Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Visibility of the urethral meatus and risk of urinary tract infections in uncircumcised boys

Background: Uncircumcised boys are at higher risk for urinary tract infections than circumcised boys. Whether this risk varies with the visibility of the urethral meatus is not known. Our aim was to determine whether there is a hierarchy of risk among uncircumcised boys whose urethral meatuses are visible to differing degrees. Methods: We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study in one pediatric emergency department. We screened 440 circumcised and uncircumcised boys. Of these, 393 boys who were not toilet trained and for whom the treating physician had requested a catheter urine culture were included in our analysis. At the time of catheter insertion, a nurse characterized the visibility of the urethral meatus (phimosis) using a 3-point scale (completely visible, partially visible or nonvisible). Our primary outcome was urinary tract infection, and our primary exposure variable was the degree of phimosis: completely visible versus partially or nonvisible urethral meatus. Results: Cultures grew from urine samples from 30.0% of uncircumcised boys with a completely visible meatus, and from 23.8% of those with a partially or nonvisible meatus (p = 0.4). The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) for culture growth was 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.35–1.52), and the adjusted OR was 0.41 (95% CI 0.17–0.95). Of the boys who were circumcised, 4.8% had urinary tract infections, which was significantly lower than the rate among uncircumcised boys with a completely visible urethral meatus (unadjusted OR 0.12 [95% CI 0.04–0.39], adjusted OR 0.07 [95% CI 0.02–0.26]). Interpretation: We did not see variation in the risk of urinary tract infection with the visibility of the urethral meatus among uncircumcised boys. Compared with circumcised boys, we saw a higher risk of urinary tract infection in uncircumcised boys, irrespective of urethral visibility.
Large Diameter Triaxial Tests on Geosynthetic-Reinforced Granular Subbases

The estimation of strength and stiffness of reinforced aggregates is very important for the design and construction of reinforced unpaved/paved road sections. This paper presents the experimental results from static and cyclic triaxial tests carried out on granular subbase samples reinforced with multiple layers of geogrid reinforcement. Aggregates of different size ranges were mixed in calculated proportions by weight to obtain the gradation specified for rural roads. Triaxial samples of 300 mm diameter and 600 mm height were prepared using this sampled aggregate. The strength and stiffness characteristics of this aggregate reinforced with geogrids at different elevations were determined from static and cyclic triaxial tests. Triaxial tests were also carried out on geocell encased aggregates, and the results are compared. From the experimental results it is observed that reinforced systems carried more stresses than unreinforced systems at the same strain level. The beneficial effect increased with increase in the quantity of reinforcement, whereas for geocell reinforcement, the advantage was evident only at higher strains. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Shrinking Lung Syndrome in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Shrinking lung syndrome (SLS) is an infrequently reported manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Pathogenesis is not fully understood and different therapeutic modalities have been employed with variable results. We report a patient with SLS who responded subjectively and objectively to corticosteroids. Upon reduction of the dose she relapsed, but she responded again on increasing the dose. This case report shows that corticosteroids may improve dyspnea and lung function in shrinking lung syndrome.
Effect of Beetroot Juice Supplementation on Aerobic Response during Swimming

The beneficial effects of beetroot juice supplementation (BJS) have been tested during cycling, walking, and running. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether BJS can also improve performance in swimmers. Fourteen moderately trained male master swimmers were recruited and underwent two incremental swimming tests randomly assigned in a pool during which workload, oxygen uptake (VO2), carbon dioxide production (VCO2), pulmonary ventilation (VE), and aerobic energy cost (AEC) of swimming were measured. One was a control swimming test (CSW) and the other a swimming test after six days of BJS (0.5l/day organic beetroot juice containing about 5.5 mmol of NO3−). Results show that workload at anaerobic threshold was significantly increased by BJS as compared to the CSW test (6.3 ± 1 and 6.7 ± 1.1 kg during the CSW and the BJS test respectively). Moreover, AEC was significantly reduced during the BJS test (1.9 ± 0.5 during the SW test vs. 1.7 ± 0.3 kcal·kg−1·h−1 during the BJS test). The other variables lacked a statistically significant effect with BJS. The present investigation provides evidence that BJS positively affects performance of swimmers as it reduces the AEC and increases the workload at anaerobic threshold.
Exploring the Causal Structures of Almost Commutative Geometries

We investigate the causal relations in the space of states of almost commutative Lorentzian geometries. We fully describe the causal structure of a simple model based on the algebraS(R 1;1 ) M2(C), which has a non-trivial space of internal degrees of freedom. It turns out that the causality condition imposes restrictions on the motion in the internal space. Moreover, we show that the requirement of causality favours a unitary evolution in the internal space.
The Use of Molecular Techniques in Isolation and Characterization of Mycoplasma gallisepticum from Commercial Chickens in Jordan

