Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age- and Gender-Related Differences in Maximum Shortening Velocity of Skeletal Muscle Fibers

Krivickas LS, Suh D, Wilkins J, Hughes VA, Roubenoff R, Frontera WR: Age- and gender-related differences in maximum shortening velocity of skeletal muscle fibers. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2001:80:447–455. ObjectiveTo determine age- and gender-related differences in maximum unloaded shortening velocity (Vo) of Type I and IIA single muscle fibers. Muscle fibers must have a broad range of contractile velocities to generate the full range of power required for varied activities. DesignPercutaneous needle biopsies of the vastus lateralis were obtained from 31 healthy subjects (n = 7 young men [YM], n = 7 young women [YW], n = 12 older men [OM], n = 12 older women [OW]). The slack test was used to determine Vo of individual fibers; 916 muscle fibers were chemically skinned. Fiber type was determined by myosin heavy chain isoform identification. ResultsAmong men, Vo (fiber lengths/sec) was reduced with age in Type IIA fibers (OM vs. YM: 1.78 vs. 2.14;P < 0.05) but unchanged in Type I fibers. Among women, Vo was reduced with age in Type I fibers (OW vs. YW: 0.70 vs. 0.75;P < 0.05) but not IIA. OW had a lower Vo than did OM in both fiber types (Type I: OW = 0.70, OM = 0.77; Type IIA: OW = 1.51, OM = 1.78;P < 0.05). YW did not differ from YM. ConclusionsBoth age and gender affect Vo. Age- and gender-related differences in Vo may partially explain the impairments in muscle function that occur with aging and the greater impairment in muscle function observed in OW compared with that observed in OM.
Clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of human epidermal growth factor receptor in patients with gastric cancer: An updated meta-analysis

Purpose The aim of this update meta-analysis was to clarify the clinicopathologic and prognostic significance of human epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR) expression in gastric cancer patients. Experimental Design Several electronic databases were searched from January 1970 to May 2016. The odds ratio (OR) was calculated to assess the association between EGFR expression and pathological parameters. The hazard ratio (HR) and 95% CI were calculated to explore the relationship between EGFR expression and overall survival. Results Finally 7229 patients with gastric cancer from 25 eligible studies were included in the present meta analysis. High EGFR expression was found to be significantly related with tumor differentiation (OR=1.96, 95%CI: 1.14-3.34, Z=2.43, P=0.015), lymph node metastasis (OR=2.20, 95% CI: 1.63-2.96, Z=5.17, P=0.001), and tumor stage (OR=2.13, 95% CI: 1.35-3.36, Z=3.25, P=0.001). However, high EGFR expression was not significantly associated with invasion depth (OR=2.09, 95% CI: 0.4-11.05, Z=0.87, P=0.385). The pooled HR suggested that high EGFR expression was significantly correlated with overall survival (HR=1.19, 95% CI 1.04-1.37, Z=2.44, P=0.015). Conclusions The present meta-analysis demonstrated that high EGFR expression significantly predicts poor prognosis, suggesting that high EGFR expression may serve as a predictive biomarker for poor prognosis in patients with gastric cancer.
Semantic Computing in Scalable Text-to-Speech System

Because of diversity of hardware environments, building scalable text-to-speech system is an important issue of Corpus-based text-to-speech system. This paper proposes and analyses three semantic computing problems of building scalable text to speech system: similarity calculation, granular computing and automated instances-pruning process framework. According to these, an acoustic clustering algorithm-NuClustering-VPA and a data ranking algorithm-StaRp-VPA are constructed to pruning synthesis instances. In experiments, the naturalness scored by MOS remains almost unchanged when less than 50% instances are pruned off using these two algorithms and the MOS does not severely degrade when reduction rate is above 50% using StaRp-VPA algorithm.
Validierung der deutschen Version des Fragebogens zur Erfassung von DSM-IV Persönlichkeitsstörungen (ADP-IV)

