Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Geographical variation in risk HLA-DQB1 genotypes for type 1 diabetes and signs of beta-cell autoimmunity in a high-incidence country.

OBJECTIVE To assess possible differences in the frequency of HLA-DQB1 risk genotypes and the emergence of signs of beta-cell autoimmunity among three geographical regions in Finland. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The series comprised 4,642 children with increased HLA-DQB1-defined genetic risk of type 1 diabetes from the Diabetes Prediction and Prevention (DIPP) study: 1,793 (38.6%) born in Turku, 1,646 (35.5%) in Oulu, and 1,203 (25.9%) in Tampere. These children were examined frequently for the emergence of signs of beta-cell autoimmunity, for the primary screening of which islet cell antibodies (ICA) were used. If the child developed ICA, all samples were also analyzed for insulin autoantibodies (IAA), GAD65 antibodies (GADA), and antibodies to the IA-2 molecule (IA-2A). RESULTS The high- and moderate-risk genotypes were unevenly distributed among the three areas (P<0.001); the high-risk genotype was less frequent in the Oulu region (20.4%) than in the Turku (28.4%; P<0.001) or Tampere regions (27.2%; P<0.001). This genotype was associated with an increased frequency of ICA seroconversion relative to the moderate risk genotypes (hazard ratio 1.89, 95% CI 1.36-2.62). Seroconversions to ICA positivity occurred less commonly in Tampere than in Turku (0.47, 0.28-0.75), whereas the seroconversion rate in Oulu did not differ from that in Turku (0.72, 0.51-1.03). The Tampere-Turku difference persisted after adjustment for risk genotypes, sex, and time of birth (before January 1998 versus later). Seroconversion for at least one additional autoantibody was also less frequent in Tampere than in Turku (0.39, 0.16-0.82). CONCLUSIONS These data show that in Finland, the country with the highest incidence of type 1 diabetes in the world, both the frequency of the high-risk HLA-DQB1 genotype and the risk of seroconversion to autoantibody positivity show geographical variation. The difference in seroconversion rate could not be explained by the difference in HLA-DQB1-defined disease susceptibility, implying that the impact of environmental triggers of diabetes-associated autoimmunity may differ between the three regions studied.
The Impact of Ignoring Measurement Error when Estimating Sample Size for Epidemiologic Studies

The author presents two examples illustrating the bias in sample-size estimates that can result from ignoring measurement error among study variables. The first example examines the impact of ignoring misclassification of the study's outcome variable on the accuracy of sample-size estimates. In addition, the author outlines a simple yet effective means of adjusting sample-size estimates to account for outcome misclassification. In the second example, the author illustrates the potential for severe underestimation of required sample size in studies using linear regression to evaluate associations between the outcome of interest and an independent variable subject to classical measurement error. The author concludes with a discussion of pertinent literature that might be helpful to study planners interested in adjusting sample-size estimates to account for measurement errors in both outcome and predictor variables.
An Error Correction Scheme through Time Redundancy for Enhancing Persistent Soft-Error Tolerance of CGRAs

Time redundancy is sometimes an only option for enhancing circuit reliability when the circuit area is severely restricted. In this paper, a time-redundant error-correction scheme, which is particularly suitable for coarse-grained reconfigurable arrays (CGRAs), is proposed. It judges the correctness of the executions by comparing the results of two identical runs. Once a mismatch is found, the second run is terminated immediately to start the third run, under the assumption that the errors tend to persist in many applications, for selecting the correct result in the three runs. The circuit area and reliability of the proposed method is compared with a straightforward implementation of time-redundancy and a selective triple modular redundancy (TMR). A case study on a CGRA revealed that the area of the proposed method is 1% larger than that of the implementation for the selective TMR. The study also shows the proposed scheme is up to 2.6x more reliable than the full-TMR when the persistent error is predominant. key words: coarse-grained reconfigurable architecture, reliability, triple modular redundancy, immediate termination, error-critical period
lop-DWI: A Novel Scheme for Pre-Processing of Diffusion-Weighted Images in the Gradient Direction Domain

