Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The association between smoking quantity and hypertension mediated by inflammation in Chinese current smokers

Objectives: Previous studies indicated that cigarette smokers were more likely to develop hypertension, and both smoking and hypertension were associated with inflammation. Whether inflammation mediates the relationship of them is unclear. This study aims to examine whether inflammation mediates the association between smoking and hypertension. Methods: Nine hundred and eighty-four Chinese current smokers from a community-based chronic diseases survey in Guangzhou and Zhuhai were interviewed about sociodemographics, smoking, chronic conditions, and other health-related variables. Hypertension was defined according to 2007 European Society of Hypertension and European Society of Cardiology (ESH-ESC) Practice Guidelines. Inflammatory markers including C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1&bgr;, monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), tumor necrosis factor-&agr; (TNF-&agr;), and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) were measured by flow cytometry. Logistic regressions were performed to assess the mediation of inflammation on the relationship between smoking quantity and hypertension. Results: We observed a positive association between smoking quantity and hypertension (P < 0.05). After controlling for potential confounders, daily cigarette consumption was significantly associated with higher level of CRP and VCAM-1 and lower level of TNF-&agr; among six measured inflammatory markers, and the current smokers with hypertension had significantly higher level of MCP-1 and CRP than those smokers who were normotensive. Furthermore, the association between smoking quantity and hypertension was mediated by CRP, which accounted for 58.59% of the estimated causal effect of smoking on hypertension. Conclusion: We have confirmed previous observations that smoking quantity was positively associated with hypertension, and the results of our study suggested that the association between smoking and hypertension was probably mediated by CRP.
Affect recognition from lip articulations

Lips deliver visually active clues for speech articulation. Affective states define how humans articulate speech; hence, they also change articulation of lip motion. In this paper, we investigate effect of phonetic classes for affect recognition from lip articulations. The affect recognition problem is formalized in discrete activation, valence and dominance attributes. We use the symmetric KullbackLeibler divergence (KLD) to rate phonetic classes with larger discrimination across different affective states. We perform experimental evaluations using the IEMOCAP database. Our results demonstrate that lip articulations over a set of discriminative phonetic classes improves the affect recognition performance, and attains 3-class recognition rates for the activation, valence and dominance (AVD) attributes as 72.16%, 46.44% and 64.92%, respectively.
Radical prostatectomy versus watchful waiting in localized prostate cancer: the Scandinavian prostate cancer group-4 randomized trial.

BACKGROUND The benefit of radical prostatectomy in patients with early prostate cancer has been assessed in only one randomized trial. In 2005, we reported that radical prostatectomy improved prostate cancer survival compared with watchful waiting after a median of 8.2 years of follow-up. We now report results after 3 more years of follow-up. METHODS From October 1, 1989, through February 28, 1999, 695 men with clinically localized prostate cancer were randomly assigned to radical prostatectomy (n = 347) or watchful waiting (n = 348). Follow-up was complete through December 31, 2006, with histopathologic review and blinded evaluation of causes of death. Relative risks (RRs) were estimated using the Cox proportional hazards model. Statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS During a median of 10.8 years of follow-up (range = 3 weeks to 17.2 years), 137 men in the surgery group and 156 in the watchful waiting group died (P = .09). For 47 of the 347 men (13.5%) who were randomly assigned to surgery and 68 of the 348 men (19.5%) who were not, death was due to prostate cancer. The difference in cumulative incidence of death due to prostate cancer remained stable after about 10 years of follow-up. At 12 years, 12.5% of the surgery group and 17.9% of the watchful waiting group had died of prostate cancer (difference = 5.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.2 to 11.1%), for a relative risk of 0.65 (95% CI = 0.45 to 0.94; P = .03). The difference in cumulative incidence of distant metastases did not increase beyond 10 years of follow-up. At 12 years, 19.3% of men in the surgery group and 26% of men in the watchful waiting group had been diagnosed with distant metastases (difference = 6.7%, 95% CI = 0.2 to 13.2%), for a relative risk of 0.65 (95% CI = 0.47 to 0.88; P = .006). Among men who underwent radical prostatectomy, those with extracapsular tumor growth had 14 times the risk of prostate cancer death as those without it (RR = 14.2, 95% CI = 3.3 to 61.8; P < .001). CONCLUSION Radical prostatectomy reduces prostate cancer mortality and risk of metastases with little or no further increase in benefit 10 or more years after surgery.
Multilayer semitransparent-edge processing for depth-image-based rendering

