Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Routine hospital use of a new commercial whole blood interferon-gamma assay for the diagnosis of tuberculosis infection.

RATIONALE Interferon (IFN)-gamma blood tests may improve the current level of diagnostic accuracy for tuberculosis infection. The QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT-Gold) has been used in selected populations and shows higher specificity than the tuberculin skin test (TST). OBJECTIVE To evaluate the QFT-Gold test in unselected patients and assess the level of agreement with the TST. METHODS The test has been routinely performed on whole blood samples in our microbiology laboratory for 8 months. Demographic, clinical, and microbiological data have been collected and correlated to the QFT-Gold results. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Of 318 patients tested, 68 (21.4%) gave an indeterminate (low positive mitogen control) QFT-Gold result. Indeterminate results were significantly overrepresented in patients with a negative TST (28.9% vs. 6.6% in TST-positive patients; p < 0.0001, chi2 test) and were more frequent in patients receiving immunosuppressive therapies than in those who were not receiving such treatments (odds ratio, 3.35; 95% confidence interval, 1.84-6.08; p < 0.0001). After excluding indeterminate results, the concordance between QFT-Gold and TST was significantly lower in Bacille Calmette-Guérin-vaccinated individuals (41.5%) than in nonvaccinated individuals (80.3%) (p < 0.0001). In 11 patients with active tuberculosis (5 culture-confirmed), QFT-Gold provided more positive results than the TST (66.7% vs. 33.3%; p = 0.165). CONCLUSIONS The QFT-Gold test is feasible in routine hospital use for the diagnosis of tuberculosis infection. As with the TST, immunosuppression may negatively affect the test's performance, with a significant rate of indeterminate results in the most vulnerable population.
Interrelating Dynamic Proximities by Bridging, Reducing and Producing Distances

Menzel M. -P. Interrelating dynamic proximities by bridging, reducing and producing distances, Regional Studies. The proximity concept explains the spatiality of relations and innovations with various dimensions of proximity. The paper adapts this framework to the processes of change. It integrates the interrelations between different dynamics into the nomenclature of proximity and distance. Three dynamics are proposed that both interfere with and enable interaction: learning, connecting and moving. These dynamics cause changes in cognitive, network and spatial proximity. Using these dynamics, two arguments are introduced as the basis for a concept of dynamic proximity: (1) proximity in one dimension enables interaction despite distance in other dimensions; and (2) reducing distance at the dyadic level produces distance as externality.
A Grid-based Cyber infrastructure for High Performance Chemical Dynamics Simulations

Chemical dynamics simulation is an effective means to study atomic level motions of molecules, collections of molecules, liquids, surfaces, interfaces of materials, and chemical reactions. To make chemical dynamics simulations globally accessible to a broad range of users, recently a cyber infrastructure was developed that provides an online portal to VENUS, a popular chemical dynamics simulation program package, to allow people to submit simulation jobs that will be executed on the web server machine. In this paper, we report new developments of the cyber infrastructure for the improvement of its quality of service by dispatching the submitted simulations jobs from the web server machine onto a cluster of workstations for execution, and by adding an animation tool, which is optimized for animating the simulation results. The separation of the server machine from the simulation-running machine improves the service quality by increasing the capacity to serve more requests simultaneously with even reduced web response time, and allows the execution of large scale, time-consuming simulation jobs on the powerful workstation cluster. With the addition of an animation tool, the cyber infrastructure automatically converts, upon the selection of the user, some simulation results into an animation file that can be viewed on usual web browsers without requiring installation of any special software on the user computer. Since animation is essential for understanding the results of chemical dynamics simulations, this animation capacity provides a better way for understanding simulation details of the chemical dynamics. By combining computing resources at locations under different administrative controls, this cyber infrastructure constitutes a grid environment providing physically and administratively distributed functionalities through a single easy-to-use online portal
Laser burn intensity and the risk for choroidal neovascularization in the CNVPT Fellow Eye Study.

