Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Selenium supplementation and prostate cancer mortality.

BACKGROUND Few studies have evaluated the relation between selenium supplementation after diagnosis and prostate cancer outcomes. METHODS We prospectively followed 4459 men initially diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study from 1988 through 2010 and examined whether selenium supplement use (from selenium-specific supplements and multivitamins) after diagnosis was associated with risk of biochemical recurrence, prostate cancer mortality, and, secondarily, cardiovascular disease mortality and overall mortality, using Cox proportional hazards models. All P values were from two-sided tests. RESULTS We documented 965 deaths, 226 (23.4%) because of prostate cancer and 267 (27.7%) because of cardiovascular disease, during a median follow-up of 8.9 years. In the biochemical recurrence analysis, we documented 762 recurrences during a median follow-up of 7.8 years. Crude rates per 1000 person-years for prostate cancer death were 5.6 among selenium nonusers and 10.5 among men who consumed 140 or more μg/day. Crude rates per 1000 person-years were 28.2 vs 23.5 for all-cause mortality and 28.4 vs 29.3 for biochemical recurrence, for nonuse vs highest-dose categories, respectively. In multivariable analyses, men who consumed 1 to 24 μg/day, 25 to 139 μg/day, and 140 or more μg/day of supplemental selenium had a 1.18 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.73 to 1.91), 1.33 (95% CI = 0.77 to 2.30), and 2.60-fold (95% CI = 1.44 to 4.70) greater risk of prostate cancer mortality compared with nonusers, respectively, P trend = . 001. There was no statistically significant association between selenium supplement use and biochemical recurrence, cardiovascular disease mortality, or overall mortality. CONCLUSION Selenium supplementation of 140 or more μg/day after diagnosis of nonmetastatic prostate cancer may increase risk of prostate cancer mortality. Caution is warranted regarding usage of such supplements among men with prostate cancer.
Estimating gambling venue catchments for impact assessment using a calibrated gravity model

Gambling using electronic gaming machines (EGMs) has emerged as a significant public health issue. While social impact assessments are required prior to the granting of new gaming machine licenses in Australia, there are a few established techniques for estimating the spatial distribution of a venue’s clientele. To this end, we calibrated a Huff model of gambling venue catchments based on a geocoded postal survey (n = 7040). We investigated the impact of different venue attractiveness measures, distance measures, distance decay functions, levels of spatial aggregation and venue types on model fit and results. We then compared model estimates for different behavioural subgroups. Our calibrated spatial model is a significant improvement on previously published models, increasing R2 from 0.23 to 0.64. Venue catchments differ radically in size and intensity. As different population subgroups are attracted to different venues, there is no single best index of venue attractiveness applicable to all subpopulations. The calibrated Huff model represents a useful regulatory tool for predicting the extent and composition of gambling venue catchments. It may assist in decision-making with regard to new license applications and evaluating the impact of health interventions such as mandated reductions in EGM numbers. Our calibrated parameters may be used to improve model accuracy in other jurisdictions.
Oral health-related knowledge, attitude, and practices among 12-year-old schoolchildren studying in rural areas of Panchkula, India.

UNLABELLED Oral health is fundamental to general health and well being. Schools can provide a supportive environment for promoting oral health. School policies and education on health-related matters are imperative for the attainment of good oral health and control of related risk behaviors. AIM This study was conducted to assess oral health-related knowledge, attitude, and practices among 12-year-old schoolchildren studying in rural areas of Panchkula, India. The ultimate goal was to implement an oral health-promotion program in this area. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 440 children (216 males and 224 females) from 12 schools were included in this study. All the participants were requested to complete a 13-question closed-ended questionnaire. The statistical significance of any difference between the two genders was determined using the Chi-square test. RESULTS Only 25% of the participants said that they cleaned their teeth more than once in a day. Thirty-two percent did not clean their teeth daily. Over the preceding 1 year, 45.5% of the childern had had some problem with their teeth and/or gums, but only 35.9% visited the dentist. Among these children, 8.2% used tobacco in some form. Oral health-related knowledge of girls was significantly better than that of boys. CONCLUSION Based upon the findings of the present study, the knowledge, attitude, and practices of the surveyed children with regard to oral health is poor. Hence, there is a need for regular oral health education of the children, as well as their parents and school teachers.
An adaptive multiple model approach for fast content-based skin detection in on-line videos

