Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of Parvovirus B19 Infection in Thalasemic Patients in Isfahan Province, Iran

Background: Parvovirus B19, a member of the Erythrovirus genus of Parvoviridae family, causes various clinical illnesses including infectious erythema, arthropathy, hydrops fetalis or congenital anemia, and transient aplastic crises. The B19 virus can be transmitted through respiratory secretions, blood products, and blood transfusion. Objectives: The aim of this study was to detect the B19 virus in thalassemia patients in Isfahan, Iran. Patients and Methods: The prevalence of parvovirus B19 infection was compared between thalassemia major patients and healthy subjects. Plasma samples were collected from 30 thalassemia patients from Isfahan, Iran. Thirty patients without any blood complications were considered as the control group. After DNA extraction from the plasma samples, polymerase chain reaction was performed for parvovirus B19 detection. Results: The parvovirus B19-specific nucleotide sequence was detected in 6 patients (20%). None of the samples obtained from the 30 control subjects tested positive for B19. Conclusions: In this study B19-Parvovirus infection were detected in patients with hematologic disorders in comparison with control subjects. Screening of patients with a high risk of parvovirus B19 infection can considerably reduce the incidence and prevalence of B19 infection.
The debate on immigration and the crisis of national identity

The legacy of mass labour migration to Europe in the 1960s is a considerable permanent ‘foreign’ population. Now recession and industrial restructuring have cast doubt on that population's economic, social and political legitimacy; simultaneously, the nation state is under pressure from both above and below. Despite historically very different approaches to the role of immigration in Britain, France and Germany, there has emerged a common problem of national identity. Across Europe there remains strong popular attachment to the national cultural identities, and it is this inertia which denies the logic of adaptation and change.
Metamodel-assisted mixed integer evolution strategies and their application to intravascular ultrasound image analysis

This paper discusses mixed integer evolution strategies (MIES) assisted by metamodels based on radial basis function networks (RBFN). The goal is to make MIES more suitable for optimization with time consuming evaluation functions. A novelty of the presented research is that RBFN are studied for metamodeling in heterogeneous (mixed-integer) parameter spaces. A heterogeneous metric (HEOM) is adopted that is in conformity with the design of the MIES. In addition, cross- validation based optimization techniques are suggested for adjusting hyper-parameters of the model and avoid singularities. Empirical studies on prediction of random sets indicate good prediction capabilities of the proposed RBFN for functional landscapes of moderate dimension/smoothness. The influence of the training set size as well as of the dimension on computational complexity and accuracy of the RBFN is investigated. In the metamodel-assisted MIES, a RBFN metamodel is build and updated after each generation. The metamodel is used for selecting a small subset of offspring individuals from a bigger set of variations and thereby increase the number of promising solutions in the offspring population. The algorithm is designed in a way that in case of failure of the metamodel (e.g. "random" predictions) the metamodel-assisted MIES behaves like a standard MIES. Experimental results, both on artificial test problems and a real world application, namely the optimization of feature detectors in ultrasound images, indicate a clear acceleration that can be achieved by using heterogeneous RBFN.
Semi-Automatic Identification of Counterfeit Offers in Online Shopping Platforms

ABSTRACT Product counterfeiting in online platforms is an increasingly serious problem causing estimated losses of billions of dollars every year. The huge number of online shops and offered products call for largely automated approaches to identify likely counterfeits, although identifying counterfeits is very difficult even for humans. The authors propose the adoption of a semi-automatic workflow to inspect product offers in online platforms and to determine likely counterfeit offers based on different criteria. Such suspicious offers are to be presented to a domain expert for manual verification. The workflow includes steps to match and cluster similar product offers, and to assess the counterfeit suspiciousness based on different criteria. The goal is to support the periodic identification of many counterfeit offers with a limited amount of manual effort. The authors also present a preliminary evaluation of the proposed approach on a case study using the eBay platform.
Part‐time employment and communication satisfaction in an Australian retail organisation

