Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Respiratory syncytial virus hospitalization trends in infants with chronic lung disease of infancy, 1998–2008

Objective: Infants with chronic lung disease of infancy (CLDI) are at high risk for severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) illness requiring hospitalization. Palivizumab was first licensed in 1998 for the prevention of RSV disease in high-risk infants, including those with CLDI. We performed a retrospective cohort study of all hospitalized children with CLDI aged <2 years between 1998 and 2008 in the USA to determine trends in rates of hospitalizations due to RSV (RSVH) since the launch of palivizumab. Materials and methods: Data from the United States National Hospital Discharge Survey, a multistage systematic survey sample of US hospitals, were assembled. We defined RSVH using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) codes of 079.6 (RSV), 466.11 (acute bronchiolitis due to RSV), and 480.1 (pneumonia due to RSV). Quarterly rates of RSVH were assessed for children with CLDI (ICD-9-CM code 770.7) and calculated between 1998 and 2008. Because RSV may be miscoded, the analysis was repeated after expanding the definition of RSVH to include all acute bronchitis and acute bronchiolitis (ABH) (ICD-9-CM = 466). Trends were described using linear regression with seasonal indicators included in the model. Results: On average, about 966 RSVH (range 98–1373 RSVH) per year were found for children <2 years with CLDI in the USA between 1998 and 2008. Over the 11-year period, the predicted rate of RSVH statistically significantly decreased by 48% (from 93.78 to 49.06 RSVH per 1 million children) (P = 0.013). Addition of ABH resulted in a nonstatisically significant decrease of 32% over the 10-year period (P = 0.102). Conclusion: These results suggest that there has been a decrease in the rate of RSVH in infants with CLDI between 1998 and 2008. The reasons for this decrease may include improved neonatal intensive care unit and outpatient management of CLDI, and possibly increased use of palivizumab in this high-risk population.
PENENTUAN KONDISI OPTIMUM SUHU DAN WAKTU KARBONISASI PADA PEMBUATAN ARANG DARI SEKAM PADI

Charcoal is a solid porous material containing 80 - 90 % of carbon being produced from combustion at high temperatures (carbonization ), that the material only carbonized and not oxidized become carbon dioxide. The research is aimed to know the optimum conditions on the process of carbonization from the rice husks. The carbonization process conducted in temperatures 400 o C, 500 o C, and 600 o C with variations in time 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes and 120 minutes. Optimum conditions carbonization for rice husk at temperature 400 o C for 120 minutes with a carbon content 41,3 %, moisture content 6,1 %, ash content 32,6 % and volatile matter content 20,5 %. Keywords : charcoal, carbonization, rice husk
Conversion of Cannabidiol Following Oral Administration: Authors' Response to Grotenhermen et al. DOI: 10.1089/can.2016.0036

Abstract In a commentary, Grotenhermen, Russo, and Zuardi questioned not only the clinical relevance but also the conclusions of a recently published study by Merrick et al. on the conversion of cannabidiol (CBD) to delta-8 and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in simulated gastric fluid. In response, this article aims to provide a thorough review of the in vitro and in vivo studies of gastric CBD conversion as well as potential consequences resulting from such conversion. Findings highlight (1) consistent evidence over the past half century of gastric conversion of CBD, (2) evidence from human studies, indicating the importance of testing for THC metabolites as well as a number of other cannabinoids in the detection of such conversion, and (3) THC-like effects after administration of oral CBD in humans that may not only stem from CBD's conversion to THC, but also its conversion to 9α-hydroxy-hexahydrocannabinol and 8α-hydroxy-iso-hexahydrocannabinol. These findings, coupled with a number of limitations in the existing literature, point to the need for large-scale human studies, specifically designed to explore gastric conversion and potential THC-like side effects after oral administration of CBD.
Extreme Ultraviolet Observations from Voyager 1 Encounter with Jupiter

