Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of lung cancer by sensor array analyses of exhaled breath.

RATIONALE Electronic noses are successfully used in commercial applications, including detection and analysis of volatile organic compounds in the food industry. OBJECTIVES We hypothesized that the electronic nose could identify and discriminate between lung diseases, especially bronchogenic carcinoma. METHODS In a discovery and training phase, exhaled breath of 14 individuals with bronchogenic carcinoma and 45 healthy control subjects or control subjects without cancer was analyzed. Principal components and canonic discriminant analysis of the sensor data was used to determine whether exhaled gases could discriminate between cancer and noncancer. Discrimination between classes was performed using Mahalanobis distance. Support vector machine analysis was used to create and apply a cancer prediction model prospectively in a separate group of 76 individuals, 14 with and 62 without cancer. MAIN RESULTS Principal components and canonic discriminant analysis demonstrated discrimination between samples from patients with lung cancer and those from other groups. In the validation study, the electronic nose had 71.4% sensitivity and 91.9% specificity for detecting lung cancer; positive and negative predictive values were 66.6 and 93.4%, respectively. In this population with a lung cancer prevalence of 18%, positive and negative predictive values were 66.6 and 94.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION The exhaled breath of patients with lung cancer has distinct characteristics that can be identified with an electronic nose. The results provide feasibility to the concept of using the electronic nose for managing and detecting lung cancer.
Cardiovascular disease morbidity in an Iowa law enforcement cohort, compared with the general Iowa population.

It remains uncertain if law enforcement officers experience an elevated cardiovascular disease morbidity and, if so, whether their profession contributes to this incidence. Consequently, the self-reported incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) (coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, angioplasty) and CVD risk factors (age, diabetes, elevated body mass index (> or = 27.8 kg.m-2), hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, tobacco use) in 232 male retirees, > or = 55 years of age, from the Iowa Department of Public Safety were compared with 817 male Iowans of similar age. CVD incidence was higher in the law enforcement officers than the general population (31.5% vs 18.4%, P < 0.001). Using multiple logistic regression, factors found to be associated with CVD included the law enforcement profession (odds ratio [OR] = 2.34; 95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 1.5-3.6), hypercholesterolemia (OR = 2.37; 95% CI = 1.7-3.3); diabetes (OR = 2.22; 95% CI = 1.4-3.6), hypertension (OR = 1.79; 95% CI = 1.3-2.5), tobacco use (OR = 1.67; 95% CI = 1.07-2.6), and age (OR = 1.06; 95% CI = 1.03-1.08). These results suggest that employment as a law enforcement officer is associated with an increased cardiovascular disease morbidity and this relationship persists after considering several conventional risk factors.
Time-Domain CMOS Temperature Sensors With Dual Delay-Locked Loops for Microprocessor Thermal Monitoring

We report on CMOS temperature sensors that work by measuring temperature-dependent delays in CMOS inverters. Two new features distinguish this work from the prior delay-based temperature sensors. First, our sensor operates with simple, low-cost one-point calibration. Second, it uses delay-locked loops (DLLs) to convert inverter delays to digital temperature outputs: the use of DLLs enables low energy (0.24 μJ/sample) and high bandwidth (5 kilo-samples/s), facilitating fast thermal monitoring. After calibration, measurement errors for 15 chips fabricated in digital CMOS 0.13 μm fall within -4.0~4.0 °C in a temperature range of 0~100 °C, where the temperature chamber used has a control uncertainty of ±1.1 °C. Microprocessor thermal profiling can be a potential application.
Singularity-free interpretation of the thermodynamics of supercooled water.

