Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of urban particulate matter on cultured human nasal fibroblasts

Exposure to urban particulate matter (UPM) has been linked to aggravation of various health problems. Although the effects of UPM on the lower respiratory tract have been extensively studied, more research is required on the impact of UPM on the upper respiratory tract and the underlying mechanisms. Thus, we investigated the cytotoxic effects of UPM on cultured human nasal fibroblasts, the underlying signaling pathways involved, and changes in cytokine levels.
Shared social mechanisms underlying the risk of nine cancers: A life course study

Identifying life periods during which social conditions have the highest impact on risk of common cancers in a population may help to reveal their underlying shared social mechanisms. We used the life course framework to estimate the extent to which life course SEP is associated with risk of nine cancers. In addition, we tested whether these associations conform to a critical period or cumulative life course model. Data were from a population‐based case–control study of occupational exposures and cancer conducted in Montreal, Canada. Participants were males aged 35–70 years (n = 2,547) residing in the Montreal metropolitan area with primary, histologically confirmed cancers diagnosed between 1979 and 1985. Population controls (n = 512) were sampled from electoral lists. SEP was measured at three different periods of life based on respondent's report: during childhood, young adulthood and mid‐life. We used a structured modeling approach using a series of unconditional logistic regressions to test which models best fit the data. Life course SEP increased the risk of all cancers. SEP in childhood was identified as a critical period for prostate and all gastrointestinal tract cancers except for esophagus cancer. In addition, the accumulation model best explained the data for melanoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma. Our findings suggest that childhood social circumstances are a common risk factor for several cancers among men; our results provide insights into the mechanisms involved in the etiology of nine cancers.
Application of a novel molecular method to age free‐living wild Bechstein's bats

The age profile of populations fundamentally affects their conservation status. Yet, age is frequently difficult to assess in wild animals. Here, we assessed the use of DNA methylation of homologous genes to establish the age structure of a rare and elusive wild mammal: the Bechstein's bat (Myotis bechsteinii). We collected 62 wing punches from individuals whose ages were known as a result of a long‐term banding study. DNA methylation was measured at seven CpG sites from three genes, which have previously shown age‐associated changes in humans and laboratory mice. All CpG sites from the tested genes showed a significant relationship between DNA methylation and age, both individually and in combination (multiple linear regression R2 = 0.58, p < 0.001). Despite slight approximation around estimates, the approach is sufficiently precise to place animals into practically useful age cohorts. This method is of considerable practical benefit as it can reliably age individual bats. It is also much faster than traditional capture–mark–recapture techniques, with the potential to collect information on the age structure of an entire colony from a single sampling session to better inform conservation actions for Bechstein's bats. By identifying three genes where DNA methylation correlates with age across distantly related species, this study also suggests that the technique can potentially be applied across a wide range of mammals.
Relative Validity and Reproducibility of a New 44-Item Diet and Food Frequency Questionnaire Among Adults: Online Assessment

Background Dietary questionnaires currently available which can assess the habitual diet are timely, costly, or not adapted well to the modern diet; thus, there is a need for a shorter food frequency e-Questionnaire (FFeQ) adapted to Western diets, in order to properly estimate energy and macronutrient intakes or rank individuals according to food and nutrient intakes. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the relative validity and reproducibility of a 30-minute and 44-item FFeQ in a sample of adults obtained from the general population. Methods A sample of French adults was recruited through social media and an advertising campaign. A total of 223 volunteers completed the FFeQ twice at one-year intervals and were included in the reproducibility study. During that interval, 92 participants completed three-to-six 24-hour recalls and were included in the validity study. Nutrient and dietary intakes were computed for all validity and reproducibility participants. The level of agreement between the two methods was evaluated for nutrient and food group intakes using classification into quintiles of daily intake, correlation coefficients and Bland-Altman plots. Results For relative validity, correlation coefficients ranged from 0.09 to 0.88 (unadjusted correlation coefficients, median: 0.48) and 0.02 to 0.68 (deattenuated and energy adjusted correlation coefficients, median: 0.50) for food group and nutrient intakes, respectively. The median proportion of subjects classified into the same or adjacent quintile was 73% and 66% for food and nutrient intakes, respectively. Bland-Altman plots showed good agreement across the range of intakes. Regarding reproducibility, intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.33 to 0.72 (median: 0.60) and 0.55 to 0.73 (median: 0.64), for food and nutrient intakes, respectively. Conclusions The FFeQ showed acceptable validity and reproducibility in a sample of adults based on their food and nutrient intakes. The FFeQ is a promising and low-cost tool that can be used in large-scale online epidemiological studies or clinical routines and could be integrated into evidence-based smartphone apps for assessing diet components.
Molecular Determinants of the Differential Modulation of Cav1.2 and Cav1.3 by Nifedipine and FPL 64176

