Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk Factors Associated With Death in a 12-Month Cohort Analysis of Tuberculosis Patients

The aim of the study was to investigate the risk of death for 12 months follow-up after registration of tuberculosis (TB), using a nationwide population-based retrospective cohort study. A total of 33851 new TB cases were enrolled from 2006 to 2008. Of these, 5584 (16.5%) patients died during the follow-up period because of TB, and 4224 (12.5%) patients died because of other causes. Multivariate survival analysis revealed that age, HIV, chronic kidney disease, stroke, cancer, and chronic liver disease and cirrhosis were significant risk factors associated with death. Patients of age 0 to 64 years with HIV, chronic kidney disease, cancer, stroke, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, or diabetes had a higher risk of death than those without these comorbidities. The majority of the TB patients in Taiwan died because of causes other than TB, and death often occurred in the first 2 months after TB registration. Therefore, medical care and case management for those with comorbidities are advised to prevent death during TB treatment.
Neuromuscular Exercise as Treatment of Degenerative Knee Disease

Exercise is recommended as first-line treatment of degenerative knee disease. Our hypothesis is that neuromuscular exercise is feasible and at least as effective as traditionally used strength or aerobic training but aims to target more closely the sensorimotor deficiencies and functional instability associated with the degenerative knee disease than traditionally used training methods.
Anger and Sadness Regulation: Predictions to Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in Children

Examined the relation between children's self-reported anger and sadness regulation and the presence of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Participants were 121 boys and 106 girls in the fourth and fifth grades who completed the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), Emotion Expression Scale for Children (EESC), and Children's Emotion Management Scales (CSMS, CAMS) and rated each other on aggressive behavior. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that the inability to identify emotional states, the inhibition of anger, the dysregulation of anger and sadness, and the constructive coping with anger predicted internalizing symptoms. The dysregulated expression of sadness and constructive coping with anger were inversely related to externalizing symptoms.
Développement de méthodes et d’outils numériques pour l’étude de la sûreté du réacteur à sels fondus MSFR

Les travaux realises pendant cette these portent sur l’etude de la surete du Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) et incluent a la fois des methodes d’analyse de risques et des calculs deterministes de surete et de design. Ce travail s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet europeen SAMOFAR.Le MSFR est un reacteur regenerateur a spectre neutronique rapide qui fonctionne en cycle thorium dans sa configuration de reference, etablie en debut du projet SAMOFAR. Il a ete selectionne par le Forum International Generation IV pour son potentiel prometteur. Comme tout reacteur nucleaire de quatrieme generation, il doit repondre a differentes contraintes dont une surete optimale. Celle-ci doit etre etudiee des le stade de conception afin d’etre integree au design lors de sa definition plutot qu’ajoutee a posteriori. En raison de ses specificites, en particulier l’etat liquide du combustible, et du stade preliminaire de son design, l’analyse de surete du MSFR necessite l’utilisation de methodologies d’analyse de surete adaptees et technologiquement neutres. Dans cette these, une telle methodologie a ete developpee et une premiere application au MSFR realisee. Elle a notamment permis d’identifier les evenements initiateurs d’accident de ce reacteur et d’elaborer une liste resserree d’evenements a traiter dans la suite de l’analyse de surete.D’autre part, un nouveau code systeme a ete developpe pour les etudes de surete. Il est base sur la diffusion neutronique, prend en compte le transport des precurseurs de neutrons retardes et la puissance residuelle du combustible. Il a ete utilise pour simuler les transitoires associes a certains des evenements initiateurs et evaluer leurs consequences pour definir, par la suite, des systemes de protection adaptes. Ce travail a confirme l’importance d’un dispositif specifique au MSFR, le systeme de vidange d’urgence, permettant de vidanger le combustible en cas d’accident en cœur. Des etudes parametriques ont ete menees afin de dimensionner ce systeme avec pour objectif d'assurer l’evacuation de la chaleur residuelle du combustible et sa sous-criticite en toutes circonstances.Enfin, une premiere ebauche de l’architecture de surete du reacteur a ete proposee incluant l’identification des systemes de protection et la definition des barrieres de confinement. Les etudes de surete ont permis de faire des retours sur le design initialement defini. Ils incluent l’ajout de composants, des propositions de design alternatifs, et soulignent les manques de connaissances sur certains phenomenes ou procedures. L’analyse de surete realisee remplit ainsi son objectif principal : guider le design du reacteur des sa conception afin d’en ameliorer la surete.
Incentive Mechanism Design to Meet Task Criteria in Crowdsourcing: How to Determine Your Budget

