Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Indoleamine metabolites in the cerebrospinal fluid of depressed patients before and during treatment with nortriptyline

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of the indoleamine metabolites, 5‐hydroxyindole‐3‐acetic acid (5‐HIAA) and indole‐3‐acetic acid (IAA) were measured by a specific mass fragmentographic method in 43 depressed psychiatric in‐patients. The mean level of 5‐HIAA was 19.7 ± 7.9 ng per milliliter. The 5‐HIAA concentration was positively correlated to age, and there was a tendency for women to have higher values than men. The distribution of 5‐HIAA concentrations appeared to be bimodal in the 27 patients with a depression of endogenous type. The bimodality could not be explained by differences in age or sex. The mean level of IAA was 6.4 ± 4.1 ng per milliliter. The distribution of IAA was unimodal. The correlation to age was not significant, and there was no sex difference. There was a positive correlation between the concentrations of the two metabolites. Twenty patients were treated with nortriptyline, 50 mg three times daily by mouth. After three weeks treatment, the concentrations of 5‐HIAA and IAA had decreased significantly. The mean decrease was 4.8 and 2.0 ng per milliliter, respectively. The magnitude of the decrease was not cormlated to the plasma level of nortriptyline. The data suggest that endogenous depression is a hiochemically heterogenous disease. There may be a subgroup of patients within the endogenous syndrome where indoleamine metabolism is disturbed. In these patients, treatment with drugs that influence indoleamines more directly than a typical noradrenaline uptake inhibitor like nortriptyline, may lead to better therapeutic results.
CO2 balance of boreal, temperate, and tropical forests derived from a global database

Terrestrial ecosystems sequester 2.1 Pg of atmospheric carbon annually. A large amount of the terrestrial sink is realized by forests. However, considerable uncertainties remain regarding the fate of this carbon over both short and long timescales. Relevant data to address these uncertainties are being collected at many sites around the world, but syntheses of these data are still sparse. To facilitate future synthesis activities, we have assembled a comprehensive global database for forest ecosystems, which includes carbon budget variables (fluxes and stocks), ecosystem traits (e.g. leaf area index, age), as well as ancillary site information such as management regime, climate, and soil characteristics. This publicly available database can be used to quantify global, regional or biome‐specific carbon budgets; to re‐examine established relationships; to test emerging hypotheses about ecosystem functioning [e.g. a constant net ecosystem production (NEP) to gross primary production (GPP) ratio]; and as benchmarks for model evaluations. In this paper, we present the first analysis of this database. We discuss the climatic influences on GPP, net primary production (NPP) and NEP and present the CO2 balances for boreal, temperate, and tropical forest biomes based on micrometeorological, ecophysiological, and biometric flux and inventory estimates. Globally, GPP of forests benefited from higher temperatures and precipitation whereas NPP saturated above either a threshold of 1500 mm precipitation or a mean annual temperature of 10 °C. The global pattern in NEP was insensitive to climate and is hypothesized to be mainly determined by nonclimatic conditions such as successional stage, management, site history, and site disturbance. In all biomes, closing the CO2 balance required the introduction of substantial biome‐specific closure terms. Nonclosure was taken as an indication that respiratory processes, advection, and non‐CO2 carbon fluxes are not presently being adequately accounted for.
“Informed Altruism” and “Partner Restriction” in the Reduction of HIV Infection in Injecting Drug Users Entering Detoxification Treatment in New York City, 1990–2001

ObjectiveTo assess recent developments in the HIV epidemic in injecting drug users (IDUs) in New York City. With >50,000 cases of AIDS in IDUs, New York has experienced the largest HIV/AIDS epidemic in IDUs of any city in the world. MethodsSerial cross-sectional surveys conducted continuously from 1990 to 2001 of IDUs entering the Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC) drug detoxification program in New York City. HIV serostatus, use of prevention services, and risk behaviors were measured. Individuals were permitted to participate multiple times in the surveys but not more than once in any year. ResultsTwo thousand eight hundred eighty-seven individuals contributed 3100 observations from 1990 to 2001. There was a substantial and consistent decline in the prevalence of HIV infection among IDUs entering the BIMC detoxification program, from 54% (165/304) in 1991 to 13% (39/303) in 2001 (P < 0.0001). The decline was highly linear, with r2 = 0.92 and a slope of −3.7% in seroprevalence per year. The decline occurred for both males and females, both short and long-term IDUs, and the three largest racial/ethnic subgroups (all P < 0.001 by Cochran–Armitage testing). Use of HIV prevention services increased substantially, particularly syringe exchange and voluntary HIV counseling and testing. General reductions in injection risk behaviors occurred, but substantial numbers of IDUs continued to engage in both receptive and distributive syringe sharing. Two conditional types of risk reduction not currently recommended by health authorities were reported: “informed altruism,” in which persons who knew that they were HIV seropositive reduced transmission behavior, and “partner restriction,” in which persons who shared needles and syringes primarily confined this sharing within small social networks. ConclusionsHIV infection continues to decline in this population of IDUs in New York City, suggesting the possibility of bringing very high prevalence epidemics under control. Risk elimination may not be required; rather, multiple forms of risk reduction may be effective in reducing HIV transmission within a local population of IDUs.
Redefining the pericontusional penumbra following traumatic brain injury: evidence of deteriorating metabolic derangements based on positron emission tomography.

