Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Sexual Disgust Questionnaire; a psychometric study and a first exploration in patients with sexual dysfunctions.

INTRODUCTION Disgust may be involved in sexual problems by disrupting sexual arousal and motivating avoidance of sexual intercourse. To test whether heightened disgust for sexual contaminants is related to sexual dysfunctions, the Sexual Disgust Questionnaire (SDQ) has recently been developed. Previous research showed that particularly women with vaginismus display a generally heightened dispositional disgust propensity and heightened disgust toward stimuli depicting sexual intercourse. AIM To determine the psychometric properties of the SDQ and test whether heightened disgust toward sexual stimuli is specific to vaginismus or can be observed in other sexual dysfunctions as well. METHODS First, a large sample of undergraduates and university employees completed the SDQ (N = 762) and several trait disgust indices. Next, women with vaginismus (N = 39), dyspareunia (N = 45), and men with erectile disorder (N = 28) completed the SDQ and were compared to participants without sexual problems (N = 70). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE SDQ to index sexual disgust. RESULTS The SDQ proved a valid and reliable index to establish disgust propensity for sexual stimuli. Supporting construct validity of the SDQ, sexual disgust correlated with established trait indices. Furthermore, sexual disgust and willingness to handle sexually contaminated stimuli were associated with sexual functioning in women, but not in men. Specifically women with vaginismus displayed heightened sexual disgust compared to women without sexual problems, while men with erectile disorders demonstrated a lower willingness to handle sexually contaminated stimuli compared to men without sexual problems. CONCLUSIONS The SDQ appears a valid and reliable measure of sexual disgust. The pattern of SDQ-scores across males and females with and without sexual dysfunctions corroborates earlier research suggesting that disgust appraisals are involved especially in vaginismus and supports the view that the difficulty with vaginal penetration experienced by women in vaginismus may partly be due to disgust-induced defensive reflexes that could disrupt sexual arousal.
A new paradigm using proxy server to mitigate inference

In the database security the inference has been a longstanding issue. The main aim of the Inference control is to control the inference and provide a defense to the database. Researches focus on mitigating the impact of inference problem in database. The existing inference control methods, though rigorously studied, are not practical for protecting large-scale real-world database systems. Most of the existing architectures either burden the server or client to ensure the inference control. A modern inference control(IC) architecture is proposed which will reduce the burden on the server and the client and also ensure proper access control and inference control.
Effec ts of Temperature on the Toxicity of Oil Refine ry Waste, Sodium Chlorate, and Treated Sewage to Fathead Minnows

A literature review and experiments were conducted to determine the effects of temperature on the toxicity of three materials to fish (fathead minnows, Pimephales promelas, Rafinesque). These three toxicants (oil refinery waste, sodium chlorate, and treated sewage) were studied at different temperatures using standard static bioassay techniques. The treated sewage was generated by a compact zero discharge treatment system which will disinfect, remove suspended solids, and remove oxygen demanding materials by physical and chemical means. The oil refinery waste and treated sewage were chemically characterized. Using these ~haracterizations and toxicity data from literature, attempts were made to determine the chemical components in these wastes responsible for toxicity. Phenol was found to exert 40 percent of the total toxic action exerted at the TLso concentration for the oil refinery waste assuming that the toxicities of all substances in the oil refinery waste were additive. Sodium chlorate and sodium chloride were found to exert less than 35 percent of the total toxic action exerted at the TLso concentration for the treated sewage, assuming that the toxicities of all substances in the treated sewage were additive. Median toxic limit values obtained for a waste at different temperatures were statistically compared to determine if a significant difference occurred. Median lethal time values were also obtained for each waste at different temperatures and statistically compared to determine if a significant difference occurred. In some cases the median lethal time values calculated for the oil refinery waste and treated sewage were found to decrease significantly with increases in temperature. In the other cases, the median lethal time for these t6xicants did not change significantly with an increase in temperature. In every case the TLso values for oil refinery waste increased significantly with a temperature increase, whereas, TLso values for treated sewage decreased significantly in some cases and did not change significantly in other cases. The median lethal time and TLso values for sodium chlorate did not change significantly with temperature increases. From the comparison of median lethal times, found at different temperatures, the mode of toxic action was predicted for each toxicant. The mode of toxic action for toxicants (e.g., phenol, etc.) in the oil refinery waste appear to involve one or more chemical reactions. These chemical reactions might be involved in the adsorption of a toxicant and/or in the incapacitation of receptors (enzymes, cell membranes, or other specialized functional components of a cell). The mode of toxic action for sodium chlorate or toxicants in treated sewage probably involves physical processes, such as diffusion and osmotic pressure.
3D brain segmentation using active contour with multi labeling method

