Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Atherogenic lipid profiles in rheumatoid arthritis.

AIMS Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with an excess mortality from cardiovascular disease, and this may be related to an atherogenic lipid profile. We set out to identify whether there was a correlation between disease activity and levels of different lipid fractions in a stable population of patients with rheumatoid arthritis on disease-modifying therapy. METHODS Patients with rheumatoid arthritis were selected from our database and requested to have inflammatory markers and a fasting lipid profile taken at their next visit for monitoring of their disease modifying therapy. RESULTS 204 patients were recruited for the study. A statistically significant relationship exists between reduced HDL and elevated CRP (p=0.01) and ESR (p=0.041). Elevated ESR, but not elevated CRP, was associated with raised LDL cholesterol (p=0.014). Fourteen patients (6.8%) were receiving statin therapy and 71 (34.8%) were taking prednisone. Use of prednisone, independent of dose, was associated with elevated triglyceride levels (p=0.041). CONCLUSIONS This study supports previous work showing that rheumatoid arthritis is associated with an adverse lipid profile. While good disease control is clearly important, we should not neglect management of traditional cardiovascular risk factors.
Superfluous Hospital Expenditure Associated with Unnecessary Renal Cyst Surveillance.

INTRODUCTION To measure the cost expenditure associated with renal cyst surveillance, we examined renal cyst surveillance patterns at our institution and the associated surplus cost of unindicated imaging. METHODS Patients with a renal cyst diagnosis between January 2017 and June 2018 were identified and their respective clinical and imaging data were reviewed for surveillance patterns. Unindicated renal cyst followup was defined by the Radiographic Society of North America and Canadian Urological Association. Total unnecessary expenditures from ultrasound, computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were calculated using cost of services provided by FAIRHealth Consumer®. Univariate and multivariable analyses were performed with statistical significance defined as p <0.05. RESULTS A total of 1,100 patients were identified, with a random sample of 292 selected for analysis. Of these patients 271 were diagnosed with Bosniak I and II renal cysts. Overall 52 (19%) of these patients underwent unindicated imaging, which totaled 60 ultrasound, 19 computerized tomography and 5 magnetic resonance imaging. A total superfluous cost of $347,501 was calculated when extrapolating to the entire nephrology cohort. Multivariable analysis showed higher unindicated imaging for Bosniak II renal cysts compared to Bosniak I renal cysts (OR 3.2, 95% CI 1.6-6.3, p <0.001) and decreased surveillance imaging for African American compared to Caucasian patients (OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.13-0.59, p <0.001). CONCLUSIONS Among patients diagnosed with Bosniak I and II renal cysts, unnecessary surveillance imaging was associated with higher hospital costs. Adherence to strict renal imaging guidelines for renal cysts can significantly reduce unnecessary expenditures, patient anxiety and patient harm.
Recursive Integer Cosine Transform for HEVC and Future Video Coding Standards

A method to derive an order-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{N}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> integer cosine transform is presented in this paper. The proposed transform has orthogonal basis vectors and inherits the recursive structure from the discrete cosine transform such that an order-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{N}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> transform can be derived from an order-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2^{(N-1)}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> transform. In this paper, transforms up to order 32 are derived and implemented into High Efficiency Video Coding reference model HM13.0. Compared with the core transform in HM13.0, the proposed transform has more flexibility and lower complexity for implementation while providing almost the same coding performance.
Diversity among Streptomyces Strains Causing Potato Scab

Eighty Streptomyces isolates, including 35 potato scab-inducing strains and 12 reference strains of Streptomyces scabies, were physiologically characterized by a total of 329 miniaturized tests. Overall similarities of all strains were determined by numerical taxonomy, with the unweighted average linkage (UPGMA) algorithm and simple matching (Ssm) and Jaccard (Sj) coefficients used as measures for similarity. Three cluster groups (A to C) were defined at a similarity level of 80.1% (Ssm); these groups contained 14 clusters and 24 unclustered strains defined at a similarity level of 86.5% (Ssm). Cluster group A contained strains phenotypically related to S. griseus or S. exfoliatus, whereas cluster group B contained strains which were phenotypically related to S. violaceus or S. rochei. The majority of the pathogenic isolates and reference strains were assigned to S. violaceus (57%) and S. griseus (22%). A DNA probe derived from the rRNA operon of S. coelicolor IMET 40271 was used to detect restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RELPs) among 40 pathogenic and nonpathogenic Streptomyces isolates. Southern blots revealed a high degree of diversity among the pathogenic strains tested. No significant correlation between numerical classification and RFLP grouping of Streptomyces strains could be revealed. The results obtained suggest that RFLP data are of minor importance in classification of Streptomyces species and that genes for pathogenicity determinants are spread among different Streptomyces species by mobilizable elements.
FORTIFICATION OF OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS IN PROCESSED CHEESE SPREAD

