Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of milk components with intra-mammary inflammation in Jaffrabadi buffaloes

Aim: To study the alteration of major milk components such as milk fat, protein, lactose, solid not fat (SNF) and total solids (TS) and their association with different degree of intra-mammary inflammation (IMI) in Jaffrabadi buffaloes. Materials and Methods: Milk samples (n=1516) were collected from Jaffrabadi buffaloes separately from each quarter. Milk samples were analyzed for milk fat, protein, lactose, SNF and TS percent on the same day using milk analyzer “LACTOSCAN. ” Milk samples were checked for IMI by California mastitis test (CMT), and the results were expressed as negative (0), +, ++, and +++ CMT score. The traits of milk components which showed significant difference (p<0.05) between samples from inflamed and non-inflamed quarters were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to see the accuracy and degree of association with IMI. Results: Among several milk components, milk protein and lactose percent showed a significant difference (p<0.05) between milk samples from normal and inflamed quarters. Though, during the early stage of mammary gland inflammation milk protein percent remained significantly high (p<0.05), later with an increase in the degree of severity of inflammation it did not show any difference. Milk samples from normal udder quarters had significantly higher lactose percent than inflamed quarters (p<0.05). Milk lactose percent decreased gradually with an increase in the degree of severity of inflammation. ROC analysis revealed that milk samples having lactose content below the threshold values had significantly higher chances to come from inflamed udder quarters (p<0.05). Though, the value of the area under curve (AUC) indicated that milk lactose was significantly associated with IMI (p<0.05), the accuracy was moderate (AUC=0.71-0.75). Conclusions: The results of the present study indicated that milk lactose percent gradually and significantly reduced during IMI and can be used as a marker for identification of IMI in buffaloes. However, ROC analysis further confirmed that using milk lactose IMI can be identified with moderate accuracy.
Association between Ultrasound Features and the 21-Gene Recurrence Score Assays in Patients with Oestrogen Receptor-Positive, HER2-Negative, Invasive Breast Cancer

A multigene expression assay corresponds to the likelihood of breast cancer recurrence after the initial diagnosis and can be used to guide the decision for additional chemotherapy. However, only few studies have investigated the associations between the imaging features of breast cancer and the results of multigene expression assays. Our study was to identify the relationship between imaging features on ultrasound (US) and the recurrence score (RS) on a 21-gene expression assay in patients with oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. 267 patients with ER-positive, HER-negative invasive breast cancer who underwent examinations using US and Oncotype DX assay were included. US images were independently reviewed by dedicated breast radiologists who were blind to the RS. Tumour roundness was measured using a laboratory-developed software program. The pathological data were reviewed, including immunohistochemistry results. Univariate analysis was performed to assess the associations between the RS and each variable. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent predictors of high RS. Of 267 patients, 147 (55%) had low, 96 (36%) intermediate, and 24 (9%) had high RS. According to the univariate analysis, parallel orientation, presence of calcification in the mass, and tumour roundness were positively associated with high RS. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that parallel orientation (OR = 5.53) and tumour roundness (OR = 1.70 per 10 increase) were associated with high RS. Parallel orientation and tumour roundness are independent variables that may predict high RS in patients with ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
MIMO LMMSE Transceiver Design with Imperfect CSI at Both Ends

This paper presents a new result on minimum total mean squared error (MSE) joint transceiver design for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, with imperfect channel state information (CSI) at both ends and subject to a total power constraint. The channel knowledge here is the channel mean and transmit correlation information. The joint design is formulated into an optimization problem, to which the closed-form optimum solution is found. The optimum precoder consists of a linear filter, a matrix which collects effective channel eigenmodes, and a diagonal power allocation matrix. The linear filter balances the suppression of channel noise and the additional noise induced by channel estimation error. Given the precoder, the optimum decoder is simply a linear minimum MSE (LMMSE) data estimator. The performance degradations due to imperfect channel estimation and/or transmit correlation are demonstrated by simulation results. The relation between the minimum total MSE design and the maximum mutual information design is determined as well, under the above mentioned imperfect CSI.
Endothelial dysfunction: the early predictor of atherosclerosis

Abstract Since the discovery in the 1980s that nitric oxide (NO) is in fact the elusive endothelium-derived relaxing factor, it has become evident that NO is not only a major cardiovascular signalling molecule, but that changes in its bioavailability are crucial in determining whether atherosclerosis will develop or not. Sustained high levels of harmful circulating stimuli associated with cardiovascular risk factors such as diabetes mellitus elicit responses in endothelial cells that appear sequentially, namely endothelial cell activation and endothelial dysfunction (ED). ED, characterised by reduced NO bioavailability, is now recognised by many as an early, reversible precursor of atherosclerosis. The pathogenesis of ED is multifactorial; however, oxidative stress appears to be the common underlying cellular mechanism in the ensuing loss of vaso-active, inflammatory, haemostatic and redox homeostasis in the body’s vascular system. The role of ED as a pathophysiological link between early endothelial cell changes associated with cardiovascular risk factors and the development of ischaemic heart disease is of importance to basic scientists and clinicians alike.
Financial Markets and the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy: Challenging the Dominant Logics

