Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validity of mother's report of father's occupation in a study of paternal occupation and congenital malformations.

Agreement between the mother's and father's report of the father's occupation was assessed in a case-control study of paternal occupation and birth defects. Cases were identified from births registered with the Metropolitan Atlanta Congenital Defects Program between 1968 and 1980; controls were selected from liveborn infants without defects. Both parents were sought for interview, and each parent was asked about the father's job history for 2 years prior to the infant's death. This concordance analysis is based on 3,739 case infants and 2,279 control infants for whom both parents were interviewed. The authors considered the father's report of his occupation as correct, and they assessed the ability of the mother to report the same occupation(s) during a 7-month period around conception. The exact agreement between mother's and father's report of the father's occupation was 59%. Agreement improved slightly with increasing family income and when fathers were college graduates. Female partners were not accurate proxy respondents in this study of paternal occupation and birth defects, which suggests that investigators should interview both parents in studies of paternal exposures and reproductive outcomes, i.e., mothers for pregnancy history and maternal confounders and fathers for occupational history and paternal confounders.
Trivedi et al β-Arrestin-2 and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms 1221 Histology and Immunohistochemistry

Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) are a common vascular condition associated with several risk factors, including advanced age, male sex, smoking, and hypercholesterolemia. AAA formation begins as an abnormal dilation of the aorta, which may gradually expand over a period of years followed by eventual weakening and rupture of the vessel wall, resulting in mortality in ≈90% of cases. The pathophysiology of AAAs can be roughly categorized into 2 processes: inflammation and extracellular matrix degeneration. Inflammation is exemplified by the release of inflammatory mediators such as monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and interleukin 6 and the resultant infiltration of inflammatory cells, particularly macrophages, into the vessel wall. Inflammatory cells are a major source of proteolytic enzymes such as matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) 2 and MMP9, which are known to disrupt the structural integrity of the vessel wall and to degrade the components of the extracellular matrix such as elastin and collagen. This extracellular matrix degeneration and vascular remodeling contribute to the progression and severity of the disease. Currently, there are no pharmacological treatments for AAAs, with endovascular or surgical repair being the only options. A widely used mouse model of AAAs involves chronic infusion of angiotensin II (AngII), and this model displays multiple characteristics of human AAAs and has provided mechanistic insight into the formation and progression of the disease. AngII mediates many of its physiological and pathological effects by activating the G-protein–coupled Molecular Medicine
Not Invented Here: Creative Myopia and Company Towns

We examine variation in the concentration of inventive activity across 72 of North America’s most highly innovative locations. In 12 of these areas, innovation is particularly concentrated in a single large firm; we refer to such locations as “company towns. ” We find that inventors employed by large firms in these locations tend to draw disproportionately from their firm’s own prior inventions (as measured by citations to their own prior patents) relative to what would be expected given the underlying distribution of innovative activity across all inventing firms in a particular technology field. Furthermore, we find such inventors are more likely to draw upon the same prior inventions year after year. We refer to this tendency as “creative myopia. ” However, smaller entrepreneurial firms in company towns do not exhibit this myopic behavior: they draw upon prior inventions as broadly as their small-firm counterparts in more diverse locations. Moreover, we find no evidence that inventions from company town firms have any less impact, although a greater fraction of the impact from large-firm company town inventions is realized by the inventing firm itself.
Roadmap Roadmap on optical metamaterials

Optical metamaterials have redefined how we understand light in notable ways: from strong response to optical magnetic fields, negative refraction, fast and slow light propagation in zero index and trapping structures, to flat, thin and perfect lenses. Many rules of thumb regarding optics, such as μ = 1, now have an exception, and basic formulas, such as the Fresnel equations, have been expanded. The field of metamaterials has developed strongly over the past two decades. Leveraging structured materials systems to generate tailored response to a stimulus, it has grown to encompass research in optics, electromagnetics, acoustics and, increasingly, novel hybrid material responses. This roadmap is an effort to present emerging fronts in areas of optical metamaterials that could contribute and apply to other research communities. By anchoring each contribution in current work and prospectively discussing future potential and directions, the authors are translating the work of the field in selected areas to a wider community and offering an incentive for outside researchers to engage our community where solid links do not already exist.
Dietary fatty acids and inflammatory markers in patients with coronary artery disease

