Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Notification of tuberculosis: how many cases are never reported?

BACKGROUND: Notification of tuberculosis is essential for local contact tracing and for assessing the national incidence of tuberculosis. The accuracy of notification figures is uncertain. This study examined the notification rates of all patients diagnosed as having tuberculosis at two hospitals in the East End of London over five years. METHODS: In a retrospective survey of all patients aged 16 years or more presenting with tuberculosis to the London Chest Hospital or the Royal London Hospital from 1 January 1985 to 31 December 1989, cases of tuberculosis were identified from microbiology and histology records, statutory notifications, necropsy reports, coroners' records, hospital activity data, and death certificates. Clinical data were obtained from case notes and notification was determined from the local authority notification lists. RESULTS: Six hundred and nine adult patients with tuberculosis were identified. Notes were available for 580 cases (95%), of which 426 (73%) had been notified. The proportion of cases notified varied according to the specialty of the clinician in charge of the patient at diagnosis. Patients with a past history of tuberculosis and those who died within one year were less likely to have had their tuberculosis notified. Age, race, and lack of microbial or histological confirmation of diagnosis did not influence the proportion of cases notified. One hundred and eighty five patients had smear positive sputum, but 25 of these cases (14%) were not notified. Eighty five patients who had presented with pulmonary tuberculosis did not have their disease notified; 20 (24%) had smear positive sputum. CONCLUSIONS: Many cases of tuberculosis are not notified (27%). Fourteen per cent of all sputum smear positive cases of tuberculosis were not notified, and these patients are a considerable public health risk. The true incidence of tuberculosis in the area studied is at least one third higher than current notification figures suggest.
Nonlinear Passive Control of a Wave Energy Converter Subject to Constraints in Irregular Waves

This paper investigates a passive control method of a point absorbing wave energy converter by considering the displacement and velocity constraints under irregular waves in the time domain. A linear generator is used as a power take-off unit, and the equivalent damping force is optimized to improve the power production of the wave energy converter. The results from nonlinear and linear passive control methods are compared, and indicate that the nonlinear passive control method leads to the excitation force in phase with the velocity of the converter that can significantly improve the energy production of the converter.
The effect of translational and rotational traction on lower extremity joint loading

Abstract Previous studies have linked footwear traction to lower extremity non-contact injury; however, these studies mainly focussed on rotational traction exclusively. While studies have shown that increases in traction lead to increases in joint loading, represented by joint moments, these studies failed to determine how the individual components of rotational and translational traction affect joint loading. Therefore, this study investigated how each component of traction independently affects lower extremity joint loading. Traction testing was performed using a robotic testing machine on three shoes that had independent alterations of translational and rotational traction. All testing was conducted on a sample piece of artificial turf. Kinematic and kinetic data were then collected on 10 athletes performing two cutting movements in each shoe condition. As rotational and translational traction were independently altered, decreased rotational traction led to significant decreases in transverse and frontal plane joint loading at the ankle and knee joints, while increases in translational traction led to increases in frontal plane joint loading at the ankle and knee joints. Increases in joint loading in the transverse and frontal planes are one of the possible mechanisms of lower extremity non-contact injury. Both translational and rotational traction can independently alter the joint loading.
Intrinsically motivated goal exploration for active motor learning in robots: A case study

We introduce the Self-Adaptive Goal Generation - Robust Intelligent Adaptive Curiosity (SAGG-RIAC) algorithm as an intrinsically motivated goal exploration mechanism which allows a redundant robot to efficiently and actively learn its inverse kinematics. The main idea is to push the robot to perform babbling in the goal/operational space, as opposed to motor babbling in the actuator space, by self-generating goals actively and adaptively in regions of the goal space which provide a maximal competence improvement for reaching those goals. Then, a lower level active motor learning algorithm, inspired by the SSA algorithm, is used to allow the robot to locally explore how to reach a given self-generated goal. We present simulated experiments in a 32 dimensional continuous sensorimotor space showing that 1) exploration in the goal space can be a lot faster than exploration in the actuator space for learning the inverse kinematics of a redundant robot; 2) selecting goals based on the maximal improvement heuristics is statistically significantly more efficient than selecting goals randomly.
An evaluation of the effectiveness of performance management systems on service delivery in the Zimbabwean civil service

