Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A critical evaluation of evidence-based practice of physiotherapy in musculoskeletal medicine

Abstract Objective: To evaluate evidence-based practice (EBP) in musculoskeletal physiotherapy and to identify barriers that exists to its implementation. Materials and Methods: A personal selection of 44 relevant papers were used to undertake this assessment. Results: The literature questions whether the sole driver for EBP must be randomised controlled trials, or whether anecdotal evidence or pragmatic trials should contribute. Barriers to the implementation of EBP have been identified including clinicians' appraisal skills and the necessary organisational changes required. Conclusions: Despite EBP having a significant influence on health policy in the UK, practitioners face various challenges when introducing and sustaining appropriate changes to practice.
Microcirculation as determined by iontophoresis in SLE-patients and controls

Background: The risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), microangiopathy and prevalence of atherosclerotic plaques are increased in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). As systemic endothelial dysfunction is one of the earliest signs of these vascular outcomes in the general population we assessed skin microvascular endothelial function in SLE patients. Methods: Endothelial function in skin was tested with local application of acetylcholine (inducing endothelium-dependent vasodilatation) and any concomitant increase in skin perfusion was measured with Laser Doppler Fluxmetry (LDF) in 84 SLE-patients (83% women, mean age 47 years) and 81 age and sex matched controls. Common carotid intima-media thickness (cIMT) and plaque occurrence were also determined using B-mode ultrasound. Results: There were no significant differences in skin microvascular endothelial function between SLE-patients and controls. In the SLE group, endothelial function did not vary in relation to skin manifestations, Raynaud's phenomenon, nephritis or plaque occurrence. In SLE patients with CVD, however, endothelial function was impaired. Conclusion: Skin microvascular endothelial function is associated with CVD but not with early signs of atherosclerosis in SLE-patients. The endothelial function is not different in SLE-patients as compared to controls.
Analysis of malware behavior: Type classification using machine learning

Malicious software has become a major threat to modern society, not only due to the increased complexity of the malware itself but also due to the exponential increase of new malware each day. This study tackles the problem of analyzing and classifying a high amount of malware in a scalable and automatized manner. We have developed a distributed malware testing environment by extending Cuckoo Sandbox that was used to test an extensive number of malware samples and trace their behavioral data. The extracted data was used for the development of a novel type classification approach based on supervised machine learning. The proposed classification approach employs a novel combination of features that achieves a high classification rate with a weighted average AUC value of 0.98 using Random Forests classifier. The approach has been extensively tested on a total of 42,000 malware samples. Based on the above results it is believed that the developed system can be used to pre-filter novel from known malware in a future malware analysis system.
EFFECT OF HALOTHANE ON HYPOXIC AND HYPERCAPNIC VENTILATORY RESPONSES OF GOATS

We have measured the ventilatory responses to increased inspired carbon dioxide and to hypoxia in four goats awake and at 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.25% end-tidal halothane concentration. While maintaining PE'CO2 constant at each of three values (means 5.86, 6.45 and 7.2 kPa), PE'O2 was reduced rapidly from more than 25 kPa to 5.3–6 kPa for 3 min to record the increase in ventilation. Eleven sets of these 24 steady state points were obtained (2 PO2 × 3 PCO2 × 4 anaes. = 24). The mean isocapnic hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) was 6.52 (SD 2.58) litre min−1 (n = 33) when awake, 5.62 (3.48) litre min−1 at 0.5% end-tidal halothane (ns), 3.05 (2.02) litre min−1 at 1 % and 2.91 (2.12) litre min−1 at 1.25%, the last two being reduced significantly from awake and 0.5 % halothane (P
HLA variants rs9271366 and rs9275328 are associated with systemic lupus erythematosus susceptibility in Malays and Chinese

