Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vaccines for preventing influenza in people with asthma.

BACKGROUND Influenza vaccination is recommended for asthmatic patients in many countries as observational studies have shown that influenza infection can be associated with asthma exacerbations, but influenza vaccination itself has the potential to adversely affect pulmonary function. A recent overview concluded that there was no clear benefit of influenza vaccination in patients with asthma but this conclusion was not based on a systematic search of the literature. OBJECTIVES Whilst influenza may cause asthma exacerbations, there is controversy about the use of influenza vaccinations, since they may precipitate an asthma attack in some people. The objective of this review was to assess the efficacy of influenza vaccination in children and adults with asthma. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Airways Group trials register and checked reference lists of articles. The last search was carried out in February 2003. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised trials of influenza vaccination in children (over two years of age) and adults with asthma. Studies involving people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were excluded. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Inclusion criteria and assessment of trial quality were applied by two reviewers independently. Data extraction was done by two reviewers independently. Study authors were contacted for missing information. MAIN RESULTS Nine trials were initially included. Four of these trials were of high quality. Five further articles have been included in two updates (Bueving 2002; Castro 2001; Redding 2002; Reid 1998). The included studies covered a wide diversity of people, settings and types of influenza vaccination, but data from the more recent studies that used similar vaccines have been pooled. The pooled results of two trials involving 2306 people with asthma did not demonstrate a significant increase in asthma exacerbations in the two weeks following influenza vaccination (Risk Difference 0.00; 95% confidence interval -0.02 to 0.02). A recent study on 696 children with asthma did not demonstrate a significant reduction in influenza related asthma exacerbations (Risk Difference 0.01; 95% confidence interval -0.02 to 0.04). REVIEWERS' CONCLUSIONS Evidence from recently published trials indicates that there is no significant increase in asthma exacerbations immediately after vaccination (at least with inactivated influenza vaccination); however, uncertainty remains about the degree of protection vaccination affords against asthma exacerbations that are related to influenza infection.
HMG1-related DNA-binding protein isolated with V-(D)-J recombination signal probes

In order to isolate cDNA clones for DNA-binding components of the V-(D)-J recombinase, phage libraries from a pre-B-cell line were screened with a radiolabeled probe containing recombination signal sequences (RSS). Among prospective clones, cDNA T160 was analyzed further. It produced a protein of 80.6 kDa which bound to DNA containing RSS but not to DNA in which the RSS had been mutated. A search of a data base revealed that the T160 protein has significant sequence homology (56%) to the nonhistone chromosomal protein HMG1 within the C-terminal region of 80 amino acids. DNA-binding analysis with truncated proteins showed that the HMG homology region is responsible for DNA binding. Using restriction fragment length polymorphisms, the T160 gene was mapped at the proximal end of mouse chromosome 2. Evidence was obtained for genetic linkage between the T160 gene and the recombination activator genes RAG-1 and RAG-2.
Electronic models to simulate the effect of sensory distortions on speech perception by the deaf.

Electronic models that process signals to simulate omissions and distortions in perception by the deaf are useful analytical tools. These models can help in determining the degree to which the represented loss and/or distortion of acoustic speech cues, isolated from any central pathology, affects speech intelligibility. They can also help in evaluating the potential effectiveness of different modes of compensatory signal processing. Three examples of such models, designed on the basis of measured characteristics of the deaf subjects’ residual hearing, are described. A model of recruitment combined with accentuated high‐frequency loss is used to study speech perception in noise. It suggests an explanation for the previously reported ability of sensorineurals to tolerate the masking of speech by white noise at least as well as normals do, and for the special vulnerability of the speech perception of such deaf subjects to masking signals that have the spectral distribution of speech. A second model, that simulates the severely restricted dynamic range of hearing in profound deafness, predicts that this one factor can destroy the intelligibilty of amplified speech by making the perceived sound drop out at frequent intervals. Finally, a model that simulates reduced frequency‐discriminating ability is described, as an example of a model that deals with aspects of perception other than loudness.
Generalizing the Findings From Group Dynamics–Based Physical Activity Research to Practice Settings

