Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Symptoms and Signs Have Changed in Swedish Children With Coeliac Disease

Objective To examine symptoms and signs in children with coeliac disease and determine whether the clinical picture at disease onset has changed as incidence of the disease has decreased in the last 10 years. This project was part of the ABIS study (All Babies in Southeast Sweden, born from October 1997 to October 1999). Methods Eight paediatric departments in Southeast Sweden recorded all children with coeliac disease and registered symptoms according to a standard form. Data were obtained from 79 children with biopsy-confirmed coeliac disease, 43 contemporary controls, and 65 historic controls. Results When compared with children with normal intestinal biopsies, children with coeliac disease more often had abdominal distension (odds ratio [OR] = 22.17; 95% confidence interval [CI] OR = 5.00–98.25), thin extremities (OR = 5.89; 95% CI OR = 2.09–16.55), irritability (OR = 6.50; 95% CI OR = 1.83–23.03), and tiredness (OR = 15.43; 95% CI OR = 2.00–119.16). When compared with coeliac children diagnosed at ≤2 years of age in Gothenburg between 1985 and 1989, when the incidence of coeliac disease was three times higher, ABIS patients aged ≤2 years at diagnosis had less often experienced diarrhoea (OR = 0.23; 95% CI OR = 0.12–0.65), suboptimal weight gain (OR = 0.02; 95% CI OR = 0.01–0.10), or suboptimal linear growth (OR = 0.14; 95% CI OR = 0.05–0.39). Conclusion This study indicates that, in parallel to changes in incidence, clinical features of coeliac disease in young children have changed during the last 10 years.
Development and maintenance of outer segments by isolated chick embryo photoreceptor cells in culture.

PURPOSE To investigate the capacity of isolated chick embryo photoreceptors to develop and maintain outer-segment processes in dissociated cell cultures, in the absence of pigment epithelial and glial cells. METHODS Cells were obtained from the retinas of embryonic day (ED) 17 chick embryos, after the onset of outer-segment formation in vivo. After 5 to 12-minute incubation in Ca++ and Mg++-free Hank's balanced salt solution, neural retinas were freed from other optical tissues, including the pigment epithelium. Retinal cell suspensions were prepared by repeated pipetting after mild trypsinization and were grown in serum-containing medium on a polyornithine-coated substratum. Cell differentiation was evaluated using phase-contrast and transmission electron microscopes and by autoradiographic analysis of the uptake of putative amino acid neurotransmitters, lectin cytochemical analysis, and immunocytochemical analysis with rod and cone-specific antibodies. Cells isolated from ED 8 retinas, before the onset of outer-segment formation in vivo, were also studied. RESULTS At culture onset, ED 17 cells appeared morphologically undifferentiated and devoid of processes; differentiated features could be detected after 24 to 48 hours in vitro. Photoreceptor cells were the most abundant cell type after 6 days in vitro, followed by nonphotoreceptor multipolar neurons and morphologically undifferentiated cells. Autoradiographic analysis showed extensive Na+ -dependent uptake of (2,3,4-(3)H)gamma- aminobutyric acid in nonphotoreceptor neurons, whereas photoreceptors were labeled predominantly with 3H-glutamate. Most of the photoreceptors were labeled with fluorescent peanut lectin and with a sheep polyclonal antibody against bovine rhodopsin. Subsets of photoreceptors, on the other hand, were immunoreactive with cone- or rod-specific monoclonal antibodies COS-1, OS-2, 50-1B11, or Rho-4D2. Approximately 50% to 65% of the photoreceptors positive with these monoclonal antibodies showed a remarkable polarization of immunoreactive materials, which accumulated predominantly, or even exclusively, in an outer-segment-like apical process. When viewed on the transmission electron microscope, these outer-segment-like processes appeared as distal expansions of the photoreceptor cilium and contained disc-like membranous profiles. Outer-segment-like processes also could be detected using the electron microscope and by immunocytochemical analysis of cultures of ED 8 retinal cells. CONCLUSIONS After undergoing morphologic dedifferentiation as a result of tissue dissociation, isolated retinal photoreceptors, grown in the absence of contact-mediated cell interactions and of pigment epithelial and glial cells, can regenerate and maintain a highly polarized pattern of structural and molecular organization, including the formation of outer-segment-like processes. The cultures provide an experimental system for the investigation of cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating further development and maturation of these photoreceptor structures.
Multi-aspects of emotional electrocardiogram classification in combination with musical stimuli and composite features

