Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk factors for acute renal injury in living donor liver transplantation: evaluation of the RIFLE criteria

Acute renal injury (ARI) is a serious complication after liver transplantation. This study investigated the usefulness of the RIFLE criteria in living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) and the prognostic impact of ARI after LDLT. We analyzed 200 consecutive adult LDLT patients, categorized as risk (R), injury (I), or failure (F), according to the RIFLE criteria. ARI occurred in 60.5% of patients: R‐class, 23.5%; I‐class, 21%; and F‐class, 16%. Four patients in Group‐A (normal renal function and R‐class) and 26 patients in Group‐B (severe ARI: I‐ and F‐class) required renal replacement therapy (P < 0.001). Mild ARI did not affect postoperative prognosis regarding hospital mortality rate in Group A (3.2%), which was superior to that in Group B (15.8%; P = 0.0015). Fourteen patients in Group B developed chronic kidney disease (KDIGO stage 3/4). The 1‐, 5‐ and 10‐year survival rates were 96.7%, 90.6%, and 88.1% for Group A and 71.1%, 65.9%, and 59.3% for Group B, respectively (P < 0.0001). Multivariate analysis revealed risk factors for severe ARI as MELD ≥20 [odds ratio (OR) 2.9], small‐for‐size graft (GW/RBW <0.7%; OR 3.1), blood loss/body weight >55 ml/kg (OR 3.7), overexposure to calcineurin inhibitor (OR 2.5), and preoperative diabetes mellitus (OR 3.2). The RIFLE criteria offer a useful predictive tool after LDLT. Severe ARI, defined beyond class‐I, could have negative prognostic impact in the acute and late postoperative phases. Perioperative treatment strategies should be designed and balanced based on the risk factors for the further improvement of transplant prognosis.
Changes in the linking number of supercoiled DNA accompany growth transitions in Escherichia coli

The supercoiling levels of plasmid DNA were determined from Escherichia coli which was grown in ways that are known to alter global patterns of gene expression and metabolism. Changes in DNA supercoiling were shown to occur during several types of these nutrient upshifts and downshifts. The most dramatic change in supercoiling was seen in starved cells, in which two populations of differentially relaxed plasmids were shown to coexist. Thus, some changes in the external nutritional environment that cause the cells to reorganize their global metabolism also cause accompanying changes in DNA supercoiling. Results of experiments with dinitrophenol suggested that the observed relaxations were probably not due to reduced pools of ATP. When rifampin was used to release supercoils restrained by RNA polymerase, the cellular topoisomerases responded by removing these new, unrestrained supercoils. We interpret these results as implying that the cellular topological machinery maintains a constant superhelical energy in the DNA except during certain growth transitions, when changes in metabolism and gene expression are accompanied by changes in DNA supercoiling.
Concept and measurement of ventilatory sensitivity to carbon dioxide.

Four resting subjects breathed 0, 1, 2.5, and 4% CO2 diluted in air for 25 min. Ventilation, Po2 and Pco2 of alveolar and expired gases were measured. One can represent on a Po2-Pco2 diagram, as Ra.
Instrumented treadmill for measuring vertical ground reaction forces in horses.

OBJECTIVE To develop and validate a novel instrumented treadmill capable of determining vertical ground reaction forces of all 4 limbs simultaneously in horses. SAMPLE POPULATION Data obtained while a horse was walking and trotting on the treadmill. PROCEDURE 18 piezo-electric force transducers were mounted between the treadmill frame and supporting steel platform to measure the actual forces at the corresponding bearing points. Each of the 18 sensor forces is equal to the sum of the unknown hoof forces weighted with the transfer coefficients of the corresponding force application points. The 4 force traces were calculated, solving at each time point the resulting equation system, using the Gaussian least-squares method. System validation comprised the following tests: determination of the survey accuracy of the positioning system, determination of the natural frequencies of the system, linearity test of the force transfer to the individual sensors, determination of superimposed forces with the treadmill-integrated force measuring system (TiF) in a static configuration, and comparison of vertical ground reaction forces determined simultaneously by use of TiF and force shoes mounted on the forelimbs of a horse. RESULTS Comparison between static test loads and TiF-calculated forces revealed deviations of < 1.4%. Force traces of TiF-calculated values and those recorded by use of the force shoes were highly correlated (r > or = 0.998). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE This instrumented treadmill allows a reliable assessment of load distribution and interlimb coordination in a short period and, therefore, is suitable for use in experimental and clinical investigations.
PhoP/PhoQ transcriptional repression of Salmonella typhimurium invasion genes: evidence for a role in protein secretion