The main objective task in this paper is 3D multi region segmentation based on active contour with region label prior. The region label prior in our algorithm based on measuring the geometrical different in the brain volume. We will scope on level set with grow-cut method for multi regions segmentation regardless to number of regions in the loaded data. The combining of energy minimization method with grow-cut method is very useful in medical image segmentation to extract the desired object regardless to its grey level. Our algorithm use DICOM medical data and it implement in MATLAB 2008 with the aid of 3D slide viewer to visualize 3D segmentation results. The proposed algorithm shows improvements to segment different region of the brain. Our results compared with the results of other papers that considering the brain segmentation and we found the benefit of our proposed algorithm due to its flexibility to select any object in 2D and 3D DICOM medical images.
Research on Building Crowd evacuation Model Based on Multi-Agent particle swarm optimization algorithm

Due to differences in individual abilities and unpredictability of individual behavior of building crowd on the scene of the fire, the research on building crowd safety evacuation model has always been a difficulty in the field of building fire. In order to carry out the real simulation of individual behavior of building crowd on the scene of the fire as far as possible, Multi-Agent and Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm have been used to improve the model of building crowd safety evacuation, MultiAgent has effectively simulated the interaction between individual behaviors and the individuals, and the improved Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm has maintained a certain space between the building crowd and directed them to the evacuation exit. Simulation experiment results have shown that the evacuation model of building crowd provided in this paper is much suitable for the actual situation of the evacuation site than the Social Force Model and Cellular Automata Model.
Limited wavelength translation in all-optical WDM mesh networks

We analyze limited wavelength translation in all-optical, wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) wrap-around mesh networks, where up to W wavelengths, each of which can carry one circuit, are multiplexed onto a network link. All-optical wavelength translators with a limited translation range permit an incoming wavelength to be switched only to a small subset of the outgoing wavelengths. Although more restrictive than full wavelength translation (which permits an incoming wavelength to be switched to any outgoing wavelength), limited wavelength translation is a topic of recent study, since current practical wavelength translators are capable only of limited translation. We consider the case where an incoming wavelength can be switched to one of k (k=2,3) outgoing wavelengths (called the feasible wavelength set), and we obtain the probability that a session arriving at a node at a random time successfully establishes a connection from its source node to its destination node. Our analysis captures the state of a feasible wavelength set at a network node, which allows us to obtain the probability of successfully establishing the circuit. Based on this probability, we quantify the benefits of limited wavelength translation by demonstrating that in mesh networks, it can obtain most of the performance advantages of full translation at a fraction of the cost. Our work is the first to analyze limited wavelength translation for mesh networks under a probabilistic model, and accurately predicts the network performance over a wider range of network loads than previous works.
The impact of parental self-esteem and parental rearing behavior on adolescent attachment to parents

In this study the relationship of parental self-esteem, parental rearing and adolescent adult attachment was investigated. A total 448 senior high school students completed EMBU(Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran, or ―Own memories of parental rearing‖, Perris et al., 1980), the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR; Brennan, Clark, &Shaver, 1998), and their parents completed The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES; Rosenberg, 1965). The results suggested that parental global self-esteem has no effect on the adolescent attachment to parents. Parental positive rearing behaviors have been significantly associated with avoidance to parents. Furthermore, the negative rearing behaviors, such as paternal denying and rejecting, maternal punitiveness, maternal overinvolved and overprotective behavior, can predict the adolescent avoidance and anxiety to parents.
The first case of type B infant botulism in Japan

A six‐month‐old girl with a 5 consecutive day history of constipation and poor feeding developed generalized weakness, poor head control, difficulties in sucking and swallowing, and cranial nerve dysfunction within a few days. These characteristic manifestations and clinical course prompted examination of the possibility of infant botulism, although no history of eating honey was obtained. Mouse bioassay performed with enema effluent demonstrated type B botulinum toxin. Culture of the effluent was positive for Clostridium botulinum type B. This is the first case of type B infant botulism in Japan.
Test Item Analysis and Relationship Between Difficulty Level and Discrimination Index of Test Items in an Achievement Test in Biology

Current piece of work is focussed on the analysis of test items constructed in the subject of Biology for class IX. It involved the analysis of difficulty level and discrimination power of each test item. There were 120 objective type questions in the achievement test and was administered on a sample of 500 students from government and private schools. The findings of the work showed that most of the test items fall in the acceptable range of difficulty index and discrimination index. However, nine of the test items were rejected due to very high or very low difficulty level and poor discrimination power. Using the findings relationship between the difficulty index of each item and the corresponding discrimination index is carried out using Pearson correlation formula. Instead of a linear relation, it was found that item discrimination power increased with the increase in difficulty value but got decreased for very easy and very difficult test items. This work is significant for the researchers and school teachers in framing test items with optimum difficulty and discrimination power.
A knowledge-based approach to citation extraction

