Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A randomized controlled trial of rituximab for the treatment of severe cryoglobulinemic vasculitis.

OBJECTIVE To conduct a long-term, prospective, randomized controlled trial evaluating rituximab (RTX) therapy for severe mixed cryoglobulinemia or cryoglobulinemic vasculitis (CV). METHODS Fifty-nine patients with CV and related skin ulcers, active glomerulonephritis, or refractory peripheral neuropathy were enrolled. In CV patients who also had hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, treatment of the HCV infection with antiviral agents had previously failed or was not indicated. Patients were randomized to the non-RTX group (to receive conventional treatment, consisting of 1 of the following 3: glucocorticoids; azathioprine or cyclophosphamide; or plasmapheresis) or the RTX group (to receive 2 infusions of 1 gm each, with a lowering of the glucocorticoid dosage when possible, and with a second course of RTX at relapse). Patients in the non-RTX group who did not respond to treatment could be switched to the RTX group. Study duration was 24 months. RESULTS Survival of treatment at 12 months (i.e., the proportion of patients who continued taking their initial therapy), the primary end point, was statistically higher in the RTX group (64.3% versus 3.5% [P < 0.0001]), as well as at 3 months (92.9% versus 13.8% [P < 0.0001]), 6 months (71.4% versus 3.5% [P < 0.0001]), and 24 months (60.7% versus 3.5% [P < 0.0001]). The Birmingham Vasculitis Activity Score decreased only after treatment with RTX (from a mean ± SD of 11.9 ± 5.4 at baseline to 7.1 ± 5.7 at month 2; P < 0.001) up to month 24 (4.4 ± 4.6; P < 0.0001). RTX appeared to be superior therapy for all 3 target organ manifestations, and it was as effective as conventional therapy. The median duration of response to RTX was 18 months. Overall, RTX treatment was well tolerated. CONCLUSION RTX monotherapy represents a very good option for severe CV and can be maintained over the long term in most patients.
Childhood Epilepsy and Asthma: Comparison of Quality of Life

Summary: We report results from the first data collection on an ongoing longitudinal study aimed at describing thenatural history of adaptation to childhood epilepsy andasthma in children and their families. We studied 136 children with epilepsy and 134 children with asthma aged 8–12 years. Data were collected from the children, theirmothers, and their school teachers through interviews, school records, and questionnaires. The two sampleswere compared on four domains of quality of life: physical, psychological, social, and school. Data were analyzed by a 2 × 2 between‐subjects multivariate analysis ofcovariance with type of illness (epilepsy or asthma) as theindependent variable and length of time since onset ofillness as a covariate. A significant main effect was notedfor illness [multivariate F (15, 236) = 11.36, p < 0.001]. Our major finding was that children with epilepsy had arelatively more compromised quality of life in the psychological, social, and school domains. In contrast, children with asthma had a more compromised quality of lifein the physical domain. Our findings suggest that attention simply to seizure control in the clinical setting willnot address the full range of quality‐of‐life problems ofchildren with epilepsy.
Competition in the Food Marketing Chain

Competition in the Australian food marketing chain is of continuing concern, but little evidence is available to guide policy debate. In a search for broad guidelines, the theoretical and empirical evidence is reviewed and the recent report of the Joint Select Committee on the Retailing Sector is examined. Then publicly available data on several food groups are used to test for evidence of persistent market power. The purchasing behaviour of the grains and oilseeds processing sector is found to warrant more detailed attention. A possible research agenda and a call for greater attention to data requirements complete the article.
Corporate Governance and Aggregate Volatility ∗

