Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Hyperhomocysteinemia in Alzheimer dementia patients and cognitive decline after 6 months follow-up period.

PURPOSE White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are commonly found in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and may contribute to cognitive impairment. Plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) had also been linked with cognitive decline in AD. We examined the relationship among change of cognition, tHcy level, and WMHs on MRI in AD patients with a follow-up periods of 6 months. METHODS AD patients with normal creatinine level and initial clinical dementia rating (CDR) of 1 to 2 were enrolled. tHcy and biochemistry tests related to cerebral vascular risk factors were collected. WMHs were measured on MRI fluid attenuated inverse recovery sequence and classified into deep white matter hyperintensities (DWMHs) and periventricular white matter hyperintensities (PWMHs) by visual rating scale. Neuropsychological tests including cognitive ability screening instrument (CASI), mini-mental state examination (MMSE) converted from CASI scores and CDR were collected twice during the follow- up period of 6 months. RESULTS Ninety-two AD patients, 30 men and 62 women completed the study while the tHcy level was not significantly different between AD and age matched controls. tHcy level showed no correlation with CASI or MMSE score, at either the first or second examination. tHcy showed positive correlation with decline of CASI total score and abstract thinking (both p<0.01) but not in MMSE decline. There was no significant correlation between neuropsychiatric assessment and WMHs, but the decline of abstract thinking score was related to frontal PWMHs (R square=0.237, p=0.007). CONCLUSION tHcy might be associated with rapid cognitive decline in AD after a 6-month follow-up period and the effect might not be directly through WMHs. tHcy level correlated with greater WMHs in the trigone area although greater lesion load by MRI was in the occipital lobe.
An efficient control strategy for the traffic coordination of AGVs

In this paper we propose an algorithm for coordinating a fleet of Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) that go through predefined paths in a dynamic industrial environment. Coordination diagrams are used to define a mapping between the configuration space of the fleet and a set of motion constraints that the vehicles must satisfy in order to avoid mutual collisions. The motion actions that maximize the advancement of the fleet while respecting the constraints are determined by a polynomial time heuristic algorithm.
Counseling Competence

Working from their proposed model of counseling competence, the authors address critical implications and applications of the model. First, they present a 10-parameter juxtaposition of the model of counseling competence and the microskills training model, including points of comparision and contrast. Second, they discuss implications of the model for practice, including guidelines for teaching and an application exercise. Third, they discuss implications of the model for research, including improvements over design flaws and the limited focus that has typified research on microskills training.
Becoming "Hispanic": Secondary Panethnic Identification among Latin American-Origin Populations in the United States

Contemporary debates on Latino panethnicity assert that this identity is either cultural or instrumental in nature. The article looks at respondents'use ofprimary and secondary ethnic identifications to answer two questions: First, how substantial is panethnic identification among Hispanics? Second, what is the nature of Latino panethnicity? Using data from the Latino National Political Survey, the authors find that Hispanic ethnicity is neither simply instrumental nor cultural. Instead, Latino panethnicity is a complex phenomenon, differing not only by a range of demographic characteristics but also among those using panethnicity as a primary or secondary identification. These findings suggest that one needs to think about panethnicity as part of a constellation of individuals'multiple identifications and that individuals may manage these identities in very different ways.
Single-Phase to Three-Phase Universal Active Power Filter

In this paper, a universal active power filter is proposed for harmonic and reactive power compensation in the single-phase to three-phase systems. The proposed configuration solves a typical problem found in remote (or rural) applications, where only a single-phase grid is available and there is a demand to supply three-phase loads. A suitable control strategy is presented to regulate the load voltage, the power factor, and to minimize the voltage and current harmonics simultaneously. Simulated and experimental results are also presented.
Architectures and modeling of predictable memory controllers for improved system integration

Designing multi-processor systems-on-chips becomes increasingly complex, as more applications with realtime requirements execute in parallel. System resources, such as memories, are shared between applications to reduce cost, causing their timing behavior to become inter-dependent. Using conventional simulation-based verification, this requires all concurrently executing applications to be verified together, resulting in a rapidly increasing verification complexity. Predictable and composable systems have been proposed to address this problem. Predictable systems provide bounds on performance, enabling formal analysis to be used as an alternative to simulation. Composable systems isolate applications, enabling them to be verified independently. Predictable and composable systems are built from predictable and composable resources. This paper presents three general techniques to implement and model predictable and composable resources, and demonstrates their applicability in the context of a memory controller. The architecture of the memory controller is general and supports both SRAM and DDR2/DDR3 SDRAM and a wide range of arbiters, making it suitable for many predictable and composable systems. The modeling approach is based on a shared-resource abstraction that covers any combination of supported memory and arbiter and enables system-level performance analysis with a variety of well-known frameworks, such as network calculus or data-flow analysis.
Proteomic Analysis of Lymphoblastoid Cells Derived from Monozygotic Twins Discordant for Bipolar Disorder: A Preliminary Study

