Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low levels of androgens in men with erectile dysfunction and obesity.

INTRODUCTION The relationship between obesity and erectile dysfunction (ED) has not been completely clarified. AIM The aim of this study is to investigate the association between different obesity class (the World Health Organization definition) with several hormonal and instrumental parameters, in a large sample of patients with ED. METHODS A consecutive series of 2,435 (mean age 52.1 +/- 13.0 years) male patients with ED was investigated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Several hormonal and biochemical parameters were studied, along with a structured interview on erectile dysfunction (SIEDY), a psychometric questionnaire (Middle Hospital Questionnaire), and penile doppler ultrasound (PDU). RESULTS Among patients studied, 41.5% were normal weight, while 42.4%, 12.1% and 4.0% showed a BMI of 25-29.9, 30-34.9 and 35 kg/m(2 )or higher, respectively. Androgen levels (including sex hormone-binding globuline bound and unbound testosterone) decreased as a function of obesity class, while luteinising hormone levels did not show any significant change. Obesity was significantly associated with a higher organic contribution to ED (as assessed by SIEDY scale 1 score), and worse PDU parameters. At multivariate linear regression analysis, after adjustment for confounders (including metabolic syndrome), low androgens remained associated with BMI, while both basal and dynamic (after prostaglandin E1 [PGE1] stimulation) peak systolic velocity (PSV) at PDU resulted significantly associated with age and elevated blood pressure (Adj. r = -0.179, -0.285 and -0.094, -0.071 for age, hypertension and for basal and dynamic PSV, respectively; all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Obesity is characterized by low levels of androgens in men with ED, after adjustment for comorbidities. Obesity associated comorbidities, particularly hypertension, are the most important determinants of arteriogenic obesity-associated ED.
' ' Stepping Up ' ' Being a Positive Bystander : Male Antiviolence Allies ' Experiences of

As bystander approaches become increasingly prevalent elements of sexual and domestic violence prevention efforts, it is necessary to better understand the factors that support or impede individuals in taking positive action in the face of aggressive or disrespectful behavior from others. This study presents descriptive findings about the bystander experiences of 27 men who recently became involved in antiviolence against women work. More specifically, we describe the consistency with which respondents actively intervene in the speech or behavior of others, the strategies they use, and the factors they weigh as they deliberate taking action. Respondents report a complex and interrelated set of individual and contextual influences on their choices within bystander opportunities, which hold implications for both violence-specific models of bystander behavior and for prevention intervention development.
Prevalence of cardiometabolic risk factors in Hispanics living with HIV.

OBJECTIVE Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and antiretroviral treatment are associated with metabolic and cardiovascular complications that resemble metabolic syndrome (MetS) and potentially increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease in this population. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of MetS and its individual components among Hispanics living with HIV in Puerto Rico. METHODS Data from 909 clinical records were extracted and the prevalence of MetS determined using the NCEP-ATPIII criteria. Fisher's exact test was used to detect sex differences, and logistic regression to examine the effect of age, sex, smoking, years of HIV infection, antiretroviral therapy, and Hepatitis C coinfection. RESULTS The prevalence of MetS in our study group (35.4%) was higher than previously reported in the United States, but not higher than in the general population in Puerto Rico. Females had a higher prevalence of MetS (44.2%) than males (30.5%); mostly explained by high body mass index and waist circumference. Age and sex were associated with the presence of MetS. CONCLUSION Understanding ethnic and sex differences in the prevalence of metabolic risk factors is essential for the implementation of specific targeted interventions to prevent subsequent vascular morbidity and mortality in this population.
PATTERNS OF FRUIT‐SET: WHAT CONTROLS FRUIT‐FLOWER RATIOS IN PLANTS?

Fruit‐set values for 447 species of plants were examined for variations due to compatibility, breeding system, life form, latitude, type of fruit, and type of pollination. The results indicate significant differences between self‐compatible and self‐incompatible species in terms of 1) average fruit‐set and 2) the effect of the independent variables. Breeding system, life form, and latitude were found to be the only significant independent variables for self‐incompatible species, while fruit type and latitude were found to be significant for self‐compatible plants. Although latitude was a significant variable for self‐compatible and self‐incompatible species, it was correlated with other variables and may actually have no direct effect on fruit‐flower ratios in plants. Hypotheses explaining the effect of the significant independent variables on fruit‐flower ratios were then examined and, when possible, predictions were tested. The results indicate that the selective‐abortion and bet‐hedging hypotheses may be important factors contributing to the low fruit‐set in self‐incompatible plants, while the male‐function hypothesis may explain the lower fruit‐flower ratios in hermaphrodites.
Serial Aperture-Coupled Dual Band Circularly Polarized Antenna

In this innovative method of producing circular polarized (CP) wave, we present a serial feed line which couples diamond-shaped slot to ring and cross-slot to patch. The feed line is used to feed the two parts in series. Then, the structure can easily be operated as a dual band circularly polarized antenna to cover both 0.915 GHz and 2.45 GHz bands. Experimental results show that the proposed antenna has good circular polarization characteristics.
Continuous positive airways pressure for obstructive sleep apnoea.

