Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical importance of positive test results for lupus anticoagulant and anticardiolipin antibodies.

OBJECTIVES To assess the performance of 4 clotting assays for lupus anticoagulant (LA) detection, to determine the prevalence of LA and anticardiolipin antibodies (aCL), and to correlate LA and aCL prevalence with systemic disease and thrombosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS We studied 664 consecutive patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, who were referred for laboratory testing because of a clinical suspicion of LA or thrombophilia between June 25, 1990, and July 1, 1991. RESULTS Of 664 patients tested for LA, 584 also were tested for aCL. Of patients tested for both LA and aCL, 137 (235%) had positive results for one or both tests (13 [95%], LA-positive only; 76 [555%], aCL-positive only; and 48 [35.0%], positive for both). The dilute Russell viper venom time (DRVVT) was the most frequently positive LA assay (74% of the 61 patients with positive results for LA). Twenty-two patients (36.1% of the 61) had positive results for all 4 LA assays, whereas 21 (34.4% of the 61) had positive results for only 1 LA assay: activated partial thromboplastin time (3 patients [4.9%]), plasma clot time (5 patients [8.2%]), kaolin clot time (5 patients [8.2%]), or DRVVT (8 patients [13.1%]). Thromboembolism prevalence was not definitely associated with positive test results (LA only, aCL only, or LA plus aCL), nor was it strongly associated with aCL isotype or titer. Furthermore, thromboembolism prevalence was not increased when all LA assays were positive, although a history of deep venous thrombosis or pulmonary embolism was nonsignificantly associated with positive results for all 4 LA tests. The likelihood of having both LA- and aCL-positive test results was higher among patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (26 [19.0%] of 137 patients with positive results for one or both tests), but they had no more thrombotic events or fetal loss than other patients in our study group. CONCLUSIONS The DRVVT identified more patients with LA than the other LA tests, but more than 1 LA test was required to identify all patients with LA. Positive results were much more common for aCL than for LA. No single LA test or anticardiolipin isotype correlated with thrombosis or systemic disease in this population.
The changing meaning of cohabitation and marriage.

"In the Netherlands, the social meaning of both marriage and cohabitation has changed. Cohabitation started as an alternative way of living, developed into a temporary phase before marriage, and finally became a strategy for moving into a union gradually. This article addresses the question whether or not individual past and current life-course experiences become increasingly important in explaining the differentiation of entry into marriage across female birth cohorts, and yet become decreasingly important in explaining the differentiation of entry into cohabitation across female birth cohorts. This question is examined using a non-proportional hazard model. Empirical evidence supports this hypothesis strongly, in that both past determinants such as family size or religion and current life-course determinants such as work or education change in their impact on cohabitation and marriage across birth cohorts. "
A P300-based Brain-Computer Interface with Stimuli on Moving Objects: Four-Session Single-Trial and Triple-Trial Tests with a Game-Like Task Design

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are tools for controlling computers and other devices without using muscular activity, employing user-controlled variations in signals recorded from the user’s brain. One of the most efficient noninvasive BCIs is based on the P300 wave of the brain’s response to stimuli and is therefore referred to as the P300 BCI. Many modifications of this BCI have been proposed to further improve the BCI’s characteristics or to better adapt the BCI to various applications. However, in the original P300 BCI and in all of its modifications, the spatial positions of stimuli were fixed relative to each other, which can impose constraints on designing applications controlled by this BCI. We designed and tested a P300 BCI with stimuli presented on objects that were freely moving on a screen at a speed of 5.4°/s. Healthy participants practiced a game-like task with this BCI in either single-trial or triple-trial mode within four sessions. At each step, the participants were required to select one of nine moving objects. The mean online accuracy of BCI-based selection was 81% in the triple-trial mode and 65% in the single-trial mode. A relatively high P300 amplitude was observed in response to targets in most participants. Self-rated interest in the task was high and stable over the four sessions (the medians in the 1st/4th sessions were 79/84% and 76/71% in the groups practicing in the single-trial and triple-trial modes, respectively). We conclude that the movement of stimulus positions relative to each other may not prevent the efficient use of the P300 BCI by people controlling their gaze, e.g., in robotic devices and in video games.
Distribution of ceftazidime in ascitic fluid

