Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Statistical analysis of diagnostic indicators during an accelerated ageing experiment for XLPE cable specimens

An accelerated ageing experiment has been performed, in order to age XLPE cable samples in a wet environment to advanced levels of water tree degradation. During this accelerated ageing experiment, semi-periodic measurements were performed using high voltage Frequency Domain Spectroscopy (FDS). This paper presents the rigorous statistical analysis that was performed on these populations of measurements. Various diagnostic indicators will be compared and assessed with respect to their correlation with the duration of the ageing time. In addition to this, the effect of environmental variables, such as humidity, will also be analysed using linear regression techniques. It will be shown that certain diagnostic indicators perform better than others at following the expected positive relationship with the time of accelerated ageing. It will also be shown that the humidity plays an important role in the low frequency dielectric response, even in the presence of a guard terminal, and therefore will show the need of taking such effects into account when analysing data. Comments will also be made about the level of fluctuation of the dielectric response encountered within the sample set.
Eisenmenger's syndrome in pregnancy: maternal and fetal mortality in the 1990s

To determine maternal and fetal mortality associated with Eisenmenger's syndrome in the UK, a postal questionnaire was sent to 225 NHS obstetric units with neonatal intensive care units, requesting information about maternal and fetal outcome in cases of Eisenmenger's Syndrome between 1991 and 1995. Fifteen cases were identified. The maternal mortality was 40% and fetal loss 8%. Only 15% of infants were born at term. Maternal mortality associated with Eisenmenger's syndrome remains as high as it has been for the past 50 years. Pooling of national data on rare medical conditions in pregnancy is required to aid management of individual cases.
Endemicity of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-baumannii Complex in an Intensive Care Unit in Malaysia

Introduction. Acinetobacter calcoaceticus-baumannii complex (ACB complex) is a leading opportunistic pathogen in intensive care units (ICUs). Effective control of spread requires understanding of its epidemiological relatedness. This study aims to determine the genetic relatedness and antibiotic susceptibilities of ACB complex in an ICU in Malaysia. Methodology. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), E-test, and disk diffusion were used for isolates characterization. Results. During the study period (December 2011 to June 2012), 1023 patients were admitted to the ICU and 44 ACB complex (blood, n = 21, and blind bronchial aspirates, n = 23) were recovered from 38 ICU patients. Six isolates were from non-ICU patients. Of the 44 ICU isolates, 88.6% exhibited multidrug-resistant (MDR) patterns. There was high degree of resistance, with minimum inhibitory concentration90 (MIC90) of >32 μg/mL for carbapenems and ≥256 μg/mL for amikacin, ampicillin/sulbactam, and cefoperazone/sulbactam. Isolates from the main PFGE cluster were highly resistant. There was evidence of dissemination in non-ICU wards. Conclusion. High number of clonally related MDR ACB complex was found. While the ICU is a likely reservoir facilitating transmission, importation from other wards may be important contributor. Early identification of strain relatedness and implementation of infection control measures are necessary to prevent further spread.
Motivational interviewing to improve weight loss in overweight and/or obese patients: a systematic review and meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials

Motivational interviewing, a directive, patient‐centred counselling approach focused on exploring and resolving ambivalence, has emerged as an effective therapeutic approach within the addictions field. However, the effectiveness of motivational interviewing in weight‐loss interventions is unclear. Electronic databases were systematically searched for randomized controlled trials evaluating behaviour change interventions using motivational interviewing in overweight or obese adults. Standardized mean difference (SMD) for change in body mass, reported as either body mass index (BMI; kg m−2) or body weight (kg), was the primary outcome, with weighted mean difference (WMD) for change in body weight and BMI as secondary outcomes. The search strategy yielded 3540 citations and of the 101 potentially relevant studies, 12 met the inclusion criteria and 11 were included for meta‐analysis. Motivational interviewing was associated with a greater reduction in body mass compared to controls (SMD = −0.51 [95% CI −1.04, 0.01]). There was a significant reduction in body weight (kg) for those in the intervention group compared with those in the control group (WMD = −1.47 kg [95% CI −2.05, −0.88]). For the BMI outcome, the WMD was −0.25 kg m−2 (95% CI −0.50, 0.01). Motivational interviewing appears to enhance weight loss in overweight and obese patients.
Is a Nasopharyngeal Tube Effective as Interface to Provide Bi-Level Noninvasive Ventilation?

