Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 antigen in nonconcentrated urine and urine concentrated by selective ultrafiltration

We evaluated a commercially available radioimmunoassay technique for detecting the soluble antigen of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 using concentrated and nonconcentrated urine. Concentration was achieved by selective ultrafiltration. The sensitivity of the technique was 60.9% for nonconcentrated urine and 80.4% for concentrated samples, with 100% specificity in both cases.
Absence of B7.1‐CD28/CTLA‐4‐mediated co‐stimulation in human NK cells

Recent studies have suggested that B7‐CD28 interactions provide co‐stimulatory signals for activation of NK cells. Transduction of the B7.1 (CD80) gene into tumor cells has been shown to trigger proliferation and cytotoxicity of murine NK cells and a human NK cell line, YT2C2. Therefore, transduction of the B7.1 gene into CD80‐negative human squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck (SCCHN) and its stable expression was expected to up‐regulate proliferation and cytotoxic activities of human NK cells. However, expression of the B7.1 receptors, CD28 and CTLA‐4, could not be demonstrated on the surface or in the cytoplasm of normal human NK cells, irrespective of the state of their activation. In proliferation experiments or various cytotoxicity assays, utilizing highly purified human NK cells as responder or effector cells, no enhancement of NK cell generation or activity, respectively, by B7.1+ SCCHN was observed relative to non‐transduced or LacZ gene‐transduced SCCHN. In contrast, co‐incubation of B7.1+ SCCHN targets with human NK cells induced significant inhibition of NK cell growth. Thus, the B7.1‐CD28/CTLA‐4 pathway is not involved in triggering of human adult NK cells.
Procalcitonin levels in fresh serum and fresh synovial fluid for the differential diagnosis of knee septic arthritis from rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and gouty arthritis

Whether the levels of procalcitonin (PCT) in the serum and synovial fluid are effective indicators for distinguishing septic arthritis (SA) from non-infectious arthritis remains controversial. The present study aimed to evaluate whether PCT levels in fresh serum or fresh joint fluid may be used in the differential diagnosis of SA from rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA) and gouty arthritis (GA). From January 2012 to June 2013, 23 patients with knee SA, 21 patients with RA, 40 patients with OA and 11 patients with GA were enrolled in the current study. The levels of PCT were measured within 24 h after specimen collection at room temperature. An enzyme-linked fluorescence assay (ELFA) was used to detect the levels of PCT in the serum and synovial fluid. The correlations between the levels of PCT in the serum and synovial fluid and the arthritic patient groups were determined by the Nemenyi test. Areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were calculated to evaluate the accuracy of the correlations. The levels of PCT in the serum and joint fluid of the patients in the SA group were higher compared with those of the other groups (P<0.01) and there were no significant differences among the RA, OA and GA groups in these levels. A PCT level of <0.5 μg/l in the serum and synovial fluid had high specificity in the differential diagnosis of SA from RA, OA and GA. Synovial fluid PCT revealed significantly greater sensitivity than serum PCT. The accuracy of the differential diagnosis of SA by the serum levels of PCT was significantly lower than that by the synovial fluid levels of PCT. The levels of PCT in the serum and synovial fluid may be used as alternative laboratory indicators to distinguish between SA and the non-infectious types of arthritis; however, the PCT levels in fresh synovial fluid are more sensitive and accurate indicators than PCT levels in fresh serum.
Designing floating codes for expected performance

Floating codes are codes designed to store multiple values in a write asymmetric memory, with applications to flash memory. In this model, a memory consists of a block of n cells, with each cell in one of q states {0,1, . ,q - 1}. The cells are used to represent k variable values from an lscr-ary alphabet. Cells can move from lower values to higher values easily, but moving any cell from a higher value to a lower value requires first resetting the entire block to an all 0 state. Reset operations are to be avoided; generally a block can only experience a large but finite number of resets before wearing out entirely. A code here corresponds to mapping from cell states to variable values, and a transition function that gives how to rewrite cell states when a variable is changed. Previous work has focused on the developing codes that maximize the worst-case number of variable changes, or equivalently cell rewrites, that can be experienced before resetting. In this paper, we introduce the problem of maximizing the expected number of variable changes before resetting, given an underlying Markov chain that models variable changes. We demonstrate that codes designed for expected performance can differ substantially from optimal worst-case codes, and suggest constructions for some simple cases.
Improvability of poor pitch singing experiments in feedback

