Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gene expression in Graves' ophthalmopathy and arm lymphedema: similarities and differences.

BACKGROUND Graves' ophthalmopathy (GO) and lymphedema share some pathogenetic mechanisms, such as edema, inflammation, and adipogenesis. The aim of this study was to examine similarities and differences between chronic GO and chronic lymphedema. METHODS Intraorbital adipose tissue was collected from patients with active (n = 10) or chronic GO (n = 10) and thyroid-healthy controls (n = 10). Arm subcutaneous adipose tissue was obtained from patients with chronic arm lymphedema (n = 10), where the unaffected arm served as a control. Gene expression was studied using microarray and real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS The following genes were significantly upregulated (p < 0.05) in lymphedema but not in GO and have functions in wound healing, fibrosis, fat metabolism, inflammation, differentiation, development, adhesion, and the cytoskeleton: ATP-binding cassette, sub-family G (WHITE), member 1 (ABCG1), actin, alpha 2, smooth muscle, aorta (ACTA2), secreted frizzled-related protein 2 (SFRP2), tenascin C (TNC), pentraxin-related gene, rapidly induced by IL-1 beta (PTX3), and carboxypeptidase X (M14 family), member 1 (CPMX1). In chronic GO, but not in lymphedema, adipocyte-related immediate early genes known to be overexpressed in patients with active GO were upregulated but at a lower level than previously shown for the active phase. Genes of the Wnt pathway, such as secreted frizzled-related protein 1, 2, and 3, were up- and downregulated in both chronic GO and lymphedema. Parathyroid hormone-like hormone (PTHLH) was downregulated (p = 0.01) and apolipoprotein L domain containing 1 (APOLD1) was upregulated (p = 0.05) in both active and chronic GO. CONCLUSIONS There are more differences than similarities between chronic ophthalmopathy and chronic lymphedema, but both conditions exhibit less inflammation and adipogenesis compared to the active phases. In lymphedema, fibrosis dominates. PTHLH, which can inhibit adipogenesis, is downregulated both in active and chronic ophthalmopathy, indicating the possibility of an increased risk of adipogenesis.
Electromagnetic interaction in stacked split ring resonator arrays

We theoretically demonstrate the coupling between the unit cells and the interaction between constituents within each cell in metamaterials consisting of stacked split ring resonator arrays which are embedded in a homogeneous dielectric. It is found that the resonant frequency due to plasmon hybridization depends on the symmetry of resonance modes. Both for the first and third order plasmon resonances, we show that the resonances at lower frequency are not sensitive to the variation of lattice density, while the resonances at higher frequency rely on the coupling between cells due to the symmetric distribution of current. The underlying physics is qualitatively interpreted according to the quasistatic electric and magnetic dipole coupling model combined by the calculated field distributions.
Decimalization of the Oxford Clinical Cataract Classification and Grading System

BACKGROUND. A secure methodology for the classification of cataracts into subtypes and for their separate quantification forms a fundamental underpinning of cataract research. The Oxford Clinical Cataract Classification and Grading System provides for this need across a wide range of cataract subtypes. Consideration of the advantages of finer scale intervals in terms of both increased precision and increased sensitivity to change (responsiveness) has stimulated the development of a decimal version of the Oxford system. AIM. To describe rules for the decimalization of the Oxford system and to document the performance following decimalization. METHOD. Theoretical considerations followed by iterative piloting were used to define a set of rules for the decimalization of grading for 10 cataract features. The performance of the decimal version was then formally tested by means of inter- and intra-observer comparisons of repeated measurements. 217 paired observations were pooled to produce a statement relevant to the `multi-user' environment typical of many clinical research programmes. RESULTS. Repeatability indices were good to excellent for most features. The use of finer scale intervals improved the system's ability to detect change (reduced 95% tolerance limits for change) by a factor of around 2 for most features. CONCLUSION. The finer scale intervals provided by decimalization of the Oxford system have produced substantial improvements in reliability as evidenced by high levels of repeatability and scale sensitivity. These improvements provide practical advantages in clinical cataract research.
Mental health from a life-course perspective: The transition from school to work

