Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Research and treatment strategies in first-episode psychoses: The Pittsburgh experience

Background Studies of first-episode patients allow investigation of the biological basis of psychotic disorders without the potential confounds of prior treatment and illness chronicity. Prospective studies of this population can clarify the impact of illness course and treatment on neurobiology. Method We summarise preliminary findings from our ongoing magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy studies of first-episode schizophrenia patients being conducted prospectively from index evaluations through a period of two years; during this period, patients were treated with either a conventional antipsychotic such as haloperidol, or the atypical risperidone. Results Baseline neurobiological evaluations in first-episode schizophrenia patients have revealed evidence for structural and functional brain abnormalities consistent with a neurodevelopmental model of this illness. Our preliminary data support the value of risperidone as an antipsychotic drug of first choice among patients with early schizophrenic illness. Conclusions Focused studies of first-episode patients have the potential to unravel pathophysiology of schizophrenic illness. Such knowledge is critical for more effective early detection, intervention and even prevention of this enigmatic disorder.
The Plausibility of Semantic Properties Generated by a Distributional Model: Evidence from a Visual World Experiment

Distributional models of semantics are a popular way of capturing the similarity between words or concepts. More recently, such models have also been used to generate properties associated with a concept; model-generated properties are typically compared against collections of semantic feature norms. In the present paper, we propose a novel way of testing the plausibility of the properties generated by a distributional model using data from a visual world experiment. We show that model-generated properties, when embedded in a sentential context, bias participants’ expectations towards a semantically associated target word in real time. This effect is absent in a neutral context that contains no relevant properties.
Reactive and Nonreactive Binders in Glass/Vinyl Ester Composites

This study characterizes and evaluates two types of preform binders: reactive thermosets, and non-reactive thermoplastics. The interply adhesion between woven glass plies was measured as a function of binder type, concentration, and preforming conditions. It was found that reactive binders offer the potential to provide much larger interply adhesions between glass plies in a preform than thermoplastics, and are thus superior choices for the fabrication of complex-shaped preforms requiring little or no springback. Laminated composite panels fabricated from preforms with varying binder concentrations were evaluated in regards to their interlaminar properties. It was found that both binder types degraded the interlaminar shear strength of a woven glass reinforced vinylester composite. Additionally, composite laminates made from preforms containing the thermoplastic binder showed decreases in the interlaminar fracture toughness of the composite by approximately 60%. However, composite laminates fabricated from preforms utilizing the reactive epoxy binder showed an increase in fracture toughness of approximately 47%. Hence, it is concluded that a range of interlaminar properties can be achieved depending on the type of binder, the amount of binder, and the processing of the binder and also that of the composite itself. POLYM. COMPOS. , 26:377–387, 2005. © 2005 Society of Plastics Engineers
THE INVESTIGATION AND TREATMENT OF COUPLES WITH RECURRENT MISCARRIAGE

Recurrent miscarriage is a distressing problem that affects 1% of all women. This incidence is greater than that expected by chance alone, since 10–15% of all clinically recognised pregnancies end in a miscarriage and the theoretical risk of three consecutive pregnancy losses is 0.34%. Hence, only a proportion of women presenting with recurrent miscarriage will have a persistent underlying cause for their pregnancy losses.
Pulsed radiofrequency treatment of the lumbar dorsal root ganglion in patients with chronic lumbar radicular pain: a randomized, placebo-controlled pilot study