This study uses an empirical case study to examine the relationship between flexible work arrangements (whether employees work on a full‐time or part‐time basis) and one aspect of employee relations, namely communication satisfaction. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from employees in a major Australian retail organisation, resulting in 127 useable responses. The survey included the communication satisfaction questionnaire. Overall, respondents’ ratings of communication satisfaction indicated that at best they were only slightly satisfied. Part‐time employees were significantly more dissatisfied than full‐time employees on four dimensions of communication satisfaction. The study provides evidence that part‐time employees are outside mainstream communication in the stores examined. The implications of the results for employee relations are discussed. Future research directions are identified.
Power-aware routing protocols in ad hoc wireless networks

An ad hoc wireless network has no fixed networking infrastructure. It consists of multiple, possibly mobile, nodes that maintain network connectivity through wireless communications. Such a network has practical applications in areas where it may not be economically practical or physically possible to provide a conventional networking infrastructure. The nodes in an ad hoc wireless network are typically powered by batteries with a limited energy supply. One of the most important and challenging issues in ad hoc wireless networks is how to conserve energy, maximizing the lifetime of its nodes and thus of the network itself. Since routing is an essential function in these networks, developing power-aware routing protocols for ad hoc wireless networks has been an intensive research area in recent years. As a result, many power-aware routing protocols have been proposed from a variety of perspectives. This article surveys the current state of power-aware routing protocols in ad hoc wireless networks.
Variational Transform Invariant Mixture of Probabilistic PCA

In many video based object recognition applications, the object appearances are acquired by visual tracking and are inconsistent due to misalignments caused by tracking drifting. We believe the misalignments can be removed if we can reduce the inconsistency in the object appearances caused by misalignments through clustering the objects in appearance, space and time domain simultaneously. We therefore propose to learn transform invariant mixtures of probabilistic PCA (TIMPPCA) model from the data while at the same time eliminating the misalignments. The model is formulated in a generative framework, and the misalignments are considered as hidden variables in the model. Variational EM update rules are then derived based on variational message passing (VMP) techniques. The proposed TIMPPCA is applied to improve head pose estimation performance and to detect the change of attention focus in meeting room video for meeting room video indexing/retrieval and achieved promising performance.
Summary Proceedings From the Neonatal Pain-Control Group

Recent advances in neurobiology and clinical medicine have established that the fetus and newborn may experience acute, established, and chronic pain. They respond to such noxious stimuli by a series of complex biochemical, physiologic, and behavioral alterations. Studies have concluded that controlling pain experience is beneficial with respect to short-term and perhaps long-term outcomes. Yet, pain-control measures are adopted infrequently because of unresolved scientific issues and lack of appreciation for the need for control of pain and its long-term sequelae during the critical phases of neurologic maturation in the preterm and term newborn. The neonatal pain-control group, as part of the Newborn Drug Development Initiative (NDDI) Workshop I, addressed these concerns. The specific issues addressed were (1) management of pain associated with invasive procedures, (2) provision of sedation and analgesia during mechanical ventilation, and (3) mitigation of pain and stress responses during and after surgery in the newborn infant. The cross-cutting themes addressed within each category included (1) clinical-trial designs, (2) drug prioritization, (3) ethical constraints, (4) gaps in our knowledge, and (5) future research needs. This article provides a summary of the discussions and deliberations. Full-length articles on procedural pain, sedation and analgesia for ventilated infants, perioperative pain, and study designs for neonatal pain research were published in Clinical Therapeutics (June 2005).
Genetic alterations in the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase/Akt pathway in thyroid cancer.

