Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations of Urinary Cadmium with Age and Urinary Proteins: Further Evidence of Physiological Variations Unrelated to Metal Accumulation and Toxicity

Background: The current risk assessment for environmental cadmium (Cd) largely relies on the assumption that urinary Cd (U-Cd) is a reliable biomarker of the Cd body burden. Recent studies have questioned the validity of this assumption. Objectives: We studied the lifetime trend of U-Cd as a function of diuresis, gender, smoking status, and protein tubular reabsorption. We also analyzed the associations between U-Cd and urinary proteins. Methods: Cd, retinol-binding protein, and albumin were measured in the urine of six cohorts of the general population of Belgium, with a mean age ranging from 5.7 to 88.1 years (n = 1,567). Variations of U-Cd with age were modeled using natural cubic splines. Results: In both genders, U-Cd decreased to a minimum (~ 0.20 μg/L) at the end of adolescence, then increased until 60–70 years of age (~ 0.60 μg/L in never-smokers) before leveling off or decreasing. When U-Cd was expressed in micrograms per gram of creatinine, these variations were amplified (minimum, 0.15 µg/g creatinine; maximum, 0.70 µg/g creatinine) and much higher U-Cd values were observed in women. We observed no difference in U-Cd levels between never-smokers and former smokers, and the difference with current smokers did not increase over time. Lifetime curves of U-Cd were higher with increasing urinary retinol-binding protein or albumin, a consequence of the coexcretion of Cd with proteins. Conclusions: At low Cd exposure levels, U-Cd and age are associated through nonlinear and nonmonotonic relationships that appear to be driven mainly by recent Cd intake and physiological variations in the excretion of creatinine and proteins. Citation: Chaumont A, Voisin C, Deumer G, Haufroid V, Annesi-Maesano I, Roels H, Thijs L, Staessen J, Bernard A. 2013. Associations of urinary cadmium with age and urinary proteins: further evidence of physiological variations unrelated to metal accumulation and toxicity. Environ Health Perspect 121:1047–1053; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1306607
Somatosensory gating is dependent on the rate of force recruitment in the human orofacial system.

PURPOSE Functional orofacial behaviors vary in their force endpoint and rate of recruitment. This study assessed the gating of orofacial cutaneous somatosensation during different cyclic lip force recruitment rates. Understanding how differences in the rate of force recruitment influences trigeminal system function is an important step toward furthering the knowledge of orofacial sensorimotor control. METHOD Lower lip vibrotactile detection thresholds (LL-VDTs) were sampled in response to sinusoidal inputs delivered to the lip vermilion at 5, 10, 50, and 150 Hz while adult participants engaged in a baseline condition (no force), 2 low-level lip force recruitment tasks differing by rate (0.1 Hz or 2 Hz), and passive displacement of the lip as a control to approximate the mechanosensory consequences of voluntary movement. RESULTS LL-VDTs increased significantly for test frequencies at or below 50 Hz during voluntary lip force recruitment. LL-VDT shifts were positively related to changes in the rate of lip force recruitment, whereas passively imposed displacements of the lip were ineffective in shifting LL-VDTs. CONCLUSIONS These findings are considered in relation to published reports of force-related sensory gating in orofacial and limb systems and the potential role of somatosensory gating along the trigeminal system during orofacial behaviors.
Validation of MMPI-2-RF Validity Scales in Criterion Group Neuropsychological Samples

This study utilized multiple criterion group neuropsychological samples to evaluate the “over-reporting” and “under-reporting” MMPI-2-RF validity scales. The five criterion groups included in this study were (1) litigating traumatic brain injury patients who failed Slick et al. criteria for probable malingering, (2) litigating traumatic brain injury patients who passed Slick et al. criteria, (3) mixed neuropsychological outpatients who passed SVTs and were diagnosed with primary neurological conditions, (4) mixed neuropsychological outpatients who passed SVTs and were diagnosed with primary psychiatric conditions, and (5) epileptic seizure disorder inpatients who were diagnosed via video-EEG. Using the data from these groups, cumulative percentages for all possible T-scores and sensitivity and specificity rates for optimal cutoff scores were determined. When specificity rates were set at 90% across all non-malingering neurological condition groups, sensitivity rates ranged from 48% (FBS-r) to 10% (K-r).
Ethnography in qualitative educational research: AMEE Guide No. 80