Zusammenfassung Fragestellung: Der Fragebogen zur Erfassung von DSM-IV-Personlichkeitsstorungen (ADPIV) stellt ein Selbstbeurteilungsinstrument dar, das anhand von 94 Items eine kategoriale und eine dimensionale Einschatzung der DSM-IV Personlichkeitsstorungen ermoglicht. Methode: Die psychometrischen Eigenschaften der deutschen Version des ADP-IV wurden an 400 ambulanten Psychotherapiepatienten und einer Bevolkerungsstichprobe von 385 Personen untersucht. Das SKID-II-Interview und standardisierte Expertenratings wurden zur Erfassung der kriterienbezogenen Validitat eingesetzt. Ergebnisse: Der ADP-IV zeigte eine befriedigende Reliabilitat: das mittlere Cronbach α fur die einzelnen Subskalen lag bei . 76 (Range .65 bis .87), die mittlere Retest-Reliabilitat betrug . 79 (Range .37 bis .88). Die Faktoranalyse ergab eine 11-Faktor-Losung, die 49,4% der Varianz erklart. Die durchschnittliche Korrelation der dimensionalen Subskalen mit SKID-II und den Expertenratings lag bei . 51 (Range .34 bis .72) beziehungsweis.
AMF: A novel reactive approach for motion planning of mobile robots in unknown dynamic environments

This paper presents a new approach based on Artificial Potential Fields (APF) which provides real-time and very effective methodology for practical motion planners in unknown dynamic environments. The Maxwell's equations are exploited to define Artificial Magnetoquasistatic Fields (AMF) as an extension of APF, which provides a predictive, intelligent, and natural behavior in contrast with other approaches. The essential aim of the AMF is dealing with moving obstacles, as well as static ones. The main idea is to consider an electrical current in the direction of each moving obstacle which induces magnetic field around it. These moving obstacles could be arbitrary in shape, size, and number. Neither the motion-trajectory of the moving obstacles nor the model of their motion is known. The only available information is their instantaneous velocity at each time step. In this method, the magnetoquasistatic approximation is used to obtain the electric and magnetic fields around robot. Next, using Lorentz equation, the necessary force can be calculated which should be applied to robot to avoid the collision with obstacles. A path planner based on this approach has been implemented and tested by various scenarios containing both static and moving obstacles. Simulations and experimental results illustrate the efficacy of the proposed method.
Providing Adaptive Support in an Interactive Simulation for Learning: An Experimental Evaluation

Recent rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with unlimited participants, makes employing learning tools such as interactive simulations all but inevitable. Interactive simulations give students the opportunity to experiment with concrete examples and develop better understanding of concepts they have learned. However, some students do not learn well from this relatively unstructured form of interaction, suggesting the provision of adaptive support as a way to address this issue. This paper presents a formal evaluation of providing support to facilitate open exploration. We describe the process of designing an intervention delivery mechanism for adding adaptive support to an exploratory interactive simulation. The experimental evaluation of the adaptive version of the simulation indicates that the adaptive support provided to students significantly improved their learning performance. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations of users' acceptance of the system are generally positive but pinpoint areas for improvement.
Security For Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensor network is highly vulnerable to attacks because it consists of various resource- constrained devices with their low battery power, less memory, and associated low energy. Sensor nodes communicate among themselves via wireless links. However, there are still a lot of unresolved issues in wireless sensor networks of which security is one of the hottest research issues. Sensor networks are deployed in hostile environments. Environmental conditions along with resource-constraints give rise to many type of security threats or attacks. Securely communication among sensor nodes is a fundamental challenge for providing security services in WSNs. This paper gives the security of wireless sensor network and attack at different layered architecture of WSN and their prevention.
Lyapunov Theory for 2-D Nonlinear Roesser Models: Application to Asymptotic and Exponential Stability

This technical note deals with a general class of discrete 2-D possibly nonlinear systems based on the Roesser model. We first motivate the introduction of Lyapunov type definitions of asymptotic and exponential stability. This will allow us to introduce and discuss several particularities that cannot be found in 1-D systems. Once this background has been carefully designed, we develop different Lyapunov theorems in order to check asymptotic and exponential stability of nonlinear 2-D systems. Finally we propose the first converse Lyapunov theorem in the case of exponential stability.
Reduced Dendritic Cells Expressing CD200R1 in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Correlation with Th17 and Regulatory T Cells

