Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Menopause-related blood pressure increase and its relationship to age and body mass index: the SIMONA epidemiological study

Background Menopause is commonly associated with some blood pressure (BP) rise, but cross-sectional or longitudinal studies completed so far were often too small and were unable to indicate whether this BP increase is really dependent on menopause, or was caused by age or changes in body mass index (BMI). Methods and results The SIMONA study (Study on Hypertension Prevalence in Menopause in the Italian population) was a large cross-sectional study on 18 326 women of age range 46–59 years, consecutively seen by 302 practitioners all over Italy, and representing 60% of the women of that age in the National Health care list of those doctors. BP was measured three times in the seated position by the same automatic machine, and demographic and clinical data were taken. Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were slightly but significantly higher in postmenopausal than premenopausal and perimenopausal women, but so were age and BMI. Within seven biannual strata, differences in age and BMI were minimized, but SBP/DBP remained significantly higher (by 3.4/3.1 mmHg) in postmenopausal than in premenopausal subjects in the youngest stratum (46–47 years), and was also significantly higher in the stratum 48–49 years. The differences remained significant after the exclusion of 1809 women with surgical menopause or 695 women with cardiovascular disease. Even when the confounding effects of age, BMI, smoking and contraceptive or replacement therapies were excluded by analysis of covariance, menopause was significantly and positively associated with SBP and DBP (approximately 2 mmHg difference in the age range 46–49 years). Conclusion Menopause is associated with a slightly but significantly higher BP, even after adjustment for age and BMI, as well as other confounding factors, but the association is evident only in the younger end of the age range related to menopause.
Desorption of halogenated organics from model solids, sediments, and soil under unsaturated conditions. 2. Kinetics.

The mechanisms controlling desorption rates from soils and sediments were investigated by measuring TCE desorption kinetics from model solids, sediments, and soil under unsaturated conditions at 100% relative humidity. A new experimental methodology enabled measurement of desorption rates over more than 7 orders of magnitude and revealed that intraparticle pores of molecular dimensions may be responsible for the slow release of sorbed contaminants. Desorption kinetics proceeded on two distinct time scales, and all solids had both a fast and slowly released fraction. The amount of slow desorbing TCE was found to depend on the initial vapor concentration, but not in direct proportion. At TCE vapor concentrations near saturation, the fast fraction comprised the majority of the sorbed TCE and required less than 10 min for desorption, whereas the slow desorbing fraction was released over periods of months to years. Although model solids with uniform pore and particle sizes were used, a pore diffusion model was not adequate to describe both the fast and slow desorbing fractions. The measured physical properties of the solids were not useful for making a priori predictions and, in comparisons among the solids, did not correlate with the amount and the rate of slowly released TCE.more » The Freundlich isotherm exponents correlated with the fraction of slowly released TCE, but isotherm nonlinearity was not sufficient to account for the dual rate behavior. 27 refs., 18 figs., 5 tabs. « less
Collision of Adenocarcinoma and Schwannoma of the Stomach: A Case Report

The simultaneous occurrence of an adenocarcinoma and schwannoma is extremely rare in the stomach, and only one such case has been previously reported, which presented as two separate masses. Indeed, the collision of these tumors has never been reported. We report the case of a 61-year-old male patient who was diagnosed with the synchronous development of a schwannoma and advanced mucinous adenocarcinoma of the stomach, in which the carcinoma cells focally invaded the schwannoma.
A numerically stable formulation of the square root unscented Kalman filter for state estimation

The square root unscented Kalman filter was introduced to provide a more numerically robust formulation of the unscented Kalman filter and to guarantee positive semi-definiteness. The filter maintains the Cholesky factor of the covariance matrix instead of the covariance itself. Efficient linear algebra techniques, including Cholesky update and downdate, are used to predict and update the Cholesky factor over time. However, a downdated Cholesky factor may not exist due to numerical rounding and truncation. This may impose issues especially in highly dimensional state spaces or if quantities of different magnitude are involved. A failed Cholesky downdate could be accounted for by predicting a more conservative covariance matrix or by neglecting the filter step in the prevailing iteration. However, both approaches may decrease filter performance. A more sophisticated strategy would be to prevent these issues from happening in the first place. We propose a mathematically equivalent filter that numerically guarantees positive semi-definiteness for any arithmetic precision at the cost of a negligible runtime increase. It applies the auxiliary formulation of the scaled unscented transform and filters the forecast sigma points separately.
Subjective similarity of music: Data collection for individuality analysis