This paper argues that firms adapt their mode of governance to market conditions, and that this may help us understand the business cycle. I focus on the extent of insiders’ control over firm’s decisions. The delegation of control to insiders fosters initiative but it also gives them the opportunity to expand their firm beyond the profit-maximizing size. This type of behavior has very different implications at the firm level and in the aggregate. At the firm level, it destroys value. In the aggregate, however, when goods markets are imperfectly competitive, firms are too small relative to the social optimum. In such circumstances, insiders’ tendency to increase investment, employment and output are at once costly for shareholders and beneficial for the economy. Under plausible assumptions, I show that firms find it optimal to delegate control when demand is high. A positive shock therefore induces more firms to delegate control. Because delegation itself increases output and productivity, the initial shock is amplified and other firms choose to delegate control. I incorporate these insights into a standard real business cycle model and show that delegation choices provide a powerful amplification mechanism. Finally, the model predicts that an increase in firm volatility can decrease aggregate volatility and I present evidence consistent with this prediction. (JEL D2, E3, E4, G3) ∗I am grateful to Olivier Blanchard and Ricardo Caballero for their insightful supervision, and to Marios Angeletos and Ivan Werning for their help and encouragement. I also benefited from the comments of Daron Acemoglu, Mark Gertler and Bengt Holmström. I thank Manuel Amador, David Bowman, John Faust, Francesco Franco, Augustin Landier, Gordon Phillips, John Reuter, Roberto Rigobon, Bernard Salanie and Michael Woodford, as well as seminar participants at the Federal Reserve Board, the IMF, MIT, Delta and CREST for their comments. †Contact: philippo@mit.edu. Department of Economics, MIT, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02142
Mixing Reality and Virtual Worlds in an Educational Mobile Robotics Remote Lab

This paper describes MOBOLAB, a project aimed at the construction of a remotely controlled mobile robotics laboratory. MOBOLAB was primarily designed to aid educators who wish to use robotics as an educational tool for pupils ranging from elementary to high school, and who don’t have educational robotic equipment readily available at their place, or who wish to use a standardized environment offering several useful features to enhance their teaching activity. MOBOLAB also offers other interesting usage possibilities, such as on-line training of educators, student robotic competitions, etc. Although far from being complete (in fact, MOBOLAB was designed as an ever-expanding project), some interesting results have already been obtained from practical experiments performed with pupils and educators.
Magnitude of incentive effects on heart rate.

Previous demonstrations of monetary incentive effects on heart rate during a continuous motor task were extended by employing different magnitudes of incentive: 0¢ (feedback only), 2¢, and 5¢ per response. The influence of the total amount of monetary incentive for the experiment was examined by providing monetary incentives either for only 2 trials or for all 5 trials. This procedure also provided an evaluation of the effect on heart rate during the later trials of discontinuing the incentive after 2 trials. The results showed a clear and graded effect of the amount of incentive per response, but no significant effects were obtained for the total amount of incentive, in spite of providing subjects with clear feedback as to how much money they could expect. Discontinuing incentives produced a significant decrease in heart rate, compared to subjects who continued to receive incentives. No effect was found for the magnitude of incentive on the rate of responding on the motor task, rendering unlikely an explanation for the results in terms of cardiac-somatic coupling. Also, any possible contribution to the heart rate results from frustrative nonreward feedback was eliminated by avoiding any suggestion of failure feedback on the task. It was concluded that the effects are attributable to the incentive value of the monetary reward and that they are large enough to be of considerable interest.
Evaluation of atrial electromechanical conduction delay in case of hemodynamically insignificant rheumatic heart disease: A tissue Doppler study.

BACKGROUND Atrial electromechanical delay (AEMD) that reflects delayed conduction may show us the clinical reflection of pathological changes in the atria. The main objective of the present study is to investigate AEMD in patients who had previous rheumatic carditis but without hemodynamically significant valvular disease. METHODS A total of 40 patients, previously diagnosed as rheumatic carditis but without significant valvular stenosis/regurgitation and atrial enlargement; and 39 age- and-sex matched controls were enrolled for the present study. Parameters of AEMD (lateral mitral annulus electromechanical delay, septal mitral annulus electromechanical delay and lateral tricuspid annulus electromechanical delay) were measured with tissue Doppler echocardiography and left intra-atrial and inter-atrial conduction times were calculated accordingly. A 24h ambulatory Holter monitoring was used in both groups to detect atrial fibrillation episodes and quantify atrial extrasystoles. RESULTS Parameters of AEMD, including left intra-atrial and inter-atrial conduction times of subjects in the study group were longer compared to the control group (23.7 ± 7.0 vs. 18.3 ± 6.2). CONCLUSIONS Increased AEMD is observed in patients with previous rheumatic carditis and no significant valvular stenosis/regurgitation and atrial enlargement, which may partly explain the increased incidence of atrial fibrillation observed in these patients.
Role of interferon-gamma in a mouse model of allergic conjunctivitis.

