Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lower extremity foot ulcers and amputations in diabetes

Lower extremity ulcers and amputations are an increasing problem among individuals with diabetes. Data from the 1983-90 National Hospital Discharge Surveys (NHDS) indicate that 6% of hospitalizations listing diabetes on the discharge record also listed a lower extremity ulcer condition. Chronic ulcers were present in 2.7% of all hospitalizations that listed diabetes. The average length of stay (LOS) for diabetes discharges with ulcer conditions was 59% longer than for diabetes discharges without them. Clinical epidemiologic studies suggest that foot ulcers precede ~85% of nontraumatic lower extremity amputations (LEAs) in individuals with diabetes.
Circulating endothelial cells in acute coronary syndromes.

To the editor: Circulating endothelial cells in acute coronary syndromes We read with interest Stefanec's[1][1] comments about our work on circulating endothelial cells (CECs) in acute coronary syndromes. [2][2] We feel, however, that most of these comments are inaccurate. First, Stefanec claims
Gender disparities in treatment for alcohol problems.

OBJECTIVE To examine women's access to treatment for alcohol problems in terms of the prevalence, characteristics, and treatment-seeking patterns of problem drinkers in a range of alcohol-specific and nonspecialized health care systems. DESIGN In-person survey. SETTING A Northern California county. PARTICIPANTS Consecutive samples of admissions in public alcohol treatment (n = 381), drug treatment (n = 210), mental health treatment (n = 406), emergency health services (n = 2626), primary health clinics (n = 394), and adults in the county general population (n = 3069). PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES Prevalence and relative risk (RR) of problem drinking and rates of alcohol-related treatment episodes. RESULTS Rates of problem drinking were higher among men than women across all samples. However, after accounting for gender differences in general population rates, women in all of the non-alcohol-specific clinical samples were at greater risk than men for problem drinking (eg, RR = 5.6 for women and RR = 2.1 for men in the mental health sample). Men reported a greater variety in types of services sought in past alcohol-related treatment encounters, but women experienced greater symptom severity. CONCLUSIONS Female problem drinkers were more likely than male problem drinkers to use non-alcohol-specific health care settings, particularly mental health treatment services, and to report greater symptom severity. Future research on women's access to services for alcohol problems should consider a range of health care systems and gender differences in seeking help.
The structure of call-by-value

Understanding procedure calls is crucial in computer science and everyday programming. Among the most common strategies for passing procedure arguments (‘evaluation strategies’) are ‘call-by-name’, ‘call-by-need’, and ‘call-byvalue’, where the latter is the most commonly used. While reasoning about procedure calls is simple for call-by-name, problems arise for call-by-need and call-by-value, because it matters how often and in which order the arguments of a procedure are evaluated. We shall classify these problems and see that all of them occur for call-byvalue, some occur for call-by-need, and none occur for call-by-name. In that sense, call-by-value is the ‘greatest common denominator’ of the three evaluation strategies. Reasoning about call-by-value programs has been tackled by Eugenio Moggi’s ‘computational lambda-calculus’, which is based on a distinction between ‘values’ and arbitrary expressions. However, the computational lambda-calculus deals only implicitly with the evaluation order and the number of evaluations of procedure arguments. Therefore, certain program equivalences that we should be able to spot immediately require long proofs. We shall remedy this by introducing a new calculus—the ‘let-calculus’—that deals explicitly with evaluation order and the number of evaluations. For dealing with the number of evaluations, the let-calculus has mechanisms known from linear, affine, and relevant logic. For dealing with evaluation order, it has a mechanism which seems to be completely new. We shall also introduce a new kind of denotational semantics for call-by-value programming languages. The key idea is to consider how categories with finite products are commonly used to model call-by-name languages, and remove the axioms which break for call-by-value. The resulting models we shall call ‘precartesian categories’. These relatively simple structures have remarkable mathematical properties, which will inspire the design of the let-calculus. Precartesian categories will provide a semantics of both the let-calculus and the computational lambda-calculus. This semantics not only validates the same program equivalences as Moggi’s monad-based semantics of the computational lambda-calculus; It is also ‘direct’ by contrast to Moggi’s semantics, which implicitly performs a language transform. Our direct semantics has practical benefits: It clarifies issues that are related with the evaluation order and the number of evaluations of procedure arguments, and it is also very easy to remember. The thesis is rounded up by three applications of the let-calculus and precartesian categories: First, construing well-established models of partiality (i.e. categories of generalised partial functions) as precartesian categories, and specialising the let-calculus accordingly. Second, adding global state to a given computational system and construing the resulting system as a precartesian category. Third, analysing an implementation technique called ‘continuation-style transform’ by construing the source language of such a transform as a precartesian category.
Relationships of sauries and needlefishes (Teleostei: Scomberesocoidea) to the internally fertilizing halfbeaks (Zenarchopteridae) based on the pharyngeal jaw apparatus

