Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Two Siblings with the Same Severe Form of 21-Hydroxylase Deficiency But Different Growth and Menstrual Cycle Patterns

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is one of the most frequent autosomal recessive diseases in Europe. Treatment is a challenge for pediatric endocrinologists. Important parameters to judge the outcome are adult height and menstrual cycle. We report the follow-up from birth to adulthood of two Caucasian sisters with salt-wasting CAH due to the same mutation, homozygosity c.290-13A>G (I2 splice), in the 21-hydroxylase gene. Their adherence to treatment was excellent. Our objective was to distinguish the effects of treatment with hydrocortisone (HC) and fludrocortisone (FC) on final height (FH) from constitutional factors. The older girl (patient 1), who showed virilized genitalia Prader scale III–IV at birth, reached FH within familial target height at 18 years of age. Menarche occurred at the age of 15. Her menstrual cycles were always irregular. Total pubertal growth was normal (29 cm). She showed a growth pattern consistent with constitutional delay. The younger sister (patient 2) was born without masculinization of the genitalia after her mother was treated with dexamethasone starting in the fourth week of pregnancy. She reached FH at 16 years of age. Her adult height is slightly below familial target height. Menarche occurred at the age of 12.5, followed by regular menses. Total pubertal growth was normal (21 cm). The average dose of HC from birth to FH was 16.7 mg/m2 in patient 1 and 16.8 mg/m2 in patient 2. They received FC once a day in doses from 0.05 to 0.1 mg. Under such therapy, growth velocity was normal starting from the age of 2.5 years with an overall average of +0.2 SD in patient 1 and −0.1 SD in patient 2, androstenedione levels were always within normal age range. Similarly, BMI and blood pressure were always normal, no acne and no hirsutism ever appeared. In conclusion, two siblings with the same genetic form of 21-hydroxylase deficiency and excellent adherence to medication showed different growth and menstrual cycle patterns, rather related to constitutional factors than to underlying CAH. In addition, the second patient represents an example of successful in utero glucocorticoid treatment to prevent virilization of the external genitalia.
Local Determinants of Crime: Do Military Bases Matter?

Using a unique panel dataset, we estimate the impact of the military base realignments and closures (BRACs) in Germany on the intensity of criminal activity surrounding the base. We use a fixed-effect model to account for time-invariant unobservables in our panel of 298 military bases for the period 2003-2007. We also take advantage of geographic information system software to mitigate estimation issues arising from the spatial nature of the dataset. Estimation results are presented for total crime and four other subcategories: breaking and entering, automobile-related crime, violent crime, and drug-related crime. The estimates indicate that there is no effect of BRACs on criminal activity surrounding the base. We also confirm existing findings in the literatureon the determinants of crime.
Changes in Juvenile Justice in China

This article discusses the trend of juvenile and youth crime, which has been on the rise during the past 40 years in China. With the help of literature derived from Chinese policy documents and criminological sources, it highlights the essence of Chinese Marxist criminological thought and the changing conceptions of delinquency from the postrevolutionary period to the present. It also examines official responses to delinquency as well as the recent development of juvenile justice in China. The article argues that the current system of delinquency control and juvenile justice should gradually move toward the adoption of a just restorative approach.
Salvianolic Acid B Attenuates Rat Hepatic Fibrosis via Downregulating Angiotensin II Signaling

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays an important role in hepatic fibrosis. Salvianolic acid B (Sal B), one of the water-soluble components from Radix Salviae miltiorrhizae, has been used to treat hepatic fibrosis, but it is still not clear whether the effect of Sal B is related to angiotensin II (Ang II) signaling pathway. In the present study, we studied Sal B effect on rat liver fibrosis and Ang-II related signaling mediators in dimethylnitrosamine-(DMN-) induced rat fibrotic model in vivo and Ang-II stimulated hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) in vitro, with perindopril or losartan as control drug, respectively. The results showed that Sal B and perindopril inhibited rat hepatic fibrosis and reduced expression of Ang II receptor type 1 (AT1R) and ERK activation in fibrotic liver. Sal B and losartan also inhibited Ang II-stimulated HSC activation including cell proliferation and expression of type I collagen I (Col-I) and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) production in vitro, reduced the gene expression of transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β), and downregulated AT1R expression and ERK and c-Jun phosphorylation. In conclusion, our results indicate that Sal B may exert an antihepatic fibrosis effect via downregulating Ang II signaling in HSC activation.
Neuroimages as Evidence in a Mens Rea Defense: No Impact