PURPOSE To characterize the effect of repeated topical exposure to allergen in a mouse model of allergic conjunctivitis and to determine the role of interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) in the pathogenesis of allergic conjunctivitis. METHODS Wild-type BALB/c mice and IFN-gamma knockout (KO) BALB/c mice were sensitized in the footpad with short ragweed (SRW) allergen and challenged topically for seven consecutive days with SRW allergen. The number of splenic CD4(+) Th2 cells was determined by flow cytometry, and the cytokine profile of CD4(+) T cells from SRW-sensitized mice was evaluated by ELISA. The role of IFN-gamma in allergic conjunctivitis was also examined by timed in vivo neutralization with anti-IFN-gamma antibody. Allergic conjunctivitis was evaluated clinically and histopathologically. RESULTS Repeated topical challenge with SRW allergen induced allergic conjunctivitis that was characterized by lid edema, chemosis, redness, and tearing. Histopathological analysis revealed a marked conjunctival infiltrate that was predominantly neutrophils and eosinophils. IFN-gamma KO mice and normal mice treated with anti-IFN-gamma antibody displayed milder clinical symptoms of allergic conjunctivitis and a 70% reduction in the number of eosinophils that infiltrated the conjunctiva. Spleen cells from SRW-sensitized mice contained a large population of cells that expressed the Th2 surface marker T1/ST2 and produced IL-4, -5, and -10 and IFN-gamma after stimulation with SRW allergen. CONCLUSIONS Repeated topical application of SRW allergen induces a form of murine allergic conjunctivitis that mimics the human counterpart. IFN-gamma appears to contribute to the pathogenesis of murine allergic conjunctivitis at the effector phase, but not during the initial sensitization stage.
A General Approach to Panel Data Set-Theoretic Research

Management research based on general linear statistical models has been rapidly moving toward a greater and richer use of longitudinal (panel data) econometric methods able to cope with critical issues such as endogeneity and reverse causality. By contrast, set-theoretic empirical research in management, despite its growing diffusion, has been solely focused on crosssectional analysis to date. This article covers this void in longitudinal set-theoretic research. We provide a general framework in which consistency and coverage can be assessed both crosssectionally and across time. The suggested approach is based on the distinction between pooled, between and within consistency and coverage, which can be computed using panel data. We use KLD’s panel (1991–2005) to illustrate how this approach can be applied in the context of longitudinal research.
Stabilization of Oat Leaf Protoplasts through Polyamine-mediated Inhibition of Senescence.

Protoplasts isolated from Avena sativa L. leaves undergo progressive senescence when incubated aseptically in 0.6 m mannitol with or without added nutrients. This senescence is manifested by morphological deterioration and ultimate lysis of protoplasts, by a decrease in incorporation of [(3)H]uridine and [(3)H]leucine into macromolecules, and by a sharp increase in ribonuclease activity.The presence in the incubation medium of l-arginine, l-lysine, certain polyamines related to these amino acids (cadaverine, putrescine, spermidine), Ca(2+), or streptomycin stabilizes the protoplasts. Protoplasts incubated with 10 mml-arginine or l-lysine show an initial inhibition of [(3)H]uridine incorporation, but with time, incorporation is restored to levels greater than in control protoplasts. The rise in ribonuclease activity of protoplasts is completely inhibited if the protoplasts are incubated with 10 mml-arginine. Greater incorporation of [(3)H]uridine into RNA of aging protoplasts is also maintained by appropriate concentration of cadaverine, putrescine, spermidine, Ca(2+), or streptomycin in the incubation medium; the same concentrations of these substances stabilize the protoplasts against additional lysis.
Performance evaluation of visible-light wireless communication system using white LED lightings

