Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diagnostic Accuracy Measures

Background: An increasing number of diagnostic tests and biomarkers have been validated during the last decades, and this will still be a prominent field of research in the future because of the need for personalized medicine. Strict evaluation is needed whenever we aim at validating any potential diagnostic tool, and the first requirement a new testing procedure must fulfill is diagnostic accuracy. Summary: Diagnostic accuracy measures tell us about the ability of a test to discriminate between and/or predict disease and health. This discriminative and predictive potential can be quantified by measures of diagnostic accuracy such as sensitivity and specificity, predictive values, likelihood ratios, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, overall accuracy and diagnostic odds ratio. Some measures are useful for discriminative purposes, while others serve as a predictive tool. Measures of diagnostic accuracy vary in the way they depend on the prevalence, spectrum and definition of the disease. In general, measures of diagnostic accuracy are extremely sensitive to the design of the study. Studies not meeting strict methodological standards usually over- or underestimate the indicators of test performance and limit the applicability of the results of the study. Key Messages: The testing procedure should be verified on a reasonable population, including people with mild and severe disease, thus providing a comparable spectrum. Sensitivities and specificities are not predictive measures. Predictive values depend on disease prevalence, and their conclusions can be transposed to other settings only for studies which are based on a suitable population (e.g. screening studies). Likelihood ratios should be an optimal choice for reporting diagnostic accuracy. Diagnostic accuracy measures must be reported with their confidence intervals. We always have to report paired measures (sensitivity and specificity, predictive values or likelihood ratios) for clinically meaningful thresholds. How much discriminative or predictive power we need depends on the clinical diagnostic pathway and on misclassification (false positives/negatives) costs.
Blood pressure and left ventricular mass in subjects with type 2 diabetes and gingivitis or chronic periodontitis.

INTRODUCTION This study aimed to answer the question of whether chronic periodontitis in subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with increased left ventricular mass (LVM) and systemic and central blood pressure (CBP). MATERIAL AND METHODS One hundred and fifty-five subjects with type 2 diabetes (67 F, 88 M, mean age 61.1±6.9 years, BMI 32.7±5.7 kg/m(2)) were divided according to their periodontal status into biofilm-gingival interface - healthy (BGI-H, 14 subjects), BGI-gingivitis (BGI-G, 119 subjects) and BGI-periodontitis (BGI-P, 22 subjects) groups. In all subjects, LVM, systemic and CBP were measured. The LVM index (LVMI) was calculated. RESULTS (1) BGI-P and BGI-G subjects, respectively, had higher (mean; 95% CI) LVM (238.6 g; 206.6-267.4 and 222.8 g; 207.0-238.2) versus BGI-H subjects (170.3 g; 125.5-217.8). (2) BGI-P and BGI-G subjects, respectively, had higher (mean; 95% CI) LVM1 (95.2 g/m(2) ; 82.9-107.4) and 87.8 g/m(2) ; 81.5-94.1) versus BGI-H subjects (63.7 g/m(2) ; 45.2-62.3). (3) BGI-P subjects had higher central and systemic systolic and diastolic blood pressure than subjects from BGI-G and BGI-H groups. CONCLUSION In subjects with type 2 diabetes, periodontitis and gingivitis are associated with increased LVM and periodontitis is associated with increased central and systemic blood pressure.
High-Performance and Self-Powered Deep UV Photodetectors Based on High Quality 2D Boron Nitride Nanosheets

High-quality two-dimensional (2D) crystalline boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) were grown on silicon wafers by using pulsed plasma beam deposition techniques. Self-powered deep ultraviolet (DUV) photodetectors (PDs) based on BNNSs with Schottky contact structures are designed and fabricated. By connecting the fabricated DUV photodetector to an ammeter, the response strength, response time and recovery time to different DUV wavelengths at different intensities have been characterized using the output short circuit photocurrent without a power supply. Furthermore, effects of temperature and plasma treatment on the induced photocurrent response of detectors have also been investigated. The experimental data clearly indicate that plasma treatment would significantly improve both induced photocurrent and response time. The BNNS-based DUV photodetector is demonstrated to possess excellent performance at a temperature up to 400 °C, including high sensitivity, high signal-to-noise ratio, high spectral selectivity, high speed, and high stability, which is better than almost all reported semiconducting nanomaterial-based self-powered photodetectors.
An Incremental CFS Algorithm for Clustering Large Data in Industrial Internet of Things