In crowdsourcing markets, a requester announces a task and calls for contribution from potential participants. With strategic participants, the requester needs to reward the participants to introduce the incentives of participation. However, it is natural to ask whether it is worth introducing incentives if the total payment for eliciting incentives is too high. This paper addresses such a fundamental concern by designing a frugal mechanism with minimum payment used to procure the total amount of service contributions demanded. We design two mechanisms to provide the incentives of participation while minimizing the payment used by the requester. We first propose a frugal auction-based mechanism, which stimulates participants to truthfully report their information. We theoretically prove that the payment used is not more than the optimal cost (with no incentive considered) plus a bounded additive. We then design a Stackelberg-game-based mechanism, in which the requester fixes a certain total payment at the very beginning so as to encourage the participants to compete for it and participate in the task. We verify the existence of a unique Nash equilibrium (NE) and develop a novel algorithm to find the NE, as well as the optimal payment to extract the NE. Our simulation results show that the payment used in these mechanisms is close to the optimal solution with no incentive considered, while the extra payment caused by introducing truthfulness in auction-based mechanism is about twice that of the NE in Stakelberg-game-based mechanism.
Wirelessly actuated microvalve system using induction heating and its thermal effect on the microfluidic system

A wirelessly heated paraffin based disposable microvalve system has been implemented in a microfluidic system. Paraffin changes its phase from solid to liquid by inductively heated adjacent heating elements, turning on the valve. Copper and nickel discs with a diameter of 2.5mm and various thicknesses of 50µm, 100µm, and 200µm have been used as heating elements. A high frequency induction heating system (300kHz ∼ 400kHz) has been used for the valve actuation, where the copper disc with a thickness of 50µm shows most effective heating performance. The compliance of the thermally actuated valve with the enzymatic activity has been studied. No significant thermal degradation of the enzyme due to the generated heat by induction heating has been observed.
Optimizing High Speed Flip-Flop Using Genetic Algorithm

In this paper, the optimization of power-delay-product (PDP) of a high-speed flip-flop via transistor sizing is presented. The optimization is performed using the genetic algorithm (GA). The flip-flop which is used in this optimization is called modified hybrid latch flip-flop (MHLFF). The genetic algorithm is implemented in MATLAB with the fitness function expressed in terms of the power and the delay of the flip-flop. These parameters are accurately computed using Hspice for a 65nm CMOS technology. The results show a reduction of 31% in the PDP of the optimized structure compared to the flip-flop without any optimization
Validation of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale for use with multiple sclerosis patients

Detecting clinically significant symptoms of depression and anxiety in medically ill patients using self-report rating scales presents a challenge because of somatic confounders. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was developed with this in mind, but has never been validated for a multiple sclerosis population. Our objective was to validate the HADS for multiple sclerosis patients. Multiple sclerosis patients were interviewed for the presence of major depression (n = 180) and anxiety disorders (n = 140) with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV disorders. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was undertaken to assess which HADS cut-off scores give the best yield with respect to diagnoses of major depression and all anxiety disorders defined by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. A threshold score of 8 or greater on the HADS depression subscale provides a sensitivity of 90% and specificity of 87.3% (ROC area under the curve 0.938). The same cut-off score gives a sensitivity of 88.5% and a specificity of 80.7% on the anxiety subscale (ROC area under the curve 0.913), but for generalized anxiety disorder only. The study confirms the usefulness of the HADS as a marker of major depression and generalized anxiety disorder, but not other anxiety disorders, in multiple sclerosis patients.
Forecasting with DSGE Models

