Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validity of the EuroQoL (EQ-5D) instrument in a Greek general population.

OBJECTIVES The main purpose of this study was to assess the construct validity of the Greek EQ-5D instrument in measuring health-related quality of life, as well as to address the issues of concurrent validity, internal consistency reliability, and sensitivity. METHODS A stratified, representative sample (n = 1388) of the Greek general population was approached for interview (response rate 72.4%). The survey included the EQ-5D, the SF-36, and questions on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the sample. RESULTS The EQ-5D dimensions, the EQ visual analog scale, and the UK-based utility index were capable of distinguishing between groups of respondents, in the expected manner, on the basis of sex, age, education, socioeconomic status, self-reported health problems, and health services utilization, thus providing evidence of construct validity. Convergent and divergent validity of the EQ-5D descriptive system were supported by expected relationships with SF-36 scale and summary scores. Additionally, reporting a problem in a given EQ dimension was generally associated with lower SF-36 scores, supporting concurrent validity. Internal consistency reliability and sensitivity were also satisfactorily demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS The results provide initial support for the construct validity of the EQ-5D in Greece, and, in conjunction to future studies addressing test-retest reliability and responsiveness, they support administering the instrument in health status studies, which in turn can contribute to transnational comparisons.
Outcomes of Incidental Fallopian Tube High-Grade Serous Carcinoma and Serous Tubal Intraepithelial Carcinoma in Women at Low Risk of Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer

Objectives The natural history and optimal management of serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma (STIC), regardless of BRCA status, is unknown. We report the follow-up findings of a series of incidental fallopian tube high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSCs) and STICs identified in women at low risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC), undergoing surgery for other indications. Materials and Methods Cases of incidental STIC and HGSC were identified from 2008. Patients with known BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations, or a family history of ovarian or breast cancer before the diagnosis of STIC or HGSC were excluded. A retrospective chart review was conducted to obtain clinical data. Results Eighteen cases were identified with a median follow-up of 25 months (range, 4–88 months). Twelve of 18 patients had a diagnosis of STIC with no associated invasive HGSC and 6 had STIC associated with other invasive malignancies. Completion staging surgery was performed on 7 of the 18 patients, including 5 of 12 in which there was STIC only identified on primary surgery; 3 cases were upstaged from STIC only to HGSC based on the staging surgery. Recurrence of HGSC occurred in 2 of the 18 patients. BRCA testing was performed on 3 patients, 1 of whom tested positive for a pathogenic BRCA1 mutation. Conclusions Our study suggests that completion staging surgery for incidental STICs in non-BRCA patients may be considered. These patients should be offered hereditary testing. The Pelvic-Ovarian cancer INTerception (POINT) Project is an international registry set up to add to our understanding of STICs.
Proximal Newton methods for convex composite optimization

This paper proposes two proximal Newton methods for convex nonsmooth optimization problems in composite form. The algorithms are based on a new continuously differentiable exact penalty function, namely the Composite Moreau Envelope. The first algorithm is based on a standard line search strategy, whereas the second one combines the global efficiency estimates of the corresponding first-order methods, while achieving fast asymptotic convergence rates. Furthermore, they are computationally attractive since each Newton iteration requires the solution of a linear system of usually small dimension.
Error Resilient Transmission for Compressed Sensing of Color Images with Multiple Description Coding

Compressed sensing (CS), due to its superior performances that very few amounts of coefficients are capable of reconstructing the image with reasonable quality, is an effective means in data compression in recent years. For the transmission of image compressed with CS, due to the channel errors that may be experienced, data protection would be required. We employ multiple description coding (MDC) for protecting color images with compressed sensing. With MDC, compressed information can be divided into different chunks at the encoder, and all the chunks can be transmitted over multiple independent channels to alleviate the influences caused by channel errors. At the decoder, the possibly corrupted chunks are assembled together, and MDC can be applied to reconstruct the image. With our algorithm, simulation results presented the error resilient capability and improved quality of color images.
Attainable Unconditional Security for Shared-Key Cryptosystems

