Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MOG cell-based assay detects non-MS patients with inflammatory neurologic disease

Objective: To optimize sensitivity and disease specificity of a myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibody assay. Methods: Consecutive sera (n = 1,109) sent for aquaporin-4 (AQP4) antibody testing were screened for MOG antibodies (Abs) by cell-based assays using either full-length human MOG (FL-MOG) or the short-length form (SL-MOG). The Abs were initially detected by Alexa Fluor goat anti-human IgG (H + L) and subsequently by Alexa Fluor mouse antibodies to human IgG1. Results: When tested at 1:20 dilution, 40/1,109 sera were positive for AQP4-Abs, 21 for SL-MOG, and 180 for FL-MOG. Only one of the 40 AQP4-Ab–positive sera was positive for SL-MOG-Abs, but 10 (25%) were positive for FL-MOG-Abs (p = 0.0069). Of equal concern, 48% (42/88) of sera from controls (patients with epilepsy) were positive by FL-MOG assay. However, using an IgG1-specific secondary antibody, only 65/1,109 (5.8%) sera were positive on FL-MOG, and AQP4-Ab– positive and control sera were negative. IgM reactivity accounted for the remaining anti-human IgG (H + L) positivity toward FL-MOG. The clinical diagnoses were obtained in 33 FL-MOG–positive patients, blinded to the antibody data. IgG1-Abs to FL-MOG were associated with optic neuritis (n = 11), AQP4-seronegative neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (n = 4), and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (n = 1). All 7 patients with probable multiple sclerosis (MS) were MOG-IgG1 negative. Conclusions: The limited disease specificity of FL-MOG-Abs identified using Alexa Fluor goat anti-human IgG (H + L) is due in part to detection of IgM-Abs. Use of the FL-MOG and restricting to IgG1-Abs substantially improves specificity for non-MS demyelinating diseases. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class II evidence that the presence of serum IgG1- MOG-Abs in AQP4-Ab–negative patients distinguishes non-MS CNS demyelinating disorders from MS (sensitivity 24%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 9%–45%; specificity 100%, 95% CI 88%–100%).
A comparison of CIC and BTE hearing aids for three-dimensional localization of speech

Abstract Three-dimensional sound localization of speech in anechoic space was examined for eleven listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. The listeners were fitted bilaterally with CIC and BTE hearing aids having similar bandwidth capabilities. The goal was to determine whether differences in microphone placement for these two styles (CICs at the ear canal entrance; BTEs above the pinna) would influence the availability of pinna-related spectral cues and hence localization performance. While lateral and polar angle localization was unaffected by the hearing aid style, the rate of front-back reversals was lower with CICs. This pattern persisted after listeners accommodated to each set of aids for a six week period, although the overall rate of reversals declined. Performance on all measures in all conditions was considerably poorer than in a control group of listeners with normal hearing. Sumario Se evaluó la localización tridimensional de sonidos del habla en un espacio anecoide en once personas con pérdida auditiva sensorineural. A los once se les adaptaron CIC y BTE bilateralmente con capacidad de ancho de banda similar. El objetivo fue determinar si las diferencias en la colocación del micrófono con ambos tipos (CIC en el ingreso del conducto auditivo; BTE sobre el pabellón auricular) podría influenciar la disponibilidad de claves espectrales relacionadas con el pabellón y por ello, el rendimiento para la localización. Mientras que la localización del ángulo lateral y polar no fue afectada por el tipo de auxiliar, la tasa de inversiones frente-atrás fue menor con los CIC. Este patrón persistió después de que estas personas se acostumbraron a cada set de auxiliares por un período de seis semanas, a pesar de que declinó la tasa global de reversiones. El rendimiento en todas las mediciones y condiciones fue considerablemente más pobre que en el grupo control de personas con audición normal.
Age differences in depression and anxiety symptoms: a structural equation modelling analysis of data from a general population sample

