Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The sensitivity and specificity of a red blood cell agglutination D-dimer assay for venous thromboembolism when performed on venous blood.

BACKGROUND Studies evaluating the accuracy of the SimpliRED D-dimer assay for venous thromboembolism (VTE) have used a capillary fingerstick blood sample, which requires the test to be performed immediately at the bedside. Initial studies showed a sensitivity for VTE of 90% to 95% when the assay was performed by a finite number of experienced health care workers. However, because of the test's subjectivity, misinterpretation of the result is possible when performed by inexperienced staff. Recent reports by other investigators indicated a low sensitivity of this assay for VTE and noted a reduction in sensitivity (84%) for pulmonary embolism. OBJECTIVE To determine the sensitivity and specificity of the D-dimer test performed in the laboratory by experienced technologists on venous whole-blood samples in routine collection tubes. If D-dimer testing results accurately detect VTE when performed in this manner, concerns about the sensitivity of this assay would be solved. METHODS One hundred forty-eight consecutive patients with suspected VTE underwent D-dimer testing at the bedside using a fingerstick sample and venous blood collected into a plain tube. Venous blood was also collected into tubes containing tri-potassium EDTA, sodium citrate, or a combination of lithium and heparin for D-dimer testing in the laboratory. In addition, the EDTA tube was refrigerated overnight at 4 degrees C for retesting at approximately 24 hours. The presence or absence of VTE was determined by means of objective results of testing and a 3-month follow-up. RESULTS Thirty-four subjects (23%) had confirmed VTE (25 with deep vein thrombosis; 9 with pulmonary embolism). All laboratory venous blood D-dimer results showed sensitivities of 97%, specificities of 61% to 64%, and negative predictive values of 99%, compared with 88%, 71%, and 95%, respectively, when the results were obtained by means of fingerstick at the bedside. CONCLUSIONS The SimpliRED D-dimer assay performed in the laboratory on venous blood, collected into any of 3 routine laboratory tubes, is sensitive and moderately specific for VTE. Based on this study, immediate bedside testing (particularly by inexperienced personnel) under suboptimal conditions is unnecessary. Furthermore, the high sensitivity of refrigerated EDTA samples allows specimens to be stored or transported (on ice at 4 degrees C) for testing for 24 hours after collection.
ANÁLISE COMPARATIVA DOS ÍNDICES DE VEGETAÇÃO NDVI E SAVI NO MUNICÍPIO DE SÃO DOMINGOS DO CARIRI-PB

A desertificacao pode ser considerada como um complexo processo de degradacao que constituigraves problemas ambientais. Areas em processo de desertificacao ainda precisam ser melhorcaracterizadas, portanto e fundamental a elaboracao de parâmetros de analise e o desenvolvimento demetodologias e tecnicas para a compreensao desse processo. Entre as tecnologias disponiveis eatualmente utilizadas em estudos acerca da desertificacao, destaca-se o Sensoriamento Remoto. Osensoriamento remoto esta sendo utilizado na modelagem de varios parâmetros biofisicos davegetacao que podem ser medidos atraves dos indices de vegetacao, sendo estes cada vez maisaplicados como indicadores da qualidade ambiental. No entanto, varios indices de vegetacao podemser diferentemente afetados por diversos fatores, como a reflectância sob determinadas condicoesclimaticas como e o caso do semiarido, que pode interferir no valor espectral do alvo, influenciandodiretamente no valor do indice calculado. O presente trabalho teve como objetivo analisar osresultados dos Indices de Vegetacao SAVI e NDVI no municipio de Sao Domingos-PB obtidos apartir de imagens Landsat 5 TM de 2009 e 2010, com a finalidade de avaliar o desempenho dessesdois indices de vegetacao. Os resultados de NDVI e SAVI apresentaram resultados muitoaproximados, apesar da diferencas entre os valores minimos e maximos dentre as classes estabelecidasem ambas as datas. A maior diferenca entre os resultados ocorreu entre os menores valores na imagemde 2010 correspondente ao periodo chuvoso. Os indices de vegetacao NDVI e SAVI apresentaramresultados satisfatorios no que diz respeito a representacao da vegetacao da regiao estudada. Apesar dadiferenca na representacao de valores minimos e maximos entre os indices a diferenca nos mapastematicos foi quase imperceptivel.
Traffic related pollution and heart rate variability in a panel of elderly subjects

