Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum Levels of Beta2-Microglobulin and Free Light Chains of Immunoglobulins Are Associated with Systemic Disease Activity in Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome. Data at Enrollment in the Prospective ASSESS Cohort

Objectives To analyze the clinical and immunological characteristics at enrollment in a large prospective cohort of patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) and to investigate the association between serum BAFF, beta2-microglobulin and free light chains of immunoglobulins and systemic disease activity at enrollment. Methods Three hundred and ninety five patients with pSS according to American-European Consensus Criteria were included from fifteen centers of Rheumatology and Internal Medicine in the “Assessment of Systemic Signs and Evolution of Sjögren's Syndrome” (ASSESS) 5-year prospective cohort. At enrollment, serum markers were assessed as well as activity of the disease measured with the EULAR Sjögren's Syndrome Disease Activity Index (ESSDAI). Results Patient median age was 58 (25th–75th: 51–67) and median disease duration was 5 (2–9) years. Median ESSDAI at enrollment was 2 (0–7) with 30.9% of patients having features of systemic involvement. Patients with elevated BAFF, beta2-microglobulin and kappa, lambda FLCS had higher ESSDAI scores at enrollment (4 [2]–[11] vs 2 [0–7], P = 0.03; 4 [1]–[11] vs 2 [0–7], P< 0.0001); 4 [2]–[10] vs 2 [0–6.6], P< 0.0001 and 4 [2–8.2] vs 2 [0–7.0], P = 0.02, respectively). In multivariate analysis, increased beta2-microglobulin, kappa and lambda FLCs were associated with a higher ESSDAI score. Median BAFF and beta2-microglobulin were higher in the 16 patients with history of lymphoma (1173.3(873.1–3665.5) vs 898.9 (715.9–1187.2) pg/ml, P = 0.01 and 2.6 (2.2–2.9) vs 2.1 (1.8–2.6) mg/l, P = 0.04, respectively). Conclusion In pSS, higher levels of beta2-microglobulin and free light chains of immunoglobulins are associated with increased systemic disease activity.
Evolution of Communication Sounds in Odontocetes: A Review

Author(s): Morisaka, Tadamichi | Abstract: The evolutional pathway of communication sounds (i.e., whistles) in odontocetes is reviewed using recent acoustic and phylogenetic studies. The common ancestor of Ziphiidae, Inioidea, and Delphinoidea acquired the ability to whistle in the early Oligocene. Subsequently, Pontoporiidae, Phocoenidae, and the genus Cephalorhynchus lost the ability to whistle and evolved narrow-band high-frequency (NBHF) clicks. I hypothesize that sexual selection based on acoustic signaling contributed to the evolution of whistle. However, group size cannot be excluded as the reason for whistle emergence. The event of whistle loss and replacement with NBHF clicks occurred on three independent occasions after killer whale divergence, through the reconstruction of sound-producing organs. Species with whistle loss may use alternative methods to compensate for whistle information, such as tactile communication. Further research on acoustic communication by Ziphiidae, Inioidea, Monodontidae, and the genus Cephalorhynchus is essential to clarify the evolutional pathway of odontocete whistles. //
Towards authenticated network coding for named data networking

Named Data Networking represents a novel and an alternative approach to the current host based Internet architecture, in which the content becomes the core of the communication model. In this paper, we propose to improve named data networking robustness and throughput performances by introducing network coding functionalities. We also propose an optimized authentication model based on homomorphic encryption to deal with the "pollution attacks" problem in which malicious nodes can flood the network with bad packets and prevent the reconstruction of information at recipients. We first present our optimized homomorphic signature scheme with respect to the practical constraints such as the processing overhead generated by complex cryptographic operations and we define the network coding scheme tailored for named data networking. Our numerical results demonstrate that the use of this optimized model reduces by 10% the overall calculation cost induced by cryptographic operations compared to a hop-by-hop coding and verification model.
OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR PERFORMANCE IN CONCURRENT INTERVAL SCHEDULES '

