Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevention of Hepatitis C Virus Infestion in Children with Haemophilia A and B and von Willebrand’s Disease

L0 years. Until L990, in contrast to hepatitis B and HIV where donor screening is available, the lack of a diagnostic test for non-A, non-B hepatitis (NANBH) has prevented the use of such screening to reduce NANBH transmission. In recent studies the overall incidence of anti-HCV in patients treated with various factor VIII or IX concentrates varied from 59% (England) (1), 66% (France) (2),71% (Spain) (3) up to 78% (FRG) (4). TiD achieve virus safety several_ virucidal methods have been introduced into the manufacture of clotting factor concentrates. Among the new generation of virus inactivated factor concentrates we investigated the pasteurised factor VIII (since 1980) and IX (since 1986) concentrates (Haemate HS@, Faktor IX HS@, Behringwerke Marburg). Each blood-donation for these products is screened and proved negative for HBsAg, HIV antibody and normal alanine transaminase (AI-T). All the concentrates used were virus inactivated by pasteurisation (10 h, 60" C, in aqueous solution (5, 6,7). Serum samples were screened for anti-HCV retroand prospectively with the Ortho HCV ELISA test system first generation. Liver enzymes as alanine aminotransferase (AIX), aspartate transaminase (AST) and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (V-GT) were measured 2-18 times/patient per year (median n _ 4) and anti-HCV 2-5 times/patient. We have investigated 98 children suffering from haemophilia A and von Willebrand's disease (n 86) and haemophilia B (n : l2). All patients complied to the inclusion criteria recommended by the International Committee on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (Miami, Florida , 1984) for evaluation of the safety of clotting factor concentrates with respect to hepatitis (8, 9). Twenty-one of the patients were controlled for ALI AST and y-GT according to ICTH protocol (every 2 weeks during the first 4 months and once a month for the next 2 months). In 97 children we observed normal ALI levels during the observation period. Only a single ALI rise (two times normal) was measured in one patient (normal control after 2 weeks). All children remained negative for HCV antibodies (Table 1).
Análise de capacidade do lado aéreo de aeroportos baseada em simulação computacional: aplicação ao Aeroporto de São Paulo - Congonhas.

The Brazilian air traffic has increased significantly in recent years and is expected to increase above the world average for the next two decades, reaching 7,3% per year. Furthermore, major Brazilian airports are already showing signs of congestion and restriction policies are necessary to keep the level of service (LOS) offered to passengers and aircraft above a minimum acceptable. This work presents a methodology based on simulation models to analyze the capacity of the airside of airports. Its purpose is to determine the maximum flow of traffic while keeping LOS above a minimum level, leading to acceptable delays for aircraft waiting in line for takeoff. To develop the study, Visual SIMMOD software was used and the proposed methodology was applied to Sao Paulo – Congonhas Airport. The simulation results show that the airport is saturated with a volume of air traffic that leads to an inadequate LOS. To achieve an adequate LOS, a reduction in traffic is needed. Other simulation scenarios show that the LOS can be improved with changes in ATC procedures involving separations in takeoffs and approaches, and also the replacement of turbo prop aircraft by jets.
Treadmill training with partial body weight support compared with conventional gait training for low-functioning children and adolescents with nonspastic cerebral palsy: A two-period crossover study

Background: Partial body weight-supported treadmill training has been shown to be effective in gait training for patients with neurological disorders such as spinal cord injuries and stroke. Recent applications on children with cerebral palsy were reported, mostly on spastic cerebral palsy with single subject design. There is lack of evidence on the effectiveness of such training for nonspastic cerebral palsy, particularly those who are low functioning with limited intellectual capacity. Objectives: This study evaluated the effectiveness of partial body weight-supported treadmill training for improving gross motor skills among these clients. Study design: A two-period randomized crossover design with repeated measures. Methods: A crossover design following an A–B versus a B–A pattern was adopted. The two training periods consisted of 12-week partial body weight-supported treadmill training (Training A) and 12-week conventional gait training (Training B) with a 10-week washout in between. Ten school-age participants with nonspastic cerebral palsy and severe mental retardation were recruited. The Gross Motor Function Measure-66 was administered immediately before and after each training period. Results: Significant improvements in dimensions D and E of the Gross Motor Function Measure-66 and the Gross Motor Ability Estimator were obtained. Conclusions: Our findings revealed that the partial body weight-supported treadmill training was effective in improving gross motor skills for low-functioning children and adolescents with nonspastic cerebral palsy. Clinical relevance Our preliminary findings demonstrated that partial body weight-supported treadmill training was a treatment of choice for improving gross motor functioning related to standing and ambulation for low-functioning children and adolescents with nonspastic cerebral palsy and limited intellectual capacity.
Chemical variation of clinopyroxene phenocrysts from the trachybasaltic lavas of Mount Etna, Sicily

