Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seroepidemiologic screening of Echinococcus multilocularis infection in a European area endemic for alveolar echinococcosis.

In a serologic survey for Echinococcus multilocularis infection, we screened sera from 7,884 subjects from the Doubs Departement in France, an area endemic for alveolar echinococcosis (AE) of the liver. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with a highly species-specific antigen (Em2) and an E. multilocularis crude antigen (Emc) was used for screening. An evaluation of the cost/benefit relationship of this screening, followed by therapeutic management of patients, was made and compared with the actual cost of the follow-up and treatment of the disease in symptomatic cases in this endemic area. Antibody reactions to Em2 and/or Emc made possible the detection of eight asymptomatic clinical cases (seroprevalence averaging 1/1,000), with typical lesions of active AE revealed by abdominal ultrasonography and computed tomography. All were seropositive using the Emc ELISA but two were seronegative using the Em2 ELISA. In five additional seropositive cases, the radiologic investigations revealed small calcified lesions similar to the lesions of abortive AE previously found in Alaska. The cost of this serologic screening program per screened subject and per diagnosed case averaged 50.00 French Francs (FF) (U.S. $8.60) and 60,000.00 FF (U.S. $10,909.00), respectively. The cost of diagnosis, follow-up and treatment of the patients was 5,086.00 FF (U.S. $929.00) per patient per month in the case of diseases diagnosed by the screening program and 7,086.00 FF (U.S. $1,288.00) per patient per month for patients with symptomatic AE. This survey indicates a high prevalence of AE in the target area; it confirms the long latency period of the larval growth in human AE and shows that abortive AE is present in Europe. The use of both the Emc and Em2 ELISAs seems to be better than using the Em2 ELISA alone. The cost of the hospitalization and treatment of the eight screened patients would appear to be relatively high. Even though two of them were asymptomatic, they had very severe forms of the disease. In fact, the total cost was much lower than the actual cost of the disease when diagnosed from clinical symptoms.
Multi-sensor Track-to-Track Fusion Using Simplified Maximum Likelihood Estimator for Maneuvering Target Tracking

The focus of this paper is to present the distributed architecture of track-to-track fusion for computing the fused estimate from multiple filters tracking a maneuvering target with the simplified maximum likelihood estimator. The architecture consists of sensor-based Kalman filters, local processors and global fuser. Each sensor tracker utilized in the reference Cartesian coordinate system is described for target tracking when the radar measures range, bearing and elevation angle in the spherical coordinate system. The Bar-Shalom track-to-track fusion algorithm is used in each local processor to merge two tracks representing the same target. The decoupled process is adopted to simplify the batch form of the maximum likelihood estimator due to the block-diagonal covariance matrix. The resulting global fuser can be implemented in a parallel structure to facilitate estimation fusion calculation. Simulation results show that the proposed fusion estimator has computational advantages over the maximum likelihood estimator with similar performance.
Fire risk assessment of multi-story buildings based on fragility analysis

Recent efforts aim at assessing the fire performance of structures in a probabilistic framework. But there is still no well-established method to quantify the reliability of entire buildings. Previous works focused on isolated structural members, therefore not allowing for a determination of the global safety level of buildings. Here, a new methodology is developed to quantify the reliability of buildings in fire. The methodology uses Monte Carlo simulations for constructing fragility functions associated with different fire breakout locations in a building, then combines the functions to characterize the overall building conditional probability of failure, and finally incorporates the probabilistic models for intensity measure and fire occurrence likelihood. The methodology is applied to multi-story steel buildings. This work addresses fire reliability at the building scale, and therefore is useful for standardizing safety level as well as for evaluating community resilience.
Reproductive and lifestyle determinants of anti-Müllerian hormone in a large population-based study.

