Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sociodemographic characteristics, sexual behaviour and knowledge about cervical cancer prevention as risk factors for high-risk human papillomavirus infection in Arkhangelsk, North-West Russia

ABSTRACT While sociodemographic predictors of cervical cancer (CC) are well understood, predictors of high-risk (HR) human papillomavirus (HPV) infection have not been fully elucidated. This study explored the HR-HPV infection positivity in relation to sociodemographic, sexual behavior characteristics and knowledge about HPV and CC prevention among women who visited the Arkhangelsk clinical maternity hospital named after Samoylova, Russia. This cross-sectional study was conducted in the city of Arkhangelsk, Northwest Russia. Women who consulted a gynecologist for any reason between 1 January 2015 and 30 April 2015 were residents of Arkhangelsk, 25–65 years of age were included. The Mann–Whitney and Pearson’s χ2 tests were used. To determine the HR-HPV status, we used the Amplisens HPV-DNA test. We used a questionnaire to collect the information on sociodemographic factors. Logistic regression was applied. The prevalence of HR-HPV infection was 16.7% (n = 50). HR-HPV infection was more prevalent in younger women, cohabiting, nulliparae, smokers, having had over three sexual partners and early age of sexual debut. The odds of having a positive HR-HPV status increased by 25% with an annual decrease in the age of sexual debut. Moreover women with one child or more were less likely to have positive HR-HPV status.
A Comparison of Iron Oxide Particles and Silica Particles for Tracking Organ Recellularization

Reseeding of decellularized organ scaffolds with a patient’s own cells has promise for eliminating graft versus host disease. This study investigated whether ultrasound imaging or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can track the reseeding of murine liver scaffolds with silica-labeled or iron-labeled liver hepatocytes. Mesoporous silica particles were created using the Stöber method, loaded with Alexa Flour 647 fluorophore, and conjugated with protamine sulfate, glutamine, and glycine. Fluorescent iron oxide particles were obtained from a commercial source. Liver cells from donor mice were loaded with the silica particles or iron oxide particles. Donor livers were decellularized and reperfused with silica-labeled or iron-labeled cells. The reseeded livers were longitudinally analyzed with ultrasound imaging and MRI. Liver biopsies were imaged with confocal microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Ultrasound imaging had a detection limit of 0.28 mg/mL, while MRI had a lower detection limit of 0.08 mg/mL based on particle weight. The silica-loaded cells proliferated at a slower rate compared to iron-loaded cells. Ultrasound imaging, MRI, and confocal microscopy underestimated cell numbers relative to scanning electron microscopy. Ultrasound imaging had the greatest underestimation due to coarse resolution compared to the other imaging modalities. Despite this underestimation, both ultrasound imaging and MRI successfully tracked the longitudinal recellularization of liver scaffolds.
Assessment of vitamin D intake among Libyan women – adaptation and validation of specific food frequency questionnaire

ABSTRACT Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) has pandemic proportions worldwide. Numerous studies report on high prevalence of VDD in sunny regions like Near East and North Africa (NENA). Previous studies indicated that Libyan population was at risk of VDD. To contribute to the body of evidence, measurement of vitamin D status on children, adults, in Misurata region was conducted, and confirmed with validated dietary intake study. Serum 25(OH)D was analysed using electrochemiluminescence protein binding assay. Existing Food Frequency Questionnaires (FFQ) were adapted to Libyan Women Food Frequency Questionnaire (LW-FFQ). Repeated 24 h dietary recalls and LW-FFQ were employed in vitamin D intake evaluation. LW-FFQ was validated using 24 h dietary recall and vitamin D status as referent methods. The questionnaires included anthropometry and lifestyle information. Vitamin D status assessment revealed inadequate levels (25(OH)D < 50 nmol/l) in almost 80% of participants. Women (25-64 y) were identified as the most vulnerable group with vitamin D inadequacy present in 82% (61.6% had 25(OH)D < 25 nmol/l, and 20.2% had 25–50 nmol/l 25(OH)D). Average Vitamin D intake within the study sample (n = 316) was 3.9 ± 7.9 µg/d, with 92% participants below both Institute of Medicine (IOM) (10 µg/d) and European Food Safety Authority (15 µg/d) recommendations. Measured vitamin D status, in 13% of this group, correlated significantly (p = 0.015) with intake estimates. Based on self-report, consumption of vitamin D supplements does not exist among study participants. Additional lifestyle factors influencing vitamin D status were analysed. Only 2% of study participants spend approximately 11 min on the sun daily, 60.4% were obese, 23.1% were overweight and 71.2% reported low physical activity. These findings confirm previous reports on high prevalence of VDD in women across NENA, and in Libya. The situation calls for multi-sectoral actions and public health initiatives to address dietary and lifestyle habits.
Implementing a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs communication bundle in remote and rural pharmacies and dispensing practices

