Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long‐term oral pamidronate treatment inhibits osteoclastic bone resorption and bone turnover without affecting osteoblastic function in multiple myeloma

Abstract: This study was performed as a cross‐sectional substudy to the Danish–Swedish Pamidronate Study, a randomized placebo‐controlled multicentre trial in multiple myeloma. The purpose was to evaluate the biological effects of long‐term treatment with oral pamidronate 300 mg daily on bone metabolism by using histomorphometry and analysis of cytokines and biochemical markers of bone turnover. Sixteen patients were included after median 27.5 months of protocolized treatment; 10 patients received active treatment and 6 patients placebo. When compared with placebo, pamidronate treatment was associated with: (a) marked decreased osteoclastic resorption rate (0.86±0.59 μm/d vs. 5.7±5.0 μm/d, p=0.002), and diminished activation frequency (0.20±0.18 yr−1 vs. 0.72±0.55 yr−1, p=0.014); (b) compensatory reduced volume referent bone formation rate (0.17±0.21 yr−1 vs. 0.71±0.54 yr−1, p=0.007), but unaltered mineral appositional rate; (c) neutral (–0.66±5.6 mm) vs. negative (–2.15±2.2 μm, p=0.013) bone balance per remodelling cycle; (d) higher trabecular bone volume (21.0±6.2% vs. 13.0±3.7%, p=0.01); (e) suppressed urinary excretion and serum levels of some of the biochemical markers of bone metabolism; and (f) significant reduction of circulating soluble interleukin‐6 receptor (IL‐6sR) (25.9±4.1 ng/ml vs. 32.1±6.6 ng/ml, p=0.04), and (g) a uniform tendency of lower serum and marrow plasma levels of IL‐6, IL‐1β, and TNFα. Thus oral pamidronate was absorbed in biologically active amounts, and reduced overall bone resorption and bone turnover without impairing osteoblastic bone formation. The observation that cytokine and cytokine receptor levels were reduced extends the possible and potential beneficial actions of bisphosphonates in multiple myeloma.
Salinity Tolerance of Larval Rapana venosa: Implications for Dispersal and Establishment of an Invading Predatory Gastropod on the North American Atlantic Coast

The lack of quantitative data on the environmental tolerances of the early life-history stages of invading species hinders estimation of their dispersal rates and establishment ranges in receptor environments. We present data on salinity tolerance for all stages of the ontogenetic larval development of the invading predatory gastropod Rapana venosa, and we propose that salinity tolerance is the dominant response controlling the potential dispersal (=invasion) range of the species into the estuaries of the Atlantic coast of the United States from the current invading epicenter in the southern Chesapeake Bay. All larval stages exhibit 48-h tolerance to salinities as low as 15 ppt with minimal mortality. Below this salinity, survival grades to lower values. Percentage survival of R. venosa veligers was significantly less at 7 ppt than at any other salinity. There were no differences in percentage survival at salinities greater than 16 ppt. We predict that the counterclockwise, gyre-like circulation within the Chesapeake Bay will initially distribute larvae northward along the western side of the DelMarVa peninsula, and eventually to the lower sections of all major subestuaries of the western shore of the Bay. Given the observed salinity tolerances and the potential for dispersal of planktonic larvae by coastal currents, establishment of this animal over a period of decades from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras is a high probability.
The yield enhancement methodology for invisible defects using the MTS+ method

Whenever we try to enhance the production yield, we have problems identifying the cause of invisible defects over the entire process, even more so for charge-coupled devices (CCD). This time, we utilized the Mahalanobis Taguchi System (MTS) method with several original techniques to identify the cause of failure in the wafer process. We calculated the historical data of CCDs process parameter and took several countermeasures. According to the results, we learned that the invisible defects corresponded to the contamination of organic matter and the front-end process's sensitivity.
Process-Oriented Environmental Change Curriculum-Development Workshops

