Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Biological variation and reference change values of CA 19‐9, CEA, AFP in serum of healthy individuals

Objective. The use of tumour markers in diagnosis and monitoring is very common. Tumour marker results vary – preanalytical sources of variation, total random analytical error (CVa), and within‐subject (intraindividual) normal biological variation. There are not so many studies evaluating the biological variations and reference change values (RCV) of these parameters. The aim of our study was to assess: (i) the average inherent intra‐ and inter‐individual biological variation (CVi and CVg) for CA 19‐9, CEA, AFP in a group of healthy individuals; (ii) the significance of changes in serial results of each marker; and (iii) the index of individuality. Material and methods. The study group comprised 49 healthy volunteers ranging in age between 18 and 60 years (25 M and 24 F). Four blood samples were obtained from each subject; one at each 14‐day interval. Each sample from one individual was assayed in duplicate. CA 19‐9, CEA, AFP levels were measured by an immunoluminometric assay on a random‐access analyser (Architect i2000; Abbott Diagnostics Division). The intra‐ (CVi) and inter‐individual (CVg) biological variations were estimated from the data generated. Reference change value (RCV) was calculated. Results. The intra‐individual/inter‐individual biological variations (CVs) for CA 19‐9, CEA, AFP were 27.2/64.24 %, 30.87/37.14 % and 26.67/43.65 %, respectively. The critical differences (RCVs) of CA 19‐9, CEA, AFP were 64.71 %, 72.57 % and 62.62 %, respectively (Z = 1.65 for unidirectional changes; p<0.05). Conclusions. Intra‐individual biological variation contributes to the variation in serial results and should therefore be included in the criteria for serum tumour marker assessment.
The role of sociocultural information in mental health intake sessions.

BACKGROUND Clinicians are advised to provide culturally competent care but little is known about how this directive translates into clinical practice. we investigated how this directive was implemented by describing how clinicians utilize sociocultural (SC) information, and how it impacts the clinical encounter. METHOD Data were collected in clinics in the Northeast of the U.S. Clients (N=129) and clinicians (N=47) participated in three components of the study: videotaping of the clinical intake, a qualitative interview, and reporting on sociodemographics. thematic analysis of interviews was conducted using NVivo7. RESULTS Clinicians used sociocultural information to understand clients' clinical presentation; inform diagnosis; differentiate psychopathology from contextual circumstances that influence behavior; create empathy; and individuate clients. LIMITATIONS Since the study only included data from public clinics, the results may not generalize to other settings. CONCLUSIONS Integrating SC information appears critical to client engagement and to bonding between client and clinician, particularly for diverse populations utilizing public clinics.
Wide dynamic range current-to-voltage converters

Current-to-voltage converters often need to have a wide dynamic range and a high sensitivity. We propose a method to design such converters. The conversion is made to comprise a nonlinear compression applied to the DC component of the input current and a high gain conversion to the signal one. It is performed by a low-pass current filter and current-dependent resistances. The current filter is used to extract the DC current from the input. This DC current is then converted, with a compression, into a voltage biasing the devices that make the signal conversion. In this way, the circuit bias and the conversion of the small signal are made input-current-adaptive. A CMOS converter has been designed with this method. The simulation results show that is able to operate over a dynamic range of 4 decades.
Associations Between Abnormal Ultrasound Color Doppler Measures and Tendon Pain Symptoms in Badminton Players During a Season

Background: Color Doppler ultrasound is widely used to examine intratendinous flow in individuals with overuse tendon problems, but the association between color Doppler and pain is still unclear. Hypothesis: Intratendinous flow is present and associated with pain in badminton players, and intratendinous flow and pain increase during a badminton season. Study Design: Cohort study (prognosis); Level of evidence, 2. Methods: Ninety-five semiprofessional badminton players were included in the study at a tournament at the start of the badminton season. All players were interviewed regarding pain. The anterior knee tendons and Achilles tendons were studied. Each tendon was scored using a quantitative grading system (grades 0-5) and a qualitative scoring system (color fraction) using color Doppler ultrasound. Eight months later, 86 of the players (91%) were retested by the same investigators during an equivalent badminton tournament (including 1032 tendon regions; 86 players with 4 tendons each with 3 regions), thus forming the study group. Results: At the start of the season, 24 players (28%) experienced pain in 37 tendons (11%), and at the end of the season, 31 players (36%) experienced pain in 51 tendons (15%), which was a statistically significant increase (P = .0002). Abnormal flow was found in 230 tendon regions in 71 players (83%) at the start of the season compared with 78 tendon regions in 41 players (48%) at the follow-up. The decrease in abnormal flow was statistically significant (P < .0001). Of the 37 painful tendons at the start of the season, 25 had abnormal flow (68%). In contrast, 131 tendons (85%) with abnormal flow at the start of the season were pain free. At the end of the season, 18 of the 51 painful tendons (35%) had abnormal flow. Ninety-six of the 131 pain-free tendons (73%) with abnormal flow at the start of the season were normalized (no pain and normal flow) at the end of the season. Conclusion: It was not possible to verify any association between intratendinous flow and pain at the start of the season or at the follow-up (end of the season). Intratendinous flow at the start of the season could not predict symptomatic outcome at the end of the season. The decrease in Doppler flow during the season might suggest that intratendinous flow could be part of a physiological adaptive response to loading and that intratendinous flow as previously believed is not always a sign of pathological changes.
Microbiologic Identification of Bleb-related Delayed-onset Endophthalmitis Caused by Moraxella Species

