Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Do females behave differently in COPD exacerbation?

Introduction Little is known about whether there is any sex effect on chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) exacerbations. This study is intended to describe the possible sex-associated differences in exacerbation profile in COPD patients. Methods A total of 384 COPD patients who were hospitalized due to exacerbation were evaluated retrospectively for their demographics and previous and current exacerbation characteristics. Results The study was conducted on 109 (28%) female patients and 275 (72%) male patients. The mean age was 68.30±10.46 years. Although females had better forced expiratory volume in 1 second and near-normal forced vital capacity, they had much impaired arterial blood gas levels (partial oxygen pressure [PO2] was 36.28 mmHg vs 57.93 mmHg; partial carbon dioxide pressure [PCO2] was 45.97 mmHg vs 42.49 mmHg; P=0.001), indicating severe exacerbation with respiratory failure. More females had two exacerbations and two hospitalizations, while more men had one exacerbation and one hospitalization. Low adherence to treatment and pulmonary embolism were more frequent in females. Females had longer time from the onset of symptoms till the admission and longer hospitalization duration than males. Comorbidities were less in number and different in women (P<0.05). Women were undertreated and using more oral corticosteroids. Conclusion Current data showed that female COPD patients might be more prone to have severe exacerbations, a higher number of hospitalizations, and prolonged length of stay for hospitalization. They have a different comorbidity profile and might be undertreated for COPD.
Test template framework: a specification-based testing case study

A framework for specification-based testing is demonstrated on a symbol table case study, specified using the Z notation. Test derivation and structuring is discussed, as well as applications of the framework in deriving test oracles and aiding regressing testing during maintenance. Areas for further research and discussion are comparison of heuristics with regard to generated test suites and usability, formalising testing heuristics, and the discrepancy between functional testing and robustness testing.
Robust Process Discovery with Artificial Negative Events

Process discovery is the automated construction of structured process models from information system event logs. Such event logs often contain positive examples only. Without negative examples, it is a challenge to strike the right balance between recall and specificity, and to deal with problems such as expressiveness, noise, incomplete event logs, or the inclusion of prior knowledge. In this paper, we present a configurable technique that deals with these challenges by representing process discovery as a multi-relational classification problem on event logs supplemented with Artificially Generated Negative Events (AGNEs). This problem formulation allows using learning algorithms and evaluation techniques that are well-know in the machine learning community. Moreover, it allows users to have a declarative control over the inductive bias and language bias.
Prevalence and correlates of panic attacks in postmenopausal women: results from an ancillary study to the Women's Health Initiative.

BACKGROUND Panic attacks are known to be more common in women than in men, but the prevalence and correlates of panic in the postmenopausal period have not been well defined. METHODS Cross-sectional survey of 3369 community-dwelling postmenopausal women enrolled between December 1, 1997, and November 30, 2000, in the Myocardial Ischemia and Migraine Study, a 10-center ancillary study of the 40-center Women's Health Initiative. Participants, aged 50 to 79 years and predominantly white (73%), completed questionnaires about the occurrence of panic attacks in the previous 6 months and about migraine headaches and underwent 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring. The 6-month prevalences of full-blown and limited-symptom panic attacks were calculated, and their associations with other sociodemographic and clinical variables were examined in multivariate analyses. RESULTS One of the panic attack types was reported by 17.9% (95% confidence interval, 16.6%-19.2%) of women (full-blown attacks, 9.8%; limited-symptom attacks, 8.1%). Adjusting for age and race or ethnicity, full-blown panic attacks were more common in women with a history of migraine, emphysema, cardiovascular disease, chest pain during ambulatory electrocardiography, and symptoms of depression. Full-blown panic attacks were associated in a dose-response manner with negative life events during the past year. Panic attacks were associated with functional impairment even after adjusting for comorbid medical conditions and depression. There was no significant association with self-reported use of hormone replacement therapy. CONCLUSIONS Panic attacks may be relatively common among postmenopausal women and seem to be associated with stressful life events, medical comorbidity, and functional impairment.
Population Pharmacokinetic Modeling of Pantoprazole in Pediatric Patients From Birth to 16 Years