In this paper we review the methodology of forecasting with log-linearised DSGE models using Bayesian methods. We focus on the estimation of their predictive distributions, with special attention being paid to the mean and the covariance matrix of h-step ahead forecasts. In the empirical analysis, we examine the forecasting performance of the New Area-Wide Model (NAWM) that has been designed for use in the macroeconomic projections at the European Central Bank. The forecast sample covers the period following the introduction of the euro and the out-of-sample performance of the NAWM is compared to nonstructural benchmarks, such as Bayesian vector autoregressions (BVARs). Overall, the empirical evidence indicates that the NAWM compares quite well with the reduced-form models and the results are therefore in line with previous studies. Yet there is scope for improving the NAWM’s forecasting performance. For example, the model is not able to explain the moderation in wage growth over the forecast evaluation period and, therefore, it tends to overestimate nominal wages. As a consequence, both the multivariate point and density forecasts using the log determinant and the log predictive score, respectively, suggest that a large BVAR can outperform the NAWM. JEL Classification: C11, C32, E32, E37
Preparation of alpha‐bisabolol and phenylethyl resorcinol/TiO2 hybrid composites for potential applications in cosmetics

Bifunctional alpha‐bisabolol and phenylethyl resorcinol/TiO2 hybrids were prepared to apply in cosmetic fields, particularly in anti‐ageing and hyperpigmentation treatment. The synergistic effect of combined antioxidant and UV filtering properties was achieved through functionalization of TiO2 particles with skin‐lightening materials such as alpha‐bisabolol and phenylethyl resorcinol.
Efficient and Scalable View Generation from a Single Image using Fully Convolutional Networks

Single-image-based view generation (SIVG) is important for producing 3D stereoscopic content. Here, handling different spatial resolutions as input and optimizing both reconstruction accuracy and processing speed is desirable. Latest approaches are based on convolutional neural network (CNN), and they generate promising results. However, their use of fully connected layers as well as pre-trained VGG forces a compromise between reconstruction accuracy and processing speed. In addition, this approach is limited to the use of a specific spatial resolution. To remedy these problems, we propose exploiting fully convolutional networks (FCN) for SIVG. We present two FCN architectures for SIVG. The first one is based on combination of an FCN and a view-rendering network called DeepView$_{ren}$. The second one consists of decoupled networks for luminance and chrominance signals, denoted by DeepView$_{dec}$. To train our solutions we present a large dataset of 2M stereoscopic images. Results show that both of our architectures improve accuracy and speed over the state of the art. DeepView$_{ren}$ generates competitive accuracy to the state of the art, however, with the fastest processing speed of all. That is x5 times faster speed and x24 times lower memory consumption compared to the state of the art. DeepView$_{dec}$ has much higher accuracy, but with x2.5 times faster speed and x12 times lower memory consumption. We evaluated our approach with both objective and subjective studies.
Cloning and characterization of a LON gene homologue from the human pathogen Paracoccidioides brasiliensis

A LON gene homologue from the human pathogen Paracoccidioides brasiliensis (PbLON) has been cloned, sequenced and characterized. It encodes a putative ATP‐dependent proteinase Lon, which in Saccharomyces cerevisisae (PIM1) is a heat‐inducible protein involved in the degradation of abnormal or short‐lived proteins in the mitochondria. The PbLON ORF is within a 3369 bp fragment interrupted by two introns located in the 3′segment. The 5′ and 3′ regions flanking the ORF contain sequences which resemble known transcription elements. Several transcription binding factor motifs have also been found, including sites for heat shock/stress response and nitrogen control. The deduced protein consists of 1063 residues containing a mitochondrial import signal at the N‐terminus and conserved ATP‐binding (GPPGVGKT) and serine catalytic (KDGPSAG) sites. It shares high identity with Lon homologues from S. cerevisiae (73%), Homo sapiens (62%) and Escherichia coli (56%). In P. brasiliensis, an MDJ1 putative gene has also been partially sequenced adjacent to PbLON, possibly sharing divergently orientated promoter elements. This chromosomal organization is interesting, since Mdj1p is a heat shock chaperone essential for substrate degradation by PIM1 in yeast. The LON nucleotide andflanking sequence regions have been submitted to GenBank under Accession No. AF239178. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Near real-time thematic clustering of web documents and other internet contents

