Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The percentage flow-mediated dilation index: A large-sample investigation of its appropriateness, potential for bias and causal nexus in vascular medicine

The percentage flow-mediated dilation index (FMD%) scales the increase in arterial diameter (Ddiff) as a constant proportion of baseline artery diameter (Dbase). We have demonstrated, albeit with small samples, that the scaling properties of FMD% can lead to biased inferences on endothelial dysfunction. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the underlying rationale and potential bias of FMD% using a selection of new examples from the large (n = 3499) and diverse Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). In this dataset, we found that smaller values of Ddiff are associated with larger values of Dbase, which contradicts the scaling properties of FMD%. Consequently, FMD% ‘over-scales’ and naturally generates an even stronger negative correlation between itself and Dbase. Using a data simulation, we show that this FMD%–Dbase correlation can be a statistical artefact due to inappropriate scaling. The new examples we present from MESA indicate that FMD% biases the differences in flow-mediated response between men and women, Framingham risk score categories, and diseased and healthy people. We demonstrate how FMD%, as an exposure for predicting cardiovascular disease, is confounded by its dependency on Dbase, which itself could be clinically important. This critical review, incorporating an allometric analysis of a large dataset, suggests that the FMD% index has a less-than-clear rationale, can itself generate the Dbase-dependency problem, provides biased estimates of differences in the flow-mediated response, complicates the interpretation of the flow-mediated protocol and clouds the causal pathway to vascular disease. These interpretative problems can be resolved by applying accepted allometric principles to the flow-mediated response.
Antigen-independent priming: a transitional response of bovine γδ T-cells to infection

Abstract Analysis of global gene expression in immune cells has provided unique insights into immune system function and response to infection. Recently, we applied microarray and serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) techniques to the study of γδ T-cell function in humans and cattle. The intent of this review is to summarize the knowledge gained since our original comprehensive studies of bovine γδ T-cell subsets. More recently, we have characterized the effects of mucosal infection or treatment with microbial products or mitogens on gene expression patterns in sorted γδ and αβ T-cells. These studies provided new insights into the function of bovine γδ T-cells and led to a model in which response to pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) induces ‘priming’ of γδ T-cells, resulting in more robust responses to downstream cytokine and/or antigen signals. PAMP primed γδ T-cells are defined by up-regulation of a select number of cytokines, including MIP1α and MIP1β, and by antigens such as surface IL2 receptor α (IL-2Rα) and CD69, in the absence of a prototypic marker for an activated γδ T-cell, IFN-γ. Furthermore, PAMP primed γδ T-cells are more capable of proliferation in response to IL-2 or IL-15 in the absence of antigen. PAMPs such as endotoxin, peptidoglycan and β-glucan are effective γδ T-cell priming agents, but the most potent antigen-independent priming agonists defined to date are condensed oligomeric tannins produced by some plants.
Learning Adaptive Temporal Radio Maps for Signal-Strength-Based Location Estimation

In wireless networks, a client's locations can be estimated using the signals received from various signal transmitters. Static fingerprint-based techniques are commonly used for location estimation, in which a radio map is built by calibrating signal-strength values in the offline phase. These values, compiled into deterministic or probabilistic models, are used for online localization. However, the radio map can be outdated when the signal-strength values change with time due to environmental dynamics, and repeated data calibration is infeasible or expensive. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm, known as LEMT (Location Estimation using Model Trees), to reconstruct a radio map using real-time signal- strength readings received at the reference points. This algorithm can take into account real-time signal-strength values at each time point and make use of the dependency between the estimated locations and reference points. We show that this technique can effectively accommodate the variations of signal strength over different time periods without the need to rebuild the radio maps repeatedly. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed technique on realistic data sets collected from an 802.11b wireless network and a RFID-based network.
17p13.1 microdeletion involving the TP53 gene in a boy presenting with mental retardation but no tumor

