Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The changing epidemiology of GERD: geography and Helicobacter pylori

BACKGROUND:Issues have arisen regarding H. pylori infection and GERD that have caused unnecessary confusion among practicing physicians. In the last century GERD became increasingly recognized in the West and it has become evident that the prevalence of GERD is now occurring in many previously underdeveloped countries.METHODS:This review article fosters understanding of the issues by focusing on the esophageal acid load and the factors that control it. In particular, we discuss the effects of the change in the patterns of gastritis that have occurred naturally as well as after H. pylori eradication and correlate those changes with their effects on the esophageal acid load. We show how it is possible to separate gastroesophageal reflux from gastroesophageal reflux disease based on differences in esophageal acid load. We also describe how the practice of assessing gastroesophageal reflux based on the time the intraesophageal pH is less than 4 resulted in investigators systematically discarding data critical to understanding of the effect of their interventions on esophageal acid load. Testable hypotheses are presented to explain the interactions between H. pylori and GERD and between H. pylori and the changing epidemiology of GERD.CONCLUSIONS:We propose that the confusion regarding H. pylori and the changing epidemiology of GERD is based on the failure to critically examine the historical evidence in relation to the other H. pylori-related diseases as well as reliance on techniques that are either unable to measure, or systematically discard data critical for understanding effects of various interventions on the esophageal acid load. This has resulted in propagation of erroneous concepts regarding H. pylori and adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and has resulted in some patients being denied appropriate therapy.
Stellar Populations and the Star Formation Histories of LSB Galaxies—Part I: Optical and Hα Imaging

This paper presents optical and Hα imaging for a large sample of LSB galaxies selected from the PSS-II catalogs (Schombert et al., 1992). As noted in previous work, LSB galaxies span a range of luminosities (−10>𝑀𝑉>−20) and sizes (0.3kpc<𝑅𝑉25<10kpc), although they are consistent in their irregular morphology. Their Hα luminosities (L(Hα)) range from 1036 to 1041 ergs s−1 (corresponding to a range in star formation, using canonical prescriptions, from 10−5 to 1 𝑀⨀ yr−1). Although their optical colors are at the extreme blue edge for galaxies, they are similar to the colors of dwarf galaxies (Van Zee, 2001) and gas-rich irregulars (Hunter and Elmegreen, 2006). However, their star formation rates per unit stellar mass are a factor of ten less than other galaxies of the same baryonic mass, indicating that they are not simply quiescent versions of more active star-forming galaxies. This paper presents the data, reduction techniques, and new philosophy of data storage and presentation. Later papers in this series will explore the stellar population and star formation history of LSB galaxies using this dataset.
Proventricular-Ventricular Impaction in Ostrich (Struthio Camelus)

In this study from 58 of 4 month male and female ostrich with 3 pieces of dead ostrich during 24 hours and 8 ostrich with dangerous general conditions history of manufactured flock have gotten after prime survey about farm condition, lack of enough space, unsuitable availability to drinkers and feeders and most important, lack of suitable litter for breeding and increase of stress to birds were recorded. Clinical examination of the birds revealed anorexia, emaciation, decreased defecation, lislessness, separation from the flock and recumbence. Necropsy revealed edema, erosions and hemorrhagic ulcers in the stomach of the dead birds. Foreign bodies such as sand, stone; pieces of wood, glass and plastic diagnosed. Postmortem examination revealed accumulation of 1 literof serum fluid in abdominal cavity and 50ml of serosanguineous fluid in thoracic cavity. Medical treatment was initialed in 8 birds with laxative (70ml, q12h) and Psyllium (60ml, q12h); all of them recovered. Under stress factors, ostriches tend to eat foreign material; therefore, adequate housing, nutrition and care are crucial in prevention of stomach impaction.
Mouse CAF1 Can Function As a Processive Deadenylase/3′–5′-Exonuclease in Vitro but in Yeast the Deadenylase Function of CAF1 Is Not Required for mRNA Poly(A) Removal*

