Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adipocytokines are associated with radiographic joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE Obesity protects against radiographic joint damage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) through poorly defined mechanisms. Adipocytokines are produced in adipose tissue and modulate inflammatory responses and radiographic joint damage in animal models. The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that adipocytokines modulate inflammation and radiographic joint damage in patients with RA. METHODS We compared serum concentrations of leptin, resistin, adiponectin, and visfatin in 167 RA patients and 91 control subjects. The independent association between adipocytokines and body mass index (BMI), measures of inflammation (C-reactive protein [CRP], interleukin-6 [IL-6], and tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNFalpha]), and radiographic joint damage (Larsen score; n = 93 patients) was examined in RA patients by multivariable regression analysis first controlling for age, race, and sex, and then for obesity (BMI) and inflammation (TNFalpha, IL-6, and CRP). RESULTS Concentrations of all adipocytokines were significantly higher in RA patients than in controls; for visfatin and adiponectin, this association remained significant after adjusting for BMI, inflammation, or both. Visfatin concentrations were associated with higher Larsen scores, and this association remained significant after adjustment for age, race, sex, disease duration, BMI, and inflammation (odds ratio [OR] 2.38 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.32-4.29], P = 0.004). Leptin concentrations showed a positive association with the BMI (rho = 0.58, P < 0.01) and showed a negative association with the Larsen score after adjustment for inflammation (OR 0.32 [95% CI 0.17-0.61], P < 0.001), but not after adjustment for BMI (OR 0.86 [95% CI 0.42-1.73], P = 0.67). CONCLUSION Concentrations of adipocytokines are increased in patients with RA and may modulate radiographic joint damage. Visfatin is associated with increased, and leptin with reduced, levels of radiographic joint damage.
The presence of the Epstein-Barr viral genome in human lymphoblastoid B-cell lines and its absence in a myeloma cell line.

Nucleic acid hybridization between cellular DNA and complementary RNA to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) was used to detect the presence of EBV DNA. Nineteen of 20 established human lymphoid cell lines studied have contained EBV genomes in various amounts. The lines containing EBV DNA included 5 originating from tissues of patients with various diseases as well as from healthy donors. The antibody titers to herpes group viruses in the donors and the presence of detectable EBV virion or associated antigens in the cell lines showed little if any correlation with the number of EBV genome equivalents in the established lymphoblastoid cell lines. However, large numbers of EBV genome equivalents were associated with the finding of virions by electron microscopy and of viral antigens by immunofluorescence. A unique cell line, RPMI 8226, identified as a myeloma cell line, did not contain detectable EBV genome. All 20 cell lines were identified as being of thymus-independent lymphocyte (B-cell) origin on the basis of either immunoglobulin synthesis, presence of membrane receptor sites for immunoglobulin G and complement, or the presence of both properties. The study showed the consistent presence of the EBV genome in all established lymphoblastoid cell lines with B-cell surface markers.
Feature Extraction for Multiple Kernel Learning

Multiple Kernel Learning (MKL) synthesizes a single kernel from a set of multiple kernels for use in a support vector machine. We propose that MKL be preceded by feature extraction. Given a set of kernels and a vector y of class labels, Multiple Kernel Basis Extraction (MKBE) constructs orthogonal vectors {v1, . , vm} whose corresponding kernels, {v1v 1 , . , vmv m}, are maximally aligned with yy . Each of these vectors maximizes a Rayleigh quotient with respect to one of the given kernels, subject to orthogonality constraints. Standard MKL techniques can then be applied to the extracted set of rank-one kernels. Theoretical considerations suggest that preliminary feature extraction may improve classifier performance. Examples illustrate that the improvement can be substantial.
Single-Mode Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser via Oxide-Aperture-Engineering of Leakage of High-Order Transverse Modes

