Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Supplementary management of functional, temporary alcoholic hepatic damage with Robuvit® (French oak wood extract).

The aim of this registry study was to evaluate Robuvit® (quercus robur wood extract) supplementation in the evolution of moderate functional hepatic failure (MTHF) due to alcohol. Recent studies have indicated the protective effect of oak wood (QR) extracts on liver injury. This registry included patients with MTHF characterized by: decreased albumin levels; increased total bilirubin, altered hepatic functions enzymes, increased oxidative stress, negative viral hepatitis markers. RESULTS The two groups resulted divided into a best management (BM) group and a comparative group (BM+ Robuvit ® were comparable): 23 Robuvit® patients and 21 comparable controls completed the 12-week registry. At inclusion, blood parameters in the two groups were comparable. At the end of the observation period, the increase in albumin levels was significantly (P<0.05 at 12 weeks) faster and higher in the Robuvit® group. The decreasee in ALT-SGPT and AST-ASAT were significantly larger in the supplement group (P<0.05 at 6 and 12 weeks). Alkaline phosphatase was reduced more, at 6 and 12 weeks in Robuvit® patients; (Robuvit® group's values were significantly better; P<0.05). Total bilirubin improved better in Robuvit® subjects at 6 and 12 weeks. Results were significantly better in comparison with controls (P<0.05). Also, direct bilirubin values increased more in the Robuvit® group at 6 and 12 weeks (P<0.05). Gamma GT values were normalized at 6 and 12 weeks in the Robuvit® group. There was a less important decrease in controls (P<0.05) without normalization at 12 weeks. Plasma free radicals, increased at inclusion, showed a more significant decrease in Robuvit® subject (at 6 and 12 weeks), with normalization at 12 weeks. Persisting, elevated values in controls were observed even at 12 weeks (P<0.05). ESR decreased in both groups with a more important decrease in the Robuvit® group (P<0.05). Hepatitis markers were negative when repeated at 6 and 12 weeks. In conclusion, observations from this pilot, supplement registry study indicate a significant protective activity of the supplementation with Robuvit®, associated with a very good safety profile, in patients with temporary hepatic failure. The activity of Robuvit ® seems to be mediated by its anti-inflammatory activity associated to its important action on oxidative stress.
Disordered eating prevention programme in schools: a 30-month follow-up.

OBJECTIVE The present study aims to evaluate the long-term effects of a school-based prevention programme administered to adolescents; the purpose of the said programme was to reduce disordered eating attitudes and sociocultural influences on the internalisation of the aesthetical body ideal. METHODS A total of 254 girls and 189 boys were assigned to a control (n = 201) or to two experimental conditions: media literacy programme (n = 143) and media literacy plus nutrition awareness programme (n = 99). Pretest, post-test (1 month later) and 7-month and 30-month follow-up measurements were taken using the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-40) and the questionnaire on influences of aesthetic body ideal-26/cuestionario de influencias del modelo estético corporal (CIMEC-26). Linear mixed-model analyses were conducted with a 2 × 3 × 3 ANOVA (sex × group × phase), adjusted by the baseline level. RESULTS The participants from both prevention programmes scored lower than the participants in the control group at follow-up assessments on EAT-40 and CIMEC-26 scores. DISCUSSION Both media literacy-based programmes can be effective interventions reducing long-term self-reported disordered eating attitudes and internalisation of the aesthetic body ideal in a universal mixed-sex school-going adolescent population.
Human Lumbar Vertebrae: Quantitative Three-Dimensional Anatomy

This study details the quantitative three-dimensional surface anatomy of human lumbar vertebrae based on a study of 60 vertebrae. The two lower vertebrae (L4 and L5) appeared to be transitional toward the sacral region, whereas the upper two vertebrae (L1 and L2) were transitional toward the thoracic region. Means and standard errors of the means for linear, angular, and area dimensions of vertebral bodies, spinal canal, pedicle, pars interarticularis, spinous and transverse processes were obtained for all lumbar vertebrae. This information provides a better understanding of the spine, and allows for a more precise clinical diagnosis and surgical management of spinal problems. The information is also necessary for constructing accurate mathematical models of the human spine.
Kinetic and Kinematic Differences in a Golf Swing in One and Both Lower Limb Amputees

