Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cardiorespiratory fitness selection standard and occupational outcomes in trainee firefighters.

BACKGROUND UK fire services have differing practices relating to the use of a cardiorespiratory fitness standard as a selection criterion for recruits. AIMS To establish whether a reduction in, or elimination of, a defined cardiorespiratory standard for firefighter recruitment impacted on a number of occupational and health-related outcomes. METHODS Data were collected on firefighter recruits from services which applied either a minimum recruit cardiorespiratory fitness standard of 42 ml O(2)/kg/min (398 full-time and 48 part-time recruits) or no such direct standard (198 full-time and 206 part-time subjects). VO(2) max estimated, where available, was also recorded and the impact of a reduction in the standard from 45 to 42 ml O(2)/kg/min assessed. RESULTS Twenty-five per cent of all recruits reported injury during training. Injury-related restrictions were more likely where no cardiorespiratory standard was applied for full-time recruits. For part-time recruits, higher VO(2) max (est.) predicted a lower incidence of injuries. Further adverse health-related outcomes were found for full-time and part-time recruits. Multiple regression analyses suggest that eliminating the 42 ml O(2)/kg/min cardiorespiratory standard at recruitment for full-time firefighters was associated with an 8% (95% CI 7.16-8.84) increase in subsequent injuries reported during training. For part-time firefighters, VO(2) max (est.) was inversely associated with 5% of the variation in injuries (95% CI 4.66-5.34). CONCLUSIONS Removal of a cardiorespiratory fitness standard was associated with adverse health and employment outcomes. Older age and gender were not associated with adverse outcomes. No reliable evidence of adverse outcomes from a reduction in a cardiorespiratory standard from 45 to 42 ml O(2)/kg/min was found.
Using social network analysis to identify key stakeholders in agricultural biodiversity governance and related land-use decisions at regional and local level

In 2013 the European Commission launched its new green infrastructure strategy to make another attempt to stop and possibly reverse the loss of biodiversity until 2020, by connecting habitats in the wider landscape. This means that conservation would go beyond current practices to include landscapes that are dominated by conventional agriculture, where biodiversity conservation plays a minor role at best. The green infrastructure strategy aims at bottom-up rather than top-down implementation, and suggests including local and regional stakeholders. Therefore, it is important to know which stakeholders influence land-use decisions concerning green infrastructure at the local and regional level. The research presented in this paper served to select stakeholders in preparation for a participatory scenario development process to analyze consequences of different implementation options of the European green infrastructure strategy. We used a mix of qualitative and quantitative social network analysis (SNA) methods to combine actors’ attributes, especially concerning their perceived influence, with structural and relational measures. Further, our analysis provides information on institutional backgrounds and governance settings for green infrastructure and agricultural policy. The investigation started with key informant interviews at the regional level in administrative units responsible for relevant policies and procedures such as regional planners, representatives of federal ministries, and continued at the local level with farmers and other members of the community. The analysis revealed the importance of information flows and regulations but also of social pressure, considerably influencing biodiversity governance with respect to green infrastructure and biodiversity.
Sample Size and Power Calculation in Microarray Studies Using the sizepower package.

The process of obtaining biological samples is often expensive, involved, and time consuming. Thus, the issue of the appropriate sample size is important in planning a study. If the sample size is too large, we waste resources. If the sample size is too small, we cannot draw inferences with the desired precision. Thus, we need to calculate the sample size of a study before proceeding in order to determine the best trade-off between precision and resource use. The calculation of the sample size is closely related to that of power. One goal of microarray studies is to find a subset of genes that are differentially expressed across experimental conditions. The key question is the strength of the claim that a given gene is differentially expressed. In other words, what is the power of the test to determine if a gene is differentially expressed to a specified degree? The R package, sizepower, is used to calculate sample size and power in the planning stage of a microarray study. It helps the user to determine how many samples are needed to achieve a specified power for a test of whether a gene is differentially expressed or, in reverse, to determine the power of a given sample size. This R package provides two functions for sample-size calculations for two types of experimental designs (a completely randomized treatment-control design and a matchedpairs design) and three functions for power calculation for four types of experimental designs (a completely randomized treatment-control design, a matched-pairs design, a multiple-treatment design having an isolated treatment effect, and a randomized block design).
Observation of Bose-Einstein Condensation in a Dilute Atomic Vapor

A Bose-Einstein condensate was produced in a vapor of rubidium-87 atoms that was confined by magnetic fields and evaporatively cooled. The condensate fraction first appeared near a temperature of 170 nanokelvin and a number density of 2.5 x 1012 per cubic centimeter and could be preserved for more than 15 seconds. Three primary signatures of Bose-Einstein condensation were seen. (i) On top of a broad thermal velocity distribution, a narrow peak appeared that was centered at zero velocity. (ii) The fraction of the atoms that were in this low-velocity peak increased abruptly as the sample temperature was lowered. (iii) The peak exhibited a nonthermal, anisotropic velocity distribution expected of the minimum-energy quantum state of the magnetic trap in contrast to the isotropic, thermal velocity distribution observed in the broad uncondensed fraction.
Cost-Effectiveness on a Local Level

