Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Abnormal endogenous pain modulation is a shared characteristic of many chronic pain conditions

The intensity of acute and chronic pain depends on interactions between peripheral impulse input and CNS pain mechanisms, including facilitation and inhibition. Whereas tonic pain inhibition is a characteristic of most pain-free individuals, pain facilitation can be detected in many chronic pain patients. The capability to inhibit pain is normally distributed along a wide continuum in the general population and can be used to predict chronic pain. Accumulating evidence suggests that endogenous pain inhibition depends on activation of the prefrontal cortex, periaqueductal gray and rostral ventral medulla. Quantitative sensory test paradigms have been designed to acquire detailed information regarding each individual’s endogenous pain inhibition and facilitation. Such tests include: temporal summation of pain, which is mostly used to assess facilitatory pain modulation by measuring the change in pain perception during a series of identical nociceptive stimuli; and conditioned pain modulation, which tests pain inhibition by utilizing two simultaneously applied painful stimuli (the ‘pain inhibits pain’ paradigm). Considerable indirect evidence seems to indicate that not only increased pain facilitation but also ineffective pain inhibition represents a predisposition for chronic pain. This view is supported by the fact that many chronic pain syndromes (e.g., fibromyalgia, temporomandibular joint disorder, irritable bowel syndrome, headache and chronic fatigue syndrome) are associated with hypersensitivity to painful stimuli and reduced endogenous pain inhibition. However, future prospective studies will be necessary to provide definitive evidence for this relationship. Such research would not only provide important information about mechanisms relevant to chronic pain but would also permit identification of individuals at high risk for future chronic pain.
The expression of tumor metastasis suppressor gene KAI1 and matrix metalloproteinase 2 in breast cancer tissues

The objective of this study is to investigate the expression of tumor metastasis suppressor gene KAI1 protein and matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) in breast carcinoma. We retrospectively analyzed 60 cases of patients from June, 2005 to June, 2011 treated with radical mastectomy for invasive ductal breast cancer in our department. The carcinoma tissue was stained for KAI1 and MMP2 with immunohistochemistry. In breast cancer group, the positive expression rate of KAI1 was 41.7%, which was significantly lower than control (83.3%) ( 2 = 17.328, P < 0.05); the positive expression rate of MMP2 was 80.0%, which was significantly higher than control group (16.7%) ( 2 = 41.637, P < 0.05). Within the breast cancer patients, the group with lymph node metastasis showed higher positive rate of KAI1 and MMP2 expression than those without lymph node metastasis (P < 0.05). The patients with tumor diameter more than 5 cm showed lower positive rate of KAI1 but higher positive rate of MMP-2 expression than patient group with tumor diameter less than 5 cm. Additionally, tumor-nodesmetastasis III (TNM III) grade patients showed lower positive rate of KAI1 but higher positive rate of MMP-2 expression than patient group in I and II grades. KAI1 and MMP-2 were highly expressed in breast cancer tissues. The positive expression of KAI1 and MMP-2 were associated with tumor metastasis, tumor size, TNM grades etc.
Effects of "5 a day" fruit and vegetable intake on micronutrient level and oxidative stress markers in HIV positive patients: a cluster randomized trial

Although evidence of the beneficial impact of antioxidant supplements in HIV patients exists, the effectiveness of dietary antioxidants is not certain for resource limited settings. The hypothesis that nutritional education and lifestyle modification can improve both dietary habits and antioxidant level, and reduce oxidative stress was tested in a cluster randomized trial, involving 5 health facilities, randomized either to intervention or the control group. The intervention consisted of two counselling lessons, each lasting 1,5 h/week during 6 months, on: “nutrition”, “hygiene” and “coping with stigma and discrimination”. Lessons were embedded in practical activities such as shopping tours at local markets, cookery seminars on regional food and workshops on healthy lifestyle. 201 participants were enrolled and followed-up for 24 months. After 6 months, mean malondialdehyde (MDA) increased by 6% in both groups. Fruit and vegetable intake increased from less than two servings a day to two or three in the intervention group compared to the control group. Zinc, iron, vitamin A, C and E, β-carotene and calcium intake significantly increased in the intervention group, compared to the control group. Positive correlation was observed between fruit intake and vitamin A and β-carotene; and between vegetable intake and vitamin A and vitamin C. Negative correlation was observed between fruit intake and MDA, and between CD4 cell count and MDA. The intervention provides an effective low-cost alternative improving dietary intake of fruits and vegetables, antioxidant intake, thus improving health outcomes in HIV infected patients.
Document Spanners