Background No proof of efficacy, in the form of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), exists to support pulsed radiofrequency (PRF) treatment of the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) for chronic lumbar radicular (CLR) pain. We determined the feasibility of a larger trial (primary objective), and also explored the efficacy of PRF in decreasing pain on a visual analog scale (VAS) and improving the Oswestry Disability Index. Methods This was a single-center, placebo-controlled, triple-blinded RCT. Patients were randomized to a placebo group (needle placement) or a treatment group (PRF at 42°C for 120 seconds to the DRG). Patients were followed up for 3 months post procedure. Outcomes with regard to pain, Oswestry Disability Index score, and side effects were analyzed on an intention-to-treat basis. Results Over 15 months, 350 potential patients were identified and 56 were assessed for eligibility. Fifteen of them did not meet the selection criteria. Of the 41 eligible patients, 32 (78%) were recruited. One patient opted out before intervention. Three patients were lost to follow-up at 3 months. Mean VAS differences were not significantly different at 4 weeks (−0.36, 95% confidence interval [CI], −2.29, 1.57) or at 3 months (−0.76, 95% CI, −3.14, 1.61). The difference in mean Oswestry Disability Index score was also not significantly different at 4 weeks (−2%, 95% CI, −14%, 10%) or 3 months (−7%, 95% CI, −21%, 6%). There were no major side effects. Six of 16 patients in the PRF group and three of 15 in the placebo group showed a >50% decrease in VAS score. Conclusion The recruitment rate was partially successful. At 3 months, the relative success of PRF-DRG was small. A large-scale trial to establish efficacy is not practically feasible considering the small effect size, which would necessitate recruitment of a challengingly large number of participants over a number of years. Until clear parameters for application of PRF are established, clinicians will need to use their individual judgment regarding its clinical applicability, given the present evidence.
Influence of Low Back Pain and Prognostic Value of MRI in Sciatica Patients in Relation to Back Pain

Background Patients with sciatica frequently complain about associated back pain. It is not known whether there are prognostic relevant differences in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) findings between sciatica patients with and without disabling back pain. Methods The study population contained patients with sciatica who underwent a baseline MRI to assess eligibility for a randomized trial designed to compare the efficacy of early surgery with prolonged conservative care for sciatica. Two neuroradiologists and one neurosurgeon independently evaluated all MR images. The MRI readers were blinded to symptom status. The MRI findings were compared between sciatica patients with and without disabling back pain. The presence of disabling back pain at baseline was correlated with perceived recovery at one year. Results Of 379 included sciatica patients, 158 (42%) had disabling back pain. Of the patients with both sciatica and disabling back pain 68% did reveal a herniated disc with nerve root compression on MRI, compared to 88% of patients with predominantly sciatica (P<0.001). The existence of disabling back pain in sciatica at baseline was negatively associated with perceived recovery at one year (Odds ratio [OR] 0.32, 95% Confidence Interval 0.18–0.56, P<0.001). Sciatica patients with disabling back pain in absence of nerve root compression on MRI at baseline reported less perceived recovery at one year compared to those with predominantly sciatica and nerve root compression on MRI (50% vs 91%, P<0.001). Conclusion Sciatica patients with disabling low back pain reported an unfavorable outcome at one-year follow-up compared to those with predominantly sciatica. If additionally a clear herniated disc with nerve root compression on MRI was absent, the results were even worse.
Donor transmission of malignant melanoma in a lung transplant recipient 32 years after curative resection

In the current era of organ shortages and long wait times for life‐saving transplants, marginal or extended donors are increasingly being considered; one such category of marginal organs is from donors with a previous history of malignancy. Melanoma in particular has been associated with increased risk of developing late recurrence. In this report, we describe a case of fatal donor melanoma transmission to a 64‐year‐old lung transplant recipient 32 years after surgical excision of the melanoma. Based on this report and review of the available literature, we conclude that a history of donor melanoma, regardless of the stage and time interval from ‘curative’ surgical resection, should remain a strong relative contraindication to transplantation.
Wavepackets in the velocity field of turbulent jets

