Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of Tuberculosis Infection Among Health-Care Workers in Hamadan, West of Iran

Background: The risk of occupationally acquired tuberculosis (TB) remains a concern, even now that the infection has been under control to a great extent. Objectives: The aim of this study was to ascertain the prevalence of latent TB infection and pulmonary TB, and to assess the risk factors for TB, among health care workers in Hamadan. Patients and Methods: Tuberculin skin test was performed on 245 health care workers, in two educational hospitals. The reaction was considered as "positive" if the induration diameter was ≥ 10 mm. Individuals with a positive test > than 15 mm were encouraged to seek further medical evaluation, including a chest-x-ray and a smear and sputum culture of the sputum for acid-fast bacilli, in those with radiographic changes indicating TB. Results: Out of 245 health-care workers included in this study, 92 (38%) had positive tuberculin test. There was a significant association between aging and tuberculin positivity. There was also a significant association between the length of employment and tuberculin positivity. Ward attendants had higher rates of positive test results, compared with other occupational groups. Conclusions: It was concluded that latent TB infection is common among health-care workers in the studied region. Age, occupational group and employment length were found to be strongly associated with tuberculin positivity.
Exploring the role of mu opioid receptor (OPRM1) and CYP2B6 gene variations for methadone pharmacogenomics : can these variations be used to advance toxicological interpretation post-mortem?

Methadone is increasingly involved in drug overdose cases and the molecular actions of the drug in vivo are largely unknown requiring elucidation. This study set out to examine the relationship between methadone toxicity and CYP2B6 and mu (μ) opioid receptor (OPRM1) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Using SNP genotyping, the association between OPRM1 A118G and CYP2B6 T750C, G516T, and A785G variations and post-mortem methadone concentrations were investigated. The allele frequencies of OPRM1 and CYP2B6 variants were then studied in a control population of live non-methadone using subjects, to determine the prevalence and distribution of specific variations in post-mortem and living subjects. Further in vitro study was conducted to assist in interpreting the association between OPRM1 and CYP2B6 variations and individual susceptibility to methadone. Cloning strategies were designed for the studies of promoter activities affected by the T750C promoter SNP on CYP2B6 expression, and the role of the OPRM1 A118G variation for receptor internalisation following methadone treatment was investigated. A significant association was identified between high post-mortem methadone concentrations and G561T and A785G (CYP2B6*6) variations reflecting poor methadone metabolism. Furthermore, the OPRM1 A118G SNP significantly correlated with higher post-mortem methadone concentrations and the in vitro analysis of A118G indicated that this could be due to a reduction in receptor internalisation in 118 AG subjects. The findings from the research contribute to pre-determining, in part, individual susceptibility to methadone accumulation and toxicity. Specific screening to identify CYP2B6*6 and OPRM1 A118G carriers prior to addiction treatment could therefore be valuable as part of a cost-effective risk management strategy. Furthermore, CYP2B6*6 and A118G could be used to interpret toxicology results identifying subjects with poor metabolism.
The effects of working memory and declarative memory on instructed second language vocabulary learning: Insights from intelligent CALL

The extent to which learners benefit from instruction may be largely dependent on their individual abilities. However, there is relatively little work on the interaction between instructional effectiveness in second language learning and learner individual factors. In this study, we investigated the relationship between instruction, individual differences in cognitive abilities (working memory and declarative memory), and second language vocabulary acquisition in the context of web-based intelligent computer assisted language learning (ICALL). To this end, 127 adult learners of English, predominantly advanced-level, German-speaking learners, read news texts on the web for about two weeks using an ICALL system under two instructional conditions: form-focused and meaning-focused instruction. Learners in the form-focused condition read and completed automatically-generated multiple-choice gaps where phrasal verbs appeared in the text, while learners in the meaning-focused condition simply read and did not complete any gaps. Mixed-effects regression analyses showed that working memory was associated with vocabulary acquisition and that this association depended on the instructional context, with working memory being predictive of learning only in the form-focused condition, suggesting an aptitude-treatment interaction. Furthermore, declarative memory abilities were related to learning only as measured by the Continuous Visual Memory Task, and the relationship was not moderated by instructional condition. Overall, the study contributes to accounting for variability in second language learning in general, as well as in instructional contexts supported by intelligent CALL.
Asymptotic power comparison of T2-type test and likelihood ratio test for a mean vector based on two-step monotone missing data

