Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
What's all that noise?The effect of co-morbidity on health outcome questionnaire results after knee arthroplasty

Background We modified the Charnley Classification for hips to facilitate its use with knee arthroplasty patients and investigated what affect the different classes of co-morbidity had on the results of a spectrum of outcome questionnaires.Patients and methods 3600 patients from the Swedish Knee Arthroplasty Registry were surveyed by post with a variety of questionnaires ranging from multipleitem general health, to a single-item knee arthroplasty specific questionnaire. All patients also completed a co-morbidity questionnaire, from which a modified Charnley Classification was generated for each patient. We then investigated the correlation and relationship between the results of the questionnaires and the different classes of co-morbidity.Results The results of the questionnaires tested varied significantly by Charnley Class, regardless of the specificity of the questionnaire used.Interpretation We suggest that co-morbidity should be taken into account in outcome studies utilizing general health or disease/site specific questionnaires.
The isolation and characterization of polycyclic hydrocarbon-binding proteins from mouse liver and skin cytosols.

The major protein to which metabolites of methylcholanthrene are covalently bound has been purified from C3H mouse liver cytosol. Its properties are identical to the mouse skin h-protein, which may be primary arget of carcinogenic hydrocarbon metabolites during transformation to caner. It has a molecular wight of 44,000, consists of 2 subunits o- M.W. 20,000, has an isoelectric point (pI) of 8.05 to 8.6, and a sedimentation coefficient of 3.6 S. These physical properties are rather similar to those of ligandin, a hepatic protein that binds carcinogen metabolites, steroid anionic metabolites, bilirubin, and exogenous organic anions, but not to those of the rat liver azo dye carcinogen binding 'slow h-2-5S' protein. The h-protein and ligandin consistently give different pl values. Two minor basic proteins (molecular weights around 44,000 each), to whcih methylcholanthrene metabolites are convalently bound, have been separated from the h-protein by carboxymethyl-cellulose chromatography. Prelininary results indicate that these 2 minor proteins are related to ligandin. A protein to which methylcholanthrene is noncovalently bound was also identified in the acidic fraction of the mouse liver and skin sytosols and has been partially purified and characterized. It has a molecular weight of 60,000, a pl of 5.0, and a sedimentation coefficient of 4.5S.
Whose Justice? Rethinking Transitional Justice from the Bottom Up

This paper argues that transitional justice needs to adopt a participatory approach to achieve longer-term sustainability, shifting away from the top-down ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to allow ‘voices from below’ to be heard and heeded. It critiques dominant interpretations of key transitional justice concepts, and links them to the difficulties of post-conflict transitional justice in a range of violently divided societies. Popular participation and local agency, it is argued, is necessary to achieve ends identified in much transitional justice discourse, and to embed mechanisms for the creation of sustainable peace. A Northern Ireland initiative (the Ardoyne Commemoration Project) will be explored in-depth, illustrating how a bottom-up ‘truth-telling’ process can make a significant contribution to transitional justice and casting doubt on the validity of the deference to legal dominance in current policy and practice. The paper recommends that knowledge available in development studies and participatory theory be applied more clearly in debates and approaches in transitional justice.
Personality for free: Psychometric properties of a public domain Australian measure of the five-factor model

Fifty items from Goldberg's International Personality Item Pool were compiled to form a public-domain measure of personality, the Australian Personality Inventory (API). Data from a random community sample (N = 7615) and a university-based sample (N = 271) were used to explore psychometric properties of this 50-item measure of the five-factor model of personality (FFM). In both samples, internal reliabilities were adequate. In the university-based sample an appropriate pattern of convergent and divergent relationship was found between scale scores and domain scores from the NEO Five-Factor Inventory. After adjusting for an apparent response set (mean response across items), exploratory factor analyses clearly retrieved the FFM in both samples. It is provisionally concluded that raw scale scores from the API provide reliable estimates of the FFM, but adjustment for mean response across the 50 items might clarify the five-factor structure, especially in less educated samples.
Public libraries and adult learners

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion of three “grey” areas which emerged from a study on adult learning provision both within and outside public libraries in England – formal and informal learning, promotion and attracting learners, and evaluation and feedback.Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilises a literature review, interviews with the regional agencies of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), and interviews with a purposive select sample of public library services in England.Findings – The public libraries sampled demonstrated their expertise in reaching out to a range of different social groups and their willingness to work with a variety of partners to provide the wide range of courses and services needed. Good reciprocal partnership relationships have been established. The need for more sophisticated market research and promotion is identified. Evaluation and feedback are subject to various interpretations and form an area surrounded by difficulties.
Comparison of Optimal Solutions to Real-Time Path Planning for a Mobile Vehicle

