Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Occult hepatitis C virus infection in patients in whom the etiology of persistently abnormal results of liver-function tests is unknown.

BACKGROUND There are patients in whom the etiology of long-standing abnormal results of liver-function tests is unknown (ALF-EU) after exclusion of all known causes of liver diseases. We analyzed the presence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in liver-biopsy specimens from 100 patients who were negative for anti-HCV antibodies and for serum HCV RNA and who had ALF-EU. METHODS HCV RNA status was tested by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and by in situ hybridization, in liver and peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). RESULTS HCV RNA was detected in liver-biopsy specimens from 57 of 100 patients negative for anti-HCV antibodies and for serum HCV RNA (i.e., who had occult HCV infection). HCV RNA of negative polarity was found in the liver of 48 (84.2%) of these 57 patients with occult HCV infection. Nucleotide-sequence analysis confirmed the specificity of detection of HCV RNA and that patients were infected with the HCV 1b genotype. Of these 57 patients with intrahepatic HCV RNA, 40 (70%) had viral RNA in their PBMCs. With regard to liver histology, patients with occult HCV infection were more likely to have necroinflammatory activity (P=.017) and fibrosis (P=.022) than were patients without intrahepatic HCV RNA. CONCLUSIONS Patients with ALF-EU may have intrahepatic HCV RNA in the absence of anti-HCV antibodies and of serum HCV RNA.
Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) Toxicity in Adult Cynomolgus Monkeys (M. fascicularis): A Pilot Study

Aroclor 1254 and Aroclor 1248, at doses of 11.7 and 4.7 mg/kg body weight (equivalent to 5 and 2 mg/kg/day), were given 3 days per week to groups of cynomolgus monkeys, and caused weight loss, fingernail loss, facial edema, epiphora, and death. Blood and adipose tissue PCB concentrations rose with the length of treatment. Tissue concentrations in blood, adipose tissue, liver and kidneys were highest in monkeys treated with Aroclor 1254, reflecting dose differences. There was considerable variation, both within and between groups, in hematologic responses to PCB treatment. Aroclor 1254-treated monkeys had depressed and weakly responsive erythropoiesis. Aroclor 1248-treated monkeys had active but ineffective or depressed erythropoiesis with severe macrocytic or moderate normocytic anemia. Biochemical determination of blood serum constituents revealed treatment and time-related trends towards hypoalbuminemia and increased alkaline phosphatase, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase, lactic dehydrogenase, cholesterol, triglycerides, total bilirubin and direct bilirubin values. Pathologic lesions common in both Aroclor groups were dilatation of meibomian glands duct; mucinous hyperplasia of the gastric mucosa; atrophy and loss of germinal centers in the splenic and other lymphoid follicles; enlargement, fatty degeneration, and necrosis of hepatocytes; bile duct and gall bladder epithelial cell hypertrophy and hyperplasia; and thyroid aberrations in follicular cell size and number of intracytoplasmic lysosomes. Lesions seen exclusively in an Aroclor 1254-treated monkey were widespread mucinous metaplasia and hyperplasia of the fundic mucosa. The results suggest that in general, cynomolgus monkeys may be more refractory or less susceptible to PCB toxicity than rhesus monkeys and, that Aroclor 1248 may be more toxic than Aroclor 1254.
Science teachers teaching outside of subject specialism: challenges, strategies adopted and implications for initial teacher education

This article reports a research study that investigated, through semi‐structured interviews, the perceptions of a range of 18 science teachers, including trainee teachers, of teaching outside their main subject specialism. In particular, the aim was to understand the issues and challenges science teachers face in teaching outside their subject specialism, to investigate the expertise experienced teachers, working in their school and department contexts, bring to meet these challenges and to understand in what ways and to what extent the trainees’ perceptions of these challenges are similar and/or different to those of experienced teachers. Although the findings indicate that the challenges the respondents faced were mostly consistent with previous research, this study demonstrates that such perceptions were very similar regardless of the level of teacher experience. The findings also revealed interesting insights into the strategies the respondents used to overcome the challenges described and highlighted the role of the workplace in teachers’ learning how to teach outside their subject specialism, an area where there has been limited research conducted. The article finally considers the implications of the findings for science teacher education.
Progress towards underwater 3D scene recovery