Four pigeons were trained under concurrent variable-interval variable-interval and fixedinterval variable-interval schedules in a two-key situation. Both response allocation and time allocation to the two schedules were measured when various reinforcement rates were arranged on each key. All animals showed an approximately constant proportional preference for the variable-interval schedule over the fixed-interval schedule. These results support Schneider's (1969) analysis of fixed-interval schedule performance.
Glottal-based analysis of the lombard effect

The Lombard effect refers to the speech changes due to the immersion of the speaker in a noisy environment. Among these changes, studies have already reported acoustic modifications mainly related to the vocal tract behaviour. In a complementary way, this paper investigates the variation of the glottal flow in Lombard speech. For this, the glottal flow is estimated by a closed-phase analysis and parametrized by a set of time and spectral features. Through a study on a database containing 25 speakers uttering in clean and noisy environments (with 4 noise types at 2 levels), it is highlighted that the glottal source is significantly modified due to the increased vocal effort. Such changes are of interest in several applications of speech processing, such as speech or speaker recognition, or speech synthesis.
Activation of the Angiotensin II Type 1 Receptor Leads to Movement of the Sixth Transmembrane Domain: Analysis by the Substituted Cysteine Accessibility Method

The role of transmembrane domain six (TMD6) of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor, which is predicted to undergo conformational changes after agonist binding, was investigated using the substituted-cysteine accessibility method. Each residue in the Lys240-Leu265 fragment was mutated, one at a time, to a cysteine. The resulting mutants were expressed in COS-7 cells, which were subsequently treated with the charged sulfhydryl-specific alkylating agent methanethiosulfonate-ethylammonium (MTSEA). This treatment led to a significant reduction in binding of 125I-[Sar1,Ile8]AngII to the F249C, H256C, T260C, and V264C mutant receptors, suggesting that these residues orient themselves within the water-accessible binding pocket of the AT1 receptor. It is noteworthy that this pattern of acquired MTSEA sensitivity was altered for TMD6 cysteines engineered in a constitutively active AT1 receptor. Indeed, mutant F249C was insensitive to MTSEA treatment, whereas the sensitivity of mutant V264C decreased. Under these conditions, one other mutant, F261C, was found to be sensitive to MTSEA treatment. Our results suggest that constitutive activation of the AT1 receptor causes TMD6 to pivot. This movement moves the top (extracellular side) of TMD6 toward the binding pocket and simultaneously distances the bottom (intracellular side) away from the binding pocket. Using this approach, we identified key elements within TMD6 that contribute to the activation of class A GPCRs through structural rearrangements.
Robust multiple-fault detection and isolation: a gradient flow approach

In this paper a novel solution to the fault detection and isolation observer design problem for LTI systems is presented. A gradient flow approach is proposed for synthesizing an optimal observer under eigenstructure assignment, which is robust against unstructured uncertainties. This is achieved by minimizing the spectral condition number of the observer eigenvector matrix. Convergence properties of the gradient flow solution are proved and its efficiency demonstrated via a numerical example.
Improved speech recognition using iterative decoding based on confidence measures

In this paper, a decoding method incorporatingword-level con(cid:12)dence measures for improved speech recognition is presented. At (cid:12)rst, we focus on the estimation of con(cid:12)dence measures from the word graph and evaluate them in word graph rescoring (2nd-pass in 2-pass search system). Next, we propose the lexical tree search (1st-pass in 2-pass search system) incorporating the word-level con(cid:12)dence measures and an iterative decoding based on the con(cid:12)dence measures, resulting in the re-construction of the word graph. The experimental results showed that this method achieved a slight improvement at word accuracy.
A 30-year-old male with diffuse white matter lesions.

