Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Posttraumatic stress symptoms, anxiety and depression in burn-victims patients

There is a growing interest in the investigation of the emotional consequences related to burns. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of posttraumatic stress (PTSD), depression, and anxiety symptoms among burnt inpatients in the Hospital Municipal de Pronto Socorro de Porto Alegre (RS, Brazil). In patients’ symptomatology was assessed with the Screen for Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms (SPTSS), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). It was found that burn-victims patients showed high levels of psychopathology, including clinically-relevant PTSD (21.7% of participants), and moderate-to-severe anxiety (25%) and depression (30%) symptoms. Overall, burn extension and degree weren’t associated to the level of symptomatology. Taken together, the findings
Survival differences between peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis among "large" ESRD patients in the United States.

BACKGROUND It has been hypothesized that peritoneal dialysis compared to hemodialysis may be less effective in large patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). METHODS We tested this hypothesis in a cohort of 134,728 new ESRD patients who were initiated on dialysis from May 1, 1995 to July 31, 1997 using data from United States Renal Data System (USRDS). Cox regression models evaluated the association of body mass index (BMI) in quintiles (8.8-20.9, 20.9-23.5, 23.5-26.1, 26.1-30.0, 30.0-75.2 kg/m(2)) with mortality over 2 years in peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis patients separately, while time-dependent models evaluated the relative risk (RR) of death by modality for each BMI quintile. RESULTS For hemodialysis, the adjusted RR of death was greatest for patients with BMI 30.0 (RR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.96-0.99 for diabetic and RR = 0.97, 95% CI 0.95-0.98 for nondiabetic patients) compared with the referent (23.5-26.1; RR = 1.00). For peritoneal dialysis, the RR of death was also higher for patients with a BMI <20.9 (RR = 1.20, 95% CI 1.00-1.43 for diabetic and RR = 1.39, 95% CI 1.19-1.64 for nondiabetic patients) but no survival advantage was associated with higher BMI values. The RR of death (peritoneal dialysis/hemodialysis) for each BMI quintile was 0.99, 1.12, 1.26 (P < 0.01), 1.15 (P < 0.01), and 1.44 (P < 0.0001) for diabetic and were 1.07, 1.01, 0.96, 1.04, and 1.22 (P < 0.01) for nondiabetic patients, respectively. CONCLUSION We conclude that body size modifies the impact of dialysis modality on mortality risk among new ESRD patients in the United States. The selection of hemodialysis over peritoneal dialysis was associated with a survival advantage in patients with large body habitus.
Estimation of pulse transit time using time delay estimation techniques

The pulse wave propagation is the important electromechanical characteristics of biomedical signals. Conventionally the pulse propagation features are extracted by estimating the propagation time delay between two points called pulse transit time(PTT). The PTT estimation is based on the phase analysis of the cross power spectrum and bispectrum between the ECG and pulse signal. In this paper, The generalized cross correlation and bispectrum methods are discussed. The PTT is estimated from ECG and pulse waveform by measuring time between R peak of ECG to systolic peak of pulse signal. Simulation using MITBIH polysomnographic database and carried out to compare the two approches. It is shown that the bispectral modified phase transform provides the better estimates of pulse transit time.
Identification of novel virulence factors associated with signal transduction pathways in Alternaria brassicicola

Alternaria brassicicola is an important, necrotrophic fungal pathogen that causes black spot disease on Brassicas. In order to study pathogenicity mechanisms, gene deletion mutants were generated for 21 putative regulatory genes including kinases and transcription factors subjectively selected from the annotated A. brassicicola genome. Except for Ste12, the deletion of the SNF1 kinase, XlnR, and CreA homologues that control cell wall‐degrading enzyme production did not significantly affect virulence in contrast to other pathogenic fungi. Only deletion of XlnR but not CreA, Ste12 or SNF1 impaired the fungus' ability to utilize sole carbon sources suggesting Alternaria regulates expression of cell wall‐degrading enzymes in a novel manner. In addition, two novel virulence factors encoding a transcription factor (AbPro1) and a two‐component histidine kinase gene (AbNIK1) were discovered. Deletion of AbPro1 resulted in a 70% reduction in virulence and a 25% reduction in vegetative growth rates in vitro. Deletion of AbNIK1 resulted in a near complete loss of virulence, increased sensitivity to osmotic stress, and no changes in vegetative growth rates in vitro. Interestingly, addition of long polypeptides to spores of both Δabste12 and Δabnik1 during inoculations resulted in a complete restoration of pathogenicity through a yet to be defined mechanism.
Linguistic Affordances: Making Sense of Word Senses

