Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and clinical outcome of subclinical bacteriuria in female dogs.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of subclinical bacteriuria and its natural clinical course over a 3-month period in healthy female dogs. DESIGN Observational, prospective, cross-sectional study. ANIMALS 101 healthy client-owned female dogs. PROCEDURES In all dogs, screening clinicopathologic tests and bacteriologic culture of urine were performed. In culture-positive dogs, subclinical bacteriuria was confirmed by 2 positive culture results within 2 weeks and dogs were reevaluated at 3 months. RESULTS The prevalence of subclinical bacteriuria in healthy female dogs was 9 of 101 (8.9%). Three-month follow-up data were available for 8 of 9 dogs with subclinical bacteriuria. Four dogs had persistent bacteriuria, and 4 had transient bacteriuria. No dogs with subclinical bacteriuria developed clinical signs during the 3-month observation period. Subclinical bacteriuria was diagnosed in 6 of 51 (12%) young and middle-aged dogs and 3 of 50 (6.0%) senior and geriatric dogs. No significant difference was found in the prevalence of subclinical bacteriuria with age. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Results suggested that subclinical bacteriuria is a nonprogressive condition in healthy female dogs and can be persistent or transient. No significant difference in the prevalence of subclinical bacteriuria in young and middle-aged dogs versus senior and geriatric dogs was detected. No dogs with subclinical bacteriuria developed clinical signs requiring antimicrobial treatment during the 3-month observation period. Healthy female dogs with subclinical bacteriuria may be a population of dogs in which antimicrobial treatment is unnecessary.
SSIM-Inspired Quality Assessment, Compression, and Processing for Visual Communications

Objective Image and Video Quality Assessment (I/VQA) measures predict image/video quality as perceived by human beings the ultimate consumers of visual data. Existing research in the area is mainly limited to benchmarking and monitoring of visual data. The use of I/VQA measures in the design and optimization of image/video processing algorithms and systems is more desirable, challenging and fruitful but has not been well explored. Among the recently proposed objective I/VQA approaches, the structural similarity (SSIM) index and its variants have emerged as promising measures that show superior performance as compared to the widely used mean squared error (MSE) and are computationally simple compared with other state-of-the-art perceptual quality measures. In addition, SSIM has a number of desirable mathematical properties for optimization tasks. The goal of this research is to break the tradition of using MSE as the optimization criterion for image and video processing algorithms. We tackle several important problems in visual communication applications by exploiting SSIM-inspired design and optimization to achieve significantly better performance. Firstly, the original SSIM is a Full-Reference IQA (FR-IQA) measure that requires access to the original reference image, making it impractical in many visual communication applications. We propose a general purpose Reduced-Reference IQA (RR-IQA) method that can estimate SSIM with high accuracy with the help of a small number of RR features extracted from the original image. Furthermore, we introduce and demonstrate the novel idea of partially repairing an image using RR features. Secondly, image processing algorithms such as image de-noising and image super-resolution are required at various stages of visual communication systems, starting from image acquisition to image display at the receiver. We incorporate SSIM into the framework of sparse signal representation and non-local means methods and demonstrate improved performance in image de-noising and super-resolution. Thirdly, we incorporate SSIM into the framework of perceptual video compression. We propose an SSIM-based rate-distortion optimization scheme and an SSIM-inspired divisive optimization method that transforms the DCT domain frame residuals to a perceptually uniform space. Both approaches demonstrate the potential to largely improve the rate-distortion performance of state-of-the-art video codecs. Finally, in
University of Groningen Expression of the pluripotency marker UTF 1 is restricted to a subpopulation of early A spermatogonia in rat testis

