Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
On successive‐overrelaxation acceleration of the Hermitian and skew‐Hermitian splitting iterations

We further generalize the technique for constructing the Hermitian/skew‐Hermitian splitting (HSS) iteration method for solving large sparse non‐Hermitian positive definite system of linear equations to the normal/skew‐Hermitian (NS) splitting obtaining a class of normal/skew‐Hermitian splitting (NSS) iteration methods. Theoretical analyses show that the NSS method converges unconditionally to the exact solution of the system of linear equations. Moreover, we derive an upper bound of the contraction factor of the NSS iteration which is dependent solely on the spectrum of the normal splitting matrix, and is independent of the eigenvectors of the matrices involved. We present a successive‐overrelaxation (SOR) acceleration scheme for the NSS iteration, which specifically results in an acceleration scheme for the HSS iteration. Convergence conditions for this SOR scheme are derived under the assumption that the eigenvalues of the corresponding block Jacobi iteration matrix lie in certain regions in the complex plane. A numerical example is used to show that the SOR technique can significantly accelerate the convergence rate of the NSS or the HSS iteration method. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Endemic dracontiasis in Anambra State of Nigeria: geographical distribution, clinical features, epidemiology and socio-economic impact of the disease.

Guinea-worm disease (dracontiasis) has been found in the north-eastern zone of Anambra State, Nigeria. Prevalence rates in rural villages were very high (50–75%), especially in those dependent on a system of artificial ponds (the ‘Okpuru’ system) for their drinking water.Two species of cyclopoid copepods, Thermocyclops nigerianus and Mcsocyclops leuckarti, widely recognized as intermediate hosts for Dracuncutus medinensis, were recovered from drinking water sources in the endemic areas. The relative copepod densities and their infection levels in the various waterbodies confirmed that the artificial ponds in the area were the significant foci of guinea-worm infections.The farming population in these villages had the highest infection rates and it is estimated that at least 100 000 of these farmers contract the disease each year, resulting in lowered agricultural productivity. The clinical manifestations of the disease followed the accepted pattern; 68·3% of the guinea-worm ulcers were secondarily infected.
Is body mass index a useful measure of excess body fatness in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome?

BACKGROUND To determine the validity of body mass index (BMI) to identify excess fatness in youth with Down syndrome (DS). METHODS Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth reference, we defined overweight (≥ 85th percentile) and obesity (≥ 95th percentile) based on participants' age- and sex-specific BMI z-scores, calculated from measured height and weight. Percentage body fat was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. We determined sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and efficiency of BMI percentiles to identify excess adiposity relative to elevated percentage body fat cut-offs developed from the Pediatric Rosetta Body Composition project in 32 youth (20 boys/12 girls), ages 13-21 years with Down syndrome. RESULTS For adolescents with Down syndrome using the cut-off points of 95th percentile for BMI (obesity), sensitivity and specificity were 71% and 96% respectively. Positive predictive value was 83% and negative predictive value was 92%. Overall efficiency was 91%. Sensitivity and specificity for BMI cut-offs above the 85th percentile (overweight) were 100% and 60% respectively. The positive predictive value was 41% and negative predictive value was 100%. Overall efficiency was 69%. CONCLUSION On the whole, the obesity (≥ 95th percentile) cut-off performs better than the overweight cut-off (85th-94th percentile) in identifying elevated fatness in youth with DS.
CAROTENOIDS, IMMUNITY, AND INTEGUMENTARY COLORATION IN RED JUNGLEFOWL (GALLUS GALLUS)

