Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Joint involvement in inflammatory bowel disease

Peripheral involvement of the joints, including pauciarticular, asymmetrical, transitory and migrating synovitis and enthesiopathy, is observed in 10–20% of affected inflammatory bowel disease patients. Recurrence is common and frequently coincides with a flare‐up of intestinal disease. The true prevalence of axial involvement is less well established. Sacroiliitis is a hallmark of spondylitis, but is under‐reported due to its insidious onset and sometimes asymptomatic nature. Radiographic evidence of sacroiliitis is present in about 20–25% of patients. Ankylosing spondylitis, as defined by the Rome criteria, is present in 3–10% of inflammatory bowel disease patients, and is thought to have a different genetic predisposition in these patients compared with ‘classic’ ankylosing spondylitis: whereas the human leucocyte antigen B27 phenotype is present in 90% of patients with ‘classic’ ankylosing spondylitis, the prevalence decreases to only 30% in patients with ankylosing spondylitis secondary to Crohn's disease. Polymorphisms involving CARD15 appear to be a possible genetic trigger: 78% of patients with Crohn's disease and symptomatic or asymptomatic sacroiliitis carry at least one mutation, compared with only 48% of control Crohn's disease patients. Moreover, in other forms of spondyloarthropathy, a similar association has been reported: 42% of patients with spondyloarthropathy and associated asymptomatic chronic gut inflammation, who are considered likely to develop Crohn's disease and ankylosing spondylitis, are carriers of at least one CARD15 mutation, compared with only 7% of patients with normal histology. In addition to genetic markers, clinical features support the relationship between gut and joint pathophysiology. In cases of spondyloarthropathy, a very rapid, substantial and sustained improvement in symptoms has been reported following treatment with infliximab, suggesting an essential role for tumour necrosis factor‐α in spondyloarthropathy, similar to that observed in Crohn's disease.
Higher-order social cognition in rock-paper-scissors: a simulation study

In settings where multiple strategic agents perform actions that influence each other's decision-making process, it is often necessary to accurately predict the behaviour of others in order to respond appropriately [9]. One option to do so is by modeling an opponent explicitly, e.g. through dynamic epistemic logic [13], Interactive POMDPs [6], multi-agent influence diagrams [7], or iterated best-response models such as cognitive hierarchy models [2] and level-n theory [1]. These models allow for recursive modeling of an opponent, by modeling the opponent as an opponent-modeling agent itself, creating increasingly complicated models to predict the actions of increasingly sophisticated opponents.
Influence of Local Environment on Incorporation of Ceramic for Lumbar Fusion: Comparison of Laminar and Intertransverse Sites in a Canine Model

To evaluate bone growth into macroporous ceramic in a canine model in terms of the effect at the lumbar spine site (lamina versus transverse process site) and the depth of the area within the ceramic block (peripheral or central areas). Summary of Background Data. Previous comparative studies have assessed that the efficacy of bone graft substitutes for spine fusion depends on their physicochemical properties and on the mechanical environment, but rarely on the grafting site at the lumbar spine level. Methods. Posterior and lateral arthrodesis using pedicular instrumentation was performed at L2, L3, and L4 with a parallelepipedic ceramic block in an experimental group of dogs. A second group of dogs was fused with only autogenous bone graft to compare the fusion stiffness obtained with this material with the stiffness obtained with ceramic. Dogs were studied for 9 months. A biomechanical test and histomorphometric analysis were conducted. Results. With the biomechanical test, no significant differences were found between ceramic and autogenous bone. The percentage of newly formed bone was higher (P < 0.0001) at the lamina (26.52 ± 6.45%) than at the transverse process site (17.33 ± 2.54%). For both locations, the highest amount of newly formed bone was observed in the area of close contact between ceramic and bone, and the lowest was observed in central areas (24.6 ± 5.9% for the laminar site, 14.79 ± 1.75% for the transverse process site). Conclusion. This animal study, which replicated the human procedure in posterolateral lumbar fusion, showed a significant difference of ceramic incorporation between laminar and intertransverse sites. This histomorphometric analysis also confirmed the relationship between bone in‐growth and ceramic thickness and ceramic contact area with bone.
Analysis of Interventions Influencing or Reducing Patient Waiting While Stratifying by Surgical Procedure