ABSTRACT The 40 life history, myological, and osteological characters that Tibbetts (1992) used in his study of the hemiramphids are evaluated for both saury genera (Cololabis and Scomberesox) to determine if the Scomberesocidae are more closely related to the Zenarchopteridae, to the needlefishes (Belonidae), or to the halfbeaks (Hemiramphidae) and flyingfishes (Exocoetidae). Data were analyzed using PAUP*, and eight equally parsimonious trees were found (70 steps, CI 0.814, RI 0.938). This analysis indicates that sauries are most closely related to needlefishes, supporting the historical concept of the superfamily Scomberesocoidea as a monophyletic assemblage. A caudal displacement of the origin of the retractor dorsalis muscle is a tentative additional synapomorphy for all four saury species. Zenarchopteridae is strongly supported as a valid family sister to the Scomberesocoidea (decay index = 19, bootstrap = 100). Resolution of the internal structure of the Belonidae and the Hemiramphidae requires the identification of additional characters and examination of a greater number of taxa.
Immunisation of Balb/c mice with severely attenuated murine cytomegalovirus mutants induces protective cellular and humoral immunity

Previously, we showed that two temperature‐sensitive mutants of murine cytomegalovirus (tsm5 and tsm30) expressed immediate‐early (IE‐1), early (E‐1), and late (gB) phase genes in the tissues of immunocompetent Balb/c mice, yet failed to produce infectious progeny virus in any tissue at any time at 1–21 days post‐infection. Mice inoculated intraperitoneally with tsm5 became latently infected, but this latent virus could not be reactivated as an infectious virus after immunosuppression, although all three transcripts were produced. Immunocompetent mice infected with tsm30 did not become latently infected. In the present study, immunodeficient SCID mice supported productive infection of both mutants, suggesting that low‐level viral replication does occur in immunocompetent mice, but that it is limited by the host immune response. This is supported by the observation that immunocompetent mice were protected against virulent K181 challenge even after immunisation with as few as 40 pfu of mutant virus, whereas UV‐inactivated mutant or K181 virus was not immunoprotective at doses of 40,000 pfu. Immunity induced by subcutaneous inoculation was also protective, whereas that induced by intragastric immunisation was not. Protection was lifelong (18 months). Although tsm5 induced high antibody titres, there was little evidence of an antibody response to tsm30. In contrast, a significant CD8+ CTL response to the Balb/c immunodominant IE‐1 nonapeptide (YPHFMPTNL) was elicited by both mutants, as determined by an interferon‐γ ELISPOT assay, although this response was lower than that induced by K181 infection. In addition, CTLs specific for m04 (YGPSLYRRF) and M84 (AYAGLFTPL) peptides could be detected at low frequency after K181, tsm5, and tsm30 immunisation. Such protective immunity did not prevent the challenge K181 virus from entering the latent state, but it appeared to reduce the frequency of reactivation. J. Med. Virol. 67:187–199, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Cytokinesis mechanics and mechanosensing

