Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A disease severity scale for systemic sclerosis: development and testing.

OBJECTIVE To develop and test a severity scale for individual organ involvements in systemic sclerosis (SSc, scleroderma). METHODS An international study group completed the following tasks: (1) developed a glossary of terms including all pertinent variables for 9 potentially affected organ systems; (2) collected prospective data to determine the feasibility and practicality of each proposed variable; (3) revised the initial list of variables; (4) determined the association of each variable with mortality (a proxy for morbidity) using 579 patients in an existing comprehensive longitudinal scleroderma databank; (5) developed a severity grading scale for each organ system by discussion and consensus; and (6) externally validated the scale using an independent group of 680 patients from the same databank. RESULTS Nine organ-specific severity scales were developed from 0 (no documented involvement) to 4 (endstage disease). The data required for scale completion are relatively easy and practical for all physicians to obtain. CONCLUSION This preliminary severity scale will be useful for assessing disease severity status in individual patients both at one point in time and longitudinally. The severity scale will assist in the design and conduct of clinical trials and the comparison of study populations with one another. The scale will serve as a framework for developing a scleroderma disease activity index.
Self-efficacy, therapeutic alliance, and alcohol-use disorder treatment outcomes.

OBJECTIVE High abstinence self-efficacy reliably predicts better treatment outcomes for patients with alcohol use disorders, but little is known about aspects of treatment that may be particularly beneficial for patients who enter treatment with low self-efficacy. This study examines whether the relationship between self-efficacy and treatment outcomes is influenced by the quality of the therapeutic alliance in Project MATCH (Matching Alcoholism Treatments to Client Heterogeneity), a multisite clinical trial of three treatments for alcohol use disorders. METHOD Information on 785 patients in the outpatient sample of Project MATCH was used to test for an interaction between baseline self-efficacy and therapeutic alliance in relation to 1-year alcohol use outcomes. RESULTS A significant interaction was found between self-efficacy and the therapists' perception of the therapeutic alliance predicting I1year drinking outcomes. Patients with low self-efficacy who established a strong treatment alliance, as judged by the therapist, experienced I1year outcomes that were superior to those of patients with low self-efficacy with poorer treatment alliance and comparable with those of patients with high self-efficacy. Therapeutic alliance was not strongly related to the outcomes of patients with high baseline self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS In patients who are treated for alcohol-use disorders, a positive therapeutic alliance may counteract the negative impact of a low baseline self-efficacy. Potential reasons why the therapist's perception of the alliance may be particularly important for patients with low self-efficacy are discussed.
Utility of the trough plasma imatinib level monitoring at two time points in patients with the chronic myeloid leukemia-chronic phase.

INTRODUCTION Plasma imatinib levels vary widely in patients with the chronic myeloid leukemia-chronic phase, and studies have shown improved hematological, cytogenetic, and molecular responses in patients with the higher trough imatinib levels. MATERIALS AND METHODS We analyzed 50 consecutive patients with the chronic myeloid leukemia-chronic phase and performed plasma imatinib levels at 1 month and 12 months and correlated them with complete hematological response at 3 months and molecular response at 12 months, respectively. RESULTS Trough plasma imatinib levels at 1 month correlated well with complete hematological response at 3 months (P = 0.007) and levels at 12 months correlated with molecular response at 12 months (P = 0.04). Compliance to imatinib also significantly correlated with imatinib levels at 1 month (P = 0.0008) and imatinib levels at 12 months (P = 0.0002). CONCLUSION Plasma imatinib levels may be of benefit in patients not achieving desired response at defined time intervals. The plasma level monitoring also helps in the assessment of drug compliance.
Mesoscopic structures and dynamics of merocyanine J‐aggregate studied by time‐resolved fluorescence SNOM