To improve scientific literacy, K-12 educators need to: develop the ablility to use and analyze data, incorporate data into their curriculum, and interact with teachers from other disciplines to create interdisciplinary units. A Process-Oriented Environmental Change Education workshop was conducted for eleven interdisciplinary teams, consisting of 21 teachers, in 1997 and 1998. The National Science Standards provided the criteria for the organization of the workshop. Inquiry and interpretation exercises helped to expand scientific knowledge and skills as well as the teachers' use of technology. We explicitly discussed the uncertainty of science through group discussions and problem-solving activities. More than 85% of the teachers thought the goals and objectives of the workshop were clear, the instructional methods suitable for the stated goals, and the content understandable and logically presented. Our teachers were generally not confident in their ability to interpret data, which is not surprising considering that most teachers have not had the opportunity to do this type of analytical work. Clearly, the scientific community needs to find ways to boost teacher confidence in interpreting data using accepted scientific practice if we expect science education to improve.
Concept Hierarchy-Based Pattern Discovery in Time Series Database: A Case Study on Financial Database

Data Mining is the process of automatically searching large volumes of data for patterns and it is also a fairly recent and contemporary topic in computing. Nowadays, pattern discovery is a field within the area of data mining. In general, large volumes of time series data are contained in financial database and these data have some useful but not easy finding patterns in it and many financial studies in time series data analysis use linear regression model to estimate the variation and trend of the data. However, traditional methods of time series analysis used special types or linear models to describe the data. Linear models can achieve high accuracy when linear variation of the data is small, however, if the variation range exceeds a certain limit, the linear models has a lower performance in estimated accuracy. SOM is a famous non-linear model and traditional method to extract pattern with numeric data. Many researches extract pattern from numeric data attributes rather than categorical or mixed data. It does not extract the major values from pattern rules, either. The purpose of this study is to provide a novel architecture in mining patterns from mixed data that uses a systematic approach in the financial database information mining, and try to find the patterns for estimate the trend or for special event's occurrence. This study uses ESA algorithm to discover the pattern in the Concept Hierarchy based Pattern Discovery (CHPD) architecture. Specifically, this architecture facilitates the direct handling of mixed data, including categorical and numeric values. This mining architecture can simulate human intelligence and discover patterns automatically, and it also demonstrates knowledge pattern discovery and rule extraction.
Development of olfactory glomeruli: Temporal and spatial interactions between olfactory receptor axons and mitral cells in opossums and rats

Mitral cells are the primary output neurons of the vertebrate olfactory bulb and are major recipients of sensory input from the periphery. The morphogenesis of mitral cell dendrites was followed to elucidate their early spatial and temporal interactions with olfactory receptor neurons and glia during the construction of olfactory glomeruli. Monodelphis domestica, a marsupial born at an extremely immature stage, and rats were examined. Mitral cells were retrogradely labeled by application of the lipophilic dye 1,1′dihexadecyl‐3,3,3′3′‐tetramethylindocarbocyanine perchlorate (DiI) to the lateral olfactory tract. In double‐labeling experiments, olfactory receptor neurons were stained with 3,3′ dihexadecyloxacarbocyanine perchlorate (DiO), or olfactory nerve Schwann cells were visualized using S‐100 protein immunohistochemistry. Tissue was examined with a confocal laser scanning microscope. Some preparations were subsequently investigated with an electron microscope.
Cochlear Pathology in Presbycusis

A survey of the temporal bone collection at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary reveals 21 cases that meet the criterion for the clinical diagnosis of presbycusis. It is evident that the previously advanced concept of four predominant pathologic types of presbycusis is valid, these being sensory, neural, strial, and cochlear conductive. An abrupt high-tone loss signals sensory presbycusis, a flat threshold pattern is indicative of strial presbycusis, and loss of word discrimination is characteristic of neural presbycusis. When the increments of threshold loss present a gradually decreasing linear distribution pattern on the audiometric scale and have no pathologic correlate, it is speculated that the hearing loss is caused by alterations in the physical characteristics of the cochlear duct, and the loss is identified as cochlear conductive presbycusis. It is clear that many individual cases do not separate into a specific type but have mixtures of these pathologic types and are termed mixed presbycusis. About 25% of all cases of presbycusis show none of the above characteristics and are classified as indeterminate presbycusis.
Functional Analysis of Two Isoforms of Leaf-Type Ferredoxin-NADP+-Oxidoreductase in Rice Using the Heterologous Expression System of Arabidopsis1[W][OA]

