Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vitamin D3 Concentration Correlates with the Severity of Multiple Sclerosis

Background: To investigate the possible association between serum 25(OH) vitamin D3 concentration and the severity of disease in Iranian patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and to compare this concentration with a matched control group. Methods: This was an analytical cross-sectional study performed at Jondishapour Neurology Clinic in Tehran, Iran. Patients with relapsing–remitting MS were categorized by disease severity: mild [0≤ Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) ≤3], moderate (3.5≤EDSS≤5.5), and severe (6≤EDSS). Serum concentrations of 25(OH) vitamin D3, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and parathyroid hormone were measured in 98 MS patients and 17 healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Fisher's exact, Kruskal–Wallis, Mann–Whitney U test, and independent t and Spearman rank correlation tests were used. Results: Serum 25(OH) vitamin D3 concentration was significantly lower in patients with MS, especially in the severe MS subgroup, compared with healthy controls (P=0.047). There was a statistically significant inverse correlation between 25(OH) vitamin D3 concentration and EDSS score (P=0.049, R=−0.168 by Spearman rank correlation test), which was observed in women only (P=0.044, R=−0.199). Conclusions: Our findings not only further disclose the lower level of vitamin D in MS patients in comparison with healthy controls, but also support the association between vitamin D and disease severity in MS.
The Sound Makes the Greeting: Interpersonal Functions of Intonation in Human-Robot Interaction

In this paper, we study the effects of different ways of producing greetings in human-robot interaction. We first generated computer utterances of verbal greetings, whose intonation contours, we then manipulated using Praat. Each utterance was matched with a video of a robot waving a greeting at the observer. Altogether, the experiment uses two lexical items ( hello vs. hi ), three robots and four different intonation contours. The videos were distributed over different questionnaires so that each participant only got to see each robot once. The results reveal that native speakers of English rate the robots significantly different concerning friendliness, assertiveness, and engagement depending on the intonation contours. However, these effects differ for the different lexical items, and the apparently non-conventional hi with rising intonation contour was in fact rated as most engaging.
HOW THREAT FROM STEREOTYPE DISCONFIRMATION TRIGGERS SELF-DEFENSE

Abstract For prejudiced individuals with a strong prevention focus, information that disconfirms a stereotype is a threat to efficient self-regulation and triggers self-defense processes. It produces vigilance, agitation, and higher attention to both the disconfirming target and its background information, leading to better memory for the inconsistent information. We predicted that the effect would be enhanced as social relevance increases. As predicted, participants high in sexism and with a strong prevention focus better remembered gender-stereotype incongruent information, and this effect was accentuated when social relevance was high. These participants experienced agitation-related discomfort rather than dejection-related discomfort from the incongruency, further supporting the proposal that stereotype disconfirmation produced a self-defense threat response.
Student teachers’ perceptions about inclusive classroom teaching in Northern Ireland prior to teaching practice experience

