Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Liquid Nitrogen: Temperature Control in the Treatment of Actinic Keratosis

BACKGROUND Actinic keratoses (AKs) are in situ epidermal tumors that may progress to invasive squamous cell carcinomas. Liquid nitrogen is used during cryotherapy to freeze the epidermis and upper dermis and is the standard treatment for individual AKs. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of a cryosurgery device incorporating an infrared sensor to measure the temperature at the skin surface while spraying liquid nitrogen on the surface of the skin during the treatment of AKs. METHODS & MATERIALS Thirty‐six patients with 180 thin AKs were treated with liquid nitrogen spray to a temperature of −5°C using the sensor to control the temperature at the skin surface. Patients were evaluated for cure rate, side effects, and healing time. RESULTS At the 1‐week follow‐up, 66.7% of the lesions were cleared. By the 6‐week follow‐up, there was a 100% cure rate. Side effects were limited to redness, blistering, crusting, oozing, and ulceration at the 1‐week follow‐up and were resolved by the 6‐week follow‐up. No recurrence of AK, scarring, or hypopigmentation was noted. CONCLUSION Cryotherapy with an integrated sensor for temperature control is an effective, safe, and precise treatment, allowing for a 100% short‐term cure rate of AKs. &NA; The Cryotracker used in this study was given to the authors by the Brymill Company.
Neuropeptidase activities in plasma after acute restraint stress. Interaction with cortico-limbic areas

Objective To evaluate the influence of acute restraint stress (ARS) on plasma enkephalinase and oxytocinase activities. ARS modifies basal activities in cortico-limbic regions of rats and induces changes in the correlations observed between these regions. The interactions between plasma and cortico-limbic activities will be also evaluated. Methods Enkephalinase (AlaAP and LeuAP) and oxytocinase (P-LeuAP) activities were fluorometrically determined in plasma of control and stressed rats using aminoacyl-β-naphthylamides (aaNNap), AlaNNap and LeuNNap as substrates. Results No differences in enzymatic activities were observed between control and stressed animals in plasma. In contrast, highly significant positive and negative correlations between plasma and cortico-limbic regions were demonstrated in controls. Stress conditions significantly alter the pattern of these correlations. Conclusion The present results clearly support a connection between plasma and brain involving certain neuropeptidase activities that change under stress conditions.
Obligatory grammatical categories and the expression of temporal events*

ABSTRACT Thai has imperfective aspectual morphemes that are not obligatory in usage, whereas English has obligatory grammaticized imperfective aspectual marking on the verb. Furthermore, Thai has verb final deictic-path verbs that form a closed class set. The current study investigated if obligatoriness of these grammatical categories in Thai and English affects the expression of co-occurring temporal events and actions depicted in three different short animations. Ten children aged four years, five years, six years and seven years, and ten adults as a comparison group from each of the two languages participated. English speakers explicitly expressed the ongoingness of the events more than Thai speakers, whereas Thai speakers expressed the entrance and exit of protagonists depicted in the animations significantly more than English speakers. These results support the notion that obligatory grammatical categories shape how Thai and English speakers express temporal events or actions.
Relationship between thyrotropin and body mass index in euthyroid subjects.