Owing to the movie industry's wide use of 2D-to-3D conversion techniques, the problem of synthesizing stereoscopic views using depth-image-based rendering (DIBR) is extremely important. A major challenge for DIBR is processing semitransparent edges near depth-map discontinuities. Existing approaches either can only deal with simple cases in which the background behind the object does not change significantly, or they segment the input image into two layers. Unfortunately, such segmentation is impossible to carry out correctly for depth discontinuities formed by multiple objects, leading to visual artifacts in the generated views. Our proposed method of multilayer semitransparent-edge processing avoids these limitations and outperforms competitors in a subjective visual-quality comparison of the synthesized views.
Improved Color Image Demosaicing with Signal Correlation

Single-sensor digital cameras capture images by covering the sensor surface with a color filter array (CFA) such that only one color sample is taken at the location of each pixel. To render a full-color image, color CFA interpolation or demosaicing using neighboring samples as a very important part of video/image processing, is required to estimate values of the other colors at each pixel. However, if demosaicing is not performed appropriately, images suffer from highly visible color artifacts. In this study, a novel adaptive improved edge preserving, edge directed interpolating technique is proposed for color reproduction from Bayer mosaic images along with self-regulating window size. It can take full advantage of not only inter-channel but also intra-channel correlation effectively. Experimental results show that the proposed method for producing high quality color images outperforms the existing state-of-the-art demosaicing techniques, both visually and in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio(PSNR).
Myxomatosis: the transmission of a highly virulent strain of myxoma virus by the European rabbit flea Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale) in the Mallee region of Victoria

SUMMARY The European rabbit flea Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale) was introduced into Australia to act as a vector of myxoma virus. It was first released in the semi-arid Mallee region of Victoria in 1970 where epizootics caused by field strains of myxoma virus occur each summer. Introductions of the readily identified Lausanne strain were made annually following the release of the flea. The introductions were successful and the strain persisted for up to 16 weeks despite competition from field strains. The Lausanne strain is more readily spread by fleas than the Glenfield strain which has been widely used in rabbit control. The ability of the Lausanne strain to persist and its effective transmission compared with the Glenfield strain may be due in part to the more florid symptoms of the disease.
Critical state flow rules for CFD simulations of wet granular flows

First rheological investigation results of weakly wet granular media are presented. The materials have been examined experimentally and numerically in well- defined shear configurations in steady state, in the intermediate flow regime. For the experiments, a Searl-type ring shear cell with rotating inner cylinder and fixed outer cylinder is used. In the numerical particle simulation approach, a split-bottom shear cell is used. Relevant local continuum flow fields (e.g. velocity, stress, shear rates) are determined by micro-macro transition from the simulations data. After the simulations are validated by experiments, e.g. by comparison with the experimentally accessible quantities like shear-torque at the inner wheel, they can give a deeper insight into the microscopic kinematics. The granular media have considerably more “wet contacts” in the shear zone, as for example the location-plot of purely wet bridges, without mechanical contacts suggests. Finally, critical state flow rules concerning the viscosity of wet granular materials are discussed.
Fabrication of silicon tunnel-FETs using epitaxial NiSi2 Schottky junctions and dopant segregation technique

