Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Central auditory processing in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

UNLABELLED Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients can also present neuropsychiatric disorders, such as impaired memory and attention. Central auditory processing depends on a great number of skills controlled by the central nervous system. OBJECTIVE To characterize the performance of SLE patients, with and without neuropsychiatric disorders (NP), in central auditory processing tests. PATIENTS AND METHODS A prospective controlled study of Dichotic Speech and Temporal Processing Tests was carried out at a tertiary teaching Institution. Three groups were formed with 20 individuals each, totalizing sixty women with age varying from 18 to 48 years: Group I - SLE patients without neuropsychiatric disorders; Group II - SLE patients with neuropsychiatric disorders as well; and Group III - age and gender matched healthy controls. RESULTS Dichotic Speech Test showed similar results for patients in Group I and for healthy controls; however, most of the patients in Group II presented impaired performance with great variability of response. SLE patients (Groups I and II) presented a significantly lower performance in Temporal Processing tests than controls. CONCLUSION SLE patients especially those with neuropsychiatric disorders presented impaired central auditory processing, which may contribute to the memory and attention impairment.
Nocturnal levels of chemerin and progranulin in adolescents: influence of sex, body mass index, glucose metabolism and sleep

Abstract Background: Adipokines have been implicated in obesity, insulin resistance and sleep regulation. However, the role of chemerin and progranulin, two recently described adipokines, in the context of sleep remains unclear. The aim of this study was to compare nocturnal serum chemerin and progranulin levels between overweight/obese and normal-weight adolescents and to assess variations by sex, across different sleep stages and in relation to glucose metabolism. Methods: The study sample included 34 overweight/obese and 32 normal-weight adolescents from secondary schools and the Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases (LIFE) Child study cohort. We obtained longitudinal serum adipokine levels during in-laboratory polysomnography followed by an oral glucose tolerance test. Results: Overweight/obese adolescents had significantly higher mean nocturnal serum chemerin area under the curve (AUC) levels (348.2±133.3 vs. 241.7±67.7 vs. ng/mL×h, p<0.001) compared to normal-weight controls. In detail, higher chemerin AUC levels in obese/overweight subjects were exclusively due to increased levels in females. No overall difference for serum progranulin AUC was found between the groups. However, when assessing sex-specific levels, serum progranulin AUC levels were ~30% higher in overweight/obese males compared to overweight/obese females. Of note, nocturnal serum chemerin and progranulin AUC did not exhibit a correlation with markers of glucose metabolism or sleep stages. Conclusions: Collectively, we report a sexual dimorphism in nocturnal progranulin and chemerin levels, which may help explain underlying differences in energy balance and body composition between males and females in the context of obesity.
Hadoop MapReduce scheduling paradigms

Apache Hadoop is one of the most prominent and early technologies for handling big data. Different scheduling algorithms within the framework of Apache Hadoop were developed in the last decade. In this paper, we attempt to provide a comprehensive overview over the different paradigms for scheduling in Apache Hadoop. The surveyed approaches fall under different categories, namely, Deadline prioritization, Resource prioritization, Job size prioritization, Hybrid approaches and recent trends for improvements upon default schedulers.
Funeral for a friend.

funeral for a friend What to say and what to do when mostly your friends love reading? Are you the one that don't have such hobby? So, it's important for you to start having that hobby. You know, reading is not the force. We're sure that reading will lead you to join in better concept of life. Reading will be a positive activity to do every time. And do you know our friends become fans of funeral for a friend as the best book to read? Yeah, it's neither an obligation nor order. It is the referred book that will not make you feel disappointed.
Functional Properties of Jaw and Tongue Muscles in Rats Fed a Liquid Diet after Being Weaned

Decreased masticatory demands due to liquid or soft diets cause a reduction in the growth of craniofacial bones and in the development of feeding musculature, but the effects on masticatory function and jaw/tongue muscle activities are unclear. The present study was undertaken to test the hypotheses that a liquid diet feeding after weaning affects the critical-period programming of mastication and the motor performances of jaw and tongue muscles. Thirty-six male Wistar rats were divided into two equals groups at weaning and fed either a solid (solid-diet group) or a liquid (liquid-diet group) diet until they reached 50 days of age. Electromyograms (EMG) of the masseter, medial pterygoid, temporalis, anterior digastric, styloglossus, and genioglossus were recorded while animals were naturally ingesting ordinary pellets, apple cubes, and a liquid diet. It was found that: (1) a more irregular chewing rhythm, a shorter chewing sequence, and a longer chewing cycle were found in the liquid-diet group, but there were no differences observed during lapping/licking between the two groups; (2) during the chewing cycles, the EMG onset of each muscle in relation to that of the masseter in the liquid-diet group was similar to that in the lapping/licking cycles in both groups; (3) the activities of jaw elevators (masseter, medial pterygoid, and temporalis) during the chewing cycles were significantly higher in the liquid-diet group; and (4) the increase in the EMG activities of jaw elevators during pellet chewing compared with apple cube chewing was significantly weaker in the liquid-diet group, whereas such an enhancement was found simultaneously in the styloglossus in the solid-diet group, and in the anterior digastric in the liquid-diet group. These findings verify that: (1) the motor output of jaw and tongue muscles may be altered in rats fed a liquid diet after being weaned; (2) the feeding of a liquid diet to rats after being weaned may obstruct the functional transition from suckling to mastication; and (3) jaw elevators that develop without motor learning of mastication are inefficiency when performing functionally.
Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor–calcium antagonist combination: an alliance for cardioprotection?

