Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemiological Data of Different Human Papillomavirus Genotypes in Cervical Specimens of HIV-1-Infected Women Without History of Cervical Pathology

Aim:To study the epidemiology of different human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes in cervical samples of HIV-1-infected women with normal Papanicolau smears. Design:Retrospective analysis of a prospective cohort. Patients and Methods:We selected HIV-1-infected women with 2 consecutive normal Papanicolau smears at baseline and at least 1 baseline and 1 follow-up cervical sample. HPV infection was assessed by second-generation hybrid capture (HC-2) and multiplex polymerase chain reaction (mPCR). HPV genotypes were determined by mPCR. Results:From a cohort of 139 women followed up to 4 years, 93 women meeting the inclusion criteria were analyzed. The mean period between samples was 20 months (range, 6-44 months). HPV baseline prevalence was 63% [59/93; 95% confidence interval (CI), 53% to 73%] using polymerase chain reaction and 41% (38/93; 95% CI, 31% to 51%) using HC-2, P = 0.007 (kappa, 0.45; P = 0.001). The most prevalent high oncogenic risk genotypes (HR-HPV) were HPV-16 (28%), HPV-33 (18%), HPV-52 (12%), HPV-58 (11%), and HPV-39 (11%). Infection with multiple HPV genotypes was detected in >40% of women. HPV infection persisted at follow-up in 86% (51/59; 95% CI, 77% to 95%) by polymerase chain reaction and 76% (29/38; 95% CI, 62% to 90%) by HC-2. HPV infection persisted in 55% of women with samples available beyond 3 years. The actuarial probabilities of clearance and incidence of HPV infection at 36 months were 16% and 45%, respectively. Conclusions:HPV infection is highly prevalent and persistent among HIV-1-infected women with normal Papanicolau smears. HR-HPV genotypes other than HPV-16 (HPV-33, HPV-52) are frequently detected in HIV-infected women. mPCR provides better surveillance of HPV infection than HC-2 methods.
Impact of Phlebotomy Tourniquet Use on Blood Lactate Levels in Acutely Ill Patients.

OBJECTIVE Lactate levels are increasingly used to guide resuscitation efforts. Some surgical literature suggests that tourniquet use during phlebotomy falsely elevates results, although studies in healthy volunteers have not demonstrated this. The purpose of this study was to determine in clinical practice whether tourniquet use during the drawing of a lactate results in significantly altered levels compared to the result of a level drawn without a tourniquet. METHODS A prospective cohort study was carried out on emergency department patients whose clinical presentation led a physician to order a lactate level. Written informed consent was obtained from patients or their proxies. Study lactates were obtained using a tourniquet during the draw sequence of other laboratory studies. Lactate levels for clinical use were drawn per hospital protocol with no tourniquet. The time of lactate measurements and patient demographic information were recorded. Lactate levels for each patient were compared with the Wilcoxon Rank-Sum Test. RESULTS 40 patients were consented and enrolled. The median clinical lactate level was 1.9 (interquartile range 1.5-2.6), and the median study lactate level was 1.9 (interquartile range 1.4-2.7). There was no difference between paired lactate values (p=0.95). CONCLUSIONS Tourniquet use appears to have no impact on measured lactate levels. Our findings suggest that current practices at many institutions regarding lactate collection are likely too stringent and should be changed.
Classification of BitTorrent Attacks from the Protocol's Operational Viewpoints

As the BitTorrent has become one of the most popular peer-to-peer file sharing systems, various security threats appear based on its operation. In this paper, we analyzed the vulnerabilities of the BitTorrent protocol, and surveyed existing attacks on the protocol. Then, we classified the attacks from the protocol’s operational viewpoints. Basically, the protocols are categorized into two parts: trackerbased and trackerless. In tracker-based part, we classified them into Tracker HTTP Protocol and Peer Wire Protocol. Finally, we described the attack briefly and drew the diagram which is classification of existing attacks in the BitTorrent in order to understand overall attacks.
Evidence for low androgenicity among Indian (South Asian) men

Abstract There are increasing data indicating profound ethnic differences in the levels of virilization of males [1–4]. It is well understood that the intensity of testosterone-mediated effects is modulated by sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) [5] and the CAG repeat lengths in the androgen receptor (AR) gene [6]. We determined the serum testosterone, estradiol and SHBG levels and average CAG repeat lengths among a group of healthy older Indian men living in Connecticut, USA and compared these parameters with those of a reference group of white Caucasian men. We also compared various parameters that represent the end-manifestations of testosterone activity – serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, lean body mass, skeletal mineralization and visceral fat. Our data suggest that men from the Indian subcontinent are smaller, manifest lower levels of circulating free testosterone, lower mean PSA levels and lean body mass, but are comparable to white Caucasian men in terms of SHBG, estradiol, levels of visceral fat and CAG repeat length. These data suggest that Indian men manifest a lower level of virilization compared to white Caucasian males and that this might be due to lower mean circulating testosterone levels rather than higher AR CAG repeat length or SHBG.
Globally Optimal Multimodal Rigid Registration: An Analytic Solution using Edge Information

