Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The prevalence of diagnosed chronic conditions and multimorbidity in Australia: A method for estimating population prevalence from general practice patient encounter data

Objectives To estimate the prevalence of common chronic conditions and multimorbidity among patients at GP encounters and among people in the Australian population. To assess the extent to which use of each individual patient’s GP attendance over the previous year, instead of the average for their age-sex group, affects the precision of national population prevalence estimates of diagnosed chronic conditions. Design, setting and participants A sub-study (between November 2012 and March 2016) of the Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health program, a continuous national study of GP activity. Each of 1,449 GPs provided data for about 30 consecutive patients (total 43,501) indicating for each, number of GP attendances in previous year and all diagnosed chronic conditions, using their knowledge of the patient, patient self-report, and patient's health record. Results Hypertension (26.5%) was the most prevalent diagnosed chronic condition among patients surveyed, followed by osteoarthritis (22.7%), hyperlipidaemia (16.6%), depression (16.3%), anxiety (11.9%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (GORD) (11.3%), chronic back pain (9.7%) and Type 2 diabetes (9.6%). After adjustment, we estimated population prevalence of hypertension as 12.4%, 9.5% osteoarthritis, 8.2% hyperlipidaemia, 8.0% depression, 5.8% anxiety and 5.2% asthma. Estimates were significantly lower than those derived using the previous method. About half (51.6%) the patients at GP encounters had two or more diagnosed chronic conditions and over one third (37.4%) had three or more. Population estimates were: 25.7% had two or more diagnosed chronic conditions and 15.8% had three or more. Conclusions Of the three approaches we have tested to date, this study provides the most accurate method for estimation of population prevalence of chronic conditions using the GP as an expert interviewer, by adjusting for each patient’s reported attendance.
A Study of Antibacterial Effect of Some Selected Essential Oils and Medicinal Herbs Against Acne Causing Bacteria

Acne by definition is multifactorial chronic inflammatory disease of pilosebaceous units. Propionibacterium acne and Staphylococcus epidermidis are considered as the major skin bacteria that cause the formation of acne. Acne is one of the commonest skin disorders mainly affecting adolescents, (though it may present at any age) and though there are wide arena of anti acne agents in use, dermatologists are still struggling since years to treat it successesfully. The aim of the present study was to investigate and evaluate anti acne efficacy of various essential oils and herbal extracts which possess antibacterial activity against the above bacteria. In the present study, 3 essential oils and two extracts were chosen and their Zone of inhibition, Activity index, Percent Inhibition was measured and compared against a known synthetic standard. Amongst the selected active materials, Cinnamon oil showed highest activity while Rosemary oil showed least. Keywords––Acne, Antibacterial activity, Essential oil, Herbal extracts, Propionibacterium acne, Staphylococcus epidermis.
The Potential of Human Embryonic Stem Cells for Articular Cartilage Repair and Osteoarthritis Treatment

Osteoarthritis is a debilitating joint disease present in epidemic proportions worldwide. Osteoarthritis results from degeneration of the articular cartilage of the joint surfaces due to acute trauma, or chronic wear and tear. Due to limited ability of cartilage to repair itself, and lack of available treatments, there is an urgent need for development of approaches to repair articular cartilage damage due to injury or osteoarthritic disease. Cell-based repair strategies are among the most promising of these approaches. Various adult cell sources for cartilage repair are proposed including autologous adult chondrocytes as well as adult Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC). Disadvantages such as destructive harvest protocols; poor proliferation, and particularly for MSC, considerable cellular heterogeneity, have limited success of these cell types for cartilage repair. Chondrogenic cells derived from human embryonic stem cells(hESC) offer a highly proliferative cell source, which when directed into the chondrogenic lineage, could provide an ideal source of cells for cartilage repair. Chondrogenic cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells(iPSC) offer additional advantages for patient-specific therapy. Recently protocols have been established for directed differentiation of hESC into the chondrogenic lineage. Harnessing the potential of hESC-derived chondrogenic cells will require comprehensive testing of their efficacy for in vivo cartilage repair, as well as considerations of safety and immunogenicity of the cells. Use of pro-chondrogenic factors and/or bioactive scaffolds may assist in optimizing cartilage repair by chondrogenic cells. Repair of cartilage damage in osteoarthritis is a special challenge because of the widespread damage and presence of signals and stressors which disrupt normal joint homeostasis. Particular promise in cell-based repair of osteoarthritis may be provided by chondrogenic progenitor cells which may mimic endogenous repair responses. This review discusses the current status of cell-based cartilage repair strategies and in particular the potential role of hESC-derived chondrocytes or chondroprogenitor cells for treatment of articular cartilage damage due to injury and osteoarthritis.
Functional evidence for two types of parathyroid adenoma

