Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Dedicated Mixture Model for Clustering Smart Meter Data: Identification and Analysis of Electricity Consumption Behaviors

The large amount of data collected by smart meters is a valuable resource that can be used to better understand consumer behavior and optimize electricity consumption in cities. This paper presents an unsupervised classification approach for extracting typical consumption patterns from data generated by smart electric meters. The proposed approach is based on a constrained Gaussian mixture model whose parameters vary according to the day type (weekday, Saturday or Sunday). The proposed methodology is applied to a real dataset of Irish households collected by smart meters over one year. For each cluster, the model provides three consumption profiles that depend on the day type. In the first instance, the model is applied on the electricity consumption of users during one month to extract groups of consumers who exhibit similar consumption behaviors. The clustering results are then crossed with contextual variables available for the households to show the close links between electricity consumption and household socio-economic characteristics. At the second instance, the evolution of the consumer behavior from one month to another is assessed through variations of cluster sizes over time. The results show that the consumer behavior evolves over time depending on the contextual variables such as temperature fluctuations and calendar events.
Chemical compositions of the essential oils of the aerial parts of Chamaemelum mixtum (L.) Alloni.

The chemical compositions of the aerial parts essential oils of Chamaemelum mixtum (L.) Alloni from Corsica and Sardinia were investigated employing gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The structure of (Z)-heptadeca-9,16-dien-7-one, a natural compound not previously described, was elucidated by GC-MS (electron impact and chemical ionization) and one-dimensional and two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The variation in C. mixtum essential oil was studied, and statistical analysis showed the clustering of oil samples into three groups according to the amount of oxygenated compounds; these groups correlated to the harvest area. The strong biological activity of the oxygenated fraction (minimum inhibitory concentration of <0.1 mg/mL) of the Corsican oil against Candida albicans , Citrobacter frendii , Enterococcus faecalis , Escherichia coli , Klebsiella pneumoniae , Listeria monocytogenes , and Staphyllococcus aureus can be attributed to the presence of irregular monoterpene alcohols and (Z)-heptadeca-9,16-dien-7-one.
Factors associated with health-related quality of life among patients with liver cirrhosis in Egypt.

BACKGROUND Although the disease burden of liver cirrhosis in Egypt is high and there are few resources for its management, there is limited research on the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of Egyptian patients with liver cirrhosis. AIMS To describe the HRQOL of liver cirrhotic patients in Egypt and to analyse factors associated with this construct. PATIENTS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study with a convenience sample of 401 patients from three hospitals in Cairo, Egypt, was carried out in June-August 2011. Patients were interviewed to complete a background data form, Short Form-36, the Liver Disease Symptom Index-2.0 and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. RESULTS Patients had low HRQOL, with mental health perceived to be poorer than physical health. In regression analyses, severity of symptoms, disease stage, comorbidities and employment status were associated significantly with physical health, accounting for 19% of the variance. For mental health, 31.7% of the variation was explained by severity of symptoms, employment status and perceived spouse and family support. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS These findings highlight the needs of patients with liver cirrhosis in Egypt. Engaging the patients' family in care planning may decrease patients' burden and improve their HRQOL. This study also provides a rationale to develop future research in symptom management to enhance HRQOL.
Disclosure among HIV-positive women: the role of HIV/AIDS support groups in rural Kenya

Disclosure by people living with HIV or AIDS is critical for HIV prevention and care. However, many women choose not to disclose their HIV status for fear of negative outcomes, such as blame and rejection. The World Health Organization suggests that HIV/AIDS support groups help to encourage women to disclose their status, but little is known about the role of such groups in Kenya. This study used qualitative research methods to gain insight into rural women's experience of disclosing a positive HIV status and it explores opinions about the role of support groups in relation to disclosure. Focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews were conducted with HIV/AIDS support group members and leaders. Thematic analysis showed that the women felt a sense of duty to inform others of their HIV status, particularly in order to prevent HIV transmission and to encourage sexual partners to be tested. There were multiple problems associated with disclosure, and negative outcomes such as blame and rejection were common. Support groups gave the women confidence and provided emotional support, which may have assisted them with coping with the negative outcomes of disclosure. The findings demonstrate that such support may improve women's experience of HIV-status disclosure and possibly even promote disclosure. However, initiatives such as these must protect those who disclose and therefore should take into account the local cultural and economic context.
Mineral content, essential oil components and biological activity of two mentha species (M. piperita L., M. spicata L.)