Adolescents suffering from mental health problems are at risk of dropping out from high school without a basic educational level (BEL) or to be in NEET (Neither in Education, Employment nor Training), and when having entered the labor market in adulthood, to be unemployed and earn lower wages. This may seem obvious but conclusive evidence lacks. Therefore, this thesis aims to determine the impact of mental health problems from childhood to young adulthood on the school-to-work transition from a life course perspective. We used data of the Dutch TRacking Adolescents’ Lives Survey (TRAILS) and of the Danish Vestliv study, both prospective cohort studies. Young adults with a history of externalizing problems were at risk of reaching only a low level of educational attainment. Regarding the school-to-work transition, these young adults were also more likely to be at work without a BEL or to be in NEET. Young adults with a history of internalizing problems had poor labor market participation and reported poorer employment conditions and psychosocial work characteristics (like few possibilities for development and low job satisfaction). These results imply that mental health problems should be detected and treated early in life (i.e., in childhood and early adolescence). To improve the transition into the labor market for young adults with mental health problems, collaboration between schools, youth health care services, employers and occupational health care services is important. For future research, longer follow-up is needed to examine the long-term consequences of early mental health problems regarding employment and work outcomes.
Goal-directed guidance of attention: evidence from conjunctive visual search.

Conjunctive visual search is most difficult when distractor types are in equal proportions and gets easier as the proportions diverge (e.g., E. Zohary & S. Hochstein, 1989). This may reflect restriction of search to the feature shared by the target and the less-frequent distractor. Alternatively, such effects could reflect target salience, which varies with distractor ratio. In 2 experiments, 60 participants searched 64-element displays for a conjunctive target among distractors of 2 types in various proportions. Participants were correctly informed (Experiment 1) or misinformed (Experiment 2) about which distractor type would be less frequent on most trials. In both experiments, the distractor-ratio effect was significantly influenced by the information provided to participants. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of top-down information in guiding attention and show that it can be applied flexibly, weighted toward particular target features.
Energetics of cooperative protein-DNA interactions: comparison between quantitative deoxyribonuclease footprint titration and filter binding.

Using the binding of cI repressor protein to the lambda right and left operators as a model system, we have analyzed the two common experimental techniques for studying the interactions of genome regulatory proteins with multiple, specific sites on DNA. These are the quantitative DNase footprint titration technique [Brenowitz, M. , Senear, D. F. , Shea, M. A. , & Ackers, G. K. (1986) Methods Enzymol. 130, 132-181] and the nitrocellulose filter binding assay [Riggs, A. , Suzuki, H. , & Bourgeois, S. (1970) J. Mol. Biol. 48, 67-83]. The footprint titration technique provides binding curves that separately represent the fractional saturation for each site. In principle, such data contain the information necessary to determine the thermodynamic constants for local site binding and cooperativity. We show that in practice, this is not possible for all values of the constants in multisite systems, such as the lambda operators. We show how these constants can nevertheless be uniquely determined by using additional binding data from a small number of mutant operators in which the number of binding sites has been reduced. The filter binding technique does not distinguish binding to the individual sites and yields only macroscopic binding parameters which are composite averages of the various local site and cooperativity constants. Moreover, the resolution of even macroscopic constants from filter binding data for multisite systems requires ad hoc assumptions as to a relationship between the number of ligands bound and the filter retention of the complex. Our results indicate that no such relationship exists. Hence, the technique does not permit determination of thermodynamically valid interaction constants (even macroscopic) in multisite systems.
Performance evaluation of a multiplex assay for future use in biomarker discovery efforts to predict body composition

