Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The upper normal limit of serum alanine aminotransferase in Golestan Province, northeast Iran.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to determine the upper normal limit of serum alanine aminotransferase level in a population-based study in Golestan Province, northeast Iran. METHODS From the randomly invited individuals (2,292), 698 out of the 916 males and 1,351 out of the 1,376 females participated in the study (participation rate: 76.2% and 98.1%, respectively). One hundred and twenty-one participants were excluded due to positive hepatitis B surface antigen or hepatitis C virus antibody and/or drinking more than 20 grams of alcohol per day. A total of 1,928 participants (1300 females) were included. The upper normal limit of serum alanine aminotransferase level was defined as the 95th percentile. RESULTS The upper normal limit of serum alanine aminotransferase level in normal weight and nondiabetics was significantly lower than the total study group (36 versus 45 U/L). Serum alanine aminotransferase level was independently associated with male gender, body mass index, and diabetes mellitus (OR=2.05; 95%CI: 1.44 - 2.94, OR=2.76; 95%CI: 1.84 - 4.13, and OR=2.96; 95%CI: 1.56 - 5.61, respectively). CONCLUSION Considering the lower calculated upper normal limit in normal weight nondiabetic participants in this study, we recommend setting new upper normal limit for serum alanine aminotransferase level. It seems reasonable to set upper normal limit for serum alanine aminotransferase level in males and females separately.
The risk of major birth defects after intracytoplasmic sperm injection and in vitro fertilization.

BACKGROUND It is not known whether infants conceived with use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection or in vitro fertilization have a higher risk of birth defects than infants conceived naturally. METHODS We obtained data from three registries in Western Australia on births, births after assisted conception, and major birth defects in infants born between 1993 and 1997. We assessed the prevalence of major birth defects diagnosed by one year of age in infants conceived naturally or with use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection or in vitro fertilization. RESULTS Twenty-six of the 301 infants conceived with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (8.6 percent) and 75 of the 837 infants conceived with in vitro fertilization (9.0 percent) had a major birth defect diagnosed by one year of age, as compared with 168 of the 4000 naturally conceived infants (4.2 percent; P<0.001 for the comparison between either type of technology and natural conception). As compared with natural conception, the odds ratio for a major birth defect by one year of age, after adjustment for maternal age and parity, the sex of the infant, and correlation between siblings, was 2.0 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.3 to 3.2) with intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and 2.0 (95 percent confidence interval, 1.5 to 2.9) with in vitro fertilization. Infants conceived with use of assisted reproductive technology were more likely than naturally conceived infants to have multiple major defects and to have chromosomal and musculoskeletal defects. CONCLUSIONS Infants conceived with use of intracytoplasmic sperm injection or in vitro fertilization have twice as high a risk of a major birth defect as naturally conceived infants.
Can Labor Regulation Hinder Economic Performance? Evidence from India

This paper investigates whether the industrial relations climate in Indian States has affected the pattern of manufacturing growth in the period 1958-92. We show that pro-worker amendments to the Industrial Disputes Act are associated with lowered investment, employment, productivity and output in registered manufacturing. Regulating in a pro-worker direction is also associated with increases in urban poverty. This suggests that attempts to redress the balance of power between capital and labour can end up hurting the poor.
Solving SVM inverse problems based on clustering

Support vector machine (SVM) theory was originally developed on the basis of a linearly separable binary classification problem. The inverse problem of SVM is how to split a given dataset into two clusters such that the margin between the two clusters attains maximum. Due to the computational complexity, it is difficult to give an exact and feasible solution to the inverse problem. This paper makes an attempt to reduce the complexity of the inverse problem by clustering. It is demonstrated that the maximum margin between the two clusters is equivalent to the distance between the two closest points in convex hulls in the linearly separable case. For the inseparable case, the maximum margin between the two sets is equivalent to the distance between the two closest points in the reduced convex hulls.
Liquidation , Asset Prices and the Recycling Channel of Bank Lending

This paper investigates the e¤ects on the asset market of bank actions in dealing with their non-performing loans. It is demonstrated that liquidation of bad loans may not be as detrimental to asset prices as commonly argued, because funds recouped from liquidation can be recycled into new loans which support the asset market. While capital regulation protects the health of banks, it may limit the amount of liquidation in some circumstances and hence reduce the impact of the recycling channel. This supports the idea that varying capital requirements countercyclically can dampen the economic cycle, notwithstanding the problems with making this a tool for economic management. JEL classi cation: E44, G21, G33, G38
The evolution equation for a disclination in a nematic liquid crystal