Loss of tolerance of the adaptive immune system towards indigenous flora contributes to the development of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Defects in dendritic cell (DC)-mediated innate and adoptive immune responses are conceivable. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of the inhibitory molecules CD200R1 and their ligand CD200 on DCs, to clarify the role of the DCs in the pathogenesis of IBD. Thirty-seven pediatric IBD patients (23 with Crohn’s disease (CD) and 14 with ulcerative colitis (UC)) with mean age 13.25 ± 2.9 years were included. Fourteen age-matched healthy pediatric volunteers (five males and nine females) served as a control group (HC). The percentage of CD11c+ myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and CD123+ plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs) expressing CD200R1 and CD200 were evaluated in peripheral blood using flow cytometry and were correlated with routine biochemical, serological markers, serum levels of cytokines and with the percentages of circulating regulatory T cells (Treg) and CD4+ producing IL-17 (Th17). IBD patients showed a significant decrease in the percentage of pDCs and mDCs expressing CD200R1 compared to that of HC. Patients with UC showed increased expressions of the CD200 molecule on pDCs as compared to HC. DCs expressing CD200R1 were found to be correlated positively with Treg and negatively with TH17 and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). Our findings suggest that IBD is associated with dysregulation in the CD200R1/CD200 axis and that the decrease in DCs expressing CD200R1 may contribute to the imbalance of Th17 and Treg cells and in the pathogenesis of IBD.
Passivity Based Control of Doubly-Fed Induction Generators in Wind Turbines

This paper presents the evaluation of a passivity based control (PBC) strategy for doubly-fed induction generators having wind turbines as prime movers and operating connected to a power network. The evaluation is intended to demonstrate that a PBC strategy initially designed to control generation at unity power factor can control power exchange at a fixed active power delivery to the grid with different power factors. The system model assumes a wind flow of constant kinetic energy and hence a constant mechanical torque in the turbine shaft. The power network is modeled as an infinite bus connected through a line-impedance to the generator terminals. The obtained results show that the PBC strategy is simple and effective and that the active and reactive power exchange with the power system can be adequately controlled.
The association between stress and drinking: modifying effects of gender and vulnerability.

AIMS To assess the relationship between number and type of past-year stressful experiences and alcohol consumption, with a focus on how gender, poverty, and psychological vulnerability moderate this association. METHODS Data from 26 946 US past-year drinkers 18 years of age and over, interviewed in the 2001-2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), were used to construct multivariate linear regression models predicting six measures of drinking pattern and volume. RESULTS There was a consistent positive relationship between number of past-year stressors experienced and all measures of heavy drinking. Frequency of heavy (5+ drinks for men; 4+ drinks for women) drinking increased by 24% with each additional stressor reported by men and by 13% with each additional stressor reported by women. In contrast, the frequency of moderate drinking (<5 drinks for men; <4 drinks for women) decreased as stress levels increased. Job-related and legal sources of stress were more strongly associated with alcohol consumption than were social and health-related stress. Men showed a stronger association than women between the number of stressors and the most consumption measures; they also responded more strongly to the presence of any legal and job-related stress. Having an income below the poverty level intensified the effects of job-related stress, but having a mood or anxiety disorder did not affect any of the associations between stress and consumption. CONCLUSIONS Stress does not so much lead individuals to drink more often as to substitute larger quantities of alcohol on the days when they do drink. Treatment and brief interventions aimed at problem drinkers might benefit from addressing the issue of tension alleviation and the development of alternative coping mechanisms.
The effectiveness of mediastinal lymph node evaluation in a patient with ground glass opacity tumor.

