Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Structural and symptomatic efficacy of glucosamine and chondroitin in knee osteoarthritis: a comprehensive meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE To assess the structural and symptomatic efficacy of oral glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate in knee osteoarthritis through independent meta-analyses of their effects on joint space narrowing, Lequesne Index, Western Ontario MacMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), visual analog scale for pain, mobility, safety, and response to treatment. METHODS An exhaustive systematic research of randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials published or performed between January 1980 and March 2002 that assessed the efficacy of oral glucosamine or chondroitin on gonarthrosis was performed using MEDLINE, PREMEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Current Contents, BIOSIS Previews, HealthSTAR, EBM Reviews, manual review of the literature and congressional abstracts, and direct contact with the authors and manufacturers of glucosamine and chondroitin. Inclusion, quality scoring, and data abstraction were performed systematically by 2 independent reviewers who were blinded to sources and authors. Conservative approaches were used for clear assessment of potential efficacy. RESULTS Our results demonstrated a highly significant efficacy of glucosamine on all outcomes, including joint space narrowing and WOMAC. Chondroitin was found to be effective on Lequesne Index, visual analog scale pain, mobility, and responding status. Safety was excellent for both compounds. CONCLUSIONS Our study demonstrates the structural efficacy of glucosamine and indistinguishable symptomatic efficacies for both compounds. Regarding the relatively sparse data on glucosamine and joint space narrowing and the absence of data on structural effects of chondroitin, further studies are needed to investigate the relationship among time, dose, patient baseline characteristics, and structural efficacy for an accurate, disease-modifying characterization of these 2 compounds.
The use of treatment process variables to differentiate between completers and dropouts for a guided self -change adolescent substance abuse intervention

OF THE DISSERTATION THE USE OF TREATMENT PROCESS VARIABLES TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN COMPLETERS AND DROPOUTS FOR A GUIDED SELF-CHANGE ADOLESCENT SUBSTANCE ABUSE INTERVENTION by Mildred Cordaro Florida International University, 2006 Miami, Florida Professor Jonathan Tubman, Major Professor This study documented differences between substance using adolescent participants who either completed or dropped out of a brief motivational intervention. Therapeutic alliance, working alliance and patient involvement were used to describe differences in treatment process ratings in a sample of majority Latino males who either (a) completed a adolescent substance abuse intervention called Alcohol Treatment Targeting Adolescents In Need (ATTAIN) or (b) dropped out after the first or second Guided Self-Change therapy session. Fifteen-minute segments were copied from the midpoint of previously recorded audio-tapes of Guided Self-Change therapy sessions. Raters were trained to a criterion level of interrater reliability for both the Working Alliance Inventory-Short and Vanderbilt Psychotherapy Process Scale. Correlations among Working Alliance InventoryShort and Vanderbilt Psychotherapy Process Scale subscales reflected a general similarity in the assignment of ratings to client-therapist dyads. Findings underscore why these concepts are often used interchangeably in the treatment process literature. The Vanderbilt Psychotherapy Process Scale patient participation subscale demonstrated substantial empirical differentiation from overall therapeutic alliance. Discriminant function analysis demonstrated the Working Alliance Inventory-Short goal subscale and the Vanderbilt Psychotherapy Process Scale patient participation and therapist warmth and friendliness subscales as successful classifiers of groups of mostly Latino youth based on completion status. Follow-up logistic regression analyses confirmed major findings and successfully predicted group membership. Treatment process constructs can be used as clinical tools to identify participants who may be susceptible to dropping out of treatment services. Further investigation of treatment process may enhance understanding of the influence of alliance between clients and Guided SelfChange therapists. Investigating the role of treatment process as a critical component of brief motivational interventions for substance-using adolescents will inform both practitioners and researchers regarding the effectiveness of community-based substance abuse interventions for adolescents. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE
Renal Hemodynamics : Integrating with the Nephron and Beyond Sex differences in ET-1 receptor expression and Ca 2 signaling in the IMCD

