Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Points to consider for reporting, screening for and preventing selected comorbidities in chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases in daily practice: a EULAR initiative

In chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases, comorbidities such as cardiovascular diseases and infections are suboptimally prevented, screened for and managed. The objective of this European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) initiative was to propose points to consider to collect comorbidities in patients with chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases. We also aimed to develop a pragmatic reporting form to foster the implementation of the points to consider. In accordance with the EULAR Standardised Operating Procedures, the process comprised (1) a systematic literature review of existing recommendations on reporting, screening for or preventing six selected comorbidities: ischaemic cardiovascular diseases, malignancies, infections, gastrointestinal diseases, osteoporosis and depression and (2) a consensus process involving 21 experts (ie, rheumatologists, patients, health professionals). Recommendations on how to treat the comorbidities were not included in the document as they vary across countries. The literature review retrieved 42 articles, most of which were recommendations for reporting or screening for comorbidities in the general population. The consensus process led to three overarching principles and 15 points to consider, related to the six comorbidities, with three sections: (1) reporting (ie, occurrence of the comorbidity and current treatments); (2) screening for disease (eg, mammography) or for risk factors (eg, smoking) and (3) prevention (eg, vaccination). A reporting form (93 questions) corresponding to a practical application of the points to consider was developed. Using an evidence-based approach followed by expert consensus, this EULAR initiative aims to improve the reporting and prevention of comorbidities in chronic inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Next steps include dissemination and implementation.
Segmentation of nuclei in cancer tissue images: Contrasting active contours with morphology-based approach

In this paper we present a fully automated morphology-based technique for segmentation of nuclei in cancer tissue images and we compare it with a common technique for biomedical image processing, namely active contours. We discuss the limitations of active contours in the processing of immunohistochemical images characterized by heterogeneously stained nuclear region and noise caused by the presence of multiple tissue layers in the sample. We describe the integration of the proposed approach in a fully automated protein activity quantification tool. Finally, we demonstrate and motivate through extensive experiments that our fully automated morphology-based approach provides better accuracy compared to various active contours implementations.
Management of voriconazole hepatotoxicity in a lung transplant patient

S. Belaiche, M. Roustit, P. Bedouch, S. Quetant, C. Saint‐Raymond, C. Pison. Management of voriconazole hepatotoxicity in a lung transplant patient. Transpl Infect Dis 2011: 13: 309–311. All rights reserved
Prevalence and Incidence Estimation of HSV-2 by Two IgG ELISA Methods among South African Women at High Risk of HIV

Introduction Previous comparison studies of the Kalon and HerpeSelect 2 ELISA IgG assays on sub-Saharan samples have found differences in the sensitivity and specificity of these assays. Using longitudinal samples from an HIV prevention study, we compared both assays and determined the HSV-2 prevalence and incidence in a South African young female population at elevated risk of acquiring HIV. Methods Samples at baseline were tested in both assays using the manufacturers’ guidelines (cut-off > 1.10). When non-reactive in one assay, the final visit samples were tested to determine the incidence rate. Using correlation and regression analyses, the intra- and inter-assay variabilities were assessed. Results The prevalence rate was 41.1% and 44.9% for Kalon and HerpeSelect using the manufacturer guidelines, respectively. Agreement between the two tests were high (kappa = 0.92). The original optical density values of both assays were highly correlated (R = 0.94), but the calibrator and correspondingly cut-off index values differed between the assays. Lowering the index value cut-off for the Kalon assay by 40% (to 0.66) resulted in a HSV-2 prevalence of 43.2%, and increased agreement between the assays (to kappa = 0.96). The incidence rate was 16.3/100 Person Years using the lower cut-off for the Kalon assay. Discussion In this longitudinal study, we showed that the performance of the two assays was very similar. After lowering the cut-off for the Kalon assay to 0.66 early infections were detected without impairing its specificity. The prevalence and incidence rates are in line with previously described rates for sub-Saharan African cohorts.
Wide-Scale Use of Notch Signaling Factor CSL/RBP-Jκ in RTA-Mediated Activation of Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Lytic Genes

