Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of Coxarthrosis in an Urban Population During Four Decades

In the current study, in a survey of 4121 double contrast radiographs of the colon performed from 1987 through 1995, the hip joints were examined and classified with regard to the presence or absence of primary coxarthrosis. The data collection was performed in precisely the same manner as in two earlier studies undertaken on 3903 radiographs of the colon covering the years 1956 through 1962 and 4027 radiographs of the colon covering the years 1975 through 1982. In the current study the prevalence of coxarthrosis, the gender ratio, and distribution between bilateral and unilateral cases had not changed compared with the data from the two earlier studies. When pooling the three investigations, the age specific prevalence of primary coxarthrosis based on the 12,051 radiographs fits an exponential curve for which the prevalence of primary coxarthrosis increased from below 1% in the age group younger than 55 years to 10% in the age group older than 85 years. In the current study approximately half of the patients (55%) had undergone total hip arthroplasty. This was more than in the study from 1984 (35%). Among the surgically treated patients, lateral coxarthrosis was more common than was medial coxarthrosis.
GPU-acceleration for Large-scale Tree Boosting

In this paper, we present a novel massively parallel algorithm for accelerating the decision tree building procedure on GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), which is a crucial step in Gradient Boosted Decision Tree (GBDT) and random forests training. Previous GPU based tree building algorithms are based on parallel multi-scan or radix sort to find the exact tree split, and thus suffer from scalability and performance issues. We show that using a histogram based algorithm to approximately find the best split is more efficient and scalable on GPU. By identifying the difference between classical GPU-based image histogram construction and the feature histogram construction in decision tree training, we develop a fast feature histogram building kernel on GPU with carefully designed computational and memory access sequence to reduce atomic update conflict and maximize GPU utilization. Our algorithm can be used as a drop-in replacement for histogram construction in popular tree boosting systems to improve their scalability. As an example, to train GBDT on epsilon dataset, our method using a main-stream GPU is 7-8 times faster than histogram based algorithm on CPU in LightGBM and 25 times faster than the exact-split finding algorithm in XGBoost on a dual-socket 28-core Xeon server, while achieving similar prediction accuracy.
IMPACT OF HLA-G IN THE OUTCOME OF VITILIGO IN TUNISIAN PATIENTS

Background: The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system in the skin coordinates the pigmentation and immune response and could be implicated in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. Human leukocyte antigen HLA-G is a nonclassic, major histocompatibility complex class I molecule expressed in the extravillous cytotrophoblast at the feto-maternal interface. It is known to protect the fetus from maternal cellular immunity. Analogically, it could be implicated in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases such as vitiligo. Aims: To compare the expression of HLA-G between vitiligo patients and healthy controls. Materials and Methods: In the present study, 22 vitiligo patients and 24 healthy controls were investigated to look for a possible correlation between HLA-G expression and this pathology. Expression of HLA-G in cutaneous biopsy specimens was investigated by immunohistochemical analysis. Results: HLA-G was detected in the biopsy specimens of 3 (13%) out of 22 patients. This number was significantly higher in healthy controls 18 (75%) out of 24 as compared to vitiligo patients (P < 0.001). Conclusion: There is significant negative correlation between HLA-G expression and vitiligo. In our mind, upregulation of HLA-G expression in lesional skin could be local (superficial expression) or systemic (soluble HLA-G isoforms) compensation to restore normal pigmentation in lesions.
Predictive Factors of Manual Dexterity and Cognitive Performance at 17 Years: A 10-Year Longitudinal Study in a Rural Area of France