Tunnel-FET (TFET) is a steep-slope device that functions by the control of band-to-band tunneling (BTBT) current at the source/channel junction. It is expected as one of the ultra-low power devices that replace conventional MOSFETs [1]. Schottky source junction is a practical structure for the fabrication of TFETs when the Schottky barrier height is appropriately maintained. Recently, a promising performance of Si-TFET is demonstrated using NiSi Schottky source with dopant segregation technique [2]. On the other hand, it is pointed out that silicidation sometimes causes encroachment of silicide edges and induces trap-assisted tunneling which degrade the performances of TFETs [3]. Thus a silicidation technology that eliminates defects at the silicide/silicon interface is valuable for the fabrication of Schottky source TFETs. This report presents our exploration of Schottky source TFETs using epitaxial NiSi2.
Probing the metabolic water contribution to intracellular water using oxygen isotope ratios of PO4

Significance Conventional thought holds that the stable isotopic composition (O and H) of water inside the cells of microorganisms and most aquatic macroorganisms is identical to that of the surrounding water. This assumption is widely applied in studies of environmental reconstruction. Results presented here, based on techniques of multilabeled water isotope probing and measurement of 18O/16O ratios in PO4 moieties of intracellular biomolecules, which allows direct sampling of intracellular environments, demonstrate a significant metabolic water component in intracellular water that is consistent across multiple strains of bacteria when grown under similar conditions. The intracellular water probe presented here, based on PO4 δ18O in DNA/biomass, may be extended to other biomolecules and organisms. Knowledge of the relative contributions of different water sources to intracellular fluids and body water is important for many fields of study, ranging from animal physiology to paleoclimate. The intracellular fluid environment of cells is challenging to study due to the difficulties of accessing and sampling the contents of intact cells. Previous studies of multicelled organisms, mostly mammals, have estimated body water composition—including metabolic water produced as a byproduct of metabolism—based on indirect measurements of fluids averaged over the whole organism (e.g., blood) combined with modeling calculations. In microbial cells and aquatic organisms, metabolic water is not generally considered to be a significant component of intracellular water, due to the assumed unimpeded diffusion of water across cell membranes. Here we show that the 18O/16O ratio of PO4 in intracellular biomolecules (e.g., DNA) directly reflects the O isotopic composition of intracellular water and thus may serve as a probe allowing direct sampling of the intracellular environment. We present two independent lines of evidence showing a significant contribution of metabolic water to the intracellular water of three environmentally diverse strains of bacteria. Our results indicate that ∼30–40% of O in PO4 comprising DNA/biomass in early stationary phase cells is derived from metabolic water, which bolsters previous results and also further suggests a constant metabolic water value for cells grown under similar conditions. These results suggest that previous studies assuming identical isotopic compositions for intracellular/extracellular water may need to be reconsidered.
Political Versus Epidemiological Correctness

In the March issue of the journal, the Joint SHEA and APIC Task Force indicates that the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) support the use of active detection and isolation (ADI) for controlling nosocomial infections due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) “in appropriate circumstances, as recommended in previously published guidelines”1(p250) (those published by SHEA and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee [HICPAC]), but that SHEA and APIC oppose the use of legislation for mandating any infection control approach, including this one as tried in 2006 in Illinois and Maryland. Both supporters and opponents of controlling MRSA and VRE with ADI probably will agree that legislation is not the optimal way to control nosocomial infections in general, but this position statement undoubtedly will please the latter more than it does the former because the SHEA/APIC Task Force argues that ADI is not ready for routine use throughout all healthcare facilities, directly opposing the position of the original SHEA guideline. As an author of that SHEA guideline, I would like to comment. First, the new position seems politically correct (since most infection control professionals have not yet bothered using ADI to control MRSA and VRE), but many of the planks of the SHEA/APIC Task Force position statement are misleading.
Double blind trial of repeated treatment with transdermal nicotine for relapsed smokers