Background Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antigens and genes have long been reported associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility in many populations. With the advance in technologies such as genome-wide association studies, many newly discovered SLE-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been reported in recent years. These include HLA-DRB1/HLA-DQA1 rs9271366 and HLA-DQB1/HLA-DQA2 rs9275328. Our aim was to investigate these SNPs in a Malaysian SLE cohort. Materials and methods SNPs rs9271366 and rs9275328 were screened across 790 Malaysian citizens from three ethnic groups (360 patients and 430 healthy volunteers) by Taqman SNP genotyping assays. Allele and genotyping frequencies, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, Fisher’s exact test and odds ratio were calculated for each SNP and ethnic group. Linkage disequilibrium and interaction between the two SNPs were also evaluated. Results The minor allele G and its homozygous genotype GG of HLA-DRB1/HLA-DQA1 rs9271366 significantly increased the SLE susceptibility in Malaysian patients, including those of Malay and Chinese ethnicity (odds ratio (OR) > 1, p < 0.05). As for HLA-DQB1/HLA-DQA2 rs9275328, the minor allele T and the heterozygous genotype CT conferred protective effect to SLE in Malaysians, as well as in Malays and Chinese, by having OR < 1 and p value <0.05. Both SNPs did not show associations to SLE in Indians. D’ and r2 values for the two SNPs in LD analysis were 0.941 and 0.065, respectively, with haplotype GC and AT being significantly associated with SLE (p < 5.0 × 10−4) after 10,000 permutations were performed. The MDR test clustered the genotype combinations of GG and CC, and AG and CC of rs9271366 and rs9275328, accordingly, as high-risk group, and the two SNPs interacted redundantly by removing 1.96% of the entropy. Conclusions Our findings suggest that in addition to some classical HLA variants, rs9271366 and rs9275328 are additional polymorphisms worth considering in the Malaysian and possibly in a larger Asian SLE scenario.
Abstract P6-11-09: Impact of tumor subtype on clinical features, treatment, and clinical outcomes among breast cancer patients with central nervous system disease

Background : Breast cancer is the second most common cancer associated with brain metastases. For some patients, central nervous system (CNS) progression is the primary clinical problem, and the optimal management of these patients remains a challenge. In this study we examined the differences in clinical characteristics, the features of CNS-directed therapy, and outcomes among breast cancer patients with brain metastases according to tumor subtype. Methods : A retrospective series of 214 breast cancer patients with brain metastases treated at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute from 1999-2011 was identified. Tumor subtype was classified as hormone receptor (HR)+ (ER+/PR+/HER2-), triple negative (ER-/PR-/HER2-) or HER2+ (HER2+, any HR). Descriptive analysis was performed; Chi-square, Kruskal-Wallis, and Kaplan-Meier methods were used to compare clinical characteristics, CNS-directed therapy features, and outcomes between groups. Results : Median follow-up time since CNS progression was 8 months (0-117). Median age at CNS diagnosis was 52 years (30-82). Tumor subtype distribution was as following: 35% HR+, 36% HER2+, and 29% triple negative. Table 1 represents the clinical characteristics, CNS-directed therapy features, and outcomes according to tumor subtypes. More patients with triple negative disease (32%) had CNS involvement at presentation of metastatic disease. 8% of HER2+ patients had CNS as the only site of disease. A higher proportion of patients with HER2+ disease received more than one modality of CNS directed treatment as initial therapy. These patients also received more lines of CNS-directed therapy during the entire course of their disease. The median survival time after CNS progression differed by subtype; patients with HER2+ disease had the longest median survival times. Conclusions : Tumor subtype appears to impact clinical presentation, type and number of CNS-directed therapies, and survival among patients with breast cancer with brain metastases. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr P6-11-09.
Temporal trends in characteristics and outcome of intensive care unit patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in Taiwan: a national population-based study