Summary The chemical variation of clinopyroxene phenocrysts from the trachybasaltic lavas of Etna volcano is described. The phenocrysts show a limited, but distinct trend in chemical variation from calcic-augite in the hawaiites to augite in the benmoreites. The trend of this variation is unusual, being one of Mg-enrichment with differentiation of the magma. Ca shows a steady decrease in the clinopyroxenes from the hawaiites to the benmoreites. Na, however, shows little chemical variation in the pyroxenes. The trace element chemistry is briefly examined. The clinopyroxenes show well-developed oscillatory and sector zoning. The basal {11} sectors are enriched in Si and Mg and depleted in Ti, Al, and Fe relative to the {100}, {110}, and {010} prism sectors.
Constraints on the sensitivity and specificity of "logically" merged test results.

Constraints on the Sensitivity and Specificity of "Logically Merged Test Results In their comparison of serum thyrogjobulin (Tg) assay and l wholebody scan (WBS) for the assessment of patients after thyroidectomy for differentiated thyroid carcinoma (J), Ronga and colleagues reported that combining the results of these two tests increased both sensitivity and specificity relative to the values obtained with Tg alone. Although the authors did not state the method they used in merging the results of the two tests to arrive at an overall diagnosis, scrutiny of their Figure 4 reveals that the overall result was taken to be "positive" if either or both of the tests was positive. This "OR rule" is an example of "logical" merging, in which a decision is based on an "if . then"
Statolith identification of Mediterranean Octopodidae, Sepiidae, Loliginidae, Ommastrephidae and Enoploteuthidae based on warp analyses

The statoliths of 14 species (193 right statoliths from subadult to adult individuals), belonging to five Cephalopoda families (Sepiidae, Loliginidae, Enoploteuthidae, Ommastrephidae and Octopodidae) were analysed using morphometric methods based on landmarks (geometric morphometry). The aim of the current study is to determine the discriminating power of statolith shape analysis in species identification of Mediterranean cephalopods. Discriminant analyses of the partial warps were able to fully identify (100% discrimination) the species of all families, except Octopodidae which showed some misclassification (correctly classified about 68–90%). These results were also shown by relative warp analysis. Octopodidae statoliths were studied for the first time using geometric landmark-based methods. Greatest differences in statolith shape between Octopodidae species, were in the area that unites the statolith dome with the flat wing. Landmark analysis applied to statoliths can be a useful taxonomic tool in the identification of closely related species.
Relieving Both Storage and Recovery Burdens in Big Data Clusters with R-STAIR Codes

Enterprise storage clusters increasingly adopt erasure coding to protect stored data against transient and permanent failures. Existing erasure code designs not only introduce extra parity information in a storage-inefficient manner, but also consume substantial cross-rack recovery bandwidth. To relieve both storage and recovery burdens of erasure coding, we adapt our previously proposed STAIR codes into recovery-oriented STAIR (R-STAIR) codes, which achieve storage efficiency, recovery efficiency, and configuration generality against a mix of node and rack failures. We evaluate R-STAIR codes through analysis and Hadoop experiments. We show that by supporting mixed fault tolerance, R-STAIR codes can significantly reduce both storage and recovery burdens in storage clusters.
Caracterização do Comportamento Caótico da Variabilidade da Frequência Cardíaca (VFC) em Jovens Saudáveis