In this position paper we want to focus the attention on the roles of word senses in standard Natural Language Understanding tasks. We first identify the main problems of having such a rigourous and inflexible way of discriminating among different meanings at word-level. In fact, in human cognition, we know the process of language understanding refers to a more shaded procedure. For this reason, we propose the concept of linguistic affordances, i.e., combinations of objects properties that are involved in specific actions and that help the comprehension of the whole scene being described. The idea is that similar verbs involving similar properties of the arguments may refer to comparable mental scenes. This architecture produces a converging framework where meaning becomes a distributed property between actions and objects, without having to differentiate among terms and relative word senses. We hope that this contribution will stimulate the debate about the actual effectiveness of current Word Sense Disambiguation systems towards more cognitive approaches able to go beyond word-level automatic understanding of natural language.
Combination Therapy With Renin‐Angiotensin‐Aldosterone Receptor Blockers for Hypertension: How Far Have We Come?

In a large number of patients with hypertension, ≥2 antihypertensive agents are required to achieve blood pressure (BP) goals. There is good rationale for initial combination therapy based on clinical trials demonstrating that achievement of BP goals within a reasonably short period of time results in fewer cardiovascular events. One approach to attaining BP goals and improving medication adherence is fixed‐dose combination therapy, the use of which dates back to the 1960s. Given some of the advantages of renin‐angiotensin‐aldosterone system (RAAS) blockers in patients with heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes, many combinations include either an angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitor or an angiotensin receptor blocker. In most studies, however, thiazide diuretics were necessary to achieve goal BP. Calcium channel blockers have also been used in combination with angiotensin‐converting enzyme inhibitors to lower BP. Studies are now under way to determine the relative benefits of an RAAS blocker/diuretic compared with an RAAS blocker/calcium channel blocker as initial therapy.
FASTR3D: a fast and accurate search tool for similar RNA 3D structures

FASTR3D is a web-based search tool that allows the user to fast and accurately search the PDB database for structurally similar RNAs. Currently, it allows the user to input three types of queries: (i) a PDB code of an RNA tertiary structure (default), optionally with specified residue range, (ii) an RNA secondary structure, optionally with primary sequence, in the dot-bracket notation and (iii) an RNA primary sequence in the FASTA format. In addition, the user can run FASTR3D with specifying additional filtering options: (i) the released date of RNA structures in the PDB database, and (ii) the experimental methods used to determine RNA structures and their least resolutions. In the output page, FASTR3D will show the user-queried RNA molecule, as well as user-specified options, followed by a detailed list of identified structurally similar RNAs. Particularly, when queried with RNA tertiary structures, FASTR3D provides a graphical display to show the structural superposition of the query structure and each of identified structures. FASTR3D is now available online at http://bioalgorithm.life. nctu.edu. tw/FASTR3D/.
Compact distributed data structures for adaptive routing

In designing a routing scheme for a communication network it is desirable to use as short as possible paths for routing messages, while keeping the routing information stored in the processors' local memory as succinct as possible. The efficiency of a routing scheme is measured in terms of its <italic>stretch factor</italic> - the maximum ratio between the cost of a route computed by the scheme and that of a cheapest path connecting the same pair of vertices. This paper presents a family of adaptive routing schemes for general networks. The <italic>hierarchical schemes H S<subscrpt>k</subscrpt></italic> (for every fixed <italic>k</italic> ≥ 1) guarantee a stretch factor of <italic>O</italic> (<italic>k</italic><supscrpt>2</supscrpt> · 3<supscrpt><italic>k</italic></supscrpt>) and require storing at most <italic>O</italic> (<italic>kn</italic><supscrpt><italic>k</italic></supscrpt> log <italic>n</italic>) bits of routing information <italic>per vertex</italic>. The new important features, that make the schemes appropriate for adaptive use, are<list><item>applicability to networks with arbitrary edge costs; </item><item>name-independence, i.e., usage of original names; </item><item>a balanced distribution of the memory; </item><item>an efficient on-line distributed preprocessing. </item></list>
Un acercamiento histórico a la intervención en crisis

