Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diagnostic classification of shoulder disorders: interobserver agreement and determinants of disagreement

OBJECTIVES To assess the interobserver agreement on the diagnostic classification of shoulder disorders, based on history taking and physical examination, and to identify the determinants of diagnostic disagreement. METHODS Consecutive eligible patients with shoulder pain were recruited in various health care settings in the Netherlands. After history taking, two physiotherapists independently performed a physical examination and subsequently the shoulder complaints were classified into one of six diagnostic categories: capsular syndrome (for example, capsulitis, arthritis), acute bursitis, acromioclavicular syndrome, subacromial syndrome (for example, tendinitis, chronic bursitis), rest group (for example, unclear clinical picture, extrinsic causes) and mixed clinical picture. To quantify the interobserver agreement Cohen’s κ was calculated. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was applied to determine which clinical characteristics were determinants of diagnostic disagreement. RESULTS The study population consisted of 201 patients with varying severity and duration of complaints. The κ for the classification of shoulder disorders was 0.45 (95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.37, 0.54). Diagnostic disagreement was associated with bilateral involvement (odds ratio (OR) 1.9; 95% CI 1.0, 3.7), chronic complaints (OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.1, 3.7), and severe pain (OR 2.7; 95% CI 1.3, 5.3). CONCLUSIONS Only moderate agreement was found on the classification of shoulder disorders, which implies that differentiation between the various categories of shoulder disorders is complicated. Especially patients with high pain severity, chronic complaints and bilateral involvement represent a diagnostic challenge for clinicians. As diagnostic classification is a guide for treatment decisions, unsatisfactory reproducibility might affect treatment outcome. To improve the reproducibility, more insight into the reproducibility of clinical findings and the value of additional diagnostic procedures is needed.
Decreased Endothelin-1 Plasma Levels in Multiple Sclerosis Patients: A Possible Factor of Vascular Dysregulation?

Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating autoimmune disease of the central nervous system with possible involvement of vascular dysregulation secondary to endothelial dysfunction caused by destruction of the vessel wall. Vascular dysregulation leads to excessive vasoconstriction or insufficient vasodilatation, resulting in vasospasm mediated by endothelin-1 (ET-1), the most potent and long-lasting mediator. Vascular dysregulation can play an important role in the pathogenesis of some eye disorders and it has been hypothesized that it is a vascular risk factor for glaucomatous optic neuropathy. The aim of this study was to estimate endothelin-1 (ET-1) plasma levels in patients with MS. Material/Methods The MS group consisted of 39 patients (9 males, 30 females), mean age: 38.8±10.02 years, range: 22–62. The control group consisted of 27 healthy volunteers (3 males and 24 females), mean age: 37.4±10.88 years, range: 20–62; clinically, in a non-active stage of the disease. ET-1 plasma levels were measured using the Endothelin-1 ELISA Kit (Immuno-Biological Laboratories Co., Japan). Statistical analysis was performed with the nonparametric Mann-Whitney U test for independent groups. Results Endothelin-1 (ET-1) plasma levels were significantly lower in MS patients compared to healthy controls: mean value 0.55±0.44 pg/ml (146.05±118.27 fmol/ml) vs. 0.95±0.48 pg/ml (252.83±127.16 fmol/ml); P=0.012. Conclusions Significantly decreased ET-1 plasma levels in the MS patients could reflect the non-active disease at the time of ET-1 measurements or the effects of immunomodulatory treatment, but it cannot be excluded that decreased ET-1 plasma levels in these patients might result from vascular dysregulation.
Cross-Layer Optimal Rate Allocation for Heterogeneous Wireless Multicast