We extend the Ericksen–Leslie theory for nematic liquid crystals to account for the presence of disclinations. To achieve this, we use Gurtin's theory of configurational forces and obtain an evolution equation in which the resultant of the Eshelby stress at a disclination is proportional to the velocity of the disclination with respect to the material. Included among our results is a resolution of Eshelby's paradox concerning the nature of the force acting on a disclination. As an application, we show how surface disclinations can be described using our theory, and how these defects act to curve the free surface of the fluid, in competition with surface tension, and, thus, to create cusps at the surface.
Evaluation of antihyperlipidemic and antitumor activities of isolated coumarins from Salvadora indica

Abstract Context. Salvadora indica Wight (Salvadoraceae) contains a number of medically beneficial properties including abrasives, astringents and antiseptics. Traditionally, it was used by ancient Arabs to whiten and polish teeth. Objective: This study explores the antihyperlipidemic and antitumor effects of an ethanol extract of S. indica and its isolated phytoconstituents in rodents. Material and methods: Flash chromatography was used for the isolation of phytoconstituents from the stems of S. indica. An antihyperlipidemic study was carried out in Triton loaded rats. Animal groups were given intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of Triton WR 1339 at dose of 400 mg/kg body weight (b.w.). Furthermore, antitumor activity was investigated in hybrid mice (of C57BL strain + Swiss albino strain). The animals were observed for tumor growth after injection of B16F10 melanoma cells into the dorsal skin of mice. Results: The stems of S. indica yielded xanthotoxin and umbelliferone through chromatographic separation techniques. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by spectroscopic data interpretation and showed antihyperlipidemic activity. The study showed significant reduction in total cholesterol (TC) (p < 0.01), triglycerides (TGs) (p < 0.001), low-density lipoproteins (p < 0.01) level whereas increased in high-density lipoprotein (p < 0.01) at a significant level, after the treatment. Pretreatment with the extract and phytoconstituents also showed delayed tumor growth by increasing the volume doubling time (VDT) (p < 0.01), growth delay (GD) (p < 0.01) and mean survival time (p < 0.001). Discussion and conclusion: Acute treatment caused a stimulatory effect on high density lipoprotein level and inhibition in TC and TG elevation induced by Triton. Tumor regression studies showed a regression response for tumor growth in vivo of murine mouse melanoma as demonstrated by increasing the VDT and GD.
Health-related quality of life during the first year after severe brain trauma with and without polytrauma

Objective: The increasing number of patients surviving severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI) but with significant sensorimotor and neuropsychological deficits is a challenge to rehabilitation medicine. So far, most research initiatives have focused on mortality rates, physiological or economic parameters to estimate therapeutic effects of rehabilitation strategies. Investigations on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) after TBI with and without concomitant polytrauma are rare compared to other disorders. Design/patients: A prospective study was conducted to investigate HRQoL using the SF-36 questionnaire in 49 patients with sTBI (Glasgow Coma Scale < 9 for more than 24 hours) with and without concomitant polytrauma 6 and 12 months after injury. Results: The SF-36 score profiles 6 and 12 months after trauma were similar. Scores 12 months after trauma, however, were higher in 7/8 dimensions indicating an improvement over time. Similar observations were made for physical and mental sum scores. There was no difference in the SF-36 scoring pattern between the patients with isolated TBI and the patients with concomitant polytrauma, except for physical functioning after 12 months. Conclusion: While there is significant overall improvement of HRQoL over time, sTBI appears to bear major influence on post-traumatic HRQoL and outcome.
Spying on IgE receptor signaling

Plasma membrane organization and the potential role, or not, of lipid raft microdomains in signal transduction is a controversial topic. Cross-correlation fluorescent correlation spectroscopy (CC-FCS) shows promise as a new approach to rapidly probe protein–protein interactions in living cells during signal transduction. CC-FCS data from studies of IgE receptor signaling challenge models of large stable lipid raft signaling domains and reveal a new complexity in the dynamic (re)organization of signaling complexes.
The X-mu approach: Fuzzy quantities, fuzzy arithmetic and fuzzy association rules

The use of so-called fuzzy numbers for approximate calculations leads to significant problems, because the underlying mathematical structure is weaker than ordinary arithmetic. Many of these problems arise from the fact that the fuzzy quantities are actually fuzzy intervals. Gradual numbers were recently proposed as a better representation for fuzzy quantities. In this paper, we describe the X-μ approach, a new method of visualizing and calculating functions of fuzzy quantities. In particular, we illustrate the calculation of fuzzy association confidence in cases where membership can be represented by a function or a table of values.
Facility-Level Factors Influencing Retention of Patients in HIV Care in East Africa