The underwater environment presents many challenges for robotic systems and sensors. Not only is it difficult to determine appropriate locomotive and control strategies, sensing underwater is plagued by highly variable lighting, dynamic objects, and suspended particulate matter. Despite these challenges the aquatic environment presents many real and practical applications for autonomous robots. Fundamentally, these tasks require knowledge of the 3D environment, the robot's location within the environment, and reactive vehicle control. In this paper we describe solutions to the problem of providing effective control of underwater robotic systems that can be used to obtain accurate models of underwater structures. Two specific components of the research are described here: (i) a 3D stereo-vision sensor that integrates stereo vision imagery with inertial measurements, and (ii) a tablet-based control interface that can be used to control the process of data collection.
Time-frequency localization operators: A geometric phase space approach

The author defines a set of operators which localize in both time and frequency. These operators are similar to but different from the low-pass time-limiting operator, the singular functions of which are the prolate spheroidal wave functions. The author's construction differs from the usual approach in that she treats the time-frequency plane as one geometric whole (phase space) rather than as two separate spaces. For disk-shaped or ellipse-shaped domains in time-frequency plane, the associated localization operators are remarkably simple. Their eigenfunctions are Hermite functions, and the corresponding eigenvalues are given by simple explicit formulas involving the incomplete gamma functions. >
Using Curriculum-Based Measurement to Monitor Secondary English Language Learners’ Responsiveness to Peer-Mediated Reading Instruction

The purpose of this article is to explore the use of reading aloud and maze Curriculum-Based Measures (CBMs) to evaluate the responsiveness of secondary-level English language learners (ELLs) to peer-mediated instruction. First, we briefly summarize research on instructional practices for ELLs, highlighting the need for further work to identify scientifically based assessment and interventions for diverse learners. Second, we review research on Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies for general classroom use as well as for use with ELLs. Third, we review research on CBM, including evidence supporting its use with ELLs. Finally, we illustrate how CBM can be used to evaluate ELLs’ responsiveness to PALS, using case examples drawn from a study of PALS for secondary-level ELLs. We discuss factors to consider when assessing ELLs’ responsiveness to scientifically based instruction and directions for future research.
Transradial versus Transfemoral Approach in Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Acute Coronary Syndrome. A Meta-Analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Background Transfemoral approach (TFA) remains the most common vascular access for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in many countries. However, in the last years several randomized trials compared transradial approach (TRA) with TFA in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but only few studies were powered to estimate rare events. The aim of the current study was to clarify whether TRA is superior to TFA approach in patients with ACS undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. A meta-analysis, meta-regression and trial sequential analysis of safety and efficacy of TRA in ACS setting was performed. Methods and Results Medline, the Cochrane Library, Scopus, scientific session abstracts and relevant websites were searched. Data concerning the study design, patient characteristics, risk of bias, and outcomes were extracted. The primary endpoint was death. Secondary endpoints were: major bleeding and vascular complications. Outcomes were assessed within 30 days. Eleven randomized trials involving 9,202 patients were included. Compared with TFA, TRA significantly reduced the risk of death (odds ratio [OR] 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.53–0.94; p = 0.016), but this finding was not confirmed in trial sequential analysis, indicating that sufficient evidence had not been yet reached. Furthermore, TRA compared with TFA reduced the risk of major bleeding (OR 0.60; 95% CI, 0.41–0.88; p = 0.008) and vascular complications (OR 0.35; 95% CI, 0.28–0.46; p<0.001); these findings were supported by trial sequential analyses. Conclusions In patients with ACS undergoing PCI, a lower risk of death was observed with TRA. Nevertheless, the association between mortality and TRA in ACS setting should be interpreted with caution because it is based on insufficient evidence. However, because of the clinical relevance associated with major bleeding and vascular complications reduction, TRA should be recommended as first-choice vascular access in patients with ACS undergoing cardiac catheterization.
Facette : using facets to improve tag-based bookmarking

