Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Experimental Trial Exploring the Impact of Continuous Transdermal Alcohol Monitoring upon Alcohol Consumption in a Cohort of Male Students

Objective To examine the impact of continuous transdermal alcohol monitoring upon alcohol consumption in male students at a Scottish university. Method Using a within-subject mixed-methods design, 60 male university students were randomly allocated into three experimental conditions using AUDIT score stratified sampling. Participants in Conditions A and B were asked not to consume alcohol for a 14-day period, with those in Condition A additionally being required to wear a continuous transdermal alcohol monitoring anklet. Condition C participants wore an anklet and were asked to continue consuming alcohol as normal. Alcohol consumption was measured through alcohol timeline follow-back, and using data collected from the anklets where available. Diaries and focus groups explored participants’ experiences of the trial. Results Alcohol consumption during the 14-day trial decreased significantly for participants in Conditions A and B, but not in C. There was no significant relative difference in units of alcohol consumed between Conditions A and B, but significantly fewer participants in Condition A drank alcohol than in Condition B. Possible reasons for this difference identified from the focus groups and diaries included the anklet acting as a reminder of commitment to the study (and the agreement to sobriety), participants feeling under surveillance, and the use of the anklet as a tool to resist social pressure to consume alcohol. Conclusions The study provided experience in using continuous transdermal alcohol monitors in an experimental context, and demonstrated ways in which the technology may be supportive in facilitating sobriety. Results from the study have been used to design a research project using continuous transdermal alcohol monitors with ex-offenders who recognise a link between their alcohol consumption and offending behaviour.
Estimation of the basic reproduction number of BSE: the intensity of transmission in British cattle

The basic reproduction number, R0, of an infectious agent is a key factor determining the rate of spread and the proportion of the host population affected. We formulate a general mathematical framework to describe the transmission dynamics of long incubation period diseases with complex pathogenesis. This is used to derive expressions for R0 of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in British cattle, and backcalculation methods are used to estimate R0 throughout the time–course of the BSE epidemic. We show that the 1988 meat and bonemeal ban was effective in rapidly reducing R0 below 1, and demonstrate that this indicates that BSE will be unable to become endemic in the UK cattle population even when case clustering is taken into account. The analysis provides some insight into absolute infectiousness for bovine–to–bovine transmission, indicating maximally infectious animals may have infected up to 400 animals each. The relationship between R0 and the early stages of the BSE epidemic and the requirements for additional research are also discussed.
Comparison of patients’ and general practitioners’ evaluations of general practice care

Objectives: To compare patients’ and general practitioners’ (GPs’) evaluations of the quality of general practice care. Design: Written surveys among patients and GPs. Setting: General practice in the Netherlands. Subjects: 1772 patients (from 45 GPs) and a random sample of 315 GPs. Main outcome measures: Patients’ and GPs’ evaluations of 23 aspects of general practice care and GPs’ perceptions of patients’ evaluations using a 5 point scale. Results: The response rate was 88% in the patient sample and 63% in the GP sample. The patients’ ratings of care were significantly more positive (mean 4.0) than those of the GPs (mean 3.7) as well as GPs’ perceptions of patients’ evaluations (mean 3.5) (p<0.001). The overall rank order correlations between the patients’ evaluations, GPs’ evaluations, and GPs’ perceptions of the patients’ evaluations were 0.75 or higher (p<0.001). Patients and practitioners gave the most positive evaluations of specific aspects of the doctor-patient relationship (“keeping patients’ records and data confidential”, “listening to patients”, and “making patients feel they had enough time during consultations”) and aspects of the organisation of care (“provide quick service for urgent health problems” and “helpfulness of the staff (other than the doctor)”). The aspects of care evaluated least positively by patients as well as by GPs were other organisational aspects (“preparing patients for what to expect from specialist or hospital care” and “getting through to practice on the telephone”). Conclusions: GPs and patients have to some extent a shared perspective on general practice care. However, GPs were more critical about the quality of care than patients and they underestimated how positive patients were about the care they provide. Furthermore, specific aspects of care were evaluated differently, so surveys and other consultations with patients are necessary to integrate their perspective into quality improvement activities.
Angiosperms Are Unique among Land Plant Lineages in the Occurrence of Key Genes in the RNA-Directed DNA Methylation (RdDM) Pathway