Jin C, Speed JS, Hyndman KA, O’Connor PM, Pollock DM. Sex differences in ET-1 receptor expression and Ca signaling in the IMCD. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 305: F1099–F1104, 2013. First published August 14, 2013; doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00400. 2013. —The inner medullary collecting duct (IMCD) is the nephron segment with the highest production of endothelin-1 (ET-1) and the greatest expression of ET-1 receptors that function to adjust Na and water balance. We have reported that male rats have reduced natriuresis in response to direct intramedullary infusion of ET-1 compared with female rats. Our aim was to determine whether alterations of ET-1 receptor expression and downstream intracellular Ca signaling within the IMCD could account for these sex differences. IMCDs from male and female rats were isolated for radioligand binding or microdissected for intracellular Ca ([Ca ]i) measurement by fluorescence imaging of fura-2 AM. IMCD from male and female rats had similar ETB expression (655 201 vs. 567 39 fmol/mg protein, respectively), whereas male rats had significantly higher ETA expression (436 162 vs. 47 29 fmol/mg protein, respectively; P 0.05). The [Ca ]i response to ET-1 was significantly greater in IMCDs from male compared with female rats (288 52 vs. 118 32 AUC, nM 3 min, respectively; P 0.05). In IMCDs from male rats, the [Ca ]i response to ET-1 was significantly blunted by the ETA antagonist BQ-123 but not by the ETB antagonist BQ-788 (control: 137 27; BQ-123: 53 11; BQ-788: 84 25 AUC, nM 3 min; P 0.05), consistent with greater ETA receptor function in male rats. These data demonstrate a sex difference in ETA receptor expression that results in differences in ET-1 Ca signaling in IMCD. Since activation of ETA receptors is thought to oppose ETB receptor activation, enhanced ETA function in male rats could limit the natriuretic effects of ETB receptor activation.
PlasmoDB: a functional genomic database for malaria parasites

PlasmoDB (http://PlasmoDB.org) is a functional genomic database for Plasmodium spp. that provides a resource for data analysis and visualization in a gene-by-gene or genome-wide scale. PlasmoDB belongs to a family of genomic resources that are housed under the EuPathDB (http://EuPathDB.org) Bioinformatics Resource Center (BRC) umbrella. The latest release, PlasmoDB 5.5, contains numerous new data types from several broad categories—annotated genomes, evidence of transcription, proteomics evidence, protein function evidence, population biology and evolution. Data in PlasmoDB can be queried by selecting the data of interest from a query grid or drop down menus. Various results can then be combined with each other on the query history page. Search results can be downloaded with associated functional data and registered users can store their query history for future retrieval or analysis.
Gang of GANs: Generative Adversarial Networks with Maximum Margin Ranking

Traditional generative adversarial networks (GAN) and many of its variants are trained by minimizing the KL or JS-divergence loss that measures how close the generated data distribution is from the true data distribution. A recent advance called the WGAN based on Wasserstein distance can improve on the KL and JS-divergence based GANs, and alleviate the gradient vanishing, instability, and mode collapse issues that are common in the GAN training. In this work, we aim at improving on the WGAN by first generalizing its discriminator loss to a margin-based one, which leads to a better discriminator, and in turn a better generator, and then carrying out a progressive training paradigm involving multiple GANs to contribute to the maximum margin ranking loss so that the GAN at later stages will improve upon early stages. We call this method Gang of GANs (GoGAN). We have shown theoretically that the proposed GoGAN can reduce the gap between the true data distribution and the generated data distribution by at least half in an optimally trained WGAN. We have also proposed a new way of measuring GAN quality which is based on image completion tasks. We have evaluated our method on four visual datasets: CelebA, LSUN Bedroom, CIFAR-10, and 50K-SSFF, and have seen both visual and quantitative improvement over baseline WGAN.
Exogenous GA3 Application Can Compensate the Morphogenetic Effects of the GA-Responsive Dwarfing Gene Rht12 in Bread Wheat

