Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The positivity ratio – another parameter to assess the diagnostic quality of a patch test preparation

A 45-year-old man had been employed as a chemical worker since 1996 in an industry producing pro-drugs. In May 2001, the factory began to produce phosphorylcreatine, with a half-enclosed working cycle, and our patient was deputed to supervise its synthesis. After 20 days, he developed severe eczematous dermatitis with diffuse, symmetrical involvement of the face, including the eyelids, the region under the chin and the retroauricular folds. The symptoms disappeared when away from the workplace, with the aid of topical corticosteroid treatment and systemic antihistamines. On return to work on the same job, the patient developed a new dermatitis episode. He was then relocated to a different area of the plant and the dermatitis did not recur. The patient was patch tested with the Italian Society of Allergological, Occupational and Environmental Dermatology (SIDAPA) standard series with negative results. Further patch testing was performed with the substances used in the synthesis of phosphorylcreatine (Table 1). Readings were made on D2 and D4. The patient showed positive reactions to dibenzyl phosphite, cyanamide and phosphorylcreatine. Photopatch tests with the above substances were negative. 5 healthy volunteers were negative to cyanamide 1% pet. and dibenzyl phosphite 0 1% pet.
FDTD numerical analysis of SPR sensing using graphene-based photonic crystal

In this study, we investigated the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensing based on photonic crystal structures which are designed using a single graphene sheet and multilayer metal oxides (Al2O3 and ZnO) for detection sensitivity and the absorption of molecules through excitation wavelength when using air and water as analytes. The refractive index (η) of air is 1.0 and water is 1.33. The method used to investigate the design structure is by simulation using finite difference time domain (FDTD). The wavelength is fixed at 0. 8μm (near-infrared region) to excite a transverse electric (TEM) surface plasmon polaritons using Kretschmann configuration. Both analytical and numerical SPR spectra were in a good agreement. When using air as analyte, the reflection of incident angle for Al2O3 and ZnO are 59.6° and 62°. While, the reflection of incident angle for Al2O3 and ZnO are 69.6° and 71.8° when using water as analyte. The change in the refractive index of the analytes gave a change in the incident angle hence graphene and metal oxides can be used to form a SPR-based biosensor for biomedical applications.
Characteristic of selected genes controlling meat quality in pigs. A review

For many years, pig breeders have concentrated their pig improvement efforts on producing a population characterized by adequate meatiness. Development of molecular genetics techniques resulted in the detection of genes with major effects in quantitative traits. Segregation analysis of numerous microsatellite markers, evenly distributed throughout the genome, and variation of a productive trait in the reference family, may help to identify the chromosome region in which the major gene locus probably occurs. This analysis has led to the identification in pigs of over 2 262 DNA microsatellite markers, and 1 381 genes, amoung others FAT1, RYR1, RN-, LEP, LEPR GH IGFs, MyoD family genes presented in this articile which are significantly correlated to meat quality, carcass quality or growth rate.
Subdivision and haplotype structure in natural populations of Arabidopsis lyrata

High levels of inbreeding are expected to cause a strong reduction in levels of genetic variability, effective recombination rates and in adaptation compared with related outcrossing populations. We examined patterns of DNA polymorphism at five nuclear loci and one chloroplast locus within and between four populations of the outcrossing plant Arabidopsis lyrata, a close relative of the highly self‐fertilizing model species A. thaliana. The observed patterns are compared with species‐wide polymorphism at orthologous loci, as well as within‐ and between‐population patterns at other studied loci in A. thaliana. In addition to evidence for much higher average within‐population diversity, species‐wide levels of silent polymorphism are generally higher in A. lyrata than in A. thaliana, unlike the results from a previous study of the ADH locus. However, polymorphism is also low in the North American A. lyrata subspecies lyrata compared with the European subspecies petraea, suggesting either a population bottleneck in North American populations or recent admixture involving diverged European populations. Differentiation between the two subspecies is strong, although there are few fixed differences, suggesting that their isolation is recent. Estimates of intralocus recombination rates and analysis of haplotype structure in European A. lyrata populations indicate lower recombination than predicted based on the variability together with physical recombination rates estimated from A. thaliana. This may be due to strong population subdivision, or to recent departures from demographic equilibrium such as a bottleneck or population admixture. Alternatively, there may be consistently lower recombination rates in the outcrossing species. In contrast, estimates of recombination rates from species‐wide samples of A. thaliana are close to the values expected assuming a high rate of self‐fertilization. Complex population histories in both A. thaliana and A. lyrata complicate theoretical predictions and empirical tests of the effects of inbreeding on polymorphism and molecular evolution.
Prevalence and association of snoring, anthropometry and hypertension in Korea

