Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Depression and Frailty in Patients With End‐Stage Liver Disease Referred for Transplant Evaluation

End‐stage liver disease (ESLD) patients are believed to have a high prevalence of depression, although mental health in ESLD has not been studied comprehensively. Further, the relationship between depression and severity of liver disease is unclear. Using baseline data from a large prospective cohort study (N = 500) of frailty in ESLD patients, we studied the association of frailty with depression. Frailty was assessed with the five‐component Fried Frailty Index. Patients were assigned a composite score of 0 to 5, with scores ≥3 considered frail. Depression was assessed using the 15‐question Geriatric Depression Scale, with a threshold of ≥6 indicating depression; 43.2% of patients were frail and 39.4% of patients were depressed (median score 4, range 0–15). In multivariate analysis, frailty was significantly associated with depression (odds ratio 2.78, 95% confidence interval 1.87–4.15, p < 0.001), whereas model for ESLD score was not associated with depression. After covariate adjustment, depression prevalence was 3.6 times higher in the most‐frail patients than the least‐frail patients. In conclusion, depression is common in ESLD patients and is strongly associated with frailty but not with severity of liver disease. Transplant centers should address mental health issues and frailty; targeted interventions may lower the burden of mental illness in this population.
The cellular control of DNA double‐strand breaks

DNA double‐strand breaks (DSBs) are the most hazardous lesions arising in the genome of eukaryotic organisms, and yet occur normally during DNA replication, meiosis, and immune system development. The efficient repair of DSBs is crucial in maintaining genomic integrity, cellular viability, and the prevention of tumorigenesis. As a consequence, eukaryotic cells have evolved efficient mechanisms that sense and respond to DSBs and ultimately repair the break. The swiftness of the DNA DSB response has paved to the identification of sensors and transducers which allowed to generate a hierarchical signaling paradigm depicting the transduction of the damage signal to numerous downstream effectors (Fig. 1 ). The function of such effectors involve posttranslational modifications through phosphorylation, acetylation, and methylation of the substrates. This review will address the control of DSBs in damaged eukaryotic cells, the physiological processes that require the introduction of a DSB into the genome, and the maintenance of DSBs in non‐damaged cells. J. Cell. Biochem. 99: 1463–1475, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Bregman alternating direction method of multipliers for sparse probabilistic Boolean network problem

The main task of genetic regulatory networks is to construct a sparse probabilistic Boolean network (PBN) based on a given transition-probability matrix and a set of Boolean networks (BNs). In this paper, a Bregman alternating direction method of multipliers (BADMM) is proposed to solve the minimization problem raised in PBN. All the customized subproblemsolvers of the BADMM do not involve matrix multiplication, consequently the proposed method is in a position to deal with some huge-scale problems. The convergence to stationary point of the BADMM is proved under some mild conditions. Numerical experiments show that the BADMM is effective and efficient comparing with some existing methods.
Mind and soul? Two notions in the light of contemporary philosophy

From the perspective of the Aristotelian notion of ‘Form’, the author explores the history of the concepts of mind and soul focusing on their ontologized version, as entertained by conventional science. He concludes that current neuroscience lacks the conceptual wherewithal required to deal with the meaning of mind and soul and with agential consequences such as free will and moral decision making. [GEB]
Association between the SIRT1 mRNA expression and acute coronary syndrome.