Financial markets play a major role in contributing to the transition to a low-carbon economy. Although many initiatives and developments are taking place, this is just the beginning. In this article, we argue for a theory of change—a theory rooted in logics that will help financial markets play a key role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. We argue that the current dominant logics in finance—short-termism, predictability of the future based on ex-post data, price efficiency, and risk-adjusted returns—impede the effective integration of climate considerations in financial markets. We suggest four alternative logics that can enable and foster a change toward the low-carbon economy: long-termism, systems interconnectedness, carbon price dynamics, and active ownership.
Cross-Border Production Chains and Business Cycle Co-Movement between Central and Eastern European Countries and Euro Area Member States

In this paper, we highlight the role of global value chains in the synchronization of economic activity between countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the euro area. We start off by demonstrating that the degree of synchronization of the business cycles of CEE countries and their main trade partners from the euro area has increased in recent years. We next show that the cyclical fluctuations of GDP in CEE countries are strongly influenced by pro-cyclical movements of changes in inventories. We then present evidence of the importance of cross border production chains for the economies of CEE countries. We build on these findings to show that the propagation of changes in demand for imports along global supply chains JEL Classification: E32, F44, F62, O52
What does it take to learn 'programming thinking'?

What is 'programming thinking'? In a study, first year students were interviewed on their understanding of what learning to program means. Many students talked about learning to program in terms of learning a special way to think, different from other subjects studied. Many of these students had problems in describing what this special way to think included. The analysis of the interviews revealed some features of this thinking, as expressed by the students. In this paper we discuss and analyse 'programming thinking' using phenomenography as our research approach [7]. Our results are coherent with Hazzan's research on the learning theory 'process-object duality' [4], but points to problems in learning of object-oriented programming not indicated in 'process-object duality'. In comparing the results form our own study with this learning theory, we discuss what this might mean in learning object-oriented programming.
The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) Guidelines for the Biological Treatment of Bipolar Disorders: Update 2012 on the long-term treatment of bipolar disorder

Abstract Objectives. These guidelines are based on a first edition that was published in 2004, and have been edited and updated with the available scientific evidence up to October 2012. Their purpose is to supply a systematic overview of all scientific evidence pertaining to the long-term treatment of bipolar disorder in adults. Methods. Material used for these guidelines are based on a systematic literature search using various data bases. Their scientific rigor was categorised into six levels of evidence (A–F) and different grades of recommendation to ensure practicability were assigned. Results. Maintenance trial designs are complex and changed fundamentally over time; thus, it is not possible to give an overall recommendation for long-term treatment. Different scenarios have to be examined separately: Prevention of mania, depression, or an episode of any polarity, both in acute responders and in patients treated de novo. Treatment might differ in Bipolar II patients or Rapid cyclers, as well as in special subpopulations. We identified several medications preventive against new manic episodes, whereas the current state of research into the prevention of new depressive episodes is less satisfactory. Lithium continues to be the substance with the broadest base of evidence across treatment scenarios. Conclusions. Although major advances have been made since the first edition of this guideline in 2004, there are still areas of uncertainty, especially the prevention of depressive episodes and optimal long-term treatment of Bipolar II patients.
Learning to count with regression forest and structured labels

Following [Lempitsky and Zisserman, 2010], we seek to count objects by integrating over an object density map that is predicted from an input image. In contrast to that work, we propose to estimate the object density map by averaging over structured, namely patch-wise, predictions. Using an ensemble of randomized regression trees that use dense features as input, we obtain results that are of similar quality, at a fraction of the training time, and with low implementation effort. An open source implementation will be provided in the framework of http://ilastik.org.
Remote Sensing Images in Support of Environmental Protocol: Monitoring the Sugarcane Harvest in São Paulo State, Brazil