Abstract Objective : To assess the efficacy and safety of a repeat course of treatment with transdermal nicotine for cessation of smoking in a brief intervention setting. Study design : Randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trial with follow up for 26 weeks. Subjects : 629 smokers who had unsuccessfully attempted to stop smoking by using active transdermal nicotine and brief behavioural counselling. Smokers were motivated to quit smoking for a second time and smoked >/=15 cigarettes a day. Interventions : Twelve weeks' treatment with active transdermal nicotine patches or placebo and brief counselling at monthly visits. Main outcome measure> : Sustained smoking cessation for the 28 days before the visit at week 12 verified by expired carbon monoxide concentrations. Results : At 12 weeks 21/315 (6.7%) subjects allocated to active treatment had stopped smoking compared with 6/314 (1.9%) allocated to placebo (absolute difference 4.7%; 95% confidence interval 1.6% to 7.9%; P=0.003). At 26 weeks the rates were 20/315 (6.4%) and 8/314 (2.6%) (3.8%; 0.6% to 7.0%; P=0.021). Difficulty in sleeping was reported by 43/179 (24.0%) on active treatment and 19/143 (13.3%) on placebo (P=0.015). Severe reactions at the site of application were rare (6/322; 1.9%). Conclusions : Repeated treatment with transdermal nicotine together with brief counselling can improve the low success rates of smoking cessation in recently relapsed, moderate to heavy smokers. Questions remain about whether more intensive interventions or higher doses of nicotine could be more effective. The likelihood of severe reactions at the site of application with repeated treatment is low.
ADHD in the classroom - measuring opinions and needs

1 The Neuro-Cognitive Center, Pediatric Neurology Unit, Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Mount Scopus Campus, Jerusalem, 91240, Israel. 2 Department of Neonatology, HadassahHebrew University Medical Center, Mount Scopus Campus, Jerusalem, 91240, Israel. 3 Division of Pediatrics, Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center, Ein Kerem Campus, Jerusalem 91120, Israel. 4 Pediatric Neurology Clinic, Clalit and Leumit, HMO, Shay Agnon 13/1, Jerusalem, 93589, Israel 5 Special Education Department, Ministry of Education, Tel-Aviv, 67456, Israel *Corresponding Author’s Email: itberg@hadassah.org. il Tel: 972-2-5844751; Fax: 972-2-5328963 Collaboration between school teachers and health systems is essential for efficient diagnosis, management, and treatment of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This study evaluated teachers’ knowledge, perceptions, and needs regarding the teacher-physician working relationship and perceived barriers for collaboration. A specifically designed questionnaire was fulfilled by 430 teachers in 30 elementary schools, representing a broad range of socio-demographic areas. Findings point to an alarming lack of communication between teachers and medical specialists. Most teachers were not involved in the diagnosis procedure and reported that children’s treatment was compromised due to lack of collaboration between the health and education systems. Most of them recognized their need for better training and guidance regarding common neuro-developmental disorders. The results of this study are valuable to identify areas where there is a lack of knowledge among teachers and need for further training.
Programming of hepatic and peripheral tissue insulin sensitivity by maternal protein restriction

A little over 6 years ago, Hales and Barker [ l ] proposed the Thrifty Phenotype Hypothesis to account for results from a series of epidemiological studies which found associations between markers of fetal and early growth retardation and the subsequent development of ischaemic heart disease, hypertension and Type 2 (non-insulindependent) diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). These studies showed that people with ischaemic heart disease [2], hypertension [ 31, impaired glucose tolerance or Type 2 diabetes [4] had significantly lower birthweights or weight at 1 year than people without these degenerative diseases. The strongest association of all between birthweight and adult degenerative diseases has been reported for the insulin resistance syndrome (when diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidaemia occur together) [4]. In a study of 64-yearold men in Hertfordshire, U.K., the odds ratio of those born lightest for the presence of the insulin resistance syndrome was 18 times that of those born heaviest [S]. Since these initial studies, many other studies in a large number of different populations have shown links between poor fetal and early growth and either loss of glucose tolerance or markers of the insulin resistance syndrome (reviewed in [6]). Perhaps one of the most significant studies relating low birthweight to loss of glucose tolerance which has been published since the Thrifty Phenotype Hypothesis is that of twins in Denmark [7]. This study found that in both monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins where only one twin had l‘ype 2 diabetes, the birthweight of the diabetic twin was significantly lower than that of the non-diabetic twin. The authors of this paper conclude that ‘the study supports the role of non-genetic (environmental) intrauterine component, such as intrauterine malnutrition for the development of NIDDM much later in life’. These epidemiological studies have led to much speculation as to the mechanistic basis of the relationship between birthweight and the insulin resistance syndrome.
A Solution of Nonlinear Diffusion Problems by Semilinear Reaction-Diffusion Systems

