Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A critical analysis of the proposal of the Institute of Medicine to replace myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome by a new diagnostic entity called systemic exertion intolerance disease

Abstract The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently published their report in response to an assignment “to define diagnostic criteria for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), to propose a process for reevaluation of these criteria in the future, and to consider whether a new name for this disease is warranted”. The basic pre-assumption of the IOM committee for the development of evidence-based diagnostic criteria for ME/CFS was that ME and CFS denote conditions with similar symptoms, hence ME/CFS. The IOM committee recommends: (1) that ME/CFS will be renamed ‘systemic exertion intolerance disease’ (SEID); and that a new code should be assigned to SEID in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), replacing the existing codes for ME (a neurological disease: G93.3) and CFS (‘signs, symptoms, and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified’: R53.82); (2) that a diagnosis of SEID should be made if the new diagnostic criteria are met; (3) that the Department of Health and Human Services develops a toolkit appropriate for screening and diagnosing patients; and (4) that a multidisciplinary group re-examines the new diagnostic criteria when necessary. This editorial reviews the working procedure of the IOM and two of the outcomes: the recommendation to introduce a new clinical entity (SEID) and new diagnostic criteria. Based upon the contents of the report, and the arguments of the IOM, a search of PubMed and the archive of the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome using the search terms ME (and old synonyms) and CFS, and a search of PubMed related to the five core symptoms of SEID was conducted. Reviewing the working method and the recommendations, it is concluded that the new diagnostic criteria for SEID are based upon important methodological shortcomings and that the introduction of SEID to replace both ME and CFS has several profound negative consequences outweighing the advantages.
Improving parallel computer communication: dynamic routing balancing

Interconnection networks appear in several technological fields of great importance. An efficient design of such a network is crucial because of its impact on system performance. A routing scheme that minimises contention should be included. We have developed a new method to uniformly distribute traffic over the network called Dynamic Routing Balancing (DRB) that it is based on limited and load-controlled path randomisation in order to maintain a low message latency and avoid the formation of hot-spots. DRB has two components: Static alternative path definition and dynamic path selection policies. We present the alternative path definition and its implementation for k-ary n-cubes and midimew networks, as well as, its evaluation in terms of latency and bandwidth. Some conclusions and comparisons with existing methods are done. Also, the selection policies are described. They are designed with the goals of minimising monitoring and decision overhead.
Robust Fault Diagnosis of a Satellite System Using a Learning Strategy and Second Order Sliding Mode Observer

This paper proposes a second-order sliding mode observer for fault diagnosis (FD) of a class of uncertain dynamical systems. In the proposed FD scheme, a modified super-twisting second-order sliding mode algorithm is firstly established to observe the system state in the presence of uncertainties and disturbances, and then the observer input is designed by using a PID-type iterative learning algorithm to detect, isolate, and estimate faults. The convergence of the sliding mode algorithm and the parameter update law for the iterative learning estimator are both theoretically and rigorously studied. Finally, the proposed fault diagnosis scheme is applied to the dynamics of a satellite with flexible appendages, and the simulation results demonstrate its effectiveness.
Impairment of intangible assets and disclosure by Italian banks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the methods used to perform impairment test for intangible assets from a business combination and the information provided by the consolidated financial statements of a Group of Italian banks in the period 2009-2014. The purpose is to verify if, as assumed in literature, there is a positive link between profitability and the tendency of manager’s to post the impairment losses of intangible assets promptly and accurately. Design/methodology/approach The existence of a link between profitability and the quality of disclosure was verified by constructing correlation indices, and then ascertaining not only the reliability but also the strength and direction of the statistical connection between the above two aspects. A multivariate linear regression reconfirmed the results obtained by the previous bivariate analysis. Findings The results confirm the basic assumption, showing that the link between the aspects considered is statistically significant and positive in all the years in question. Originality/value This study fills a gap, given that no papers were found in literature specifically pertaining to banks and other financial institutions. Moreover, the decision to focus the study on Italian banks seems to be particularly appropriate for a number of different reasons: before the financial crisis, Italian banks made numerous acquisitions, posting high amounts for intangible assets; the financial crisis made the stock market prices plummet, thus making it necessary to write-off intangible assets from business combinations; and even before the ESMA, the Bank of Italy intervened on several occasions on the question of reporting, urging Italian banks to comply with disclosure requirements and impairment criteria.
Specialty Choices of Students Who Actually Have Choices: The Influence of Excellent Clinical Teachers

