Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Status Assessment of COPD Based on Ability to Perform Daily Living Activities: A Systematic Review of Paper and Pencil Instruments

Context: Activity of daily living (ADL) is an important predictor of mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Increasing ADL is important in patients with COPD and assessment of ADL is one of the best ways to evaluate the status of COPD patients. Objectives: The objective of this systematic review was to provide an overview of the psychometric properties of paper and pencil instruments measuring ADL in patients with COPD. Data Sources: English papers published from 1980 to 2014 regarding ADL in patients with COPD were searched in Web of Science, MEDLINE, Google Scholar, Cochrane, PubMed, ProQuest, and CINAHL databases using the following keywords: “COPD”, “ADL”, “activities of daily living”, “daily activities”, “instrument”, “questionnaire”, “paper-and-pencil instruments”, and “measure”. Following the Internet search, manual search was also done to find article references. Study Selection: A total of 186 articles were found. Of those, 31 met the inclusion criteria. Full texts of articles meeting the inclusion criteria were studied. Consensus-based standards for the selection of health measurement instruments”(COSMIN) were used to assess the quality of the studies. Data Extraction: Data extraction form based on research aims developed by researchers and psychometric experts, with 17 questions was used. Results: In these articles, 14 pen and paper instruments were identified for examining ADL in patients with COPD; of which, 4 dealt directly with ADL while 9 assessed other criteria i.e. dyspnea as ADL indicator. The majority of instruments only dealt with two main dimensions of ADL: Basic Activities of Daily Living (BADL) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), and did not consider Advanced Activities of Daily Living (AADL), which is influenced by cultural and motivational factors. Conclusion: Despite several ADL instruments identified, complete psychometric processes have only been done in a few of them. Selection of the appropriate instrument should focus on the aim of the study and the target construct.
Phenethyl Alcohol and Tryptophol: Autoantibiotics Produced by the Fungus Candida albicans

Two autoantibiotics produced by the fungus Candida albicans have been identified, with the aid of mass spectrometry, as 2-phenylethanol and 3-β-hydroxyethylindole. The cyclodipeptides, cyclo(proline-leucine) and cyclo(proline-phenylalanine) were also isolated from cultures of Candida albicans, but did not inhibit the growth of the fungus.
Bacteria Coated by Polyphenols Acquire Potent Oxidant-Scavenging Capacities

Several microbial species, including probiotic lactic acid bacteria, have the ability to irreversibly bind a large variety of polyphenols (flavonoids) and anthocyanidins found in many colored fruits and vegetables and to enhance their total oxidant-scavenging capacities (TOSC). The binding of flavonoids to microbial surfaces was further increased by the cationic polyelectrolytes ligands poly-L-histidine, chlorhexidine and Copaxone®. This phenomenon was confirmed visually, by the FRAP, DPPH, cyclic voltammetry, Folin-Ciocalteu as well as by luminol-dependent chemiluminescence techniques employed to assay TOSC. The possibility is considered that clinically, microbial cells in the oral cavity and in the gastro intestinal tract, complexed with antioxidant polyphenols from nutrients and with cationic ligands, might increase the protection of mammalian cells against damage induced by excessive generation of reactive oxygen species during infections and inflammation.
The use of quantum-kinetic models in system design synthesis of carbon nanostructures

In the process of designing a carbon nanostructure (CNS) synthesis system, the main task is to determine the technological and functional parameters of synthesis. We offered a mathematical model of the process for the purpose of studying the synthesis processes using the graphite thermal evaporation, based on the Boltzmann kinetic equation, which takes into account elastic and non-elastic particle interactions. We offer a numerical solving method using the parallel computing technologies. We conducted the study of the effect of the main synthesis parameters on the carbon cluster formation and the amount of obtained material containing CNS.
Kinetics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa adhesion to 304 and 316-L stainless steel: role of cell surface hydrophobicity

Fifteen different isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were used to study the kinetics of adhesion to 304 and 316-L stainless steel. Stainless steel plates were incubated with approximately 1.5 X 10(7) CFU/ml in 0.01 M phosphate-buffered saline (pH 7.4). After the plates were rinsed with the buffer, the number of adhering bacteria was determined by a bioluminescence assay. Measurable adhesion, even to the electropolished surfaces, occurred within 30 s. Bacterial cell surface hydrophobicity, as determined by the bacterial adherence to hydrocarbons test and the contact angle measurement test, was the major parameter influencing the adhesion rate constant for the first 30 min of adhesion. A parabolic relationship between the CAM values and the logarithm of the adhesion rate constants (In k) was established. No correlation between either the salt aggregation or the improved salt aggregation values and the bacterial adhesion rate constants could be found. Since there was no significant correlation between the bacterial electrophoretic mobilities and the In k values, the bacterial cell surface charge seemed of minor importance in the process of adhesion of P. aeruginosa to 304 and 316-L stainless steel.
“One Size Doesn’t Fit All”—Partners in Hospice Care, an Individualized Approach to Bereavement Intervention

