Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Air Pollution and Otitis Media in Children: A Systematic Review of Literature

Young children are particularly vulnerable to otitis media (OM) which globally affects over 80% of children below the age of 3 years. Although there is convincing evidence for an association between environmental tobacco smoke exposure and OM in children, the relationship with ambient air pollution is not clear. We aimed to systematically review the literature on the relationship between ambient air pollution exposure and OM in children. A systematic search was performed in PubMed and EMBASE databases. Of 934 references identified, 24 articles were included. There is an increasing body of evidence supporting an association between higher ambient air pollution exposure and a higher risk of OM in children. While NO2 showed the most consistent association with OM, other specific pollutants showed inconsistent associations. Studies were mainly conducted in high/middle income countries with limited evidence from low-income countries. Although there was a general consensus that higher air pollution exposure is associated with a greater prevalence of OM, the evidence for associations with specific pollutants is inconsistent. More well-designed studies on associations between specific air pollutants as risk factors for OM are warranted, especially in low income countries with high air pollution levels.
Enhancing the Visualization of Big Data to Support Collaborative Decision-Making

This paper proposes the use of advanced data displays to promote the visualization of big data for supporting collaborative decision-making through enhanced synchronicity and team convergence. We review relevant literature and put forth propositions about the impact and interaction of task, data, and media attributes. We conclude by describing how the propositions can be empirically tested and highlighting the contributions of our work.
Genetic relationships of some Citrus genotypes based on the candidate iron chlorosis genes

Iron is one of the most important elements in plant mineral nutrition. Fe deficiency is a critical abiotic stress factor for Mediterranean citriculture; the development of marker-assisted selection for this trait would greatly enhance rootstock breeding. In this study, DNA sequencing and single-stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analyses were performed to determine the allelic diversity of genes associated with tolerance to iron chlorosis in citrus. Two candidate iron chlorosis tolerance genes were selected from existing Citrus EST databases and Arabidopsis thaliana genome databases. Ferritin-3 chloroplast precursor and putative membrane transporter candidate gene sequences were used to define primers in conserved regions. Six citrus genotypes from the basic taxon of Citrus were used to identify polymorphic regions in the genes. Direct sequencing of the amplified DNA fragments from the candidate genes was performed, and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertions/deletions (indels) were identified after sequence alignment. Based on the DNA sequencing analysis, a total of 6840 nucleotides of DNA were sequenced to identify SNPs and indels. In total, 263 SNPs and 15 indels were identified for both genes. We detected 38.45 SNPs and 2.19 indels for each 1000 b on average from the DNA sequencing results. New primers were designed in conserved areas flanking polymorphic ones for SSCP analysis. SSCP-PCR analysis was performed with 25 citrus genotypes. The neighbor-joining method was used for cluster analysis. Trifoliate genotypes and their hybrids (known to be sensitive to iron chlorosis) clustered together, whereas genotypes tolerant to iron chlorosis were more spread out on the dendrogram. Mandarins also showed high diversity for both genes according to SSCP results. Differences were found among sour orange genotypes known to have differential tolerance behavior to iron chlorosis.
A Model Driven Engineering Approach to Reduce Large Queueing Networks

Modeling complex systems, including discrete event systems, remains a challenge. The complexity and the size of such systems prevent understanding their models. This article proposes an approach for reducing queuing networks large models into smaller ones. The objective is to reduce the analysis as well as the simulation times in addition to the better understanding of the system under study. The basic idea is to divide the model into a set of smaller, hierarchically organized and more manageable sub-models, which are analyzed in isolation. The key contributions of this work are the substitution of each sub-model by a single M/G/8 station and the automation of the decomposition process using model transformation techniques. The main conclusion is that the reduction approach provides exact results for the global mean number of clients and mean residence time at the whole network.
The Asbestos Ban in Korea from a Grassroots Perspective: Why Did It Occur?

In 2009, asbestos was finally banned in Korea, about 70 years after the first opening of asbestos mines under Japanese control. After having presented the history of asbestos industry, together with its regulations and health effects over time, we constructed narrative analyses of how the asbestos issue under the prevailing risk system was managed by whom and for what purpose, to provide context for the change. We could identify five different phases: laissez-faire, politico-technical, economic–managerial, health-oriented cultural, and human rights-based post-cultural risk systems. The changes leading to the asbestos ban evolved over different phases, and each phase change was necessary to reach the final ban, in that, without resolving the previous issues by examining different categories of potential alternatives, either the final ban was not possible or, even if instituted, could not be sustained. An asbestos ban could be introduced when all the alternatives to these issues, including legitimate political windows, economic rationalizations, health risk protections, and human rights sensitivities, were available. We think the alternatives that we had were not in perfect shape, but in more or less loosely connected forms, and hence we had to know how to build solidarities between different stakeholders to compensate for the imperfections.
Enhanced Tensile Properties of Graphene-Al5083 Composite Prepared by Hot Pressing and Hot Extrusion