A new evaluative methodology for classifying emotional electrocardiogram (ECG) was designed based on composite features of wavelet transform and recurrence analysis. To this end, the recurrence dynamics of decomposed ECG were analysed. The ECGs of 20 college students (7 females; and 13 males) were recorded during four emotional states induced by music. Emotion recognition was performed using Fisher, quadratic, and linear perceptron. Moreover, the relevance of the proposed recurrent features has been appraised by means of linear discriminant analysis (LDA), principal component analysis (PCA), Kernel PCA, generalised discriminant analysis (GDA), and Laplacian eigenmaps. The results suggest that LDA outperforms the other techniques. The effect of self-assessment ranks and gender on classification accuracies was also examined. Considering self-assessment scores, higher accuracy rates were achieved. Totally, the maximum rate of 96.15% was attained for women. It seems that the proposed algorithm can open a new horizon in emotion recognition.
Metabolism of Four α-Glycosidic Linkage-Containing Oligosaccharides by Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003

ABSTRACT Members of the genus Bifidobacterium are common inhabitants of the gastrointestinal tracts of humans and other mammals, where they ferment many diet-derived carbohydrates that cannot be digested by their hosts. To extend our understanding of bifidobacterial carbohydrate utilization, we investigated the molecular mechanisms by which 11 strains of Bifidobacterium breve metabolize four distinct α-glucose- and/or α-galactose-containing oligosaccharides, namely, raffinose, stachyose, melibiose, and melezitose. Here we demonstrate that all B. breve strains examined possess the ability to utilize raffinose, stachyose, and melibiose. However, the ability to metabolize melezitose was not common to all B. breve strains tested. Transcriptomic and functional genomic approaches identified a gene cluster dedicated to the metabolism of α-galactose-containing carbohydrates, while an adjacent gene cluster, dedicated to the metabolism of α-glucose-containing melezitose, was identified in strains that are able to use this carbohydrate.
Impairment of sequences of memory‐guided saccades after supplementary motor area lesions

Different paradigms of saccades were recorded electro‐oculographically in 2 patients with infraction affecting the left supplementary motor area. Saccades made toward visual targets (visually‐guided saccades) or away from them (antisaccades) were normal in both patients. Memory‐guided saccades, made to the remembered position of a flash occurring 2 seconds before, were preserved in 1 patient and only slightly impaired in the other. However, sequences of two or three memory‐guided saccades were severely impaired in both patients. It has previously been reported that the supplementary motor area plays an important role in programming sequential limb movements. Our data suggest that this area plays a similar role in the control of sequential eye movements.
Dynamic Verification of C++ Generic Algorithms

Dynamic verification is a new approach to formal verification, applicable to generic algorithms such as those found in the Standard Template Library (STL, part of the Draft ANSI/ISO C++ Standard Library). Using behavioral abstraction and symbolic execution techniques, verifications are carried out at an abstract level such that the results can be used in a variety of instances of the generic algorithms without repeating the proofs. This is achieved by substituting for type parameters of generic algorithms special data types that model generic concepts by accepting symbolic inputs and deducing outputs using inference methods. By itself, this symbolic execution technique supports testing of programs with symbolic values at an abstract level. For formal verification one also needs to generate multiple program execution paths and use assertions (to handle while loops, for example), but the authors show how this can be achieved via directives to a conventional debugger program and an analysis database. The assertions must still be supplied, but they can be packaged separately and evaluated as needed by appropriate transfers of control orchestrated via the debugger. Unlike all previous verification methods, the dynamic verification method thus works without having to transform source code or process it with special interpreters. They include an example of the formal verification of an STL generic algorithm.
MECP2 Mutations in Israel: Implications for molecular analysis, genetic counseling, and prenatal diagnosis in Rett syndrome