An intrinsic part of information extraction is the creation and manipulation of relations extracted from text. In this article, we develop a foundational framework where the central construct is what we call a document spanner (or just spanner for short). A spanner maps an input string into a relation over the spans (intervals specified by bounding indices) of the string. The focus of this article is on the representation of spanners. Conceptually, there are two kinds of such representations. Spanners defined in a primitive representation extract relations directly from the input string; those defined in an algebra apply algebraic operations to the primitively represented spanners. This framework is driven by SystemT, an IBM commercial product for text analysis, where the primitive representation is that of regular expressions with capture variables. We define additional types of primitive spanner representations by means of two kinds of automata that assign spans to variables. We prove that the first kind has the same expressive power as regular expressions with capture variables; the second kind expresses precisely the algebra of the regular spanners—the closure of the first kind under standard relational operators. The core spanners extend the regular ones by string-equality selection (an extension used in SystemT). We give some fundamental results on the expressiveness of regular and core spanners. As an example, we prove that regular spanners are closed under difference (and complement), but core spanners are not. Finally, we establish connections with related notions in the literature.
Information disclosure to cancer patients: EORTC QLQ-INFO25 questionnaire

Information is one of the main interventions given to cancer patients. Important research into information disclosure has been conducted and major advances have been made. We present the main theoretical models used to understand the information field and describe the current situation regarding the principal factors related to information: patients’ needs, coping strategies, illness representations, cross-cultural differences, the role of the family, and strategies to enhance information giving, such as professional training and patient-targeted interventions. We highlight the need to assess patients’ characteristics and desires through questionnaires and interviews and present the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Group information questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-INFO 25). This instrument evaluates the level of information patients have received in different areas of their disease, treatment and care, and evaluates qualitative aspects. Finally, we describe the key areas of the information field and discuss how these areas could change in the future.
Algorithm 954

We report on an accurate and efficient algorithm for obtaining all roots of general real cubic and quartic polynomials. Both the cubic and quartic solvers give highly accurate roots and place no restrictions on the magnitude of the polynomial coefficients. The key to the algorithm is a proper rescaling of both polynomials. This puts upper bounds on the magnitude of the roots and is very useful in stabilizing the root finding process. The cubic solver is based on dividing the cubic polynomial into six classes. By analyzing the root surface for each class, a fast convergent Newton-Raphson starting point for a real root is obtained at a cost no higher than three additions and four multiplications. The quartic solver uses the cubic solver in getting information about stationary points and, when the quartic has real roots, stable Newton-Raphson iterations give one of the extreme real roots. The remaining roots follow by composite deflation to a cubic. If the quartic has only complex roots, the present article shows that a stable Newton-Raphson iteration on a derived symmetric sixth degree polynomial can be formulated for the real parts of the complex roots. The imaginary parts follow by solving suitable quadratics.
The efficacy and safety of varenicline for smoking cessation using a flexible dosing strategy in adult smokers: a randomized controlled trial

ABSTRACT Objective: To determine whether self-regulated flexible dosing with varenicline tartrate is safe and effective for smoking cessation. Research design and methods: 320 healthy, motivated-to-quit smokers (≥10 cigarettes/day) aged 18–65 years, entered a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study – conducted between December 26, 2001 and June 24, 2003 – with a 12-week treatment phase and 40-week, double-blind, non-treatment follow-up. Treatment consisted of varenicline or placebo in fixed doses (Week 1: titrated from 0.5 to 1.0 mg/day) followed by a self-regulated flexible schedule (Weeks 2–12: 0.5–2.0 mg/day). Main outcome measures: Primary outcomes included carbon monoxide-confirmed continuous abstinence rate (CAR) from smoking for Weeks 4 through 7, 9 through 12, and 9 through 52. Secondary outcomes included CAR from Weeks 9 through 24, 7-day point prevalence of abstinence, safety assessments, and measures of craving, withdrawal, and smoking reward. Results: Superior CARs were observed in varenicline-treated (n = 157) versus placebo participants (n = 155) for Weeks 4 through 7 (38.2 vs. 11.6%), 9 through 12 (40.1 vs. 11.6%), 9 through 24 (28.0 vs. 9.0%), and 9 through 52 (22.3 vs. 7.7%) (all p < 0.001). Seven-day point prevalence was higher in varenicline-treated than placebo participants at Weeks 12 (46.5 vs. 14.2%; p < 0.001), 24 (32.5 vs. 13.5%; p < 0.001), and 52 (28.0 vs. 13.5%; p = 0.001). Overall, medication compliance was high, although varenicline-treated, but not placebo, participants tended to taper down their dosage over time. Total treatment-emergent AEs were 77.1% (varenicline: 121/157) and 65.8% (placebo: 102/155). Few AEs led to treatment discontinuation (varenicline: 11/157, 7.0% and placebo: 7/155, 4.5%). Participants were primarily healthy Caucasians, so more research is necessary to determine how applicable these findings are to other populations. Conclusions: A self-regulated, flexible dosing regimen of varenicline is well tolerated, with superior effectiveness versus placebo for smoking cessation. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00150228.
Dynamic Provable Data Possession

