Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The treatment received by substance‐dependent male and female suicide victims

Within a nation‐wide psychological autopsy study we investigated use of treatment services and recognition of substance abuse problems among male and female substance‐dependent suicide victims. Although during their final month half of the male subjects and two‐thirds of the female subjects contacted health care services, in only one‐sixth and one‐third of cases, respectively, were substance abuse problems currently recognized. During their final year, 37% of the males and 67% of the females received psychiatric care. This was associated with Axis‐I comorbid disorders among males, with lower socio‐economic status and abuse of prescribed drugs among females, and with previous suicide attempts among both sexes. Due to their high psychiatric morbidity and tendency to have contacts with psychiatric services, the recognition, treatment and follow‐up of subjects with substance use disorders in psychiatric care would appear to be of major importance for suicide prevention.
Use of antiepileptic drugs and risk of fractures

Objective: To study the association between use of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and risk of fractures. Methods: The authors obtained data from the General Practice Research Database (GPRD). A case–control study was nested within a cohort of patients with active epilepsy. Cases were patients with a first fracture after cohort entry. Up to four controls were matched to each case by practice, sex, year of birth, timing of first epilepsy diagnosis, index date, and duration of GPRD history. Cumulative exposure to AEDs was assessed by summing the duration of all AED prescriptions. A distinction was made between AEDs that induce the hepatic cytochrome P-450 enzyme system and AEDs that do not. Medical conditions and drugs known to be associated with bone metabolism or falls were evaluated as potential confounders. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs. Results: The study population comprised 1,018 cases and 1,842 matched controls. The risk of fractures increased with cumulative duration of exposure (p for trend < 0.001), with the strongest association for greater than 12 years of use: adjusted OR 4.15 (95% CI 2.71 to 6.34). Risk estimates were higher in women than in men. There was no difference between users of AEDs that induce and AEDs that do not induce the hepatic cytochrome P-450 system. Conclusions: Long-term use of AEDs was associated with an increased risk of fractures, especially in women. More research on mechanisms of AED-induced bone breakdown and female vulnerability to the effects of AEDs on bone health is warranted.
Farmers’ Perceptions of the Warehouse Receipt System in Indonesia

This study assessed farmers’ perceptions of the warehouse receipt system (WRS) in the West Java Province in Indonesia. Primary data were collected from 500 farmers through questionnaire administration. The results of the weighted average index revealed that there was a strong perception that the WRS is not well known, provides easy access to credit, and limited access for smallholder farmers. Moreover, there was a weak perception that the WRS has complicated regulations and slowed delivery of warehouse receipts. The main problems include lack of awareness, lack of facilities and limited access for smallholders. The implications for improving the implementation of the WRS are presented.
Treatment Outcomes and Predictive Factors in Pediatric Ocular Myasthenia Gravis.

OBJECTIVE To determine demographic data, clinical presentations, investigations, treatment regimens, and clinical outcomes in pediatric ocular myasthenia gravis patients, and to find predictive factors for clinical outcomes such as resolution of disease, development of generalized symptoms, or final amblyopia. MATERIAL AND METHOD This retrospective descriptive study of the medical records of 14 patients (male 6,female 8) less than 15 years that had ocular myasthenia gravis at Chiang Mai University Hospital between January 2006 and December 2012 was done. Univariate analysis was used to evaluate the predictive factors for clinical outcomes. RESULTS Mean age of onset was 6.96±4.65 years (range 0.58-14 years). All patients presented with ptosis (100%) and 67% with strabismus. The mean oftotalfollow-up time is 6.30±3.84 years (range 1.25-14.25 years). None ofthe patients developed generalize myasthenia gravis. Only one patient had amblyopia at final presentation. Presenting age, gender strabismus at initial presentation, and positive neostigmine or edrophonium test did not affect resolution of disease nor final amblyopia. CONCLUSION The most common clinical presentation in pediatric OMG was ptosis. Most patients could control the disease only by medications. There were no predictive factors affecting resolution of disease nor final amblyopia.
Modelling the Mach Bands Illusion by Means of a Diffusion Model

