Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of multiple candidate genes in association with phenotypes of multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a heterogeneous neurological disease with varying degrees of severity. The common hypothesis is that susceptibility to multiple sclerosis and its phenotype are caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. The genetic part exerts its effect through several genes, each having modest effects. We evaluated whether disease severity could be predicted by a model based on clinical data and data from a DNA chip. The DNA chip was designed containing several single nucleotide polymorphisms in 44 genes, previously described to be associated with multiple sclerosis. A total of 605 patients with multiple sclerosis were included in this analysis, using gender, onset type and age at onset as clinical covariates. We correlated 80 single nucleotide polymorphisms to the degree of disease severity using the following three outcome measures: linear Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score, dichotomous Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score (using a cut-off point of 2.5) and time to reach Expanded Disability Status Scale score 6. Sixty-nine single nucleotide polymorphisms were included in the analysis. No individual single nucleotide polymorphism showed a significant association; however, a combination of single nucleotide polymorphisms significantly improved the prediction of disease severity in addition to the clinical variables. In all three models the Interleukin 2 gene was included, confirming a previously reported modest effect on disease severity. The highest power was obtained using the dichotomized Multiple Sclerosis Severity Score as outcome. Several single nucleotide polymorphisms showed their added predictive value over the clinical data in the predictive models. These results support our hypothesis that disease severity is determined by clinical variables and genetic influences (through several genes with small effects) in concert.
Practical aspects of measuring microalbuminuria in diabetic patients.

The importance of measuring microalbuminuria is well established; however, controversy still exists regarding the type of urine specimen to be used for detecting early renal impairment of diabetic patients. To evaluate practical aspects, albumin concentration and albumin/creatinine ratio of first void urine samples as well as urinary albumin excretion in timed specimens were determined by immunoturbidimetric method 3 times within 3 weeks in 192 adult diabetic patients (136 men, 56 women; Type 1/Type 2 diabetes: 90/102; age: 51.4+/-10.8 yr; duration of diabetes: 15.3+/-9.1 yr; body mass index: 27.9+/-4.6 kg/m2; HbA1c: 8.54+/-1.46%; actual blood pressure: 138+/-14/82+/-8 mmHg; serum creatinine: 94+/-20 pmol/l; x+/-SD). According to the urinary albumin excretion values one-third of patients (31.2%-30.7%-34.4%) were normoalbuminuric (<30 mg/24 hr), more than half of the patients (55.8%-57.3%-53.6%) proved to be microalbuminuric (30-300 mg/24 hr), while the remaining group of patients (13.0%-12.0%-12.0%) was macroalbuminuric (>300 mg/24 hr). Comparing the results of successive measurements, good correlation was found between the same laboratory values (urinary albumin excretion: kappa=0.64, kappa=0.67; urinary albumin concentration: kappa=0.60, kappa=0.62; albumin/creatinine ratio: kappa=0.54, kappa=0.61; first vs second and second vs third measurements, respectively). The percentage of patients being in the same range of albuminuria (ie normo-, micro- or macroalbuminuria) at successive measurements was 79.7-81.2% with urinary albumin excretion values, 77.1-77.6% with urinary albumin concentration and 74.5-78.6% with albumin/creatinine ratio. Good correlation was found between urinary albumin excretion and urinary albumin concentration (kappa=0.54; 0.54; 0.57) and nearly the same correlation was observed between urinary albumin excretion and albumin/creatinine ratio (kappa=0.49; 0.47; 0.54) at the three consecutive measurements (n=192). Using values of urinary albumin excretion for comparison at all measurements, 79.3% sensitivity and 69.5% specificity were found for urinary albumin concentration, whereas 74.6% sensitivity and 68.8% specificity were documented for albumin/creatinine ratio. Beside the standard measurement of urinary albumin excretion in timed urine samples, the use of the more convenient morning urinary spot collection could also provide useful results (urinary albumin concentration or albumin/creatinine ratio) for detecting early renal involvement in diabetic patients.
Dynamic Propagation Modeling for Mobile Users' Position and Heading Estimation in Wireless Local Area Networks

