Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ELONGATED STYLOID PROCESSES: Report of Two Cases

Most instances of elongated or otherwise abnormal styloid processes that have been reported were observed by anatomists rather than by clinicians. It is probable that numerous cases of elongated styloid processes have been observed and treated by operation when necessary, but relatively few have been recorded. The credit for the first authentic report of clinical symptoms with subsequent removal of the styloid process goes to Weinlecher, for a case observed in 1872. Ossification of the stylohyoid ligament, however, had been recorded as early as 1652 by Demanchetis. The normal styloid process measures between 2.5 and 3 cm. The tip is cartilaginous and is continued over to the lesser cornu of the hyoid bone as a band known as the stylohyoid ligament. Total calcification of this ligament has been observed anatomically. According to Dwight, 1 the styloid process can be divided into four portions. The most proximal, a cuplike portion, is called
Response to Letter Regarding Article, “Prolonged Tpeak to Tend Interval on the Resting Electrocardiogram Is Associated With Increased Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death”

We appreciated hearing from Opthof and colleagues regarding our recently published paper from the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study, with the observation that prolonged Tpeak-Tend interval (TpTe) from the 12-lead ECG is an independent predictor of sudden death in the general population.1 Clearly, the first report of such an association will not establish a place for any given predictor in the sudden death risk stratification repertoire. This always requires validation in separate populations …
Uso da fluorescência de raios X portátil (XRF) in vivo como técnica alternativa para acompanhamento dos níveis de ferro em pacientes com sobrecarga de ferro

The viability of the X-ray fluorescence technique as an alternative to follow up iron levels in patients suffering from thalassemia major (beta-thalassemia) and hereditary hemochromatosis was investigated. The measurements were carried out in the University Hospital Blood Center and in the Laboratory of Applied Nuclear Physics of the State University of Londrina. One thalassemia major patient and four healthy individuals were enrolled in the study. A portable X-ray fluorescence system consisting in a 238Pu X-ray source and a Si PIN diode detector was used for in vivo measurements of the hand. The system was calibrated using 15 to 150 ppm concentrations of iron in an aqueous solution. The duration of each measurement was 50 seconds. The achieved detection limit was 13 ppm of iron. The radiation dose on the skin was 10 mSv. The thalassemia patient presented with 74 ± 6 ppm of iron, whereas the healthy individuals presented with an average of 53 ± 5 ppm of iron. The results are in accordance with prior publications that reported iron levels in the skin of between 15 and 60 ppm in healthy people and between 70 and 150 ppm in thalassemia major patients. In conclusion the X-ray Fluorescence technique is viable in the follow- up of thalassemia major and Hereditary Hemochromatosis patients.
Introduction to odontoid fractures: controversies in the management of odontoid fractures

Although odontoid fractures were first classified more than 25 years ago,5 the management of these fractures remains controversial. Whereas the nonoperative management with external immobilization devices often leads to successful healing, certain fracture features and patient characteristics have been associated with an increased risk of bone nonunion.6,17 Recent technological advances in cervical spine instrumentation techniques have provided additional options for the management of these common fractures.1,12,13,24,27,28 However, an absence of rigorous studies in which the investigators compare management methods may contribute to the varying methods used by spine surgeons when approaching similar injuries. In this issue of Neurosurgical Focus, various aspects of the management of odontoid fractures are examined. In an evidence-based analysis of methods for treating odontoid fractures the authors examine the best available published data to determine the level of scientific data supporting the use of v.
HUMAN IMMUNITY TO THE MENINGOCOCCUS

Purified meningococcal polysaccharides were administered to army recruits. No adverse reactions were observed in 145 men who received group C polysaccharide, and in 53 men who were injected with group A polysaccharide. Hemagglutinating and bactericidal activity developed in the sera of all individuals with the exception of two recruits injected with A polysaccharide. During the 6 wk period of observation, the proportion of unvaccinated recruits who acquired group C meningococci in the three companies studied was 38, 42, and 69 per cent. A significantly lower proportion of the individuals vaccinated with group C polysaccharide acquired group C meningococci; 4.6, 24, and 31 per cent respectively.
Importance of the cytological samples for the epidermal growth factor receptor gene mutation test for non‐small cell lung cancer

Mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene confer it with cancer driver gene functions in non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Epidermal growth factor receptor ‐tyrosine kinase inhibitors are effective agents against NSCLC with a mutated EGFR gene. Accordingly, many guidelines recommend the use of an EGFR mutation test in NSCLC. However, not all patients are tested in most countries where tissue samples are mainly used for the test. As of 2011, most of the patients with advanced NSCLC are tested in Japan, and the use of cytological samples has significantly contributed to this success. A portion of samples used to determine a definite diagnosis of NSCLC, either tissue samples or cytological samples, is ensured to contain cancer cells, and is then investigated by an EGFR mutation test that is applicable to both tissue samples and cytological samples. Cytological samples now account for one‐third of all the samples investigated. EGFR mutation is detected in cytological samples at a similar rate with tissue samples. The criterion ensuring an EGFR mutation test to have satisfactory sensitivity and specificity for use in both tissue and cytological samples is presented. Cytological samples are valuable clinical sources being collected less invasively than tissue samples, and should therefore be extensively used in EGFR mutation testing.
Preparing Family Caregivers for the Death of a Loved One: Implications for Hospital Social Workers

