Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pathogenesis of the Novel Autoimmune-Associated Long-QT Syndrome

Background— Emerging clinical evidence demonstrates high prevalence of QTc prolongation and complex ventricular arrhythmias in patients with anti-Ro antibody (anti-Ro Ab)–positive autoimmune diseases. We tested the hypothesis that anti-Ro Abs target the HERG (human ether-a-go-go–related gene) K+ channel, which conducts the rapidly activating delayed K+ current, IKr, thereby causing delayed repolarization seen as QT interval prolongation on the ECG. Methods and Results— Anti-Ro Ab–positive sera, purified IgG, and affinity-purified anti-52kDa Ro Abs from patients with autoimmune diseases and QTc prolongation were tested on IKr using HEK293 cells expressing HERG channel and native cardiac myocytes. Electrophysiological and biochemical data demonstrate that anti-Ro Abs inhibit IKr to prolong action potential duration by directly binding to the HERG channel protein. The 52-kDa Ro antigen–immunized guinea pigs showed QTc prolongation on ECG after developing high titers of anti-Ro Abs, which inhibited native IKr and cross-reacted with guinea pig ERG channel. Conclusions— The data establish that anti-Ro Abs from patients with autoimmune diseases inhibit IKr by cross-reacting with the HERG channel likely at the pore region where homology between anti–52-kDa Ro antigen and HERG channel is present. The animal model of autoimmune-associated QTc prolongation is the first to provide strong evidence for a pathogenic role of anti-Ro Abs in the development of QTc prolongation. It is proposed that adult patients with anti-Ro Abs may benefit from routine ECG screening and that those with QTc prolongation should receive counseling about drugs that may increase the risk for life-threatening arrhythmias.
Cost of malingering mild traumatic brain injury-related cognitive deficits during compensation and pension evaluations in the veterans benefits administration

ABSTRACT Given the high rates of exaggeration in those claiming long-term cognitive deficits as a result of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), the aim of this study was to evaluate the rates of malingering in those seeking disability through the Veterans Benefits Administration and estimate the financial burden of disability payments for those receiving compensation despite exaggerated mTBI-related cognitive deficits. Retrospective review included 74 veterans seen for Compensation and Pension evaluations for mTBI. Rates of malingering were based on failure of the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT) and/or the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) trial 1 ≤ 40. Total estimated compensation was based on the level of disability awarded and the number of individuals found to be malingering cognitive deficits. Overall, 33–52% of the sample was found to be malingering mTBI-related cognitive deficits. The malingering groups were receiving approximately $71,000–$121,000/year ($6,390–$7,063 per year, per veteran on average). Estimated nationwide disability payments for those possibly malingering mTBI-related cognitive deficits would be $136–$235 million/year (projected costs from 2015–2020 = $700 million–$1.2 billion). It is critical that providers and administrative officials identify those exaggerating disability claims attributed to mTBI. The cost of malingering impacts society in general as well as veterans themselves, as it diverts needed funds/resources away from those legitimately impaired by their military service.
Predictive Coding: A Possible Explanation of Filling-In at the Blind Spot

Filling-in at the blind spot is a perceptual phenomenon in which the visual system fills the informational void, which arises due to the absence of retinal input corresponding to the optic disc, with surrounding visual attributes. It is known that during filling-in, nonlinear neural responses are observed in the early visual area that correlates with the perception, but the knowledge of underlying neural mechanism for filling-in at the blind spot is far from complete. In this work, we attempted to present a fresh perspective on the computational mechanism of filling-in process in the framework of hierarchical predictive coding, which provides a functional explanation for a range of neural responses in the cortex. We simulated a three-level hierarchical network and observe its response while stimulating the network with different bar stimulus across the blind spot. We find that the predictive-estimator neurons that represent blind spot in primary visual cortex exhibit elevated non-linear response when the bar stimulated both sides of the blind spot. Using generative model, we also show that these responses represent the filling-in completion. All these results are consistent with the finding of psychophysical and physiological studies. In this study, we also demonstrate that the tolerance in filling-in qualitatively matches with the experimental findings related to non-aligned bars. We discuss this phenomenon in the predictive coding paradigm and show that all our results could be explained by taking into account the efficient coding of natural images along with feedback and feed-forward connections that allow priors and predictions to co-evolve to arrive at the best prediction. These results suggest that the filling-in process could be a manifestation of the general computational principle of hierarchical predictive coding of natural images.
An Auditory Motivated Asymmetric Compression Technique for Speech Recognition

The Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) parameterization for automatic speech recognition (ASR) utilizes several perceptual features of the human auditory system, one of which is the static compression. Motivated by the human auditory system, the conventional static logarithmic compression applied in the MFCC is analyzed using psychophysical loudness perception curves. Following the property of the auditory system that the dynamic range compression is higher in the basal regions than the apical regions of the basilar membrane, we propose a method of unequal (asymmetric) compression, i.e., higher compression applied in the higher frequency regions than the lower frequency regions. The methods is applied and tested in the MFCC and the PLP parameterizations in the spectral domain, and the ZCPA auditory model used as an ASR front-end in the temporal domain. The extent of the asymmetric compression is applied as a multiplicative gain to the existing static compression, and is determined from the gradient of the piece-wise linear segment of the perceptual compression curve. The proposed method has the advantage of adjusting compression parametrically for improved ASR performance and audibility in noise conditions by low-frequency spectral enhancement, particularly of vowels with lower F1 and F2 formants. Continuous-density HMM recognition using the Aurora 2 corpus and the TIdigits show performance improvements in additive noise conditions.
Conference proceedings

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Beyond the borders: The use of art participation for the promotion of health and well-being in Britain and Denmark

Background: This article compares British and Danish promotion of well-being through participation in art activity to empower the individual. It examines the influence of national, social and political contexts on art and health community projects by comparing practice and project outcomes. Method: Based on two case studies, the article draws on specific evidence in Britain and Denmark. The approach taken is one of the psychosocial inquiries allowing reflection on practice including participants' testimonies. Results: The two cases showed comparable problems with restricted resources, funding and organisational limitations to service delivery. The British case study shows a bottom-up approach in contrast to the Danish case study where the approach is top-down. Although the benefits from participation in art activities in the two countries were influenced by a complex set of different interacting factors, outcomes were typically similarly positive: finding identity, feeling a sense of well-being and increased self-confidence. Conclusion: In terms of practice, policy and research and in the recognition of value of art participation, the comparison demonstrates how different stories, contexts and institutions engage in different ways to facilitate and enable service users as well as generating different challenges; recognising the benefits of developing best practice guidelines in art practice in health settings.
Triple Negative Breast Cancer at the University Hospital Mohammed VI – Oujda

Introduction: The triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), defined by the absence of receptors to oestrogen and progesterone and no histochemical expression of human epidermal receptor -2, is associated with a particularly aggressive behavior. The aim of our study was to determine the clinico-pathological, therapeutic and prognostic features associated with this type of breast cancer in Morocco. Methods: A cohort retrospective study, spread over 3 years, was conducted of 116 breast cancer patients, diagnosed between January 2009 and December 2011 at the Regional Center of Oncology. Epidemiological, clinical, histological and therapeutic data were analyzed. Survival curves at 3 years were estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis with use of the log-rank test. Results: The proportion of triple-negative breast cancer in our series was 13.2%. The average age was 46.5 years and 20,7% had a previous history of familial breast cancer. Some 56,9% of tumors were greater than 3 cm in diameter. infiltrating ductal carcinoma being the histological type in the majority of cases (75.9%). TNBC was most often associated with a high grade, grade III accounting for 50.9%. Vascular invasion was found in 58.6% of cases. Regarding lymph node involvement, 42.2% had positive lymph nodes and 15.5% featured distant metastases. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy was administrated to 20% of patients with a 23.5% complete pathologic response. The rates for overall survival and disease-free-survival at 3 years for localized stages were 70 and 55.6%, respectively. With metastatic lesions, the figures were 27.5% and 10.3% respectively. Conclusion: The TNBC is correlated with a poor prognosis with a high mortality and early relapse requiring identification of new target therapies and markers for prediction of tumoral response to various treatments.
The Septohippocampal System Participates in General Anesthesia

How the brain mediates general anesthesia is not known. We report that two interconnected structures in the forebrain, the medial septum and the hippocampus, participate in maintaining awareness and movements during general anesthesia. In the awake, freely behaving rat, inactivation of the medial septum or the hippocampus by local injection of a GABA(A) receptor agonist, muscimol, decreased the dose of a general anesthetic needed to induce a loss of the tail-pinch response or a loss of righting reflex. Septohippocampal inactivation also suppressed the behavioral hyperactivity or the delirium stage associated with general anesthesia. An increase and decrease of 30-50 Hz (gamma) waves in the hippocampus correlated with an increase and decrease in behavioral activity, respectively. Similar results were found for both volatile (halothane and isoflurane) and nonvolatile (propofol and pentobarbital) anesthetics. We conclude that the behavioral hyperactivity induced by a general anesthetic is mediated in part by the septohippocampal system, and that depression of the septohippocampal system increases the potency of a general anesthetic. It is suggested that more potent general anesthetics or adjuvants may be developed by maximizing the pharmacological depression of the septohippocampal system.
Knowing versus liking : separating normative knowledge from evaluation in impressions

