Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effect of Diversity Implementation on Precision in Multicriteria Collaborative Filtering

This research was triggered by the criticism on the emergence of homogeneity in recommendation within the collaborative filtering based recommender systems that put similarity as the main principle in the algorithm. To overcome the problem of homogeneity, this study proposes a novelty, i.e. the diversity of recommendations applied to the multicriteria collaborative filtering-based document recommender systems. Development of the diversity recommendation was made by the two techniques, the first is to compare the similarity of content and the second is to use a variation of the criteria. The application of diversity, both content and criteria-based, was proven to provide a sufficiently significant influence on the increase of recommendation precision.
Uveal myxoid leiomyosarcoma in a horse

A uveal leiomyosarcoma of a horse is reported. There are few published reports of intraocular tumors in horses. Intraocular tumors challenge animal welfare by causing uveitis, glaucoma, and loss of vision. Knowledge regarding treatment of intraocular tumors with globe preservation is sparse, and further investigations on this topic are required.
Cytokine Induction of Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase in an Oligodendrocyte Cell Line

Abstract : The induction of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) by proinflammatory cytokines was studied in an oligodendrocyte progenitor cell line in relation to mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation and cytokine‐mediated cytotoxicity. When introduced individually to cultures of CG4 cells, the cytokines, i.e., tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNFα), interleukin‐1 (IL‐1), and interferon‐γ (IFNγ), had either minimal (TNFα) or no (IL‐1 and IFNγ) detectable stimulatory effect on the production of nitric oxide. However, combinations of these factors, in particular, TNFα plus IFNγ, elicited a strong enhancement of nitric oxide synthesis and, as revealed by western blot and RT‐PCR analysis, the expression of iNOS. TNFα and IL‐1 were able to activate p38 MAPK in a time‐ and dose‐dependent manner and together showed a combinatorial effect. In contrast, IFNγ neither activated on its own nor enhanced the activation of p38 MAPK in response to TNFα and IL‐1. However, a specific inhibitor of p38 MAPK, i.e., SB203580, inhibited the induction of iNOS in cytokine combination‐treated cells in a dose‐dependent manner, thereby suggesting a role for the MAPK cascade in regulating the induction of iNOS gene expression in cytokine‐treated cells. Blocking of nitric oxide production by an inhibitor of iNOS, i.e., nitro‐L‐arginine methyl ester, had a minimal protective effect against cytokine‐mediated cytotoxicity that occurred before the elevation of nitric oxide levels, thereby indicating temporal and functional dissociation of nitric oxide production from cell killing.
A Fault Feature Extraction Method for Machine Health Diagnosis Using Manifold Learning

The fault signature can be revealed by vibration analysis in machine fault detection and diagnosis. It is difficult to evaluate the status of machine for that non-stationary and non-linear vibrations are often caused in machine working process. Manifold learning is a new method for dimensionality reduction and information mining of nonlinear data. In this paper, four statuses of rolling bearing were simulated to investigate status features extraction using manifold learning method. Compared to principal component analysis (PCA), the low dimensional embedded features extracted by the Local tangent space alignment (LTSA) algorithm have excellent clustering quality. Experimental results indicated that the LTSA algorithm has great merit in good clustering with small within-class distance, and thus provides an effective method for intelligent diagnosis of rolling bearing. Key words-Manifold Learning; Feature Extraction; Faults Diagnosis; Rolling Bearing; Local Tangent Space Alignment
Indeterminacy Free Frequency-Domain Blind Separation of Reverberant Audio Sources

Blind separation of convolutive mixtures is a very complicated task that has applications in many fields of speech and audio processing, such as hearing aids and man-machine interfaces. One of the proposed solutions is the frequency-domain independent component analysis. The main disadvantage of this method is the presence of permutation ambiguities among consecutive frequency bins. Moreover, this problem is worst when reverberation time increases. Presented in this paper is a new frequency-domain method, that uses a simplified mixing model, where the impulse responses from one source to each microphone are expressed as scaled and delayed versions of one of these impulse responses. This assumption, based on the similitude among waveforms of the impulse responses, is valid for a small spacing of the microphones. Under this model, separation is performed without any permutation or amplitude ambiguity among consecutive frequency bins. This new method is aimed mainly to obtain separation, with a small reduction of reverberation. Nevertheless, as the reverberation is included in the model, the new method is capable of performing separation for a wide range of reverberant conditions, with very high speed. The separation quality is evaluated using a perceptually designed objective measure. Also, an automatic speech recognition system is used to test the advantages of the algorithm in a real application. Very good results are obtained for both, artificial and real mixtures. The results are significantly better than those by other standard blind source separation algorithms.
Communities of caring: integrating mental health and medical care for HIV-infected women.

