Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of HCV Risk Behaviors Among Prison Inmates: Tattooing and Injection Drug Use

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most common blood-borne chronic viral infection in the United States and it is over represented in incarcerated populations. This study estimates if in prison tattooing is associated with self reported HCV infection in a probabilistic sample of 1,331 sentenced inmates in Puerto Rico prisons anonymously surveyed in 2004, who had previously been tested for HCV. Analysis were carried out with the total sample and among non-injectors (n=796) to control for injection drug use (IDU) and other confounders. Nearly 60% of inmates had acquired tattoos in prison. HCV was reported by 27% of subjects in the total sample and by 12% of non-injectors who had undergone tattoos in prison. IDU was the strongest predictor of HCV in the total sample (OR=5.6, 95% CI=3.2-9.7). Among non injectors, tattoing with reused needles or sharp objects and/ or reusing ink was positively associated with HCV self-report (OR=2.6, 95% CI=1.3-5.5). Tattooing is a common occurrence in this prison setting. Findings suggest that preventive interventions are required to reduce the risk of HCV transmission through unsterile tattooing and injection practices.
Combined Sizing and Energy Management in EVs With Batteries and Supercapacitors

This paper is concerned with the study of combined sizing and energy management algorithms for electric vehicles (EVs) endowed with batteries and supercapacitors (SCs). The main goal is to find the number of cells of each source that minimizes the installation and running costs of the EV, taking into account the performance requirements specified for the vehicle and the technical constraints of the energy sources. To tackle this problem, two methodologies will be investigated. The first considers a filter-based approach to perform the power split among the sources; it will be shown that, under some practical assumptions, the resultant sizing problem can be posed as a linear programming problem and solved using efficient numerical techniques. The second methodology employs an optimal noncausal energy management, which, when integrated with the sizing problem, yields a nonlinear optimization problem. These two methodologies will be then applied to size the storage unit of a small EV. The results indicate that the filter-based approach, although simple and numerically efficient, generally requires an oversized storage unit. Furthermore, it was also concluded that, if the range requirements of the EV are not very high (below 50 km, in our case study), the use of SCs enables energy savings of up to 7.8%.
Unravelling the hidden inter and intra-varietal diversity of durum wheat commercial varieties used in Portugal

Abstract Assessing durum wheat genomic diversity is crucial in a changing environmental particularly in the Mediterranean region where it is largely used to produce pasta. Durum wheat varieties cultivated in Portugal and previously assessed regarding thermotolerance ability were screened for the variability of coding sequences associated with technological traits and repetitive sequences. As expected, reduced variability was observed regarding low molecular weight glutenin subunits (LMW-GS) but a specific LMW-GS allelic form associated with improved pasta-making characteristics was absent in one variety. Contrastingly, molecular markers targeting repetitive elements like microsatellites and retrotransposons – Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) and Inter Retrotransposons Amplified Polymorphism (IRAP) – disclosed significant inter and intra-varietal diversity. This high level of polymorphism was revealed by the 20 distinct ISSR/IRAP concatenated profiles observed among the 23 individuals analysed. Interestingly, median joining networks and PCoA analysis grouped individuals of the same variety and clustered varieties accordingly with geographical origin. Globally, this work demonstrates that durum wheat breeding strategies induced selection pressure for some relevant coding sequences while maintaining high levels of genomic variability in non-coding regions enriched in repetitive sequences.
Comparison of the effects of chlorpromazine, dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate on the behaviour and intellectual functioning of hyperactive children.