Properly designed oxide-confined vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) allows leakage of the optical modes from the all-semiconductor core region to the selectively oxidized periphery if the orthogonality between the core mode and the modes on the periphery is broken by the oxidation-induced optical field redistribution. The leakage losses are stronger for high-order transverse modes, which have a higher field intensity close to the oxidized region. Single mode lasing in the fundamental mode can thus proceed up to large aperture diameters. The 850-nm GaAlAs thick oxide aperture VCSEL based on this concept is designed, modeled, and fabricated, showing single-mode lasing with the aperture diameters up to 5 μm. Side mode suppression ratio >20 dB is realized at the current density of ~10KA/Cm2 in devices with the series resistance of 90 Ω.
The Power of Curiosity

In March of 2014, 47 scientists from 15 institutions (including my own) announced that a South Pole–based microwave telescope had taken us back to a time when the universe was 10−38 seconds old—when everything that we can see today occupied a space much smaller than that occupied by a proton, and when the energy level of the universe was a trillion times greater than that produced by the world's most powerful accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. Assuming that this amazing discovery by the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization (BICEP2) collaboration is confirmed, this cosmic remnant beats the previous record holder for earliest fossil of our cosmic birth (the helium and deuterium made when the universe was seconds old) by 38 orders of magnitude. Rarely has science advanced by such a giant leap, and it will take us years if not decades to fully comprehend all the implications of this incredible moment in science. Although we are used to cosmology stunning us with beautiful images and mind-stretching discoveries such as dark energy and dark matter, even this cosmologist with almost 40 years of experience was awed and shocked by this big, big find.
Fingerprint of Tea: acute mental benefits of tea consumption

• A submitted manuscript is the version of the article upon submission and before peer-review. There can be important differences between the submitted version and the official published version of record. People interested in the research are advised to contact the author for the final version of the publication, or visit the DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers.
Are emotion impairments unique to, universal, or specific in autism spectrum disorder? A comprehensive review

There is widespread belief that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are “emotionally detached” from others. This comprehensive review examines the empirical evidence for this assumption, addressing three critical questions: (1) Are emotion-processing impairments universal in ASD? (2) Are they specific, or can they be explained by deficits in other domains? (3) Is the emotion processing profile seen in ASD unique to these conditions? Upon review of the literature (over 200 studies), we conclude that: (1) emotion-processing impairments might not be universal in ASD, as suggested by variability across participants and across emotion-processing tasks; (2) emotion-processing impairments might not be specific to ASD, as domain-general processes appear to account for some of these impairments; and (3) the specific pattern of emotion-processing strengths and weaknesses observed in ASD, involving difficulties with processing social versus non-social, and complex versus simple emotional information (with impairments more consistently reported on implicit than explicit emotion-processing tasks), appears to be unique to ASD. The emotion-processing profile observed in ASD might be best understood as resulting from heterogeneous vulnerabilities in different components of an “emotional communication system” that, in typical development, emerges from the interplay between domain-general cognitive, social and affective processes.
Facilitating Cancer Research using Natural Language Processing of Pathology Reports

Many ongoing clinical research projects, such as projects involving studies associated with cancer, involve manual capture of information in surgical pathology reports so that the information can be used to determine the eligibility of recruited patients for the study and to provide other information, such as cancer prognosis. Natural language processing (NLP) systems offer an alternative to automated coding, but pathology reports have certain features that are difficult for NLP systems. This paper describes how a preprocessor was integrated with an existing NLP system (MedLEE) in order to reduce modification to the NLP system and to improve performance. The work was done in conjunction with an ongoing clinical research project that assesses disparities and risks of developing breast cancer for minority women. An evaluation of the system was performed using manually coded data from the research project's database as a gold standard. The evaluation outcome showed that the extended NLP system had a sensitivity of 90.6% and a precision of 91.6%. Results indicated that this system performed satisfactorily for capturing information for the cancer research project.
In vivo analysis of chronic phosphodiesterase-5 inhibition with sildenafil in penile erectile tissues: no tachyphylaxis effect.

