Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term follow-up of patients with scleroderma interstitial lung disease treated with intravenous cyclophosphamide pulse therapy: a single-center experience.

BACKGROUND Scleroderma lung disease (ILD-SSc) is treated mainly with cyclophosphamide (CYC). The effectiveness of CYC was judged after 12-24 months in most reports. OBJECTIVES To analyze the effect of monthly intravenous CYC on pulmonary function tests including forced vital capacity (FVC) and diffusing lung capacity (DLCO), as well as Rodnan skin score (mRSS), during long-term follow-up. METHODS We retrospectively collected the data on 26 ILD-SSc patients who began CYC treatments before 2007. Changes in FVC, DLCO and mRSS before treatment, and at 1,4 and 7 years after completion of at least six monthly intravenous CYC treatments for ILD-SSc were analyzed. RESULTS Mean cumulative CYC dose was 8.91 ± 3.25 G. More than 30% reduction in FVC (0%, 8%, and 31% of patients), DLCO (15%, 23%, 31%), and mRSS (31%, 54%, 62%) at years 1, 4 and 7 was registered. During the years 0-4 and 4-7, annual changes in FVC, DLCO and mRSS were 3.2 vs. 0.42% (P < 0.040), 4.6 vs. 0.89% (P < 0.001), and 1.8 vs. 0.2 (P = 0.002). The greatest annual FVC and DLCO reduction over the first 4 years correlated with mortality (P = 0.022). There were no differences in the main variables regarding doses of CYC (< 6 G and > 6 G). CONCLUSIONS In patients with ILD-SSc, CYC stabilized the reduction of FVC during treatment, but this effect was not persistent. The vascular characteristic of ILD-SSc (DLCO) was not affected by CYC treatment. CYC rapidly improved the mRSS. This effect could be achieved with at least 6 G of CYC. Higher rates of annual reduction in FVC and DLCO in the first 4 years indicate the narrow window of opportunity and raise the question regarding ongoing immunosuppression following CYC infusions.
Psychotropic Medication Use, Personality Disorder and Improvement in Long-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy

Patients receiving long-term dynamic psychotherapy often have both depression and personality disorders (PDs) and take medications concurrently. Our goal was to determine the extent of medication use in an outpatient sample and the relationships of medication use and PD status to diagnostic and symptom measures. Fifty-three patients (25 of whom were taking medications at intake) who entered a long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy study for the treatment of chronic or recurrent depression, anxiety, and/or PDs were followed up to 7 years. PD patients who received combined therapy showed significant improvement in functioning and distress, while those receiving only psychotherapy showed significant improvement in depression and distress. Non-PD patients receiving only psychotherapy showed significant improvement in functioning. Long-term dynamic psychotherapy was associated with improvement in symptoms and functioning for the sample as a whole. PD pathology and being on medications at intake acted as moderator variables: PD predicted a smaller effect size in depression and functioning, while medications predicted a smaller effect size in depression only.
Cross-Modal Retrieval: A Pairwise Classification Approach

Content is increasingly available in multiple modalities (such as images, text, and video), each of which provides a different representation of some entity. The cross-modal retrieval problem is: given the representation of an entity in one modality, find its best representation in all other modalities. We propose a novel approach to this problem based on pairwise classification. The approach seamlessly applies to both the settings where ground-truth annotations for the entities are absent and present. In the former case, the approach considers both positive and unlabelled links that arise in standard cross-modal retrieval datasets. Empirical comparisons show improvements over state-of-theart methods for cross-modal retrieval.
Bank's Hidden Negative Capital Before and After the Senior Management Change at the Bank of Russia

What was the size of hidden negative capital (HNC) in the Russian banking system before the Bank of Russia's senior management changed? Has the financial regulator's new, tougher, supervision policy launched in mid-2013 been productive in dealing with problems accumulated over recent years? This study attempts to provide first answers to these questions using Heckman selection models and solving a possible regulator's optimization problem using the data on Russian banks over the period from December 2009 to May 2017. The study results suggest that before the change of the Bank of Russia's senior management in mid-2013, the average level of HNC at banks operating in Russia was very high: 14% of the banking system's total assets on each specific date, and fairly permanent in time. But as early as half a year after the Bank of Russia's senior management changed, the overall size of HNC started contracting rapidly, coming close to to 4% by mid-2016. In the last 12 months of the time span under study the level of the HNC stabilized at 4%. These estimates point to the high effectiveness of the new senior management's supervision policy. The policy has produced a strong indirect positive effect: large part of fragile banks have started addressing their problems without waiting for the Central Bank's intervention. The effectiveness of the Bank of Russia's new policy cannot be attributed to other factors such as macroeconomic stabilization or improvement and/or rising profitability or bank operartions. Rather, when supervision policy was stepped up, these other factors were acting in the opposite direction.
THE EMERGENCE OF SOLAR SUPERGRANULATION AS A NATURAL CONSEQUENCE OF ROTATIONALLY CONSTRAINED INTERIOR CONVECTION