Ethnography is a type of qualitative research that gathers observations, interviews and documentary data to produce detailed and comprehensive accounts of different social phenomena. The use of ethnographic research in medical education has produced a number of insightful accounts into its role, functions and difficulties in the preparation of medical students for clinical practice. This AMEE Guide offers an introduction to ethnography – its history, its differing forms, its role in medical education and its practical application. Specifically, the Guide initially outlines the main characteristics of ethnography: describing its origins, outlining its varying forms and discussing its use of theory. It also explores the role, contribution and limitations of ethnographic work undertaken in a medical education context. In addition, the Guide goes on to offer a range of ideas, methods, tools and techniques needed to undertake an ethnographic study. In doing so it discusses its conceptual, methodological, ethical and practice challenges (e.g. demands of recording the complexity of social action, the unpredictability of data collection activities). Finally, the Guide provides a series of final thoughts and ideas for future engagement with ethnography in medical education. This Guide is aimed for those interested in understanding ethnography to develop their evaluative skills when reading such work. It is also aimed at those interested in considering the use of ethnographic methods in their own research work.
Evaluating the voice capacity of 802.11 WLAN under distributed control

Though initially designed for data transport, there is increasing interest in using the 802.11 WLAN protocol for voice and other real time services. This paper presents a performance model for voice over WLAN under distributed control. The model is based on classical decoupling arguments and allows an analytical evaluation of network capacity in terms of tuneable protocol parameters. We determine parameter settings that maximize the number of simultaneous conversations and demonstrate the significant impact on capacity of the voice packet size. Models are developed for both dedicated and integrated networks using the priority features of 802.11e
Very Young Gay and Bisexual Men Are at Risk for HIV Infection: The San Francisco Bay Area Young Men's Survey II

Objectives: To compare HIV seroprevalence and sexual risk behavior among very young gay and bisexual men (aged 15‐17 years) and their older counterparts (aged 18‐22 years). To examine drug‐use patterns and correlates of sexual risk behavior in both of these age groups. Design and Methods: An interviewer‐administered cross‐sectional survey of 719 gay and bisexual males between 15 and 22 years old was conducted through a venuebased sampling design. Blood specimens were collected and tested for HIV antibodies, hepatitis B, and syphilis. Interviews assessed sexual and drug‐use behavior as well as psychosocial variables believed to be related to sexual risk‐taking, including self‐acceptance of gay or bisexual identity, perceptions of peer norms concerning safer sex, and perceptions of the ability to practice safer sex (safer sex self‐efficacy). Results: Of the 719 participants, 100 (16.2%) were aged between 15 and 17 years. HIV seroprevalence was somewhat lower among those aged 15 to 17 years (2.0%) compared with those aged 18 to 22 years (6.8%). Overall, the prevalence of hepatitis‐B core antibody was significantly lower in the younger age group (5.0%) than in the older group (14.1%). The men aged 15 to 17 years used alcohol, ecstasy, and heroin less frequently than those aged 18 to 22 years. The age groups did not differ in the proportion of men who reported any unprotected anal intercourse in the previous 6 months (31.2%). In both age groups, use of amphetamines, ecstasy, and amyl nitrate was associated with unprotected anal intercourse. Self‐acceptance of gay or bisexual identity was related to less sexual risk for those aged 15 to 17 years. In both age groups, greater safer sex self‐efficacy was linked to less HIV sexual risk‐taking. In the younger group, perceptions of peer norms that support safer sex were related to less risk behavior. Conclusions: Very young gay and bisexual men engage in unprotected anal sex at rates comparable with those for their somewhat older counterparts, raising serious concern over their risk of acquiring HIV infection. To prevent seroconversions, interventions must target those <18 years of age, and prevention programs should address the use of certain drugs in relation to sex and sexual risk‐taking. To be most effective, programs should develop innovative communication strategies to take into account lack of self‐acceptance of gay or bisexual identity and low self‐efficacy for practicing safer sex.
Infection of an equine placenta with a novel mycobacterial species leading to abortion