Bipolar disorder is a severe mental illness characterized by recurrent manic and depressive episodes. In bipolar disorder, family and twin studies suggest contributions from genetic and environmental factors; however, the detailed molecular pathogenesis is yet unknown. Thus, identification of biomarkers may contribute to the clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorder. Monozygotic twins discordant for bipolar disorder are relatively rare but have been reported. Here we performed a comparative proteomic analysis of whole cell lysate derived from lymphoblastoid cells of monozygotic twins discordant for bipolar disorder by using two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE). We found approximately 200 protein spots to be significantly differentially expressed between the patient and the co-twin (t test, p<0.05). Some of the proteins were subsequently identified by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and included proteins involved in cell death and glycolysis. To examine whether these proteins could serve as biomarkers of bipolar disorder, we performed Western blot analysis using case–control samples. Expression of phosphoglycerate mutase 1 (PGAM1), which is involved in glycolysis, was significantly up-regulated in patients with bipolar disorder (t test, p<0.05). Although PGAM1 cannot be regarded as a qualified biomarker of bipolar disorder from this preliminary finding, it could be one of the candidates for further study to identify biomarkers of bipolar disorder.
Relationships between age and gender differentials in health among older people in China

ABSTRACT The objective of this paper is to specify the relationships between age and gender differentials in health among older people in China. The data were drawn from the 2002 Chinese Longitudinal Health Longevity Study (CLHLS), which included 15,789 respondents aged 65 or more years. The health indicators included the Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and Instrumental ADL scores, cognitive ability (using the Mini Mental State Examination), visual function, hearing or auditory function, number of natural teeth, self-reported health, and self-reported quality of life. The statistical significance of the age relationships was examined using Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. The principal results were that above 65 years of age, gender differentials were observed in most of the health indicators at most ages, although self-rated quality of life was an exception. For most of the objective (observer-rated) health indicators, the gender differentials increased with greater age, but that for the number of natural teeth decreased with age. Gender differentials in the two subjective health measures had no significant relationship with age. It is concluded that older Chinese women have poorer health than men and are in many ways disadvantaged, and that the relative disadvantage increases with age. Chinese women tend to live longer and suffer ill-health more than men.
Estimating cerebral atrophy in multiple sclerosis patients from various MR pulse sequences

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine how measures reflecting cerebral atrophy (CA) are influenced by pulse sequence (PS) and segmentation algorithm (SA) used in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and healthy control (HC)s. Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans from 10 relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) patients and five HCs were used to determine the change in brain fractional volume (BFV) over a two-year period. T1-weighted, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR), and proton density (PD)/T2-weighted sequences were analysed. Image segmentation to determine brain volume was performed using the following: a histogram SA, an adaptive fuzzy c-means algorithm (AFCM), and an adaptive Bayesian segmentation with a K-means clustering. Results: Combinations of the SA and PS in MS patients demonstrated significant differences in the per cent change in BFV from baseline. For the combination of PS and SA the per cent change in BFV for year one and year two varied from +2.05% to −1.6% and +0.79% to −3.11%, respectively. Analysis of the HCs data revealed fluctuations in BFV varying from +0.26% to −0.29%. Conclusions: MRI estimates of CA are dependent on both the type of PS and SA; therefore, the choice of SA technique and PS should be consistent during an MS treatment trial. The progression of CA in MS should only be used as a secondary or tertiary outcome measure in treatment trials until a better understanding of how this measurement is affected by the disease, the image acquisition and analysis techniques.
Septate junctions in imaginal disks of Drosophila: a model for the redistribution of septa during cell rearrangement

The organization of septate junctions during morphogenesis of imaginal disks is described from freeze-fracture replicas and thin sections with a view to understanding junction modulation during rearrangements of cells in epithelia. The septate junctions of each epithelial cell of the disk are distributed in a number of discrete domains equal to the number of neighboring cells. Individual septa traverse domains of contact between pairs of adjacent cells, turn downwards at the lateral boundary of the domain and run parallel to the intersection with a third cell. This arrangement leaves small channels at three-cell intersections that are occupied by specialized structures termed "tricellular plugs. " Cell rearrangement involves a progressive change in the width of contact domains between adjacent cells, until old contacts are broken and new ones established. It is proposed that the septate junction adjusts to the changing width of domains by the compaction or extension of existing septa. This redistribution of septa theoretically allows a transepithelial barrier to be maintained during cell rearrangements. The applicability of this model to other epithelial tissues is discussed.
Efficacy and Safety of an Oral Formulation of Cetirizine and Prolonged-release Pseudoephedrine versus Xylometazolin Nasal Spray in Nasal Congestion