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the Results Based Management system in improving service delivery in the Zimbabwean civil service. The study was carried out from January 2013 to April 2013, in four Ministries. The methodology employed document analysis, open-ended questions and face to face interviews. The study found that the performance management system was fraught with challenges due to its complexity and non-adherence to its tenets by the employer. Documentary evidence showed that performance related awards had not been effected since 2007 due to financial constraints and nonsubmission of employees’ final ratings to the Civil Service Commission for payment purposes. For a few ministries which got performance related salary increases, it was found that these were applied arbitrarily. Advancements and promotions were not tied to performance. Most respondents indicated that performance appraisals were hurriedly done at the end of each year so as to fulfill the Civil Service Commission’s performance requirements. It was therefore, concluded that the current performance management system was not enhancing the provision of quality service in the civil service because employees did not see any merit in its application. The recommendations were that the system needed to be simplified and employees needed to be thoroughly trained. It was concluded that the employer should adhere to the tenets of the performance management system so as to make it effective.
Determinants of Food Insecurity in Huntsville, Alabama, Metropolitan Area

This paper attempts to examine the food insecurity situation and identify the determinants of food insecurity in the Huntsville, Alabama, metropolitan statistical area. The primary data source was the household food security and socioeconomic survey administered to 700 households in August and September 2016. The main tools of analysis include descriptive statistics and a tobit regression model. The tobit model result revealed that household income; age, gender, and education of household head; and presence of children in the household were significant determinants of food insecurity in the study area.
Creatine kinase is physically associated with the cardiac ATP‐sensitive k+ channel in vivo

Cardiac sarcolemmal ATP‐sensitive K+ (KATP) channels, composed of Kir6.2 and SUR2A subunits, couple the metabolic status of cells with the membrane excitability. Based on previous functional studies, we have hypothesized that creatine kinase (CK) may be a part of the sarcolemmal KATP channel protein complex. The inside‐out and whole cell patch clamp electrophysiology applied on guinea pig cardiomyocytes showed that substrates of CK regulate KATP channels activity. Following immunoprecipitation of guinea‐pig cardiac membrane fraction with the anti‐SUR2 antibody, Coomassie blue staining revealed, besides Kir6.2 and SUR2A, a polypeptide at ~48 kDa. Western blotting analysis confirmed the nature of putative Kir6.2 and SUR2A, whereas matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry analysis identified p48 kDa as a muscle form of CK. In addition, the CK activity was found in the anti‐SUR2A immunoprecipitate and the cross reactivity between an anti‐CK antibody and the anti‐SUR2A immunoprecipitate was observed as well as vice verse. Further results obtained at the level of recombinant channel subunits demonstrated that CK is directly physically associated with the SUR2A, but not the Kir6.2, subunit. All together, these results suggest that the CK is associated with SUR2A subunit in vivo, which is an integral part of the sarcolemmal KATP channel protein complex.
The Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ) in a sample of Irish problem drinkers.

Summary Validation of the Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SADQ) was attempted in a sample of 102 Irish problem drinkers. Analysis of questionnaire responses showed reasonable accord with the findings of the designers of the SADQ, suggesting that the questionnaire is a useful and valid instrument for the investigation of alcoholics. The findings gave qualified support for the concept of the alcohol dependence syndrome. Maximum agreement with a findings gave qualified support for the concept of the alcohol dependence syndrome. Maximum agreement with a clinician's rating of moderate and severe dependence was achieved at a cut-off score of 30 on the SADQ. Results also suggested it might be possible to use the SADQ to distinguish between minimal and mild to moderate dependence.
Pain, kinesiophobia and quality of life in chronic low back pain and depression