White LED offers advantageous properties such as high brightness, reliability, lower power consumption and long lifetime. White LEDs are expected to serve in the next generation of lamps. An indoor visible-light wireless communication system using white LED lightings has been proposed from our laboratory. In the proposed system, these devices are used not only for illuminating rooms but also for a wireless optical communication system. Generally, plural lights are installed in our room. So, their optical path difference must be considered. We discuss about the influence of intersymbol interference and the difference between visible-light wireless communication and other optical wireless communication. Based on numerical analyses, we show that the system will expect as indoor communication of next generation.
Evaluations of the Effects of Sweden's Spanking Ban on Physical Child Abuse Rates: A Literature Review

Sweden's 1979 law banning corporal punishment by parents was welcomed by many as a needed policy to help reduce physical abuse of children. This study reviews the published empirical evidence relevant to that goal. Only seven journal articles with pertinent data were located. One study reported that the rate of physical child abuse was 49% higher in Sweden than in the USA, comparing its 1980 Swedish national survey with the average rates from two national surveys in the United States in 1975 and 1985. In contrast, a 1981 retrospective survey of university students suggested that the Swedish abuse rate had been 79% less than the American rate prior to the Swedish spanking ban. Some unpublished evidence suggests that Swedish rates of physical child abuse have remained high, although child abuse mortality rates have stayed low there. A recent Swedish report suggested that the spanking ban has made little change in problematic forms of physical punishment. The conclusion calls for more timely and rigorous evaluations of similar social experiments in the future.
THIN LAYER DRYING KINETICS OF AMARANTH (Amaranthus cruentus) GRAINS IN A NATURAL CONVECTION SOLAR TENT DRYER

An experimental solar tent dryer under natural convection was used to study thin layer drying kinetics of amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus) grains. Drying of grains in the dryer was carried out on a drying rack having two layers; top and bottom. The ambient temperature and relative humidity ranged from 22.6–30.4oC and 25–52%, respectively, while the inside temperature and relative humidity in the solar dryer ranged from 31.2–54.7oC and 22–34%, respectively. Freshly harvested amaranth grains with an average moisture content of 64% were dried under the solar tent dryer for seven hours to a final moisture content of 7% (dry basis). A non-linear regression analysis was used to evaluate six thin layer drying models (viz., Newton, Page, Modified Page, Henderson & Pabis, Logarithmic and Wang & Singh) for amaranth grains. The models were compared using coefficient of determination (R2), root mean square error (RMSE), reduced chi-square (χ2) and prediction performance (ηp) in order to determine the one that best described thin layer drying of amaranth grains. The results show that the Page model satisfactorily described the drying of amaranth grains with R2 of 0.9980, χ2 of 0.00016 and RMSE of 0.01175 for bottom layer and R2 of 0.9996, χ2 of 0.00003 and RMSE of 0.00550 for top layer of the drying rack. Based on a ±5% residual error interval, the Page model attained the highest prediction performance (ηp = 80%) when drying the grains in both layers of the dryer. This shows that there was a good agreement between the predicted and experimental moisture changes during solar drying of amaranth grains under natural convection. The transport of water during dehydration was described by applying the Fick’s diffusion model and the effective moisture diffusivity for solar tent drying of amaranth grains was found to be 5.88×10-12 m2s-1 at the bottom layer and 6.20×10-12 m2s-1 at the top layer. High temperatures developed at the top layer of the dryer led to high effective moisture diffusivity and this showed that temperature strongly influences the mechanism of moisture removal from the grains. Keywords: Amaranth, Models, Diffusivity, Thin layer
Effective Reversal of Warfarin-lnduced Excessive Anticoagulation with Low Dose Mtamin K1

