Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tobacco and alcohol use among drug users receiving methadone maintenance treatment: a cross-sectional study in a rural prefecture of Yunnan Province, Southwest China

Objective To estimate the prevalence of ever, current and heavy tobacco and alcohol use and their correlates among patients undergoing methadone maintenance treatment (MMT). Design Cross-sectional study. Setting The study was conducted in all of the 5 MMT clinics in Dehong Prefecture, China. Participants 2121 (81.6%) eligible MMT participants were included in the study population. Analysis Ordinal logistic regression was used to estimate the ORs and their 95% CIs. Results The overall prevalence of ever, current and heavy smoking was 98.6%, 97.8% and 66.3%, respectively; while that of ever, current and hazardous alcohol drinking was 86.6%, 58.6% and 16.6%, respectively. Among HIV-infected participants, the proportions of those experiencing harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol on AIDS were 53.6% and 72.5%, respectively, and 16.9% and 49.3% had ever tried to quit after diagnosis with HIV. After adjusting for potential confounders, heavier smokers and more hazardous drinkers were more likely to be men, older and less educated. Ethnic minorities were less likely to heavily smoke, but more likely to engage in hazardous drinking. In addition, hazardous drinking was negatively associated with longer years of MMT and HIV infection. Moreover, heavier smoking (OR≥2=2.08, 95% CI 1.16 to 3.73) and more hazardous drinking (OR≥2=2.46, 95% CI 1.53 to 3.97) were positively associated with having multiple sexual partners, and both were positively associated with each other. Conclusions The prevalence of tobacco and alcohol consumption was extraordinarily high among MMT participants in China, suggesting the urgent need of enhancing MMT patients' awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol consumption and implementing comprehensive education and effective intervention programmes.
Genotypic Profiling of 452 Choroidal Melanomas with Multiplex Ligation-Dependent Probe Amplification

Purpose: Metastasis from uveal melanoma occurs almost exclusively with tumors showing chromosome 3 loss. We used multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) to detect chromosome 1p, 3, 6p, 6q, 8p, and 8q abnormalities in uveal melanomas. The purpose of this study was to correlate our MLPA results with other risk factors and metastatic death. Experimental Design: Patients were included if they had a uveal melanoma involving choroid. Correlations between baseline risk factors were analyzed using the chi-square test (without Yates's adjustment) and the Mann–Whitney test, with log-rank analysis for associations with metastatic death. Results: The patients (194 female; 258 male) had a median age of 59.4 years and a median follow-up of 1.89 years. MLPA abnormalities occurred in a wide variety of combinations. Ten-year disease-specific mortality was 0% in 133 tumors with no chromosome 3 loss, 55% in tumors with chromosome 3 loss but no chromosome 8q gain, and 71% in 168 tumors showing combined chromosome 3 loss and 8q gain. In tumors with both these abnormalities, epithelioid melanoma cytomorphology, closed loops, and high mitotic rate correlated with poor survival as did lack of chromosome 6p gain. Conclusions: These results support the use of MLPA for routine clinical prognostication, especially if the genetic data are considered together with clinical and histologic risk factors. We showed a wide variety of MLPA results, which suggests that chromosomal abnormalities in uveal melanoma accumulate in a variable sequence.
A review of weighting schemes for bag of visual words image retrieval

Current studies on content-based image retrieval mainly rely on bags of visual words. This model of image description allows to perform image retieval in the same way as text retrieval: documents are described as vectors of (visual) word frequencies, and documents are match by computing a distance or similarity measure between the vectors. But instead of raw frequencies, documents can also be described as vectors of word weights, each weight corresponding to the importance of the word in the document. Although the problem of determining automatically such weights, and therefore which words describe well documents, has been widely studied in the case of text retrieval, there is very little litterature applying this idea to the case of image retrieval. In this report, we explore how the use of standard weighting schemes and distance from text retrieval can help to improve the performance of image retrieval systems. We show that there is no distance or weighting scheme that can improve performance on any dataset, but choosing weights or a distance consistent with some properties of a given dataset can improve the performance up to 10%. However, we also show that in the case of very varied and general datasets, the performance gain is not significant.
Comparison of disc diffusion results with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE objectives: As antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae provides guidance for appropriate treatment, there is a need for simple, reliable and cost-effective method for susceptibility testing. The present study was aimed to compare the results of two methods of susceptibility testing, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values by E test with disc diffusion results by Australian Gonococcal Surveillance Programme (AGSP) method in N. gonorrhoeae isolates. METHODS Susceptibility testing for ciprofloxacin, penicillin and ceftriaxone using AGSP method was carried out for 301 confirmed consecutive isolates of N. gonorrhoeae. MIC of ciprofloxacin, penicillin and ceftriaxone was determined by E test in 301, 198 and 128 isolates respectively. The results of the two methods were compared by using Kappa statistics. RESULTS Moderate levels of agreement for ciprofloxacin (kappa=0.44) and penicillin (kappa=0.54) were observed between the two methods. For ceftriaxone, 96.1 and 0.8 per cent isolates were found to be susceptible and less sensitive respectively by both the methods and per cent agreement between the two methods was 96.9 per cent. INTERPRETATION & CONCLUSION Both the methods were easy to perform and gave reproducible results. However, disc diffusion method was cost-effective and more feasible in routine diagnostic laboratories in developing countries like India.
Directional analysis of digitized planar sets by configuration counts

