Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the validity and response distribution of the simplified psoriasis index in patients receiving phototherapy

The simplified psoriasis index (SPI) is a three‐part multidimensional tool incorporating disease severity, psychosocial impact and historical course completed by the health‐care professional (professional SPI, [proSPI]) or the patient (self‐assessment SPI, [saSPI]). We aimed to assess the validity and response distribution of proSPI and saSPI in patients with psoriasis undergoing phototherapy.
Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Determinants of Condom Use Among People Living With HIV/AIDS in Gondar University Hospital, North West Ethiopia -

Condoms offer protection against unwanted pregnancy and some sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Interventions to promote condom use are essential in efforts to slow the spread of HIV. The burden of HIV/AIDS is high in Sub-Saharan countries which constitutes two third of the globe and is worst in Ethiopia. As a strategy for prevention, condom use practice among others remains the most effective method against HIV infection. So knowing knowledge, attitude, practice and determinants of consistent condom use in HIV patients who were on ART had paramount importance in the prevention and control of the disease. The main aim of this study is to find out the level of awareness, and determinants of condom use among People Living with HIV/AIDS attending Gondar University Hospital, ART clinic. Hospital based comparative cross sectional study were conducted at Gondar university referral hospital, northwest Ethiopia. Random sampling technique was used and single population formula was applied to select 317 study participants from the ART clinic of the Hospital. A structured interview guide questionnaire first prepared in English then translated into Amharic was used to collect data. Three of the investigators were work as data collectors. A total of 317 respondents from ART experienced groups were included in the study. Female constitute 159(50.2%) and the age of the respondents ranges from 18-65 and above. About 77% of the study participants are knowledgeable and consistent condom use was reported by 78.9%. Also 35.3% of the respondents have positive attitude towards condom. This study found that PLWHA generally have a high level of condom use and knowledge on importance of condom in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies and HIV/AIDS transmission. However, more than half have negative attitude towards condom.
A Note on the Optimal Measure of Allelic Association

Association of pairs of loci due to departure of gamete frequencies from expected frequencies is called allelic association. This measure is useful for fine‐scale mapping. There are several measures of allelic association in the literature. With the availability of a SNP map, the use of linkage disequilibrium to map genes is one of the central issues in the human genome project. The size of linkage disequilibrium blocks is of considerable interest. In this note, we investigate the statistical properties of a measure which is known to have the strongest theoretical population basis and be least sensitive to the marker allele frequencies. In particular, we have shown that this measure has intuitive appeal and the estimator for this measure has several statistically optimal properties such as consistency, asymptotic unbiasedness and asymptotic efficiency.
Stacked Spirals for Biosensor Telemetry

This paper presents an inductive power transmission coil for biosensor-based telemetric implants. Using stacked spirals reduces the consumed space and the self-resonant frequency (SRF) of the spiral and the required power transmission frequency for the implanted device. A four-layer 15 mm × 15 mm spiral coil of seven turns is simulated in CST Microwave Studio (TM), constructed and tested in hardware with comparable results. Measurements also include the receipt of power inductively from an energized array of spirals powered by a Class-E transmitter at 27 MHz, and rectified to 1 V for biosensor applications.
A Statistical Approach to the Design of a Dispatchable Wind Power-Battery Energy Storage System

A scheme that allows the dispatch of steady and controllable level of power from a wind power generating station is proposed in this paper. The scheme utilizes two battery energy storage systems (BESSs) in which the generated wind power is used to charge one BESS, while the second BESS is used to discharge constant power into grid. The role of the two BESS interchanges when the discharging BESS reaches specified operating limit. With this scheme in mind and based on given wind speed statistics, charging characteristics of the BESS are studied, and a method to determine the expected charging time of the BESS to reach stipulated battery state of charge is developed. The expected BESS charging time, in turn, dictates the constant power level that can be dispatched to the grid through the discharging BESS. The corresponding discharge time is also determined using the developed method, the accuracy of which is validated experimentally. The proposed design procedure is then used to determine the minimum BESS capacity based on the expected wind power. Statistical likelihood of dispatchable power delivery achievable from the scheme is also obtained.
Saturnian magnetospheric dynamics: Elucidation of a camshaft model

