Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence estimates of HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B and C among female sex workers (FSW) in Brazil, 2016

Background: Female sex workers (FSW) bear a high burden of sexually transmitted infections (STI). In this paper, we estimate the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), HBV = hepatitis B virus (HBV), HCV = hepatitis C virus (HCV), syphilis and co-infections in the second Biological and Behavioral Surveillance Survey among FSW in Brazil. Method: The survey was conducted in 12 Brazilian cities from July to November 2016. We used respondent-driven sampling (RDS) to recruit 350 FSW in each city. Rapid tests were used for screening HIV, syphilis, HCV, and HBV. Confirmatory tests were performed on all samples with reactive rapid test result. All testing algorithms and interpretations were done according to the recommendations of the Department of STI/AIDS and viral hepatitis, Ministry of Health. The STI diagnoses were given by: confirmed HIV infection by a positive result on Western blot; active syphilis infection, defined by a RPR titer equal or greater than 1/8; viremia period of HBV and HCV infections, characterized by a detectable (or quantifiable) viral load. Prevalence estimates and standard errors were calculated using statistical procedures suitable for data collected by RDS. Results: Excluding the seeds, 4245 FSW were enrolled. Prevalence estimates were: HIV 5.3% (95% CI: 4.4%–6.2%); active syphilis 8.5% (95% CI: 7.3%–9.7%); HBV 0.4% (95% CI: 0.2%–0.7%); and, HCV 0.9% (95% CI: 0.6%–1.3%). Among the 4154 FSW tested for the 4 infections, 13.3%; (95% CI 12.0%–14.8%) were diagnosed with at least one of the infections, of which 87.6% (95% CI: 83.3%–90.9%) had single infections. The prevalence of HIV/syphilis co-infection was 1.09% (95% CI: 0.7%– 1.6%) and of HIV/HCV or HBV infections was 0.4% (95% CI: 0.2%–0.7%). Conclusions: Our results reveal the need to conduct more studies to estimate the prevalence of STI and co-infections among FSW in Brazil. Longitudinal trends in the prevalence estimates of HIV and other STI provide information to monitor changes in this high-risk population. Additionally, the study highlights the importance of measuring the hepatitis burden among FSW living with HIV, and the need of including FSW in all aspects of STI prevention, care, and treatment programs.
Limited Information Estimation and Evaluation of DSGE Models. Working paper #6

We advance the proposal that DSGE models should not just be estimated and evaluated with reference to full information methods. These make strong assumptions and therefore there is uncertainty about their impact upon results. Some limited information analysis which can be used in a complementary way seems important. Because it is sometimes difficult to implement limited information methods when there are unobservable non-stationary variables in the system we present a simple method of overcoming this that involves normalizing the non-stationary variables with their permanent components and then estimating the estimating the resulting Euler equations. We illustrate the interaction between full and limited information methods in the context of a well-known open economy model of Lubik and Schorfheide. The transformation was effective in revealing possible mis-specifications in the equations of LS\'s system and the limited information analysis highlighted the role of priors in having a major influence upon the estimates.
The eJournal of the European Society of Minimally Invasive Neurological Therapy