The population pharmacokinetics of pantoprazole was characterized in pediatric patients from birth to 16 years using NONMEM and evaluated via bootstrap and predictive check. Data were described using a 2‐compartment model with a typical parameterized in terms of clearance (CL) (95% CI) of 1.93 L per hour (1.53, 2.61), given the reference covariates (female, full term, extensive/unknown CYP2C19 metabolizer status, non‐African American, 10 kg weight, intravenous or tablet administration). Pantoprazole pharmacokinetic parameters appear to be similar in pediatric patients compared to adults when allometrically scaled. The effect of age on allometrically scaled CL was best described by a sigmoid Emax model with the age effect reaching an asymptote approximately equal to the adult CL by 1 year. CYP2C19 poor metabolizers exhibited reduced CL with the point estimate and 95% CI more than 70% lower than the typical value. Simulations from the final model indicated that the 1.2‐mg/kg dose provides the best comparison to adults.
Visual Capture of Action, Experience of Ownership, and the Illusion of Self-Touch: A New Rubber Hand Paradigm

A new rubber hand paradigm evokes an illusion with three conceptually distinct components: (i) the participant experiences her/his hidden right hand as administering touch at the location of the examiner's viewed administering hand (visual capture of action); (ii) the participant experiences the examiner's administering hand as being the participant's own hand (experience of ownership); and (iii) the participant experiences her/his two hands as being in contact, as if she/he were touching her/his own hand (illusion of self-touch). The presence of these illusory experiences was confirmed by questionnaire responses and proprioceptive drift data.
Topographic organization of the human primary and secondary somatosensory areas: an fMRI study

The topographical organization of SI and SII somatosensory areas was investigated using fMRI at 1.5 T and electrical sensory stimulation. Electrical stimuli were delivered unilaterally to the median nerve at the wrist and to the tibial nerve at the medial malleolus, during a block paradigm study. In all subjects, activation was observed, contralaterally to the stimulated side, in the post-central gyrus, in the posterior parietal cortex, in the mesial pre-frontal region and, bilaterally, in the supratemporal region at the level of the Sylvian fissure. The latter region, corresponding presumably to SII, showed a rough but clearcut topographical organization, with the median nerve areas located more posteriorly. In addition, weaker activations were observed in some subjects in the ipsilateral mesial prefrontal region and in the ipsilateral posterior parietal cortex. Information contained in the present study represent an interesting database for future investigations on the effects of sensorimotor learning in normal individuals on plastic reorganization following a lesion of the primary sensorimotor centers, i.e. in stroke patients, on the topography and balance between upper and lower limb representations in primary and secondary somatosensory cortices.
Parsing hedonic capacity in schizotypy: A multi-method assessment of consummatory and anticipatory pleasure

Title of Document: PARSING HEDONIC CAPACITY IN SCHIZOTYPY: A MULTI-METHOD ASSESSMENT OF CONSUMMATORY AND ANTICIPATORY PLEASURE Amy Lynn Wilson, Ph.D., 2012 Directed By: Professor Jack J. Blanchard, Ph.D. Department of Psychology This study was an attempt to examine anhedonia (or a reduced capacity to experience pleasant emotion) in individuals with elevated schizotypy. Anhedonia deficits in schizophrenia have been well-documented in studies utilizing self-report and clinician interviews; however, research has also shown that when presented with emotionally evocative stimuli, individuals with schizophrenia respond in a normative manner. One explanation for these paradoxical findings is that individuals with schizophrenia do not lack the capacity to experience pleasure (termed consummatory pleasure), but instead have a deficit in anticipating how pleasurable an event will be outside of the context of an immediately experienced event (known as anticipatory pleasure). Research is beginning to indicate that anticipatory pleasure deficits are evident in the schizophrenia population; however, a number of confounding variables are associated with this population which render conclusions about hedonic capacity difficult. A complimentary approach to examining individuals with schizophrenia is to identify nonclinical individuals with elevations in traits that are considered to be within the schizophrenia spectrum, namely, schizotypal traits. Utilizing the schizotypy concept first described by Paul Meehl, this study examines hedonic capacity using a multi-method approach (consisting of self-report, clinical interview, and an emotionally evocative stimulus) in schizotypy within a sample of undergraduate college students. Results were able to confirm that individuals with schizophrenia spectrum psychopathology both self-report and are rated as experiencing impairments in the ability to anticipate future pleasure. No group differences in anticipatory pleasure were identified on the laboratory stimulus, raising questions about our understanding of the nature of the anticipatory pleasure deficit in schizophrenia spectrum psychopathology. PARSING HEDONIC CAPACITY IN SCHIZOTYPY: A MULTI-METHOD ASSESSMENT OF CONSUMMATORY AND ANTICIPATORY PLEASURE
Altered Glucose Metabolism in Mouse and Humans Conceived by IVF

