Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Progressive change in primary progressive multiple sclerosis normal-appearing white matter: a serial diffusion magnetic resonance imaging study

In spite of marked disability, patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) display smaller lesion volumes on conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compared with other forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Hence, damage to the normal-appear ing brain tissue (NA BT) may play an important role in explaining the patho genesis of disability in PPMS. Diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) probes water diffusion in vivo that can be altered by patho logic changes. Using DW-MRI we investigated diffusion in the NA BT of 15 patients with PPMS over one year. The average apparent diffusion coefficient (A DC av) was measured in 10 regions of interest located in the normal- appearing thalamus and the normal-appearing white matter (NAWM). Six healthy subjects served as a reference. In contrast to healthy subjects, patients with PPMS showed an increment within 12 months of the A DC av in NAWM which was associated with an increase of the T2- and T1-lesion volumes. The A DC av in frontal NAWM was associated with disability as measured by the MS Functio nal C omposite Measure. Serial DW-MRI depicts progressive changes in the NAWM of patients with PPMS. O ur preliminary findings suggest that the processes causing structural damage in NAWM and lesions in patients with PPMS are partially linked and that changes of water diffusion in NAWM depicted by DW-MRI are clinically relevant.
On a Class of Multistage Interconnection Networks

A baseline network and a configuration concept are introduced to evaluate relationships among some proposed multistage interconnection networks. It is proven that the data manipulator (modified version), flip network, omega network, indirect binary n-cube network, and regular SW banyan network (S = F = 2) are topologically equivalent. The configuration concept facilitates developing a homogeneous routing algorithm which allows one-to-one and one- to-many connections from an arbitrary side of a network to the other side. This routing algorithm is extended to full communication which allows connections between terminals on the same side of a network. A conflict resolution scheme is also included. Some practical implications of our results are presented for further research.
The relationship between care-recipient behaviors and spousal caregiving stress.

PURPOSE This study examines gender differences in spousal caregiver stress associated with care-recipient problem behaviors and helping behaviors. DESIGN AND METHODS Using data from the National Long-Term Care Survey, we examined bivariate and multivariate relationships between the behaviors of care recipients and the stress experienced by their spouses. RESULTS Gender differences in caregiver stress emerged with respect to problem behaviors and helping behaviors of the care recipient. Helping behaviors had a moderating effect on the relationship between care-recipient problem behaviors and stress for caregiving husbands, but not for caregiving wives. IMPLICATIONS As practitioners attempt to reduce spousal caregiving distress, they should assess the extent to which care recipient's problem behaviors and efforts to be helpful contribute to caregiver stress.
Avascular bone necrosis of the femoral head after renal transplantation: Is it avoidable?

Background: Avascular osteonecrosis (AVN) is a seriousosseous complication after renal transplantation (RT). Itsprevalence clearly decreased from 20% to 4% possiblydue to the use of calcinurin inhibitors (CNI), reduction ofsteroid doses and use of steroid free regimens. The aimof our study was to evaluate the frequency of AVNamong our kidney transplant recipients and to determinethe risk factors for its occurrence. Patients and methods: Among 1785 kidney transplantrecipients who received renal allografts between March1976 and December 2005, 40 patients (2.24%) developedAVN with a mean age of 31.3 10.2 years. Eightykidney transplant recipients without AVN were selectedto be a matched control group. The localization of AVNwas the femoral head in all cases. Results: AVN was diagnosed at a mean of 20.4 monthsafter transplantation. The following risk factors werestatistically significant; sirolimus-based regimen,hypercholesterolemia, overweight with body mass index(BMI)>26 and those with HLA A9, HLA B35 and DRB15. Conclusions: We concluded that the proper managementof hypercholesterolemia, maintenance of ideal bodyweight as well as avoidance of sirolimus-basedimmunosuppressive regimen in genetically predisposedpatients may be an effective preventive strategy to avoidAVN.
Relations of Parental Report and Observation of Parenting to Maltreatment History

Parenting assessments (the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scale, CTSPC; and a mother-child observation) were examined for their ability to identify mothers with a history of physically abusing or neglecting their child. Participants were mothers of 139 children (age 3 to 6 years; 58 with a history of maltreatment). Mothers with a history of maltreatment reported higher scores on the Neglect, Nonviolent Discipline, and Psychological Aggression subscales of the CTSPC. These group differences, however, were limited to mothers who acknowledged a history of maltreatment, as mothers who concealed their maltreatment history rated themselves similar to controls. Observation of parental behaviors during a brief, nonstressful task did not discriminate mothers who maltreated from mothers who did not maltreat. The findings suggest that parental report using the CTSPC may be useful in assessing parenting behaviors among mothers with a history of maltreatment, although socially desirable responding is a significant problem.
The frequency of Hashimoto thyroiditis in children and the relationship between urinary iodine level and Hashimoto thyroiditis