The RNA-directed DNA methylation (RdDM) pathway can be divided into three phases: 1) small interfering RNA biogenesis, 2) de novo methylation, and 3) chromatin modification. To determine the degree of conservation of this pathway we searched for key genes among land plants. We used OrthoMCL and the OrthoMCL Viridiplantae database to analyze proteomes of species in bryophytes, lycophytes, monilophytes, gymnosperms, and angiosperms. We also analyzed small RNA size categories and, in two gymnosperms, cytosine methylation in ribosomal DNA. Six proteins were restricted to angiosperms, these being NRPD4/NRPE4, RDM1, DMS3 (defective in meristem silencing 3), SHH1 (SAWADEE homeodomain homolog 1), KTF1, and SUVR2, although we failed to find the latter three proteins in Fritillaria persica, a species with a giant genome. Small RNAs of 24 nt in length were abundant only in angiosperms. Phylogenetic analyses of Dicer-like (DCL) proteins showed that DCL2 was restricted to seed plants, although it was absent in Gnetum gnemon and Welwitschia mirabilis. The data suggest that phases (1) and (2) of the RdDM pathway, described for model angiosperms, evolved with angiosperms. The absence of some features of RdDM in F. persica may be associated with its large genome. Phase (3) is probably the most conserved part of the pathway across land plants. DCL2, involved in virus defense and interaction with the canonical RdDM pathway to facilitate methylation of CHH, is absent outside seed plants. Its absence in G. gnemon, and W. mirabilis coupled with distinctive patterns of CHH methylation, suggest a secondary loss of DCL2 following the divergence of Gnetales.
Stroke in children under 16 years of age. Clinical and etiological difference with adults

Objectives ‐ The aim of this study was to re‐evaluate the clinical features of stroke in children, their outcome and the place of the different mechanisms, in the light of CT‐scan and magnetic resonance imaging. Methods ‐ A 10‐year review of the Dijon Childhood Neurology Clinic experience (1985–1995) identified 54 patients with arterial stroke. Diagnosis was established by CT‐scan and angiography and by magnetic resonance imaging from 1987. When an hemorrhagic stroke was identified, a cerebral arteriogram and an investigation of the coagulation factors were performed. When an ischemic stroke was identified, the following tests were performed: an ultrasound examination of the cervical arteries, a cerebral arteriogram, a lumbar puncture, an investigation of the coagulation factors and lipid status, a measurement of homocystine in the plasma and the urine, an electrocardiogram, a Holter procedure and a cardiac echography. Results ‐ During the 11 full calendar years of this study, we observed 54 stroke patients. There were 31 cases of ischemic stroke, representing some 57% of the total, as well as 23 cases of hemorrhagic stroke, representing 43% of the total. Of the 31 cases with ischemic stroke, 4 had no known predisposing condition, 6 occurred in children with pre‐existing heart disease, 2 had moya‐moya disease, 2 had leukemia, 2 had a carotid dissection, 1 had an hemolytic‐uremic syndrome, and 14 were observed in patients with other associated conditions, such as infections (7 cases) or slight cranial trauma (7 cases). On CT‐scan, a basal ganglia infarction was identified in 14 cases. Among the 23 hemorrhagic strokes, 9 were due to arteriovenous malformations, 2 to arterial aneurysm and 5 to cavernomas. Two cases occurred in hemophilia, 2 in idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, and 2 after throat infections. One case had no etiologic factor. Clinical course was marked by a low mortality rate even in hemorrhagic stroke, long‐lasting seizures, and hemidystonia. Conclusion ‐ This neuro‐imaging survey focused on the real place of hemorrhage and basal ganglia infarctions in children under 16 years of age, compared to adulthood. Follow‐up demonstrated good or complete resolution of neurological deficits despite the frequent late hemidystonia and late epilepsy.
Quality Controlled Wavelet Compression of ECG Signals by WEDD