BACKGROUND Obstructive sleep apnoea is the periodic reduction (hypopnoea) or cessation (apnoea) of breathing due to narrowing or occlusion of the upper airway during sleep. The main symptom is daytime sleepiness although there it has been linked to premature death, hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, stroke and road traffic accidents. OBJECTIVES The main treatment for sleep apnoea is with continuous positive airways pressure (CPAP) treatment, which consists of a flow generator and mask. These are used at night to prevent apnoea, hypoxia and sleep disturbance. The objective was to assess the effects of CPAP in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea in adults. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Airways Group RCT register (MEDLINE 1966 to 2000, Embase 1974 to 2000, Cinahl 1982 to 2000) and the reference lists of articles. We consulted experts in the field. SELECTION CRITERIA Randomised trials comparing nocturnal CPAP with placebo or other treatments in adults with obstructive sleep apnoea and an apnoea/hypopnoea index greater than five per hour. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Trial quality was assessed and two reviewers extracted data independently. Study authors were contacted for missing information. MAIN RESULTS Twelve trials involving 475 people were included. Most studies had methodological shortcomings. Most trials were of crossover design. Compared with placebo, CPAP showed significant improvements in objective and subjective sleepiness and several quality of life and depression measures. Patients preferred CPAP to placebo (odds ratio 0.4, 95% confidence interval 0.2 to 0.8). There was no significant effect on daytime blood pressure. Compared with oral appliances, CPAP significantly improved the apnoea/hypopnoea index (weighted mean difference -7.3, 95% confidence interval -10.0 to -4.7) and minimum oxygen saturation during sleep. Patients strongly preferred the oral appliance to CPAP (odds ratio 9.5, 95% confidence interval 4.3 to 21.1). REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS CPAP is more effective than placebo in improving sleepiness and quality of life measures for people with obstructive sleep apnoea. It is more effective than oral appliances in improving respiratory disturbances. Although patients prefer CPAP to placebo, they preference oral appliances to CPAP.
Feasibility issues in breast cancer microwave imaging enhanced with magnetic nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) enhanced microwave imaging (MWI) has been recently proposed as an effective technique for breast cancer monitoring. In this communication, we discuss some issues related to the actual feasibility of a device for MNP enhanced MWI, such as the required dynamic range and the system's optimization in terms of antennas' typology and positioning.
virB-Mediated Survival of Brucella abortus in Mice and Macrophages Is Independent of a Functional Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase or NADPH Oxidase in Macrophages

ABSTRACT The Brucella abortus virB locus is required for establishing chronic infection in the mouse. Using in vitro and in vivo models, we investigated whether virB is involved in evasion of the bactericidal activity of NADPH oxidase and the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in macrophages. Elimination of NADPH oxidase or iNOS activity in macrophages in vitro increased recovery of wild-type B. abortus but not recovery of a virB mutant. In mice lacking either NADPH oxidase or iNOS, however, B. abortus infected and persisted to the same extent as it did in congenic C57BL/6 mice up until 60 days postinfection, suggesting that these host defense mechanisms are not critical for limiting bacterial growth in the mouse. A virB mutant did not exhibit increased survival in either of the knockout mouse strains, indicating that this locus does not contribute to evasion of nitrosative or oxidative killing mechanisms in vivo.
Induction of premature chromatid separation (PCS) in individuals with PCS trait and in normal controls

Cultured peripheral blood lymphocytes from ten normal individuals, treated with 0.075 M KCl at 37°C for 20 min, showed 0–2% cells in premature chromatid separation (PCS), a configuration with split centromeres and chromatids of most or all chromosomes. When treated for 30 min, they increased to 19% in the average, and at 45 min to 63%. Similar and significant effects of temperature and duration of hypotonic treatment on the frequencies of PCSs were found also in mitotic lymphocytes from patients with homozygous PCS trait, a cancer‐prone disorder with >50% lymphocytes in PCS, mosaic variegated aneuploidy, and a variety of clinical manifestations; and from their heterozygous carrier parents. B lymphoblastoid cells from two infants with the homozygous PCS trait did not show PCSs when processed without hypotonic treatment. The frequencies of their PCSs increased with increasing temperature and duration of hypotonic treatment, attaining more than 65% after 20 min treatment and 90% after 45 min at 37°C. PCS is thus likely to be induced largely by hypotonic treatment. Treatment at 37°C for 20 min was found to be most suitable for the count of PCSs, in which the frequency of PCSs becomes almost zero in cells from normal individuals, and the difference in frequency of PCSs was most remarkable between the patients and heterozygous carriers, and between the heterozygous carriers and normal individuals. Chromosomes from the patients with the homozygous PCS trait tended to be long, and their PCSs tended to have a large number of widely separated sister chromatids. Chromosomes from normal individuals tended to be short, and the sister chromatids in their PCSs were set close to each other. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Monocyte adhesion molecule expression in interstitial inflammation in patients with renal failure.

