Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Guideline for the diagnosis, treatment and response criteria for Bing-Neel syndrome

Bing Neel syndrome is a rare disease manifestation of Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia that results from infiltration of the central nervous system by malignant lymphoplasmacytic cells. In this guideline we describe the clinical symptoms, as well as the appropriate laboratory and radiological studies, that can aid in the diagnosis. The presentation of Bing Neel syndrome may be very diverse, and includes headaches, cognitive deficits, paresis, and psychiatric symptoms. The syndrome can present in patients with known Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, even in the absence of systemic progression, but also in previously undiagnosed patients. Diagnostic work-up should include cerebral spinal fluid analysis with multiparameter flow cytometry to establish B-cell clonality, protein electrophoresis and immunofixation for the detection and classification of a monoclonal protein as well as molecular diagnostic testing for immunoglobulin gene rearrangement and mutated MYD88. MRI of the brain and spinal cord is also essential. The second challenge is to expand our knowledge of prognosis and treatment outcome. Prospective clinical trials on Bing Neel syndrome patients that employ uniform treatment along with appropriate laboratory cerebral spinal fluid assessments and standardized MRI protocols will be invaluable, constituting a significant step forward in delineating treatment outcome for this intriguing disease manifestation.
Frequency and prognostic factors of olfactory dysfunction after traumatic brain injury

ABSTRACT Objective: To assess the frequency and factors associated with posttraumatic olfactory dysfunction, including anosmia, in a follow-up of patients with moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: The setting was a cross-sectional study of patients that were consecutively included in the Trondheim TBI database, comprising injury-related variables. Eligible participants 18–65 years were contacted 9–104 months post trauma and asked olfactory-related questions. Those reporting possible posttraumatic change of olfaction were invited to further examination using the Sniffin’ Sticks panel. Results: Of 211 eligible participants, 182 (86.3%) took part in telephone interviews and 25(13.7%) were diagnosed with olfactory dysfunction. 60% of these, or 8.2% of all participants, had anosmia. In age-adjusted logistic regression analyses, fall (OR 2.5, 95% CI 1.0–6.2), skull base fracture (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.2–7.1) and cortical contusion(s) (OR 6.0, 95% CI 2.1–17.3) were associated with olfactory dysfunction. In an analysis of anosmia, fall (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.1–10.6) and cortical contusion(s) (OR 19.7, 95% CI 2.5-156.0) were associated with the outcome. Conclusion: Of the study participants 13.7% had olfactory dysfunction and 8.2% had anosmia. Higher age, trauma caused by fall and CT displaying skull base fracture and cortical contusion(s) were related to olfactory dysfunction.
Heads of Government and Their Media Biographies: How the Media Socialization of German Chancellors Influenced their Strategies Toward the Media

The relationship between the political strategy of the German chancellors after the Second World War toward the media and their media socialization as well as their media biography is analyzed using secondary sources, (auto)biographies, and other media sources. We interpret the influence of the chancellors’ social background and early influences, their experiences in journalism, the interplay between the chancellors(-to-be) and the media, and their media politics from the perspective of their media socialization and mediatization theory. We identify different types of fundamental perspectives on the media the politicians have taken, and conclude that media socialization continues on a new strategic level during their whole career while their social background continues to play an important role.
Measurement reliability of current perception threshold and pain threshold in parallel with blood sampling

The irritation and pain associated with oral blood sampling necessary to monitor glycemic control can alter oral sensation, but no studies have measured the reliability of oral sensation testing when performed concurrently with blood sampling. The primary and secondary aims of this study were to verify the measurement reliability of current perception threshold (CPT) and pain threshold (PT) tests performed before and after blood sampling and to investigate the differences in CPTs/PTs obtained from the oral cavity, hand, and foot, respectively. CPT/PT measurements were obtained from the oral mucosa and the tips of fingers and toes of 18 volunteers (10 males and 8 females, average age = 26.3 years) using electrical stimulation at frequencies of 5, 250, and 2,000 Hz. Participants also provided blood samples by pricking their own index fingers with a small needle. All subjects completed the following 3 conditions at once‐weekly intervals as follows: (a) sensory measurements followed by blood sampling (SB block); (b) blood sampling followed by sensory measurements (BS block); (c) sensory measurements without blood sampling (CO control block). Cronbach's α coefficients were over 0.78 for the SB, BS, and CO blocks, and are considered to be acceptable for assuring measurement reliability. The oral cavity had significantly lower CPT/PTs than both hands and feet, such that the threshold increased in the order oral cavity < hand < foot. CPT and PT measurements performed concurrently with blood sampling are both reliable and region specific, and for which the oral cavity is the most sensitive testing region.
Side Effects of Motivational Interventions? Effects of an Intervention in Math Classrooms on Motivation in Verbal Domains