The general purpose of this secondary analysis of a prior systematic review was to determine the degree to which group dynamics–based physical activity interventions align with research processes and outcomes that are more likely to facilitate the translation of research into practice. To accomplish this, a systematic search was conducted within Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index, and MEDLINE databases to identify articles published prior to 2010 that used at least one group dynamics–based strategy (e.g., group interaction, group goal setting) in physical activity promotion. These 17 intervention studies were identified and coded based on the reach, effectiveness, adoption, implementation, maintenance framework and Pragmatic–Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summary (for trial design characteristics). Reporting was infrequent for external validity factors (i.e., representativeness, adoption, cost, maintenance) but more frequent for internal validity factors (e.g., inclusion criteria). Intervention costs were not reported. Studies were more likely to be pragmatic (i.e., designed to determine the effects of an intervention under the usual conditions in which it will be applied) in areas of participant compliance and practitioner adherence and explanatory (i.e., designed to determine the effects of an intervention under ideal conditions) and in areas of practitioner expertise and flexibility of intervention protocol. While a number of these interventions were tested in more pragmatic settings, external validity factors were still underreported.
Discharge Study of Argon DC Arc Jet Assisted by DBD Plasma for Metal Surface Treatment

An argon dc arc jet assisted by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma was studied for discharge interaction between two plasmas and metal of plasma surface treatment at atmospheric pressure. While operating conditions of the dc arc jet were retained, DBD plasma was operated by changing the applied DBD voltage amplitudes (VDBD) between 6 and 12 kVpp to investigate the effect of DBD plasma addition to the dc arc jet on the changes of discharge structure and copper surface energy. By igniting the dc arc jet with DBD plasma, a glow plasma column is formed between the dc arc jet tail and the upper region of the DBD reactor, which transfers electrons and ions provided by the dc arc jet. From the correlation between maximum charge quantity (Qmax) and applied DBD voltage amplitude, the degree of activation of DBD plasma corresponding to the luminescent intensity is proportional to the Qmax. DBD plasma with the dc arc jet has the maximum of Qmax value at VDBD = 10 kVpp, then the dc arc jet assisted by DBD plasma becomes the most active. Based on the discharge property investigation, copper surface energy is effectively increased up to 127% at 10 kVpp using the dc arc jet assisted by DBD plasma, compared with using the dc arc jet alone.
The T‐13910C polymorphism in the lactase phlorizin hydrolase gene is associated with differences in serum calcium levels and calcium intake

The C‐variant of a T‐13910C polymorphism (rs4988235; NT_022135.15:g.25316568G > A) upstream of the lactase phlorizin hydrolase (LPH) gene causes lactose intolerance. Association studies with differences in bone parameters and fracture risk have been inconclusive. The objective of this study was to examine the association of LPH rs4988235 with body height and bone parameters and calcium homeostasis in two elderly populations of Dutch Caucasians and assess interaction with vitamin D receptor (VDR) polymorphisms. Genotyping of LPH and VDR polymorphisms was performed in 6367 individuals from the Rotterdam Study and 844 from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA). Associations with age, height, weight, bone mineral density (BMD), skeletal morphometric parameters and serum vitamin D and calcium levels, and dietary calcium intake were assessed using ANOVA or analysis of covariance, and allele dose effect was assessed using linear regression analysis. Fracture risk was analyzed using Cox's proportional hazard regression analysis. Associations with body height (p = 2.7 × 10−8) and vertebral area (p = .048) found in the Rotterdam Study were explained by population stratification, as assessed by principal‐component analyses, and disappeared after additional adjustments. No associations with femoral neck or lumbar spine BMD or with fracture risk were detected. Calcium intake and serum ionized serum calcium were significantly lower in C‐homozygotes (p = 9.2 × 10−7, p = .02, respectively). For none of the parameters studied was interaction between the T‐13910C polymorphism and VDR block 5 haplotype 1 observed. We show that the C allele of the T‐13910C polymorphism causing lactose intolerance is associated with lower dietary calcium intake and serum calcium levels but not with BMD or fractures. The associations observed with height and vertebral area were the result of population stratification. This demonstrates the impact of population stratification and urges researchers to carefully take this into account in genetic associations, in particular, in dietary intake–related phenotypes, of which LPH and lactose intolerance are a strong example. © 2010 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
A Single-Polarity Piezoresistive Three-Dimensional Stress-Sensing Rosette

