Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What is "electromagnetic hypersensitivity"?

In several countries, many subjects are suffering of symptoms that they associate to the exposure to extremely low frequency electric and magnetic fields (EMF). This has been described in the literature as «Electrical Hypersensibility». This paper reviews the principal studies reporting the frequency of self-reported acute symptoms, potentially related to short term exposure to EMF in various populations. While the first reports deal with occupational exposure to video display terminals, there have been few reports of the frequency of such symptoms in the general population. The two main studies were carried out in Sweden and California. With different methodologies, they reported that a few percent (1 to 3%) of the general population, report to be hypersensitive or very allergic to the exposure to EMF from diverse sources (electrical devices, high power lines, etc). In those two studies, the symptoms of subjects were self-reported and no verification of the relationship to EMF was done. Self-reported symptoms potentially associated with EMF exposure, seem quite common in the general population of several industrialized countries. There is a need to characterize it better and study its real causes. For several years, «Electrical Hypersensitivity» (EHS) has been presented in the medical literature as a possible new illness, related to a kind of intolerance to the exposure to electric and magnetic fields (EMF). Due to the potential importance of this problem, in term of frequency and severity, the European Commission (EU) has decided to study it as a priority, Bergqvist and Vogel, (1997) and several initiatives have been carried out to clarify the importance of its burden.
Rationale for nebivolol/valsartan combination for hypertension: review of preclinical and clinical data

&NA; To treat hypertension, combining two or more antihypertensive drugs from different classes is often necessary. &bgr;-Blockers and renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitors, when combined, have been deemed ‘less effective’ based on partially overlapping mechanisms of action and limited evidence. Recently, the single-pill combination (SPC) of nebivolol (Neb) 5 mg – a vasodilatory &bgr;1-selective antagonist/&bgr;3 agonist – and valsartan 80 mg, an angiotensin II receptor blocker, was US Food and Drug Administration-approved for hypertension. Pharmacological profiles of Neb and valsartan, alone and combined, are well characterized. In addition, a large 8-week randomized trial in stages I–II hypertensive patients (N = 4161) demonstrated greater blood pressure-reducing efficacy for Neb/valsartan SPCs than component monotherapies with comparable tolerability. In a biomarkers substudy (N = 805), Neb/valsartan SPCs prevented valsartan-induced increases in plasma renin, and a greater reduction in plasma aldosterone was observed with the highest SPC dose vs. valsartan 320 mg/day. This review summarizes preclinical and clinical evidence supporting Neb/valsartan as an efficacious and well tolerated combination treatment for hypertension.
A current snapshot of common genomic variants contribution in psychiatric disorders

In the past decade, numerous advances were achieved in psychiatric genetics. Particularly, the genome wide association studies (GWAS) have contributed to uncovering new genes and pathways associated to psychiatric disorders (PDs). At the same time, with increasing sample sizes in the GWAS, the polygenic risk score (PRS) promoted an additional tool for identification and evaluation the genetic risk quantitatively in PDs. This concept review presents the state of the art GWAS analysis and PRS focusing on the genetic underpinnings of PDs. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
DYNAMIC SIGNATURE VERIFICATION FOR PORTABLE DEVICES

The proliferation of handheld devices such as PDAs and smartphones represents a new scenario for automatic signature verification. Traditionally, research on signature verification has been carried out employing signatures acquired using digitizing tablets or Tablet-PCs. In this work we study the effects of the mobile acquisition conditions and we analyze the considerations that must be taken in the new handheld scenario. The analysis is performed with two state-of-the art systems: one featurebased and another function-based. Two perspectives are taken on the analysis. First, a comparison of the handheld and the pen tablet scenario from a statistical point of view based on class separability measures is performed. Second, feature selection is carried out to investigate the most relevant feature combinations in both systems and both scenarios. Results confirm that the lack of pen-up trajectory information on the handheld scenario negatively affects the verification performance, especially against skilled forgeries. Finally, a system based on fusion of the global and the local system is presented, with promising results.1 Part of this work will be published in the Proceedings of the 19th International Conference in Pattern Recognition, ICPR 2008. The accepted paper is included in Appendix A.
A more practical implementation scheme for 3D virtual clothes animation system