Traditional manual sugarcane harvesting requires the pre-harvest burning practice which should be gradually banned by 2021 for most of Sao Paulo State, Brazil, on cultivated sugarcane land (terrain slope ≤12%) according to State Law number 11241. To forward the end of this practice to 2014, a “Green Ethanol” Protocol was established in 2007. The present work aims at analyzing five years of continuous sugarcane harvest monitoring, based on remote sensing images, to evaluate the effectiveness of the Protocol, thus helping decision makers to establish public policies to meet the Protocol’s expected goals. During the last five crop years, sugarcane acreage expanded by 1.5 million ha, which was compensated by a correspondent increase in the green harvested land. However, no significant reduction was observed in the amount of pre-harvest burned land over the same period. Based on the current trend, this goal is likely to be achieved one or two years later (2015–2016), which will be five or six years ahead of 2021 as the goal in the State Law number 11241 states. We thus conclude that the“Green Ethanol” Protocol has been effective with a positive impact on the increase of GH, especially on recently expanded sugarcane fields.
Mathematical modelling of ethanol metabolism in normal subjects and chronic alcohol misusers.

The time course of ethanol disappearance from the blood has been examined in normal males and females and in alcohol misusers. Blood alcohol estimations were made over a period of 3 hr, following an oral dose of ethanol (0.8 g/kg body weight) administered in the form of whisky. Attempts were made to fit the data to zero order, first order and mixed zero + first order kinetics. In the majority (75%) of normal females the blood ethanol concentrations was still increasing at 30 min. This was only seen in 50% of normal males and in 50% of non-dependent alcohol misusers, but not in dependent alcohol misusers. In all of the normal females the disappearance of ethanol could be adequately described by zero order kinetics. However, in the normal male group only 20% could be described by zero order kinetics, 10% fitted first order kinetics and the remainder required a mixed model of zero + first order. The rate constant for the zero order component of the control male group was identical to zero order rate constant obtained for the female control group. In the female alcohol misuser group, 40% of the curves could not be described by zero order kinetics and fitted best to a mixed model. The zero order component of the entire group was significantly increased (by 35%) compared to that obtained for the female control group. In the male dependent and non-dependent alcohol misuser groups, all blood alcohol concentration curves fitted best to mixed zero and first order kinetics. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Evaluation relaxation using substructural information and linear estimation

The paper presents an evaluation-relaxation scheme where a fitness surrogate automatically adapts to the problem structure and the partial contributions of subsolutions to the fitness of an individual are estimated efficiently and accurately. In particular, the probabilistic model built by extended compact genetic algorithm is used to infer the structural form of the surrogate and a least squares method is used to estimate the coefficients of the surrogate. Using the surrogate avoids the need for expensive fitness evaluation for some of the solutions, and thereby yields significant efficiency enhancement. Results show that a surrogate, which automatically adapts to problem knowledge mined from probabilistic models, yields substantial speedup (1.75--3.1) on a class of boundedly-difficult additively-decomposable problems with and without additive Gaussian noise. The speedup provided by the surrogate increases with the number of substructures, substructure complexity, and noise-to-signal ratio.
Use of RBF neural networks for density estimation

The paper outlines a mixture distribution of Gaussian method for estimation the probabilit y density function. A RBF neural network architecture for reali sing such estimation is proposed. Moreover, the learning algorithm is derived. The practical use of the method is ill ustrated by a small example of an recognition application. The aim of which is to recognise vehicles based on the acoustical signal generated by them. The proposed method is compared with the LVQ algorithm, giving much better results in the recognition application.
Isomorphism of intersection and union types †

This paper gives a complete characterisation of type isomorphism definable by terms of a λ-calculus with intersection and union types. Unfortunately, when union is considered the Subject Reduction property does not hold in general. However, it is well known that in the λ-calculus, independently of the considered type system, the isomorphism between two types can be realised only by invertible terms. Notably, all invertible terms are linear terms. In this paper, the isomorphism of intersection and union types is investigated using a relevant type system for linear terms enjoying the Subject Reduction property. To characterise type isomorphism, a similarity between types and a type reduction are introduced. Types have a unique normal form with respect to the reduction rules and two types are isomorphic if and only if their normal forms are similar.
Serological validation of an alveolar echinococcosis rat model with a single hepatic lesion

Serology is important for the diagnosis and follow-up of human alveolar echinococcosis (AE). However, patient conditions are highly variable among those with AE, and antibody responses in serological follow-up have not been well-defined. We recently described a new AE rat model established by implantation of small AE tissue into a single arbitrary location in the liver; no metastasis and dissemination were observed. In the present study, we examined the serological characteristics in our rat model before and after surgical treatment. The results showed that antibody responses against crude antigens were increased at one month after transplantation and similar to those of other model animals. For the antigen Em18, antibody responses were slower in our rat model than in other animal models. After surgical resection, changes in antibody responses against Em18 were similar to those observed in human patients with AE. Because of the slow growth of lesions, establishment of a single hepatic lesion and patterns of antibody responses, our rat model may be useful for clarifying follow-up serodiagnoses in human AE and determining the mechanisms of multi-organ involvement by primary infection with oncospheres rather than metastasis.
THE CUSUM CHART FOR MONITORING SHORT PRODUCTION RUNS