ii Preface. iv Table of Contents . vi List of Tables . viii List of Figures. ix Acknowledgements . x Chapter 1: Introduction . 1 1.1 Halo Effect . 5 1.1.1 Halo Effect in Personality Impressions. 6 1.1.2 Halo Effect and Accuracy. 7 1.1.3 Treatment of Halo Effect . 8 1.1.4 Halo Effect in the Big Five . 9 1.2 Accurate Personality Impressions. 12 1.2.1 Accuracy Defined . 12 1.2. 2 Increasing Accuracy. 13 1.2. 3 Normative Accuracy . 17 1.3 Normative Information . 18 1.4 Disentangling Evaluation and Normative Information. 19 1.5 Overview. 20 Chapter 2: Present Research . 21 2.1 Study 1 . 21
Improving Chinese Word Segmentation and POS Tagging with Semi-supervised Methods Using Large Auto-Analyzed Data

This paper presents a simple yet effective semi-supervised method to improve Chinese word segmentation and POS tagging. We introduce novel features derived from large auto-analyzed data to enhance a simple pipelined system. The auto-analyzed data are generated from unlabeled data by using a baseline system. We evaluate the usefulness of our approach in a series of experiments on Penn Chinese Treebanks and show that the new features provide substantial performance gains in all experiments. Furthermore, the results of our proposed method are superior to the best reported results in the literature.
Alanine aminotransferase in clinical practice.

To the Editor. — The thoughtful review by Sherman 1 provides a useful approach to the practicing physician. He makes the recommendation that elevations of alanine aminotransferase levels less than twofold not be pursued even if they persist for 6 weeks or more. Although this appears a useful strategy in general, some forms of liver disease may benefit from a slightly different approach. He fails to include environmental and occupational exposures in his list of potential causes. This is a common omission; several recent reviews 2-4 of fatty liver disease have similarly failed to suggest hepatotoxin exposure as a potential cause of elevated alanine aminotransferase levels in practice. Outbreaks of occupational liver disease are, nevertheless, well described. 5,6,6 A case-control study 7 of randomly occurring fatty liver disease has similarly suggested that hepatotoxin exposure may be an important risk factor. Four further cases with less than twofold elevations of alanine
Cigarette smoking, body mass index, and physical fitness changes among male navy personnel.

INTRODUCTION Cigarette smoking has been reported to be higher among deployed military men than among similarly aged civilian or nondeployed men, but the short-term effect of smoking on physical fitness among these young healthy men is unclear. This study examined self-reported smoking status and change in objectively measured fitness over 1-4 years while controlling for body mass index (BMI). METHODS This study included a large sample of male U.S. navy personnel who deployed to Iraq or Kuwait between 2005 and 2008. A mixed modeling procedure was used to determine factors contributing to longitudinal changes in both BMI and fitness (measured by run/walk times, curl-ups, and push-ups). RESULTS Of the total sample (n = 18,537), the 20% current smokers were more likely than nonsmokers to be enlisted, younger, and have lower BMI measurements at baseline. In addition, smokers had slower 1.5-mile run/walk times and could do fewer curl-ups and push-ups compared with nonsmokers. The run/walk time model indicated that over 4 years, smokers (compared with nonsmokers) experienced a significantly greater rate of decrease in cardiorespiratory fitness, even after controlling for changes in BMI. CONCLUSIONS These results call for continued attention to the problem of nicotine use among young healthy men.
Dimensionality of dissociation in subjects with PTSD

Dissociative symptoms are common in patients with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) is a self-report measure that is often used to assess these symptoms quantitatively. The present study examined the factor structure of theDES in a sample of 129 male combat veterans with MD. Quantitative and conceptual criteria were used to select a four-factor solution. One of the subscales (labeled Depersonalization/Derealization) was consistent with a scale found in an earlier factor analysis using a nonclinical subject sample. Three other factors included Memory Disturbance, Absorption, and Distractibility. While these scales are intercorrelated, they may measure conceptually distinct types of dissociative symptoms.
Plenteous and limited play, transmedia storytelling-toys in light of individualist and social esthetics

ABSTRACT Transmedia storytelling toys are toys that are presented along with an associated cartoon or game for marketing and entertainment purposes. This article explores a play experiment in which children aged six to nine played with such toys and with other materials. The empirical data engendered through participatory observation during the play experiment were explored within the framework of individualist esthetics (Shusterman/Dewey) and social esthetics (Adorno and Horkheimer) to give insight to the observations and to illustrate the theory. Analysis of the theory brought forth two main factors for classification – plenteous and limited play – which were the foundation for the analysis of the observations. The article suggests that there is a tendency for children not to create their own play themes when a toy is presented along with an associated game, cartoon, etc., that proposes an environment of play with the new toy. Furthermore, toys without associated play themes seem to stimulate the creation of personal play themes, or ‘own' play themes. The making of own play themes and subsequent experiences exemplifies plenteous play. Accordingly, it is suggested that plenteous play leads to an increase in the imaginary and creative thinking of a child.
LHD: Optimising Linked Data Query Processing Using Parallelisation