In vitro fertilization (IVF) may influence the metabolic health of children. However, in humans, it is difficult to separate out the relative contributions of genetics, environment, or the process of IVF, which includes ovarian stimulation (OS) and embryo culture. Therefore, we examined glucose metabolism in young adult humans and in adult male C57BL/6J mice conceived by IVF versus natural birth under energy-balanced and high-fat–overfeeding conditions. In humans, peripheral insulin sensitivity, as assessed by hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp (80 mU/m2/min), was lower in IVF patients (n = 14) versus control subjects (n = 20) after 3 days of an energy-balanced diet (30% fat). In response to 3 days of overfeeding (+1,250 kcal/day, 45% fat), there was a greater increase in systolic blood pressure in IVF versus controls (P = 0.02). Mice conceived after either OS alone or IVF weighed significantly less at birth versus controls (P < 0.01). However, only mice conceived by IVF displayed increased fasting glucose levels, impaired glucose tolerance, and reduced insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation in the liver after 8 weeks of consuming either a chow or high-fat diet (60% fat). Thus, OS impaired fetal growth in the mouse, but only embryo culture resulted in changes in glucose metabolism that may increase the risk of the development of metabolic diseases later in life, in both mice and humans.
Receptor function of mouse sperm surface galactosyltransferase during fertilization

Past studies from this laboratory have suggested that mouse sperm binding to the egg zona pellucida is mediated by a sperm galactosyltransferase (GalTase), which recognizes and binds to terminal N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc) residues in the zona pellucida (Shur, B. D., and N. G. Hall, 1982, J. Cell Biol. 95:567-573; 95:574-579). We now present evidence that directly supports this mechanism for gamete binding. GalTase was purified to homogeneity by sequential affinity- chromatography on GlcNAc-agarose and alpha-lactalbumin-agarose columns. The purified enzyme produced a dose-dependent inhibition of sperm binding to the zona pellucida, relative to controls. To inhibit sperm/zona binding, GalTase had to retain its native conformation, since neither heat-inactivated nor Mn++-deficient GalTase inhibited sperm binding. GalTase inhibition of sperm/zona binding was not due to steric blocking of an adjacent sperm receptor on the zona, since GalTase could be released from the zona pellucida by forced galactosylation with UDPGal, and the resulting galactosylated zona was still incapable of binding sperm. In control experiments, when UDPGal was replaced with the inappropriate sugar nucleotide, UDPglucose, sperm binding to the zona pellucida remained normal after the adsorbed GalTase was washed away. The addition of UDPGal produced a dose- dependent inhibition of sperm/zona binding, and also dissociated preformed sperm/zona adhesions by catalyzing the release of the sperm GalTase from its GlcNAc substrate in the zona pellucida. Under identical conditions, UDP-glucose had no effect on sperm binding to the zona pellucida. The ability of UDPGal to dissociate sperm/zona adhesions was both time- and temperature-dependent. UDPGal produced nearly total inhibition of sperm/zona binding when the zonae pellucidae were first galactosylated to reduce the number of GalTase binding sites. Finally, monospecific anti-GalTase IgG and its Fab fragments produced a dose-dependent inhibition of sperm/zona binding and concomitantly blocked sperm GalTase catalytic activity. Preimmune IgG or anti-mouse brain IgG, which also binds to the sperm surface, had no effect. The sperm GalTase was localized by indirect immunofluorescence to a discrete plasma membrane domain on the dorsal surface of the anterior head overlying the intact acrosome. These results, along with earlier studies, show clearly that sperm GalTase serves as a principal gamete receptor during fertilization.
A clock-less implementation of the AES resists to power and timing attacks

