Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
General practitioners' attitudes to assessment of genetic risk of common disorders in routine primary care

In 2003, the UK Department of Health set out the genetics white paper, a plan for action and investment with particular emphasis on integration of genetic health care into primary care. Since the delivery of the genetics white paper, there has been little exploration of UK primary care doctors' attitudes towards extending their role to include provision of routine genetics services. We explored explore general practitioners' (GPs) attitudes towards provision of genetic health care including routine family history screening and familial risk assessment for common disorders in primary care using a quantitative, evaluative postal survey. Only 25% (797 of 3160) of the GPs returned a completed questionnaire. Although 32% of GPs supported collection of family history information and 41.5% familial risk assessment, 18% were not willing to offer these services even if training is provided. Of the GPs, 50% stated they recognized when referral to genetics services is appropriate, although 43% felt unprepared to collect family history or assess familial risk. Lack of training within the last 3 years was a significant predictor of feeling unprepared to undertake these activities (OR = 2.53,p = 0.012). A substantial group of GPs remain unprepared or unwilling to provide genetic health care. GPs' attitudes to delivery of genetic health care are significantly influenced by factors such as a lack of evidence of the direct benefits to patients, local guidelines and specialist services. These factors need addressing if delivery of genetic health care is to be incorporated into routine primary care.
Evidence that hippocampal–parahippocampal dysfunction is related to genetic risk for schizophrenia

Background Abnormalities in hippocampal–parahippocampal (H-PH) function are prominent features of schizophrenia and have been associated with deficits in episodic memory. However, it remains unclear whether these abnormalities represent a phenotype related to genetic risk for schizophrenia or whether they are related to disease state. Method We investigated H-PH-mediated behavior and physiology, using blood oxygenation level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI), during episodic memory in a sample of patients with schizophrenia, clinically unaffected siblings and healthy subjects. Results Patients with schizophrenia and unaffected siblings displayed abnormalities in episodic memory performance. During an fMRI memory encoding task, both patients and siblings demonstrated a similar pattern of reduced H-PH engagement compared with healthy subjects. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the pathophysiological mechanism underlying the inability of patients with schizophrenia to properly engage the H-PH during episodic memory is related to genetic risk for the disorder. Therefore, H-PH dysfunction can be assumed as a schizophrenia susceptibility-related phenotype.
Time‐based tags for fiction movies: comparing experts to novices using a video labeling game

The cultural heritage sector has embraced social tagging as a way to increase both access to online content and to engage users with their digital collections. In this article, we build on two current lines of research. (a) We use Waisda? , an existing labeling game, to add time‐based annotations to content. (b) In this context, we investigate the role of experts in human‐based computation (nichesourcing). We report on a small‐scale experiment in which we applied Waisda? to content from film archives. We study the differences in the type of time‐based tags between experts and novices for film clips in a crowdsourcing setting. The findings show high similarity in the number and type of tags (mostly factual). In the less frequent tags, however, experts used more domain‐specific terms. We conclude that competitive games are not suited to elicit real expert‐level descriptions. We also confirm that providing guidelines, based on conceptual frameworks that are more suited to moving images in a time‐based fashion, could result in increasing the quality of the tags, thus allowing for creating more tag‐based innovative services for online audiovisual heritage.
Effects of substrate acidity and UV-B radiation on photosynthesis of radishes

The aim of this study was to assess the combined effect of substrate acidity (pH 4.8; pH 3.8) and 1 kJm−2d−1 UV-B radiation on photosynthesis and growth of radishes (Raphanus sativus L.). Radishes were sown in a neutral pH 6.5 peat substrate. When the second true leaf unfolded, the growth substrate was acidified using different concentration of H2SO4 and exposed to UV-B radiation for a period of ten days. Gas exchange parameters were measured with the LI-6400 portable photosynthesis system. Content of chlorophyll was evaluated spectrophotometrically. The results showed that the greatest inhibition of net photosynthesis was observed when radishes were grown in an acidified pH 3.8 substrate. The decrease of the photosynthesis of radish plants treated with both investigated factors (substrate acidity and UV-B) were lower compared to the effect of substrate acidity alone. UV-B radiation stimulated both enzymatic reactions of photosynthesis and water use efficiency of radish plants grown in acidified peat substrates. Also, investigated factors had higher impact on biomass of tuber than biomass of foliage.
The opportunity for natural selection on multigene families.