OBJECTIVE: To describe the characteristics of pain, kinesiophobia and quality of life in patients with chronic low back pain and depression. METHODS: Cross-sectional study in which 193 individuals with chronic low back pain were included. The presence of depression was measured by the Beck Depression Inventory, using a cutoff validated by the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview. The intensity and quality of pain in the groups with and without depression were assessed by the McGill Questionnaire. The Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia was applied to assess fear of movement. With respect to quality of life, the Medical Outcomes Study 36 was used. The statistical significance level was set at p <0.05. RESULTS: The prevalence of depression was 32.1%. The group with depression had worse scores in relation to pain, kinesiophobia and quality of life (physical functioning, rolephysical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health. CONCLUSION: Patients with low back pain and depression had higher pain intensity, greater fear of movement and poorer quality of life. Level of Evidence III, Cross-sectional
Palpebral position interdependence in blepharoptosis: comparison of the effect of instillation of 10% phenylephrine drop and digital lifting.

PURPOSE To quantify and compare the effects of instillation with 10% phenylephrine and digital lifting on the contralateral upper eyelid of patients with involutional bilateral blepharoptosis. METHODS The present prospective clinical study involved patients with involutional bilateral blepharoptosis who underwent two tests: 1) digital lifting of the more ptotic eyelid and observation of the effect on the contralateral eyelid and 2) instillation of two drops of 10% phenylephrine in the more ptotic eye and observation of the effect on the contralateral eyelid. Patients were filmed before and 5, 10, and 15 min after instillation, and the resulting images were analyzed to obtain eyelid measurements. The results were tested using a linear mixed-effects model. RESULTS A total of 27 patients, ranging from 52 to 82 years of age (mean age 68.51 ± 8.21 years), 24 (88.88%) of whom were women, were included in the present study. In eyes that received instillation, the marginal distance reflex-1 (MDR1) values increased from baseline (1.21 ± 0.60 mm) until 10 min after instillation, then remained statistically unchanged until 15 min after instillation (2.42 ± 0.90 mm). Significant differences were observed in the contralateral eye of the group that underwent digital lifting (1.51 ± 0.53 mm - 1.63 ± 0.56 mm) and in the contralateral eye of the group that underwent 10% phenylephrine instillation (1.38 ± 0.54 mm - 1.63 ± 0.56 mm); p=0.02 and p<0.01, respectively. CONCLUSION In all eyes, 10% phenylephrine elevated the upper eyelid, with improved eyelid height at 10 min after instillation. Significant differences were observed in the height of the contralateral eyelid when compared before and after each intervention in each group; however, this difference was very small and nearly undetectable by conventional clinical evaluation in the digital lifting group. However, the 10% phenylephrine eye-drop test resulted in substantial changes in MDR1 values in the treated and contralateral eyes, indicating clinical and statistical efficiency.
Layered approach for intrusion detection using naïve Bayes classifier

Intrusion detection is the process of monitoring and analyzing the events occurring in a computer system in order to detect signs of security problems. In real world environment, the minority intrusion attacks namely R2L and U2R/Data attacks are more dangerous than the majority attacks like Probe and DoS. The present day standalone intrusion detection systems are not effective in detecting the minority attacks. Hence, it is essential to improve the detection performance for the minority intrusions, while maintaining a reasonable overall detection rate. In this paper we propose layered approach for improving the minority attack detection rate without hurting the prediction performance of the majority attacks. The proposed model used Naive Bayes classifier on reduced dataset for each attack class. In this system every layer is separately trained to detect a single type of attack category.
Association of microRNA-499 rs3746444 Polymorphism with Cancer Risk: Evidence from 7188 Cases and 8548 Controls