Abstract Amputee golfers need to cope with the absence of sole proprioception, a decreased range of swing motion and other factors which should be recognized for training purposes. The aim of this study was to determine the kinetic and kinematic differences in the golf swing in one leg and two legs amputees. The participants consisted of two males and one female at a professional or amateur level with a different degree of disability. Each participant was taped by 3D markers and performed five golf swings with the iron 6. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) did not vary between individuals in kinematics, however, it was low in kinetic variables of two leg amputees. The Kendal rank correlation showed a significant relationship between the level of amputation and a large number of kinetic and kinematic variables such as X factor, O factor, S factor and individual body angles. The fluency and similarity of the golf swing did not depend on the level of amputation. One lower limb amputation did not seem to increase movement variability contrary to two lower limb amputation. The most variable parameter was a weight-shift in all golfers. The takeaway and horizontal force angle depended on the level of amputation rather than individual technique, thus, their modification by training may be difficult. Estimation of golf swing „mistakes“ in amputees in respect to the leading arm in an early follow or late follow position appeared to be useless.
Testing the ecological rationality of base rate neglect

What simple learning rules can allow agents to cope with changing environments? We tested whether a rule that neglects base rates of events in the world -- something that is usually considered irrational -- could be as successful as Bayesian inference that combines base rates and cue accuracies - the usual standard of rationality-in making cue-based predictions about events in time-varying environments. We focused on environments in which base rates change more frequently than cue accuracies, a condition that, we argue, is common in the real world. Five strategies (Bayesian combination, cue accuracy alone, adjusted cue accuracy, base rates alone, and a Least Mean Square learning rule) were compared across "lifetimes" of 10,000 predictions, in which base rates and cue accuracy independently changed every 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000, or 5000 events. The results confirmed that simple strategies that are typically deemed irrational (base rate neglect and its opposite, conservatism) can rival the typical standard of rationality, Bayesian combination of information, by producing ecologically rational decisions in appropriately varying environments.
An exact rectilinear Steiner tree algorithm

Given a set of terminals in the plane, a rectilinear Steiner minimal tree is a shortest interconnection among these terminals using only horizontal and vertical edges. We present an algorithm that constructs a rectilinear Steiner minimal tree for an input terminal set. On a workstation, problems involving 20 input terminals can be solved in a few seconds, and problems involving 30 input terminals can be solved, on average, in 30 minutes. Previous algorithms could only solve 16 or 17-point problems within the 30-minute time bound. <<ETX>>
Social Marketing and Public Health Intervention

The rapid proliferation of community-based health education programs has out- paced the knowledge base of behavior change strategies that are appropriate and effec tive for public health interventions. However, experiences from a variety of large-scale studies suggest that principles and techniques of social marketing may help bridge this gap. This article discusses eight essential aspects of the social marketing process: the use of a consumer orientation to develop and market intervention techniques, ex change theory as a model from which to conceptualize service delivery and program participation, audience analysis and segmentation strategies, the use of formative research in program design and pretesting of intervention materials, channel analysis for devising distribution systems and promotional campaigns, employment of the "marketing mix" concept in intervention planning and implementation, development of a process tracking system, and a management process of problem analysis, planning, implementation, feedback and control functions. Attention to such variables could result in more cost-effective programs that reach larger numbers of the target audience.
Interaction between a trachoma strain of Chlamydia trachomatis and mouse fibroblasts (McCoy cells) in the absence of centrifugation