Background. There is debate as to whether the elderly are really at lower risk for depressive disorders, or whether endorsement of symptoms is artefactually low. The present paper assesses the effects of age on anxiety and depression, and examines whether age has direct effects on self-report of individual symptoms independent of its effect on the underlying dimensions of anxiety and depression. Methods. Structural equation modelling was used to assess the structure of the items and their associations with age and a number of demographic variables. The sample of 2622 participants aged between 18 and 79 years from Canberra (Australia) was drawn from the Electoral Roll. Two instruments were used: the anxiety and depression scales of Goldberg et al. (1988) and the Personal Disturbance Scale from the DSSI of Bedford et al. (1976). Results. Both scales were found to fit satisfactorily to a two factor model. Age correlated negatively with depression. After controlling for the effects of gender, marital status, education and financial difficulty, direct effects of age were found on items from both instruments, indicating that certain depression items were associated with a differential probability of endorsement in older people, even when the level of depression was equal to that of younger people. Items with direct age effects reflected physical (feeling slowed down; waking early) and psychological (hopeless about the future) components of depression. Direct effects of age on items from both anxiety scales were also found. Conclusions. The nature of the depression and anxiety experienced by younger and older people may differ qualitatively. Depression may be associated with an increase in somatic symptoms linked to physical changes and to an increase in endorsement of items which reflect the narrowing of opportunities in the long-term.
MICROMECHANICS OF FIBER EFFECT ON THE UNIAXIAL COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH OF CEMENTITIOUS COMPOSITES

A micromechanical model is presented for the uniaxial compressive strength of fiber reinforced cementitious composites (FRCC). The model is based on the classical models of compressive failure of brittle solids containing sliding microcracks that induce wing- crack growth under compressive loading. The concepts of increased microcrack sliding resistance and wing-crack growth retardation associated with fiber bridging are exploited to produce a strengthening effect of fibers on composite strength. The concept of defect introduction associated with fiber volume fraction is included to produce a composite strength degradation. The combined effects result in a composite compressive strength which increases initially and subsequently drops with increasing fiber content, as has been observed in FRCs reinforced with a variety of fibers. More accurate stress intensity factor calibrations for wing-crack growth and interaction are employed in the present paper. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 862056.
Effects of extracted soy isoflavones alone on blood total and LDL cholesterol: Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

When provided concurrently with soy protein for 1–3 months, soy isoflavones exert synergistic or additive cholesterol-lowering effects. This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the effects of extracted soy isoflavones alone (not ingested concurrently with soy protein) on total and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. MEDLINE (1966–2007), EMBASE (1966–2007), CENTRAL (1966–2007), ICHUSHI (1983–2008), and CNKI (1979–2007) were searched for randomized placebo-controlled trials published in English, Japanese, and Chinese, describing the changes in lipid profiles in adult humans resulting from ingestion of extracted soy isoflavones for 1–3 months. Reference lists of relevant systematic reviews and meta-analyses were hand-searched. Meta-analysis of 10 and 9 trials with usable information using REVMAN found that an average of 70 mg soy isoflavones/day (27–132 mg, as the aglycone form) alone had a nonsignificant effect on total (0.01 mmol/L [95% CI: –0.12, 0.14]; P = 0.86) and LDL (0.03 mmol/L [95% CI: –0.11, 0.16]; P = 0.71) cholesterol in menopausal women, respectively. It is concluded that ingestion of about 70 mg extracted soy isoflavones/day alone for 1–3 months does not improve total and LDL cholesterol levels in normocholesterolemic menopausal women; further studies are needed to verify the effects of extracted soy isoflavones.
Learning Probabilistic Synchronous CFGs for Phrase-Based Translation

