Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of 5 years of maximally successful highly active antiretroviral therapy on CD4 cell count and HIV-1 DNA level

Objectives: To evaluate the impact on CD4 cell count and HIV-1 DNA level in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of long-term highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the setting of maximal success, i.e., constant plasma HIV-1 RNA load suppression. Design: Retrospective analysis of patients selected for a constantly undetectable plasma HIV-1 RNA load since HAART initiation. Methods: HIV-1 DNA was measured in PBMC using a real-time polymerase chain reaction assay. Loess estimates and regression analysis were used for modelling the variations of the CD4 cell count and HIV DNA level over time. Results: The study included 41 patients chronically infected with HIV-1 who had been taking HAART for a median duration of 60.4 months and had an undetectable plasma HIV RNA load ever since the first 6 months of HAART; 25 were tested for HIV-1 DNA. The mean CD4 cell count increase was high during the first 18 months on therapy (168 × 106 cells/l per year), much lower afterwards (38 × 106 cells/l per year), independently of the baseline CD4 cell count. Most of the patients (73.2%) reached a CD4 cell count constantly ⩾ 400 × 106/l during follow-up. HIV-1 DNA showed a mean decrease of 0.48 log10 copies/106 PBMC during the first year, of 0.18 log10 copies/106 PBMC per year during the 2nd and 3rd years, but no significant decrease afterwards. Conclusions: These results question the benefit of very long-term maintenance of HAART in terms of CD4 gain and HIV-1 DNA reduction.
Dynamic relocation of transcription and splicing factors dependent upon transcriptional activity

Recent interest in understanding the spatial organization of gene expression has focused attention on nuclear structures known as speckles or interchromatin granule clusters (IGCs) revealed by immunofluorescence or electron microscopy. Staining of nuclear factors involved in pre‐mRNA splicing or, more recently, transcription, reveals 20–40 speckles per nucleus, resulting in the intriguing suggestion that speckles are nuclear sites of transcription and processing. In contrast, other investigations have observed transcription in other areas of the nucleus. In this study, we have examined the localization of active transcription as detected by uridine incorporation and recently developed RNA polymerase II antibodies, and compared this pattern with that of known splicing and polyadenylation factors. Our results indicate that in actively transcribing cells, transcription and splicing factors are dispersed throughout the nucleus with abundant sites of preferred localization. In contrast, in poorly transcribing cells, polymerase II and splicing factors localize to speckles. In nuclei inactivated for transcription by drugs or heat shock, the speckle type of co‐localization is accentuated. These observations suggest that bulk transcription and splicing occur throughout the nucleus during periods of active transcription; and that factors involved in these two processes re‐locate to minimal speckle domains during periods of inactive transcription.
In vivo vascular wall tissue characterization using a strain tensor measuring (STM) technique for flow-mediated vasodilation analyses

Endothelial dysfunction is considered to be a key factor in the development of atherosclerosis, and the measurement of flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) in brachial and other conduit arteries has become a common method to assess the status of endothelial function in vivo. Based on the direct relationship between the FMD response and local shear stress on the conduit brachial artery endothelium, we hypothesize that measuring relevant changes in the brachial wall strain tensor would provide a non-invasive tool for assessing vascular mechanics during post-occlusion reactive hyperemia. Direct measurement of the wall strain tensor due to FMD has not yet been reported in the literature. In this work, a noninvasive direct ultrasound-based strain tensor measuring (STM) technique is presented to assess changes in the mechanical parameters of the vascular wall during post-occlusion reactive hyperemia and/or FMD, including local velocities and displacements, diameter change, local strain tensor and strain rates. The STM technique utilizes sequences of B-mode ultrasound images as its input with no extra hardware requirement, and its algorithm starts with segmenting a region of interest within the artery and providing the acquisition parameters. Then a block matching technique based on speckle tracking is employed to measure the frame-to-frame local velocities. Displacements, diameter change, local strain tensor and strain rates are then calculated by integrating or differentiating velocity components. The accuracy of the STM algorithm was assessed in vitro using phantom studies, where an average error of 7% was reported using different displacement ranging from 100 µm to 1000 µm. Furthermore, in vivo studies using human subjects were performed to test the STM algorithm during pre- and post-occlusion. Good correlations (|r| >0.5, P < 0.05) were found between the post-occlusion responses of diameter change and local wall strains. Results indicate the validity and versatility of the STM algorithm and describe how parameters other than the diameter change are sensitive to reactive hyperemia following occlusion. This work suggests that parameters such as local strains and strain rates within the arterial wall are promising metrics for the assessment of endothelial function, which can then be used for accurate assessment of atherosclerosis. In summary, this study describes a simple and computationally efficient algorithm that can be integrated with ultrasound machines for vascular research. Moreover, it suggests that monitoring the local strain and strain rates of the brachial artery wall can replace or augment the measurement of arterial diameter in FMD studies.
Olfaction in patients with suspected parkinsonism and scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficit (SWEDDs)