A system for mobile users' position and heading estimation in IEEE 802.11 WLAN (WiFi) using received signal strength (RSS) approach is introduced. The basic contribution the system introduces is that it doesn't need offline training or extra special hardware. It makes use of the fact that only few online RSS measurements from visible access points (AP) around the user is needed to build local propagation model at run-time. Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) is used as a non-parametric modeling that handles non-equally spaced sparse data. Due to the few learning data points, Gaussian kernels calibration and prediction happen in a single step. This enables the system to autonomously adapt to environment changes. The estimated ranges from multiple access points (AP) are used to determine position using weighted least squares. Then, the rate of change of signal strength from multiple APs is used by a novel algorithm to estimate heading. Experiments show reliable meter-level positioning accuracy and heading estimation accuracy of 16.5 degrees.
Stromal Responses amongCommonCarcinomasCorrelated with Clinicopathologic Features

Purpose: We have previously characterized a tumor stroma expression signature in a subset of breast tumors that correlates with better clinical outcome. The purpose of this study is to determine whether this stromal signature, termed the "DTF fibroblast" (desmoid-type fibromatosis) signature, is specific to breast cancer or is a common stromal response found in different types of cancer. Experimental Designs: The DTF fibroblast signature was applied to gene expression profiles from five ovarian, five lung, two colon, and three prostate cancer expression microarray datasets. In addition, two different tissue microarrays of 204 ovarian tumors and 140 colon tumors were examined for the expression of previously characterized proteinmarkers ofDTFfibroblast signature. TheDTFfibroblast stromal response was then correlated with clinicopathologic features. Results: The DTF fibroblast signature is robustly present in ovarian, lung, and colon carcinomas. Both expressionmicroarray data and immunohistochemistry show that the subset of ovarian tumors with strong DTF fibroblast signature expression has statistically significant, worse survival outcomes. No reproducible survival differences were found in either the lung or the colon cancers. The prostate cancers failed to show a DTF fibroblast signature. Multivariant analysis showed that DTF fibroblast signature was significantly more prognostic than the proliferation status in ovarian carcinomas. Conclusions:Our results suggest that the DTF fibroblast signature is a common tumor stroma signature in different types of cancer, including ovarian, lung, and colon carcinomas. Our findings provide further insight into the DTF fibroblast stromal responses across different types of carcinomas and their potential as prognostic and therapeutic targets. Clin Cancer Res; 19(18); 5127–35. 2013 AACR.
Design and Development of an E-Learning Environment for the Course of Electrical Circuit Analysis

E-learning is an educational approach that combines different types of multimedia technologies to ensure better education experiences for students and teachers. Today, it is a popular approach among especially teachers and educators. In this sense, this paper describes a web based elearning system that was designed and developed to be used in the “Electrical Circuit Analysis” course of electrical engineering education given at Afyon Kocatepe University. The developed system includes many lesson content pages that include content texts and some interactive simulations designed with Flash technology. Furthermore, the system also employs some online communication and assessment tools developed for teachers and students. In order to evaluate its effectiveness, the system was actively used within an experimental evaluation process. According to the obtained results, the developed system improves students’ achievements on the course of Electrical Circuit Analysis and provides an effective way in engineering education.
RecArd: Robô baseado na plataforma Arduino como facilitador no processo de ensino-aprendizagem multidisciplinar

O presente trabalho tem por finalidade auxiliar e complementar o ensino-aprendizagem de disciplinas nas areas de computacao, eletronica e mecânica com a utilizacao de um robo denominado RecArd. Na tentativa de contribuir para uma mudanca por meio da viabilizacao de aulas praticas, utilizou-se a plataforma de prototipagem Arduino e atraves desta montou-se o robo controlado com um smartphone e com capacidade de desviar de obstaculos. A ferramenta apresentou potencialidades que sao consideradas relevantes no processo de ensino-aprendizagem, principalmente, em areas multidisciplinares. Com base nos experimentos e resultados, pode-se indicar que o uso da robotica na educacao deve ser considerado como modelo reformulador de metodos de ensino.
Extensão da analise R/S para caracterização geoestatistica local e regional de reservatorios de hidrocarbonetos