A 25-year-old pregnant American Quarter Horse mare presented with a 1-week history of progressively worsening vaginal discharge. Transrectal ultrasound revealed increased thickness of the combined uterus and placenta with evidence of chorioallantoic edema but no placental separation. A thickened amnion was visible on transabdominal ultrasound. Abortion occurred 2 days after presentation despite medical treatment. At necropsy, the chorioallantois had variable but diffuse thickening with focally extensive browning of the chorionic surface in the right horn and adjacent body. There were fluid-filled sacculations on the allantoic surface of the umbilical cord, allantoamnion, and chorioallantois associated with diffuse perivascular fluid microscopically. A nonbranching acid-fast bacterium identified as belonging to the genus Mycobacterium Runyon group IV was isolated from the chorioallantois and uterine fluid. Ziehl–Neelsen stain confirmed the presence of intracellular acid-fast bacilli in trophoblasts of the gravid horn and the cervical star area. The current case is unique in that the mycobacteria did not initiate a significant granulomatous inflammatory response in the chorion unless villar necrosis occurred. Sequence analysis of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene and the rpoβ gene, encoding the β subunit of RNA polymerase, indicated that the strain of mycobacteria isolated in this case belonged to a novel species of rapidly growing mycobacteria and not to an established species. Mycobacteria are an uncommon and sporadic cause of placentitis and abortion, but should be suspected in cases of chronic placentitis that are not restricted to the cervical star area.
R 1-A . 2 : Characterization of Energetic Materials Under Extreme Conditions

Commonly available nonconventional energetic materials such as peroxides, ammonium nitrates (AN), and reactive materials (e.g., mixtures of metals and metal oxides), as well as conventional plastic explosives primarily made of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), research department explosive (RDX), thermolysis of octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocine (HMX), and triaminotrinitrobenzene (TATB) are often the materials of terrorist acts and become threats to homeland security. Thus, characterizing the thermochemical properties of these materials at the blast-relevant conditions of pressure, temperature, and composition is critical for developing chemical methods to mitigate the associated threats. Our goal is, therefore, to investigate phase and chemical stabilities of selected energetic materials at the blast-relevant pressure, temperature, and different chemical environments using Diamond Anvil Cells (DAC) and dynamic-DAC coupled with confocal micro-Raman spectroscopy and third-generation synchrotron X-ray diffraction.
Structural properties of graphene oxide fibers: from graphene oxide dispersion until continuous graphene oxide fiber

Abstract Continuous graphene oxide fiber focused for the last seven years have a very large application area such as electronic textiles, photovoltaics, batteries, fuel cells, sensors, filters. This study reports the effect of processing parameters such as time, temperature of the exfoliation together with dispersion preparation methods of graphene oxide on the properties of continuous graphene oxide fibers produced by coagulation bath. Relationship between changing parameters and structural properties of graphene oxide fiber, fiber morphology, roughness, crystalline structure have been discussed. It has been shown that crystalline structures and responses to changing parameters are different when it is an exfoliated state, dispersion state, and fiber state. For example, crystalline sizes and number of layers of GO fiber were higher than those of GO dispersion, while the crystallinity degrees and d-spaces at the GO fiber were always less than that of GO dispersion. Higher exfoliation time leads to an increase of Tex count of fiber, while longer ultrasonic time resulted in lower value compared to both shorter ultrasound time and mechanical homogenization. Shorter ultrasonic treatment and shorter exfoliation time leads to higher electrical conductivity compared to mechanical homogenization. Shorter ultrasonic treatment results in vaguely tendency of an increase of breaking strength.
One‐year cholesterol lowering treatment reduces medial temporal lobe atrophy and memory decline in stroke‐free elderly with atrial fibrillation: evidence from a parallel group randomized trial