[1] Periodic modulation of magnetospheric phenomena at Earth and Jupiter results principally from the tilt of the dipole axis relative to the rotation axis. Saturn's nearly aligned dipole moment is tilted by less than 0.5° from the spin axis, yet the power of radio-frequency emissions, the orientation of the magnetic field, and many properties of the magnetospheric plasma vary periodically at the approximate rate of Saturn's rotation. Here we examine properties of the periodic magnetic signal detected in the magnetospheric regions inside ∼12–15 RS. We show that it is associated with a rotating nonaxisymmetric system of field-aligned currents flowing on magnetic shells bounding the region where the signals are seen. Magnetohydrodynamic ideas suggest that these currents would drive rotating plasma flow patterns in the northern and southern ionospheres, with the flows oppositely directed in the two hemispheres. On magnetic shells beyond the sheets of field-aligned current, the magnetic perturbations generate an effective rotating equatorial dipole moment that when added to the planetary dipole moment, produces a dipole moment tilted relative to the spin axis at an angle of order 12–15°. The overt source of the north–south asymmetric ionospheric circulation could link to different ionospheric conductances that result from nonuniform solar illumination. Other possible sources are discussed but, although we can elucidate much, the origin of the cam signal (as well as other phenomena such as the Saturn kilometric radio emission with close to the same period) remains enigmatic.
Age‐dependent differences in the prevalence of allergic rhinitis and atopic sensitization between an eastern and a western German city

Recent studies have found a higher prevalence of allergic rhinitis and atopic sensitization among adults living in eastern than those living in western Germany. We hypothesize that prevalence rates were similar before Germany was divided and diverged after the division. Because there are no historical data comparing atopic status between the two parts of Germany, we tested this hypothesis by comparing the prevalence of atopy among persons who were born during different decades. As part of the EC Respiratory Health Survey, a respiratory health questionnaire was mailed to a population‐based sample of 8363 subjects aged 20–44 years from a city in the former West Germany (Hamburg) and a city in the former East Germany (Erfurt). Of the target population. 6428 (77%) subjects responded. Subsamples of 731 subjects from Erfurt and 1159 subjects from Hamburg participated in medical examinations, including skin prick tests and specific IgE measurements. Prevalence rates of allergic sensitization were similar in Hamburg and Erfurt for those born in the periods 1946–51 and 1952–61. respectively, but differed between Hamburg and Erfurt subjects born in the period 1962–71. After adjustment for several potential predictors, the younger subjects from Hamburg had a higher odds ratio (OR) of sensitization than those Hamburg subjects born before 1952 (skin prick test reactivity: OR 2.06. any specific IgE > 0.35 kU/1: OR 1.61). The younger subjects from Erfurt were not more frequently sensitized than the older subjects (skin prick test reactivity: OR 1.05. any specific IgE > 0.35 kU/1: OR 0.79). No single allergen could be identified as responsible for the observed difference. We conclude that factors related to a “Western lifestyle”, which were prevalent in the West German city during the 1960s and i970s. may be responsible for the higher prevalence of allergic sensitization observed in Hamburg.
Tracking the temporal relation between speaker recognition and processing of phonetic information

To study the temporal relation between speaker recognition and the processing of phonetic information, we conducted a visual-world eyetracking study, in which speaker identification (two male voices) and word recognition (onsetoverlapping competitors) were assessed simultaneously by presenting speaker-item combinations as the visual referents. Results showed that participants could reliably identify speakers and items in all conditions. As for the temporal uptake of information and competition between visual referents of speakers and items, we found that across conditions speaker competition was stronger than phonetic competition. Only when both speaker and item referents were ambiguous, did phonetic competition manifest itself. This suggests that speaker information is processed rapidly such that phonetic competition can be minimised. We conclude that the visualworld paradigm can be further extended to study the interaction of different types of information in the speech signal.
Analysis of Various Decision Tree Algorithms for Classification in Data Mining

Today the computer technology and computer network technology has developed so much and is still developing with pace.Thus, the amount of data in the information industry is getting higher day by day. This large amount of data can be helpful for analyzing and extracting useful knowledge from it. The hidden patterns of data are analyzed and then categorized into useful knowledge. This process is known as Data Mining. [4]. Among the various data mining techniques, Decision Tree is also the popular one. Decision tree uses divide and conquer technique for the basic learning strategy. A decision tree is a flow chart-like structure in which each internal node represents a “test” on an attribute where each branch represents the outcome of the test and each leaf node represents a class label. This paper discusses various algorithms of the decision tree (ID3, C4.5, CART), their features, advantages, and disadvantages.
Experimentally induced social inclusion influences behavior on trust games

Being socially excluded is profoundly distressing. It is unknown whether exclusion renders victims vulnerable to manipulation or whether excluded individuals become more cautious about being exploited by, and less trusting of, the person who excluded them. We investigated this by testing how much participants trust people who have socially included or excluded them. Inclusion and exclusion were manipulated using Cyberball (a virtual ball game) and, after playing Cyberball, participants played trust games. In a Reputation group participants played trust games with players from Cyberball; in the No Reputation group, participants played with strangers. Inclusion/exclusion manipulation interacted with Group such that participants in the Reputation group trusted individuals who included them more than those who excluded them, whereas inclusion/exclusion made no difference to trust in the No-Reputation group. Our findings suggest that exclusion does not increase gullibility, but that reputation is transferred from a social to an economic setting so that social inclusion increases trust.
Enhancing work outcomes of employees with autism spectrum disorder through leadership: Leadership for employees with autism spectrum disorder