The aim of this paper was to optimize the level of fortification of omega-3 fatty acid into processed cheese spread. The fortification level of 5 to 15% with 5% interval with flaxseed oil, algal oil and fish oil emulsions were incorporated into processed cheese spreads.15% of fortification level was selected for flaxseed oil and algal oil and 10% was selected for fish oil emulsion based on sensory evaluation. The storage study was carried out at 5°C for 90 days. During storage studies, the samples showed slightly decreased sensory scores with increase in storage periods but, within acceptable limit. The physicochemical parameters viz., pH, titratable acidity, chemical composition and microbial parameters viz., total viable count, coliform count, yeast and mould counts of fortified processed cheese spreads were analyzed. Based on the results, it was found that, there was decrease in pH and increase in titratable acidity and total viable counts during the storage period.
A Brown Dwarf Mass Donor in an Accreting Binary

A long-standing and unverified prediction of binary star evolution theory is the existence of a population of white dwarfs accreting from substellar donor stars. Such systems ought to be common, but the difficulty of finding them, combined with the challenge of detecting the donor against the light from accretion, means that no donor star to date has a measured mass below the hydrogen burning limit. We applied a technique that allowed us to reliably measure the mass of the unseen donor star in eclipsing systems. We were able to identify a brown dwarf donor star, with a mass of 0.052 ± 0.002 solar mass. The relatively high mass of the donor star for its orbital period suggests that current evolutionary models may underestimate the radii of brown dwarfs.
Development of an audit tool for genetic services

Rapid growth in demand and altered professional roles have produced changes in the delivery of genetic services over the past decade, but these have not been rigorously evaluated because of the paucity of appropriate audit tools. The aim of this study was to use clients' accounts and factor analysis to develop a robust assessment and audit tool. Qualitative data abstracted from several published studies were used to generate a number of statements related to outcomes of genetic services. A total of 57 statements were incorporated into a questionnaire. The questionnaire was mailed to clients of the Wales genetic service (n = 133) who had completed their episode of care. Respondents were asked to rank each statement on a seven‐point Likert type scale. Responses were subjected to factor analysis. A total of 97 anonymized responses were received (73% response rate). Six main factors were found to contribute to the outcome of the service from the client's perspective. These were labeled (i) enhanced understanding, (ii) positive psychological change, (iii) respect for autonomy, (iv) adaptation, (v) disequilibirium, and (vi) value of contact. The audit tool has now been refined for use in evaluating genetic services. Questions are included to investigate the six outcome areas shown to be relevant from the client's perspective. Data from the next phase of the study will be analyzed to validate the tool for use in both clinical audit and research contexts. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effect of chemotherapy on the larval mass and the long‐term course of alveolar echinococcosis