Preserving the privacy of private communication is a fundamental concern of computing addressed by encryption. Information-theoretic reasoning models unconditional security where the strength of the results is not moderated by computational hardness or unproven results. Perfect secrecy is often considered the ideal result for a cryptosystem, where knowledge of the ciphertext reveals no information about the key or message, however often this is impossible to achieve in practice. An alternative measure is the equivocation, intuitively the average number of message/key pairs that could have produced a given ciphertext. We show a theoretical bound on equivocation called max equivocation and show that this generalizes perfect secrecy when achievable, and provides an alternative measure when perfect secrecy is not. We derive bounds for max-equivocation, and show that counter intuitively max-equivocation is achieved when the entropy of the ciphertext is minimized. We consider encryption functions under this new information, and show that in general the theoretical best is unachievable, and that some popular approaches such as Latin squares or Quasigroups are also not optimal. We present some algorithms for generating encryption functions that are practical and achieve 90-95% of the theoretical best, improving with larger message spaces.
The use of Geographical Information System (GIS) derived tessellations to relate badger territory to distribution patterns of soils and land use environmental habitat variables within the East Offaly badger research area

Title The use of Geographical Information System (GIS) derived tessellations to relate badger territory to distribution patterns of soils and land use environmental habitat variables within the East Offaly badger research area Authors(s) Hammond, Robert F. ; McGrath, Guy Publication date 1998-09 Series Selected Papers, 1997 Publisher University College Dublin. Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis Item record/more information http://hdl.handle. net/10197/8800
N-acetylcysteine inhibits activation of toll-like receptor 2 and 4 gene expression in the liver and lung after partial hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury in mice.

BACKGROUND Toll-like receptor 2 and 4 (TLR2/4) may play important roles in ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) can prevent the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by I/R injury. This study aimed to investigate the changes in TLR2/4 gene expression in the liver and lung after I/R injury with or without NAC pretreatment. METHODS BALB/c mice were used in a model of partial hepatic I/R injury and randomly assigned to a sham-operated control group (SH), a hepatic ischemia/reperfusion group (I/R) or a NAC pretreated, hepatic I/R group (I/R-NAC). The levels of TNF-alpha in the portal vein and plasma alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were measured at 1 and 3 hours after reperfusion. The lung wet-to-dry ratio was measured, and the expression of TLR2/4 mRNA and protein in the liver and lung were assessed with RT-PCR and Western blotting at the same time points. RESULTS Compared with the I/R group, the expression of TLR2/4 mRNA and protein in the liver and lung in the I/R-NAC group was decreased at the same time point (P<0.05). The levels of portal vein TNF-alpha and plasma ALT increased continuously in the I/R group at 1 and 3 hours of reperfusion compared with the SH group; however, they declined significantly in the group pretreated with NAC (P<0.05). The extent of lung edema was relieved in the I/R-NAC group compared with the I/R group (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS TLR2/4 was activated in the liver and lung in the process of partial hepatic I/R injury. NAC inhibited the activation of TLR2/4 and the induction of TNF-alpha resulting from I/R injury via modulating the redox state, thus it may mitigate liver and lung injury following partial hepatic I/R in mice.
Mechanical properties and characterisation of substrates for flexible displays