Probabilistic phrase-based synchronous grammars are now considered promising devices for statistical machine translation because they can express reordering phenomena between pairs of languages. Learning these hierarchical, probabilistic devices from parallel corpora constitutes a major challenge, because of multiple latent model variables as well as the risk of data overfitting. This paper presents an effective method for learning a family of particular interest to MT, binary Synchronous Context-Free Grammars with inverted/monotone orientation (a.k.a. Binary ITG). A second contribution concerns devising a lexicalized phrase reordering mechanism that has complimentary strengths to Chiang's model. The latter conditions reordering decisions on the surrounding lexical context of phrases, whereas our mechanism works with the lexical content of phrase pairs (akin to standard phrase-based systems). Surprisingly, our experiments on French-English data show that our learning method applied to far simpler models exhibits performance indistinguishable from the Hiero system.
The prognostic importance of proliferative activity and oestrogen receptor expression in stage I endometrial carcinomas

Summary The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of steroid hormone receptor proliferation index in endometrial adenocarcinoma. In this study, the correlation between oestrogen receptor expression, proliferation index and FIGO grade, age, myometrial invasion, tumour size and menopause status was evaluated in 40 patients with endometrial carcinoma. For this purpose, all tumours were stained immunohistochemically with oestrogen receptor and Ki-67 monoclonal antibodies. Oestrogen receptor expression and proliferation indices were found to be statistically associated with grade, age, menopausal status, vascular invasion and tumour size ( p < 0.001). Quantitative assessment of tumour proliferation and expression of oestrogen receptor were found to be important prognostic indicators in endometrial adenocarcinoma.
Prostate-specific antigen: bias and molarity of commercial assays for PSA in use in England

Background: The UK Prostate Cancer Risk Management Programme has recommended that all assays for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) should be both equimolar in their response to free and complexed PSA and calibrated to the World Health Organization (WHO) First International Standard for PSA (90:10). To determine which assays currently being used by diagnostic laboratories in England fulfil these criteria, a PSA recovery experiment was performed. Methods: In all, 15 samples containing varying mixtures and concentrations of the WHO International Standards for PSA and free PSA were sent to 223 laboratories in England who participate in the UK National External Quality Assessment Service (UK NEQAS) scheme for analysis. Analytical platforms were assigned to one of 11 methods, and the results were converted into recovery percentages and analysed by means of a linear random intercept model. Results: No method was both unbiased and equimolar; estimates of bias ranged from -5% to 22% and estimates of non-equimolarity (change in bias per percent increase in free PSA) ranged from -0.18% to 0.28%. Conclusions: Analytical methods currently in use for PSA in England have inter-method differences; some methods have estimated biases over 10% which can result in unacceptable clinical performance characteristics. Methods for PSA should be equimolar and calibrated to the international standard to minimize the likelihood of clinical errors.
3D Wafer Level Packaging Approach Towards Cost Effective Low Loss High Density 3D Stacking

As silicon semiconductor technologies continue to scale to smaller dimensions (vertical scaling), the realization of true systems-on-chip (SOC) devices with a large variety of functional blocks becomes very difficult to achieve. Technologies need specific optimization for logic, analog, memory etc. to reach the desired performance levels and circuit density. Furthermore, the substrates used to build active devices may vary significantly between technologies, including non-silicon substrates, e.g. compound semiconductors. Also systems may contain other planar components, such as MEMS and integrated passive devices. Besides the 'vertical' scaling there is also a 'horizontal' scaling. Realizing the full system on a single SOC die is becoming increasingly difficult and often not economically justified. If however a high-density 3D technology is available, a "3D-SOC" device could be manufactured, consisting of a stack of heterogeneous devices. This device would be smaller, lower power and higher performance than a monolithical SOC approach. A key feature for realizing true 3D interconnect schemes is the realization of vertical connections through the Si-die. Different applications require different complexities of 3D-interconnectivity. Therefore, different technologies may be used. These can be categorized as (i) a more traditional packaging approach, (ii) a wafer-level-packaging ('above' passivation) approach and (iii) a foundry level ('below' passivation) approach. The authors define these technologies as respectively 3D-system-in-a-package (3D-SIP), 3D-wafer-level-packaging (3D-WLP) and 3D-stacked-IC (3D-SIC) (Beyne, 2005). After a short overview on these three different types, this paper focuses on a 3D-WLP approach with innovative cost efficient through-Si vias for low loss high density 3D-stacking
Characterization of the impact of indoor Doppler errors on Pedestrian Dead Reckoning