A geometria fractal vem sendo utilizada cada vez com maior frequencia para caracterizar e descrever os fenomenos geologicos. A sua aplicacao se estende desde o ponto de vista microscopico, como analise de lâminas delgadas de rochas, estudos de percolacao de fluidos e estudos de caracteristicas de sedimentacao, ate o entendimento de processos macroscopicos, como distribuicao de padroes de fraturamento para analises tectonicas ou entao geracao de distribuicoes de propriedades petrofisicas para estudos de fluxo de fluidos em meios porosos. Este ultimo topico e o tema principal desta tese. Estudamos as principais propriedades de familias de funcoes conhecidas por movimento Browniano fractal (mBf) e ruido Gaussiano fractal (rGf) , com vistas a sua utilizacao para o modelamento de perfis eletricos, acusticos e radioativos de pocos, determinando as caracteristicas destas distribuicoes a partir da tecnica estatistica da analise RIS, que fornece o parâmetro H, expoente de Hurst, que caracteriza a intermitencia destes processos. Com o valor de H realizamos interpolacoes estocasticas de propriedades de rochas, estimando valores em pontos nao amostrados, que respeitam as caracteristicas estruturais expressas nos perfis dos pontos amostrados pelos pocos. A malha pode ser refinada para atender as necessidades da simulacao de fluxo. O algoritmo utilizado para este fim e uma modificacao do processo de adicoes sucessivas aleatorias proposto por Voss (1988), com a particularidade de condicionar a simulacao estocastica aos dados disponiveis. Em seu estagio atual, o algoritmo realiza uma simulacao 2-D. Concluimos que as distribuicoes fractais tem aplicabilidade nos estudos de reservatorios de petroleo e que as tecnicas da analise RIS e da simulacao estocastica via adicoes sucessivas aleatorias modificado, em combinacao com tecnicas geoestatisticas como a variografia e a krigagem, sao ferramentas de grande utilidade para a caracterizacao de propriedades geologicas na escala de simulacao de fluxo. A tese esta organizada como segue: o primeiro capitulo aborda os principais conceitos de fractais, os metodos de medida da dimensao fractal e algumas aplicacoes mais recentes na area das geociencias; o segundo capitulo trata das propriedades das familias de funcoes mBf e rGf; o terceiro capitulo estuda os processos dinâmicos e, em particular, a equacao logistica, para a calibracao da analise RIS, cujas caracteristicas constituem o tema central do capitulo quarto, que tambem mostra sua aplicacao aos perfis eletricos de pocos; no capitulo cinco sao apresentados os conceitos de interpolacao por krigagem e por simulacao estocastica, com sua aplicacao para gerar parâmetros petrofisicos em pontos nao amostrados dos reservatorios Abstract
Unsupervised Organisation of Scientific Documents

Unsupervised organisation of documents, and in particular research papers, into meaningful groups is a difficult problem. Using the typical vector-space-model representation (Bag-of-words paradigm), difficulties arise due to its intrinsic high dimensionality, high redundancy of features, and the lack of semantic information. In this work we propose a document representation relying on a statistical feature reduction step, and an enrichment phase based on the introduction of higher abstraction terms, designated as metaterms, derived from text, using as prior knowledge papers topics and keywords. The proposed representation, combined with a clustering ensemble approach, leads to a novel document organization strategy. We evaluate the proposed approach taking as application domain conference papers, topic information being extracted from conference topics or areas. Performance evaluation on data sets from NIPS and INSTICC conferences show that the proposed approach leads to interesting and encouraging results.
Title Stability and dissipativity analysis of static neural networks withtime delay

This paper is concerned with the problems of stability and dissipativity analysis for static neural networks (NNs) with time delay. Some improved delay-dependent stability criteria are established for static NNs with time-varying or timeinvariant delay using the delay partitioning technique. Based on these criteria, several delay-dependent sufficient conditions are given to guarantee the dissipativity of static NNs with time delay. All the given results in this paper are not only dependent upon the time delay but also upon the number of delay partitions. Some examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness and reduced conservatism of the proposed results.
DataTours: A Data Narratives Framework