Abstract There is widespread interest in the roles that carotenoids play as yolk and shank pigments, antioxidants, and immune-system regulators in chickens, but nothing is known of such functions in the wild ancestors of chickens—the Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus). We manipulated carotenoid access in the diet of captive male and female Red Junglefowl to investigate its effects on the coloration of the red comb and buff-brown legs and beak as well as on several indices of immunocompetence. Comb, leg, and beak did not differ in coloration between control and carotenoid-supplemented groups; in fact, biochemical analyses showed that, unlike in chickens, leg and beak tissue contained no carotenoids. Carotenoids showed variable effects on immunological performance, boosting the potency of whole blood in males to kill bacterial colonies, while inhibiting the ability of macrophages to phagocytize bacterial cells and having no significant effect on the accumulation of haptoglobin—an acute-phase protein whose production was induced by a simulated infectious challenge with lipopolysaccharide. These results bring into question interpretations of the evolutionary significance of carotenoid-based and sexually dichromatic shank coloration in domestic chickens, which was apparently derived through artificial selection, and suggest that carotenoids can exert different, mechanism-specific actions on the many lines of immune defense in birds. Carotenoides, Inmunidad y Coloración Integumentaria en Gallus gallus
Universal Language Model Fine-tuning for Text Classification

Inductive transfer learning has greatly impacted computer vision, but existing approaches in NLP still require task-specific modifications and training from scratch. We propose Universal Language Model Fine-tuning (ULMFiT), an effective transfer learning method that can be applied to any task in NLP, and introduce techniques that are key for fine-tuning a language model. Our method significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art on six text classification tasks, reducing the error by 18-24% on the majority of datasets. Furthermore, with only 100 labeled examples, it matches the performance of training from scratch on 100 times more data. We open-source our pretrained models and code.
Maximum oxygen consumption measurement: valuable biological marker in health and in sickness.

Maximum Oxygen Consumption Measurement: Valuable Biological Marker in Health and in Sickness Claudio Gil Soares de Araujo1,2, Artur Haddad Herdy3,4,5, Ricardo Stein6,7 Programa de Pos-Graduacao em Ciencias do Exercicio e do Esporte – Universidade Gama Filho1; Clinica de Medicina do Exercicio (Clinimex)2, Rio de Janeiro, RJ; Instituto de Cardiologia de Santa Catarina3; Clinica Cardiosport4; Universidade do Sul de Santa Catarina (Unisul)5, Florianopolis, SC; Departamento de Medicina Interna da Faculdade de Medicina – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul6, Porto Alegre, RS; Vitta Exercicio & Clinica de Saude7, Porto Alegre, RS – Brazil
Full‐Length Phrenic Nerve Transfer by Means of Video‐Assisted Thoracic Surgery in Treating Brachial Plexus Avulsion Injury

&NA; Phrenic nerve transfer has been widely used in treating brachial plexus avulsion injury. However, the present method crosses the thoracic part of the phrenic nerve, and nerve graft is needed, resulting in a long period of regeneration and partly irreversible muscle atrophy. We present our early experience of using video‐assisted thoracic surgery to harvest a full length of phrenic nerve for transfer. Fifteen patients (mean age, 28 years) were treated. The thoracic part of the phrenic nerve was freed by means of video‐assisted thoracic surgery and taken out of the thoracic cavity, and a full‐length phrenic nerve was transferred to the musculocutaneous nerve to recover elbow flexion. The patients were followed. Another 29 patients with long‐term follow‐up who underwent traditional cervical phrenic nerve to musculocutaneous nerve transfer in our institute between 1994 and 1997 were selected. The period of newborn potential appearing in the biceps and the period for biceps to achieve M3 between two groups were compared. The operation was safe and no complications occurred. The additional length of phrenic nerve was 12.3 ± 4.5 cm. Eleven patients received sufficient follow‐up. Eight patients achieved biceps recovery to M3 (elbow flexion against gravity), and mean time was 198.8 ± 36.0 days, much earlier than that of the traditional method (p < 0.01). Pulmonary function recovered to the preoperative level 9 months after operation. This new method is safe and minimally invasive. The result of full‐length phrenic nerve transfer is much better than that of the traditional method. It obviously shortens the time required for nerve reinnervation, and offers a promising method for patients who have had a long interval from injury to operation and for forearm muscle reconstruction by phrenic nerve transferred to the median nerve or combined with free‐muscle transfer.
Chimeric retinoic acid/thyroid hormone receptors implicate RAR‐alpha 1 as mediating growth inhibition by retinoic acid.

