Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Population Estimation and Trappability of the European Badger (Meles meles): Implications for Tuberculosis Management

Estimates of population size and trappability inform vaccine efficacy modelling and are required for adaptive management during prolonged wildlife vaccination campaigns. We present an analysis of mark-recapture data from a badger vaccine (Bacille Calmette–Guérin) study in Ireland. This study is the largest scale (755 km2) mark-recapture study ever undertaken with this species. The study area was divided into three approximately equal–sized zones, each with similar survey and capture effort. A mean badger population size of 671 (SD: 76) was estimated using a closed-subpopulation model (CSpM) based on data from capturing sessions of the entire area and was consistent with a separate multiplicative model. Minimum number alive estimates calculated from the same data were on average 49–51% smaller than the CSpM estimates, but these are considered severely negatively biased when trappability is low. Population densities derived from the CSpM estimates were 0.82–1.06 badgers km−2, and broadly consistent with previous reports for an adjacent area. Mean trappability was estimated to be 34–35% per session across the population. By the fifth capture session, 79% of the adult badgers caught had been marked previously. Multivariable modelling suggested significant differences in badger trappability depending on zone, season and age-class. There were more putatively trap-wary badgers identified in the population than trap-happy badgers, but wariness was not related to individual’s sex, zone or season of capture. Live-trapping efficacy can vary significantly amongst sites, seasons, age, or personality, hence monitoring of trappability is recommended as part of an adaptive management regime during large–scale wildlife vaccination programs to counter biases and to improve efficiencies.
Active Inference: A Process Theory

This article describes a process theory based on active inference and belief propagation. Starting from the premise that all neuronal processing (and action selection) can be explained by maximizing Bayesian model evidence—or minimizing variational free energy—we ask whether neuronal responses can be described as a gradient descent on variational free energy. Using a standard (Markov decision process) generative model, we derive the neuronal dynamics implicit in this description and reproduce a remarkable range of well-characterized neuronal phenomena. These include repetition suppression, mismatch negativity, violation responses, place-cell activity, phase precession, theta sequences, theta-gamma coupling, evidence accumulation, race-to-bound dynamics, and transfer of dopamine responses. Furthermore, the (approximately Bayes’ optimal) behavior prescribed by these dynamics has a degree of face validity, providing a formal explanation for reward seeking, context learning, and epistemic foraging. Technically, the fact that a gradient descent appears to be a valid description of neuronal activity means that variational free energy is a Lyapunov function for neuronal dynamics, which therefore conform to Hamilton’s principle of least action.
Sensitization of Dorsal Horn Neurons in a Two-Compartment Cell Culture Model: Wind-Up and Long-Term Potentiation-Like Responses

One of the main characteristics of central sensitization associated with postinjury pain and chronic pain is increased excitability of the dorsal horn neurons in the spinal cord. Two electrophysiological features associated with the origin and modulation of central sensitization are wind-up of action potential frequency and long-term potentiation (LTP), which have been demonstrated previously in the intact dorsal horn. Here we present evidence for electrically evoked sensitization of dorsal horn neurons in a two-compartment cell culture system of rat dorsal root ganglia (DRGs) and dorsal horn neurons. Whole-cell recordings of dorsal horn neurons showed that repetitive low-frequency stimulation of DRG axons induced a frequency-dependent cumulative depolarization of the membrane potential with a concomitant increase in action potential frequency in a subset of neurons (41%). The characteristics presented here for dissociated cells are in accordance with those ascribed to classical wind-up in the intact dorsal horn. In addition, tetanic stimulation of DRG axons resulted in a significant increase in the number of action potentials in response to test stimuli in 42% of the cells tested. This prolonged potentiation of neuronal excitability in the dorsal horn lasted throughout the recording period (>1 hr) and tended to be voltage dependent in an LTP-like manner. To our knowledge, this is the first time that wind-up and LTP-like responses are reported for dorsal horn neurons in cell culture.
Added Impact of Obesity and Insulin Resistance in Nocturnal Blood Pressure Elevation in Children and Adolescents