Cytokinesis shape change occurs through the interfacing of three modules, cell mechanics, myosin II‐mediated contractile stress generation and sensing, and a control system of regulatory proteins, which together ensure flexibility and robustness. This integrated system then defines the stereotypical shape changes of successful cytokinesis, which occurs under a diversity of mechanical contexts and environmental conditions. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Against the Possibility of a Formal Account of Rationality

I analyze a recent exchange between Adam Elga and Julian Jonker concerning unsharp (or imprecise) credences and decision-making over them. Elga holds that unsharp credences are necessarily irrational; I agree with Jonker’s reply that they can be rational as long as the agent switches to a nonlinear valuation. Through the lens of computational complexity theory, I then argue that even though nonlinear valuations can be rational, they come in general at the price of computational intractability, and that this problematizes their use in defining rationality. I conclude that the meaning of “rationality” may be philosophically vague.
Identification of methylation profile of HOX genes in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

AIM To identify methylation profile and novel tumor marker of extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) with high throughout microarray. METHODS Differential methylation profile was compared between normal bile duct epithelial cell lines and CCA cell lines by methyl-DNA immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) microarray. Bisulfite-polymerase chain reaction (BSP) was performed to identify the methylated allels of target genes. Expression of target genes was investigated before and after the treatment with DNA demethylating agent. Expression of candidate genes was also evaluated by immunofluorescence in 30 specimens of CCA tissues and 9 normal bile duct tissues. RESULTS Methylation profile of CCA was identified with MeDIP microarray in the respects of different gene functions and signaling pathways. Interestingly, 97 genes with hypermethylated CpG islands in the promoter region were homeobox genes. The top 5 hypermethylated homeobox genes validated by BSP were HOXA2 (94.29%), HOXA5 (95.38%), HOXA11 (91.67%), HOXB4 (90.56%) and HOXD13 (94.38%). Expression of these genes was reactivated with 5'-aza-2'-deoxycytidine. Significant expression differences were found between normal bile duct and extrahepatic CCA tissues (66.67%-100% vs 3.33%-10%). CONCLUSION HOXA2, HOXA5, HOXA11, HOXB4 and HOXD13 may work as differential epigenetic biomarkers between malignant and benign biliary tissues.
A Model of the Ingroup as a Social Resource

Drawing on theories of social comparison, realistic group conflict, and social identity, we present an integrative model designed to describe the psychological utility of social groups. We review diverse motivations that group membership may satisy (e.g., the need for acceptance or ideological consensus) and attempt to link these particular needs to a global concern for self-worth. We then examine several factors hypothesized to influence an ingroup's utility in the eyes of its members. Attempting to unite our understanding of (a) why groups are needed and (b) what kinds of groups are useful in meeting those needs, a proposed model of the ingroup as a social resource (MISR) suggests that the dimensions of perceived value, entitativity, and identification interact to determine the overall psychological utility of an ingroup. We discuss empirical and theoretical support for this model, as well as its implications for intra-and intergroup attitudes.
Neonatal onset of the hepatitis-associated-antigen carrier state.

HEPATITIS B antigen (HBAg) occurs in three general clinical groups: in acute B-type viral hepatitis in which HBAg is present in the early phase of illness and disappears in 95 per cent of patients concomitant with clinical recovery; in association with certain diseases such as Down's syndrome, uremia treated with hemodialysis, renal-transplant recipients, leukemia and lepromatous leprosy, in which persistence of HBAg is common; and in asymptomatic carriers who report neither exposure to blood products nor contact with patients with hepatitis.1 2 3 Persistence of HBAg in the first two groups has been postulated to be due to individual host variation in .
Relationship between transcription and initiation of meiotic recombination: toward chromatin accessibility.