The Women and Children HIV Program (WHCP) of Cook County Hospital's Primary Care Center in Chicago combines medical and mental health care in a unique model of health service delivery. The program employs a therapeutic intervention known as Milieu Treatment, based on the theory that participating in healthy, controlled environments improves the ability to function in larger, less controlled environments. WHCP applies an integrated, feminist perspective to its programmatic and clinical goal of empowering HIV-positive women to become better advocates for themselves and others. Each of the seropositive women is involved in concentric communities of caring. The staff works to construct a culturally diverse, nonjudgmental atmosphere in which the women can find safety, validation, and involvement through networking with peers and professionals. The medical clinic, the center of the interactions, also provides support groups, health education sessions, and peer counseling. The women become models of survival for each other and are encouraged to help others cope with HIV-related issues. The mental health teams facilitate adjustment, provide counseling, and advocate for the women in larger arenas, such as the criminal justice and child welfare systems.
Comparison of methimazole and propylthiouracil in patients with hyperthyroidism caused by Graves' disease.

CONTEXT Although methimazole (MMI) and propylthiouracil (PTU) have long been used to treat hyperthyroidism caused by Graves' disease (GD), there is still no clear conclusion about the choice of drug or appropriate initial doses. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to compare the MMI 30 mg/d treatment with the PTU 300 mg/d and MMI 15 mg/d treatment in terms of efficacy and adverse reactions. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Patients newly diagnosed with GD were randomly assigned to one of the three treatment regimens in a prospective study at four Japanese hospitals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Percentages of patients with normal serum free T(4) (FT4) or free T(3) (FT3) and frequency of adverse effects were measured at 4, 8, and 12 wk. RESULTS MMI 30 mg/d normalized FT4 in more patients than PTU 300 mg/d and MMI 15 mg/d for the whole group (240 patients) at 12 wk (96.5 vs. 78.3%; P = 0.001; and 86.2%, P = 0.023, respectively). When patients were divided into two groups by initial FT4, in the group of the patients with severe hyperthyroidism (FT4, 7 ng/dl or more, 64 patients) MMI 30 mg/d normalized FT4 more effectively than PTU 300 mg/d at 8 and 12 wk and MMI 15 mg/d at 8 wk, respectively (P < 0.05). No remarkable difference between the treatments was observed in patients with initial FT4 less than 7 ng/dl. Adverse effects, especially mild hepatotoxicity, were higher with PTU and significantly lower with MMI 15 mg/d compared with MMI 30 mg/d. CONCLUSIONS MMI 15 mg/d is suitable for mild and moderate GD, whereas MMI 30 mg/d is advisable for severe cases. PTU is not recommended for initial use.
Yeast adaptation to weak acids prevents futile energy expenditure

Weak organic acids (WOAs) are widely used preservatives to prevent fungal spoilage of foods and beverages. Exposure of baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to WOA leads to cellular acidification and anion accumulation. Pre-adaptation of cultures reduced the rate of acidification caused by weak acid exposure, most likely as a result of changes in plasma membrane or cell wall composition. In order to adapt to sublethal concentrations of the acids and grow, yeast cells activate ATP consuming membrane transporters to remove protons and anions. We explored to what extent ATP depletion contributes to growth inhibition in sorbic or acetic acid treated cells. Therefore, we analyzed the effect of the reduction of proton and anion pumping activity on intracellular pH (pHi), growth, and energy status upon exposure to the hydrophilic acetic acid (HA) and the lipophilic sorbic acid (HS). ATP concentrations were dependent on the severity of the stress. Unexpectedly, we observed a stronger reduction of ATP with growth reducing than with growth inhibitory concentrations of both acids. We deduce that the not the ATP reduction caused by proton pumping, but rather the cost of sorbate anion pumping contributes to growth inhibition. A reduction of proton pumping activity may reduce ATP consumption, but the resulting decrease of pHi affects growth more. ATP utilization was differentially regulated during moderate and severe stress conditions. We propose that the energy depletion alone is not the cause of growth inhibition during HA or HS stress. Rather, the cells appear to reduce ATP consumption in high stress conditions, likely to prevent futile cycling and maintain energy reserves for growth resumption in more favorable conditions. The mechanism for such decision making remains to be established.
Doing Leadership in Higher Education: The gendering process of leader identity development

How leadership is done in higher education is analysed through a longitudinal interview study among the heads of department at a Swedish university. The focus is directed towards the construction and reconstruction of leader identity from the time when the heads were novices up until four years later when they were more experienced. The main result is the emergence of a gendering process in the discourse on academic leadership. At the end of the leadership assignment period, male and female department heads did not ever share the same subject positions and leader identity was described in differing terms in subject positions held by women and men, respectively. Three common identity development processes emerged: a vague development process where a non-head of department identity was strong over time (men), a process towards a positive and clear manager identity (men), and a process towards a gender-focused and problemoriented leader identity (women).
Recognition of mental disorders and beliefs about treatment: results from a mental health literacy survey of Japanese high school students

