Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gastrointestinal transit and prolonged ambulatory colonic motility in health and faecal incontinence

Background—Colonic motor function has not been studied in the ambulatory setting over a prolonged period in the unprepared state. Furthermore, the disturbance of this function in patients with faecal incontinence is unknown. Aim—To study colonic function over two to three days in the ambulatory, unprepared state in health and in patients with idiopathic faecal incontinence. Methods—Six healthy women and six women with faecal incontinence and a structurally intact anal sphincter ingested a dual radioisotope meal, and had a six sensor, solid state manometric probe colonoscopically inserted into the left colon. Scanning was performed until radioisotope left the gut and pressure was recorded for a median of 44 hours. Results—Three of six patients showed abnormal gastric emptying. Patients showed no disturbance of colonic radioisotope transit. Controls had a median of 12, whereas patients had a median of 16, high amplitude propagated waves per 24 hours. In three patients urge incontinence was associated with high amplitude (up to 500 cm water) propagated waves which often reached the rectum. These high pressure waves were identical to those occuring in healthy subjects, the only difference being the lack of adequate sphincter response. Passive incontinence was not associated with colonic motor activity. Defaecation in all subjects was associated with identical propagated waves, and distal movement of 13% (median) of right colonic content and excretion of 32% from the left colon and rectum. The urge to defaecate was associated with either propagated waves (45%) or non-propagated contractions (55%). Rectal motor complexes were recorded in both groups of subjects, but similar rhythmic activity was also recorded in the sigmoid and descending colon. Conclusions—Normal colonic function consists of frequent high pressure propagated waves. Rhythmic activity occurs both proximal to and in the rectum. Defaecation is characterised by high pressure propagated waves associated with coordinated anal sphincter relaxation. Patients with faecal incontinence may have a widespread disturbance of gut function. Urge incontinence, an urge to defaecate, and defaecation can all be associated with identical high amplitude propagated pressure waves.
Resilience and reactivity of global food security

Significance The past few decades have seen an intensification of international food trade and the increase in the number of countries that depend on food imports. As an effect of the associated globalization of food, local shocks in food production, combined with the adoption of new national or regional energy and trade policies, have recently led to global food crises. Here we develop a framework to investigate the coupled global food–population dynamics, and evaluate the effect of international trade on global food security. We find that, as the dependency on trade increases, the global food system is losing resilience and is becoming increasingly unstable and susceptible to conditions of crisis. The escalating food demand by a growing and increasingly affluent global population is placing unprecedented pressure on the limited land and water resources of the planet, underpinning concerns over global food security and its sensitivity to shocks arising from environmental fluctuations, trade policies, and market volatility. Here, we use country-specific demographic records along with food production and trade data for the past 25 y to evaluate the stability and reactivity of the relationship between population dynamics and food availability. We develop a framework for the assessment of the resilience and the reactivity of the coupled population–food system and suggest that over the past two decades both its sensitivity to external perturbations and susceptibility to instability have increased.
REGULATORY LIMITS FOR PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN WATER

National governments introduced residue limits and guideline levels for pesticide residues in water when policies were implemented to minimize the contamination of ground and surface waters. Initially, the main attention was given to drinking water. Regulatory limits for pesticide residues in waters should have the following characteristics: definition of the type of water, definition of the residue, a suitable analytical method for the residues, and explanation for the basis for each limit. Limits may be derived by applying a safety factor to a no-effect-level, or from levels occurring when good practices are followed and also passing a safety assessment, or from the detection limit of an analytical method, or directly by legislative decision. The basis for limits and guideline values issued by WHO, Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, European Union, and Taiwan is described, and examples of the limits are provided. Limits have been most commonly developed for drinking water, but values have also been proposed for environmental waters, effluent waters, irrigation waters, and livestock drinking waters. The contamination of ground water is of concern because it may be used as drinking water and act as a source of contamination for surface waters. Most commonly, drinking water standards have been applied to ground water. The same terminology may have different meanings in different systems. For example, guideline value (GV) in WHO means a value calculated from a toxicology parameter, whereas in Australia, a GV is at or about the analytical limit of determination or a maximum level that might occur if good practices are followed. In New Zealand, the GV is the concentration where aesthetic significance is influenced. The Australian health value (HV) is conceptually the same as the WHO GV. The New Zealand maximum acceptable value (MAV) and the Canadian maximum acceptable concentration (MAC) are also conceptually the same as the WHO GV. Each of the possible ways of defining the residues has its merits. A residue limit in water expressed as the sum of parent and toxicologically relevant transformation products makes sense where it is derived from the acceptable daily intake (ADI). For monitoring purposes, where it is best to keep the residue definition as simple as possible for the sake of practical enforcement and economy, the parent or a marker residue is preferable. It is also possible for parent and degradation products (hydrolysis and photolysis products and metabolites) to become physically separated as the water moves through soil strata, which suggests that separate limits should be set for parent and important degradation products. The Commission has made 12 recommendations for regulatory limits for pesticide residues in water. The recommendations will act as a checklist for authorities introducing or revising limits or guidelines for pesticide residues in water. D. J. HAMILTON et al. © 2003 IUPAC, Pure and Applied Chemistry 75, 1123–1155 1124
Social support and caregiver distress: a replication analysis.

