Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risks for the development of outcomes related to occupational allergies: an application of the asthma-specific job exposure matrix compared with self-reports and investigator scores on job-training-related exposure

Background and aim: Risks for development of occupational sensitisation, bronchial hyper-responsiveness, rhinoconjunctival and chest symptoms at work associated with continued exposure to high molecular weight (HMW) allergens were estimated with three exposure assessment methods. Methods: A Cox regression analysis with adjustment for atopy and smoking habit was carried out in 408 apprentices in animal health technology, pastry making, and dental hygiene technology with an 8-year follow-up after training. The risk of continued exposure after training, estimated by the asthma-specific job exposure matrix (JEM), was compared with self-reports and investigator scores on job-training-related exposure. Associations between outcomes and work duration in job(s) related to training were also evaluated. Results: Exposure to animal-derived HMW allergens, subsequent to the apprenticeship period, as estimated by the JEM, was associated with a significantly increased risk for occupational sensitisation (hazard ratio (HR) 6.4; 95% CI 2.3 to 18.2) and rhinoconjunctival symptoms at work (HR 2.6; 95% CI 1.1 to 6.2). Exposure to low molecular weight (LMW) agents significantly increased the risk of developing bronchial hyper-responsiveness (HR 2.3; 95% CI 1.1 to 5.4). Exposure verification appeared to be important to optimise the sensitivity and the specificity, as well as HRs produced by the JEM. Self-reports and investigator scores also indicated that further exposure to HMW allergens increased the risk of developing occupational allergies. The agreement between self-reports, investigator scores, and the JEM were moderate to good. There was no significant association between respiratory outcomes and work duration in jobs related to training. Conclusion: The asthma-specific JEM could estimate the risk of various outcomes of occupational allergies associated with exposure to HMW and LMW allergens, but it is relatively labour intensive. Exposure verification is an important integrated step in the JEM that optimised the performance of the matrix.
TinyTorrents - Integrating Peer-to-Peer and Wireless Sensor Networks

TinyTorrents integrates Wireless Sensor Networks with the BitTorrent Peer-to-Peer protocol and is designed to respect the resource constrained environment which characterises many WSN's. This paper describes the architecture and design which underpins the TinyTorrents system and explores many of the technical challenges that arise in the fusion of such distinct data dissemination networks. The key behaviours and features of both Peer-to-Peer and Wireless Sensor Networks are first explored and evaluated. TinyHop, the protocol used for inter-node routing within the WSN, is presented. Experimental resource optimization and system analysis is performed for message overhead, resource coordination, peer selection and tracker functionality. The system advertises available node and network data via both Web 2.0 service interfaces and through BitTorrent tracker networks. The system has been validated and demonstrated using multiple networks and multiple clients accessing data on a global scale.
Towards arbitrary camera movements for image cube trajectory analysis

Image cube trajectory (ICT) Analysis is a new and robust method to estimate the 3D structure of a scene from a set of 2D images. For a moving camera each 3D point is represented by a trajectory in an image cube. In previous publications we have shown that it is possible to reconstruct the 3D scene from the parameters of these trajectories. Nevertheless, the algorithm was restricted to simple parameterized camera movements. In this paper we discuss the problem of arbitrary camera motion. We benefit from the fact that in many cases, in particular for hand-held cameras, the image deviations caused by rotational variation of the camera parameters is much higher than for translational variation. We show that it is possible to compensate such rotational and translational deviations by transformation and resampling of the image cube. We obtain more uniform and smooth trajectory structures which can be analyzed by standard ICT analysis algorithms.
The association of clinical outcome with right atrial and ventricular remodelling in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: study with real-time three-dimensional echocardiography.