PurposeTo report the clinical presentation and outcome of delayed-onset endophthalmitis caused by Moraxella species and to evaluate the eubacterial polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in aqueous humor samples for the microbiologic diagnosis. Patients and MethodsSeven patients with bleb-related delayed onset-endophthalmitis caused by Moraxella were included in a prospective multicenter study (FRIENDS group, 2004 to 2005). Eubacterial PCR followed by direct sequencing and conventional cultures were carried out on aqueous humor samples taken before the first intravitreal antibiotic injection and on vitreous samples taken during pars plana vitrectomy. ResultsAll cases were postoperative (5 after filtering surgery and 2 inadvertent filtering blebs). The mean delay of onset of endophthalmitis was 41.3 months±30.4 (SD) (range, 2.4 to 84.8) after surgery. Initial visual acuity was limited to light perception for 3 patients, hand motions for 2 patients, count fingers for 1 patient, and 20/125 for 1 patient. Functional recovery was variable with final visual acuity ranging from no light perception to 20/25. The eubacterial PCR carried out on aqueous humor provided microbiologic identification in all cases, whereas the cultures were negative in 6 of 7 cases. The eubacterial PCR performed on vitreous samples of 3 vitrectomized patients, after 2 intravitreal injections of antibiotics, identified Moraxella in 2 patients, whereas cultures were negative in all cases. ConclusionsDelayed-onset endophthalmitis caused by Moraxella occurs predominantly after a bleb-related infection. PCR is a more sensitive technique for the microbiologic diagnosis in this context than conventional culture.
Lateral position and interaural discrimination.

Experimental results are described for the dependence on interaural stimulus parameters of subjective lateral‐position matches and just‐noticeable differences (jnd’s) in interaural amplitude and time. All experiments employed 500‐Hz tones presented through acoustically monitored headphones. The overall amplitudes of the stimuli were iteratively adjusted to eliminate subjective loudness cues in the interaural‐amplitude jnd experiments. Performance in the experiments is analyzed within the framework of a probabilistic lateralization model in which internal noise is explicitly treated. The model predicts a specific relation between position matches and the interaural amplitude and time jnd’s. The data are qualitatively consistent with the predictions, and the quantitative agreement is good for one subject, moderate for the second, and poor for the third. In particular, the model predicts the observed asymmetry in the dependence of the interaural‐time jnd on interaural time delay for nonunity interaural ampli.
Field‐scale Variations in Plant and Grasshopper Communities: A GIS‐based Assessment

GIS technology allowed us to examine species‐specific occurrence and abundance patterns of important grassland herbivore species through the use of appropriate statistical methods and the superior spatial representation commonly available in existing GIS packages. The study was conducted on a 254 ha grassland area located 10 km south of Three Forks, Gallatin County, Montana, in the Agropyron spicatum province of the western steppe region of the U.S.A. From an ecological perspective, grasshopper species distribution and abundance patterns observed on a local, non‐uniform landscape (2.6 km 2) were consistent with results found in other studies at the valley (≈1,400 km 2) and state‐level (≈237,000 km 2) scales. Our observations at the local scale further demonstrate the importance of vegetation type and specific local stand physiognomies in structuring grasshopper populations. The application of results from studies conducted at various scales to the development of decision support tools for resource managers is also discussed.
One-year randomized controlled trial with different physical-activity programs to reduce musculoskeletal symptoms in the neck and shoulders among office workers.

OBJECTIVES This study evaluates the effect of two different worksite physical-activity interventions on neck-shoulder symptoms, together with perceived work ability and sick leave among office workers. METHODS An examiner-blinded randomized controlled trial was conducted with 549 office workers allocated to one of three intervention groups: one with specific resistance training (SRT) of the neck-shoulder region (N=180), one with all-round physical exercise (APE) (N=187), and one which acted as a reference group, which was informed about general health-promoting activities but did not include a physical activity program (N=182). Questionnaires were filled out at baseline and after 1 year of training. RESULTS The duration and intensity of neck and shoulder symptoms was lower after the specified worksite physical-activity interventions than in the reference group. On an intervention group level, SRT was not more effective than APE in reducing the duration and intensity of neck and shoulder symptoms. However, those asymptomatic at baseline had a significant lower prevalence of neck-shoulder symptoms at follow-up when allocated to the SRT group than placed in the APE group or reference group. At baseline the work ability index (WAI) was close to 90% of the maximum score, and the mean sick leave was 5 days per year, both being unaffected by the interventions. CONCLUSIONS Different physical-activity interventions were successful in reducing neck-shoulder symptoms, and SRT was superior to APE in the primary prevention of such symptoms. The initially relatively high WAI was the most probable reason for no further increase in WAI. Likewise the mean sick leave the year before the intervention was very low, and it was probably not possible to reduce it further.
Frameworks for the Flexible Utilization of Local Features in Image Analysis