BACKGROUND Aberrant activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway plays a fundamental role in thyroid tumorigenesis, particularly in follicular thyroid cancer (FTC) and aggressive thyroid cancer, such as anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC). As the drivers of this process, many genetic alterations activating the PI3K/Akt pathway have been identified in thyroid cancer in recent years. SUMMARY This review summarizes the current knowledge on major genetic alterations in the PI3K/Akt pathway. These include PIK3CA mutations and genomic amplification/copy gain, Ras mutations, PTEN mutations, RET/PTC and PPARgamma/Pax8 rearrangements, as well as amplification/copy gain of PIK3CB, PDK1, Akt, and various receptor tyrosine kinase genes. Most of these genetic alterations are particularly common in FTC and many of them are even more common in ATC; they are generally less common in papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), in which the MAP kinase (MAPK) pathway activated by the BRAF mutation instead plays a major role. Methylation and, thus, epigenetic silencing of PTEN, a major negative regulator of the PI3K/Akt pathway, occurs in close association with activating genetic alterations of the PI3K/Akt pathway, constituting a unique self-enhancement mechanism for this pathway. Many of these genetic alterations are mutually exclusive in differentiated thyroid tumors, but with increasing concurrence from benign tumors to FTC to ATC. RET/PTC, Ras, and receptor tyrosine kinase could dually activate the PI3K/Akt and MAPK pathways. Most cases of ATC harbor genetic alterations in these genes or other genetic combinations that can activate both pathways. It is proposed that genetic alterations in the PI3K/Akt pathway promote thyroid cell transformation to FTC and that genetic alterations in the MAPK pathway promote cell transformation to PTC; accumulation of multiple genetic alterations that can activate both pathways promotes thyroid cancer aggressiveness and progression to ATC. CONCLUSIONS Genetic alterations are common in the PI3K/Akt pathway in thyroid cancer and play a fundamental role in the tumorigenesis and progression of this cancer. This provides a strong basis for the emerging development of novel genetic-based diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic strategies for thyroid cancer.
Efficient solutions to relaxations of combinatorial problems with submodular penalties via the Lovász extension and non-smooth convex optimization

We consider convex relaxations for combinatorial optimization problems with submodular penalties. The relaxations are obtained very naturally through a novel use of the Lovász extension of a submodular function. We also propose the use of simple and recent algorithms for non-smooth convex optimization due to Nesterov to approximately solve them. For the uncapacitated facility location problem with submodular penalties we design FPTAS for our relaxation that can be used to design approximation algorithms for the original problem for the metric case. In contrast to previous work of Hayrapetyan et al, our algorithms are fast and simple and do not use the ellipsoid algorithm. We also consider more general set covering problems with submodular costs also introduced by Hayrapetyan et al and submodular function minimization. The running time dependence on ε of our algorithms is either 1/ε or 1/ε2. The slower ones (1/ε2) are very simple. The faster ones (1/ε) are more sophisticated and require that certain projections be easy to solve in the base polytope. These projections can generally be solved using submodular function minimization as a subroutine; however for some important special cases, they can be solved much more efficiently, thus providing the fastest of our algorithms.
Hyperplasia, hypertrophy, and phenotypic alterations in the distal nephron after acute proximal tubular injury in the rat.

BACKGROUND Little is known about the impact of acute proximal tubular injury and dysfunction on the distal nephron. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Selective necrosis of the kidney proximal convoluted tubule (PCT) was induced in rats by subcutaneous injection of the aminoglycoside gentamicin during 2 days. Damage and repair were measured until complete morphologic recovery after 10 days. Special attention was given to structural and biochemical alterations in the distal nephron. RESULTS In control animals, cellular turnover, measured by immunohistochemical staining for proliferating cell nuclear antigen, was higher in distal than in proximal tubules. After injury, the strongly increased cell proliferation in regenerating necrotic PCT was preceded by an equally important proliferation in the distal tubules of the cortex and outer stripe of the outer medulla in the absence of necrosis but displaying enhanced apoptosis. Yet, epithelial vimentin expression was restricted to regenerating PCT. A temporary loss in the amount of immunostainable epidermal growth factor in the distal nephron was paralleled by a similar reduction in Tamm- Horsfall protein and transferrin receptor staining and in peanut and Helix pomatia lectin binding. Furthermore, the epithelial area/nucleus in the cortical distal tubules was increased by 71%, 6 days after the onset of acute renal failure; this hypertrophic condition was confirmed ultrastructurally. After full recovery of the PCT, a second burst in proliferative activity occurred in the hypertrophic distal segments in the absence of apoptosis. In the regenerated PCT, an excess cell number was accompanied by increased apoptotic activity. CONCLUSIONS Development of distal tubular hypertrophy after PCT necrosis may be a compensatory response to a transient loss of proximal tubular function. The early reduction in staining for epidermal growth factor and other distal tubular markers in the presence of apoptosis and hyperplasia indicates transient phenotypic simplification and implies that renal epidermal growth factor is unlikely to control PCT regeneration.
Systemic suppression of interferon‐γ responses in Buruli ulcer patients resolves after surgical excision of the lesions caused by the extracellular pathogen Mycobacterium ulcerans

