Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reconciling Real Scores with Binary Comparisons: A New Logistic Based Model for Ranking

The problem of ranking arises ubiquitously in almost every aspect of life, and in particular in Machine Learning/Information Retrieval. A statistical model for ranking predicts how humans rank subsets V of some universe U . In this work we define a statistical model for ranking that satisfies certain desirable properties. The model automatically gives rise to a logistic regression based approach to learning how to rank, for which the score and comparison based approaches are dual views. This offers a new generative approach to ranking which can be used for IR. There are two main contexts for this work. The first is the theory of econometrics and study of statistical models explaining human choice of alternatives. In this context, we will compare our model with other well known models. The second context is the problem of ranking in machine learning, usually arising in the context of information retrieval. Here, much work has been done in the discriminative setting, where different heuristics are used to define ranking risk functions. Our model is built rigorously and axiomatically based on very simple desirable properties defined locally for comparisons, and automatically implies the existence of a global score function serving as a natural model parameter which can be efficiently fitted to pairwise comparison judgment data by solving a convex optimization problem.
P53 gene mutation in an atypical corticotroph adenoma with Cushing's disease

© 2009 The Authors Journal compilation © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Clinical Endocrinology , 70 , 655–659 Cannavo Salvatore*, Romanello Giovanni*, Cavallari Vittorio†, Scisca Claudio‡ and Cannavo Serafinella Patrizia§ * Section of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine and Pharmacology † Unit of Ultrastructural Pathology, Department of Human Pathology ‡ Unit of Medical Oncology and § Section of Dermatology, Department of Territorial Social Medicine, University of Messina, Messina, Italy Correspondence : Cannavo Salvatore, Section of Endocrinology, Department of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Messina, Messina, Italy. Tel. : +39 09
The Additive and Interactive Effects of Parenting and Temperament in Predicting Adjustment Problems of Children of Divorce

Investigated the interaction between parenting and temperament in predicting adjustment problems in children of divorce. The study utilized a sample of 231 mothers and children, 9 to 12 years old, who had experienced divorce within the previous 2 years. Both mothers' and children's reports on parenting, temperament, and adjustment variables were obtained and combined to create cross-reporter measures of the variables. Parenting and temperament were directly and independently related to outcomes consistent with an additive model of their effects. Significant interactions indicated that parental rejection was more strongly related to adjustment problems for children low in positive emotionality, and inconsistent discipline was more strongly related to adjustment problems for children high in impulsivity. These findings suggest that children who are high in impulsivity may be at greater risk for developing problems, whereas positive emotionality may operate as a protective factor, decreasing the risk of adjustment problems in response to negative parenting.
The effects of hemoglobin solutions on renal functions in man.

By J. LEONARD BRANDT, M.D., N. ROBERT FRANK, M.D. AND IIEntnnEriT C. LICHTMAN, M.D. T HE USE of hemoglobini solutionis as a possible plasma sush)stitunte ins shock, hypoproteinmemia annd other diseases has heens suggested. Normally this material ins the form of red cells is discarded ins the prepan-atious of plasma ansd its fract-ionss. rfhat hemoglobins may be adminsist-ered inn large quantities w-ithout urstoward results has beets reported, despite the familiar’ scquelae of inensoglobinnuria ins diseased states. ’ There are usumerous reports oun tine circulaton-y effects of innfusionns of salinne, plasma, gelatins anid si’hole bloo(l.24 \en-y few of these reports give any extennsive data on the rensal hemodynnamic alterationns inscideust to the administrations of the particular material inmfused. Because of tine well knnossni renal arid geineral vascular alteratiouss accompanmyinng shock5 tunic! incompatible blood trasssfusious6 it si-as thought ads-isable to study the renial dynnamic and some genseral vascular effects of innfusionss of hemoglobins soltrtionns ins maui. Studies of the effects ons renial hemodynnamics of lsemoglobinn soluti()ns acimiusistered to ausimals has-c beets reported.7 .
A dual-side controlled inductive power transfer system optimized for large coupling factor variations