We describe and evaluate a pre-processing method based on a periodic spiral sampling of diffusion-gradient directions for high angular resolution diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. Our pre-processing method incorporates prior knowledge about the acquired diffusion-weighted signal, facilitating noise reduction. Periodic spiral sampling of gradient direction encodings results in an acquired signal in each voxel that is pseudo-periodic with characteristics that allow separation of low-frequency signal from high frequency noise. Consequently, it enhances local reconstruction of the orientation distribution function used to define fiber tracks in the brain. Denoising with periodic spiral sampling was tested using synthetic data and in vivo human brain images. The level of improvement in signal-to-noise ratio and in the accuracy of local reconstruction of fiber tracks was significantly improved using our method.
An Air-conditioning Load Forecasting Based on Dynamical Combined Residual Error Correction

Accurate air-conditioning load forecasting is the precondition for the optimal control and energy saving opera- tion of central air-conditioning system. However, the single forecasting method, such as autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), grey model (GM), multiple linear regression (MLR) and artificial neural network (ANN), has not enough accuracy. In order to improve the accuracy of air-conditioning load forecasting, the combination forecast devel- ops. But so far there are no literatures that explain how to choose the single forecasting methods to build the combination forecast that can further improve the forecasting accuracy. To further improve the forecasting accuracy, a forecasting method with dynamical combined residual error correction is proposed. The residual error correction model and its com- bination ways are analyzed, and the very high accuracy with mathematical proof is realized in this paper. A case study in- dicates that the dynamical combination ways proposed in this paper can further improve the accuracy of combination forecasting and satisfy the accuracy requirement of air-conditioning load forecasting.
Compensation of Nuisance Factors for Speaker and Language Recognition

The variability of the channel and environment is one of the most important factors affecting the performance of text-independent speaker verification systems. The best techniques for channel compensation are model based. Most of them have been proposed for Gaussian mixture models, while in the feature domain blind channel compensation is usually performed. The aim of this work is to explore techniques that allow more accurate intersession compensation in the feature domain. Compensating the features rather than the models has the advantage that the transformed parameters can be used with models of a different nature and complexity and for different tasks. In this paper, we evaluate the effects of the compensation of the intersession variability obtained by means of the channel factors approach. In particular, we compare channel variability modeling in the usual Gaussian mixture model domain, and our proposed feature domain compensation technique. We show that the two approaches lead to similar results on the NIST 2005 Speaker Recognition Evaluation data with a reduced computation cost. We also report the results of a system, based on the intersession compensation technique in the feature space that was among the best participants in the NIST 2006 Speaker Recognition Evaluation. Moreover, we show how we obtained significant performance improvement in language recognition by estimating and compensating, in the feature domain, the distortions due to interspeaker variability within the same language.
Teledermatology and in-person examinations: a comparison of patient and physician perceptions and diagnostic agreement.

OBJECTIVE To compare physician and patient impressions and interphysician diagnostic agreement between live teledermatology and in-person examinations. DESIGN Paired video and in-person examinations with different dermatologists. SETTING An urban Veterans Affairs dermatology clinic. PATIENTS One hundred thirty-nine patients. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Satisfaction questionnaires and interphysician diagnostic agreement. RESULTS Patient and physician satisfaction was high. Agreement between video and in-person diagnoses was 80%. CONCLUSIONS Physicians and patients were satisfied with teledermatology examinations. Diagnostic agreement between in-person and video dermatologists was high.
A Molecular Phylogeny-Based Taxonomy of the Genus Rhizopus