The aim of the study was to carry out a survey of Japanese high school students in order to assess recognition and beliefs about treatments for mental disorders. In 2011, 311 Japanese high school students aged 15–19 years filled out an anonymous self-report questionnaire containing a case vignette describing depression, schizophrenia or social phobia. Subsequent questions covered: what was wrong with the person, help-seeking intentions and the likely helpfulness of treatments. Only 14.3% of students correctly labelled depression. Rates of recognition for schizophrenia (or psychosis) and social phobia were 8.3% (or 23.1%) and 26.8% respectively. Friends were nominated as the most likely source of help. The most commonly nominated barrier to help seeking was concern about what other people might think. Views about the helpfulness of treatments generally diverged from those of health professionals. Between 36.8% and 52.6% of students thought dealing with the problem alone would be helpful. Japanese high school students show low levels of mental health literacy relating to depression, social phobia and schizophrenia. Interventions to improve mental health literacy should be targeted towards young people and their parents and should address signs and symptoms of disorders, evidence-based treatments and barriers to help-seeking, particularly concern about what others might think.
Macrophages Infiltrate the Human and Rat Decidua During Term and Preterm Labor: Evidence That Decidual Inflammation Precedes Labor1

ABSTRACT Preterm delivery is the leading cause of perinatal mortality and morbidity. Current tocolytics target myometrial contractions, a late step in the labor cascade. Identifying earlier events in parturition may lead to more effective therapeutic strategies. We hypothesized that inflammatory events in decidua (the maternal-fetal interface), characterized by leucocyte infiltration, are an early event during term and preterm labor (PTL). Leucocyte abundance in decidua of human pregnancies was quantified following term labor and PTL (idiopathic and infection associated), in conjunction with investigation of temporal inflammatory events in rat uterus during the perilabor period and in PTL induced by mifepristone. In human decidua, macrophage numbers were 4-fold higher in term labor (P < 0.01) and 2.5-fold higher in non-infection-associated PTL (P < 0.05) than in term nonlaboring samples. Neutrophil abundance was unchanged with labor but elevated in PTL with infection (5- to 53-fold increase; P < 0.01). T and NK cells were more abundant in idiopathic PTL than TL (P < 0.05). In rat, decidual macrophage infiltration increased 4.5-fold 12 h prior to labor and remained elevated during labor and early postpartum (P < 0.01). Decidual infiltration preceded that of the myometrium and was 4-fold higher (P < 0.01). In rat PTL, decidual macrophage numbers were also elevated (P < 0.01) and exceeded those of the myometrium (P < 0.05). These studies show for the first time that leucocytes infiltrate decidua during labor at term and preterm, supporting a role for leucocyte-derived inflammatory mediators in decidual activation. In the rat, this occurred prior to labor, suggesting it is an early event during parturition and thus a potential target for intervention.
MSRT: Multi-Source Request and Transmission in Content-Centric Networks

In Content-Centric Networks (CCN), multiple routers may cache the same content, which makes it possible to retrieve the content chunks in parallel. In this paper, we propose Multi-Source Request and Transmission mechanism (MSRT) for CCN. We develop a MinMax problem to compute the optimal solution to retrieve all the chunks from multiple sources in the shortest time. We prove that the problem is NP complete and thus design a fully polynomial-time approximation algorithm to solve this problem. However, the previous works on multipath congestion control cannot be directly employed in MSRT. Therefore, we then propose the Half eXplicit Congestion Protocol (HXCP) to control the request/transmission pace in MSRT. To demonstrate the performance of MSRT, we construct comprehensive experiments. The results show that 1) our scheme reduces the content transmission time to at most 80%; 2) our multipath congestion control scheme HXCP effectively avoids congestion, improves the throughput and guarantees the fairness in the multi-source/multipath scenario.
Safeguarding a mobile manipulator using dynamic safety fields

This paper presents a novel approach for safeguarding a mobile manipulator. To overcome the shortcomings of state-of-the-art safeguarding techniques, we present a dynamic approach capable of covering different situations and adapting itself to the situation at hand. The proposed approach is based on the continuous dynamic update of a safety field using both exteroceptive and proprioceptive data. The proprioceptive data are the platform velocity vector and the manipulator position; the exteroceptive data refers to the environment in which the mobile manipulator is moving, namely distances to obstacles acquired by laser scanners. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been validated in an industrial test case scenario in which the robot had to execute a fetch and carry task while safely coexisting with human workers. Experimental results proved that the use of dynamic protection fields allowed the robot to carry out its tasks with a significant reduction (about 50%) of the execution time.
Seasonal variation in ischaemic stroke frequency in Podlaskie Province by season.

