Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Does increased serum IL‐17 level imply its pathogenic role in myasthenia gravis?

DOES INCREASED SERUM IL-17 LEVEL IMPLY ITS PATHOGENIC ROLE IN MYASTHENIA GRAVIS? We read the article by Roche et al. with great interest. Their finding of an increased level of IL-17 in the serum of patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) is intriguing. However, we raise some questions regarding the interpretation of their data. Among all subjects examined, a significant increase in serum levels of IL-17 was observed in only 2 patients with thymic abnormalities. Do these 2 patients belong to the generalized MG group or the ocular MG group? Because the IL-17 level was elevated in generalized MG compared with ocular MG in their results, we are concerned that the large standard deviation for IL-17 levels in the generalized group may arise from this. We would like to know of the comparison of IL-17 levels between generalized MG patients without thymic abnormalities and ocular MG patients. If the increased IL-17 level derives mainly from patients with thymus abnormalities, does the correlation between IL-17 levels and the concentrations of antiAChR antibody reflect a pathological association? As per their findings, there was no correlation between levels of IL-17 and presence of anti-AChR antibody, but MG patients with higher concentrations of anti-AChR antibodies had higher levels of IL-17 than those with lower concentrations of anti-AChR antibody. Given the fact that concentrations of anti-AChR antibodies are often higher in MG patients with thymus abnormalities, their reasoning on the relationship between IL-17 and anti-AChR antibodies may be questionable. The authors concluded that the levels of IL-17 correlated with the severity of MG. It was not clear to us how the severity of MG was measured. Both the Osserman scale and mean anti-AChR antibody concentrations that they employed are not well-accepted parameters for evaluating the severity of MG. Furthermore, we question why IL-6 was not measurable in this study. The multiplexed fluorescent bead– based immunoassay has been confirmed to be a sensitive measurement for IL-6 by various studies. Does this imply that measurement of IL-17 with this methodology lacked accuracy in their study? We would appreciate the authors’ comments on our concerns, and we caution that more work may be needed to formally establish a link between IL-17, severity of MG, and titers of anti-AChR antibodies.
How I treat mantle cell lymphoma.

Mantle-cell lymphoma (MCL) is a rare subtype of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with a poor prognosis, which comprises approximately 6% of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cases in the United States.1 Because consensus on the appropriate treatment is currently lacking, I will suggest some treatment approaches, which although based on the limited available data, I have found useful.
Rupture Process of Subduction-Zone Earthquakes

This review is primarily concerned with the rupture process of large subduction-zone earthquakes determined by various seismological methods, and with its interpretation in terms of an asperity model. It is not possible to make a thorough and extensive review on the subject because of the limited length. Consequently, this review is inevitably biased toward the works in which I was directly involved through collaborations with various investigators. The distribution of large earthquakes along subduction zones has a distinct pattern. Great earthquakes occur in South America, Alaska, the Aleutians, and Kamchatka. In contrast, earthquakes along the Marianas are smaller. The seismicity in other subduction zones is intermediate between these two groups (see Figure 1). Although this regional variation now generally accepted, it was not until an appropriate method for quantification of large earthquakes was developed that the regional variation was clearly recognized. In view of its fundamental importance in seismology, we first review the quantification method.
An extensive numerical simulation of the cephalic furrow formation in Drosophila embryo

Here, we propose a new finite element model of the Drosophila embryo to simulate the cephalic furrow (CF) formation. Two different 3D geometries are introduced to reproduce the embryo. The two of them are parametrised through a novel system of curvilinear coordinates, well adapted for biological structures, which is obtained by three fictive electrostatic potentials. A gradient decomposition method is used to take into account both the active and the passive deformations occurring to the cells. Four simulations of the CF are proposed, which in turn considers singular and coupled aspects of the problem.
Population studies on southwestern Indian tribes. II. Local genetic differentiation in the Papago.

