Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
U.K. multicentre study on blood donors for surrogate markers of non‐A non‐B hepatitis. Part I: Alanine transferase and anti‐HBc testing

SUMMARY. Blood samples from 9,215 blood donors in three U.K. centres (North London, Bristol and Manchester) were tested for their alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level and the presence of anti‐HBc and anti‐HCV. This paper presents the results of the ALT and anti‐HBc tests. The prevalence of ALT >45 IU/1 was 3.1% overall (North London 3.06%, Bristol 4.56% and Manchester 1.97%). Manchester results were skewed by the methodology used for ALT measurement, highlighting the need for standard test methods. Anti‐HBc was detected using the Wellcome enzymeimmunosorbent assay (EIA) and confirmatory testing was performed using a radioimmunoassay (RIA) and the Corecell haemagglutination assay. Repeat reactive rates were 0.9, 0.79 and 0.94% for North London, Bristol and Manchester, respectively, with an overall rate of 0.9%. The confirmed positive rate was 0.73, 0.53 and 0.65% for the three centres with an overall rate of 0.63%. Donors with an ALT >45 IU/1, or with confirmed anti‐HBc, were interviewed with a medical questionnaire for risk factors. The major contributing factors in donors with a raised ALT were alcohol consumption and obesity.
Chlamydia trachomatis Mip‐like protein

A 27 kDa Chlamydia trachomatis Mip‐like protein with homology of a 175‐amino‐acid C‐terminal fragment to the surface‐exposed Legionella pneumophila mip‐ gene product has previously been described. In this paper the entire chlamydia Mip‐like sequence of C. trachomatis serovar L2 (lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) biovar) is presented. The sequence shows high similarity to the legionella Mip protein and its C‐terminal region, like that of the legionella Mip, has high amino acid similarity to eukaryotic and prokaryotic FK506‐binding proteins. The chlamydial mip‐like gene was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in other C. trachomatis serovars and by sequencing of the mip‐like genes of serovars B and E (trachoma biovar) was shown to be highly conserved within the two major biovars of C. trachomatis. Monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies raised against the recombinant Mip‐like protein failed to demonstrate surface‐exposed epitopes on infectious elementary bodies or reproductive reticulate body forms either by immunofluorescence or immuno‐gold electron microscopy. However, a complement‐dependent inhibition of up to 91% of infectivity for cell cultures was observed with antibodies to the N‐terminal fragment of the Mip‐like protein suggesting that antibody‐accessible epitopes are present on infectious EBs.
On (OP)-polynomial implications

The disposal of many families of fuzzy implications is crucial to handle the great number of applications these operators have. In this work, the class of fuzzy (OP)-polynomial implications is introduced as those fuzzy implications satisfying the ordering property (OP) whose expression in the region where x > y is given by a polynomial of two variables. Since not all polynomials are adequate to generate a fuzzy implication, some properties related to the values of the coefficients of the polynomial to accomplish this fact have been studied. The (OP)-polynomial implications with degree less than 2 are fully characterized. Among the implications obtained in these results, there are some well-known implications such as the Łukasiewicz implication, among many others. Finally, several construction methods of these implications from other well-known families of fuzzy implications are given.
Younger Age and Antibody Induction Increase the Risk for Infection in Pediatric Renal Transplantation: A NAPRTCS Report