Background: Positron emission tomography and single photon emission computed tomography scanning have 87–94% sensitivity and 80–100% specificity to differentiate patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) from control subjects and patients with essential (ET) or atypical tremor. More than 10% of patients diagnosed as early PD can have scans without evidence of dopaminergic deficiency (SWEDDs). This study investigated whether smell tests can help identify possible cases with SWEDDs. Methods: The 40 item University of Pennsylvania Smell Test (UPSIT) was used to evaluate the sense of smell in 21 SWEDDs patients. Twenty-six ET patients, 16 patients with a diagnosis of idiopathic adult onset dystonia (D), 191 non-demented PD patients and 136 control subjects were also tested. Multiple regression analyses were used to compare the mean UPSIT score in the SWEDDs group with the other four groups (ET, D, PD and controls) after adjusting for the effects of relevant covariates. Results: The mean UPSIT score for the SWEDDs group was greater than in the PD group (p<0.001) and not different from the mean UPSIT in the control (p = 0.7), ET (p = 0.4) or D (p = 0.9) groups. Smell tests indicated a high probability of PD in only 23.8% of SWEDDs as opposed to 85.3% of PD patients. Conclusions: In a patient with suspected PD, a high PD probability on smell testing favours the diagnosis of PD, and a low PD probability strengthens the indication for dopamine transporter imaging.
How much detail is needed in modeling a transcranial magnetic stimulation figure-8 coil: Measurements and brain simulations

Background Despite TMS wide adoption, its spatial and temporal patterns of neuronal effects are not well understood. Although progress has been made in predicting induced currents in the brain using realistic finite element models (FEM), there is little consensus on how a magnetic field of a typical TMS coil should be modeled. Empirical validation of such models is limited and subject to several limitations. Methods We evaluate and empirically validate models of a figure-of-eight TMS coil that are commonly used in published modeling studies, of increasing complexity: simple circular coil model; coil with in-plane spiral winding turns; and finally one with stacked spiral winding turns. We will assess the electric fields induced by all 3 coil models in the motor cortex using a computer FEM model. Biot-Savart models of discretized wires were used to approximate the 3 coil models of increasing complexity. We use a tailored MR based phase mapping technique to get a full 3D validation of the incident magnetic field induced in a cylindrical phantom by our TMS coil. FEM based simulations on a meshed 3D brain model consisting of five tissues types were performed, using two orthogonal coil orientations. Results Substantial differences in the induced currents are observed, both theoretically and empirically, between highly idealized coils and coils with correctly modeled spiral winding turns. Thickness of the coil winding turns affect minimally the induced electric field, and it does not influence the predicted activation. Conclusion TMS coil models used in FEM simulations should include in-plane coil geometry in order to make reliable predictions of the incident field. Modeling the in-plane coil geometry is important to correctly simulate the induced electric field and to correctly make reliable predictions of neuronal activation
Perceptions of Discretion in Street-Level Public Service: Examining Administrative Governance in Romania

ABSTRACT Street-level bureaucrats have long been seen as key figures in program and policy implementation, often occupying unique positions that encompass executive, legislative, and judicial functions. Osborne’s concept of the New Public Governance addresses concepts of policy implementation and interpretive activities that characterize street-level bureaucracy. Current understanding of street-level bureaucracy is, however, dominated by research focused on the United States and the United Kingdom, both of which demonstrate differences from countries in Eastern Europe. This study uses survey data to examine street-level bureaucracy in Romania, with attention to the determinants of bureaucratic perceptions of discretion. Results indicate that proactive personality, prosocial motivation, autonomy, job satisfaction, and years of experience are related to individual perceptions of discretionary latitude among front-line workers.
A systematic test for myopic loss aversion theory

