Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recording by the Police of Violent Offences; An Accident and Emergency Department Perspective

The British Crime Surveys have demonstrated that police-derived crime statistics are an unreliable indicator of the true number of violent offences in society. We therefore investigated police recording of consecutive victims of violence who sought treatment in a large Accident and Emergency (A & E) Department. Of victims assaulted within the boundaries of the inner-city Police Division, only one quarter were recorded by the police, though half claimed police awareness of the incident. Proportionately fewer assaults which occurred in the street, in discoteques or on Saturdays were recorded, in comparison to assaults which occurred in other locations and on other days. Proportionately more female victims were recorded, compared to males. A & E data provide a useful insight into the efficiency and effectiveness of inner-city policing. Victims Support Schemes should liaise with A & E Departments as well as with the police.
Statistical torsion angle potential energy functions for protein structure modeling: A bicubic interpolation approach

A set of grid type knowledge‐based energy functions is introduced for ϕ–χ1, ψ–χ1, ϕ–ψ, and χ1–χ2 torsion angle combinations. Boltzmann distribution is assumed for the torsion angle populations from protein X‐ray structures, and the functions are named as statistical torsion angle potential energy functions. The grid points around periodic boundaries are duplicated to force periodicity, and the remedy relieves the derivative discontinuity problem. The devised functions rapidly improve the quality of model structures. The potential bias in the functions and the usefulness of additional secondary structure information are also investigated. The proposed guiding functions are expected to facilitate protein structure modeling, such as protein structure prediction, protein design, and structure refinement. Proteins 2013. Proteins 2013; 81:1156–1165. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Increased susceptibility to constant light in nr and pcd mice with inherited retinal degenerations.

PURPOSE To determine whether the degenerating photoreceptors in nervous (nr/nr) and Purkinje cell degeneration (pcd/pcd) mutant mice are more susceptible to the damaging effects of constant light than those in age-matched normal mice. METHODS Beginning at two ages for each mutant, albino nr/nr and pcd/pcd mice were placed into constant fluorescent light at an illuminance of 115 foot-candles to 130 foot-candles for a period of 1 week. Age-matched (usually littermate) normal (+/-) mice were exposed at the same time. The degree of photoreceptor cell loss was quantified histologically by obtaining a mean outer nuclear layer thickness for each animal. The light-exposed mice were compared with age-matched mutant and normal mice that were maintained in cyclic light. RESULTS The homozygous mutants at each age showed a significantly greater loss of photoreceptor cells caused by constant light exposure than did the normal +/- mice in the same period of light exposure. The nr/nr and pcd/pcd mutants lost two to three times the number of photoreceptor cells than did the +/- mice during the constant light exposure. CONCLUSIONS It has long been thought that excessive light may be harmful to patients with inherited or age-related photoreceptor degenerations. The present data add to other experimental evidence suggesting that photoreceptors already undergoing inherited or other forms of degeneration may be particularly susceptible to the damaging effects of excessive light.
Label segregation by remapping stereoscopic depth in far-field augmented reality

This paper describes a novel technique for segregating overlapping labels in stereoscopic see-through displays. The present study investigates the labeling of far-field objects, with distances ranging 100-120 m. At these distances the stereoscopic disparity difference between objects is below 1 arcmin, so labels rendered at the same distance as their corresponding objects appear as if on a flat layer in the display. This flattening is due to limitations of both display and human visual resolution. By remapping labels to pre-determined depth layers on the optical path between the observer and the labeled object, an interlayer disparity ranging from 5 to 20 arcmin can be achieved for 5 overlapping labels. The present study evaluates the impact of such depth separation of superimposed layers, and found that a 5 arcmin interlayer disparity yields a significantly lower response time, over 20% on average, in a visual search task compared to correctly registering labels and objects in depth. Notably the performance does not improve when doubling the interlayer disparity to 10 arcmin and, surprisingly, the performance degrades significantly when again doubling the interlayer disparity to 20 arcmin, approximating the performance in situations with no interlayer disparity. These results confirm that our technique can be used to segregate overlapping labels in the far visual field, without the cost associated with traditional label placement algorithms.
The Fourteen Wuhan Intemational Conference on E-Business — — Innovation Management and IT Business Value 449 * IT vs . Marketing : Efficiency and Effectiveness Evaluation

Owing to budget constraints, managers should balance the expenditure requirement of IT and marketing department. This paper offers a new method to evaluate the importance of IT department and marketing department. It introduces the triangular three-stage DEA model to measure the expenditure efficiency and effectiveness. Using the data of the hotel industry of Macao, it shows that IT and marketing effectiveness is both positively correlated to productivity while efficiency is not significantly correlated to effectiveness. That means hotel managers need to more carefully and proactively examine the related budgets to be allocated to IT and marketing. The correlation coefficient of marketing effectiveness (coefficient=0.44) is higher than that of IT effectiveness (coefficient=0.41), which shows that in the sample period marketing expenses are somewhat a little more contributive to the business value than IT. This new way can be a reference for managers to set up the budget.
Une approche par dissimilarité pour la caractérisation de jeux de données

