Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Agricultural use of DDT and risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: pooled analysis of three case-control studies in the United States.

OBJECTIVES: The objective of this pooled analysis was to examine whether exposure to DDT was associated with the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma among male farmers. METHODS: Data from three case-control studies from four midwestern states in the United States (Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas) were pooled to carry out analyses of 993 cases and 2918 controls. Information on use of agricultural pesticides and other risk factors was based on interviews. Non-farmers (people who had never lived or worked on a farm) were used as a reference category. RESULTS: There were 161 cases and 340 controls who reported use of DDT on animals or crops, or on both, yielding an odds ratio (OR) of 1.2 (95% confidence intervals (95% CI) 1.0 to 1.6). Farmers who had used DDT for > or = 15 years had an OR of 1.5 (95% CI 1.0 to 2.3). Adjustment for respondent status and use of other pesticides resulted in slightly reduced ORs. Analyses by the number of days of use a year was limited to the Nebraska data. The most notable increase was found among farmers who used DDT for > or = 5 days a year (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.1 to 5.9); however, additional adjustment for use of organophosphates, phenoxyacetic acids, and the individual pesticides lindane, malathion, and atrazine reduced the ORs to 1.0, 0.9, 1.1, 1.6, and 1.9 respectively. CONCLUSIONS: No strong consistent evidence was found for an association between exposure to DDT and risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It seems that the excess risk initially found may be explained by use of other pesticides.
Sonic Hedgehog Signaling Pathway Mediates Cerebrolysin-Improved Neurological Function After Stroke

Background and Purpose— Cerebrolysin, a mixture of neurotrophic peptides, enhances neurogenesis and improves neurological outcome in experimental neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. The Sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling pathway stimulates neurogenesis after stroke. The present study tests whether the Shh pathway mediates cerebrolysin-induced neurogenesis and improves neurological outcome after stroke. Methods— Rats subjected to embolic stroke were treated with cerebrolysin with or without cyclopamine. Results— Using neural progenitor cells derived from the subventricular zone of the lateral ventricle of adult rats, we found that cerebrolysin significantly increased neural progenitor cells proliferation and their differentiation into neurons and myelinating oligodendrocytes, which were associated with upregulation of Shh and its receptors patched and smoothened. Blockage of the Shh signaling pathway with a pharmacological smoothened inhibitor, cyclopamine, abolished cerebrolysin-induced in vitro neurogenesis and oligodendrogenesis. In the ischemic rats, treatment with cerebrolysin starting 24 hours after stroke significantly increased neural progenitor cell proliferation in the subventricular zone and enhanced neurogenesis, oligodendrogenesis, and axonal remodeling in the peri-infarct area. Moreover, profound neurological function improvements were observed in rats treated with cerebrolysin from week 3 to week 5 after stroke onset compared with vehicle-treated rats. However, in vivo inhibition of the Shh pathway with cyclopamine completely reversed the effects of cerebrolysin on neurorestoration and functional recovery. Conclusions— These results demonstrate that the Shh pathway mediates cerebrolysin-enhanced neurogenesis and white matter remodeling and improves functional recovery in rats after stroke.
Stealthy Attacks in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks: Detection and Countermeasure

Stealthy packet dropping is a suite of four attacks-misrouting, power control, identity delegation, and colluding collision-that can be easily launched against multihop wireless ad hoc networks. Stealthy packet dropping disrupts the packet from reaching the destination through malicious behavior at an intermediate node. However, the malicious node gives the impression to its neighbors that it performs the legitimate forwarding action. Moreover, a legitimate node comes under suspicion. A popular method for detecting attacks in wireless networks is behavior-based detection performed by normal network nodes through overhearing the communication in their neighborhood. This leverages the open broadcast nature of wireless communication. An instantiation of this technology is local monitoring. We show that local monitoring, and the wider class of overhearing-based detection, cannot detect stealthy packet dropping attacks. Additionally, it mistakenly detects and isolates a legitimate node. We present a protocol called Sadec that can detect and isolate stealthy packet dropping attack efficiently. Sadec presents two techniques that can be overlaid on baseline local monitoring: having the neighbors maintain additional information about the routing path, and adding some checking responsibility to each neighbor. Additionally, Sadec provides an innovative mechanism to better utilize local monitoring by considerably increasing the number of nodes in a neighborhood that can do monitoring. We show through analysis and simulation experiments that baseline local monitoring fails to efficiently mitigate most of the presented attacks while SADEC successfully mitigates them.
Sexual Media Exposure, Sexual Behavior, and Sexual Violence Victimization in Adolescence

