Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Expression in the Anterior Vaginal Wall of Patients with Stress Urinary Incontinence.

PURPOSE Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) are common medical problems, particularlyamong older women. In this study, we aim to explore the relationship between the neurotransmitter nNOS in the vaginal epithelium, and the occurrence of SUI and changes of nNOS levels according to menopausal status.Matherials and Methods: Fourty women were enrolled. The patients were divided into four groups according to menstruaiton status and SUI. The vagina specimens were taken during transobturator tape application. The specimens were examined pathologically in terms of n-NOS expression. nNOS expression was compared between SUI and control groups. The results were evaluated statistically. RESULT Epithelial total nNOS score in group 1 and group 3 were 2.4 ± 0.5 and 1.4 ± 0.5 respectively (P = .003). Stromal total nNOS score was found 2.2 ± 0.4 in group 1 and 1.3 ± 0.5 in group 3 (P = .001). Epithelial total nNOS score in group 2 and group 4 were 4.4 ± 0.5 and 3.5 ± 0.5 respectively (P = .003). Stromal total nNOS score was found 4.4 ± 0.5 in group 2 and 3.6 ± 0.5 in group 4 ( P = .006). CONCLUSION Our results show that expression of nNOs in the anterior vaginal epithelium decreased significantly in the SUI group. Altough our findings indicate important results, well designed further studies are needed to comprehend the role of NOS pathways better in SUI pathophysiology.
Research on Port Efficiency Measurement Based on Three-stage Cascade Data Envelopment Analysis Control Strategy

In order to measure the port efficiency, this paper uses the three stage DEA cascade control strategy to measure the relative efficiency of the port.First, the original input-output value is used to measure the port efficiency. Secondly, the stochastic frontier analysis method is used to analyze the influence of random error and environmental variables on the input difference value. Then, the result of the model is used to adjust the input value. Finally, the adjusted input value is used to re-measure the relative efficiency. Compared with the traditional DEA, this method eliminates the influence of random errors in the DEA model and the different external environmental factors in the port so as to make the measured efficiency more objective and accurate. At the same time, it analyzes the influence of different environmental factors on the port efficiency impact.
TÜRKİYEDE YAŞAM BEKLENTİSİ TASARRUF İLİŞKİSİ: ARDL SINIR TESTİ YAKLAŞIMI

Yasam beklentisinin uzunlugunda yillar icerisinde meydana gelen artis, insanlarin daha uzun ve saglikli bir omur gecirmelerini saglamanin yani sira, uzun donemde iktisadi buyume ve gelismenin en onemli olcutu haline gelmistir. Calismada 1980-2015 donemi icin Turkiyede yasam beklentisindeki artisin tasarruflar uzerine etkisi ARDL sinir testi yontemi ile kisa ve uzun donem acisindan incelenmistir. Kesisen nesiller teorisi cercevesinde olusturulan teorik modelde tasarruf birikimi hane halklarinin gelecek nesillerin refahina verdigi onem ve yasam beklentisi duzeyi ile yakindan ilgilidir. Elde edilen bulgulara gore, yasam beklentisindeki artis kisa donemde orta yas donemindeki hane halklarinin emeklilik donemine ulasma olasiligini arttiracak ve aktif calisan nufusun calisma suresinin uzamasi toplam tasarruflar uzerinde pozitif etki yaratacaktir. Ancak diger taraftan yasam beklentisindeki artisla birlikte yukselen bagimli nufus orani uzun donemde toplam tasarruflari negatif olarak etkileyecektir.
Genotoxic impact of long-term cigarette and waterpipe smoking on DNA damage and oxidative stress in healthy subjects

