Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Giant Cell Tumor of Bone With Pseudosarcomatous Changes Leading to Premature Denosumab Therapy Interruption

Denosumab has shown promising results in the management of giant cell tumor of bone, a primary bone tumor with locally aggressive behaviour. We report a case of premature denosumab interruption due to radiological and clinical tumor expansion of a giant cell tumor of the distal ulna. Although denosumab is known to induce tumor regression, with progressive ossification and loss of the characteristic morphology of giant cell tumor of bone, the ulnar tumor specimen showed a moderately to highly cellular proliferation of short spindle-shaped cells, and no osteoclast-like giant cells. There were no abnormal mitotic figures. We considered the surgical specimen as a giant cell tumor of bone with partial regression after prematurely interrupted denosumab treatment. This case illustrates the diagnostic issues of an initially unfavourable evolution raising concern for malignancy, and the difficulties in histological assessment of a partially treated giant cell tumor of bone, that may mimic osteosarcoma.
Design a memory variable structure AQM controller with input-delay estimation

According to TCP RENO response mechanism to the loss packet in the congestion link, the concept of loss packet response time (LPRT) was defined and the TCP/AQM dynamic model in common use was modified with the LPRT. The iterative learning method which is sufficiently utilizing the history information of congestion link was proposed to estimate the LPRT. A linear model including both estimated and true LPRT was obtained by using the linearization technique and input-delay memory compensation. A memory variable structure (MVS) control is proposed for the robust stabilization of uncertain linear input-delay system with matching parametric perturbations. The proposed sliding surface includes a memory to compensate for the input delay of the system. A robust control law is derived to ensure the existence of a sliding mode and to overcome the effects of the input-delay and uncertainty in the sliding mode. The simulation results confirm that the proposed schemes efficiency and stability.
Stable States Transition Approach - A New Strategy for Walking Robots Control in Uncertain Environments

A new strategy for walking robots control in uncertain environments, called Stable States Transition Approach (SSTA), is proposed in this paper. All the controls, both the steps succession and the evolution inside each step are established by the evolution environment and by the objective proposed during the evolution. There are no predetermined types of legs movements; they are on-line determined during the robot evolution, irrespective of the ground shape. To apply this strategy it was necessary the robot interpretation as a Variable Causality Dynamic Systems (VCDS). Experimental results are implemented and verified in RoPa, a platform for simulation and design of walking robot control algorithms, to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control method.
Changes in depressive symptoms and functional disability among community-dwelling depressive older adults

ABSTRACT Background: Previous studies have shown that the presence of depressive symptoms among older persons was evidently associated with subsequent physical and functional decline. However, few studies have directly examined the impact of changes in depressive symptoms or depressed mood on changes in functional ability. The present prospective study examined whether changes in the levels and remission of depressive symptoms were associated with changes in functional ability among community-living older persons who were treated for depressive symptoms in a primary care setting. Methods: Older persons aged 60 and above with depressive symptoms (N = 267) were followed up in a primary care treatment program over 12 months. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), and instrumental and basic activities of daily living (IADL and ADL) were measured at baseline and at 12-month follow-up. The associations of GDS change scores and conversion to non-depressed status with ADL and IADL change scores, controlling for baseline covariates including chronic medical comorbidity and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), were examined in multiple regression analyses. Results: An improvement in GDS scores (baseline score minus 12-month score) was significantly associated with improvement (12-month score minus baseline score) in ADL (β = 0.355, p < 0.001) and IADL scores (β = 0.165, p = 0.018) after adjusting for baseline functional status, MMSE, chronic medical comorbidities, and other variables. In particular, conversion in GDS status to “non-depressive” state (GDS ≤4) was associated with an improvement in ADL change scores (β = 0.281, p = 0.019). Conclusion: In depressed older persons, an improvement in depressive symptoms was associated with improved functional ability.
A comparison between the TORUS and AFIR axial-flux permanent-magnet machine using finite element analysis

This paper presents a comparison between TORUS and AFIR, the two topologies for double-sided axial-flux permanent-magnet machines. Their slotted and non-slotted topologies were investigated and compared in terms of power density and torque quality. The critical field analysis of the topologies was by finite element method. Results show TORUS topology's high power-density in high current-density and low electrical-loading. AFIR topology has high power in low current-density and high electrical-loading. Non-slotted TORUS and AFIR AFPM machines have negligible cogging torque and lower ripple torque than their slotted counterparts.
The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Enterprises in Small Backward Economies: The Case of Chad and Gabon

