Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complete stable remission and autoantibody specificity in myasthenia gravis

Objectives: Patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) are subgrouped as acetylcholine receptor (AChR)–positive, muscle-specific kinase (MuSK)–positive, and AChR/MuSK-negative MG (or double negative [DN]) on the basis of autoantibody assay. We investigated the relationships between autoantibody specificity, main clinical features, and outcome of the disease, in particular the occurrence of complete stable remission (CSR), by means of a retrospective study on a cohort of 677 Italian patients with MG. Methods: A total of 517 (76%) patients with AChR-positive MG, 55 (8%) patients with MuSK-positive MG, and 105 (16%) patients with DN MG were included in the study. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard regression analyses were used to evaluate associations between baseline characteristics, antibody specificity, and CSR. Results: Clinical stage at onset and at maximal worsening was more severe for MuSK-positive patients: bulbar impairment at maximal worsening was found in 83.6% of MuSK-positive patients compared with 58.6% of AChR-positive patients and 43.8% of DN patients (p < 0.001). Baseline characteristics of AChR-positive and DN patients were similar. CSR was observed in 3.6% of MuSK-positive patients compared with 22.2% of AChR-positive and 21.9% of DN patients. In the whole MG cohort, onset before age 40 (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.96, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.27–3.02, p = 0.002) and ocular and generalized clinical stages at maximal worsening were associated with CSR (ocular, HR = 8.05, 95% CI 1.88–34.53, p = 0.005; generalized, HR = 3.71, 95% CI 1.16–11.90, p = 0.023; bulbar, HR = 3.16, 95% CI 1.00–10.05, p = 0.051). Conclusions: MuSK antibodies identify a clinically distinguishable, more severe form of MG since the disease onset, with a lower occurrence of CSR. These features should be considered by the clinician in the management of this particular form of MG.
Pure Tone Hearing Thresholds and Speech Recognition Scores in Dutch Patients Carrying Mutations in the USH2A Gene

Objective To establish the audiometric profile and speech recognition characteristics in 36 Usher IIa patients, carrying one (A) or two (B) pathogenic mutations in the USH2A gene. Study design Family study. Setting Tertiary referral center. Patients Thirty six Usher IIa patients from 21 Dutch families. Methods Ophthalmologic, vestibular, and audiometric examinations were performed on all patients. Cross-sectional analysis was performed on pure tone threshold data at 0.25 to 8 kHz and on speech phoneme recognition scores. Progression was evaluated using linear regression analysis on raw and presbyacusis corrected data. Results A downsloping audiogram was found, with a mean threshold slope of −9 dB per octave, that was mildly progressive, i.e., by approximately 0.5 dB per year. Individual monaural maximum phoneme recognition scores (% correct) were analyzed in 30 patients in relation to the patient's age and level of hearing impairment characterized by a pure tone average (PTA1–4kHz). The speech recognition score started to deteriorate from a score of 90% at 38 years at a rate of 0.4% per year. The 90% level was attained at 69 dB hearing level (PTA1–4kHz); at higher levels of impairment, the score deteriorated at a slope of 0.6% per dB hearing level. There was no significant difference between group A and B in pure tone threshold, with or without presbyacusis correction, or phoneme recognition score as related to age or PTA1–4kHz. Conclusions Patients with various mutations in USH2A have moderate to severe hearing impairment showing mild progression at approximately 0.5 dB hearing level per year.
Management of regorafenib-related toxicities: a review

Regorafenib (Stivarga, BAY 73-4506; Bayer Pharma AG, Berlin, Germany) is an oral multikinase inhibitor that targets the angiogenic tumor microenvironment and oncogenic kinases including vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR2), VEGFR1, VEGFR3, fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1), RAF, KIT, RET and BRAF. Its antiangiogenic effect is greater than that of its related drug, sorafenib. Regorafenib has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) in patients who have failed treatment with fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin and irinotecan based chemotherapy, an anti-VEGF therapy and, if KRAS wild type, an anti-EGFR therapy. The FDA based this approval on data from the CORRECT trial, which showed the efficacy of regorafenib compared with placebo. The most common grade 3–4 adverse reactions with the drug are hand foot skin reactions (HFSR), diarrhea, hypertension and fatigue. This review discusses the efficacy data, and the incidence and management of regorafenib’s toxicities.
Non-parametric Policy Search with Limited Information Loss

