Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Who serves the urban poor? A geospatial and descriptive analysis of health services in slum settlements in Dhaka, Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the health risks of unplanned urbanization are disproportionately shouldered by the urban poor. At the same time, affordable formal primary care services are scarce, and what exists is almost exclusively provided by non-government organizations (NGOs) working on a project basis. So where do the poor go for health care? A health facility mapping of six urban slum settlements in Dhaka was undertaken to explore the configuration of healthcare services proximate to where the poor reside. Three methods were employed: (1) Social mapping and listing of all Health Service Delivery Points (HSDPs); (2) Creation of a geospatial map including Global Positioning System (GPS) co-ordinates of all HSPDs in the six study areas and (3) Implementation of a facility survey of all HSDPs within six study areas. Descriptive statistics are used to examine the number, type and concentration of service provider types, as well as indicators of their accessibility in terms of location and hours of service. A total of 1041 HSDPs were mapped, of which 80% are privately operated and the rest by NGOs and the public sector. Phamacies and non-formal or traditional doctors make up 75% of the private sector while consultation chambers account for 20%. Most NGO and Urban Primary Health Care Project (UPHCP) static clinics are open 5–6 days/week, but close by 4–5 pm in the afternoon. Evening services are almost exclusively offered by private HSDPs; however, only 37% of private sector health staff possess some kind of formal medical qualification. This spatial analysis of health service supply in poor urban settlements emphasizes the importance of taking the informal private sector into account in efforts to increase effective coverage of quality services. Features of informal private sector service provision that have facilitated market penetration may be relevant in designing formal services that better meet the needs of the urban poor.
PIES, A Protein Interaction Extraction System

We consider the problem of extracting, manipulating, and managing biological pathways, especially protein-protein interaction pathways. We discuss here the Protein Interaction Extraction System (PIES). PIES is contructed on top of three main technologies: Kleisli, BioNLP, and Graphviz. Kleisli is a broad-scale data integration system that we use for downloading Medline abstracts and for general manipulation and management of pathway/interaction databases. BioNLP is a natural language-based information extraction module that we use for analysing Medline abstracts and to extract precise protein-protein and other interaction information. Graphviz is a graphical layout package developed for directed graphs that we use for visualization of the extracted pathways. PIES can be augmented with various means for extracting protein interaction information from sequence databases, for example, by using Kleisli's power to integrate sequence comparison tools to detect gene fusion events in sequence databases.
Speed of information processing as a key deficit in multiple sclerosis: implications for rehabilitation

Speed of information processing was assessed in patients with multiple sclerosis and healthy controls using both an auditory and visual task designed to control for accuracy of performance across groups. After controlling for accuracy of performance, patients with multiple sclerosis were found to have significantly slower speed of information processing relative healthy controls, irrespective of the modality of stimulus presentation (auditory or visual). When given an adequate amount of time to process information, however, the patients performed similarly to controls. These results suggest that persons with multiple sclerosis experience deficits specifically in processing speed but not performance accuracy. Results are discussed in terms of rehabilitative guidelines for the cognitive improvement of persons with multiple sclerosis.
Sediment trap study in the Green Bay mass balance program : mass and organic carbon fluxes, resuspension, and particle settling velocities

This research is a part of a large, multidisciplinary program designed to measure and model the mass balance of congener-specific polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) and die&in in Green Bay, western Lake Michigan. In this report, we document the results of our sediment trap study designed to collect representative samples of settling particulate material from five sites within the southern portion of the bay. Measuring the mass collected allowed us to calculate the gross downward flux of particulate matter and particle settling velocities. The mass balance models being applied to Green Bay explicitly require these particle settling velocities and vertical fluxes of mass and particulate organic carbon. Mass and carbon fluxes from sediment traps located 2 m above bottom and distributed throughout southern Green Bay showed that seasonal flux patterns were generally high prior to stratification, declined to minimum values during summer, and then generally reached much higher fluxes during fall overturn. In the epilimnion, seasonal patterns are similar to the near bottom samples although mass flux is approximately 10% of the near bottom flux, and carbon flux is approximately 20%. Settling velocities for epilimnetic samples are approximately 0.5 m/day, similar to open-lake values. Significantly higher settling velocities (4-6 m/day) during the stratified period were calculated for the 2 m above bottom region. These rates imply that a large recharging of the particle pool by either horizontal transport or local sediment resuspension occurs throughout the year. During the unstratified period, settling velocities throughout the water column are approximately 12-18 m/day, more than an order of magnitude higher than during stratification. At this rate, the particle residence time in the water column is only a few days, again implying frequent recharging. Sediment resuspension estimated by a steady state model required to support trap observations is about 10 g/m2/day with scale thicknesses of 5-7 m, and there is little seasonal variation until late September.
In vivo antioxidant, hypoglycemic, and anti-tumor activities of anthocyanin extracts from purple sweet potato