We describe a method of estimating subjective music similarity from acoustic music similarity. Recently, there have been many studies on the topic of music information retrieval, but there continues to be difficulty improving retrieval precision. For this reason, in this study we analyze the individuality of subjective music similarity. We collected subjective music similarity evaluation data for individuality analysis using songs in the RWC music database, a widely used database in the field of music information processing. A total of 27 subjects listened to pairs of music tracks, and evaluated each pair as similar or dissimilar. They also selected the components of the music (melody, tempo/rhythm, vocals, instruments) that were similar. Each subject evaluated the same 200 pairs of songs, thus the individuality of the evaluation can be easily analyzed. Using the collected data, we trained individualized distance functions between songs, in order to estimate subjective similarity and analyze individuality.
Detection of color dye contamination in spice powder using 1064 nm Raman chemical imaging system

Spice powders are used as food additives for flavor and color. Economically motivated adulteration of spice powders by color dyes is hazardous to human health. This study explored the potential of a 1064 nm Raman chemical imaging system for identification of azo color contamination in spice powders. Metanil yellow and Sudan-I, both azo compounds, were mixed separately with store-bought turmeric and curry powder at the concentration ranging from 1 % to 10 % (w/w). Each mixture sample was packed in a shallow nickel-plated sample container (25 mm x 25 mm x 1 mm). One Raman chemical image of each sample was acquired across the 25 mm x 25 mm surface area using a 0.25 mm step size. A threshold value was applied to the spectral images of metanil yellow mixtures (at 1147 cm-1) and Sudan-I mixtures (at 1593 cm-1) to obtain binary detection images by converting adulterant pixels into white pixels and spice powder pixels into the black (background) pixels. The detected number of pixels of each contaminant is linearly correlated with sample’s concentration (R2 = 0.99). This study demonstrates the 1064 nm Raman chemical imaging system as a potential tool for food safety and quality evaluation.
Synthesis Coupled human and natural systems approach to wildlife research and conservation

Conserving wildlife while simultaneously meeting the resource needs of a growing human population is a major sustainability challenge. As such, using combined social and environmental perspectives to understand how people and wildlife are interlinked, together with the mechanisms that may weaken or strengthen those linkages, is of utmost importance. However, such integrated information is lacking. To help fill this information gap, we describe an integrated coupled human and natural systems (CHANS) approach for analyzing the patterns, causes, and consequences of changes in wildlife population and habitat, human population and land use, and their interactions. Using this approach, we synthesize research in two sites, Wolong Nature Reserve in China and Chitwan National Park in Nepal, to explicate key relationships between people and two globally endangered wildlife conservation icons, the giant panda and the Bengal tiger. This synthesis reveals that local resident characteristics such as household socioeconomics and demography, as well as community-level attributes such as resource management organizations, affect wildlife and their habitats in complex and even countervailing ways. Human impacts on wildlife and their habitats are in turn modifying the suite of ecosystem services that they provide to local residents in both sites, including access to forest products and cultural values. These interactions are further complicated by human and natural disturbance (e.g., civil wars, earthquakes), feedbacks (including policies), and telecouplings (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances) that increasingly link the focal systems with other distant systems. We highlight several important implications of using a CHANS approach for wildlife research and conservation that is useful not only in China and Nepal but in many other places around the world facing similar challenges.
EFFICIENT TECHNIQUE FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF SATELLITE IMAGES USING FUZZY RULE CLASSIFIER

The proposed technique is used classify the satellite image into barren land, vegetation area, building area and road area. Initially, the satellite image is pre-processed and then is then segmented to have segments of barren land, vegetation area, building area and road area. The featuresof the segmented area are extracted and then final classification is carried out using fuzzy rule classifier. In the result section, classified output satellite images obtained are shown and proposed technique is evaluated by means of accuracy parameter. The accuracy obtained is high having an average of 92.56%. We also compare to normal graph cut and from the results, it is proved that our proposed technique using modified graph cut have obtained better results.
Human immunodeficiency virus infection of CD4‐bearing cells occurs by a pH‐independent mechanism.

The effect of weak bases (NH4Cl and amantadine) and carboxylic ionophores (monensin) on the infection of CD4 (T4) positive human cell lines by HIV‐1 is examined. These reagents, which raise the pH of acidic intracellular organelles, fail to inhibit HIV‐1 entry and the events leading to viral protein synthesis at concentrations inhibitory for low pH‐dependent fusogenic enveloped viruses. The infectivity of VSV (HIV‐1) pseudotypes is unaffected by weak bases at concentrations causing 95% plaque reduction of VSV in its own envelope. HIV‐1 dependent cell–cell fusion (syncytium formation) occurs in medium maintained at pH 7.4‐7.6, and virions are not irreversibly inactivated by incubation in acid medium. Our results show that HIV‐1 entry and membrane fusion do not require exposure to low pH. The production of infectious HIV‐1 particles, however, is inhibited in cells treated with NH4Cl.
Enhancing speaker verification with short voice commands via autoencoder and phonetic bottleneck learning