This paper examines the impact of trade and fiscal reforms and of the 1994 devaluation of the CFA franc on enterprise development in Chad and Gabon. These reforms provide a natural experiment to assess the impact of trade liberalization in countries with a small and backward manufacturing sector. The empirical analysis is based on a new panel data base covering virtually the whole population of manufacturing firms in Chad and Gabon, and containing data spanning from the year before to two years after the reforms. The paper finds that although firms' response to changing incentives was non-negligible, with a shift of output from nontradable to tradable and an increase in productivity, the reform process was unable to generate a virtuous and self-sustained circle, where export expansion brings a generalized productivity increase which in turn feeds on further export growth. Copyright © 2006 The Authors; Journal compilation © 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Changes in short-term power output in 10- to 12-year-olds

In this study, we used multi‐level regression modelling to assess the influence of age, sex, body size, skinfold thicknesses, maturity, thigh muscle volume and isokinetic leg strength on the development of load- and inertia‐adjusted peak (1 s) and mean power (30 s) determined using the Wingate anaerobic test. Fifteen males and 19 females were measured twice, first aged 10.0±45 0.3 years and then aged 11.8 ± 0.3 years. Initial models identified body mass and height as significant explanatory variables ( P < 0.05) for peak power and mean power, with an additional age effect for the former. No significant differences between the sexes or maturity effects were observed for either peak or mean power ( P > 0.05). The introduction of sum of skinfolds improved the fit of the model and rendered the height term non‐significant for both peak and mean power ( P > 0.05). An age effect became apparent for mean power. When isokinetic leg strength and thigh muscle volume were entered into the model, the latter exerted a significant effect on both peak and mean power ( P < 0.05), whereas isokinetic leg strength was not a significant explanatory variable for either ( P > 0.05). In conclusion, thigh muscle volume exerts a positive influence on young people's short‐term power output, which is additional to the effects of body mass, sum of skinfolds and age.
Impact of weight change since age 20 and cardiovascular disease mortality risk: the Ohsaki Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND It is unclear whether weight change since young adulthood affects the risk of mortality due to cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this study was to investigate weight change since age 20 in relation to the risk of CVD mortality. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 41,364 eligible Japanese men and women aged 40-79 years participated in the Ohsaki Cohort Study baseline survey in 1994. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for CVD mortality were calculated according to weight change since age 20 (loss ≥ 10.0 kg; loss 5.0-9.9 kg; stable [± 4.9 kg]; gain 5.0-9.9 kg; gain ≥ 10.0 kg). During 13.3 years of follow-up, 1,756 participants died of CVD. The association between weight change and CVD mortality was L-shaped in men and U-shaped in women; the multivariate HR (95% CI) for men with weight loss ≥ 10.0 kg was 1.52 (1.25-1.85), and that for women with weight loss ≥ 10.0 kg and weight gain ≥ 10.0 kg was 1.62 (1.25-2.11) and 1.36 (1.09-1.69), respectively. Cross-classification analysis based on body mass index (BMI) at age 20 and weight change tended to be U-shaped, except for men whose BMI had been <25 kg/m(2) at age 20, in which case it was L-shaped. CONCLUSIONS Weight loss since young adulthood is associated with excess risk of mortality due to CVD in men, while a U-shaped relationship was observed for women.
Edge Effects and Isolation: Red‐Backed Voles Revisited

Abstract: We examined demographic responses of California red‐backed voles (Clethrionomys californicus) to forest fragmentation in southwestern Oregon at sites where this species has previously shown negative responses to fragmentation. Voles were captured in live traps and released. Voles were rarely caught in clearcuts surrounding 11 forest fragments, but relative vole density did not decrease from the forest‐fragment interiors to edges. The first result agrees with previous findings at these sites 6 years earlier, but the latter result does not. There was no evidence that vole response to edge changes with fragment age. Two years of intensive mark‐recapture efforts at two forest‐fragment sites and two unfragmented (control) sites did not show negative effects of fragmentation on vole survival, an important demographic rate. Vole capture probabilities varied greatly across space and time on these four sites, which may explain the differences in vole responses to edge seen between this and the previous study. These results suggest that reliable appraisal of edge effects may be difficult for many species on small fragments because the data necessary to apply population estimators require great efforts to obtain and the use of indices leads to a confounding of detection probabilities with demographic change.
HIV infection among youth in a South African mining town is associated with herpes simplex virus-2 seropositivity and sexual behaviour