Abstract In a 2-step monotone missing dataset drawn from a multivariate normal population, T2-type test statistic (similar to Hotelling’s T2 test statistic) and likelihood ratio (LR) are often used for the test for a mean vector. In complete data, Hotelling’s T2 test and LR test are equivalent, however T2-type test and LR test are not equivalent in the 2-step monotone missing dataset. Then we interest which statistic is reasonable with relation to power. In this paper, we derive asymptotic power function of both statistics under a local alternative and obtain an explicit form for difference in asymptotic power function. Furthermore, under several parameter settings, we compare LR and T2-type test numerically by using difference in empirical power and in asymptotic power function. Summarizing obtained results, we recommend applying LR test for testing a mean vector.
A Method for Active Marine Target Detection Based on Complex Interferometric Dissimilarity in Dual-Channel ATI-SAR Systems

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) operating in an along-track interferometric (ATI) mode has the advantage of minimum detectable velocity (MDV) in active marine target detection. However, most of the conventional ATI detectors fail to identify the marine targets cruising with blind speeds, in which case the interferometric phases of these targets are closely distributed around those of the sea background due to phase wrapping and aliasing through ATI processing. To address this issue, we propose a method to detect the active marine targets based on complex interferometric dissimilarity for dual-channel ATI-SAR systems. First, an interferometric bilateral filter is designed to smooth the random noises and locally adapt to the spatial structure of the interferogram for measuring the interferometric magnitude and phase. Then, the target detection metric is constructed based on the complex interferometric dissimilarity between the marine targets and the sea background. By adaptively regressing into a magnitude-based test toward the blind-speed targets, the target detection metric can mitigate the blind-speed detection problem and thus yield a satisfactory detection result. Furthermore, this metric is of a constant false-alarm rate (CFAR), and its probability density function (pdf) is derived to facilitate the detection threshold computation. Finally, both the simulated and real-data processing results are given to validate the superiorities of the proposed method.
Uma análise da produção científica em Ciência da Computação na América Latina

Diferentes trabalhos tem sido realizados com a intencao de comparar a producao cientifica brasileira e de outros paises da America Latina na area de Ciencia da Computacao (CC) com a de paises da America do Norte, Europa e Asia. Mesmo assim, pouco ainda se sabe sobre a producao cientifica dos grupos de pesquisa dos paises latino-americanos na area. Nesta dissertacao, discutimos o perfil de producao cientifica dos grupos mais relevantes dos seguintes paises latino-americanos: Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguai, Peru, Uruguai e Venezuela. Para isso, coletamos dados dos pesquisadores de 48 grupos desses paises que participam de programas de Pos-graduacao em CC, em um periodo de 20 anos, de 1994 ate 2013. Os dados foram coletados da DBLP (Digital Bibliography & Library Project), a maior biblioteca digital da area de Ciencia da Computacao. Nosso trabalho inclui analises estatisticas da producao cientifica de cada pais, alem de analises das redes de colaboracao baseadas em metricas e propriedades de redes complexas. Nossos resultados mostram um crescimento estavel da producao cientifica na ultima decada na Argentina, Brasil, Chile e Mexico, e um crescimento expressivo em paises com pouca tradicao na area como Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica, Paraguai e Peru. Particularmente, mostramos que a colaboracao cientifica entre grupos de prestigio na regiao produziu um aumento na media geral da taxa de publicacao de cada grupo, alem de gerar publicacoes de melhor qualidade. Alem disso, comprovamos que as colaboracoes sao um mecanismo importante para o aumento da taxa de publicacoes. Mostramos ainda que existe uma correlacao entre as metricas centralidade de grau e centralidade de intermediacao com o total de publicacoes dos pesquisadores. Igualmente, comprovamos que as redes de colaboracao seguem a lei de potencia, onde ha evidencia de poucos pesquisadores com um grau maior dentro da estrutura da rede que atuam ao mesmo tempo como hubs na rede.
Health and Wellness of Commercial Drivers