The mouse CAF1 (mCAF1) is an ortholog of the yeast (y) CAF1 protein, which is a component of the CCR4-NOT complex, the major cytoplasmic deadenylase of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although CAF1 protein belongs to the DEDDh family of RNases, CCR4 appears to be the principle deadenylase of the CCR4-NOT complex. Here, we present evidence that mCAF1 is a processive, 3′–5′-RNase with a preference for poly(A) substrates. Like CCR4, increased length of RNA substrates converted mCAF1 into a processive enzyme. In contrast to two other DEDD family members, PAN2 and PARN, mCAF1 was not activated either by PAB1 or capped RNA substrates. The rate of deadenylation in vitro by yCCR4 and mCAF1 were both strongly influenced by secondary structures present in sequences adjacent to the poly(A) tail, suggesting that the ability of both enzymes to deadenylate might be affected by the context of the mRNA 3′-untranslated region sequences. The ability of mCAF1 to complement a ycaf1 deletion in yeast, however, did not require the RNase function of mCAF1. Importantly, yCAF1 mutations, which have been shown to block its RNase activity in vitro, did not inactivate yCAF1 in vivo, and mRNAs were deadenylated in vivo at nearly the same rate as found for wild type yCAF1. These results indicate that at least in yeast the CAF1 RNase activity is not required for its in vivo function.
Effects of Land Titling on Child Health and Education

This project analyzes the impact of land titling on child health and education. The empirical evaluation of the effect of land property rights typically suffers from selection problems. The allocation of property rights across households is usually not random but based on wealth, family characteristics, political clientelism, or other mechanisms built on differences between the groups that acquire property rights and the groups that do not. In this paper, we address this selection concern exploiting a natural experiment in the allocation of property rights. A homogenous group of squatters occupied a piece of privately owned land in a suburban area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. When the provincial Congress passed an expropriation law transferring the land from the former owners to the squatters, some of the former owners surrendered the land (and received a compensation), while others decide to sue in the slow Argentine courts. These different decisions by the former owners generated an allocation of property rights that is exogenous to the characteristics of the squatters. We take advantage of this natural experiment to evaluate the effect of the allocation of urban land property rights. Our preliminary results show significant effects on weight-for-height Z-scores, school repetition grade and teenage pregnancy. Children in the titled parcels show better nutrition, less grade repetition and lower teenage pregnancy rates than children in the untitled parcels. * Sebastian Galiani, Universidad de San Andres, Vito Dumas 284, (B1644BID) Victoria, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tel: (54-11) 4746-2608, sgaliani@udesa.edu. ar. Ernesto Schargrodsky, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Miñones 2177, (C1428ATG) Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tel: (54-11) 4784-0080, eschargr@utdt.edu. We are grateful to Nancy Buschenbaum, Yanina Camiser, Silvina Dupraz, and Beatriz Schloss -the team of medical doctors and nutritionists who performed the measurement of children’s anthropometrics-, to Gestion Urbana -the NGO that performed the health survey-, and to Matias Cattaneo and Sebastian Calonico who provided excellent research assistance.
Molecular and immunodiagnosis of human filarial nematode infections

The filarial nematodes Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi and Onchocerca volvulus represent major public health problems in the Tropics. Effective diagnosis of infection with these parasites is required both for administration of drugs to infected individuals and for monitoring of control programs. However parasitological diagnosis is associated with a number of problems including frequently inadequate sensitivity, long pre-patency of infection and inconvenience for patients. For these reasons there has been considerable effort expended in developing other forms of diagnosis, in particular immunoassays for measuring antibody and circulating parasite antigen as well as molecular-biology-based assays for detecting parasite DNA. This article reviews the progress and achievements obtained to date. The latter include the development of ELISAs employing recombinant antigen for detection of antibody to O. volvulus which have both high sensitivity and specificity, the commercial availability of immunoassays to measure circulating antigen in W. bancrofti infection and the generation of specific DNA-based detection systems for all three parasites.
Technical requirements for high-penetration wind : What system operators need, and what wind technology can deliver