Visual storytelling is commonly employed to communicate data analyses results. Alternatively, (semi-)automated [1, 2, 6] data narratives or " tours " have been proposed as a means to prompt exploration of massive multidimensional datasets, substituting the more prevalent static overviews. While these works demonstrate specific instances of data tours, a concrete model to describe the building blocks of such tours is lacking. We present a descriptive hierarchical framework, DataTours, to formalize and guide the design of (semi-) automated tours for data exploration and discuss challenges evoked by the framework in the (semi-)automated authoring of such tours.
In Vivo Talocrural and Subtalar Kinematics: A Non-invasive 3D Dynamic MRI Study

Background: To improve diagnostic accuracy, prevent injury, and reduce the effect of impairments on hindfoot function, an understanding of the combined in vivo kinematics of the talocrural and subtalar joints is critical. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of quantifying talocrural and subtalar joint kinematics using fast-phase contrast (fast-PC) MRI, a noninvasive, in-vivo technique for the study of three-dimensional joint motion. Methods: Nine normal ankles and two ankles with a Stieda process were studied. Subjects were each placed supine in a 1.5 T MRI and asked to maintain a repeated dorsiflexion-plantarflexion movement while a full sagittal-oblique fast-PC dataset was acquired. The orientation and position of the calcaneus, talus, and tibia were individually quantified from these data. Results: The precision and accuracy of tracking calcaneal, talar, and tibial movement was excellent. The three-dimensional subtalar kinematics demonstrated that the talus and calcaneus do not move as a single unit. Most calcaneal-tibial supination occurred at the talocrural joint. The ankles with a Stieda process had markedly different kinematics from each other as well as from the normal group. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that fast-PC MRI is a viable, precise, and accurate technique for studying hindfoot kinematics and is potentially a useful clinical diagnostic tool. The findings call into question the earlier anatomical studies on which much of clinical practice on the foot and ankle is based. Since a clear link was found between anatomical variation and altered rearfoot kinematics, future study is warranted.
Estudo de matriz polimérica produzida com resina natural efibra da semente de açaí (Euterpe precatória)

O acai e fruto do acaizeiro, uma palmeira natural da Amazonia brasileira, encontrada proximo dos igarapes. Na regiao Norte existe um grande consumo da polpa do fruto do acai, com um acumulo de residuo sem manejo adequado. Este residuo provoca maleficios para a saude publica e transtornos ambientais. No presente trabalho foram desenvolvidos paineis com a fibra da semente do acai (Euterpe Precatoria ), a partir da caracterizacao morfologica, fisica, quimica e mecânica da fibra. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas, no qual foi feita a caracterizacao morfologica, analise quimica, analise fisica e mecânica da fibra do acai, e em seguida foram confeccionados os paineis e feitos os ensaios dos paineis. A principio foi feito um painel preliminar para definir o teor de fibra e de resina, a partir do resultado do ensaio de flexao estatica, deste foram produzidos 07 (sete) paineis de fibra, com adesivo a base de mamona e resina poliuretana derivada de petroleo. De acordo com a norma NBR 148103, foram realizados os ensaios de flexao estatica, tracao perpendicular e arrancamento de parafuso de superficie. Os resultados obtidos foram satisfatorios, com valores acima da norma NBR 148103, atendendo requisitos tecnicos da construcao civil e para a industria moveleira
Leflunomide in addition to steroids improves proteinuria and renal function in adult Henoch‐Schoenlein nephritis with nephrotic proteinuria

Henoch‐Schoenlein nephritis (HSPN) is a severe disease in adults and may cause renal insufficiency in a large portion of patients. But its rarity has led to lack of data. There are few controlled studies on therapy with immunosuppressants in HSPN adults. This study aims to evaluate the effect of leflunomide on HSPN adults with nephrotic proteinuria.
Design and Fabrication of Sidewalls-Extended Electrode Configuration for Ridged Lithium Niobate Electrooptical Modulator

A ridged lithium niobate electrooptical (EO) modulator with low driving voltage and reduced size is proposed. In particular, the electrodes of the proposed device are extended to the sidewalls of the ridge slopes to make the electric and optical fields much more overlapped than those reported. For a more detailed simulation, the electric and optical fields involved in the overlap integral are numerically calculated rather than by using approximate analytic solutions. Experimental results show that the half-wave voltage is reduced by at least 15% in comparison to that of an EO modulator without extended electrode configuration. As both the electrode length and gap are decreased, the device sizes can be reduced by about 18%.
Identifying At-Risk Dementia Caregivers Following Institutionalization