A novel and simple quality controlled ECG compression algorithm is proposed using Wavelet energy based diagnostic distortion (WEDD) measure, which localizes the error between the original and the reconstructed signals in the feature space. The compression algorithm is based on Wavelet transform, energy based thresholding and an adaptive quantization scheme. The quality control criterion allows clinically acceptable reconstructions while maintaining high compression ratios. The advantage of the proposed algorithm is that the threshold value and the quantization bits are chosen automatically in few iterations so that the quality of the reconstructed signal is controlled.
The Impact of Transnational Terrorism on U.S. Foreign Direct Investment

This article investigates the extent to which transnational terrorist attacks altered U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI). Time-series intervention analysis shows that 9/11 generally had little lasting influence on U.S. FDI flows. Only a few countries that experienced subsequent terrorist attacks displayed a post-9/11 drop in U.S. FDI flows, which, except for Turkey, was not long-lived. For a panel of countries, this study also examines the effect that terrorist attacks against U.S. interests had on the stock of U.S. FDI. Based on a methodology previously applied to the study of U.S. assets abroad, we find that such attacks had a significant, but small, impact on these stocks in OECD countries. Greece and Turkey displayed the largest declines—5.7 percent and 6.5 percent of their average U.S. FDI stocks, respectively. There was no such effect for non-OECD countries. Terrorist efforts to limit U.S. FDI have been cost-effective.
Nocturnal Enuresis among School Children in Menofia Governorate, Egypt; a Hidden Problem

Background: Nocturnal enuresis (NE) among school children is a hidden problem that is crucial to be diagnosed and treated as soon as possible, as it can result in many psychological consequences and poor scholas- tic achievements. Objectives: The main objective was health promotion of school children with better scholastic achievements. However the specific objectives were to; determine the prevalence and risk factors of nocturnal enu- resis among school children in Menofia governorate of Egypt, and to examine its associations with behavioral and emotional problems. Subjects and Methods: The study was a cross-sectional comparative study that conducted during the academic year 2009/2010 on 723 students aged 6-18 years in Menofia governorate. A brief questionnaire was distributed to screen the primary enuretic children (No.83) who and their mothers were invited, together with a matched control group (No.144) after their consent to fill a well-designed questionnaire and Child Behavior Check List (CBCL). Teacher Report Form (TRF) will be also filled by their teachers. Results: Prevalence of primary NE was 11.5 %, however secondary type was 3.2%. Logistic regression analysis showed that, primary NE was signifi- cantly associated with positive family history (Odds ratio 2.76), history of urinary tract infection (Odds ratio 3.10) and an increased risk of internalizing, externalizing, total behavioral problems and poor academic achievements (Odds ratio were 3.05, 3.63, 4.47and 2.37 respectively). Out of enuretics, 57.8% of them and 61.4% of their parents were greatly concerned with the impact of enuresis. Only 15.7% of the parents preferred medical treatment modali- ties, others preferred awaking the child for voiding, water restriction, diapering, alarm and bladder exercises in de- creasing order. Conclusions: The family physician is in a prime position to screen, early detect and treat nocturnal enuresis among school children as soon as possible to prevent its consequences as low self-esteem, psychological and behavioral problems and low school success.
AN INTRODUCTORY EXPERIMENT WITH A CONSCIOUS-BASED AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE

This work describes an introductory experiment where the Baars-Franklin Architecture (BFA), an artificial consciousness approach, was applied to synthesize a control system for an autonomous vehicle. The BFA was reported in the literature as a successful control system to different kinds of agents: CMattie, IDA and CTS. In this paper, BFA is for the first time applied for controlling an autonomous vehicle. Firstly we introduce the theoretical foundations of this approach for the development of a conscious agent. Then we explain the architecture of our agent and at the end we discuss the results and first impressions of this approach.
Selecting pH cut-offs for the safe verification of nasogastric feeding tube placement: a decision analytical modelling approach