In elderly patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), medial temporal lobe (MTL) atrophy and white matter lesions (WML) may account for the cognitive decline. Though a combination therapy of statins with cholesterol lowering agents like ezetimibe may be beneficial in patients with AF, its effects on MTL structure and WML remains unknown.
Optimizing Modular Multiplication for NVIDIA's Maxwell GPUs

In this paper we show how we were able to achieve record rates of multiple precision (MP) modular multiplication (mulmod) operations in the new NVIDIA MP math library (XMP) on Maxwell, NVIDIA's most recent generation of graphics processing units (GPUs). Mulmod is a key operation that is used in multiple places within the MP library, and has many real world applications, especially in cryptography, which makes it important to achieve a highly optimized implementation. Here we reveal how multiple techniques were combined to make the best use of the GPU'sinstructions, registers, memory, and threads. A particularly interesting algorithmic aspect, designed to work with the 16-bit hardware multipliers found in Maxwell, is the use of a two-pass process to first compute unaligned partial products, then shift the result 16 bits to the left, then compute the aligned partial products. The new algorithms are much faster than the prior, state of the art, row-oriented multiply and reduce approach, achieving speedups of 61% at 256 bits, and 117% at 512 bits, with peaks rates of 4027 million mulmod operations at 256 bits and 1081 million at 512 bits on a GTX 980Ti.
Forty‐five year trends in overweight and obesity in an indigenous arctic inuit society in transition and spatiotemporal trends

Overweight and obesity associate with increased morbidity and premature death. Westernization of societies heralds rising obesity rates. A steep increase in body mass index (BMI) and overweight in Greenland from 1963 to 1998 led us to follow‐up on height, weight, BMI, and rates of overweight among populations in Greenland and assess time trends between different stages of transition.
A discrete particle swarm optimization box-covering algorithm for fractal dimension on complex networks

Researchers have widely investigated the fractal property of complex networks, in which the fractal dimension is normally evaluated by box-covering method. The crux of box-covering method is to find the solution with minimum number of boxes to tile the whole network. Here, we introduce a particle swarm optimization box-covering (PSOBC) algorithm based on discrete framework. Compared with our former algorithm, the new algorithm can map the search space from continuous to discrete one, and reduce the time complexity significantly. Moreover, because many real-world networks are weighted networks, we also extend our approach to weighted networks, which makes the algorithm more useful on practice. Experiment results on multiple benchmark networks compared with state-of-the-art algorithms show that this PSOBC algorithm is effective and promising on various network structures.
On modular signs

Abstract We consider some questions related to the signs of Hecke eigenvalues or Fourier coefficients of classical modular forms. One problem is to determine to what extent those signs, for suitable sets of primes, determine uniquely the modular form, and we give both individual and statistical results. The second problem, which has been considered by a number of authors, is to determine the size, in terms of the conductor and weight, of the first sign-change of Hecke eigenvalues. Here we improve the recent estimate of Iwaniec, Kohnen and Sengupta.
Alveolar Epithelial Cells , and Mouse Lungs Production in Macrophages , Cocultured Macrophages , which Regulates RANTES 3-Dependent Type I IFN Production in STING-and IFN Regulatory Factor Stimulates a Streptococcus pneumoniae