Recent developments in the neuropsychology of criminal behavior have given rise to concerns that neuroimaging evidence (such as MRI and functional MRI [fMRI] images) could unduly influence jurors. Across four experiments, a nationally representative sample of 1,476 jury-eligible participants evaluated written summaries of criminal cases in which expert testimony was presented in support of a mental disorder as exculpatory. The evidence varied in the extent to which it presented neuroscientific explanations and neuroimages in support of the expert’s conclusion. Despite suggestive findings from previous research, we found no evidence that neuroimagery affected jurors’ judgments (verdicts, sentence recom-mendations, judgments of the defendant’s culpability) over and above verbal neuroscience - based testimony. A meta-analysis of our four experiments confirmed these findings. In addition, we found that neuroscientific evidence was more effective than clinical psycho- logical evidence in persuading jurors that the defendant’s disorder reduced his capacity to control his actions, although this effect did not translate into differences in verdicts.
Light-Weight, Inter-Procedural and Callback-Aware Resource Leak Detection for Android Apps

Android devices include many embedded resources such as Camera, Media Player and Sensors. These resources require programmers to explicitly request and release them. Missing release operations might cause serious problems such as performance degradation or system crash. This kind of defects is called resource leak. Despite a large body of existing works on testing and analyzing Android apps, there still remain several challenging problems. In this work, we present Relda2, a light-weight and precise static resource leak detection tool. We first systematically collected a resource table, which includes the resources that the Android reference requires developers release manually. Based on this table, we designed a general approach to automatically detect resource leaks. To make a more precise inter-procedural analysis, we construct a Function Call Graph for each Android application, which handles function calls of user-defined methods and the callbacks invoked by the Android framework at the same time. To evaluate Relda2's effectiveness and practical applicability, we downloaded 103 apps from popular app stores and an open source community, and found 67 real resource leaks, which we have confirmed manually.
Identification of Serum Monocyte Chemoattractant Protein-1 and Prolactin as Potential Tumor Markers in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Early diagnosis of hepatocellullar carcinoma (HCC) remains a challenge. The current practice of serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) measurement is inadequate. Here we utilized a proteomic approach to identify novel serum biomarkers for distinguishing HCC patients from non-cancer controls. We profiled the serum proteins in a group of 58 resectable HCC patients and 11 non-HCC chronic hepatitis B (HBV) carrier samples from the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) using the RayBio® L-Series 507 Antibody Array and found 113 serum markers that were significantly modulated between HCC and control groups. Selected potential biomarkers from this list were quantified using a multiplex sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) array in an expanded SGH cohort (126 resectable HCC patients and 115 non-HCC chronic HBV carriers (NC group)), confirming that serum prolactin and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) were significantly upregulated in HCC patients. This finding of serum MCP-1 elevation in HCC patients was validated in a separate cohort of serum samples from the Mochtar Riady Institute for Nanotechnology, Indonesia (98 resectable HCC, 101 chronic hepatitis B patients and 100 asymptomatic HBV/HCV carriers) by sandwich ELISA. MCP-1 and prolactin levels were found to correlate with AFP, while MCP-1 also correlated with disease stage. Subsequent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis of AFP, prolactin and MCP-1 in the SGH cohort and comparing their area under the ROC curve (AUC) indicated that neither prolactin nor MCP-1 on their own performed better than AFP. However, the combination of AFP+MCP-1 (AUC, 0.974) had significantly superior discriminative ability than AFP alone (AUC, 0.942; p<0.001). In conclusion, prolactin and MCP-1 are overexpressed in HCC and are conveniently quantifiable in patients’ sera by ELISA. MCP-1 appears to be a promising complementary biomarker for HCC diagnosis and this MCP-1+AFP model should be further evaluated as potential biomarker on a larger scale in patients at-risk of HCC.
YoeB–ribosome structure: a canonical RNase that requires the ribosome for its specific activity