Objectives The existing British National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) safety guideline recommends testing the pH of nasogastric (NG) tube aspirates. Feeding is considered safe if a pH of 5.5 or lower has been observed; otherwise chest X-rays are recommended. Our previous research found that at 5.5, the pH test lacks sensitivity towards oesophageal placements, a major risk identified by feeding experts. The aim of this research is to use a decision analytic modelling approach to systematically assess the safety of the pH test under cut-offs 1–9. Materials and methods We mapped out the care pathway according to the existing safety guideline where the pH test is used as a first-line test, followed by chest x-rays. Decision outcomes were scored on a 0–100 scale in terms of safety. Sensitivities and specificities of the pH test at each cut-off were extracted from our previous research. Aggregating outcome scores and probabilities resulted in weighted scores which enabled an analysis of the relative safety of the checking procedure under various pH cut-offs. Results The pH test was the safest under cut-off 5 when there was ≥30% of NG tube misplacements. Under cut-off 5, respiratory feeding was excluded; oesophageal feeding was kept to a minimum to balance the need of chest X-rays for patients with a pH higher than 5. Routine chest X-rays were less safe than the pH test while to feed all without safety checks was the most risky. Discussion The safety of the current checking procedure is sensitive to the choice of pH cut-offs, the impact of feeding delays, the accuracy of the pH in the oesophagus, as well as the extent of tube misplacements. Conclusions The pH test with 5 as the cut-off was the safest overall. It is important to understand the local clinical environment so that appropriate choice of pH cut-offs can be made to maximise safety and to minimise the use of chest X-rays. Trial registration number ISRCTN11170249; Pre-results.
Optimal design parameters for hydraulic vertical flocculation in the package surface water treatment plant

After 2003, hundreds projects were completed to provide drinking water to rural areas in most governorates in Iraq. These projects consist of the package water treatment plant, which treats surface water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. All the package water treatment plant contains a mechanical flocculators, which suffers from continuous faults and needs periodic maintenance and needs electric energy to operate, which leads to an increase in the cost of water production and lack of quality of water produced. In this project, the possibility of changing the type of flocculators from mechanic to hydraulic was tested for a 100 m3·h–1 package water treatment plant in the Al-Eskan water treatment project in the south of Diwaniyah city in Iraq. There are many challenges facing the design involving findings ways to improve the effi ciency of the flocculation system. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package, ANSYS Fluent 16.1 software have been used to simulate turbulent fluid flow in hydraulic flocculators for Al-Eskan package water treatmen plants (EPWTP). The flocculator simulations in ANSYS Fluent are used to obtain turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate to determine the distance between baffles, the quantity of baffles, velocity gradient, residence time, and flocculation performance. The results obtained from ANSYS Fluent simulation are used in designing a hydraulic flocculator, so our finding can be utilized to validate the hydraulic flocculator model. The results confi rmed that the method used to design certain parameters of the tank are fairly accurate. Overall the design of the flocculation tank produced reasonable results which match expected results of hydraulic fl occulation tanks found in literature. The results of the report suggest that a height to baffl e spacing ratio of 22.5 creates intersecting energy dissipation regions that produce the greatest formation of fl ocs per reactor volume.
Server selection methods in hybrid portal search

The TREC.GOV collection makes a valuable web testbed for distributed information retrieval methods because it is naturally partitioned and includes 725 web-oriented queries with judged answers. It can usefully model aspects of government and large corporate portals. Analysis of the.gov data shows that a purely distributed approach would not be feasible for providing search on a.gov portal because of the large number (17,000+) of web sites and the high proportion that do not provide a search interface. An alternative hybrid approach, combining both distributed and centralized techniques, is proposed and server selection methods are evaluated within this framework using web-oriented evaluation methodology. A number of well-known algorithms are compared against representatives (highest anchor ranked page (HARP) and anchor weighted sum (AWSUM)) of a family of new selection methods which use link anchortext extracted from an auxiliary crawl to provide descriptions of sites which are not themselves crawled. Of the previously published methods, ReDDE substantially outperformed three variants of CORI and also outperformed a method based on Kullback-Leibler Divergence (extended) except on topic distillation. HARP and AWSUM performed best overall but were outperformed on the topic distillation task by extended KL Divergence.
Quantification of Modified Tyrosines in Healthy and Diabetic Human Urine using Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