OBJECTIVES Prior studies have conceptualized and operationalized social support in different ways, making it difficult to determine if the inconsistencies in findings are due to differences in study design, samples, conceptualization, or measurement. The present study examined the replicability of models of social support and caregiver distress across 4 community-based caregiving studies representative of many conducted in the past 10 years. The goal was to identify areas of consistency in findings across the data sets. METHODS The authors analyzed 3 models specifying patterns of relationship between social support and depression (main effect, mediation effect, and moderation effect) separately within data sets using hierarchical ordinary least squares regression. Results were compared across data sets. RESULTS The replication analysis confirmed the robustness of behavior problems and caregiver health as important contributors to caregiver distress. Results of hypotheses examining the pattern of relationship between social support and distress were inconsistent, however. Only 1 type of social support was associated with distress in the expected direction: Less emotional support was associated with higher levels of distress in 2 of the 4 data sets. DISCUSSION More complex theoretical models that incorporate common measures to represent the linkages between types of stressor, types of support, and their interactions are needed to foster replicability and generalizability of research results.
BUY‐LOW AND SELL‐HIGH INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

Buy‐low and sell‐high investment strategies are a recurrent theme in the considerations of many investors. In this paper, we consider an investor who aims at maximizing the expected discounted cash‐flow that can be generated by sequentially buying and selling one share of a given asset at fixed transaction costs. We model the underlying asset price by means of a general one‐dimensional Itô diffusion X, we solve the resulting stochastic control problem in a closed analytic form, and we completely characterize the optimal strategy. In particular, we show that, if 0 is a natural boundary point of X, e.g., if X is a geometric Brownian motion, then it is never optimal to sequentially buy and sell. On the other hand, we prove that, if 0 is an entrance point of X, e.g., if X is a mean‐reverting constant elasticity of variance (CEV) process, then it may be optimal to sequentially buy and sell, depending on the problem data.
Use of the laryngeal mask airway as an alternative to a face mask during outpatient arthroscopy.

The laryngeal mask airway (LMA) has recently become available in the United States, and several authors have suggested that it is superior to an anesthesia mask. To test this hypothesis, 64 patients undergoing outpatient arthroscopic knee surgery were randomly assigned to have anesthesia maintained via either a laryngeal mask airway (LMA) (n = 31) or a standard face mask (n = 33). Anesthesia was induced with fentanyl 1 microgram.kg-1 and propofol 2 mg.kg-1 and maintained with a variable-rate propofol infusion (50-180 micrograms.kg-1 x min) and nitrous oxide 67% in oxygen. The LMA was inserted without difficulty by inexperienced anesthesiologists in 90% of the patients. Problems associated with airway management were more common in patients in the face mask (control) group. Episodes of hemoglobin oxygen desaturation (< 95%) occurred in 52% of patients in the face mask group compared to only 13% in the LMA group (P < 0.05). Intraoperative airway manipulations were required in 15% of face mask patients (vs. 3% of the LMA group), and difficulties in maintaining an airway were reported by 24% of the resident anesthesiologists caring for patients in the face mask group (vs. none in the LMA group) (P < 0.05). Insertion of the LMA was not associated with any acute changes in hemodynamic values. Intraoperative hemodynamic values and anesthetic requirements did not differ significantly between the two treatment groups. There were no significant differences in the emergence and recovery times or in the incidence of postoperative sore throats between the two groups. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Experimental Approach to Curve Reconstruction Based on Human Visual perception

Curve reconstruction is the problem of constructing polygonal curves from a set of sample points. Among all the research to solve this problem, visual perception based algorithms, DISCUR and VICUR, come up in recent years as intuitive methods. DISCUR and VICUR connect points into patterns that agree with human visual perception by applying two major Gestalt laws: nearness and smoothness. In this paper, the work in DISCUR and VICUR is extended by conducting an experiment to quantify how these two laws underlie human vision. DOE and ANOVA are used to test the hypotheses about how a connection may be influenced by its neighboring points whereas the multivariable nonlinear regression model is adopted to formulate the influence of Gestalt laws on point connectivity. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is effective.
Sexual dimorphism matches photoreceptor performance to behavioural requirements

