Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender differences in adult foot shape: implications for shoe design.

PURPOSE To analyze gender differences in foot shape in a large sample of young individuals. METHODS Univariate t-tests and multivariate discriminant analyses were used to assess 1) significant differences between men and women for each foot and leg dimension, standardized to foot length, 2) the reliability of classification into gender classes using the absolute and standardized variable sets, and 3) the relative importance of each variable to the discrimination between men and women. RESULTS Men have longer and broader feet than women for a given stature. After normalization of the measurements by foot length, men and women were found to differ significantly in two calf, five ankle, and four foot shape variables. Classification by gender using absolute values was correct at least 93% of the time. Using the variables standardized to foot length, gender was correctly classified 85% of the time. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that female feet and legs are not simply scaled-down versions of male feet but rather differ in a number of shape characteristics, particularly at the arch, the lateral side of the foot, the first toe, and the ball of the foot. These differences should be taken into account in the design and manufacture of women's sport shoes.
Development of a diamond transmitted secondary electron source

We are developing a vacuum electron source using electrons transmitted through thin films of diamond. Calculations suggest this cold electron source is capable of providing total average currents in excess of 1A as well as energy spread below 0.5 eV and current densities roughly 100 times higher than conventional dispenser cathodes. We are growing diamond films with excellent quality and developing fabrication and processing methods required to create a transmitted secondary electron source.
High-Order Intermodulation Effects in Digital Satellite Channels

The phenomenon of intermodulation generation due to passive and normally linear components is sometimes called passive intermodulation. A unique characteristic of passive intermodulation interference in communications satellites is that the products causing trouble are of high orders. Due to the immense combinatorial complexity of the problem, both exact analysis and direct simulation are almost impossible. In this paper the problem is simplified by considering a composite interference model consisting of 1) the lowest order intermodulation product (of those high-order ones) at a frequency of interest, 2) a constant-envelope carrier with random phase to account for all other intermodulation interferences by direct overlap or spectrum spreading in the vicinity, and 3) white Gaussian noise (receiver noise). An approximation of the tail statistics of this composite interference is derived, and numerical results (checked by simulation) show that the tail distribution may be very different from Gaussian; careful consideration must be rendered before resorting to the a priori Gaussian assumption.
Human papillomavirus prevalence in paired urine and cervical samples in women invited for cervical cancer screening

With the introduction of Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in young girls in 2007, it is important to monitor HPV infections and epidemiological changes in this target population. The present study has evaluated the detection of human papillomavirus DNA in paired cervical and urine samples to understand if HPV testing in urine could be used as non‐invasive method to monitor HPV status in young women. The study enrolled 216 twenty five‐year‐old women, resident in Florence and invited for the first time to the cervical cancer Screening Program within a project evaluating the impact of HPV vaccination. HPV genotyping was performed on 216 paired urine and cervical samples. The overall concordance between cervix and urine samples, investigated by HPV genotyping (INNO‐LiPA HPV Genotyping Extra), was: 85.6% (184/215), 84.6% (182/215), 80% (172/215) when the same HPV, at least the same HR HPV and all HR HPV, respectively, were detected. HPV type specific concordance in paired urine and cervical samples was observed in 85.8% (175/204) of women with normal cytology and in seven out of nine women with abnormal cytology. Urine seems to be a suitable and reliable biological material for HPV DNA detection as evidenced by the high concordance with HPV detected in cervical samples. These results suggest that urine could be a good noninvasive tool to monitor HPV infection in vaccinated women. J. Med. Virol. 87:508–515, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Fast pedestrian detection using deformable part model and pyramid layer location

Abstract. The majority of pedestrian detection approaches use multiscale detection and the sliding window search scheme with high computing complexity. We present a fast pedestrian detection method using the deformable part model and pyramid layer location (PLL). First, the object proposal method is used rather than the traditional sliding window to obtain pedestrian proposal regions. Then, a PLL method is proposed to select the optimal root level in the feature pyramid for each candidate window. On this basis, a single-point calculation scheme is designed to calculate the scores of candidate windows efficiently. Finally, pedestrians can be located from the images. The Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique dataset for human detection is used to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can reduce the number of feature maps and windows requiring calculation in the detection process. Consequently, the computing cost is significantly reduced, with fewer false positives.
Two-step Mechanism That Determines the Donor Binding Specificity of Human UDP-N-acetylhexosaminyltransferase*

