Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relaxation-induced anxiety: Effects of peak and trajectories of change on treatment outcome for generalized anxiety disorder

Abstract Objective: Evidence is mixed regarding whether relaxation-induced anxiety (RIA) impedes relaxation training (RT) efficacy. Unlike past studies that averaged RIA across sessions, we examined peak RIA, change in RIA level across sessions, and timing of peak RIA with outcome. Method: This was a secondary analysis of Borkovec, Newman, Pincus, and Lytle [2002. A component analysis of cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder and the role of interpersonal problems. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 288–298. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.70. 2.288]. Forty-one GAD participants were assigned randomly to CBT (n = 22) or BT (n = 19). Both treatments contained RT and RIA ratings within 13/14 sessions. Analyses used generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs), which accounted for longitudinal nonindependence and examined nonlinear trajectories of change. Results: All participants improved significantly regardless of RIA. “Change trajectory of RIA level did not predict outcome”. Instead, lower peak RIA predicted fewer GAD symptoms at post-treatment and greater likelihood to continue to improve during follow-up. Also, timing of peak was important. Whereas lower peak early in therapy did not predict outcome, lower peak during the last third of treatment did. Peak RIA’s effect was neither accounted for by baseline symptom severity, treatment condition, comorbidity, nor by preceding or concurrent anxiety symptom change. Conclusions: People with consistently low peak RIA and/or who fully habituate to RIA by the end of therapy respond optimally to relaxation-based treatments.
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Val/Met Polymorphism and Bipolar Disorder

Background/Aims: The substitution of valine by methionine in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF Val/Met) gene alters the intracellular trafficking and regulated secretion of BDNF. This study tested whether the BDNF Val/Met polymorphism is associated with bipolar disorder in Korean subjects, and whether clinical features vary according to genotype. Methods: The allelic and genotypic distributions of BDNF Val/Met were determined in a population of 169 bipolar patients and 251 normal controls. Between-genotype comparisons of clinical features were performed without a priori knowledge of the genotype of individual patients. Results: Allelic distributions did not differ significantly between bipolar patients and controls (χ2 = 0.400, p = 0.821). However, the rate of suicide attempts among the Val/Val (11.3%), Val/Met (28.8%) and Met/Met (38.9%) genotype groups were significantly different (χ2 = 9.879, p = 0.007). Relative to patients with the Val/Val genotype, those with the Met/Met genotype had a 4.9-fold higher risk of suicide attempts (95% CI, 1.7–14.7). Conclusions: These findings suggest that BDNF Val/Met is related to the suicidal behavior of bipolar patients, and may have clinical relevance as a biological indicator of bipolar patients at risk of suicide.
Correcting Misconceptions on Electronics: Effects of a simulation-based learning environment backed by a conceptual change model

Computer simulation has significant potential as a supplementary tool for effective conceptual-change learning based on the integration of technology and appropriate instructional strategies. This study elucidates misconceptions in learning on diodes and constructs a conceptual-change learning system that incorporates prediction-observation-explanation (POE) and simulation-based learning strategies to explore the effects on correcting misconceptions and improving learning performance. Thirty-four sophomore students majoring in engineering participated in the experiments. The empirical results indicate that the system significantly corrects participants’ misconceptions on diodes and improves learning performance. This study shows that conceptualchange instructions could correct misconceptions effectively by constructing scenarios that conflict with existing knowledge structures. The results also show that misconceptions on diode models and semiconductor characteristics could be corrected in more than 80% of cases. Conversely, difficulty in correcting misconceptions correlates with the fundamental definition of voltage, circuit analysis, or the interaction between different diode concepts.
Localizing Multiple Faults in Simulink Models

As Simulink is a widely used language in the embedded industry, there is a growing need to support debugging activities for Simulink models. In this work, we propose an approach to localize multiple faults in Simulink models. Our approach builds on statistical debugging and is iterative. At each iteration, we identify and resolve one fault and re-test models to focus on localizing faults that might have been masked before. We use decision trees to cluster together failures that satisfy similar (logical) conditions on model blocks or inputs. We then present two alternative selection criteria to choose a cluster that is more likely to yield the best fault localization results among the clusters produced by our decision trees. Engineers are expected to inspect the ranked list obtained from the selected cluster to identify faults. We evaluate our approach on 240 multi-fault models obtained from three different industrial subjects. We compare our approach with two baselines: (1) Statistical debugging without clustering, and (2) State-of-the-art clustering-based statistical debugging. Our results show that our approach significantly reduces the number of blocks that engineers need to inspect in order to localize all faults, when compared with the two baselines. Furthermore, with our approach, there is less performance degradation than in the baselines when increasing the number of faults in the underlying models.
Role of Bacteria in Oncogenesis