PURPOSE Conflicting information exists regarding the long-term efficacy of phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitor therapy for erectile dysfunction, particularly in regard to whether therapeutic resistance occurs. We investigated the erectile response, and cavernous PDE5 expression and activity after continuous long-term administration of sildenafil at verified therapeutic plasma concentrations, applying an in vivo rat model of age related erectile dysfunction. MATERIALS AND METHODS Male Fisher 344 young (4 months old) and aged (19 months old) rats (National Institute of Aging, Bethesda, Maryland) were injected with sildenafil mesylate (20 mg/kg) or saline subcutaneously every 8 hours for 3 weeks. After a 10 to 18-hour washout period electrical stimulation of the cavernous nerve was performed to assess penile erection. Penes were excised to measure PDE5 protein expression and activity, and blood was collected for sildenafil measurement. Responses were compared with those determined 30 minutes after a single sildenafil injection. RESULTS Chronic sildenafil treatment increased the detumescence phase in young and aged rats (p <0.05), although aged rats showed a greater increase than young rats. Baseline cavernous PDE5 expression and activity were greater in aged vs young rats (p <0.05). After chronic sildenafil treatment cavernous PDE5 expression was increased in young (p <0.05) but not in aged rats. Chronic and acute sildenafil treatment similarly inhibited PDE5 activity in the penis of young and aged rats (p <0.05), coincident with its free plasma concentrations equivalent to clinically therapeutic ranges. CONCLUSIONS Pharmacological PDE5 inhibitor therapy with sildenafil chronically does not result in treatment resistance. Rather, therapeutic efficacy is maintained and apparently more pronounced with erectile impairment than with normal erectile ability.
Load Balancing and Dynamic Resource Allocation Across Heterogenous Virtualized Cloud Environment

Cloud Computing and Virtualization are the twin terms often used to represent Cloud Services. The growing need for cloud storage has rapidly increased the use of Infrastructure as a Service in terms of commercial as well as for individual purpose. The increasing demand has increased the traffic load as well as the resources in the datacenters. This greatly increases the cost of cloud and utilization of resources is not completely done. In order to improvise the utilization factor Virtual Machines are employed and Virtual Machine Monitors take the role of physical servers. This becomes highly independent and the maximum utilization level is achieved. The absence of institutionalization crosswise over Cloud suppliers makes the organization of Cloud administration merchants on genuine creation Clouds, a testing undertaking for Cloud designers and analysts. Amongst others, numerous merchant good connectors are required by the dealer to interface the heterogeneous Cloud stages. Besides, the assessment of the dealer utilizing a genuine proving ground is generally cost and lengthy, as an extensive number of Cloud assets is obliged to attain to practical results. An all the more encouraging and expense sparing methodology for the intermediary assessment is the utilization of recreation situations. Spurred by the above contemplations, in this paper center is tossed on extensible reenactment based system to assess Cloud administration. There is also a challenge of increased data traffic load that increases exponentially day-by-day. Load balancing algorithms helps in distributing the load across various Virtual Machines that are spread in heterogeneous environment.
When Will People Tell You Something You Do Not Know? the Exchange of Unique Informational in Word-Of-Mouth Communication

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, © 2009 1This article is based on the first author’s dissertation research and is funded by a grant provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Authors are grateful for the comments of Joshua Klayman, Jackie Gnepp, Ashesh Mukherjee, Ulf Bockenholt, and Renaud Legoux on earlier versions of this article. When Will People Tell You Something You Do Not Know? Lei Huang, Dalhousie University, Canada Sema Barlas, McGill University, Canada1
Identification of a Committed Precursor for the Mast Cell Lineage