This study assessed temporal trends in characteristics and outcome of the intensive care unit (ICU) patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We analyzed 2870 SLE patients (≥15 years) with first-time ICU admission between 1999 and 2008. Patient data were retrieved from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Median age of the patients increased from 38.5 to 44.0 years during the study period. Most patients were women (overall 85.5%); the proportion varied insignificantly over time. Median duration from SLE diagnosis to ICU admission (disease duration) increased by four years. The proportion of patients with disease duration of more than three years increased from 42.6% to 61.4%, whereas the proportion of patients with a primary rheumatic diagnosis decreased from 41.7% to 25.1%. The incidence of infection increased from 39.1% to 47.2%. The incidence of organ dysfunction increased from 64.1% to 69.2%, especially in neurological, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems. Conversely, the incidence of renal dysfunction decreased from 36.2% to 28.8%. Meanwhile, there were decreasing uses of hemodialysis (from 37.3% to 28.7%) and vasopressors (from 58.3% to 47.9%). Hospital mortality also decreased from 42.6% to 31.2% during the 10 years. After the patient and hospital characteristics were adjusted, patients admitted in 2007 and 2008 were 50% less likely to die than those admitted in 1999 and 2000 (adjusted odds ratio 0.5, 95% confidence interval 0.38–0.67). This study demonstrates a temporal improvement of the short-term survival of the ICU patients with SLE in Taiwan despite changing characteristics and increasing severity of the acute critical illnesses.
A study into the effectiveness of a text‐based computer‐assisted learning program in comparison with seminar teaching of orthodontics

Computer-assisted learning (CAL) is a relatively new method of teaching. Few evaluations have been made which compare the new CAL methods with conventional teaching. This study used a text-based CAL package designed to teach orthodontic assessment and basic principles of treatment planning. It assessed the knowledge gain of 49 dental undergraduate students when taught orthodontic assessment and treatment planning by either CAL or conventional tutorial. Both groups made significant gains in knowledge. However, students who were taught by the conventional tutorial made a significantly greater gain than those taught by CAL.
Alcoholics and Liver Transplantation

Two arguments underlie a widespread unwillingness to consider patients with alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver as candidates for transplantation. First, alcoholics are morally blameworthy, their condition the result of their own misconduct; such blameworthiness disqualifies alcoholics in unavoidable competition for organs with others who are equally sick but blameless. Second, because of their habits, alcoholics will not exhibit satisfactory rates of survival after transplantation; good stewardship of a scarce lifesaving resource therefore requires that alcoholics not be considered for liver transplantation. These arguments are carefully analyzed and shown to be defective. There is not good moral or medical reason for categorically precluding alcoholics as candidates for liver transplantation. It would, in addition, be unjust to implement such a preclusion simply because others might respond negatively if we do not. (JAMA. 1991;265:1299-1301)
Experimental Case Study of a BACnet-Based Lighting Control System

Lighting control systems provide various benefits in building management, and building automation and control network (BACnet) is an international standard data communication protocol for building automation and control networks. We introduce a reference model for BACnet-based lighting control systems and evaluate its performance using an experimental model. The experimental results show that the system can reduce the energy consumption for lighting loads by 40%. Stable operation of the control system is guaranteed below a certain threshold of network traffic.
NADPH oxidase and nitric oxide synthase-dependent superoxide production is increased in proliferative lupus nephritis

