Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Tuberculin skin test and interferon-γ release assay show better correlation after the tuberculin ‘window period’ in tuberculosis contacts

Abstract Background: T-cell interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs) have been shown to be effective tools for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, offering an enhanced specificity compared to the tuberculin skin test (TST). Most tuberculosis (TB) contact studies have shown a better correlation of IGRA with the intensity of M. tuberculosis exposure than that obtained using the TST. However, the correlation between tests performed before and after the tuberculin ‘window period’ (time between infection and when the immunological response becomes measurable) remains to be studied. Methods: A longitudinal prospective analysis was performed in TB contacts. We analyzed the correlation between a commercially available IGRA (QuantiFERON®-TB Gold in-Tube, QFT) and the TST before and after the tuberculin window period (2 months). Concordance between both tests was assessed using the Kappa coefficient (κ). Correlation of both tests with the degree of TB exposure was also analyzed. Results: One hundred and fifty-two TB contacts were included in the study. Agreement between the TST and IGRA was better after the window period (κ = 0.60 at the first visit and κ = 0.73 after 2 months), especially for non-BCG vaccinated subjects (κ = 0.81). Both a positive TST and QFT were correlated, after the window period, with the size of place of contact (the smaller the place of contact, the higher the probability of having a positive test) (p = 0.022 and p = 0.02, respectively) and with the total numbers of hours spent with the index case (p = 0.006 for TST and p = 0.007 for QFT). Conclusions: IGRAs are a good alternative to the TST in contact tracing studies, especially after the tuberculin window period.
A New Sensorless Hybrid MPPT Algorithm Based on Fractional Short-Circuit Current Measurement and P&O MPPT

This paper presents a new maximum power point tracking (MPPT) method for photovoltaic (PV) systems. The proposed method improves the working of the conventional perturb and observe (P&O) method in changing environmental conditions by using the fractional short-circuit current (FSCC) method. It takes the initial operating point of a PV system by using the short-circuit current method and later shifts to the conventional P&O technique. The advantage of having this two-stage algorithm is rapid tracking under changing environmental conditions. In addition, this scheme offers low-power oscillations around MPP and, therefore, more power harvesting compared with the common P&O method. The proposed MPPT decides intelligently about the moment of measuring short-circuit current and is, therefore, an irradiance sensorless scheme. The proposed method is validated with computer software simulation followed by a dSPACE DS1104-based experimental setup. A buck-boost dc-dc converter is used for simulation and experimental confirmation. Furthermore, the reliability of the proposed method is also calculated. The results show that the proposed MPPT technique works satisfactorily under given environmental scenarios.
Transition from continental break‐up to punctiform seafloor spreading: How fast, symmetric and magmatic

We present a comparison between numerical and analogue models focusing on the role of inherited lithospheric structures in influencing the process of continental break‐up. Our results highlight that the presence of pre‐existing anisotropies localizes strain and favors continental break‐up and formation of a new ocean. For a fixed strain rate, the pre‐rift lithosphere configuration influences rift duration, melt production and width and symmetry of the continental margin pair. Model results show a mainly two‐phase tectonic history from continental extension to oceanization. In the first phase extension affects contemporaneously the whole rift structure, while in the second phase asthenosphere upwelling occurs into punctiform regularly‐spaced spots sequentially propagating in an extension‐orthogonal direction.
Pathologic and clinical findings to predict tumor extent of nonpalpable (stage T1c) prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVES We examined preoperative clinical and pathologic parameters in men with clinical stage T1c disease who underwent radical prostatectomy and correlated these findings with the pathologic extent of disease in the surgical specimen in an attempt to identify a subset of patients with potentially biologically insignificant tumor who might be followed up without immediate treatment. DESIGN AND PATIENTS A case series of 157 consecutive men who underwent radical prostatectomy for clinical stage T1c disease compared with 64 similarly treated clinical stage T1a cancers (incidental minimal cancers found on transurethral resection of prostate) and 439 clinical stage T2 (palpable) cancers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Pathologic stage, grade, and margins; tumor volume; and tumor location. RESULTS Sixteen percent of tumors were insignificant (< 0.2 cm3 and confined to the prostate, with a Gleason score < 7); 10% were minimal (0.2 to 0.5 cm3 and confined to the prostate, with a Gleason score < 7); 37% were moderate (> 0.5 cm3 or capsular penetration, with a Gleason score < 7); and 37% were advanced (capsular penetration, with a Gleason score > or = 7 or positive margins, seminal vesicles, or lymph nodes). These findings are intermediate between those found in clinical stage T1a and stage T2 disease. The following parameters were not predictive of tumor extent: age, reason for evaluation, method of detection, and transrectal ultrasound. The best model predicting insignificant tumor was prostate-specific antigen (PSA) density less than 0.1 ng/mL per gram and no adverse pathologic findings on needle biopsy, or PSA density of 0.1 to 0.15 ng/mL per gram, with a low- to intermediate-grade cancer smaller than 3 mm found in only one needle biopsy core specimen. The positive predictive value of the model was 95%, with a negative predictive value of 66%. We accurately predicted 73% of cases with insignificant tumor. CONCLUSIONS Eighty-four percent of nonpalpable prostate cancers diagnosed by screening techniques are significant tumors and warrant definitive therapy. However, 16% are insignificant. Serum PSA level, PSA density, and needle biopsy pathologic findings are accurate predictors of tumor extent. It may be reasonable to follow up some patients whose tumors are most likely insignificant with serial PSA measurements and repeated biopsies.
Trophic Relationships within the Antarctic Demersal Fish Community of South Georgia Island