We investigate how rotationally constrained, deep convection might give rise to supergranulation, the largest distinct spatial scale of convection observed in the solar photosphere. While supergranulation is only weakly influenced by rotation, larger spatial scales of convection sample the deep convection zone and are presumably rotationally influenced. We present numerical results from a series of nonlinear, 3D simulations of rotating convection and examine the velocity power distribution realized under a range of Rossby numbers. When rotation is present, the convective power distribution possesses a pronounced peak, at characteristic wavenumber , whose value increases as the Rossby number is decreased. This distribution of power contrasts with that realized in non-rotating convection, where power increases monotonically from high to low wavenumbers. We find that spatial scales smaller than behave in analogy to non-rotating convection. Spatial scales larger than are rotationally constrained and possess substantially reduced power relative to the non-rotating system. We argue that the supergranular scale emerges due to a suppression of power on spatial scales larger than owing to the presence of deep, rotationally constrained convection. Supergranulation thus represents the largest non-rotationally constrained mode of solar convection. We conclude that the characteristic spatial scale of supergranulation bounds that of the deep convective motions from above, making supergranulation an indirect measure of the deep-seated dynamics at work in the solar dynamo. Using the spatial scale of supergranulation in conjunction with our numerical results, we estimate an upper bound of 10 m s−1 for the Sun’s bulk rms convective velocity.
A novel QoS architecture for multi-service provisioning in multi-residential gateways

The residential gateway (RG) is known as the connection box that provides multi-service access to the consumer networks. This work is focused on a multi-residential gateway (MRG) concept, which offers more service provisioning and management capabilities. The QoS support in this context is challenging, as new requirements must be fulfilled regarding such multi-network and multiservice environment. Both design and development processes are shown in depth and the proposed solution is tested and compared with the main trends among the state of the art. This paper provides an optimum multi-service QoS provisioning architecture for multi-residential units as the best trade off between packet loss and delay performances. The implemented test bed (with VoIP, Interactive Video, Telnet, Web, FTP and Bulk traffic provisioning through up to 20 simultaneous consuming units) validates this design and provides some interesting future works.
The Back to School Asthma Study: the Effect of Montelukast on Asthma Burden When Initiated Prophylactically at the Start of the School Year Combination Therapy Salmeterol/fluticasone versus Doubling Dose of Fluticasone in Children with Asthma

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY. To determine the efficacy of prophy-lactic montelukast therapy in reducing asthma morbidity at the start of the school year. STUDY POPULATION. Patients 6 to 14 years of age with a diagnosis of asthma for a minimum of 1 year were recruited for this international study that took place in 39 US states and 3 Canadian provinces from June 2006 through November 2006. METHODS. This was a randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study for patients who received either 5-mg montelukast or placebo beginning on the night before school started and continued for an 8-week period. Patients were randomly assigned during a screening period from 2 to 12 weeks before the school start date. Patients were interviewed by telephone to review symptoms, use of study medications, and need for additional ␤ agonists 4 weeks after starting school. A final study visit at 8 weeks was conducted to document daytime symptoms, " awake all night, " inhaled cortico-steroid use, increased ␤-agonist use, and visits to a health care professional or facility for asthma. Inclusion criteria included treatment of asthma within 6 months of screening and patients having at least 1 exacerbation of asthma symptoms in the previous year that were associated with a cold. Exclusion criteria included forced expiratory flow volume in 1 second below 60% of that predicted, use of systemic steroids within 4 weeks of randomization, and more than 3 hospitalizations for asthma in the previous year. Patients on treatment with a long-acting ␤ agonist or leukotriene receptor antagonist within 10 days of randomization were also excluded. RESULTS. Of 1162 patients (580 randomly assigned to the montelukast group and 582 randomized to the placebo group), no significant difference was seen for the percentage of days with worsening asthma. A trend for montelukast to reduce worsening asthma days in those who began school after August 15 was seen but was not significant. A nonsignificant trend in older children and boys favoring treatment with montelukast was also seen. CONCLUSIONS. The use of montelukast did not significantly reduce the number of days with worsening asthma when begun as prophylactic therapy at the start of the school year. REVIEWER COMMENTS. The start of the school year presents a challenge for asthmatic children, who have greater disease burden with respiratory illnesses. In the group of children treated with montelukast, the percentage of days with worsening asthma was stable, whereas this percentage increased in …
Subclinical health effects of environmental pesticide contamination in a developing country: cholinesterase depression in children.