ABSTRACT Providing care to a seriously ill loved one at end of life is very difficult. Many family caregivers, however, are not prepared for the death and may suffer more psychological morbidity as a result. Although the scope of social workers' practice makes them ideal professionals to work with caregivers, there is little research about the role they play in preparing caregivers for the death. Focus groups and semistructured interviews conducted with caregivers of terminally ill patients revealed that hospital social workers were not generally perceived as helpful in preparing them for the death. Caregivers reported many unmet needs for which social workers' expertise would have been invaluable—i.e., needs for better communication with health care providers, psychosocial support, and accessing resources. Future work should be directed to verifying our findings and determining how to overcome barriers that prevent hospital social workers from preparing caregivers for the death of a loved one.
Derandomized Learning of Boolean Functions over Finite Abelian Groups

We employ the Always Approximately Correct or AAC model defined in [35], to prove learnability results for classes of Boolean functions over arbitrary finite Abelian groups. This model is an extension of Angluin's Query model of exact learning. The Boolean functions we consider belong to approximation classes, i.e. functions that are approximable (in various norms) by few Fourier basis functions, or irreducible characters of the domain Abelian group. We contrast our learnability results to previous results for similar classes in the PAC model of learning with and without membership queries. In addition, we discuss new, natural issues and questions that arise when the AAC model is used. One such question is whether a uniform training set is available for learning any function in a given approximation class. No analogous question seems to have been studied in the context of Angluin's Query model. Another question is whether the training set can be found quickly if the approximation class of the function is completely unknown to the learner, or only partial information about the approximation class is given to the learner (in addition to the answers to membership queries). In order to prove the learnability results in this paper we require new techniques for efficiently sampling Boolean functions using the character theory of finite Abelian groups, as well as the development of algebraic algorithms. The techniques result in other natural applications closely related to learning, for example, query complexity of deterministic algorithms for testing linearity, efficient pseudorandom generators, and estimating VC dimensions for classes of Boolean functions over finite Abelian groups.
Instance-Specific Solutions For Accelerating The Cky Parsing Of Large Context-Free Grammars

The main contribution of this paper is an FPGA-based implementation of an instance-specific hardware which accelerates the CKY (Cocke-Kasami- Younger) parsing of context-free grammars. Given a context-free grammar G and a string x, the CKY parsing determines whether G derives x. We developed a hardware generator that creates a Verilog HDL source to perform the CKY parsing for any fixed context-free grammar G. The generated source is embedded in an FPGA using the design software provided by the FPGA vendor. The results show that our instance-specific hardware solution attains an astonishing speed-up factor of up to 3,700 over traditional software solutions.
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Chemokine Receptors in Lipid Bilayer: A Case Study on C–C Chemokine Receptor Type 2

Chemokine receptors belong to the membrane proteins that are included in many physiological phenomena. However, the mechanism of their action is unknown at the atomistic level in different aspects. In this study, a computational pipeline is exploited to investigate the molecular basis of how the structure of C–C chemokine receptor type 2, a prototypical chemokine receptor, is affected by lipid bilayer and an antagonist (INCB3344). This study includes homology modeling, molecular dynamics simulation in lipid bilayer, and docking. A detailed mechanism of INCB3344 has been described. Tyr 49, Trp 98, Tyr 120, His 121, and Glu 291 are proved to play important roles in binding. Integrating results obtained in this study and experimental data help us to suggest a two‐step ligand‐binding mechanism. The N‐terminus of protein first sticks out from the extracellular domain suitable for the contact with the antagonist. Binding of ligand to this segment leads to the geometrical changes to facilitate the ligand interactions with extracellular loop 2 of C–C chemokine receptor type 2. Finally, the interactions occurring between extracellular loop 2 and ligand induce conformational changes in C–C chemokine receptor type 2 structure. These changes bring the ligand closer to the binding pocket, allowing the interaction between INCB3344 and the residues of active site.
Structure‐Based Evaluation of C5 Derivatives in the Catechol Diether Series Targeting HIV‐1 Reverse Transcriptase