Graduate School of Oceanography. University of Rhode Island Narragansett. Rhode Island 02882 Present address: Florida Marine Research Institute 100 8th Avenue SE. St. Petersburg. Florida 33701 Trophic Relationships within the Antarctic Demersal Fish Community of South Georgia Island Abstract.Knowledge of trophic relationships is vital to understanding any ecological community. The trophic relationships of Antarctic demersal fish are poorly known and have been described quantitatively by only a few researchers. Gut contents were analyzed on over 300 stomachs from fish collected during the 1987-88 AMLR ground fish survey of South Georgia I. , Antarctica. All fish were collected with a bottom trawl during the austral summer. Fifteen species of demersal fish (including those of commercial value) were collected. Similarity analysis was applied to the diet information to describe trophic relationships in the South Georgia community. The most abundant species of the South Georgia demersal fish community were classified into three groups based on summer diets. The largest group contained species heavily dependent on krill Euphausia superba, and included Champsocephalus gunnm'i and Notothenia rossii. The second group was comprised of piscivores. Three of the four members of this group (Dissostichus eleginoides, Chaenocephalus aceratw3, and Pseudochaenichthys georgianus) are commercially valuable. The food of their prey often consisted of krill. The third group contained a loose association of species which feed on benthic organisms more than did other fish species in the community. Notothenia gibberifrons and Notothenia. squa.mifrons were the important commercial species in this group. Krill was found to be the most important prey species to the fish in the South Georgia system. However, based on the analysis of diet overlap, competition appeared to be unimportant in this community during the austral summer. Selective reduction of populations within the fish community by fishing may have widespread repercussions. Many of the commercially valuable species feed on other fish species which in turn feed on krill or benthic organisms. The relatively simple but highly interconnected food web in the South Georgia system may have a lower potential for fish yield than previously thought.
Dissemination of New Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clones in the Community

ABSTRACT Multiple methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) clones carrying type IV staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec were identified in the community-acquired MRSA strains of both the United States and Australia. They multiplied much faster than health-care-associated MRSA and were resistant to fewer non-beta-lactam antibiotics. They seem to have been derived from more diverse S. aureus populations than health-care-associated MRSA strains.
Parental alcohol dependence and the transmission of adolescent behavioral disinhibition: a study of adoptive and non-adoptive families.

AIM To examine the genetic and environmental influences of parental alcoholism on offspring disinhibited behavior. DESIGN We compared the effect of parental alcoholism history on offspring in adoptive and non-adoptive families. In families with a history of parental alcohol dependence, we examined the effect of exposure to parental alcoholism symptoms during the life-time of the adolescent. Setting Assessments occurred at the University of Minnesota from 1998 to 2004. PARTICIPANTS Adolescents adopted in infancy were ascertained systematically from records of three private Minnesota adoption agencies; non-adopted adolescents were ascertained from Minnesota birth records. Adolescents and their rearing parents participated in in-person assessments. MEASUREMENTS For adolescents, measures included self- reports of delinquency, deviant peers, substance use, antisocial attitudes and personality. For parents, we conducted DSM-IV clinical assessments of alcohol abuse and dependence. FINDINGS A history of parental alcohol dependence was associated with higher levels of disinhibition only when adolescents were related biologically to their rearing parents. Within families with a history of parental alcoholism, exposure to parental alcohol misuse during the life-time of the adolescent was associated with increased odds of using alcohol in adopted adolescents only. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the association between a history of parental alcohol dependence and adolescent offspring behavioral disinhibition is attributable largely to genetic rather than environmental transmission. We also obtained some evidence for parental alcohol misuse as a shared environmental risk factor in adoptive families.
Pass-matrix authentication a solution to shoulder surfing attacks with the assistance of graphical password authentication system