Buruli ulcer (BU), caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, is the third most common mycobacterial infection in immunocompetent humans besides tuberculosis and leprosy. We have compared by ex vivo enzyme‐linked immunospot analysis interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) responses in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from BU patients, household contacts, and individuals living in an adjacent M. ulcerans nonendemic region. PBMC were stimulated with purified protein derivative (PPD) and nonmycobacterial antigens such as reconstituted influenza virus particles and isopentenyl‐pyrophosphate. With all three antigens, the number of IFN‐γ spot‐forming units was reduced significantly in BU patients compared with the controls from a nonendemic area. This demonstrates for the first time that M. ulcerans infection‐associated systemic reduction in IFN‐γ responses is not confined to stimulation with live or dead mycobacteria and their products but extends to other antigens. Interleukin (IL)‐12 secretion by PPD‐stimulated PBMC was not reduced in BU patients, indicating that reduction in IFN‐γ responses was not caused by diminished IL‐12 production. Several months after surgical excision of BU lesions, IFN‐γ responses of BU patients against all antigens used for stimulation recovered significantly, indicating that the measured systemic immunosuppression was not the consequence of a genetic defect in T cell function predisposing for BU but is rather related to the presence of M. ulcerans bacteria.
High levels of diversity and population structure in the potato late blight pathogen at the Mexico centre of origin

Globally destructive crop pathogens often emerge by migrating out of their native ranges. These pathogens are often diverse at their centre of origin and may exhibit adaptive variation in the invaded range via multiple introductions from different source populations. However, source populations are generally unidentified or poorly studied compared to invasive populations. Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of late blight, is one of the most costly pathogens of potato and tomato worldwide. Mexico is the centre of origin and diversity of P. infestans and migration events out of Mexico have enormously impacted disease dynamics in North America and Europe. The debate over the origin of the pathogen, and population studies of P. infestans in Mexico, has focused on the Toluca Valley, whereas neighbouring regions have been little studied. We examined the population structure of P. infestans across central Mexico, including samples from Michoacán, Tlaxcala and Toluca. We found high levels of diversity consistent with sexual reproduction in Michoacán and Tlaxcala and population subdivision that was strongly associated with geographic region. We determined that population structure in central Mexico has contributed to diversity in introduced populations based on relatedness of U.S. clonal lineages to Mexican isolates from different regions. Our results suggest that P. infestans exists as a metapopulation in central Mexico, and this population structure could be contributing to the repeated re‐emergence of P. infestans in the United States and elsewhere.
Social Competence as a Multifaceted Construct: How do Students with Learning Disabilities Fare?