The pharmacokinetics of ceftazidime were investigated in eight normal subjects and eight patients with ascites after intravenous administration of 1 g of the drug. Samples of blood and ascitic fluid were collected for 6 h after dosage, and urine samples were collected for 24 h. Pharmacokinetic data were calculated by using a one-compartment model. The apparent volume of distribution and half-life of elimination (t1/2 beta) in patients with ascites were approximately three times those in normal subjects. In contrast, renal clearance was greater in the normal subjects. With respect to ascites, the mean area under the concentration-time curve was 95.3 +/- 38.3 micrograms X h/ml. The mean ratio of the area under the concentration-time curve for ascitic fluid to that for plasma was 69.9% (+/- 38.2). These data show that ceftazidime rapidly diffuses into the peritoneal space, in which concentrations greater than 10 micrograms/ml were present for at least 6 h.
Construction and analysis of lncRNA-lncRNA synergistic networks to reveal clinically relevant lncRNAs in cancer

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play key roles in diverse biological processes. Moreover, the development and progression of cancer often involves the combined actions of several lncRNAs. Here we propose a multi-step method for constructing lncRNA-lncRNA functional synergistic networks (LFSNs) through co-regulation of functional modules having three features: common coexpressed genes of lncRNA pairs, enrichment in the same functional category and close proximity within protein interaction networks. Applied to three cancers, we constructed cancer-specific LFSNs and found that they exhibit a scale free and modular architecture. In addition, cancer-associated lncRNAs tend to be hubs and are enriched within modules. Although there is little synergistic pairing of lncRNAs across cancers, lncRNA pairs involved in the same cancer hallmarks by regulating same or different biological processes. Finally, we identify prognostic biomarkers within cancer lncRNA expression datasets using modules derived from LFSNs. In summary, this proof-of-principle study indicates synergistic lncRNA pairs can be identified through integrative analysis of genome-wide expression data sets and functional information.
A Comparative Study of Facial, Retinal, Iris and Sclera Recognition Techniques

The pressures on today's system administrators to have secure systems are ever increasing. One area where security can be improved is in authentication. Face, retina, iris and sclera recognition, biometrics, provide one of the most secure methods of authentication and identification. These technologies are very useful in areas such as information security, physical access security, ATMs and airport security. These technologies are more or less accurate, easy to use, non-intrusive, and difficult to forge and, despite what people may think, are actually quite fast systems once initial enrolment has taken place. However, they do require the co-operation of the subject: need specific hardware and software to operate. These recognition technologies do provide a good method of authentication to replace the current methods of passwords, token cards or PINs and if used in conjunction with something the user knows in a two-factor authentication system then the authentication
Syntactic Characterization of Tree Database Schemas

A database schema in the relational data model is a hypergraph whose nodes represent attributes (or column headings) and whose edges represent relations over those attributes (or tables with those column headings). Tree schemas are database schemas with a simple, treelike structure. Tree schemas are called acyclic schemes or acyclic hypergraphs in parts of the hterature. The simple structure of tree schemas is used to advantage in dwerse areas of database management, including query processing and dependency theory. This paper provides several characterizations of tree schemas. It is proved that cyclic (i.e., nontree) schemas are built from simple building blocks, called Arings and Acliques; these play a role in the theory analogous to the role of simple cycles in graph theory. It is proved that a schema is a tree schema ff and only ff it is a conformal hypergraph and a natural graph representation (the 2-section) is chordal. Indeed, conformality is equivalent to the absence of Achques, and chordality is equivalent to the absence of Axings. The present characterizations are also related to ones that appear elsewhere: acyclic hypergraphs, Graham reductions, the running intersection property, and maximal weight qual trees.
A network-theoretic approach to hyperspectral image classification

This work describes a topological and network-theoretic approach for clustering pixels in hyperspectral image data. A network structure is imposed on hyperspectral data by considering the spectral distance between pairs of pixels, which are thought of as points in a high-dimensional space. The resulting network effectively models the complex nonlinear structures in the data and it can be exploited to perform clustering by applying a community detection algorithm, such as the method of maximum modularity. The method of maximum modularity is an unsupervised, deterministic method for detecting communities in graphs where neither the number of communities nor their sizes needs to be specified in advance. Because the network structure is based on local neighborhoods within the spectral data, algorithms based on such constructions are said to be topological or geometric.
Super mario evolution

We introduce a new reinforcement learning benchmark based on the classic platform game Super Mario Bros. The benchmark has a high-dimensional input space, and achieving a good score requires sophisticated and varied strategies. However, it has tunable difficulty, and at the lowest difficulty setting decent score can be achieved using rudimentary strategies and a small fraction of the input space. To investigate the properties of the benchmark, we evolve neural network-based controllers using different network architectures and input spaces. We show that it is relatively easy to learn basic strategies capable of clearing individual levels of low difficulty, but that these controllers have problems with generalization to unseen levels and with taking larger parts of the input space into account. A number of directions worth exploring for learning betterperforming strategies are discussed.
Power Management for Hybrid Energy Storage System of Electric Vehicles Considering Inaccurate Terrain Information