Losses to follow-up (LTFU) remain an important programmatic challenge. While numerous patient-level factors have been associated with LTFU, less is known about facility-level factors. Data from the East African International epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS (EA-IeDEA) Consortium was used to identify facility-level factors associated with LTFU in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Patients were defined as LTFU if they had no visit within 12 months of the study endpoint for pre-ART patients or 6 months for patients on ART. Adjusting for patient factors, shared frailty proportional hazard models were used to identify the facility-level factors associated with LTFU for the pre- and post-ART periods. Data from 77,362 patients and 29 facilities were analyzed. Median age at enrolment was 36.0 years (Interquartile Range: 30.1, 43.1), 63.9% were women and 58.3% initiated ART. Rates (95% Confidence Interval) of LTFU were 25.1 (24.7–25.6) and 16.7 (16.3–17.2) per 100 person-years in the pre-ART and post-ART periods, respectively. Facility-level factors associated with increased LTFU included secondary-level care, HIV RNA PCR turnaround time >14 days, and no onsite availability of CD4 testing. Increased LTFU was also observed when no nutritional supplements were provided (pre-ART only), when TB patients were treated within the HIV program (pre-ART only), and when the facility was open ≤4 mornings per week (ART only). Our findings suggest that facility-based strategies such as point of care laboratory testing and separate clinic spaces for TB patients may improve retention.
Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea Display Increased Carotid Intima Media: A Meta-Analysis

Background. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with coronary artery disease. Intermittent hypoxia associated with OSA increases sympathetic activity and may cause systemic inflammation, which may contribute to atherosclerosis leading to an increase in the size of carotid intima media thickness (CIMT). Methods. PubMed and Cochrane library were reviewed by utilizing different combinations of key words: sleep apnea, carotid disease, intima media thickness, and carotid atherosclerosis. Inclusion criteria were English articles; studies with adult population with OSA and without OSA; CIMT recorded by ultrasound in mean and standard deviation or median with 95% confidence interval; and OSA defined as apnea hypopnea index of ≥5/h. A total of 95 studies were reviewed for inclusion, with 16 studies being pooled for analysis. Results. Ninety-five studies were reviewed, while 16 studies were pooled for analysis; since some studies have more than one data set, there were 25 data sets with 1415 patients being pooled for meta-analysis. All studies used ultrasound to measure CIMT. CIMT standardized difference in means ranged from −0.883 to 8.01. The pooled standardized difference in means was 1.40 (lower limit 0.996 to upper limit 1.803, (P < 0.0001). Conclusion. Patients with OSA appear to have increased CIMT suggestive of an atherosclerotic process.
Cardiomyocyte enrichment from human embryonic stem cell cultures by selection of ALCAM surface expression.

AIMS The production of a homogenous population of human cardiomyocytes that can be expanded in vitro may facilitate development of replacement tissue lost as a result of cardiac disease and injury. MATERIALS AND METHODS We evaluated the utility of activated leukocyte cell-adhesion molecule, CD166 (ALCAM) expression as a marker for isolating cardiomyocytes from differentiating cultures of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Using RT-qPCR, immunohistochemistry and DNA methylation studies, we evaluated the developmental age of hESC-derived cardiomyocytes. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We demonstrate that cardiomyocytes derived from hESC cultures express ALCAM and that this surface antigen can be used to select a population of differentiated cells that are enriched for cardiomyocytes. Expression of contractile proteins and ion channels, and DNA methylation patterns, suggest that ALCAM-enriched cardiomyocytes have an embryonic phenotype. Selected cardiomyocyte populations survive sorting, adhere to collagen-coated tissue culture plastic and proliferate in short-term culture. Long-term in vitro survival of cardiomyocytes was achieved by culturing cells in 3D aggregates.
Comparison of three phase current source inverters and voltage source inverters linked with DC to DC boost converters for fuel cell generation systems

Three phase current source inverters (CSI) and voltage source inverters linked with a DC to DC boost converter (VSI+BC) are appropriate solutions to convert electrical energy for distributed fuel cell generation systems. The performance of CSI's and VSI+BC's in this application is shown and both topologies are compared to each other concerning their power semiconductor design rating and their semiconductor power losses
Single image 3D human pose estimation from noisy observations

