Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Periodontitis and atherosclerosis: an observational study.

BACKGROUND Poor oral health has been related with cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, periodontitis has been implicated in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Our aim was to evaluate the relationship between the degree of carotid atherosclerosis and severity of periodontitis in a patient cohort. METHODS Fifty adult patients receiving carotid duplex scans in a cerebral hemodynamics lab were included in the study. Ultrasound protocol included measurement of carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), which is a marker of atherosclerosis, and characterization of any atherosclerotic plaques in the cervical common and internal carotid arteries. Patients were divided into two main groups: the test group had IMT ≥ 1 mm or the presence of any carotid atherosclerotic plaque, and the control group had IMT < 1 mm and absence of atherosclerotic plaques. Periodontal evaluation was performed in all the teeth and characterized according to the clinical attachment level, which between 1 mm and 2 mm was classified as slight, 3 mm and 4 mm as moderate and ≥5 mm as severe. RESULTS The control group included 15 (30%), while the test group included 35 (70%) subjects. The most common diagnosis was severe periodontitis (40%); moderate and slight periodontitis were also frequent occurrences (32% and 28%, respectively). In the control group, 53.3% had slight, 33.3% had moderate and 13.3% had severe periodontitis. In the test group, those percentages were respectively 22.2%, 44.4% and 33.3%. Patients with atheroma plaque had the highest percentage of severe periodontitis (70.6%). More severe periodontitis was related to atherosclerosis (P = 0.007). CONCLUSION This study showed an association between periodontitis severity and carotid atherosclerosis, suggesting that periodontal disease might be a risk indicator for atherosclerotic disease.
Histological inflammatory cell infiltration is associated with the number of lymph nodes retrieved in colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND Antitumor immune response is suggested to be a factor affecting the number of nodes retrieved after colorectal cancer surgery. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the correlation of antitumor immune response with the number of retrieved nodes. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients with colorectal cancer (n=63, TNM stage II and III) were enrolled. Inflammatory cell infiltration (ICI) was assessed on hematoxylin and eosin staining and T-cell markers (CD3, CD8, CD45RO) were evaluated using immunohistochemical methods. RESULTS On univariate analysis, high ICI, CD3 and CD8 expression were associated with a greater number of nodes being retrieved. On multivariate analysis, tumors of the right colon (p=0.01) and high ICI (p=0.04) were independent predictors of a greater retrieval of nodes. TNM stage III tumor with low ICI was associated with reduced cancer-specific survival (p=0.02). CONCLUSION ICI influences the number of nodes retrieved and affects survival of patients with stage III disease. Antitumor immune response may be an underlying factor determining the number of nodes retrieved after surgery for colorectal cancer.
Variability of Displacement at a Point: Implications for Earthquake‐Size Distribution and Rupture Hazard on Faults

Abstract To investigate the nature of earthquake‐magnitude distributions on faults, we compare the interevent variability of surface displacement at a point on a fault from a composite global data set of paleoseismic observations with the variability expected from two prevailing magnitude–frequency distributions: the truncated‐exponential model and the characteristic‐earthquake model. We use forward modeling to predict the coefficient of variation ( CV ) for the alternative earthquake distributions, incorporating factors that would effect observations of displacement at a site. The characteristic‐earthquake model (with a characteristic‐magnitude range of ±0.25) produces CV values consistent with the data ( CV ∼0.5) only if the variability for a given earthquake magnitude is small. This condition implies that rupture patterns on a fault are stable, in keeping with the concept behind the model. This constraint also bears upon fault‐rupture hazard analysis, which, for lack of point‐specific information, has used global scaling relations to infer variability in average displacement for a given‐size earthquake. Exponential distributions of earthquakes (from M 5 to the maximum magnitude) give rise to CV values that are significantly larger than the empirical constraint. A version of the model truncated at M 7, however, yields values consistent with a larger CV (∼0.6) determined for small‐displacement sites. Although this result allows for a difference in the magnitude distribution of smaller surface‐rupturing earthquakes, it may reflect, in part, less stability in the displacement profile of smaller ruptures and/or the tails of larger ruptures. Online Material: Global surface‐displacement data, and identified sources of uncertainty.
Design and analysis of UHF BJT feedback oscillator using linear and non-linear simulation

