Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Baseline articular contact stress levels predict incident symptomatic knee osteoarthritis development in the MOST cohort

We studied whether contact stress estimates from knee magnetic resonance images (MRI) predict the development of incident symptomatic tibiofemoral osteoarthritis (OA) 15 months later in an at‐risk cohort. This nested case‐control study was conducted within a cohort of 3,026 adults, age 50 to79 years. Thirty cases with incident symptomatic tibiofemoral OA by their 15 month follow‐up visit were randomly selected and matched with 30 control subjects. Symptomatic tibiofemoral OA was defined as daily knee pain/stiffness and Kellgren‐Lawrence Grade ≥2 on weight bearing, fixed‐flexion radiographs. Tibiofemoral geometry was segmented on baseline knee MRI, and contact stresses were estimated using discrete element analysis. Linear mixed models for repeated measures were used to examine the association between articular contact stress and case/control status. No significant intergroup differences were found for age, sex, BMI, weight, height, or limb alignment. However, the maximum articular contact stress was 0.54 ± 0.77 MPa (mean ± SD) higher in incident OA cases compared to that in control knees (p = 0.0007). The interaction between case‐control status and contact stress was significant above 3.20 MPa (p < 0.0001). The presence of differences in estimated contact stress 15 months prior to incidence suggests a biomechanical mechanism for symptomatic tibiofemoral OA and supports the ability to identify risk by subject‐specific biomechanical modeling. © 2009 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 27:1562–1568, 2009
Lung clearance index response in patients with CF with class III CFTR mutations

Ivacaftor (KALYDECO) is a cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) potentiator that increases transmembrane chloride flux in vitro and leads to significant benefits in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) with class III gating mutations.1–5 Ivacaftor is associated with sustained improvement in FEV1 and weight as well as reduced time to next pulmonary exacerbation.5–7 It has also been shown that 4 weeks of ivacaftor improves the lung clearance index (LCI) in patients with CF with preserved lung function.8 It is presently unclear whether LCI, a measure of ventilation inhomogeneity, provides additional information among patients with more impaired lung function as well as whether the sustained effectiveness of ivacaftor as demonstrated by improvements in the previously mentioned outcomes is also evident in the LCI response. The aim of this observational study was to assess the LCI before and after initiation of ivacaftor treatment over 6 months in patients with CF with a wider range of …
Is retinal arteriolar–venular ratio associated with cardiac and extracardiac organ damage in essential hypertension?

Aim Whether retinal microvascular disease is associated with markers of cardiac and extracardiac organ damage in human hypertension is still unclear. We examined the relationship between retinal arteriolar–venular ratio (AVR) and left ventricular hypertrophy, carotid atherosclerosis and microalbuminuria in essential hypertension. Methods A total of 386 untreated and treated uncomplicated essential hypertensive individuals (mean age 56 ± 13 years) consecutively attending our hospital outpatient hypertension clinic were considered for the analysis. All individuals underwent extensive clinical and laboratory investigations, including retinal AVR evaluation by a fully automated computer-assisted method, echocardiography and carotid ultrasonography. Results Mean retinal AVR was 0.790 ± 0.079 (range 0.530–0.990). In univariate analyses, AVR showed a significant inverse association with left ventricular mass index (r = −0.15, P = 0.002) and carotid intima–media thickness (IMT) (r = –0.12, P = 0.02); no relationship with microalbuminuria was found. Overall, left ventricular mass index and carotid IMT as well as microalbuminuria, either as continuous or categorical variables, did not show significant differences across AVR quartiles. Moreover, a multivariate analysis failed to demonstrate independent correlations of carotid IMT and left ventricular mass index (P = 0.06 for both) with AVR. Finally, when patients were categorized according to the presence or absence of organ damage, with or without left ventricular hypertrophy (0.783 ± 0.077 vs. 0.795 ± 0.081), carotid plaques (0.789 ± 0.079 vs. 0.791 ± 0.079), carotid IMT (0.791 ± 0.077 vs. 0.788 ± 0.082) or microalbuminuria (0.791 ± 0.080 vs. 0.777 ± 0.073), no significant intergroup differences in AVR values were found. Conclusion Our findings provide further evidence that retinal AVR is of limited value in identifying hypertensive patients at high cardiovascular risk related to cardiac and extracardiac organ damage.
Estimating the Impact of Immigration on Wages in Ireland