This project is concerned with the electro-mechanical reliability and characterisation of ITO coated polyester substrates for use in touch screen and flexible display applications. Flexible display anode components such as ITO coated polyesters are common in almost all flexible display technologies. However, these hybrid thin systems are unusual in mechanical terms. There is a mismatch between the mechanical properties of the inorganic coating and the organic substrate. It is therefore important to investigate the electromechanical response of such flexible anodes under various stress states and deformation modes. It is also important to develop new mechanical testing techniques for flexible displays. Numerous experimental techniques were used in order to characterise and test the available ITO coated/uncoated PET and PEN substrates. Also, the development of new experimental mechanical testing methods, such as the biaxial 'bulge' apparatus, was undertaken. During this work, various ITO coated polyester substrates were mechanically tested under uniaxial tension, controlled buckling and biaxial tension. In-situ electrical resistance monitoring and ex-situ atomic force microscopy, were used in order to detect and characterise ITO failure mechanisms. Tribological investigation of bare polyester substrates was undertaken. Preliminary nanoscratch and nanoindentation studies were also conducted on coated and uncoated systems. Overall it was shown that ITO coated polyester flexible display electrodes can properly function up to relatively low strains. Electrical resistance generally does not recover during unloading in cyclic experiments. These factors currently limit the use of such components to slightly curbed displays. Various ITO failure modes were observed, depending on the applied deformation mode. It was also shown, that the ITO adhesive failure is as critical as cohesive failure.
Enabling personalized healthcare by analyzing semantic dependencies in a conceptual co-occurrence network based on a medical vocabulary

The amount of medical knowledge is constantly growing thus providing new hope for people having healthrelated problems. However a challenge is to develop flexible methods to facilitate managing and interpreting large medical knowledge entities. There is a need to enhance health literacy by developing personalized health support tools. Furthermore there is a need to assist decision-making with decision support tools. The recent and on-going changes in everyday life both on technological and societal levels (for example adoption of smart phones and personal mobile medical tracking devices, social networking, open source and open data initiatives, fast growth of accumulated medical data, need for new self-care solutions for aging European population) motivate to invest in the development of new computerized personalized methods for knowledge management of medical data for diagnosis and treatment. To enable creation of new adaptive personalized health support tools we have carried out an evaluation of semantic dependencies in a conceptual co-occurrence network covering a set of concepts of a medical vocabulary with experimental results ranging up to 2994 unique nouns, 82814 unique conceptual links and 200000 traversed link steps.
Heavy metals distribution in cetaceans stranded at west and north coasts of Sabah, Malaysia

Heavy metals distribution in the liver, kidney, heart, lung, muscle, melon, muscle and blubber of 5 cetaceans (2 short-finned pilot whales, 2 finless porpoises and 1 spinner dolphin) stranded at the west and north coasts of Sabah, Malaysia in 2015 were examined in this study as a first attempt to establish baseline information. Cd, Cr, As, Pb, Cu, Mn, Fe, Se, and Zn were generally found to be low in these cetaceans. Calves, adolescents, and adult cetaceans examined exhibit differential metal distribution which is normal since diet and maturity stage play the major role on this. Similar pattern of distribution was also found regardless of species. Concentrations Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn in liver and kidney were found to be not affected by species or maturity. Selective accumulation of Cd was found in kidney of adolescent short-finned pilot whale and spinner dolphin (98.65 and 35.04 µg g-1 dwt or 54.28% and 67.13% respectively). As and Cd in the calf finless porpoise were significantly high in the muscle compare to other tissues (3.52 and 3.79 µg g-1) which could be due to redistribution of harmful metals to protect main organs from toxicity. However, no specific metal toxicity or pollution of local marine environment was found. Heavy metals distribution in the liver, kidney, heart, lung, muscle, melon, muscle and blubber of 5 cetaceans (2 short-finned pilot whales, 2 finless porpoises and 1 spinner dolphin) stranded at the west and north coasts of Sabah, Malaysia in 2015 were examined in this study as a first attempt to establish baseline information. Cd, Cr, As, Pb, Cu, Mn, Fe, Se, and Zn were generally found to be low in these cetaceans. Calves, adolescents, and adult cetaceans examined exhibit differential metal distribution which is normal since diet and maturity stage play the major role on this. Similar pattern of distribution was also found regardless of species. Concentrations Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn in liver and kidney were found to be not affected by species or maturity. Selective accumulation of Cd was found in kidney of adolescent short-finned pilot whale and spinner dolphin (98.65 and 35.04 µg g-1 dwt or 54.28% and 67.13% respectively). As and Cd in the calf finless porpoise were significantly high in the muscle compare to other tissues (3.52 and 3.79 µg g-1) which could be due to redistribution of harmful metals to protect main organs from toxicity. However, no specific metal toxicity or pollution of local marine environment was found.
Phorbol Diacetate Potentiates Na+-K+ ATPase Inhibition by a Putative Endogenous Ligand, Marinobufagenin