Background: Atherosclerosis, with its major manifestation, coronary artery disease (CAD) is a chronic inflammatory disease. Dietary fatty acids intakes favorably effect on inflammatory responses. This study was conducted to examine the association between dietary fatty acid intakes and inflammatory markers, interleukin 6 (IL-6) and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), in CAD patients among Iranian population. Materials and Methods: This hospital-based, cross-sectional study was conducted in Chamran Heart Hospital, Isfahan, Iran in 2012. Patients aged ≥45 years with first ever symptomatic CAD confirmed by angiography were included. A semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) was used to assess the usual intakes of dietary fatty acids. Results: The energy-adjusted daily intakes (mean ± SD) of saturated fatty acid (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), linoleic acid, α-linolenic acid, and eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (EPA + DHA) were 27 ± 9, 22 ± 6, 21 ± 5, 0.4 ± 0.32, and 0.85 ± 0.82 g/d; respectively. After adjustment for potential confounders, SFA was directly related to hs-CRP (P = 0.01) and IL-6 (P < 0.001) concentrations. Intakes of EPA + DHA and MUFA, were significantly adversely related to plasma hs-CRP concentration (P = 0.002 and 0.001, respectively) but not IL-6, albeit MUFA was modestly inversely related to IL-6 (P = 0.08). No significant relationships were observed for other fatty acids, α-linolenic acid, and linoleic acid. Conclusions: These findings suggest that saturated fatty acids, EPA + DHA and MUFA were significantly related to plasma inflammatory markers in CAD patients.
Time varying individual channel estimation for one-way relay networks with UKF and URTSS

In this paper, we examine the pilot-based channel estimation in an amplify-and-forward (AF) one-way relay network (OWRN) under time selective flat fading scenario. Different from most existing works, our target is to estimate and track the individual channel of each relay hop instead of the composite channel. To reduce the number of the channel parameters to be estimated, we apply the polynomial basis-expansion-model (P-BEM) and convert the problem to estimating the channel coefficient-vector (called in-BEM-CV) of each relay hop. With the aid of the autoregressive (AR) model, we formulate the dynamic state space for the pilot-based in-BEM-CV estimation. Specifically, we adopt the unscented Kaiman filter (UKF) to track the in-BEM-CV dynamic variations in an online manner, and utilize the unscented Rauch-Tung-Striebel smoother (URTSS) to smooth the UKF's estimations in an offline manner. Finally, numerical results are provided to corroborate the proposed studies.
Loss-Free Resistor-Based Power Factor Correction Using a Semi-Bridgeless Boost Rectifier in Sliding-Mode Control

In this paper, a loss-free resistor based on a semi-bridgeless rectifier is proposed for power factor correction applications. This particular bridgeless rectifier type is composed of two different boost cells which operate complementarily during each half-line cycle. In case of two unbalanced inductors, many control techniques can produce different inductor current ripples during each half-line cycle that can result in the addition of a dc component to the line current. This paper demonstrates that the application of sliding-mode control by means of hysteretic controllers results in a first-order stable system that can mitigate these harmful consequences due to its capability to ensure the symmetry of the line input current waveform for both positive and negative half-line cycles. Thus, the system does not absorb any dc component from the grid and it is also capable of reducing dramatically the amplitude of the third harmonic. The theoretical predictions have been validated by means of PSIM simulations and experimentally on a prototype of 1 kW which has been controlled using only one sliding control surface.
Comments on “Enhanced PUMA for Direction-of-Arrival Estimation and Its Performance Analysis”