This report describes molecular analysis of the MECP2 gene in 37 Israeli patients suspected of having Rett syndrome (RTT). The patients were from various Jewish ethnic groups and from Arabic origin. Of the 17 patients with classical RTT, bi‐directional sequencing of the coding exons revealed MECP2 mutations in 14 patients. About 66% of the mutations were located in previously described hot‐spots. One case presented a novel mutation (141insA). Mutation‐negative patients were further analyzed by Southern blot, which detected a novel gross rearrangement in another classical case. Altogether, detection rate in classical cases was 88%. In a non‐classical case, a novel missense mutation (1451G>C) was detected in an affected girl and in her normal father, suggesting that this is a non‐pathogenic alteration. Another variant (1461 + 96insA) was detected in an affected girl and in her healthy mother and also in another affected girl and her healthy father, suggesting that this variant too, is non‐pathogenic. No significant difference in mutation type was noted among the different ethnic groups. In one familial case, the same mutation was detected in two sibs but not in their mother, suggesting germ‐line mosaicism. Our results suggest that mutation‐negative cases should be further assessed for gross rearrangements and that molecular analysis of the parents is often required when previously undescribed sequence alterations are detected. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A description of a cognitive rehabilitation programme evaluated in brain tumour patients with mild to moderate cognitive deficits

This series of articles for rehabilitation in practice aims to cover a knowledge element of the rehabilitation medicine curriculum. Nevertheless they are intended to be of interest to a multidisciplinary audience. The competency addressed in this article is cognitive rehabilitation. Background: There is a paucity of literature on the rationale, design, and content of successful cognitive rehabilitation programmes. In the current paper, we describe in detail a cognitive rehabilitation programme that has previously proven effective in a randomized controlled trial in patients with primary brain tumours. The programme’s content may be of practical interest to those working with populations of cognitively impaired patients. Programme: The programme consists of six weekly, individual, 2-hour sessions plus homework, and incorporates both strategy training and attention retraining. The elements were taken from two of the few programmes that are evidence-based. It's design consists of psycho-education, teaching of strategies to compensate for problems in attention, memory and executive functioning in daily life. The retraining was based on the assumption that a target process can be improved by frequently practising exercises. It is focused on attention as intact attention may also be necessary for adequate functioning of other cognitive domains. The hierarchically organized exercises, embedded in a game-like computer program, were tailored to the needs of the individual patient. Evaluation: Mean total training time was estimated to be 35 hours in seven weeks. Adherence to the programme was high. The majority of the participants found the programme to be (very) useful. However, older participants found the programme more burdensome than younger patients. Discussion: Splitting up and spreading out sessions may increase the feasibility and usefulness of the programme for older participants. Further suggestions for improvements and future studies on this programme are also provided.
The Long Memory of the Efficient Market

For the London Stock Exchange we demonstrate that the signs of orders obey a long-memory process. The autocorrelation function decays roughly as a power law with an exponent of 0.6, corresponding to a Hurst exponent H = 0.7. This implies that the signs of future orders are quite predictable from the signs of past orders; all else being equal, this would suggest a very strong market inefficiency. We demonstrate, however, that fluctuations in order signs are compensated for by anti-correlated fluctuations in transaction size and liquidity, which are also long-memory processes that act to make the returns whiter. We show that some institutions display long-range memory and others dont.
Conditional distribution search∗