Cost-effectiveness analysis has become a widely accepted tool for decision making in health care. The standard textbook cost-effectiveness analysis focuses on whether to make the switch from an old or common practice technology to an innovative technology, and in doing so, it takes a global perspective. In this article, we are interested in a local perspective, and we look at the questions of whether and when the switch from old to new should be made. A new approach to cost-effectiveness from a local (e.g., a hospital) perspective, by means of a mathematical model for cost-effectiveness that explicitly incorporates time, is proposed. A decision rule is derived for establishing whether a new technology should be adopted, as well as a general rule for establishing when it pays to postpone adoption by 1 more period, and a set of decision rules that can be used to determine the optimal timing of adoption. Finally, a simple example is presented to illustrate our model and how it leads to optimal decision making in a number of cases.
A TECHNIQUE FOR USE OF ADULT RENAL HOMOGRAFTS IN CHILDREN.

Renal transplantation as originally described by Kuss and later refined by Murray and Harrison has proved to be an effective operation from a technical point of view. The donor kidney is placed in the contralateral iliac fossa of the recipient, and thereby the anteroposterior relations of the hilar structures are reversed. The renal vessels are attached to the end and side, respectively, of the hypogastric artery and the external iliac vein. Urinary drainage is provided with ureteroureterostomy or a ureteroneocystostomy. In children, the use of this simple extraperitoneal operation is inconvenient or impossible if an adult kidney is used, because the large homograft may not fit into the relatively diminutive iliac fossa. In addition, the size of the pelvic vessels may be so small compared with those of the homograft that an unfavorable disparity can create additional hazards. Recently, these problems have been considered in 3 children who were treated with renal homografts from their mothers. The patients were 8, 6, and 3 years old, and weighed 22.5, 20, and 15 kilograms respectively. A previously undescribed method was employed for transplantation. The present report is concerned with a description of the operative technique. In addition, observations are included on the hemodynamic consequences of revascularizing a large kidney in a host who would have to contribute a disproportionately large fraction of cardiac output to the relatively oversized new organ.
Estimating PageRank on graph streams

This study focuses on computations on large graphs (e.g., the web-graph) where the edges of the graph are presented as a stream. The objective in the streaming model is to use small amount of memory (preferably sub-linear in the number of nodes n) and a few passes. In the streaming model, we show how to perform several graph computations including estimating the probability distribution after a random walk of length l, mixing time, and the conductance. We estimate the mixing time M of a random walk in Õ(nα+Mα√n+√Mn/ α) space and Õ(√Mα) passes. Furthermore, the relation between mixing time and conductance gives us an estimate for the conductance of the graph. By applying our algorithm for computing probability distribution on the web-graph, we can estimate the PageRank p of any node up to an additive error of √εp in Õ(√M/α) passes and Õ(min(nα + 1/ε √M/α + 1/ε Mα, αn√Mα + 1/ε √M/α)) space, for any α ∈ (0, 1]. In particular, for ε = M/n, by setting α = M--1/2, we can compute the approximate PageRank values in Õ(nM--1/4) space and Õ(M3/4) passes. In comparison, a standard implementation of the PageRank algorithm will take O(n) space and O(M) passes.
Segmenting mangrove ecosystems drone images using SLIC superpixels

Abstract Mangrove ecosystems play a very important ecological role on land–ocean interfaces in tropical regions. These ecosystems comprise of various tree species and aquatic animals, protecting the environment and providing a habitat that supports many living organisms including humans. The identification of image regions in mangrove ecosystems plays a significant role in ecosystem monitoring and conservation. Recent studies have suggested oversegmentation of colour images using superpixels as a solution to the segmentation of image regions. This study used the SLIC superpixel algorithm and k-means clustering to segment images taken from a camera mounted on a drone from a mangrove ecosystem in Fiji. The SLIC superpixel algorithm performed well to demarcate image regions with similar colour and texture information into patches and to use k-means for the segmentation of the whole image. These results lend support to the use of superpixel algorithms for the segmentation of mangrove ecosystems. Understanding how superpixels can be used for the segmentation of drone images will assist conservation efforts in mangrove ecosystems.
TableRank: A Ranking Algorithm for Table Search and Retrieval

