Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High Serum IgG4 Concentrations in Patients with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis

Purpose. Since recent reports suggest that Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT) may be associated with IgG4-related disease, we aimed to find out whether the measurement of serum IgG4 allows for the identification of distinct types of HT, with different clinical, sonographic, and serologic characteristics. Methods. The group studied consisted of 53 patients with HT and 28 healthy individuals who underwent thyroid ultrasonography and body composition analysis. Serum concentrations of IgG4, TSH, anti-peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb), anti-TSH receptor antibodies, TNF-α, TGF-β1, Fas Ligand, TRAIL, and chemokines (CXCL9, CXCL11, and CXCL10) were measured by ELISA or radioimmunoassay. Results. The group with IgG4 level >135 IU/ml accounted for 32.5% of the patients. The signs of fibrosis were present in 27.0% of the high-IgG4 patients and in 9.1% of the normal-IgG4 group. The patients with elevated IgG4 required higher doses of L-thyroxine and had significantly lower level of TPOAb (P=0.02) than the non-IgG4-HT individuals and higher TNF-α level in comparison with the controls (P=0.01). Conclusions. Our results suggest that the measurement of serum IgG4 allows for an identification of patients with more rapid progression of HT, requiring higher doses of L-thyroxine. Low TPOAb level and the absence of coexisting autoimmune diseases may suggest distinct pathomechanism of this type of thyroiditis.
A $\Delta\Sigma$ -Digitized Polar RF Transmitter

This paper demonstrates a new polar transmitter architecture, which uses the digitized envelope signal to control the drain voltage of a switching mode power amplifier (PA). It is based on a novel polar modulation using the constant envelope modulated signal. Among the various constant envelope modulators, the DeltaSigma modulator is chosen for its noise-shaping characteristic. It enables the use of a highly efficient switching amplifier with high linearity. For demonstration, the overall transmitter is implemented and tested with a code-division multiple-access IS-95A signal. The class-D and class-F amplifiers are designed and compared for the optimum operation. The experimental results show that the amplifier with small device size is suitable for this application because of the fast switching requirement. For the class-F amplifier, the measured power-added efficiency is 51.7% at 22.1 dBm and the overall efficiency (considering the amplified quantization noise) is 31%. The adjacent channel power ratios at 885 kHz and 1.98 MHz are lower than -44.9 and -55.6 dBc at the output power range from 10.8 to 22.1 dBm without any pre-distortion techniques. The overall efficiency is improved to 48.6% with a three-level quantized DeltaSigma modulator. The results clearly show that the highly efficient switching mode PA can be controlled efficiently using a digital signal from the DeltaSigma envelope modulation technique.
Investigating the Molecular Basis of Retinal Degeneration in a Familial Cohort of Pakistani Decent by Exome Sequencing

Purpose To define the molecular basis of retinal degeneration in consanguineous Pakistani pedigrees with early onset retinal degeneration. Methods A cohort of 277 individuals representing 26 pedigrees from the Punjab province of Pakistan was analyzed. Exomes were captured with commercial kits and sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2500. Candidate variants were identified using standard tools and analyzed using exomeSuite to detect all potentially pathogenic changes in genes implicated in retinal degeneration. Segregation analysis was performed by dideoxy sequencing and novel variants were additionally investigated for their presence in ethnicity-matched controls. Results We identified a total of nine causal mutations, including six novel variants in RPE65, LCA5, USH2A, CNGB1, FAM161A, CERKL and GUCY2D as the underlying cause of inherited retinal degenerations in 13 of 26 pedigrees. In addition to the causal variants, a total of 200 variants each observed in five or more unrelated pedigrees investigated in this study that were absent from the dbSNP, HapMap, 1000 Genomes, NHLBI ESP6500, and ExAC databases were identified, suggesting that they are common in, and unique to the Pakistani population. Conclusions We identified causal mutations associated with retinal degeneration in nearly half of the pedigrees investigated in this study through next generation whole exome sequencing. All novel variants detected in this study through exome sequencing have been cataloged providing a reference database of variants common in, and unique to the Pakistani population.
Design of landing platform on climbing robot for a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