New cryptanalytical techniques, in particular, power and timing analysis, pose a serious threat to cryptographic devices such as smart cards. By analyzing the power dissipation or timing of encryptions in a device, encrypted information inside can be deduced. The weakness is not in the encryption algorithms themselves, but in their implementations. We show that not even the new advanced encryption standard (AES), when implemented in conventional hardware, is secure from power attacks; a few power samples were enough to deduce the secret key. A new specially designed implementation of the AES on a clock-less dual-rail chip is presented and shown to possess a very considerable improvement against power attacks compared to the conventional design. This implementation is also resistant to timing, fault induction and clock glitch attacks.
Correlation testing for affine invariant properties on Fpn in the high error regime

Recently there has been much interest in Gowers uniformity norms from the perspective of theoretical computer science. This is mainly due to the fact that these norms provide a method for testing whether the maximum correlation of a function f:Fpn -> Fp with polynomials of degree at most d ≤ p is non-negligible, while making only a constant number of queries to the function. This is an instance of correlation testing. In this framework, a fixed test is applied to a function, and the acceptance probability of the test is dependent on the correlation of the function from the property. This is an analog of proximity oblivious testing, a notion coined by Goldreich and Ron, in the high error regime. We study in this work general properties which are affine invariant and which are correlation testable using a constant number of queries. We show that any such property (as long as the field size is not too small) can in fact be tested by the Gowers uniformity test, and hence having correlation with the property is equivalent to having correlation with degree d polynomials for some fixed d. We stress that our result holds also for non-linear properties which are affine invariant. This completely classifies affine invariant properties which are correlation testable. The proof is based on higher-order Fourier analysis, where we establish a new approximate orthogonality for structures defined by linear forms. In particular, this resolves an open problem posed by Gowers and Wolf. Another ingredient is a nontrivial extension of a graph theoretical theorem of Erdos, Lovasz and Spencer to the context of additive number theory.
Powered orthosis and attachable power-assist device with Hydraulic Bilateral Servo System

This paper discusses the developments and control strategies of exoskeleton-type robot systems for the application of an upper limb powered orthosis and an attachable power-assist device for care-givers. Hydraulic Bilateral Servo System, which consist of a computer controlled motor, parallel connected hydraulic actuators, position sensors, and pressure sensors, are installed in the system to derive the joint motion of the exoskeleton arm. The types of hydraulic component structure and the control strategy are discussed in relation to the design philosophy and target joints motions.
Approximation of Jacobian inverse kinematics algorithms

Approximation of Jacobian inverse kinematics algorithms This paper addresses the synthesis problem of Jacobian inverse kinematics algorithms for stationary manipulators and mobile robots. Special attention is paid to the design of extended Jacobian algorithms that approximate the Jacobian pseudoinverse algorithm. Two approaches to the approximation problem are developed: one relies on variational calculus, the other is differential geometric. Example designs of the extended Jacobian inverse kinematics algorithm for 3DOF manipulators as well as for the unicycle mobile robot illustrate the theoretical concepts.
[Comparative study on Chinese medical syndrome typing and treatment combined different surgical methods for treating clomiphene-resistant polycystic ovary syndrome].

