Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Spectrum Of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis -- Its Possible Relationship With Iodine Status

Autoimmune thyroiditis affects 10-20% of the female population in the West. Iodine seems to be a important environmental factor in the development of thyroid autoimmunity in genetically susceptible individuals and in precipitating hypothyroidism in patients with Hashimotoâ€™s thyroiditis. The present study was conducted to assess the effect of iodine on thyroid function in Hashimotoâ€™s thyroiditis patients. In 80 patients with Hashimotoâ€™s thyroiditis 41 were clinically hypothyroid (Group I) and 3 were clinically euthyroid (Group II). All of them were using iodized salt, and the mean iodine content of iodized salt provided by the patients was 37 ppm which is above the WHO recommended allowance of 15 ppm. The urinary iodide in mg per g of creatinine in Group I patients was significant higher than in Group II patients (p<0.001). Recovery of thyroid function to normal in five of Group I patients in whom iodized salt use terminated, provides further evidence that these patients has iodine induced transient hypothyroidism.
OXIDATIVE STRESS BIOMARKERS OF EXPOSURE TO DELTAMETHRIN IN RAINBOW TROUT FRY ( Oncorhynchus mykiss )

Deltamethrin (DM) is a widely used pesticide based on pyrethroids, and is reported to be extremely toxic to fish species. We investigated the effect of DM concentrations (0.010, 0.0125 and 0.0250 μg/L) on antioxidants in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, using standard laboratory conditions. 24 h exposure caused whole body induction of various antioxidant enzymes and nonenzymatic antioxidants. Results showed that DM significantly (p< 0.05) increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Catalase (CAT) activity decreased in all experimental groups. Glutathione (GSH) was significantly (p<0.05) increased in the group with DM concentration of 0.0250 μg/L DM for 24 h. The activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) was found to be statistical significantly (p<0.05) decreased in all other experimental groups except the 0.010 μg/L DM treated group. The parameters studied in this investigation can also be used as biomarkers of exposure to DM. It is suggested that appropriate ecotoxicological risk assessments should be made wherever DM is proposed for use in pest control activities. KEYWORD: Deltamethrin, pesticide, rainbow trout, oxidative stress, antioxidant system
BIFURCATION AND MULTIPLICITY OF SOLUTIONS FOR THE FRACTIONAL LAPLACIAN WITH CRITICAL EXPONENTIAL NONLINEARITY

We study the fractional elliptic equation (−∆)u = λu+ |u|p−2ueu 2 , in (−1, 1), u = 0 in R \ (−1, 1), where λ is a positive real parameter, p > 2 and (−∆)1/2 is the fractional Laplacian operator. We show the multiplicity of solutions for this problem using an abstract critical point theorem of literature in critical point theory. Precisely, we extended the result of Cerami, Fortuno and Struwe [5] for the fractional Laplacian with exponential nonlinearity.
Desenvolvendo Sensores de Vídeo para a Internet das Coisas com o Raspberry Pi

The increasing interest for Internet of Things (IoT) technologies has brought a lot of attention to microelectronics and sensors development. With the availability of affordable embedded platforms for countless applications, it is possible to develop low-cost programmable sensors to provide different types of data, specially when cameras are employed. This Chapter covers the fundamentals of visual sensing and presents several technical details when using the Raspberry Pi platform for development of visual sensors. Basic configurations of the Raspberry Pi along with the most popular programs to take image snapshots and to make video streams will be presented. Moreover, the development of Python programs using the Raspberry Pi Camera will be discussed, as well as real-time transmissions of visual data over wireless networks. At the end of this Chapter, readers should know the fundamentals for the creation of highly programmable visual sensors with Raspberry Pi.
IN VITRO MORPHOGENESIS AND PLANT REGENERATION OF BAMBOOS ( Oxytenanthera abyssinica