We estimate the impact of immigration on the wages of natives in Ireland applying the technique proposed by Borjas (2003). Under this method, the labour market is divided into a number of skill cells, where the cells are defined by groups with similar levels of experience and education (or experience and occupation). Regression analysis is then employed to assess whether the average wages of natives across skill cells is affected by the share of immigrants across cells. When the cells are based on education/experience, our results suggest a negative relationship between native wages and immigrant shares. However, the opposite appears to hold when the cells are based on occupation/experience. These contradictory findings suggest that care should be exercised when applying this method as inaccurate impressions of the impact of immigration on wages may arise.
Efficient all-to-all personalized exchange in multidimensional torus networks

This paper presents new algorithms for all-to-all personalized exchange in multidimensional torus-connected multiprocessors. Unlike existing message-combining algorithms in which the number of nodes in each dimension should be power-of-two and square, the proposed algorithms accommodate non-power-of-two tori where the number of nodes in each dimension need not be power-of-two. In addition, destinations remain fixed over a larger number of steps in the proposed algorithms, thus making them amenable to optimizations. Finally, the data structures used are simple, hence making substantial saving of message-rearrangement time.
Identification of γ‐aminobutyric acid‐immunoreactive axon endings associated with mesencephalic periodontal afferent terminals and morphometry of the two types of terminals in the cat supratrigeminal nucleus

A previous study has shown that mesencephalic periodontal afferent terminals receive contacts more frequently from axonal endings containing pleomorphic, synaptic vesicles (P‐endings) in the supratrigeminal nucleus (Vsup) than in the trigeminal motor nucleus, suggesting that interneurons in Vsup play an important role in modulating the jaw‐closing reflex. The present study was attempted to identify neurotransmitters in P‐endings associated with mesencephalic periodontal afferents in cat Vsup through the use of intracellular staining of horseradish peroxidase combined with the postembedding immunogold methods. A morphometric analysis was carried out to compare the ultrastructural features of these two types of terminals. Serial sections of 31 labeled boutons and of their associated 38 P‐endings were examined. They were processed for postembedding immunogold labeling with antibodies to the neurotransmitter γ–aminobutyric acid (GABA). The 38 P‐endings presynaptic to periodontal afferents showed GABA‐like immunoreactivity, but the afferent terminals were free from the labeling. The morphometric analysis indicated that bouton volume, apposed surface area, total active zone size, and mitochondrial volume were smaller in GABA‐immunoreactive P‐endings than in periodontal afferents, but the pooled data of the two types of terminals showed that each synaptic parameter was highly correlated in a positive, linear manner with bouton volume. These observations provide evidence that P‐endings presynaptic to mesencephalic periodontal afferents contain the neurotransmitter GABA and that their axoaxonic synapses are organized in accordance with the ultrastructural “size principle” proposed by Pierce and Mendell (Pierce and Mendell [1993] J. Neurosci. 13:4748–4763) on Ia‐motoneuron synapses. J. Comp. Neurol. 389:127–138, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Identification of fevR, a Novel Regulator of Virulence Gene Expression in Francisella novicida