Terrain information can significantly impact load power demand, and in turn, on battery life and system efficiency of a hybrid energy storage system (ESS) with battery and supercapacitor. Taking terrain information ahead into consideration for proactive power management is one of the most important ways to improve battery life and overall system efficiency. However, since terrain information is typically available from commercial geographic information systems database, it is by nature inaccurate with uncertainties with respect to the requirements of power management. This is often worsening when combining with commercially low-quality global positioning systems. This paper proposes a novel power management strategy to cope with the inaccuracy and uncertainties of the terrain information with the aim to improve battery life, while maintaining overall system performance. First, the impact of terrain inaccuracy on battery life and system efficiency is analyzed based on two different hybrid ESSs with semiactive topologies. Then, a power management control strategy is developed that actively distributes the power between battery and supercapacitor with adaptation to terrain inaccuracy and uncertainties. The objective of the proposed power management control strategy is to minimize the total cost of the system, including the cost for battery life and energy. Finally, simulation is conducted that has verified the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.
Readjustment 5 months after a first-time myocardial infarction: reorienting the active self.

AIM This paper reports on an interview study exploring the self-regulation process in women and men, 5 months after a first-time myocardial infarction. BACKGROUND Somatic, psychological and social factors affect readjustment after a first-time myocardial infarction, and studies have demonstrated substantial rates of depression in patients after myocardial infarction Women report poorer mental health and physical condition than do men. Reconstruction of the self begins when disease poses novel problems and is more likely to occur in cases of long-lasting and disruptive illnesses. Experiencing myocardial infarction is likely to alter a person's mental representation of self. However, the self-regulation process following first-time myocardial infarction is not yet fully understood. METHOD Twenty-one people (11 women, 10 men) were interviewed 5 months after first-time myocardial infarction. The grounded theory method provided the strategies for data collection and analysis. FINDINGS Interviewees' definition of themselves as active was threatened by fatigue and other health problems that kept them from taking part in activities as they had done before the heart attack. Although reorienting the active self was central to the process of recovery from myocardial infarction, reorienting was restricted by illness perception and coping. CONCLUSION Participants had not established a stable health condition 5 months after first-time myocardial infarction. They mainly preferred to moderate rather than radically change their daily life activities. They needed more knowledge and support. Nurses can help with information and advice on managing daily life activities, including dialogue about lifestyle changes at this phase of readjustment.
Vocational Rehabilitation in Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

ABSTRACT Research indicates that those who undergo treatment for alcohol and other drug abuse largely have poor work histories and low employment rates, regardless of their education. Relapse rates for individuals in recovery increase when unemployment remains a constant in their lives. Consequently, providing vocational services during treatment may be a vital part of relapse prevention. Although studies have addressed the relationship between relapse and unemployment, few substance abuse treatment programs offer vocational evaluation or training. Results of this research indicate that vocational rehabilitation services are not being fully utilized in substance treatment settings.
Modelling Multivariate Outcomes in Hierarchical Data, with Application to Cluster Randomised Trials

In the cluster randomised study design, the data collected have a hierarchical structure and often include multivariate outcomes. We present a flexible modelling strategy that permits several normally distributed outcomes to be analysed simultaneously, in which intervention effects as well as individual‐level and cluster‐level between‐outcome correlations are estimated. This is implemented in a Bayesian framework which has several advantages over a classical approach, for example in providing credible intervals for functions of model parameters and in allowing informative priors for the intracluster correlation coefficients. In order to declare such informative prior distributions, and fit models in which the between‐outcome covariance matrices are constrained, priors on parameters within the covariance matrices are required. Careful specification is necessary however, in order to maintain non‐negative definiteness and symmetry between the different outcomes. We propose a novel solution in the case of three multivariate outcomes, and present a modified existing approach and novel alternative for four or more outcomes. The methods are applied to an example of a cluster randomised trial in the prevention of coronary heart disease. The modelling strategy presented would also be useful in other situations involving hierarchical multivariate outcomes. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
The lipid content of amyloid fibrils purified by a variety of methods.

Pa. ) at a column temperature of I80° C. Helium was used as the carrier gas at the flow rate of 6o ml. /min. Fatty acids were identified by comparison of their retention times with those of commercially available pure standards (Ap- plied Science Labs., Inc., State College, Pa.). The areas under peaks were determined by multiplying peak height by width at half height, as recommended by the Advisory Committee, Lipid Standard Program, The National Heart Institute.81
Usual and Unusual Care: Existing Practice Control Groups in Randomized Controlled Trials of Behavioral Interventions