The essential oil of mint species are widely used in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, growing throughout the world. Therefore, it is very important to know the chemical characteristics of the oil for economic use and enhanced performance of the end products. This study was carried out to determine mineral content, essential oil composition, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oil of Mentha piperita (L.) and M. spicata (L.) (Lamiaceae). Chemical compositions of hydro-distilled essential oils obtained from mint species leaves were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). For antimicrobial activity, the disc diffusion tests were carried out on E. coli line ATCC25922, P. aeroginosa line ATCC27853, S. aureus line 25923, S. pyogenes line ATCC19615 and C. albicans line ATCC10231, and the antioxidant activity was performed by using DPPH radical-scavenging method. It was determined that essential oil of M. piperita and M. spicata contains menthol and carvone as major components, respectively. Treatment of 5 �� l, 10 �� l 15 �� l and 20 �� l of the oil exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against S. pyogenes, S. aureus and C. albicans and E. coli, except P. aeruginosa. The antioxidant activity of essential oil of mint species lowered DPPH activity compared to ascorbic acid. The results demonstrated that mint species essential oil has clearly good antimicrobial activity against test organisms and acceptable antioxidant activity.
Automated Image-Based Detection of State of Construction Progress

Construction projects usually experience schedule and cost overruns. To avoid such dire consequences, it is imperative that construction progress be regularly monitored. This work presents an automated technique for the visual detection of construction progress in images, using machine learning and digital images. A cascade scheme is employed which is primarily based on the use of bag-of-visual-word and texture classification techniques. The method receives as input an image of an indoor under-construction partition, and it automatically classifies it based on its state of progress. The algorithm was observed to perform robustly at indoor sites, obtaining an average classification accuracy rate of 96%.
1 Association between Malnutrition and Hospital 2 Mortality and Duration of Intensive Care Unit 3 Admission in the Critically Ill : A Prospective 4 Cohort Study 5

There is limited evidence for the association between malnutrition and hospital mortality 18 as well as Intensive Care Unit length-of-stay (ICU-LOS) in critically ill patients. We aimed to 19 examine the aforementioned associations by conducting a prospective cohort study in an ICU of a 20 Singapore tertiary hospital. Between August 2015 and October 2016, all adult patients with ≥24 h of 21 ICU-LOS were included. The 7-point Subjective Global Assessment (7-point SGA) was used to 22 determine patients’ nutritional status within 48 h of ICU admission. Multivariate analyses were 23 conducted in two ways: 1) presence versus absence of malnutrition, and 2) dose-dependent 24 association for each 1-point decrease in the 7-point SGA. There were 439 patients of which 28.0% 25 were malnourished, and 29.6% died before hospital discharge. Malnutrition was associated with an 26 increased risk of hospital mortality [adjusted-RR 1.39 (95%CI: 1.10–1.76)], and this risk increased 27 with a greater degree of malnutrition [adjusted-RR 1.09 (95%CI: 1.01–1.18) for each 1-point 28 decrease in the 7-point SGA]. No significant association was found between malnutrition and 29 ICU-LOS. Conclusion: There was a clear association between malnutrition and higher hospital 30 mortality in critically ill patients. The association between malnutrition and ICU-LOS could not be 31 replicated and hence requires further evaluation. 32
Morphogenesis of an Epithelial Organ: Budding and Relocation of the Thyroid Gland during Vertebrate Embryonic Development