The efficacy of long‐term chemotherapy in nonresectable alveolar echinococcosis is debated, particularly because of the difficulty in defining therapeutic success. In this study the effect of chemotherapy on the parasitic mass was evaluated in a series of 37 patients. The patients had larval lesions documented by serial computed tomography studies at least 1.5 yr after chemotherapy (mean = 6.4 yr, range = 1.5 to 10.7 yr). The therapeutic regimen consisted of mebendazole (n = 34) or albendazole (n = 3) as previously described. The maximal areas of the parasitic lesions were assessed morphometrically by means of digital image analysis, utilizing the point‐integration method, before and after chemotherapy. Marked regression of larval tissue occurred in 18 patients (group A; 48.6%), stationary lesions were noted in 13 patients (group C; 35.1%) and progression was found in 6 patients (group B; 16.2%). The three groups did not differ significantly with regard to age, plasma drug levels, duration of chemotherapy or initial size and composition of lesions (e.g., cystic cavities, degree of calcification). Despite morphologically successful chemotherapy in most patients (e.g., 84%; groups A and C), late cholestatic complications after 1.5 to 11 yr of chemotherapy occurred in 10 patients (group A, n = 7; group C, n = 3; 4 of them died) and esophageal variceal bleeding occurred in 3 patients (relieved by sclerotherapy). These late complications were probably mainly due to posttherapy fibrosis of hilar structures. In conclusion, our data support the efficacy of chemotherapy. However, chemotherapy is not curative, and severe late complications were observed in patients with hilar (fibrotic) involvement. (Hepatology 1994;19:735–742).
La transformación digital en el sector cooperativo agroalimentario español: situación y perspectivas

La incorporación de nuevas tecnologías digitales a los procesos de gestión empresarial desempeña hoy en día un factor competitivo determinante en la estrategia de cualquier entidad. Las cooperativas agroalimentarias no pueden quedar al margen de esta oportunidad y, en consecuencia, deben afrontar la transformación digital de sus estructuras no solo para crecer sino también para sobrevivir en un entorno cada vez más cambiante y competitivo. En este trabajo se presenta un estudio exploratorio cuyo objetivo principal se centra en el análisis del uso e implementación de las nuevas tecnologías digitales en las cooperativas agroalimentarias españolas con la finalidad de determinar su grado de transformación digital desde una doble perspectiva: su presencia en internet y los servicios web ofrecidos. Para tal fin, se procede a la revisión de los antecedentes de investigación y posterior estudio centrado en el análisis de un conjunto amplio de parámetros e indicadores sobre el uso de TIC y comercio electrónico que permita determinar la situación del sector cooperativo agroalimentario respecto del conjunto de empresas españolas y realizar un análisis comparativo tanto a nivel territorial como intersectorial. Los resultados obtenidos revelan la existencia de cierto retraso en el grado de transformación digital de las cooperativas agroalimentarias cuya magnitud se encuentra condicionada por el tamaño y el subsector donde desarrollan su actividad.
An approach for using procedure manuals as a source for Requirements Elicitation

Requirements Elicitation (RE) is a complex process that involves seeking, uncovering, capturing, and elaborating requirements in the software development process. Background Reading (BR) is a scarcely used technique for capturing software requirements. BR is an analytical method which uses existing documents as a source for RE. Although the usage of technical documentation as a source for the requirements elicitation process is accepted, discussed, or even listed by several authors, they establish neither specific techniques nor detailed instructions for applying BR. In this sense, we propose a method as an initial approach for using the BR technique in the context of the RE process. In this method we describe how an analyst uses a document as a source for the requirements elicitation process, by extracting domain knowledge and business information. The proposal is based on a specific type of technical document (procedure manual), which is structured in a formal language.
SERUM 5‐NUCLEOTIDASE: CHARACTERIZATION AND EVALUATION IN DISEASE STATES *

