Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Quality of life in children and adolescents with celiac disease: Argentinian version of the specific questionnaire CDDUX].

UNLABELLED The treatment of the celiac disease implies lifelong alimentary restrictions, with impact on social and family activities. Therefore, it is important to consider the health-related quality of life (HRQL) in the approach. OBJECTIVE To validate the Argentinian version of the specific tool CDDUX in order to measure HRQL in children and adolescents with celiac disease. METHODS In this prospective and transversal investigation, children and adolescents from 8 to 18 years-old who attended the "Prof Dr. J P Garrahan" Hospital and their father or tutor were recruited, between June 2009 and May 2010. Participants were given the informed consent sheet, the Argentinian version of CDDUX, a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the PedsQL 4.0, generic questionnaire. Sociodemographic data were also registered. RESULTS We included 193 patients, female 56.5%, with these age categories: 8 to 11 years-old 48.7%, 12 to 15 years-old 43%, 16 to 18 years-old 8.3%. Schooling was below the standard level in children in 23.4% of cases, primary school incomplete in adults in 11.4%. Socioeconomic status was poor in 24.4% of cases and indigent in 4.7%. Unsatisfied basic needs were observed in 41.5% of patients. The feasibility was: average filling time: 4 minutes in children and parents. All completed the questionnaire. Without help: 91.7% in children and 79.8% in parents. The reliability was: Cronbach alpha's internal consistency 0.84 in children and 0.88 in parents. The construction validity was: moderate correlation between CDDUX and PedsQL (P < 0.001), low between parents and children in CDDUX (P < 0.001), moderate and negative between CDDUX and VAS (P < 0.001). Scores of CDDUX were lower in poor people and significant for parents (P = 0.04). Higher scores of CDDUX were observed in those patients who complied with the gluten-free diet (P < 0001). Conclusion. The Argentinian version of CDDUX was both feasible and easy to administer in the studied population. It shows good psychometric properties in children and parents.
Aerosol deposition in mechanically ventilated patients. Optimizing nebulizer delivery.

Previous studies have suggested that nebulizers are inefficient in delivering aerosolized medication to the lung in patients supported by mechanical ventilation. In a recent bench study, we characterized factors that may affect aerosol delivery, i.e., nebulizer type, ventilator settings (duty cycle), volume fill, and humidification as well as technical factors affecting measurement of deposition (e.g., radiolabeled compounds). Utilizing the predictions from our bench data, the present study was designed to assess nebulized aerosol delivery to ventilated patients under optimal conditions. Seven patients who were receiving mechanical ventilation (Bear II) via tracheostomy tube (TT) were studied. The humidifier was turned off. The test aerosol, a saline solution labeled with 99mTechnetium bound to human serum albumin (99mTc-HSA), was administered via a jet nebulizer (AeroTech II, 1.1 +/- 1.8 microns [mass median aerodynamic diameter, MMAD, geometric standard deviation, sigma g]), which was incorporated into the ventilator circuit and run to dryness. Inhaled and deposited radioactivity were measured by a mass balance/filter technique. TT versus lung deposition were quantified by removal of the inner cannula and direct measurement of TT deposition in a well counter. Inspiratory versus expiratory components of TT deposition were separated via bench techniques for each TT tube and breathing pattern. The regional distribution of deposited radioactivity was confirmed by gamma camera scans before and after TT removal. Measured radioactivity at each site was expressed as a percentage of nebulizer charge (i.e., the quantity of radioactivity originally placed in the nebulizer). On average, 30.6 +/- 6.3% (SD) of the charge was inhaled by the ventilated patients. Mean deposition in the TT during inspiration was 2.6 +/- 0.5%. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
(U-Th)/He thermochronology records late Miocene accelerated cooling in the north-central Peruvian Andes