This paper presents a methodological approach to analysis and design of UHF BJT feedback oscillators based on linear and non-linear simulations. The BJT oscillator designed using a Radio Frequency (RF) BJT NE685M03 nonlinear device model with the collector grounded to provide the negative resistance and lossy coaxial transmission line with isolated shield terminals in the resonator to set the frequency of oscillation. In particular, it is shown how to find the conditions appropriate for oscillations and performed in a non-linear simulation to predict output frequency, output power, and phase noise of the oscillator from linear simulation. Finally an oscillator is designed and simulated for the frequency of 1.32GHz in the AWR design environment (AWRDE) will be used for the aeronautical radio navigation, amateur radio and military applications.
Robustness analysis of discrete time-delay systems

This paper presents simple delay-independent criteria for asymptotic stability of discrete time-delay systems with structured uncertainty. First we derive the criteria by the Lyapunov theorem, then the problem can be represented by a set of matrix inequalities involving the vertices of system matrices. A feasible solution, if it exists, can be obtained by the proposed alternating projection method and thus assure the stability of the considered system. The given examples illustrate that the proposed method is effective and valid.
Oscillation Modes in Multiresonant Oscillator Circuits

An in-depth analysis of the oscillation modes in free-running oscillators loaded with multiresonance networks is presented. The analysis illustrates the mechanisms for the generation and stabilization of the various periodic modes and establishes the conditions for existence of a single stable periodic mode in distinct regions of the parameter plane. The mechanisms for the generation and stabilization of quasi-periodic regimes, with two concurrent oscillations, are also analyzed, considering different situations in terms of two relevant poles. The stability analysis of quasi-periodic solutions, derived in terms of admittance functions, can be applied to circuits simulated with harmonic balance, under the assumption of high quality factor resonators. The impact of the transistor biasing on the stability properties of the quasi-periodic regimes has been analyzed, demonstrating that it can be used to isolate the quasi-periodic solution from the periodic ones. The analysis procedures have been applied to a practical oscillator based on two cross-coupled transistors at the two frequencies 900 MHz and 2.5 GHz. The case of two independent oscillations operating in a synchronized regime is also analyzed, as well as its impact on the phase-noise behavior.
Symptomatic improvement in children with ADHD treated with long-term methylphenidate and multimodal psychosocial treatment.

OBJECTIVE To test the hypotheses that in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (1) symptoms of ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder, and overall functioning are significantly improved by methylphenidate combined with intensive multimodal psychosocial treatment compared with methylphenidate alone and with methylphenidate plus attention control and (2) more children receiving combined treatment can be taken off methylphenidate. METHOD One hundred three children with ADHD (ages 7-9), free of conduct and learning disorders, who responded to short-term methylphenidate were randomized for 2 years to (1) methylphenidate alone; (2) methylphenidate plus psychosocial treatment that included parent training and counseling, social skills training, psychotherapy, and academic assistance, or (3) methylphenidate plus attention psychosocial control treatment. Assessments included parent, teacher, and psychiatrist ratings, and observations in academic and gym classes. RESULTS Combination treatment did not lead to superior functioning and did not facilitate methylphenidate discontinuation. Significant improvement occurred across all treatments and continued over 2 years. CONCLUSIONS In stimulant-responsive children with ADHD, there is no support for adding ambitious long-term psychosocial intervention to improve ADHD and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms. Significant benefits from methylphenidate were stable over 2 years.
Proteolytic Processing of the Open Reading Frame 1b-Encoded Part of Arterivirus Replicase Is Mediated by nsp4 Serine Protease and Is Essential for Virus Replication

