Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Special report. Prevention congenital rubella infection: Symposium summary.

The International Symposium on the Prevention of Congenital Rubella Infection, which was held in Washington, D.C., on March 13-15, 1984, was attended by more than 200 individuals from 23 countries [1]. The purpose of the symposium was to summarize current knowledge about the occurrence and impact of rubella around the world and to assess the impact of the first 15 years' experience with rubella vaccine. At the beginning of the meeting, Co-chairman Dr. Saul Krugman called attention to the Conference on Rubella Immunization of 1969 [2], which was convened with a sense of urgency about the possibility that yet other major epidemics of rubella and congenital rubella were about to occur and with a sense of exhilaration because a means was at hand to prevent such tragedy. He reminded participants of the debates over detail and of the sage advice of the late Dr. Geoffrey Edsall, that the problem be looked at through a telescope rather than only through a microscope.
TLR7 Contributes to the Rapid Progression but Not to the Overall Fatal Outcome of Secondary Pneumococcal Disease following Influenza A Virus Infection

Increased risk for bacterial superinfections substantially contributes to the mortality caused by influenza A virus (IAV) epidemics. While the mechanistic basis for this lethal synergism is still insufficiently understood, immune modulation through the viral infection has been shown to be involved. Since the pattern-recognition receptor (PRR) toll-like receptor 7 (TLR7) is a major sensor for the viral genome, we studied how IAV recognition by TLR7 influences the development of secondary pneumococcal infection. In a mouse model of IAV, TLR7-deficient hosts induced a potent antiviral response and showed unchanged survival. In secondary pneumococcal infection during acute influenza, TLR7ko mice showed a fatal outcome similar to wild-type (WT) hosts, despite significantly delayed disease progression. Also, when bacterial superinfection occurred after virus clearance, WT and TLR7-deficient hosts showed similar mortality, even though we found the phagocytic activity of alveolar macrophages isolated from IAV-pre-infected hosts to be enhanced in TLR7ko over WT mice. Thus, we show that a virus-sensing PRR modulates the progression of secondary pneumococcal infection following IAV. However, the fatal overall outcome in WT as well as TLR7ko hosts suggests that processes distinct from TLR7-triggering override the contribution of this single PRR.
The benefit of amplification on auditory working memory function in middle-aged and young-older hearing impaired adults

Untreated hearing loss can interfere with an individual’s cognitive abilities and intellectual function. Specifically, hearing loss has been shown to negatively impact working memory function, which is important for speech understanding, especially in difficult or noisy listening conditions. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of hearing aid use on auditory working memory function in middle-aged and young-older adults with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Participants completed two objective measures of auditory working memory in aided and unaided listening conditions. An aged matched control group followed the same experimental protocol except they were not fit with hearing aids. All participants’ aided scores on the auditory working memory tests were significantly improved while wearing hearing aids. Thus, hearing aids worn during the early stages of an age-related hearing loss can improve a person’s performance on auditory working memory tests.
Evolving Homogeneous Neurocontrollers for a Group of Heterogeneous Robots: Coordinated Motion, Cooperation, and Acoustic Communication

This article describes a simulation model in which artificial evolution is used to design homogeneous control structures and adaptive communication protocols for a group of three autonomous simulated robots. The agents are required to cooperate in order to approach a light source while avoiding collisions. The robots are morphologically different: Two of them are equipped with infrared sensors, one with light sensors. Thus, the two morphologically identical robots should take care of obstacle avoidance; the other one should take care of phototaxis. Since all of the agents can emit and perceive sound, the group's coordination of actions is based on acoustic communication. The results of this study are a proof of concept: They show that dynamic artificial neural networks can be successfully synthesized by artificial evolution to design the neural mechanisms required to underpin the behavioral strategies and adaptive communication capabilities demanded by this task. Postevaluation analyses unveil operational aspects of the best evolved behavior. Our results suggest that the building blocks and the evolutionary machinery detailed in the article should be considered in future research work dealing with the design of homogeneous controllers for groups of heterogeneous cooperating and communicating robots.
Morphological filter based graph cut for building detection