BACKGROUND: The nasopharyngeal tube (NT) is a potential interface for noninvasive ventilation (NIV) available in all health care centers. The aim of the study was to describe our experience in the use of the NT for bi-level NIV in infants and its effectiveness. METHODS: Prospective observational study from January 2007 to December 2010, including all patients ≤ 6 months old admitted to the pediatric ICU (PICU) and treated with NIV with two levels of pressure using the NT. Clinical data collected before starting NIV, and at 2, 8, 12 and 24 h, were analyzed following NIV initiation: first-line or initial NIV (i-NIV), elective postextubation NIV (e-NIV), and rescue postextubation NIV (r-NIV). The need for intubation was considered to be NIV failure. RESULTS: One hundred fifty-one episodes of NIV were included in the study, with 65% of patients having bronchiolitis. e-NIV was most frequently used (48%) (i-NIV 44%, r-NIV 8%), and the failure rate, 27% in total, was highest in the i-NIV group (37%) (e-NIV 18%, r-NIV 25%). Case patients with successful outcomes had shorter PICU stays (8.5 vs 13 d, P = .001) and hospital stays (17 vs 23 d, P = .03) stays. The NT needed to be changed for another interface in only 5 case patients, few complications (4 of 151 patients) were observed, and mortality (2 of 151 patients) was unrelated to NIV. CONCLUSIONS: Use of the NT showed 73% effectiveness, with few complications. The effectiveness was higher in e-NIV than i-NIV.
H1N1 vaccine acceptance among parents in Greece

The aim of this study was to assess the acceptance of H1N1 vaccination among parents in Greece. A sample of 850 parents participated in the present study. Interviews were performed using a structured questionnaire. The overall percentage of participants reporting that they had been administered the H1N1 vaccine was 0.35%. Only 1.18% of the respondents who had not been administered the vaccine were willing to accept it. A significant barrier to H1N1 vaccination is concern about vaccine safety.
Crossing the Clinical Chasm: From the Backpack to the Palm

Wake Area Health Education Center's RN Refresher program is designed to return RNs to practice. The purpose of this project was to focus on the use of the personal digital assistant (PDA) as a strategy to expedite the student's orientation to the clinical area. Nursing and library staff collaborated to research and purchase PDAs, along with clinical reference software, and provided these tools to RN Refresher students prior to the clinical practicum. Overall, students believed that the instruction was effective and were more comfortable with handheld computers. They also identified the most helpful software.
[Conjunctival ophthalmomyiasis caused by Oestrus ovis].

BACKGROUND Microbiologic diagnosis of conjunctival ophthalmomyiasis. MATERIAL AND METHODS Material extracted from three patients' conjunctiva who complained of sudden presence of foreign body and were diagnosed as conjunctival ophthalmomyiasis has been studied. Patients were recruited over two months from the Emergency Department. Diagnosis was performed through observation using the light microscope. RESULTS Oestrus ovis first-instance larvas were observed in all the samples studied. CONCLUSIONS This observation of similar cases in a short period of time and the low frequency of diseased people who lived in a urban environment makes necessary to think in this agent as cause of ophthalmomyiasis in our area and therefore perform an adequate differential diagnosis.
Multistep-Ahead Prediction of Rainfall Precipitation Using the NARX Network