During early embryonic development, a common body plan is established in all vertebrates. Subsequently, complex morphogenetic programmes together with tissue growth dominate further foetal development, and differences in these morphogenetic processes result in anatomical variations between species. Our current view is dominated by the discovery that many morphogenetic processes are based on conserved molecular mechanisms. However, plasticity of such conserved molecular mechanisms has the potential to create morphological diversity between different species. Morphogenesis of the vertebrate thyroid gland is unique in that the primordium relocalises from its site of origin, the epithelium of the primitive pharynx, to a final position in the anterior neck region in amniotes or to a similar area ventral to the pharynx in fishes, respectively. Comparison between species reveals naturally occurring variation of primordial relocation, and in position and shape of the mature gland. This review gives an overview about functional studies in different model species that provide insight into the molecular mechanisms required for thyroid relocation. Based on these data and comparative studies, I present a model that could explain species-specific variation of thyroid position and shape. Furthermore, I refer to congenital defects in humans that can be related to abnormalities in thyroid relocation.
Prognostic value of heart rate in cardiovascular disease.

Background Those animals that live longer tend to have slower heart rates (HR). Several plausible theories suggest that this may not be a chance association but that the slower heart rate may have a causal relationship to longer life. Accordingly, a large number of cohort studies in the past years have tried to establish whether HR measurement may portend significant prognostic implications in apparently healthy subjects or even in cardiac patients.
Who is the 40-year-old virgin and where did he/she come from? Data from the National Survey of Family Growth.

INTRODUCTION Little is known about young and middle aged adults who have never engaged in sexual intercourse. Individuals who have not engaged in sexual activity may theoretically have diminished overall quality of life, as recent evidence suggests that sexual activity may be related to overall health status in adults. AIM We sought to identify factors related to sexual abstinence in young and middle-aged adults. METHODS We analyzed data from the male and female sample of the 2002 National Survey of Family Growth to examine sexual abstinence among unmarried participants aged 25-45 (men: N = 2,469; women: N = 5,120). Main Outcome Measures. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was used to test for independent associations between demographic, medical, and anthropometric variables and abstinence while adjusting for confounding and mediating variables. RESULTS A total of 122 (13.9%) men aged 25-45 reported never having had sex, representing approximately 1.1 million American men in this age cohort. Among female participants, a total of 104 (8.9%) women aged 25-45 reported never having sex, representing approximately 800,000 American women in this age cohort. Both men and women who reported that they attend religious services one or more times per week were more likely to be sexually abstinent, independent of their specific religious beliefs. Virgin status was also significantly associated with drinking alcohol within the past year. While a college degree in women predicted virginity, education was not associated with virginity in men. Men showed lower rates of sexual abstinence if they reported having spent time in prison or serving in the military. CONCLUSIONS Amongst young adults, sexual abstinence does not appear to be mediated by health status, anthropometric measures, or age. Attending religious services and avoidance of alcohol consumption are associated with virginity in adults. Other factors associated with abstinence differ between genders and merit further study.
Effect of vitamin E on production performance and egg quality traits in Indian native Kadaknath hen.

This experiment investigated the effects of increasing dietary vitamin E (VE) on production performance and egg quality traits of Indian reared Kadaknath (KN) hens. One hundred and eighty (180), day old female KN chicks were randomly distributed to three dietary treatment groups for a period of 30 weeks. Each treatment comprised three replicates, each containing 20 chicks. The basal diet () contained 15 IU VE/kg and the two experimental diets were supplemented with 150 and 300 IU VE/kg (diets and , respectively). DL--tocopherol acetate was used as the source of VE. All chicks were provided feed and water ad libitum. Production performance in terms of body weight, egg weight and hatchability did not differ significantly (p>0.05), whereas sexual maturity, egg production and fertility differed significantly (p compared to the other two groups. Egg quality traits in terms of albumin weight, yolk weight, shell thickness, albumin index and yolk index did not differ significantly (p>0.05), whereas the Haugh unit score was significantly higher (p than the control () and high dose treatment group (). From this study, it can be concluded that lower levels of dietary VE may be beneficial for production performance and Haugh unit score but have no effect on egg quality traits in Indian reared KN hens.
Utilization of fine‐needle aspiration cytology and flow cytometry in the diagnosis and subclassification of primary and recurrent lymphoma