Background: Particulate air pollution has been associated with increased cardiovascular deaths and hospital admissions. To help understand the mechanisms, the types of particles most involved, and the types of persons most susceptible, the association between exposure to summertime air pollution and heart rate variability (HRV) was examined in a panel study of 28 elderly subjects. Methods: Subjects were seen once a week for up to 12 weeks and HRV (SDNN, r-MSSD, PNN50, low frequency/high frequency ratio (LFHFR)) was measured for approximately 30 minutes at each session using a defined protocol. Temperature, day of the week, and hour of the day were controlled, and dummy variables for each subject were controlled for subject specific risk factors. Results: PM2.5 was associated with r-MSSD (−10.1% change for an interquartile range (IQR) increase in exposure (95% CI −2.8 to −16.9)) and PNN50, but stronger associations were seen with black carbon, an indicator of traffic particles, which was also associated with SDNN (−4.6% per IQR (95% CI −2.0 to −7.2)) and LFHFR. Secondary particles were more weakly associated with r-MSSD, as was ozone. No associations were seen with SO2 or NO2. CO had similar patterns of association to black carbon, which disappeared after controlling for black carbon. Black carbon had a substantially higher effect on SDNN in subjects who had had a previous myocardial infarction (−12.7%, 95% CI −5.7 to −19.25). Conclusions: Particles, especially from traffic, are associated with disturbances of autonomic control of the heart.
Novel Methods for the Feature Subset Ensemble Approach

Ensemble learning technique attracted much attention in the past few years. Instead of using a single prediction model, this approach utilizes a number of diverse accurate prediction models to do the job. Many methods have been proposed to build such accurate diverse ensembles, of which bagging and boosting were the most popular. Another method, called Feature Subset Ensembles ( FSE), is thoroughly investigated in this work. This technique build s ensembles by assigning each individual prediction model in the ensemble a distinct feature subset from the pool of available features. In this paper several novel variations to the basicFSEare proposed. Extensive comparisons are carried out to compare the proposed FSEvariants with the basicFSEapproach.
Chemical reduction of odour in fresh sewage sludge in the presence of ferric hydroxide

To assess the potential of ferric hydroxide (FH) to reduce odour emission from dewatered sewage sludge with a moisture of approximately 86%, odour reduction was evaluated using an electronic nose and measurements of odorous compounds (hydrogen sulphide, ammonia and volatile fatty acids (VFAs)). The sulphur species including sulphate, acid-volatile sulphide (AVS), Cr(II)-reducible sulphide (CRS) and elemental sulphur (ES), were analysed by a modified cold diffusion sequential extraction method before and after anaerobic incubation. Within 32 days, 69.3, 83.8 and 88.6% of the odour (or 81.3, 93.7 and 97.5% of hydrogen sulphide) were eliminated, respectively, at the rates of 0.05, 0.10 and 0.25% (wt) of FH. The sulphur species analysis indicated that FeS, FeS2 and a small portion of S0 were formed by FH-sulphide reaction. This study also found that the relationship between odour and H2S concentrations could be well expressed by Steven's law. We believe that FH can be a cost-effective reagent for sludge odour control in sewage treatment processes.
Striatal dopamine transporter binding assessed by [I-123]IPT and single photon emission computed tomography in patients with early Parkinson's disease: implications for a preclinical diagnosis.

