Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Analysis of the Heat Transfer Problem with Phase Transformation during Rapid Quenching

calcul de la position de l'interface solide-liquide et de son changement de temperature pendant la solidification rapide d'un liquide sur fondu. Calcul pour trois modeles de solidification differents prenant en consideration le couplage transfert de chaleur et cinetique de croissance du cristal. On donne la condition de formation de l'etat vitreux des alliages Fe-C et Pd-Si en termes de surfusion critique, de germination d'un cristal solide pour une temperature au-dessous de laquelle se forme l'etat vitreux
Menstrual cycle phase modulates reward-related neural function in women

There is considerable evidence from animal studies that the mesolimbic and mesocortical dopamine systems are sensitive to circulating gonadal steroid hormones. Less is known about the influence of estrogen and progesterone on the human reward system. To investigate this directly, we used functional MRI and an event-related monetary reward paradigm to study women with a repeated-measures, counterbalanced design across the menstrual cycle. Here we show that during the midfollicular phase (days 4–8 after onset of menses) women anticipating uncertain rewards activated the orbitofrontal cortex and amygdala more than during the luteal phase (6–10 days after luteinizing hormone surge). At the time of reward delivery, women in the follicular phase activated the midbrain, striatum, and left fronto-polar cortex more than during the luteal phase. These data demonstrate augmented reactivity of the reward system in women during the midfollicular phase when estrogen is unopposed by progesterone. Moreover, investigation of between-sex differences revealed that men activated ventral putamen more than women during anticipation of uncertain rewards, whereas women more strongly activated the anterior medial prefrontal cortex at the time of reward delivery. Correlation between brain activity and gonadal steroid levels also revealed that the amygdalo-hippocampal complex was positively correlated with estradiol level, regardless of menstrual cycle phase. Together, our findings provide evidence of neurofunctional modulation of the reward system by gonadal steroid hormones in humans and establish a neurobiological foundation for understanding their impact on vulnerability to drug abuse, neuropsychiatric diseases with differential expression across males and females, and hormonally mediated mood disorders.
Send Orders of Reprints at Reprints@benthamscience.org Sleep Apnea and Atrial Fibrillation; 2012 Update

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) are very prevalent diseases in modern society. Recent years have seen the emergence of a wide body of literature suggesting an important association between these two diseases. This review will provide a summary of this evidence as it currently exists. First, it will review the literature suggesting an association between AF and OSA by highlighting the prevalence of AF in OSA, the correlation of AF prevalence with OSA severity and the trend towards increased AF recurrence in patients with OSA after treatment for AF. Second , it will identify the possible pathophysiologic mechanisms for this association. In doing so, it will discuss the investigated effects of intrathoracic pressure changes, autonomic instability and atrial remodeling. Finally, it will review the evidence of the effect of treatment of OSA on AF, highlighting the role of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) in the treatment of OSA and its impact on AF prevalence and recurrence.
Discrete Choice Experiment Response Rates: A Meta‐analysis

This paper uses meta-regression analysis to test how aspects of discrete choice experiment (DCE) study design influence survey response rates. DCEs are a survey-based method used to elicit preferences for health and health care and are prone to survey errors of coverage, sampling, non-response and measurement. However, research on DCE response rates is lacking. Our analysis is motivated by a social exchange theory of survey response. We find that DCE response rates are related to the survey's cognitive burden and the relevance to the surveyed population. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Evidence in Support of RNA-Mediated Inhibition of Phosphatidylserine-Dependent HIV-1 Gag Membrane Binding in Cells

ABSTRACT The matrix domain promotes plasma-membrane-specific binding of HIV-1 Gag through interaction with an acidic lipid phosphatidylinositol-(4,5)-bisphosphate. In in vitro systems, matrix-bound RNA suppresses Gag interactions with phosphatidylserine, an acidic lipid prevalent in various cytoplasmic membranes, thereby enhancing the lipid specificity of the matrix domain. Here we provide in vitro and cell-based evidence supporting the idea that this RNA-mediated suppression occurs in cells and hence is a physiologically relevant mechanism that prevents Gag from binding promiscuously to phosphatidylserine-containing membranes.
Arsenic trioxide reduces 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid-induced murine colitis via nuclear factor-κB down-regulation and caspase-3 activation