ABSTRACT Francisella tularensis infects wild animals and humans to cause tularemia. This pathogen targets the cytosol of macrophages, where it replicates using the genes in the Francisella pathogenicity island (FPI). Virulence gene regulation in Francisella is complex, but transcriptional regulators MglA and SspA have been shown to regulate the expression of approximately 100 genes, including the entire FPI. We utilized a Francisella novicida transposon mutant library to identify additional regulatory factors and identified five additional genes that are essential for virulence gene expression. One regulatory gene, FTN_0480 (fevR, Francisella effector of virulence regulation), present in all Francisella species, is required for expression of the FPI genes and other genes in the MglA/SspA regulon. The expression of fevR is positively regulated by MglA. However, constitutive expression of fevR in an mglA mutant strain did not restore expression of the MglA/SspA regulon, demonstrating that mglA and fevR act in parallel to positively regulate virulence gene expression. Virulence studies revealed that fevR is essential for bacterial replication in macrophages and in mice, where we additionally show that fevR is required for the expression of genes in the MglA/SspA regulon in vivo. Thus, fevR is a crucial virulence gene in Francisella, required for the expression of virulence factors known to be essential for this pathogen's subversion of host defenses and pathogenesis in vivo.
Strategies for Enhanced Drug Delivery to the Central Nervous System

Treating central nervous system diseases is very challenging because of the presence of a variety of formidable obstacles that impede drug delivery. Physiological barriers like the blood-brain barrier and blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier as well as various efflux transporter proteins make the entry of drugs into the central nervous system very difficult. The present review provides a brief account of the blood brain barrier, the P-glycoprotein efflux and various strategies for enhancing drug delivery to the central nervous system.
Hair Analysis for Determination of Isoniazid Concentrations and Acetylator Phenotype during Antituberculous Treatment

Background. Analysis of isoniazid (INH) uptake has been based on measurement of plasma concentrations providing a short-term and potentially biased view. Objectives. To establish hair analysis as a tool to measure long-term uptake of INH and to assess whether acetylator phenotype in hair reflects N-acetyltransferase-2 (NAT2) genotype. Design and Methods. INH and acetyl-INH concentrations in hair were determined in patients on INH treatment for M. tuberculosis infection using high pressure liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. Acetyl-INH/INH ratios were correlated with NAT-2 genotype. Results. Hair concentrations of INH, determined in 40 patients, were not dependent on ethnic group or body mass index and were significantly higher in male compared to female patients (median (range) 2.37 ng/mg (0.76–4.9) versus 1.11 ng/mg (0.02–7.20) (P = 0.02). Acetyl-INH/INH ratios were a median of 15.2% (14.5 to 31.7) in homozygous rapid acetylator NAT-2 genotype and 37.3% (1.73 to 51.2) in the heterozygous rapid acetylator NAT-2 genotype and both significantly higher than in the slow acetylator NAT-2 genotype with 5.8% (0.53 to 14.4) (P < 0.05). Conclusions. Results of hair analysis for INH showed lower concentrations in females. Acetyl-INH/INH ratios were significantly lower in patients with slow acetylator versus rapid acetylator genotypes.
Improvements in Stochastic Language Modeling

We describe two attempt to improve our stochastic language models. In the first, we identify a systematic overestimation in the traditional backoff model, and use statistical reasoning to correct it. Our modification results in up to 6% reduction in the perplexity of various tasks. Although the improvement is modest, it is achieved with hardly any increase in the complexity of the model. Both analysis and empirical data suggest that the modification is most suitable when training data is sparse.In the second attempt, we propose a new type of adaptive language model. Existing adaptive models use a dynamic cache, based on the history of the document seen up to that point. But another source of information in the history, within-document word sequence correlations, has not yet been tapped. We describe a model that attempts to capture this information, using a framework where one word sequence triggers another, causing its estimated probability to be raised. We discuss various issues in the design of such a model, and describe our first attempt at building one. Our preliminary results include a perplexity reduction of between 10% and 32%, depending on the test set.
On Oligopolistic Markets for Nonrenewable Natural Resources