Retinoic acid (RA) affects the growth and differentiation of cells in culture, usually to decrease the growth rate. In amphibian limb regeneration RA has the remarkable ability to affect pattern formation by changing positional identity, but its initial action on the limb is to inhibit division of the blastemal progenitor cells. Newt limb blastemal cells also show this inhibition in culture. In order to investigate the role of different RA receptors (RARs) in the RA response, the hormone binding domain of the newt RARs alpha 1 and delta 1 was replaced with the corresponding region from the Xenopus thyroid hormone receptor‐alpha (TR‐alpha). In COS cells transfected with each of the chimeras, transcription was activated after exposure to thyroid hormone (T3). Their profile of activity on three different response elements was indicative of RAR specificity and not TR specificity. After transfection of cultured newt blastemal cells with a DNA particle gun, the chimeras were equally active in stimulating T3‐dependent transcription of two different synthetic reporter genes. Blastemal cells were transfected with chimeras or control plasmids along with a marker plasmid expressing beta‐galactosidase, exposed to RA or T3 and labelled with [3H]thymidine followed by autoradiography. The alpha 1 chimera gave T3‐dependent inhibition of growth, comparable to the effect exerted by RA itself, whereas the delta 1 chimera and control plasmids were inactive. The results imply that RAR‐alpha 1 mediates the effects of RA on blastemal cell growth.
Nutrition Deficiencies in Children With Intestinal Failure Receiving Chronic Parenteral Nutrition

BACKGROUND Home parenteral nutrition (PN) is a lifesaving therapy for children with intestinal failure (IF). Our aims were to describe the prevalence of micronutrient deficiencies (vitamin D, zinc, copper, iron, selenium) in a diverse population of children with IF receiving PN and to identify and characterize risk factors associated with micronutrient deficiencies, including hematologic abnormalities. METHODS Data were collected on 60 eligible patients through retrospective chart review between May 2012 and February 2015. Descriptive statistics included frequencies, medians, interquartile ranges (IQRs), and odds ratios (ORs). Statistical analyses included χ2 , Fisher's exact, t tests, and logistic, univariate, and multivariate regressions. RESULTS Patients were primarily young (median age, 3.3 years; IQR, 0.7-8.4), Latino (62%), and male (56%), with short bowel syndrome (70%). Of 60 study patients, 88% had ≥1 deficiency and 90% were anemic for age. Of 51 patients who had all 5 markers checked, 59% had multiple deficiencies (defined as ≥3). Multivariate analysis shows multiple deficiencies were associated with nonwhite race (OR, 9.4; P = .012) and higher body mass index z score (OR, 2.2; P = .016). Children with severe anemia (hemoglobin <8.5 g/dL) made up 50% of the cohort. Nonwhite race (OR, 6.6; P = .037) and zinc deficiency (OR, 11; P = .003) were multivariate predictors of severe anemia. CONCLUSIONS Micronutrient deficiency and anemia are overwhelmingly prevalent in children with IF using chronic PN. This emphasizes the importance of universal surveillance and supplementation to potentially improve quality of life and developmental outcomes. Future research should investigate how racial disparities might contribute to nutrition outcomes for children using chronic PN.
Observational Studies: Cohort and Case-Control Studies

Summary: Observational studies constitute an important category of study designs. To address some investigative questions in plastic surgery, randomized controlled trials are not always indicated or ethical to conduct. Instead, observational studies may be the next best method of addressing these types of questions. Well-designed observational studies have been shown to provide results similar to those of randomized controlled trials, challenging the belief that observational studies are second rate. Cohort studies and case-control studies are two primary types of observational studies that aid in evaluating associations between diseases and exposures. In this review article, the authors describe these study designs and methodologic issues, and provide examples from the plastic surgery literature.
Children’s spirituality: Exploring spirituality in the lives of cancer survivors and a healthy comparison group