Infections now exceed rejection as a cause of hospitalization in the first 2 years post‐renal transplantation. We analyzed data from the North American Pediatric Renal Transplant Cooperative Study (NAPRTCS) to determine risks for hospitalization for infection (HI), either bacterial (HBI) or viral (HVI). 3106 children transplanted between 1996 and 2002 with 2‐year follow‐up were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses identified factors for cause‐specific hospitalization. Results: 23.4% experienced HBI, 23.9% HVI; 8.9% were hospitalized for both. Children 0–1 years age at transplant had higher rates of HI (64.2%), HBI (40.3%) and HVI (43.3%) compared to >12 years (31%, 17.5% and 18.9%, p < 0.0001). In comparison to no induction, patients receiving monoclonal or polyclonal antibody were more likely to have HI (>42% vs. 34.0%), HBI (>24% vs. 21%) or HVI (>29% vs. 21%, all p < 0.003) but had equivalent graft survival (p = NS). Higher rates of HI, HBI and HVI were also seen with prophylactic antimicrobial use and with >5 transfusions pretransplant. Since antibody induction in recent era was not associated with better graft or patient survival but was associated with more HI and HVI, the need for routine antibody induction in children needs to be reassessed.
Children consuming milk cereal drink are at increased risk for overweight: The IDEFICS Sweden study, on behalf of the IDEFICS Consortium

Aims: The aims of this study were to characterize milk cereal drink (MCD) consumption among Swedish children and to investigate the association between MCD and overweight in a longitudinally followed cohort of children over 2 years of age. Methods: In the Swedish cohort from IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of Dietary- and lifestyle-induced health EFfects In Children and infantS) we examined early feeding practices and weight status when children were aged 2–9 years (2007/2008) and at 2-year follow-up. Weight and height were measured at both time points in 1077 children. Characteristics of MCD consumers were explored with logistic regression. Body mass index (BMI) z-scores at both time points and weight status at follow-up were regressed on explanatory factors using mixed linear and logistic regression, respectively. Results: Nearly 69% of children had consumed MCD. The MCD consumers were more likely than never-consumers to have two native Swedish parents, parents with less than 2 years of post-secondary education, and a shorter period of breastfeeding. MCD consumers had a higher BMI z-score at follow-up compared with baseline (difference in BMI z-score=0.12, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.07, 0.17), while the average BMI z-score in non-consumers remained stable over time (0.00, 95% CI= −0.07, 0.07). MCD consumers were nearly five times more likely than non-consumers to become overweight during the follow-up (odds ratio (OR)=4.78, 95% CI=1.68, 13.59), independent of breastfeeding. Conclusions: MCD was consumed by the majority of children in this study. MCD consumption is associated with an increased risk for overweight and less exposure to breastfeeding. Our findings motivate future research aimed at investigating how MCD should be recommended.
Bowel function, mental health, and psychosocial function in adolescents with Hirschsprung’s disease

Congenital intestinal malformations are uncommon and may pose lasting somatic difficulties. Patients with anorectal anomalies have a high frequency of persistent faecal dysfunction and psychosocial problems. This study examined whether adolescents with Hirschsprung’s disease have more psychosocial problems than their healthy peers. Nineteen adolescents (mean age 15.7 years) with Hirschsprung’s disease were assessed for bowel function, anorectal physiology, mental health, and psychosocial functioning by physical examinations, semistructured interview, and standardised questionnaires. The adolescents were compared with controls. The parents of 13 adolescents with Hirschsprung’s disease were interviewed and completed questionnaires. Thirty two per cent of the adolescents with Hirschsprung’s disease had significant impairment of continence, but no more psychopathology (16%) nor psychosocial dysfunction as a group than their healthy peers. Faecal incontinence was associated with poorer psychosocial functioning and parental criticism. The fact that a significant number of patients with Hirschsprung’s disease have incontinence into adulthood indicates the need for parental counselling, encouraging realistic expectations about continence.
Distribution of the Two Social Forms of the Fire Ant Solenopsis invicta (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in the Native South American Range

Abstract Polygyne (multiple queen) colony social organization in the fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren is always associated with the presence of a particular class of alleles at the gene Gp-9. We used diagnostic polymerase chain reaction assays capable of distinguishing these alleles to determine the location of polygyne populations in the native South American range of this species. We found that polygyny occurs in a mosaic pattern with respect to the more common monogyne (single queen) social form, a pattern superficially similar to that seen in the introduced range in the United States. However, polygyny appears to be relatively restricted in its geographical prevalence in the native range compared with the introduced range. This difference may stem from higher dispersal rates in the introduced range, which are associated with greater opportunities for human-mediated transport of mated queens or colony fragments. On the basis of our distributional data and results from other studies, the southern part of the native range of S. invicta, particularly northeastern Argentina, is emerging as the most likely geographic source of the founders of the U.S. population.
Capacity-maximized transmitter antenna selection for multi-user massive MIMO systems with linear beamforming