In this paper, a recently proposed methodology for univariate time series prediction through the NARX network is applied to the problem of forecasting monthly rainfall precipitation in the city of Fortaleza, located at Brazil’s northeast coast. The proposed approach is compared with the classic Box-Jenkins (AR) model and other standard neural networks methods (FTDNN and Elman networks). Among these models, the obtained results indicates a better performance for the NARX network.
Surveillance in easy to access population subgroups as a tool for evaluating malaria control progress: A systematic review

Background The need for surveillance systems generating targeted, data-driven, responsive control efforts to accelerate and sustain malaria transmission reduction has been emphasized by programme managers, policy makers and scientists. Surveillance using easy-to-access population subgroups (EAGs) may result in considerable cost saving compared to household surveys as the identification and selection of individuals to be surveyed is simplified, fewer personnel are needed, and logistics are simpler. We reviewed available literature on the validation of estimates of key indicators of malaria control progress derived from EAGs, and describe the options to deal with the context specific bias that may occur. Methods A literature search was conducted of all documents reporting validation of estimates of malaria control indicators from EAG surveys before the 31st of December 2016. Additional records were identified through cross-reference from selected records, other applicable policy documents and grey literature. After removal of duplicates, 13, 180 abstracts were evaluated and 2,653 eligible abstracts were identified mentioning surveillance in EAGs, of which 29 full text articles were selected for detailed review. The nine articles selected for systematic review compared estimates from health facility and school surveys with those of a contemporaneous sample of the same population in the same geographic area. Results Review of the available literature on EAGs suitable for surveillance of malaria control progress revealed that little effort has been made to explore the potential approach and settings for use of EAGs; and that there was wide variation in the precision of estimates of control progress between and within studies, particularly for estimates of control intervention coverage. Only one of the studies evaluated the geospatial representativeness of EAG samples, or carried out geospatial analyses to assess or control for lack of geospatial representativeness. Two studies attempted to measure the degree of bias or improve the precision of estimates by controlling for bias in a multivariate analysis; and this was only successful in one study. The observed variability in accuracy of estimates is likely to be caused by selection and/or information bias due to the inherent nature of EAGs. The reviewed studies provided insight into the design and analytical approaches that could be used to limit bias. Conclusion The utility EAGs for routine surveillance of progress in malaria control at the district or sub-district programmatic level will be driven by several factors including whether serial point estimates to measure transmission reduction or more precise geospatial distribution to track ‘hot-spots’ is required, the acceptable degree of precision, the target population, and the resources available for surveillance. The opportunities offered by novel geostatistical analyses and hybrid sampling frames to overcome bias justify a renewed exploration of use of EAGs for malaria monitoring and evaluation.
The One Percent

The one percent, those at the top of the income and wealth distributions, are fundamental to understanding social and economic inequality and mobility, but sociologists rarely focus research attention on this group. This article presents updated evidence showing that both income and wealth are very highly concentrated in the United States but that the concentration of wealth, particularly financial wealth, is extremely high. We focus on the one percent of wealth owners and identify patterns in asset ownership, liabilities, and demographic traits that are relevant to sociological research. Findings show, for example, that those in the one percent have unique asset and debt portfolios that, to some extent, insulated them from the ill effects of the recent recession; however, patterns reported also highlight inheritance and suggest that mobility into the one percent is possible. The article concludes with suggestions for future research.
Electrophoretic Method For Edible Eggs Species Identification

The present paper describes a simple and efficient electrophoretic method to identify the species provenience of edible eggs in food products. The proteic pattern of egg yolk and egg white was described using polyacryl amide gel electrophoresis under denaturating conditions (PAGE-SDS) separately for the egg yolk and for the egg white proteins from five edible egg species, as follows: hen, goose, duck, turkey and quail. The molecular weight of each protein strip was calculated using a molecular weight standard curve. Separately, an electrophoretic protein pattern of all the mentioned samples was done using polyacryl amide gel electrophoresis under undenaturating conditions (native PAGE). The results show clearly distinct patterns in electrophoregrams resulted both in denaturating and undenaturating conditions for each species. These methods could be useful tools for egg species routine identification in various food industrial mixtures.
Experimental approaches to ancient near eastern archery