A 30-year-old male presented with fever and cough withexpectoration of 3-month duration. He was diagnosed to havepulmonary tuberculosis and antituberculous therapy was ini-tiated. He developed progressive lower limb weakness over1 month. He was detected to be HIV seropositive. At the timeof admission to the hospital, he was dull, withdrawn, and hadspastic paraparesis (Grade 4/5 power). Cerebrospinal fluid(CSF) studies revealed 120 cells/mm
Método simple para determinar el módulo de Young dinámico a partir de una excitación por impacto aplicado a morteros de cal y cemento

The present work explains a simple method to determine the dynamic Young module (MOE) by inducing a set of small mechanical perturbation to samples of lime and cement mortars and correlating the results obtained with results determined using other techniques and methods. The procedure described herein follows the instructions stated in the UNE-EN ISO 12680-1 standard for refractory products although in this study the instructions are applied to standardized RILEM 4x4x16 cm test samples made of lime and cement mortars. In addition, MOE determinations are obtained by using ultrasonic impulse velocity while static Young's modulus determinations are obtained by performing conventional bending tests. The ability of this procedure to correlate with results from other techniques, along with its simplicity, suggests that it can be widely adapted to determine the deformability of mortars under load using standardized samples.
Collagenous colitis and eosinophilic gastritis in a 4‐year old girl: a case report and review of the literature

Collagenous colitis (CC), a form of microscopic colitis, is characterized by a thick subepithelial collagen layer in the colon in the presence of chronic nonbloody watery diarrhoea and macroscopically normal‐appearing colonic mucosa. Typically affecting elderly adults, CC is rare in children with only 12 cases previously reported in the literature. We report the case of a 4‐year‐old girl with CC associated with eosinophilic gastritis, which was clinically responsive to treatment with ketotifen, a benzocycloheptathiophene derivative, and H1 class of antihistamine that stabilizes mast cells and potentially impairs eosinophil migration to target organs. We review the published cases of paediatric‐onset CC and summarize the links between eosinophils and CC in the clinical and basic science literature.
Public conceptions of mental illness: labels, causes, dangerousness, and social distance.

OBJECTIVES The authors used nationwide survey data to characterize current public conceptions related to recognition of mental illness and perceived causes, dangerousness, and desired social distance. METHODS Data were derived from a vignette experiment included in the 1996 General Social Survey. Respondents (n = 1444) were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 vignette conditions. Four vignettes described psychiatric disorders meeting diagnostic criteria, and the fifth depicted a "troubled person" with subclinical problems and worries. RESULTS Results indicate that the majority of the public identifies schizophrenia (88%) and major depression (69%) as mental illnesses and that most report multicausal explanations combining stressful circumstances with biologic and genetic factors. Results also show, however, that smaller proportions associate alcohol (49%) or drug (44%) abuse with mental illness and that symptoms of mental illness remain strongly connected with public fears about potential violence and with a desire for limited social interaction. CONCLUSIONS While there is reason for optimism in the public's recognition of mental illness and causal attributions, a strong stereotype of dangerousness and desire for social distance persist. These latter conceptions are likely to negatively affect people with mental illness.
Purification of Essential Linoleic Acid from Pinus armandi franch Seed Oil by Silver-Silica Gel Chromatography Column

Pinus armandi franch is a special local plant in China and its seed oil is a nice resource of linoleic acid (LA) with a content of 63% of the total fatty acid. LA is an essential fatty acid and it exerts a variety of physiological functions. The absence of LA in the diet is responsible for the development of various abnormal disorders. Highly purified LA is required on pharmaceutical applications. This work reports recovery of highly purified LA from Pinus armandi franch seed oil by means of a process including Pinus armandi franch seed oil saponification and concentration of the fatty acids by urea inclusion fractionation method. Afterward, PUFA were methylated, and the urea-concentrate methylated was purified by using silver-silica gel column chromatography. Silver-silica gel chromatography yields high purity LA in the procedure in Pinus armandi franch seed oil. The recovery for the combined procedure was 79%, with a final purity 97.03%. Therefore, highly pure PUFA linoleic acid could be obtained by silver-silica gel chromatography column.
FORMALISMS FOR NEGOTIATION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN

Engineering projects often undergo several design iterations before being completed. Information received from other groups working on a project (analysis, manufacturing, marketing, sales) will often necessitate changes in a design. The interaction between different groups associated with a design project often takes the form of informal “negotiation. ” This form of interaction commonly arises when engineering information is imprecise. The Method of Imprecision (M oI) is a formal method for the representation and manipulation of preliminary and imprecise design information. It provides a mechanism for the formalization of these informal negotiations. The nature and scope of informal negotiation in engineering is explored and discussed, and application of the MoI is illustrated with an example.
Effect of background noise on neuronal coding of interaural level difference cues in rat inferior colliculus

Humans can accurately localize sounds even in unfavourable signal‐to‐noise conditions. To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying this, we studied the effect of background wide‐band noise on neural sensitivity to variations in interaural level difference (ILD), the predominant cue for sound localization in azimuth for high‐frequency sounds, at the characteristic frequency of cells in rat inferior colliculus (IC). Binaural noise at high levels generally resulted in suppression of responses (55.8%), but at lower levels resulted in enhancement (34.8%) as well as suppression (30.3%). When recording conditions permitted, we then examined if any binaural noise effects were related to selective noise effects at each of the two ears, which we interpreted in light of well‐known differences in input type (excitation and inhibition) from each ear shaping particular forms of ILD sensitivity in the IC. At high signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNR), in most ILD functions (41%), the effect of background noise appeared to be due to effects on inputs from both ears, while for a large percentage (35.8%) appeared to be accounted for by effects on excitatory input. However, as SNR decreased, change in excitation became the dominant contributor to the change due to binaural background noise (63.6%). These novel findings shed light on the IC neural mechanisms for sound localization in the presence of continuous background noise. They also suggest that some effects of background noise on encoding of sound location reported to be emergent in upstream auditory areas can also be observed at the level of the midbrain.
Matching Surface Plasmon Modes in Symmetry-Broken Structures for Nanohole-Based Color Filter

Metallic nanoholes have been highlighted by their possible use as plasmonic color filters (PCFs). However, previous results have demonstrated the functions of the PCFs as stand-alone components and have provided few explanations about the optimization of these structures. We provide a design method of the PCFs that offers unique analytic insights about extraordinary optical transmission (EOT) in a systematic manner. The dielectric environment in the cylindrical hole has an important role to match the surface plasmon (SP) modes in holes and subsequently to enhance the EOT. Efficient EOT was achieved with finite dimensions less than the penetration depth of the SPs. This letter will provide more realistic guidelines for designing nanohole-based applications.
Increased pulse-wave velocity and carotid intima–media thickness in patients with lower urinary tract symptoms

Abstract Objective.Vascular risk factors frequently coexist with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in both men and women, suggesting that atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction may play a major role in the development of LUTS. Arterial stiffness owing to decreased arterial compliance is one of the major signs of vascular ageing, and carotid intima–media thickness (CIMT) can be used in establishing the extent and severity of vascular impairment. This study investigated the association of arterial stiffness and vascular atherosclerotic involvement with LUTS in men and overactive bladder (OAB) in women. Material and methods.This study was prospective and cross-sectional, consisting of 66 patients with LUTS (38 men with LUTS, 28 women with OAB) and 62 controls without LUTS or OAB. Carotid–femoral pulse-wave velocity (CF-PWV) was measured as an index of arterial stiffness. CIMT was measured with B-mode ultrasonography to assess vascular impairment. Results.Patients with LUTS had significantly higher CF-PWV (9.8 ± 2.6 vs 7.0 ± 1.4 m/s, p < 0.001) and CIMT (0.89 ± 0.16 and 0.56 ± 0.31 mm, p < 0.001) compared with controls. Age and glucose were also different between LUTS and control groups (p < 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively). In the multivariate analyses, both CIMT ( = 0.429, p < 0.001) and PWV ( = 0.451, p < 0.001) were related to LUTS. Conclusions.Vascular impairment was found to be associated with LUTS in both men and women. Atherosclerosis-related vascular risk factors are also known to be related to LUTS and both disorders may have pathogenic interactions.
The potential for QT prolongation and proarrhythmia by non-antiarrhythmic drugs: clinical and regulatory implications. Report on a policy conference of the European Society of Cardiology.