Abstract The pathophysiological changes in the pericontusional region after traumatic brain injury (TBI) have classically been considered to be ischemic. Using [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and triple-oxygen PET studies, we examined the pericontusional "penumbra" to assess for increased oxygen extraction fraction (OEF), anaerobic metabolism, and tissue viability. Acute (≤4 days) CT, MRI, and PET studies were performed in eight patients with TBI who had contusions. Four regions-of-interest (ROI) containing the contusion core, pericontusional hypodense gray matter (GM), pericontusional normal-appearing GM, and remote normal-appearing GM, were defined using a semi-automatic method. The correlations of cerebral blood flow (CBF) with OEF, cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO2), and cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc) were examined. The oxygen-glucose ratio (OGR) in each brain region was evaluated for anaerobic metabolism. The results show that pericontusional tissue had progressively diminishing OEF, CBF, CMRO2, or CMRglc approaching the contusion core. In general, there was a preserved ratio of CBF to CMRO2 in pericontusional hypodense GM. The OGR of the pericontusional hypodense GM was low (<4.0) and was inversely correlated (r=-0.68) with time after injury. A large proportion (%area: 22-76%) of pericontusional hypodense GM tissue had CMRO2 values less than 35 μmol/100 g/min, with this percentage increased with time after injury.
Development and in vitro evaluation of an Escherichia coli probiotic able to inhibit the growth of pathogenic Escherichia coli K 881

Weaned piglets commonly suffer from gastroenteritis caused by enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88. Our aim was to produce E. coli strains that inhibited the growth of E. coli K88 and could be used as a probiotic against postweaning diarrhea. The inclusion criteria for the probiotics were that in addition to being able to inhibit E. coli K88, they also needed to be negative for virulence genes commonly associated with E. coli. A total of 463 E. coli isolates from the cattle rumen, cattle feces, swine feces, and soil were screened against 18 E. coli K88 clinical isolates using an agar diffusion technique. Growth inhibition of the most sensitive K88 indicator strain 2–12 occurred for 121/463 isolates: 96/358 from cattle feces, 0/33 from rumen fluid, 9/35 from swine feces, and 16/37 from soil. Of the 121 positive strains, 71/121 were negative for toxin genes (LT, STa, STb, VT1, and VT2). The 14 most inhibitory strains were screened against a range of substrates to assess the ability to utilize carbohydrates that could be included in the diet to enhance their ability to compete in the gut. Two strains, UM-2 and UM-7, were weak utilizers of starch and inulin. In vitro competition assays between the probiotic strains and E. coli K88 strain 2–12 were conducted with glucose as the only carbon source (minimal medium; MM), MM + 2% starch, or MM + 2% inulin. The UM-2 and UM-7 strains were able to outcompete strain 2–12 when glucose was the only carbon source, indicating that inhibitory activity was produced against 2−12 independent of carbon source. The UM-2 strain outcompeted strain 2–12 in assays in which potato starch or inulin was the only carbon source; the ability of 2–12 to maintain its concentrations in the culture were probably the result of cross feeding of breakdown sugars of starch and inulin that could be utilized by 2–12. In contrast, UM-7 did not grow as well as UM-2 on starch and inulin and 2–12 declined rapidly in successive cultures likely because of the lack of breakdown products of starch and inulin produced by UM-7. We conclude that probiotic E. coli without known toxins and that produce inhibitory activity against E. coli that cause postweaning diarrhea can be produced. In addition, the ability to utilize starch or inulin is an important phenotype because it likely gives the probiotic a competitive advantage in the gut.
Generalized Poststratification and Importance Sampling for Subsampled Markov Chain Monte Carlo Estimation