As storage-outsourcing services and resource-sharing networks have become popular, the problem of efficiently proving the integrity of data stored at untrusted servers has received increased attention. In the Provable Data Possession (PDP) model, the client preprocesses the data and then sends them to an untrusted server for storage while keeping a small amount of meta-data. The client later asks the server to prove that the stored data have not been tampered with or deleted (without downloading the actual data). However, existing PDP schemes apply only to static (or append-only) files. We present a definitional framework and efficient constructions for Dynamic Provable Data Possession (DPDP), which extends the PDP model to support provable updates to stored data. We use a new version of authenticated dictionaries based on rank information. The price of dynamic updates is a performance change from O(1) to O(log n (or O(nεlog n)) for a file consisting of n blocks while maintaining the same (or better, respectively) probability of misbehavior detection. Our experiments show that this slowdown is very low in practice (e.g., 415KB proof size and 30ms computational overhead for a 1GB file). We also show how to apply our DPDP scheme to outsourced file systems and version control systems (e.g., CVS).
Identification of stroke carers 'at risk': a preliminary study of the predictors of carers' psychological well-being at one year post stroke

Background: A third of carers of people who have had a stroke experience poor psychological health. Early prediction of carers' later well-being would allow interventions to be targeted at carers most at risk of a poor outcome. Aim: To develop a predictive model for the identification of stroke carers at risk of developing poor psychological well-being in the first year post stroke. Method: Fifty consecutive one-year survivors of a stroke and their carers were assessed on a range of demographic, environmental and psychosocial variables at three months post stroke. The carers' psychological well-being at 12 months post stroke was assessed using the General Well-Being Index (GWBI). Multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the best early predictors of carers' later well-being. Results: The regression analysis identified three significant predictors of carers' well-being: carers' appraisal of caregiving stress; carers' physical health; and carers' satisfaction with service provision (r 2 = 0.53). Using this model, 72% of carers' predicted well-being scores fell within nine points of their actual 12-month GWBI score. Conclusion: Findings from this preliminary study indicate that it may be possible to identify carers most likely to experience poor psychological well- being. In order to develop a clinically usable 'carer risk prediction instrument' further research to test this model is essential.
Simple and Highly Efficient Transformation Method for Zymomonas mobilis: Electroporation.

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PATELLECTOMY WITH VASTUS MEDIALIS OBLIQUUS ADVANCEMENT FOR COMMINUTED PATELLAR FRACTURES: A PROSPECTIVE RANDOMISED TRIAL

We have compared the results of simple patellectomy (group A, n = 16) and patellectomy with advancement of the vastus medialis obliquus (group B, n = 12) in a prospective, randomised trial, with a minimum follow-up of three years. The results in group B were significantly better (p
Unbiased Characterization of Node Pairs over Large Graphs

Characterizing user pair relationships is important for applications such as friend recommendation and interest targeting in online social networks (OSNs). Due to the large-scale nature of such networks, it is infeasible to enumerate all user pairs and thus sampling is used. In this article, we show that it is a great challenge for OSN service providers to characterize user pair relationships, even when they possess the complete graph topology. The reason is that when sampling techniques (i.e., uniform vertex sampling (UVS) and random walk (RW)) are naively applied, they can introduce large biases, particularly for estimating similarity distribution of user pairs with constraints like existence of mutual neighbors, which is important for applications such as identifying network homophily. Estimating statistics of user pairs is more challenging in the absence of the complete topology information, as an unbiased sampling technique like UVS is usually not allowed and exploring the OSN graph topology is expensive. To address these challenges, we present unbiased sampling methods to characterize user pair properties based on UVS and RW techniques. We carry out an evaluation of our methods to show their accuracy and efficiency. Finally, we apply our methods to three OSNs—Foursquare, Douban, and Xiami—and discover that significant homophily is present in these networks.
Diagnosis of Patent Ductus Arteriosus in Preterm Infants