The most common dwarfing genes in wheat, Rht-B1b and Rht-D1b, classified as gibberellin-insensitive (GAI) dwarfing genes due to their reduced response to exogenous GA, have been verified as encoding negative regulators of gibberellin signaling. In contrast, the response of gibberellin-responsive (GAR) dwarfing genes, such as Rht12, to exogenous GA is still unclear and the role of them, if any, in GA biosynthesis or signaling is unknown. The responses of Rht12 to exogenous GA3 were investigated on seedling vigour, spike phenological development, plant height and other agronomic traits, using F2∶3 and F3∶4 lines derived from a cross between Ningchun45 and Karcagi-12 in three experiments. The application of exogenous GA3 significantly increased coleoptile length and seedling leaf 1 length and area. While there was no significant difference between the dwarf and the tall lines at the seedling stage in the responsiveness to GA3, plant height was significantly increased, by 41 cm (53%) averaged across the three experiments, in the GA3-treated Rht12 dwarf lines. Plant height of the tall lines was not affected significantly by GA3 treatment (<10 cm increased). Plant biomass and seed size of the GA3-treated dwarf lines was significantly increased compared with untreated dwarf plants while there was no such difference in the tall lines. GA3-treated Rht12 dwarf plants with the dominant Vrn-B1 developed faster than untreated plants and reached double ridge stage 57 days, 11 days and 50 days earlier and finally flowered earlier by almost 7 days while the GA3-treated tall lines flowering only 1–2 days earlier than the untreated tall lines. Thus, it is clear that exogenous GA3 can break the masking effect of Rht12 on Vrn-B1 and also restore other characters of Rht12 to normal. It suggested that Rht12 mutants may be deficient in GA biosynthesis rather than in GA signal transduction like the GA-insensitive dwarfs.
The Inferential Complexity of Bayesian and Credal Networks

This paper presents new results on the complexity of graph-theoretical models that represent probabilities (Bayesian networks) and that represent interval and set valued probabilities (credal networks). We define a new class of networks with bounded width, and introduce a new decision problem for Bayesian networks, the maximin a posteriori. We present new links between the Bayesian and credal networks, and present new results both for Bayesian networks (most probable explanation with observations, maximin a posteriori) and for credal networks (bounds on probabilities a posteriori, most probable explanation with and without observations, maximum a posteriori).
Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma Arising in Fibroadenoma and Associated Proliferative Mammary Disease in a 38 Years Old Female-A Rare Case Report

Infiltrating ductal carcinoma arising in a fibroadenoma is a rare incidental finding. Incidence is 0.0020. 0125%. Women having proliferative disease without atypia have a twofold elevation in their risk for subsequent invasive breast cancer. We here present a case report in a 38 year female having fibroadenoma, intraductal papilloma and fibocystic disease of breast who subsequently developed invasive ductal carcinoma in the fibroadenoma. Thus these lesions can be considered to have increased risk of developing
O Inventário de Potencial de Maus-tratos infantil: estudo de precisão e validade

This present study verified the internal consistency of the Brazilian version of Child Abuse Potential Inventory – CAP, instrument which detects abuse potential by caregivers. Additionally, an analysis of the CAP items was done, evaluating its capacity of distincting two groups, set in socio-demographic variables: G1 composed of 60 caregivers notified by the child protective services agencies for the maltreatment, and G2 composed of 60 caregivers with no background of violence against children. Reliability rates over 0.80 were found for both the Abuse scale and Distress and Rigidity dimensions, and also for the Ego-Strengtht and Loneliness scale. The discriminant analysis outlined that out of the 77 Abuse Scale items, 35 discriminated the G1 and the G2. It was possible to conclude that the CAP Abuse scale has a satisfactory psychometric quality to its internal consistency, being precise in detecting the risk potential of child abuse in the Brazilian context
Comparison of Darveaux model and Coffin-Manson model for fatigue life prediction of BGA solder joints