This section of circular E-C117 reviews important health and wellness topics pertaining to commercial truck, bus and motorcoach drivers, with discussion focused on those factors that directly affect driving safety. Some driver health issues are addressed in less detail here because they are not so obviously connected to driving safety per se. The following eleven health-related matters considered by the authors to have a direct relationship to commercial driving safety are addressed: cardiovascular illness and heart disease; diabetes; epilepsy; obesity; vision considerations; hearing requirements; effects and interactions of prescribed and nonprescribed drugs; stress - physical and psychological; mental health - depression and adjustment disorders; sleep disorders; and driver fatigue as a function of long work schedules. Information is linked to federal regulations for commercial drivers, and practical safety management guidance is provided for some topics. Where applicable, gaps in current knowledge that call for more research are pointed out.
Computer-Aided Tuning of Butler Matrices

This article proposes a computer-aided tuning approach for Butler matrices (BMs). It is implemented in two stages. First, extract the amplitude imbalance of each individual coupler from the overall BM measurement results using the proposed diagnosis procedure. The extracted results led to the instructions for fine adjustments. After that, each coupler is adjusted using the proposed method. As a result, the nonideal effect of a BM can be tuned out to achieve significant performance improvement. An $8 \times 8$ BM was designed, fabricated, and tuned using the proposed approach. The final results show excellent amplitude imbalance performance, which is improved by more than 80% relative to the initial results. For the first time, a systematic tuning method is demonstrated to achieve excellent amplitude imbalance for a BM.
New approaches to modelling of local seismic amplification susceptibility using direct characteristics of influencing criteria: case study of Bam City, Iran

Abstract. This paper proposes a new model in evaluating local seismic amplification susceptibility by considering direct characteristics of influencing criteria and it deals with uncertainty of modelling through production of fuzzy membership functions for each criterion. For this purpose, relevant criteria were identified by reviewing previous literature. These criteria include alluvial thickness, stiffness and strength of alluvial deposits, type of soil and particle size distribution of alluvial deposits, depth of groundwater, type of rock, topographic irregularities, slope, and type of bedrock. Two methods, analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy logic (FL), were applied in order to define priority rank of each criterion and sub-criteria of each criterion through interview data of 10 experts. The criteria and sub-criteria were combined using the weighted linear combination method in GIS to develop a model for assessing local seismic amplification susceptibility in the study area of Bam City, Iran. The model's output demonstrated high to very high seismic amplification levels in central, eastern, northeastern, and northern parts of the study area. The validation results based on overall accuracy and kappa statistics showed 73.6 % accuracy, with 0.74 kappa indicating a good fit to the model's output. This model assists planners and decision makers in determining local seismic amplification susceptibility to be incorporated in designing new development plans of urban and rural areas and in making informed decisions regarding safety measures of existing buildings and infrastructures.
Detecção de mudanças e recuperação de forma em mapas 3D basedos em nuvens de pontos

O presente trabalho propoe um arcabouco para determinacao e segmentacao de mudancas em nuvens de pontos 3D de forma eficiente. Inicialmente, e efetuada uma simplificacao nesses pontos, gerando uma representacao em arvore que busca preservar as caracteristicas relevantes da nuvem por meio da estimacao da variacao da superficie. Alem disso, e utilizada uma combinacao de Modelos de Misturas Gaussianas (GMM) e da metrica de distância Earth Mover's Distance (EMD), por meio de uma tecnica gulosa. Ela permite detectar o que e mudanca em um dado local, a partir de leituras previas do sensor, e segmentar as mudancas detectadas.Para recuperacao de forma 3D sao propostos dois metodos. Primeiramente, um novo metodo para recuperacao de formas basicas e desenvolvido, no espaco das Gaussianas. Esse metodo e limitado a um conjunto de primitivas geometricas que incluem planos, esferas e cilindros. Esse metodo e comparado, ao longo do trabalho, com uma abordagem no espaco Euclidiano utilizando Random Sampling Consensus (RANSAC). Uma segunda abordagem utiliza superquadricas, visando dar uma maior expressividade a representacao de forma 3D. Este trabalho utiliza uma abordagem multi-escala com o paradigma split-and-merge, que busca ultrapassar minimos locais da segmentacao fornecida pela GMM, bem como dar maior eficiencia ao metodo como um todo.Resultados experimentais utilizando dados simulados e reais foram obtidos para avaliar a eficacia do metodo de simplificacao utilizado, assim como da abordagem de deteccao de mudanca. O metodo para recuperacao de formas basicas mostrou-se melhor que o metodo utilizando o espaco Euclidiano, em termos de custo computacional e exatidao, porem, apresenta algumas restricoes que sao contornadas pelo uso de superquadricas.
A Question of Design: The Investigation of Space and Structure in Hawaiian Kauhale