ObjectivesTo determine the seroprevalence of HIV and herpes simplex virus-2 (HSV-2) by age and gender among young people aged 14-24 years in a South African town and to identify risk factors for HIV infection. DesignA community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted on a random sample of men (n = 723) and women (n = 784) living in a township in the Carletonville district of South Africa. MethodsPotential demographic and behavioural risk factors associated with HIV were recorded by questionnaire and biological tests were performed on serum and urine. Data analysis was performed using multivariate logistic regression. ResultsAmong men and women the prevalence of HIV infection was 9.4 and 34.4%, respectively, and of positive HSV-2 serology was 17.0 and 53.3%, respectively. Among 24-year-old women the prevalence of HIV was 66.7% [95% confidence interval (CI), 54.6–77.3%]. HSV-2 seropositivity was a strong independent risk factor for HIV infection with odds ratios of 5.3 (95% CI, 2.7–10.3) for men and 8.4 (95% CI, 4.9–14.2) for women. There was no independent effect of age at first sex or serological markers of other sexually transmitted infections on HIV infection. ConclusionsHIV infection among young women increases rapidly after the onset of sexual activity and reaches extremely high levels by 24 years of age. These findings suggest that rates of HIV transmission from men to women are high and that HSV-2 plays a major role in the spread of HIV in this population.
Improvement on automatic speaker gender identification using classifier fusion

In this paper, a two layer classifier fusion technique is proposed for automatic gender identification (AGI). The first layer is an acoustic classification layer for mapping MFCC acoustic feature space to score space. In this layer, a divisive clustering is proposed for dividing the speakers from each gender to some classes of speakers having similar vocal articulatory. The second layer is a back-end classifier that receives the vectors of fused likelihood scores from the first layer. GMM, SVM and MLP classifiers were evaluated in the middle and back-end layers. 96.53% gender classification accuracy was obtained on OGI multilingual corpus which is much better than the performance obtained by traditional AGI methods.
Influence of H-D isotopic substitution on the protonic conductivity of LiNbO3.

The electric dc dark conductivity in congruent ${\mathrm{LiNbO}}_{3}$ has been studied in the temperature range 80\char21{}600 \ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C as a function of the proton and deuteron concentration and the driving electric field. The conductivity was found to follow an Arrhenius-like behavior with an activation energy equal for protons and deuterons, ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\varepsilon}}}_{\mathrm{act}}$=1.23 eV. The pre-exponential factor ${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}_{0}$ shows a linear concentration dependence for both H and D, but with different slopes. The ratio of the slopes yields (\ensuremath{\partial}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}_{0}$/\ensuremath{\partial}c${)}_{\mathrm{H}}$/(\ensuremath{\partial}${\mathrm{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}_{0}$/\ensuremath{\partial}c${)}_{\mathrm{D}}$=1.36. This agrees with the mass dependence of the attempt frequencies in a hopping model of protons and deuterons and rules out models of OH-OD migration. The conductivity was found to be independent of the electric field up to values of ${10}^{5}$ V/cm, which is comparable to inner electric fields in volume holograms in ${\mathrm{LiNbO}}_{3}$. In the temperature range accessible to both methods, the dc and the holographically measured values of the conductivity agree very well, displaying the same temperature and concentration dependence. The charge-carrier concentration was determined from the integrated absorption strength of the ir OH-OD stretch-mode absorption of proton- and deuteron-exchanged waveguides with a known rate of exchange of Li by H-D, yielding an oscillator strength ${\mathit{f}}_{\mathrm{H}}$=1.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}${10}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}2}$.
The A2A receptor mediates an endogenous regulatory pathway of cytokine expression in THP‐1 cells

Adenosine is an endogenous nucleoside that regulates numerous cellular functions including inflammation. Adenosine acts via cell‐surface receptors subtyped as A1, A2A, A2B, and A3. The A2A receptor (A2AR) has been linked to anti‐inflammatory effects of adenosine. Furthermore, microarray analysis revealed increased A2AR mRNA in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)‐stimulated monocytes. We hypothesized that endogenous adenosine inhibited LPS‐mediated tumor necrosis factor (TNF) production via A2AR stimulation. Using THP‐1 cells, our results demonstrated that LPS increased expression of cellular A2AR and adenosine. A2AR agonism with 2‐p‐(2‐carboxyethyl)phenethylamino‐5′‐N‐ethylcarboxamido adenosine (CGS 21680) after LPS decreased TNF production in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner, whereas A2AR antagonism significantly increased TNF and blocked the inhibitory effect of CGS 21680. This inhibitory pathway involved A2AR stimulation of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) to activate protein kinase A, resulting in phosphorylation of cAMP response element‐binding protein (CREB). Phospho‐CREB had been shown to inhibit nuclear factor‐κB transcriptional activity, as was observed with CGS 21680 treatment. Thus, following immune activation with LPS, endogenous adenosine mediates a negative feedback pathway to modulate cytokine expression in THP‐1 cells.
The bright side of information: ways of mitigating information overload

Purpose The complex phenomenon of information overload (IO) is one of the pathologies in our present information environment, thus symbolically it signalizes the existence of a dark side of information. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the approaches on mitigating IO. Hence, it is an attempt to display the bright side. Design/methodology/approach Based on a literature review, the sources of IO are briefly presented, not forgetting about the role of information technology and the influence of the data-intensive world. The main attention is given to the possible ways of mitigating IO. Findings It is underlined that there are both technological and social approaches towards easing the symptoms of IO. While reducing IO by increasing search task delegation is a far away goal, solutions emerge when information is properly designed and tools of information architecture are applied to enable findability. A wider range of coping strategies is available when we interact with information. The imperative of being critical against information by exercising critical thinking and critical reading yields results if different, discipline-dependent literacies, first of all information literacy and data literacy are acquired and put into operation, slow principles are followed and personal information management (PIM) tools are applied. Originality/value The paper intends to be an add-on to the recent discussions and the evolving body of knowledge about the relationship between IO and information architecture, various literacies and PIM.
Diversity in peptide recognition by the SH2 domain of SH2B1

SH2B1 is a multidomain protein that serves as a key adaptor to regulate numerous cellular events, such as insulin, leptin, and growth hormone signaling pathways. Many of these protein‐protein interactions are mediated by the SH2 domain of SH2B1, which recognizes ligands containing a phosphorylated tyrosine (pY), including peptides derived from janus kinase 2, insulin receptor, and insulin receptor substrate‐1 and −2. Specificity for the SH2 domain of SH2B1 is conferred in these ligands either by a hydrophobic or an acidic side chain at the +3 position C‐terminal to the pY. This specificity for chemically disparate species suggests that SH2B1 relies on distinct thermodynamic or structural mechanisms to bind to peptides. Using binding and structural strategies, we have identified unique thermodynamic signatures for each peptide binding mode, and several SH2B1 residues, including K575 and R578, that play distinct roles in peptide binding. The high‐resolution structure of the SH2 domain of SH2B1 further reveals conformationally plastic protein loops that may contribute to the ability of the protein to recognize dissimilar ligands. Together, numerous hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions, in addition to backbone conformational flexibility, permit the recognition of diverse peptides by SH2B1. An understanding of this expanded peptide recognition will allow for the identification of novel physiologically relevant SH2B1/peptide interactions, which can contribute to the design of obesity and diabetes pharmaceuticals to target the ligand‐binding interface of SH2B1 with high specificity.
Thyrotoxicosis and the Course of Manic-Depressive Illness

Summary The effect of thyrotoxicosis upon the recurrence of manic-depressive psychoses has been studied by the use of a routine follow-up system. In this system 267 patients had three or more affective illnesses. Five of these patients had eight well-documented episodes of thyrotoxicosis. Only three of these eight episodes coincided with an affective illness, and in each case an alternative explanation for the association was available. These findings suggest that thyrotoxicosis has little effect upon the occurrence of a manic-depressive episode.
The Contribution of Prospective Memory Performance to the Neuropsychological Assessment of Mild Cognitive Impairment

Objective: Prospective memory difficulties are a feature of the amnestic form of mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). Although comprehensive test batteries of prospective memory are suitable for clinical practice, they are lengthy, which has detracted from their widespread clinical use. Our aim was to investigate the utility of a brief screening measure of prospective memory, which can be incorporated into a clinical neuropsychological assessment. Methods: Seventy-seven healthy older adults (HOA) and 77 participants with aMCI were administered a neuropsychological test battery, including a prospective memory screening measure (Envelope Task), a retrospective memory measure (CVLT-II), and a multi-item subjective memory questionnaire (Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire; PRMQ) and a single-item subjective memory scale. Results: Compared with HOA participants, participants with aMCI performed poorly on the Envelope Task (η2 = .38), which provided good discrimination of the aMCI and HOA groups (AUC = .83). In the aMCI group, there was a small but significant relationship between the Envelope Task and the single-item subjective rating of memory, with the Envelope Task accounting for 5–6% of the variance in subjective memory after accounting for emotional status. This relationship of prospective memory and subjective memory was not significant for the multi-item questionnaire (PRMQ); and, retrospective memory was not a significant predictor of self-rated memory, single-item, or multi-item. Conclusion: A brief screening measure of prospective memory, the Envelope Task, provides useful support to traditional memory measures in detecting aMCI.
Probiotics Shown To Change Bacterial Community Structure in the Avian Gastrointestinal Tract

ABSTRACT Culturing and molecular techniques were used to monitor changes in the bacterial flora of the avian gastrointestinal (GI) tract following introduction of genetically modified (GM) and unmodified probiotics. Community hybridization of amplified 16S ribosomal DNA demonstrated that the bacterial flora of the GI tract changed significantly in response to the probiotic treatments. The changes were not detected by culturing. Although both GM and non-GM strains of Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 11508 changed the bacterial flora of the chicken GI tract, they did so differently. Probing the community DNA with anEnterococcus faecalis-specific probe showed that the relative amount of E. faecalis in the total eubacterial population increased in the presence of the non-GM strain and decreased in the presence of the GM probiotic compared with the results obtained with an untreated control group.