Objectives. There is little data on the relationships between hypertension and snoring in Asians, whose anthropometrics and prevalence of diseases are different from Western populations. This study evaluated the prevalence and the factors associated with snoring in an adult Korean population (⩾18 years). Methods. The questions on snoring were divided into five Likert scales [“never” to “severe”(everyday)]. Subjects were divided into two mutually exclusive groups: moderate and severe groups of snorers considered habitual snorers, and never, sometimes and mild snorers considered the non‐snoring group. We classified the severity of hypertension according to JNC 6. Independent variables included demographic and baseline characteristics, hypertension, anthropometrics, current medical history, medications and substance use. Results. Overall prevalence of habitual snoring is 15.58% in males and 8.40% in females. The mean age, body mass index (BMI), both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and anthropometric data, including neck, chest and abdominal girth, were significantly associated with the snoring group in both men and women. Neck length was only significantly shorter in females, not in males. Alcohol consumption rate was significantly higher in the snoring group of the men, but was lower in the snoring group in women. Smoking did not show any significant relationship with snoring and non‐snoring groups in both genders. Snoring was significantly higher in the menopause group (odds ratio 2.8) than the premenopausal group. Fifty per cent in the snoring group and 33.08% in the non‐snoring group were diagnosed as having hypertension. The prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in the snoring group aged< 40 years and was weakly significant in those subjects aged between 40 and 60 years in males. The prevalence of hypertension was significantly higher in the snoring group in those both aged< 40 years and those aged between 40 and 60 years in females. Those aged> 60 years old in both genders showed no significant differences in the prevalence of hypertension between snorers and non‐snorers. The relationship between hypertension and snoring after adjustments for age, BMI, age, smoke and alcohol usage showed a dose–response relationship in both genders. Conclusions. This study showed the dose–response relationship between hypertension and snoring, even after adjustments for age, BMI, age, smoke and alcohol usage. Snoring significantly increased after menopause in women. Snoring had a significant relationship with neck length in females but not in males. There is a dose–response relationship between snoring and hypertension in both genders in those subjects aged< 60 years old.
Suppression of retinoic acid receptor-beta in premalignant oral lesions and its up-regulation by isotretinoin.

BACKGROUND Retinoids are effective in the treatment and prevention of certain human cancers. Most of their actions are thought to result from changes in gene expression mediated by nuclear retinoic acid receptors and retinoid X receptors. We conducted a study to determine whether the expression of these receptors was altered in premalignant oral lesions and, if so, whether their expression could be restored by treatment with isotretinoin. METHODS We performed in situ hybridization of retinoic acid receptors and retinoid X receptors using antisense riboprobes in specimens of oral mucosa from 7 normal subjects and specimens of premalignant oral lesions from 52 patients before treatment with isotretinoin and from 39 of the 52 patients after three months of treatment. RESULTS All the normal specimens expressed retinoic acid receptor-beta messenger RNA (mRNA). In contrast, retinoic acid receptor-beta mRNA was detected in only 21 of the 52 premalignant oral lesions (P = 0.003). Thirty-five of the 39 specimens available for evaluation after treatment expressed retinoic acid receptor-beta mRNA (P < 0.001). All normal and premalignant specimens expressed similar levels of mRNA for retinoic acid receptor-alpha and retinoic acid receptor-gamma and the three types of retinoic X receptors, alpha, beta, and gamma. The levels of retinoic acid receptor-beta mRNA increased in the specimens from 18 of the 22 patients who had responses to isotretinoin and in 8 of the 17 specimens from the patients without responses (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS The expression of retinoic acid receptor-beta mRNA is selectively lost in premalignant oral lesions and can be restored by treatment with isotretinoin. Restoration of the expression of retinoic acid receptor-beta mRNA is associated with a clinical response. Retinoic acid receptor-beta may have a role in mediating the response to retinoids and may be a useful intermediate biologic marker in trials of these agents for the prevention of oral carcinogenesis.
Conformational study of the Thr-Gly repeat in the Drosophila clock protein, PERIOD