Anthocyanin from purple sweet potato (PSP) extracted by microwave baking (MB) and acidified electrolyzed water (AEW) exhibited antioxidant activity. After further purification by macroporous AB-8 resin, the color value of PSP anthocyanin (PSPA) reached 30.15 with a total flavonoid concentration of 932.5 mg/g. The purified extracts had more potent antioxidant activities than the crude extracts. After continuously administering the PSP extracts to 12-mo-old mice for 1 mo, the anti-aging index of the experimental group was not significantly different from that of 5-mo-old mice. To a certain degree, PSPA was also effective for controlling plasma glucose levels in male Streptozocin (STZ)-treated diabetic mice. In addition, the extracts inhibited Sarcoma S180 cell growth in ICR mice. Mice consuming the PSP extracts formed significantly fewer and smaller sarcomas than mice consuming the control diets. The highest inhibition rate was 69.03%. These results suggest that anthocyanin extracts from PSP not only exert strong antioxidant effects in vitro, but also had anti-aging, anti-hyperglycemic, and anti-tumor activities.
Propeller-Shaped Antenna: A Steerable Ultrawideband Planar Antenna

We propose an ultrawideband planar antenna having a controllable radiation pattern for coarse steering to avoid fading in indoor communications. In the antenna, multiple tapered-slot antenna (TSA) elements are connected to a feeding part through p-i-n diode switches. The TSA elements have such wide aperture and round shape that the mutual coupling among them is effectively suppressed, resulting in sufficient steering ability. Simulation and experiments demonstrate that the radiation is switched to intended directions. Reflection S11 is below or around -10 dB in the frequency range of 3.1-10.6 GHz independent of the switching condition. Basic characteristics are investigated and discussed.
Robust Multiwavelength All-Fiber Source of Polarization-Entangled Photons With Built-In Analyzer Alignment Signal

We describe an all-fiber source of polarization-entangled photons, which is designed to be simple to manufacture and structurally robust. The source includes an alignment signal that allows for straightforward alignment of the measurement axes of the subsequent polarization analyzers. High-quality entangled light is generated and measured at multiple wavelength channels within the C-band.
Skill and change: variations in estimates of skill with an increasing element of chance.

Experiments with three groups of subjects, ranging in age from 13 to 20 years, were carried out to determine how estimates of success in performance are influenced by (a) varying the subjective assessment of the degree of skill required to succeed in a task, and (b) varying the degree of subjective chance. The findings were as follows, (i) The result of introducing an element of subjective chance into a task requiring some skill is to make the estimates of success in the task progressively reflect the element of subjective chance as it increases in magnitude. (ii) This effect occurs regardless of the degree of skill subjectively felt to be required for the task. (iii) The values of subjective probability of success in performance given by the older subjects are not significantly different from the products of their corresponding values of ψ (skill) and ψ (chance). In the circumstances of these experiments, therefore, the subjective probabilities based upon the subjects' estimates are equivalent to those which the experimenter could independently arrive at if he only had available to him the values of ψ (skill) and ψ (chance) and had multiplied them. (iv) In the case of younger subjects aged 13–14 years, the subjective probabilities of success in performance are somewhat larger than the products of the two separate subjective probabilities. This may be due to a tendency on the part of younger persons to be more confident of success when their estimates relate to a single situation involving two sources of uncertainty as compared with when they relate to two separate situations, each involving its own source of uncertainty.
Leptin stimulates human osteoblastic cell proliferation, de novo collagen synthesis, and mineralization: Impact on differentiation markers, apoptosis, and osteoclastic signaling

