Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Influencing Knowledge, Food Safety Practices and Food Preferences During Warm Weather of Salmonella and Campylobacter Cases in South Australia.

OBJECTIVE To assess food safety practices, food shopping preferences, and eating behaviors of people diagnosed with Salmonella or Campylobacter infection in the warm seasons, and to identify socioeconomic factors associated with behavior and practices. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted among Salmonella and Campylobacter cases with onset of illness from January 1 to March 31, 2013. Multivariable logistic regression analyses examined relationships between socioeconomic position and food safety knowledge and practices, shopping and food preferences, and preferences, perceptions, and knowledge about food safety information on warm days. RESULTS Respondents in our study engaged in unsafe personal and food hygiene practices. They also carried out unsafe food preparation practices, and had poor knowledge of foods associated with an increased risk of foodborne illness. Socioeconomic position did not influence food safety practices. We found that people's reported eating behaviors and food preferences were influenced by warm weather. CONCLUSIONS Our study has explored preferences and practices related to food safety in the warm season months. This is important given that warmer ambient temperatures are projected to rise, both globally and in Australia, and will have a substantial effect on the burden of infectious gastroenteritis including foodborne disease. Our results provide information about modifiable behaviors for the prevention of foodborne illness in the household in the warm weather and the need for information to be disseminated across the general population. An understanding of the knowledge and factors associated with human behavior during warmer weather is critical for public health interventions on foodborne prevention.
Seeing Your Own Touched Hands in a Mirror Modulates Cross-Modal Interactions

In mirror reflections, visual stimuli in near peripersonal space (e.g., an object in the hand) can project the retinal image of far, extrapersonal stimuli “beyond” the mirror. We studied the interaction of such visual reflections with tactile stimuli in a cross-modal congruency task. We found that visual distractors produce stronger interference on tactile judgments when placed close to the stimulated hand, but observed indirectly as distant mirror reflections, than when directly observed in equivalently distant far space, even when in contact with a dummy hand or someone else's hand in the far location. The stronger visual-tactile interference for the mirror condition implies that near stimuli seen as distant reflections in a mirror view of one's own hands can activate neural networks coding peripersonal space, because these visual stimuli are coded as having a true source near to the body.
Efficient and robust radiance transfer for probeless photorealistic augmented reality

Photorealistic Augmented Reality (AR) requires knowledge of the scene geometry and environment lighting to compute photometric registration. Recent work has introduced probeless photometric registration, where environment lighting is estimated directly from observations of reflections in the scene rather than through an invasive probe such as a reflective ball. However, computing the dense radiance transfer of a dynamically changing scene is computationally challenging. In this work, we present an improved radiance transfer sampling approach, which combines adaptive sampling in image and visibility space with robust caching of radiance transfer to yield real time framerates for photorealistic AR scenes with dynamically changing scene geometry and environment lighting.
Towards Speaker Adaptation for Dialogue Act Recognition

Dialogue act labels are being used to represent a higher level intention of utterances during human conversation (Stolcke et al., 2000). Automatic dialogue act recognition is still an active research topic. The conventional approach is to train one generic classifier using a large corpus of annotated utterances (Stolcke et al., 2000). One aspect that makes it so challenging is that people can express the same intentions using a very different set of spoken words. Imagine how different the vocabulary used by a native English speaker or a foreigner can be. Even more, people can have different intentions when using the exact same spoken words. These idiosyncratic differences in dialogue acts make the learning of generic classifiers extremely challenging. Luckily, in many applications such as face-to-face meetings or tele-immersion, we have access to archives of previous interactions with the same participants. From these archives, a small subset of spoken utterances can be efficiently annotated. As we will later show in our experiments, even a small number of annotated utterances can make a significant differences in the dialogue act recognition performance.
Designing linear distributed algorithms with memory for fast convergence

