Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is Genotype Clinically Useful in Predicting Prognosis in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy? Mutation Type Is Not Clinically Useful in Predicting Prognosis in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Response by Ho on P 2450 Controversies in Cardiovascular Medicine

H ypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), or clinically unexplained hypertrophy of the heart, is a common genetic cardiovascular disorder marked by genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity. As the genetic mutations underlying the patho-genesis of this disease have been identified, investigators have attempted to link mutations to clearly defined alterations in survival in hopes of identifying prognostically relevant biomarkers of disease. While initial studies labeling particular MYH7-encoded beta myosin heavy chain and TNNT2-encoded cardiac troponin T mutations as " malignant " or " benign " raised hopes for mutation-specific risk stratification in HCM, a series of subsequent investigations identified mutations in families with contradictory disease phenotypes. Furthermore, subsequent proband-based cohort studies indicated that the clinical prognostic relevance of individual mutations labeled as " malignant " or " benign " in large referral centers is negligible. Herein, we seek to summarize the controversy and dispute the notion that mutation-specific risk stratification in HCM is possible at the present time. We provide evidence for clinicians and basic scientists alike to move beyond simple mutation descriptors to a more nuanced understanding of HCM mutations which fully captures the multi-factorial nature of HCM disease expression. Over the last 2 decades, the genetic underpinnings of heritable cardiovascular disease have begun to be unveiled, starting with the discovery of rare pathogenic mutations that cause cardiomy-opathies and cardiac channelopathies. The simple paradigm of Mendelian inheritance, while helpful in certain monogenic disease processes, is fundamentally incapable of explaining the entirety of how complex diseases express in the context of complex human physiology under the influence of a myriad of intrinsic and extrinsic variables. Our understanding of the intricate interplay between 1 such intrinsic variable, the genome, and the manifestation of disease was advanced significantly in the decoding of a handful of human's genomes in February of 2001. 1,2 Despite the decade of research these discoveries have initiated, clinicians and scientists alike are only beginning to appreciate the impact of this revolution on our understanding of health and disease. One disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), typifies this struggle, as we seek to integrate the role of genetic alterations into the variation we see in this sudden-death-predisposing disease. Defined by clinically unexplained hypertrophy of the ventricular walls and/or septum, HCM affects approximately 1 in 500 persons and is the most common inherited cardio-vascular disease. 3 HCM is the most common cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young athletes and a significant cause of sudden …
Patients and family care givers' experiences around highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)

Abstract Even with advances in the medical management of HIV/AIDS, it remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Network members are a source of support and may be designated as the patient's surrogate therapeutic decision maker. However, little is known about the role of caregivers regarding highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and adherence to medication, especially among low income and medically underserved HIV-infected individuals. The objective of this analysis was to explore patients and their caregivers' understanding, insight, and perceptions of HAART. This was a qualitative study conducted in an urban teaching hospital in the Bronx, NY, consisting of 144 adults with advanced HIV/AIDS and their informal/familial caregivers. Patients and caregivers completed in-depth interviews and brief questionnaires. The data were analyzed using standard qualitative techniques. Themes related to HAART efficacy, side effects, and adherence were identified in the discussions with both patients and their care providers. Looking for consistencies and discordant reports of patients–caregivers dyadic experience with HAART and their association with healthcare sentiment, it was found that the accounts of both members of the dyad were more likely to reflect positive feelings about the patient's healthcare experience when they shared perceptions about the treatment, and were more likely to have a negative viewpoint when the dyad was discordant about treatment. These findings support the importance for HIV healthcare providers to include both patients and their caregivers in discussions about HAART, in order to improve their understanding of and satisfaction with the medication, and, to ultimately contribute to patients' adherence. The study also suggests that healthcare teams may enhance dialog with patients and caregivers to create therapeutic decisions to accommodate the priorities and values of the patient and their family. Clinical, educational, and evaluating tools need to be further developed and evaluation to facilitate this process.
Extracellular Blockade of Potassium Channels by TEA+: The Tip of the Iceberg?

Extracellular blockade of potassium channels by TEA+ has long been an important tool in electrophysiology ([Armstrong, 1969][1]). It is known that the binding affinity of TEA+ for the external side is directly affected by the amino acid side chain at position 449 (Shaker) ([Heginbotham and MacKinnon
Efficient inference with cardinality-based clique potentials

Many collective labeling tasks require inference on graphical models where the clique potentials depend only on the number of nodes that get a particular label. We design efficient inference algorithms for various families of such potentials. Our algorithms are exact for arbitrary cardinality-based clique potentials on binary labels and for max-like and majority-like clique potentials on multiple labels. Moving towards more complex potentials, we show that inference becomes NP-hard even on cliques with homogeneous Potts potentials. We present a 13/15-approximation algorithm with runtime sub-quadratic in the clique size. In contrast, the best known previous guarantee for graphs with Potts potentials is only 0.5. We perform empirical comparisons on real and synthetic data, and show that our proposed methods are an order of magnitude faster than the well-known Tree-based re-parameterization (TRW) and graph-cut algorithms.
Biological characteristics and probiotic effect of Leuconostoc lactis strain isolated from the intestine of black porgy fish

