Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unique associations between anxiety, depression and motives for approach and avoidance goal pursuit

This study investigated the shared and distinct associations between depressive and anxious symptoms and motives for pursuing personal goals. One hundred and thirty-six undergraduates generated approach and avoidance goals and rated each on intrinsic, identified, introjected and external motives. Anxious and depressive symptoms showed significant unique associations with distinct motives. Specifically, depressive symptoms predicted significant unique variance in intrinsic motivation for approach goals (but not avoidance goals), whereas anxious symptoms predicted significant unique variance in introjected regulation for approach and avoidance goals. Some of these findings were moderated by gender. The findings broadly support the notion that depression is uniquely characterised by reduced enjoyment of approach goal pursuit whereas anxiety is uniquely characterised by pursuit of goals in order to avoid negative outcomes. We suggest that these findings are compatible with regulatory focus theory and suggest that motives for goal pursuit are important in understanding the relation between goals and specific mood disorder symptoms.
Serial changes of elevated serum IgG4 levels in IgG4-related systemic disease.

OBJECTIVE Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) and Mikulicz's disease have recently been recognized as pancreatic or salivary gland lesions of IgG4-related systemic disease. These are frequently associated with elevated serum IgG4 levels. This study aimed to clarify clinical implications of serial changes of elevated serum IgG4 levels in IgG4-related systemic diseases. METHODS Serial changes of elevated serum IgG4 levels were examined in patients with IgG4-related systemic diseases. Patients Serial changes of elevated serum IgG4 levels were examined in 44 patients: AIP (n=24), Mikulicz's disease (n=8), pancreatic cancer (n=5), bile duct cancer (n=1), sclerosing cholangitis (n=1), hypereosinophilic syndrome (n=1), chronic thyroiditis (n=1), hypophysitis (n=1), idiopathic pancreatitis (n=1), and Behcet's disease (n=1). RESULTS The serum IgG4 levels decreased in all patients with AIP and Mikulicz's disease after steroid therapy. The serum IgG4 levels were normalized in 46% of AIP patients and 38% of Mikulicz's disease patients. The serum IgG4 levels were not normalized at remission in 3 of 4 relapsed AIP patients, and re-elevation of serum IgG4 levels was detected in all relapsed patients. Elevated serum IgG4 levels decreased in 3 patients with pancreatic cancer after resection or chemotherapy, and decreased in patients with hypereosinophilic syndrome, sclerosing cholangitis, and hypophysitis after steroid therapy. CONCLUSION Measurement of serial serum IgG4 levels is useful to determine the disease activity of IgG4-related systemic diseases.
Species and temperature measurements of methane oxidation in a nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharge

Speciation and temperature measurements of methane oxidation during a nanosecond repetitively pulsed discharge in a low-temperature flow reactor have been performed. Measurements of temperature and formaldehyde during a burst of pulses were made on a time-dependent basis using tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy, and measurements of all other major stable species were made downstream of a continuously pulsed discharge using gas chromatography. The major species for a stoichiometric methane/oxygen/helium mixture with 75% dilution are H2O, CO, CO2, H2, CH2O, CH3OH, C2H6, C2H4 and C2H2. A modelling tool to simulate homogeneous plasma combustion kinetics is assembled by combining the ZDPlasKin and CHEMKIN codes. In addition, a kinetic model for plasma-assisted combustion (HP-Mech/plasma) of methane, oxygen and helium mixtures has been assembled to simulate the measurements. Predictions can accurately capture reactant consumption as well as production of the major product species. However, significant disagreement is found for minor species, particularly CH2O and CH3OH. Further analysis revealed that the plasma-activated low-temperature oxidation pathways, particularly those involving CH3O2 radical reactions and methane reactions with O(1D), are responsible for this disagreement.
Importance of bile tolerance of Lactobacillus acidophilus used as a dietary adjunct.

