Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human Papillomavirus DNA Detection in Menstrual Blood from Patients with Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia and Condyloma Acuminatum

ABSTRACT The Papanicolaou test generates pain and embarrassment, and cytology screening has limited sensitivity for detection of cervical neoplasia. These factors urge the use of another screening test that can overcome these limitations. We explore a completely noninvasive method using detection of human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in women's menstrual blood (MB). The participants were divided into 3 cohorts: (i) 235 patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 3 (CIN 3) (n = 48), CIN 2 (n = 60), CIN 1 (n = 58), or condyloma acuminatum (CAC) (n = 69) before treatment or remission; (ii) from the first cohort of patients, 108 CIN 3 or CIN 2 patients after treatment and 62 CIN 1 or CAC patients after remission; and (iii) 323 apparently normal subjects (ANS) without any cervical disease. The HPV genotypes of the infected patients were confirmed by direct sequencing. Quantitative real-time PCR (QRT-PCR) was used to measure the MB HPV16 load for 15 infected patients. Results showed that the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for detection of MB HPV DNA in samples from patients with CIN or CAC were 82.8%, 93.1%, 90.0%, and 87.9%, respectively. Moreover, MB HPV DNA was found in samples from 22.2% of CIN 3 or CIN 2 patients after treatment, 0.0% of CIN 1 or CAC patients after remission, and 8.1% of ANS, 4 of whom were found to have CIN 1 or CAC. Furthermore, QRT-PCR showed that the normalized MB HPV16 DNA copy numbers in samples from patients with CIN 1 to CIN 3 were significantly increased. These preliminary results suggested that MB HPV DNA is a potential noninvasive marker for these premalignant cervical diseases.
Using safety contracts in the development of safety critical object-oriented systems

Developers of safety critical software are becoming increasingly interested in using the objectoriented paradigm. If a developer is to use an object-oriented approach successfully in safety critical applications they must be able to demonstrate that the resulting software system is sufficiently safe to operate. There are a number of existing approaches to developing safe software however these cannot be used effectively for an object-oriented approach. This thesis identifies the inadequacies of the existing approaches to reasoning about the safety of safety critical object-oriented systems. It identifies a need for a systematic, thorough and scalable process to identify the properties required of software objects to adequately address their contribution to system-level hazards. This thesis describes and evaluates such an approach which addresses this need. The proposed approach uses the concept of safety contracts to define safety requirements between objects in the system design. An analysis process is described which can be used to generate these contracts. It is shown how the safety contracts can be used in constructing a safety argument which demonstrates that the system is acceptably safe. Throughout the thesis, how the approach is applied is illustrated with realistic examples. A case study, taken from an industrial application, is also provided and used in the evaluation.
Caracterización del uso de Twitter por periodistas-blogueros

Twitter se ha convertido en una herramienta periodistica mediante la que divulgar contenidos por parte de una gran mayoria de cibermedios. Pensando en ello, este trabajo analiza el uso realizado por los periodistas-blogueros de Twitter. Se trata de un analisis comparativo respecto a los tipos de cuenta que periodistas-blogueros politicos brasilenos y espanoles mantienen en esta plataforma de microblog, en que analizamos, ademas de un panorama general de las cuentas, la finalidad y los generos ciberperiodisticos de los tweets. A excepcion de una de las cuentas de Twitter mantenidas por periodistas-blogueros que se dedica exclusivamente a la divulgacion de posts del blog, las demas se caracterizan por publicar contenidos variados
Divalent Metal Transporter 1 in Lead and Cadmium Transport

Abstract: The effect of exposure to cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) on human health has been recognized for many years and recent information suggests that minimal exposure levels are themselves too high. Common scenarios for Pb exposure include occupational, residential, and/or behavioral (hand‐to‐mouth activity) settings. The main source of Cd exposure for nonsmokers is dietary, through plants or animals that accumulate the metal. Specific cellular importers for Pb and Cd are unlikely as these metals are nonessential and toxic. Accordingly, in the intestine, the operational mechanism is assumed to be inadvertent uptake through pathways intended for essential nutrients such as iron. Results from experimental and epidemiological studies indicated that diets low in iron (Fe) result in increased absorption of Pb and Cd, suggesting common molecular mechanisms of Cd and Pb transport. Indeed, recent mechanistic studies found that the intestinal transporter for nonheme iron, divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1), mediates the transport of Pb and Cd. DMT1 is regulated, in part, by dietary iron, and chemical species of Cd and Pb that are transported by DMT1 would be made available through digestion and are also found in plasma. Accordingly, the involvement of DMT1 in metal uptake offers a mechanistic explanation for why an iron‐deficient diet is a risk factor for Pb and Cd poisoning. It also suggests that diets rich in iron‐containing food could be protective against heavy metal poisoning.
Pulmonary health effects of agriculture