In this paper, we present two near-optimal methods to determine the real-time collision-free path for a mobile vehicle moving in a dynamically changing environment. The proposed designs are based on the polynomial parameterization of feasible trajectories by explicitly taking into account boundary conditions, kinematic constraints, and collision-avoidance criteria. The problems of finding optimal solutions to the parameterized feasible trajectories are then formulated with respect to a near-minimal control-energy performance index and a near-shortest distance performance index, respectively. The obtained optimal solutions are analytical and suitable for practical applications which may require real-time trajectory planning and replanning. Computer simulations are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed near-optimal trajectory-planning methods.
Prediction the effects of used material groups on alloy components with regression analysis

In the working plant, aluminum materials collected from the markets were classified into three groups as drink cans, pots-pans and crank chambers. These material groups were mixed at different ratios in recycling processes to produce aluminium alloy which meets the customer specifications. In this work, the influences of used material groups on each of produced aluminum components are analyzed by the regression method.
Experiments on pattern-based relation learning

Relation extraction is the task of extracting semantic relations - such as synonymy or hypernymy - between word pairs from corpus data. Past work in relation extraction has concentrated on manually creating templates to use in directly extracting word pairs for a given semantic relation from corpus text. Recently, there has been a move towards using machine learning to automatically learn these patterns. We build on this research by running experiments investigating the impact of corpus type, corpus size and different parameter settings on learning a range of lexical relations.
SU(N ) Flavor Dynamics within a Generalized Heat Kernel Expansion

The asymptotic expansion of the one-loop effective action W = ln det A is derived for the case in which a non-degenerate mass matrix M = diag(m1 ,m 2 ,. ) is considered, generalizing the standard method of Schwinger–DeWitt. The positively defined elliptic operator A = U +M 2 depends on the external classical fields taking values in the Lie algebra of the internal symmetry group G. The first coefficients of the new asymptotic series are calculated and their relationship with the Seeley–DeWitt coefficients is clarified.
Visual Surveillance Metadata Management

The paper deals with a solution for visual surveillance metadata management. Data coming from many cameras is annotated using computer vision units to produce metadata representing moving objects in their states. It is assumed that the data is often uncertain, noisy and some states are missing. The solution consists of the following three layers: (a) data cleaning layer - improves quality of the data by smoothing it and by filling in missing states in short sequences referred to as tracks that represent a composite state of a moving object in a spatiotemporal subspace followed by one camera, (b) Data integration layer - assigns a global identity to tracks that represent the same object, (c) Persistence layer - manages the metadata in a database so that it can be used for online identification and offline querying, analyzing and mining. A Kalman filter technique is used to solve (a) and a classification based on the moving object's state and its visual properties is used in (b). An object model for layer (c) is presented too.
On the asymptotic behavior of the outage probability for MIMO systems

The asymptotic behavior of the outage probability has been studied recently with the assumption that the receiver is equipped with a single antenna. In this paper, we extend this study to an arbitrary number of receive antennas. We use the Gaussian approximation for the distribution of the random mutual information to derive a threshold for the outage probability. We extend our results to the case when the receiver selects a subset of the available antennas where selection is based on maximizing capacity. We derive the pdf of the mutual information with antenna selection, and show that it can be approximated well with a Gaussian distribution. Based on this pdf, we derive a threshold for the outage probability with antenna selection. We also present several numerical examples that validate our analysis.
Genomic analysis of early adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction: Tumor progression is associated with alteration of 1q and 8p sequences

Early (T1 stage) adenocarcinoma of the esophagus or gastroesophageal junction is a potentially curable disease. We analyzed the genomic spectra of 33 early neoplastic lesions after subdividing the tumors into six depths of invasion (T1–mucosal, m1–m3; T1–submucosal, sm1–sm3). Two subgroups were defined, T1m1–sm1 (n = 18) and T1sm2–sm3 (n = 15). The latter group is associated with frequent lymphatic spread and a high percentage of local and/or distant recurrence. Comparative genomic hybridization with a genomewide 3,500‐element BAC‐PAC array revealed a characteristic gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma pattern of changes, with losses on chromosome arms 4pq, 5q, 8p, 9p, 17p, and 18q and gains on 1q, 6p, 7pq, 11q, 15q, 17q, and 20pq. However, when the two groups were compared, the following BAC clones showed significantly more alterations in the T1sm2–sm3 group: RP11‐534L20 (1q32.1) and RP11‐175A4 (6p21.32), showing gains, and RP11‐356F24, RP11‐433L7, and RP11‐241P12 (all at 8p), showing losses. Gain of RP11‐534L20 (1q32.1) and loss of RP11‐433L7 (8p22) were associated not only with a recurrence‐free period (P = 0.0007 and 0.007, respectively), but also with regional lymphatic dissemination (P = 0.005 and 0.003, respectively). These DNA clones can be considered genomic markers for the aggressive behavior of early esophageal and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Identification of Time-Varying Intrinsic and Reflex Joint Stiffness