A great number of Image Processing and Recognition Methods, software programs and systems have been proposed or developed all over the world. Some of them deal with image processing itself, whereas others focus on the recognition or further understanding. Image Recognition and Understanding, however, has remained a quite difficult field to be tackled with. The research in this thesis places much emphasis on constructing a flexible image analysis system which utilizes local features efficiently. A framework for flexible feature description, a framework for performing image processing and further recognition tasks according to description of features, and a framework for flexible control of these processes are investigated in this research. Parallelism of execution is also an important factor in considering image analysis, since image analysis has a considerable degree of potential parallelism in many forms (spatial parallelism, etc.). Therefore, the realization of parallel execution of image analysis is also focused on. The research presented in this thesis includes two systems for Image Processing and Recognition. In the first part of this thesis, a system for recognizing overlapping two-dimensional objects (RTS) is described which proposes a methodology for recognizing scenes where already known objects are partially occluded. A method for recognizing the objects by integrating locally residing features that were detected from an image is described in this part. In the second part of this thesis, a system (PAFE) for feature extraction which provides a flexible platform for defining structural features as well as primitive features is proposed for the realization of parallel execution of the feature extraction
Efficient Class I Major Histocompatibility Complex Down-Regulation by Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Nef Is Associated with a Strong Selective Advantage in Infected Rhesus Macaques

ABSTRACT Substitution of Y223F disrupts the ability of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) Nef to down-modulate major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I from the cell surface but has no effect on other Nef functions, such as down-regulation of CD4, CD28, and CD3 cell surface expression or stimulation of viral replication and enhancement of virion infectivity. Inoculation of three rhesus macaques with the SIVmac239 Y223F-Nef variant revealed that this point mutation consistently reverts and that Nef activity in MHC class I down-modulation is fully restored within 4 weeks after infection. Our results demonstrate a strong selective pressure for a tyrosine at amino acid position 223 in SIV Nef, and they constitute evidence that Nef-mediated MHC class I down-regulation provides a selective advantage for viral replication in vivo.
URN Syntax

Uniform Resource Names (URNs) are intended to serve as persistent, location-independent, resource identifiers. This document sets forward the canonical syntax for URNs. A discussion of both existing legacy and new namespaces and requirements for URN presentation and transmission are presented. Finally, there is a discussion of URN equivalence and how to determine it.
An intelligent solar ecosystem with electric vehicles

A self-contained solar electric vehicle ecosystem is proposed to address the need for environmental and utility friendly electric vehicle charging stations necessary to support wide scale adoption of electric vehicles. These stations will require the use of a master controller that will allow for electric vehicles to be charged with minimal impact to the utility grid while reducing the carbon footprint of the vehicle owners through the use of solar power. As more electric vehicles take to the road, utilities are faced with the challenge of being able to handle the increased load without having to make major changes to the existing electrical infrastructure.
60-GHz multi-layer multi-beam slotted waveguide array made by diffusion bonding technique

A novel multi-beam antenna based on a 4-way Butler matrix with side lobe level control is proposed in the 60-GHz band. The side lobe level is controlled using a dedicated circuit. This dual-layer antenna is made by hollow waveguides and is assembled using diffusion bonding technique. The radiating part is a compact array of ridged waveguides designed to avoid appearance of grating lobes in the visible range for large scanning angles. The antenna field of view is ± 43° with side lobes lower than -17.5dB over the entire scanning range. The reflection bandwidth for VSWR <;2 is larger than 6.5%. At the design frequency, the measured conductor losses of the antenna are estimated lower than 0.64 dB for each port.
Resolution of Optimization Problems and Construction of Efficient Portfolios: An Application to the Euro Stoxx 50 Index