Facilitation of the coordination of presurgical care is desirable not only from the patients' perspective, but also for increasing operating room productivity of surgeons and anesthesiologists. Times from each patient's first referral to a surgeon until surgery will be available on a vast scale from regional health information exchanges. Treatments (interventions) can include, for example, case management and use of health system networks with common electronic medical records. We developed a method to compare waiting times between treatment (intervention) groups, while stratifying by procedure, despite (1) highly skewed but non-lognormally distributed data, (2) highly heterogeneous sample sizes among groups and procedures, and (3) many combinations of groups and procedures with small sample sizes, resulting in estimated means and variances having substantial uncertainty. Corresponding results obtained by analyzing data from a health system were as follows. (1) The method uses a random-effects model to accommodate procedure heterogeneity and is otherwise distribution free. Log transformation reduced the skewness in waiting time data, making the distribution-free first-order Taylor series approximation analysis of proportional changes between treatments (interventions) reasonable. However, when instead of the random-effects distribution-free analysis, the assumption was made of lognormal distributions, the estimate of treatment effect was biased. (2) Repeating the analysis without stratification by procedure also resulted in biased estimates. (3) There are nearly an unlimited number of different procedures, most rare, so that considering procedure as a random effect was appropriate. Over the ranges of estimated parameter values, prior Monte-Carlo simulation studies showed that meta-analysis using the simple method of moments was appropriate. However, because many treatment/procedure combinations have small sample sizes, confidence interval coverage for the treatment effect was too narrow other than when the degrees of freedom were corrected. Nevertheless, the resulting statistical methodology is straightforward to apply because the data needed are just the summary statistics and the method involves just a series of equations to be followed in a stepwise manner (e.g., in a spreadsheet program such as Microsoft Office Excel).
Early identification and intervention in autism spectrum disorders: Some progress but not as much as we hoped

Abstract Camarata's (2014) review summarizes the progress that has been made in the field of early identification and early intervention in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) over the past few decades, but also provides a salutary reminder that much still needs to be done. Whilst it is possible to prospectively identify cases of ASD using screening instruments; it is critical that those using such screens in clinical practice understand how to interpret data from published studies and consider how screening information is communicated to parents. After several decades when few randomized controlled trials of early intervention in ASD were conducted, the last decade has seen an explosion of new studies. Despite initial optimism, as more trials are published they have highlighted the limits of, and challenges to, early intervention in ASD. Given the complex nature of ASD these sobering lessons are perhaps not surprising. Rather than promote despondency, they need to inspire and inform the next decade of clinical research to move the field forward to the benefit of young children with ASD and those who care for them.
A comparison of bootstrap methods to construct confidence intervals in QTL mapping

Summary The determination of empirical confidence intervals for the location of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) by interval mapping was investigated using simulation. Confidence intervals were created using a non-parametric (resampling method) and parametric (resimulation method) bootstrap for a backcross population derived from inbred lines. QTLs explaining 1%, 5% and 10% of the phenotypic variance were tested in populations of 200 or 500 individuals. Results from the two methods were compared at all locations along one half of the chromosome. The non-parametric bootstrap produced results close to expectation at all non-marker locations, but confidence intervals when the QTL was located at the marker were conservative. The parametric method performed poorly; results varied from conservative confidence intervals at the location of the marker, to anti-conservative intervals midway between markers. The results were shown to be influenced by a bias in the mapping procedure and by the accumulation of type 1 errors at the location of the markers. The parametric bootstrap is not a suitable method for constructing confidence intervals in QTL mapping. The confidence intervals from the non-parametric bootstrap are accurate and suitable for practical use.
Respiratory and dermal symptoms in Thai nurses using latex products.

BACKGROUND Despite known health risks related to the use of powdered latex gloves (PLGs), they are still widely used in hospitals in developing countries due to the high cost of alternatives. AIMS To determine the prevalence of dermal and respiratory symptoms associated with latex glove use in nurses in Thailand and evaluate the influence of previously reported occupational risk factors in this population. METHODS A cross-sectional study in female nurses working in three Thai hospitals. Participants completed a questionnaire on demographics, occupational and personal history, use of latex products at work and dermal and respiratory symptoms attributed to occupational use of latex gloves. RESULTS Of 899 nurses, 18% reported health effects attributed to the use of latex products. After adjustment for confounding, occupational risk factors associated with increased reporting of dermal symptoms included wearing more than 15 pairs of PLG per day (odds ratio (OR): 2.10, 95% confidence interval (CI): [1.32-3.34]), using chlorhexidine (OR: 2.07, 95% CI: [1.22-3.52]) and being an operating theatre nurse (OR: 2.46, 95% CI: [1.47-4.12]). Being a labour ward nurse (OR: 3.52, 95% CI: [1.26-9.85]) was the only factor associated with increased reporting of respiratory symptoms. CONCLUSIONS Continuing use of PLGs in Thai nurses is associated with increased prevalence of dermal symptoms compared with data from developed countries. Measures to reduce such health effects are well established and should be considered. Additionally, replacement of chlorhexidine with an alternative detergent seems advisable.
Neurotrophin-3 induced by tri-iodothyronine in cerebellar granule cells promotes Purkinje cell differentiation [published erratum appears in J Cell Biol 1998 Dec 28;143(7):following 2090]