Arsenic trioxide, As 2O3, already used in human anti-cancer therapy, is also an efficient agent against the autoimmune and inflammatory diseases developed in MRL/lpr mice. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), notably Crohn’s disease, which remain without efficient treatment, display autoimmune and inflammatory components. We, therefore, hypothesized that As2O 3 may be active on IBDs. Using the 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid-induced murine model of colitis, we demonstrate that As2O3 used either in a preventive or a curative mode markedly reduced the induced colitis as assessed by macroscopic and microscopic scores, leading to prolonged mice survival. In addition, As2O3 was able to inhibit NF-κB expression and DNA-binding in colon extracts leading to decreased cytokine gene expression (i.e. tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin(IL)-1β, IL-12, IL-17, IL-18, and IL-23). Interestingly, As2O3 also reduced keratinocyte-derived chemokine (KC), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA levels, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) protein expression suggesting an impairment of neutrophils. This was associated with a marked increase of procaspase-3 and induced caspase-3 activation. This caspase-3 co-localized with MPO in the remaining neutrophils suggesting that As2O 3 might have eliminated inflamed cells probably by inducing their apoptosis. These results assessed the potent anti-inflammatory effect of As2O 3, that targets both NF-κB and caspase-3 pathways, and suggests a therapeutic potential for Crohn’s disease and other severe IBDs.
Brooding, provisioning, and compensatory care in the cooperatively breeding acorn woodpecker

We analyzed reproductive investment in parental care (brooding and the provisioning of nestlings) in the acorn woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus), a cooperatively breeding species in which both polygynandry and helping-at-the-nest are common. As predicted based on the strategies pursued by birds of different sex and status, breeders generally invested more in parental care than helpers, and breeder females invested more than breeder males. Contrary to expectations, however, the degree to which individuals reduced their effort with increasing group size (i.e., patterns of load lightening or compensatory care) did not match overall investment. Instead, as group size increased, there was no significant difference in compensation in either brooding or provisioning among the different categories of birds. Compensation, at least by breeders, was significantly lower during the first week of the nestling period than later on, supporting the hypothesis that compensatory reduction in care is less likely when brood reduction is more common and was not affected by the acorn crop, which had no significant effect on the incidence of brood reduction despite being important to overall reproductive success. Our results offer support for the hypothesis that levels of compensation are influenced by the relative importance of brood reduction. More theoretical work, however, will be needed in order to understand the basis for patterns of compensation among individuals of different sex and status.
Do irrigation and predator control reduce the productivity of migratory ungulate herds?

herd. Ecology 94:1246–1256. Sawyer, H. , and M. J. Kauffman. 2011. Stopover ecology of a migratory ungulate. Journal of Animal Ecology 80:1078–1087. Sharma, S. , S. Couturier, and S. D. Cote. 2009. Impacts of climate change on the seasonal distribution of migratory caribou. Global Change Biology 15:2549–2562. Stien, A. , L. E. Loe, A. Mysterud, T. Severinsen, J. Kohler, and R. Langvatn. 2010. Icing events trigger range displacement in a high-arctic ungulate. Ecology 91:915–920. Swingland, I. R. , and P. J. Greenwood. 1983. The ecology of animal movements. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. Tuljapurkar, S. , and P. Wiener. 2000. Escape in time: stay young or age gracefully? Ecological Modelling 133:143– 159. Wiener, P., and S. Tuljapurkar. 1994. Migration in variable environments: exploring life-history evolution using structured population models. Journal of Theoretical Biology 166:75–90.
Analysis of case-control association studies with known risk variants