The carboxyterminal parathyroid hormone (C‐PTH)/intact (I‐) PTH ratio is influenced by serum calcium concentrations in man, increasing to a maximum value in hypercalcaemia and decreasing to a minimum value in hypocalcaemia. We decided to use this ratio to screen for parathyroid tumour with a normal sensitivity to calcium, symptomatic mainly through a mass effect.
Robust SCUC Considering Continuous/Discrete Uncertainties and Quick-Start Units: A Two-Stage Robust Optimization With Mixed-Integer Recourse

This paper presents a comprehensive two-stage robust security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) approach, which minimizes the operation cost of the base case while guaranteeing that the robust solution can be adaptively and securely adjusted in response to continuous load and wind uncertainty intervals as well as discrete N-K generation and transmission contingency security criteria. In addition, corrective capabilities of both non-quick-start and quick-start units are rigorously formulated. Specifically, unit commitment of quick-start units is adaptively adjusted in the recourse stage for satisfying security constraints under various uncertainties, which introduces mixed-integer recourse to the proposed two-stage robust SCUC model. The proposed model is solved by the combination of modified Benders decomposition (BD) method and column-and-constraint generation (C&CG) algorithm, which decompose the original problem into a master UC problem for the base case and security checking subproblems for uncertainties. Numerical case studies on the modified IEEE 118-bus system illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed robust SCUC approach. Although the modified BD does not provide the tightest lower bound and may not guarantee the global optimality, robustness performance tests indicate that a reasonable threshold on the violation of security checking subproblems would guarantee good enough solutions from engineering point of view.
A method for rapid and sensitive negative staining of proteins in SDS‐PAGE using 2′,7′‐dichlorofluorescein

We report here a rapid and sensitive technique for negative visualization of protein in 1D and 2D SDS‐PAGE by using 2′, 7′‐dichlorofluorescein (DCF), which appeared as transparent and colorless bands in an opaque gel matrix background. For DCF stain, down to 0.1–0.2 ng protein could be easily visualized within 7 min by only two steps, and the staining is fourfold more sensitive than that of Eosin Y (EY) negative stain and glutaraldehyde (GA) silver stain, and eightfold more sensitive than that of the commonly used imidazole‐zinc (IZ) negative stain. Furthermore, DCF stain provided good reproducibility, linearity, and MS compatibility compared with those of IZ stain. In addition, the potential staining mechanism was investigated by colorimetric experiment and molecular docking, and the results demonstrated that the interaction between DCF and protein occurs mainly via van der waals force, electrostatic interaction, and hydrogen bonding.
Yohimbine treatment of sexual side effects induced by serotonin reuptake blockers.

BACKGROUND Preclinical and clinical studies suggest that yohimbine facilitates sexual behavior and may be helpful in the treatment of male impotence. A single case report suggests that yohimbine may be used to treat the sexual side effects of clomipramine. This study evaluated yohimbine as a treatment for the sexual side effects caused by serotonin reuptake blockers. METHOD Six patients with either obsessive compulsive disorder, trichotillomania, anxiety, or affective disorders who suffered sexual side effects after treatment with serotonin reuptake blockers were given yohimbine on a p.r. n. basis in an open clinical trial. Various doses of yohimbine were used to determine the ideal dose for each patient. RESULTS Five of the six patients experienced improved sexual functioning after taking yohimbine. One patient who failed to comply with yohimbine treatment had no therapeutic effects. Side effects of yohimbine included excessive sweating, increased anxiety, and a wound-up feeling in some patients. CONCLUSION The results of this study indicate that yohimbine may be an effective treatment for the sexual side effects caused by serotonin reuptake blockers. Future controlled studies are needed to further investigate the effectiveness and safety of yohimbine for this indication.
Wafer Thickness Sensor (WTS) for etch depth measurement of TSV