Ferredoxin-NADP+-oxidoreductase (FNR) mediates electron transfer between ferredoxin (Fd) and NADP+; therefore, it is a key enzyme that provides the reducing power used in the Calvin cycle. Other than FNR, nitrite reductase, sulfite reductase, glutamate synthase, and Fd-thioredoxin reductase also accept electrons from Fd, an electron carrier protein in the stroma. Therefore, the regulation of electron partitioning in the chloroplast is important for photosynthesis and other metabolic pathways. The regulatory mechanism of electron partitioning, however, remains to be elucidated. We found, by taking advantage of a gain-of-function approach, that expression of two rice (Oryza sativa) full-length cDNAs of leaf-type FNRs (OsLFNR1 and OsLFNR2) led to altered chlorophyll fluorescence and growth in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice. We revealed that overexpression of the OsLFNR1 and OsLFNR2 full-length cDNAs resulted in distinct phenotypes despite the high sequence similarity between them. Expression of OsLFNR1 affected the nitrogen assimilation pathway without inhibition of photosynthesis under normal conditions. On the other hand, OsLFNR2 expression led to the impairment of photosynthetic linear electron transport as well as Fd-dependent cyclic electron flow around photosystem I. The endogenous protein level of OsLFNR was found to be suppressed in both OsLFNR1- and OsLFNR2-overexpressing rice plants, leading to changes in the stoichiometry of the two LFNR isoforms within the thylakoid and soluble fractions. Thus, we propose that the stoichiometry of two LFNR isoforms plays an important role in electron partitioning between carbon fixation and nitrogen assimilation.
Mu- and delta-opioid receptor antagonists reduce levodopa-induced dyskinesia in the MPTP-lesioned primate model of Parkinson's disease.

Long-term treatment of Parkinson's disease with levodopa is complicated by the emergence of involuntary movements, known as levodopa-induced dyskinesia. It has been hypothesized that increased opioid transmission in striatal output pathways may be responsible for the generation of dyskinesia. In this study, we have investigated the effect of blockade of opioid peptide transmission on levodopa-induced dyskinesia in a primate model of Parkinson's disease-the MPTP-lesioned marmoset. Coadministration of nonselective and mu- or delta-subtype-selective opioid receptor antagonists with levodopa resulted in a significant decrease in dyskinesia. There was no attenuation of the anti-parkinsonian actions of levodopa. These data suggest that specific mu- or delta-opioid receptor antagonists might be applicable clinically in the treatment of levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease.
The Semantics of Political Science

That an animal, presumably a cousin of the simians and certainly very similar to them, has developed societies in which millions and even hundreds of millions of individuals live and act together in orderly relation to each other is one of the astounding facts of history; and an impartial observer would hardly be surprised if the incredibly intricate network of cooperation, overstrained, should suddenly tear apart. The aggregation of men into huge organized groups is, of course, relatively recent. For a million years or longer men or near-men lived an animal-like existence, scattered in small groups. It was not until fifteen or twenty thousand years ago that men, perhaps as a consequence of unprecedented pressure from the environment, organized groups of any considerable size; it is only within the last three or four thousand years that large-scale societies have existed; and it is only in the last three or four hundred years that complex orderly interplay and interaction among individuals and subgroups in societies have been developed.
Epstein‐barr virus‐infected b cells persist in the circulation of acyclovir‐treated virus carriers

