Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Managing sickle cell disease

Advances are being made in the management of sickle cell disease for all age groups. This review discusses the progress in amelioration of symptoms, problems unique to particular age groups, and the types of drugs and treatments currently under investigation In 1973, the average life span of a patient with sickle cell disease was 14 years. Thirty years later, the development of comprehensive care models, day hospitals, and ongoing efforts in both basic sciences and clinical research has increased life expectancy to 50 years. Advances in the management of sickle cell disease have dramatically changed the outlook for patients (box 1). Polymerisation of sickle haemoglobin is the catalyst in the development of vaso-occlusion. Additional factors are critical to the pathophysiology of sickling (the development of sickle cells in the blood), including abnormalities in coagulation, white cells, vascular endothelium, and damage to the membranes of red cells.1 The culmination of these factors results in red cells with reduced deformability that easily adhere to vascular endothelium, increasing the potential for decreased blood flow and vascular obstruction. As a result, patients develop both haemolytic anaemia and vasculopathy.2 Organ damage is also an ongoing problem. Although the course of the disease is punctuated by episodes of pain, the organ damage is often silent until far advanced. We discuss the advances in the clinical management of sickle cell disease and new therapies that are available. Our review is based on information from published research studies from the Children's Hospital and Research Center at Oakland. Electronic searches were through Medline and PubMed, and we downloaded relevant articles. We also extracted information from reviews of current work and consultations with other experts and health providers in the specialty of sickle cell disease. The optimal setting for the care of patients with sickle cell disease is …
A formula for the re-inspection decision

Various recommendations concerning the re-inspection decision can be found in the literature. Some are based on general assumptions or estimates concerning the downstream cost of defects and the proportion of defects that get past the inspection "filter". None of these recommendations allow you to work with your own data or assumptions concerning specific types of documents. This article provides a way to make the re-inspection decision using your own data.
Theoretical and empirical concerns regarding the dark triad as a construct.

Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism are three constructs that have been collectively referred to as the "Dark Triad. " Although researchers were initially interested in comparing similarities and differences between these constructs, in recent years researchers have combined items from the measures to create an overall measure of the Dark Triad as a single construct. The authors raise theoretical concerns regarding this approach, arguing that Machiavellianism and narcissism can be viewed as features or traits of psychopathy. They also provide empirical evidence from a large, correctional sample (N = 972) to demonstrate that a latent Dark Triad could not be estimated using confirmatory factor analysis because more than 100% of the variance was attributed to psychopathy. Moreover, the Dark Triad traits, by and large, did not confer incremental validity above and beyond psychopathy, and none of the interaction models indicated that additional information would be gained from considering the Dark Triad traits in constellation.
Operator Product Expansion and Local Quark-Hadron Duality : Facts and Riddles

We review the status of the practical operator product expansion (OPE), when applied to twopoint correlators of QCD currents which interpolate to mesonic resonances, in view of the violations of local quark-hadron duality. Covered topics are: a mini-review of mesonic QCD sum rules in vacuum, at finite temperature, or at finite baryon density, a comparison of model calculations of current-current correlation functions in 2D and 4D with the OPE expression, a discussion of meson distribution amplitudes in the light of nonperturbatively nonlocal modifications of the OPE, and a reorganization of the OPE which (partially) resums powers of covariant derivatives.
Vaccination against foot-and-mouth disease virus: strategies and effectiveness

Although present conventional foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccines can prevent clinical disease, protection is short lived (∼6 months), often requiring frequent revaccination for prophylactic control, and vaccination does not induce rapid protection against challenge or prevent the development of the carrier state. Furthermore, it is clear that the clinical protection depends upon the length of immunization and the duration of exposure/challenge methods. This review summarizes the present and future strategies for FMD control in endemic and FMD-free countries, the effectiveness of FMD vaccines in cattle, sheep and pigs, new methods for selecting vaccine strains, suggestions for alternative methods of vaccine testing, suggestions for the development of new-generation efficacious vaccines and their companion tests to differentiate infection in vaccinated animals.
Color energy as a seed descriptor for image segmentation with region growing algorithms on skin wound images

This paper presents a seed finding method for region growing segmentation approach using color channel energy in image regions. Instead of using the RGB system separated for each pixel, the proposal uses the energy on each color channel to improve the range of the possible values, then creates a more specific seed to detail different regions. Region size used to calculate energy was adjusted to verify the proposed method. Images used were real wound photos, taken from patients undergoing treatment at the university hospital. Results showed that energy on regions presents enough information to segment, leading to a high percentage of matching with experts marks.
Supraliminal but No Subliminal Priming by High-Spatial Frequency Faces in a Face-Sex Discrimination Task

