Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The neural correlates of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: an ALE meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent and commonly studied forms of psychopathology in children and adolescents. Causal models of ADHD have long implicated dysfunction in fronto-striatal and frontal-parietal networks supporting executive function, a hypothesis that can now be examined systematically using functional neuroimaging. The present work provides an objective, unbiased statistically-based meta-analysis of published functional neuroimaging studies of ADHD. METHODS A recently developed voxel-wise quantitative meta-analytic technique known as activation likelihood estimation (ALE) was applied to 16 neuroimaging studies examining and contrasting patterns of neural activity in patients with ADHD and healthy controls. Voxel-wise results are reported using a statistical threshold of p < . 05, corrected. Given the large number of studies examining response inhibition, additional meta-analyses focusing specifically on group differences in the neural correlates of inhibition were included. RESULTS Across studies, significant patterns of frontal hypoactivity were detected in patients with ADHD, affecting anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, and inferior prefrontal cortices, as well as related regions including basal ganglia, thalamus, and portions of parietal cortex. When focusing on studies of response inhibition alone, a more limited set of group differences were observed, including inferior prefrontal cortex, medial wall regions, and the precentral gyrus. In contrast, analyses focusing on studies of constructs other than response inhibition revealed a more extensive pattern of hypofunction in patients with ADHD than those of response inhibition. CONCLUSIONS To date, the most consistent findings in the neuroimaging literature of ADHD are deficits in neural activity within fronto-striatal and fronto-parietal circuits. The distributed nature of these results fails to support models emphasizing dysfunction in any one frontal sub-region. While our findings are suggestive of the primacy of deficits in frontal-based neural circuitry underlying ADHD, we discuss potential biases in the literature that need to be addressed before such a conclusion can be fully embraced.
Efficacy of Garcinia kola 0.5% Aqueous Eye Drops in Patients with Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma or Ocular Hypertension

Purpose: To evaluate the intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering efficacy of Garcinia kola 0.5% aqueous solution eye drops in patients with newly diagnosed primary open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension (POAG/OH). Materials and Methods: A randomized, double-masked, multicenter, active-controlled prospective study. Patients who met the inclusion criteria were randomly assigned in equal numbers to receive Timolol 0.5% eye drops as a control medication (A = Group 1 eyes) or Garcinia kola 0.5% eye drops as the study medication (B = Group 2 eyes). All drops were instilled at 6 am and 6 pm daily. Goldman applanation tonometry was performed at 9 am, 12 pm and 3 pm at baseline, week-6, week-12 and week-24 visits. Voluntary and actively elicited reports of adverse events were documented. The mean change in IOP over 24 weeks was the primary outcome measure. Both groups were compared for statistically significant differences at all visits. A P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 178 patients were randomly assigned to G. kola and Timolol groups. At baseline there were no differences in mean IOP between groups, based on age, sex, or diagnosis. At the end of the study period (24th week), the mean (± SD) reduction in IOP was 12.93 ± 2.3 mmHg (47.8% ± 0.8% reduction) in G. Kola group and 13.09 ± 2.8 mm Hg (48.2% ± 1.03% reduction) in the Timolol group (P > 0.05). Adverse events were mild in nature with no statistically significant differences between groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Garcinia kola ophthalmic solution significantly reduces IOP as compared to baseline. The IOP lowering effect of both treatments was equivalent.
The Epigenetic Face of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus1

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an archetypical systemic, autoimmune inflammatory disease characterized by the production of autoantibodies to multiple nuclear Ags. Apoptotic defects and impaired removal of apoptotic cells contribute to an overload of autoantigens that become available to initiate an autoimmune response. Besides the well-recognized genetic susceptibility to SLE, epigenetic factors are important in the onset of the disease, as even monozygotic twins are usually discordant for the disease. Changes in DNA methylation and histone modifications, the major epigenetic marks, are a hallmark in genes that undergo epigenetic deregulation in disease. In SLE, global and gene-specific DNA methylation changes have been demonstrated to occur. Moreover, histone deacetylase inhibitors reverse the skewed expression of multiple genes involved in SLE. In the present study, we discuss the implications of epigenetic alterations in the development and progression of SLE and how epigenetic drugs constitute a promising source of therapy to treat this disease.
Modeling the Pulse Signal by Wave-Shape Function and Analyzing by Synchrosqueezing Transform

We apply the recently developed adaptive non-harmonic model based on the wave-shape function, as well as the time-frequency analysis tool called synchrosqueezing transform (SST) to model and analyze oscillatory physiological signals. To demonstrate how the model and algorithm work, we apply them to study the pulse wave signal. By extracting features called the spectral pulse signature, and based on functional regression, we characterize the hemodynamics from the radial pulse wave signals recorded by the sphygmomanometer. Analysis results suggest the potential of the proposed signal processing approach to extract health-related hemodynamics features.
Induction Therapy With Antithymocyte Globulin in Patients Undergoing Cardiac Transplantation Is Associated With Decreased Coronary Plaque Progression as Assessed by Intravascular Ultrasound