Facette is a web service that uses facets to enhance the organizational capabilities of tag-based bookmarking systems. As with other bookmarking services, Facette allows users to associate tags with bookmarks to assist the retrieval of information. Facette also allows users to classify tags through use of facets. To create these facets, Facette introduces a method of facet creation called free faceted tagging. To assist the classification of tags using facets, Facette extends the concept of collaborative tagging and introduces the concept of collaborative faceting. For ease of implementation, Facette is implemented as an augmentation of Delicious' tagging system. Faceted information is saved to Delicious through use of new tag syntax. Faceted information is retrieved from Delicious through use of Delicious's API. Since its public debut on February 16th, 2009, Facette has successfully assisted the use of faceted tagging. Facette has been used by several hundred Delicious users. Facette's tagging interface has led to the bookmarking of thousands of pages with thousands of faceted tags. Overall, Facette has successfully encouraged the creation of faceted information. Thesis Supervisor: David R. Karger Title: Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
DNA Barcode Detects High Genetic Structure within Neotropical Bird Species

Background Towards lower latitudes the number of recognized species is not only higher, but also phylogeographic subdivision within species is more pronounced. Moreover, new genetically isolated populations are often described in recent phylogenies of Neotropical birds suggesting that the number of species in the region is underestimated. Previous COI barcoding of Argentinean bird species showed more complex patterns of regional divergence in the Neotropical than in the North American avifauna. Methods and Findings Here we analyzed 1,431 samples from 561 different species to extend the Neotropical bird barcode survey to lower latitudes, and detected even higher geographic structure within species than reported previously. About 93% (520) of the species were identified correctly from their DNA barcodes. The remaining 41 species were not monophyletic in their COI sequences because they shared barcode sequences with closely related species (N = 21) or contained very divergent clusters suggestive of putative new species embedded within the gene tree (N = 20). Deep intraspecific divergences overlapping with among-species differences were detected in 48 species, often with samples from large geographic areas and several including multiple subspecies. This strong population genetic structure often coincided with breaks between different ecoregions or areas of endemism. Conclusions The taxonomic uncertainty associated with the high incidence of non-monophyletic species and discovery of putative species obscures studies of historical patterns of species diversification in the Neotropical region. We showed that COI barcodes are a valuable tool to indicate which taxa would benefit from more extensive taxonomic revisions with multilocus approaches. Moreover, our results support hypotheses that the megadiversity of birds in the region is associated with multiple geographic processes starting well before the Quaternary and extending to more recent geological periods.
Analyzing Urban Human Mobility Patterns through a Thematic Model at a Finer Scale

Taxi trajectories reflect human mobility over a road network. Pick-up and drop-off locations in different time periods represent origins and destinations of trips, respectively, demonstrating the spatiotemporal characteristics of human behavior. Each trip can be viewed as a displacement in the random walk model, and the distribution of extracted trips shows a distance decay effect. To identify the spatial similarity of trips at a finer scale, this paper investigates the distribution of trips through topic modeling techniques. Firstly, trip origins and trip destinations were identified from raw GPS data. Then, different trips were given semantic information, i.e., link identification numbers with a semantic enrichment process. Each taxi trajectory was composed of a series of trip destinations corresponding to the same taxi. Subsequently, each taxi trajectory was analogous to a document consisting of different words, and all taxi’s trajectories could be regarded as document corpora, enabling a semantic analysis of massive trip destinations. Finally, we obtained different trip destination topics reflecting the spatial similarity and regional property of human mobility through LDA topic model training. The effectiveness of this approach was illustrated by a case study using a large dataset of taxi trajectories collected from 2 to 8 June 2014 in Wuhan, China.
Modulation spectrum compensation for HMM-based speech synthesis using line spectral pairs