The reliability of interconnections in microelectronic packages is an urge concern for the well-functioned electronic devices. Owing to the mismatch of CTE of different materials involved in the interconnections, the structures endures high risk of fatigue failure under thermal cycle loading. Numerous fatigue life prediction models have been proposed or developed for the evaluation of reliability of interconnections, e.g., solder joints, under thermal cyclic loadings. Particularly, energy-based Darveaux model and strain-based Coffin-Manson model are two widely employed to predict fatigue life for BGA solder balls. In this paper, the fatigue life prediction results of solder balls in BGA packaging using Darveaux model and C-M model have been compared and discussed, varied geometric size have been deployed to further explore the performance of two selected fatigue models. Simulation results show that the predictive life of Darveaux model above the other one. Additionally, in both models, fatigue life increase while the height increase and decrease with the diameter increase, although the trends are slightly different.
Tissue-Like Phantoms as a Platform for Inserted Fluorescence Nano-Probes

Tissue-like phantoms are widely used as a model for mimicking the optical properties of live tissue. This paper presents the results of a diffusion reflection method and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy measurements of fluorescein-conjugated gold nanorods in solution, as well as inserted in solid tissue-imitating phantoms. A lack of consistency between the fluorescence lifetime results of the solutions and the phantoms raises a question about the ability of tissue-like phantoms to maintain the optical properties of inserted contrast agents.
COMMENT SOCIAL STRATIFICATION AND CONTENT PRODUCTION

My paper (Blank 2013) makes two fundamental points about content production and inequality. First, content production can be meaningfully grouped into several discrete types. Using British data from the 2011 Oxford Internet Survey (OxIS), I find three types, which I called ‘skilled content’, ‘social and entertainment content’, and ‘political content’. Second, these types are produced by distinctive social categories. Social stratification variables are irrelevant to skilled content; social and entertainment content is more likely to be produced by people of lower social status; and political content is produced by highly educated elites. This implies that the effects of social stratification vary depending on who produces it and on the type of content. Ms Schradie opens her comment by saying my results represent a ‘break from American digital inequality literature’. She does not support this assertion with evidence, so let us review the evidence. No prior papers use multivariate models to assess political content, but three papers assess the effect of social stratification on other content: Hargittai and Walejko (2008), Correa (2010) and Schradie (2011a). In multivariate regressions reported by Hargittai and Walejko (2008, Table 7) and Correa (2010), education has no statistically significant effect on social and entertainment content or on skilled content. This is consistent with my results in Table 3 (Blank 2013). Neither Hargittai and Walejko nor Correa has an income variable, but in Schradie’s paper, income is negative and significant in only 1 of 10 models, when social network sites (SNSs) is the dependent variable, see Table P (Schradie 2011b). SNSs are one of the variables included in social and entertainment content, so this is exactly consistent with my results. The only results at variance with mine are Schradie’s (2011a) Table 3, where education is significant in 6 of 10 regressions. Schradie’s (2011a) education results are the ‘break’ with other research. Most prior work is consistent with my findings.
Effects of short-term NIPPV in the treatment of patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea and hypercapnia.

Although nasal continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is effective in the treatment of most patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), there is a small group of such patients in whom rapid eye movement (REM) hypoventilation and CO2 retention persist despite the use of CPAP and supplemental oxygen. In this report we describe our experience with nocturnal nasal ventilation (nocturnal nasal positive pressure ventilation [NIPPV] in such patients and its effectiveness in reversing daytime hypercapnia. Thirteen patients, aged 28 to 69 years, with severe OSA confirmed on polysomnography, failed to respond to initial CPAP therapy. All were grossly obese (body mass index [BMI] > 35 kg.ml-1) and hypercapnic (mean PaCO2, 62 mm Hg). Nocturnal nasal ventilation was commenced using a volume-cycled ventilator, which was well tolerated in all patients. After 7 to 18 days of NIPPV, significant improvements in daytime arterial blood gas values were achieved, with a rise in arterial oxygen tension from 50 +/- 2.6 (SEM) to 66 +/- 3 mm Hg (p < 0.001) and a fall in CO2 from 62 +/- 2.5 to 46 +/- 1 mm Hg (p < 0.0001). Nine of the 13 patients were able to be established on a regimen of nasal CPAP after this period, while 3 patients required a longer period (up to 3 months) before adequate nocturnal ventilation could be maintained. In one patient, the improvements in ventilatory drive achieved with NIPPV could not be maintained on CPAP, and she was transferred on to NIPPV long term. These results indicate that effective nasal ventilation leads to an overall improvement in spontaneous ventilation and blood gas values both awake and asleep. We believe this improvement is the result of improved central ventilatory drive. Short-term NIPPV provides lasting benefits allowing the majority of such patients to resume CPAP therapy. Short-term intervention with this therapy should be considered as an interim measure in patients with severe hypercapnic OSA who fail to respond to initial CPAP therapy.
Long-term evaluation of motor function following intraneural injection of ropivacaine using walking track analysis in rats.