Recent results with the Drosophila melanogaster period gene suggest that the apparently conserved repetitive motif (Thr-Gly)n coded by this gene may play an important role in the temperature compensation of the circadian clock. We have therefore initiated both a theoretical and experimental conformational analysis of (Thr-Gly)n peptides. By using a build-up method, it is clear that the hexapeptide (Thr-Gly)3 represents a ‘conformational monomer’ and generates a stable type II or type III β-turn. Circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of synthetic (Thr-Gly)3 and poly(Thr-Gly) peptides revealed that these peptides exhibit flexible conformations, especially in more polar environments and at higher temperatures. We speculate that this flexibility may illuminate our understanding of both the molecular mechanism of temperature compensation and the systematic geographical distribution within Europe of the Thr-Gly length polymorphism in D. melanogaster.
System for performance analysis of priority-based radar schedulers

We define radar events to be an abstraction of a request sent to a physical radar machine. Radar events are assigned a priority, will require a certain amount of time to execute and may or may not need to execute before an assigned deadline. Radar schedulers attempt to schedule radar events in real time as efficiently as possible, by scheduling the highest priority events while attempting to schedule every event before its deadline. Existing radar schedulers may have several drawbacks including inefficient algorithms, difficulty of implementing and changing of scheduling algorithms, and non-automated performance analysis of such algorithms. In this paper, we propose a system that addresses all of these issues. The goals of our system are to provide new scheduling algorithm solution techniques, to reduce the amount of time it takes to implement and begin testing new scheduling algorithms, and to reduce the number of errors committed and amount of time taken during the algorithm testing phase via automation. We will show that our system is an improvement over existing radar schedulers.
Prevalence of open-angle glaucoma in a rural south Indian population.

PURPOSE To determine the prevalence of primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) and the associated risk factors in a rural population in southern India. METHODS Subjects aged 40 years or more (n = 3934) underwent a complete ophthalmic examination. Glaucoma was diagnosed according to the International Society of Geographical and Epidemiologic Ophthalmology classification. RESULTS Complete data were available for 3924 subjects (response rate, 81.75%). In eyes with normal suprathreshold visual fields, the mean intraocular pressure was 14.29 +/- 3.32 mm Hg (97.5th and 99.5th percentiles, 21 and 25 mm Hg, respectively). The mean vertical cup-to-disc ratio was 0.39 +/- 0.17 (97.5th and 99.5th percentiles, 0.7 and 0.8, respectively). Sixty-four subjects had definite POAG (1.62%, 9.5% CI 1.42-1.82); 30 were men and 34 were women. Subjects with POAG (59.85 +/- 10.43 years) were older (P < 0.001) than the study population (53.78 +/- 10.71 years). In only one (1.5%) person was POAG diagnosed before the study. Two (3.12%) subjects were blind due to POAG; 21 (32.81%) subjects had a presenting IOP >21 mm Hg, and 43 (67.19%) had an IOP <21 mm Hg. The mean central corneal thickness in subjects with POAG (502.82 +/- 35.29 microm) was not different from that of the normal study population (505.93 +/- 31.11 microm). No association was found with diabetes mellitus, systemic hypertension, gender, and myopia. Increasing IOP (per mm Hg) was associated with the disease (OR 1.12; 95% CI, 1.08-1.16). The odds for POAG increased with advancing age after adjustment for gender. CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of POAG in this population was 1.62%. The prevalence increased with age, and 98.5% were not aware of the disease.
Use Cases as a Means to Support the Appropriation of Enterprise Social Software