ABSTRACT For Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV; also called human herpesvirus 8 [HHV8]), the switch from latency to active lytic replication requires RTA, the product of open reading frame 50 (ORF50). RTA activates transcription from nearly 40 early and delayed-early viral promoters, mainly through interactions with cellular DNA binding proteins, such as CSL/RBP-Jκ, Oct-1, C/EBPα, and c-Jun. Reliance on cellular coregulators may allow KSHV to adjust its lytic program to suit different cellular contexts or interpret signals from the outside. CSL is a key component of the Notch signaling pathway and is targeted by several viruses. A search with known CSL binding sequences from cellular genes found at least 260 matches in the KSHV genome, many from regions containing known or suspected lytic promoters. Analysis of clustered sites located immediately upstream of ORF70 (thymidylate synthase), ORF19 (tegument protein), and ORF47 (glycoprotein L) uncovered RTA-responsive promoters that were validated using mRNAs isolated from KSHV-infected cells undergoing lytic reactivation. Notably, ORF19 behaves as a true late gene, indicating that RTA regulates all three phases of the lytic program. For each new promoter, the response to RTA was dependent on CSL, and 5 of the 10 candidate sites were shown to bind CSL in vitro. Analysis of individual sites highlighted the importance of a cytosine residue flanking the core CSL binding sequence. These findings broaden the role for CSL in coordinating the KSHV lytic gene expression program and help to define a signature motif for functional CSL sites within the viral genome.
Three-dimensional integration technology and integrated systems

A three-dimensional (3-D) integration technology based on the wafer-to-wafer bonding using through silicon vias (TSV's) has been developed for the fabrication of new 3-D LSIs. A 3-D image sensor chip, 3-D shared memory chip, 3-D artificial retina chip and 3-D microprocessor test chip have been fabricated by using this technology. In addition, we have proposed a new reconfigurable parallel image processing system. To achieve this system, we have proposed a new 3-D integration technology based on multichip-to-wafer bonding called a super-chip integration. Many chips are simultaneously aligned and bonded onto lower chips using a self-assembly technique in a super-chip integration.
Re‐immunisations after childhood leukaemia

To the Editor: Fioredda et al. suggest that no extra re-immunisations are necessary after chemotherapy for childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) (1). Their proposal is based on results showing that 83% of Italian ALL patients were protected against tetanus and 81% against hepatitis B, and an economic analysis of the costs. We have conducted a study in western Sweden, showing that >60% of the patients have incomplete protection against diphtheria or tetanus after treatment for childhood ALL (2). The key question may be how to define protection? Fioredda et al. used two different methods for determination of tetanus antibodies (ELISA and agglutination test), and two different limits for protection. It would have been interesting to know if the methods were compared, and how many samples that were analysed with respective test? Agglutination methods have been of questionable value in comparative studies of diphtheria toxoid (DT) antibodies (3), and the same presumably applies for tetanus toxoid (TT) antibodies. Since serological estimates correlate poorly with protection against infection it may be imprudent to rely solely on these for immunisation recommendations. The rapid recall ( memory ) response is critical in controlling systemic infections (4), and gives additional information about immunocompetence in clinical studies. We examined 31 children that were re-immunised after cessation of maintenance treatment for ALL according to the recent Nordic Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology (NOPHO) ALL 1992 protocol (2). They received a single dose of DT + TT + protein-conjugated Haemophilus influenzae type B capsule polysaccharide (Hib) vaccine. We measured anti-DT (IgG), anti-TT (IgG) and anti-Hib (IgG) prior to treatment, before vaccination (after treatment) and 3 wk after vaccination. The main findings were that:
Calcium‐activated chloride channels in bovine pulmonary artery endothelial cells.