In this work, a 3kW inductive power transfer system is investigated, specifically intended for contactless vehicle charging. A series-series compensated topology with dual-side power control and a corresponding control strategy is proposed to significantly increase the overall efficiency, especially for systems with a large coupling factor variation and in partial load mode. A hardware prototype is built up and a peak DC-to-DC efficiency of 95.8% at 100mm air gap and a minimal efficiency of 92.1% at 170mm air gap is measured, including the power electronic components. The partial load efficiency at 500 W output power is still as high as 90.6% at 135mm air gap. All relevant loss mechanisms are modeled and the system is designed using a multi-objective optimization approach. An operating frequency of 35kHz was found to be the optimal tradeoff between the switching losses in the power electronics and the losses in the contactless transformer. Detailed measurement results are indicated showing an excellent agreement with the implemented simulation models.
Lung changes in rheumatoid arthritis: CT findings.

PURPOSE To evaluate lung changes in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). MATERIALS AND METHODS The authors reviewed the computed tomographic (CT) scans from 84 patients with RA with a mean articular disease duration (+/- standard deviation) of 12 years +/- 8 (range, 0.3-45 years). Fifteen patients underwent sequential CT evaluation during 5-65-month follow-up (mean, 18 months). RESULTS Thirty-eight patients (49%) had abnormal CT scans showing the following abnormalities: (a) bronchiectasis and/or bronchiolectasis (n = 23, 30%), (b) pulmonary nodules (n = 17, 22%), (c) subpleural micronodules and/or pseudoplaques (n = 13, 17%), (d) nonseptal linear attenuation (n = 14, 18%), (e) areas of ground-glass attenuation (n = 11, 14%), and (f) honeycombing (n = 8, 10%). Abnormal CT examinations were recorded in 11 of 38 asymptomatic patients (29%) and 27 of 39 symptomatic patients (69%). The following CT abnormalities were found with a significantly higher frequency among patients with respiratory symptoms: (a) bronchiectasis and/or bronchiolectasis, (b) rounded areas of attenuation, (c) areas of ground-glass attenuation, and (d) honeycombing. CONCLUSION CT may be a useful noninvasive tool for recognition of RA-associated lung disease with special emphasis on bronchial and bronchiolar changes.
DESPECKLING AND SEGMENTATION OF ULTRASOUND IMAGES OF CAROTID ARTERY FOR PLAQUE DIAGNOSIS IN HEALTH CARE

A new method for segmentation of the carotid artery for classifying it as diseased or normal towards plaque diagnosis is proposed in this paper. Kernel Fuzzy C- Means clustering is used for segmenting the longitudinal section of the carotid artery using which the wall layers of the artery are identified for classifying it as diseased or normal. As a pre-processing step a–nonlinear mean filter is used for speckle filtering among a set of various traditional filters after measuring its performance. Removing speckle noise may remove useful information in the images like small lesions or artefacts, plaque or calcification in the arteries. Hence a filter that detects the speckle in each and every pixel and suppresses the speckled pixel is proposed in this paper. The algorithm was applied on ultrasound images of the carotid artery for extracting the boundary of the arterial wall and detecting the wall layers for clinical purposes. The results show excellent performance of the method.
Emerging infections, transfusion safety, and epidemiology.

Over the past few decades, our optimism — or perhaps hubris — that infectious disease had been conquered has been overturned so completely that emerging infections are now a new discipline, complete with their own journal. Even in the past year, severe acute respiratory syndrome, an entirely new disease of humans, has emerged, and monkeypox, a zoonosis, has appeared for the first time in the Americas. In 1999, the first cases of West Nile virus disease were recognized in New York, and the epidemic has since expanded, infecting about 400,000 Americans (and countless birds, mammals, and even some reptiles) in .
NdgR, a Common Transcriptional Activator for Methionine and Leucine Biosynthesis in Streptomyces coelicolor

