Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Thoughts on the Treatment of Labyrinthopathy

IT is common ground that the eponym "Meniere's syndrome" is used far too loosely, and covers a variety of conditions. The generic term "labyrinthopathy" is even less precise, but is used here deliberately to emphasize the fact that we are still groping in the dark when dealing with syndromes involving the inner ear; and this despite the awe-inspiring complexity of the audiometric and vestibulometric tests that have evolved within recent years. Broadly speaking the treatment of a labyrinthopathy can be classified • under three headings: 1. General medical measures. 2. Drugs. 3. Surgery. Of these 1. is by far the most important. Many famous authorities (Mygind, Dederding, Kristensen, Opheim, Jongkees, to name but a few) have asserted that in the great majority of cases the disease can be kept within tolerable limits. The attacks remain relatively infrequent and the patient is neither disabled nor demoralized by them. 2. Drugs have no curative value whatsoever. At best they provide temporary sedation during and immediately after a crisis. 3. Surgery can be classified on the basis of the destruction entailed. (a) Total destruction of cochleo-vestibular system, e.g. (i) Avulsion of membranous canal system. (ii) Alcohol labyrintholysis. (b) Selective destruction of vestibular system with preservation of cochlear system. e.g. (i) Intracranial section of vestibular nerve, (ii) Ultrasonic labyrintholysis. (c) Non-destructive procedures. e.g. (i) Portman's operation on the saccus endolymphaticus. (ii) Sympathectomy. 1041
The effects of contingent and noncontingent attention on self-injury and self-restraint.

Self-restraint and self-injurious behavior (SIB) are two responses that can sometimes be members of the same functional response class (i.e., maintained by the same contingency). In such cases, a single treatment should be effective for both responses. In this investigation, we examined the effects of providing attention (the presumed reinforcer) both noncontingently and contingent upon either SIB or self-restraint. Results were consistent with our hypothesis that both responses were maintained by attention and suggested that noncontingent reinforcement was a potentially effective treatment.
Capturing hypervigilance : attention biases in elevated trait anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder

The work presented in this thesis aimed to investigate attentional processing of threat in anxious individuals and its relationship to the clinical anxiety symptom of hypervigilance. Four experimental chapters report a total of nine experiments. The first three experiments (chapters 2 and 3) describe a novel paradigm designed to measure attention bias to threat in a way which overcomes limitations of previous paradigms and which differentially measures engagement and disengagement stages of attention bias. No differences in performance were seen between high and low traitanxious individuals. Instead a general behaviour pattern was seen in which shifting location of attention aids disengagement from negative content. Additionally, adapting the task to a training paradigm demonstrated that both engagement and disengagement processes play causative roles in emotional reactivity. The series of experiments reported in chapter 4 investigated pre-conscious processing of (threat-related) traits in non-emotional faces. Highly trustworthy, untrustworthy and dominant faces (relative to neutral) took longer to reach awareness. Furthermore, the size of this effect was related to observers’ personality traits showing that preconscious evaluation of social dimensions arises from interactions between stimulus features and observer-specific traits. British war veterans showed the same effect for trustworthy faces but altered effects for faces varying in dominance traits. Finally, two eye-tracking experiments reported in chapter 5 captured hypervigilance in war veterans with and without PTSD. Veterans freely viewed photographs of neutral street scenes and a correlation was found between reported severity of hypervigilance and both number of saccades and duration of fixations. In a second experiment PTSD symptom related differences were seen in eye movements recorded whilst veterans walked London streets, although these did not match those see in the laboratory task. Overall, this thesis shows that multiple stages of processing are implicated in threat biases and that such biases in attention extend to traits other than anxiety. Additionally, anxiety-related alterations in behaviour are seen even in the absence of objective threat suggesting that preferential threat processing is only part of the picture.
Protective effect of CCR5 Δ32 heterozygosity is restricted by SDF-1 genotype in children with HIV-1 infection

