Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adalimumab, a human anti-TNF monoclonal antibody, outcome study for the prevention of joint damage in Japanese patients with early rheumatoid arthritis: the HOPEFUL 1 study

Objectives To evaluate the efficacy and safety of adalimumab+methotrexate (MTX) in Japanese patients with early rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who had not previously received MTX or biologics. Methods This randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre study evaluated adalimumab 40 mg every other week+MTX 6–8 mg every week versus MTX 6–8 mg every week alone for 26 weeks in patients with RA (≤2-year duration). The primary endpoint was inhibition of radiographic progression (change (Δ) from baseline in modified total Sharp score (mTSS)) at week 26. Results A total of 171 patients received adalimumab+MTX (mean dose, 6.2±0.8 mg/week) and 163 patients received MTX alone (mean dose, 6.6±0.6 mg/week, p<0.001). The mean RA duration was 0.3 years and 315 (94.3%) had high disease activity (DAS28>5.1). Adalimumab+MTX significantly inhibited radiographic progression at week 26 versus MTX alone (ΔmTSS, 1.5±6.1 vs 2.4±3.2, respectively; p<0.001). Significantly more patients in the adalimumab+MTX group (62.0%) did not show radiographic progression (ΔmTSS≤0.5) versus the MTX alone group (35.4%; p<0.001). Patients treated with adalimumab+MTX were significantly more likely to achieve American College of Rheumatology responses and achieve clinical remission, using various definitions, at 26 weeks versus MTX alone. Combination therapy was well tolerated, and no new safety signals were observed. Conclusions Adalimumab in combination with low-dose MTX was well tolerated and efficacious in suppressing radiographic progression and improving clinical outcomes in Japanese patients with early RA and high disease activity.
An Overview on Analysis and Control of Micro-grid System

Micro-grid control is the key technology in the process of accessing micro-grid into regular grid. This paper summarizes several ways on coordination control in micro-grid and introduces some domestic researches on micro-grid control strategies. It is written on the basis of the achievements on micro-grid control in some developed countries and current situations on domestic micro-grid control. Firstly, the paper introduces the objects of micro-grid control study and describes the control processes of each object thoroughly on different micro-grid control structures. Then the paper states the researches among the world on micro-grid control generally. In the end, the paper discusses the research orientation on micro-grid control which based on the existing problems of micro-grid control and current situations on regular grid.
The utilization of thermomechanical pulp fibers in WPC: A review

Thermomechanical pulp (TMP), among other natural fibers, features characteristics that make it a promising candidate for the utilization in polymer composites. This review is providing an overview on the current state of research on TMP reinforced polymer composites. More than 50 references were reviewed. The cited literature is catalogued according to pretreatments, batch or continuous procedures, processing at laboratory or industrial scale, fiber contents, polymer types, coupling agents as well as wood species. The reinforcing potential of TMP utilized in composites is demonstrated. Tensile strength was found to be peaking at a fiber content of around 40 wt %. Fiber morphology is presumed to be an important determinator for composite properties. Specific mechanical energy [kWh/kg] is presented as an indicator suitable to compare the influence of various processes on fiber morphology. Furthermore, the feed-in and dosing issue that generally accompanies the utilization of cellulosic fibers is described and possible solutions are discussed. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017, 134, 45161.
Safety of famciclovir in patients with herpes zoster and genital herpes

Safety reporting from individual ongoing and completed clinical studies has demonstrated that famciclovir, the well-absorbed oral form of the antiherpesvirus agent penciclovir, has been well tolerated by more than 3,000 individuals worldwide. An integrated safety evaluation has been performed and includes over 1,600 patients from 11 completed, randomized, double-blind clinical trials and 2 open trials. The famciclovir population consisted of 816 herpes zoster patients (four trials), 409 patients with acute genital herpesvirus infections (seven trials), and 382 patients from two genital herpes suppression studies. Overall, the famciclovir-treated patient population was 57.7% female and ranged in age from 15 to 102 years (mean, 42.6 years), with 31.2% aged 50 years or more and 15.7% aged 65 years or more. The mean duration of exposure to famciclovir was 28.8 days (5.8 days excluding suppression studies). The total daily doses ranged from 125 mg to 2.25 g. The most common adverse experiences reported as related to study medication (famciclovir and placebo) were headache, nausea, and diarrhea. The frequencies of adverse experiences and laboratory abnormalities (hematology, clinical chemistry, and urinalysis parameters) were similar in both famciclovir and placebo recipients. Thus, safety data from the analysis of 13 completed clinical studies demonstrate that famciclovir is tolerated well by patients with either herpes zoster or genital and has a safety profile comparable to that of placebo.
To what extent is treatment adherence of psychiatric patients influenced by their participation in shared decision making?