Differences in behaviour exist between the sexes of most animal species and are associated with many sex–specific specializations. The visual system of the male housefly is known to be specialized for pursuit behaviour that culminates in mating. Males chase females using a high–acuity region of the fronto–dorsal retina (the ‘love spot’) that drives sex–specific neural circuitry. We show that love spot photoreceptors of the housefly combine better spatial resolution with a faster electrical response, thereby allowing them to code higher velocities and smaller targets than female photoreceptors. Love spot photoreceptors of males are more than 60% faster than their female counterparts and are among the fastest recorded for any animal. The superior response dynamics of male photoreceptors is achieved by a speeding up of the biochemical processes involved in phototransduction and by a tuned voltage–activated conductance that boosts the membrane frequency response. These results demonstrate that the inherent plasticity of phototransduction facilitates the tuning of the dynamics of visual processing to the requirements of visual ecology.
Effects of Glucocorticoids on Infiltrating Cells and Epithelial Cells of Nasal Polyps

Glucocorticoids are known to be effective in the treatment of nasal polyps (NPs). To examine the mechanisms of their effect, we evaluated 1) the ability of glucocorticoids to induce the apoptosis of eosinophils and T lymphocytes in NPs, and 2) the ability of dexamethasone to down-regulate epithelial cell functions that relate to eosinophilic inflammation. In vitro and in vivo, glucocorticoids increased the apoptosis of both eosinophils and T lymphocytes in NPs. Dexamethasone inhibited the production of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) from both NP epithelial cells that were unstimulated and NP epithelial cells that were stimulated with interleukin-4 or tumor necrosis factor a. These results suggest that the clinical efficacy of glucocorticoids on NPs may be due to 1) induction of apoptosis in both eosinophils and T lymphocytes that infiltrate NPs, and 2) down-regulation of epithelial GM-CSF production, which prolongs eosinophil survival.
Transceiver Optimization for the Multi-Antenna Downlink in MIMO Cognitive System

Transceiver optimization in multiple input multiple output (MIMO) cognitive systems is studied in this paper. The joint transceiver beamformer design is introduced to minimize the transmit power at secondary base station (SBS) while simultaneously controlling the interference to primary users (PUs) and satisfying the secondary users (SUs) signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) based on the convex optimization method. Due to the limited cooperation between SBS and PUs, the channel state information (CSI) usually cannot be obtained perfectly at the SBS in cognitive system. In this study, both perfect and imperfect CSI scenarios are considered in the beamformer design, and the proposed method is robust to CSI error. Numerical results validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.
Optimal Local Reactive Power Control by PV Inverters

The high penetration of photovoltaic (PV) generators leads to a voltage rise in the distribution network. To comply with grid standards, distribution system operators need to limit this voltage rise. Reactive power control is one of the most proposed remedies. A popular form of reactive power control is an active power dependent characteristic to define the reactive power control of a PV generator. This standard Q(P) characteristic is a simple curve, which is not adapted to the specific situation in the grid. Therefore, this work proposes a method to define the optimal Q(P) curve. The optimal Q( P) curve is represented as a piecewise constant or a piecewise linear function. The parameters are optimized based on historical smart meter information, to obtain a Q(P) curve that keeps the voltage within limits throughout the whole year, with a minimal amount of reactive power. An easy to solve convex optimization problem defines the parameters. The method is applied to unbalanced three-phase four-wire systems. Several simulations with realistic data are performed on an existing distribution network to compare the optimal Q(P) curve with standard Q(P) and Q (V) curves.
Computer Generation of Molecular Structures by the SMOG Program

The SMOG program for exhaustive and irredundant generation of chemical structures by the given molecular formula is described. The program makes use of the graph-theoretical Faradjev algorithm, which was essentially modified to be efficiently applied for chemical purposes. The major improvements of the algorithm include adequate consideration of the sets of required and forbidden structural fragments (“Goodlist” and “Badlist”, respectively), effective use of invariant substructures (“core” fragments), possible consideration of various atomic valence states (atoms with formal charges, etc.), and rigorous treatment of aromatic structures. The output structures are visualized as 2D graphs according to an original algorithm. The advantages and possible applications of this software are discussed.
Characteristics of women at risk for psychosocial distress in the year after breast cancer.