La caracterisation de jeu de donnees reste un verrou majeur de l'analyse de donnees intelligente. Une majorite d'approches a ce probleme agregent les informations decrivant les attributs individuels des jeux de donnees, ce qui represente une perte d'information. Nous proposons une approche par dissimilarite permettant d'eviter cette agregation, et etudions son interet dans la caracterisation des performances d'algorithmes de classification et dans la resolution de problemes de meta-apprentissage.
Regulation of Myosin Phosphatase by Rho and Rho-Associated Kinase (Rho-Kinase)

The small guanosine triphosphatase Rho is implicated in myosin light chain (MLC) phosphorylation, which results in contraction of smooth muscle and interaction of actin and myosin in nonmuscle cells. The guanosine triphosphate (GTP)-bound, active form of RhoA (GTP·RhoA) specifically interacted with the myosin-binding subunit (MBS) of myosin phosphatase, which regulates the extent of phosphorylation of MLC. Rho-associated kinase (Rho-kinase), which is activated by GTP·RhoA, phosphorylated MBS and consequently inactivated myosin phosphatase. Overexpression of RhoA or activated RhoA in NIH 3T3 cells increased phosphorylation of MBS and MLC. Thus, Rho appears to inhibit myosin phosphatase through the action of Rho-kinase.
Adaptive mammographic image enhancement using first derivative and local statistics

This paper proposes an adaptive image enhancement method for mammographic images, which is based on the first derivative and the local statistics. The adaptive enhancement method consists of three processing steps. The first step is to remove the film artifacts which may be misread as microcalcifications. The second step is to compute the gradient images by using the first derivative operators. The third step is to enhance the important features of the mammographic image by adding the adaptively weighted gradient images. Local statistics of the image are utilized for adaptive realization of the enhancement, so that image details can be enhanced and image noises can be suppressed. The objective performances of the proposed method were compared with those by the conventional image enhancement methods for a simulated image and the seven mammographic images containing real microcalcifications. The performance of the proposed method was also evaluated by means of the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis for 78 real mammographic images with and without microcalcifications.
Frequent Long-Distance Plant Colonization in the Changing Arctic

The ability of species to track their ecological niche after climate change is a major source of uncertainty in predicting their future distribution. By analyzing DNA fingerprinting (amplified fragment-length polymorphism) of nine plant species, we show that long-distance colonization of a remote arctic archipelago, Svalbard, has occurred repeatedly and from several source regions. Propagules are likely carried by wind and drifting sea ice. The genetic effect of restricted colonization was strongly correlated with the temperature requirements of the species, indicating that establishment limits distribution more than dispersal. Thus, it may be appropriate to assume unlimited dispersal when predicting long-term range shifts in the Arctic.
LIBERACIÓN DE COMPUESTOS FENÓLICOS LIGADOS EN EL GARBANZO (Cicer arietinum L.) UTILIZANDO MICROBIOTA HUMANA INTESTINAL

El garbanzo es una legumbre que además de aportar nutrientes para la salud, contiene una serie de compuestos bioactivos, principalmente compuestos fenólicos considerados altamente antioxidantes. Por lo tanto, puede prevenir enfermedades generalmente crónico-degenerativas. El problema con estos compuestos es que alrededor del 70 al 90 % se encuentran ligados a la matriz alimentaria a través de enlaces covalentes; para que puedan pasar a torrente sanguíneo y ejercer su actividad biológica (biodisponibilidad) tienen primero que estar liberados de la matriz alimentaria y biotransformarse en compuestos de bajo peso molecular para que puedan atravesar el intestino (bioaccesibilidad). Desafortunadamente el intestino delgado (donde se lleva a cabo la mayor absorción) carece de enzimas específicas para la hidrólisis de los compuestos ligados, por lo que tienen que pasar al intestino grueso, donde la microbiota intestinal se encarga de su hidrólisis. Sin embargo, aún no están bien definidos los mecanismos que la microbiota utiliza para realizar esta acción. Por lo tanto, en esta revisión se describe la importancia de los compuestos fenólicos del garbanzo, así como su bioactividad y mecanismos que la microbiota utiliza para hacerlos más bioaccesibles y biodisponibles.
Correlation of sleep disorder and Parkinson's disease severity in Turkish patients.

