Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A waterborne outbreak with a single clone of Campylobacter jejuni in the Danish town of Køge in May 2010

Abstract Background: In Denmark, large-scale waterborne outbreaks are rare. This report describes the investigation of an outbreak that occurred in the town of Køge in May 2010. Methods: The epidemiological investigation consisted of hypothesis generating telephone interviews, followed by a cohort study among approximately 20,000 residents using an online questionnaire. Odds ratios were calculated for exposures including the number of glasses of tap water consumed. Geographical spreading was assessed using a geographical information system. The microbiological investigation included cultures of stool samples and flagellin-typing. In the environmental investigation, water samples were tested for Escherichia coli and coliform counts and for DNA of Campylobacter, Enterococcus, and Bacteroides. During the outbreak investigation a water boiling order was enforced, as tap water was considered a potential source. Results: Of 45 patients with laboratory confirmed Campylobacter infection in the municipality of Køge in May, 43 lived in the area covered by the central water supply. Of 61 patients with laboratory confirmed Campylobacter jejuni by 8 June, 50 shared a common flagellin gene type – flaA type 36 (82%). The epidemic curve from the cohort study showed a wave of diarrhoea onset from 14 to 20 May (n = 176). Among these patients, the development of diarrhoea was associated with drinking tap water with a dose–response pattern (linear increase by 2 glasses: odds ratio 1.40, 95% confidence interval 1.16–1.70). No bacterial DNA was found in water samples. Conclusions: These findings indicated a point source contamination of tap water with a single clone of C. jejuni which likely occurred on 12–13 May. The water boiling order was lifted on 18 June.
Retinoids, Retinoic Acid Receptors, and Breast Cancer

Retinoids comprise both naturally and synthetically occurring compounds that have been proven to be differentiation agents for a variety of neoplasias, including breast cancer and promyelocytic leukemia in animal models and humans. They offer a unique panoply of therapeutics for the prevention or treatment of breast cancer. Nonetheless, considerable controversy remains as to the efficacy and potential toxic side-effects and as to which group of patients may most benefit. In this article, we review evidence of retinoid efficacy in breast cancer in humans and in animal models and provide possible mechanisms of retinoid action in breast cancer treatment, focusing on the roles of the different retinoic acid receptors and the metabolic pathways necessary for gene activation and cellular homeostasis.
Household dietary diversity and child stunting in East Java, Indonesia.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES More than one-quarter of under-five children in the developing world are stunted, and those with poor nutrient intake are at risk of irreversible cognitive impairment. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between dietary diversity and child stunting in an Indonesian context. METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN Dietary diversity was assessed using a maternal-reported checklist of 12 food groups, summed as a Household Dietary Diversity Score. Stunting was defined as <=-2.0 height-for-age z-score by WHO-Anthro 2005. Trained interviewers administered the household dietary diversity questionnaire to 768 households with children aged <5 years in East Java, Indonesia. Logistic regression models were constructed to test the association between dietary diversity and child stunting. RESULTS The prevalence of child stunting was 39.4%, and the percentage of households consuming food groups high in protein and calcium, like dairy products (41%), and meat/poultry, (65%) was lower compared with other food groups. The unadjusted model revealed that higher dietary diversity scores were associated with lower likelihood of child stunting (OR=0.89; 95% CI=0.80-0.98). This relationship remained significant after adjustment for family size, maternal literacy, food expenditure, breastfeeding, energy, and protein intake (OR=0.89; 95% CI=0.80-0.99). CONCLUSIONS The dietary diversity score was moderate, with consumption of dairy products and meat/poultry lowest among 12 food groups. Hence, population interventions should focus on promoting food groups currently lacking in maternal and child diet, including those rich in growth-promoting nutrients like dairy, meat/poultry. These results, from an Indonesian context, confirm the widely observed protective relationship between dietary diversity and child stunting.
Keyframes Global Map Establishing Method for Robot Localization through Content-Based Image Matching

Self-localization and mapping are important for indoor mobile robot. We report a robust algorithm for map building and subsequent localization especially suited for indoor floor-cleaning robots. Common methods, for example, SLAM, can easily be kidnapped by colliding or disturbed by similar objects. Therefore, keyframes global map establishing method for robot localization in multiple rooms and corridors is needed. Content-based image matching is the core of this method. It is designed for the situation, by establishing keyframes containing both floor and distorted wall images. Image distortion, caused by robot view angle and movement, is analyzed and deduced. And an image matching solution is presented, consisting of extraction of overlap regions of keyframes extraction and overlap region rebuild through subblocks matching. For improving accuracy, ceiling points detecting and mismatching subblocks checking methods are incorporated. This matching method can process environment video effectively. In experiments, less than 5% frames are extracted as keyframes to build global map, which have large space distance and overlap each other. Through this method, robot can localize itself by matching its real-time vision frames with our keyframes map. Even with many similar objects/background in the environment or kidnapping robot, robot localization is achieved with position RMSE <0. 5źm.
Does Price Matter? Price and Non-price Competition in the Airline Industry