Nifedipine and FPL 64176 (FPL), which block and potentiate L-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channels, respectively, modulate Cav1.2 more potently than Cav1.3. To identify potential strategies for developing subtype-selective inhibitors, we investigated the role of divergent amino acid residues in transmembrane domains IIIS5 and the extracellular IIIS5-3P loop region in modulation of these channels by nifedipine and FPL. Insertion of the extracellular IIIS5-3P loop from Cav1.2 into Cav1.3 (Cav1.3+) reduced the IC50 of nifedipine from 289 to 101 nM, and substitution of S1100 with an A residue, as in Cav1.2, accounted for this difference. Substituting M1030 in IIIS5 to V in Cav1.3+ (Cav1.3+V) further reduced the IC50 of nifedipine to 42 nM. FPL increased current amplitude with an EC50 of 854 nM in Cav1.3, 103 nM in Cav1.2, and 99 nM in Cav1.3+V. In contrast to nifedipine block, substitution of M1030 to V in Cav1.3 had no effect on potency of FPL potentiation of current amplitude, but slowed deactivation in the presence and absence of 10 μM FPL. FPL had no effect on deactivation of Cav1.3/dihydropyridine-insensitive (DHPi), a channel with very low sensitivity to nifedipine block (IC50 ∼93 μM), but did shift the voltage-dependence of activation by ∼−10 mV. We conclude that the M/V variation in IIIS5 and the S/A variation in the IIIS5-3P loop of Cav1.2 and Cav1.3 largely determine the difference in nifedipine potency between these two channels, but the difference in FPL potency is determined by divergent amino acids in the IIIS5-3P loop.
Suppression of hepatitis B surface antigen production by combination therapy with nucleotide analogues and interferon in children with genotype C hepatitis B virus infection

Sustained suppression of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) production after interferon (IFN) treatment has not been reported for children with genotype C chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, which is prevalent in Asia. Among children with hepatitis B envelope antigen‐positive genotype C chronic HBV infection, we compared the efficacy of combination therapy with nucleotide analogues and IFN‐α in 11 children with 12 historical cases treated with IFN monotherapy.
Inheritance Usage Paerns in Open-Source Systems

is research investigates how object-oriented inheritance is actually used in practice. e aim is to close the gap between inheritance guidance and inheritance practice. It is based on detailed analyses of 2440 inheritance hierarchies drawn from 14 open-source systems. e original contributions made by this paper concern pragmatic assessment of inheritance hierarchy design quality. e ﬁndings show that inheritance is very widely used but that most of the usage paerns that occur in practice are simple in structure. ey are so simple that they may not require much inheritance-speciﬁc design consideration. On the other hand, the majority of classes deﬁned using inheritance actually appear within a relatively small number of large, complex hierarchies. While some of these large hierarchies appear to have a consistent structure, oen based on a problem domain model or a design paern, others do not. Another contribution is that the quality of hierarchies, especially the large problematic ones, may be assessed in practice based on size, shape, and the deﬁnition and invocation of novel methods – all properties that can be detected automatically.
Massive Acromioclavicular Joint Cyst with Intramuscular Extension: Case Report and Review