The population of early A spermatogonia includes stem cells that possess spermatogonial stem cell properties. Recent reports suggest that these cells have the ability to regain pluripotent properties. Here, we show that expression of the pluripotency marker undifferentiated embryoniccell transcription factor1 (UTF1) is restricted todistinct germcellswithin the testis. Inembryonicandneonatal testes, all gonocytes were found to stronglyexpressUTF1.During further testiculardevelopment, expressionofUTF1was restricted toa subsetofA spermatogonia andwith the increase in age the numberof cells expressingUTF1decreased evenmore.Ultimately, in the adult rat testis, only a small subset of the A spermatogonia expressedUTF1. Remarkably, even in testes of vitamin A-deficient rats, in which the early A spermatogonia (As, Apr, and Aal) are the only type of spermatogonia, only a subset of the spermatogonia expressed UTF1. In the adult rat testis, expression of UTF1 is restricted to a subpopulation of the ZBTB16 (PLZF)-positive early A spermatogonia. Furthermore, the observed distribution pattern of UTF1expressing cells over the different stages of the cycle of the seminiferous epithelium suggests that the expression of UTF1 is restricted to those As, Apr, and short chains of Aal spermatogonia that are in the undifferentiated state and therefore maintain the ability to differentiate into A1 spermatogonia in the next round of the epithelial cycle or possibly even in other directions when they are taken out of their testicular niche. Reproduction (2008) 136 33–40
Nonlinear Dimensionality Reduction with Side Information

In this thesis, I look at three problems with important applications in data processing. Incorporating side information, provided by the user or derived from data, is a main theme of each of these problems. This thesis makes a number of contributions. The first is a technique for combining different embedding objectives, which is then exploited to incorporate side information expressed in terms of transformation invariants known to hold in the data. It also introduces two different ways of incorporating transformation invariants in order to make new similarity measures. Two algorithms are proposed which learn metrics based on different types of side information. These learned metrics can then be used in subsequent embedding methods. Finally, it introduces a manifold learning algorithm that is useful when applied to sequential decision problems. In this case we are given action labels in addition to data points. Actions in the manifold learned by this algorithm have meaningful representations in that they are represented as simple transformations.
Determination of Total Mercury by Vapor Generation In Situ Trapping Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

The analytical performance of non-chromatographic coupled hydride generation, integrated atom trap (HG–IAT) atomizer flame absorption spectrometry (FAAS) systems were evaluated for the determination of total mercury in environmental samples. Mercury, using formation of mercury vapors were atomized in air-acetylene flame-heated IAT. A new design of vapor generation integrated atom trap flame atomic absorption spectrometry (VG–IAT– FAAS) hyphenated technique that would exceed the operational capabilities of existing arrangements was investigated. This novel approach enables to decrease the detection limit down to low pg mL –1 levels. The concentration detection limit, defined as 3 times the blank standard deviation was 0.4 ng mL –1 . For a 120 s in situ pre-concentration time (sample volume of 2 mL), sensitivity enhancement compared to flame AAS, was 750 folds for Hg, using vapor generation-atom trapping technique. The sensitivity can be further improved by increasing the collection time. The precision, expressed by RSD, was 9.3% (n = 6) for Hg. Reference and real sample materials were analyzed. The accuracy of the method was verified by the use of certified reference materials and by aqueous standard calibration technique.The measured Hg content, in reference materials, were in satisfactory agreement with the certified values. The hyphenated technique was applied for mercury determinations in coal fly ash, sewage and water. Opracowano metode oznaczania rteci pozwalaj¹c¹ na zwiekszenie mo? liwoœci analitycznych p³omieniowej absorpcyjnej spektrometrii atomowej (FAAS) przez po³¹czenie techniki generowania wodorkow (HG) oraz systemu zintegrowanego ³¹cz¹cego nasadke szczelinow¹ z kolektorem rurkowym (IAT). Pary rteci ulega³y atomizacji w systemie zintegrowanym ogrzewanym za pomoc¹ p³omienia powietrze-acetylen. Zaproponowano i zbadano now¹ technike sprze? on¹ VG–IAT–FAAS, ktora zwieksza mo? liwoœci analityczne wczeœniej zastosowanych systemow. Opracowana metoda pozwala na obni? enie granicy wykrywalnoœci
SEILA: Soft error immune latch for mitigating multi-node-SEU and local-clock-SET