Data on structural variation of multigene families indicate that intraspecific variation is unexpectedly low, while differentiation between even closely related species is substantial (ARNHEIM 1983). This pattern of variation, termed concerted evolution (ZIMMER et al. 1980), has generated several models suggesting that multigene family evolution is facilitated by nontraditional mechanisms that operate at the molecular level and not at the level of either the individual or the population. The molecular mechanisms of unequal recombination (SMITH 1976), transposition (DOVER 1982) and gene conversion (both biased and unbiased) (FOGEL and MORTIMER 1969; HOOD, CAMPBELL and ELGIN 1975) have been included under the umbrella term, molecular drive (DOVER 1982). It has been argued that molecular drive eliminates the need to invoke more traditional mechanisms of evolution (DOVER 1982). This argument has caused some confusion over how molecular events can affect changes in populations, and under what conditions it is necessary to invoke phenomena at the population level. For molecular events to vitiate the need for population level phenomena in multigene family evolution, it is necessary to explain how molecular phenomena can minimize the variance of multigene family members within species. Under some parameter values of molecular phenomena the variance-to-mean ratio of copy number of a new variant (repeat type) in a population does not change much over the time to fixation (DOVER 1982; OHTA and DOVER 1984; DOVER 1989). If, however, a multigene family is large, the actual variance of the new repeat type copy number may increase by orders of magnitude during its spread through a population (OHTA and DOVER 1984). The absolute frequency of the molecular events may be very important to the rate of multigene family homogenization/fixation (OHTA and DOVER 1983, 1984; NAGYLAKI 1984). Also, the variance in copy number depends on the relative frequencies of intrachromosomal versus interchromosomal events, with variance increasing as intrachromosomal events become more frequent (KIMURA and OHTA 1979; SLATKIN 1986). As population size increases the variance will also increase so that in large populations, variation among multigene families on different chromosomes in different individuals may be significant (OHTA and DOVER 1984; SLATKIN 1986). The effect of population size is particularly important because with increased population size the role of natural
Socio-Economic Distribution and Higher Education Participation of Students in Kenya

The disparity in higher education participation is a perverse problem in most developing countries. The purpose of this study was to examine the socio-economic distribution of students and higher education participation of students in Kenya from three dimensions: students’ parents socio-economic backgrounds, parental occupational status, and parental level of education. The survey sample compromising 581 respondents was selected from three higher education institutions namely; a public university, a private university and a polytechnic institution. Findings indicatethat despite the overall expansion towards mass systems imbalances in participation based on student socio-economic background is a major factor in Kenyan higher education institutions. The study reveals that higher education is selective, not only in terms of type of secondary school students attended but across parental traits such as father’s education and occupation. The economic capacity of parents is very crucial in determining who can take advantage of the best available education provision and how far a student goes up the education ladder. These findings further confirm the perverse social selection and class bias in higher education institutions with students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds less likely to participate in higher education as students from middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds. This makes higher education access in Kenya to be highly inequitable. This disproportionate representationpresents a major challenge for education policy. In order to achieve equity and enhance access to tertiary level education, amongst all socio-economic groups, the government should seriously address disparities in school outcomes, both at primary school level and between the various secondary school types and barriers to access that are due to financial obstacles.
To Evaluate the Effectiveness of Transcutaneous Electric Nerve Stimulation (TENS) in patients with hyposalivation: A Pilot Study

Aim: Saliva is necessary fluid for oral health. Medications, radiation therapy, and many systemic conditions decrease salivary function and increase patient's risk for caries and other oral infections. Palliative management of xerostomia includes wetting agents such as ice chips, increase water intake, lip balm, chewing sugarfree gums and saliva substitutes. Systemic agents stimulate salivary flow but often have unfavorable side effects. All have met with limited success. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) as a means of stimulating salivary function in these subjects. Materials and method: This study comprised of 30 patients who are known case of diabetics, taking antidepressant, or diuretic drug, under gone radiation therapy and postmenopausal women with decrease salivary secretions. Unstimulated saliva was collected for 5 minutes in beaker and measure. The TENS electrode pads were placed externally on the skin overlying the parotid glands. The TENS unit was then activated and stimulated saliva collected for an additional 5 minutes. Results: The mean value of unstimulated saliva is 2.343which increased after stimulation 3.053 with the difference of . 71 showed significant increase (p < 0.001) in the salivary secretion after TENS stimulation. There were no adverse events observed after the use of TENS. Conclusion: The present study using TENS therapy has definitely shown encouraging results in increasing salivary secretion without any side effects.
Realistic procedural plant modeling guided by 3D point cloud

Plants are ubiquitous in the nature, and realistic plant modeling plays an important role in a variety of applications. Over the last decades, an immense amount of efforts have been dedicated to plant modeling. These approaches can be classified into two major categories: procedural modeling [Palubicki et al. 2009; Stava et al. 2014] and data-driven reconstruction approaches (e.g., photographs [Li et al. 2011; Tan et al. 2007] or scanned points [Livny et al. 2010; Xu et al. 2007]). Each approach has its own pros and cons. For example, procedural modeling approaches work well for synthesizing local branch structure details to produce botanically correct trees, but they lack the ability to control the growth of trees under certain shape constraints. While the data-driven approaches might precisely reconstruct skeletal structures, the botanical fidelity of trees are difficult to maintain.
Predicting Stock Price Volatility by Analyzing Semantic Content in Media.