We report on the diagnosis of a 17p13.1 deletion in a 10‐year‐old boy. The patient presented with mild developmental delay, facial dysmorphism, joint hyperlaxity, pes planus, hypermetropia, hearing loss, and achromic patches following the Blaschko's lines on the right part of the thorax. Chromosome R‐banding was normal. Array CGH using a 244 K oligonucleotide array showed a homogeneous de novo 17p13.1 microdeletion of 400 kb involving TP53 and 25 other genes, including genes involved in brain function (EFNB3, FXR2). To our knowledge, six patients presenting with a constitutional 17p13.1 microdeletion involving the TP53 gene have been reported. We discuss the phenotype of this microdeletion and the genetic counseling issues, especially regarding the risk of cancer associated with the deletion of the TP53 gene. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Evaluation of Nonverbal Emotion in Face and Voice: Some Preliminary Findings on a New Battery of Tests

This report describes some preliminary attributes of stimuli developed for future evaluation of nonverbal emotion in neurological populations with acquired communication impairments. Facial and vocal exemplars of six target emotions were elicited from four male and four female encoders and then prejudged by 10 young decoders to establish the category membership of each item at an acceptable consensus level. Representative stimuli were then presented to 16 additional decoders to gather indices of how category membership and encoder gender influenced recognition accuracy of emotional meanings in each nonverbal channel. Initial findings pointed to greater facility in recognizing target emotions from facial than vocal stimuli overall and revealed significant accuracy differences among the six emotions in both the vocal and facial channels. The gender of the encoder portraying emotional expressions was also a significant factor in how well decoders recognized specific emotions (disgust, neutral), but only in the facial condition.
Design of a creep resistant iron-base superalloy for Herreshoff furnaces. Part II- Experimental results

Based on the design of a new creep resistant iron-base alloy (Fe-CrNi-C-Al) with the desired properties for the fabrication of Herreshoff furnace arms, samples have been obtained and the influence of heat treatment on microstructure and phase formation has been investigated using both optical and electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Mechanical properties at ambient and high temperature have been measured by tensile testing and tensile creep testing. The experimental results are in good agreement with the predictions concerning phase formation, yield stress and creep rupture stress. The target of a lifetime of 100 000 h at 880°C under 180 MPa seems attainable. The design procedure is therefore mainly validated, being promising for design and development of further alloys in our context.
Thin minimal rim width at Bruch’s membrane opening is associated with glaucomatous paracentral visual field loss

Purpose To compare optic nerve head (ONH) measurements in glaucomatous eyes with paracentral visual field (VF) loss to eyes with peripheral VF loss and controls. Methods Open-angle glaucoma (OAG) patients with early paracentral VF loss or isolated peripheral VF loss as well as control subjects underwent ONH imaging with swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) imaging with spectral-domain OCT. Minimum rim width at Bruch’s membrane opening (BMO-MRW), lamina cribrosa depth (LCD), and RNFL thickness were compared among the glaucoma and control groups with one-way analysis of variance, Kruskal–Wallis test, and multiple regression analysis. Results Twenty-nine eyes from 29 OAG patients (15 early paracentral and 14 isolated peripheral VF loss) and 20 eyes of 20 control subjects were included. The early paracentral and isolated peripheral VF loss groups had similar VF mean deviation (MD) (−5.3±2.7 dB and −3.7±3.0 dB, p=0.15, respectively). Global BMO-MRW was lower in OAG eyes than in controls (193.8±40.0 vs 322.7±62.2 μm, p<0.001), but similar between eyes with early paracentral VF loss and those with isolated peripheral VF loss (187.6±43.4 vs 200.6±36.3 μm; p>0.99). In contrast, the minimal BMO-MRW was lower in eyes with early paracentral loss (69.0±33.6 μm) than in eyes with isolated peripheral loss (107.7±40.2 μm; p=0.03) or control eyes (200.1±40.8 μm; p<0.001). Average and thinnest RNFL thickness did not differ between OAG groups (p=0.61 and 0.19, respectively). Horizontal and vertical LCD did not differ among the OAG groups and controls (p=0.80 and 0.82, respectively). Multivariable linear regression analysis among OAG cases confirmed the association between lower minimal BMO-MRW and early paracentral VF loss (β=−38.3 μm; 95% confidence interval, −69.8 to −6.8 μm; p=0.02) after adjusting for age, gender, MD, and disc size. Conclusion Thin minimal BMO-MRW may represent a new structural biomarker associated with early glaucomatous paracentral VF loss.
Development of Atrioventricular Block and Diagnostic Value of Stored Electrograms in Patients With Sick Sinus Syndrome and Implanted Pacemaker.