During the process of detecting and rescue, the environment is complex for a climbing robot to negotiate. At this time, the Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (SUAV) is utilized to complete the rest task. However, some place is so sorrow that the SUAV cannot go through because of its weak anti-interference ability. In order to address this issue, we hope to combine the climbing robot and the SUAV. Here, we utilize the climbing robot to carry the SUAV, which make the whole climbing platform more practical and useful. In this paper, we design a landing platform on the climbing robot for a SUAV, which can load more than 3kg while sucking on the wall. And the SUAV can utilize this platform to take-off and land. We focus on landing platform structure design, centrifugal vacuum principle, characteristics of SUAV landing and auxiliary landing system. And the effectiveness of the proposed design is confirmed through experiments.
The Power Approximation for Computing (s, S) Inventory Policies

In this paper we present a new analytic approximation for computing (s, S) policies for single items under periodic review with a set-up cost, linear holding and shortage costs, fixed replenishment lead time, and backlogging of unfilled demand. The approximation formulae are derived by using existing results of asymptotic renewal theory to characterize the behavior of the optimal policy numbers as functions of the model parameters. These functions are then used to construct regressions with coefficients that are calibrated by using a grid of 288 known optimal policies as data. The resulting Power Approximation policies (formulae) are easy to compute and. require for demand information only the mean and variance of demand over lead time. Extensive computational results show that the approximations yield expected total costs that typically are well within one percent of optimal. The approximation's robustness is exemplified by analyzing its performance when statistical estimates are used in place of the actual mean and variance of demand.
Dysregulation of Macrophage-Secreted Cathepsin B Contributes to HIV-1-Linked Neuronal Apoptosis

Chronic HIV infection leads to the development of cognitive impairments, designated as HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). The secretion of soluble neurotoxic factors by HIV-infected macrophages plays a central role in the neuronal dysfunction and cell death associated with HAND. One potentially neurotoxic protein secreted by HIV-1 infected macrophages is cathepsin B. To explore the potential role of cathepsin B in neuronal cell death after HIV infection, we cultured HIV-1ADA infected human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM) and assayed them for expression and activity of cathepsin B and its inhibitors, cystatins B and C. The neurotoxic activity of the secreted cathepsin B was determined by incubating cells from the neuronal cell line SK-N-SH with MDM conditioned media (MCM) from HIV-1 infected cultures. We found that HIV-1 infected MDM secreted significantly higher levels of cathepsin B than did uninfected cells. Moreover, the activity of secreted cathepsin B was significantly increased in HIV-infected MDM at the peak of viral production. Incubation of neuronal cells with supernatants from HIV-infected MDM resulted in a significant increase in the numbers of apoptotic neurons, and this increase was reversed by the addition of either the cathepsin B inhibitor CA-074 or a monoclonal antibody to cathepsin B. In situ proximity ligation assays indicated that the increased neurotoxic activity of the cathepsin B secreted by HIV-infected MDM resulted from decreased interactions between the enzyme and its inhibitors, cystatins B and C. Furthermore, preliminary in vivo studies of human post-mortem brain tissue suggested an upregulation of cathepsin B immunoreactivity in the hippocampus and basal ganglia in individuals with HAND. Our results demonstrate that HIV-1 infection upregulates cathepsin B in macrophages, increases cathepsin B activity, and reduces cystatin-cathepsin interactions, contributing to neuronal apoptosis. These findings provide new evidence for the role of cathepsin B in neuronal cell death induced by HIV-infected macrophages.
An investigation into the correlation between Spiritual Intelligence and communication skillsamong nursing students