Heterogeneous multicast is an efficient communication scheme especially for multimedia applications running over multihop networks. The term heterogeneous refers to the phenomenon when multicast receivers in the same session require service at different rates commensurate with their capabilities. In this paper, we address the problem of resource allocation for a set of heterogeneous multicast sessions over multihop wireless networks. We propose an iterative algorithm that achieves the optimal rates for a set of heterogeneous multicast sessions such that the aggregate utility for all sessions is maximized. We present the formulation of the multicast resource allocation problem as a nonlinear optimization model and highlight the cross-layer framework that can solve this problem in a distributed ad hoc network environment with asynchronous computations. Our simulations show that the algorithm achieves optimal resource utilization, guarantees fairness among multicast sessions, provides flexibility in allocating rates over different parts of the multicast sessions, and adapts to changing conditions such as dynamic channel capacity and node mobility. Our results show that the proposed algorithm not only provides flexibility in allocating resources across multicast sessions, but also increases the aggregate system utility and improves the overall system throughput by almost 30% compared to homogeneous multicast.
Implementation of public e-procurement in Swedish government entities

An increasing number of organizations in the public sector are beginning to adopt e-procurement, which its benefits (e.g., to reduce costs through increased efficiency in the procurement function) are well known by businesses. The purpose of this paper is to assess the implementation of e-procurement concept within Swedish government authorities during 2001 and 2008. A qualitative research approach was applied, and a longitudinal study was conducted. Data were collected in 2001 and 2008 through structured personal telephone interviews with 15 central government agencies. Results show that the implementation of e-procurement has developed substantially during recent years, but Swedish government authorities have still not yet adopted and utilized e-procurement to its full potential. Benefits and challenges were identified. The implementation and use of e-procurement were also found to have an impact on the buying behavior, i.e., on the buying process, the selection criteria and the buying center.
Visuo-Haptic Mixed Reality with Unobstructed Tool-Hand Integration

Visuo-haptic mixed reality consists of adding to a real scene the ability to see and touch virtual objects. It requires the use of see-through display technology for visually mixing real and virtual objects, and haptic devices for adding haptic interaction with the virtual objects. Unfortunately, the use of commodity haptic devices poses obstruction and misalignment issues that complicate the correct integration of a virtual tool and the user's real hand in the mixed reality scene. In this work, we propose a novel mixed reality paradigm where it is possible to touch and see virtual objects in combination with a real scene, using commodity haptic devices, and with a visually consistent integration of the user's hand and the virtual tool. We discuss the visual obstruction and misalignment issues introduced by commodity haptic devices, and then propose a solution that relies on four simple technical steps: color-based segmentation of the hand, tracking-based segmentation of the haptic device, background repainting using image-based models, and misalignment-free compositing of the user's hand. We have developed a successful proof-of-concept implementation, where a user can touch virtual objects and interact with them in the context of a real scene, and we have evaluated the impact on user performance of obstruction and misalignment correction.
Immunodepletion of albumin and immunoglobulin G from bovine plasma

Current MS‐based proteomics has facilitated the identification of large numbers of proteins from complex mixtures. The bovine plasma proteome has the potential to provide a wealth of information concerning the biological state of an animal. However, during MS‐based experiments, higher abundance proteins such as albumin and immunoglobulin G (IgG) can hinder the identification of potentially important proteins that are present in much lower abundance. While a variety of readily available technologies exist for the depletion of multiple high‐abundance proteins from human, mouse and rat samples, there are few available for bovine. In this study, we report the depletion of >97% of albumin and >92% of IgG from bovine plasma.
Genome-wide analyses of HTLV-1aD strains from Cape Verde, Africa

We characterised and reported the first full-length genomes of Human T-cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 subgroup HTLV-1aD (CV21 and CV79). This subgroup is one of the major determinants of HTLV-1 infections in North and West Africa, and recombinant strains involving this subgroup have been recently demonstrated. The CV21 and CV79 strains from Cape Verde/Africa were characterised as pure HTLV-1aD genomes, comparative analyses including HTLV-1 subtypes and subgroups revealed HTLV-1aD signatures in the envelope, pol, and pX regions. These genomes provide original information that will contribute to further studies on HTLV-1a epidemiology and evolution.
Autonomous and in trans functions for the two halves of Srv2/CAP in promoting actin turnover