We have developed a robust latch for achieving high reliability in LSI. The latch can attenuate multi-node single-event-upset (MNSEU) and single event transient on local-clock (SETLC). The robust latch has Dual-clock-buffers (DCB) and Double-height-cell (DHC) technologies. Results on neutron acceleration experiments show that DHC can dramatically attenuate MNSEU and DCB can protect almost SETLC of the latch. In addition, we investigate optimum design in well structure.
Transport of biomass burning emissions from southern Africa

[1] The transport of biomass burning emissions from southern Africa to the neighboring Atlantic and Indian Oceans during the dry season (May–October) of 2000 is characterized using ground, ozonesonde, and aircraft measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3) in and around southern Africa, together with the GEOS-CHEM global model of tropospheric chemistry. The model shows a positive bias of ∼20% for CO and a negative bias of ∼10–25% for O3 at oceanic sites downwind of fire emissions. Near areas of active fire emissions the model shows a negative bias of ∼60% and ∼30% for CO and O3, respectively, likely due to the coarse spatial (2° × 2.5°) and temporal (monthly) resolution of the model compared to that of active fires. On average, from 1994 to 2000, ∼60 Tg of carbon monoxide (CO) from biomass burning in southern Africa was transported eastward to the Indian Ocean across the latitude band 0°–60°S during the 6 months of the dry season. Over the same time period, ∼40 Tg of CO from southern African biomass burning was transported westward to the Atlantic Ocean over the latitudes 0°–20°S during the 6-month dry season, but most of that amount was transported back eastward over higher latitudes to the south (21°–60°S). Eastward transport of biomass burning emissions from southern Africa enhances CO concentrations by ∼4–13 ppbv per month over the southern subtropical Indian Ocean during the dry season, with peak enhancements in September. Carbon monoxide from southern African and South American biomass burning is seen in the model simulations as far away as Australia, contributing ∼8 ppbv and ∼12–15 ppbv CO, respectively, and thus explaining the ∼20–25 ppbv observed enhancement of CO over Melbourne in mid-September 2000.
Tumor Volume Change With Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) for Early-stage Lung Cancer: Evaluating the Potential for Adaptive SBRT

Objectives:To quantify gross tumor volume (GTV) change during stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and on first follow-up, as well as to evaluate for any predictive prognostic risk factors related to GTV decrease. An attempt was also made to identify the potential timing for adaptive SBRT. Methods:Twenty-five tumors in 24 consecutive patients were treated with SBRT to total dose of 50 Gy in 5 fractions. Median age was 72.5 years. Tumor stage was T1, 68%; T2, 20%; and other, 12%. The GTVs of on the 5 cone-beam computed tomographies (CBCT1-5) obtained before each fraction and the first follow-up CT (CTPOST) were analyzed. Results:Median time from diagnosis to initiation of radiotherapy was 64 days. GTV on CBCT1 was the baseline for comparison. GTV decreased by a mean of 7% on CBCT2 (P=0.148), 11% on CBCT3 (P=0.364), 19% on CBCT4 (P=0.0021), and 32% on CBCT5 (P=0.0004). Univariate analyses of GTV shrinkage was significantly associated with “time from CBCT5 to CTPOST” (P=0.027) and “T-stage” (P=0.002). In multivariate analyses, “T-stage” remained significant with T1 tumors showing greater GTV shrinkage than T2 tumors. Conclusions:Significant decrease in GTV volume based on daily CBCT was demonstrated during SBRT treatment. Adaptive SBRT has the potential to minimize integral dose to the surrounding normal tissues without compromising GTV coverage.
The prevalence and incidence of sick building syndrome in Chinese pupils in relation to the school environment: a two-year follow-up study.