With the rapid advances of sensing technologies and wireless communications, large amounts of dynamic data pertaining to industrial production are being collected from many sensor nodes deployed in the industrial Internet of Things. Analyzing those data effectively can help to improve the industrial services and mitigate the system unprepared breakdowns. As an important technique of data analysis, clustering attempts to find the underlying pattern structures embedded in unlabeled information. Unfortunately, most of the current clustering techniques that could only deal with static data become infeasible to cluster a significant volume of data in the dynamic industrial applications. To tackle this problem, an incremental clustering algorithm by fast finding and searching of density peaks based on k-mediods is proposed in this paper. In the proposed algorithm, two cluster operations, namely cluster creating and cluster merging, are defined to integrate the current pattern into the previous one for the final clustering result, and k-mediods is employed to modify the clustering centers according to the new arriving objects. Finally, experiments are conducted to validate the proposed scheme on three popular UCI datasets and two real datasets collected from industrial Internet of Things in terms of clustering accuracy and computational time.
Referential Choices in a Collaborative Storytelling Task: Discourse Stages and Referential Complexity Matter

During a narrative discourse, accessibility of the referents is rarely fixed once and for all. Rather, each referent varies in accessibility as the discourse unfolds, depending on the presence and prominence of the other referents. This leads the speaker to use various referential expressions to refer to the main protagonists of the story at different moments in the narrative. This study relies on a new, collaborative storytelling in sequence task designed to assess how speakers adjust their referential choices when they refer to different characters at specific discourse stages corresponding to the introduction, maintaining, or shift of the character in focus, in increasingly complex referential contexts. Referential complexity of the stories was manipulated through variations in the number of characters (1 vs. 2) and, for stories in which there were two characters, in their ambiguity in gender (different vs. same gender). Data were coded for the type of reference markers as well as the type of reference content (i.e., the extent of the information provided in the referential expression). Results showed that, beyond the expected effects of discourse stages on reference markers (more indefinite markers at the introduction stage, more pronouns at the maintaining stage, and more definite markers at the shift stage), the number of characters and their ambiguity in gender also modulated speakers' referential choices at specific discourse stages, For the maintaining stage, an effect of the number of characters was observed for the use of pronouns and of definite markers, with more pronouns when there was a single character, sometimes replaced by definite expressions when two characters were present in the story. For the shift stage, an effect of gender ambiguity was specifically noted for the reference content with more specific information provided in the referential expression when there was referential ambiguity. Reference content is an aspect of referential marking that is rarely addressed in a narrative context, yet it revealed a quite flexible referential behavior by the speakers.
Determination of Optimum Ambient Temperature Re-Torque Dwell Period for PTFE Based Gaskets

Gaskets must receive adequate, minimum assembly stress in order to develop the required level of joint tightness. Furthermore, operating stress levels must be maintained above a certain threshold throughout the service life of the connection in order to insure continued joint reliability and tightness (low leakage) performance. PTFE based gasket materials can exhibit significant initial and/or continued compressive flow, which translates into a loss of bolt load. Manufacturers and users of PTFE based gasket materials are advised to re-torque these connections, often after a 24 hour dwell period. The following research was conducted in order to determine if the specific PTFE material selected can influence the need for bolt re-torque, and additionally to determine if the re-torque dwell period can be reduced to a time period less than 24 hours.Copyright © 2006 by ASME
Effect of tolfenamic acid on canine cancer cell proliferation, specificity protein (sp) transcription factors, and sp-regulated proteins in canine osteosarcoma, mammary carcinoma, and melanoma cells.

BACKGROUND Tolfenamic acid (TA) is an NSAID currently under investigation as an anticancer agent in humans. TA induces proteosome-dependent degradation of transcription factors Sp 1, 3, and 4. These proteins are known to be overexpressed in many human cancers. HYPOTHESIS To evaluate the protein expression of Sps in canine tissue, and efficacy of TA against several canine tumor cell lines. METHODS Six canine cell lines (2 osteosarcoma, 2 mammary carcinoma, 2 melanoma) were evaluated. Protein levels of Sp 1-4 and their downstream targets were evaluated using Western Blots. Cell survival and TUNEL assays were performed on cell lines, and Sp1 expression was evaluated on histologic samples from archived canine cases. ANIMALS Six immortalized canine cancer cell lines derived from dogs were used. Archived tissue samples were also used. RESULTS Sps were highly expressed in all 6 cell lines and variably expressed in histologic tissues. TA decreased expression of Sps 1-4 in all cell lines. All of the downstream targets of Sps were inhibited in the cell lines. Variable Sp1 expression was identified in all histologic samples examined. TA significantly inhibited cell survival in all cell lines in a dose dependant fashion. The number of cells undergoing apoptosis was significantly increased (P < .05) in all cell lines after exposure to TA in a dose-dependent fashion. CONCLUSIONS, AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Tolfenamic acid is a potential anticancer NSAID and further investigation is needed to determine its usefulness in a clinical setting.
Grade-IV inferior glenohumeral mobilization does not immediately alter shoulder and scapular muscle activity: a repeated-measures study in asymptomatic individuals