This article summarizes and extends the findings from a prospective, longitudinal study that examined the social competence of students with learning disabilities (LD) from kindergarten through fifth grade. Four components that represent a model of social competence were measured: peer relations, social cognition, behavior problems, and social skills. Findings revealed that over time youngsters with LD demonstrated the same trends on all aspects of social competence as nonLD students. Students with LD did not differ significantly from low-achieving (LA) nonLD students on any of the measures of social competence; however, they were significantly different from average/high-achieving (AHA) nonLD students on social skills and behavior problems, but not peer acceptance or self-concept. The discussion addresses the social competence of students with LD from a developmental perspective as well as how they contrast with other achievement groups (LA and AHA). Issues and suggestions for future directions for research on the social-emotional development of youngsters with LD are presented.
IL-1 Receptor Accessory Protein and ST2 Comprise the IL-33 Receptor Complex

IL-33 (IL-1F11) is a recently described member of the IL-1 family of cytokines that stimulates the generation of cells, cytokines, and Igs characteristic of a type 2 immune response. IL-33 mediates signal transduction through ST2, a receptor expressed on Th2 and mast cells. In this study, we demonstrate that IL-33 and ST2 form a complex with IL-1R accessory protein (IL-1RAcP), a signaling receptor subunit that is also a member of the IL-1R complex. Additionally, IL-1RAcP is required for IL-33-induced in vivo effects, and IL-33-mediated signal transduction can be inhibited by dominant-negative IL-1RAcP. The implications of this shared usage of IL-1RAcP by IL-1(α and β) and IL-33 are discussed.
Short-term digital surface microscopic monitoring of atypical or changing melanocytic lesions.

OBJECTIVE To examine the outcome of short-term digital surface microscopic monitoring of suspicious or changing atypical melanocytic lesions. DESIGN Digital surface microscopic (oil epiluminescence microscopy, and dermoscopy) images of clinically melanocytic lesions were taken with a color calibrated 3 CCD video instrument. In general, lesions were moderately atypical, flat or only slightly raised, without a history of change or surface microscopic evidence of melanoma, or were mildly atypical lesions with a history of change. Lesions were monitored during a 2.5- to 4.5-month period (median, 3.0 months). With the exception of overall change in pigmentation consistent with that seen in surrounding skin (solar exposure changes), any morphologic change after monitoring was considered an indication to excise. SETTING Sydney Melanoma Unit, Sydney, Australia (a referral center). PATIENTS A consecutive sample of 318 lesions from 245 patients (aged 4-81 years). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Specificity for the diagnosis of melanoma. RESULTS Of the 318 lesions, 81% remained unchanged. Of the 61 lesions that showed morphologic changes, 7 (11% of changed and 2% of total lesions) were found to be early melanoma (5 in situ and 2 invasive with a Breslow thickness of 0.25 mm and 0.28 mm, respectively). None of these melanomas developed any classic surface microscopic features of melanoma and therefore could be identified only by morphologic change. The specificity for the diagnosis of melanoma by means of short-term digital monitoring was 83%. CONCLUSION On the assumption that all melanoma will change during the monitored period, surface microscopy digital monitoring is a useful adjunct for the management of melanocytic lesions.
Model reduction for identification of ARX models

In this paper, we discuss the problem of model reduction in ARX system from the point of system identification. When consider the process model represented by the linear regression form, based on the asymptotic analysis results of the unknown parameters vector in the probability frame system, we derive the asymptotic variance matrix form of the unknown parameters vector in ARX system. When obtain the identified parameters vector, we apply the most popular model reduction method L2 method and derive the identification strategy about the unknown parameters vector in the reduced model. Furthermore, we analyse the asymptotic variance matrix form of the unknown parameters vector in the reduced model. Finally, the efficiency and possibility of the proposed strategy can be confirmed by the simulation example results.
Kernel Density Topic Models : Visual Topics Without Visual Words

The computer vision community has greatly benefited from transferring techniques originally developed in the document processing domain to the visual domain by means of discretizing the features space into visual words. This paper reinvestigates the necessity of this artificially discretization of the continuous space of visual features and consequently proposes an alternative formulation of the popular topic models that is based on kernel density estimates. Results indicate the benefits of our model in terms of decreased perplexity as well as improved performance on object discovery tasks.