Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nutritional risk factors for iron-deficiency anaemia in children 12–24 months old in the area of Thessalia in Greece

Iron-deficiency anaemia (IDA) is a common problem all over the world, which mainly attacks pregnant women, infants and children. The main objectives were to assess the prevalence of IDA in children 12–24 months old in the area of Thessalia located in the central part of Greece and to identify, by means of a simple questionnaire, its nutritional risk factors. The research was applied as a cross-sectional and case–control study. In the first part of the study, the haemoglobin (Hb) levels were estimated by a mobile photometer analyser in 938 children (approximately one-third of the total children population). In the second part, children with Hb < 11 g/dl were compared with their random selected healthy controls in haematological, anthropometric and nutritional parameters. The estimated laboratory values were Hb, haematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular Hb, mean corpuscular Hb concentration, zinc protoporphyrin, serum iron, serum ferritin, transferring saturation, total iron binding capacity and Hb electrophoresis. Finally, 75 children (34 boys, 41 girls; mean age 17.51±3.5 months), who were found to have IDA, constituted the case group while 75 healthy children constituted the control group. The studied nutritional variables through the application of a standardized food frequency questionnaire were: duration of breast feeding, milk that the child drinks during the research, age of solid food introduction, child's health status according to the mother's point of view, child's appetite and frequency of bread, cereals, meat, fish, egg, legumes, chocolate, marmalade, vegetables, fruit and tea intake. The prevalence of IDA in the region was 7.99%. The carriers of b-thalassaemia (2.13%) were excluded from the study. Significant statistical difference has been observed between the two groups (P < 0.001) in all haematological and anthropometric parameters except head circumference (P = 0.85). Concerning the nutritional indices the two groups were statistically different (P < 0.001) in the following: the cases were breastfed less, were drinking fresh cow's milk and tea, were eating meat, vegetables and fruit less often, had a bad appetite and were more likely to get sick. In conclusion, the prevalence of IDA in this area of Greece is approximately similar to other areas in the developed world. The application of simple food frequency questionnaires for the detection of the nutritional IDA risk factors could prognose and prevent anaemia.
Environmental and biological cues for spawning in the crown-of-thorns starfish

Sporadic outbreaks of the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish are likely to be due, at least in part, to spatial and temporal variation in reproductive and settlement success. For gonochoric and broadcast spawning species such as crown-of-thorns starfish, spawning synchrony is fundamental for achieving high rates of fertilization. Highly synchronized gamete release within and among distinct populations is typically the result of the entrainment of neurohormonal endogenous rhythms by cues from the environment. In this study, we conducted multiple spawning assays to test the effects of temperature change, reduced salinity and nutrient enrichment of seawater, phytoplankton, gametes (sperm and eggs), and the combined effect of sperm and phytoplankton on the likelihood of spawning in male and female crown-of-thorns starfish. We also investigated sex-specific responses to each of these potential spawning cues. We found that (1) abrupt temperature change (an increase of 4°C) induced spawning in males, but less so in females; (2) males often spawned in response to the presence of phytoplankton, but none of the females spawned in response to these cues; (3) the presence of sperm in the water column induced males and females to spawn, although additive and synergistic effects of sperm and phytoplankton were not significant; and (4) males are more sensitive to the spawning cues tested and most likely spawn prior to females. We propose that environmental cues act as spawning ‘inducers’ by causing the release of hormones (gonad stimulating substance) in sensitive males, while biological cues (pheromones) from released sperm, in turn, act as spawning ‘synchronizers’ by triggering a hormonal cascade resulting in gamete shedding by conspecifics. Given the immediate temporal linkage between the timing of spawning and fertilization events, variability in the extent and synchronicity of gamete release will significantly influence reproductive success and may account for fluctuations in the abundance of crown-of-thorns starfish.
Empirical study on taxi GPS traces for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Inter-contact time (denoted as TI) between mobile nodes that captures the temporal characteristics of Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) has been intensively studied. Whereas the node spatial distribution is ignored in most existing mobility schemes, which is also worthy of investigation, particularly for real applications. Moreover, the node spatial distribution has a significant influence on the inter-contact time. In this paper, we study the empirical data acquired from taxis in Shanghai city. We find that most taxis distribute on some hot roads which makes the node spatial distribution appear power law. Based on this observation, we propose the concepts of indirect contact and heterogeneous inter-contact time (represented as TH) to reveal how hot roads can change the distribution of inter-contact time. By investigating the empirical data, we show that the TH distribution also appears power law.
Short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light during work at night: limited melatonin suppression without substantial decline of alertness

