobility in Single-Layer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides MX2 ( $M = {\rm Mo}$ , W;  $X = {\rm S}$ , Se)

In this paper, the effect of biaxial strain on the mobility of single-layer transition metal dichalcogenides (MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, and WSe2) is investigated by accounting for the scattering from intrinsic phonon modes, remote phonons, and charged impurities. Ab initio simulations are employed to study a strain-induced effect on the electronic band structure, and the linearized Boltzmann transport equation is used to evaluate the low-field mobility. The results indicate that tensile strain increases the mobility. In particular, a significant increase in the mobility of single-layer MoSe2 and WSe2 with a relatively small tensile strain is observed. Under a compressive strain, however, the mobility exhibits a nonmonotonic behavior. With a relatively small compressive strain, the mobility decreases and then it partially recovers with a further increase in the compressive strain.