Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
History of treated hypertension and diabetes mellitus and risk of renal cell cancer.

BACKGROUND An increased risk of renal cell cancer (RCC) has been reported in subjects with hypertension. Whether this association may vary according to sex, smoking, obesity, or RCC clinical presentation is unclear. Results on the link between diabetes mellitus and RCC are inconclusive. PATIENTS AND METHODS We conducted an Italian multicenter case-control study, including 767 (494 men, 273 women) incident cases of RCC, under 80 years of age, and 1534 hospital controls, frequency-matched to cases. Multiple logistic regression models, conditioned to center, sex, and age, and adjusted for period of interview, education, smoking, and body mass were used to estimate odds ratios (OR). RESULTS Compared with subjects never treated, patients with a history of treated hypertension [OR = 1.7, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.4-2.1] reported an excess risk of RCC. This pattern was confirmed in different strata of sex, education, smoking habits, body mass, tumor histological type, stage, or grade. The attributable risk of RCC for treated hypertension in this population was 16%. A slight, nonsignificant increased risk was found for history of diabetes mellitus (OR = 1.3, 95% CI 0.9-1.7). CONCLUSION A possible causal role of hypertension in renal cell carcinogenesis is supported by the consistency of the direct association.
ISOLATION OF MURRAY VALLEY ENCEPHALITIS VIRUS FROM THE BRAINS OF THREE PATIENTS WITH ENCEPHALITIS

Murray Valley encephalitis virus was isolated from the brains of three patients who died from encephalitis during the 1974 epidemic. Isolation of the virus from autopsy material was successful when death occurred within two weeks of the onset of illness; however, no isolations were made from specimens collected before death or from autopsy material obtained from patients who died more than two weeks after the onset of symptoms. The virus was recovered most frequently in embryonated eggs, but two strains were isolated in cell culture.
Isolation, characterization, and distribution of denitrifying toluene degraders from a variety of habitats

Enrichments capable of toluene degradation under O2-free denitrifying conditions were established with diverse inocula including agricultural soils, compost, aquifer material, and contaminated soil samples from different geographic regions of the world. Successful enrichment was strongly dependent on the initial use of relatively low toluene concentrations, typically 5 ppm. From the enrichments showing positive activity for toluene degradation, 10 bacterial isolates were obtained. Fingerprints generated by PCR-amplified DNA, with repetitive extragenic palindromic sequence primers, showed that eight of these isolates were different. Under aerobic conditions, all eight isolates degraded toluene, five degraded ethylbenzene, three consumed benzene, and one degraded chlorobenzene, meta-Xylene was the only other substrate used anaerobically and was used by only one isolate. All isolates were motile gram-negative rods, produced N2 from denitrification, and did not hydrolyze starch. All strains but one fixed nitrogen as judged by ethylene production from acetylene, but only four strains hybridized to the nifHDK genes. All strains appeared to have heme nitrite reductase since their DNA hybridized to the heme (nirS) but not to the Cu (nirU) genes. Five strains hybridized to a toluene ortho-hydroxylase catabolic probe, and two of those also hybridized to a toluene meta-hydroxylase probe. Partial sequences of the 16S rRNA genes of all isolates showed substantial similarity to 16S rRNA sequences of Azoarcus sp. Physiological, morphological, fatty acid, and 16S rRNA analyses indicated that these strains were closely related to each other and that they belong to the genus Azoarcus. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Probabilistic Domain Modelling With Contextualized Distributional Semantic Vectors

Generative probabilistic models have been used for content modelling and template induction, and are typically trained on small corpora in the target domain. In contrast, vector space models of distributional semantics are trained on large corpora, but are typically applied to domaingeneral lexical disambiguation tasks. We introduce Distributional Semantic Hidden Markov Models, a novel variant of a hidden Markov model that integrates these two approaches by incorporating contextualized distributional semantic vectors into a generative model as observed emissions. Experiments in slot induction show that our approach yields improvements in learning coherent entity clusters in a domain. In a subsequent extrinsic evaluation, we show that these improvements are also reflected in multi-document summarization.
A Cultural Geography of the Embera and Wounan (Choco) Indians of Darien, Panama, With Emphasis on Recent Village Formation and Economic Diversification.