As a typical endoribonuclease, YoeB mediates cellular adaptation in diverse bacteria by degrading mRNAs on its activation. Although the catalytic core of YoeB is thought to be identical to well-studied nucleases, this enzyme specifically targets mRNA substrates that are associated with ribosomes in vivo. However, the molecular mechanism of mRNA recognition and cleavage by YoeB, and the requirement of ribosome for its optimal activity, largely remain elusive. Here, we report the structure of YoeB bound to 70S ribosome in pre-cleavage state, revealing that both the 30S and 50S subunits participate in YoeB binding. The mRNA is recognized by the catalytic core of YoeB, of which the general base/acid (Glu46/His83) are within hydrogen-bonding distance to their reaction atoms, demonstrating an active conformation of YoeB on ribosome. Also, the mRNA orientation involves the universally conserved A1493 and G530 of 16S rRNA. In addition, mass spectrometry data indicated that YoeB cleaves mRNA following the second position at the A-site codon, resulting in a final product with a 3′–phosphate at the newly formed 3′ end. Our results demonstrate a classical acid-base catalysis for YoeB-mediated RNA hydrolysis and provide insight into how the ribosome is essential for its specific activity.
What is Wrong with Topic Modeling? (and How to Fix it Using Search-based SE)

Topic Modeling finds human-readable structures in large sets of unstructured SE data. A widely used topic modeler is Latent Dirichlet Allocation. When run on SE data, LDA suffers from “order effects” i.e. different topics be generated if the training data was shuffled into a different order. Such order effects introduce a systematic error for any study that uses topics to make conclusions. This paper introduces LDADE, a Search-Based SE tool that tunes LDA’s parameters using DE (Differential Evolution). LDADE has been tested on data from a programmer information exchange site (Stackoverflow), title and abstract text of thousands of SE papers, and software defect reports from NASA. Results were collected across different implementations of LDA (Python+Scikit-Learn, Scala+Spark); across different platforms (Linux, Macintosh) and for different kinds of LDAs (the traditional VEM method, or using Gibbs sampling). In all tests, the pattern was the same: LDADE’s tunings dramatically reduces topic instability. The implications of this study for other software analytics tasks is now an open and pressing issue. In how many domains can search-based SE dramatically improve software analytics? Keywords—Topic modeling, Stability, LDA, tuning, differential evolution.
Fair Load Balancing in Heterogeneous Cellular Networks

In this paper, we propose heuristic algorithms to solve an original NP-hard load equalization problem in cellular Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets). Primarily, we suggest a user association scheme applying dynamic cell range expansion (DCRE) for small cells, where a dynamic power offset is optimized and used to enhance their coverage area and thus improve network load balancing. Thereafter, we introduce a second user association scheme called fairness gain based load equalization (FGBLE), where selection of mobile users (MUs) is based on the measured MUs' fairness gain. Simulation results show that proposed user association frameworks lead to significantly better load balancing, more efficient mitigation of cell overload and more equitable distribution of users compared with the Best-SINR and Fixed offset based load equalization techniques.
Comparison of efficacy of topical and oral fluconazole treatment in experimental Aspergillus keratitis

Purpose. To investigate the therapeutic role of topical and oral fluconazole treatment using a rabbit model of Aspergillus fumigatus keratitis. Methods. Aspergillus fumigatus spores were injected into the corneal stroma of the right eye of 20 rabbits. Forty-eight hours later the rabbits were randomly divided into three groups. Group 1 rabbits (six) were treated with topical fluconazole (2 mg/ml, eight times daily), group 2 rabbits (seven) received oral fluconazole (37.5 mg/kg bid), and group 3 rabbits (seven) were untreated controls. The eyes were examined and photographed with a slit-lamp 2, 6, 10, 16, and 20 days after inoculation and an observer graded the corneas in a masked fashion. Corneal cultures were taken on days 2, 14, and 20 for fungus growth. Results. At the beginning of treatment, the slit-lamp scores did not differ among three groups. However, on days 6, 10, 16, and 20 the treated groups had statistically significant lower scores compared to the untreated controls. No signifi- cant difference was observed between topical and oral treated groups at any examination point. All cultures were positive on day 2, but on days 16 and 20, there were significantly lower positive fungal cultures in both treatment groups compared to the control (p < 0.01, chi square test). Conclusion. Our study showed that both topical and oral fluconazole were effective in lessening the severity of fungal keratitis in a rabbit model and should be considered effective treatment alternatives in the therapy of Aspergillus fumigatus keratitis.
Exploring the Temporal Association between Young People's Alcohol Consumption Patterns and Violent Behavior