Between 60 and 98% of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) have sleep-related symptoms. 1 The motor disturbances of this disease may cause an inability to achieve restful sleep. Sleep difficulties in patients with PD are independent of specific sleep disorders, and may be part of the disease process itself. The dopaminergic drugs and the pathophysiology of PD might contribute to a higher frequency of sleep fragmentation and disruption of sleep among these patients. Although PD usually presents with a disorder of movement, non-motor symptoms may occur particularly as the disease progresses. Non-motor aspects of PD can also interfere with sleep. Despite the high prevalence of sleep disorders and the problems they cause, there are few reports evaluating sleep problems in PD. To assess the type of sleep disorders and the correlation between disease severity and sleep disorders, we prospectively evaluated patients in our movement disorders clinic. Fifty-four patients with PD participated in the study after giving written informed consent. This was a prospective study of patients with PD consecutively seen at the movement disorder outpatient clinic of Mustafa
Ultra-structure changes and survivin expression in uterine fibroids after radiofrequency ablation

Abstract Purpose: To explore the reliability and validity of radiofrequency (RF) ablation in treating uterine fibroids. Materials and methods: We evaluated 63 patients who underwent hysterectomy to treat multiple fibroids. Thirty patients immediately underwent abdominal hysterectomy after the fibroids were ablated under direct vision. Thirty-three patients first experienced trans-vaginal ablation with the guidance of a baseline ultrasound. We performed abdominal or trans-vaginal hysterectomy 72 h later. The tissues in the centre of the ablated lesion (group A), at the edge of the ablated lesion (group B), 1 cm away from the ablated edge (group C) and the control group were sampled. We observed ultra-structure changes by transmission electron microscopy and detected survivin expression with Western blot analysis. Results: According to transmission electron microscopy, the ultra-structure of fibroid cells in groups A and B was damaged. However, in group C, the ultra-structure was normal. Compared with the control group, survivin expression was significantly decreased. Meanwhile survivin expression was significantly increased with the distance to the ablated centre (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Radiofrequency ablation caused permanent and irreversible damage to fibroid cells and decreased survivin expression, which provided reliable clinical evidence for the success of radiofrequency ablation treating uterine fibroids.
Dietary restriction in mice beginning at 1 year of age: effect on life-span and spontaneous cancer incidence.

Lifelong dietary restriction beginning at 3 to 6 weeks of age in rodents is known to decelerate the rate of aging, increase mean and maximum life-spans, and inhibit the occurrence of many spontaneous cancers. Little is known about the effects of dietary restriction started in middle age. In the experiments now reported the food intake of 12- to 13-month-old mice of two long-lived strains was restricted by using nutrient-enriched diets in accordance with the concept of "undernutrition without malnutrition. " The mice on the restricted diet averaged 10 to 20 percent increases in mean and maximum survival times compared to the control mice. Spontaneous lymphoma was inhibited by the food restriction.
Comparison of integrated samplers for mass and composition during the 1999 Atlanta Supersites project

[1] The first of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Particulate Matter (PM) Supersites projects was established in Atlanta, GA, during the summer of 1999 in conjunction with the Southern Oxidants Study. The short-term primary focus was a one month intensive field campaign to evaluate advanced PM measurement methods for measuring PM mass and the chemical and physical properties of PM. Long-term objectives are being met through coordination and cooperation with existing programs in Atlanta and the southeastern United States. Three categories of PM instruments were deployed during August 1999: time-integrated or discrete filter-based methods like those used in EPA's PM2.5 Chemical Speciation Network; continuous or semicontinuous species specific methods, most of which are still in development; and single particle mass spectrometers, the most advanced methods looking at the chemical composition of single particles. The focus of this paper is on comparison of the discrete filter-based methods. Samples were collected by 12 discrete filter-based samplers on an every other day basis during the study period at the Jefferson Street Southeastern Aerosol Research and Characterization (SEARCH) study site. Samples were analyzed for PM2.5 mass, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, organic carbon, elemental carbon, and trace elements, the latter by XRF. Samplers used a variety of filters; denuder-filter combinations in the case of nitrate and organic carbon, particle size fractionating devices, and flow rates. Ambient concentrations for most species were sufficiently above detection limits for testing comparability among samplers, with nitrate being the most notable exception for the major components having an average reported value of 0.5 μg/m 3 . Several trace species, e.g., As and Pb, also were often below limits of detection of the analysis method. Results indicate that real differences exist among the samplers tested for most species, with sulfate and ammonium being the exceptions, under the conditions tested. Differences are due to sampler design, and in the case of elemental carbon, also due to the use of different chemical analysis methods. Comparability among most of the samplers for a given species was: mass (±20%); sulfate (±10%); nitrate (±30-35%); ammonium (±10-15%); organic carbon either with or without denuders (±20%) or including samplers both with and without denuders (±35-45%); elemental carbon (±20 to ±200%, the latter if different analysis methods are used); and minor and trace elements (±20-30%). A net organic carbon-sampling artifact on quartz-fiber filters was estimated from the comparison of denuded versus undenuded samples and is in the range of 1-4 μg/m 3 .
Intracellular targeting of the Yersinia YopE cytotoxin in mammalian cells induces actin microfilament disruption