Cultures of lactobacilli identified as Lactobacillus acidophilus from the intestinal contents of young calves varied in their ability to grow in broth containing . 3% oxgall compared with control broth. Frozen concentrated cultures were prepared from a strain exhibiting low tolerance to bile and from a strain exhibiting high tolerance to bile. Plate counts were comparable from the concentrated cultures before and after frozen storage on lactobacilli MRS agar with and without . 15% oxgall. In a feeding trial involving newborn dairy calves supplementation of the diet with the more bile resistant strain of Lactobacillus acidophilus caused greater increases of numbers of facultative lactobabilli in the upper small intestines than did the strain exhibiting lower resistance to bile. It was not possible to determine whether the lactobacilli would prevent intestinal infections in the calves challenged with enteropathogenic Escherichia coli. This portion of the study failed as the challenge with Escherichia coli did not cause infections even in control animals.
Differentiation of MSC and annulus fibrosus cells on genetically engineered silk fleece‐membrane‐composites enriched for GDF‐6 or TGF‐β3

Intervertebral disc (IVD) repair is a high‐priority topic in our active and increasingly ageing society. Since a high number of people are affected by low back pain treatment options that are able to restore the biological function of the IVD are highly warranted. Here, we investigated whether the feasibility of genetically engineered (GE)‐silk from Bombyx mori containing specific growth factors to precondition human bone‐marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSC) or to activate differentiated human annulus fibrosus cells (hAFC) prior transplantation or for direct repair on the IVD. Here, we tested the hypothesis that GE‐silk fleece can thrive human hMSC towards an IVD‐like phenotype. We aimed to demonstrate a possible translational application of good manufacturing practice (GMP)‐compliant GE‐silk scaffolds in IVD repair and regeneration. GE‐silk with growth and differentiation factor 6 (GDF‐6‐silk) or transforming growth factor β3 (TGF‐β3, TGF‐β3‐silk) and untreated silk (cSilk) were investigated by DNA content, cell activity assay and glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content and their differentiation potential by qPCR analysis. We found that all silk types demonstrated a very high biocompatibility for both cell types, that is, hMSC and hAFC, as revealed by cell activity, and DNA proliferation assay. Further, analyzing qPCR of marker genes revealed a trend to differentiation toward an NP‐like phenotype looking at the Aggrecan/Collagen 2 ratio which was around 10:1. Our results support the conclusion that our GE‐silk scaffold treatment approach can thrive hMSC towards a more IVD‐like phenotype or can maintain the phenotype of native hAFC. © 2017 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 36:1324–1333, 2018.
Next-Generation Sequence Analysis of the Genome of RFHVMn, the Macaque Homolog of Kaposi's Sarcoma (KS)-Associated Herpesvirus, from a KS-Like Tumor of a Pig-Tailed Macaque

ABSTRACT The complete sequence of retroperitoneal fibromatosis-associated herpesvirus Macaca nemestrina (RFHVMn), the pig-tailed macaque homolog of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV), was determined by next-generation sequence analysis of a Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-like macaque tumor. Colinearity of genes was observed with the KSHV genome, and the core herpesvirus genes had strong sequence homology to the corresponding KSHV genes. RFHVMn lacked homologs of open reading frame 11 (ORF11) and KSHV ORFs K5 and K6, which appear to have been generated by duplication of ORFs K3 and K4 after the divergence of KSHV and RFHV. RFHVMn contained positional homologs of all other unique KSHV genes, although some showed limited sequence similarity. RFHVMn contained a number of candidate microRNA genes. Although there was little sequence similarity with KSHV microRNAs, one candidate contained the same seed sequence as the positional homolog, kshv-miR-K12-10a, suggesting functional overlap. RNA transcript splicing was highly conserved between RFHVMn and KSHV, and strong sequence conservation was noted in specific promoters and putative origins of replication, predicting important functional similarities. Sequence comparisons indicated that RFHVMn and KSHV developed in long-term synchrony with the evolution of their hosts, and both viruses phylogenetically group within the RV1 lineage of Old World primate rhadinoviruses. RFHVMn is the closest homolog of KSHV to be completely sequenced and the first sequenced RV1 rhadinovirus homolog of KSHV from a nonhuman Old World primate. The strong genetic and sequence similarity between RFHVMn and KSHV, coupled with similarities in biology and pathology, demonstrate that RFHVMn infection in macaques offers an important and relevant model for the study of KSHV in humans.
Effects of Experimental Tooth Clenching on Pain and Intramuscular Release of 5-HT and Glutamate in Patients With Myofascial TMD

