Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Public attitudes to the use in research of personal health information from general practitioners' records: a survey of the Irish general public

Introduction Understanding the views of the public is essential if generally acceptable policies are to be devised that balance research access to general practice patient records with protection of patients' privacy. However, few large studies have been conducted about public attitudes to research access to personal health information. Methods A mixed methods study was performed. Informed by focus groups and literature review, a questionnaire was designed which assessed attitudes to research access to personal health information and factors that influence these. A postal survey was conducted of an electoral roll-based sample of the adult population of Ireland. Results Completed questionnaires were returned by 1575 (40.6%). Among the respondents, 67.5% were unwilling to allow GPs to decide when researchers could access identifiable personal health information. However, 89.5% said they would agree to ongoing consent arrangements, allowing the sharing by GPs of anonymous personal health information with researchers without the need for consent on a study-by-study basis. Increasing age (by each 10-year increment), being retired and primary level education only were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of agreeing that any personal health information could be shared on an ongoing basis: OR 1.39 (95% CI 1.18 to 1.63), 2.00 (95% CI 1.22 to 3.29) and 3.91 (95% CI 1.95 to 7.85), respectively. Conclusions Although survey data can be prone to response biases, this study suggests that prior consent agreements allowing the supply by GPs of anonymous personal health information to researchers may be widely supported, and that populations willing to opt in to such arrangements may be sufficiently representative to facilitate valid and robust consent-dependent observational research.
Delay-Distribution-Dependent Load Frequency Control of Power Systems With Probabilistic Interval Delays

This paper investigates load frequency control (LFC) of power systems with probabilistic interval delays. The LFC design specifically takes the probability distribution characteristic of the communication delays into account. Firstly, by considering the probability distribution characteristic of the communication delays in the modeling, the original power systems with a PI-based LFC are transformed into a stochastic closed-loop time-delay system. Secondly, by using the Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional method, sufficient delay-distribution-dependent stability and stabilization criteria are derived for the power systems with a PI-based LFC. Following this, an algorithm is provided to obtain the gain of PI-based LFC and the allowable upper bound of the communication delay simultaneously while preserving the desired H∞ performance. Finally, a case study is applied to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed delay-distribution-dependent PI-based LFC design method.
Digital radiograph of the middle phalanx of the third finger (MP3) region as a tool for skeletal maturity assessment.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the reliability of the digital radiograph of the middle phalanx of the third finger (MP3) in skeletal maturity assessment. STUDY DESIGN Fifty children (24 girls and 26 boys) belonging to the circumpubertal age-group were selected for the study. Two radiographs - lateral cephalogram and digital radiograph of the MP3 region - were taken in each child. Age assessment was based on the changes in shape of the cervical vertebrae and the epiphysis of the middle phalanx of the third finger of the left hand. The radiographs were assessed by three examiners. The inter- and intraexaminer variability were determined by the Wilcoxon rank sign test and the Kruskal-Wallis test and were found to be nonsignificant. Examiner 3 showed the best intraexaminer agreement and was selected to evaluate the radiographs for the entire study. RESULTS The correlation determined between the MP3 stages and cervical vertebrae maturity index (CVMI) stages, the peak-wise distribution of the MP3 stages, and the correlation between the MP3 stages and the chronological age were found to be highly significant. CONCLUSIONS Digital radiograph of the MP3 region is definitely a simple, reliable, cost-effective, and time-saving technique for the assessment of skeletal maturity.
Pseudo-Derivative-Feedback Current Control for Three-Phase Grid-Connected Inverters With LCL  Filters

Pseudo-derivative-feedback (PDF) control is, for the first time, applied to the current control of three-phase grid-connected inverters with LCL filters, which significantly improves the transient response of the system to a step change in the reference input through the elimination of overshoot and oscillation. Two PDF controllers with different terms in the inner feedback path are developed for an inverter current feedback system and a grid current feedback system, respectively. For the inverter current feedback system, a simple PDF controller with a proportional term is used. The influence of the controller parameters on the transient performance is discussed in detail. Compared with a PI controller, the PDF controller is able to eliminate the transient overshoot and oscillation easily, while maintaining a fast response. For the gird current feedback system, a PDF controller with a proportional term and a second-order derivative is developed. The implementation and design of the PDF controller are presented. Active damping is achieved with only the feedback from the grid current, and at the same time, the system transient response is improved. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results verify the advantages of the PDF control over PI control methods.
Using a domain specific language for SDR to facilitate radar signal processing in heterogeneous computing architectures