Pathogenic Yersinia spp. , including the etiological agent of plague, Y. pestis, all carry a common plasmid that encodes a number of essential virulence determinants, the Yop proteins. One of these, YopE, has been shown to be involved in the obstruction of the primary host defense by a molecular mechanism leading to inhibition of phagocytosis (R. Rosqvist, A. Forsberg, M. Rimpiläinen, T. Bergman, and H. Wolf-Watz, Mol. Microbiol. 4:657-667, 1990). Although the Yop proteins are secreted into the culture supernatant in vast amounts, in vitro studies of the function of the Yop proteins have so far been unsuccessful. We show that isolated Yop proteins indeed can cause cytotoxic effects in vitro if the proteins are introduced intracellularly into the eukaryotic cell. Isolated Yop proteins of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis were found to disrupt the microfilament structure when microinjected intracellularly into the host cell. In particular, YopE was demonstrated to be directly involved in the cytotoxic action, whereas YopD seems to have a critical role in translocating the YopE protein through the host cell membrane. These results elucidate the requirement for at least some of the Yop proteins to leave the pathogen during infection.
Mortality and cancer incidence among Swedish lumberjacks exposed to phenoxy herbicides

OBJECTIVES To determine mortality and cancer incidence relative to exposure to phenoxy herbicides. METHODS A cohort of Swedish lumberjacks of which 261 were exposed to phenoxy herbicides, and 250 were unexposed, was followed up for mortality from 1954 to 1994, and for cancer incidence from 1958 to 1992. The number of days of exposure to phenoxy herbicides was determined from pay slips. With the county population as a reference, standardised mortality ratios and cancer incidence ratios (SMR and SIR) were calculated. RESULTS Mortality and cancer incidence were low with two exceptions; a small but highly exposed group of foremen showed an increased cancer incidence (SIR 274, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 100 to 596), and over all mortality (SMR 141, 95% CI 68 to 260). Of three cases of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, two were found among the most exposed workers. CONCLUSIONS The results provide some support to claims of previous studies that exposure to phenoxy herbicides might be related to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and to an increased overall cancer risk.
Top-percentile traffic routing problem

Multi-homing is a technology used by Internet Service Provider (ISP) to connect to the Internet via multiple networks. This connectivity enhances the network reliability and service quality of the ISP. However, using multi-networks may imply multiple costs on the ISP. To make full use of the underlying networks with minimum cost, a routing strategy is requested by ISPs. Of course, this optimal routing strategy depends on the pricing regime used by network providers. In this study we investigate a relatively new pricing regime – top-percentile pricing. Under top-percentile pricing, network providers divide the charging period into several fixed length time intervals and calculate their cost according to the traffic volume that has been shipped during the θ-th highest time interval. Unlike traditional pricing regimes, the network design under top-percentile pricing has not been fully studied. This paper investigates the optimal routing strategy in case where network providers charge ISPs according to top-percentile pricing. We call this problem the Top-percentile Traffic Routing Problem (TpTRP). As the ISP cannot predict next time interval’s traffic volume in real world application, in our setting up the TpTRP is a multi-stage stochastic optimisation problem. Routing decisions should be made at the beginning of every time period before knowing the amount of traffic that is to be sent. The stochastic nature of the TpTRP forms the critical difficulty of this study. In this paper several approaches are investigated in either the modelling or solving steps of the problem. We begin by exploring several simplifications of the original TpTRP to get an insight of the features of the problem. Some of these allow analytical solutions which lead to bounds on the achievable optimal solution. We also establish bounds by investigating several “naive” routing policies. In the second part of this work, we build the multi-stage stochastic programming model of the TpTRP, which is hard to solve due to the integer variables introduced in the calculation of the top-percentile traffic. A lift-and-project based cutting plane
Cutting Edge: Differential Production of Prostaglandin D2 by Human Helper T Cell Subsets

Several effector molecules, including cytokines, are differentially produced by Th1 and Th2 cells. We used a gene expression screen method to identify a gene encoding hematopoietic PG D synthase (hPGDS) which was preferentially expressed in human Th2 but not Th1 clones. Studies with anti-hPGDS mAbs confirmed the Th2-dominated expression of hPGDS protein. Upon stimulation with anti-CD3 plus anti-CD28 mAbs, coordinated cyclooxygenase-2 expression and PGD2 production were induced in Th2 lines. hPGDS expression was also observed in a small population (<1.0%) of peripheral blood CD4+ lymphocytes from healthy adults. Most hPGDS-expressing CD4+ lymphocytes showed a typical Th2-type cytokine pattern. Our results suggest that, at the sites of Ag presentation, at least part of the Th2 cell population produces PGD2, which may be involved in various aspects of Th2-related immune responses similar to mast cells.