This letter presents a study on the feasibility of a new approach for developing a piezoresistive (PR) stress-sensing rosette that is capable of extracting the six stress components with temperature compensation using single-polarity sensing elements (n-type only). Current publicly available PR 3-D stress rosettes extract only four temperature-compensated stresses using a dual-polarity (n- and p-type) rosette. Our proposed approach generates a new set of independent equations based on varying the impurity concentration of the sensing elements and utilizes the distinct properties of the shear PR coefficient (π44) in n-Si. Fabrication of a single-polarity rosette requires less equipment compared to that of a dual-polarity rosette and helps reduce the footprint of the rosette.
Examining Challenges in IT Service Desk System and Processes: A Case Study

The adoption of IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) framework is a challenging task for many IT service provider organizations. Many government organizations in Finland have also started to use ITIL and need help in configuring tools and defining processes. The research problem of this study is: What types of challenges exist in the IT service provider's customer support? The main contribution of this paper is to present challenges on IT service support of Finnish Tax Administration. Keywords-incident management; service support; IT service. I. INTRODUCTION
Accounting for the uncertainty of speech estimates in the context of model-based feature enhancement

In this paper we present two techniques to cover the gap between the true and the estimated clean speech features in the context of Model-Based Feature Enhancement (MBFE) for noise robust speech recognition. While in the output of every feature enhancement algorithm some residual uncertainty remains, currently this information is mostly discarded. Firstly, we explain how the generation of not only a global MMSEestimate of clean speech, but also several alternative (stateconditional) estimates are supplied to the back-end for recognition. Secondly, we explore the benefits of calculating the variance of the front-end estimate and incorporating this in the acoustic models of the recogniser. Experiments on the Aurora2 task confirmed the superior performance of the resulting system: an average increase in recognition accuracy from 85.65% to 88.50% was obtained for the clean training condition.
Volumetric differences suggest involvement of cerebellum and brainstem in chronic migraine

Background Chronic migraine (CM) is a disabling neurologic condition that often evolves from episodic migraine. There has been mounting evidence on the volumetric changes detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique in migraineurs. These studies mainly focused on episodic migraine patients and less is known about the differences in CM patients. Method A total of 24 CM patients and 24 healthy control individuals (all females) were included in this study. All participants underwent neurological examination and MRI. High-resolution anatomical MRI images were processed with an automated segmentation method (FreeSurfer). White-matter abnormalities of the brain were also evaluated with the Age-Related White-Matter-Changes Scale. Results The volumes of the cerebellum and brainstem were found to be smaller in CM patients compared to healthy controls. White-matter abnormalities were also found in CM patients, speciﬁcally in the bilateral parieto-occipital areas. There was no correlation between the clinical variables and volume decrease in these regions. Conclusion CM patients showed significant volume differences in infratentorial areas and white-matter abnormalities in the posterior part of the brain. It is currently unclear whether the structural brain changes seen in migraine patients are the cause or the result of headaches. Longitudinal volumetric neuroimaging studies with larger groups, especially on the chronification of migraine, are needed to shed light on this topic.
Comparing the simulated and measured results of a pneumatically controlled antenna