Mechanisms of action in smooth muscle Calcium antagonists and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors act synergistically in reducing blood pressure. Calcium antagonists counter an excess of calcium entry through the voltage-operated channels of the vascular smooth muscle. ACE inhibitors reduce the vasoconstrictive properties of local and circulating angiotensin II. In addition, they improve endothelium-dependent vasodilation by increasing the expression of endothelial inositol by a bradykinin-related mechanism. Thus, at the smooth muscle level, calcium antagonists cause dilation by reducing external calcium entry and ACE inhibitors cause dilation by reducing internal calcium cycling and improving nitric oxide production. Effects at molecular level The two agents have synergistic anti-ischaemic effects. At the molecular level calcium antagonists exert a potent cardioprotective action; this effect requires prophylactic administration and relies on the ATPsparing capacity of these drugs. Moreover, prophylactic administration of verapamil but not of other calcium antagonists in patients who have suffered an acute myocardial infarction reduces overall mortality, provided no overt heart failure is present. The molecular effect of ACE inhibitors on the ischaemic heart is less well known but seems to be related to a reduction in noradrenaline release or to an improvement in bradykinin; the effect is thus complementary to that of calcium antagonists. Other actions of ACE inhibitors There is evidence that ACE inhibitors may have additional cardioprotective properties in being able to improve coronary flow, prevent arrhythmias, reduce the toxicity of oxygen free radicals, improve myocardial energy metabolism and prevent remodelling of the heart. ACE inhibitors can also protect the ischaemic heart by inhibiting bradykinin breakdown and by interfering with the central and peripheral nervous and hormone systems such as the kallikrein–kinin, prostaglandin and sympathetic nervous systems. The administration of ACE inhibitors to patients with acute myocardial infarction failed to reduce mortality. However, prophylactic administration to patients with myocardial infarction and heart failure resulted in a significant reduction in mortality and in hospitalization for cardiac disease. Conclusions The combination of verapamil with an ACE inhibitor is promising not only for the treatment of hypertension, but also for ischaemic heart disease.
Optimal selection of Reed-Solomon code rate and the number of frequency slots in asynchronous FHSS-MA networks

The performance of Reed-Solomon codes in an asynchronous frequency-hop spread-spectrum multiple-spectrum (FHSS-MA) network is discussed. When q denotes the number of frequency slots available to the network and r denotes the rate of the Reed-Solomon code, optimal (q,r) pairs that meet a given performance criterion with minimum bandwidth expansion (q/r) for a given number of active users are obtained. It is shown that the optimal code rate rapidly converges to a constant value and the optimum number of slots increases approximately linearly as the number of active users increases. This suggests that one should fix the code rate and increase the number of slots to accommodate the increasing number of users in the network under a given performance criterion with minimum bandwidth expansion. >
Don’t let sleeping dogmas lie: new views of peptidoglycan synthesis and its regulation

Bacterial cell wall synthesis is the target for some of our most powerful antibiotics and has thus been the subject of intense research focus for more than 50 years. Surprisingly, we still lack a fundamental understanding of how bacteria build, maintain and expand their cell wall. Due to technical limitations, directly testing hypotheses about the coordination and biochemistry of cell wall synthesis enzymes or architecture has been challenging, and interpretation of data has therefore often relied on circumstantial evidence and implicit assumptions. A number of recent papers have exploited new technologies, like single molecule tracking and real‐time, high resolution temporal mapping of cell wall synthesis processes, to address fundamental questions of bacterial cell wall biogenesis. The results have challenged established dogmas and it is therefore timely to integrate new data and old observations into a new model of cell wall biogenesis in rod‐shaped bacteria.
Direct integration of III–V compound semiconductor nanostructures on silicon by selective epitaxy