A system was devised for studying the interaction of a trachoma strain of Chlamydia trachomatis (G17) and mouse fibroblasts (McCoy cells) in the absence of centrifugation, which is usually employed to enhance the infection of cell cultures with non-lymphogranuloma venereum human strains of C. trachomatis. In this system, the conditions of infection more closely approached those encountered in natural infections, and the entry of G17 into host cells could be compared with the previously described entry of C. psittaci 6BC and a lymphogranuloma venereum strain (440L) of C. trachomatis. McCoy cells were infected by shaking at 37 degrees C with inocula suspended in 0.01 M phosphate buffer, pH 7.2, containing 0.2 M sucrose. The efficiency of infection (inclusion counts without centrifugation/inclusion counts with centrifugation) was 1.5% for monolayers and 7.5% for suspensions. When measured either by inclusion counts or by host cell-associated 14C-amino acid-labeled G17, association was proportional to G17 concentration and increased linearly for 60 min. Pretreatment of host cells with diethylaminoethyl-dextran (30 micrograms/ml, 30 min) raised the efficiency of infection to about 13% for both monolayers and suspensions. Host cells treated with cytochalasin B (2 x 10(-5) M, 90 min) or trypsin (50 micrograms/ml, 60 min) associated with G17 at undiminished rates. 14C-labeled G17 inactivated by heat (60 degrees C, 3 min) or ultraviolet light (1,800 ergs per mm2) associated with McCoy cells at the same rate as live G17. Comparison of these results with those previously reported for strains 6BC and 440L showed that strain G17 exhibited some, but not all, of the host cell association properties of the other two chlamydial strains.
Optimal Search Algorithms for Structured Problems in Natural Language Processing

Many tasks in Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be formulated as the assignment of a label to an input. Often, the set of possible labels can be unmanageably large and even enumerating the set would be intractable. For example, the set of possible labels for machine translation might be the set of all sentences in the output language, which can in principle be infinite. Fortunately, these large label sets typically exhibit some kind of structure—that is, they are composed of smaller parts. Because they are composed of parts, it is possible to construct labels piece by piece. The problem of predicting such structured labels is referred to as structured prediction, and the process of incrementally constructing the best structured label(s) is called search. In this thesis, we consider problems for which it is feasible to perform exact or optimal search—that is, search that is guaranteed to find the best possible label according to some model. Many such problems can be formulated as a search for the best path in a weighted directed hypergraph. For example, monolingual parsing, bitext parsing, and syntactic machine translation can all be formulated in this way. We will discuss both known and novel algorithms that can find the best path without considering all hyperedges in the hypergraph, and hence can speed up search without sacrificing search quality. We will provide simplified proofs of correctness for these algorithms. We also propose two novel algorithms that permit extraction of the k-best paths instead of the single best. We compare these approaches both against exhaustive search, and against approximate search techniques which speed up search by sacrificing optimality guarantees.
Thyroid antibodies are not a risk factor for pregnancies with down syndrome

The observation that thyroid disease is frequent in mothers of children with Down syndrome (DS) has suggested that maternal thyroid antibodies could be a factor predisposing to trisomy 21 in their offspring. In this study, the incidences of thyroglobulin (Tg) and thyroid peroxidase (TPO) antibodies were analysed with a sensitive solid‐phase immunosorbent radioassay in sera from 29 mothers giving birth to children with trisomy 21 and 87 control mothers. The serum samples were collected at delivery. There was no statistical difference regarding the proportion of thyroid antibodies (against Tg and/or TPO) in the two groups. Thyroid antibodies were detected in 6/29 (20.7 per cent) of the DS mothers and in 23/87 (26.4 per cent) of the control mothers. Among the women with thyroid antibodies, 4/6 (66.7 per cent) of the DS mothers and 12/23 (52 per cent) of the control mothers had antibodies against both Tg and TPO. There was no increase in the relative risk of having a child with DS if the titre of either Tg or TPO antibodies or both were positive, i.e. ≥ 1/5. The results indicate that the presence of thyroid antibodies in the serum of a pregnant woman has no prognostic value for the birth of an infant with DS.
Europeanization of eGovernment policy. Institutional mechanisms and implications for public sector innovation