In order to establish the molecular taxonomy of the genus Rhizopus, all described species of the genus were collected and the nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacer of the rRNA gene (rDNA ITS), actin, and translation elongation factor 1α (EF-1α) were determined. Quantitative real-time PCR revealed that R. americanus had a R. stolonifer-type ITS sequence as the dominant sequence type, although it had three different types of ITS sequences in a single genome. Phylogenetic analysis and gene genealogy concordance phylogenetic species recognition (GCPSR) identified eight species in the genus, whereas recent morphological taxonomy includes 10 species. R. niveus is proposed to be re-classified as R. delemar, and R. sexualis and R. americanus are re-classified as R. stolonifer.
Exploiting imprecise constraints in particle filtering based target tracking

Nonlinear target tracking is a well-known problem for which Bayes optimal solutions based on particle filtering techniques have been developed previously. Traditionally, target tracking is solely based on sensor measurements. The tracking performance can be improved by combining sensor measurements with external information from outside the sensor. An important issue when dealing with external information in practice is that generally it is not perfect. In this paper, we discuss different classes of imperfections that can occur and we focus on imprecision, especially in relation to hard inequality constraints. A generic method is presented for dealing with imprecise hard inequality constraints, i.e. hard inequality constraints that are based on imprecise information, following a model-based approach. Simulations have been performed to demonstrate the method for exploiting imprecise hard inequality constraints in a maritime target tracking example.
The Term Structure Of Euromarket Interest Rates: Some New Evidence

We examine the dynamic relationship between Euromarket interest rates at different maturities for the US and the UK over the period 1982-2000. We use a general, multivariate vector equilibrium correction modelling framework incorporating both asymmetric adjustments and regime shifts, which may be justified by a very general theoretical model of the term structure and which allows for both term premia and deviations from rational expectations. Our approach provides good in-sample fits to the data and has satisfactory out-of-sample forecasting properties. Further, the implied regime switches are found to be closely related to key state variables driving monetary policy decisions, namely inflation and business cycle indicators. JEL classification: E43; E47.
Multiscale Gabor Wavelet for Shoeprint Image Retrieval

The problem that the shoeprints found at crime scenes are often poor quality and with lots of noise causes much trouble when extracting the basic shapes and later classifying the database of shoeprint images automatically. In this paper we present a shoeprint image retrieval method based on odd and even Gabor filter. The method combines odd and even Gabor filter to extract the texture and geometry features and suppress noise after wavelet package decomposition. The texture features saved in a tree are used to query and the geometry features are used to weight the similarity. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust and effective to match the incomplete and noisy shoeprint images.
Internal muscle activity imaging from multi-channel surface EMG recordings: A validation study

The developed muscle activity imaging approach (MAI) was validated with surface EMG and intramuscular EMG signals simultaneously acquired from the biceps of a healthy male subject. 128 unipolar channels were employed for surface EMG measurement and one bipolar channel was employed for simultaneous intramuscular EMG measurement for the validation purpose. Ultrasound scans were also specifically performed to localize the location of the wire electrode inserted into the biceps. The surface EMG measurements, after noise filtering and signal decomposition, were used to reconstruct the internal muscle activities for the biceps by using the MAI approach. The locations of the reconstructed muscle activities were compared against the location of the wire electrode in the biceps identified from ultrasound images. Results demonstrate the feasibility and validity of the MAI approach in imaging internal muscle activities from multi-channel surface EMG recordings.
A scalable approach for automated precision analysis