Exposure to light at night increases alertness, but light at night (especially short-wavelength light) also disrupts nocturnal physiology. Such disruption is thought to underlie medical problems for which shiftworkers have increased risk. In 33 male subjects we investigated whether short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light (<530 nm filtered out) at night preserves dim light melatonin levels and whether it induces similar skin temperature, alertness, and performance levels as under full-spectrum light. All 33 subjects participated in random order during three nights (at least 1 wk apart) either under dim light (3 lux), short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light (193 lux), or full-spectrum light (256 lux). Hourly saliva samples for melatonin analysis were collected along with continuous measurements of skin temperature. Subjective sleepiness and activation were assessed via repeated questionnaires and performance was assessed by the accuracy and speed of an addition task. Our results show that short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light only marginally (6%) suppressed salivary melatonin. Average distal-to-proximal skin temperature gradient (DPG) and its pattern over time remained similar under short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light compared with dim light. Subjects performed equally well on an addition task under short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light compared with full-spectrum light. Although subjective ratings of activation were lower under short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light compared with full-spectrum light, subjective sleepiness was not increased. Short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light at night has some advantages over bright light. It hardly suppresses melatonin concentrations, whereas performance is similar to the bright light condition. Yet, alertness is slightly reduced as compared with bright light, and DPG shows similarity to the dim light condition, which is a physiological sign of reduced alertness. Short-wavelength attenuated polychromatic white light might therefore not be advisable in work settings that require high levels of alertness. (Author correspondence: maan.van.de.werken@gmail.com)
Improving Recovery Rate for Packet Loss in Large-Scale Telecom Smart TV Systems

SUMMARY Smart TVs are expected to play a leading role in the future networked intelligent screen market. Currently, many operators are planning to deploy it in large scale in a few years. Therefore, it is necessary for smart TVs to provide high quality services for users. Packet loss is one critical reason that decreases the QoS in smart TVs. Even a very small amount of packet loss (1–2%) can decrease the QoS and a ﬀ ect users’ experience seriously. This paper applies stochastic di ﬀ erential equations to analyzing the queue in the bu ﬀ er of access points in smart TV multi-cast systems, demonstrates the reason for packet loss, and then proposes an end-to-end error recovery scheme (short as OPRSFEC) whose core algo-rithm is based on Reed-Solomon theory, and optimizes four aspects in ﬁnite ﬁelds: 1) Using Cauchy matrix instead of Vandermonde matrix to code and decode; 2) generating inverse matrix by table look-up; 3) changing the matrix multiplication into the table look-up; 4) originally dividing the matrix multiplication. This paper implements the scheme on the application layer, which screens the heterogeneity of terminals and servers, corrects 100% packet loss (loss rate is 1%–2%) in multicast systems, and brings very little e ﬀ ect on real-time users experience. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed scheme has good performances, successfully runs on Sigma and Mstar Moca TV terminals, and increases the QoS of smart TVs. Recently, OPRSFEC middleware has become a part of IPTV2.0 standard in Shang-hai Telecom and has been running on the Mstar boards of Haier Moca TVs properly. key words: smart TV, packet loss, QoS, error recovery
Health Care Applications of Different Biosurfactants: Review