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are associated with more emergency hospital admissions due to adverse drug reactions than any other class of medicine. One way to tackle this is to ensure that patients understand how to take their NSAIDs in the safest way possible. The aim of this project was to ensure that key safety information is given to every patient, every time an NSAID is sold or dispensed. The project started as part of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme’s Pharmacy in Primary Care Collaborative. An NSAIDs bundle was developed, tested and implemented using the Model for Improvement as a framework, including multiple Plan, Do, Study, Act cycles. The bundle, and associated improvement package, was developed during phase I of the project and tested by seven teams (five pharmacies and two dispensing practices). Phase II tested the spread of the defined improvement package across an additional five community pharmacies and eight dispensing general practitioner practices. The project has resulted in the development of a simple package to improve communication with patients about NSAIDs, which should enable patients to take NSAIDs safely. Three key safety messages were developed, typical for a care bundle approach, and simple tools were employed to ensure every patient received these three key messages every time. The project aim of 95% compliance with the NSAIDs bundle within the seven initial sites by December 2015 was achieved (when an exclusion was applied). The spread of the defined improvement package to a further 13 sites was achieved by December 2016. By December 2017, all 81 community pharmacies in National Health Service (NHS) Highland had agreed to implement the NSAIDs bundle. In June 2018, a national NSAIDs bundle, based on the NHS Highland work, was introduced in community pharmacies across Scotland. We also believe that the approach could be replicated for other high-risk medicines.
A Novel Multimedia Streaming System for Urban Rail Environments Using Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer Technology

The amount of streaming multimedia data delivered to mobile devices is growing at a high rate. Research shows that a large number of daily commuters stream audio and video to their mobile devices during their travels. This makes urban rail environments a suitable platform for delivering entertainment, information and advertisement multimedia using novel delivery techniques. In order to do so, the system presented in this paper utilizes the unused bandwidth of a Communications-Based Train Control link to transmit multimedia to urban trains. Once on the train, multimedia is distributed to passenger devices using Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) technology. Such a multimedia distribution system can be deployed incrementally, as it can function concurrently with Wi-Fi connections already available in a number of trains. This paper presents the results obtained by emulating multimedia streaming in an urban rail use-case. Namely, it evaluates the received streaming multimedia quality parameters when new users arrive or existing users are replaced during the train stops.
Salmonella spp. transmission in a vertically integrated poultry operation: Clustering and diversity analysis using phenotyping (serotyping, phage typing) and genotyping (MLVA)