Purpose To determine the influence of the quality of attending physicians and residents on the specialty choices of excellent medical students, who actually have a broad choice of specialties. Method In 1993–94 and 1994–95, 169 third-year students at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine were randomly assigned to two one-month rotations on general medicine inpatient wards. At the end of each rotation, the students confidentially evaluated the attending physician and the supervising resident (different for each rotation) with whom they had worked. Data were collected for 62 attending physicians and 89 residents. The authors analyzed the influences of the “best” and “worst” clinical instructors (those rated in the top and the bottom 20% by all students with whom they had worked over the two years) on “excellent” medical students (the 52 students whose USMLE I scores were in the top 30% of their class). Results Using regression approaches from the general linear model, the authors found that independent predictors of internal medicine residency choice for excellent medical students were exposure to highly rated internal medicine attendings (p = .02) and residents (p = .03). Nine of 29 (30%) of the excellent students who worked with a “best” medicine clinical instructor chose an internal medicine residency, while none of the 23 excellent medical students who did not work with a “best” medicine clinical instructor did so. The authors found no correlation in students' ratings of their pairs of attendings and residents, suggesting that rater bias did not explain the results. Conclusion Better medical students who work with the best internal medicine attending physicians and residents in their internal medicine clerkship are more likely to choose an internal medicine residency.
Ice test as a simple diagnostic aid for myasthenia gravis

It is known that myasthenia gravis is improved by cold. In two previously reported studies performed on a limited number of myasthenic patients and controls, local cold application to the eyelid was suggested for use as a diagnostic test for ocular myasthenia gravis. In this study, ice test to the eyelid was evaluated as a diagnostic test on 12 myasthenic patients and 15 controls with blepharoptosis and the results were compared with those of edrophonium test.
Developmental expression analysis of the mouse and chick orthologues of IRF6: The gene mutated in Van der Woude syndrome

Development of the lip and palate involves a complex series of events that are frequently disturbed resulting in the congenital anomalies cleft lip and cleft palate. Van der Woude syndrome (VWS) is an autosomal dominant disorder that is characterised by cleft lip, cleft palate, lower lip pits, and hypodontia. VWS arises as the result of mutations in the gene encoding interferon regulatory factor 6 (IRF6). To provide insights into the role of IRF6 during embryogenesis, we have analysed the expression of this molecule during mouse and chick facial development. Irf6 was expressed in the ectoderm covering the facial processes during their fusion to form the upper lip and primary palate in both mouse and chick. However, while Irf6 was expressed in the medial edge epithelia of the developing secondary palate of the mouse, which fuses as in man, Irf6 was not expressed in the medial edge epithelia of the naturally cleft chick secondary palate. Similarly, Irf6 was found to be down‐regulated in the medial edge epithelia of transforming growth factor beta3‐null mice, which also exhibit cleft palate. Together, these results support a role for IRF6 during the fusion events that occur during development of the lip and palate. Developmental Dynamics 235:1441–1447, 2006. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation patients

Importance of the field: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice and is associated with an increased risk of stroke, mortality and significant morbidity. Given the rapidly increasing incidence and prevalence of AF, and the resulting public health burden of the consequences associated with this arrhythmia, stroke prevention is an extremely important topic. Areas covered in this review: This review covers the epidemiology of AF, the pathophysiology of ischemic stroke in AF and current antithrombotic therapy choices for stroke prevention in this condition. In addition, this article discusses important topics such as the assessment of stroke risk stratification and bleeding risk assessment, which are key issues in deciding upon thromboprophylaxis for AF patients. Finally, the review highlights the advent of new anticoagulant therapies and discusses the future challenges for researchers in this area. What the reader will gain: This review summarizes all of the major antithrombotic trials conducted in AF patients over the last twenty years and highlights the importance of anticoagulation therapy for the prevention of stroke, after appropriate individual stroke and bleeding risk assessment. Take home message: Assessment of individual stroke risk and bleeding risk is key in determining appropriate thromboprophylaxis for AF patients, given the associated thromboembolic and hemorrhagic complications. The availability of newer, safer and more convenient drugs will mean that oral anticoagulation is available for a larger proportion of AF patients who may benefit from it.
Thermal motion of a holographically trapped SPM-like probe

By holding a complex object in multiple optical traps, it may be harmonically bound with respect to both its position and its orientation. In this way a small probe, or nanotool, can be manipulated in three dimensions and used to measure and apply directed forces, in the manner of a scanning probe microscope. In this paper we evaluate the thermal motion of such a probe held in holographic optical tweezers, by solving the Langevin equation for the general case of a set of spherical vertices linked by cylindrical rods. The concept of a corner frequency, familiar from the case of an optically trapped sphere, is appropriately extended to represent a set of characteristic frequencies given by the eigenvalues of the product of the stiffness matrix and the inverse hydrodynamic resistance matrix of the tool. These eigenvalues may alternatively be interpreted as inverses of a set of characteristic relaxation times for the system. The approach is illustrated by reference to a hypothetical tool consisting of a triangular arrangement of spheres with a lateral probe. The characteristic frequencies and theoretical resolution of the device are derived; variations of these quantities with tool size and orientation and with the optical power distribution, are also considered.
Evading Classifiers by Morphing in the Dark