INTRODUCTION: Endovascular therapies are used with increasing frequency for the treatment of selected patients with acute ischemic stroke. We evaluated the complications that can be seen during and after endovascular interventional modalities and discussed these findings with respect to the current literature. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed the early outcome of the treatment and complications of 28 consecutive stroke patients who received intravenous (IV) and / or intraarterial (IA) thrombolytic treatment with mechanical clot disruption (MCD) or stent assisted thrombectomy (SAT). RESULTS: Twenty-eight patients presented with a total of 31 vascular occlusions. The anatomical distribution of occlusions were: 18 middle cerebral arteries (MCA), 6 basilar arteries, 6 internal carotid arteries (ICA) and 1 brachiocephalic trunk. Twenty-three (76 %) patients had subsequent TICI ≥ 2b recanalisation rate and 50 % presented with good outcome (mRS <2) within 90 days. No intervention was used for the brachiocephalic trunk. Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) was seen in 7 patients (25 %); no symptomatic ICH was detected. Stent detachment was observed in 1 patient (3.5 %). Arterial dissection was grouped as intracranial dissection, which was noted in 2 patients (7 %) and extracranial dissection at the puncture site in 1 patient (3.5 %). Caroticocavernous fistula (CCF) was noted in a single case (3.5 %). Ischemic complications / arterial occlusions in other locations were detected in 4 patients (14 %). Reocclusion was observed in 2 patients (7 %). CONCLUSIONS: Recognising peri-procedural complications is very important in patients undergoing acute ischemic stroke treatment. Therefore, possible complications should be updated and reported.
Estimation of surface long wave radiation and broadband emissivity using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature//emissivity products

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) global land surface temperature (LST)/emissivity products supply daily, 8-day, and monthly global temperature and narrowband emissivity data. This article uses these products to calculate the surface long wave radiation of natural objects such as sand, soil, vegetation, etc., based on the Planck function and the Stefan-Boltzmann law. The results show that using the narrowband emissivity of a single band instead of the broadband emissivity results in large errors of up to 100 W m? 2 of the calculated long wave radiation. A method to calculate broadband emissivity in the entire TIR spectral region from the narrowband emissivities of the MODIS bands (29, 31, and 32) in the thermal infrared region is proposed. Using the broadband emissivity, the surface long wave radiation could be calculated to an accuracy better than 6 W m? 2 in the temperature region of 240–330 K, with a standard deviation of 1.22 W m? 2, and a maximum error of 6.05 W m? 2 (not considering the uncertainty associated with the MODIS LST/emissivity products themselves). The satellite estimated broadband emissivity was compared with 3-year (January 2001 to December 2003) ground-based measurements of emissivity at Gaize (32.30°N, 84.06°E, 4420 m) on the western Tibetan Plateau. The results show that the broadband emissivity calculated from MODIS narrowband emissivities by this method matches well the ground measurements, with a standard deviation of 0.0085 and a bias of 0.0015.
STUDY OF IN VITRO ANTI-INFLAMMATORY ACTIVITY OF ETHNOMEDICINAL PLANTS OF SIKKIM VISCUM ARTICULATUM AND ACORUS CALAMUS

Objective: The present study was carried out to evaluate the anti-inflammatory property of ethnomedicinal plants Viscum articulatum and Acorus calamus. Methods: Human red blood cells membrane stabilization method was applied to assess the anti-inflammatory property of both the plants. Results: It was observed that both plant extracts have the anti-inflammatory potential comparable with that of the drug indomethacin. However, A. calamus was found to provide slightly more inhibition of hemolysis (76.8%) than that of standard drug (indomethacin) (72.8%), whereas V. articulatum provided slightly lesser inhibition (68%) in comparison to the drug. There was the tendency of increase protection along with the increase in the concentration of the extract, and maximum protection was achieved at the maximum concentration of 5000 µg/ml. Conclusion: The study proves the anti-inflammatory efficacy of both the plants and they hold a good prospect for drug development against inflammation. Keywords: Anti-inflammatory, Viscum articulatum, Acorus calamus, Sikkim.
Incidence of Mycoplasma canis in the vagina in three groups of bitches

The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of Mycoplasma canis in the vagina in three groups of healthy canine bitches. Two vaginal swab samples were collected from each of the 91 mixed-breed canine bitches. One sample was placed into a transport medium, chilled and brought to the laboratory within 24 h. These swabs were cultured on a urea-arginine LYO2 broth, thereafter DNA was extracted and tested by PCR. The second vaginal sample was cultured for aerobic bacteria. Totally, 38 (41.76%) samples were positive. In group I (n = 32) M. canis was detected in 22 (68.7%) bitches, in group II (n = 24) in four (16.7%), and in group III (n = 35) in 12 (34.3%) animals. Mixed infections with other bacteria were common. The mean number of isolates from vaginal samples was 2.1. The results indicate that M. canis is a part of normal vaginal flora in healthy bitches. The differences between groups of bitches in the frequency of incidence of M. canis and other bacteria could result from various environmental conditions.
Regulated recruitment: native and alien fish responses to widespread floodplain inundation in the Macquarie Marshes, arid Australia