Automatic building detection with satellite and aerial images is a hot topic in remote sensing area. Especially, in recent years generation of high resolution Lidar data increased the success of building detection algorithms. In the proposed approach seed points in high elevation areas are obtained by applying morphological operations on Lidar data. Then, geodesic distances between this seed and other elevation points are calculated. Next, a mask is generated using distance map with shadow and vegetation information. Finally, this mask is given to the graph cut optimization and building detection is performed. Obtained results are compared with state-of-the-art algorithms. Results showed that our algorithm produced comparable precision and recall values with them.
A segment-based stereo matching method with ground control points

Most stereo matching algorithms are pixel-based. From the perspective of human stereo vision, setting segment as a processing element is more practical. A new fast stereo matching algorithm based on segmentation with ground control points (GCPs) is presented in this paper. Firstly, an object-oriented segmentation method is used to segment the reference image, which not only considers color characteristics, but also takes the spatial context of each pixel and the shape features into account. Secondly, a Winner-Take-All (WTA) matching method using SAD (Sum of Absolute Differences) algorithm has been employed to obtain the initial disparity map, and then gives a GCPs-extraction method by taking full advantage of color and gradient information. To enhance the reliability of GCPs, some heuristic methods are employed. Finally, fusing color segments and GCPs, optimal disparity images are obtained. Consistent with human being's vision, this algorithm combine segmentation and GCPs speeds up stereo matching process while keeping matching results accurate.
ProViNet - An Open Platform for Programmable Virtual Network Management

The disheartening and thorny path followed while deploying new solutions in the core of current computer networks, culminates in a low rate of emergence of innovation. Several researches proposed applying Software Defined Networks (SDN) and the Network Virtualization (NV) concepts to reverse this rate. However, many gaps and open challenges were observed in the application of these concepts together. In this paper, we propose the ProViNet platform, which merge the SDN and NV concepts to provide a fast and safe deployment of innovations in the existing network infrastructure. ProViNet advance the state-of-art introducing the concept of Network Programming as a Service, in which applications are built simply by composing control plane services. Such approach encourages End-Users to develop and share novel network solutions, fostering innovation. To prove concept and technical feasibility, we evaluate ProViNet with a prototype that allowed demonstrating virtual network infrastructure provisioning and programming.
Compositional Reasoning for Epistemic Logics ∗

We provide decomposition and quotienting results for multi-modal logic with respect to a composition operator, traditionally used for epistemic models, due to van Eijck et al. (Journal of Applied NonClassical Logics 21(3–4):397–425, 2011), that involves sets of atomic propositions and valuation functions from Kripke models. While the composition operator was originally defined only for epistemic S5 models, our results apply to the composition of any pair of Kripke models. In particular, our quotienting result extends a specific result in the above mentioned paper by van Eijck et al. for the composition of epistemic models with disjoint sets of atomic propositions to compositions of any two Kripke models regardless of their sets of atomic propositions. We also explore the complexity of the formulas we construct in our decomposition result. Luca Aceto and Anna Ingólfsdóttir were partially supported by the project ‘Processes and Modal Logics’ (project nr. 100048021) of the Icelandic Research Fund. ICE-TCS, School of Computer Science, Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland. Email: luca@ru.is ICE-TCS, School of Computer Science, Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland. Email: annai@ru.is Dept. of Informatics – Univ. of Oslo, P.O. Box 1080 Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway. E-mail: cristi@ifi.uio. no Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics – California State Univ. Long Beach. E-mail: joshua.sack@gmail.com 1 CONTENTS 2
Design of Out-of-Plane MOEMS Accelerometer With Subwavelength Gratings