ABSTRACT The open reading frame (ORF) 1b-encoded part of the equine arteritis virus (EAV) replicase is expressed by ribosomal frameshifting during genome translation, which results in the production of an ORF1ab fusion protein (345 kDa). Four ORF1b-encoded processing products, nsp9 (p80), nsp10 (p50), nsp11 (p26), and nsp12 (p12), have previously been identified in EAV-infected cells (L. C. van Dinten, A. L. M. Wassenaar, A. E. Gorbalenya, W. J. M. Spaan, and E. J. Snijder, J. Virol. 70:6625–6633, 1996). In the present study, the generation of these four nonstructural proteins was shown to be mediated by the nsp4 serine protease, which is the main viral protease (E. J. Snijder, A. L. M. Wassenaar, L. C. van Dinten, W. J. M. Spaan, and A. E. Gorbalenya, J. Biol. Chem. 271:4864–4871, 1996). Mutagenesis of candidate cleavage sites revealed that Glu-2370/Ser, Gln-2837/Ser, and Glu-3056/Gly are the probable nsp9/10, nsp10/11, and nsp11/12 junctions, respectively. Mutations which abolished ORF1b protein processing were introduced into a recently developed infectious cDNA clone (L. C. van Dinten, J. A. den Boon, A. L. M. Wassenaar, W. J. M. Spaan, and E. J. Snijder, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 94:991–997, 1997). An analysis of these mutants showed that the selective blockage of ORF1b processing affected different stages of EAV reproduction. In particular, the mutant with the nsp10/11 cleavage site mutation Gln-2837→Pro displayed an unusual phenotype, since it was still capable of RNA synthesis but was incapable of producing infectious virus.
Circulation along the Mexican Caribbean coast

[1] Data from an array of seven subsurface upward-looking moored Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) and four subsurface pressure sensors deployed from August 2002 to August 2003 along the Caribbean coast of Mexico showed that the currents in the area have a predominant northeastward direction along the coast, are coherent within the upper 130 m of the water column, and have a general tendency to increase northward, reaching magnitudes of 2.4 m/s north of Cozumel. In addition, important weeklong reversal periods (southward flows) are observed around Chinchorro Bank. A vertical current profile EOF analysis at each station indicates high coherence within the study area, with the first vertical mode at each station explaining at least 69% of variance and current vectors aligned with the coast. A second EOF analysis carried out for any uniform depth level using current data from all stations shows high coherence in the horizontal as well. The first mode explains at least 59% of the variance and has a dominant 3-month-long variability. Comparison between the current patterns along the Mexican Caribbean coast and in the Yucatan Channel suggests that dynamics of the entire area might be strongly influenced by the passage of eddies through the region. Comparison of a Singular Spectral Analysis (SSA) of the principal components of currents with the pressure difference across the channels supports the idea of eddies modulating current variability. Numerical model results indicate that high values of the current intensity indexes are associated with eddies. The flow along Chinchorro and Cozumel channels is in geostrophic balance most of the observation time, but with week-long ageostrophic periods which are predominant off Cozumel. These events appear to occur when eddies are traversing the region.
In Utero Pesticide Exposure and Leukemia in Brazilian Children < 2 Years of Age

Background: An association between pesticide exposure and cancer has been suggested. Infant leukemia is a rare neoplasm and its association with maternal pesticide exposure has been poorly explored. Objectives: We investigated the association between pesticide exposure during pregnancy and leukemia in children < 2 years of age. Methods: A hospital-based case–control study was carried out in 13 Brazilian states during 1999–2007. Mothers of 252 cases and those of 423 controls were interviewed. Information on pesticide exposures 3 months before pregnancy, throughout pregnancy, and during breastfeeding was obtained. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for associations between pesticide exposures and leukemia. Results: Associations with ever use of pesticides during pregnancy were observed for acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) (aOR = 2.10; 95% CI: 1.14, 3.86) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (aOR = 5.01; 95% CI: 1.97, 12.7) in children 0–11 months of age, and with ALL (aOR = 1.88; 95% CI: 1.05, 5.23) at 12–23 months of age. According to reported maternal exposure to permethrin, higher risk estimates were verified for children 0–11 months of age (aOR = 2.47; 95% CI: 1.17, 5.25 for ALL; and aOR = 7.28; 95% CI: 2.60, 20.38 for AML). Maternal pesticide exposure related to agricultural activities showed an aOR of 5.25 (95% CI: 1.83, 15.08) for ALL, and an aOR of 7.56 (95% CI: 1.83, 31.23) for AML. Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that pesticide exposure during pregnancy may be involved in the etiology of acute leukemia in children < 2 years of age.
An Interface for Crowd-Sourcing Spatial Models of Commonsense