Previously, the PhoP‐repressed locus prgH was identified as important for signalling epithelial cells to endocytose Salmonella typhimurium. Characterization of prgH revealed that it is an operon of four genes encoding polypeptides of 392 (prgH), 80 (prgl), 101 (prgJ) and 252 amino acid residues (prgK). Synthesis of the 2.6 kb prgHIJK transcript was repressed in bacteria that activate PhoP/PhoQ, indicating that PhoP/PhoQ regulates prgHIJK by transcriptional repression. The prgl, prgJ and prgK predicted gene products were similar to Shigella flexneri and Yersinia enterocolitica proteins required for secretion of lpa and Yop virulence factors. Analysis of the culture supernatants from wild‐type S. typhimurium demonstrated that at least 25 polypeptides larger than 14 kDa could be detected. In contrast, prgH1::TnphoA, phoP‐constitutive and hil‐deletion mutants had significant defects in their supernatant protein profiles. The invasion and supernatant protein profile defects of the prgH1::TnphoA mutant were both complemented by a 5.1 kb plasmid that included prgHIJK. These results suggest that PhoP/PhoQ regulates extracellular transport of proteins by transcriptional repression of secretion determinants and that secreted proteins may be involved in signalling epithelial cells to endocytose bacteria.
RTSDE: Recursive total-sum-distances-based density estimation approach and its application for autonomous real-time video analytics

In this paper, we propose a new approach to data density estimation based on the total sum of distances from a data point, and the recently introduced Recursive Density Estimation technique. It is suitable for autonomous real-time video analytics problems, and has been specifically designed to be executed very fast; it uses integer-only arithmetic with no divisions and no floating point numbers (no FLOPs), making it particularly useful in situations where a hardware floating point unit may not be available, such as on embedded hardware and digital signal processors, allowing for high definition video to be processed for novelty detection in real-time.
Efficacy and safety of leflunomide in DMARD-naive patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: comparison of a loading and a fixed-dose regimen.

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficacy of LEF administered with or without a loading dose in DMARD-naïve patients with early RA. METHODS This multicentre, double-blind, randomized clinical trial included adults with RA diagnosed within 6 months (ACR criteria). Patients were randomly selected to receive either a 100 mg loading dose or a 20 mg fixed dose of LEF for 3 days, followed by a 3-month open-label maintenance period of 20 mg LEF qd. The primary outcome criterion was ACR20 response rate at study end in the intent-to-treat population. Secondary criteria were ACR20, ACR50, ACR70 and DAS28 response rates at 1 and 3 months and safety. RESULTS The intent-to-treat population included 120 patients (median time since diagnosis 0.95 months). The ACR20 response rate at study end was 69.0% (95%CI 60.5%, 77.4%). Response rates were significantly lower (P = 0.025) in the loading-dose group [58.5% (45.2%, 71.8%)] than in the fixed-dose group [77.8% (67.5%, 88.0%)]. Three-month ACR50, ACR70 and DAS28 response rates were 41.4%, 17.7% and 81.7%, respectively, with no significant differences between groups. Adverse events occurred in 53.7% (loading-dose group) and 49.3% (fixed-dose group) of patients, most frequently diarrhoea and elevated hepatic enzymes; these occurred more frequently and earlier in treatment when the loading dose was used. CONCLUSION LEF was effective in DMARD-naïve patients with early disease. No incremental benefit was observed with the use of a loading dose, which may be associated with an increased initial rate of adverse events. The advantage of LEF initiation with a loading dose is not confirmed in this population. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov, http://clinicaltrials.gov/, NCT00596206.
Memory Overcommitment in the ESX Server