Eiman E. E. and Syadat E. Mohamed. 2008. In Vitro Morphogenesis and Plant Regeneration of Bamboos (Oxytenanthera abyssinica A. Rich. Munro). Int. J. Sustain. Crop Prod. 3(6):72-79 With aim of large production of plant material, a protocol for micropropagation of Oxytenanthera abyssinica was developed at the laboratory of Plant Tissue Culture, Commission for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Khartoum, Sudan, during November 2006 to April 2008. Nodal explant from 12 months seedlings age was cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with different concentrations of benzyl adenine (BA) in combination with Naphthalene Acetic Acid (NAA). The highest shoot multiplication (4.4/shoot/explant) was achieved on six weeks on MS supplemented with 5.0 mg L BA and 0.2 mg L NAA. Proliferation media in liquid status shows better performance than solid media. For elongation, in vitro produced shoots were cultured on MS basal media (full, half, quarter) strength, MS full strength achieved the high shoot length (7.6) cm. When the propagated shoots were transferred to a rooting medium (full, half, quarter strength) MS, supplemented with (0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, 8.0 mg L) IBA concentrations, the highest rooting percentage (70%) was achieved in full strength MS media supplemented with 8.0 mg L IBA. Plants were successfully established in soil and adapted to greenhouse conditions and field. The protocols developed in this work provide a basis to achieve massive propagation of Oxytenanthera abyssinica by in vitro culture of nodal segments.
Approximating a Voronoi Cell

Given a set S of n points in IR d , called sites , we consider the problem of approximating the Voronoi cell of a site p by a convex polyhedron with a small number of facets or, equivalently, of ﬁnding a small set of approximate Voronoi neighbors of p . More precisely, we deﬁne an (cid:1) -approximate Voronoi neighborhood of p , denoted AVN (cid:1) ( p, S ) , to be a subset of S satisfying the following property: p is an (cid:1) -approximate nearest neighbor for any point q inside the convex polyhedron deﬁned by the bisectors between p and the sites in AVN (cid:1) ( p, S ) . We show that there exists a set of (cid:1) -approximate Voronoi neighbors with cardinality O (1 / √ (cid:1) ) for d = 2 and cardinality O ((1 /(cid:1) ) ( d − 1) / 2 log(1 /(cid:1) )) for any ﬁxed d ≥ 3 . We also provide a worst-case lower bound of Ω((1 /(cid:1) ) ( d − 1) / 2 ) on the number of approximate Voronoi neighbors. Thus, our bound is tight in the plane and within a factor of O (log(1 /(cid:1) )) from optimal in dimension d ≥ 3 . Finally, based on our existence proofs, we design efﬁcient algorithms for computing approximate Voronoi
Mesh Editing with Affine-Invariant Laplacian Coordinates Technical Report HKUST-CS 0501

Differential coordinates as an intrinsic surface representation capture geometric details of surface. However, differential coordinates alone cannot achieve desirable editing results, because they are not affine invariant. In this paper, we present a novel method that makes the Laplacian coordinates completely affine-invariant during editing. For each vertex of a surface to be edited, we compute the Laplacian coordinate and implicitly define a local affine transformation that is dependent on the unknown edited vertices. During editing, both the resulting surface and the implicit local affine transformations are solved simultaneously through a constrained optimization. The underlying mathematics of our method is a set of linear Partial Differential Equations (PDEs) with a generalized boundary condition. The main computation involved comes from factorizing the resulting sparse system of linear equations, which is performed only once. After that, back substitutions are executed to interactively respond to user manipulations. We propose a new editing technique, called pose-independent merging, to demonstrate the advantages of the affine-invariant Laplacian coordinates. In the the same framework, large-scale mesh deformation and pose-dependent mesh merging are also presented.
SELECTED RISK FACTORS FOR CERVICAL CANCER AND BARRIERS TO CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING

The article provides a review of literature on risk factors and cofactors for cervical cancer and barriers to cervical cancer screening. Cofactors of cervical cancer are risk factors that contribute to the development of cervical cancer but are not able to generate cancer on their own. Risk factors and cofactors of cervical cancer have been clearly identified in many studies. Therefore cervical cancer is a preventable type of cancer. The aim of this article was to describe in more detail the barriers to cervical cancer screening among women all over the world. The barriers to cervical cancer screening can be sorted according to the results of studies into five main groups: informational, psychological, socio-economic, behavioral and cultural, and geographical. Efforts to reduce risk factors and cofactors of HPV infection and cervical cancer and to increase knowledge about screening are necessary in a positive approach to preventing cervical cancer in society and to promote women’s health.
A temporal topic model for social trend prediction

Social media provides increasing opportunities for users to voluntarily share their thoughts and concerns in a large volume of data. While user-generated data from each individual may not provide considerable information, when combined, they include hidden variables which can convey signicant events. In this thesis, we pursue the question of whether social media context can provide socio-behavior “signals” for scio-economic index prediction. e hypothesis is that crowd publicly available data in social media, in particular Twier, may include predictive variables which can indicate the changes of socio-economic indexes. We developed content-based and user-centric prediction models where the objective is to employ Twier content to predict whether the rates increase or decrease for the prospective time-frame. In order to collect Twier data, we developed an activitybased sampling approach to collect credible users. e intention is to target users who are historically active rather than those who do not have enough contributions in the past. In fact, the idea is to decrease activity gaps or missing opinions of users by developing a data collection method, in which active users are selected for retrieving historical tweets. Since our problem has a sequential order, extracting meaningful paerns from historical tweets involves temporal analysis. Prediction models require to address information evolution, in which data are more related when they are close in time rather than further apart. We introduced a four-phase temporal topic detection model to infer predictive hidden topics. e model includes document partitioning, topic inference, topic selection, and document representation phases. In fact, a dynamic vocabulary is built to detect emerging topics. e extracted topics are compared over time to select more diverse and novel topics in each time consideration. e selected topics as
Association Study between Functional Polymorphisms of MMP9 Gene Promoter and Multiple Sclerosis Susceptibility in an Iranian Population

Background: Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) polymorphisms, C-1562 T and -90 (CA) n repeats, which influence transcriptional activity of this gene, are proposed to play a role in MS susceptibility and its development. In the present study, the possible association of MMP-9 polymorphisms in Iranian MS patients is studied. Methods: Association of MMP-9 mentioned gene polymorphisms with MS susceptibility was evaluated in unrelated Iranian subjects referred to Al-Zahra Hospital, Isfahan, Iran during 2014 to 2017. Results: -1562 T allele of MMP-9 was associated with increased MS risk. However, we found no overall significant effect of −90 (CA)n repeat on MS susceptibility. Conclusion: For as much as MMP-9 molecule is a potential target for MS therapy, to determine whether any of MMP-9 polymorphisms influence MS susceptibility in Iranian MS patients or not, concerning the significant influence of T allele on MS susceptibility and the non-significant association regarding CA repeats, further research is needed before proposing any definite conclusion.
C R ] 1 M ar 2 01 8 Data mining for detecting Bitcoin Ponzi schemes

Soon after its introduction in 2009, Bitcoin has been adopted by cyber-criminals, which rely on its pseudonymity to implement virtually untraceable scams. One of the typical scams that operate on Bitcoin are the so-called Ponzi schemes. These are fraudulent investments which repay users with the funds invested by new users that join the scheme, and implode when it is no longer possible to find new investments. Despite being illegal in many countries, Ponzi schemes are now proliferating on Bitcoin, and they keep alluring new victims, who are plundered of millions of dollars. We apply data mining techniques to detect Bitcoin addresses related to Ponzi schemes. Our starting point is a dataset of features of real-world Ponzi schemes, that we construct by analysing, on the Bitcoin blockchain, the transactions used to perform the scams. We use this dataset to experiment with various machine learning algorithms, and we assess their effectiveness through standard validation protocols and performance metrics. The best of the classifiers we have experimented can identify most of the Ponzi schemes in the dataset, with a low number of false positives.
Arctic sea ice in Earth system models: decadal hindcast skill and constraints of long-term projections