We propose the problem of identifying explicit representations of events of interest in a given probability distribution using random examples. That is, we seek a representation of an event that has some given (moderately small but non-negligible) minimum probability, and gives a property of interest conditional probability near 1. Specifically, each example is of the form (x, b) where b ∈ {0, 1} indicates whether or not the target property holds, and we seek a Boolean function C(x) such that Pr[C(x) = 1] ≥ μ and Pr[b = 1|C(x) = 1] ≥ 1 − for some given μ and . We argue that this problem is of interest for several reasons. First, we believe that knowledge of such moderately rare events captures the power granted by “big data,” and as such our formal problems provide a framework in which one can demonstrate the value of “big data. ” Second, the problem we propose presents a “PAC” formalization of abductive reasoning, a basic AI task in which one seeks plausible (but not necessarily logically entailed) causes or explanations for an observation or desired outcome. Third and finally, such problems point the way to a new family of problems, learning of special cases. We present four main theorems about the model we propose: 1. Disjunctive events (and more generally k-DNF events) can be found in time O(n) (resp. O(n)). 2. By contrast, an efficient algorithm for identifying conjunctive events would yield an algorithm for distribution-free PAC-learning of DNF. 3. The tractability of search for a class of condition representations in this model is polynomialtime equivalent to the learnability of the same concept representation in the positive-reliable learning model proposed by Kalai et al. [9]. 4. If the best disjunctive event gives the target property conditional probability 1− , we give an efficient algorithm that finds a disjunctive event for which the conditional probability of the target property is at least 1− O(nμ ); that is, we give an algorithm for an agnostic variant of our conditional distribution search problem.
Modeling of the Cost of EV Battery Wear Due to V2G Application in Power Systems

This paper presents an analysis of the cost of utilizing battery electric vehicle (BEV) batteries as energy storage in power grids [also known as vehicle-to-grid (V2G)] associated with lessening battery cycle life due to more frequent charging and discharging activities and utilization in elevated ambient temperature. Comparison is made between V2G in the U.K., where annual electricity peak demand is reached in winter, and in China, where peak demand is reached in summer due to the air conditioning load. This paper presents mathematical correlations between charging-discharging, ambient temperature, depth of discharge (DoD), and the degradation of electric vehicle batteries based on manufacturer's data. Simulation studies were carried out for V2G in both the U.K. and China. Numerical results show that ambient temperature and DoD of a BEV battery play a crucial role in the cost of battery wear. Lead-acid and NiMH battery powered BEVs are not cost effective in V2G use due to the present electricity tariff. Under the present electricity tariff structure, no vehicles would be cost effective for the peak power sources in China. However, lithium-ion battery powered BEVs are cost effective in the U.K. due to a much longer cycle life.
Regularity of daily life in relation to personality, age, gender, sleep quality and circadian rhythms

SUMMARY A diary‐like instrument to measure lifestyle regularity (the 96 subjects (48 women, 48 men), 39 of whom repeated the study after at least one year, with additional objective measures of rest/activity. Lifestyle regularity as measured by the SRM related to age, morningness, subjective sleep quality and time‐of‐day variations in alertness, but not to gender, extroversion or neuroticism. Statistically significant test‐retest correlations of about 0.4 emerged for SRM scores over the 12–30 month delay. Diary‐based estimates of bedtime and waketime appeared fairly reliable. In a further study of healthy young men, 4 high SRM scorers (‘regular’) had a deeper nocturnal body temperature trough than 5 low SRM scorers (‘irregular’), suggesting a better functioning circadian system in the ‘regular’ group.
New evidence for the denaturant binding model

Denaturation with guanidine hydrochloride (GdnHCl) or urea is one of the primary ways of measuring the conformational stability of proteins and comparing the stability of mutant proteins. Despite the widespread use of these two denaturants to provide quantitative data for the free energies of unfolding, the mode of action of these agents is not well understood. We are not even certain whether the action of these agents on proteins is direct and can be regarded as ligand binding, or indirect and involves a change in the properties of solvent (water) in the presence of GdnHCl and urea. In this paper, an extensive kinetic study of the inhibition of ribonuclease A and papain by urea has been performed. The results suggest that the effect of urea on activities of these enzymes can be well described by the denaturant binding model. The binding constants of urea determined by the present method are nearly identical to that determined from a variety of different studies on model compounds and proteins.
Bridgeless PFC-Modified SEPIC Rectifier With Extended Gain for Universal Input Voltage Applications