: Biosurfactants are amphiphillic compounds produced by certain microorganisms. Bio surfactant molecules arrange themselves in water-oil interface and reduce surface tension. Biosurfactants have some advantages over chemical surfactants in market with respect to biodegradability, low toxicity, better surface and interfacial activity. There are different application of biosurfactants in health care purposes both oral and dermal. Among this some of the important field of application are medicine and cosmetics.
Symmetric-Key Homomorphic Encryption for Encrypted Data Processing

The difficulty of processing data in encrypted form has long been the barrier to the widespread use of encryption in data storage applications; improved security or privacy would always imply a sacrifice of functionality. Many applications, such as ASP, requiring a significant amount of processing at the data storage servers are hence precluded from using encryption to protect data privacy. To address this problem, this paper works on privacy homomorphism which allows encrypted data to be operated on. Two additive homomorphic schemes, namely Iterated Hill Cipher (IHC) and Modified Rivest Scheme (MRS), are given. They are secure to ciphertext-only attacks and have the nice property that the same data may have different representations in the encrypted domain.
Facial Geometry Identification through Fuzzy Patterns with RGBD Sensor

Automatic human facial recognition is an important and complicated task; it is necessary to design algorithms capable of recognizing the constant patterns in the face and to use computing resources efficiently. In this paper we present a novel algorithm to recognize the human face in real time; the system's input is the depth and color data from the Microsoft KinectTM device. The algorithm recognizes patterns/shapes on the point cloud topography. The template of the face is based in facial geometry; the forensic theory classifies the human face with respect to constant patterns: cephalometric points, lines, and areas of the face. The topography, relative position, and symmetry are directly related to the craniometric points. The similarity between a point cloud cluster and a pattern description is measured by a fuzzy pattern theory algorithm. The face identification is composed by two phases: the first phase calculates the face pattern hypothesis of the facial points, configures each point shape, the related location in the areas, and lines of the face. Then, in the second phase, the algorithm performs a search on these face point configurations.
High serum levels of YKL‐40 in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck are associated with short survival

YKL‐40 is a glycoprotein secreted by macrophages, neutrophils and malignant tumor cells. Elevated serum levels of YKL‐40 are associated with poor prognosis in several malignancies. In this study, we examined the prognostic value of serum YKL‐40 before treatment and during follow‐up in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC). YKL‐40 was determined by ELISA retrospectively in serum from 173 patients with primary HNSCC before treatment and up to 2 years after treatment. Median follow‐up time was 7.9 years. YKL‐40 protein expression in tumor biopsies was assessed by immunohistochemistry in 50 patients. Pretreatment serum YKL‐40 was elevated in 53%. Patients with high serum YKL‐40 had shorter survival than patients with normal serum YKL‐40 (33 vs. 84 months; p = 0.008). Multivariate Cox analysis including pretreatment serum YKL‐40, age, sex, primary tumor site, TNM classification and treatment demonstrated that TNM classification (HR = 2.61, p = 0.02) and serum YKL‐40 (log‐transformed continuous variable: HR = 1.55, p < 0.0001) were independent prognostic variables of overall survival (OS). Multivariate Cox analysis demonstrated that TNM classification (HR = 5.77, p = 0.001) and serum YKL‐40 (dichotomous variable: HR = 2.75, p = 0.01) were independent predictors of recurrence‐free survival. During follow‐up after radiotherapy, a high serum YKL‐40 (log‐transformed continuous variable) in patients with TNM Stage III and IV disease predicted poorer OS within 6 months (HR = 1.95, p < 0.0001). Immunohistochemical analysis showed YKL‐40 expression in the malignant tumor cells. In conclusion, serum YKL‐40 was demonstrated to be an independent prognostic biomarker of recurrence‐free and overall survival in patients with HNSCC. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Detrended fluctuation analysis of EEG recordings for epileptic seizure detection