The Wafer Thickness Sensor (WTS) is an optical, non-destructive sensor that directly measures the etch depth of vias, without regard to aspect ratio. The high throughput measurements of via depth after the etching of through silicon vias (TSV) will allow timely feedback for process control, process development, and the prevention of process excursions in 3D IC process technology. In this paper, we report the capabilities and limitations of the WTS for the measurement of TSV etched depth. Etch depth measurement results are presented for a variety of vias, including 1µm, 3µm, and 5µm diameter vias, vias with an aspect ratio of 28∶1, and both isolated and densely packed vias. Results include accuracy and repeatability data, with a route towards providing a high volume manufacturing TSV etch metrology solution for 3D IC process technology.
Laparoscopic cholecystectomy in a cardiac transplant recipient

An increasing number of cardiac transplants are being carried out around the world. With increasing longevity, these patients present a unique challenge to non-transplant anesthesiologists for a variety of transplant related or incidental surgeries. The general considerations related to a cardiac transplant recipient are the physiological and pharmacological problems of allograft denervation, the side-effects of immunosuppression, the risk of infection and the potential for rejection. A thorough understanding of the physiology of a denervated heart, need for direct vasoactive agents and post-transplant morbidities is essential in anesthetic management of such a patient. Here, we describe a case of a heart transplant recipient who presented for a cholecystectomy at our center.
Recovery Time Profiling After Short-, Middle- and Long-Distance Swimming Performance

Abstract Piras, A, Cortesi, M, Campa, F, Perazzolo, M, and Gatta, G. Recovery time profiling after short-, middle- and long-distance swimming performance. J Strength Cond Res 33(5): 1408–1415, 2019—We investigated cardiac autonomic responses and hemodynamic parameters on recovery time after short-, middle- and long-swimming performance. Ten male regional-level swimmers were tested to estimate time and frequency domains of arterial baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and heart rate variability after 100, 200, and 400 m of front crawl. We found a BRS reduction for 90 minutes after a maximal 100- and 200-m front crawl event, meanwhile the reflex was restored back to the baseline value approximately 70 minutes after 400 m. The vagally mediated high-frequency power of R–R intervals was significantly reduced for 30 minutes after 400 m, and more than 90 minutes after 100 and 200 m, with a concomitant increase of sympathetic modulation. After 400 m, athletes have reduced their stroke volume for 50 minutes, which remained at the baseline level after 100 and 200 m. Heart rate was restored back after 90 minutes in all conditions, whereas total peripheral vascular resistance was significantly reduced for 50 minutes after 200 and 400 m, with a persistent reduction after 100 m. Time course of autonomic recovery after 3 different swimming performances is influenced by exercise intensity and duration, showing a rapid recovery after 400 m, an intermediate recovery after 200 m, and a significantly delayed recovery after a more strictly anaerobic performance like 100 m of front crawl. These results could encourage coaches to consider that athlete might be affected by the specific recovery time of the previous exercise performed, suggesting that the management of the exercise intensity, and appropriate monitoring of cardiac autonomic parameters might be helpful to know the physical condition of each athlete.
Towards automatic thermal network extraction in 3D ICs