ABSTRACT We show here that NdgR, a known transcriptional activator of isopropylmalate dehydratase in actinomycetes, may have other targets in the cell. An in-frame deletion mutant of ndgR showed unexpectedly poor growth in defined minimal medium even in the presence of leucine. To our surprise, it was supplementation of cysteine and methionine that corrected the growth. Based on this, we propose that NdgR induces cysteine-methionine biosynthesis. Direct involvement of NdgR in the very last steps of methionine synthesis with methionine synthase (metH) and 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (metF) was examined. From a pulldown assay, it was seen that NdgR was enriched from crude cell lysates with a strong affinity to metH and metF upstream sequences. Direct physical interaction of NdgR with these targets was further examined with a gel mobility shift assay. ndgR, leuC, metH, and metF were inducible in M145 cells upon nutrient downshift from rich to minimal medium but were not induced in the ndgR knockout mutant. Taking these observations together, NdgR-dependent metH-metF expression would account for the abnormal growth phenotype of the ndgR mutant although there may be additional NdgR-dependent genes in the Cys-Met metabolic pathways. As the first transcriptional factor reported for regulating Cys-Met metabolism in Streptomyces, NdgR links two disparate amino acid families, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) and sulfur amino acids, at the transcriptional level. Considering that Cys-Met metabolism is connected to mycothiol and one-carbon metabolism, NdgR may have broad physiological impacts.
PET utilization under Taiwan's Universal Health Insurance program.

Taiwan’s National Health Insurance (NHI) program began covering 18F-FDG PET for selected oncologic indications in 2004. Delay in acquisition of high-tech equipment, scarcity of hightech resources, and long waiting periods for such services had been reported in similar universal health care system coverage in Canada (1). Little has been published regarding PET utilization under Taiwan’s universal health care system. Here we report the results of a study of initial trends in 18F-FDG PET utilization in the management of patients with cancer after expansion of coverage. We used datasets based on the entire population in Taiwan to analyze resulting variations in patterns of utilization. This empirical assessment of potential variations in resource utilization may provide useful information for future research aimed at improving the quality of care for patients with cancer.
Parametrial fat tissue from high fat diet-treated SKH-1 mice stimulates transformation of mouse epidermal JB6 cells.

Our previous studies indicated that decreasing visceral adipose tissue by surgical removal of the parametrial fat pads inhibited UVB-induced carcinogenesis in SKH-1 mice fed a high fat diet (HFD), but not a low fat diet (LFD) indicating that the parametrial fat tissue from mice fed a HFD played a role in skin carcinogenesis. OBJECTIVE In the present study, we sought to investigate how a HFD may influence the intrinsic properties of the parametrial fat tissue to influence UVB-induced skin tumor formation. METHODS AND RESULTS Immunohistochemical staining, adipokine array, and flow cytometry showed that parametrial fat tissue from mice fed a HFD had a higher density of macrophage-fused dead adipocytes (crown-like structures), more adipokines, and stimulated the production of more reactive oxygen species compared with parametrial fat tissue from mice fed a LFD. These differences between parametrial fat tissue from mice fed a HFD and LFD were associated with their effect on the in vitro transformation of mouse epidermal JB6 cells. Our results indicated that fat tissue filtrate (an aqueous filtrate made from the parametrial fat pad) from mice fed a HFD enhanced the conversion of JB6 cells from an epithelial-like morphology to cells with a fibroblast-like morphology to a greater extent than fat tissue filtrate from mice fed a LFD. Studies indicated that the fibroblast-like cells had decreased levels of E-cadherin, increased levels of Twist as assayed by western blot. Fat tissue filtrate made from the parametrial fat tissue of mice fed a HFD had 160% more transforming activity than that from mice fed a LFD and formed malignant mesenchymal tumors in vivo. CONCLUSION These studies provide the first in vitro demonstration of a parametrial fat tissue-induced transformation of an epidermal cell.
‘ ‘ ... persistent volume overload is a risk factor for cardiac death ’ ’ DIALYSIS Bioimpedance spectroscopy for assessment of fluid overload

