Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A randomized controlled trial of genotype-based Coumadin initiation

Purpose: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in patients initiating warfarin to determine whether algorithms that incorporate genotypes affecting warfarin metabolism and function, and Vitamin K metabolism improve prediction of therapeutic warfarin dose and anticoagulation management.Methods: A total of 230 patients were randomized to either a clinical arm where dosing algorithms considered only clinical information or an interventional arm where dosing algorithms used clinical and genotypic variables (CYP2C9, CYP4F2, and VKORC1). Subjects in the interventional arm were genotyped within 5 hours, and the initial dose was informed by genotype. Primary endpoints were absolute prediction error relative to therapeutic dose, and time in therapeutic target range during the first 14 days. Secondary endpoints included time to stable dose in therapeutic range, time to first international normalization ratio >4, and warfarin-related adverse events.Results: The model including genetics more accurately identified therapeutic dose twice as often as the clinical model (65.3% vs. 34.7%) (P < 0.0001). Patients in the interventional arm did not achieve greater time in therapeutic range. Study arms were similar regarding time to international normalization ratio >4 and adverse events.Conclusion: Genotype-informed dosing clearly improved prediction of therapeutic dose beyond that available with clinical parameters. Genetic information did not affect time in therapeutic target range during the first 14 days of therapy. Current management practices with the vagaries in dose adjustment after warfarin initiation exert a strong influence on traditional clinical outcomes.
Distilling dialogues - A method using natural dialogue corpora for dialogue systems development

We report on a method for utilising corpora collected in natural settings. It is based on distilling (re-writing) natural dialogues to elicit the type of dialogue that would occur if one the dialogue participants was a computer instead of a human. The method is a complement to other means such as Wizard of Oz-studies and un-distilled natural dialogues. We present the distilling method and guidelines for distillation. We also illustrate how the method affects a corpus of dialogues and discuss the pros and cons of three approaches in different phases of dialogue systems development.
Diagnostic value of serum and synovial procalcitonin in acute arthritis: a prospective study of 42 patients.

OBJECTIVE To determine the diagnostic value of serum and synovial procalcitonin (PCT) for bacterial arthritis and to determine the cellular origin of synovial PCT. METHODS A prospective study enrolled 42 patients with acute arthritis including 11 bacterial arthritis, 18 rheumatoid arthritis and 13 crystal induced arthritis. Diagnostic values of serum and synovial PCT levels were determined by a immunoluminometric assay (Lumitest PCT) and compared to those of classical inflammatory markers (C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, synovial fluid cellularity and both serum and synovial IL-6 and TNF alpha). Using fibroblast-like synoviocyte (FLS) cultures derived from rheumatoid arthritis (n = 4) and osteo-arthritis (n = 3) synovium, with or without stimulation by lipopolysaccharid or recombinant streptococcal protein 1/II, we attempted to determine whether synovial cells could be a source of PCT. RESULTS Serum PCT was the best parameter to distinguish patients with acute bacterial arthritis from patients with crystal induced arthritis or rheumatoid arthritis. In setting of an acute arthritis serum PCT (> 0.5 ng/mL) achieved 55% sensitivity and 94% specificity for the diagnosis of bacterial arthritis, while CRP (> 50 mg/L) had 100% sensitivity but poor specificity (40%). Serum PCT appeared to be higher in patients with septic arthritis resulting from "systemic infection" than in cases resulting from direct inoculation. Synovial PCT was not useful to discriminate between infectious and non infectious arthritis in clinical practice. PCT could not be detected at significant levels in the conditioned medium from fibroblast-like synoviocyte cultures. CONCLUSION Serum PCT is a poorly sensitive but specific marker of bacterial arthritis. Use of serum PCT in association with CRP could nevertheless be useful in an emergency situation for the diagnosis of bacterial arthritis.
Female status and fertility in Pakistan.

The roles of education and labor force participation in the reproductive behavior of women (aged 20-29 and 30-39) were analyzed using data from the 1975 Pakistan Fertility Survey. Analysis shows that urban women of both age groups fare better than rural women with respect to overall literacy and educational achievement. No significant differentials were observed between urban and rural women as regards labor force participation. The difficulty in presenting a true picture of the work status of Pakistani women is attributed to the difficulty of defining the concept of female labor force participation, not to mention biases in response and enumeration during the survey. Nevertheless, it is suggested that most urban and rural women are either not economically active or are engaged in traditional activities which do not provide stimulus for changes in their fertility behavior. With respect to education, the data shows that the effect of education on contraceptive use is statistically significant for urban women, but not for rural women, urban women being 3 times greater users of contraceptives than rural women. Work status did not significantly affect ever contraceptive use. The findings lend support to the hypothesis that education reduces female vulnerability to unwanted pregnancies by increasing age at 1st marriage, by becoming more aware of available contraceptive methods, and by limiting family size. Thus, policy should be geared towards providing educational opportunities for both rural and urban women.
Mitochondrial H2O2 Regulates the Angiogenic Phenotype via PTEN Oxidation*