AIM Silent mating type information regulator 2 homolog 1 (SIRT1) functions as an atheroprotective factor in vascular biology, and genetic variations in SIRT1 are associated with coronary artery calcification and type 2 diabetes in several populations. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the mRNA expression levels of the SIRT1 gene and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the context of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). METHODS Whole-genome expression microarray and real-time PCR techniques were used to detect the gene expression levels, and Western blotting was performed to determine the protein expression level. The four selected SNPs were genotyped in a Taqman genotyping platform. RESULTS Compared with that observed in the controls, the mRNA expression levels of the SIRT1 gene in the microarray study were significantly lower in the acute myocardial infarction (AMI), unstable angina (UA) and overall ACS patients. These results were replicated in another independent cohort with respect to the mRNA (AMI, p＜0.001; UA, p＜0.001; ACS, p＜0.001) and protein (p＜0.05) levels. Furthermore, the relationship between the SIRT1 mRNA expression and the genotypes of four possible functional SNPs (rs12778366, rs3758391, rs2273773 and rs4746720) was tested, the results of which showed significant differences in the SIRT1 mRNA expression among the allelic genes of rs3758391 (p＜0.01) in the healthy participants. CONCLUSIONS The present results confirm that the SIRT1 gene plays a protective role against ACS and that the rs3758391 SNP affects the mRNA expression in healthy participants, providing new insight into the processes regulating the genetic control of the SIRT1 gene with respect to the pathogenesis of ACS.
Holes and Genus of 2D and 3D Digital Images

Abstract "Hole" has been a confusing idea in the 3D digital literature. We replace counting holes by the clear geometrical idea of counting non-separating cuts, and show that this gives the Betti number b1, while b0 counts components and b2 cavities. Connected sets with equal b1 and b2 must match topologically when b1 = 0 (implying simple connectedness). When b1 ≠ 0, contrary to digital folklore, they need not. This paper is a conceptually self-contained introduction for computer scientists to these numbers of 2D and 3D images, and to other topological features such as Euler and linking numbers.
Targeting factors for change: contraceptive counselling and care of female adolescents

Abstract Introduction: Sexual and reproductive health care should empower and enable all individuals to have a sex life that is as safe and pleasurable as possible. Achievement of this goal for adolescents is often impeded by regional and sociocultural barriers. Objectives: To review global barriers to provision of effective counselling and care of adolescents seeking advice on contraception and sexual and reproductive health and identify elements of best practice that can be adapted to meet their needs at regional level. Methods: Experts with clinical experience and a scholarly background in the provision of contraceptive services to adolescents participated in a stepwise process of literature review and discussion according to the agreed objectives. Results: The Global CARE (Contraception: Access, Resources, Education) group identified barriers to the access, availability and acceptance of contraception by adolescents, not only at the political and sociocultural level but also within health care practice. The group collected and summarized successful local strategies and tools suitable for adaptation in other regions. Elements of best practice for providing contraception regardless of setting or regional constraints, including required skills, knowledge, and attitudes, were also proposed. Conclusion: Sharing of evidence-based best practice in delivering contraceptive services, improvements in health care provider education, and sharing of experience between countries will hopefully help to overcome the barriers to appropriate and effective counselling and care of adolescents.
Mechanisms of hypoxic and aerobic cytotoxicity of mitomycin C in Chinese hamster V79 cells.

Mitomycin C (MMC) induced aerobic and hypoxic cytotoxicity in Chinese hamster V79 cells was studied to evaluate the role of the 1-electron versus 2-electron reductive bioactivation. Superoxide dismutase, catalase, and desferal had no protective effects on the aerobic or hypoxic cytotoxicity of MMC, whereas Tempol and Tempol-H, which are known to interrupt and terminate radical reactions, provided partial protection under aerobic conditions. However, under hypoxic conditions, Tempol provided complete protection whereas Tempol-H was ineffective. Electron paramagnetic resonance and spin-trapping investigations, designed to study the mechanisms of such protective effects, confirmed that MMC is activated by the human NADPH:cytochrome P-450 oxidoreductase to its semiquinone radical and that, under aerobic conditions, the semiquinone radical reduces molecular oxygen. Under hypoxic conditions, the semiquinone of MMC reduces H2O2 to produce OH radicals as detected by electron paramagnetic resonance-spin trapping with 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline N-oxide. The 1-electron reduced product of MMC was also found to reduce Tempol to the hydroxylamine, Tempol-H, whereas oxidation of Tempol-H by MMC-. was negligible. Cell survival studies and electron paramagnetic resonance observations indicate that the hypoxic cytotoxicity of MMC is mediated by 1-electron activation to its semiquinone intermediate. Under aerobic conditions, the steady state concentration of this intermediate is low due to the facile autooxidation of the semiquinone producing O2-. and H2O2 which are capable of causing oxidative cytotoxicity. Tempol, which can accept an electron from reducing radical species, completely inhibited the hypoxic cytotoxicity of MMC indicating MMC-. , the semiquinone of MMC as the species responsible for DNA alkylation and selective hypoxic cytotoxicity of MMC. Our results also indicate that the aerobic cytotoxicity is mediated by other processes in addition to the 1-electron mediated activation.
Conservative Sparsification for Efficient Approximate Estimation