Studies of predictive factors of manual dexterity in adolescents and young adults are lacking. The present longitudinal study reports the relationships between cognitive and behavioural assessments at age 7 years and the schooling, cognitive performance, and manual dexterity at age 17 years. The participants were 65 schoolchildren, 30 boys and 35 girls, from a rural area in France. Assessment at age 7 years included the McCarthy scales and questionnaires measuring the behavior of the child, completed by the mother, the teacher, and the assessing psychologist. Assessment at age 17 years included schooling situation (whether they were in high school or not), cognitive testing (WAIS-R, Trail Making, Verbal Fluency, Cancel H. Stroop, Memory Assessment Scales), and manual dexterity resting (dynamometer, Finger Tapping, Santa Ana Test, Purdue Pegboard). After controlling for effects of parental education and IQ, a negative teachers' rating of children's behaviour and abilities in first-grade (7 years) was correlated with early cessation of schooling, but also, unexpectedly, with higher scores for manual dexterity at 17 years. Manual dexterity was not related to cognitive performance at 17 years. It is suggested that the relationship between manual and cognitive performance varies during development. Although manual exploratory behaviour is an important correlate of early cognitive development, manual dexterity is probably not related to later academic performance.
Secular change in age at menarche in rural Oaxaca, southern Mexico: 1968–2000

Objective: To evaluate secular change in the age at menarche between 1978 and 2000 in residents of a rural Zapotec-speaking community in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, using status quo and retrospective methods. Materials and methods: Status quo menarcheal status of girls 9–18 years of age in 1978 (n = 101) and 2000 (n = 238) and retrospective ages at menarche of adult women 19+ years of age in 1978 (n = 228) and 2000 (n = 246) were obtained via interview. Probit analysis was used to estimate median ages at menarche and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the status quo data. Analysis of variance and linear regression was used to compare the retrospective data across surveys. Results: The median ages at menarche of adolescents are 14.8 ± 1.2 years (0.24 year, 95% CI 14.2–15.4 years) in 1978 and 13.0 ± 1.0 years (0.10 year, 95% CI 12.7–13.3 years) in 2000. Age at menarche has declined by 1.8 years over about 23 years, 0.78 year/decade (95% CI = 0.65–0.91 year/decade). Recalled ages at menarche do not differ by age group in the 1978 survey, but differ significantly by age group in the 2000 survey (p<0.001). Within the 2000 survey, the two youngest age groups (<29, 30–39 years) do not differ, but attain menarche earlier than women in the four older age groups (p<0.05), who do not differ from each other in age at menarche. The estimated rates of secular decline in age at menarche in adult women vary between 0.38 and 0.42 years/decade (0.26–0.56 year/decade). Conclusions: There is a major secular decline in the age at menarche of adolescent girls and young adult women between 1978 and 2000. The estimated rate of decline in adult women is about one-half of that in adolescent girls. The secular decline in age at menarche is consistent with corresponding secular gains height, sitting height and estimated leg length of children and adolescents in the community; corresponding secular gains are smaller in young adults 19–29 years.
Sleep disturbance and depression recurrence in community-dwelling older adults: a prospective study.

OBJECTIVE A prior depressive episode is thought to increase the risk of depression. However, among older adults with prior depression, it is unclear whether sleep disturbance predicts depression recurrence independent of other depressive symptoms. METHOD A 2-year prospective cohort study was conducted with 351 community-dwelling older adults ages 60 years and older: 145 persons with a history of major or nonmajor depression in full remission and 206 without a prior history of depression or any mental illness. The participants were assessed at baseline, 6 weeks, 1 year, and 2 years for depressive episodes, depressive symptoms, sleep quality, and chronic medical disease. RESULTS Twenty-three subjects (16.9%) with prior depression developed depressive episodes during follow-up, compared to only one person in the group without prior mental illness (0.5%). Within the group with prior depression, depression recurrence was predicted by sleep disturbance, and this association was independent of other depressive symptoms, chronic medical disease, and antidepressant medication use. CONCLUSIONS This study is the first to demonstrate that sleep disturbance acts as an independent risk factor for depression recurrence in community-dwelling older adults. To identify older adults at risk for depression, a two-step strategy can be employed, which involves assessment of the presence of a prior depressive episode along with sleep disturbance.
Deposited in DRO : 29 May 2012 Version of attached le : Published Version Peer-review status of attached