Using a computationally driven approach, a class of inhibitors with picomolar potency known as the catechol diethers were developed targeting the non‐nucleoside‐binding pocket of HIV‐1 reverse transcriptase. Computational studies suggested that halogen‐bonding interactions between the C5 substituent of the inhibitor and backbone carbonyl of conserved residue Pro95 might be important. While the recently reported crystal structures of the reverse transcriptase complexes confirmed the interactions with the non‐nucleoside‐binding pocket, they revealed the lack of a halogen‐bonding interaction with Pro95. To understand the effects of substituents at the C5 position, we determined additional crystal structures with 5‐Br and 5‐H derivatives. Using comparative structural analysis, we identified several conformations of the ethoxy uracil dependent on the strength of a van der Waals interaction with the Cγ of Pro95 and the C5 substitution. The 5‐Cl and 5‐F derivatives position the ethoxy uracil to make more hydrogen bonds, whereas the larger 5‐Br and smaller 5‐H position the ethoxy uracil to make fewer hydrogen bonds. EC50 values correlate with the trends observed in the crystal structures. The influence of C5 substitutions on the ethoxy uracil conformation may have strategic value, as future derivatives can possibly be modulated to gain additional hydrogen‐bonding interactions with resistant variants of reverse transcriptase.
Structure–Function Relationship of Val/Arg‐rich Peptides: Effects of Net Charge and Pro on Activity

Our previous study reported Val/Arg‐rich peptides, and the relationship was linear between hydrophobicity and antimicrobial potency within a certain range. Here, we further develop a new series of analogs to investigate the effect of net charge and Pro residue on activity. Replacement of Gly with Ala or Pro led to the decrease in antimicrobial activity. The substitution of Gly with Ala retained its hemolytic activity, while the substitution with Pro significantly decreased the toxicity, suggesting positive effect of Pro on hemolytic activity. The increase in net charge from +4 to +6 significantly improved antimicrobial activity and decreased the hemolysis. However, antibacterial and hemolytic activities were not affected by increasing the net charge from +6 to +8, indicating a moderate net positive charge. The peptides produced larger blue shifts in PE/PG than in PC/cholesterol, suggesting a stronger affinity with negatively charged membrane over zwitterionic membrane. Lowering the net charge or insert of Pro led to the lack of α‐helical structure in SDS micelles, which may be correlated with weakened antimicrobial potency. This study indicated that Val/Arg‐rich peptides should have moderate net charge and Pro may play a role in reducing the toxicity against red blood cells.
Online Scheduling of mixed CPU-GPU jobs

We consider the online scheduling problem in a CPU-GPU cluster. In this problem there are two sets of processors, the CPU processors and the GPU processors. Each job has two distinct processing times, one for the CPU processor and the other for the GPU processor. Once a job is released, a decision should be made immediately about which processor it should be assigned to. The goal is to minimize the makespan, i.e., the largest completion time among all the processors. Such a problem could be seen as an intermediate model between the scheduling problem on identical machines and unrelated machines. We provide a 3.85-competitive online algorithm for this problem and show that no online algorithm exists with competitive ratio strictly less than 2. We also consider two special cases of this problem, the balanced case where the number of CPU processors equals to that of GPU processors, and the one-sided case where there is only one CPU or GPU processor. For the balanced case, we first provide a simple 3-competitive algorithm, and then a better algorithm with competitive ratio of 2.732 is derived. For the one-sided case, a 3-competitive algorithm is given.
A Discovery Strategy for Selective Inhibitors of c‐Src in Complex with the Focal Adhesion Kinase SH3/SH2‐binding Region

The c‐Src tyrosine kinase co‐operates with the focal adhesion kinase to regulate cell adhesion and motility. Focal adhesion kinase engages the regulatory SH3 and SH2 domains of c‐Src, resulting in localized kinase activation that contributes to tumor cell metastasis. Using assay conditions where c‐Src kinase activity required binding to a tyrosine phosphopeptide based on the focal adhesion kinase SH3‐SH2 docking sequence, we screened a kinase‐biased library for selective inhibitors of the Src/focal adhesion kinase peptide complex versus c‐Src alone. This approach identified an aminopyrimidinyl carbamate compound, WH‐4‐124‐2, with nanomolar inhibitory potency and fivefold selectivity for c‐Src when bound to the phospho‐focal adhesion kinase peptide. Molecular docking studies indicate that WH‐4‐124‐2 may preferentially inhibit the ‘DFG‐out’ conformation of the kinase active site. These findings suggest that interaction of c‐Src with focal adhesion kinase induces a unique kinase domain conformation amenable to selective inhibition.
Prevalence of depression in mothers of children suffering from psychiatric and physical disorders