The effect of exposure to pesticides among children in a Nicaraguan community in the path of rain water runoff from a large crop-dusting airport was evaluated by measuring plasma cholinesterase. Mean cholinesterase activity in 17 children in the path of runoff was 2.4 international units/ml blood/min, lower than the 2.9 IU/ml/min measured in a group of 43 children from an unexposed community (difference=0.49 IU/ml/min; 95% C.I. 0.24, 0.76). Six (35%) of the 17 exposed children had abnormally low cholinesterase levels. A possible explanation for this physiological effect of exposure to pesticides is the dermal absorption which may have occurred among children playing barefoot in puddles grossly contaminated by runoff from the airport. Drinking water from a well in the exposed community demonstrated low level residues of cholinesterase-inhibiting pesticides, although contamination with toxaphene (not a cholinesterase inhibitor) exceeded by over 8-fold the United States Environmental Protection Agency maximum permissible concentration in drinking water. The difficulty in measuring health effects resulting from environmental pesticide contamination, and in controlling exposure resulting from the rapidly increasing use of pesticides, is a growing problem for developing countries like Nicaragua.
Molecular investigation and diagnosis of lung cancer via the network-based biomarker

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Many studies have investigated the carcinogenic process and identified the biomarkers for signature classification. However, to the best of knowledge, there is no satisfactory network-based method for carcinogenesis characterization and diagnosis from the systems perspective. In this study, a systems biology approach, which integrated microarray gene expression profiles and protein-protein interaction information, was proposed to develop a network-based biomarker for molecular investigation and diagnosis of lung cancer. A total of 40 significant proteins are identified with carcinogenesis relevance values (CRVs) to gain an insight into the network mechanism of lung carcinogenesis. In addition, the network-based biomarker is also acted as the diagnostic tool, demonstrated to be effective to diagnose the smokers with lung cancer.
Developing an IT Bidding Maturity Model (ITBMM) for IT firms operating in the Gulf Region

A key focus of presented research is to develop a maturity assessment framework, in order to enhance the bidding process of the Information Technology (IT) firms. Area of investigation has been firms operating within the Gulf Region. Key research emphasis has been to address prevailing knowledge gap in understanding key factors that influence IT bidding capability of firms operating within Gulf region. The developed maturity framework is based on the selected areas and, that criterion that have addressed direct effect on the bidding process. The main purpose of developing this framework is to provide a clear assessment of the existing bidding process from the different perspectives, to address the existing good practices and to suggest the areas and criteria that need enhancement by providing a clear roadmap and action plan for a continuous improvement. The first stage of the research explored the literature review areas. Within state of the art review, key research in areas of bidding strategies, maturity models and areas affecting bidding progress, where the review will enrich the Ph.D. research by giving more details about the research gap and problem. The second stage of the research explores, discusses and puts forward potential solution to overcome the research gap and problem by developing a framework. The framework covers the different areas and criteria as presented in the literature review section. The areas and criteria have been linked with the deficient theory and literature behind to highlight the real practice and to validate the proposed framework. The main areas and criteria covered by the proposed framework are people, process and the environment or culture. The framework further classifies ‘people’ into staffing, training & career development and competencies & skills (experience). Besides that, ‘process’ has been classified into policy or procedure, communication, and tools. Environment or culture has been divided into management, structure, and culture. The link to the real practice was done on the third stage of the Ph.D. research by conducting three case studies and testing them with the proposed framework. Besides that, data was collected for the study and the researcher has analyzed it to test the result of the developed framework. The case studies are followed by recommendations and conclusion for future enhancement of the framework along with the suggestions for future development.
Evaluation of Nonradioactive Cell-Free cAMP Assays for Measuring in vitro Phosphodiesterase Activity

Phosphodiesterases (PDE) are enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of cAMP/cGMP to 5′-AMP/GMP. In vitro assays have routinely assayed cAMP/cGMP levels as a direct indicator of PDE activity. Earlier PDE assays depended on radiometric detection of radiolabeled cAMP. Of late, nonradiometric cAMP detection systems have been developed that are cheaper and more amenable to high-throughput screening. Two such assays, namely the enzyme fragment complementation technology and homogeneous time-resolved fluorescence assays, are currently used for monitoring cAMP as a correlate for G-protein-coupled-receptor-induced cellular signaling events. Here, we have compared and validated both of these assays for the measurement of PDE4 enzyme activity in cell-free systems.
Depression among Elderly