Summary Reversal of the anticoagulant effect of warfarin in patients with no active haemorrhage can be achieved by administration of intravenous vitamin K1. Currently recommended doses of intravenous vitamin K1, for this purpose often result in subsequent difficulties in anticoagulation. We observed the response to low dose intravenous vitamin K1 in patients requiring reversal of anticoagulant therapy. Ten consecutive patients received L mg and 2l further patients received 0.5 mg of intravenous vitamin K1. In 50% of the patients who received 1 mg of vitamin K1 the INR (International Normalised Ratio) fell below 2 at 24 h whereas in patients who received 0.5 mg the INR fell below 5.5 in all subjects after 24 h and in none did it fall below 2.0. No patient had any thrombotic or haemorrhagic complications and no difficulty was encountered in re-establishing anticoagulant control after 24 h. We recommend 0.5 mg of vitamin K1 as an effective and convenient method of predictable and fine control of oral anticoagulant therapy.
A case of invisible leukemic cutaneous T cell lymphoma with a regulatory T cell clone

A 63-year-old, healthy, asymptomatic Caucasian male was referred for mycosis fungoides (MF) found incidentally on histologic examination of benign acrochordons. He had tinea unguium and facial erythema of the face and neck in a photodistribution attributed to rosacea. No clinical lesions of MF or pruritus were present (Fig. 1). Multiple benign lesions including acrochordons, seborrheic keratoses, one cyst, melanocytic and neuroma contained superficial perivascular lymphocytic infiltrates without papillary fibrosis (Fig. 2a). Epidermotropism of lymphocytes with large hyperchromatic nuclei and Pautrier’s microabscesses were present (Fig. 2b, c). The infiltrate was predominantly CD4 over CD8 with loss of CD7 in the dermis and epidermal T cells (Fig. 2c, d). A flesh-colored papule was removed and was found to contain a well1111 Figure 1 Mild erythema of the face and the V of the neck, sparing the lower orbit.
3d interaction homology: The structurally known rotamers of tyrosine derive from a surprisingly limited set of information‐rich hydropathic interaction environments described by maps

Sidechain rotamer libraries are obtained through exhaustive statistical analysis of existing crystallographic structures of proteins and have been applied in multiple aspects of structural biology, for example, crystallography of relatively low‐resolution structures, in homology model building and in biomolecular NMR. Little is known, however, about the driving forces that lead to the preference or suitability of one rotamer over another. Construction of 3D hydropathic interaction maps for nearly 30,000 tyrosines reveals the environment around each, in terms of hydrophobic (π–π stacking, etc.) and polar (hydrogen bonding, etc.) interactions. After partitioning the tyrosines into backbone‐dependent (ϕ, ψ) bins, a map similarity metric based on the correlation coefficient was applied to each map‐map pair to build matrices suitable for clustering with k‐means. The first bin (−200° ≤ ϕ < –155°; −205° ≤ ψ < –160°), representing 631 tyrosines, reduced to 14 unique hydropathic environments, with most diversity arising from favorable hydrophobic interactions with many different residue partner types. Polar interactions for tyrosine include surprisingly ubiquitous hydrogen bonding with the phenolic OH and a handful of unique environments surrounding the tyrosine backbone. The memberships of all but one of the 14 environments are dominated (>50%) by a single χ1/χ2 rotamer. The last environment has weak or no interactions with the tyrosine ring and its χ1/χ2 rotamer is indeterminate, which is consistent with it being composed of mostly surface residues. Each tyrosine residue attempts to fulfill its hydropathic valence and thus, structural water molecules are seen in a variety of roles throughout protein structure. Proteins 2015; 83:1118–1136. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Measurement of chromatic dispersion of microstructure optical fibers using interferometric method

We present a modification of the interferometric method for the measurement of optical fiber chromatic dispersion using an easily aligned, almost all-fiber Michelson interferometer. Particular issues of the microstructure fiber characterization are discussed. Accuracy of the method is validated by comparing the chromatic dispersion measurement of the standard single-mode fiber with results obtained using the phase-shift method.