Commercial chickens in Jordan suffer from respiratory disease of undetermined etiology. This study was designed to document the involvement of Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) in this respiratory disease. Seventy six different chicken flocks with respiratory symptoms (48 broiler flocks, 21 layer flocks and 7 broiler-breeder flocks) were examined serologically by commercial MG ELISA kit and bacterial isolation for Mycoplasma. Twenty four MG isolates from 76 flocks were cloned and the presence of MG in the cloned cultures was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction. The isolates were further examined using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique. The prevalence of MG in the flocks examined was 73.5% and 31.6% by ELISA and isolation, respectively. This high prevalence in flocks with respiratory disease, confirms the endemic nature of the disease in Jordan. RAPD testing of the 24 isolates revealed the presence of 5 banding patterns that were different than the common MG F strain vaccine used in the field. This is the first study to isolate and characterize MG from chickens in Jordan.
Policy on professional support in return-to-work: Occupational health professionals' experiences in a Canadian setting.

BACKGROUND In Canada and other countries, sickness-based absences among workers is an economic and sociological problem. Return-to-work (RTW) policy developed by both employer and worker' representatives (that is, bipartite policy) is preferred to tackle this problem. OBJECTIVE The intent was to examine how this bipartite agreed-upon RTW policy works from the perspective of occupational health professionals (those who deliver RTW services to workers with temporary or permanent disabilities) in a public healthcare organization in Canada. METHODS In-depth interviews were held with 9 occupational health professionals and transcribed verbatim. A qualitative, social constructivist, analysis was completed. RESULTS The occupational health professionals experienced four main problems: 1) timing and content of physicians' medical advice cannot be trusted as a basis for RTW plans; 2) legal status of the plans and thus needing workers' consent and managers' approval can create tension, conflict and delays; 3) limited input and thus little fruitful inference in transdisciplinary meetings at the workplace; and yet 4) the professionals can be called to account for plans. CONCLUSIONS Bipartite representation in developing RTW policy does not entirely delete bottlenecks in executing the policy. Occupational health professionals should be offered more influence and their professionalism needs to be enhanced.
Grounding spatial relations for human-robot interaction

We propose a system for human-robot interaction that learns both models for spatial prepositions and for object recognition. Our system grounds the meaning of an input sentence in terms of visual percepts coming from the robot's sensors in order to send an appropriate command to the PR2 or respond to spatial queries. To perform this grounding, the system recognizes the objects in the scene, determines which spatial relations hold between those objects, and semantically parses the input sentence. The proposed system uses the visual and spatial information in conjunction with the semantic parse to interpret statements that refer to objects (nouns), their spatial relationships (prepositions), and to execute commands (actions). The semantic parse is inherently compositional, allowing the robot to understand complex commands that refer to multiple objects and relations such as: “Move the cup close to the robot to the area in front of the plate and behind the tea box”. Our system correctly parses 94% of the 210 online test sentences, correctly interprets 91% of the correctly parsed sentences, and correctly executes 89% of the correctly interpreted sentences.
Defending against a Denial-of-Service Attack on TCP

In this paper we propose a method for detecting TCP SYN-flooding attacks. This is an anomaly detection method based on intensities of SYN segments which are measured on a network monitoring machine in real-time. We note that current solutions suffer from several important flaws such as the possibility of denying access to legitimate clients and/or causing service degradation at protected machines, therefore we aim to minimize such unwanted effects by acting only when it is necessary: during an attack. In order to force the attackers to fall in a detectable region (hence, avoid false negatives) and determine the actual level of threat we are facing, we also profit from a series of host based measures such as tuning TCP backlog queue lengths of our servers. Experience showed that complete avoidance from false positives is not possible with this method, however a significant decrease can be reasonably expected. Nevertheless, this requires an acceptable model for the legitimate use of services. We first explain why the Poisson model would fail in modeling TCP connection arrivals in our case and show that analyzing daily maximum arrival rates can be suitable for minimizing false positive probabilities. This method can allow ISPs to determine their correct requirements to cope with this particular attack and provide more secure services to their clients.
Molecular phylogenetics of swimming crabs (Portunoidea Rafinesque, 1815) supports a revised family-level classification and suggests a single derived origin of symbiotic taxa