Several vasoconstrictor agents can regulate the phosphorylation status of the Na+-K+ ATPase (NKA). We have recently demonstrated that mammalian tissues contain an endogenous bufadienolide, digitalis-like &agr;1-NKA–selective ligand, marinobufagenin (MBG). Protein kinase C induces phosphorylation of the &agr;1-NKA isoform, the major isoform in vascular smooth muscle, kidney, and heart cells. We hypothesized that protein kinase C–induced phosphorylation of NKA can potentiate the effect of endogenous digitalis-like ligands, and that such potentiation can occur in an NKA isoform–specific fashion. A protein kinase C activator, phorbol 12,13-diacetate (PDA, 50 nmol/L), induced phosphorylation of the &agr;1-NKA from human mesenteric artery (HMA) sarcolemma and rat kidney but not that of the &agr;3-NKA from rat fetal brain. In HMA sarcolemma, which predominantly contains &agr;1-NKA, PDA (50 nmol/L) potentiated the NKA-inhibitory effect of MBG at the level of high-affinity binding sites (0.05±0.03 nmol/L versus 4.0±1.7 nmol/L, P <0.05). In contrast, PDA did not affect the NKA inhibition by ouabain, an &agr;3-NKA ligand. In isolated endothelium-denuded HMA artery rings, 50 nmol/L PDA potentiated the MBG-induced vasoconstriction (EC50, 17±6 nmol/L versus 150±40 nmol/L;P <0.01). Our results suggest that &agr;1-isoform–specific NKA inhibition by the endogenous digitalis-like ligand, MBG, is substantially enhanced via NKA phosphorylation by protein kinase C. Thus, an interaction of protein kinase C–dependent phosphorylation and MBG on NKA activity may underlie the synergistic vasoactive effects of MBG and other endogenous vasoconstrictors in hypertension.
Security and speed assessment of a new distance protection algorithm based on the wavelet transform

Distance relay algorithms are typically based on the phasor-domain approach where the fundamental frequency phasors are computed using well-known methods such as: the full cycle discrete Fourier transformation (FCDFT), least error squares (LES) and the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Instead of the phasor-domain approach, there are time-domain based algorithms that detect faults without calculating the phasors. In this paper a new distance relay algorithm based on the time-domain approach and DWT is introduced. The security of fault detection and the tripping time obtained when applying the proposed algorithm to a number of fault simulations is compared with the equivalent results obtained when applying the classical solution based on DFT.
Ultrasonic hearing and echolocation in the earliest toothed whales

The evolution of biosonar (production of high-frequency sound and reception of its echo) was a key innovation of toothed whales and dolphins (Odontoceti) that facilitated phylogenetic diversification and rise to ecological predominance. Yet exactly when high-frequency hearing first evolved in odontocete history remains a fundamental question in cetacean biology. Here, we show that archaic odontocetes had a cochlea specialized for sensing high-frequency sound, as exemplified by an Oligocene xenorophid, one of the earliest diverging stem groups. This specialization is not as extreme as that seen in the crown clade. Paired with anatomical correlates for high-frequency signal production in Xenorophidae, this is strong evidence that the most archaic toothed whales possessed a functional biosonar system, and that this signature adaptation of odontocetes was acquired at or soon after their origin.
Pipelined Function Evaluation on FPGAs