Background. Emerging research suggests sexual media affects sexual behavior, but most studies are based on regional samples and few include measures of newer mediums. Furthermore, little is known about how sexual media relates to sexual violence victimization. Methods. Data are from 1058 youth 14 to 21 years of age in the national, online Growing up with Media study. Results. Forty-seven percent reported that many or almost all/all of at least one type of media they consumed depicted sexual situations. Exposure to sexual media in television and movies, and music was greater than online and in games. All other things equal, more frequent exposure to sexual media was related to ever having had sex, coercive sex victimization, and attempted/completed rape but not risky sexual behavior. Conclusions. Longer standing mediums such as television and movies appear to be associated with greater amounts of sexual media consumption than newer ones, such as the Internet. A nuanced view of how sexual media content may and may not be affecting today’s youth is needed.
Scattering and Interference in Epitaxial Graphene

A single sheet of carbon, graphene, exhibits unexpected electronic properties that arise from quantum state symmetries, which restrict the scattering of its charge carriers. Understanding the role of defects in the transport properties of graphene is central to realizing future electronics based on carbon. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy was used to measure quasiparticle interference patterns in epitaxial graphene grown on SiC(0001). Energy-resolved maps of the local density of states reveal modulations on two different length scales, reflecting both intravalley and intervalley scattering. Although such scattering in graphene can be suppressed because of the symmetries of the Dirac quasiparticles, we show that, when its source is atomic-scale lattice defects, wave functions of different symmetries can mix.
Dynamic response of middle-ear structures.

Automatic tracing of vibrations from several locations on the tympanic membrane and from the stapedial footplate, in human anatomical preparations, was performed by use of a capacitive‐probe vibration meter. Normally, the vibrations of the tympanic membrane at the umbo and along the junction with the malleus were in synchrony with those of the stapes. The motion of the eardrum as a whole agreed with that postulated by von Bekesy. The direct measurements enabled examination of the ossicular‐lever transformation of the middle ear under dynamic conditions. In normal cases, undulation of the lever ratio around the 1.3 value was evidenced. Pathological changes caused an artificial increase of the ratio, due to damping features of the ossicular‐lever system; the characteristics of an otosclerotic ear served as an conspicuous example. With the CAT 400B, further increase of the sensitivity of measurements (down to 2 A amplitude) was possible. Some tests were carried out on patients also. Determination of the acou.
A Study on Performance Inconsistency between Estimation by Analogy and Linear Regression

Background: Many comparative studies have been performed on effort estimation models. Linear regression (LR) and Estimation by Analogy (EbA) were often compared. The past research revealed that those comparative studies reported inconsistent results among performance measures. However, those studies seemed not to reflect actual or desirable study procedure. Aim: We aimed to examine performance inconsistency in comparative study on LR and EbA under more desirable procedure. Method: We carefully determined datasets and experiment procedure. LR and EbA were then compared under appropriate condition. Results: Performance measures showed statistically consistent results in almost all datasets. Conclusion: Comparative study could show consistent results with suitable experiment procedure.
Graphene-Based Birefringent Photonic Crystal Fiber Sensor Using Surface Plasmon Resonance