ObjectiveTo determine the influences on pediatric AIDS of a heterozygous 32 base pair deletion in the CC-chemokine receptor 5 gene (CCR5 wt/Δ32) and a common polymorphism in the 3′ untranslated region of stromal cell-derived factor-1β gene transcript (SDF1-3′A). DesignThe rate of HIV-1 disease progression and viral burden were compared according to the CCR5 and SDF-1 genotypes in 127 (58 Caucasians, 60 African-Americans and nine Hispanics) perinatally HIV-1-infected children. ResultsRegardless of ethnic background, the CCR5 wt/Δ32 genotype was associated with a delayed onset of AIDS-defining infectious complications during the first 5 years of infection [relative hazard (RH) = 0.22; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.012–1.02; P = 0.053]. Similarly, CCR5 wt/Δ32 conferred an early protection against severe immune suppression and HIV-1 encephalopathy, but only in those without SDF1-3′A (RH = 0; 95% CI, 0–0.70; P = 0.020, and RH = 0; 95% CI, 0–0.71; P = 0.021, respectively). When examined before 5 years of age (n = 81), the children with CCR5 wt/Δ32 had significantly lower levels of cell-associated HIV-1 DNA than wild-type homozygotes (P = 0.016, adjusted by race), while SDF1-3′A carriers had relatively higher levels (P = 0.047, adjusted by race). Although the disease-retarding effect of CCR5 wt/Δ32 subsequently disappeared, time to death was still significantly delayed in the CCR5 Δ32 heterozygotes without SDF1-3′A (RH = 0; 95% CI, 0–0.53; P = 0.008). ConclusionIn pediatric AIDS, the protective effect of CCR5 wt/Δ32 is more pronounced in early years of infection and appears to be abrogated by the SDF1-3′A genotype.
Male Peer Influence on African American Men’s Motivation for Physical Activity

Thematic analysis of data from nine exploratory focus groups conducted with 71 middle-aged and older African American men and eight focus groups with 77 key women in their lives revealed how social norms and modeling of physical activity influenced men’s motivation to exercise. Both men and women identified male peers as an important source of ideas, encouragement, and support to initiate and sustain physical activity, yet sedentary peers also could contribute to men being less motivated to be active. The primary difference in men’s and women’s perspectives was that men attributed their decline in activity levels to difficulties in finding time for physical activity, whereas women attributed sedentary lifestyles to an increase in men’s physical illnesses and ailments. Men’s participation in team sports and overall activity levels diminished with age. Peer social support can be critical for interventions to help African American men engage in and sustain physical activity.
Epidemiology of Abdominal Obesity among Adolescents from a Brazilian State Capital

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of socioeconomic, demographic and lifestyle factors on abdominal obesity in adolescents from a Brazilian state capital. In this cross-sectional study, 656 high school students (423 girls and 233 boys) from public schools, ranging in age from 14 to 19 yr, were evaluated. Abdominal obesity was identified based on waist circumference. Socioeconomic data (socioeconomic status, household head's education, and school grade), demographic data (gender and age), and information regarding lifestyle (physical activity, eating habits, aerobic fitness, and nutritional status) were collected. Logistic regression was used for multivariate analysis. The prevalence of abdominal obesity was 6.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.6-8.4). Being in the second (odds ratio [OR] = 0.41; 95% CI: 0.19-0.88) or third year (OR = 0.18; 95% CI: 0.06-0.59) of high school was a protective factor against abdominal obesity. In addition, students presenting low aerobic fitness (OR = 4.10; 95% CI: 1.62-10.4) and those with excess weight (OR = 208.6; 95% CI: 47.7-911.7) had a higher probability of abdominal obesity. In conclusion, demographic factors such as school grade, lifestyle habits, low aerobic fitness and excess weight are associated with central obesity.
Adult age differences in memory for distinctive information: Evidence from the bizarreness effect

