Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vaginal vault smears –‘know more – do less’: a questionnaire survey of primary health care practitioners

Background: The vaginal vault smear is a test for cellular atypia in women who have undergone a hysterectomy. In asymptomatic women the test has poor sensitivity and specificity. Current guidelines recommend: vault smears should not be used after hysterectomy for benign pathology; two vault smears (6 and 12 months postsurgery) should be taken when there is evidence of completely excised CIN II/III in the specimen.
Cadmium, Sexually Transmitted Disease, and Risk for Prostate Cancer

Background: Several studies suggested that cadmium and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) may increase risk for prostate cancer. However, these associations are not well established. The aim of this study was to investigate as- sociations among cadmium, STDs, and risk for prostate cancer. Methods: A community-based case-control study of 113 newly diagnosed, incident cases and 258 age and race frequency- matched community controls was conducted in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina. All participants completed a medical/lifestyle/dietary questionnaire, underwent anthropometrics, and provided urine samples. Urinary cadmium was used as a biomarker of lifetime cadmium body burden. Multivariable unconditional logistic regression was used to assess associations among cadmium exposure, history of STDs, and risk for incident prostate cancer. Results: Neither cadmium nor STD exposures alone were statistically significantly associated with risk for prostate cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 0.91; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.49-1.69; and OR=1.32; 95% CI: 0.49-3.52, respectively). How- ever, men with high urinary cadmium who also had a history of a STD had significantly increased risk for prostate cancer (OR=9.75; 95% CI: 1.28, 74.05), an association that was stronger for advanced tumors.
Dynamic Quality of Service Model for Improving Performance of Multimedia Real-Time Transmission in Industrial Networks

Nowadays, quality of service (QoS) is very popular in various research areas like distributed systems, multimedia real-time applications and networking. The requirements of these systems are to satisfy reliability, uptime, security constraints and throughput as well as application specific requirements. The real-time multimedia applications are commonly distributed over the network and meet various time constraints across networks without creating any intervention over control flows. In particular, video compressors make variable bit-rate streams that mismatch the constant-bit-rate channels typically provided by classical real-time protocols, severely reducing the efficiency of network utilization. Thus, it is necessary to enlarge the communication bandwidth to transfer the compressed multimedia streams using Flexible Time Triggered- Enhanced Switched Ethernet (FTT-ESE) protocol. FTT-ESE provides automation to calculate the compression level and change the bandwidth of the stream. This paper focuses on low-latency multimedia transmission over Ethernet with dynamic quality-of-service (QoS) management. This proposed framework deals with a dynamic QoS for multimedia transmission over Ethernet with FTT-ESE protocol. This paper also presents distinct QoS metrics based both on the image quality and network features. Some experiments with recorded and live video streams show the advantages of the proposed framework. To validate the solution we have designed and implemented a simulator based on the Matlab/Simulink, which is a tool to evaluate different network architecture using Simulink blocks.
Truncated hemoglobin from the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002: evidence for hexacoordination and covalent adduct formation in the ferric recombinant protein.

The glbN gene for the hemoglobin of Synechoccocus sp. PCC 7002, a cyanobacterium incapable of nitrogen fixation, was cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The 123-residue protein was purified from inclusion bodies and reconstituted with iron protoporphyrin IX to obtain the ferric form of the holoprotein. Mass spectrometric analysis confirmed the identity of the polypeptide. NMR and optical data demonstrated that the protein so prepared contained a hexacoordinate heme group, as observed in the related globin from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 [Scott, N. L. , and Lecomte, J. T. J. (2000) Protein Sci. 9, 587-597]. The data were consistent with a similar bis-histidine coordination scheme involving His46 (E10) on the distal side and His70 (F8) on the proximal side. Several aromatic residues were identified in the vicinity of the heme and were used to establish the orientation of the prosthetic group in the polypeptide matrix. In this protein, as in that from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, there was a marked preference for the heme orientation in which pyrroles C and D contact the C-E corner of the protein. Both hemoglobins were found capable of forming a product in which the heme is cross-linked to the polypeptide through modification of a vinyl group.
Oral estradiol decreases plasma homocysteine, vitamin B6, and albumin in postmenopausal women but does not change the whole-body homocysteine remethylation and transmethylation flux.