PURPOSE To provide a detailed description of rehabilitation problems of women, considered to be low risk and at risk for psychosocial morbidity, diagnosed with stage I and II breast cancer 1 month and 1 year after primary treatment. PATIENTS AND METHODS A sample of 227 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients were systematically interviewed by a clinical social worker and classified for risk of psychosocial distress in the year after diagnosis. They completed a battery of standardized instruments to assess quality of life (QL), rehabilitation needs, and psychologic distress. The primary QL instrument, the Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System (CARES), provides a detailed listing of rehabilitation needs. Descriptive CARES data are presented with comparisons between the two groups. RESULTS The at-risk women had significantly more problems with greater severity than the low-risk women in all areas (physical, psychosocial, medical interaction, sexual, and marital). While both groups showed improvement over the year following diagnosis, the at-risk group had significantly more problems 1 year later. Many physical problems subside, but problems at the local surgical site, psychologic distress, communication with marital partners, and negative body image are more persistent in the at-risk group 1 year later, while half of both groups continue to have sexual dysfunction. CONCLUSION The detailed listing of problems provided by the CARES may be helpful to clinicians in their interactions with patients. The need for preventive and early intervention for the at-risk patients is underscored.
Comparison of the antimicrobial activity of the curcumin derivatives between Fm0817 and Fm04

The objectives were to analyze the anti-bacterial activity of the curcumin derivative FM0817 and FM04 and the mechanism of action. We first tested 40 Neisseria gonorrhoeaeN. Gonorrhoeae strains of their susceptibilities to antibiotics by the Kirby-Bauer (KB) methods. DNA was extracted by the boiling method, and 22 strains of N. gonorrhoeae were randomly selected and used as templates for PCR amplification of the antibiotic-resistance genes: TEM, tetM, erm, and mefA. The filter disc diffusion method was used to determine whether FM0817 and FM04 had anti-bacterial activity, and compare the Antimicrobial activity of the curcumin derivatives between FM0817 and FM04. The susceptibility tests confirmed multi-drug resistance in N. gonorrhoeae. The percentage of strains possessing TEM and tetM was 77.2% and 77.2%, respectively. The drug-resistance genes, erm and mefA, were not detected in any of the strains studied. FM0817 exhibited potent anti-bacterial activity and FM04 showed feed action in vitro, but the relationship between FM0817 and FM04 activity and the resistance genes of N. gonorrhoeae remains unclear, therefore, it requires further investigation.
Efficient analysis of an antenna-radome structure using fast multipole method

In this paper, based upon the equivalent principle and surface integral equations, the exact model of an antenna and dielectric radome structure is established by using method of moments (MoM). The equivalent strip-model is used for the thin wire antenna, in order to alleviate the singularities in the meshing process. The ill-conditioned MoM matrix is improved by the preconditioning technique. The fast multipole method (FMM) is used to reduce the memory occupation and accelerate the iteration convergence of the conjugate gradient (CG) method.
A National Survey of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior of Chinese City Children and Youth Using Accelerometers

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to objectively assess levels of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behavior (SB) of Chinese city children and youth aged 9 to 17 years old using accelerometers and to examine their differences by gender, age, grade, and weight status. Method: The PA and SB of 2,163 students in 4th grade through 11th grade (M age = 160.87 ± 27.00 months [13.41 ± 2.25 years], 50.21% boys) from 11 cities in China were measured by accelerometers. The amount of time spent in SB, light PA, moderate PA, vigorous PA, and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) was computed based on cutoff points developed specifically for the Chinese children and youth. The participants were classified into normal-weight, overweight, and obese groups based on their body mass index (BMI). Paired-sample t tests were conducted to examine the differences in PA and SB between weekdays and weekend days. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to test the differences in PA and SB variables by gender, age, grade, and weight status, respectively. Results: Chinese city children and youth spent an average of 28.26 ± 17.66 min/day in MVPA and 521.50 ± 110.02 min/day in SB. Only 9.4% of boys and 1.9% of girls met the recommendation of 60 min/day of MVPA. Chinese city children and youth were more active during weekdays than during weekend days, and boys were more active than girls; older children and youth spent more daily time in MVPA, but also spent more time being sedentary. No differences in PA and SB were found across different BMI categories. Conclusion: The findings warn of the insufficiency of PA and the excess of SB in Chinese city children and youth.
Association analysis of 5HT transporter gene in bipolar disorder in the Indian population.

A variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism consisting of multiple copies of a 17-bp repeat in the second intron of the serotonin transporter gene (SERT) has been reported. Different alleles of this VNTR have been found to be associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. These findings have been confirmed in some populations, but disconfirmed in others. Furthermore, significant ethnic variations in the distribution of these alleles both in normal and patient populations also have been reported. We analyzed the VNTR polymorphism in 50 Indian patients with bipolar disorder and in ethnically matched controls. Two alleles corresponding to 10 and 12 repeats of the VNTR were found in both groups. There were no significant differences either in allele frequency or genotype frequency between the two groups. The nine-repeat allele that has been reported in Japanese and Caucasian populations was absent in our sample. Although it will be important to extend the present study in a larger sample, our initial results do not suggest any large association with alleles of the VNTR in the SERT gene and bipolar disorder in Indian patients. Am. J. Med. Genet. (Neuropsychiatr. Genet.) 96:170-172, 2000.