This paper presents the use of a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) for Software Defined Radio (SDR) in a Radar digital signal processing (DSP) using heterogeneous computing architectures (HCAs). These HCAs are a combinations of mul-ticore CPU, GPUs, and FPGAs. This DSL, which we named OptiSDR, uses a dataflow-like model of computations named parallel stream processing and a compiler guided optimization technique to provide optimized parallel executable patterns for a hybrid MCPU-GPU architecture. In this paper, we demonstrate the capabilities of OptiSDR in a Radar DSP case study, and show how OptiSDR achieves up to 50 times (50X) speed-up as compared to the hand-crafted Matlab and Octave scripts for the NetRAD pulse compression algorithm. We also show that, while hand-crafted CUDA-Qt implementation of the same pulse compression algorithm presents up to 2X speed-up against Op-tiSDR, this was minimized using platform-specific optimizations by efficiently utilizing available computing resources such as number of GPUs, memory, and number of cores of a MCPU.
Breast reconstruction after surgery for breast cancer.

A 45-year-old woman with breast cancer elects to undergo mastectomy and is referred to a plastic surgeon for evaluation for postmastectomy breast reconstruction. For some patients, breast reconstruction restores body image and sexuality and improves the quality of life. Reconstructive surgery does not interfere with detection of breast-cancer recurrence. Special considerations apply to patients who require radiation therapy.
The Capacity of Private Computation

We introduce the problem of private computation, comprised of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {N}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> distributed and non-colluding servers, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {K}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> independent datasets, and a user who wants to compute a function of the datasets privately, i.e., without revealing which function he wants to compute, to any individual server. This private computation problem is a strict generalization of the private information retrieval (PIR) problem, obtained by expanding the PIR message set (which consists of only independent messages) to also include functions of those messages. The capacity of private computation, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, is defined as the maximum number of bits of the desired function that can be retrieved per bit of total download from all servers. We characterize the capacity of private computation, for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {N}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> servers and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {K}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> independent datasets that are replicated at each server, when the functions to be computed are arbitrary linear combinations of the datasets. Surprisingly, the capacity, <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {C}=\left ({1+1/ {N}+\cdots +1/ {N}^{ {K}-1}}\right)^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, matches the capacity of PIR with <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {N}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> servers and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {K}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> messages. Thus, allowing arbitrary linear computations does not reduce the communication rate compared to pure dataset retrieval. The same insight is shown to hold even for arbitrary non-linear computations when the number of datasets <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$ {K}\rightarrow \infty $ </tex-math></inline-formula>.
Half a century of antidepressant drugs: on the clinical introduction of monoamine oxidase inhibitors, tricyclics, and tetracyclics. Part II: tricyclics and tetracyclics.

FIVE DECADES OF ANTIDEPRESSANTS The 50th anniversary of antidepressive pharmacotherapy is worth commemorating. In 2 parts, we review the onset of drug treatment with convincing antidepressive efficacy, and in this second part, we recap the development and clinical introduction of tricyclics and tetracyclics. In speaking with Gerhart Harrer, who reviewed his own experience, he said, BThe introduction of antidepressants meant an enrichment for doctor’s therapeutic possibilities which matched a Quantum leap. [ A whole generation of psychiatrists felt the same way, remembering the improvements after the introduction of imipramine and iproniazid. These compounds, together with other tricyclic antidepressants, revolutionized the approach to the treatment of depression. Until the clinical introduction of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor at the beginning of the 1990s, tricyclic antidepressants were the Bgold standard[ in drug treatment of depression. Progress has been achieved during the last 2 decades, with new reuptake inhibitors on the market, new methodologies for data analysis, and new principles of action. This second part focuses on the historical background of tricyclics and tetracyclics.
Annoyance indicators for various urban road vehicle pass-by noises and urban road traffic noise combined with tramway noise

La pollution sonore est un probleme majeur pour les residents des zones urbaines. La directive Europeenne 2002/49/CE impose aux etats membres l’etablissement de cartes de bruit. Ces dernieres sont construites sur la base de l’indice energetique Lden, egalement utilise dans les relations dose-effet etablies pour predire la gene. Toutefois, pour l’evaluation de la gene due au bruit dans les zones urbaines, la pertinence de cet indice est souvent remise en question. En effet, de nombreuses etudes ont montre que les caracteristiques temporelles et spectrales des bruits environnementaux influencent aussi les reponses de gene et ne sont pas prises en compte dans cet indice. Cette these vise a contribuer a l’amelioration de la caracterisation de la gene due au bruit des vehicules routiers en ville. Elle est basee sur des experiences realisees en laboratoire. Elle comprend deux parties principales. La premiere partie a comme objectif de progresser sur la caracterisation physique et perceptive du bruit des passages de divers vehicules routiers en milieu urbain tels que les bus, les deux-roues motorises, les poids lourds et les vehicules legers. Une attention particuliere a ete portee sur la caracterisation de la gene due aux deuxroues motorises qui sont cites parmi les vehicules routiers les plus genants et sont peu etudies dans la litterature. Dans cette perspective, un indicateur acoustique caracteristique de la gene due au bruit routier urbain a ete determine : il rend compte de differents attributs auditifs genants en associant la sonie, un indice spectral et deux indices de modulation proposes dans le cadre de ces travaux. Dans les zones urbaines, les riverains sont souvent exposes a la circulation routiere en presence d’autres sources de bruit de l’environnement. L’objectif principal de la deuxieme partie est la prediction de la gene totale due au bruit du trafic routier urbain combine avec le bruit de tramway. Dans le but de caracteriser la gene totale, les phenomenes perceptifs lies a la combinaison de ces bruits sont tout d’abord etudies. Ensuite, l’indicateur propose precedemment pour caracteriser la gene due au bruit des passages de differents vehicules routiers est teste lorsque differents trafics routiers urbains sont consideres. Sur la base de ces resultats, des modeles permettant de caracteriser la gene due au bruit de trafic routier urbain combine au bruit de tramway ont ete proposes.
Image processing based product label quality control on FMCG products