OBJECTIVE To explore the relationship between laser burn intensity and the subsequent risk for development of choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in eyes assigned to the treatment group of the Fellow Eye Study (FES) of the Choroidal Neovascularization Prevention Trial (CNVPT), using computerized methods for laser burn quantitation, and to examine the association between laser burn intensity and (1) drusen reduction and (2) visual acuity. METHODS Color fundus images before and immediately after laser treatment in the CNVPT FES were available for 53 of 59 eyes. Prelaser and postlaser treatment images were analyzed using custom-developed computer software, allowing for laser burn identification and quantitation. As measures of laser burn intensity, we derived integrated burn rating (IBR) (the integral of the normalized intensity difference divided by the burn pixels), and the maximum burn intensity (MAX). We identified CNV using fluorescein angiography. A Cox proportional hazards model was fit to the time to development of CNV. Baseline and 6-month color photographs were used to determine reduction in drusen. Visual acuity was measured using a standardized protocol. RESULTS The IBR and MAX spanned 4.5 logarithm units. After adjusting for smoking history and predominant drusen size, the risk ratio for CNV per logarithm unit of increasing laser burn intensity for each measure was 2.0 (P =.05) for MAX and 1.7 (P =.07) for IBR. When patients were divided into high- and low-intensity treatment groups of equal size, the high-intensity group had more drusen reduction (57% vs 32%; P =.14). There was no effect of laser intensity on change in visual acuity at 6 months. CONCLUSION Higher-intensity prophylactic laser applications appear to be associated with a greater risk for development of CNV and with more extensive drusen reduction.
Worker resistance and response to the crisis of neo-liberal capitalism.

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to introduce the special issue on “Collective worker responses to redundancy and restructuring”. Design/methodology/approach – The editorial provides an overview and introduces the papers which make up the special issue.Findings – The six papers facilitate a deeper understanding of the issues and dynamics involved in worker resistance and response to the crisis of neo‐liberal capitalism.Originality/value – The paper highlights how the papers in the special issue add new insights into the topics at hand.
Width-modulated tapered air-slot based photonic crystal nanocavity

A width-modulated air-slot photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity is designed and analyzed. A tapered air-slot, instead of a regularly arranged rectangular slot, is used at the center of a W1 PhC waveguide. This is to reduce the vertical radiation loss which occurs at the abrupt termination of a rectangular slot, and also to increase the inline coupling from a waveguide to the cavity. A three dimensional finite difference time domain method is used to calculate the resonant wavelength, quality factor and modal volume of the cavity which are found as 1.559 μm, 3.4×106 and 0.154 μm3 respectively.
Adaptation gap hypothesis : How differences between users ’ expected and perceived agent functions affect their subjective impression

We describe an “adaptation gap” that indicates the differences between the functions of artificial agents that users expect before starting their interactions and the functions they perceive after their interactions. We investigated the effect of this adaptation gap on users’ impressions of artificial agents because any variations in impression before and after the start of an interaction determines whether the user feels that this agent is worth interacting with. The results showed that positive or negative signs of the adaptation gap and subjective impression scores of agents before the experiment significantly affected the users’ final impressions of the agents.
Rethinking inflammation: neural circuits in the regulation of immunity

Summary: Neural reflex circuits regulate cytokine release to prevent potentially damaging inflammation and maintain homeostasis. In the inflammatory reflex, sensory input elicited by infection or injury travels through the afferent vagus nerve to integrative regions in the brainstem, and efferent nerves carry outbound signals that terminate in the spleen and other tissues. Neurotransmitters from peripheral autonomic nerves subsequently promote acetylcholine‐release from a subset of CD4+ T cells that relay the neural signal to other immune cells, e.g. through activation of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors on macrophages. Here, we review recent progress in the understanding of the inflammatory reflex and discuss potential therapeutic implications of current findings in this evolving field.
Oral and general health-related quality of life with conventional and implant dentures.

UNLABELLED Implant overdentures and conventional prostheses have been compared in several trials using a variety of functional and oral health-related quality of life (OHQOL) outcomes. In this paper, we describe the impact of implant overdentures on general and OHQOL in seniors. OBJECTIVES To compare the oral health-related and general quality of life of seniors (aged 65-75 years) who received either mandibular implant overdentures or conventional dentures. METHODS Sixty edentulous patients were recruited. Thirty received mandibular overdentures retained by two implants (IOD) and a conventional maxillary denture, the other 30 subjects received new maxillary and mandibular conventional complete dentures (CD). All completed the 20-item version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-20) before treatment, then at two and 6 months after delivery of the dentures. The SF-36 general health questionnaire was completed at baseline and 6 months only. RESULTS Pretreatment and 6-month data from 55 subjects were analyzed. Those who received the IODs had significantly better OHIP-20 total scores at 6 months. Results for IOD subjects were also superior in the functional limitation, physical pain, physical disability and psychological disability subscales. While no significant between group difference was found on the SF-36 health survey, significant pre-post-treatment differences within the IOD group were detected for the role emotional, vitality and the social function scales. CONCLUSIONS Mandibular overdentures retained by two implants provide elderly patients with better OHQOL. General health-related quality of life improved in the implant group.
Object oriented approach to consistent implementation of Meshless and classical FEM