Purpose of review Occupational exposures in the agricultural industry are associated with numerous lung diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, lung cancer, and interstitial lung diseases. Efforts are ongoing to ascertain contributing factors to these negative respiratory outcomes and improve monitoring of environmental factors leading to disease. In this review, recently published studies investigating the deleterious effects of occupational exposures in the agricultural industry are discussed. Recent findings Occupational exposures to numerous agricultural environment aerosols, including pesticides, fungi, and bacteria are associated with impaired respiratory function and disease. Increases in certain farming practices, including mushroom and greenhouse farming, present new occupational exposure concerns. Improved detection methods may provide opportunities to better monitor safe exposure levels to known lung irritants. Summary In the agricultural industry, occupational exposures to organic and inorganic aerosols lead to increased risk for lung disease among workers. Increased awareness of respiratory risks and improved monitoring of agricultural environments are necessary to limit pulmonary health risks to exposed populations.
Evaluaciones de bienestar ante cambios en la estructura del mercado de papas prefritas congeladas: un análisis con coeficientes aleatorios

La industria argentina de papas prefritas congeladas (PPC) es altamente diferenciada y concentrada, siendo escasos los estudios que analizan el mercado. El trabajo evalua el efecto provocado por cambios hipoteticos en la estructura del mercado marplatense de PPC sobre los precios, las ventas y el excedente de los consumidores. Para ello, se estima la demanda directa de los hogares a traves de un modelo de eleccion discreta con coeficientes aleatorios. Se emplea un panel de volumenes y montos de ventas mensuales, entre 2005 y 2009, provistos por una cadena local de supermercados. Asimismo se utilizan datos de la EPH (INDEC). La fusion Alimentos Modernos-Granja del Sol perjudicaria a los consumidores, evidenciandose una reduccion de $13.277 mensuales en su excedente. Si el mercado funcionara bajo una estructura de firmas monoproducto, se observaria un incremento de $67.558 mensuales en el excedente de los consumidores.
RAFlow: Read Ahead Accelerated I/O Flow through Multiple Virtual Layers

Virtualization is the foundation for cloud computing, and the virtualization can not be achieved without software defined, elastic, flexible and scalable virtual layers. Unfortunately, if multiple virtual storage devices are chained together, the system may be subject to severe performance degradation. While the read-ahead (RA) mechanism in storage devices plays a very important role to improve I/O performance, RA may not be effective as expected for multiple virtualization layers, since it is originally designed for one layer only. When I/O requests are passed through a long I/O path, they may trigger a chain reaction and lead to unnecessary data transmission and thus bandwidth waste. In this paper, we study the dynamic behavior of RA through multiple I/O layers and demonstrate that if controlled well, RA can greatly accelerate I/O speed. We present RAFlow, a RA control mechanism, to effectively improve I/O performance by strategically expanding RA window at each layer. Our real-world experiments show that it can achieve 20% to 50% performance improvement in I/O paths with up to 8 virtualized storage devices.
Comportamiento productivo y reproductivo de tres genotipos bovinos en la región del Soconusco, Chiapas, México

Para evaluar el efecto del genotipo en el comportamiento productivo y reproductivo en condiciones del Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico, se utilizaron vacas de segundo parto Australian Friesian Sahiwal (AFS, n=10), Criollo Lechero Tropical (CLT, n=10) y Doble Proposito (DP, n=10) con sus crias. Las vacas pastorearon ad libitum una pradera establecida con pasto Estrella de Africa (Cynodon plechtostachyus) y en el corral recibieron 2 kg/animal de un concentrado comercial al momento de la ordena. Las crias se alimentaron artificialmente con un substituto de leche. Las vacas se ordenaron mecanicamente 2 veces por dia sin el apoyo del becerro y cada 14 dias se registraron el intervalo parto primer estro (IPPE), produccion de leche (PL) y los cambios de peso corporal en vacas (CPCV) y becerros (CPCB). Se utilizo un diseno completamente al azar con 3 tratamientos (genotipos) y 10 repeticiones, considerando una vaca como la unidad experimental. El IPPE fue menor (P 0,05) en vacas CLT, AFS y DP (1,0±12,8, -2±14,4 y -7,2±9,8 kg, respectivamente). Por otra parte, el CPCB fue similar (P>0,05) en becerros AFS (39,7±5,7 kg), CLT (33,5±13,3 kg) y DP (37,7±4,6 kg). Se concluye que las vacas Australian Friesian Sahiwal y Criollo Lechero Tropical mostraron el mejor comportamiento productivo y reproductivo que las Doble Proposito bajo las condiciones ambientales y de manejo del Soconusco, Chiapas, Mexico.
A longitudinal study of hippocampal volume, cortisol levels, and cognition in older depressed subjects.