The aim of this study was to identify the level of depression among elderly, effect of depression on their emotion and to find out the type of emotional support needed by the elderly in the institution. This study used mixed method: quantitative and qualitative approach. 26 elderly have been selected based on random sampling. They consist of 19 male and 7 female. The quantitative research instrument used questionnaires from Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS) Inventory. Based on descriptive study, analysis using SDS index found all the 26 elderly tested were diagnosed with depression disorders consisting 19 elderly having a low level of depression, followed by 3 elderly having mild, 2 elderly moderate and 2 elderly severe. Four elderly under the purposive sampling found depressed were interviewed. Furthermore, qualitative result analyzed, showed that emotional effects of elderly in the institution were critical. Symptoms such as regret, sad, sleep complaints, unable to sleep, feeling useless, and isolation of self, proved its criticality. In addition, for the type of emotional support, it was found that social support from the staff and from the institution itself is overwhelming, including from their children and other elderly in the institution. Keywordsemotion, aging, elderly.
Modèle prédictif de l'apparition de la microporosité de retrait durant la solidification d'un alliage Aluminium-Silicium

Dans le systeme de freinage l'utilisation de pieces en alliage d'aluminium de fonderie est courante. Ce type de systeme necessite une fiabilite des elements qui se traduit par un besoin de maitrise de la sante matiere des produits. Le modele propose a pour but de predire l'apparition de micro-defauts : les microporosites de retrait. Ceux-ci apparaissent lors de la solidification et diminuent la duree de vie des systemes. Ce travail propose la modelisation de l'apparition de ces defauts lors d'une solidification d'un alliage Aluminium Silicium. Cette contribution se demarque des travaux traitant des phenomenes lies a la variation de solubilite des gaz dans l'aluminium lors de la solidification. Ce travail s'interesse aux phenomenes de retrait dans le cas ou il n'y a pas rupture d'alimentation. Le milieu semi-solide est considere comme un milieu poreux. Lorsque la permeabilite de ce milieu est trop faible le retrait de solidification ne peut etre compense par deplacement de liquide. Ce modele s'appuie sur un couplage entre la thermique de la solidification et le transfert de masse (ecoulement interdendritique). Le modele propose utilise peu de parametre. Ce caractere parcimonieux du modele et l'incertitude sur la valeur de certains parametres a permis l'identification des dits parametres. Ce travail d'identification par methode inverse a necessite des experimentations, dans une configuration permettant de maitriser les conditions aux limites.
Dual-Layer Dielectric Stack for Thermally Isolated Low-Energy Phase-Change Memory

High reset energy is an ongoing issue for phase-change memory (PCM) devices. Prior work demonstrates that smaller PCM switching volume and thermal isolation can reduce the reset energy. In this paper, we fabricate and measure a planar confined PCM device with a multilayer dual-layer stack (DLS) of SiO<sub>2</sub>/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> insulator. Devices with contact area of 500 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> 20 nm and lengths of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2~ {\mu }\text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> show exceptionally low reset energies of 18.25 ± 15.8 pJ and low reset current densities of 0.94 ± 0.51 MA/cm<sup>2</sup>. Implementing the DLS enables a 60% reduction in reset energy compared with SiO<sub>2</sub>-isolated devices.
Approche énergétique de la déchirure ductile

Cette etude porte sur l'amorcage et la propagation de fissure en dechirure ductile. Elle a pour ambition de proposer une approche pour l'ingenieur permettant la prediction de l'evolution des fissures dans des composants reels de grande dimension, a partir de parametres determines sur eprouvettes de caracterisation. Un critere d'amorcage, definissant une tenacite ji reliee aux phenomenes d'emoussement en pointe de fissure, propose dans la litterature, est valide dans le cadre de ce travail en montrant notamment sa transferabilite d'eprouvettes aux structures. L'etude bibliographique montre qu'une approche basee sur l'energie dissipee dans le processus de rupture en cours de propagation offre une solution simple et peu couteuse pour simuler de grandes avancees de fissure. Une methode numerique est-proposee pour estimer cette energie de rupture. L'existence d'un parametre energetique g#f#r est ainsi mis en evidence, en simulant la propagation par le relachement simultane de plusieurs elements et par l'utilisation de l'integrale de rice avec un contour d'integration original. Ce parametre represente l'energie necessaire pour une extension de fissure unitaire et apparait intrinseque au materiau. Un bilan energetique global permet de relier ce parametre a une variation de la composante plastique de l'integrale j, ce qui offre une seconde methode numerique pour simuler la propagation uniquement a partir de calculs numeriques stationnaires, ainsi que l'elaboration d'une methode simplifiee. Cette approche, utilisant deux parametres j#i et g#f#r, intrinseques au materiau et mesurables experimentalement sur eprouvettes de caracterisation, est validee sur de nombreux essais comme des tubes en flexion quatre points ou des anneaux fissurees en compression.