Dynamic joint stiffness defines the dynamic relationship between the position of a joint and the torque acting about it and can be separated into intrinsic and reflex components. Under stationary conditions, these can be identified using a nonlinear parallel-cascade algorithm that models intrinsic stiffness-a linear dynamic response to position-and reflex stiffness-a nonlinear dynamic response to velocity-as parallel pathways. Experiments using this method show that both intrinsic and reflex stiffness depend strongly on the operating point, defined by position and torque, likely because of some underlying nonlinear behavior not modeled by the parallel-cascade structure. Consequently, both intrinsic and reflex stiffness will appear to be time-varying whenever the operating point changes rapidly, as during movement. This paper describes and validates an extension of the parallel-cascade algorithm to time-varying conditions. It describes the ensemble method used to estimate time-varying intrinsic and reflex stiffness. Simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm can track rapid changes in joint stiffness accurately. Finally, the performance of the algorithm in the presence of noise is tested. We conclude that the new algorithm is a powerful new tool for the study of joint stiffness during functional tasks.
Modulation of acid-induced amino acid decarboxylase gene expression by hns in Escherichia coli

Biodegradative arginine decarboxylase and lysine decarboxylase, encoded by adi and cadA, respectively, are induced to maximal levels when Escherichia coli is grown anaerobically in rich medium at acidic pH. Mutants formed by transposon mutagenesis, namely, GNB725, GNB729, GNB88, GNB824, and GNB837, exhibited considerably elevated expression at pH 8.0 compared with the corresponding parental strain. Southern hybridization and chromosome mapping showed that the above mutants contained a transposon within the hns gene. Several plasmids from an E. coli library able to complement these mutants by restoring normal pH induction were independently isolated and were found to contain the hns gene. These results suggest a role for the DNA-binding protein H-NS in affecting the activation of these acid-induced genes.
A generic measure of relationship satisfaction.

The variety of interpersonal relationships in contemporary society necessitates the development of brief, reliable measures of satisfaction that are applicable to many types of close relationships. This article describes the development of such a measure. In Study I, the 7-item Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) was administered to 125 subjects who reported themselves to be "in love. " Analyses revealed a unifactorial scale structure, substantial factor loadings, and moderate intercorrelations among the items. The scale correlated significantly with measures of love, sexual attitudes, self-disclosure, commitment, and investment in a relationship. In Study II, the scale was administered to 57 couples in ongoing relationships. Analyses supported a single factor, alpha reliability of . 86, and correlations with relevant relationship measures. The scale correlated . 80 with a longer criterion measure, the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976), and both scales were effective (with a subsample) in discriminating couples who stayed together from couples who broke up. The RAS is a brief, psychometrically sound, generic measure of relationship satisfaction.
Dendritic Cell Vaccine as an Adjuvant Therapy in the Treatment of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Dendritic cells (DCs) are bone marrow (BM)-derived antigen-presenting cells (APCs) with a key role in the induction of immunity. This study aimed at generating a DC vaccine expressing leukemia-associated antigen differentiated from myeloid blast cells to boost the immune system and to improve the clinical outcome of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients. Two ml of venous blood were obtained from each patient to generate DCs by suspending them in liquid culture medium containing granulocyte monocyte colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 4 (IL-4) and activated by adding tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF ). DCs, identified by CD83 expression using flow cytometry, showed a significant increase after culture. A follow-up of patients by monitoring the immunological response was done by flow cytometric assessment of CD8 T-cells % before and after injection of DCs. This study included 22 patients diagnosed as chronic-chronic myeloid leukemia who were divided into 2 groups. Group I was a pathological control group which included 13 ageand sex-matched CML patients that were not given the DC vaccine and were injected with saline. Group II included 9 CML patients that were given the DC vaccine. The WBC count before (141.59 ± 100.51) and after (94.47 ± 76.14) vaccination was highly significantly different in group II patients (P = 0.018). Although there was no statistically significant difference in the median of the CD8 level and the absolute number of CD8 before and after vaccination, there was an actual increase in the percentages of both medians. We conclude that a DC vaccine may be used as an adjuvant therapy parallel to CML patients’ chemotherapeutic regimen. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Variable Bias Coin Tossing

