Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical utility and evaluation of radiology in diagnosing sacroiliitis

4 Acknowledgments.5 Original papers.7 Abbreviations.8 Background.9 The sacroiliac joint in the spondyloarthropathies.9 Anatomy.11 Normal variants and dysplasias . 13 Normal variants.13 Dysplasias.14 Diseases of the sacroiliac joints.15 Inflammatory arthritis.15 Seronegative arthritis.15 Classification of spondyloarthropathies.15 Ankylosing spondylitis.16 Historical perspectives.16 Epidemiology and pathogenesis.18 Natural history.20 Diagnosis.21 Clinical manifestations.21 Skeletal manifestations.22 Extraskeletal manifestations.24 Laboratory findings.24 Histologic findings.24 Treatment.25 Risks and complications of disease.26 Psoriatic arthritis.26 Reactive arthritis.27 Enteropathic arthritis.28 Juvenile arthritis.28 Undifferentiated spondyloarthropathy.28 Seropositive arthritis.29 Rheumatoid arthritis.29 Infectious arthritis.29 Degenerative joint disease.30 Diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis.30 Other conditions.31 Diseases of the sacrum.33 Trauma.33 Fatigue fractures and osteoporotic fractures.33 High-velocity trauma.33 Tumors.33 Imaging of the sacroiliac joints.35 Radiography.35 Technique.35 Radiation dose.35 Radiographic signs of sacroiliitis.36 Diagnostic criteria.37 Scintigraphy.37 Computed tomography.38 Technique.39 2 Clinical utility and evaluation of radiology in diagnosing sacroiliitis Radiation dose.40 Magnetic resonance imaging.41 Technique.42 The current investigation – aims and hypothesis.43 Aims of individual papers.43 Errata.44 Paper I.44 Paper III . 44 Material and methods.45 Overview.45 Patients.45 Paper I.45 Papers II – V . 46 Radiographic examinations.47 CT examinations.48 Scoring and measurements.48 Statistics.50 Results.51 Discussion.65 Summary and conclusions.72 General summary:. 73 Sammanfattning på svenska.74 References.75 Original papers.85
Root canal treatment and apical periodontitis: What can be learned from observational studies?

To assess the disease burden in the general population, observational studies and epidemiological methods must be employed. Epidemiological studies describe the distribution of diseases, prevalence, and incidence; they can be used to identify causative relationships or pathways and may form the basis for an intervention strategy. The aim of the present paper is to review previously conducted observational studies on root canal treatment and apical periodontitis (AP). Clinical studies focus on the treatment of a diseased tooth and estimate success rates of a specific treatment. Longitudinal observational studies focus on all teeth, treated/untreated as well as healthy/unhealthy, and may provide knowledge of disease incidence and/or persistence. Findings from the two types of studies reveal that the factors found to be associated with successful outcomes of root canal treatment in clinical studies are similar to the factors found to be related to persistence of AP in observational studies: pre-operative diagnosis, quality of root filling, and coronal restoration. When initially healthy teeth are followed, the observational study provides information that is not obtainable in clinical studies. It has been demonstrated that factors related to the incidence of AP differ slightly from factors related to persistence. It is obvious that besides the quality of the root filling, other factors play a role in relation to AP, in particular the presence of bacteria. Therefore, to estimate the need for root canal treatment and re-treatment in the general population, well-conducted studies, both randomized controlled trials and observational longitudinal studies, are needed.
Issues in information integration of omics data: microarray meta-analysis for candidate marker and module detection and genotype calling incorporating family information