The oriented rose of normal directions of a random set Z can be used to quantify its anisotropy. A method for estimating this quantity from a digitization of Z in a sampling window, i.e. its pixel image, is presented. The image is analysed locally by considering pixel squares of size n × n. This allows us to count the number of different types of n × n configurations in the pixel image. We show that it suffices to restrict attention to the so‐called informative configurations. The number of informative configurations increases only polynomially in n. An algorithm to find these informative configurations is presented. Furthermore, estimators of the oriented rose based on counts of observed informative configurations are derived. The procedure is illustrated by a simulated example and an analysis of a microscopic image of steel.
Epilepsy in Dcx Knockout Mice Associated with Discrete Lamination Defects and Enhanced Excitability in the Hippocampus

Patients with Doublecortin (DCX) mutations have severe cortical malformations associated with mental retardation and epilepsy. Dcx knockout (KO) mice show no major isocortical abnormalities, but have discrete hippocampal defects. We questioned the functional consequences of these defects and report here that Dcx KO mice are hyperactive and exhibit spontaneous convulsive seizures. Changes in neuropeptide Y and calbindin expression, consistent with seizure occurrence, were detected in a large proportion of KO animals, and convulsants, including kainate and pentylenetetrazole, also induced seizures more readily in KO mice. We show that the dysplastic CA3 region in KO hippocampal slices generates sharp wave-like activities and possesses a lower threshold for epileptiform events. Video-EEG monitoring also demonstrated that spontaneous seizures were initiated in the hippocampus. Similarly, seizures in human patients mutated for DCX can show a primary involvement of the temporal lobe. In conclusion, seizures in Dcx KO mice are likely to be due to abnormal synaptic transmission involving heterotopic cells in the hippocampus and these mice may therefore provide a useful model to further study how lamination defects underlie the genesis of epileptiform activities.
Land boundary conditions from MODIS data and consequences for the albedo of a climate model

This paper compares seasonal and spatial variations of MODIS albedos with those from the Community Land Model (CLM2). MODIS surface albedo data from September 2000 to August 2002 were used to investigate the model biases. To assess how inaccuracies in the land surface data used in CLM2 contribute to the model albedo biases, we created a new land surface dataset using the highest quality reprocessed MODIS products of leaf area index (LAI), plant functional type (PFT), and fraction of bare soil. A sensitivity experiment using this new data set quantifies the role of each variable and its contribution to the albedo biases. Our results indicate that most of the positive albedo biases result from an underestimation of LAI or an overestimation of the grass/crop fraction. Such biases can be largely reduced when the new data set is used. These results provide information on improving albedo in the model. This new land surface data set is available for use in CLM2.
Combinatorial Auctions: A Survey

Many auctions involve the sale of a variety of distinct assets. Examples are airport time slots, delivery routes, network routing, and furniture. Because of complementarities or substitution effects between the different assets, bidders have preferences not just for particular items but for sets of items. For this reason, economic efficiency is enhanced if bidders are allowed to bid on bundles or combinations of different assets. This paper surveys the state of knowledge about the design of combinatorial auctions and presents some new insights. Periodic updates of portions of this survey will be posted to this journal's Online Supplements web page at http://joc.pubs. informs.org/OnlineSupplements.html.
Context-sensitivity matters, but context does not

Whether context-sensitive program analysis is more effective than context-insensitive analysis is an ongoing discussion. There is evidence that context-sensitivity matters in complex analyses like pointer analysis or program slicing. One might think that the context itself matters, because empirical data shows that context-sensitive program slicing is more precise and under some circumstances even faster than context-insensitive program slicing. Based on some experiments, we will show that this is not the case. The experiment requires backward slices to return to call sites specified by an abstract call stack. Such call stacks can be seen as a poor man's dynamic slicing: for a concrete execution, the call stack is captured, and static slices are restricted to the captured stack. The experiment shows that there is no significant increase in precision of the restricted form of slicing compared to the unrestricted traditional slicing. The reason is that a large part of an average slice is due to called procedures
LOCALIZATION OF ANTIBODIES BY ELECTRON MICROSCOPY IN DEVELOPING ANTIBODY-PRODUCING CELLS