Deep learning based speaker verification methods (SV) have achieved the state-of-the-art performance. However, SV with short voice commands (SV-SVC) is still challenging and its performance degrades significantly when noise presents. Carefully examining of SV-SVC task in real applications reveals that there are two unavoidable limitations. One is the very short utterances used (less than 1 second) and another is dynamically changing ambient noise. In this study, encouraged by the capability of autoencoder in handling noise suppression meanwhile the optimized phonetic bottleneck features holding some contextual information learned with the training data, a novel deep learning based SV-SVC architecture is developed which consists of an autoencoder and phonetic bottleneck neural network for feature learning. Extensive experiments have been conducted with the public database RSR2015. Results validate our proposed method outperforming the-state-of-the-art i-vector SV system.
Information Logistics

Business administration and information systems research invent new terms and concepts not only to denote new phenomena but also to convey a new perspective on problems that are known in principle. The concept of information logistics links the functions of business logistics and information management. It focuses on vertical coordination within firms and horizontal coordination within and beyond the boundaries of the firm. In a conceptual perspective, information logistics is a crucial element of a revised model of the firm. In an interorganizational perspective, information logistics refers to emerging telecommunication infrastructures.
A model for buyer's trust in the e-marketplace

E-marketplace or broker managed online market is regarded as one of the most profitable e-biz models. In these marketplaces, buyers routinely engage with whom they have little or no prior interaction. This makes trust is one of the most important issues in the e-marketplace. Therefore, from the perspective of a practitioner, sufficient understanding of how the buyer's trust is built in the e-marketplace will lead to successful business.In this study, we integrate the theories developed in several disciplines to analyze the structure through which customers can develop trust of a market-maker and sellers in the e-marketplace. The theoretical model presented here is tested on survey data collected from 692 respondents The results show that market-maker's characteristics (reputation, web site's usability and security) and seller's characteristics (reputation and expertise) play an important role in forming and developing buyer's trust toward market-maker and sellers respectively.
STRONG BAINITIC STEELS BY CONTINUOUS COOLING TRANSFORMATION

Using metallurgical models, three steels were designed to obtain carbide-free bainitic structures in the as-rolled condition. Experimental castings were hot-rolled in a pilot mill and their austenite decomposition kinetics were measured using dilatometry. Tensile and Charpy impact properties were measured and the microstructures were characterised using X-ray diffractometry, optical and scanning electron microscopy. Promising results were obtained when the microstructure was composed of a fine mixture of bainitic ferrite and retained austenite. In this case, 140 ksi (965 MPa) of yield strength was achieved in combination with good toughness. Conversely, when the structure was coarse with blocks of retained austenite between bainitic sheaves or when large martensitic regions were present, the impact properties were strongly impaired.
Fractional-order tensor regularisation for image inpainting

Compared with classic integer-order calculus, fractional calculus is a more powerful mathematical method that non-linearly preserves and enhances image features in different frequency bands. In order to extend fractional-in-space diffusion scheme with matrix-valued diffusivity to perform superior image inpainting, the authors build the new fractional-order tensor regularisation (FTR) model by utilising the newly defined fractional-order structure tensor (FST) to control the regularisation process. The proposed model is derived as a process that minimises a functional proportional to the FST composed of the inner product of the fractional derivative vector and its transposition; hence, the new model not only inherits genuine anisotropism of tensor regularisation, but is also better equipped to handle subtle details and complex structures because of the characteristics of fractional calculus. To minimise the proposed functional, the corresponding Euler-Lagrange equation is deduced, and the anisotropism of the proposed model is analysed accordingly. Fractional-order derivative masks in positive x and y directions and negative x and y directions are implemented according to the shifted Grumwald-Letnikov definition, and a proper iterative numerical scheme is analysed. According to experimental results on various test images, the proposed FTR inpainting model demonstrates superior inpainting performance both in noiseless and noisy scenarios.
Calcium channels that are required for secretion from intact nerve terminals of vertebrates are sensitive to omega-conotoxin and relatively insensitive to dihydropyridines. Optical studies with and without voltage-sensitive dyes