Commonsense is a challenge not only for representation and reasoning but also for large scale knowledge engineering required to capture the breadth of our "everyday" world. One approach to knowledge engineering is to "outsource" the effort to the public through games that generate structured commonsense knowledge from user play. To date, such games have focused on symbolic and textual knowledge. However, an effective commonsense reasoning system will require spatial and physical reasoning capabilities. In this paper, I propose a tool for gathering commonsense information from ordinary people. It is a user-friendly 3D sculpting tool for modeling and annotating models of physical objects and spaces.
Open conformation chromatin and pluripotency.

Pluripotency, the ability of a cell to give rise to all of the cells of an organism, is a fascinating and mysterious characteristic of embryonic stem (ES) cells. Recent extensive molecular studies of mouse ES cells have revealed the roles played by transcription factor networks and epigenetic processes in the maintenance of ES cell pluripotency (Niwa 2007). However, no direct evidence to connect these two mechanisms had been reported until in the previous issue of Genes & Development, in which Loh et al. (2007) presented new evidence concerning this missing link.
Patterns of selective involvement of thigh muscles in neuromuscular disease

In 14 patients with limb girdle muscular dystrophy, polymyositis, and type 3 spinal muscular atrophy, CT scans of the thigh muscles were correlated with single fiber EMG studies in vastus lateralis, semimembranosus and biceps femoris muscles. There was a relation between the extent of CT scan abnormality and increased fiber density in the three muscles studied, except in the most severely affected muscles in which in some muscles the fiber density values were lower than expected. These results were independent of the underlying pathology. Correlative CT/SFEMG studies provide insights into the pattern of selective involvement of certain muscles in neuromuscular disorders.
An improved algorithm of a priori based on geostatistics

In data mining one of the classical algorithms is Apriori which has been developed for association rule mining in large transaction database. And it cannot been directly used in spatial association rules mining. The main difference between data mining in relational DB and in spatial DB is that attributes of the neighbors of some object of interest may have an influence on the object and therefore have to be considered as well. The explicit location and extension of spatial objects define implicit relations of spatial neighborhood (such as topological, distance and direction relations) which are used by spatial data mining algorithms. Therefore, new techniques are required for effective and efficient spatial data mining. Geostatistics are statistical methods used to describe spatial relationships among sample data and to apply this analysis to the prediction of spatial and temporal phenomena. They are used to explain spatial patterns and to interpolate values at unsampled locations. This paper put forward an improved algorithm of Apriori about mining association rules with geostatistics. First the spatial autocorrelation of the attributes with location were estimated with the geostatistics methods such as kriging and Spatial Autoregressive Model (SAR). Then a spatial autocorrelation model of the attributes were built. Later an improved algorithm of apriori combined with the spatial autocorrelation model were offered to mine the spatial association rules. Last an experiment of the new algorithm were carried out on the hayfever incidence and climate factors in UK. The result shows that the output rules is matched with the references.
Incorporating Midbrain Adaptation to Mean Sound Level Improves Models of Auditory Cortical Processing

