Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Helicobacter pylori infection in the young in Bangladesh: prevalence, socioeconomic and nutritional aspects.

BACKGROUND The gastric acid barrier, an important host defence against small bowel infection, may be compromised by infection with Helicobacter pylori. In developing countries, H. pylori infection occurs early in life and prevalence of hypochlorhydria is high particularly in the malnourished, which may predispose a child to repeated gastrointestinal infection and diarrhoea. Diarrhoea being a leading cause of childhood mortality and morbidity in developing countries, we investigated the prevalence of H. pylori infection in children in a poor Bangladeshi community and explored its association with socioeconomic and nutritional status. METHODS The study was conducted in a poor periurban community among 469 children aged 1-99 months. Parents were interviewed using a questionnaire. To detect active infection with H. pylori a 13C-urea breath test was performed and weight was recorded on a beam balance with a sensitivity of 20 g. RESULTS In all, 61% of 36 infants aged 1-3 months were positive for H. pylori; this rate dropped steadily with increasing age and was 33% in 10-15 month old children and then rose to 84% in 6-9 year olds. Overall H. pylori infection had no association with nutritional state of the child, or family income but the infection rate was 2.5 times higher in children of mothers with no schooling. CONCLUSIONS The H. pylori infection rate is very high in early infancy in a poor periurban community of Bangladesh. The reason for a drop in the infection rate in late infancy is unclear but could be due to initial clearance of the infection by the body's defence mechanisms but with possible alteration of the gastric mucosa which sustains infection. Maternal education may be protective and may operate through some unidentified proximate behavioural determinants. The rate of H. pylori infection in infants and young children may predispose them to repeated gastrointestinal infection and diarrhoea.
Random k-noncrossing RNA structures

In this paper, we introduce a combinatorial framework that provides an interpretation of RNA pseudoknot structures as sampling paths of a Markov process. Our results facilitate a variety of applications ranging from the energy-based sampling of pseudoknot structures as well as the ab initio folding via hidden Markov models. Our main result is an algorithm that generates RNA pseudoknot structures with uniform probability. This algorithm serves as a steppingstone to sequence-specific as well as energy-based transition probabilities. The approach employs a correspondence between pseudoknot structures, parametrized in terms of the maximal number of mutually crossing arcs and certain tableau sequences. The latter can be viewed as lattice paths. The main idea of this paper is to view each such lattice path as a sampling path of a stochastic process and to make use of D-finiteness for the efficient computation of the corresponding transition probabilities.
Vegetation height and cover fraction between 60° S and 60° N from ICESat GLAS data

Abstract. We present new coarse resolution (0.5° × 0.5°) vegetation height and vegetation-cover fraction data sets between 60° S and 60° N for use in climate models and ecological models. The data sets are derived from 2003–2009 measurements collected by the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) on the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), the only LiDAR instrument that provides close to global coverage. Initial vegetation height is calculated from GLAS data using a development of the model of Rosette et al. (2008) with with further calibration on desert sites. Filters are developed to identify and eliminate spurious observations in the GLAS data, e.g. data that are affected by clouds, atmosphere and terrain and as such result in erroneous estimates of vegetation height or vegetation cover. Filtered GLAS vegetation height estimates are aggregated in histograms from 0 to 70 m in 0.5 m intervals for each 0.5° × 0.5°. The GLAS vegetation height product is evaluated in four ways. Firstly, the Vegetation height data and data filters are evaluated using aircraft LiDAR measurements of the same for ten sites in the Americas, Europe, and Australia. Application of filters to the GLAS vegetation height estimates increases the correlation with aircraft data from r = 0.33 to r = 0.78, decreases the root-mean-square error by a factor 3 to about 6 m (RMSE) or 4.5 m (68% error distribution) and decreases the bias from 5.7 m to −1.3 m. Secondly, the global aggregated GLAS vegetation height product is tested for sensitivity towards the choice of data quality filters; areas with frequent cloud cover and areas with steep terrain are the most sensitive to the choice of thresholds for the filters. The changes in height estimates by applying different filters are, for the main part, smaller than the overall uncertainty of 4.5–6 m established from the site measurements. Thirdly, the GLAS global vegetation height product is compared with a global vegetation height product typically used in a climate model, a recent global tree height product, and a vegetation greenness product and is shown to produce realistic estimates of vegetation height. Finally, the GLAS bare soil cover fraction is compared globally with the MODIS bare soil fraction (r = 0.65) and with bare soil cover fraction estimates derived from AVHRR NDVI data (r = 0.67); the GLAS tree-cover fraction is compared with the MODIS tree-cover fraction (r = 0.79). The evaluation indicates that filters applied to the GLAS data are conservative and eliminate a large proportion of spurious data, while only in a minority of cases at the cost of removing reliable data as well. The new GLAS vegetation height product appears more realistic than previous data sets used in climate models and ecological models and hence should significantly improve simulations that involve the land surface.
Maximal sets of hamilton cycles in complete multipartite graphs