BACKGROUND The incidence of atrioventricular block (AVB) in pacemaker patients with sick sinus syndrome (SSS) is not yet known. The aim of this study was to analyze AVB episodes in SafeR mode based on stored electrograms (EGM), and determine the occurrence rate and risk factors for advanced AVB in a pacemaker population with SSS. METHODS AND RESULTS The study included 50 consecutive patients with SSS without a history of advanced AVB who had a dual-chamber pacemaker programmed in SafeR mode. A total of 377 EGM stored in the pacemakers as AVB episodes fulfilling the second- or third-degree criterion were analyzed. Of 377 EGM, 73 EGM (19.4%) were appropriate episodes, whereas the other EGM did not show actual AVB, and showed atrial tachyarrhythmia, ventricular event in the blanking period, or premature atrial contractions with block. On EGM analysis, advanced AVB occurred in 9 patients (18%), and the occurrence rate was 11.7% per year. Moreover, on multivariate analysis β-blocker use was an independent risk factor for advanced AVB (OR, 9.10; P=0.004). CONCLUSIONS The occurrence rate of advanced AVB in patients with SSS is much higher than previously reported, and β-blocker use is an independent risk factor for advanced AVB. SafeR is useful to detect latent AVB. Stored EGM, however, sometimes include inaccurately classified events.
Effects of postoperative immune-enhancing enteral nutrition on the immune system, inflammatory responses, and clinical outcome.

OBJECTIVE This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of postoperative immune enhancing enteral nutrition on the immune system, inflammatory responses, and clinical outcome of patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. METHODS This study was designed as a multicenter, prospective, randomized and controlled clinical trial. One hundred twenty-four patients undergoing major abdominal surgery were randomly assigned to receive either an immune enhancing enteral diet or an isocaloric and isonitrogenous control enteral diet for seven days. Enteral feeding was initiated 24 hours after surgery. Host immunity was evaluated by measuring levels of IgG, IgM, IgA, CD4, CD8, and CD4/CD8, and the inflammatory response was determined by assessing IL-1alpha, IL-2, IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-alpha levels. Infectious complications were also recorded. RESULTS One hundred twenty patients completed the study and four patients were excluded. On postoperative day 9, among patients receiving an immune enhancing diet, IgG, IgA, CD4 and CD4/CD8 levels were significantly higher and TNF-alpha and IL-6 concentrations were significantly lower compared to the control group. Moreover, among patients receiving an immune enhancing diet, when comparing preoperation to day 9 postoperation levels, increases in IgA, CD4, and CD4/CD8 levels were significantly higher than in control patients and increases in TNF-alpha concentrations were significantly lower. No statistically significant differences were found between the two groups with regard to infectious complications. CONCLUSIONS Postoperative administration of immune enhancing enteral nutrition in patients undergoing major abdominal surgery can positively modulate postoperative immunosuppressive and inflammatory responses.
No association between the presence of killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptor genes and susceptibility to childhood ALL.