In this study, infectious Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) shedding in the oropharynx and numbers of virus‐infected B cells in the blood have been monitored in long‐term virus carriers receiving acyclovir (ACV) therapy for herpes zoster. Eleven patients on oral ACV were followed prospectively before, during and for 2 weeks after treatment. As expected, the low levels of EBV shedding in these virus carriers (measured as cord‐blood lymphocyte transforming activity in throat washings) were eliminated during the period of ACV treatment and returned at later times. Over the same period, however, the frequency of virus‐infected B cells in the blood (measured by spontaneous transformation in limiting dilution assay) remained completely unchanged. Regression assays showed that these same patients had normal levels of EBV‐specific cytotoxic T‐cell immunity, so that the in vivo persistence of virus‐infected B cells could not be ascribed to a defect in T‐cell surveillance. We infer that the in vivo half‐life of the virus‐infected B‐cell pool in long‐term virus carriers is measured in months rather than days. We further suggest that such persistence requires a novel form of virus: B‐cell interaction distinct from the type of “latent” infection displayed by in vitro‐transformed cells.
Nonincisional Osteotomy for Gradual Lengthening by Callus Distraction in the Hand and Foot

Gradual lengthening by distraction osteogenesis is widely used for brachydactyly. The most frequent postoperative complaint of the patients treated with this method is the appearance of the scar caused by the skin incision for the osteotomy, which is an integral technique of distraction osteogenesis. A nonincisional approach to osteotomy would reduce the dorsal scarring. Gradual lengthening by callus distraction with nonincisional osteotomy was performed in 14 digits. The mean gain in length was 14.3 mm (10–19 mm). Of 14 digits, 13 digits achieved the target length and sufficient bone consolidation and 1 digit showed early consolidation. There was no case in which complications occurred because of the drilling. Nonincisional osteotomy for callus distraction in the hand and foot reduced dorsal longitudinal scarring and achieved good cosmetic results as compared with an ordinary osteotomy involving skin incision.
Torsemide Versus Furosemide After Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Due to Acute Renal Failure in Cardiac Surgery Patients

Diuretic therapy in ARF (acute renal failure) is mainly done with loop diuretics, first of all furosemide. Torsemide has a longer duration of action and does not accumulate in renal failure. In chronic and acute renal failure, both diuretics have been effectively applied, with a more pronounced diuretic effect for torsemide. In this study, the effects of torsemide versus furosemide on renal function in cardiac surgery patients recovering from ARF after continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) were studied. Twenty-nine critically ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit at a university teaching hospital after cardiac surgery recovering from ARF after CRRT were included in this prospective, controlled, single-center, open-labeled, randomized clinical trial. Inclusion criteria were urine output > 0.5 mL/kg/h over 6 h under CRRT. Torsemide and furosemide dosages were adjusted with the target urine output being 0.8–1.5 mL/kg/h. Hemodynamic data, urine output, volume balance, serum creatinine clearance, electrolytes, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, renin, and aldosterone concentrations were measured. Fourteen patients were included in the furosemide group and 15 patients in the torsemide group. Dosages of 29 (0–160) mg torsemide and a dosage of 60 (0–240) mg furosemide were given every 6 h in each group, respectively. The dosage given at the end of the study decreased significantly in furosemide and torsemide treated patients. Urine output, 24 h balance, and serum creatinine clearance did not differ significantly between groups. Urine output decreased in both groups, mostly dose-dependent in the torsemide group. The intragroup comparison of the first time-interval after inclusion with the last time-interval showed a significant increase in serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen in the furosemide group. Renin and aldosterone concentrations did not show significant differences. In conclusion, torsemide and furosemide were effective in increasing urine output. Torsemide might show a better dose-dependent diuretic effect in ARF patients after CRRT treatment. Serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen elimination were less pronounced in the furosemide group.
Molecular Epidemiology of Aspergillus fumigatus Isolates Harboring the TR34/L98H Azole Resistance Mechanism