Rationale Nonadherence to prescribed medications is a significant barrier to the successful treatment of psychiatric disorders in clinical practice. It has been argued that patient participation in shared decision making improves adherence to treatment plans. Purpose To assess to what extent treatment adherence of psychiatric patients is influenced by the concordance between their preferred participation and their actual participation in decision making. Materials and methods A total of 967 consecutive psychiatric outpatients completed the Control Preference Scale twice consecutively before consultation, one for their preferences of participation, and the other for the style they had usually experienced until then, and the eight-item self-report Morisky Medication Adherence Scale 8. Results Most psychiatric outpatients preferred a collaborative role in decision making. Congruence was achieved in only 50% of the patients, with most mismatch cases preferring more involvement than had been experienced. Self-reported adherence was significantly higher in those patients in whom there was concordance between their preferences and their experiences of participation in decision making, regardless of the type of participation preferred. Conclusion Congruence between patients’ preferences and actual experiences for level of participation in shared decision making is relevant for their adherence to treatment.
Modularity and integration in the design of a socially interactive robot

Designing robots that are capable of interacting with humans in real life settings is a challenging task. One key issue is the integration of multiple modalities (e.g., mobility, physical structure, navigation, vision, audition, dialogue, reasoning) into a coherent framework. Taking the AAAI mobile robot challenge (making a robot attend the national conference on artificial intelligence) as the experimental context, we are currently addressing hardware, software and computation integration issues involved in designing a robot capable of sophisticated interaction with humans. This paper reports on our design solutions and the current status of the work, along with the potential impacts this design on human-robot interaction research.
Bears in a Forest of Gene Trees: Phylogenetic Inference Is Complicated by Incomplete Lineage Sorting and Gene Flow

Ursine bears are a mammalian subfamily that comprises six morphologically and ecologically distinct extant species. Previous phylogenetic analyses of concatenated nuclear genes could not resolve all relationships among bears, and appeared to conflict with the mitochondrial phylogeny. Evolutionary processes such as incomplete lineage sorting and introgression can cause gene tree discordance and complicate phylogenetic inferences, but are not accounted for in phylogenetic analyses of concatenated data. We generated a high-resolution data set of autosomal introns from several individuals per species and of Y-chromosomal markers. Incorporating intraspecific variability in coalescence-based phylogenetic and gene flow estimation approaches, we traced the genealogical history of individual alleles. Considerable heterogeneity among nuclear loci and discordance between nuclear and mitochondrial phylogenies were found. A species tree with divergence time estimates indicated that ursine bears diversified within less than 2 My. Consistent with a complex branching order within a clade of Asian bear species, we identified unidirectional gene flow from Asian black into sloth bears. Moreover, gene flow detected from brown into American black bears can explain the conflicting placement of the American black bear in mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenies. These results highlight that both incomplete lineage sorting and introgression are prominent evolutionary forces even on time scales up to several million years. Complex evolutionary patterns are not adequately captured by strictly bifurcating models, and can only be fully understood when analyzing multiple independently inherited loci in a coalescence framework. Phylogenetic incongruence among gene trees hence needs to be recognized as a biologically meaningful signal.
Large-Scale Analysis of the Prevalence and Geographic Distribution of HIV-1 Non-B Variants in the United States

ABSTRACT The genetic diversity of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) has significant implications for diagnosis, vaccine development, and clinical management of patients. Although HIV-1 subtype B is predominant in the United States, factors such as global travel, immigration, and military deployment have the potential to increase the proportion of non-subtype B infections. Limited data are available on the prevalence and distribution of non-B HIV-1 strains in the United States. We sought to retrospectively examine the prevalence, geographic distribution, diversity, and temporal trends of HIV-1 non-B infections in samples obtained by ARUP Laboratories, a national reference laboratory, from all regions of the United States. HIV-1 pol sequences from 24,386 specimens collected from 46 states between 2004 and September 2011 for drug resistance genotyping were analyzed using the REGA HIV-1 Subtyping Tool, version 2.0. Sequences refractory to subtype determination or reported as non-subtype B by this tool were analyzed by PHYLIP version 3.5 and Simplot version 3.5. 1. Non-subtype B strains accounted for 3.27% (798/24,386) of specimens. The 798 non-B specimens were received from 37 states and included 5 subtypes, 23 different circulating recombinant forms (CRFs), and 39 unique recombinant forms (URFs). The non-subtype B prevalence varied from 0% in 2004 (0/54) to 4.12% in 2011 (201/4,884). This large-scale analysis reveals that the diversity of HIV-1 in the United States is high, with multiple subtypes, CRFs, and URFs circulating. Moreover, the geographic distribution of non-B variants is widespread. Data from HIV-1 drug resistance testing have the potential to significantly enhance the surveillance of HIV-1 variants in the United States.
ADAPTIVE CONTROL BASED ON THE APPLICA TION OF A SIMPLIFIED UNIFORM STRUCTURES AND LEARNING PROCEDURES