Presently, the requirement of offering more and more mental health services in cases of emergency, has caused psychological professionals to create forms of brief and rapid intervention with the purpose to attend to a demand that is growing day by day. Considering that there is little personal competence to respond immediately, there has been a work in process to create a group of professionals to intervene in moments of crisis. As a result, this article attempts to present a biographic revision about the advances of the intervention in crisis, having in mind some historic situations that describe its ́ beginnings, the concepts related to crisis, and the difficulty of facing these situations. Additionally, this article reviews the position of the psychologist when facing a crisis, and the programs or strategies used in this kind of intervention.
X-SAR Cosmo-SkyMed mission and its scientific applications in the field of earth's observations: Some topics concerning the combinations of the observations achieved with other techniques

The Italian Space Agency (ASI Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) funded 27 scientific projects in the framework of COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) program. A subset of them focused on the improvements of the quality and quantity of information which can be extracted from X-SAR data if integrated with other independent techniques (GPS, data and imagery in other bands and wavelengths). The paper summarizes the results obtained from same of these projects and, in particular, regarding: the use of GPS observations and Numerical Weather Models (NWM) to remove atmospheric artifacts from InSAR imagery so improving the CSK potentialities in the field of topographic mapping; the integration of SAR data in X, L and C bands to improve snow cover monitoring and glaciers detection; the use of X-SAR data to retrieve rain precipitation and its validation with C-band radar observations; the improvements of the focusing techniques.
Atomic and Molecular Manipulation with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope

The prospect of manipulating matter on the atomic scale has fascinated scientists for decades. This fascination may be motivated by scientific and technological opportunities, or from a curiosity about the consequences of being able to place atoms in a particular location. Advances in scanning tunneling microscopy have made this prospect a reality; single atoms can be placed at selected positions and structures can be built to a particular design atom-by-atom. Atoms and molecules may be manipulated in a variety of ways by using the interactions present in the tunnel junction of a scanning tunneling microscope. Some of these recent developments and some of the possible uses of atomic and molecular manipulation as a tool for science are discussed.
Oxysterols are agonist ligands of RORγt and drive Th17 cell differentiation

Significance Because of its essential role in driving IL-17 production, the orphan nuclear receptor RAR-related orphan receptor gamma t (RORγt) represents a potential therapeutic target for autoimmune diseases. Here, we present evidence that 7β, 27-dihydroxycholesterol (7β, 27-OHC) and 7α, 27-OHC are RORγt agonist ligands and may serve as potential endogenous RORγt ligands in promoting the differentiation of mouse and human CD4+ Th17 cells. These findings may not only facilitate rational design of RORγt modulators but also, provide insights into additional targets for inhibiting IL-17 production. The RAR-related orphan receptor gamma t (RORγt) is a nuclear receptor required for generating IL-17–producing CD4+ Th17 T cells, which are essential in host defense and may play key pathogenic roles in autoimmune diseases. Oxysterols elicit profound effects on immune and inflammatory responses as well as on cholesterol and lipid metabolism. Here, we describe the identification of several naturally occurring oxysterols as RORγt agonists. The most potent and selective activator for RORγt is 7β, 27-dihydroxycholesterol (7β, 27-OHC). We show that these oxysterols reverse the inhibitory effect of an RORγt antagonist, ursolic acid, in RORγ- or RORγt-dependent cell-based reporter assays. These ligands bind directly to recombinant RORγ ligand binding domain (LBD), promote recruitment of a coactivator peptide, and reduce binding of a corepressor peptide to RORγ LBD. In primary cells, 7β, 27-OHC and 7α, 27-OHC enhance the differentiation of murine and human IL-17–producing Th17 cells in an RORγt-dependent manner. Importantly, we showed that Th17, but not Th1 cells, preferentially produce these two oxysterols. In vivo, administration of 7β, 27-OHC in mice enhanced IL-17 production. Mice deficient in CYP27A1, a key enzyme in generating these oxysterols, showed significant reduction of IL-17–producing cells, including CD4+ and γδ+ T cells, similar to the deficiency observed in RORγt knockout mice. Our results reveal a previously unknown mechanism for selected oxysterols as immune modulators and a direct role for CYP27A1 in generating these RORγt agonist ligands, which we propose as RORγt endogenous ligands, driving both innate and adaptive IL-17–dependent immune responses.
Knowledge-based parameters for HMM speech recognition