A set S of edge‐disjoint hamilton cycles in a graph G is said to be maximal if the edges in the hamilton cycles in S induce a subgraph H of G such that G − E(H) contains no hamilton cycles. In this context, the spectrum S(G) of a graph G is the set of integers m such that G contains a maximal set of m edge‐disjoint hamilton cycles. This spectrum has previously been determined for all complete graphs and for all complete bipartite graphs. In this paper, we extend these results to the complete multipartite graphs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 43: 49–66, 2003
Intravaginal Misoprostol for Cervical Ripening and Labor Induction in Nulliparous Women: A Double-blinded, Prospective Randomized Controlled Study

Background: In China, no multicenter double-blinded prospective randomized controlled study on labor induction has been conducted till now. This study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of intravaginal accurate 25-&mgr;g misoprostol tablets for cervical ripening and labor induction in term pregnancy in nulliparous women. Methods: This was a double-blinded, prospective randomized controlled study including nulliparous women from 6 university hospitals across China. Subjects were randomized into misoprostol or placebo group with the sample size ratio set to 7:2. Intravaginal 25-&mgr;g misoprostol or placebo was applied at an interval of 4 h (repeated up to 3 times) for labor induction. Primary outcome measures were the incidence of cumulative Bishop score increases ≥3 within 12 h or vaginal delivery within 24 h. Safety assessments included the incidences of maternal morbidity and adverse fetal/neonatal outcomes. Results: A total of 173 women for misoprostol group and 49 women for placebo were analyzed. The incidence of cumulative Bishop score increases ≥3 within 12 h or vaginal delivery within 24 h was higher in the misoprostol group than in the placebo (64.2% vs. 22.5%, relative risk [RR]: 2.9, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.4–6.0). The incidence of onset of labor within 24 h was significantly higher in the misoprostol group than in the placebo group (48.0% vs. 18.4%, RR: 2.6, 95% CI: 1.2–5.7); and the induction-onset of labor interval was significantly shorter in the misoprostol group (P = 0.0003). However, there were no significant differences in the median process time of vaginal labor (6.4 vs. 6.8 h; P = 0.695), incidence (39.3% vs. 49.0%, RR: 0.8, 95% CI: 0.4–1.5) and indications (P = 0.683) of cesarean section deliveries, and frequencies of maternal, fetal/neonatal adverse events between the groups. Conclusion: Intravaginal misoprostol 25 &mgr;g every 4 h is efficacious and safe in labor induction and cervical ripening.
HORMONE RESPONSE TO JUMPING TESTS IN ADOLESCENT SPRINTERS

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of three different duration (1, 3 or 5 min) rest intervals on hormonal response in 10x10 hurdle jumping series. Eleven adolescent male sprinters and jumpers (16.2±0.9 years, height 170.5±7.9 cm, body mass 70.9±11.1 kg, body mass index 22.0±3.4 kg/m2) participated in the study. An exercise session consisted of 10 two-legged jumps with arm swing over ten 76 cm high hurdles in 10 series which were separated by either 1-, 3or 5-minute rest intervals. Venous blood samples were obtained before and after the session and cortisol (CORT), testosterone (TEST) and the growth hormone (GH) concentrations were analyzed. Mean jumping times over 10 hurdles using one (7.67±0.92 sec), three (7.44±0.66 sec) or five (7.14±0.54 sec) minutes of recovery were not significantly different from each other (p>.05). No significant changes were noted in CORT and TEST concentrations as a result of different exercise sessions. Compared with the initial value, GH increased rapidly (p<.001) after the jumping test with a 1-min rest interval. A negative correlation (r=-.791) was found between mean jumping time using 5-min rest intervals and changes in the TEST concentration. This study indicates that short jumping series with different length rest intervals do not significantly change TEST or CORT concentrations. However, the shortest rest interval (one minute) causes significant changes in GH concentration in adolescent sprinters and jumpers.
Polish-English speech statistical machine translation systems for the IWSLT 2014

This research explores the effects of various training settings from Polish to English Statistical Machine Translation system for spoken language. Various elements of the TED parallel text corpora for the IWSLT 2013 evaluation campaign were used as the basis for training of language models, and for development, tuning and testing of the translation system. The BLEU, NIST, METEOR and TER metrics were used to evaluate the effects of data preparations on translation results. Our experiments included systems, which use stems and morphological information on Polish words. We also conducted a deep analysis of provided Polish data as preparatory work for the automatic data correction and cleaning phase.
Testing the Annular Mode Autocorrelation Time Scale in Simple Atmospheric General Circulation Models

