Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk of renal cell cancer in relation to diuretics, antihypertensive drugs, and hypertension.

Although recent data have suggested an association between renal cell cancer and the use of diuretics, it remains unclear whether these medications or hypertension is the important risk factor. In a population-based case-control study including 440 renal cell cancer cases, spouses of an additional 151 cases, and 691 controls, we assessed renal cell cancer risk associated with hypertension and use of diuretics and other antihypertensive medications. Risks increased with the use of diuretics or other drugs that lower blood pressure, especially among persons who reported no history of hypertension. After adjustment for hypertension, the use of diuretics alone was associated with a 40% excess risk (OR = 1.4; 95% CI = 0.8-2.2), while use of other antihypertensive drugs was linked to a 2-fold risk (OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 1.2-3.3). The excess risk was not restricted to any specific products, and no trend was observed with estimated lifetime consumption of any product. Furthermore, risk was not potentiated by the presence of both hypertension and the use of antihypertensive drugs. Among persons who did not use antihypertensive drugs, a history of hypertension was associated with a significant 40-50% excess risk of renal cell cancer. Excluding subjects with hypertension diagnosed within 5 years of cancer diagnosis or interview had only a small effect on risk. These findings suggest small effects on renal cell cancer risk associated with hypertensive disease and with the use of diuretics and other antihypertensive drugs, but it is difficult to disentangle the separate effects due to potential misclassification of highly correlated events. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Socket cloning for cluster-based web servers

Cluster-based web server is a popular solution to meet the demand of the ever-growing web traffic. However existing approaches suffer from several limitations to achieve this. Dispatcher-based systems either can achieve only coarse-grained load balancing or would introduce heavy load to the dispatcher Mechanisms like cooperative caching consume much network resources when transferring large cache objects. In this paper, we present a new network support mechanism, called Socket Cloning (SC), in which an opened socket can be migrated efficiently between cluster nodes. With SC, the processing of HTTP requests can be moved to the node that has a cached copy of the requested document, thus bypassing any object transfer between peer servers. A prototype has been implemented and tests show that SC incurs less overhead than all the mentioned approaches. In trace-driven benchmark tests, our system outperforms these approaches by more than 30% with a cluster of twelve web server nodes.
On the Complexity of Solving Zero-Dimensional Polynomial Systems via Projection

Given a zero-dimensional polynomial system consisting of n integer polynomials in n variables, we propose a certified and complete method to compute all complex solutions of the system as well as a corresponding separating linear form l with coefficients of small bit size. For computing l, we need to project the solutions into one dimension along O(n) distinct directions but no further algebraic manipulations. The solutions are then directly reconstructed from the considered projections. The first step is deterministic, whereas the second step uses randomization, thus being Las Vegas. The theoretical analysis of our approach shows that the overall cost for the two problems considered above is dominated by the cost of carrying out the projections. We also give bounds on the bit complexity of our algorithms that are exclusively stated in terms of the number of variables, the total degree and the bitsize of the input polynomials.
Statistical analysis of various kernel parameters on SVM based multimodal fusion

Biometric systems accurately recognise/authenticate an individual to access his confidential data/accounts. When multiple traits are fused together at feature/ score/ decision level, it results into highly accurate multimodal systems. This system improvise rate of recognizing an individual. Multiple biometric traits cannot be cloned simultaneously and hence it is highly secured system. The match scores of different persons are sufficient enough to recognise them and differentiate them from each other. The match scores do not require higher storage capacity as well as higher computational complexity. Hence, match score fusion is highly preferable to recognize an individual. Fusion at match score level has been carried out by several researchers with various state of arts namely weighted sum rule, product rule, majority voting rule, Support vector machine (SVM), Bayesian fusion, fuzzy rule method, etc. In this paper SVM based fusion of match scores for face and fingerprint biometric trait is implemented. Main research focus of this paper is on statistical analysis of different kernel methods namely Polynomial kernel, Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernel and Multilayer perceptron (MLP) kernel used for training SVM. The statistical analysis is based on training time required for training SVM using all three kernel methods as well upon the performance curve in terms of recognition rates i.e. Genuine Acceptance Rate (GAR) and False Acceptance Rate (FAR) of SVM fused system. SVM fusion has been implemented in MATLAB software and the results reveal that RBF kernel based SVM fused system requires the lowest training time as compared to other kernel methods. Even the recognition performance of RBF based SVM system is higher as compared to other kernel based systems i.e. GAR of RBF fused system increases and is better as compared to other kernel based SVM systems.
Vegetation effects on avalanche dynamics

Avalanches endanger people, destroy their property and frequently bury traffic routes in deep snow. Dense forest is an effective, economic and ecologic avalanche mitigation measure. Vegetation in the release area and in the avalanche path can prevent the gliding motion of snow, affects the avalanche flow dynamics and leads to deceleration and runout shortening. This work contributes to the general understanding of forest-avalanche interaction and presents modeling approaches and practical applications to optimize the effectiveness of forest to prevent damage caused by avalanches.
Marital status and health: United States, 1999-2002.