The simulated and measured results of a reconfigurable antenna with switchable polarization, using pneumatic control of solid dielectric slugs, are compared. The antenna structure and materials used for fabrication are described. The realization of each polarization state (LP/LHCP/RHCP), given a specific manipulation of the slug positions, is explained. The gain values, antenna patterns, and axial ratio and impedance bandwidths were found to be very consistent between simulations and measurements.
Effect of Aluminium on Lipid Peroxidation of Human High Density Lipoproteins

We investigated the effect of aluminium (Al 3+ ) on lipid peroxidation and physico-chemical properties of high density lipoproteins (HDL) isolated from human plasma. Our results demonstrated that Al 3+ enhances lipid peroxidation of human HDL as shown by the significant increase in lipid hydroperoxides in Al-treated HDL with respect to control HDL. The oxidative effect was higher at acid pH (pH 5.5) with respect to pH 7.4. Moreover, a stimulating effect of Al 3+ on iron-induced lipid peroxidation of HDL was demonstrated. The study of the effect of Al 3+ on the physico-chemical properties of HDL, using the fluorescence polarization (Pf) of the probes TMA-DPH (1-(4-trimethylammoniumphenyl)-6-phenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene iodide) and DPH (1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene), showed a significant decrease of Pf in Al-treated HDL with respect to control. These results suggest that Al 3+ induces a decrease of molecular order at the lipoprotein surface. Moreover, the study of tryptophan (Trp) fluorescence demonstrated that aluminium induces structural modifications of HDL apoproteins and on HDL physico-chemical properties. The effect of Al 3+ on lipid peroxidation of HDL was observed at aluminium concentrations similar to those observed in the brain of patients affected by neurological diseases. Aluminium-induced oxidative damage of HDL could be involved in the development of neurological diseases.
Open Solution for Humanoid Attitude Estimation through Sensory Integration and Extended Kalman Filtering

In this paper an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is used in order to estimate the real state of a humanoid robot (HRP-2 robot in our case study) using the combination of the information coming from the encoders (kinematics) and from the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU). The integration of the kinematic information into the Kalman filtering process allows a good estimation of the attitude and reduces the complexity of the problem to the use of simple kinematic transformations, even considering the existence of accelerations and mechanical flexibilities in the robot. The EKF estimator presented here is an open solution directly applicable to any humanoid robot, which is the main contribution of our approach. Experimental results are given showing the good performance of the method.
Early Diagnosis of Scrub Typhus with a Rapid Flow Assay Using Recombinant Major Outer Membrane Protein Antigen (r56) ofOrientia tsutsugamushi

ABSTRACT The variable 56-kDa major outer membrane protein of Orientia tsutsugamushi is the immunodominant antigen in human scrub typhus infections. We developed a rapid immunochromatographic flow assay (RFA) for the detection of immunoglobulin M (IgM) and IgG antibodies to O. tsutsugamushi. The RFA employs a truncated recombinant 56-kDa protein from the Karp strain as the antigen. The performance of the RFA was evaluated with a panel of 321 sera (serial bleedings of 85 individuals suspected of scrub typhus) which were collected in the Pescadore Islands, Taiwan, from 1976 to 1977. Among these 85 individuals, IgM tests were negative for 7 cases by both RFA and indirect fluorescence assay (IFA) using Karp whole-cell antigen. In 29 cases specific responses were detected by the RFA earlier than by IFA, 44 cases had the same detection time, and 5 cases were detected earlier by IFA than by RFA. For IgG responses, 4 individuals were negative with both methods, 37 cases exhibited earlier detection by RFA than IFA, 42 cases were detected at the same time, and 2 cases were detected earlier by IFA than by RFA. The sensitivities of RFA detection of antibody in sera from confirmed cases were 74 and 86% for IgM and IgG, respectively. When IgM and IgG results were combined, the sensitivity was 89%. A panel of 78 individual sera collected from patients with no evidence of scrub typhus was used to evaluate the specificity of the RFA. The specificities of the RFA were 99% for IgM and 97% for IgG. The sensitivities of IFA were 53 and 73% for IgM and IgG, respectively, and were 78% when the results of IgM and IgG were combined. The RFA test was significantly better than the IFA test for the early detection of antibody to scrub typhus in primary infections, while both tests were equally sensitive with reinfected individuals.
Increasing the frequency of T‐cell precursors specific for a cryptic epitope of hen‐egg lysozyme converts it to an immunodominant epitope