A strain of lactic acid bacteria, Leuconostoc lactis, was isolated from the intestinal tract of black porgy, Sparus macrocephalus, and identified by conventional biochemical characteristics and 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis. The isolated strain had the ability of bile tolerance and resistance to low pH, and survived well in the trypsinase and pepsin solution. But the highly concentrated dose of trypsinase and pepsin affect the viability of the isolated strain. The isolate was resistant to several antibiotics, including Cephalothin, Ceftriaxone, Imipenem and Tobramycin. The isolate could auto-aggregate itself and coaggregate with other bacteria in vitro. The autoaggregation percentage increased to 23.29% after 20 h of incubation. The percentage of coaggregation were respectively 31.21%, 29.44%, 10.74%, 16.49%, 24.36%, 24.41% and 20.99% for Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli O157, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella, Staphylococcus aureus and Proteusbacillus vulgaris after 20 h incubation of a mixed suspension. The supernatant of the strain inhibited the growth of several pathogens, such as V.parahaemolyticus, Vibrio harveyi, Vibrio alginolyticus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli O157, Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus subtilis, Proteusbacillus vulgaris and Shigella. These results indicated that the isolate, Leuconostoc lactis, might be an attractive candidate for perspectival strain for probiotics in marine aquaculture.
Clinical abnormalities in working donkeys and their associations with behaviour

Introductions Working donkeys are at risk of developing multiple, acute and chronic health problems. The ability to recognise and assess pain in donkeys associated with these health problems is important for people responsible for their care and treatment, including owners and veterinary or animal health workers. Aims and objectives The aims of this study were firstly to quantify the prevalence of a range of clinical abnormalities within a sample of working donkeys; and secondly to find out whether these abnormalities were associated with potential behavioural indicators of pain. Materials and methods One hundred and thirty-three entire male adult working donkeys were observed for ten minutes before and after a one-hour rest period. Using an ethogram developed and refined in associated studies, posture and event behaviours were recorded by a single observer. The health of each donkey was then assessed by a veterinarian for specific clinical abnormalities. Results Working donkeys have a high prevalence of clinical abnormalities and a number of behaviours are associated with these. Significant associations were found between observed behaviours and systemic, ocular and limb-related clinical abnormalities. Cumulative clinical scores for limb-related problems were associated with a higher frequency of leg trembling, knuckling of the forelimb, leg-lifting and weight-shifting behaviours (all R≥0.4; P<0.001) and with a lower frequency of weight-bearing evenly on all four feet (R=-0.458; P<0.001). Conclusions The specific behaviour changes associated with clinical abnormalities identified in this study, together with general changes in demeanour identified in related studies, may be useful in assessing the presence and severity of pain in working donkeys and their response to medical and palliative interventions.
Sensor Network Topology Inference

We present a method for inferring the topology of a sensor network given non-discriminating observations of activity in the monitored region. This is accomplished based on no prior knowledge of the relative locations of the sensors and weak assumptions regarding environmental conditions. Our approach employs a two-level reasoning system made up of a stochastic Expectation Maximization algorithm and a higher level search strategy employing the principle of Occam’s Razor to look for the simplest solution explaining the data. The result of the algorithm is a Markov model describing the behaviour of agents in the system and the underlying traffic patterns. Numerical simulations and experimental assessment conducted on a real sensor network suggest that the technique could have promising real world applications in the area of sensor network self-configuration.
Scalable subgraph mapping for acyclic computation accelerators

Computer architects are constantly faced with the need to improve performance and increase the efficiency of computation in their designs. To this end, it is increasingly common to see acyclic com-putation accelerators appear in embedded processor designs. One major problem with adding accelerators to a design is that it is difficult to generate high-quality code utilizing them. Hand-written assembly code is typical, and if compiler support does exist, it is implemented using only greedy algorithms. In this work, we investigate more thorough techniques for compiling to processors with acyclic accelerators. Where as greedy solutions only explore one possible solution, the techniques presented in this paper explore the entire design space, when possible. Intelligent pruning methods are employed to ensure compilation is both tractable and scalable. Overall, our new compilation algorithms produce code that performs on average 10%, and up to 32% better than standard greedy methods. These algorithms also run in less than one second for more than 98% of basic blocks tested.
The Karlsruhe Institute for Technology Translation System for the ACL-WMT 2010