The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between insulin resistance and the ambulatory blood pressure components in obese children and adolescents. Eighty-seven overweight and obese white children and adolescents of both sexes, of European origin from 6 to 18 years of age (mean age: 10.9±2.7 years), were selected. Obesity was defined on the basis of a threshold body mass index z score >2 (Cole's least mean square method) and overweight with a body mass index from the 85th to 97th percentile. A validated oscillometric method was used to measure ambulatory BP (Spacelabs 90207) during 24 hours. Fasting glucose and insulin were measured, and the homeostasis model assessment index was calculated. Subjects were grouped into tertiles of homeostasis model assessment index. No significant differences in terms of age, sex, and body mass index z score distribution were observed among groups. When adjusted by age, sex, and height, nocturnal systolic blood pressure and heart rate were significantly higher in subjects in the highest homeostasis model assessment index tertile (>4.7) as compared with those of the other groups, whereas no differences were observed for awake systolic blood pressure or heart rate. Whereas body mass index z score was more closely related with blood pressure and heart rate values, waist circumference was strongly related with insulin resistance. Moreover, both waist circumference and insulin resistance were mainly associated with higher nocturnal but not with awake blood pressure. The early increment of nocturnal blood pressure and heart rate associated with hyperinsulinemia may be a harbinger of hypertension-related insulin resistance and may contribute to heightened cardiovascular risk associated with this condition.
Measurement of body surface area in atopic dermatitis using specific PC software (ScoradCard©)

In skin diseases, evaluation of involved surface area is a crucial factor in grading the degree of severity. We examined the reliability of body surface area assessment and relative inter‐observer and intra‐observer variability using new software (ScoraCard©), specifically designed to evaluate automatically the extension of the involved area in the SCORAD index. Twenty pediatricians, untrained in the evaluation of skin disease, estimated the percentage of surface area involved in photo‐tests of two children with artificial well‐delimited lesions, at first by sight and then through software. As ‘gold standard’ the exact amount of pixels was counted for the whole body surface of the children, for the different body zones and for the painted artificial lesions, expressed as percentage of the respective zone. For photo 1, gold standard was 38.06% and median percentage was 43.44% (95% CI 40.7–46.21) by sight (p = 0.002) and 37.99% (95% CI 36.04–39.94) by ScoradCard (p = 0.79). For photo 2, gold standard was 27.84%, median percentage was 30.44% (95% CI 28.25–32.63) by sight (p = 0.047) and 27.8% (95% CI 26.55–29.04) by ScoradCard (p = 0.79). The level of agreement (kappa statistic), cumulative for the two photo tests, was 0.38 (fair agreement) by sight method and 0.67 (good agreement) by ScoradCard©. Among the 10 pediatricians who repeated the computer aided evaluation 3 months apart, the intra‐observer variability was not significantly different: the median percentage was 31.5% (95% CI 27.0–49.4) at time 0 and 29.0% (95% CI 26.7–47.2) 3 months later (p = 0.76). This new software could be a useful tool in evaluating skin lesions extension, minimizing inter‐ and intra‐observer variability, which is an important goal in multi‐centre studies.
Epidemiological Characterization and Risk Factors of Allergic Rhinitis in the General Population in Guangzhou City in China