CONTEXT Anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) is an ovarian reserve marker that is increasingly applied in clinical practice as a prognostic and diagnostic tool. Despite increased use of AMH in clinical practice, large-scale studies addressing the influence of possible determinants on AMH levels are scarce. OBJECTIVE We aimed to address the role of reproductive and lifestyle determinants of AMH in a large population-based cohort of women. DESIGN In this cross-sectional study, age-specific AMH percentiles were calculated using general linear modeling with CG-LMS (Cole and Green, Lambda, Mu, and Sigma model, an established method to calculate growth curves for children). SETTING Women from the general community participating in the Doetinchem Cohort study were assessed. PARTICIPANTS Two thousand three hundred twenty premenopausal women were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE The effect of female reproductive and lifestyle factors on shifts in age-specific AMH percentiles was studied. RESULTS In comparison to women with a regular menstrual cycle, current oral contraceptive (OC) users, women with menstrual cycle irregularity, and pregnant women had significantly lower age-specific AMH percentiles (for OC use, 11 percentiles lower; for cycle irregularity, 11 percentiles lower; and for pregnancy, 17 percentiles lower [P value for all <.0001]). Age at menarche and age at first childbirth were not associated with the age-specific AMH percentile. Higher parity was associated with 2 percentiles higher age-specific AMH (P = .02). Of the lifestyle factors investigated, current smoking was associated with 4 percentiles lower age-specific AMH percentiles (P = .02), irrespective of the smoking dose. Body mass index, waist circumference, alcohol consumption, physical exercise, and socioeconomic status were not significantly associated with age-specific AMH percentiles. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that several reproductive and lifestyle factors are associated with age-specific AMH levels. The lower AMH levels associated with OC use and smoking seem reversible, as effects were confined to current use of OC or cigarettes. It is important to give careful consideration to the effect of such determinants when interpreting AMH in a clinical setting and basing patient management on AMH.
In Vitro Augmentation of Natural Killer Activity and Interferon-γ Production in Murine Spleen Cells with Agaricus blazei Fruiting Body Fractions

Aqueous extracts of the Agaricus blazei fruiting body prepared at different temperatures were fractionated by ethanol precipitation with various ethanol concentrations. The original aqueous extracts of A. blazei failed to stimulate natural killer (NK) cell activity in murine spleen cells in vitro, but the strongest effect was observed in a 30% ethanol-soluble-50% ethanol-insoluble fraction prepared from the extract at 40 °C (fraction A-50). Fraction A-50 also showed the strongest augmenting effect on interferon (IFN)-γ production. This augmentation of NK activity and IFN-γ production by fraction A-50 was completely abrogated by a heat treatment.
Do Cardiac Surgery Report Cards Reduce Mortality? Assessing the Evidence

Provider report cards feature prominently in ongoing efforts to improve patient quality. A well-known example is the cardiac surgery report-card program started in New York, which publicly compares hospital and surgeon performance. Public report cards have been associated with decreases in cardiac surgery mortality, but there is substantial disagreement over the source(s) of the improvement. This article develops a conceptual framework to explain how report-card-related responses could result in lower mortality and reviews the evidence. Existing research shows that report cards have not greatly changed referral patterns. How much providers increased their quality of care and altered their selection of patients remains unresolved, and alternative explanations have not been well studied. Future research should expand the number of states and years covered and exploit the variation in institutional features to improve our understanding of the relationship between report cards and outcomes.
Food intake monitoring system for mobile devices

In this paper, we introduce a real-time food intake monitoring system for mobile devices. The proposed system gets acceleration data from the sensor placed on the wrist of the user during a meal. The data is then sent to the mobile device via Bluetooth. The system analyses patterns between the motion profile and bite actions by first filtering the data to remove noise effects and then identifying the peaks. Based on detecting peaks, real-time feedback regarding eating trends such as total number of bites, bites-taken rate and eating speed is provided to the user. If the eating is too fast, the system warns the user in the form of both audio and text. The mobile application is implemented on the Android Platform and tested on a subject successfully. The proposed system offers an affordable quick solution that can be used in any place where eating happens. It can help people who are obese or with other eating disorders by monitoring consumption of food intake to control their eating rate in realtime.
Enhancement of androgen-dependent transcription and cell proliferation by tributyltin and triphenyltin in human prostate cancer cells.