Time‐resolved fluorescence SNOM is used to probe the mesoscopic structure and dynamics of long‐chain merocyanine (C18MC) J‐aggregates on glass plates prepared by spin coating, casting, and casting of water‐soluble polymer films. A globular structure with an average diameter of ∼ 1 µm and a height of ∼ 50 nm was attributed to the J‐aggregate of C18MC in the spin‐coating film. In polymer films, the bandwidth of the absorption of J‐aggregate is much narrower in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA, ∼ 20 nm) than that in polyvinyl sulphate (PVS, ∼ 60 nm). We have demonstrated that the large bandwidth of the spectrum is due to the inhomogeneous distribution of the J‐aggregate. The fluorescence image of the J‐aggregate in PVA film was rather uniform, whereas non‐uniform distribution of the fluorescence was observed in PVS film. The fluorescence of C18MC J‐aggregate in a small domain of PVA film was a single exponential decay with a lifetime as short as 19 ps, which was shorter than that in PVS film with a two‐exponential decay (average lifetime of ∼ 25 ps). The fluorescence lifetime of the J‐aggregate and its single exponential behaviour are considered to be indicators of the uniform distribution of the J‐aggregate. The non‐uniform distribution of the J‐aggregate in PVS film was interpreted in terms of electrostatic interaction between PVS and merocyanine.
Measuring Self-Reported Functional Status and Pain in Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain by Postal Questionnaires: A Reliability Study

Study Design. A reliability study was performed. Objectives. To evaluate the test-retest reliability of self-reported functional status and pain in chronic low back pain patients by postal questionnaires. Summary of Background Data. Evaluation tools focusing on the patients’ self-reported physical function are recommended in studies on low back pain. Postal questionnaires are inexpensive and should be considered to assess long-term results. The reliability of a postal questionnaire has not been assessed in patients with chronic low back pain. Methods. Forty-two patients with chronic low back pain (15 men, 27 women; mean age, 40 years; range, 20–61 years) agreed to participate in the study. The mean duration of symptoms was 8.9 years (range, 1–40 years). A postal questionnaire was sent to the patients twice within a 2-week interval. The questionnaire included the following items: work, back satisfaction, General Function Score (GFS), Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), pain, fear-avoidance beliefs, life satisfaction and pain medication. Results. Thirty-seven patients (88%) returned both questionnaires. Except for lumbar pain, there were no statistical differences between the answers from the two questionnaires. The intraclass coefficient values ranged from 0.70 (lumbar pain) to 0.94 (ODI). The repeatability or absolute size of measurement error was 11.9 for the ODI and 28.6 and 34.2 for lumbar and leg pain, respectively. The &kgr; values for work, back satisfaction, and pain medication were 0.94 and 0.61, 0.62, and 0.64, respectively. The &kgr; values for the separate items in the GFS ranged from 0.41 to 0.79. The correlations between ODI and the GFS, lumbar pain, life satisfaction, and back satisfaction were 0.35, −0.72, −0.76, and 0.76, respectively. Conclusion. The ODI was highly reliable. The questions about work, back satisfaction, and pain medication showed good agreement. The GFS, pain intensity, fear-avoidance beliefs, and life satisfaction appeared to lack sufficient reliability to be recommended in postal questionnaires.
Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) expression is upregulated by thrombin in human monocytes and THP-1 cells in vitro and in pregnant subjects in vivo

Summary Monocytes play a pivotal role in both the inflammatory and coagulation responses, which may be mediated through a variety of adhesion molecules on the cell surface, including intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1). Monocytes also possess thrombin receptors. In the current study, we have demonstrated that thrombin can upregulate ICAM-1 mRNA and induce ICAM-1 expression on the monocyte in vitro and that, in vivo, higher monocyte ICAM-1 expression is observed in pregnancy (which is characterised by a physiological increase in thrombin generation). In pregnant subjects, a positive correlation between monocyte ICAM-1 expression and a number of markers of vascular/thrombotic disease (including blood group, acquired activated protein C resistance and non-fasting plasma triglyceride levels) was observed. We also observed a significant relationship between monocyte ICAM-1 expression and soluble plasma ICAM-1 levels, which would be consistent with a contribution of monocytic ICAM-1 to the levels of free ICAM-1 observed in plasma during pregnancy. Consistent with a role in fibrinogen binding, our preliminary in vivo results suggest that monocyte ICAM-1 expression may be a useful marker of the thrombotic/inflammatory response, although further work is required to assess the relationship of monocyte ICAM-1 expression in thrombotic disorders.
Fingerprint recognition based on spectral feature extraction