Thyroid hormones play an important role in brain development, but the mechanism(s) by which triiodothyronine (T3) mediates neuronal differentiation is poorly understood. Here we demonstrate that T3 regulates the neurotrophic factor, neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), in developing rat cerebellar granule cells both in cell culture and in vivo. In situ hybridization experiments showed that developing Purkinje cells do not express NT-3 mRNA but do express trkC, the putative neuronal receptor for NT-3. Addition of recombinant NT-3 to cerebellar cultures from embryonic rat brain induces hypertrophy and neurite sprouting of Purkinje cells, and upregulates the mRNA encoding the calcium-binding protein, calbindin-28 kD. The present study demonstrates a novel interaction between cerebellar granule neurons and developing Purkinje cells in which NT-3 induced by T3 in the granule cells promotes Purkinje cell differentiation.
Distributed output regulation of leader–follower multi‐agent systems

In this paper, distributed leader–follower control algorithms are presented for linear multi‐agent systems based on output regulation theory and internal model principle. By treating a leader to be followed as an exosystem, the proposed framework can be used to generalize existing multi‐agent coordination solutions to allow the identical agents to track an active leader with different dynamics and unmeasurable variables. Moreover, the obtained results for multi‐agent coordination control are an extension of previous work on centralized and decentralized output regulation to a distributed control context. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the distributed output regulation problem are given. Finally, distributed output regulation of some classes of multi‐agent systems with switching interconnection topologies are discussed via both static and dynamic feedback. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Prostratin and Bortezomib are Novel Inducers of Latent Kaposi'S Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus

Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) establishes latent infections in lymphocytes and endothelial cells, and latent infection is closely linked to tumorigenesis. As few viral markers are expressed during latency, compounds that can safely and efficiently increase lytic gene expression in vivo have been sought. We have found that the non-tumour-promoting phorbol ester prostratin and the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib induce immediate-early, early and late KSHV gene expression from two lymphoma cell lines in vitro. Their ability to induce lytic gene expression supports a role for phorbol-ester and proteasome-regulated signalling pathways in KSHV reactivation and prompts further investigation of prostratin and bortezomib as therapeutic agents for KSHV-associated malignancies.
On the completion time distribution for tasks that must restart from the beginning if a failure occurs

For many systems, failure is so common that the design choice of how to deal with it may have a significant impact on the performance of the system. There are many specific and distinct failure recovery schemes, but they can be grouped into three broad classes: RESUME, also referred to as preemptive resume (prs), or check-pointing; REPLACE, also referred to as preemptive repeat different (prd); and RESTART, also referred to as preemptive repeat identical (pri). The following describes the three recovery schemes: (1) RESUME: when a task is fails, it knows exactly where it stops, and can continue from that point when allowed to resume; (2)REPLACE: given a task fails, then when it begins processing again, it starts with a brand new task sampled from the same task time distribution; and, (3) RESTART: When a task fails, it loses all that it had acquired to up to that point and must start anew when upon continuing later. This is distinctly different from (2) since the task must run at least as long as it did before it failed, whereas a new sample, selected at random, might run for a shorter or longer time.
Human feelings : explorations in affect development and meaning

Ablon, Introduction. Part I: Theoretical Considerations. Brown, Affective Development, Psychopathology, and Adaptation. Palmer, Affect and Character. Brody, On Understanding Gender Differences in the Expression of Emotion. Part II: Affect and the Life Cycle. Ablon, The Therapeutic Action of Play and Affect in Child Analysis. Harrison, Affective Interactions in Families with Young Children. Smith, Problems with Affect Tolerance in the Analysis of an Adolescent Girl. Margulies, Empathy, Virtuality, and the Birth of Complex Emotional States: Do We Find or Do We Create Feelings in the Other? Morgan, Affect in the Elderly: Do Older People Feel Differently? Part III: Trauma, Addiction, and Psychosomatics. van der Kolk, Biological Considerations about Emotions, Trauma, Memory, and the Brain. Haley, I Feel a Little Sad: The Applications of Object Relations Theory to the Hypnotherapy of Posttraumatic Stress Disorders in Vietnam Veterans. Khantzian, Affects and Addictive Suffering: A Clinical Perspective. Brown, Stress and Emotion: Implications for Illness Development and Wellness. Part IV: Transformations of Affect. Jacobs, Theory and Its Relation to Early Affective Experience. Sashin, Duke Ellington: The Creative Process and the Ability to Experience and Tolerate Affect. Mack, The Passions of Nationalism and Beyond: Identity and Power in International Relations. Part V: New Directions. Mack, Nonordinary States of Consciousness and the Accessing of Feelings. Brown, The Path of Meditation: Affective Development and Psychological Well-Being.
Signatures of polarimetric parameters and their implications on land cover classification

Knowledge-based or rule-based classification schemes provide robust classification of normally a few major classes. In order to determine optimum polarimetric parameters for such classification schemes, a study has been performed, where the separability between different sets of major classes using many different polarimetric parameters has been investigated using airborne,C- and L-band polarimetric SAR data.
5-fluorouracil loaded chitosan microspheres for chemoembolization.