This study found that children with a history of cancer had higher scores on certain measures of spirituality compared to their healthy peers. Health history was found to significantly moderate the relations among spirituality and outcome variables, such as depression and anxiety. Furthermore, parent–child dyadscancer had more highly correlated scores than parent–child dyadshealthy on both the Depression subscale and the Existential Well-Being subscale, whereas parent–child dyadshealthy had more highly correlated scores than parent–child dyadscancer on the Duality factor. Limitations and future directions are discussed.
Video Self-Modeling in Children with Autism: A Pilot Study Validating Prerequisite Skills and Extending the Utilization of VSM across Skill Sets

Given the recent interest in the use of video self-modeling (VSM) to provide instruction within iPod apps and other pieces of handheld mobile assistive technologies, investigating appropriate prerequisite skills for effective use of this intervention is particularly timely and relevant. To provide additional information regarding the efficacy of VSM for students with autism and to provide insights into any possible prerequisite skills students may require for such efficacy, the authors investigated the use of VSM in increasing the instances of effective initiations of interpersonal greetings for three students with autism that exhibited different pre-intervention abilities. Results showed that only one of the three participants showed an increase in self-initiated greetings following the viewing of videos edited to show each participant self-modeling a greeting when entering his or her classroom. Due to the differences in initial skill sets between the three children, this finding supports anecdotally observed student prerequisite abilities mentioned in previous studies that may be required to effectively utilize video based teaching methods.
Prevalence of antibody to Toxoplasma among Alaskan natives: relation to exposure to the felidae.

In an assessment of the role of felids in transmitting toxoplasmosis to humans, sera from 1,572 Alaskan natives with different degrees of potential exposure to Felis catis and Lynx canadiensis were examined for antibody to Toxoplasma by the indirect fluorescent antibody test and the indirect hemagglutination test. Prevalence varied widely irrespective of geo-ethnic classification. Overall, approximately 28% of the sera examined had antibody (detectable by the indirect fluorescent antibody test) at a dilution of 1:16. A complementary assessment, in which the indirect hemagglutination test was used to titrate sera for end points of antibody to Toxoplasma, yielded a prevalence rate of about 16% at a dilution A 1:32. Previously, toxoplasmosis was thought to be absent in Eskimos. Contrary to expectation, felids could not be excluded as possible vectors of infection even in the remotest regions of the far north. Animals used as food by Alaskan natives may also have contributed to the relatively high prevalence rate found, but virtually nothing is known about the epizoology of toxoplasmosis in the Arctic. How much of the prevalence of antibody to Toxoplasma among humans results from exposure to members of the cat family, Felidae, and how much from ingestion of raw or partially cooked meat or other animal products containing viable encysted Toxoplasma is a moot question. Transplacentally and occupationally acquired infections obviously contribute only slightly to the variable, but high, prevalence found in many human populations [1]. Epidemiologic evidence accumulated thus far does not permit evaluation of the relative importance of felids vs. animal flesh in transmission in free-living human societies. Wallace collected serologic evidence from ecologically simple islets in the western Pacific within 10' of the equator that suggests that cats may play a major role in the transmission of toxoplasmosis to humans in that setting [2, 3]. In a study in Seattle, Washington, prevalence among individuals who said that they had had a pet cat sometime during their lives was significantly greater than among those who denied having had
Aggressive mature natural killer cell neoplasms: report on a series of 12 European patients with emphasis on flow cytometry based immunophenotype and DNA content of neoplastic natural killer cells

Abstract We report 12 cases of aggressive natural killer (NK) cell neoplasms diagnosed in Portugal, with emphasis on flow cytometry. Ten patients had extranodal NK/T cell lymphoma, nasal type and two had aggressive NK cell leukemia, and seven were men and five were women, with a median age of 50 years. NK cells brightly expressed the CD56 adhesion molecule and CD94 lectin type killer receptor and had an activation-related HLA-DR+ CD45RA+ CD45RO+ immunophenotype, in most cases. In contrast, dim CD16 expression was found in a minor proportion of cases, whereas CD57 and the CD158a and CD158e1 killer immunoglobulin-like receptors were negative. One-third of cases showed a hyperploid DNA content and nearly all had a very high S-phase proliferative rate. The phenotypic features of the neoplastic NK cells would suggest that they represent the transformed counterpart of the CD56 + bright NK cells that circulate in normal blood.
Ovarian Cancer: Review of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) Guidance Recommendations