Acromioclavicular cysts are an uncommon manifestation secondary to a massive rotator cuff tear and/or a degenerative osteoarthritic AC joint. We present a case of an 80-year-old female with a symptomatic acromioclavicular cyst that extended intramuscularly into the trapezius. She did not complain of symptoms associated with a massive rotator cuff tear; however, the cyst has been increasing in size and she was interested in having it removed. Intraoperatively, the mass extended into the trapezius muscle and was removed en bloc after dissecting it down to the stalk. A distal clavicle excision was then performed using an oscillating saw. After the cyst was excised, it was incised revealing thick mucoid content. The patient did well postoperatively at the three-month follow-up without signs of recurrence. To our knowledge, this is the first case of AC joint cyst with intramuscular extension that was managed operatively.
Capacity-Approaching Variable-Length Pearson Codes

Sequences encoded with Pearson codes are immune to channel gain and offset mismatch that cause performance loss in communication systems. In this letter, we introduce an efficient method of constructing capacity-approaching variable-length Pearson codes. We introduce a finite state machine (FSM) description of Pearson codes and present a variable-length code construction process based on this FSM. We then analyze the code rate, redundancy, and the convergence property of our codes. We show that our proposed codes have less redundancy than codes recently described in the literature and that they can be implemented in a straightforward fashion.
2.4 GHz LC-VCO with Improved Robustness against PVT Using FD-SOI Body Biasing Technique

This paper presents the application of FD-SOI body-biasing technique to improve robustness against PVT of an LC-tank voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). Designed VCO operates at 2.4 GHz ISM band and achieves phase noise level below -109.6 dBc/Hz. Power consumption equals 2.805 mW in the worst case. 28 nm FD-SOI process has been used.
Prehospital Emergency Medical Services Challenges in Disaster; a Qualitative Study

Introduction: Prehospital Emergency Medical Care (EMC) is a critical service in disaster management. The aim of this study was to explore the challenges of prehospital Emergency Medical Services (EMS) during disaster response in Iran. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted from April 2015 to March 2017. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 23 experienced individuals in the field of disaster that were selected using purposeful sampling. Data were analyzed using content analysis approach. Results: Fifteen sub-themes and the following six themes emerged in the analysis: challenges related to people, challenges related to infrastructure, challenges related to information management systems, challenges related to staff, challenges related to managerial issues and challenges related to medical care. Conclusions: Iran’s prehospital EMS has been chaotic in past disasters. Improvement of this process needs infrastructure reform, planning, staff training and public education.
Defending IT systems against intelligent malware

The increasing amount of malware variants seen in the wild is causing problems for Antivirus Software vendors, unable to keep up by creating signatures for each. The methods used to develop a signature, static and dynamic analysis, have various limitations. Machine learning has been used by Antivirus vendors to detect malware based on the information gathered from the analysis process. However, adversarial examples can cause machine learning algorithms to miss-classify new data. In this paper we describe a method for malware analysis by converting malware binaries to images and then preparing those images for training within a Generative Adversarial Network. These unsupervised deep neural networks are not susceptible to adversarial examples. The conversion to images from malware binaries should be faster than using dynamic analysis and it would still be possible to link malware families together. Using the Generative Adversarial Network, malware detection could be much more effective and reliable.
A Scalable and Statistically Robust Beam Alignment Technique for Millimeter-Wave Systems