Current models for predicting volatility do not incorporate information flow and are solely based on historical volatilities. We suggest a method to quantify the semantic content of words in news articles about a company and use this as a predictor of its stock volatility. The results show that future stock volatility is better predicted by our method than the conventional models. We also analyze the functional role of text in media either as a passive documentation of past information flow or as an active source for new information influencing future volatility. Our data suggest that semantic content may take both roles.
Detecting the Signatures of Adaptive Evolution in Protein‐Coding Genes

The field of molecular evolution, which includes genome evolution, is devoted to finding variation within and between groups of organisms and explaining the processes responsible for generating this variation. Many DNA changes are believed to have little to no functional effect, and a neutral process will best explain their evolution. Thus, a central task is to discover which changes had positive fitness consequences and were subject to Darwinian natural selection during the course of evolution. Due the size and complexity of modern molecular datasets, the field has come to rely extensively on statistical modeling techniques to meet this analytical challenge. For DNA sequences that encode proteins, one of the most powerful approaches is to employ a statistical model of codon evolution. This unit provides a general introduction to the practice of modeling codon evolution using the statistical framework of maximum likelihood. Four real‐data analysis activities are used to illustrate the principles of parameter estimation, robustness, hypothesis testing, and site classification. Each activity includes an explicit analytical protocol based on programs provided by the Phylogenetic Analysis by Maximum Likelihood (PAML) package. Curr. Protoc. Mol. Biol. 101:19.1. 1–19.1. 21. © 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Systematic Localization of the Arabidopsis Core Cell Cycle Proteins Reveals Novel Cell Division Complexes1[W][OA]

Cell division depends on the correct localization of the cyclin-dependent kinases that are regulated by phosphorylation, cyclin proteolysis, and protein-protein interactions. Although immunological assays can define cell cycle protein abundance and localization, they are not suitable for detecting the dynamic rearrangements of molecular components during cell division. Here, we applied an in vivo approach to trace the subcellular localization of 60 Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) core cell cycle proteins fused to green fluorescent proteins during cell division in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) and Arabidopsis. Several cell cycle proteins showed a dynamic association with mitotic structures, such as condensed chromosomes and the preprophase band in both species, suggesting a strong conservation of targeting mechanisms. Furthermore, colocalized proteins were shown to bind in vivo, strengthening their localization-function connection. Thus, we identified unknown spatiotemporal territories where functional cell cycle protein interactions are most likely to occur.
Hardiness in families of young children with asthma.

AIMS This paper reports a study (a) to assess whether there are cultural and gender differences in parents' general well-being, sense of coherence and perception of family hardiness when they have a young child with asthma; and (b) to examine the effects of parents' sense of coherence and well-being on family hardiness. BACKGROUND Research on hardiness, a resilience factor that fosters adaptation over time, has been widely studied from an individual perspective, but less from the viewpoint of the family unit. In particular, no study was found that assessed how members of a couple interact to affect their family's hardiness. Consideration of this dyadic phenomenon may provide unique insight about how family members interact with each other faced with a challenge, such as the chronic illness of a child. METHODS A cross-sectional research design was used with a sample of 137 two-parent families [76 from Iceland and 61 from the United States of America (USA)]. Questionnaires measuring sense of coherence, parents' well-being and family hardiness were used, and demographic data were also collected. RESULTS The most striking differences in well-being were between mothers and fathers. In addition to a lower average on the total score for the well-being scale, mothers had poorer scores than fathers on the subscales of depression, self-control, vitality, and general health. Family hardiness differed between countries. The regression indicated that the individual's sense of coherence, depression and positive well-being (all actor effects), as well as the partner's anxiety (partner effect) all contributed significantly to family hardiness, as did nationality. CONCLUSION Focused interventions for families with young children with asthma should be developed to enable them to feel more confident in using their resources to meet their demands and increase parents' general well-being and family adaptation. Research is needed to develop and test such interventions, particularly with diverse participant samples, encompassing not only a variety of ethnicities, but also a range of children's ages.
Purification, Characterization, and Gene Cloning of a Novel Maltosyltransferase from an Arthrobacter globiformis Strain That Produces an Alternating α-1,4- and α-1,6-Cyclic Tetrasaccharide from Starch