MOTIVATION The question of how to best use information from known associated variants when conducting disease association studies has yet to be answered. Some studies compute a marginal P-value for each Several Nucleotide Polymorphisms independently, ignoring previously discovered variants. Other studies include known variants as covariates in logistic regression, but a weakness of this standard conditioning strategy is that it does not account for disease prevalence and non-random ascertainment, which can induce a correlation structure between candidate variants and known associated variants even if the variants lie on different chromosomes. Here, we propose a new conditioning approach, which is based in part on the classical technique of liability threshold modeling. Roughly, this method estimates model parameters for each known variant while accounting for the published disease prevalence from the epidemiological literature. RESULTS We show via simulation and application to empirical datasets that our approach outperforms both the no conditioning strategy and the standard conditioning strategy, with a properly controlled false-positive rate. Furthermore, in multiple data sets involving diseases of low prevalence, standard conditioning produces a severe drop in test statistics whereas our approach generally performs as well or better than no conditioning. Our approach may substantially improve disease gene discovery for diseases with many known risk variants. AVAILABILITY LTSOFT software is available online http://www.hsph. harvard.edu/faculty/alkes-price/software/.
Correlates of disability in multiple sclerosis detected by transcranial magnetic stimulation

Objective To study the usefulness of corticospinally mediated excitatory responses and transcallosal inhibition (TI) elicited by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a surrogate marker of disability in patients with different courses of MS. Methods Focal TMS of the motor cortex was performed in 118 patients with MS (96 with relapsing-remitting, 19 with primary progressive, and three with secondary progressive disease) who had an Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score between 0 and 6.5 and in 35 normal subjects. Central motor latencies (CML) and TI (onset latency, duration) were investigated. The Spearman rank correlation was used for statistical analysis. Results TMS disclosed prolonged CML in 52.5% and abnormal TI in 61% of the patients. In all patients the EDSS correlated with the frequency of abnormal TI (r = 0.58, p < 0.01) and abnormal CML (r = 0.51, p < 0.01). In patients with primary progressive MS (EDSS 1.5 to 6.5) the frequency of TI abnormalities correlated with EDSS (r = 0.65, p < 0.01) whereas CML did not. Delayed corticospinal responses in hand muscles always led to abnormal TI. Conclusions The combination of central motor latencies and transcallosal inhibition evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation yields objective data to estimate disease progression in MS as assessed by the EDSS.
Early Changes in Blood Brain Barrier Permeability To Small Molecules After Transient Cerebral Ischemia

Brain unidirectional extraction and flux of leucine were measured simultaneously with cerebral blood flow (CBF) at various times after transient global cerebral ischemia in the rat. The results permit an evaluation of blood-brain barrier permeability in the postischemic period independent of alter- ations in CBF at the time of measurement. Leucine extraction was higher (p < 0.001) than that of CBF- matched controls at 15 min and 6 hr after 30 min of global cerebral ischemia, but was not different from control at 30 min and 1 h after ischemia. Leucine flux into brain was increased only at 15 min after reperfusion of the brain. Cerebral edema occurs 15-30 min after reperfusion in this ischemia model, but the permeability of the blood-brain barrier to large molecules is unaltered during this period (Petito et al: J Neuropath Exp Neurol 41:423-436, 1982). Increased barrier permeability to small molecules such as leucine may contribute to the production of this early postischemic edema. Stroke Vol 15, No I. 1984
Storage of Correlated Patterns in Standard and Bistable Purkinje Cell Models