As wind penetration levels increase, the effects on the electricity system increase, and therefore the technical characteristics of the wind generation become more important. In addition, many modern wind turbines could in principle behave unlike conventional synchronous generators, raising new problems and perhaps providing new benefits to the system. Electricity system operators are responsible for the satisfactory operation of their electricity systems in normal and abnormal conditions. In order to achieve this, they define technical requirements which all parties connected to their system must follow. These technical requirements can take several forms but are commonly referred to as 'grid codes'. This paper approaches the issues by considering the fundamental technical requirements of system operators. This is compared with current and possible future technical capabilities of wind turbine technology.
Optimal and robust MMSE channel estimation for MIMO-OFDM systems

In this paper, the minimum mean square error (MMSE) channel estimation for multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems is investigated. We first propose an optimal MMSE channel estimation algorithm, which can fully exploit the channel correlations over space, time, and frequency domains to estimate the channel frequency response. By the principle of maximum entropy, we then design an efficient robust MMSE channel estimation algorithm, which does not need to know spatial and time correlations and has a complexity only linear in the number of subcarriers. Moreover, computer simulation shows that the robust algorithm has no significant performance degradation in comparison with the optimal algorithm.
Genel lise öğrencilerinin okul tahripçiliği algıları

Bu calismanin amaci, genel lise ogrencilerinin okul tahripciligi algilarini belirlemek ve elde edilen verilere gore cozum onerileri gelistirmektir. Arastirma verilerinin toplanmasinda, Oruc (2008) tarafindan gelistirilen “Okul Tahripciligi Anketi” kullanilmistir. Arastirmada kullanilan anketler, evren olarak belirlenen Sincan Ilcesi’nde bulunan genel liselerin tumunden orneklem olarak alinan 1246 ogrenciye uygulanmistir. Arastirmanin alt problemleri t-testi ve One Way ANOVA ile cozumlenmistir. Arastirma sonucunda ogrencilerin tahripcilik davranisini algilama duzeyleri ile “sinif duzeyi”, “ailedeki birey sayisi”, “annenin egitim duzeyi” degiskenleri arasinda anlamli farkliliklar bulunmustur. Buna gore, ilgili degiskenlerin duzeyi arttikca ogrenciler, tahripcilik davranisinin daha az yasandigini belirtmektedirler. Ayrica kiz ogrenciler, erkek ogrencilere gore okulda daha cok tahripcilik yasandigini ifade etmektedirler
Atherosclerosis: Coagulation and Fibrinolysis

Tissue factor (TF) protein was overexpressed by macrophages and smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and deposited in the extracellular matrix of atherosclerotic intimas, probably resulting in enhanced procoagulant activity and the intimate participation in either thrombus formation or intimal fibrin deposition after the exposure of flowing blood and permeated fibrinogen to TF in atherosclerotic lesions. On the other hand, APO(a) was localized both in the stroma and within some macrophages. Fibrin deposition, which was more frequently detected in the matrix of advanced lesions than in that of early lesions, occasionally colocated with cell- and matrix-associated TF and APO(a) deposited in the matrix. These findings further support the hypothesis that the coagulation and fibrinolysis systems can play an essential role in the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis through fibrin deposition both in atherosclerotic plaques and on the arterial surface by neointimal hypercoagulability and a hypofibrinolytic state, which can also participate in SMC proliferation due to the decreased activation of TGF-beta by embedded and deposited APO(a). The clinical implications of these phenomena may thus contribute to future investigations in the prevention and treatment of atherosclerotic diseases.
Effects of a brief intervention program for patients with cancer and their partners on feelings of inequity, relationship quality and psychological distress

When one member of a couple develops a serious illness, the lives of both partners are likely to be affected. Interventions directed at both partners are generally lacking, however. In the present study, a brief counseling program directed at couples confronted with cancer was evaluated. The intervention focused mainly on the exchange of social support and help between both partners and was aimed at restoring perceptions of equity. Couples were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a waiting‐list group. After the intervention, both patients and their partners reported lower levels of perceptions of underinvestment and overbenefit, and higher levels of relationship quality. Moreover, among patients psychological distress decreased after the intervention. These effects were generally maintained until follow‐up three months later. Associations between perceptions of equity and relationship quality and psychological distress were also examined. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Robust Image Retrieval-based Visual Localization using Kapture