Chlorpromazine, dextroamphetamine and methylphenidate were significantly superior to placebo in producing overall improvement in the behaviour of hyperactive children. Chlorpromazine was effective for the majority of the children, but reduced only hyperactivity, having no demonstrable effect on distractibility, aggressivity or excitability. Both stimulants produced more goal-oriented behaviour and reduced distractibility. Methylphenidate was the most effective of the drugs in prpducing exceptional improvement. All three active drugs had to be discontinued in a few of the children because of side effects. Not all hyperactive children were benefited by the drugs.No background variables (with the exception of mother-child relationship) were found in the present studies to predict favourable response to the drugs.Methylphenidate became our drug of choice for this group of hyperactive children.
Adaptive global fast terminal sliding mode control of MEMS gyroscope using fuzzy-neural-network

An adaptive global fast terminal sliding mode (GFTSM) tracking control scheme using fuzzy-neural-network (FNN) is presented for Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) vibratory gyroscopes in this paper. This approach gives a new global fast terminal sliding surface, which will ensure the designed control system to reach the sliding surface and converge to equilibrium point in a shorter finite time from any initial state. In addition, the proposed adaptive global fast terminal sliding mode controller can real-time estimate the angular velocity and the damping and stiffness coefficients. Moreover, the main feature of this scheme is that the adaptive fuzzy-neural-network is employed to learn the upper bound of model uncertainties and external disturbances, so the prior knowledge of the upper bound of the system uncertainties is not required. All adaptive laws in the control system are derived in the same Lyapunov framework, which can guarantee the globally asymptotical stability of the closed loop system. Numerical simulations are investigated to demonstrate the validity of the proposed control approaches.
DNA/NYVAC Vaccine Regimen Induces HIV-Specific CD4 and CD8 T-Cell Responses in Intestinal Mucosa

ABSTRACT In the present study, we have investigated the anatomic distribution in blood and gut mucosal tissues of memory poxvirus-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells in subjects vaccinated with smallpox and compared it with vector (NYVAC)-specific and HIV insert-specific T-cell responses induced by an experimental DNA-C/ NYVAC-C vaccine regimen. Smallpox-specific CD4 T-cell responses were present in the blood of 52% of the subjects studied, while smallpox-specific CD8 T cells were rarely detected (12%). With one exception, smallpox-specific T cells were not measurable in gut tissues. Interestingly, NYVAC vector-specific and HIV-specific CD4 and CD8 T-cell responses were detected in almost 100% of the subjects immunized with DNA-C/NYVAC-C in blood and gut tissues. The large majority (83%) of NYVAC-specific CD4 T cells expressed α4β7 integrins and the HIV coreceptor CCR5. These results demonstrate that the experimental DNA-C/NYVAC-C HIV vaccine regimen induces the homing of potentially protective HIV-specific CD4 and CD8 T cells in the gut, the port of entry of HIV and one of the major sites for HIV spreading and the depletion of CD4 T cells.
Evolution of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 in a Patient with Cross-Reactive Neutralizing Activity in Serum

ABSTRACT Analysis of longitudinally obtained HIV-1 env sequences from an individual with reported cross-reactive neutralizing activity revealed that the majority of viral variants obtained from serum between 4 and 7 years after seroconversion were unable to persist in peripheral blood. Here we show that these viral variants were more sensitive to autologous serum neutralization, had shorter envelopes with fewer potential N-linked glycosylation sites, and showed lower replication kinetics than successfully evolving HIV-1 variants. These data reflect the host selection pressures on phenotypic characteristics of HIV-1 and illustrate in detail the dynamic interaction between HIV-1 and its host's humoral immune responses.
A new 1T DRAM cell with enhanced floating body effect

Recently the semiconductor industry tends to develop a smaller volume device and system with lower power consumption, lower leakage current, and high speed performance. SOI technology has many unique characteristics, which is one of the most promising methods to the direction. As the semiconductor memory is concerned, the 1T-DRAM cell realized by the concept of floating body effect in a PD-SOI nMOSFET can allow the DRAM cell to be scaled down in depth with less area occupied. In this paper, we propose a new structure of 1T-DRAM cell, which has bottom buried oxide with the sidewall block oxide around its body, which can suppress the leakage current between the S/D and the body of the cell. In addition it can also improve the programming window of the 1T-DRAM cell more than 39% by utilizing its own structural characteristic
Clinical practice. Vitiligo.