John Vial Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sydney March 2013 Conservative Sparsification for Efficient Approximate Estimation Linear Gaussian systems often exhibit sparse structures. For systems which grow as a function of time, marginalisation of past states will eventually introduce extra non-zero elements into the information matrix of the Gaussian distribution. These extra non-zeros can lead to dense problems as these systems progress through time. This thesis proposes a method that can delete elements of the information matrix while maintaining guarantees about the conservativeness of the resulting estimate with a computational complexity that is a function of the connectivity of the graph rather than the problem dimension. This sparsification can be performed iteratively and minimises the Kullback Leibler Divergence (KLD) between the original and ap- proximate distributions. This new technique is called Conservative Sparsification (CS). For large sparse graphs employing a Junction Tree (JT) for estimation, efficiency is related to the size of the largest clique. Conservative Sparsification can be applied to clique splitting in JTs, enabling approximate and efficient estimation in JTs with the same conservative guarantees as CS for information matrices. In distributed estimation scenarios which use JTs, CS can be performed in parallel and asynchronously on JT cliques. This approach usually results in a larger KLD compared with the optimal CS approach, but an upper bound on this increased divergence can be calculated with information locally available to each clique. This work has applications in large scale distributed linear estimation problems where the size of the problem or communication overheads make optimal linear estimation difficult.
An analysis of Malay language emotional speech corpus for emotion recognition system

Human speech is known as the information carrier because its signals can convey people's emotions, age, gender, and ethnic. Speech and emotions are interrelated where from speech, people can express their feelings. Emotional speech corpus in many languages such as English, German, Japanese, Dutch, and French are readily accessible for researchers. However, emotional speech corpus in the Malay language, specifically natural emotion speeches is not available. Thus, the focus of this paper is to develop a spontaneous (natural) emotional speech corpus and perform a prosody analysis of the speech to gather a preliminary understanding of speech-based emotions by age variance. The speech samples consist of natural emotion speeches with three types of emotions (i.e. “angry,” “happy” and “sad”). This paper compares the mean and standard deviations of pitch and intensity of 30 speakers comprising children of age 6–12 years, young adults aged 18–35 years and middle-aged adults of 36–55 years old. Prosody analysis of natural or spontaneous speech in Malay language showed that children can express more emotions followed by middle-aged adults and young adults.
Separation of adenosine phosphates by paper chromotography and the equilibrium constant of the myokinase system.

This paper describes a procedure forthe quantitative separation by paper chromatography of adenosine-triphosphate (ATP), adenosinediphosphate (ADP), adenosinemonophosphate (AMP) and inorganic orthophosphate. The technique is a development of those of Hanes & Isherwood (1949) which are satisfactory for many purposes, but are inadequate for the complete separation of ADP and inorganic phosphate. The formic acid isopropyl ether solvent of Hanes & Isherwood separates satisfactorily the three adenosine phosphates from inorganic phosphate and the iaopropanol ammonia solvent separates ATP from ADP, AMP and inorganic *phosphate. The imperfect separation of ADP and inorganic phosphate is especially evident when the mixture of phosphates contains KH232PO4. The Radioactivity mea8urements. In some experiments solu- tions containing 32P were analysed. The radioactivity was measured A fl-counting tube, liquid type M6 of 20th Century Electronics, was used. Small quantities of ortho- phosphate contaminating the ADP spot can be detected by radioactivity when chemical methods fail.
Ann controller for harmonic reduction in grid connected system