Noncooperative oligopoly behavior in nonrenewable resource markets is analyzed under stationary conditions assuming perfect information. The existence of Cournot-Nash equilibria in output paths is established under standard cost and demand assumptions, and a number of comparative dynamic results are obtained. If all suppliers have the same costs, for instance, and total reserves are fixed, either increasing the number of suppliers or equalizing their reserve holdings causes more rapid resource use. If suppliers' costs differ, it is shown that equilibrium involves inefficient production; high-cost reserves may even be exhausted before low-cost reserves.
The effect of perceived service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty in e‐commerce settings

Purpose – The paper aims to empirically investigate the relationship between perceived service quality, satisfaction, trust, and loyalty in e‐commerce settings in two cultures – Malaysian and Qatari – at the level of construct dimensions.Design/methodology/approach – A survey method approach was used in this study. To test the dimensionality of the perceived service quality, all 20 items were analyzed using oblique rotation and varimax rotation. The hypotheses were tested using the structural equations modeling and general linear model of univariate analysis of variance.Findings – Perceived service quality was found to have a significant impact on customer satisfaction. In turn customer satisfaction was found to have a significant effect on trust. Both customer satisfaction and trust have significant effects on loyalty through word of mouth (WOM) while WOM is an antecedent of repeat visits or repurchase intentions. Interestingly, trust does not directly influence the latter. With the exception of the effe.
Migrant Youths’ Educational Achievement

The authors use 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data to link institutional arrangements in OECD countries’ to disparities in reading, math, and science test scores for migrant and native-born students. The authors find that achievement gaps are larger for migrant youths who arrive at older ages and for those who do not speak the language of the PISA test at home. Institutional arrangements often serve to mitigate the achievement gaps of some migrant students while leaving unaffected or exacerbating those of others. For example, earlier school starting ages help migrant youths in some cases but by no means in all. Limited tracking of students by ability appears to be beneficial for migrants’ relative achievement, while complete tracking and the presence of a large private school sector appear to be detrimental. Migrant students’ achievement, relative to their native-born peers, suffers as educational spending and teachers’ salaries increase, but it improves when teacher evaluation includes an examination component.
Revisiting Organisational Learning in Integrated Care

Progress in health care integration is largely linked to changes in processes and ways of doing. These changes have knowledge management and learning implications. For this reason, the use of the concept of organisational learning is explored in the field of integrated care. There are very limited contributions that have connected the fields of organisational learning and care integration in a systematic way, both at the theoretical and empirical level. For this reason, hybridization of both perspectives still provides opportunities for understanding care integration initiatives from a research perspective as well as potential applications in health care management and planning.
The neural decoding toolbox

Population decoding is a powerful way to analyze neural data, however, currently only a small percentage of systems neuroscience researchers use this method. In order to increase the use of population decoding, we have created the Neural Decoding Toolbox (NDT) which is a Matlab package that makes it easy to apply population decoding analyses to neural activity. The design of the toolbox revolves around four abstract object classes which enables users to interchange particular modules in order to try different analyses while keeping the rest of the processing stream intact. The toolbox is capable of analyzing data from many different types of recording modalities, and we give examples of how it can be used to decode basic visual information from neural spiking activity and how it can be used to examine how invariant the activity of a neural population is to stimulus transformations. Overall this toolbox will make it much easier for neuroscientists to apply population decoding analyses to their data, which should help increase the pace of discovery in neuroscience.
Numerical model of a semiconductor disk laser

In this paper we describe the numerical model of a semiconductor disk laser, developed and implemented in the Photonics Group, Institute of Physics, Lodz University of Technology, Poland. It consists of four strongly interrelated components for: carrier transport, heat flow, material gain and optical phenomena calculations. Combination of these components gives the steady-state self-consistent model which enables a simulation of various aspects of a semiconductor disk laser operation. A numerical analysis of carrier and power losses within the active region of 1.3-μm GaInNAs/GaAs semiconductor disk laser has been carried out using this model.
Economic evaluations of prophylaxis with clotting factor for people with severe haemophilia: why do the results vary so much?