Nowadays, more and more high-throughput genomic data sets are publicly available; therefore, performing meta-analysis to combine results from independent studies becomes an essential approach to increase the statistical power, for example, in the detection of differentially expressed genes in microarray studies. In addition to meta-analysis, researchers also incorporate pathway or clinical information from external databases to perform integrative analysis. In this thesis, I will present three projects which encompass three types of integrative analysis. First, we perform a comprehensive comparative study to evaluate 12 microarray meta-analysis methods in simulation studies and real examples by using four quantitative criteria: detection capability, biological association, stability and robustness, and we propose a practical guideline for practitioners to choose the most appropriate meta-analysis method in real applications. Second, we develop a meta-clustering method to construct co-expressed modules from 11 major depressive disorder transcriptome datasets, incorporated with GWAS and pathway information from external databases. Third, we propose a computationally feasible algorithm to call genotypes with higher accuracy by considering family information from next generation sequencing data for two purposes: (1) to propose a new genotype calling algorithm for complex families, and (2) to extend our algorithm to incorporate external reference panels to analyze family-based sequence data with a small sample size. In conclusion, we develop several integrative methods for omics data analysis and the result improves public health significance for biomarker detection in biomedical research and provides insights to help understand the underlying disease mechanisms.
A Meta-Analysis of Questionnaire Response Rates in Military Samples

Abstract : The purpose of this research was to examine if factors related to questionnaire response rate in the general public also affect response rate in military-only samples. Very little research pertaining to this specific group was located during the literature review. Four response rate factors taken from studies conducted in the general public were selected for this research topic: questionnaire length, questionnaire delivery mode (postal, e-mail, web-based, direct administration, and mixed mode), use of advance notices, and use of follow-up reminders. Data were gathered for a meta-analysis of 73 previously published studies which utilized a survey or questionnaire to collect data from a military-only sample. After the data were analyzed, only two response rate factors produced significant results for this study: survey length and survey delivery mode. Results were discussed, and recommended research areas and conclusions are given.
REPRODUCTIVE FACTORS AND COLORECTAL CANCER RISK. Case - control study

Summary. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. The role of the female sex hormones in the etiology of the disease is very intriguing. Reproductive factors are surrogate measure of lifetime exposition to the sex hormones. Purpose: Our aim is to investigate the association between the reproductive factors and colorectal carcinoma risk. Materials and methods: We include 234 Bulgarian women in our study – 117 cases with colorectal cancer and the same number of healthy controls. Cases are divided into three groups according to the localization of the tumor. We conduct case-control study, using questionnaires about reproductive factors. We use the following statistical methods – descriptive, variational analysis, binary logistic regression. Results: We observed that only the age at menopause is associated with colorectal cancer risk, and this factor has strongest protective effect in the proximal colon (95% CI - 0,051-0,781, OR – 0,200, p – 0,021). Conclusion: Analyzing our data we observed that among Bulgarian women the only reproductive factor that show association with the risk of colorectal cancer is the age at menopause.
Perilaku Pencegahan Penyakit Menular Seksual di Kalangan Wanita Pekerja Seksual Langsung

Penyakit menular seksual, merupakan pandemi yang menimbulkan dampak kesehatan, sosial, ekonomi dan politik. Pekerja seks berperan penting dalam peningkatan kasus HIV/AIDS di Indonesia, posisi tawar wanita pekerja seksual langsung yang rendah dalam penggunaan kondom dan perilaku berisiko membuat perluasan penyebaran kasus penyakit menular seksual (infeksi menular seksual dan HIV/AIDS) semakin meningkat. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui secara mendalam perilaku wanita pekerja seksual langsung dalam pencegahan penyakit menular seksual di Kabupaten Karawang. Penelitian ini menggunakan pen-dekatan kualitatif dengan teknik wawancara mendalam. Informan adalah wanita pekerja seksual langsung, mucikari dan tenaga kesehatan. Dari hasil wawancara mendalam diketahui bahwa hampir semua wanita pekerja seksual langsung tidak mengetahui tentang penyakit menular seksual dan pencegahannya, sebagian besar mereka melindungi diri dengan meng-gunakan jelli, meminum antibiotik, jamu sehat, atau mencuci alat kemaluan dengan daun sirih. Penggunaan kondom didasarkan kesepakatan den-gan pelanggan. Diperlukan upaya promosi dan pendekatan yang lebih efek-tif, bukan hanya pada wanita pekerja seksual langsung tapi juga untuk para pengguna jasa layanan seks. Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD) is a pandemic impacting social, economic and political aspests of life. Sex workers play an important role in the growth of AIDS cases in Indonesia, the low bargaining power of direct sex workers in the use of condom and the risk behavior of sex workers in-creased cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV and AIDS. This study aimed to know district sex worker behavior to sexually transmitted dis-ease behavior. Qualitative study design with indepth interview techniques were used in this study. The informants are direct female sexual workers, pimps, and health providers. The results of in-depth interviews showed that almost all direct sexual workers are not knowledgeable on STD such as HIV and AIDS and how to prevent them. Most of them, protected themselves by using jellies, antibiotics, herbal medicine, or washing their genital with leaves of betel plant. Condom is used agreements with customers. Promotions and more effective approach are needed, not only for the sex workers but also for the users of sexual customers.
Health Information Seeking of Foreign-Born Population in U.S.