BACKGROUND Specific binding to dopamine transporters may serve as a tool to detect early loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons in patients with Parkinson's disease. OBJECTIVE To determine striatal dopamine transporter binding using the cocaine analogue [I-123]N-(3-iodopropen-2-yl)-2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-chl orophenyl) tropane ([I-123]IPT) and single photon emission computed tomography. PATIENTS AND METHODS We studied 9 control subjects (mean age, 58 years; range, 41-69 years) and 28 patients with early Parkinson's disease (Hoehn and Yahr stages I [n = 14] and II [n = 14] [symptom duration, <5 years]; mean age, 55.5 years; range, 36-71 years). Single photon emission computed tomography was performed 90 minutes after injection of 120 to 150 MBq of radioactive [I-123]IPT. RESULTS Specific striatal [I-123] IPT binding (mean +/- SD) was significantly reduced in patients with early Parkinson's disease (ipsilateral striatum: 4.09+/-0.97; range, 2.46-6.40; contralateral striatum: 3.32+/-0.76; range, 1.80-5.13) compared with controls (left striatum: 7.28+/-0.94; range, 5.78-8.81; right striatum: 7.41+/-1.28; range, 5.58-9.44). IPT binding ratios (mean +/- SD) were significantly lower in patients with Hoehn and Yahr stage II (ipsilateral striatum: 3.47+/-0.75; contralateral striatum: 2.96+/-0.73) compared with those with Hoehn and Yahr stage I (ipsilateral striatum: 4.72+/-0.75; contralateral striatum: 3.69+/-0.61) (P<.001). The ipsilateral striatum of patients with Hoehn and Yahr stage I showed a significant mean+/-SD reduction of IPT binding (ipsilateral striatum: 4.72+/-0.75) compared with either right or left striatum of controls (P<.001). Only in 1 patient was IPT binding to the ipsilateral striatum (ratio, 6.40) higher than the lowest value observed in the striatum of a control subject (ratio, 5.58). CONCLUSIONS Use of [I-123] IPT and single photon emission computed tomography demonstrates a reduction of dopamine transporter binding in patients with early Parkinson's disease. Significantly reduced IPT binding already observed in the ipsilateral striatum of patients with Hoehn and Yahr stage I demonstrates the potential of this method to detect preclinical disease.
Architectural design decision: Existing models and tools

In the field of software architecture, there has been a paradigm shift from describing the outcome of architecting process mostly described by component and connector (know-what) to documenting architectural design decisions and their rationale (know-how) which leads to the production of an architecture. This paradigm shift results in emergence of various models and related tools for capturing, managing and sharing architectural design decisions and their rationale explicitly. This paper analyzes existing architectural design decisions models and provides a criteria-based comparison on tools that support these models. The major contribution of this paper is twofold: to show that all of these models have a consensus on capturing the essence of an architectural design decision; and to clarify the major difference among the tools and show what desired features are missing in these tools.
The Prevalence and Associated Factors of Periodontitis According to Fasting Plasma Glucose in the Korean Adults

AbstractAlthough the relationship between diabetes and periodontitis is well established, the association between periodontitis and prediabetes has been investigated less extensively. Furthermore, there has been little research on the prevalence of periodontitis among individuals with prediabetes and diabetes as well as in the overall population using nationally representative data.Among 12,406 adults (≥19 years’ old) who participated in the 2012–2013 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a total of 9977 subjects completed oral and laboratory examinations and were included in this analysis. Periodontitis was defined as a community periodontal index score of ≥3 according to the World Health Organization criteria. The fasting plasma glucose level was categorized into the following 5 groups: normal fasting glucose (NFG) 1 (<90 mg/dL), NFG 2 (90–99 mg/dL), impaired fasting glucose (IFG) 1 (100–110 mg/dL), IFG 2 (111–125 mg/dL), and diabetes (≥126 mg/dL). Overall, the weighted prevalence of periodontitis among the Korean adult population was 24.8% (23.3–26.4%) (weight n = 8,455,952/34,086,014). The unadjusted weighted prevalences of periodontitis were 16.7%, 22.8%, 29.6%, 40.7%, and 46.7% in the NFG 1, NFG 2, IFG 1, IFG 2, and diabetes groups, respectively (P < 0.001). After adjusting for age, sex, smoking history, heavy alcohol drinking, college graduation, household income, waist circumference, serum triglyceride level, serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, and the presence of hypertension, the adjusted weighted prevalence of periodontitis increased to 29.7% in the IFG 2 group (P = 0.045) and 32.5% in the diabetes group (P < 0.001), compared with the NFG 1 group (24%). The odds ratios for periodontitis with the above-mentioned variables as covariates were 1.42 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–1.77, P = 0.002) in the diabetes group and 1.33 (95% CI 1.01–1.75, P = 0.044) in the IFG 2 group, respectively, compared with the NFG1 group.In conclusion, a higher range of IFG levels as well as diabetes, were positively associated with chronic periodontitis in a representative sample of Korean adults. This study suggests that individuals with a higher range of IFG levels before diabetes are at risk of periodontitis, and may benefit from dental screening.
Transposable Element ISHp608 of Helicobacter pylori: Nonrandom Geographic Distribution, Functional Organization, and Insertion Specificity