Abstract Although a plethora of studies have examined tobacco smoke-cancer disease association, the involvement of cellular genetic toxicity remains unclear. Therefore, the present study provides molecular evidence for a pathway involved in the DNA damage induced by long-term cigarette and waterpipe smoke in human subjects. The study population consisted of 45 subjects who were divided into three groups; healthy nonsmokers group, cigarette smokers group, and waterpipe smokers group. A questionnaire and consent form was distributed and signed by all participants. Total RNA was extracted from the blood using PAXgene Blood RNA Kit and mRNA expression levels of target genes were quantified by RT-PCR. Our results showed that 80% of the participants smoke 20–39 cigarettes/day, whereas 12% smoke more than 40 cigarettes/day. With regard to waterpipe smoke, the majority (46%) smoke more than 5 times/week. Both cigarette and waterpipe smokers showed increased the plasma levels 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), of DNA damage marker. In addition, the mRNA expression levels of DNA repair genes (OGG1 and XRCC1) were significantly inhibited in both cigarette and waterpipe smokers groups by 30% and 60%, respectively. This was associated with a marked decrease (50%) in the expression of detoxifying genes (NQO1 and GSTA1) with an increase in CYP1A1 mRNA expression, a cancer-activating gene. Both cigarette and waterpipe smokers increased in the plasma concentrations of several toxic heavy metals such as Cd (130%), Pb (47%), and Ni (30%). In conclusion: the present findings clearly explore the genotoxic effect of cigarette and waterpipe smoking on human DNA.
Stellera chamaejasme and Its Main Compound Luteolin 7-O-Glucoside Alleviates Skin Lesions in Oxazolone- and 2,4-Dinitrochlorobenzene-Stimulated Murine Models of Atopic Dermatitis

Abstract Stellera chamaejasme, also known as “Langdu”, has been traditionally used for the management of skin-related diseases such as psoriasis and skin ulcers. The aim of this study was to determine whether S. chamaejasme and its major component, luteolin 7-O-glucoside, have a preventive effect on the development of atopic dermatitis in oxazolone-treated BALB/c mice and 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene-treated hairless mice. The epicutaneous applications of oxazolone and 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene evoke an experimental murine atopic dermatitis-like reaction in BALB/c mouse ears and SKH-1 hairless mice. Atopic skin symptoms, including erythema (redness), pruritus (itching), exudation (weeping), excoriation (peeling), and lichenification (skin thickening), responded to treatment with S. chamaejasme aerial parts EtOH extract for 2 or 3 weeks. Histopathological examination revealed S. chamaejasme aerial parts EtOH extract significantly reduced inflammatory cell infiltration when applied to atopic dermatitis mice. In addition, luteolin 7-O-glucoside, the major active compound of the S. chamaejasme aerial parts EtOH extract, decreased serum IgE and IL-4 levels and transepidermal water loss and increased skin hydration, therefore exhibiting strong anti-atopic dermatitis activity in 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene-induced atopic dermatitis mice. In this study, we confirmed antipruritic and antidermatitic effects of S. chamaejasme extract and its main component luteolin 7-O-glucoside in atopic dermatitis murine models. The study shows S. chamaejasme aerial parts EtOH extract and luteolin 7-O-glucoside are most likely to be potential drug candidates for atopic dermatitis treatment.
Relative Measures to Characterize EEG Signals for Early Detection of Alzheimer

Number of Alzheimer’s patients are continuously increasing worldwide. Early detection of Alzheimer will improve patients life and world health care cost. A lot of modalities are there with the help of which Alzheimer can be detected at an early stage. But choosing a potential feature is a challenging task. In the present study we investigate frequency relative energy, frequency relative power and relative entropy from the dataset of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Normal and Dementia subjects. Bhattacharya distance is used to rank the aforementioned features that can classify between MCI, Control and Dementia subjects. Relative Entropy is identified as the best feature for classification. All the findings are statistically validated using Kruskal-Walis test. The selection of the relevant feature will be beneficial for early Alzheimer detection and may increase the quality of life of the patients suffering from the disease.
The Multimodal Dataset of Negative Affect and Aggression: A Validation Study