The current study developed prognostic tools to identify dementia caregivers at-risk for clinically relevant burden or depressive symptoms following nursing home admission (NHA) of their family members. A retrospective, longitudinal design was used that included 1,610 dementia caregivers who provided data prior to and up to 6 months following nursing home admission. Response operant characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to test and validate two prognostic tools: the NHA-Burden and NHA-Depression tools. An ROC curve yielded a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of 62.5% at a cutoff score of 5.41 for the NHA-Burden Prognostic tool. A second ROC curve indicated a sensitivity of 75.4% and a specificity of 62.5% at a cutoff score of 7.45 for the NHA-Depression tool. Clinicians may wish to utilize cutpoints on the NHA-Burden and NHA-Depression tools to ensure that more persons who are at-risk for clinically significant burden or depression during NHA are identified.
Adaptive Algorithm For Object Tracking In Video Image

A method for solving the problem of stable tracking is presented, based on a universal approach to the construction of adaptive tracking algorithms, which includes three components: tracking, learning and detection (TLD). The problem of robust object tracking was solved. An algorithm has been developed for tracking the contour of an object, used as a tracking component in a complex algorithm that implements the described approach. The object’s trajectory is tracked by a certain short-term tracking algorithm, which works parallel with the detector, allowing it to be re-initialized after a failure. The proposed tracking algorithm was implemented as a program in C++, which is part of the software developed for automatic tracking of objects in the video image. The experimental and comparison results of the TLD algorithm using the Lucas-Kanade tracking algorithm and the proposed algorithm are shown in this paper.
Tumor cells suppress cytokine‐induced nitric‐oxide (no) production in cerebral endothelial cells

Nitric oxide (NO) produced by endothelial cells (EC) has been shown to exert cytotoxic activity on tumor cells. In order to analyze events involved in brain metastasis, the modulation of NO production in rat‐brain‐derived EC was investigated. NO release was increased by tumor necrosis factor‐α (TNF‐α), interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ), interleukin‐1β, lipopolysaccharide or forskolin in EC2I9 cells, a rat‐brain‐microvessel‐derived EC line. Dexamethasone decreased NO release by cytokine‐activated EC219 cells. Tumor cells (DHD/K12/PROb, a rat coloncarcinoma cell line) were highly adherent to EC2I9 cells, and adhesion was not modified by TNF‐α plus IFN‐γ, or by dexamethasone. Addition of tumor cells or tumor‐cell‐conditioned medium significantly inhibited NO release induced by any of the stimuli examined, but only if added during the initial phase of endothelial‐cell activation. Tumor‐derived suppression of NO release was also observed in primary cultures of cerebral EC. NO synthase (NOS) activity in cytosol extracts of the cerebral EC line was Ca2+‐independent and required both NADPH and tetrahydrobiopterin. NOS activity was increased by TNF‐α and IFN‐γ, and significantly reduced by tumor‐cell‐conditioned medium. These results suggest that rat colon‐carcinoma cells may have developed a protective mechanism involving the release of (a) soluble factor(s) which inhibit(s) NO production by cerebral EC.
Building Filters for Vietnamese Chatbot Responses

Automatic Chatbot is a developing trend in the world because of its convenience, efficiency, applicability in many fields such as E-commerce, customer care, and so on. Through Chatbot, we can cut down human resources at the place that Chatbot can replace, increase the convenience for both customer and company. Some good chatbot systems in the world primarily used in English. With Vietnamese, however, the outputs of these models are often not so good due to different structures and grammar. Some output (i.e. chatbot’s responses) is incorrect or even misleading to the user. This can cause some serious problems in some legal or financial applications. In this paper, we proposed an approach to reevaluate outputs of general chatbot to reduce incorrect responses. Specifically, we firstly deployed well-known approaches in English chatbot into Vietnamese chatbot. After that, we build filters to assess chatbot responses based on the characteristics of the Vietnamese language. If the response is not suitable, the system will not give back to the user. In this case, the system can require more information to find a better response or at least return announcement instead of an incorrect response. We also developed a web-based application with chatbot integration to evaluate our approach in real life scenario.