This paper presents acoustic parameters (APs) that were motivated by phonetic feature theory and employed as a signal representation of speech in a hidden Markov model (HMM) recognition framework. Presently, the phonetic features considered are the manner features: sonorant, syllabic, nonsyllabic, noncontinuant and fricated. The objective of the parameters is to directly target the linguistic information in the signal and to reduce the speaker-dependent information that may yield large speech variability. To achieve these goals, the APs were defined in a relational manner across time or frequency. For evaluation, broad-class recognition experiments were conducted comparing the APs to cepstral-based parameters. The results of the experiments indicate that the APs are able to capture the phonetically relevant information in the speech signal and that, in comparison to the cepstral-based parameters, they are more able to reduce the interspeaker variability.
Social and communication patterns that can be detected early in 12-month old infants later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder

The purpose of this project was to determine what social and communication patterns could be detected early in infants who are later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Investigators carried out a qualitative analysis collecting descriptive data through retrospective video analysis addressing two main areas of development in infants later diagnosed with ASD: (a) social interactions, and (b) communication and language development. The intent of this research project was to highlight specific social communication behaviors: (1) eye gaze, (2) response to name, (3) communicative forms (both vocalizations and gestures), and (4) communicative intent & function (behavior regulations, social interaction, and joint attention). The following behaviors carried the most relevance surrounding a later autism spectrum diagnosis: lack of overall use of vocalizations, lack of gestures, limited social interactions, and inconsistent or lack of response to name. Based on this investigation, evaluators' discussion and observations were the most accurate and consistent when predicting an ASD diagnosis in at-risk 12 month-old infants when noting a child's vocalizations, gestures, and response to name.
Optimizing temperature distribution in modern processors through efficient floorplanning

In modern integrated circuits, reducing the hotspot temperature even by several degrees may lead to significant advantages. In particular, in high performance processors, lower temperature means lower cooling costs, the possibility of increasing the operating frequency and extending the devices lifetime. Therefore, in this paper we investigate how the positioning of particular processor units in the floorplan (i.e. floorplanning) affects the maximal temperature in the chip. We take into consideration 8- and 6-core processors and simulate the temperature distribution for various floorplan designs. It is shown that the difference in maximal temperature for various floorplans can reach even 7.2K for a typical case. It is also argued that the 6-core design may be a better option for future processors fabricated in 14 nm technology.
Comparison of fuzzy and MPC based buck converter

This article presents the design and construction of Model Predictive Controller (MPC) for a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) based buck converter, working in Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM). The converter operates at a switching frequency of 100 KHz. The buck converter is mathematically modeled and implemented in matlab simulink The open loop response of the buck converter is used to obtain the transfer function (second order) of the model, which in turn is used to design the MPC controller. This MPC is used to control the output voltage of the buck converter and it has been found that the output voltage is maintained constant accurately for dynamic load, and the peak overshoot is reduced drastically. The output voltage obtained with MPC controller is then compared with the output voltage obtained from fuzzy based buck converter and it has been observed that the MPC gives better output than the fuzzy controller.
Treatment of Recurrent Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer: Focus on Cetuximab