SUMMARY Although scientific knowledge in viral oncology has exploded in the 20th century, the role of bacteria as mediators of oncogenesis has been less well elucidated. Understanding bacterial carcinogenesis has become increasingly important as a possible means of cancer prevention. This review summarizes clinical, epidemiological, and experimental evidence as well as possible mechanisms of bacterial induction of or protection from malignancy.
Advanced Estimation for Aircraft Engines

This paper reviews recent industrial applications of estimation techniques to aircraft engines. Estimation is considered here in a broad sense. An estimator is any algorithm that processes engine measurements to compute engine signals, or parameters of interest, that are not directly measured. The paper begins with a summary of aircraft engines fundamentals, followed by brief descriptions of basic concepts in the areas of engine controls, engine fault detection and isolation, and engine health management. Practical estimation-based approaches in these areas are covered in some detail. These approaches include: control schemes that regulate estimated thrust, fault detection and classification algorithms based on estimator residuals, and health monitoring procedures that track deterioration of key engine model parameters. Several case studies, based on recent programs at GE Global Research and GE Aviation, are described in detail. These case studies contain validations of the proposed solutions via implementations using high-fidelity engine models. The paper concludes with a review of some open problems. This paper intends to be a starting point for researchers in academia and industry looking for an overview of estimation methods used in industrial jet engine applications.
Studies of Ion Acceleration from Thin Solid-Density Targets on High-Intensity Lasers

Over the past two decades, a number of experiments have been performed demonstrating the acceleration of ions from the interaction of an intense laser pulse with a thin, solid density target. These ions are accelerated by quasi-static electric fields generated by energetic electrons produced at the front of the target, resulting in ion energies up to tens of MeV. These ions have been widely studied for a variety of potential applications ranging from treatment of cancer to the production of neutrons for advanced radiography techniques. However, realization of these applications will require further optimization of the maximum energy, spectrum, or species of the accelerated ions, which has been a primary focus of research to date. This thesis presents two experiments designed to optimize several characteristics of the accelerated ion beam. The first of these experiments took place on the GHOST laser system at the University of Texas at Austin, and was designed to demonstrate reliable acceleration of deuterium ions, as needed for the most efficient methods of neutron generation from accelerated ions. This experiment leveraged cryogenically cooled targets coated in D2O ice to suppress the protons which typically dominate the accelerated ions, producing as many as 2×1010 deuterium ions per 1 J laser shot, exceeding the proton yield by an average ratio of 5:1. The second major experiment in this work was performed on the Scarlet laser system at The Ohio State University, and studied the accelerated ion energy, yield, and spatial distribution as a function of the target thickness. In principle, the peak energy increases with decreasing target thickness, with the thinnest targets accessing additional acceleration mechanisms which provide favorable scaling with the laser intensity. However, laser prepulse
Canopy water content retrieval from hyperspectral remote sensing

Biogeochemical processes in plants, such as photosynthesis, evaporation and net primary production, are directly related to foliar water. Therefore, canopy water content is important for the understanding of the terrestrial ecosystem functioning. Spectral information related to the water absorption features at 970 nm and 1200 nm offers possibilities for deriving information on leaf and canopy water content. Hyperspectral reflectance data representing a range of canopies were simulated at the leaf level using the PROSPECT model and at the canopy level using the combined PROSPECT+SAILH model. The simulations were in particular used to study the spectral information related to the water absorption features at about 970 nm and 1200 nm. At the leaf level this information was related to the leaf water content. At the canopy level this information was related to the leaf area index (LAI) and the canopy water content (CWC). In particular derivative spectra close to these absorption features showed a strong predictive power for the leaf and canopy water content. Ratio indices defining the absorption features had a smaller predictive power. The feasibility of using information from the water absorption features in the near-infrared (NIR) region of the spectrum was tested by estimating canopy water content for two test sites with different canopy structure. The first site was a homogeneously managed agricultural field with a grass/clover mixture and with very little variation within the field, being part of the Droevendaal experimental farm at Wageningen, the Netherlands. The other site was a heterogeneous natural area in the floodplain Millingerwaard along the river Waal in the Netherlands. Spectral information at both test sites was obtained with an ASD FieldSpec spectrometer during the summer of 2004 and 2005, respectively. Individual spectral bands and traditional vegetation indices based on red and NIR spectral bands yielded moderate estimates for CWC. Ratio indices describing the absorption features clearly yielded better results. Best results were obtained for the derivative spectra. Highest correlation with CWC was obtained for the derivative spectrum at the slopes of the first water absorption feature. However, here absorption by atmospheric water vapour also should be taken into account, yielding a preference for the right shoulder at about 1040 nm.
Excessive Reassurance Seeking: Delineating a Risk Factor Involved in the Development of Depressive Symptoms