Objective: To evaluate the use of existing practice control groups in randomized controlled trials of behavioral interventions and the role of extrinsic health care services in the design and conduct of behavioral trials. Method: Selective qualitative review. Results: Extrinsic health care services, also known as nonstudy care, have important but under-recognized effects on the design and conduct of behavioral trials. Usual care, treatment-as-usual, standard of care, and other existing practice control groups pose a variety of methodological and ethical challenges, but they play a vital role in behavioral intervention research. Conclusions: This review highlights the need for a scientific consensus statement on control groups in behavioral trials.CUC = constrained usual care; EP = existing practice; EUC = enhanced usual care; eEUC = extensively enhanced usual care; HIV = human immunodeficiency virus; IC = inadequate care; iSOC = individualized standard of care; mEUC = minimally enhanced usual care; PMR = progressive muscle relaxation; RC = routine care; RCT = randomized controlled trial; SC = standard care; SOC = standard of care; uSOC = uniform standard care; STR = standardized treatment regimen; TAU = treatment-as-usual; UC = usual care
Video Content-Based Bit Rate Estimation Scheme for Transcoding in IPTV Services

In this paper, a new bit rate estimation scheme is proposed to determine the bit rate for each subclass in an MPEG-2 TS to H.264/AVC transcoder after dividing an input MPEG-2 TS sequence into several subclasses. Video format transcoding in conventional IPTV and Smart TV services is a time-consuming process since the input sequence should be fully transcoded several times with different bit-rates to decide the bit-rate suitable for a service. The proposed scheme can automatically decide the bit-rate for the transcoded video sequence in those services which can be stored on a video streaming server as small as possible without losing any subject quality loss. In the proposed scheme, an input sequence to the transcoder is sub-classified by hierarchical clustering using a parameter value extracted from each frame. The candidate frames of each subclass are used to estimate the bit rate using a statistical analysis and a mathematical model. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme reduces the bit rate by, on an average approximately 52% in low-complexity video and 6% in high-complexity video with negligible degradation in subjective quality.
Arabidopsis myosin XI sub-domains homologous to the yeast myo2p organelle inheritance sub-domain target subcellular structures in plant cells

Myosin XI motor proteins transport plant organelles on the actin cytoskeleton. The Arabidopsis gene family that encodes myosin XI has 13 members, 12 of which have sub-domains within the tail region that are homologous to well-characterized cargo-binding domains in the yeast myosin V myo2p. Little is presently known about the cargo-binding domains of plant myosin XIs. Prior experiments in which most or all of the tail regions of myosin XIs have been fused to yellow fluorescent protein (YFP) and transiently expressed have often not resulted in fluorescent labeling of plant organelles. We identified 42 amino-acid regions within 12 Arabidopsis myosin XIs that are homologous to the yeast myo2p tail region known to be essential for vacuole and mitochondrial inheritance. A YFP fusion of the yeast region expressed in plants did not label tonoplasts or mitochondria. We investigated whether the homologous Arabidopsis regions, termed by us the “PAL” sub-domain, could associate with subcellular structures following transient expression of fusions with YFP in Nicotiana benthamiana. Seven YFP::PAL sub-domain fusions decorated Golgi and six were localized to mitochondria. In general, the myosin XI PAL sub-domains labeled organelles whose motility had previously been observed to be affected by mutagenesis or dominant negative assays with the respective myosins. Simultaneous transient expression of the PAL sub-domains of myosin XI-H, XI-I, and XI-K resulted in inhibition of movement of mitochondria and Golgi.
Ambient interaction by smart watches

The availability of new hardware allows new interaction and visualization metaphors for work environment and private life. Smart watches with integrated acceleration sensors and vibration feedback enable a new kind of interaction. In complement with a matrix display and connectivity to the Internet, smart watches provide assistance in ambient surroundings. This work presents challenges and opportunities of smart watches and introduces a concept of non-obtrusive interaction with smart watches by using physical activity recognition. Hereby the paper presents a prototype application of maintenance assistance and shows possible applications for ambient assistant living environments. In combination of information visualization, permanent sensing and notification, the smart watch becomes the next technology step in the row of smart devices for home-consumer and industrial users.
An Efficient Sequential Pattern Mining Algorithm Based on the 2-Sequence Matrix

Sequential pattern mining has become more and more popular in recent years due to its wide applications and the fact that it can find more information than association rules. Two famous algorithms in sequential pattern mining are AprioriAll and PrefixSpan. These two algorithms not only need to scan a database or projected-databases many times, but also require setting a minimal support threshold to prune infrequent data to obtain useful sequential patterns efficiently. In addition, they must rescan the database if new items or sequences are added. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm called efficient sequential pattern enumeration (ESPE) to solve the above problems. In addition, our method can be applied in many applications, such as for the itemsets appearing at the same time in a sequence. In our experiments, we show that the performance of ESPE is better than the other two methods using various datasets.