This study aimed to understand features of foreign-born population’s health information seeking behaviors, so that the results can provide evidences which can be utilized in designing health information dissemination. It was found that foreign-born population has less experience on health information seeking than U.S. born and more negative perceptions on health information seeking experiences. Among foreign-born population, it seems that underserved people have less experience of health information seeking, but when they need to find health information they go to doctors or health providers. The Internet is the most dominant source of health information among foreign-born population.
Bilinçli Farkındalık Temelli Bilişsel Terapi Programının Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Kaygı Düzeylerine Etkisi

Bu calisma bilincli farkindalik temelli bilissel terapi programinin universite ogrencilerinin kaygi duzeylerine etkisini saptamak amaciyla hazirlanmistir. Arastirma, Istanbul’da psikoloji bolumunde ikinci ve ucuncu siniflarinda ogrenim gormekte olan 16 ogrencinin katilimiyla gerceklesmistir. Arastirmada katilimcilara sekiz oturumdan olusan her oturumu 90 dakika suren bir program uygulanmistir. Katilimcilarin kaygi duzeylerini belirlemek amaciyla Beck tarafindan gelistirilen “Beck Anksiyete Envanteri” uygulanmistir. Arastirmaya kabul olcutleri; uygulanan Beck Anksiyete Envanteri puan sonuclarina gore ‘Orta’ ve ‘Şiddetli’ duzeyde puan ortalamasi olan ve calismaya katilmayi kabul eden ogrenciler olarak belirlendi. Olcme araclari uygulama oncesinde on test, uygulamanin bitiminde ise son test olarak uygulanmistir. Tek grup ontest - sontest kontrol grupsuz yari deneysel desenin kullanildigi calismada veriler, Wilcoxon Isaretli Sira Testi ile cozumlenmistir. Yapilan analizler katilimcilarin kaygi puanlarinin anlamli duzeyde azaldigini gostermistir. Sonuc olarak, bilincli farkindalik temelli bilissel teknikler kullanilarak yapilan terapi programinin uygulama yapilan ogrencilerin kaygi duzeylerinin dusmesine sebep oldugu gozlenmistir.
On Performance of Cache Policies in Named Data Networking

* This work is partially supported by National Key Technologies R&D Program of China Grant #2011BAH05B08. Abstract Named Data Network (NDN) is gaining increasingly concerns, as an important direction of the future Internet architecture research centered on content. Content caching has played a key role in NDN. Existing cache replacement policies like Least Frequently Used (LFU) and Least Recently Used (LRU) have failed to make full use of the popularity of contents, which leads to a low cache efficiency in the dynamic network. In order to make the best use of content popularity in the cache strategy, this paper has proposed a cache replacement policy based on content popularity (CCP), and designed the data structure format and replacement algorithm. For fully studying and analyzing the performance of different cache policies in NDN in terms of network throughput, server load and cache hit ratio, we have done a lot of simulations to show how they will improve the network. The simulation results show that our proposed CCP can significantly decrease the server load with a higher cache hit ratio and increase the network capacity at the same time compared with LRU and LFU. And the average throughput is reduced significantly by nearly 47% in comparison to that of the case without in-networking caching. Moreover, it also shows the performance under different sizes of content store. The effectiveness of the CCP strategy is proved during the simulation. Index Terms Information-Centric Networking, Named-Data Networking, Cache Policy
Is Obesity as Dangerous to Your Wealth as to Your Health?

