Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Resilient Adaptation to Climate Change in African Agriculture

Africa’s agriculture faces varying climate change impacts which mainly worsen production conditions and adversely affect its economies. Adaptations thus need to build the resilience of farming systems. Using “resilient adaptation” as a concept, this study analyses how adaptations at farm and policy/institutional-levels contribute to the resilience of Sub-Saharan African agriculture. The developed tool, “the Resilience Check”, provides socio-economic data which complements existing adaptation tools. The underlying development gaps such as insecure property rights, poverty, low self-organisation, inadequate climate data and infrastructure limit resilient adaptations. If farmers could implement recommended practices, existing measures and improved crops can address most impacts expected in the medium-term. However, resource use efficiency remains critical for all farm management types. Development-oriented adaptation measures are needed to provide the robust foundations for building resilience. Reaching the very poor remains a challenge and the externally driven nature of many interventions raises concern about their sustainability. The study recommends practical measures such as decentralising various services and integrating the action plans of the multilateral environmental agreements into one national action plan.
Remote monitoring of vital functions - proof-of-concept system

Modern information communication technologies (ICT) acting as a support to the medical activities is one of the possibilities to increase the efficacy of the health care system and to decrease its costs. We developed a proof-of-concept system, which uses modern, moderately-priced and user-friendly technology solutions, e.g. wireless body sensors for data acquisition, advanced algorithms for local analysis of data, widely available personal terminals for visualization of measurements, and the existing communication infrastructure for data transfer, either to medical experts or to a personal database. We pay a special attention to the fusion of different body sensors in order to keep their number at minimum. On the other hand, we want to improve reliability of the system with the introduction of a simple video sensor in order to prevent the rising of false alarms. We show that such a system can achieve a reliability needed for commercial implementation in applications offering services that can contribute significantly to an improved quality and efficiency of the medical care.
Intelligent Optimal Energy Management System for Hybrid Power Sources Including Fuel Cell and Battery

In this study, an intelligent optimal energy management system is designed for hybrid power sources including a fuel cell (FC) system and a battery module. In the proposed intelligent optimal energy management system, a simple fan temperature control is introduced to reduce the possible energy waste during the startup of the FC system. Moreover, a fuzzy hydrogen control is designed to manipulate the FC system stably and generate the same unit power with less hydrogen. In addition, a stable adaptive current-voltage fast-charging control is investigated to improve the charge speed in conventional constant current/constant voltage (CC/CV) scheme with proportional-integral control. The objectives of fast charging, energy saving, power source protection, and system stability assurance can be simultaneously achieved. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed intelligent optimal energy management system is verified by experimental results. Its merits are indicated by comparing a conventional management system without the fan temperature control and with a fixed hydrogen pressure and a CC/CV charging framework.
Opiate withdrawal syndrome in buprenorphine abusers admitted to a rehabilitation center in Tunisia.

BACKGROUND Illicit use of high dosage buprenorphine has been well documented in several countries, including Tunisia. OBJECTIVES The aim of this survey is to assess the buprenorphine withdrawal syndrome time course, and how it may be affected by the population characteristics among subjects admitted to a rehabilitation center in Tunisia. METHODS A prospective research has permitted study of the socio-demographic characteristics and assessment of buprenorphine withdrawal syndrome among 32 subjects admitted for buprenorphine dependence by using the clinical opiate withdrawal scale. An ANOVA was conducted to examine the effect of different factors on the withdrawal scores. RESULTS 32 subjects were included. Among them 30 were males, 27 had been injecting buprenorphine, 16 were poly-drug abusers and 2 had a history of mental disorders. Buprenorphine withdrawal syndrome was of a mild intensity and had a delayed onset. Withdrawal mean scores varied between 0 and 9, and maximum values were reached at day 21. These scores varied significantly over time (p<0,001). The sex v time interaction and the mode of consumption of buprenorphine had significant effects on the withdrawal scores (p<0,001). The poly-drug consumption and the history of mental disorders did not have any significant effect on the withdrawal scores. CONCLUSION This study has permitted description of buprenorphine withdrawal syndrome among patients going through a detoxification treatment at a rehabilitation center. Understanding this syndrome would help elaborate effective and suitable buprenorphine dependence management plans.
Working Group Report on Communications