Estrogens, both endogenous and exogenous, lower the fasting levels of the independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease homocysteine. The mechanism behind this observation remains unclear. In a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study, 25 postmenopausal women with a screening homocysteine concentration above 10 micromol/liter were included. We investigated the influence on homocysteine levels of a 3-month treatment with a daily oral dose of 4 mg 17beta-estradiol (ET) or 4 mg ET combined with 10 mg dydrogesterone (EPT); the comparison group received placebo treatment. We performed primed continuous infusions of L-[2H3-methyl-13C]methionine to assess steady-state flux rates of transmethylation, remethylation, and transsulfuration. Homocysteine concentration relationships with S-adenosylmethionine, S-adenosylhomocysteine, creatinine, albumin, vitamins B6 and B12, and folate status were determined as well. The mean change from baseline in homocysteine concentration by both treatments compared with placebo (ET, -13%; EPT, -10%) was accompanied by a decrease in the concentration of vitamin B6 (ET, -25%; EPT, -38%) and albumin (ET, -7%; EPT, -11%). No significant changes in flux rates were observed. In a . multiltivariate analysis, changes in homocysteine concentration were related to changes in albumin concentration. No relation to other variables was observed. We conclude that the ET- and EPT-induced homocysteine changes in this study were not accompanied by a significant change in methionine-homocysteine flux rates and hypothesize that an estrogen-induced lowering of homocysteine levels is primarily part of a change in albumin metabolism.
Effects of Job Embeddedness on Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention - Focused on Employees of Hotel F & B Division -

Abstract This study was conducted to investigate the effects of jo b embeddedness on job satisfacti on, organizational commitment and turnover intention in the food and beverage division of hotel s. In addition, this study sought to identify the effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on turnover intention. Based on the literature reviews, five hypotheses were tested: job embeddedness was positively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment and negatively related to turnover intention and job satisfaction and organizational commitment were negatively related to turnover intention. The subjects evaluated in this study were employees of the food and beverage division of five or four stars hotels in Seoul. Five hundred questionnaires were distributed and 293 were collected from July 1, 2009 to August 31, 2009, using convenience sampling method. After removing useless questionnaires, a total of 250 questionnaires (five- stars hotel 177, four-stars hotel 73) were analyzed using the factor analysis, a reliability test, and structural equation modeling analysis. The results revealed that job embeddedness was positively rela ted to job satisfaction (t=8.762), orga-nizational commitment (t=5.364) and negatively related to turnover intention (t=-3.500). Therefore, hypothesis I, II and III were accepted. However, job satisfaction (t=-.933) and organizational commitment (t=-1.923) were not negatively related to turnover intention. Therefore, hypothesis IV and V were rejected.
Expression of the spermatogenic cell‐specific glyceraldehyde 3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDS) in rat testis

The spermatogenic cell‐specific variant of glyceraldehyde 3‐phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDS) has been cloned from a rat testis cDNA library and its pattern of expression determined. A 1,417 nucleotide cDNA has been found to encode an enzyme with substantial homology to mouse GAPDS (94% identity) and human GAPD2 (83% identity) isozymes. Northern blotting of rat tissue RNAs detected the 1.5 kb Gapds transcript in the testis and not in RNA from liver, spleen, epididymis, heart, skeletal muscle, brain, seminal vesicle, and kidney. The rat Gapds mRNA was first detected at day 29 of postnatal testis development, an age which coincides with the initial post‐meiotic differentiation of round spermatids. When isolated rat spermatogenic cell RNA was probed for Gapds expression, transcripts were detected only in round spermatids and condensing spermatids, but not in pachytene spermatocytes, demonstrating haploid expression of the Gapds gene. However, immunohistochemical staining of rat testis sections with anti‐GAPDS antisera did not detect GAPDS in round spermatids, but localized the protein only to stage XIII and later condensing spermatids as well as testicular spermatozoa, indicating that Gapds expression is translationally regulated. The current results are similar to those previously obtained for mouse GAPDS and human GAPD2, suggesting that reliable comparisons can be made between these species in toxicant screening and contraceptive development. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 1052–1060, 2006. Published 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
WPAR: A Weight-Based Metadata Management Strategy for Petabyte-Scale Object Storage Systems