The cerebellum has long been considered to undergo supervised learning, with climbing fibers acting as a ‘teaching’ or ‘error’ signal. Purkinje cells (PCs), the sole output of the cerebellar cortex, have been considered as analogs of perceptrons storing input/output associations. In support of this hypothesis, a recent study found that the distribution of synaptic weights of a perceptron at maximal capacity is in striking agreement with experimental data in adult rats. However, the calculation was performed using random uncorrelated inputs and outputs. This is a clearly unrealistic assumption since sensory inputs and motor outputs carry a substantial degree of temporal correlations. In this paper, we consider a binary output neuron with a large number of inputs, which is required to store associations between temporally correlated sequences of binary inputs and outputs, modelled as Markov chains. Storage capacity is found to increase with both input and output correlations, and diverges in the limit where both go to unity. We also investigate the capacity of a bistable output unit, since PCs have been shown to be bistable in some experimental conditions. Bistability is shown to enhance storage capacity whenever the output correlation is stronger than the input correlation. Distribution of synaptic weights at maximal capacity is shown to be independent on correlations, and is also unaffected by the presence of bistability.
The association of antibodies against oxidized low-density lipoprotein with atherosclerosis in hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND Immune response to oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) may modulate atherogenesis. We recently reported that a high titer of serum anti-oxLDL antibody was an independent predictor of a low risk for cardiovascular death in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). In the present study, we examined a possible association between anti-oxLDL antibody titer and arterial wall thickness in ESRD patients. METHODS The subjects were 103 ESRD patients treated with hemodialysis. A high resolution B-mode ultrasound method was used to measure intima-media thickness of carotid (CA-IMT) and femoral arteries (FA-IMT). RESULTS In univariate analysis, anti-oxLDL antibody showed a significant negative correlation with FA-IMT. The inverse association between anti-oxLDL antibody and FA-IMT remained significant in multiple regression analysis, including age, gender, blood pressure, plasma lipids, smoking, C-reactive protein, calcium-phosphate product, serum albumin, body mass index, and duration of dialysis as covariates. The antibody titer showed an inverse trend with CA-IMT without statistical significance. CONCLUSION These results show for the first time that titer of anti-oxLDL antibody is an independent factor inversely associated with arterial thickness in ESRD, supporting the concept that immunity against oxLDL plays an anti-atherogenic role.
Software Business Model Determinants Of Performance - Insights From Germany

While a long tradition of research has analyzed many determinants of firm performance, the impact of business models has become an entity of recent and growing interest. Though business models are defined as multifaceted concepts, previous empirical studies often apply narrow concept definitions by focusing on aggregated business model classes or few firm characteristics only. In this paper, we address this research gap by analyzing the impact of a comprehensive business model concept on firm performance. For that we focus on an industry of information goods: the software industry. We collect data from Germany via a large scale industry survey. The results show that various business model characteristics impact perceived, realized, and target firm performance. The interpretation of each significant variable provides insights into positive and negative characteristics of software business models. These findings suggest that a broad set of business model characteristics needs to be considered when evaluating business model performance. This cross-disciplinary analysis from a strategic management and information systems perspective provides insights into characteristics and performance of software business models.
Performance of a Sensor Network Aided Cognitive Radio system

A Sensor Network Aided Cognitive Radio Network uses the concept of a wireless sensor network that assists a cognitive radio network by providing information about the current primary spectrum occupancy. In this paper we study the performance of the cognitive network for various cell sizes and transmit power levels when deployed co-located with a mobile primary system that uses a cellular reuse pattern with seven frequencies. Co-location of secondary and primary base stations has been found to be very important in order to reduce network costs. An expression for the degree of co-location of secondary and primary base stations is derived and used for identifying optimal secondary cell sizes. For these optimal secondary cell sizes, we determine the performance in terms of throughput, packet loss, delay, coverage and connectivity when using spectrum holes in the space, time and frequency domains. Especially, we find that cell size and transmit power levels are crucial for secondary system performance, and that smaller cell sizes and less expensive base stations for the secondary system such as WiFi access points and femto-cells is beneficial.
Crystallization behavior and crystallite morphology control of poly(L-lactic acid) through N, N′-bis(benzoyl)sebacic acid dihydrazide