AIMS Right atrial (RA) dilatation may be important for patients' outcome in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The aim of this study was to examine the longitudinal RA and right ventricular (RV) remodelling in PAH patients using real-time three-dimensional echocardiography (3DE) and their relation to clinical outcome. METHODS AND RESULTS Sixty-two consecutive PAH patients were studied and compared with a control group of 30 healthy volunteers. RA and RV sphericity indices were measured with 3DE. RV ejection fraction (RVEF), RA volume (RAvol), and the quantification of jet area of tricuspid regurgitation (TR) were measured. Two observers were used for reproducibility assessment. The geometrical change of RA and RV was assessed in relation to clinical outcome, as defined by the increase of functional class or admission to the hospital due to right heart failure. Over 1 year of follow-up, there was significant increase of RA sphericity index (0.85±0.16 vs. 1.2±0.24, P<0.01), RV dilatation (RV sphericity index 0.71±0.07 vs. 0.98±0.04, P<0.01), as well as deterioration of RV systolic function (RVEF 33±8.2 vs. 28±7.6%, P<0.01). Twenty-three patients (37%) had a clinical deterioration within 1 year. An increase of RA sphericity index>0.24 predicted clinical deterioration with a sensitivity of 96% and a specificity of 90% [area under the curve (AUC) 0.97]. RV sphericity index was less sensitive (70%) and specific (62%) in predicting clinical deterioration (AUC 0.649). The deterioration in RVEF had a sensitivity of 91.1% and a specificity of 35.3% (AUC 0.479) in predicting clinical deterioration. The dilatation of RA>14 mL over 1 year had high sensitivity at 82.6% but low specificity at 30.8% in predicting clinical deterioration. CONCLUSION PAH leads to RA and RV dilatation and functional deterioration which are linked to an adverse clinical outcome. 3DE measurement of RA sphericity index may be a suitable index in predicting clinical deterioration of PAH patients.
A novel enzyme‐dependent melatonin metabolite in humans

Exogenous melatonin is widely used in humans for multiple pharmacologic purposes. The metabolic pathways of melatonin reflect the fate and functions of melatonin in vivo. This study was designed to re‐profile melatonin metabolism in humans using a metabolomic approach. In the urine of healthy subjects treated with 10 mg melatonin, sulfate‐ or glucuronide‐conjugated metabolites of melatonin were detected, including 6‐hydroxymelatonin sulfate, 6‐hydroxymelatonin glucuronide, N‐acetylserotonin glucuronide, N‐acetylserotonin sulfate, and an unknown sulfated metabolite (X). The molecular weight of metabolite X was 14 Da smaller than 6‐hydroxymelatonin sulfate, but 16 Da larger than N‐acetylserotonin sulfate. Further studies suggest that metabolite X was produced via O‐demethylation, 6‐hydroxylation, and sulfation. The antioxidant products of melatonin, N(1)‐acetyl‐N(2)‐formyl‐5‐methoxykynuramine and N(1)‐acetyl‐5‐methoxy‐kynuramine, were not detected in human urine. In summary, this study provided a global view of melatonin metabolism in humans and extended our knowledge of enzyme‐dependent pathways of melatonin metabolism.
Visualisation techniques and its uses in representation of web usage patterns: a survey

Web usage mining, the analysis of user navigation paths through websites, is a common technique for evaluating site designs or adaptive websites. Web usage mining results in usage patterns which can help website designers, analysts and business executives in proactive decision making. Different visualisation techniques are used to represent mined patterns so that it can be easily understood by the executives. It is found that the visualisation can significantly increase the quality and usefulness of web log mining results. In this paper, we tried to find out how many different visualisation techniques are utilised for web usage mining.
Numerical analysis of influences of casting speeds on fluid flow in funnel shape mould with new type EMBr

Abstract In present work, a new type of magnet specially designed for the thin slab casting funnel shape mould is adopted. Numerical simulations of the new type electromagnetic brake (EMBr) influences on flow field are carried out. For the computation of magnetic fields, the software ANSYS with finite element method is adopted. For fluid flow, commercial software FLUENT with finite volume method is used to predict steel flow with EMBr, and magnetohydrodynamics model is activated to couple the applied magnetic and flow field. The variation of electromagnetic parameters are studied with the casting speed changing from 5 to 6 m min–1. The results show that, the flow field can be significantly controlled by the new type EMBr. Furthermore, an increase of ∼1000 A n ampere turns is needed to produce larger enough magnetic flux density in the mould region to control the fluid flow for every increment 0·5 m min–1 of casting speed.
Prevalence and outcomes of continence surgery in community dwelling women.