Abstract A new diagnostic for measuring the ability of atmospheric models to reproduce realistic low-frequency variability is introduced in the context of Held and Suarez’s 1994 proposal for comparing the dynamics of different general circulation models. A simple procedure to compute τ, the e-folding time scale of the annular mode autocorrelation function, is presented. This quantity concisely quantifies the strength of low-frequency variability in a model and is easy to compute in practice. The sensitivity of τ to model numerics is then studied for two dry primitive equation models driven with the Held–Suarez forcings: one pseudospectral and the other finite volume. For both models, τ is found to be unrealistically large when the horizontal resolutions are low, such as those that are often used in studies in which long integrations are needed to analyze model variability on low frequencies. More surprising is that it is found that, for the pseudospectral model, τ is particularly sensitive to vertical res.
Max cut and the smallest eigenvalue

We describe a new approximation algorithm for Max Cut. Our algorithm runs in ~O(n2) time, where n is the number of vertices, and achieves an approximation ratio of . 531. On instances in which an optimal solution cuts a 1-ε fraction of edges, our algorithm finds a solution that cuts a 1-4√ε + 8ε-o(1) fraction of edges. Our main result is a variant of spectral partitioning, which can be implemented in nearly linear time. Given a graph in which the Max Cut optimum is a 1-ε fraction of edges, our spectral partitioning algorithm finds a set S of vertices and a bipartition L,R=S-L of S such that at least a 1-O(√ε) fraction of the edges incident on S have one endpoint in L and one endpoint in R. (This can be seen as an analog of Cheeger's inequality for the smallest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix of a graph.) Iterating this procedure yields the approximation results stated above. A different, more complicated, variant of spectral partitioning leads to a polynomial time algorithm that cuts a 1/2 + e-Ω(1/ε) fraction of edges in graphs in which the optimum is 1/2 + ε.
On the Diffusion of Test Smells in Automatically Generated Test Code: An Empirical Study

The role of software testing in the software development process is widely recognized as a key activity for successful projects. This is the reason why in the last decade several automatic unit test generation tools have been proposed, focusing particularly on high code coverage. Despite the effort spent by the research community, there is still a lack of empirical investigation aimed at analyzing the characteristics of the produced test code. Indeed, while some studies inspected the effectiveness and the usability of these tools in practice, it is still unknown whether test code is maintainable. In this paper, we conducted a large scale empirical study in order to analyze the diffusion of bad design solutions, namely test smells, in automatically generated unit test classes. Results of the study show the high diffusion of test smells as well as the frequent co-occurrence of different types of design problems. Finally we found that all test smells have strong positive correlation with structural characteristics of the systems such as size or number of classes.
Reinforced Concrete Columns Confined by Circular Spirals and Hoops

Twenty seven short concrete columns reinforced with longitudinal steel and circular spirals or hoops were tested to failure under monotonic axial compression. Effects of different variables, such as amount and type of lateral steel, lateral steel spacing, etc., were investigated. The relation between lateral pressure on concrete and concrete strength enhancement and the variation of spiral steel stress and confinement effectiveness coefficient k with respect to the amount of spiral steel were also investigated. Requirements of the ACI 318-89 Building code related to the minimum volumetric ratio ofspiral reinforcement and the maximum spiral pitch of 80 mm were critically examined. An increase in the volumetric ratio of spiral steel was found to significantly improve strength and ductility of confined concrete, the effect on ductility being more pronounced. These and other study results are presented and discussed.
Effective interactive proofs for higher-order imperative programs

We present a new approach for constructing and verifying higher-order, imperative programs using the Coq proof assistant. We build on the past work on the Ynot system, which is based on Hoare Type Theory. That original system was a proof of concept, where every program verification was accomplished via laborious manual proofs, with much code devoted to uninteresting low-level details. In this paper, we present a re-implementation of Ynot which makes it possible to implement fully-verified, higher-order imperative programs with reasonable proof burden. At the same time, our new system is implemented entirely in Coq source files, showcasing the versatility of that proof assistant as a platform for research on language design and verification. Both versions of the system have been evaluated with case studies in the verification of imperative data structures, such as hash tables with higher-order iterators. The verification burden in our new system is reduced by at least an order of magnitude compared to the old system, by replacing manual proof with automation. The core of the automation is a simplification procedure for implications in higher-order separation logic, with hooks that allow programmers to add domain-specific simplification rules. We argue for the effectiveness of our infrastructure by verifying a number of data structures and a packrat parser, and we compare to similar efforts within other projects. Compared to competing approaches to data structure verification, our system includes much less code that must be trusted; namely, about a hundred lines of Coq code defining a program logic. All of our theorems and decision procedures have or build machine-checkable correctness proofs from first principles, removing opportunities for tool bugs to create faulty verifications.
Effective attenuation anisotropy of layered media