The proposed work presents a technique for an automated identification of Label printed on Fast Moving Consumer Goods products. Cigarette packets are considered as fast moving consumer goods for testing. The entire inspection is facilitated by employing image processing techniques on the LabVIEW platform without disturbing the high speed production line. A National Instrument's Smart Camera 1744 is used to capture images of cigarette packets moving on a conveyor belt and processes them to fulfill the above objectives. The technique was subjected to testing on 150 cigarette packets belonging to five different brands. The results obtained were found to be acceptable with 95.45 % of accuracy.
Neopterin as a Biomarker in Liver Fibrosis of Schistosoma Mansoni

Background and Aim of the Work : The hepatic form of the schistosomiasis disease was associated with granuloma, which is associated with collagen deposition, fibrosis of the liver and hepatosplenomegaly in severe cases. Neopterin, a pteridine derivative, is produced by activated macrophages and represents a marker of cell-mediated immunity in immune activation. Bees create propolis by collecting a resinous sap from trees. Propolis is a complex contains terpenes, benzoic, caffeic, cinnamic and phenolic acids, and it is also high in flavonoids. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of neopterin as a biomarker in liver fibrosis caused by Schistosoma mansoni infection and to confirm the bee propolis as a natural anti-parasitic agent. Study Design: Experimental design classified into several groups, including; negative control, positive control, prophylactic and treated groups. Biochemical marker for liver fibrosis such as neopterin levels and liver function tests, immunological and parasitological investigations for Schistosomiasis, were done. Results: Neopterin levels, AST, ALT and GGT activities, bilirubin (total and direct) concentrations and anti-schistosomal antibody titre were increased in the infected non-treated group when compared to the control group. While, they were decreased in the treated and prophylactic groups when compared to the infected non-treated group. There were reduction in the serum albumin concentrations in the infected non-treated group in comparison with the normal group. While, serum albumin concentrations were elevated in the groups treated and prophylacted with bee propolis when compared to the infected non-treated and control groups, respectively. Conclusion: Neopterin was a biomarker correlate with the extent and activity of the liver fibrosis and was also useful to monitor during therapy. Bee propolis had liver protective and improved liver functions in schistosomiasis.
Applying Software Patterns to Address Interoperability Challenges in Blockchain-based Healthcare Apps

Since the inception of Bitcoin technology, its underlying data structure–the blockchain–has garnered much attention due to properties such as decentralization, transparency, and immutability. These properties make blockchains suitable for apps that require disintermediation through trustless exchange, consistent and incorruptible transaction records, and operational models beyond cryptocurrency. In particular, blockchain and its smart contract capabilities have the potential to address healthcare interoperability issues, such as enabling effective interactions between users and medical applications, delivering patient data securely to a variety of organizations and devices, and improving the overall efficiency of medical practice workflow. Despite the interest in using blockchain technology for healthcare interoperability, however, little information is available on the concrete architectural styles and patterns for applying blockchain technology to healthcare apps. This paper provides an initial step in filling this gap by showing: (1) the features and implementation challenges in healthcare interoperability, (2) an end-to-end case study of a blockchain-based healthcare app that we are developing, and (3) how applying foundational software patterns can help address common interoperability challenges faced by blockchain-based healthcare apps.
Skipping breakfast is associated with dysmenorrhea in young women in Japan

