Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A longitudinal study of economic pressure among people living with a progressive neurological illness

Objectives: Previous research has examined costs associated with progressive neurological illnesses, but has not examined predictors of economic pressure, or quality of life (QOL). The aim of the current study was to examine the predictors of both economic pressure and QOL among people with a range of progressive neurological illness. Method: Participants were 257 people with motor neurone disease, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s. Results: High levels of cut backs in spending predicted economic pressure for all groups. Economic pressure predicted QOL at 12-month follow-up for all groups except Parkinson’s. For Parkinson’s, predictors of QOL were long duration of illness, illness-related expenses and cut backs in spending. Cut backs in spending, and not income or expenses, were the most important predictor of economic pressure. QOL was predicted by high levels of economic pressure for most of the illness groups. Discussion: The implications of these findings are discussed. They suggest that cut backs in spending, as opposed to income and expenses, are important factors to focus on assisting people to adjust to the changes to their financial situation that frequently occurs after developing one of these progressive neurological illnesses.
ILACF: An Incentive-Based Low-Latency Anonymous Communication Framework

With the more emphasis paid on network security and privacy, the research on anonymous communication system has developed quickly. In the past, researchers mainly focused on how to improve the anonymity, but few focused on how to encourage users to contribute for whole system. This paper presents an incentive mechanism and designs an Incentive-based Low-latency anonymous communication framework (ILACF). In this framework, firstly all nodes in anonymous communication system are divided into four types according to their contribution, and then router selection mechanism is presented. The traffic performance of ILACF is analyzed. The theoretic analysis and simulation experiment indicate that the incentive mechanism is very useful and ILACF can gain better communication performance than Tor and ALHACF.
Location-Based Authentication and Authorization Using Smart Phones

Authentication and authorization are two of the most important security features for mobile transaction systems. Most commonly, these schemes depend on three factors: what you know (secret), what you have (token), and what you are (biometrics). In this paper, we propose a location-based authentication and authorization scheme for mobile transactions using smart phones. The paper first describes the distinguished features and the architecture of our proposed solution. Second, the core of our design, including three parts: location registration, authentication and authorization as well as location verification, are described.
An Evaluation of the Utility of Statistical Versus Clinical Significance in Determining Improvement in Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Treatment in Correctional Settings

Despite widespread endorsement from researchers focusing on treatment, clinical significance methodology remains underutilized in treatment evaluations. Using data collected from a treatment program for persons jailed for alcohol and other drug (AOD)-related offenses, clinical significance methodology is demonstrated and contrasted with traditional significance testing across a variety of symptom and dysfunction areas. A total of 124 participants completed a self-report questionnaire (Health Dynamics Inventory; Saunders & Wojcik, 1997) at intake and discharge from treatment. Consistent with previous research utilizing clinical significance methodology, each participant appeared to have a unique treatment experience characterized by a specific pattern of symptom-level change across the areas assessed. The level of pretreatment functioning and the potential for symptoms to worsen during treatment are discussed as important factors to consider when using clinical significance methodology.
Comparative Evaluation of 11 Commercialized Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Detecting Trypanosoma cruzi Antibodies in Serum Banks in Areas of Endemicity and Nonendemicity

ABSTRACT Chagas disease is one of the main public health issues in Latin America. Increasingly during the past few decades, Trypanosoma cruzi infection has been detected in North America, Europe, and the Western Pacific, mainly as a result of population movement. The limited availability of rapid serological diagnostic tests hinders rapid diagnosis and early treatment in areas of endemicity and nonendemicity. In collaboration with 11 national reference laboratories (NRLs) from different geographical areas, we evaluated the performances of commercialized serological rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for T. cruzi infection. Eleven commercialized T. cruzi infection RDTs were evaluated on a total of 474 samples extensively tested with at least three different techniques for Chagas disease, maintained at controlled low temperatures, and stored in the serum banks of the 11 NRLs. We measured the sensitivity, specificity, and concordance of each RDT and provided an additional questionnaire to evaluate its ease of use. The selected RDTs in this study were performed under controlled laboratory conditions. Out of the 11 RDTs, we found 8 of them to be useful, with the cassette format favored over the strip. We did not observe significant differences in RDT performances in the different regions. Overall, the performance results were lower than those disclosed by the manufacturers. The results of this evaluation validate the possibility of using RDTs to diagnose Chagas disease, thereby decreasing the time to treatment at a primary health care facility for patients who are willing to be treated. Further studies should be conducted in the laboratory and in the field to confirm these data, expressly to evaluate reproducibility in resource-limited settings, or using whole blood in clinical settings in areas of endemicity and nonendemicity.
High adherence and concordance within a clinical trial of antihypertensives