Summary The aim of this study was to compare the decongestant properties and tolerability of the sympathomimetic xylometazoline hydrochloride 0.1 % (CAS 1218-35-5, XMZ) and an oral formulation of cetirizine hydrochloride 5 mg and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride 120 mg (CAS 83881-51-0 and 90-82-4, CTZ/PSE; Cirrus®). Thirty-six asymptomatic patients suffering from perennial allergic rhinitis from house dust mite were randomized to this open two-period crossover study. Patients received the study medications for four days each. In each period, treatments were taken twice a day. On day 1 in each period, immediately after the first dose of medication, patients were challenged with Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus extract I in the Vienna Challenge Chamber for 5 h. Primary efficacy parameters were nasal congestion evaluated by digital analysis of nasal cavity photographs and nasal airflow. Furthermore amounts of nasal secretions, nasal and ocular symptoms were recorded. In addition, 5 independent Ear-Nose-Throat specialists also assessed nasal cavity photographs. Statistical analyses were conducted at the 5 % level of significance. Digital analysis of the nasal cavity photographs as well as nasal airflow measurements did not differentiate XMZ from CTZ/PSE. Ratings of the photographs of the nasal cavity emphasized the rapid onset of XMZ. No clinically relevant adverse events were recorded. This rapid onset of action but short-lived effect of topical xylometazoline 0.1 % should be balanced against the consistent and prolonged effect of systemic cetirizine/pseudoephedrine combination in the treatment of perennial allergic rhinitis as no significant differences between these 2 medications were noted regarding their decongestant properties. With the exception of nasal obstruction, all subjective symptoms as well as the global condition were significantly better under CTZ/PSE. Amounts of nasal secretions during these sessions were significantly lower with CTZ/PSE.
Provable Algorithms for Inference in Topic Models

Recently, there has been considerable progress on designing algorithms with provable guarantees -- typically using linear algebraic methods -- for parameter learning in latent variable models. But designing provable algorithms for inference has proven to be more challenging. Here we take a first step towards provable inference in topic models. We leverage a property of topic models that enables us to construct simple linear estimators for the unknown topic proportions that have small variance, and consequently can work with short documents. Our estimators also correspond to finding an estimate around which the posterior is well-concentrated. We show lower bounds that for shorter documents it can be information theoretically impossible to find the hidden topics. Finally, we give empirical results that demonstrate that our algorithm works on realistic topic models. It yields good solutions on synthetic data and runs in time comparable to a single iteration of Gibbs sampling.
Avian Influenza Virus Glycoproteins Restrict Virus Replication and Spread through Human Airway Epithelium at Temperatures of the Proximal Airways

Transmission of avian influenza viruses from bird to human is a rare event even though avian influenza viruses infect the ciliated epithelium of human airways in vitro and ex vivo. Using an in vitro model of human ciliated airway epithelium (HAE), we demonstrate that while human and avian influenza viruses efficiently infect at temperatures of the human distal airways (37°C), avian, but not human, influenza viruses are restricted for infection at the cooler temperatures of the human proximal airways (32°C). These data support the hypothesis that avian influenza viruses, ordinarily adapted to the temperature of the avian enteric tract (40°C), rarely infect humans, in part due to differences in host airway regional temperatures. Previously, a critical residue at position 627 in the avian influenza virus polymerase subunit, PB2, was identified as conferring temperature-dependency in mammalian cells. Here, we use reverse genetics to show that avianization of residue 627 attenuates a human virus, but does not account for the different infection between 32°C and 37°C. To determine the mechanism of temperature restriction of avian influenza viruses in HAE at 32°C, we generated recombinant human influenza viruses in either the A/Victoria/3/75 (H3N2) or A/PR/8/34 (H1N1) genetic background that contained avian or avian-like glycoproteins. Two of these viruses, A/Victoria/3/75 with L226Q and S228G mutations in hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) from A/Chick/Italy/1347/99 and A/PR/8/34 containing the H7 and N1 from A/Chick/Italy/1347/99, exhibited temperature restriction approaching that of wholly avian influenza viruses. These data suggest that influenza viruses bearing avian or avian-like surface glycoproteins have a reduced capacity to establish productive infection at the temperature of the human proximal airways. This temperature restriction may limit zoonotic transmission of avian influenza viruses and suggests that adaptation of avian influenza viruses to efficient infection at 32°C may represent a critical evolutionary step enabling human-to-human transmission.
Constructing Maximum-Lifetime Data-Gathering Forests in Sensor Networks