This paper seeks to obtain the views of student teachers in Northern Ireland as to the benefits and challenges of inclusive education and the key issues that may need to be addressed to ensure they become effective teachers in an inclusive classroom. Because of the system of academic selection that has prevailed in Northern Ireland, issues relating to inclusion have been difficult to resolve mainly because principles of inclusion are at odds with existing structures. By 2008, however, academic selection is to be set aside and it would seem reasonable to believe that more inclusive practices will be adopted by all schools. Positive attitudes towards inclusion by practitioners will be essential in ensuring successful implementation. The majority of students entering Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes in Northern Ireland have been traditionally drawn from the academic grammar school sector where classroom contact with pupils who have diverse special educational needs may have been minimal. The results of this study show that while many student teachers claim to support inclusive policies, they believe that lack of appropriate preparation, concerns about class size, resources, managing other adults and coping with increasing numbers of pupils with diverse special educational needs are the key issues to be addressed within ITE in advance of the radical changes planned. Despite claiming to support inclusion, substantial numbers did not believe the removal of academic selection was the best way to ensure equality of provision for all pupils.
Variation in serum and plasma PTH levels in second-generation assays in hemodialysis patients: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND Previous reports show that parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations may vary widely depending on the assay used to assess PTH. In this cross-sectional study, we aim to determine the usefulness of standardizing blood handling for optimal interpretation of PTH in patients with chronic kidney disease. STUDY DESIGN Diagnostic test study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS Predialysis blood was sampled in 34 long-term hemodialysis patients at a single academic medical center. INDEX TEST PTH was measured by using 6 different automated second-generation assays (Elecsys, Advia Centaur, LIAISON, Immulite, Architect, and Access assays), 3 blood specimen types (serum, EDTA plasma, and citrate plasma), and 2 consecutive days of measurement (after thawing and 18 hours later with samples having been let at room temperature). REFERENCE TEST None. RESULTS A mixed statistical analysis model showed that the nature of the assay (P < 0.001) and nature of the blood sample (P < 0.001) significantly influenced variability in PTH concentrations, whereas day of measurement (day 1 or 2) did not (P = 0.5). Most PTH variability was caused by observations (96.8%), then manufacturer's kit (2.5%), and last, specimen type (0.7%). PTH concentrations measured in citrate plasma were lower with every assay method used than those observed in serum or EDTA plasma. The interaction between manufacturer and specimen type was of moderate statistical significance (P = 0.04). To evaluate the potential clinical consequence of PTH measure variability, we classified patients according to Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative cutoff values (PTH < 150 pg/mL; PTH, 150 to 300 pg/mL; and PTH > 300 pg/mL). Overall, statistical classification agreement was moderate to high for comparison between assays and high to very high between different blood samples and between days of measurement. However, we found that up to 11 of 34 patients were classified in different categories with some assays (LIAISON versus Architect) and up to 7 of 34 in different categories with different blood specimen type (citrate plasma versus serum [corrected] in LIAISON assay). LIMITATIONS This is a cross-sectional study that used single lots of reagents. There currently is no reference method for the measurement of PTH and no recombinant PTH standard for PTH assay. CONCLUSION PTH variability caused by the nature of the assay and/or blood specimen type is large enough to potentially influence clinical decision making. A specified collection method therefore should be used for PTH measurements. In routine practice, we recommend serum PTH over EDTA or citrate plasma.
Modelling Parallel Texts for Boosting Compression

Bilingual parallel corpora, also know as bitexts, convey the same information in two different languages. This implies that when modelling bitexts one can take advantage of the fact that there exists a relation between both texts; the text alignment task allow to establish such relationship. In this paper we propose different approaches that use words and biwords (pairs made of two words, each one from a different text) as representation symbolic units. The properties of these approaches are analyzed from a statistical point of view and tested as a preprocessing step to general purpose compressors. The results obtained suggest interesting conclusions concerning the use of both words and biwords. When encoded models are used as compression boosters we achieve compression ratios improving state-of-the-art compressors up to 6.5 percentage points, being up to 40% faster.
Atrial fibrillation detection by multi-scale convolutional neural networks

Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common chronic arrhythmia. Effective detection of the AF would avoid serious consequences like stroke. Conventional AF detection methods need heuristic or hand-craft feature extraction. In this paper, A deep neural network named multi-scale convolutional neural networks (MCNN) based AF detector is proposed. Instant heart rate sequence is extracted from ECG signal, then an end-to-end MCNN detects AF with the instant heart rate sequence as input and detection result as output. The algorithm was tested on both public and private datasets. On the public dataset, with the sensitivity achieved being 0.9822, the corresponding specificity is 0.9811, and the overall accuracy is 0.9818. The area under an ROC curve is as high as 0.9962, compared to the AUC of the best conventional method is 0.9947. Comparison shows that the MCNN based AF detector give superior accuracy than conventional methods. Test on private dataset also shows significant improvement.
Study on Bond Strength of External Thermal Insulation System with Perfusion Polyurethane Foam