The freedom over the choice of numerical precision is one of the key factors that can only be exploited throughout the datapath of an FPGA accelerator, providing the ability to trade the accuracy of the final computational result with the silicon area, power, operating frequency, and latency. However, in order to tune the precision used throughout hardware accelerators automatically, a tool is required to verify that the hardware will meet an error or range specification for a given precision. Existing tools to perform this task typically suffer either from a lack of tightness of bounds or require a large execution time when applied to large scale algorithms; in this work, we propose an approach that can both scale to larger examples and obtain tighter bounds, within a smaller execution time, than the existing methods. The approach we describe also provides a user with the ability to trade the quality of bounds with execution time of the procedure, making it suitable within a word-length optimization framework for both small and large-scale algorithms. We demonstrate the use of our approach on instances of iterative algorithms to solve a system of linear equations. We show that because our approach can track how the relative error decreases with increasing precision, unlike the existing methods, we can use it to create smaller hardware with guaranteed numerical properties. This results in a saving of 25% of the area in comparison to optimizing the precision using competing analytical techniques, whilst requiring a smaller execution time than the these methods, and saving almost 80% of area in comparison to adopting IEEE double precision arithmetic.
La conformación psicosocial del maternaje y su impacto en la salud de la familia The social construction of mothering and its impact on family health

The number of working women is growing worldwide, and Mexico shows the same tendency. The effects of working on the main social role of women as taking care family health and wellbeing has been documented by several studies. Mothers tend to adjust their routines in order to keep track of children’s needs. Additionally, working mothers make an adjustment in the value attributed to the women’s social role of protecting the family wellbeing. The concepts of intensive and extensive mothering allow for a better description of these adjustments. The paper presents several studies to document these effects, and proposes how the mothers construct a positive image around being working mothers.
Calculation of risk of colorectal and endometrial cancer among patients with Lynch syndrome.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Lynch syndrome is the most common hereditary colorectal cancer (CRC) syndrome. Some previous estimates of lifetime risk for CRC and endometrial cancer (EC) did not control for ascertainment and were susceptible to bias toward overestimated risk. METHODS We studied 147 families with mismatch repair gene mutations (55 MLH1, 81 MSH2, and 11 MSH6) identified at 2 US cancer genetics clinics. Age-specific cumulative risks (penetrance) and hazard ratio (HR) estimates of CRC and EC risks were calculated and compared with the general population using modified segregation analysis. The likelihood for each pedigree was conditioned on the proband and first-degree relatives affected with CRC to reduce ascertainment bias and overestimation of penetrance. RESULTS We analyzed 628 cases of CRC, diagnosed at the median ages of 42 and 47 years for men and women, respectively. The cumulative risk of CRC was 66.08% (95% confidence interval [CI], 59.47%-76.17%) for men and 42.71% (95% CI, 36.57%-52.83%) for women, with overall HRs of 148.4 and 51.1, respectively. CRC risk was highest for males with mutations in MLH1. There were 155 cases of EC, diagnosed at a median age of 47.5 years. The cumulative risk of EC was 39.39% (95% CI, 30.78%-46.94%) with an overall HR of 39.0 (95% CI, 30.4-50.2). For women, the cumulative risk of CRC or EC was 73.42% (95% CI, 63.76%-80.54%). CONCLUSIONS Lifetime risks of CRC and EC in mismatch repair gene mutation carriers are high even after adjusting for ascertainment. These estimates are valuable for patients and providers; specialized cancer surveillance is necessary.
The mitotic roles of Polo-like kinase.

The Polo-like protein kinases (Plks) are a conserved family of enzymes that play a variety of roles in the passage of cells through M phase (for reviews see [Glover et al., 1998][1]; [Nigg, 1998][2]). Named after the Drosophila polo gene originally identified through a recessive maternal effect
The persistence of class origin inequalities among school leavers in the Republic of Ireland, 1984-1993

This paper examines changes in the relationship between class origins and the position young people occupy one year after finishing post-primary education in the Republic of Ireland over the period 1984-1993. The authors find that class differentials in the position occupied after leaving school do not change over time, although, among young women, the relationship between educational attainment and the position occupied does change slightly. They show that the reason why this latter change can co-occur with an absence of change in class differences is because class origin effects on the position a school leaver occupies one year after leaving school are substantially independent of educational attainment effects. In other words, class differences in how young people fare after leaving school are only weakly mediated by education. Other channels of class influence must therefore be operating, and their cumulative impact is much greater than that of class based educational inequalities
Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Latency in Endothelial and B Cells Activates Gamma Interferon-Inducible Protein 16-Mediated Inflammasomes