Observations of the optical extreme ultraviolet spectrum of the Jupiter planetary system during the Voyager 1 encounter have revealed previously undetected physical processes of significant proportions. Bright emission lines of S III, S IV, and O III indicating an electron temperature of 105 K have been identified in preliminary analyses of the Io plasma torus spectrum. Strong auroral atomic and molecular hydrogen emissions have been observed in the polar regions of Jupiter near magnetic field lines that map the torus into the atmosphere of Jupiter. The observed resonance scattering of solar hydrogen Lyman α by the atmosphere of Jupiter and the solar occultation experiment suggest a hot thermosphere (≥ 1000 K) wvith a large atomic hydrogen abundance. A stellar occultation by Ganymede indicates that its atmosphere is at most an exosphere.
On U-Statistics and Compressed Sensing II: Non-Asymptotic Worst-Case Analysis

In another related work, U-statistics were used for non-asymptotic average-case analysis of random compressed sensing matrices. In this companion paper the same analytical tool is adopted differently-here we perform non-asymptotic worst-case analysis. Simple union bounds are a natural choice for worst-case analyses, however their tightness is an issue (and questioned in previous works). Here we focus on a theoretical U-statistical result, which potentially allows us to prove that these union bounds are tight. To our knowledge, this kind of (powerful) result is completely new in the context of CS. This general result applies to a wide variety of parameters, and is related to (Stein-Chen) Poisson approximation. In this paper, we consider i) restricted isometries, and ii) mutual coherence. For the bounded case, we show that -th order restricted isometry constants have tight union bounds, when the measurements m = O (k(1.5(+ log(n/k))). Here, we require the restricted isometries to grow linearly in , however we conjecture that this result can be improved to allow them to be fixed. Also, we show that mutual coherence (with the standard estimate √(4 log n)/m) have very tight union bounds. For coherence, the normalization complicates general discussion, and we consider only Gaussian and Bernoulli cases here.
Absence of the Skeletal Muscle Sarcolemma Chloride Channel ClC-1 in Myotonic Mice (*)

The voltage-dependent chloride channel ClC-1 stabilizes resting membrane potential in skeletal muscle. Mutations in the ClC-1 gene are responsible for both human autosomal recessive generalized myotonia and autosomal dominant myotonia congenita. To understand the tissue distribution and subcellular localization of ClC-1 and to evaluate its role in an animal model of myotonia, antibodies were raised against the carboxyl terminus of this protein. Expression of the 130-kDa ClC-1 protein is unique to skeletal muscle, consistent with its mRNA tissue distribution. Immunolocalization shows prominent ClC-1 antigen in the sarcolemma of both type I and II muscle fibers. Sarcolemma localization is confirmed by Western analysis of skeletal muscle subcellular fractions. The ADR myotonic mouse (phenotype ADR, genotype adr/adr), in which defective ClC-1 mRNA has been identified, is shown here to be absent in ClC-1 protein expression, whereas other skeletal muscle sarcolemma protein expression appears normal. Immunohistochemistry of skeletal muscle from ADR and other mouse models of human muscle disease demonstrate that the absence of ClC-1 chloride channel is a defect specific to ADR mice.
Uniaxial and buckling mechanical response of auxetic cellular tubes

Auxetic cellular tubes are emerging as potential candidates for a number of critical devices requiring high resistance to kinking, such as angioplasty stents or annuloplasty rings. This work investigates the collapse under pure bending of auxetic tubes based on inverted hexagonal honeycombs, with the aim to identify design strategies suitable for improving their kinking response. First, the mechanical properties of the structure are determined under small deformation by means of analytical approaches, and used to verify the validity of numerical models. These are then used to simulate the tube collapse under pure bending, and identify the influence of the geometric parameters defining the structure on the phenomenon. The study indicates that the adoption of auxetic tubular structures can contribute to improving considerably the resistance to kinking, suggesting the parameters to be controlled in the design of critical applications.
Negative thinking by incremental problem solving: application to unate covering