Streptococcus pneumoniae is the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia. In this study, we examine an innate immune recognition pathway that senses pneumococcal infection, triggers type I IFN production, and regulates RANTES production. We found that human and murine alveolar macrophages as well as murine bone marrow macrophages, but not alveolar epithelial cells, produced type I IFNs upon infection with S. pneumoniae . This response was dependent on the pore-forming toxin pneumolysin and appeared to be mediated by a cytosolic DNA-sensing pathway involving the adapter molecule STING and the transcription factor IFN regulatory factor 3. Indeed, DNAwas present in the cytosol during pneumococcal infection as indicated by the activation of the AIM2 inﬂammasome, which is known to sense microbial DNA. Type I IFNs produced by S. pneumoniae -infected macrophages positively regulated gene expression and RANTES production in macrophages and cocultured alveolar epithelial cells in vitro. Moreover, type I IFNs controlled RANTES production during pneumococcal pneumonia in vivo. In conclusion, we identiﬁed an immune sensing pathway detecting S. pneumoniae that triggers a type I IFN response and positively regulates RANTES production. The Journal of Immunology , 2012, 188: 811–817.
The Essential Resilience Scale: Instrument Development and Prediction of Perceived Health and Behaviour.

Further advancement in stress and health research calls for better tools to assess resilience. In this study, we developed the Essential Resilience Scale (ERS) and investigated the association between ERS scores and several health and behaviour measures. We developed the ERS with an operationalized definition of resilience-an individual's capability to anticipate, be flexible with and bounce back from three types of traumatic and adverse events (physical, emotional and social). The 15-item ERS was assessed using survey data from a diverse sample (n = 238, aged 18-45 years, 76 rural-to-urban migrants, 85 rural residents, 77 urban residents) recruited in Wuhan, China. Results showed a high reliability of the ERS (α = 0.94). Confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a satisfactory fit of the proposed second-order ERS measurement model (goodness-of-fit index = 0.94, comparative fit index = 0.98, root mean square error of approximation = 0.06, chi-square/df = 1.75). Multivariate regression analysis indicated that ERS scores significantly predicted perceived health status, stress, anxiety, depression and cigarette smoking after controlling for important covariates. Findings of this study indicate high reliability and validity of the scale and its potential use in advancing stress and health research. Further studies are implied to provide additional support for the ERS and its relations with other health outcomes. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Viscous Shear Instability in Weakly Magnetized, Dilute Plasmas

When the ion mean free path much exceeds the Larmor radius in a plasma, the viscous stress tensor is altered dramatically and depends only on quantities measured along the field lines. This regime corresponds to typical interstellar medium conditions in galaxies and protogalaxies, even if the magnetic field is extremely weak, with a negligible Lorentz force on all scales of interest. In this work, the only role of the magnetic field is to channel angular momentum transport along its lines of force. We show that differential rotation in such a gas is highly unstable, with a maximum growth rate exceeding that of the magnetorotational instability. The regime of interest has been treated previously by plasma kinetic methods. Where there is overlap, our work appears to be in agreement with the kinetic results. The nonlinear outcome of this instability is likely to be a turbulent process, significantly augmenting the magnetorotational instability, and important to the initial phases of the amplification of small galactic magnetic fields.
Impact of socio‐economic position on cancer stage at presentation: Findings from a large hospital‐based study in Germany

We explored the relationship between socio‐economic characteristics and cancer stage at presentation. Patients admitted to a university hospital for diagnosis and treatment of cancer provided data on their education, vocational training, income, employment, job, health insurance and postcode. Tumor stage was classified according to the Union International Contre le Cancer (UICC). To analyze disparities in the likelihood of late‐stage (UICC III/IV vs. I/II) diagnoses, logistic regression models adjusting for age and gender were used. Out of 1,012 patients, 572 (59%) had late‐stage cancer. Separately tested, increased odds of advanced disease were associated with post‐compulsory education compared to college degrees, with apprenticeship and no vocational training, with unemployment, disability pension, jobs with a low hierarchy level, blue collar jobs and with low income. Health insurance and community size were not related with late‐stage cancer. Jointly modelled, there was evidence for an independent effect of unemployment (odds ratio (OR) 1.7, CI 1.0–2.8), disability pension (OR 1.8, CI 1.0–3.2) and very low income (OR 2.6, CI 1.1–6.1) on the likelihood of advanced disease stage. It is of great concern that these socio‐economic gradients occur even in systems with equal access to health care.