In this paper, we present a versatile method for visual localization. It is based on robust image retrieval for coarse camera pose estimation and robust local features for accurate pose refinement. Our method is top ranked on various public datasets showing its ability of generalization and its great variety of applications. To facilitate experiments, we introduce kapture, a flexible data format and processing pipeline for structure from motion and visual localization that is released open source. We furthermore provide all datasets used in this paper in the kapture format to facilitate research and data processing. Code and datasets can be found at this https URL, more information, updates, and news can be found at this https URL.
‘I do not need a flu shot because I lead a healthy lifestyle’: Compensatory health beliefs make vaccination less likely

Compensatory health beliefs, a self-defence strategy, were examined in a theory-guided intervention promoting influenza vaccination at the workplace. In total, 851 employees were randomised to one group aimed at enhancing intention formation (standard group) or to another one assisting self-regulation (intervention group). Assessments took place after the intervention and 5 months later, investigating whether the intervention would interfere with compensatory health beliefs. The intervention generated an indirect effect via planning on vaccination. Compensatory health beliefs mediated between intention and behaviour. An interaction between intervention group and compensatory health beliefs on behaviour transpired. At low compensatory health belief levels, the intervention group resulted in more vaccinations than the standard group.
Improvement of Image Sticking in Liquid Crystal Display Doped with γ-Fe2O3 Nanoparticles

Image sticking in thin film transistor-liquid crystal displays (TFT-LCD) is related to the dielectric property of liquid crystal (LC) material. Low threshold value TFT LC materials have a weak stability and the free ions in them will be increased because of their own decomposition. In this study, the property of TFT LC material MAT-09-1284 doped with γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles was investigated. The capacitances of parallel-aligned nematic LC cells and vertically aligned nematic LC cells with different doping concentrations were measured at different temperatures and frequencies. The dielectric constants perpendicular and parallel to long axis of the LC molecules ε⊥ and ε//, as well as the dielectric anisotropy Δε, were obtained. The dynamic responses and the direct current threshold voltages in parallel-aligned nematic LC cells for different doping concentrations were also measured. Although the dielectric anisotropy Δε decreased gradually with increasing temperature and frequency at the certain frequency and temperature in LC state for each concentration, the doping concentration of γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles less than or equal to 0.145 wt % should be selected for maintaining dynamic response and decreasing free ions. This study has some guiding significance for improving the image sticking in TFT-LCD.
Evolutionary market-based resource allocation in decentralised computational systems

This thesis presents a novel market-based method, inspired by retail markets for resource allocation in fully decentralised computational systems where agents are self-interested. The posted offer mechanism used requires no central or regional coordinator or complex negotiation strategies. The stability of outcome allocations, those at equilibrium, is analysed and compared for three buyer behaviour models. The approach is scalable, robust and may be tuned to achieve a range of desired outcome resource allocations. These include a balanced load, allocations reflective of providers’ differing capabilities and those appropriate to heterogeneous buyer preferences over multiple attributes. The behaviour of the approach is studied both game theoretically and in simulation, where novel evolutionary market agents act on behalf of resource providing nodes to adaptively price their resources over time in response to market conditions. Sellers competitively co-evolve their offers online without any need for global market information. This is shown to lead the system to the game theoretically predicted outcome resource allocation when buyers’ decision functions degrade gracefully. Additionally, allocations remain stable in the presence of small changes in price and other more disruptive agents. The posted offer model therefore appears to be a useful mechanism for resource allocation in both homogeneous and heterogeneous decentralised computational systems where nodes are self-interested. Furthermore, evolutionary computation is shown to be a potential approach to realising self-interested adaptive pricing behaviour under the assumption of private information present in the posted offer model.
Acceptability and necessity of HIV and other blood-borne virus testing in a psychiatric setting