External thermal insulation system (ETIS) is an important part of building energy efficiency. Polyurethane foam as a superior external insulation material was analyzed in this paper. The variation law of bond strength of the ETIS with polyurethane foam was studied by atmospheric exposure tests which consist of two stages including high temperature-spraying water cycle and heating-refrigeration cycle. The results show that its bond strength declined lightly with time increasing and its value is always greater than specified value. Therefore, the ETIS of composite perfusion polyurethane foam has better weatherability and it can adapt the various inconstant weather conditions. By comparing the bond strength curves of the three kinds of popular ETIS of expanded polystyrene (EPS) board, polystyrene granule mortar and polyurethane foam, the result shows that the downtrend of bond strength of composite perfusion polyurethane foam ETIS is gentlest, thereby the weatherability of polyurethane foam ETIS is best among the three ETIS.
Dual processing streams in chemosensory perception

Higher order sensory processing follows a general subdivision into a ventral and a dorsal stream for visual, auditory, and tactile information. Object identification is processed in temporal structures (ventral stream), whereas object localization leads to activation of parietal structures (dorsal stream). To examine whether the chemical senses demonstrate a similar dissociation, we investigated odor identification and odor localization in 16 healthy young subjects using functional MRI. We used two odors—(1) eucalyptol; (2) a mixture of phenylethanol and carbon dioxide)—which were delivered to only one nostril. During odor identification subjects had to recognize the odor; during odor localization they had to detect the stimulated nostril. We used general linear model (GLM) as a classical method as well as independent component analysis (ICA) in order to investigate a possible neuroanatomical dissociation between both tasks. Both methods showed differences between tasks—confirming a dual processing stream in the chemical senses—but revealed complementary results. Specifically, GLM identified the left intraparietal sulcus and the right superior frontal sulcus to be more activated when subjects were localizing the odorants. For the same task, ICA identified a significant cluster in the left parietal lobe (paracentral lobule) but also in the right hippocampus. While GLM did not find significant activations for odor identification, ICA revealed two clusters (in the left central fissure and the left superior frontal gyrus) for this task. These data demonstrate that higher order chemosensory processing shares the general subdivision into a ventral and a dorsal processing stream with other sensory systems and suggest that this is a global principle, independent of sensory channels.
Characteristics, Perceived Side Effects and Benefits of Electronic Cigarette Use: A Worldwide Survey of More than 19,000 Consumers

Background: Electronic cigarette (EC) use has grown exponentially over the past few years. The purpose of this survey was to assess the characteristics and experiences of a large sample of EC users and examine the differences between those who partially and completely substituted smoking with EC use. Methods: A questionnaire was prepared, translated into 10 different languages and uploaded in an online survey tool. EC users were asked to participate irrespective of their current smoking status. Participants were divided according to their smoking status at the time of participation in two subgroups: former smokers and current smokers. Results: In total, 19,414 participants were included in the analysis, with 88 of them (0.5%) reported not being smokers at the time of EC use initiation. Complete substitution of smoking was reported by 81.0% of participants (former smokers) while current smokers had reduced smoking consumption from 20 to 4 cigarettes per day. They were using ECs for a median of 10 months. They initiated EC use with a median of 18 mg/mL nicotine-concentration liquids; 21.5% used higher than 20 mg/mL. Only 3.5% of participants were using 0-nicotine liquids at the time of the survey. Former smokers were highly dependent (Fagerström Test for Cigarette Dependence = 7) and were heavier smokers (21 cigarettes per day when smoking) compared to current smokers. The most important reasons for initiating EC use for both subgroups was to reduce the harm associated with smoking and to reduce exposure of family members to second-hand smoking. Most considered ECs as less harmful than tobacco cigarettes, while 11.0% considered them absolutely harmless. Side effects were reported by more than half of the participants (59.8%), with the most common being sore/dry mouth and throat; side effects were mild and in most cases were subsequently resolved (partially or completely). Participants experienced significant benefits in physical status and improvements in pre-existing disease conditions (including respiratory disease such as asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease). Being former smoker was independently associated with positive effects in health and improvements in disease conditions. Conclusions: The results of this worldwide survey of dedicated users indicate that ECs are mostly used to avoid the harm associated with smoking. They can be effective even in highly-dependent smokers and are used as long-term substitutes for smoking. High levels of nicotine are used at initiation; subsequently, users try to reduce nicotine consumption, with only a small minority using non-nicotine liquids. Side effects are minor and health benefits are substantial, especially for those who completely substitute smoking with EC use. Further population and interventional studies are warranted.
Drug conjugated nanoparticles activated by cancer cell specific mRNA