Objectives:It has been suggested that tooth clenching may be associated with local metabolic changes, and is a risk factor for myofascial temporomandibular disorders (M-TMD). This study investigated the effects of experimental tooth clenching on the levels of 5-HT, glutamate, pyruvate, and lactate, as well as on blood flow and pain intensity, in the masseter muscles of M-TMD patients. Methods:Fifteen patients with M-TMD and 15 pain-free controls participated. Intramuscular microdialysis was performed to collect 5-HT, glutamate, pyruvate, and lactate and to assess blood flow. Two hours after the insertion of a microdialysis catheter, participants performed a 20-minute repetitive tooth clenching task (50% of maximal voluntary contraction). Pain intensity was measured throughout. Results:A significant effect of group (P<0.01), but not of time, was observed on 5-HT levels and blood flow. No significant effects of time or group occurred on glutamate, pyruvate, or lactate levels. Time and group had significant main effects on pain intensity (P<0.05 and <0.001). No significant correlations were identified between: (1) 5-HT, glutamate, and pain intensity; or between (2) pyruvate, lactate, and blood flow. Discussion:This experimental tooth clenching model increased jaw muscle pain levels in M-TMD patients and evoked low levels of jaw muscle pain in controls. M-TMD patients had significantly higher levels of 5-HT than controls and significantly lower blood flow. These 2 factors may facilitate the release of other algesic substances that may cause pain.
Effects and treatment of malabsorption in childhood

The effects and treatment of malabsorption in childhood will obviously vary according to the nature and severity of the underlying cause, and the age of the child. This paper describes briefly the general nutritional effects with particular reference to coeliac disease, which is one of the most common causesof malabsorption in Western countries (Anderson, 1966), and discusses some of the types of treatment, both specific and non-specific, used in various malabsorptive states.
Novel Algorithm of Spatiotemporal Association Rules Mining Based on Event-coverage

In order to eliminate data redundancy of spatiotemporal database, and flexibly create spatiotemporal association patterns, and fast discover spatiotemporal association rules, firstly, this paper adopts event-coverage to create spatiotemporal mining database; the method can divide the spatiotemporal domain into some spatiotemporal transaction cells, where each cell is made of attribute values and spatiotemporal predicate values created by the concept generalization method. Then we propose a novel algorithm of spatiotemporal association rules mining based on event-coverage, which can make each spatiotemporal association pattern be mapped to a mixed radix numeral, and uses power set to compute the support. The algorithm adopts simple data structure to discover frequent spatiotemporal association patterns, it only needs to read the database once, and need not generate candidate for mining spatiotemporal association patterns. Because of them, the algorithm overcomes these disadvantages of traditional classical algorithms for discovering frequent patterns. Finally, we discuss the optimal application environments of the algorithm to mine spatiotemporal association rules. For discovering frequent spatiotemporal association patterns on the application environments, these experimental results indicate that the algorithm is better than these traditional classical mining frameworks, particularly, the Apriori framework and the FP-growth framework.
EVALUATION OF PRE-OPERATIVE ULTRASOUND FINDINGS IN PREDICTING DIFFICULTIES IN LAPAROSCOPIC CHOLECYSTECTOMY FOR ACUTE CHOLECYSTITIS