P a r t I : I n t r o d u c t i o n C h a p t e r One. A G e o g r a p h i c a l S t u d y o f t h e Choco I n d i a n s o f Panama. 2 The I n d i a n s o f P a n a m a . 7 The D a r i i n C hocS. 15 R e v ie w o f t h e L i t e r a t u r e . 19 C h a p t e r Two. The P h y s i c a l S e t t i n g : D a r i e n P r o v i n c e , E a s t e r n Panama. 26 P h y s i o g r a p h y and H y d r o g r a p h y . 26 D a r i S n F o r e s t s . 31 Monsoon F o r e s t . 37 D a r i e n W i l d l i f e . 46 Mammal s . 47 B i r d s . 54 R i v e r L i f e . 55 A n i m a l s i n R e g r o w th V e g e t a t i o n . 59 C h a p t e r T h r e e . E t h n o h i s t o r i c a l B r i e f o f t h e D a r i e n C h o c o . 62 N o m e n c l a t u r e and L i n g u i s t i c R e l a t i o n s . 62 Choco: A C u l t u r e Group and a P r o v i n c e . 70 C o l o n i a l P e r i o d . 73 W es tw a rd E x p a n s i o n , 1 7 8 0 1 9 6 0 . 78 Panama’ s ChocS P o p u l a t i o n i n t h e 1 9 6 0 s . 91 B ayan o -P an am a P a p u l a t i o n s . 93 D a r i e n P o p u l a t i o n . 95 P a r t I I : H i s t o r i c S e t t l e m e n t and S u b s i s t e n c e P a t t e r n s C h a p t e r F o u r . D i s p e r s e d S e t t l e m e n t . 104 The K i n d r e d . 104
Capture of the lamb: Diffusing predators seeking a diffusing prey

We study the capture of a diffusing “lamb” by diffusing “lions” in one dimension. The capture dynamics is exactly soluble by probabilistic techniques when the number of lions is very small, and is tractable by extreme statistics considerations when the number of lions is very large. However, the exact solution for the general case of three or more lions is still not known.
Light-beam stabilizing control in long-distance transmission systems subject to mechanical vibrations

The performances of various optical systems are inevitably influenced by mechanical vibration. In order to compensate the pointing errors of the light-beam caused by the mechanical vibration in long-distance light-beam transmission systems, a new scheme of light-beam stabilizing control is presented, which uses two position sensitive detectors to detect the pointing errors, and a single fast steering mirror to stabilize the jitter of the light-beam. An experimental setup was established and a series of experiments were conducted. The experimental results show that the pointing errors can be effectively suppressed, thus the newly proposed stabilizing technique is feasible. Finally, several suggestions on improving of the experimental setup are discussed.
Identification of Genetic Differentiation between Waxy and Common Maize by SNP Genotyping

Waxy maize (Zea mays L. var. ceratina) is an important vegetable and economic crop that is thought to have originated from cultivated flint maize and most recently underwent divergence from common maize. In this study, a total of 110 waxy and 110 common maize inbred lines were genotyped with 3072 SNPs to evaluate the genetic diversity, population structure, and linkage disequilibrium decay as well as identify putative loci that are under positive selection. The results revealed abundant genetic diversity in the studied panel and that genetic diversity was much higher in common than in waxy maize germplasms. Principal coordinate analysis and neighbor-joining cluster analysis consistently classified the 220 accessions into two major groups and a mixed group with mixed ancestry. Subpopulation structure in both waxy and common maize sets were associated with the germplasm origin and corresponding heterotic groups. The LD decay distance (1500–2000 kb) in waxy maize was lower than that in common maize. Fourteen candidate loci were identified as under positive selection between waxy and common maize at the 99% confidence level. The information from this study can assist waxy maize breeders by enhancing parental line selection and breeding program design.
A Context-Aware Approach to Entity Linking