Learning complex control policies from non-linear and redundant sensory input is an important challenge for reinforcement learning algorithms. Non-parametric methods that approximate values functions or transition models can address this problem, by adapting to the complexity of the data set. Yet, many current non-parametric approaches rely on unstable greedy maximization of approximate value functions, which might lead to poor convergence or oscillations in the policy update. A more robust policy update can be obtained by limiting the information loss between successive state-action distributions. In this paper, we develop a policy search algorithm with policy updates that are both robust and non-parametric. Our method can learn non- parametric control policies for infinite horizon continuous Markov decision processes with non-linear and redundant sensory representations. We investigate how we can use approximations of the kernel function to reduce the time requirements of the demanding non-parametric computations. In our experiments, we show the strong performance of the proposed method, and how it can be approximated efficiently. Finally, we show that our algorithm can learn a real-robot under-powered swing-up task directly from image data.
Burden of smoked and smokeless tobacco consumption in India - results from the Global adult Tobacco Survey India (GATS-India)- 2009-201.

BACKGROUND The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) was carried out for systematically monitoring tobacco use and for tracking key tobacco control indicators. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 70,802 households, including 42,647 in rural areas and 28,155 in urban areas, were covered with a three stage sampling design. Data were collected on sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude and practices of tobacco consumption. RESULTS GATS-India highlighted that total tobacco use among its residents is overall 34.6%, varying for males (47.9%) and females (20.7%). The rural areas of the country exhibit comparatively higher prevalence rates (38.4%) in comparison to urban areas (25.3%). Overall, Khaini, a smokeless tobacco product (12.0%), is the most popular form of tobacco use among males and females, followed by bidi smoking (9.0%). CONCLUSION Results of GATS data can be used as baseline for evaluation of new tobacco control approaches in India integrating culturally acceptable and cost effective measures.
AQUA: A Closed-Domain Question Answering System

This article describes AQUA, an experimental question answering system. AQUA combines Natural Language processing (NLP), Ontologies, Logic, and Information Retrieval technologies in a uniform framework. AQUA makes intensive use of an ontology in several parts of the question answering system. The ontology is used in the refinement of the initial query, the reasoning process and in the novel similarity algorithm. The similarity algorithm is a key feature of AQUA. It is used to find similarities between relations/concepts in the translated query and relations/concepts in the ontological structures. The similarities detected then allow the interchange of concepts or relations in a logic formula corresponding to the user query.
Profile-Based Algorithm for Personalized Gamification in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments

In this paper we present an approach for personalizing gamiﬁ-cation to the needs of each individual person. We designed the personalization for computer-supported collaborative learning environments by synthesizing three existing design frameworks: the lens of intrinsic skill atoms, gamiﬁcation user type hexad and heuristics for effective design of gamiﬁcation. The result of the design process is a context-aware and personalized gamiﬁcation ruleset for collaborative environments. We also present a method for translating gamiﬁcation rulesets to machine-readable classiﬁer algorithm using the CN2 rule inducer and a framework for connecting the produced algo-rithm to collaborative software. Lastly, we present an example software for personalized gamiﬁcation that was produced by applying the process presented in this paper.
Male infertility: recent advances and a look towards the future

The past decade has witnessed clinical and basic scientific advances that have revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment of the infertile male. Advances in the clinic and laboratory have resulted in men who were previously thought to be hopelessly infertile, but who are now able to conceive their own biologic offspring. In the future, we believe that the laboratory will continue to play a key role in advancing our ability both to diagnose and to treat the infertile male. We summarize here some of the major advances of the past decade that have influenced our treatment and our understanding of the etiology of male infertility. When possible, clinical innovations and advances in basic science are discussed in combination in order to emphasize the translational importance of reproductive research.
Sentiment Analysis for Smart Cities : State of the Art and Opportunities

Advances of information and communications technologies in general and of social media platforms in particular have changed the way people communicate and express themselves. Citizens are now using smartphones and other mobile devices to share, on an unprecedented scale, their experiences and views in blogs, micro-blogs, comments, photos, videos, and other postings in social sites. The smart city research community has already recognized that sentiment analysis can contribute to a better understanding of, and timely reactions to, public’s needs and concerns by city governments. Yet, relatively little is known about how to best harness the potential benefits for smart cities of opinion mining and sentiment analysis. The objective of this article is to help fill the void by reviewing the state of the art, challenges and opportunities of sentiment analysis platforms, architectures and applications for the smart city application domain.
Thickness‐Dependent Refractive Index of 1L, 2L, and 3L MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, and WSe2