With the rapid development of clothes electronic commerce, research of virtual fitting room is put forward on the way, owing to the dynamics-based 3D virtual clothes animation can more accurately determine whether the clothes is fit with consumer. However, it is difficult to achieve real-time requirement under the current computer performance, because there are too many operations must to be solved, which seriously restrict the application of 3D virtual clothes animation. This paper presents a practical implementation scheme for a more realistic 3D virtual clothes animation system, with good maintainability, easy expansion, and can be conveniently used for researching other cloth simulation algorithms. In addition, many other practical problems are also solved for an applied system. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme is feasible, and facilitate the practical application of 3D virtual clothing for network fitting room in the future.
Climate Change and Eutrophication Induced Shifts in Northern Summer Plankton Communities

Marine ecosystems are undergoing substantial changes due to human-induced pressures. Analysis of long-term data series is a valuable tool for understanding naturally and anthropogenically induced changes in plankton communities. In the present study, seasonal monitoring data were collected in three sub-basins of the northern Baltic Sea between 1979 and 2011 and statistically analysed for trends and interactions between surface water hydrography, inorganic nutrient concentrations and phyto- and zooplankton community composition. The most conspicuous hydrographic change was a significant increase in late summer surface water temperatures over the study period. In addition, salinity decreased and dissolved inorganic nutrient concentrations increased in some basins. Based on redundancy analysis (RDA), warming was the key environmental factor explaining the observed changes in plankton communities: the general increase in total phytoplankton biomass, Cyanophyceae, Prymnesiophyceae and Chrysophyceae, and decrease in Cryptophyceae throughout the study area, as well as increase in rotifers and decrease in total zooplankton, cladoceran and copepod abundances in some basins. We conclude that the plankton communities in the Baltic Sea have shifted towards a food web structure with smaller sized organisms, leading to decreased energy available for grazing zooplankton and planktivorous fish. The shift is most probably due to complex interactions between warming, eutrophication and increased top-down pressure due to overexploitation of resources, and the resulting trophic cascades.
Predicting the Electron Requirement for Carbon Fixation in Seas and Oceans

Marine phytoplankton account for about 50% of all global net primary productivity (NPP). Active fluorometry, mainly Fast Repetition Rate fluorometry (FRRf), has been advocated as means of providing high resolution estimates of NPP. However, not measuring CO2-fixation directly, FRRf instead provides photosynthetic quantum efficiency estimates from which electron transfer rates (ETR) and ultimately CO2-fixation rates can be derived. Consequently, conversions of ETRs to CO2-fixation requires knowledge of the electron requirement for carbon fixation (Φe,C, ETR/CO2 uptake rate) and its dependence on environmental gradients. Such knowledge is critical for large scale implementation of active fluorescence to better characterise CO2-uptake. Here we examine the variability of experimentally determined Φe,C values in relation to key environmental variables with the aim of developing new working algorithms for the calculation of Φe,C from environmental variables. Coincident FRRf and 14C-uptake and environmental data from 14 studies covering 12 marine regions were analysed via a meta-analytical, non-parametric, multivariate approach. Combining all studies, Φe,C varied between 1.15 and 54.2 mol e− (mol C)−1 with a mean of 10.9±6.91 mol e− mol C)−1. Although variability of Φe,C was related to environmental gradients at global scales, region-specific analyses provided far improved predictive capability. However, use of regional Φ e,C algorithms requires objective means of defining regions of interest, which remains challenging. Considering individual studies and specific small-scale regions, temperature, nutrient and light availability were correlated with Φ e,C albeit to varying degrees and depending on the study/region and the composition of the extant phytoplankton community. At the level of large biogeographic regions and distinct water masses, Φ e,C was related to nutrient availability, chlorophyll, as well as temperature and/or salinity in most regions, while light availability was also important in Baltic Sea and shelf waters. The novel Φ e,C algorithms provide a major step forward for widespread fluorometry-based NPP estimates and highlight the need for further studying the natural variability of Φe,C to verify and develop algorithms with improved accuracy.
Death ideation in older adults: psychological symptoms of depression, thwarted belongingness, and perceived burdensomeness