A novel out-of-plane MOEMS accelerometer based on near-field evanescent wave coupling by means of variable period subwavelength gratings has been proposed. First, the diffraction order number was calculated. Then, structure parameters were optimized by finite element analysis to achieve high sensitivity in an ideal vibration mode. Results show that the accelerometer has displacement sensitivity at 2033 nm/G with a measurement range of 0.12 G, corresponding to first diffraction beam optical sensitivity 0.46%/mG. Finally, we designed the fabrication method to form such MOEMS accelerometer and successfully fabricated the uniform and well-designed subwavelength gratings with the period of 1.0 μm by FIB/SEM dual beam system. The subwavelength gratings fabricated are very close to those designed within the experimental error to lay the foundation for the subsequent fabrication. These results provide a theoretical basis for design and fabrication of an out-of-plane MOEMS accelerometer with subwavelength gratings.
SpecDiff: debugging formal specifications

This paper presents our SpecDiff tool that exploits the model differencing technique for debugging and understanding evolving behaviors of formal specifications. SpecDiff has been integrated in the Process Analysis Toolkit (PAT), a framework for formal specification, verification and simulation. SpecDiff is able to assist in diagnosing system faults, understanding the impacts of specification optimization techniques, and revealing the system change patterns.
Insulin-Sensitizers, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Gynaecological Cancer Risk

Preclinical, early phase clinical trials and epidemiological evidence support the potential role of insulin-sensitizers in cancer prevention and treatment. Insulin-sensitizers improve the metabolic and hormonal profile in PCOS patients and may also act as anticancer agents, especially in cancers associated with hyperinsulinemia and oestrogen dependent cancers. Several lines of evidence support the protection against cancer exerted by dietary inositol, in particular inositol hexaphosphate. Metformin, thiazolidinediones, and myoinositol postreceptor signaling may exhibit direct inhibitory effects on cancer cell growth. AMPK, the main molecular target of metformin, is emerging as a target for cancer prevention and treatment. PCOS may be correlated to an increased risk for developing ovarian and endometrial cancer (up to threefold). Several studies have demonstrated an increase in mortality rate from ovarian cancer among overweight/obese PCOS women compared with normal weight women. Long-term use of metformin has been associated with lower rates of ovarian cancer. Considering the evidence supporting a higher risk of gynaecological cancer in PCOS women, we discuss the potential use of insulin-sensitizers as a potential tool for chemoprevention, hypothesizing a possible rationale through which insulin-sensitizers may inhibit tumourigenesis.
A melhoria da produção no Brasil

A melhoria da producao e uma teoria que, "stricto sensu",relaciona a produtividade ao conhecimento adquirido durantea producao. Neste sentido, e um modelo matematico de uti-lidade para a previsao de resultados futuros que pode serapresentado, graficamente, como uma "curva". Todos ospaises tem uma "curva" dessa natureza. Em termos maisgenericos, a melhoria da producao pode ser definida comoo aumento de produtividade industrial decorrente do progres-so feito pelo pais na aquisicao de equipamento, organizacao econhecimentos industriais, dai resultando um aumento darenda real "per capita" de seus habitantes.A melhoria da producao, no Brasil, embora relativamente altaem algumas partes do pais, esta longe de ser suficiente, por-que o Brasil nao esta, ainda, em condicoes de obviar a des-vantagem de ter chegado tarde a corrida mundial de produti-vidade industrial. Pretendemos, no presente artigo, demons-trar que, a fim de superar esta desvantagem, tera o Brasilque desenvolver uma serie de elementos relacionados, especi-ficamente, a educacao e especializacao tecnicas e que os lide-
Edge effect on thermal transport in graphene nanoribbons: A phonon localization mechanism beyond edge roughness scattering

Equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations show that graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with zigzag edges have higher thermal conductivity (κ) than armchair-edged ones, and the difference diminishes with increasing temperature or ribbon width. The dominant phonon wavelength for thermal transport can be much longer (by orders of magnitude) than the difference between the “roughness” of smooth zigzag and armchair edges. Therefore, the roughness scattering theory is not sufficient to explain the largely different κ of GNRs with different edge chiralities. Cross-sectional decomposition of the steady-state heat flux shows significant suppression of thermal transport at edges, especially in armchair ones. This behavior is explored by phonon spectra analysis. Considerable phonon localization at edges is concluded to underlie the edge-chirality dependent κ of GNRs.
Interventions to Improve Transitional Care Between Nursing Homes and Hospitals: A Systematic Review