The along-strike morphology of the South American Andes varies significantly, but it remains unclear if the timing and magnitude of rock exhumation are similarly varied. We used low-temperature (U-Th)/He thermochronology to constrain the exhumation history of the Eastern Cordillera in the north-central Peruvian Andes (7°S–8.5°S). Nine zircon (U-Th)/He mean ages range from 28 ± 4.5 Ma to 281 ± 60 Ma, and seven apatite (U-Th)/He mean ages yield tightly clustered late Miocene ages of 6.4 ± 3.8 Ma to 10.7 ± 1.8 Ma. These results document slow rock cooling followed by abrupt, accelerated cooling in the mid–late Miocene. Model time-temperature histories show slow cooling throughout the late Paleozoic to early Miocene, followed by an increase in cooling initiating between 14 and 10 Ma and continuing to the present. This rock cooling signal is regionally synchronous along the strike of the range and occurs at a time of a shift to a more humid and erosive climate in the eastern Andes. We suggest that a mid–late Miocene climate shift, following or synchronous with topographic growth, was responsible for the acceleration of rock exhumation in the north-central Peruvian Andes.
Clinical Studies to Evaluate Pancreatic Functions in the Patients of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder which is associated with hyperglycemia. It is caused by a derangement in the secretion or function of the endocrinal portion of the pancreas. The aim of the present study was to determine the blood glucose, MDA, amylase levels in 50 cases of type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and to compare and correlate these parameters with those 50 of age and sex matched healthy controls. Glucose and amylase concentrations were analyzed spectrophotometrically by kits in all patients with DM as well as in the control subjects but MDA concentrations was measured by manual methods The results of type 2 DM were compared with control group using One way ANOVA-test to compare parameters in different studied groups. The results show a significant elevation (P ? 0.05) in levels of glucose, MDA, amylase of type 2- diabetic patients in comparison healthy subjects.
Non-fragile dynamic output feedback H∞ control for continuous-time systems with controller coefficient sensitivity consideration

This paper presents a study on the problem of non-fragile dynamic output feedback H∞ controller design for linear continuous-time systems with controller coefficient sensitivity consideration. The controller to be designed is assumed to be with multiplicative gain variations, which are resulted from controller implementations. A notion of structured vertex separator is employed to approach this problem, and exploited to develop sufficient conditions for the non-fragile H∞ controller design via a two-step procedure. The resulting designs guarantee that the closed-loop system is asymptotically stable and the H∞ performance from the disturbance to the regulated output is less than a prescribed level. A numerical example is given to illustrate the design methods.
Cuckoo Search Algorithm for Model Parameter Identification

In this paper, the metaheuristics algorithm Cuckoo Search (CS), is adapted and applied for a model parameter identification of an E. coli fed-batch cultivation process. The dynamics of bacteria growth and substrate (glucose) utilization is described by a system of ordinary nonlinear differential equations. Using real experimental data set from an E. coli MC4110 fed-batch cultivation process a parameter optimization is performed. The simulation results indicate that the applied algorithm is effective and efficient. As a result, a model with high degree of accuracy is obtained applying the CS. The simulation results and comparison with genetic algorithm and ant colony optimization algorithm confirm the effectiveness of the applied CS algorithm in solving a cultivation model parameter identification problem.
Segmentation based coding of textures using stochastic vector quantization

In second generation image compression techniques the image to be compressed is first segmented. The pixels are divided into mutually exclusive spatial regions based on some criteria. After segmentation, the image consists of regions separated by contours. Then, the information is coded describing the shapes and interiors of the regions. The interiors of the regions are usually encoded using polynomials. The objective of this paper is to encode the interior of the regions by stochastic vector quantization techniques. If the segmentation process has been well defined and the obtained regions are homogeneous, then it is possible to design a specific codebook suited to the statistics of each region. The approach is to design the codebook according to some previously defined model for the regions of the image found in the segmentation process. If the approach is combined with efficient contour coding techniques, good visual results for high compression rates are obtained. <<ETX>>
Matching 2-D Ellipses to 3-D Circles with Application to Vehicle Pose Estimation

Finding the three-dimensional representation of all or a part of a scene from a single two dimensional image is a challenging task. In this paper we propose a method for identifying the pose and location of objects with circular protrusions in three dimensions from a single image and a 3d representation or model of the object of interest. To do this, we present a method for identifying ellipses and their properties quickly and reliably with a novel technique that exploits intensity differences between objects and a geometric technique for matching an ellipse in 2d to a circle in 3d. We apply these techniques to the specific problem of determining the pose and location of vehicles, particularly cars, from a single image. We have achieved excellent pose recovery performance on artificially generated car images and show promising results on real vehicle images. We also make use of the ellipse detection method to identify car wheels from images, with a very high successful match rate.
Mining Unstructured Financial News to Forecast Intraday Stock Price Movements

In this thesis, we develop a system that analyzes unstructured financial news using text classification in order to forecast stock price trends. We review similar systems to build on successful ideas and combine them with novel approaches. We discuss the different types of news that are potentially relevant to the stock prices and choose news sources for the system accordingly. To eliminate irrelevant news, we present suitable filtering approaches such as the implementation of a rule-based thesaurus. We develop an automatic labeling approach and compare it to a manual labeling approach. We evaluate the influence of different automatic labeling approaches on the prediction performance. In a data training phase, we introduce a set of features novel with respect to the price forecasting task. We compare different text mining techniques such as the feature vector dimensionality reduction and different classifiers. Finally, we investigate the influence of trading costs on potential profits and run a market simulation that is able to support or reject the practical profitability of the system.
Read quality-based trimming of the distal ends of public fungal DNA sequences is nowhere near satisfactory