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of thyroid autoimmunity in second grade primary school students and to examine the relationship between iodine and Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT). This was a cohort study performed with 1000 students. Urinary iodine levels, antithyroid peroxidase (anti-TPO) and antithyroglobulin (anti-Tg) antibodies were determined in all children. Children with anti-TPO or anti-Tg antibody positivity or with goiter were summoned for detailed examinations. In total, 36 cases (3.6%) were diagnosed as HT. The goiter frequency was found in 17.5% of the whole cohort. Additionally, iodine deficiency was found in 64.2% of all children. The median urinary iodine excretion was determined as 132 μg/L (range 382 μg/L) in the HT group, whereas it was 73 μg/L (range 390 μg/L) in children with goiter but without HT and 81 μg/L (range 394 μg/L) in normal children. The urinary iodine level of HT cases was significantly higher than the other two groups (p<0.001). HT was also determined in 2% of patients with low urinary iodine levels, in 6.2% of patients with normal urinary iodine levels, and in 7.5% of patients with high urinary iodine levels. Our data demonstrates the close relationship between excessive iodine levels and autoimmunity.
Genome size variation among accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Estimates of the amount of nuclear DNA of Arabidopsis thaliana, known to be among the lowest within angiosperms, vary considerably. This study aimed to determine genome size of a range of accessions from throughout the entire Eurasian range of the species. METHODS Twenty accessions from all over Europe and one from Japan were examined using flow cytometry. KEY RESULTS Significant differences in mean C-values were detected over a 1.1-fold range. Mean haploid (1C) genome size was 0.215 pg (211 Mbp) for all analysed accessions. Two accessions were tetraploid. CONCLUSIONS A closer investigation of the DNA fractions involved in intraspecific genome size differences in this experimentally accessible species may provide information on the factors involved in stability and evolution of genome sizes.
Cigarette Smoking and Smoking Cessation among Persons with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Purpose. To identify factors predictive of smoking cessation among adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Data from the 1997 to 2002 National Health Interview Surveys were analyzed for adults at least 25 years of age with COPD using logistic regression. Results. Of the adults with COPD, 36.2% were current smokers. Of the current smokers and former smokers who had quit smoking during the past year, 22.9% reported not receiving cessation advice from a health care professional during the past year. Although half of smokers with COPD had attempted to quit during the past year, only 14.6% were successful. Attempting to quit was negatively associated with heavy drinking but positively associated with being younger and having cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, and activity limitation due to lung problems. Factors predictive of successful cessation included being at least 65 years old, not being poor, and activity limitation due to lung problems. Conclusion. This study underscores the importance of continuing to develop smoking cessation strategies for COPD patients and implementing clinical guidelines on smoking cessation among health care providers.
Tn1403, a Multiple-Antibiotic Resistance Transposon Made Up of Three Distinct Transposons

ABSTRACT Transposon Tn1403 from a clinical Pseudomonas strain is composed of three transposons, including Tn5393c. A related transposon Tn1404* from a plant-associated Pseudomonas strain lacks Tn5393 but includes a transposon carrying the tet(C) tetracycline resistance determinant. These compound transposons illustrate the role of preexisting transposons in generating clusters of antibiotic resistance genes.
Mid-phase sprinting movements of Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell in the 100-m race during the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Athletics (日本陸連科学委員会研究報告 第8巻(2009) 陸上競技の医科学サポート研究 REPORT2008)

In the present study, the running movements of Tyson Gay (9.85 seconds) and Asafa Powell (9.96 seconds) who finished first and third, respectively, in the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Athletics were analyzed. Their data were compared to past data (Ito et al., 1998) in order to determine the characteristics of both sprinters. Maximal sprint running velocity was 11.85 m/s for Gay and 11.88 m/s for Powell. For Gay and Powell, step frequency was 4.90 and 4.96 steps/s, respectively, and step length was 2.42 and 2.40 m, respectively. According to Ito et al. (1998), sprint running velocity is not related to maximum thigh angle “high knee”, but the faster the sprint running velocity, the greater the minimum knee angle. The maximum thigh angle for Gay and Powell was comparable at 65° and 70°, and the minimum knee angle for Gay and Powell was 41° and 38°, respectively, and these numbers were similar to the data obtained by Ito et al. (1998). The horizontal distance from the toe at the point of landing to the center of gravity for the two sprinters was 0.31 m, and this number is comparable to that for sprinters who run 100 meters in 11 seconds (Fukuda and Ito, 2004). Therefore, it is not necessarily good to land immediately underneath the center of gravity when landing. In support leg movements, an interesting finding was seen with maximum knee extension velocity for Gay and Powell. During landing, the knee joint of both sprinters always remained bent, and when acceleration force was expressed during the later half of the support phase, the extension velocity had a negative value: -50 degrees/s for Gay and -68 degrees/s for Powell. Training guidance that attempts to increase sprint running velocity by reducing the deceleration associated with landing must be reexamined because the landing distance for Gay and Powell is comparable to that of sprinters who run 100 m in 11 seconds. What is important here is that Gay and Powell continue to bend the knee of the support leg during the support phase, and training guidance that instructs sprinters to actively extend the knee and ankle joints of the support leg must be reevaluated.
Coincident mass extirpation of neotropical amphibians with the emergence of the infectious fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis

Amphibians highlight the global biodiversity crisis because ∼40% of all amphibian species are currently in decline. Species have disappeared even in protected habitats (e.g., the enigmatic extinction of the golden toad, Bufo periglenes, from Costa Rica). The emergence of a fungal pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has been implicated in a number of declines that have occurred in the last decade, but few studies have been able to test retroactively whether Bd emergence was linked to earlier declines and extinctions. We describe a noninvasive PCR sampling technique that detects Bd in formalin-preserved museum specimens. We detected Bd by PCR in 83–90% (n = 38) of samples that were identified as positive by histology. We examined specimens collected before, during, and after major amphibian decline events at established study sites in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. A pattern of Bd emergence coincident with decline at these localities is revealed—the absence of Bd over multiple years at all localities followed by the concurrent emergence of Bd in various species at each locality during a period of population decline. The geographical and chronological emergence of Bd at these localities also indicates a southbound spread from southern Mexico in the early 1970s to western Guatemala in the 1980s/1990s and to Monteverde, Costa Rica by 1987. We find evidence of a historical “Bd epidemic wave” that began in Mexico and subsequently spread to Central America. We describe a technique that can be used to screen museum specimens from other amphibian decline sites around the world.
Self-rated health and mortality in the NHANES-I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study.

The ability of self-rated health status to predict mortality was tested with data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-I) Epidemiologic Follow-Up Study (NHEFS), conducted from 1971-84. The sample consists of adult NHANES-I respondents ages 25-74 years (N = 6,440) for whom data from a comprehensive physical examination at the initial interview and survival status at follow-up are available. Self-rated health consists of the response to the single item, "Would you say your health in general is excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor? " Proportional hazards analyses indicated that, net of its association with medical diagnoses given in the physical examination, demographic factors, and health related behaviors, self-rated health at Time 1 is associated with mortality over the 12-year follow-up period among middle-aged males, but not among elderly males or females of any age.
Examining the Impact of Competitive Strategies on Corporate Innovation: An Empirical Study in Automobile Industry

This study is devoted to the empirical assessment of the impact of competitive strategies on corporate innovation in the automobile industry of Iran. The study involves a questionnaire-based survey of managers from two major automobile manufacturers (SAIPA and Iran Khodro) in Iran. A total of 286 useable questionnaires were received from managers from the two manufacturers. These were subjected to a series of correlational and regression analyses. The measures of the independent (competitive strategies) and dependent (corporate innovation) variables are based on literature. The results reveal that competitive strategies of Porter had a positive and significant influence on corporate innovation. With strong statistical significance, three competitive strategies-cost leadership, differentiation, and focus- provide an explanation for variations in corporate innovation dimensions including innovation in product, innovation in process, and administrative innovation. Although the literature has long pointed out the importance of competitive strategies as a determinant of innovation, strategists have not focused on the impact of each strategy on the dimensions of innovation. Thus, this study makes a contribution towards filling this gap.
Evaluation of lithium-ion battery second life performance and degradation

Reusing electric vehicle batteries once they have been retired from the automotive application is stated as one of the possible solutions to reduce electric vehicle costs. Many publications in the literature have analyzed the economic viability of such a solution, and some car manufacturers have recently started running several projects to demonstrate the technical viability of the so-called battery second life. Nevertheless, the performance and degradation of second life batteries remain an unknown topic and one of the biggest gaps in the literature. The present work aims at evaluating the effects of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery State of Health (SOH) and ageing history over the second life performance on two different applications: a residential demand management application and a power smoothing renewable integration application. The performance and degradation of second life batteries are assessed both at the cell level and at stack level. Homogeneous and heterogeneous stacks are analyzed in order to evaluate the impact of cell-to-cell history and SOH differences over the stack level battery cell performance and degradation behaviour.
NDM-Based Cognitive Agents for Supporting Decision-Making Teams