Death ideation is commonly reported by older adults in the United States; however, the factors contributing to death ideation in older adults are not fully understood. Depressive symptoms, as well as components of the interpersonal theory of suicide, perceived burden, and thwarted belonging may contribute to death ideation. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating relationship of the psychological symptoms of depression on the relation between perceived burdensomeness and death ideation, and thwarted belongingness and death ideation. Method: A sample of 151 older adults completed questionnaires assessing numerous covariates, as well as perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, death ideation, and the psychological symptoms of depression. Results: The results of this study indicated that the proposed moderating relationship was supported for the relationship between perceived burdensomeness and death ideation, but was not supported for the relationship between thwarted belongingness and death ideation when covariates (loneliness and hopelessness) were controlled. Conclusion: This suggests that the psychological symptoms of depression are significantly associated with death ideation in older adults experiencing feelings of perceived burdensomeness. Additionally, the findings suggest that loneliness and hopelessness are also important factors to consider when assessing death ideation in older adults.
Variance Reduction for Policy Gradient with Action-Dependent Factorized Baselines

Policy gradient methods have enjoyed great success in deep reinforcement learning but suffer from high variance of gradient estimates. The high variance problem is particularly exasperated in problems with long horizons or high-dimensional action spaces. To mitigate this issue, we derive a bias-free action-dependent baseline for variance reduction which fully exploits the structural form of the stochastic policy itself and does not make any additional assumptions about the MDP. We demonstrate and quantify the benefit of the action-dependent baseline through both theoretical analysis as well as numerical results, including an analysis of the suboptimality of the optimal state-dependent baseline. The result is a computationally efficient policy gradient algorithm, which scales to high-dimensional control problems, as demonstrated by a synthetic 2000-dimensional target matching task. Our experimental results indicate that action-dependent baselines allow for faster learning on standard reinforcement learning benchmarks and high-dimensional hand manipulation and synthetic tasks. Finally, we show that the general idea of including additional information in baselines for improved variance reduction can be extended to partially observed and multi-agent tasks.
Putative Panmixia in Restricted Populations of Trypanosoma cruzi Isolated from Wild Triatoma infestans in Bolivia

Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, is subdivided into six discrete typing units (DTUs; TcI–TcVI) of which TcI is ubiquitous and genetically highly variable. While clonality is the dominant mode of propagation, recombinant events play a significant evolutive role. Recently, foci of wild Triatoma infestans have been described in Bolivia, mainly infected by TcI. Hence, for the first time, we evaluated the level of genetic exchange within TcI natural potentially panmictic populations (single DTU, host, area and sampling time). Seventy-nine TcI stocks from wild T. infestans, belonging to six populations were characterized at eight microsatellite loci. For each population, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE), linkage disequilibrium (LD), and presence of repeated multilocus genotypes (MLG) were analyzed by using a total of seven statistics, to test the null hypothesis of panmixia (H0). For three populations, none of the seven statistics allowed to rejecting H0; for another one the low size did not allow us to conclude, and for the two others the tests have given contradictory results. Interestingly, apparent panmixia was only observed in very restricted areas, and was not observed when grouping populations distant of only two kilometers or more. Nevertheless it is worth stressing that for the statistic tests of "HWE", in order to minimize the type I error (i. e. incorrect rejection of a true H0), we used the Bonferroni correction (BC) known to considerably increase the type II error ( i. e. failure to reject a false H0). For the other tests (LD and MLG), we did not use BC and the risk of type II error in these cases was acceptable. Thus, these results should be considered as a good indicator of the existence of panmixia in wild environment but this must be confirmed on larger samples to reduce the risk of type II error.
Bilateral Adrenalectomy in Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Context Management of congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) involves suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis using supraphysiological doses of exogenous glucocorticoids. This can pose a challenge, with Cushing's syndrome being a frequent complication of adequate suppression. Bilateral adrenalectomy, with subsequent replacement of glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids at physiological doses, has been proposed as an alternative therapeutic strategy. Objective To review the outcomes following bilateral adrenalectomy for CAH. Data Sources A systematic search of PubMed/MEDLINE and Web of Science, identifying relevant reports published up to January 10, 2018. Study Selection Case reports or case series were included if they reported individual patient data in patients with CAH who had undergone bilateral adrenalectomy. Data Extraction Information regarding the following was extracted: first author, country, sex, age at adrenalectomy, year of adrenalectomy, diagnosis, molecular abnormality, pre- and post-operative biochemistry, pre- and post-operative medications, pre- and post-operative body mass index (BMI), indication for adrenalectomy, surgical technique, gross and microscopic adrenal characteristics, follow-up duration, and short-term as well as long-term post-operative outcomes. Data Synthesis Forty-eight cases of bilateral adrenalectomy in CAH were identified, with patients aged from four months to 56 years at time of surgery. The most common indication for surgery was inability to control hyperandrogenism/virilization and/or Cushing's syndrome (n=30, 62%). Most patients (n=34, 71%) reported symptomatic improvement post-operatively, with some cases of short-term (n=5, 10%) and long-term (n=13, 27%) adverse outcomes. Conclusions Bilateral adrenalectomy in CAH appears to be a reasonable therapeutic option in carefully selected patients who have had unsatisfactory outcomes with conventional medical management.
Essential Amino Acid Enriched High-Protein Enteral Nutrition Modulates Insulin-Like Growth Factor-1 System Function in a Rat Model of Trauma-Hemorrhagic Shock

Background Nutrition support for critically ill patients supplemented with additional modular protein may promote skeletal muscle protein anabolism in addition to counteracting acute nitrogen loss. The present study was designed to investigate whether the essential amino acid (EAA) enriched high-protein enteral nutrition (EN) modulates the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) system and activates the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) anabolic signaling pathway in a trauma-hemorrhagic shock (T-HS) rat model. Methodology/Principal Findings Male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 90, 278.18±0.94 g) were randomly assigned to 5 groups: (1) normal control, (2) pair-fed, (3) T-HS, (4) T-HS and standard EN, and (5) T-HS and EAA enriched high-protein EN. Six animals from each group were harvested on days 2, 4, and 6 for serum, gastrocnemius, soleus, and extensor digitorum longus sample collection. T-HS significantly reduced muscle mass. Nutrition support maintained muscle mass, especially the EAA enriched high-protein EN. Meanwhile, a pronounced derangement in IGF-1-IGFBPs axis as well as impaired mTOR transduction was observed in the T-HS group. Compared with animals receiving standard EN, those receiving EAA enriched high-protein EN presented 18% higher serum free IGF-1 levels following 3 days of nutrition support and 22% higher after 5 days. These changes were consistent with the concomitant elevation in serum insulin and reduction in corticosterone levels. In addition, phosphorylations of downstream anabolic signaling effectors - including protein kinase B, mTOR, and ribosomal protein S6 kinase1 - increased significantly in rats receiving EAA enriched high-protein EN. Conclusion/Significance Our findings firstly demonstrate the beneficial effect of EAA enriched high-protein EN on the metabolic modulation of skeletal muscle protein anabolism by regulating the IGF-1 system and downstream anabolic signaling transduction.
Med12 regulates ovarian steroidogenesis, uterine development and maternal effects in the mammalian egg †