Thermal management is one of the critical challenges in 3D integrated circuits. Incorporating thermal optimizations during the circuit design stages requires a convenient automatic method of doing thermal characterization for feedback purposes. In this paper, we present a methodology, which supports thermal characterization by automatically extracting the steady-state thermal modeling resistance network from a post-placement physical design. The method follows a two-level hierarchical approach. It does fine-grained thermal modeling for standard cells, and then at higher level assembles the thermal modeling network of the input physical design by using the built standard cell thermal models, and adding the information on inter-cell connections as well as implemented thermal management features. The methodology has been implemented in Skybridge-3D-CMOS technology, but can be employed in other fine-grained 3D directions such as monolithic 3D CMOS. Large scale benchmarking has been performed, showing the ability of doing automated fine-grained thermal characterization in the order of seconds per thousands of 3D standard cells. In addition, the methodology is employed to highlight implications of added thermal extraction features.
Local gradient-based illumination invariant face recognition using local phase quantisation and multi-resolution local binary pattern fusion

A local-based illumination insensitive face recognition algorithm is proposed which is the combination of image normalisation and illumination invariant descriptors. Illumination insensitive representation of image is obtained based on the ratio of gradient amplitude to the original image intensity and partitioned into smaller sub-blocks. Local phase quantisation and multi-scale local binary pattern, extract the sub-regions characteristics. Distance measurements of local nearest neighbour classifiers are fused at the score level to find the best match and decision-level fusion combines the results of two matching techniques. Entropy, class posterior probability and mutual information are utilised as the weights of fusion components. Simulation results on the YaleB, Extended YaleB, AR, Multi-PIE and FRGC databases show the improved performance of the proposed algorithm under severe illumination with low computational complexity and no reconstruction or training requirement.
Optimization of composition grading in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 for flexible solar cells and modules

For the development of high efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) flexible solar cells on polymer films with efficient and robust deposition process the so-called three-stage evaporation processes were modified. CIGS layers were grown by co-evaporation of constituent elements at low substrate temperature compatible with the stability of the polyimide film. The CIGS layers grown with our standard process are compositionally graded, especially the Ga has a strong grading profile across the layer thickness. Different variations of the standard evaporation process were investigated, especially in view of changing the energy band gap profiles in the absorber layer for achieving further improvements in high efficiency solar cells. Further on, the incorporation of sodium during the CIGS deposition was optimized. Structural and chemical composition properties of CIGS layers were characterized with SEM, XRF, SIMS and the photovoltaic properties were characterized with I–V and quantum efficiency measurements. A flexible CIGS solar cell on polyimide film with a record efficiency of 17.6% has been developed.
Rotation-Tolerant Camera Identification Using Optimal Tradeoff Circular Harmonic Function Correlation Filter

In this paper, we propose a novel camera identification method based on photo-response non-uniformity (PRNU), which performs well even with rotated videos. One of the disadvantages of the PRNUbased camera identification methods is that they are very sensitive to desynchronization. If a video under investigation is slightly rotated, the identification process without synchronization fails. The proposed method solves this kind of out-of-sync problem, by achieving rotation-tolerance using Optimal Tradeoff Circular Harmonic Function (OTCHF) correlation filter. The experimental results show that the proposed method identifies source device with high accuracy from rotated videos. key words: camera identification, PRNU, circular harmonic function, optimal trade-off filter, correlation filter
Isolation of mutations with dumpy‐like phenotypes and of collagen genes in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus

The nematode Pristionchus pacificus was developed as a satellite system in evolutionary developmental biology and forward and reverse genetic approaches allow a detailed comparison of various developmental processes between P. pacificus and Caenorhabditis elegans. To facilitate map‐based cloning in P. pacificus, a genome map was generated including a genetic linkage map of ∼300 molecular markers and a physical map of 10,000 BAC clones. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of more than 40 morphological mutations that can be used as genetic markers. These mutations fall into 12 Dumpy genes and one Roller gene that represent morphological markers for all six P. pacificus chromosomes. Using an in silico approach, we identified ∼150 hits of P. pacificus collagen genes in the available EST, BAC‐end, and fosmid‐end sequences. However, 1:1 orthologs could only be identified for fewer than 20 collagen genes. genesis 40:176–183, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF A NEW MYELIN PROTEIN COMPONENT