Virtualization of computer hardware continues to reduce the cost of operation in datacenters. It enables users to consolidate virtual hardware on a smaller number of physical hardware, thereby efficiently using hardware resources. The consolidation ratio is a measure of the virtual hardware that has been placed on physical hardware. A higher consolidation ratio typically indicates greater efficiency. VMware’s ESX R © Server is a hypervisor that enables competitive memory and CPU consolidation ratios. ESX allows users to power on virtual machines (VMs) with a total configured memory that exceeds the memory available on the physical machine. This is called memory overcommitment. Memory overcommitment raises the consolidation ratio, increases operational efficiency and lowers total cost of operating virtual machines. Memory overcommitment in ESX is reliable. It does not cause VMs to be suspended or terminated under any conditions. This article describes memory overcommitment in ESX, analyzes the cost of various memory reclamation techniques and empirically demonstrates that memory overcommitment induces acceptable performance penalty in workloads. Finally, best practices for implementing memory overcommitment are provided. General Terms memory management, memory overcommitment, memory reclamation
An Improved Diagnostic Evaluation Instrument for Substance Abuse Patients: The Addiction Severity Index

The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) is a structured clinical interview developed to fill the need for a reliable, valid, and standardized diagnostic and evaluative instrument in the field of alcohol and drug abuse. The ASI may be administered by a technician in 20 to 30 minutes producing 10-point problem severity ratings in each of six areas commonly affected by addiction. Analyses of these problem severity ratings on 524 male veteran alcoholics and drug addicts showed them to be highly reliable and valid. Correlational analyses using the severity ratings indicated considerable independence between the problem areas, suggesting that the treatment problems of patients are not necessarily related to the severity of their chemical abuse. Cluster analyses using these ratings revealed the presence of six subgroups having distinctly different patterns of treatment problems. The authors suggest the use of the ASI to match patients with treatments and to promote greater comparability of research findings.
THE PERSISTENCE OF TUBERCULOUS INFECTIONS

in aggregate,and such an event in a feeble baby might, and, so it appears,actually does, causea fatal pneumonia. In older and strongerpeople the inflammatory disturbance is only localized and slight, and may causeneither signs nor symptoms, but it should be recognized that the degree of resistanceis by no means so high in small and weakly children. In these latter, too, there is seeminglya possibility of oily matterbeing regurgitated by vomiting and thus entering the lungs. Perhaps,as Rabinovitch and Lederer suggest,even milk might furnish such a foreign fat, though cod liver oil seemsto be a more likely source. They further remark that the diagnosismay be made if the possibility is borne in mind and if the expectorated material is examined for oil-bearing monocytes. Surely the occurrenceof this condition cannot be common, but it would seem wise to rememberthat it may not be an entirely harmless procedureto instil oily substancesinto the noses and throatsof babiesover extendedperiodsof time. nor to persist with fatty emulsions in a vomiting infant. We may have in the pastassumedthat food given to a little child was either retained or rejected; but even this simple statement is not always a full or accuratestatementof what may occur.
‘Women now wear trousers’: men's perceptions of family planning in the context of changing gender relations in western Kenya

Gender inequity has been closely linked with unmet need for family planning among women in sub-Saharan Africa but the factors related to male family planning disapproval are not well-understood. This qualitative study explored men's perspectives of gender roles and cultural norms as they pertain to family planning. Twelve small group meetings were held with 106 married men in Nyanza Province, Kenya. Shifting gender relations made the definitions of manhood more tenuous than ever. Men's previous identities as sole breadwinners, which gave them significant control over decision-making, were being undermined by women's increasing labour force participation. While many men viewed family planning positively, fears that family planning would lead to more female sexual agency and promiscuity or that male roles would be further jeopardised were widespread and were major deterrents to male family planning approval. By addressing such fears, gender-sensitive programmes could help more men to accept family planning. Increased family planning education for men is needed to dispel misconceptions regarding family planning side-effects. Focusing on the advantages of family planning, namely financial benefits and reduced conflict among couples, could resonate with men. Community leaders, outreach workers and healthcare providers could help shift men's approval of joint decision-making around family size to other reproductive domains, such as family planning use.
Relapse and mortality following cardioversion of new-onset vs. recurrent atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter in the elderly.