ABSTRACT The literature on children's singing reveals that, for each age group, there are some children who cannot sing 'in-tune'. These children are labelled 'poor pitch singers' (p.p.s). The literature suggests that singing 'in-tune' is not simply a question of 'can' or 'cannot', but rather a hierarchy of skill with several levels of competence. In general the numbers of pop.s. within sample populations declines with age, with boys outnumbering girls by 2 or 3:1. The traditional method of treating this disability, although implying that improvement is possible, has only shown limited success. Reference to the psychological Ii terature on feedback, ho,,,ever, suggests that, (1) learning can only take place ,yhen Knowledge of Results (KR) is present, and (2) variety of experience rather than repeated measures of the same kind may be more conducive to producing 'novel' patterns of behaviour. Applying these findings to the mechanism of singing, a schema theory of how children learn to sing in-tune is proposed, and its hypotheses subjected to empirical evaluation. A group of sixty-six p.p.s. , aged seven years, were divided randomly between six treatment groups, two of 'l7hich were controls. Visual feedback and KR were provided by the use of an electrolaryngograph coupled to an oscilloscope 0 Both these variables were manipulated against high and low variability of practice. Results indicate that Knowledge of Results (KR) may be crucial for p.p. s. to become pitch accurate, especially where the KR is combined with a high variability of practice. 2 Acknowledgements My thanks to the Headteachers, staff and children of Beatrix Potter Primary School, Earlsfield Junior School, Smallwood Junior School, Southmead Junior School, and WandIe School, London, for their assistance and co-operation with the empirical work of this thesis. My thanks also to Mr. Richard Wright of the Royal National Institute for the Deaf for his assistance with the computation of pitch errors for each subject; to Dr. Frances MacCurtain and Mr. Nicholas Noscoe of the Middlesex Hospital, London, for their help and advice on the use of the electrolaryngograph; and to Dr. Andrew Keat of the Westminster Hospital for his comments on the physiology of the voice mechanism. Finally, I am indebted to Mrs. Ann Welch for her patient proof-reading; and to Dr. Desmond Sergeant of the Roehampton Institute, London, for his help and support over many years. Without his expertise and encouragement this thesis would have been much the poorer.
The Nature of Ideology in Ghana's 2012 Elections

The nature of ideology in Ghana's 2012 elections has not been studied, but to do so is key to understanding social, economic and political developments in the country. This article tries to fill the gap. Theoretical guidance is taken from Giovanni Arrighi's The Long Twentieth Century (1994). While the analysis is cast in the longue duree, the empirical evidence is mostly extracted from the 2012 elections. Contrary to earlier findings that ideology plays no part in Ghanaian politics, it is argued that it was central, to the campaign at least, but that the position is one of common economic liberalism rather than multiple ideologies. So, while rhetorically the parties asserted their differences, substantially and substantively, aspiration rather than ascription was the common unifying logic of the two major political parties. This assessment has some positive but mostly very disturbing implications for the distribution of wealth.
Retrieving and analyzing mobile apps feature requests from online reviews

Mobile app reviews are valuable repositories of ideas coming directly from app users. Such ideas span various topics, and in this paper we show that 23.3% of them represent feature requests, i.e. comments through which users either suggest new features for an app or express preferences for the re-design of already existing features of an app. One of the challenges app developers face when trying to make use of such feedback is the massive amount of available reviews. This makes it difficult to identify specific topics and recurring trends across reviews. Through this work, we aim to support such processes by designing MARA (Mobile App Review Analyzer), a prototype for automatic retrieval of mobile app feature requests from online reviews. The design of the prototype is a) informed by an investigation of the ways users express feature requests through reviews, b) developed around a set of pre-defined linguistic rules, and c) evaluated on a large sample of online reviews. The results of the evaluation were further analyzed using Latent Dirichlet Allocation for identifying common topics across feature requests, and the results of this analysis are reported in this paper.
Bitstream-Driven Built-In Characterization for Analog and Mixed-Signal Embedded Circuits

The conventional analog and mixed-signal production testing of system-on-a-chip systems provides limited controllability and observability because automatic test equipment (ATE) access is limited to device under test (DUT) ballouts. More importantly, production mixed-signal testing, due to long test times and expensive ATE, represents a substantial portion of the total manufacturing costs. This brief presents a cost-effective and advanced-signature-based dynamic test method that uses a built-in self-test (BIST) platform that enhances the controllability and observability of mixed-signal embedded systems. The BIST platform includes a simple on-chip signature generator that comprises a clipper and a single-bit comparator. This brief precisely predicts the dynamic nonlinearity of individual mixed-signal circuits connected in a loopback configuration by clipping the loopback-path signal to efficiently give the loopback response a different weighting. The clipped behavior of the loopback-path signal is translated to a bitstream signature by the comparator. The signature and the loopback response allow us to efficiently split the loopback performance into individual DUT performances by solving the DUT characteristic equations using the on-chip digital-signal-processor core. Hardware measurements were performed to show that the proposed method can be practically applied in production.
Focal fatty infiltration of the pancreas: MR characterization with chemical shift imaging.