From the Department of Dermatology and Pediatric Dermatology, National Reference Center for Rare Skin Diseases, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France (A.T.); and San Gallicano Dermatological Institute, Rome (M.P.). Address reprint requests to Dr. Taïeb at the Department of Dermatology, Hôpital Saint André, 1 rue Jean Burguet, 33075 Bordeaux, France, or at alain. taieb@chu-bordeaux.fr.
Prostate cancer risk and IRS1, IRS2, IGF1, and INS polymorphisms: Strong association of IRS1 G972R variant and cancer risk

As cellular proliferation is central to the carcinogenic process, pathways that regulate proliferation may be important. Therefore, genes in the insulin and the insulin‐like growth factor signaling pathways are plausible candidates for susceptibility genes for prostate cancer. We hypothesized that functional polymorphisms in INS, IRS1, IRS2, and IGF1 may be associated with prostate cancer.
Estimating user number and location from a multi-modal localization sensor setup

Most passive location systems (e.g. pressure sensitive floor mats) inherently do not come with an identification mechanism, i. e. are ambiguous concerning the number of persons who cause readings: Two persons close beside each other could seem like one single person. In contrast, most active location systems operate with user-bound tags, and thus directly give the number of used tags. Possibly, both sensor types may be used in conjunction, but the number of persons and their respective locations need to be simultaneously estimated. This paper presents an approach that allows to fuse observations from both sensor types. We introduce a probabilistic model for representing the joint density of number and location of persons as well as the available sensor modalities. We show how this model can be used for estimating the posterior placement density given the sensor observations, applying a Gibbs sampling approach.
An improved methodology for application of wavelet transform to partial discharge measurement denoising

Recent research has shown that the wavelet transform (WT) can potentially be used to extract partial discharge (PD) pulses from severe noise. However, the method is more complex than the Fourier transform (FT), and requires expertise and experience to be applied to produce its best effect. The authors have previously published algorithms for selection of the most appropriate mother wavelet and for automatic determination of threshold values for applying the WT to PD measurement denoising. The present paper is to present an improved methodology to apply the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) with better denoising effect to PD measurement. Firstly the paper describes the structure of DWT's filter pairs. It then analyses the frequency bands of the wavelet coefficients in approximations and details, and energy distribution of a PD signal along each of the levels following the DWT. Finally a DWT-based denoising method is proposed and justified. Results prove that, with the proposed methodology, in conjunction with the algorithms proposed by the authors to select optimal mother wavelet and threshold values, significant improvement in denoising effect can be achieved.
Immunology for Renal Transplantation: A Review

The current success of renal transplantation (RT) is the result of advancement in the understanding of the transplant immunology from gross allograft rejection to cellular and antibody response to the current molecular level. Laboratory assay technologies have been developed to characterise patient sensitisation and to detect pre-existingdonor-specific antibodies (DSA) in pre-transplant crossmatch, which has helped prevent premature transplant losses from early and late antibody-mediated rejection. After a RT, pre-existing or de novo DSA are routinely monitored for modulation of immunosuppressive regimens. Therefore, it is mandatory for the personnel involved in the management of RT recipients to have clear understanding of the components of transplantation immunology and be familiar with the modern immunological techniques used in RT.
A proposed method of identifying significant effects in unreplicated factorial experiments