Objective Lupus nephritis (LN) is an immune complex-mediated glomerulonephritis. Proliferative LN (PLN, ISN/RPS classes III and IV)) often leads to renal injury or failure despite traditional induction and maintenance therapy. Successful targeted therapeutic development requires insight into mediators of inflammation in PLN. Superoxide (SO) and its metabolites are mediators of the innate immune response through their ability to mediate reduction–oxidation signaling. Endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) modulates inflammatory responses in endothelial cells. We hypothesized that markers of SO production would be increased in active PLN and that SO production would be dependent on the activity of select enzymes in the renal cortex. Methods Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus were enrolled at the time of renal biopsy for active LN of all classes. Serum collected at baseline was analyzed by HPLC with electrochemical detection for markers of SO production (durable modifications of serum protein Tyr ultimately requiring SO as a substrate). Renal cortex from MRL/MpJ-FASlpr (MRL/lpr) mice with and without functional eNOS was analyzed during active disease for superoxide (SO) production with and without inhibitors of SO-producing enzymes. Results Serum protein modifications indicative of total SO production were significantly higher in patients with PLN. These markers were increased in association with more active, inflammatory PLN. Mice lacking functional eNOS had 80% higher levels of renal cortical SO during active disease, and inhibitors of nitric oxide synthase and NADPH oxidase reduced these levels by 60% and 77%, respectively. Conclusion These studies demonstrate that SO production is unique to active PLN in a NOS and NADPH oxidase-dependent fashion. These findings suggest the emulating or augmenting eNOS activity or inhibiting NADPH oxidase SO production may be targets of therapy in patients with PLN. The markers of SO production used in this study could rationally be used to select SO-modulating therapies and serve as pharmacodynamic indicators for dose titration.
ACTIVE IMMUNIZATION WITH MENINGOCOCCUS TOXIN

In 1931 it was shown 1 that bouillon filtrates of young cultures of the four recognized Gordon types of the meningococcus contain soluble or extracellular toxins specific to the individual types, as well as a toxin common to all types, and that animals injected with these toxins develop antitoxins specific to their homologous toxins and an antitoxin more or less common to all types (a clinical study of this antitoxin will be found elsewhere in this issue ofThe Journal 2 ). It was also shown that a certain proportion (about 50 per cent) of children are susceptible to one or more of these toxins, following intracutaneous injections of the diluted toxin, the test being carried out in a manner similar to the Schick and Dick tests for susceptibility to diphtheria and scarlet fever, respectively. It was later demonstrated 3 that this soluble toxin has a specific action on the central
Pesticides under fire for risks to pollinators.

Citing evidence from laboratory and field studies that neonicotinoids threaten honey bees and other pollinators, the European Union is poised to ban the use of three of the most common neonicotinoids in several crops by the end of the year. Even as European regulators act, however, scientists are divided on whether pollinators are exposed to enough of the pesticides to pose a grave threat to their colonies, in part because of a paucity of data and the challenges of doing rigorous field trials. Pesticide and seed companies maintain that their products are safe when used properly. And many scientists remain unconvinced that chronic exposure to doses typically encountered in farm fields is a leading cause of pollinator declines.
Efficient Index-Based Audio Matching

Given a large audio database of music recordings, the goal of classical audio identification is to identify a particular audio recording by means of a short audio fragment. Even though recent identification algorithms show a significant degree of robustness towards noise, MP3 compression artifacts, and uniform temporal distortions, the notion of similarity is rather close to the identity. In this paper, we address a higher level retrieval problem, which we refer to as audio matching: given a short query audio clip, the goal is to automatically retrieve all excerpts from all recordings within the database that musically correspond to the query. In our matching scenario, opposed to classical audio identification, we allow semantically motivated variations as they typically occur in different interpretations of a piece of music. To this end, this paper presents an efficient and robust audio matching procedure that works even in the presence of significant variations, such as nonlinear temporal, dynamical, and spectral deviations, where existing algorithms for audio identification would fail. Furthermore, the combination of various deformation- and fault-tolerance mechanisms allows us to employ standard indexing techniques to obtain an efficient, index-based matching procedure, thus providing an important step towards semantically searching large-scale real-world music collections.
Persistent antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) in asymptomatic carriers as a risk factor for future thrombotic events: a nationwide prospective study