In its x-ray crystal structures, α-1,4-N-acteylhexosaminyltransferase (exostosin-like protein 2 (EXTL2)) forms no direct interaction with the N-acetyl group of the UDP-N-acetylhexosamine. Mutation of the residues that interact with the hydroxyl groups of the donor not only failed to abrogate donor binding but in fact increased binding affinity. Isothermal titration calorimetry is now used to examine the binding nature of various UDP-sugars in H2O and D2O solutions. UDP-N-acetylhexosamines bind to EXTL2 with a high affinity in both solutions, resulting in a relatively large increase of entropy, whereas the weak binding of UDP-galactose and -glucose, which occurred only in D2O solution, only slightly increased entropy. Thus, specific donor binding appears to undergo two distinct steps, beginning with the N-acetyl group expelling water from the donor· enzyme complex into the bulk solvent followed by positioning of the donor into the binding site for the subsequent interactions with the enzyme.
Clinical Quantitation of Prostate-specific Antigen Biomarker in the Low Nanogram/Milliliter Range by Conventional Bore Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry (Multiple Reaction Monitoring) Coupling and Correlation with ELISA Tests

Proteomics discovery leads to a list of potential protein biomarkers that have to be subsequently verified and validated with a statistically viable number of patients. Although the most sensitive, the development of an ELISA test is time-consuming when antibodies are not available and need to be conceived. Mass spectrometry analysis driven in quantitative multiple reaction monitoring mode is now appearing as a promising alternative to quantify proteins in biological fluids. However, all the studies published to date describe limits of quantitation in the low μg/ml range when no immunoenrichment of the target protein is applied, whereas the concentration of known clinical biomarkers is usually in the ng/ml range. Using prostate-specific antigen as a model biomarker, we now provide proof of principle that mass spectrometry enables protein quantitation in a concentration range of clinical interest without immunoenrichment. We have developed and optimized a robust sample processing method combining albumin depletion, trypsin digestion, and solid phase extraction of the proteotypic peptides starting from only 100 μl of serum. For analysis, mass spectrometry was coupled to a conventional liquid chromatography system using a 2-mm-internal diameter reverse phase column. This mass spectrometry-based strategy was applied to the quantitation of prostate-specific antigen in sera of patients with either benign prostate hyperplasia or prostate cancer. The quantitation was performed against an external calibration curve by interpolation, and results showed good correlation with existing ELISA tests applied to the same samples. This strategy might now be implemented in any clinical laboratory or certified company for further evaluation of any putative biomarker in the low ng/ml range of serum or plasma.
Smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke decrease some plasma antioxidants and increase gamma-tocopherol in vivo after adjustment for dietary antioxidant intakes.

BACKGROUND Free radicals in cigarette smoke may cause oxidative damage to macromolecules, contributing to cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Decreased plasma antioxidant concentrations may indicate cigarette smoke-related oxidative stress. OBJECTIVE We compared the effects on plasma antioxidant concentrations in cotinine-confirmed active and passive smokers with those in nonsmokers, independent of differences in dietary intakes and other covariates. DESIGN Plasma samples from 83 smokers, 40 passive smokers, and 36 nonsmokers were analyzed for total ascorbic acid, alpha- and gamma-tocopherols, 5 carotenoids, retinol, and cotinine. Groups were compared by using analysis of variance with adjustment for sex, age, race, body mass index, alcohol intake, triacylglycerol concentration, fruit and vegetable intakes, and dietary antioxidants. RESULTS After adjustment for dietary antioxidant intakes and other covariates, smokers and passive smokers had significantly lower plasma beta-carotene concentrations than did nonsmokers (0.15, 0.17, and 0.24 micro mol/L, respectively) and significantly higher gamma-tocopherol concentrations (7.8, 7.8, and 6.5 micro mol/L, respectively). Smokers had significantly lower plasma ascorbic acid and beta-cryptoxanthin concentrations than did nonsmokers and passive smokers (ascorbic acid: 43.6, 54.5, and 54.6 micro mol/L, respectively; beta-cryptoxanthin: 0.12, 0.16, and 0.16 micro mol/L, respectively) and significantly lower concentrations of lutein and zeaxanthin than did nonsmokers (0.33 compared with 0.41 micro mol/L). The P values for all the differences described above were < 0.05. No significant differences in plasma concentrations of alpha-tocopherol, alpha-carotene, total carotenoids, lycopene, or retinol were observed. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that cigarette smokers and nonsmokers exposed to cigarette smoke have a significantly lower plasma antioxidant status than do unexposed nonsmokers, independent of differences in dietary antioxidant intakes. Further research is required to explain why plasma gamma-tocopherol concentrations were significantly higher in smokers and passive smokers than in nonsmokers.
Adaptive $p$-value weighting with power optimality