Author(s): Vacca, Kirsten Marquise Garwood | Advisor(s): Kirch, Patrick V | Abstract: Remnants of past communities dot the landscape in southeast Maui, preserving the memory of the people that once lived along the southern slopes of Haleakalā. The remaining agricultural field systems, foundations of houses (hale), and the materials within preserve fragments of daily life that speak to the construction of place and identity on this leeward landscape. This dissertation analyzes seven kauhale (house complexes) in Nu‘u, Kaupō, Maui ahupua‘a (political division of land) that were in use between the 16th and 18th centuries for the anthropological goal of discerning how the relationship between kānaka maoli (Native peoples) and the āina (land) shaped social practices in the community (defined as the ahupua‘a). The construction and use of kauhale were impacted by geographic location and social status (e.g. gender, class, and occupation). making house complexes an important entrypoint for exploring place-specific adaptations of larger social structures.
Caractérisation, analyse et modélisation du MOSFET de puissance en carbure de silicium

Le carbure de silicium (SiC) semble etre actuellement le candidat le plus viable des semi-conducteurs a large bande interdite pour remplacer le silicium (Si) dans un avenir proche. En raison de ses proprietes intrinseques, le SiC permet de developper des dispositifs a semi-conducteurs aux caracteristiques superieures offrant de grandes ameliorations de performances, et se traduisant egalement par des conceptions plus efficaces et compactes dans diverses applications de l'electronique de puissance. Les MOSFET de 1,2 kV SiC, de loin les composants les plus repandus de la famille pour equiper les sources de puissance, ont rapidement ete deployes pour remplacer les modules IGBT Si en raison de leur resistance a l'etat passant faible et de leurs excellentes performances de commutation dans toutes les plages de temperature. Cependant, encore a un stade precoce de developpement, les MOSFET SiC presentent leurs problemes techniques et economiques propres, lesquels problemes ont freine leur expansion en electronique de puissance. La caracterisation et la modelisation, en particulier l'etat de fonctionnement du MOSFET SiC, ont ete examinees dans le cadre de cette these afin de mettre en lumiere les specificites et les consequences qui en decoulent sur la conception des convertisseurs de puissance. C’est ainsi qu’une methodologie de caracterisation statique pour les MOSFET a haute tension a ete developpee. Les caracteristiques ont ete mesurees par methodes appropriees permettant a la temperature de la jonction de rester constante pendant la mesure. Les resultats experimentaux ont ete analyses et compares a ceux relatifs aux dispositifs conventionnels en Si. Ensuite, un nouveau modele compact du module MOSFET SiC a ete mis au point sur le logiciel Saber pour des simulations orientees circuit. Ce modele prend en compte les phenomenes physiques observes, notamment les effets des pieges d’interface, le comportement JFET intrinseque, le canal court et la temperature. En tant que version modifiee de Shichman Hodges, le modele utilise un nombre raisonnable de parametres d’ajustement, lesquels sont principalement extraits par identification des courbes de donnees experimentales a l’aide d’un logiciel d’optimisation, et pour les autres etant bases sur les donnees disponibles dans la fiche technique du composant etudie. Finalement, nous avons aborde la caracterisation electro-thermique des MOSFET de SiC. Pour remedier a la presence de pieges d'interface, des bancs de test dedies ont ete developpes pour la mesure de la temperature MOSFET au SiC sur la base du TSEP. Une simulation par elements finis 3D (FEM) est realisee pour etudier la distribution thermique a l'interieur du module. En comparant avec les experiences, le modele electro-thermique a ete valide avec une precision acceptable.
The Intersections of Health and Wealth: Socioeconomic Status, Frailty, and Mortality in Industrial England