Background Owing to inconsistent and inconclusive results, we performed a meta-analysis to derive a more precise estimation of the association between miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphism and cancer risk. Methodology/Principal Findings A systematic search of the Pubmed, Excerpta Medica Database (Embase) and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) databases was performed with the last search updated on May 6, 2012. The odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were used to assess the strength of the association. A total of 15 independent studies including 7,188 cases and 8,548 controls were used in the meta-analysis. In the present meta-analysis, we found a significant association between miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphism and cancer risk in the overall analysis (G versus A: OR = 1.10, 95%CI 1.01–1.19, P = 0.03; GG+AG versus AA: OR = 1.15, 95%CI 1.02–1.30, P = 0.02; GG versus AG+AA: OR = 1.07, 95%CI 0.89–1.28, P = 0.50; GG versus AA: OR = 1.13, 95%CI 0.98–1.31, P = 0.09; AG versus AA: OR = 1.16, 95%CI 1.02–1.33, P = 0.03). In the subgroup analysis by ethnicity, miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphism was significantly associated with cancer risk in Asian population. In the subgroup analysis by cancer types, miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphism was significantly associated with breast cancer. Conclusions/Significance This meta-analysis suggests a significant association between miR-499 rs3746444 polymorphism and cancer risk. Large-scale and well-designed case-control studies are necessary to validate the risk identified in the present meta-analysis.
Role of transforming growth factor β-connective tissue growth factor pathway in dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers-induced gingival overgrowth.

BACKGROUND Gingival overgrowth was reported as a side effect after chronic administration of several drugs, which, despite their different pharmacological effect, seem to have the gingival mucosa as a secondary target. The thickness of the gingival epithelium and fibrosis in the lamina propria are unspecific changes that together determine the enlargement of the gingival mucosa, but the molecular mechanisms responsible for the imbalance of collagen synthesis/breakdown are still uncertain. The aim of our study was to assess the role of TGF-β1-CTGF pathway in the activation of cells with a fibrilogenetic phenotype responsible for the gingival fibrosis developed after chronic administration of dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fragments of gingival tissue collected from patients clinically diagnosed with gingival overgrowth after chronic administration of nifedipine and amlodipine were processed for paraffin embedding. Serial sections were used for routine staining Masson and Gömöri's silver impregnation in order to reveal collagen accumulation and for immunohistochemical reactions to label TGF-β1, CTGF, Ki67 and α-SMA. RESULTS Routine histological staining for collagen revealed the presence of gingival fibrosis and a change between type I collagen/type III collagen ratio. Regardless of the drug involved, many slides showed extended TGF-β1 positive areas, mainly in the profound - spinous and basal - layers, but also in some cells from the subjacent connective tissue. CTGF exposed intense positive reaction in the basal and parabasal layers, but also in resident cells from the connective tissue. Ki67 immunolabeling did not reveal an increased fibroblast proliferation in the lamina propria. We noticed the presence of a small number of myofibroblasts in the lamina propria. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that TGF-β1-CTGF axis is activated in dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers-induced gingival overgrowth and exerts a different control on the activation of fibroblasts with a synthetic phenotype. These results also have implications for better understanding mechanisms of fibrosis and the future use of this pathogenic pathway as a therapeutic target in order to limit gingival fibrosis.
Declarative programming over eventually consistent data stores

User-facing online services utilize geo-distributed data stores to minimize latency and tolerate partial failures, with the intention of providing a fast, always-on experience. However, geo-distribution does not come for free; application developers have to contend with weak consistency behaviors, and the lack of abstractions to composably construct high-level replicated data types, necessitating the need for complex application logic and invariably exposing inconsistencies to the user. Some commercial distributed data stores and several academic proposals provide a lattice of consistency levels, with stronger consistency guarantees incurring increased latency and throughput costs. However, correctly assigning the right consistency level for an operation requires subtle reasoning and is often an error-prone task. In this paper, we present QUELEA, a declarative programming model for eventually consistent data stores (ECDS), equipped with a contract language, capable of specifying fine-grained application - level consistency properties. A contract enforcement system analyses contracts, and automatically generates the appropriate consistency protocol for the method protected by the contract. We describe an implementation of QUELEA on top of an off-the-shelf ECDS that provides support for coordination-free transactions. Several benchmarks including two large web applications, illustrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Adaptive real-time image smoothing using local binary patterns and Gaussian filters