With the advancements in computational techniques and computer technology, biometric-based authentication has a strong potential to be widely utilized in a variety of applications. Among various biometrics, fingerprint-based identification is the most mature and widely accepted technique. In this paper, a fast procedure that exploits the spectral features of the fingerprint to obtain a compact descriptor representation, that is both rotation and translation-invariant, is presented. Experimental results have shown high matching accuracies that are equivalent or even better than those reported in the literature.
Annotation of Critical Findings from Radiology Reports: Towards Automated Communication Through the Electronic Health Record

Background The communication of critical findings observed in radiology imaging studies between the radiologist and the ordering provider is a key factor in providing efficacious patient care [1]. Currently, the most common form of communication is a physician -to- physician telephone conversation, initiated by the radiologist at the time of image interpretation. This process may be tedious, slow, and inefficient. Our long-term goal is to improve communication by developing a real - time natural language processing (NLP) system that leverages the pyConText algorithm [2] to initiate the automated communication of critical findings through the electronic health record. In the short-term, our goal is to develop a schema representing critical findings as well as their contexts in text and the urgency for communication to the care team.
Neutrophil Functions and Autoimmune Arthritis in the Absence of p190RhoGAP: Generation and Analysis of a Novel Null Mutation in Mice

β2 integrins of neutrophils play a critical role in innate immune defense, but they also participate in tissue destruction during autoimmune inflammation. p190RhoGAP (ArhGAP35), a regulator of Rho family small GTPases, is required for integrin signal transduction in fibroblasts. Prior studies have also suggested a role for p190RhoGAP in β2 integrin signaling in neutrophils. To directly test that possibility, we have generated a novel targeted mutation completely disrupting the p190RhoGAP-encoding gene in mice. p190RhoGAP deficiency led to perinatal lethality and defective neural development, precluding the analysis of neutrophil functions in adult p190RhoGAP−/− animals. This was overcome by transplantation of fetal liver cells from p190RhoGAP−/− fetuses into lethally irradiated wild-type recipients. Neutrophils from such p190RhoGAP−/− bone marrow chimeras developed normally and expressed normal levels of various cell surface receptors. Although p190RhoGAP−/− neutrophils showed moderate reduction of β2 integrin-mediated adherent activation, they showed mostly normal migration in β2 integrin-dependent in vitro and in vivo assays and normal β2 integrin-mediated killing of serum-opsonized Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. A neutrophil- and β2 integrin-dependent transgenic model of the effector phase of autoimmune arthritis also proceeded normally in p190RhoGAP−/− bone marrow chimeras. In contrast, all the above responses were completely blocked in CD18−/− neutrophils or CD18−/− bone marrow chimeras. These results suggest that p190RhoGAP likely does not play a major indispensable role in β2 integrin-mediated in vitro and in vivo neutrophil functions or the effector phase of experimental autoimmune arthritis.
Functional indices for sciatic, peroneal, and posterior tibial nerve lesions in the mouse

The sciatic functional index previously described in rats has proven to be a reliable index of functional recovery following sciatic nerve injury and repair. A similar functional assay of sciatic, peroneal, and posterior tibial nerve lesions was developed in a mouse model. Forty‐eight C57/BL6 mice were randomly divided into 4 groups: sham surgery, sciatic nerve transection, peroneal nerve transection, and posterior tibial nerve transection. Preoperative and postoperative (48 hours) walking tracks were obtained. The pawprints were analyzed in a blinded fashion for measurements of print length (PL), toe spread (TS), intermediate toe spread (IT), and the orthogonal distance from the toe of one paw to the hind pad of the opposite paw (TOF). Multiple linear regression analysis was performed using these measurements to determine their significance and appropriate weighted contribution to the index formula for each nerve lesion. For the sciatic functional index, changes in the PL (P = 0.0092) and TS (P = 0.0008) were significant, resulting in an R2 value of 0.88. For the peroneal functional index, only TS (P < 0.0001) was significant with R2 = 0.83. For the posterior tibial index, only PL (P < 0.0001) was significant with R2 = 0.89. Formulas for a sciatic, peroneal, and posterior tibial functional index were created based on the coefficients derived from the multiple linear regression analysis. The indices that were developed will allow investigators to assess functional recovery following specific nerve lesions in mice. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. MICROSURGERY 18:119‐124 1998
The Role of Gis: Coping With Space (And Time) in Air Pollution Exposure Assessment