Abstract We study the velocity fields of unforced, high Reynolds number, subsonic jets, issuing from round nozzles with turbulent boundary layers. The objective of the study is to educe wavepackets in such flows and to explore their relationship with the radiated sound. The velocity field is measured using a hot-wire anemometer and a stereoscopic, time-resolved PIV system. The field can be decomposed into frequency and azimuthal Fourier modes. The low-angle sound radiation is measured synchronously with a microphone ring array. Consistent with previous observations, the azimuthal wavenumber spectra of the velocity and acoustic pressure fields are distinct. The velocity spectrum of the initial mixing layer exhibits a peak at azimuthal wavenumbers $m$ ranging from 4 to 11, and the peak is found to scale with the local momentum thickness of the mixing layer. The acoustic pressure field is, on the other hand, predominantly axisymmetric, suggesting an increased relative acoustic efficiency of the axisymmetric mode of the velocity field, a characteristic that can be shown theoretically to be caused by the radial compactness of the sound source. This is confirmed by significant correlations, as high as 10 %, between the axisymmetric modes of the velocity and acoustic pressure fields, these values being significantly higher than those reported for two-point flow–acoustic correlations in subsonic jets. The axisymmetric and first helical modes of the velocity field are then compared with solutions of linear parabolized stability equations (PSE) to ascertain if these modes correspond to linear wavepackets. For all but the lowest frequencies close agreement is obtained for the spatial amplification, up to the end of the potential core. The radial shapes of the linear PSE solutions also agree with the experimental results over the same region. The results suggests that, despite the broadband character of the turbulence, the evolution of Strouhal numbers $0. 3\leq St\leq 0. 9$ and azimuthal modes 0 and 1 can be modelled as linear wavepackets, and these are associated with the sound radiated to low polar angles.
Peripheral Myelin Maintenance Is a Dynamic Process Requiring Constant Krox20 Expression

Onset of myelination in Schwann cells is governed by several transcription factors, including Krox20/Egr2, and mutations affecting Krox20 result in various human hereditary peripheral neuropathies, including congenital hypomyelinating neuropathy (CHN) and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). Similar molecular information is not available on the process of myelin maintenance. We have generated conditional Krox20 mutations in the mouse that allowed us to develop models for CHN and CMT. In the latter case, specific inactivation of Krox20 in adult Schwann cells results in severe demyelination, involving rapid Schwann cell dedifferentiation and increased proliferation, followed by an attempt to remyelinate and a block at the promyelinating stage. These data establish that Krox20 is not only required for the onset of myelination but that it is also crucial for the maintenance of the myelinating state. Furthermore, myelin maintenance appears as a very dynamic process in which Krox20 may constitute a molecular switch between Schwann cell myelination and demyelination programs.
Effects of the Higashi-Nihon Earthquake: Posttraumatic Stress, Psychological Changes, and Cortisol Levels of Survivors

On March 11, 2011, the Pacific side of Japan’s northeast was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami. For years, many researchers have been working on ways of examining the psychological effects of earthquakes on survivors in disaster areas who have experienced aftershocks, catastrophic fires, and other damage caused by the earthquake. The goal of this study is to examine scores on psychological measures and salivary cortisol level in these individuals both before and three months after the earthquake. The participants had been measured for these variables before the earthquake. After the earthquake, we carried out PTSD screening using CAPS for participants for another experiment, and then again conducted the aforementioned tests. We collected saliva samples from all survivors. Our results show that social relationship scores on the WHO-QOL26, negative mood scores of the WHO-SUBI, total GHQ score, POMS confusion scores, and CMI emotional status score after the earthquake showed scores indicating significantly decreased compared to before the earthquake. On the other hand, salivary cortisol levels after the earthquake was significantly increased compared to before the earthquake. Moreover, the result of a multiple regression analysis found that negative mood score on the WHO-SUBI and social relationship score on the WHO-QOL26 were significantly related to salivary cortisol levels. Our results thus demonstrate that several psychological stress induced by the earthquake was associated with an increase in salivary cortisol levels. These results show similar findings to previous study. We anticipate that this study will provide a better understanding of posttraumatic responses in the early stages of adaptation to the trauma and expand effective prevention strategies and countermeasures for PTSD.
Lattice codes for the compute-and-forward protocol: The flatness factor