Energy efficiency is critical for wireless sensor networks. The data-gathering process must be carefully designed to conserve energy and extend network lifetime. For applications where each sensor continuously monitors the environment and periodically reports to a base station, a tree-based topology is often used to collect data from sensor nodes. In this work, we first study the construction of a data-gathering tree when there is a single base station in the network. The objective is to maximize the network lifetime, which is defined as the time until the first node depletes its energy. The problem is shown to be NP-complete. We design an algorithm that starts from an arbitrary tree and iteratively reduces the load on bottleneck nodes (nodes likely to soon deplete their energy due to high degree or low remaining energy). We then extend our work to the case when there are multiple base stations and study the construction of a maximum-lifetime data-gathering forest. We show that both the tree and forest construction algorithms terminate in polynomial time and are provably near optimal. We then verify the efficacy of our algorithms via numerical comparisons.
Processing approaches to cognition: The impetus from the levels-of-processing framework

Processing approaches to cognition have a long history, from act psychology to the present, but perhaps their greatest boost was given by the success and dominance of the levels-of-processing framework. We review the history of processing approaches, and explore the influence of the levels-of-processing approach, the procedural approach advocated by Paul Kolers, and the transfer-appropriate processing framework. Processing approaches emphasise the procedures of mind and the idea that memory storage can be usefully conceptualised as residing in the same neural units that originally processed information at the time of encoding. Processing approaches emphasise the unity and interrelatedness of cognitive processes and maintain that they can be dissected into separate faculties only by neglecting the richness of mental life. We end by pointing to future directions for processing approaches.
Depicting the Dead: Commemoration Through Cists, Cairns and Symbols in Early Medieval Britain

This article develops recent interpretations of mortuary practices as contexts for producing social memory and personhood to argue that early medieval cairns and mounds served to commemorate concepts of gender and genealogy. Commemorative strategies are identified in the composite character, shape and location of cairns and in their relationship with other commemorative monuments, namely Class I symbol-stones. The argument is developed through a consideration of the excavations of early medieval cists and cairns at Lundin Links in Fife.
Brachytherapy for oral tongue cancer: an analysis of treatment results with various biological markers.

OBJECTIVE Low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy is an effective treatment for tongue cancer. However, little is known about the biological mechanism underlying this therapy, characterized by delivery of continuous exposures of LDR irradiation. It is reported that lower microvessel density (MVD), lower Ki-67 index or higher expression of endogenous hypoxic markers such as carbonic CA IX and Glut-1 are related to the poor control of tumors treated with external irradiation. To elucidate the biological characteristics of LDR brachytherapy, we analyzed our results in cases of tongue cancer treated with LDR brachytherapy by using immunohistochemical stainings with antibodies against Ki-67 and MVD, Glut-1 and CA IX. METHODS The prognostic value of Ki-67 index, MVD and the expression of CA IX and Glut-1 was assessed in 68 tongue cancers treated with LDR brachytherapy. The specimens were taken from tongue cancers before radiation therapy and immunohistochemical staining was performed. RESULTS The local recurrence-free survival rates were significantly different between T1+T2 and T3 (P = 0.00067), but not between low and high Ki-67 indexes (P = 0.54), between low and high MVD (P = 0.071), low and high CA IX indexes (P = 0.062) or low and high Glut-1 indexes (P = 0.107). T stage, the size of the tumor was the only significant factor for local control in multivariate analyses (P = 0.0377). CONCLUSION LDR could overcome the radioresistence of non-cycling and hypoxic cells; however, we cannot draw firm conclusions due to the limited number of patients.
Femtosecond VECSELs with up to 1-W average output power

We developed novel low-dispersion VECSELs modelocked with fast QD-SESAMs. The first femtosecond modelocked QD-VECSEL achieves 1 W average power with 784-fs pulses. At lower power, we achieved sub-500-fs pulses both with QW- and QD-VECSELs.
Using Multilevel Modeling in Large-Scale Planned Variation Educational Experiments: Improving Understanding of Intervention Effects

Abstract The author shows how one can combine a large-scale planned variation experimental design and multilevel analysis to address research questions that go beyond the issue of overall treatment effectiveness. In particular, the design and analysis approach presented here can address the following research questions: how an educational intervention produces its results, for whom the intervention works, and whether the intervention works well across different contexts. The author used data based on a large-scale educational field experiment to describe multilevel models that one can use to address this set of research questions. Important design and analysis considerations are highlighted, especially with regard to assessing the impact of school-level characteristics.