Benchmark estimation is motivated by the goal of producing an approximation to a posterior distribution that is better than the empirical distribution function. This is accomplished by incorporating additional information into the construction of the approximation. We focus here on generalized poststratification, the most successful implementation of benchmark estimation in our experience. We develop generalized poststratification for settings where the source of the simulation differs from the posterior that is to be approximated. This allows us to use the techniques in settings where it is advantageous to draw from a distribution different than the posterior, whether for exploration of the data and/or model, for algorithmic simplicity, for improved convergence of the simulation, or for improved estimation of selected features of the posterior. We develop an asymptotic (in simulation size) theory for the estimators, providing conditions under which central limit theorems hold. The central limit theorems apply both to an importance sampling context and to direct sampling from the posterior distribution. The asymptotic results, coupled with large-sample (size of data) approximation results provide guidance on how to implement generalized poststratification. The theoretical results also explain the gains associated with generalized poststratification and the empirically observed robustness to cutpoints for the strata. We note that the results apply well beyond the setting of Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation. The technique is illustrated with an infinite-dimensional semiparametric Bayesian regression model and a low-dimensional, overdispersed hierarchical Bayesian model. In both cases, the technique shows substantial benefits.
The Occupational Health Nurse as an Employee Assistance Program Provider

EAPs increased from approximately five in 1945 to more than 5,000 in 1980. EAPs derive their mandate to assist employees in avoiding the negative impact of personal problems on job performance. Occupational health nurses must be familiar with the treatment resources in the community and the company's benefit programs. An occupational health nurse with good diagnostic and interviewing skills may find it possible to intervene with troubled employees before their job performance is impaired.
Do Mail and Web Surveys Provide Same Results ?

Web surveys are a relatively new data collection mode, used only since the mid 90’s. However, they already represent an important part of the contemporary survey industry (http://websm.org). Despite their broad implementation, the validity of Web survey mode still needs to be confirmed, especially the convergent validity, e.g., the comparison of Web survey results with results of other survey modes. In our case, such validity shows whether different survey modes can be replaced by each other. An establishment survey of educational institutions within the RIS (Research on Internet in Slovenia, http://www.ris.org) project at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, enables the comparison of a Web and a mail survey. Participants were randomly assigned to two experimental groups. The first group received a mail questionnaire (two follow-ups), while the other group was invited to answer a questionnaire on the Web (a mail advance letter with two follow-ups). The advance letters and questionnaires were made as similar as possible. Automated skips were implemented in the Web questionnaire while arrows and text were used for skips in the paper questionnaire. The substantive results, data quality and respondents' satisfaction from both questionnaires were compared. Results show that there are no major differences in substantive responses, however there do exist differences in item non-response with the Web mode having much higher item non-response rates. 1 Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, email: info@ris.org. 150 Katja Lozar Manfreda and Vasja Vehovar
Involvement of Transcription Factor HNF3γ in the Effect of o‐Aminoazotoluene on Glucocorticoid Induction of Tyrosine Aminotransferase in Mice Sensitive to its Hepatocarcinogenic Action

In the rodent liver, hepatocarcinogens inhibit the glucocorticoid induction of several liver‐specific genes, including tyrosine aminotransferase (TAT). A distinct positive correlation exists in mice between the extent of inhibition of TAT induction after acute administration of o‐aminoazotoluene (OAT) and the frequency of liver tumors after chronic exposure to the carcinogen. To elucidate the mechanism of the carcinogenic action, the effects of OAT on the DNA‐binding activity of several transcription factors participating in the glucocorticoid regulation of TAT gene expression were studied. The experimental inbred male mice were sensitive (A/He and SWR/J, tumor induction frequency of 75–100%, TAT induction inhibition of 35–50%) and resistant (CC57BR/Mv and AKR/J, 0–6% and 10–15%, respectively) to OAT. Gel retardation experiments showed that hepatocyte nuclear factor 3 (HNF3)γ DNA‐binding activity was strongly reduced in nuclear extracts from the livers of OAT‐treated A/He and SWR/J mice but only slightly reduced in CC57Br/Mv and AKR/J mice. The DNA‐binding activities of Ets, AP1 family members, and GME binding proteins were unaffected. HNF3γ DNA‐binding activity was reduced by 1 h after OAT administration and remained low for 1 mo, as did inhibition of TAT induction in the liver. These results suggested that the inhibitory effect of OAT on the glucocorticoid induction of TAT is mediated by reduced HNF3γ DNA‐binding activity. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Indirect Selection for Increased Susceptibility to Permethrin in Diamondback Moth (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae)