The objective of this workshop was to focus on options for the next 20 to 30 years as they relate to probable developments in space communications technology over that time period. The panel tried, not completely successfully, to avoid excessive concentration on issues which seemed to derive from the transitory political environment, e.g. , the current controversy over allocation of scarce orbital-frequency slots. This left the members free to take up some of the more crucial issues that will confront communications planners between now and the year 2000. The issues discussed inchded:
Investigational peptide and peptidomimetic μ and δ opioid receptor agonists in the relief of pain

Introduction: Current methods for treating prolonged and neuropathic pain are inadequate and lead to toxicities that greatly diminish quality of life. Therefore, new approaches to the treatment of pain states are needed to address these problems. Areas covered: The review primarily reviews approaches that have been taken in the peer-reviewed literature of multivalent ligands that interact with both μ and δ opioid receptors as agonists, and in some cases, also with pharmacophores for antagonist ligands that interact with other receptors as antagonists to block pain. Expert opinion: Although there are a number of drugs currently on the market for the treatment of pain; none of them are 100% successful. In the authors' opinion, it is clear that new directions and modalities are needed to better address the treatment of prolonged and neuropathic pain; one drug or class clearly is not the answer for all pain therapy. Undoubtedly, there are many different phenotypes of prolonged and neuropathic pain and this should be one avenue to further develop appropriate therapies.
Analysis and Evaluation of Household Pick-up and Gathering Behavior in No-Notice Evacuations

No-notice incidents occur with no advance notice of time and place. Family members may be separated when a no-notice incident strikes during the daytime. They may seek to gather the household members first and evacuate as a unit, and parents may head in the “wrong” direction to pick up their children from schools/daycare centers. Many previous studies have acknowledged that such behavior exists but few, if any, have examined it in-depth. Additionally, this behavior has rarely been integrated with transportation simulation models of evacuation conditions. As shown through this work, such omissions generate overly optimistic network performance. Acknowledging the behavior also leads to potential network improvements by moving dependents (people being picked up by other household members) to more accessible locations. This study investigated no-notice evacuation household gathering behavior based on 315 interviews conducted in the Chicago metropolitan area, in which interviewees were asked about their evacuation and logistic decisions. The study analyzed household pick-up and gathering behavior from the interviews, developed models to represent the behavior, and integrated the household behavior models with network simulation modeling to examine the effects of household behaviors on network evacuation performance. Logistic regression models were built to predict the probability that parents retrieve children from school in normal and emergency situations. Gender, car availability, and travel distance (between parents and children) were the main influencing factors to determining child-chauffeuring travel behavior, where gender difference appeared to be most prominent. Women are more responsible for picking up children from school than men, and both women and men are more likely to pick up children under emergency conditions compared to a normal situation.
Tumor and Stem Cell Biology MetastasisSuppressorKISS 1 Seems toReverse theWarburg Effect by Enhancing Mitochondrial Biogenesis