First, we criticize the validity of the principle of lateral inhibition. Second, on the basis of illusory phenomena and stabilized retinal images, we point out that the retina does not code the absolute luminance; the retina forwards a relative luminance sketch towards higher levels of the visual system. However, at the level of conscious processing the perceptual counterpart of absolute luminance, brightness, is available. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that a reconstruction process is carried out by the visual system, which recovers the inner representation that corresponds to the retinal light distribution from the coded relative luminance sketch. We provide an illustrative description of a computational model of this reconstruction process. The basis of the reconstruction is a mathematically provable theorem, according to which if image P is produced from image I by Laplacian filtering, and then P is used as the sources and sinks of a homogeneous linear diffusion process, then the equilibrium of the diffusion will be identical to the original image I. We have illustrated this by a one-dimensional heat diffusion example, and by a series of test tubes connected to each other, also in one dimension. Brightness illusions are considered as a side effect of this diffusion-based reconstruction process. If the diffusion process deviates from the principle of homogeneous linearity, then the result of the reconstruction will deviate from the original image I. We showed a concrete illustration of this with regards to the Mach bands illusion: Here we violated the principle of homogeneous linearity by means of inserting a small vertical tube serving as a serial resistance between each test tube and the horizontal connecting tube. This violation resulted in a change of water level in the source and the sink test tubes corresponding to the Mach bands illusion.
Automatic classification of power quality disturbances: A review

The development of intelligent power quality (PQ) disturbances classification and analysis tools exploited various digital signal-processing techniques to extract important features from the PQ signals. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review and discussion of the advanced tools for the automatic classification of PQ disturbances. The digital signal-processing tools applied for feature extraction include Fourier-transform, Wavelet-transform, Stockwell-transform etc. For the classification of PQ disturbances, the artificial intelligence techniques such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic and support vector machine are reviewed here. A large number of features used as inputs to the classifiers may affect the accuracy rate and requires a large memory space. The optimization techniques have been used in literature for optimal feature selection, which include genetic algorithm, simulated annealing, particle swarm optimization and ant colony optimization. An extensive review provides to the researchers a clear perspective on various techniques of PQ disturbances classification.
8-Bromo-7-methoxychrysin-induced apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells involves ROS and JNK.

AIM To investigate whether the apoptotic activities of 8-bromo-7-methoxychrysin (BrMC) involve reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) activation in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HCC). METHODS HepG2, Bel-7402 and L-02 cell lines were cultured in vitro and the apoptotic effects of BrMC were evaluated by flow cytometry (FCM) after propidium iodide (PI) staining, caspase-3 activity using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and DNA agarose gel electrophoresis. ROS production was evaluated by FCM after dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCHF-DA) probe labeling. The phosphorylation level of JNK and c-Jun protein was analyzed by Western blotting. RESULTS FCM after PI staining showed a dose-dependent increase in the percentage of the sub-G1 cell population (P < 0.05), reaching 39.0% +/- 2.8% of HepG2 cells after 48 h of treatment with BrMC at 10 micromol/L. The potency of BrMC to HepG2 and Bel-7402 (32.1% +/- 2.6%) cells was found to be more effective than the lead compound, chrysin (16.2% +/- 1.6% for HepG2 cells and 11.0% +/- 1.3% for Bel-7402 cell) at 40 micromol/L and similar to 5-fluorouracil (33.0% +/- 2.1% for HepG2 cells and 29.3% +/- 2.3% for Bel-7402 cells) at 10 micromol/L. BrMC had little effect on human embryo liver L-02 cells, with the percentage of sub-G1 cell population 5.4% +/- 1.8%. Treatment of HepG2 cells with BrMC for 48 h also increased the levels of active caspase-3, in a concentration-dependent manner. z-DEVD-fmk, a caspase-3-specific inhibitor, prevented the activation of caspase-3. Treatment with BrMC at 10 micromol/L for 48 h resulted in the formation of a DNA ladder. Treatment of cells with BrMC (10 micromol/L) increased mean fluorescence intensity of DCHF-DA in HepG2 cells from 7.2 +/- 1.12 at 0 h to 79.8 +/- 3.9 at 3 h and 89.7 +/- 4.7 at 6 h. BrMC did not affect ROS generation in L-02 cells. BrMC treatment failed to induce cell death and caspase-3 activation in HepG2 cells pretreated with N-acetylcysteine (10 mmol/L). In addition, in HepG2 cells treated with BrMC (2.5, 5.0, 10.0 micromol/L) for 12 h, JNK activation was observed. Peak JNK activation occurred at 12 h post-treatment and this activation persisted for up to 24 h. The expression of phosphorylated JNK and c-Jun protein after 12 h with BrMC-treated cells was inhibited by N-acetylcysteine and SP600125 pre-treatment, but GW9662 had no effect. SP600125 substantially reduced BrMC-induced cell death and caspase-3 activation of HepG2 cells. N-acetylcysteine and GW9662 also attenuated induction of cell death and caspase-3 activation in HepG2 cells treated with BrMC. CONCLUSION BrMC induces apoptosis of HCC cells by ROS generation and sustained JNK activation.
Smart home energy management systems based on non-intrusive load monitoring