Current multimodal registration methods almost always rely on local gradient-descent type optimization strategies. Such registration methods often converge to an incorrect local optimum, especially when the initial misregistration is large. There are monomodal image registration methods that employ global optimization techniques. This paper introduces the use of these global optimization methods for multimodal image registration. The goal is to robustly bring the images into close enough registration that a local optimization method could fine-tune the solution. The method proposed here is based on edge information extracted from the images. Positive results from a modest set of test cases suggests that this approach is promising.
Flexible on-body coils for inductive power transfer to IoT garments and wearables

Inductive power transfer is a promising technology for ambient charging and powering of wearable devices without the need for direct user intervention. Existing systems typically use circular or rectangular coils built using inflexible wire and fixed into a rigid shape. This paper explores the design of receiver coils for wearable inductive power transfer. Our study demonstrates receive coil designs that visually embody patterns or logos do not significantly reduce receive voltage compared to a traditional wire loop of the same number of turns, giving designers flexibility over the appearance of wearable power transfer coils.
Using Patterns for Machine Translation

In this paper an innovative approach is presented for MT, which is based on pattern matching techniques, relies on extensive target language monolingual corpora and employs a series of similarity weights between the source and the target language. Our system is based on the notion of ‘patterns’, which are viewed as ‘models’ of target language strings, whose final form is defined by the corpus.
Spatial and temporal heterogeneity of Anopheles mosquitoes and Plasmodium falciparum transmission along the Kenyan coast.

The seasonal dynamics and spatial distributions of Anopheles mosquitoes and Plasmodium falciparum parasites were studied for one year at 30 villages in Malindi, Kilifi, and Kwale Districts along the coast of Kenya. Anopheline mosquitoes were sampled inside houses at each site once every two months and malaria parasite prevalence in local school children was determined at the end of the entomologic survey. A total of 5,476 Anopheles gambiae s.l. and 3,461 An. funestus were collected. Species in the An. gambiae complex, identified by a polymerase chain reaction, included 81.9% An. gambiae s.s. , 12.8% An. arabiensis, and 5.3% An. merus. Anopheles gambiae s.s. contributed most to the transmission of P. falciparum along the coast as a whole, while An. funestus accounted for more than 50% of all transmission in Kwale District. Large spatial heterogeneity of transmission intensity (< 1 up to 120 infective bites per person per year) resulted in correspondingly large and significantly related variations in parasite prevalence (range = 38-83%). Thirty-two percent of the sites (7 of 22 sites) with malaria prevalences ranging from 38% to 70% had annual entomologic inoculation rates (EIR) less than five infective bites per person per year. Anopheles gambiae s.l. and An. funestus densities in Kwale were not significantly influenced by rainfall. However, both were positively correlated with rainfall one and three months previously in Malindi and Kilifi Districts, respectively. These unexpected variations in the relationship between mosquito populations and rainfall suggest environmental heterogeneity in the predominant aquatic habitats in each district. One important conclusion is that the highly non-linear relationship between EIRs and prevalence indicates that the consistent pattern of high prevalence might be governed by substantial variation in transmission intensity measured by entomologic surveys. The field-based estimate of entomologic parameters on a district level does not provide a sensitive indicator of transmission intensity in this study.
Effects of L‐carnitine on neutrophil‐mediated ischemia–reperfusion injury in rat stomach

Reactive oxygen metabolites play an important role in ischemia–reperfusion related gastric injury. Primary sources of reactive oxygen metabolites seem to be the xanthine/xanthine oxidase system and neutrophils accumulating within the reperfused tissue. Tissue myeloperoxidase activity is an important index of neutrophil accumulation. The purpose of the present study was to clarify the effect of L‐carnitine on the accumulation of neutrophils and neutrophil‐induced gastric mucosal damage in rats exposed to ischemia–reperfusion. Rats were randomly divided into three groups: sham‐operated, ischemia–reperfusion and ischemia–reperfusion plus L‐carnitine groups. Ischemia was induced by clamping the celiac artery for 30 min and then reperfusion was established for 60 min. Gastric injury was assessed by measuring myeloperoxidase activity in gastric tissue. The neutrophil accumulation and hemorrhagic lesions due to ischemia–reperfusion in gastric mucosa were ascertained in a histological study. L‐Carnitine (100 mg kg−1) administrated intravenously 5 min before ischemia significantly reduced both the gastric injury and myeloperoxidase activity compared with the ischemia–reperfusion group. The results suggest that L‐carnitine provides marked protection against ischemia–reperfusion‐related gastric injury which could be due to its ability to reduce neutrophil accumulation in ischemic tissue. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
RTP-Q: A Reinforcement Learning System with Time Constraints Exploration Planning for Accelerating the Learning Rate

