Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salzburger State Reactance Scale (SSR Scale)

Abstract. This paper describes the construction and empirical evaluation of an instrument for measuring state reactance, the Salzburger State Reactance (SSR) Scale. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis supported a hypothesized three-factor structure: experience of reactance, aggressive behavioral intentions, and negative attitudes. Correlations with divergent and convergent measures support the validity of this structure. The SSR Subscales were strongly related to the other state reactance measures. Moreover, the SSR Subscales showed modest positive correlations with trait measures of reactance. The SSR Subscales correlated only slightly or not at all with neighboring constructs (e.g., autonomy, experience of control). The only exception was fairness scales, which showed moderate correlations with the SSR Subscales. Furthermore, a retest analysis confirmed the temporal stability of the scale. Suggestions for further validation of this questionnaire are discussed.
Psychological adjustment to cleft lip and/or palate: A narrative review of the literature

Objective: Adjustment to cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) is multifaceted, involving several domains of psychological and social functioning. A substantial increase in research in this area has been evident in recent years, along with a preliminary shift in how adjustment to CL/P is conceptualised and measured. An updated and comprehensive review of the literature is needed in light of the rapidly expanding and changing field. Design: A narrative review of 148 quantitative and qualitative studies published between January 2004 and July 2015. Main outcome measures: Findings are presented according to five key domains of adjustment: Developmental Trajectory, Behaviour, Emotional Well-being, Social Experiences and Satisfaction with Appearance and Treatment. Data pertaining to General Psychological Well-being were also examined. Results: The overall impact of CL/P on psychological adjustment appears to be low. Nonetheless, the review demonstrates the complexity of findings both within and across domains, and highlights recurring methodological challenges. Conclusions: Research findings from the last decade are considered to be largely inconclusive, although some areas of emerging consensus and improvements in the approaches used were identified. Efforts to collect data from large, representative and longitudinal samples, which are comparable across studies and encompassing of the patient perspective, should be doubled.
A scheme for concatenating units for speech synthesis

In previous papers we discussed a speech synthesis by rule scheme where segments obtained from natural speech were linearly concatenated. These segments included the consonants and the transitions from consonants to vowels, vowels to vowels, and vowels to consonants. Each synthesis parameter was defined by few sets of LPC area parameters, and in the concatenative process, straight line interpolation was used to obtain the complete set of area parameters. Informal listening and some formal intelligibility testing revealed that this simplified description of the synthesis segments was not sufficient to produce the speech quality that would satisfy us. Consequently, it was decided to improve the definition of the concatenative units. This paper will discuss in detail the scheme for synthesis employing these concatenative units.
A High-Affinity Repebody for Molecular Imaging of EGFR-Expressing Malignant Tumors

The accurate detection of disease-related biomarkers is crucial for the early diagnosis and management of disease in personalized medicine. Here, we present a molecular imaging of human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-expressing malignant tumors using an EGFR-specific repebody composed of leucine-rich repeat (LRR) modules. The repebody was labeled with either a fluorescent dye or radioisotope, and used for imaging of EGFR-expressing malignant tumors using an optical method and positron emission tomography. Our approach enabled visualization of the status of EGFR expression, allowing quantitative evaluation in whole tumors, which correlated well with the EGFR expression levels in mouse or patients-derived colon cancers. The present approach can be effectively used for the accurate detection of EGFR-expressing cancers, assisting in the development of a tool for detecting other disease biomarkers.
Yttrium-90 Microsphere Brachytherapy for Liver Metastases From Uveal Melanoma: Clinical Outcomes and the Predictive Value of Fluorodeoxyglucose Positron Emission Tomography

Objectives:To report outcomes after yttrium-90 microsphere brachytherapy for unresectable liver metastases from uveal melanoma and to evaluate factors predictive for overall survival (OS) and hepatic progression-free survival (PFS). Methods:A total of 71 patients were consecutively treated with microsphere brachytherapy for unresectable liver metastases from uveal melanoma between 2007 and 2012. Clinical, radiographic, and positron emission tomography–derived, functional tumor parameters were evaluated by log-rank test in univariate analysis and backwards stepwise multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression. OS and hepatic PFS were estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Results:A total of 134 procedures were performed in 71 patients with a median age of 63 years (range, 23 to 91 y). Fifty-eight patients (82%) received microsphere brachytherapy as a salvage therapy. Median hepatic PFS and OS after microsphere brachytherapy were 5.9 months (range, 1.3 to 19.1 mo) and 12.3 months (range, 1.9 to 49.3 mo), respectively. Median OS times after diagnosis of liver metastases was 23.9 months (range, 6.2 to 69.0 mo). In univariate analysis, female sex, pretreatment metabolic tumor volume, and total glycolic activity (TGA) were significantly correlated with hepatic PFS and OS. In multivariate analysis, female sex and TGA retained significance as independent predictors of hepatic PFS and OS. A low pretreatment TGA (<225 g) was associated with a significantly longer median OS than was a TGA≥225 g (17.2 vs. 9.7 mo, P=0.01). Conclusions:Yttrium-90 microsphere brachytherapy provided favorable survival times in patients with unresectable liver metastases from uveal melanoma. Metabolic tumor volume and TGA are predictive functional tumor parameters, which may aid patient selection and risk stratification.
What do we mean by the term “inflammation”? A contemporary basic science update for sports medicine