Background Pre-operative prediction of difficulties which may occur during laparoscopic cholecystectomy can help in reduction of operative and postoperative complications. Objectives To study the value of preoperative ultrasound findings for predicting difficulties encountered during laparoscopic cholecystectomy and to assess the usefulness of these findings to identify patients at high risk of conversion from laparoscopic to open cholecystectomy. Methods A prospective study of 200 patients who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy for symptomatic cholelithiasis. Pre-operative abdominal ultrasound was done. The diagnosis of gall stones was made and the presence of ancillary findings was recorded. Five ancillary ultrasound findings were assessed. These included; thickened gall bladder wall more than 4mm, presence of pericholecystic fluid, severely contracted gall bladder, empyma, and gall bladder filled with stones. Ultrasound findings were compared with the operative findings. Results In 36 patients who had one or more of these findings laparoscopic Cholecystectomy was difficult in 22(61.1%) of them. Thick wall gall bladder > 4mm has the highest sensitivity (69%) and the presence of pericholecystic fluid has the highest specificity (100%) in predicting difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy and the presence of more than 2 ancillary findings yielded an accuracy rate of (100%). Conversion to open cholecystectomy was needed in 13.9% of these patients. The rates of difficult laparoscopic cholecystectomy and conversion to laparotomy were much lower in those patients who had no ancillary findings (4.3%) and (1.2%) respectively. Conclusion Preoperative ultrasound findings are of value for predicting difficulties encountered during laparoscopic cholecystectomy which may require conversion to open cholecystectomy.
Potential role of reduced basolateral potassium (IKCa3.1) channel expression in the pathogenesis of diarrhoea in ulcerative colitis

Diarrhoea in ulcerative colitis (UC) mainly reflects impaired colonic Na+ and water absorption. Colonocyte membrane potential, an important determinant of electrogenic Na+ absorption, is reduced in UC. Colonocyte potential is principally determined by basolateral IK (KCa3.1) channel activity. To determine whether reduced Na+ absorption in UC might be associated with decreased IK channel expression and activity, we used molecular and patch clamp recording techniques to evaluate IK channels in colon from control patients and patients with active UC. In control patients, immunolabelling revealed basolateral IK channels distributed uniformly along the surface‐crypt axis, with substantially decreased immunolabelling in patients with active UC, although IK mRNA levels measured by quantitative PCR were similar in both groups. Patch clamp analysis indicated that cell conductance was dominated by basolateral IK channels in control patients, but channel abundance and overall activity were reduced by 53% (p = 0.03) and 61% (p = 0.04), respectively, in patients with active UC. These changes resulted in a 75% (p = 0.003) decrease in the estimated basolateral membrane K+ conductance in UC patients compared with controls. Levels of IK channel immunolabelling and activity in UC patients in clinical remission were similar to those in control patients. We conclude that a substantial decrease in basolateral IK channel expression and activity in active UC most likely explains the epithelial cell depolarization observed in this disease, and decreases the electrical driving force for electrogenic Na+ transport, thereby impairing Na+ absorption (and as a consequence, Cl− and water absorption) across the inflamed mucosa. Copyright © 2011 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Psychiatric Disorder, Drinking and Alcoholism:

We studied 371 psychiatric admissions in an attempt to relate primary and secondary diagnosis, psychopathology, and stated reasons for drinking to alcohol consumption and alcoholism. No diagnostic group other than the alcoholics drank significantly more than the mean, and the schizophrenics drank less. One-third of those with bipolar and minor depression increased their drinking in the month before admission, but this was almost offset by those with similar diagnoses who drank less. Alcoholism, though not alcohol consumption, was related to a high prevalence of affective syndromes, but these did not amount to secondary diagnoses. Drinking for ‘escape reasons' was significantly associated with consumption levels, but the reasons patients gave did not correspond well with the objective presence or severity of the associated psychiatric symptoms.
[Expression and significance of P-gp/mdr1 mRNA, MRP and LRP in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma].