Efforts to understand the mechanisms that govern how immunodominant T‐cell epitopes are selected from protein antigens have focused mostly on differences in the efficiency of processing and presentation of peptide/major histocompatibility complex (MHC) complexes by antigen‐presenting cells, while little attention has been directed at the role of the T‐cell repertoire. In this report, the influence of the T‐cell repertoire on immunodominance was investigated using transgenic mice that express the β chain from a T‐cell receptor specific for a cryptic Ek restricted epitope of hen‐egg lysozyme, HEL85‐96. In these mice, the frequency of HEL85‐96‐specific T‐cell precursors is increased 10–20‐fold over non‐transgenic mice. Transgenic mice respond as well as non‐transgenic controls to intact HEL, even though they respond poorly or not at all to a variety of other antigens, including the dominant H‐2k restricted epitopes of HEL. Following immunization with native HEL, the only HEL peptide that could recall a response in vitro in the transgenic mice was HEL85‐96. Therefore, this normally cryptic epitope is the sole immunodominant epitope in the transgenic mice, and this alteration in immune response is due solely to an increase in the frequency of specific T‐cell precursors. An analysis of four additional H‐2k restricted cryptic epitopes of HEL suggests that three are similarly limited by T‐cell frequency, and that only one is consistent with a defect in efficient antigen presentation. This indicates that there are at least two different types of cryptic epitopes, one in which crypticity is caused by inefficient processing or presentation, and another in which the frequency of specific T‐cell progenitors is limiting.
A novel zoometric index for assessing body composition in adult rabbits

Obesity is an emerging problem in domesticated rabbits, and an easy-to-use measure of adipose tissue mass is needed. The current study aimed to develop a zoometric ratio, capable of estimating body condition in rabbits. Body weight (BW), body condition score (BCS), and zoometric measures (distal forelimb length, DFL; vertebral length, VL were measured in 150 pet rabbits. Zoometric formulae were created, combining BW with a zoometric measure, and these were tested for their ability to predict adipose tissue mass judged by BCS. Seventy-five (50 per cent) of the rabbits were in ideal condition (BCS 2.5–3.5), 52 (35 per cent) were overweight (BCS>3.5), and 23 (15 per cent) were underweight (BCS<2.5). Median (range) DFL and VL measurements were 12.1 (8.8–16.4 cm) and 34.0 (26.5–50.5 cm), respectively. In rabbits of medium breed size, the BW/DFL ratio was most strongly associated with BCS (Kendall's τ 0.80, P<0.001). Using BW/DFL limits for optimum body condition (eg, minimum 0.16; maximum 0.21), all underweight and overweight rabbits were correctly classified, while only 2/61 (3 per cent) rabbits with an optimum BCS were incorrectly classified as overweight. This study provides preliminary evidence that the BW/DFL might be a useful indirect measure of adipose tissue mass in rabbits of medium breed size.
Working in the Office of "Real Soon Now"

The "Office of Real Soon Now" is an ongoing experiment to see what it's like to use large-screen projection as our only computer display. We say "Real Soon Now" to contrast our experiment with the "Office of the Future", a project at the University of North Carolina that's building a much more sophisticated, laboratory-based environment in which multiple projectors seamlessly blend to display on most of the office surfaces. Our systems aren't nearly that fancy. Our idea was to experiment with systems we could build and operate within days. In our "Real Soon Now" offices, we use large-screen projection instead of conventional monitors. We've been using these systems for more than a year, and we'll never go back.