The concept of smart home has attracted considerable attention in recent years, and energy management is one of its key component. This attributes to the growing concern in environmental protection and energy conservation, as well as the demands for big data collection from utility companies and policy makers. Current solutions often approach this problem by either the centralized non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) or the decentralized smart controls but seldom both, rendering them impractical to some extent. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel framework of smart home energy management systems incorporating both approaches, so that accurate power consumption monitoring and intuitive interaction with the home appliances are simultaneously achieved. The smart components directly control the appliances, while the central controller coordinates the data collection and communication. The key feature is the capability of automatically mapping the appliances to their corresponding sockets, reducing the necessity for manual initial setup. Numerical simulations prove the accuracy and efficiency of the framework. We believe that our systems, if widely deployed, can benefit not only individual households by saving energy bills and simplifying life but also society by the big data generated.
Phenomenological Evidence for Two Types of Paranoia

Objective: Two types of paranoia have been identified, namely persecution (or ‘Poor Me’) paranoia, and punishment (or ‘Bad Me’) paranoia. This research tests predicted differences in phenomenology – specifically, in person evaluative beliefs, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and anger. Method: Fifty-three people with current paranoid beliefs were classified as Poor Me, Bad Me, or neither (classification was reliable). Key dependent variables were measured. Results: All predictions were supported, except the one relating to anger, where the two groups did not differ. The Bad Me group had lower self-esteem, more negative self-evaluative thinking, lower negative evaluations about others, higher depression and anxiety. Importantly, the differences in self-esteem and self-evaluations were not fully accounted for by differences in depression. Conclusion: Data support the presence of two distinct topographies of paranoia. Future research is needed to explore the theory further and examine clinical implications.
The Analgesic Response to Intravenous Lidocaine in the Treatment of Neuropathic Pain

This study was performed in order to determine concentration-effect, and graded and quantal dose-response relationships for the clinical administration of intravenous (IV) lidocaine to patients with neuropathic pain. Thirteen patients were administered 500 mg of IV lidocaine at a rate of 8.35 mg/min over 60 min. Visual analog pain scores and venous blood samples were obtained concomitantly at 10 min intervals for 60 min. Blood samples were also obtained for determination of serum and serum water lidocaine concentrations at the onset of analgesia and at the time complete pain relief was attained. Lidocaine concentrations were determined by gas chromatography. Graded dose-response curves were prepared individually and for the group as a whole, and a quantal dose-response curve was prepared for the entire group. The dose-response relationship for IV lidocaine was characterized by large increases in pain relief for concomitant minimal increases in dosage. The difference between the ED50 (372.0 mg) and the ED90 (416.5 mg) was 44.5 mg of lidocaine (5.3 min of infusion). The concentration-effect relationship was also steep with pain scores abruptly decreasing over a range of 0.62 micro gram/mL of lidocaine. Interestingly, the free concentration of lidocaine had no better correlation with the onset of analgesia or the attainment of complete analgesia than the serum concentration of lidocaine. This suggests that the mechanism of analgesia to IV lidocaine may not be based upon a conventional concentration-effect relationship. In conclusion, the results of this study suggest that the analgesic response to IV lidocaine is best characterized by a precipitous "break in pain" over a narrow dosage and concentration range. (Anesth Analg 1996;82:91-7)
Use of max and min scores for trend tests for association when the genetic model is unknown