UNLABELLED There are few incidence studies on sick building syndrome (SBS). We studied two-year change of SBS in Chinese pupils in relation to parental asthma/allergy (heredity), own atopy, classroom temperature, relative humidity (RH), absolute humidity (AH), crowdedness, CO₂, NO₂, and SO₂. A total of 1993 participated at baseline, and 1143 stayed in the same classrooms after two years. The prevalence of mucosal and general symptoms was 33% and 28% at baseline and increased during follow-up (P < 0.001). Twenty-seven percent reported at least one symptom improved when away from school. Heredity and own atopy were predictors of SBS at baseline and incidence of SBS. At baseline, SO₂ was associated with general symptoms (OR=1.10 per 100 μg/m³), mucosal symptoms (OR=1.12 per 100 μg/m³), and skin symptoms (OR=1.16 per 100 μg/m³). NO₂ was associated with mucosal symptoms (OR=1.13 per 10 μg/m³), and symptoms improved when away from school (OR=1.13 per 10 μg/m³). Temperature, RH, AH, and CO₂ were negatively associated with prevalence of SBS. Incidence or remission of SBS was not related to any exposure, except a negative association between SO₂ and new skin symptoms. In conclusion, heredity and atopy are related to incidence and prevalence of SBS, but the role of the measured exposures for SBS is more unclear. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS We found high levels of CO₂ indicating inadequate ventilation and high levels of SO₂ and NO₂, both indoors and outdoors. All schools had natural ventilation, only. Relying on window opening as a tool for ventilation in China is difficult because increased ventilation will decrease the level of CO₂ but increase the level of NO₂ and SO₂ indoors. Prevalence studies of sick building syndrome (SBS) might not be conclusive for causal relationships, and more longitudinal studies on SBS are needed both in China and other parts of the world. The concept of mechanical ventilation and air filtration should be introduced in the schools, and when planning new schools, locations close to heavily trafficked roads should be avoided.
Systemic inflammatory response predicts survival following curative resection of colorectal cancer

Some studies have shown that the presence of a systemic inflammatory response, as evidenced by raised circulating concentrations of C‐reactive protein (CRP), predicted recurrence and overall survival in patients with colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between the inflammatory response and overall and cancer‐specific survival in patients undergoing potentially curative resection for colorectal cancer.
Progression of Mild Cognitive Impairment to Alzheimer’s Disease: Improved Diagnostic Value of the Combined Use of N200 Latency and β-Amyloid(1–42) Levels

Background/Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of cerebrospinal fluid β-amyloid(1–42) levels and auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) in the progress of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: In 53 MCI patients, lumbar puncture was performed and β-amyloid(1–42) levels were determined. Twenty patients were reexamined after 11 months. During this period, 5 of them progressed to AD. Neuropsychological and ERP analyses were performed on all patients during both baseline and endpoint examinations. Results: Compared to stable MCI patients, those that progressed to AD had significantly lower β-amyloid(1–42) levels (Mann-Whitney test, Z = –2.952, p = 0.003; effect size r = –0.41) and significantly prolonged N200 latencies (Mann-Whitney test, Z = –3.561, p < 0.001, effect size r = –0.49). From ERP variables, only the N200 latency significantly correlated with β-amyloid(1–42) levels (baseline examination: rs = –0.421, p = 0.002; follow-up examination: rs = –0.574, p = 0.008). Conclusions: The combined use of these two parameters enabled discrimination of stable MCI patients from those who developed AD, with 100% sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, this method could be of high diagnostic value for the early diagnosis of AD.
Sum-rate improved interference alignment in wireless MIMO interference networks

In this paper, three iterative algorithms (which are denoted by IA-Orth, IA-Power and IA-Rate algorithms in this paper) based on interference alignment (IA) are proposed to make further efforts to consider the useful signal subspace to improve the sum rate in the wireless multi-input multi-output(MIMO) interference networks. The proposed algorithms consider not only minimizing the spatial distance between different interference subspaces but also desired signal subspace from different aspects to further optimize the sum-rate performance. The optimization problems could be performed on the Grassmann manifold since the true domain of IA is over the Grassmann manifold. Moreover, considering different interference power levels at each receiver and IA feasibility constraints in practical environment, our previously proposed IA-Rate algorithm is modified to be adapted to a broader range of applications. It is on the basis of clustering and properly dealing with inter-cluster interference. A series of simulations show that our algorithms are superior to the conventional IA algorithms on the achievable sum rate and provide a very efficient way to realize IA in practical wireless MIMO interference channel environment.
Grassland modeling and monitoring with SPOT-4 VEGETATION instrument during the 1997 – 1999 SALSA experiment