1. We characterized Ca(2+)‐activated Cl‐ currents in calf pulmonary artery endothelial (CPAE) cells by using a combined patch clamp and fura‐2 microfluorescence technique to simultaneously measure ionic currents and the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, [Ca2+]i. 2. Various procedures that increased [Ca2+]i, such as stimulation with ATP or ionomycin, or loading the cells with Ca2+ via the patch pipette, activated a strongly outwardly rectifying current with a reversal potential close to the Cl‐ equilibrium potential. Changing the extracellular Cl‐ concentration shifted this reversal potential as predicted for a Cl‐ current. Buffering Ca2+ rises with BAPTA prevented ATP from activating the current. 3. Ca(2+)‐activated Cl‐ currents could be distinguished from volume‐activated Cl‐ currents, which were sometimes coactivated in the same cell. The latter showed much less outward rectification, their activation was voltage independent, and they could be inhibited by exposing the cells to hypertonic solutions. 4. The permeability ratio for the Ca(2+)‐activated conductance of the anions iodide:chloride: gluconate was 1.71 +/‐ 0.06:1:0.39 +/‐ 0.03 (n = 12). 5. This Ca(2+)‐activated Cl‐ current, ICl, Ca, inactivated rapidly at negative potentials and activated slowly at positive potentials. Outward tail currents were slowly decaying, while inward tail currents decayed much faster. 6. 4,4'‐Diisothiocyanatostilbene‐2,2'‐disulphonic‐acid (DIDS) and niflumic acid inhibited Icl,Ca in a voltage‐dependent manner, i.e. they exerted a more potent block at positive potentials. The block by N‐phenylanthracilic acid (NPA), 5‐nitro‐2‐(3‐phenylpropylamino)‐benzoate (NPPB) and tamoxifen was voltage independent. Niflumic acid and tamoxifen were the most potent blockers. 7. The single‐channel conductance was 7.9 +/‐ 0.7 pS (n = 15) at 300 mM extracellular Cl‐. The channel open probability was high at positive potentials, but very small at negative potentials. 8. It is concluded that [Ca2+]i activates small‐conductance Cl‐ channels in endothelial cells, which coexist with the volume‐activated Cl‐ channels described previously.
Optimized shield design for reduction of EMF from wireless power transfer systems

In this paper, we proposed an optimized shield design for electromagnetic field (EMF) reduction from the wireless power transfer (WPT) system. Three different cases of shield design are examined in terms of strength of EMF and mutual inductance, which is directly related to power transfer efficiency. Analysis results show that when using both ferrite and conducting sheets as a shield for transmitter and receiver coils, a leakage magnetic field can be significantly reduced with negligible change in mutual inductance. Additionally, the effects of the conducting sheet’s size and thickness on the EMF and the mutual inductance are also examined. Our investigation will be helpful to engineers designing modern WPT systems.
Estimation in Functional Regression for General Exponential Families

This paper studies a class of exponential family models whose canonical parameters are specified as linear functionals of an unknown infinite-dimensional slope function. The optimal minimax rates of convergence for slope function estimation are established. The estimators that achieve the optimal rates are constructed by constrained maximum likelihood estimation with parameters whose dimension grows with sample size. A change-of-measure argument, inspired by Le Cam's theory of asymptotic equivalence, is used to eliminate the bias caused by the non-linearity of exponential family models.
Primary care Randomised controlled trial of an interactive multimedia decision aid on benign prostatic hypertrophy in primary care