Abstract The transcriptional factor MED12 is part of the essential mediator transcriptional complex that acts as a transcriptional coactivator in all eukaryotes. Missense gain-of-function mutations in human MED12 are associated with uterine leiomyomas, yet the role of MED12 deficiency in tumorigenesis and reproductive biology has not been fully explored. We generated a Med12 reproductive conditional knockout mouse model to evaluate its role in uterine mesenchyme, granulosa cells, and oocytes. Mice heterozygous for Med12 deficiency in granulosa cells and uterus (Med12fl/+ Amhr2-Cre) were subfertile, while mice homozygous for Med12 deficiency in granulosa cells and uterus (Med12fl/fl Amhr2-Cre) were infertile. Morphological and histological analysis of the Med12fl/fl Amhr2-Cre reproductive tract revealed atrophic uteri and hyperchromatic granulosa cells with disrupted expression of Lhcgr, Esr1, and Esr2. Med12fl/fl Amhr2-Cre mice estrous cycle was disrupted, and serum analysis showed blunted rise in estradiol in response to pregnant mare serum gonadotropin. Uterine atrophy was partially rescued by exogenous steroid supplementation with dysregulation of Notch1 and Smo expression in steroid supplemented Med12fl/fl Amhr2-Cre uteri, indicating intrinsic uterine defects. Oocyte-specific ablation of Med12 caused infertility without disrupting normal folliculogenesis and ovulation, consistent with maternal effects of Med12 in early embryo development. These results show the critical importance of Med12 in reproductive tract development and that Med12 loss of function does not cause tumorigenesis in reproductive tissues. Summary Sentence Med12 conditional deficiency causes uterine, ovarian and post-fertilization dysfunction and infertility.
Diffusion Bonding of Ceramics by Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) Apparatus

Alumina, Silicon Carbide, Boron Carbide and Magnesium Aluminate Spinel were directly joined by a Spark Plasma Sintering (SPS) apparatus. The optimal parameters for joining (temperature, holding time and applied pressure) were experimentally found. The joined regions were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) ultrasonic and micro hardness testing. Alumina, Boron Carbide and Silicon Carbide parts were successfully joined at 1300, 1800 and 1900°C, respectively, for 30 min under argon atmosphere (10- 2 torr) and 40 MPa uniaxial pressure. Spinel parts were successfully joined at 1300°C for 60 min. Micro hardness of the interfacial regions were similar to those of the bonded specimens. The effect of a prolonged heat treatment on the microstructural evolution of the joined regions was investigated and the grain growth mechanism was discussed.
Partial Differential Equations

In this Note we prove that v L ∼ , the Leray velocity solution to the steady incompressible, two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations, tends at inﬁnity to the prescribed vector v ∞∼ . We show also that the sequence (v R i ∼ ,p R i ) of Leray solutions to the same boundary value problem in the bounded domains Ω R i , i ∈ N , converges quasi-uniformly in (cid:4) Ω to (v L ∼ ,p L ). To cite this article: D. Socolescu, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 336 (2003). 
Relative Mortality among Criminals in Norway and the Relation to Drug and Alcohol Related Offenses

Background Registered offenders are known to have a higher mortality rate, but given the high proportion of offenders with drug-addiction, particularly among offenders with a custodial sentence, higher mortality is expected. While the level of overall mortality compared to the non-criminal population is of interest in itself, we also estimate the risk of death by criminal records related to substance abuse and other types of criminal acts, and separate between those who receive a prison sentence or not. Methods Age-adjusted relative risks of death for 2000–2008 were studied in a population based dataset. Our dataset comprise the total Norwegian population of 2.9 million individuals aged 15–69 years old in 1999, of whom 10% had a criminal record in the 1992–1999 period. Results Individuals with a criminal record have twice the relative risk (RR) of death of the control group (non-offenders). Males with a record of use/possession of drugs and a prison record have an 11.9 RR (females, 15.6); males with a drug record but no prison record have a 6.9 RR (females 10.5). Males imprisoned for driving under the influence of substances have a 4.4 RR (females 5.6); males with a record of driving under the influence but no prison sentence have a 3.2 RR (females 6.5). Other male offenders with a prison record have a 2.8 RR (females 3.7); other male offenders with no prison record have a 1.7 RR (females 2.3). Conclusion Significantly higher mortality was found for people with a criminal record, also for those without any record of drug use. Mortality is much higher for those convicted of substance-related crimes: more so for drug- than for alcohol-related crimes and for women.