Graphene, with outstanding mechanical properties of 1TPa of Young’s modulus and 130GPa of tensile strength, has been considered as an excellent reinforcement in composites. Graphene nanoplates (GNP) reinforced Al5083 alloy composites were successfully fabricated by powder metallurgy method. Flake-like Al5083 powder was firstly added into a GNP-alcohol solution and then dried in vacuum oven at 343 K for 5 h. The composite powders were sintered at 723K under pressure of 300 MPa for 1 h, followed by extrusion at 623 K. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were employed for microstructure characterization. Al4C3 cannot be observed in the composite, suggesting that there was no reaction occurred between GNP and Al matrix during the processing. Tensile test results revealed that the ultimate tensile strength and tensile elongation of 0.3wt. %GNP/Al5083 composites were 580MPa and 15%, respectively, showing optimal combination of strength and ductility. The relevant strengthening mechanisms of the composites were discussed.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolation in patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis: a retrospective study

Objectives Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) occupies an important niche in the pathogenic microbiome of bronchiectasis. The objective of this study is to evaluate the clinical characteristics and prognostic value of P. aeruginosa in Chinese adult patients with bronchiectasis. Methods This retrospective and follow-up study enrolled 1188 patients diagnosed with bronchiectasis at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital between January 2011 and December 2012. The patients’ clinical data including anthropometry, clinical symptoms, serum biomarkers, radiographic manifestations and lung function indices were reviewed. The median follow-up duration (IQR) was 44 (40-54) months, during which 289 patients were lost to follow-up. Data from 899 patients were collected and analysed for the outcomes of mortality, annual exacerbation frequency and health-related quality of life. Results P. aeruginosa was isolated from 232 patients, alongside other pathogens such as Aspergillus (n=75) and Candida albicans (n=72). There were 74 deaths (12% of patients with P. aeruginosa, 7.3% of those without) over the course of the follow-up. The isolation of P. aeruginosa was a risk factor for all-cause mortality (HR, 3.07; 95% CI 1.32 to 7.15) and was associated with high rates of exacerbations (ie, ≥3 exacerbations per year of follow-up) (HR, 2.40; 95% CI 1.20 to 4.79). Patients with P. aeruginosa also had worse scores on the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (anxiety, p=0.005; depression, p<0.001), the Leicester Cough Questionnaire (p=0.033) and the modified Medical Research Council scale (p=0.001) compared with those without P. aeruginosa. Conclusions Isolation of P. aeruginosa in patients with bronchiectasis is a significant prognostic indicator and should be a major factor in the clinical management of the disease.
A resource-constrained HCRF modeling for a large-scale speaker identification task

This paper proposes an efficient algorithm on the training of hidden conditional random fields (HCRFs) for large-scale speaker recognition in which a speaker identification task with around 1000 speakers is investigated. HCRFs are a type of direct models in pattern recognition and thus iterative procedures are usually required to estimate the model parameters. The key method in this paper is to perform the optimization alternatively between the native direct models (HCRFs) and their approximated generative models (i.e., the equivalent HMMs of HCRFs). By this framework, a constrained optimization method is proposed which makes the training process of speaker models consumes less computation resources than the one by the conventional HCRF training scheme. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method enjoys potential benefits for development in resource-constrained speaker recognition.
Emerging Biomarkers for the Diagnosis and Monitoring of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases

Abstract:There is currently no single test available to confidently diagnose cases of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Physicians rely on a number of diagnostic tools, including clinical evaluation, serum testing, and imaging, which are used on conjunction with endoscopic evaluation. It is often difficult to determine whether patients with abdominal pain and change in bowel habit have functional bowel symptoms or whether they have a true diagnosis of IBD. Even once a diagnosis of IBD has been made, a significant proportion of patients are labeled with the term “indeterminate colitis” where histological sampling cannot confidently subclassify patients as either Crohn's or ulcerative colitis. Colonoscopy is an inconvenient and uncomfortable test for most patients. In addition, it is not without serious risks of perforation, as well as risks which can be associated with sedation and analgesia given during the procedure. The use of biomarkers to aid in the diagnosis, subclassification, and monitoring of IBD is an ever expanding area. In this review, we have concentrated on noninvasive biomarkers of IBD, because these are more acceptable to patients and easier to perform in everyday clinical practice. We will first touch on those biomarkers currently well established and in wide clinical use, such as C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Faecal calprotectin and their use in the diagnosis of IBD. Following on, we will review more novel biomarkers and their use in subclassification and monitoring of IBD, including a variety of antibodies, genetics, and microRNAs, as well as touching on metabolomics.
Physical Activity, a Critical Exposure Factor of Environmental Pollution in Children and Adolescents Health Risk Assessment