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency bands provide an opportunity for much wider channel bandwidth compared with the traditional sub-6-GHz band. Communication at mm-waves is, however, quite challenging due to the severe propagation pathloss incurred by conventional isotropic antennas. To cope with this problem, directional beamforming both at the base station (BS) side and at the user equipment (UE) side is necessary in order to establish a strong path conveying enough signal power. Finding such beamforming directions is referred to as beam alignment (BA). This paper presents a new scheme for efficient BA. Our scheme finds a strong propagation path identified by an angle-of-arrival (AoA) and angle-of-departure (AoD) pair, by exploring the AoA–AoD domain through pseudo-random multi-finger beam patterns and constructing an estimate of the resulting second-order statistics (namely, the average received power for each pseudo-random beam configuration). The resulting under-determined system of equations is efficiently solved using non-negative constrained least-squares, yielding naturally a sparse non-negative vector solution whose maximum component identifies the optimal path. As a result, our scheme is highly robust to variations of the channel time dynamics compared with alternative concurrent approaches based on the estimation of the instantaneous channel coefficients, rather than of their second-order statistics. In the proposed scheme, the BS probes the channel in the downlink and trains simultaneously an arbitrarily large number of UEs. Thus, “beam refinement,” with multiple interactive rounds of downlink/uplink transmissions, is not needed. This results in a scalable BA protocol, where the protocol overhead is virtually independent of the number of UEs, since all the UEs run the BA procedure at the same time. Extensive simulation results illustrate that our approach is superior to the state-of-the-art BA schemes proposed in the literature in terms of training overhead in multi-user scenarios and robustness to variations in the channel dynamics.
Review of Trichomonas vaginalis in Iran, Based on Epidemiological Situation

Trichomoniasis, which is caused by Trichomonas vaginalis, is the most common non-viral sexually transmitted infection (STI) in the world including Iran. There were roughly 250 million new cases all over the world in a year. T. vaginalis as an important disease has been associated with HIV (in terms of exposure to sexually transmitted infection, STI) which increases the number of high-risk members, and thus it is an important public health problem. Additionally, this pathogen has been associated with serious health consequences. For instance, it may cause a woman to deliver a low-birth-weight or premature infant, and increase chances of cervical cancer. Because little information is available about the prevalence of T. vaginalis infection in Iranian population, this review was carried out to determine the prevalence of T. vaginalis among Iranian population. For this systematic review, data about epidemiology of T. vaginalis in different parts of Iran with different populations were systematically collected from 1992 to 2017 through the international databases such as PubMed, Scirus, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, EMBASE, Science Direct and Google Scholar and Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC). National database searching included Iran Medex, Iran Doc, Magiran and Scientific Information Database (SID). A total of 39 clinical and laboratory investigations about the prevalence of Trichomoniasis from different regions of Iran were analyzed. The overall prevalence rate of T. vaginalis infection in Iranian population was estimated to be minimally 0.4% and maximally 42%. The present review showed that T. vaginalis infection rate is relatively high among the Iranian population. The control strategies, including personal hygienic education, simultaneous couple treatment, the sensitivity of diagnostic methods, appropriate preventive tool (condom) in sexual contacts could lead to the disruption of transmission.
Presence of Chlamydophila pneumoniae DNA in blood cells is a frequent event in patients with the late stage of primary cutaneous lymphomas and with atopic dermatitis

Introduction Microbial infection and associated super antigens have been implicated in the pathogenesis of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL), and many patients die from complicating bacterial infections. It has been postulated that Chlamydophila pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae) infection may be involved in the pathogenesis of Mycosis fungoides (MF) but published data are limited and controversial. Aim To analyze the frequency of (C. pneumoniae) DNA presence in blood samples of lymphoma cases. Material and methods Using Q-PCR method we analyzed the presence of DNA in the blood samples obtained from 57 patients with CTCL (55 – mycosis fungoides (MF)/Sézary syndrome (SS), one primary cutaneous anaplastic large cell lymphoma (CD30+) and one NKT cell lymphoma) and 3 patients with cutaneous B-cell lymphomas, and 120 individuals from control groups (40 patients with psoriasis, 40 patients with atopic dermatitis and 40 healthy controls). Results Chlamydophila pneumoniae DNA was identified in 13 of 55 cases in the MF/SS group (23.6%), in 1 patient with CD30+ large cell lymphoma and in 1 of 3 patients with B-cell lymphoma. The presence of C. pneumoniae was confirmed in 1 of 40 psoriatic patients (2.5%), in 5 of 40 patients with atopic dermatitis (12.5%) and in none of 40 healthy individuals. Presence of C. pneumoniae DNA in MF patients was strongly associated with disease progression; rs = 0.756; p = 0.0123 for groups IA → IVB, and was noted more frequently in advanced (III + IV) stages than in early (I–II) stages (p = 0.0139). There are no differences in the mean age of MF/SS patients with and without infection. Conclusions The presence of C. pneumoniae DNA in the blood cells is a frequent event in late stages of MF/SS and may be explained by Th2 shift and suppression of the immune system during the course of the disease.
All 3-D Printed Free-Space Setup for Microwave Dielectric Characterization of Materials