This paper studies passengers' choice behavior in air travel. Products are defined as a unique combination of airline and flight itinerary while markets are defined as a directional round-trip air travel between an origin and a destination city. A structural econometric model is used to investigate the relative importance of price (airfare) and non-price product characteristics in explaining passengers' choice of these differentiated products. The results suggest that, on average, prices may not be as important as we think in explaining passengers' choice behavior among alternative products. Non-price characteristics which may include convenience of flight schedules, frequent flyer programs, the quality of in-flight service, among other things, seem to be much more important in explaining passengers' choice behavior. As such, the results have implications for the focus of antitrust policies in the airline industry when assessing the impact of mergers, alliances, or other business decisions of airlines
Human gait recognition system based on shadow free silhouettes using truncated singular value decomposition transformation model

In present scenario biometrics system are getting popular day by day and they are classified based on subject's cooperation and non-cooperation nature. Gait biometrics is one of the popularly traits used for person identification. The gait biometrics has an edge over the other biometrics traits as it works well even if the subject is not cooperative. The multiple problems such as shadow detection, removal of moving subjects in visual surveillance, less number of gallery probes in different conditions and existence of multiple views in the data are encountered due to surveillance camera and affect the performance of the gait recognition system. In this paper, we used three algorithms to overcome these problems up to an extent. In first algorithm, photometric properties based method is used to remove shadows at the time of silhouette generation from the recorded video. Then, an algorithm for synthetic gait energy image (GEI) templates generation employed to increase the corresponding gallery probes dataset and finally, singular value decomposition transformation is applied to transform the gait feature from one view to another. The performance of the proposed algorithm is experimentally validated on a benchmark dataset of indoor as well as outdoor video sequences by comparing it with the existing algorithms.
Synthesis and characterization of hydroxyapatite crystals: a review study on the analytical methods.

For the synthesis of hydroxyapatite crystals from aqueous solutions three preparation methods were employed. From the experimental processes and the characterization of the crystals it was concluded that aging and precipitation kinetics are critical for the purity of the product and its crystallographic characteristics. The authentication details are presented along with the results from infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, transmission and scanning electron photographs, and chemical analysis. Analytical data for several calcium phosphates were collected from the literature, extensively reviewed, and the results were grouped and presented in tables to provide comparison with the data obtained here.
A 40Gb/s CDR with Adaptive Decision-Point Control Using Eye-Opening-Monitor Feedback

In high-speed data link systems of over 40Gb/s, the data decision point in the CDR circuit is not often the optimum position of the eye diagram. The CDR circuit is fabricated using a 0.18 mum SiGe BiCMOS process. The ft and fmax are 200 GHz and 180 GHz, respectively. To overcome a severe degradation of BER performance due to this misalignment, a 40 Gb/s CDR circuit integrated with an adaptive decision-point control scheme by using an eye-opening monitor feedback is developed. The key approaches are 40 Gb/s high-precision eye-opening monitor (EOM) circuit to detect an optimum decision point, an adaptive decision-point control (ADPC) scheme by using the EOM feedback, a decision- point adjustable self-aligned phase detector to achieve the ADPC operation. The combination of these approaches improves both the BER performance and the stability of CDR operation.
1 CSF-Infiltrating CD 4 + T Cells Recognize Borrelia burgdorferi Lysine-Enriched Protein Domains And CNS Auto-Antigens In Early Lyme Encephalitis

Neurological manifestations of Lyme disease are usually accompanied by inflammatory changes in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and recruitment of activated T cells into the CSF compartment. In order to characterize the phenotype and to identify target antigens of CSFinfiltrating T cells in early neuroborreliosis with CNS involvement, we combined T cell cloning, functional testing of T cell responses with synthetic positional scanning combinatorial peptide libraries and a biometrical data analysis. We demonstrate that CD4+ interferon-γ producing T cells specifically responding to B. burgdorferi lysate are present in the CSF of a patient with acute Lyme encephalitis. Some T cell clones recognized previously uncharacterized B. burgdorferi epitopes, which show a specific enrichment for lysine such as the heat shock induced chaperone HSP90. Degenerate T cell recognition that included T cell responses to borrelia-specific and CNS-specific autoantigens derived from the myelin protein 2',3'-cyclic nucleotide 3'-phosphodiesterase (CNPase) could be demonstrated in one representative clone. Our results show that spirochetal antigen-specific and Th1-polarized CD4+ lymphocytes infiltrate the CSF during monophasic CNS symptoms of Lyme disease and demonstrate that cross-recognition of CNS antigens by B. burgdorferi-specific T cells is not restricted to chronic and treatment-resistant manifestations. AC CE PT ED on O cber 7, 2017 by gest http/iai.asm . rg/ D ow nladed fom
Human skeletal muscle fibre type variations correlate with PPAR alpha, PPAR delta and PGC-1 alpha mRNA.