The implementation of multi-user massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems usually suffers from the increased complexity of system design. In such systems, the numbers of transmit antennas and radio frequency chains (RFC) increases extensively. In this paper, a capacity maximized transmit antenna selection (CM-TAS) algorithm is utilized to reduce the system complexity by reducing the number of RFC. In addition to CM-TAS, three different beamforming (BF) techniques, namely, maximum ratio transmission (MRT-BF), zero-forcing (ZF-BF) and minimum mean square error (MMSE-BF) techniques are considered. When CM-TAS is applied, the numerical analysis shows that the MRT-BF became sensitive to the amount of transmitted power and the number of RFC. On the other hand, the MMSE-BF and ZF-BF are proved to have better BER values than MRT-BF while becoming very sensitive to the number of served users in the system. The results illustrate that CM-TAS is effective in reducing the system complexity while maintaining an acceptable bit error rate (BER) performance.
PP2A regulates ionizing radiation–induced apoptosis through Ser46 phosphorylation of p53

In response to ionizing radiation, p53 plays a critical role in regulating DNA repair and apoptosis. Among multiple phosphorylation sites, evidence suggests that Ser46 promotes apoptotic cell death through mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) and subsequent activation of the caspase 7–PARP pathway. Therefore, we investigated which phosphatase regulates Ser46 after ionizing radiation, reasoning that the responsible phosphatase should be a target for radiosensitization. We determined that both inhibition of PP2A by the cell-permeable inhibitor calyculin A and knockdown of PP2A by RNAi (a) enhanced Ser46 phosphorylation in p53 and (b) induced coincident caspase 7 and PARP cleavage in response to ionizing radiation. Furthermore, mutation of p53 Ser46 to Ala attenuated ionizing radiation–induced apoptotic signaling. Consequently, we concluded that PP2A regulates ionizing radiation–induced apoptotic signaling through dephosphorylation of p53 Ser46. [Mol Cancer Ther 2009;8(1):135–40]
Appendix for : “ The Rise of Fringe Competitors In the Wake of an Emerging Middle Class : An Empirical Analysis ”

We provide examples, from the data, of the dynamic updating process. We consider two transitions, both for São Paulo Metro (region 4). The first transition, from t = 1 to t = 2, features upward mobility and, unusually in the data (yet we need to allow for this), a slight flow of residents out of the region (“net urban-to-rural migration”). The second transition, from t = 10 to t = 11, features upward mobility and the rural-to-urban migration that is prevalent in the data. We illustrate these transitions at the estimated model parameters θ∗. We also comment on the robustness of our estimates to the baseline mobility Assumptions 1 and 2. Region 4, t = 1 to t = 2. The initial type-distribution vector is
The Salutogenic Approach to Rehabilitation

The aims of the study was to evaluate subjective health, quality of life, and function among participant’s at after four weeks in relation to processes and changes, and to increase knowledge on why and which rehabilitation programme seemingly contributes to perceived benefits for the participants. Methods. This study includes 38 participants, aged 23-60 years, and their subjective opinions, beliefs and life experiences of being at aRehabilitation Centre in Norway using a semi-structured interview guide. Results. Three main factors seemed to contribute to participants’ perceived rehabilitation and better health: (a) Physical activities and nature experience (a); The social environment and Sense of Coherence [SOC] (c) Learning to adopt a new lifestyle. Conclusion. The holistic and salutogenic approach including the nature-culture-health interplay would be worth to implement in practice in the future. Additionally, those who joined the follow-up week two months later reported to have achieved better heath than those who did not join.
A novel treatment of congenital duodenal stenosis: image-guided treatment of congenital and acquired bowel strictures in children.