DNA sequences are increasingly used for taxonomic and functional assessment of environmental communities. In mycology, the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region is the most commonly chosen marker for such pursuits. Molecular identification is associated with many challenges, one of which is low read quality of the reference sequences used for inference of taxonomic and functional properties of the newly sequenced community (or single taxon). This study investigates whether public fungal ITS sequences are subjected to sufficient trimming in their distal (5’ and 3’) ends prior to deposition in the public repositories. We examined 86 species (and 10,584 sequences) across the fungal tree of life, and we found that on average 13.1% of the sequences were poorly trimmed in one or both of their 5’ and 3’ ends. Deposition of poorly trimmed entries was found to continue through 2016. Poorly trimmed reference sequences add noise and mask biological signal in sequence similarity searches and phylogenetic analyses, and we provide a set of recommendations on how to manage the sequence trimming problem.
Confidants and companions in later life: the place of family and friends.

Responses from a sample of 400 older persons were used to determine the relative importance of various family members (spouse, children, siblings, other relatives) and friends in the confidant and companion networks of later life. Significant differences exist among older persons (based on gender, marital status, and availability of children) in the salience of these ties as confidants and companions. There are also major differences in the configuration of the confidant vs companion networks. These variations are discussed in the context of the hierarchical-compensation, task specificity, and functional specificity of relationships models of support. The findings demonstrate that a distinction regarding availability of kin must be made among those who never had a particular kin tie (e.g., the childless and single), those who have lost a previous tie (e.g., the widowed), and those whose tie lives far away.
Review of Gourmet Abroad and Tourism Studies:Talking about the Extensive Phenomenon of the Concept of Gourmet Travel

Catering,as an important component part of travel experience,has aroused wide concern from scholars and accumulated rich study results.The concept of using gourmet as the core of travel was proposed in early 21st century,which now becomes an important branch of travel of special interest.The paper sums up foreign relevant literature regarding gourmet and travel from the two aspects of "catering during travel" and "gourmet travel". The literature study reveals that these two concepts are sometimes mutually replaced and not clearly defined in the course of study.Extensive concept of gourmet travel will lead to the artificial exaggeration of the number of gourmet tourists.The contribution of gourmet travel to tourist destinations is overestimated and the needs of genuine gourmet tourists are neglected.The paper suggests that we must discuss gourmet travel,gourmet tourists and their experiences from neutral aspect in the process of travel.
Modeling of cable for measurements of small monopole antennas

Coaxial cable is often used for measurements of antennas inside anechoic chambers. In the measurement of a monopole antenna with a small ground-plane, the finite-sized ground causes the current to flow back from the radiator to the outer surface of the coaxial cable. This results in secondary radiation which introduces errors to the measured radiation pattern. To reduce the unwanted secondary radiation, the coaxial cable can be covered with EMI suppressant tubing materials. However, this introduces errors to the measured efficiency. In this paper, the models of the coaxial cable with and without suppressant tubing are developed and used for computer simulation. The cable effects on the measured results of a small monopole ultrawide band (UWB) antenna are studied by using the antenna measurement equipment Satimo StarLab and the EM simulation tool CST. The results show great agreements between the simulated and measured results.
Contraceptive and sexually transmitted diseases protection among adult and adolescent women infected with human immunodeficiency virus

The goal of this study was to describe contraceptive and sexually transmitted disease STD prevention practices in human immunodeficiency virus HIV infected adult and adolescent women, and to determine if hormonal contraception has unique adverse effects in this population. A retrospective review of 241 HIV-infected women age 15-45 years was performed. The associations between contraceptive methods and selected characteristics were determined by chisquare methods and logistic regression modelling. African American race RR 8.6, 95 CI 3.3, 22.5 , injection drug use history RR 5.0, 95 CI 2.2, 11.2 , age 25 years RR 1.9, 95 CI 1.1, 3.5 and progestin only contraceptive use RR 3.0, 95 CI 1.4, 6.6 were significantly associated with incident STDs. The only potential adverse effect of hormonal contraception noted in this retrospective study was the significant association between STDs and progestin-only contraception. Prospective studies to better delineate the true association between STDs and progestin-only agents after adjustment for behaviour patterns are warranted.
Trance and Possession States

1. Haiti. Because the Voodoo services in the Haitian capital, Port-auPrince, are largely a tourist affair, my Haitian friends and I decided to attend a service in the interior of the country. We chose the small town of Mirag6ane, fifty miles from the capital because of Titoro (a Voodoo priest) who had made a name for himself as a healer. Our party consisted of two psychiatrists, a sociologist and an automechanic. The last was badly needed because road conditions in the interior of Haiti are very bad. Rivers had to be forded, there were big ditches in the road and big boulders blocked our way. It took six hours to cover the distance.
Advanced treatment of sodium dithionite wastewater using the combination of coagulation, catalytic ozonation, and SBR