An interesting aspect of 2D materials is the change of their electronic structure with the reduction of thickness. Molybdenum and tungsten‐based transition metal dichalcogenides form an important family of 2D materials, whose members show a thickness‐dependent bandgap and strong light–matter interaction. In this work, the experimental determination of the complex refractive index of 1‐, 2‐, 3‐layer thick MoS2, MoSe2, WS2, and WSe2 in the range from 400 to 850 nm of the electromagnetic spectrum is reported by using microreflectance spectroscopy and combined with calculations based on the Fresnel equations. It is further provided a comparison with the bulk refractive index values reported in the literature and a discussion of the difference/similarity between our work and the monolayer refractive index available from the literature, finding that the results from different techniques are in good agreement.
Uma análise dos quocientes locacionais das regiões brasileiras nos anos 1991, 2000 e 2010.

O estudo sobre concentracao espacial de pessoas e atividades economicas baseou-se nos trabalhos de Marshall (1996), Weber (1969) e Losch (1954). Esses autores mostraram que a concentracao gerava aglomeracoes produtivas importantes para a dinâmica regional. O objetivo principal do presente artigo foi analisar os Quocientes Locacionais das regioes brasileiras nos anos de 1991, 2000 e 2010. Inicialmente, fez-se uma revisao dos conceitos de regiao e espaco. Em seguida, realizou-se uma explanacao sobre dinâmica regional no Brasil. Com os dados do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica (IBGE) e do Programa das Nacoes Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (PNUD), fez-se uma abordagem sobre a caracterizacao socioeconomica e demografica das regioes do pais. Tambem foi realizado um levantamento dos aglomerados produtivos por meio do “Quociente Locacional (QL)”, em que o setor de servicos apresentou QL>1, nos referidos anos, no Norte, Nordeste e Centro-Oeste. Tal resultado indica a especializacao dessas regioes nesse setor. O ramo agropecuario apresentou, em 2010, um QL>2, no Centro-Oeste, indicando uma tendencia a diversificacao. Com base nos indices locacionais, concluiu-se: o setor de servicos vem mostrando um alto grau de especializacao nas regioes. Esse potencial demonstra ser o mais significativo entre os estados e regioes brasileiras.
New Hampshire Effect: Behavior in Sequential and Simultaneous Election Contests

Sequential contests are predicted to induce lower expenditure than simultaneous contests. This prediction is a result of a “New Hampshire Effect” – a strategic advantage created by the winner of the first battle. Contrary to this prediction, however, our laboratory study of the three-battle contests shows that sequential contests generate significantly higher expenditure than simultaneous contests. In case of sequential contests, we observe significant over-expenditure in all three battles and find no evidence of the “New Hampshire Effect. ” Despite the strategic advantage, winners of the first battle make similar expenditures in the second battle as losers of the first battle. Moreover, instead of decreasing, subjects increase their expenditure in the second battle relative to the first battle. In case of simultaneous contests, subjects do not employ a uniform expenditure strategy and instead use a “guerilla warfare” strategy by focusing on only two of the three battles. We propose several explanations for these findings and discuss some implications.
The Virtual Image Chain: A Powerful Tool for the Evaluation of the Perceived Image Quality as a Function of Imaging System Parameters

A generalized digital imaging system model approach, called virtual image chain, permits to simulate the pixelwise propagation of images through various digital imaging system and in a next step to evaluate the visual perception of image details based on a spatial model for human color vision. First, various imaging systems can be modeled by a sequence of a rather limited number of fundamental image operations (FIO) representing the corresponding physical and/or technological properties of the system under investigation. Furthermore, to allow for perceived image quality analysis, simple models for spatial human color vision are integrated in the virtual image chain. Within the limitations for the models of the imaging system and the human visual system, respectively, the virtual image chain approach allows for a quantitative evaluation of perceived image quality as a function of technological image system parameters. A demonstration of such an image quality evaluation will be presented.
A Natural DC-Link Voltage Balancing of Diode-Clamped Inverters in Parallel Systems

This paper presents a method of natural dc-link capacitor voltage balancing of three- and single-phase neutral-point-clamped (NPC) inverters working in parallel configurations. It is proven that, in such parallel systems, when the inverters are insulated, the conditions for natural balancing can be achieved, and the application of a balancing circuit can assure the dc-link voltage balance independently on load. The method enables the natural balancing of single-phase single-branch NPC converters where natural balancing conditions do not occur. The application of the method presented in the three-phase NPC converter enables achievement of neutral dc-link voltage balance by the use of only one additional passive RLC circuit. In addition, the concept of lossless balancing in such systems is introduced. In the proposed system, by the application of a balancing circuit with a transformer and by using dedicated pulse with modulation, the balancing current flows in an unbalance state only. The unnecessary components of current that can flow in the balancing circuit are not present in the proposed solution. Simulations and experimental results in a system composed of two parallel inverters are presented to verify the concepts of natural balancing.
Determination of Temperature Dynamics and Mechanical and Stator Losses Relationships in a Three-Phase Induction Motor Using Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors

Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors are used to investigate the temperature dynamics of a three-phase induction motor under different supply conditions and also during startup. The temperature field distribution is monitored using eight uniformly distributed FBGs in the stator. Tests are performed with the motor running at no load and with intentional voltage disturbances in the motor feed. It is observed that the temperature distribution in the stator is not uniform either with or without a balanced voltage in the windings. An average level increase in temperature of 0.5<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula> is registered for all of the sensors and associated with the unbalanced voltage in the windings. The motor under the test is kept at synchronous speed and connected to a second motor to determine the temperature rise due to mechanical and stator losses. An increase in temperature of 4.5<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula> due to mechanical losses is registered as well as an increase of 15.5<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX">$^{\circ}{\rm C}$</tex></formula> due to stator winding and stator iron losses.
Lysophosphatidic acid in atherosclerotic diseases

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a potent bioactive phospholipid. As many other biological active lipids, LPA is an autacoid: it is formed locally on demand, and it acts locally near its site of synthesis. LPA has a plethora of biological activities on blood cells (platelets, monocytes) and cells of the vessel wall (endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, macrophages) that are all key players in atherosclerotic and atherothrombotic processes. The specific cellular actions of LPA are determined by its multifaceted molecular structures, the expression of multiple G‐protein coupled LPA receptors at the cell surface and their diverse coupling to intracellular signalling pathways. Numerous studies have now shown that LPA has thrombogenic and atherogenic actions. Here, we aim to provide a comprehensive, yet concise, thoughtful and critical review of this exciting research area and to pinpoint potential pharmacological targets for inhibiting thrombogenic and atherogenic activities of LPA. We hope that the review will serve to accelerate knowledge of basic and clinical science, and to foster drug development in the field of LPA and atherosclerotic/atherothrombotic diseases.
Plio-Quaternary transpressive tectonics: a key factor in the structural evolution of the outer Apennine–Adriatic system, Italy

We used data from seismic reflection profiles and well logs from both onshore and offshore locations along the Adriatic coast to investigate the structural style and recent active deformation in the external area of the northern Apennines adjoining the Po Plain. We prepared four NE–SW sub-parallel transects based on a detailed interpretation of the available subsurface data, supported by surface geological data. Through analysis of the well logs, we identified two significant seismo-stratigraphic markers, together with some unconformities within the Middle Pliocene/Quaternary succession. We propose a detailed structural scheme for the area that identifies and interprets both the outcropping and buried Apennine structures. NW/NNW–SE/SSE high-angle transpressive or flower structures, referred to the recent and actual deformation history, may be responsible for surface features and features at shallow depths, with possible implications for active tectonics. We show the continuity of some of these structures towards the Conero area to the south, suggesting a wider and more regional meaning for the proposed tectonic style. These Apenninic structures close against the active NNE–SSW Cattolica fault system in the northern offshore part of the area to form an asymmetrical arch. This study contributes to the interpretation of the deformation style of the outer northern Apennines. Supplementary material: High resolution seismic lines not interpreted are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare. c.4497542 Thematic collection: This article is part of the ‘Apennines and Tyrrhenian system’ collection available at: https://www.lyellcollection. org/cc/the-apennines-tyrrhenian-system
Virtual locomotion system for large-scale virtual environment

Omni-directional locomotion systems are yet of little advantage in virtual environments (VEs) with limited large display systems, where users may experience visual-less situations when they move in a direction that is not covered by the large screen. This paper presents a new omni-directional locomotion interface based on step-in-place movement and a smart-turntable system to impart users with the ability to move freely in any direction within VEs without loosing sight of the displayed image despite its projection on a limited large screen that does not provide surrounding or 360/spl deg/ visual feedback. The novelty of the interface is that: (a) it uses a smart-turntable with embedded sensors as a walking platform that compensate users' rotations rather than their displacements; (b) no cable attachments are made to the user body; and (c) the user can make many full body rotations without loosing sight of the environment, virtually providing a surrounding display despite the use of the limited size screen.