Motivated by both distributed-computation and decentralized-control applications, we study distributed linear iterative algorithms with memory. Specifically, we show that the system of linear equations Gx = b can be solved through a distributed linear iteration for arbitrary invertible G, using only a single memory element at each processor. Further, we demonstrate that the memoried distributed algorithm can be designed to achieve much faster convergence than a memoryless distributed algorithm. A small simulation example is included to illustrate the results.
Effect of Whey-Based Culture Supernatant of Lactobacillus acidophilus (johnsonii) La1 on Helicobacter pylori Infection in Humans

Background: Specific strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus are known to inhibit intestinal cell adhesion and invasion by enterovirulent bacteria. As L. acidophilus can survive transiently in the human stomach, it may downregulate Helicobacter pylori infection. Methods: The ability of L. acidophilus (johnsonii) La1 supernatant to interfere with H. pylori bacterial growth, urease activity, and adhesion to epithelial cells was tested in vitro. Its effect on H. pylori infection in volunteers was monitored in a randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial, using a drinkable, whey-based, La1 culture supernatant. H. pylori infected volunteers were treated 14 days with 50 ml of La1 supernatant four times a day combined with either omeprazole 20 mg four times a day or with placebo. Infection was assessed by breath test, endoscopy, and biopsy sampling, performed at inclusion, immediately at the end of the treatment (breath test only), and 4 weeks after the end of the treatment. Results: La1 supernatant inhibited H. pylori growth in vitro, regardless of previous binding of H. pylori to epithelial cells. In 20 subjects (8 females, 12 males, mean age 33.1 years) a marked decrease in breath test values was observed immediately after treatment with La1 supernatant, both in the omeprazole and in the placebo group (median 12.3 vs. 28.8 and 9.4 vs. 20.4, respectively; p < 0.03). In both treatment groups, breath test values remained low 6 weeks after treatment (omeprazole treated 19.2, placebo treated 8.3; p < 0.03 vs. pretreatment), but the persistence of H. pylori infection was confirmed in gastric biopsies. Conclusion: La1 culture supernatant shown to be effective in vitro has a partial, acid-independent long-term suppressive effect on H. pylori in humans.
Skeletal dysplasias: 38 prenatal cases.

OBJECTIVE To assess the prenatal diagnosis of skeletal dysplasias in a single center over a ten-years period. METHODS All antenatal detected skeletal dysplasias during the period January 1st 1996 until December 31 2005 (10 years) were retrieved from the genetic database. This database includes all skeletal dysplasias where invasive prenatal diagnosis (chorionic villus sampling/amniocentesis) was performed. The final diagnosis was sought on the basis of fetopathological examination, radiographic studies and if possible molecular testing. RESULTS A total of 46 antenatal skeletal dysplasias were diagnosed during this period. Follow-up was only available in 38 cases. The other 8 cases involved prenatally presumed lethal skeletal dysplasias that were interrupted in the referral hospital with no further information sent to us. The mean gestational age at diagnosis was 23 weeks (range 12-33 weeks). A diagnosis < or = 24 weeks was made in 25 cases (65.8%). Eleven skeletal dysplasias were diagnosed > 30 weeks (29%) and these included all achondroplasias (n = 6), hypophosphatasia (n = 1), Jeune syndrome (n = 1), osteogenesis imperfecta type II (n = l), type I (n = 1) and type III (n = 1). In 27 cases a lethal skeletal dysplasia was present (71%) and these were all correctly predicted. Of the lethal skeletal dysplasias 5 cases were diagnosed only after 24 weeks of pregnancy (19%) and 3 were only referred after 30 weeks (11.5%). A final diagnosis was obtained in 36 cases by fetopathological examination and radiographic studies and molecular testing as deemed necessary. Specific diagnoses included: achondroplasia (n = 6), achondrogenesis (n = 2), osteogenesis imperfecta type II (n = 9), osteogenesis imperfecta type I (n = 1), osteogenesis imperfecta type III (n = 1), thanatophoric dysplasia (n = 7), hypophosphatasia (n = 1), Majewski syndrome (n = 11), Mohr-Majewski syndrome (n = 11), Jeune syndrome (n = 2), Ellis-van Creveld syndrome (n = 2), Roberts syndrome (n = 1), campomelic dysplasia (n = 2). In two cases postnatal investigation revealed no certain diagnosis and these included one patient with symmetrical tetraphocomelia with aspects of Roberts and Femur-fibula-Ulna syndrome and one patient at 15 weeks with a lethal skeletal dysplasia with rhizomelic limb shortening, a narrow thorax, platyspondyly, normocephaly, a normal pelvis, and a posterior cleft palate. A correct antenatal diagnosis was made in 25 cases (65.8%) including osteogenesis imperfecta type II (n = 9), thanatophoric dysplasia (n = 7), achondroplasia (n = 6), achondrogenesis (n = 2) and Roberts syndrome (n = 1). CONCLUSION The antenatal prediction of lethality in this series of prenatal diagnosed skeletal dysplasias was correct. A correct antenatal diagnosis of the type of skeletal dysplasia was difficult, with 25 of 38 cases correctly diagnosed.
Nitric oxide and nitrous oxide turnover in natural and engineered microbial communities: biological pathways, chemical reactions, and novel technologies

Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an environmentally important atmospheric trace gas because it is an effective greenhouse gas and it leads to ozone depletion through photo-chemical nitric oxide (NO) production in the stratosphere. Mitigating its steady increase in atmospheric concentration requires an understanding of the mechanisms that lead to its formation in natural and engineered microbial communities. N2O is formed biologically from the oxidation of hydroxylamine (NH2OH) or the reduction of nitrite (NO−2) to NO and further to N2O. Our review of the biological pathways for N2O production shows that apparently all organisms and pathways known to be involved in the catabolic branch of microbial N-cycle have the potential to catalyze the reduction of NO−2 to NO and the further reduction of NO to N2O, while N2O formation from NH2OH is only performed by ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB). In addition to biological pathways, we review important chemical reactions that can lead to NO and N2O formation due to the reactivity of NO−2, NH2OH, and nitroxyl (HNO). Moreover, biological N2O formation is highly dynamic in response to N-imbalance imposed on a system. Thus, understanding NO formation and capturing the dynamics of NO and N2O build-up are key to understand mechanisms of N2O release. Here, we discuss novel technologies that allow experiments on NO and N2O formation at high temporal resolution, namely NO and N2O microelectrodes and the dynamic analysis of the isotopic signature of N2O with quantum cascade laser absorption spectroscopy (QCLAS). In addition, we introduce other techniques that use the isotopic composition of N2O to distinguish production pathways and findings that were made with emerging molecular techniques in complex environments. Finally, we discuss how a combination of the presented tools might help to address important open questions on pathways and controls of nitrogen flow through complex microbial communities that eventually lead to N2O build-up.
How Naked is the Naked Truth? A Multilingual Lexicon of Nominal Compound Compositionality

We introduce a new multilingual resource containing judgments about nominal compound compositionality in English, French and Portuguese. It covers 3 × 180 noun-noun and adjective-noun compounds for which we provide numerical compositionality scores for the head word, for the modifier and for the compound as a whole, along with possible paraphrases. This resource was constructed by native speakers via crowdsourcing. It can serve as basis for evaluating tasks such as lexical substitution and compositionality prediction.
Cerebral Blood Flow during Carotid Endarterectomy

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured during 28 carotid endarterectomies in 25 patients, by injection of 133Xe into the exposed internal carotid artery (ICA). Twenty-three patients had episodic cerebral or retinal ischemia and five had neurologic deficits before operation. Initial CBF values were variable. Increases of PaCo2 caused CBF to increase in four of six patients, to increase slightly in one, and to decrease in one. In each of 19 procedures, CBF decreased during surgical occlusion of the ICA, 11 times to less than 30 ml/100 g/min, but absence of postoperative worsening indicated that decreased ICA blood flow is not a major risk of the procedure; embolization from the site of operation may be a greater threat to the patient. CBF increased after 14 endarterectomies, perhaps due to failure of autoregulation or to reactive hyperemia. Measurements of jugular PVo2 and lactate concentration were of little value.
Transition into Driven Equilibrium of the Balanced Steady-State Free Precession as an Ultrafast Multisection T2-Weighted Imaging of the Brain