According to the singularity-free interpretation of the thermodynamics of supercooled water, the isothermal compressibility, isobaric heat capacity, and the magnitude of the thermal expansion coefficient increase sharply upon supercooling, but remain finite. No phase transition or critical point occurs at low temperatures. Instead, there is a pronounced but continuous increase in volume and a corresponding decrease in entropy at low temperatures, the sharpness of which becomes more pronounced the lower the temperature and the higher the pressure. We investigate the behavior of the response functions, equation of state, and entropy of a schematic waterlike model that exhibits singularity-free behavior, and thereby illustrate the simplest thermodynamically consistent interpretation that is in accord with existing experimental evidence on water’s low-temperature anomalies. In spite of its simplicity, the model captures many nontrivial aspects of water’s thermodynamics semiquantitatively.
Differentiating shame and guilt from a relational perspective: A cross-cultural study

In this study we used the self-afflicted versus other-afflicted model to differentiate between shame and guilt among Chinese and American college students. Two scenarios with the same background but a different combination of protagonists were used to test the model. Results showed that the model was confirmed in the Chinese sample and received certain support in the American sample. The implications of the findings are discussed.
Local reconstruction of stenosed sections of artery using multiple MRA acquisitions

A method for reconstructing magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) volumes from successive acquisitions is described. The method is based on double oblique acquisitions of highly anisotropic MRA volumes, each of which corresponds to reduced k‐space filling. These partial k‐spaces are then combined to obtain a 3D k‐space adapted to the frequency spread of the angiographic image of the stenosis. The SNR‐resolution compromise of MRA is thus improved by focusing the acquisition on the most relevant k‐space regions. The reconstruction is performed directly in k‐space by averaging the partial k‐spaces. The feasibility of the method was demonstrated in studies on a Lucite stenosis phantom, on MRAs of carotid arteries using three bolus injections, and on MRAs of renal arteries using a single contrast injection. Magn Reson Med 49:731–742, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Sex, gender identity, gender role attitudes, and consumer behavior

This article identifies differences between sex, gender identity, and gender role attitudes. Using measures of these constructs, data were collected in a field study of Christmas shopping behaviors. Alternative measurement and multivariate regression models were estimated. The results showed the models best fit the data when the measures were specified as reflecting unique rather than common gender constructs. The measures also each explained significant incremental variance in different shopping behaviors. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Blind deconvolution using TV regularization and Bregman iteration

In this paper we formulate a new time dependent model for blind deconvolution based on a constrained variational model that uses the sum of the total variation norms of the signal and the kernel as a regularizing functional. We incorporate mass conservation and the nonnegativity of the kernel and the signal as additional constraints. We apply the idea of Bregman iterative regularization, first used for image restoration by Osher and colleagues [S.J. Osher, M. Burger, D. Goldfarb, J.J. Xu, and W. Yin, An iterated regularization method for total variation based on image restoration, UCLA CAM Report, 04‐13, (2004)]. to recover finer scales. We also present an analytical study of the model discussing uniqueness of the solution, convergence to steady state and a priori parameter estimation. We present a simple algorithmic implementation of the model and we perform a series of numerical experiments to show evidence of the good behavior of the numerical scheme and quality of the results, improving on results obtained by Chan and Wang [T.F. Chan and C.K. Wong, Total variation blind deconvolution, IEEE Trans Image Process 7 (1998), 370–375]. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 15, 74–83, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ima.20040
Number of siblings, sibling spacing, sex, and birth order: Their effects on perceived parent–adolescent relationships.

This study examines the effect of the sibling structures of number and spacing sex composition and birth order on adolescents perceptions of the power and support dimensions of parental behavior. These sibling structures are conceptualized as dimensions on a hypothetical sibling time line including number of siblings and the way in which they are arranged in time i.e. the spacing and birth order. Data were obtained from a secondary analysis of a national sample of over 1700 adolescent males [in the United States]. It is found that "research focusing on birth order as an explanatory variable must control for number of siblings spacing and sex composition of siblings; studies examining family size must control for sibling spacing birth order and sex composition. In addition a curvilinear relationship was found between perceived parent behaviors and wider spacing between siblings. The best spacings are the widest (five years) and the narrowest (one year or less) with spacings of two and three years being the most negative. " (EXCERPT)
Exploring Balance as a Concept in Occupational Science