The Policy Conference on ‘The Potential for QT Prolongation and Proarrhythmia by Nonantiarrhythmic Drugs. Clinical and Regulatory Implications’ was held at the European Heart House in Sophia Antipolis, France, on the initiative of Günter Breithardt, FESC, FACC, on 24 and 25 June 1999 after formal approval by the Board of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The conference was organized under the auspices of the ESC Committee for Scientific and Clinical Initiatives by Günter Breithardt and Wilhelm Haverkamp, Münster, Germany, with participation of representatives of the Working Group on Arrhythmias of the ESC, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the World Heart Federation, the European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products, the Medicines Control Agency (UK), the Food and Drug Administration (USA), the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (USA), the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Germany), and the Medical Products Agency (Sweden). The scientific and clinical basis of drug-induced QT prolongation and proarrhythmia was summarized by formal presentations. The speakers were chosen for their particular competence in the relevant field. Furthermore, selected topics were discussed in detail in separate workshops. This document represents the executive summary of the Conference. It is based on written reports composed by the speakers and the chairs of the workshops. Before preparation of the final version of the document, a draft was circulated to all participants of the Conference for suggestions and comments. The opinions expressed in this document are those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the official position of their organisations or agencies. The meeting was made possible by unrestricted educational grants to the Committee for Scientific and Clinical Initiatives of the ESC from several companies listed in the Appendix.
Identification of Agents That Promote Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress Using an Assay That Monitors Luciferase Secretion

Disruption of protein processing in the secretory pathway is a measurable hallmark of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Activation of ER stress–mediated pathways has been implicated in numerous diseases, including cancer. To identify agents that induce ER stress, we established a screen for compounds that reduce secretion of the reporter protein Gaussia luciferase (GLUC). Given the clinically validated importance of targeting ER stress–mediated pathways in the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM), we used this hematological malignancy as a model for validating our screening system. From a screen of 2000 marketed drugs and natural compounds in KMS11 and ARP1 MM cells, we identified 97 agents that reduced GLUC secretion in both cell lines by at least 30%. To confirm inducers of ER stress, we applied a secondary screen that assessed splicing of the unfolded protein response (UPR) transcription factor XBP1. One agent, theaflavin-3,3′-digallate (TF-3), was chosen based on its history of safe human consumption and further validated through studies of ER stress–related pathways, including the UPR and apoptosis. Given these promising results, this screen could be a useful tool to identify agents targeting ER stress–related mechanisms in other cellular systems wherein ER stress plays a role in disease etiology.
New tests of the distal speech rate effect: examining cross-linguistic generalization

Recent findings [Dilley and Pitt, 2010. Psych. Science. 21, 1664–1670] have shown that manipulating context speech rate in English can cause entire syllables to disappear or appear perceptually. The current studies tested two rate-based explanations of this phenomenon while attempting to replicate and extend these findings to another language, Russian. In Experiment 1, native Russian speakers listened to Russian sentences which had been subjected to rate manipulations and performed a lexical report task. Experiment 2 investigated speech rate effects in cross-language speech perception; non-native speakers of Russian of both high and low proficiency were tested on the same Russian sentences as in Experiment 1. They decided between two lexical interpretations of a critical portion of the sentence, where one choice contained more phonological material than the other (e.g., /str′na/ “side” vs. /str′na/ “country”). In both experiments, with native and non-native speakers of Russian, context speech rate and the relative duration of the critical sentence portion were found to influence the amount of phonological material perceived. The results support the generalized rate normalization hypothesis, according to which the content perceived in a spectrally ambiguous stretch of speech depends on the duration of that content relative to the surrounding speech, while showing that the findings of Dilley and Pitt (2010) extend to a variety of morphosyntactic contexts and a new language, Russian. Findings indicate that relative timing cues across an utterance can be critical to accurate lexical perception by both native and non-native speakers.