A analise da variabilidade da frequencia cardiaca (VFC) e uma tecnica utilizada na avaliacao do comportamento do sistema nervoso autonomo (SNA) que tem emergido como uma medida simples e nao-invasiva dos impulsos autonomicos. Neste trabalho utilizamos tecnicas da teoria dos sistemas dinâmicos nao-lineares, incluindo a teoria do caos, no estudo de series temporais da frequencia cardiaca de jovens saudaveis com o objetivo de caracterizar o possivel comportamento caotico da VFC. Foram analisadas series de intervalos RR de 10 voluntarios saudaveis, na faixa etaria de 18 a 22 anos. Os indices nao-lineares calculados sugerem o possivel comportamento caotico das series analisadas.
Sodium transport in the hen lower intestine. induction of sodium sites in the brush border by a low sodium diet.

1. The fluxes of Na were measured on isolated coprodeal mucosa at 1‐‐220 mM‐Na from hens on low (L) and high (H) Na diets with the purpose of finding the location and characteristics of Na sites activated in the cellular pathway by L. 2. The influx across the brush border, JNamc, and the transmural fluxes, JNasm and JNams, were determined. Effects on these fluxes of ouabain, 10(‐3) M in the serosal solution, and amiloride, 10(‐4) M in the mucosal solution, were studied for both dietary states. 3. JNamc was 5‐‐22 (L) and 0‐‐0.8 (H) muequiv/cm2.hr at 130 mM‐Na corrected for the paracellular flux of Na. The JNamc (H) is tenfold smaller than found by Choshniak, Munck & Skadhauge (1977). This discrepancy is at present inexplicable. Amiloride completely inhibited JNamc (L). Preincubation in 0 or 130 mM‐Na had no effect on JNamc. Ouabain reduced JNamc (L) by only about 37% after preincubation at 130 mM‐Na. The Kt of JNamc was 5.1 (L) and 50.6 (H) mM‐Na. 4. JNasm was 50 (H) and 61 (L) n‐equiv/cm2.hr at 6.5 mM‐Na. Ouabain increased JNasm by 360% in the low Na state. The increased JNasm was inhibited 74‐‐100% by amiloride. This is interpreted as a ouabain induced Na‐Na exchange at the basolateral Na‐K‐ATPase and an almost complete block of JNacm by amiloride. A similar exchange of Na at the basolateral membrane in the high‐Na state was revealed by 'opening' the brush border for Na with monensin added to the mucosal solution. Amiloride in itself prevented a 50% recirculation of Na via the paracellular route and back across the cells in the low Na state. 5. JNams was 5.6 (L) muequiv/cm2.hr and 187 (L) microA/cm2 at 6.5 mM‐Na. Amiloride reduced these values to 0.4 muequiv/cm2.hr and 5.8 microA/cm2. On addition of amiloride the transmural resistance in (L) coprodea at 130 mM‐Na increased from 140 to 190 and it remained unchanged at 260 omega cm2 in (H) coprodea. The resistance of (L) birds, 163, was not affected by ouabain, 166 (L) omega cm2. 6. 20:1 NaCl dilution potentials at the mucosal side of 17‐‐18 mV (L) and nearly zero (H) had half‐times around 1 sec. Amiloride eliminated completely these diffusion potentials. The short half‐time indicates a location in the brush border of sodium specific sites induced by the low‐Na diet. This conclusion is oppsite to that described by Choshniak et al. (1977). 7. Ion selectivity, voltage‐‐current and conductance‐‐concentration relations in the presence of amiloride indicated a weakly cation selective and highly hydrated pathway, which was also thick and with neutral sites. This fits a paracellular route with the limiting barrier for ions at the tight junction.
Maximal strength and cortisol responses to psyching-up during the squat exercise