Rivers and wetland ecosystems are degraded by diversions of water upstream. In response, governments have reallocated water to flood wetlands, mimicking natural inundation of habitats known to drive booms in native freshwater fish production. Individual flow events allow the ecological outcomes of restoration efforts to be evaluated, in order to improve ongoing adaptive management. This study investigated the population size and recruitment responses of seven native and three alien fish species to widespread floodplain inundation at 15 sites across the Macquarie Marshes, a regulated wetland in Australia's Murray–Darling Basin. Flooding during the late winter, when water temperatures were 4 to 12.6 °C below the spawning threshold for native fish species present in the system, promoted reproduction and recruitment by alien species, which were significantly more abundant than native species after flooding. Fish assemblage structure also differed significantly between main channel and floodplain habitats, with macrophytes, pH, emergent vegetation, flow velocity and small wood debris accounting for 59% of spatiotemporal variation in fish assemblage structure. Strong correlations were identified between the length of spawning window and post‐flood abundance of young‐of‐year and recruit size classes in the most abundant alien and native fish species. Future environmental flows, particularly those that inundate floodplain habitats, need to be delivered in light of the confounding effects of flow–temperature coupling and the lower spawning temperature thresholds of alien species. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Core–skin debonding detection in honeycomb sandwich structures through guided wave wavefield analysis

Ultrasonic guided waves have proven to be an effective and efficient method for damage detection and quantification in various plate-like structures. In honeycomb sandwich structures, wave propagation and interaction with typical defects such as hidden debonding damage are complicated; hence, the detection of defects using guided waves remains a challenging problem. The work presented in this article investigates the interaction of low-frequency guided waves with core–skin debonding damage in aluminum core honeycomb sandwich structures using finite element simulations. Due to debonding damage, the waves propagating in the debonded skin panel change to fundamental antisymmetric Lamb waves with different wavenumber values. Exploiting this mechanism, experimental inspection using a non-contact laser Doppler vibrometer was performed to acquire wavefield data from pristine and debonded structures. The data were then processed and analyzed with two wavefield data–based imaging approaches, the filter reconstruction imaging and the spatial wavenumber imaging. Both approaches can clearly indicate the presence, location, and size of the debonding in the structures, thus proving to be effective methods for debonding detection and quantification for honeycomb sandwich structures.
Tensor Algebras, Induced Representations, and the Wold Decomposition

Abstract Our objective in this sequel to $[18]$ is to develop extensions, to representations of tensor algebras over ${{C}^{*}}$ -correspondences, of two fundamental facts about isometries on Hilbert space: The Wold decomposition theorem and Beurling’s theorem, and to apply these to the analysis of the invariant subspace structure of certain subalgebras of Cuntz-Krieger algebras.
Evidence for selective mortality in marine environments: the role of fish migration size, timing, and production type