ABSTRACT Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) infections of endothelial and B cells are etiologically linked with Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and primary effusion B-cell lymphoma (PEL), respectively. KS endothelial and PEL B cells carry multiple copies of the nuclear episomal latent KSHV genome and secrete a variety of inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-18. The maturation of IL-1β and IL-18 depends upon active caspase-1, which is regulated by a multiprotein inflammasome complex induced by sensing of danger signals. During primary KSHV infection of endothelial cells, acting as a nuclear pattern recognition receptor, gamma interferon-inducible protein 16 (IFI16) colocalized with the KSHV genome in the nuclei and interacted with ASC and procaspase-1 to form a functional inflammasome (Kerur N et al., Cell Host Microbe 9:363-375, 2011). Here, we demonstrate that endothelial telomerase-immortalized human umbilical cells (TIVE) supporting KSHV stable latency (TIVE-LTC cells) and PEL (cavity-based B-cell lymphoma 1 [BCBL-1]) cells show evidence of inflammasome activation, such as the activation of caspase-1 and cleavage of pro-IL-1β and pro-IL-18. Interaction of ASC with IFI16 but not with AIM2 or NOD-like receptor P3 (NLRP3) was detected. The KSHV latency-associated viral FLIP (vFLIP) gene induced the expression of IL-1β, IL-18, and caspase-1 mRNAs in an NF-κB-dependent manner. IFI16 and cleaved IL-1β were detected in the exosomes released from BCBL-1 cells. Exosomal release could be a KSHV-mediated strategy to subvert IL-1β functions. In fluorescent in situ hybridization analyses, IFI16 colocalized with multiple copies of the KSHV genome in BCBL-1 cells. IFI16 colocalization with ASC was also detected in lung PEL sections from patients. Taken together, these findings demonstrated the constant sensing of the latent KSHV genome by IFI16-mediated innate defense and unraveled a potential mechanism of inflammation induction associated with KS and PEL lesions.
Arthroscopic Assessment for Intra-articular Disorders in Residual Ankle Disability after Sprain

Background After ankle sprain, there can be many causes of disability, the origins of which cannot be determined using standard diagnostic tools. Hypothesis Ankle arthroscopy is a useful tool in identifying intra-articular disorders of the talocrural joint in cases of residual ankle disability after sprain. Study Design Cohort study (diagnosis); Level of evidence, 2. Methods The authors gathered the independent diagnostic results of physical examination, standard mortise and lateral radiography, stress radiography of the talocrural joint, and magnetic resonance imaging for 72 patients with residual ankle disability lasting more than 2 months after injury (mean, 7 months after injury). They performed arthroscopic procedures and compared the double-blind results. Results In all cases, the arthroscopic results matched those of other means of diagnosis. In 14 cases, the arthroscopic approach exceeded the capabilities of the other methods. Including duplications, 39 patients (54.2%) had anterior talofibular ligament injuries, 17 patients (23.6%) had distal tibiofibular ligament injuries, 29 patients (40.3%) had osteochondral lesions, 13 patients (18%) had symptomatic os subfibulare, 3 patients (4.2%) had anterior impingement exostosis, and 3 patients (4.2%) had impingement due to abnormally fibrous bands. There were only 2 cases in which the cause of symptoms could not be detected by ankle arthroscopy, compared with 16 cases in which the cause of disability could not be detected using standard methods. In 3 cases (17.6%) of distal tibiofibular ligament injuries, 8 cases (27.6%) of osteochondral lesions, and all 3 cases (100%) of impingement of an abnormal fibrous band, ankle arthroscopy was the only method capable of diagnosing the cause of residual ankle pain after a sprain. Conclusion The present results suggest that arthroscopy can be used to diagnose the cause of residual pain after an ankle sprain in most cases that are otherwise undiagnosable by clinical examination and imaging study.