In case‐control studies, the Cochran–Armitage (CA) trend test is powerful for detection of an association between a risk allele and a marker. To apply this test, a score should be assigned to the genotypes based on the genetic model. When the underlying genetic model is unknown, the trend test statistic is a function of the score. In this paper, simple procedures are given to obtain two scores (max and min), which respectively maximize and minimize the CA trend test statistics for genetic associations. These two scores can be used to examine the effect of the choice of scores on the test of no association. When the CA trend test statistic with the max (or min) score is less (or greater) than a prespecified value, the conclusion is clear: we will accept (or reject) the null hypothesis of no association for any scores used. When this value is less than the CA trend test statistic with the max score but greater than the one with the min score, the decision of whether or not to reject the null hypothesis depends on the choice of scores. In this situation, the CA trend test with a prespecified score cannot be used without careful scientific justification of the choice of scores. The use of max and min scoring schemes is applied to a real data set. Published in 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Increased expression of mRNA encoding interleukin (IL)‐4 and its splice variant IL‐4δ2 in cells from contacts of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, in the absence of in vitro stimulation

Expression of interleukin (IL)‐4 is increased in tuberculosis and thought to be detrimental. We show here that in healthy contacts there is increased expression of its naturally occurring antagonist, IL‐4delta2 (IL‐4δ2). We identified contacts by showing that their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) released interferon (IFN)‐γ in response to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis‐specific antigen 6 kDa early secretory antigenic target (ESAT‐6). Fresh unstimulated PBMC from these contacts contained higher levels of mRNA encoding IL‐4δ2 (P=0·002) than did cells from ESAT‐6 negative donors (noncontacts). These data indicate that contact with M. tuberculosis induces unusual, previously unrecognized, immunological events. We tentatively hypothesize that progression to active disease might depend upon the underlying ratio of IL‐4 to IL‐4δ2.
The effect of guideline-consistent antiemetic therapy on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV): the Pan European Emesis Registry (PEER).

BACKGROUND While guidelines for preventing chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) are widely available, clinical uptake of guidelines remains low. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of guideline-consistent CINV prophylaxis (GCCP) on patient outcomes. PATIENTS AND METHODS This prospective, observational multicenter study enrolled chemotherapy-naive adults initiating single-day highly or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy (HEC or MEC) for cancer. Patients completed 6-day daily diaries beginning with cycle 1 for up to three chemotherapy cycles. The primary study end point, complete response (no emesis and no use of rescue therapy) during 120 h after cycle 1 chemotherapy, was compared between GCCP and guideline-inconsistent CINV prophylaxis (GICP) cohorts using multivariate logistic regression, adjusting for potential confounding factors. RESULTS In cycle 1 (N = 991), use of GCCP was 55 % and 46 % during acute and delayed phases, respectively, and 29 % for the overall study period (acute plus delayed phases). Complete response was recorded by 172/287 (59.9 % ) and 357/704 (50.7 % ) patients in GCCP and GICP cohorts, respectively (P = 0.008). The adjusted odds ratio for complete response was 1.43 (95 % confidence interval 1.04-1.97; P = 0.027) for patients receiving GCCP versus GICP. CONCLUSION GCCP reduces the incidence of CINV after single-day HEC and MEC.
Risk stratification of severe acute rhinosinusitis unresponsive to oral antibiotics