One way to address the leaking pipeline toward STEM-related careers (i.e., science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is to intervene on students’ STEM motivation in school. However, a neglected question in intervention research is how such interventions affect motivation in subjects not targeted by the intervention. This question was addressed through data from a cluster-randomized study in which a value intervention was successfully implemented in 82 ninth-grade math classrooms. Side effects on value, self-concept, and effort in German as students’ native language and English as a foreign language were assessed 6 weeks and 5 months after the intervention. Negative effects on value for German, but not for English, were found 5 months after the intervention. The theoretical and educational implications of such effects are discussed.
Policy Implications of a Predictive Validity Study of the Specialized High School Admissions Test at Three Elite New York City High Schools

Policy Implications of a Predictive Validity Study of the Specialized High School Admissions Test at Three Elite New York City High Schools By Jonathan Taylor Adviser: Dr. Herbert Saltzstein Although admission to New York City's elite public high schools has been controversial because of the disproportionate representation by ethnicity and gender of students admitted, there has been no research on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), the sole admissions criterion. This dissertation had four primary questions: (1) What is the predictive validity of the SHSAT? (2) Would the use of NYC achievement test scores improve prediction? (3) Does the SHSAT exhibit equal predictive validity across gender? and (4) Do disadvantaged students admitted to the Discovery Program with test scores below the cutoff earn grades comparable to regularly admitted students? These research questions were analyzed using the following data provided by the Department of Education: SHSAT scores for 27,905 students; school grades for 2921 students enrolled in the three largest of these elite schools, Stuyvesant High School, Bronx High School of Science, and Brooklyn Technical High School; NYS achievement test and AP exam scores for all students in the sample who could be linked using de-identified ID numbers. This study found the predictive validity of the SHSAT was lower than that of NYC achievement tests. The combination of achievement test scores and SHSAT yielded better predictions than either variable alone. Prediction by the SHSAT was least precise in the range of scores around the cutoffs for admission. Gender bias was found in the form of under-prediction of girls’ grades by SHSAT scores. Discovery Program students achieved grades equal to those of regularly
Beamforming techniques for massive MIMO systems in 5G: overview, classification, and trends for future research

Massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems combined with beamforming antenna array technologies are expected to play a key role in next-generation wireless communication systems (5G), which will be deployed in 2020 and beyond. The main objective of this review paper is to discuss the state-of-the-art research on the most favourable types of beamforming techniques that can be deployed in massive MIMO systems and to clarify the importance of beamforming techniques in massive MIMO systems for eliminating and resolving the many technical hitches that massive MIMO system implementation faces. Classifications of optimal beamforming techniques that are used in wireless communication systems are reviewed in detail to determine which techniques are more suitable for deployment in massive MIMO systems to improve system throughput and reduce intra- and inter-cell interference. To overcome the limitations in the literature, we have suggested an optimal beamforming technique that can provide the highest performance in massive MIMO systems, satisfying the requirements of next-generation wireless communication systems.
Can Culture Influence Body-Specific Associations Between Space and Valence?

People implicitly associate positive ideas with their dominant side of space and negative ideas with their non-dominant side. Right-handers tend to associate "good" with "right" and "bad" with "left," but left-handers associate "bad" with "right" and "good" with "left. " Whereas right-handers' implicit associations align with idioms in language and culture that link "good" with "right," left-handers' implicit associations go against them. Can cultural conventions modulate the body-specific association between valence and left-right space? Here, we compared people from Spanish and Moroccan cultures, which differ in the strength of taboos against the use of the left hand, and therefore in their preference for the right. Results showed stronger explicit associations between space and valence in Moroccan participants than in Spaniards, but they did not show any increased tendency for right-handed Moroccans to associate "good" with "right" implicitly. Despite differences in cultural conventions between Spaniards and Moroccans, we find no evidence for a cross-cultural difference in the implicit association between space and valence, which appears to depend on patterns of bodily experience.
Optimality and Sub-optimality of PCA I: Spiked Random Matrix Models

A central problem of random matrix theory is to understand the eigenvalues of spiked random matrix models, introduced by Johnstone, in which a prominent eigenvector (or "spike") is planted into a random matrix. These distributions form natural statistical models for principal component analysis (PCA) problems throughout the sciences. Baik, Ben Arous and Peche showed that the spiked Wishart ensemble exhibits a sharp phase transition asymptotically: when the spike strength is above a critical threshold, it is possible to detect the presence of a spike based on the top eigenvalue, and below the threshold the top eigenvalue provides no information. Such results form the basis of our understanding of when PCA can detect a low-rank signal in the presence of noise. However, under structural assumptions on the spike, not all information is necessarily contained in the spectrum. We study the statistical limits of tests for the presence of a spike, including non-spectral tests. Our results leverage Le Cam's notion of contiguity, and include: i) For the Gaussian Wigner ensemble, we show that PCA achieves the optimal detection threshold for certain natural priors for the spike. ii) For any non-Gaussian Wigner ensemble, PCA is sub-optimal for detection. However, an efficient variant of PCA achieves the optimal threshold (for natural priors) by pre-transforming the matrix entries. iii) For the Gaussian Wishart ensemble, the PCA threshold is optimal for positive spikes (for natural priors) but this is not always the case for negative spikes.
Burnout and Depression in MS1 and MS3 Years: A Comparison of Cohorts at One Medical School.