In addition to the nonspecific alkaline and acid phosphatases, mammalian tissues and serum contain another phosphatase, designated as 5-nucleotidase. ’ 8 The 5-nucleotidase of bull semen has been purified and well characterized by Heppel and Hilmoe,3 and the enzyme present in human serum appears to be similar to it in many respects: Serum 5-nucleotidase can be distinguished from the nonspecific phosphatases by a number of characteristics, including : This enzyme specifically hydrolyzes nucleotides in which the phosphate is attached to the 5 position of the pentose, such as adenosine-5-phosphate and inosine-5-phosphate. Adenosine-3-phosphate and other phosphate esters, including P-glycerophosphate and phenyl-phosphate, are unaffected. (2) Optimum p H . Serum 5-nucleotidase is an alkaline phosphatase with a p H optimum between 7.5 and 8.0. (3) Effect of magnesium ion. Addition of magnesium ion to the substrate in optimum concentration results in a marked activation of 5-nucleotidase, averaging a threefold increase in activity. Serum 5-nucleotidase has a greater resistance to inactivation by EDTA than does the nonspecific alkaline phosphatase. The activity of 5-nucleotidase is consistently localized to the @globulin fraction of both normal and pathological human sera, whereas both the nonspecific acid and alkaline phosphatases are a-2-globulins. Assay of 5-nucleotidase in serum by determining the rate of hydrolysis of a 5-nucleotide such as adenosine-5-phosphate is complicated by the fact that the nonspecific alkaline phosphatase of serum also hydrolyzes this substrate. This has been circumvented by preliminary incubation of serum with 0.0015 M ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, which inactivates the alkaline phosphatase, but not the 5-nucleotidase. The rate of hydrolysis of adenosine-5-phosphate has then been determined a t p H 7.5 in the presence of 0.04 M magnesium ion, and the unit of 5-nucleotidase activity has been designated as equivalent to the liberation of 1 mg. of phosphate ion in 1 hour; this unit is analogous to the Bodansky unit of phosphatase a ~ t i v i t y . ~ In a group of 30 normal adults serum 5-nucleotidase activity has ranged from 0.3 to 3.2 units per 100 ml. of serum. Values do not appear to be influenced by age, sex, or race, and are fairly constant from week to week in the individual. Significant elevation of serum 5-nucleotidase activity has been observed thus far only in the presence of hepatobiliary disease. Normal 5-nucleotidase values
Calculation of Wing Flutter by a Coupled Fluid-Structure Method

An integrated computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and computational structural dynamics (CSD) method is developed for the simulation and prediction of flutter. The CFD solver is based on an unsteady, parallel, multiblock, multigrid finite volume algorithm for the Euler/Navier-Stokes equations. The CSD solver is based on the time integration of modal dynamic equations extracted from full finite element analysis. A general multiblock deformation grid method is used to generate dynamically moving grids for the unsteady flow solver. The solutions of the flowfield and the structural dynamics are coupled strongly in time by a fully implicit method. The coupled CFD-CSD method simulates the aeroelastic system directly on the time domain to determine the stability of the aeroelastic system. The unsteady solver with the moving grid algorithm is also used to calculate the harmonic and/or indicial responses of an aeroelastic system, in an uncoupled manner, without solving the structural equations. Flutter boundary is then determined by solving the flutter equation on the frequency domain with the indicial responses as input. Computations are performed for a two-dimensional wing aeroelastic model and the three-dimensional AGARD 445.6 wing. Flutter boundary predictions by both the coupled CFD-CSD method and the indicial method are presented and compared with experimental data for the AGARD 445.6 wing.
Changes in social emotion recognition following traumatic frontal lobe injury☆

Changes in social and emotional behaviour have been consistently observed in patients with traumatic brain injury. These changes are associated with emotion recognition deficits which represent one of the major barriers to a successful familiar and social reintegration. In the present study, 32 patients with traumatic brain injury, involving the frontal lobe, and 41 age- and education-matched healthy controls were analyzed. A Go/No-Go task was designed, where each participant had to recognize faces representing three social emotions (arrogance, guilt and jealousy). Results suggested that ability to recognize two social emotions (arrogance and jealousy) was significantly reduced in patients with traumatic brain injury, indicating frontal lesion can reduce emotion recognition ability. In addition, the analysis of the results for hemispheric lesion location (right, left or bilateral) suggested the bilateral lesion sub-group showed a lower accuracy on all social emotions.
Alternatively spliced variants of interleukin‐4 promote inflammation differentially