ABSTRACT A rapid emergence of azole resistance has been observed in Aspergillus fumigatus in The Netherlands over the past decade. The dominant resistance mechanism appears to be of environmental origin and involves the TR34/L98H mutations in cyp51A. This resistance mechanism is now also increasingly being found in other countries. Therefore, genetic markers were used to gain more insights into the origin and spread of this genotype. Studies of 142 European isolates revealed that those with the TR34/L98H resistance mechanism showed less genetic variation than azole-susceptible isolates or those with a different genetic basis of resistance and were assigned to only four CSP (putative cell surface protein) types. Sexual crossing experiments demonstrated that TR34/L98H isolates could outcross with azole-susceptible isolates of different genetic backgrounds, suggesting that TR34/L98H isolates can undergo the sexual cycle in nature. Overall, our findings suggest a common ancestor of the TR34/L98H mechanism and subsequent migration of isolates harboring TR34/L98H across Europe.
Model-based gene selection shows engrailed 1 is associated with antipsychotic response

Objectives Schizophrenia is an highly heritable complex disorder with a significant impact on public health. A variety of antipsychotics are available for treatment of the disorder and individual response to treatment is variable. To date, only a limited number of potential candidate genes have been examined for genetic association with treatment response. As there is lack of understanding of disease etiology and variation in treatment response, a large number of additional genes are potential targets for investigation. A variety of strategies for selecting candidate genes for further investigation are available and in most cases information used is weighed and ranked intuitively by the investigator. We sought to find genes that may influence treatment response in a less biased manner, after integrating heterogeneous data sources related to schizophrenia. Methods A method to select liability and treatment response candidate genes for schizophrenia using multiple data sets was constructed. The method successfully selected DTNBP1, a strong candidate gene for schizophrenia. We then evaluated novel genes picked by the method. Thirty-six single nucleotide polymorphisms in two genes engrailed 1 (EN1) and secretin receptor (SCTR) were genotyped in the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness study sample. Outcomes analyzed were the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale and six different neurocognitive measures. Results Several of the seven single nucleotide polymorphisms genotyped in the EN1 gene were associated with schizophrenia symptoms (smallest P value=0.0061) and the effects of antipsychotics on symptoms (smallest P value=2.4×10−6). The estimated probabilities of being a false discovery were 0.14 for symptoms and 0.0012 for drug response. Conclusion These findings show that EN1 may influence individual variation in response to antipsychotics. In addition, model-based data integration of schizophrenia-related data seems to improve the prior probability of selecting genes that have an effect on antipsychotics response.
Generation of Quizzes and Solutions Based on Ontologies -- A Case for a Music Problem Generator

Generation of problem sets and quizzes forms an important part of education technologies. Although some systems have been built for quiz generation, they mostly focus on abstract logic and mathematical constructs. Knowledge in other domains is relational rather than propositional, and many systems use dedicated knowledge databases. We present a method to present this knowledge in the form of objective question sets and drills. We implement a four-fold approach - ontologies, propositional logic, similarity finding, and hierarchies - as a way to generate quizzes as well as to solve human generated problems of a similar nature. The architecture of this system is such that any knowledgebase can be turned into a vast number of diverse, complex questions. We build this system for an ontology of North Indian Ragas, and also test it on a smaller ontology of animals. We demonstrate an approach to solving human generated questions from the Ontology, and provide a possible sample space of questions that can be generated through this method.
Classification induced distributed sensor scheduling for energy-efficiency in underwater target tracking sensor networks

This paper develops a distributed sensor scheduling methodology that utilizes target classification decisions to govern the number of active sensors selected around the target in the deployment region. This approach utilizes a distributed supervisor on each sensor node to control the multi-modal operating state of the node. A distributed sensor selection method is proposed that dynamically adjusts the number of active sensor nodes based on the classification decision. The proposed method is simulated and validated to show that incorporating classification into the control loop significantly conserves energy reserves while still allowing for accurate target estimation.