Abstract The concept of ‘balance in lifestyle’ is examined from an occupational perspective. The current suggestion that balance is achieved by the development of personal capabilities through engagement in individually meaningful occupations is discussed and the element of control is suggested as being significant. Balance is achieved in a dynamic process of change. The balancing process in individuals is believed to support the maintenance of health and well‐being. The actions of individuals seeking balance will resonate through their families, networks, groups, communities and the wider society, each of which can also be examined and changed in order to achieve a health promoting balance. A cycle of processes by which balance may be achieved is proposed. It is suggested that research into the many aspects of balance should be undertaken.
Views of older people on cataract surgery options: an assessment of preferences by conjoint analysis

Background: Key issues in the quality of care for people with cataracts in the UK include hospital waiting lists, complication rates from surgery, and the use of junior surgeons. The main objective of this study was to investigate the relative importance that older people attach to these factors when given theoretical choices over options for cataract surgery. Method: A systematic sample of 194 individuals aged 60–84 years on a general practice register in Nottingham were invited to take part in an interview based survey. Respondents ranked 11 “cataract surgery packages” containing different waiting list lengths, complication risks, and surgeon grades. Conjoint analysis was performed to determine the relative importance of these factors for individuals and for the group as a whole. Results: Of the 194 subjects invited to participate, 146 (72%) completed the interview. For the group as a whole the “averaged importance” of the factors was: complication risk 45.8%; waiting time 41.1%, surgeon grade 13.1%. Analysis of importance scores for individuals showed that some were particularly concerned about complication risk while others were more concerned about waiting times. There was a strong negative correlation between importance scores for these factors (Spearman’s rho –0.78, p<0.001). Conclusions: Most respondents thought that either risk of damage to sight and/or waiting time were important, while surgeon grade was relatively unimportant. The findings show that some potential cataract patients prefer a greater risk of complication combined with a short wait than a low complication rate and a longer wait.
Solitary fibrous tumor of the orbit: Morphological, cytogenetic and molecular features

Solitary fibrous tumor (SFT), a benign neoplasm arising in mesenchymal structures, was initially described in the pleura but subsequently has also been documented in other locations. It is uncommon in the orbit, where it closely resembles other benign spindle‐shaped mesenchymal tumors of this area such as schwannoma, meningioma or hemangiopericytoma. We present a case of orbital SFT in a 34‐year‐old woman. The radiological study showed the presence of an enhanced uptake lesion measuring 2 cm in major diameter. The histopathological evaluation revealed alternating cellular and hypocellular areas with spindle‐shaped cells. The cellular organization displayed a broad variety of irregular morphological patterns. The neoplastic cells were intensely positive for CD34 and vimentin, while S100, epithelial membrane antigen (EMA), Caldesmon, Calretinin and WT‐1 proved negative. The pericellular matrix exhibited strong positivity for CD44 and collagen IV. Scarce mitotic figures, a Ki‐67 nuclear labeling index of <5%, and focal expression of p53 were also observed. Measurement of DNA content revealed a DNA index of 1, indicating a diploid peak in 95% of the tumor cells. A normal 46,XX karyotype was present. No TP53 (exons 5–8) mutations or MDM2 and CDK4 amplifications were observed. No p14ARF, p15INK4B and p16INK4A deletions or hypermethylation were observed in this benign tumor. Following surgical resection and radiotherapy, the patient showed no tumor relapse after one year of follow‐up.
Probiotics in prevention of antibiotic associated diarrhoea: meta-analysis