The development of antibody-producing cells in the early stages of the secondary or hyperimmune response has been studied with the electron microscope in lymph nodes of adult chinchilla rabbits immunized with ferritin or apoferritin. The intracellular distribution of antiferritin antibodies was determined in the lymph node cells at 1 to 5 days after a booster injection, employing the labelling technique previously used by the authors (12) to demonstrate the localization of antibodies in mature plasma cells. Antibodies were first detected at 48 hours in blasts; i.e., cells which have a poorly developed endoplasmic reticulum and a cytoplasm filled with many ribosomes grouped in clusters. The label was subsequently found in forms intermediate between blasts and plasma cells (plasmoblasts, immature plasma cells), in which the endoplasmic reticulum appeared progressively more developed. Antiferritin antibodies were also found in cells in mitosis. In all the above cell types, antigen-antibody precipitates were consistently found in the perinuclear space and in the cisternae of the granular endoplasmic reticulum, from an early stage in the development of the latter. Evidence was also obtained for the presence of antibody in the Golgi area. The results are discussed in relation to the possible cellular sites of antibody synthesis.
Genetic Tests for Ecological and Allopatric Speciation in Anoles on an Island Archipelago

From Darwin's study of the Galapagos and Wallace's study of Indonesia, islands have played an important role in evolutionary investigations, and radiations within archipelagos are readily interpreted as supporting the conventional view of allopatric speciation. Even during the ongoing paradigm shift towards other modes of speciation, island radiations, such as the Lesser Antillean anoles, are thought to exemplify this process. Geological and molecular phylogenetic evidence show that, in this archipelago, Martinique anoles provide several examples of secondary contact of island species. Four precursor island species, with up to 8 mybp divergence, met when their islands coalesced to form the current island of Martinique. Moreover, adjacent anole populations also show marked adaptation to distinct habitat zonation, allowing both allopatric and ecological speciation to be tested in this system. We take advantage of this opportunity of replicated island coalescence and independent ecological adaptation to carry out an extensive population genetic study of hypervariable neutral nuclear markers to show that even after these very substantial periods of spatial isolation these putative allospecies show less reproductive isolation than conspecific populations in adjacent habitats in all three cases of subsequent island coalescence. The degree of genetic interchange shows that while there is always a significant genetic signature of past allopatry, and this may be quite strong if the selection regime allows, there is no case of complete allopatric speciation, in spite of the strong primae facie case for it. Importantly there is greater genetic isolation across the xeric/rainforest ecotone than is associated with any secondary contact. This rejects the development of reproductive isolation in allopatric divergence, but supports the potential for ecological speciation, even though full speciation has not been achieved in this case. It also explains the paucity of anole species in the Lesser Antilles compared to the Greater Antilles.
Adaptive control algorithms for decentralized optimal traffic engineering in the Internet

In this paper, we address the problem of optimal decentralized traffic engineering when multiple paths are available for each call. More precisely, given a set of possible paths for each call, we aim at distributing the traffic among the available paths in order to maximize a given utility function. To solve this problem, we propose a large family of decentralized sending rate control laws having the property that each of the members of this family "steers" the traffic allocation to an optimal operation point. The approach taken relies on the control theory concept of Sliding Modes. These control laws allow each ingress node to independently adjust its traffic sending rates and/or redistribute its sending rates among multiple paths. The only nonlocal information needed is binary feedback from each congested node in the path. The control laws presented are applicable to a large class of utility functions, namely, utility functions that can be expressed as the sum of concave functions of the sending rates. We show that the technique can be applied not only to usual rate adaptive traffic with multiple paths, but also to rate adaptive traffic with minimum service requirements and/or maximum allowed sending rate and to assured service with targeted rate guarantee, all allowing for multiple paths. It is also shown that these control laws are robust with respect to failures; i.e., they automatically reroute traffic if a link failure occurs. Finally, we provide some insight on how to choose the "right" control law. In particular, we provide a way of choosing a member of the family of control laws that reduces the sending rate oscillation caused by implementation constraints like delays and quantization. An example of application of the approach delineated in this paper is also presented. This example provides some insights on the implementation aspects and illustrates the robustness of the control laws developed in this paper.
On the Generalization of Digital Total Variation Filter