Direct integration of III–V compound semiconductor (GaAs) on silicon (Si) substrates has been demonstrated using selective epitaxy on patterned substrates. GaAs was grown directly on patterned (001), (011), and (111) Si substrates covered with 60 nm thick thermally grown SiO2. After growth, GaAs crystals with both dot and wire shapes show preferred {011} facets. GaAs grown on particular wire patterns which are parallel to {011} surfaces shows uniform nanowire structure. Transmission electron microscopy shows dislocation-free GaAs with low density of anti-phase domain boundaries along [111] directions. Metal–oxide–semiconductor structures with aluminum oxide as gate dielectric were fabricated using GaAs nanowires on Si. Capacitance–voltage measurements show clear inversion and accumulation.
Cost and burden of dengue and chikungunya from the Americas to Asia

The ten studies in this special issue document the substantial and growing burden of dengue in the Americas, Africa and Asia, and the burden of a chikungunya outbreak in India. Luiz Tadeu Moraes Figuedo’s paper on dengue in Brazil confirms the country’s worsening trend from 1999–2009, where cases rose at 6.2% per year and dengue deaths at 12.0% per year. Carmen Perez and co-workers, reporting on dengue vector control in Puerto Rico, found that 83% of the costs (US$ 1.97 per person per year) were funded by the lowest and often the least financed level of government: municipalities. Examining dengue cases imported into France, Guy LaRuche documented the alarming increase in cases originating from Cote d’Ivoire from only one case in 2006–07 to six cases in 2008. Using modeling and Monte Carlo simulations, Tiina Murtola and co-authors estimated the “immediate” cost of chikungunya and dengue in India at US$ 1.48 billion (range US$ 0.64 billion to US$ 3.60 billion). Tapasvi Puwar and co-workers, reporting on a 2006 household survey in Ahmedabad, found that only 23% of chikungunya cases sought care in public facilities, so that under-reporting must be considerable. Extending the analysis of this chikungunyua outbreak, Dileep Mavalankar and co-authors placed its economic cost at US$ 8.6-US$ 17.3 million. Ami T. Bhavsar and co-authors, studying dengue cases hospitalized at a private hospital in Surat, India, found that the economic cost of a case averaged US$ 585.57 (US$ 439.44 for direct medical costs and US$ 146.13 for indirect costs). Lee Han Lim and coworkers, estimated the “immediate” cost of dengue to Malaysia and Thailand at US$ 133 to $135 million, respectively. Sukhontha Kongsin and co-authors found that on a per capita basis, costs of dengue in Thailand in 2005 averaged US$ 3.55, of which 28% was due to vector control and 72% due to dengue illness. Examining the burden of dengue on households in Cambodia, Jose A Suaya and co-authors found that and 53% needed to sell household property to fund dengue treatment. Effective methods to prevent the disease would, therefore, result in important economic benefits in many tropical countries.
The maintenance implications of the customization of ERP software

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a dominant approach for dealing with legacy information system problems. In order to avoid invalidating maintenance and development support from the ERP vendor, most organizations reengineer their business processes in line with those implicit within the software. Regardless, some customization is typically required. This paper presents two case studies of ERP projects where customizations have been performed. The case analysis suggests that while customizations can give true organizational benefits, careful consideration is required to determine whether a customization is viable given its potential impact upon future maintenance. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Numerical simulation of transport and sequential biodegradation of chlorinated aliphatic hydrocarbons using CHAIN_2D

Microbiological degradation of perchloroethylene (PCE) under anaerobic conditions follows a series of chain reactions, in which, sequentially, trichloroethylene (TCE), cis-dichloroethylene (c-DCE), vinylchloride (VC) and ethene are generated. First-order degradation rate constants, partitioning coeAcients and mass exchange rates for PCE, TCE, c-DCE and VC were compiled from the literature. The parameters were used in a case study of pump-and-treat remediation of a PCE-contaminated site near Tilburg, The Netherlands. Transport, non-equilibrium sorption and biodegradation chain processes at the site were simulated using the CHAIN_2D code without further calibration. The modelled PCE compared reasonably well with observed PCE concentrations in the pumped water. We also performed a scenario analysis by applying several increased reductive dechlorination rates, reflecting diAerent degradation conditions (e.g. addition of yeast extract and citrate). The scenario analysis predicted considerably higher concentrations of the degradation products as a result of enhanced reductive dechlorination of PCE. The predicted levels of the very toxic compound VC were now an order of magnitude above the maximum permissible concentration levels. Copyright # 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Resveratrol in cardiovascular health and disease

Resveratrol, initially used for cancer therapy, has shown beneficial effects against most degenerative and cardiovascular diseases from atherosclerosis, hypertension, ischemia/reperfusion, and heart failure to diabetes, obesity, and aging. The cardioprotective effects of resveratrol are associated with its preconditioning‐like action potentiated by its adaptive response. During preconditioning, small doses of resveratrol can exert an adaptive stress response, forcing the expression of cardioprotective genes and proteins such as heat shock and antioxidant proteins. Similarly, resveratrol can induce autophagy, another form of stress adaptation for degrading damaged or long‐lived proteins, as a first line of protection against oxidative stress. Resveratrol's interaction with multiple molecular targets of diverse intracellular pathways (e.g., action on sirtuins and FoxOs through multiple transcription factors and protein targets) intertwines with those of the autophagic pathway to give support in the modified redox environment after stem cell therapy, which leads to prolonged survival of cells. The successful application of resveratrol in therapy is based upon its hormetic action similar to any toxin: exerting beneficial effects at lower doses and cytotoxic effects at higher doses.
A way of using a small MT system in industry