Entity linking refers to the task of assigning mentions in documents to their corresponding knowledge base entities. Entity linking is a central step in knowledge base population. Current entity linking systems do not explicitly model the discourse context in which the communication occurs. Nevertheless, the notion of shared context is central to the linguistic theory of pragmatics and plays a crucial role in Grice's cooperative communication principle. Furthermore, modeling context facilitates joint resolution of entities, an important problem in entity linking yet to be addressed satisfactorily. This paper describes an approach to context-aware entity linking.
Attitudes towards, and utility of, an integrated medical-dental patient-held record in primary care.

BACKGROUND The need for closer coordination between primary care medical and dental services has been recognized. AIM To assess the attitudes of general medical practitioners (GMPs), general dental practitioners (GDPs), and patients to an integrated medical-dental patient-held record (integrated medical-dental PHR); to examine patients' use of these records, and the utility of the records for doctors and dentists. METHOD A three-phase study was carried out: (1) postal survey of GMPs and GDPs; (2) randomized trial of patients, using postal questionnaires before and one year after the issue of integrated medical-dental PHRs to cases; (3) assessment by doctors and dentists of anonymized integrated medical-dental PHRs from this trial. The study was carried out in medical and dental practices in affluent and deprived areas in Greater Glasgow Health Board. Two hundred and thirteen GMPs, 183 GDPs, and 369 patients registered with GMPs and GDPs were surveyed. Eighteen GDPs and GMPs assessed the integrated medical-dental PHRs. RESULTS Eighty per cent of dentists had contacted a doctor and 16% of doctors had contacted a dentist in the previous three months; 87% of dentists and 68% of doctors thought an integrated medical-dental PHR would be of some use. Twenty-one per cent of dentists and 85% of doctors had practice computers. Most patients wanted to be able to see and read their own records. Twenty-four per cent of patients said there were mistakes and 30% noticed omissions in the integrated medical-dental PHR issued. Experience of having an integrated medical-dental PHR made patients more positive towards the idea of having a patient-held record and being able to check the accuracy of records. Integrated medical-dental PHRs contained important information for half the GDPs and one-third of the GMPs. CONCLUSION Both professionals and patients have reasonably positive attitudes towards the use of patient-held records. Among patients, the experience of having the integrated medical-dental PHR led to greater enthusiasm towards the idea. Dentists in particular would benefit from the transfer of information from doctors, but better methods are needed to ensure that patients take the integrated medical-dental PHR with them. Given the current lack of ability to easily produce an integrated medical-dental PHR, further examination of the routine issue of a copy of their medical summary, by GMPs, to all patients would be worthwhile.
Process Recovery after CaO Addition Due to Granule Formation in a CSTR Co-Digester—A Tool to Influence the Composition of the Microbial Community and Stabilize the Process?

The composition, structure and function of granules formed during process recovery with calcium oxide in a laboratory-scale fermenter fed with sewage sludge and rapeseed oil were studied. In the course of over-acidification and successful process recovery, only minor changes were observed in the bacterial community of the digestate, while granules appeared during recovery. Fluorescence microscopic analysis of the granules showed a close spatial relationship between calcium and oil and/or long chain fatty acids. This finding further substantiated the hypothesis that calcium precipitated with carbon of organic origin and reduced the negative effects of overloading with oil. Furthermore, the enrichment of phosphate minerals in the granules was shown, and molecular biological analyses detected polyphosphate-accumulating organisms as well as methanogenic archaea in the core. Organisms related to Methanoculleus receptaculi were detected in the inner zones of a granule, whereas they were present in the digestate only after process recovery. This finding indicated more favorable microhabitats inside the granules that supported process recovery. Thus, the granule formation triggered by calcium oxide addition served as a tool to influence the composition of the microbial community and to stabilize the process after overloading with oil.
Hiérarchisation dans les réseaux ad hoc de véhicules