BACKGROUND Several studies have reported that thyrotropin (TSH) levels are slightly increased in obese subjects. On the contrary, other studies have provided no evidence for an association between thyroid status and body mass index (BMI). AIM Our aim has been to evaluate the relationship between TSH and BMI in a group of subjects with obesity, overweight and normal weight with serum TSH levels within the reference range, excluding subjects with hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We evaluated a cohort of 778 euthyroid subjects (488 women, mean age 58.5 ± 15.9 yr) with TSH values between 0.4 and 5.0 mU/l. There were 321 subjects with obesity (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m²), 319 with overweight (25-29.9 kg/m²) and 138 with normal weight (18.5-24.9 kg/m²). RESULTS Serum TSH levels significantly increased with weight category in studied subjects (normal weight, median [interquartile range], 1.24 [0.94-1.72]; overweight, 1.31 [1.00-1.93]; obesity, 1.66 [1.15-2.44] mU/l; P<0.001). Free thyroxine (T4) was not statistically different in subjects within the 3 weight categories. A significant correlation was found between TSH and BMI (r=0.217, P<0.001). Subjects with serum TSH levels in the upper tertile (1.84-5.0 mU/l) exhibited a BMI value (30.8 [26.9-34.9] kg/m²) significantly higher (P<0.001) than that found in subjects with TSH levels in the middle (1.13-1.83 mU/l, 28.8 [25.8-32.3] kg/m²) or in the lower tertile (0.4-1.12 mU/l, 27.4 [25.4-30.6] kg/m²). There were no differences in BMI in patients classified according to tertiles of free T4. However, when studying a subgroup of patients with negative thyroid autoimmunity (n=375), we could not observe any significant difference in TSH levels between obese (n=106, 1.24 [0.90-1.81] mU/l) and non-obese subjects (n=269, 1.23 [0.90-1.80] mU/l). No correlation was found between TSH and BMI in this subgroup of subjects with negative thyroid autoimmunity (r=-0.035, NS). CONCLUSION These results suggest that the relationship between TSH and BMI observed in euthyroid subjects is lost when subjects with negative autoimmunity are selected.
More like him, me, or us: the impact of trait similarity on adolescent women’s sexual risk behaviors in relationships

Abstract Ideal partner traits and how they relate to a young woman’s current partner and relationship is a knowledge gap in the literature. The objectives of this study were 1) to assess any differences in interpersonal characteristics between a young woman or her partner and relationship and 2) to examine the impact of this difference on sexual monogamy, condom use and frequency of vaginal sex. Study participants (n=387, 14–17 years at enrollment, 90% African American) were recruited from three primary care adolescent health clinics serving areas with high rates of unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection (STI); data were drawn from a longitudinal cohort study of sexual relationships and behaviors among young women. Nineteen interpersonal characteristics, including physical, financial, communication and personal characteristic variables, were found to have varying influences on relationships and sexual behaviors with ‘like him’ and ‘like us’ as referents. Monogamy increased as a male partner wanted to get somewhere in life [OR 5.41, (1.25, 23.52, p<0.05)], was intelligent [OR 3.42, (1.09, 10.76, p<0.05)] and had money [OR 1.55, (0.272, 0.595, p<0.001)] in a partnership; monogamy similarly increased when a partner wanted to get somewhere in life [OR 6.77, (1.51, 30.36, p<0.01)], was intelligent [OR 4.02, (1.23, 13.23, p<0.05)], and had money [OR 2.41, (1.51, 3.84, p<0.001)] compared to the young woman. The likelihood of using a condom at last sex increased when the male partner had a nice body [OR 1.42, (1.02, 1.99, p<0.05)], was popular [OR 1.60, (1.12, 2.29, p<0.01)], cared for others [OR 3.43, (1.32, 8.98, p<0.01)], was good at sports [OR 1.35, (1.06, 1.73, p<0.05)] and expressed his feelings [OR 2.03, (1.14, 3.60, p<0.01)]. The condom use ratio increased when the male partner was able to take care of himself [OR 0.076, (0.017, 0.136, p<0.01)], was cute [OR 0.190, (0.082, 0.30, p<0.001)], and had a nice body [OR 0.044, (0.001, 0.09, p<0.05)] in a dyad; the condom use ratio also increased when a male partner could take care of himself [OR 0.091, (0.014, 0.168, p<0.05)], was cute [OR 0.194, (0.077, 0.311, p<0.001)] compared to the young woman. Coital frequency increased when the male partner was described as being able to take care of himself [OR 3.33, (0.138, 6.52, p<0.05)]. Such influences are important in discussions with young women regarding personal and partner choices in sexual health as partners, behaviors and motivations for choice frequently change.
Time-domain finite-element methods