A new protein component has been demonstrated in myelin isolated from rat whole brain and from white matter dissected from bovine, dog and rabbit brain. It is also present in rabbit optic nerve. It does not appear to be present in other subcellular fractions of rat brain. It has a molecular weight of 20,540 ± 490(S.D.), as determined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in sodium dodecyl sulphate. A rapid procedure for the isolation of myelin is also described.
Effet du glyphosate sur la biosynthèse des constituants phénoliques de Manihot esculenta Crantz

Ce travail presente l’evaluation de l’impact du glyphosate sur la biosynthese des composes phenoliques presents dans les feuilles et tiges du manioc en culture classique. L’absence de travaux scientifiques a ce sujet, nous a incites a realiser la presente etude. Pour ce faire, l’identification des flavonoides totaux par CCM, le dosage spectrophotometrique des phenols et des flavonoides totaux, le depistage de l’activite antioxydante sur CCM de ces derniers ont ete realises sur des extraits de tiges et de feuilles recoltees sur des parcelles experimentales de 3 cultivars de manioc (Yace, TMS30, 9620A) temoins (sans traitement au glyphosate) et sur celles traitees au glyphosate. Les resultats des analyses ont revele une inhibition relative de la biosynthese des composes phenoliques apres traitement au glyphosate sans toutefois affecter les proprietes antioxydantes et la nature des flavonoides totaux. Cette inhibition disparait progressivement 7 jours apres le traitement (7JAT) demontrant ainsi l’effet temporaire du glyphosate sur la biosynthese des flavonoides totaux aussi bien des varietes ameliorees par la voie classique (9620A et TMS30) que la variete traditionnelle (Yace).
Mechanism of procaspase-8 activation by c-FLIPL

Cellular FLICE-inhibitory protein (c-FLIPL) is a key regulator of the extrinsic cell death pathway. Although widely regarded as an inhibitor of initiator caspase activation and cell death, c-FLIPL is also capable of enhancing procaspase-8 activation through heterodimerization of their respective protease domains. However, the underlying mechanism of this activation process remains enigmatic. Here, we demonstrate that cleavage of the intersubunit linker of c-FLIPL by procaspase-8 potentiates the activation process by enhancing heterodimerization between the two proteins and vastly improving the proteolytic activity of unprocessed caspase-(C)8. The crystal structures of the protease-like domain of c-FLIPL alone and in complex with zymogen C8 identify the unique determinants that favor heterodimerization over procaspase-8 homodimerization, and induce the latent active site of zymogen C8 into a productive conformation. Together, these findings provide molecular insights into a key aspect of c-FLIPL function that modulates procaspase-8 activation to elicit diverse responses in different cellular contexts.
Inhibitory Properties of Nucleotides with Difluoromethylenephosphonic Acid as a Phosphate Mimic versus Calf Spleen Purine Nucleoside Phosphorylase and Effect of These Analogues on the Viability of Human Blood Lymphocytes

Several cyclic and acyclic 6-keto purine nucleotides with difluoromethylenephosphonic acid as phosphate mimic are proved to be potent inhibitors of mammalian purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNP). Antiproliferative activity of these analogues on the growth of human blood lymphocytes was tested by MTT assay. Compared to inhibitory effects on the growth of human blood T-lymphocytes isolated from healthy donors, all analogues significantly slow down proliferation of T-lymphocytes isolated from patients with autoimmune thyroid disease—Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
Low-Resource Face Spoofing Detection in a User-friendly Manner

This research aims to distinguish real faces from spoofed faces when presented to a mobile phone front-camera. Since face recognition is potentially an incredibly user-friendly method to authenticate a user, it is important that the false acceptance rate (FAR) and false rejection rate (FRR) are as low as possible. However, the detection method should not require a large amount of time to classify nor should it depend on resources not present on regular mobile phones. Current research proves that texture analysis through Local Binary Patterns (LBP) is a promising method of distinguishing real from fake faces. This research creates a new small dataset consisting of images taken with a mobile phone front-camera. The calculated LBP’s are used to train a machine learning binary linear classier. A FAR of 2.5% and a FRR of 7.1% were found with an average computation time of 67 milliseconds. These results indicate that an eective low-resource anti-spoong method is possible.