We propose a straightforward skin detection method for online videos. To overcome varying illumination circumstances and a variety of skin colors, we introduce a multiple model approach which can be carried out independently per model. The color models are initiated by skin detection based on face detection and adapted in real time. Our approach outperforms static approaches both in precision and runtime. If we detect a face in a scene, the number of false positives can be diminished significantly. Evaluation is carried out on publicly available on-line videos showing that adaptive multiple model outperforms static methods in classification precision and suppression of false positives.
A Review of Knowledge Representation and Learning in Part-of-Speech Tagging

A semiconductor laser device contains a pair of electrodes; a conductive substrate connected to one of the pair of electrodes; a lower cladding layer formed on the conductive substrate; a lower optical waveguide layer formed on the lower cladding layer; a quantum well active layer formed on the lower optical waveguide layer; an upper optical waveguide layer formed on the quantum well active layer; an upper cladding layer formed on the upper optical waveguide layer; and a contact layer formed on the upper cladding layer. The other of the pair of electrodes is formed on the contact layer, and the conductive substrate is made of InGa material. The lower cladding layer is made of one of InGaN and InGaAlN material and has a composition which causes a strain not less than -0.01 and not greater than 0.01 between the lower cladding layer and the conductive substrate.
Lung segmentation in chest radiographs using distance regularized level set and deep-structured learning and inference

Computer-aided diagnosis of digital chest X-ray (CXR) images critically depends on the automated segmentation of the lungs, which is a challenging problem due to the presence of strong edges at the rib cage and clavicle, the lack of a consistent lung shape among different individuals, and the appearance of the lung apex. From recently published results in this area, hybrid methodologies based on a combination of different techniques (e.g., pixel classification and deformable models) are producing the most accurate lung segmentation results. In this paper, we propose a new methodology for lung segmentation in CXR using a hybrid method based on a combination of distance regularized level set and deep structured inference. This combination brings together the advantages of deep learning methods (robust training with few annotated samples and top-down segmentation with structured inference and learning) and level set methods (use of shape and appearance priors and efficient optimization techniques). Using the publicly available Japanese Society of Radiological Technology (JSRT) dataset, we show that our approach produces the most accurate lung segmentation results in the field. In particular, depending on the initialization used, our methodology produces an average accuracy on JSTR that varies from 94.8% to 98.5%.
HDL from apoA1 transgenic mice expressing the 4WF isoform is resistant to oxidative loss of function[S]

HDL functions are impaired by myeloperoxidase (MPO), which selectively targets and oxidizes human apoA1. We previously found that the 4WF isoform of human apoA1, in which the four tryptophan residues are substituted with phenylalanine, is resistant to MPO-mediated loss of function. The purpose of this study was to generate 4WF apoA1 transgenic mice and compare functional properties of the 4WF and wild-type human apoA1 isoforms in vivo. Male mice had significantly higher plasma apoA1 levels than females for both isoforms of human apoA1, attributed to different production rates. With matched plasma apoA1 levels, 4WF transgenics had a trend for slightly less HDL-cholesterol versus human apoA1 transgenics. While 4WF transgenics had 31% less reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) to the plasma compartment, equivalent RCT to the liver and feces was observed. Plasma from both strains had similar ability to accept cholesterol and facilitate ex vivo cholesterol efflux from macrophages. Furthermore, we observed that 4WF transgenic HDL was partially (∼50%) protected from MPO-mediated loss of function while human apoA1 transgenic HDL lost all ABCA1-dependent cholesterol acceptor activity. In conclusion, the structure and function of HDL from 4WF transgenic mice was not different than HDL derived from human apoA1 transgenic mice.
The linkage of social-ecological system of Mangrove in Jor Bay, East Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara

The mangrove ecosystem in Jor Bay described as a social-ecological system (SES) that has a multi-purpose function and related to ecosystem services. The mangrove ecosystems have social and ecological dimensions that couldn’t be separated. Management based on this approach is social ecology-based management, which is basically the integration between understanding ecology and social values. Therefore, the investigation of the linkage of the mangrove social-ecological system needs to be done in an effort to map the balance of mangrove ecosystem services in Jor Bay. The study was conducted in April-May 2018 in Jor Bay, East Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara. The approaches that used in this research are Burkhard Model. The results obtained are ecosystem services that are most widely used in Jor Bay is provisioning services, especially in non direct extraction use. For example taking some biota that live in mangrove ecosystem. The general condition of ecosystem services in Jor Bay is still in a surplus condition (using a capacity matrix, demand matric and supply matrix).
Applying 'design by contract'

Methodological guidelines for object-oriented software construction that improve the reliability of the resulting software systems are presented. It is shown that the object-oriented techniques rely on the theory of design by contract, which underlies the design of the Eiffel analysis, design, and programming language and of the supporting libraries, from which a number of examples are drawn. The theory of contract design and the role of assertions in that theory are discussed. <<ETX>>
Supporting Efficient Recursive Query Processing in DHTs