Obesity is a growing public health issue, with a rising number of adults classified as overweight. Although medical research shows being overweight is dangerous to one’s health, this research, which investigates young, U.S. baby boomers from 1985 to 2000, finds it is also dangerous to one’s wealth. The net worth of the obese is roughly half that of those with normal body mass. As young baby boomers age, peak net worth slowly shifts toward those with lower mass. Boomers with a body mass index (BMI) of 22 in 1985 held the most net worth, but by 2000 the peak shifted to those with a BMI of 17. From 1985 to 2000, for every one-point BMI increase, net worth on average fell $1,000, holding other factors like income constant. Surprisingly, part of the reason BMI is inversely related to networth is because lighter people receive more inheritances than heavier individuals.
Design and evaluation of two blended learning approaches: Lessons learned

In this paper, we share two blended learning approaches used at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. We have been using these two approaches in the last twelve years in many courses ranging from the diploma to graduate programs. For the first blended learning approach, we integrated one asynchronous communication tool with face to face tutorials, classroom discussions, and a reflection session. For the second blended learning approach, we integrated two asynchronous tools with face to face tutorials in a course. We discuss the theoretical foundation of the two blended learning approaches. In addition, we share insights from these two blended learning approaches, based on the students' data (online postings, questionnaires, reflection logs, and interviews), as well as our own reflections. Finally, we describe and discuss several important lessons learned that could inform the design of future instructional strategies in implementing blended learning in university teaching and learning settings.
Fitnessgram/activitygram : test administration manual

"Fitnessgram/Activitygram "is an integrated fitness and activity assessment program that can greatly enhance the effectiveness of school-based physical education programs. This updated fourth edition of the "Fitnessgram/Activitygram" Test Administration Manual is a complete guide to implementing these assessments, from conducting the test protocols and recording the data to interpreting and sharing the results. New material in this edition includes -revised standards for aerobic capacity and body composition; -updated information about the Fitnessgram 8.x and new Web-based Fitnessgram 9 software programs (software is sold separately from the manual); and -an updated DVD that includes video clips of the test protocols, training videos for using the Fitnessgram/Activitygram software, and all the program's reproducible forms, plus the CD with the PACER, curl-up, and push-up test cadences.
A preliminary investigation of the effects of soil electromagnetic properties on metal detectors

Some soils can adversely affect the operation of sensitive metal detectors widely used to detect buried landmines. Although there has been some related work in geophysics, researchers in metal detection techniques, until very recently, seem to have largely ignored the issue of problem soil. As a result, rigorous scientific investigations of how soil electromagnetic properties may affect the operation of metal detectors are lacking. Thus, there is a need for theoretical and experimental studies to clarify which electromagnetic properties are important and to what extent they affect the performance of metal detectors of various designs. The paper presents a systematic analytical framework, based on existing work in geophysics and non-destructive testing, for studying the effects of soil electromagnetic properties on the functioning of metal detectors. For this initial study the burial medium is modelled as a half-space. While soil electrical conductivity has been assumed to be real and independent of frequency, soil magnetic susceptibility has been modelled as complex and frequency dependent. Simplified versions of the analysis techniques have been applied to three selected cases of practical importance, namely, non-conducting soil with constant susceptibility, non-conducting soil with frequency-dependent susceptibility and non-magnetic soil with constant conductivity. Results from a preliminary analysis of even these simple cases explain a number of previous experimental observations, for example, the greater influence of magnetic properties than of electrical conductivity on the performance of metal detectors.
Recursion: From Drama to Program