We show that the recently proposed (enhanced) principal-singular-vector utilization for modal analysis (PUMA) estimator for array processing [C. Qian, L. Huang, N. Sidiropoulos, and H. C. So, “Enhanced PUMA for direction-of-arrival estimation and its performance analysis,” IEEE Trans. Signal Process. , vol. 64, no. 16, pp. 4127–4137, Aug. 2016], minimizes the same criterion function as the well-established method of direction estimation (MODE) estimator.
Oral health awareness and care preferences in patients with diabetes: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND People with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of oral health problems; however, oral health is currently not included in structured diabetes reviews and education in the UK. AIM AND OBJECTIVES This study explores the patient's experience related to oral health and diabetes, especially in relation to: • Awareness of the link between oral health and diabetes and oral self-care needs. • Interaction with health professionals in dental and general practice. • Preferences for receiving oral health information and education. Methods This nested qualitative study involved semi-structured telephone interviews with a purposive sample of 20 participants from a questionnaire study on oral health awareness in patients with diabetes. Interview transcripts were analysed using a thematic framework approach. RESULTS Participants were mostly unaware of the link between oral health and diabetes. Those that had been made aware by a health professional were not given concrete self-care advice. Interactions with dental professionals were often limited to informing the dental practice of their diagnosis and current medication. Most participants were in favour of dentists screening for diabetes, but as their general practice was the hub for diabetes care, they felt GPs or nurses should provide oral health information and discuss oral health with patients. CONCLUSIONS Written information regarding diabetes and its possible effects on oral health needs to be more readily available to people with diabetes, especially at diagnosis. There may be a place for introducing a structured oral health question in routine diabetes reviews.
A fully automatic and highly efficient navigator gating technique for high‐resolution free‐breathing acquisitions: Continuously adaptive windowing strategy

A fully automatic and highly efficient free‐breathing navigator gated technique, continuously adaptive windowing strategy (CLAWS), is presented. Using a novel and dynamic acquisition strategy that ensures all potential navigator acceptance windows are possible, CLAWS acquires an image with the highest possible efficiency regardless of variations in the respiratory pattern. Unnecessary prolongation of scan durations due to respiratory drift or navigator acceptance window adjustments are avoided. As CLAWS requires no setting of the acceptance window, nor monitoring of the navigator traces during the scan, operator dependence is minimized and ease of use improved. CLAWS was compared against a standard accept/reject algorithm (ARA) and an end‐expiratory following ARA (EE‐ARA) in 20 healthy subjects and 10 patients (ARA only). The respiratory efficiency was compared against the retrospectively determined best possible respiratory efficiency for each acquisition. On average, the difference between CLAWS scan times and best possible scan times was 0.6% (±1.3%). For the ARA and EE‐ARA techniques, mean differences were 14.4% (±20.9%) and 32.6 ± 10.9%, respectively. Had the CLAWS algorithm been used with the ARA and EE‐ARA traces, mean differences would have been 0.2% (±1.1%) and 0.5% (±1.7%), respectively. Image quality was the same for all techniques: respiratory gating, motion artifacts, navigator, and coronary artery imaging. Magn Reson Med, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Oxidative Stress Tolerance, Adenylate Cyclase, and Autophagy Are Key Players in the Chronological Life Span of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during Winemaking

ABSTRACT Most grape juice fermentation takes place when yeast cells are in a nondividing state called the stationary phase. Under such circumstances, we aimed to identify the genetic determinants controlling longevity, known as the chronological life span. We identified commercial strains with both short (EC1118) and long (CSM) life spans in laboratory growth medium and compared them under diverse conditions. Strain CSM shows better tolerance to stresses, including oxidative stress, in the stationary phase. This is reflected during winemaking, when this strain has an increased maximum life span. Compared to EC1118, CSM overexpresses a mitochondrial rhodanese gene-like gene, RDL2, whose deletion leads to increased reactive oxygen species production at the end of fermentation and a correlative loss of viability at this point. EC1118 shows faster growth and higher expression of glycolytic genes, and this is related to greater PKA activity due to the upregulation of the adenylate cyclase gene. This phenotype has been linked to the presence of a δ element in its promoter, whose removal increases the life span. Finally, EC1118 exhibits a higher level of protein degradation by autophagy, which might help achieve fast growth at the expense of cellular structures and may be relevant for long-term survival under winemaking conditions.
Adjacent-Channel and Quadrature-Channel Interference in Minimum Shift Keying