Alcohol consumption patterns such as binge drinking have routinely been associated with interpersonal assault amongst young people. Examining how drinking patterns are temporally associated with violent behavior during adolescence and young adulthood further develops an understanding of this relationship. This study employs data from the Offending Crime and Justice Survey in England and Wales, offering insight into young people's drinking and offending behavior. A cross-sectional model examines the extent to which binge drinking is associated with the likelihood of committing assault in the same year. An earlier measure of binge drinking (in the previous year) was subsequently used to examine the influence on later violent behavior. Evidence that the pattern of drinking is associated with violent offending, as well as a contemporaneous association between binge drinking and violence in the same year, supports the existing literature in the field and suggests that frequent acute intoxication is a temporally proximal risk factor for the increased propensity of committing interpersonal assault offenses. However, there is no evidence found in the current study to suggest that earlier measures of binge drinking frequency are associated with increased propensity for later violent offending. Furthermore, current findings do not suggest that the association between binge drinking and the propensity for violence is moderated by gender, thus suggesting interventions aimed at reducing violent offending ought to address binge drinking in both males and females.
Experiments and Relational Studies in Problem Solving: A Meta-Analysis.

vs. concrete 9 (9, 0) 2536 4-12 -0.14* (-0.24, -0.04) Factual vs. hypothetical 9 (9, 0) 2616 4-12 0.02 (-0.08, 0.12) Familiar vs. unfamiliar 4 (4, 0) 1608 5-6, 12 0.40* (0.27, 0.53) Imaginative vs. ordinary 11 (11, 0) 4308 5-9 0.17* (0.09, 0.25) Personalized vs. impersonal 6 (6, 0) 579 4, 6 0.04 (-0.18, 0.26) Preferred vs. nonpreferred 5 (5, 0) 256 9, P -0.04 (-0.37, 0.29) aThe number outside the parentheses is the total number of studies. The first number inside the parentheses is the number of studies with standard problems; the second is the number of studies with nonstandard problems. *p <. 01. This content downloaded from 207.46. 13.172 on Fri, 07 Oct 2016 05:57:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor. org/terms
Multicenter clinical and analytical evaluation of the AxSYM troponin-I immunoassay to assist in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction.

We evaluated the AxSYM troponin I (cTnI) immunoassay for assisting in the detection of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). At four sites, the total imprecision (CV) over 20 days was 6.3-10.2%. The minimum detectable concentration was 0.14 +/- 0.05 microgram/L. Comparison of cTnI measurements between the AxSYM and Stratus (n = 406) over the dynamic range of the AxSYM assay demonstrated good correlation, r = 0.881, with a proportional bias: AxSYM cTnI = 3.50(Stratus cTnI) - 1. 10. The confidence intervals (95%) for the slope and intercept were 3.39-3.64 and -1.32 to -0.95, respectively. The expected cTnI concentration in healthy individuals was </=0.5 microgram/L, whereas the ROC curve-determined cutoff for AMI was 2.0 microgram/L. This gave a diagnostic sensitivity of 91.8% and specificity of 92.4% when tested in serial samples collected within 24 h of admission in 633 patients presenting with chest pain, of which 122 had an AMI. The concordances of the AxSYM cTnI with the Stratus cTnI, OPUS cTnI, and Access cTnI were 95.3%, 95.1%, and 94.3%, respectively, from patients with suspected AMI. The AxSYM cTnI demonstrated excellent clinical specificity, >/=96%, in skeletal muscle injury, chronic renal disease, and same-day noncardiac surgery patients.
Generalizability of a two-factor measure of young children's suggestibility in Norway and the USA