To the editor: Killer-cell immunoglobulin-like receptors (KIRs) play a pivotal role in immunosurveillance and reduction of relapse after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in acute leukemia. [1][1],[2][2] Outside the setting of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, it was recently reported
Defeasible Inclusions in Low-Complexity DLs

Some of the applications of OWL and RDF (e.g. biomedical knowledge representation and semantic policy formulation) call for extensions of these languages with nonmonotonic constructs such as inheritance with overriding. Nonmonotonic description logics have been studied for many years, however no practical such knowledge representation languages exist, due to a combination of semantic difficulties and high computational complexity. Independently, low-complexity description logics such as DL-lite and EL have been introduced and incorporated in the OWL standard. Therefore, it is interesting to see whether the syntactic restrictions characterizing DL-lite and EL bring computational benefits to their nonmonotonic versions, too. In this paper we extensively investigate the computational complexity of Circumscription when knowledge bases are formulated in DL-liteR, EL, and fragments thereof. We identify fragments whose complexity ranges from P to the second level of the polynomial hierarchy, as well as fragments whose complexity raises to PSPACE and beyond.
Macroscopic findings, incidence and characteristics of microscopic colitis in a large cohort of patients from the United Kingdom

Abstract Objective: Microscopic colitis (MC) is classically associated with normal or near-normal endoscopic appearances. However, non-specific macroscopic findings have been described, the importance of biopsy location for confirming a diagnosis of MC is unclear, and reported incidence data from the United Kingdom are limited. This study was designed to assess macroscopic features, incidence, demographics, and location and positivity of biopsy samples in MC. Materials and methods: Retrospective, cross-sectional study of individuals with newly diagnosed MC. Results: From 2010 to 2015, 540 cases of MC were reported. Macroscopic findings occurred in 16.5% (n = 89) cases, with trends towards increased frequency of ulceration or linear scarring in collagenous colitis (CC). The mean incidence of MC was 11.3 per 100,000 population/year, including 291 (53.9%) with CC (incidence 6.1 per 100,000/year), 203 (37.6%) with lymphocytic colitis (incidence 4.2 per 100,000/year) and 46 (8.5%) with MC, not otherwise specified. Most individuals were female (70.2%). Common features in patients with MC included symptom duration <6 months, weight loss, abdominal pain and use of proton pump inhibitors, statins, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. In individuals with right- and left-sided biopsies taken, 98.2% had diagnostic features in both. However, rectal biopsies were only positive in 88.7%. Conclusions: One in six patients with MC demonstrated distinct macroscopic findings at colonoscopy. Our data confirm a female preponderance in MC, a relatively short symptom duration and use of certain drugs as common features. Both right- and left-sided biopsies were frequently positive, suggesting flexible sigmoidoscopy and biopsy could confirm a diagnosis in certain individuals.
Parallel simulation of the global epidemiology of Avian Influenza

SEARUMS is an eco-modeling, bio-simulation, and analysis environment to study the global epidemiology of Avian Influenza. Originally developed in Java, SEARUMS enables comprehensive epidemiological analysis, forecast epicenters, and time lines of epidemics for prophylaxis; thereby mitigating disease outbreaks. However, SEARUMS-based simulations were time consuming due to the size and complexity of the models. In an endeavor to reduce time for simulation, we have redesigned the infrastructure of SEARUMS to operate as a time warp synchronized, parallel and distributed simulation. This paper presents our parallelization efforts along with empirical evaluation of various design alternatives that were explored to identify the ideal parallel simulation configuration. Our experiments indicate that the redesigned environment called SEARUMS++ achieves good scalability and performance, thus meeting a mission-critical objective.
Better to receive than to give? Interorganizational service arrangements and hospital performance.