In this paper we present formulas for the computation of error probability in the presence of quadrature-channel or adjacentchannel interference in addition to intersymbol interference in a minimum shift keying system. The filters in the receiver and transmitter are arbitrary but with a finite number of poles. The effect of phase jitter in the main channel, phase and symbol timing misalignment in the interfering channels, and sampling time jitter is taken into account. The probability of error is averaged over the phase and symbol timing misalignment. Numerical results are presented for Butterworth filters in the receiver and transmitter with two, three, and four poles. Curves of error probability as a function of various variables (signal-to-noise ratio, bandwidth of receiver and transmitter filters, number of poles, channel frequency separation, phase jitter, sampling time, and symbol timing and phase misalignment) are presented. The method of this paper can readily be applied to other filters; hence, it can be used in the design and prediction of the performance of digital communication systems.
Regional fibroblast heterogeneity in the lung: implications for remodeling.

RATIONALE Excessive deposition of extracellular matrix occurs in proximal airways of individuals with asthma, but fibrosis in distal lung has not been observed. Whether differing fibrotic capacities of fibroblasts from these two regions contribute to this variability is unknown. OBJECTIVES We compared morphologic and functional characteristics of fibroblasts isolated from proximal airways and distal lung parenchyma to determine phenotypic differences. METHODS Concurrent proximal airway and distal lung biopsies were obtained by bronchoscopy from subjects with asthma to isolate airway and distal lung fibroblasts, respectively. The following characteristics were compared: morphology, proliferation, alpha-smooth muscle actin expression, and synthesis of procollagen type I and eotaxin-1. RESULTS Airway fibroblasts (AFs) are morphologically distinct from distal lung fibroblasts (DLFs): they are larger (2.3-fold greater surface area vs. matched DLFs; p = 0.02), stellate in appearance, and with more cytoplasmic projections compared with the spindle-shaped DLFs. AFs synthesized more procollagen type I than did DLFs at baseline (twofold higher; p = 0.003) and after transforming growth factor-beta stimulation (1.4-fold higher; p = 0.02). Similarly, AFs produced more eotaxin-1 than did DLFs at baseline (2.5-fold higher; p = 0.004) and after interleukin-13 stimulation (13-fold higher; p = 0.0001). In contrast, DLFs proliferate more than AFs with serum stimulation (about sixfold greater; p = 0.03). Unstimulated DLFs also expressed more alpha-smooth muscle actin than did corresponding AFs (p = 0.006). CONCLUSIONS These studies suggest that at least two phenotypes of fibroblast exist in the lung. These phenotypic differences may partially explain the variable responses to injury and repair between proximal airways and distal lung/parenchyma in asthma and other respiratory diseases.
The Challenges of Searching for and Retrieving Qualitative Studies

The authors’ purpose in this article is to report the results of their search and retrieval efforts to date in an ongoing study to develop the procedural, analytic, and interpretive techniques to conduct qualitative meta-synthesis projects, using studies on women with HIV infection as the method case. For researchers conducting qualitative meta-synthesis projects, the ideal goal is to retrieve all of the relevant studies in a field—not simply a sample of them. Bates’s model of berrypicking is used as the framework to describe the techniques used to conduct these searches. The authors discuss, in particular, the challenges of working with bibliographic databases, including choosing which databases to search, learning about the idiosyncrasies of working with each database, developing a list of search terms, and refining inclusion criteria regarding which studies to include in the meta-synthesis. Recommendations are given for searchers and writers of qualitative research.
Petrochemical exposure and menstrual disturbances.