BACKGROUND Image-guided balloon dilatation has been used in adults as an alternative to standard surgical treatment of intestinal stricture. The experience in children is limited. We report our results with this procedure in the management of both congenital and acquired intestinal stenosis in children. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis was done of children younger than 2 years of age who underwent balloon dilatation of small and large intestinal stenosis between 1994 and 2003. RESULTS Eleven children underwent dilatation during the study period. Two of these children had congenital duodenal stenosis, and this represents the first report of nonoperative management of this condition. Three children underwent dilatation of small bowel strictures and 6 had dilatation of colonic and rectal strictures. Necrotizing enterocolitis was the most common (6/9) etiology of stricture. Ten of 11 patients did not require subsequent operative management although 3 children required further dilatations. The mean follow-up was 36.5 months (range, 13 days-103 months). One patient underwent a subsequent dilatation that was unsuccessful, and required operative resection of a 5-cm stricture. There was one complication, a small leak that was managed nonoperatively. CONCLUSION Image-guided balloon dilatation holds promise as an alternative to surgical treatment in children with congenital or acquired stenosis of the small or large bowel, and should be considered in select patients with short strictures.
Using Step‐Wise Linear Regression to Detect “Functional” Sequence Variants: Application to Simulated Data

Step‐wise linear regression was used to detect the “functional” sequence variant in gene 6 responsible for phenotypic variation in traits Q1 and Q2. Prior to analysis, single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that were in complete or near complete linkage disequilibrium were binned. In total, we identified 11 separate alleles (or allelic bins). Analyses were performed on all 50 replicates. The “functional” allele variant in gene 6 (at position 5782) accounted for 24% of the variation in Q1 and 11% of the variation in Q2. We detected a significant association between this SNP and Q1 in 90% of the replicates (i.e., in 45 of 50 replicates) and between this SNP and Q2 in 78% of the replicates. Although significant associations were also observed with some nonfunctional SNPs, our results nevertheless suggest that simple step‐wise regression may play a useful role in analyzing sequence data. Some additional extensions to this approach are suggested. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Differential scaling patterns of vertebrae and the evolution of neck length in mammals

Almost all mammals have seven vertebrae in their cervical spines. This consistency represents one of the most prominent examples of morphological stasis in vertebrae evolution. Hence, the requirements associated with evolutionary modifications of neck length have to be met with a fixed number of vertebrae. It has not been clear whether body size influences the overall length of the cervical spine and its inner organization (i.e., if the mammalian neck is subject to allometry). Here, we provide the first large‐scale analysis of the scaling patterns of the cervical spine and its constituting cervical vertebrae. Our findings reveal that the opposite allometric scaling of C1 and C2–C7 accommodate the increase of neck bending moment with body size. The internal organization of the neck skeleton exhibits surprisingly uniformity in the vast majority of mammals. Deviations from this general pattern only occur under extreme loading regimes associated with particular functional and allometric demands. Our results indicate that the main source of variation in the mammalian neck stems from the disparity of overall cervical spine length. The mammalian neck reveals how evolutionary disparity manifests itself in a structure that is otherwise highly restricted by meristic constraints.
A Perspective on Single-Channel Frequency-Domain Speech Enhancement