Within the affective computing and social signal processing communities, increasing efforts are being made in order to collect data with genuine (emotional) content. When it comes to negative emotions and even aggression, ethical and privacy related issues prevent the usage of many emotion elicitation methods, and most often actors are employed to act out different scenarios. Moreover, for most databases, emotional arousal is not explicitly checked, and the footage is annotated by external raters based on observable behavior. In the attempt to gather data a step closer to real-life, previous work proposed an elicitation method for collecting the database of negative affect and aggression that involved unscripted role-plays between aggression regulation training actors (actors) and naive participants (students), where only short role descriptions and goals are given to the participants. In this paper we present a validation study for the database of negative affect and aggression by investigating whether the actors' behavior (e.g. becoming more aggressive) had a real impact on the students' emotional arousal. We found significant changes in the students' heart rate variability (HRV) parameters corresponding to changes in aggression level and emotional states of the actors, and therefore conclude that this method can be considered as a good candidate for emotion elicitation.
A Quarter Mode SIW Antenna for Short Range Wireless Communications

ACASULAQMSIW. The antenna operates in the UHF frequency band, at 868 MHz, has a compact size, and requires minimal manufacturing complexity and a very low production cost. Moreover, it presents a very good isolation from the human body, and a significant robustness with respect to deformation. If compared with its SIW resonator counterpart, the proposed antenna size has been reduced of 75%, without degrading its performance. The proposed structure has been simulated using CST Microwave Studio, and its gain is around 4 dBi, with a broadside radiation pattern. All these features make it very promising for Short Range Wireless Communications.
A Combined Dietary and Cognitive Intervention in 3–5-Year-Old Children in Indonesia: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Early childhood nutritional interventions typically combine nutritional and psychosocial stimulation. Such combined interventions result in long-lasting improvements of cognitive abilities in children who are malnourished. Here, we investigated potential cognitive abilities in normally developing children in Indonesia who were, however, at risk for suboptimal cognitive development due to little psychosocial stimulation in their home environment. In a randomized controlled intervention, children of the experimental group received nutritional supplementation combined with cognitive stimulation. Pre- and post-intervention measurements included cognitive development and functioning, behavior, and mother–child interaction. The experimental and control group received nutritional supplementation in the form of a fortified or unfortified milk powder, respectively. Additionally, the children and parents of the experimental group jointly engaged in daily learning activities at home and performed iPad-based tasks designed to foster cognitive abilities. The experimental group compared to the control group displayed a significantly higher increase in intelligence quotient as well as a significantly larger reduction in attentional problems after the intervention. These results indicate that low-level cognitive stimulation in combination with nutritional supplementation during early childhood can be an effective intervention that improves global cognitive functioning in healthy developing children. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02359669.
TS-MPC for Autonomous Vehicles including a dynamic TS-MHE-UIO

In this work, a novel approach is presented to solve the problem of tracking trajectories in autonomous vehicles. This approach is based on the use of a cascade control where the external loop solves the position control using a novel Takagi Sugeno - Model Predictive Control (TS-MPC) approach and the internal loop is in charge of the dynamic control of the vehicle using a Takagi Sugeno - Linear Quadratic Regulator technique designed via Linear Matrix Inequalities (TS-LMI-LQR). Both techniques use a TS representation of the kinematic and dynamic models of the vehicle. In addition, a novel Takagi Sugeno estimator - Moving Horizon Estimator - Unknown Input Observer (TS-MHE-UIO) is presented. This method estimates the dynamic states of the vehicle optimally as well as the force of friction acting on the vehicle that is used to reduce the control efforts. The innovative contribution of the TS-MPC and TS-MHE-UIO techniques is that using the TS model formulation of the vehicle allows us to solve the nonlinear problem as if it were linear, reducing computation times by 40-50 times. To demonstrate the potential of the TS-MPC we propose a comparison between three methods of solving the kinematic control problem: using the non-linear MPC formulation (NL-MPC), using TS-MPC without updating the prediction model and using updated TS-MPC with the references of the planner.
Key Factors Affecting Construction Organizations' Acceptance of BIM: A Comparative Study