Different control strategies for harmonic reduction in the LCL filter connected to the grid are proposed in this article. In grid connected system, the use of energy for high loads causes current ripple and for attenuating this ripples LCL-filter is most preferably used with good performance. This filter itself brings harmonics, through which stability problems are also caused. To reduce harmonic condition different control strategies comprises of PID and ANN networks are implemented. The THD values of voltage and current at grid side of the proposed PID and ANN methods are judged in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment.
Effect of different milking routines on milking-related release of the hormones oxytocin, prolactin and cortisol, and on milk yield and milking performance in Murrah buffaloes

Milking-related release of oxytocin, prolactin, and cortisol was studied following three pre-milking treatments. Six Murrah buffaloes were treated with direct application of milking cluster (O), a 1-min pre-stimulation (M), and combined feeding and pre-stimulation (MF). Machine milk yield, stripping yield and milk composition were recorded. Milk ejection occurred significantly earlier with MF than M and O (P<0·05; 2·50, 5·10 and 6·33 min, respectively). In all treatments, milk ejection occurred with small increases >3–5 ng/l in oxytocin concentration. Increase in oxytocin concentration over a threshold level and milk ejection occurred simultaneously and were closely correlated (r=0·83, P<0·05). There was a positive correlation between total time oxytocin concentration remained elevated over threshold levels and machine yield (r=0·86, P<0·05). For treatment O, milk ejection was inhibited during machine milking, while a marked increase in oxytocin occurred during hand stripping (6 and 16 ng/l, respectively). For treatment M, mean oxytocin concentrations remained unchanged during pre-stimulation but increased during subsequent machine milking and hand stripping (6·38, 18·06 and 12·36 ng/l, respectively). For treatment MF, although there was a 3·6-fold increase during pre-stimulation, oxytocin increased by 10-fold and 3-fold during machine milking and hand stripping, and was significant for machine milking (P<0·05, 17·32, 47·86, 18·13 ng/l, respectively). Milk-ejection-related cortisol release was visible only in treatment MF. For treatments O and M, prolactin concentration increased prior to the increase in oxytocin. The stripping yield was higher, and fat content in the stripping yield significantly lower, for treatment O indicating incomplete milking. Thus buffaloes are easily disturbed even by small changes in milking routines.
Predictive control of the permanent magnet synchronous motor based on the feedback linearization

This paper introduces a nonlinear control scheme based on exact feedback linearization (FBL) and predictive concept to control the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). The principal contribution of this work is the exploitation of discrete state model to generate the predicted trajectories and, the calculation of the Brunovsky form feedback stabilization which correspond to the linear part of the system. The stability of the closed loop system is proved through a singular perturbation analysis and the system performance is tested by simulation.
Semidiscrete Finite Element Approximations of a Linear Fluid-Structure Interaction Problem

Semidiscrete finite element approximations of a linear fluid-structure interaction problem are studied. First, results concerning a divergence-free weak formulation of the interaction problem are reviewed. Next, semidiscrete finite element approximations are defined, and the existence of finite element solutions is proved with the help of an auxiliary, discretely divergence-free formulation. A discrete inf-sup condition is verified, and the existence of a finite element pressure is established. Strong a priori estimates for the finite element solutions are also derived. Then, by passing to the limit in the finite element approximations, the existence of a strong solution is demonstrated and semidiscrete error estimates are obtained.
Constructing experts profiles from Linked Open Data