Background Adverse impact of child mental disorders on the mental health of mothers is reported from other parts of the world but data is not from South Asia. Objectives To study the prevalence of depression among mothers seeking help for mental disorders in their children and compare it with that of mothers whose children are receiving treatment for physical disorders. Method Depression in mothers was assessed using self-rating and observer-rating standardized scales. The opinions of mothers regarding sensitivity to child and sense of behaviour control were also assessed. Results Prevalence in both groups of mothers was twice that of adult women in the community with regard to moderate and severe depression. Proportionately more mothers with mentally disordered children felt less sensitive towards the child, less in control of behaviour, and less supported by others when compared to those with physically disordered children. Conclusions Mothers of mentally disordered children should be screened for depression, stress and poor coping.
Temporal Logics for Trace Systems: On Automated Verification

We investigate an extension of CTL (Computation Tree Logic) by past modalities, called CTLP, interpreted over Mazurkiewicz’s trace systems. The logic is powerful enough to express most of the partial order properties of distributed systems like serializability of database transactions, snapshots, parallel execution of program segments, or inevitability under concurrency fairness assumption. We show that the model checking problem for the logic is NP-hard, even if past modalities cannot be nested. Then, we give a one exponential time model checking algorithm for the logic without nested past modalities. We show that all the interesting partial order properties can be model checked using our algorithm. Next, we show that is is possible to extend the model checking algorithm to cover the whole language and its extension to . Finally, we prove that the logic is undecidable and we discuss consequences of our results on using propositional versions of partial order temporal logics to synthesis of concurrent systems from their specifications.
Wavelet-Like Receptive Fields Emerges by Non-Linear Minimization of Neuron Error

Redundancy reduction as a form of neural coding has been since the early sixties a topic of large research interest. A number of strategies has been proposed, but the one which is attracting most attention recently assumes that this coding is carried out so that the output signals are mutually independent. In this work we go one step further and suggest an strategy to deal also with non-orthogonal signals (i.e., "dependent" signals). Moreover, instead of working with the usual squared error, we design a neuron where the non-linearity is operating on the error. It is computationally more economic and, importantly, the permutation/scaling problem is avoided. The framework is given with a biological background, as we avocate throughout the manuscript that the algorithm fits well the single neuron and redundancy reduction doctrine. Moreover, we show that wavelet-like receptive fields emerges from natural images processed by this algorithm.
ff14IDPs force field improving the conformation sampling of intrinsically disordered proteins

Intrinsically disordered proteins are proteins which lack of specific tertiary structure and unable to fold spontaneously without the partner binding. These intrinsically disordered proteins are found to associate with various diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. However, current widely used force fields, such as ff99SB, ff14SB, OPLS/AA, and Charmm27, are insufficient in sampling the conformational characters of intrinsically disordered proteins. In this study, the CMAP method was used to correct the φ/ψ distributions of disorder‐promoting amino acids. The simulation results show that the force filed parameters (ff14IDPs) can improve the φ/ψ distributions of the disorder‐promoting amino acids, with RMSD less than 0.10% relative to the benchmark data of intrinsically disordered proteins. Further test suggests that the calculated secondary chemical shifts under ff14IDPs are in quantitative agreement with the data of NMR experiment for five tested systems. In addition, the simulation results show that ff14IDPs can still be used to model structural proteins, such as tested lysozyme and ubiquitin, with better performance in coil regions than the original general Amber force field ff14SB. These findings confirm that the newly developed Amber ff14IDPs is a robust model for improving the conformation sampling of intrinsically disordered proteins.
Structural MRI correlates of apathy symptoms in older persons without dementia

Objective: We aimed to investigate the relation between apathy symptoms and structural brain changes on MRI, including white matter lesions (WMLs) and atrophy, in a large cohort of older persons. Methods: Cross-sectional analyses are based on 4,354 persons without dementia (aged 76 ± 5 years) participating in the population-based Age, Gene/Environment Susceptibility–Reykjavik Study. Apathy symptoms were assessed with 3 items from the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. Brain volumes and total WML volume were estimated on 1.5-tesla MRI using an automated segmentation program; regional WML load was calculated using a semiquantitative scale. Regression analyses were adjusted for age, sex, education, intracranial volume, vascular risk factors, physical activity, brain infarcts, depressive symptoms, antidepressants, and cognitive status. Results: Compared to those with <2 apathy symptoms, participants with ≥2 apathy symptoms (49% of the cohort) had significantly smaller gray matter volumes (mean adjusted difference −3.6 mL, 95% confidence interval [CI] −6.2 to −1.0), particularly in the frontal and temporal lobes; smaller white matter volumes (mean adjusted difference −1.9 mL, 95% CI −3.6 to −0.3), mainly in the parietal lobe; and smaller thalamus volumes. They were also more likely to have WMLs in the frontal lobe (adjusted odds ratio = 1.08, 95% CI 0.9–1.3). Excluding participants with a depression diagnosis did not change the associations. Conclusions: In this older population without dementia, apathy symptoms are associated with a more diffuse loss of both gray and white matter volumes, independent of depression.