ABSTRACT A glycosyltransferase, involved in the synthesis of cyclic maltosylmaltose [CMM; cyclo-{→6)-α-d-Glcp(1→4)-α-d-Glcp(1→6)-α-d-Glcp(1→4)-α-d-Glcp(1→}] from starch, was purified to homogeneity from the culture supernatant of Arthrobacter globiformis M6. The CMM-forming enzyme had a molecular mass of 71.7 kDa and a pI of 3.6. The enzyme was most active at pH 6.0 and 50°C and was stable from pH 5.0 to 9.0 and up to 30°C. The addition of 1 mM Ca2+ enhanced the thermal stability of the enzyme up to 45°C. The enzyme acted on maltooligosaccharides that have degrees of polymerization of ≥3, amylose, and soluble starch to produce CMM but failed to act on cyclomaltodextrins, pullulan, and dextran. The mechanism for the synthesis of CMM from maltotetraose was determined as follows: (i) maltotetraose + maltotetraose → 64-O-α-maltosyl-maltotetraose + maltose and (ii) 64-O-α-maltosyl-maltotetraose → CMM + maltose. Thus, the CMM-forming enzyme was found to be a novel maltosyltransferase (6MT) catalyzing both intermolecular and intramolecular α-1,6-maltosyl transfer reactions. The gene for 6MT, designated cmmA, was isolated from a genomic library of A. globiformis M6. The cmmA gene consisted of 1,872 bp encoding a signal peptide of 40 amino acids and a mature protein of 583 amino acids with a calculated molecular mass of 64,637. The deduced amino acid sequence showed similarities to α-amylase and cyclomaltodextrin glucanotransferase. The four conserved regions common in the α-amylase family enzymes were also found in 6MT, indicating that 6MT should be assigned to this family.
Convolutional codes I: Algebraic structure

A convolutional encoder is defined as any constant linear sequential circuit. The associated code is the set of all output sequences resulting from any set of input sequences beginning at any time. Encoders are called equivalent if they generate the same code. The invariant factor theorem is used to determine when a convolutional encoder has a feedback-free inverse, and the minimum delay of any inverse. All encoders are shown to be equivalent to minimal encoders, which are feedback-free encoders with feedback-free delay-free inverses, and which can be realized in the conventional manner with as few memory elements as any equivalent encoder, Minimal encoders are shown to be immune to catastrophic error propagation and, in fact, to lead in a certain sense to the shortest decoded error sequences possible per error event. In two appendices, we introduce dual codes and syndromes, and show that a minimal encoder for a dual code has exactly the complexity of the original encoder; we show that systematic encoders with feedback form a canonical class, and compare this class to the minimal class.
Impact of a rotating empiric antibiotic schedule on infectious mortality in an intensive care unit

Objective The development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is associated with significant morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. We postulated that quarterly rotation of empirical antibiotics could decrease infectious complications from resistant organisms in an intensive care unit (ICU). Design Prospective cohort study. Setting An ICU at a university medical center. Subjects All patients admitted to the general, transplant, or trauma surgery services who developed pneumonia, peritonitis, or sepsis of unknown origin. Interventions A 2-yr study consisting of 1 yr of nonprotocol-driven antibiotic use and 1 yr of rotating empirical antibiotic assignment. Measurements and Main Results Over 100 variables were recorded for each infectious episode, including patient characteristics (e.g., Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation [APACHE] II score, age, comorbidities), infection characteristics (e.g., site, organism), treatment characteristics (e.g., antibiotic, treatment duration) and outcome measures (e.g., mortality, length of stay, antibiotic cost). Of 1456 consecutive admissions to the ICU, 540 episodes of infection were treated. No differences were noted in age, APACHE II score, race, overall antibiotic utilization or duration of therapy between the 2 yrs of study. Outcome analysis revealed significant reductions in the incidence of antibiotic-resistant Gram-positive coccal infections (7.8 infections/100 admissions vs. 14.6 infections/100 admissions, p < .0001), antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative bacillary infections (2.5 infections/100 admissions vs. 7.7 infections/100 admissions, p < .0001), and mortality associated with infection (2.9 deaths/100 admissions vs. 9.6 deaths/100 admissions, p < .0001) during rotation. Logistic regression identified age (odds ratio [OR], 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.01–1.06), APACHE II score (OR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01–1.13), solid organ transplantation (OR, 9.50; 95% CI, 2.01–52.21), and malignancy (OR, 10.16; 95% CI, 4.11–26.96) as independent predictors of mortality. Antibiotic rotation was an independent predictor of survival (OR 6.27, 95% CI 2.78–14.16). Conclusion Rotation of empirical antibiotic therapy seems to be a promising method to reduce infectious mortality in an ICU.