Anabolic hormones, mechanical loading, and the obese protein leptin play separate roles in maintaining bone mass. We have previously shown that leptin, as well as its receptor, are expressed by normal human osteoblasts. Consequently, we have investigated how leptin affects proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis of human osteoblasts. Iliac crest osteoblasts, incubated with either leptin (100 ng/ml), calcitriol (1,25(OH)2D3; 10−9 M) or 1–84 human parathyroid hormone (PTH; 10−8 M), were cultured for 35 consecutive days and assayed for expression of various differentiation‐related marker genes (as estimated by RT‐PCR), de novo collagen synthesis, proliferation, in vitro mineralization, and osteoclast signaling. The effects of leptin on protection against retinoic acid (RA; 10−7 M) induced apoptosis, as well as transition into preosteocytes, were also tested. Leptin exposure enhanced cell proliferation and collagen synthesis over both control condition and PTH exposure. Leptin inhibited in vitro calcified nodule production after 1–2 weeks in culture, however, subsequent to 4–5 weeks, leptin significantly stimulated mineralization. The mineralization profile throughout the entire incubation period was almost undistinguishable from the one induced by PTH. In comparison, 1,25(OH)2D3 generally reduced proliferation and collagen production rates, whereas mineralization was markedly enhanced. Leptin exposure (at 2 and 5 weeks) significantly enhanced the expression of TGFβ, IGF‐I, collagen‐Iα, ALP, and osteocalcin mRNA. Leptin also protected against RA‐induced apoptosis, as estimated by soluble DNA fractions and DNA laddering patterns subsequent to 10 days of culture. The expression profiles of Bax‐α and Bcl‐2 mRNAs indicated that leptin per se significantly protected against apoptosis throughout the entire incubation period. Furthermore, the osteoblast marker OSF‐2 was diminished, whereas the CD44 osteocyte marker gene expression was stimulated, indicating a transition into preosteocytes. In terms of osteoclastic signaling, leptin significantly augmented the mRNA levels of both interleukin‐6 (IL‐6) and osteoprotegerin (OPG). In summary, continuous leptin exposure of iliac crest osteoblasts, promotes collagen synthesis, cell differentiation and in vitro mineralization, as well as cell survival and transition into preosteocytes. Leptin may also facilitate osteoblastic signaling to the osteoclast. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Design of a High Performance Charge Pump Circuit for Low Voltage Phase-locked Loops

In this paper, the design of a 1.2 V charge pump circuit suitable for PLL-based frequency synthesizer with low spurious tone requirement is presented. The proposed charge pump circuit improves current matching in a wide output voltage range by applying a replica biasing technique with a new feedback structure that provides more stable operation. The systematic percentage error for the output range from 0.1 V to 1.1 V is less than plusmn0.5 %. Other non-ideal effects such as feed-through of the input pulses, charge sharing and timing mismatch of input signals are also significantly reduced. The charge pump circuit was designed in 0.18 mum CMOS process.
Prevalence and Heterogeneity of KRAS, BRAF, and PIK3CA Mutations in Primary Colorectal Adenocarcinomas and Their Corresponding Metastases