Adding a nucleating agent is one of the best ways to accelerate the crystallization rate of poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) so as to obtain a high degree of crystallinity during the process, which will improve the heat distortion temperature of final products. In the work reported, N, N-bis(benzoyl)sebacic acid dihydrazide (BSAD) was synthesized and used as a nucleating agent for PLLA. Isothermal and non-isothermal crystallization behaviors were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The addition of BSAD successfully enhances the crystallization rate of PLLA. A unique phase separation behavior of PLLA/BSAD blends is found from DSC as well as from polarized optical microscopy, which explains the difference of optimal BSAD concentration between isothermal and non-isothermal crystallization. This is the first recording of a phase separation peak in PLLA/nucleating agent blends using DSC. In thermogravimetric analysis, the enhanced thermal stability indicates that there are strong hydrogen bonds between BSAD and PLLA matrix. BSAD can dissolve in PLLA melt below its melting point through intermolecular hydrogen bonding with PLLA and self-assemble upon cooling, leading to the surface being capable of nucleating PLLA. Different phase separation temperatures can be used to control the morphology of BSAD, which finally determines the crystallite morphology of PLLA. (c) 2012 Society of Chemical Industry
The minimally important difference for the Japanese version of the health assessment questionnaire in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in daily practice

Abstract Objective: To validate the minimally important difference (MID) of physical function using the Japanese version of the Health Assessment Questionnaire (J-HAQ) in a cohort of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: Patients who participated in a cohort study in both October 2008 and April 2009 were analyzed. Patients self-rated their change in overall status over 6 months using a 5-point Likert scale (“much better”, “somewhat better”, “same”, “somewhat worse”, or “much worse”). The MID for J-HAQ score was defined as the mean J-HAQ score change in patients who rated themselves “somewhat better”. An effect size (ES) of 0.2–0.5 was considered to be suitable for MID. Results: A total of 4560 patients were analyzed. The mean (standard deviation [SD]) MID for J-HAQ score was −0.06 (0.29), corresponding to an ES of 0.08. As exploratory analysis, 1999 patients with a J-HAQ score ≥0.5 and 28-joint disease activity score (DAS28) ≥ 2.6 at baseline were assessed. The mean (SD) MID for J-HAQ score of these patients was 0.13 (0.01), corresponding to an ES of 0.21. Conclusions: The MID for J-HAQ score was 0.13 in patients with baseline J-HAQ score ≥0.5 and DAS28 ≥ 2.6. The MID for J-HAQ score was influenced by disease status and functional disability.
Family Processes as Resources for African American Children Exposed to a Constellation of Sociodemographic Risk Factors

Examined positive functions of family processes among African American children exposed to a constellation of stresses associated with urban residence and low socioeconomic status. Several measures of risk were integrated to form a risk factor index (RFI), which quantified the degree of each child's exposure to stresses. Two family process variables were examined: parental monitoring and a supportive mother-child relationship. The direct and interactive associations between risk factors, family process variables, and children's depressive mood and disruptive behavior were assessed. For both domains of child functioning, higher scores on the RFI were cross-sectionally associated with less optimal functioning. Results consistently revealed significant associations between a more supportive mother-child relationship and more optimal child functioning. Higher levels of parental monitoring were also associated with lower levels of depressive mood and disruptive behavior. Limited support was found for a moderating role of parental monitoring in the association between risk and child functioning, such that low levels of monitoring appeared to increase high-risk children's vulnerability to depressive mood.
Representation of Protein-Sequence Information by Amino Acid Subalphabets

Within computational biology, algorithms are constructed with the aim of extracting knowledge from biological data, in particular, data generated by the large genome projects, where gene and protein sequences are produced in high volume. In this article, we explore new ways of representing protein-sequence information, using machine learning strategies, where the primary goal is the discovery of novel powerful representations for use in AI techniques. In the case of proteins and the 20 different amino acids they typically contain, it is also a secondary goal to discover how the current selection of amino acids--which now are common in proteins--might have emerged from simpler selections, or alphabets, in use earlier during the evolution of living organisms.