In a recent work, Nazer and Gastpar proposed the compute-and-forward strategy as a physical-layer network coding scheme. They described a code structure based on nested lattices whose algebraic structure makes the scheme reliable and efficient. In a more recent paper, Feng et al. introduced an algebraic approach to the lattice implementation. In this work, we consider some problems not addressed in already published works, mainly the ML decoding.
GARCH 101: The Use of ARCH/GARCH Models in Applied Econometrics

The great workhorse of applied econometrics is the least squares model. This is a natural choice, because applied econometricians are typically called upon to determine how much one variable will change in response to a change in some other variable. Increasingly however, econometricians are being asked to forecast and analyze the size of the errors of the model. In this case, the questions are about volatility, and the standard tools have become the ARCH/ GARCH models. The basic version of the least squares model assumes that the expected value of all error terms, when squared, is the same at any given point. This assumption is called homoskedasticity, and it is this assumption that is the focus of ARCH/ GARCH models. Data in which the variances of the error terms are not equal, in which the error terms may reasonably be expected to be larger for some points or ranges of the data than for others, are said to suffer from heteroskedasticity. The standard warning is that in the presence of heteroskedasticity, the regression coefficients for an ordinary least squares regression are still unbiased, but the standard errors and confidence intervals estimated by conventional procedures will be too narrow, giving a false sense of precision. Instead of considering this as a problem to be corrected, ARCH and GARCH models treat heteroskedasticity as a variance to be modeled. As a result, not only are the deficiencies of least squares corrected, but a prediction is computed for the variance of each error term. This prediction turns out often to be of interest, particularly in applications in finance. The warnings about heteroskedasticity have usually been applied only to cross-section models, not to time series models. For example, if one looked at the
Mitochondrial DNA variation in screwworm

Abstract. Polymerase chain reaction‐restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR‐RFLP) analysis was used to characterize mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variation in screw‐worms, Cochliomyia hominivorax, and secondary screwworm, C.macellaria, from the Caribbean, North America and South America. Four amplicons, totaling 7.1 kb, were analysed with sixteen restriction enzymes. A total of 133 restriction sites was observed in the two species, 104 in C.hominivorax, of which nineteen were variable, and ninety‐five in C.macellaria, none of which was variable. Fourteen mtDNA haplotypes were observed among eighteen C.hominivorax examined. Mean divergence between C.hominivorax haplotypes (d) was 0.0064 substitutions per base‐pair and genotypic diversity (G) was 0.97. Mean divergence between C.hominivorax and C.macellaria was 0.0824. Cochliomyia hominivorax haplotypes could be divided into three assemblages representing North America, South America and Jamaica, based on UPGMA clustering with d values. The assemblages did not exhibit complete geographic fidelity. These data were discordant with previously published allozyme data indicating little differentiation between screwworm populations. A scenario invoking historically isolated populations coming into contact with the introduction and movement of European livestock is proposed to explain the observed population structure of screwworm.
ASSESSMENT OF SALT TOLERANCE OF SOME NEWLY DEVELOPED AND CANDIDATE WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM L.) CULTIVARS USING GAS EXCHANGE AND CHLOROPHYLL FLUORESCENCE ATTRIBUTES