Weighting the p-values is a well-established strategy that improves the power of multiple testing procedures while dealing with heterogeneous data. However, how to achieve this task in an optimal way is rarely considered in the literature. This paper contributes to fill the gap in the case of group-structured null hypotheses, by introducing a new class of procedures named ADDOW (for Adaptive Data Driven Optimal Weighting) that adapts both to the alternative distribution and to the proportion of true null hypotheses. We prove the asymptotical FDR control and power optimality among all weighted procedures of ADDOW, which shows that it dominates all existing procedures in that framework. Some numerical experiments show that the proposed method preserves its optimal properties in the finite sample setting when the number of tests is moderately large.
Utilizing Interactive Tabletops for Educational Games

There exists a multitude of different platforms for educational games. As technology continues to mature, various new devices will arise, some of which may yield substantial benefits for such educational applications. In this paper, we discuss the potential effectiveness of one particular device for educational games, interactive tabletops. We introduce what we believe are the key reasons why interactive tabletops are appropriate for this domain. In addition, we present two of the games we have developed for evaluating our claims. Although we have not yet conducted a complete user evaluation, we will provide some of our impressions from preliminary
Sympathetic nerve hyperactivity and its effect in postmenopausal women

Objectives Hypertension and its subsequent cardiovascular complications have been associated with sympathetic neural activation, and their prevalence in women increases after the menopause. However, there have been no data on the level of sympathetic activation and its relationship to vascular blood flow following the menopause. Therefore, we planned to find out whether the behavior of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) and calf blood flow (CBF) in women with and without essential hypertension (EHT) is changed following the menopause. Methods Peroneal nerve activity was measured as mean frequency of single units and of multiunit bursts with simultaneously measured CBF in two matched groups of postmenopausal women with and without EHT in comparison with two matched groups of premenopausal women with and without EHT. Results As expected, nerve activity was greater in the hypertensive than in normotensive groups and in postmenopausal than in premenopausal normotensive groups. We found that single unit frequency in postmenopausal hypertensives (65 ± 3.9 impulses/100 cardiac beats) was not significantly different from that in postmenopausal normotensives (54 ± 2.2 impulses/100 cardiac beats) or in premenopausal hypertensives (57 ± 2.8 impulses/100 cardiac beats). Similar results were obtained for burst frequency. In addition, a statistically significant negative correlation between the frequency of nerve activity and CBF was found only in postmenopausal normotensive (at least r = −0.42, P < 0.04) and hypertensive women (at least r = −0.45, P < 0.03). Conclusion These findings suggest that sympathetic nerve hyperactivity in postmenopausal women may have greater vascular effects than in premenopausal women, and could have implications in the management of EHT in postmenopausal women.
To the Editor

In his letter, Dr. Ueno of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals writes that my review article (1) suggests that lubiprostone is useful to treat diarrhea and is contraindicated in obstipation. This is not true. I made no statement as to the clinical effects of lubiprostone. I raised, however, well-founded doubts about the contention that lubiprostone activates ClC-2. Indeed, the only paper available that supported such a role of lubiprostone at the time of publication of my review showed effects of lubiprostone on currents that displayed a linear I/V relationship (2). These currents are very unlikely to represent ClC-2, which rather mediates inwardly rectifying currents that are slowly activated by hyperpolarization (as published by at least five independent laboratories including my own). Unfortunately, Dr. Ueno, Sucampo, as well as all authors publishing on lubiprostone that I contacted, refused to provide that substance for studying its effect on ClC-2. Therefore, independent tests of lubiprostone on ClC-2 currents have not been possible. The only knock-out controlled immunohistochemical analysis of ClC-2 available (3,4; and own unpublished results) shows that ClC-2 can be detected in basolateral, but not in apical membranes of intestinal epithelial cells. A basolateral localization of ClC-2 is also compatible with Ussing chamber experiments performed on WT and ClC-2 KO colon (5). As stated in my review, a basolateral localization of ClC-2 suggests that its activation should increase chloride and water reabsorption. Hence, if lubiprostone would exert its intestinal effects through an activation of ClC-2, it should worsen rather than alleviate obstipation – an effect which is obviously in contrast to several published reports. In summary, I question the contention that lubiprostone ameliorates obstipation by activating ClC-2.
Characteristics associated with awareness, perceptions, and use of electronic nicotine delivery systems among young US Midwestern adults.