Two experiments examined age-related differences in memory for bizarre and common pictures. In Experiment 1, a facilitative effect of bizarreness was obtained for young adults and one of the older groups, but not for the oldest group (over age 70). However, the bizarreness effect was found for even the oldest group when predominantly common lists were used in Experiment 2. It is concluded that older adults suffer from deficits in distinctive processing, but those deficits can be reduced by providing a more uniformly common context in which differences can be processed.
Utility of health states in chronic kidney disease: a structured review of the literature

ABSTRACT Purpose: To document published utilities for health states associated with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) and determine the most appropriate values for use in economic models to evaluate renal treatments in the UK. Methods: A structured literature review was conducted (MEDLINE, EMBASE, NHS EED and HTA) in order to identify relevant articles published between January 1990 and January 2006. In addition searches were conducted on websites of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) organizations and the Cost Effectiveness Analysis Registry. Articles were reviewed and those not containing utilities excluded. Results were assessed on the quality of the elicitation studies and their relevance to the UK HTA environment. Results: Thirty-five studies satisfied the inclusion criteria. Most studies were conducted in Canada (13), the US (10) and the Netherlands (4). Utilities were identified for all/most of the necessary states, but scores for individual states differed widely between studies and very few studies met the quality criteria. The majority of studies used the time trade-off (23) and standard gamble (11) to elicit utilities, while only six used EQ-5D. Seven studies provided community preferences. Two studies were judged to be directly relevant to economic evaluations in the UK. Conclusions: Many studies have estimated utilities in ESRD patients, but only a few have estimated utilities based upon public preferences. Further empirical research is needed to produce more reliable utilities for economic modelling in the UK, especially in chronic kidney disease patients who do not require dialysis.
Enhancement in treatment planning for magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia: Optimization of the heat absorption pattern

In clinical applications of magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia for cancer treatment it is very important to ensure a maximum damage to the tumor while protecting the normal tissue. The resultant heating pattern by the nanoparticle distribution in tumor is closely related to the injection parameters. In this study we develop an optimization algorithm to inversely determine the optimum heating patterns induced by multiple nanoparticle injections in tumor models with irregular geometries. The injection site locations, thermal properties of tumor and tissue, and local blood perfusion rates are used as inputs to the algorithm to determine the optimum parameters of the heat sources for all nanoparticle injection sites. The design objective is to elevate the temperature of at least 90% of the tumor above 43°C, and to ensure only less than 10% of the normal tissue is heated to temperatures of 43°C or higher. The efficiency, flexibility and capability of this approach have been demonstrated in a case study of two tumors with simple or complicated geometry. An extensive experimental database should be developed in the future to relate the optimized heating pattern parameters found in this study to their appropriate nanoparticle concentration, injection amount, and injection rate. We believe that the optimization algorithm developed in this study can be used as a guideline for physicians to design an optimal treatment plan in magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia.
Broadband multisection asymmetric 8.34-dB directional coupler with improved directivity

The paper presents the design of a broadband 8.34-dB directional coupler in a stripline technique. In order to obtain broadband frequency response a three-section asymmetric coupled-line directional coupler has been chosen. The influence of discontinuities in the regions of coupled and transmission line connections, as well as intersection connections, has been taken into account in the design stage. The parasitic reactances associated with the discontinuities have been compensated using the developed capacitive compensation technique which allows for directional couplers' design with improved directivity and return loss characteristics. The compensation technique has been for the first time applied for the design of directional couplers with the coupling weaker than 3 dB. The designed coupler has been manufactured and measured to validate the presented compensation technique.
Virtual Earthquake Engineering Laboratory Capturing Nonlinear Shear, Localized Damage and Progressive Buckling of Bar