Although various approaches have been proposed to process complex queries, such as range queries, join queries, aggregate queries and etc., in Peer-to-Peer data management research, we find currently there are no efficient techniques to support linear recursive queries, whic h is also one indispensable types of queries and exhibits crucial importance in many scenarios. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm to process recursive query in DHT networks. The contribution of this paper mainly lies in: (1) presenting an innovative subgraph-based fragmentatio n method to organize the computation in a scalable execution tree, (2)theoretically proving the completeness and perfo rmance of the algorithm, (3)extensively evaluating the performance of the algorithm in popular graphs. In addition, our approaches can also be applied in grid systems and large-scale distributed databases with little modificatio n.
Genomic markers for malignant progression in pulmonary adenocarcinoma with bronchioloalveolar features

Bronchioloalveolar carcinoma (BAC), a subtype of lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) without stromal, vascular, or pleural invasion, is considered an in situ tumor with a 100% survival rate. However, the histological criteria for invasion remain controversial. BAC-like areas may accompany otherwise invasive adenocarcinoma, referred to as mixed type adenocarcinoma with BAC features (AWBF). AWBF are considered to evolve from BAC, representing a paradigm for malignant progression in ADC. However, the supporting molecular evidence remains forthcoming. Here, we have studied the genomic changes of BAC and AWBF by array comparative genomic hybridization (CGH). We used submegabase-resolution tiling set array CGH to compare the genomic profiles of 14 BAC or BAC with focal area suspicious for invasion with those of 15 AWBF. Threshold-filtering and frequency-scoring analysis found that genomic profiles of noninvasive and focally invasive BAC are indistinguishable and show fewer aberrations than tumor cells in BAC-like areas of AWBF. These aberrations occurred mainly at the subtelomeric chromosomal regions. Increased genomic alterations were noted between BAC-like and invasive areas of AWBF. We identified 113 genes that best differentiated BAC from AWBF and were considered candidate marker genes for tumor invasion and progression. Correlative gene expression analyses demonstrated a high percentage of them to be poor prognosis markers in early stage ADC. Quantitative PCR also validated the amplification and overexpression of PDCD6 and TERT on chromosome 5p and the prognostic significance of PDCD6 in early stage ADC patients. We identified candidate genes that may be responsible for and are potential markers for malignant progression in AWBF.
Long-Term Results of Peri-implant Conditions in Periodontally Compromised Patients Following Lateral Bone Augmentation.

PURPOSE The aim of this retrospective study was to compare long-term (≥ 5 years) outcomes of implants placed in patients treated for chronic periodontitis versus those placed in periodontally healthy patients. In both groups, the implants were placed in alveolar ridges that were laterally augmented with autogenous bone block grafts using a split bone block technique. MATERIALS AND METHODS Two hundred ninety-two patients were screened in the course of supportive periodontal treatment examinations. Nonsmoking patients without any severe systemic diseases who had adhered to regular supportive periodontal treatment for a minimum of 5 years after undergoing autogenous lateral grafting (using the split bone block technique), implant placement, and prosthetic reconstructions were classified into two groups based on their presurgical status: periodontally healthy patients (PHP) and periodontally compromised patients (PCP). RESULTS Clinical outcomes for 77 patients, 38 PHP and 39 PCP, were examined. All had been successfully treated for severe lateral atrophy and received a total of 241 endosseous implants between 2002 and 2008. At the final examination, mean bleeding on probing was 7.08% ± 7.27% in PHP and 14.49% ± 18.14% in PCP, a statistically significant difference. Significantly higher Plaque Index and more recession were associated with a narrow (< 2 mm) width of keratinized mucosa. CONCLUSION Implants in alveolar ridges laterally augmented using a split bone block technique revealed similar clinical peri-implant conditions in both PHP and PCP. Using autogenous bone block grafts without biomaterials resulted in long-term peri-implant tissue stability.
Intranasal administration of plasmid DNA‐coated nanoparticles results in enhanced immune responses

Intranasal immunization offers potential for the elicitation of effective mucosal and systemic immune responses. In this study, a previously reported novel cationic nanoparticle engineered from a microemulsion precursor was further modified, optimized and applied intranasally to mice to explore its potential as a plasmid DNA (pDNA) vaccine delivery system. To this end, more uniform nanoparticles (around 100 nm) containing less cationic surfactant were developed. The pDNA‐coated nanoparticles significantly enhanced the specific serum IgG and IgA titres to an expressed model antigen, β‐galactosidase, by 18–28 and 25–30 fold, respectively, when compared with naked pDNA alone. An enhanced splenocyte proliferative response was also observed after immunization with the pDNA‐coated nanoparticles. It was concluded that these plasmid DNA‐coated nanoparticles may have potential for immunization via the nasal route.
Isosurfacing in higher dimensions