It is an extremely urgent problem that physical fitness promotion must face not only the increasing air pollution but also the decline of physical activity level of children and adolescents worldwide at present, which is the major reason that forms an inactive lifestyle and does harm to adolescents’ health. Thus, it is necessary to focus on the exposure factor in environmental health risk assessment (EHRA) which conducts supervision of environmental pollution and survey of adolescents’ activity patterns according to the harmful characteristics of air pollutant and relationship between dose and response. Some countries, such as USA, Canada and Australia, regard both respiratory rate and physical activity pattern as main exposure factors for adolescents in both air pollution health risk assessment and exercise risk assessment to forecast a safe exposing condition of pollutant for adolescents while they are doing exercise outdoors. In addition, it suggests that the testing indexes and testing methods of these two exposure factors, such as investigating the time of daily physical activity, strength, and characteristic of frequency, help to set up the quantitative relationship between environmental pollution index and the time, strength, frequency of daily activities, and formulate children’s and adolescents’ activity instructions under different levels of environmental pollutions. As smog becomes increasingly serious at present, it is meaningful to take physical activity as a critical composition of exposure factor and establish physical activity guideline, so as to reduce the risk of air pollution, and promote physical health of children and adolescents effectively.
SARS-like WIV1-CoV poised for human emergence

Significance The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)-CoV highlights the continued risk of cross-species transmission leading to epidemic disease. This manuscript describes efforts to extend surveillance beyond sequence analysis, constructing chimeric and full-length zoonotic coronaviruses to evaluate emergence potential. Focusing on SARS-like virus sequences isolated from Chinese horseshoe bats, the results indicate a significant threat posed by WIV1-CoV. Both full-length and chimeric WIV1-CoV readily replicated efficiently in human airway cultures and in vivo, suggesting capability of direct transmission to humans. In addition, while monoclonal antibody treatments prove effective, the SARS-based vaccine approach failed to confer protection. Together, the study indicates an ongoing threat posed by WIV1-related viruses and the need for continued study and surveillance. Outbreaks from zoonotic sources represent a threat to both human disease as well as the global economy. Despite a wealth of metagenomics studies, methods to leverage these datasets to identify future threats are underdeveloped. In this study, we describe an approach that combines existing metagenomics data with reverse genetics to engineer reagents to evaluate emergence and pathogenic potential of circulating zoonotic viruses. Focusing on the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-like viruses, the results indicate that the WIV1-coronavirus (CoV) cluster has the ability to directly infect and may undergo limited transmission in human populations. However, in vivo attenuation suggests additional adaptation is required for epidemic disease. Importantly, available SARS monoclonal antibodies offered success in limiting viral infection absent from available vaccine approaches. Together, the data highlight the utility of a platform to identify and prioritize prepandemic strains harbored in animal reservoirs and document the threat posed by WIV1-CoV for emergence in human populations.
Three-dimensional Object Tracking in RGB Datasets

There are many works with many progresses using RGB-D on object tracking when long-term occlusion occurs. However, object tracking needs a higher requirement on hardware, like RGB-D cameras. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a novel depth information fusion tracker (DIFT) which handles occlusion by the following series of steps on general cameras. First, object occlusion is recognized during object detection. Second, a dynamic tracking model is established and updated according to whether the object is occluded. Third, the tracking model is refined by eliminating occluded regions. An extensive quantitative evaluation on public video sequences shows that the proposed method is robust and outperforms widely used trackers such as Kernelized Correlation Filter and Tracking-Learning-Detection.
Modeling Carrier Behavior in Sequential Auction Transportation Markets