Purpose: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antibody therapy is established in patients with wild-type KRAS colorectal carcinoma; however, up to 50% of these patients do not respond to this therapy. To identify the possible causes of this therapy failure, we searched for mutations in different EGFR-dependent signaling proteins and analyzed their distribution patterns in primary tumors and corresponding metastases. Experimental Design: Tumor tissues, macrodissected from tumor centers, invasion fronts (n = 100), lymph nodes (n = 55), and distant metastases (n = 20), respectively, were subjected to DNA extraction and mutation analysis of KRAS, BRAF, and PIK3CA. Results: Activating mutations were detected in 41% (KRAS), 7% (BRAF), and 21% (PIK3CA) of the primary tumors. By comparing tumor centers and invasion fronts, the intratumoral heterogeneity of KRAS, BRAF, and PIK3CA mutations was observed in 8%, 1%, and 5% of primary tumors, respectively. Heterogeneity between primary tumors and lymph node metastases was found in 31% (KRAS), 4% (BRAF), and 13% (PIK3CA) of the cases. Heterogeneity between primary tumors and distant metastases was present in two patients (10%) for KRAS and one patient for PIK3CA (5%), but not for BRAF. Discordant results between primary tumors and metastases could markedly be reduced by testing the additional tumor samples. Conclusions: Failure of EGFR antibody therapy in patients with wild-type KRAS colorectal cancer may result from activating BRAF or PIK3CA mutations and false-negative sequencing results caused by intratumoral heterogeneity. Due to the particularly high rates of heterogeneity between primary tumors and lymph node metastases, the latter are least suitable for diagnostic mutation analysis. Clin Cancer Res; 16(3); 790–9
2 Logarithmic Bit-Significance Ratio 2 . 1 S-Values of Quantiser Bits

The Logarithmic Bit-Significance Ratio (S-value) is a universal measure to quantify the significances of the bits in a communication system. We define the S-value and discuss relations to the well-known L-values that are used for soft-in/soft-out decoding at the receiving end. We argue that the S-values are the transmitter-based counterpart of the L-values, and we motivate the idea of soft-in/soft-out data processing at the transmitter by demonstrating practical benefits in a simple digital communication system.
Total bycatch estimate of loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) in the 2004 Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) dredge fishery

v Introduction. 1 Methods . 2 Observer Coverage. 3 Observed Turtle Takes. 4 Commercial Fisheries Data. 4 Model Development. 4 Turtle Bycatch Model . 7 Results . 8 Turtle Bycatch Model . 8 Total Bycatch of Turtles . 9 Discussion. 9 References. 12
Histological grade of hepatocellular carcinoma predicted by quantitative diffusion-weighted imaging.

OBJECTIVE This study is to evaluate the application of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in determining the histological grade of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). METHODS Totally, 27 HCC patients who received DWI examination before surgical resection were included in this study. Relationships of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and signal intensity (SI) with the histological grade of HCC were analyzed. RESULTS These 27 HCC patients could be classified into 6 well, 10 moderately, and 11 poorly differentiated HCCs. The overall ADC value for all HCC cases was (1.28 ± 0.19) × 10(-3) mm(2)/s. The ADC value for poorly differentiated HCCs was (1.16 ± 0.16) × 10(-3) mm(2)/s, significantly lower than the well [(1.43 ± 0.09) × 10(-3) mm(2)/s] and moderately [(1.34 ± 0.19) × 10(-3) mm(2)/s] differentiated HCCs. There was no significant difference in ADC between the well and moderately differentiated HCCs. The overall SI value for all the HCC cases was 75.66 ± 32.94. The mean SI value for the moderately differentiated HCC cases was 54.37 ± 28.37, significantly lower than the well (90.78 ± 27.49) and poorly (86.77 ± 31.51) differentiated HCCs. No significant difference in SI was observed between the well and poorly differentiated HCCs. Additionally, there was a significant negative correlation between the ADC value and the histological grade of HCC. CONCLUSION The ADC value based on DWI is useful in determining the histological grade of HCC, while the SI value provides limited contribution to HCC histological grade evaluation.
Significant Words Language Models for Contextual Suggestion

In this paper, we present the participation of the University of Amsterdam's ExPoSe team in the TREC 2016 Contextual Suggestion Track. The main goal of contextual suggestion track is to evaluate methods for providing suggestions for activities or points of interest to users in a specific location, at a specific time, taking their personal preferences into consideration. One of the key steps of contextual suggestion methods is estimating a proper model for representing different objects in the data like users and attractions. Here, we describe our approach which is employing Significant Words Language Models (SWLM) [2] as an effective method for estimating models representing significant features of sets of attractions as user profiles and sets of users as group profile. We observe that using SWLM, we are able to better estimate a model representing the set of preferences positively rated by users as their profile, compared to the case we use standard language model as the profiling approach. We also find that using negatively rated attractions as negative samples along with positively rated attractions as positive samples, we may loose the performance when we use standard language model as the profiling approach. While, using SWLM, taking negatively rated attractions into consideration may help to improve the quality of suggestions. In addition, we investigate groups of users sharing a property (e.g. of a similar age) and study the effect of taking group-based profiles on the performance of suggestions provided for individual users. We noticed that group-based suggestion helps more when users have a tendency to rate attraction in a neutral way, compared to the case users are more subjective in their rating behavior.
Escherichia coli β-Lactamases: What Really Matters