A number of studies examining the cost effectiveness of haemophilia prophylaxis have been published, but they report a wide range of results. The aim of this study was to explain why the results from existing economic evaluations of prophylaxis with clotting factor vary so much and to suggest areas of further research that will help to generate stronger economic evidence. Results from a previous systematic review were updated using a textword search of a number of electronic databases. Eleven economic evaluations were identified. They reported incremental cost‐effectiveness ratios for prophylaxis ranging from ‘cost saving and clinically beneficial’ (i.e. ‘dominant’) to over €1 million per additional quality‐adjusted life year (QALY) if prophylaxis replaces treatment following a bleed. A number of reasons are likely to explain this breadth of results, most notably differences in choice of time horizon, estimates of treatment effect, clotting factor unit cost, discount rates and definitions of prophylaxis. Although the existing cost‐effectiveness literature for haemophilia prophylaxis appears to report a wide range of results, closer inspection suggests that differences are largely explained by a number of design features. Some are likely to reflect local economic conditions and should be expected. However, others, such as differences in the choice of appropriate time horizon, are more concerning as they reflect differences in opinion over appropriate methodology. A number of studies to help address these evidence gaps are suggested: however, it is also recommended that analysts continue to adhere to established conventions when conducting and reporting economic evaluations.
The hall effect in magnetic reconnection: Hybrid versus Hall‐less hybrid simulations

To understand the role of the Hall effect during fast magnetic reconnection, hybrid simulations with and without the Hall term in the generalized Ohm's Law are compared, as done originally by Karimabadi et al. (2004). It is found that reconnection with the Hall term is fast, but reconnection in the so‐called Hall‐less hybrid simulations is Sweet‐Parker like (slow) when the resistivity is constant and uniform. These results re‐affirm the importance of the Hall term in allowing fast reconnection in the hybrid model.
Low-jitter process-independent DLL and PLL based on self-biased techniques

Delay-locked loop (DLL) and phase-locked loop (PLL) designs based upon self-biased techniques are presented. The DLL and PLL designs achieve process technology independence, fixed damping factor, fixed bandwidth to operating frequency ratio, broad frequency range, input phase offset cancellation, and, most importantly, low input tracking jitter. Both the damping factor and the bandwidth to operating frequency ratio are determined completely by a ratio of capacitances. Self-biasing avoids the necessity for external biasing, which can require special bandgap bias circuits, by generating all of the internal bias voltages and currents from each other so that the bias levels are completely determined by the operating conditions. Fabricated in a 0.5m N -well CMOS gate array process, the PLL achieves an operating frequency range of 0.0025 MHz to 550 MHz and input tracking jitter of 384 ps at 250 MHz with 500 mV of low frequency square wave supply noise.
Early motor, psychosocial and behavioural characteristics of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Clumsiness in preschool children is generally assumed to be a precursor of impaired academic performance and psychological and developmental problems. It is assumed that in this age group the qualitative aspects (= pattern) of a movement reflect variation in motor development. Currently available motor tests for this age group, however, only objectify quantitative aspects of a movement. The aim of this study was to develop a new, valid, and reliable tool (Maastricht’s Motor Test) to objectify qualitative and quantitative aspects of movement in 5 to-6 year-old children. The test covers Static Balance (14 items), Dynamic Balance (20 items), Ball Skills (8 items), and Diadochokinesis and Manual Dexterity (28 items). About 50% of the items measure qualitative aspects and 50% quantitative aspects of movements. In total 487 subjects were recruited from the first year of primary school. To validate the test, the school doctor’s global judgement was used as a form of expert validity. Sensitivity and specificity were calculated for different cut-off points. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of inter-rater (N=42), intra-rater (N=24), and test-retest (N=43) agreement were determined. ICCs of the qualitative total score ranged from 0.61 to 0.95 and were comparable with those of the total quantitative score. Thus the Maastricht’s Motor Test can be used to objectify both qualitative and quantitative aspects of movements. The additional value of the qualitative observations has to be determined in children with various developmental problems.