After completing this article, readers should be able to: 1. Delineate the clinical signs that can lead to late diagnosis of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). 2. List the imaging study that allows accurate and timely diagnosis of PDA. 3. Describe how to determine the hemodynamic significance of PDA. 4. List the finding that predicts persisting patency. Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) remains a common problem for the very preterm infant. Despite being a focus of neonatal research for many years, controversy still surrounds the role of PDA in adverse outcomes and the best method and appropriate timing of treatment. Some of the uncertainty over the importance of PDA to the preterm infant relates to common misconceptions about the natural history of preterm ductal shunting and about the best method for diagnosing PDA; that is, how PDA is recorded as an outcome. Echocardiography has provided a window on the preterm transitional circulation that raises questions about the relevance of much traditional thinking in this area of modern neonatal medicine. This article focuses on the clinical and echocardiographic diagnosis of PDA and how prospective echocardiography has changed our understanding of the impact of ductal shunting in the very preterm infant. By describing echocardiographic assessment of the preterm ductus arteriosus in some detail, the authors hope to encourage more neonatologists to develop these very useful skills. Physical signs and symptoms of a PDA typically appear 3 to 4 days after delivery and are characterized by failure to wean ventilator pressures, a long systolic murmur at the left upper sternal edge radiating to the back, increased precordial impulses, and prominent peripheral pulses. The appearance of signs at this time and subsequent diagnostic echocardiographic evaluation led to the common belief that early ductal shunting is not hemodynamically significant. In fact, when ductal hemodynamic significance is evaluated prospectively from birth with …
Influence of athletic training on hematological parameters in runners: A cross-sectional study

Background: Athletics is one of the purest of all sports, relying solely on the strengths of the human body rather than technological implements to improve performances. Alterations of the red blood cell (RBC) system are known to influence physical performance of an athlete: anemia has negative effect on physical exercise capacity, and an increase in RBC mass has been shown to enhance aerobic performance. Aims and Objective: To assess the influence of exercise on the RBC system and hemoglobin in runners of different duration of training and with age- and sex-matched controls. Materials and Methods: A Cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of Physiology, JNMC, Belgaum, India. Study consisted of 31 runners (male and female) aged 16â€“25 years, divided into two groups depending on number of years of training. Group A (n=12) consisted of players with ≤3 years and group B (n=19) consisted of players with >3 years of training. Blood testing for red blood cell count and hemoglobin levels was carried out and results were obtained by a cell counter, automated cell counter (CBC-360). Results: Mean RBC count and hemoglobin levels were high in group B than group A runners, and they were high in runners than controls, and the differences were significant. Conclusion: Physical training and duration of exercise is of major importance in the adaptation of the blood cell system. Runners around the same age with similar anthropometric data submitted to same training type but longer duration of training tend to have better values than those with shorter duration of training, and also better values than the controls.
Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health

Quality of life is a major goal in the context of preventive and therapeutic cardiology. It is important, both as an outcome measure in clinical trials of congestive heart failure (CHF) and as a consideration in individual physicians' therapeutic decisions. In this article, quality of life concepts are reviewed, methods of measurement are explored and clinically significant changes on prognosis are discussed. There is a need for more research which is based on carefully selected measures of quality of life chosen as being of particular importance to patients and to the hypotheses being tested.
Skin Drag Displays: Dragging a Physical Tactor across the User's Skin Produces a Stronger Tactile Stimulus than Vibrotactile

We propose a new type of tactile displays that drag a physical tactor across the skin in 2D. We call this skin drag. We demonstrate how this allows us to communicate geometric shapes or characters to users. The main benefit of our approach is that it simultaneously produces two types of stimuli, i.e., (1) it moves a tactile stimulus across skin locations and (2) it stretches the user's skin. Skin drag thereby combines the essential stimuli produced by vibrotactile and skin stretch. In our study, skin drag allowed participants to recognize tactile shapes significantly better than a vibrotactile array of comparable size. We present two arm-worn prototype devices that implement our concept.
The Emergence of Interactive Behavior: A Model of Rational Menu Search

One reason that human interaction with technology is difficult to understand is because the way in which people perform interactive tasks is highly adaptive. One such interactive task is menu search. In the current article we test the hypothesis that menu search is rationally adapted to (1) the ecological structure of interaction, (2) cognitive and perceptual limits, and (3) the goal to maximise the trade-off between speed and accuracy. Unlike in previous models, no assumptions are made about the strategies available to or adopted by users, rather the menu search problem is specified as a reinforcement learning problem and behaviour emerges by finding the optimal Markov Decision Process (MDP). The model is tested against existing empirical findings concerning the effect of menu organisation and menu length. The model predicts the effect of these variables on task completion time and eye movements. The discussion considers the pros and cons of the modelling approach relative to other well-known mod- elling approaches.