PURPOSE Published outcomes of continence surgery are based largely on cohort studies and a smaller number of randomized trials. There is no consensus on the outcomes that should be considered and patient reported outcomes have not always been included. We determined the prevalence of continence surgery as well as patient reported outcomes in community dwelling women. MATERIALS AND METHODS We performed a 2-stage national cross-sectional mailed survey. A short questionnaire used to identify women with a history of continence surgery was sent to 45,000 representative American households. Eligible women with a history of continence surgery received a followup questionnaire to assess patient reported outcomes, including current symptom frequency, bother and overall satisfaction. RESULTS Of the 24,581 women 967 (4%) had a history of continence surgery, including 73% who currently reported incontinence in the preceding month, 58% who reported incontinence in the preceding week and 53% who reported current use of pads or other absorbent material. Of those who reported incontinence 83% reported current stress incontinence symptoms, including 62% with stress and urge symptoms. A third of the women had been treated with surgery in the last 5 years. The proportion of women satisfied with the results of surgery decreased from 67% who recalled initial satisfaction to 45% who reported current satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS Almost 4% of women had undergone continence surgery and continence rates were lower than most published figures. However, some women reported satisfaction with surgery even when they did not achieve continence. Patient satisfaction and other patient reported outcomes might be considered with continence rates when determining surgical success rates.
Verification of an SDL Specification — a Case Study

This paper presents practical experience gained by an attempt to mechanically extract a model of the Inres service with the go-back-n extension and verify it with the use of simulation and formal verification based on the model checking technique. The service specification is written in the Specification and Description Language (SDL). The model is obtained mechanically with the application of the sdl2if and if2pml tools. Transformation to discrete-time Promela is followed by simulation and an example of formal verification of a property described in Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) with the Spin model checker. Description of each step of the process is followed with the noticed shortcomings of the procedure, limitations of the tools and discovered faults in the specification of the service. We conclude with a discussion of further research activities and some results from the domain of mechanical extraction of models from SDL system specifications.
Fine-Grained Knowledge Sharing in Collaborative Environments

In collaborative environments, members may try to acquire similar information on the web in order to gain knowledge in one domain. For example, in a company several departments may successively need to buy business intelligence software and employees from these departments may have studied online about different business intelligence tools and their features independently. It will be productive to get them connected and share learned knowledge. We investigate fine-grained knowledge sharing in collaborative environments. We propose to analyze members' web surfing data to summarize the fine-grained knowledge acquired by them. A two-step framework is proposed for mining fine-grained knowledge: (1) web surfing data is clustered into tasks by a nonparametric generative model; (2) a novel discriminative infinite Hidden Markov Model is developed to mine fine-grained aspects in each task. Finally, the classic expert search method is applied to the mined results to find proper members for knowledge sharing. Experiments on web surfing data collected from our lab at UCSB and IBM show that the fine-grained aspect mining framework works as expected and outperforms baselines. When it is integrated with expert search, the search accuracy improves significantly, in comparison with applying the classic expert search method directly on web surfing data.
Phytoplankton Community Characteristic and it's Environmental Indication in the Luanhe–Beidaihe Estuary