Since the high level of meiotic recombination at the ARG4 locus of the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was found to be controlled by a cis-acting initiator located within its 5′ noncoding region (1), the question of the relationship between transcription and meiotic recombination control was raised. Are promoters and sites at which meiotic recombination initiates functionally related? Transcription by RNA polymerase I and II appears to stimulate mitotic recombination in S. cerevisiae (2, 3), but how is meiotic recombination affected by local gene expression? The paper by Kon et al. (4), in conjunction with other recent contributions concerning the M26 hot spot of meiotic recombination in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, provides compelling new insights and prompts additional questions. This commentary/mini-review will focus on the control of the initiation of meiotic recombination in these yeasts.
Gradual Set-Theoretic Types

Problem and motivation. A static type system can be an extremely powerful tool for a programmer, providing early error detection, and offering strong compile-time guarantees on the behavior of a program. However, compared to dynamic typing, static typing often comes at the expense of development speed and flexibility, as statically-typed code might be more difficult to adapt to changing requirements. Gradual typing is a recent and promising approach that tries to get the best of both worlds [16]. The idea behind this approach is to integrate an unknown type, usually denoted by “? ”, which informs the compiler that additional type checks may have to be performed at run time. Therefore, the programmer can gradually add type annotations to a program and controls precisely how much checking is done statically versus dynamically. Gradual typing thus allows the programmer to finely tune the distribution of dynamic and static checking over a program. However, gradualization of single expressions has more limited breadth. We argue that adding full-fledged union and intersection types to a gradual type system makes the transition between dynamic typing and static typing smoother and finer grained, giving even more control to the programmer. In particular, we are interested in developing gradual typing for the semantic subtyping approach [10], where types are interpreted as sets of values. In this approach union and intersection types are naturally interpreted as the corresponding settheoretic operations, and the subtyping relation is defined as setcontainment, whence the name of set-theoretic types. This yields an intuitive and powerful type system in which several important constructions —eg, branching, pattern-matching, and overloading— can be typed very precisely. Set-theoretic types, however, exacerbate the shortcomings of static typing. In particular, type reconstruction for intersection type systems is, in general, undecidable. The consequence is that programmers have to add complete type annotations for every variable, which may hinder their development speed; all the more so given that union and intersection type annotations can be syntactically heavy. Adding gradual typing to set-theoretic types may help to alleviate this issue by providing a way to relax the rigidity of certain type annotations via the addition of a touch of dynamic typing, while keeping the full power of static types for critical parts of code. We said that adding set-theoretic types to a gradual type system makes the transition between dynamic typing and static typing smoother. This is for example the case for function parameters that are to be bound to values of basic types: in the current setting, the only way to gradualize their type is to use “? ”, while with union and intersection types more precise gradualizations become possible. We illustrate this fact in an ML-like language by progressively refining the following example that we borrow from Siek and Vachharajani [19].
Fault detection based on robust independent component analysis and support vector machines

This study aims to develop an intelligent algorithm by integrating robust independent component analysis (RobustICA) and support vector machines (SVMs). According to different characteristics of source signals including real or complex, super-Gaussian or sub-Gaussian and pollution of signal noise, a new method for fault detection that uses RobustICA based on kurtosis is put forward in this paper. The basic idea of the approach is to use RobustICA optimized by iterative technique to separate independent components which drive a process after wavelet de-noising of the original data. On this basis, statistics are established for fault detection and the kernel density estimation is used in calculating the confidence limit of statistics. After that, support vector machines (SVMs) is utilized to classify the faults. The simulation results of signal experiment and TE model clearly show the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method in comparison to FastICA method.
Attenuated growth hormone response to resistance exercise with prior sprint exercise.

