Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fc(epsilon)RI-(beta) polymorphism and risk of atopy in a general population sample

Abstract Objective: To establish the prevalence of Fc(epsilon)RI- β polymorphisms Leu181 and Leu181/Leu183 on chromosome 11q13 in the general population and to examine whether when maternally inherited they confer a risk of atopy. Design: A population based survey for measures of atopy (skin prick test reactions, specific IgE titres, total serum IgE concentration), bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and carriage of Fc(epsilon)RI-β Leu181 and Leu181/Leu183. Setting: The rural coastal town of Busselton, Western Australia. Subjects: 1004 members of 230 two generation families identified through adults aged under 55. Results: Fc(epsilon)RI-β Leu181/Leu183 was identified in 45 subjects (4.5%). All 13 children who had inherited the variant maternally were atopic. Six had asthma and nine rhinitis. The odds ratio of a positive skin prick test reaction to house dust mite or grass pollen in these children compared with the other 523 children was 7.37 (95% confidence interval 1.62 to 33.60). The 95% confidence interval for the odds ratio of a positive specific IgE response (radioallergosorbent test) was 3.00 to (infinity), and the odds ratio for bronchial hyperresponsiveness was 3.70 (1.21 to 11.60). By contrast, the eight children who had derived the variant paternally had negative skin prick and radioallergosorbent test results and did not have increased bronchial responsiveness. Conclusion: Fc(epsilon)RI”'β Leu181/Leu183 when inherited maternally identifies a genetic risk factor for atopy and bronchial hyperresponsiveness.
PHOTODECHLORINATION OF 3,39-DICHLOROBENZIDINE IN WATER

Laboratory experiments have been conducted to elucidate the photochemical behavior of 3,39-dichlorobenzidine (DCB) and its congeners in aquatic systems. Photodechlorination of DCB was observed in aqueous samples that were irradiated with monochromatic radiation from a variable-wavelength laser at several wavelengths in the range 300 nm # l # 360 nm. Analytical measurements performed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometry revealed that 3-chlorobenzidine (MCB) was produced as a transient intermediate in the photodechlorination process, with subsequent photodechlorination to yield benzidine as a stable photoproduct. Data obtained from these measurements also suggest the existence of other (unidentified) reaction pathways and products. The time-course measurements of chlorobenzidine congener concentrations and irradiance history were combined with a simple reaction model to develop estimates of reaction kinetics. Model predictions were consistent with results obtained for all wavelengths investigated. Keywords—Photodechlorination 3,39-Dichlorobenzidine Benzidine Laser
Aerobic and anaerobic profiles, heart rate and match analysis in older soccer players

The aim of the present study was to provide aerobic (maximal oxygen consumption – VO2max) and anaerobic [jump tests: counter-movement jump (CMJ) and bounce jump (BJ); and running tests: 10 m sprint and 10 m dribbling the ball (10 mDB)] profiles of older soccer players (n = 12), and heart rate (HR), blood lactate accumulation (La) and match analysis (individual motor activity and team behaviour) aspects of a soccer match. The maximal aerobic test values were: HRmax, 154 ± 14 beat min−1; maximal power, 160 ± 24 W; VO2peak, 36.3 ± 11.3 ml kg−1 min−1; peak La, 8.2 ± 1.8 mM. Jump test values were: CMJ, 21.2 ± 4.5 cm; BJ, 17.3 ± 4.8 cm. Running performances were: 10 m sprint, 2.06 ± 0.36 s; 10 mDB, 2.17 ± 0.21 s. Running showed similar values in the two halves (first half, 82%; second half, 88%), while walking lasted longer during the second half. Regarding the technical aspects of the match, 42% of the consecutive passes made in possession of the ball exceeded three passes, indicating that their play was structured in a cooperative manner. Older soccer players succeeded in maintaining good aerobic and anaerobic physical capability.
LLC resonant converter for 48 V to 0.9 V VRM

48 V to 0.9 V VRM using LLC resonant converter is presented. ZVS is realized for switches and the converter can operate at higher frequency. How to reduce primary current amplitude by reducing power factor angle is explored. The effect of secondary leakage inductance is studied and FEA method is used to find the optimal transformer winding con figuration. The resonant inductor can be integrated with transformer primary leakage inductance, which reduces the total magnetic component counts. A prototype of 48 V to 0.9 V/50 A VRM is built to verify the result.
VISION SYSTEM FOR PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARD INSPECTION