The work showed that there were 44 species belonging to 23 genera, 3 phylum of phytoplankton in the research area. Among them, 31 species of 16 genera were Bacillariophyta, which accounted for 70.5 % of all species, 12 species of 6 genera were Pyrrophyta, which accounted for 36.4 % of all species, as well as one sepecies of genera was Chrysophta, which accounted for 2.3 % only. And 16 species, as the indicator of ‘red tide’ usually, were identified. Among them, 10 species belong to Pyrrophyta, 5 species were belong to Bacillariophyta, and one species of Chrysophta identified was also the dominant alga of ‘red tide’. The Shannon-Wiener biodiversity index showed that the water qualities in all sections were in the level of moderate polluted.
Online Sales, Internet Use, File Sharing, and the Decline of Retail Music Specialty Stores

This paper uses phonebook records of music retailers in the United States for the years 1998 and 2002 to examine how Internet use, file sharing, and online sales of records have affected the entry and exit of brick and mortar music specialty retailers. By merging music store information with data on Internet activity and broadband connectedness at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) level, with the number of broadband providers at the zip code level, and with a database of the location of universities, I analyze how online purchases, broadband, and Internet use affected the survival probability and the change in the number of music stores between 1998 and 2002. I further study whether the number of employees and chain membership affected the survival probability. I find that broadband connectedness increased the death rate of brick and mortar music stores and reduced their number. I also find that the presence of a university led to a reduction in the number of music specialty stores in the zip code.
Contribution of genetics to ecological restoration

Ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems has emerged as a critical tool in the fight to reverse and ameliorate the current loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Approaches derived from different genetic disciplines are extending the theoretical and applied frameworks on which ecological restoration is based. We performed a search of scientific articles and identified 160 articles that employed a genetic approach within a restoration context to shed light on the links between genetics and restoration. These articles were then classified on whether they examined association between genetics and fitness or the application of genetics in demographic studies, and on the way the studies informed restoration practice. Although genetic research in restoration is rapidly growing, we found that studies could make better use of the extensive toolbox developed by applied fields in genetics. Overall, 41% of reviewed studies used genetic information to evaluate or monitor restoration, and 59% provided genetic information to guide prerestoration decision‐making processes. Reviewed studies suggest that restoration practitioners often overlook the importance of including genetic aspects within their restoration goals. Even though there is a genetic basis influencing the provision of ecosystem services, few studies explored this relationship. We provide a view of research gaps, future directions and challenges in the genetics of restoration.
Using Clustering Approach Privacy Preserving Update to Anonymous and Confidential Databases

to update kanonymous and confidential dat abase, the suppression based and generalization based updating protocol technique has been proposed. These protocols check whether the database inserted with the new tuple is still kanonymous without knowing the content of the table and database respectively. But these methods will not work if initial database is empty. Also, if the incoming tuple that fails the test of these updating protocols, there is no solution for which action to be taken. So, in this paper we propose two solutions based on pending tuple set (i.e. a collection of all tuples that fails anonymous property of database) namely the private extraction of kanonymous part of pending tuple set or k� anonymization of pending tuple set by privately suppressing entries. KeywordsData management, Privacy, Secure computation
Enabling secure on-line DNS dynamic update

Domain Name System (DNS) is the system for the mapping between easily memorizable host names and their IP addresses. Due to its criticality, security extensions to DNS have been proposed in an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) working group to provide authentication. We point out two difficulties in the current DNSSEC (DNS Security Extension) standards in the handling of DNS dynamic updates: the online storage of a zone security key, creating a single point of attack for both inside and outside attackers; and the violation of the role separation principle, which in the context of DNSSEC separates the roles of zone security managers from DNS server administrators. To address these issues, we propose a secure DNS architecture that is based on threshold cryptography. We show that the architecture adheres to the role separation principle without presenting any single point of attack. Our experimental results reveal that, in terms of signature computation times, our architecture incurs negligible performance penalty when using RSA/MD5 signatures but significant overhead when using DSA signatures. It is our belief that the high level of security that can be achieved by the proposed architecture far outweighs its potential overhead, especially in critical DNS zones, such as the . com zone.
A new family of frequency-hop codes