Background: Non-adherence to drug therapy is common in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Patients' beliefs about treatment have an important influence on adherence. An in-depth understanding of this area is, therefore, important for patient-centred care. The aim of the study was to assess patients' perspectives and beliefs about their medication and to determine how this relates to medicine taking and other related health behaviour as part of a larger qualitative study on health care related behaviour in patients with IBD. Methods: Individual semi-structured interviews and focus groups. An iterative approach following principles of grounded theory was applied to data collection and analysis. Results: Main emerging themes were: balance of perceived necessity versus concerns, perceived impact of symptoms and willingness to self-manage medication. There was a clear distinction made between steroids and other preparations. Concerns included the fear of both short and long-term side-effects (mainly steroids), uncertainties about drug interactions and development of long-term immunity. Adapting to and accepting medication use was linked to acceptance of IBD. Conclusion: A concordant approach including flexible and pro-active support as well as accurate information is important in assisting patients with IBD to self-manage their medication effectively. Health professionals should be aware that attitudes to medicine taking and other related behaviours may be medicine specific and change over time. Background Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a chronic disorder characterised by periods of remission and unpredictable relapses. Although there is currently no cure, medical management of the disease includes long-term drug therapy which can be effective in inducing or maintaining remission. Non-adherence to long-term medical therapy is common in chronic disease and typically tends to be around 30–40% [1,2]. Differences in measurement, definition and context, however, can influence reported adherence rates, correlates and outcomes [3]. Reported non-adherence rates in IBD range from 5% to 60% [3,58]. Known influential factors on adherence in IBD include socio-demographic characteristics, dosing, depression, disease awareness, the therapeutic relationship, disease activity and psychosocial characteristics [1,5-11]. Within the wider literature on adherence, there is evidence to suggest that patients' treatment and illness beliefs have an Published: 8 June 2007 BMC Gastroenterology 2007, 7:20 doi:10.1186/1471-230X-7-20 Received: 10 August 2006 Accepted: 8 June 2007 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral. com/1471-230X/7/20 © 2007 Hall et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. BMC Gastroenterology 2007, 7:20 http://www.biomedcentral. com/1471-230X/7/20
Human Recombinant Erythropoietin in Asphyxia Neonatorum: Pilot Trial

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to examine biochemical, neurophysiologic, anatomic, and clinical changes associated with erythropoietin administration to neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). METHODS: We conducted a prospective case-control study with 45 neonates in 3 groups, a normal healthy group (N = 15), a HIE-erythropoietin group (N = 15; infants with mild/moderate HIE who received human recombinant erythropoietin, 2500 IU/kg, subcutaneously, daily for 5 days), and a HIE-control group (N = 15; did not receive erythropoietin). Serum concentrations of nitric oxide (NO) were measured at enrollment for the normal healthy neonates and at enrollment and after 2 weeks for the 2 HIE groups. The 2 HIE groups underwent electroencephalography at enrollment and at 2 to 3 weeks. Brain MRI was performed at 3 weeks. Neurologic evaluations and Denver Developmental Screening Test II assessments were performed at 6 months. RESULTS: Compared with normal healthy neonates, the 2 HIE groups had greater blood NO concentrations (P < .001). At enrollment, the 2 HIE groups did not differ in clinical severity, seizure incidence, NO concentrations, or electroencephalographic findings. At 2 weeks of age, electroencephalographic backgrounds improved significantly (P = .01) and NO concentrations decreased (P < .001) in the HIE-erythropoietin group, compared with the HIE-control group; MRI findings did not differ between groups. At 6 months of age, infants in the HIE-erythropoietin group had fewer neurologic (P = .03) and developmental (P = .03) abnormalities. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates the feasibility of early administration of human recombinant erythropoietin to term neonates with HIE, to protect against encephalopathy.
Bounds on vertex colorings with restrictions on the union of color classes