A new paper by Amer et al. reports on the relationships between levels of high and low molecular weight proteins in the urine at 1 year after kidney transplantation and both graft histology and graft survival.1 Overlooked for many years, proteinuria is now recognized as a notable deleterious prognostic factor but Amer et al.’s analy­ sis of the effect of the composition of p roteinuria brings new insights. A 2001 study in 722 patients showed that proteinuria measured at 1 year after kidney transplantation, and expressed either as a categorical variable or as a continuous variable, is a significant risk factor for graft failure of any origin and is also a risk factor for death.2 A 2004 study confirmed these findings in a Spanish population of 3,365 kidney transplant recipients whose kidney graft functioned for more than 1 year.3
Representing access control policies in use case

Security requirements of a software product need to receive attention throughout its development lifecycle. This paper proposes the required notation and format to represent security requirements, especially access control policies in use case diagram and use case description. Such enhancements offer simple representation for positive and negative authorization, grouping sensitive use cases that form a critical business task, separation of duties - both static and dynamic, least privilege, inheritance of authorizations, and security state or label for data inputted, stored or outputted. Validating information flow requirements at an early stage prevents costly fixes that are mandated during later stages of the development life cycle.
Evaluation and Treatment of Sex Addiction

There have been several diagnostic labels for persistent, excessive sexual behaviors, often referred in the popular media as sex addiction. Two related diagnoses, Internet addictive disorder and hypersexual disorder, were considered for, but not included in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. However, most clinicians, even those trained in sexual disorders or addiction medicine, have little to no training in treating sexual compulsivity and cybersex addiction. The authors present the historical context, proposed diagnostic criteria, evaluation protocols, comorbid disorders, speculations about the neuroscience, and treatment recommendations.
A study of irrelevant variability normalization based training and unsupervised online adaptation for LVCSR

This paper presents an experimental study of a maximum likelihood (ML) approach to irrelevant variability normalization (IVN) based training and unsupervised online adaptation for large vocabulary continuous speech recognition. A moving-window based frame labeling method is used for acoustic sniff-ing. The IVN-based approach achieves a 10% relative word error rate reduction over an ML-trained baseline system on a Switchboard-1 conversational telephone speech transcription task.
Tres soluciones teóricas para la provisión pública ineficiente

desarrollado en las principales economías occidentales desde los años ochenta del siglo XX han tomado como una de sus cuestiones fundamentales la mejora en la provisión pública. Diversas iniciativas han sido protagonistas de diferentes intentos de reforma que, con éxito desigual, han compartido el objetivo de hacer del Sector Público un agente más eficiente en el cumplimiento de una de sus tres funciones modernas: la función asignativa.
No association between germline variation in catechol-O-methyltransferase and colorectal cancer survival in postmenopausal women

ObjectiveSex steroid hormones play a role in colorectal cancer (CRC) development, but little is known about their influence on tumor progression and metastasis. Because catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT; 22q11.21) activity is an important component of estrogen-mediated carcinogenesis, we hypothesized that germline variation in COMT may be associated with CRC survival. MethodsWe identified 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms that tagged variation across two isoforms of COMT in 2,458 women with CRC from the Nurses’ Health Study, Postmenopausal Hormones Supplementary Study to the Colon Cancer Family Registry, VITamins And Lifestyle Study, and Women’s Health Initiative. All four studies participated in the Genetics and Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Consortium. ResultsDuring a median follow-up of 7 years across all studies, there were 799 deaths, including 566 deaths from CRC. Based on multiple comparisons, no associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms and CRC-specific or overall survival reached statistical significance, including the well-characterized Val108/158Met polymorphism (rs4680; CRC-specific survival: hazard ratio per minor allele, 1.04; 95% CI, 0.92-1.17; overall survival: hazard ratio per minor allele, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.90-1.14). ConclusionsIn this large study of women with CRC, we find no evidence that common inherited variation in COMT is associated with survival time after diagnosis.
Desarrollando la empleabilidad de los recursos humanos: un reto de nuestro tiempo