Background & Aim: The key to playing role in the nursing profession is the proper communication and is, in fact, the basic part of nurses' careers in looking after the patients. Recognizing the factors related to communication skills of nursing students, including spiritual intelligence, can be used to increase the quality of care. The purpose of this study was to investigate the correlation between spiritual intelligence and communication skills of nursing students in Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences. Materials & Methods: In this descriptive-correlational study, 286 nursing students were selected by stratified sampling method. Data were collected by King’s Spiritual Intelligence Questionnaire and Barton’s Communication Skills Questionnaire. Data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS 21 software. Results: The mean age of the students was 21.37±2.39 years. Most of the students were male (55%) and studying in the fourth year of the university (30%) (Seventh semester (17.1%)). The mean (standard deviation) of spiritual intelligence was 59.71 (12.04) and communication skills was 51.83 (10.10). Based on Pearson correlation coefficient, the correlation between communication skills with spiritual intelligence and its areas was positive (0.414) and was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: There was a positive and significant correlation between spiritual intelligence and communication skills. Considering this issue in students, along with physical, mental and social dimensions, can increase the communication skills and increase the quality of nursing
The Butanol Fraction of Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia) Scavenges Free Radicals and Attenuates Oxidative Stress

To investigate radical scavenging effects and protective activities of bitter melon (Momordica charantia) against oxidative stress, in vitro and a cellular system using LLC-PK1 renal epithelial cells were used in this study. The butanol (BuOH) fraction of bitter melon scavenged 63.4% and 87.1% of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radicals at concentrations of 250 and 500 μg/mL, respectively. In addition, the BuOH fraction of bitter melon effectively scavenged hydroxyl radicals (·OH). At all concentrations tested, the scavenging activity of the BuOH fraction was more potent than that of the positive control, ascorbic acid. Furthermore, under the LLC-PK1 cellular model, the cells showed a decline in viability and an increase in lipid peroxidation through oxidative stress induced by pyrogallol, a generator of superoxide anion (O2−). However, the BuOH fraction of bitter melon significantly and dose-dependently inhibited cytotoxicity. In addition, 3-morpholinosydnonimine (SIN-1), a generator of peroxynitrite (ONOO−) formed by simultaneous releases of nitric oxide and O2−, caused cytotoxicity in the LLC-PK1 cells while the BuOH fraction of bitter melon ameliorated oxidative damage induced by ONOO−. These results indicate that BuOH fraction of bitter melon has protective activities against oxidative damage induced by free radicals.
Simple Penalty-Sensitive Cache Replacement Policies

Classic cache replacement policies assume that miss costs are uniform. However, the correlation between miss rate and cache performance is not as straightforward as it used to be. Ultimately, the true performance cost of a miss should be its access penalty, i.e. the actual processing bandwidth lost because of the miss. Contrary to loads, the penalty of stores is mostly hidden in modern processors. To take advantage of this observation, we propose a simple scheme to replace load misses by store misses. We extend LRU (Least Recently Used) to reduce the aggregate miss penalty instead of the miss count. The new policy is called PS-LRU (Penalty-Sensitive LRU) and is deployed throughout most of this paper. PS-LRU systematically replaces first a block predicted to be accessed with a store next. This policy minimizes the number of load misses to the detriment of store misses. One key issue in this policy is to predict the next access type to a block, so that higher replacement priority is given to blocks that will be accessed next with a store. We introduce and evaluate various prediction schemes based on instructions and broadly inspired from branch predictors. To guide the design we run extensive trace-driven simulations on eight Spec95 benchmarks with a wide range of cache configurations and observe that PS-LRU yield positive load miss improvements over classic LRU across most the benchmarks and cache configurations. In some cases the improvements are very large. Although the total number of load misses is minimized under our simple policy, the number of store misses and the amount of memory traffic both increase. Moreover store misses are not totally "free". To evaluate this trade-off, we apply DCL and ACL (two previously proposed cost-sensitive LRU policies) to the problem of load/store miss penalty. These algorithms are more competitive than PS-LRU. Both DCL and ACL provide attractive trade-offs in which less load misses are saved than in PS-LRU, but the store miss traffic is reduced.
Learning for Decentralized Control of Multiagent Systems in Large, Partially-Observable Stochastic Environments