A proper coloring of a graph is a labeled partition of its vertices into parts which are independent sets. In this paper, given a positive integer j and a family ℱ of connected graphs, we consider proper colorings in which we require that the union of any j color classes induces a subgraph which has no copy of any member of ℱ. This generalizes some well‐known types of proper colorings like acyclic colorings (where j = 2 and ℱis the collection of all even cycles) and star colorings (where j = 2 and ℱconsists of just a path on 4 vertices), etc. For this type of coloring, we obtain an upper bound of O(d(k − 1)/(k − j)) on the minimum number of colors sufficient to obtain such a coloring. Here, d refers to the maximum degree of the graph and k is the size of the smallest member of ℱ. For the case of j = 2, we also obtain lower bounds on the minimum number of colors needed in the worst case.
Association of single nucleotide polymorphism rs6983267 with the risk of prostate cancer

Many studies have investigated the association between single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs6983267 and the risk of prostate cancer. However, results of these studies are inconsistent. Therefore, we summarised available data and performed a meta-analysis to determine this association. Relevant articles were identified by searching the PubMed, Web of Science and Embase database. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using random effects model. We used dominant model (GG + TG vs TT), recessive model (GG vs TG + TT) and additive model (GG +TT vs TG) to determine the association between the rs6983267 polymorphism and risk of prostate cancer. Summary, 9 studies involving 8726 participants were included in this meta-analysis. Overall, though no association was observed between the rs6983267 polymorphism and risk of prostate cancer, subgroup analysis according to ethnicity showed a significant association between the rs6983267 polymorphism and risk of prostate cancer among white European men [recessive model: GG vs TG + TT, OR=1.21, (95% CI: 1.03, 1.42), P=0.02]. Our results indicate that the GG genotype of the rs6983267 polymorphism will increase individual susceptibility to prostate cancer in white European men.
Hepatitis C Virus Controls Interferon Production through PKR Activation

Hepatitis C virus is a poor inducer of interferon (IFN), although its structured viral RNA can bind the RNA helicase RIG-I, and activate the IFN-induction pathway. Low IFN induction has been attributed to HCV NS3/4A protease-mediated cleavage of the mitochondria-adapter MAVS. Here, we have investigated the early events of IFN induction upon HCV infection, using the cell-cultured HCV JFH1 strain and the new HCV-permissive hepatoma-derived Huh7.25. CD81 cell subclone. These cells depend on ectopic expression of the RIG-I ubiquitinating enzyme TRIM25 to induce IFN through the RIG-I/MAVS pathway. We observed induction of IFN during the first 12 hrs of HCV infection, after which a decline occurred which was more abrupt at the protein than at the RNA level, revealing a novel HCV-mediated control of IFN induction at the level of translation. The cellular protein kinase PKR is an important regulator of translation, through the phosphorylation of its substrate the eIF2α initiation factor. A comparison of the expression of luciferase placed under the control of an eIF2α-dependent (IRESEMCV) or independent (IRESHCV) RNA showed a specific HCV-mediated inhibition of eIF2α-dependent translation. We demonstrated that HCV infection triggers the phosphorylation of both PKR and eIF2α at 12 and 15 hrs post-infection. PKR silencing, as well as treatment with PKR pharmacological inhibitors, restored IFN induction in JFH1-infected cells, at least until 18 hrs post-infection, at which time a decrease in IFN expression could be attributed to NS3/4A-mediated MAVS cleavage. Importantly, both PKR silencing and PKR inhibitors led to inhibition of HCV yields in cells that express functional RIG-I/MAVS. In conclusion, here we provide the first evidence that HCV uses PKR to restrain its ability to induce IFN through the RIG-I/MAVS pathway. This opens up new possibilities to assay PKR chemical inhibitors for their potential to boost innate immunity in HCV infection.
Hot Molecular Cores and High-Mass Star Formation