The present study was aimed to assess salt tolerance of some newly developed and candidate cultivars of wheat using gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Ten wheat cultivars including five newly developed (S-24, Saher- 2006, Fsd-2008, Lasani and Inqlab-91) and five candidate (P.B-18, M.P-65, S.H-20, AARI-10 and G.A-20) were grown in sand culture. Salt stress (150 mM NaCl in Hoagland's nutrient solution) was applied at the seedling stage. A significant reduction in plant biomass production was recorded in all wheat cultivars. Cultivars S-24, Saher-2006 and Fsd-2008 showed less reduction in biomass production as compared with the other cultivars. Different gas exchange attributes such as leaf net photosynthetic rate (A), transpiration rate (E), and stomatal conductance (gs) were also adversely affected due to salt stress and were positively associated with the plant biomass production of the genotypes under saline stress. More negative effects in relation to these gas exchange attributes were recorded in cvs. Lasani, G.A-20 and ARRI-10 than those in the other cultivars. Leaf maximum chlorophyll fluorescence (Fm), maximum fluorescence at steady state (Fms), and photochemical fluorescence quenching (Qp) increased while maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm), quantum yield of electron transport (Qp), electron transport rate (ETR) and non-photochemical quenching (Qn) decreased due to imposition of salt stress. The adverse effects of salt stress on these chlorophyll fluorescence attributes were minimum in cultivars S-24, Saher-2006 and Fsd-2008. A significant positive correlation was recorded between biomass production, different gas exchange attributes and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. Overall, cvs. S-24, Saher-2006 and Fsd-2008 were ranked as salt tolerant on the basis of their performance in biomass production, gas exchange attributes and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters.
Fade slope statistics for three 12-GHz satellite beacon links in Brazil

The fade slope is defined as the rate of increase or decrease of attenuation over time. The possible correlation between the statistics of fade slope values and attenuation levels is investigated. Results show a direct positive correlation between the mean values of fade slope and the attenuation levels. The distributions of fade slope values present a degree of skewness toward the negative values that makes the curves depart from the Gaussian distribution observed by other authors.
Photoacoustics and Photoacoustic Spectroscopy

The recognized leader in the modern development of the field presents both theory and applications. Begins with a historical account, covers gas-phase photoacoustic spectroscopy and detection and the theory of condensed phase photoacoustics, and provides a comprehensive survey of applications, from spectroscopy and chemistry analysis to medical applications and thermal analysis. Treats, for the first time, recent work in high-resolution gas spectroscopy, liquid studies, piezoelectric detection methods, thermal processes, depth profiling, and photoacoustic microscopy.
Non‐mosaic trisomy 20 in amniotic fluid cultures with minor anomalies in the fetus

A non‐mosaic trisomy 20 was discovered in all cells in two separate cultures from an age‐related genetic amniocentesis. Karyotypes of cells obtained via amniocentésis at the time of termination and of cells cultured from the placenta gave the same unambiguous results. However, the fetus, under macro‐ and microscopic analysis, showed only two minor anomalies: left simian crease and low‐set ears. These findings are more suggestive of a normal or at most mosaic trisomy 20 state. The significance of this finding for prenatal diagnosis is discussed.
Integrated care improves risk-factor modification after stroke: initial results of the Integrated Care for the Reduction of Secondary Stroke model

Objective: Despite evidence demonstrating that risk-factor management is effective in reducing recurrent cerebrovascular disease, there are very few structured care programmes for stroke survivors. The aim was to implement and evaluate an integrated care programme in stroke. Methods: 186 patients with stroke were randomised to either the treatment (integrated care) or control (usual care) group and were followed up over 12 months. The Integrated Care for the Reduction of Secondary Stroke (ICARUSS) model of integrated care involved collaboration between a specialist stroke service, a hospital coordinator and a patient’s general practitioner. The primary aim was to promote the management of vascular risk factors through ongoing patient contact and education. Results: In the 12 months poststroke, systolic blood pressure (sBP) decreased in the treatment group but increased in controls. The group difference was significant, and remained so when age, sex, disability and sBP at discharge were accounted for (p = 0.04). Treatment patients also exhibited better modification of body mass index (p = 0.007) and number of walks taken (p<0.001) than controls. Rankin scores indicated significantly reduced disability in treatment patients relative to controls in the year poststroke (p = 0.003). Conclusions: Through an integrated system of education, advice and support to both patient and GP, the ICARUSS model was effective in modifying a variety of vascular risk factors and therefore should decrease the likelihood or recurrent stroke or vascular event.