This paper describes our phrase-based Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) system for the WMT10 Translation Task. We submitted translations for the German to English and English to German translation tasks. Compared to state-of-the-art phrase-based systems we preformed additional preprocessing and used a discriminative word alignment approach. The word reordering was modeled using POS information and we extended the translation model with additional features.
econstor Make Your Publications Visible . A Service of zbw

This paper proposes a formal model selection test for choosing between two competing structural econometric models. The procedure is based on a novel lack-of-fit criterion, namely, the simulated mean squared error of predictions (SMSEP), taking into account the complexity of structural econometric models. It is asymptotically valid for any fixed number of simulations, and allows for any estimator which has a √ n asymptotic normality or is n-consistent for α > 1/2. The test is bi-directional and applicable to non-nested models which are both possibly misspecified. The asymptotic distribution of the test statistic is derived. The proposed test is general, regardless of whether the optimization criteria for estimation of competing models are the same as the SMSEP criterion used for model selection. A Monte Carlo study demonstrates good power and size properties of the test. An empirical application using timber auction data from Oregon illustrates the usefulness and generality of the proposed testing procedure. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Primordial Helium Abundance: A Reanalysis of the Izotov-Thuan Spectroscopic Sample

A reanalysis is made for the helium abundance determination for the Izotov-Thuan spectroscopic sample of extragalactic H II regions. We find that the effect of underlying stellar absorption of the He I lines, which is more important for metal-poor systems, affects significantly the inferred primordial helium abundance Yp obtained in the zero-metallicity limit and the slope of linear extrapolation, dY/dZ. This brings Yp from 0.234 ± 0.004 to 0.250 ± 0.004 and dY/dZ = 4.7 ± 1.0 to 1.1 ± 1.4. Conservatively, this indicates the importance of the proper understanding of underlying stellar absorption for accurate determinations of the primordial helium abundance to the error of δYp ≃ 0.002-0.004.
Multilevel Analysis Techniques and Applications

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hox, J. J. Multilevel analysis : techniques and applications / Joop J. Hox. – 2nd ed. p. cm. – (Quantitative methodology series) Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents Preface viii 1. Introduction to Multilevel Analysis 1 1.1 Aggregation and disaggregation 2 1.2 Why do we need special multilevel analysis techniques? 4 1.3 Multilevel theories 7 1.4 Models described in this book 8
Performance analysis of IEEE 802.11e contention-based channel access

The new standard IEEE 802.11e is specified to support quality-of-service in wireless local area networks. A comprehensive study of the performance of enhanced distributed channel access (EDCA), the fundamental medium access control mechanism in IEEE 802.11e, is reported in this paper. We present our development of an analytical model, in which most new features of the EDCA such as virtual collision, different arbitration interframe space (AIFS), and different contention window are taken into account. Based on the model, we analyze the throughput performance of differentiated service traffic and propose a recursive method capable of calculating the mean access delay. Service differentiation functionality and effectiveness of the EDCA are investigated through extensive numerical and simulation results. The model and the analysis provide an in-depth understanding and insights into the protocol and the effects of different parameters on the performance.
La navigation pédestre dans l'espace public: évaluation des besoins et esquisses de solutions

Ce projet de recherche a ete propose lors de l’appel d’offre 2006 de l’institut Inter qui encourage un travail interdisciplinaire mettant en contact des chercheurs d’horizons divers autour d’un theme commun et au carrefour de quelques disciplines. Les chercheurs rassembles dans ce projet ont choisi de reflechir sur une thematique liee a la fois a l’espace public, a la mobilite des personnes et aux aspects technologiques de la navigation. Cette recherche vise donc a construire une approche interdisciplinaire sur les perspectives d’application de la navigation pedestre, en confrontant les points de vue des ingenieurs qui developpent des solutions technologiques, ceux des sociologues des comportements de mobilite et ceux des architectes-urbanistes qui concoivent les espaces publics et de circulation des personnes.
Low-Molecular-Weight Heat Shock Proteins in a Desert Fish ( Poe & u & ~ lucida ) : Homologs of Human Hsp 27 and Xenopus Hsp 30