Recent evidence has suggested that Srv2/CAP (cyclase‐associated protein) has two distinct functional roles in regulating actin turnover, with its N‐terminus enhancing cofilin‐mediated severing of actin filaments and its C‐terminus catalyzing actin monomer recycling. However, it has remained unclear to what degree these two activities are coordinated by being linked in one molecule, or whether they can function autonomously. To address this, we physically divided the protein into two separate halves, N‐Srv2 and C‐Srv2, and asked whether they are able to function in trans both in living cells and in reconstituted assays for F‐actin turnover and actin‐based motility. Remarkably, in F‐actin turnover assays the stimulatory effects of N‐Srv2 and C‐Srv2 functioning in trans were quantitatively similar to those of intact full‐length Srv2. Further, in bead motility assays and in vivo, the fragments again functioned in trans, although not with the full effectiveness of intact Srv2. From these data, we conclude that the functions of the two halves of Srv2/CAP are largely autonomous, although their linkage improves coordination of the two functions in specific settings, possibly explaining why the linkage is conserved across distant plant, animal, and fungal species. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Congenital heart disease Hyponatraemia : a strong predictor of mortality in adults with congenital heart disease

CLINICAL RESEARCH Congenital heart disease
Application of Particle Swarm Optimization Approach to Optimal Tuning of Load Frequency Controller

The task of load frequency controller (LFC) is to maintain the area generation–demand balance by adjusting the outputs on regulating units in response to deviations of frequency and tie-line power exchange. In this paper, the gain of an integral controller for a two area interconnected power system is designed based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. PSO is a population based stochastic optimization technique derived from simulation of simplified social model. Simulation results on a two area network revealed that the proposed approach optimizes the parameter of integral controller by selecting the optimal gain, which dampens the frequency oscillations and change in tie-line power to zero following a step disturbance.
Interleukin-6 Expression After Repeated Bouts of Eccentric Exercise

Plasma interleukin-6 (IL-6) is known to increase in response to eccentric exercise due to an acute-phase immune response. However, the severity of muscle injury is reduced with repeated bouts of eccentric exercise, possibly as a result of decreases in plasma IL-6. This study determined the response of IL-6 mRNA and IL-6, troponin-I (sTnI), muscle strength, and soreness as a result of repeated bouts of eccentric exercise. Eight males underwent two eccentric exercise bouts (3 wk apart) involving 7 sets of 10 repetitions at 150 % of the isotonic 1-RM of the dominant knee extensors. Blood samples were taken before, after and 2, 4, 6, 24, 48 and 96 h post-exercise. Strength and soreness ratings were assessed before and at 24, 48 and 96 h-post. Data were analyzed with 2 x 4 and 2 x 8 ANOVAs and the non-parametric Friedman test (p < 0.05). Both IL-6 mRNA and IL-6 underwent peak increases (p < 0.05) at 4 h-post and 6 h-post, respectively, but were not different between bouts. However, there were significant changes (p < 0.05) in sTnI, strength, and soreness that were greater after the first bout than the second, characteristic of the repeated bout effect. These results indicate that changes in sTnI, strength and soreness were less with the second eccentric exercise bout whereas the changes in both IL-6 mRNA and protein were not effected between bouts.
The Impact Mechanism of Transformational Leadership Style on Exploitative and Exploratory Learning of ERP Systems

Transformational leadership has been identified as one of the most critical factors in ERP success. However, few studies have explored how transformational leadership impacts ERP success, especially in the assimilation phase. Drawing from organizational learning and leadership theories, we submit that transformational leadership is positively related to exploitative and exploratory learning, mediated by three types of organizational learning culture. We developed a theoretical model and collected data from top and middle managers of 101 organizations in China that have used ERP systems for at least one year. Our results suggest that (1) transformational leadership is positively related with psychological safety, openness to opinions, and participation in decision making learning culture; (2) the learning culture of psychological safety and participation in decision making partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and exploitative learning of ERP systems; (3) the learning culture of participation in decision making and open to opinions partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and exploratory learning of ERP systems. These results provide guidelines for top managers to exercise specific leadership behaviors and promoteappropriate organizational learning culture, in order to realize the ambidexterity of exploitative and exploratory learning of ERP systems to achieve long term ERP success.
Small molecule inhibitors of the IGF-1R/IR axis for the treatment of cancer