In this paper, the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) is used to quantify the fractal-like scaling properties of the EEG signals. The power-law exponent of DFA of the EEG time series was used to distinguish subjects with epilepsy from healthy controls. The performance of the proposed method was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves. The obtained results show that the DFA technique achieves high detection accuracy rate (98%) on distinguishing the epileptic seizure from the normal healthy EEG.
Coagulation parameters and major bleeding in critically ill patients with cirrhosis

Disturbances of coagulation and hemostasis are common in patients with liver cirrhosis. The typical laboratory pattern mimics disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of routine coagulation parameters in critically ill cirrhosis patients with regard to new onset of major bleeding and outcome. A total of 1,493 critically ill patients were studied prospectively. Routine coagulation parameters were assessed, and the DIC score was calculated based on platelets, fibrinogen, d‐dimer, and prothrombin index. New onset of major bleeding during the stay at the intensive care unit and mortality were assessed. Patients were followed for 1 year. Two hundred eleven patients of the cohort had liver cirrhosis. Platelets, fibrinogen, prothrombin index, activated partial thromboplastin time, and d‐dimer as well as the DIC score differed significantly between patients with and without cirrhosis (P < 0.001 for all). Moreover, fibrinogen, platelets, and activated partial thromboplastin time (but not prothrombin index) differed significantly between cirrhosis patients with and without major bleeding (P < 0.01 for all). Bleeding on admission, platelet count <30 < 109/L, fibrinogen level <60 mg/dL, and activated partial thromboplastin time values >100 seconds were the strongest independent predictors for new onset of major bleeding in multivariate regression analysis. One‐year mortality in cirrhosis patients with and without major bleeding was 89% and 68%, respectively (P < 0.05 between groups). Conclusion: Abnormal coagulation parameters and high DIC scores (primarily due to fibrinogen and platelets) correspond to increased bleeding risk in patients with liver cirrhosis in the intensive care unit, and fibrinogen and platelet count were identified as the best routine coagulation parameters for prediction of new onset of major bleeding; however, further studies are required to evaluate the potential therapeutic implications of these findings. (Hepatology 2016;64:556‐568)
Performance Enhancement of Black Phosphorus Field-Effect Transistors by Chemical Doping

In this letter, a new approach to chemically dope black phosphorus (BP) is presented, which significantly enhances the device performance of BP field-effect transistors for an initial period of 18 h, before degrading to previously reported levels. By applying 2,3,5,6-tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane (F4-TCNQ), low ON-state resistance of 3.2 Ω · mm and high field-effect mobility of 229 cm2/Vs are achieved with a record high drain current of 532 mA/mm at a moderate channel length of 1.5 μm.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis : from epidemiology to gene mapping

9 INTRODUCTION.11 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.13 1. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.13 1.1 From history to novel classification.13 1.2 Epidemiology.14 1.3 Etiology.15 1.4 Pathological findings.16 1.5 Diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis . 19 1.6 Treatment . 21 2. Gene mapping of complex diseases . 23 2.1 General . 23 2.2 Linkage analysis.24 2.3 Association analysis.27 2.4 Characteristics of the Finnish population.28 3. Genetics of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis . 31 3.1 Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in families . 31 3.2 Candidate genes . 32 3.2.1 Immune response genes . 32 3.2.2 Genes in biochemical defence.34 3.3 Mouse models . 36 AIMS OF THE STUDY.39 MATERIALS AND METHODS . 40 1. Patient selection.40 1.1 Identifying idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis patients . 40 1.2 Family selection for the genome-wide scan and for haplotype association analysis.40 1.3 Replication data set . 41 1.4 Patients and controls for association studies on the CR1 and ESCOD genes.41 2. Diagnostic criteria . 42 3. Genome scan and fine mapping markers and genotyping methods.42 4. Genotyping of the Pro1827Arg variant in the CR1 gene . 43 5. Genotyping of the Arg213Gly variant in the ECSOD gene . 44 6. Sequencing . 44 7. mRNA expression.45 8. In vitro translation . 46 9. In situ hybridization.47 10. Statistical analyses . 47 10.1 Linkage analysis.47 10.2 Power estimations for linkage analysis (simulations). 47 10.3 Association analyses . 48 RESULTS . 49 1. Prevalence . 49 2. Familial idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.50 3. Genome-wide linkage analysis . 51 4. Haplotype association analysis on chromosomes 3, 4, 9, 12, and 13.53 5. Positional candidate genes.54 6. Sequencing . 55 7. Association study on the Pro1827Arg variant in the CR1 gene.56 8. Association study on the Arg213Gly variant in the ESCOD gene.56 DISCUSSION . 57 1. Prevalence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis . 57 2. Familial idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.58 3. Identifying novel candidate genomic region for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis by genome-wide scan combined with hierarchial association study . 59 4. Characterization of candidate genes . 61 5. Association studies on functional candidate genes CR1 and ECSOD.63 CONCLUSIONS . 66 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.67 REFERENCES.69 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS . 82
Oxidative Stress in Aging Human Skin