The heat shock response of a fish which inhabits a highly stressful environment (Poeciliopsis Zucidu, a minnow from river systems of the Sonoran desert in northwestern Mexico) was investigated. Cells derived from this fish exhibited a typical heat shock response when exposed to elevated temperature, synthesizing high levels of 90 kDa, 70 kDa, and 30 kDa heat shock proteins (Hsp90, Hsp70, and Hsp30), as well as lower amounts of other heat shock proteins. Additional small heat shock proteins (sHSPs), including Hsp27, were induced after a prolonged heat shock at a time when synthesis of Hsp70 and Hsp30 was decreasing. Characterization of cDNA clones for hsp27 and hsp30 revealed that both are members of the a-crystallin/sHSP superfamily but belong to separate lineages within this gene family. The multiple isoforms of P. Zucidu Hsp30 appear to be members of a multigene family and are most closely related to salmon and Xenopus Hsp30s. In contrast, Hsp27 is highly similar to mammalian and avian sHSPs; it was synthesized as three isoforms which represented differentially phosphorylated forms of a single polypeptide. In Poeciliopsis, the various sHSPs may each perform a subset of the roles attributed to mammalian sHSPs. The conservation of phosphorylation sites in Hsp27 may indicate an involvement in signal transduction to the actin cytoskeleton. The hsp30 genes appear to have diverged more rapidly than the corresponding hsp27 genes; the various members of the Hsp30 family may function as molecular chaperones and, in this role, may be less evolutionarily constrained. Finally, the presence of these two classes of sHSP in a single taxon indicates that these two lineages arose by gene duplication early in the evolution of vertebrates and raises questions about the fate of homologs of Hsp30 in mammals and of Hsp27 in Xenopus.
Interleukin-13 +1923C/T Polymorphism Is Associated with Asthma Risk: A Meta-Analysis

There are controversies on the association between interleukin-13 (IL-13) +1923C/T polymorphism (rs1295686) and the risk of asthma. We performed this study to assess the association by the method of meta-analysis. A systematic search current to October 16, 2012, was conducted using PubMed, EMBASE, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and identified ten studies comprising 13698 cases and 38209 controls. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. There was a significant association between IL-13 +1923C/T polymorphism and asthma risk in codominant model. When stratified by ethnicity, IL-13 +1923C/T polymorphism remained significantly associated with higher asthma risk in Asians and Caucasians. In the subgroup analysis by study quality, a significantly increased asthma risk was observed in high quality studies. Sensitivity analysis and cumulative analysis further strengthened the validity of the results. No publication bias was found in this meta-analysis. In conclusion, results from this meta-analysis suggested that IL-13 +1923C/T polymorphism was a risk factor of asthma.
Analyzing X2 handover in LTE/LTE-A

Handover procedure in LTE/LTE-A has been radically evolved when compared to the previous 3GPP standards. In particular, X2 handover is introduced to allow neighboring eNBs to handle the user mobility without the involvement of the core network. While most of the application could considerably benefit from the X2 handover performance improvement, delay breakdown and impact of parameters from the UE perspective are not well investigated. This paper analyzes the performance of the X2 handover from the UE perspective. Furthermore, the impact of the different parameters on the handover decision algorithm is investigated. Preliminary results, obtained from the OpenAirInterface LTE/LTE-A emulation platform, demonstrate that main delay bottleneck resides in the uplink synchronization of the UE to the target eNB.
Effect of chronic phenobarbital treatment on the liver microsomal metabolism and uterotropic action of 17-beta-estradiol.

Treatment of immature female rats with phenobarbital (37 mg/kg, ip, twice daily) for 3 days increases the activity of liver microsomal enzymes that metabolize 17β-estradiol. The stimulatory effect of chronic phenobarbital administration on in vitro estradiol metabolism is paralleled in vivo by a blockade in the estradiol-induced increase in uterine wet weight and the incorporation of glycine-14C into uterine protein. However, a single dose of phenobarbital (45 mg/kg, ip), given 1 hr before the estrogen, does not inhibit estradiol-induced increases in uterine wet weight. The inhibitory action of chronic phenobarbital treatment on the increase in uterine wet weight caused by estradiol is not prevented by adrenalectomy or hypophysectomy, indicating that phenobarbital does not act through the pituitary-adrenal axis. (Endocrinology 80:135,1967)
Posttraumatic stress symptoms and brain function during a response‐inhibition task: an fMRI study in youth

Youth who experience interpersonal trauma and have posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) can exhibit difficulties in executive function and physiological hyperarousal. Response inhibition has been identified as a core component of executive function. In this study, we investigate the functional neuroanatomical correlates of response inhibition in youth with PTSS. Thirty right‐handed medication‐naïve youth between the ages of 10 and 16 years underwent a 3‐Tesla Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scan during a response‐inhibition (Go/No‐Go) task. Youth with PTSS (n = 16) were age and gender matched to a control group of healthy youth (n = 14). Between‐groups analyses were conducted to identify brain regions of greater activation in the No/Go‐Go contrasts. PTSS and control youth performed the task with similar accuracy and response times. Control subjects had greater middle frontal cortex activation when compared with PTSS subjects. PTSS subjects had greater medial frontal activation when compared with control subjects. A sub‐group of youth with PTSS and a history of self‐injurious behaviors demonstrated increased insula and orbitofrontal activation when compared with those PTSS youth with no self‐injurious behaviors. Insula activation correlated positively with PTSS severity. Diminished middle frontal activity and enhanced medial frontal activity during response‐inhibition tasks may represent underlying neurofunctional markers of PTSS. Depression and Anxiety 0:1–13, 2007. Published 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.