OBJECTIVE This study determined whether cognitive impairments and structural brain changes in older depressed subjects, especially in the hippocampus, are related to hypercortisolemia. METHOD Sixty-one depressed subjects over age 60 who met DSM-IV criteria for major depression and 40 healthy comparison subjects underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging, neuropsychological testing, apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotyping, and salivary cortisol assessment (over 3 days) with follow-up 6 months later. Hippocampal volume was measured by manual segmentation that was blind to diagnosis. Average area under the curve for salivary cortisol over the 3 days was calculated. Cognitive function was assessed by using a combined memory z score. RESULTS Depressed subjects showed multiple impairments in attention, working memory, visual memory, verbal memory, new learning, and executive function in relation to comparison subjects. They had hypercortisolemia (53% increase in area under the curve) and a reduction in right hippocampal volume (6% decrease). Hippocampal volume reduction was not associated with increased cortisol levels but was significantly correlated with continuing memory deficits at 6 months. Persisting "mild cognitive impairment" was seen in 20 (41%) of 49 subjects at 6 months and was associated with reduced hippocampal volume but not severity of depression, cortisol levels, or APOE genotype. CONCLUSIONS Older depressed subjects have persisting cognitive impairments associated with hippocampal volume reduction, but the results do not support cortisol-mediated hippocampal neurotoxicity as the major etiological mechanism. Neuropathological studies are required to investigate the basis for hippocampal changes, while follow-up will determine whether hippocampal atrophy is a risk factor for cognitive decline.
A New Digital Predistortion for Wideband Power Amplifiers With Constrained Feedback Bandwidth

This letter presents a new digital predistortion (DPD) solution for wideband power amplifiers (PAs) with restricted feedback bandwidth and relatively low sampling rate. By integrating a microwave cavity filter into the feedback path, the feedback bandwidth is reduced efficiently. A PA parameter extraction method is then proposed to identify the PA model, using the bandwidth-constrained signals. By applying the extracted parameters to the direct learning architecture, the DPD function can be obtained, which can linearize nonlinear distortion over the sampling bandwidth. Experiments demonstrate that a 22 dB adjacent channel leakage ratio improvement is acquired for a 100 MHz Long Term Evolution-advanced signal, even when the feedback bandwidth is restricted from 500 MHz to 100 MHz, which remarkably reduces the ADC sampling rate from 1105.92 Msps to 368.64 Msps.
Improved Approximation Algorithms for the Uncapacitated Facility Location Problem

We consider the uncapacitated facility location problem. In this problem, there is a set of locations at which facilities can be built; a fixed cost fi is incurred if a facility is opened at location i. Furthermore, there is a set of demand locations to be serviced by the opened facilities; if the demand location j is assigned to a facility at location i, then there is an associated service cost proportional to the distance between i and j, cij. The objective is to determine which facilities to open and an assignment of demand points to the opened facilities, so as to minimize the total cost. We assume that the distance function c is symmetric and satisfies the triangle inequality. For this problem we obtain a (1+2/e)-approximation algorithm, where $1+2/e \approx 1.736$, which is a significant improvement on the previously known approximation guarantees. The algorithm works by rounding an optimal fractional solution to a linear programming relaxation. Our techniques use properties of optimal solutions to the linear program, randomized rounding, as well as a generalization of the decomposition techniques of Shmoys, Tardos, and Aardal [Proceedings of the 29th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, El Paso, TX, 1997, pp. 265--274].
Complications after photodynamic therapy.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the incidence of complications of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with verteporfin in subfoveal choroidal neovascularizations secondary to age-related macular degeneration and pathologic myopia. METHODS In this retrospective interventional case series, the occurrence of complications after PDT in a clinical setting was analyzed. Consecutive medical records of patients with age-related macular degeneration and pathologic myopia treated with PDT were reviewed for complications. Complications included treatment-related systemic adverse events, injection site effects, and ocular adverse events. RESULTS We included 273 patients (198 with age-related macular degeneration and 75 with pathologic myopia) in the study. A total of 485 photodynamic treatment sessions were performed. Infusion-related back or chest pain was reported by 6 patients (2.2%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8%-4.7%). Injection site effects, extravasation, and photosensitivity reactions were not observed. Dyspnea and flushing during infusion were observed in 2 patients (0.7%; 95% CI, 0.09%-2.6%). Body pain, shortness of breath, and elevated blood pressure were noted in 13 patients (4.8%; 95% CI, 2.6%-8.0%). General pruritus was described by 6 patients (2.2%; 95% CI, 0.8%-4.7%), starting 4 hours after the infusion of verteporfin, and resolved within 72 hours after PDT. A total of 8 patients (2.9%; 95% CI, 1.3%-5.7%) reported an acute severe visual acuity decrease of at least 4 Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study lines occurring within 7 days of treatment. CONCLUSIONS Complications associated with PDT are uncommon, but there were limitations of retrospective studies for identifying safety problems. Complications like acute severe visual events may occur in about 3% of patients. We believe that this risk is outweighed by the benefits of PDT on visual function in most patients.
Extracción de Datos Enlazados desde Información No Estructurada Aplicando Técnicas de PLN y Ontologías