In a previous publication we have described the ethnohistory and demography of the Papago Indians of southwestern Arizona (Niswander et al. 1970). During the review of the relevant anthropological studies it became apparent that the Papago do not conform to a model of a homogeneous population within which mating occurs at random. On the Papago reservation there are about 5,000 Indians distributed among geographically distinct villages or clusters of villages. Approximately 60%o of the Indians live in the 10 largest villages. The village groups are of two types. Most consist of villages derived from a single ancestral village, the so-called defense village founded in the seventeenth century as a means of protection against attacks by the Apache Indians. Some villages (e.g., Sells) or groups of villages (e.g., the San Xavier district) appear to have been populated largely by immigrants from other parts of the reservation during the past 75 years. Studies on the mating patterns show considerable endogamy not only within regions but also within individual villages. Thus the Papago appear to approximate a model of a population comprising a small number of partially isolated subpopulations. Subdivided populations may be said to conform to one of three basic models: hierarchical, island, or stepping-stone (see Yasuda and Morton 1967). Since there is insufficient information on the historical relations among the founders of the Papago village groups and no evidence that migrants to each group are representative of the total population, neither the hierarchical nor the island model is appropriate. The stepping-stone model (Kimura and Weiss 1964; Bodmer and Cavalli-Sforza 1968), which requires only the assumption of discrete subdivisions among which there is migration, appears to provide the most realistic approximation to Papago population structure. When the subgroups are partially isolated, such factors as random genetic drift and isolation by distance may result in significant genetic differentiation among groups. A large sample of the Papago population has been characterized in terms of blood groups and serum protein genotypes (Niswander et al. 1970), and in this paper we shall use these results to analyze the genetic structure of the Papago population. We shall first examine the pattern of genetic variation among groups, using both x2 tests and F statistics analyses developed by Wright (1943a, 1951, 1965) and Nei
Eddy-Current Losses in the Solid Back-Iron of PM Machines for different Concentrated Fractional Pitch Windings

Permanent magnet (PM) machines with concentrated fractional-pitch stator windings are increasingly used because of their cost-effectiveness. In this paper, the eddy-current losses in the solid back-iron of these machines are modeled. This model is applied to calculate the losses in the solid back-iron of the linear PM generator of the Archimedes wave swing (AWS) for different combinations of numbers of poles and numbers of teeth. In machines with fractional-pitch windings, these eddy-current losses are considerable and depend strongly on the combination of number of teeth and number of poles. In fractional pitch machines with a coil around very second tooth, these losses are excessive.
Using psycholinguistic features for profiling first language of authors

This study empirically evaluates the effectiveness of different feature types for the classification of the first language of an author. In particular, it examines the utility of psycholinguistic features, extracted by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) tool, that have not previously been applied to the task of author profiling. As LIWC is a tool that has been developed in the psycholinguistic field rather than the computational linguistics field, it was hypothesized that it would be effective, both as a single type feature set because of its psycholinguistic basis, and in combination with other feature sets, because it should be sufficiently different to add insight rather than redundancy. It was found that LIWC features were competitive with previously used feature types in identifying the first language of an author, and that combined feature sets including LIWC features consistently showed better accuracy rates and average F measures than were achieved by the same feature sets without the LIWC features. As a secondary issue, this study also examined how effectively first language classification scaled up to a larger number of possible languages. It was found that the classification scheme scaled up effectively to the entire 16 language collection from the International Corpus of Learner English, when compared with results achieved on just 5 languages in previous research. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Automatic Extraction of Axioms for Planning

Axioms can be used to model derived predicates in domain-independent planning models. Formulating models which use axioms can sometimes result in problems with much smaller search spaces than the original model. We propose a method for automatically extracting a particular class of axioms from standard STRIPS PDDL models. More specifically, we identify operators whose effects become irrelevant given some other operator, and generate axioms that capture this relationship. We show that this algorithm can be used to successfully extract axioms from standard IPC benchmark instances, and show that the extracted axioms can be used to significantly improve the performance of satisficing planners.
Broadband folded printed quadrifilar helical antenna with wide arms