Cancer cells tend to utilize aerobic glycolysis even under normoxic conditions, commonly called the "Warburg effect. " Aerobic glycolysis often directly correlates with malignancy, but its purpose, if any, in metastasis remains unclear. When wild-type KISS1 metastasis suppressor is expressed, aerobic glycolysis decreases and oxidative phosphorylation predominates. However, when KISS1 is missing the secretion signal peptide (DSS), invasion and metastasis are no longer suppressed and cells continue to metabolize using aerobic glycolysis. KISS1-expressing cells have 30% to 50% more mitochondrial mass than DSS-expressing cells, which are accompanied by correspondingly increased mitochondrial gene expression and higher expression of PGC1a, a master coactivator that regulates mitochondrial mass and metabolism. PGC1a-mediated downstream pathways (i.e., fatty acid synthesis and b-oxidation) are differentially regulated by KISS1, apparently reliant upon direct KISS1 interaction with NRF1, amajor transcription factor involved inmitochondrial biogenesis. Since the downstream effects could be reversed using short hairpin RNA to KISS1 or PGC1a, these data appear to directly connect changes in mitochondria mass, cellular glucose metabolism, and metastasis. Cancer Res; 74(3); 1–10. 2013 AACR.
Lipid metabolism and occurrence of post‐percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty restenosis: role of cholesteryl ester transfer protein and paraoxonase/arylesterase

Summary. Plasma lipid metabolic and transfer processes have recently been suggested to play an important role in the development of early restenosis, a major complication of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA); in particular, the common variants of genes for cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) and paraoxonase (PONA) have been implicated. We had the opportunity to investigate this question in a large, prospective cohort characterized by quantitative coronary angiography in all subjects. The CETP‐TaqIB (intron 1), CETP‐MspI (intron 8), and PONA‐AlwI (exon 2) polymorphisms were characterized in a cohort of 779 patients of whom 342 (‘cases’) had developed restenosis (as defined by > 50% loss of lumen compared with immediate postprocedure results) at repeat angiography at 6 months post PTCA. Selected frequencies for CETP B1 and B2 alleles (absence/presence of TaqIB site) were 0.65 and 0.35 (cases) and 0.65 and 0.35 (controls), respectively; frequencies for CETP M1 and M2 alleles (absence/presence of MspI site) were 0.20 and 0.80 (cases), 0.21 and 0.79 (controls), respectively; frequencies for PONA A and B alleles (absence/presence of AlwI site) were 0.73 and 0.27 (cases), 0.72 and 0.28 (controls), respectively. All observed genotype frequencies were in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. There was no evidence for gene–gene interaction, or an association between genotype and restenosis or degree of lumen loss (adjusted for covariates). Our data, collected in the largest study of its kind so far, indicate that the common variants for CETP and PONA are not associated with incidence of restenosis after PTCA, and are therefore not useful markers for risk assessment.
Effects of recombinant interleukin 4 on the growth and differentiation of blast progenitors stimulated with G‐CSF, GM‐CSF and IL‐3 from acute myeloblastic leukaemia patients

Summary The effects of human recombinant interleukin 4 (rIL‐4) on the growth of leukaemic blast progenitors were investigated. Cells obtained from 20 acute myeloblastic leukaemia (AML) patients were evaluated using the blast colony assay in methylcellulose and suspension cultures. While rIL‐4 by itself did not show any colony stimulatory activity in the blast colony assay, it suppressed the blast colony formation in methylcellulose stimulated with G‐CSF, GM‐CSF or IL‐3 in 14 patients. In another six patients, rIL‐4 enhanced blast colony growth in four patients or did not show any significant effect with any CSF in two patients. In suspension cultures of 12 cases studied, the effects of rIL‐4 on the clonogenic cell recoveries were essentially similar to the results of the blast colony assay in each case. In three patients, rIL‐4 augmented the differentiation of the leukaemic cells to monocyte lineage. Further, the clinical outcome was significantly different between the patients whose blast progenitors were stimulated by rIL‐4 and the patients whose blast progenitors were suppressed by rIL‐4 (P<0.05): three out of four patients in the former group failed in achieving complete remission (CR), while 12 out of 14 patients in the latter group achieved CR. The results show that the effects of IL‐4 on leukaemic blast progenitors were diverse and the responsiveness to IL‐4 may be correlated with the prognoses of the patients.
Economic Evaluation of Bevacizumab for the First-Line Treatment of Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme.