The prevalence of allergic rhinitis (AR) in China has increased with an apparent geographic variation. The current study aims to investigate the AR prevalence/classification, diagnosis/treatment conditions, trigger factors, and risk factors in the general population of Guangzhou, the third biggest city in China. A cross-sectional survey was performed in the citizens in Guangzhou from December 2009 to March 2010 by using a stratified multistage cluster sampling method. All subjects were asked to complete a comprehensive questionnaire via a face to face interview. A total of 9,899 questionnaires were valid. The prevalence rate of AR in the general population of Guangzhou was 6.24%, with a significant higher prevalence in urban area (8.32%) versus rural area (3.43%). Among the AR subjects, most (87%) were diagnosed with intermittent AR and 87% suffered from moderate-severe symptoms. High percentages of the AR patients did not have previously physician-based diagnosis (34%) or specific medical treatment (55%). Morning time, winter season, and cold air were the most common trigger factors of AR. Family history of AR, current living place, living place during babyhood, smoking, home renovation, and pet ownership were the significant risk factors associated with AR prevalence in the population. The study demonstrated comprehensive epidemiological and clinical information about the AR in Guangzhou population. Change of living environment and lifestyles had strong impacts on the prevalence of AR. Public health policies should help the patients benefit from a proper diagnosis/treatment and specifically target the local risk factors, in order to control the AR incidence.
Two distinct groups of colorectal cancer in inflammatory bowel disease

Background: The histological variability in colitis‐associated colorectal cancer (CRC in inflammatory bowel disease [IBD]) and the association to clinical factors is unknown. Methods: In population‐based material including 67 patients with CRC in IBD, histopathology of the cancers and tissue samples from different colorectal localizations were reevaluated, and relationships to clinical factors analyzed. Results: Forty‐three of 60 patients (75%) showed dysplasia in the colorectum apart from the cancer, while 17 (25%) had no dysplasia at cancer diagnosis. Mean age at onset of IBD was 22 years in patients with and 34 years in patients without dysplasia (P = 0.01). The mean duration of colitis‐CRC interval was 21 years in patients with and 16 years in patients without dysplasia (P = 0.02). The latter group included all patients with a colitis‐CRC interval <10 years. Active inflammation was more likely to occur in patients with dysplasia (odds ratio [OR] 4.2). The 2 groups were not discriminated by gender, family history of CRC or IBD, diagnosis of PSC, medical treatment, active symptoms, or histological features like type of cancer and differentiation. In multiple logistic regression analysis the age at onset of IBD was the strongest predictive variable for dysplasia at cancer diagnosis (P = 0.025). Conclusions: Widespread neoplasia occurs in the majority of cases with CRC in IBD and is associated with early onset of IBD. Localized neoplasia occurs in about a quarter of the patients and shows an association with late‐onset IBD. The 2 groups probably represent different pathogenetic entities of neoplasia in IBD. This might have consequences for surveillance strategies.
Estimating Simultaneous Games with Incomplete Information Under Median Restrictions

I estimate a simultaneous discrete game with incomplete information where players' private information are only required to be median independent of observed states and can be correlated with observable states. This median restriction is weaker than other assumptions on players' private information in the literature (e.g. perfect knowledge of its distribution or its independence of the observable states). I show index coefficients in players' utility functions are point-identified under an exclusion restriction and fairly weak conditions on the support of states. This identification strategy is fundamentally different from that in a single-agent binary response models with median restrictions, and does not involve any parametric assumption on equilibrium selection in the presence of multiple Bayesian Nash equilibria. I then propose a two-step extreme estimator for the linear coefficients, and prove its consistency.
Maze Routing Steiner Trees With Delay Versus Wire Length Tradeoff

In this paper, we address the problem of generating good topologies of rectilinear Steiner trees using path search algorithms. Various techniques have been applied in order to achieve acceptable run times on a maze router that builds Steiner trees. A biasing technique proposed for wire length improvement, produces trees that are within 2% from optimal topologies in average. By introducing a sharing factor and a path-length factor we show how to trade-off wire length for delay. Experimental results show that our algorithm generates topologies with better delay compared to state of the art heuristics for Steiner trees, such as AHHK (from 26% to 40%) and P-Trees (from 1% to 30% and from 6% to 21% in the presence of blockages) while keeping the properties of a routing algorithm. An important motivation for this work lies in the fact that it can be used for estimation in the early stages as well as for actual routing, thereby improving the convergence and timing closure of the design significantly. We also provide some valuable theoretical background and insights on delay optimization and on how it relates to our maze router implementation.
Studies on the mechanism of action of picrotoxinin and other convulsants at the crustacean muscle GABA receptor