Alice is a charismatic quantum cryptographer who believes her parties are unmissable; Bob is a (relatively) glamorous string theorist who believes he is an indispensable guest. To prevent possibly traumatic collisions of self-perception and reality, their social code requires that decisions about invitation or acceptance be made via a cryptographically secure variable-bias coin toss (VBCT). This generates a shared random bit by the toss of a coin whose bias is secretly chosen, within a stipulated range, by one of the parties; the other party learns only the random bit. Thus one party can secretly influence the outcome, while both can save face by blaming any negative decisions on bad luck. We describe here some cryptographic VBCT protocols whose security is guaranteed by quantum theory and the impossibility of superluminal signaling, setting our results in the context of a general discussion of secure two-party computation. We also briefly discuss other cryptographic applications of VBCT.
Trajectory Tracking for a Threecycle Mobile Robot: the Vector Field Orientation Approach

The paper presents a proposition of the trajectory tracking task solution for the car-like threecycle mobile vehicle from a theoretical point of view. Proposed concept comes from the Vector Field Orientation (VFO) approach introduced for example in [9] and [10]. The VFO methodology results from a simple geometrical interpretation of the possible time evolution of the considered kinematics in a response to specific control signals. The characteristic features of the obtained VFO controller are its simple and intuitive synthesis and natural transient states of the controlled vehicle in a task space. Control performances are illustrated by simulation results.
In Arabidopsis thaliana two co-adapted cyto-nuclear systems correlate with distinct ccmC transcript sizes.

Plant mitochondrial transcripts undergo maturation processes at both termini. Although frequently observed, the post-transcriptional formation of mature 5' ends is still poorly understood. We now analyzed the processing of transcripts derived from the mitochondrial ccmC gene, coding for a component of the cytochrome c maturation system. In Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis) there are two mitochondrial ccmC configurations, discriminated by a 66-bp sequence segment located approximately 500 bp upstream of the ccmC gene. In Arabidopsis accessions these divergent mitochondrial genotypes correlate with the generation of two different 5' termini that map to positions around -484 in accession Columbia (Col ccmC genotype) or -390 in accession C24 relative to the translation start codon (C24 ccmC genotype). Previously we identified RNA PROCESSING FACTOR 3 (RPF3), a pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) protein required for the maturation of ccmCmRNAs with -484 5' ends transcribed from the Col ccmC genotype. Now we identified several accessions defective in maturation of ccmC transcripts. Taking advantage of this natural genetic variation we identified RNA PROCESSING FACTOR 6 (RPF6), a PPR protein necessary for the generation of ccmCmRNAs with -390 5' ends transcribed from the C24 ccmC genotype. Both Col-type and C24-type accessions encode RPF3 and RPF6 so that they can process ccmC transcripts derived from the two different mitochondrial genotypes. These factors and their cognate RNA recognition sites in the different ccmC genotypes are an intriguing example for the evolution of two co-adapted cyto-nuclear systems required for the same process i.e. 5' maturation of ccmC transcripts.
The Clinical Effectiveness of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.

BACKGROUND Streptococcus pneumoniae is responsible for approximately 1.6 million yearly deaths worldwide. An up-to-date evidence base on the effects of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) on infectious diseases and mortality in any population or setting regardless of age or health status is currently lacking. METHODS We systematically searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for pertinent randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Two reviewers independently screened 9498 titles/abstracts and 430 full-text papers for eligible trials. The outcomes of our meta-analysis were pooled using relative risks (RRs) with a random effects model or Peto's odds ratios (ORs) if event rates were :lt;1%. RESULTS 21 RCTs comprising 361 612 individuals were included. PCVs reduced the risk for invasive pneumococcal disease (odds ratio [OR]: 0.43, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [0.36; 0.51]), all-cause acute otitis media (AOM) (RR: 0.93, 95% CI: [0.86; 1.00]), pneumococcal AOM (RR: 0.57, 95% CI: [0.39; 0.83]), allcause pneumonia (RR: 0.93, 95% CI: [0.89; 0.97]), and pneumococcal pneumonia (RR: 0.78, 95% CI: [0.62; 0.97]). We found no significant effect of PCVs on all-cause mortality (RR: 0.95, 95% CI: [0.88; 1.03]) or recurrent AOM (RR: 0.87, 95% CI: [0.72; 1.05]). CONCLUSION PCVs are associated with large risk reductions for pneumococcal infectious diseases, smaller risk reductions for infectious diseases from any cause, and no significant effect on all-cause mortality.
Supercritical fluid deposition of conformal oxide films: 3-dimentionally-stacked RuO2/TiO2/RuO2 structures for MIM capacitors

Supercritical fluid deposition (SCFD), which utilizes the oxidation/reduction of organic compounds in supercritical CO<inf>2</inf> (scCO<inf>2</inf>), is a promising thin film process for the fabrication of 3-dimenotional (3D) structure due to its conformal deposition capability on high aspect ratio features with moderate growth rate. In this work, SCFD was used to fabricate a conformally-stacked RuO<inf>2</inf>/TiO<inf>2</inf>/RuO<inf>2</inf> structure as an MIM capacitor.