In previous work, a method to compensate the divergence between the distributions of natural and generated modulation spectra (MS) has been proposed for hidden Markov model (HMM) based speech synthesis. This method can alleviate the over-smoothing effect of parameter generation when Mel-cepstral coefficients (MCC) are used as spectral features. This paper further investigates the MS compensation method for line spectral pairs (LSP). Four approaches to extract MS from LSPs are implemented and compared. These approaches calculate MS vectors using original LSP sequences, log power spectra (LPS) derived from LSPs, MCCs derived from LSPs, and MCCs derived from speech waveforms, respectively. Experimental results show that the naturalness of synthetic speech gets improved after MS compensation when LSPs are used as spectral features for HMM modeling. The degree of improvement depends on the type of spectral features for MS calculation significantly. MCCs derived from LSPs are more suitable for MS compensation than original LSPs and LPS derived from LSPs. Besides, using MCCs derived from speech waveforms also achieves satisfactory performance. This means that MS compensation can also be implemented as a post-filter to synthetic waveforms which does not rely on the type of spectral features and vocoders adopted in the synthesis system.
Effect of feeding tamarind ( Tamarindus indica ) seed husk as a source of tannin on dry matter intake , digestibility of nutrients and production performance of crossbred dairy cows in mid-lactation

The effect of feeding tamarind (Tamarindus indica) seed husk (TSH) as a source of tannin on dry matter intake (DMI), digestibility, N balance, milk yield and milk composition was studied in crossbred dairy cows in mid-lactation. The study included lactation and metabolism trials. The lactation trial was conducted using nine multiparous cows in mid-lactation in a switchback design. The cows were divided into three groups of three each. The animals of Group I (GP-1) received a compounded feed mixture (CFM) without tamarind seed husk (control group), Group II (GP-II) CFM with 2.5% TSH and Group III (GP-III) CFM with 7.5% TSH. The duration of the trial was 18 weeks, each period lasting for six weeks. The diet consisted of finger millet straw (FMS) and CFM. The difference among the groups in DMI, milk yield, milk fat, solid not fat (SNF) and lactose was not significant (p > 0.05). The DOMD of the diets was similar. There was significant difference in body weight gain (p < 0.05) and milk protein content (p < 0.07) between GP-I and GP-III. Although there were significant differences among the groups in faecal N (p < 0.05) and urinary N (p < 0.01) excretion, the nitrogen balance was similar. There was significant (p < 0.05) difference among the three groups in CP digestibility, whereas the digestibility of other nutrients are similar. It may be concluded that TSH tannin at low concentration has beneficial effect on the performance of crossbred lactating cows. # 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Identifying Malicious Peers Before It's Too Late: A Decentralized Secure Peer Sampling Service

Many unstructured peer to peer (P2P) systems rely on a peer sampling service (PSS) that returns randomly sampled nodes from the population comprising the system. PSS protocols are often implemented using "gossiping" approaches in which connected nodes exchange their links in a randomized way. However, such services can be defeated easily by malicious nodes executing "hub attacks" which distort the PSS such that all nodes in the network, ultimately, only gain access to malicious nodes. From this leading status - i.e. being a "hub" - the malicious nodes can affect the overlay in several ways, ranging from total network disruption to obtaining an application dependent advantage. We present a completely distributed defense against such attacks and give results from simulation experiments. The approach is generic as it is independent of the adopted PSS implementation.
Deal or No Deal? Vendor Issues in Two Multi-organization Pilot Test Projects

This paper compares issues in managing technology vendor relationships in two pilot tests of the FSTC eCheck and a pilot test of the US Treasury's Internet Payment Platform (IPP). We discuss issues related to participation of technology vendors in these projects, and conclude with suggestions for further research on planning and managing emerging technology pilot test projects.
Virtual branch analysis of symbol error probability for hybrid selection/maximal-ratio combining in Rayleigh fading