OBJECTIVE This report presents prevalence estimates by marital status for selected health status and limitations, health conditions, and health risk behaviors among U.S. adults, using data from the 1999-2002 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). METHODS Data for the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population were collected using computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI). The household response rate for the NHIS was 88.7%. This report is based on a total of 127,545 interviews with sample adults aged 18 years and over, representing an overall response rate of 72.4% for the 4 years combined. Statistics were age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population. Marital status categories shown in this report are: married, widowed, divorced or separated, never married, and living with a partner. RESULTS Regardless of population subgroup (age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, education, income, or nativity) or health indictor (fair or poor health, limitations in activities, low back pain, headaches, serious psychological distress, smoking, or leisure-time physical inactivity), married adults were generally found to be healthier than adults in other marital status categories. Marital status differences in health were found in each of the three age groups studied (18-44 years, 45-64 years, and 65 years and over), but were most striking among adults aged 18-44 years. The one negative health indicator for which married adults had a higher prevalence was overweight or obesity. Married adults, particularly men, had high rates of overweight or obesity relative to adults in other marital status groups across most population subgroups studied. Never married adults were among the least likely to be overweight or obese.
Gender identification using a general audio classifier

In the context of content-based multimedia indexing gender identification using speech signal is an important task. Existing techniques are dependent on the quality of the speech signal making them unsuitable for the video indexing problems. In this paper we introduce a novel gender identification approach based on a general audio classifier. The audio classifier models the audio signal by the first order spectrum's statistics in 1s windows and uses a set of neural networks as classifiers. The presented technique shows robustness to adverse audio compression and it is language independent. We show how practical considerations about the speech in audio-visual data, such as the continuity of speech, can further improve the classification results which attain 92%.
Evaluation of Salivary Cytokines for Diagnosis of both Trauma-Induced and Genetic Heterotopic Ossification

Purpose Heterotopic ossification (HO) occurs in the setting of persistent systemic inflammation. The identification of reliable biomarkers can serve as an early diagnostic tool for HO, especially given the current lack of effective treatment strategies. Although serum biomarkers have great utility, they can be inappropriate or ineffective in traumatic acute injuries and in patients with fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP). Therefore, the goal of this study is to profile the cytokines associated with HO using a different non-invasive source of biomarkers. Methods Serum and saliva were collected from a model of trauma-induced HO (tHO) with hind limb Achilles’ tenotomy and dorsal burn injury at indicated time points (pre-injury, 48 h, 1 week, and 3 weeks post-injury) and a genetic non-trauma HO model (Nfatc1-Cre/caAcvr1fl/wt). Samples were analyzed for 27 cytokines using the Bio-Plex assay. Histologic evaluation was performed in Nfatc1-Cre/caAcvr1fl/wt mice and at 48 h and 1 week post-injury in burn tenotomy mice. The mRNA expression levels of these cytokines at the tenotomy site were also quantified with quantitative real-time PCR. Pearson correlation coefficient was assessed between saliva and serum. Results Levels of TNF-α and IL-1β peaked at 48 h and 1 week post-injury in the burn/tenotomy cohort, and these values were significantly higher when compared with both uninjured (p < 0.01, p < 0.03) and burn-only mice (p < 0.01, p < 0.01). Immunofluorescence staining confirmed enhanced expression of IL-1β, TNF-α, and MCP-1 at the tenotomy site 48 h after injury. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and VEGF was detected in saliva showing elevated levels at 1 week post-injury in our tHO model when compared with both uninjured (p < 0.001, p < 0.01) and burn-only mice (p < 0.005, p < 0.01). The Pearson correlation between serum MCP-1 and salivary MCP-1 was statistically significant (r = 0.9686, p < 0.001) Similarly, the Pearson correlation between serum VEGF and salivary VEGF was statistically significant (r = 0.9709, p < 0.05). Conclusion In this preliminary study, we characterized the diagnostic potential of specific salivary cytokines that may serve as biomarkers for an early-stage diagnosis of HO. This study identified two candidate biomarkers for further study and suggests a novel method for diagnosis in the context of current difficult diagnosis and risks of current diagnostic methods in certain patients.
Disentangling drivers of reproductive performance in urban great tits: a food supplementation experiment