BACKGROUND An exploratory, cross-sectional retrospective study was conducted to examine the effects of benzene exposure on menstrual problems. METHODS The study was based on a survey administered to over 3,000 women who worked in a large petrochemical company in Beijing, China. An abnormal menstrual cycle length (AMCL), defined as an average menstrual cycle length of greater than 35 days or less than 21 days, is the major outcome of interest. RESULTS After 7 years of benzene exposure, the adjusted odds ratio of having AMCL for each additional 5 years of exposure was 1.71 (95% CI 1.27-2.31). Feeling stressed at work was also an important predictor. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests a significant association of benzene exposure and perceived stress with menstrual disturbance. A prospective study is needed to confirm this finding.
MIMO Switched-Capacitor DC–DC Converters Using Only Parasitic Capacitances Through Scalable Parasitic Charge Redistribution

This paper presents a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) switched-capacitor (SC) dc–dc converter that only uses the parasitic capacitance already present in fully integrated SC power converters to generate multiple dc voltages. When used in an SC converter together with the scalable parasitic charge redistribution technique, the presented MIMO converter provides additional voltage rails, which can be used to power gate drivers or control blocks without any area overhead. Moreover, because the proposed converter only makes use of elements, which are already present in fully integrated SC converters, only conductive losses are introduced. This means that, for low output powers, efficiencies arbitrarily close to 100% can be achieved. The presented type of converter is characterized using an MIMO model, which is, in turn, used to prove the efficiency of the converter compared with regular SC MIMO converters, particularly for a large number of inputs or outputs. Measurements verify the basic working principle of the presented converter, demonstrating a peak efficiency of 98.9% and output powers sufficient to power internal converter blocks.
Multi-Network TDOA: An opportunity for vessels radiolocation

Detection and localization of vessels can be carried out by exploiting the radiolocation approach. Nevertheless, the employment of radiolocalization far from the shore can be limited by the lack of enough receivers to perform a correct multi-lateration of the RF source. In order to solve this gap, mobile assets or base stations from different networks need to be exploited. In particular, within a given search area, a ship could deploy low-cost receivers on drifting buoys, balloons or RPAs, creating a network with several nodes.
Cable logging contract rates in the alps: The effect of regional variability and technical constraints

A survey of cable logging contracts was conducted in 5 of the 8 Alpine countries, namely: France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland. The goals of the survey were to set a gen­ eral reference for cable logging rates, to identify eventual differences between countries and to determine the effect of technical work parameters (i.e. piece size, removal per hectare, line length) on actual contract rates. With a total sample size of 566 units, the mean removal and rate were 165 m ha and 42.9 € m, respectively. Both removal per hectare and contract log­ ging rates varied considerably and the study found significant differences between countries. Switzerland stood out from the group with the highest removal (345 m ha), but also the high­ est contract rate (79.5 € m). Removal per hectare was lowest in Italy with just 58.3 m ha, and logging rate lowest in Slovenia at 29.3 € m. Logging rates were highly correlated with the average labour rate of each country. Technical factors such as tree size, line length and tract size explained about 40% of the variability in logging rates. Therefore, 60% of the variability is explained by other technical factors not included in our data and by non­technical factors, such as local market dynamics.
Percutaneous retrieval of malpositioned, kinked and unraveled guide wire under fluoroscopic guidance during central venous cannulation

The placement of central venous catheter using Seldinger's technique, remains a commonly performed procedure with its own risks and benefits. Various complications have been reported with the use of guide wire as well as catheter. We report a unique problem during subclavian vein cannulation due to guidewire malposition which led to its kinking and difficult retrieval requiring removal in fluoroscopy suit. The probable mechanism of guide wire entrapment and possible bedside management of similar problems is described.