Geographical information systems (GIS) offer potentially powerful tools for exposure assessment in support of both air pollution epidemiology and air quality policy. To date, however, most epidemiological applications have relied on relatively simple techniques, such as buffering and distance functions. In part, this reflects the often limited understanding of the underlying exposure pathways or etiology and the nonspecific nature of the hypotheses being examined. In part, also, it reflects lack of awareness or suspicion of the more advanced capabilities for exposure modeling available in GIS. This article outlines and illustrates some of these techniques. After an initial consideration of “traditional” location-based methods, it examines the use of interpolation methods and dynamic modeling techniques, including modeling of time–activity patterns. It then discusses some of the implications of these different approaches for air pollution epidemiology, and raises the questions of which exposure metrics should be used and what level of spatial and temporal accuracy is required to meet the needs of environmental epidemiology.
Introduction to CPM-SC-FDMA: A Novel Multiple-Access Power-Efficient Transmission Scheme

This paper presents a novel multiple-access modulation scheme which combines key characteristics of single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) with continuous phase modulation (CPM) in order to generate a power efficient waveform. CPM-SC-FDMA is developed based upon the observation that the samples from a CPM waveform may be treated as "data symbols" taken from a constant-envelope encoder. As with any encoder output, these samples may be precoded using the Discrete Fourier Transform and transmitted using SC-FDMA. Having originated from a constant envelope CPM waveform, CPM-SC-FDMA can potentially retain much of the power efficiency of CPM-thus resulting in a lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) than conventional SC-FDMA. In this paper, we account for the information rate, memory, power efficiency, bit error rate (BER) performance and spectral occupancy of CPM-SC-FDMA. In addition, we investigate the impact of amplifier nonlinearity on BER performance as the number of users increases. Finally, we provide a detailed numerical comparison with a commensurate convolutionally coded QPSK-SC-FDMA scheme (CC-QPSK-SC-FDMA). We show a CPM-SC-FDMA scheme that provides an overall gain of up to 4 dB relative to the CC-QPSK-SC-FDMA scheme over a frequency-selective channel.
Indoor Optical Wireless Power Transfer to Small Cells at Nighttime

The application of wireless backhaul communication and power transfer to outdoor small cells (SCs) could significantly decrease their installation cost. In this paper, the concept of indoor optical wireless power transfer to SCs is investigated in the absence of ambient light, i.e., during darkness hours. An experimental study is conducted by the use of up to four red laser diodes (LDs), a crystalline silicon solar panel and cell placed at 5.2 m. A value of 69% is measured for the fill factor of the solar panel. Also, a total power efficiency of 3.2% is measured for an optical wireless (OW) link with an average efficiency of two LDs of 26.8%, a solar cell efficiency of 13.3% and only 10.6% of geometrical losses. A comparison of this link with a state-of-the-art inductive power transfer system shows an improvement of the total power efficiency by 2.7 times. Another OW link is implemented with a divergence of full width at 36.8% of the peak intensity of 3 and 5.75 mrad along the small and large axes of the beam, respectively. The experimental levels of harvested power are in the order of mW, whereas approximately 1 W is required for the operation of a SC. Therefore, a 42 laser-based transmitter is designed both analytically and by the use of the simulation tool Zemax. The respective results show the feasibility of delivering 7.2 W of optical power to a solar cell of up to 30 m distance with geometrical losses of only 2%, but a beam enclosure is also required due to eye safety restrictions.
Metabolic reprogramming in plant innate immunity: the contributions of phenylpropanoid and oxylipin pathways