In many areas of research/ production, a lot of factors are combined to obtain a desired product. To be able to analyze which factors (or combinations of factors and at what level) are significant, the experiment has to be replicated. For economic or practical reasons, it may not be feasible to perform the experiment more than once therefore unreplicated factorial designs are often employed. This is especially true in the field of Medicine, Pharmacy and Industrial production units. The traditional method of analysis of variance (ANOVA) cannot be employed in unreplicated factorial designs, therefore many methods have been proposed in literature. In this paper, a new method of analyzing unreplicated factorial designs is proposed and was compared with some of the existing methods. The four existing methods considered were: Lenth, Berk and Picard, Juan and Pena, and Dong. The comparison was performed using Monte Carlo simulation method. The criteria used in evaluating the performances of the methods are Power and Individual Error Rate (IER). Using these criteria of evaluation, the results showed that on overall performance, Dong method is the best among the four existing methods considered and was closely followed by Berk and Picard, Lenth, then Juan and Pena methods in that order. It was also found that not only is the proposed method simpler to compute, it competed favourably with Dong and even performed better than all the others when IER is used for assessment.
Combinatorial effects of odorants on mouse behavior

Significance Odor detection in the mouse nose is mediated by ∼1,000 different odorant receptors (ORs) and 14 trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs). Different OR combinations generate different odor perceptions. However, a few TAARs are associated with innate odor attraction or aversion, suggesting they signal through hard-wired neural circuits resistant to combinatorial receptor inputs. Contrary to this prediction, we find that different ligands for a given TAAR can be attractive or aversive, or instead neutral. In addition, some attractive and aversive odorants block one another’s behavioral effects. Odor blocking can occur without receptor antagonism in the nose and can require sensory input from one receptor. Thus, innate odor-induced behaviors can be context-dependent and modulated by interactions in the brain among signals derived from different receptors. The mechanisms by which odors induce instinctive behaviors are largely unknown. Odor detection in the mouse nose is mediated by >1, 000 different odorant receptors (ORs) and trace amine-associated receptors (TAARs). Odor perceptions are encoded combinatorially by ORs and can be altered by slight changes in the combination of activated receptors. However, the stereotyped nature of instinctive odor responses suggests the involvement of specific receptors and genetically programmed neural circuits relatively immune to extraneous odor stimuli and receptor inputs. Here, we report that, contrary to expectation, innate odor-induced behaviors can be context-dependent. First, different ligands for a given TAAR can vary in behavioral effect. Second, when combined, some attractive and aversive odorants neutralize one another’s behavioral effects. Both a TAAR ligand and a common odorant block aversion to a predator odor, indicating that this ability is not unique to TAARs and can extend to an aversive response of potential importance to survival. In vitro testing of single receptors with binary odorant mixtures indicates that behavioral blocking can occur without receptor antagonism in the nose. Moreover, genetic ablation of a single receptor prevents its cognate ligand from blocking predator odor aversion, indicating that the blocking requires sensory input from the receptor. Together, these findings indicate that innate odor-induced behaviors can depend on context, that signals from a single receptor can block innate odor aversion, and that instinctive behavioral responses to odors can be modulated by interactions in the brain among signals derived from different receptors.
Effectiveness of the California Tri-Pull Taping method for shoulder subluxation poststroke: a single-subject ABA design.

OBJECTIVE I evaluated the effectiveness of the California Tri-Pull Taping method for clients with poststroke inferior shoulder subluxation of the glenohumeral joint. METHOD Ten participants were followed for 9 wk using an interrupted time series quasi-experimental single-subject ABA design to examine shoulder pain, activities of daily living (ADL) function, active range of motion, tape comfort, and subluxation. RESULTS The California Tri-Pull Taping method decreased inferior subluxation significantly from baseline to intervention but not at postintervention. Active range of motion was significantly increased in shoulder flexion and abduction between the baseline and intervention and the intervention and postintervention phases. Functional ADL scores were significant. The taping was reported to be comfortable. No significant difference in pain was found. CONCLUSION This intervention is a promising adjunct to the management of the hemiplegic subluxed shoulder that warrants further research.
The proof is in the genes? Jewish responses to DNA research