AIMS Studies from genetically modified animals have been instrumental in highlighting genes and their products involved in the regulation of muscle fibre type and oxidative phenotypes; however, evidence in humans is limited. Our aim was therefore to investigate expression of those genes implicated in the regulation of oxidative fibre phenotypes in humans. METHODS Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction we determined mRNA expression of selected genes in skeletal muscle from three different groups, displaying physiological and pathological variations in muscle fibre type, activity and skeletal muscle metabolism respectively: (i) elite athletes (cyclists), with an increased proportion of type I slow twitch, oxidative fibres, (ii) normally active subjects with an average fibre type distribution, and (iii) spinal cord-injured subjects with a low proportion of type I fibres. RESULTS Skeletal muscle mRNA expression of calcineurin Aalpha and Abeta, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-alpha and -delta, and PPAR gamma coactivator (PGC)-1alpha and -1beta was determined. Calcineurin Aalpha and calcineurin Abeta mRNA expression was similar between groups. In contrast, mRNA expression of PPARalpha, PPARdelta, PGC-1alpha and -1beta was increased in athletes, when compared with normally active subjects. Furthermore, mRNA expression of PPARalpha, PPARdelta, PGC-1alpha and -1beta was reduced in spinal cord-injured subjects. Additionally, PPARalpha, PPARdelta and PGC-1alpha correlated with oxidative fibre content. CONCLUSION Skeletal muscle mRNA expression of PPARalpha, PPARdelta, PGC-1alpha and -1beta reflects differences in type I muscle fibres associated with pathologically and physiologically induced skeletal muscle fibre type differences.
Impact of real modem characteristics on practical underwater MAC design

The grand challenges posed by the adverse acoustic channels have been extensively studied in medium access control (MAC) design for underwater acoustic networks (UWANs). In recent years a bunch of MAC protocols have been proposed and analyzed to address the long propagation delay and constraint power supply problems. However, the challenges from the real acoustic modem characteristics are still neglected in the current research. Based on our experiments and sea trial tests with different modems - Teledyne Benthos modem, WHOI MicroModem and high speed UConn OFDM modem, we discover two important real system issues and discuss their significant effect on MAC design in UWANs. Experiment and simulation results reveal that the long preamble sequence feature of acoustic modems harm most existing MAC protocols with short packets, such as acknowledgment, notification, reservation used control packets. Other than reservation based methods are vulnerable to the long transmission time and busy terminal problem, the random access based protocols can benefit from them. As a result, Aloha based protocols yield encouraging throughput performance in UWANs and are reconsidered as viable solution for underwater MAC. Based on the analysis, simulation and experiment results, we also provide discussion on the direction of future MAC designs.
Espin gene (ESPN) mutations associated with autosomal dominant hearing loss cause defects in microvillar elongation or organisation

Background: Espins are actin bundling proteins present in hair cell stereocilia. A recessive mutation in the espin gene (Espn) has been detected in the jerker mouse and causes deafness, vestibular dysfunction, and hair cell degeneration. More recently mutations in the human espin gene (ESPN) have been described in two families affected by autosomal recessive hearing loss and vestibular areflexia. Objective: To report the identification of four additional ESPN mutations (S719R, D744N, R774Q, and delK848) in patients affected by autosomal dominant hearing loss without vestibular involvement. Results: To determine whether the mutated ESPN alleles affected the biological activity of the corresponding espin proteins in vivo, their ability to target and elongate the parallel actin bundles of brush border microvilli was investigated in transfected LLC-PK1-CL4 epithelial cells. For three mutated alleles clear abnormalities in microvillar length or distribution were obtained. Conclusions: The results further strengthen the causative role of the espin gene in non-syndromic hearing loss and add new insights into espin structure and function.
Living labs for designing assistive technologies