OBJECTIVE To explore the expression and clinical significance of P-glycoprotein (P-gp)/mdr1mRNA, multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) and lung resistance protein (LRP) in newly diagnosed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. METHODS mdr1 mRNA of in 41 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was assayed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR. The expressions of P-gp, MRP and LRP proteins in lymph node viable blasts were identified by flow cytometry. The results were compared with those obtained from control cases, and the correlation of the changes with clinical outcomes was analyzed. RESULTS (1) Among the 41 cases, the positive expression of P-gp protein was detected in 8 cases, MRP in 7 cases, LRP in 15 cases, and mdr 1 mRNA in 11 cases. (2) The P-gp and LRP levels in NHL were significantly higher than those in control group, but MRP wasn't. The P-gp over-expression was significantly associated with mdr1mRNA (r = 0.396, P = 0.01). No correlation was showed among the expressions of P-gp, MRP and LRP. (3) Patients with P-gp expression had a poorer outcome of chemotherapy than those with P-gp-negative (P = 0.005). P-gp expression was significantly associated with higher clinical stage (P = 0.046) and elevated serum lactate dehydrogenase level (P = 0.032), but not associated with malignant degree (P = 0.298). MRP had no impact on the outcome of chemotherapy (P = 0.212), and wasn't significantly associated with higher clinical stage (P = 0.369), elevated LDH (P = 0.762) and higher malignant degree (P = 0.451). Patients with LRP expression had a poorer outcome of chemotherapy than those LRP-negative (P = 0.012). LRP expression was significantly associated with higher clinical stage (P = 0.0019), elevated LDH (P = 0.02) and higher malignant degree (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION The data of this study indicate that P-gp and LRP expressions but not MRP expression are important in the mechanism of drug resistance associated with a poor clinical outcome in previously untreated NHL.
Sampling Algorithms to Handle Nuisances in Large-Scale Recognition

Author(s): Karianakis, Nikolaos | Advisor(s): Soatto, Stefano | Abstract: Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have risen to be the de-facto paragon for detecting the presence of objects in a scene, as portrayed by an image. CNNs are described as being "approximately invariant" to nuisance transformations such as planar translation, both by virtue of their convolutional architecture and by virtue of their approximation properties that, given sufficient parameters and training data, could in principle yield discriminants that are insensitive to nuisance transformations of the data. The fact that contemporary deep convolutional architectures appear very effective in classifying images as containing a given object regardless of its position, scale, and aspect ratio in large-scale benchmarks suggests that the network can effectively manage such nuisance variability. We conduct an empirical study and show that, contrary to popular belief, at the current level of complexity of convolutional architectures and scale of the data sets used to train them, CNNs are not very effective at marginalizing nuisance variability.This discovery leaves researchers the choice of investing more effort in the design of models that are less sensitive to nuisances or designing better region proposal algorithms in an effort to predict where the objects of interest lie and center the model around these regions. In this thesis steps towards both directions are made. First, we introduce DSP-CNN, which deploys domain-size pooling in order to transform the neural networks to be scale invariant in the convolutional operator level. Second, motivated by our empirical analysis, we propose novel sampling and pruning techniques for region proposal schemes that improve the end-to-end performance in large-scale classification, detection and wide-baseline correspondence to state-of-the-art levels. Additionally,since a proposal algorithm involves the design of a classifier, whose results are to be fed to another classifier (a Category CNN), it seems natural to leverage on the latter to design the former. Thus, we introduce a method that leverages on filters learned in the lower layers of CNNs to design a binary boosting classifier for generating class-agnostic proposals. Finally, we extend sampling over time by designing a temporal, hard-attention layer which is trained with reinforcement learning, with application in video sequences for person re-identification.
Polarization-induced distortion of ions in the pores of carbon electrodes for capacitors

This paper reports the effect of confining ionic species of the electrolyte inside the porosity of carbon electrodes during the performance of electrochemical capacitors. Solvent-free ionic liquids and a conventional organic medium were used as electrolytes, while two series of carbons with controlled pore sizes – one of them obtained from nanocasting procedure – were used as electrode materials. Our results demonstrate that under the effect of the electric field applied during the polarization of the electrodes, desolvated ions enter distorted in pores smaller than their limiting size. In such conditions of confinement, it is demonstrated that the traditional concept of an electric double-layer formed by solvated ions adsorbed on both pore walls does not apply for sub-nanometer size pores.