Summary Studies in North America and Europe indicate that the prevalence of blood-borne viruses (BBVs) is elevated in individuals with severe mental illness; there are no comparable data for the UK. We offered routine testing for HIV, and hepatitis B and C in an inner-London in-patient psychiatric unit as a service improvement. Of the patients approached 83% had mental capacity to provide informed consent for testing and 66% of patients offered testing accepted. Although it was not our objective to establish the prevalence of BBVs, 18% of patients had serological evidence of a current or previous BBV infection, we found that offering routine testing in an in-patient psychiatric setting is both practical and acceptable to patients.
A Search for Close Binaries in the ρ Ophiuchi Star-forming Region

We have carried out a new, near-infrared speckle imaging survey of 19 members of the young stellar population in the nearby (d = 140 pc) ρ Oph cloud core. Results for four binary and one newly discovered triple system are reported. Data for all known multiple systems among the pre-main-sequence population of ρ Oph are tabulated. We define a restricted binary fraction, Fb,r, and a restricted companion fraction, Fc,r, as counting only those systems most detectable in the present and previous high-resolution near-infrared imaging surveys having separations between 0. ″1 and ~1. ″1 and K-band magnitude differences ΔK < 3. Analysis of all the available multiplicity data results in updated values of Fb,r = 24% ± 11% and Fc,r = 24% ± 11% for the Ophiuchus pre-main-sequence population. These values are consistent with the values in the Taurus star-forming region, and Fc,r is in excess by a factor of 2 relative to the main sequence at the 1 σ level.
Experimental demonstration of electro-optical mid-span spectrum inversion for mitigation of non-linear fiber effects

An opto-electric implementation of an optical spectrum inverter is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in a 561 km transmission link. 3dB increase in span launch power was enabled by the inverter for a 112 Gbit/s DP-16QAM channel and error free operation (BER<;10-12) of 10G OOK transmission was obtained with no optical dispersion compensation.
THRESHOLDS FOR RETINAL INJURY FROM MULTIPLE NEAR-INFRARED ULTRASHORT LASER PULSES

Multiple-pulse lasers are routinely used in the laboratory for research, manufacturing, medical procedures, and in military applications. In order to provide a safe work environment for personnel using these lasers, safety standards have been established and have been in use for many years. These safety standards have addressed laser pulses of nanosecond duration and longer. Recently, safety standards have been updated to address laser pulses as short as 100 femtoseconds in duration. In order to tie these “ultrashort” laser pulses to hazard trends in currently established standards for multiple-pulse exposures with repetition rates less than several kilohertz, this experiment was conducted. Reported herein are minimum visible lesion thresholds in the paramacula of the primate retina using an 800-nm wavelength laser with 1,000 pulses per second, at 130 femtoseconds (fs) pulse duration. The minimum visible lesion (MVL) thresholds were determined at 1 h and 24 h post exposure for 1, 10, 100, 1,000, and 10,000 pulses and are compared with thresholds reported by other researchers. These new data are evaluated relative to the current safety standards for retinal exposure limits as a function of the number of pulses for femtosecond-pulse duration. Data from this study show that the retinal ED50 thresholds/pulse in the paramacula decrease by almost a factor of four as the number of pulses goes from one to ten and then decrease very little for an increase of three decades more in the number of pulses. The MVL-ED50 at the threshold decreased from 0.55 &mgr;J for a single pulse to 0.15 &mgr;J/pulse for 10 pulses and then only to 0.11 &mgr;J/pulse for 10,000 pulses.
Digital control of continuous-time switching systems with safety constraints

Relations between safe sets for a continuous-time switching system S and an appropriate discrete-time switching system associated with S are established. Exploiting these relations, the maximal controlled invariant set for the continuous-time switching system can be arbitrarily closely approximated by an appropriate controlled invariant set for the discretized switching system. Moreover, the safety control problem in a continuous time domain is reduced to a safety problem in a discrete time domain.