AIMS Trials of rate control vs. rhythm control for atrial fibrillation or flutter included few patients with new-onset arrhythmia. Our objective was to assess the relapse rate and the effect of the relapse of new-onset atrial arrhythmias on mortality after direct-current cardioversion (DCCV). METHODS AND RESULTS A cohort of 351 patients with atrial fibrillation (new onset in 179) and 126 patients with atrial flutter (new onset in 78) was followed-up after DCCV. Cox proportional hazard models were used. Median age was 74.6 years. Mean follow-up for relapse was 7.7 months; for death, 29.4 months. Patients with new-onset atrial flutter [adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 1] were more likely to maintain sinus rhythm than the patients with recurrent atrial flutter (adjusted HR = 2.5, P < 0.01), new-onset atrial fibrillation (adjusted HR = 2.4, P < 0.01), or recurrent atrial fibrillation (adjusted HR = 2.7, P < 0.01). Patients with new-onset atrial fibrillation were as likely to have relapses as patients with recurrent atrial fibrillation or flutter. Relapse of atrial arrhythmia after DCCV was associated with increased mortality (adjusted HR= 3.1, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION DCCV is more successful in maintaining sinus rhythm in patients with new-onset atrial flutter than in patients with new-onset atrial fibrillation. Relapse of atrial arrhythmia after cardioversion is associated with increased mortality.
Disrupted gonadogenesis and male-to-female sex reversal in Pod1 knockout mice

Congenital defects in genital and/or gonadal development occur in 1 in 1000 humans, but the molecular basis for these defects in most cases remains undefined. We show that the basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor Pod1 (capsulin/epicardin/Tcf21) is essential for normal development of the testes and ovaries, and hence for sexual differentiation. The gonads of Pod1 knockout (KO) mice were markedly hypoplastic, and the urogenital tracts of both XX and XY mice remained indistinguishable throughout embryogenesis. Within Pod1 KO gonads, the number of cells expressing the cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (Scc) was increased markedly. Biochemical and genetic approaches demonstrated that Pod1 transcriptionally represses steroidogenic factor 1 (Sf1/Nr5a1/Ad4BP), an orphan nuclear receptor that regulates the expression of multiple genes (including Scc) that mediate sexual differentiation. Our results establish that Pod1 is essential for gonadal development, and place it in a transcriptional network that orchestrates cell fate decisions in gonadal progenitors.
The current status of childhood low-level lead toxicity.

Lead's toxicity has been recognized since antiquity, and certain themes recur during the history of its understanding. Warnings have been frequently pronounced, and frequently followed by statements that these warnings were exaggerated. Childhood lead poisoning was first discovered in Brisbane, Australia in 1894. The cause, lead on the rails of the porches, was demonstrated by J.L. Gibson, and promptly derided by the business and medical communities. The first lead paint prevention act was passed in Australia in 1920. In the United States, it was believed that if a lead-poisoned child did not die, they recovered with no residua. This was disproved by R.K. Byers in 1943, and the modern era of childhood lead poisoning was begun. In the 1960's, the defined toxic level of lead in the blood was 60 micrograms/dl. In some areas, as many as 20% of children had blood lead levels above 40 micrograms/dl. Questions about silent toxicity at these doses were raised. Studies of lower lead exposure began to be published in the early 1970's. Some reported an effect, others did not. Many of these early studies were of small sample size, used crude measures of outcome, relied on a short term markers of exposure, and had limited control of covariates. In the latter part of the 1970's, studies of better quality reported positive relationships between lead and IQ. We used tooth lead levels to classify asymptomatic 1st and 2nd grade children and, controlling for socioeconomic status, mother's IQ and other potential confounders, demonstrated that high lead in the teeth was associated with decreased IQ, impaired attention, and impaired speech performance. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Empirical Investigation of Indoor / NLOS Propagation at Millimeter Wave Bands For Gigabits Throughput Realization : 24 And 60 ghz Links