Reinforcement learning is an efficient method for solving Markov Decision Processes that an agent improves its performance by using scalar reward values with higher capability of reactive and adaptive behaviors. Q-learning is a representative reinforcement learning method which is guaranteed to obtain an optimal policy but needs numerous trials to achieve it. k-Certainty Exploration Learning System realizes active exploration to an environment, but, the learning process is separated into two phases and estimate values are not derived during the process of identifying the environment. Dyna-Q architecture makes fuller use of a limited amount of experiences and achieves a better policy with fewer environment interactions during identifying an environment by learning and planning with constrained time, however, the exploration is not active. This paper proposes a RTP-Q reinforcement learning system which varies an efficient method for exploring an environment into time constraints exploration planning and compounds it into an integrated system of learning, planning and reacting for aiming for the best of both methods. Based on improving the performance of exploring an environment, refining the model of the environment, the RTPQ learning system accelerates the learning rate for obtaining an optimal policy. The results of experiment on navigation tasks demonstrate that the RTP-Q learning system is efficient. key words: reinforcement learning, planning, reacting, exploration, exploitation
Efficient Graph-SLAM optimization using unit dual-quaternions

This paper presents a new parameterization approach for the graph-based SLAM problem utilising unit dual-quaternion. The rigid-body transformation typically consists of the robot position and rotation, and due to the Lie-group nature of the rotation, a homogeneous transformation matrix has been widely used in pose-graph optimizations. In this paper, we investigate the use of unit dual-quaternion for SLAM problem, providing a unified representation of the robot poses with computational and storage benefits. Although unit dual-quaternion has been widely used in robot kinematics and navigation (known also as Michel Chasles' theorem), it has not been well utilised in the graph SLAM optimization. In this work, we re-parameterize the graph SLAM problem with dual-quaternions, investigating the optimization performance and the sensitivity to poor initial estimates. Experimental results on public synthetic and real-world datasets show that the proposed approach significantly reduces the computational complexity, whilst retaining the similar map accuracies compared to the homogeneous transform matrix-based one.
Resilience in Parkinson's disease: An empirical examination of age-related components of the construct

RESILIENCE IN PARKINSON’S DISEASE: AN EMPIRICAL EXAMINATION OF AGERELATED COMPONENTS OF THE CONSTRUCT By Andrea M. Garroway, M.S. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014 Major Director: Bruce D. Rybarczyk, Ph.D., Major Professor, Department of Psychology Although Parkinson’s disease (PD) is commonly characterized by motor symptoms and physical limitations, there is growing recognition of nonmotor and mood symptoms associated with the disease as well. There has been limited research exploring how individual coping might affect the relationships between PD symptoms and mental health outcomes. The resilience construct was originally developed within the child literature, and it is often used in conceptualizing how people have adaptive or positive outcomes when facing adversity. Current resilience measures may not adequately assess the construct within an older population, however, given the unique emotion regulation and coping skills seen in late life. This survey study of 139 community-dwelling adults with PD (M age = 64.25 years, SD = 10.12, range 34-89 years) investigated whether resilience moderated the relationship between PD-related factors (nonmotor symptoms, functional impairment, and disease symptom-related QOL) and mental health outcomes (depression, apathy, satisfaction with and adjustment-quality of life). Further analyses explored whether hypothesized age-related resilience components (optimism, goal-flexibility, and meaning-making ability), accounted for unique variance above and beyond a standard resilience measure (Resilience Scale for Adults). Results indicated that disease symptom-related QOL predicted depression and adjustment-related QOL, while functional impairment predicted apathy, life satisfaction, and adjustment related QOL. Participants overall reported moderate to high resilience; resilience was a significant predictor of all mental health/QOL outcome measures, and those with comparatively lower self-reported resilience had worse disease symptoms. Resilience did not moderate the relationship between disease symptoms and mental health/QOL. Meaning-making ability and goal-flexibility accounted for unique variance above and beyond the standard resilience measure for several outcome variables. Age was a significant moderator, such that the protective value of meaning-making ability and optimism on depression were greater for younger compared to older participants. This study highlighted the presence of moderate to high resilience in PD patients, however those with comparatively lower resilience had poorer outcomes. Other coping variables appear to be important contributors to mental health/QOL beyond a standard resilience measure. Patient age also affected several outcomes, emphasizing the importance of further integration of developmental literature into our understanding of resilience in chronic disease management.
Integration of complex shapes and natural patterns