This paper presents an approach to parameterizing pipelined designs for differentiable function evaluation using lookup tables, adders and multipliers. Trade-offs involved in implementing the lookup table as a full table or as bipartite tables are discussed. In case of implementations with a lookup table and a multiplier, equations estimating approximation errors and rounding errors can be used to parameterize the hardware unit. The method is implemented as part of the PAM-Blox module generation environment. An example shows that our approach produces competitive designs with data widths up to 20 bits when compared with shift-and-add based CORDIC units; it can be used for larger data widths when evaluating functions not supported by CORDIC.
Volatile Oil from Amomi Fructus Attenuates 5-Fluorouracil-Induced Intestinal Mucositis

Amomi Fructus has been used to treat digestive diseases in the context of traditional Chinese medicine, so we evaluated the effects of a volatile oil from Amomum villosum (VOA) on intestinal mucositis induced by 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). We measured the effect of VOA and its main active constituent, bornyl acetate (BA), on body weight, food intake, diarrhea, inflammatory cytokines, the mucosal barrier, and gut microbiota. VOA and BA significantly increased the rats’ body weight, relieved diarrhea, and reversed histopathological changes in the gut and inflammation. VOA significantly inhibited apoptosis and alleviated the endoenteritis by downregulating p38 MAPK and caspase-3 expression. VOA and BA strengthened the intestinal mucosal barrier by increasing zonula occludin-1 and occludin expression. VOA and BA reduced the amount of pathogenic bacteria and increased the abundance of probiotics. Thus, VOA prevented the development and progression of intestinal mucositis after chemotherapy.
An Efficient Algorithm for Cooperative Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Networks

We consider the problem of Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radio Systems. We have developed a distributed algorithm that the Secondary users can run to sense the channel cooperatively. It is based on sequential detection algorithms which optimally use the past observations. We use the algorithm on secondary users with energy detectors although it can be used with matched filter and other spectrum sensing algorithms also. The algorithm provides very low detection delays and also consumes little energy. Furthermore it causes low interference to the primary users. We compare this algorithm to several recently proposed algorithms and show that it detects changes in spectrum faster than these algorithms and uses significantly less energy.
Human walking isn't all hard work: evidence of soft tissue contributions to energy dissipation and return

SUMMARY The muscles and tendons of the lower extremity are generally considered the dominant producers of positive and negative work during gait. However, soft-tissue deformations not captured by joint rotations might also dissipate, store and even return substantial energy to the body. A key locomotion event is the collision of the leg with the ground, which deforms soft tissues appreciably in running. Significant deformation might also result from the impulsive ground collision in walking. In a study of normal human walking (N=10; 0.7–2.0 m s–1 speeds), we show indirect evidence for both negative and positive work performed by soft tissue, consistent with a damped elastic collision and rebound. We used the difference between measured joint work and another quantity – the work performed on the body center of mass – to indicate possible work performed by soft tissue. At 1.25 m s–1, we estimated that soft tissue performs approximately 7.5 J of negative work per collision. This constitutes approximately 60% of the total negative collision work and 31% of the total negative work per stride. The amount of soft tissue work during collision increases sharply with speed. Each collision is followed by 4 J of soft tissue rebound that is also not captured by joint work measures. Soft tissue deformation may save muscles the effort of actively dissipating energy, and soft tissue elastic rebound could save up to 14% of the total positive work per stride. Soft tissues not only cushion impacts but also appear to perform substantial work.
A Domain-Independent Approach to IE Rule Development

A key element for the extraction of information in a natural language document is a set of shallow text analysis rules, which are typically based on pre-defined linguistic patterns. Current Information Extraction research aims at the automatic or semi-automatic acquisition of these rules. Within this research framework, we consider in this paper the potential for acquiring generic extraction patterns. Our research is based on the hypothesis that, terms (the linguistic representation of concepts in a specialised domain) and Named Entities (the names of persons, organisations and dates of importance in the text) can together be considered as the basic semantic entities of textual information and can therefore be used as a basis for the conceptual representation of domain specific texts and the definition of what constitutes an information extraction template in linguistic terms. The extraction patterns discovered by this approach involve significant associations of these semantic entities with verbs and they can subsequently be translated into the grammar formalism of choice.