Identification and assignment of (potential) experts to subject field is an important task in various settings and environments. In scientific domain, the identification of experts is normally based on number of factors like: number of publications, citation record, and experience etc. However, the discovered experts cannot be assigned reviewing duties immediately. One also need further information about expert like the country, university, service record, contributions, honors, and name of conferences/journals where the discovered expert is already serving as editor/reviewer. To some extent, this information can be found from search engines using heuristics, by applying Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning techniques. However, the emergence of many semantically rich and structured datasets from Linked Open Data movement (LOD) can facilitate in more controlled search and fruitful results. This paper employs an automatic technique to find the required information about experts using LOD dataset. The expert profile is discovered, aggregated, clustered, structured, and visualized to the administration of peer-review system. The system has been implemented for an electronic journal such as Journal of Universal Computer Science (J.UCS). The proposed system facilitates J.UCS administration to find potential reviewers for scientific papers to assign reviewing duties and to call new editors for computer science topics.
Cells in pleural fluid. Their value in differential diagnosis.

Pleural fluids from 182 patients were studied prospectively. Although red blood cell (RBC) counts of greater than 10,000/cu mm were common with all types of effusions, an RBC count greater than 100,000/cu mm strongly suggested malignant neoplasm, pulmonary infarction, or trauma. Of 31 exudative effusions with a lymphocytic predominance, 30 were due either to tuberculosis or neoplasm. No tuberculous effusions had more than 1% mesothelial cells, while most other effusions contained at least 5% mesothelial cells. Pleural fluid cytological studies showed malignant cells in 33 of 43 patients with effusions due to tumor. More than 50% of the effusions with originally inconclusive pleural fluid cytological findings were proved to be due to neoplasm. When tumor is suspected, at least three separate pleural fluid specimens should be submitted for cytological examination.
Adoptive regulatory T‐cell therapy protects against cerebral ischemia

Recent evidence suggests that functional deficiency in regulatory T cells (Tregs), an innate immunomodulator, exacerbates brain damage after cerebral ischemia. We therefore evaluated the effect of Treg transfer in rodent models of ischemic stroke and further investigated the mechanism underlying Treg‐afforded neuroprotection.
DC/DC Boost-Boost power converter as a didactic system: Experimental results with Matlab/Simulink via current and voltage probes

Great efforts have been made by undergraduate and postgraduate educators in the field of theory validation through experimentation, with the purpose of students gaining better skills during their academic training, motivating the development of didactic prototypes that contribute to this goal. The importance of using such didactic materials can be seen in papers published in journals indexed in Journal Citation Reports [1], the main intention of which is to spread research of this nature, from engineering [2–6] to physics [7, 8].
Wideband digital modular system for dynamic characterization of PJVS

This work deals with the use of high precision digital modular systems, employed towards a wideband chassis, for use with PJVS devices. A key feature of digital modular systems lies on their fast software reconfigurability, exploited to better adapt characteristics as well as performances of different boards (e.g., DACs, ADCs, timing and synchronization) to a specific experimental setup. A compact and modular wideband measurement system suitable to interact dynamically with series array of Josephson junctions is developed. Synchronous digital modules for digital synthesis of isofrequential LF triangular and RF rectangular patterns and precise sampling are used for realtime characterization of sections of a PJVS chip, which operates in a two-stage (4 K) cryocooler system. A suitable synchronous program has been developed and new algorithms are being tested for synthesis of arbitrary LF quantum waveforms, that will be used for direct traceability of digital systems.
Sparse filtering based intelligent fault diagnosis using IPSO-SVM

Intelligent fault diagnosis has became a focus of fault diagnosis, which can quickly and efficiently process collected signals and obtain high accurate diagnosis results. Traditionally, intelligent fault diagnosis subjects to a lot of prior knowledge. In this work, a novel method based on the sparse features is proposed. The sparse features directly are extracted from raw mechanical vibration signals using unsupervised learning. Conventionally, Support Vector Machine optimized by Improved Particle Swarm (IPSO-SVM) is used to classify the health condition based on the sparse features for each sample. By introducing improved parameters into PSO algorithm, the global search ability of the PSO algorithm is enhanced. The proposed method is validated by a case of rolling element bearings datasets. In the experiments, we set up fifteen datasets to verify the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method can provide a simple and accurate fault diagnosis for bearing multi-faults.