We introduce a new technique to solve exactly a discrete optimization problem, based on the paradigm of "negative" thinking. The motivation is that when searching the space of solutions, often a good solution is reached quickly and then improved only a few times before the optimum is found: hence most of the solution space is explored to certify optimality, but it does not yield any improvement of the cost function. So it is quite natural for an algorithm to be "skeptical" about the chance to improve the current best solution. For illustration we have applied our approach to the unate covering problem. We designed a procedure, raiser, implementing a negative thinking search, which is incorporated into a common branch-and-bound procedure. Experiments show that our program, AURA, outperforms both ESPRESSO and our enhancement of ESPRESSO using Coudert's limit lower bound. It is always faster and in the most difficult examples either has a running time better by up to two orders of magnitude, or the other programs fail to finish due to timeout or spaceout. The package SCHERZO is faster on some examples and loses on others, due to a less powerful pruning strategy of the search space, partially mitigated by a more effective computation of the maximal independent set.
Gibbs Sampling with Treeness Constraint in Unsupervised Dependency Parsing

This paper presents a work in progress on the task of unsupervised parsing, following the main stream approach of optimizing the overall probability of the corpus. We evaluate a sequence of experiments for Czech with various modifications of corpus initiation, of dependency edge probability model and of sampling procedure, stressing especially the treeness constraint. The best configuration is then applied to 19 languages from CoNLL-2006 and CoNLL-2007 shared tasks. Our best achieved results are comparable to the state of the art in dependency parsing and outperform the previously published results for many languages.
Intestinal Resident Yeast Candida glabrata Requires Cyb2p-Mediated Lactate Assimilation to Adapt in Mouse Intestine

The intestinal resident Candida glabrata opportunistically infects humans. However few genetic factors for adaptation in the intestine are identified in this fungus. Here we describe the C. glabrata CYB2 gene encoding lactate dehydrogenase as an adaptation factor for survival in the intestine. CYB2 was identified as a virulence factor by a silkworm infection study. To determine the function of CYB2, we analysed in vitro phenotypes of the mutant Δcyb2. The Δcyb2 mutant grew well in glucose medium under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, was not supersensitive to nitric oxide which has fungicidal-effect in phagocytes, and had normal levels of general virulence factors protease, lipase and adherence activities. A previous report suggested that Cyb2p is responsible for lactate assimilation. Additionally, it was speculated that lactate assimilation was required for Candida virulence because Candida must synthesize glucose via gluconeogenesis under glucose-limited conditions such as in the host. Indeed, the Δcyb2 mutant could not grow on lactate medium in which lactate is the sole carbon source in the absence of glucose, indicating that Cyb2p plays a role in lactate assimilation. We hypothesized that Cyb2p-mediated lactate assimilation is necessary for proliferation in the intestinal tract, as the intestine is rich in lactate produced by bacteria flora, but not glucose. The Δcyb2 mutant showed 100-fold decreased adaptation and few cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae can adapt in mouse ceca. Interestingly, C. glabrata could assimilate lactate under hypoxic conditions, dependent on CYB2, but not yeast S. cerevisiae. Because accessible oxygen is limited in the intestine, the ability for lactate assimilation in hypoxic conditions may provide an advantage for a pathogenic yeast. From those results, we conclude that Cyb2p-mediated lactate assimilation is an intestinal adaptation factor of C. glabrata.
Sudden Death in Noncoronary Heart Disease Is Associated With Delayed Paced Ventricular Activation