PURPOSE This study examined effects of prior sprint exercise on hormonal responses to subsequent resistance exercise with different recovery periods between exercise bouts. METHODS Nine men performed three types of exercise regimens: 1) resistance exercise only (R), 2) resistance exercise with prior sprint exercise and 60 min of rest (SR60), and 3) resistance exercise with prior sprint exercise and 180 min of rest (SR180). Sprint exercises consisted of maximal sprint cycling (eight sets of 5-s sprints with 30-s rest periods between sets) with prior 10-min warm-up. Resistance exercise consisted of five exercises, each with three sets at a 10-repetition maximum with 1-min rest periods. RESULTS Prior sprint exercise significantly increased blood lactate, glycerol, epinephrine, norepinephrine, growth hormone (GH), and free testosterone concentrations (P < 0.05). Before the resistance exercise, free fatty acids concentration was higher in the SR180 trial than in the SR60 and R trials (P < 0.05), whereas GH concentration was significantly higher in the SR60 trial (P < 0.01). After the resistance exercise, no significant difference was found in responses of pH, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and free testosterone among trials. The SR180 trial showed a smaller GH response (peak value: 7.8 +/- 1.6 (SE) ng.mL(-1)) than in the R trial (12.8 +/- 3.7 ng.mL(-1)), with no significant difference between trials. In the SR60 trial, GH response to resistance exercise was attenuated (3.3 +/- 1.2 ng.mL(-1), P < 0.01). Maximal strength and power measured immediately before the resistance exercise showed no difference among trials. CONCLUSION These results indicate that GH response to resistance exercise was attenuated strongly when the exercise was preceded by sprint exercise and a shorter (60 min) recovery period.
Nod‐like proteins in inflammation and disease

The field of innate immunity has undergone an enormous upheaval during the last decade. The discovery of different groups of proteins, called pattern recognition molecules (PRMs), which detect microbial components, so‐called pathogen‐associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and trigger protective responses, had a huge impact on the understanding of innate immune responses. Among the PRMs, the intracellular Nod‐like receptors (NLRs) have recently been identified as key mediators of inflammatory and immune responses. The NLR family is divided into subfamilies on the basis of their different signal transduction domains, and recent studies have highlighted the role of certain NLRs, including Nod1, Nod2, Nalp3, Ipaf and Naip5, in the detection of intracellular microbes and possibly ‘danger signals’. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the function of these proteins in immunity and inflammation, with a focus on their participation in different disease pathologies. Copyright © 2007 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Tracking analysis of an adaptive notch filter with constrained poles and zeros

This paper analyzes the asymptotic tracking properties of an adaptive notch filter (ANF) with pole-zero constraints for the cancellation or retrieval of multiple time-varying sine waves in additive noise. The asymptotic mean square error (MSE) is analyzed using the methods of Ljung and Gunnarsson (1990) when the variations in the underlying frequencies are assumed to be sufficiently small. Closed-form expressions for the MSE are derived as functions of the tuning variables of the algorithm. The results give insight into the operational properties of the algorithm and are used in order to minimize the MSE with respect to the tuning variables. Computer simulations confirm the validity of the derived results. >
Educational Adaptive Hypermedia meets Computer Assisted Assessment ?

In this paper we explore the many possibilities that arise when we combine adaptive web-based courses with computer-assisted assessment. We argue that this integration has several advantages, such as the feasibility of getting a better model of the student’s progress, which will be used with adaptation purposes, and the possibility of proposing and evaluating open-ended questions in the way that is judged more suitable for each student.
Transforming viruses directly reduce the cellular growth requirement for a platelet derived growth factor

Early passage mouse embryo fibroblasts, mouse 3T3 cell lines, and early passage diploid human fibroblasts grew to higher cell densities in tissue culture medium supplemented with serum than in medium supplemented with defibrinogenated platelet‐poor plasma (PPP). Unlike the mouse cells, the human fibroblasts displayed this differential growth response only in the presence of hypophysiologic concentrations of calcium. The addition of heat‐treated extracts of human platelets to PPP‐supplemented medium stimulated the replication of both the normal mouse cells and early passage human embryo fibroblasts.