Learning-based systems have been shown to be vulnerable to evasion through adversarial data manipulation. These attacks have been studied under assumptions that the adversary has certain knowledge of either the target model internals, its training dataset or at least classification scores it assigns to input samples. In this paper, we investigate a much more constrained and realistic attack scenario wherein the target classifier is minimally exposed to the adversary, revealing only its final classification decision (e.g., reject or accept an input sample). Moreover, the adversary can only manipulate malicious samples using a blackbox morpher. That is, the adversary has to evade the targeted classifier by morphing malicious samples "in the dark". We present a scoring mechanism that can assign a real-value score which reflects evasion progress to each sample based on the limited information available. Leveraging on such scoring mechanism, we propose an evasion method -- EvadeHC? and evaluate it against two PDF malware detectors, namely PDFRate and Hidost. The experimental evaluation demonstrates that the proposed evasion attacks are effective, attaining 100% evasion rate on the evaluation dataset. Interestingly, EvadeHC outperforms the known classifier evasion techniques that operate based on classification scores output by the classifiers. Although our evaluations are conducted on PDF malware classifiers, the proposed approaches are domain agnostic and are of wider application to other learning-based systems.
Meta-analysis of the association between the rs8034191 polymorphism in AGPHD1 and lung cancer risk.

BACKGROUND Possible associations between the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs8034191 in the aminoglycosidephosphotransferase domain containing 1 (AGPHD1) gene and lung cancer risk have been studied by many researchers but the results have been contradictory. MATERIALS AND METHODS A computerized search for publications on rs8034191 and lung cancer risk was performed. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to assess the association between rs8034191 and lung cancer risk with 13 selected case-control studies. Sensitivity analysis, test of heterogeneity, cumulative meta-analysis, and assessment of bias were also performed. RESULTS A significant association between rs8034191 and lung cancer susceptibility was found using the dominant genetic model (OR=1.344, 95% CI: 1.285-1.406), the additive genetic model (OR=1.613, 95% CI: 1.503-1.730), and the recessive genetic model (OR=1.408, 95% CI: 1.319-1.503). Moreover, an increased lung cancer risk was found with all genetic models after stratification of ethnicity. CONCLUSIONS The association between rs8034191 and lung cancer risk was significant using multiple genetic models, suggesting that rs8034191 is a risk factor for lung cancer. Further functional studies of this polymorphism and lung cancer risk are warranted.
The empirical study on price discovery of cornstarch futures market in China

ABSTRACT This article aims at exploring the performance of the price discovery function of cornstarch futures market in China. In order to test the stationarity of the cash and futures prices of cornstarch, the augmented Dickey–Fuller test is applied. Both prices are integrated of order one. Then, the Johansen cointegration test is conducted to test the cointegrating relationship between those two prices. Finally, the Granger causality test is performed to observe the direction of causality. The evidence shows that there is a long-run relationship between cash and futures prices and the futures price Granger causes cash price. As a whole, price discovery of cornstarch market in China is present although it is a newly emerged market.
Real-world challenges and opportunities in degradation rate analysis for commercial PV systems

Determining accurate annual system degradation rates from historical meteorological and production data is essential for improving the overall financial viability of photovoltaic (PV) systems. Such efforts can be quite challenging, however, as nearly every step in degradation analysis has the potential to contribute error to the resultant rates. The presence of scatter and "evental" noise (e.g., due to snow and inverter downtime events) in non-laboratory-grade data sets collected from commercial PV systems makes degradation analytics all the more challenging. A MATLAB® tool has been developed as part of an ongoing investigation into the sensitivities of annual system degradation rates to data qualification and filtration. In this study, a two year set of continuous meteorological and production data affected by each of the abovementioned issues is analyzed using this tool. An interpolative inverter efficiency function is used to convert AC to DC power. A PVUSA-related multiple regression-based power model employing module temperature data is used to derive time series data sets of DC power values normalized to an arbitrary set of conditions. A limited number of qualification and filtration configurations are simulated, including an experimental method. Linear least-squares fit and classical decomposition are used to extract degradation trends from the normalized DC power time series data sets derived for each simulated configuration. Preliminary results show how both the presence of irregular scatter and evental noise in continuous, raw data sets, as well as the type of qualification and filtration criteria employed, can influence the outputs of degradation analyses. Removal of this noisy data, however, can unfortunately result in missing weeks or, in extreme cases, months of data, thus compromising the ability to employ more advanced time series algorithms (e.g., classical decomposition) to normalized power time series data sets to yield degradation trends extracted from their seasonality and error counterparts. A tested experimental method sought to address the issue of missing data, but the method and results remain preliminary and premature. The chosen system will be continuously investigated to see if and how additional input data affects the resultant degradation rates, as well as any preliminary observations made herein on the sensitivity of those rates to data qualification and filtration.
Allometry of anaerobic performance: a gender comparison.