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), established in 1996 as a special Health Authority for England and Wales, provides the United Kingdom medical community with robust and reliable guidance on current “best practices” in medicine. Based on analyses of clinical efficacy, safety, and cost effectiveness, clinical guideline recommendations are developed in an attempt to standardize treatment of various diseases and medical conditions. To date, NICE has issued guidance for the use of three chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of ovarian cancer: paclitaxel, topotecan, and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin. NICE guidance recommends surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel/platinum combination therapy or platinum therapy alone as first-line treatment for ovarian cancer. NICE has also issued guidance recommending the use of topotecan or pegylated liposomal doxorubicin as second-line agents for the treatment of women with relapsed or refractory disease. Accounting for all available data, NICE guidance supports the appropriate roles of paclitaxel, topotecan, and pegylated liposomal doxorubicin in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer.
Label-Dependency Coding in Simple Recurrent Networks for Spoken Language Understanding

Modelling target label dependencies is important for sequence labelling tasks. This may become crucial in the case of Spoken Language Understanding (SLU) applications, especially for the slot-filling task where models have to deal often with a high number of target labels. Conditional Random Fields (CRF) were previously considered as the most efficient algorithm in these conditions. More recently, different architectures of Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) have been proposed for the SLU slot-filling task. Most of them, however, have been successfully evaluated on the simple ATIS database, on which it is difficult to draw significant conclusions. In this paper we propose new variants of RNNs able to learn efficiently and effectively label dependencies by integrating label embeddings. We show first that modeling label dependencies is useless on the (simple) ATIS database and unstructured models can produce state-of-the-art results on this benchmark. On ATIS our new variants achieve the same results as state-of-the-art models, while being much simpler. On the other hand, on the MEDIA benchmark, we show that the modification introduced in the proposed RNN outperforms traditional RNNs and CRF models.
The Protein Environment Drives Selectivity for Sulfide Oxidation by an Artificial Metalloenzyme

Magic Mn–salen metallozyme: The design of an original, artificial, inorganic, complex‐protein adduct, has led to a better understanding of the synergistic effects of both partners. The exclusive formation of sulfoxides by the hybrid biocatalyst, as opposed to sulfone in the case of the free inorganic complex, highlights the modulating role of the inorganic‐complex‐binding site in the protein.
Hepatitis B Virus Genotype C Isolates with Wild-Type Core Promoter Sequence Replicate Less Efficiently than Genotype B Isolates but Possess Higher Virion Secretion Capacity

ABSTRACT Infection by hepatitis B virus (HBV) genotype C is associated with a prolonged viremic phase, delayed hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seroconversion, and an increased incidence of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma compared with genotype B infection. Genotype C is also associated with the more frequent emergence of core promoter mutations, which increase genome replication and are independently associated with poor clinical outcomes. We amplified full-length HBV genomes from serum samples from Chinese and U. S. patients with chronic HBV infection and transfected circularized genome pools or dimeric constructs of individual clones into Huh7 cells. The two genotypes could be differentiated by Western blot analysis due to the reactivities of M and L proteins toward a monoclonal pre-S2 antibody and slightly different S-protein mobilities. Great variability in replication capacity was observed for both genotypes. The A1762T/G1764A core promoter mutations were prevalent in genotype C isolates and correlated with increased replication capacity, while the A1752G/T mutation frequently found in genotype B isolates correlated with a low replication capacity. Importantly, most genotype C isolates with wild-type core promoter sequence replicated less efficiently than the corresponding genotype B isolates due to less efficient transcription of the 3.5-kb RNA. However, genotype C isolates often displayed more efficient virion secretion. We propose that the low intracellular levels of viral DNA and core protein of wild-type genotype C delay immune clearance and trigger the subsequent emergence of A1762T/G1764A core promoter mutations to upregulate replication; efficient virion secretion compensates for the low replication capacity to ensure the establishment of persistent infection by genotype C.