This review covers hot cores in the context of high-mass star formation. After giving an overview of chemical processes and diversity during high-mass star formation, it reviews the `warm envelope' phase which probably precedes the formation of hot cores. Some recent determinations of the cosmic-ray ionization rate are discussed, as well as recent evidence for hot cores around low-mass stars. Routes for future hot core research are outlined.
Circulating Biomarkers in Advanced Colorectal Cancer Patients Randomly Assigned to Three Bevacizumab-Based Regimens

The need to identify biomarkers for bevacizumab-based treatment in advanced colorectal cancer is imperative. The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic role of circulating VEGF, PDGF, SDF-1, osteopontin and CEA in patients randomly assigned to three bevacizumab-based regimens. Plasma samples from 50 patients treated at a single Institution were analysed using the multiplex assay BioPlex™ 2200 (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc, Berkeley, CA, USA) at baseline, before first three cycles and subsequently every three cycles until disease progression. Prognostic analyses of baseline values were performed using multivariable Cox models, including disease extension >10 cm or ≤10 cm (measured as the sum of the diameters for all target lesions) as adjustment factor. The association between progression-free and overall survival and biomarkers modulation during treatment was studied using multivariable Cox models, which included summary statistics synthesizing during-treatment modulation together with disease extension. The biomarkers significantly associated with disease extension were baseline CEA (p = 0.012) and SDF-1 (p = 0.030). High values of VEGF and SDF-1 tended to be associated with worse prognosis, especially in terms of overall survival. The negative prognostic trend was more marked for baseline CEA as compared to other biomarkers; increasing values during treatment was significantly related to worse prognosis independently of disease extension (p = 0.007 and 0.016 for progression-free and overall survival, respectively). VEGF is related to bevacizumab pharmacodynamics and is associated to other angiogenic cytokines; some of the proposed biomarkers such as SDF-1 and CEA should be further validated for prognosis assessment and monitoring of bevacizumab-based treatment of advanced colorectal cancer.
Source Credibility Dimensions in Marketing Communication - A Generalized Solution

The purpose of this study is to examine whether a generalized conceptualization of credibility of various sources in marketing communication exists. In the survey, respondents are required to rate source credibility by applying items gathered from previous studies. To overcome inconsistencies and weaknesses of previous factor model studies, a rigorous analysis of the source credibility concept based on an extraction of a series of measurements is performed. Furthermore, an analysis procedure with various steps in order to ensure reliability and validity is applied to the data. The selected procedure led to a consistent and integrative solution of three highly discriminant main dimensions of source credibility in marketing communication. The three dimensions can be referred to as the inclination toward truth, the potential of truth and the presentation. Findings are discussed and methodological, theoretical and managerial implications are highlighted.
Finite-Element Micromechanical Strength Modeling and Parametric Investigation of Three-Dimensional Orthogonal Composites

Abstract : Three-dimensional (3-D) reinforcement is often employed in thick composite parts to increase delamination resistance and through-thickness properties. Such materials are of particular interest for employment as insulators for the composite electromagnetic railgun insulator, which exhibits delamination as its primary failure mode. In the current study, a 3-D orthogonal woven S2-glass composite is investigated using finite-element micromechanics to characterize and evaluate its potential use in this target application. The representative volume element (RVE) of the 3-D woven microstructure is modeled directly through the 3-D finite-element model. Direct modeling of the exact microstructure allows for precise knowledge of the mechanics and failure modes of the microstructure under various loading conditions. Stiffness and strength are determined using a series of simulated characterization tests upon the RVE, with a detailed analysis of the resulting microstress field. Modeling results are verified by comparing experimental data. Tensile tests and Iosipescu shear tests have been performed to determine in-plane and transverse shear properties. Off-axis tensile tests were performed for further model validation. In-plane stiffness and strength were predicted with 90% or better accuracy. Transverse shear properties were less well predicted, but strength was still predicted within 86% accuracy. The micromechanical methods were then employed towards a parametric study of the effect of stitch density on promising improvement of delamination resistance and shear properties, as well as consequent loss of in-plane properties.