ABSTRACT Worldwide urban expansion induces degradation of the natural environment, resulting in new constraints in terms of breeding sites, anthropogenic disturbances as well as food resources. The alteration of resource abundance and type may induce non-adaptive investments in reproduction from urban dwellers. Food availability and quality have been identified as potential drivers of the decline in passerine body mass and fledging success in urbanized landscapes, particularly if birds misinterpret cues of food abundance used to adjust their reproductive investment. In a previous study, we demonstrated in urban great tits, Parus major, that highly preferred larger cavities have larger clutches with lower breeding success, leading to a maladaptive breeding investment. Previous studies also showed that urban great tits are smaller or thinner than rural ones, both at nestling and adult stages. Here, we present the results of a food-supplementation experiment to examine whether food resources mediate this maladaptive breeding investment and constrain the reproductive performance of this urban bird population. We predicted higher performance in food-supplemented broods, especially in larger cavities, and stronger effects of the supplementation in more artificialized territories. Surprisingly, we found that food-supplemented nestlings and their parents had lower body mass and condition, especially in areas with more pedestrians. Supplementation was also associated with lower nestling survival until fledging in places that presented lower levels of naturalness, independently of cavity size. This work highlights a lack of knowledge on avian feeding behaviour in cities, a key element for understanding how breeding performance is affected by human presence and habitat naturalness. Summary: Food supplementation could have a negative impact on breeding performance of wild urban great tits.
Cytochrome P450 2C19 loss-of-function polymorphism and stent thrombosis following percutaneous coronary intervention.

AIMS Several studies have demonstrated that the mutant *2 allele of the CYP2C19 681G>A loss-of-function polymorphism is associated with diminished metabolization of clopidogrel into its active thiol metabolite and an attenuated platelet response to clopidogrel treatment. It is not known whether patients carrying the mutant CYP2C19*2 allele have a higher risk of stent thrombosis (ST) compared with homozygous CYP2C19*1 wild-type allele carriers following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the CYP2C19 681G>A loss-of-function polymorphism on ST following PCI performed after pre-treatment with clopidogrel. METHODS AND RESULTS The study population included 2485 consecutive patients undergoing coronary stent placement after pre-treatment with 600 mg of clopidogrel. Genotypes were determined with a TaqMan assay. The primary endpoint of the study was the incidence of definite ST within 30 days following PCI. Of the patients studied, 1805 (73%) were CYP2C19 wild-type homozygotes (*1/*1) and 680 (27%) carried at least one *2 allele (*1/*2 or *2/*2). The cumulative 30-day incidence of ST was significantly higher in CYP2C19*2 allele carriers (*1/*2 or *2/*2) vs. CYP2C19 wild-type homozygotes (*1/*1) [10 patients (1.5%) in CYP2C19*2 allele carriers vs. 7 (0.4%) in CYP2C19 wild-type homozygotes (*1/*1), HR 3.81, 95% CI 1.45-10.02, P = 0.007; P = 0.006 after adjustment for confounding variables]. The risk of ST was highest (2.1%) in patients with the CYP2C19 *2/*2 genotype (P = 0.002). CONCLUSION CYP2C19*2 carrier status is significantly associated with an increased risk of ST following coronary stent placement.
Towards a quantum programming language

We propose the design of a programming language for quantum computing. Traditionally, quantum algorithms are frequently expressed at the hardware level, for instance in terms of the quantum circuit model or quantum Turing machines. These approaches do not encourage structured programming or abstractions such as data types. In this paper, we describe the syntax and semantics of a simple quantum programming language with high-level features such as loops, recursive procedures, and structured data types. The language is functional in nature, statically typed, free of run-time errors, and has an interesting denotational semantics in terms of complete partial orders of superoperators.
Quantum Amplitude Amplification and Estimation

Consider a Boolean function $\chi: X \to \{0,1\}$ that partitions set $X$ between its good and bad elements, where $x$ is good if $\chi(x)=1$ and bad otherwise. Consider also a quantum algorithm $\mathcal A$ such that $A |0\rangle= \sum_{x\in X} \alpha_x |x\rangle$ is a quantum superposition of the elements of $X$, and let $a$ denote the probability that a good element is produced if $A |0\rangle$ is measured. If we repeat the process of running $A$, measuring the output, and using $\chi$ to check the validity of the result, we shall expect to repeat $1/a$ times on the average before a solution is found. *Amplitude amplification* is a process that allows to find a good $x$ after an expected number of applications of $A$ and its inverse which is proportional to $1/\sqrt{a}$, assuming algorithm $A$ makes no measurements. This is a generalization of Grover's searching algorithm in which $A$ was restricted to producing an equal superposition of all members of $X$ and we had a promise that a single $x$ existed such that $\chi(x)=1$. Our algorithm works whether or not the value of $a$ is known ahead of time. In case the value of $a$ is known, we can find a good $x$ after a number of applications of $A$ and its inverse which is proportional to $1/\sqrt{a}$ even in the worst case. We show that this quadratic speedup can also be obtained for a large family of search problems for which good classical heuristics exist. Finally, as our main result, we combine ideas from Grover's and Shor's quantum algorithms to perform amplitude estimation, a process that allows to estimate the value of $a$. We apply amplitude estimation to the problem of *approximate counting*, in which we wish to estimate the number of $x\in X$ such that $\chi(x)=1$. We obtain optimal quantum algorithms in a variety of settings.
Electric detection of divers in harbor environments