We describe a customizable approach to cancer therapy in which a gold nanoparticle (Au-NP) delivers a drug that is selectively activated within the cancer cell by the presence of an mRNA unique to the cancer cell. Fundamental to this approach is the observation that the amount of drug released from the Au-NP is proportional to both the presence and abundance of the cancer cell specific mRNA in a cell. As proof-of-principle, we demonstrate both the efficient delivery and selective release of the multi-kinase inhibitor dasatinib from Au-NPs in leukemia cells with resulting efficacy in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, these Au-NPs reduce toxicity against hematopoietic stem cells and T-cells. This approach has the potential to improve the therapeutic efficacy of a drug and minimize toxicity while being highly customizable with respect to both the cancer cell specific mRNAs targeted and drugs activated.
Scalability! But at what COST?

We offer a new metric for big data platforms, COST, or the Configuration that Outperforms a Single Thread. The COST of a given platform for a given problem is the hardware configuration required before the platform outperforms a competent single-threaded implementation. COST weighs a system's scalability against the overheads introduced by the system, and indicates the actual performance gains of the system, without rewarding systems that bring substantial but parallelizable overheads. We survey measurements of data-parallel systems recently reported in SOSP and OSDI, and find that many systems have either a surprisingly large COST, often hundreds of cores, or simply underperform one thread for all of their reported configurations.
Circadian variation in the distribution of Hymenolepis diminuta (Cestoda) and 5-hydroxytryptamine levels in the gastro-intestinal tract of the laboratory rat

Summary The circadian migration of Hymenolepis diminuta in the small intestine of the rat may be correlated with a circadian variation in 5-hydroxytryptamine levels present in worm tissue, in the intestinal lumen, in the intestinal mucosa, with the amount of food present in the small intestine and in arterial blood. The 5-HT and food levels in uninfected animals were also determined. The 16.00 h stage in the circadian cycle marks both the commencement of host feeding, followed by rising 5-HT levels in both worm and host tissues, and initiation of an anteriad migration of worm biomass. It was found that 5-HT levels in the intestine of parasitized animals were significantly higher than in the intestine of uninfected controls. This is the first report of circadian variation in mucosal and luminal 5-HT levels. The similarity in the circadian patterns of worm migration and worm luminal, mucosal and blood 5-HT levels were striking. Fasting eliminated the circadian rise in intestinal 5-HT levels and the worms did not migrate. Luminal 5-HT levels were significantly lower in fasted animals than in the comparable rats fed ad libitum. When the intestine was ligatured at the pyloric sphincter, worm anteriad migration still occurred after feeding, indicating that the presence of exogenous food in the intestine is not a factor in the initial migration of the worms.
Clinical Outcomes According to Diabetic Status in Patients Treated With Biodegradable Polymer Sirolimus-Eluting Stents Versus Durable Polymer Everolimus-Eluting Stents: Prespecified Subgroup Analysis of the BIOSCIENCE Trial