BACKGROUND Losses of idealism, empathy, and professionalism over the course of medical education have been described previously in the literature. A 2012 national survey of medical students estimated 37%-44% with burnout, 58% screen positive for depression, and 9.4% with suicidal ideation in the past 12 months. Given changes in related traits, we sought to explore whether burnout and symptoms of depression change over time. The objectives of this study were to assess the differences in medical student burnout and symptoms of depression between first year (MS1) and third-year (MS3) medical students at one medical college. METHODS Students were administered the modified Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2) depression screening instrument as an optional part of a mandatory annual survey administered by the medical college near the end of the academic year (March-May, 2015). Anonymous responses from MS1s and MS3s were analyzed to estimate trends in burnout and possible depression over time and to examine the relationship between the two measures. RESULTS Possible depression (Total PHQ2 equal or greater than 3) was present in 28.5% of all respondents. MS3s had significantly higher levels of Emotional Exhaustion (EE) and Depersonalization (DP), and lower levels of Personal Accomplishment (PA), than MS1s. When PHQ2, gender, and campus/program effects were controlled via regression, MS3s tended to record EE and DP scores over 2 points higher than MS1s and PA scores over 2 points lower. Regrets about entering medicine were also higher in MS3s in the controlled models. PHQ2 scores were also positively associated with all subscales except for PA. CONCLUSIONS Students appear to be at slightly greater risk for burnout as they temporally progress through medical school. These findings are consistent with similar measurements of decreasing empathy and idealism when comparing cohorts of early versus late medical students.
Gratitude Interventions: Beyond Stress Debriefing and Survivor Therapy in the Aftermath of the Sichuan Earthquake

Gratitude interventions were introduced as a viable option in the treatment of choice for the long-term caring of surviving schoolchildren in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake. Support for this contention was considered through an overview of the conceptualization and assessment of gratitude, the research on the cultivation and practice of gratitude, and the suitability of the application of gratitude interventions in the Chinese cultural context. The call for research on the effectiveness of gratitude interventions for Chinese schoolchildren in the aftermath of disaster is emphasized.
Hsa_Circ_0001275: A Potential Novel Diagnostic Biomarker for Postmenopausal Osteoporosis

Background/Aims: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers. In this study, we aimed to identify a potential biomarker from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP). Methods: CircRNA expression in PBMCs from three pairs of samples from PMOP patients and controls was initially detected by circRNA microarray. The changes in selected circRNAs in PBMCs from 28 PMOP patients and 21 age- and sex-matched controls were confirmed using quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Next, samples from 30 PMOP patients and 20 controls were used for further verification. Pearson correlation test was performed to assess the correlation between circRNAs and clinical variables. The area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated to evaluate the diagnostic value. Results: Six differentially expressed circRNAs were identified by chip microarray analysis, of which only hsa_circ_0001275 showed consistency and statistical significance in qRT-PCR. The correlation analysis between age, body weight, height, WBC, lymphocyte and monocyte count, bone density, T-score, β-CROSSL, OSTEOC, and TP1NP showed that hsa_circ_0001275 was negatively correlated with T-score. ROC curves showed that hsa_circ_0001275 has significant diagnostic value in PMOP (AUC=0.759, P< 0.001). Conclusion: This study suggests that hsa_circ_0001275 may serve as a potential diagnostic biomarker for PMOP.
Threshold tracking primary motor cortex inhibition: the influence of current direction