With the development of the satellite communication systems (GPS, INMARSAT), the Printed Quadrifilar Helical Antennas (PQHA) have found wide applications due to its features of circular polarization, good axial ratio and its low cost. Nevertheless, they suffer from their narrow bandwidth (5 ∼ 8%), which could be insufficient for such applications.
Thus Spake Zarathustra

Translated by Thomas Common. With an Introduction by Nicholas Davey. This astonishing series of aphorisms, put into the mouth of the Persian sage Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, contains the kernel of Nietzsche's thought. 'God is dead', he tells us. Christianity is decadent, leading mankind into a slave morality concerned not with this life, but with the next. Nietzsche emphasises the Ubermensch, or Superman, whose will to power makes him the creator of a new heroic mentality. The intensely felt ideas are expressed in prose-poetry of indefinable beauty. Though misused by the German National Socialist party as a spurious justification of their creed, the book also had a profound influence on early twentieth-century writers such as Shaw, Mann, Gide, Lawrence and Sartre.
Advanced Optical Wireless Communication Systems: Modeling and characterization of ultraviolet scattering communication channels

This thesis studies modeling of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) ultraviolet (UV) scattering channels and the corresponding communication link performance. The research focuses on the channel impulse response and path loss models based on extensive field measurements and theoretical characterization. In NLOS UV scattering environments, transmitted signals suffer from severe atmospheric attenuation and fading before arriving at a receiver, such as absorption, scattering, and turbulence. The thesis is devoted to development of analytical and experimental models to characterize NLOS UV communication channels.The author conducts comprehensive channel measurements for short communication ranges up to a few hundred meters and proposes an empirical path loss model. Meanwhile, an algorithm is developed to simulate the NLOS UV channel impulse response and path loss based on photons stochastic migration in the atmosphere. Effects of atmosphere conditions on single scattering and multiple scattering are investigated. An empirical curve-fitting model is developed to simplify the modeling work. Monte Carlo simulations provide good channel prediction for field tests in many scenarios. Then short range communication link performance is studied based on the theoretical models, and limitations by power and channel bandwidth are examined. Link budget results are also extended to long range communication links up to 5 kilometers. In this case, atmosphere turbulence becomes pronounced, and thus the intensity fluctuation at the receiver is mathematically modeled. These modeling results can provide insight into the performance tradeoffs and algorithm design for practical NLOS UV communication systems.
New IASLC/ATS/ERS Classification and Invasive Tumor Size are Predictive of Disease Recurrence in Stage I Lung Adenocarcinoma

Introduction: The purpose of this study is to analyze and validate the prognostic impact of the new lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) classification proposed by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, American Thoracic Society, and European Respiratory Society and invasive tumor size in stage I lung ADC of Japanese patients. Methods: We reclassified 191 stage I ADCs according to the new classification. The percentage of each histological subtype and the predominant type were determined. In addition, both total tumor size and invasive tumor size were examined. The relationship between these results and clinicopathological backgrounds was investigated statistically. Results: The 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) of adenocarcinoma in situ and minimally invasive adenocarcinoma was 100%; lepidic-predominant ADCs, 94.9%; papillary-predominant ADCs, 85.4%; acinar-predominant ADCs, 89.7%; and solid-predominant ADCs, 54%. The predominant growth pattern was significantly correlated with DFS (p < 0.001, overall). With regard to tumor size, total tumor size was not correlated with DFS (p = 0.475, overall), however, invasive tumor size was significantly correlated with DFS (⩽0.5 cm/ > 0.5cm, ⩽1cm/ >1 cm, ⩽2 cm/>2 cm, ⩽3 cm/ >3cm, 100%/91.5%/85.9%/80.8%/66.7%% in 5-year DFS) (p = 0.006, overall). A multivariate analysis showed solid-predominant and invasive tumor size were independent predictors of increased risk of recurrence (solid versus nonsolid: hazard ratio = 4.08, 95% confidence interval:1.59–10.5, p = 0.003; invasive tumor size: hazard ratio = 2.04, 95% confidence interval:1.14–3.63, p = 0.016). Conclusion: The new International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer, American Thoracic Society, and European Respiratory Society ADC classification and invasive tumor size are very useful predictors of recurrence of stage I ADCs in Japanese patients.
Sphingomonas paucimobilis associated with localised calf myositis