Recent studies have demonstrated that the tumor suppressor PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted from chromosome 10), the antagonist of the phosphosphoinositol-3-kinase (PI3K) signaling cascade, is susceptible to H2O2-dependent oxidative inactivation. This study describes the use of redox-engineered cell lines to identify PTEN as sensitive to oxidative inactivation by mitochondrial H2O2. Increases in the steady state production of mitochondrial derived H2O2, as a result of manganese superoxide dismutase (Sod2) overexpression, led to PTEN oxidation that was reversed by the coexpression of the H2O2-detoxifying enzyme catalase. The accumulation of an oxidized inactive fraction of PTEN favored the formation of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-triphosphate at the plasma membrane, resulting in increased activation of Akt and modulation of its downstream targets. PTEN oxidation in response to mitochondrial H2O2 enhanced PI3K signaling, leading to increased expression of the key regulator of angiogenesis, vascular endothelial growth factor. Overexpression of PTEN prevented the H2O2-dependent increase in vascular endothelial growth factor promoter activity and immunoreactive protein, whereas a mutant PTEN (G129R), lacking phosphatase activity, did not. Furthermore, mitochondrial generation of H2O2 by Sod2 promoted endothelial cell sprouting in a three-dimensional in vitro angiogenesis assay that was attenuated by catalase coexpression or the PI3K inhibitor LY2949002. Moreover, Sod2 overexpression resulted in increased in vivo blood vessel formation that was H2O2-dependent as assessed by the chicken chorioallantoic membrane assay. Our findings provide the first evidence for the involvement of mitochondrial H2O2 in regulating PTEN function and the angiogenic switch, indicating that Sod2 can serve as an alternative physiological source of the potent signaling molecule, H2O2.
Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in Spanish scientific psychology and pedagogy literature 1985-2011

This paper presents a review of the number of publications on the national edition ASD were published between the years 1985-2011 in scientific journals in the areas of Education and Psychology and theses published in both fields on men- tioned subject. The objective pursued is to check whether the impact on the number of registered cases of ASD in the investigated period has a direct impact on the number of publications and meeting the other hand, what is the mark of the articles published. The scarce presence of writings on issues discussed in this paper highlights the need to reconsider the presence of publications dealing with this group.
Performance analysis for subband identification

The so-called subband identification method has been introduced recently as an alternative method for identification of finite-impulse response systems with large tap sizes. It is known that this method can be more numerically efficient than the classical system identification method. However, no results are available to quantify its advantages. This paper offers a rigorous study of the performance of the subband method. More precisely, we aim to compare the performance of the subband identification method with the classical (fullband) identification method. The comparison is done in terms of the asymptotic residual error, asymptotic convergence rate, and computational cost when the identification is carried out using the prediction error method, and the optimization is done using the least-squares method. It is shown that by properly choosing the filterbanks, the number of parameters in each subband, the number of subbands, and the downsampling factor, the two identification methods can have compatible asymptotic residual errors and convergence rate. However, for applications where a high order model is required, the subband method is more numerically efficient. We study two types of subband identification schemes: one using critical sampling and another one using oversampling. The former is simpler to use and easier to understand, whereas the latter involves more design problems but offers further computational savings.
Corticogénesis y neurodegeneración: implicaciones de la vía de la reelina en la patogenia de la enfermedad de Alzheimer

The reelin pathway regulates interactions between migrating neurons and radial glia. The activation of this pathway is fundamental during the process of normal corticogenesis. The reelin pathway influences the cytoskeleton dynamics as well as the neural mechanisms of learning and memory and it may also play a critical role during neurodegenerative events. The reelin pathway may be disrupted by oxidative stress, excitotoxicity and other cellular anomalies caused by endogenous and exogenous factors. When disrupted, cytoskeleton components are inefficiently processed giving place to the protein aggregates that characterize Alzheimer’s disease. Such aggregates have been associated with the activation of the apoptotic cascade. Neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are not innocuous byproducts of neurodegeneration, since their presence induces neuroinflammation, cell death and cognitive impairment. However, it is possible that the clinical picture of Alzheimer’s disease is perpetuated, but not initially caused by these protein aggregates. Elements of the Reelin pathway could represent targets of neuronal vulnerability mediating degenerative changes in the cortical pathways associated to Alzheimer’s disease. Characterization of the reelin pathway could improve the understanding of the
A general framework for reconstruction and classification from compressive measurements with side information