Paired‐pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) can be used to probe inhibitory activity in primary motor cortex (M1). Recruitment of descending volleys with TMS depends on the induced current direction in M1. Anterior‐posterior (AP) stimulation preferentially activates late indirect‐ (I‐) waves that are most susceptible to paired‐pulse TMS. Threshold tracking TMS can assess intracortical inhibition; however, previous studies have only used a current direction that preferentially recruits early I‐waves [posterior‐anterior (PA)]. Our objective was to examine intracortical inhibition with threshold tracking TMS designed to preferentially recruit early vs. late I‐waves with PA and AP stimulation respectively. Electromyographic recordings were obtained from the right first dorsal interosseous muscle of 15 participants (21–50 years). Motor evoked potentials elicited by TMS over left M1 were recorded for PA, AP and lateromedial (LM) induced currents, with I‐wave recruitment calculated as the onset latency difference between PA‐LM and AP‐LM. Short‐ and long‐interval intracortical inhibition (SICI and LICI) were examined across a range of conditioning stimulus intensities and interstimulus intervals (3 and 100–260 ms) with threshold tracking TMS for PA and AP stimulation. SICI and LICI were greater for AP compared with PA current direction using threshold tracking. In addition, the efficacy of late I‐wave recruitment was associated with the extent of SICI for AP but not PA stimulation, and was not associated with LICI. These findings indicate that threshold tracking with an AP‐induced current provides a more robust and sensitive measure of M1 intracortical inhibition than PA.
Robocentric visual–inertial odometry

In this paper, we propose a novel robocentric formulation of the visual–inertial navigation system (VINS) within a sliding-window filtering framework and design an efficient, lightweight, robocentric visual–inertial odometry (R-VIO) algorithm for consistent motion tracking even in challenging environments using only a monocular camera and a six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU). The key idea is to deliberately reformulate the VINS with respect to a moving local frame, rather than a fixed global frame of reference as in the standard world-centric VINS, in order to obtain relative motion estimates of higher accuracy for updating global pose. As an immediate advantage of this robocentric formulation, the proposed R-VIO can start from an arbitrary pose, without the need to align the initial orientation with the global gravitational direction. More importantly, we analytically show that the linearized robocentric VINS does not undergo the observability mismatch issue as in the standard world-centric counterparts that has been identified in the literature as the main cause of estimation inconsistency. Furthermore, we investigate in depth the special motions that degrade the performance in the world-centric formulation and show that such degenerate cases can be easily compensated for by the proposed robocentric formulation, without resorting to additional sensors as in the world-centric formulation, thus leading to better robustness. The proposed R-VIO algorithm has been extensively validated through both Monte Carlo simulation and real-world experiments with different sensing platforms navigating in different environments, and shown to achieve better (or competitive at least) performance than the state-of-the-art VINS, in terms of consistency, accuracy, and efficiency.
Relevance of the Endosymbiosis of Blochmannia floridanus and Carpenter Ants at Different Stages of the Life Cycle of the Host

ABSTRACT Expression of several genes possibly involved in the symbiotic relationship between the obligate intracellular endosymbiont Blochmannia floridanus and its ant host Camponotus floridanus was investigated at different developmental stages of the host by real-time quantitative PCR. These included a set of genes related to nitrogen metabolism (ureC, ureF, glnA, and speB) as well as genes involved in the synthesis of the aromatic amino acid tyrosine (tyrA, aspC, and hisC). The overall transcriptional activity of Blochmannia was found to be quite low during early developmental stages and to increase steadily with host age. However, a concerted peak of gene expression related to nitrogen recycling could be detected around the entire process of pupation, while expression of biosynthesis pathways for aromatic amino acids was elevated only during a short phase in pupation. These data suggest an important role of certain metabolic functions for the symbiotic interactions of the bacteria and an individual host organism in early phases of development. General relevance of Blochmannia for its ant host was tested in fostering experiments with worker groups of Camponotus floridanus, and their success in raising pupae from first-instar larvae was used as a fitness measure. Groups treated with antibiotics had a significantly reduced success in raising the brood in comparison to untreated control groups, indicating that the symbiosis is relevant for the development of the entire colony.
Evaluation of the hardwired sequence control system generated by high-level synthesis

This study presents the application of the commercial High Level Synthesis (HLS) to a hardwired control application with quantitative comparison to the traditional approach that uses logic synthesis with HDL. Though the derived circuits from HLS are comparable to that of logic synthesis, the design trade-offs in HLS are difficult to control. This study also presents the design and evaluation of the whole system of hardwired control with a Xilinx Zynq-7000 FPGA platform. From our experiments, two performance bottlenecks were identified: the RAM for memory elements that serializes the read/write accesses, and data transfer time via the peripheral bus. According to our results, the sole hardwired control was 10 times faster than the original software, while the overall performance was 4 to 50 times worse than the original software. The use of flipflops and dedicated I/O pins are necessary for high-performance systems.
Growth hormone‐releasing hormone receptor antagonists modify molecular machinery in the progression of prostate cancer

Therapeutic strategies should be designed to transform aggressive prostate cancer phenotypes to a chronic situation. To evaluate the effects of the new growth hormone‐releasing hormone receptor (GHRH‐R) antagonists: MIA‐602, MIA‐606, and MIA‐690 on processes associated with cancer progression as cell proliferation, adhesion, migration, and angiogenesis.