Focal myositis is a rare disease of skeletal muscle of unknown aetiology.1 2 We studied a 29-year-old man with no relevant medical history who was admitted to our hospital for increasing pain localised to the calves and toe walking, caused by an inability to put weight on the heels, over the preceding 10 days. Thirteen days prior to admission the patient complained of sore throat and enlarged tender laterocervical lymph nodes for which he had been prescribed cefuroxime (250 mg twice a day). In the next few days the sore throat gradually improved and 10 days before admission he presented with low grade fever and pain in the calves. The pain in the calves, greater in the left calf, worsened progressively and, 8 days before admission, because of increasing pain when putting weight on the heels, he went to the emergency room of a peripheral hospital. A bacterial syndrome was suspected, cefuroxime was discontinued and levofloxacin (250 mg twice a day) was prescribed without any clinical benefit. Because of the increasing pain in the calves, persistence of low grade fever and inability to walk because of the pain, the patient was admitted to our institution. His temperature was 37°C and blood pressure was 120/85 mm Hg. Neurological examination revealed …
Aerococcus urinae: polyphasic characterization of the species

A polyphasic characterization of Aerococcus urinae is presented. In this study the intraspecies relationships between 26 strains of varying geographical origin were examined by phenotypic tests, ribotyping and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis. The results demonstrated two main phenotypic patterns that could be distinguished in tests for hydrolysis of aesculin, and acid production from amygdalin and salicin. Strains were either negative (n=19) or positive (n=6) in these tests. One strain had a deviating pattern. Heterogeneity within the 19 pattern I strains was demonstrated especially by phenotypic tests (acid production from ribose, mannitol, sorbitol, sucrose and D‐arabitol) and by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis. However, DNA sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA (n=7) and gyrB genes (n=3) from strains representing the two main patterns showed no variation in sequences among strains. Comparison of A. urinae and representatives of related taxa by 16S rDNA sequence analysis showed that the taxon is related to, but distinct from, other Aerococcus spp.
c-fos gene transcription in murine macrophages is modulated by a calcium-dependent block to elongation in intron 1

Cultured mouse thioglycolate-elicited peritoneal macrophages exhibit a strong block to transcriptional elongation beyond the end of the c-fos gene first exon. This block is absent in freshly isolated peritoneal cells, appears slowly during culture, and does not require adherence of the cells. The extent of this block is largely responsible for the levels of c-fos mRNA in cultured macrophages, even after modulation by agents such as the tumor promoter phorbol myristate acetate and increased intracellular cyclic AMP, which also increase the activity of the c-fos promoter. When macrophages are cultured in the absence of mobilizable calcium, the block can no longer be relieved by any inducing agent. Conversely, upon calcium influxes, there is little alteration in the level of transcriptional initiation, but transcription proceeds efficiently through the entire c-fos locus. These results suggest the presence of an intragenic calcium-responsive element in the c-fos gene and illustrate its key role in the control of c-fos gene transcription.
The Effect of Elevated Temperature on the Bond between High Modulus CFRP Sheet and Steel