We concluded in a recent study that a one-size-fits-all approach typical of group interventions often does not adequately accommodate the range of situations, life experiences, and current needs of participants. We describe how this limitation informed the design and implementation of an individually delivered intervention format more specifically tailored to the unique needs of each bereaved person. The intervention comprises one of the three interrelated studies within Partners in Hospice Care (PHC), which examines the trajectory from end-of-life care through bereavement among cancer caregivers using hospice. The PHC intervention employs an initial needs assessment in order to tailor the session content, delivery, and sequencing to the most pressing, yet highly diverse needs of the bereaved spouses/partners. Although an individually delivered format has its own challenges, these can be effectively addressed through standardized interventionist training, regular communication among staff, and a flexible approach toward participants’ preferences and circumstances.
An information retrieval model using the fuzzy proximity degree of term occurences

Based on the idea that the closer the query terms in a document are, the more relevant this document is, we propose a mathematical model of information retrieval based on a fuzzy proximity degree of term occurences. Our model is able to deal with Boolean queries, but contrary to the traditional extensions of the basic Boolean information retrieval model, it does not explicitly use a proximity operator. A single parameter allows to control the proximity degree required. With conjunctive queries, setting this parameter to low values requires a proximity at the phrase level and with high values, the required proximity can continuously be relaxed to the sentence or paragraph levels. We conducted some experiments and present the results.
High Genetic Diversity of the Attachment (G) Protein of Human Metapneumovirus

ABSTRACT Complete genes encoding the predicted nucleoprotein (N), phosphoprotein (P), matrix protein (M), fusion protein (F), M2-1protein, M2-2protein, small hydrophobic protein (SH), and attachmentprotein (G) of seven newly isolated human metapneumoviruses (hMPVs) were analyzed and compared with previously published data for hMPV genes. Phylogenetic analysis of the nucleotide sequences indicated that there were two genetic groups, tentatively named groups 1 and 2, similar to the grouping of human respiratory syncytial virus. Although the predicted amino acid sequences of N, P, M, F, and M2 were highly conserved between the two groups (amino acid identities, 96% for N, 85% for P, 97% for M, 94% for F, 95% for M2-1, and 90% for M2-2), the amino acid identities of the SH and G proteins were low (SH, 58%; G, 33%). Furthermore, each group could be subdivided into two subgroups by phylogenetic analysis, tentatively named subgroups 1A and 1B and subgroups 2A and 2B. The predicted amino acid sequences of G within members of each subgroup were highly conserved (amino acid identities, 88% for group 1A, 93% for group 1B, and 96% for group 2B). The G of hMPV is thought to be the major antigenic determinant and to play an important role in the production of neutralizing antibodies. Clarification of the antigenic diversity of G is important for epidemiological analysis and for establishment of strategies to prevent hMPV infection.
Generalizations of harmonic and refined Rayleigh-Ritz

We investigate several generalizations of the harmonic and refined Rayleigh-Ritz method. These may be practical when one is interested in eigenvalues close to one of two targets (for instance, when the eigenproblem has Hamiltonian structure such that eigenvalues come in pairs or quadruples), or in rightmost eigenvalues close to (for instance) the imaginary axis. Our goal is to develop new methods to extract promising approximate eigenpairs from a search space, for instance one generated by the Arnoldi or Jacobi-Davidson method. We give theoretical as well as numerical results of the methods, and recommendations for their use.
Stability issues in vector electric field propagation

Demonstrates that although standard paraxial and wide-angle vector field propagation techniques lead to divergences for sufficiently small grid-point spacings and large refractive index differences, stability may be restored through either certain Pade approximates to the propagation operator or suitable boundary conditions. The authors also introduce a novel alternating directional implicit method applicable to less divergent discretizations of the vector wave equation. <<ETX>>
Verifying Declarative Netlog Protocols with Coq: a First Experiment

Theme : Programs, Veri cation and ProofsAlgorithmics, Programming, Software and ArchitectureEquipes-Projets FORMES et NetquestRapport de recherche n ° 7511  Janvier 2011  25 pagesAbstract: Declarative languages, such as recursive rule based languages,have been proposed to program distributed applications over networks. It hasbeen shown that they simplify greatly the code, while still oering e cientdistributed execution. In this report, we show that moreover they provide apromising approach to the veri cation of distributed protocols. We consider theNetlog language and use the Coq proof assistant. We rst formalize the dis-tributed computation model based on message passing with either synchronousor asynchronous behavior. We then see how the declarative rules of the proto-cols can be simply encoded in Coq and we develop the machine embedded oneach node of the network which evaluates the rules. This framework enables usto formally verify distributed protocols, as shown on a concrete case study, aspanning tree construction in both the asynchronous and synchronous setting.Key-words: formal proof, protocol, distributed algorithm, distributed com-putation model.
Balancing Opposing Views to Reduce Controversy