BACKGROUND The prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) presenting as a ground glass opacity (GGO) nodule is better than other types of lung cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the necessity of mediastinal lymph node evaluation (MLE) in clinical N0 GGO-predominant NSCLC. METHODS We conducted a retrospective chart review of 358 patients treated for clinical N0 NSCLC that was found by curative resection to be 3 cm or smaller in size. We analyzed clinicopathological findings and survival among three groups with either GGO-predominant or solid-predominant tumor: no mediastinal lymph node evaluation (NoMLE) group, mediastinal lymph node sampling (MLS) group, and mediastinal lymph node dissection (MLND) group. RESULTS Except for sex, there were no differences in clinicopathological characteristics among the three groups with GGO-predominant tumor or solid-predominant tumor. There was no difference in the 5-year recurrence-free survival (RFS) rate among three groups in the GGO-predominant patients (100%, 92.9%, 93.8%, respectively; P=0.889). However, in the solid-predominant tumor group, the 5-year recurrence free survival of the NoMLE group was lower than in the MLND group (48.6% vs. 73.1%, P=0.007). MLE was not a significant risk factor for recurrence in GGO-predominant tumor [hazard ratio (HR) =1.021; P=0.987]. GGO-predominant tumor [odds ratio (OR) =0.063; P=0.008] was identified as the sole parameter that significantly impacted nodal upstaging. CONCLUSIONS MLE is not an essential procedure for clinical N0 NSCLC presenting as a 3 cm or smaller GGO-predominant nodule.
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Automatic Test Factoring for Java

Test factoring creates fast, focused unit tests from slow system-wide tests; each new unit test exercises only a subset of the functionality exercised by the system test. Augmenting a test suite with factored unit tests should catch errors earlier in a test run. One way to factor a test is to introduce mock objects. If a test exercises a component T, which interacts with another component E (the “environment”), the implementation of E can be replaced by a mock. The mock checks that T’s calls to E are as expected, and it simulates E’s behavior in response. We introduce an automatic technique for test factoring. Given a system test for T and E, and a record of T’s and E’s behavior when the system test is run, test factoring generates unit tests for T in which E is mocked. The factored tests can isolate bugs in T from bugs in E and, if E is slow or expensive, improve test performance or cost. We have built an implementation of automatic dynamic test factoring for the Java language. Our experimental data indicates that it can reduce the running time of a system test suite by up to an order of magnitude.
Differences in ability to perform activities of daily living among women with fibromyalgia: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), the physical function subscales of the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ PF) and the 36-item Short Form (SF-36 PF) can identify subgroups of women with fibromyalgia with clinically relevant differences in ability to perform activities of daily living. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS A total of 257 women with fibromyalgia. METHODS Participants were evaluated with the AMPS (measuring activities of daily living motor and activities of daily living process ability), FIQ and SF-36. AMPS independence cut-offs were used to divide the participants into 4 subgroups. Clinically relevant differences between subgroups were investigated based on the AMPS, FIQ PF and SF-36 PF. RESULT Participants in the 4 AMPS-derived subgroups demon-strated clinically relevant differences in observed activities of daily living motor and process ability. Neither the FIQ PF nor the SF-36 PF could differentiate between subgroups with clinically relevant differences in AMPS activities of daily living process ability. CONCLUSION Activities of daily living process skills reflect underlying organizational and adaptive capacities of the individual and are relevant targets for interventions aiming at improving activities of daily living ability. Since self-report instruments do not capture differences in activities of daily living process ability, clinicians should include observations-based assessment of activities of daily living ability in order to individualize interventions offered.
Litterära besvär : skildringar av sjukdom i samtida svensk prosa