Background—Antithymocyte globulin (ATG) is used as induction therapy after cardiac transplant for enhancing immunosuppression and delaying the initiation of nephrotoxic drugs. It is unknown if ATG induction is associated with decreased coronary plaque progression by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Methods and Results—Patients transplanted between March 2010 and December 2012 with baseline and 1-year IVUS were included. All patients transplanted were included in a secondary analysis. Change in plaque progression was measured in a blinded fashion on matched coronary segments and contrasted between patients induced with ATG and those who were not. One hundred and three patients were included in IVUS arms. Mean age at transplant was 55.8±12.6 years, and 33.0% were female. Patients induced with ATG were more sensitized (54.3% versus 14.3%). Plaque progression was attenuated in patients who received ATG by changes in maximal intimal area (1.0±1.2 versus 2.3±2.6 mm2; P=0.001), maximal percent stenosis (6.3±7.9 versus 12.8±12.3%; =0.003), maximal intimal thickness (0.2±0.2 versus 0.3±0.3 mm; P=0.035), and plaque volume (0.5±0.7 versus 1.0±1.3 mm3/mm; P=0.016). Rapid plaque progression by maximal percent stenosis (≥20%) occurred less frequently in the ATG arm (4.3% versus 26.3; P=0.003). Survival (P=0.242) and any treated rejection (P=0.166) were not statistically different between groups. Patients receiving ATG had a higher rate of first-year infection (P=0.003), perhaps related to increased intravenous antibiotic use immediately postoperatively, and a trend toward more biopsy-proven rejection (P=0.073). Conclusions—Induction therapy with ATG is associated with reduced first-year coronary plaque progression as assessed by IVUS, despite an increased prevalence of sensitized patients with a trend toward more rejection.
Three-Dimensional Black-Blood Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Coronary Vessel Wall Imaging Detects Positive Arterial Remodeling in Patients With Nonsignificant Coronary Artery Disease

Background—Direct noninvasive visualization of the coronary vessel wall may enhance risk stratification by quantifying subclinical coronary atherosclerotic plaque burden. We sought to evaluate high-resolution black-blood 3D cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging for in vivo visualization of the proximal coronary artery vessel wall. Methods and Results—Twelve adult subjects, including 6 clinically healthy subjects and 6 patients with nonsignificant coronary artery disease (10% to 50% x-ray angiographic diameter reduction) were studied with the use of a commercial 1.5 Tesla CMR scanner. Free-breathing 3D coronary vessel wall imaging was performed along the major axis of the right coronary artery with isotropic spatial resolution (1.0×1.0×1.0 mm3) with the use of a black-blood spiral image acquisition. The proximal vessel wall thickness and luminal diameter were objectively determined with an automated edge detection tool. The 3D CMR vessel wall scans allowed for visualization of the contiguous proximal right coronary artery in all subjects. Both mean vessel wall thickness (1.7±0.3 versus 1.0±0.2 mm) and wall area (25.4±6.9 versus 11.5±5.2 mm2) were significantly increased in the patients compared with the healthy subjects (both P <0.01). The lumen diameter (3.6±0.7 versus 3.4±0.5 mm, P =0.47) and lumen area (8.9±3.4 versus 7.9±3.5 mm2, P =0.47) were similar in both groups. Conclusions—Free-breathing 3D black-blood coronary CMR with isotropic resolution identified an increased coronary vessel wall thickness with preservation of lumen size in patients with nonsignificant coronary artery disease, consistent with a “Glagov-type” outward arterial remodeling. This novel approach has the potential to quantify subclinical disease.
E-Commerce-Bookstore with Recommendation System using Prediction

E-commerce is a platform to buy and sell products electronically via the Internet. E-commerce channels like Amazon.com, Olx, Flipkart are gaining wide spread popularity. In a typical bookstore, users are often presented with the recommendation which is not relevant to their purchases. The proposed system aims at solving the issue by implementing a prediction based algorithm [1] and a feedback based algorithm [2] which enhances the already existing recommendation system. The main goals of this bookstore project are to get a firm understanding of the e-commerce architecture and bookstore application, determine the pros of including features such as feedback submission, predicting customer preferences from past purchases and feedback data for making suggestions. The system is designed to support high accuracy, design flexibility and improve availability.
Implementing Grid Computing over Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks based on Mobile Agent