In today's world of quick growing technologies, Security play's a prominent role in the protection of people's vital information from varied system attacks. So as a solution to these problems there should be some form of authentication protection. Most of the system user prefer textual password in the application of security and privacy for their computer system. However their will always be a risk of human's selecting a bad or small password or either inputting them in the insecure manner are said to be “the weakest process” in the authentication chain. Rather than selecting a powerful character set, user tend to select the password which is easier, less complicated, short, or a type of password which is easy for memorization. With new technologies emerging and a large range of mobile application been developed day-by-day. By this the people can easily access their application anywhere with various devices such as mobile, etc. It's a good thing as terms of reducing time consuming but also increases the.
Motion-Aware Iterative Closest Point Estimation for Fast Visual Odometry

Iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm is a common localization method used to estimate camera poses by aligning two depth frames. Since the input depth map is easily distorted when the camera is in large motion, it might result in incorrect pose estimation and produce apparent drift for ICP-based applications. To alleviate this problem, instead of using the time-consuming graph-based optimization approach for post processing, this work aims at refining poses when detecting noisy depth maps and presents a hybrid decision mechanism to detect noisy depth maps based on the characteristic of ICP. The camera pose of the next frame is decided by referring to the last frame instead of the current frame when a noisy depth map is detected, by doing so, we can prevent the errors produced in the current frame from propagating to the next frame, thus reducing drift. Experimental results show that the relative pose error reduce to 58% in average at the time when large motion happens.
Managing the Knowledge Supply Chain: An Organizational Learning Model of Information Technology Offshore Outsourcing

In this paper, we present an economic learning model that helps to formalize the complex relationships among an offshoring firm's knowledge levels, production costs, and coordination costs. Specifically, we model a domestic firm's use of a selective offshore strategy (i.e., offshoring only a portion of its information technology activities) to exploit, through IT investments or contractual provisions, the foreign vendor's large, scale-driven repository of production knowledge. We illustrate the conditions under which knowledge transfers during offshoring may reduce a domestic firm's in-house production costs, leading to total cost savings in both the short term and the long term. Alternatively, when knowledge transfers are not sufficiently large, some short-lived offshoring projects may generate substantial cost savings to the domestic firm; however, long-lived offshoring projects may cause a disruption in the knowledge supply chain, resulting in substantial losses in the later stages of the project. A firm that fails to realize the costs associated with such a disruption soon enough in the project life may find itself locked into a disadvantageous offshoring agreement without any recourse. However, a domestic firm may be able to overcome a disruption in its knowledge supply chain by exploiting the learning-by-doing production knowledge generated by the foreign vendor's economies of scale. The managerial implications derived from our learning model may help guide firms as they consider the impacts of offshore contracts and knowledge management investments on firm knowledge, production costs, and coordination costs.
RETRACTED: An Improved Fuzzy Based Algorithm for Detecting Text from Images Using Stroke Width Transform

Short Retraction Notice This article has been retracted to straighten the academic record. In making this decision the Editorial Board follows COPE's Retraction Guidelines. The aim is to promote the circulation of scientific research by offering an ideal research publication platform with due consideration of internationally accepted standards on publication ethics. The Editorial Board would like to extend its sincere apologies for any inconvenience this retraction may have caused. The full retraction notice in PDF is preceding the original paper, which is marked "RETRACTED".
Click Models for Web Search

Abstract With the rapid growth of web search in recent years the problem of modeling its users has started to attract more and more attention of the information retrieval community. This has several motivations. By building a model of user behavior we are essentially developing a better understanding of a user, which ultimately helps us to deliver a better search experience. A model of user behavior can also be used as a predictive device for non-observed items such as document relevance, which makes it useful for improving search result ranking. Finally, in many situations experimenting with real users is just infeasible and hence user simulations based on accurate models play an essential role in understanding the implications of algorithmic changes to search engine results or presentation changes to the search engine result page. In this survey we summarize advances in modeling user click behavior on a web search engine result page. We present simple click models as well as more complex models aimed at.
Sampled-data models for decouplable nonlinear multivariable systems

One of the approaches to sampled-data controller design for nonlinear continuous-time systems consists of obtaining an appropriate model and then proceeding to design a controller for the model. Few studies have been investigated for obtaining sampled-data models of nonlinear multi-input multi-output systems (MIMO system) though we can find studies which consider nonlinear single-input single-output systems. This paper shows a more accurate sampled-data model than the Euler model for nonlinear multi-input multi-output systems and derives sampling zero dynamics of the model.
Mianserin and trazodone significantly attenuate the intensity of opioid withdrawal symptoms in mice.