The paper explores Jewish responses to genetic research aimed at reconstructing the history of different Jewish populations. The focus is on two case studies – the book by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman devoted to DNA studies, which attempted to ‘test’ biblical tradition and the reaction of the Bene-Israel Indian Jewish community to the research on their origin. The data are analysed in the context of recent debates in science and technology studies about the biologisation of race and ethnicity. It is demonstrated that though in both cases the recipients of DNA studies stress that Jewishness is not reducible to genetics and that their tradition is correct irrespective of what the results of the tests say, they still assign genetics a significant amount of cognitive authority, quote genetic research in support of their tradition, and interpret its results to suit their own agendas. The paper suggests that genetics appears to be adding to the wide range of possible rhetorical sources of Jewish self-understanding and identification, however, it has not superseded other notions of what it means to be Jewish. It is argued that what may account for this type of engagement with population genetic research is the fact that though it is ascribed unique explanatory power in public discourse, when applied to questions about the history of human populations, it offers inferences that are open to a variety of interpretations.
Influence of employing laminated isogrid configuration on mechanical behavior of grid structures

For a long time, a single grid layer, such as isogrid, have been utilized to strengthen a shell or plate or as an independent structural member for various applications. Laminated grid structures consist of several grid layers that can have different in-plane orientations or can be made from different materials. Therefore, using laminated configuration instead of conventional grids yields to an extensive variety of configurations with different coupling effects and cost. In the current paper, to evaluate the appropriateness of laminated isogrids, the vibration and stability behaviors of a conventional isogrid are compared with corresponding laminated isogrid plate. The first-order shear deformation plate theory as well as the Ritz theorem is utilized to achieve the critical buckling loads and free vibration frequencies of the plates. The influence of increasing the number of isogrid plies and changing pattern geometries on mechanical behaviors of the laminated isogrid plate is also investigated. The results imply that utilization of the laminated isogrids remarkably enhances the buckling load and free vibration frequency values of the plates.
Folliculogenesis in the sheep as influenced by breed, season and oestrous cycle.

In the sheep the total duration of folliculogenesis, i.e. from the start of development of a primordial follicle to ovulation, is thought to be about 6 months. The initiation of follicular growth as follicles enter the growth phase is influenced by gonadotrophins and, in the sheep, by factors such as breed, season and nutrition. Preantral follicles are characterized by a slow growth rate and no atresia. The number of preantral follicles is influenced by gonadotrophins, age, nutrition, season and unilateral ovariectomy. Antral follicles grow rapidly and produce steroids in response to gonadotrophins. The number of antral follicles varies according to factors such as breed of sheep, season, cycle, unilateral ovariectomy and gonadotrophins. Ovulation rate can be influenced in the short term by factors such as PMSG stimulation, short-term nutrition and unilateral ovariectomy that probably act by changing the number of follicles undergoing atresia. Factors such as breed, age and season probably act by changing the number of follicles entering the growth phase.
Alcohol’s Effects on the Brain: Neuroimaging Results in Humans and Animal Models

Brain imaging technology has allowed researchers to conduct rigorous studies of the dynamic course of alcoholism through periods of drinking, sobriety, and relapse and to gain insights into the effects of chronic alcoholism on the human brain. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies have distinguished alcohol-related brain effects that are permanent from those that are reversible with abstinence. In support of postmortem neuropathological studies showing degeneration of white matter, MRI studies have shown a specific vulnerability of white matter to chronic alcohol exposure. Such studies have demonstrated white-matter volume deficits as well as damage to selective gray-matter structures. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), by permitting microstructural characterization of white matter, has extended MRI findings in alcoholics. MR spectroscopy (MRS) allows quantification of several metabolites that shed light on brain biochemical alterations caused by alcoholism. This article focuses on MRI, DTI, and MRS findings in neurological disorders that commonly co-occur with alcoholism, including Wernicke’s encephalopathy, Korsakoff’s syndrome, and hepatic encephalopathy. Also reviewed are neuroimaging findings in animal models of alcoholism and related neurological disorders. This report also suggests that the dynamic course of alcoholism presents a unique opportunity to examine brain structural and functional repair and recovery.