Tributyltin (TBT) and triphenyltin (TPT) are known to cause imposex, the superimposing of male genitals on female ones, in some species of gastropods. However, the molecular mechanism of the trialkyltin-induced endocrine dysfunction remains to be elucidated. To clarify the effects of organotin compounds on the activation of androgen receptor (AR)-mediated responses in mammals, a LA16 clone that stably expresses androgen-responsive luciferase reporter gene and proliferates in response to androgen was established from human prostate cancer cell line LNCaP. Stimulation of LA16 cells with 100 nM TBT or 1 nM TPT enhanced both AR-dependent transcription of luciferase gene and cell growth to the same extent as those by 1 nM dihydrotestosterone (DHT). TBT or TPT also enhanced the DNA synthesis and expression of endogenous AR target genes such as prostate specific antigen, but not the expression of AR itself. However, an androgen antagonist, flutamide, did not inhibit the TBT- or TPT-induced AR activation. On the other hand, simultaneous treatment of LA16 cells with DHT and TBT or TPT caused highly enhanced effects on AR activation. These results indicate that trialkyltin compounds have an ability to activate AR-mediated transcription in mammalian cells and suggest that a novel target site other than the ligand-binding site of AR is involved in this activation.
Direct and Inverse Modeling of a Microwave Sensor Determining the Proportion of Fluids in a Pipeline

A microwave sensor constituted of both low- and high-frequency probes is presented. The role of the sensor is to determine the proportion of mixed fluids in a pipeline used in petroleum engineering to extract oil from an oil layer. In this paper, the annular flow regime in the pipeline is considered. Since the analytical solution for this configuration is not available for high frequencies, a combination of numerical modeling and neural networks (NNs) is used. Two inversion configurations are compared. Good results are obtained with the better one.
Steps involved in the processing of common precursor forms of adrenocorticotropin and endorphin in cultures of mouse pituitary cells.

The initial steps in the processing of the common precursor to adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and endorphin in mouse pituitary tumor cells (AtT-20) have been investigated. Three forms of the precursor have been resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate (NaDodSO4)-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis with apparent molecular weights of 29 000 (29K ACTH-endorphin), 32 000 (32K ACTH-endorphin) and 34 000 (34K ACTH-endorphin). These forms have a similar peptide backbone, but their carbohydrate content differs. In particular, a tryptic glycopeptide has been observed in 32K ACTH-endorphin which is not present in 29K ACTH-endorphin and has been identified as the tryptic peptide containing the alpha(22--39) sequence of ACTH. Similar heterogeneity in carbohydrate has been observed in some of the smaller molecular weight forms of ACTH which are resolved by NaDodSO4 gel electrophoresis. Pulse chase and continuous labeling studies using radioactive amino acids and sugars suggest that the 29K ACTH-endorphin is converted to 32K and 34K ACTH-endorphin by the addition of carbohydrate. The glycopeptide and pulse chase studies suggest that 29K ACTH-endorphin is at a branch point in the processing pathways. It can either be converted to 4.5K ACTH by proteolytic processing or to 32K ACTH-endorphin by the further addition of carbohydrate. The 32K ACTH-endorphin can then be converted to 13K ACTH, the glycosylated form of 4.5K ACTH (Eipper, B.A., & Mains,, R.E. (1977) J.Biol. Chem.252, 882), by proteolytic processing. A comparison of the distribution of the different molecular weight forms of ACTH and endorphin in mouse pituitary extracts and in the mouse pituitary tumor cells reveals that the pituitary contains all of the forms of ACTH and endorphin seen in the tumor cells, including the three forms of the ACTH-endorphin precursor. However, the molecular weight distribution of the forms in the anterior lobe is very different from that in the intermediate lobe of mouse pituitary.
A Novel Transformer Based Current Reused VCO/ILFD With Variable Dividing Ratio