Abstract Background: Interest in biomarker patterns and disease has led to the development of immunoassays that evaluate multiple analytes in parallel while using little sample. However, there are no current standards for multiplex configuration, validation, and quality. Thus, validation by platform, population, and question of interest is recommended. We sought to determine the best blood fraction for multiplex evaluation of circulating biomarkers in post-menopausal women, and to explore body composition phenotype discrimination by biomarkers. Methods: Archived serum and plasma samples from a sample of healthy post-menopausal women with the highest (n=9) and lowest (n=11) percent lean mass, as determined by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, were used to measure 90 analytes using bead-based, suspension multiplex assays. Replicates of serum and plasma were analyzed in a random selection of four of these individuals. Results: Ninety percent of the analytes were detectable for ≥50% of samples; when limited to these well detected analytes, mean replicate correlations for serum and plasma were 0.87 and 0.85, respectively. Serum had lower error rates discriminating phenotypes; seven serum vs. two plasma analytes discriminated extreme body phenotypes. Conclusions: Serum and plasma performed similarly for the majority of the analytes. Serum showed a slight advantage in predicting extreme body composition phenotypes in postmenopausal women using parallel evaluation of analytes.
A randomized trial of smoking cessation. Medication versus motivation.

OBJECTIVE A prospective randomized study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness and side effect profiles of nicotine patch and bupropion therapies for smoking cessation. METHODS Three hundred and fifty patients were referred to our smoking cessation program in the Department of Pulmonary Diseases, Gaziantep University between September 2002 and July 2003. Of these, only 131 patients fulfilled the trial criteria. We randomized the patients into nicotine patch (n=50), bupropion (n=50) and control groups (n=31). Cases were followed up for 24 weeks. Questionnaires including the Fagerstrom test for nicotine dependence and Beck Depression Inventory were carried out at initial evaluation. Declaration of quitting and exhaled carbon monoxide level less than 10 ppm was accepted as success criteria. RESULTS Success rates were 26% for nicotine patch group, 26% for bupropion and 16% for control group at the end of the 24th week (p=0.56). Beck depression inventory scores did not differ significantly between the groups, however none of the cases with scores greater than 13 succeeded regardless of the group. Mean body weight at baseline and change at 6 months did not differ significantly between the groups. Sleep disturbance was significantly more common in nicotine patch and bupropion groups than the control group (p=0.008). CONCLUSION The present study reinforces the role of medical doctors and importance of close follow up in smoking cessation, and directed counseling is quite as effective as pharmacologic therapy and is the sole approach without any adverse effects.
Reduced cortical bone mass in mice with inactivation of interleukin‐4 and interleukin‐13

The aim of the present study was to study the in vivo role of IL‐4 and IL‐13 on bone metabolism. The skeletal phenotypes of male and female IL‐13−/− (n = 7+7), IL‐4−/−IL‐13−/− (n = 7+7), and WT (n = 7+7) mice were compared. Analysis was made at 6 weeks of age (juvenile) by pQCT, and at 20 weeks of age (adult) by pQCT, biomechanical testing, and by S‐IGF‐1 and S‐Osteocalcin measurements. The skeletal phenotype was affected only in adult male IL‐4−/−IL‐13−/− mice. These animals displayed a reduction in cortical bone mineral content (BMC) of both the tibia and the femur, as measured by mid‐diaphyseal pQCT scans, compared with WT mice (tibia −8.2%; femur −8.5%; p < 0.01). This reduction in cortical BMC was due to a decreased cross‐sectional area as a result of a reduced cortical thickness. The mechanical strength of the cortical bone, tested by three‐point‐bending at the mid‐diaphyseal region of the femurs, demonstrated a significant reduction of displacement at failure (−11.4%), maximal load at failure (−10.6%), and total energy until failure (−29.4%). S‐IGF‐1 and S‐Osteocalcin levels as well as trabecular bone mineral density (tvBMD) were unaffected in adult male IL‐4−/−IL‐13−/− mice. IL‐4−/−IL‐13−/− male mice show adult onset reduction of cortical bone mass and strength, indicating that the two anti‐inflammatory Th2 cytokines IL‐4 and IL‐13 are involved in the regulation of bone remodeling. © 2006 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 25: 725–731, 2007
Achievable uplink rate analysis for distributed massive MIMO systems with interference from adjacent cells