Image smoothing is widely used for enhancing the quality of single images or videos. There is a large amount of application areas such as machine vision, entertainment industry with smart TVs or consumer cameras, or surveillance and reconnaissance with different imaging sensors. In many cases it is not easy to find the trade-off between high smoothing quality and fast processing time. However, this is necessary for the mentioned applications as they are dependent on real-time computing. In this paper, we aim to find a good trade-off. Local texture is analyzed with Local Binary Patterns (LBPs) which are used to adapt the size of a Gaussian smoothing kernel for each pixel. Real-time requirements are met by the implementation on a Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). An image of 512 × 512 pixels is processed in 2.6 ms.
The Concept of the Ventral Striatum in Nonhuman Primates

ABSTRACT: The concept of the ventral striatum was first put forth by Heimer and Wilson to describe the extension of basal ganglia elements into the olfactory tubercle. The ventral striatum includes the conventional nucleus accumbens, which has been closely associated with reward and motivation. This paper uses the afferent connections to the ventral striatum to define this region in monkeys. Furthermore the shell and core subterritories are discussed with respect to their histochemistry and specific connections.
Photoinduced removal of nifedipine reveals mechanisms of calcium antagonist action on single heart cells

The currents through voltage-activated calcium channels in heart cell membranes are suppressed by dihydropyridine calcium antagonists such as nifedipine. Nifedipine is photolabile, and the reduction of current amplitude by this drug can be reversed within a few milliseconds after a 1-ms light flash. The blockade by nifedipine and its removal by flashes were studied in isolated myocytes from neonatal rat heart using the whole-cell clamp method. The results suggest that nifedipine interacts with closed, open, and inactivated calcium channels. It is likely that at the normal resting potential of cardiac cells, the suppression of current amplitude arises because nifedipine binds to and stabilizes channels in the resting, closed state. Inhibition is enhanced at depolarized membrane potentials, where interaction with inactivated channels may also become important. Additional block of open channels is suggested when currents are carried by Ba2+ but is not indicated with Ca2+ currents. Numerical simulations reproduce the experimental observations with molecular dissociation constants on the order of 10(-7) M for closed and open channels and 10(-8) M for inactivated channels.
Effects of Saffron (Crocus sativus L.) Stigma Extract and its Active Constituent Crocin on Neuropathic Pain Responses in a Rat Model of Chronic Constriction Injury

This study was designed to investigate the therapeutic effects of saffron (Crocus sativus L.) and its main constituent crocin on neuropathic pain behavioral responses induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI) in rats. Adult male Wistar rats (200 to 250 g) were randomly assigned into 5 groups: Sham + saline, CCI + saline, CCI+ saffron (30 mg/kg), CCI + crocin (15 mg/kg) and CCI + crocin (30 mg/kg). CCI was induced by applying 4 loose ligatures around the sciatic nerve. Two weeks after nerve lesion, injections of saline, saffron or crocin were started and continued until 26th day post-surgery. Pain behavioral responses including mechanical allodynia (von Frey filament testing) and thermal hyperalgesia were measured in 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, and 40th days after CCI. CCI significantly increased pain behavioral responses. Saffron and crocin (30 mg/kg) decreased thermal hyperalgesia and mechanical allodynia on day 26, and this effect continued until the day 40. Crocin at lower dose (15 mg/kg) was ineffective. These findings indicate that treatment of saffron and crocin after CCI may have a therapeutic effect against neuropathic pain, suggesting that these substances may offer new strategies for the treatment of this highly debilitating condition.