Physiological variables must often be scaled for body size differences to permit meaningful comparisons between groups. Using multivariate allometric scaling (MAS), this study aimed to compare the anaerobic performance of adult males and females in 12 pairs matched for physical activity status. Peak power output (PPO) was assessed via a 30-s supramaximal cycle ergometer test. Fat-free mass (FFM) and thigh muscle and bone cross-sectional area (CSA) were determined anthropometrically and served as indicators of active musculature. The MAS revealed power functions of the form PPO = a.gender. FFMb (or CSAb). Common b exponents of 0.1 were identified for both FFM and CSA (negative allometry). Sex differences were found in absolute PPO (1,252 vs. 681 W, p < .05). Comparison of scaled PPO data via ANCOVA (FFM0.1 and CSA0.1 entered as covariates) did not eliminate the sex difference (adjusted means 1,243 vs. 690 W, p < .05). The results suggest that the superior anaerobic performance of males in this sample is independent of size of the involved musculature.
Dual-State Absorber-Photocurrent Characteristics and Bistability of Two-Section Quantum-Dot Lasers

The peculiar behavior of the absorber photocurrent of two-section quantum-dot lasers with different gain-bandwidth chirping is studied numerically and by experiments. By biasing the absorber section of a strongly chirped laser with a self-generated positive voltage or with a reverse-bias, different emission-state lasing regimes also involving a smooth emission-state-transition from quantum-dot ground-state to excited state via simultaneous ground- and excited-state are observed. The gradual emission state and photocurrent transitions are simulated and are in excellent agreement with experiments. In contrast, in a medium-chirped laser a photocurrent and emission-state bistability with hysteresis is experimentally observed involving a transition from sole ground state to sole excited state. Thereby, no intermediate simultaneous dual-state emission regimes occur suggesting the exclusion of simultaneous dual-state emission and bistability. This peculiar bistable behavior is explained qualitatively and offers the potential to be exploited toward switching applications.
Online Boosting for Vehicle Detection

This paper presents a real-time vision-based vehicle detection system employing an online boosting algorithm. It is an online AdaBoost approach for a cascade of strong classifiers instead of a single strong classifier. Most existing cascades of classifiers must be trained offline and cannot effectively be updated when online tuning is required. The idea is to develop a cascade of strong classifiers for vehicle detection that is capable of being online trained in response to changing traffic environments. To make the online algorithm tractable, the proposed system must efficiently tune parameters based on incoming images and up-to-date performance of each weak classifier. The proposed online boosting method can improve system adaptability and accuracy to deal with novel types of vehicles and unfamiliar environments, whereas existing offline methods rely much more on extensive training processes to reach comparable results and cannot further be updated online. Our approach has been successfully validated in real traffic environments by performing experiments with an onboard charge-coupled-device camera in a roadway vehicle.
mTOR Kinase Domain Phosphorylation Promotes mTORC1 Signaling, Cell Growth, and Cell Cycle Progression

ABSTRACT The mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) functions as an environmental sensor to promote critical cellular processes such as protein synthesis, cell growth, and cell proliferation in response to growth factors and nutrients. While diverse stimuli regulate mTORC1 signaling, the direct molecular mechanisms by which mTORC1 senses and responds to these signals remain poorly defined. Here we investigated the role of mTOR phosphorylation in mTORC1 function. By employing mass spectrometry and phospho-specific antibodies, we demonstrated novel phosphorylation on S2159 and T2164 within the mTOR kinase domain. Mutational analysis of these phosphorylation sites indicates that dual S2159/T2164 phosphorylation cooperatively promotes mTORC1 signaling to S6K1 and 4EBP1. Mechanistically, S2159/T2164 phosphorylation modulates the mTOR-raptor and raptor-PRAS40 interactions and augments mTORC1-associated mTOR S2481 autophosphorylation. Moreover, mTOR S2159/T2164 phosphorylation promotes cell growth and cell cycle progression. We propose a model whereby mTOR kinase domain phosphorylation modulates the interaction of mTOR with regulatory partner proteins and augments intrinsic mTORC1 kinase activity to promote biochemical signaling, cell growth, and cell cycle progression.