We propose a graphene-based photonic crystal fiber (PCF) sensor based on surface plasmon resonance. Graphene helps in prevention of oxidation of the silver layer used as a plasmonic active metal. The birefringent nature of the structure allows one component of the core guided mode to be more sensitive. Further, this structure does not need filling of the voids. The structural parameter of PCF and metal thickness has been optimized. The proposed sensor shows high amplitude sensitivity of 860 RIU-1 and has a resolution as high as 4×10-5 RIU. This reported performance is higher than bimetallic (gold on silver) configuration.
Preexisting Cognitive Impairment in Women Before Cardiac Surgery and Its Relationship with C-Reactive Protein Concentrations

Preoperative cognitive state is seldom considered when investigating the effects of cardiac surgery on cognition. In this study we sought to determine the prevalence of cognitive impairment in women scheduled for cardiac surgery using nonhospitalized volunteers as a reference group and to examine the relationship between C-reactive protein levels and cognitive impairment. Psychometric testing was performed in 108 postmenopausal women scheduled for cardiac surgery and in 58 nonhospitalized control women. High sensitivity C-reactive protein levels were measured in the surgical patients. Preoperative cognitive impairment was defined as >2 sd lower scores on ≥2 tests compared with the controls. Cognitive impairment was present in 49 of 108 (45%) patients. C-reactive protein levels were higher for patients with compared with those without cognitive impairment (median, 8.1 mg/L versus 4.7 mg/L; P = 0.04). Based on multivariate logistic regression analysis, patient age, lower attained level of education, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and prior myocardial infarction identified risk for cognitive impairment (P < 0.05) but C-reactive protein levels did not (P = 0.09). In conclusion, cognitive impairment is prevalent in women before cardiac surgery. C-reactive protein levels are increased in women with this condition but the relationship between this inflammatory marker and preexisting cognitive impairment is likely secondary to the acute phase reactant serving as a marker for other predisposing conditions.
Evaluation of efficacy and safety of gabapentin, duloxetine, and pregabalin in patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy

Aim: To compare the efficacy and safety of gabapentin (GBP), duloxetine (DLX), and pregabalin (PGB) in patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPNP). Methods: A prospective, randomized, open label, 12-week study was conducted. A total of 152 patients with history of pain attributed to DPNP with a minimum 40-mm score on visual analogue scale (VAS) were randomized to receive GBP, DLX, or PGB. The primary efficacy measure was pain severity as measured on 11 point VAS. Secondary efficacy measures included sleep interference score, Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC), and Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGIC). Assessment of safety was done by recording the occurrence of adverse drug reactions. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi square test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and repeated measures ANOVA. Results: Of total 152 patients, 50 patients received GBP, DLX each while 52 received PGB. A significant reduction in pain score (VAS), sleep interference score, PGIC, and CGIC was seen in all the three treatment groups across time (P<0.05) with no statistically significant difference between the groups. There was a significant interaction between the time and treatment groups (P<0.001) for pain score (VAS), sleep interference score, and PGIC. The improvement in pain scores (VAS) and sleep interference score was higher with PGB compared to DLX and GBP. Adverse drug reactions were mild and occurred in 9.2% of all cases. Conclusions: Monotherapy with GBP, DLX, or PGB Produced a clinically and subjectively meaningful pain relief in patients with DPNP with onset of pain relief being faster and superior with PGB.
Bmc Musculoskeletal Disorders the Impact of Rheumatoid Arthritis on Foot Function in the Early Stages of Disease: a Clinical Case Series

The impact of rheumatoid arthritis on foot function in the early stages of disease: a clinical case series Original Citation (2006) The impact of rheumatoid arthritis on foot function in the early stages of disease: a clinical case series. Users may access full items free of charge; copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided: • The authors, title and full bibliographic details is credited in any copy; • A hyperlink and/or URL is included for the original metadata page; and • The content is not changed in any way. Abstract Background: Foot involvement occurs early in rheumatoid arthritis but the extent to which this impacts on the structure and function leading to impairment and foot related disability is unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare clinical disease activity, impairment, disability, and foot function in normal and early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) feet using standardised clinical measures and 3D gait analysis.
Physical mechanical and tablet formation properties of hydroxypropylcellulose: In pure form and in mixtures