Most practicing sports medicine clinicians refer to the concept of “inflammation” many times a day when diagnosing and treating acute and overuse injuries. What is meant by this term? Is it a “good” or a “bad” process? The major advances in the understanding of inflammation in recent years are summarised, and some clinical implications of the contemporary model of inflammation are highlighted.
Specific cerebral activation due to visual erotic stimuli in male-to-female transsexuals compared with male and female controls: an fMRI study.

INTRODUCTION Transsexuals harbor the strong feeling of having been born to the wrong sex. There is a continuing controversial discussion of whether or not transsexualism has a biological representation. Differences between males and females in terms of functional imaging during erotic stimuli have been previously described, revealing gender-specific results. AIM Therefore, we postulated that male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals may show specific cerebral activation differing from their biological gender. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Cerebral activation patterns during viewing of erotic film excerpts in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). METHODS Twelve male and 12 female heterosexual volunteers and 12 MTF transsexuals before any treatment viewed erotic film excerpts during fMRI. Additionally, subjective rating of sexual arousal was assessed. Statistics were performed using the Statistical Parametric Mapping software. RESULTS Significantly enhanced activation for men compared with women was revealed in brain areas involved in erotic processing, i.e., the thalamus, the amygdala, and the orbitofrontal and insular cortex, whereas no specific activation for women was found. When comparing MTF transsexuals with male volunteers, activation patterns similar to female volunteers being compared with male volunteers were revealed. Sexual arousal was assessed using standard rating scales and did not differ significantly for the three groups. CONCLUSIONS We revealed a cerebral activation pattern in MTF transsexuals compared with male controls similar to female controls compared with male controls during viewing of erotic stimuli, indicating a tendency of female-like cerebral processing in transsexualism.
Therapeutic effects of 0.1% tacrolimus eye drops for refractory allergic ocular diseases with proliferative lesion or corneal involvement

Background The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of topical 0.1% tacrolimus in treating refractory allergic conjunctivitis with proliferative lesions and/or corneal involvement. Methods This prospective observational study included 1436 patients with refractory allergic conjunctivitis whose condition had responded poorly to conventional antiallergic drugs and/or topical steroids and/or topical cyclosporine. All patients received tacrolimus eye drops twice daily during the study period. Ten clinical signs and six clinical symptoms were rated on a four-grade scale. The primary endpoint was the change from baseline in total clinical signs and symptoms score at the last observation or following 6 months of treatment. Results Total signs and symptoms score significantly decreased after 1 month of treatment (p<0.001). Giant papillae and corneal lesions were also reduced by tacrolimus eye drop use (p<0.001). The drug proved effective in patients whose condition did not respond well to topical cyclosporine therapy. About 50% of all patients using topical steroids were weaned. The most common adverse reaction was a transient burning sensation (3.20%). Conclusions Tacrolimus eye drops are highly effective in treating refractory allergic conjunctivitis with proliferative lesions and/or corneal involvement, and may reduce or replace topical steroid use. Trial registration number UMIN 000008640.
Seeking help because of others' drinking.

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Many individuals contact and are assisted by community and emergency services because of someone else's drinking. Previous studies have focused on family members accessing services, such as Alcoholics Anonymous due to significant others' drinking; however, little is known about service use in the broad community. This paper aims to estimate the prevalence of contacting the police and seeking help from health services because of others' drinking and to compare the profiles of individuals seeking services with those who did not contact a service. DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 2649 adult Australians were surveyed about their experience of harm from others' drinking, including use of emergency and community services. RESULTS In the 12 months prior to the survey, 13% of respondents had contacted the police and 5% had sought help from a health-related service. Using logistic regression, being older and having a secondary school education were associated with a decreased likelihood of contacting police because of others' drinking, whereas residing in a non-metropolitan location was positively associated with using health-related services. Having a partner was negatively associated with use of health-related services. The extent of self-reported harm from others' drinking was the only factor associated with use of both police and health-related services. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION Results suggest differences in the profile of respondents who call the police and those who seek health-related services due to others' drinking. This supports the need for tailored services to support and address the needs of people experiencing harm from others' drinking.
Sequencing and G-Quadruplex Folding of the Canine Proto-Oncogene KIT Promoter Region: Might Dog Be Used as a Model for Human Disease?