vi List of Tables . xi List of Figures . xiii List of Symbols . xiv List of Abbreviations . xv Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1 Research Objectives and Hypotheses . 2 1.2 Studies of SES and Health . 4 1.3 Industrialization in England . 14 1.4 Intersectional Approaches . 25 1.5 The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) Hypothesis . 35 1.6 Skeletal Indicators of Stress . 43 1.7 The Osteological Paradox . 62 1.8 Dissertation Structure . 69 Chapter 2: The Intersections of Industrialization: Variation in Skeletal Indicators of Frailty by Age, Sex, and Socioeconomic Status in 18and 19-century England . 71 2.
Qualidade do leite materno em banco de leite humano : aspectos bacteriológicos, físico-químicos e perfil de aminas bioativas.

Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a influencia das praticas de coleta e processamento em Banco de Leite Humano (BLH) no perfil e teores de aminas bioativas, qualidade fisico-quimica e bacteriologica do leite humano. As atividades desenvolvidas em um BLH situado na regiao metropolitana de Belo Horizonte, MG foram acompanhadase as amostras de leite humano foram analisadas quanto aos teores de aminas bioativas e as qualidades fisico-quimica e bacteriologica. As praticas de coleta e processamento do leite estavam de acordo com as recomendacoes da ANVISA. Entretanto, isto nao foi suficiente para garantir a qualidade do leite captado, obtendo-se um elevado percentualde perdas. O leite humano cru apresentou boas caracteristicas sensoriais, predominância de acidez de 4,0 a 5,0 oD e conteudo energetico entre 500 e 700 kcal/L. Das dez aminas bioativas, nove foram detectadas: espermina, espermidina, putrescina, cadaverina,feniletilamina, histamina, triptamina, tiramina e serotonina. A espermina foi a amina predominante (0,65 mg/L) apresentando o mesmo teor medio tanto no leite cru quanto no leite pasteurizado. A maior parte do leite humano pasteurizado (90%) apresentou ausencia de coliformes totais e um perfil de aminas similar ao do leite cru. Para avaliar ainfluencia da pasteurizacao empregada no BLH, utilizou-se o teste estatistico de Mann- Whitney U demonstrando uma diferenca significativa somente para histamina, que aumentou significativamente apos tratamento termico (p < 0,05).
XMM-Newton and Fermi/LAT view on the supernova remnant 3C434.1

We report on XMM-Newton observations of the supernova remnant (SNR) 3C434.1 (G94.0+1.0), the first in X-rays since the ROSAT era. Our analysis confirms the thermal origin of the observed extended X-ray emission, whose morphology appears more complex than previously reported. In particular, part of the shell shows a significantly harder spectrum which is consistent with a power law, and it is, therefore, likely of non-thermal origin. Motivated by these finding, we revisited the GeV observations of the field taken with the Fermi observatory. A significant excess associated with the remnant was detected, which is likely associated with non-thermal X-ray emission from part of the shell. The analysis of the Fermi data resulted in the serendipity discovery of GeV emission from the nearby SNR G093.7-00.2. Finally, we searched for a possible compact remnants within the shell, however, no obvious candidates could be identified due to the fairly large positional uncertainties.
RSSI-Power-Based Direction of Arrival Estimation of Partial Discharges in Substations

The localization of partial discharges in air-insulated substations using ultra-high frequency technology is widely studied for power equipment early warning purposes. Ultra-high frequency partial discharge localization systems are usually based on the time-difference of electromagnetic wave signals. However, the large size of test equipment and the need for a high sampling rate and time synchronization accuracy limit their practical application. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a power-based partial discharge direction of arrival method using a received signal strength indicator from an ultra-high frequency wireless sensor array. Furthermore, the Gaussian mixture model is used for noise suppression, and the Gaussian process classifier is used for line of sight received signal strength indicator data identification. Laboratory tests are performed and the results show the average error of direction of arrival is less than 5°. The results verify the effectiveness of the proposed partial discharge localization system.