Naturalistic decision making (NDM) focuses on how people actually make decisions in realistic settings that typically involve ill-structured problems. Taking an experimental approach, we investigate the impacts of using an NDM-based software agent (R-CAST) on the performance of human decision-making teams in a simulated C3I (Communications, Command, Control and Intelligence) environment. We examined four types of decision-making teams with mixed human and agent members playing the roles of intelligence collection and command selection. The experiment also involved two within-group control variables: task complexity and context switching frequency. The result indicates that the use of an R-CAST agent in intelligence collection allows its team member to consider the latest situational information in decision making but might increase the team member's cognitive load. It also indicates that a human member playing the role of command selection should not rely too much on the agent serving as his or her decision aid. Together, it is suggested that the roles of both humans and cognitive agents are critical for achieving the best possible performance of C3I decision-making teams: Whereas agents are superior in computation-intensive activities such as information seeking and filtering, humans are superior in projecting and reasoning about dynamic situations and more adaptable to teammates' cognitive capacities. This study has demonstrated that cognitive agents empowered with NDM models can serve as the teammates and decision aids of human decision makers. Advanced decision support systems built upon such team-aware agents could help achieve reduced cognitive load and effective human-agent collaboration.
Efficacy and safety of aspirin in patients with peripheral vascular disease: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background Although considered a cornerstone therapy, the efficacy and safety of aspirin for prevention of ischemic events in patients with peripheral vascular disease (PVD) remains uncertain. Thus, we aimed to evaluate aspirin use in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with PVD. Methods An electronic search of databases was conducted from inception until January 2017 for all randomized trials comparing aspirin with either placebo or control (no aspirin) in patients with PVD. The primary efficacy outcome was all-cause mortality, and the primary safety outcome was major bleeding. Other outcomes of interest were major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events (MACCE), myocardial infarction (MI), stroke and intracranial hemorrhage. Random-effects summary risk ratios (RR) were calculated using Der-Simonian and Liard model. The quality of evidence was assessed by GRADE tool and Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool. Results A total of 6,560 patients from 11 trials were included. Only two trials were considered to have low risk of bias. Compared with control, aspirin was associated with similar incidence of all-cause mortality (RR = 0.93, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.8–1.1), MACCE (RR = 1.0, 95% CI 0.83–1.20), MI (RR = 0.91, 95% CI 0.67–1.23) and stroke (RR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.43–1.22), major bleeding (RR = 1.59, 95% CI 0.96–2.62) and intracranial hemorrhage (RR = 1.38, 95% CI 0.59–3.21). Conclusions Aspirin use in PVD might not be associated with improved cardiovascular outcomes or worse bleeding outcomes. Larger randomized trials assessing the efficacy and safety of aspirin in the contemporary era are mandatory to confirm the current findings. Guideline recommendations regarding the use of aspirin among patients with PVD need to be updated.
Dietary Restraint as a Predictor of Reported Weight Loss and Affect

This study investigated dietary restraint as a predictor of subsequent reported weight loss. Neither chronic dieters nor nondieters reported actually losing weight over a 7-mo. period. With respect to recent weight change, restrained eaters reported both more recent weight loss and more recent weight gain than unrestrained eaters. Further, such weight changes had a much larger influence on their affect. It was concluded that chronic dieting is likely to produce temporary swings in both weight and mood but no permanent change. As such, chronic dieters might best be advised to abandon their dieting attempts.
A co-occurrence framework conceptualized for bridging the gap between basic science, clinical research and clinical practices

The intellectual impulsiveness of man to understand the unknown and the continual need of the society to improve healthcare have encouraged extensive investigation on numerous and diverse cause-and-effect relationships. The nature of this endeavor, however, renders the inability of investigator at all levels to escape beyond the narrow conceptual boundary described by an early French philosopher as the vicious cycle. To enjoy the theoretically plausible benefits of refined labor division, data-driven healthcare management, and real-time evidence-based practices, it must first be acknowledged that co-occurrence is better than cause-and-effect in explaining how an observation takes place at a particular time. This paper details a co-occurrence framework, and discusses its implications for the global healthcare system.
Decline of a horseshoe crab population on Cape Cod.

r A Sweeney o Club Head 1 enclosure experiments in which mummichogs were denied access to the marsh (4, 5), ail fish in our study could access the marsh, though the extent of this access differed among creeks. Thus, because the lower marsh is accessible at every high tide, differences in regularly flooded accessible marsh area may not be great enough to cause a large difference in mummichog growth. This work was funded by NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates through the Boston University Marine Program and the Plum Island Sound Long-term Ecological Research Program. We thank Simon Panall, Nate Tsao, Marc McDonnell, Susan Oleszko, Jo30 Salgado, Jaimie Champagne, and Jeff Hughes for their help with the project.