The present state of creating a new branch of Soft Computing (SC) for particular problem elasses, possibly wider than the control of mechanical systems, is reported in this article. Like "traditional" SC il evades the development of analytical system models, and uses uniform structures, but these structures originate from various Lie groups. The advantages are a drastic reduction in size and an increase in lucidity. The generally "stochastic ar semistochastic" "learning" ar parameter tuning seems to be replaceable by simple explicit algebraic procedures of limited steps, /00. The idea originated from mechanical systems' control while considering their general internal symmetry group, and later il was further developed by using specific general features of it on a much wider scale. Convergence considerations are given for MIMO and SISO systems, too. Simulation examples are presented for the control of the inverted pendulum with the use of the Generalized Lorentzian Matrices. It is concluded that the me/hod is promising and probably imposes acceptable convergence requirements in many cases.
Propofol’s Effects on Nociceptive Behavior and Spinal C-Fos Expression After Intraplantar Formalin Injection in Mice with a Mutation in the Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid-TypeA Receptor &bgr;3 Subunit

We investigated whether propofol affected nociceptive behavior and fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) in the lumbo-sacral spinal cord after intraplantar formalin injection in wild-type (WT) mice and in mutant mice harboring a point mutation of the gamma-aminobutyric acid type A receptor, which renders them resistant to propofol. Bolus injection of propofol (30 mg/kg IV) in WT mice reduced phase 1 formalin-evoked behavior over the initial 2–3 min but did not alter phase 2 behavior or spinal FLI (64 ± 19 cells/section) compared with WT mice receiving intralipid vehicle plus intraplantar formalin (57 ± 19 cells/section). Most FLI was restricted to superficial dorsal horn laminae ipsilateral to the formalin injection. WT mice receiving a 60-min propofol infusion were anesthetized throughout and did not display nociceptive behavior but had FLI (58 ± 11 cells/section) that did not differ significantly from the other WT groups. Mutant mice receiving bolus injection of propofol (30 mg/kg) and intraplantar formalin were not anesthetized and exhibited nociceptive behavior. The total FLI in the spinal cord was 47 ± 29 cells/section. These data indicate that although propofol produces anesthesia, it does not prevent the FLI that is associated with nociception, a finding consistent with propofol lacking analgesic properties.
New Function for an Old Enzyme: NEP Deficient Mice Develop Late-Onset Obesity

Background According to the World Health Organization (WHO) there is a pandemic of obesity with approximately 300 million people being obese. Typically, human obesity has a polygenetic causation. Neutral endopeptidase (NEP), also known as neprilysin, is considered to be one of the key enzymes in the metabolism of many active peptide hormones. Methodology/Principal Findings An incidental observation in NEP-deficient mice was a late-onset excessive gain in body weight exclusively from a ubiquitous accumulation of fat tissue. In accord with polygenetic human obesity, mice were characterized by deregulation of lipid metabolism, higher blood glucose levels, with impaired glucose tolerance. The key role of NEP in determining body mass was confirmed by the use of the NEP inhibitor candoxatril in wild-type mice that increased body weight due to increased food intake. This is a peripheral and not a central NEP action on the switch for appetite control, since candoxatril cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. Furthermore, we demonstrated that inhibition of NEP in mice with cachexia delayed rapid body weight loss. Thus, lack in NEP activity, genetically or pharmacologically, leads to a gain in body fat. Conclusions/Significance In the present study, we have identified NEP to be a crucial player in the development of obesity. NEP-deficient mice start to become obese under a normocaloric diet in an age of 6–7 months and thus are an ideal model for the typical human late-onset obesity. Therefore, the described obesity model is an ideal tool for research on development, molecular mechanisms, diagnosis, and therapy of the pandemic obesity.
PANET: A GPU-Based Tool for Fast Parallel Analysis of Robustness Dynamics and Feed-Forward/Feedback Loop Structures in Large-Scale Biological Networks

It has been a challenge in systems biology to unravel relationships between structural properties and dynamic behaviors of biological networks. A Cytoscape plugin named NetDS was recently proposed to analyze the robustness-related dynamics and feed-forward/feedback loop structures of biological networks. Despite such a useful function, limitations on the network size that can be analyzed exist due to high computational costs. In addition, the plugin cannot verify an intrinsic property which can be induced by an observed result because it has no function to simulate the observation on a large number of random networks. To overcome these limitations, we have developed a novel software tool, PANET. First, the time-consuming parts of NetDS were redesigned to be processed in parallel using the OpenCL library. This approach utilizes the full computing power of multi-core central processing units and graphics processing units. Eventually, this made it possible to investigate a large-scale network such as a human signaling network with 1,609 nodes and 5,063 links. We also developed a new function to perform a batch-mode simulation where it generates a lot of random networks and conducts robustness calculations and feed-forward/feedback loop examinations of them. This helps us to determine if the findings in real biological networks are valid in arbitrary random networks or not. We tested our plugin in two case studies based on two large-scale signaling networks and found interesting results regarding relationships between coherently coupled feed-forward/feedback loops and robustness. In addition, we verified whether or not those findings are consistently conserved in random networks through batch-mode simulations. Taken together, our plugin is expected to effectively investigate various relationships between dynamics and structural properties in large-scale networks. Our software tool, user manual and example datasets are freely available at http://panet-csc.sourceforge. net/.
Effect of Stitching on the Tensile Mechanical Property of Empty Fruit Bunch Oil Palm Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites

Stitching has proven to be an effective reinforcement for improving through-thickness (out-of-plane) mechanical properties with the incorporation of z-direction reinforcements of synthestic fiber. There are drawbacks to stitching as it may cause focal stress concentration, and fiber misalignment and breakage, but at the same time, it can also improve the tensile performance of the composite. Tensile properties, such as tensile strength and modulus of elasticity, were obtained from tensile tests performed on both stitched and unstitched oil palm fiber composites as per ASTM D638 specifications using Universal Testing Machine INSTRON 5582. The test results indicated that stitching natural, short, untreated and random empty fruit bunch oil palm fiber reinforced epoxy composites improve the tensile strength and elastic modulus due to the increase in matrix volume percentage and additional tensional resistance.
Why Do NASDAQ Market Makers Avoid Odd-Eighth Quotes?

The NASDAQ multiple dealer market is designed to produce narrow bid-ask spreads through the competition for order flow among individual dealers. However, the authors find that odd-eighth quotes are virtually nonexistent for 70 of 100 actively traded NASDAQ securities, including Apple Computer and Lotus Development. The lack of odd-eighth quotes cannot be explained by the negotiation hypothesis of L. Harris (1991), trading activity, or other variables thought to impact spreads. This result implies that the inside spread for a large number of NASDAQ stocks is at least $0.25 and raises the question of whether NASDAQ dealers implicitly collude to maintain wide spreads. Copyright 1994 by American Finance Association.
Optical follow-up of BL Lac candidates in the 2BL sample

We investigate the nature of the BL Lac candidates in the northern part of the 2BL sample (Londish et al. 2002, MNRAS, 334, 941) searching for optical variability by means of R C band photometry with the Asiago 1.8 and Loiano 1.5 m telescopes during years 2002, 2003 and 2004. We also made aperture photometry of the candidates on the plates available on the web from the Palomar and UK Schmidt telescopes. No significant variability was detected for the majority of the objects without detected radio and/or X-ray emissions, while clear variability was found for the few sources of the sample with strong radio and/or X-ray emission, which is a constant feature of the classical BL Lacs. Some considerations on the nature of the 2BL sources are made, taking into account their most recent data available in proper motions catalogues (SuperCOSMOS, USNO-B 1) and in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
Pediatric Shunt Malfunction without Ventricular Dilatation

Background/Purpose: Symptomatic ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS) malfunction can occur without progressive ventricular dilatation on imaging studies. A review of VPS revisions performed during an 18-month period was conducted to better characterize this cohort. The incidence of VPS malfunction without ventricular dilatation and the clinical features that may predispose to its occurrence have not been previously described. Methods: A retrospective review was conducted of all patients under the age of 18 who underwent VPS revision due to shunt malfunction from June 2001 to December 2002. The incidence of various factors that might correlate with the development of low compliance ventricles was examined. Results: One hundred and seventy-seven patients underwent a total of 287 VPS revisions during the study period; 16 patients (9%) had signs of raised intracranial pressure and showed no radiographic evidence of progressive ventricular dilatation. History of prior shunt-related ventriculitis positively correlated with the development of low compliance ventricles (Fisher’s exact test, p = 0.043). Conclusion: Nine percent of pediatric patients with symptomatic VPS malfunctions lack radiographic evidence of progressive ventricular dilatation on imaging studies. Patients with prior shunt infections are particularly at risk, necessitating increased vigilance when clinical signs and symptoms are apparent.
Stochastic Inventory Models with Limited Production Capacity and Periodically Varying Parameters

We consider a single-item, periodic-review inventory model with uncertain demands in which each period's production volume is limited by a capacity level. The demand distributions, capacity levels, and cost parameters vary according to a periodic pattern. We prove that modified base-stock policies are optimal for the finite-horizon planning model and for both the infinite-horizon discounted and undiscounted cost criterion. We further show that the optimal base-stock levels can be calculated via a simple but efficient value-iteration method. Finally, we have conducted a comprehensive numerical study to ascertain the efficiency of this solution method as well as various qualitative properties of the performance of capacitated production/inventory systems under periodically varying demand and cost patterns.