Numerical experiments show that the full potential of the Finite Element Method (FEM) can be exploited by combination of classical with meshless FEM. A class structure for flexible consistent implementation of both methods is presented. Fully automatized 3D mesh-generation still constitutes a serious problem in software development concerning FEM. In the recent years various methods of meshless FEM have been developed as an alternative to overcome this problem. In this work meshless and classical FEM have been implemented. A further objective of this work is to implement different classical and meshless methods together with an appropriate mesh/point-set generation method. An appropriate class structure for realizing this in a consistent manner with classical FEM is developed and implemented in C++. The performance of the discussed methods was tested with problems relevant in electrical and civil engineering i.e. static electrical field calculations (Poison equation) and elasticity problems. 1. MESHLESS METHODS ARE NOT COMPLETELY „MESHLESS“ Some of the mesh objects necessary in classical FEM are also necessary for the implementation of meshless methods: (1) In both, meshless and classical FEM the solution has to be represented on a point-set (nodes). (2) The functionals containing the shape-functions and their partial derivatives (e.g. the bilinear form) have to be integrated over the entire domain. One way to do this is to use Gaussian Integration. For this purpose the domain has to be divided into elements. An alternative would be to use the so-called nodal integration as described in [3]. This is an integration method which only uses the nodes for integration not requiring additional Gauss-Points. In this case more recent papers [7,8] have pointed out the necessity to use Voronoi cells in order to accurately determine weight factors for nodal integration. The necessity of Voronoi cells implies the existence of appropriate neighborhood information. If this neighborhood information is interpreted as an explicit connection between the respective nodes in form of an edge we again end up with a regular mesh – in this case the Delauny triangulation. Independent from the numerical Method the concept of an „Element” or “Cell“ as a set of nodes was maintained throughout this work for data management purposes. 2. MESHLESS METHODS IMPLEMENTED Definitions and Notation In this paper vectors will be indicated by one and matrices by two underlines, e.g. u denotes a vector and A denotes a matrix. The following index-definitions will be used I=1.n number of node j=1.m number of polynomial coefficient used Approach to Solve Partial Differential Equations In this work electrical field problems and elasticity problems have been treated. For a better understanding the governing equations will be presented using the Poison Equation in two dimensions as an example. This equation reads in its strong form:
The Meaning of Life (Events) Predicts Changes in Attachment Security

Building on prior research, which has failed to find consistent effects of life events on change in self-reported adult attachment security over time, the present study tested the hypothesis that it is the meaning people assign to events, rather than the objective features of events, that is associated with changing levels of security. Participants engaged in an 8-week daily diary study, during which they completed daily self-report measures of attachment security, negative life events, perceptions of loss associated with events, and mood. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that perceptions of greater interpersonal (but not achievement) loss associated with life events were significantly associated with greater insecurity on a day-to-day basis, even controlling for objective features of events and for mood. Trait levels of security did not moderate this association. Results are discussed with regard to social-cognitive models of attachment security and the utility of understanding the meaning of life events to under-stand how attachment models may be confirmed or disconfirmed.
Accumulation of Bisphenol A in Hemodialysis Patients

Bisphenol A [BPA, 2,2-bis(4-hydoxyphenyl)propane], an industrial chemical used in the production of polycarbonate, epoxide resin, and polyarylate, is considered to be an endocrine-disrupting chemical. BPA may be present in some hollow-fiber dialyzers used in hemodialysis. In this study, we tested the amounts of BPA eluted from various hollow fibers. Furthermore, we measured the BPA concentration in the sera of 22 renal disease predialysis patients, as well as 15 patients who were receiving hemodialysis, to see if there is BPA accumulation in these patients. The elution test of BPA showed that a much larger amount of BPA was eluted from polysulfone (PS), and polyester-polymeralloy hollow fibers. Among renal disease patients who had not undergone hemodialysis, the serum BPA concentration increased as the renal function deteriorated, showing a significant negative association. In a crossover test between PS and cellulose (Ce) dialyzers, the predialysis serum BPA concentration of PS dialyzer users decreased after changing to a Ce dialyzer, and the serum BPA increased again after switching back to PS dialyzers. In patients who were using PS dialyzers, the BPA level significantly increased after a dialysis session. However, in the Ce dialyzer users, the BPA level decreased. Since accumulation of BPA could affect the endocrine or metabolic system of the human body, it is important to perform further investigations on dialysis patients.
Analysis of geostationary satellite-derived cloud parameters associated with environments with high ice water content