«Aprender» es una actividad que dura «toda una vida. ». Esta realidad de hoy día viene determinada en gran parte por los cambios organizacionales y laborales debidos a la introducción de nuevas tecnologías en el trabajo y las organizaciones, la globalización de los mercados y la flexibilización laboral. Tales cambios reflejan la necesidad de desarrollar competencias más complejas, como por ejemplo: la empleabilidad de los trabajadores. Teniendo en cuenta estos antecedentes, el objetivo de este trabajo es identificar cuáles son los principales logros y retos para el Desarrollo de los Recursos Humanos (DRH) en el ámbito de la empleabilidad como un recurso básico de afrontamiento para el cambio organizacional. En este sentido, en primer lugar se exponen las situaciones de cambio que están teniendo lugar en la sociedad actual y que conducen a la necesidad de generar trabajadores «empleables». A continuación, se ofrece una delimitación del término de empleabilidad, al tiempo que se destacan cuáles son sus componentes esenciales. Además, se presentan cuáles son las competencias de empleabilidad, así como las principales características que definen a un empleado «empleable». Por último, dedicamos unas líneas a exponer cuáles son las principales técnicas de que disponemos para gestionar la empleabilidad. Esperamos que el conocimiento generado en este trabajo contribuya, con su aplicación práctica, a la mejora de las organizaciones y al desarrollo de sus recursos humanos, su bien más preciado. Extracto: MARISA SALANOvA SORIA
Plasminogen activation in diabetes mellitus. Kinetics of plasmin formation with tissue plasminogen activator and plasminogen from individual diabetic donors and with in vitro glucosylated plasminogen.

Functional abnormalities of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) (high Km in the presence of fibrin) and plasminogen (Pg) (substrate inhibition in the fibrin-stimulated system) from uncontrolled type I diabetics are reversible upon normalization of metabolic parameters. Therefore the effect of in vitro glucosylation of Pg was studied and similar but less pronounced substrate inhibition as with diabetic Pg was observed. However, the activation of the Pg fraction most likely containing bound cis-OH groups (e.g. glucose) was normal. These data suggest that either glucosylation in vitro is less stable than in vivo or that in diabetics protein modifications other than glucosylation occur. In this respect we can also show that acetone, a representative of ketone bodies and also elevated in poorly controlled diabetics, does not affect Pg activation in vitro.
The microbiology of primary dental caries in humans.

A systematic literature review from 1966 to 2000 revealed 2,730 English-language publications on the role of bacteria in human primary dental caries in vivo. The most pertinent 313 papers were analyzed in evidence tables accessible online (http://www.nidcr.nih.gov). The search targeted all bacterial types implicated previously in caries and asked two questions. First, what is the association of specific bacteria with tooth decay and can causation be attributed to any of those bacteria? Retrieved studies were categorized as randomized-blinded-interventional, longitudinal, case-control, and cross-sectional and were weighted in descending order in terms of significance. Although many studies, due to ethical requirements, had confounding variables, they still indicate strongly: 1) the central role of the mutans streptococci in initiation of caries of smooth surfaces and fissures of crowns of teeth and suggests their potent role in induction of root surface caries; and 2) that lactobacilli are implicated as important contributory bacteria in tooth decay, but their role in induction of lesions is not well supported. Second, what is the source of infection by cariogenic bacteria? Molecular/genetic studies of implicated bacteria isolated from humans, randomized-blinded-interventional, and longitudinal studies indicate that mutans streptococci are spread vertically among humans, mostly from mothers to their children. Implications of these conclusions are briefly discussed. The most significant problems of literature interpretation include the benefits/shortcomings of salivary and plaque monitoring of the flora, the role of sugar(s) in decay as it influences the flora, and modeling strategies to predict lesion score increments as distinct from determination of the etiological role of specific bacteria. Future directions for microbiological clinical caries research are suggested, and the use of the term "caries" to describe the disease, not its lesions, is urged.