OBJECTIVES We assessed the characteristics associated with the awareness, perceptions, and use of electronic nicotine delivery systems (e-cigarettes) among young adults. METHODS We collected data in 2010-2011 from a cohort of 2624 US Midwestern adults aged 20 to 28 years. We assessed awareness and use of e-cigarettes, perceptions of them as a smoking cessation aid, and beliefs about their harmfulness and addictiveness relative to cigarettes and estimated their associations with demographic characteristics, smoking status, and peer smoking. RESULTS Overall, 69.9% of respondents were aware of e-cigarettes, 7.0% had ever used e-cigarettes, and 1.2% had used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. Men, current and former smokers, and participants who had at least 1 close friend who smoked were more likely to be aware of and to have used e-cigarettes. Among those who were aware of e-cigarettes, 44.5% agreed e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking, 52.8% agreed e-cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes, and 26.3% agreed e-cigarettes are less addictive than cigarettes. CONCLUSIONS Health communication interventions to provide correct information about e-cigarettes and regulation of e-cigarette marketing may be effective in reducing young adults' experimentation with e-cigarettes.
Elevated Levels of the Plasmodium yoelii Homologue of Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor Attenuate Blood-Stage Malaria

ABSTRACT The excessive production of proinflammatory cytokines plays a significant role in the pathogenesis of severe malaria. Mammalian macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) (mMIF) is an immune mediator that promotes a sustained proinflammatory response by inhibiting the glucocorticoid-mediated downregulation of inflammation. In addition, Plasmodium parasites also encode a homologue of mammalian MIF that is expressed in asexual-stage parasites. We used the Plasmodium yoelii murine model to study the potential role of parasite-encoded MIF in the pathogenesis of malaria. Antibodies raised against purified, non-epitope-tagged P. yoelii MIF (PyMIF) were used to localize expression in trophozoite- and schizont-stage parasites and demonstrate extracellular release. In vitro, recombinant PyMIF was shown to actively induce the chemotaxis of macrophages but did not induce or enhance tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) production from peritoneal macrophages. To examine the role of parasite-derived PyMIF in vivo, two transgenic parasite lines that constitutively overexpress PyMIF were generated, one in a nonlethal P. yoelii 17X background [Py17X-MIF(+)] and the other in a lethal P. yoelii 17XL background [Py17XL-MIF(+)]. Challenge studies with transgenic parasites in mice showed that the increased expression of PyMIF resulted in a reduction in disease severity. Mice infected with Py17X-MIF(+) developed lower peak parasitemia levels than controls, while malaria-associated anemia was unaltered. Infection with Py17XL-MIF(+) resulted in a prolonged course of infection and a reduction in the overall mortality rate. Combined, the data indicate that parasite-derived MIF does not contribute significantly to immunopathology but, through its chemotactic ability toward macrophages, may attenuate disease and prolong infection of highly virulent parasite isolates.
Improving care for minorities: can quality improvement interventions improve care and outcomes for depressed minorities? Results of a randomized, controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE Ethnic minority patients often receive poorer quality care and have worse outcomes than white patients, yet practice-based approaches to reduce such disparities have not been identified. We determined whether practice-initiated quality improvement (QI) interventions for depressed primary care patients improve care across ethnic groups and reduce outcome disparities. STUDY SETTING The sample consists of 46 primary care practices in 6 U.S. managed care organizations; 181 clinicians; 398 Latinos, 93 African Americans, and 778 white patients with probable depressive disorder. STUDY DEIGN: Matched practices were randomized to usual care or one of two QI programs that trained local experts to educate clinicians; nurses to educate, assess, and follow-up with patients; and psychotherapists to conduct Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Patients and physicians selected treatments. Interventions featured modest accommodations for minority patients (e.g., translations, cultural training for clinicians). DATA EXTRACTION METHODS Multilevel logistic regression analyses assessed intervention effects within and among ethnic groups. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS At baseline, all ethnic groups Latino, African American, white) had low to moderate rates of appropriate care and the interventions significantly improved appropriate care at six months (by 8-20 percentage points) within each ethnic group, with no significant difference in response by ethnic group. The interventions significantly decreased the likelihood that Latinos and African Americans would report probable depression at months 6 and 12; the white intervention sample did not differ from controls in reported probable depression at either follow-up. While the intervention significantly improved the rate of employment for whites and not for minorities, precision was low for comparing intervention response on this outcome. It is important to note that minorities remained less likely to have appropriate care and more likely to be depressed than white patients. CONCLUSIONS Implementation of quality improvement interventions that have modest accommodations for minority patients can improve quality of care for whites and underserved minorities alike, while minorities may be especially likely to benefit clinically. Further research needs to clarify whether employment benefits are limited to whites and if so, whether this represents a difference in opportunities. Quality improvement programs appear to improve quality of care without increasing disparities, and may offer an approach to reduce health disparities.
Efficient Anchor Graph Hashing with Data-Dependent Anchor Selection

Anchor graph hashing (AGH) is a promising hashing method for nearest neighbor (NN) search. AGH realizes efficient search by generating and utilizing a small number of points that are called anchors. In this paper, we propose a method for improving AGH, which considers data distribution in a similarity space and selects suitable anchors by performing principal component analysis (PCA) in the similarity space. key words: nearest neighbor search, anchor graph hashing, similarity space, principal component analysis