Do European Union (EU) institutions shape national eGovernment policies and strategies? Is there a process of eGovernment Europeanization in operation? If so, what are the most relevant Europeanization mechanisms within this policy field? How do they work in institutional terms and what are their implications for public sector innovation? These are some of the key questions this paper addresses. To date, national eGovernment strategies and policies have to some extent been shaped by European institutions; this study tackles this phenomenon and seeks to provide some conclusions from the point of view of public policy innovation. In so doing, it concentrates on two different theoretical sources: Europeanization and new institutionalism. This paper also analyzes the most relevant mechanisms deployed by EU institutions to frame national policies, strategies, norms, ideas, and actions in the field of eGovernment using, above all, the open method of coordination (OMC) (benchmarking, good practice exchange, etc.). The results of this paper shed light on various aspects of this European frame, and how specific instruments operate, by addressing domestic administrative systems and arrangements. Institutional theory facilitates the understanding of this type of policy-learning processes and debates, constraints and drivers for policy innovation derived form European institutions, as well as problems concerning potential applications of the OMC as a common framework for working across European policy areas.
Effect of pure and oxidized cholesterol-rich diets on some biochemical parameters in rats

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the peroxidative damage and hypercholesterolemia induced in male Wistar albino rats by diets enriched either with 1% oxidized cholesterol (OC) (containing 49.8% of cholesterol oxidation products) or pure cholesterol (PC). The damage caused by the OC diet was revealed by a significant rise in red blood cell hemolysis, increased tissue lipid peroxidation and elevated aspartate amino transferase activity as compared with control and PC diets. Liver glutathione- S -transferase activity was decreased by both OC (P < 0.01) and PC (P < 0.05) diets, but glutathione was observed to be decreased only by the OC diet. Plasma triacylglycerol and cholesterol were increased significantly with both the OC and PC diets. Liver cholesterol and triacylglycerol were increased significantly with the OC diet only. These results indicate that the oxidative damage caused by the OC diet is much more pronounced than that caused by the PC diet.
Serologic Diagnosis of Equine Borreliosis: Evaluation of an In-Clinic Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (SNAP ® 4Dx ® )

SNAP ® 4Dx ® (IDEXX Laboratories, Westbrook, ME) is a commercially available in-office test kit for the simultaneous detection of Dirofilaria immitis antigen and antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi, Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and Ehrlichia canis in blood, plasma, or serum of dogs. The test kit is an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay that uses the synthetic peptide C 6 derived from the IR6 region within the Borrelia membrane protein VlsE, peptides derived from the immunodominant p44 protein of A phagocytophilum, and the p30 and p30-1 protein of E canis. Studies with canine samples suggest that SNAP ® 4Dx ® is particularly useful in endemic areas because it can be conveniently and reliably used in the clinic to determine the infection status of a dog. We evaluated the performance of SNAP ® 4Dx ® for the detection of antibodies to Lyme and Anaplasma in equine serum samples from Northeastern United States and Alaska. A total of 164 equine samples
Isolation and characterization protease enzyme from leguminous seeds

The present study was conducted to isolate and characterize the proteases from seven leguminous seeds: soybean, lentil, black gram, green gram, bengal gram, groundnut and pea bean. We elaborated the easy procedure for isolation of protease from leguminous seeds by using (NH4)2SO4 precipitation. The effect of pH and temperature of protease activity were determined. This study revealed that the protein concentration of crude extract ranged between 2.215 to 2.40 mg/ml in which groundnut was highest protein concentration (2.40 mg/ml) and lentil accounted was lowest concentration (2.21 mg/ml). The pH profile of proteases showed maximum specific activity at pH 7.5 to 9.0 with one main peak at pH 9.0. Among the seeds, bengal gram showed highest specific activity (0.007659 U/mg of protein) at pH 7.5 but lowest activity was observed in pea bean (0.001681 U/mg of protein) at pH 9.0. The temperature vs. specific and catalytic activity of all proteases relationship demonstrated a symmetrical distribution with one main peak and optimum at 37 o C except black gram which showed two main peaks at 37 o C and 70 o C respectively. The paper concludes that leguminous seeds can be source of proteases for industrial purposes.
Effect of proximal wall height on all-ceramic crown core stress distribution: a finite element analysis study.