The recent retreat of summer Arctic sea ice has critical implications for climate worldwide. This thesis investigates the potential of observations to improve Earth system model simulations of Arctic climate. It is shown that model initialization with observations can improve decadal hindcasts in the North Atlantic, Greenland and Beaufort Sea regions. The thesis also identifies ways to improve decadal climate predictions. Furthermore, a relatively new observation-based analysis method is used to constrain uncertainties in multi-model projections of 21st-century Arctic sea ice extent, by which model uncertainty could be reduced by up to 50%. However, irreducible internal variability is too large for exact predictions of, for example, the timing of a first disappearance of summer Arctic sea ice. The thesis concludes that mitigation strategies to reduce Arctic warming need to be intensified and that it becomes increasingly crucial to further improve the understanding of the Arctic climate system.
Preferential centrality – A new measure unifying urban activity, attraction and accessibility

The fact that accessibility shapes the geographic distribution of activity needs to be addressed in any long-term policy and planning for urban systems. One major problem is that current accessibility measures rely on the identification and quantification of attractions in the system. We propose that it is possible to devise a network centrality measure that bypasses this reliance and predicts the distribution of urban activity directly from the structure of the infrastructure networks over which interactions take place. From a basis of spatial interaction modelling and eigenvector centrality measures, we develop what we call a preferential centrality measure that recursively and self-consistently integrates activity, attraction and accessibility. Derived from the same logic as Google’s PageRank algorithm, we may describe its operation by drawing a parallel: Google’s PageRank algorithm ranks the importance of networked documents without the need to perform any analysis of their contents. Instead it considers the topological structure of the network and piggybacks thereby on contextualised and deep evaluation of documents by the myriad distributed agents that constructed the network. We do the same thing with regard to networked geographical zones. Our approach opens up new applications of modelling and promises to alleviate a host of recalcitrant problems, associated with integrated modelling, and the need for large volumes of socio-economic data. We present an initial validation of our proposed measure by using land taxation values in the Gothenburg municipality as an empirical proxy of urban activity. The resulting measure shows a promising correlation with the taxation values.
Core Factors for Software Projects Success

The successful software project can be defined as the project that meets the planned quality, cost, schedule, and effort. It has been suggested that there are many reasons which might lead to software project success. Several success and failure factors for particular projects were discussed in the literature. This paper aims to identify the most common success factors through reviewing a set of software project reports and case studies. In order to fully understand reasons behind the project success, the reasons behind project failure and the definition of failure itself are discussed. Furthermore, case studies of successful and failed software projects are described. This paper also investigates techniques that have been developed to increase software project success rate and decrease probable failures.
Zdravotně sociální aspekty bezdomovectví Health and social aspects of homelessness

The aim of this overview study is to highlight the issue of homelessness in connection with selected health and social aspects. We deal with psychological and physical health, homelessness and substance abuse (alcohol, drugs). Existing studies point to the fact that, among the homeless, there is a higher psychiatric morbidity than among the general population. The situation is identical regarding physical health. Substance abuse is also more common among the homeless than among the general population. In this study, we used the current academic articles listed in Scopus and PubMed to start with. We searched for them entering the keywords “homeless” and “health”. In 2015, Scopus published 6670 articles on this topic. In PubMed, we found 1780 scientific articles, regarding the keywords, published in the last 5 years. In connection with this topic, we also drew from the current academic bibliography available on the Czech market and from the website of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of
SELF-PERCEIVED EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN LEADERSHIP OF ADMINISTRATIVE ACADEMIC STAFF