In an object-based network storage system, metadata access is decoupled from the data transferring path to improve system performance, scalability, and management. Designing an efficient metadata management scheme in such a system is critically important to the overall system performance and poses lots of challenges to the system designers. Traditional metadata management schemes, either partitioning the metadata statically, or using pure hashing methods, are not able to adapt to the dynamic metadata workload, and hence suffer from scalability and hotspot problems. In this paper, we propose a new metadata management strategy, referred to as Weighted Partitioning and Adaptive Replication (WPAR) scheme, taking into account the weight (CPUpower, memory capacity, network bandwidth, etc.) of each metadata server. Our objective is to efficiently distribute and dynamically replicate the metadata, based on the weights, to balance the workload and reduce hotspots within the metadata server cluster.
Optimizing the therapeutic approach of transurethral alprostadil

Objective To investigate the efficacy and safety of two different starting doses of transurethral alprostadil (250 µg and 500 µg, MUSE®, Vivus Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA, and Astra Läkemedel AB, Södertälje, Sweden) and the need for dose titration in a general population with erectile dysfunction.
Energy management strategy of islanded microgrid based on power flow control

As the remote areas can not be connected to large electric system, using local renewable resources and a certain capacity of energy storage devices to construct a microgrid for power supply will be the only choice. This paper introduces a new energy management strategy of islanded microgrid based on power flow control. The islanded microgrid utilizes the hybrid AC/DC structure. Battery storage system keeps the DC bus voltage constant, PV array as a current source is connected to the DC bus and a main DC/AC inverter in VF mode is used to provide the voltage and frequency references for the AC bus. In this energy management strategy, power flow control is applied to regulate the SOC of batteries in the certain range, control the batteries to avoid over-discharge/over-charge and frequent transition between charge and discharge by the means of output power limitation of the solar energy, switching wind turbine and controllable load and so on. The PSCAD test results show the feasibility and effectiveness of this energy management strategy.
A model-free distributed approach for wind plant control

By extracting kinetic energy from the wind flow, a wind turbine reduces the wind speed in the wake downstream of the wind turbine rotor. In a wind power plant, this wake effect reduces the power production of downstream turbines. This paper presents a control scheme for optimizing the total power output of a wind power plant by taking into account the wake effect. It is a distributed control scheme in which each wind turbine adapts its control settings based on information that it receives from neighbouring turbines. The total power optimization is performed using gradient-based optimization. The optimization is done in a model-free, data-driven manner, as the gradients are estimated from the past control actions, the measured power response of the turbine itself, and the power response of neighbouring turbines. The time-efficiency of the optimization scheme was improved by exploiting information on the locations of the turbines in the wind plant, and an estimate of the wind direction. The method is tested in a simulation of the Princess Amalia Wind Park. To be able to evaluate the time-efficiency of the scheme, in the simulation model a delay structure was included that models the wake traveling from one turbine to the next. The new control method results in a much faster convergence of the power optimization when compared with an existing model-free wind plant power optimization method that uses a game theoretic approach.
Regulation of Skeletal Progenitor Differentiation by the Bmp and Retinoid Signaling Pathways