Background—Slowed or delayed myocardial activation and dispersed refractoriness predispose to reentrant excitation that may lead to ventricular fibrillation (VF). Increased ventricular electrogram duration (&Dgr;ED) in response to extrastimuli and increased S1S2 coupling intervals at which electrogram duration starts to increase (S1S2delay) are seen both in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in those at risk of VF and in patients with idiopathic VF (IVF). Methods and Results—&Dgr;ED and S1S2delay have been measured using paced electrogram fractionation analysis in 266 patients with noncoronary heart disease. Of these, one group of 61 patients had a history of VF and included 21 HCM, 17 IVF, 13 long-QT syndrome (LQTS), 5 dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), and 5 others. These were compared with 205 patients with similar diseases with no VF history (non-VF group) and a control group (n=12) without heart disease. Results from HCM VF patients (&Dgr;ED, 19±3.3 ms; S1S2delay, 350±9.7 ms) differed sharply from observations in HCM non-VF patients (&Dgr;ED, 7.3±1.35 ms; S1S2delay, 312±6.7 ms;P <0.001). DCM VF patients had longer delays (&Dgr;ED, 14.3±5.9; S1S2delay, 344±11.2) than DCM non-VF patients (&Dgr;ED, 5.8±1.87 ms; S1S2delay, 311±5.7 ms;P <0.001), with major differences also seen comparing LQTS VF (&Dgr;ED, 12.4±5.3 ms; S1S2delay, 343±13.8 ms) and LQTS non-VF patients (&Dgr;ED, 11.0±2.7 ms; S1S2delay, 320±5.4 ms;P <0.001). IVF patients had both severely abnormal and normal areas of myocardium. Conclusions—Slowed or delayed myocardial activation is a common feature in patients with noncoronary heart disease with a history of VF, and its assessment may allow the prospective prediction of VF risk in these patients.
Middleware scheduling optimization techniques for distributed real-time and embedded systems

Developers of mission-critical distributed real-time and embedded (DRE) systems face a fundamental tension between: (1) the performance gains achievable with hand-crafted optimizations to systems built largely from scratch and (2) the development cost and cycle-time reductions offered by common off-the-shelf (COTS) middleware. The paper describes how the Kokyu portable middleware scheduling framework, which is built using standards-based COTS middleware and OS primitives, can be used both to: (1) maintain the flexibility and reuse offered by COTS middleware, and (2) provide opportunities for domain-specific optimizations that are needed to meet stringent real-time performance requirements.
Chronic Strongyloides stercoralis infection in former British Far East prisoners of war.

BACKGROUND Chronic infections with the nematode worm Strongyloides stercoralis can occur in former WWII Far East prisoners of war (FEPOWs). The condition may be asymptomatic, but frequently causes a characteristic urticarial 'larva currens' rash. Under conditions of immunosuppression (particularly systemic corticosteroid treatment) potentially fatal dissemination of larvae ('hyperinfection') may occur. AIM To review our total experience of strongyloidiasis in former FEPOWs, and investigate its prevalence, characteristics and risk factors. DESIGN Retrospective case series. METHODS We reviewed 2072 records of all FEPOWs seen at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 1968-2002. Cases with strongyloidiasis were compared with non-infected controls. RESULTS There were 248 (12%) with strongyloidiasis. Diagnostic features included larva currens rash (70%), eosinophilia (66%), positive faecal culture (30%), positive faecal microscopy (26%), and positive serology (64%). Mean (+/-SD) age of cases was 65 +/- 7 years, and as expected, their blood eosinophil counts were significantly higher than controls (775 vs. 238 x 10(6)/l, p < 0.001). Captivity on the Thai-Burma Railway (vs. elsewhere) was significantly associated with strongyloidiasis (78% cases vs. 40% controls, OR 4.19, CI 2.70-6.81, p < 0.001). In terms of prevalence, strongyloidiasis occurred in 166/1032 men imprisoned on the Burma Railway (16.1%). Malaria (88% vs. 69%, p < 0.001) and tropical ulcer (53% vs. 42%, p < 0.02) were more common amongst cases than controls, probably because these diseases were very common on the Burma Railway. DISCUSSION S. stercoralis infection is common amongst ex-FEPOWs, particularly those from the Thai-Burma Railway project. It is usually characterized by a 'larva currens' rash and marked eosinophilia. The condition is eminently treatable, and continued diagnostic surveillance is needed, if cases of potentially fatal hyperinfection are to be avoided.
Hypothesis Testing For Network Data in Functional Neuroimaging