Objectives: To explore hypertensive patients’ beliefs about their condition and its treatment and their adherence within the context of a clinical trial. To assess the degree of concordance between patients’ beliefs about hypertension and the medical model of the condition. Methods: This was a questionnaire-based study, involving 230 patients participating in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial (ASCOT), a randomized controlled trial comparing two pharmaceutical approaches to the management of hypertension. A comparison group of 106 hypertensive patients who were screened for ASCOT but did not meet the entry criteria was also recruited. Outcome measures were beliefs about hypertension and antihypertensive medication, and adherence to medication (self-report and tablet count). Results: Adherence to medication was higher than anticipated, with 45% participants reporting complete adherence over the 18-month study and a further 40% only rare non-adherence. Patients’ beliefs about their condition and treatment were generally concordant with the medical model of hypertension. High concordance was associated with high medication adherence (p<0.001). Discussion: Clinical trial volunteers may have beliefs that are unusually concordant with the medical model of hypertension and may demonstrate atypically high adherence. This has implications for the transferability of trial findings to the general hypertensive population.
Evaluation of Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization-Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry in Comparison to 16S rRNA Gene Sequencing for Species Identification of Nonfermenting Bacteria

ABSTRACT Nonfermenting bacteria are ubiquitous environmental opportunists that cause infections in humans, especially compromised patients. Due to their limited biochemical reactivity and different morphotypes, misidentification by classical phenotypic means occurs frequently. Therefore, we evaluated the use of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) for species identification. By using 248 nonfermenting culture collection strains composed of 37 genera most relevant to human infections, a reference database was established for MALDI-TOF MS-based species identification according to the manufacturer's recommendations for microflex measurement and MALDI BioTyper software (Bruker Daltonik GmbH, Leipzig, Germany), i.e., by using a mass range of 2,000 to 20,000 Da and a new pattern-matching algorithm. To evaluate the database, 80 blind-coded clinical nonfermenting bacterial strains were analyzed. As a reference method for species designation, partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing was applied. By 16S rRNA gene sequencing, 57 of the 80 isolates produced a unique species identification (≥99% sequence similarity); 11 further isolates gave ambiguous results at this threshold and were rated as identified to the genus level only. Ten isolates were identified to the genus level (≥97% similarity); and two isolates had similarity values below this threshold, were counted as not identified, and were excluded from further analysis. MALDI-TOF MS identified 67 of the 78 isolates (85.9%) included, in agreement with the results of the reference method; 9 were misidentified and 2 were unidentified. The identities of 10 randomly selected strains were 100% correct when three different mass spectrometers and four different cultivation media were used. Thus, MALDI-TOF MS-based species identification of nonfermenting bacteria provided accurate and reproducible results within 10 min without any substantial costs for consumables.
An efficient algorithm for matching a lexicon with a segmentation graph

This paper presents an efficient algorithm for lexicon-driven handwritten word recognition. In this algorithm, a word image is represented by a segmentation graph, and the lexicon is represented by a trie. As opposed to the standard lexicon-driven matching approach, where dynamic programming is invoked independently for matching each entry in the lexicon against the segmentation graph, the proposed algorithm matches the trie with the segmentation graph. Computation is saved by the efficient representation of the lexicon using the trie data structure. The performance of the proposed approach is compared with the standard dynamic programming algorithm. The proposed approach saves about 48.4% (excluding the trie initialization cost) and 15% of computation time from the standard algorithm when a dynamic lexicon is used. Better performance can be expected in static lexicon cases where the trie needs to be constructed only once.
Document transport, transfer and exchange: security and commercial aspects

This paper presents a brief overview of several technical issues concerning security and commercial aspects of the electronic handling and transfer of documents. After introducing a few basic notions and general definitions, we present a new digital envelope transfer protocol-based system, named TRANZIX, used in the context of generic "transport and transfer of value". We present the general concept of the innovative application that allows commercial exchange of electronic documents through digital transactions using customized electronic money. The system provides very strong protection based on public-key cryptography complemented with biometric protection based on handwritten signatures. Finally, a few targeted applications are overviewed, including the customized exchanges of documents through "mixed transfers of value".
An Entropy-Based Distributed DDoS Detection Mechanism in Software-Defined Networking