PURPOSE Mechanical analyses of idealized crown-cement-tooth systems through finite element analysis (FEA) has provided valuable insight concerning design parameters and materials that favor lower stress patterns. However, little information regarding variation of basic preparation guidelines in stress distribution has been available. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate maximum principal stresses on a molar crown veneer plus core system natural tooth configuration preparation with variations in the ratio of proximal axial length (PAL) to buccal axial length (BAL) as well as loading condition and position. MATERIALS AND METHODS Three-dimensional models comprising a crown veneer (porcelain), crown core (zirconia), cement layer, and tooth preparation (4.2 mm BAL with PAL reductions of 0.8 mm, 1.0 mm, and 1.2 mm) yielding BAL:PAL ratios of 1.23, 1.31, and 1.4 were designed by computer software (Pro/Engineering). The models were imported into an FEA software (Pro/Mechanica), with all degrees of freedom constrained at the root surface of the tooth preparation. Each tooth preparation crown configuration was evaluated under a vertical (axial) 200 N load, and under a combined vertical 200 N and horizontal (buccally) 100 N load applied at different positions from the central fossa to the cusp tip. Maximum principal stress (MPS) was determined for the crown core for each crown BAL:PAL ratio, loading condition, and position. RESULTS Under both vertical and combined loading conditions, the highest MPSs were located at the occlusal region and in the occlusogingival region of the ceramic core. MPS values increased in the proximal region as the BAL:PAL ratio increased. Combined loading resulted in a general increase in MPS compared to vertical loading. CONCLUSION Increasing the BAL:PAL ratio (reducing the proximal axial length of the preparation) acted as a stress concentrator at regions near the crown margins, suggesting this area may be vulnerable to damage from fit adjustment as well as during function. Such increases in stress concentration should be considered in clinical scenarios, especially when inherent flaws are present in the material, since extensive high-magnitude tensile stress fields have been noted under all loading conditions.
GEMS: An Extract Method Refactoring Recommender

Extract Method is a widely used refactoring operation to improve method comprehension and maintenance. Much research has been done to extract codefragments within the method body to form a new method. Criteria used for identifying extractable code is usually centered around degrees of cohesiveness, coupling and length of the method. However, automatic method extraction techniques have not been highly successful, since it can be hard to concretizethe criteria. In this work, we present a novel system that learns these criteria for Extract Method refactorings from open source repositories. We extractstructural and functional features, which encode the concepts of complexity, cohesion and coupling in our learning model, and train it to extract suitablecode fragments from a given source of a method. Our tool, GEMS, recommends a ranked list of code fragments with high accuracy and greatspeed. We evaluated our approach on several open source repositories and compared it against three state-of-the-art approaches&#x2014;SEMI, JExtract andJDeodorant. The results on these open-source data show the superiority of our machine-learning-based approach in terms of effectiveness. We develop GEMS asan Eclipse plugin, with the intention to support software reliability through method extraction.
Are business forecasts of the construction sector rational? Survey-based evidence from Malaysia

Abstract This paper extends the direct measure to business expectations in assessing the doctrine of forecast rationality in the contemporary environment of Malaysia’s construction sector. The survey’s expectational series on business operational forecasts across the period 1990 to 2010 is inconsistent with Muth’s concept of rational expectations. Although strict rationality failed to be evidenced, weakly rational conduct can be observed in capital expenditure forecasts. Nevertheless, both operational variables in question are optimistically biased upward and neither of them can accurately reflect the true market perception. This evidence casts doubt on the usefulness of the investigated survey series in providing a realistic panorama of the construction sector in the near future. Notwithstanding, the irrational upshot may drop a hint to the reader on the root of alarming property overhang and price hikes in construction-related markets since expectations play a foremost role in providing equilibrium in the supply and demand in this growth-initiating market.