Background—Ultrathin strut biodegradable polymer sirolimus-eluting stents (BP-SES) proved noninferior to durable polymer everolimus-eluting stents (DP-EES) for a composite clinical end point in a population with minimal exclusion criteria. We performed a prespecified subgroup analysis of the Ultrathin Strut Biodegradable Polymer Sirolimus-Eluting Stent Versus Durable Polymer Everolimus-Eluting Stent for Percutaneous Coronary Revascularisation (BIOSCIENCE) trial to compare the performance of BP-SES and DP-EES in patients with diabetes mellitus. Methods and Results—BIOSCIENCE trial was an investigator-initiated, single-blind, multicentre, randomized, noninferiority trial comparing BP-SES versus DP-EES. The primary end point, target lesion failure, was a composite of cardiac death, target-vessel myocardial infarction, and clinically indicated target lesion revascularization within 12 months. Among a total of 2119 patients enrolled between February 2012 and May 2013, 486 (22.9%) had diabetes mellitus. Overall diabetic patients experienced a significantly higher risk of target lesion failure compared with patients without diabetes mellitus (10.1% versus 5.7%; hazard ratio [HR], 1.80; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.27–2.56; P=0.001). At 1 year, there were no differences between BP-SES versus DP-EES in terms of the primary end point in both diabetic (10.9% versus 9.3%; HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 0.67–2.10; P=0.56) and nondiabetic patients (5.3% versus 6.0%; HR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.58–1.33; P=0.55). Similarly, no significant differences in the risk of definite or probable stent thrombosis were recorded according to treatment arm in both study groups (4.0% versus 3.1%; HR, 1.30; 95% CI, 0.49–3.41; P=0.60 for diabetic patients and 2.4% versus 3.4%; HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.39–1.25; P=0.23, in nondiabetics). Conclusions—In the prespecified subgroup analysis of the BIOSCIENCE trial, clinical outcomes among diabetic patients treated with BP-SES or DP-EES were comparable at 1 year. Clinical Trial Registration—URL: http://www.clinicaltrials. gov. Unique identifier: NCT01443104.
The prefrontal cortex: Executive and cognitive functions.

Roberts, theories and models of executive function based on neuropsychological studies in humans - introduction Baddeley and Della Sala, working memory and executive control Shallice and Burgess, the domain of supervisory processes and temporal organization of behaviour Damasio, neurobiological and neuropsychological approaches to the study of cognitive and executive function - the somatic marker hypothesis and the possible functions of the prefrontal cortex Pandya and Yeterian, comparison of prefrontal architecture and connections Rolls, the orbitofrontal cortex Goldman-Rakic, the prefrontal landscape - implications of functional architecture for understanding human mentation and the central executive Petrides, specialized systems for the processing of mnemonic information within the primate frontal cortex Robbins, dissociating executive functions of the prefrontal cortex Passingham, attention to action Diamond, evidence of the importance of dopamine for prefrontal cortex functions early in life Weinberger and Berman, prefrontal function in schizophrenia - confounds and controversies Frith, the role of the prefrontal cortex in self-consciousness - the case of auditory hallucinations Cohen, Braver, O'Reilly, a computational approach to prefrontal cortex, cognitive control and schizophrenia - recent developments and current challenges.
Tadalafil once daily and intralesional verapamil injection: A new therapeutic direction in Peyronie's disease

Introduction: The aim of this study was to evaluate the combination of intralesional verapamil injection (IVI) therapy with and tadalafil in men affected by Peyronie′s disease (PD). Materials and Methods: In this study, 59 patients diagnosed with PD, were divided into three groups. Group A (GA) counted 23 patients treated with IVI; Group B (GB) treated 19 patients with tadalafil 5 mg once a day, and Group C (GC) treated 17 patients with IVI and tadalafil for 3 months. There were assessed at baseline and follow-up: Erectile function, presence and severity of painful erections, penile plaque size and penile curvature degree. Results: After 3 months pain resolved completely in 57% cases of GA, 61% of GB and 76% of GC; the final mean curvature degree further decreased in all groups without statistically significant differences; mean plaque size remained stable in GA: 1.57 versus 1.59 at baseline (P = 0.364) and GB: 1.51 versus 1.52 at baseline (P = 0,265), while a further decrease was evident in GC: 1.46 versus 1.58 at baseline (P = 0.03). Mean International Index of Erectile Function-5 score further improved significantly in the group treated with verapamil plus tadalafil: 23.1 versus 14.4 of GA and 18.2 of GB ( P ≤ 0.01). Conclusions: The association of IVI and tadalafil showed better pain control while reducing penile curvature and erectile function, improving the quality of life.