The actions of picrotoxinin, bicuculline and penicillin-G were investigated on the GABA-receptor system of lobster muscle by using intracellular recording. The highly potent antagonist, picrotoxinin, produced a lateral shift and depression in the maximum of the GABA dose–conductance curve (designated as mixed antagonism); bicuculline, a weak antagonist, caused only a depression in the maximum with little or no lateral shift, whereas penicillin-G, an even weaker antagonist, produced a greater depression at the top of the dose–response curve. The possible sites of antagonist action were examined, with a critical re-evaluation of a drug-receptor model previously proposed to account for the antagonistic behaviour of picrotoxinin (the mixed antagonistic model); this model was extended to include the actions of bicuculline and penicillin-G. Antagonism was examined (i) towards different GABA receptor agonists; (ii) in various external anion media; (iii) at varying external pH; and (iv) when two different antagonists were combined. The GABA agonists were differentially antagonized by picrotoxinin and bicuculline, but external pH and substituent anions caused only minor perturbations to the inhibition. Combination experiments suggested at least three sites for GABA antagonists binding on crustacean muscle: (i) the GABA recognition site or sites; (ii) the ionic selectivity site in the ionophore; and (iii) a highly lipophilic site which may be part of the GABA receptor or ionophore. The mixed antagonism model accounted for the pH and external anion data but required modification to a cyclic scheme to explain the antagonism of a partial agonist. A model based on two-state receptor theory could only account for the antagonism of GABA if picrotoxinin was assumed not only to perturb L (the R ⇌ T conformation constant) but also to affect the agonist binding affinity. It is suggested that picrotoxinin and bicuculline may antagonize GABA responses by stabilizing the closed form of the activated channel, whereas penicillin-G may block the channel in the open state.
Private Public Choice

The fields of social choice theory and mechanism design deal with the aggregation of conflicting preferences in a group of agents, may they be electronic or human. Two central problems in these areas are the social choice problem and the mechanism design problem. We argue that the protection of individual preferences has not been considered so far and introduce the preference protection problem, which we aim to solve by applying a fruitful subfield of cryptography called secure multiparty computation. Similar to the implementation of social choice functions in mechanisms, our new view on public choice adds another level to the model by introducing the emulation of mechanisms by cryptographic protocols. This enables the private and secure execution of mechanisms without trusted third-parties by distributing the computation of the mechanism outcome on the participating agents. It is shown that security against computationally bounded adversaries is possible whereas general mechanisms can not be emulated by protocols that are secure against unbounded adversaries. We then investigate how to construct efficient special-purpose protocols, such as a protocol that emulates the Clarke tax mechanism.
An applet to estimate the IOP-induced stress and strain within the optic nerve head.

PURPOSE The ability to predict the biomechanical response of the optic nerve head (ONH) to intraocular pressure (IOP) elevation holds great promise, yet remains elusive. The objective of this work was to introduce an approach to model ONH biomechanics that combines the ease of use and speed of analytical models with the flexibility and power of numerical models. METHODS Models representing a variety of ONHs were produced, and finite element (FE) techniques used to predict the stresses (forces) and strains (relative deformations) induced on each of the models by IOP elevations (up to 10 mm Hg). Multivariate regression was used to parameterize each biomechanical response as an analytical function. These functions were encoded into a Flash-based applet. Applet utility was demonstrated by investigating hypotheses concerning ONH biomechanics posited in the literature. RESULTS All responses were parameterized well by polynomials (R² values between 0.985 and 0.999), demonstrating the effectiveness of our fitting approach. Previously published univariate results were reproduced with the applet in seconds. A few minutes allowed for multivariate analysis, with which it was predicted that often, but not always, larger eyes experience higher levels of stress and strain than smaller ones, even at the same IOP. CONCLUSIONS An applet has been presented with which it is simple to make rapid estimates of IOP-related ONH biomechanics. The applet represents a step toward bringing the power of FE modeling beyond the specialized laboratory and can thus help develop more refined biomechanics-based hypotheses. The applet is available for use at www.ocularbiomechanics. com.
Revision Rates Following Staged and Simultaneous Bilateral Knee Replacement