It has been argued that visual subliminal processing of face-inherent sex information might depend on the retino-collicular projection. In the current study, we tested this possibility. Based on the known exclusive sensitivity of the retino-collicular projection for low spatial frequencies (LSF), we derived the following predictions. First, masked and, therefore, subliminal high-spatial frequency (HSF) face primes would not be processed, but, secondly, masked unfiltered face primes, thirdly, masked LSF face primes, and, fourthly, unmasked HSF primes should be processed and should lead to a congruence effect—that is, faster responses (better performance) in congruent conditions, with face primes and face targets of the same sex, as compared to incongruent conditions, with face primes and face targets of different sexes. These predictions were borne out in altogether three experiments. In Experiment 1, we observed that masked unfiltered primes created a congruence effect and that masked HSF primes failed to do so. In Experiment 2, we found that masked unfiltered primes and masked LSF primes both created significant congruence effects of about the same size. Finally, in Experiment 3, we demonstrated that unmasked HSF primes led to a congruence effect, whereas masked HSF primes failed to do so. Also, masking led to the subliminal presentation of the primes, as indicated by the fact that our participants were unaware of the masked but not the unmasked face primes. Together, these findings are in general agreement with an assumed origin of subliminal (or unaware) face processing along the magno-cellular projection of the human visual system.
Seeking for fundamental factors behind the co-movement of foreign exchange time series, using blind source separation techniques

Over recent years, a new class of methods has been developed, belonging to the blind source separation (BSS) area of research, whose promise is to reveal the driving forces which underlie an observed data sequence. Actually, each measured signal depends on several distinct underlying factors, being essentially a mixture of them. It is these factors or source signals that are of primary interest, but they are buried within a large set of measured signal mixtures. Separating a relatively small number of distinct time-varying causal factors becomes crucial in multivariate financial time series analysis, when attempting to explain past comovements and to predict future evolutions. In this paper, BSS techniques are addressed for revealing fundamental factors behind 16 parallel series of foreign exchange rates. More accurate predictions can be performed via these independent components, after their separation, using different forecasting strategies and settings. Denoising and change-point detection can be also carried out for each independent component in turn.
Cardiac chimerism as a mechanism for self-repair: does it happen and if so to what degree?

Cardiac regeneration is an area that has gained considerable attention lately, especially with the finding that immature muscle cells and/or autologous stem cells can regenerate function in a previously injured heart.1,2,3⇓⇓ However, this fertile field remains unsettled enough that each piece of new data should be rigorously scrutinized. Toward that end, a controversy has arisen recently concerning the potential for cardiovascular self-repair evidenced by chimerism in an allografted human heart. Several investigators have allografted female hearts into human male recipients and examined the heart at the time of explantation for the presence of Y chromosome–positive cells either in the coronary vasculature or within cardiomyocytes.4–7⇓⇓⇓ Conflicting results have been obtained. The report by Glaser et al4 in this issue of Circulation presents one side of the controversy, namely that regeneration is possible to a certain degree in the coronary vasculature but fails to occur within cardiomyocytes.4 In contrast, the recent report by Quaini et al5 claimed not only that vascular regeneration occurs, but also that repair of up to 30% of the donor myocardium takes place within 1 month of transplantation. See p 17 The notion of progenitor cell–based vascular repair arises naturally from our understanding of vascular biology, where endothelial and smooth muscle cell turnover and replacement are clinically accepted. In fact, the use of endothelial progenitor cells to repair damaged vasculature is an exciting new area of investigation.8 In contrast, the controversy over myocardial chimerism and repair is one that requires a paradigm shift from the accepted dogma of a myocardium that is incapable of self-repair to one in which host-derived stem cells can be recruited to, engraft within, and regenerate significant portions of human heart. If the data supporting this paradigm shift are accurate, they represent the …
Çalişma Yaşaminda Psikolojik Bir Dram: MOBBİNG

Çalışma olgusu, bir işyerinde üretim sürecine katılan insanın, öncelikle makine ile olan acımasız mücadelesini anımsatır. Bu mücadelede yenik düşen insanın, sağlığı ve yaşamının da tehlikeye girmesi kaçınılmazdır. Tüm dünyada olduğu gibi, ülkemizde de her yıl, çok sayıda çalışan iş kazası veya meslek hastalığı sonucu yaşamını yitirmekte ya da sakat kalmaktadır. Tarihsel süreçte, farklı bilim dalları ve bu arada iş hukuku ile sosyal güvenlik hukuku, çalışan insanı bu tehlikelerden korumak amacıyla çeşitli mekanizmalar oluşturmuştur. Ne var ki, çalışan insanın karşılaşacağı tehlikeler, iş kazaları ve meslek hastalıkları ile sınırlı kalmamaktadır.
Detection of Intermediate‐Period Transiting Planets with a Network of Small Telescopes: transitsearch.org