Decentralized partially observable Markov decision processes (Dec-POMDPs) provide a general framework for multiagent sequential decision-making under uncertainty. Although Dec-POMDPs are typically intractable to solve for real-world problems, recent research on macro-actions (i.e., temporally-extended actions) has significantly increased the size of problems that can be solved. However, current methods assume the underlying Dec-POMDP model is known a priori or a full simulator is available during planning time. To accommodate more realistic scenarios, when such information is not available, this paper presents a policy-based reinforcement learning approach, which learns the agent policies based solely on trajectories generated by previous interaction with the environment (e.g., demonstrations). We show that our approach is able to generate valid macro-action controllers and develop an expectationmaximization (EM) algorithm (called Policy-based EM or PoEM), which has convergence guarantees for batch learning. Our experiments show PoEM is a scalable learning method that can learn optimal policies and improve upon hand-coded “expert” solutions.
Understanding Social TV: a survey

htmlabstractIn recent years social networking and social interactions have challenged old conceptions in the television landscape. Web applications that offer video content, networked television sets and set-top boxes, and online TV widgets are – or, will be – radically transforming how people watch and interact around television content. Since the wealth of existing solutions and approaches might be daunting to newcomers, this paper surveys previous and current efforts in the area of social television. The contribution of this paper is a framework that categorizes the most salient features of existing applications. The resulting framework is a valuable contribution for better understanding the present, and a useful tool for evaluating and analyzing future developments in the field. The final goal is to provide a structured categorization that helps research, industry and entrepreneurs in analyzing the current shift on how people socialize around television content.
Optimal management of breast cancer in the elderly patient: current perspectives

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common female malignancy in the world and almost one third of cases occur after 70 years of age. Optimal management of BC in the elderly is a real challenge and requires a multidisciplinary approach, mainly because the elderly population is heterogeneous. In this review, we describe the various possibilities of treatment for localized or metastatic BC in an aging population. We provide an overview of the comprehensive geriatric assessment, surgery, radiotherapy, and adjuvant therapy for early localized BC and of chemotherapy and targeted therapies for metastatic BC. Finally, we attempt to put into perspective the necessary balance between the expected benefits and risks, especially in the adjuvant setting.
An Improved Nonlinear Flux Observer Based Sensorless FOC IM Drive With Adaptive Predictive Current Control

This paper presents a novel adaptive predictive current controller (PCC) with improved flux estimator for a sensorless direct field oriented control (DFOC) induction motor (IM) drive. Classical PCC performance depends on the stator resistance of the motor which varies with temperature. In the proposed method, a discrete stator resistance estimator is developed to increase the robustness of the system toward stator resistance variations. An improved nonlinear discrete stator flux estimator is also developed to replace the pure integrator which reduces the initial value and dc offset problems. Sensorless operation of IM drive has advantages of reduced overall cost and increased reliability of motor operation. Dynamic and steady-state performances of the IM under different operating conditions are analyzed in MATLAB/Simulink as well as experimentally using dSPACE1104 controller and have been compared with conventional PCC. The simulation results of the classical and proposed methods are also validated experimentally. Smooth starting, reduced oscillations in speed and flux at low speed operation, fast speed and torque dynamics, robust operation of drive against load and variation in stator resistance, fast and smooth speed reversal are the main advantages of the proposed method over classical PCC-based DFOC IM drive.
Co-prescriptions médicamenteuses inappropriées chez les sujets âgés : étude à partir des données de l’Assurance Maladie française