Markerless 3D human pose detection from a single image is a severely underconstrained problem because different 3D poses can have similar image projections. In order to handle this ambiguity, current approaches rely on prior shape models that can only be correctly adjusted if 2D image features are accurately detected. Unfortunately, although current 2D part detector algorithms have shown promising results, they are not yet accurate enough to guarantee a complete disambiguation of the 3D inferred shape. In this paper, we introduce a novel approach for estimating 3D human pose even when observations are noisy. We propose a stochastic sampling strategy to propagate the noise from the image plane to the shape space. This provides a set of ambiguous 3D shapes, which are virtually undistinguishable from their image projections. Disambiguation is then achieved by imposing kinematic constraints that guarantee the resulting pose resembles a 3D human shape. We validate the method on a variety of situations in which state-of-the-art 2D detectors yield either inaccurate estimations or partly miss some of the body parts.
Television Watching, Diet Quality, and Physical Activity and Diabetes among Three Ethnicities in the United States

Diabetes is a world-wide epidemic associated with multiple environmental factors. Prolonged television viewing (TV) time has been related to increased risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes in several studies. TV viewing has been positively associated with cardiovascular disease risk factors, lower energy expenditure, over-eating high-calorie and high-fat foods. The objective of this study was to assess the associations of hours of TV viewing with dietary quality, obesity and physical activity for three ethnic minorities with and without type 2 diabetes. Diet quality and physical activity were inversely related to prolonged TV viewing. African Americans and participants with type 2 diabetes were more likely to watch more than 4 hours of TV per day as compared to their counterparts. Diet quality was inversely associated with physical activity level. Future studies are needed to establish the risk factors of prolonged TV watching in adult populations for the development of diabetes or diabetes-related complications. Although strategies to reduce TV watching have been proven effective among children, few trials have been conducted in adults. Intervention trials aimed at reducing TV viewing targeting people with type 2 diabetes may be beneficial to improve dietary quality and physical activity, which may reduce diabetes complications.
Optical properties of GaInNAs/GaAs laser structures

We present calculations of the optical properties of GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells. In particular, we have estimated the spectral form of the material gain based on the Band Anti-Crossing (BAC) model. The electron effective mass and the conduction band density of states are calculated from the dispersion relation derived in the context of the BAC model. The effect of nitrogen on the valence band is considered to be minimal. Based on these gain calculations, we have derived the dispersion of the linewidth enhancement factor. In the light of these results we discus the limitations of the BAC model.
Correlations and the encoding of information in the nervous system

Is the information transmitted by an ensemble of neurons determined solely by the number of spikes fired by each cell, or do correlations in the emission of action potentials also play a significant role? We derive a simple formula which enables this question to be answered rigorously for short time–scales. The formula quantifies the corrections to the instantaneous information rate which result from correlations in spike emission between pairs of neurons. The mutual information that the ensemble of neurons conveys about external stimuli can thus be broken down into firing rate and correlation components. This analysis provides fundamental constraints upon the nature of information coding, showing that over short time–scales, correlations cannot dominate information representation, that stimulus–independent correlations may lead to synergy (where the neurons together convey more information than they would if they were considered independently), but that only certain combinations of the different sources of correlation result in significant synergy rather than in redundancy or in negligible effects. This analysis leads to a new quantification procedure which is directly applicable to simultaneous multiple neuron recordings.
Energy Absorption and Dissipation Characteristics of Pultruded Glass-Graphite/Epoxy Hybrid Composite Beams

The response of pultruded glass-graphite/epoxy hybrid composites has been evaluated under two different incident impact energy conditions. A high incident energy (HIE) and a low incident energy (LIE) of impact are chosen to cause either complete fracture or induce delamination, respectively, for assessing the energy absorption characteristics and delamination fracture toughness of these hybrid composites. From the HIE instrumented drop-weight impact tests, the energies required for damage initiation, propagation, as well as total absorbed energies and other parameters necessary for evaluating the impact performance of composites were derived from the load-deformation behavior of each sample. The influence of hybridization on the energy absorption characteristics of pultruded composites was investigated. A parametric study also was performed to correlate the energy absorption characteristics with the energy dissipative mechanisms attributed to the inherent material damping capacity of these composites. The qualitative assessment of the impact performance using inherent damping capacity as a non-destructive testing parameter is highlighted. The samples that were subjected to LIE impact testing were examined using ultrasonic C-scan tests to ascertain changes in the extent of delamination crack propagation as a result of hybridization. Finite element modeling was performed to simulate delamination crack propagation at various levels through the thickness. The strain energy release rate computed using the virtual crack closure technique was monitored to determine the likelihood of delamination crack propagation with increment in crack growth. The results obtained from LIE impact tests and ultrasonic C-scan tests were used to corroborate the predicted delamination fracture toughness of pultruded hybrids. Graphite-outside hybrids exhibited high flexural stiffness, propagation energy, ductility and failure index, but had lower initiation energy along with a greater tendency to delaminate.