The transmission of Salmonella enterica within a vertically integrated poultry operation was investigated longitudinally over an 18-month period (2013–2014). Thirty six percent of all samples collected (1503 of 4219) were positive for salmonellae with seven Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovars, and one Salmonella enterica subsp. salamae serovar detected. Both Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovars Infantis and Typhimurium were detected in all locations sampled. Salmonella Typhimurium was the most frequently detected serovar (63% of serotyped samples) with 8 phage types (PT) and 41 multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeats analysis (MLVA) profiles identified. The most frequently identified phage types were PT135a and DT135. A total of 62 PT/MLVA combinations were observed. MLVA profiles 03-14-10-09-525 and 03-15-11-11-525 were the most frequently identified and 83% of the isolates shared at least one MLVA profile with an isolate from another phage type. The use of phage typing and MLVA profiling, on their own or in combination, were insufficient to understand the complexity of the epidemiological relationships between locations within this production system. Despite the high level of apparent diversity, cluster analysis was unable to differentiate the transmission pathways of all S. Typhimurium variants detected within the integrated enterprise. Using additional epidemiological information, the parent breeder rearing site was identified as the most likely point of introduction of two S. Typhimurium isolates into the production system with subsequent dissemination to the broiler flocks via the hatchery. This complexity is unable to be resolved in the absence of intensive sampling programs at all generations of the production system.
Tissue-resident NK cells differ in their expression profile of the nutrient transporters Glut1, CD98 and CD71

Metabolism is a critical basis for immune cell functionality. It was recently shown that NK cell subsets from peripheral blood modulate their expression of nutrient receptors following cytokine stimulation, demonstrating that NK cells can adjust to changes in metabolic requirements. As nutrient availability in blood and tissues can significantly differ, we examined NK cells isolated from paired blood-liver and blood-spleen samples and compared expression of the nutrient transporters Glut1, CD98 and CD71. CD56bright tissue-resident (CXCR6+) NK cells derived from livers and spleens expressed lower levels of Glut1 but higher levels of the amino acid transporter CD98 following stimulation than CD56bright NK cells from peripheral blood. In line with that, CD56dim NK cells, which constitute the main NK cell population in the peripheral blood, expressed higher levels of Glut1 and lower levels of CD98 and CD71 compared to liver CD56bright NK cells. Our results show that NK cells from peripheral blood differ from liver- and spleen-resident NK cells in the expression profile of nutrient transporters, consistent with a cell-adaptation to the different nutritional environment in these compartments.
Optimization of the sterilizing doses and overflooding ratios for the South American fruit fly

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is an autocidal control method that relies on inundative releases of sterilized mass-reared insects. This technology has been used in several area-wide programmes for the suppression/eradication of fruit fly populations. Choosing the optimum sterilizing dose and the sterile release density is an essential step of the SIT. Considering unsolved issues related to the application of this technique against Anastrepha fraterculus (Wiedemann), this study aimed to define accurately the central target dose for both sexes of this species and to verify the induction of sterility in fertile flies at different sterile:fertile ratios. The results from the regression analyses proved that the sterilization process for the A. fraterculus Brazilian-1 morphotype (the most common in southern Brazil and Argentina) could consist of irradiating pupae 72 h before adult emergence at 40 Gy, with no detrimental effects to standard quality control parameters. The ovarian development in irradiated females was characterized, demonstrating that doses equal to or higher than 25 Gy cause complete and irreversible ovarian atrophy. The laboratory and field cage tests showed that the sterility induction increased with the proportion of sterile flies, and a sterile:fertile ratio of 50:1 should be appropriate in SIT field trials. The sterile females apparently did not distract the sterile males, despite of the slightly higher reductions in pupal yield for all ratios in their absence. The data generated in this study have a great practical value and will help decision-makers in planning field trials to evaluate the efficacy of the SIT against A. fraterculus populations.
Multiscale Site Matching for Vision-Only Self-Localization of Intelligent Vehicles