We give an algebraic construction for a new family of frequency-hop codes. The construction is based on properties of finite fields: it is shown that for each field GF(p/sup m/), there exists a large number of codes of length p/sup m/. The codes are also shown to possess the best possible simultaneous two-dimensional autocorrelation and cross-correlation properties. Moreover, they include a family of codes: with a code length of a power of 2, which are ideally suitable for applications in digital communication systems.
Pregabalin in the treatment of herpetic neuralgia: results of a multicenter Chinese study.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy, impact on quality of life, and safety of pregabalin for the treatment of acute herpetic neuralgia (AHN) and subacute herpetic neuralgia (SHN). DESIGN Multicenter, parallel-group, single-blind, 4-week, randomized clinical trial. SETTING Conducted in the department of pain clinic of participating hospitals. SUBJECTS Three hundred patients with AHN or SHN (of which 239 completed the study). METHODS Patients were treated with oxycodone (A group) or combination of oxycodone and pregabalin (B group). Patients with AHN belonged to A1 group and B1 group. Patients with SHN belonged to A2 group and B2 group. Pain intensity was rated on an 11-point numerical rating scale (NRS). Other outcomes included mean daily oxycodone doses, quality of life, and adverse effects. RESULTS Pregabalin-treated patients had greater NRS decrement: 74% in B1 (vs 58% in A1; P < 0.05); 69% in B2 (vs 53% in A2; P < 0.05). Significant improvement in quality of life was observed in all groups, and pregabalin-treated patients improved more, with 72.7% in B1 (vs 63.7% in A1; P < 0.05) and 74.5% in B2 (vs 59.6% in A2; P < 0.05). The maximum tolerated dose of oxycodone for pregabalin-treated patients was lower. Pregabalin had acceptable tolerability. CONCLUSIONS Both combination therapy with oxycodone plus pregabalin and oxycodone monotherapy were effective and safe for herpetic neuralgia. In addition, subjects on combination therapy showed shortened time to pain relief, reduced pain intensity, and greater improvement than oxycodone alone.
Enterprise Modelling and Information Systems Architectures Benjamin A. Schmit, Schahram Dustdar, Model-driven Development of Web Service Transactions Model-driven Development of Web Service Transactions

Composite Web service design using model-driven approaches has been in use for several years now, but the modeling of transactional properties is still uncommon and has not yet been subject to much research. For a distributed system of autonomous components like Web services, especially when they are used for implementing business processes, transactional guarantees can be of vital importance. In this paper, we propose a model-driven approach which introduces a separate design layer dedicated to transactions. We show that our systematic modeling approach is able to introduce transactions in the design without increasing the complexity of the basic UML diagram. Our approach can also be reused to specify other properties of Web services such as security requirements or workflows in additional layers.
Association of CYP2C9 Genetic Variants with Vitiligo

Background Vitiligo is a depigmenting skin disorder in which genetic factors play an important role. Objective To examine the association of CYP2C9 *1/*2/*3 gene polymorphism with vitiligo. Methods In this case controlled study, 95 Saudi patients with vitiligo (50 men and 45 women), with a mean age of 27.3 years, were analyzed. Patients were compared to 86 healthy controls from the same locality (76 men and 10 women), with a mean age of 20.1 years. In all participants, DNA was extracted and processed for characterization of 2C9 *1/*2/*3 gene variants using real time-polymerase chain reaction. Results Vitiligo patients have a significantly higher CYP2C9 *3 allele carriage rate compared to controls (32.7% versus 4.7%, p=0.00, odds ratio=9.9, 95% confidence interval=3.3~29.6). On the other hand, frequencies of CYP2C9 *2 genotypes and alleles did not show any significant difference between vitiligo cases and controls. When the frequencies of CYP2C9 genotypes were compared among subgroups of age, gender, family history, and disease patterns, the cases with positive consanguinity had significantly higher frequencies of homozygous genotypes than others (p=0.029). Conclusion CYP2C9 *3 allele carriage is probably associated with vitiligo susceptibility.