This paper deals with nonlinear diffusion problems involving degenerate parabolic problems, such as the Stefan problem and the porous medium equation, and cross-diffusion systems in population ecology. The degeneracy of the diffusion and the effect of cross-diffusion, that is, nonlinearities of the diffusion, complicate its analysis. In order to avoid the nonlinearities, we propose a reaction-diffusion system with solutions that approximate those of the nonlinear diffusion problems. The reaction-diffusion system includes only a simple reaction and linear diffusion. Resolving semilinear problems is typically easier than dealing with nonlinear diffusion problems. Therefore, our ideas are expected to reveal new and more effective approaches to the study of nonlinear problems.
Targeted disruption of Skp2 results in accumulation of cyclin E and p27Kip1, polyploidy and centrosome overduplication

The ubiquitin–proteasome pathway plays an important role in control of the abundance of cell cycle regulators. Mice lacking Skp2, an F‐box protein and substrate recognition component of an Skp1–Cullin–F‐box protein (SCF) ubiquitin ligase, were generated. Although Skp2−/− animals are viable, cells in the mutant mice contain markedly enlarged nuclei with polyploidy and multiple centrosomes, and show a reduced growth rate and increased apoptosis. Skp2−/− cells also exhibit increased accumulation of both cyclin E and p27Kip1. The elimination of cyclin E during S and G2 phases is impaired in Skp2−/− cells, resulting in loss of cyclin E periodicity. Biochemical studies showed that Skp2 interacts specifically with cyclin E and thereby promotes its ubiquitylation and degradation both in vivo and in vitro. These results suggest that specific degradation of cyclin E and p27Kip1 is mediated by the SCFSkp2 ubiquitin ligase complex, and that Skp2 may control chromosome replication and centrosome duplication by determining the abundance of cell cycle regulators.
Decalcifying effect of 15% EDTA, 15% citric acid, 5% phosphoric acid and 2.5% sodium hypochlorite on root canal dentine.

AIM To evaluate and compare ex vivo the decalcifying effect of 15% EDTA, 15% citric acid, 5% phosphoric acid and 2.5% sodium hypochlorite on root canal dentine. METHODOLOGY Two 2-mm-thick slices were cut from the coronal third of the root of 10 human incisors. Each slice was sectioned into two equal parts. Specimens were assigned to one of four groups (n = 10) for immersion in 20 mL of either 15% EDTA, or 15% citric acid, 5% phosphoric acid or 2.5% NaOCl, for three time periods (5, 10 and 15 min). The concentration of Ca(2+) extracted from the dentine was measured by atomic absorption spectrophometry. The amount of calcium extracted was analysed using the Kruskal-Wallis test for global comparisons and the Mann-Whitney U-test for pairwise comparisons. RESULTS In the three time periods, 15% EDTA and 15% citric acid extracted the largest amount of calcium, with no significant differences between them. The 2.5% NaOCl solution extracted insignificant amounts of calcium, whereas 15% EDTA extracted 86.72% of the calcium in the first 5 min, and 15% citric acid and 5% phosphoric acid had a similar pattern of calcium removal (77.03% and 67.08% in first 5 min, respectively). CONCLUSIONS Solutions of 15% EDTA, 15% citric acid and 5% phosphoric acid decalcify root dentine, with most calcium extracted during the first 5 min of action. The efficacy of 15% citric acid and 15% EDTA solutions was significantly greater than that of 5% phosphoric acid solution at each time period (5, 10 and 15 min).