Abstract Objectives: To assess: (1) the presence of any carry-over effect between interventions; (2) the immediate effects of inferior shoulder mobilization on shoulder and scapular muscle activity; and (3) to compare muscle activity response between the control and mobilization conditions. Repeated measures, cross-over, pre-post intervention study with sample of convenience. Methods: Twenty-two asymptomatic individuals performed 10 repetitions of shoulder abduction before and after the control and mobilization, with a dosage of three sets of 30-s duration, with grade-IV. The order of intervention was randomized. Surface electromyography was used for recording activity of upper and lower trapezius; anterior, middle and posterior deltoids; supraspinatus; infraspinatus; and serratus anterior. Repeated measures mixed-model analysis of variance was used to assess immediate changes in muscle activity levels following inferior shoulder mobilization. Statistical parametric mapping (SPM) was used for comparing muscle activity waveforms between control and mobilization conditions throughout the range of motion. Results: No systematic changes in muscle activity levels were found between: (1) baseline and follow-up for each condition, at the concentric and eccentric phases of shoulder abduction; (2) control and mobilization conditions during the concentric and eccentric phases of shoulder abduction. SPM results suggested no differences in muscle activity pattern between conditions. Conclusions: Inferior shoulder mobilization did not produce immediate effects on shoulder and scapular muscle activity. It is possible that the dose used was insufficient to generate an immediate neuromuscular response to the mobilization.
Controversies in diagnosis and management of Kawasaki disease

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a common medium vessel systemic vasculitis that usually occurs in small children. It has a predilection for the coronary arteries, but other medium sized arteries can also be involved. The etiology of this disorder remains a mystery. Though typical presentation of KD is quite characteristic, it may also present as incomplete or atypical disease in which case the diagnosis can be very challenging. As both incomplete and atypical forms of KD can be associated with serious coronary artery complications, the pediatrician can ill afford to miss these diagnoses. The American Heart Association has enunciated consensus guidelines to facilitate the clinical diagnosis and treatment of this condition. However, there are still several issues that remain controversial. Intravenous immunoglobulin remains the cornerstone of management but several other treatment modalities, especially glucocorticoids, are increasingly finding favour. We review here some of the contemporary issues, and the controversies thereon, pertaining to management of KD.
The long learning route to abstract letter units

This is a review of theory and evidence on how abstract letter units (ALUs) are initially learnt by the developing individual. Despite the predominance of the lower-case form of letters in the print environment, naming identification of upper case has precedence over lower case among preschool children. Such children showed a significant lag in extending their categories of upper-case variants to include the corresponding lower-case forms that are visually dissimilar. As late as 11 years of age children gave longer naming latencies for the lower-case than the upper-case forms. Initial learning of ALUs proceeded slowly over many months, consistent with the “common contexts” hypothesis but not consistent with the early acquisition predicted by the “common letter name” hypothesis. Evidence from cross-case transfer in a training experiment indicated that prior to acquiring full use of ALUs the children had formed representations of words that were letter based but specific to lower-case forms.
Combination of subtotal perineoplasty and interferon for the treatment of vulvar vestibulitis.

PURPOSE To evaluate the efficacy of a combination of subtotal perineoplasty and interferon (IFN) infiltration of the remaining anterior vestibule in the treatment of vulvar vestibulitis. BASIC PROCEDURES Nineteen women with vulvar vestibulitis were randomized to undergo either a total perineoplasty or a subtotal perineoplasty without removal of the anterior vestibule. The second group was further treated 6 weeks later with injection of the anterior vestibule by IFN. Differences in outcome between the groups were analyzed using Fisher's exact test. MAIN FINDINGS The combination of subtotal perineoplasty and IFN injections was successful in 7 of 10 women, similar to the outcome of the group undergoing total perineoplasty (6 of 9 patients). CONCLUSION A combination of subtotal perineoplasty and IFN injections to the anterior vestibule is as effective as total perineoplasty and has less surgical complications.
Protective Effect of Leaf Ethanolic Extract Etlingera hemisphaerica Blume Against Mercuric Chloride Toxicity in Blood of Mice