Portunoidea is a diverse lineage of ecologically and economically important marine crabs comprising 8 families and 14 subfamilies. Closely related portunid subfamilies Caphyrinae and Thalamitinae constitute some of this group’s greatest morphological and taxonomic diversity, and are the only known lineages to include symbiotic taxa. Emergence of symbiosis in decapods remains poorly studied and portunoid crabs provide an interesting, but often overlooked example. Yet the paucity of molecular phylogenetic data available for Portunoidea makes it challenging to investigate the evolution and systematics of the group. Phylogenetic analyses, though limited, suggest that many putative portunoid taxa are para- or polyphyletic. Here I augment existing molecular data—significantly increasing taxon sampling of Caphyrinae, Thalamitinae, and several disparate portunoid lineages—to investigate the phylogenetic origin of symbiosis within Portunoidea and reevaluate higher- and lower-level portunoid classifications. Phylogenetic analyses were carried out on sequences of H3, 28S rRNA, 16S rRNA, and CO1 for up to 168 portunoid taxa; this included, for the first time, molecular data from the genera Atoportunus, Brusinia, Caphyra, Coelocarcinus, Gonioinfradens, Raymanninus, and Thalamonyx. Results support the placement of all symbiotic taxa (Caphyra, Lissocarcinus, and two Thalamita) in a single clade derived within the thalamitine genus Thalamita. Caphyrina Paulson, 1875, nom. trans. is recognized here as a subtribe within the subfamily Thalamitinae. Results also support the following taxonomic actions: Cronius is reclassified as a thalamitine genus; Thalamonyx is reestablished as a valid genus; Goniosupradens is raised to the generic rank; and three new genera (Zygita gen. nov., Thranita gen. nov., and Trierarchus gen. nov.) are described to accommodate some Thalamita s.l. taxa rendered paraphyletic by Caphyrina. A new diagnosis of Thalamitinae is provided. Results also support a more conservative classification of Portunoidea comprising three instead of eight extant families: Geryonidae (Geryonidae + Ovalipidae; new diagnosis provided), Carcinidae (Carcinidae + Pirimelidae + Polybiidae + Thiidae + Coelocarcinus; new diagnosis provided) and Portunidae. Finally, 16s rRNA data suggests family Brusiniidae might not be a portunoid lineage.
Acute stress causes rapid synaptic insertion of Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors to facilitate long-term potentiation in the hippocampus

The neuroendocrine response to episodes of acute stress is crucial for survival whereas the prolonged response to chronic stress can be detrimental. Learning and memory are particularly susceptible to stress with cognitive deficits being well characterized consequences of chronic stress. Although there is good evidence that acute stress can enhance cognitive performance, the mechanism(s) for this are unclear. We find that hippocampal slices, either prepared from rats following 30 min restraint stress or directly exposed to glucocorticoids, exhibit an N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor-independent form of long-term potentiation. We demonstrate that the mechanism involves an NMDA receptor and PKA-dependent insertion of Ca2+-permeable AMPA receptors into synapses. These then trigger the additional NMDA receptor-independent form of LTP during high frequency stimulation.
Nonlocal Intracranial Cavity Extraction

Automatic and accurate methods to estimate normalized regional brain volumes from MRI data are valuable tools which may help to obtain an objective diagnosis and followup of many neurological diseases. To estimate such regional brain volumes, the intracranial cavity volume (ICV) is often used for normalization. However, the high variability of brain shape and size due to normal intersubject variability, normal changes occurring over the lifespan, and abnormal changes due to disease makes the ICV estimation problem challenging. In this paper, we present a new approach to perform ICV extraction based on the use of a library of prelabeled brain images to capture the large variability of brain shapes. To this end, an improved nonlocal label fusion scheme based on BEaST technique is proposed to increase the accuracy of the ICV estimation. The proposed method is compared with recent state-of-the-art methods and the results demonstrate an improved performance both in terms of accuracy and reproducibility while maintaining a reduced computational burden.
The pathologist's approach to acute lung injury.

CONTEXT Acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome are significant causes of pulmonary morbidity and are frequently fatal. These 2 entities have precise definitions from a clinical standpoint. Histologically, cases from patients with clinical acute lung injury typically exhibit diffuse alveolar damage, but other histologic patterns may occasionally be encountered such as acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia, acute eosinophilic pneumonia, and diffuse hemorrhage with capillaritis. OBJECTIVE To review the diagnostic criteria for various histologic patterns associated with a clinical presentation of acute lung injury and to provide diagnostic aids and discuss the differential diagnosis. DATA SOURCES The review is drawn from pertinent peer-reviewed literature and the author's personal experience. CONCLUSIONS Acute lung injury remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. The pathologist should be aware of histologic patterns of lung disease other than diffuse alveolar damage, which are associated with a clinical presentation of acute lung injury. Identification of these alternative histologic findings, as well as identification of potential etiologic agents, especially infection, may impact patient treatment and disease outcome.
Identification and low-complexity regime-switching insulin control of type I diabetic patients