To evaluate the effects of breakfast habits on the quality of life in young women in Japan, the relation between breakfast habits and menstrual and intestinal disorders was estimated by responses to a questionnaire. Subjects were recruited from young Japanese female students of Ashiya College ranging in age from 18 to 20 years. Breakfast habits were classified into three groups (group I, having breakfast every morning, n=289; group II, having breakfast one to six times per week, n=106; group III, having breakfast less than once a week, n=44). The intensity of dysmenorrhea was classified into three grades (score 1, free of pain or painful, but without need for analgesic; score 2, painful, requiring analgesic; score 3, painful, not relieved by analgesic). The grades of bowel movement were classified into three groups (score 1, no more than once a week; score 2, two to six times a week; score 3, every day). Group II and group III had significantly higher scores for dysmenorrhea compared with group I. Students in group III showed a tendency toward constipation. Since dysmenorrhea is a risk factor for psychological disorders as well as gynecological diseases, the present study suggests the importance of eating breakfast to the quality of life of young women.
Ongoing adaptive immune responses in the microenvironment of melanoma metastases

A large body of evidence supports the idea that the tumor environment is immunosuppressive, notably for T lymphocytes. Yet, in some tumor types, the presence of tumor‐infiltrating T cells has favorable prognostic value. In order to better understand the functional value of T cells in human tumors, we focused on cutaneous metastases of melanoma and observed that some of them host ectopic lymphoid structures in which B cell, and possibly T cell, responses take place. This observation is discussed in the context of current views on immunosuppression in tumors.
Current Tissue Molecular Markers in Colorectal Cancer: A Literature Review

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most spread neoplasia types all around the world, especially in western areas. It evolves from precancerous lesions and adenomatous polyps, through successive genetic and epigenetic mutations. Numerous risk factors intervene in its development and they are either environmental or genetic. Aim of the Review Alongside common screening techniques, such as fecal screening tests, endoscopic evaluation, and CT-colonography, we have identified the most important and useful biomarkers and we have analyzed their role in the diagnosis, prevention, and prognosis of CRC. Conclusion Biomarkers can become an important tool in the diagnostic and therapeutic process for CRC. But further studies are needed to identify a noninvasive, cost-effective, and highly sensible and specific screening test for their detection and to standardize their use in clinical practice.
Depletion of HPV16 early genes induces autophagy and senescence in a cervical carcinogenesis model, regardless of viral physical state

In cervical carcinomas, high‐risk human papillomavirus (HR‐HPV) may be integrated into host chromosomes or remain extra‐chromosomal (episomal). We used the W12 cervical keratinocyte model to investigate the effects of HPV16 early gene depletion on in vitro cervical carcinogenesis pathways, particularly effects shared by cells with episomal versus integrated HPV16 DNA. Importantly, we were able to study the specific cellular consequences of viral gene depletion by using short interfering RNAs known not to cause phenotypic or transcriptional off‐target effects in keratinocytes. We found that while cervical neoplastic progression in vitro was characterized by dynamic changes in HPV16 transcript levels, viral early gene expression was required for cell survival at all stages of carcinogenesis, regardless of viral physical state, levels of early gene expression or histology in organotypic tissue culture. Moreover, HPV16 early gene depletion induced changes in host gene expression that were common to both episome‐containing and integrant‐containing cells. In particular, we observed up‐regulation of autophagy genes, associated with enrichment of senescence and innate immune‐response pathways, including the senescence‐associated secretory phenotype (SASP). In keeping with these observations, HPV16 early gene depletion induced autophagy in both episome‐containing and integrant‐containing W12 cells, as evidenced by the appearance of autophagosomes, punctate expression of the autophagy marker LC3, conversion of LC3B‐I to LC3B‐II, and reduced levels of the autophagy substrate p62. Consistent with the reported association between autophagy and senescence pathways, HPV16 early gene depletion induced expression of the senescence marker beta‐galactosidase and increased secretion of the SASP‐related protein IGFBP3. Together, these data indicate that depleting HR‐HPV early genes would be of potential therapeutic benefit in all cervical carcinogenesis pathways, regardless of viral physical state. In addition, the senescence/SASP response associated with autophagy induction may promote beneficial immune effects in bystander cells. © 2013 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
An optimized time-frequency interleaving scheme for OFDM-based power line communication systems

In this paper, an optimized time-frequency interleaving scheme is proposed to combat against the narrowband interference (NBI) and time-domain impulsive noise (TIN) for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in power line communications (PLC). To improve both the anti-NBI and anti-TIN performance, we propose two criteria based on which the optimized interleaving scheme is designed: (i) to increase the number of different OFDM blocks for one forward error correction (FEC) codeword, which is aimed at TIN mitigation; and (ii) to increase the number of different sub-carriers mapped to the data cells in one FEC codeword, which is aimed at NBI mitigation. Simulations show that the proposed interleaving scheme can effectively reduce the impairments caused by NBI and/or TIN in OFDM systems under PLC environments, and hence achieve better performance than the conventional block interleaving scheme.