In this paper, the development of an all 3-D printed wide band (2–18 GHz) free-space measurement system for characterizing the complex dielectric properties of flexible as well as rigid materials was demonstrated. Each part of the setup was designed and simulated precisely to show the effect of the 3-D printed quasi-optical lenses placed in front of the wide band ridged horn antennas on the beam and radiation pattern. More than 10 parts of the setup were 3-D printed using two different 3-D printers, and the parts were assembled together with precise alignment. The method used to analytically extract the dielectric properties was explained in detail, and the analytical S-parameters were compared with experimental S-parameters for various plastic materials to verify the measurement system. Four types of commercially available materials: polyimide film (Kapton), liquid crystalline polymer sheet (LCP), ceramic-filled polytetrafluoroethylene composites (RO3035), and polypropylene with different thicknesses were characterized, and obtained dielectric constant and loss tangent values were compared with the data available from the vendors.
Adiabatic and Ultracompact Waveguide Tapers Based on Digital Metamaterials

Adiabatic waveguide taper is one of the fundamental building blocks in photonic integrated circuits, but it is challenging to achieve high efficiency and compact size simultaneously. Here we demonstrate efficient, compact, and adiabatic on-chip spot-size converters using inversely designed tapers based on digital metamaterials. Ultracompact tapers with only 3-<italic>μ</italic>m length between single-mode and few-mode waveguides are demonstrated with 90% efficiencies over 80 nm wavelength range. For another scenario of interconnection between a 0.5-<italic> μ</italic>m-wide waveguide and a 10-<italic>μ</italic>m-wide slab waveguide, an efficiency of 76% is experimentally achieved by 5-<italic>μ</italic>m long taper. Using such a compact taper, the grating coupler footprint is reduced to even smaller than a focusing coupler. The nanostructured tapers have mode rejection ratios of >20 dB and fabrication tolerance to ±5 nm variations of the pixel dimension without efficiency drop.
A CMOS chip set for accurate pulsed time-of-flight laser range finding

A laser rangefinder device based on pulsed time-of-flight (TOF) distance measurement techniques was constructed and tested. Key blocks of the system are the integrated receiver channel and the integrated time-to-digital converter (TDC) fabricated in a 0.35-um CMOS technology. The receiver-TDC chip set is capable of measuring the time position, rise time and pulse width of incoming optical pulses with ps precision in the amplitude range of more than 1: 50 000. The timing detection is based on leading edge detection in the receiver channel, and the amplitude-dependent timing error is compensated for by utilizing the multichannel TDC. A measurement distance of 100 m is achieved to a target with a reflectance of about 10% at the signal level of SNR = 6, with an optical output power and receiver aperture of 12 W and 18 mm, respectively.
Self-balancing digitizer for resistive half-bridge

This paper presents a self-balancing digitization approach for the resistive sensor interfaced through the half-bridge configuration. The output of the interface circuit is linear and quasi-digital or digital in nature. The scheme is designed such that its output is independent of the variations in the bridge excitation voltage and lead wire resistance. The proposed scheme can be used for resistive sensors with small or large change compared to the nominal resistance, and the full range of the digitizer can be utilized to represent the measurand by simply setting appropriate values for two components in the digitizer. The approach presented does not require a multiplier, compared to the existing methods, and hence the accuracy of the output is not limited due to the non-idealities and limitations of the multiplier. The workability of the proposed circuit is verified in the laboratory with the help of a prototype developed. The maximum non-linearity error that occurred in measured output of the prototype, when tested using a standard resistance box, was less than 0.3% of the full scale. Rise time of the prototype has been measured as 3.6 ms.