This work focuses on the multi-cell multi-user distributed massive MIMO (DM-MIMO) systems, of which each user is equipped with single antenna and the base stations (BSs) consists of distributed antenna units. We first investigate the arbitrary BS antenna topology scenario. The derivation indicates that in this case the achievable uplink rate of an arbitrary user in central cell depends on both the number of BS's antennas and the users' access distance to each distributed antenna unit (DAU). As a result, the performance analysis based on the derivations is difficult. To overcome this issue and achieve clearer insight, we then consider a circularly distributed BS antenna array and obtain the asymptotic uplink rate of an arbitrary user by considering the asymptotic case where the number of antennas of BSs tends to infinity. It is achieved that the asymptotic uplink rate only depends on the distance from users' position to the center of reference cell. The presented numerical results show clearly that the distributed massive MIMO systems outperform the centralized ones. Moreover, it is also achieved that the interference from the adjacent cells imposes great impact on system performance. Besides this, in numerical analysis the average asymptotic uplink rate of a user is presented, which is free of the users' position and only depends on the radius of circular antenna arrays. It is achieved the maximum average uplink rate would be achieved when the radius of circularly distributed antenna array goes to its optimization location.
Cloning and nucleotide sequence of a xylanase-encoding gene from Sfrepfomyces

Using the pIJ702 vector, a xylanase-encoding gene (xln) of Streptomyces sp. EC3 has been cloned by functional complementation of a mutant of Sfrepfomyces lividans TK24, producing xy-lanase at a very low level. Normal level of xylanase synthesis was restored in at least three clones, containing the same 3802 bp Sstl DNA fragment. In this fragment, several open reading frames (ORFs) have been identified, one of which coded for a xylanase; the products of the other ORFs did not show homology with any of the already known proteins. The complete nucleotide sequence of the 3802 bp Sstl insert has been determined on both strands. Xylanase is very probably synthesized as a 240 amino acid (aa) precursor (25949 Da) including a long (49 aa) signal sequence presenting significant similarity with the signal sequences of other Strepfomyces xylanase genes. The xylanase aa sequence showed a clear homology with the aa sequences of other xy-lanases of the glycanase C family. The xln gene has been introduced into Streptomyc.
Income Poverty, Affluence and Polarisation Viewed From The Median

The present paper brings together different features of the distribution of income - poverty, affluence and dispersion - in a single framework that allows ready comparisons across countries. We believe that such a unified framework contributes both to the policy debate and to the theoretical understanding of inequality. There are at present largely separate literatures on the measurement of poverty, and (to a limited degree) affluence, and on bi-polariszation. In relation to the EU social indicators, the paper may be seen as providing complementary information.
High Sensitivity Refractive Index Sensor Based on Multicoating Photonic Crystal Fiber With Surface Plasmon Resonance at Near-Infrared Wavelength

A pure silica core photonic crystal fiber with multicoating layers for high refractive index (RI) sensing is proposed. Au is used as the active plasmonic material. Tantalum pentoxide is deposited on Au in order to prevent the oxidation and further enhance the evanescent field. The simulation was preformed through the full-vector finite element method (FEM), and the results show that the proposed fiber sensor can obtain the average wavelength sensitivity of 9180 nm/RIU with the analyte RI range of 1.40–1.44, corresponding to the resolution of 1.09 × 10–5 RIU. Moreover, the maximum amplitude sensitivity of 1739.26 RIU–1 with resolution of 5.75 × 10–6 RIU are also obtained. The designed sensor can be a potential candidate for microfluidic analyte detecting.
Neurometabolic and structural alterations in rat brain due to acute hypobaric hypoxia: in vivo 1H MRS at 7 T