The process of generating an image for a computer graphics object is traditionally broken down into three steps: modelling of the shape or geometric attributes (such as height, width, and length), modelling of the visual attributes (how the object is going to look), and an integration step that connects the first two (a visual attribute is defined for every point on the surface of the object). The separation of modelling the shape from modelling the visual attributes makes the whole process highly flexible and powerful; from a conceptual point of view, the process is easier to handle. While generally good for many classes of objects, this separation is prone to problems when the geometry of the object is complex. For example, the mapping of visual characteristics to every point of such complex surfaces is non-trivial. Furthermore, this separation assumes that these two steps are independent of each other, but for some objects, there is an interaction between the shape modelling and visual modelling that plays a significant role on the final image. Typical examples are patterned animals such as giraffes and leopards, where the pattern visible on the fur of an adult animal is the result of a process that took place while the animal was an embryo in the womb. In this case, modelling the interplay between the embryo growth process and the pattern formation process is as important as modelling the individual processes themselves. In this thesis we introduce a novel solution for integrating shape and visual modelling. This solution defines the visual attributes directly on the surface of the object as the object changes shape, for example, due to growth. We present results of applying this solution to a giraffe model. This thesis makes three contributions: (1) a new model of mammalian pattern formation called Clonal Mosaic, suitable for computer graphics purposes and with strong biological plausibility. The model is based on-cell division and cell-to-cell interactions, and it can generate repeating spotted and striped patterns occurring in several species of mammals, especially the big cats and giraffes; (2) a technique to modify the shape of an object based, for example, on a small set of input measurements. The technique consists of defining local coordinate systems (cylinders) around the growing parts of the body, each one being transformed according to the relevant growth data while maintaining their relationship with the adjoining parts and the continuity of the surface. The local coordinates also permit ordinary animation mainly as relative rotation such as in articulated objects; and, (3) the integration of the modelling of Clonal Mosaic patterns with the shape modification technique. Finally, this thesis advances the notion of integration of independent tools as an important development in the field of computer graphics. Individual tools have been reaching exceptional levels of performance and therefore we need efficient ways to integrate them smoothly.
Bayes and the Simplicity Principle in Perception Simplicity versus Likelihood Principles in Perception

Discussions of the foundations of perceptual inference have often centered on 2 governing principles, the likelihood principle and the simplicity principle. Historically, these principles have usually been seen as opposed, but contemporary statistical (e.g., Bayesian) theory tends to see them as consistent, because for a variety of reasons simpler models (i.e., those with fewer dimensions or free parameters) make better predictors than more complex ones. In perception, many interpretation spaces are naturally hierarchical, meaning that they consist of a set of mutually embedded model classes of various levels of complexity, including simpler (lower dimensional) classes that are special cases of more complex ones. This article shows how such spaces can be regarded as algebraic structures, for example, as partial orders or lattices, with interpretations ordered in terms of dimensionality. The natural inference rule in such a space is a kind of simplicity rule: Among all interpretations qualitatively consistent with the image, draw the one that is lowest in the partial order, called the maximum-depth interpretation. This interpretation also maximizes the Bayesian posterior under certain simplifying assumptions, consistent with a unification of simplicity and likelihood principles. Moreover, the algebraic approach brings out the compositional structure inherent in such spaces, showing how perceptual interpretations are composed from a lexicon of primitive perceptual descriptors. A recurrent theme in the study of human visual perception is the idea that the visual system selects the simplest interpretation consistent with the visual image—sometimes referred to as the simplicity principle, sometimes by the gestalt term Prägnanz, and sometimes as the minimum principle. The principle has taken many forms, from a relatively vague preference for the maximi-zation of " regularity " (Kanizsa, 1979), to more concrete systems in which the image is described in some fixed coding language, and the interpretation whose code is of minimal length is selected Many phenomena of visual perception seem to rest in whole or in part by a preference for simple interpretations Yet at the same time many authors have been troubled over the motivation or justification of the principle (Hatfield & Epstein, 1985), paralleling an analogous debate about the rationale of Occam's razor in the Another well-known principle of perceptual inference, sometimes held up in opposition to the simplicity principle, is the likelihood principle: Choose the interpretation most likely to be true. The rationale behind this idea seems relatively self-evident, in that it is clearly desirable (say, from an evolutionary point …