Introduction: The IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) is a receptor tyrosine kinase and is well established as a key regulator of tumor cell growth and survival. There is also a growing body of data to support a role for the structurally and functionally related insulin receptor (IR) in human cancer. Bidirectional crosstalk between IGF-1R and IR is observed, where specific inhibition of either receptor confers a compensatory increase in the activity for the reciprocal receptor, therefore dual inhibition of both IGF-1R and IR may be important for optimal efficacy. The importance of IGF-1R and IR as targets in cancer is further underscored by their contribution to resistance against both cytotoxic and molecularly targeted anti-cancer therapeutics. Currently, both IGF-1R-neutralizing antibodies and small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors of IGF-1R/IR are in clinical development. Areas covered: The importance of IGF-1R and IR as cancer targets and how IGF-1R/IR inhibitors may sensitize tumor cells to the anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effects of other anti-tumor agents. The potential advantages of small molecule IGF-1R/IR inhibitors compared with IGF-1R-specific neutralizing antibodies, and the characteristics of small-molecule IGF-1R inhibitors that have entered clinical development. Expert opinion: Because of compensatory crosstalk between IGF-1R and IR, dual IGF-1R and IR tyrosine kinase inhibitors may have superior anti-tumor activity compared to anti-IGF-1R specific antibodies. The clinical success for IGF-1R/IR inhibitors may ultimately be dependent upon our ability to correctly administer these agents to the right niche patient subpopulation using single agent therapy, when appropriate, or using the right combination therapy.
Designing quantizers for coding signals with fixed and variable codeword length

This paper presents various methods for improvements of quantizers design. Both scalar and vector quantizers are considered. Also, design of lossless codes for quantization levels coding is considered. This subject is very current, since quantizers are very important in digital telecommunication systems as a main part of analog-to-digital (A/D) converters.
Cell density ratios in a foveal patch in macaque retina

We examine the assumptions that the fovea contains equal numbers of inner (invaginating or ON) and outer (flat or OFF) midget bipolar cells and equal numbers of inner and outer diffuse bipolar cells. Based on reconstruction from electron photomicrographs of serial thin sections through the fovea of a macaque monkey, we reject both assumptions. First, every foveal L and M cone is presynaptic to one inner and one outer midget bipolar cell; however, S cones are presynaptic to one outer but no inner midget bipolar cell. Second, we measure the density of all foveal cells in the same patch of fovea, affording accurate cell density ratios. For each foveal cone pedicle, at a density of 26,500 mm−2, there is close to one (0.88) outer diffuse bipolar cell but only 0.40 inner diffuse bipolar cells. This asymmetry may be related to differences in resolution and sensitivity for light increments and decrements. We also find one (1.01) Müller cell, one (1.01) amacrine cell in the inner nuclear layer, and close to one (0.83) horizontal cell for each cone pedicle. In addition, for each S cone, there are two inner S-cone bipolar cells and two small bistratified ganglion cells. In total, there are 3.4 cone bipolar cells per cone but only 2.6 ganglion cells per cone. The latter ratio is enough to accommodate one midget ganglion cell for each midget bipolar cell.
Heme Oxygenase-1 Gene Expression Modulates Angiotensin II–Induced Increase in Blood Pressure