Transitions between healthcare settings are associated with errors in communication of information and treatment plans for frail older patients, but strategies to improve transitional care are lacking. A systematic review was conducted to identify and evaluate interventions to improve communication of accurate and appropriate medication lists and advance directives for elderly patients who transition between nursing homes and hospitals. MEDLINE, ISI Web, and EBSCO Host (from inception to June 2008) were searched for original, English‐language research articles reporting interventions to improve communication of medication lists and advance directives. Five studies ultimately met all inclusion criteria. Two described interventions that enhanced transmission of advance directives, two described interventions that improved communication of medication lists, and one intervention addressed both goals. One study was a randomized controlled trial, whereas the remaining studies used historical or no controls. Study results indicate that a standardized patient transfer form may assist with the communication of advance directives and medication lists and that pharmacist‐led review of medication lists may help identify omitted or indicated medications on transfer. Although preliminary evidence supports adoption of these methods to improve transitions between nursing home and hospital, further research is needed to define target populations and outcomes measures for high‐quality transitional care.
Time Factors in Perception of A Double Consonant

A listening experiment was carried out to examine the perceptual distinction between a single stop consonant, /p/, and its double counterpart, /p-p/. The joint effects of two time factors are studied: (1) the duration of /p/-closure (silence) and (2) the rate of utterance of the surrounding test sentence. The test sentence, He was the topic of the year, was recorded on tape and then, in a number of recorded copies, the duration of the /p/-closure was altered by inserting or removing tape. A group of listeners judged each of the altered sentences to be either He was the topic of the year or He was the top pick of the year. Effects of ten closure durations (60, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 500, and 585 msec.) are studied in various combinations with five rates of utterance (2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 syllables per second). A threshold closure duration is defined to be the duration at which 60% of the judgments were topic. As the rate increased from 2 to 8 syllables per second, the threshold closure duration decreased from 320 to 140 msec, and at a progressively declining rate. This function of threshold closure duration vs. rate of utterance is found to be approximately parallel to the relation, for the unaltered sentences, between actual closure duration and rate of utterance.
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS SYMPTOMS IN TUE FIRST YEARS OF CONJUGAL BEREA VEMENT

Bereavement is generally regarded as one of the most stressful events one can encounter. Yet,bereavement research and the study of post-traumatic stress seem to be mainly developing alongseparate lines. Strictly speaking, post-traumatic stress disorder can only occur af ter encountering eventsoutside the range of normal human experience. Thus, by delinition bereavement does not seem to meetthe criteria of PTSD. The question remains, however, whether this separate development and formalexclusion of bereavement caD be justilied by empirical research. To address this question, data arepresented of 128 conjugally bereaved in a two-year longitudinal study. It appears that only 50% of theparticipants does not meet PTSD case-level at any time and 9% meets the criteria at all fouT datacollection points. Interpretation of these lindings are discussed in terms of appropriateness of theDSM-III-R criteria regarding PTSD.KEY WORDS: Bereavement, emotional adjustment, grief, longitudinal studies, post-traumatic stressdisorder (PTSD)
A Qualitative Analysis of Reproductive Issues Raised by Young Australian Women with Breast Cancer