Escherichia coli strains belonging to diverse pathotypes have increasingly been recognized as a major public health concern. The β-lactam antibiotics have been used successfully to treat infections caused by pathogenic E. coli. However, currently, the utility of β-lactams is being challenged severely by a large number of hydrolytic enzymes – the β-lactamases expressed by bacteria. The menace is further compounded by the highly flexible genome of E. coli, and propensity of resistance dissemination through horizontal gene transfer and clonal spread. Successful management of infections caused by such resistant strains requires an understanding of the diversity of β-lactamases, their unambiguous detection, and molecular mechanisms underlying their expression and spread with regard to the most relevant information about individual bacterial species. Thus, this review comprises first such effort in this direction for E. coli, a bacterial species known to be associated with production of diverse classes of β-lactamases. The review also highlights the role of commensal E. coli as a potential but under-estimated reservoir of β-lactamases-encoding genes.
Tumors of female offspring of mice exposed prenatally to diethylstilbestrol.

Strain CD-1 female mice exposed prenatally to diethylstilbestrol (DES) (CAS: 56-53-1; alpha,alpha'-diethyl-4,4'-stilbenediol) were mated to unexposed males. Female offspring of these matings were raised to the stage of terminal illness. They were never exposed to DES and so have been referred to as "DES-lineage mice. " Ten uterine adenocarcinomas and 5 ovarian cystadenocarcinomas were found in 40 DES-lineage mice. These findings were significantly different from the absence of such tumors in 24 "vehicle-lineage" mice whose mothers had received injections only of oil and alcohol. The types of tumors that commonly occur spontaneously in the CD-1 strain appeared with comparable frequency in the 2 groups of mice. The DES-lineage mice did not show the increased frequency of adenomyosis and squamous metaplasia of the uterus, nor the reduced frequency of corpora lutea seen in mice exposed prenatally to DES.
Avidity of Antibodies against Infecting Pneumococcal Serotypes Increases with Age and Severity of Disease

ABSTRACT The incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) rises with age. Among adult IPD patients, the avidity of antipneumococcal polysaccharide antibodies against the infecting serotype increased with age and severity of disease, indicating that susceptibility to IPD in the elderly may rather be due to flaws in other aspects of opsonophagocytosis.
Endoscopic dilation of benign esophageal strictures without fluoroscopy: experience of 2750 procedures.

BACKGROUND/AIMS To report a large series of patients with strictures from different etiologies who underwent dilation without fluoroscopy. METHODOLOGY Between 1992 and 2005, 321 patients who underwent 2750 dilation sessions were entered in a database. Dysphagia score, cause and location of the stricture and diameter of the bougies were recorded in every session. RESULTS The mean follow-up period was 18.8 months. Stricture was postsurgical in 204 patients, peptic in 60, caustic in 13, postradiotherapy in 13, and from other causes in 31. Clinical response was achieved in 92% of the postsurgical patients; 84% of the caustic injuries; 81% of the peptic patients; and 58% of the radiation injuries (p < 0.05). Absence of dysphagia was obtained in 68, 38, 67 and 27% of these, respectively (p < 0.05). All groups showed a significant improvement in dysphagia score, and 98% of patients in whom a 45F catheter was inserted, achieved clinical response. There were 6 perforations, with 2 deaths. CONCLUSIONS Endoscopic dilation for benign esophageal strictures without fluoroscopy is safe and effective. Postsurgical patients show excellent results for dilation, and caustic and post-radiotherapy strictures have the worst response. A diameter of 45F is a satisfactory end-point for therapy in the majority of cases.