Abstract Replicas of ancient Near Eastern archery tackle can be used to investigate the performance of different types of bows. The velocity of projectiles from spear throwers, simple wooden bows and composite horn‐wood‐sinew bows shows a clear linear trend in increased efficiency. Mechanical properties of bow and arrow design and performance can be related to archaeological, art historical and textual sources for the use of archery in warfare.
Relationships of Age at Menarche and Menopause, and Reproductive Year with Mortality from Cardiovascular Disease in Japanese Postmenopausal Women: The JACC Study

BACKGROUND Early menopause is associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease in Caucasian women. However, this association has not been examined in Asian women. METHODS We conducted a 10-year cohort study of 37,965 Japanese post-menopausal women aged 40-79 years in the Japan Collaborative Cohort (JACC) Study. Causes of death were determined based on the International Classification of Disease. RESULTS There were 487 mortality of stroke and 178 mortality of coronary heart disease. Late menarche or early menopause, or shorter duration of reproductive period was not associated with risk of mortality from coronary heart disease. However, compared with women with age at menarche ≤13 years, those with age at menarche ≥17 years tended to have increased risk of mortality from stroke: the multivariable hazard ratio was 1.32 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.93-1.87, p = 0.10). Compared with women with age at menopause of ≥49 years, those with age at menopause of <49 years tended to have increased risk of coronary heart disease among women aged 40-64 years; the multivariable hazard ratio was 1.85 (95% CI: 0.92-3.73, p = 0.08). CONCLUSIONS The possible association between early menopause and coronary heart disease among middle-aged women was consistent with the result of observational studies for Caucasian women, and can be explained by a protective effect of endogenous estrogen on the development of atherosclerosis.
Eye-Hand Coordination in Rhythmical Pointing

The authors investigated the relation between hand kinematics and eye movements in 2 variants of a rhythmical Fitts's task in which eye movements were necessary or not necessary. P. M. Fitts's (1954) law held in both conditions with similar slope and marginal differences in hand-kinematic patterns and movement continuity. Movement continuity and eye—hand synchronization were more directly related to movement time than to task index of difficulty. When movement time was decreased to fewer than 350 ms, eye—hand synchronization switched from continuous monitoring to intermittent control. The 1:1 frequency ratio with stable π/6 relative phase changed for 1:3 and 1:5 frequency ratios with less stable phase relations. The authors conclude that eye and hand movements in a rhythmical Fitts's task are dynamically synchronized to produce the best behavioral performance.
Delineation of DNA replication time zones by fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Fluorescence in situ hybridization has been used to visualize specific genomic DNA sequences in interphase nuclei. In normal diploid cells, unreplicated DNA segments give singlet hybridization signals while replicated loci are characterized by doublets. The distribution of these two patterns in unsynchronized cell populations can be used to determine the S phase replication time of any DNA sequence. The validity of this approach was established by analyzing genes whose replication profiles in expressing and non‐expressing cells had been determined previously by conventional methods. Using this technique it has been possible to map the replication timing topography of the DNA within and flanking the cystic fibrosis (CF) gene locus on chromosome 7. The gene itself is located within a defined time zone which is approximately 500 kb in length and is under developmental control. It is early replicating in cells which express CF but late replicating in other cell types. These time zones probably represent basic units of chromosome structure.
Reversible photoswitching in fluorescent proteins: A mechanistic view