The aim of the study was to analyze hydroxypropylcellulose (HPC) in pure form and in excipient mixtures and to relate its physical and chemical properties to tablet binder functionality. The materials used were Klucel hydroxypropylcellulose grades ranging from low to high molecular weight (80–1000 kDa) of regular particle size (250 µm mean size) and fine particle size (80 µm mean size). These were compared with microcrystalline cellulose, spray-dried lactose, and dicalcium phosphate dihydrate. Thermal behavior of HPC was analyzed by modulated temperature differential scanning calorimetry (MTDSC). Tablets of the pure materials and of dry blends with 4% low viscosity, fine particle HPC and 30% high viscosity, fine particle HPC were produced on an instrumented eccentric tableting machine at 3 relative humidities. The 3-dimensional (3-D) model with the parameters time plasticity d, pressure plasticity e, and the twisting angle ω, the inverse of fast elastic decompression was compared with the Heckel method for characterization of compaction. Elastic recovery and compactibility were also studied. The results show that HPC tablet formation is characterized by high plastic deformation. The d, e, and ω values were markedly higher as compared with the reference materials. Plasticity was highest for the fine particle size HPC types. Maximum compactibility was observed for low molecular weight, fine particle size HPC. Tableting of the mixtures showed deformation, which was strongly influenced by HPC. Plasticity and crushing force of formed tablets was increased. In conclusion, HPC is characterized by strong plastic deformation properties, which are molecular weight and particle size dependent.
Alternative techniques to solve hard multi-objective optimization problems

In this paper, we propose the combination of different optimization techniques in order to solve "hard" two- and three-objective optimization problems at a relatively low computational cost. First, we use the ε-constraint method in order to obtain a few points over (or very near of) the true Pareto front, and then we use an approach based on rough sets to spread these solutions, so that the entire Pareto front can be covered. The constrained single-objective optimizer required by the ε-constraint method, is the cultured differential evolution, which is an efficient approach for approximating the global optimum of a problem with a low number of fitness function evaluations. The proposed approach is validated using several difficult multi-objective test problems, and our results are compared with respect to a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm representative of the state-of-the-art in the area: the NSGA-II.
INTERRELATIONS BETWEEN POLYAMINES AND NUCLEIC ACIDS: CHANGES OF POLYAMINE AND NUCLEIC ACID CONCENTRATIONS IN THE DEVELOPING RAT BRAIN

The rat brain concentrations of protein, RNA, DNA, putrescine, and of the polyamines spermidine and spermine, were studied during development. Putrescine formation is apparently controlled by ornithine decarboxylase. Spermidine and spermine concentrations change in inverse directions to their anabolic enzymes. It has been presumed, therefore, that the low concentrations of the polyamine‐synthesizing enzymes in immature brain are compensated for, by high putrescine and S‐adenosylmethionine concentrations.
Differential Spatial Modulation

Spatial modulation (SM) is a newly emerging multiple-input-multiple-output technique that activates only a single antenna for transmission at any time instant and uses the index of the active antenna as an additional information-carrying mechanism. However, by its nature, SM decoding is coherent in that channel state information (CSI) is required at the receiver. In fact, coherent SM decoding can be very complex due to the heavily entangled channel estimation and symbol detection. In this correspondence, a differential SM scheme that completely bypasses any CSI at the transmitter or receiver, while preserving the single active transmit antenna property, is developed. The proposed scheme can be applied to any constant energy constellation such as phase-shift keying (PSK) and to systems with arbitrary numbers of transmit and receive antennas. Simulation results are presented under various system configurations. With the same spectral efficiency, the proposed scheme is capable of paying no more than 3 dB of signal-to-noise ratio penalty compared with coherent SM and outperforming the single-antenna differential PSK and differential space-time coding schemes.
A Statistical Test Suite for Random and Pseudorandom Number Generators for Cryptographic Applications