Self-localization is a challenging issue in intelligent vehicle (IV) systems. Traditional self-localization methods, such as the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Inertial Navigation System (INS) and vision simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM), are subject to low accuracy, high cost or low robustness. To this end, this paper proposes a new multi-scale site matching localization (MS2ML) method for IV systems by using one single monocular camera. The MS2ML consists of a coarse localization, an image-level localization and a metric localization. In coarse localization, the proposed MS2ML calls the Bayesian vision-motion topological localization to obtain a set of nodes from a visual map. Furthermore, the holistic feature is generated for each query image, and hence, the holistic feature matching is implemented to realize image-level localization. A node is then selected from the candidate nodes. In metric localization, the closest node and vehicle pose are calculated through matching local features with three-dimension (3D) data. In order to evaluate the proposed MS2ML, real-world driving tests have been carried out in three different routes, two of which are from an urban roadway and an industrial park in Wuhan, China and the third one is from public KITTI (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technology Institute) data set. The total lengths of these routes are more than 7 km. The experiment results demonstrate that the average localization errors of the proposed MS2ML method are less than 0.45 frame and the pose errors are less than 0.59 m. As a result, the proposed method remains high accuracy and great robustness in various environments.
Primary cCT Imaging Based Clinico-Neurological Assessment—Calling for Addition of Telestroke Video Consultation in Patients With Intracerebral Hemorrhage

Background and Purpose: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) requires rapid decision making to decrease morbidity and mortality although time frame and optimal therapy are still ill defined. Ideally, specialized neurologists, neurosurgeons, and (neuro-) radiologists who know the patient's clinical status and their cerebral computed tomography imaging (cCT) make a joint decision on the clinical management. However, in telestroke networks, a shift toward cCT imaging criteria used for decision making can be observed for practical reasons. Here we investigated the “reverse correlation” from cCT imaging to the actual clinical presentation as evaluated by the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Methods: CCT images and basic information (age, sex, and time of onset) of 50 patients with hypertensive and lobar ICH were presented to 14 experienced neurologists and 15 neurosurgeons. Based on this information, the NIHSS and GCS scores were estimated for each patient. The differences between the actual GCS and NIHSS scores and the cCT-imaging-based estimated scores were plotted in a bland-Altman plot. Results: The average estimated GCS score mainly based on cCT imaging was 12. 4 ± 2.8 (actual value: 13.0 ± 2.5; p = 0.100), the estimated NIHSS score was 13.9 ± 9.1 (actual value: 10.8 ± 7.3; p < 0.001). Thus, in cCT-imaging-based evaluation, the neurological status of patients especially employing the NIHSS was estimated poorer, particularly in patients with lobar ICH. “Reverse clinical” evaluation based on cCT-imaging alone may increase the rate of intubation and secondary transferal and neurosurgical treatment. Telestroke networks should consider both, videoassessment of the actual clinical picture and cCT-imaging findings to make appropriate acute treatment decisions.
Energy Efficiency of Massive MIMO: Cell-Free vs. Cellular

Cell-free Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) employs a large number of AP's (Access Points) that are distributed throughout the intended coverage area to simultaneously serve a much smaller number of user AT's (Access Terminals). Conjugate beamforming is the simplest precoding method for the downlink transmission, and allows decentralized precoding processing. Max-min power control maximizes the minimal effective SINR (Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio) among all the active users, therefore provides a uniform throughput to all users. Cell- free Massive MIMO with conjugate beamforming precoding and max-min power control is naturally radiated energy efficient due to two facts: a well-known fact that with high probability at least one AP is nearby every user, and a surprising fact that, with max-min power control, a large portion of the AP's does not transmit with full power. We find that a cell-free Massive MIMO can deliver more than 80 Mb/joule in urban, and more than 40 Mb/joule in suburban and rural scenarios. We compare its energy efficiency and spectral efficiency with single cell Massive MIMO systems and demonstrate that in suburban and rural scenarios, cell-free systems can more than double the radiated energy efficiency and at the same time dramatically increase the 95% likely per user throughput, while in an urban scenario, the gain in radiated energy efficiency can be moderate at less than 50% with a comparable 95% likely per user throughput.
Geometry Based Channel Models with Cross- and Autocorrelation for Vehicular Network Simulations