At DOMUS for the past 14 years, several cognitive orthotics were designed and implemented and evaluated, most of the time using participatory design. The resulting set of orthotics can support a wide variety of activities of daily living (ADL) to foster autonomy at home for people with cognitive impairments, e.g. medication, meal preparation, or budget. DOMUS benefits from a rich and versatile research infrastructure to design, implement, and evaluate such orthotics, namely a smart apartment on the campus, a living lab in an alternative housing unit for people with traumatic brain injury (TBI), seniors' residences, personal residences (apartments and houses). To different extents, all these places can be considered as living labs. In this paper, building on our extensive experience, we first show that participative design is the best-suited methodology for developing cognitive orthotics in living labs. Clinical researchers, caregivers, and end users are involved from the start. This ensures that design is user driven and that assistive technologies will satisfy users needs. Then we propose a classification of living labs according to the levels of control one can have on which and how much technology is deployed, on how space is organized and how it may vary from experiment to experiment, and on how the progression and execution of a scenario can be constrained or not. For each category of living labs, we discuss their different yet complementary characteristics, highlighting their pros and cons. For instance, our smart apartment provides tight control over technology, space, and execution of predefined scenarios. Accordingly evaluations then provide a lot of useful and reliable information about technology and the ability for people to use it, but less on acceptance of the technology and its integration at one's real home in her daily life habits.
Sleep duration and cardiovascular disease: results from the National Health Interview Survey.

BACKGROUND Previous studies have shown that both short and long sleep durations are related to increased likelihood of diabetes and hypertension. However, the relation between sleep duration and cardiovascular disease (CVD) is not clear. We examined the hypothesis that compared with sleep duration of 7 hours, shorter and longer sleep durations are independently related to CVD. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study of 30,397 National Health Interview Survey 2005 participants > or = 18 years of age (57.1% women). Sleep duration was categorized as < or = 5 hours, 6 hours, 7 hours, 8 hours, and > or = 9 hours. The main outcome of interest was the presence of any CVD (n = 2146), including myocardial infarction, angina, and stroke. RESULTS We found both short and long sleep durations to be independently associated with CVD, independent of age, sex, race-ethnicity, smoking, alcohol intake, body mass index, physical activity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and depression. Compared with a sleep duration of 7 h (referent), the multivariate odds ratio (95% confidence interval) of CVD was 2.20 (1.78, 2.71), 1.33 (1.13, 1.57), 1.23 (1.06, 1.41), and 1.57 (1.31, 1.89) for sleep duration < or = 5 h, 6 h, 8 h, and > or = 9 h. This association persisted in subgroup analyses by gender, race-ethnicity, and body mass index categories. Also, similar associations were observed when we examined myocardial infarction and stroke separately. CONCLUSION Compared with sleep duration of 7 h, there was a positive association between both shorter and longer sleep durations and CVD in a representative sample of US adults. These results suggest that sleep duration may be an important marker of CVD.
Cell death. A comprehensive approximation. Necrosis.

The death of a cell can be defined as an irreversible loss of plasma membrane integrity and represents the final point in the cell life. There are three basic forms of cell death: necrosis (type III cell death), apoptosis (type I cell death) and autophagy (type II cell death). Until recently, the prevalent view was that cellular necrosis is the consequence of non-specific cell injury without underlying signalling events. Over the past decade, it has become evident that in certain conditions, necrosis is the result of a strictly regulated interplay of signalling events, which are initiated by a diverse range of stimuli, supporting the idea that necrotic cell death is as well controlled and programmed as caspase-dependent apoptosis. Thus, depending on the context necrosis might be fully unregulated or, on the contrary, programmed. In the present work, we describe, from a global point of view, an approximation to the necrosis.
Spatial Context from Open and Online Processing (SCOOP): Geographic, Temporal, and Thematic Analysis of Online Information Sources

The Internet is increasingly a source of data for geographic information systems, as more data becomes linked, available through application programing interfaces (APIs), and more tools become available for handling unstructured web data. While many web data extraction and structuring methods exist, there are few examples of comprehensive data processing and analysis systems that link together these tools for geographic analyses. This paper develops a general approach to the development of spatial information context from unstructured and informal web data sources through the joint analysis of the data’s thematic, spatial, and temporal properties. We explore the utility of this derived contextual information through a case study into maritime surveillance. Extraction and processing techniques such as toponym extraction, disambiguation, and temporal information extraction methods are used to construct a semi-structured maritime context database supporting global scale analysis. Geographic, temporal, and thematic content were analyzed, extracted and processed from a list of information sources. A geoweb interface is developed to allow user visualization of extracted information, as well as to support space-time database queries. Joint keyword clustering and spatial clustering methods are used to demonstrate extraction of documents that relate to real world events in official vessel information data. The quality of contextual geospatial information sources is evaluated in reference to known maritime anomalies obtained from authoritative sources. The feasibility of automated context extraction using the proposed framework and linkage to external data using standard clustering tools is demonstrated.