In recent years, it has become common practice in neuroscience to use networks to summarize relational information in a set of measurements, typically assumed to be reflective of either functional or structural relationships between regions of interest in the brain. One of the most basic tasks of interest in the analysis of such data is the testing of hypotheses, in answer to questions such as "Is there a difference between the networks of these two groups of subjects? " In the classical setting, where the unit of interest is a scalar or a vector, such questions are answered through the use of familiar two-sample testing strategies. Networks, however, are not Euclidean objects, and hence classical methods do not directly apply. We address this challenge by drawing on concepts and techniques from geometry, and high-dimensional statistical inference. Our work is based on a precise geometric characterization of the space of graph Laplacian matrices and a nonparametric notion of averaging due to Frechet. We motivate and illustrate our resulting methodologies for testing in the context of networks derived from functional neuroimaging data on human subjects from the 1000 Functional Connectomes Project. In particular, we show that this global test is more statistical powerful, than a mass-univariate approach. In addition, we have also provided a method for visualizing the individual contribution of each edge to the overall test statistic.
Association between hepatitis B virus and chronic kidney disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background. Hepatitis B virus infection and chronic kidney disease are prevalent and remain a major public health problem worldwide. It remains unclear how infection with hepatitis B virus impacts on the development and progression of chronic kidney disease. AIM To evaluate the effect of infection with HBV on the risk of chronic kidney disease in the general population. MATERIAL AND METHODS We conducted a systematic review of the published medical literature to determine if hepatitis B infection is associated with increased likelihood of chronic kidney disease. We used the random effects model of DerSimonian and Laird to generate a summary estimate of the relative risk for chronic kidney disease (defined by reduced glomerular filtration rate and/or detectable proteinuria) with hepatitis B virus across the published studies. Meta-regression and stratified analysis were also conducted. RESULTS We identified 16 studies (n = 394,664 patients) and separate meta-analyses were performed according to the outcome. The subset of longitudinal studies addressing ESRD (n = 2; n = 91,656) gave a pooled aHR 3.87 (95% CI, 1.48; 6.25, P < 0.0001) among HBV-infected patients and no heterogeneity was recorded. In meta-regression, we noted the impact of male (P = 0.006) and duration of follow- up (P = 0.007) upon the adjusted hazard ratio of incidence of chronic kidney disease (including end-stage renal disease). No relationship occurred between HBV positive status and prevalent chronic disease (n = 7, n = 109,889 unique patients); adjusted odds ratio, were 1.07 (95% CI, 0.89; 1.25) and 0.93 (95% CI, 0.76; 1.10), respectively. CONCLUSIONS HBV infection is possibly associated with a risk of developing reduced glomerular filtration rate in the general population; no link between HBV sero-positive status and frequency of chronic kidney disease or proteinuria was noted in cross-sectional surveys.
Krüppel-Like Factor 2, a Novel Immediate-Early Transcriptional Factor, Regulates IL-2 Expression in T Lymphocyte Activation1

Ag presentation to T lymphocytes and subsequent activation are characterized by a cascade of signaling events, some of which result in the transcriptional activation of a diverse set of genes. An important example is the induction of the IL-2 gene, which is a critical event in the escalation of T cell activation. Previous studies have found that expression of Krüppel-like factor 2 (KLF2), a zinc finger transcription factor, is extinguished after T cell activation. However, the biological role of KLF2 during T cell activation is still unknown. In this study we found that KLF2 protein degradation is delayed, and KLF2 expression is up-regulated during the early stage of T cell activation in primary T cells. Within a few hours, this process is reversed, and KLF2 expression is turned off. Next, we found that the expression of KLF2 significantly increases IL-2 production 4-fold in activated T cells, resulting from activation of the IL-2 promoter. By narrowing down the 2.0-kb IL-2 promoter region, we found that the KLF2 responsive element in the IL-2 promoter is a CACCC element, the KLF consensus binding motif. Moreover, KLF2 binds to this promoter in vivo under different conditions. Our studies show that KLF2 regulates IL-2 promoter activity in the earliest stages of T cell activation, indicating that KLF2 may act as a novel immediate-early transcriptional factor to maximally prime T cell activation.