Various time-domain finite-element methods for the simulation of transient electromagnetic wave phenomena are discussed. Detailed descriptions of test/trial spaces, explicit and implicit formulations, nodal and edge/facet element basis functions are given, along with the numerical stability properties of the different methods. The advantages and disadvantages of mass lumping are examined. Finally, the various formulations are compared on the basis of their numerical dispersion performance.
A Matched Comparison Across Three Different Sensory Pairs of Cross-Modal Temporal Recalibration From Sustained and Transient Adaptation

Sustained exposure to an asynchronous multisensory signal causes perceived simultaneity to shift in the direction of the leading component of the adapting stimulus. This is known as temporal recalibration, and recent evidence suggests that it can occur very rapidly, even after a single asynchronous audiovisual (AV) stimulus. However, this form of rapid recalibration appears to be unique to AV stimuli, in contrast to recalibration following sustained asynchronies which occurs with audiotactile (AT) and visuotactile (VT) stimuli. This study examines temporal recalibration to AV, VT and AT asynchrony with spatially collocated stimuli using a design that produces both sustained and inter-trial recalibration by combining the traditional sustained adaptation approach with an inter-trial analysis of sequential dependencies in an extended test period. Thus, we compare temporal recalibration to both sustained and transient asynchrony in three crossmodal combinations using the same design, stimuli and observers. The results reveal that prolonged exposure to asynchrony produced equivalent temporal recalibration for all combinations: AV, AT and VT. The pattern for rapid, inter-trial recalibration was very different. Rapid recalibration occurred strongly for AV stimuli, weakly for AT and did not occur at all for VT. For all sensory pairings, recalibration from sustained asynchrony decayed to baseline during the test phase while inter-trial recalibration was present and stable throughout testing, suggesting different mechanisms may underlie adaptation at long and short timescales.
Characteristics of patients diagnosed with AIDS shortly after first detection of HIV antibodies in Lyon University hospitals from 1985 to 2001 *

A diagnosis of AIDS shortly after the detection of HIV antibodies suggests a long‐lasting course of the disease without care. The factors associated with a short delay between the initial HIV‐1‐positive test and the first AIDS‐defining event were identified in 1901 patients from 1985 to 2001 in Lyon University hospitals. A total of 576 individuals (30.3%) had an interval of ≤3 months between the detection of HIV infection and AIDS. The factors independently associated with a delay of ≤3 months were: age from 30 to 44 years [odds ratio (OR) 2.5; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.9–3.2]; age from 45 to 59 years (OR 5.6; 95% CI 3.9–7.8); age ≥60 years (OR 4.5; 95% CI 2.5–8.1), compared to those<30 years old; heterosexuality (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.6–3.4); injection drug use (OR 2.1; 95% CI 1.5–2.7); and other exposures (OR 2.4; 95% CI 1.6–3.4), compared to homosexual exposure; two opportunistic infections at AIDS (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.4–2.4) compared to one; and Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia as initial AIDS event (OR 2.6; 95% CI 1.8–3.7), compared to Kaposi's sarcoma. These results provide opportunities to refocus local public health interventions to reduce delayed access to care.
Multicenter Study of Brucellosis in Egypt

Brucellosis causes appreciable economic losses in livestock. Examination of milk and tissues from animals in Egypt for Brucella spp. showed increased prevalence rates of serologically reactive animals. All isolates were B. melitensis biovar 3. One Brucella sp. was isolated from milk of serologically nonreactive buffaloes.
Role Structure and Burnout in the Field of Human Services

This article discusses a study that investigated burnout as a function of aspects of role structure for people working in the field of human services. The subjects, the staff of a residential rehabilitation and mental health center, completed a six-item questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Least Preferred Coworker Scale. The relationships of accuracy, concentration of social support network, mutual references, and motivational hierarchy were analyzed in three multiple regressions with emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization. Emotional exhaustion wasfound to have occurred less often when a person's social support network within the setting was not concentrated solely within the formal work subgroup, personal accomplishment was enhanced by an ambiguous role structure, and depersonalization was found to be related primarily to a person s values toward personal relationships and work and to be more prevalent among those with concentrated support networks and ambiguously structured roles.
Differential Evolutionary Superpixel Segmentation