Objective To determine whether a decision aid on benign prostatic hypertrophy influences decision making, health outcomes, and resource use. Design Randomised controlled trial. Setting 33 general practices in the United Kingdom. Participants 112 men with benign prostatic hypertrophy. Intervention Patients’ decision aid consisting of an interactive multimedia programme with booklet and printed summary. Outcome measures Patients’ and general practitioners’ perceptions of who made the decision, decisional conflict scores, treatment choice and prostatectomy rate, American Urological Association symptom scale, costs, anxiety, utility, and general health status. Results Both patients and general practitioners found the decision aid acceptable. A higher proportion of patients (32% v 4%; mean difference 28%, 95% confidence interval 14% to 41%) and their general practitioners (46% v 25%; 21%, 3% to 40%) perceived that treatment decisions had been made mainly or only by patients in the intervention group compared with the control group. Patients in the intervention group had significantly lower decisional conflict scores than those in the control group at three months (2.3 v 2.6; − 0.3, − 0.5 to − 0.1, P < 0.01) and this was maintained at nine months. No differences were found between the groups for anxiety, general health status, prostatic symptoms, utility, or costs (excluding costs associated with the video disc equipment). Conclusions The decision aid reduced decisional conflict in men with benign prostatic hypertrophy, and the patients played a more active part in decision making. Such programmes could be delivered cheaply by the internet, and there are good arguments for coordinated investment in them, particularly for conditions in which patient utilities are important.
Continuous Interscalene Analgesia with Ropivacaine 0.2% Versus Ropivacaine 0.3% After Open Rotator Cuff Repair: The Effects on Postoperative Analgesia and Motor Function

BACKGROUND: Interscalene analgesia is a recognized technique for the management of postoperative pain after major shoulder surgery. The most effective local anesthetic concentration in this setting is still controversial. In this study, we compared the analgesia and side effects of a continuous infusion of ropivacaine 0.2% and 0.3% administered through an interscalene catheter for the first 48 hours after surgery. METHODS: Eighty consecutive patients scheduled for elective open rotator cuff repair were randomized into 2 groups to receive a continuous infusion of either ropivacaine 0.2% or ropivacaine 0.3% for 48 hours at a rate of 14 mL/h through an interscalene catheter after a preoperative bolus of 40 mL ropivacaine 0.5% in all patients. Pain score (visual analog scale 0–100), intensity of motor block, quality of sleep during the first postoperative night, morphine consumption, side effects, and patient satisfaction were assessed by an anesthesiologist masked to treatment group. RESULTS: Total morphine consumption was significantly reduced in group 0.3% (12 vs 30 mg). Quality of sleep was significantly better in group 0.3% (4% vs 27% of awakening during the first postoperative night). Handgrip strength, visual analog scale scores, and side effects were similar in both groups. CONCLUSION: The use of ropivacaine 0.3% through an interscalene catheter for the first 48 hours after open rotator cuff repair provided a significant reduction of morphine consumption and a better sleep quality for the first postoperative night without increasing the intensity of motor block or side effects.
Critical thresholds associated with habitat loss: a review of the concepts, evidence, and applications

A major conservation concern is whether population size and other ecological variables change linearly with habitat loss, or whether they suddenly decline more rapidly below a “critical threshold” level of habitat. The most commonly discussed explanation for critical threshold responses to habitat loss focus on habitat configuration. As habitat loss progresses, the remaining habitat is increasingly fragmented or the fragments are increasingly isolated, which may compound the effects of habitat loss. In this review we also explore other possible explanations for apparently nonlinear relationships between habitat loss and ecological responses, including Allee effects and time lags, and point out that some ecological variables will inherently respond nonlinearly to habitat loss even in the absence of compounding factors. In the literature, both linear and nonlinear ecological responses to habitat loss are evident among simulation and empirical studies, although the presence and value of critical thresholds is influenced by characteristics of the species (e.g. dispersal, reproduction, area/edge sensitivity) and landscape (e.g. fragmentation, matrix quality, rate of change). With enough empirical support, such trends could be useful for making important predictions about species' responses to habitat loss, to guide future research on the underlying causes of critical thresholds, and to make better informed management decisions. Some have seen critical thresholds as a means of identifying conservation targets for habitat retention. We argue that in many cases this may be misguided, and that the meaning (and utility) of a critical threshold must be interpreted carefully and in relation to the response variable and management goal. Despite recent interest in critical threshold responses to habitat loss, most studies have not used any formal statistical methods to identify their presence or value. Methods that have been used include model comparisons using Akaike information criterion (AIC) or t‐tests, and significance testing for changes in slope or for polynomial effects. The judicious use of statistics to help determine the shape of ecological relationships would permit greater objectivity and more comparability among studies.
Large Candidate Branch-Based Method for Mining Concurrent Branch Patterns