A novel, current reused, voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) and injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) with variable dividing ratio is presented and implemented in UMC 0.18 triple-well CMOS process. The proposed architecture allows compact and low power solution to be attained by the stacking of a ring-type ILFD and a transformer based VCO. The LC VCO provides the wideband differential output and the two-stage ring oscillator generates the quadrature output with selectable division ratios. Experimental results show an output frequency range from 0.58 to 3.11 GHz and a phase noise level of -112.5 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from carrier (5.72 GHz). This chip occupies a core area of 0.5 × 0.3 mm2 and consumes 4.7 mA from a 1.8 V power supply.
Morphological evaluation of cork oak (Quercus suber): Mediterranean provenance variability in Tunisia

Twenty-six provenances (2 340 plants) of cork oak (Quercus suber spp.) originating from Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia were tested for genetic variation among and within provenances by growth traits. Seven morphometrical characters were measured in 90 plants from each provenance. Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences for all characters. The phenotypic coefficient of differentiation reached 0.24 for the form and 0.22 for height, thus revealing a strong structuring between the provenances. Comparative study of growth among the provenances revealed more vigorous growth and better survival rate for those from Morocco, Spain, and Portugal, which may constitute better materials for afforestation. Furthermore, this variability appeared to be geographically structured and would be mainly genetically controlled, as cork oak provenances were cultivated under the same environmental conditions. Our results should be helpful for guide forest managers in afforestation. RésuméLa variabilité génétique inter et intra-provenances a été étudiée pour des caractères de croissance chez Quercus suber spp. 26 provenances (2 340 individus) de chêne liège originaires d’Espagne, du Portugal, d’Italie, du Maroc, d’Algérie et de la Tunisie ont été implantées et testées. Sept caractères morphométriques, jugés discriminants, ont été mesurés chez 90 individus par provenance. L’analyse statistique des résultats a montré des différences hautement significatives entre ces provenances. Le plus haut coefficient de différentiation Qst est trouvé pour les caractères forme (0,24 %) et hauteur (0,22 %). L’étude comparative a en outre révélé une croissance plus vigoureuse associée à une moindre mortalité chez les provenances originaires du Portugal, d’Espagne et du Maroc, leur conférant ainsi un intérêt potentiel pour le reboisement. La variabilité observée chez le chêne liège apparaît structurée selon l’origine géographique et serait essentiellement de nature génétique, puisque toutes les provenances ont été cultivées dans les mêmes conditions pédoclimatiques.
Terahertz time-domain spectroscopy characterization of the far-infrared absorption and index of refraction of high-resistivity, float-zone silicon

The far-infrared absorption and index of refraction of high-resistivity, float-zone, crystalline silicon has been measured by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. The measured new upper limit for the absorption of this most transparent dielectric material in the far infrared shows unprecedented transparency over the range from 0.5 to 2.5 THz and a well-resolved absorption feature at 3.6 THz. The index of refraction shows remarkably little dispersion, changing by only 0.0001 over the range from 0.5 to 4.5 THz.
Survival probability in ataxia telangiectasia

Ataxia telangiectasia is a rare, multiorgan neurodegenerative disorder with enhanced vulnerability to cancer and infection. Median survival in two large cohorts of patients with this disease, one prospective and one retrospective, is 25 and 19 years, with a wide range. Life expectancy does not correlate well with severity of neurological impairment.
RGBD Human Action Recognition using Multi-Features Combination and K-Nearest Neighbors Classification