The generation of the paraxial skeleton requires that commitment and differentiation of skeletal progenitors is precisely coordinated during limb outgrowth. Several signaling molecules have been identified that are important in specifying the pattern of these skeletal primordia. Very little is known, however, about the mechanisms regulating the differentiation of limb mesenchyme into chondrocytes. Overexpression of RARα in transgenic animals interferes with chondrogenesis and leads to appendicular skeletal defects (Cash, D.E., C.B. Bock, K. Schughart, E. Linney, and T.M. Underhill. 1997. J. Cell Biol. 136:445–457). Further analysis of these animals shows that expression of the transgene in chondroprogenitors maintains a prechondrogenic phenotype and prevents chondroblast differentiation even in the presence of BMPs, which are known stimulators of cartilage formation. Moreover, an RAR antagonist accelerates chondroblast differentiation as demonstrated by the emergence of collagen type II–expressing cells much earlier than in control or BMP-treated cultures. Addition of Noggin to limb mesenchyme cultures inhibits cartilage formation and the appearance of precartilaginous condensations. In contrast, abrogation of retinoid signaling is sufficient to induce the expression of the chondroblastic phenotype in the presence of Noggin. These findings show that BMP and RAR-signaling pathways appear to operate independently to coordinate skeletal development, and that retinoid signaling can function in a BMP-independent manner to induce cartilage formation. Thus, retinoid signaling appears to play a novel and unexpected role in skeletogenesis by regulating the emergence of chondroblasts from skeletal progenitors.
European concerted action on anticoagulation. Use of plasma samples to derive international sensitivity index for whole-blood prothrombin time monitors.

BACKGROUND To simplify International Sensitivity Index (ISI) calibration, the possibility of substituting fresh plasma for fresh whole-blood samples with point-of-care testing (POCT) whole-blood monitors was investigated in a three-center study of three different POCT systems. METHODS A modified full WHO calibration procedure based on 20 healthy controls and 60 coumarin-treated patients was performed on three monitoring systems with whole-blood and plasma samples against plasma tested using the European Concerted Action on Anticoagulation (ECAA) rabbit reference plain thromboplastin and the manual prothrombin time (PT) method. RESULTS With one of the three systems, the mean ISI was 1.51 for whole blood and 1.49 for plasma; with the second system, the mean ISI was 1.08 for both whole blood and plasma. With the third system, however, the difference between the mean ISI for whole blood and that for plasma was greater (1.15 and 1.01, respectively). Overall, the precision of the calibrations was less than with traditional manual plasma PT testing. CONCLUSIONS Provided that an appropriate calcium chloride concentration is used, the plasma PT results can be used for accurate ISI calibration of two of these three whole-blood POCT systems. Precision criteria need to be modified for POCT monitors.
Dynamic Effects of the "New Age" Free Trade Agreement between Japan and Singapore

As manufacturing tariffs have fallen worldwide, the focus of free trade agreements has shifted towards other issues, including: rules governing foreign investment, e-commerce regulations, trade in services, harmonization of technical standards, sanitary and phyto-sanitary regulations, and the streamlining of customs procedures. Japan and Singapore are undertaking negotiations over this kind of "new-age" FTA. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of the FTA on production, consumption, trade, international investment flows, GDP and welfare. We use a modified version of the dynamic GTAP model, which is well-suited to capturing the impact of this new-age FTA over both the short run and the longer run.
Herpes simplex virus type-selective enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with Helix pomatia lectin-purified antigens

Helix pomatia lectin-purified antigens with specific reactivity to herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and HSV-2 antibodies in human sera were used in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The type specificity of the antigens was assessed by double immunodiffusion precipitation in gel against rabbit HSV-1 and HSV-2 hyperimmune sera, and by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with human reference sera containing antibodies to either type of HSV. Fifty-two sera from patients with documented infection with either HSV-1 or HSV-2 were assayed for HSV type-specific immunoglobulin G antibodies. The reactivity of the sera against lectin-purified antigens correlated completely with the results of virus typing. We conclude that HSV type-specific immunoglobulin G antibodies can easily be measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with the use of Helix pomatia lectin-purified HSV-1 and HSV-2 antigens.
Confucius and its intelligent disciples