Assuming that the stiffness contrasts, as well as the intrinsic velocity and attenuation anisotropy, are weak, we develop explicit first-order (linear) and secondorder (quadratic) approximations for the attenuationanisotropy parameters Q , δQ , and γQ of effective VTI (transversely isotropic with a vertical symmetry axis) media. Whereas the first-order approximation for each parameter is given simply by the volume-weighted average of its interval values, the second-order terms reflect the coupling between various factors related to both heterogeneity and intrinsic anisotropy. Interestingly, the effective attenuation for Pand SV-waves is anisotropic even for a medium composed of isotropic layers with no attenuation contrast, provided there is a velocity variation among the constituents. Contrasts in the intrinsic attenuation, however, do not create attenuation anisotropy, unless they are accompanied by velocity contrasts. Extensive numerical testing shows that the second-order approximation for Q , δQ , and γQ is close to the exact solution for most plausible subsurface models.
Acute Changes in Pulmonary Function Following Microinstillation Inhalation Exposure to Soman in Nonatropenized Guinea Pigs

Barometric whole-body plethysmography (WBP) was used to examine pulmonary functions at 4 and 24 hours postexposure to soman (GD) in guinea pigs without therapeutics to improve survival. Endotracheal aerosolization by microinstillation was used to administer GD (280, 561, and 841 mg/m3) or saline to anesthetized guinea pigs. Significant increases in respiratory frequency (RF), tidal volume (TV), and minute volume (MV) were observed with 841 mg/m3 GD at 4 hours and that were reduced at 24 hours postexposure. A dose-dependent increase in peak inspiration flow and peak expiration flow was present at 4-hour post-GD exposure that was reduced at 24 hours. Time of inspiration and expiration were decreased in all doses of GD exposure at 4 and 24 hours, with significant inhibition at 841 mg/m3. End-expiratory pause (EEP) increased at 280 and 561 mg/m3, but decreased in animals exposed 841 mg/m3 at 24 hours postexposure. Pseudo-lung resistance (Penh) and pause followed similar patterns and increased at 4 hours, but decreased at 24 hours postexposure to 841 mg/m3 of GD compared to control. These studies indicate GD exposure induces dose-dependent changes in pulmonary function that are significant at 841 mg/m3 at 4 hours and remains 24 hours postexposure. Furthermore, at 4 hours, GD induces bronchoconstriction possibly due to copious airway secretion and ongoing lung injury in addition to cholinergic effects, while at 24 hours GD induces bronchodilation a possible consequence of initial compensatory mechanisms.
Hopping Diffusion of Nanoparticles in Polymer Matrices

We propose a hopping mechanism for diffusion of large nonsticky nanoparticles subjected to topological constraints in both unentangled and entangled polymer solids (networks and gels) and entangled polymer liquids (melts and solutions). Probe particles with size larger than the mesh size ax of unentangled polymer networks or tube diameter ae of entangled polymer liquids are trapped by the network or entanglement cells. At long time scales, however, these particles can diffuse by overcoming free energy barrier between neighboring confinement cells. The terminal particle diffusion coefficient dominated by this hopping diffusion is appreciable for particles with size moderately larger than the network mesh size ax or tube diameter ae. Much larger particles in polymer solids will be permanently trapped by local network cells, whereas they can still move in polymer liquids by waiting for entanglement cells to rearrange on the relaxation time scales of these liquids. Hopping diffusion in entangled polymer liquids and networks has a weaker dependence on particle size than that in unentangled networks as entanglements can slide along chains under polymer deformation. The proposed novel hopping model enables understanding the motion of large nanoparticles in polymeric nanocomposites and the transport of nano drug carriers in complex biological gels such as mucus.
Multiple sclerosis and pregnancy

Multiple sclerosis causes disability in young adults and, like most autoimmune diseases, affects women more commonly than men. The disease can therefore present at a time when many have, or are considering, starting a family. The effect of pregnancy on the outcome of multiple sclerosis is reviewed and the management of pregnant women who have multiple sclerosis is discussed.
Cutting Edge: Thymocyte-Independent and Thymocyte-Dependent Phases of Epithelial Patterning in the Fetal Thymus1

Thymic epithelial cells (TECs) in adult mice have been classified into distinct subsets based on keratin expression profiles. To explore the emergence of TEC subsets during ontogeny, we analyzed keratin 8 and keratin 5 expression at several stages of fetal development in normal C57BL/6J mice. In addition, thymic epithelial development and compartmentalization were explored in recombination-activating gene 2/common cytokine receptor γ-chain-deficient and Ikaros-null mice that sustain early and profound blocks in thymocyte differentiation. The results demonstrate that initial patterning of the thymic epithelial compartment as defined by differential keratin expression does not depend on inductive signals from hematopoietic cells. However, thymocyte-derived signals are required during late fetal stages for continued development and maintenance of TEC subsets in the neonate and adult.