Realistic network simulations are necessary to assess the performance of any communication system. In this paper, we describe an implementation of a channel model for vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication in the OMNeT++/Plexe simulation environment. The model is based on previous extensive measurements in a V2V multilink highway scenario and cover line-of-sight (LOS) as well as obstructed LOS (OLOS) scenarios, which occurs when one or more vehicles obstruct the LOS component. The implementation captures both the temporal autocorrelation and the joint multilink cross-correlation processes to achieve a realistic behavior. Preliminary results show that the implementation now generates stochastic large-scale fading with an autocorrelation function that agrees well with measured data. A representation of the cross-correlation process is now implemented through proper channel model selection since the geometry and location of objects are known in Plexe. We also show the impact of the suggested V2V physical layer (PHY) on the performance evaluation results observed at the facilities layer. As a metric, we use the data age, which is a measure how old the information about a vehicle is. When considering the autocorrelation in simulations, the experienced data-age increases. Examples show an increase of the 10% percentile data-age from 0.1~s to 1.5~s, which may affect the application performance significantly in critical situations.
Computing optimal shortcuts for networks

Abstract We study augmenting a plane Euclidean network with a segment, called a shortcut, to minimize the largest distance between any two points along the edges of the resulting network. Problems of this type have received considerable attention recently, mostly for discrete variants of the problem. We consider a fully continuous setting, where the problem of computing distances and placing a shortcut is much harder as all points on the network, instead of only the vertices, must be taken into account. We present the first results on the computation of optimal shortcuts for general networks in this model: a polynomial time algorithm and a discretization of the problem that leads to an approximation algorithm. We also improve the general method for networks that are paths, restricted to two types of shortcuts: those with a fixed orientation and simple shortcuts.
Chaotic spread spectrum for EMI reduction in DC-DC converter

In the paper, we proposed the electromagnetic interference (EMI) reduction method with chaotic spread spectrum for boost DC-DC converter. To reduce the maximum peak of EMI effectively, a chaotic triangular wave is proposed as carrier totally generated by analogue circuit, as a chaotic spread spectrum has its advantages over the periodic in this respect. Simulations have been made on a DC-DC converter and the results show that the chaotic frequency-spreading has an obvious improvement on EMI suppressing. Besides, a lower output ripple voltage is proposed through the up-spread frequency modulation.
Diabetes knowledge and care practices among adults in rural Bangladesh: a cross-sectional survey

Background Population knowledge of how to prevent, detect and control diabetes is critical to public health initiatives to tackle the disease. We undertook a cross-sectional survey of adults in rural Bangladesh to estimate knowledge and practices related to diabetes. Methods In 96 villages in Faridpur district, trained fieldworkers surveyed 12 140 randomly selected men and women aged ≥30. They collected data on sociodemographic status, knowledge of diabetes and history of blood and urine glucose testing. Fasting and 2-hour post-glucose load capillary blood tests ascertained the diabetic status of respondents. Levels of knowledge and practices were analysed by sociodemographic characteristics and diabetic status. Results The population showed low levels of diabetes knowledge overall, with only one in three adults able to report any valid causes of the disease. Knowledge of diabetes causes, symptoms, complications, prevention and control was significantly associated with age, education, wealth and employment. Only 14% of respondents reported ever having had a blood glucose test and strong associations with wealth were observed (least poor relative to most poor 2.91 (2.32–3.66)). 78.4% of known diabetics (ie, with a prior diagnosis) reported that they did not monitor their blood glucose levels on at least a monthly basis. However, they had better knowledge of the causes (odds relative to normoglycaemic individuals 1.62 (1.23–2.09)), symptoms (5.17 (3.41–7.82)), complications (5.18 (3.75–7.14)), prevention (4.18 (3.04–5.74)) and control (8.43 (4.83–14.71)). Conclusion Knowledge of diabetes among rural adults in Faridpur is extremely poor. Levels of diabetes testing are low and monitoring of blood glucose among known diabetics infrequent. Diabetes prevention and control efforts in this population must include large-scale awareness initiatives which focus not only on high-risk individuals but the whole population. Trial registration number ISRCTN41083256; Pre-results.