We derive analytical expressions for the symbol error probability (SEP) for a hybrid selection/maximal-ratio combining (H-S/MRC) diversity system in multipath-fading wireless environments. With H-S/MRC, L out of N diversity branches are selected and combined using maximal-ratio combining (MRC). We consider coherent detection of M-ary phase-shift keying (MPSK) and quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) using H-S/MRC for the case of independent Rayleigh fading with equal signal-to-noise ratio averaged over the fading. The proposed problem is made analytically tractable by transforming the ordered physical diversity branches, which are correlated, into independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) "virtual branches," which results in a simple derivation of the SEP for arbitrary L and N. We further obtain a canonical structure for the SEP of H-S/MRC as a weighted sum of the elementary SEPs, which are the SEPs using MRC with i.i. d. diversity branches in Rayleigh fading, or equivalently the SEPs of the nondiversity (single-branch) system in Nakagami fading, whose closed-form expressions are well-known. We present numerical examples illustrating that H-S/MRC, even with L/spl Lt/N, can achieve a performance close to that of N-branch MRC.
Implementation of GIS in India: Organizational and Implications

최근 컴퓨터와 프로그램 기술의 발달에 힘입어 세계 여러 국가들이 도시계획 및 관리에 GIS를 이용한 과학적 방법이 활발히 모색되고 있으며 일부 도시들은 또한 그로 인한 가시적 성과를 얻어내고 있다. 지금까지 도시계획 및 관리에 GIS가 가장 성공적 이고 활발히 응용되고 있는 분야가 도시계획결정내용 조회(照會)시스템이었으나, 최근 틀어서 도시계획형 업무까지도 활발히 확대 · 응용되고 있다. 이러한 배경에서 본 논문은 도시지리정보를 바탕으로 도시계획수립을 위한 각종 지 구선정이나 구분을 하는데 GIS가 효과적으로 활용될 수 있다는 데에 바탕을 두고 ‘GIS를 이용한 도시진단시스템을 개발’ 하는데 목적을 두고 연구되었다. 현재 추진되고 있는 각종 도시계획사업을 위해서는 도시계획사업지구 선정이나 사업지구 구분이 보다 과학적으로 행해져야 하고, 또한 그러기 위해서는 도시가 가구 (Black)별로 과학적으로 진단될 필요가 있을 것이다. 여기에는 객관적 척도가 필요하며, 이 척도를 GIS에 기반한 시스템 설계를 통해 척도의 수준별로 자료를 분석해낼 수 있을 때 이들의 규명은 가능할 것으로 보인다. 따라서 본 논문에서는 이에 필요한 시스템 개발과 사례지역에의 적용을 통한 활용 가능성을 연구했다.
Well-Being, Context, and Everyday Activities in Space and Time

Against the background of increased interest in subjectively experienced well-being in economics, psychology, and the social sciences, this article analyzes how such well-being is associated with geographical context, social contacts, and life circumstances. The empirical analysis of data collected in Hong Kong is used to elaborate and support two main claims. The first is that geography matters to not only overall well-being but also momentary well-being and that researchers should be careful to specify the influence of geographical context correctly. We therefore employ an approach that is informed by various strands of time–geographical thought and find that life satisfaction is associated more strongly with geographical context than is momentary well-being. Second, we confirm positive relations between social contacts and experienced well-being but extend earlier research by showing that these relations stretch across multiple timescales and depend to some extent on the duration of an activity episode and with whom the activity episode is undertaken. This means that the use of simple indicators of social capital is inadequate for making the complex linkages between well-being and people's social contacts understandable in empirical research.
An integrated system for creating a Digital Library from Newspaper Archives

Newspapers are considered to be the first draft of history, while at the same time, are part of a country’s cultural heritage. By converting newspaper archives to digital resources we achieve digital preservation in terms of preventing paper deterioration as well as providing full utilization of the archives by all interested parties. In this paper, we present a series of applications pertaining to the retro-conversion of newspapers, i.e. the conversion of newspaper pages into digital resources, as well as to the transformation of the printed material to an accessible digital archive. These applications constitute an integrated system that provides solutions to problems related to digitization, verification and quality control of newspaper images, manual and automatic article clipping, and, finally, information retrieval in intranet and internet environment.