Six studies investigated (a) the construct validity of reassurance seeking and (b) reassurance seeking as a specific vulnerability factor for depressive symptoms. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that reassurance seeking is a reasonably cohesive, replicable, and valid construct, discernible from related interpersonal variables. Study 3 demonstrated that reassurance seeking displayed diagnostic specificity to depression, whereas other interpersonal variables did not, in a sample of clinically diagnosed participants. Study 4 prospectively assessed a group of initially symptom-free participants, and showed that those who developed future depressive symptoms (as compared with those who remained symptom-free) obtained elevated reassurance-seeking scores at baseline, when all participants were symptom-free, but did not obtain elevated scores on other interpersonal variables. Studies 5 and 6 indicate that reassurance seeking predicts future depressive reactions to stress. Taken together, the six studies support the construct validity of reassurance seeking, as well as its potential role as a specific vulnerability factor for depression.
HEp-2 Specimen Classification Using Multi-resolution Local Patterns and SVM

A pattern recognition system was developed to classify immunofluorescence images of HEp-2 specimens into seven classes: homogeneous, speckled, nucleolar, centromere, golgi, nuclear membrane, and mitotic spindle. Root-SIFT features together with multi-resolution local patterns were used to capture local shape and texture information. Sparse coding with max-pooling was applied to get an image representation from these local features. Specimens were classified using a linear support vector machine. Leave-one-specimen-out experiments on the I3A Contest Task 2 data set predicted a mean class accuracy of 89.9%.
Managing recurrent bacterial vaginosis

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is the most frequently found condition of the female genital tract. It increases a woman’s risk of acquiring HIV, is associated with increased complications in pregnancy, and may be involved in the pathogenesis of pelvic inflammatory disease. Yet there are many unanswered questions about its aetiology, making management of recurrent infection difficult and often idiosyncratic. This paper discusses the current knowledge and possible management of recurrent BV.
Characterization of the generalized Chebyshev-type polynomials of first kind

Orthogonal polynomials have very useful properties in the solution of mathematical problems, so recent years have seen a great deal in the field of approximation theory using orthogonal polynomials. In this paper, we characterize the generalized Chebyshev-type polynomials of the first kind $\mathscr{T}_{n}^{(M,N)}(x),$ then we provide a closed form of the constructed polynomials in term of the Bernstein polynomials $B_{k}^{n}(x). $ We conclude the paper with some results on the integration of the weighted generalized Chebyshev-type with the Bernstein polynomials.
Objective image analysis of the meibomian gland area

Aims To evaluate objectively the meibomian gland area using newly developed software for non-invasive meibography. Methods Eighty eyelids of 42 patients without meibomian gland loss (meiboscore=0), 105 eyelids of 57 patients with loss of less than one-third total meibomian gland area (meiboscore=1), 13 eyelids of 11 patients with between one-third and two-thirds loss of meibomian gland area (meiboscore=2) and 20 eyelids of 14 patients with two-thirds loss of meibomian gland area (meiboscore=3) were studied. Lid borders were automatically determined. The software evaluated the distribution of the luminance and, by enhancing the contrast and reducing image noise, the meibomian gland area was automatically discriminated. The software calculated the ratio of the total meibomian gland area relative to the total analysis area in all subjects. Repeatability of the software was also evaluated. Results The mean ratio of the meibomian gland area to the total analysis area in the upper/lower eyelids was 51.9±5.7%/54.7±5.4% in subjects with a meiboscore of 0, 47.7±6.0%/51.5±5.4% in those with a meiboscore of 1, 32.0±4.4%/37.2±3.5% in those with a meiboscore of 2 and 16.7±6.4%/19.5±5.8% in subjects with a meiboscore of 3. Conclusions The meibomian gland area was objectively evaluated using the developed software. This system could be useful for objectively evaluating the effect of treatment on meibomian gland dysfunction.
Blood coagulation and fibrinolysis in aortic valve stenosis: links with inflammation and calcification