RÉSUMÉ. Les réseaux de véhicules tendent désormais vers une architecture cellulaire hybride étendue avec une partie ad hoc. Les communications se font soit entre véhicules, soit du véhicule vers l’infrastructure. Cependant, le réseau ad hoc de véhicules (VANET) souffre d’une connectivité discontinue et d’une capacité limitée. La hiérarchisation du VANET apporte des solutions à ces problèmes. Cette approche est bien adaptée aux VANET du fait que la dynamique du traﬁc véhiculaire entraînent la formation de groupes "naturels" aux intersections ou de convois sur autoroute. De plus, les applications orientées transport sont souvent liées à une région donnée comme un cluster géographique. Dans cette étude, nous passons en revue les critères de regroupement utilisés pour la hiérarchisation des VANET et nous les confrontons aux propriétés souhaitables que sont le passage à l’échelle et la stabilité de la structure. Finalement, nous décrivons plusieurs propositions à différents niveaux protocolaires qui utilisent l’un ou plusieurs de ces critères. ABSTRACT. The vehicular Ad Hoc network (VANET) is often considered as an ad hoc extension of a cellular mobile network. Thus communications are then possible between vehicles as well as from vehicle to infrastructure based-network. However, the VANET suffers from a lack of connectivity and a limited capacity. One solution is to use clustering-based protocol to communicate between vehicles. The Clustering approach is well suited for vehicular networks because the dynamics of vehicular trafﬁc result in the formation of natural groups of vehicles at intersections or convoys on highways. In addition, transportation-oriented applications are often linked to a particular region viewed as a geographic-based cluster. In this study, we review the clustering criteria used for VANET self-organization and we compare them with desirable properties that are scalability and stability of the structure. Finally, we also describe some protocols at different levels that use one or more of these criteria. 2 Hiérarchisation dans les réseaux ad hoc de véhicules, V. Vèque e soumission à Ubimob’12.
Explaining Argumentation over Alignment Agreements

Argumentation frameworks have been used as tools for reconciliating ontology alignments, through a series of proposals and counter-proposals, i.e., arguments. However, argumentation outcomes may not be so obvious to human users. Explaining the reasoning behind the argumentation process may help users to understand its outcome, and influence the user's confidence and acceptance on the results. This paper presents a mechanism for providing explanations on the way agreed alignments are established. Our mechanism is based on tracing each step of the argumentation process. These traces are then interpreted using a set of association rules, built from a decision tree that represents all possible statuses of arguments. From these rules, a multi-level explanation, in natural language, is provided to the users.
Measurement and interpretation of electrocardiographic QT intervals in murine hearts

Alterations in ECG QT intervals correlate with the risk of potentially fatal arrhythmias, for which transgenic murine hearts are becoming increasingly useful experimental models. However, QT intervals are poorly defined in murine ECGs. As a consequence, several different techniques have been used to measure murine QT intervals. The present work develops a consistent measure of the murine QT interval that correlates with changes in the duration of ventricular myocyte action potentials (APs). Volume-conducted ECGs were compared with simultaneously recorded APs, obtained using floating intracellular microelectrodes in Langendorff-perfused mouse hearts. QT intervals were measured from the onset of the QRS complex. The interval, Q-APR90, measured to the time at 90% AP recovery, was compared with two measures of the QT interval. QT1 was measured to the recovery of the ECG trace to the isoelectric baseline for entirely positive T-waves or to the trough of any negative T-wave undershoot. QT2—used extensively in previous studies—was measured to the return of any ECG trough to the isoelectric baseline. QT1, but not QT2, closely correlated with changes in Q-APR90. These findings were confirmed over a range of pacing rates, in low K+ concentration solutions, and in Scn5a+/ΔKPQ hearts used to model human long QT syndrome. Application of this method in whole anesthetized mice similarly demonstrated a prolonged corrected QT (QTc) in Scn5a+/ΔKPQ hearts. We therefore describe a robust method for the determination of QT and QTc intervals that correlate with the duration of ventricular myocyte APs in murine hearts.
Design of indirect adaptive fuzzy control (IAFC) for nonlinear hysteretic systems