BACKGROUND The literature points to possible efficiencies in local-hospital-system performance, but little is known about the internal dynamics that might contribute to this. Study of the service arrangements that nearby same-system hospitals have with one another should provide clues into how system efficiencies might be attained. PURPOSES The purpose of this research was to better understand the financial and operational effects of service sharing and receiving arrangements among nearby hospitals belonging to the same systems. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH Data are compiled for the 1,227 U.S. urban acute care hospitals that belong to multihospital systems. A longitudinal structural equation model is employed-environmental pressures and organizational characteristics in 1997 are associated with service sharing and receiving arrangements in 2000; service sharing and receiving arrangements are then associated with performance in 2003. Service sharing and receiving are measured by counts of services focal hospitals report that are not duplicated by other-system hospitals within the same county. Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) is used to estimate the model. FINDINGS In general, market competition from managed care and hospitals influences hospitals to exchange services. For individual hospitals, service sharing has no effects on operational efficiency and financial performance. Service receiving, however, is related to greater efficiencies and higher profits. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS The findings underscore the asymmetrical relationships that exist among local-system hospitals. Individual hospitals benefit from service receiving arrangements but not from sharing arrangements-it is better to receive than to give. To the extent that individual hospitals independently determine service capacities, systems may not be able to effectively rationalize service offerings.
Tuning of spontaneous emission in photonic crystals by resonant energy transfer and magnetic fields

The fluorescence of emitters embedded in a photonic crystal is known to be inhibited by the presence of a photonic pseudo-gap acting in their emission range. Here we present a comparative study of the influence of the pseudo-gap on the fluorescence emission of either organic dyes or nanocrystals embedded within a photonic crystal. Our results clearly show that the optical properties of the emitters are primarily controlled by the presence of a pseudo-gap which causes inhibition of the emission in both cases, regardless of the differences in chemical composition. These findings are mainly attributed to a decrease of the number of available photonic modes for radiative decay of the emitter in a photonic crystal compared to the effective homogeneous medium. Furthermore, we show that a photonic crystal can be used to control the fluorescence energy transfer (FRET) between donor-acceptor (D-A) pairs of dyes. Finally, we show that the application of an external magnetic field can finely tune the emission characteristics of emitters with a permanent magnetic moment.
Modeling Driver's Route Choice Behavior Under the Influence of Advanced Traveler Information Systems (Vol. 2; Vol. 1: 96/10)

This research consisted of two parts; this report is Volume 2. This part of the research consisted of modeling driver's route choice behavior under the influence of Advanced Traveler Information Systems. These models can help in understanding the behavior and response of travelers under the influence of Advanced Traveler Information Systems. The products of this research project will be incorporated in the Advanced Traffic Management System that is being implemented on the Borman Expressway, a 16-mile (25.7-km) segment of I-80 in northwest Indiana.
Concept of minimum electrospinning voltage (MEV) in electrospinning of PAN–DMF system: effect of distance

Minimum electrospinning voltage (MEV), in a needle–ground plate configuration, is defined as the needle voltage at which the maximum conversion of the polymer dope into nanofibers is achieved in electrospinning. MEV is unique for a set of electrospinning parameters for a given polymer dope and the square of the MEV is directly proportional to the rate of surface formation of the nanofibers in the electrospinning process. In this study, the effect of needle to collector distance on MEV and nanofiber morphology was investigated. The diameter of the nanofibers was found to be primarily dependent on the dope properties and independent of electrospinning process parameters. However, the slope of the plot between (MEV)2 and surface formation rate was found to increase with increasing needle to collector distance signifying that the resistance in electrospinning increases linearly with the distance.
Irradiation of Metallic and Oxide Fuels for Actinide Transmutation in the ATR

Metallic fuels containing minor actinides and rare earth additions have been fabricated and are prepared for irradiation in the ATR, scheduled to begin during the summer of 2007. Oxide fuels containing minor actinides are being fabricated and will be ready for irradiation in ATR, scheduled to begin during the summer of 2008. Fabrication and irradiation of these fuels will provide detailed studies of actinide transmutation in support of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. These fuel irradiations include new fuel compositions that have never before been tested. Results from these tests will provide fundamental data on fuel irradiation performance and will advance the state of knowledge for transmutation fuels.