In the past decade, Internet has radically changed our lives, enabling us to obtain information on everything (disasters, political decisions, ordinary events, etc.) we are interested in in almost real-time. Downloading a web page by a browser, instant messaging or file sharing generate huge amount of network traffic that carry valuable information on the most relevant topics that raise interest in individual users, user groups or the entire society. However, the analysis of this huge amount of unstructured textual data poses many challenges, especially if it is not possible to store the data off-line and real-time clustering is needed. In this paper, we propose a framework for real-time textual content clustering of different sources called documents over the Internet, including posts on Twitter and Facebook, blogs, web sites or other textual contents. To support real-time processing, we extend the spherical on-line K-means clustering algorithm with heuristic improvements: an adaptive dimension reduction technique is introduced to keep the dimension of the document space on a reasonable level, and the ability to open new and remove old clusters according to the actual demand is also added. The performance of our improved algorithm called ASKM (Adaptive Streaming K-Means) has been analyzed on a ground truth data set based on the catalog of Open Directory Project. Furthermore, we also consider a much more realistic scenario where only some parts of the Internet documents are available because of practical limitations of traffic capturing, resulting incomplete textual documents to be clustered. We also show that the proposed method can achieve reasonable good accuracy even in this practical case.
Plasma concentrations of glucagon-like peptide-2 in adult patients with treated and untreated coeliac disease

Background Coeliac disease is a common chronic inflammatory enteropathy characterized by villous atrophy and crypt hyperplasia in the small intestine. The mechanism of the intestinal damage in coeliac disease remains unclear. Glucagon-like peptide (GLP)-2 is an enterotrophic peptide that causes crypt hyperplasia and intestinal cell proliferation. We postulate that GLP-2 may be involved in the mucosal changes found in coeliac disease. Objectives To study plasma concentrations of GLP-2 in untreated patients with coeliac disease and determine the response to a gluten-free diet (GFD). Methods A 440 kcal gluten-free test meal was given to seven controls and 12 coeliac patients at three time intervals: (1) before commencing a GFD; (2) 3 months after a GFD; and (3) 9 months after a GFD. Serial blood sampling was performed over a 2-h period. Each sample was analysed using radioimmunoassay for GLP-2, GLP-1, N-terminal glucagon (N-glucagon) and C-terminal glucagon (C-glucagon). Results Untreated coeliac patients had significantly higher basal and peak GLP-2 and N-glucagon plasma concentrations compared with controls. After 3 months on a GFD, there was a significant decrease in basal GLP-2 plasma concentrations. There was no significant difference between GLP-1 or C-glucagon in untreated coeliac patients compared with controls. Conclusion This is the first reported study of GLP-2 in coeliac disease. After a GFD there is recovery of the intestine and a reduction in the GLP-2 trophic response. Our findings support the theory that GLP-2 may be part of the mucosal healing and maintenance mechanisms in coeliac disease.
MicroRNA‐155 targets cyb561d2 in zebrafish in response to fipronil exposure

MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which are a class of small noncoding RNAs, can modulate the expression of many protein‐coding genes when an organism is exposed to an environmental chemical. We previously demonstrated that miR‐155 was significantly downregulated in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) in response to fipronil (5‐amino‐1‐[2,6‐dichloro‐4‐(trifluoromethyl) phenyl]‐4‐[(trifluoromethyl) sulphinyl]‐1H‐pyrazole‐3‐carbonitrile) exposure. However, the regulation of this miRNA's predicted target gene cyb561d2, which is a member of the cytochrome b561 (cyt b561) family involved in electron transfer, cell defence, and chemical stress, has not been experimentally validated to date. In this study, we evaluated the effects of fipronil on miR‐155 and cyb561d2 in zebrafish. The expression of miR‐155 was downregulated, whereas cyb561d2 was upregulated in both mRNA and protein level in a dose‐dependent manner upon stimulation of fipronil. The dual luciferase report assay demonstrated that miR‐155 interacted with cyb561d2 3′‐untranslated regions (3′‐UTR). The expression of cyb561d2 was reduced in both mRNA and protein levels when ZF4 cells were transfected with an miR‐155 mimic, whereas its expression levels of both mRNA and protein were increased when endogenous miR‐155 was inhibited by transfection with an miR‐155 inhibitor. The results improved our understanding of molecular mechanism of toxicity upon fipronil exposure, and presents miR‐155 as a potential novel toxicological biomarker for chemical exposure. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 31: 877–886, 2016.
The prevalence of Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation (MIH) in a group of Italian school children.