The heme-heme oxygenase (HO) system has been implicated in the regulation of vascular reactivity and blood pressure. This study examines the notion that overexpression of HO decreases pressor responsiveness to angiotensin II (Ang II). Five-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats received an intraleft ventricular injection of ≈5×109 cfu/mL of retroviruses containing human HO-1 sense (LSN-HHO-1), rat HO-1 antisense (LSN-RHO-1-AS), or control retrovirus (LXSN). Three months later, rats were instrumented with femoral arterial and venous catheters for mean arterial pressure (MAP) determination and Ang II administration, respectively. Rats injected with LSN-HHO-1, but not with LXSN, expressed human HO-1 mRNA and protein in several tissues. BP increased with administration of Ang II in rats expressing and not expressing human HO-1. However, the Ang II-induced pressor response (mm Hg) in LSN-HHO-1 rats (16±3, 27±3, and 38±3 at 0.5, 2, and 10 ng) was surpassed (P <0.05) in LXSN rats (23±1, 37±2, and 52±2 at 0.5, 2, and 10 ng). Importantly, treating LSN-HHO-1 rats with the HO inhibitor tin mesoporphyrin (SnMP) enhanced (P <0.05) the Ang II-induced pressor response to a level not different from that observed in LXSN rats. Rats injected with LSN-RHO-1-AS showed a decrease in renal HO-1 protein expression and HO activity relative to control LXSN rats. Administration of Ang II (0.1 to 2 ng) caused small (4 to 5 mm Hg) but significant increases in MAP in rats injected with LSN-RHO-1-AS (P <0.05) compared with rats injected with LXSN. These data demonstrate that overexpression of HO-1 brings about a reduction in pressor responsiveness to Ang II, which is most likely due to increased generation of an HO-1 product, presumably CO, with the ability to inhibit vascular reactivity to constrictor stimuli.
1 Optimized Cluster-Enabled HMMER Searches

Protein sequence analysis tools to predict homology, structure and function of particular peptide sequences exist in abundance. One of the most commonly used tools is the profile hidden Markov model algorithm developed by Eddy [Eddy, 1998] and coworkers [Durbin et al., 1998]. These tools allow scientists to construct mathematical models (Hidden Markov Models or HMM) of a set of aligned protein sequences with known similar function and homology, which is then applicable to a large database of proteins. The tools provide the ability to generate a log-odds score as to whether or not the protein belongs to the same family as the proteins which generated the HMM, or to a set of random unrelated sequences. Due to the complexity of the calculation, and the possibility to apply many HMM’s to a single sequence (pfam search), these calculations require significant numbers of processing cycles. Efforts to accelerate these searches have resulted in several platform and hardware specific variants including an Altivec port by Lindahl [Lindahl, 2005], a GPU port of hmmsearch by Horn et al. of Stanford [Horn et al., 2005] as well as several optimizations performed by the authors of this chapter. These optimizations span a range between minimal source code changes with some impact upon performance, to recasting the core algorithms in terms of a different computing technology and thus fundamentally altering the calculation. Each approach has specific benefits and costs. Detailed descriptions of the author’s modifications can also be found in [Walters et al., 2006, Landman et al., 2006]. The remainder of this chapter is organized as follows: in section 1.2 we give a brief overview of HMMER and the underlying plan-7 architecture. In section 1.3 we discuss several different strategies that have been used to implement and accelerate HMMER on a variety of platforms. In section 1.4 we detail our optimizations and provide performance details. We conclude this chapter in section 1.5
Submodular Approximation: Sampling-based Algorithms and Lower Bounds

We introduce several generalizations of classical computer science problems obtained by replacing simpler objective functions with general submodular functions.The new problems include submodular load balancing, which generalizes load balancing or minimum-makespan scheduling, submodular sparsest cut and submodular balanced cut, which generalize their respective graph cut problems, as well as submodular function minimization with a cardinality lower bound. We establish upper and lower bounds for the approximability of these problems with a polynomial number of queries to a function-value oracle.The approximation guarantees for most of our algorithms are of the order of radic(n/ln n). We show that this is the inherent difficulty of the problems by proving matching lower bounds.We also give an improved lower bound for the problem of approximately learning a monotone submodular function. In addition, we present an algorithm for approximately learning submodular functions with special structure, whose guarantee is close to the lower bound. Although quite restrictive, the class of functions with this structure includes the ones that are used for lower bounds both by us and in previous work. This demonstrates that if there are significantly stronger lower bounds for this problem, they rely on more general submodular functions.