T he findings of focal fatty infiltration and focal fatty sparing of the pancreas have been described in both sonography and CT literature. Focal fatty infiltration can mimic a hypoattenuating mass on contrast-enhanced CT examinations and fatty sparing of the pancreatic head can appear as a pseudomass [ 1-31. For the purposes of this study, focal fatty infiltration of the pancreas refers to a focal region of pancreatic parenchyma that shows normal or high signal intensity compared with the surrounding pancreas on in-phase Tl-weighted images, shows a loss of signal intensity on chemical shift images, and has a normal appearance on T2weighted images. This article describes the MR findings of focal fatty infiltration of the pancreas. MR imaging using chemical shift techniques can detect and characterize focal fatty infiltration of the pancreas and exclude a diagnosis of neoplasm.
Multi-sensor PHD: Construction and implementation by space partitioning

The Probability Hypothesis Density (PHD) is a well-known method for single-sensor multi-target tracking problems in a Bayesian framework, but the extension to the multi-sensor case seems to remain a challenge. In this paper, an extension of Mahler's work to the multi-sensor case provides an expression of the true PHD multi-sensor data update equation. Then, based on the configuration of the sensors' fields of view (FOVs), a joint partitioning of both the sensors and the state space provides an equivalent yet more practical expression of the data update equation, allowing a more effective implementation in specific FOV configurations.
Individual and Neighborhood Determinants of Survey Nonresponse – An Analysis Based on a New Subsample of the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), Microgeographic Characteristics and Survey-Based Interviewer Characteristics

This study examines the phenomenon of nonresponse in the first wave of a refresher sample (subsample H) of the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). Our first step is to link additional (commercial) microgeographic data on the immediate neighborhoods of the households visited by interviewers. These additional data (paradata) provide valuable information on respondents and nonrespondents, including milieu or lifestyle, dominant household structure, desire for anonymity, frequency of moves, and other important microgeographic information. This linked information is then used to analyze nonresponse. In a second step, we also use demographic variables for the interviewer from an administrative data set about the interviewers, and, in a third step, we use the results of a special interviewer survey. We use multilevel statistical modeling to examine the influence of neighborhoods and interviewers on non-contacts, inability to participate, and refusals. In our analysis, we find our additional variables useful for understanding and explaining non-contacts and refusals and the inability of some respondents to participate in surveys. These data provide an important basis for filling the information gap on response and nonresponse in panel surveys (and in cross-sectional surveys). However, the effect sizes of these effects are negligible. Ignoring these effects does not cause significant biases in statistical inferences drawn from the survey under consideration.
The Impact of Billboards on Driver Visual Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

Objective: External distraction appears to affect at least 6–9% of distraction-affected motor vehicle collisions. Billboards may be good models for studying external distraction in general, and it is also desirable to understand billboard-related distraction per se. However, there has not yet been a clear consensus on the scope of billboard-related distraction or its dynamics with respect to characteristics of drivers, billboards, traffic, and the roadway. To narrow these knowledge gaps, a systematic literature review was conducted on billboard-related changes in driver visual behavior. Methods: A systematic literature search yielded 443 results, of which 8 studies met all inclusion criteria. Five studies meeting all inclusion criteria were later identified and added. Results were analyzed in terms of 4 categories of visual behavior: (1) gaze variability (GV), glance pattern activity (GPA), and percentage of time spent glancing at the forward roadway; (2) glances at unexpected drive-relevant stimuli; (3) glances at expected drive-relevant stimuli; and (4) glances at billboards. Results: There was considerable evidence that about 10–20% of all glances at billboards were ≥0.75 s, that active billboards drew more glances and more long glances (≥0.75 s, ≥2.0 s) than passive billboards but did not attract a longer average glance, and that there was large variability among individual billboards within categories (e.g., active vs. passive). The extent to which billboards attracted glances ≥ 2.0 s was uncertain. There was tentative evidence that billboards did not affect GPA, glances at expected drive-relevant stimuli, or the proportion of time drivers spent glancing at the forward roadway and that they did affect vertical GV and glances at unexpected drive-relevant stimuli. Conclusions: Generally, billboard-related distraction appeared to be minor and regulated by drivers as the demands of the driving task changed. However, this review's findings suggest that this may not be true in all cases. Future research should emphasize the tails of the distribution in addition to average cases, in terms of both the analysis of visual behavior and the complexity of driving tasks. Further research is also needed to understand the effects of billboard design, driver characteristics, and road and traffic context.
Re: Feasibility and reproducibility of an image‐scoring method for quality control of fetal biometry in the second trimester