Despite the growing use of enterprise social software (ESS) to support internal communication or knowledge management, its successful introduction is still a challenge. Studies have shown that ESS needs to be appropriated by the employees by making sense of the tools and reflecting on its possible benefits for individual working practices. To support and accelerate this complex procedure and reduce the risk of non-appropriation, we propose a nascent design theory for use cases as a means to support ESS appropriation. Interviews with 10 department heads, usage observations, and a survey at a medium-sized German service provider serve as a database for applying a causal analysis, as suggested by Gregor et al. 2013. Our study provides structured guidance on how to conceptualize and utilize use cases to promote desired ESS uses and ultimately contributes to a better understanding of ESS appropriation.
A Search-Based Web Image Annotation Method

Automatic image annotation is an effective way for managing and retrieving abundant images on the Internet. In this paper, we propose a novel search-based method for web image annotation. Firstly, surrounding text and other textual information in the hosting web pages are used as the candidate annotations. As the candidates are very noisy, two measures are defined to re-rank them and only top-ranked ones are reserved as the final annotations. One measure is based on the visual consistence between the given image and the image search results when the candidate annotation is submitted as a query. The other measure is based on the textual consistence between one candidate and others, which is calculated from the pairwise co-occurrence using image search engines. Finally, Dempster-Shafer multiple evidence combination approach is used to combine the visual and textual measures for the final ranking. Experimental results on web images demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Mapping Ultrafast Dynamics of Highly Excited D2+ by Attosecond XUV Radiation

Using high harmonic generation in a pump-probe geometry, we populate and measure the 2pπu potential in D + 2 . Cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy (COLTRIMS) provides the ability to measure full three-dimensional momenta of ion coincidence pairs, enabling full reconstruction of nuclear dynamics. Identification of single ion, ion pair and electron-ion detections confirms the observed state and shows mechanisms through which the nuclear wave packet may be redistributed among other molecular states in a controlled fashion. We quantify the observation via simulation of the time independent Schrodinger equation. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment enables practical implementation of the calculations to further study dynamics. This complete characterization of the potential curve and the dynamics it produces demonstrate a powerful tool poised to study crossings in the 2pπu state, as well as coherent control mechanisms.
A One-Layer Recurrent Neural Network for Pseudoconvex Optimization Problems With Equality and Inequality Constraints

Pseudoconvex optimization problem, as an important nonconvex optimization problem, plays an important role in scientific and engineering applications. In this paper, a recurrent one-layer neural network is proposed for solving the pseudoconvex optimization problem with equality and inequality constraints. It is proved that from any initial state, the state of the proposed neural network reaches the feasible region in finite time and stays there thereafter. It is also proved that the state of the proposed neural network is convergent to an optimal solution of the related problem. Compared with the related existing recurrent neural networks for the pseudoconvex optimization problems, the proposed neural network in this paper does not need the penalty parameters and has a better convergence. Meanwhile, the proposed neural network is used to solve three nonsmooth optimization problems, and we make some detailed comparisons with the known related conclusions. In the end, some numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the performance of the proposed neural network.
Predictive parser combinators need four values to report errors

Abstract A combinator-based parser is a parser constructed directly from a BNF grammar, using higher-order functions (combinators) to model the alternative and sequencing operations of BNF. This paper describes a method for constructing parser combinators that can be used to build efficient predictive parsers which accurately report the cause of parsing errors. The method uses parsers that return values (parse trees or error indications) decorated with one of four tags.
Screening for coeliac disease in women with a history of recurrent miscarriage or infertility