Mast cells originate from hematopoietic stem cells, but the mast cell-committed precursor has not been identified. In the study presented here, a cell population in murine fetal blood that fulfills the criteria of progenitor mastocytes was identified. It is defined by the phenotype Thy-1loc-Kithi, contains cytoplasmic granules, and expresses RNAs encoding mast cell-associated proteases but lacks expression of the high-affinity immunoglobulin E receptor. Thy-1loc-Kithi cells generated functionally competent mast cells at high frequencies in vitro but lacked developmental potential for other hematopoietic lineages. When transferred intraperitoneally, this population reconstituted the peritoneal mast cell compartment of genetically mast cell-deficient W/Wv mice to wild-type levels.
Improving the Utility of Urine Flow Rate to Exclude Outlet Obstruction in Men with Voiding Symptoms

OBJECTIVES: Many older men with voiding symptoms do not have bladder outlet obstruction (BOO) but have conditions amenable to medical treatment. If primary care providers could reliably exclude men who have BOO, then they could initiate appropriate evaluation and treatment in a substantial proportion of the remainder. Urine flow rate, although widely used, is insufficiently sensitive to exclude BOO reliably. We investigated whether the decline in flow rate with age could be utilized to improve the utility of flow rate for excluding BOO in symptomatic men, especially when combined with knowledge of the patient's postvoiding residual volume (PVR).
Induction of the ATP‐sensitive potassium (uKATP‐1) channel by endotoxemia

The effect of sepsis on the ubiquitously expressed ATP‐sensitive potassium (uKATP‐1) channel expression was measured in Sprague‐Dawley rat diaphragms. Rats were treated with either 0.5 ml saline or 20 mg/Kg E. coli lipopolysaccharides and sacrificed at 3, 6, 12, 24, or 48 h later. Reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) analysis showed that channel mRNA expression was increased at 3 h and continued to rise up to 48 h. Western blotting analysis showed a ∼9‐fold increase in channel protein expression 24 h after sepsis. Our results demonstrate that sepsis upregulates the uKATP‐1 channel. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 23: 967–969, 2000
Developmental Stage-specific Biosynthesis of Glycosylphosphatidylinositol Anchors in IntraerythrocyticPlasmodium falciparum and Its Inhibition in a Novel Manner by Mannosamine*

Glycosylphosphatidylinositols (GPIs) are the major glycoconjugates in intraerythrocytic stage Plasmodium falciparum. Several functional proteins including merozoite surface protein 1 are anchored to the cell surface by GPI modification, and GPIs are vital to the parasite. Here, we studied the developmental stage-specific biosynthesis of GPIs by intraerythrocytic P. falciparum. The parasite synthesizes GPIs exclusively during the maturation of early trophozoites to late trophozoites but not during the development of rings to early trophozoites or late trophozoites to schizonts and merozoites. Mannosamine, an inhibitor of GPI biosynthesis, inhibits the growth of the parasite specifically at the trophozoite stage, preventing further development to schizonts and causing death. Mannosamine has no effect on the development of either rings to early trophozoites or late trophozoites to schizonts and merozoites. The analysis of GPIs and proteins synthesized by the parasite in the presence of mannosamine demonstrates that the effect is because of the inhibition of GPI biosynthesis. The data also show that mannosamine inhibits GPI biosynthesis by interfering with the addition of mannose to an inositol-acylated GlcN-phosphatidylinositol (PI) intermediate, which is distinctively different from the pattern seen in other organisms. In other systems, mannosamine inhibits GPI biosynthesis by interfering with either the transfer of a mannose residue to the Manα1–6Manα1–4GlcN-PI intermediate or the formation of ManN-Man-GlcN-PI, an aberrant GPI intermediate, which cannot be a substrate for further addition of mannose. Thus, the parasite GPI biosynthetic pathway could be a specific target for antimalarial drug development.
Strategic Capabilities for Public Sector-led Innovation: Managing Knowledge Worker Deployment at and Quality Performance of Public R&D Laboratories in India