This paper develops a model for the analysis and design of a CUSUM chart for monitoring the process mean in short production runs and proposes statistical measures of performance that are appropriate when the process is not operating indefinitely. The model can be used to evaluate the performance of the CUSUM scheme for any given set of chart parameters and thus allows comparisons with Shewhart charts and the determination of the most suitable monitoring scheme in any particular application. The model is flexible enough to be used when the CUSUM chart is applied with Fast Initial Response, as well as when the setup and the restoration of the process after an alarm are imperfect.
Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet?

Through Web-based consumer opinion platforms (e.g., epinions.com), the Internet enables customers to share their opinions on, and experiences with, goods and services with a multitude of other consumers; that is, to engage in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication. Drawing on findings from research on virtual communities and traditional word-of-mouth literature, a typology for motives of consumer online articulation is developed. Using an online sample of some 2,000 consumers, information on the structure and relevance of the motives of consumers’ online articulations is generated. The resulting analysis suggests that consumers’ desire for social interaction, desire for economic incentives, their concern for other consumers, and the potential to enhance their own self-worth are the primary factors leading to eWOM behavior. Further, eWOM providers can be grouped based on what motivates their behavior, suggesting that firms may need to develop different strategies for encouraging eWOM behavior among their users.
Dynamic task scheduling in computing cluster environments

In this study, a cluster-computing environment is employed as a computational platform. In order to increase the efficiency of the system, a dynamic task scheduling algorithm is proposed, which balances the load among the nodes of the cluster. The technique is dynamic, nonpreemptive, adaptive, and it uses a mixed centralised and decentralised policies. Based on the divide and conquer principle, the algorithm models the cluster as hyper-grids and then balances the load among them. Recursively, the hyper-grids of dimension k are divided into grids of dimensions k - 1, until the dimension is 1. Then, all the nodes of the cluster are almost equally loaded. The optimum dimension of the hyper-grid is chosen in order to achieve the best performance. The simulation results show the effective use of the algorithm. In addition, we determined the critical points (lower bounds) in which the algorithm can to be triggered.
Lying, secrecy and power within the doctor-patient relationship

Based on ethnographic research from two distinct French settings, the author examines the lying of doctors, and the lying of patients. The first situation is that of medical practitioners, specialists in the treatment of alcoholism, who affirm to ex-drinkers that it is impossible to drink normally again after treatment, without falling back into dependency, whilst knowing of the existence of contradictory cases. The second situation is that in which a certain number of patients find themselves, and who lead their doctors to believe that they have been taking their medication and dissimulate their real behaviour, that of non-observance of prescription. The author argues that lying, in the context of secrecy, is the expression of and the indication of a power relationship. Moreover, the rationalisation that accompanies the lie does not stop it from producing effects in contradiction to its motivation, thus exposing the conflict between therapeutic logic and social logic: the paradoxical character of lying.
European Bone Marrow Working Group trial on reproducibility of World Health Organization criteria to discriminate essential thrombocythemia from prefibrotic primary myelofibrosis

Background The World Health Organization classification of myeloproliferative neoplasms discriminates between essential thrombocythemia and the prefibrotic phase of primary myelofibrosis. This discrimination is clinically relevant because essential thrombocythemia is associated with a favorable prognosis whereas patients with primary myelofibrosis have a higher risk of progression to myelofibrosis or blast crisis. Design and Methods To assess the reproducibility of the classification, six hematopathologists from five European countries re-classified 102 non-fibrotic bone marrow trephines, obtained because of sustained thrombocytosis. Results Consensus on histological classification defined as at least four identical diagnoses occurred for 63% of the samples. Inter-observer agreement showed low to moderate kappa values (0.28 to 0.57, average 0.41). The percentage of unclassifiable myeloproliferative neoplasms rose from 2% to 23% when minor criteria for primary myelofibrosis were taken into account. In contrast, the frequency of primary myelofibrosis dropped from 23% to 7%, indicating that the majority of patients with a histological diagnosis of primary myelofibrosis did not fulfill the complete criteria for this disease. Thus, over 50% of cases in this series either could not be reproducibly classified or fell into the category of unclassifiable myeloproliferative neoplasms. Conclusions World Health Organization criteria for discrimination of essential thrombocythemia from prefibrotic primary myelofibrosis are poorly to only moderately reproducible and lead to a higher proportion of non-classifiable myeloproliferative neoplasms than histology alone.