Downregulation of gene expression by induction of non-canonical DNA structures at promotorial level is a novel attractive anticancer strategy. In human, two guanine-rich sequences (h_kit1 and h_kit2) were identified in the promotorial region of oncogene KIT. Their stabilization into G-quadruplex structures can find applications in the treatment of leukemias, mastocytosis, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, and lung carcinomas which are often associated to c-kit mis-regulation. Also the most common skin cancer in domestic dog, mast cell tumor, is linked to a mutation and/or to an over-expression of c-kit, thus supporting dog as an excellent animal model. In order to assess if the G-quadruplex mediated mechanism of regulation of c-kit expression is conserved among the two species, herein we cloned and sequenced the canine KIT promoter region and we compared it with the human one in terms of sequence and conformational equilibria in physiologically relevant conditions. Our results evidenced a general conserved promotorial sequence between the two species. As experimentally confirmed, this grants that the conformational features of the canine kit1 sequence are substantially shared with the human one. Conversely, two isoforms of the kit2 sequences were identified in the analyzed dog population. In comparison with the human counterpart, both of them showed an altered distribution among several folded conformations.
Triceps to biceps transfer for restoration of elbow flexion following upper brachial plexus injury

ABSTRACT Introduction: Upper brachial plexus injury in adults causes loss of elbow fl exion; when the primary nerve surgery has failed or the patient seeks treatment after 12 months of injury and pedicled muscle transfers are required. Most commonly, the latissimus dorsi or the Steindler flexorplasty is used. Material and Methods: We have transferred one of the heads of triceps muscle to restore the elbow flexion in such cases. In addition to return of elbow flexion, extension of elbow following surgery is retained. Ten patients suffering from upper brachial plexus injuries underwent transfer of one head of triceps to biceps tendon between December 2011 and August 2015. Results: The recovery of elbow flexion was Grade 5 in 1, Grade 4 in 4 and Grade 3 in 2; only three of the ten patients had no functionally useful elbow flexion. Seven of the ten patients had an adequate elbow extension following the procedure.
Stabilization of apoglobin by low temperature increases yield of soluble recombinant hemoglobin in Escherichia coli

Accumulation of soluble recombinant hemoglobin (rHb1.1) in Escherichia coli requires proper protein folding, prosthetic group (heme) addition, and subunit assembly. This served as a new model system for the study of the effects of temperature, protein synthesis rates, and protein accumulation rates on protein solubility in E. coli. Fermentation expression of rHb1.1 at 30 degrees C from cultures containing a medium or high globin gene dosage (pBR-based or pUC-based plasmids with rHb1.1 genes under the control of the tac promoter) was compared. A medium gene dosage resulted in rHb1.1 accumulating to approximately 7% of the soluble cell protein, of which 78% was soluble. A high globin gene dosage resulted in a > or = 3-fold increase in total globin to 23 to 24% of the soluble cell protein, but 70% was insoluble. Accumulation of insoluble rHb1.1 began immediately upon induction. The proportion of rHb1.1 from the high globin gene dosage that accumulated as insoluble globin was affected by reducing (i) the inducer concentration and (ii) the temperature. Reducing the inducer concentration reduced globin synthesis up to eightfold but increased the proportion of soluble rHb1.1 to 93%. In contrast, total globin protein synthesis was barely affected by reducing the temperature from 30 to 26 degrees C, while soluble globin accumulation increased > 2-fold to approximately 15% of the soluble cell protein. The contrast between the effects of reducing rates of protein synthesis and accumulation and those of reducing temperature suggests that lower temperature stabilizes one or more folding intermediates. We propose a simplified physical model which integrates protein synthesis, folding, and heme association. This model shows that temperature-dependent apoglobin stability is the most critical factor in soluble rHb1.1 accumulation.
Bug or Not? Bug Report Classification Using N-Gram IDF

Previous studies have found that a significant number of bug reports are misclassified between bugs and nonbugs, and that manually classifying bug reports is a timeconsuming task. To address this problem, we propose a bug reports classification model with N-gram IDF, a theoretical extension of Inverse Document Frequency (IDF) for handling words and phrases of any length. N-gram IDF enables us to extract key terms of any length from texts, these key terms can be used as the features to classify bug reports. We build classification models with logistic regression and random forest using features from N-gram IDF and topic modeling, which is widely used in various software engineering tasks.With a publicly available dataset, our results show that our N-gram IDF-based models have a superior performance than the topic-based models on all of the evaluated cases. Our models show promising results and have a potential to be extended to other software engineering tasks.
Method engineering: from data to model to practice