With the fast advance of wireless chip-set and portable devices, mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is becoming a novel wireless computing environment that can embrace grid computing by utilizing the non-trivial computing capabilities of each node to solve time-critical or resource-critical problems. But a few issues such as intermittent network connectivity, node's heterogeneity and resource constraints, must be addressed carefully. For them, a mobile agent approach is proposed in this paper. It delegates computation jobs to mobile agent, drives it to migrate on MANET and find nodes that have the resources. On each node, agent negotiates to use it resources and does its best to accomplish the jobs. This approach enables flexible handling of various resource sharing policies, and considers each node's resource capabilities. Moreover, it shields the dynamical network connectivity to mobile agent, thus enables logical mobility of grid applications over MANET
Joint pre-echo control and frame erasure concealment for VoIP audio codecs

Pre-echo artifacts are a common problem of transform audio codecs owing to their comparatively large block lengths. If such codecs are used in Voice-over-IP (VoIP) applications, the concealment of lost audio packets poses another major issue. These two problems are usually solved by two separate algorithmic components: A mechanism for pre-echo control (PEC) and a frame erasure concealment (FEC) algorithm. In this contribution we propose a combined PEC/FEC approach which elegantly solves both problems based on a single side information stream. In particular, our proposal is suitable for (subband) transform audio codecs that are based on a frequency transform with half-overlapped windowing (such as the popular MDCT). The described method is part of the Huawei/ETRI candidate for the future ITU-T super-wideband extensions of Rec. G.729. 1 and G.718 where it has been successfully applied in the context of high frequency (8-14 kHz) encoding.
Biochemical and Molecular Inhibition of Plastidial Carbonic Anhydrase Reduces the Incorporation of Acetate into Lipids in Cotton Embryos and Tobacco Cell Suspensions and Leaves1

Two cDNAs encoding functional carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes were recently isolated from a non-photosynthetic, cotyledon library of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) seedlings with putative plastid-targeting sequences (GenBank accession nos. AF132854 andAF132855). Relative CA transcript abundance and enzyme activity increased 9 and 15 times, respectively, in cotton embryos during the maximum period of reserve oil accumulation. Specific sulfonamide inhibitors of CA activity significantly reduced the rate of [14C]acetate incorporation into total lipids in cotton embryos in vivo, and in embryo plastids in vitro, suggesting a role for CA in plastid lipid biosynthesis. CA inhibitors did not affect acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase activity or total storage protein synthesis. Similar results were obtained for two other plant systems: cell suspensions (and isolated plastids therefrom) of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), and chloroplasts isolated from leaves of transgenic CA antisense-suppressed tobacco plants (5% of wild-type CA activity). In addition, tobacco cell suspensions treated with the CA inhibitor ethoxyzolamide showed a substantial loss of CO2 compared with controls. The rate of [14C]acetate incorporation into lipid in cell suspensions was reduced by limiting external [CO2] (scrubbed air), and this rate was further reduced in the presence of ethoxyzolamide. Together, these results indicate that a reduction of CA activity (biochemical or molecular inhibition) impacts the rate of plant lipid biosynthesis from acetate, perhaps by impairing the ability of CA to efficiently “trap” inorganic carbon inside plastids for utilization by acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase and the fatty acid synthesis machinery.
Hybrid learning of Syntactic and Semantic Dependencies

This paper presents our solution for jointly parsing of syntactic and semantic dependencies. The Maximum Entropy (ME) classifier is selected in this system. Also the Mutual Information (MI) model was utilized into feature selection of dependency labeling. Results show that the MI model allows the system to get better performance and reduce training hours.
Reliability analysis for fine pitch BGA package

This paper presents a linear parametric finite element analysis for the solder joints of a fine pitch BGA package for a selection of key design parameters including the effects of substrate, die attach material, and die size. Results show that, when the package assembly is subjected to the temperature excursion, the solder joint stress decreases as the thickness of the substrate increases. A softer die attach material results in higher solder stresses. This observation is different from some existing chip scale packaging due to structural differences. Results also show that the die size plays an important role on the stress/strain in the solder joints. In addition to the linear parametric analysis, a more complex, nonlinear study is also carried out. With this approach, solder joint configurations are predicted with Surface Evolver. Nonlinear solder properties are used to calculate the stress/strain evolution during thermal cycling. The energy approach is used to estimate solder joint fatigue life.
Spontaneous fracture of implanted central venous catheters in cancer patients: report of two cases and retrospective analysis of the 'pinch-off sign' as a risk factor.