The underlying causes of mortality during critical life stages of fish are not well understood, nor is it clear if these causes are similar for naturally versus artificially propagated (i.e. hatchery) individuals. To assess the importance of selective mortality related to production type (hatchery vs. naturally produced) and size at and timing of marine entry, we compared attributes of juvenile Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha from the upper Columbia River summer- and fall-run genetic stock group captured in the Columbia River estuary with back-calculated attributes of survivors captured in marine waters. We used genetic stock identification, otolith chemistry and structure, and physical tags to determine stock of origin, size at and timing of mar- ine entry, and production type. Fish emigrated from fresh water in May to September and the majority of fish collected in the estuary (87%) had arrived within 3 d of capture. In 1 of 2 yr, timing of marine entry for both production types differed between the estuary and ocean: the ocean catch included a greater proportion of juveniles that emigrated in late July than the estuary catch. There was no evidence of selective mortality of smaller juveniles during early marine residence in hatchery or natural juveniles, but the mean percentage (±SE) of hatchery fish in ocean collections was 16 ± 5.8% less than in the estuary, which could indicate reduced survival compared to naturally produced fish. Results from this study highlight the need to understand the effects of hatchery rearing and how hatchery propagation may influence survival during later critical life-history transitions.
Individual Differences in Marketing Placebo Effects: Evidence from Brain Imaging and Behavioral Experiments

A wealth of research has explored whether marketing-based expectancies such as price and brand quality beliefs influence the consumption experience and subsequent behavior, but almost no research has examined individual differences in “marketing placebo effects. ” In this article, the authors suggest three moderators of the effect of marketing-based expectancies on the behavioral and neural measures of the consumption experience, based on previous findings from neuroscientific literature investigating traditional clinical pain placebo effects. They use a novel automated structural brain imaging approach to determine individual differences and combine this approach with traditional behavioral experiments. The findings show that consumers high in reward seeking, low in somatosensory awareness, and high in need for cognition are more responsive to marketing placebo effects.
PLA2 inhibitory, antioxidant and antibacterial properties of various solvent extracts from R. frangula leaves

The total tannin, flavonoid and phenolic contents of R. frangula leaves were determined by colorimetric assay. The antioxidant and antibacterial activities of solvent extracts were investigated using various tests. The anti-PLA2 properties of these extracts were evaluated by measuring their inhibition potency on the human and dromedary pro-inflammatory phospholipase A2-IIA. The data showed that the water extract exhibited the highest amount of tannin compounds, whereas the total phenolic and flavonoid contents were highest in the methanol fraction. The same fraction was the most effective at the minimum inhibitory concentration against all strains tested and exhibited an antioxidant activity. In contrast, the water extract showed the best anti-PLA2-IIA activity, and no effect was recorded on the digestive DrGIB. The results indicated a strong correlation between the antioxidant capacity, the total phenolic and flavonoid contents. However, no correlation was observed with the inhibitory effect against PLA2, suggesting that the anti-PLA2 molecules were tannin compounds.
vidence-based intervention for young children born premature : reliminary evidence for associated changes in hysiological regulation

The current study examined whether changes in maternal behaviors following an evidence-based treatment—Parent–Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT)—was associated with improvements in cardiac vagal regulation in young children born premature. Participants included 28 young children (mean age = 37.79 months) that were born premature and presented with elevated externalizing behavior problems. To assess cardiac vagal regulation, resting measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA change (withdrawal or suppression) to a clean-up task were derived pre and post-treatment. Results indicated that an increase in behaviors mothers are taught to use during treatment (i.e., do skills—praise, reflection, and behavioral descriptions) was associated with an improvement in children’s post-treatment RSA suppression levels. The current study illustrates the important role of caregiver behavior in promoting physiological regulation in children born premature. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Diffusion-Weighted MRI in Monitoring Locally Advance Breast Cancer Response to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy *

Objectives We have evaluated changes in tumor ADC on DWI values before and after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy to predict the treatment response in LABC and to measure the response to NACT among patients with locally advanced breast cancers preoperatively. Materials and Methods The following databases including Embase, the Cochrane library, MEDLINE, PubMed, Elsevier, Springer and free journals were searched via the search queries published until 1 July 2016. In order to have qualification for this study, we determined that a study should consist patients by newly diagnosed or recurrent, histologically proven breast cancer undergoing NACT who were imaged using MRI and predefined inclusion, extraction criteria and exclusion criteria. Results In 18 studies, which were mainly various study designs, most repeatedly parameters on studied were tumor volume and diameter, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). Majority of included studies were of prospective design. Several studies showed pretreatment ADC can differentiation of responders tumor from non-responders to NAC; it is also leading to decide whether NAC is a valid therapeutic option. Many studies have shown up that successful treatment is reflected by an ADC values is increase , which is believed to be the consequence of cellular damage and necrosis and reported sensitivity ADC and specificity on diffusionweighted MR imaging for early response monitoring. Tumor diameter, volume, parameters observed no significant difference was between responders tumor and non-responders in terms of mean pretreatment tumor sizes percentage decrease in tumor volume also diameter wasn’t significant between responders and nonresponders. At pretreatment and early response monitoring significant and nonsignificant changes for all parameters were observed for most of the imaging parameters. Conclusions DWI has many advantages as a biomarker to predict and monitor NAC in LABC women as it provides early response indicators based on information on microstructural changes related to therapy effects with the passage of time that usually follow alterations in tumor size and the mean of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) respectively. Moreover, the indication on recognizing non-response earlier before treatment may encourage changing in therapeutic strategies to avoid toxicity, direct individualization of treatment and, consequently, enhance patients’ outcome and increase overall survival. Keyword: Diffusion-Weighted MRI, Locally Advanced Breast Cancer (LABC), MR imaging, Neoadjuvant chemotherapy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 15 -07-2017 Date of acceptance: 23-08-2017 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An energy-preserving MAC-Yee scheme for the incompressible MHD equation

We propose a simple and efficient finite-difference method for the incompressible MHD equation. The numerical method combines the advantage of the MAC scheme for the Navier‐Stokes equation and Yee’s scheme for the Maxwell equation. In particular, the semi-discrete version of our scheme introduces no numerical dissipation and preserves the energy identity exactly. c
B → D l ν form factors at nonzero recoil and extraction of | V c b |

We present a lattice QCD calculation of the B→Dlν semileptonic decay form factors f+(q2) and f0(q2) for the entire physical q2 range. Nonrelativistic QCD bottom quarks and highly improved staggered quark charm and light quarks are employed together with Nf=2+1 MILC gauge configurations. A joint fit to our lattice and BABAR experimental data allows an extraction of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |Vcb|. We also determine the phenomenologically interesting ratio R(D)=B(B→Dτντ)/B(B→Dlνl) (l=e,μ). We find |Vcb|B→Dexcl=0.0402(17)(13), where the first error consists of the lattice simulation errors and the experimental statistical error and the second error is the experimental systematic error. For the branching fraction ratio we find R(D)=0.300(8).
Spatial and temporal variations in the isotopic composition of bison tooth enamel from the Early Holocene

The Hudson–Meng bone bed in northwestern Nebraska is an early Holocene deposit of hundreds of bison of differing ages that were killed in a catastrophic event of unknown origin. The M1, M2, and M3 molars of individuals, ranging from ca. 1 to 7 years of age at the time of their death, were examined to determine interand intra-tooth isotopic variability, and to link this variability to time in order to better understand the environments that existed prior to the mass death event. The d13C value of molar structural carbonate increases by 2–3‰ from the M1 to M3 molars, reflecting increasing direct forage signals, and decreasing maternal influences. The d18O value of molar structural carbonate in a given individual shows no consistent trend with time from birth, indicating a fairly direct linkage to ‘dietary water’ regardless of tooth ontogeny. Detailed ‘down-tooth’ isotopic measurements indicate a small seasonal signal in the d13C value of forage/maternal milk, which appeared to have been largely dominated by 4 flora. In contrast, there was almost a 10‰ range in the isotopic composition of dietary water, a range that is within present-day summer versus winter precipitation in the region. The d18O value of bulk tooth enamel, arranged by approximate time prior to the death event, indicate a consistent increase in the d18O value of body water (2–3‰), suggesting a long-term decrease in winter/spring precipitation and/or drought. The d18O trend with time, coupled with the high 4 grass abundance, suggest environmental stresses on the herd preceding the catastrophic death event. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.