AIM This epidemiological study in a group of Italian children was undertaken in order to increase our knowledge of the prevalence of Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation (MIH) in different European countries. METHOD A population of school children aged 7.3 - 8.3 years, living in Lissone, Northern Italy, was examined for the presence and severity of MIH. RESULTS Of a total of 227 children (113 females), 31 (13.7%) had MIH, the tooth prevalence in the permanent first molars being 5.8%. Fifteen children (6.6%) had demarcated opacities in the incisors with a tooth prevalence of 2.1%. The defects in the molars were mild with the exception of one child who had severe defects. CONCLUSION MIH was quite common in this Italian town, and the prevalence figures were near those reported in Scandinavian countries but clearly higher than those from Dresden, Germany.
Studies on the mosquitoes of North Arcot district, Madras State, India. 2. Biting cycles and behavior on human and bovine baits at two villages.

The relative preferences of various mosquito species of southern India for man, bullock or buffalo were determined in the open. Culex pipiens fatigans showed a definite preference for man, C. bitaeniorhynchus was taken in almost equal numbers on the 3 kinds of hosts, and all other species, including those of the C. vishnui group, preferred the animal bait. Several species, including the C. vishnui group, preferred bullock to buffalo, some species showed no preferences, and 2 showed a slight preference for the buffalo. The 7 most common species were all more active before midnight than after. Anopheles hyrcanus was most active just after dark, An. pallidus and C. bitaeniorhynchus showed 2 peaks of activity before midnight and the C. vishnui group and An. subpictus showed increasing activity to a maximum between 2200 and 2400 hr, when numbers began to decline steadily until activity ceased at dawn. An. subpictus was taken in approximately equal numbers on human bait inside a hut, on the porch, and in the open air. All other mosquito species were taken in largest numbers in the open and in smallest numbers in the hut. The C. vishnui group entered the hut to bite in fair numbers. C. pipiens fatigans was uncommon in the village at which these observations were made; its behavior could not be studied. The proportions of the different species taken biting a bullock in the open were similar to the proportions of the same species taken in a bullock-baited stable trap in the same village. The C. vishnui group predominated in both types of collection.
Effect of cigarette smoking on phenacetin metabolism

Nine nonsmokers and nine individuals who smoked more than 15 Cigarettes per day were administered 900 mg of phenacetin orally, and the concentration of phenacetin in plasma was measured 1, 2, 3.5, and 5 hours after the dose. The plasma levels of phenacetin in the smokers were markedly lower than in the nonsmokers. The plasma levels of unconiugated or total N‐acetyl‐p‐aminophenol in the smokers were the same or only slightly lower than in the nonsmokers, and the ratios of the plasma concentration of total N‐acetyl‐p‐aminophenol to phenacetin were increased severalfold in the smokers. These results indicated that cigarette smoking stimulated the metabolism of phenacetin. To learn whether polycyclic hydrocarbons in cigarette smoke could influence the gastrointestinal metaboli5m of phenacetin, we studied the effects of 3,4‐benzpyrene administration on the metabolism of CILphenacetin by enzymes in the intestinal mucosa of the rat. The data indicated that O‐dealkylation of phenacetin did occur—to a small extent—by an enzyme system in the small intestine, and that the activity of this enzyme system was stimulated by treatment of rats with 3,4‐benzpyrene.