PURPOSE The Avastin in Glioblastoma trial has shown that patients newly diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) treated with bevacizumab plus radiotherapy and temozolomide versus radiotherapy and temozolomide alone showed improvement in progression-free survival, possibly leading to a new indication for first-line use of bevacizumab in GBM. The cost-utility of this new intervention remains unknown; therefore, we developed a Markov model estimating the incremental cost-utility ratio (ICUR) from a Canadian public payer perspective. METHODS We incorporated trial data for state transitions and treatment effects from the Avastin in Glioblastoma trial, costs and resource use data from Canadian published studies and databases, and utility parameters from published literature. We addressed uncertainty through one-way deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses, extended the model to lifetime horizon and by another arm to compare first-line versus second-line use of bevacizumab on progression, performed value of information analysis, and performed US costing sensitivity analysis. RESULTS Adding bevacizumab to radiotherapy and temozolomide resulted in increases of 0.13 quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and $80,000 per patient over 2-year time horizon at the base case analysis. The ICUR was $607,966/QALY (95% CI, $305,000/QALY to $2,550,000/QALY), with 0% chance of being cost effective at the $100,000/QALY willingness-to-pay threshold and never going below $450,000/QALY in the one-way sensitivity analysis. The ICUR using the US costing data was $787,519/QALY. The lifetime ICUR was $439,764/QALY (95% CI, $235,000/QALY to $1,520,000/QALY), never going below $350,000/QALY in the sensitivity analysis. Second-line use of bevacizumab on progression is more effective and less expensive than its first-line use. Value of information analysis revealed that future research is unwarranted. CONCLUSION Bevacizumab has only limited effectiveness and is therefore not likely to be cost effective in treating adult patients with newly diagnosed GBM.
Prospective associations between dietary patterns and body composition changes in European children: the IDEFICS study

Abstract Objective To describe dietary patterns by applying cluster analysis and to describe the cluster memberships of European children over time and their association with body composition changes. Design The analyses included k-means clustering based on the similarities between the relative frequencies of consumption of forty-three food items and regression models were fitted to assess the association between dietary patterns and body composition changes. Setting Primary schools and pre-schools of selected regions in Italy, Estonia, Cyprus, Belgium, Sweden, Hungary, Germany and Spain. Subjects Participants (n 8341) in the baseline (2–9 years old) and follow-up (4–11 years old) surveys of the IDEFICS (Identification and prevention of Dietary- and lifestyle-induced health EFfects In Children and infantS) study. Results Three persistent clusters were obtained at baseline and follow-up. Children consistently allocated to the ‘processed’ cluster presented increased BMI (β=0·050; 95 % CI 0·006, 0·093), increased waist circumference (β=0·071; 95 % CI 0·001, 0·141) and increased fat mass gain (β=0·052; 95 % CI 0·014, 0·090) over time v. children allocated to the ‘healthy’ cluster. Being in the ‘processed’–‘sweet’ cluster combination was also linked to increased BMI (β=0·079; 95 % CI 0·015, 0·143), increased waist circumference (β=0·172; 95 % CI 0·069, 0·275) and increased fat mass gain (β=0·076; 95 % CI 0·019, 0·133) over time v. the ‘healthy’ cluster. Conclusions Children consistently showing a processed dietary pattern or changing from a processed pattern to a sweet pattern presented the most unfavourable changes in fat mass and abdominal fat. These findings support the need to promote overall healthy dietary habits in obesity prevention and health promotion programmes targeting children.
A Matrix Pseudo-Inversion Lemma and Its Application to Block-Based Adaptive Blind Deconvolution for MIMO Systems

The matrix inversion lemma gives an explicit formula of the inverse of a positive-definite matrix A added to a block of dyads (represented as BBH) as follows: (A + BB<sup>H</sup>)<sup>-1</sup> = A<sup>-1</sup> - A<sup>-1</sup> B(I + B<sup>H</sup> A<sup>-1</sup> B) <sup>-1</sup> B<sup>H</sup> A<sup>-1</sup>. It is well-known in the literature that this formula is very useful to develop a block-based recursive least-squares algorithm for the block-based recursive identification of linear systems or the design of adaptive filters. We extend this result to the case when the matrix A is singular, and present a matrix pseudo-inversion lemma. Based on this result, we propose a block-based adaptive multi-channel super-exponential algorithm (BAMSEA). We present simulation results for the performance of the block-based algorithm in order to show the usefulness of the matrix pseudo-inversion lemma.
Nucleated erythrocytes and intraventricular hemorrhage in preterm neonates.