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Current T2-weighted imaging takes >3 minutes to perform, for which the ultrafast transition into driven equilibrium (TIDE) technique may be potentially helpful. This study qualitatively and quantitatively evaluates the imaging of transition into driven equilibrium of the balanced steady-state free precession (TIDE) compared with TSE and turbo gradient spin-echo on T2-weighted MR images. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty healthy volunteers were examined with T2-weighted images by using TIDE, TSE, and turbo gradient spin-echo sequences. Imaging was evaluated qualitatively by 2 independent observers on the basis of a 4-point rating scale regarding contrast characteristics and artifacts behavior. Image SNR and contrast-to-noise ratio were quantitatively assessed. RESULTS: TIDE provided T2-weighted contrast similar to that in TSE and turbo gradient spin-echo with only one-eighth of the scan time. TIDE showed gray-white matter differentiation and iron-load sensitivity inferior that of TSE and turbo gradient spin-echo, but with improved motion artifacts reduction on qualitative scores. Nonmotion ghosting artifacts were uniquely found in TIDE images. The overall SNRs of TSE were 1.9–2.0 times those of turbo gradient spin-echo and 1.7–2.2 times of those of TIDE for brain tissue (P < .0001). TIDE had a higher contrast-to-noise ratio than TSE (P = .169) and turbo gradient spin-echo (P < .0001) regarding non-iron-containing gray matter versus white matter. TIDE had a lower contrast-to-noise ratio than turbo gradient spin-echo and TSE (P < .0001) between iron-containing gray matter and white matter. CONCLUSIONS: TIDE provides T2-weighted images with reduced scan times and reduced motion artifacts compared with TSE and turbo gradient spin-echo with the trade-off of reduced SNR and poorer gray-white matter differentiation.
Long term marine corrosion of cast iron bridge piers

Cast iron piers of a disused 90 year old multispan railway bridge located close to the Pacific Ocean were extensively sampled for remaining wall thickness to determine corrosion loss and pit depth. From this, a corrosion loss model for the full 90 years was developed. In addition, the statistics for uncertainty in corrosion loss were obtained. Corrosion varied with elevation relative to mean water level and was negligible in the atmospheric zone, about 2-3 mm in the immersion zone and 5-6 mm in the splash and lower tidal zones. This variation is consistent with accelerated low water corrosion. It indicates that water pollution occurred sometime during the life of the bridge. Maximum pit depths were determined and analysed using extreme value statistics. The corrosion model for such long term exposure and the related statistical results are unique and important for assessment of remaining life of the many other cast iron structures still in existence in many parts of the world.
Localization of P450 Aromatase in The Brain of Adult Catfish Heteropneustes fossilis and Regional Distribution of Estradiol-17Î² and Testosterone: Gender and Seasonal Differences

P450 aromatase is the key enzyme that converts aromatizable androgens to estrogens. It is coded by the gene that exists in two forms: ovarian type and brain type. In the present study, we localized aromatase protein and gene (brain type) by immunocytochemical and in situ hybridization techniques, respectively, and the gene expression by RT-PCR. Aromatase immunoreactivity and transcript signals were observed in basophils of the proximal pars distalis of the pituitary, purported to be the gonadotrophs. The transcript signals were detected in the periventricular grey zone of optic tectum (PGZ), ventral telencephalic region, and radial glial cells lining the telencephalon, hypothalamus and olfactory bulb. Transcript levels of cyp19a1b showed sex, seasonal and regional differences. We measured testosterone (T) and estradiol-17β (E2) levels by specific ELISA kits. In the brain, T level is low in comparison to E2 level. Testosterone level is higher in postspawning phase and lower in spawning phase. The dimorphic expression varied with seasons, being higher in males in the preparatory and prespawning phases. E2 level is higher in female brain than in male brain especially in the preparatory and prespawning phases. E2 level is the highest in prespawning phase and lowest in postspawning phase. The steroids showed brain regional distribution with significant seasonal and dimorphic variations. Olfactory bulb has the highest T: E2 ratio in the resting, preparatory and prespawning phases in comparisons to other brain regions. All brain regions elicited a high level of E2, which showed dimorphic and seasonal variations, indicating high rate of aromatization. Differential levels of aromatase transcript, E2 and T in brain regions suggest a high level of neuroestrogen formation and E2 involvement in various neuroendocrine functions such as regulating spawning behaviour, plasticity, neurogenesis, etc.
Drop in trough blood concentrations of tacrolimus after switching from nelfinavir to fosamprenavir in four HIV-infected liver transplant patients