We embarked upon developing a novel parallel simulation platform that is rooted in microphysical mechanisms. Primarily aiming at large-scale reinforced-concrete structures exposed to cyclic loading, we sought to settle the question as to how to capture nonlinear shear, localized damage and progressive buckling of reinforcing bar. We proposed a tribology-inspired three-dimensional (3-D) interlocking mechanism in the well-established framework of multidirec-tional smeared crack models. Strong correlation between random material property and localized damage has been shown, notably at the global system level. An automated platform has been suggested to capture progressive buckling phenomena. Validation and applications straddle a wide range, from small laboratory tests to large-scale 3-D experiments, successfully offering a clear causal pathway between underlying physical mechanisms and the unresolved issues addressed above.
On the recursive sequence

Our aim in this paper is to investigate the boundedness, global asymptotic stability, and periodic character of solutions of the difference equation xn+1 = (γxn-1 + δxn-2)/(xn + xn-2), n = 0,1,. , where the parameters γ and δ and the initial conditions are positive real numbers.
Maternal Postpartum Distress and Childhood Overweight

Objective We investigated associations between maternal postpartum distress covering anxiety, depression and stress and childhood overweight. Methods We performed a prospective cohort study, including 21 121 mother-child-dyads from the Danish National Birth Cohort (DNBC). Maternal distress was measured 6 months postpartum by 9 items covering anxiety, depression and stress. Outcome was childhood overweight at 7-years-of age. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed and information on maternal age, socioeconomic status, pre-pregnancy BMI, gestational weight gain, parity, smoking during pregnancy, paternal BMI, birth weight, gestational age at birth, sex, breastfeeding and finally infant weight at 5 and 12 month were included in the analyses. Results We found, that postpartum distress was not associated with childhood risk of overweight, OR 1.00, 95%CI [0.98–1.02]. Neither was anxiety, depression, or stress exposure, separately. There were no significant differences between the genders. Adjustment for potential confounders did not alter the results. Conclusion Maternal postpartum distress is apparently not an independent risk factor for childhood overweight at 7-years-of-age. However, we can confirm previous findings of perinatal determinants as high maternal pre-pregnancy BMI, and smoking during pregnancy being risk factors for childhood overweight.
Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in HIV-Positive Patients by Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility Assay

ABSTRACT The microscopic observation drug susceptibility assay (MODS) is a novel and promising test for the early diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). We evaluated the MODS assay for the early diagnosis of TB in HIV-positive patients presenting to Pham Ngoc Thach Hospital for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases in southern Vietnam. A total of 738 consecutive sputum samples collected from 307 HIV-positive individuals suspected of TB were tested by smear, MODS, and the mycobacteria growth indicator tube method (MGIT). The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of MODS compared to the microbiological gold standard (either smear or MGIT) were 87 and 93%, respectively. The sensitivities of smear, MODS, and MGIT were 57, 71, and 75%, respectively, against clinical gold standard (MODS versus smear, P < 0.001; MODS versus MGIT, P = 0.03). The clinical gold standard was defined as patients who had a clinical examination and treatment consistent with TB, with or without microbiological confirmation. For the diagnosis of smear-negative patients, the sensitivities of MODS and MGIT were 38 and 45%, respectively (P = 0.08). The median times to detection using MODS and MGIT were 8 and 11 days, respectively, and they were 11 and 17 days, respectively, for smear-negative samples. The original bacterial/fungal contamination rate of MODS was 1.1%, while it was 2.6% for MGIT. The cross-contamination rate of MODS was 4.7%. In conclusion, MODS is a sensitive, specific, and rapid test that is appropriate for the detection of HIV-associated TB; its cost and ease of use make it particularly useful in resource-limited settings.
A Visual Screen of a Gfp-Fusion Library Identifies a New Type of Nuclear Envelope Membrane Protein