OBJECTIVES Increased circulating nucleated erythrocytes (NRBCs) in the newborn period can be markers of chronic fetal hypoxia, which in turn may be a risk factor for intracranial hemorrhage (IVH). To evaluate the relation between chronic intrauterine hypoxia and IVH, we compared the courses of the absolute NRBC (ANRBC) count in preterm newborns with and without intracranial hemorrhage. METHODS We measured ANRBC counts in the first 6 days of life in appropriate for gestational age newborns at 32 weeks' gestation or earlier with (n = 46) and without (n = 103) IVH, who were not at risk for altered erythropoiesis. RESULTS The ANRBC counts at birth were higher in infants who developed severe IVH than in control infants without IVH (P < .03). The ANRBC counts peaked on day 2 or 3 in newborns with IVH, but declined continuously from a peak on day 1 in the control group. Stepwise regression analysis of multiple variables revealed that the grade of IVH had the greatest impact on ANRBC counts. An ANRBC count of at least 2.0 x 10(9)/L on day 1 of life had a sensitivity of 63% and a specificity of 79% in predicting grade III or IV IVH: CONCLUSION An elevated or increasing ANRBC count in a preterm newborn is a potential marker for an impending or present severe IVH, respectively, and may reflect a state of altered prenatal or postnatal erythropoiesis.
Loss of DNA mismatch repair function and cancer predisposition in the mouse: Animal models for human hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer

Germline mutations in DNA mismatch repair genes underlie one of the most common hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes known in humans, hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC). Defects of the DNA mismatch repair system are also prevalent in sporadic colorectal cancers. The generation of mice with targeted inactivating mutations in the mismatch repair genes has facilitated the in vivo study of how these genes function and how their individual loss contributes to tumorigenesis. Although there are notable limitations when using murine models to study the molecular basis of human cancer, there is remarkable similarity between the two species with respect to the contribution of individual members of the mismatch repair system to cancer susceptibility, and mouse mutants have greatly enhanced our understanding of the normal role of these genes in mutation avoidance and suppression of tumorigenesis. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Does religious belief enable positive interpretation of auditory hallucinations? A comparison of religious voice hearers with and without psychosis

Introduction. Hearing voices occurs in people without psychosis. Why hearing voices is such a key pathological feature of psychosis whilst remaining a manageable experience in nonpsychotic people is yet to be understood. We hypothesised that religious voice hearers would interpret voices in accordance with their beliefs and therefore experience less distress. Methods. Three voice hearing groups, which comprised: 20 mentally healthy Christians, 15 Christian patients with psychosis, and 14 nonreligious patients with psychosis. All completed (1) questionnaires with rating scales measuring the perceptual and emotional aspects of hallucinated voices, and (2) a semistructured interview to explore whether religious belief is used to make sense of the voice hearing experience. Results. The three groups had perceptually similar experiences when hearing the voices. Mentally healthy Christians appeared to assimilate the experience with their religious beliefs (schematic processing) resulting in positive interpretations. Christian patients tended not to assimilate the experience with their religious beliefs, frequently reporting nonreligious interpretations that were predominantly negative. Nearly all participants experienced voices as powerful, but mentally healthy Christians reported the power of voices positively. Conclusion. Religious belief appeared to have a profound, beneficial influence on the mentally healthy Christians’ interpretation of hearing voices, but had little or no influence in the case of Christian patients.