We develop a general framework for compressive linear-projection measurements with side information. Side information is an additional signal correlated with the signal of interest. We investigate the impact of side information on classification and signal recovery from low-dimensional measurements. Motivated by real applications, two special cases of the general model are studied. In the first, a joint Gaussian mixture model is manifested on the signal and side information. The second example again employs a Gaussian mixture model for the signal, with side information drawn from a mixture in the exponential family. Theoretical results on recovery and classification accuracy are derived. The presence of side information is shown to yield improved performance, both theoretically and experimentally.
Becoming an expert by experience: An analysis of service users’ learning process

ABSTRACT The study examines mental health service users’ learning processes regarding becoming “experts by experience. ” The data consist of 12 audio-recorded interviews of mental health service users who took part in a specific training program regarding becoming experts by experience. The research methodology was based on a qualitative attitude approach, in which each interviewee is asked to respond to statements related to the research question. According to the study, the interviewees’ learning processes consist of individual and collective processes. The individual learning process helps a service user to create his or her identity as an expert by experience, and the collective learning process supports a service user in constructing the social role of such an expert. Throughout the learning processes, service users explored four different themes: creating distance from experiences, sharing experiences with peers and friends, combining experiences with existing competences, and developing an orientation toward the future. The interviewees reflected all four themes as a part of their learning process, but the order of the themes varied greatly. Thus, expertise is a unique phenomenon that can be constructed from different combinations of the themes. In this study, the learning process is described as a vector model.
Recognizing work priorities and tasks in incoming messages through personal ontologies supplemented by lexical clues

Email has been recognized as one of the chief sources of the current epidemic of information overload. The work described in this paper is part of an ongoing project to re-focus the attention of information workers on “what needs to be done” rather than “what someone wants us to read”. The approach is to base a software agent that pre-processes incoming email on the user’s “personal ontology”. The ontology used in this work contained two facets, namely Work Topics and Task Types, and also included lexical “clues” whereby, if such a word or phrase is found in the text of a message, the system can infer with a certain probability that a particular ontology concept (class or instance) is relevant. The paper describes the prototype tools developed and some initial trials. Further trials and improvements are planned.
Coordinated regulation of platelet actin filament barbed ends by gelsolin and capping protein

Exposure of cryptic actin filament fast growing ends (barbed ends) initiates actin polymerization in stimulated human and mouse platelets. Gelsolin amplifies platelet actin assembly by severing F-actin and increasing the number of barbed ends. Actin filaments in stimulated platelets from transgenic gelsolin-null mice elongate their actin without severing. F-actin barbed end capping activity persists in human platelet extracts, depleted of gelsolin, and the heterodimeric capping protein (CP) accounts for this residual activity. 35% of the approximately 5 microM CP is associated with the insoluble actin cytoskeleton of the resting platelet. Since resting platelets have an F- actin barbed end concentration of approximately 0.5 microM, sufficient CP is bound to cap these ends. CP is released from OG-permeabilized platelets by treatment with phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate or through activation of the thrombin receptor. However, the fraction of CP bound to the actin cytoskeleton of thrombin-stimulated mouse and human platelets increases rapidly to approximately 60% within 30 s. In resting platelets from transgenic mice lacking gelsolin, which have 33% more F-actin than gelsolin-positive cells, there is a corresponding increase in the amount of CP associated with the resting cytoskeleton but no change with stimulation. These findings demonstrate an interaction between the two major F-actin barbed end capping proteins of the platelet: gelsolin-dependent severing produces barbed ends that are capped by CP. Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate release of gelsolin and CP from platelet cytoskeleton provides a mechanism for mediating barbed end exposure. After actin assembly, CP reassociates with the new actin cytoskeleton.
Modeling Freeway Lane Changing Behavior by