In response to hypobaric hypoxia (HH), which occurs at high altitude, the brain undergoes deleterious changes at the structural and metabolite level. In vivo T2 weighted imaging (T2WI) and 1H‐MRS was performed to understand the structural and metabolic changes in the hippocampus region of rat brain. Data were acquired pre‐exposure (baseline controls), immediately after exposure and subsequently at the first, fourth, seventh and 14th days post exposure at normoxia. T2 weighted images of rat brain showed hyperintensity in the CA2/CA3 region of the hippocampus 7 d after acute HH, which persisted till 14 d, probably indicating structural changes in the hippocampus. 1H‐MRS results showed no change in metabolite level immediately after acute HH exposure, but on the first day of normoxia the myo‐inositol level was significantly decreased, possibly due to altered astrocyte metabolism. Metabolic alterations showing an increase in choline and decrease in glutamate on the fourth day of normoxia may be seen as a process of demyelination and loss of glutamate pool respectively. On the seventh and 14th days of normoxia, decreases in N‐acetylaspartate, creatine and glutamine + glutamate were observed, which might be due to decreased viability of glutamatergic neurons. In vivo 1H‐MRS demonstrated early neurometabolic changes prior to probable structural changes post acute HH exposure. The extension of these studies will help in early risk assessment, developing intervention and strategies for combating HH related changes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Nurse dose as a concept.

PURPOSE To describe the concept of Nurse Dose. METHODS The concept of nurse dose has been identified from decades of clinical research as a concept essential in the delivery of safe and high quality health care. The components of nurse dose were conceptualized through review of the literature from nursing, medicine, and health services research. FINDINGS Nurse dose is conceptualized as having three equally essential components: dose, nurse, and host and host response. Dose in the macro view includes the number of nurses per patient or per population in cities, states, regions, or countries. Dose in a micro view includes the amount of nurse time and the number of contacts. The nurse component consists of the education, expertise, and experience of the nurse. Host is represented by an organization and its characteristics (culture, autonomy, practice control) in a macro view and by the patient and characteristics (beliefs, values, culture) in a micro view. Host response includes response to the autonomy and acceptability of the nurse. CONCLUSIONS Greater nurse dose has been associated with decreases in patient mortality, morbidity, and healthcare costs.
On Term Structure of Yield Rates. 2. The Cox – Ingersoll – Ross Model

Historically, the first popular model of the dynamics of the interest rate is the Vasicek model proposed in 1977. It was considered in the preceding article. In this model, the interest rate has a normal distribution, which is obviously economically untenable, because in terms of the interest rate can not take negative values. At the same time, this model has been used by many for the reason that in many cases the ratio between the average and variance of real rates is such that the probability of their negative values appears very small. At the same time, the analysis of Vasicek's model and the prices of assets based on it is very simple, since it leads to linear problems. Later in 1985, Cox, Ingersoll and Ross proposed another model, also called a "square root model," under which the interest rate assumes only non-negative values and has a gamma distribution. Analysis of interest rates and asset prices based on this model also allows for analytical results, but they are significantly more difficult, since they suggest solving non-linear problems. The possibility of obtaining analytical results is the main advantage of affine models. Analytical results are important, because otherwise yields should be calculated either by Monte Carlo methods or by methods of solving partial differential equations. Both of these approaches are computationally time-consuming, especially when model parameters need to be estimated using samples from bond yield data. Therefore, the literature on determining the bond prices, starting with the works of Vasicek and Cox, Ingersoll and Ross, focused on solutions in a closed form. From a practical point of view it is interesting to consider the problem of how much the results obtained with the help of these models differ. The main purpose of this article is to obtain analytical solutions when analyzing the time structure of interest rates for the yield of zero-coupon bonds using the Cox-Ingersoll-Ross model in a single-factor and multifactor variants. It also compares the yield curves and forward curves resulting from the short-term interest rate behavior models mentioned above.