Q&A sites continue to flourish as a large number of users rely on them as useful substitutes for incomplete or missing search results. In this paper, we present our experience with developing Confucius, a Google Q&A service launched in 21 countries and four languages by the end of 2009. Confucius employs six data mining subroutines to harness synergy between web search and social networks. We present these subroutines' design goals, algorithms, and their effects on service quality. We also describe techniques for and experience with scaling the subroutines to mine massive data sets.
New Figures of Merit for Best-First Probabilistic Chart Parsing

Best-first parsing methods for natural language try to parse efficiently by considering the most likely constituents first. Some figure of merit is needed by which to compare the likelihood of constituents, and the choice of this figure has a substantial impact on the efficiency of the parser. While several parsers described in the literature have used such techniques, there is little published data on their efficacy, much less attempts to judge their relative merits. We propose and evaluate several figures of merit for best-first parsing, and we identify an easily computable figure of merit that provides excellent performance on various measures and two different grammars.
Hyperspectral Image Classification by Nonlocal Joint Collaborative Representation With a Locally Adaptive Dictionary

Sparse representation has been widely used in image classification. Sparsity-based algorithms are, however, known to be time consuming. Meanwhile, recent work has shown that it is the collaborative representation (CR) rather than the sparsity constraint that determines the performance of the algorithm. We therefore propose a nonlocal joint CR classification method with a locally adaptive dictionary (NJCRC-LAD) for hyperspectral image (HSI) classification. This paper focuses on the working mechanism of CR and builds the joint collaboration model (JCM). The joint-signal matrix is constructed with the nonlocal pixels of the test pixel. A subdictionary is utilized, which is adaptive to the nonlocal signal matrix instead of the entire dictionary. The proposed NJCRC-LAD method is tested on three HSIs, and the experimental results suggest that the proposed algorithm outperforms the corresponding sparsity-based algorithms and the classical support vector machine hyperspectral classifier.
Adaptive resource management for balancing availability and performance in cloud computing

Security, availability and performance are critical to meet service level agreements in most Cloud computing services. In this paper, we build on the virtual machine technology that allows software components to be cheaply moved, replicated, and allocated on the hardware infrastructure to devise a solution that ensures users availability and performance requirements in Cloud environments. To deal with failures and vulnerabilities also due to cyber-attacks, we formulate the availability and performance attributes in the users perspective and show that the two attributes may often be competing for a given application. We then present a heuristics-based approach that restores application's requirements in the failure and recovery events. Our algorithm uses Markov chains and queuing networks to estimate the availability and performance of different deployment contexts, and generates a set of actions to re-deploy a given application. By simulation, we show that our proposed approach improves the availability and lowers the degradation of system's response time compared to traditional static schemes.
Border control: Sandboxing accelerators

As hardware accelerators proliferate, there is a desire to logically integrate them more tightly with CPUs through interfaces such as shared virtual memory. Although this integration has programmability and performance benefits, it may also have serious security and fault isolation implications, especially when accelerators are designed by third parties. Unchecked, accelerators could make incorrect memory accesses, causing information leaks, data corruption, or crashes not only for processes running on the accelerator, but for the rest of the system as well. Unfortunately, current security solutions are insufficient for providing memory protection from tightly integrated untrusted accelerators. We propose Border Control, a sandboxing mechanism which guarantees that the memory access permissions in the page table are respected by accelerators, regardless of design errors or malicious intent. Our hardware implementation of Border Control provides safety against improper memory accesses with a space overhead of only 0.006% of system physical memory per accelerator. We show that when used with a current highly demanding accelerator, this initial Border Control implementation has on average a 0.15% runtime overhead relative to the unsafe baseline.