Drivers continuously evaluate the surrounding traffic and the roadway environment, and make decisions about lanes and travel speed. The objective of this thesis is to develop a lane changing model that can be used in microscopic traffic simulation models to capture drivers' lane changing behavior. Lane change is modeled as a sequence of four steps: decision to consider a lane change, choice of left or right lane, search for an acceptable gap to execute the decision, and performing the lane change maneuver. First, a decision is made whether a driver will consider changing lanes. If a decision to consider changing lanes is made, a lane is chosen from the alternatives. Finally, the gap acceptance model determines whether the available gap in the target lane is sufficient for a safe merging and lane change can be completed. A discrete choice framework is used to model the lane changing behavior. The framework allows for modeling the impact of different elements of the traffic and roadway environment on driver behavior. The model is applied in the special case of merging from an on-ramp. Results from the estimation of the parameters show that in addition to the gap length, other important factors that affect drivers gap acceptance behavior are relative speed, distance remaining to the point at which lane change must be complete, and delay in completing merging. Finally, the estimated model is tested in a micro-simulation environment. Thesis Supervisors: Moshe E. Ben-Akiva, Title: Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT Haris N. Koutsopoulos, Title: Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University Rabi G. Mishalani, Title: Research Associate of Center for Transporting Studies, MIT
.0 Introduction 2.0 Servernet Overview 2.1 Servernet I Servernet San I/o Architecture

This paper presents several different ways of designing systems with ServerNet-connected I/O devices. The Serv-erNet System Area Network is a multistage, wormhole-routed network designed for reliable I/O and inter-processor communications. Designing a SAN to be used both for I/O and IPC has benefits in system cost and flexible expansion, but requires a network well-suited to the task. The SAN must support read operations, and must have other features for reliability, expandability, and fairness. The paper discusses ServerNet-based I/O archi-tectures for fault-tolerant and clustered systems. The clusters can connect I/O subsystems with embedded SAN support, I/O controllers on remote PCI busses, or native peripherals. The movement from compute-centric to data-centric applications makes the I/O architecture a critical element in system performance. I/O should no longer be considered a " subsystem " with " peripheral " devices and long access times. Instead, data movement through the CPUs and I/O devices must be carefully designed to eliminate unnecessary data movement, to reduce overhead and latency, and to maximize I/O throughput. The increased emphasis on clustered computing also makes it necessary to consider the I/O connectivity in conjunction with the inter-processor communications (IPC). If the I/O and IPC share the same interconnect, the system can be designed with lower cost, improved reliability, and greater I/O scalability. The unification of the interconnects gives flexibility in supporting shared-peripheral or shared-nothing databases. Peripheral sharing allows load balancing and peripheral switching to support fault tolerance. A unified interconnect can support direct device-to-device transfers, eliminating data copies and freeing memory bandwidth in the host CPUs. The ServerNet system area network (SAN) has been designed to unify the I/O and IPC connectivity. This paper presents several different ways of designing systems with I/O connected through ServerNet. After a brief review of the ServerNet architecture, specific I/O implementations are discussed. The ServerNet SAN is a scalable network that supports read, write and interrupt semantics similar to previous generation I/O busses. The first generation of ServerNet (previously called TNet), has bi-directional point-to-point 50 MHz byte-serial links [1]. Variable length data packets include a header, up to 64 bytes of data, and a 32-bit CRC. The header includes 20-bit source and destination IDs to address end nodes, plus a 32-bit address offset to address memory within each node. The network can be expanded by cascading multiple levels of 6-port routers in a number of possible network topologies. Each router is a single ASIC …
Association of CXCL12 Levels in Synovial Fluid With the Radiographic Severity of Knee Osteoarthritis

Objective Inflammation is implicated to be involved in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA). CXCL12, also known as stromal cell-derived factor, is the unique identified natural ligand of the G-protein-coupled receptor CXCR4 and exhibits both homeostatic and proinflammatory functions. This study aims to determine whether CXCL12 levels in serum and synovial fluid (SF) of patients with knee OA are correlated with the disease severity. Methods This study consisted of 252 patients with knee OA and 144 healthy controls. The radiological grading of OA in the knee was performed according to the Kellgren-Lawrence grading system. CXCL12 levels in serum and SF were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Higher levels of serum CXCL12 were found in knee OA patients compared with healthy controls. The CXCL12 levels in SF of knee OA patients with KL grade 4 were significantly elevated compared with those with KL grades 2 and 3. Furthermore, knee OA patients with KL grade 3 had significantly higher SF levels of CXCL12 compared with those with KL grade 2. CXCL12 levels in SF of knee OA patients were significantly correlated with disease severity evaluated by KL grading criteria. However, there were no significant differences in the serum CXCL12 levels between patients with different KL grades. Conclusion CXCL12 levels in SF were closely related to the radiographic severity of OA. CXCL12 levels in SF may be an alternative biomarker for the progression of OA.