This paper presents a novel data mining technique, known as Post Sequential Patterns Mining. The technique can be used to discover structural patterns that are composed of sequential patterns, branch patterns or iterative patterns. The concurrent branch pattern is one of the main forms of structural patterns and plays an important role in event-based data modelling. To discover concurrent branch patterns efficiently, a concurrent group is defined and this is used roughly to discover candidate branch patterns. Our technique accomplishes this by using an algorithm to determine concurrent branch patterns given a customer database. The computation of the support for such patterns is also discussed.
Detecting Symptoms of Low Performance Using Production Rules

E-Learning systems offer students innovative and attractive ways of learning through augmentation or substitution of traditional lectures and exercises with online learning material. Such material can be accessed at any time from anywhere using different devices, and can be personalized according to the individual student's needs, goals and knowledge. However, authoring and evaluation of this material remains a complex a task. While many researchers focus on the authoring support, not much has been done to facilitate the evaluation of e-Learning applications, which requires processing of the vast quantity of data generated by students. We address this problem by proposing an approach for detecting potential symptoms of low performance in e-Learning courses. It supports two main steps: generating the production rules of C4.5 algorithm and filtering the most representative rules, which could indicate low performance of students. In addition, the approach has been evaluated on the log files of student activity with two versions of a Web-based quiz system. In this paper we try to address this problem by proposing an approach to evaluation of e- Learning systems based on the analysis of log data. Evaluation of e-Learning systems is a complex and time-consuming task. One of the challenges for an instructor evaluating an e-Learning system is lack of evidence from students, since he/she has access only to their interactions with the learning material and cannot observe their behaviors, or receive the feedback from them in a timely manner. Due to the fact that student's behaviors are hidden inside their interactions, instructors should analyze them in order to assess the performance of students and evaluate the learning software. Furthermore, e-Learning systems generate vast quantity of data (log files). These data consist of records of students' actions within the system. Since the log files are often very big, traditional data
The Dravidian Verbs 'Come' and 'Give'

1. In the better known South Dravidian languages, the verb system is such that two principal parts, or two stems, suffice as a basis on which the whole system may be built. The second stem is in general derivable from the first by the addition of a suffix *-ior a suffix containing a dental stop (sometimes disguised by morphophonemic alternations), and is the basis for the past tense alone, or, in some of the languages, for present-future and past tenses, or for other combinations of forms. On the first stem are built all the remaining positive forms and the negative forms. Vocalic alternation within the stems, either of quality or of quantity, is very rare, but in the extremely few verbs where it occurs tends to be persistent throughout the history of all the languages; e.g. the verb 'see' has stems *kan-, *kantin Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Coorg, and Toda, while Kota shows variation between ka-nand kanin the first stem, with leveling begun but not yet completed, or perhaps completed but with the disturbing long vowel reappearing by loan from other languages of the group. Likewise, any deviation from the suffixes given above as forming the second stem is rare. When there is deviation from this norm of two stems with vowels identical and the second stem formed from the first as stated, the verb is irregular. Of the handful of such verbs, two are the subject of this paper, namely the verb meaning 'come' and the verb paired with it in form in South Dravidian languages and variously recorded as meaning 'give' or 'bring. ' A comparative study is made with the objects of setting up Proto-Dravidian forms and finding an origin for the irregularities. The study will introduce from my field-notes, most of which are still unpublished, material for Toda, Kota, Coorg, and Kolami,1 and,