Objectives The long-term prognosis of individuals fulfilling the laboratory criteria, but not clinical criteria, of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) has not been widely investigated. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of first thrombotic event (deep venous thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) in a nationwide antiphospholipid antibody (aPL) carrier cohort. Design We conducted a prospective nationwide cohort study. Setting The aPL profile of participants was recorded from the laboratory database. Information was collected about thrombotic and pregnancy complications, subsequent medical history, other risk factors for thrombosis, use of prophylactic antithrombotic medication and general health. Participants Participants included adult asymptomatic aPL carriers recognized in Finland during 1971–2009. Main outcome measure The main outcome measure was incidence of first thrombotic event. Results A total of 119 (89% female) aPL carriers were followed for mean (SD) of 9.1 (7.5) years (range 3–41 years). Sixty-one per cent of the study participants had autoimmune disease, most often systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Thirty-six of 119 (30%) were either double or triple positive, 56% single lupus anticoagulant (LA) positive, and 8% and 5% single anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL) and anti-β2glycoprotein I antibodies (aβ2GPI) positive, respectively. Nine (7.6%) study patients experienced a first thrombotic event (five DVT, one PE, two MI, one TIA) mean (SD) 7.2 (8.3) years (range 1–26 years) after aPL detection (annual incidence rate 0.8%). All individuals who developed thrombotic complications had autoimmune disease. Annual rate of first thrombotic event in carriers of single positivity (0.65%) was equal to the known risk of thrombosis in the healthy Caucasian population, whereas the rate was two times higher in carriers of double or triple positivity (1.27%). Sixteen of 79 (20%) women experienced pregnancy complications. Conclusions Double or triple positivity for aPL is a risk factor for future thrombotic events, especially in individuals with an underlying autoimmune disease, whereas single positivity does not seem to carry an elevated risk of thrombosis.
Speaker Diarization: A Review of Recent Research

Speaker diarization is the task of determining “who spoke when? ” in an audio or video recording that contains an unknown amount of speech and also an unknown number of speakers. Initially, it was proposed as a research topic related to automatic speech recognition, where speaker diarization serves as an upstream processing step. Over recent years, however, speaker diarization has become an important key technology for many tasks, such as navigation, retrieval, or higher level inference on audio data. Accordingly, many important improvements in accuracy and robustness have been reported in journals and conferences in the area. The application domains, from broadcast news, to lectures and meetings, vary greatly and pose different problems, such as having access to multiple microphones and multimodal information or overlapping speech. The most recent review of existing technology dates back to 2006 and focuses on the broadcast news domain. In this paper, we review the current state-of-the-art, focusing on research developed since 2006 that relates predominantly to speaker diarization for conference meetings. Finally, we present an analysis of speaker diarization performance as reported through the NIST Rich Transcription evaluations on meeting data and identify important areas for future research.
On the Design and Implementation of Higher Order Differential Microphones

A novel systematic approach to the design of directivity patterns of higher order differential microphones is proposed. The directivity patterns are obtained by optimizing a cost function which is a convex combination of a front-back energy ratio and uniformity within a frontal sector of interest. Most of the standard directivity patterns - omnidirectional, cardioid, subcardioid, hypercardioid, supercardioid - are particular solutions of this optimization problem with specific values of two free parameters: the angular width of the frontal sector and the convex combination factor. More general solutions of practical use are obtained by varying these two parameters. Many of these optimal directivity patterns are trigonometric polynomials with complex roots. A new differential array structure that enables the implementation of general higher order directivity patterns, with complex or real roots, is then proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed design framework and the implementation structure are illustrated by design examples, simulations, and measurements.
THE PATHOLOGY OF BRONCHIAL ASTHMA

INTRODUCTION In a clinical study of a certain type of food asthma, published nearly ten years ago, 1 one of us expressed the conception that bronchial asthma is a manifestation of allergy in the human, in the following concluding sentences: "In most cases of bronchial asthma the causative factor lies in the allergic reactibility of the individual," and, "The multiplicity of asthmatogenous substances is explained by the multiplicity of proteins which may act as anaphylactogens. " The later clinical and immunologic studies of Walker, Cooke, Rackeman, and Mackenzie, undertaken from the same point of view, have greatly elaborated the evidence for this conception and have brought forward more detailed proofs for its correctness and general validity for the majority of all cases of asthma. Since allergy in the end means changed tissue reaction, it is obvious that the investigation of any allergic condition in the human must necessarily take up the question