Governments and clients expect contractors to utilise BIM for construction and maintenance purposes at higher level of details. However, the process of BIM implementation is not as quick as it was expected and looks some contractors have not used BIM at all, or do not use it for some of projects. This justifies an urgent study on the process of BIM adoption to identify drivers and key factors influencing the contractorsao» decision. Many studies focus on exploring BIM advances, its applications and individual matters of BIM acceptance. However, less effort has been made to investigate the impacts of organizationsao» intention considering BIM performance value and their support for BIM implementation. Therefore, this study aims to identify factors that affect the BIM adoption process at the organization level regarding perceived needs, organizational support and ease of operation. Quantitative and qualitative information are collected through survey and face-to-face interview in Chinese and Australian construction organizations. Structural equation modelling analysis is used to quantify the relationships between influential factors and organizationao»s intention towards BIM utilization. Analysis results indicate that aoOBIM Awarenessao», aoOPerceived Needsao», aoOOrganizational Supportao», and aoODown Timeao» are four critical factors influencing BIM acceptance in Chinese and Australian construction organizations. Moreover, this study provides an insight of BIM adoption challenges in Chinese and Australian construction industries.
New Trends in Episodic Memory Assessment: Immersive 360° Ecological Videos

How best to measure memory in a reliable and valid way has been intensely debated in neuropsychological literature. Specifically, classical neuropsychological tests often fail to predict real-life performance or capture the multifaceted nature of memory function. To solve these issues, there has been a growing emphasis on the use of more ecological memory assessment. In this scenario, several virtual reality based tools have been developed to evaluate memory function. The aim of the current perspective is to discuss critically the possibilities offered for episodic memory assessment by one of the most innovative trends in the technology field, i.e., 360° videos. Immersivity, egocentric view and realism appear to be crucial features of 360° videos enabling them to enhance the ecological validity of classical assessment tools of memory abilities.
Intrusion detection System based on Hybrid Whale-Genetic Algorithm

As the community is now a days moving rapidly towards the cloud, its security is something we really need to think and research about. The problem of security is as old as the internet is, and hence a number of solutions for the problem has also been thought of. Many of the various solutions consists using firewalls for the network or in the host, anti-malware programs installed on the system, packet-sniffing techniques for detection of malicious entities as well as fake traffic, pattern and signature matching techniques for various files that the system has to deal with every now and then. One of these is solutions is deploying Intrusion Detection System (IDS) in the network. Here, we have devised a model that will be able to find any unwanted intrusions in the network. For this, we have employed Genetic Algorithm (GA) with the Whale Optimization Algorithm which we will see is an effective algorithm to use. In the first step, an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is built using GA with natural selection method. The proposed hybrid algorithm in this scheme is then tested for the detection of malicious network traffic date set.
Predicting Medical Resources Required to be Dispatched After Earthquake and Flood, Using Historical Data and Machine Learning Techniques: The COncORDE Emergency Medical Service Use Case

This article presents a method to predict the medical resources required to be dispatched after large-scale disasters to satisfy the demand. The historical data of past incidents (earthquakes, floods) regarding the number of victims requested emergency medical services and hospitalisation, simulation tools, web services and machine learning techniques have been combined. The authors adopted a twofold approach: a) use of web services and simulation tools to predict the potential number of victims and b) use of historical data and self-trained algorithms to “learn” from these data and provide relative predictions. Comparing actual and predicted victims needed hospitalisation showed that the proposed models can predict the medical resources required to be dispatched with acceptable errors. The results are promoting the use of electronic platforms able to coordinate an emergency medical response since these platforms can collect big heterogeneous datasets necessary to optimise the performance of the suggested algorithms.
Edge-Centric Efficient Regression Analytics

We introduce an edge-centric parametric predictive analytics methodology, which contributes to real-time regression model caching and selective forwarding in the network edge where communication overhead is significantly reduced as only model's parameters and sufficient statistics are disseminated instead of raw data obtaining high analytics quality. Moreover, sophisticated model selection algorithms are introduced to combine diverse local models for predictive modeling without transferring and processing data at edge gateways. We provide mathematical modeling, performance and comparative assessment over real data showing its benefits in edge computing environments.
Treatment of an Ectopic Pregnancy