In 1982, Sharp launched research into machine translation, English to Japanese. Since then, the company has commercialized a series of machine translation systems, DUET E/J, E/J-II, J/E, and Qt, and most recently has ported the system onto a business-use Japanese word processor "SHOIN" adding a new feature called “phrase-to-phrase translation function. ” This is to overview the features of DUET Qt and the “English Text Translation Support Software” on the word processor as well as how the small MT systems are used in industry.
The Role of Glutathione in Intestinal Dysfunction

Glutathione plays an important cytoprotective role in the gut. Animal studies have demonstrated that the provision of glutathione precursors are protective for different types of free-radical-mediated cellular injury. There is a need to clarify the potential role of glutathione supplementation in ischemia–reperfusion injury and inflammatory bowel disease. More speculative is whether dietary treatment with glutathione precursors can modify the progress of colorectal cancer.
Exercise, Functional Decline and Frailty

ge-related decline in physiologic function is familiar to anyone interested in aging. Physicians observe gradual declines in their A patients. Most people notice subtle changes themselves. For most of a person's life, age-related decline has little functional significance, except perhaps for elite athletes. Eventually, however, because of its apparent relentless, year-in-year-out pace, decline in physical performance will produce functional impairment and can add to the morbidity of chronic diseases. The past decade has witnessed increased interest in maintenance of functional capacity as shown by influential papers dealing with topics like compression of morbidity'*2 and active life e~pectancy. ~ Because exercise, especially exercise designed to produce physical conditioning, is known to improve physical performance, there is great interest in the role of exercise as a means to forestall or attenuate age-related decline and prevent or treat frailty.4 The paper by Morey et a15 provides important information about the duration of improvement that occurs from exercise training. Longitudinal data are needed to know whether exercise has an effect on age-related decline in pe r f~mance . ~ Previously, the only available data consisted of a few reports comparing maximal oxygen consumption in small numbers of sedentary and habitually active persons over t h ~ e . ~ , ' , ~ Based on these studies, we concluded that for middle-aged men, regular exercise might decrease the rate of age-related decline by half but that more data were needed, especially in older persons where decline has more functional ~ignificance. ',~ The study by Morey et a1 demonstrates that gains in cardiovascular performance and flexibility can be sustained for 2 years. Strength, although not significantly improved, increased somewhat and definitely did not decline. Overall, Morey's report provides additional supportive evidence that habitual and, if necessary, supervised exercise can play an important role in maintaining functional capacity. Two papers, one describing functional morbidity"
Analytic review: some current problems of human population genetics.

In recent years there has been a considerable increase of interest in human population genetics. Various motives have inspired this trend: (1) There can be no genetic analysis of human genetic data without an understanding of the principles of population genetics. The mathematics involved may be tedious but have largely been made negotiable, thanks to the increasing popularity of computers. (2) Human data may supply insight into some general evolutionary problems which are not so easily solved in other organisms; the wealth of material already accumulated or potentially available is enormous. (3) Physical anthropologists realize increasingly that this branch of genetics is the theoretical backbone for their work. Social and cultural anthropologists may soon start realizing that there are important areas of overlap. (4) Anything human tends to attract more curiosity and, at times of dwindling financial support for research, has perhaps a higher chance of being funded. The usefulness of computers could not be overemphasized. Statistical methods that were available but not employed because of the heavy arithmetic involved are now usable in practice. Computers can also supply theoretical answers by Montecarlo or simulation methods to problems which are out of reach for mathematical techniques. Both advantages should be -viewed with caution. Realism shows that in many biological estimations even the first significant digit may be in doubt. For this reason, the use of highly sophisticated methods requiring computers may sometimes generate perplexity, but by now it is often most economical to use programs already available for electronic computers. As to the use of computer simulation, it does not seem to be (usually at least) that exercise in "solipsism" which Morton denounces. It is true that in several cases an analytic technique can be found which answers the problem. But this may not be achievable before simulation; the heuristic value of simulating a complex phenomenon, in sorting out essential variables-or discovering unexpected conclusions-should not be minimized. Moreover, many of the mathematical theories of evolutionary genetics are themselves approximate or highly oversimplified, and computer simulation helps in showing their range of applicability. It may be argued that the first motive is likely to decrease in importance with