BACKGROUND There is a paucity of data regarding neurologic function following nerve injury. Our objective was the long-term evaluation of motor function following intraneural injection of ropivacaine in rats using the sciatic function index (SFI), derived from walking track analysis. METHODS Rats were randomly assigned to one of four groups of 13 animals each. A needle was inserted under magnification into the left sciatic nerve and 0.2 ml of normal saline, formalin 15%, ropivacaine 0.2 or 0.75% were injected intraneurally. The right side was sham operated. Walking track analysis was performed the day before and on days 1, 4, 7, 11, 15, 18, 21, and 67 following intraneural injection. At the end of the experiment (day 67) a semi-quantitative evaluation of neuropathologic changes was performed by three independent observers. RESULTS Animals treated with saline and ropivacaine (0.2 and 0.75%) had no detectable impairment of motor function at any time point. In contrast, rats treated with formalin had a complete loss of motor function immediately after the intraneural injection, which persisted until day 21 and returned to normal by day 67. Important histopathologic changes (score=2) with excellent inter-observer agreement were seen only in the group treated with formalin. This applied to both axonal degeneration and Schwann cell density evaluations. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that intraneural injections of ropivacaine at concentrations routinely used in clinical practice appear to have no deleterious effect on sciatic nerve motor function in this experimental rat model.
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of aripiprazole lauroxil in acute exacerbation of schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of aripiprazole lauroxil, a novel long-acting injectable atypical antipsychotic, for the treatment of schizophrenia. METHOD An international multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted between December 2011 and March 2014. Patients (N = 623) aged 18 to 70 years with schizophrenia (DSM-IV-TR criteria), experiencing an acute exacerbation, were randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive gluteal intramuscular injection of aripiprazole lauroxil 441 mg, aripiprazole lauroxil 882 mg, or matching placebo once monthly for 12 weeks. The primary efficacy outcome was change in Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) total score from baseline to day 85. The Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale (CGI-I) score at day 85 was the secondary efficacy outcome. Safety and tolerability were assessed. RESULTS The PANSS total score (mean ± standard error [SE]) improved significantly from baseline to day 85 in the aripiprazole lauroxil 441 mg and 882 mg groups, with placebo-adjusted differences of -10.9 ± 1.8 (P < .001) and -11.9 ± 1.8 (P < .001), respectively. Significant (P ≤ .004) improvements in both active treatment groups were demonstrated as early as day 8 and continued throughout the treatment period. The proportion of patients who were very much or much improved on the CGI-I was significantly greater with aripiprazole lauroxil 441 mg and 882 mg treatment versus placebo (P < .001). The most common treatment-emergent adverse events were insomnia, akathisia, headache, and anxiety. The incidence of injection site reactions was low, predominantly described as injection site pain, and was associated with the first injection. CONCLUSIONS Aripiprazole lauroxil demonstrated robust efficacy for treatment of patients experiencing acute exacerbation of schizophrenia. The improvement in psychotic symptoms was statistically significant and clinically meaningful. Symptom improvement occurred rapidly after initiation of aripiprazole lauroxil treatment and was maintained throughout the study. Both aripiprazole lauroxil 441 mg and 882 mg doses were well tolerated. These results support aripiprazole lauroxil as an important new treatment option for schizophrenia. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01469039; Clinicaltrialsregister.eu identifier: 2012-003445-15.