Available literature concentrates on infertility concerns of young women with breast cancer, while attention to psychosocial issues related to maintained or regained fertility is scarce. As part of a longitudinal, qualitative study of experiences of young women with breast cancer (diagnosed at 40 years or younger); (n = 13), concerns about fertility, contraception, pregnancy, and breastfeeding after breast cancer were expressed. Using semistructured, one-to-one interviews over three time phases, we explored these women's experiences. Perceptions of fertility changed over time. Contraception issues were raised together with recurrence fears related to pregnancy and breastfeeding after breast cancer. Decisions related to unplanned pregnancies and breastfeeding were described as particularly onerous.
The economic burden of insomnia: direct and indirect costs for individuals with insomnia syndrome, insomnia symptoms, and good sleepers.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Insomnia is a highly prevalent problem that is associated with increased use of health care services and products, as well as functional impairments. This study estimated from a societal perspective the direct and indirect costs of insomnia. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS A randomly selected sample of 948 adults (mean age = 43.7 years old; 60% female) from the province of Quebec, Canada completed questionnaires on sleep, health, use of health-care services and products, accidents, work absences, and reduced productivity. Data were also obtained from the Quebec government administered health insurance board regarding consultations and hospitalizations. Participants were categorized as having insomnia syndrome, insomnia symptoms or as being good sleepers using a standard algorithm. Frequencies of target cost variables were obtained and multiplied by unit costs to generate estimates of total costs for the adult population of the province of Quebec. RESULTS The total annual cost of insomnia in the province of Quebec was estimated at $6.6 billion (Cdn$). This includes direct costs associated with insomnia-motivated health-care consultations ($191.2 million) and transportation for these consultations ($36.6 million), prescription medications ($16.5 million), over the-counter products ($1.8 million) and alcohol used as a sleep aid ($339.8 million). Annual indirect costs associated with insomnia-related absenteeism were estimated at $970.6 million, with insomnia-related productivity losses estimated at $5.0 billion. The average annual per-person costs (direct and indirect combined) were $5,010 for individuals with insomnia syndrome, $1431 for individuals presenting with symptoms, and $421 for good sleepers. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that the economic burden of insomnia is very high, with the largest proportion of all expenses (76%) attributable to insomnia-related work absences and reduced productivity. As the economic burden of untreated insomnia is much higher than that of treating insomnia, future clinical trials should evaluate the cost-benefits, cost-utility, and cost-effectiveness of insomnia therapies.
Intestinal transport of bis(12)‐hupyridone in Caco‐2 cells and its improved permeability by the surfactant Brij‐35

The objective of the present study was to elucidate the mechanisms of intestinal transport of bis(12)‐hupyridone (B12H) to predict its oral bioavailability. The effect of the B12H concentration and the contribution of the drug efflux transporters, P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp or ABCB1) and multidrug resistance‐associated proteins (MRPs or ABCC) on B12H absorption were measured and evaluated using the human intestinal epithelial Caco‐2 cell monolayer in the presence of transporter inhibitors. The results indicated that B12H was absorbed in a dose‐dependent manner at concentrations ranging from 132 to 264 µM. However, only apical efflux was observed in the directional transport studies for B12H below 88 µM (Papp(AP‐to‐BL): virtually zero; Papp(BL‐to‐AP): 1.591 ± 0.071 × 10−5 cm s−1). P‐gp and mixed P‐gp/MRP inhibitors significantly increased the absorptive transport (Papp(AP‐to‐BL)) to 0.619 ± 0.018 × 10−5 and 0.608 ± 0.025 × 10−5 cm s−1, respectively, while decreasing secretory transport (Papp(BL‐to‐AP)) by >75%. A multiple‐MRP inhibitor, probenecid, increased the Papp(AP‐to‐BL) to 0.329 ± 0.015 × 10−5 cm s−1 while decreasing the Papp(BL‐to‐AP) by 50%. Another multiple‐MRP inhibitor, indomethacin, only modestly decreased the Papp(BL‐to‐AP) by ∼30% and had no effect on the absorptive transport (Papp(AP‐to‐BL): virtually zero). In addition, the effect of various pharmaceutical excipients (e.g. Pluronic F‐68, Tween‐80 and Brij‐35) on B12H transport was determined and compared. Among them, Brij‐35 effectively enhanced B12H absorption at a concentration lower than its critical micelle concentration (CMC, 60 µM). Therefore, Brij‐35 can be used as a potential enhancer to improve intestinal absorption of B12H for oral administration. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.