The growth in the communication industry demands a high bandwidth capacity to cope with the multimedia application services. The lower frequency bands allocated for communication, apart from being congested, is also incapable of the gigabits throughput delivery needed for the various applications. Therefore, it is highly imperative to engage the millimeter wave frequency bands to provide the adequate frequency spectrum. The peculiarities of the millimeter wave propagation are challenges to achieve this goal. This work conducted empirical measurements of the indoor propagation performances of 24 and 60GHz frequency bands. The results show that 24GHz band performs better in NLOS propagation than 60GHz hence, WLAN with gigabits throughputs can be deployed within offices in a modern building using the 24GHz Ubiquity Air fiber ptp links.
Realization of Cantonese rising tones under different speaking rates

The two Cantonese rising tones, high-rising and low/mid-low rising tones, are found to maintain their distinct slopes of F0(fundamental frequency)-rise and offset F0 under different speaking rates. This suggests the two as possible acoustic cues for rising tone discrimination. The rising contours, under whichever speaking rate, reside in area temporally near the syllable offset. Furthermore, through tests with different alignment methods, the rising contours are found to show the most significant overlap when aligning with offset of the host syllable. Finally, discussions on characterization of rising tones within the Target Approximation (TA) model are presented.
A Configuration Management Study to Fast Massive Writing for Distributed NoSQL System

NoSQL systems have become vital components to deliver big data services due to their high horizontal scalability. However, existing NoSQL systems rely on experienced administrators to configure and tune the wide range of configurable parameters for optimized performance. In this work, we present a configuration management framework for NoSQL systems, called xConfig. With xConfig, its users can first identify performance sensitive parameters and capture the tuned parameters for different workloads as configuration policies. Next, based on tuned policies, xConfig can be implemented as the corresponding configuration optimiaztion system for the specific NoSQL system. Also it can be used to analyze the range of configurable parameters that may impact the runtime performance of NoSQL systems. We implement a prototype called HConfig based on HBase, and the parameter tuning strategies for HConfig can generate tuned policies and enable HBase to run much more efficiently on both individual worker node and entire cluster. The massive writing oriented evaluation results show that HBase under write-intensive policies outperforms both the default configuration and some existing configurations while offering significantly higher throughput. key words: configuration management, optimization, massive writing, HBase, NoSQL
Genetic Diversity in Mycobacterium ulcerans Isolates from Ghana Revealed by a Newly Identified Locus Containing a Variable Number of Tandem Repeats

ABSTRACT The molecular typing methods used so far for Mycobacterium ulcerans isolates have not been able to identify genetic differences among isolates from Africa. This apparent lack of genetic diversity among M. ulcerans isolates is indicative of a clonal population structure. We analyzed the genetic diversity of 72 African isolates, including 57 strains from Ghana, by variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) typing based on a newly identified polymorphic locus designated ST1 and the previously described locus MIRU 1. Three different genotypes were found in Ghana, demonstrating for the first time the genetic diversity of M. ulcerans in an African country. While the ST1/MIRU 1 allele combination BD/BAA seems to dominate in Africa, it was only rarely found in isolates from Ghana, where the combination BD/B was dominant and observed in all districts studied. A third variant genotype (C/BAA) was found only in the Amansie-West district. The results indicate that new genetic variants of M. ulcerans emerged and spread within Ghana and support the potential of VNTR-based typing for genotyping of M. ulcerans.
Null mutations in the SNF3 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cause a different phenotype than do previously isolated missense mutations

Missense mutations in the SNF3 gene of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were previously found to cause defects in both glucose repression and derepression of the SUC2 (invertase) gene. In addition, the growth properties of snf3 mutants suggested that they were defective in uptake of glucose and fructose. We have cloned the SNF3 gene by complementation and demonstrated linkage of the cloned DNA to the chromosomal SNF3 locus. The gene encodes a 3-kilobase poly(A)-containing RNA, which was fivefold more abundant in cells deprived of glucose. The SNF3 gene was disrupted at its chromosomal locus by several methods to create null mutations. Disruption resulted in growth phenotypes consistent with a defect in glucose uptake. Surprisingly, gene disruption did not cause aberrant regulation of SUC2 expression. We discuss possible mechanisms by which abnormal SNF3 gene products encoded by missense alleles could perturb regulatory functions.