• Objective: To compare rates of revision knee replacement (KR) surgery for patients who had 2 knees replaced simultaneously with rates for those who had staged surgery. • Design: Retrospective database study covering the period January 1985 through December 1990. • Participants: 11,771 Medicare recipients in the United States. • Main outcome measure: Rates of revision following primary bilateral KR surgery. • Results: Revision rates were lower for patients who underwent simultaneous surgery relative to patients who underwent staged surgery. After adjusting for risk factors previously determined to affect likelihood of revision, patients who underwent simultaneous KR had an approximately 20% lower risk of subsequent revision surgery compared with patients who had staged surgery (risk ratio, 0.79; 95% confidence interval, 0.64–0.98). • Conclusion: The lower revision rates associated with simultaneous bilateral KR is a factor that physicians and patients can consider when making treatment decisions for bilateral disease.
Credit Markets with Ethical Banks and Motivated Borrowers

This paper investigates banks’ corporate social responsibility. Two different competitive credit markets do exist: one for standard projects and one for ethical ones. Ethical projects have also a social profitability, but a lower (positive) expected revenue with respect to standard ones. Ethical projects are financed by ethical banks and undertaken by motivated borrowers. These borrowers obtain additional benefit (a social responsibility premium) from accomplishing ethical projects when trading with ethical banks. If the expected profitability of ethical project is sufficiently close to that of standard ones and/or the social responsibility premium of motivated borrowers is sufficiently high, the market for ethical projects is active and the credit market is fully segmented. This result holds true irrespective of the information structure: only moral hazard on the borrower side, moral hazard and screening on the borrower side, moral hazard on the borrower side and screening on the lender side. The optimal contract in our set-up is always a debt contract. However, its precise form and welfare properties depend on the information structure.
FSF: A Real-Time Scheduling Architecture Framework

Scheduling theory generally assumes that real-time systems are mostly composed of activities with hard real-time requirements. Many systems are built today by composing different applications or components in the same system, leading to a mixture of many different kinds of requirements with small parts of the system having hard real-time requirements and other larger parts with requirements for more flexible scheduling and for quality of service. Hard real-time scheduling techniques are extremely pessimistic for the latter part of the application, and consequently it is necessary to use techniques that let the system resources be fully utilized to achieve the highest possible quality. This paper presents a framework for a scheduling architecture that provides the ability to compose several applications or components into the system, and to flexibly schedule the available resources while guaranteeing hard real-time requirements. The framework (called FSF) is independent of the underlying implementation, and can run on different underlying scheduling strategies. It is based on establishing service contracts that represent the complex and flexible requirements of the applications, and which are managed by the underlying system to provide the required level of service.
Parental Pain Expectancy as a Mediator Between Child Expected and Experienced Procedure-related Pain Intensity During Painful Medical Procedures

ObjectivesThe aim of this prospective investigation was to evaluate child and parental expectancies as a predictor of pain perception in pediatric oncology patients undergoing painful medical procedures. MethodsForty-five children with leukemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma and their parents rated expected and experienced pain during lumbar punctures at baseline, during intervention (ie, cognitive-behavior therapy) administered by a therapist and when children were using cognitive-behavior therapy skills independently. ResultsParental and child expectancies were significantly correlated. Parents consistently expected their children to experience more pain than children were expecting themselves. Parental expectancy was found to mediate the relationship between child expected and experienced pain during every phase of the study. DiscussionIt is concluded that parental expectancies are reliable predictors of pediatric procedure-related pain and possible useful targets for psychologic interventions to manage such pain.