In this paper we present a Computer Vision system for printed circuit board (PCB) automated inspection. In the last years PCB industry has been invested in manufacturing automation improvement. This is known, especially in measurement and inspection field. We can note that the tolerances on PCB assembly become more accurate. With computer hardware and cameras advances, new Computer Vision algorithms should be developed, and applied in industry with low cost. Besides, new visual inspection systems using computers should be implemented to solve smaller tolerance requirements. A PCB consists in a circuit and electronic components assembled in a surface. There are three main process involved in its manufacture, where the inspection is necessary. The main process consists in the printing itself. Another important procedure is the components placement over the PCB surface. And the third is the components soldering. In the proposed Computer Vision PCB Inspection System we consider the first manufacturing stage, i.e., the board printing. We first compare a PCB standard image with a PCB image, using a simple subtraction algorithm that can highlight the main problem-regions. Then we used connection analysis to find fatal and potential errors, like breaks and circuit shorts. In other to develop this methodology in real PCB, we propose to magnify the problem-regions and start to find the errors in a set of PCB sections, which are smaller than the main PCB image. This approach seems to be very effective if applied in a real time inspection system. Therefore, we propose a new algorithm to solve PCB inspection problem, considering its efficiency in reducing the computational time.
Pricing and Hedging Illiquid Energy Derivatives: An Application to the JCC Index

In this paper we discuss a simple econometric strategy for pricing and hedging illiquid financial products, such as the Japanese crude oil cocktail (JCC) index, the most popular OTC energy derivative in Japan. First, we review the existing literature for computing optimal hedge ratios (OHR) and we propose a critical classification of the existing approaches. Second, we compare the empirical performance of different econometric models (namely, regression models in price-levels, price first differences, price returns, as well as error correction and autoregressive distributed lag models) in terms of their computed OHR using monthly data on the JCC over the period January 2000-January 2006. Third, we illustrate and implement a procedure to cross-hedge and price two different swaps on the JCC: a one-month swap and a three-month swap with a variable oil volume. We explain how to compute a bid/ask spread and to construct the hedging position for the JCC swap. Fourth, we evaluate our swap pricing scheme with backtesting and rolling regression techniques. Our empirical findings show that it is not necessary to use sophisticated econometric techniques, since the price level regression model permits to compute a more reliable optimal hedge ratio relative to its competing alternatives.
Rapid and economical method for species identification of clinically significant coagulase-negative staphylococci

Four methods for the species identification of coagulase-negative staphylococci in the medical microbiology laboratory were compared with 444 consecutive isolates. The methods included (i) the reference method based on growth tests, (ii) API ID 32 Staph (bioMérieux), (iii) Staph-Zym (Rosco), and (iv) a rapid 4-h method developed in our laboratory (UZA method). The last method is based on the detection within 4 h of enzymatic activity of heavy bacterial suspensions in three substrate solutions (nongrowth tests). For 16.5% of the isolates some supplementary growth tests read after 24 h had to be added to the enzyme data for satisfactory identification. The reference method failed to identify four isolates. Of the 440 isolates identified by the reference method, API ID 32 Staph, Staph-Zym, and the UZA method correctly identified 419 (95.2%), 429 (97.5%), and 430 (97.7%) and misidentified 8 (1.8%), 4 (0.9%), and 1 (0.2%), respectively. Staphylococcus epidermidis, S. haemolyticus, S. lugdunensis, S. schleiferi, and S. capitis were identified with an accuracy of 98 to 100% by all the systems tested. S. capitis subsp. ureolyticus was not recognized by the API ID 32 system because the biochemical profiles for it are not yet included in the corresponding database. Whereas API ID 32 identified all 13 S. warneri isolates, both Staph-Zym and the UZA method missed 2 of these. S. hominis was identified with the least accuracy by the API ID 32 system (26 of 39 isolates), whereas the UZA and Staph-Zym methods identified 36 of the isolates belonging to this species. The UZA method did not identify any of the S. cohnii, S. xylosus, S. lentus, and S. sciuri strains, since it included no discriminatory tests for these species, because they are extremely rarely found in humans. Of all 440 isolates tested, the UZA method failed to identify 9 and misidentified 1 other. Eighty-one percent of the isolates were identified within 4 h and 97.7% were identified after 24 h, at considerably less expense than by the API ID 32 Staph and Staph-Zym methods.
Deletion of exon 1 of the SLC16A2 gene: a common occurrence in patients with Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome.

BACKGROUND Allan-Herndon-Dudley syndrome (AHDS) is an X-linked type of mental retardation resulting from hindered thyroid hormone access to neurons. Clustered nonrecurrent deletions of SLC16A2 exon 1 have been described in three patients with AHDS. We report a fourth patient with such a deletion and discuss possible mechanisms leading to these rearrangements. CASE PRESENTATION A three-and-a-half-year-old male with clinical and biochemical AHDS phenotype and a history of normal neonatal screening for hypothyroidism underwent SLC16A2 molecular analysis. Unexpectedly, he showed skeletal signs of hypothyroidism. METHODS AND RESULTS The exons of the SLC16A2 (MCT8) gene and the sequences surrounding exon 1 were amplified using PCR. The patient had a 36-kb deletion affecting exon 1 of SLC16A2. The deletion junction was subjected to bioinformatic analyses, along with two other reported exon 1 deletion junctions, identifying possible sequence features and mechanisms responsible for such genomic rearrangements. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION This patient had a classic AHDS phenotype with an unexpectedly large anterior fontanel and delayed bone age and dentition. Bioinformatic analyses suggested that exon 1 deletions in patients with AHDS are caused by microhomology-mediated replicative-based and nonhomologous end-joining mechanisms. Rearrangement susceptibility may be due to the size of intron 1 and the percentage of repeat sequences.
Task Conflict and Proactive Control: A Computational Theory of the Stroop Task