Abstract Objective: To evaluate efficacy of probiotics in prevention and treatment of diarrhoea associated with the use of antibiotics. Design: Meta-analysis; outcome data (proportion of patients not getting diarrhoea) were analysed, pooled, and compared to determine odds ratios in treated and control groups. Identification: Studies identified by searching Medline between 1966 and 2000 and the Cochrane Library. Studies reviewed Nine randomised, double blind, placebo controlled trials of probiotics. Results: Two of the nine studies investigated the effects of probiotics in children. Four trials used a yeast (Saccharomyces boulardii), four used lactobacilli, and one used a strain of enterococcus that produced lactic acid. Three trials used a combination of probiotic strains of bacteria. In all nine trials, the probiotics were given in combination with antibiotics and the control groups received placebo and antibiotics. The odds ratio in favour of active treatment over placebo in preventing diarrhoea associated with antibiotics was 0.39 (95% confidence interval 0.25 to 0.62; P<0.001) for the yeast and 0.34 (0.19 to 0.61; P<0.01 for lactobacilli. The combined odds ratio was 0.37 (0.26 to 0.53; P<0.001) in favour of active treatment over placebo. Conclusions: The meta-analysis suggests that probiotics can be used to prevent antibiotic associated diarrhoea and that S boulardii and lactobacilli have the potential to be used in this situation. The efficacy of probiotics in treating antibiotic associated diarrhoea remains to be proved. A further large trial in which probiotics are used as preventive agents should look at the costs of and need for routine use of these agents.
RESEARCH NOTE NUMERICAL SCALE‐POINT LOCATIONS FOR CONSTRUCTING THE LAM (LABELED AFFECTIVE MAGNITUDE) SCALE

In a recent paper, we described the development and application of a labeled affective magnitude (LAM) scale for assessing liking/disliking (Schutz and Cardello 2001). Here we present the exact numerical scale-point locations corresponding to the verbal labels of the scale, so that investigators can easily construct the LAM scale for use with either paper or computer-based ballots.
Mitochondrial voltage‐dependent anion channel is involved in dopamine‐induced apoptosis

Neuronal NMB cells were used to determine changes in gene expression upon treatment with dopamine. Twelve differentially expressed cDNAs were identified and cloned, one of them having 99.4% sequence homology with isoform 2 of a voltage‐dependent anion channel (VDAC‐2). The known role of VDAC, a mitochondrial outer‐membrane protein, in transport of anions, pore formation, and release of cytochrome C prompted us to investigate the possible role of VDAC gene family in dopamine‐induced apoptosis. Semi‐quantitative PCR analysis indicated that expression of the three VDAC isoforms was reduced by dopamine. Immunoblotting with anti‐VDAC antibodies detected two VDAC protein bands of 33 and 34 kDa. Dopamine decreased differentially the immunoreactivity of the 34 kDa protein. Whether the decrease in VDAC expression influence the mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm) was determined with the dye Rhodamine‐123. Dopamine indeed decreased the mitochondrial ΔΨm, but the maximum effect was observed within 3 h, prior to the decrease in VDAC mRNA or protein levels. Cyclosporin A, a blocker of the mitochondrial pore complex, prevented the decrease in ΔΨm, but did not rescue the cells from dopamine toxicity. To elucidate possible involvement of protease caspases in dopamine‐induced apoptosis, the effect of the caspase inhibitor z‐Val‐Ala‐Asp(Ome)‐FMK (zVAD) was determined. zVAD decreased dopamine toxicity, yet it did not rescue the mitochondrial ΔΨm drop. Dopamine also decreased ATP levels. Finally, transfection of NMB cells with pcDNA–VDAC decreased the cytotoxic effect of dopamine. These findings are in agreement with the notion that the mitochondria, and VDAC, are important participants in dopamine‐induced apoptosis.
Model comparison with GenericDiff

This paper proposes GenericDiff, a general framework for model comparison. The main idea is to separate the specification of domain-specific model properties and syntax from the general graph matching process and to use composite numeric vectors and pairup graph to encode the domain-specific properties and syntax so that they can be uniformly exploited in the general matching process. Our initial evaluation demonstrates that it is easy to deploy GenericDiff in a new application domain and GenericDiff is able to produce an accurate comparison reports for diverse types of models.
On Coupled Logical Bisimulation for the Lambda-Calculus

We study coupled logical bisimulation (CLB) to reason about contextual equivalence in the lambda-calculus. CLB originates in a work by Dal Lago, Sangiorgi and Alberti, as a tool to reason about a lambda-calculus with probabilistic constructs. We adapt the original definition to the pure lambda-calculus. We develop the metatheory of CLB in call-by-name and in call-by-value, and draw comparisons with applicative bisimulation (due to Abramsky) and logical bisimulation (due to Sangiorgi, Kobayashi and Sumii). We also study enhancements of the bisimulation method for CLB by developing a theory of up-to techniques for cases where the functional corresponding to bisimulation is not necessarily monotone.
Architectural Role of Mitochondrial Transcription Factor A in Maintenance of Human Mitochondrial DNA