Indoor pedestrian navigation is a very challenging task because self-contained sensors are affected by instrumentation errors corrupting the navigation solution and GNSS signals, which could be used for calibrating the latter, are barely available. Doppler measurements are found to be more accurate than pseudoranges in these harsh indoor environments, especially with narrowband receivers. Therefore the impact of indoor Doppler errors on a Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR) navigation filter is investigated. Doppler errors are simulated using experimental data post-processed with the high sensitivity GSNRx-ss™ software receiver and a derived Doppler error model. Step length and heading errors are simulated for a 500m pedestrian walk. All these controlled errors are introduced in a novel tight PDR/Doppler coupling Extended Kalman filter for assessing the impact of Doppler indoor errors on the navigation solution. It is found that even biased Doppler measurements control the errors' growth in the navigation solution, principally in the attitude angles estimates but also in the norm of the velocity vector. With a 15° error in the walking direction, the horizontal position error equals 10% of the travelled distance for the coupled PDR/Doppler solution and 20% for the MEMS only solution. The analysis highlights also the need for designing new methods to discard outliers in the set of indoor Doppler measurements and benefit from new indoor GNSS observations.
Beneficial micropipette oscillation in vision-guided piezo-assisted ICSI

Various designs of piezo-assisted Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) has been developed, which achieved higher success rate than conventional ICSI. A common issue is that lateral oscillation of the injection pipette tip is always excited by the intended axial actuation. Researchers hold different opinions on which oscillation, axial or lateral, has more dominate effects on the piercing process. In this paper, different functionalities of the axial and lateral oscillations during cell injection are investigated. A novel vibration-assisted injector is developed, which uses a piezoelectric shear actuator with free stroke of 10 μm in two axes. Different from previous designs, axial and lateral oscillations are generated separately. For axial vibration experiment, a short pipette (450 μm in length, 30 μm in diameter) with high first bending and longitudinal natural frequencies (137.6 kHz and 1.08 MHz) is fabricated. While driven in axial direction at frequency below 40 kHz, the pipette can be considered as a rigid body. In lateral case, a 51 mm long micropipette is driven in the transverse direction at the thicker end to excite bending modes. Experimental results obtained using zebrafish embryos reveal that lateral oscillations reduce the cell deformation ratio dramatically during penetration, while axial oscillations show little effects. As less deformation on the cell membrane leads to less pressure change inside the cell, thus lateral oscillation is more beneficial than axial oscillation in piezo-assisted ICSI. These findings help to understand the underlying physics of vibration-assisted injector. Future design vibration-assisted injector should focus on generating lateral oscillations instead of axial ones.
The effect of thrombus aspiration during primary percutaneous coronary intervention on clinical outcome in daily clinical practice

Summary It was the purpose of this study to assess the effect of thrombus aspiration (TA) during primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) on reperfusion and clinical outcome in a real-world STEMI population. The decision to use TA (Export catheter, Medtronic) was at the discretion of the treating cardiologist. The primary endpoint was mortality at short (in-hospital) and long term (one year) follow-up. Secondary end points were post-PCI TIMI flow, residual ST deviation and enzymatic infarct size. Cox proportional hazard models (propensity-weighted) and logistic regression analysis were used to adjust for known covariates, associated with mortality. We performed a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data on 2,552 consecutive PPCI-treated STEMI patients between 2007 and 2010. Use of TA increased from 6.9% in 2007 to 62.2% in 2010 (p<0.001). TA was performed in 899 patients (35.2%). In-hospital and one-year mortality rates were 3.0% and 6.0%, respectively, in the TA group and 3.5% and 7.6% in the no- TA group. After multivariate analysis, TA was not significantly associated with in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.33–1.49, p=0.36) nor one year mortality (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 0.75, 95%CI: 0.47–1.20, p=0.23) or cardiac mortality (HR: 0.81; 95%CI: 0.45–1.46, p=0.49). After matching on the propensity score, the HR in the TA group for one year mortality was 0.70 (95%CI: 0.41–1.20, p=0.19) and for one-year cardiac mortality 0.70 (95%CI: 0.36–1.34, p=0.28). In conclusion, no significant relationship of TA with one of the secondary end points was found. The use of TA increased over the last years but clinical outcome was similar in both groups (TA vs no-TA) in this large cohort of real-world, unselected STEMI patients.
Does it Pay to Be Nice? Personality and Earnings in the United Kingdom