Tables are ubiquitous in web pages and scientific documents. With the explosive development of the web, tables have become a valuable information repository. Therefore, effectively and efficiently searching tables becomes a challenge. Existing search engines do not provide satisfactory search results largely because the current ranking schemes are inadequate for table search and automatic table understanding and extraction are rather difficult in general. In this work, we design and evaluate a novel table ranking algorithm-TableRank to improve the performance of our table search engine Table-Seer. Given a keyword based table query, TableRank facilities TableSeer to return the most relevant tables by tailoring the classic vector space model. TableRank adopts an innovative term weighting scheme by aggregating multiple weighting factors from three levels: term, table and document. The experimental results show that our table search engine out-performs existing search engines on table search. In addition, incorporating multiple weighting factors can significantly improve the ranking results.
Differential Pathways to Adult Metabolic Dysfunction following Poor Nutrition at Two Critical Developmental Periods in Sheep

Epidemiological and experimental studies suggest early nutrition has long-term effects on susceptibility to obesity, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Small and large animal models confirm the influence of different windows of sensitivity, from fetal to early postnatal life, on offspring phenotype. We showed previously that undernutrition in sheep either during the first month of gestation or immediately after weaning induces differential, sex-specific changes in adult metabolic and cardiovascular systems. The current study aims to determine metabolic and molecular changes that underlie differences in lipid and glucose metabolism induced by undernutrition during specific developmental periods in male and female sheep. Ewes received 100% (C) or 50% nutritional requirements (U) from 1–31 days gestation, and 100% thereafter. From weaning (12 weeks) to 25 weeks, offspring were then fed either ad libitum (CC, UC) or were undernourished (CU, UU) to reduce body weight to 85% of their individual target. From 25 weeks, all offspring were fed ad libitum. A cohort of late gestation fetuses were studied after receiving either 40% nutritional requirements (1–31 days gestation) or 50% nutritional requirements (104–127 days gestation). Post-weaning undernutrition increased in vivo insulin sensitivity, insulin receptor and glucose transporter 4 expression in muscle, and lowered hepatic methylation at the delta-like homolog 1/maternally expressed gene 3 imprinted cluster in adult females, but not males. Early gestational undernutrition induced lower hepatic expression of gluconeogenic factors in fetuses and reduced in vivo adipose tissue insulin sensitivity in adulthood. In males, undernutrition in early gestation increased adipose tissue lipid handling mechanisms (lipoprotein lipase, glucocorticoid receptor expression) and hepatic methylation within the imprinted control region of insulin-like growth factor 2 receptor in adulthood. Therefore, undernutrition during development induces changes in mechanisms of lipid and glucose metabolism which differ between tissues and sexes dependent on the period of nutritional restriction. Such changes may increase later life obesity and dyslipidaemia risk.
The retinal pigment epithelium undergoes massive apoptosis during early differentiation and pigmentation of the optic cup

Purpose The aim of our work was to study apoptosis during the development of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) in mice between embryonic day (E) 10.5 and E12.5 and to examine a possible link between apoptosis and pigmentation. Methods We collected mouse embryos at E10.5, E11.5, and E12.5 and labeled apoptotic cells in 5-µm paraffin sections, using the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling technique. We counted the total number of cells and the number of apoptotic cells in the early developing RPE and calculated the percentage of apoptosis at each stage. Results In the C57BL/6J mouse, 17% of the RPE cells were apoptotic at E10.5 compared to 0.9% at E12.5. At E11.5, three-quarters of the RPE cells began to pigment, and apoptotic cells were located mostly in the nonpigmented part. In contrast, in the BALB/c mouse (tyrosinase-deficient) and pJ mouse (carrying mutations in the p gene) hypopigmented strains, the RPE contained significantly fewer apoptotic cells (7.5% and 10.1%, respectively) at E10.5 than controls. Subsequently at E11.5 and E12.5, the two hypopigmented strains displayed different apoptotic patterns; the BALB/c RPE had a similar percentage of apoptotic cells to controls (1.5% and 1.1%, respectively, for BALB/c versus 3.0% and 0.9%, respectively, for C57BL/6J), whereas the pJ RPE contained significantly more apoptosis (7.5% and 3.5%, respectively). Overall we observed differences in the evolution of the relative total number of RPE cells between the three strains. Conclusions Apoptosis is a main event during the first stages of normal RPE development, indicating an essential role during RPE differentiation. Moreover, the early apoptotic pattern and possibly the whole early development of the RPE is different between hypopigmented and pigmented strains, as well as between BALB/c and pJ mice. This suggests the existence of regulatory and developmental differences with a more complex origin than just differing pigmentation levels.
Characterizing and targeting PDGFRA alterations in pediatric high-grade glioma