Online markets for transportation services, in the form of Internet sites that dynamically match shipments (shippers’ demand) and transportation capacity (carriers’ offer) through auction mechanisms are changing the traditional structure of transportatio n markets. A general framework for the study of carriers’ behavior in a sequential auction transportation marketplace is provided. The unique characteristics of these marketplaces and the sources of difficulty in analyzing the behavior of these marketplaces are discussed. Learning and behavior in a sequential Vickrey auction marketplace is analyzed and simulated. Some results and the overall behavioral framework are also discussed
Stereotactic Radiosurgery for Benign (World Health Organization Grade I) Cavernous Sinus Meningiomas—International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society (ISRS) Practice Guideline: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has become popular as a standard treatment for cavernous sinus (CS) meningiomas. OBJECTIVE To summarize the published literature specific to the treatment of CS meningioma with SRS found through a systematic review, and to create recommendations on behalf of the International Stereotactic Radiosurgery Society. METHODS Articles published from January 1963 to December 2014 were systemically reviewed. Three electronic databases, PubMed, EMBASE, and The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, were searched. Publications in English with at least 10 patients (each arm) were included. RESULTS Of 569 screened abstracts, a total of 49 full-text articles were included in the analysis. All studies were retrospective. Most of the reports had favorable outcomes with 5-yr progression-free survival (PFS) rates ranging from 86% to 99%, and 10-yr PFS rates ranging from 69% to 97%. The post-SRS neurological preservation rate ranged from 80% to 100%. Resection can be considered for the treatment of larger (>3 cm in diameter) and symptomatic CS meningioma in patients both receptive to and medically eligible for open surgery. Adjuvant or salvage SRS for residual or recurrent tumor can be utilized depending on factors such as tumor volume and proximity to adjacent critical organs at risk. CONCLUSION The literature is limited to level III evidence with respect to outcomes of SRS in patients with CS meningioma. Based on the observed results, SRS offers a favorable benefit to risk profile for patients with CS meningioma.
Modifying a Risk Assessment Instrument for Youthful Offenders

High rates of incarceration in the United States are compounded by high rates of recidivism and prison return. One solution is more accurate identification of individual prisoner risks and needs to promote offender rehabilitation and successful community re-entry; this is particularly important for youthful offenders who developmentally are in late adolescence or early adulthood, and who struggle to reengage in education and/or employment after release. Thus, this study examined the feasibility of administration and initial psychometric properties of a risk and needs assessment instrument originally created for a juvenile justice population (the Global Risk Assessment Device or GRAD) with 895 male youthful offenders in one adult correctional system. Initial feasibility of implementation within the correctional system was demonstrated; confirmatory factor analyses support the invariance of the modified GRAD factor structure across age and race. Future studies are needed to examine the predictive validity and the sensitivity of the instrument.
Referral of Touch and Ownership between the Hands and the Role of the Somatosensory Cortices

Recent studies have shown that the feeling of body ownership can be fooled by simple visuo-tactile manipulations. Perceptual illusions have been reported in which participants sense phantom touch seen on a rubber hand (rubber hand illusion). While previous studies used homologous limbs for those experiments, we here examined an illusion where people feel phantom touch on a left rubber hand when they see it brushed simultaneously with brushes applied to their right hand. Thus, we investigated a referral of touch from the right to the left hand (across the body midline). Since it is known from animal studies that tactile illusions may alter early sensory processing, we expected a modulation of the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) corresponding to this illusion. Neuromagnetic source imaging of the functional topographic organization in SI showed a shift in left SI, associated with the strength of the referral of touch. Hence, we argue that SI seems to be closely associated with this perceptual illusion. The results suggest that the transfer of tactile information across the body midline could be mediated by neurons with bilateral tactile receptive fields (most likely BA2).
Systematic review of clinical practice guidelines to identify recommendations for rehabilitation after stroke and other acquired brain injuries

Objectives Rehabilitation clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) contain recommendation statements aimed at optimising care for adults with stroke and other brain injury. The aim of this study was to determine the quality, scope and consistency of CPG recommendations for rehabilitation covering the acquired brain injury populations. Design Systematic review. Interventions Included CPGs contained recommendations for inpatient rehabilitation or community rehabilitation for adults with an acquired brain injury diagnosis (stroke, traumatic or other non-progressive acquired brain impairments). Electronic databases (n=2), guideline organisations (n=4) and websites of professional societies (n=17) were searched up to November 2017. Two independent reviewers used the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) II instrument, and textual syntheses were used to appraise and compare recommendations. Results From 427 papers screened, 20 guidelines met the inclusion criteria. Only three guidelines were rated high (>75%) across all domains of AGREE-II; highest rated domains were ‘scope and purpose’ (85.1, SD 18.3) and ‘clarity’ (76.2%, SD 20.5). Recommendations for assessment and for motor therapies were most commonly reported, however, varied in the level of detail across guidelines. Conclusion Rehabilitation CPGs were consistent in scope, suggesting little difference in rehabilitation approaches between vascular and traumatic brain injury. There was, however, variability in included studies and methodological quality. PROSPERO registration number CRD42016026936.