The focus of this study was to identify leader behaviors that elicit successful engagement of employees with autism spectrum disorder, a population that is powerfully emerging into the workplace. The ultimate goal was to improve the quality of life of employees with autism spectrum disorder by facilitating an environment leading to their success. Through a series of interviews with 54 employees with autism spectrum disorder, results indicated that leadership has a great effect on employee attitudes and performance, and that the notion of leadership preferences is quite complex culminating in several important behaviors rather than one superior leadership theory. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Alteration of biomass composition in response to changing substrate particle size and the consequences for enzymatic hydrolysis of corn bran

Corn bran is a by-product from corn starch processing. This work examined the effects of changing substrate particle size on enzymatic hydrolysis of both raw and pretreated destarched corn bran. The biomass composition of the corn bran varied between particle size fractions: The largest particles ([1000;710]µm) were richer in cellulose and in (arabino) xylan with a relatively low degree of arabinofuranosyl substitutions, whereas the smaller particles ([250;150]µm) contained less cellulose, but arabinoxylan with higher arabinofuranosyl substitution (higher A:X ratio). Enzymatic hydrolysis yields improved with decreasing substrate particle size, particularly for the raw corn bran. The increased enzymatic yields obtained with decreasing substrate particle sizes were related to the increased substrate surface area but also to the biomass composition. Theoretical estimations of enzymatic reaction efficiency supported that biomass composition affected the enzymatic reaction yields and provided new insight into the impact of substrate particle size on enzymatic biomass hydrolysis.
Early Clinical Outcomes in Children Enrolled in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection Care and Treatment in Lesotho

Background: Children are largely underrepresented among those accessing treatment of HIV infection in Africa. Reported outcomes of children enrolled in national care and treatment programs are needed to inform the widespread scale-up of pediatric HIV care in resource-limited settings. Methods: The objective of this article is to report on the early outcomes of a pediatric HIV infection care and treatment program in Lesotho during its first 14 months of operation. Clinical protocols are described, and characteristics and outcomes of the first cohort of children enrolled in care are reported, derived from a retrospective review of medical records. Results: In the program's first 14 months, 1566 children and adolescents aged between 0 and 16 years were evaluated for HIV, with 567 (36%) confirmed to be infected. Of infected patients, 61% presented with advanced or severe symptoms of HIV disease and 65% presented with CD4 profiles consistent with advanced or severe immunodeficiency, based on World Health Organization 2006 guidelines. Two hundred and eighty four children received highly active antiretroviral therapy. The mortality rate was 18.6 deaths per 100 patient years of follow-up. Ninety-nine percent of deaths occurred within 90 days of enrollment. Deceased patients were significantly younger, had higher rates of stunting and wasting, and were more likely to present with low CD4 cell counts. Conclusion: Highly active antiretroviral therapy was well tolerated, but the early mortality rate was high despite concurrent management of HIV and comorbidities. Given that hundreds of thousands of children remain without access to HIV care, renewed efforts are needed to reach this underserved population.
Hormone Therapy after Endometrial Cancer

Summary Endometrial carcinoma is one of the absolute contraindications of hormone therapy (HT). After all the existing opinions so far, HT after Stage I or II is still thought of as a possibility and up to now, the continuously combined estrogen (CAS 53-16-7) / progestogen (CAS 57-83-0) replacement therapy (CCEPT) has been recommended. However, only observational studies have been conducted as yet. Although no study established an increased rate of recurrence or mortality, alternatives such as phyto-preparations, tibolone, or particular psychotherapeutic drugs such as venlafaxine should be considered for the relief of climacteric complaints. In particular considered is progestogen-only therapy. However, the currently discussed possible progestogen effects regarding the risk of breast cancer have to be taken into account. Generally after hysterectomy, at least for patients with cardiovascular risk factors, the preference today is to use low-dose estrogen therapy (patches, gels) instead of CCEPT, and this also is now recommended for patients after endometrial cancer. This is important because of the risk factors for endometrial carcinoma, such as hypertension, obesity, polycystic ovary syndrome, diabetes mellitus etc. However, each form of HT should only be exceptionally recommended, and the patients must be informed about the risks that exist and the use of alternatives.
Effect of arm training on central and peripheral circulatory function.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of endurance arm training on metabolic and circulatory function during arm and leg exercise. Thirty-eight females (aged 18 to 35 yr) participated in the study, with 19 subjects in the training group and 19 in a control group. Both a specific and general training response was observed at the conclusion of the 5-wk training period. As a result of training, during peak arm exercise, significant increases (P less than 0.05) were observed for oxygen uptake (VO2), ventilation, cardiac output, stroke volume, arterial-venous oxygen difference, cumulative work, and total performance time. During peak leg exercise following arm training, significant increases (P less than 0.05) were observed for VO2, ventilation, cardiac output, cumulative work, and total performance time. Standardized partial regression coefficients were used to examine the relative influence of the metabolic and circulatory components which define VO2. Prior to training during arm work, the arterial-venous oxygen difference accounted for the largest proportion of variance in VO2; but after training, stroke volume contributed the largest portion of variance. On the other hand, during leg exercise, stroke volume accounted for the largest portion of variation in leg VO2 both before and after arm training. The data suggest that endurance arm training as prescribed in this study elicits significant circulorespiratory function adaptations to support improved performance in both arm and leg work. Further, the findings suggest both a specific and general training effect, with the more dominant effect specific to arm work. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
CHRONIC TONSILLITIS CAN BE DIAGNOSED WITH HISTOPATHOLOGIC FINDINGS