We studied the effect of psyching-up on one-repetition maximum (1-RM) performance and salivary cortisol responses during the squat exercise. Ten men (age 21.6 ± 1.4 years; mean ± s) and ten women (age 22.4 ± 2.8 years) with weight training experience of 4.5 ± 2.0 years participated in this study. One-repetition maximum squats were performed on a Smith machine during each of two different intervention conditions that were counterbalanced and consisted of a free choice psych-up and a cognitive distraction. Saliva samples were obtained at the beginning of each test session and immediately after the final 1-RM attempt. No significant difference in 1-RM was identified between psyching-up (104 ± 50 kg) and cognitive distraction (106 ± 52 kg). Performing a 1-RM in the squat exercise significantly increased salivary cortisol concentrations during both conditions (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in salivary cortisol responses between conditions. These results suggest that psyching-up does not increase 1-RM performance during the squat exercise in strength-trained individuals.
Just-in-Time-Teaching (JiTT) Improves Students' Performance in Classes - Adaptation of JiTT in Four Geography Courses

By constructing “treatment” and “control” groups from existing grade rolls of courses taught with Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) method and traditional lecturing in recent years, this study demonstrates that JiTT improves student performance in classes. First, two groups of students were selected from each of the four different courses taught with JiTT such that the “treatment” group regularly completed warm-up exercises whereas the “control” group did not, but both groups had similar first exam scores. Statistical t-tests show that the “treatment” group had significantly higher overall course grade (by one letter grade on average) than the “control” group. Second, statistical t-test also indicates that students' relative improvement between the last and the first exams in a general education course using JiTT method is significantly higher than that of the same course using traditional lecturing prior to adopting JiTT method. In addition, qualitative surveys of students demonstrate that the majority of the students thought that doing Warm-Up exercises helped their learning, because Warm-Ups made them think about the material before going into lecture and thus made them more aware of and keen to the topics that would be discussed. These consistent results in four different courses over five semesters indicate that JiTT improves students' performance.
Pedestrian Attribute Detection using CNN

Learning to determine the attributes of pedestrian using their far-view field images is a challenging problem in visual surveillance. Many previous works have focused on the problem of pedestrian detection. Traditionally SVMs have been a popular choice for pedestrian attribute recognition, however recently there has been interest in using CNNs for this task. In this project we implement traditional methods like multi-label SVM and softmax classifiers to predict attributes and compare their performance to ConvNets. We propose two models ShallowMAR and ShallowSAR, where ShallowSAR treats the attributes independently, while ShallowMAR considers the attributes in a unified framework allowing to exploit the interdependence between attributes. We experiment with different architectures of convolutional neural networks and try to understand their performance on the PETA dataset, which consists of far-view images of pedestrians.
Timing of ball release in overarm throws affects ball speed in unskilled but not skilled individuals

We tested the hypothesis that variability in the timing of ball release in overarm throws affects ball speed. Nine unskilled and six skilled throwers made 30 throws fast and accurately from a sitting and standing position. Angular positions of finger and arm segments were recorded with search-coils at 1000 Hz; ball speed was measured with a radar gun. The time of ball release from the fingertips was measured with respect to seven arm kinematic reference points. Mean timing windows for ball release were 28 ms for unskilled throwers and 7 ms for skilled throwers. Mixed-model analyses of variance showed that a there was a statistically significant relationship between ball speed and the timing of ball release in unskilled throwers, but not in skilled throwers. This was presumably due to the difference in variability of the timing of ball release between the two groups. In contrast, skilled throwers showed a relationship between ball speed and peak forearm angular velocity (one measure of arm speed). We conclude that although variability in the timing of ball release can affect ball speed, this is only a major factor in unskilled throwers. When skilled throwers throw fast, variability in ball speed is due to variability in arm speed.
Bioinformatics: Genomics and Post-Genomics