Summary Aortic valve stenosis (AS) increasingly afflicts our aging population. However, the pathobiology of the disease is still poorly understood and there is no effective pharmacotherapy for treating those at risk for clinical progression. The progression of AS involves complex inflammatory and fibroproliferative processes that resemble to some extent atherosclerosis. Accumulating evidence indicates that several coagulation proteins and its inhibitors, including tissue factor, tissue factor pathway inhibitor, prothrombin, factor XIII, von Willebrand factor, display increased expression within aortic stenotic valves, predominantly on macrophages and myofibroblasts around calcified areas. Systemic impaired fibrinolysis, along with increased plasma and valvular expression of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, has also been observed in patients with AS in association with the severity of the disease. There is an extensive cross-talk between inflammation and coagulation in stenotic valve tissue which contributes to the calcification and mineralisation of the aortic valve leaflets. This review summarises the available data on blood coagulation and fibrinolysis in AS with the emphasis on their interactions with inflammation and calcification.
Discovering hospital admission patterns using models learnt from electronic hospital records

MOTIVATION Electronic medical records, nowadays routinely collected in many developed countries, open a new avenue for medical knowledge acquisition. In this article, this vast amount of information is used to develop a novel model for hospital admission type prediction. RESULTS I introduce a novel model for hospital admission-type prediction based on the representation of a patient's medical history in the form of a binary history vector. This representation is motivated using empirical evidence from previous work and validated using a large data corpus of medical records from a local hospital. The proposed model allows exploration, visualization and patient-specific prognosis making in an intuitive and readily understood manner. Its power is demonstrated using a large, real-world data corpus collected by a local hospital on which it is shown to outperform previous state-of-the-art in the literature, achieving over 82% accuracy in the prediction of the first future diagnosis. The model was vastly superior for long-term prognosis as well, outperforming previous work in 82% of the cases, while producing comparable performance in the remaining 18% of the cases. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION Full Matlab source code is freely available for download at: http://ognjen-arandjelovic.t15. org/data/dprog.zip.
Dental pulp stem cells immobilized in alginate microspheres for applications in bone tissue engineering.

AIM To immobilize dental pulp stem cells (DPSC) in alginate microspheres and to determine cell viability, proliferation, stem cell characteristics and osteogenic potential of the immobilized DPSCs. METHODOLOGY Human DPSCs isolated from the dental pulp were immobilized in 1% w/v alginate microspheres. Viability and proliferation of immobilized DPSCs were determined by trypan blue and MTT assay, respectively. Stem cell characteristics of DPSCs post immobilization were verified by labelling the cells with CD73 and CD90. Osteogenic potential of immobilized DPSCs was assessed by the presence of osteocalcin. Alizarin red staining and O-cresolphthalein complexone method confirmed and quantified calcium deposition. A final reverse transcriptase PCR evaluated the expression of osteogenic markers - ALP, Runx-2 and OCN. RESULTS More than 80% of immobilized DPSCs were viable throughout the 3-week study. Proliferation appeared controlled and consistent unlike DPSCs in the control group. Presence of CD73 and CD90 markers confirmed the stem cell nature of immobilized DPSCs. The presence of osteocalcin, an osteoblastic marker, was confirmed in the microspheres on day 21. Mineralization assays showed high calcium deposition indicating elevated osteogenic potential of immobilized DPSCs. Osteogenic genes- ALP, Runx-2 and OCN were also upregulated in immobilized DPSCs. Surprisingly, immobilized DPSCs in the control group cultured in conventional stem cell media showed upregulation of osteogenic genes and expressed osteocalcin. CONCLUSION Dental pulp stem cells immobilized in alginate hydrogels exhibit enhanced osteogenic potential while maintaining high cell viability both of which are fundamental for bone tissue regeneration.
The Possible Role of Resource Requirements and Academic Career-Choice Risk on Gender Differences in Publication Rate and Impact

Many studies demonstrate that there is still a significant gender bias, especially at higher career levels, in many areas including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). We investigated field-dependent, gender-specific effects of the selective pressures individuals experience as they pursue a career in academia within seven STEM disciplines. We built a unique database that comprises 437,787 publications authored by 4,292 faculty members at top United States research universities. Our analyses reveal that gender differences in publication rate and impact are discipline-specific. Our results also support two hypotheses. First, the widely-reported lower publication rates of female faculty are correlated with the amount of research resources typically needed in the discipline considered, and thus may be explained by the lower level of institutional support historically received by females. Second, in disciplines where pursuing an academic position incurs greater career risk, female faculty tend to have a greater fraction of higher impact publications than males. Our findings have significant, field-specific, policy implications for achieving diversity at the faculty level within the STEM disciplines.
On Obtaining Maximum-Length Sequences for Accumulator-Based Serial TPG

Arithmetic-function modules, which are available in many circuits, can be utilized to generate test patterns and compact test responses. An accumulator-based scheme along with a procedure to find maximum-length nonlinear sequences for bit-serial test-pattern generators is proposed. The proposed scheme achieves good fault coverage with low hardware overhead and short test sequences