The Stroop task is a central experimental paradigm used to probe cognitive control by measuring the ability of participants to selectively attend to task-relevant information and inhibit automatic task-irrelevant responses. Research has revealed variability in both experimental manipulations and individual differences. Here, we focus on a particular source of Stroop variability, the reverse-facilitation (RF; faster responses to nonword neutral stimuli than to congruent stimuli), which has recently been suggested as a signature of task conflict. We first review the literature that shows RF variability in the Stroop task, both with regard to experimental manipulations and to individual differences. We suggest that task conflict variability can be understood as resulting from the degree of proactive control that subjects recruit in advance of the Stroop stimulus. When the proactive control is high, task conflict does not arise (or is resolved very quickly), resulting in regular Stroop facilitation. When proactive control is low, task conflict emerges, leading to a slow-down in congruent and incongruent (but not in neutral) trials and thus to Stroop RF. To support this suggestion, we present a computational model of the Stroop task, which includes the resolution of task conflict and its modulation by proactive control. Results show that our model (a) accounts for the variability in Stroop-RF reported in the experimental literature, and (b) solves a challenge to previous Stroop models—their ability to account for reaction time distributional properties. Finally, we discuss theoretical implications to Stroop measures and control deficits observed in some psychopathologies.
Mobile Communication Congestion Exposure Scenario

This memo describes a mobile communications use case for congestion exposure (ConEx) with a particular focus on those mobile communication networks that are architecturally similar to the 3GPP Evolved Packet System (EPS). This memo provides a brief overview of the architecture of these networks (both access and core networks) and current QoS mechanisms and then discusses how congestion exposure concepts could be applied. Based on this discussion, this memo suggests a set of requirements for ConEx mechanisms that particularly apply to these mobile networks.
A case study examining the impact of public-sector nurses' perception of workplace autonomy on their job satisfaction: lessons for management

This paper uses mixed methods to examine the impact of New Public Management (NPM) on public sector nurses' perceptions of workplace autonomy and, in turn, their job satisfaction. The quantitative findings of this study suggest that nurses' perception of autonomy does moderate their job satisfaction. The qualitative findings suggest that the implementation of NPM has negatively affected nurses' experiences of autonomy and job satisfaction. The impact of NPM has increased the number of patients public hospitals are able to process, however, the same policies have negatively impacted on nurses' work experience. The findings have implication for governments in their quest to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness.
The Relationship Between Suicide Attempts and Menstrual Cycles in the Emergency Department and the Sociodemographic and Clinical Characteristics of These Patients

Aim: Suicidal behavior is defined as choosing death in the conflict between life and death. The aim of this study is to investigate the suspected relationship between suicide attempts and menstrual cycles and to evaluate the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the non-pregnant female patients of reproductive age who have presented to our hospital after attempting suicide. Materials and Methods: In this study, 102 female patients (aging 16–45 years) of reproductive age with regular menstrual cycles who presented to the emergency department because of suicide attempts were enrolled. The study was designed as prospective, cross-sectional, and descriptive. The patients’ sociodemographic, clinical, and laboratory biochemical parameters were recorded. For the purposes of this study, 100 healthy women who fulfilled the criteria formed the control group and underwent the same procedures as the patient group. Results: Among the patients who presented to the hospital after attempting suicide, 64 (62.7%) were in their menstrual period, six (5.9%) were outside their menstrual period during the follicular phase, five (4.9%) were at the mid-cycle peak, and 27 (26.4%) were at the luteal phase, as determined on the basis of the date of their last menstrual period and their blood hormone levels. Conclusion: The majority of suicide attempts by women occurred during their menstrual period when the estradiol and progesterone levels are at their lowest. (JAEM 2015 DOI: 10.5152/jaem.2015.91069)
Following advice in general practice.