Chapter 1. Genome sequencing. 1.1 Automatic sequencing. 1.2 Sequencing strategies. 1.3 Fragmentation strategies. 1.4 Sequence assembly. 1.5 Filling gaps. 1.6 Obstacles to reconstruction. 1.7 Utilizing a complementary 'large' clone library. 1.8 The first large-scale sequencing project: The Haemophilus influenzae genome. 1.9 cDNA and EST. Chapter 2. Sequence comparisons. 2.1 Introduction: Comparison as a sequence prediction method. 2.2 A sample molecule: the human and rosterone receptor. 2.3 Sequence homologies - functional homologies. 2.4 Comparison matrices. 2.5 The problem of insertions and deletions. 2.6 Optimal alignment: the dynamic programming method. 2.7 Fast heuristic methods. 2.8 Sensitivity, specificity, and confidence level. 2.9 Multiple alignments. Chapter 3. Comparative genomics. 3.1 General properties of genomes. 3.2 Genome comparisons. 3.3 Gene evolution and phylogeny: applications to annotation. Chapter 4. Genetic information and biological sequences. 4.1 Introduction: Coding levels. 4.2 Genes and the genetic code. 4.3 Expression signals. 4.4 Specific sites. 4.5 Sites located on DNA. 4.6 Sites present on RNA. 4.7 Pattern detection methods. Chapter 5. Statistics and sequences. 5.1 Introduction. 5.2 Nucleotide base and amino acid distribution. 5.3 The biological basis of codon bias. 5.4 Using statistical bias for prediction. 5.5 Modeling DNA sequences. 5.6 Complex models. 5.7 Sequencing errors and hidden Markov models. 5.8 Hidden Markov processes: a general sequence analysis tool. 5.9 The search for genes - a difficult art. Chapter 6. Structure prediction. 6.1 The structure of RNA. 6.2 Properties of the RNA molecule. 6.3 Secondary RNA structures. 6.4 Thermodynamic stability of RNA structures. 6.5 Finding the most stable structure. 6.6 Validation of predicted secondary structures. 6.7 Using chemical and enzymatic probing to analyze folding. 6.8 Long-distance interactions and three-dimensional structure prediction. 6.9 Protein structure. 6.10 Secondary structure prediction. 6.11 Three-dimensional modeling based on homologous protein structure. 6.12 Predicting folding. Chapter 7. Transcriptome and proteome: macromolecular networks. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 Post-genomic methods. 7.3 Macromolecular networks. 7.4 Topology of macromolecular networks. 7.5 Modularity and dynamics of macromolecular networks. 7.6 Inference of regulatory networks. Chapter 8. Simulation of Biological Processes in the Genome Context. 8.1 Types of simulations. 8.2 Prediction and explanation. 8.3 Simulation of molecular networks. 8.4 Generic post-genomic simulators. Index.
JHU/APL at TREC 2005: QA Retrieval and Robust Tracks

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) focused on the Robust and Question Answering Information Retrieval (QAIR) Tracks at the 2005 TREC conference. For the Robust Track, we attempted to use the difference in retrieval scores between the top retrieved and the 100th document to predict performance; the result was not competitive. For QAIR, we augmented each query with terms that appeared frequently in documents that contained answers to questions from previous question sets; the results showed modest gains from the technique. HAIRCUT The Hopkins Automated Information Retriever for Combing Unstructured Text (HAIRCUT) (3) is a document retrieval system developed at the Applied Physics Laboratory. It uses a traditional inverted index, a unigram language model for its similarity metric (2, 4), and a flexible tokenizer. The tokenizer supports words, stems, character n-grams, word n-grams and phrases. We have focused on language-independent techniques in developing HAIRCUT. It has been evaluated in TREC, CLEF and NTCIR in at least sixteen languages, and routinely performs among the top systems for both monolingual and translingual ad hoc retrieval. Question Answering Information Retrieval Track
Eco-semiotics: A new field of competence for ecology to overcome the frontier between environmental complexity and human culture in the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean region shows unique environmental and ecological characteristics. The observed ecological complexity is the result of a long-lasting and intense co-evolutionary process between human and non-human organisms.Most of the valuable landscapes at the present time are under serious threat from agricultural intensification, land abandonment and forestation, urban sprawl, and mass tourism. The urgency of conservation clashes against these threats.Such complexity of human–nature interactions is best represented by the “full and empty” world ecological model. Cultural landscape and niche construction theories belong to this framework. In turn, perception and cognition are central themes in the definition of such paradigms. This leads ecological research into the field of eco-semiotics, a new scientific perspective that can provide powerful tools for the study of the Mediterranean ecological complexity, as it addresses the interpretation of signs that human and other evolutionary drivers leave in the environment. Such signs are the expression of mutual interactions that shaped patterns and processes in the region.The eco-field paradigm, derived from the eco-semiotic approach, is a theoretical tool that allows one to intercept a portion of such signals to model the relationship between any species and its environment.