This paper explores the behavior of experts choosing among various methods to accomplish tasks. Given the results showing that methods are not chosen solely on the basis of keystroke efficiency, we recommend a technique to help designers assess whether they should offer multiple methods for some tasks, and if they should, how to make them so that they are chosen appropriately.
GENETIC TRANSFORMATION AND HYBRIDIZATION Evidence for stable transformation of wheat by floral dip in Agrobacterium tumefaciens

Hexaploid wheat, one of the world’s most important staple crops, remains a challenge for genetic transformation. We are developing a floral transformation protocol for wheat that does not require tissue culture. This paper presents three transformants in the hard red germplasm line Crocus that have been characterized thoroughly at the molecular level over three to six generations. Wheat spikes at the early boot stage, i.e. the early, mid or late uninucleate microspore stages, were immersed in an infiltration medium of strain C58C1 harboring pDs(Hyg)35S, or strain AGL1 harboring pBECKSred. pDs(Hyg)35S contains the NPTII and hph selectable markers, and transformants were detected using paromomycin spray at the whole plant level, NPTII ELISAs, or selection on medium with hygromycin. Strain AGL1, harboring pBECKSred, which contains the maize anthocyanin regulators, Lc and C1, and the NPTII gene, was also used to produce a Crocus transformant. T1 and T2 seeds with red embryos were selected; T1 and T2 plants were screened by sequential tests for paromomycin resistance and NPTII ELISAs. The transformants were low copy number and showed Mendelian segregation in the T2. Stable transmission of the transgenes over several generations has been demonstrated using Southern analysis. Gene expression in advanced progeny was shown using Reverse TranscriptasePCR and ELISA assays for NPTII protein expression. This protocol has the potential to reduce the time and expense required for wheat transformation.
Association between Water Intake, Chronic Kidney Disease, and Cardiovascular Disease: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of NHANES Data

Background: Evidence from animal and human studies suggests a protective effect of higher water intake on kidney function and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Here the associations between water intake, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and CVD were examined in the general population. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Non-pregnant adults with an estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≥30 ml/min/1.73 m2 who were not taking diuretics were included. Total water intake from foods and beverages was categorized as low (<2.0 l/day), moderate (2.0-4.3 l/day) and high (>4.3 l/day). We examined associations between low total water intake and CKD (eGFR 30-60 ml/min/1.73 m2) and self-reported CVD. Results: Of 3,427 adults (mean age 46 (range 20-84); mean eGFR 95 ml/min/1.73 m2 (range 30-161)), 13% had CKD and 18% had CVD. CKD was higher among those with the lowest (<2.0 l/day) vs. highest total water intake (>4.3 l/day) (adjusted odds ratio (OR) 2.52; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.91-6.96). When stratified by intake of (1) plain water and (2) other beverages, CKD was associated with low intake of plain water: adjusted OR 2.36 (95% CI 1.10-5.06), but not other beverages: adjusted OR 0.87 (95% CI 0.30-2.50). There was no association between low water intake and CVD (adjusted OR 0.76; 95% CI 0.37-1.59). Conclusions: Our results provide additional evidence suggesting a potentially protective effect of higher total water intake, particularly plain water, on the kidney.
Experimental and numerical techniques for characterising catheter-induced blood vessel damage : towards tools for improvement of intravascular catheter design

Cardiovascular diseases are a significant health risk worldwide, being the largest contributor to deaths in most developed and developing countries. For physical testing of new medical devices, diseased tissue specimens are desirable. However, these are difficult to obtain in quantity. The first phase of the work therefore focused on emulating effects of disease on artery mechanical response, using enzyme and chemical treatment of healthy tissue. Porcine aorta was partially digested by elastase and collagenase treatments to remove constituent proteins, and exposed to low concentration glutaraldehdye to partially cross-link proteins. Uniaxial tension testing and controlled peel testing were then performed in the artery axial and circumferential directions to assess the changes in mechanical and failure behaviour. The treatments successfully altered the wall tensile and peeling response with effects varying by the loading type and direction. Multiphoton microscopy was also performed to allow visualisation of the changes to fibre structure and density. Finally, tensile test results were fitted to the Gasser-Ogden-Holzapfel constitutive model and a continuum damage model, and the fitted curves were best matched with the circumferential direction results. The latter phase of the work focused on development of methods for characterising and simulating catheter-induced dissection processes. An experimental procedure was developed, wherein a catheter was forced between layers of arterial media, propagating a dissection, while reaction force was measured. The various approaches utilised to model this process within FEA are presented and the subsequent difficulties explored. The inherent complexity of the process being modelled resulted in difficulty drawing out the underlying problems. To rectify this, the experiment was simplified such that a metal wedge with a rounded front was used to dissect the tissue. This was successfully modelled and insights from this were considered with regard to numerical difficulties in the catheter dissection model.