The primary diagnosis of non‐Hodgkin's lymphoma/leukemia (NHL) by fine‐needle aspiration (FNA) is controversial. The authors reviewed their experience with FNA and flow cytometry (FC) to determine the usefulness and limitations of these techniques in the diagnosis of NHL.
Prediction of subjective ratings of emotional pictures by EEG features

Objective. Emotion dysregulation is an important aspect of many psychiatric disorders. Brain–computer interface (BCI) technology could be a powerful new approach to facilitating therapeutic self-regulation of emotions. One possible BCI method would be to provide stimulus-specific feedback based on subject-specific electroencephalographic (EEG) responses to emotion-eliciting stimuli. Approach. To assess the feasibility of this approach, we studied the relationships between emotional valence/arousal and three EEG features: amplitude of alpha activity over frontal cortex; amplitude of theta activity over frontal midline cortex; and the late positive potential over central and posterior mid-line areas. For each feature, we evaluated its ability to predict emotional valence/arousal on both an individual and a group basis. Twenty healthy participants (9 men, 11 women; ages 22–68) rated each of 192 pictures from the IAPS collection in terms of valence and arousal twice (96 pictures on each of 4 d over 2 weeks). EEG was collected simultaneously and used to develop models based on canonical correlation to predict subject-specific single-trial ratings. Separate models were evaluated for the three EEG features: frontal alpha activity; frontal midline theta; and the late positive potential. In each case, these features were used to simultaneously predict both the normed ratings and the subject-specific ratings. Main results. Models using each of the three EEG features with data from individual subjects were generally successful at predicting subjective ratings on training data, but generalization to test data was less successful. Sparse models performed better than models without regularization. Significance. The results suggest that the frontal midline theta is a better candidate than frontal alpha activity or the late positive potential for use in a BCI-based paradigm designed to modify emotional reactions.
Varied Approaches to Tuberculosis Control in a Multihospital System

Abstract Objectives: To document the actual tuberculosis (TB) control policies and procedures in a nonoutbreak setting in a variety of hospitals. To determine if any particular practices are linked to higher rates of employee tuberculin skin-test conversion. Design: Survey of hospital occupational health and infection control practitioners for the year 1994 regarding hospital TB policies. Review of hospital records to verify the number of patients with TB at each hospital and to verify the number of employees with positive tuberculin skin tests. Smoke-stick testing of negative-pressure ventilation rooms. Setting: A 13-hospital health system in the Midwest. Results: Hospitals ranged in size from 40 to 1,208 beds (median 220) and employed 150 to 6,500 workers (median 875). There were seven rural and six urban centers, including four teaching hospitals. All 13 hospitals had TB control plans, and all performed annual tuberculin skin testing on employees. Annual skin-test positivity rates ranged from 0% to 1.0% (median 0.3%). Negative-pressure ventilation rooms were available in 11 hospitals. The percentage of negative-pressure rooms with effective negative pressure ranged from 44% to 100% (median 95%). Three of the 13 hospitals used high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) masks as primary personal respiratory protection, and 8 used dust-mist or dust-mist-fume masks. We found no relation between the type of face mask used, number of functional negative-pressure rooms, or hospital TB risk category, and employee skin-test conversion rates. Conclusions: Considerable variation existed in the TB control policies and procedures between hospitals, but employee TB skin-test conversion rates were low in all settings.
Concentration, working speed and memory: Cognitive problems in young childhood cancer survivors and their siblings

Cognitive problems can have a negative effect on a person's education, but little is known about cognitive problems in young childhood cancer survivors (survivors). This study compared cognitive problems between survivors and their siblings, determined if cognitive problems decreased during recent treatment periods and identified characteristics associated with the presence of a cognitive problem in survivors.
Strontium ranelate for preventing and treating postmenopausal osteoporosis.

BACKGROUND Strontium ranelate is a new treatment for osteoporosis therefore, its benefits and harms need to be known. OBJECTIVES To determine the efficacy and safety of strontium ranelate for the treatment and prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched MEDLINE (1996 to March 2005), EMBASE (1996 to week 9 2005), the Cochrane Library (1996 to Issue 1 2005), reference lists of relevant articles and conference proceedings from the last two years. Additional data was sought from authors. SELECTION CRITERIA We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of at least one year duration comparing strontium ranelate versus placebo reporting fracture incidence, bone mineral density (BMD), health related quality of life or safety in postmenopausal women. Treatment (versus prevention) population was defined as women with prevalent vertebral fractures and/or lumbar spine BMD T score < -2.5 SD. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two reviewers independently determined study eligibility, assessed trial quality and extracted the relevant data. Disagreements were resolved by consensus. RCTs were grouped by dose of strontium ranelate and treatment duration. Where possible, meta-analysis was conducted using the random effects model. MAIN RESULTS Four trials met the inclusion criteria. Three included a treatment population (0.5 to 2 g of strontium ranelate daily) and one a prevention population (0.125 g, 0.5 g and 1 g daily). A 37% reduction in vertebral fractures (RR 0.63, 95% CI 0.56, 0.71) and a 14% reduction in non-vertebral fractures (RR 0.86, 95% CI 0.75, 0.98) were demonstrated over three years with 2 g of strontium ranelate daily in a treatment population. An increase in BMD was shown at all BMD sites after two to three years in both populations. Lower doses of strontium ranelate were superior to placebo and the highest dose demonstrated the greatest reduction in vertebral fractures and increase in BMD. An increased risk of diarrhea with 2 g of strontium ranelate was found; however, adverse events did not affect the risk of discontinuing treatment nor did it increase the risk of serious side effects, gastritis or death. Additional data suggests that the risk of vascular and nervous system side-effects is slightly increased with taking 2 g of strontium ranelate daily over three to four years. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS There is silver level evidence (www.cochranemsk.org) to support the efficacy of strontium ranelate for the reduction of fractures (vertebral and to a lesser extent non-vertebral) in postmenopausal osteoporotic women and an increase in BMD in postmenopausal women with/without osteoporosis. Diarrhea may occur however, adverse events leading to study withdrawal were not significantly increased with taking 2 g of strontium ranelate daily. Potential vascular and neurological side-effects need to be further explored.
Retrograde transport of a traditional Chinese medicine, α-trichosanthin, and its selective neural toxicity

Objective. To investigate the peripheral neuronal toxicity of a traditional Chinese medicine, α-trichosanthin (TCS). Methods. TCS and rhodamine-conjugated TCS were separately injected into the rat sciatic nerve. Saline and rhodamine were used alone and separately as control solutions. The motor neurons in the spinal cord and sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia were separately counted. The entry of TCS molecules into neurons was observed under the fluorescence microscope. The glial reactions were studied by lectin staining and immunohistochemical method. The muscles innervated by the sciatic nerve and distal to the injection sites, and the nerves proximal to the injection sites were also collected and examined. Results. TCS was taken up and transported by peripheral axons, and at a dose of 1 nmol, killed more than 90% of the motor neurons in 5 days, but only one-third of the sensory neurons of the injected nerve. The loss of neurons was permanent, while the increase of glial activities was mild and transient. Conclusion. TCS is retrogradely transported by axons of the injected nerve. TCS shows a selective neurotoxicity on different types of neurons. Hence TCS is useful in producing neural lesion in research, and this use may also be of applicational value in treating chronic spasticity, hyperalgesia, and pain.