ABSTRACT Mitochondrial transcription factor A (TFAM), a transcription factor for mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) that also possesses the property of nonspecific DNA binding, is essential for maintenance of mtDNA. To clarify the role of TFAM, we repressed the expression of endogenous TFAM in HeLa cells by RNA interference. The amount of TFAM decreased maximally to about 15% of the normal level at day 3 after RNA interference and then recovered gradually. The amount of mtDNA changed closely in parallel with the daily change in TFAM while in organello transcription of mtDNA at day 3 was maintained at about 50% of the normal level. TFAM lacking its C-terminal 25 amino acids (TFAM-ΔC) marginally activated transcription in vitro. When TFAM-ΔC was expressed at levels comparable to those of endogenous TFAM in HeLa cells, mtDNA increased twofold, suggesting that TFAM-ΔC is as competent in maintaining mtDNA as endogenous TFAM under these conditions. The in organello transcription of TFAM-ΔC-expressing cells was no more than that in the control. Thus, the mtDNA amount is finely correlated with the amount of TFAM but not with the transcription level. We discuss an architectural role for TFAM in the maintenance of mtDNA in addition to its role in transcription activation.
Is noise-induced cochlear neuropathy key to the generation of hyperacusis or tinnitus?

Perceptual abnormalities such as hyperacusis and tinnitus often occur after acoustic overexposure. Although such exposure can also result in permanent threshold elevation, some individuals with noise-induced hyperacusis or tinnitus show clinically normal thresholds. Recent work in animals has shown that a "neuropathic" noise exposure can cause immediate, permanent degeneration of the cochlear nerve despite complete threshold recovery and lack of hair cell damage (Kujawa SG, Liberman MC. J Neurosci 29: 14077-14085, 2009; Lin HW, Furman AC, Kujawa SG, Liberman MC. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 12: 605-616, 2011). Here we ask whether this noise-induced primary neuronal degeneration results in abnormal auditory behavior, based on the acoustic startle response (ASR) and prepulse inhibition (PPI) of startle. Responses were measured in mice exposed either to a "neuropathic" noise or to a lower-intensity, "nonneuropathic" noise and in unexposed control mice. Mice with cochlear neuropathy displayed hyperresponsivity to sound, evidenced by enhanced ASR and PPI, while exposed mice without neuronal loss showed control-like responses. Gap PPI tests, often used to assess tinnitus, revealed limited gap detection deficits in mice with cochlear neuropathy only for certain gap-startle latencies, inconsistent with the presence of tinnitus "filling in the gap. " Despite significantly reduced wave 1 of the auditory brainstem response, representing cochlear nerve activity, later peaks were unchanged or enhanced, suggesting compensatory neural hyperactivity in the auditory brainstem. Considering the rapid postexposure onset of both cochlear neuropathy and exaggerated startle-based behavior, the results suggest a role for cochlear primary neuronal degeneration, per se, in the central neural excitability that could underlie the generation of hyperacusis.
Extracting informative textual parts from web pages containing user-generated content

The vast amount of user-generated content on the Web has increased the need for handling the problem of automatically processing content in web pages. The segmentation of web pages and noise (non-informative segment) removal are important pre-processing steps in a variety of applications such as sentiment analysis, text summarization and information retrieval. Currently, these two tasks tend to be handled separately or are handled together without emphasizing the diversity of the web corpora and the web page type detection. We present a unified approach that is able to provide robust identification of informative textual parts in web pages along with accurate type detection. The proposed algorithm takes into account visual and non-visual characteristics of a web page and is able to remove noisy parts from three major categories of pages which contain user-generated content (News, Blogs, Discussions). Based on a human annotated corpus consisting of diverse topics, domains and templates, we demonstrate the learning abilities of our algorithm, we examine its effectiveness in extracting the informative textual parts and its usage as a rule-based classifier for web page type detection in a realistic web setting.