The author examines the relationship between individuals' personality traits and labor market success in the United Kingdom using data from the British Household Panel Study (BHPS). With longitudinal individuals' earnings information as well as psychological profile data of respondents specifically from the 2005 wave, he is able to ascertain the extent to which basic traits from the Five Factor Personality Inventory–openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism–affect wages. Results indicate a positive relationship between openness to experience and wages, but a negative linear relationship between wages and agreeableness, and for females, between wages and neuroticism. Although there is no convincing evidence for an association between extraversion and earnings, there is a nonlinear gradient for conscientiousness. Moreover, there are no joint effects of personality and tenure. The study does support the suggestion that the associations found are causal.
More or less "me" in past, present, and future: perceived lifetime personality during adulthood.

This article examines whether adults perceive different levels of their own personality traits at different target ages, and what the differences are. Using abbreviated versions of assessments of the 5-factor model of personality (NEO-FFI, P.T. Costa & R.R. McCrae, 1989) and of well-being (C. D. Ryff, 1989), 398 heterogeneous participants (age 26-64) described their own personality (a) in the present, (b) when they were 20-25 years old, (c) when they will be 65-70 years old, and (d) in the ideal. Participants' responses across the 3 target ages indicated moderate change across adulthood and more variability than is typically observed in longitudinal studies of adult personality development. Anticipated late adulthood personality contained more losses than gains, although all target ages showed some gains. Participants' perceptions were characterized by early adulthood exploration, middle adulthood productivity, and later adulthood comfortableness. Additionally, older adults reported slightly lower ideals but in other ways responded very similarly to younger and middle-aged adults.
Statistical Analysis of Chemical Sensor Data

Chemical sensors measure and quantify substances via their associated chemical or physical response, thus providing data that can be analyzed to address a scientific question of interest (Eggins; 2002). Used in a variety of applications from monitoring to medicine, chemical sensors vary vastly by construction, style, format, size and dimension, and complexity. The common, underlying feature of these sensors lies in the associated data, which are abundant with technical and structural complexities, making statistical analysis a difficult task. These data further share a common need to be measured, analyzed, and interpreted properly so that the resulting inference is accurate. There are many image analysis algorithms available and amenable to a myriad of chemical analysis problems, thus potentially applicable to chemical sensor data problems in particular. By applying these tools to chemical sensor data, we can optimize and evaluate a chemical sensor’s ability to perform its intended tasks. This chapter is designed to give an overview of the modern statistical algorithms that are commonly used when designing and analyzing chemical sensor experiments. Without focusing the discussion around a specific chemical sensor platform, our goal is to provide a general framework that will be applicable, to some degree, for all chemical sensor data. From the beginning to the end of an experiment, various statistical methods can be employed to improve or understand the current scientific analysis. We decompose a general experiment into several facets and provide the motivation for potential statistical methods that can be applied within each component. Section 2 describes the pre-processing techniques that are available for summarizing the low-level image or signal data so that the subsequent scientific questions can be properly addressed. In this section, we particularly focus on removing background noise in order to isolate the chemical sensor signal data, quantifying this data, and normalizing it so that the resulting data are scalable across conditions. Section 3 introduces the higher-level statistical approaches that are used to analyze the pre-processed data, and Section 4 describes the statistical computational tools available for use to perform the analyses. Finally, Section 5 demonstrates andmotivates the significance of these methods via a chemical sensor case study, and Section 6 concludes the chapter with discussion and summary.