Solid organ transplantation in HIV-infected individuals requires concomitant use of immunosuppressants and antiretrovirals that may cause significant drug interactions. Here we report on a peculiar pharmacokinetic interaction between tacrolimus and protease inhibitors (PIs) which occurred in four HIV-infected liver transplant patients who had to shift PI therapy from nelfnavir to fosamprenavir as a consequence of regulatory restrictions. After the switch, tacrolimus trough blood concentrations significantly dropped in all patients (mean ±sd 6.9 ±2.6 versus 3.2 ±2.0 ng/ml before and after the switch, respectively; P=0.01), so that a marked dosage increase was needed (0.29 ±0.14 versus 0.88 ±0.48 mg/day, 1–3 days before and 3 weeks after the switch, respectively; P=0.046) to attain the desired target (8.7 ±2.3 ng/ ml). Consistently, marked changes of the concentration/dose ratio of tacrolimus were observed in all cases (27.2 ±9.7 ng/ml per mg/kg/day versus 9.7 ±4.0 ng/ml per mg/kg/day before and after the switch, respectively; P<0.001). Our findings suggest that fosamprenavir may be less potent than nelfinavir in inhibiting tacrolimus clearance and support the need for higher tacrolimus dosage to avoid insufficient immunosuppression in HIV-infected liver transplant patients when switching from nelfinavir to fosamprenavir or even when directly starting antiretroviral therapy with fosamprenavir.
Depression in the patient with COPD

This paper explores the recent literature surrounding comorbid depression and COPD. The literature reveals a high prevalence of depression in patients with COPD and some evidence that the depression is a result of the disease. The literature highlights the negative impact of depression on quality of life and a possible impact on mortality. Depression also negatively impacts on compliance and smoking cessation. Treatment of depression in COPD, particularly by cognitive behavioral therapy, has positive impact on quality of life. Tricyclic antidepressants have a positive impact on mood and COPD, but side effects limit their use. The advent of the new antidepressants may improve acceptability and outcomes, but the research is yet to be undertaken. Physical rehabilitation may have a positive impact on mood. This paper highlights the difficulty in screening for depression in patients with COPD due to the overlap of symptoms between the two diseases. Despite the difficulties, it is important to recognize and treat depression in patients with COPD because of the significant likelihood of improvement in quality of life.
Distance-associated join indices for spatial range search

A distance-associated join index structure is developed to speed up spatial queries, especially for spatial range queries. Three distance-associated join indexing mechanisms: basic, ring-structured, and hierarchical, are presented and studied. The analysis and performance study shows that distance-associated spatial join indices substantially improve the performance of spatial queries, and different structures are best suited for different applications. <<ETX>>
A new gradient search interpretation of super-exponential algorithm

In this letter, the super-exponential algorithm (SEA) is interpreted as a gradient search of an extremum of the inverse filter criteria, and the optimal gradient search step-size is presented as the root of a quartic equation. Different from the gradient search interpretation presented by Mboup and Regalia in the combined channel-equalizer space, the interpretation here is directly related with the realization of SEA in the equalizer space and uncovers more convergence details of SEA under unideal conditions.