The aims of this study were to evaluate the effects of trazodone and mianserin on opioid-withdrawal symptoms in morphine-dependent mice. We used a comparative study of the effect of each drug on withdrawal symptoms in one model of acutely high-dose morphine-dependent mice, and two models (high-dose and lu-dose) of chronically morphine-dependent mice at the Tel Aviv University Sackler School of Medicine's laboratory.Trazodone, mianserin or both were given to the morphine-dependent mice together with a high dose of naloxone. Intensity of withdrawal symptoms was evaluated by tail-flick assay latencies and three behavioural measurements (rearing, jumping and grooming) in each group. Trazodone and mianserin, each separately,significantly attenuated withdrawal symptoms in all three models. However, the combined treatment of trazodone together with mianserin was not superior to each drug alone. The combination of trazodone and mianserin has no additive value to each drug alone in the control of withdrawal symptoms in opiate-dependent mice undergoing detoxification. When used in clinical settings, caution is needed in order to prevent the unknown influence of opioid-like drugs in medication-assisted detoxification programmes if complete opiate detoxification is the aim.
Investigation of hemorheological parameters in periodontal diseases.

Periodontal diseases are frequently associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). On the other hand, occurrence of CVD has also been related with increased blood viscosity. This study was planned to investigate four main hemorheological parameters contributing to blood viscosity - hematocrit, erythrocyte deformability, erythrocyte aggregation and plasma viscosity - and also some biochemical parameters (hs-CRP, fibrinogen, globulin etc.) in patients with periodontal disease. We hypothesized that poor periodontal health would be associated with deterioration of hemorheological properties. According to periodontal health status, subjects were divided into three groups as control (healthy), with plaque induced gingivitis and with chronic periodontitis. All groups included 15 males who had not received periodontal therapy in the last six months before the study, were non-smokers, had no systemic diseases and were not on any medication. Erythrocyte deformability and erythrocyte aggregation were measured with laser-assisted optical rotational cell analyzer (LORCA). Plasma viscosity was measured by a cone-plate viscometer. Data were analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney U Test and Spearman Correlation Coefficient. Plasma viscosity (1.36 ± 0.01 mPa.s in the control group and 1.43 ± 0.02 mPa.s in the chronic periodontitis group, P < 0.01), erythrocyte aggregation tendency (aggregation index, amplitude and t½ were 58.82 ± 1.78% , 20.22 ± 0.40 au, 2.80 ± 0.25 s respectively in the control group, and 67.05 ± 1.47% , 22.19 ± 0.50 au, 1.84 ± 0.15 s in the chronic periodontitis group, P < 0.01), hs-CRP, fibrinogen and globulin levels were significantly higher, whereas HDL level was significantly lower in the chronic periodontitis group (P < 0.05) compared to the control group. All of these conditions may contribute to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality observed in people with periodontal disease, via increasing blood viscosity.
Decreased pain sensitivity among people with schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of experimental pain induction studies

Abstract Patients with schizophrenia report reduced pain sensitivity in clinical studies, but experimental studies are required to establish pain sensitivity as a potential endophenotype. We conducted a systematic review of electronic databases from database inception until April 15, 2015, including experimental studies investigating pain among patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder vs healthy controls. A random-effect meta-analysis yielding Hedges' g ±95% confidence intervals (CIs) as the effect size (ES) measure was conducted. Primary outcome was a pooled composite of pain threshold and pain tolerance; secondary outcomes included these parameters individually, plus sensory threshold, physiological pain response, and pain intensity or unpleasantness. Across 17 studies, patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder (n = 387; age, 30.7 ± 6.9 years; females, 31.9%; illness duration, 7.0 ± 5.7 years) were compared with controls (n = 483; age, 29.5 ± 7.4 years; females, 31.0%). Patients had elevated pain threshold/pain tolerance vs controls (ES = 0.583; 95% CI, 0.212-0.954; P = 0.002; studies = 15). Results were similar in antipsychotic-free individuals (ES = 0.599; 95% CI, 0.291-0.907; P < 0.0001; studies = 8), with trend-level significance in antipsychotic-treated individuals (ES = 0.566; 95% CI, −0.007 to 1.125; P = 0.047; studies = 9). Likewise, patients with schizophrenia had increased pain tolerance (ES = 0.566; 95% CI, 0.235-0.897; P = 0.0001; studies = 6), sensory threshold (ES = 1.16; 95% CI, 0.505-1.727; P < 0.0001; studies = 5), and pain threshold (ES = 0.696; 95% CI, 0.407-0.986; P < 0.001; studies = 9), as well as reduced physiological response to noxious stimuli (ES = 0.456; 95% CI, 0.131-0.783; P = 0.006) and pain intensity/unpleasantness ratings (ES = 0.547; 95% CI, 0.146-0.949; P = 0.008). Findings were similarly significant in antipsychotic-free patients with schizophrenia (analysable parameters = 4) and antipsychotic-treated individuals (analysable parameters = 2). Finally, greater psychiatric symptoms moderated increased pain threshold, and younger patient age moderated increased pain tolerance. Decreased pain sensitivity seems to be an endophenotype of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. How this alteration links to other dimensions of schizophrenia and physical comorbidity-related help-seeking behaviour/morbidity/mortality requires further study.