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and OpenFlow (OF) protocol have brought a promising architecture for the future networks. However, the centralized control and programmable characteristics also bring a lot of security challenges. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is still a security threat to SDN. To detect the DDoS attack in SDN, many researches collect the flow tables from the switch and do the anomaly detection in the controller. But in the large scale network, the collecting process burdens the communication overload between the switches and the controller. Sampling technology may relieve this overload, but it brings a new tradeoff between sampling rate and detection accuracy. In this paper, we first extend a copy of the packet number counter of the flow entry in the OpenFlow table. Based on the flow-based nature of SDN, we design a flow statistics process in the switch. Then, we propose an entropy-based lightweight DDoS flooding attack detection model running in the OF edge switch. This achieves a distributed anomaly detection in SDN and reduces the flow collection overload to the controller. We also give the detailed algorithm which has a small calculation overload and can be easily implemented in SDN software or programmable switch, such as Open vSwitch and NetFPGA. The experimental results show that our detection mechanism can detect the attack quickly and achieve a high detection accuracy with a low false positive rate.
Direct Sequencing and RipSeq Interpretation as a Tool for Identification of Polymicrobial Infections

ABSTRACT In this study, RipSeq Mixed, a software resolving uninterpretable mixed DNA sequencing chromatograms, revealed the bacterial content of 15 polymicrobial samples. Direct sequencing combined with RipSeq Mixed constitutes a valuable supplement to cultivation, particularly when cultivation is negative and direct sequencing is inconclusive despite continued clinical indications of infection.
On-line signature verification using model-guided segmentation and discriminative feature selection for skilled forgeries

The paper describes an online signature verification system using model-guided segmentation and discriminative feature selection for skilled forgeries. The system is based on segment-to-segment comparison between the input signature and the reference model. To obtain a consistent segmentation, we propose a model-guided segmentation, which segments an input signature by the correspondence with the reference model. To reject skilled forgeries effectively, we use a discriminative feature selection. It is motivated from the observation that a skilled forger can imitate the shape of the genuine signature better than even the owner, that is some features distinguish skilled forgeries from genuine signatures, though some features distinguish only random forgeries. For random forgeries and skilled forgeries respectively, we select the discriminative features among all the features according to the distance between references and forgeries. In the experiment, we collected 1000 genuine signatures and 1000 skilled forgeries. The result showed that the proposed method gave more stable segmentation, and the discriminative feature selection eliminated about 62% of the errors.
Epidemiology and Evolutionary Characteristics of the Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus in China between 2006 and 2010

ABSTRACT In 2006, an emerging highly pathogenic strain of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), which causes continuous high fever and a high proportion of deaths in vaccinated pigs of all ages, broke out in mainland China and spread rapidly to neighboring countries. To examine the epidemiology and evolutionary characteristics of Chinese PRRSV after the 2006 outbreak, we tested 2,981 clinical samples collected from 2006 to 2010 in China, determined 153 Nsp2 sequences and 249 ORF5 sequences, and analyzed the epidemiology and genetic diversity of Chinese PRRSV. Our results showed that the percentage of PRRSV-positive specimens collected from sick pigs averaged 60.85% in the past 5 years and that the highly pathogenic PRRSV has become the dominant strain in China. Furthermore, a reemerging strain which apparently evolved from the highly pathogenic PRRSV strain in 2006 appeared to be widely prevalent in China from 2009 onwards. Sequence analyses revealed that the hypervariable region of Nsp2 in most of the isolates contained a discontinuous deletion equivalent to 30 amino acids, along with other types of deletions. Extensive amino acid substitutions in the GP5 sequence translated from ORF5 were found, particularly in the potential neutralization epitope and the N-glycosylation sites. Our results suggest that Chinese PRRSV has undergone rapid evolution and can circumvent immune responses induced by currently used vaccines. Information from this study will help in understanding the evolutionary characteristics of Chinese PRRSV and assist ongoing efforts to develop and use PRRSV vaccines in the future.
“My heart burns” – A qualitative study of perceptions and experiences of type 1 diabetes among children and youths in Tajikistan