We describe a project (transitsearch.org) currently attempting to discover transiting intermediate‐period planets orbiting bright parent stars, and we simulate that project’s performance. The discovery of such a transit would be an important astronomical advance, bridging the critical gap in understanding between HD 209458b and Jupiter. However, the task is made difficult by intrinsically low transit probabilities and small transit duty cycles. This project’s efficient and economical strategy is to photometrically monitor stars that are known (from radial velocity surveys) to bear planets, using a network of widely spaced observers with small telescopes. These observers, each individually capable of precision (1%) differential photometry, monitor candidates during the time windows in which the radial velocity solution predicts a transit if the orbital inclination is close to 90°. We use Monte Carlo techniques to simulate the performance of this network, performing simulations with different configurations of observers in order to optimize coordination of an actual campaign. Our results indicate that transitsearch.org can reliably rule out or detect planetary transits within the current catalog of known planet‐bearing stars. A distributed network of skilled amateur astronomers and small college observatories is a cost‐effective method for discovering the small number of transiting planets with periods in the range 10 days < P < 200 days that orbit bright (V<11) stars.
A Sub-400-nT/ $\sqrt {\text {Hz}}$ , 775- $\mu \text{W}$ , Multi-Loop MEMS Magnetometer With Integrated Readout Electronics

This paper presents a novel z-axis Lorentz force magnetometer coupled with a low-power readout integrated circuit. The sensor is fabricated using an industrial process, and exploits an Al-on-polysilicon multi-loop architecture that gives a five-fold sensitivity and resolution improvement, useful for off-resonance operation. The integrated readout is based on a differential charge amplifier front-end, and designed to be balanced with the sensor in terms of noise and power consumption. The overall system, including demodulation and filtering stages, shows a programmable full-scale up to ±2.4 mT, limited by the electronics saturation. The bandwidth can be programmed up to 150 Hz for off-resonance operation where a sub-400-nT/√Hz resolution at 775-μW power consumption is obtained, including the integrated readout and the Lorentz current. Perspectives on low-consumption driving oscillators for off-resonance mode are finally given.
DNA damage protection against free radicals of two antioxidant neolignan glucosides from sugarcane molasses.

BACKGROUND Sugarcane molasses is a potential by-product of the sugarcane manufacturing industry that is rich in antioxidant materials. The present study aimed to obtain antioxidative compounds from sugarcane molasses and to evaluate their ability to protect DNA from oxidative damage. RESULTS Two neolignan glucosides were isolated from sugarcane molasses using bioassay and UV spectra monitoring-guided fractionation. The compounds were elucidated as (7R,8S)-dehydrodiconiferyl alcohol-4-O-β-d-glucoside (1) and (7S,8R)-simulanol-9'-O-β-d-glucoside (2). Neolignan glucoside 2 protected against DNA damage caused by free radicals more effectively than did neolignan glucoside 1 (13.62 and 9.08 µmol L(-1) for peroxyl and hydroxyl radicals, respectively, compared to 48.07 and 14.42 µmol L(-1) ). Additionally, neolignan glucoside 2 exhibited superior DNA protection against free radicals compared with various known antioxidative compounds, including p-coumaric acid, ferulic acid, vanillic acid and epigallocatechin gallate. CONCLUSION The isolated neolignan glucosides from sugarcane molasses are able to protect DNA from oxidative damage caused by free radicals. This is the first identification of these two compounds in sugarcane molasses. The sugarcane molasses can therefore be used as potential nutraceutical preventative agents, and the findings may foster the utilization of this by-product as a bioresource-based product. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry.
Higher-order ghost state

The development of concurrent separation logic (CSL) has sparked a long line of work on modular verification of sophisticated concurrent programs. Two of the most important features supported by several existing extensions to CSL are higher-order quantification and custom ghost state. However, none of the logics that support both of these features reap the full potential of their combination. In particular, none of them provide general support for a feature we dub "higher-order ghost state": the ability to store arbitrary higher-order separation-logic predicates in ghost variables. In this paper, we propose higher-order ghost state as a interesting and useful extension to CSL, which we formalize in the framework of Jung et al.'s recently developed Iris logic. To justify its soundness, we develop a novel algebraic structure called CMRAs ("cameras"), which can be thought of as "step-indexed partial commutative monoids". Finally, we show that Iris proofs utilizing higher-order ghost state can be effectively formalized in Coq, and discuss the challenges we faced in formalizing them.
Risk of Colonic Neoplasia After Proctectomy for Rectal Cancer in Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer

Objective:To define the neoplastic risk in the remaining colon after proctectomy for rectal cancer in patients with hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). Background:The extent of surgery for rectal cancer in HNPCC is controversial. In determining which operation to perform, surgeons and patients must consider cancer risk in the remaining colon as well as functional consequences of removing the entire colorectum. The natural history of colon neoplasia in this situation is understudied and is not well-defined. Methods:A single-institution hereditary colorectal cancer database was queried for patients meeting Amsterdam criteria and with rectal cancer. Patient demographics, surgical management, and follow-up were recorded. Results:Fifty HNPCC patients with a primary diagnosis of rectal cancer treated by proctectcomy were included. Detailed follow-up colonoscopy data were available for 33 patients. Forty-eight high-risk adenomas developed in 13 patients (39.4%). Five patients (15.2%) developed metachronous adenocarcinoma at a median of 6 years (range 3.5–16) after proctectomy, including 3 at advanced stage. One of these patients developed a high-risk adenoma before cancer. Mean interval between the last normal colonoscopy and cancer discovery was 42 months (range 23.8–62.1) with one developing within 2 years. Thus, 17 of 33 patients (51.5%) developed high-risk adenoma or cancer after proctectomy. Conclusions:Surgeons and patients need to be aware of substantial risk for metachronous neoplasia after proctectomy. Selection of operation should be individualized, but total proctocolectomy and ileoanal pouch should be strongly considered. If patients undergo proctectomy alone, close surveillance is mandatory.
Parameterised compression for sparse bitmaps

Full-text retrieval systems often use either a bitmap or an inverted file to identify which documents contain which terms, so that the documents containing any combination of query terms can be quickly located. Bitmaps of term occurrences are large, but are usually sparse, and thus are amenable to a variety of compression techniques. Here we consider techniques in which the encoding of each bitvector within the bitmap is parameterised, so that a different code can be used for each bitvector. Our experimental results show that the new methods yield better compression than previous techniques.
Application of Electrical CD Measurement Methodology for InGaP / GaAs HBT Production

Applications of an electrical CD measurement methodology to monitor the CDs of emitter and base mesas in high-volume InGaP/GaAs HBT production are presented. A calibration method with the introduction of a calibration offset has been developed to provide an accurate CD measurement. The calibration offset was found to vary with photo resist adhesion and epi materials. We have incorporated these measurements into the regular PCM parameter test routines, which makes data collection and analysis much faster and easier than other regular CD measurement techniques.
Geometry of the Space of Phylogenetic Trees

We consider a continuous space which models the set of all phylogenetic trees having a fixed set of leaves. This space has a natural metric of nonpositive curvature, giving a way of measuring distance between phylogenetic trees and providing some procedures for averaging or combining several trees whose leaves are identical. This geometry also shows which trees appear within a fixed distance of a given tree and enables construction of convex hulls of a set of trees. This geometric model of tree space provides a setting in which questions that have been posed by biologists and statisticians over the last decade can be approached in a systematic fashion. For example, it provides a justification for disregarding portions of a collection of trees that agree, thus simplifying the space in which comparisons are to be made.
Interpretable fuzzy modeling using multi-objective immune-inspired optimization algorithms

In this paper, an immune inspired multi-objective fuzzy modeling (IMOFM) mechanism is proposed specifically for high-dimensional regression problems. For such problems, high predictive accuracy is often the paramount requirement. With such a requirement in mind, however, one should also put considerable efforts in making the elicited model as interpretable as possible, which leads to a difficult optimization problem. The proposed modeling approach adopts a multistage modeling procedure and a variable length coding scheme to account for the enlarged search space due to the simultaneous optimization of the rule-base structure and its associated parameters. IMOFM can account for both Singleton and Mamdani Fuzzy Rule-Based Systems (FRBS) due to the carefully chosen output membership functions, the inference and the defuzzification methods. The proposed algorithm has been compared with other representatives using a simple benchmark problem, and has also been applied to a high-dimensional problem which models mechanical properties of hot rolled steels. Results confirm that IMOFM can elicit accurate and yet transparent FRBSs from quantitative data.
Inhibitory effect of statins on the proliferation of human breast cancer cells.

OBJECTIVE Long-term hormone therapy in the postmenopause is associated with a moderate increase in cardiovascular and breast cancer risk. Of great concern, therefore, is the question of how women with menopausal symptoms and enhanced cardiovascular risk can be treated. Evidence is growing that an estrogen/statin combination may be a good choice, since this combination seems to elicit additive beneficial effects on the lipid profile and on the vasculature. METHODS In the present study, the effect of two statins on the proliferation of breast cancer cells in the presence and absence of estradiol was investigated. RESULTS Atorvastatin and fluvastatin were able to inhibit the proliferation of MCF-7 cells in the absence of estradiol. This effect seems to depend on an apoptotic statin effect which may be mediated by the down-regulation of the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 rather than up-regulation of Fas-L or p53. However, in the presence of estradiol the inhibitory effect of the statins was less pronounced. CONCLUSIONS The present data indicate that statins may possess anticancerogenic properties concerning the development of breast cancer in postmenopausal women. Clinical trials are necessary to prove a beneficial statin effect on breast cancer risk when combined with long-term hormone therapy.