IL‐4δ2 is a natural splice variant of IL‐4 that lacks the region encoded by the second exon. Numerous reports have suggested that the expression levels of IL‐4δ2 change in various diseases, especially those with pulmonary involvement, but the in vivo effects of this splice variant have never been studied. Replication‐deficient, AdV‐mediated gene delivery of mIL‐4δ2 to mouse lungs in vivo was used, and the effects compared with similar adenoviral delivery of mIL‐4 or with infection with a noncoding NULL viral construct. Overexpression of IL‐4δ2 or IL‐4 caused pulmonary infiltration by T and B lymphocytes, whereas in contrast to IL‐4, IL‐4δ2 did not induce eosinophilia or goblet cell hyperplasia. Microarray analysis of global gene expression revealed that IL‐4δ2 and IL‐4 had differential effects on gene expression. These splice variants also differentially regulated pulmonary levels of the cytokines TNF‐α, eotaxin, IL‐1α, IFN‐γ, and MCP‐1, whereas both tended to increase total lung collagen modestly. Pulmonary infiltration by lymphocytes in response to overexpression of IL‐4δ2 was attenuated but not abrogated completely by germline deficiency of IL‐4Rα or STAT6, whereas deficiency of endogenous IL‐4 had no effect. Thus, IL‐4δ2 promotes lymphocytic inflammation in vivo (although differentially from IL‐4, in part), and the effects of IL‐4δ2 are not mediated by endogenous IL‐4. Differential targeting of IL‐4δ2 and IL‐4 may therefore be considered in developing future therapeutic agents.
Investigation of the human serotonin receptor gene HTR3B in bipolar affective and schizophrenic patients

The neurotransmitter serotonin (5‐hydroxytryptamine, 5‐HT) mediates a multitude of central nervous functions by activating 5‐HT receptor subtypes. A dysfunction of serotonergic neurotransmission is considered to play a major role in the pathophysiology of complex neuropsychiatric disorders. In our study, a mutation screen of the serotonin receptor gene HTR3B was carried out to explore a putative contribution to the etiology of bipolar affective disorder (BPAD) and schizophrenia (SZ). Screening of 49 patients suffering from BPAD, 78 patients with SZ and 62 control individuals revealed eleven sequence variations including a 3 bp deletion within the 5′UTR (5′ untranslated region), four exonic and five intronic SNPs as well as a point mutation in the 3′UTR of HTR3B. Four of these sequence variations have not been described previously. Statistical computation rated most variants as probably non‐disease related polymorphisms. However, IVS6 + 31C > T, IVS6 + 40C > A, and 1386T > C were solely detected in bipolar affective patients and in none of the controls. Interestingly, we observed a significant underrepresentation of the 3 bp deletion −100_−102delAAG in an extended sample of 162 bipolar affected patients compared to controls (allele‐wise: 8% vs. 15%, P = 0.006, OR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.3–0.82; genotype‐wise: 15,5% vs. 29,0%, P = 0.005, OR = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.26–0.77). We suggest that this deletion may influence translational efficiency, thereby possibly affecting the development of bipolar affective disease. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Dealing with fractional failures and survivors in data analysis of reliability engineering

Authors of this paper summarize and discuss various scenarios in real world reliability engineering practice where fractional failures and fractional survivors can be encountered. Examples are given to illustrate their manifestation, failure classification and fractional failure determination, data entry format, life distribution parameter estimation, reliability quantification, and field risk prediction. It is the authors' belief that fractional failure will become a norm, instead of an exception, due to various reasons. They include, but are limited to: the nature of failure initiation, development, and manifestation, effectiveness of corrective actions, failure-physics based identification of the sub-healthy condition using parametric degradation analysis techniques, failure analysis resource and capability limitation, etc. It is hoped that this paper will be beneficial to a wide audience including reliability engineers, theorists, and management.
Saddles and softness in simple model liquids.

We report a numerical study of saddles properties of the potential energy landscape for soft spheres with different softness, i.e., different power n of the interparticle repulsive potential. We find that saddle-based quantities rescale into master curves once energies and temperatures are scaled by mode-coupling temperature TMCT, confirming and generalizing previous findings obtained for Lennard-Jones-like models.
A COMPARISON OF BODY AND HEART SIZE BETWEEN THE MALLARD AND PEKIN DUCK

Bartlomiej J. Bartyzel, Maciej Karbowicz, Izabela Bartyzel 1 Department of Morphological Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw Agricultural University, Warsaw, Poland 2 Solec Medical Hospital, Medical University of Warsaw, II Medical Department, III Clinic of Internal Diseases and Cardiology, Warsaw, Poland * Correspondence to: Bartlomiej J. Bartyzel, Department of Morphological Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw Agricultural University, ul. Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland; Tel. /Fax: +4822 8473783; e-mail: bartyzel@alpha.sggw. waw.pl