A random sample of 521 patients to whom prescriptions had been issued in an urban general practice were investigated to see how well they followed advice about taking medicines.Most factors that have been previously reported as affecting this did not appear to do so. A very high degree of compliance was achieved and it is suggested that the key factor in this is the relationship between doctor and patient.
Changing Minds With the Story of Adaptation: Strategies for Teaching Young Children About Natural Selection

ABSTRACT Research Findings: Educational guidelines recommend a delayed, piecemeal approach to instruction on adaptation by natural selection. This approach is questionable given suggestions that older students’ pervasive misunderstandings about adaptation are rooted in cognitive biases that develop early. In response to this, Kelemen et al. (2014) recently showed that young children can learn a basic yet comprehensive explanation of adaptation by natural selection from a picture storybook intervention. However, this research was conducted in a laboratory-based setting with children from middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds. To further explore the intervention’s efficacy, this investigation examined whether Kelemen et al.’s (2014, Experiment 2) findings extend to a more diverse sample of children tested in a more naturalistic setting, namely, after-school programs. After a 10-min picture storybook reading that described adaptation within a fictitious but realistic mammal species, 5- to 6- and 7- to 8-year-old children’s learning of adaptation was examined. Results revealed that younger and older children benefitted from the intervention; however, older children displayed pronounced learning and generalization. Practice or Policy: Findings confirm that children are capable of learning complex biological ideas and that comprehensive storybook interventions are simple but powerful teaching tools. Implications for instruction on natural selection are discussed.
Detection of Discriminating Rules

Assume a population partitioned in two subpopulations, e.g. a set of normal individuals and a set of abnormal individuals, is given. Assume, moreover, that we look for a characterization of the reasons discriminating one subpopulation from the other. In this paper, we provide a technique by which such an evidence can be mined, by introducing the notion of discriminating rule, that is a kind of logical implication which is much more valid in one of the two subpopulations than in the other one. In order to avoid mining a potentially huge number of (not necessarily interesting) rule, we define a preference relationship among rules and exploit a suitable graph encoding in order to single out the most interesting ones, which we call outstanding rules . We provide an algorithm for detecting the outstanding discriminating rules and present experimental results obtained by applying the technique in several scenarios.
Implications of high‐temperature events and water deficits on protein profiles in wheat (Triticum aestivum L. cv. Vinjett) grain

Increased climatic variability is resulting in an increase of both the frequency and the magnitude of extreme climate events. Therefore, cereals may be exposed to more than one stress event in the growing season, which may ultimately affect crop yield and quality. Here, effects are reported of interaction of water deficits and/or a high‐temperature event (32°C) during vegetative growth (terminal spikelet) with either of these stress events applied during generative growth (anthesis) in wheat. Influence of combinations of stress on protein fractions (albumins, globulins, gliadins and glutenins) in grains and stress‐induced changes on the albumin and gliadin proteomes were investigated by 2‐DE and MS. The synthesis of individual protein fractions was shown to be affected by both the type and time of the applied stresses. Identified drought or high‐temperature‐responsive proteins included proteins involved in primary metabolism, storage and stress response such as late embryogenesis abundant proteins, peroxiredoxins and α‐amylase/trypsin inhibitors. Several proteins, e.g. heat shock protein and 14‐3‐3 protein changed in abundance only under multiple high temperatures.
Semantics Preserving SQL-to-SPARQL Query Translation for Left Outer Join

: Despite the emergence of the Semantic Web and its performance, relational databases are still the most used for data manipulation, making the mapping of the relational world to the semantic world a very pertinent research topic to fill the gap between these two heterogeneous systems and ensure better semantic interoperability without physical transformation of data represented with different syntaxes. Regarding the transformation of SQL queries to SPARQL queries semantically equivalent, several algorithms have been developed to ensure this conversion; unfortunately, most of these algorithms have shortcomings and weaknesses in the consideration of the Left Outer Join commands in SQL queries. This problem has motivated us to write this paper so as to remedy this lack. Our main contribution is as follows: (a) establish an effective semantic transformation algorithm for Left Outer Join commands (in their simple and nested structures) to their equivalent in the SPARQL language, (b) integrate this result to RETRO (A Framework for Semantics Preserving SQL-to-SPARQL Translation) in order to have a richer algorithm that contribute to treatment of a maximum of SQL commands.
Pilot study: Investigating the effects of Kinesio Taping® on functional activities in children with cerebral palsy

Objective: To investigate the immediate effects of Kinesio Taping® (KT) on sit-to-stand (STS) movement, balance and dynamic postural control in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods: Four children diagnosed with left hemiplegic CP level I by the Gross Motor Function Classification System were evaluated under conditions without taping as control condition (CC); and with KT as kinesio condition. A motion analysis system was used to measure total duration of STS movement and angular movements of each joint. Clinical instruments such as Pediatric Balance Scale (PBS) and Timed up and Go (TUG) were also applied. Results: Compared to CC, decreased total duration of STS, lower peak ankle flexion, higher knee extension at the end of STS, and decreased total time in TUG; but no differences were obtained on PBS score in KT. Conclusion: Neuromuscular taping seems to be beneficial on dynamic activities, but not have the same performance in predominantly static activities studied.