Abstract : This paper discusses some aspects of selecting and testing random and pseudorandom number generators. The outputs of such generators may he used in many cryptographic applications, such as the generation of key material. Generators suitable for use in cryptographic applications may need to meet stronger requirements than for other applications. In particular, their outputs must he unpredictable in the absence of knowledge of the inputs. Some criteria for characterizing and selecting appropriate generators are discussed in this document. The subject of statistical testing and its relation to cryptanalysis is also discussed, and some recommended statistical tests are provided. These tests may he useful as a first step in determining whether or not a generator is suitable for a particular cryptographic application. The design and cryptanalysis of generators is outside the scope of this paper.
Physical activity is inversely associated with microalbuminuria in hypertensive patients at high cardiovascular risk: data from I-SEARCH

Aims: Microalbuminuria (MAU) is a marker for endothelial dysfunction and a predictor of increased cardiovascular risk. Physical activity improves endothelial function. This analysis aims to explore the impact of regular physical exercise on the prevalence and the degree of MAU in hypertensive individuals at high cardiovascular risk. Methods and results: The International Survey Evaluating microAlbuminuria Routinely by Cardiologists in patients with Hypertension (I-SEARCH) studied the prevalence of MAU in 20,786 hypertensive patients at high cardiovascular risk. Herein, we investigated the relationship between self-reported physical activity and MAU in relation to the number of cardiovascular risk factors, medication and co-morbidities. A total of 7123 patients (34.3%) performed regular physical exercise (moderate or strenuous, at least 4 hours per week). The prevalence of MAU was significantly lower in active than in inactive patients (54% vs 61%; P < 0.0001). This association was observed in all classes of blood pressure and heart rate and was similar in patients with and without diabetes mellitus. Urinary albumin excretion (UAE) was lower in active than in inactive patients (UAE 80 mg/l: 11.6% vs 13.5%, P < 0.0001; UAE 150 mg/l: 7.5% vs 10%; P < 0.0001). In a multivariate analysis adjusted for age, gender, blood pressure, heart rate, renal function, medication and comorbidities, regular physical activity was associated with a 25% lower risk for MAU (odds ratio (OR) 0.75; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.67–0.84; P < 0.0001). Risk reduction for MAU was more pronounced in strenuously active (OR 0.66; 95%CI, 0.47–0.95; P < 0.05) than in moderately active patients (OR 0.76; 95%CI, 0.68–0.85; P < 0.0001). Conclusion: In hypertensive patients at high cardiovascular risk, physical activity is an independent predictor for a decreased risk of microalbuminuria.
Adaptive variance scaling in continuous multi-objective estimation-of-distribution algorithms

Recent research into single-objective continuous Estimation-of-Distribution Algorithms (EDAs)has shown that when maximum-likelihood estimationsare used for parametric distributions such as thenormal distribution, the EDA can easily suffer frompremature convergence. In this paper we argue thatthe same holds for multi-objective optimization.Our aim in this paper is to transfer a solutioncalled Adaptive Variance Scaling (AVS) from thesingle-objective case to the multi-objectivecase. To this end, we zoom in on an existing EDAfor continuous multi-objective optimization, theMIDEA, which employs mixturedistributions. We propose a means to combine AVSwith the normal mixture distribution, as opposedto the single normal distribution for which AVS wasintroduced. In addition, we improve the AVS schemeusing the Standard-Deviation Ratio(SDR) trigger. Intuitively put, variance scalingis triggered by the SDR trigger only ifimprovements are found to be far awayfrom the mean. For the multi-objective case,this addition is important to keep the variancefrom being scaled to excessively large values.From experiments performed on five well-knownbenchmark problems, the addition of SDR andAVS is found to enlarge the class of problems thatcontinuous multi-objective EDAs can solve reliably.
Structural Identi…cation of Production Functions

This paper examines some of the recent literature on the identi…cation of production functions. We focus on structural techniques suggested in two recent papers, Olley and Pakes (1996), and Levinsohn and Petrin (2003). While there are some solid and intuitive indenti…cation ideas in these papers, we argue that the techniques, particularly those of