Nonlinear hysteretic phenomena occur in many physical systems, such as electronic throttle and solenoid valves in automobiles, piezoelectric sensors, and many other mechanical actuators. In order to handle the nonlinear properties of hysteretic systems, an indirect adaptive fuzzy controller (IAFC) is proposed in this paper. However, it is a hard task to directly identify unknown hysteretic effects. Firstly, to overcome this problem, a hysteretic function is employed to construct the nonlinear properties of backlashlike hysteretic systems. Then the existence of an indirect adaptive controller (IAFC) is derived in this paper. Unlike the existing fuzzy control methods, our proposed IAFC can deal with different kinds of hysteretic problems with adaptive and control laws. Based on the learning algorithm, the adaptive and control laws not only can be derived but the stability of the closed-loop system can also be guaranteed by the Lyapunov stability criterion. Finally, MATLAB software is used for simulations, and the results show that our proposed IAFC can effectively handle the nonlinear properties in some unknown hysteretic systems.
Charged active contour model

A novel, physical-based force, called as Lorentz force inspired by classical electrodynamics is introduced for the active contour models, and the truncation computing method of Lorentz Force is detailed. Several comparative results indicate that the new force field has similar effects with the Gradient Vector Flow (GVF) field, but it has a remarkable promotion of evaluation speed. The new force is more suitable to be applied to real-time image processing applications.
Effects of passive hyperthermia versus exercise-induced hyperthermia on immune responses: hormonal implications.

UNLABELLED Different stress hormones are released during prolonged exercise and passive hyperthermia. We hypothesized that these different hormonal responses could contribute to the different changes in the immune response during these two challenges. METHODS Eight subjects completed three trials in a randomized order. In the control trial (C), the subjects remained in a sitting posture for three hours in thermoneutral conditions. In the exercise hyperthermia trial (E), they exercised for two hours on a treadmill at 65% max in thermoneutral conditions, followed by 1-h recovery in thermoneutral conditions; in the passive hyperthermia trial (PH), the subjects remained in a semi-recumbent position in a climatic chamber for two hours in hot conditions, followed by 1-h recovery in thermoneutral conditions. During the E and PH trials, wind speed and thermal conditions were modulated to reach a rectal temperature (Tre) of 38.5 degrees C at 60 min and 39 degrees C at 120 min. The subjects did not drink during the experiments. Blood samples (10 mL) were taken at 0, 60, 120 and 180 min of each trial. The total white cell count and its subsets were measured; plasma catecholamines, cortisol and prolactin were assayed. In a whole blood assay, blood leukocytes were stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or phytohemagglutinin (PHA) for 24 and 48 hours, respectively. Cytokines, such as TNF-alpha, IL-10 and INF-gamma were measured in the culture supernatant. RESULTS The plasma levels of catecholamines were increased only during E, prolactin was increased only during PH, and cortisol was increased in both E and PH. Only the exercise caused a mobilization of blood leukocytes and leukocyte subsets. The INF-gamma and TNF-alpha production by PHA- and LPS-stimulated blood, respectively, were inhibited in a substantial way in both E and PH compared to control when Tre reached 39 degrees C. Only LPS-induced IL-10 production was enhanced during the exercise. The effects of the challenges were increased with 39 degrees C compared to 38.5 degrees C. CONCLUSIONS Catecholamines play a major role in the mobilization of immunocompetent cells and the production of IL-10 during exercise. Prolactin and catecholamines have adverse role on the immune response, whereas cortisol exerts similar effects during both trials. The consequence could be a protection against inflammatory overshooting.