Purpose Myopic loss aversion, or the combination of loss aversion and frequent portfolio evaluation, has been argued to possibly be one of the factors behind the equity premium puzzle. The purpose of this paper is to offer an alternative systematic test that looks at the relationship between inflation and equity premium to test for this theory. Design/methodology/approach Inflation and equity premium tends to be positively associated, both in standard rational-agents theoretical models and in simple empirical measures of correlation. Nonetheless, under the presence of nominal return evaluation, behavioral models such as myopic loss aversion do predict a negative causal relationship between those variables. This study aims to check this negative causal relationship. The identification strategy combines elements of two approaches: fixed effects regression on short-term returns and long-term least squares regression. As both methods have different strengths and weaknesses, and use different sources of data variation to compute their estimators, it is argued that the combination of these approaches provides a better identification strategy than each individual method. Findings This paper finds evidence for a negative relationship between inflation and equity premium in both methods, which supports myopic loss aversion theory. The magnitude of the coefficients is also relevant ranging from −0.23 to −0.80. However, it is also shown that these effects explain only a small part of equity premium observed variation, and are more prevalent in non-industrialized countries, which limits the scope of the theory. Originality/value The current method for testing myopic loss aversion theory is overly reliant on experimental evidence collected in the lab to estimate behavioral parameters and simulations. The authors complement these by providing an empirical study.
Recoding Patterns of Sensory Input: Higher-Order Features and the Function of Nonlinear Dendritic Trees

Here analytical and simulation results are presented characterizing the recoding arising when overlapping patterns of sensor input impinge on an array of model neurons with branched thresholded dendritic trees. Thus, the neural units employed are intended to capture the integrative behavior of pyramidal cells that sustain isolated Na+ or NMDA spikes in their branches. Given a defined set of sensor vectors, equations were derived for the probability of firing of both branches and neurons and for the expected overlap between the neural firing patterns triggered by two afferent patterns of given overlap. Thus, both the sparseness of the neural representation and the orthogonalization of overlapping vectors were computed. Simulations were then performed with an array of 1000 neurons comprising 30,000 branches to verify the analytical results and confirm their applicability to systems (which include any practicable artificial system) in which the combinatorically possible branches and neurons are severely subsampled. A means of readout and a measure of discrimination performance were provided so that the accuracy of discrimination among overlapping sensor vectors could be optimized as a function of neuron structure parameters. Good performance required both orthogonalization of the afferent patterns, so that discrimination was accurate and free of interference, and maintenance of a minimum level of neural activity, so that some neurons fired in response to each sensor pattern. It is shown that the discrimination performance achieved by arrays of neurons with branched dendritic trees could not be reached with single-compartment units, regardless of how many of the latter are used. The analytical results furnish a benchmark against which to measure further enhancements in the performance of subsequent simulated systems incorporating local neural mechanisms which, while often less amenable to closed-form analysis, are ubiquitous in biological neural circuitry.
ETA-based optimization scheme of WADC with consideration of time-varying delays

With the development of the Wide-Area Measurement System (WAMS), researchers has proposed different kinds of Wide-Area Damping Controller (WADC) to suppress inter-area power oscillations. However time delays in WAMS communication networks have made it less effective to improve dynamic stability of large-scale power system. Traditional methods such as modal analysis and simulation cannot study the time delay impacts on the dynamic characters theoretically and obtain boundary conditions of stability for the optimization of damping controllers. To solve these problems, this paper studies the influence of time delays on the inter-area dynamic characters using two-machine Electric Torque Analysis (ETA) method. The mathematical relationships between the time delay, electric torque coefficients, and damping ratio of a power system installed with a WADC are explored. The stability criteria of inter-area mode and the delay margin are studied. An optimization scheme of WADC is proposed to implement fast online damping control considering time-varying delays. This method is verified in a four-generator-two-machine benchmark installed with a SVC-based WADC. Simulation results show the proposed scheme can improve the robustness of WADC against time delays and has advantages over traditional methods.
Decision-making for persons with cognitive impairment and their family caregivers

Despite the large number of persons affected by cognitive impairment, very little is known about how they and their families make choices and decisions about everyday living and long-term care. Moreover, few studies have examined the concept of consumer direction, particularly the ability of cognitively impaired persons to delegate decision-making to other persons. This study explored decision-making through personal interviews with 51 respondent pairs, or dyads (i.e., the cognitively impaired person and the family caregiver). Results suggest that persons with mild to moderate cognitive impairment are able to answer questions about their preferences for daily care and to choose a person, usually a spouse or adult child, to make a variety of decisions on their behalf. By recognizing both voices—those of the care receiver and the family caregiver—we can enhance future research and practice, foster the development of consumer direction in long-term care, and advance public policy to support caregiving families.
An Examination of Relative Clauses in Argumentative Essays Written by EFL Learners