I would like to congratulate the authors of a recent paper in this journal on the feasibility of an image scoring method for quality control of fetal biometry in the second trimester1. They have made a valuable contribution to the literature in an area of work that is too often neglected, and have carefully addressed the areas of intraand interobserver reproducibility. I would also like to draw their attention to the earlier work of myself and my colleagues2, where we demonstrated the value of using such scoring as a feedback mechanism for training and coaching. We showed improvement in measurement quality over four cycles of audit, in both second and third trimesters, and demonstrated the value of the process in a wider trial in six centers3. We also found that comparing gestational ages from biparietal diameter and femoral length is a useful quantitative adjunct to image review. In our work we showed that ultrasound practitioners show improvement in two stages. Given feedback on quality criteria not met, they first demonstrate improved recognition of the relevant features. They then begin to further develop the technical skills required to meet the quality criteria. In order to measure baseline performance and demonstrate progress against these two distinct stages, it is important to record the practitioner’s own assessment of image acceptability; in our studies we have asked them simply to record whether the image was acceptable or not (prospectively they make this assessment using the predefined quality criteria). Since this work was published we have carried out a larger scale study, as yet unpublished, including a large number of centers. In addition to head and abdomen measurements, we have reviewed femoral length and crown–rump-length images. We have also studied reviewer reproducibility; if a small number of reviewers discuss and agree the interpretation of quality criteria and review a number of images together, reproducibility is good, but cross-auditing, where each image is independently reviewed by two observers, is valuable. The approach is feasible on a large scale. I urge all centers undertaking fetal biometry to adopt these quality-control procedures and to ensure that they record the practitioner’s own assessment to facilitate the two-stage improvement we have demonstrated. We have shown that the process is effective in generating improvements with a single experienced reviewer. However, where scan numbers are high, for example where the process is run on a multicenter basis, multiple reviewers will be required and both intraand interobserver reproducibility become critical elements. In this case cross-auditing and dual review where there are a significant number of cases of disagreement are helpful.
First detection of bovine viral diarrhoea virus type 2 in cattle in Spain

Background Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is a member of the genus Pestivirus that belongs to the family Flaviviridae. BVDV is found worldwide in cattle population and causes significant economic losses to the dairy and beef industries. Two distinct genotypes of BVDV exist: BVDV type 1 (BVDV-1) and BVDV type 2 (BVDV-2). Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate retrospectively the presence of BVDV-2 in Spain. Results With this objective, 47 blood samples that had tested positive in an ELISA for BVDV antigen were selected. Samples had been submitted by practitioners to the Diagnostic Service of NEIKER. The 18 herds of origin were all located in the northern half of Spain. BVDV positive samples were genotyped by reverse transcription-PCR. BVDV-1 was detected with the highest frequency (46/47), in contrast to BVDV-2 (2/47). In one blood sample, both pestivirus genotypes, BVDV-1 and BVDV-2, were detected. Sequencing of a viral genomic region, 5′ untranslated region, confirmed the identity of the BVDV-2 isolate. Conclusions So far as the authors know, this is the first reported presence of BVDV-2 in cattle herds in Spain. This finding may have important implications for the epidemiology, diagnosis and control of BVDV infection in the country.
The impact of Stieltjes ' work on continued fractionsand orthogonal polynomials : additional materialGalliano VALENT

In the recent new edition of the collected works of T.J. Stieltjes, one of us gave an impression of the impact of Stieltjes' work a century after his death 43]. In this paper we give an update and mention some observations which were missing from 43] and some results which appeared during the last two years and which are directly related to Stieltjes' work. In particular there is a large section on special polynomials which were already considered by Stieltjes but which were rediscovered later, often without the knowledge of Stieltjes' work. 1 Continued fractions and moment problems In 43] an attempt was made to give an updated review of the impact of Stieltjes' work on continued fractions, orthogonal polynomials, and related topics. Here we will mention some extra information which is directly related to Stieltjes' work and which was missing from 43]. First of all we'd like to draw the attention to Kjeldsen's nice historic view on the early history of the moment problem 24], which is recommended reading. In 43] the remark was made (last paragraph of x2.1 and the beginning of x2.2) that`not much work on the Stieltjes moment problem was done after Stieltjes' death' and`nothing new happened until 1920'. What was meant is that the work of Stieltjes was so thorough that he singlehandedly almost completed the theory of the Stieltjes moment problem. Of course there has been work after Stieltjes on the Stieltjes moment problem, e.g., Karlin and McGregor on one hand and Lederman and Reuter on the other hand pointed out the equivalence of Stieltjes' work and the solution of the Chapman-Kolmogorov equations of birth and death processes. Also, the work of Van Vleck, which consists in trying to extend the Stieltjes moment problem to the real line, is quite relevant. Recall that the main object of Stieltjes' work Sur les fractions continues is the S-fraction 1 c 1 z +