Pediatric high-grade glioma (HGG, WHO Grade III and IV) is a devastating brain tumor with a median survival of less than two years. PDGFRA is frequently mutated/amplified in pediatric HGG, but the significance of this finding has not been fully characterized. We hypothesize that alterations of PDGFRA will promote distinct prognostic and treatment implications in pediatric HGG. In order to characterize the impact of PDGFR pathway alterations, we integrated genomic data from pediatric HGG patients (n=290) from multiple pediatric datasets and sequencing platforms. Integration of multiple human datasets showed that PDGFRA mutation, but not amplification, was associated with older age in pediatric HGG (P= <0.0001). In multivariate analysis, PDGFRA mutation was correlated with worse prognosis (P = 0.026), while PDGFRA amplification was not (P = 0.11). By Kaplan-Meier analysis, non-brainstem HGG with PDGFRA amplification carried a worse prognosis than non-brainstem HGG without PDGFRA amplification (P = 0.021). There were no pediatric patients with PDGFRA-amplified HGG that survived longer than two years. Additionally, we performed paired molecular profiling (germline / tumor / primary cell culture) and targeting of an infant thalamic HGG with amplification and outlier increased expression of PDGFRA. Dasatinib inhibited proliferation most effectively. In summary, integration of the largest genomic dataset of pediatric HGG to date, allowed us to highlight that PDGFRA mutation is found in older pediatric patients and that PDGFRA amplification is prognostic in non-brainstem HGG. Future precision-medicine based clinical trials for pediatric patients with PDGFRA-altered HGG should consider the optimized delivery of dasatinib.
Repeated deletion channels

We consider the question of the capacity of the deletion channel when multiple copies of the codeword are sent independently through the channel. This type of coding problem is straightforward for standard erasure and error channels, but is more challenging in the deletion channel setting. Our results show that when the same codeword is sent k times through the channel, each time with independent deletions with probability d, the optimal communication rate under a random codebook is 1 - αH(dk) + O(dk) for an explicitly given constant α.
Real Time Aerial Natural Image Interpretation for Autonomous Ranger Drone Navigation

In this paper a method for real time interpretation of environmental features for use in visual navigation system of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is presented. The proposed approach uses manually sampled colour values to classify different land covers. Colour information of a set of manually selected windows is compared to select the best attributes needed for discrimination between different land covers in various (natural) lighting conditions. Each frame is then partially scanned and desired environmental features are extracted and classified. The results show that the proposed technique meets the minimum speed and accuracy requirement of aforementioned application.
Cryopreservation of Human Wharton’s Jelly-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells Following Controlled Rate Freezing Protocol Using Different Cryoprotectants; A Comparative Study

Objectives To compare the effect of three different cryoprotectants on basic stem cell characteristics for the possibility of using well defined, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and serum free freezing solutions to cryopreserve human Wharton’s jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells (WJMSCs) following controlled rate freezing protocol. Methods The mesenchymal stem cells isolated from human Wharton’s jelly were cryopreserved using 10% DMSO, 10% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and a cocktail solution comprising of 0.05 M glucose, 0.05 M sucrose and 1.5 M ethylene glycol following controlled rate freezing protocol. We investigated the post-thaw cell viability, morphology, proliferation capacity, basic stem cell characteristics, in vitro differentiation potential and apoptosis-related gene expression profile before and after cryopreservation. Results The cryoprotectant 10% DMSO has shown higher post-thaw cell viability of 81.2±0.58% whereas 10% PVP and cocktail solution have shown 62.87±0.35% and 72.2±0.23%, respectively at 0 h immediately thawing. The cell viability was further reduced in all the cryopreserved groups at 24 h later post-thaw culture. Further, the complete elimination of FBS in cryoprotectants has resulted in drastic reduction in cell viability. Cryopreservation did not alter the basic stem cell characteristics, plasticity and multipotency except proliferation rate. The expression of pro-apoptotic BAX and p53 genes were higher whilst p21 was lower in all the cryopreserved groups when compare to the control group of WJMSCs. Conclusion Although 10% DMSO has shown higher post-thaw cell viability compare to 10% PVP and cocktail solution, the present study indicates the feasibility of developing a well-defined DMSO free cryosolution which can improve storage and future broad range applications of WJMSCs in regenerative medicine without losing their basic stem cell characteristics.
A Formal Model for Data Storage Security Evaluation

Backup systems use LAN or WAN. The networks and remote systems are not managed by data owner. It is necessary to integrate network storage systems with security mechanisms. There are many solutions to the backup confidentiality problem. In a given application one has to select the solution according to many factors such as: security level, performance, key management issues and overall cost. The optimization problem may be solved with a use of simulation tools. Diverse, general and specific models have been proposed. Most of them deal only with parts of the problem. The model presented in the paper is more general. It deals simultaneously with all 3 security attributes. It deals with data lifecycle and utilizes storage and transmission convergence.