ABSTRACT A combined process of coagulation–catalytic ozonation–anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR)–SBR was developed at lab scale for treating a real sodium dithionite wastewater with an initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 21,760–22,450 mg/L. Catalytic ozonation with the prepared cerium oxide (CeO2)/granular activated carbon catalyst significantly enhances wastewater biodegradability and reduces wastewater microtoxicity. The results show that, under the optimum conditions, the removal efficiencies of COD and suspended solids are averagely 99.3% and 95.6%, respectively, and the quality of final effluent can meet the national discharge standard of China. The coagulation and ASBR processes remove a considerable proportion of organic matter, while the SBR plays an important role in post-polish of final effluent. The ecotoxicity of the wastewater is greatly reduced after undergoing the hybrid treatment. This work demonstrates that the hybrid system has the potential to be applied for the advanced treatment of high-strength industrial wastewater.
Chinese Real Estate Indices Prior to the REIT Legislation

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) play an important role in the modern financial system as they provide investors with a liquid stake in real estate. This study investigates the real estate stock market in China during the period of July 2001-December 2015, prior to the Chinese REIT legislation. The descriptive statistics of the Shanghai and Shenzhen real estate indices are estimated along with the general index of each stock exchange. The results suggest that the general index of each stock market has a significant impact on real estate stock returns. Therefore, the real estate stock market may not be able to completely isolate its performance from the general stock market trend. Finally, various GARCH and asymmetric EGARCH models are applied to the time series daily return under a quantitative approach. Shanghai real estate index reports asymmetric transition dynamics for positive and negative shocks and the asymmetry of the volatility response to news seems to be present.
The E2 trans-activator can act as a repressor by interfering with a cellular transcription factor.

The E2 open reading frame (ORF) of the bovine papillomavirus (BPV-1) encodes a family of site-specific DNAbinding proteins. The full-length protein is a transcriptional activator, whereas the polypeptides that contain only the carboxy-terminal domain are repressors. Here we show that the trans-activator can work as a repressor of transcription for one of the BPV-1 promoters by binding to a DNA sequence required for basal activity of the promoter. This operator site is defined as a 12-bp sequence that lies immediately downstream of the cap site. The operator DNA contains sequences that are defined genetically and biochemically as being important for basal level promoter activity. Furthermore, this site has been shown to be protected in a DNase footprint assay using fractionated HeLa cell extracts. The repression does not simply result from E2 blocking RNA polymerase initiation or elongation, because a strong E2-binding site placed at the operator has no repressive effect on transcription when the basal target sequence is placed independently upstream of the promoter. Thus, this is an interesting parallel to a theme well known in prokaryotes, where some site-specific DNA-binding proteins can work as either activators or repressors. In this system, as well as in the prokaryotic systems, the precise position of the binding site relative to other cis signals at the promoter determines the nature of the effects.
Design of Dammann Gratings by Particle Swarm Optimization

In the paper,particle swarm optimization is introduced to design Dammann gratings. Design a Dammann gratings with 1 15 uniform spot array with the proposed algorithm and genetic algorithm. The performance of the optimization result is compared with genetic algorithm, Experimental results shows that the method gives a significant reduction in computation time to GA method while still get high diffraction efficiency and uniformity error .
A new tongue diagnosis application on Android platform

Tongue diagnosis plays an important role in Traditional Chinese Medicine. However, due to its experience-based nature, traditional tongue diagnosis has to be implemented by specialists and there is few computerized tongue diagnosis method. In this paper, we proposed a novel tongue diagnosis method developed on the basis of Java language for Android platform. It can obtain tongue outline accurately with an optimized Canny method, then extract tongue features within tongue region and finally make diagnosis with extracted features and display the result on screen. The application enables the realization of self-service and portable detection.
IMPLEMENTATION OF ISLAMIC ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES ABOUT MORTGAGES

The Islamic mortgages have a very important role in demand of the financial liquidity for the majority of Indonesian Muslim population. In operational practice, the Islamic mortgages apply the sharia principles. In order the implementation of Islamic sharia does not deviate from the principles of sharia, it needs to get in-depth study for the practice of getting a clear basis that this study is very useful for the community and for practitioners of sharia mortgages. Based on the research and tracking of economic principles concerning liens, it is obtained the result that the economic principles of sharia on the mortgage that is using the principle of ar-Rahn (mortgage), is used in the pledge of the goods moving, while the principle of ijarah (lease) is used in case goods which is placed in a warehouse owned by Perum Pledge wages where a rent must pay rent, and qard hasan principles is used in providing loans to customers who return it without interest.