EGFR belongs to the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases and is associated with worse prognosis in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Cetuximab is a monoclonal antibody to the extracellular domain of EGFR and inhibits its downstream actions via multiple mechanisms. Besides its proven efficacy in locally advanced and incurable HNSCC, cetuximab has the distinct advantage of having a relatively tolerable side effect profile and not potentiating radiation toxicity. Though therapies for advanced HNSCC are evolving, locoregional recurrence and/or distant metastases occur in a large percentage of patients. Though some patients can be salvaged with surgery or radiation therapy, the majority are incurable, and are treated palliatively with systemic therapy. In the setting of first line therapy for recurrent/metastatic HNSCC, the EXTREME trial provided level 1 evidence that cetuximab improves overall survival when combined with cisplatinum and 5 FU. Following progression on first line chemotherapy, several phase II trials suggest that cetuximab monotherapy is a reasonable choice in this setting. Future studies should concentrate on clinical and molecular markers that may allow more personalized approaches to treating HNSCC, and combining EGFR inhibitors with other agents in a synergistic approach.
Pengaruh Kegiatan Ekstrakurikuler Kepramukaan Terhadap Perilaku Prososial Remaja Di SMP Santa Ursula Jakarta

Intisari . Kemerosotan moral merupakan masalah yang dihadapi Indonesia saat ini. Menipisnya perilaku prososial bukan saja terjadi pada orang dewasa namun juga pada remaja, oleh karena itu pendidikan karakter penting untuk diberikan kepada murid-murid sebagai upaya untuk mengatasi kemerosotan moral ini. Kurikulum 2013 dianggap sebagai kurikulum yang mampu menjawab kebutuhan untuk mengatasi masalah karakter generasi muda. Sebagai konsekuensi dari implementasi kurikulum ini, maka kegiatan kepramukaan diberlakukan sebagai ekstrakurikuler yang wajib diikuti murid. Alasannya adalah kegiatan kepramukaan mendidik karakter murid sehingga menjadi pribadi yang prososial dan cinta tanah air. Menanggapi hal ini, peneliti melakukan penelitian eksperimen untuk menguji pengaruh kegiatan kepramukaan terhadap perilaku prososial remaja di SMP Santa Ursula Jakarta. Subyek penelitian terdiri dari kelompok eksperimen (N=34) dan kelompok control (N=34). Kelompok eksperimen diberi treatment berupa kegiatan kepramukaan sebanyak 11 kali pertemuan, sedangkan kelompok control tidak diberi perlakuan. Sesudah treatment dilakukan, kedua kelompok diukur perilaku prososialnya dengan menggunakan kuesioner berisi pernyataan-pernyataan tentang perilaku prososial. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah terdapat perbedaan sangat signifikan antara perilaku prososial kelompok eksperimen dengan kelompok control. Rata-rata perilaku prososial kelompok eksperimen lebih tinggi dari kelompok control. Aspek-aspek perilaku prososial juga diuji dalam penelitian ini. Perilaku menolong, berbagi dan memberi penguatan, mempertimbangkan hak dan kesejahteraan orang lain, menghargai dan kompromi memberi hasil berbeda sangat signifikan antara kelompok eksperimen dengan kelompok control. Rata-rata perilaku di aspek-aspek ini untuk kelompok eksperimen lebih tinggi dari kelompok control. Perilaku dermawan berbeda signifikan, kelompok eksperimen lebih tinggi dari kelompok control. Sedangkan rerata perilaku jujur dan bekerjasama menunjukkan tidak ada perbedaan antara kedua kelompok. Kata kunci: perilaku prososial, kegiatan kepramukaan
Channel-Spacing- and Wavelength-Tunable Multiwavelength Fiber Ring Laser Using Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

We have demonstrated a channel-spacing- and wavelength-tunable multiwavelength fiber ring laser based on a semiconductor optical amplifier and a tunable comb filter. By employing the comb filter, multiwavelength operation of up to 23 laser lines with the signal-to-noise ratio over 25 dB and 0.8-nm wavelength spacing was demonstrated at room temperature. The results show that the multiwavelength operation is even and stable. Furthermore, the shift of lasing wavelength and wavelength spacing were continuously controllable in this system