We assess the effectiveness of various portfolio optimization strategies (only long allocations) applied to the components of the Euro Stoxx 50 index during the period 2002-2015. The sample under study contemplates episodes of high volatility and instability in financial markets, such as the Global Financial Crisis and the European Debt Crisis. This implies a real challenge in portfolio optimization strategies, since all the methodologies used are restricted to the assignment of positive weights. We use the daily returns for the asset allocation with a three year estimation window, keeping the assets in portfolio for one year.In the context of strategies with short-selling constraints, we contribute to the debate on whether naive diversification proves to be an effective alternative for the construction of the portfolio, as opposed to the portfolio optimization models. To that end, we analyse the out-of-sample performance of 16 strategies for the selection of assets and weights in the main stock index of the euro area. Our results suggest that a large number of strategies outperform both the naive strategy and the Euro Stoxx 50 index in terms of the profitability and Sharpe's ratio. Furthermore, the portfolio strategy based on the maximization of the diversification ratio provides the highest return and the classical strategy of mean-variance renders the highest Sharpe ratio, which is statistically different from the Euro Stoxx 50 index in the period under study.
Diagnosis of Breast Cancer using Decision Tree Data Mining Technique

is a big issue all around the world. It is a disease, which is fatal in many cases and has affected the lives of many and will continue to affect the lives of many more. Breast cancer represents the second primary cause of cancer deaths in women today and has become the most common cancer among women both in the developed and the developing world in the last years. 40,000 women die in a year from this disease, which is one woman every 13 minute dying from this disease everyday. Early detection of breast cancer is far easier to cure. This paper presents a decision tree based data mining technique for early detection of breast cancer. Breast cancer diagnosis differentiates benign (lacks ability to invade neighboring tissue) from malignant (ability to invade neighboring tissue) breast tumors. This paper also discusses various data mining approaches that have been utilized for breast cancer diagnosis, and also summarizes breast cancer in general (types, risk factors, symptoms and treatment).
Age and gender differences in school-age children's appraisals of injury risk.

OBJECTIVE To examine age and gender differences in children's perception of injury risk and to evaluate cognitive factors that relate to their appraisal of risk. METHODS The participants were 120 children (6 to 10 years of age), who used a series of photographs, which depicted play activities that varied from no to high risk, to appraise injury risk. RESULTS Children were able to distinguish varying degrees of injury risk. Boys rated risk as lower than girls, and 6-year-old children identified fewer risk factors and did so more slowly than 10-year-old children. For girls, perceived vulnerability to injury was the best predictor of injury risk ratings, whereas for boys it was judged severity of potential injury. CONCLUSIONS Children's appraisal of risk and age and gender differences in related factors highlight important components for injury prevention programs.
Objective Measurement of Physical Activity in Youth: Current Issues, Future Directions

TROST, S.G. Objective measurement of physical activity in youth: current issues, future directions. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev., Vol. 29, No. 1, pp 32-36, 2001. Second-generation activity monitors have revolutionized the way in which we measure youth physical activity. Use of the monitors avoids the problems associated with self-report methods and allows for the estimation of physical activity patterns over time. This article examines important methodological issues related to the use of activity monitors in children and adolescents.
Mechanistic aspects of mammalian cell size control

Size distribution in a group of differentiated cells often falls into a constant range. However, in vitro and in vivo studies have shown that cells can temporarily change their size in response to their surrounding environment and the stimuli they receive. Thus, there must be a mechanism that normally keeps cell size constant while allowing a shift to an alternative size when necessary. To investigate the molecular basis of mammalian cell size control, we conducted a genetic screen in a human T cell line to identify genes involved in cell size regulation. A prime candidate emerging from this screen increases cell size when it is overexpressed but reduces cell size when subjected to siRNA knockdown. Several lines of evidence indicate that the product of this gene, which we called “Largen”, regulates mRNA translation in a manner associated with the upregulation of a specific subset of mRNAs, many of which affect mitochondrial function. In fact, cells overexpressing Largen increase both mitochondrial mass and activity, enhancing ATP production. These in vitro observations have been replicated in vivo using transgenic mouse models. With a focus on these findings, we discuss the possible contribution of mitochondria to the control of mammalian cell size.
Conformational Restraints and Flexibility of 14-Meric Peptides in Complex with HLA-B*35011

Human HLA-B*3501 binds an antigenic peptide of 14-aa length derived from an alternative reading frame of M-CSF with high affinity. Due to its extraordinary length, the exact HLA binding mode was unpredictable. The crystal structure of HLA-B*3501 at 1.5 Å shows that the N and C termini of the peptide are embedded in the A and F pockets, respectively, similar to a peptide of normal length. The central part of the 14-meric peptide bulges flexibly out of the groove. Two variants of the alternative reading frame of M-CSF peptide substituted at P2 or P2 and P9 with Ala display weak or no T cell activation. Their structure differs mainly in flexibility and conformation from the agonistic peptide. Moreover, the variants induce subtle changes of MHC α-helical regions implicated as critical for TCR contact. The TCR specifically recognizing this peptide/MHC complex exhibits CDR3 length within the normal range, suggesting major conformational adaptations of this receptor upon peptide/MHC binding. Thus, the potential antigenic repertoire recognizable by CTLs is larger than currently thought.