This paper studies benefits of using simplified re-gime-switching adaptive control strategies in improving performance of insulin control for Type I diabetic patients. Typical dynamic models of glucose levels in diabetic patients are nonlinear. Using a linear time invariant controller based on an operating condition is a common method to simplify control design. On the other hand, adaptive control can potentially improve system performance, but it increases control complexity and may create further stability issues. This paper investigates patient models and presents a simplified switching control scheme using PID controllers. By comparing different switching schemes, it shows that switched PID controllers can improve performance, but frequent switching of controllers is unnecessary. These findings lead to a control strategy that utilizes only a small number of PID controllers in this scheduled adaptation strategy.
Recognition of Sulfonylurea Receptor (ABCC8/9) Ligands by the Multidrug Resistance Transporter P-glycoprotein (ABCB1)

ATP-sensitive K+ (KATP) channels are the target of a number of pharmacological agents, blockers like hypoglycemic sulfonylureas and openers like the hypotensive cromakalim and diazoxide. These agents act on the channel regulatory subunit, the sulfonylurea receptor (SUR), which is an ABC protein with homologies to P-glycoprotein (P-gp). P-gp is a multidrug transporter expressed in tumor cells and in some healthy tissues. Because these two ABC proteins both exhibit multispecific recognition properties, we have tested whether SUR ligands could be substrates of P-gp. Interaction with P-gp was assayed by monitoring ATPase activity of P-gp-enriched vesicles. The blockers glibenclamide, tolbutamide, and meglitinide increased ATPase activity, with a rank order of potencies that correlated with their capacity to block KATP channels. P-gp ATPase activity was also increased by the openers SR47063 (a cromakalim analog), P1075 (a pinacidil analog), and diazoxide. Thus, these molecules bind to P-gp (although with lower affinities than for SUR) and are possibly transported by P-gp. Competition experiments among these molecules as well as with typical P-gp substrates revealed a structural similarity between drug binding domains in the two proteins. To rationalize the observed data, we addressed the molecular features of these proteins and compared structural models, computerized by homology from the recently solved structures of murine P-gp and bacterial ABC transporters MsbA and Sav1866. Considering the various residues experimentally assigned to be involved in drug binding, we uncovered several hot spots, which organized spatially in two main binding domains, selective for SR47063 and for glibenclamide, in matching regions of both P-gp and SUR.
Characterization of Clinical Enterococcus faecalis Small-Colony Variants

ABSTRACT In this report, we present a clinical case of chronic aortic valve endocarditis caused by Enterococcus faecalis small-colony variants (SCVs), with ensuing characterization of the SCV phenotype in comparison to the clonally related normal phenotype with respect to alterations in microscopic and ultrastructural morphology, growth behavior, and metabolic pathways. In contrast to the normal phenotype, light and electron microscopy of the Enterococcus SCVs demonstrated the presence of heterogeneous cells of different sizes with aberrant shapes. Furthermore, SCVs showed excessive production of an intercellular substance and alterations in cell division displayed by a thick, coarse cell wall and incomplete, branched, and multiple cross walls without obvious cell separation. In addition, empty “ghost” cells were visible. In growth experiments, SCVs displayed an extended lag phase with delayed entrance into the stationary phase. Interestingly, SCV cells growing under aerobic conditions did not attain the growth and viability of the normal phenotype or those of SCVs growing under microaerobic conditions, suggesting impaired growth behavior and enhanced vulnerability in the presence of oxygen. By metabolite analysis, SCVs failed to produce significant amounts of acetate or lactate under aerobic growth conditions but were able to produce lactate under microaerobic growth conditions, implicating the induction of a fermentative metabolism. In conclusion, the observed structural alterations and changes in the cellular growth and metabolic pathways facilitated the survival of Enterococcus SCVs under microaerobic conditions in vitro and thus presumably in vivo during endocarditis.
Asynchronous groupware support to process redesign groups : A field study of effects on group productivity and outcome quality

In this paper we describe a study of asynchronous groupware effects on outcome quality and productivity of process redesign groups. Six groups were studied in one organization. All groups followed the same group methodology, MetaProi, which comprises a process redesign meta-process with three stages process definition, analysis and redesign. The study indicates that asynchronous groupware support considerably increases group productivity by reducing group duration and the organizational cost of groups, and by allowing members to participate in several groups at the same time. The study also indicates a slight increase in group outcome quality. The causes for these results and their organizational implications are discussed.
Holistic Admissions After Affirmative Action

Selective colleges and universities purport to consider students’ achievement in the context of the academic opportunities available in their high schools. Thus, students who “maximize” their curricular opportunities should be more likely to gain admission. Using nationally representative data, we examine the effect of “maximizing the curriculum” on admission to selective colleges. We find that curriculum maximization has very little effect on students’ probability of college admission outside of states with affirmative action bans. Low-income students are less likely to maximize their high school curriculum, and underrepresented racial minority students are both less likely to maximize their high school curriculum and less likely to benefit from doing so when applying to colleges in states that ban affirmative action. Thus, even if widely diffused, holistic admissions practices may be unlikely to adequately reduce race or class disparities in higher education.