Visualization algorithms have seen substantial improvements in the past several years. However, very few algorithms have been developed for directly studying data in dimensions higher than three. Most algorithms require a sampling in three-dimensions before applying any visualization algorithms. This sampling typically ignores vital features that may be present when examined in oblique cross-sections, and places an undo burden on system resources when animation through additional dimensions is desired. For time-varying data of large data sets, smooth animation is desired at interactive rates. We provide a fast Marching Cubes like algorithm for hypercubes of any dimension. To support this, we have developed a new algorithm to automatically generate the isosurface and triangulation tables for any dimension. This allows the efficient calculation of 4D isosurfaces, which can be interactively sliced to provide smooth animation or slicing through oblique hyperplanes. The former allows for smooth animation in a very compressed format. The latter provide better tools to study time-evolving features as they move downstream. We also provide examples in using this technique to show interval volumes or the sensitivity of a particular isovalue threshold.
Therapeutic applications of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.): a review.

The pomegranate, Punica granatum L. , is an ancient, mystical, unique fruit borne on a small, long-living tree cultivated throughout the Mediterranean region, as far north as the Himalayas, in Southeast Asia, and in California and Arizona in the United States. In addition to its ancient historical uses, pomegranate is used in several systems of medicine for a variety of ailments. The synergistic action of the pomegranate constituents appears to be superior to that of single constituents. In the past decade, numerous studies on the antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, and anti-inflammatory properties of pomegranate constituents have been published, focusing on treatment and prevention of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, dental conditions, erectile dysfunction, bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance, and ultraviolet radiation-induced skin damage. Other potential applications include infant brain ischemia, male infertility, Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, and obesity.
Surface Fluxes and Tropical Intraseasonal Variability: a Reassessment

The authors argue that interactive feedbacks involving surface moist enthalpy fluxes, both turbulent and radiative, are important to the dynamics of tropical intraseasonal variability. Evidence in favor of this hypothesis includes the observed spatial distribution of intraseasonal variance in precipitation and outgoing longwave radiation, the observed relationship between intraseasonal latent heat flux and precipitation anomalies in regions where intraseasonal variability is strong, and sensitivity experiments performed with a small number of general circulation and idealized models. The authors argue that it would be useful to assess the importance of surface fluxes to intraseasonal variability in a larger number of comprehensive numerical models.
A comparison of hip strength between sedentary females with and without patellofemoral pain syndrome.

STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study. OBJECTIVE To compare the hip strength of sedentary females with either unilateral or bilateral patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) to a control group of sedentary females of similar demographics without PFPS. BACKGROUND It has been suggested that hip muscle weakness may be an important factor in the etiology of young female athletes with PFPS. This syndrome is also common in sedentary females and it is unclear if similar findings of hip weakness would be present in this population. METHODS Females between 15 and 40 years of age (control group, n = 50; unilateral PFPS, n = 21; bilateral PFPS, n = 29) participated in the study. Strength for all 6 hip muscle groups was measured bilaterally on all subjects using a handheld dynamometer. RESULTS The hip musculature of sedentary females with bilateral PFPS was statistically weaker (range, 12%-36%; P<.05) than that of the control group for all muscle groups. The hip abductors, lateral rotators, flexors, and extensors of the injured side of those with unilateral PFPS group were statistically weaker (range, 15%-20%; P<.05)than that of the control group, but only the hip abductors were significantly weaker when compared to their uninjured side (20%; P<.05). CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that hip weakness is a common finding in sedentary females with PFPS.
A Model for Myosin Powered Dynamic Contraction of Actin Cytoskeleton Applied to Cell Motion

Crawling of animal cells over surfaces is based on three coupled mechanisms: protrusion of the leading edge, graded adhesion to the substratum and forward translocation of the cell body. The most important of these, the forward translocation, or traction, is powered by myosin in many cases. We discuss existing experimental results and theories of traction and suggest a model of myosin powered dynamic contraction mechanism of the forward translocation. Analysis of contractile instability of depolymerizing semi-stii acto-myosin network is followed by derivation and analysis of a forward translo-cation model of the central part of cell lamellipodia. Then, force balance equations are applied to explain the size of semi-circular lamellipodia. We demonstrate that the dynamic contraction mechanism accounts for stable treadmilling mode of locomotion and discuss implications of our model for cell polarizability, motility and directionality.