Research on effective educational leadership and emotional intelligence is growing. There still remains a gap in the relationship that exists between emotional intelligence and educational leadership especially at higher education institutions such as colleges and universities. The main aim of this study was to identify the self-perceived emotional intelligence in leadership of a university’s administrative academic staff. A total of 20 (out of 26) administrative academic staff participated in this study. Two research instruments that were adapted for this study were Bass and Avolio’s Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ5X Form) and Mayer - Salovey - Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT). The findings indicated that the administrative academic staff perceived themselves as exhibiting a highly transformational leadership style as compared to the other two leadership styles, namely, transactional and laissez- faire. The findings also revealed that the administrative academic staff assessed themselves as demonstrating more on managing emotions as compared to the other three emotional branches, namely perceiving emotions, facilitating emotions, and understanding emotions. It also revealed that there was a weak but significant relationship between the transactional leadership relationship and emotional intelligence while the other two leadership styles did not indicate any significant relationship.
Food waste generation: restaurant data and consumer attitudes

Food waste and related negative impacts are gaining attention in all policy levels. Therefore, there is an increased need for research and analysis in the field, especially in different countries, different sectors. In Lithuania so far there are only couple of studies regarding food waste as such, therefore the aim of this study is to estimate food waste generation in one of food supply chain stages - catering at the restaurant – and to determine restaurant costumers’ attitudes towards food waste and related aspects. Results indicate that there are weekly and daily variations in food waste generation per capita. The biggest share of wasted food was composed of grain/cereals products. Shame was identified as one of the reasons for not taking plate leftovers home. However, restaurant could employ some of the activities like educating its consumers or providing personalized portions. In general, consumer indicated lack of information on food waste problems and related environmental impacts, though at home majority of the respondents throw away still good to consume food rather often. Hence, information provision and greater attention both from the consumers and the service providers could be a significant input in food waste reduction in public catering service sector.
Post-weaning cyclicity and artificial insemination protocols in swine females

A prolonged WEI has an impact on artificial insemination (AI) management and reproductive efficiency due to the accumulation of non-productive days. Besides seasonal and management factors, hormone-based protocols can be used on the control of female cyclicity. Administration of equine and human chorionic gonadotrophins (eCG and hCG, respectively) after weaning can shorten the WEI. Fixed-time artificial insemination (FTAI) is based on synchronization of the ovulation, allowing a single AI to be conducted per female. Protocols of FTAI for gilts require previous estrous synchronization with progesterone analogs followed by an ovulation inductor, such as the porcine luteinizing hormone (pLH) or a gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist. Protocols of FTAI for weaned sows can be conducted only using a GnRH agonist, applied either intramuscularly or intravaginally. The use of FTAI combined with both intrauterine and homospermic AI may result in substantial financial and genetic benefits due to the reduction in the number of spermatozoa per AI. Key-words: weaning-estrus interval, reproductive efficiency, FTAI, sows.
Anticipating Automated Vehicle Presence and the Effects on Interactions with Conventional Traffic and Infrastructure

Expectations are that automated and connected mobility will increase road safety and traffic efficiency. However, due to possible shortcomings of new technologies , road users may be confronted with disturbances and potential safety risks. The mitigation of such risks will bring necessary changes to road infrastructure, vehicles and road-users’ behavior. In a traffic environment that was built to fit the human perception, preemptive simulation of parametrized scenarios can provide guidelines for what changes and difficulties are to be expected. Utilizing SUMO in varied scenarios, this paper outlines the creation of virtual models that correspond to interaction hot spots on the Austrian road network from digitizing the infrastructure, to calibrating a simulation scenario with congruent traffic measurements while it concludes with the evaluation of scenario simulation results. The approach is demonstrated for a selected motorway ramp scenario, varying rates of automated vehicles and different infrastructure layouts. Performance indicators like vehicle speed distributions and traffic disruptions are defined and analyzed to investigate how adaptations can mitigate risks, influence traffic flow and hence support progressing vehicle automation.