ABSTRACT A new member of the IS605 transposable element family, designated ISHp608, was found by subtractive hybridization in Helicobacter pylori. Like the three other insertion sequences (ISs) known in this gastric pathogen, it contains two open reading frames (orfA and orfB), each related to putative transposase genes of simpler (one-gene) elements in other prokaryotes; orfB is also related to the Salmonella virulence gene gipA. PCR and hybridization tests showed that ISHp608 is nonrandomly distributed geographically: it was found in 21% of 194 European and African strains, 14% of 175 Bengali strains, 43% of 131 strains from native Peruvians and Alaska natives, but just 1% of 223 East Asian strains. ISHp608 also seemed more abundant in Peruvian gastric cancer strains than gastritis strains (9 of 14 versus 15 of 45, respectively; P = 0.04). Two ISHp608 types differing by ∼11% in DNA sequence were identified: one was widely distributed geographically, and the other was found only in Peruvian and Alaskan strains. Isolates of a given type differed by ≤2% in DNA sequence, but several recombinant elements were also found. ISHp608 marked with a resistance gene was found to (i) transpose in Escherichia coli; (ii) generate simple insertions during transposition, not cointegrates; (iii) insert downstream of the motif 5"-TTAC without duplicating target sequences; and (iv) require orfA but not orfB for its transposition. ISHp608 represents a widespread family of novel chimeric mobile DNA elements whose further analysis should provide new insights into transposition mechanisms and into microbial population genetic structure and genome evolution.
Neuromodulatory adaptive combination of correlation-based learning in cerebellum and reward-based learning in basal ganglia for goal-directed behavior control

Goal-directed decision making in biological systems is broadly based on associations between conditional and unconditional stimuli. This can be further classified as classical conditioning (correlation-based learning) and operant conditioning (reward-based learning). A number of computational and experimental studies have well established the role of the basal ganglia in reward-based learning, where as the cerebellum plays an important role in developing specific conditioned responses. Although viewed as distinct learning systems, recent animal experiments point toward their complementary role in behavioral learning, and also show the existence of substantial two-way communication between these two brain structures. Based on this notion of co-operative learning, in this paper we hypothesize that the basal ganglia and cerebellar learning systems work in parallel and interact with each other. We envision that such an interaction is influenced by reward modulated heterosynaptic plasticity (RMHP) rule at the thalamus, guiding the overall goal directed behavior. Using a recurrent neural network actor-critic model of the basal ganglia and a feed-forward correlation-based learning model of the cerebellum, we demonstrate that the RMHP rule can effectively balance the outcomes of the two learning systems. This is tested using simulated environments of increasing complexity with a four-wheeled robot in a foraging task in both static and dynamic configurations. Although modeled with a simplified level of biological abstraction, we clearly demonstrate that such a RMHP induced combinatorial learning mechanism, leads to stabler and faster learning of goal-directed behaviors, in comparison to the individual systems. Thus, in this paper we provide a computational model for adaptive combination of the basal ganglia and cerebellum learning systems by way of neuromodulated plasticity for goal-directed decision making in biological and bio-mimetic organisms.
Poster Abstract: Towards Worst-Case Bounds Analysis of the IEEE 802.15.4e