Image denoising, as a low-level step of image processing, is perhaps the oldest and still active research topic. A general formulation based on the variation of digitalized energy to denoise image is proposed in this paper. This method is different from classical variational method employed in image processing. For a digitalized energy functional, we first compute the variation, then design algorithms leading to digital filters. Numerical experiments and comparative examples are thus carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, which is efficient, adaptive and easily implemented. Higher quality images can be obtained with characteristic singular features preserved.
Coronary Artery Calcification, Epicardial Fat Burden, and Cardiovascular Events in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Rationale Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suffer from significantly more cardiovascular comorbidity and mortality than would be anticipated from conventional risk factors. The aim of this study was to determine whether COPD patients have a higher coronary artery calcium score (CACS) and epicardial fat burden, compared to control subjects, and their association with cardiovascular events. Methods From a registry of 1906 patients 81 patients with clinically diagnosed COPD were one-to-one matched to 81 non-COPD control subjects with a smoking history, according to their age, sex, and the number of classic cardiovascular risk factors (arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, family history of premature coronary artery disease). CACS, epicardial fat, and subsequent major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) during follow-up were compared between groups. Results Patients with COPD (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease-classification I: 5%, II: 23%, III: 16% and IV: 56%) showed no difference in CACS (median difference 68 Agatston Units [95% confidence interval -176.5 to 192.5], p=0.899) or epicardial fat volume (mean difference -0.5 cm3 [95% confidence interval -20.9 to 21.9], p=0.961) compared with controls. After a median follow-up of 42.6 months a higher incidence of MACE was observed in COPD patients (RR=2.80, p=0.016) compared with controls. Cox proportional hazard regression identified cardiac ischemias and CACS as independent predictors for MACE. Conclusion COPD patients experienced a higher MACE incidence compared to controls despite no baseline differences in coronary calcification and epicardial fat burden. Other mechanisms such as undersupply of medication seem to account for an excess cardiovascular comorbidity in COPD patients.
Ieee Transactions on Image Processing 1 Efficient Nonlocal Means for Denoising of Textural Patterns

—The present paper contributes two novel techniques in the context of image restoration by nonlocal filtering. Firstly, we introduce an efficient implementation of the nonlocal means filter based on arranging the data in a cluster tree. The structur-ing of data allows for a fast and accurate preselection of similar patches. In contrast to previous approaches, the preselection is based on the same distance measure as used by the filter itself. It allows for large speedups, especially when the search for similar patches covers the whole image domain, i.e., when the filter is truly nonlocal. However, also in the windowed version of the filter, the cluster tree approach compares favorably to previous techniques in respect of quality versus computational cost. Secondly, we suggest an iterative version of the filter that is derived from a variational principle and is designed to yield non-trivial steady states. It reveals to be particularly useful in order to restore regular, textured patterns.
RoutineSense: A Mobile Sensing Framework for the Reconstruction of User Routines

Modern smartphones are powerful platforms that have become part of the everyday life for most people. Thanks to their sensing and computing capabilities, smartphones can unobtrusively identify simple user states (e.g., location, performed activity, etc.), enabling a plethora of applications that provide insights on the lifestyle of the users. In this paper, we introduce routineSense: a system for the automatic reconstruction of complex daily routines from simple user states, implemented as an incremental processing framework. Such framework combines opportunistic sensing and user feedback to discover frequent and exceptional routines that can be used to segment and aggregate multiple user activities in a timeline. We use a comprehensive dataset containing rich geographic information to assess the feasibility and performance of routineSense, showing a near threefold improvement on the current state-of-the-art.
Early Reperfusion Therapy Affects Inducibility, Cycle Length, and Occurrence of Ventricular Tachycardia Late After Myocardial Infarction

Background— This study aimed to evaluate the impact of early reperfusion during acute myocardial infarction (MI) on ventricular tachycardia (VT) inducibility, inducible VT cycle length (CL), and occurrence of spontaneous VT late after MI. Methods and Results— Five hundred six patients (440 men; age, 63±11 years) with prior MI who underwent electrophysiology study before implantation of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator for primary or secondary prevention were assessed. Patients were classified according to the reperfusion strategy (reperfusion: thrombolysis, n=44, or percutaneous coronary intervention, n=65, versus no reperfusion, n=397) during acute MI. Monomorphic sustained VT was inducible in 351 (69%) patients. Inducibility in reperfused and nonreperfused patients was similar in primary prevention patients (56% versus 58%) but significantly higher for nonreperfused patients in secondary prevention patients (56% versus 79%, P=0.001). Induced VTCL was shorter (247±40 versus 287±63, P<0.001) and very fast VT (CL ⩽250 ms) was more often induced in reperfused patients (71% versus 47%, P=0.001). In primary prevention patients, nonreperfusion was associated with a doubled risk for first spontaneous VT during follow-up. Conclusions— There are important differences in VT inducibility, induced VTCL, and occurrence of spontaneous VT in the chronic infarct healing phase between patients with and those without successful reperfusion during acute MI. These findings suggest differences in the chronic arrhythmogenic substrate.