Superpixel segmentation has been of increasing importance in many computer vision applications recently. To handle the problem, most state-of-the-art algorithms either adopt a local color variance model or a local optimization algorithm. This paper develops a new approach, named differential evolutionary superpixels, which is able to optimize the global properties of segmentation by means of a global optimizer. We design a comprehensive objective function aggregating within-superpixel error, boundary gradient, and a regularization term. Minimizing the within-superpixel error enforces the homogeneity of superpixels. In addition, the introduction of boundary gradient drives the superpixel boundaries to capture the natural image boundaries, so as to make each superpixel overlaps with a single object. The regularizer further encourages producing similarly sized superpixels that are friendly to human vision. The optimization is then accomplished by a powerful global optimizer—differential evolution. The algorithm constantly evolves the superpixels by mimicking the process of natural evolution, while using a linear complexity to the image size. Experimental results and comparisons with eleven state-of-the-art peer algorithms verify the promising performance of our algorithm.
Wireless video distribution to handheld devices

We propose a system for wireless video multicast/broadcast to mobile handheld devices. We exploit the latest achievements in video coding (scalable 3D wavelet-based video coder) and in channel coding low-complexity rate compatible punctured PUM-based turbo codes). In the case of severe channel conditions, additional Reed-Solomon coding is applied across the packets. The scalable bitstream is split into multiple frames which are encoded separately. Fast rate optimal algorithms are used to determine suboptimal source channel symbol allocation. Experimental results given for different video sequences and channel conditions indicate good performance achieved at low complexity.
The 2 March 2016 Wharton Basin Mw 7.8 earthquake: High stress drop north‐south strike‐slip rupture in the diffuse oceanic deformation zone between the Indian and Australian Plates

The diffuse deformation zone between the Indian and Australian plates has hosted numerous major and great earthquakes during the seismological record, including the 11 April 2012 Mw 8.6 event, the largest recorded intraplate earthquake. On 2 March 2016, an Mw 7.8 strike‐slip faulting earthquake occurred in the northwestern Wharton Basin, in a region bracketed by north‐south trending fracture zones with no previously recorded large event nearby. Despite the large magnitude, only minor source finiteness is evident in aftershock locations or resolvable from seismic wave processing including high‐frequency P wave backprojections and Love wave directivity analysis. Our analyses indicate that the event ruptured bilaterally on a north‐south trending fault over a length of up to 70 km, with rupture speed of ≤ 2 km/s, and a total duration of ~35 s. The estimated stress drop, ~20 MPa, is high, comparable to estimates for other large events in this broad intraplate oceanic deformation zone.
Associates of mortality and hospitalization in hemodialysis: potentially actionable laboratory variables and vascular access.

BACKGROUND To determine the most significant potentially actionable clinical variables associated with mortality and hospitalization risk in hemodialysis (HD) patients. STUDY DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS Adult maintenance HD patients in the Fresenius Medical Care, North America database as of January 1, 2004, with baseline information from October 1, 2003, to December 31, 2003, comprising approximately 26% of the US HD population. PREDICTORS Case-mix (age, sex, race, diabetes, vintage, and body surface area), vascular access, and laboratory (albumin, equilibrated Kt/V, hemoglobin, calcium, phosphorus, creatinine, bicarbonate, biointact parathyroid hormone, transferrin saturation, and white blood cell count) variables. OUTCOMES 1-year mortality and hospitalization risk from January 1 to December 31, 2004. MEASUREMENTS Cox proportional hazards models for death and hospitalization. RESULTS The cohort (N = 78,420) had a mean age of 61.4 +/- 15.0 years, 47% were women, 49% were white, 41% were black race (10% defined as "other"), and 52% had diabetes. The top 5 actionable variables were the same for mortality and hospitalization. Final case-mix plus laboratory-adjusted hazard ratios for these top 5 actionable variables indicate 177% increased risk of death and 67% increased risk of hospitalization per 1-g/dL decrease in albumin level, 39% and 45% greater risk with catheters compared with fistulas, 18% and 9% greater risk per 1-mg/dL greater phosphorus level, 11% and 9% lower risk per 1-g/dL greater hemoglobin level, and 5% and 2% greater risk per 0.1-unit decrease in equilibrated Kt/V, respectively (all P < 0.0001). LIMITATIONS Observational cross-sectional study with limited comorbidity adjustment (for diabetes). CONCLUSION The same variables are associated with both mortality and hospitalization in HD patients. The top 5 potentially actionable variables are readily identifiable, with albumin level and catheter use the most prominent, and all 5 are appropriate targets for improvement.
Secrecy Performance Analysis for SIMO Simultaneous Wireless Information and Power Transfer Systems