Aims To explore and describe perceptions and experiences of living with type 1 Diabetes Mellitus among children/youths in Tajikistan. Methods Qualitative methods were employed. Participants were recruited through purposive and snowball samplings. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview guide with children/youths having diabetes, their parents as well as health professionals. Data were analyzed according to Malterud’s systematic text condensation. Results Children/youths with diabetes (n = 18), their parents (n = 19) and endocrinologists (n = 4) were interviewed. Families described unique stories in which “emotional stress” and a spiritual “evil eye” were perceived as possible causes of diabetes. Life-threatening complications and maltreatment preceding diagnosis of diabetes were frequent. From manifestation of diabetes onwards, families struggled with systemic and cultural obstacles, causing stigma, discrimination, high school-drop-out rates, diabetic coma, chronic complications or death of the child/youth with diabetes. Conclusions Results of this qualitative study highlight the severity and complexity of challenges families living with a child/youth having diabetes in this low-income country face. Efforts to improve life expectancy and life quality are strongly needed and require addressing both systemic and cultural factors in order to accomplish sustainable impact.
Dermatological applications of high-frequency ultrasound

Advances in ultrasound transducer technology can lead to improvements in the assessment of skin disease. In clinical research, noninvasive methods of assessing skin structure in both health and disease are clearly needed. Ultrasound imaging of the skin before and after treatment can add on important objective assessment in the clinical evaluation of new therapeutic agents that are designed to reverse disease- induced changes in the skin. The goal of this paper is to review the current applications and drawbacks of ultrasound technology in the evaluation of skin disease.
Multilocus Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat Method for Typing Salmonella enterica Serovar Newport

ABSTRACT In recent years, the proportion of Salmonella enterica infections represented by S. enterica serovar Newport has increased markedly among humans and animals. Multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) has proven to be useful in discriminating other highly clonal Salmonella serovars. Here, we report on the development of a highly discriminatory MLVA for Salmonella serovar Newport.
Multi-morbidity: A patient perspective on navigating the health care system and everyday life

Objective The importance of everyday life when managing the burden of treatment is rarely studied. This article explores the burden of treatment among people with multi-morbidity by investigating the tension between everyday life and the health care system. Method This was an ethnographic study using individual interviews and participant-observations. An inductive analytical approach was applied, moving from observations and results to broader generalisations. Results People with multi-morbidity experience dilemmas related to their individual priorities in everyday life and the management of their treatment burdens. Dilemmas were identified within three domains: family and social life; work life; agendas and set goals in appointments with health professionals. Individual resources and priorities in everyday life play a dominant role in resolving dilemmas and navigating the tension between everyday life and the health care system. Discussion People with multi-morbidity are seldom supported by health professionals in resolving the dilemmas they must face. This study suggests an increased focus on patient-centredness and argues in favour of planning health care through cooperation between health professionals and people with multi-morbidity in a way that integrates both health and everyday life priorities.
Commentary: One Small Step for the Gram Stain, One Giant Leap for Clinical Microbiology

ABSTRACT The Gram stain is one of the most commonly performed tests in the clinical microbiology laboratory, yet it is poorly controlled and lacks standardization. It was once the best rapid test in microbiology, but it is no longer trusted by many clinicians. The publication by Samuel et al. (J. Clin. Microbiol. 54:1442–1447, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.03066-15) is a start for those who want to evaluate and improve Gram stain performance. In an age of emerging rapid molecular results, is the Gram stain still relevant? How should clinical microbiologists respond to the call to reduce Gram stain error rates?
Lightweight Authentication Protocol (LAUP) for 6LoWPAN Wireless Sensor Networks

6LoWPAN networks involving wireless sensors consist of resource starving miniature sensor nodes. Since secured authentication of these resource-constrained sensors is one of the important considerations during communication, use of asymmetric key distribution scheme may not be the perfect choice to achieve secure authentication. Recent research shows that Lucky Thirteen attack has compromised Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) with Cipher Block Chaining (CBC) mode for key establishment. Even though EAKES6Lo and S3K techniques for key establishment follow the symmetric key establishment method, they strongly rely on a remote server and trust anchor for secure key distribution. Our proposed Lightweight Authentication Protocol (LAUP) used a symmetric key method with no preshared keys and comprised of four flights to establish authentication and session key distribution between sensors and Edge Router in a 6LoWPAN environment. Each flight uses freshly derived keys from existing information such as PAN ID (Personal Area Network IDentification) and device identities. We formally verified our scheme using the Scyther security protocol verification tool for authentication properties such as Aliveness, Secrecy, Non-Injective Agreement and Non-Injective Synchronization. We simulated and evaluated the proposed LAUP protocol using COOJA simulator with ContikiOS and achieved less computational time and low power consumption compared to existing authentication protocols such as the EAKES6Lo and SAKES.