Integration of the bibliographical information of scholarly publications available on the Internet is an important task in academic research. To accomplish this task, accurate reference metadata extraction for scholarly publications is essential for the integration of information from heterogeneous reference sources. In this paper, we propose a knowledge-based approach to literature mining and focus on reference metadata extraction methods for scholarly publications. We adopt an ontological knowledge representation framework called INFOMAP to automatically extract the reference metadata. The experimental results show that, by using INFOMAP, we can extract author, title, journal, volume, number (issue), year, and page information from different reference styles with a high degree of accuracy. The overall average field accuracy of citation extraction for a bioinformatics dataset is 97.87% for six reference styles.
Matrix metalloproteinase-9-mediated tissue injury overrides the protective effect of matrix metalloproteinase-2 during colitis.

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) play an important role in pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Two known gelatinases, MMP-2 and MMP-9, are upregulated during IBD. Epithelial-derived MMP-9 is an important mediator of tissue injury in colitis, whereas MMP-2 protects against tissue damage and maintains gut barrier function. It has been suggested that developing strategies to block MMP-9 activity in the gut might be of benefit to IBD. However, given that MMP-2 and MMP-9 are structurally similar, such approaches would also likely inhibit MMP-2. Thus, to gain insight into outcome of inhibiting both MMP-2 and MMP-9, MMP-2(-/-)/MMP-9(-/-) double knockout mice (dKO) lacking both MMP-2 and MMP-9 were used in this study. Three models of murine colitis were used: dextran sodium sulfate (DSS), Salmonella typhimurium (S.T.), and trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS). Our data demonstrate that MMP-2 and MMP-9 activities were highly upregulated in wild-type (WT) mice treated with DSS, S.T. , or TNBS whereas dKO mice were resistant to the development of colitis. WT mice had extensive inflammation and tissue damage compared with dKO mice as suggested by histological assessment and myeloperoxidase activity. In conclusion, these results suggest an overriding role of MMP-9 in mediating tissue injury compared with the protective role of MMP-2 in development of colitis. Thus inhibition of MMP-9 may be beneficial in treatment of colitis even if resulting in inhibition of MMP-2.
On serializability of multidatabase transactions through forced local conflicts

A multidatabase transaction management mechanism called the optimistic ticket method (OTM) is introduced for enforcing global serializability. It permits the commitment of multidatabase transactions only if their relative serialization order is the same in all participating local database systems (LDBSs). OTM requires the LDBSs to guarantee only local serializability. The basic idea in OTM is to create direct conflicts between multidatabase transactions at each LDBS in order to determine the relative serialization order of their subtransactions. A refinement of OTM, called the implicit ticket method (ITM), is also introduced that uses implicit tickets and eliminates ticket conflicts but works only when the participating LDBSs use rigorous transaction scheduling mechanisms. ITM uses the local commitment order of each subtransaction to determine its implicit ticket value. It achieves global serializability by controlling the commitment (execution order) and thus the serialization order of multidatabase transactions. Both OTM and ITM do not violate the autonomy of the LDBSs and can be combined in a single comprehensive mechanism. <<ETX>>
'Body-in-the-Loop' Optimization of Assistive Robotic Devices: A Validation Study

Physiological measures, such as pain, anxiety, effort, or energy consumption, play a crucial role in the evaluation and development of assistive robotic devices. Physiological data are collected and analyzed by researchers and clinicians, and are often used to inform an iterative tuning process of a device and its controller. Currently, these data are collected then analyzed offline such that they are only evaluated after the experiment has ended. This makes any iterative design process tedious and time consuming since tuning must be done on a subject-by-subject basis and for a variety of tasks that the device is intended to be used for. To overcome these drawbacks, we are proposing a new type of human-machine interaction that is based on measuring and using physiological measurements in real-time. By continuously monitoring a physiological objective through a set of suitable sensors, we propose conducting an optimization of a set of controller parameters that shape the assistance provided by the device. In other words, we pose an optimization that includes the human body in the loop. This Body-in-the-Loop optimization allows for optimal subject specific control and has the potential to be used for controller adaptation to changing environments. We validated this concept in an extensive human subject study where we autonomously optimized the actuation onset of a pair of bilateral ankle exoskeletons to minimize user’s metabolic effort.
Impaired Early Left Ventricular Relaxation in Coronary Artery Disease: Effects of Intracoronary Nifedipine