Society is often polarized by controversial issues, that split the population into groups of opposing views. When such issues emerge on social media, we often observe the creation of 'echo chambers', i.e., situations where like-minded people reinforce each other's opinion, but do not get exposed to the views of the opposing side. In this paper we study algorithmic techniques for bridging these chambers, and thus, reducing controversy. Specifically, we represent the discussion on a controversial issue with an endorsement graph, and cast our problem as an edge-recommendation problem on this graph. The goal of the recommendation is to reduce the controversy score of the graph, which is measured by a recently-developed metric based on random walks. At the same time, we take into account the acceptance probability of the recommended edge, which represents how likely the edge is to materialize in the endorsement graph. We propose a simple model based on a recently-developed user-level controversy score, that is competitive with state-of- the-art link-prediction algorithms. We thus aim at finding the edges that produce the largest reduction in the controversy score, in expectation. To solve this problem, we propose an efficient algorithm, which considers only a fraction of all the combinations of possible edges. Experimental results show that our algorithm is more efficient than a simple greedy heuristic, while producing comparable score reduction. Finally, a comparison with other state-of-the-art edge-addition algorithms shows that this problem is fundamentally different from what has been studied in the literature.
Cue-InvariantNetworksforFigureandBackground ProcessinginHumanVisualCortex

Lateral occipital cortical areas are involved in the perception of objects, but it is not clear how these areas interact with first tier visual areas.Usingsyntheticimagesportrayingasimpletexture-definedfigureandanelectrophysiologicalparadigmthatallowsustomonitor cortical responses to figure and background regions separately, we found distinct neuronal networks responsible for the processing of eachregion.Thefigureregionofourdisplayswastaggedwithonetemporalfrequency(3.0Hz)andthebackgroundregionwithanother (3.6 Hz). Spectral analysis was used to separate the responses to the two regions during their simultaneous presentation. Distributed sourcereconstructionsweremadebyusingtheminimumnormmethod,andcorticalcurrentdensitywasmeasuredinasetofvisualareas defined on retinotopic and functional criteria with the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results of the main experiments,combinedwithasetofcontrolexperiments,indicatethatthefigureregion,butnotthebackground,wasroutedpreferentiallyto lateralcortex.Aseparatenetworkextendingfromfirsttierthroughmoredorsalareasrespondedpreferentiallytothebackgroundregion. Thefigure-relatedresponsesweremostlyinvariantwithrespecttothetexturetypesusedtodefinethefigure,didnotdependonitsspatial location or size, and mostly were unaffected by attentional instructions. Because of the emergent nature of a segmented figure in our displays, feedback from higher cortical areas is a likely candidate for the selection mechanism by which the figure region is routed to lateraloccipitalcortex.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Detection and Management in Primary Care

• Objective: To review the diagnosis and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). • Methods: Qualitative assessment of the literature. • Results: PTSD is a common psychiatric disorder. Patients are often reluctant to discuss their symptoms, so clinicians must maintain a high index of suspicion for the disorder, expecially in patients with known exposure to intrinsically traumatic experiences (combat, natural disaster, sexual or physical assault). There are a number of valid screening tools that can be helpful in making a diagnosis. Co-occurring psychiatric disorders are the rule rather than the exception and include depression, substance abuse disorders, and other anxiety disorders. Effective treatment options include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and cognitive behavioral therapy. • Conclusion: PTSD is a complex disorder resulting in considerable emotional distress, social inhibition and impairment, and occupational maladjustment. Primary care physicians can play an important role in identifying and treating patients with PTSD.
Pros and cons of immunochemical and enzymatic method in the diagnosis of Wilson's disease.

BACKGROUND Immunochemical method of measuring Ceruloplasmin (Cp) levels for the diagnosis of Wilson's disease has replaced enzymatic method for the main reason of being more sensitive and quantitative. SETTINGS AND DESIGN In this study, we compared both the methods for various factors such as sensitivity, specificity and the time consumed in the diagnosis of Wilson's disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS Serum samples from patients (n=33) with a provisional diagnosis of Wilson's disease were analyzed for Cp levels by enzymatic copper oxidase method and immunochemical method using polyclonal antibodies specific to Cp embedded in agar. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Pearson's regression analysis was performed to compare the two methods. RESULTS The mean Cp obtained by immunochemical method is 5.87 mm +/- 1.17 and by enzymatic method, it is 0.37 (Optical Density) +/- 0.136. Pearson's Regression analysis of the measurements showed a good correlation with an 'r' value of 0.765 between the two methods. CONCLUSION A good correlation indicated that these two tests are comparable and thus both these methods can be used together for a definitive and better diagnosis of Wilson's disease.
Application of the Characteristic Bisection Method for locating and computing periodic orbits in molecular systems