In this study, chitosan microspheres were prepared by a suspension cross-linking technique. A petroleum ether/mineral oil mixture was used as the suspension medium which includes an emulsifier, e.g. Tween-80. Glutaraldehyde was used as the cross-linker. 5-Fluorouracil was incorporated in the matrix for the possible use of the microspheres in chemoembolization. The size and size distribution of the chitosan microspheres varied in the size range of 100-200 microns, by changing the emulsifier concentration, stirring rate, chitosan/solvent ratio and drug/chitosan solution ratio. In summary, the size and size distribution of the microspheres decreased when the emulsifier concentration and stirring rate were increased. Smaller microspheres with narrower size distributions were obtained when the chitosan/solvent ratio and drug/chitosan ratio were lower. It was possible to load the chitosan microspheres with 5-FU to a concentration of 10.4 mg 5-FU/g chitosan. Around 60% of the loaded drug was released within the first 24 h, then the release rate became much slower.
Graph isomorphism is in SPP

We show that graph isomorphism is in the complexity class SPP and hence it is in /spl oplus/P (in fact, it is in Mod/sub k/P for each k/spl ges/2). We derive this result as a corollary of a more general result: we show that a generic problem FIND-GROUP has an FP SPP algorithm. This general result has other consequences: for example, it follows that the hidden subgroup problem for permutation groups, studied in the context of quantum algorithms, has an FP/sup SPP/ algorithm. Also, some other algorithmic problems over permutation groups known to be at least as hard as graph isomorphism (e.g. coset intersection) are in SPP, and thus in Mod/sub k/P for each k>2.
Injuries, changes in fitness, and medical demands in deployed National Guard soldiers.

PURPOSE To characterize noncombat injury/illness, determine changes in physical fitness, and evaluate the influence of these changes on medical resource utilization by National Guard (NG) Soldiers. METHODS Fifty-four Soldiers from the Arizona NG completed pre- and postdeployment fitness testing. Additionally, individual deployment medical records were inventoried. RESULTS The majority of noncombat-related medical visits (41%) were musculoskeletal in nature, followed by miscellaneous (33%) and respiratory (13%). Soldiers experienced significant decreases in percent fat mass (-11.1%, p < 0.001) and VO2 peak (-10.8%, p < 0.001). There were significant increases in push-ups (16.4%, p < 0.001), sit-ups (11.0%, p = 0.001), bench-press (10.2%, p < 0.001), and back squat (14.2%, p < 0.001) measures. VO2 peak was inversely correlated to medical resource utilization (r = -0.45 to -0.28, p < or = 0.05). The tertile of Soldiers experiencing the sharpest declines in VO2 peak had significantly more medical visits over the course of the deployment than the other two tertiles (8.0 vs. 2.6 vs. 3.1 medical visits/Soldier, p < or = 0.05). CONCLUSION The predominate noncombat medical issue was musculoskeletal injury. NG Soldiers improved their body composition, strength, and endurance but experienced significant declines in aerobic fitness while deployed. These data document the association between declining aerobic fitness and increased utilization of medical resources.
The Embodiment of Cockroach Aggregation Behavior in a Group of Micro-robots

We report the faithful reproduction of the self-organized aggregation behavior of the German cockroach Blattella germanica with a group of robots. We describe the implementation of the biological model provided by Jeanson et al. in Alice robots, and we compare the behaviors of the cockroaches and the robots using the same experimental and analytical methodology. We show that the aggregation behavior of the German cockroach was successfully transferred to the Alice robot despite strong differences between robots and animals at the perceptual, actuatorial, and computational levels. This article highlights some of the major constraints one may encounter during such a work and proposes general principles to ensure that the behavioral model is accurately transferred to the artificial agents.
The Antigen Presenting Cells Instruct Plasma Cell Differentiation

The professional antigen presenting cells (APCs), including many subsets of dendritic cells and macrophages, not only mediate prompt but non-specific response against microbes, but also bridge the antigen-specific adaptive immune response through antigen presentation. In the latter, typically activated B cells acquire cognate signals from T helper cells in the germinal center of lymphoid follicles to differentiate into plasma cells (PCs), which generate protective antibodies. Recent advances have revealed that many APC subsets provide not only “signal 1” (the antigen), but also “signal 2” to directly instruct the differentiation process of PCs in a T-cell-independent manner. Herein, the different signals provided by these APC subsets to direct B cell proliferation, survival, class switching, and terminal differentiation are discussed. We furthermore propose that the next generation of vaccines for boosting antibody response could be designed by targeting APCs.