Summary: In their environment, plants interact with a multitude of living organisms and have to cope with a large variety of aggressions of biotic or abiotic origin. To survive, plants have acquired, during evolution, complex mechanisms to detect their aggressors and defend themselves. Receptors and signaling pathways that are involved in such interactions with the environment are just beginning to be uncovered. What has been known for several decades is the extraordinary variety of chemical compounds the plants are capable to synthesize, and many of these products are implicated in defense responses. The number of natural products occurring in plants may be estimated in the range of hundreds of thousands, but only a fraction have been fully characterized. Despite the great importance of these metabolites for plant and also for human health, our knowledge about their biosynthetic pathways and functions is still fragmentary. Recent progress has been made particularly for phenylpropanoid and oxylipin metabolism, which are emphasized in this review. Both pathways are involved in plant resistance at several levels: by providing building units of physical barriers against pathogen invasion, by synthesizing an array of antibiotic compounds, and by producing signals implicated in the mounting of plant resistance.
Differences between Latino daily light and heavier smokers in smoking attitudes, risk perceptions, and smoking cessation outcome.

INTRODUCTION Daily light smoking is increasing and disproportionately represented among Latinos. The current study examines differences in smoking attitudes, psychosocial characteristics, risk perceptions, and cessation rates between Latino daily light (3-9 cigarettes/day) and heavier smokers (≥ 10 cigarettes/day). METHODS Participants (N = 131; M(age) = 36.8, 73.3% female, 53.1% light smokers) were enrolled in a study focused on motivating smokers to quit. Cessation was biochemically verified at 2 and 3 months after end of treatment. RESULTS Heavier smoking was more prevalent among males (65.7%) and those from Puerto Rico (69.0%). Compared with heavier smokers, light smokers were less nicotine dependent (p < .001), reported fewer pros of smoking (p ≤ .001), less perceived stress (p ≤ .001), had fewer friends who smoked (p ≤ .005), were more likely to live in a household with an indoor smoking ban (p ≤ .001), and self-reported better health (p < .05). Regarding risk perceptions, Latino light smokers reported less perceived vulnerability for the health effects from smoking on their child's health (p < .05). There were no significant differences in smoking cessation rates between daily light and heavier smokers at either 2- or 3-month follow-up. Belief that quitting would improve "their own health," however, significantly predicted smoking cessation at both 2- and 3-month follow-up, but only among heavier smokers. CONCLUSIONS Latino light smokers do not seem to be more likely to quit smoking than Latinos who smoke at heavier rates. Differences between Latino light and heavier smokers in demographics, smoking attitudes, and psychosocial factors may need to be considered when developing cessation programs and mass media campaigns. Future research should continue to explore whether Latino light smokers need different or more targeted treatments.
Meta-analysis of potential miRNA in Triticum astivum reveals their genome biased association with different metabolisms EST based potential miRNA identification in wheat

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are the key modulators implicated in the regulation of virtually every biological process found in multicellular eukaryotes. Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is one of the most important cereal crops worldwide. To date, only a few conserved miRNAs have been reported in wheat and their association with different metabolic process is still in dark. Therefore, the present study we attempt to predict miRNA and their association with metabolic pathways in wheat. Total 39 potential mature miRNA's were predicted using 1287279 ESTs of wheat and 8496 known mature miRNA's, along with their precursor sequences, of Viridiplantae. Overall, 11380 genome wise target genes across 21 chromosomes were identified and functionally characterized via meta-analysis. As a result, genome wise miRNA-targets signatures under different conditions and their regulatory pathways along with network structures were examined. Here, a concept of “miRNA community” was proposed and a miRNA community linked with nitrogen metabolism was identified. Top two potential miRNA's from this community were verified by stem loop pulsed RT-PCR for their expression in root and leaf tissue under nitrogen starvation. Exploration of such type of miRNAs communities will provide in depth understanding of metabolic processes that may leads to improved genotypes.