Introduction : la polymedication et les comorbidites chez les sujets ages favorisent la survenue d’interactions medicamenteuses. Ce travail etudie des co-prescriptions inappropriees chez les sujets ages d’au moins 75 ans en France et mesure l’impact de recommandations publiees a partir des donnees de l’Assurance Maladie francaise. Methodes : les indicateurs ont ete selectionnes avec un comite d’experts. La prevalence de sujets ages exposes aux indicateurs de co-prescriptions retenus a ete calculee mensuellement de 2007 a 2015. Un modele « Interrupted Time Series » a permis d’evaluer l’impact de la publication des recommandations sur la prevalence de ces indicateurs. Pour les indicateurs les plus frequents, une etude de cohorte a analyse entre 2008 et 2015, les recurrences et les hospitalisations liees a la co-prescription chez les sujets incidents. Resultats : 30% des sujets etudies ont ete exposes a une co-prescription inappropriee selon les indicateurs choisis. De 2007 a 2015, 21,5% des sujets ont ete exposes a la co-prescription d’un AINS et IEC ou ARA2, 5,5% a la co-prescription d’au moins deux anticholinergiques et 3,8% a la metformine et un AINS. Les autres indicateurs presentaient une prevalence moindre. Tous les indicateurs decroissaient dans le temps hormis l’association d’au moins trois antidiabetiques oraux. Seules deux interventions ont ete suivies d'un effet significatif sur la prevalence des indicateurs mais retarde dans le temps. La co-prescription d’un AINS avec un IEC ou un ARA2 etait recurrente dans le temps, parfois pendant plusieurs annees avec 0,11% des sujets incidents hospitalises pour insuffisance renale aigue et 0,03% decedes a l’hopital. Discussion : les faibles prevalences de sujets exposes pour cinq des six indicateurs temoignent de pratiques professionnelles paraissant conformes aux bonnes pratiques hormis la co-prescription d’un AINS avec un IEC ou un ARA2 recurrente dans le temps. Les recommandations de bonne pratique emises semblent suivies d'une variation limitee des co- prescriptions etudiees.
The spino-bulbar-cerebellar pathway: organization and neurochemical properties of spinal cells that project to the lateral reticular nucleus in the rat

In addition to classical spinocerebellar pathways, the cerebellum receives information from the spinal cord indirectly via spino-bulbar-cerebellar systems. One of the structures in this pathway is the lateral reticular nucleus (LRt). We performed series of experiments to investigate the organization and neurotransmitter content of spinoreticular tract (SRT) neurons in the lumbar spinal cord that project to the LRt. Three rats received injections of the b subunit of Cholera toxin (CTb) or Fluorogold (FG) within the left and right LRt. The majority of SRT cells (56–61%) were found within the contralateral medial intermediate gray matter where small numbers (7–10%) of double-labeled cells were also present on both sides of the cord. Six rats received unilateral spinal injections of CTb to label spinal projections to the LRt. Injections of FG were made also into the anterior lobe of the cerebellum to label LRt pre-cerebellar neurons. Terminals were found mainly ipsilateral to spinal injection sites within the central and ventrolateral regions of the LRt. Immunocytochemical analysis of SRT terminals revealed that the majority (75%) were contained vesicular glutamate transporter 2 but a minority (20%) contained the vesicular GABA transporter. The inhibitory subpopulation was found to be GABAergic, glycinergic, or contained both transmitters. Inhibitory and excitatory terminals were present within overlapping regions of the nucleus. Most CTb terminals contacting LRt pre-cerebellar neurons were excitatory (80%) whereas a minority were inhibitory and most cells (88%) received contacts from both inhibitory and excitatory terminals. This study shows that SRT axons in the LRt have the capacity to exert direct excitatory and inhibitory actions on LRt pre-cerebellar neurons. Thus spinal cord input has the capacity to facilitate or depress the activity of individual LRt cells which in turn adjust activity in the cerebellum to produce coordinated motor behaviors.
Audiovisual emotional speech of game playing children: effects of age and culture

In this paper we study how children of different age groups (8 and 12 years old) and with different cultural backgrounds (Dutch and Pakistani) signal positive and negative emotions in audiovisual speech. Data was collected in an ethical way using a simple but surprisingly effective game in which pairs of participants have to guess whether an upcoming card will contain a higher or lower number than a reference card. The data thus collected was used in a series of cross-cultural perception studies, in which Dutch and Pakistani observers classified emotional expressions of D utch and Pakistani speakers. Results show that classification accuracy is uniformly high for Pakistani children, but drops for older and for winning Dutch children 1 .