The nuclear envelope (NE) is a distinct subdomain of the ER, but few membrane components have been described that are specific to it. We performed a visual screen in tissue culture cells to identify proteins targeted to the NE. This approach does not require assumptions about the nature of the association with the NE or the physical separation of NE and ER. We confirmed that screening a library of fusions to the green fluorescent protein can be used to identify proteins targeted to various subcompartments of mammalian cells, including the NE. With this approach, we identified a new NE membrane protein, named nurim. Nurim is a multispanning membrane protein without large hydrophilic domains that is very tightly associated with the nucleus. Unlike the known NE membrane proteins, it is neither associated with nuclear pores, nor targeted like lamin-associated membrane proteins. Thus, nurim is a new type of NE membrane protein that is localized to the NE by a distinct mechanism.
ReactivityEnzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Aspergillus for False-Positive Platelia Bifidobacterial Lipoglycan as a New Cause

We previously hypothesized that a lipoglycan of Biﬁdobacterium biﬁdum subsp. pennsylvanicum cross-reacts with the Platelia Aspergillus (PA) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on the presence of galactofuranosyl epitopes in the cell wall (M. A. S. H. Mennink-Kersten, R. R. Klont, A. Warris, H. J. M. Op den Camp, and P. E. Verweij, Lancet 363:325–327, 2004). We tested this hypothesis by testing bacterial suspensions of different biﬁdobacterial species and other gram-positive and -negative bacteria with the PA ELISA, which is used to detect circulating galactomannan for the serodiagnosis of invasive aspergillosis. Furthermore, neonatal fecal samples were enumerated for biﬁdobacteria by ﬂuorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and tested for PA ELISA reactivity. All biﬁdobacteria, except B. infantis and B. adolescentis , showed reactivity 6- to 600-fold higher compared to the controls (i.e., Micrococcus luteus and Propionibacterium freuden- reichii , which contain a cell wall lipomannan). Eggerthella lenta showed a 25-fold-higher reactivity. ELISA reactivity was clearly shown to be associated with bacterial lipoglycans containing a (cid:1) -1,5-galactofuranosyl chain. All neonatal feces showed PA ELISA reactivity and associated numbers of biﬁdobacteria. Since high concentrations of biﬁdobacteria are present in the human gut, these bacteria or excreted lipoglycan may cause false serum PA ELISA reactivity in selected patient groups, especially neonates.
Investors’ Short Term Decision Making and Review of the Hindsight Bias Effect

An important bias in the field of cognitive psychology describes a situation in which individuals are required, ex-post, to estimate the objective likelihood, ex-ante, for a particular event to take place. This psychological bias is called Hindsight Bias, and is the mistaken tendency to believe, after the fact, in one’s ability to foresee an event in advance. This article explores the bias for data from the capital market, and in particular, it examines the decision-making ability for short-term investment based on the paper by Fischhoff (1975). In the experiment, subjects were given a sum of money which they were asked to invest in various financial assets, after having seen their historical returns charts. In this study, I examined three principal questions: (1) Whether a difference exists in the hindsight bias effect for younger subjects than for older ones. (2) Whether subjects with higher income are affected in their decision-making process in a similar way as do lower income subjects. (3) Whether a difference exists in the effect between solid investors and speculative investors with regards to their short-term decision making. Results from the first examination show strong evidence for hindsight bias for all types of events, although the effect impacts older subjects more strongly than it does younger subjects. Results from the second test indicate that higher income investors are more influenced by the effect for positive events, but for negative events the trend changes and they are less impacted by the effect. Results from the third test show strong evidence for hindsight bias for speculative investors, but no evidence of the effect is seen for solid investors. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013. v4n11p176
Preferences over Sets

Research on preference elicitation and reasoning typically focuses on preferences over single objects of interest. However, in a number of applications the "outcomes" of interest are sets of such atomic objects. For instance, when creating the program for a film festival, editing a newspaper, or putting together a team, we need to select a set of films (resp. articles, members) that is optimal with respect to quality, diversity, cohesiveness, etc. This paper describes an intuitive approach for specifying preferences over sets of objects. An algorithm for computing an optimal subset, given a set of candidate objects and a preference specification, is developed and evaluated.