A coupled vegetation growth and soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer (SVAT) model is used in conjunction with data collected in the course of the SALSA program during the 1997–1999 growing seasons in Mexico. The objective is to provide insights on the interactions between grassland dynamics and water and energy budgets. These three years exhibit drastically different precipitation regimes and thus different vegetation growth. The result of the coupled model showed that for the 3 years, the observed seasonal variation of plant biomass, leaf area index (LAI) are well reproduced by the model. It is also shown that the model simulations of soil moisture, radiative surface temperature and surface fluxes compared fairly well with the observations. Reflectance data in the red, near infrared, and short wave infrared (SWIR, 1600 nm) bands measured by the VEGETATION sensor onboard SPOT-4 were corrected from atmospheric and directional effects and compared to the observed biomass and LAI during the 1998–1999 seasons. The results of this ‘ground to satellite’ approach established that the biomass and LAI are linearly related to the satellite reflectances (RED and SWIR), and to vegetation indices (NDVI and SWVI, which is a SWIR-based NDVI). The SWIR and SWVI sensitivity to the amount of plant tissues were similar to the classical RED and NDVI sensitivity, for LAI ranging from 0 and 0.8 m2 m−2 and biomass ranging from 0 to 120 g DM m −2. Finally, LAI values simulated by the vegetation model were fed into a canopy radiative transfer scheme (a ‘model to satellite’ approach). Using two leaf optical properties datasets, the computed RED, NIR and SWIR reflectances and vegetation indices (NDVI and SWVI) compared reasonably well with the VEGETATION observations in 1998 and 1999, except for the NIR band and during the senescence period, when the leaf optical properties present a larger uncertainty. We conclude that a physically-sound linkage between the vegetation model and the satellite can be used for red to short wave infrared domain over these grasslands. These different results represent an important step toward using new generation satellite data to control and validate model’s simulations at regional scale. © 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Quantitative and qualitative studies of antibody to streptococcal M-protein.

Rabbit antibody to group A streptococcal M-protein was measured by incubating dilutions of unabsorbed serum with partially purified and 131I-labeled M-protein from a type 12 strain (131I-M12) and coprecipitating the resulting complexes with anti-rabbit γ globulin. The method was found to be sensitive, quantitative and reproducible, but no antigen preparations, all of which were purified from acid extracts of cell walls, were found to be free of significant reaction with heterologous, unabsorbed antisera. This limitation was overcome by preincubating serum with an excess of unlabeled type 6 antigen; heterologous sera so treated subsequently reacted with 131I-M12 in a manner indistinguishable from normal rabbit serum (NRS). The specificity of the homologous reaction was indicated by its complete inhibition when serum was preincubated with unlabeled type 12 antigen and lack of inhibition with type 6 antigen. Significant binding of 131I-M12 was measurable with all type 12 sera examined and was present in early sera (20 days) which lacked detectable precipitating antibody and also in sera with insignificant or equivocal bactericidal activity. There was generally a linear relationship between the antigen-binding and precipitating capacity of different sera but a definite correlation between antigen-binding capacity and bactericidal activity of individual sera was not apparent. On indirect radio-immunoelectrophoresis, binding of 131I-M12 was observed only with IgG.
On the constraints to be imposed on the statistical behavior of single-entry interferences in satellite links

This paper presents a technique that allows a systematic way to define masks that limit the statistical behavior of the single-entry interference impacting a satellite link in order to ensure an adequate link performance. The proposed technique considers the joint effect of degradation due to rain and external interferences. In the method, a series expansion in a basis of orthonormal functions is used to represent the probability density function of the single-entry interference — thermal noise ratio and the limiting mask is obtained by solving a conveniently defined constrained optimization problem. In order to illustrate the robustness of this technique, an example of application is also presented.