The Characteristic Bisection Method for finding the roots of non-linear algebraic and/or transcendental equations is applied to LiNC/LiCN molecular system to locate periodic orbits and to construct the continuation/bifurcation diagram of the bend mode family. The algorithm is based on the Characteristic Polyhedra which define a domain in phase space where the topological degree is not zero. The results are compared with previous calculations obtained by the Newton Multiple Shooting algorithm. The Characteristic Bisection Method not only reproduces the old results, but also, locates new symmetric and asymmetric families of periodic orbits of high multiplicity.  2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 39.30; 31.15. -p; 02.70. -c; 05.45. +b
A DNA Damage Signal Is Required for p 53 to Activate gadd 45 1

We provide direct evidence that overexpression of p53 is not sufficient for robust p53-dependent activation of the endogenous gadd45 gene. When p53 was induced in TR9-7 cells in the absence of DNA damage, waf1/p21 and mdm2 mRNA levels were increased, but a change in gadd45 mRNA was barely detectable. Activation of the gadd45 gene was observed when camptothecin was added to cells containing p53 in the absence of a further increase in the p53 level. Phosphorylation of p53 at serine 15 and acetylation at lysine 382 were detected after drug treatment. It has been suggested that p53 posttranslational modification is critical during activation. However, inhibition of these modifications by wortmannin was not sufficient to block the transactivation of gadd45. Interestingly, after camptothecin treatment, increased DNase I sensitivity was detected at the gadd45 promoter, suggesting that an undetermined DNA damage signal is involved in inducing chromatin remodeling at the gadd45 promoter while cooperating with p53 to activate gadd45 transcription.
Protium, an infrastructure for partitioned applications

Remote access feels different from local access. The major issues are consistency (machines vary in GUIs, applications, and devices) and responsiveness (the user must wait for network and server delays), Protium attacks these by partitioning programs into local viewers that connect to remote services using application-specific protocols. Partitioning allows viewers to be customized to adapt to local features and limitations. Services are responsible for maintaining long-term state. Viewers manage the user interface and use state to reduce communication between viewer and service, reducing latency whenever possible. System infrastructure sits between the viewer and service, supporting replication, consistency, session management, and multiple simultaneous viewers. The prototype system includes an editor, a draw program, a PDF viewer, a map database, a music jukebox, and windowing system support. It runs on servers, workstations, PCs, and PDAs under Plan 9, Linux, and Windows; services and viewers have been written in C, Java, and Concurrent ML.
Kinect Gesture Recognition: SVM vs. RVM

Human gesture recognition has been an active and challenging problem, especially when motion capture devices become more popular. Various studies have shown that support vector machines (SVMs) with Gaussian kernels are among the most prominent models for an accurate gesture classification. We demonstrate in this paper that the relevance vector machines (RVMs) could also achieve the state-of-the-art predictive performance. Moreover, RVMs run much faster than SVMs in testing phase. Intensive experiments on the Microsoft's MSRC-12 Kinect gesture data set also pointed out that prediction behaviors of SVMs and RVMs are very similar in terms of parameter sensitivity, accuracy in leave-subject-out test, and gesture discrimination.
Optogenetic Activation of the Sensorimotor Cortex Reveals “Local Inhibitory and Global Excitatory” Inputs to the Basal Ganglia

Abstract To understand how information from different cortical areas is integrated and processed through the cortico‐basal ganglia pathways, we used optogenetics to systematically stimulate the sensorimotor cortex and examined basal ganglia activity. We utilized Thy1‐ChR2‐YFP transgenic mice, in which channelrhodopsin 2 is robustly expressed in layer V pyramidal neurons. We applied light spots to the sensorimotor cortex in a grid pattern and examined neuronal responses in the globus pallidus (GP) and entopeduncular nucleus (EPN), which are the relay and output nuclei of the basal ganglia, respectively. Light stimulation typically induced a triphasic response composed of early excitation, inhibition, and late excitation in GP/EPN neurons. Other response patterns lacking 1 or 2 of the components were also observed. The distribution of the cortical sites whose stimulation induced a triphasic response was confined, whereas stimulation of the large surrounding areas induced early and late excitation without inhibition. Our results suggest that cortical inputs to the GP/EPN are organized in a “local inhibitory and global excitatory” manner. Such organization seems to be the neuronal basis for information processing through the cortico‐basal ganglia pathways, that is, releasing and terminating necessary information at an appropriate timing, while simultaneously suppressing other unnecessary information.