OBJECTIVE To observe the therapeutic efficacy of Chinese medical syndrome typing and treatment combined cold needle puncture drainage operation or unipolar electrocoagulation drilling technique under laparoscope for treating clomiphene-resistant polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). METHODS Forty infertility patients with clomiphene-resistant PCOS were assigned to two groups using stratified random sampling method according to age, infertility time, and body mass index, 20 in each group. Patients in Group A were treated with Chinese medical syndrome typing and treatment combined cold needle puncture drainage operation, while those in Group B were treated with Chinese medical syndrome typing and treatment combined unipolar electrocoagulation drilling technique. After operation Chinese herbal treatment was administered to all patients according to syndrome typing. The serum levels of luteinizing hormone (LH), follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), androgen (T), estradiol (E2), and prolactin (PRL) were determined before and after operation. The ovulation was monitored. The pregnancy rate and the pregnancy outcomes were recorded after operation. RESULTS There was no statistical difference in the 3-month spontaneous ovulation rate or the 1-year pregnancy rate (P > 0.05). The levels of LH, T, and PRL were significantly lower after operation than before operation in the two groups (P < 0.05). The menstruation and ovulation were obviously improved after operation. The total ovulation rate was 95% (19/20) in Group A. Successful pregnancy occurred in 15 cases of Group A. Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) occurred in 1 case of Group A. The total ovulation rate was 90% (18/20) in Group B. Successful pregnancy occurred in 13 cases of Group B. Hypovaria occurred in 1 case of Group B. Luteinized unruptured follicle (LUFS) occurred in 2 cases of Group A and 1 case of Group B. CONCLUSIONS Chinese medical syndrome typing and treatment combined cold needle puncture drainage operation or unipolar electrocoagulation drilling technique could effectively promote the ovulation. The two methods showed similar therapeutic effects.
Lip tape therapy in patients with a cleft lip--a report on eight cases.

INTRODUCTION Lip tape therapy or lip taping is a widely used tissue approximation technique in cleft lip babies. Vari ous tapes have been tested and used worldwide. Allergic reactions and skin irritation are the most common problems encountered. Tension force across the tape cannot be consistently applied. Cost is also an obstacle to adopting lip tape therapy, particularly in developing countries. AIM A study was undertaken to evaluate a different tape, "physio tape", which has never been used for lip approxima tion in cleft lip babies. METHOD Eight babies were available for this study, which was conducted over a six-week period (Ethical Approval number 33/2013). Standardised pre- and post-treatment recordings were made with a digital camera and soft tissue analysis was carried out with Cliniview software. RESULTS All participants showed a reduction in cleft size ranging from 9.1mm to 36.7mm at the vermillion end of the cleft. Caregivers had no difficulty with the lip tape procedure and generally no untoward or allergic reactions were reported. CONCLUSION On the basis of the positive results of this in vestigation, t is recommended that this method of lip tape therapy be used on all babies born wth a cleft lip. It is affordable, simple to use and should facilitate the surgical repair.
Acquiring Background Knowledge for Intelligent Tutoring Systems

One of the unresolved problems faced in the construction of intelligent tutoring systems is the acquisition of background knowledge, either for the specification of the teaching strategy, or for the construction of the student model, identifying the deviations of students’ behavior. In this paper, we argue that the use of sequential pattern mining and constraint relaxations can be used to automatically acquire that knowledge. We show that the methodology of constrained pattern mining used can solve this problem in a way that is difficult to achieve with other approaches.
Coherent conditional probabilities and proper scoring rules

In this paper we study the relationship between the notion of coherence for conditional probability assessments on a family of conditional events and the notion of admissibility with respect to scoring rules. By extending a recent result given in literature for unconditional events, we prove, for any given strictly proper scoring rule s, the equivalence between the coherence of a conditional probability assessment and its admissibility with respect to s. In this paper we focus our analysis on the case of continuous bounded scoring rules. In this context a key role is also played by Bregman divergence and by a related theoretical aspect. Finally, we briey illustrate a possible way of dening (generalized) coherence of interval-valued probability assessments by exploiting the notion of admissibility given for precise probability assessments.