Because subclinical coeliac disease may decrease fertility or complicate pregnancy, we screened women with recurrent miscarriage of unknown aetiology (n= 63), unexplained infertility (n= 47) and infertility with a known cause (n= 82), for anti‐endomysium antibodies in serum to find undiagnosed coeliac disease. One woman (1.6%) with recurrent miscarriage, another woman (2.1%) with unexplained infertility and one woman (2.0%) in the control group (n= 51), were considered to have coeliac disease. We could not demonstrate a higher frequency of coeliac disease in women with infertility or recurrent miscarriage, but suggest that undiagnosed coeliac disease is common in women.
Therapeutic comparison of metformin and sulfonylurea, alone and in various combinations. A double-blind controlled study.

OBJECTIVE To assess and compare the therapeutic efficacy and safety of metformin (M) and sulfonylurea (glyburide, G), alone and in various combinations, in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Of 165 patients (fasting blood glucose [FBG] > or = 6.7 mmol/l) initially treated with diet alone, 144 (FBG still > or = 6.7 mmol/l) were randomized to double-blind, double-dummy controlled treatment with M, G, or primary combination therapy (MG). The dose was titrated, with FBG < 6.7 mmol/l as target, using, at most, six dose levels. The first three dose levels comprised increasing single-drug therapy (M or G) or primary combination at increasing but low dosage (MGL), and the second three levels were composed of various high-dose combinations, i.e., add-on therapy (M/G or G/M) and primary combination escalated to high dosage (MGH). Medication was maintained for 6 months after completed dose titration. RESULTS The FBG target was achieved in 9% of patients after diet alone. Single-drug therapy was insufficient in 36% and MGL in 25% (NS) of the randomized patients. There was further improvement in glucose control by the high-dose combinations. Mean FBG +/- SE was reduced (P = 0.001) from 9.1 +/- 0.4 to 7.0 +/- 0.2 mmol/l in those maintained on single-drug treatment or low-dose primary combination. Those treated with different high-dose combinations had a large mean FBG reduction, from 13.3 +/- 0.8 to 7.8 +/- 0.6 mmol/l. HbA1c levels showed corresponding reductions, and glycemic levels rose after drug discontinuation. Fasting C-peptide rose during treatment with G and MGL but not with M, while fasting insulin was not significantly changed. Meal-stimulated C-peptide and insulin levels were unchanged by M but increased by G and, to a lesser extent, by MGL. There were no significant insulin or C-peptide differences between the different high-dose combinations (M/G, G/M, and MGH). Body weight did not change following treatment with M or combination but increased by 2.8 +/- 0.7 kg following G alone. Blood pressure was unchanged. Overall effects on plasma lipids were small, with no significant differences between groups. Drug safety was satisfactory, even if the reporting of (usually modest) adverse events was high; the profile, but not the frequency, differed between groups. CONCLUSIONS Dose-effect titrated treatment with either metformin or glyburide promotes equal degrees of glycemic control. The former, but not the latter, is able to achieve this control without increasing body weight or hyperinsulinemia. Near-normal glycemia can be obtained by a combination of metformin and sulfonylurea, even in advanced NIDDM.
Efficient and Reliable Multicast of Data in APCO P25 Systems

In this paper, we investigate an efficient scheme for data multicasting in narrowband public safety radio systems. The proposed scheme uses fountain encoding, in order to avoid feedback messages for each individual packet. We first propose a multistage estimation scheme that is based on slotted random access and that does not require any prior knowledge of number of users. The rest of the proposed scheme consists of iterative transmission and feedback/estimation phases. In feedback phases, the base station estimates the number of users that did not decode the data file yet, and determines the number of additional fountain encoded packets required. This phase does not require any channel state information. The proposed scheme lasts until all the users in the group decode the message. We show that the proposed estimation scheme is accurate and computationally efficient. The overall multicast scheme performs very close to an optimistic lower bound, which makes it a promising multicast approach in public safety radio systems such as APCO P25.