There is considerable lack of clarity on the medical facts surrounding management of ectopic pregnancy. In particular, it is not widely appreciated that by the time an ectopic pregnancy is diagnosed, in most cases, there is no viable fetus (i.e., the fetus has already died). Moreover, there is very little ethical guidance from the medical profession regarding the emotionally difficult decision to terminate a wanted pregnancy when the life of the mother is at risk. The best articulated positions on this topic come from religious groups, based on the principle of double effect. Yet the application of this reasoning to termination of an ectopic pregnancy is inconsistent with the medical facts in many cases. To resolve these inconsistencies, while still providing a robust ethical context for resolving such difficult situations, we propose clear guidelines for determining when a viable fetus is present in ectopic pregnancy and clarify the moral object in ectopic pregnancy management. Summary: This paper explores the ethical framework for clinical decision making in the case of ectopic pregnancies. Focusing on the disordered union of mother and unborn child clarifies the object and purpose of the actions used to separate the mother and fetus in order to save the life of both, or at least one. Since over 90% of tubal ectopic pregnancies present as embryos who have already died, these cases present no ethical dilemma. This paper proposes a modification of currently used criteria for determining the viability of ectopic pregnancies and calls for further research.
Consensus Problem in Lipschitz Multiagent Systems in the Presence of Input Delay and External Disturbances

This paper investigates the consensus problem in Lipschitz multiagent systems in the presence of input delay and external disturbances. For this purpose, two consensus protocols are proposed based on a future state predictor and a finite time estimator that ensure achieving consensus in a group of agents in the presence of input delay and external disturbances. Finally, the effectiveness of the suggested algorithms is demonstrated by simulation results.
Hybrid Approach for Feature Extraction of Lung Cancer Detection

Recently, image processing techniques are widely used in several medical areas for image improvement in earlier detection and treatment stages, where time factor is very significant to discover the abnormality issues in target images, mainly in various cancer such as lung cancer, breast cancer etc. The core factors of this research are image quality and accuracy. The local energy-based shape histogram (LESH) feature extraction technique was recently intended for lung cancer diagnosis. We extend our work to apply LESH and sensitivity analysis (SA) to detect lung cancer. The JSRT & clinical dataset is selected for research experiments. This process will lead to a more generalized process for all kind of dataset and this approach can give better results than the earlier one.
Transcriptome analyses of Atlantic salmon muscle genes induced by a DNA vaccine against salmonid alphavirus, the causative agent of salmon pancreas disease (PD)

Salmonid alphavirus (SAV) is the causative agent of pancreas disease (PD) in farmed Atlantic salmon. A previous study showed that vaccination of pre-smolt salmon with a plasmid encoding the structural polypeptide of SAV gave protection against infection and development of PD accompanied by production of antibodies against the virus. In the present work we analyzed transcript responses in the muscle to vaccination with this plasmid (here named pSAV). The purpose was to shed light on how pSAV might initiate adaptive immune responses in the fish. The work was based on microarray and reverse transcription quantitative PCR analyses of muscle at the injection site 7 days after vaccination. The results showed that pSAV and pcDNA3.3 had similar abilities to up-regulate type I IFN stimulated genes. In contrast, pSAV caused higher up-regulation of IFNγ and several IFNγ inducible genes. Compared to pcDNA3.3, pSAV also gave larger increase in transcripts of marker genes for B-cells, T-cells and antigen presenting cells (APCs), which suggest attraction and role of these cells in the adaptive immune responses elicited by pSAV. Moreover, pSAV caused a stronger up-regulation of the chemokine CXCL10 and the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1ß and TNFα, which may explain attraction of lymphocytes and APCs. The present work shows that the expression profile of genes resulting from vaccination with pSAV is different from the expression profiles obtained previously by vaccination of salmonids with DNA vaccines against infectious salmon anemia virus and infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus.