Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regression of left ventricular hypertrophy by a candesartan-based regimen in clinical practice The VIPE study

The VIPE study was a prospective, non-comparative, open-label clinical evaluation of 97 hypertensive patients (69.1% female; 68.9±9.5 years; mean blood pressure (BP) 160±12/90±9 mmHg) with echocardiographic evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). Patients were treated for six months with a candesartan-based regimen (8 mg/16 mg + HCTZ 12.5 mg + additional drugs to lower BP < 140/90 mmHg). After six months, systolic/diastolic BP was decreased by 19.3±8/9.4±5 mmHg (p<0.001 for both), and left ventricular mass index (LVMI) decreased 17.01 g/m2 (95%CI: -13.2 to -20.99; p<0.001). During treatment with the candesartan-based regimen all echocardiographic parameters related to LVMI were significantly reduced and 28% achieved a target LVMI [< 134 g/m2 (men) and < 110 g/m2 (women) ]. No significant changes were observed in ejection fraction, shortening fraction or LV diastolic function. Univariate analysis showed that both age (p=0.03) and diabetes (p=0.029) were predictive of LVH regression. Thus, a candesartan-based regimen for six months significantly reduced echocardiographic LVH in hypertensive patients in general practice. The drug was very well tolerated and no serious adverse events were reported.
Unsupervised topic detection model and its application in text categorization

In most of the research, topic detection is defined as the task of finding out different themes from the collection of documents. Our topic detection approach is about finding a topic for every document in the corpus. Any word or group of words which tells what the document is about is defined as the topic of the document. In this paper, we propose a novel topic detection approach using an unsupervised model. It is a simple yet effective approach for topic detection and finding keywords from the corpus. The keywords are extracted by identifying the relationship between the words in a set of unstructured data automatically, without any set of training data. The keyword extraction is based on an hypothesis for word decomposition which says that the words in bigram or trigram word vectors would have words that can be potential distribution of words from the unigram word vector. After keyword extraction, topics are determined for each document using our proposed algorithm of topic detection. The proposed algorithm finds the most suitable topic for each document. The topics detected in the entire corpus and the keywords related with each topic are stored and analyzed. We use the standard term frequency (TF) measure for finding the keywords. The effectiveness and accuracy of keywords is judged by using these keywords as features for classification and comparing the results against the standard bag-of- words approach. The topics detected by our algorithm are found to be relevant to the document. The experimental results using keywords show that the dimensionality of the corpus is drastically reduced while maintaining and in most of the cases, improving F-measure of categorization. Thus, it shows that our approach of feature selection for text categorization not only improves the classification accuracy but also reduces considerably the time required for classification.
The Alzheimer Conundrum: Entanglements of Dementia and Aging
 By Margaret Lock
 Princeton University Press. 2013.
 £19.95 (hb). 328 pp. ISBN 9780691149783

The Alzheimer Conundrum: Entanglements of Dementia and Aging By Margaret Lock Princeton University Press. 2013. £19.95 (hb). 328 pp. ISBN 9780691149783 Dementia has never had a higher profile and governments are falling over themselves to commit funds, though dementia research is still grossly
Leader's Charisma and Dignity in Sight of Pidie Society (A Study in Kembang Tanjong sub-district, Pidie District)

This research is to examine the bases of leader’s c harisma and dignity along with the definition of leaser’s charisma and dignity in sigh t of Pidie society and also to investigatethe base sources of leader’s charisma an d dignity in Pidie district society. The research was conducted in Kembang Tanjong sub-district, Pidie district. The data was collected through library research and field re search. Library research is to gain secondary data sourced in books, prior study, docum ents and biography of prominent figures. Meanwhile the field research is to gain th e primary data with in depth observation and interview. The result of the study shows that Pidie society defines charisma and dignity are related and unseparated fr om the difinition of power and authority. These two elements are bound and they s upport each another. For them, charisma and dignity are the aura that a leader o bligatorily has. A leader who has had the nature of charisma and dignity have the aura wh ich can influence the society to honor him more, fully believe in, whatever he say s will be heard by the society. Suggestion, advice, saying, and the spoken words wi ll be the power and the impression for everyone who listens to him and to have strog personality and capability to have a relationship with every group and kind of people with the proper emotion and intelligence level. The study also reve als that the sources of leader’s charisma and dignity in pidie society are in the in telectual capability, power and supernatural power, the leader’s nature of fairnes s and honesty, bravery and strictness, and friendliness and generosity.
Modeling Dynamics of Cell-to-Cell Variability in TRAIL-Induced Apoptosis Explains Fractional Killing and Predicts Reversible Resistance

Isogenic cells sensing identical external signals can take markedly different decisions. Such decisions often correlate with pre-existing cell-to-cell differences in protein levels. When not neglected in signal transduction models, these differences are accounted for in a static manner, by assuming randomly distributed initial protein levels. However, this approach ignores the a priori non-trivial interplay between signal transduction and the source of this cell-to-cell variability: temporal fluctuations of protein levels in individual cells, driven by noisy synthesis and degradation. Thus, modeling protein fluctuations, rather than their consequences on the initial population heterogeneity, would set the quantitative analysis of signal transduction on firmer grounds. Adopting this dynamical view on cell-to-cell differences amounts to recast extrinsic variability into intrinsic noise. Here, we propose a generic approach to merge, in a systematic and principled manner, signal transduction models with stochastic protein turnover models. When applied to an established kinetic model of TRAIL-induced apoptosis, our approach markedly increased model prediction capabilities. One obtains a mechanistic explanation of yet-unexplained observations on fractional killing and non-trivial robust predictions of the temporal evolution of cell resistance to TRAIL in HeLa cells. Our results provide an alternative explanation to survival via induction of survival pathways since no TRAIL-induced regulations are needed and suggest that short-lived anti-apoptotic protein Mcl1 exhibit large and rare fluctuations. More generally, our results highlight the importance of accounting for stochastic protein turnover to quantitatively understand signal transduction over extended durations, and imply that fluctuations of short-lived proteins deserve particular attention.
Functional analysis of human whole brain regions based on gene expression

We studied the relationship between gene expression patterns of whole human brain, classical anatomical structures of human brain and functions of human brain. We used microarray data from Allen Human Brain Atlas (AHBA) which provides genome-wide expression profiles in two human brains. We analyzed gene expression patterns in human whole brain regions using k-means clustering and correlation analysis. Our result shows that the gene expression patterns in two human brains are highly correlated with the anatomical structure of human brain. In addition, we found region specific genes which are significantly over-expressed genes in one brain region and analyzed those genes using the DAVID functional annotation tool. We found the case that several region specific genes are indeed associated to the function of a particular brain region. Our results help understand connection among the gene expression patterns, anatomical structures and functions of human brain.
Moving in an Environment of Induced Sensorimotor Incongruence Does Not Influence Pain Sensitivity in Healthy Volunteers: A Randomised Within-Subject Experiment

Objectives It has been proposed that in the same way that conflict between vestibular and visual inputs leads to motion sickness, conflict between motor commands and sensory information associated with these commands may contribute to some chronic pain states. Attempts to test this hypothesis by artificially inducing a state of sensorimotor incongruence and assessing self-reported pain have yielded equivocal results. To help clarify the effect sensorimotor incongruence has on pain we investigated the effect of moving in an environment of induced incongruence on pressure pain thresholds (PPT) and the pain experienced immediately on completion of PPT testing. Methods Thirty-five healthy subjects performed synchronous and asynchronous upper-limb movements with and without mirror visual feedback in random order. We measured PPT over the elbow and the pain evoked by testing. Generalised linear mixed-models were performed for each outcome. Condition (four levels) and baseline values for each outcome were within-subject factors. Results There was no effect of condition on PPT (p = 0.887) or pressure-evoked pain (p = 0.771). A sensitivity analysis using only the first PPT measure after each condition confirmed the result (p = 0.867). Discussion Inducing a state of movement related sensorimotor incongruence in the upper-limb of healthy volunteers does not influence PPT, nor the pain evoked by testing. We found no evidence that sensorimotor incongruence upregulates the nociceptive system in healthy volunteers.
Integrated treatment of first-episode psychosis: effect of treatment on family burden

Background The families of patients with first-episode psychosis often play a major role in care and often experience lack of support. Aims To determine the effect of integrated treatment v. standard treatment on subjective burden of illness, expressed emotion (EE), knowledge of illness and satisfaction with treatment in key relatives of patients with a first episode of schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. Method Patients with ICD-10 schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (first episode) were randomly assigned to integrated treatment or to standard treatment. Integrated treatment consisted of assertive community treatment, psychoeducational multi-family groups and social skills training. Key relatives were assessed with the Social Behaviour Assessment Schedule (SBAS, burden of illness), the 5-min speech sample (EE), and a multiple choice questionnaire at entry and after 1 year. Results Relatives in integrated treatment felt less burdened and were significantly more satisfied with treatment than relatives in standard treatment. There were no significant effects of intervention groups on knowledge of illness and EE. Conclusions The integrated treatment reduced family burden of illness and improved satisfaction with treatment.
Decentralized output-feedback control of large-scale nonlinear systems based on high-gain multiple time scaling

A globally stabilizing decentralized output-feedback controller is proposed for a general class of nonlinear interconnected large-scale systems. The subsystem interconnections and the dynamics of each subsystem feature both parametric and functional uncertainty. The controller design is based on a general high-gain scaling technique that utilizes arbitrary powers (instead of requiring successive powers) of the high-gain parameter with the powers chosen to satisfy certain inequalities depending on system nonlinearities. The scaling induces a weak-Cascading Upper Diagonal Dominance (w-CUDD) structure on the dynamics and allows relaxation of the cascading dominance assumption on upper diagonal terms. Disturbance attenuation properties of the proposed decentralized controller are also investigated.
Predicted overlapping microRNA regulators of acetylcholine packaging and degradation in neuroinflammation-related disorders

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) can notably control many targets each and regulate entire cellular pathways, but whether miRNAs can regulate complete neurotransmission processes is largely unknown. Here, we report that miRNAs with complementary sequence motifs to the key genes involved in acetylcholine (ACh) synthesis and/or packaging show massive overlap with those regulating ACh degradation. To address this topic, we first searched for miRNAs that could target the 3′-untranslated regions of the choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) gene that controls ACh synthesis; the vesicular ACh transporter (VAChT), encoded from an intron in the ChAT gene and the ACh hydrolyzing genes acetyl- and/or butyrylcholinesterase (AChE, BChE). Intriguingly, we found that many of the miRNAs targeting these genes are primate-specific, and that changes in their levels associate with inflammation, anxiety, brain damage, cardiac, neurodegenerative, or pain-related syndromes. To validate the in vivo relevance of this dual interaction, we selected the evolutionarily conserved miR-186, which targets both the stress-inducible soluble “readthrough” variant AChE-R and the major peripheral cholinesterase BChE. We exposed mice to predator scent stress and searched for potential associations between consequent changes in their miR-186, AChE-R, and BChE levels. Both intestinal miR-186 as well as BChE and AChE-R activities were conspicuously elevated 1 week post-exposure, highlighting the previously unknown involvement of miR-186 and BChE in psychological stress responses. Overlapping miRNA regulation emerges from our findings as a recently evolved surveillance mechanism over cholinergic neurotransmission in health and disease; and the corresponding miRNA details and disease relevance may serve as a useful resource for studying the molecular mechanisms underlying this surveillance.
High-level feature extraction using SVM with walk-based graph kernel

We investigate a method using support vector machines (SVMs) with walk-based graph kernels for high-level feature extraction from images. In this method, each image is first segmented into a finite set of homogeneous segments and then represented as a segmentation graph where each vertex is a segment and edges connect adjacent segments. Given a set of features associated with each segment, we then obtain a positive definite kernel between images by comparing walks in the respective segmentation graphs, and image classification is carried out with an SVM based on this kernel. In a benchmark experiment on the MediaMill challenge problem, the mean average precision increased from 0.216 (baseline) to 0.341 when our method was utilized.
Iodine and Mental Development of Children 5 Years Old and Under: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Several reviews and meta-analyses have examined the effects of iodine on mental development. None focused on young children, so they were incomplete in summarizing the effects on this important age group. The current systematic review therefore examined the relationship between iodine and mental development of children 5 years old and under. A systematic review of articles using Medline (1980–November 2011) was carried out. We organized studies according to four designs: (1) randomized controlled trial with iodine supplementation of mothers; (2) non-randomized trial with iodine supplementation of mothers and/or infants; (3) prospective cohort study stratified by pregnant women’s iodine status; (4) prospective cohort study stratified by newborn iodine status. Average effect sizes for these four designs were 0.68 (2 RCT studies), 0.46 (8 non-RCT studies), 0.52 (9 cohort stratified by mothers’ iodine status), and 0.54 (4 cohort stratified by infants’ iodine status). This translates into 6.9 to 10.2 IQ points lower in iodine deficient children compared with iodine replete children. Thus, regardless of study design, iodine deficiency had a substantial impact on mental development. Methodological concerns included weak study designs, the omission of important confounders, small sample sizes, the lack of cluster analyses, and the lack of separate analyses of verbal and non-verbal subtests. Quantifying more precisely the contribution of iodine deficiency to delayed mental development in young children requires more well-designed randomized controlled trials, including ones on the role of iodized salt.
Dust mass-loss rates from asymptotic giant branch stars in the Fornax and Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxies

To study the effect of metallicity on the mass-loss rate of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, we have conducted mid-infrared photometric measurements of such stars in the Sagittarius and Fomax dwarf spheroidal galaxies with the 10-μm camera VISIR at the Very Large Telescope. We derive mass-loss rates for 29 AGB stars in Sgr dSph and two in Fomax. The dust mass-loss rates are estimated from the K - [9] and K - [11] colours. Radiative transfer models are used to check the consistency of the method. Published IRAS and Spitzer data confirm that the same tight correlation between K - [12] colour and dust mass-loss rates is observed for AGB stars from galaxies with different metallicities, i.e., the Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Clouds and the Small Magellanic Clouds. The derived dust mass-loss rates are in the range 5 x 10 -10 to 3 x 10 -8 M ⊙ yr -1 for the observed AGB stars in Sgr dSph and around 5 x 10 -9 M ⊙ yr -1 for those in Fomax; while values obtained with the two different methods are of the same order of magnitude. The mass-loss rates for these stars are higher than the nuclear burning rates, so they will terminate their AGB phase by the depletion of their stellar mantles before their core can grow significantly. Some observed stars have lower mass-loss rates than the minimum value predicted by theoretical models.
Business Models: A Strategic Management Approach

community. The major new theoretical ideas of the book under review are in the last part, called Creative Holism. According to the author, it is concerned with how to maximize the benefit of the different holistic approaches by using them creatively in combination. This book is a culmination of the evolution of the author’s ideas on Critical Systems Practice (CSP), developing since 1997. It is the first comprehensive attempt to lay out the full picture of its theoretical foundations and how it can be applied. Jackson provides a very good justification for the treatment of methods not as parts of the existing methodologies but rather as parts of four generic systems methodologies: functionalist, interpretive, emancipatory and postmodern. He presents a new formulation on the process of Critical Systems Practice that is an extension of earlier ideas on Total Systems Intervention (TSI), apparently developed in response to certain criticisms of TSI (see Flood and Jackson’s book 2 for the first version of TSI 3 ). The current state of pluralism in Systems Thinking has several competing interpretations on issues such as the philosophical foundations for pluralism, treatment of paradigm incommensurability and whether pluralism is a paradigm on its own. Jackson’s book clearly states his viewpoint on the above issues with respect to Critical Systems Practice but is not very detailed on direct evaluations along those lines of other suggested pluralist approaches. It is too early to compare Critical Systems Practice with Multimethodology, 7 Midgley’s ideas on pluralism in the process of systemic intervention 8 or PANDA 9 as methodologies advocating using parts of different methodologies from different paradigms in the same problem situation. Only practice may show the advantages of particular methodologies from the above list and hence this question is beyond the purpose of this review. However, the comprehensive presentation on CSP by Jackson in his latest book is a significant theoretical contribution even if it is viewed only as a factor opening the possibilities for such comparative studies by researchers and practitioners. The layout of the content of the book is logical, streamlined and uniform. That makes the book understandable not only by practitioners but also by novices to the systems field such as students entering various masters or doctoral programs in Management and Systems Thinking. Judging from the fact that the number of significant systems books in the world, published since 1997 is less than five and none of them were introductory, such readers seem to be in a desperate need for a contemporary overview text. There is
Increasing student engagement - the theory behind Learning Journeys

Introduction The challenge of maintaining the enthusiasm of adolescents in the schooling experience has been an issue facing education professionals for many years. The traditional classroom based experience of school in which the day is segmented, students come into contact with a range of teachers and the learning is punctuated by bells, has left many feeling alienated and disengaged. There is a general perception that year 9 is the year to be dreaded at school. What is it that “switches the students off? ” Why do they become disengaged and why are we unable to capture the energy and enthusiasm which is within them all? Adolescent youth have much to offer themselves and society. There is a need to change the mind-set of schools, parents and teachers about what we can expect from our students.
Radioguided Biopsy of Osteoid Osteoma: Usefulness of Imaging Probe

Aims and Background When removal of osteoid osteoma is performed with open biopsy, the surgeon can be guided by radioactivity of 99mTc-MDP (methylene D- phosphonate) acquired by a probe. Material and methods We compared the performance of a commercially available ZnCdTe probe (Neoprobe 2000) and a one-square-inch-field-of-view imaging probe (IP) on two patients undergoing open biopsy for osteoid osteoma. Triphasic bone scintigraphy was performed before operation and Neoprobe as well as IP were used in the operating room by two nuclear physicians. When the surgeon asked for guidance, each nuclear physician had to indicate a precise direction. Results The surgeon asked for guidance once in the first operation, on a patient with osteoid osteoma of the femur, and four times in the second operation, for osteoid osteoma of the acetabulum. The indications provided by IP were correct 5/5 times, whereas the commercial probe was correct 3/5 times. Both devices were able to assess the surgical radicality. After biopsy, bone samples were divided into high-count and low-count samples. Pathological examination confirmed the presence of osteoid osteoma in high-count samples. Conclusions IP has already been used to guide biopsy, but only in breast disease. The present work confirms its good performance also in orthopedics as a portable mini gamma camera that can be used in the operating room.
Evasion of Host Defence by Leishmania donovani: Subversion of Signaling Pathways

Protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania are responsible for causing a variety of human diseases known as leishmaniasis, which range from self-healing skin lesions to severe infection of visceral organs that are often fatal if left untreated. Leishmania donovani (L. donovani), the causative agent of visceral leishmaniasis, exemplifys a devious organism that has developed the ability to invade and replicate within host macrophage. In fact, the parasite has evolved strategies to interfere with a broad range of signaling processes in macrophage that includes Protein Kinase C, the JAK2/STAT1 cascade, and the MAP Kinase pathway. This paper focuses on how L. donovani modulates these signaling pathways that favour its survival and persistence in host cells.