It has been shown that the maximal rate of left ventricular (LV) relaxation is impaired in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) under basal conditions. To test the hypothesis that this impaired LV relaxation could be related to viable but metabolically abnormal myocardium, we studied the time course of isovolumic LV pressure fall in 21 patients with CAD and in 13 control subjects under basal conditions. This study was repeated after intracoronary injection of the calcium antagonist nifedipine (N) in 11 patients with CAD and in eight controls. Our data showed that isovolumic pressure fall was biexponential in 20 of 21 CAD patients and in six of 13 controls. Moreover, the time constant of isovolumic pressure fall during the first 40 msec after peak (negative) dP/dt (TJ) was significantly greater in CAD patients than in controls (62 ± 3 vs 44 ± 1 msec, p < 0.002); the time constant of pressure fall during the 40-80 msec after peak (negative) dP/dt (T2) was similar in both groups (42 ± 2 vs 39 ± 2 msec, NS). Thirty seconds after injection of nifedipine, T1 and T2 were significantly prolonged in patients with CAD (14 msec and 16 msec, respectively, p < 0.005) and in controls 12 msec and 14 msec, respectively, p < 0.05), and a negative inotropic effect was observed in both groups (peak (positive) dP/dt −16% in controls and −23% in CAD patients, p < 0.01). At rest, impairment of isovolumic relaxation in CAD patients is mainly limited to the first 40 msec after peak (negative) dP/dt, suggesting a dyssynchronous wall motion. This impairment of LV relaxation is better identified by T1 than by peak (negative) dP/dt in individual patients, and cannot be improved by administration of a calcium antagonist.
Prolonged Airway Obstruction after Posterior Occipitocervical Fusion: A Case Report and Literature Review

The purpose of this paper was to inform the reader that prolonged upper airway obstruction after posterior cervical spine surgery is a possible complication for patients with metastatic tumor of upper cervical spine. A 49-year-old man presented severe neck pain during posture changes due to metastatic spinal tumor of C2. Occipitocervical fusion following removal of the posterior arch of C1 and laminectomy of C2 via the single posterior approach was performed 2 weeks after radiation therapy. After the surgery, life-threatening airway obstruction due to pharyngeal oedema occurred immediately after extubation that required emergency tracheostomy. The airway obstruction did not improve well during the patient's postoperative course. Once pharyngeal oedema occurs in patients with metastatic tumor of upper cervical spine who undergo posterior cervical spine surgery following radiation therapy to the neck, the pharyngeal oedema may be constant for a long period of time.
Model for Team Formation for Reformation in Multiagent Systems

Team formation, i.e., allocating agents to roles within a team or subteams of a team, and the reorganization of a team upon team member failure or arrival of new tasks are critical aspects of teamwork. We focus in particular on a technique called ”Team Formation for Reformation”, i.e., teams formed with lookahead to minimize costs of reformation. Despite significant progress, research in multiagent team formation and reorganization has failed to provide a rigorous analysis of the computational complexities of the approaches proposed or their degree of optimality. This shortcoming has hindered quantitative comparisons of approaches or their complexity-optimality tradeoffs, e.g., is the team reorganization approach in practical teamwork models such as STEAM optimal in most cases or only as an exception? To alleviate these difficulties, this paper presents R-COM-MTDP ,a formal model based on decentralized communicating POMDPs, where agents explicitly take on and change roles to (re)form teams. R-COMMTDP significantly extends an earlier COM-MTDP model, by analyzing how agents’ roles, local states and reward decompositions gradually reduce the complexity of its policy generation from NEXP-complete to PSPACE-complete to P-complete. We also encode key role reorganization approaches (e.g., STEAM) as RCOM-MTDP policies, and compare them with a locally optimal policy derivable in R-COM-MTDP, thus, theoretically and empirically illustrating the complexityoptimality tradeoffs.
BALLView: a tool for research and education in molecular modeling

We present BALLView, a molecular viewer and modeling tool. It combines state-of-the-art visualization capabilities with powerful modeling functionality including implementations of force field methods and continuum electrostatics models. BALLView is a versatile and extensible tool for research in structural bioinformatics and molecular modeling. Furthermore, the convenient and intuitive graphical user interface offers novice users direct access to the full functionality, rendering it ideal for teaching. Through an interface to the object-oriented scripting language Python it is easily extensible.
Reproductive factors and extreme levels of maternal serum alpha‐fetoprotein: a population‐based study

Background. Levels of maternal alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP) are increased during multiple gestations and preeclampsia but little is known regarding AFP levels in relation to other reproductive factors. Consequently, the objective of this work was to describe the possible relationship between AFP levels during pregnancy and maternal age at birth, maternal age at first birth, parity, time since previous birth and gender of the offspring.