Aim: The objective was to identify histopathologic findings of the chronic tonsillitis in the palatine tonsils. Methods: 480 palatine tonsillectomy specimens obtained from 240 patients were included in this study. 120 (66 males, 54 female) chronic tonsillitis patients and as control group 120 (60 males, 60 female) chronic adenotonsillar hypertrophy patients underwent bilateral tonsillectomy. Eight histopathologic criteria were investigated all palatine tonsils. Results: All histopathologic criteria showed a statistically significant difference between chronic tonsillitis and chronic adenotonsillar hypertrophy (p=0.0001 to p=0.006). Although seven criteria were more closely associated with chronic tonsillitis (p=0.0001 to p=0.001), only one criteria (the presence of lymphoid hyperplasia) was higher in chronic adenotonsillar hypertrophy compared chronic tonsillitis (p=0.006). Histopathological examination showed the presence of slight-moderate lymphocyte infiltration in the surface epithelium and the presence of Ugras's abscess and/or diffuse lymphocyte infiltration leading to the defect in the surface epithelium in 97and 93 vs 25 and 5 % in chronic tonsillitis and chronic adenotonsillar hypertrophy, respectively. Conclusion: Chronic tonsillitis may be diagnosed on tonsillectomy materials with fairly characteristic and reliable histopathologic criteria. Because three reliable histopathologic criteria were seen almost all of the patients with chronic tonsillitis. Slight-moderate lymphocyte infiltration and the presence of Ugras's abscess and/or diffuse lymphocyte infiltration leading to the defect in the surface epithelium not present in normal tonsils. These findings are observed in 97, 93% in chronic tonsillitis, respectively. Therefore, combination of these findings with other histopathological findings are fairly diagnostic for chronic tonsillitis.
Genus Beta Human Papillomavirus E6 Proteins Vary in Their Effects on the Transactivation of p53 Target Genes

ABSTRACT The genus beta human papillomaviruses (beta HPVs) cause cutaneous lesions and are thought to be involved in the initiation of some nonmelanoma skin cancers (NMSCs), particularly in patients with the genetic disorder epidermodysplasia verruciformis (EV). We have previously reported that at least two of the genus beta HPV E6 proteins bind to and/or increase the steady-state levels of p53 in squamous epithelial cells. This is in contrast to a well-characterized ability of the E6 proteins of cancer-associated HPVs of genus alpha HPV, which inactivate p53 by targeting its ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis. In this study, we have investigated the ability of genus beta E6 proteins from eight different HPV types to block the transactivation of p53 target genes following DNA damage. We find that the E6 proteins from diverse beta HPV species and types vary in their capacity to block the induction of MDM2, p21, and proapoptotic genes after genotoxic stress. We conclude that some genus beta HPV E6 proteins inhibit at least some p53 target genes, although perhaps not by the same mechanism or to the same degree as the high-risk genus alpha HPV E6 proteins. IMPORTANCE This study addresses the ability of various human papillomavirus E6 proteins to block the activation of p53-responsive cellular genes following DNA damage in human keratinocytes, the normal host cell for HPVs. The E6 proteins encoded by the high-risk, cancer-associated HPV types of genus alpha HPV have a well-established activity to target p53 degradation and thereby inhibit the response to DNA damage. In this study, we have investigated the ability of genus beta HPV E6 proteins from eight different HPV types to block the ability of p53 to transactivate downstream genes following DNA damage. We find that some, but not all, genus beta HPV E6 proteins can block the transactivation of some p53 target genes. This differential response to DNA damage furthers the understanding of cutaneous HPV biology and may help to explain the potential connection between some beta HPVs and cancer.