PURPOSE The aim of the present study was to assess seasonal differences in ischaemic stroke among patients hospitalized in Department of Neurology in Białystok during 2002-2005. MATERIAL AND METHODS To examine the seasonal incidence of ischaemic stroke, we analyzed data from the Department of Neurology in Białystok in a retrospective study. The year was divided into four seasons: spring (March, April, May), summer (June, July, August), autumn (September, October, November), and winter (December, January, February). Seasonal differences were studied in relation to the following clinical characteristics: age, gender, history of stroke, and time of stroke onset. RESULTS Age of patients with ischaemic stroke ranged 19 between 101 years, a mean age was 72.4 +/- 12 years. Incidence of ischaemic stroke increased in the last years. We noted a higher incidence of ischaemic stroke in older patients (mean 74.36 years old) during winter months than in patients (71.40 years) in summer months. Gender had no effect on incidence of ischaemic stroke. Significant seasonal variation of ischaemic stroke in all years (p = 0.0010) and for 2005 year (0.0090) were found. Incidence of ischaemic stroke was depend on month of year. Significant increase of ischaemic stroke was noted in December. The lowest incidence of stroke was observed in August and September. CONCLUSION Incidence of ischaemic stroke increased in the last years. The present findings suggest an increase in the incidence of ischaemic stroke in winter in December.
Upgrade of Lesions Initially Diagnosed as Low-Grade Gastric Dysplasia upon Forceps Biopsy Following Endoscopic Resection

Background/Aims Gastric dysplasia is generally accepted to be the precursor lesion of gastric carcinoma. Approximately 25% to 35% of histological diagnoses based on endoscopic forcep biopsies for gastric dysplastic lesions change following endoscopic resection (ER). The aim of this study was to determine the predictive endoscopic features of high-grade gastric dysplasia (HGD) or early gastric cancer (EGC) following ER for lesions initially diagnosed as low-grade dysplasia (LGD) by a forceps biopsy. Methods To determine predictive variables for upgraded histology (LGD to HGD or EGC). The lesion size, gross endoscopic appearance, location, and surface nodularity or redness as well as the presence of a depressed portion, Helicobacter pylori infection, and intestinal metaplasia were retrospectively investigated. Results Among 251 LGDs diagnosed by an initial forceps biopsy, the diagnoses of 100 lesions (39.8%) changed following the ER; 56 of 251 LGDs (22.3%) were diagnosed as HGD, 39 (15.5%) as adenocarcinoma, and 5 (2.0%) as chronic gastritis. In a univariate analysis, large lesions (>15 mm), those with a depressed portion, and those with surface nodularity were significantly correlated with a upgraded histology classification following ER. In a multivariate analysis, a large size (>15 mm; odds ratio [OR], 2.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.46 to 5.43) and a depressed portion in the lesion (OR, 2.7; 95% CI, 1.44 to 5.03) were predictive factors for upgraded histology following ER. Conclusions Our study shows that a substantial proportion of diagnoses of low-grade gastric dysplasias based on forceps biopsies were not representative of the entire lesion. We recommend ER for lesions with a depressed portion and for those larger than 15 mm.
Spatial variation in automated burst suppression detection in pharmacologically induced coma

Burst suppression is actively studied as a control signal to guide anesthetic dosing in patients undergoing medically induced coma. The ability to automatically identify periods of EEG suppression and compactly summarize the depth of coma using the burst suppression probability (BSP) is crucial to effective and safe monitoring and control of medical coma. Current literature however does not explicitly account for the potential variation in burst suppression parameters across different scalp locations. In this study we analyzed standard 19-channel EEG recordings from 8 patients with refractory status epilepticus who underwent pharmacologically induced burst suppression as medical treatment for refractory seizures. We found that although burst suppression is generally considered a global phenomenon, BSP obtained using a previously validated algorithm varies systematically across different channels. A global representation of information from individual channels is proposed that takes into account the burst suppression characteristics recorded at multiple electrodes. BSP computed from this representative burst suppression pattern may be more resilient to noise and a better representation of the brain state of patients. Multichannel data integration may enhance the reliability of estimates of the depth of medical coma.
Situated Web Service: Context-Aware Approach to High-Speed Web Service Communication

A framework is proposed to improve Web service performance based on context-aware communication. Two key ideas are introduced to represent a client context: (1) available protocols that the client can handle, and (2) operation usage that shows how the client uses Web service operations. We call our context aware approach a situated Web service (SiWS). We implemented and evaluated the SiWS and found that the overall performance was improved if more than three Web services were executed between context changes