Extrinsic absorption changes exhibited by potentiometric dyes have established the ionic basis of the action potential in synchronously activated populations of nerve terminals in the intact neurohypophyses of amphibia and mammals (Salzberg et al., 1983; Obaid et al., 1983, 1985b). Also, large and rapid changes in light scattering, measured as transparency, have been shown to follow membrane depolarization and to be intimately associated with the release of neuropeptides from the nerve terminals of the mouse neurohypophysis (Salzberg et al., 1985; Gainer et al., 1986). We report some experiments that help to define the pharmacological profile of the calcium channels present in intact neurosecretory terminals of vertebrates. For these, we used the peptide toxin omega-conotoxin GVIA (1-5 microM) and the dihydropyridine compounds Bay-K 8644 and nifedipine (2-5 microM), together with the after-hyperpolarization of the nerve terminal action potential. This undershoot depends upon the activation of a calcium-mediated potassium channel, as suggested by its sensitivity to [Ca++]o and charybdotoxin. omega-conotoxin GVIA substantially reduced the after-hyperpolarization in neurosecretory terminals of Xenopus, while neither of the dihydropyridine compounds had any effect under conditions that mimic natural stimulation. The effects of these calcium channel modifiers on the action potential recorded optically from the terminals of the Xenopus neurohypophysis were faithfully reflected in the behavior of the light-scattering changes observed in the neurohypophysis of the CD- 1 mouse. omega-conotoxin GVIA (5 microM) reduced the size of the intrinsic optical signal associated with secretion by 50%, while the dihydropyridines had little effect. These observations suggest that the type of calcium channel that dominates the secretory behavior of intact vertebrate nerve terminals is at least partially blocked by omega- conotoxin GVIA and is insensitive, under normal conditions, to dihydropyridines.
Combining information from linkage and association methods

Group 12 evaluated approaches to incorporate outside information or otherwise optimize traditional linkage and association analyses. The abundance of available data allowed exploration of identity‐by‐descent (IBD) estimation, score statistics, formal combination of linkage and association testing, significance estimation, and replication. We observed that IBD estimation can be optimized with a subset of marker data while estimation of inheritance vectors can provide both IBD estimates and a measure of their uncertainty. Score statistics incorporating covariates or combining association and linkage information performed at least as well as standard approaches while requiring less computation time. The formal combination of linkage and association methods may be fruitful, although the nature of the simulated data limited our conclusions. Estimation of significance may be improved through simulation, correction for cryptic relatedness, and the inclusion of prior information. Replication using real data provided consistent results, though the same was not true of simulated data replicates. Overall, we found that increasing the amount of available data limits analyses due to computational constraints and motivates the need to improve methods for the identification of complex‐trait genes. Genet. Epidemiol. 33 (Suppl. 1):S81–S87, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Genetic Analysis of Heterosis for Yield and Yield Components in Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) by Quantitative Trait Locus Mapping

The main objective in this research was the genetic analysis of heterosis in rapeseed at the QTL level. A linkage map comprising 235 SSR and 144 AFLP markers covering 2045 cM was constructed in a doubled-haploid population from a cross between the cultivar “Express” and the resynthesized line “R53. ” In field experiments at four locations in Germany 250 doubled-haploid (DH) lines and their corresponding testcrosses with Express were evaluated for grain yield and three yield components. The heterosis ranged from 30% for grain yield to 0.7% for kernel weight. QTL were mapped using three different data sets, allowing the estimation of additive and dominance effects as well as digenic epistatic interactions. In total, 33 QTL were detected, of which 10 showed significant dominance effects. For grain yield, mainly complete dominance or overdominance was observed, whereas the other traits showed mainly partial dominance. A large number of epistatic interactions were detected. It was concluded that epistasis together with all levels of dominance from partial to overdominance is responsible for the expression of heterosis in rapeseed.
High-Resolution Mapping of Crossovers Reveals Extensive Variation in Fine-Scale Recombination Patterns Among Humans

Recombination plays a crucial role in meiosis, ensuring the proper segregation of chromosomes. Recent linkage disequilibrium (LD) and sperm-typing studies suggest that recombination rates vary tremendously across the human genome, with most events occurring in narrow “hotspots. ” To examine variation in fine-scale recombination patterns among individuals, we used dense, genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphism data collected in nuclear families to localize crossovers with high spatial resolution. This analysis revealed that overall recombination hotspot usage is similar in males and females, with individual hotspots often active in both sexes. Across the genome, roughly 60% of crossovers occurred in hotspots inferred from LD studies. Notably, however, we found extensive and heritable variation among both males and females in the proportion of crossovers occurring in these hotspots.
Lung cancer screening: history, current perspectives, and future directions

Lung cancer has remained the leading cause of death worldwide among all cancers. The dismal 5-year survival rate of 16% is in part due to the lack of symptoms during early stages and lack of an effective screening test until recently. Chest X-ray and sputum cytology were studied extensively as potential screening tests for lung cancer and were conclusively proven to be of no value. Subsequently, a number of studies compared computed tomography (CT) with the chest X-ray. These studies did identify lung cancer in earlier stages. However, they were not designed to prove a reduction in mortality. Later trials have focused on low-dose CT (LDCT) as a screening tool. The largest US trial – the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) – enrolled approximately 54,000 patients and revealed a 20% reduction in mortality. While a role for LDCT in lung cancer screening has been established, the issues of high false positive rates, radiation risk, and cost effectiveness still need to be addressed. The guidelines of the international organizations that now include LDCT in lung cancer screening are reviewed. Other methods that may improve earlier detection such as positron emission tomography, autofluorescence bronchoscopy, and molecular biomarkers are also discussed.