Wireless Sensor Networks have been enabling an ever increasing span of applications and usages in the industrial, domestic and commercial domains. Recent advancements in information and communication technologies have been fueling the increasing pervasiveness and ubiquity of this infrastructures, making them an obvious candidate to support the future Internet of Things. Among the prospective applications, however, there are those which present strict requirements in terms of timeliness and reliability, specially in the industrial domain. To address these, the IEEE 802.15. 4 standard functionalities were recently enhanced by the IEEE 802.15. 4e amendment. Ideas which are prominent in the industrial communication field such as frequency hopping, dedicated and shared timeslots and multichannel communication have been implemented in 802.15. 4e. In this line, proposed MAC behaviors such as the Deterministic and Synchronous Multi-channel Extension (DSME) and Time Synchronous Channel Hopping (TSCH), are gaining a lot of attention. Nevertheless, to efficiently address the network demands in terms of latency, resources, and reliability, it is mandatory to carry out a thorough network planning. To achieve this, modeling the fundamental performance limits of such networks is of paramount importance to understand their behavior under the worst-case conditions and to make the appropriate design choices. Network Calculus is an established tool which can accurately compute the worst case bounds of a network. In this paper we provide an insight towards DSME and TSCH by modeling, using Network Calculus formalism, the delay bounds of these MAC behaviors. As a continuation of this work the end-to-end delay bounds will be derived for the rest of the MAC behaviors of IEEE 802.15. 4e. Scheduling algorithms will be developed, analyzed and validated as a future work.
Comparative performance of Thin Layer Agar and Löwenstein-Jensen culture for diagnosis of tuberculosis.

Sputum smear microscopy for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) is cheap and simple but its sensitivity is low. Culture on Löwenstein-Jensen (LJ) is more sensitive but it takes a long time to yield results. Thin-Layer Agar (TLA) culture was suggested as an equally sensitive and faster alternative. We evaluated the performance of TLA for diagnosing TB in Jogjakarta, Indonesia. People with suspected TB presenting from July 2010 to July 2011 to two chest clinics of the National TB Control Programme network of Jogjakarta were eligible for inclusion. A sputum sample was sent to the Gadjah Mada University microbiology laboratory for concentration, smearing, Ziehl-Neelsen staining and culture on LJ and TLA. Sensitivity of cultures was evaluated against a composite reference standard (any positive culture). Time to detection of Mycobacteria was recorded. Out of 1414 samples, 164 (12%) were smear positive, 99 (7%) were scanty and 1151 (81%) were negative. On TLA and LJ respectively, 168 (12%) and 149 (11%) samples were positive, 72 (5%) and 32 (2%) were contaminated (κ = 0.64; 95% CI 0.59-0.69, p <0.01). Using the reference standard, 196 (14%) TB cases were identified. The sensitivity of TLA was 0.86 (95% CI 0.80-0.90), significantly higher (p 0.03) than for LJ (0.76; 95% CI 0.69-0.81). The median time to detection in days was significantly shorter (p <0.01) for TLA (12; 95% CI 11-13) than for LJ (44; 95% CI 43-45). TLA is a rapid and sensitive method for the diagnosis of TB. Implementation studies to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and impact of its introduction into programmatic settings are urgently needed.
Information-theoretic measures of influence based on content dynamics

The fundamental building block of social influence is for one person to elicit a response in another. Researchers measuring a "response" in social media typically depend either on detailed models of human behavior or on platform-specific cues such as re-tweets, hash tags, URLs, or mentions. Most content on social networks is difficult to model because the modes and motivation of human expression are diverse and incompletely understood. We introduce content transfer, an information-theoretic measure with a predictive interpretation that directly quantifies the strength of the effect of one user's content on another's in a model-free way. Estimating this measure is made possible by combining recent advances in non-parametric entropy estimation with increasingly sophisticated tools for content representation. We demonstrate on Twitter data collected for thousands of users that content transfer is able to capture non-trivial, predictive relationships even for pairs of users not linked in the follower or mention graph. We suggest that this measure makes large quantities of previously under-utilized social media content accessible to rigorous statistical causal analysis.
DEPDC5 mutations in familial and sporadic focal epilepsy

Mutations in the disheveled, Egl‐10 and pleckstrin domain‐containing protein 5 (DEPDC5) gene have emerged as an important cause of various familial focal epilepsy syndromes. However, the significance of DEPDC5 mutations in patients with sporadic focal epilepsy has yet to be characterized.