Abstract We discuss the development of the Book Suggestibility Scale for Children (BSSC), a two-factor suggestibility measure developed as an alternative to the Video Suggestibility Scale for Children (VSSC; Scullin & Ceci, Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 843–856, 2001). In study 1, both the BSSC and the VSSC were administered to 60 American preschool children. Children responded affirmatively to inaccurate leading questions (Yield) and changed their answers in response to negative feedback from interviewers (Shift) in a similar manner on both scales. In study 2 we found that the BSSC was useful for studies of suggestibility in contexts other than America because 62 Norwegian preschool children responded to questions in a similar manner to an age-range and vocabulary matched group of 31 American children. Results support a two-factor model of suggestibility, although Yield appears to measure suggestibility across scales and situations more consistently than does Shift. American age-matched samples had significantly higher Shift and Yield 2 scores than the Norwegian sample.
Dual miRNA Targeting Restricts Host Range and Attenuates Neurovirulence of Flaviviruses

Mosquito-borne flaviviruses are among the most significant arboviral pathogens worldwide. Vaccinations and mosquito population control programs remain the most reliable means for flavivirus disease prevention, and live attenuated viruses remain one of the most attractive flavivirus vaccine platforms. Some live attenuated viruses are capable of infecting principle mosquito vectors, as demonstrated in the laboratory, which in combination with their intrinsic genetic instability could potentially lead to a vaccine virus reversion back to wild-type in nature, followed by introduction and dissemination of potentially dangerous viral strains into new geographic locations. To mitigate this risk we developed a microRNA-targeting approach that selectively restricts replication of flavivirus in the mosquito host. Introduction of sequences complementary to a mosquito-specific mir-184 and mir-275 miRNAs individually or in combination into the 3’NCR and/or ORF region resulted in selective restriction of dengue type 4 virus (DEN4) replication in mosquito cell lines and adult Aedes mosquitos. Moreover a combined targeting of DEN4 genome with mosquito-specific and vertebrate CNS-specific mir-124 miRNA can silence viral replication in two evolutionally distant biological systems: mosquitoes and mouse brains. Thus, this approach can reinforce the safety of newly developed or existing vaccines for use in humans and could provide an additional level of biosafety for laboratories using viruses with altered pathogenic or transmissibility characteristics.
Superiority of Ambulatory Over Clinic Blood Pressure Measurement in Predicting Mortality: The Dublin Outcome Study

The purpose of this study was to determine if ambulatory blood pressure measurement predicted total and cardiovascular mortality over and beyond clinic blood pressure measurement and other cardiovascular risk factors; 5292 untreated hypertensive patients referred to a single blood pressure clinic who had clinic and ambulatory blood pressure measurement at baseline were followed up in a prospective study of mortality outcome. Multiple Cox regression was used to model time to total and cause-specific mortality for ambulatory blood pressure measurement while adjusting for clinic blood pressure measurement and other risk factors at baseline. There were 646 deaths (of which 389 were cardiovascular) during a median follow-up period of 8.4 years. With adjustment for gender, age, risk indices, and clinic blood pressure, higher mean values of ambulatory blood pressure were independent predictors for cardiovascular mortality. The relative hazard ratio for each 10-mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure was 1.12 (1.06 to 1.18; P<0.001) for daytime and 1.21 (1.15 to 1.27; P<0.001) for nighttime systolic blood pressure. The hazard ratios for each 5-mm Hg increase in diastolic blood pressure were 1.02 (0.99 to 1.07; P=NS) for daytime and 1.09 (1.04 to 1.13; P<0.01) for nighttime diastolic pressures. The hazard ratios for nighttime ambulatory blood pressure remained significant after adjustment for daytime ambulatory blood pressure. These results have 2 important clinical messages: ambulatory measurement of blood pressure is superior to clinic measurement in predicting cardiovascular mortality, and nighttime blood pressure is the most potent predictor of outcome.