ABSTRACT This research was intended to investigate the protective effect of leaf ethanolic extract Etlingera hemisphaerica Blume (LE3H) against mercuric chloride (HgCl2) toxicity in blood of mice (Mus musculus). The experimental animals, 95 male M. musculus, received drink and food ad libitum. Three materials were tested: LE3H (0.13, 0.26, 0.39 mg/g body weight [bw]) was administered by gavage; HgCl2 (5 mg/kg bw) was administrated by gavage or intraperitoneal injection; and Imunos (the nutritional supplement to stimulate the immune system; 0.2 mg/g bw), as a positive control for LE3H treatment, was given by gavage. Blood samples were taken from the tails for determining number of blood cells. The animals were killed by cervical dislocation (CD), and then blood samples were collected from the hearts for protein electrophoresis. Results revealed the same number of leukocytes with LE3H (0.39 mg/g bw) treatment as with the Imunos treatment. HgCl2 administration increased leukocytes and decreased erythrocytes; HgCl2 administration followed by LE3H (0.39 mg/g bw) treatment protected the amount of blood cells as well as the control. HgCl2 administration showed a new 125 kDa protein and caused overexpression of 48 kDa protein; this protein profile could be protected by LE3H (0.39 mg/g bw) treatment as in the control condition. We conclude that LE3H provides a protective effect against HgCl2 toxicity in blood of M. musculus.
A New Suite of Plasmid Vectors for Fluorescence-Based Imaging of Root Colonizing Pseudomonads

In the terrestrial ecosystem, plant–microbe symbiotic associations are ecologically and economically important processes. To better understand these associations at structural and functional levels, different molecular and biochemical tools are applied. In this study, we have constructed a suite of vectors that incorporates several new elements into the rhizosphere stable, broad-host vector pME6031. The new vectors are useful for studies requiring multi-color tagging and visualization of plant-associated, Gram-negative bacterial strains such as Pseudomonas plant growth promotion and biocontrol strains. A number of genetic elements, including constitutive promoters and signal peptides that target secretion to the periplasm, have been evaluated. Several next generation fluorescent proteins, namely mTurquoise2, mNeonGreen, mRuby2, DsRed-Express2 and E2-Crimson have been incorporated into the vectors for whole cell labeling or protein tagging. Secretion of mTurquoise2 and mNeonGreen into the periplasm of Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25 has also been demonstrated, providing a vehicle for tagging proteins in the periplasmic compartment. A higher copy number version of select plasmids has been produced by introduction of a previously described repA mutation, affording an increase in protein expression levels. The utility of these plasmids for fluorescence-based imaging is demonstrated by root colonization of Solanum lycopersicum seedlings by P. fluorescens SBW25 in a hydroponic growth system. The plasmids are stably maintained during root colonization in the absence of selective pressure for more than 2 weeks.
Multipotency and secretome: the mechanisms behind the regenerative potential of adipose-derived stem cells

Dr. Hiroshi Mizuno is currently appointed as a Professor and Chief, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Mizuno’s clinical interests include breast reconstruction, burn reconstructive surgery, limb salvage surgery and blepharoplasty. In addition, Dr. Mizuno have been involved in basic research with regard to adipose-derived stem cells and control-released growth factors for regenerative medicine and wound healing. Dr. Mizuno is a former visiting fellow at Division of Plastic Surgery, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was one of the core members who firstly discovered mesodermal stem cells within adipose tissue.
Distributional and Knowledge-Based Approaches for Computing Portuguese Word Similarity

Identifying similar and related words is not only key in natural language understanding but also a suitable task for assessing the quality of computational resources that organise words and meanings of a language, compiled by different means. This paper, which aims to be a reference for those interested in computing word similarity in Portuguese, presents several approaches for this task and is motivated by the recent availability of state-of-the-art distributional models of Portuguese words, which add to several lexical knowledge bases (LKBs) for this language, available for a longer time. The previous resources were exploited to answer word similarity tests, which also became recently available for Portuguese. We conclude that there are several valid approaches for this task, but not one that outperforms all the others in every single test. Distributional models seem to capture relatedness better, while LKBs are better suited for computing genuine similarity, but, in general, better results are obtained when knowledge from different sources is combined.
FlexCRAN: A flexible functional split framework over ethernet fronthaul in Cloud-RAN

Thorough investigation of the Cloud-RAN (C-RAN) architecture has recently shown that C-RAN can bring advanced cooperated and coordinated processing capabilities as well as the multiplexing gains toward future radio access networks. The baseband processing of each base station instance can now be flexibly split into smaller functional components, that can be placed either at remote radio units (RRUs) or baseband units (BBUs), depending on the available fronthaul (FH) performance. Additionally, with the wide adoption of Ethernet in data centers and core networks, the Radio over Ethernet (RoE) approach is now considered as an off-the-shelf candidate for the FH link. To this end, we propose a unified RRU/BBU architectural framework for C-RAN that can support both a flexible functional split and a FH transport protocol over Ethernet. Furthermore, we experimentally evaluate the main key performance indicators (KPIs) of an operational C-RAN network built based on OpenAirInterface (OAI), a software implementation of LTE/LTE-A systems, under two functional splits and different deployment scenarios.