The technique of strengthening steel structures with Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) has attracted growing attention in research field and in practice and its environmental durability is of high importance. This paper describes an investigation on the bond characteristics between high modulus CFRP sheet and steel plates under elevated temperature exposures. Tensile tests were carried out on CFRP/steel plate double strap joints at several environmental temperatures of 20°C, 40°C and 50°C, which represent the usually encountered conditions for civil infrastructure. High modulus (640 GPa) unidirectional carbon fibre sheets were applied in wet lay-up fabrication method. Some joints were formed by one layer of CFRP sheet and others by three layers of CFRP sheets. They were all tested to failure by tensile static load. The fracture surfaces of the failed specimens were studied using the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the failure mechanism were discussed. The objective of the current experimental work is to determine the strain distribution along the bond length, ultimate strength, failure patterns and effective bond length under those thermal exposures. It was found that the ultimate load decreased significantly when the test temperature was above the glass transition temperature of the adhesive. Larger effective bond lengths were found for the joints tested at glass transition temperature. It is obvious that the short-term thermal exposure has little effect on their failure patterns. All the specimens failed by fibre breakage at the joint and cohesive failure accompanied some joints with very short bond length.
A new three-dimensional higher-order thermomechanical ice sheet model: Basic sensitivity, ice stream development, and ice flow across subglacial lakes

[1] A new three-dimensional thermomechanically coupled ice sheet model is developed. Contrary to the majority of three-dimensional ice sheet models (shallow ice approximation), higher-order stress gradients (longitudinal and transverse) are accounted for in the force balance equations. The horizontal velocity field is determined from the force balance equations in their ‘‘derivative form’’ (elliptical equation) using the method presented by Pattyn [2000, 2002a]. The model is solved on a regular grid in the horizontal and an irregular grid in the vertical and is numerically stable. Basic experiments include the European Ice Sheet Modeling Initiative (EISMINT) benchmarks for largescale ice sheet models and a comparison with the Saito-Blatter ice sheet model including higher-order stress gradients [Saito et al., 2003]. Detailed calculations of ice flow over three-dimensional bedrock perturbations showed the validity of the higher-order solution. The model is capable of simulating the evolution of an ice stream within the ice sheet and shows important aspects of observed ice stream features, such as the surface flattening and the importance of side drag. The simulation of the ice flow over a subglacial lake results in a flattening of the surface, a local velocity increase over the lake, and a deviation of the ice flow from the main flow direction, features which are also observed at Lake Vostok, Antarctica. INDEX TERMS: 1827 Hydrology: Glaciology (1863); 1863 Hydrology: Snow and ice (1827); 3230 Mathematical Geophysics: Numerical solutions; KEYWORDS: higher-order, ice sheet model, thermomechanical, ice stream, subglacial lake Citation: Pattyn, F. , A new three-dimensional higher-order thermomechanical ice sheet model: Basic sensitivity, ice stream development, and ice flow across subglacial lakes, J. Geophys. Res., 108(B8), 2382, doi:10.1029/2002JB002329, 2003.
Molecular epidemiology of Candida isolates from AIDS patients showing different fluconazole resistance profiles

Thirty Candida isolates obtained from the oropharynxes of three AIDS patients were genotypically characterized. In vitro fluconazole MIC determination revealed increasing fluconazole resistances during treatment, thereby confirming the in vivo situation. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis karyotyping, randomly amplified polymorphic DNA analysis, and hybridizations with Candida albicans repetitive element 2 were used to determine possible genotypic changes. The isolates from two patients showed genetic homogeneity, suggesting the selection for resistant variants. One patient experienced a strain switch to Candida krusei. Horizontal spread of identical strains between the patients could be excluded. However, the molecular methods used might not be sufficient to detect the underlying genetic basis of resistance to fluconazole.
Analysis of spectral interpolation with weighting dependent on frame energy

Spectral interpolation improves the performance of low bit rate speech coders without increasing the bit rate. We have investigated the problem of spectral interpolation, by means of autoregressive theory. Our analysis is supported by experiments on stationary and non-stationary data and by experiments on real speech data. The main conclusions of our study are: the energy of the analysis frames should be used in the interpolation process. It is beneficial to give analysis frames an overlap of p samples, where p is the order of the model. The reflection coefficients, log area ratios and the arcsine of reflection coefficients are less suitable for interpolation. <<ETX>>