Spontaneous fracture of central venous catheters (CVC) has been reported. It results from repeated compression of the extravasal part of the CVC between the clavicle and the first rib. The so called pinch-off sign (POS) of the CVC as visible on a chest radiograph has been described as a warning for this complication. Fracture of CVC in patients receiving chemotherapy results in extravasation of the drug which may have serious consequences. We describe the spontaneous fracture of a CVC in two cancer patients. Subsequently we retrospectively analyzed chest radiographs for the POS of 77 cancer patients who received chemotherapy through a CVC and correlated these results with the occurence of complications related to CVC compression. In 77 patients a total of 97 CVC were implanted for a median duration of 7 months. Four CVC (4%) showed a grade 2 POS (change in course of CVC)CVC with luminal narrowing) on a chest radiograph. In three of these (75%) a compression-related complication occurred versus no compression-related complications in 93 CVC showing a POS of grade 1 (change in course of CVC without narrowing) or 0 (no change in course of CVC). The grade of POS on a chest radiograph may vary with the position of the patient, but all grade 2 POS were visible in the upright position. We recommend a chest radiograph in the upright position after placement of a CVC for grading of the POS. CVC showing a grade 2 POS should be removed or at least checked by a chest radiograph before the start of each chemotherapy infusion. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Simultaneous increase in electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient in highly boron-doped nanocrystalline Si

A large thermoelectric power factor in heavily boron-doped p-type nanograined Si with grain sizes ∼30 nm and grain boundary regions of ∼2 nm is reported. The reported power factor is ∼5 times higher than in bulk Si. It originates from the surprising observation that for a specific range of carrier concentrations, the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient increase simultaneously. The two essential ingredients for this observation are nanocrystallinity and extremely high boron doping levels. This experimental finding is interpreted within a theoretical model that considers both electron and phonon transport within the semiclassical Boltzmann approach. It is shown that transport takes place through two phases so that high conductivity is achieved in the grains, and high Seebeck coefficient by the grain boundaries. This together with the drastic reduction in the thermal conductivity due to boundary scattering could lead to a significant increase of the figure of merit ZT. This is one of the rare observations of a simultaneous increase in the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient, resulting in enhanced thermoelectric power factor.
Oxidative metabolism of propylthiouracil by peroxidases from rat bone marrow.

1. Propylthiouracil (PTU) was degraded by myeloperoxidase (MPO) or eosinophil peroxidase (EPO), purified from rat bone marrow, in the presence of H2O2 and Cl-. In the absence of either H2O2 or Cl-, MPO and EPO do not degrade PTU. Optimum concentrations of KCl for MPO and EPO were 50 and 250 mM, respectively. 2. The characteristics of PTU degradation by MPO-H2O2-Cl- were similar to those of the chlorinating activity of the peroxidase. 3. Hypochlorous acid as well as MPO-H2O2-Cl- also degraded PTU. Metabolites of PTU degradation by MPO-H2O2-Cl-, which were separated by C18 reversed phase h.p.l.c. , were the same as those produced by hypochlorous acid. 4. Of the metabolites of PTU formed by MPO-H2O2-Cl-, one was identified as PTU sulphonic acid (6-propyl-4-hydroxypyrimidine-2-sulphonate) and another seemed to be propyluracil.
Pathogenesis of cerebral malaria—inflammation and cytoadherence

Despite decades of research on cerebral malaria (CM) there is still a paucity of knowledge about what actual causes CM and why certain people develop it. Although sequestration of P. falciparum infected red blood cells has been linked to pathology, it is still not clear if this is directly or solely responsible for this clinical syndrome. Recent data have suggested that a combination of parasite variant types, mainly defined by the variant surface antigen, P. falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein 1 (PfEMP1), its receptors, coagulation and host endothelial cell activation (or inflammation) are equally important. This makes CM a multi-factorial disease and a challenge to unravel its causes to decrease its detrimental impact.
Risk Factors for Death from Visceral Leishmaniasis in an Urban Area of Brazil

Background Over the last three decades, the epidemiological profile of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) has changed with epidemics occurring in large urban centers of Brazil, an increase in HIV/AIDS co-infection, and a significant increase in mortality. The objective of this study was to identify the risk factors associated with death among adult patients with VL from an urban endemic area of Brazil. Methodology A prospective cohort study included 134 adult patients with VL admitted to the University Hospital of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul between August 2011 and August 2013. Principal Findings Patients ranged from 18 to 93 years old, with a mean age of 43.6 (±15.7%). Of these patients, 36.6% were co-infected with HIV/AIDS, and the mortality rate was 21.6%. In a multivariate analysis, the risk factors associated with death were secondary bacterial infection (42.86, 5.05–363.85), relapse (12.17, 2.06–71.99), edema (7.74, 1.33–45.05) and HIV/AIDS co-infection (7.33, 1.22–43.98). Conclusions/Significance VL has a high mortality rate in adults from endemic urban areas, especially when coinciding with high rates of HIV/AIDS co-infection.