This paper describes a novel approach to teaching recursion: couple a real-world problem that can be dramatized to a programming problem whose solution exactly parallels the dramatization. Three such pairs of problems are presented in order of difficulty: a procedure, a function and a procedure with two recursive invocations. We also show how the program for the Towers of Hanoi can be made to parallel the algorithm for playing the game.
Dual PI3K/mTOR inhibition with BEZ235 augments the therapeutic efficacy of doxorubicin in cancer without influencing cardiac function

1. David Durrant, Adolfo G Mauro, Juan Valle Raleigh, Anindita Das, Jun He, Khoa Nguyen, Stefano Toldo, Antonio Abbate, Fadi N Salloum. MAVS Mediates Protection against Myocardial Ischemic Injury with Hydrogen Sulfide. Circulation Research. 2014; 115: e86-e93 2. David E Durrant, Samya Dyer, Anindita Das, and Rakesh C Kukreja. Combined Treatment of the PI3k/mTOR Inhibitor BEZ235 With Doxorubicin Does Not Increase Cardiotoxicity While Improving Efficacy in Breast Cancer Cells. Circulation. 2014;130:A16201
Sex differentials in phthisis mortality in England and Wales, 1861–1870

In the mid-nineteenth century phthisis, or pulmonary tuberculosis, was the single most important cause of death in England and Wales. It was widely distributed geographically though some areas were worse affected than others. This paper explores aspects of the geography of phthisis mortality in England in the second half of the nineteenth century, with particular attention to the sex differential in mortality from this cause. Phthisis is often thought of as a disease of young women, and throughout much of England and Wales, especially in agricultural areas, women aged between 15 and 40 years were especially vulnerable. However the sex ratio of deaths from phthisis varied greatly from place to place and, in some places where phthisis was prevalent, men rather than young women were at the greatest risk of death. Phthisis mortality was sufficiently important that the geography of the overall sex differential in mortality was to a considerable extent determined by the geography of the sex differential in phthisis mortality. Where phthisis mortality disadvantaged females, the overall sex differential between male and female mortality was small or even negative; where phthisis mortality disadvantaged males, the overall sex differential was large. The paper then considers explanations of geographical variations in the sex differential in phthisis mortality. It is not clear that these are best explained by a ‘bargaining-nutrition’ account which holds that young women in poor households were especially vulnerable to mortality from phthisis because their weak intra-household bargaining position compromised their nutritional status. Other factors, such as the return migration to their native areas of out-migrants who became sick with the disease, and working conditions, especially for females, may have been more important. The final part of the paper considers the implications of the results for explanations of the decline of phthisis mortality between 1860 and 1900.
Interferon α for the Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C in Patients Infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Liver disease secondary to hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a rising cause of morbidity and mortality among individuals who have been infected parenterally with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) such as injection drug users, hemophiliacs, and transfused patients. We analyzed both the efficacy of interferon (IFN) alpha therapy in these patients and the predictors of response to this agent. A total of 119 patients with chronic hepatitis C (90 of whom were infected with HIV and 29 of whom were not) were included in a multicenter, prospective, open, nonrandomized observational study. IFN-alpha was given subcutaneously in a dosage of 5 million units three times a week during a 3-month period; those patients who responded received a dose of 3 million units given subcutaneously three times a week for an additional 9 months. One hundred seven patients completed the study; the level of aminotransferases returned to normal and sera became negative (complete response) for HCV RNA in 26 (32.5%) of 80 HIV-infected patients and 10 (37.0%) of 27 non-HIV-infected patients (P = .666) after completion of the treatment. Two variables were independently associated with a response in HIV-infected patients: a CD4+ T lymphocyte count of > 500 x 10(6)/L and a baseline HCV viremia level of < 10(7) copies/mL. In the 12 months following treatment, relapses occurred in 30.8% of the HIV-infected patients and 12.5% of non-HIV-infected patients (P = .403).