In this work a method for the automatic extraction of linked data from unstructured textual information in Spanish and English language is presented. The method is based on the extraction of a conceptualization from the text in form of concept map, which is transformed later in a RDF data model. In the conceptualization extraction several NLP techniques are applied and the possibility to use an ontology is offered, for increasing the capacities of information extraction from the text. Several tests using three collections of texts in Spanish and English were carried out for evaluating the proposal, with promising results in the concepts and relationships extraction and showing the benefits of the use of ontologies as external knowledge resource.
Protocols for Tractable Resource Allocation with k-additive Utilities

Cet article aborde l’allocation de ressources multiagent par la negociation. Un des problemes majeurs de cette approche, qui rend difficile la mise en pratique des resultats theoriques, est qu’il s’avere tres complexe d’identifier les echanges potentiellement acceptables pour un ensemble donne d’agents. La solution que nous envisageons ici est d’utiliser differents protocoles concus afin d’exploiter certaines proprietes des fonctions d’utilites utilisees par les agents pour modeliser leurs preferences. Nous considerons specifiquement les domaines ou les fonctions d’utilite sont k-additives (c’est-a-dire que les synergies entre les ressources sont restreintes aux lots d’au plus k ressources), et structurees sous forme d’arbre, au sens ou les lots pour lesquels il existe une synergie ne se “chevauchent” pas.
Algorithm 611: Subroutines for Unconstrained Minimization Using a Model/Trust-Region Approach

This paper describes a set of subroutines designed to solve general unconstrained optimization problems for which it is feasible to work explicitly with either the Hessian of the objective function or an approximation to it. Subroutines S M S N O ( ) and S U M S L ( ) use a secant approximation to the Hessian. SMSNO( ) uses a slight variant of Stewart's scheme to compute a finite-difference approximation to the gradient, while SUMSL( ) obtains the gradient from a subroutine provided by the caller. Both of these routines compute steps by the double-dogleg technique of Dennis and Mei [3]. Subroutine HUMSL( ) requires the caller to provide the gradient and Hessian of the objective function and it uses the Hessian to compute optimal locally constrained steps. All three subroutines use an explicit scale vector, and all three use the stopping tests of version 2.2 of NL2SOL( ) [2]. These subroutines share many modules and offer the option of providing function and gradient, or function, gradient, and Hessian values by reverse communication. In this respect they exemplify what we believe is a good way to structure optimization software.
STATIC CAMPIMETRY WITH LOCALLY ENHANCED SPATIAL RESOLUTION

The diagnostic power of perimetry and campimetry can be considerably improved by the local concentration of targets within a perimetric grid. This procedure renders a higher spatial resolution in the corresponding retinal area, thus enhancing efficiency of the method. Two methods are introduced which individually tailor local stimulus concentration based on morphological changes or previous psychophysical results. 1. Regions of interest can be defined on individual, digitized fundus images, which are used as morphological landmarks for tailoring localized high resolution campimetry/fundus-oriented perimetry (FOP). With the help of this technique, even minimal physiological visual field defects such as angioscotomas are detectable in normal individuals. FOP is especially useful in patients with circumscribed morphological changes of the retina (chorioretinal scars) or optic disc (glaucoma, drusen). The method is able to detect scotomas in patients rated as normal with conventional ’30-2 perimetry’. 2. Individual grids can also be constructed on the basis of the results of previous perimetric examinations. In representative cases with deficient ophthalmoscopical manifestation (e.g., Purtscher’s traumatic angiopathy), grids with locally concentrated stimuli based on previous perimetric results markedly enhance the capabilities of visual field testing allowing an exact description and follow-up of circumscribed defects. This method may also be useful for detecting minute lesions of the posterior visual pathways.
Student perceptions of an interprofessional educational experience: The importance of goal articulation

The education of future health care professionals must involve activities where interprofessional collaboration and the functioning of interdisciplinary teams are the goals and not the exceptions. This type of interprofessional education (IPE) will benefit students as they will be better able to communicate with and mobilize the skills of other health care workers, work toward common goals related to patient care, and develop a more cost‐effective treatment strategy in the long term. Such an IPE program was initiated in the clinical anatomy course for physician assistant students from the University of Mount Union that was taught, in part, by medical students from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. Surveys of both student groups at the end of the course indicated that although this was a useful IPE experience, the value of this program as an IPE experience was not entirely appreciated by the participating students. It turned out that although the goals and importance of these types of IPE activities are clear to the faculty, they must also be made clear to all of the students. Anat Sci Educ 8: 381–385. © 2015 American Association of Anatomists.