Abstract We have been exploring the behavioral response of insect pests to heterogeneous distribution of toxins (low dose with refugia), and its genetic correlation with physiological tolerance to these toxins. A field-collected population of diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (L.) (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae), from Celeryville, OH, was selected with permethrin to determine whether low heterogeneous doses could lead to increased susceptibility to permethrin by selecting indirectly on behavior. Two replicates of each of three selection regimes: uniform high concentration hypothesized to result in increased physiological tolerance, heterogeneous low concentration hypothesized to result in increased susceptibility through indirect selection on behavior, and a control with no exposure to permethrin, were maintained in 1-m3 cages in a greenhouse, for 33 generations. All life stages of the diamondback moth were exposed to the selection regimes, and new generations were started with a random selection of pupae from the previous generation. Lines selected with uniform high concentrations developed 76-fold levels of resistance to permethrin by the 17th generation, with little changes thereafter. For generations 1–20, lines selected with heterogeneous low concentrations remained slightly lower in LC50 but not significantly different from the unselected control lines. Based on confidence intervals from probit analyses, the LC50 of the lines selected with heterogeneous low concentration, however, were significantly lower than those of the control lines in generations 21–33. Our results demonstrate that selection on behavioral responses can result in greater susceptibility than no selection at all, despite exposure to the toxin and ample genetic variation and potential for increased physiological tolerance. The implications of our findings, which are based on selection scenarios that could take place in field situations, are that behavioral responses can prevent and even decrease the levels of resistance in insect populations, an important result with respect to resistance and resistance management.
HoneyLedgerBFT : Enabling Byzantine Fault Tolerance for the Hyperledger platform

Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned blockchain framework implementation designed for enterprise applications with a focus on extensibility and modularity. In particular, it promises support for multiple ordering services responsible for determining the sequence of blocks in the blockchain. However, as of December 2017, the framework does not ship with any Byzantine fault-tolerant service. In this paper, we describe a BFT ordering service we implemented on top of the HoneyBadgerBFT protocol [8], and evaluate its performance. Our results show that our naive initial implementation exhibits a reasonable amount linear overhead with significant room for improvement.
Small Blob Identification in Medical Images Using Regional Features From Optimum Scale

Recent advances in medical imaging technology have greatly enhanced imaging-based diagnosis which requires computational effective and accurate algorithms to process the images (e.g., measure the objects) for quantitative assessment. In this research, we are interested in one type of imaging objects: small blobs. Examples of small blob objects are cells in histopathology images, glomeruli in MR images, etc. This problem is particularly challenging because the small blobs often have inhomogeneous intensity distribution and an indistinct boundary against the background. Yet, in general, these blobs have similar sizes. Motivated by this finding, we propose a novel detector termed Hessian-based Laplacian of Gaussian (HLoG) using scale space theory as the foundation. Like most imaging detectors, an image is first smoothed via LoG. Hessian analysis is then launched to identify the single optimal scale on which a presegmentation is conducted. The advantage of the Hessian process is that it is capable of delineating the blobs. As a result, regional features can be retrieved. These features enable an unsupervised clustering algorithm for postpruning which should be more robust and sensitive than the traditional threshold-based postpruning commonly used in most imaging detectors. To test the performance of the proposed HLoG, two sets of 2-D grey medical images are studied. HLoG is compared against three state-of-the-art detectors: generalized LoG, Radial-Symmetry and LoG using precision, recall, and F-score metrics. We observe that HLoG statistically outperforms the compared detectors.
Automation: its introduction to the field of blood group serology

I M M U N O H E M A T O L O G Y , V O L U M E 1 7, N U M B E R 4, 2 0 0 1 Automation of blood typing was a thing of the future when I joined the American Red Cross (ARC) in Los Angeles, California, in 1960. Automation had found its way into a variety of medical laboratory procedures over the previous decade, but blood typing somehow had escaped. For each bottle of labeled blood released from a routine blood bank, the donors’ cells and sera had to be tested using sera and cells of known types. Dozens of methodical, repetitious, time-consuming— not to mention boring—hand manipulations made automation’s time long past due. Over the course of the next several years, not only was the need for automation met but a valuable tool was born, which opened up avenues of research applicable in both applied and basic medicine.
Lactiferous vessel detection from microscopic cross-sectional images

This paper presents the methods to detect and segment lactiferous vessels or rubber latex vessels from gray scale microscopic cross-sectional images using polynomial curve-fitting with maximum and minimum stationary points. Polynomial curve-fitting is used to detect the location of lactiferous vessels from an image of a non-dyed cross-sectional slice which was taken by a digital camera through microscope lens. The lactiferous vessels are then segmented from an image using maximum and minimum stationary points with morphological closing operation. Two species of rubber trees of age between one to two years old are sampled namely, RRIM600 and RRIT251. Two data sets contain 30 microscopic cross-sectional images of one-year old rubber tree’s stems from each species are used in the experiments and the results reveal that most of the lactiferous vessel areas can be segmented correctly.