Abstract We investigate critically the relationship between the knowledge, capabilities of research and development (R&D) personnel, the structure and functions of public R&D laboratories in India and their quality performance record. Our objective is to assess whether this relationship create conditions that are conducive to innovation in developing economy contexts. We draw on theories of R&D management, organisation learning, knowledge management and strategic capability to reflect on contextual complexities that arise as a result of the nature of knowledge-based resources of research organisations. We deploy correspondence analysis and use this method to explore the structure of multivariate relationships among the different laboratories in the analysis, showing how various functions impact on effective R&D management and quality performance measured in terms of patents, publications and citations. We find that strategic innovation practices are essential for supporting pilot plants, experimental field stations and in the engineering and design units. We generate a map of laboratories capturing the innovation continuum as distinguished by their in-built strength in basic research, engineering and design services or the working of pilot plants. The article has particular implications for public R&D management for innovation in a developing economy context where the public sector continues to play a significant role in economic development. It should assist with organising public R&D management for innovation in an emerging economy, a relatively under-researched area. It should also help R&D management practitioners to navigate their way effectively in delivering effective performance outcomes at a time of rapid economic change.
Effect of Starter Culture as a Source of Microbial Contamination on the Quality and Safety of Yogurt in Giza, Egypt

Yogurt is a fermented milk product, the popularity of yogurt can be attributed to its sensory characteristics and nutritional value. The microbiological characteristics of yogurt also contribute greatly to the quality and shelf life of the final product. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of starter culture as a source of contamination on the quality and the safety of Egyptian yogurt marketed in Giza, Egypt. Three groups of yogurt products were examined; 100 commercial yogurt samples were collected from local markets, Giza, Egypt, (Group I); 10 yogurt batches were manufactured using commercial standard starter culture (Group II); and 10 yogurt batches were manufactured using selected isolated cultures, (Group III). All groups were evaluated for the types of microbial groups, before and after storage period under refrigeration condition (7 ±1°C) for 14 days. The results revealed that, an undesirable change in commercial products as well as yogurt products made with commercial standard starter cultures during storage period. In contrast, group three, that using the selected isolated cultures, were prevented the presence of contaminants.
Production , Manufacturing and Logistics A new continuous model for multiple re-entrant manufacturing systems

0377-2217/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier B.V. A http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.ejor. 2012.07. 002 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel. /fax: +86 021 5230119 E-mail address: mdong@sjtu.edu. cn (M. Dong). The semiconductor manufacturing systems that involve a large number of products and many steps can be modeled through conservation laws for a continuous density variable on production processes. In this paper, the basic partial differential equation (PDE) models for single-product re-entrant manufacturing systems are proposed first. However, through the validation of numerical examples, the basic continuous models do not perform well for single-product re-entrant systems. Then, a new state equation that takes into account the re-entrant degree of a product is introduced to improve the basic continuous models. The applicability of the modified continuous model is illustrated through numerical examples. The influence of the influx variation on the outflux is also discussed. With the changes of influx, the outflux has a reverse phenomenon. Based on the new state equation, the continuous model for multi-product reentrant systems with different priorities is established, and an example is provided to illustrate the applicability of the new continuous model. 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Hybrid implementation model of community‐partnered early intervention for toddlers with autism: a randomized trial

BACKGROUND Interventions found to be effective in research settings are often not as effective when implemented in community settings. Considering children with autism, studies have rarely examined the efficacy of laboratory-tested interventions on child outcomes in community settings using randomized controlled designs. METHODS One hundred and thirteen children with autism enrolled in public early intervention classrooms in low resource neighborhoods were randomized to Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation (JASPER) intervention or treatment as usual waitlist for 10 weeks with 1-month follow-up. RESULTS Teaching assistants delivered JASPER at adequate fidelity. Children randomized to JASPER demonstrated significant gains over treatment as usual in core developmental outcomes of joint engagement, joint attention, and play skills that were maintained at follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Supervised teaching assistants delivered JASPER intervention with a range of toddlers with autism leading to significant gains in developmental outcomes.