In this paper, a new single-phase ac-dc PFC bridgeless rectifier with multiplier stage to improve the efficiency at low input voltage and reduce the switch-voltage stress is introduced. The absence of an input rectifier bridge in the proposed rectifier and the presence of only two semiconductor switches in the current flowing path during each switching cycle result in less conduction losses and improved thermal management compared to the conventional full bridge topology. Lower switch voltage stress allows utilizing a MOSFET with lower RDS-on. The proposed topology is designed to operate in discontinuous conduction mode (DCM) to achieve almost a unity power factor and low total harmonic distortion (THD) of the input current. The DCM operation gives additional advantages such as zero-current turn-on in the power switches and simple control circuitry. The proposed topology is compared with modified full-bridge SEPIC rectifier in terms of efficiency, THD, and power factor. Detailed converter analysis, small signal model, and closed-loop analysis are presented. Experimental results for a 200 W/400 Vdc at universal line voltage range to evaluate the performance of the proposed bridgeless PFC rectifiers are detailed.
Role of Hayman technique and its modification in recurrent puerperal uterine inversion

Acute puerperal uterine inversion is a rare and fatal complication after delivery. The first priority is its rapid management and prevention of postpartum hemorrhage. On rare occasions, there may be recurrence of inversion after reduction. We applied Hayman technique to two cases of recurrent uterine inversion.
Reliability of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire among Finnish 4–9-year-old children

Background: Early recognition of children's mental health problems calls for structured methods in front line services. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a commonly used short questionnaire in screening child's mental difficulties. Aim: To test the reliability and descriptive properties of the SDQ in a community sample of Finnish 4–9-year-old children (n = 4178). Methods: Both parents, two teachers in day-care or a teacher at school completed the SDQ. To control for possible bias, public health nurses rated their concern about every child's mental health, including non-participants. Results: The internal consistencies of the SDQ total score in all informants’ reports were satisfactory to good. Agreement (Spearman rho) in total scores between parents was 0.65, between parent and teacher 0.43 and between two teachers in day-care 0.81. The stability in parent's reports over 12 weeks was good. The distributions of the informant-rated scores indicated significant and clinically important gender differences, and the 80th and 90th percentiles were generally below the international cut-off points. Public health nurses reported emotional or behavioural difficulties more commonly in non-participants (12%) than in participants (7%; p < 0.001). Conclusions: The results supported earlier findings of good internal consistency, inter-rater and cross-informant agreements and test–retest of the method. However, the gender and age of the child, the number of informants and cultural differences in reporting styles affected the results and thus confirmed the need to re-evaluate the SDQ in the culture and population in question.
Responses of plasma adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate, blood glucose and plasma insulin to glucagon in humans.

The effect of glucagon on plasma cyclic AMP (cAMP), insulin and blood glucose was examined in normal adult subjects. After an i.v. injection of glucagon there was a rapid, dose-dependent increase of plasma cAMP as well as insulin and blood glucose. Multiple injection of glucagon to the same subject with 60 min intervals gave almost identical responses of plasma cAMP and blood glucose, whereas the insulin response tended to decrease with time. Dose-dependent increases of plasma cAMP, insulin and blood glucose were also seen during a continuous i.v. infusion of glucagon. With the lowest doses of glucagon the blood glucose and plasma insulin concentrations were increased without any change of plasma cAMP. Plasma cAMP, insulin and blood glucose declined prior to the termination of glucagon infusion. During an endogenous hyperglucagonaemia, induced by alanine injection, there was no discernible change of plasma cAMP. We conclude that the early events of glucagon action may be studied in vivo by monitoring plasma cAMP. However, variations of plasma glucagon within the physiological range are not accompanied by measurable changes of cAMP in the peripheral circulation.