We present an evaluation of the ability of passive broadband geostationary satellite measurements to detect high ice water content (IWC > 1 g m−3) as part of the European High Altitude Ice Crystals (HAIC) project for detection of upper-atmospheric high IWC, which can be a hazard for aviation. We developed a high IWC mask based on measurements of cloud properties using the Cloud Physical Properties (CPP) algorithm applied to the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI). Evaluation of the high IWC mask with satellite measurements of active remote sensors of cloud properties (CLOUDSAT/CALIPSO combined in the DARDAR (raDAR–liDAR) product) reveals that the high IWC mask is capable of detecting high IWC values > 1 g m−3 in the DARDAR profiles with a probability of detection of 60–80 %. The best CPP predictors of high IWC were the condensed water path, cloud optical thickness, cloud phase, and cloud top height. The evaluation of the high IWC mask against DARDAR provided indications that the MSG-CPP high IWC mask is more sensitive to cloud ice or cloud water in the upper part of the cloud, which is relevant for aviation purposes. Biases in the CPP results were also identified, in particular a solar zenith angle (SZA) dependence that reduces the performance of the high IWC mask for SZAs > 60. Verification statistics show that for the detection of high IWC a trade-off has to be made between better detection of high IWC scenes and more false detections, i.e., scenes identified by the high IWC mask that do not contain IWC > 1 g m−3. However, the large majority of these detections still contain IWC values between 0.1 and 1 g m−3. Comparison of the high IWC mask against results from the Rapidly Developing Thunderstorm (RDT) algorithm applied to the same geostationary SEVIRI data showed that there are similarities and differences with the high IWC mask: the RDT algorithm is very capable of detecting young/new convective cells and areas, whereas the high IWC mask appears to be better capable of detecting more mature and ageing convection as well as cirrus remnants. The lack of detailed understanding of what causes aviation hazards related to high IWC, as well as the lack of clearly defined user requirements, hampers further tuning of the high IWC mask. Future evaluation of the high IWC mask against field campaign data, as well as obtaining user feedback and user requirements from the aviation industry, should provide more information on the performance of the MSG-CPP high IWC mask and contribute to improving the practical use of the high IWC mask.
International adjustment of female vs male business expatriates

Abstract Despite a host of supportive anecdotal evidence and an increasing demand for business expatriates, women are a relatively untapped source for expatriate assignments. To compare their international adjustment, Western female and male business expatriates responded to a mail survey in Hong Kong. Controlling for differences in background variables between the two gender groups, there was no gender difference in terms of general adjustment, but there were indications that female expatriates had higher interaction and work adjustment than their male counterparts. On the other hand, the men may have experienced a higher degree of psychological adjustment than the women. Implications of these findings for globalizing firms, as well as for their female employees, are discussed in detail.
Sleep pattern in medical students and residents.

BACKGROUND Sleep disturbances is a distressing and disabling condition that affects many people, and can affect on quality of work and education of medical students and residents. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of sleep disorders in medical students and residents. METHODS A representative sample of medical students and residents of Iran University of medical students in Teharn, Iran, were assessed by a self-administered questionnaire. This study covers 400 medical students from the first to seventh year and residents from the first to the last year between December 2007 and February 2008. The questionnaire includes questions on demographic characteristics (6 questions), sleep/wake habits (6 questions), insomnia-related symptoms (4 questions), symptoms of parasomnia (6 questions), cognitive and psychomotor behaviors (6 questions), lifestyle (4 questions), self-perception of sleep satisfaction, and use of sleeping pills (2 questions). RESULTS The sample included 135 (33.8%) pre-internship students, 150 (37.5%) interns, and 115 (28.7%) medical residents. Sleep satisfaction was reported as "perfect" in only 14%. 44% and 30% reported "good" and "fair" satisfaction. The use of sleeping pills in the previous 30 days was reported by only 3.3% of respondents. One hundred and three (25.7%) participants reported working while studying (sometimes to full-time). Between 43% and 48% of participants had gone to bed later than usual one to three times a week. About 14% of subjects reported snoring. The mean+/-SD of insomnia and parasomnia scales were 7.0+/-2.3 and 6.8+/-1.2, respectively. The mean of insomnia were more among females, subjects with noise in their living place, and students who worked full-time while studying, and was less in person who did exercise (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Sleep disturbances are an important issue among medical students and residents and associated with age, gender, living conditions, doing exercise, and workload.
Brain Drain and Ldcs' Growth: Winners and Losers

We present an empirical evaluation of the growth effects of the brain drain for the source countries of migrants. Using recent US data on migration rates by education levels (Carrington and Detragiache, 1998), we find empirical support for the “beneficial brain drain hypothesis” in a sample of 50 developing countries. At the country-level, we distinguish between winners and losers among source countries. While the number of winners is smaller, these include nearly 80% of the total population of developing countries.