The quantification of urinary oxidized tyrosines, dityrosine (DiY), nitrotyrosine (NY), bromotyrosine (BrY), and dibromotyrosine (DiBrY), was accomplished by quadruple liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS). The sample was partially purified by solid phase extraction, and was then applied to the LC/MS/MS using multiple-reaction monitoring (MRM) methods. The analysis for the DiY quantification was done first. The residual samples were further butylated with n-butanol/HCl, and the other modified tyrosines were then quantified with isotopic dilution methods. MRM peaks of the modified tyrosines (DiY, NY, BrY, and DiBrY) from human urine were measured and the elution times coincided with the authentic and isotopic standards. The amounts of modified tyrosines in healthy human urine (n = 23) were 8.8 ± 0.6 (DiY), 1.4 ± 0.4 (NY), 3.8 ± 0.3 (BrY), and 0.7 ± 0.1 (DiBrY) µmol/mol of creatinine, respectively. A comparison of the modified tyrosines with urinary 8-oxo-deoxyguanosine, pentosidine, and Nε-(hexanoyl)lysine was also performed. Almost all products, except for NY, showed good correlations with each other. The amounts of the modified tyrosines (NY, BrY, and DiBrY) in the diabetic urine were higher than those in the urine from healthy people.
Sublethal effects of a new antifouling candidate on lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus L.) and Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.) larvae

Abstract Sublethal effects of medetomidine, a new generation antifouling compound, on lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus L.) and cod (Gadus morhua L.) larvae were examined. The effects on respiration rate and on colour adaptation of newly hatched larvae were assessed after 24–96 h exposure. Exposure of lumpfish larvae to the experimental concentrations resulted in a significant decrease in respiration rate (Lowest Observed Effect Concentration (LOEC) = 5–10 nM) and in the percentage of dark larvae (LOEC = 4 nM). However, no effects on respiration rate of cod larvae were detected. In addition to lumpfish larvae being affected at low concentrations of medetomidine, a reversibility of the effects was observed when 96 h-exposed larvae were incubated in clean seawater for 24–48 h. Considerations relating to the future commercialisation of medetomidine for antifouling purposes are discussed.
Contribution to the lichen flora of North East Greenland. V. Zackenberg and Clavering Ø area

Abstract The paper lists 202 lichen taxa from Zackenberg and Clavering Ø area, North East Greenland. Ochrolechia androgyna, Psora globifera and Rhizocarpon renneri are new to East Greenland. Sixteen lichen taxa are new to North East Greenland, viz. Aspicilia aquatica, Candelariella dispersa, Chaenotheca furfuracea, Circinaria caesiocinerea, Cladonia libifera, Lecanora cenisia, L. chloroleprosa, L. leptacina, Lichenomphalia alpina, Miriquidica atrofulva, M. nigroleprosa, Ochrolechia alaskana, Peltigera castanea, P. extenuata, Phylliscum demangeonii and Pyrenopsis furfurea.
Graph Isomorphism and the Lasserre Hierarchy

In this paper we show lower bounds for a certain large class of algorithms solving the Graph Isomorphism problem, even on expander graph instances. Spielman [25] shows an algorithm for isomorphism of strongly regular expander graphs that runs in time exp(O(n^(1/3)) (this bound was recently improved to expf O(n^(1/5) [5]). It has since been an open question to remove the requirement that the graph be strongly regular. Recent algorithmic results show that for many problems the Lasserre hierarchy works surprisingly well when the underlying graph has expansion properties. Moreover, recent work of Atserias and Maneva [3] shows that k rounds of the Lasserre hierarchy is a generalization of the k-dimensional Weisfeiler-Lehman algorithm for Graph Isomorphism. These two facts combined make the Lasserre hierarchy a good candidate for solving graph isomorphism on expander graphs. Our main result rules out this promising direction by showing that even Omega(n) rounds of the Lasserre semidefinite program hierarchy fail to solve the Graph Isomorphism problem even on expander graphs.