This dissertation studies the theme of illness in Swedish fiction from the first decade of the 21st century. The aim is to present a wide-ranging discussion about illness as a contemporary literary theme. The selection of texts has been confined to a short time-span – a decade – in order to acknowledge that themes of illness are temporally and culturally situated. Seven novels are discussed in depth and related to different contexts. The investigation of the theme of illness is primarily done through exploring the novels in dialogue with other texts – literary as well as historical and theoretical. Under the heading ‘Illness as Exile’, the sickroom is explored as a chronotope in Mikhail Bakhtin’s sense, and the modern and secularised depictions of illness and death are contrasted with the medieval Ars moriendi. The novels discussed are Carl-Henning Wijkmark’s Stundande natten (Impending Darkness, 2007) and Maria Fagerberg’s Svart dam (Queen of Black, 2003). Per Olov Enquist’s novel Boken om Blanche och Marie (2004, translated as The Book about Blanche and Marie 2006) is in ‘The Sick Female Body as a Battlefield’ read both in dialogue with source material about the historical Blanche Wittman and with culture-historical analyses of hysteria, an illness which has been interpreted and historicised to an exceptional degree. In the chapter ‘Eating Disorder as a Problem of Boundaries’, two novels are studied, Asa Ericsdotter’s Kraklek (Vomiting Game, 2002) and Sara Mannheimer’s Reglerna (The Rules, 2008). Analytical tools from anthropology, feminism, and psychoanalytical theory are employed in order to explore eating disorders as an expression of boundary problems. Torgny Lindgren’s novel Polsan (2002, translated as Hash 2004) is discussed in the chapter ‘Contagion as Paradoxical Life-Giver’, which focuses on Lindgren’s way of inverting the duality of immunity and contagion. The novel is read in connection to the myths of tuberculosis and to sanatorium narratives. In ‘Illness as a Fashioning of the Self ’, finally, Anders Paulrud’s Fjarilen i min hjarna (The Butterfly in My Brain, 2008) is discussed primarily with a focus on the narrator’s specific situation in a fictive novel with a distinct claim to be autobiographical. The study also presents the field of scholarship referred to as Medical Humanities, focusing in particular on that part which is called Literature and Medicine. In outlining the aims and development of these fields the chapter presents a dynamic and comparatively new scholarly field to a Swedish audience. (Less)
Heat Diffusion Model and its Applications

We establish a heat diffusion model on a graph by imitating the way that heat flows in a medium with a geometric structure, and we apply the heat diffusion model in classification and in similarity ranking on the Web Pages. In application on classification, we propose two novel classification algorithms, Non-propagating Heat Diffusion Classifier (NHDC) and Propagating Heat Diffusion Classifier (PHDC). In NHDC, an unlabelled data is classified into the class that diffuses the most heat to the unlabelled data after one local diffusion from time 0 to a small time period, while in PHDC, an unlabelled data is classified into the class that diffuses the most heat to the unlabelled data in the propagating effect of the heat flow from time 0 to time t. In other words, we measure the similarity between an unlabelled data and a class by the heat amount that the unlabelled data receives from the set of labelled data in the class, and then classify the unlabelled data into the class with the most similarity. Unlike the traditional method, in which the heat kernel is applied to a kernel-based classifier we employ the heat kernel to construct the classifier directly; moreover, instead of imitating the way that the heat flows along a linear or nonlinear manifold, we let the heat flow along a graph formed by the k-nearest neighbors. An important and special feature in both NHDC and PHDC is that the kernel is not symmetric. We show theoretically that PWA (Parzen Window Approach when the window function is a multivariate normal kernel) and KNN are actually special cases of NHDC model, and that PHDC has the ability to approximate NHDC. Experiments show that NHDC performs better than PWA and KNN in prediction accuracy, and that PHDC performs better than NHDC. In application on the Web pages, we propose a novel ranking algorithm called DiffusionRank, motivated by the way that heat flows, which reflects the complex relationship between nodes in a graph (or points on a geometry). Since the incomplete information about the Web structure causes inaccurate results of various ranking algorithms, we also propose a solution to this problem by formulating a new framework called, Predictive Random Graph Ranking, in which we generate a random graph based on the known information about the Web structure. The random graph can be considered as the predicted Web structure, on which ranking algorithm are expected to be improved in accuracy. For this purpose, we extend some current ranking algorithms from a static graph to a random graph. Experimental results show that the Predictive Random Graph Ranking framework can improve the accuracy of the ranking algorithms such as PageRank, Common Neighbor, and DiffusionRank.