BACKGROUND Patients with renal failure have an increased susceptibility to infections. We therefore studied the recruitment of monocytes and their expression of adhesion molecules CD11b and CD62L at the site of interstitial inflammation in patients with renal failure. Furthermore, we studied if the capacity of monocytes to up-regulate CD11b in interstitial inflammation was determined by the interstitial concentration of chemotactic factors. METHODS Three intensities of interstitial inflammation (0, intermediate and intense) were established in skin blister chambers. Leukocyte count, CD11b/CD62L expression, monocyte chemotactic protein-1 (MCP-1) and blister activity in terms of CD11b mobilization were determined. RESULTS The CD62L expression on monocytes was lower in the peripheral circulation in patients with renal failure compared with healthy subjects (P<0.005 and P<0.001). At the site of interstitial inflammation patients had a higher expression of CD62L (intermediate, P<0.05; intense, P<0.005). Furthermore, monocytes from patients had an impaired capacity to mobilize CD11b both in the peripheral circulation (P<0.005) and at the intermediate and intense sites of interstitial inflammation (P<0.005 and P<0.001, respectively) compared with cells collected from healthy subjects. We incubated monocytes in blister exudates, in order to explore whether this phenomenon is caused by cellular factors and/or to the interstitial concentration of chemotactic mediators. The expression of CD11b on monocytes from healthy blood donors incubated in blister exudates from either patients or healthy subjects in vitro was similar. The interstitial concentration of MCP-1 at the site of intermediate inflammation was significantly lower in patients with renal failure compared with the corresponding blister exudate collected from healthy subjects (P<0.05), but no differences were observed at the site of intense inflammation. Furthermore, neutralizing the action of MCP-1 in blister exudates with monoclonal antibodies did not have any impact on monocyte CD11b expression following incubation in blister exudates. CONCLUSION These studies indicate that the impaired capacity of monocytes to mobilize CD11b at the site of inflammation in patients with renal failure is more dependent on constitutive cellular factors than the concentration of CD11b mobilizing factors in the interstitium.
Tracking control of two-wheel driven mobile robot using compound sine function neural networks

The purpose of this paper is to propose a compound sine function neural network (NN) with continuous learning algorithm for the velocity and orientation angle tracking control of a mobile robot. Herein, two NN controllers embedded in the closed-loop control system are capable of on-line continuous learning and do not require any knowledge of the dynamics model. The neuron function of the hidden layer in the three-layer feed-forward network structure is on the basis of combining a sine function with a unipolar sigmoid function. In the NN algorithm, the weight values are only adjusted between the nodes in hidden layer and the output nodes, while the weight values between the input layer and the hidden layer are one, that is, constant, without the weight adjustment. The developed NN controllers have simple algorithm and fast learning convergence. Therefore, the proposed NN controllers can be suitable for the real-time tracking control of the mobile robots. The simulation results show that the proposed NN controller has better control performance in the tracking control of the mobile robot. The compound sine function NN provides a new way to solve tracking control problems for a mobile robot.
Analysis of LinkedIn Privacy Settings - Are they Sufficient, Insufficient or Just Unknown?

Internet-based applications give users an easy way to communicate with each other on a scale and rate unseen in traditional media. Among them, the professional social networking sites (with LinkedIn as one the most widespread platforms) offer a useful way to create and maintain a professional contact network. LinkedIn is also a self-promotion tool, where employees, industries and communities get in touch. In this scenario, it seems logical to consider privacy as a fundamental subject. Controlling who can see our data may avoid that our information reaches our boss when we are looking for a job, a competitor, or even former or present work colleagues with whom we have had some conflict. This work analyzes deeply the privacy settings offered by LinkedIn, and also analyzes the privacy concerns among the users, examining how these concerns correlate to the knowledge of the privacy settings and the adequacy of their use.
Professional tennis : quantitative models and ranking algorithms