Abstract Conclusions: C-reactive protein (CRP) levels may predict the extent of acute rhinosinusitis disease in the computed tomography (CT) scans, as well as the specific symptom severity. High levels may direct the physician to change the treatment. Objective: To establish tools to define ‘high risk’ patients suffering from acute rhinosinusitis. Methods: Patients suffering from severe unresponsive acute rhinosinusitis filled in health-related quality of life questionnaires and rated their symptoms. Blood tests and CT scans were performed. We examined the value of imaging and inflammatory markers, especially CRP, as predictors of disease severity, defined by subjective and objective means; need for surgery; and occurrence of ocular complications. Results: Thirty-two patients were prospectively recruited. A significant association was found between CRP levels, imaging scores, and symptoms severity. Neither ocular complications nor the need for surgery were present in the group with low CRP level.
High-Molecular-Weight Protein (pUL48) of Human Cytomegalovirus Is a Competent Deubiquitinating Protease: Mutant Viruses Altered in Its Active-Site Cysteine or Histidine Are Viable

ABSTRACT We show here that the high-molecular-weight protein (HMWP or pUL48; 253 kDa) of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a functionally competent deubiquitinating protease (DUB). By using a suicide substrate probe specific for ubiquitin-binding cysteine proteases (DUB probe) to screen lysates of HCMV-infected cells, we found just one infected-cell-specific DUB. Characteristics of this protein, including its large size, expression at late times of infection, presence in extracellular virus particles, and reactivity with an antiserum to the HMWP, identified it as the HMWP. This was confirmed by constructing mutant viruses with substitutions in two of the putative active-site residues, Cys24Ile and His162Ala. HMWP with these mutations either failed to bind the DUB probe (C24I) or had significantly reduced reactivity with it (H162A). More compellingly, the deubiquitinating activity detected in wild-type virus particles was completely abolished in both the C24I and H162A mutants, thereby directly linking HMWP with deubiquitinating enzyme activity. Mutations in these active-site residues were not lethal to virus replication but slowed production of infectious virus relative to wild type and mutations of other conserved residues. Initial studies, by electron microscopy, of cells infected with the mutants revealed no obvious differences at late times of replication in the general appearance of the cells or in the distribution, relative numbers, or appearance of virus particles in the cytoplasm or nucleus.
Structure of Neuroblastoma Suppressor of Tumorigenicity 1 (NBL1)

Background: NBL1 is a moderate antagonist important for modulating bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling in vivo. Results: Using x-ray crystallography and mutagenesis, regions important for BMP inhibition within NBL1 were identified. Conclusion: Modifications to the BMP binding epitope of NBL1 account for differences in its anti-BMP activity. Significance: This suggests that DAN proteins can be modified to be more effective antagonists for therapeutic purposes. Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are antagonized through the action of numerous extracellular protein antagonists, including members from the differential screening-selected gene aberrative in neuroblastoma (DAN) family. In vivo, misregulation of the balance between BMP signaling and DAN inhibition can lead to numerous disease states, including cancer, kidney nephropathy, and pulmonary arterial hypertension. Despite this importance, very little information is available describing how DAN family proteins effectively inhibit BMP ligands. Furthermore, our understanding for how differences in individual DAN family members arise, including affinity and specificity, remains underdeveloped. Here, we present the structure of the founding member of the DAN family, neuroblastoma suppressor of tumorigenicity 1 (NBL1). Comparing NBL1 to the structure of protein related to Dan and Cerberus (PRDC), a more potent BMP antagonist within the DAN family, a number of differences were identified. Through a mutagenesis-based approach, we were able to correlate the BMP binding epitope in NBL1 with that in PRDC, where introduction of specific PRDC amino acids in NBL1 (A58F and S67Y) correlated with a gain-of-function inhibition toward BMP2 and BMP7, but not GDF5. Although NBL1S67Y was able to antagonize BMP7 as effectively as PRDC, NBL1S67Y was still 32-fold weaker than PRDC against BMP2. Taken together, this data suggests that alterations in the BMP binding epitope can partially account for differences in the potency of BMP inhibition within the DAN family.