Phototransformable fluorescent proteins (FPs) have received considerable attention in recent years, because they enable many new exciting modalities in fluorescence microscopy and biotechnology. On illumination with proper actinic light, phototransformable FPs are amenable to long‐lived transitions between various fluorescent or nonfluorescent states, resulting in processes known as photoactivation, photoconversion, or photoswitching. Here, we review the subclass of photoswitchable FPs with a mechanistic perspective. These proteins offer the widest range of practical applications, including reversible high‐density data bio‐storage, photochromic FRET, and super‐resolution microscopy by either point‐scanning, structured illumination, or single molecule‐based wide‐field approaches. Photoswitching can be engineered to occur with high contrast in both Hydrozoan and Anthozoan FPs and typically results from a combination of chromophore cis‐trans isomerization and protonation change. However, other switching schemes based on, for example, chromophore hydration/dehydration have been discovered, and it seems clear that ever more performant variants will be developed in the future. © 2012 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 2012
Using the INTERMED complexity instrument for a retrospective analysis of patients presenting with medical illness, substance use disorder, and other psychiatric illnesses.

BACKGROUND The financial and treatment challenges of complex patients must be addressed with adequate assessment and evaluation. The INTERMED complexity instrument (INTERMED) has been developed for this purpose, but to date has not been used retrospectively. The current study represents a retrospective validity investigation of INTERMED with patients with substance use disorder comorbid with other psychiatric and medical conditions (triple diagnoses). Such patients were expected to generate high complexity scores on the INTERMED instrument. METHODS Information on 66 patients with triple diagnoses was submitted to the INTERMED complexity grid. These data were subjected to cluster analysis and other analytic procedures. RESULTS Total INTERMED scores reflected elevated complexity for patients with triple diagnoses. As a group, they represented a single cluster of complex patients. CONCLUSIONS The validity of the INTERMED complexity assessment was corroborated in relation to retrospective data. In addition to elevations in the biological domain that hospital personnel typically confront, findings related to coping deficiencies and problems in living conditions were noteworthy in requiring comprehensive interventions.
An Accurate Analytical Model for 802.11e EDCA under Different Traffic Conditions with Contention-Free Bursting

Extensive research addressing IEEE 802.11e enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA) performance analysis, by means of analytical models, exist in the literature. Unfortunately, the currently proposed models, even though numerous, do not reach this accuracy due to the great number of simplifications that have been done. Particularly, none of these models considers the 802.11e contention free burst (CFB) mode which allows a given station to transmit a burst of frames without contention during a given transmission opportunity limit (TXOPLimit) time interval. Despite its influence on the global performance, TXOPLimit is ignored in almost all existing models. To fill in this gap, we develop in this paper a new and complete analytical model that (i) reflects the correct functioning of EDCA, (ii) includes all the 802.11e EDCA differentiation parameters, (iii) takes into account all the features of the protocol, and (iv) can be applied to all network conditions, going from nonsaturation to saturation conditions. Additionally, this model is developed in order to be used in admission control procedure, so it was designed to have a low complexity and an acceptable response time. The proposed model is validated by means of both calculations and extensive simulations.
Quantitative methods for reconstructing tissue biomechanical properties in optical coherence elastography: a comparison study

We present a systematic analysis of the accuracy of five different methods for extracting the biomechanical properties of soft samples using optical coherence elastography (OCE). OCE is an emerging noninvasive technique, which allows assessment of biomechanical properties of tissues with micrometer spatial resolution. However, in order to accurately extract biomechanical properties from OCE measurements, application of a proper mechanical model is required. In this study, we utilize tissue-mimicking phantoms with controlled elastic properties and investigate the feasibilities of four available methods for reconstructing elasticity (Young’s modulus) based on OCE measurements of an air-pulse induced elastic wave. The approaches are based on the shear wave equation (SWE), the surface wave equation (SuWE), Rayleigh-Lamb frequency equation (RLFE), and finite element method (FEM), Elasticity values were compared with uniaxial mechanical testing. The results show that the RLFE and the FEM are more robust in quantitatively assessing elasticity than the other simplified models. This study provides a foundation and reference for reconstructing the biomechanical properties of tissues from OCE data, which is important for the further development of noninvasive elastography methods.