Abstract This book focuses on a class of single-channel noise reduction methods that are performed in the frequency domain via the short-time Fourier transform (STFT). The simplicity and relative effectiveness of this class of approaches make them the dominant choice in practical systems. Even though many popular algorithms have been proposed through more than four decades of continuous research, there are a number of critical areas where our understanding and capabilities still remain quite rudimentary, especially with respect to the relationship between noise reduction and speech distortion. All existing frequency-domain algorithms, no matter how they are developed, have one feature in common: the solution is eventually expressed as a gain function applied to the STFT of the noisy signal only in the current frame. As a result, the narrowband signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) cannot be improved, and any gains achieved in noise reduction on the fullband basis come with a price to pay, which is speech distortion.
Lorentzian sparsity based spectroscopic reconstruction for fast high-dimensional magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Two-dimensional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (2D MRS) is challenging, even with state-of-art compressive sensing methods, such as L1-sparsity method. In this work, using the prior that the 2D MRS can be regarded as a series of Lorentzian functions, we aim to develop a robust Lorentzian-sparsity based spectroscopy reconstruction method for high-dimensional MRS. The proposed method sparsifies 2D MRS in Lorentzian functions. Instead of thousands of pixel-wise variables, this Lorentzian-sparsity method significantly reduces the number of unknowns to several geometric variables, such as the center, magnitude and shape parameters for each Lorentzian function. The spectroscopy reconstruction is formulated as a nonlinear and nonconvex optimization problem, and the simulated annealing algorithm is developed to solve the problem. The proposed method was compared with inverse FFT method and L1-sparsity method, under various undersampling factors. While FFT and L1 results contained severe artifacts, the Lorentzian-sparsity results provided significantly improved spectroscopy. A new 2D MRS reconstruction method is proposed using the Lorentzian sparsity, with significantly improved MRS reconstruction quality, in comparison with standard inverse FFT method or state-of-art L1-sparsity method.
Investigation of CMOS technology for 60-GHz applications

This paper investigates the feasibility of the latest CMOS technology for the implementation of the emerging 60-GHz wireless applications. The double-conversion zero-IF receiver architecture is proposed for the evaluation. From the recently reported work of wireless front-end building blocks, most of the components required in the proposed 60-GHz receiver have been demonstrated in CMOS technology. It is very promising that the improved characteristics of the scaled CMOS technology, down to 0.13 /spl mu/m or below, are viable for the 60-GHz wireless front-end ICs.
Reference Points and Negative Reciprocity in Simple Sequential Games

We investigate experimentally whether preferences over an outcome depend on what other possible outcomes of the situation under consideration are, i.e. whether choices are "menu dependent". In simple sequential games we analyze whether reactions to a certain benchmark oucome are influenced by changes in the payoffs of another outcome of the game, not attainable at that time, which we call the "reference point".
Influence of Altitude on Biochemical Properties of European Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) Forest Soils

Climate warming is predicted to raise the mean global temperature by 1 °C in the next 50 years, and this change is believed to be capable of affecting soil organic matter cycling and nutrient availability. With the aim of increasing knowledge on the response of forest soils to the ongoing climate change, we used altitude as a proxy for temperature change and studied chemical and biochemical properties of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forest soils at two altitudes (800 and 1000 m) from central Apennines (Italy). Results showed that 1 °C of mean annual air temperature difference between the sites at the two altitudes had greater effect on the mineral horizons than on the organic horizons. At higher altitude, mineral soil had limited development, higher pH, and higher organic matter content due to the lower efficiency of the microbial community. Enzymatic activities of the organic horizons were generally not affected by altitude. Conversely, we observed a higher activity of xylosidase, β-glucosidase, alkaline phosphomonoesterase, arylsulfatase, and leucine-aminopeptidase in the sub-superficial horizons (Bw1 and Bw2) of the soils at 1000 m. We hypothesized that, as a response to environmental and climatic constraints occurring at higher altitude, plant roots increase the production of enzymes directly and/or indirectly by triggering the microbial community through exudation.
Views of healthcare staff and mothers about postnatal depression screening.

BACKGROUND More research is needed on views of using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to screen recent mothers for this condition. AIM To examine healthcare professionals' and mothers' views of using this tool. METHOD Findings of two qualitative studies on screening for postnatal depression were compared to provide an overview. RESULTS There were differences in views within and between groups, although all practitioners found the tool helpful for introducing the topic. Symptom disclosure was an issue for all, although practitioners were unaware that some mothers feared their child would be taken into care. CONCLUSION Pragmatic reasons (such as lack of time and resources) meant practice was not always optimal but, if recommendations are followed, mothers may be encouraged to disclose symptoms.