Professional singles tennis is a popular global sport that attracts spectators and speculators alike. In recent years, financial trading related to sport outcomes has become a reality, thanks to the rise of online betting exchanges and the everincreasing development and deployment of quantitative models for sports. This thesis investigates the extent to which the outcome of a match between two professional tennis players can be forecast using quantitative models parameterised by historical data. Three different approaches are explored, each having its own advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, the problem is approached using a Markov chain to model a tennis point, estimating the probability of a player winning a point while serving. Such a probability can be used as a parameter to existing hierarchical models to estimate the probability of a player winning the match. We demonstrate how this probability can be estimated using varying subsets of historical player data and investigate their effect on results. Averaged historical data over varying opponents with different skill sets, does not necessarily provide a fair basis of comparison when evaluating the performance of players. The second approach presented is a technique that uses data, which includes only matches played against common opponents, to find the difference between the modelled players’ probability of winning a point on their serve against each common opponent. This difference in probability for each common opponent is a “transitive contribution” towards victory for the match being modelled. By combining these “contributions” the “Common-Opponent” model overcomes the problems of using average historical statistics at the cost of a shrinking data set. Finally, the thesis ventures into the field of player rankings. Rankings provide a fast and simple method for predicting match winners and comparing players. We present a variety of methods to generate such player rankings, either by making use of network analysis or hierarchical models. The generated rankings are then evaluated using their ability to correctly represent the subset of matches that were used to generate them as well as their ability to forecast future matches.
Une analyse théorique des modèles de rétro-pertinence

Nous proposons dans ce papier une analyse theorique des modeles de Pseudo-Relevance Feedback (PRF), expliquant pourquoi certains modeles comme les modeles d’information sont plus performants. Pour ce faire, nous proposons un ensemble de proprietes pour les fonctions de PRF, dont une portant sur la frequence documentaire (DF) qui est validee experimentalement. Cette etude theorique revele que plusieurs modeles de reference ne respectent pas la propriete sur l’effet IDF ou sur l’effet DF. Les modeles satisfaisant toutes les proprietes surpassent ces modeles en partie deficients.
ABCG2: the key to chemoresistance in cancer stem cells?

Multi-drug chemoresistance remains one of the most common reasons for chemotherapy failure. The membrane transporter protein ABCG2/BCRP1 has been shown in vitro to effectively reduce the intracellular concentrations of several prominent anticancer chemotherapeutic agents such as mitoxantrone and doxorubicin. Intriguingly, cancer stem cells are known to be characterized by multi-drug chemoresistance. Taking into account that the ABCG2+ subset of tumor cells are often enriched with cells with cancer stem-like phenotypes, it has been proposed that ABCG2 activity underlies the ability of cancer cells to regenerate post-chemotherapy. Furthermore, we also review evidence suggesting that tyrosine kinase inhibitors, including imatinib and gefitinib, are both direct and downstream inactivators of ABCG2 and, therefore, serve as candidates to reverse cancer stem cell chemoresistance and potentially target cancer stem cells.
The Phylogenetic Position of the Snapping Turtles (Chelydridae) Based on Nucleotide Sequence Data

Abstract We augmented existing genetic datasets with nucleotide sequences from Recombination Activase Gene 1 (RAG-1) and an intron in the RNA fingerprint protein 35 (R35) for Macrochelys temminckii (Chelydridae), and from the nuclear gene Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate Dehydrogenase (GAPDH) for Macrochelys temminckii, Apalone spinifera (Trionychidae), Trachemys scripta (Emydidae), Sternotherus odoratus (Kinosternidae), Staurotypus triporcatus (Kinosternidae), Chelydra serpentina (Chelydridae), Dermochelys coriacea (Dermochelyidae), Platysternon megacephalum (Platysternidae), and Chelonia mydas (Cheloniidae) to address the phylogenetic relationships of the Chelydridae. Our study finds support for a sister group relationship between Chelydridae and either the clades Kinosternoidea (Kinosternidae + Dermatemydidae) or Chelonioidea (Cheloniidae + Dermochelyidae). Further analysis also suggests that the speciation events leading to these clades occurred in rapid succession, within approximately one million years of each other.
Use of oesophagogastroscopy to assess the response of oesophageal carcinoma to neoadjuvant therapy

Approximately 25 per cent of patients with oesophageal cancer who undergo neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy have no evidence of tumour in the resected specimen (complete pathological response). Those who do not respond have a poor 5‐year survival compared with complete responders, regardless of whether or not they undergo surgery. Selecting for surgery only those who have a response to neoadjuvant therapy has the potential to improve overall survival as well as to rationalize the management of non‐responders. This study assessed the accuracy of oesophagogastroscopy in this setting.