In this paper, a single-input multiple-output (SIMO) simultaneous wireless information and power transfer system consisting of one base station, one desired information receiver and N (N > 1) energy-harvesting receivers is considered. Each link in the considered system suffers not only from small-scale fading but also path-loss. In particular, we focus on the physical layer security performance including secrecy outage and secrecy capacity in the presence of eavesdroppers. We derive the closed-form analytical expression for the exact and the asymptotic secrecy outage probability while considering each eavesdropping link experiences independent but not necessarily identical Rayleigh fading. The closed-form analytical expression for the average secrecy capacity has also been derived for the case that all eavesdropping links experience independent and identical Rayleigh fading. Numerical and Monte Carlo simulation results are presented to verify our derived analytical models.
Unconstrained Influence Diagram Solver: Guido

Influence diagrams (ID) are a graphical computational model developed for decision making with uncertainty, based on probability inference. The unconstrained version of this model (UID) drops the restriction of linear ordering of decisions. It adds expressiveness to the model, but it brings an exponential growth of complexity of the already computationally intensive algorithm for optimal ID evaluation. In this article, we present the first application for exact UID solving: Guido. We present the techniques we used to fight the computational complexity and how they affect the performance of the application.
Field Anesthesia of Golden Jackals (Canis aureus) with the Use of Medetomidine-Ketamine or Medetomidine-Midazolam with Atipamezole Reversal

Abstract Twenty-two free-ranging golden jackals (Canis aureus) were immobilized with a combination of 113 ± 24 μg/kg medetomidine and 2.1 ± 0.3 mg/kg ketamine (M–K) or 88 ± 16 μg/kg medetomidine and 0.47 ± 0.08 mg/ kg midazolam (M–M) by i.m. injection. Induction and recovery times were recorded. Pulse rate, respiratory rate, body temperature, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and oxygen saturation were measured. Anesthesia depth indicators were observed. There was no significant difference between the M–K and the M–M groups regarding induction time (6:14 ± 1:45 and 7:16 ± 2:09 min, respectively). Both combinations provided safe and effective immobilization for at least 20–30 min. Pulse rate was significantly higher in the M–K group. There was no significant difference in any other objective or subjective parameter. Following administration of atipamezole at five times the dose of medetomidine given, there was a significant difference between the two combinations in recovery time; M–K jackals were standing within 3:42 ± 2:17 min and M–M jackals within 8:47 ± 4:32 min. Neither of the combinations caused rough or prolonged recovery. Subjectively, the M–M group had smoother and less ataxic recovery.
Systematic Review of Neuropsychological Outcomes in Dementia from Cognition-Based Psychological Interventions

Background/Aims: Although there is increasing evidence for the effectiveness of cognition-based psychological interventions in dementia, little is known about which neuropsychological domains are more amenable to change. Method: A systematic search identified randomised controlled trials grouped according to intervention type (cognitive training/cognitive stimulation). Methodological quality was evaluated. Results: Of the 129 studies identified, 18 met the inclusion criteria; 11 were ‘Cognitive Training’ and 7 ‘Cognitive Stimulation’. For Cognitive Training, it was not possible to conclude which (if any) domains are most amenable to change. For Cognitive Stimulation, there was good evidence for general cognitive enhancement, more specifically in language and memory. Conclusions: Further in-depth trials are needed to determine neuropsychological processes more clearly.