Syntactic complexity has received a great deal of attention in the literature on second language writing. Relative clauses, which function as a kind of noun phrase post-modifier, are among those structures that are believed to contribute to the complexity of academic prose. These grammatical structures can pose difficulties for EFL writers even at higher levels of proficiency, and it is therefore important to determine the frequency and accuracy with which relative clauses are used by L2 learners since understanding learners’ strengths and weaknesses in using these structures can inform teachers on ways to improve the process of their instruction in the writing classroom. This paper reports on a corpus-based comparison of relative clauses in a number of argumentative essays written by native and non-native speakers of English. To this end, 30 argumentative essays were randomly selected from the Persian sub-corpus of the ICLE and the essays were analyzed with respect to the relative clauses found in them. The results were then compared to a comparable corpus of essays by native speakers. Different dimensions regarding the structure of relative clauses were investigated. The type of relative clause (restrictive/non-restrictive), the relativizer (adverbial/pronoun), the gap (subject/non-subject), and head nouns (both animate and non-animate) in our two sets of data were manually identified and coded. The findings revealed that the non-native writers tended to use a greater number of relative clauses compared to their native-speaker counterparts.
High Level Physical Activity and Prevalence of Cardiovascular Disease Using the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data, 2007-2013

Objectives The purpose of our study was to evaluate the association between the intensity of physical activity (PA) and prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) using Korean representative data. Methods We analyzed 39 804 participant data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007-2013. Exposure variable was three levels of PA (low, medium, and high) in a week, and outcome variable was prevalence of CVD based on patient self-recognition and doctor’s diagnosis. Complex logistic regression analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between level of PA and CVD adjusted by body mass index, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes mellitus, stress recognition, household income, smoking, and current drinking. The indices of association w ere estimated as crude prevalence odds ratio (POR), adjusted POR, and their 95% confidence interval (CI). All statistical analyzes were performed using complex sample analysis procedure of the SPSS version 23.0. Results When all variables were adjusted, only high level PA in women showed a significant association with stroke (adjusted POR by patient’s self-recognition, 0.57; 95% CI, 0.32 to 0.99, adjusted POR by doctor’s diagnosis, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.34 to 0.87) and CVD (adjusted POR by doctor’s diagnosis, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.96). Conclusions High level PA in women has a significant reverse association with prevalence of stroke and CVD in Korea. Further study for elucidating the mechanism will be needed.
Protective Effect of Vitamin A on ARA-C Induced Intestinal Damage in Mice

Background Cytarabine (ARA-C) has been used for many years in the treatment of patients with leukemia and lymphoma. Gastrointestinal ulceration and mucositis are two of the well-known side effects of ARA-C. We set out to investigate whether vitamin A (VA) can help prevent ARA-C-induced mucosal lesions in mice. Materials and methods Mice were divided into 5 groups. Group I (control group) received only saline; group II received ARA-C plus saline; group III received ARA-C plus VA; group IV received ARA-C plus a lipid solution, and group V received VA alone. VA (5000 IU/kg) was administered orally to the mice once daily for 7 days. ARA-C (3.6 mg) was administered intraperitoneally for 5 days to groups II, III and IV, starting on the third day of VA treatment. Intestinal segments from the proximal end of the jejunum of treated mice were isolated. Results There was improved mucosal integrity, less necrosis and increased villus length with advanced mucosal proliferation in crypts in the VA plus ARA-C group when compared to the ARA-C groups without VA. Conclusion We conclude that VA has a protective effect against ARA-C-induced mucosal damage in mice.
Hybrid Design of Modular Multilevel Converters for HVDC Systems Based on Various Submodule Circuits

The modular multilevel converter (MMC) has become the most promising converter technology for high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission systems. However, similar to any other voltage-sourced converter-based HVDC system, MMC-HVDC systems with the half-bridge submodules (SMs) lack the capability of handling dc-side short-circuit faults, which are of severe concern for overhead transmission lines. In this paper, two new SM circuit configurations as well as a hybrid design methodology to embed the dc-fault-handling capability in the MMC-HVDC systems are proposed. By combining the features of various SM configurations, the dc-fault current path through the freewheeling diodes is eliminated and the dc-fault current is enforced to zero. Several MMC configurations based on the proposed hybrid design method and various SM circuits, that is, the half-bridge, the full-bridge, the clamp-double, and the five-level cross-connected SMs, as well as the newly proposed unipolar-voltage full-bridge and three-level cross-connected SMs, are investigated and compared in terms of the dc-fault-handing capability, semiconductor power losses, and component requirements. The studies are carried out based on time-domain simulation in the PSCAD/EMTDC software environment for various SM configurations and dc-fault conditions. The reported study results demonstrate the proposed hybrid-designed MMC-HVDC system based on the combination of the half-bridge and the proposed SM circuits is the optimal design among all evaluated systems in terms of the dc-fault-handing capability, semiconductor power losses, and component requirements.