In this paper we compare the detection performance of underwater electric-field sensors against divers using three different detection algorithms (matched filter, non-coherent and quadrature detectors). The detection performance is quantified and presented as ROC-curves. The empirical results are based on measurements of signatures from divers with open circuit breathing systems. They were performed during two sea-trials in diverse environments. One site is a remote area with relatively low anthropogenic activity and the other site is a busy container terminal in the port of Gothenburg, both sites in Sweden. Of the three detectors evaluated, no single detector stands out. This may imply the usefulness of fusion as a means of improving the performance in the future. In Gothenburg harbor detection of divers can be performed at signal-to-noise ratios from −20 to 0 dB, depending on the noise situation. In addition to detection, it is found that it is possible to classify a contact as a diver.
A study on the analgesic effects of four new derivatives of 3-hydroxy pyridine-4-one

Derivatives of pyridine-4-one are iron chelators with various biological activities including antifungal, anti-malarial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. This study was aimed to evaluate the analgesic effect of four new derivatives of 3-hydroxy pyridine-4-one in animal models. Acetic acid-induced writhing and formalin tests were used to assess the analgesic activity in male mice (18-22 g). Compound A (2.5-10 mg/kg), B (100-400 mg/kg), C and D (50-200 mg/kg) were administered intraperitoenally. Indomethacin and morphine were used as reference analgesic drugs. All tested compounds showed significant analgesia in acetic acid-induced writhing and the second phase of formalin test. All compounds except compound B also had analgesic activity in the first phase of formalin test. Among the investigated compounds, compound A which showed analgesic activity at doses of 2.5-10 mg/kg considered as the most potent analgesic compound. Structurally compound A lacks polar moieties such as −OH or −COOH and is less polar than the others. Therefore it seems that it has a better penetration into lipophilic sites of action.
Women’s perspectives on termination service delivery in Vietnam: a cross-sectional survey in three provinces

Objective To explore the perspectives of abortion service users regarding termination methods and abortion service delivery in Vietnam. Materials and methods Structured exit interviews were conducted between August and November 2011 with women who underwent termination of pregnancy at 62 public health facilities in Hanoi, Khanh Hoa, and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. All women presenting for termination during the study period were recruited to participate in the study. Following their abortion, women were asked about their perspectives on abortion service delivery and attributes of medical abortion (MA) versus manual vacuum aspiration (MVA). Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the association between current method uptake and each attribute. Results A total of 1,233 women were included in the survey: 541 (43.9%) from Hanoi, 163 (13.2%) from Khanh Hoa, and 529 (42.9%) from Ho Chi Minh: 23.1% underwent MA; 78.9% reported that women should be given a choice between MA and MVA; and 77.6% thought that abortion services were accessible. Among the 48% who responded, 30.1% thought that MA should be made available at primary/secondary health care facilities. Among women who had previously undergone both methods, women who reported that MA “feels more natural” (like a menstrual regulation/period) were more likely to choose MA for their current abortion (odds ratio 2.15, 95% confidence interval 1.26–3.69). Conclusion MA uptake is significantly lower than MVA uptake. Further insights to women’s perceptions of MA in Vietnam could help improve abortion service delivery in the country.
Evolutionary significance of the invasion of introduced populations into the native range of Meconopsis cambrica

The long history of the deliberate or accidental and human‐mediated dispersal of flowering plants has led to the introduction of foreign genotypes of many species into areas of Europe hitherto occupied by potentially distinct native populations. Studies of the genetic and evolutionary consequences of such changes are handicapped by the difficulty of identifying the surviving native populations of many species in the absence of clear morphological differences. We investigated the relationship between putative native and introduced populations of the herbaceous perennial Meconopsis cambrica (Papaveraceae), as the isolated native populations of this species can be identified by historical and ecological evidence. In Britain, the species is scarce and declining as a native, but has become increasingly frequent in recent decades as a garden escape. Native populations from Spain and France were compared with native and introduced British populations using internal transcribed spacer and cpDNA sequences and amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs). Ten of the twelve British populations could be unambiguously assigned to native or introduced groups using cpDNA and AFLPs. The introduced plants appear to originate from the central and eastern Pyrenees rather than from native British sites. Two populations (including one previously considered native) cannot be classified unambiguously. There is unequivocal evidence for unidirectional gene flow from native plants into two of the introduced populations and possible evidence for hybridization in three other sites (two native). The absence of biological barriers to hybridization suggests that the native and introduced gene pools of M. cambrica in Britain might eventually merge.