Adaptation to stimulus statistics, such as the mean level and contrast of recently heard sounds, has been demonstrated at various levels of the auditory pathway. It allows the nervous system to operate over the wide range of intensities and contrasts found in the natural world. Yet current standard models of the response properties of auditory neurons do not incorporate such adaptation. Here we present a model of neural responses in the ferret auditory cortex (the IC Adaptation model), which takes into account adaptation to mean sound level at a lower level of processing: the inferior colliculus (IC). The model performs high-pass filtering with frequency-dependent time constants on the sound spectrogram, followed by half-wave rectification, and passes the output to a standard linear–nonlinear (LN) model. We find that the IC Adaptation model consistently predicts cortical responses better than the standard LN model for a range of synthetic and natural stimuli. The IC Adaptation model introduces no extra free parameters, so it improves predictions without sacrificing parsimony. Furthermore, the time constants of adaptation in the IC appear to be matched to the statistics of natural sounds, suggesting that neurons in the auditory midbrain predict the mean level of future sounds and adapt their responses appropriately. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT An ability to accurately predict how sensory neurons respond to novel stimuli is critical if we are to fully characterize their response properties. Attempts to model these responses have had a distinguished history, but it has proven difficult to improve their predictive power significantly beyond that of simple, mostly linear receptive field models. Here we show that auditory cortex receptive field models benefit from a nonlinear preprocessing stage that replicates known adaptation properties of the auditory midbrain. This improves their predictive power across a wide range of stimuli but keeps model complexity low as it introduces no new free parameters. Incorporating the adaptive coding properties of neurons will likely improve receptive field models in other sensory modalities too.
Recombinant granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor activates macrophages to inhibit Trypanosoma cruzi and release hydrogen peroxide. Comparison with interferon gamma

Recombinant granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factors (rGM-CSF) of mouse and human origins activated macrophages of the homologous species to inhibit the replication of the protozoan parasite T. cruzi. Activation could be induced with 10-100 ng/ml of rMu-GM-CSF, whether it was added before or after uptake of the parasite, in either adherent or suspension cultures. However, the degree of inhibition of parasite replication after exposure to rMu-GM-CSF was not as great as after treatment with rMu-IFN-gamma, and much more rMu-GM-CSF than rMu-IFN- gamma was required to achieve an equivalent antimicrobial effect. These results were mirrored by effects of the cytokines on enhancement of H2O2-releasing capacity in resident mouse peritoneal macrophages. In the latter tests, rMu-IFN-gamma and rHu-TNF-alpha afforded a 44-51-fold enhancement over the untreated control, with a 50% effective concentration (EC50) for rMu-IFN-gamma of approximately 0.05 ng/ml. Using rMu-GM-CSF or rM-CSF, enhancement of H2O2-releasing capacity was 14-15-fold over control, with EC50s of 1 and 14 ng/ml, respectively. However, peak enhancement of macrophage H2O2-releasing capacity was seen at least 24 h earlier with rMu-GM-CSF or rHu-M-CSF than with r-Mu- IFN-gamma or rHu-TNF-alpha. Thus, rMu-GM-CSF and rHu-GM-CSF displayed clear-cut macrophage-activating activity in vitro, but rMu-GM-CSF was less potent and less effective than rMu-IFN-gamma in the tests used.
Sources and pathways of arsenic in the geochemical environment: health implications

Abstract Arsenic is ubiquitous in the environment, being present in small amounts in all rock, soil, dust, water and air. It is associated with many types of mineral deposits and in particular those containing sulphide minerals. The most common arsenic mineral is arsenopyrite, FeAsS2. Elevated concentrations are sometimes found in fine grained argillaceous sediments and phosphorites. Some marine sediments may contain as much as 3000 mg kg−1. Arsenic is co-precipitated with iron hydroxides and sulphides in some sedimentary rocks, and is precipitated as ferric arsenate in soil horizons rich in iron. This paper reviews current knowledge on the natural geochemical sources of arsenic in several countries where high concentrations in soils, dusts, surface and groundwaters may present a hazard to human health. The chemistry and behaviour of arsenic within the weathering zone are discussed in relation to pathways leading to human exposure.
Excretion of unassembled hook-associated proteins by Salmonella typhimurium

Hook-associated proteins (HAPs) were excreted into the culture medium of the Fla+ strain as well as into the growth medium of the filamentless mutants of Salmonella typhimurium. This indicates that the bacteria synthesize HAPs excessively, beyond the amount required for construction of flagella. The extra HAPs are shed into the culture medium after a definite amount of each HAP has been assembled into the flagellar structure.