Oxidative stress in skin plays a major role in the aging process. This is true for intrinsic aging and even more for extrinsic aging. Although the results are quite different in dermis and epidermis, extrinsic aging is driven to a large extent by oxidative stress caused by UV irradiation. In this review the overall effects of oxidative stress are discussed as well as the sources of ROS including the mitochondrial ETC, peroxisomal and ER localized proteins, the Fenton reaction, and such enzymes as cyclooxygenases, lipoxygenases, xanthine oxidases, and NADPH oxidases. Furthermore, the defense mechanisms against oxidative stress ranging from enzymes like superoxide dismutases, catalases, peroxiredoxins, and GSH peroxidases to organic compounds such as L-ascorbate, α-tocopherol, beta-carotene, uric acid, CoQ10, and glutathione are described in more detail. In addition the oxidative stress induced modifications caused to proteins, lipids and DNA are discussed. Finally age-related changes of the skin are also a topic of this review. They include a disruption of the epidermal calcium gradient in old skin with an accompanying change in the composition of the cornified envelope. This modified cornified envelope also leads to an altered anti-oxidative capacity and a reduced barrier function of the epidermis.
Open-ended questions in Web surveys - Using visual and adaptive questionnaire design to improve narrative responses

One of the most significant decisions when designing survey questions is whether the questions will be posed as closed-ended or open-ended. Closed-ended questions require respondents to choose from a set of provided response-options, while open-ended questions are answered by respondents in their own words. Open-ended questions offer the benefit of not constraining responses and allowing respondents to freely answer and elaborate upon their responses. Narrative open-ended questions are especially useful when there are no suitable answer categories available for a closed-ended question format, or if providing response options might bias the respondents. Open-ended questions are also powerful tools for collecting more detailed and specific responses from large samples of respondents. However, open-ended questions are burdensome to answer and suffer from higher rates of item-nonresponse. This thesis aims to improve narrative open-ended questions in Web surveys by using visual and adaptive questionnaire design. Previous research on open-ended questions demonstrated that respondents react to the size and design of the answer box offered with an open-ended question in Web surveys. Larger answer boxes seem to pose an additional burden as compared to smaller answer boxes. At the same time larger answer boxes work as a stimulus that increases the length of the response provided by those respondents who actually answer the question. By varying the visual design of answer-boxes this thesis seeks ways to improve narrative open-ended questions.
Walling in Strategy Games via Constraint Optimization

This paper presents a constraint optimization approach to walling in real-time strategy (RTS) games. Walling is a specific type of spatial reasoning, typically employed by human expert players and not currently fully exploited in RTS game AI, consisting on finding configurations of buildings to completely or partially block paths. Our approach is based on local search, and is specifically designed for the real-time nature of RTS games. We present experiments in the context of the RTS game StarCraft showing promising results.