In this paper, we present a novel system to analyze human body motions for action recognition task from two sets of features using RGBD videos. The Bag-of-Features approach is used for recognizing human action by extracting local spatialtemporal features and shape invariant features from all video frames. These feature vectors are computed in four steps: Firstly, detecting all interest keypoints from RGB video frames using Speed-Up Robust Features and filters motion points using Motion History Image and Optical Flow, then aligned these motion points to the depth frame sequences. Secondly, using a Histogram of orientation gradient descriptor for computing the features vector around these points from both RGB and depth channels, then combined these feature values in one RGBD feature vector. Thirdly, computing Hu-Moment shape features from RGBD frames; fourthly, combining the HOG features with Hu-moments features in one feature vector for each video action. Finally, the k-means clustering and the multi-class K-Nearest Neighbor is used for the classification task. This system is invariant to scale, rotation, translation, and illumination. All tested, are utilized on a dataset that is available to the public and used often in the community. By using this new feature combination method improves performance on actions with low movement and reach recognition rates superior to other publications of the dataset.
Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning

Textbook details: Integrating Technology for Meaningful Learning, Second Edition Grabe, Mark (Professor and Head, Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota and Grabe, Cindy (Technology Facilitator, Grand Forks Schools, North Dakota) 1998, Houghton Mifflin Company, 222 Berkley Street, Boston, MA 02116 USA (ISBN 0 395 87136 0) Pages, 451; parts, 3; chapters, 11; glossary; references; chapter summaries; and graphics.
Luteal Phase Support with 17α-Hydroxyprogesterone versus Unsupported Cycles in in vitro Fertilization:A Comparative Randomized Study

This study was designed to determine the efficacy of 17α-hydroxyprogesterone caproate (17-OHPc) for luteal phase support in in vitro fertilization (IVF). For this purpose, a total of 86 IVF patients undergoing embryo transfer were randomly allocated to two groups as follows: (1) group A, including 43 patients who received the support of luteal phase through the intramuscular administration of 17-OHPc at a dosage of 341 mg every 3 days, and (2) group B, including 43 patients who received the intramuscular administration of a saline solution as placebo every 3 days. In both groups, the treatment was started within 24 h after embryo transfer until β-HCG evaluation. In case of positive β-HCG, it was extended until 12 weeks. Efficacy was assessed using the pregnancy rates, which was, per transfer, statistically significantly higher in group A than in group B (32.5 vs. 18.3% respectively). On the basis of our results, we emphasize the use of 17-OHPc for luteal phase support after IVF and embryo transfer.
High-Q Fabry–Pérot Micro-Cavities for High-Sensitivity Volume Refractometry

This work reports a novel structure for a Fabry–Pérot micro cavity that combines the highest reported quality factor for an on-chip Fabry–Pérot resonator that exceeds 9800, and a very high sensitivity for an on-chip volume refractometer based on a Fabry–Pérot cavity that is about 1000 nm/refractive index unit (RIU). The structure consists of two cylindrical Bragg micromirrors that achieve confinement of the Gaussian beam in the plan parallel to the chip substrate, while for the perpendicular plan, external fiber rod lenses (FRLs) are placed in the optical path of the input and the output of the cavity. This novel structure overcomes number of the drawbacks presented in previous designs. The analyte is passed between the mirrors, enabling its detection from the resonance peak wavelengths of the transmission spectra. Mixtures of ethanol and deionized (DI)-water with different ratios are used as analytes with different refractive indices to exploit the device as a micro-opto-fluidic refractometer. The design criteria are detailed and the modeling is based on Gaussian-optics equations, which depicts a scenario closer to reality than the usually used ray-optics modeling.
Deaths

FOLLOWING the letter from Clive Swainsbury and others about a cluster of cases of babesiosis in dogs from Essex with no history of foreign travel ( VR , February 13, 2016, vol 178, p 172), a tick removed from one of the dogs was sent to the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to confirm its identification and investigate the presence of Babesia . Based on morphology the tick was identified as an adult male Dermacentor reticulatus , a species that has been reported from a number of locations in western Wales and the south west and south east of England, including Essex (Jameson and Medlock 2010, Medlock and others 2011, …