In the past few years as large volume of Linked Data has been published, and processing distributed SPARQL queries over the Linked Data cloud is becoming increasingly challenging. The high data trac cost and response time signicantly aect the performance of distributed SPARQL queries as the number of SPARQL end point and the volume of data at each endpoint increase. In this context, parallelisation is promising to fully exploit the potential of connections to SPARQL endpoints and thus improve the eciency of querying Linked Data. We propose LHD, a distributed SPARQL engine that is built on a highly parallel infrastructure and able to minimise query response time, and we evaluate its performance using a BSBM based environment.
An Investigation of an Instrument for Analysis of Student-Led Electronic Discussions

As communications technologies have been increasingly applied to education in order to improve student learning experiences, newly-created instruments used to assess their effectiveness need to be developed. The study, undertaken within a non-formal education program in Thailand and an undergraduate study at the University of South Australia, aims to propose a suitable instrument that can be used to analyze student discourse in the online environment. Computerconferencing technologies have been applied to both groups. An instrument based on grounded theories has been developed and applied to data analysis. It was found that both groups of students varied in their approaches to learning at the individual level, while at the group level, there was little variance, with neither group demonstrating higher cognitive skill development. Student learning outcomes and collaborative learning have been discussed. Recommendations regarding the application of the instrument have been made.
Respiratory mechanics in morbid obese patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension during pneumoperitoneum

Background and objective: To evaluate the effects of pneumoperitoneum and the reverse Trendelenburg position on respiratory mechanics and blood-gases in morbid obese patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension. Methods: Sixteen morbid obese patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension were studied. Mean arterial pressure, heart rate, respiratory resistance, dynamic respiratory compliance and peak inspiratory pressures were measured at four time points: 5 min after induction of anaesthesia (T1), 5 min after insufflation of the peritoneum (T2), 5 min after adoption of a 20° reverse Trendelenburg position (T3), and 5 min after deflation of the peritoneum (T4). Arterial blood-gas status was measured at the same measuring points. Results: Respiratory compliance was 40 ± 12, 28 ± 8, 32 ± 8 and 37 ± 11 mL cmH2O−1 in T1, T2, T3 and T4, respectively. The changes were significant at T2, T3 and T4. Airway resistance and peak inspiratory pressures showed comparable changes throughout the study with that of respiratory compliance. Haemodynamic measurements showed no clinically significant changes in this study. Conclusions: In morbid obese patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and hypertension, a 20° reverse Trendelenburg position improved respiratory mechanics and oxygenation without any apparent adverse effects on haemodynamics during laparoscopic gastric banding surgery.
Pointing and interaction initiation: the behaviour of young children with Down's syndrome when looking at books

ABSTRACT Data are derived from videotapes made in the homes of six Down's syndrome children with developmental ages varying between 1;1 and 2;1. The analysis concerns those sequences in which parent and child look at a book together, and more specifically those exchanges where the child initiates communication on a new target on the page. The design of these initiations is examined with respect to their various verbal and non-verbal components. The analysis of pointing, and in particular of point duration, reveals a possible developmental progression from a stage at which point and exchange duration are linked together to one in which the organization of pointing becomes more detached from the exchange as a unit of interaction.
Masitinib reverses doxorubicin resistance in canine lymphoid cells by inhibiting the function of P-glycoprotein.

Overexpression of ABC-transporters including Pgp, MRP1, and BCRP has been associated with multidrug resistance (MDR) in both human and canine oncology. Therapeutic interventions to reverse MDR are limited, but include multidrug protocols and the temporary concomitant use of inhibitors of ABC-transporters. Recently, the use of tyrosine kinase inhibitors has been proposed to overcome MDR in human oncology. One of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors, masitinib, is licensed for veterinary use in the treatment of canine mast cell tumors. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the potential of masitinib to revert MDR in canine malignant lymphoma using an in vitro model with canine lymphoid cell lines. Masitinib had a mild antiproliferative effect on lymphoid cells, inhibited Pgp function at concentrations equal to or exceeding 1 μm and was able to reverse doxorubicin resistance. The current findings provide the rationale for a combined use of masitinib with doxorubicin in the treatment of dogs with doxorubicin-resistant malignant lymphoma but await confirmation in clinical trials.